Italy cracking under outbreak

Italy’s northern region has set up tents outside hospitals and asked doctors to come out of retirement as the new coronavirus overwhelms its healthcare system. By Thursday, the number of infections in the country rose to 15,113, and more than 1,000 people had died. Bergamo Mayor Giorgio Gori told The New York Times the gap between resources and the large number of patients sometimes “forced doctors to decide not to intubate some very old patients.”

What about other hard-hit countries? The U.S. ban on most foreign travelers from 26 European nations will go into effect at midnight on Friday. It will not affect U.S. citizens or permanent residents returning home. On the brighter side, China’s worst-hit city of Wuhan reported only five new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, the second day the tally has come in at fewer than 10. The rest of the country reported no locally transmitted infections.

Dig deeper: Read Angela Lu Fulton’s report on the response of missionaries to the outbreak in Japan.