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Joe Biden says Democratic National Convention might be ‘virtual’ event

Joe Biden said Sunday the already rescheduled Democratic National Convention may have to be a “virtual” event because of social distancing guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Well, we’re going to have to do a convention, may have to do a virtual convention,” the former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner said on ABC News’ “This Week.”

“I think we should be thinking about that right now. The idea of holding a convention is going to be necessary, but we may not be able to put 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 people in one place and that’s very possible.”

The Democratic National Committee announced last week that it was postponing the convention in Milwaukee from July 13 to 16 to the week of Aug. 17 because of uncertainties about the spread of the virus.

The Republican National Convention will be held in Charlotte, N.C., from Aug. 24 to 27.

President Trump said he sees no reason to change the plan.

“We have no contingency plan. We’re having the convention at the end of August, and we think by the end of August we’re going to be in great shape. It’s going to be in North Carolina, Charlotte, and I think we’re going to have a great convention,” he said at the White House coronavirus task force briefing on Saturday.

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Trump says NYC field hospital at Javits Center WILL be used for coronavirus patients as city pleads for health workers – The Sun

PRESIDENT Donald Trump has confirmed that the NYC field hospital at Javits Center will be used for coronavirus patients.

This comes after Gov. Andrew Cuomo appealed to Trump for more space as the virus continues to overwhelm the city's hospitals.

⚠️ Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates


Trump gave the go-ahead for the 2,500-bed temporary hospital to be used to treat coronavirus patients as the number of cases continues to surge.

An emergency alert was put out on people's phones, it reads: "Emergency Alert. Attention all healthcare workers: New York City is seeking licensed healthcare workers to support healthcare facilities in need. Visit NYc.gov/helpnow to volunteer."

New York's Central Park field hospital is already at half capacity on its third day treating Covid-19 patients, according to the director of the facility.

"As we all know the growing coronavirus cases are threatening the capacity of our hospital system," Cuomo said.

"The state-owned Javits Center has been turned into a 2,500-bed emergency medical facility being run by the U.S. Army. The original plan for Javits was that it be used to take non-COVID patients from hospitals to open up hospital beds.

"However, the number of COVID positive patients has increased so dramatically that it would be beneficial to the state if Javits could accept COVID positive patients."

The Javits Center is one of several temporary facilities the state put in place to cope with the influx of Covid-19 patients.

A total of 562 people have died in the state in the past 24 hours, which means there have been 23 fatalities every hour.

"I am signing an Executive Order allowing the state to take ventilators and PPE from institutions that don't need them now and redeploy them to other parts of the state and other hospitals that do," he said.

Cuomo said the National Guard will be mobilized to move ventilators to where they are most needed.

"Am I willing to deploy the National Guard [to save] several hundred lives? You're damn right I am," he added.

Cuomo has repeatedly called for more federal supplies in recent weeks, citing the need for around 30,000 ventilators after 2,935 people died from the killer bug.

There are currently 14,810 people hospitalized, he said, with 3,731 ICU patients who depend on ventilators to stay alive.

'SHARING RESOURCES'

He acknowledged that hospital discharges and admissions were simultaneously rising as the deadly disease spread around the state.

But the governor said some hospitals and institutions with excess equipment and ventilators don't necessarily want to hand them over.

He vowed the State will either return the machines or reimburse them under the new order.

"[Some institutions] are reluctant to see them go out the door," he said.

"I can’t do anything more than that. I can’t be in a position where people are dying and we have vents. I will pay you for the ventilator but I’m not going to let people die."

The State tracks the in-state hotspots on a nightly basis, Cuomo said, adding they were "very concerned" now that Long Island was starting to "light up" with cases.

However, he insisted they were not "seizing" supplies from medical facilities who refused to comply with the order, but "sharing resources."

"Am I seizing vents? No, I’m taking excess equipment to save lives," he said.

"It’s about doing the right thing to save lives."

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Khloe Says She Would ‘Demolish’ Kourtney If She Fought Her Instead of Kim

Ready to rumble. Khloé Kardashian witnessed the epic fight between Kourtney Kardashian and Kim Kardashian, but she’s placing her bet on a different sister — herself.

“I would demolish Kourts a– lol don’t play. I’m 5’10”. She’s 5 feet on a good day,” the Good American cofounder, 35, tweeted while watching the conclusion of the sisters’ fight on Keeping Up With the Kardashians on Thursday, April 2.

Kourtney, 40, and Kim, 39, got in a heated argument about the Poosh founder’s work ethic, which resulted in a physical altercation that left Kim bleeding. Later in the episode, Kourtney and Kim made up and went on a family trip to Armenia with their children. However, Kourtney revealed that she was still upset with Khloé — who she said was her closest sibling for years — for having an “attitude” toward her.

Kourtney also explained that she lashed out because filming was causing her anxiety and she didn’t feel supported by her sisters.

“It doesn’t make me happy. I don’t want to miss out on time with my kids and it’s not worth it,” she said. “It just seems like they put the show and work above my happiness and it’s caused this distance between us.”

The episode ended with Kourtney revealing she would be filming less often to focus on raising her children — Mason, 10, Penelope, 7, and Reign, 5 — who she shares with her ex-boyfriend Scott Disick.

Three days before the episode aired, Kim confirmed that Kourtney had decided to take a break from filming the show. The KKW Beauty founder explained on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that it was difficult watching Kourtney lash out at her on camera.

“It was pretty intense,” Kim told host Jimmy Fallon. “I feel like it’s been a lot of built-up resentment from Kourtney, or just feeling like she doesn’t really want to film anymore. She’s not the type of person to make a decision and say, ‘OK, guys, I’m not gonna film,’ but she would come to work with an attitude every day and kind of take it out on everyone, from crew to us, and wouldn’t really make that decision. We would kind of, like, just keep on pushing her and try to figure out why she was so unhappy.”

Kourtney defended her decision to take a step back from filming Keeping Up With the Kardashians on Thursday.

“I won’t be live tweeting #KUWWTK tonight, as I’m spending time with my kids while they are on spring break,” she wrote. “I realize that a lot of the conversation right now surrounds my work ethic, and I feel like I need to just make one thing clear: raising children is a job as well. In fact, it’s the hardest and most rewarding job that I have ever had.”

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Top doc Fauci says ALL Americans should be under stay-at-home orders as US death toll soars past 6,000 – The Sun

TOP doc Anthony Fauci believes every American should be under stay-at-home orders to avoid spreading the coronavirus — as the death toll in the U.S. soars past 6,000.

The infectious disease expert said last night he doesn’t “understand why that's not happening” across the country.

"You know, the tension between federally mandated versus states' rights to do what they want is something I don't want to get into," he said on CNN.

"But if you look at what's going on in this country, I just don't understand why we're not doing that.”

Nearly all states, as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., have enacted stay-at-home orders for nonessential workers.

President Donald Trump this week extended the federal recommendations suggesting people stay home and away from one another for another 30 days.

The announcement came as the original guidelines — tagged “15 days to slow the spread” — had been set to expire on Monday.

He’s continued to leave stay-at-home order decisions up to the states and local authorities.

On Wednesday, Trump said during a White House press briefing: "You have to look — you have to give a little flexibility.”

"If you have a state in the Midwest, or if Alaska, for example, doesn't have a problem, it's awfully tough to say, 'close it down.' We have to have a little bit of flexibility."

Trump had said he wanted to have the country “re-opened” by Easter, but public health experts sounded the alarm saying a rollback on guidelines would make the situation worse.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Thursday that “if you back off, and you don’t mitigate” social distancing guidelines, “there is a possibility that number (of deaths) will go up."

"And that is the worst possible thing in the world you want to see," he told CNN.

"That's the reason why I am so adamant about when we say we have got to follow those guidelines, you really got to take it seriously."

As of Friday morning, the U.S. had more than 245,000 coronavirus cases.

In a study published this week, scientists in Singapore found evidence that shows the coronavirus has been spread by healthy people that don’t show any symptoms.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now essentially says that anyone may be a carrier of the coronavirus, whether that person has symptoms or not.

The study focused on 243 cases of coronavirus reported in Singapore from mid-January through mid-March, including 157 infections among people who had not traveled recently.

Scientists found that so-called pre-symptomatic people triggered infections in seven different clusters of disease, accounting for about six percent of the locally acquired cases.

An earlier study that focused on China suggested that more than 10 percent of transmissions were from people who were infected but did not yet feel sick.
The seemingly healthy people who can transmit the virus are believed to fall into three categories.

Pre-symptomatic, those who do not have symptoms when they spread but develop illness a couple of days later; asymptomatic, who never develop symptoms; and post-symptomatic, who get sick and recover but remain contagious.

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Rodrigo Duterte says he’ll ‘bury’ coronavirus lockdown protesters in Philippines

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has warned troublemakers who violate coronavirus lockdown rules and abuse medical workers that they would be shot dead.

The volatile leader said in a televised address that it was vital that everyone stay home as authorities try to stem the spread of the virus, which has killed about 100 people and infected over 2,300 in the country, Reuters reported.

“It is getting worse. So once again I’m telling you the seriousness of the problem and that you must listen,” Duterte said Wednesday night.

“My orders to the police and military … if there is trouble and there’s an occasion that they fight back and your lives are in danger, shoot them dead,” he said.

“Is that understood? Dead. Instead of causing trouble, I will bury you,” Duterte added.

His fiery comments came after local reports of a disturbance and multiple arrests of residents in an impoverished area of Manila who were protesting about a lack of enough food aid.

On Thursday, national police chief Gen. Archie Gamboa said authorities understood that Duterte “just overemphasized” the law and that no one would be shot, Bloomberg News reported.

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Trump-backing Congressman says it is ‘overkill’ to close schools as many to stay shut for the academic year – The Sun

TRUMP-backing Rep. Devin Nunes said it was "overkill" to cancel schools in California, as many different states have canceled in-person classes for the rest of the academic year.

Republican Rep. Nunes of California told Fox News he believes people should "get back" to work "as soon as possible" – after California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said in a statement it seems kids will not go back to school for the rest of the year.


Nunes' comments to Fox News' Laura Ingraham came just days after nationwide social distancing guidelines were extended until the end of April, as COVID-19 cases continue to climb.

"The schools were just cancelled out here in California, which is way overkill," Nunes told The Ingraham Angle.

"I mean it's possible the kids could have went back to school in two weeks to four weeks. But they just cancelled the rest of the schools."

Many schools around the nation have already closed schools through the end of the academic year and moved to online lessons.

Yesterday, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said in a statement it looks like kids will not be heading back for in-person classes until the fall, Ed Source reported.

"Due to the current safety concerns and needs for ongoing social distancing it currently appears that our students will not be able to return to school campuses before the end of the school year," Thurmond said.

He added that the decision is ultimately up to local districts to make the final call, and said the Department of Education is ready to offer guidance to set up distance learning.

California Governor Gavin Newsom had previously warned that it's "unlikely" schools will open again before summer amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Kansas and Virginia have already closed campuses for in-person learning for the rest of the spring, and many other states have canceled at least until the end of April.

As of Wednesday, the U.S. had confirmed more than 190,000 cases of coronavirus, with more than 4,100 deaths.

Nunes added when speaking with Fox that he feels positive about possible COVID-19 treatments – which have been hailed by Donald Trump, despite the fact that the drugs are only in trial phases for coronavirus and there is little evidence showing they could be used as a definitive fight against the virus.

“I'm optimistic here. I think that the drugs that are on the market now, look how quick we were able to get this approved, this new malaria drug that you have been talking about every night," the Congressman said, referring to hydroxychloroquine.



"There’s a lot of optimism here that we have in some of these drugs that are coming online.

"The vaccines are going to take a while, but look – we have this bill that we just passed last week, $2.2 trillion worth, we have to focus on keeping people employed," he added.

Nunes emphasized that he doesn't "believe we can wait until the end of April" to get people back to work.

"I just don't know any economy that's ever survived where you unplug the entire economy and expect things to go back and be normal," he said.

"The more tests that are out there, the more people that are getting testing – let's learn about the treatments, let's get good data as to who's being impacted and let's figure out a way to get back to work."

Nunes' comments came after Ingraham spoke of comments from former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb, who has said life will not be "perfectly normal until we get a vaccine" – which will likely take at least a year to develop, experts say.

Despite comments from Gottlieb that the world will not be "perfectly normal" until a vaccine is developed, the former FDA Commissioner has said that in a few months, he expects people can have their routines back in some capacity.

"#COVID19 won't go away. It'll infect the southern hemisphere as they winter and will want to come back to U.S. in fall," he tweeted on Monday.

"But we'll have a massive surveillance system by then, and I believe more than one drug to both prevent and treat infection. Our tool box will be very different."

Gottlieb told CNBC's Squak Box that after COVID-19 peaks around late April or early May, people can see some routine again.

"In July and August we should be coming back to some element of our normal lives," he said.

Nunes' statements on Fox News echoed similar remarks made previously by Trump, who had said that he wanted to get the country back up and running by Easter.

Trump said last week that negative economics impacts related to the shutdown would be worse than the virus itself.

"You are going to lose a number of people to the flu. But you are going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or depression," Trump said in a virtual town hall meeting.



"You're going to lose people. You are going to have suicides by the thousands…You're going to have instability."

Trump reversed his goal of reopening in mid-April, however, and extended social distancing guidelines until April 30.

He later said he played down the coronavirus pandemic "to give hope" as a "cheerleader" for America, while he warned of a "very painful" two weeks ahead.

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NYC paramedic says coronavirus patients brought to hospitals ‘to die’

“We’re pretty much bringing patients to the hospital to die.”

That’s how city paramedic Megan Pfeiffer summed up the increasingly grim local coronavirus situation to The Post, while described her grueling work as a first-line emergency worker treating patients in Queens while responding to 911 calls.

“It’s been crazy the past few days,” Pfeiffer, 31, told The Post on Monday night. “We know what we signed up for – though we didn’t expect this. It’s very straining. We’re all exhausted.”

Pfeiffer, an FDNY paramedic since 2013, is assigned to Jamaica Station 50 — and says COVID-19 now makes up the largest number of 911 calls she handles.

“There are a lot of really sick people. Others are panicked, and as soon as they have symptoms, they call us. Some have fever, some have shortness of breath,” Pfeiffer said.

“The hospitals in Queens I go to are totally full,” she said.

Pfeiffer recalled recently bringing a patient in cardiac arrest to New York Presbyterian Queens hospital in Flushing and the person was immediately admitted and put on the last ventilator available in the intensive-care unit.

While older people infected with COVID-19 tend to be seriously ill, she said, she was struck by how many younger adults she treats who end up in the hospital ward.

“It’s like battlefield triage right now. There are 20- to 40-year-olds being sent to the ICU,” she said.

Her colleagues have described similar horror stories.

Pfeiffer said she and other paramedics have been exposed to so many COVID-19 patients that they’re self-quarantining to avoid infecting family and friends. She said she often sleeps at her work station in Jamaica.

“A lot of people are not going home,” she said.

She and other paramedics and emergency technicians work the ambulance crews that are employed by the city Fire Department’s Emergency Services Division.

FDNY stats show how the coronavirus has ravaged its ambulatory workforce.

About one in four Emergency Services workers – or 23 percent – is currently on medical leave for COVID-19 illnesses and other injuries. That’s 2,800 ambulance workers.

A total of 282 FDNY members – EMS firefighters and civilians – have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Oren Barzilay, head of paramedics union Local 2507 who represents EMS workers, said the coronavirus outbreak has taken a toll on his members.

“It’s really heart-wrenching work. It’s going into a house and not knowing what to expect,” Barzilay said.

“We’re taking sick people to the hospitals not knowing if they’re going to come out alive or not. They’re working in a war zone. Not even on Sept.11 did I see this many refrigerated trailers used to store bodies outside hospitals.”

He said there are EMS units where nearly all of the workers are sick.

“We have people who are sleeping in their cars to protect their families. This is a communicable disease,” Barzilay said.

More than 75,000 New Yorkers statewide have tested positive for the coronavirus, and more than 1,500 have died — with New York City being the epicenter.

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Trump says he ‘hasn’t heard anything about coronavirus testing being a problem’ in leaked recording – The Sun

PRESIDENT Trump reportedly said he hasn't "heard about testing being a problem" in a leaked Coronavirus call with governors when they mentioned a supply shortage on Monday.

Donald Trump's comments came as states have struggled to get enough supplies, and often been forced to only test the sickest patients as there are not enough to test everyone.


In the leaked recording, obtained by the New York Times, Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, said that as officials "don’t have adequate tests" to identify potential coronavirus cases in people that have come into known contact with someone else known to have the virus.

"Literally we are one day away, if we don’t get test kits from the C.D.C., that we wouldn’t be able to do testing in Montana,” Bullock said.

Bullock added, "…we're trying to do contact tracing, but we just don't have enough supplies to do even the testing."

Trump then responded that he had not heard anything regarding possible test shortages recently.

“I haven’t heard about testing in weeks,” the President said, as reported by the New York Times.

“We’ve tested more now than any nation in the world. We’ve got these great tests and we’re coming out with another one tomorrow.”

He added: “I haven’t heard about testing being a problem.”

Trump's comments came the same day that New York City reported a new coronavirus death every 2.9 minutes, and the U.S. death toll passed 3,000 – greater than the number of lives lost in the horrific terror attacks on September 11, 2001.

Several governors have warned that they are running low on testing kits – a key element in identifying coronavirus cases so people who test positive can limit exposing others, warn people they came into contact with, and receive proper treatment in severe cases.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that the state was experiencing test shortage.

Things as simple as the swabs. When the little vials — when you put the swab in it to send it to the lab, it needs a particular medium in it to preserve it. We just do not have those simple things,” Inslee said.

Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam called for federalized testing last week after he said the state was facing a shortage of COVID-19 tests.

“We’re all out there bidding literally against each other. Here in Virginia, we’re bidding against our own hospital systems, other states and the federal government,” Northam said, as reported by WWBT.



Last week, health officials in Salem, Oregon had to halt testing at three clinics and hospital emergency rooms due to test shortages.

Officials said that due to the shortage, they would have to ration supplies to patients that were hospitalized.

During the Monday call, governors asked Trump for as many supplies as they could get, as states faced shortages on other items like face masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) that healthcare workers use when working with COVID-19 patients.

“As much as you can send us is very much appreciated," Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina said on the call to Trump.

President Trump had previously assured Americans in early March that "anyone who wants a test can get tested."

Trump's comments came the same day he showed off a new 5-minute coronavirus test that can be administered at a doctor's office.

Abbott Laboratories, who makes the test, said they plan to ship 50,000 tests per day, hopefully beginning this week.



As many states struggle to get enough tests and supplies, many major cities worry that they are on the brink of becoming new epicenters in the U.S.

New York is the current epicenter, with over 67,000 of the more than 164,000 cases confirmed in the U.S.

Trump and other experts have projected coronavirus cases in the U.S. may peak in around two weeks – close to Easter – as cases continue to steadily climb.

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Lionel Messi says Barcelona players will take 70 per cent pay cuts and front club staff’s wages amid coronavirus crisis – The Sun

LIONEL MESSI has confirmed Barcelona players are taking a 70 per cent pay cut during the coronavirus pandemic.

Additional funds will be directed to club staff throughout the crisis with a statement made on Monday following reports that players were in dispute with the club over how big a cut they would take.

Negotiations were reported as ongoing between the squad and board over the exact nature of the reduction, with claims the players were only willing to accept a 50 per cent cut, but a breakthrough has now been made.

As well as taking a 70 per cut pay cut, stars will make contributions to ensure ordinary staff receive their salary in full during the suspension of football.

First-team players including Messi and Luis Suarez released the statement on their social media accounts on Monday.

It read: "The time has come to announce that, aside from the reduction of 70 per cent of our salary during the state of emergency, we will also make contributions so that the club's employees can collect 100 percent of their salaries while this situation lasts.

"Our desire has always been to take a pay cut, because we understand perfectly that this is an exceptional situation."

The Barcelona board have confirmed that joining in the temporary reduction are directors and the basketball side.

Their statement read: "The board staff members from all professional sports and most basketball teams have reached an agreement to reduce wages during the state of emergency."

Negotiations over the pay cut led to reports the squad had rejected the 70 per cent figure, which was enforced by the board as part of the legally available measures created by the Spanish government during the crisis.

However the statement insisted plans were always underway to take a significant decrease.

It added: "It never ceases to amaze us that from within the club there were some who tried to put us under the magnifying glass and tried to add pressure for us to do something that we always knew we would do.

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Maura Higgins says she’s ‘so close’ but ‘just friends’ with married Dancing On Ice partner Alex – The Sun

REALITY TV beauty Maura Higgins has spoken for the first time about her relationship with married skater Alex Demetriou, revealing: “We are so close.”

The Dancing on Ice star, 29, announced this month that she had broken up with Curtis Pritchard amid speculation that Alex had fallen for her during training.


But opening up about the love tangle, Maura insisted she and Curtis, 24, ended their seven month romance after she decided they “didn’t have a future.”

And she went on to claim that she and Alex, 28 – who is wed to fellow Dancing on Ice skater Carlotta Edwards – are still “just friends”.

In an exclusive interview with the Sun on Sunday’s Fabulous Magazine, Maura said: “Alex and I are so close – we’ve trained together for months.

“Obviously we’re going to be close, exactly like every other partner on the show. But that’s it.



“We’re very close friends and we get on well. We have such a laugh and we are still going to be friends. No matter what’s said, I’m not going to be afraid to hang out with him.

“I’ve said to him: ‘I still want to go ice skating.’

Asked about her relationship with Curtis, who she met on Love Island last year, she said: “I’m my own brand. I don’t need anyone, there’s no point denying it!

“I just felt like I’m 29 and I want someone that I can see a future with. I’m not getting any younger.

“Curtis is 24 – maybe he did want that, maybe he didn’t, I don’t know, but I just felt it wasn’t going in that direction.

“The time apart as well… I want somebody I can be with most days.”

After Maura announced her split from Curtis this month, she was pictured sharing an emotional moment with Alex as they chatted over coffee.

And we revealed how their growing bond had left Alex’s marriage to Carlotta in tatters.

Just a week later, the skater was spotted leaving Maura’s flat after a secret rendez-vous.

And while the Irish star insisted in her interview she doesn’t need a man in her life, she admitted that she has never found it difficult to pin one down.

She revealed: “I’ve always been very, very confident. Every boy that I wanted at school I got. I’ve never struggled with boys.”


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