New York

1 April 2020; AFP: The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic continued to worsen Wednesday despite unprecedented lockdowns, as the head of the United Nations sounded the alarm on what he said was humanity's worst crisis since World War II.

The warning came as Donald Trump told Americans to brace for a "very painful" few weeks after the United States registered its deadliest 24 hours of the crisis.

UNITED NATIONS, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Tuesday launched a report on the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling for global solidarity to respond to the impacts of COVID-19, which have caused and will cause tremendous losses to the human society.

The report describes the speed and scale of the outbreak, the severity of cases, and the societal and economic disruption of COVID-19.

NEW YORK (AP) — It has become a grim ritual outside New York City’s hospitals: workers in protective gear loading the bodies of coronavirus victims into refrigerated trailers.

A surge in deaths in the epicenter of the crisis in the U.S. has overwhelmed the city’s permanent morgues and filled storage spaces in many hospitals to capacity. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending 85 refrigerated trucks to serve as temporary morgues, the city said.

NEW YORK (AP) — With refrigerated morgue trucks parked on New York City’s streets to collect the surging number of dead, public health officials projected Tuesday that the coronavirus could ultimately kill more than 100,000 people across the U.S. Some states that have become hot spots warn they’re running low on ventilators, while two cruise ships pleaded for Florida to allow them to dock to carry off the sick and dead.

NEW YORK, Mar 30 (APP): An emergency field hospital is being set up in New York City’s Central Park to treat a growing number of coronavirus patients in one of United States’ epicenters of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Samaritan’s Purse, a religious humanitarian aid organization, is building the hospital, and it is expected to open on Tuesday. The field hospital, which is made up of tents, will have at least 68 beds, according to a press release.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 31 (APP): The United Nations special envoy for Syria has told the UN Security Council that the war-ravaged country was at “high risk” of being unable to contain stem the progress of the deadly pandemic.

31 March 2020; AFP: A federal judge in New York on Monday granted the release from prison on humanitarian grounds of an 87-year-old former senior Brazilian football official tarnished by the FIFA corruption scandal.

Judge Pamela Chen authorized the release of Jose Maria Marin, a former Brazilian Football Confederation president, who was serving a four-year prison sentence for accepting millions of dollars in bribes as part of the global FIFA corruption scandal.

UNITED NATIONS, March 30 (Xinhua) -- UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov on Monday said he regretted the lack of progress on the ground, expressing concern over Israeli settlements and its plans to annex Palestinian land.

The expansion of Israeli settlements continues to pose a significant obstacle to achieving a viable two-state solution, Mladenov told the Security Council via video teleconference.

UNITED NATIONS, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Monday expressed concern over the humanitarian situation in Syria and the potential impact of COVID-19 on the war-torn country.

The council held a briefing via video teleconference on the situation in Syria and was briefed on by UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock and UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen.

NEW YORK, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The United States has tested 1 million people in its stepped-up effort to tackle the novel coronavirus, with a capacity to test 100,000 samples daily.

"Today we reached a historic milestone in our war against the coronavirus. Over 1 million Americans have been tested," President Donald Trump announced Monday at a White House briefing.

Alex Azar, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, said the United States is now testing 100,000 samples a day in their effort to combat the outbreak.