Informing, engaging & connecting the people of the world. APRIL 9, 2020

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With much of the country on lockdown and hospitals overwhelmed with those showing coronavirus symptoms, many rural patients who need care are using remote methods to consult with health care professionals.

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, starting a chain of events that would lead to the official end of the Civil War one month later. The war, which started on April 12, 1861, led to the deaths of between 620,000 and 750,000 Americans, more U.S. military deaths than all other wars combined. Grant, after seeing some of his soldiers celebrate, said “The war is over. The Rebels are our countrymen again.”

Negasi Kibrom remembers the day he first felt ill. He had been working in his electrical supply shop in Milan’s Porta Venezia neighborhood when a customer walked in, needing help. Negasi barely noticed the man’s sneezes, but later, when he returned home to his wife and their two teenage daughters, he started sneezing.

VIDEO: You’re about to meet the virtual Corona Community Chorus, a group based in New York City. Each Sunday, the chorus members gather online to unite voices forced into isolation in the global effort to curb the coronavirus outbreak. VOA reports on its founder.

VIDEO: American ballet dancer Julie Kent was a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre from 1993 to 2015. Her farewell role was as Juliet, and in 2016 Kent was named the artistic director of The Washington Ballet. VOA spoke with Kent about what it takes to be a ballerina.

VIDEO: South Sudan on Sunday announced its first confirmed coronavirus infection, a United Nations staff member, making it one of the last African countries to confirm the virus. But years of civil war have left the world’s youngest nation with a fragile healthcare system, raising fears that the virus, if left unchecked, could quickly spread.