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Tyson Foods suspends operations at Iowa plant Tyson Foods has suspended operations at its pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, after more than two dozen workers tested positive for COVID-19, the company announced Monday. This suspension, along with worker absenteeism and other worker safety precautions such as social distancing, have slowed production across the company’s meat and poultry plants, the company's chief executive Noel White said in a statement. “We’re working hard to protect our team members during this ever-changing situation, while also ensuring we continue fulfilling our critical role of helping feed people across the country,” White said. The company has been taking workers’ temperatures before their shifts and deep cleaning and sanitizing parts of the plant including employee break and locker rooms, he added. Share this -







Trump approves Cuomo request to have Navy hospital ship take coronavirus patients New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday asked President Donald Trump if the Comfort, a 1,000-bed Navy hospital ship now docked in New York City, could be shifted to take patients suffering from COVID-19, the disease associated with coronavirus. The ship, brought to New York City to free up much-needed hospital space for infected patients, had previously been reserved for non-virus patients. The Comfort had only 20 patients as of Thursday night. "As it turned out, there's not a lot of non-COVID people in the hospital system, which is a separate story," Cuomo said. "A byproduct of shutting everything down is you have fewer car accidents, crime rate is way down, fewer trauma cases, so there is not a large non-COVID population in the hospitals." Cuomo said later Monday on MSNBC that Trump agreed to the request. The governor said the move adds 1,000 beds to the fight against the disease, which will hopefully alleviate some of the stress on the state's healthcare system. Cuomo also said schools and non-essential businesses would remain closed through at least April 29 and that the fine for those who violated restrictions on social distancing would increase, from $500 to $1,000. Share this -







U.S. Army places temporary hold on sending new recruits to basic training The U.S. Army has paused the movement of future U.S. soldiers to basic combat training, the department announced Monday. "This tactical pause will allow commands to ensure appropriate safety measures are in place and are operating effectively at training installations," the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, which oversees training of Army recruits, said in a statement. The pause does not affect recruits currently in basic training. They will continue under screening and monitoring guidelines established in March, and proceed to their next assignment upon graduation. Current protocols include "social-distanced-enabled training" and reduced movement of trainees. "The decision to pause the shipment of trainees to [Basic Combat Training] for two weeks will allow leaders to focus on setting conditions so movement can be conducted in a safer manner in the future,” said Gen. Paul Funk, II, head of the Command. Share this -







Wisconsin Gov. Evers suspends in-person voting for Tuesday primary amid coronavirus concerns Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Monday signed an executive order suspending all in-person voting for Tuesday's primary and moved the date of the election to June 9 amid concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. The order also convenes the state legislature for a special session on Tuesday to deal with the issue. “Today, I signed an executive order suspending in-person voting for tomorrow’s election,” Evers said in a statement. “Frankly, there’s no good answer to this problem — I wish it were easy.” “As municipalities are consolidating polling locations, and absent legislative or court action, I cannot in good conscience stand by and do nothing. The bottom line is that I have an obligation to keep people safe, and that’s why I signed this executive order today,” he added. Read the full story here. Share this -







Grocery stores are starting to take social distancing more seriously:



Starting tomorrow, Kroger will limit the number of shoppers to half the building code's capacity "to allow for proper physical distancing in every store."



They're also testing "one-way aisles"#coronavirus — Jo Ling Kent (@jolingkent) April 6, 2020 Share this -







More than 16,000 dead in Italy Doctors treat a COVID-19 patient in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Rome on March 26, 2020. Antonio Masiello / Getty Images file Italy reached another grim milestone in the pandemic as more than 16,000 people there have now died from COVID-19, the disease associated with coronavirus. The official death toll was listed at 16,523, officials said Monday, a spike of 636 fatalities from Sunday night's reported total of 15,887. No nation has been hit harder by COVID-19 deaths than Italy. There have been at least 132,547 positive coronavirus cases, Italian officials said Monday, an increase from 128,848 a day earlier. Share this -







New York rabbi: 'We can be many faiths during this week, but we are one family' Rabbi: All faithful can be both 'socially distant' and 'spiritually close' during coronavirus April 6, 2020 05:41 Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, the executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, spoke about the challenges of safely continuing religious practice amid the coronavirus outbreak in a Monday interview with Craig Melvin on MSNBC. "It's really a time of contradiction," Rabbi Potasnik said. "We say let everyone enter, when it comes to our house of worship, and the doors are locked." In the days leading up to Passover and Easter, Rabbi Potasnik encouraged people to practice in ways that are safe, such as turning to online services, and encouraged unity during tough times. "We can be many faiths during this week but we are one family and I think when this is over there's going to be a recognition that we need each other, face to face," he said. Share this -







Top Trump aide says Fauci's caution on possible coronavirus treatment warrants a 'second opinion' President Donald Trump's top trade adviser Peter Navarro said Monday that Dr. Anthony Fauci's caution about the effectiveness of an anti-malaria drug that the president has been urging as a treatment for coronavirus warrants a "second opinion." Asked about an Axios report that he and Fauci got into a heated argument about the drug during a coronavirus task force meeting on Saturday, Navarro told CNN, "There was that discussion on Saturday, and if we didn't have disagreement and debate in the Trump administration, this administration would not be as strong as it is." A source told Axios the dispute started when Navarro said the studies he'd seen on the effects of the drug, hydroxychloroquine, show "clear therapeutic efficacy." Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Navarro there's only anecdotal evidence, leading Navarro to angrily declare the studies he'd seen are "science, not anecdote." Read the full story here. Share this -





