LOS ANGELES - The first known death of a child due to the novel coronavirus in the United States was a teenager in previously good health, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday.
The death of the youth from Lancaster, just north of Los Angeles, was reported hours earlier by public health officials, and comes despite the disease not typically proving severe for juveniles.
"A teenager in good health, succumbed to this virus," said Garcetti.
"To the young people that are out there -- this can hit you too. Know that your behavior can save a life, and can take a life. And that life could be yours," he added.
The victim's identity and sex were not specified.
"COVID-19 does not discriminate by age, race or income level," said Los Angeles County public health director Barbara Ferrer, using the scientific term for the disease caused by the SARS-coV-2 virus.
Multiple studies have found COVID-19 disproportionately affects older patients and those with underlying conditions.
A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report found juveniles "appear to have milder COVID-19 illness," with no intensive care admissions or deaths in the US as of March 16.
"Similar to reports from other countries, this finding suggests that the risk for serious disease and death from COVID-19 is higher in older age groups," it found.
Only two known cases of minors dying from the disease in China have been recorded. In one case, an infant had a pre-existing intestinal condition. The other's situation was not known.
"The risk for serious disease and death in COVID-19 cases among persons in the United States increases with age," the CDC report added.
California has been one of the worst-hit US states during the pandemic.
Los Angeles County -- which is home to 10 million residents -- has confirmed 662 cases of coronavirus, with at least 11 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.
Agence France-Presse
HONG KONG - When 2 Spanish footballers took to the controls of "FIFA 20" after the coronavirus pandemic saw their La Liga match cancelled, a stadium-sized virtual audience watched online.
The huge digital crowd last week is part of a spectacular boom for the digital gaming industry, as record numbers flock to online servers for distraction, entertainment and friendship with the "real world" seemingly falling apart.
Real Betis striker Borja Iglesias kicked the winning goal using his own digital likeness in the 6-5 battle against Sevilla, which was broadcast on popular video game streaming platform Twitch.
It took place at the same time the original derby had been scheduled, before Spain's premier tournament was postponed as part of containment measures that have also seen the country's 46 million people largely confined to their homes.
"We do all of this to entertain all of you, so that you can be at home enjoying it, insofar as it is possible with this epidemic," the host of the broadcast told his audience of 60,000.
Nearly every country around the globe has reported cases of COVID-19 infection, with frantic efforts to contain the disease prompting the near total shutdown of some of the world's biggest cities.
Online gaming has proved a welcome diversion for many people chafing at movement restrictions, the cancellation of countless public events and a relentless onslaught of news about the pandemic.
"It made me feel less depressed about being in a small space for a long time," said Yang An, who was made to quarantine for two weeks in China after returning to Shanghai from her hometown last month.
She told AFP that she passed the time by playing for up to 8 hours a day on her Nintendo Switch handheld console.
SURGING DEMAND
Internet providers have scrambled to shore up their networks in the face of surging demand.
Gaming traffic on Verizon's network shot up an "unprecedented" 75 percent in the space of a week, the US telco said recently.
Software companies have also rushed to accommodate a record number of users.
Rockstar Games, publisher of the Wild West-themed adventure title "Red Dead Redemption", promised players it would keep its online servers running smoothly after it told its global workforce to work from home.
The company also teased a roll-out of extra in-game activities to keep housebound player glued to their controllers.
Online gaming communities could "go some of the way to create the public space that's been lost" in the wake of the pandemic, said Christian McCrea, a media studies lecturer specializing in games at Australia's RMIT University.
He pointed to Pokemon Go -- a smartphone game that became a worldwide phenomenon in 2016 when it lured millions of people onto the streets for a virtual monster hunt -- which was this month tweaked by its developer to make it easier for users to play at home.
'BIG IMPACT'
McCrea said gaming habits were likely to see a massive transformation in the months ahead, with the prospect of further economic ructions and long stretches of social isolation looming on the horizon.
"Overall the big impact will be younger kids at home for months on end with parents out of work," he told AFP. "Games will be at the center of a lot of their spare time."
Video games have long been blamed for causing a suite of health issues, from repetitive strain injuries to eyesight problems.
The World Health Organization classified gaming addiction as an illness in 2018, the same year China launched a crackdown on the industry on concerns that youngsters were spending too much time online.
But veteran gamers now ironically appear among those best-placed to navigate the pandemic and its impact on everyday life.
Twitch streamer "Loeya" told her million-plus fans in a broadcast last week that travel restrictions and school closures in her native Sweden and elsewhere were unlikely to alter her own mostly indoors, game-heavy schedule.
"Technically I self-quarantined myself, like, 3 years ago," the 22-year-old joked.
Agence France-Presse
NEW DELHI - Hundreds of millions of Indians were ordered into lockdowns Sunday in the world's second-most populous nation, which stepped up measures to halt the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.
Crowds gathered on balconies across the country in the afternoon to clap, ring bells and blow horns in a heart-warming tribute to the health care and emergency workers on the frontlines battling the COVID-19 illness.
The raft of state shutdowns in the nation of 1.3 billion people came during a 14-hour voluntary curfew that Prime Minister Narendra Modi said would test India's ability to fight the pandemic.
"This is the start of a long fight," Modi tweeted as the curfew came to an end.
"The people of this country have announced it today that we can take on and defeat as big a challenge as possible if we decide."
Normally bustling streets in the capital New Delhi and financial hub of Mumbai were mostly deserted as many people stayed indoors.
'STAY AT HOME'
With the end of the voluntary curfew the government appealed to states late Sunday to impose mandatory lockdowns on virus-affected districts.
A growing number of states and territories, including the capital New Delhi, heeded the call and banned all activity except for essential services.
Delhi, with a population of almost 20 million, will seal its land borders from early Monday, and close shops and private sector offices until March 31.
Other states imposed partial or full lockdowns, with many closing borders, restricting movement and halting most public transport.
Some, like West Bengal with a population of more than 90 million, locked down major cities but not rural areas.
Indian Railways cancelled all services except suburban and goods trains until March 31.
Incoming international flights were already barred for a week, while schools, entertainment facilities and monuments such as the iconic Taj Mahal have been shut.
The curfew -- seen as a rehearsal for longer lockdowns -- came as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India surged past 360, with seven deaths.
Experts say a lack of testing may be hiding the true scale of the health crisis.
Testing for the virus was expanded to private laboratories and will now include asymptomatic people who had contact with confirmed cases, officials said.
'WE ARE AT WAR'
Modi urged Indians to thank medical workers and other emergency personnel by clapping or banging pots and pans for five minutes at 5:00 pm -- and many in the cities responded with enthusiasm.
Neighbourhoods silent during the curfew burst into life as the sounds of clapping, cookware being hit and the bellow of conch shells -- an auspicious Hindu ritual -- filled the air from people's balconies.
"The enemy is there, invisible and elusive... We are trying to defeat it. We are at war, a public health war certainly," schoolteacher Sumita Dutta told AFP in Kolkata as she clapped her hands in front of her home.
South Asia is the world's most densely populated region, while India has an overburdened public health system that suffers from a lack of doctors and hospitals.
Experts warn that the country would not escape the highly infectious disease.
"We are in for a very long fight," warned virologist Shahid Jameel of biomedical research charity Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance.
In Mumbai's Dharavi, one of the world's biggest slums, residents said there was growing fears about the virus.
"We live by adjusting with each other in small confined spaces. But now we are not allowed to step out at all and police officials are enforcing it strictly. So it's a challenging situation," Raju Shaikh told AFP.
Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON - Rand Paul, a critic of emergency coronavirus spending, has become the first US senator to test positive for COVID-19, the Republican lawmaker's office said Sunday.
A statement from a staff member said he was in quarantine but remained asymptomatic.
As US senators work on a multi-trillion-dollar rescue package to help the US economy hit hard by the pandemic, Paul has at least twice voted against such emergency funding.
Paul, who is 57, is the third member of Congress known to have contracted the virus. Two members of the House of Representatives -- Ben McAdams of Utah and Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida -- earlier announced positive tests.
Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky, "is feeling fine and is in quarantine. He is asymptomatic and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events," said the statement from his staff.
It said Paul was not aware of any direct contact with an infected person. It added that the senator's Washington office had begun operating remotely 10 days ago, so "virtually no staff has had contact with Senator Paul."
It was not clear exactly when he was tested.
On Wednesday, Paul voted against a $100 billion stimulus package designed to combat the virus.
The bill, which passed by a 90-8 vote, called for free virus testing and paid sick leave for some displaced workers.
The senator, a deficit hawk, argued that Congress should pay for the measure by cutting funding for wars or other "frivolous" programs, the Louisville, Kentucky Courier-Journal reported.
He urged his colleagues to "stop being a rubber stamp for wasteful spending."
Earlier in the month, he opposed a bipartisan $8 billion plan for emergency coronavirus funding.
Agence France-Presse
