147: Iran’s biggest jump in fatalities 103-YEAR-OLD IRANIAN WOMAN MAKES RECOVERY
Covid controls lead to traffic jams, slow passage of vehicles carrying critical supplies
Berlin, March 18: Desperate travellers choked European border crossings on Wednesday after nations implemented strict controls in an attempt to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus, creating traffic jams miles long and slowing the passage of trucks carrying critical supplies.
The number of people infected worldwide crested the 200,000 mark and deaths topped 8,000, with the number of people now recovered at more than 82,000, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
In an attempt to alleviate some of the pressure from eastern Europeans stuck in Austria trying to return home, Hungary overnight opened its borders in phases. Bulgarians were first allowed to cross in carefully controlled convoys, then Romanians had a turn.
But by early Wednesday on the Austrian side of the border, trucks were backed up for 28 kilometres and cars for 14 kilometres as rules allowing only Hungarians or transport trucks through the country’s borders kicked back in.
European Union leaders have been working on how to make sure that food, medical supplies and other essential goods keep flowing but so far borders have been clogged. Looking ahead, they’re also trying to figure out ways to allow seasonal agricultural workers, needed to keep the production of food going, to travel back and forth across essentially closed borders. Nations around the world were facing the same issues, with the US and Canada working on a mutual ban on nonessential travel between the two countries.
In Southeast Asia, the causeway between Malaysia and the financial hub of Singapore was eerily quiet after Malaysia shut its borders, while the Philippines backed down on an order giving foreigners 72 hours to leave from a large part of its main island.
President Donald Trump’s administration was considering a plan to immediately return to Mexico all people who cross America’s southern border illegally, according to two officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan hasn’t been finalised. In far-flung Hawaii, the governor encouraged travellers to postpone their island vacations for at least the next 30 days, while the governor of Nevada — home to Las Vegas — ordered a monthlong closure of the state’s casinos. Worried about the economic fallout of the global shutdown, the US, Britain and the Netherlands announced rescue packages totalling hundreds of billions of dollars.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European leaders agreed in a conference call to the commission's proposal for an entry ban to the bloc — along with Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Britain — with “very, very limited exceptions”. Germany will implement the decision immediately. But so far, European Union efforts to smooth the transition have failed.
Trucks wait in a traffic jam on a highway near Briesen, some 12 km from the Polish border, on Wednesday, as Polish border authorities conducted strenuous health checks before allowing people to return in an attempt to fight the spread of the novel Covid-19.
Tehran, March 18: Iran reported its single biggest jump in deaths from the new Covid-19 on Wednesday as another 147 people died, raising the country’s overall death toll to 1,135. The nearly 15 per cent spike in deaths — amid a total of 17,361 confirmed cases in Iran — marks the biggest 24-hour rise in fatalities since officials first acknowledged virus cases in Iran mid-February.
Still, even as the number of cases continues to grow, food markets were still packed with shoppers on Wednesday and highways crowded with traffic as families travelled between cities ahead of the Persian New Year, Nowruz, on Friday. Iran’s deputy health minister Alireza Raisi urged the public to avoid travel and crowded places. He told Iranians the coming period represented two “golden weeks” to try curb the virus from spreading.
He criticised people for not adhering to the warnings to stay home, saying the virus is very serious. “This is not a good situation at all,” he said. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday defended his government’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak in the face of of widespread
Tehran, March 18: A 103year-old woman in Iran has recovered after being infected with the new Covid-19, state media reported, despite overwhelming evidence the elderly are most at risk from the disease. The unnamed woman had been hospitalised in the central city of Semnan for about a week, IRNA news agency said. But she was “discharged after making a complete recovery”, Semnan University of Medical Sciences head Navid Danayi was quoted as saying by IRNA late Tuesday. criticism that officials acted too slowly and may have even covered up initial cases before infections rapidly spread across the country. In a speech to his Cabinet, Rouhani said the government was “straightforward” with the nation, saying it announced the outbreak as soon as it learned about it on February 19.