Just like CA? No, if you’ve done just like CA, you would have little problem. CA had one of the first cases. They did well tracking and isolating. They kept their numbers down. They are barely approaching 2,000. NY on the other hand had their first case only weeks ago. Now they take the crown surpassing everyone by multiples. They have been watching what was happening in WA and CA for two months. They had plenty of time to know what to expect. They were so very slow to act. My state had barely 100 cases when they started shutting down. NY didn’t act until they having thousands of cases. NYC alone has more cases than many states.
“Silence the guns”: UN calls for global ceasefire to fight Covid-19
Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, has appealed for an immediate global ceasefire, calling on an end to all armed conflicts so that the world can instead focus on fighting Coronavirus.
My colleague in Afghanistan, Akhtar Mohammad Makoii, has transcribed Gutteres’s speech:
The world faces a common enemy: Covid19. The virus doesn’t care about nationality or ethnicity, faction or faith. It attacks all relentlessly.
Meanwhile, armed conflict rages on around the world. The most vulnerable - women and children, people with disabilities, the marginalised and displaced - pay the highest price. They are also at the highest risk of suffering devastating losses from Covid-19.
Let’s not forget that in war ravaged countries health systems have collapsed. Heath professionals, already few in number, have often been targeted. Refugees and others displaced by violent conflict are doubly vulnerable. The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war.
That is why today I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.
To warring parties, I say: pull back from hostilities. Put aside mistrust and animosity. Silence the guns; stop the artillery; end the airstrikes.
This is crucial to help create corridors for life saving aids. To open precious windows for diplomacy. To bring hope to places among the most vulnerable to Covid-19.
Let us take inspiration from coalitions and dialogue slowing taking shape among rival parties in some parts to enable joint approaches to Covid-19. But we need much more. End the sickness of war and fight the disease that is ravaging our world.
It starts by stopping the fighting everywhere, now. That is what our human family needs, now more that ever.
World health leaders are investigating whether the loss of taste and smell could be an early symptom of coronavirus, amid widespread reports of impaired senses in patients, Mark Rice-Oxley reports.
Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the World Health Organisation’s emerging diseases team, said several countries were investigating the reports to establish whether the correlation was significant. He said:
We have seen quite a few reports now about people who are in their early stages of disease may lose their sense of smell, may lose the sense of taste, but this is something that we need to look in to, to really capture to see whether this is one of the signs of Covid-19.
We have a number of countries that are conducting early investigations where they are capturing standardised information from cases and contacts where they are looking at signs and symptoms.
ENT UK, a body representing ear nose and throat doctors, said in a statement that there was evidence from South Korea, China and Italy that significant numbers of patients had developed ‘anosmia’. The statement, issued jointly by top rhinologists Claire Hopkins and Nirmal Kumar, said:
In Germany it is reported that more than 2 in 3 confirmed cases have anosmia. In South Korea, where testing has been more widespread, 30% of patients testing positive have had anosmia as their major presenting symptom in otherwise mild cases.
Guardian
Since you quote OUT OF CONTEXT, let me re-quote myself again
If I could make another suggestion besides, it would be ADDING to this discussion not repeating things over and over and over again. We get it. you are not happy with NY.
13-year-old dies of Covid-19 in Panama
Panama has confirmed the death of a 13-year-old girl from Covid-19 - one of the youngest reported victims so far, Nina Lakhani reports.
Globally, the evidence shows that the virus is much more dangerous in people with preexisting medical conditions and the elderly, with around 20% of infected over 80s dying from complications.
But the Panama case illustrates what medical experts have been trying to drum home in recent days: young adults and children are not immune to the virus or serious complications. There’s been growing frustration across the world at sites of busy play parks and beaches full of youngsters.
The younger the child, the greater the chance of suffering critical or serious symptoms from the virus, according to one large study from China.
Panama also confirmed the death of a 92-year-old man, bringing the death toll to five. Both victims died in hospital. It’s still unclear whether the 13-year-old victim suffered from preexisting health problems. As of Sunday, 313 cases were confirmed in Panama, which borders Colombia to the south and Nicaragua to the north, of which 42 were hospitalised.
Today’s deaths bring the death toll in Central America to eight, but the number of confirmed cases are rapidly rising.
British diplomats in Tunisia have failed to find a flight to repatriate British nationals who are stuck in the country, which is on lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Earlier we reported that the Tunisian president had ordered the army on to the streets of the country to enforce the lockdown in the country, which has so far recorded 89 cases of Covid-19 and two deaths.
The British embassy had been trying to charter an Air Tunis flight to return Britons from the country. But earlier today, the ambassador, Louise de Sousa, tweeted a statement saying that it was proving difficult to find Tunisian air crew willing to fly to Europe.
The statement said:
We have over the past few days been working with the Tunisian government and Tunis Air to try to secure a flight to the UK. However this option is now looking extremely difficult as Tunis Air are unable to find air crew who are prepared to fly to Europe on grounds of their individual safety and potential exposure.
Guardian
PA has closed schools for two more weeks. Thank you Gov Wolf. I listen to most of your press conferences and really appreciate your being straight forward with us all.
That said, shelter in place all over (instead of just six counties) will help us slow progression…
I see what’s happening in NY via my med school lad. We want to try to avoid that.
We ran a piece earlier today about a controversial proposal in Hungary that would allow the far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán to rule by decree, without a clear cut-off point.
This afternoon the Hungarian parliament has rejected changing house rules to pass the bill immediately, as opposition parties refused to vote with Orbán to give him the four-fifths majority he required, Shaun Walker reports from Budapest.
However, Orbán said he would pass the bill next week, when his ruling party’s two-thirds majority will be enough to see it through. “We will solve this crisis, even without you,” Orbán told opposition parties in parliament on Monday.
While many countries are passing emergency legislation to cope with the threat posed by the coronavirus, critics worry that Orbán, who over a decade in power has been accused of flouting democratic norms and eroding rule of law, would abuse the provisions. (Guardian)
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has issued a sternly worded warning to his compatriots to heed health advice and stay at home to slow the spread of Covid-19.
Trudeau reiterated calls for Canadians to abide by social distancing measures by staying at least two metres away from each other and avoiding groups.
If you choose to ignore that advice, if you choose to get together with people or to go to crowded places, you are not just putting yourself at risk, you are putting others at risk too: your elderly relative who is in a nursing home, or your friend with a pre-existing condition; our nurses and doctors on the front lines; our workers stacking shelves at a grocery story. They need you to make the right choices. They need you to do your part.
The European Union’s top diplomat has said “fake news” and disinformation are resulting in Europeans being stigmatised for the spread of coronavirus, Jennifer Rankin reports from Brussels.
Following a telephone conference with EU foreign ministers on Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters there was “clear stigmatisation of European Union citizens abroad”.
Another thing that worries us [ministers] and we have been talking about is a clear attempt to discredit European Union, even through clear stigmatisation of European Union citizens abroad, presenting the virus as a kind of white people’s disease and blaming European citizens.
He referred to an incident last Thursday when the mayor of Santiago de Guayaquil in Ecuador blocked an empty European plane from landing “to defend the city” against coronavirus. The Iberia plane, which eventually landed in Quito, was repatriating 190 travellers stranded in Ecuador, after flights were suspended to contain the spread of the virus. Borrell said it had been claimed the plane was “bringing the disease” adding that “spreading disinformation is playing with people’s lives”.
Borrell referred to the EU’s disinformation taskforce, which recently produced a report that said pro-Kremlin media were producing false stories about coronavirus with the aim of “aggravating” the public health crisis in the west.
He said the problem was “not a matter” of declarations by any government, but rather “the wide spread of fake news produces reactions and produces attitudes among people which are very dangerous”.
Separately the EU executive announced that Italy was among four countries to respond to a call of help from Croatia, after Zagreb was struck by its biggest earthquake in 140 years.
Italy, the EU country hardest hit by coronavirus, joined Austria, Hungary and Slovenia in offering to send tents, folding beds and other supplies, after Croatia on Sunday activated the EU’s civil protection mechanism – a call for emergency aid when facing a disaster.
Guardian
WHO to launch joint coronavirus campaign with Fifa
The World Health Organisation is to announce a joint campaign with Fifa, football’s world governing body, to combat the spread of coronavirus.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino will appear at the press conference alongside Tedros Adhanom Ghebeyesus, the WHO’s director general, at the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva to launch the “pass the message to kick out coronavirus” campaign.
The launch will be followed by the regular WHO briefing on developments in the fight against coronavirus around the world.
While Canada’s shared border with the United States has closed down to any non-essential travel, two Canadian provinces have taken the rare step of closing their own borders stop the spread of the coronavirus, writes Leyland Cecco in Toronto.
Both Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have tightened restrictions on their borders, requiring anyone returning to either province to self-isolate for two weeks.
Announcing a state of emergency for the province, premier Stephen McNeil said:
For those who are not essential service and want to enter our province for social purposes, please stay home.
In addition to border restrictions, all non-essential businesses, as well as city and provincial parks have been ordered closed. The province’s justice minister has suggested police enforcement might be used to enforce social distancing and to break up public gatherings.
Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province, began monitoring bridges, ferry terminals and airports over the weekend.
While the Maritime provinces— Nova Scotia, New Brunswick Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island—have documented few cases, there is growing worry their aging population is vulnerable to the quickly-spreading coronavirus.
Guardian
I regret to say that we in California are keeping our numbers down by not testing. I live in Santa Clara County. We have 302 cases reported, and 10 deaths. Ten deaths implies about 10,000 cases just in Santa Clara County, maybe a bit less because we’ve been doing social distancing longer. New York should have acted sooner but we also should have acted sooner.
Apparently, the rats are not happy with quarantine and are going crazy. Anyone else seen this in their city? They don’t like restaurants being closed and they’re foraging further out in an aggressive way.
I’ve seen many reports on NextDoor over the last couple of years about coyotes, so where are they when you need them? C’mon coyotes!
https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_af0e8c34-6d19-11ea-8842-ab2ae098cca6.html
Mayor tries to move all the homeless off the streets to protect them from the rats:
https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_05673f62-6ca3-11ea-b8b3-632ef8328ed8.html
Denmark extends lockdown
Denmark has extended its nationwide lockdown until 13 April, Reuters reports.
The emergency measures, initially imposed on 11 March for two weeks, have closed schools and restaurants in the Nordic country and kept most public sector workers at home.
A sign reading “No visitors allowed” hangs at the main entrance of the Copenhagen university research lab where researchers are at work on a vaccine against the new coronavirus
A sign reading “No visitors allowed” hangs at the main entrance of the Copenhagen university research lab where researchers are at work on a vaccine against the new coronavirus Photograph: Thibault Savary/AFP via Getty Images
Announcing the extension, prime minister Mette Frederiksen told a news conference:
We’ve changed our behaviour a lot. We’ve changed the way we co-exist. We keep a distance and we stay at home. And that is paramount for the strategy of breaking the chain of infections.
The country has restricted public assembly to 10 or fewer people and ordered the closure of schools, universities, day cares, restaurants, cafes, libraries, gyms and hair salons.
Ethiopa has closed its borders to nearly all visitors, as officials struggle to enforce prevention measures, including bans on large gatherings, according to the AFP news agency.
Soldiers will be empowered “to halt the movement of people along all borders, with the exception of incoming essential goods to the country,” a statement said.
Ethiopia has kept its main airport open for international flights, although Ethiopian Airlines has been forced to suspend services to destinations in nearly 40 countries, according to its website.
Eleven infections have so far been reported in Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous country after Nigeria, and no deaths, and has so far held back from the kind of shutdown imposed in nearby countries such as Rwanda and Mauritius.
Guardian
Zimbabwe closes all borders due to coronavirus concerns
From Columbus Mavhunga in Zimbabwe CNN
In an address to the nation on Monday night, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced the closure of all borders except for returning residents and cargo effective immediately.
Mnangagwa also announced that all gatherings with more than 50 people will be banned.
He said bars, nightclubs, gyms and swimming pools will be closed in an effort to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
3 doctors die of coronavirus in France
From Barbara Wojazer in Paris and Lindsay Isaac in London CNN
Three doctors who had contracted coronavirus have died, the French National Health Agency said in a statement on Monday.
The doctors were all from the Grand Est region in northeast France. The victims include a general practitioner in Moselle, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Mulhouse and another general practitioner in Colmar.
On Sunday, France reported its first doctor had died of coronavirus.
In all, 490 medical staffers in the Parisian region have contracted coronavirus, a spokesperson for the Public Hospitals of Paris told CNN. The spokesperson added that 32% of them are doctors and 15% of them are nurses. Three of the patients are in intensive care.
The World Health Organization’s coronavirus treatment trial will enroll patients this week
From CNN Health’s Jacqueline Howard and Minali Nigam
The World Health Organization’s SOLIDARITY Trial — which will examine potential treatment options for Covid-19 — plans to enroll its first patients this week, WHO chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said during a call with reporters today.
WHO announced last week that it had organized the trial to test coronavirus treatment approaches across several countries and compare data to find which treatments may be most effective. When the announcement was made, WHO noted that many countries agreed to join the trial, including Argentina, Bahrain, Canada, France, Iran, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand.
“Randomized clinical trials normally take a lot of time to set up and get running, but you can see that the team has been able to put together this trial," Swaminathan said.
“Hopefully we’ll start enrolling in the first few countries this week,” Swaminathan added. “We should be able to enroll thousands of patients in a matter of weeks or months — we can’t exactly predict right now.”
The number of patients enrolled will depend on the course of the coronavirus pandemic, said Dr. Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo, a medical officer at WHO’s Department of Immunization Vaccines and Biologicals.
“Nobody knows how many cases we are going to have and whether or not they are going to occur at the hospital where we are setting the trial," Henao-Restrepo said during the call.
In a separate media briefing on Monday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “small, observational and non-randomized studies will not give us the answers we need” when it comes to identifying effective coronavirus treatments.
How authoritarianism wins around the world…
They could also use these at airports, I would think.
That is exactly what several Asian countries are doing - short response time testing.
Maybe if we stopped poking a China and use more diplomacy during a global crisis we could have similar joint efforts. But, no, we cannot have nice things.
State Department official: More than 13,000 US citizens abroad are seeking help to get home
From CNN’s Jennifer Hansler
The State Department is tracking approximately 13,500 US citizens abroad who are seeking assistance in being repatriated, a senior State Department official said Monday.
The official said the State Department is examining a variety of means to get those citizens home, saying that “no option is foreclosed out.” They said the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs is working with private charters to get them into places to help with repatriation efforts.
“We are using some cases — and I expect this will be happening in expanded fashion as we go out from here – we’re using what’s called the K Fund. It’s a special fund authorized by Congress to allow us to meet unexpected emergencies,” they said on a call with reporters. “We have organized a number of flights already on the K Fund, K-Fund charters.”
“We’re looking at 16 or so flights in the next five days. And we’ve got additionally about 1,600 passengers, over 1,600 passengers identified for those flights with room for more,” they said.
They said that in addition to the K-Fund charters, they are using DOD backhauls in some cases.
“We’re also working with the Department of Homeland Security. They’re flying planes into Central America, and they are prepared to bring folks back on those aircraft. So it’s a variety of different US government aircraft,” they said.
The official said they are prioritizing space on the flights for those with vulnerabilities, such as age and medical conditions.
“If we have somebody who is 70 years old with an underlying condition, such as diabetes or heart disease, that person is going to get a higher priority on one of those flights, than the hale and hearty 20 year old,” they said.
That official said about 5,700 people had been brought back, and “the great majority of those were coming back through State Department chartered aircraft.” They cited the 800+ brought back from Wuhan in late January, the 300+ from Yokohama and “approximately 1200 came out of Morocco last week.” They said they “had other people come out of Central America recently.”
Nigeria will close its land borders for 4 weeks
From Bukola Adebayo CNN
Nigeria is closing its land borders for four weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesperson said Monday.
Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority has banned all international flights except essential or emergency flights.
The country recorded 36 cases and one coronavirus-related death in a patient with an underlying illness by Monday morning, Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control tweeted.
Most of the new cases were found in Nigerians who had just returned from Europe, Canada, and the United States, prompting authorities to impose a travel ban on citizens from countries with more than 1,000 cases last week.
In an act of international solidarity, Cuba has sent a brigade of more than 50 medics to Italy to help them in their fight against coronavirus.
The Caribbean island, one of the world’s last remaining communist states, has a long history of sending medical assistance to countries in need.
According to the Cuban news agency, Prensa Latina, the group arriving in Italy includes 36 doctors, 15 graduate nurses and a logistics specialist. They will work in a field hospital built in Crema, a city of about 34,000 people, located in the province of Cremona, Lombardy, the region hardest hit by the epidemic.
Prensa Latina quoted the national coordinator of the Cuban Residents in Italy group as saying:
Our land does not offer what it has left over, our nation shares what it has.
Russia may postpone vote on extension of Putin rule
Andrew Roth Andrew Roth
Russia may be forced to put off a public vote on amendments allowing Vladimir Putin to hold office until 2036, as the coronavirus threatens to upend a busy political season in Russia.
The Kremlin so far has not rescheduled 22 April vote that was intended as a public endorsement for Putin’s surprise plan to “reset” his term limits, allowing him to run for a fifth and even sixth term as president under a revised constitution.
But as Moscow and other Russian cities introduce stricter preventative measures against the coronavirus, election officials have discussed the possibility of home voting or other ways to pull off a nationwide plebiscite in a country of 140 million when health officials desperately want to reduce face-to-face contact.
“The vote is set for 22 April, but the health of the country’s citizens is most important,” said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Putin. “If the growth of the epidemiological situation gives cause to reschedule then it will be done.”
Guardian
Authorities in Montenegro have begun publishing a list of all the people currently in quarantine in the country, in the hope of shaming citizens into not breaking the rules.
A government website has published lists divided by city, which give the names and addresses of those who are meant to be confined to their homes, either because they have returned to Montenegro from abroad or because they came into contact with someone later diagnosed with coronavirus.
Criminal charges can be filed for those who break quarantine, but authorities said there was still a large number of people not complying. A statement on the website said the decision to publish names had been deemed preferable to enforcing a lockdown for the whole country.
Montenegro’s first coronavirus cases were confirmed last week, making it one of the last European countries to declare a case. However, strict measures are already in place, including a ban on flights and the closure of restaurants, pubs and most shops. So far there are 22 confirmed cases in the small coastal country, with the first death from the virus announced on Monday morning, a 65-year-old man.
Belgium’s coronavirus lockdown could last for a further eight weeks, the country’s health minister has said, as official figures showed slowing growth in the number of people being admitted to hospital.
Since 18 March, Belgian residents have only been allowed to go out for work deemed essential, visiting supermarkets or pharmacies, or to exercise while respecting 1.5 metres of social distancing.
Asked how long the measures could last, health minister Maggie De Block said:
That’s the million dollar question. We are now heading towards the peak of the epidemic, after which the curve will descend. I think this situation will last for at least another eight weeks. It would be the normal curve.
She was speaking before Belgium’s federal crisis centre released its latest data on Monday, showing slowing growth in the number of people admitted to hospitals.
As of 11am CET on Monday, Belgium had recorded 3,743 coronavirus cases, an increase of 10% on the previous day, a slower rate of increase than Saturday to Sunday. A total of 88 people had died, an increase of 13 on the previous day.
Tens of thousands of German hackers have gathered for a mass hackathon to develop software ideas for solving coronavirus related problems.
For 48 hours, 42,000 hackers, 27,000 of whom were active, brainstormed over 1,500 projects, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported.
Gathered from seven organisations, such as Prototypefund, and Code4Germany the group has formed the initiative #wirvsvirus (us against the virus). They have earned the patronage of the German government, which has said it will offer financial support to the most promising ideas.
The challenges include finding solutions for everything from virus tracking to increasing communication between hospitals, how to distribute food to the homeless and helping farmers find people to bring in the harvest.
Stefanie Weise, one of the hackers, whose parents are among those in the risk category and says she has witnessed first hand the grave inefficiencies in the German health system, told Der Spiegel: “I’m trying to turn my anger into energy”.
The hackathon concluded in a party on YouTube and Slack. A jury will decide which of the projects will be supported. <3
Guardian
Italy struggled to convince citizens of coronavirus crisis. What can Europe learn?
Country’s experience could offer lesson to European neighbours following a similar trajectory
Ordinarily, having an aperitivo in Venice’s St Mark’s Square would cost a small fortune. Not on 3 March, when bar owners offered a free drink for each one purchased in an attempt to attract custom as the city emptied out amid Italy’s developing coronavirus outbreak. The offer was intended to last a month.
In Rome, restaurant touts jokingly invited people to try a “carbonaravirus” as the tourists left in the capital went along with the relaxed vibe, choosing to carry on with their holiday rather than go home. That was during the first week of March. Business owners could hardly be blamed for worrying about the impact of coronavirus on their livelihoods, especially when leaders were giving confusing messages.
On 27 February, four days after 11 towns in the north were quarantined and when 17 people had died of the virus and 650 were infected, Nicola Zingaretti, the leader of the governing Democratic party, travelled to Milan, whose wider Lombardy region is the centre of the outbreak, for an aperitif with a group of students. “We must not change our habits,” he wrote in a post on social media. “Our economy is stronger than fear: let’s go out for an aperitivo, a coffee or to eat a pizza.”
On the same day, Beppe Sala, the mayor of Milan, shared a video with the slogan “Milan does not stop.” The clip contained images of people hugging each other, eating in restaurants, walking in parks and waiting at train stations. Nine days after his trip to the city, by which time the death toll had risen to 233 and confirmed cases 5,883, Zingaretti announced he was suffering from the virus.
As Boris Johnson gave his most explicit warning yet on Sunday that the UK might face an Italian-style lockdown, Italy’s experience – particularly the way people went about their business in the early days of the crisis –could serve as a warning to other European countries that appear to be following a similar infection trajectory.
Giuseppe Pantaleo, a social psychologist at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, said: “At the beginning people were not really believing what was happening so politicians like Zingaretti and others just wanted to reassure the population. He went to Milan to demonstrate some forms of social behaviour were still safe and that the government was working towards a solution and so on, but he of course underestimated the risk.”
Medics also clashed, with some taking the virus seriously and others writing it off as only a bit more serious than flu.
As the virus spread, the public turned to humour, with memes and videos shared across social media, including one of an Italian grandmother giving advice about hand-washing. Another featured mobsters hatching a plan to smuggle Amuchina, the Italian-made hand sanitiser enjoying a boom in sales, instead of cocaine.
“Either within their social groups or on social media, people reacted with jokes and irony,” said Pantaleo. “Laughing is a very common reaction that people have when they’re confronted with the idea of death. But of course, in those early days nobody saw it as a serious possibility.”
Kissing on the cheek and hugging were banned, and social distancing advised. However, in another foreshadowing of the UK’s situation, people were still out and about, frequenting bars, restaurants, parks and beaches. With no school or university, teenagers and students took the opportunity to socialise more with friends.
For the most part, life carried on as normal until an abrupt change on 8 March, when deaths from Covid-19 leapt by more than 50%. The prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, ordered the whole of Lombardy and 14 other provinces across other badly affected northern regions to be quarantined. The news of the quarantine was leaked to the Italian press a few hours before an official announcement, provoking thousands of people of southern origin to flee home from the north.
A national lockdown came on 10 March but the measures only really started to hit home a couple of days later, when bars, restaurants and other non-essential shops were closed across the country. Conte’s tone became clearer and more direct but also more humbling. He thanked Italians for the “great sacrifices” they were making for the common good, while repeating his call for people to stay at home.
Sara Raginelli, a psychologist in Ancona, in the Marche region, said: “The moment the politics changed and started to speak in a more clear and direct way, people’s behaviour also changed and people developed more of an attitude of awareness. “The moment Italians were told to stay at home and rigid containment measures were introduced, the majority of the population complied.”
Still, as the lockdown set in, over the course of a week police charged more than 40,000 citizens for flouting the quarantine rules, which stipulate that people can venture out only if strictly necessary, such as for work, health-related reasons or to go to the supermarket. Police have increased checks in recent days and troops are patrolling streets in Naples and Sicily. Perhaps misunderstanding the rules, people took the opportunity to go jogging or walk in the park, leading to all parks being closed on Saturday. People can still exercise outside as long as they stay close to home.
After another steep rise in the death toll on Saturday night to 4,825, Conte made another dramatic speech while announcing all businesses, apart from those supplying essential goods and services, must close. “It is the most difficult crisis of our postwar period,” he said.
The latest move is expected to drill home the severity of the virus even more.
Pantaleo said: “Now that we are really in touch with the possibility of dying – either ourselves, a family member or friend, we take it seriously and are increasingly motivated to behave in accordance with the social norms.
“So the example set by institutions is very important because if the norms are clear and group leaders stick to them, then we will follow. We will also see our self-esteem increase as we act together towards a common goal, contributing even by keeping as calm as possible at home.”
Germany: signs exponential growth curve of new infections levelling off for first time
Kate Connolly Kate Connolly, Guardian
In Germany, there were signs that the exponential upwards curve in new coronavirus infections is levelling off for the first time due to the strict social distancing measures in force, the head of the country’s public health institute said on Monday.
However, Lothar Wieler, the president of the Robert Koch Institute, urged caution, saying many health authorities had not yet submitted their data from the weekend. “I will only be able to confirm this trend definitively on Wednesday,” he said. But he said he remained optimistic.
Germany has closed all its schools, and on Sunday ruled that no more than two people can gather at once, except for families or people sharing a household.
Wieler said that current data on Germany´s Covid 19 cases indicates that the average age of those infected is 45, the average age of those who have died is 82. Fifty-seven per cent of those with confirmed infections have so far been men, 43% are women. Of the symptoms people have experienced, the most common is coughing (55%) and fever (40%).
In his daily briefing, which has just ended, he appealed to German medical students to volunteer in the increasing effort to track all new cases, which he said continued to be an important part in the fight against the virus.
A nationwide collection data point called Cosmos, which is gathering data on how the illness is being fought, shows a considerable increase in awareness of the virus, but still a considerable gap between awareness and behaviour, he said. Mobile phone data monitored anonymously at the weekend, of 30 million mobile phone users, showed that people have considerably reduced their mobility, but still not as much as was necessary, he said. Keeping a distance, regular hand washing and sneezing or coughing into the elbow still remained the most effective ways to avoid the spread of coronavirus, he added. “Keeping your distance is the order of the day,” he said.
There are about 24,859 cases of coronavirus in Germany. There have so far been 97 reported deaths.
Wieler responded to reports that Germany was not being upfront with the number of deaths owing to the fact the figure is relatively low compared with other countries. He confirmed that in Germany anyone who has died having been diagnosed with coronavirus is registered as having died from the virus, even if they had other illnesses, or medical complications.
Meanwhile, Angela Merkel, who has been quarantined at home since yesterday after a doctor who administered a vaccine to her was tested positive for the virus, reportedly dialled in via telephone to the cabinet meeting of her government this morning.
Norway plans UN donors fund for poorer states
Peter Beaumont Peter Beaumont, Guardian
Amid mounting concern over the potential impact of coronavirus on poorer countries, Norway has announced that it plans to start a United Nations donors’ fund to assist in the effort.
“We are concerned about the way the virus will affect developing countries which have fragile healthcare systems,” Norway’s development aid minister, Dag-Inge Ulstein, said in a statement.
“International solidarity across borders is more important than ever. That’s why it is important for us to contribute financially to such a fund in the UN,” he added.
The proposed fund would be similar to the 2014 response fund set up to counter the west African ebola outbreak.
“We want to make sure that the efforts are as unified as possible and as early as possible so that we can answer up to the demands that countries will have, especially the poorest countries,” the foreign minister, Ine Eriksen Soereide, added.
The initiative comes amid mounting concern over the mounting impact of the coronavirus on aid efforts in the world’s poorest countries already hard hit by border closures and restrictions on travel.
The initiative has been welcomed favourably by the UN deputy secretary general, Amina Mohammed, Oslo said.
On Thursday, the UN secretary general António Guterres warned “millions” of lives were at stake if the international community did not show solidarity, especially with the world’s poorest countries, amid the coronavirus outbreak.
France could announce extended lockdown
Kim Willsher Guardian
The French parliament has voted to introduce a two-month “health state of emergency”.
This legalises the restrictive measures already taken – including the confinement introduced on 16 March – and gives the government power to legislate other emergency measures by decree.
Indications are the French government will announce that the confinement to home regulations that were initially due to last two weeks, will be extended on Monday following recommendations from the country’s Covid-19 scientific committee.
The council of state has been under pressure from medical unions to impose a “total confinement” on the population judging that the current restrictions are “too lax” and constitute a “serious and illegal attack on a fundamental freedom to life”.
On Sunday, the council examined an official request, but decided to reject the demand for the moment. In its judgment it decided that a complete confinement to home would require food deliveries that it said “could not be organised across the country”.
However, the council has given the government 48 hours to have another look at whether some movements should be proscribed, notably stopping people going out do practice an individual sport, mainly walking, jogging and running.
French police and gendarmes have reported carrying out about 1.8m stop and checks of the “justifications” needed to leave home and issued 91,824 fines, according to Alain Thirion, director general of the government’s civil security and crisis management unit.
France has 16,018 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 674 deaths., according to figures from the health authority Santé Publique France, published on Sunday evening.