As US states ramp up restrictions to contain the coronavirus, Texas has joined Ohio in deeming nearly all abortions as non-essential procedures that must be delayed. The order against elective procedures is meant to keep valuable medical resources for those treating Covid-19 only.

In Texas, providers can be fined or jailed for violating the order. Abortion rights groups have criticised the move.

They say abortion should be considered an essential service. It comes as states across the country grapple with shortages of critical medical necessities, including masks, hospital space and ventilators. Medical professionals have pleaded for more supplies as many are falling ill or having to quarantine themselves after exposure.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday issued the clarification of Governor Greg Abbot’s earlier mandate on non-essential medical procedures. A statement from Mr Paxton’s office said “no one is exempt from the governor’s executive order on medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures, including abortion providers”, according to the Texas Tribune. It noted any providers in violation of the order – which expires 21 April – could be fined $1,000 (£853) or jailed for a maximum of 180 days.(BBC)…[+]

The transatlantic slave trade might seem like something from a distant and barbaric era – but a historian has found evidence its last survivor was alive in living memory. Hannah Durkin, at Newcastle University, had previously identified the last surviving slave captured in Africa in the 19th Century and brought to United States as a woman called Redoshi Smith, who died in 1937. But she has now discovered that another former slave, Matilda McCrear, had lived three years later. Matilda died in Selma, Alabama, in January 1940, at the age 83 – and her rebellious life story was the last living link with slaves abducted from Africa.(BBC)…[+]

“Trace, test and treat” has been the mantra of global health bodies in tackling the spread of Covid-19. But innumerable cases around the country show it is a model the United States has failed to recreate.

“I’m still sick, it hasn’t improved. I’m coughing, I’ve been feverish and my left lung hurts. There have been times the wheezing and the gurgling in my chest have been so bad at night that it’s woken me up. There’s no doubt I have all the symptoms.” Claudia Bahorik – who is 69 and lives in Bernville, Pennsylvania – does not say this lightly. As a retired physician herself, she has done her research.

But this is the story of Dr Bahorik’s determined, though so far unsuccessful plight – involving clinics, hospitals and even a senator’s office – to find out if she has the coronavirus. It all started as far back as the last week of February. Dr Bahorik had recently been on a trip to New York with her great niece, and soon after developed a cough and a fever, though it appeared to subside.(BBC)…[+]