Category: World

If the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak and the flu season had peaked at the same time, it could have been “really, really difficult in terms of health capacity,” says CDC director.

PTI

A second wave of the novel coronavirus will hit the U.S. later this year with even more difficult ramifications than the current COVID-19 crisis that has claimed more than 45,000 lives and infected over 8,24,000 people in the country, a top American health official has warned.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield told The Washington Post that the U.S. will have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time.

If the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak and the flu season had peaked at the same time, it could have been “really, really difficult in terms of health capacity,” he said.

Luckily, the arrival of the novel coronavirus in the United States came as the regular flu season was waning, he said.

“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” Mr. Redfield told the daily.

“We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time,” he said, adding that having two simultaneous respiratory outbreaks would put unimaginable strain on the health-care system.

The White House emphasised on continuing with preventive measures to fight the coronavirus and increased testing.

“We were very clear in the guidelines that we believe we can monitor, again, monitor communities at the community level by using the influenza-like illness and the syndromic respiratory and gastrointestinal temp components of this particular virus,” Dr. Deborah Brix, member of the White House Task Force on Coronavirus told reporters when asked about the second wave.

“Obviously, when we have flu, and were working on an algorithm that you test for flu and then you test for COVID-19 and making sure that we are building the testing capacity to be able to do that because I think it’s very important that you’re going to be able — on the surface, a patient, when they come in with early flu and early COVID-19 can look very close to identical,” she said.

There is need to have testing in place to be able to separate and ensure those patients receive the best treatment, Dr. Brix said.

“We are also hoping by that time we have additional treatment options for people with COVID-19 so that there will be additional treatment available in the fall,” she said.

Responding to a question, Dr. Brix said that the situation could be pretty bad if the second wave of coronavirus hits the country in the winter.

“When you see what has happened in New York, that was very bad. I believe that we’ll have early warning signals both from our surveillance that we been talking about in these on the vulnerable populations,” she said.

“We’re going to continue that surveillance from now all the way through the fall to be able to give us that early warning signal. I think what we’ve learned is how good Americans are about immediately reverting to all of those issues that they need to do in order to ensure that they are protected and their families,” Dr. Brix said.

SRINAGAR: Muslims in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait and other Gulf countries will attempt to see the moon today.

The moon sighting will mark the beginning of Ramadan 2020. If the moon is sighted today in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, Ramadan (Ramzan) will begin from April 23. If the crescent moon remains invisible, the holy month of fasting will start from April 24.

Ramadan 2020: What is Permitted And Not Allowed For Muslims During Ramzan?

Under the Islamic calendar, a new month begins upon the sighting of a crescent moon on the 29th day of the ongoing month. If the moon is not sighted, the month completes 30 days and a new month begins the next day.

Muslims in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and other Gulf countries will observe 29th Shabaan today. If the moon is sighted on April 22, Ramadan in will begin from April 23. If the moon remains invisible, Shabaan will complete 30 days and Ramadan will start from April 24.

According to Moroccan astronomer Abdelaziz Kharbouch Al Ifrani, Ramadan is likely to begin from April 24 in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and other Gulf countries. Malaysia has fixed April 23 as the date for sighting the crescent moon. During Ramzan, Muslims observe dawn-to-dusk fast and hold special prayers. Fasting in Ramadan is intended to help teach Muslims self-discipline and self-restraint.

PTI

Imran Khan may be tested for the COVID-19 or asked to go into isolation after meeting a well-known philanthropist who tested positive for the infection, days after meeting the Pakistan Prime Minister, his doctor said on Tuesday.

Faisal Edhi, the son of late philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi and chairman of the Edhi Foundation, met Mr. Khan last week.

Mr. Khan’s personal physician and CEO of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, Faisal Sultan, told media that would meet Mr. Khan on Tuesday.

“I will meet him and recommend that he gets tested. We will follow all protocols in place and make recommendations accordingly,” he said.

The protocols recommend self-isolation for people who meet those tested positive for the coronavirus.

It is not clear how Mr. Khan will run the government if he was asked to go into quarantine. He is currently working as per routine and also chaired a meeting of Cabinet.

Earlier, Saad, the son of Faisal Edhi told the Dawn newspaper that his father started showing symptoms last week, soon after meeting Mr. Khan in Islamabad on April 15.

“The symptoms lasted for four days before subsiding,” Saad said.

He added that his father was currently in Islamabad and was doing better. “He has not been admitted to any hospital and is self-isolating,” he said.

Faisal Edhi had met Prime Minister Khan to hand over a ₹10 million cheque for the PM’s coronavirus relief fund.

The Edhi Foundation was founded by the late Abdul Sattar Edhi and is the leading charity organisation in Pakistan.

Officials from South Korea’s Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they couldn’t immediately confirm the report. CNN cited an anonymous U.S. official who said Mr. Kim Jong Un was in “grave danger” after an unspecified surgery.

AP

The South Korean government on Tuesday was looking into U.S. media reports saying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was in fragile condition after surgery.

Officials from South Korea’s Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they couldn’t immediately confirm the report. CNN cited an anonymous U.S. official who said Mr. Kim was in “grave danger” after an unspecified surgery.

The Unification Ministry, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, said it couldn’t confirm another report by Daily NK, which cited anonymous sources to report that Kim was recovering from heart surgery in the capital Pyongyang and that his condition was improving.

Speculation about Mr. Kim’s health was raised after he missed the celebration of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on April 15.

Credible information about North Korea and especially its leadership is difficult to obtain and even intelligence agencies have been wrong about its inner workings in the past.

Some 50 fires targeting cell towers and other equipment have been reported in Britain this month; some 16 have been torched in the Netherlands, with attacks also reported in Ireland, Cyprus, and Belgium

AP

The CCTV footage from a Dutch business park shows a man in a black cap pouring the contents of a white container at the base of a cellular radio tower. Flames burst out as the man jogs back to his Toyota to flee into the evening.

It’s a scene that’s been repeated dozens of times in recent weeks in Europe, where officials are pushing back against conspiracy theories linking new 5G mobile networks and the coronavirus pandemic are fueling arson attacks on cell towers.

Popular beliefs and conspiracy theories that wireless communications pose a threat have long been around, but the global spread of the virus at the same time that countries were rolling out fifth generation wireless technology has seen some of those false narratives amplified.

Officials in Europe and the U.S. are watching the situation closely, concerned that attacks will undermine vital telecommunications links at a time they’re most needed to deal with the pandemic.

“I’m absolutely outraged, absolutely disgusted, that people would be taking action against the very infrastructure that we need to respond to this health emergency,” Stephen Powis, medical director of the National Health Service in England, said in early April.

Some 50 fires targeting cell towers and other equipment have been reported in Britain this month, leading to three arrests. Telecom engineers have been abused on the job 80 times, according to trade group Mobile U.K., making the U.K. the nucleus of the attacks. Photos and videos documenting the attacks are often overlaid with false commentary about COVID-19. Some 16 have been torched in the Netherlands, with attacks also reported in Ireland, Cyprus, and Belgium.

Posts threatening to attack phone masts were receiving likes on Facebook. One post in an anti-vaccine group on April 12 shared a photo of a burned phone mast with the quote, “Nobody wants cancer & covid19. Stop trying to make it happen or every pole and mobile store will end up like this one.”

The trend received extra attention in Britain when a tower supplying voice and data traffic to a Birmingham field hospital treating coronavirus patients was among those targeted.

“It’s heart-rending enough that families cannot be there at the bedside of loved ones who are critically ill,” Nick Jeffery, CEO of wireless carrier Vodafone UK, said on LinkedIn. “It’s even more upsetting that even the small solace of a phone or video call may now be denied them because of the selfish actions of a few deluded conspiracy theorists.”

False narratives around 5G and the coronavirus have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media. They vary widely from claims that the coronavirus is a coverup for 5G deployment to those that say new 5G installations have created the virus.

“To be concerned that 5G is somehow driving the COVID-19 epidemic is just wrong,” Dr. Jonathan Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health who chaired a World Health Organization committee that researched cell phone radiation and cancer. “I just don’t find any plausible way to link them.”

Anti-5G activists are undeterred.

Susan Brinchman, director of the Center for Electrosmog Prevention, a non-profit campaigning against “environmental electromagnetic pollution,” says that people have a right to be concerned about 5G and links to COVID-19. “The entire 5G infrastructure should be dismantled and turned off,” she said by email.

But there’s no evidence that wireless communications – whether 5G or earlier versions – harm the immune system, said Myrtill Simko, scientific director of SciProof International in Sweden, who has spent decades researching the matter.

The current wave of 5G theories dates back to January, when a Belgian doctor suggested a link to COVID-19. Older variations were circulating before that, mostly revolving around cellphone radiation causing cancer, spreading on Reddit forums, Facebook pages and YouTube channels. Even with daily wireless use among vast majority of adults, the National Cancer Institute has not seen an increase in brain tumors.

The theories gained momentum in 2019 from Russian state media outlets, which helped push them into U.S. domestic conversation, disinformation experts say.

Ryan Fox, who tracks disinformation as chief innovation officer at AI company Yonder, said he noticed an abnormal spike last year in mentions around 5G across Russian state media, with most of the narratives playing off people’s fears around 5G and whether it could cause cancer.

“Were they the loudest voice at that time and did they amplify this conspiracy enough that it helped fuel its long-term success? Yes,” he said.

The conspiracy theories have also been elevated by celebrities including actor Woody Harrelson who shared a video claiming people in China were taking down a 5G tower. It was actually a Hong Kong “smart lamppost” cut down by pro-democracy protesters in August over China surveillance fears. British TV host Eamonn Holmes gave credence to the theories on a talk show, drawing a rebuke from regulators.

“I want to be very clear here,” European Commission spokesman Johannes Bahrke said Friday, as the arson toll rose daily. “There is no geographic or any other correlation between the deployment of 5G and the outbreak of the virus.”

Taraweeh prayers suspended in Mecca and Medina in efforts to contain coronavirus

Agencies

Saudi Arabia has suspended Tarawih prayers at the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina in a bid to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Tarawih, special night prayers performed during the holy month, will be held without public attendance at the Grand Mosque [Masjid al-Haram] and the Prophet’s Mosque [Masjid al-Nabawi], said Abdul Rahman As-Sudais, president of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques.

Tarawih will be performed mainly with staff, As-Sudais said in a statement on Twitter.

The statement also said that itikaf — the Islamic practice of secluding oneself in the mosque to pray — has been canceled at both mosques.

It also said that Umrah will remain suspended until further notice.

The novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has spread to 185 countries and regions since emerging in Wuhan, China last December, with the U.S. and Europe now the hardest-hit areas.

There are more than 2.4 million cases worldwide and over 170,000 deaths. More than 647,000 have recovered from the virus, according to data compiled by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

AP

GENEVA — The World Health Organization chief warned Monday that “the worst is yet ahead of us” in the coronavirus outbreak, reviving the alarm just as many countries ease restrictive measures aimed at reducing its spread.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus didn’t specify why he believes the outbreak that has infected some 2.5 million people and killed over 166,000 could get worse. He and others, however, have previously pointed to the likely future spread of the illness through Africa, where health systems are far less developed.

“Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us,” Tedros told reporters from WHO headquarters in Geneva. “Let’s prevent this tragedy. It’s a virus that many people still don’t understand.”

Some Asian and European governments have gradually eased or started relaxing “lockdown” measures like quarantines, school and business closures and restrictions on public gatherings, citing a decline in the growth of COVID-19 case counts and deaths.

Tedros and his agency have been on the defensive after President Donald Trump of the United States — the WHO’s biggest single donor — last week ordered a halt to U.S. funding for the agency, alleging that it botched the early response to the outbreak.

Among other things, Trump insisted WHO had failed to adequately share “in a timely and transparent” way information about the outbreak after it erupted in China late last year.

Tedros said: “There is no secret in WHO because keeping things confidential or secret is dangerous. It’s a health issue.”

“This virus is dangerous. It exploits cracks between us when we have differences,” he said.

Tedros said U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staffers have been seconded to work with his agency, suggesting that was a sign of WHO’s transparency.

“Having CDC staff (at WHO) means there is nothing hidden from the U.S. from Day One” Tedros said. “Our CDC colleagues also know that we give information immediately to anyone.”

In one of his starkest comparisons yet, the U.N. health agency chief also alluded to the so-called Spanish flu more than a century ago, saying the coronavirus has a “very dangerous combination … like the 1918 flu that killed up to 100 million people.”

Tedros called the illness “Public Enemy No. 1,” and said: “We have been warning from Day One: This is a devil that everybody should fight.”

Islamabad: The head of Pakistan’s biggest charity organisation: Edhi Foundation, Faisal Edhi, has tested positive for #COVID19.

Faisal Edhi had met Prime Minister Imran Khan few days ago to donate Pak Rs 10 million for PM’s Corona Relief Fund.

Will Imran Khan go into quarantine?

Reuters

U.S. coronavirus deaths topped 42,000 on April 20, according to a Reuters tally, as more protesters gathered in state capitals to demand an early end to the lockdowns, while officials pleaded for patience until more testing becomes available.

Stay-at-home measures, which experts say are essential to slow the spread of the respiratory virus, have ground the economy to a standstill and forced more than 22 million people to apply for unemployment benefits in the last month.

The United States has by far the world’s largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 7,74,000 infections, up 20,000 on April 20, with several states yet to report. New reported U.S. cases appear to be slowing from about 30,000 a day last week.

Montana for the first time reported no new cases on April 20 after processing 153 tests in the past 24 hours, according to the state’s website.

Deaths also have slowed in recent days, rising by about 1,500 so far on April 20 compared with over 2,000 a day for most of last week. The United States had a record 2,806 deaths in a single day on April 15.

Hot spots are emerging, however, in Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia. Connecticut posted a record increase in cases and deaths as it revised its count due to new classifications from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC has advised states to count probable, but untested, cases and deaths.

Many of the protesters demanding an end to mandatory lockdowns expressed cynicism toward health experts and skepticism about the actual scale of the pandemic, accusing officials of overreaching and taking actions that had caused more harm than the virus itself.

Health experts and lawmakers on the front lines of the battle to curb the pandemic have warned that the country could face a second and even deadlier wave of infections if the lockdowns end prematurely.

Reuters

Physical demand for crude has dried up, creating a global supply glut as billions of people stay home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Traders fled from the expiring May U.S. oil futures contract in a frenzy on Monday, sending the contract into negative territory for the first time in history, as barely any buyers are willing to take delivery of oil barrels because there is no place to put the crude.

May U.S. crude futures plunged to a depth never before seen, settling on the day at minus $37.63 a barrel, a decline of some 305%, or $55.90 a barrel. Prices set a low of negative $40.32.

With demand down 30% worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the main U.S. storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma expected to fill up in a matter of weeks, very few want to be stuck with oil barrels that they have to take delivery on at some point during May.

“The people who are long are desperate to get out,” said Phil Verleger, a veteran oil economist and independent consultant. “If you dont have storage you have to get out.”

Major oil-producing nations have agreed to cut output and global oil companies are trimming production, but those cuts will not come quickly enough to avoid a massive clog.

The difference between the expiring May U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude contract and the coming June contract widened to a record at more than $22 a barrel. That yawning gap emerged because owning the May contract when it expires on Tuesday means that buyer is obligated to take those barrels, which few want to do.

“For many investors or people using these contracts for hedging this is really a big pain,” said Edward Moya, market analyst at OANDA in New York. “There’s no place to put it – we’re running out of space to store oil.”

The June contract ended down 16% to $20.43 a barrel.

When a futures contract expires, traders must decide whether to take delivery or roll their positions into an upcoming contract. Usually this process is relatively uncomplicated, but the May contract’s decline reflects worries that too much supply could hit the markets, with shipments out of OPEC nations like Saudi Arabia booked in March set to cause a glut.

Available storage space is dropping fast at the Cushing, Oklahoma hub, where physical delivery of U.S. oil barrels bought in the futures market takes place. Four weeks ago, the storage hub was half full – now it is 69% full, according to U.S. Energy Department data.

“Its clear that Cushing is going to fill and it will stay full for the next several months,” said Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates. “Because producers have been lagging in their production cuts were seeing an overwhelming amount of crude oil looking for a place to go around the world.”

Crude stockpiles at Cushing rose 9% in the week to April 17, totaling around 61 million barrels, market analysts said, citing a Monday report from Genscape.

The world’s major oil producers agreed to cut production by 9.7 million bpd in an attempt to get world supply under control as demand slumps, but those cuts do not begin until May. Saudi Arabia is ramping up deliveries of oil, including big shipments to the United States.

Worldwide oil consumption is roughly 100 million barrels a day, and supply generally stays in line with that. But consumption is down about 30% globally, and the cuts so far are far less.

U.S. exchange-traded funds are also playing a role in the action, analysts said. The U.S. Oil Fund LP, the largest crude oil ETF, said on Thursday that it would start moving some of its assets into later-dated contracts earlier in the life of the monthly contract.