US, China trade pandemic barbs SPAIN CONFIRMS NEARLY 2,000 NEW CASES, AS INFECTIONS TOP 11,000
Berlin, March 17: Tens of millions of people hunkered down in governmentordered isolation on Tuesday as borders slammed shut, schools and businesses closed and increasingly drastic restrictions on movement took effect. Others were scrambling to get home, caught up in widespread travel restrictions that aimed to slow the spread of the new Covid-19.
From Southeast Asia to Europe to the Americas, people found their lives upended by lockdowns and social distancing. Commuters in the Philippines waited in huge traffic jams at checkpoints set up to take their temperatures before entering Manila.
Spain, now the fourthmost infected country, saw infections rise on Tuesday by more than 2,000 in one day to 11,178 and virus-related deaths jump by almost 200 to 491.
Only China, Italy and Iran had more infections. With the number of cases worldwide topping 183,000, a surge of patients in Madrid’s hospitals has fuelled worries across Europe of what lies ahead.
Pleas went out to send masks and ventilators to places like Italy and Spain that are struggling with soaring caseloads. “There is no easy or quick way out of this extremely difficult situation,” Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, said in the first televised speech by a Dutch leader since
1973. Airlines across the world have slashed flights due to a plunge in demand but also because many countries have been barring foreign arrivals.
Turkey planned to evacuate 3,614 citizens stranded in nine European countries after flights were suspended, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
Germany launched a 50 million-euro effort to bring home thousands of tourists stranded in popular winter vacation spots across the globe, including up to 5,000 in Morocco alone.
In Lithuania, trucks seeking to enter Poland backed up in a line 60 kilometers long after Poland closed its border to foreigners due to the new
covid-19. Thailand calling off its water festival in April. Malaysia banned foreign travel and is allowing only essential services to stay open. The first confirmed cases of Covid-19 were reported in Somalia.
Beijing, March 17: A spat between the US and China over Covid-19 escalated on Tuesday as President Donald Trump angered Beijing by referring to the pathogen as the “Chinese Virus”. The two countries have sparred over the origin of the virus for days, with a Chinese official promoting conspiracy theories claiming it was brought to China by the US army and American officials using terms seen as stigmatising a nation.
“The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus,” Trump tweeted Monday night.
He doubled down on the comment on Tuesday morning while tweeting about how US states were being affected, saying: “Some
Madrid, March 17: Spain on Tuesday confirmed nearly 2,000 new cases of
Covid-19, sending the total spiralling past 11,000, with
491 deaths, the health ministry said.
Spain is the fourth worst-hit country in the world after China, Italy and Iran, with numbers rising rapidly despite an unprecedented national lockdown, with the government
are being hit hard by the Chinese Virus, some are being hit practically not at all.” Trump’s allies had previously referred to the pandemic as the “Chinese covid-19”, but Beijing said Tuesday it was “strongly ordering its 46 million population to stay home.
Over the past 24 hours, the number of people infected rose by 1,987, hiking the overall total to 11,178, the ministry’s emergencies coordinator Fernando Simon said.
At the same time, the number of people who had recovered from the virus stood at 1,098, he said. indignant” over the phrase, which it called “a kind of stigmatisation”.
The US should “immediately stop its unjustified accusations against China”, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. A commentary by the official Xinhua news agency said using “racist and xenophobic names to cast blame for the outbreak on other countries can only reveal politicians’ irresponsibility and incompetence which will intensify virus fears”.
The war of words reignited diplomatic tensions between the two countries, which have tussled over trade and other issues since Trump took office.
Trump’s comments were also criticised inside the US, with warnings it could incite a backlash against the Asian-American community. “Our Asian-American communities — people YOU serve — are already suffering. They don’t need you fuelling more bigotry,” tweeted New York city mayor Bill de Blasio.