A New York City nursing home on Friday reported the deaths of 98 residents believed to have had the coronavirus — a staggering death toll that shocked public officials. “It’s absolutely horrifying,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “It’s inestimable loss, and it’s just impossible to imagine so many people lost in one place.” It is hard to say whether the spate of deaths at the Isabella Geriatric Center, in Manhattan, is the worst nursing home outbreak yet in the U.S., because even within the city facilities have chosen to report fatalities in different ways. A state tally of nursing home deaths released Friday listed only 13 at the home.

Air travel to Israel has come to a near standstill due to coronavirus restrictions, but one type of voyage still endures: the final journey of Jews wishing to be buried in Israel. For centuries, Jews have sought to be interred in the Holy Land, going to great lengths to secure their final resting place in the land of their biblical forefathers. Today, not even a once-in-a-century pandemic is halting this ancient last wish. “The Land of Israel is a very special place for Jewish people to be buried,” said Rabbi Michoel Fletcher, who facilitates purchases of burial plots in Israel for Jews from abroad. “The flights have been reduced heavily, but there are cargo flights.

A man who had been arrested on a charge of driving while impaired by drugs after a car crash later died while in custody in a holding cell, police said Friday. The New York Police Department said officers responding to a 911 call about a car crash on Thursday afternoon found the man in the driver’s seat at a Queens intersection. The man, identified as Nicholas Cammarata, 58, of Queens, was unconscious and taken the hospital, and placed under arrest shortly after. Police said he was released from the hospital and taken to a precinct for processing around 7 p.m. Thursday. About two hours later, officers found him unconscious and unresponsive in a cell and attempted to revive him without success, as did EMS, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. An investigation is ongoing.

Weighing the risks, the Senate will reopen on Monday as the coronavirus crisis rages and the House stays shuttered, an approach that leaves Congress as divided as the nation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to convene 100 senators at the Capitol during a pandemic gives President Donald Trump the imagery he wants of America getting back to work, despite health worries and a lack of testing. Yet, the Washington region remains under stay-at-home orders as a virus hot spot. Gathering senators for the first time since March risks lawmakers as well the cooks, cleaners, police officers and other workers who keep the lights on at the Capitol complex.

The stated mission of The Greater New York Hospital Association is simple enough: to help members deliver “the finest patient care in the most cost-effective way.” But it’s more complicated than that. While the association, which represents health care providers at the epicenter of the pandemic, is a nonprofit organization, it has the balance sheet of a robust private company, pays executive salaries that top $3 million and spent millions more to lobby in Washington for some of the nation’s most profitable hospitals. So when it came time to secure its share of the record $3.6 trillion in federal stimulus money, the association was well positioned.

Hundreds of lawsuits stemming from COVID-19 are rapidly amassing in state and federal courts. Claims have been filed against hospitals and senior-living facilities, airlines and cruise lines, fitness chains and the entertainment industry – 771 as of Friday, according to a database compiled by an international law firm tracking cases that emerge from the pandemic. The volume and variety make painfully clear that, throughout the United States, the virus has caused widespread devastation and hardship, and that the full scope of its economic toll remains to be seen. In New York, which remains the global pandemic’s epicenter, more than 250 lawsuits have been filed – the most of anywhere in the nation by far.

A new mark on North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s wrist could suggest that he has had heart surgery, according to medical experts. Kim made his first public appearance on Friday after a lengthy absence of nearly three weeks from the public eye. North Korean state-run media agency Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released pictures and video of Kim attending the opening of the Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer factory near Pyongyang. Closer examination of the video footage has revealed what appears to be a needle mark on Kim’s right wrist, a mark that medical experts say could indicate that Kim had a “cardiovascular procedure.” The mark was not present during Kim’s previous public outing on April 11, according to the independent NK News.

New York’s schools and colleges will remain shut through the end of the academic year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday. The order, which applies to 4.2 million students statewide, continues a shutdown order that was set to expire May 15. Cuomo said it is simply too risky to reopen at a time when the virus is still sending nearly 1,000 people into the hospital every day. “We must protect our children. Every parent and citizen feels that,” he said. A decision about whether to allow summer school will be deferred until the end of May, he said. Whenever schools are allowed to reopen, each district would need to have its plan to do so approved by the state.

The Senate is set to convene Monday but the health risks from the coronavirus are being laid bare as the Capitol physician says there is no way to quickly test the 100 senators and staff. It’s a high-profile snapshot of the national testing shortfall as the Trump administration strives to resume business as usual to kick-start the economy. “The sooner we can have testing, the safer we’ll be,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Democrats have called on President Donald Trump to implement a national testing strategy, utilizing the wartime Defense Production Act to ensure a steady medical supply swabs, lab supplies and other testing materials as states consider easing off stay-home restrictions.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that Canada is banning the use and trade of assault-style weapons immediately. Trudeau cited numerous mass shootings in the country, including the killing of 22 people in Nova Scotia April 18 and 19. He announced the ban of over 1,500 models and variants of assault-style firearms, including two weapons used by the gunman as well as the AR-15 and other weapons that have been used in a number of mass shootings in the United States “Canadians need more than thoughts and prayers,” Trudeau said. The Cabinet order doesn’t forbid owning any of the military-style weapons and their variants but it does ban the use and trade in them.