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 California issues "stay at home" order
California's governor issued an unprecedented statewide "stay at
home order" directing the state's 40 million residents to hunker
down in their homes for the foreseeable future.
Governor Gavin Newsom called the order essential in light of
modeling by experts that showed roughly 56 percent of the state's
residents, or 25 million people, would contract the respiratory
illness in the next eight weeks.
The directive, effective immediately, marks the largest and most
sweeping government clampdown yet.
YouTube no longer high definition in EU
YouTube said on Friday it will reduce its streaming quality in the
European Union to avoid internet gridlock as thousands of Europeans
are confined to their homes.
"We are making a commitment to temporarily switch all traffic in the
EU to standard definition by default," the company said in a
statement.
Standard definition videos are not as detailed or as sharp as high
definition videos.
The spread
The virus has infected more than 245,000 people globally and the
death toll exceeds 10,000.
In China, where the virus first emerged, imported cases have risen
to a record. But for a second day in a row, China found no
domestically transmitted cases.
Italy's death toll has overtaken China. It registered 427 deaths
over the past 24 hours, bringing the total nationwide to 3,405 since
the outbreak surfaced on Feb. 21.
More than 13,000 people across the United States have been diagnosed
with the illness and 200 have died, with the largest numbers so far
in Washington state, New York and California.
Coronavirus is killing one person every 10 minutes in Iran, the
health ministry said, as the country's death toll climbed to 1,284.
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(For an interactive graphic tracking global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7
in an external browser.)
How elite New Yorkers got coronavirus tests
As U.S. authorities scrambled to ramp up the nation's capacity to test for
coronavirus last week, at least 100 executives and other New Yorkers of means
had easy access to testing, according to two sources.
These people paid a $5,000-a-year membership fee for a medical concierge service
in New York City called Sollis Health, which worked with Enzo Clinical Labs Inc
to test its members for COVID-19, according to the sources.
Olympics flame arrives in Japan
An Olympic cauldron was ignited in Japan on Friday by a flame carried from
Greece, with officials pledging the Tokyo 2020 Games would proceed despite
mounting pressure to halt the event due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Japan is grappling with pressure to avoid a health crisis among 600,000 expected
overseas spectators and athletes at the event, which could see $3 billion in
sponsorships and at least $12 billion spent on preparations evaporate.
The flame will now tour the Tohoku region - hit by the tsunami and earthquake in
2011 - in what organisers call a "recovery flame" tour before the official
kick-off ceremony in Fukushima on March 26.
(Click https://www.reuters.com/live-events/coronavirus-6-id2921484 to see a
selection of curated coverage about the coronavirus outbreak.)
(Compiled by Karishma Singh and Nick Tattersall; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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