Welcome to NCR’s Coronavirus Tracker, where you can find the latest news about the coronavirus pandemic as it relates to the Catholic Church and other institutions. We hope you find it useful in navigating these complex times and welcome your suggestions for how we might improve it. We’re currently updating the Tracker twice a day, early in the morning and late in the afternoon. To receive the Coronavirus Tracker by email each weekday afternoon, sign up here.
NCR, April 1
The coronavirus pandemic is fundamentally changing how we do and be church.
Over the past week, NCR surveyed two dozen theologians, social directors, non-profit leaders and pastors, asking them each to consider how our response to the pandemic may affect us in years to come. Part one: questions of community.
Michael Sean Winters (NCR), April 1
I hope that some brilliant researcher will find a cure for the coronavirus. Today, let’s try slaying some of the ideological stupidities the crisis has brought into focus.
Daniel P. Horan (NCR), April 1
Disregard for the necessary quarantine protocols and social distancing practices required to provide some basic measures to help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus and prevent healthcare systems from being irreparably overwhelmed is, frankly, abhorrent.
Eduardo Campos Lima (NCR), April 1
Several processions and festivities in honor of Catholic saints in Brazil had to be cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, an unprecedented interruption of centuries-old traditions that impacted thousands of participants. Most communities, however, understood this is not the time for great agglomerations and are waiting for a better moment to resume their activities.
Tom Reese (RNS), March 31
After 14 days in quarantine, my Jesuit community in Washington, D.C., has been officially released from quarantine. We’re happy and lucky that none of us caught COVID-19 from our brother who contracted it.
Then again, it’s hard to take too much joy in being released before infections have even peaked in the United States. It feels like being released from jail into a war zone.
America, March 31
Until about a week ago, Margarita Aguila worked full time as a seamstress. Her husband, who works as a delivery driver for a number of businesses, including hospitals and schools, saw his hours cut drastically from more than 40 hours a week to as few as 12. When California implemented stay-at-home measures, the family lost their livelihoods completely.
America, March 31
The health care structures in northern Italy, especially Lombardy, “were in great difficulty right from the beginning,” Dr. Renata Ghelardi told America from the Vizzolo Predabissi Hospital, where she works.
Commonweal, March 31
Governments around the world are comparing the fight against the pandemic to war, and whether or not you agree with the metaphor, Pope Francis and the Vatican do face a “warlike” situation. Italy is in lockdown, the rites of Holy Week and the Easter liturgy will be celebrated without people present, and a papal trip to Malta planned for May has been postponed indefinitely.
The Washington Post, March 30
The national efforts to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus have played a dramatic role in changing people’s work, school and public gatherings over the past several weeks. And in response, a majority of Americans have prayed for the end of the pandemic, according to a poll from the Pew Research Center.
The Washington Post, March 31
President Trump and the physicians advising the federal pandemic response on Tuesday delivered a bleak outlook for the novel coronavirus’s spread across the country, predicting a best-case scenario of 100,000 to 240,000 fatalities in the United States and summoning all Americans to make additional sacrifices to slow the spread.
San Francisco Chronicle, March 31
The captain of a nuclear aircraft carrier with more than 100 sailors infected with the coronavirus pleaded Monday with U.S. Navy officials for resources to allow isolation of his entire crew and avoid possible deaths in a situation he described as quickly deteriorating.
The New York Times, March 31
The mayor of Holyoke in Massachusetts confronted the superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home after hearing rumors that infections were spreading.
NPR, March 31
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr sold off a large amount of stocks before the coronavirus market crash, and now the Justice Department is looking into his statements around this time period, NPR can report.
The Guardian, April 1
A few days into Italy’s lockdown, people across the country sang and played music from their balconies as they came together to say “Everything will be alright” (Andrà tutto bene). Three weeks on, the singing has stopped and social unrest is mounting as a significant part of the population, especially in the poorer south, realise that everything is not all right.
SlashGear, March 31
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a coronavirus testing kit from Bodysphere, one that can detect antibodies related to the virus in only two minutes. The test will be deployed in states around the country, enabling healthcare facilities to test for signs that the patient had contracted the virus at some point. The testing kit is only intended for use by medical professionals, however.