Refugee Resettlement to U.S. from 23 Coronavirus Countries Continues

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/16/refugee-resettlement-to-u-s-from-23-coronavirus-countries-continues/

Refugee resettlement to the United States from 23 countries with confirmed coronavirus infections is continuing with little-to-no changes by the State Department.

While President Trump has implemented travel bans on China, Iran, and Europe which have already stopped the flow of hundreds at land ports of entry, refugee resettlement to the U.S. from coronavirus-affected countries is continuing.

Between February 1 and March 15, the U.S. admitted 2,473 refugees — the overwhelming majority of which arrived from countries with at least one confirmed case of the coronavirus.

The 23 coronavirus countries from which refugees are still being resettled in the U.S. include:

Afghanistan

Armenia

Central African Republic

Colombia

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Egypt

Ethiopia

Guatemala

Guinea

Honduras

Iran

Iraq

Ivory Coast

Kazakhstan

Moldova

Pakistan

Russia

Rwanda

Senegal

Somalia

Sri Lanka

Sudan

Ukraine

Before Trump implemented a travel ban on Iran, about 18 refugees were allowed to resettle in the U.S. over the month of February. Iran now has close to 15,000 coronavirus cases and 853 deaths.

Likewise, nearly 140 Iraqi refugees have been resettled, even while there are 124 cases of coronavirus in the country and 10 deaths. Another 182 Afghani refugees have been resettled while the number of coronavirus cases nearly doubled overnight to now 21 confirmed infections.

A large number of refugees, more than 830, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ukraine, more than 500, have been resettled in the U.S. The Congo has two confirmed coronavirus cases while Ukraine has five confirmed cases and one death.

A handful of states are taking the majority of these newly resettled refugees. California, for example, has taken 262 refugees while Washington has resettled 223. About 175 refugees have been resettled in New York, 170 resettled in Texas, 140 resettled in Kentucky, 127 resettled in Ohio, 110 resettled in Michigan, and 92 resettled in Pennsylvania.

The constant flow of refugee resettlement comes as the U.S.-Mexico border continues to be inundated by foreign nationals from countries affected by the coronavirus. As Breitbart News reported, nearly 151,000 foreign nationals from 72 coronavirus countries have been apprehended at the southern border since October.

The U.S. is approaching 4,000 coronavirus cases while 67 deaths have been confirmed.

Chinese Scientists Find Monkeys Can Develop Immunity to Coronavirus After Infection

https://sputniknews.com/society/202003161078586625-chinese-scientists-find-monkeys-can-develop-immunity-to-coronavirus-after-infection/

Chinese scientists are optimistic about a COVID-19 vaccine after finding that monkeys that were infected with the novel coronavirus developed immunity to the disease after recovering from it.

Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences found that when four rhesus monkeys were infected with a COVID-19 strain, they developed fevers and respiratory issues and lost their appetites. The disease viral loads were highest three days after infection but reached undetectable levels at around the 14-day mark.

About a month later, two of the monkeys that had recovered completely were reinfected through their mouths. The researchers found that their body temperatures increased slightly after infection, but that was the only symptom that appeared. Around two weeks later, the monkeys were found to have very high levels of antibodies for the disease, signifying that their immune systems were ready to fight the virus.

In another experiment, the same researchers found that monkeys could be infected with COVID-19 through their eyes, which suggests that simply wearing masks may not be enough to prevent infection.

According to lead researcher Qin Chuan, the results have “important implications in evaluating vaccine development,” the South China Morning Post reported.

“Therefore, further refinement of the diagnostic techniques, antibody monitoring and samples testing from the lower respiratory tract is essential for the cure of SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19] infection,” the scientists concluded.

Some Chinese patients are becoming reinfected with the coronavirus after having recovered, the South China Morning Post reported, stating that Chinese state media has claimed that the recurrence rate is between 0.1% and 1% nationwide. In some provinces, such as Guangdong, around 14% of discharged patients reportedly return to the hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus again. Health authorities in Japan also revealed in recent days that a 70-year-old who had recovered from the coronavirus had to be hospitalized again after symptoms reappeared.

“It may be attributed to ‘false negative’ … test results before their discharge or the patients not making a full recovery even though they meet the criteria for a discharge,” the researchers are quoted as saying. Thus, it’s possible that some patients are not being reinfected with COVID-19, but rather that they have not fully recovered from the initial infection.

Professor Zhong Nanshan, a top Chinese government scientist, revealed last week that recovered coronavirus patients were found to have high levels of antibodies against the disease, which would prevent them from carrying the virus and infecting others.

“Now the question everyone cares about is whether the close contacts and family members may be infected because [the patient] tested positive again. So far I have not seen any evidence,” Zhong said, the South China Morning Post reported.

However, the Chinese government has taken measures to prevent additional infections from patients who have seemingly recovered. The government on March 5 declared that any coronavirus patients that are discharged from hospitals need to remain in a quarantine facility for 14 days.

The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 178,000 people worldwide, and the global death toll has topped 7,000, according to the latest Johns Hopkins University data. The majority of the deaths have occured in China, Italy, Iran and Spain.

Italian Mayor: We Can’t Cremate Bodies Fast Enough to Keep Up with Coronavirus Deaths

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/16/italian-mayor-we-cant-cremate-bodies-fast-enough-to-keep-up-with-coronavirus-deaths/

An Italian mayor says that his city’s crematory is now “unable to dispose of all the work it has to do,” as there have been so many bodies of those who have died due to the coronavirus.

Giorgio Gori — the mayor of Bergamo, Italy — says that it is no longer only the hospitals that are in a state of emergency but also the crematorium responsible for managing the bodies, according to a report by Il Giornale.

“The crematory is no longer enough,” said Gori. “The oven in the city of Bergamo is unable to dispose of all the work it has to do.”

Bergamo is an Italian city just northeast of Milan, located in the nation’s Lombardy region, which has been at the center of Italy’s — and Europe’s — coronavirus crisis.

“The city is the epicenter of this emergency,” said Gori. “The number of infected people continues to grow — those taken to hospital, put into intensive care. Unfortunately, the number of deaths have increased, about 50 per day, 300 in the last week.”

The mayor added that bodies are now being sent to other crematoriums, as the city’s facility is unable to handle the numbers of Wuhan virus victims that it receives.

“We will not be able to meet all the needs,” said Gori. “Many bodies have been sent to other places for cremation. The oven in the city of Bergamo is unable to dispose of all the work it has to do.”

“This is not meant to give you unpleasant details, but to make you understand the fatigue and suffering,” he added. “They are friends who die, acquaintances, colleagues.”

The outbreak of the Chinese virus in Italy — which Italian doctors have described as a “war situation” — has resulted in chaos and the overcrowding of hospitals while the Italian government scrambles to come up with enough ventilators and ICU beds for coronavirus patients.

Last week, while addressing the coronavirus crisis in Italian hospitals, Gori said that doctors are having to choose which patients to save, stating, “Patients who cannot be treated are left to die.”

One anesthetist working at a hospital in Bergamo echoed the mayor’s remarks, stating, “If someone between 80 and 95 has serious breathing difficulties, you probably don’t proceed.”

As of Monday, Italy’s coronavirus death toll has reached a startling 2,158, with 349 more people dead within the last 24 hours alone — and 202 of those deaths having been from Italy’s northern Lombardy region, according to La Repubblica.

As for Bergamo’s new dilemma involving crematories, the commissioner for cemetery services, Giacomo Angeloni, also shared his remarks, reports Il Giornale.

“Since last weekend there has been a crescendo of deaths,” said Angeloni, “numbers never seen for the activity of the Municipality of Bergamo.”

“At the cemetery in Bergamo there is a burial every half hour,” he added.

Martial Law beginning in EU??

Greek Police Arrest 127 People for Breaking Quarantine Order

https://sputniknews.com/europe/202003161078587759-greek-police-arrest-127-people-for-breaking-quarantine-order/

ATHENS (Sputnik) - The Greek police have arrested 127 people as of Monday for breaking nationwide quarantine rules since they came into effect over the weekend, the police statement reads.

They were caught in cafes, taverns, beauty parlors, leisure centres and supermarkets that were ordered to close for 14 days starting Saturday to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Those caught breaking the quarantine order face fines to the tune of 5,000 euros ($5,600) and a jail term of up to two years.

Greece has recorded 331 confirmed cases of people contracting the COVID-19 disease, and four patients have died. Ten people have recovered and were discharged from hospitals. The majority of those infected have mild symptoms.

At present, there have been nearly 180,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide and over 7,000 documented deaths, according to data collected by the Johns Hopkins Centre for Systems Science and Engineering. Multiple governments, including those of Italy, Spain, and France, have initiated countrywide shutdowns in an effort to cease the spread of the coronavirus.

Reuters Stealth-Edits Debunked Story Claiming Trump Sought ‘Monopoly’ on COVID-19 Vaccine

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2020/03/16/reuters-stealth-edits-debunked-story-claiming-trump-sought-monopoly-on-covid-19-vaccine/

A report from a German newspaper claiming that President Donald Trump wanted to secure exclusive American access to a coronavirus vaccine has proven to be false, but only after the story was repeated and spread by mainstream media outlets including Reuters, The Guardian, and Business Insider.

Reuters later stealth-edited its story to incorporate official statements denying the original newspaper report. But a New York Times journalist had already shared the Reuters article before it was altered. An MSNBC producer also shared the story.

The German newspaper Welt am Sonntag published a story Sunday claiming that White House officials had offered about $1 billion to the German biopharmaceutical firm CureVac to move to the U.S. and to make a coronavirus vaccine for the U.S. only. The company has indicated that it hopes to have a vaccine by June or July.

The newspaper cited an anonymous source in the German government claiming to “confirm” that President Trump wanted the vaccine “only for the United States,” then covered reactions from German politicians, who declared “no country should have a monopoly on any future vaccine,” according to the summary from reporters Paul Carrel and Andreas Rinke.

But the story quickly fell apart. CureVac issued a statement on Twitter denying that it received an offer from the U.S. government. “CureVac rejects all allegations from press,” the firm said.

Richard Grenell, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany, also denied the story, saying that the original Welt story “was wrong.”

Multiple English-language news outlets picked up the Welt story, including Reuters, which later amended its own story. The revised Reuters story contains no editorial indications that it was corrected or updated, which is standard journalistic practice.

New York Times deputy weekend editor Aman Batheja tweeted out the first version of the Reuters article — hyping it as a “bombshell story” — to his nearly 15,000 followers. His post was retweeted more than 11,000 times.

The Times later ran its own story that cast doubt on the original Welt article. The Times reported that another German official said it “was unclear whether the [Trump] administration simply wanted the research work, and for any resulting production to be on American soil.”

The Guardian‘s story still claims that President Trump wants the vaccine for “exclusive U.S. access.” Other outlets that spread the debunked story include Business Insider, NBC News, and Mother Jones.

MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin also spread the Business Insider article to his more than 693,000 Twitter followers.

Welt alleged in its article that Trump administration officials met with CureVac’s CEO Daniel Menichella earlier this month to discuss the vaccine. Menichella later stepped down from the company.

The newspaper claims that the U.S. subsequently tied to broker a deal for exclusive access to the vaccine, which then prompted the German government to attempt a counter offer.

Iran: Mass Coronavirus Graves Caught by Satellite Images ‘Fake News’

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/03/16/iran-mass-coronavirus-graves-caught-by-satellite-images-fake-news/#

Iranian state media on Sunday denounced as “fake news” a viral video depicting enormous mass graves dug for coronavirus victims near the Shiite holy city of Qom, epicenter of Iran’s deadly outbreak.

The graves were not only caught on cellphone video. As the Washington Post noted in a March 13 report, which incorporated footage from the Iranian viral video, the mass graves near Qom can be seen from orbit:

“This is the ‘crisis’ section of the cemetery. This is only one part of it. There is another part higher up. There are graves as far as an eye can see. They are ready for burials,” said the narrator of the original video.

Al-Arabiya on Sunday quoted the curator of the Behesht-e Masoumeh cemetery stating that while the video does indeed show the “crisis” section of the burial grounds intended for calamities where “a large number of citizens are left dead,” and it will be used for coronavirus victims, its expansion began about four years ago.

Domestic critics of the Iranian regime, including some lawmakers, said construction of the “crisis” plots sped up dramatically after the coronavirus reached Iran, demonstrating that the death toll is much higher than the 853 total fatalities reported by the regime as of Monday morning. Of those deaths, 129 were said to have occurred on Sunday alone.

According to the Iranian health ministry, 1,053 new cases were reported on Sunday, bringing Iran’s total to 14,991.

Iran’s state-run PressTV on Sunday denounced the mass graves video as “fake news” and specifically criticized the Washington Post for spreading it.

“Experts say the best action to take for now is to stay calm, ignore misinformation and try to maintain personal hygiene,” the Iranian media outlet said.

CNN reported on Friday that contrary to Iran’s narrative about a long-planned expansion to the Qom cemetery proceeding as scheduled, satellite photos revealed a very significant escalation of trench-digging activity beginning on March 1.

Business Insider noted that an ample supply of lime, useful to “prevent decay and manage odor,” has appeared next to the trenches, which look more “hurriedly dug” than other nearby gravesites.

Tom Hanks, Wife Rita Wilson Leave Hospital 5 Days After Coronavirus Diagnosis

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/03/16/tom-hanks-wife-leave-hospital-5-days-after-coronavirus-diagnosis/

Hollywood star Tom Hanks, along with his wife Rita Wilson, have left a Queensland hospital and are now staying at a rented home in Australia five days after they announced they were diagnosed with the coronavirus.

People, which was the first outlet to report the news, said a representative for Hanks informed the publication that both Hanks and Wilson “remain under quarantine in their house.”

In his announcement for testing positive during his time working in Australia, Hanks said he is taking a “one-day-at-a-time approach” in dealing with the virus.

“Hello, folks. Rita and I are down here in Australia. We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too. To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus, and were found to be positive,” the Forrest Gump star wrote in an Instagram post.

“Well, now. What to do next? The Medical Officials have protocols that must be followed,” he added. “We Hanks’ will be tested, observed, and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires. Not much more to it than a one-day-at-a-time approach, no? We’ll keep the world posted and updated. Take care of yourselves! Hanx!”

Hanks and his wife have been staying busy during the self-quarantine by talking with fans on social media. Wilson shared a Spotify playlist titled “Quarantunes,” which features Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself” and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”

Hanks took to Twitter Sunday to thank the healthcare workers who have assisted him and shared a pithy photo of two pieces of toasts covered with Vegemite.

“Thanks to the Helpers,” the Oscar-winner captioned the tweet. “Let’s take care of ourselves and each other. Hanx”