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Thu. 11:54 a.m.: Latest world virus headlines — D.C. reports 67 new cases of COVID-19

Medical personnel remove their personal protective equipment after delivering a bodies from the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center to refrigerated containers parked outside this morning in the Brooklyn borough of New York. As coronavirus hot spots and death tolls flared around the U.S., the nation's biggest city was the hardest hit of the all, with bodies loaded onto refrigerated morgue trucks by gurney and forklift outside overwhelmed hospitals, in full view of passing motorists. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Here are the latest stories worldwide on the coronavirus pandemic, including:

— Washington, D.C., reports 67 new positive infections of coronavirus.

— Mayor of Milan says reopening of city will be in phases.

— Hoarding and price gouging task force finds 192,000 N-95 masks to ship to NY and NJ.

— Farmers to begin dumping their milk down the drain as market dries up.

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WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia has announced 67 new positive infections from the new coronavirus. That brings the total to 653 positive cases with 12 deaths.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has issued a stay-home order for Washington’s approximately 700,000 residents. Neighboring Maryland and Virginia have done the same.

Bowser has declared a state of emergency, shuttered all schools and ordered all non-essential businesses to close. White House and Capitol tours have been cancelled and the National Zoo, Smithsonian museum network and Kennedy Center have closed.

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MILAN — The mayor of Europe’s first major metropolis to close for the coronavirus is expecting a ”stop-and-go” relaunch once the lockdown on movements begins to lift.

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala says until there is a vaccine against the virus, any reopening of the city of 1.3 million residents is likely to be tentative.

“It is possible that we reopen, and then we have to close again. Until we have a vaccine, it will be an anomalous situation.,” he said.

Restrictions were first launched in Italy’s fashion and finance capital on Feb. 23, when the region of Lombardy shut schools, cinemas, museums, theaters and bars after 6 p.m. The measures have grown ever tighter, with residents of Lombardy barred from leaving their homes except for necessities like going to the grocery store or pharmacy.

Italy’s premier has announced that national containment measures will be in place at least until April 13 and that any easing would happen in phases.

Sala said the new coronavirus will provoke a major rethink in how to handle events that characterize the city, from four Milan Fashion Weeks a year, to the annual design week to cultural events.

Milan Fashion Week menswear previews usually held in June will not take place this year and that “fashion sector officials are asking what they can do in September,” when womenswear previews are scheduled.

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WASHINGTON — The Justice Department says it is distributing about 192,000 N-95 masks to frontline medical workers in New York and New Jersey that were found during an investigation by the new coronavirus hoarding and price gouging task force

Officials say the masks, gloves, gowns, hand sanitizer and other personal protective equipment were found by the FBI on March 30. The Justice Department says it notified the Department of Health and Human Services, which compelled the supplies be turned over as part of the Defense Production Act.

Agents also found nearly 600,000 medical-grade gloves, 130,000 surgical masks, some N100 masks and disinfectant spray and towels.

Authorities said the owner would be paid “fair market value” for the supplies. The equipment is being sent to officials with the New York city and state health departments and the New Jersey Department of Health.

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PARIS — A portion of Europe’s largest food depot is being converted into a mortuary and funeral home.

The food depot outside Paris is needed as bodies are accumulating from the new coronavirus too quickly for professionals to cope.

The police chief for the Paris region made the decision to open a hall of the market in Rungis for storage of bodies and caskets starting on Friday. Families will be able to pay respects to departed loved ones beginning next week.

The hall is located in an isolated area of the massive food depot which supplies stores and other food outlets.

Police did not specify the capacity of the hall.

The decision was made by Police Chief Didier Lallement to seek out a space with sufficient capacity because the epidemic has created shortages in mortuaries and funeral homes in the Paris region.

Salons for grieving families to pay respects at loved one’s casket are being created.

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Officials say five men standing in line for a haircut at a clandestine barbershop in Puerto Rico have been detained for violating the new coronavirus curfew.

Police say the barber was operating in the northern town of Canovanas. The U.S. territory is in the midst of a month long curfew in which all non-essential businesses have been ordered closed.

Hundreds have been detained for violating the curfew. The government has reported 12 deaths and more than 300 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

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RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A second Red Cross trailer loaded with emergency supplies has been stolen from a Southern California office of the organization.

Police say two men in a pickup drove into a Red Cross parking lot in Riverside on Sunday. They pried a lock, connected the trailer to their truck and left.

The trailer was used for establishing emergency shelters and was filled with cots, blankets and some masks.

Red Cross spokeswoman Brianna Kelly tells the Press-Enterprise the supplies were not related to the coronavirus. The trailers are typically used during wildfires or floods. The first trailer was stolen several weeks ago. It’s not known if the thefts are related.

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WEST BEND, Wis. — Many dairy processing plants across Wisconsin have more product than they can handle and that’s forced farmers to begin dumping their milk down the drain.

That’s the case at Golden E Dairy near West Bend. Farmer Ryan Elbe told WISN-TV they are dumping about about 30,000 gallons a day.

The coronavirus has dried up the marketplace for dairy products as restaurants, schools and food service businesses have been closed. About one-third of the state’s dairy products, mostly cheese, are sold in the food-service trade.

The Journal Sentinel reports that Elbe’s cooperative Dairy Farmers of America has agreed to pay them for milk that’s being dumped. But like most cooperatives, DFA can only afford to do that for so long.

Elbe’s parents started the farm with 80 cows in 1991, an operation that has grown to 2,400 cows today.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The new coronavirus pandemic is expected to wipe out $23 billion in passenger revenue from airlines across the Middle East and Africa this year.

That’s according to an assessment today by the aviation industry’s largest trade association.

The International Air Transport Association has been pleading for governments to rescue carriers with financial assistance and tax cuts. Flights around the world are grounded and airports are shuttered except to cargo flights and returning citizens.

The group said Mideast airlines will see a $19 billion drop in revenue this year as compared to 2019. Airlines in Africa, which include EgyptAir, are expected to see a $4 billion drop.

Hundreds of thousands of job in the aviation sector are also at risk across both regions.

IATA said projections are based on assumptions that travel restrictions will continue through the second quarter of 2020. Even if travel recovers partially in the second half of the year, it will be slow and impacted by an overall slump in the global economy and weakened passenger demand.

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NICOSIA, Cyprus — A domestic abuse association in Cyprus says forced seclusion because of the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a nearly 50 percent spike in family violence reports in March.

The Association for the Prevention and Handling of Violence in the Family says of the nearly 2,100 calls to its helpline through March, more than half went unanswered because staff were overwhelmed.

The association says confinement due to the new virus increases the intensity, frequency and danger of violence against women and children. It also offers perpetrators different ways to abuse victims like using children to pressure a spouse psychologically, using threats of exposure to the virus, withholding items like medicine, masks and antiseptic liquids and preventing women from seeking medical help in case symptoms appear.

The association said it continues its operate its helpline and that all shelters remain open.

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BERLIN — An app developed by German non-profit group Data4Life and Berlin’s renowned Charité hospital that makes the process of testing for the new coronavirus more efficient is being made freely available to other institutions around the world.

The CovApp was launched in the German capital last month to help people determine whether they should visit a testing center if they believe they are infected.

Depending on the answers users provide about their symptoms and recent activity, the app either suggests they rest at home or refers them to a nearby medical facility to get a test.

The data collected beforehand can be provided to doctors at the facility to shorten the waiting time there.

The app’s makers said today they are making the code open source, meaning it will be “freely accessible for everyone.”

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BERLIN — Germany plans to loosen a week-old ban on most seasonal workers entering the country amid concerns about the impact on farms.

Farms last year employed nearly 300,000 seasonal workers, many from eastern Europe.

The interior and agriculture ministries says up to 40,000 seasonal workers will be allowed into Germany in April and the same number in May.

Authorities hope that some 10,000 people per month who are already in Germany can be recruited, such as the unemployed, students or asylum-seekers.

Newcomers will be allowed in only by plane and must be given medical checks on arrival. They will have to live and work separately from other employees for the first 14 days and wear protective gear while working.

Farmers had been able to bring in only 20,000 seasonal workers before new arrivals were halted last week but they will need some 100,000 by the end of May.

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LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is still showing symptoms almost a week after he announced he had the new coronavirus.

Johnson’s spokesman says the prime minister “continues to have mild symptoms.”

Johnson said Friday he had tested positive for COVID-19 after developing a fever and a cough. He said he was following U.K. health officials’ advice to self-isolate for seven days.

That period is almost up.

Spokesman James Slack did not confirm whether Johnson would end his quarantine. Slack said the prime minister is following “the best medical and scientific advice” about when to end his quarantine.

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VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has recorded its seventh coronavirus case and extended its partial lockdown of activities until May 4.

The Vatican says a Vatican employee tested positive after having been on home quarantine since mid-March because his wife, who works in a hospital, was infected.

The Vatican previously had six cases, including a high-ranking official who lived in the same residence as Pope Francis. The Vatican has said the pope and his closest advisers haven’t been infected.

Francis also today issued a decree extending the suspension of activities of the Vatican City State’s criminal tribunal until May 4.

The Holy See says it has reduced its activities to only work essential for the functioning of the headquarters of the universal Catholic Church.

Francis’ Holy Week and Easter services, which begin Sunday with Palm Sunday, are being conducted without the faithful present.

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Washington — A Pentagon spokesman says the Federal Emergency Management Agency has requested 100,000 human remains “pouches.”

Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Andrews says the request is being fulfilled by the Defense Logistics Agency. Pouches are also commonly referred to as “body bags.”

Andrews wrote in a statement that the Department of Defense and the Defense Logistics Agency have a longstanding arrangement with FEMA to procure key commodities during crisis response operations.

Andrews added the Defense Logistics Agency is currently responding to FEMA’s prudent planning efforts for 100,000 pouches to address mortuary contingencies on behalf of state health agencies.

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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Public rejection of the burial of people with the new coronavirus has been growing in Indonesia for over a week as some fear the disease can spread from the corpse to nearby community.

Indonesia has reported nearly 1,800 positive cases of the coronavirus with 170 deaths.

Television footage showed villagers in Central Java’s Banyumas district blocked an ambulance carrying a coffin wrapped in plastic with a victim of the coronavirus. Some were throwing wooden sticks to prevent the ambulance from approaching a public cemetery near their homes.

Similar situations occurred in some parts of the archipelago nation, mainly on Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi islands. Authorities are trying to convince the public that the burial of people with COVID-19 is not something to be wary of.

The protests has prompted local administrations to prepare plots of land as graveyard specifically designed for COVID-19 patients.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — The state reported 272,117 jobless claims for the week ending March 28, a second straight week of record losses.

Ohio has received 468,414 claims the past two weeks, which is more than 100,000 for all of 2019. The state has paid out $45 million to more than 108,000 claimants.

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Authorities in Puerto Rico say they have detained six police officers accused of violating curfew after they were tipped off that the group was hanging out at a beach in the island’s southeast.

Officials say the five women and one man are members of Puerto Rico’s Joint Rapid Action Forces. The division in part serves as a liaison to federal law enforcement agencies.

Hundreds of people have been detained amid a month long curfew aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. territory. Puerto Rico has reported at least 12 deaths and more than 300 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

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TOKYO — Tokyo has reported 97 new cases of the new coronavirus in another record single-day increase as the infection accelerated in Japan’s capital.

Officials are scrambling to secure more beds to accommodate an influx of patients.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike started to raise alarms last week when the number of untraceable cases started to soar. Japan has more than 3,000 cases, including 712 from a cruise ship, with 71 deaths.

Experts on a government panel have called on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to take steps to prevent medical systems from collapsing.

Koike and heads of Tokyo’s four neighboring prefectures jointly issued a weekend stay-at-home request to their residents last week that will last until at least mid-April. Department stores in Tokyo and its vicinity have already announced their weekend closures.

Tokyo initially only had about 130 beds for isolated treatment of infectious diseases and already had to quadruple the number to accommodate the rising COVID-19 patients.

Koike says Tokyo has secured 700 more beds and plans to get thousands more in coming weeks. She says the city plans to eventually transfer those with slight symptoms to hotels and public facilities to make room for severe patients.

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