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Nurse brought to tears as Seattle claps for health care workers A Seattle nurse was brought to tears Thursday night by the sound of her community clapping and cheering for the city's health care workers. Ashlyn Juul, a nurse at Swedish Hospital in Washington state, works night shifts most of the time, but happened to work a day shift the first night the city of Seattle did this, her girlfriend, Mara Curley, told NBC News. "She is not normally an emotional person, but this has been a hard few weeks as her unit does have COVID positive patients with critically low protective equipment," Curley said. "These were undoubtedly happy tears to be recognized and appreciated." @SeattleArts thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to pick her up from her nursing shift and drive through the streets as people cheered and made noise for her and her coworkers. As you can tell, she was moved. #SeattleTogether #MakeAJoyfulNoise pic.twitter.com/f0xBRJgP5M — Mara Curley (@MaraCurley) March 27, 2020 Seattle's Office of Arts and Culture asked the city's residents to take part in applauding and celebrating from their homes for the people working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting at 8pm tonight, we're asking Seattleites to open your windows, stand on your front porch, in your yard or balcony, anywhere you are, to #MakeAJoyfulNoise for those on the front lines of the #COVID19 response: https://t.co/7e2aMJLibU #SeattleTogether pic.twitter.com/GuzHjuOjBx — Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (@SeattleArts) March 26, 2020 Share this -







Pope Francis delivers blessing to empty St. Peter's Square Pope Francis presides over a moment of prayer on the sagrato of St. Peter's Basilica on March 27, 2020. Yara Nardi / Pool via AFP via Getty Images Pope Francis delivered a special "Urbi et Orbi" blessing to an empty St. Peter's Square on Friday, praying for an end to the coronavirus pandemic. "Urbi et Orbi," which means "to the city and to the world," is a prayer that can be led only by the pope and is reserved for solemn occasions, such as Easter, Christmas or the installation of a new pope. "You ask us not to be afraid, but our faith is weak, and we are fearful. But Lord, do not leave us to the mercy of the storm," Francis said during the prayer. "Tell us again, 'Do not be afraid.' And we together with Peter will cast all our anxieties to you, because we know that you care for us." St. Peter's Square has been empty for weeks because of Italy's national lockdown. More than 80,000 coronavirus cases and more than 9,000 deaths have been recorded in Italy as of Friday, making it the third most affected country. Share this -







Disability rights groups slam state ventilator-rationing plans A ventilator at a hospital in Germany. Axel Heimken / Pool via AFP Disability rights groups have filed federal civil rights complaints alleging that ventilator-rationing plans or proposals in Alabama and Washington state would discriminate against the disabled and put them at imminent risk amid the coronavirus pandemic. A complaint filed Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights takes aim at a part of Alabama's Emergency Operations Plan focused on managing access to ventilators during an event that the governor deems a public health crisis. Read the full story here. Share this -







Google to offer $800 million in ad credits and aid to small businesses Google announced Friday it will offer $800 million in credits and financial aid to small businesses, academics, governments and the World Health Organization. The tech giant said in a blog post it would provide $340 million in Google Ad credits to small businesses with active accounts over the past year. The credits can be used for advertising goods and services until the end of 2020. “We hope it will alleviate some of the cost of staying in touch with their customers,” said Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google and its parent company, Alphabet. Advertising grants worth $250 million will also aid the World Health Organization and more than 100 government agencies in providing information about how to slow the spread of the virus. Share this -







The latest stats from NYC New York City now has more than 25,000 coronavirus cases and has had 366 deaths, according to the latest data from the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The Friday numbers show that 50 percent of deaths have been people 75 years of age and older and another 25 percent were people between 65 and 74 years old. Ninety-seven percent of deaths have been cases where the person had an underlying illness, defined as "diabetes, lung disease, cancer, immunodeficiency, heart disease, hypertension, asthma, kidney disease, and GI/Liver Disease." Of the city's 25,573 coronavirus cases, nearly half were age 18 to 44.Only two percent were under 18 years old. Of the five boroughs, Queens continues to have the most cases (32 percent), followed by Brooklyn (26 percent), then Manhattan (18 percent). Share this -







Infected pregnant women may pass coronavirus onto babies, small study suggests A staff member attends to a baby with coronavirus at the Wuhan Children's Hospital in China on March 6. China Daily CDIC / Reuters file Pregnant women who have the coronavirus can possibly pass the infection onto their babies, though it's unclear whether this transmission occurs in the womb. Although more research is needed, a small study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics on Thursday, found that of 33 women in China who were confirmed to have the coronavirus while pregnant, three gave birth to newborns who were then diagnosed with the virus. All three infants recovered, adding to a growing pile of evidence that most children experience milder cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, than adults. Read the full story here. Share this -







Trump lashes out at GM, Ford over ventilators President Donald Trump lashed out at Ford and General Motors in a Friday morning tweet, blaming them for not gearing up production of medical supplies quickly enough. General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!! @GeneralMotors @Ford — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020 GM sold the Lordstown plant last November. GM and Ford both announced earlier this month that they are working with medical suppliers to help ramp up production of medical gear. GM responded to Trump's tweet by pointing out in a statement it is “taking aggressive steps” to speed up production of ventilators by Washington-based Ventec Life Systems, while also converting a GM plant in Kokomo, Indiana, to have it ready to start shipping additional ventilators “as soon as next month.” Ford this week announced it will work with 3M and GE Healthcare for production of medical supplies, hoping to have several hundred thousand ventilators ready by June. It has already delivered a first batch of masks. Share this -





