EU slams Trump as corona rages Fewer cases being reported, peak has passed: China
GLOBAL EMERGENCY Spain’s deputy PM quarantined; Scandinavian govts impose emergency
WASHINGTON/ LONDON: US President Donald Trump restricted travel from Europe and the US cautioned citizens against going abroad, triggering a slump in European airline and travel stocks. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned there could be some “very serious problems” in the US after earlier declaring the outbreak a pandemic.
Trump said he will suspend all travel from Europe to the US for the next 30 days. The restrictions will not apply to the UK.
The EU reacted sharply to Trump’s decision. “The coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent,” the heads of the EU’S main institutions said in a statement. “The EU disapproves of the fact that the US decision to improve a travel ban was taken without consultation,” Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel said in a statement.
UK chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak said there’s no evidence that travel bans and closing borders will stop the spread of the coronavirus.
In Spain, the second deputy PM Pablo Iglesias has been put in quarantine after his partner was diagnosed with the coronavirus, according to a statement from the government. Iglesias’s partner, Irene Montero, who is also the equality minister, is in good condition, the government said.
Scandinavian governments are imposing emergency measures as the number of people to have contracted the virus in the region tops 1,500. Denmark is telling all citizens to do what they can to isolate themselves to prevent the virus from bringing down the country’s health-care system.
Hungary’s deputy PM is calling on large churches to hold more frequent services during
BEIJING: China has passed the peak of the novel coronavirus outbreak, national health authorities said on Thursday, hours after the WHO declared the contagion as a pandemic.
The situation in China where t he v i r us o r i g i nat e d has improved dramatically with a steady decline in new cases - the number of new cases has dropped to a single digit in ground zero - Wuhan.
“China has passed the climax of the novel coronavirus outbreak with the number of new infections continuing to decline,” Mi Feng, spokesperson of the national health commission (NHC), said at a press conference in Beijing.
The announcement came two days after President Xi Jinping visited Wuhan for the first time since the outbreak began, signalling that the situation has turned a corner in China.
Until weeks ago, China was reporting hundreds of new cases of the infection daily. The central Chinese province of Hubei, worst-hit by the outbreak that began in December, had eight new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours - and all in Wuhan.
Only seven new cases were reported on the Chinese mainland outside Hubei, but six were ‘imported’ from abroad. Overall, 15 new coronavirus infections and 11 new deaths were reported on Wednesday in the Chinese mainland.
The total infection number soared to 80,793 with 3,169 deaths.
With six new cases reported on Wednesday, the total number of ‘ i mported’ cases i n China reached 85, with 46 coming from Iran and 27 from Italy.
Wuhan could clear all infected cases to zero by the end of March if all efforts being implemented continue uninterrupted, and there are no emergencies over infections coming in from overseas, leading epidemiologist Li Lanjuan has said.
NHC spokesperson Mi added that China had taken the strictest and most comprehensive prevention and control measures to contain the outbreak.
Wuhan was put under a lockdown on January 23 and across Hubei millions faced restrictions.
It is likely that the restrictions will be lifted in a staggered manner. The Chinese government’s focus will now be on reviving the economy.