Our Reporter
WEARY and confused travellers, many wearing face masks, rushed to board flights from European airports to the United States(US) on Thursday after President Donald Trump announced sweeping travel restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus(COVID-19).
Trump’s 30-day travel order applies to citizens of 26 European countries. Britain and Ireland as well as American citizens were excempted.
The ban takes effect from midnight today.
“This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history,” Trump said in a prime-time televised address from the Oval Office in Washington DC.
Justifying the travel restrictions, he accused the EU of failing to take “the same precautions” as the US in fighting the virus which he once described as a hoax.
But a presidential proclamation later said it would only apply to anyone who had been in the EU’s Schengen border-free area in the 14 days before their arrival in the U.S.
Trump also said the suspension would apply to cargo coming from Europe into the US. He later tweeted to say that trade would “in no way be affected.”
There are 1,135 confirmed cases of the virus across the US, with 38 deaths so far.
But EU fired back at Trump, saying the killer virus was “a global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action.”
“The EU disapproves of the fact that the US decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation,” European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel said in a statement.
Apart from the confusion and anger generated by the US President’s announcement, shares around the world fell further. Schools and other public facilities in the Republic of Ireland were closed while Italy imposed further restrictions, shutting nearly all shops, bars, hairdressers, restaurants and cafes until 25 March
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel, warned that up to 70 per cent of the country’s population – some 58 million people – could contract COVID-19.
India suspended most visas for foreigners until April 15.
Many travelers were also critical of Trump’s decision.
“It’s ridiculous. Why do we impose a ban now when the virus is already in the United States?” said Leo Mota, 24, who had just arrived at Paris’s main international airport, Roissy Charles de Gaulle, from Los Angeles.
Algeria closes schools, varsities
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has ordered schools and universities to close until April 5 to slow the spread of the coronavirus, state media reported on Thursday.
This follows the country’s first registered death from the disease. Algeria has confirmed 24 cases of coronavirus, mostly among members of a single family in the city of Blida, south of the capital.
The government has already ordered a range of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
These include a ban on spectators at football games and the suspension of all cultural, social and political gatherings.
The authorities have not clarified, however, whether the ban extends to weekly mass protests that have convulsed Algeria for more than a year, thrusting its long-established political class into crisis.
Political turmoil and economic troubles also threaten hydrocarbon producer Algeria as it wrestles with the coronavirus.
A crash in global oil prices has compounded years of declining energy revenues that have drained half of Algeria’s state currency reserves. (dpa/NAN)
China says COVID-19 epidemic peak has passed
China’s National Health Commission said the peak of the Coronavirus outbreak in the country has passed, as it reported the lowest number of new infections in seven weeks.
The number of new Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases continues to decline while the epidemic maintains a lower level overall, Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the health commission, said yesterday.
The commission earlier reported its lowest count of new Coronavirus infections since it started providing daily updates seven weeks ago.
Fifteen new Coronavirus infections and 11 deaths were reported across mainland China over the past day, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 80,793, including 3,169 deaths.
The announcement came after President, Xi Jinping on Tuesday for the first time visted the industrial hub of Wuhan, which is considered the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.
Xi struck a triumphal tone as he declared the virus basically curbed in Hubei province, home to Wuhan, and a victory nationwide, according to Xinhua news agency.
South Korea records decrease in cases
South Korea reported its lowest number of daily infections of the novel Coronavirus in two weeks, with figures on Thursday showing 114 new cases and six more deaths, according to Yonhap news agency.
This brings the total number of cases to 7,869 and the death toll up to 66, according to the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
The majority of the cases including 73 of the latest ones were concentrated in the south-eastern city of Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang Province.
In Japan, the number of confirmed cases of the Coronavirus infection has steadily increased to 1,337, including about 700 on the Diamond Princess Cruise ship in the port of Yokohama.
A total of 23 people have died of COVID-19, the government said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced an economic stimulus package worth 17.6 billion Australian dollars (11.4 billion U. S dollars) to counter the financial impacts of the virus pandemic.
The Australian government said the country has 126 cases, including three deaths as of Thursday morning.
Also in Australia, U.S actor Tom Hanks said on Twitter he and his wife have tested positive for Coronavirus in the country’s Gold Coast region and are in isolation.
In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte was due to be tested for COVID-19 after being exposed to an official who tested positive for the virus last week, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.
The president did not have symptoms, the spokesman added.
The Asian Development Bank decided on Thursday to temporarily close its headquarters in Manila after receiving information that a recent visitor has tested positive for the new coronavirus.
All staff were working from home while the headquarters was being cleaned and disinfected, the bank said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the bank said it was making available 200 million dollars in financing for companies manufacturing and distributing medicines and other items needed to combat the outbreak.
Shoppers in Taiwan placed 35,000 orders for surgical masks in two hours after they became available to buy online on Thursday, the government said.
The new system aims to provide fair distribution of the surgical masks and will reduce long lines at drug stores.
Amid fears of supply shortages due to the spread of COVID-19, the Taiwan government banned surgical mask exports in January and on February 6 implemented a rationing system of two masks per person per week.
The government and private sector worked together to set up 60 new surgical mask production lines to meet local demand.
The average daily domestic production reached 10 million this week, according to the Taiwanese government’s executive branch.
In Cambodia, about 60 people on a river cruise ship docked in the country remain quarantined after three British passengers tested positive for COVID-19, local media reported.
According to the Cambodian Health Ministry, a British couple had tested positive on Wednesday, after another 65-year-old British woman on the Viking cruise ship was hospitalised with the virus earlier this week, government-aligned media portal Fresh News said.
The couple raised Cambodia’s total confirmed COVID-19 cases to five.
Coronavirus case numbers in Malaysia and Singapore remain by a distance the highest in south-east Asia, at 149 and 178, respectively, as of Wednesday evening.
On Thursday, Malaysia’s Health Ministry urged the postponement of all mass gatherings after it emerged that an estimated 5,000-10,000 people met at an Islamic ceremony in Kuala Lumpur in late February that was also attended by a Bruneian who subsequently tested positive for the virus.
Thailand has reported 70 cases of the new coronavirus infection. Of the 70 cases, 35 people have been already discharged while 34 others are receiving treatment in hospital, according to information provided by the Public Health Ministry on Thursday.
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