US Senate OKs aid deal; Germany takes Italian patients

The US Senate approved a historic, $2.2 trillion stimulus package on Wednesday as the country grappled with the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The move came as US President Donald Trump called on Americans to dedicate themselves to social distancing for 15 days, including staying home from work and closing bars and restaurants, to help stall the spread of the disease.

The House was expected to vote on the package on Friday.

The package aims to steer aid to businesses, workers and healthcare systems, as the outbreak in the United States has infected nearly 70,000 people and the total number of deaths topped 1,050 on Wednesday.

The measure, which is the largest economic relief bill in US history, includes direct payments to individuals, stronger unemployment insurance, loans and grants to businesses, and more healthcare resources for hospitals, states and municipalities.

Germany, meanwhile, which has reported 31,554 confirmed cases and 149 deaths, has extended help to Italy and France by taking in some of their COVID-19 patients. The German government is also offering hospitals huge state subsidies to accelerate plans to double their capacity, which is now around 28,000 beds.

Six Italian patients arrived at Leipzig airport in Saxony on Tuesday, and the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia announced plans to take 10 Italian patients during the coming days, Reuters reported.

"We need solidarity across borders in Europe," said Armin Laschet, the state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia. "We want to preserve the European spirit."

Germany has been more rigorous than some other European Union countries in testing for the virus, which is one possible factor behind the country's exceptionally low mortality rate, according to Reuters.

As of Thursday, there were 416,686 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections and 18,589 deaths in 195 countries and regions, according to the World Health Organization.

On Thursday, Reuters also reported that US Defense Secretary Mark Esper had issued a stop-movement order to the US military. The order halts travel and movement abroad for up to 60 days in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus within the military's ranks.

Esper told Reuters that the order applied to all US troops, civilian personnel and families, adding that there would be some exceptions.

"The purpose is to make sure that we're not bringing the virus back home, infecting others, that we're not spreading it around the military," Esper said.

The Pentagon chief said an exception to the order would be the drawdown underway in Afghanistan, which will continue.

The stop-movement order illustrates the Pentagon's increasing concern about the rapid spread of the virus, which has already infected 227 US military personnel, according to Reuters.

With capacity stretched thin, US hospitals are rushing to find beds for a coming flood of patients, opening older closed hospitals, turning single rooms into doubles and repurposing other medical buildings, the Associated Press reported.

In Italy, Angelo Borrelli, the head of the nation's Civil Protection Agency, warned that the real number of COVID-19 cases in the country could be 10 times higher than the official tally.

"A ratio of one certified case out of every 10 is credible," said Borrelli, suggesting the real number of cases is around 400,000.

France has reported 1,331 deaths, but there were fears the toll could be far higher, the BBC reported.

French health authorities are only counting those who die in hospitals and are not performing postmortems on unconfirmed cases. France's top health official, Jerome Salomon, said hospital cases "probably represent a small part of overall mortality", according to the BBC.

Russia will stop all overseas flights from the country starting on Friday. The ban will not apply to repatriation flights or flights carried out by "separate orders of the Russian government", according to the BBC, which quoted Interfax news agency.

Russia had 840 confirmed cases as of Thursday, when 182 new cases were recorded, AP said.

Cai Hong in Beijing contributed to this story.