Here is a brief look at some of AP’s other coronavirus-related news from around the globe. Follow APNews.com/VirusOutbreak for updates through the day and APNews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak for stories explaining some of its complexities.
• The U.S. House approved a nearly $500 billion infusion of coronavirus spending Thursday, as unemployment is swelling to levels last seen during the Great Depression. Anchoring the bill is the Trump administration’s $250 billion funding request to replenish a fund to help small- and medium-size businesses with payroll, rent and other expenses. It also contains $100 billion demanded by Democrats for hospitals and a nationwide testing program.
• Calls mounted Thursday for an investigation into the ouster of a senior government scientist who says he’s being punished for opposing widespread use of an unproven drug President Donald Trump touted as a remedy for COVID-19. Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, says he was summarily removed from his job earlier this week and reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug favored by Trump. Bright is seeking to be reinstated as director of the research agency, said his lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks. A performance review shows he received a top rating.
• There was mixed news about the epidemic abroad. Some countries, including Greece, Bangladesh and Malaysia, announced extensions of their lockdowns. Vietnam, New Zealand and Croatia were among those moving to end or ease such measures. Brazil’s health ministry confirmed 407 deaths because of the outbreak in the past 24 hours, a daily high for the country.
• Testing of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine began Thursday in healthy volunteers in Britain, the latest in a cluster of early-stage studies in search of protection against the coronavirus. University of Oxford researchers gave injections to volunteers in a study that eventually aims to include hundreds in hopes of determining not only if the vaccine is safe but if it works.
• Daily reports of giant meat-processing plants closing because workers tested positive for the coronavirus have called into question whether slaughterhouses can remain virus-free. According to experts, the answer might be no.
• There’s no evidence pets are spreading the new coronavirus to people. However, there have been a few cases worldwide where animals likely got the virus from humans, according to federal officials. A 4-year-old tiger tested positive at New York City’s Bronx Zoo, and officials think a zookeeper with the virus got the feline sick. Two house cats in different homes in New York also contracted the virus, likely from their owners or someone in the neighborhood.
• More evidence is emerging that far more New Yorkers have had the coronavirus than the number confirmed by lab tests. A state survey of about 3,000 people found nearly 14% had antibodies, suggesting they were exposed to the virus, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., 21% of the people tested had antibodies. Cuomo cautioned that the data was preliminary.
• The Rolling Stones have unveiled a new song the band thinks is perfect for these times. The band released the four-minute, slow-burning, bluesy and harmonica-driven “Living in a Ghost Town” on Thursday. “I’m a ghost/Living in a ghost town/You can look for me/But I can’t be found,” sings frontman Mick Jagger, who wrote the song with guitarist Keith Richards.
• After two months and more than 10,000 deaths that have made the nation’s nursing homes some of the most terrifying places to be during the coronavirus crisis, most of them still don’t have access to enough tests to help control outbreaks among their frail, elderly residents. Neither the federal government nor the leader in nursing home deaths, New York, has mandated testing for all residents and staff.
• A private school student in the nation’s capital wanted to find a way to pitch in during the coronavirus pandemic. Georgetown Day School senior Jonah Docter-Loeb’s efforts led to Print to Protect, which has printed 3,000 face shields and hopes to complete 10,000 in April.
