COVID-19: GLOBAL IMPACT
Doctors’ falls investigated
Two Russian doctors have died and another was seriously injured in falls from hospital windows after they reportedly came under pressure over working conditions in the coronavirus pandemic. The exact circumstances of the separate incidents in the past two weeks remain unclear and they are being investigated by police, but they underscore the enormous strains that Russian doctors and nurses have faced during the outbreak. Reports said two of the doctors had protested their working conditions and the third was being blamed after her colleagues contracted the virus. Across Russia, doctors have decried shortages of protective equipment and questionable infection control procedures at dozens of hospitals, with many saying they have been threatened with dismissal or even prosecution for going public with their grievances.
Taiwan pushes for WHO inclusion
Taiwan’s exclusion from the upcoming World Health Assembly would harm the global response to the coronavirus pandemic and cannot be excused by mere rules of procedure, the island’s health minister said yesterday. Chen Shih-chung told international media at a news conference that global health officials “have not been honest and failed in their responsibilities”, in an apparent reference to the UN World Health Organisation that oversees the assembly. Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has excluded it from the United Nations and its subsidiary organisations. China’s growing influence in the UN has made officials wary of crossing it, even while the US has withdrawn from or suspended funding for some of its organisations, including WHO, which it accuses of mishandling the coronavirus outbreak and displaying a pro-China bias. Chen Xu, China’s ambassador to UN institutions in Geneva, said Taiwan had torpedoed its hopes of attending the health assembly, saying the “current local authority sticks to the secessionist policy” and has abandoned the one-China policy.
Sweden isolation under pressure
Sweden’s public health agency is under pressure to change its controversial recommendation that people can leave self-isolation after just two days if they do not have symptoms, as top researchers in the country called for it to move closer to World Health Organisation guidelines. The two-day self-isolation period is built on the agency’s longstanding position that asymptomatic transmission is not a significant factor in the spread of coronavirus, and falls far short of that recommended by the WHO, which says people should selfisolate for 14 days.
Germany relaxes rules
German officials yesterday cleared the way for restaurants, hotels and remaining stores to reopen in the coming weeks, and for the country’s soccer league to resume play. They also put in place a requirement for regions to reimpose restrictions if coronavirus infections
rebound. Germany, which began shutting down public life in midMarch, has seen the number of new cases fall sharply in recent weeks. German politicians have faced mounting pressure from businesses demanding a return to normality.
India market outbreak
Health officials are rushing to contain a coronavirus outbreak in one of Asia’s largest fruit and vegetable markets in the southern Indian city of Chennai. So far, the market has been linked to more than 500 cases in several districts of Tamil Nadu state and adjacent Kerala state. More than 7000 people with connections to the Koyambedu market are being traced and quarantined. The market, which had remained open during India’s sixweek virus lockdown, is central to the region’s food supply chain. The challenge for public health officials is to track the many traders, workers and shoppers who visited the market. Experts said the virus cluster has exposed India’s poor surveillance during the pandemic. They said the country’s long denial of how prevalent the virus was resulted in people not taking precautions, and warned the market cluster could result in cases in India snowballing. Crucially, public health experts fear that many who visited the market will not inform authorities, fearing stigma or quarantines, and that some workers weren’t
registered.