The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • Germany’s coronavirus cases surpass 140,000, fatality rate at 3.1 percent

    Germany’s coronavirus cases surpass 140,000, fatality rate at 3.1 percent

    Agency Reporter

     

    Germany on Monday reported 1,775 new cases of COVID-19 infection in the past 24 hours, raising the country’s cumulative number of infection to 141,672, fresh figures showed.

    According to figures released by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German government agency and research institute responsible for disease control and prevention, a further 110 patients had died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 4,404.

    Germany has staggered the rest of the world with an impressively low “case fatality rate,” which is the number of deaths divided by the total number of confirmed cases.

    According to RKI, the case fatality rate among confirmed COVID-19 infections was at 3.1 per cent in Germany.

    RKI figures also showed that the estimated number of people in Germany who had already recovered from COVID-19 went up by about 3,500 within one day to 91,500 as of Monday morning.

    “Starting on Monday, shops in Germany with a maximum sales area of up to 800 square meters are allowed to open under new hygiene regulations as well as access and queue control,’’ the German government announced recently.

    The only exception is Bavaria where shops would not be allowed to reopen for another week.

    Bavarian Minister-President Markus Soeder said that Bavaria wanted to approach the openings “more cautiously” and “more restrained.”

    Bavaria is the German federal state with the most confirmed COVID-19 cases.

    According to RKI, Bavaria had 37,849 confirmed cases on Monday, of which 1,286 people died so far.

    Across Germany, distance requirements of no less than 1.5 metres in public as well as contact restrictions have been extended until May 3.

    German Health Minister Jens Spahn was expecting that the rules of distance and hygiene would remain in force for a long time.

    “He expected the rules to remain in force for months.

    “Until there is a vaccine, we will have to look after each other,’’ Spahn told public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday

    The German government is scheduled to meet to discuss the current coronavirus situation. (Xinhua/NAN)

  • Belgium may have passed peak of COVID-19, says spokesman

    Belgium may have passed peak of COVID-19, says spokesman

    Belgium may have passed the peak of the COVID-19 crisis, said Emmanuel Andre, an inter-federal spokesman, at a news briefing on the epidemiological situation on Monday.

    “There is a slow decrease that is being confirmed,’’ Andre said.

    Belgium reported 168 new deaths from the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, 62 less than Sunday’s, bringing the country’s death toll to 5,828.

    READ ALSO: 12-year-old girl infected with COVID-19 dies in Belgium

    The figures recorded in the last 24 hours are encouraging, the spokesman continued, 232 new hospitalisations have been reported, 33 less than the previous day.

    “The results presented today show that we are on a downward trend in COVID-19, thanks to the application of containment measures.

    “We must continue to apply these measures to prepare for future de-confinement,’’ he said.

    In the last 24 hours, health authorities have confirmed 1,487 new cases of COVID-19 infection, bringing the nationwide confirmed cases to 39,983 since the first case was detected in the country in early February.

    (NAN)

  • Hong Kong reports its first day of no new coronavirus cases

    Hong Kong reports its first day of no new coronavirus cases

    Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP), part of the Department of Health, confirmed there were no new cases of coronavirus reported on Monday, the first such day since cases began to be recorded.

    The city’s tracking, monitoring and treatment of those infected, together with measures to decrease and eliminate transmissions, have taken effect, with just 1,025 confirmed cases and four fatalities recorded.

    Report says this comes as countries around the world have seen their own numbers escalate amid the fall-out of the pandemic.

    “The number of new cases has run into single digits for several days now and Monday’s data gives a sign of hope that restrictions that have governed everyday life will soon be lifted.

    “However, the government continues to appeal to the public to practise social distancing, asking them to go out less and to avoid social activities in order to minimise the risk of infection,’’ CHP said.

    READ ALSO: COVID-19: Hong Kong issues new travel restrictions

    Restrictions affecting air travel and non-Hong-Kong residents entering the territory are set to continue for now, as are restrictions affecting the food and beverage industries and other sectors, including public services.

    A surge in new cases saw Hong Kong’s number of cases balloon to 937 from 360 earlier this month, with 57.5 per cent of new cases coming from those arriving from Britain.

    The percentage correlated to a travel ban imposed at midnight, March 25.

    Report say restaurants remain open with limited capacity but nightclubs, bars, gyms, cinemas, karaoke lounges, beauty salons and massage parlours remain closed until further notice, as do schools and universities.

    (NAN)

  • Pakistani PM calls for self-discipline as COVID-19 cases rise to 8,418

    Pakistani PM calls for self-discipline as COVID-19 cases rise to 8,418

    Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday urged the nation to practice self-discipline and adopt precautionary measures as the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country has risen to 8,418.

    “The more people show self-discipline, the easier it will be for us to manage the COVID-19 plus ease the lockdown gradually,’’ Khan said on Twitter, urging people to stay at home as much as possible during this pandemic.

    According to the data updated by the country’s health ministry, a total of 3,721 cases have so far been reported in Pakistan’s east Punjab province.

    “2,537 in south Sindh province, 1,235 in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 432 in southwest Balochistan province, 263 in north Gilgit-Baltistan region, and 181 in the capital Islamabad,’’ it said.

    READ ALSO: Pakistani woman cuts off penis of attempted rapist

    The ministry said that 1,970 patients have so far recovered while the death toll from the virus stands at 176 with 17 new deaths reported during the last 24 hours.

    Similarly, 425 new confirmed cases were reported during the last 24 hours.

    According to the National Command and Operation Centre of Pakistan, local transmission of COVID-19 is 64 per cent while cases from foreign travel are 36 per cent in the country.

    Meanwhile, Pakistani President Arif Alvi has urged the electronic and print media to highlight social distancing phenomenon at gatherings in mosques as agreed between the government and the religious scholars.

    “The worshipers should also be educated so that they ensure social distancing for their own protection and that of others,’’ the president said.

    (NAN)

  • Actor Idris Elba launches U.N. coronavirus fund for poor farmers

    Actor Idris Elba launches U.N. coronavirus fund for poor farmers

    Agency Reporter

     

    British actor and filmmaker Idris Elba launched a new United Nations fund on Monday to help farmers in poorer nations, calling on richer economies to provide aid to prevent “needless hunger and suffering” stemming from the Coronavirus pandemic.

    Elba and his wife, model and activist Sabrina Dhowre Elba, gave their support to a fund set up by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), to help stop economic shocks caused by COVID-19 triggering a global food crisis.

    The couple, who were also designated on Monday as goodwill ambassadors for IFAD, contracted the virus themselves in March although reportedly only suffered mild symptoms.

    “The world’s advanced economies are in the midst of this pandemic right now and, of course, they must do everything they can to help their own people,” said Elba, 47, in a statement.

    “But the fact is, global action is also a matter of self-interest. As long as the pandemic is still raging anywhere, it will pose a threat everywhere,” he added, urging donors to ramp up financial support to keep rural food systems operating.

    IFAD, a U.N. agency that promotes rural development, said it would put 40 million dollars into the new fund to counter the effects of the pandemic on food production, market access and employment in developing countries.

    It also aims to raise at least 200 million dollars more from governments, foundations and the private sector.

    In December, Elba and his wife visited rural Sierra Leone, where IFAD provided financial services to communities hit by Ebola.

    Since the Coronavirus began to spread in developing nations, IFAD has been finding ways to help rural families — many of them poor farmers — deal with the deadly disease’s ripple effects.

    In eastern Senegal, where a curfew and market closures make it hard to sell produce or livestock, the agency is supporting cash transfers and subsidies via smartphones, and distributing seeds and fertilisers ahead of the planting season.

    In India’s Odisha state, it has worked with local authorities to get watermelons transported to markets, avoiding the loss of 600 tonnes of fruit due to COVID-19 restrictions.

    IFAD President Gilbert F. Houngbo, who was raised in rural Togo, West Africa, said farmers were worried about losing their income during the pandemic as lockdown measures in many places could stop them selling crops and buying seeds and fertilisers.

    He warned that if this happened, progress in the fight against poverty could be upended for the first time in three decades.

    “What we are talking about is the risk of a health crisis creating a food crisis,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

    “(But) I think we have to go even beyond the risk of food insecurity and look at it as we, as a global community, going backwards in the fight against poverty.” (Reuters/NAN)

  • EU, Britain continue post-Brexit negotiations via video

    EU, Britain continue post-Brexit negotiations via video

    Eleven weeks after Brexit, Britain and the European Union (EU) are hoping to finally make progress towards a trade agreement.

    The first of three week-long negotiations by video conference begins on Monday.

    The next stages are planned for mid-May and early June.

    Britain left the EU at the end of January.

    However, there is still a transition period until the end of the year, so that practically nothing has changed in everyday life.

    Britain is still part of the EU internal market and customs union, adheres to EU rules, and pays into the budget.

    However, if no agreement for future relations is made within the transition period, there will be a hard split with turbulent repercussions for the economy.

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    In a first round of negotiations at the beginning of March, both sides found that their ideas were far apart.

    EU negotiator Michel Barnier then announced he was infected with the coronavirus, and his British colleague David Frost also went into quarantine.

    In the end, only expert discussions about the possible text of the agreement were held.

    “Real, tangible progress” should now be achieved by June, both sides said last week.

     

    (dpa/NAN)

     

  • Governors to Trump: it’s not yet time to reopen America

    Governors to Trump: it’s not yet time to reopen America

    UNITED States (U.S.) Governors hardest hit by the novel coronavirus differed again with President Donald Trump over his claims they have enough tests and should quickly reopen their economies as more protests are planned over the extension of stay-at-home orders.

    “The administration I think is trying to ramp up testing, they are doing some things with respect to private labs,” said Republican Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland during a CNN interview.

    “But to try to push this off, to say the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing, somehow we aren’t doing our jobs, is absolutely false.”

    Democratic Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia told CNN that claims by Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that states have plenty of tests were “just delusional”.

    The region of Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. is still seeing increasing cases even as the epicentre of the U.S. outbreak, New York, has started to see declines. Boston and Chicago are also emerging hot spots with recent surges in cases and deaths.

    Read Also: Coronavirus should not bury Christians’ faith, says Kaigama

     

    Several states, including Ohio, Texas and Florida, have said they aim to reopen parts of their economies, perhaps by May 1 or even sooner, but appeared to be staying cautious.

    Trump’s guidelines to reopen the economy recommend a state record 14 days of declining case numbers before gradually lifting restrictions.

    Yet the Republican president appeared to encourage protesters who want the measures removed sooner with a series of Twitter posts on Friday, calling for them to “liberate” Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia, all run by Democratic governors.

    The United States has by far the world’s largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 730,000 infections and over 39,000 deaths.

    Demonstrations to demand an end to stay-at-home measures that have pummelled the U.S. economy have erupted in a few spots in Texas, Wisconsin and the capitols of Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia. More than 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the past month.

    Trump had touted a thriving economy as the best case for his re-election in November.

     

  • Nigeria, other D-8 members strengthen cooperation to tackle COVID-19

    Nigeria, other D-8 members strengthen cooperation to tackle COVID-19

    THE Developing-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation (D-8) has strengthened collaboration among member states to identify constraints in tackling COVID-19 pandemic and build post-pandemic resilient health systems.

    D-8 is an organisation for development co-operation among Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia and Turkey.

    According to a statement by the Programme Director of D-8 Health and Social Programme (HSP), Dr. Ado Muhammad, the decision is the outcome of the meeting by delegates of Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs and, development partners of D-8.

    Muhammad quoted Secretary-General of D-8, Amb. Dato’Ku Ku Shaari, as saying “member states will use the D-8 Health and Social Protection Programme to support one another in trying times”.

    Ku Shaari noted that it was imperative that member states use this sectoral track to support one another to mitigate the consequential adversities they face.

    “We need to improve partnerships, experience-sharing and mutual support and assistance; the impact of the pandemic varies, with some more negatively impacted than others.

    “However, the scale of the economic impact transcends national frontiers, with loss of jobs and revenues in some of the best performing sectors such as tourism, manufacturing, commerce, agriculture and mineral resources,” Ku Shaari said.

    Read Also: Lifting UK’s lockdown requires balanced judgment, says minister

     

    Also speaking, Muhammad said the D-8 could not afford to falter at this crucial time and called for solidarity in areas of commodities, technology, equipment, pharmaceuticals and other needed items.

    According to him, it is a time that requires innovative, decisive and coordinated responses from member states to secure lives of 1.1 billion citizens.

    Muhammad revealed that discussions at the virtual meeting brought about two working group to achieve targets.

    “The first is Implementation Monitoring Group that is to provide weekly updates and recommendations for a data driven programme that comprises  Egypt, Indonesia, Iran and Nigeria.

    “The other is Resource Mobilisation Group- to articulate strategies and recommendations for domestic resourcing by countries that is to be done by Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey,” Muhammad said.

    He explained that the meeting sought to establish mechanism for cooperation and to lessen hardship caused by the pandemic through knowledge and resources sharing and, understanding of country specific needs.

  • Lifting UK’s lockdown requires balanced judgment, says minister

    Lifting UK’s lockdown requires balanced judgment, says minister

    THE United Kingdom (UK) government will make a “balanced judgment” when deciding how to relax the coronavirus lockdown, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has said.

    The government does not yet have the information to show it would be safe to lift the restrictions, he told the BBC.

    It comes as another 596 people have died with the virus, taking total UK hospital deaths to 16,060.

    A Sunday Times report said schools could reopen as early as May 11.

    Gove dismissed that as “not true”, saying no decision had been made.

    He also added that hospitality venues would be among the last to exit the lockdown, which was extended on Thursday for another three weeks.

    Strict limits on daily life – such as requiring people to stay at home, shutting many businesses and preventing gatherings of more than two people – were first introduced on March 23, as the government tried to limit the spread of coronavirus.

    Calls for the government to provide an exit plan to end the lockdown have intensified, and some other countries have begun to relax their measures.

    Gove said the UK government was taking “a deliberately cautious and measured approach, guided by the science”.

    Read Also: Star-studded concert celebrates health workers

     

    He said: “When we have the information, when we have the data that allows us confidently to relax those restrictions we will do so, but that data, that information, is not yet in place.”

    He also said while the government was investing in trying to get a vaccine as “quickly as possible” it could not be certain when it would be ready.

    “I don’t think it’s the case that anybody should automatically assume that a vaccine is a dead cert to come soon.”

    Prof. Sarah Gilbert, who is leading a team developing a vaccine at Oxford University, told the BBC Marr that they hoped to start clinical trials towards the end of next week but nobody could be sure it was possible “to find a workable vaccine”.

    She said they would need government support to accelerate manufacturing because the UK currently does not have the facilities to make the vaccine on a large scale.

    As the trials progress, she said more people would be vaccinated – including the older population – to look at the safety and immune response of the vaccine.

    No fewer than 482 deaths from Covid-19 were recorded in UK, according to NHS England, bringing the total number of hospital deaths in England to 14,400.

  • Star-studded concert celebrates health workers

    Star-studded concert celebrates health workers

    Some of the biggest names in music have joined forces to celebrate healthcare workers in a globally televised concert.

    Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney and Billie Eilish were among more than 100 artists, who performed songs from their living rooms, due to the coronavirus lockdown.

    The Rolling Stones even managed to play together from four separate locations.

    The eight-hour show also featured real-life stories from those on the front line of the fight against Covid-19.

    Lady Gaga, who curated the line-up, called the event “a love letter to the world”.

    Dedicating the show to first responders and medical staff, she said the participating musicians all wanted “to give back a little bit of the kindness that you’ve given us”.

    She went on to play an upbeat version of Charlie Chaplin’s Smile, adding: “We want to get to the other side of this pandemic and we know you do too.”

    Paul McCartney joined the programme shortly after, calling health-care workers “the real heroes” of the crisis and remembering his mother Mary, who was a nurse during the Second World War.

    Titled One World: Together At Home, the concert was organised by the Global Citizen movement and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

    It began with a montage of people under lockdown applauding the efforts of healthcare workers around the world – from France, Spain, the UK, the U.S. and elsewhere.

    “To all of our frontline healthcare workers, we are with you. Thank you for being there for us,” read an on-screen caption.

    Proceeds generated from the concert will go to the Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the WHO, but Lady Gaga made clear the show was not a fundraising telethon and would focus on entertainment and messages of solidarity.

    First to perform was U.S. singer-songwriter Andra Day, who sang the ballad Rise Up from her apartment, setting the tone for the rest of the evening.

    One Direction star Niall Horan followed shortly afterwards singing Black and White with an acoustic guitar from his living room and former bandmate Liam Payne appeared with the song Midnight.

    The Killers’ singer Brandon Flowers (right) made a special dedication to teachers who are working through the pandemic

    Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vannucci of The Killers performed their hit Mr Brightside. U.S. singer Adam Lambert gave a rendition of the Tears for Fears song Mad World – which he first performed as an X Factor contestant in 2009.

    John Legend teamed up with Sam Smith to cover Ben E King’s Stand By Me, while Billie Eilish played a soulful version of Bobby Hebb’s Sunny.

    “I love this song,” said the star. “It’s always warmed my heart and made me feel good, and I wanted to make you guys feel good, too.”

    The Rolling Stones also delivered a spirited version You Can’t Always Get What You Want – despite drummer Charlie Watts being reduced to banging on flight cases and the arm of a sofa, in the absence of his drum kit.

    British singer Rita Ora urged viewers to stay safe and follow WHO recommendations, before singing I Will Never Let You Down.

    Annie Lennox, meanwhile, appeared to address President Donald Trump’s threat to pull funding from the WHO earlier this week.

    Ellie Goulding and Christine + The Queens also addressed the mental health issues arising from the coronavirus lockdown, urging viewers to reach out to friends if they were feeling low.

    Other performers included Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, Burna Boy, Luis Fonsi, Hozier and Stevie Wonder – who played a cover of Bill Withers’ song Lean On Me.

    Taylor Swift also gave an emotional performance of her ballad Soon You’ll Get Better, sat against the pastel-coloured floral backdrop of the piano room in her house.

    Originally written as a memoir of Swift’s grief over her mother’s cancer diagnosis, the lyrics about hospital waiting rooms and desperate prayers took on an added resonance in the context of the pandemic.

    The show closed with Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Andrea Bocelli and John Legend collaborating on a version of The Prayer – originally written for the 1998 film Quest For Camelot – whose lyrics seek a way out of the darkness.