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New data released by the Louisiana Department of Health Friday shows that most of those killed by the coronavirus statewide had some form of pre-existing medical condition. The department says 95 percent of the 83 people killed as of Thursday had underlying conditions. The most common among them was Diabetes, with 41 percent of the victims having the disorder. Another 31 percent had Chronic Kidney Disease. State officials said Friday that 119 people had died from the virus. No additional health information on those confirmed dead since Thursday is available at this time. You can see the full beakdown of...

Link Only due to Copyright rules: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/27/politics/undocumented-immigrants-coronavirus-stimulus/index.html

As authorities lifted a two-month coronavirus lockdown in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, residents said they were growing increasingly skeptical that the figure of some 2,500 deaths in the city to date was accurate. Since the start of the week, seven large funeral homes in Wuhan have been handing out the cremated remains of around 500 people to their families every day, suggesting that far more people died than ever made the official statistics. "It can't be right ... because the incinerators have been working round the clock, so how can so few people have died?" an Wuhan resident...

France will extend a national lockdown until April 15 after reporting its biggest daily death toll from coronavirus, its prime minister said on Friday, and officials warned that hospitals around Paris could be overwhelmed in 48 hours.

- The Abbott ID NOW™ COVID-19 test brings rapid testing to the front lines - Test to run on Abbott's point-of-care ID NOW platform - a portable instrument that can be deployed where testing is needed most - ID NOW has the largest molecular point-of-care installed base in the U.S. and is available in a wide range of healthcare settings - Abbott will be making ID NOW COVID-19 tests available next week and expects to ramp up manufacturing to deliver 50,000 tests per day - This is the company's second test to receive Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA for...

T This past Thursday, Donald Trump visited the National Response Coordination Center for a teleconference with the nation’s governors about how to handle the covid-19 pandemic. The center, which is situated inside the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, in Washington, is designed, in the agency’s words, to coördinate “the overall Federal support for major incidents and emergencies.” Trump—along with Mike Pence, and several other Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officials—sat around a table in a gray-walled conference room, while the governors were patched in from around the country. The governors said their states needed personal protective equipment (P.P.E.) for health-care...

Laurus Labs, one of the world's largest manufacturers of anti-HIV drugs on March 27, said it will supplying anti-malarial drug Hydroxychloroquine to its US partner Rising Pharma Holdings to test as a preventive treatment for novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. The company has received an approval from the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Hydroxychloroquine Sulphate tablets. (Please see link for full story)

In a heated debate regarding a proposed economic relief bill to provide financial protection for American businesses and workers during the coronavirus pandemic, one Michigan Democrat demanded to be heard after her allotted speaking time on the House floor had expired. Donning pink latex gloves, Rep. Haley Stevens shouted at colleagues on Thursday even as she was ruled out of order.

A top government official in France has admitted that draconian lockdown measures being imposed on the rest of the population shouldn’t be implemented in the country’s migrant-heavy ghettos in order to prevent riots. In a letter leaked to magazine Le Canard Enchaine, French Secretary of State to the Ministry of the Interior Laurent Nunez advises, “It is not a priority to enforce closings in certain neighborhoods and to stop gatherings.” In a separate video conference call, Nunez told other officials that restricting movement and shutting down shops in France’s infamous banlieues risks igniting violent social disorder if enforced too rigorously....

President Trump and New York’s governor have agreed that the hard-hit state needs extra help, but the amount of assistance is still up for debate. The president took to Twitter on Friday, where he announced “thousands of federal government-delivered ventilators” were found in New York storage. He urged the state to distribute them right away. “There is a smart way to do this,” he said. “Deploy the ventilators around the country as they are needed.” This came after Governor Andrew Cuomo begged for more of the machines to fight the pandemic in his state. He feared New York was not...

Netflix is set to lose some of the best documentaries produced in history. Four of Ken Burns’s famous PBS documentaries are set to leave Netflix in the United States in February 2020. Ken Burns, for those who don’t know already, is a master documentary maker who has stuck with PBS over the years and produced a huge amount of documentaries over the years. He’s been an influential filmmaker with over 35 producer and directing credits to his name and countless awards including two Oscar nominations. In total, Netflix is set to lose four Ken Burns series which include: The War...

Steve talks about relationships and weddings All of 9 minutes - Good Clean Humor https://youtu.be/Ezk1Tll9iXs

DENVER (KDVR) -- Frustrations are boiling over for many Coloradans trying to navigate the swamped medical system tasked with tackling the coronavirus outbreak. “I’m proud to announce that the state lab in Colorado has eliminated it’s testing backlog,” Gov. Jared Polis said during his Wednesday press conference announcing a stay-at-home order for the state. “We’ve tripled our testing capacity.” Polis made it clear that expanding testing is a priority. In his press conference he referenced the seven mobile testing sites the state has operated to date, and how he wants to expand testing in communities like Fort Collins, Grand Junction...

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus believes Taiwanese netizens responsible for bulk of online criticism According to Up Media, the U.S. government has informed Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) that Adhanom believes most of the online comments accusing him of incompetence are part of a politically motivated scheme carried out by Taiwanese cyber warriors. Moreover, he has reportedly said that Taiwan wishes to join the WHO only for "political purposes."

Oval Office   4:10 P.M. EDT  THE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you all very much.  This is a very important day.  I’ll sign the single-biggest economic relief package in American history and, I must say, or any other package, by the way.  It’s twice as large as any relief ever signed.  It’s $2.2 billion, but it actually goes up to 6.2 — potentially — billion dollars — trillion dollars.  So you’re talking about 6.2 trillion-dollar bill.  Nothing like that.  And this will deliver urgently needed relief to our nation’s families, workers, and businesses.  And that’s what this is all about.And it...

[Catholic Caucus] Two bishops’ advice to Catholics in Lenten crisis: Eat meat on Fridays The bishop of Boston and the bishop of Metuchen, N.J. declared to their flocks that Lenten abstinence from meat on Fridays is no longer binding. March 27, 2020 (CatholicCulture.org) — Another week dominated by news about the CO19 epidemic; another week without access to the sacraments. These are distressful times, and we are facing troubles that we could not have imagined, even a few weeks ago. As this troubled week moved toward a close, a couple of headlines truly looked surreal: Bishops advising Catholics to ease...

A retired Venezuelan army general indicted alongside Nicolás Maduro has surrendered in Colombia and is being taken by Drug Enforcement Administration agents to New York for arraignment, four people familiar with the situation said Friday. Cliver Alcalá has been an outspoken critic of Maduro for years. But he was charged Thursday with allegedly running with Maduro, socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello and another retired army general a narcoterrorist conspiracy that U.S. prosecutors say sent 250 metric tons of cocaine a year to the U.S. and turned the Venezuelan state into a platform for violent cartels and Colombia rebels. The Justice...

Today, I have signed into law H.R. 748, the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” or the “CARES” Act (the “Act”).  The Act makes emergency supplemental appropriations and other changes to law to help the Nation respond to the coronavirus outbreak.  I note, however, that the Act includes several provisions that raise constitutional concerns.Section 15010(c)(3)(B) of Division B of the Act purports to require the Chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to consult with members of the Congress regarding the selection of the Executive Director and Deputy Executive Director for the newly formed...

March 28 2020 Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent Reading 1 Jer 11:18-20 I knew their plot because the LORD informed me; at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: “Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more.”But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge, searcher of mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (50 U.S.C. 4501 et seq.) (the “Act”), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:Section 1.  Policy.  In Proclamation 9994 of March 13, 2020 (Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak), I declared a national emergency recognizing the threat that the novel (new) coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 poses to our Nation’s healthcare systems.  In recognizing the public...