Category: World

At least 1,178 people have died of COVID-19 in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University.

The Hindu

The United States on Thursday took the grim title of the country with the most coronavirus infections and reported a record surge in unemployment as world leaders vowed $5 trillion to stave off global economic collapse.

More than 5,00,000 people around the world have now contracted the new coronavirus, overwhelming healthcare systems even in wealthy nations and triggering an avalanche of government-ordered lockdowns that have disrupted life for billions.

In the United States, more than 82,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19, edging out Italy, which has reported the most deaths, and China, where the virus was first detected in December in the metropolis of Wuhan.

With fears mounting of a global recession if not depression, leaders from the Group of 20 major economies held crisis talks by video link Thursday, pledging a “united front” to fight the outbreak — along with an enormous financial injection.

“The virus respects no borders,” the leaders said in a statement. “We are injecting over $5 trillion into the global economy, as part of targeted fiscal policy, economic measures, and guarantee schemes to counteract the social, economic and financial impacts of the pandemic.”

They also pledged “robust” support for developing nations, where coronavirus could next take hold after ravaging China and then Europe.

But the unity pledged by the G20 has been in short supply with China and the United States trading barbs over their handling of the coronavirus crisis.

And Italy as well as Spain, which has the second-highest death toll, objected to a draft economic plan by the European Union which they saw as too weak.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte wants a “strong and sufficient” financial response that deploys “innovative financial instruments truly adapted to a war,” his office said.

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“In addition, we will also support Pakistan in building a temporary quarantine hospital.”Medical experts to arrive in Pakistan to help fight coronavirus: Chinese vice minister

Geo News

BEIJING: Vice Minister of China’s National Health Commission Zeng Yixin announced on Thursday that Beijing will send a team of medical experts to Pakistan to work closely with the health authorities and provide assistance and expertise in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

“As required by Pakistani side, China is preparing a medical team to visit Pakistan and this team of experts will pay field trips to different localities in Pakistan,” Zeng said while responding to a question by APP at a press conference on China’s cooperation with the international community in fighting COVID-19 held at China’s State Council Information Office.

Zeng said the team would be sharing its experience in tackling the disease with their Pakistani counterparts. He added thatthe Chinese team would also be discussing other assistance matters.

The vice minister said that China immediately shared therapeutic and prevention protocols with Pakistan when COVID-19 hit the country.

Also read: China-donated face masks, N-95 respirators, arrived in Pakistan: NDMA chairperson

“We also shared with Pakistani friends, through video-link, China’s experience in treatment and containment,” he added.

Zeng Yixin also said that the Chinese authorities also had a very good discussion on other issues of Pakistan in wake of the new coronavirus outbreak.

Acknowledging Pakistan’s support to China against the coronavirus, Deng Boqing, Vice Chairman of China International Development Cooperation Agency said that as China was fighting the epidemic at home, Pakistan extended great support.

Pakistan mobilised all possible medical supplies to support China and that measure had moved numerous Chinese people.

Deng said the two countries were facing similar challenges and China was ready to share its experience with Pakistan and provide Pakistan with badly needed medical supplies.

Also read: Undeterred by coronavirus pandemic, the Pakistan-China friendship prevails

“As a matter of fact, we have already provided four batches of assistance to Pakistan in terms of testing kits, protective suits, facial masks, ventilators and other medical supplies,” he said.

Deng said for the next stage, the Chinese side also had a plan to provide more urgently needed assistance to Pakistan.

“In addition, we will also support Pakistan in building temporary quarantine hospital,” he added.

The Chinese government has provided 83 countries and international organisations with emergency assistance to battle the novel coronavirus.

The country has activity shared information about Covid-19, and enhanced technological exchanges with international experts.

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Country’s death toll from COVID-19 pandemic stands at 5

AA News

JERUSALEM: Israel’s coronavirus infections have risen to 2,495 after 126 new cases were reported, according to the Health Ministry.

A statement by the ministry, cited by the Israeli Broadcasting Authority, said 41 patients are in critical condition, while 66 have recovered from the virus so far.

On Wednesday, Israel confirmed its fifth death from the disease.

Israel has taken several measures to stem the spread of the disease, including closing cafes, restaurants, hotels, shopping malls, and entertainment venues.

Last week, the Israeli government decided to track confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients by monitoring their cell phones as part of its fight against the virus.

The novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 first emerged in Wuhan, China, last December and has spread to at least 175 countries and territories. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a pandemic.

Over 472,100 coronavirus cases have been confirmed worldwide and the death toll exceeded 21,300 while more than 114,800 have recovered, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

Despite the rising number of cases, most who become infected suffer only mild symptoms and recover.

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Washington Post

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus has hit 1,000, according to tracking by The Washington Post, a toll that is increasing at an alarming rate. New patterns have emerged in the spread of the virus, according to analysis by The Washington Post of every known U.S. death. Most who have died are older than 70, but the virus also is hospitalizing and killing younger Americans. Most victims are men, and most also had underlying health conditions. The disease has killed people in 42 states and territories and the District, with the most deaths in New York.

Here are some significant developments:

• China will temporarily suspend foreign nationals with valid visas and residence permits from entering the country, in the latest move from Beijing to ramp up restrictions on foreigners entering the country amid the coronavirus outbreak.
• The $2 trillion emergency relief bill passed by the Senate will be voted on Friday by the House, said Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who predicted the measure would receive “strong bipartisan support,” but not unanimous consent. The bill would deliver historic levels of emergency aid across the economy, including to households, businesses, cities and states. It would expand unemployment insurance benefits and direct more money to cash-strapped hospitals.
• Leaders from the Group of 20 nations convened to discuss the ongoing crisis. But in a sign of just how disruptive that crisis is, they did not meet in person; instead, they talked via video link.
• Much of the world’s population is now living under some sort of pandemic-related restrictions as the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide approaches 500,000. The death toll in Spain continues to surge, with 655 additional fatalities reported Thursday, raising its total to more than 4,000 people.
• The Labor Department’s weekly tally of 3.3 million jobless claims shattered the old U.S. record of 695,000, set in 1982. Of the “widespread carnage,” a University of Chicago economist warned: “It’s going to get worse.”

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Another 662 people have died from coronavirus in Italy, officials said Thursday, bringing the country’s total confirmed death toll from the outbreak to 8,165.

Washington Post

Another 6,135 people were also confirmed as being infected with the virus in the past day, stretching the number of cases in Italy to 80,539, according to the official government tally.

Many are hopeful that Italy’s nationwide lockdown will pay off.

But while President Trump has talked about revving up the U.S. economy by Easter, Italy has set no such timetable — and experts say the nation, if it loosens its guard, is still at risk of the virus resuming its extraordinary, deadly trajectory.

Italy was the first Western country to contend with a mass-scale outbreak and order a lockdown. But it is now at the forefront of a more delicate calculation, in trying to figure out how long the restrictions should last.

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Spain’s toll surges past 4,000 as first wave of mass layoffs from the coronavirus hits the United States.

ALJAZEERA

The number of declared coronavirus cases in Europe topped 250,000, more than half of which are in hard-hit Italy and Spain. But over the last 24 hours both countries reported improvements.

Spain registered 655 fatalities from the coronavirus – down from more than 700 on Wednesday, while Italy confirmed a lower rate of infections. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) European office said it saw “encouraging signs”, cautioning it was too early to say whether the worst had passed.

More than three million Americans filed new claims for unemployment insurance last week amid the coronavirus pandemic, breaking the previous record as the first wave of layoffs batter the US economy.

More than 492,000 people around the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. About 118,000 have recovered, while more than 22,000 people have died.

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Even at their most effective – and draconian – containment strategies have only slowed the spread of the respiratory disease Covid-19.

With the World Health Organization finally declaring a pandemic, all eyes have turned to the prospect of a vaccine, because only a vaccine can prevent people from getting sick.

About 35 companies and academic institutions are racing to create such a vaccine, at least four of which already have candidates they have been testing in animals. The first of these – produced by Boston-based biotech firm Moderna – will enter human trials imminently.

This unprecedented speed is thanks in large part to early Chinese efforts to sequence the genetic material of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. China shared that sequence in early January, allowing research groups around the world to grow the live virus and study how it invades human cells and makes people sick.

– Guardian

Islamabad: China has asked Pakistan to open the border between the two countries for one day on Friday so that medical supplies to fight coronavirus pandemic could be transported into the country, according to a media report.

The Khunjerab Pass is usually opened on April 1 which marks the end of winter in that part, but due to the global outbreak of COVID-19, the border between Pakistan and China has been closed for an indefinite period.

The Chinese embassy in a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the governor of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China would like to donate a batch of medical materials to Gilgit-Baltistan, the Dawn reported.

According to the letter, the governor has donated 200,000 ordinary face masks, 2,000 N-95 face masks, five ventilators, 2,000 testing kits and 2,000 medical protective clothes mainly used by doctors and paramedics to fight with virus, which originated in China late last year.

The donation is in response to a request made by GB Chief Minister Hafeezur Rehman to the governor of Xinjiang region to combat coronavirus in the province.

Gilgit-Baltistan has high percentage of coronavirus cases in the country compared to its population, but the underdeveloped region has a negligible number of operational ventilators and remoteness has led to a severe shortage of medical equipment.

The province has reported 84 positive cases so far while the national tally has reached to 1,102 and the death toll to eight.

Earlier, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lt Gen Mohammad Afzal had said said Pakistan had sought to purchase medical equipment, including ventilators, but these were in short supply around the world and only China had assured that it would provide such items to Pakistan.

Under a border protocol agreement of 1985, the Khunjerab border crossing remains closed from the end of November to April. Trade and travel activities between the two countries take place through Khunjerab Pass, also known as Sust Dry Port the only land route between China and Pakistan.

By: Middle East Eye

Saudi Arabia will impose a countrywide lockdown from Thursday and will ban entry and exit from Mecca, Medina and Riyadh in new measures aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus, the state news agency announced on Wednesday.

“Residents of the thirteen provinces of the kingdom will be banned from leaving them or moving to other areas,” an official statement published by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.

“Entry and exit from the cities of Riyadh, Mecca and Medina will be banned in accordance with the limits defined by the competent authorities,” it added.

The measures will take effect from 3pm on Thursday until the end of the curfew that began on Monday and was planned to last for 21 days.

The new decision, ratified by King Salman, adds four hours to the curfew, which will not start at 3pm instead of 7pm.

Saudi Arabia confirmed its first coronavirus-related death on Tuesday, a 51-year-old Afghan resident who succumbed to Covid-19 in Medina.

A second death was reported on Wednesday, a 46-year-old foreign resident of Mecca. The Gulf country also announced on Wednesday 133 new cases, brining the total number of confirmed infections to 900.

The country had already imposed drastic measures to combat the pandemic, including suspension of international flights, closing schools and universities and temporarily closing off the eastern province of Qatif, which has most of the country’s cases.

It had also suspended the year-round Umrah pilgrimage and banned prayers in all its mosques, including the holy mosques in Mecca and Medina.

Middle East Eye reported on Friday that Riyadh’s King Faisal Hospital, where members of the royal family are treated, was being closed down for all but emergency cases after an anaesthetist working at the hospital had tested positive for the virus.

King Salman warned last week of a “difficult” fight ahead, with the kingdom facing mass shutdowns because of the virus and crashing oil prices.

The oil-rich kingdom unveiled economic stimulus measures amounting to 120bn riyals ($32bn) to support businesses and said it planned to raise borrowing to 50 percent of GDP.

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Iran’s government has banned internal travel and warned of a “second wave” of its coronavirus disease outbreak, as the official death toll passed 2,000.

BBC World News

Spokesman Ali Rabiei lamented that some people had ignored advice and travelled during the Nowruz new year holidays.

As a result, he said, people would no longer be able to leave their cities and would soon face other restrictions.

Iran’s leaders have so far resisted imposing lockdowns despite it being one of the world’s worst-hit countries.

They have insisted that all necessary measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 have been taken, despite many Iranians expressing concern.

On Wednesday, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour reported 143 new deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 2,077 since mid-February.

He said the number of confirmed cases had risen by 2,206 to 27,017, although the actual number is believed to be far higher.

Last week, the health ministry had called on Iranians to stay at home during Nowruz instead of visiting their families or going on day trips.

“Unfortunately some Iranians have ignored advice from health ministry officials and travelled during the new year holidays,” Mr Rabiei told a televised briefing. “This could cause a second wave of the coronavirus.”

He added that security forces would now stop people from travelling between cities and that new regulations were coming soon to help contain the spread of Covid-19.

“We shall tighten our regulations if people do not obey new regulations,” he warned.

At a cabinet meeting, President Hassan Rouhani said the regulations would be “strict” and would “create difficulties” for Iranians.

He added that the government might have no choice but to close parks for the nature festival of Sizdah Bedar on 1 April, when Iranians traditionally have picnics.

“People have to realise that these are difficult decisions that are being taken to protect people’s lives,” he explained. “But we have no choice, because the lives of Iranians are important to us.”

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