US coronavirus deaths surge past 2,000
Washington: Deaths from the new coronavirus in the United States surged past 2,000 on Saturday, doubling in just three days, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The number of deaths late Saturday was 2,010, about a quarter of them in New York City, the country's hardest-hit region, Johns Hopkins reported.
Confirmed cases in the United States topped 121,000, according to the tally.
The surge came as President Donald Trump said he was considering a quarantine on the greater New York area to slow the disease's move from the US epicentre.
New York has reported more than 52,000 cases, and 517 of the US deaths were in New York City.
"There's a possibility that sometime today we'll do a quarantine -- short-term, two weeks -- on New York, probably New Jersey, certain parts of Connecticut," Trump said, adding that it was important to protect Florida, a favourite winter destination for people in the northeast.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo objected to the idea, which he said Trump had not discussed with him.
"If you said we're geographically confining people, that would be a lockdown. Then we would be Wuhan, China, and that wouldn't make sense," Cuomo told CNN, referring to the city in central China where the virus outbreak began, which was almost totally isolated by Beijing.
Cuomo said he did not believe such an act would be legal, and added: "Why you would want to just create total pandemonium on top of a pandemic, I have no idea."
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Etihad Airways resumes operations with eight passenger flights from Abu Dhabi; two bound for India
Abu Dhabi: Days after air operations were disrupted due to airspace closure, Etihad Airways reportedly resumed limited operations on Monday, with eight passenger flights taking off from Abu Dhabi International Airport at 2:00 pm (GMT 11:00), according to global flight tracking service Flightradar24.
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Flight tracking data showed that a total of eight passenger services departed from Abu Dhabi after 2:00 pm local time. Of these, one flight was bound for Delhi and another for Mumbai. The remaining flights were reported to have resumed operations to their respective destinations.
Air traffic in the region had been disrupted following rising tensions in the Middle East after a joint US-Israeli attack on Iran.
8 passenger flights have been able to take off from Abu Dhabi since 14:00 local time. pic.twitter.com/4eYs3ReJaJ
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 2, 2026
