Coronavirus Pandemic: Deaths Surge page two
Amazon workers plan to walk off job in New York
The e-commerce giant’s employees who work at a New York City warehouse plan to walk off the job Monday. Those who work at the fulfillment center on Staten Island want the building be sanitized after several workers tested positive to COVID-19, says Chris Smalls, a manager assistant who is coordinating the walkout.
Smalls said employees at the warehouse, where about 5,000 people work throughout the week, were “not returning to work until they close the building down.” “They know at lunch time, when they clock out, do not return,” Smalls said.
UK government was warned its health service would struggle to cope with pandemic three years ago
The British government was warned three years ago that the NHS would struggle to cope in the event of a pandemic like coronavirus, it has been revealed.
A major cross-government test called Exercise Cygnus was carried out in October 2016 to examine how well the NHS would handle a severe outbreak.
After the damning test results were collected, ministers were reportedly warned that Britain’s health service would be quickly overwhelmed – but the government failed to act on the report’s recommendations.
According to The Sunday Telegraph, Exercise Cygnus showed the NHS lacked adequate “surge capacity” and would require thousands more critical care beds.
UK: 50% survival rate
Coronavirus patients in UK intensive care have 50% survival rate. The mortality rate for patients put in intensive care after being infected with Covid-19 is running at close to 50%, a report has revealed.
Data from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) showed that of 165 patients treated in critical care in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since the end of February, 79 died, while 86 survived and were discharged.
The figures were taken from an audit of 775 people who have been or are in critical care with the disease, across 285 intensive care units. The remaining 610 patients continue to receive intensive care.
UK lockdown could continue up to June
The nationwide coronavirus lockdown in the UK could last until June, according to one of the government’s leading scientific advisors.
Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, told The Sunday Times that the entire population could need to stay at home for nearly three months. “We’re going to have to keep these measures in place, in my view, for a significant period of time – probably until the end of May, maybe even early June. May is optimistic,” he said.
India: Modi apologizes for the lockdown
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologised to the public on Sunday for imposing a three-week national lockdown.
“I apologize for taking these harsh steps that have caused difficulties in your lives, especially the poor people,”
Modi said in his monthly address, broadcast by state radio. “I know some of you will be angry with me. But these tough measures were needed to win this battle.”
The unprecedented lockdown order, which came into effect on Wednesday to keep India’s 1.3 billion people at home for all but essential trips, is meant to prevent the spread of the virus from surging and overwhelming India’s already strained healthcare system.
The lockdown has caused tens of thousands of people, mostly young male day labourers but also families, to flee their New Delhi homes, and has effectively put millions of Indians who live off daily earnings out of work.
India: 867 cases
India health officials have confirmed 867 cases of coronavirus, including 25 deaths.
Experts have said local spreading is inevitable in a country where tens of millions of people live in dense urban areas in cramped conditions with irregular access to clean water.
It’s only a matter of time before virus sweeps India, say doctors
A Bloomberg report – “Doctors Say It’s Only a Matter of Time Before Virus Sweeps India” – by Ari Altstedter, Ragini Saxena, Bibhudatta Pradhan and Dhwani Pandya said on March 30, 2020:
“It’s the phone calls at all hours of the night he remembers. As swine flu ravaged northern India in 2015, a radiologist working at a hospital in a Delhi suburb said people would call begging for a bed.
“That outbreak ultimately infected more than 31,000 people and killed nearly 2,000, as many died waiting for treatment. With the far more infectious novel coronavirus now sweeping the globe — and threatening to take hold in India — the doctor, who asked not to be identified criticizing the country’s preparedness to tackle the pandemic, thinks this time will be much worse.
“Cases of Covid-19 in the world’s second-most populous country have ticked rapidly higher the past week, raising alarm over the ability of India, with its fragile health-care system and battered economy, to handle a virus crisis of the magnitude of China or Italy’s. While India has seen 27 deaths and just over 1,000 cases, experts fear the real tally could be much higher and say the disease is already spreading in the community. Authorities say there’s no evidence for this and have not significantly ramped up testing.
“In the country’s already stretched hospitals, though, concern is rising.
“Bloomberg News spoke to more than a dozen front-line physicians across India, and while none reported the sort of spike in patients with respiratory ailments that would suggest Covid-19 is already running rampant, all agreed it’s just a matter of time — and that India isn’t ready.
“With its densely packed cities and under-funded medical system, India has little margin for error when it comes to the coronavirus.”
The report said:
“It’s a reality not lost on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which ordered the population of 1.3 billion people not to leave their homes for three weeks on March 24, initiating the world’s largest quarantine even as cases numbered only in the hundreds. But there’s concern it still might not be enough, and such a large-scale lockdown will be difficult to implement, particularly in a place where the poor live in close quarters and the social distancing measures being advocated in the west are almost impossible.
“Along with the lockdown, India has also acted to curb inbound travelers from overseas. Should these measures fail to halt the virus’ spread, though, epidemiologists say the numbers could be staggering. A University of Michigan-run study predicts the country could have 915,000 coronavirus infections by mid-May, more than the case load for the whole world right now.
“‘This is just an interval period,’ said Anup Warrier, an infectious diseases specialist in the southern city of Cochin. Warrier was alarmed when 14 patients turned up at the private hospital where he works this week with symptoms similar to acute cases of Covid-19. They all tested negative.
“‘I do not think this lucky streak is going to last much further,’ he said.
“India acted relatively early to seal off entry points into the country, with international travelers the main vector for the virus’ global spread. That may have stemmed an influx of cases, but the small infection tally – which puts it below places like Finland and Chile – could be because India is not looking hard enough for new cases, with one of the lowest testing rates in the world.
“The country had tested just 35,000 people for coronavirus as of Sunday, according to data from the Indian Council of Medical Research, a minuscule portion given its population size. That’s despite 113 local government laboratories and as many as 47 private labs now authorized to process tests.
“The U.S., which has also been criticized for being late to ramp up testing, had undertaken 552,000 tests as of March 26, while South Korea, which has contained its outbreak without a mass quarantine, has tested more than 320,000 people.
“In viral hot spots like China’s Hubei province, Italy, Spain and now New York, a rapid surge of infections brought a wave of patients to hospitals that exceeded their capacity for critical care. Doctors have been forced to effectively choose who lived and who died through the deployment of scarce resources like ventilators.
“In India, that tipping point – if it comes – will arrive sooner.
“The country spent just 3.7% of gross domestic product on health care in 2016, putting it in the bottom 25 of nations globally, according to the most recent World Bank data. On numbers of doctors, nurses and hospital beds, India ranked similarly near the bottom. While there is a growing private hospital sector, nearly 65% of the population has no health insurance, putting significant pressure on the overcrowded, understaffed and sometimes rundown public hospitals.
“‘If you see the pattern of coronavirus infection in all the countries affected so far, this is the time we expect numbers to climb,’ said a doctor caring for Covid-19 patients in the business hub of Mumbai, who asked not to be named because of growing stigma around the disease. ‘I can’t see why India will be any different.’
“Only one public hospital in Mumbai was initially authorized to test and treat Covid-19 patients. A doctor working there, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak publicly, reported working 24-hour shifts screening cases. People are waiting up to seven hours to get tested, and quarantine areas are overcrowded, he said. Pictures of the hospital shared on Twitter showed a washbasin filled with what looked like vomit, rusted cot frames and a stray cat sitting between beds.
“Mumbai, home to more than 18 million people, appears to be bracing for more cases. There are now three government hospitals allowed to test and treat coronavirus patients, and three quarantine facilities are being prepared.
“India’s national government claims there’s still no evidence of “community spread” of Covid-19, when infections are found that can’t be traced back to a case brought in from abroad. Mass testing would be an unnecessary strain on resources, they say, with each test costing 4,500 rupees ($60). Officials also say a ramp up in testing risks sparking a panic.
“Doctors, meanwhile, are starting to see potentially worrying signs. Mehul Thakkar, a respiratory specialist who splits his time between a private hospital and his own practice in the suburbs of Mumbai, said he and colleagues are seeing an influx of cold and flu cases.
“‘These might be mild Covid-19 cases, but we don’t know yet,’ he said.
“India could face an epidemic worse than Iran or Italy’s, according to T. Jacob John, former head of the Indian Council for Medical Research’s Centre for Advanced Research in Virology, with the virus spreading to as much as 10% of the population — some 130 million people. John worries the lockdown came too late. ‘It is bold and unprecedented — it is also risky,’ said Paul Ananth Tambyah, president of the Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection. ‘If the lockdown works and the virus does not get established in India, there is a chance that the virus can be contained globally.’
Pakistan
Pakistan has said the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 is increasing, raising the country’s total number of confirmed patients to 1,495.
Health authorities also report another death of a man in the country’s commercial hub, Karachi, increasing the death toll to 12.
A breakout shows the largest Punjab province has 557 patients, and southern Sindh province has 469.
Southwestern Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has 133, and Khyber Pakhtukhwa, which borders Afghanistan, has 188. The Gilgit Baltistan region has 107 patients, while the federal capital, Islamabad, has 39. Pakistan controlled Kashmir has two confirmed cases.
The count shows there is an increase of 87 cases, with seven of the patients stated to be in critical condition.
Brazil court orders government to stop advising against virus isolation
A federal court in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday banned the government from disseminating propaganda against confinement measures aimed at controlling the coronavirus pandemic.
On Thursday night, Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro shared a video on Facebook showing a caravan of vehicles celebrating the reopening of businesses and schools in the southern state of Santa Catarina.
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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