#BREAKING: UK's NHS have declared a Level 4 incident, the highest level of emergency due to the #Coronavirus.

https://twitter.com/BreakingNAgency/status/1234908133434298369

Pope Francis Tests Negative for Coronavirus Infection

Francis has been sick for several days with a cold and stayed home this week from his yearly Lenten retreat for the first time in seven years, provoking rumors in some quarters that perhaps the pope had been infected with the virus.

Last week, the Vatican explained the pope’s absence at a number of official meetings by saying he suffered from a “slight indisposition.” The 83-year-old pontiff had part of one lung removed due to an illness decades ago.

In his last two public appearances on Wednesday and Sunday, Francis has been seen coughing and blowing his nose.

On Wednesday evening, the pope had returned to his Vatican residence after a day spent outdoors in the north wind, reports the Italian daily Il Messaggero. This exposure worsened his cough and provoked a fever, sore throat, and chills.

Since then the pope has significantly limited his activities but continues to say daily Mass each morning in the chapel of his Santa Marta residence.

Italy has been the hardest hit of any European nation by the coronavirus with a death toll of 52 and 1,835 confirmed cases, mostly in the north of the country. Meanwhile, 149 people in Italy who had come down with COVID-19 have since completely healed.

https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2020/03/03/pope-francis-tests-negative-for-coronavirus-infection/

The rate cut didn't last long.

Avoided a tragedy': Police find 20K rounds of ammunition in home of UPS driver who threatened shooting

Authorities in California found 20,000 rounds of ammunition and several tactical weapons in the home of a UPS driver who threatened to commit a mass shooting at work.

Police were notified on Sunday that Thomas Andrews, 32, of Sunnyvale, California, had sent threatening messages to his coworkers at a UPS facility in the city. Officers launched an investigation into Andrews and found that he had five registered firearms, including four handguns and one rifle.

When authorities found Andrews later that evening, he fled the scene in his vehicle and triggered a chase with police, who eventually stopped Andrews and brought him into jail uninjured. Sunnyvale Police Department Capt. Dan Pistor told the Associated Press that Andrews “initially he indicated he wanted to fight with the officers” but eventually gave up.

After obtaining a warrant, officers found over 20,000 rounds of handgun and rifle ammunition, several high capacity magazines, five “tactical style” rifles, a shotgun, three handguns, and body armor.

Police also reported that Andrews had “staged” several backpacks filled with weapons and ammunition near the door of his home. Pistor said the quick response of law enforcement and the people who reported Andrews’s text messages likely prevented a tragedy.

“He alluded to a mass shooting in his text messages,” he explained. “I definitely think we avoided a tragedy.”

Andrews is being held in the Santa Clara County Jail after failing to post his $500,000 bail.

https://twitter.com/dcexaminer/status/1234913207778713602

Let’s check in on Mike Bloomberg…

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1234917385045512196

Eating pizza.

Today voters will cast ballots on old, insecure and paperless devices in some of the biggest counties in the U.S.

https://twitter.com/politico/status/1234916666649305089

Dem lawmaker calls out CDC for removing data on number of Americans tested for coronavirus

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) is demanding information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about its decision to stop sharing data about the number of people tested for the novel coronavirus in the United States.

In a letter sent to CDC director Robert R. Redfield on Monday, Pocan noted that up until Sunday, the agency had been publicly disclosing statistics related to the coronavirus and its spread in the U.S.

The data included numbers on the total confirmed and presumptive cases of the coronavirus, as well as stats on how many tests had been administered and how many deaths had been attributed to the disease. By Monday, the CDC stopped disseminating figures on the number of people tested and the death toll.

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Judd Legum, a journalist who authors the Popular Information newsletter, first reported the change.

"Americans are dying," Pocan wrote in the letter. "We deserve to know how many Americans have perished from COVID-19, and we deserve to know how many people have been tested for it."

Pocan said in a tweet on Tuesday that he had yet to receive any information from the CDC over its decision, adding that the agency's "silence is deafening."

Still no information about the number of people tested for coronavirus.@CDCDirector, the American people deserve transparency.

Your silence is deafening. https://t.co/y6uRMHxeqU

— Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) March 3, 2020

Nancy Messonier, the CDC's director for National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters that the agency stopped sharing data on the number of people tested because of more testing happening at the state level.

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"We are no longer reporting the number of persons under investigation or those who tested negative," she said. "With more and more testing done at states, these numbers would not be representative of the testing being done nationally."

The Trump administration and the CDC have been under intense scrutiny over its response to the coronavirus, which first appeared in China in December and has since infected more than 80,000 people across the globe. The U.S. has reported more than 100 confirmed cases of the virus, with 26 of them believed to have been contracted within the country, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Monday.

Pocan's letter invoked comments former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb made while discussing the possibility of a severe outbreak in the U.S. Gottlieb suggested on CBS's "Face The Nation" this week that there were "probably hundreds or low thousands of cases" that have yet to be reported yet.

"Knowing that CDC testing is keeping pace with the likely number of cases is imperative to maintaining public trust," Pocan said.

The current FDA commissioner, Stephen Hahn, said Monday that he expects the U.S. will be in a position to perform nearly 1 million coronavirus tests by the end of the week. While briefing reporters, Hahn said that a new regulatory guidance would allow academic centers and private companies to more quickly develop and verify their own tests for public use.

The announcement came as states reported more more coronavirus cases of unknown origin. Washington state health officials also announced Monday that four more deaths in the state had been attributed to the disease, bringing the total to six.

As of Monday, the CDC had reported 43 confirmed and presumptive positive cases of the coronavirus. The stats do not include patients who were returned to the U.S. via State Department-charted flights. The CDC noted that states are reporting presumptive positive cases independently and that their information would be the most up-to-date.

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1234921250461552642

I want our great President to keep his salary. He has certainly earned it.