“We were laboring under the impression that young people were not affected by Covid-19, and that was good news,” said Cuomo. “It is very possible that this has been going on for several weeks, and it hasn’t been diagnosed as related to Covid.”

Once the virus starts acting on kids, they may experience complications like inflammation of blood vessels that can be lethal if these reach their hearts. But health specialists did not have the knowledge of this being linked to Covid-19 until now. 

In addition to the possibly misdiagnosed cases in New York, health officials say there might be others nationwide that have not been linked to Covid-19. When the pandemic arrived in to the state. in March, the world had seen very few rare cases of kids affected by the virus. Experts believed adults and seniors were the most vulnerable.

 Children contaminated with coronavirus present difficulty to swallow liquids, diarrhea or vomiting, paleness, in addition to some of the symptoms that adults experience, like trouble to breathe and chest pain. But kids do not necessarily cough, lose the sense of smell and taste, or have muscular pain.  

Early recognition by pediatricians, referral to a specialist and critical care is essential.

Three New York children have died,  a 5 year old in the city, a 7 year old in Westchester County and a teenager in Suffolk County.

The State Department of Health is partnering with the N.Y. Genome Center and Rockefeller University to conduct a genome and RNA Sequencing Study to understand why the effects of the coronavirus are different in children, and how to treat them.

Cuomo said many of these children did not show respiratory symptoms previously associated with the coronavirus when they were brought to hospitals, but all of them tested positive either for Covid-19, or for its antibodies.

In countries like China and Spain, where there have been very few cases of coronavirus infections in children, one of the first steps to end lockdowns has been to allow kids to go on the streets accompanied by adults for a few hours a day. But for New York that now represents a risk.

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“You could argue we are now past the plateau and we are starting to descend,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo in today’s press conference. “Hospitalization numbers are down. We were hovering around 18,000, We are now at 16,000, almost 17,000.”

New York continues to be the hardest-hit state, followed by New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Michigan, which are also believed to have passed their peak of infections. However, Governor Cuomo warns the danger in New York has not passed.

“Happy days are not here again,” said the governor. “We still have about 2,000 people since yesterday who were new admissions to a hospital or new COVID diagnosis.” 

And yesterday 540 people died in the state. 

As many states have started to prepare for a cease of the lockdown, Cuomo called out for help to the federal government in order to start planning for the future. 

Since the federal government is regulating the distribution of chemical reagents necessary for testing suspected cases of infection, Cuomo asked for the state to be moved up the supply chain. He said the state needs a partnership with the federal government and financial relief.

“If you want us to reopen, we need funding,”  Cuomo said 

Governor Cuomo said he asked the federal government to move New York State up the supply chain for testing equipment. Photo: courtesy of governor.ny.gov

But Trump said that is already happening  The federal government sent 1.5 million cloth masks to the state to be distributed to the public.

“My administration has been speaking frequently with many of the governors to help them find and unlock the unused testing capacity that exists in their states,” said Trump.

As hundreds of citizens have taken the streets to protest the lockdown in different states, the president announced some states have advised non-essential businesses to prepare for a phased opening starting May 1st or even sooner.

“Texas and Vermont will allow certain businesses to open on Monday while still requiring appropriate social distancing,” said Trump.

Given how the curve of infection in each region of  New York State has developed, Cuomo said the state’s approach to ending the lockdown will be different.

“When we look at this state and we talk about reopening, we are going to talk about different strategies in different parts of the state,” said Cuomo.

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During this phase, the spread of the virus is expected to be extensive and the number of infections will rise steeply every day, making the chain of infection increasingly difficult to control both medically and socially.

“The scientific estimates establish that the maximum peak of coronavirus infections in Mexico will be between May 8th and 10th,” said Hugo López-Gatell, head of the Sub secretariat for Prevention and Promotion of Health, in the Ministry of Health of Mexico. “Ninety-five percent  of the expected cases will be registered by June 25th, and then we expect continuity with very low rates of transmission that will be extended throughout several weeks.”

The situation, as reported on official records, is not as severe as other countries in Latin America. Brazil has now more than 29,000cases and 1,000 deaths, followed by Perú, Chile, and Ecuador were in each, confirmed infection surpass 8,000.

However, in Mexico, there are 11,000 unconfirmed suspected cases of infection. The delay has been attributed to a lack of testing, and an incapacity to test the overflow of patients more efficiently. More than 42,000 people have tested across the country.

Meanwhile, doctors from different hospitals throughout the country have reported that suspected cases of COVID-19 are registered as “atypical pneumonia”. The amount of deaths caused by atypical pneumonia has skyrocketed in the last weeks and has been called a new epidemy.

La gráfica es del Hospital General de Tijuana, tomada el día de ayer. 19 pacientes con neumonía atípica y solo tres casos de #Covid_19mx. Hoy ascendió a 25, dos médicos, uno de ellos entubado, grave. De pruebas a estos pacientes con #NeumoniaAtipica no hay información. pic.twitter.com/XLCyCyjP3B

— Adela Navarro Bello (@adelanavarro) April 6, 2020

Mexico has acknowledged that it continued sending supplies like face masks to China in February, only to have to buy some back at a higher cost. Government officials argue that they couldn’t stop companies from selling abroad without declaring a national emergency, which could not have happened without enough registered cases of infection. Diplomatically, not filling those orders would have hurt the nation’s ties abroad.

Most of the company’s manufacturing medical supplies in Tijuana fall under Mexico’s maquiladora program, which means they benefit from tax breaks in exchange for assembling goods that must be exported.

Phase three was expected to begin on April 24th. Measures taken in phase two will be reinforced, such as social distancing, the lockdown of non-essential business, and remote school. New measures such as soliciting private hospitals to operate as public, a total restriction of general admissions that are not emergencies, mandatory use of face masks and gloves for people in public spaces, police enforcement of quarantining for the sick and those that are entering Mexican territory from other countries.

The lockdown is expected to be lifted by May 30th.

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“We’re not yet ready for the high point,” said Cuomo. “We are still working on the capacity of the system. The more time we have to improve the capacity of the system, the better.”

With a shortage of ventilators, medical staff and hospitals filled to capacity, the state is heading into the heart of the battle.

“I call it the battle of the mountain top,” Cuomo said. “It’s going to be the number one point of engagement with the enemy.”

About 10,400 patients have been discharged from New York hospitals, leaving  almost 16,000 people currently hospitalized.

Governor Andrew Cuomo tells reporters the apex is coming at his daily press conference. Photo: courtesy of governor.ny.gov

New York is not facing this fight alone. The state has received 22,000 out of state volunteers, but the shortage of health care workers persists. “I am also signing an executive order to allow medical students who slated to graduate to begin practicing,” Cuomo said. “We need doctors, we need nurses.”

And the ventilator challenge is never ending.

The federal government currently has a surplus of 10,000 for the entire nation, but Cuomo said the state ordered and was ready to pay for 17,000. According to Cuomo contracts were signed, but that order has not arrived. The government of Oregon has committed to sending 140 ventilators to New York.

Cuomo has also shopped for ventilators in China.

“China is remarkably the repository for all these orders: ventilators, and PPE,” said Cuomo. “In the long term, we have to figure out why we ended up in this situation. Why we don’t have the manufacturing capacity.”

In addition to the state’s purchase, the Chinese government is going to donate 1,000 ventilators that are expected to arrive into JFK  airport today.

President Donald Trump warned Americans in his press conference today that the worst days are ahead.

“This will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week, and there will be a lot of death, unfortunately,” Trump said.

He also said more help is coming to New York.

“One thousand military personnel are being deployed into New York City to assist where they are needed the most,” Trump said.

The coronavirus has killed more than 3,600 people in New York, the epicenter in the U.S. About 1.1 million people have been infected worldwide, killing more than 60,000 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. The U.S has more than 300,000 cases and more than 8,100 deaths.

As the count down for the peak of the crisis in New York keeps going, a possible cure is still on a more distant horizon.

“The vaccine is down the road for another 14 to 16 months,” said Trump. “Johnson & Johnson is leading the studies to develop it.”

Pharmaceutical experts across the world suspect Hydroxy-chloroquine could be used to treat patients, but there are no conclusive results on its effectiveness yet.

But Trump believes this treatment will work.

“Hydroxy-chloroquine is going to be distributed to treat certain patients,” said Trump. “We have millions and millions of doses of it, 29 million to be exact.”

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As the coronavirus began to rage in the United States, colleges across the county started taking precautions. Students were told to stay isolated and take classes remotely to limit their exposure. 

But then the U.S. government started restricting and canceling international flights and shutting borders.  Schools, like New York University, told students to move out of the dorms. Many international students had to go home.

Olivia Rong flew back to her hometown in China, to avoid facing a greater risk of being infected with coronavirus by staying in New York. Photo courtesy of Olivia Rong.

“My parents called me and said the spread of the coronavirus was going to become really severe in the states in a matter of weeks,” said Olivia Rong, a graduate student from Beijing, China, who is halfway through the last semester of her Masters. “They pushed me to buy a plane ticket in early March, and then it became true, the virus is getting really spread out. Flights are now so expensive. I was lucky I flew when I did.” 

There were more than one million international students in the U.S. during 2019. The State of New York ranks second in the country for the international student population after California.. 

International students contributed nearly $41 billion to the country’s economy and supported 458,290 jobs during the 2018-2019 academic year. International students spend more than $5.3 billion a year statewide.

NYU  has the highest number of enrolled international students in the country.

Rong obeyed her parents’ requests as soon as she could and boarded a non-stop flight to Beijing. But Rong is renting an apartment in the city. Her lease is not up until the end of October. Now she is struggling to find someone to cover her rent and spare her from the expense.

 “We will continue to post our information and try to find someone to take over it,” said Rong. “Hopefully, by June, the virus will be under control so that people can live a normal life, and people come to NYC. Then it will be easier.”

China is the largest source of international students in the U.S. making up 40.9% of the foreign enrollments in New York State last year. India ranked second with 16.9%.  

Kajal Maniar flew from New York City to Bombay, India, 11 days ago. Having a pre-existing respiratory condition makes her especially vulnerable to the effects of the coronavirus. She is now in quarantine. Photo courtesy of Kajal Maniar.

“It feels terrible not to be there, and being in quarantine, after everything I had to do to get there,” said Kajal Maniar, a psychology graduate student from Bombay, India. “I remember how tedious the Visa process was. I had to go to an interview, and I remember the officer who conducted it asked me, ‘Are you sure about NYU?’ and I answered, ‘I have never been surer about anything else in my life.”

Maniar lived in the NYU dorms at Washington Square Village until the university removed all students from their rooms to offer the space as a treatment facility for those infected by the coronavirus. 

“We received an email saying that we had to leave in a matter of days unless we had a reason that we considered could exempt us from it,” said Maniar. “Since I had no other place to live, for me that meant flying back to India, getting in a plane for 14 hours with people who could have already been exposed, and since I have asthma, getting sick from coronavirus is a greater risk, but they said I still had to leave.” 

Maniar flew back home and is now continuing her classes online while staying in quarantine. She plans to be back in the city  for the fall semester.

Everyone who leaves the U.S. is considered to be “high risk”  and is advised to go into absolute isolation for 10 to 14 days. Countries around the world have issued official lockdowns on nonessential businesses and schools. 

Sweden is not one of them. The Scandinavian country is drawing global attention by only shutting its high schools and colleges, but keeping its preschools, grade schools, and borders open. Many Swedish students abroad have gone back home.

Tanya Kireeva packs her belongings to move out of her dorm at 55 Clark Street, Brooklyn. Like many international students in New York City, she returned to her hometown after the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Photo by Ximena del Cerro.

“I always wanted to live in New York, so I had to save a lot of money and finally put all my life savings towards that,” said Tanya Kireeva, a Swedish undergrad exchange student at NYU who lived at the school’s dorms on 55 Clark Street. “I prepared for two years, and every time I went to bed, I dreamed about that, and every time I woke up, I thought about that.”

 As she emptied her drawers and put her belonging in three big boxes marked with her address in Stockholm, she texted friends who she had met in New York. 

“First, they said that the classes were going to be online until April,” said Kireeva. “That was disappointing because I had just started being friends with the people I met in my second semester here. Now that we can’t go back to school for the rest of this semester, I’ve decided to go back home to save some of my money since I don’t think to spend it all while in quarantine is worth it. I might come back to New York  to visit, but I won’t come back to study and some people I might not see again.”

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According to the National Weather Service, this is the warmest winter of the last 40 years in New York and 47 other states. Last year, on this same date, the average temperature in the city was 13 degrees.

Samuel Dee, 66, has run the County Pharmacy on Nostrand Avenue for more than 25 years. For Dee, warm winter weather  means change in his clients’ needs. 

“The temperature is a big determinant of what people can catch,” Dee said. Approximately 50 clients come in every day during winter, and between 60 and 65 visit him daily during spring to treat their allergies.

“This year, we have sold a lot less of the most commonly used antibiotics to treat colds and much more cough medicine and injections, which people need to treat the flu,” said Dee. “Temperatures below 20 degrees are too cold for flu to spread. That is when you see a significant increase in colds. In [this year´s] temperature, you see either both or more severe cases of flu.”

The pharmacist explained sales of facemasks are rising. His customers are worried about the Coronavirus. The city has seen its third suspected case of the rapidly spreading virus. 

According to  the World Meteorological Organization  global warming has caused an increase of 33 degrees in the world’s temperature in the last five years. Still, there is no direct link between long-term global trends and short-term variations we experience from day to day. Wind speed, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and the soil’s absorption of sun rays determine the weather.

Alysta Garvey, 70, the owner of Garvey’s Hardware, has done plumbing work in Brooklyn since 1980. He said winter is typically peak time for his business—but not this year. 

“Since this winter has not been that cold, the stress on the pipes around here has been less than usual, he said. “We haven’t gotten calls about burst or frozen pipes, and I don’t remember any other winter when this had happened. Luckily, we still get a lot of calls about radiators and heaters.” 

Alysta Garvey, owner of Garvey’s Hardware in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, said warm winters  has kept pipes from bursting.  Photo by Ximena Del Cerro

But the winter is far from ending. The Climate Data Organization forecasts the next snowfall for Wednesday  even though the temperature will not drop below 32 degrees.

Business in the winter is always slow for Shelley Marshawn, the owner of Island Pops, an ice cream store in Crown Heights Brooklyn.

For Shelley Marshawn, 34, winter always means a drop in business. She is the owner of Island Pops, an ice cream store on the corner of Nostrand  Avenue and St. Marks Avenue  and from October to March, her work mostly consists of making coffee. 

“It is not very cold outside, but people are still in a winter mindset, and they don’t buy much ice cream during these months,” said Marshawn. “With the exception of a couple of weekends during January, when we sold a few cones and pints, this winter is no different for the business.”

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The high tides that flood the Miami Dade County for a few weeks every September, have gone on up. As the sea level rises beaches get more and more narrow to a point where seawater reaches streets and properties on the waterfront. When the amount of water that encloses the area exceeds the capacity of the drainage system, floods occur in low inland grounds as well.

During the current administration, Miami Dade County passed a $192 million plan to maintain and improve it’s infrastructure solutions to mitigate floods, such as seawalls, water pumps, raising roads, and elevating buildings, as well as reparations and the restoration of beaches. The county’s multi-year projection of resiliency is estimated at $20 billion. But when it comes to supporting private businesses, there is only so little that the local government can do.

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Hundreds of anti-Trump  protestors welcomed President Trump home, by rallying and denouncing his administration’s agenda yesterday

Bob Brenner raised a sign that read “Reunite Families. “Stop tearing children from parents.”

“I have been holding this sign through too many protests,” he said. “It is time for immigration detention centers to be shut down.”

Brenner considers the construction of the wall to be “a waste of money” and “cruelty for no reason.” His t-shirt read “Immigration Justice Now.”

 “Thirteen thousand children are being held in prison in this country,” he said, referring to the migration crisis at the southern border. “These families are seeking asylum, and even if they are crossing without authorization, it’s a misdemeanor.”

Bob Brenner marched in the anti-Trump rally yesterday in New York City.  He protested against detention centers in the souther border, implemented by Trump’s administration, with a two face sign which read “Reunite families” and “Stop tearing children from parents. Photo by Ximena del Cerro.

The march began at Bryant Park and ended at Washington Square Park. Protestors chanted, cheered and held signs mocking Trump and his presidency.

Trump came to the city to address the United Nations and tell world leaders to reject “globlism” and adopt his “America First” style of governing. 

But for the protestors, his style is just not working.

Nilsa Cordero joined the protest on her walking aid scooter and held the flag of Puerto Rico, her place of origin.

“Puerto Rico has suffered, and he doesn’t think we are worthy of anything,” she said. Cordero described the current situation since Hurricane Maria hit the island in Sep. 2017, as “there is still no water; there are still problems with electricity,” she said. “We are against everything Trump has done.”

Nilsa Cordero, a native of Puerto Rico and her husband joined the march to protest the lack of action from Trump’s administration to relieve victims of Hurricane Maria.  Photo by Ximena Del Cerro.

Among hundreds of angry, sign-waving, chanting anti-trump protestors, a handful of President Trump’s supporters showed up.

Diane Akins carried an American flag and a flag that read “Trump, Keep America Great, 2020.” Her t-shirt simply said, “Trump.”

“In Brooklyn there is a lot of people in the Muslim community, not those who have been here for 30 years, but the newer breed of people coming in, who seem to want to instill their ideology, and implement things that are counterintuitive to a constitutional republic,” she said.

Akins of Brooklyn, fears that immigrants will try to implement their culture here.

“It is not too much to ask, to want to know who is coming into your country, who are looking to stay, and if they want to be part of your culture,” she said.

Akins was a volunteer for Trump’s presidential campaign. After Trump’s first three years in the White House, she said her support “has been increasing.”

“Trump is building the wall,” she said. “There are other policies he is putting in place, and I think that is what he is going to continue to expand upon. His supporters, we want to see that, because we want to secure the sovereignty of this country.”

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Democratic presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren called President Donald Trump “corruption in the flesh” during a packed rally in Washington Square Park last night.

Hundreds of young and progressive attendees wore Warren campaign t-shirts and others wore manifestos for the political issues they hold dear.

For Warren supporter Andrew Eliot Jacobs, LGBTQ rights are a priority, even though Warren has not always held the progressive gender and sexuality viewpoints she does today. 

In 2012, Warren disagreed with a court-ordered gender confirmation surgery for a convict, stating it was a waste of taxpayers’ money. During her campaign this year, she has said her viewpoint at the time was wrong and unveiled a new agenda for the LGBT community.

“Warren has more than made up for that one lapse in her record for trans rights,” said Jacobs, who proudly wore a Warren campaign t-shirt designed with LGBTQ flag colors. He considers Warren his first choice.

“Vote blue, no matter who because a new Republican administration would not be interested in reversing the abuses to trans rights that Trump’s administration has introduced, specifically in the military, and those are violations of human rights altogether,” he said. 

Andrew Eliot Jacobs, a member of the LGBTQ community, supports Senator Elizabeth Warren for President. Photo by Ximena Del Cerro

Maurine Soplina, a member of the organization New York Insulin for All, held a five-foot-tall sign that read “Patients over profit.”  

“Warren is my first choice. I appreciate her greater sense of nuance compared to Bernie Sanders,” she said. “Warren’s position is more strategic, she knows we can have Medicare for all, but maybe we cannot get there in two years.” 

While in favor of the candidate, she criticized Warren’s strategy to reduce the control pharmaceutical companies have over the price of medicines, such as insulin. From 2002 to 2013, the average price of insulin almost tripled, according to the American Diabetes Association, making it more difficult for many of the nearly 7.4 million diabetics in the U.S. to take the medication as needed. 

“She has proposed government manufacturing of drugs, and in part, I think that is an excellent idea, but I do not think it can be fully that way,” she said. “Concentrating the amount of power that pharmaceuticals grant in any one place is too much.”

Environmental activist, Sack Westain, hopes to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate who will   address climate issues. Photo by Ximena Del Cerro.

Sack Westain, a member of the action group Rise and Resist, made his way through the crowd giving out orange pamphlets that read “climate emergency.”

“Warren is one of my first choices, but practically anyone except Joe Biden,” Westain said. 

Rise and Resist was formed in 2016 by activists with more than 30 years of experience in advocating for social and environmental causes.

“My primary concern for the next election is Trump,” he said. “My secondary concern is to have to support a candidate who would not bring transformation to this country.” 

Westain was handing out pamphlets demanding a transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy.

“Sanders and Warren are candidates who understand how serious the crisis of climate change is,” he said. “They are committing themselves to transform our economy and our society to deal with that problem. “If Trump stays in office, we are completely screwed.”

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