The Guardian: Coronavirus cases pass 100,000 globally as Iran threatens force to restrict travel
WHO calls on countries to make containing spread their highest priority, as Trump signs emergency spending bill
The total number of coronavirus cases confirmed around the world passed 100,000 on Friday as Iran reported a sharp rise in cases and threatened to use force to stop people travelling between cities.
Tehran’s announcement came as the World Health Organization called on countries to make “containment their highest priority” and Donald Trump signed a $8.3bn emergency spending bill to deal with the virus, despite insisting that it “will go away”.
In Italy, Europe’s worst-affected country, the death toll rose by 46 to 197, and the number of confirmed cases increased by 778 to 4,636.
Read more ....
MIDDLE EAST
Syria war: Idlib ceasefire between Russia and Turkey begins.
Tense calm, sporadic clashes in Idlib as Russia-Turkey ceasefire broadly holds.
Turkey kills 21 Syrian troops as cease-fire with Russia signed.
Iraq forces continue fight against ISIL without US air support.
ANOTHER senior Iranian official dies from coronavirus: Foreign minister adviser, who took part in 1979 US embassy hostage crisis, is regime's latest victim.
Friday prayers across Middle East overshadowed by coronavirus fears.
Palestine declares state of emergency over coronavirus.
ASIA
Gunmen stage deadly attack on Shiite memorial service in Afghan capital.
Afghan political leader Abdullah escapes attack on Kabul ceremony.
Trump insists Taliban wants to 'make a deal' after surge in violence in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan war crimes investigation by ICC goes ahead despite US opposition.
Trump: Taliban could 'possibly' seize power after US troops leave.
Coronavirus heightens tensions between Japan and South Korea.
North Korea stays quiet on Kim Jong Un letter.
India protest violence leaves thousands displaced.
AFRICA
Suicide bombers kill policeman in attack near US embassy in Tunisia’s capital.
Six killed in attack on Nigeria military base.
Zambia's leader blames church officials for mob violence.
Sudan's June crackdown may have killed 241 people: Rights group.
Guinea protests: One dead in anti-government demonstration.
Congo protests against unpaid pensions as gov't debt balloons.
Farmers fear impact of Nile River dam.
Coronavirus: What misinformation has spread in Africa?
EUROPE
Clashes between Greek police, migrants reported on Turkish border.
Refugees told 'Europe is closed' as tensions rise at Greece-Turkey border.
‘Open the gates,’ migrants chant at Turkey-Greece border.
EU 'won't be pressured' over Greece-Turkey border crisis.
Ukraine president: Putin has one year to strike deal to end war.
Europe experiences exceptionally warm winter.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle begin farewell Royal events.
AMERICAS
Coronavirus: Trump signs $8.3bn aid bill as cases rise.
US economy adds 273K jobs in February, crushing expectations amid coronavirus worries.
US Senator Romney to vote for Burisma subpoena.
Biden, Sanders set for key battle in Michigan.
Brazil recalls diplomats, officials from Venezuela.
'Our role is central': more than 1m Chilean women to march in huge protest.
Guyana president urged not to claim election victory. Guyana election: US concerned over 'electoral fraud'.
U.S. charges Russian billionaire with hiding $1B in income, assets.
TERRORISM/THE LONG WAR
Suicide bombers target police near U.S. Embassy in Tunisia.
Turkey’s Operation “Spring Shield” delivers blow to Hezbollah.
Uzbek jihadist group congratulates Taliban for ‘victory’ in Afghanistan.
Germany: Alleged IS terrorist goes on trial.
ECONOMY/FINANCE/BUSINESS
Oil prices plunge 8% after OPEC+ fails to agree on a massive production cut.
The coronavirus is shaking up the world's art market in unexpected ways.
House investigation finds Boeing’s 737 Max was ‘marred’ by technical problems, lack of transparency.
3 comments:
In the first news conference Trump held that was centered on the virus, he focused on 15 cases that had been reported in the United States, largely ignoring a group of patients who had been evacuated to the United States from a cruise ship throughout which the virus had spread.
“The level that we’ve had in our country is very low, and those people are getting better, or we think that in almost all cases they’re better, or getting,” Trump said then. “… Of the 15 people — the ‘original 15,’ as I call them — eight of them have returned to their homes, to stay in their homes until fully recovered. One is in the hospital, and five have fully recovered. And one is, we think, in pretty good shape, and it’s in between hospital and going home. So we have a total of — but we have a total of 15 people, and they’re in a process of recovering, with some already having fully recovered.”
How does novel coronavirus spread? How long does COVID-19 stay alive on surfaces? How do people catch and share the new disease? By David Caraccio
Guidance from state and federal public health officials is clear: Anyone possibly exposed to the coronavirus should self-quarantine to prevent the spread of the disease.
Comments by President Donald Trump during a Fox News interview Wednesday night have been called “reckless” and “a danger to public health” after he contradicted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During the phone interview with Sean Hannity, Trump questioned the fatality rate of the coronavirus and suggested infected people could still go to work.
“Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number,” Trump said of the official mortality rate from the World Health Organization.
Thomas Frieden, CDC Director from 2009 to 2017: “The CDC got this right with H1N1 and Zika, and produced huge quantities of test kits that went around the country. I don’t know what went wrong this time.”
This is a very, very big question, one I suspect we’ll be discussing long after the crisis is passed. South Korea has tested roughly 140,000 people. The US has tested about 1500. South Korea is obviously physically closer to China and I would assume has denser transportation links. But it’s not necessarily clear that it got to South Korea earlier than it did to the US or as much earlier as many are thinking. It now seems clear that COVID-19 has been spreading in the United States for at least six weeks. What’s less clear is whether that spread first took hold in Washington state and more recently fanned out into the multiple states now reporting cases or whether it’s been spreading independently from multiple seeding points the whole time.
Not having adequate tests has made it very difficult to know the current spread of infection and thus know the proper level of mitigation actions to take. But again, why did this happen?
This is significantly an unknown. But one aspect of what happened seems broadly clear from public health experts and epidemiologists.
The test that had problems was under the authority of the CDC. This is a new disease and test development can have problems. It’s not really shocking or necessarily a sign of incompetence that one test and test-creation process had problems. The bigger issue was somewhere else. The United States has a great deal of test development and manufacturing capacity outside of the CDC. There are big state labs, academic research institutions and private sector capacity. But those organizations were barred from rolling out their own tests without approval from the FDA. And that wasn’t forthcoming until a few days ago. That is even though in recent weeks lots of labs and public health authorities were pressing the FDA to give the go-ahead.
The FDA and the CDC are both parts of the Department of Health and Human Services, with significantly overlapping mandates. This appears to have been the biggest issue and the biggest as yet unexplained problem. It appears to have been significantly a management and leadership issue.
Post a Comment