#0237 – Live Updates: Nations Remain on Lockdown as Coronavirus Cases Top 191,000 Globally

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The death toll from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease in the United States has reached 150 with an excess of 10,400 people confirmed positive for contracting the virus in all 54 states and territories, the Centers or Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Thursday.

The CDC said 150 people have died from COVID-19, an increase of 35 on Wednesday’s figure with the total number of cases rising to 10,442.

The Coronavirus Research Center at Johns Hopkins University put the total number of US deaths so far at 154 and said almost half – 68 – occurred in the northwestern state of Washington.

The CRC put the total number of confirmed cases in the United States at 10,755.

GENOA (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko – Chinese medical specialists recommend that Italy enforce social distancing rules more stringently to effectively contain the spread of the coronavirus, Valerio Mogini, a doctor from the Italian Red Cross’ biocontainment unit, said.

A team of 10 Chinese medical specialists has come to Italy with the assistance of the Chinese Red Cross. With nearly 33,200 confirmed cases, Italy is suffering from the biggest coronavirus outbreak outside of China. On Thursday, its death toll overtook the Chinese one, jumping to 3,405.

“They are suggesting that we be stricter on social distancing. In China social distancing measures were tougher than in Italy, and they really believe that this is the measure that can stop the spread,” Mogini said.

He noted that the Chinese doctors in Italy met with their counterparts and local authorities to share their experience.

“It is great for us to see how they are donating their expertise, their time to help another country. This time of collaboration is something that is really in the spirit of the Red Cross and we are glad to see it once again,” the Italian doctor stated.

What is more important, Mogini went on, Chinese doctors who have gone through the peak of the outbreak at home are “giving us hope.”

Italy has been under quarantine since March 9. People have been asked to stay home and only go out for essential activities. All entertainment sites have been shut down, save for food stores and pharmacies. Public transport yet continues operating. Earlier on Thursday, one of the doctors from the team that arrived from China suggested that Italy “cut all the mobility” and halt public transportation.

GENOA (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko – Italy’s northern regions, the worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak, are likely to see a peak of cases soon, while prospects for the south remain unclear, Valerio Mogini, a doctor from the Italian Red Cross’ biocontainment unit involved in the response since the onset of the outbreak, said.

On Wednesday, COVID-19 took 475 lives in Italy, which has been the highest one-day death toll for any country since the beginning of the epidemic. On Thursday, the number of fatalities rose by 427 to 3,405, surpassing the Chinese death toll, which stands at 3,245. In total, Italy has registered nearly 33,200 coronavirus cases.

“In my opinion, what we are going to face is a peak in northern Italy pretty soon, but it might be different in the rest of the country. The spread [of the disease] is going on, but now at least it will probably be slowed down by the containment and social distancing measures of the government,” Mogini said.

According to the doctor, the current high mortality rate may be actually “consequences of what happened before the social distancing” was introduced.

“Those people who are now in the intensive care units, they were probably infected quite some time ago, so it means that probably they got infected before the measures and we still need time to see how the measures are working. You know, the virus takes about 5-15 days from the first contact to actually develop the symptoms, and when someone develops the symptoms, it takes probably one week before he or she needs intensive care unit,” he explained.

Asked whether he believes that the south could avoid a situation similar to the one unfolding in the northern regions, he expressed hope for that but refrained from making projections.

“I think that we will have cases, but I hope that we are not going to face the same situation that we are facing in the north of Italy. This is our hope,” Mogini stated.

Speaking about the problems that hospitals are confronting now, he highlighted the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors.

“The real problem is that so far it is pretty hard to buy and obtain personal protective equipment (PPE). Italian government is buying it from the Italian market, and they have started a program to make the industry produce more of PPEs,” the medic said.

He noted that the problem was now common in virtually all countries in Europe and the world because the demand for this equipment was “absolutely overwhelming.”

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The South African government said on Thursday that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country had increased to 150.

As of Wednesday, the number of those infected in the country stood at 116. No fatal cases have been registered so far.

“South Africa now has 150 confirmed cases of #Covid19. 34 new cases have been confirmed,” the government said on Twitter.

On March 15, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of emergency over the COVID-19 concerns. Also, starting Wednesday, South Africa prohibited the entry to foreign citizens coming from countries that are highly afflicted by the pandemic, such as Italy, Iran, South Korea, China, and Germany. South African nationals are discouraged from visiting those countries as well.

According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 222,000 cases of COVID-19 infection worldwide have been confirmed, including over 9,000 fatalities and more than 84,000 recoveries.

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) – Israeli police on Thursday suppressed a protest outside the parliament building in Jerusalem, where people had gathered to condemn the strict quarantine measures aimed at preventing the further spread of COVID-19, and arrested three activists, police spokesman Mikhael Zingerman said.

Earlier in the day, a convoy of 100 cars filled with protesters attempted to enter Jerusalem to protest the quarantine. The vehicles were stopped and nearly all drivers fined, according to Zingerman. Later, some 200 protesters gathered outside the parliament building. The police quickly responded, guided by the new recommendations of the Health Ministry that ban meetings of more than 10 people in one place amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Approximately 200 people gathered in the Knesset area and thus violated the order of the Ministry of Health. Three suspects who violated public order and tried to block roads and highways near the parliament building were arrested,” Zingerman said.

The presence of law enforcement in the center of Jerusalem has increased to prevent riots, the police spokesman added.

“Of course, the Israeli police are obliged to allow democratic expression of feelings and opinions, but in light of the current circumstances, everything necessary will be done to ensure that the instructions of the Ministry of Health are implemented,” Zingerman said.

On Wednesday, Israel shut its borders to all foreigners in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured the public that putting the country on total lockdown was not being considered.

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) – Israeli police on Thursday suppressed a protest outside the parliament building in Jerusalem, where people had gathered to condemn the strict quarantine measures aimed at preventing the further spread of COVID-19, and arrested three activists, police spokesman Mikhael Zingerman said.

Earlier in the day, a convoy of 100 cars filled with protesters attempted to enter Jerusalem to protest the quarantine. The vehicles were stopped and nearly all drivers fined, according to Zingerman. Later, some 200 protesters gathered outside the parliament building. The police quickly responded, guided by the new recommendations of the Health Ministry that ban meetings of more than 10 people in one place amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Approximately 200 people gathered in the Knesset area and thus violated the order of the Ministry of Health. Three suspects who violated public order and tried to block roads and highways near the parliament building were arrested,” Zingerman said.

The presence of law enforcement in the center of Jerusalem has increased to prevent riots, the police spokesman added.

“Of course, the Israeli police are obliged to allow democratic expression of feelings and opinions, but in light of the current circumstances, everything necessary will be done to ensure that the instructions of the Ministry of Health are implemented,” Zingerman said.

On Wednesday, Israel shut its borders to all foreigners in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured the public that putting the country on total lockdown was not being considered.

While the number of confirmed infection cases in Israel nears 530, Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman Tov warned that it would spike in the coming days.

LONDON (Sputnik) – The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is likely to struggle with managing the surge in patients who will test positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), given that the institution has suffered during a decade of austerity characterized by overcapacity, staff shortages, and government inaction, co-chair of the Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) non-profit organization Dr John Puntis said on Friday.

“The NHS is not in such a good position as it could have been, so one would say over the last ten years it’s been hit by austerity and there are some very clear indications of that in terms of there being 17,000 fewer hospital beds, 100,000 staff vacancies and 40,000 fewer nurses. There hasn’t been the investment there should have been,” Puntis said.

The KONP co-chair went on to argue that staff within the health service had become increasingly anxious about their own vulnerability to COVID-19, claiming there was an immediate need to ensure that health sector workers receive protective clothing. If that was not done, he said, the already evident strain on the NHS would only get worse, ultimately compounding the issue as the UK struggles to deal with the outbreak.

“The NHS, before the virus even, all the performance figures show deterioration in terms of A&E [Accident and Emergency] targets, waiting lists, trolley waits in A&E … they all get worse, and that reflects the relatively poor state of affairs. Staff are panicking about risk because of inadequate provision of protective clothing. If we don’t protect front line health workers, including ambulance staff and paramedics, if they get sick that compounds the strain on the service very considerably,” Puntis stated.

Previous government proposals to pay private manufacturers to construct additional ventilators for intensive care units were also questioned, given it would necessarily involve companies employing staff and resources that had previously not been used to produce medical equipment.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson had claimed earlier this week that the prime minister would be speaking to British manufacturers about the possibility of creating additional ventilators for the NHS, with Honda and Vauxhall having allegedly been asked to help.

Such policies would not necessarily be as simple as they appear, Puntis claimed, especially as the NHS was already undermanned in terms of properly trained staff with experience in operating the kind of equipment now needed.

“Getting more ventilators is only part of the solution. The flippant remark is that we get more ventilators and train doctors on how to use them … this is the point where you need properly trained nursing staff. Although they have put the invitation out to manufacturing to switch to producing ventilators, it’s been pointed out that medical equipment has to be made to very high standards so it’s not necessarily that simple,” he argued.

The NHS also faces severe overcapacity issues, evident after a letter from NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens was made public on Tuesday. Stevens called on hospitals to cancel all non-urgent surgeries for three months from April 15, in order to free up approximately 30,000 beds for potential COVID-19 patients.

“The other thing is that bed occupancy in the NHS has been running at over 95 percent and normally intensive care is pretty full too, so it’s not like there’s a lot of empty space just waiting for patients to come in,” Puntis stated.

The NHS, itself always a hot topic at election time, has come under ever-increasing scrutiny following the emergence of the coronavirus disease in the UK. Campaigners and opposition politicians have persistently criticized the government over what they see as a persistent inability to handle the UK’s health needs, a point demonstrated by a glaring bed shortage that has already seen the loss of some 17,000 hospital beds ever since the Conservative Party regained office in 2010.

Such capacity issues alongside a reduction in staffing levels would appear to indicate that the UK remains ill-equipped to deal with COVID-19 in the event it continues to spread, a sentiment shared by Puntis who stated that the current situation in the UK was already a crisis.

“Everyone accepts we’re now in a crisis because of this new disease that’s quite a lot more virulent than seasonal influenza. It’s much bigger than that. It’s already having an extraordinary, devastating effect on public life,” the non-profit co-chair stated.

As of Thursday, a total of 137 people are believed to have died after contracting COVID-19 in the UK, with the government rushing to fast track emergency legislation to contain any further spread, including measures to close schools, grant police additional powers to detain those suspected of carrying the disease and restrict or outright ban public gatherings.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Three races of the Formula 1 championship — the Grand Prix of the Netherlands, the Grand Prix of Spain and the Grand Prix of Monaco — will be postponed due to the coronavirus, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) said on Thursday.

“In view of the continued global spread of COVID-19 and after ongoing discussions with Formula 1 and the three promoters, it has today been confirmed that the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix 2020, Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix 2020 and Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix 2020 will be postponed,” the FIA said.

The FIA ​​and Formula 1 continue to work closely with promoters and local authorities to monitor the situation and continue to consider alternative dates for each grand prix at the end of the year, it said.

The 2020 season is expected to start after May, as soon as it is safe, the FIA added.

Earlier, Formula 1 cancelled the race in Australia and postponed races in Bahrain, Vietnam and China due to the situation with coronavirus. The Dutch Grand Prix was scheduled for May 1-3, the Spanish Grand Prix for May 8-10, and the Monaco Grand Prix for May 21-24.

“At the moment, the disease is proceeding in a way that does not seem yet to be responding to our interventions… I believe that a combination of the measures that we’re asking the public to take and better testing, scientific progress, will enable us to get on top of it within the next 12 weeks… I cannot stand here and tell you that by the end of June we will be on a downward slope. It’s possible but I simply can’t say that that’s for certain,” Johnson told journalists, as quoted by Reuters. 

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is the most severe health crisis in the history of the United Nations and is certain to lead to a global recession of potentially record levels.

“We are facing a global health crisis unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations – one that is spreading human suffering, infecting the global economy and upending people’s lives,” Guterres said in a statement. “A global recession – perhaps of record dimensions – is a near certainty.”

ROME (Sputnik) – The death toll from coronavirus infection in Italy rose by 427 in past 24 hours to a total of 3,405 people, while the total number of COVID-19 cases increased by almost 4,500 during the same period, Angelo Borrelli, the head of the National Civil Protection Agency, said Thursday.

“Unfortunately, today we recorded 427 deaths,” Borrelli said at a briefing, adding that the total number of coronavirus cases in the country had surpassed 41,000.

In terms of the number of victims, Italy has surpassed China as the Chinese state committee on healthcare reported earlier on Thursday that 3,245 people had so far become coronavirus victims in the country.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), initially set to take place in Vietnam in April, has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, state media said on Thursday, citing Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

According to VNA, Nguyen informed the ASEAN member states and New Zealand about plans to postpone the 36th summit, ASEAN-New Zealand Summit and other meetings until the end of June.

The summit was scheduled for April 6-9 in Da Nang, as Vietnam is the ASEAN chair in 2020.

To date, Vietnam has confirmed 76 COVID-19 cases.

BERLIN (Sputnik) – Berlin’s main festive event for celebrating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II has been cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic, a source in the organizing committee said on Thursday.

“We have been forced to cancel the event due to the developments of the coronavirus situation,” the source said.

The celebrations were due to be held in Berlin on May 8, with the participation of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, other officials and foreign guests.

TORONTO (Sputnik) – The number of confirmed cases of infection with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Canada is approaching 800 and the death toll has increased to nine, Canada’s Chief Medical Officer Theresa Tam said during a press briefing on Thursday.

“In Canada, as of now, there are 772 cases and nine deaths of COVID-19,” Tam told reporters.

Tam also said that more than 55,000 Canadians have been tested for the disease.

According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 222,000 cases of COVID-19 infections worldwide have been confirmed, including over 9,000 fatalities and more than 84,000 recoveries.

The epicentre of the pandemic has now shifted from China to Europe, where the total number of infected individuals has surpassed 80,000.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The US state of New Jersey has registered 318 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and four additional deaths since yesterday, Governor Phil Murphy said on Thursday.

“We’ve 318 new positive test results since yesterday, bringing our statewide total to 742,” Murphy said via Twitter. “Sadly, we have four additional deaths.”

The coronavirus pandemic is pushing Germany into a deep recession, and the country’s economy may fall by 1.5-6 percent in 2020, the Munich-based ifo Institute for Economic Research said Thursday.

“One scenario under consideration at the ifo Institute is highly positive, with economic output of minus 1.5 percent for 2020. However, this takes only minor declines in industry production into account. In a second scenario, which assumes greater cutbacks in production, economic output shrinks by 6 percent,” ifo President Clemens Fuest said, as quoted in the institute’s press release.

In its previous forecast in December 2019, ifo expected 1.1 percent GDP growth in 2020.

To mitigate the impact of the crisis, the institute proposed the suspension of all taxes for small- and medium-sized businesses for several months, and additional help to workers who are losing income due to unpaid leave. Support for liquidity and government guarantees can prevent a wave of bankruptcies, it said.

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) is even more pessimistic, predicting that the German economy may shrink 4.5-9 percent this year.

The 4.5 percent GDP drop may be expected if the current coronavirus situation lasts until the end of April. If recovery only happens in August, the GDP will fall 8.7 percent, the IfW said.

The UK government must take steps to provide tax relief for manufacturers in order to prevent widespread job losses amid the economic disruption caused by the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, the MAKE UK manufacturers union said in a statement on Thursday.

“There are alarm bells going off right across the manufacturing sector with the prospect of substantial lay-offs looming. Order books are collapsing and this is creating immediate cashflow issues for companies which need addressing within days not weeks,” the union’s chief executive Stephen Phipson said in the statement.

MAKE UK is urging the government to defer value-added tax (VAT), pay-as-you-earn tax (PAYE) and all national insurance contributions, as well as financial support to pay employees who have been forced to self-isolate.

The union added that even before the COVID-19 outbreak, economic results for the first quarter of 2020 showed that both domestic and foreign orders had significantly slumped, placing manufacturers in an increasingly precarious position.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Netherlands has increased by 409 to 2,460 over the past 24 hours, while the number of fatalities has grown to 76, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said on Thursday.

As of Wednesday, there were 2,051 confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands.

“Since yesterday, 409 people have tested positive for COVID-19. Thus, the total number of those infected has reached 2,460,” the institute said.

The number of coronavirus-related fatalities went up by 18. Most patients died were aged between 63 and 95.

Dutch medical care minister Bruno Bruins has resigned after he fell down on the floor of parliament due to exhaustion on Wednesday evening.

The number of confirmed cases of infection with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Canada is approaching 800 and the death toll has increased to nine, Canada’s Chief Medical Officer Theresa Tam said during a press briefing on Thursday.

“In Canada, as of now, there are 772 cases and nine deaths of COVID-19,” Tam told reporters.

“I would know because I would have to authorize those actions legally. It’s not going to happen,” Cuomo said. “I’m not doing it.”

On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that a shelter-in-place order might be imposed for the city over the next 48 hours to slow down the spread of COVID-19.

However, Cuomo said it is essential at present to ensure that services and society remain healthy and functional.

“We need the health care system up and running… We need police. We need fire[men]. We need bus drivers. We need daycare workers. We need a transportation system. All these functions have to continue,” Cuomo said.

The governor said in an attempt to slow down the COVID-19 spread he ordered allowing no more than 25 percent of employees to come to work in New York State.

“As a mandate, 75 percent of your employee base must work from home,” Cuomo said in an appeal to businesses.