The pandemic bites all across the globe
CORONAVIRUS has now infected well over two million people around the world, with the death toll standing at more than 160,000.
Here is the latest situation country by country:
SPAIN
PRIME Minister Pedro Sanchez said the government will seek to extend the country’s state of emergency by two weeks to fight coronavirus, but will start easing the total confinement of children.
Spain imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe in mid-March that brought economic activity to a near standstill. The government, which has been under pressure from regional governments, parents and some educators to ease the lockdown for children, will begin to do so in nine days.
He said rolling back the national lockdown will only come when the country’s embattled health system is ready for possible rebounds. The state of emergency extension until May 9 needs to be approved by parliament.
FRANCE
THE national health agency said the number of virus patients in intensive care dropped for the 10th day in a row over the weekend, while the number of overall virus cases in hospital has fallen for three consecutive days.
Health officials say confinement is “stopping the viral spread”. The total number of deaths in France from Covid-19 reached 19,323, and nursing home deaths amount to more than one third of the total.
JAPAN
THE health ministry said 568 new cases of coronavirus were reported on Saturday, bringing the domestic total to 10,361. A combined total including 712 others from a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo earlier this year comes to 11,073, with 174 deaths.
The number of cases is still relatively small compared to the US and Europe, but that is only as many as Japan’s limited testing has detected and actual infections are believed to be far more widespread.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday expanded a state of emergency, which was limited to Tokyo and six other urban areas, to all of Japan in a bid to prevent further spread of the virus nationwide amid concerns that hospitals are already overburdened with influx of patients.
It took two months for the cases to reach 1,000 since the first case was detected in mid-January, but the spread of the infections has accelerated in recent weeks and the number doubled from around 5,000 in just 10 days.
SOUTH KOREA
SOUTH Korea has reported eight more cases of coronavirus in 24 hours, the first time the daily jump has dropped to a single digit in about two months.
The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says the additional figures released yesterday takes the country’s total to 10,661 with 234 deaths.
It says 8,042 of the total have recovered and released from quarantine.
South Korea’s caseload has been waning in recent weeks since it recorded hundreds of new cases every day between late February and early March, mostly in the south-eastern city of Daegu and nearby areas.
BRAZIL
HUNDREDS of people denouncing pandemic lockdown measures opposed by President Jair Bolsonaro snarled traffic in major cities.
Protesters in lorries, cars and on motorcycles honked horns on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and the capital of Brasilia over the weekend, calling for governors to resign over measures that have forced most businesses to close for weeks.
Mr Bolsonaro has been a fierce critic of the states’ stay-at-home measures, arguing that the economic harm could be more damaging than the illness. The protests took place a day after he fired his health minister, who had been promoting isolation.
PAKISTAN
EVEN as the daily confirmed cases of the virus continue to inch upwards, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government buckled to pressure from religious clerics and agreed to let mosques throughout the country remain open during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
Pakistan recorded 7,993 confirmed cases yesterday, an increase of 514. Sixteen people died of the virus in the previous 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 159.
But in Pakistan religious clerics have become a powerful force, holding sway and often using fear of bringing mobs on to the streets as leverage to force the government to bow to their demands.
Pakistan has been blamed for contributing to the outbreak of the virus in other parts of the world, including Gaza, after it refused to stop a gathering of tens of thousands of Tableeghi Jamaat (Islamic missionaries) until early March.
By the time it was cancelled thousands were already in Pakistan and many returned to their countries infected.
By some estimates, nearly 2,000 confirmed cases in Pakistan can be traced to the Tableeghi Jamaat.
Yet Mr Khan’s government has agreed to leave the mosques open and instead requested the faithful practice safe social distancing. But that request is not likely to be followed after several prominent religious clerics called for followers to pack the mosques.