Coronavirus Pandemic: Deaths Surge page three
Brazil’s president claims: It’s momentary
Brazilian president Bolsonaro has staked out the most deliberately dismissive position of any major world leader, calling the coronavirus pandemic a momentary, minor problem and saying strong measures to contain it are unnecessary.
Bolsonaro called it “a little flu” and said state governors’ aggressive measures to halt the disease were crimes. Bolsonaro said he feels Brazilians’ natural immunity will protect the nation.
“The Brazilian needs to be studied. He does not catch anything. You see a guy jumping into sewage, diving in, right? Nothing happens to him. I think a lot of people were already infected in Brazil, weeks or months ago, and they already have the antibodies that help it not proliferate,” Bolsonaro said. “I’m hopeful that’s really a reality.”
Moscow
The mayor of Moscow ordered all residents of the Russian capital to self-isolate.
Vietnam’s PM asks major cities to prepare for lockdown
Vietnam’s prime minister on Monday asked major cities to prepare for possible lockdowns to stop the spread of coronavirus as the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country reached nearly 200. “Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have to review and update plans to battle the virus, and have to stand ready for city lockdown scenarios,” Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in a statement. “Vietnam has entered the pandemic’s peak period, major cities have to speed up and take advantage of each hour and minute to carry out defined measures,” Phuc said.
Tokyo’s coronavirus infections spike after Olympics delayed
Before the 2020 Olympics were postponed, Japan’s coronavirus infection rate appeared to have been contained. Now that the games have been pushed to next year, Tokyo’s cases are spiking and the city’s governor is requesting that people stay home, even hinting at a possible lockdown. The sudden rise in the number of virus cases in Tokyo and the government’s strong actions immediately after the Olympic postponement have raised questions in parliament and among citizens about whether Japan understated the extent of the outbreak and delayed enforcement of social distancing measures while clinging to hopes that the games would start on July 24 as scheduled.
Nigerian president locks down country’s capital
The Nigerian President said: Based on the advice of the Federal Ministry of Health and the NCDC, I am directing the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the FCT for an initial period of 14 days with effect from 11pm on Monday, 30th March 2020.
Portugal
The Portuguese health minister has said a 14-year-old boy with Covid-19 has died. Authorities said the boy had prior health conditions.
Portugal reported on Sunday it has 119 total deaths from the virus and 38,042 infections.
North Macedonia
North Macedonia has reported two more deaths to raise the death toll to six. They are both men in their 30s.
More than 9,000 people in the country of 2.1 million are in quarantine or in self-isolation. The country is under curfew.
Serbia
Pet owners in Serbia are furious over the populist government’s decision to ban even a brief walk for people with dogs during an evening curfew to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
Angry dog owners have flooded social networks, warning that the ban could harm their dogs’ health and cause frustration and anxiety for both the animals and their owners.
Veterinarian Nenad Milojkovic said protecting animal rights is a test for a society during hard times such as an epidemic. He said skipping the evening walk could worsen the condition for the dogs with urinary problems and “aggravate basic hygienic conditions in people’s homes.”
Serbia’s government made the decision on Saturday, revoking a previously introduced 20-minute permission for dog owners to walk their pets.
Serbia has imposed some of the harshest measures in Europe against the spread of the new coronavirus, including a total ban on movement for people over 65 years and a curfew from 5pm until 5am.
Norway
Norwegian health authorities say they are set to start performing random coronavirus tests, following the experiment Iceland has done.
Citing officials at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said on Sunday such random testing among all citizens will provide answers to two key questions: how many of those who appear to be infected actually have the coronavirus and how wide the spread of the virus is.
NRK said Iceland, with its 12,000 random tests among its population of 340,000, has the largest number of tests per capita in the world. Norway, a nation of 5.4 million, has so far reported 4,054 coronavirus cases with 25 deaths.
Syria
Syria has reported the first coronavirus death in the war-torn country, which has five confirmed infections.
State news agency SANA said a woman died on reaching an emergency room and tested positive for the virus, without saying where it happened.
Syria has closed schools, restaurants and nightclubs, and imposed a nighttime curfew last week aimed at preventing the virus’s spread.
Its health care system has been battered by nearly a decade of civil war, leaving the country particularly vulnerable.
Canada
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he will continue to self-isolate at home even though his wife has recovered from coronavirus.
Australia
Australia has announced that public gatherings will be limited to two people, down from 10, and has enacted a six-month moratorium on evictions for those who cannot pay their rent.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the new measures on Sunday night after earlier in the day flagging a 1.1 billion Australian dollar (£546 million) welfare package.
Australia had 3,966 confirmed cases of the virus as of Sunday, including 16 deaths.
Sweden
The Swedish authorities have advised the public to practice social distancing and to work from home, if possible, and urged those over age 70 to self-isolate as a precaution.
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, warning of “many tough weeks and months ahead,” announced Friday that as of Sunday, gatherings would be limited to 50 people instead of 500. The government said weddings, funerals and Easter celebrations would be affected.
New Zealand
New Zealand has reported its first death from Covid-19. Health authorities said Sunday the victim was a woman in her 70s.
She was admitted to a West Coast hospital last week with what they initially thought was flu, and hospital staff did not wear full protective equipment.
As a result, 21 members of staff have been put in self-isolation for two weeks.
The country has reported 514 cases of Covid-19. Last Wednesday, New Zealanders began a strict four-week lockdown.
Experts now say people should wear masks
The World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention insist that healthy people do not need masks. But as the coronavirus pandemic spreads, some experts are suggesting the opposite. A report in The New York Times said:
“The recent surge in infections in the United States, which has put the country at the center of the epidemic, with more confirmed cases than China, Italy or any other country, means that more Americans are now at risk of getting sick. And healthy individuals, especially those with essential jobs who cannot avoid public transportation or close interaction with others, may need to start wearing masks more regularly. ‘The swift increase in cases to these levels in the U.S. highlights to an even greater degree the importance of implementing and adhering to public health measures,’ said Dr. Robert Atmar, an infectious disease specialist at Baylor College of Medicine. While wearing a mask may not necessarily prevent healthy people from getting sick, and it certainly doesn’t replace important measures such as hand-washing or social distancing, it may be better than nothing, Atmar said.”
Vatican City
Pope Francis is backing the UN chief’s call for a ceasefire in all conflicts raging across the globe to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. He also said his thoughts are with those constrained to live in groups, citing in particular rest homes for the elderly, military barracks and jails.
During his traditional Sunday blessing, the Pope called for “the creation of humanitarian aid corridors, the opening of diplomacy and attention to those who are in situations of great vulnerability”.
He cited UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres’s appeal this past week for a global truce “to focus together on the true fight of our lives” against the coronavirus.
Francis, as he has throughout most of the coronavirus emergency due to bans on public gatherings, addressed the faithful from his private library in the Apostolic Palace, and not from a window overlooking St Peter’s Square as is tradition.
Minister of one of Germany’s wealthiest states commits suicide ‘over coronavirus worries’
The finance minister in the German state of Hesse, Thomas Schaefer, has taken his own life. His colleagues said he was pushed over the edge by the inability to cope with the harsh economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Schaefer’s body was discovered near the speed railway track line in the town of Hochheim am Main on Saturday. The prosecutors said that the cause of his death was most likely suicide.
Hesse is one of the wealthiest states in Germany and home to Frankfurt am Main, which is regarded as the financial capital of Europe’s largest economy. The city hosts the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the European Central Bank (ECB) as well as the HQs of Deutsche Bank and other major German companies.
Schaefer was credited for having contributed to the region’s well-being while serving as its finance minister for the last decade. The 54-year-old’s professional qualities were praised by many, with the man expected to eventually replace Bouffier as the state’s PM.
The coronavirus, however, dealt a massive blow to the system he was so thoroughly tending all those years, sending stocks into a freefall and locking the workforce at home with quarantine.
Schaefer leaves behind a wife and two children. He was working day and night in order to minimize the impact of the pandemic on businesses and employees, but the task turned out to be unsurmountable.
https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/coronavirus-pandemic-death-surges
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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