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One medical worker called it “insane,” another said it induces paranoia - the speed with which patients are declining and dying from the novel coronavirus is shocking even veteran doctors and nurses as they scramble to determine how to stop such sudden deterioration. Patients “look fine, feel fine, then you turn around and they’re unresponsive,” said Diana Torres, a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, where the virus has infected more than 415,000 people. “I’m paranoid, scared to walk out of their room.” (Brown and Beasley, 4/8)

The call came on March 24. Bob McGuire, the executive director of CP Nassau, a nonprofit group that cares for the developmentally disabled, received a report from a four-story, colonnaded building in Bayville, N.Y., that houses several dozen residents with severe disabilities ranging from cerebral palsy to autism. For many of them, discussions of social distancing or hand washing are moot. “Bob, we’re starting to see symptoms,” Mr. McGuire was told. Fevers were spreading. Within 24 hours, 10 residents were taken to the hospital. Now, little more than two weeks later, 37 of the home’s 46 residents have tested positive for the coronavirus. (Hakim, /48)

Any time people are stuck at home for blizzards, shutdowns and blackouts, the speculation seems to start: Will there be a baby boom in nine months? This time, with quarantine orders keeping millions of people inside to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the answer is clear, demographers say. Don’t expect a lot of newborns in the next year. That may disappoint those who are worried about the United States’ birthrate, which has steadily declined since the Great Recession and put the country close to an overall population decline. (Yuhas, 4/8)

New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that travelers brought in the virus mainly from Europe, not Asia. “The majority is clearly European,” said Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-wrote a study awaiting peer review. A separate team at N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine came to strikingly similar conclusions, despite studying a different group of cases. Both teams analyzed genomes from coronaviruses taken from New Yorkers starting in mid-March. (Zimmer, 4/8)

A Mount Sinai study shows the first cases of coronavirus in New York City most likely originated in Europe and other parts of the United States, the health system said. With more than 80,000 cases and 4,260 coronavirus deaths, according to the city's website, New York is one of the major epicenters for the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. (Holcombe, 4/9)

Police Superintendent Ævar Pálmi Pálmason usually tracks mobsters. Since late February, he has been on the trail of people who may be infected with the new coronavirus. Mr. Pálmason, who serves the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police force, heads a team of so-called contact tracers in Iceland, deployed to try to keep anyone potentially infected from spreading the virus. Contact tracers use traditional detective methods—from online sleuthing to pounding the streets and knocking on doors—to sniff out anyone who could have been infected and send them into quarantine at home. (Marson, 4/9)

As much of the nation has been asked to stay at home to help stop the devastating spread of the novel coronavirus, a former astronaut and his team of researchers released self-help tools for how to battle emotional stress and stay sane while in confinement. "Outer space and your own living room might be drastically different physically, but emotionally the stressors can be the same," Dr. Jay Buckey, a professor at Dartmouth College's Geisel School of Medicine, said in a statement. "There is no reason why people who suddenly find themselves stuck at home for long periods of time -- alone or with others -- shouldn’t find this research to be helpful." (Thorbecke, 4/9)

Kaiser Health News: What Does Recovery From COVID-19 Look Like? It Depends. A Pulmonologist Explains.

Reports of recovery from serious illness caused by the coronavirus have been trickling in from around the world. Physicians are swapping anecdotes on social media: a 38-year-old man who went home after three weeks at the Cleveland Clinic, including 10 days in intensive care. A 93-year-old woman in New Orleans whose breathing tube was removed, successfully, after three days. A patient at Massachusetts General Hospital who was taken off a ventilator after five days and was doing well. (Graham, 4/9)

Almost overnight, masks in a variety of colors, styles and materials have appeared on the faces of people around us. While it’s good news that many people are doing their part to slow the spread of coronavirus, the bad news is that many people are wearing their masks wrong. “Wearing a mask takes some getting used to, for sure,” said Dr. Scott Segal, chairman of anesthesiology at Wake Forest Baptist Health. “You are probably wearing it exactly right if it’s a little stuffy.” (Parker-Pope, 4/8)

Achoo! At the same time a deadly disease is terrorizing the world, allergy season is beginning or already in full swing across many parts of the UK, Europe and the United States. Experts say allergies may impact your respiratory system and make it more fragile, thus possibly making it easier to catch the novel coronavirus, or worsening any Covid-19 symptoms once you did. (LaMotte, 4/9)

Domestic violence is believed to be on the rise as shelter-in-place orders are keeping nearly everyone home to combat the spread of COVID-19, according to Bay Area law enforcement and advocates for survivors and victims. Feeling stressed and frustrated is to be expected during the pandemic, and prolonged proximity to partners or children at home all day can additionally fray nerves. (Cabanatuan, 4/8)

Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, residents of hard-hit New York City have been talking about ambulance sirens and how the wailing never seems to stop. They're not imagining things — but the reality is even grimmer than some may have guessed. A huge number of those ambulances are responding to fatal or near-fatal heart attacks suffered by New Yorkers whose true health issue may be COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus. (Winter, 4/8)

What’s safe and what isn’t these days? With coronavirus, it’s hard to know. But an expert on viruses has some insights. We posed a selection of burning questions from our readers to Paula Cannon, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Keck School of Medicine at USC. (Roy and Potts, 4/8)

Three weeks ago, a spring breaker in Miami became a symbol of Gen Z denialism when he spoke to CBS News and said that coronavirus wasn’t going to get in the way of his partying. Outrage was swift, but one person who felt a touch of recognition was Peter Staley, one of the country’s most respected AIDS activists. Mr. Staley, 59, remembers what it was to be young and dumb. (Bernstein, 4/8)

During these trying times, exercise could provide indispensable mental-health support for many of us, according to a timely new study. The study finds that among a generally healthy but sedentary group of adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s, working out lowers levels of depression, hostility and other negative feelings. The study also finds that the mood benefits of exercise can linger for weeks after people stop working out, offering another compelling reason for us to try to move, whenever and wherever we still can, during this coronavirus crisis. (Reynolds, 4/8)

As the war against COVID-19 brings entire countries to a screeching halt, the planet is beginning to see a glimpse into a world without the damaging effects of daily human impact. And that glimpse is startling. With fewer planes in the sky, cars on the roads and foot traffic across our cities, air quality is improving dramatically around the world -- in some places by as much as half in just the first week of lockdown. It's a visual reminder of the toll humans take on this planet. (Rulli and Griswold, 4/8)

The surreal experience of giving birth during the coronavirus crisis is one that has already been shared by more than 700 mothers in Rhode Island, and something thousands more will undoubtedly face in the coming months. (McGowan, 4/9)

In order to protect themselves and their communities from the novel coronavirus outbreak, Americans across the country are staying home. But what happens to those who don’t have one? (Sy, Jackson and Kuhn, 4/8)

Cats can become infected with the new coronavirus but dogs appear not to be vulnerable, according to a study published on Wednesday, prompting the WHO to say it will take a closer look at transmission of the virus between humans and pets. (Joseph, 4/8)

After competing in a few triathlons, Erika Hall started running regularly 10 years ago, even going so far as trekking trails in a couple of marathons. "Running keeps me sane," Hall told NBC News. "If I have to write something or if I'm worried about something, I go for a run and it automatically boosts my mental health and helps me think more clearly." Yet as news of the coronavirus outbreak worsened and more stringent measures were undertaken to ensure social distancing took hold in areas around the United States, including in her home city of San Francisco, Hall stopped running altogether out of concern that she wouldn’t be able to remain adequately distant from fellow joggers and pedestrians. (Aviles, 4/8)