Louisiana is poised to become the next epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, White House officials said Thursday, citing new data that shows that 26 percent of the tests for COVID-19 in that state in recent days have come back positive.

As the worsening coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the country, millions of Americans living with diabetes face heightened risks from COVID-19.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Friday the U.S. Congress will work on another coronavirus relief bill, with healthcare topping the list of priorities. Previously McConnell had shown little interest in joining Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in working on another coronavirus measure, saying lawmakers should wait to see whether more aid is needed after the Trump administration implements the three response bills already passed by Congress, including an unprecedented $2.3 trillion package signed into law on March 27. "There will be a next measure," McConnell told the AP.

Two years ago, some of the nation's top public health officials gathered in an auditorium at Emory University in Atlanta to commemorate the 1918 influenza pandemic - also known as "the Spanish flu" - which had killed as many as 40 million people as it swept the globe.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Friday that 562 state residents had died in the past 24 hours of Wuhan coronavirus, the highest single-day increase in the state. As of Friday, 2,935 state residents had died of the illness.The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York also saw its highest single-day increase of 10,482, with the state now reporting 102,863 cases in total. Cuomo announced he would sign an executive order allowing the state to appropriate whatever personal protective equipment and medical gear the government needs to combat the outbreak."I'm not going to let people die," Cuomo said at a press conference. "I'm not going to get into a situation where I know we are running out of ventilators and we could have people dying because there are no ventilators, but there are hospitals in other parts of the state that have ventilators that they're not using." The governor called on the federal government to increase aid to the state, and said New York has "no money" because of expenditures on health care.Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York's rural 21st District, expressed concern that Cuomo's executive order could deprive her constituents of necessary medical care."I am very concerned about the Governor's announcement regarding shifting ventilators from Upstate to Downstate. I represent demographically the largest number of seniors of any District in NY," Stefanik wrote on Twitter. "Our rural hospitals are already very limited in resources & we must ensure Upstate's needs for testing supplies & ventilators are met."New York state has reported roughly 40 percent of coronavirus cases in the U.S., with 51,809 cases in New York City alone as of Friday morning, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.

Border closures and strict lockdowns have led to a steep decline in the number of migrants coming from Central AmericaWhen Angelica turned 30, she realized there was no future for her in Honduras.Although she had a college degree, she was still living paycheck to paycheck and was stuck in a neighborhood of the capital Tegucigalpa ruled by violent gangs.So, after years contemplating migration to the US where she has relatives, she finally made arrangements to depart."I didn't want to stay in a neighborhood where there are massacres or where the people lock themselves in their homes at six at night because the gangs impose a curfew," she said. "I realized I was more surviving than living."But by the time she was due to start her journey north, Honduras had closed its borders and declared a state of emergency. She could no longer leave her city - much less take a bus to northern Guatemala, to meet a coyote who would guide her through Mexico."I had thought that only a hurricane could stop me," she said. "But I hadn't thought of a pandemic."Border closures and strict lockdowns prompted by the Covid-19 crisis have disrupted the migrant trail through Central America and Mexico, forcing some would-be migrants to postpone their journeys - and stopping many others in their tracks.The result has been a deterrent more effective than any wall Donald Trump could build.Activists across the region have reported a steep decline in the number of migrants coming from Central America since the restrictions were implemented. One Mexican shelter near the Guatemalan border said it hadn't received a new arrival in a week."The crisis has facilitated Trump's policies because [Central American] migrants can't even leave their countries," said Sister Nyzella Juliana Dondé, coordinator of a Catholic migrant aid organization in Honduras.El Salvador closed its borders on 11 March, and the governments of Guatemala and Honduras quickly followed suit. All three countries in the so-called northern triangle have since announced internal lockdowns of differing strictness.The three nations had recently signed "safe third country agreements" with the US government under which they agreed to increase enforcement on their borders, and receive migrants who had transited their country on the way to the US.Only Guatemala had begun to implement the new measures, but it announced on 17 March that it would suspend the deportations of Hondurans and Salvadorans from the US to its territory.But Guatemala and Honduras continued to receive deportation flights bringing their own citizens from the US - despite concerns that the practice could accelerate the spread of the virus. In the past week, a migrant who was deported from the US to Guatemala was diagnosed with Covid-19 and a group of deportees to Honduras escaped from the shelter where they were to be quarantined. Guatemala has now requested that the US suspend deportation flights.Meanwhile, migrants who were already en route have been left exposed by the closure of shelters and the difficulties facing humanitarian organizations which would normally attend to them."They are in a vulnerable situation because the guidance is to stay at home - but the migrants don't have homes," said Dondé, who mentioned a case of a large group of Haitian and African migrants who were detained after crossing into Guatemala from Honduras amid the lockdown. "Neither Honduras or Guatemala wanted to offer them a place to stay."Migrants who already had arrived to Mexico have been left in limbo by the US government's decision to immediately return all migrants from Mexico and Central America who cross into the country irregularly along the south-west border.When restrictions are eventually eased, a fresh surge in migration seems likely: multiple would-be migrants who spoke with the Guardian said it was only a question of when, not if, they would set out for the US.And the economic impact of the crisis may in turn cause others to migrate.. "Before many people migrated because they lacked work and a dignified life," said Silva de Souza. "Now there will be many more."Migrants who have come from even farther afield, have no choice but to try to push on. Mohamed left Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, in 2018, following the well-trodden migrant path via Ecuador, Colombia and the jungles of Panama. He was burning through his savings and racking up debt, but making steady progress north.But he reached Guatemala just before the government announced a state of emergency which has made moving on impossible."Travel has become very difficult," he said in a brief exchange via Facebook Messenger. But he was still determined to reach the US - even if he now has to move more carefully - traveling at night and avoiding large caravans. "With God's will, I'll get there. I will build a life of opportunity." * Additional reporting by Joe Parkin Daniels

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday gave the green light for soldiers to be deployed in a mostly ultra-Orthodox Jewish city considered the centre of Israel's novel coronavirus outbreak. "In light of the special situation in Bnei Brak following the restrictions due to the coronavirus, the IDF (army) will immediately present the necessary civil assistance to Bnei Brak municipality in fulfilling its responsibilities," Netanyahu's office said after talks with security and health officials. Authorities have enforced restrictions on access to Bnei Brak, a majority ultra-Orthodox city near Tel Aviv that is home to around 200,000 people.

Li Wenliang sounded the alarm about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan on December 30. He died of the virus on February 7.