Global body count climbs
Southern Europe buckled under the strain of the coronavirus pandemic yesterday, with gasping patients filling the wards of hospitals in Spain and Italy as the global death toll surpassed 10,000.
In the United States, California’s governor expanded restrictions on non-essential movement for all 40 million residents, and the Trump administration warned Americans abroad to return home or risk spending an ‘‘indefinite’’ period away.
The World Health Organisation noted the dramatic speed of the virus’ spread. ‘‘It took over three months to reach the first 10,000 confirmed cases, and only 12 days to reach the next 100,000,’’ the United Nations health agency said.
In Bergamo, the epicentre of the virus in Italy, cemeteries were overwhelmed. Sky News video from inside the city’s main hospital showed patients lined up in a narrow ward, struggling for breath as doctors and nurses moved swiftly from one beeping machine to the next.
Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began, offered a ray of hope, with no new infections reported for a second day in a row and only 39 cases reported nationwide – all of them brought in from outside China, the government said.
Britain’s cafes, pubs, bars and restaurants were shut down in an attempt to stop the nation socialising, with scientists warning that restrictions may need to stay in place for a year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson also ordered hotel bars, theatres, cinemas, gyms, nightclubs and leisure centres to close for the foreseeable future, acting on scientific advice that avoiding unnecessary social contact was vital to slow the spread of the virus and avoid a rise in cases that would overwhelm the NHS.
The measures will initially be in place for 14 days, with establishments that refuse to shut being at risk of losing their licences. The restrictions might be eased temporarily in a few months.
In a measure of how the fortunes of East and West have shifted, a Chinese Red Cross official heading an aid delegation to Milan castigated Italians for failing to take their national lockdown seriously. Sun Shuopeng said he was shocked to see so many people walking around, using public transport and eating out in hotels. ‘‘All people should be staying at home in quarantine.’’
French President Emmanuel Macron urged employees to keep working in supermarkets, production sites and other necessary businesses amid stringent movement restrictions.
Worldwide, the death toll from Covid-19 passed 10,000 and infections exceeded 244,000, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.
Italy, with 60 million citizens, has recorded 3405 deaths, exceeding the 3248 in China, a country with a population over 20 times larger. Spain, second behind Italy in Europe, reported 1002 deaths and 19,980 infections. The US death toll rose to 205.
‘‘Certain medical centres are suffering stress that is reaching the limit,’’ said Fernando Simon, director of Spain’s centre for health alerts and emergencies.
The US Army was preparing mobile military hospitals for deployment in major cities, and motorists waited in long lines for nurses to swab their nostrils at new drive-through testing sites across the country. New York City is rapidly becoming a US epicentre, with more than 4000 cases.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state needed thousands of ventilators before the outbreak overwhelmed it hospitals. At a video conference with US President Donald Trump, governors complained of difficulties obtaining such things as swabs and protective gear for doctors and nurses.
In an extraordinary exchange, Trump and the government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, publicly sparred yesterday over whether a malaria drug would work to treat people with coronavirus.
Reporters asked both men if a malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine could be used. Fauci got right to the point. ‘‘No,’’ he said.
Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Health, and in more than 30 years has handled HIV, SARS, MERS, Ebola, and now the new coronavirus. Currently, there is no medicine specifically approved for treating Covid-19.
But Trump said he disagreed with the notion that there is no magic drug for the disease. ‘‘Maybe and maybe not, ’’ he said. ‘‘Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t. We have to see.’’