World News

The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.

TOP OF THE HOUR:

— Spain’s deadliest day has over 800 deaths, over 8,000 news cases.

— Trump OKs major disaster declaration to Michigan.

— PM Trudeau: No Canadians with symptoms can board planes, trains.

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ACCRA – President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo issued a lockdown of Accra and Kumasi metropolitan areas where over 90% of Ghana’s COVID-19 cases reside. Exemptions were given to workers in a selected number of essential industries

ABUJA – The Federal Government gave its blessing to a private initiative by Africa’s richest man.  Aliko Dangote and a top Nigerian entrepreneur have launched a coalition of private sector organizations to support the country’s efforts aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus, local media reported.

In a joint statement Wednesday, Dangote, who heads Dangote Industries Limited, and Wigwe, who is the managing director of the Access Bank Group, announced launching the of the Coalition Against Coronavirus (COCAVID).

PRETORIA – On 23 March 2020, the South African President, H.E. Cyril Ramaphosa, announced a three week lockdown in response to COVID-19. The President also confirmed that the military will be deployed in order to support the police in enforcing the nationwide lockdown.

On the day of the speech, South Africa’s Department of Health had stated that more than 400 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in the country, which is the highest number in Africa so far.

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says anyone showing symptoms of COVID-19 will not be allowed to board domestic flights or intercity trains.

Trudeau says the new requirement will begin Monday at noon. Canadians returning to the country already can’t board planes if they are showing symptoms.

Trudeau says it will up to the train and plane operators to ensure people with symptoms don’t board. He says all those showing symptoms should be in self-isolation.

Trudeau made the announcement outside this residence where he is self-isolating after his wife tested positive for the virus. Canada has more than 4,700 cases and more than 50 deaths.

KINSHASHA – In Lubumbashi, for example, a false alert about two potentially infected individuals who had flown in from Kinshasa led Governor Jacques Kyabula to declare a complete 48-hour lockdown on March 23 until all the plane’s passengers could be found and isolated. But large amounts of people could still be seen milling around in the streets, several neighborhood markets remained open, and the moto-taxis were doing their regular business.

In Kinshasa, too, the government has ordered bars, restaurants, schools, and universities closed, and has banned group gatherings. But many markets remain open and many people, seeking to eke out a living in a country with a 70 percent poverty rate, are out and about. With a population of more than ten million inhabitants and with communes of extreme population density, the very notion of avoiding gatherings is an empirical puzzle.

MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has ordered the country’s borders be fully closed as of Monday.

The order issued Saturday follows increasingly stringent restrictions imposed over the past several weeks to limit the spread of coronavirus.

International passenger flights were halted on Friday. The order exempts diplomats as well as residents of the Kaliningrad exclave, who must cross through another country to enter the rest of Russia.

BANJUL – The Gambia on Friday began a nation-wide hunt for 14 people who escaped from a hotel in the capital where they had been quarantined upon arrival from the United Kingdom.

Authorities insisted that they are on their trail armed with their personal information and closing in on them

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has approved a major disaster declaration for Michigan, providing additional money to help the state address the COVID-19 pandemic.

The declaration announced by the White House on Saturday follows a back-and-forth between Trump and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has criticized the Trump administration for its slow response to the pandemic, saying “we cannot weather this alone.”

The U.S. surgeon general said Friday that Detroit, a national “hot spot” for cases of the new coronavirus, will worsen next week. More than 3,600 people in Michigan were confirmed to have COVID-19 Friday. At least 92 have died, most from the three counties in the Detroit area, according to state officials.

Detroit has recorded 28 deaths and 1,166 cases, according to the city’s health department.

MOSCOW — Passenger traffic on Moscow’s subway system, the second-busiest in the world, was down by about half on the first day of a widespread closure of business aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus.

According to the Interfax news agency, the city’s transportation department says the number of people using the subway was 2.2 times lower than the same day in 2019. Bus use was similarly down. Moscow’s subway system records an average 6.6 million rides a day. Moscow has ordered non-essential businesses closed through April 5

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Authorities in Indonesia’s capital have extended a state of emergency for the next two weeks.

Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan says the decision was made because the COVID-19 death toll increased to 62 in the last week, along with 603 positive tests in Jakarta.

Baswedan says the current two-week long state of emergency in the capital will be extended to April 19. It would also lengthen the closure of tourism spots, entertainment venues, schools and offices.

He urged all corporations to remain closed and for their employees to work from home, and social organizations and religious groups to help prevent the spread of the disease.

He said at least 61 health workers exposed to coronavirus while helping patients in 26 hospitals in Jakarta.

Indonesia has reported 102 deaths and 1,155 infections.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan health authorities announced the country’s first death due to the Coronavirus.

A 60-year old male died at the Infectious Disease Hospital neat the capital Colombo Saturday, the health ministry announced. The deceased was suffering from diabetic, hypertension and had previously undergone a kidney transplant. The number of confirmed cases in Sri Lanka has increased to 110. This item corrects age of victim to 60, not 65.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says it’s made no decisions yet about calling up reservists following President Donald Trump’s order authorizing the call-up of an unspecified number to help with the coronavirus response.

The Pentagon’s chief spokesman says the Defense Department anticipates tapping people mainly for administrative duties and “high-demand medical capabilities whose call-up would not adversely affect their civilian communities.”

Spokesman Jonathan Hoffman says before calling up any members of the National Guard, the department would consult with state officials. Hoffman says its “a dynamic situation” and the Pentagon currently doesn’t have “a projected number of expected activations.”

Trump said in a letter to Congress on Friday that he had authorized Defense Secretary Mark Esper to order units and individual members of the Selected Reserve, as well as certain Individual Ready Reserve members, to active duty.

The reserve call-up likely will assist the military as it deploys field hospitals to cities hard hit by COVID-19 and provide medical support to state and local authorities.

LONDON— The editor of the respected British medical journal, The Lancet, has accused the government of doing too little, too late, to address the COVID-19 crisis.

Richard Horton wrote that despite numerous warnings, national programs failed. He added basic principles, such as following World Health Organization testing advice, weren’t followed.

Keith Willett, the National Health Service Strategic Incident Director for Covid-19, disputed the editorial’s conclusions.

He says the NHS has freed up 33,000 beds for virus patients — a third of all hospital capacity — and enabled 18,000 nurses and doctors to return to practice. Three new makeshift hospitals are being built.

WASHINGTON — The civil rights office at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is issuing a reminder that discrimination during COVID-19 care is prohibited.

Civil Rights office director Roger Severino says Health Human Services is committed to leaving no one behind during the crisis. Discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age, sex and religion is prohibited.

Officials say they’re particularly focused on making sure medical professionals don’t discriminate against people with disabilities.

TIRANA, Albania — Albania will send doctors and nurses to nearby Italy, lending a hand to the country at the epicenter of the COVID-19 in Europe.

The government decision published at the Official Gazette on Saturday sets aside a budget reserve for doctors and nurses, who will be paid per month.

The Dita newspaper says 30 doctors and nurses will serve in Bergamo, Italy, which is hard hit by the virus.

Albania has reported 197 cases of the coronavirus, with 10 deaths.

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the country is at a critical stage in dealing with coronavirus infections but not at a point to declare a state of emergency.

Abe says Japan has managed to keep clusters under control by carefully following infection routes. But the initial strategy is now having a difficulty, with a rise of infections that are no longer traceable — an early sign of infection explosion.

He says once there is infection overshoot, “our strategy of slowing down the peak of the infections will instantly fall apart.” He adds “under the current situation, we are just barely holding up. But I understand we are standing on the edge.”

Abe convened a taskforce Thursday, the day after Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike made a stay-at-home request to its 14 million residents after seeing a spike in the number of new cases of the COVID-19 to 41.

Japan has 2,180 confirmed cases, including 712 from a cruise ship, with 59 deaths, according to the health ministry.

PARIS — French police are uncovering an underground business in protective face masks, locating more than 23,000 masks stuffed in a small truck in a chic neighborhood of western Paris.

Stocks of masks have turned up in other surprising places. The masks, in short supply in France and other countries, are needed by health workers amid the coronavirus pandemic. The French government requisitioned all masks in early March.

Police found 20,000 illegally held masks in a tourist agency in southern Paris and 15,000 masks in a natural foods shop in an eastern neighborhood of the French capital, the newspaper Le Monde reported on Saturday.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — German and French government-chartered flights picked up hundreds of passengers stranded in the Himalayan nation since the country imposed a complete lockdown.

Two Qatar Airways jets flew 303 Germans and 305 French nationals out of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport. On Friday, another flight had rescued 305 German tourists.

Nepal’s government has halted all flights and ground transportation, shutting down offices and shuttering businesses to control the spread of the coronavirus.

Nepal has five confirmed cases, including one person who has recovered. Nepal’s health ministry spokesman Bikash Devkota says the latest case confirmed is a Nepali woman who had traveled back from Belgium.

BERLIN — The German military is flying six COVID-19 patients from Italy’s worst-hit region to western Germany for treatment.

A German air force plane landed in Bergamo in northern Italy early Saturday. It was due to return to Cologne after taking the Italian patients, who will be treated at various hospitals in the region.

Several German state governments have offered to take in patients from Italy. Some have already arrived. Germany also has taken in some patients from hard-hit eastern France.

Germany has a large number of coronavirus cases but a relatively low death rate compared with Italy’s. Its health system hasn’t been overwhelmed by severe cases so far.

MADRID — Spain had its deadliest day yet during the coronavirus crisis with 832 deaths reported on Saturday for a total of 5,690 fatalities. Infections have increased by over 8,000 in 24 hours to reach a national total of 72,248.

Spain is approaching two weeks of its stay-at-home restrictions and store closings, but its infections and deaths keep rising. On Friday, Spain reported a total of 64,059 cases and 4,858 deaths.

The medical system is pushed to the limits in the hot spots in Madrid and northeast Catalonia. Doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers are falling ill at an alarming rate and working non-stop.

Pablo Rojo, an ambulance medic at Barcelona’s Dos de Maig hospital, says: “They’re not 80 years old anymore, they are now 30 and 40 years old.”

HELSINKI — Finnish police and assisting military forces and border guard officials are enforce a blockade of a key southern region that includes the Nordic nation’s capital, Helsinki.

The exceptional order by Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government to block the movement of citizens into and out of the Uusimaa entered into force on Saturday.

The region is home to some 1.7 million people including Helsinki’s 650,000 residents.

Police have set up road blocks to main entry and exit points in Uusimaa and are checking each arriving or departing vehicle for a legitimate reason for movement. Finnish conscript soldiers are patrolling on local trains for possible regulation dodgers.

TIRANA, Albania — The Albanian government says people will have to apply for a permit to go out for necessities following stricter measures to contain the virus outbreak.

Prime Minister Edi Rama says people can apply online via e-albania.al or with a text message. Only one person per family may go out.

The only shops open are those selling food, medicine and other basic items and people may only go out between 5 a.m. and 1 p.m. from Monday to Saturday.

No movement or business activity will be allowed from Saturday at 1 p.m. to Monday at 5 a.m., with police and military forces patrolling the streets.

Albania has reported 186 cases of the new coronavirus with 10 deaths.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Scores of tourists on the foothills of Mount Everest have been flown to safety days after being stranded on the only airstrip serving the world’s highest mountain.

Dhurba Shrestha, an official at the Tenzing Hillary Airport in Lukla, says that 174 foreign tourists and four Nepali nationals left the mountain by air on Saturday in 12 small planes and two helicopters.

The airport at Lukla, located at an altitude of 2,800 meters (9,184 feet), is the only airport in the Mount Everest region.

Foreign embassies and local travel agents have been urging Nepal’s government to allow these rescue flights to the Everest region since the country imposed a lockdown last week.

Nepal’s government has halted all flights and ground transportation, shutting down offices and shuttering businesses to control the spread of the coronavirus. Nepal has four confirmed cases including one person who has recovered.

ISLAMABAD — The foreign ministry says China is sending a plane containing medical personnel and supplies to aid Pakistan in the fight to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Pakistan is a key link in China’s ambitious multi-billion dollar, one-road project linking South and Central Asia to China.

China is also a key military supplier for Pakistan, having supplied the country with missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

Pakistan currently has 1,321 confirmed cases, 10 deaths and 23 patients who have recovered. Most of the infected people returned from Iran where the confirmed cases are more than 30,000 with more than 2,300 deaths.

BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff says Germany won’t loosen its restrictions on public life before April 20.

German authorities closed non-essential shops and banned gatherings of more than two people in public at the beginning of the week. Schools, bars, restaurants and clubs are also closed.

Merkel’s chief of staff, Helge Braun, told Saturday’s edition of the daily Tagesspiegel that “we are not going to talk about any easing before April 20 – until then, all measures will remain in place.” He says officials will say “in a timely manner before then” what will happen after that date.

Braun says “the older and the sick will have to reduce their contacts for significantly longer.”

Germany has recorded more than 50,000 cases of the new coronavirus, according to a tally by John Hopkins University, with 351 deaths – a lower death rate than many other countries.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will send off a naval hospital ship Saturday before it heads to New York City, as he aims to highlight the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The USNS Comfort, a 1,000-bed hospital ship, had been undergoing planned maintenance, but was rushed back into service to aid the city which is now the epicenter of the nation’s outbreak. It is scheduled to arrive Monday at a Manhattan pier a week after its sister ship, the USNS Mercy arrived in Los Angeles to preform similar duty on the West Coast.

The president acknowledged that making the 140-mile trip to Naval Station Norfolk wasn’t necessary, but said he was doing it to recognize the work of sailors and medical professionals who worked to get the ship out of maintenance more than a week ahead of schedule.

“I think it’s a good thing when I go over there and I say ‘thank you,’” Trump told reporters Friday. He added he wanted to make the trip to show “spirit for the country.”

Trump, 73, is in a high-risk category because of his age, and federal guidance for weeks has advised those in that pool to refrain from non-essential travel of all sorts. He has already tested negative once after close contact with officials who came down with the virus.

“It doesn’t mean I’m going to be hugging people and it doesn’t mean that I’m going to be shaking people’s hands and everything,” Trump said. “But I think it sends a signal when the president is able to go there and say thank you. So, you know, we’ll be careful.”

It marks Trump’s first trip outside Washington since March 9 and only his second outside the gates of the White House since a March 19 trip to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

It comes a day after the president took a round of steps to expand the federal government’s role in helping produce critically needed supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic even as he warned the leaders of hard-hit states not to cross him.

“I want them to be appreciative,” Trump said Friday after the White House announced that he would be using the powers granted to him under the Korean War-era Defense Production Act to try to compel auto giant General Motors to produce ventilators.

Yet Trump — who hours earlier had suggested the need for the devices was being overblown — rejected any criticism of the federal government’s response to a ballooning public health crisis that a month ago he predicted would be over by now.

“We have done a hell of a job,” Trump said, as he sent an ominous message to state and local leaders who have been urging the federal government to do more to help them save lives.

Trump said he had instructed Vice President Mike Pence not to call the governors of Washington or Michigan — two coronavirus hotspots — because of their public criticism. “If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call,” Trump said.

The nearly 900-foot-long USNS Comfort, which was once an oil tanker, is a floating trauma hospital designed to care for service members who’ve been in combat.

But on this mission, it will essentially serve as a community hospital.

“What we’re bringing to the people of New York is a hospital ship with a maximum capacity of 1,000,” said Capt. Patrick Amersbach, the commanding officer of the medical treatment facility aboard the Comfort.

The ship has 12 operating rooms as well as radiology suites and a CT scanner. It also has ICU beds, a lab and a pharmacy.

The 1,100 or so medical staff on board are mostly active duty service members from the U.S. Navy, and some reservists, who serve on the East Coast.

“I really want to thank the families – those who are staying behind,” Amersbach said. “Because this is a national crisis. And their loved ones are leaving to go north to help those in New York. I really appreciate what they’re doing and the sacrifices they are making.”

The arrival of the oblong ship, with its white hull and red crosses, is often a signal of the severity of a crisis.

Since the current iteration of the USNS Comfort launched in 1987, the vessel has responded to wars in the Middle East, Hurricane Katrina and New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

But the current mission is unprecedented in the ship’s century long history, which stretches back to World War I.

“We’ve never deployed a hospital ship stateside specifically for a response in a global pandemic,” said André B. Sobocinski, a historian for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.

The closest the USNS Comfort has come to being in a situation like this was during World War I and the flu pandemic, Sobocinski said.

The ship ferried soldiers from Europe back to the states, and some of the men most likely had the flu. The Comfort also handled overflow soldiers from military hospitals in New York. The difference now is that the ship is handling overflow from civilian hospitals in the city, Sobocinski said.

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Associated Press writer Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, contributed to this report.

A British charity has teamed up with scientists to see whether dogs could help detect COVID-19 through their keen sense of smell, they said on Friday.

Medical Detection Dogs will work with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Durham University in northeast England to determine whether canines could help diagnoses.

It follows previous research into dogs’ ability to sniff out malaria and is based on a belief that each disease triggers a distinct odour.

The organisations said they had begun preparations to train dogs in six weeks “to help provide a rapid, non-invasive diagnosis towards the tail end of the epidemic”.

The charity has previously trained dogs to detect diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s and bacterial infections by sniffing samples taken from patients.

They can also detect subtle changes in skin temperature, potentially making them useful to determining if a person has a fever.

“In principle, we’re sure that dogs could detect COVID-19,” said Claire Guest, founder and chief executive of Medical Detection Dogs.

“We are now looking into how we can safely catch the odour of the virus from patients and present it to the dogs.

“The aim is that dogs will be able to screen anyone, including those who are asymptomatic, and tell us whether they need to be tested.

“This would be fast, effective and non-invasive and make sure the limited NHS (National Health Service) testing resources are only used where they are really needed.”

The head of disease control at the LSHTM said dogs could detect malaria with “extremely high accuracy” and, as other respiratory diseases changed body odour, there was a “very high chance” it could also work with COVID-19.

Detection dogs could be deployed at airports at the end of the epidemic to rapidly identify people carrying the virus, helping prevent the re-emergence of the disease, according to Steve Lindsay from Durham University.

Over 500,000 coronavirus infections have now been recorded across 182 countries, contributing to 22,920 deaths, according to an AFP calculation based on official country data and World Health Organization figures.

The number of actual infections is believed to be higher since many countries are only testing severe cases or patients requiring hospitalisation.

Source: france24

In a video posted on Twitter minutes ago, the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, confirmed he had developed mild symptoms – “a temperature and persistent cough” – over the last 24 hours and, on the advice of the chief medical officer, he took a test which returned positive for coronavirus.

Johnson said he is self-isolating and working from home. He said thanks to “the wizardry of modern technology” he will continue to lead the national fightback against the virus.

He thanked the NHS and everybody working to keep the country going through the pandemic and reiterated that staying at home is fundamental to stopping the spread of the virus.

He wrote on Twitter:

Over the last 24 hours I have developed mild symptoms and tested positive for coronavirus. I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government’s response via video-conference as we fight this virus. Together we will beat this. #StayHomeSaveLives.

Source: The Guardian

Kenya has registered its first death from the coronavirus (Covid-19), the health ministry announced on Thursday.

In a statement, Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe said that the victim was a 66-year-old Kenyan man and had a long-term health condition.

“We have received the sad news of the death of first patient who had tested positive for coronavirus,” said Mr Kagwe.

He had arrived into the country from South Africa through Eswatini on March 13.

The patient died at the Aga Khan Hospital intensive care unit in the capital Nairobi on Thursday afternoon.

Kenya has confirmed three more cases of coronavirus, raising the national tally to 31.

Source: theeastafrican.co.ke

World leaders are to hold online crisis talks Thursday on the coronavirus pandemic that has forced three billion people into lockdown and claimed more than 21,000 lives.

With the disease tearing around the globe at a terrifying pace, warnings are multiplying over its economic consequences, with experts saying it could cause more damage than the Great Depression.

And amid squabbling between the leaders of China and the US over who is to blame, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for the world to act together to halt the menace.

“COVID-19 is threatening the whole of humanity — and the whole of humanity must fight back,” Guterres said, launching an appeal for $2 billion to help the world’s poor.

“Global action and solidarity are crucial,” he said. “Individual country responses are not going to be enough.”

The death toll from the virus, which emerged in China late last year, continued to grow, with the US becoming the sixth country to hit four figures.

At least 1,041 people are now known to have died in the United States, with almost 70,000 confirmed infections, a tally by Johns Hopkins University showed, while globally the number of infections is closing in on half a million.

– Gun rush –

The rocketing infection rate in the US has sparked a rush to buy weapons, gun store owners told AFP, with customers panicking about social breakdown.

“A lot of people are buying shotguns, handguns, AR-15 (semi-automatic rifles), everything,” said Tiffany Teasdale, who sells guns in Washington state.

“A lot of people are scared that someone is going to break into their home… to steal cash, their toilet paper, their bottled water, their food.”

Around half of the US population is under lockdown, but President Donald Trump said he would decide soon whether unaffected parts of the country can get back to work.

“We want to get our country going again,” Trump said. “I’m not going to do anything rash or hastily.

“By Easter we’ll have a recommendation and maybe before Easter,” said Trump, who had been touting a strong US economy as he faces an election in November.

The White House, which has been criticised for its lacklustre response to the mushrooming crisis, has repeatedly lashed out at Beijing over the disease.

On Wednesday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Group of Seven powers were united against China’s “disinformation” campaign.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman infuriated Washington by suggesting on Twitter that US troops brought the virus to Wuhan, the metropolis where it was first detected late last year.

– ‘Crazy talk’ –

Scientists believe the new coronavirus came from a market that butchered exotic animals.

“Every one of the nations that were at that meeting this morning was deeply aware of the disinformation campaign that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in to try and deflect from what has really taken place,” Pompeo told reporters.

China “has been and continues to be engaged in” a campaign through social media that has included conspiracy theories of US involvement.

“This is crazy talk,” he said.

But any notion of unity after the videoconference among the G7, which also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, was dashed by the lack of a joint statement — often a formality at such gatherings.

Reports suggested the statement was scuttled by Pompeo’s insistence that it use the term “Wuhan virus” — a formulation frowned upon by medical professionals who say it is stigmatising.

Economists say the coronavirus, and the lockdown that has seen three billion people told to stay indoors, could cause the most violent recession in recent history.

“The G20 economies will experience an unprecedented shock in the first half of this year and will contract in 2020 as a whole,” rating agency Moody’s said.

Unemployment rates are expected to soar, particularly in countries where levels have recently been at historic lows, such as Britain and the US.

James Bullard, president of the St Louis Federal Reserve, has predicted unprecedented unemployment rates of 30 percent, while Europe can also expect to suffer.

“We think the unemployment rate in the eurozone will surge to about 12 percent by the end of June, giving up seven years’ worth of gains in a matter of months,” said David Oxley of London-based Capital Economics.

Leaders of the G20 major economies will hold a virtual huddle later Thursday in the shadow of such dire predictions.

“As the world confronts the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges to healthcare systems and the global economy, we convene this extraordinary G20 summit to unite efforts towards a global response,” tweeted the king of Saudi Arabia. Saudi currently holds the rotating G20 presidency.

While wealthy nations including the US have unveiled mammoth stimulus packages, there has so far been no collective action plan from the G20, and concerns are mounting for poorer countries without access to capital markets and adequate health facilities.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged G20 nations to offer support to “low and middle income countries”, including from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Individual stories of hardship continued to emerge.

At La Paz University Hospital in Madrid, nurse Guillen del Barrio sounded bereft as he related what happened overnight.

“It is really hard, we had feverish people for many hours in the waiting room,” the 30-year-old told AFP.

“Many of my colleagues were crying because there were people who are dying alone, without seeing their family for the last time.”

Source: France24

The Federal Attorney-General announced that 4,010 inmates will be granted pardon to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID?19) in prisons.

The decision was made after the President approved the list submitted by the board of pardon, said Attorney General Adanech Abiebie.

The pardon was granted to inmates sentenced to 3 years in prison for minor crimes, those left with one year to finish prison terms, pregnant women and mothers with babies, she said.

The pardon doesn’t include those prisoners convicted on charges of murder, the Attorney General stated.

Pardoned foreign nationals will be sent to their respective countries, she said.

The Council of Ministers yesterday passed a decision federal employees, except selected ones, to work from home, effective from today.

Ethiopia has now 12 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Source: fanabc.com

Worldwide, the death toll climbed past 21,000, according to a running count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

U.S. deaths from the coronavirus pandemic have topped 1,000, in another grim milestone for a global outbreak that is taking lives and wreaking havoc on economies and established routines of ordinary life.

In a recognition of the scale of the threat, the U.S. Senate late Wednesday passed an unparalleled $2.2 trillion economic rescue package steering aid to businesses, workers and health care systems.

The unanimous vote came despite misgivings on both sides about whether it goes too far or not far enough and capped days of difficult negotiations as Washington confronted a national challenge unlike it has ever faced. The 880-page measure is the largest economic relief bill in U.S. history.

Worldwide, the death toll climbed past 21,000, according to a running count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The number of dead in the U.S. rose to 1,041 as of late Wednesday, with nearly 70,000 infections.

Spain’s death toll has risen past 3,400, eclipsing that of China where the virus was first detected in December, after a one-day spike of 700 fatalities. Spain’s count is now second only to that of Italy, with over 7,500 deaths. Lidia Perera, a nurse at Madrid’s 1,000-bed Hospital de la Paz, said more workers were desperately needed. “We are collapsing,” Perera said.

The Spanish parliament voted to allow the government extend strict stay-at-home rules and business closings until April 11.

Such measures are becoming increasingly common in the U.S., where New York is the current epicenter of the domestic outbreak, accounting for more than 30,000 cases and close to 300 deaths, most of them in New York City.

Public health officials in the city hunted down beds and medical equipment and put out a call for more doctors and nurses for fear the number of sick will explode in a matter of weeks, overwhelming hospitals as has happened in Italy and Spain.

A makeshift morgue was set up outside Bellevue Hospital, and the city’s police, their ranks dwindling as more fall ill, were told to patrol nearly empty streets to enforce social distancing. Another was erected outside a hospital in Elmhurst, Queens:

n Washington, President Donald Trump has called for Americans to dedicate themselves for 15 days to social distancing, including staying home from work and closing bars and restaurants to help try to stall the spread of the disease.

Yet, he’s also grumbled that “our country wasn’t built to be shut down” and vowed not to allow “the cure be worse than the problem” — apparently concerned that the outbreak’s devastating effects on financial markets and employment will harm his chances for re-election later this year.

“The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success,” Trump tweeted Wednesday.

Democrats say that Trump was prioritizing the economy over the health and safety of Americans.

“I’d like to say, let’s get back to work next Friday,” said Joe Biden, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. ”That’d be wonderful. But it can’t be arbitrary.”

Biden said the congressional aid package addressing the outbreak “goes a long way,” but that “meticulous oversight” is required.

“We’re going to need to make sure the money gets out quickly into peoples’ pockets and to keep a close watch on how corporations are using the taxpayers funds that they receive, to make sure it goes to help workers, not rich CEOs or shareholders,” the former vice president said.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has also called to reopen schools and businesses, dismissing his argument that the “cure” of widespread shutdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus is worse than the disease.

Bolsonaro contends that a clampdown already ordered by many governors will deeply wound the beleaguered economy and spark social unrest. In a nationally televised address Tuesday night, he urged governors to limit isolation only to high-risk people and lift the strict anti-virus measures they have imposed in their regions.

The country’s governors protested on Wednesday that his instructions run counter to health experts’ recommendations and endanger Latin America’s largest population. They said they would continue with their strict measures in place. The rebellion even included traditional allies of Brazil’s far-right president.

Meanwhile, the governor of a state in central Mexico said the poor are “immune” to the coronavirus pandemic, even as the federal government suspended all non-essential government activities in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.

Puebla Gov. Miguel Barbosa’s comment Wednesday was apparently partly a response to statistics showing that the wealthy who travel much more have made up a significant percentage of Mexicans infected to date, including some prominent businessmen. The country has seen six deaths so far.

“The majority are wealthy people. If you are rich, you are at risk. If you are poor, no,” Barbosa said. “We poor people, we are immune.”

Barbosa also appeared to be playing on an old stereotype held by some Mexicans that poor sanitation standards may have strengthened their immune systems by exposing them to bacteria or other bugs.

In other developments around the globe:

___ South Korea has reported 104 new cases and five more deaths, bringing its totals to 9,241 infections and 131 deaths.

From Friday, the country will enforce 14-day quarantines on South Korean nationals and foreigners with long-term stay visas arriving from the United States. Similar measures have already been applied to passengers arriving from Europe. South Koreans can be sued and foreigners expelled for failing to heed the order.

___ China’s National Health Commission on Thursday reported 67 new COVID-19 cases, all of which it says were imported infections in recent arrivals from abroad.

Once again, there were no new cases reported in Wuhan, the central Chinese provincial capital where the coronavirus emerged in December. After a monthslong lockdown, Wuhan residents are allowed out of the city, but cannot leave the surrounding province of Hubei until April 8.

China has recorded more than 81,000 cases and 3,287 deaths, but has seen its figures fall radically in recent weeks, prompting efforts to restart the world’s second largest economy. More than 74,000 people have been released from hospital, while just under 4,000 remain in care.

___ Citing the coronavirus, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday postponed a nationwide vote on proposed constitutional amendments that include a change potentially allowing him to stay in office until 2036. The country reported its first two deaths from the virus on Wednesday.

___ Prince Charles, the 71-year-old heir to the British throne, tested positive for the virus but was showing only mild symptoms and was isolating himself at a royal estate in Scotland, his office said.

___ The French Riviera city of Cannes opened the site of its world-famous film festival to the homeless.

_ British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said more than 400,000 people responded within a day to the government’s call for volunteers to help the country’s most vulnerable people.

— The Pentagon halted for 60 days the movement of U.S. troops and Defense Department civilians overseas, a measure expected to affect about 90,000 troops scheduled to deploy or return from abroad.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

Source: huffpost

There is a strong chance the new coronavirus could return in seasonal cycles, a senior US scientist said Wednesday, underscoring the urgent need to find a vaccine and effective treatments.

Anthony Fauci, who leads research into infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, told a briefing the virus was beginning to take root in the southern hemisphere, where winter is on its way.

“What we’re starting to see now… in southern Africa and in the southern hemisphere countries, is that we’re having cases that are appearing as they go into their winter season,” he said.

“And if, in fact, they have a substantial outbreak, it will be inevitable that we need to be prepared that we’ll get a cycle around the second time.

“It totally emphasizes the need to do what we’re doing in developing a vaccine, testing it quickly and trying to get it ready so that we’ll have a vaccine available for that next cycle.”

There are currently two vaccines that have entered human trials — one in the US and one in China — and they could be a year to a year-and-a-half away from deployment.

Treatments are also being investigated — some new drugs and others that have been repurposed, including the antimalarials chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.

“I know we’ll be successful in putting this down now, but we really need to be prepared for another cycle,” Fauci concluded.

Fauci’s comments suggesting the virus does better in colder weather than it does in hot and humid conditions follows a recent Chinese research paper — still preliminary and awaiting peer-review — that reached the same conclusion.

The reasons are thought to include that respiratory droplets remain airborne for longer in colder weather, and that cold weather weakens immunity.

Another potential reason is that viruses degrade more quickly on hotter surfaces, possibly because a protective layer of fat that envelops them dries out quicker.

But reduced infection rate does not mean the virus gets eliminated — Australia has had almost 2,500 confirmed cases and 8 deaths, for example.

Source: AFP