Chronicle Editor
Italy on Sunday reported 368 new deaths from the coronavirus outbreak as the country’s death toll hit 1 809 while the number of positive cases rose to 24 747 from 21 157 on Saturday, the country’s civil protection authority said.
Governments around the world have stepped up restrictions on the movement of their citizens to reduce the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed nearly 5 800 people with over 153 000 infected globally, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Spain became the second European country to impose a nationwide lockdown after 2 000 new cases were confirmed and the number of reported deaths doubled.
Iran announced more than 100 people have died in the past 24 hours, with the confirmed cases nearing 14 000. Tehran said its fight against coronavirus is being severely hampered by US sanctions.
In the Philippines, the capital Manila has been sealed off, with its 12 million residents told to avoid travel for a month. Schools in the city have been closed and large events banned. In the United States, increased screening measures for people returning from Europe have caused chaos at airports. The coronavirus pandemic has spread to 123 countries with the worldwide death toll from the virus nearing 5 800.
Among the more than 152 000 cases recorded globally are government officials, celebrities and sports personalities as authorities around the world grapple to contain the spread of coronavirus.Hollywood actor Tom Hanks and his wife, actress and singer Rita Wilson, and Sophie Trudeau, wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, are some of the most well-known faces to be infected so far.
Serbia’s president declared a state of emergency to halt the spread of the coronavirus deploying soldiers to guard hospitals and shutting down many public spaces. “From tomorrow, there is no more school, no nurseries, no universities, everything closes, no training, sports . . . We will close down to save our lives, to save our parents, to save our elderly,” said President Aleksandar Vucic.
France recorded 29 additional coronavirus deaths, the biggest one-day increase in the country since the outbreak, bringing the total death toll to 120, Health Minister Olivier Veran said.
Cannabis smokers queued up outside Dutch “coffee shops” after the government ordered their closure to beat the coronavirus outbreak.
Customers lined up in their dozens as they tried to beat a deadline for the closure of the marijuana cafes and stockpile weed supplies for what could be weeks of lockdown.
Meanwhile, France’s ramped-up coronavirus measures now require people to produce a document that justifies their reason to be outside — even just for a walk or to go to the shop — after people ignored government urging them to stay at home.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced a 15-day lockdown that came into effect at midday yesterday, and said people’s journeys outside would be “greatly reduced”.
He said that people should only leave their homes if it is necessary — for example for work, to get medical care, to buy groceries in authorised shops, or to do some exercise alone. But in order to do any of these things, people in France must now download and fill in a form that justifies their reasoning for being outside, doing so for every trip they want to make — and police can check the forms and issue fines for those who do not have one.
λ Authorities worldwide have raised concern over the possibility of banknotes spreading the coronavirus.
These concerns have led to the Federal Reserve in the US to “quarantine” banknotes received from China, which is where the outbreak started.
Iran has also heeded the call, and is discouraging the use of banknotes. The Louvre in Paris has also stopped accepting banknotes, as a measure to stop any potential spread of the deadly virus.
The coronavirus could very well spread through the circulation of banknotes, authorities have said.
λ US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned China on Monday not to spread disinformation on the novel coronavirus after an official in Beijing promoted a conspiracy theory on US involvement.
Pompeo raised “strong objections” to Chinese efforts “to shift blame for Covid-19 to the United States” in a phone call with Yang Jiechi, a top foreign policy official in Beijing, the State Department said. Pompeo “stressed that this is not the time to spread disinformation and outlandish rumours, but rather a time for all nations to come together to fight this common threat,” a State Department statement said.
The call comes after the State Department on Friday summoned the Chinese ambassador, Cui Tiankai, to denounce the promotion of the conspiracy theory — which has gained wide attention on social media.
Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, in tweets last week in both Mandarin and English, suggested that “patient zero” in the global pandemic may have come from the United States — not the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan, where cases were first reported in late 2019.
“It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation,” tweeted Zhao, who is known for his provocative statements on social media.
Pompeo himself has sought to link China to the global pandemic, repeatedly referring to SARS-CoV-2 as the “Wuhan virus” despite advice from health professionals that such geographic labels can be stigmatising. Scientists suspect that the virus first came to humans at a meat market in Wuhan that butchered exotic animals.
While Covid-19 — the disease caused by the virus — has largely come under control in China, it has killed more than 7 000 people around the world and severely disrupted daily life in Western countries. — Al JazeeraAFP
Online Reporter
Londile Moyo