A Qatar Airways charter flight arranged by the German government has picked up hundreds of tourists stranded in Nepal as the country went on lockdown at the beginning of this week.The tourists, who were mostly German nationals or had some connection to the country, flew out of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on Friday, a Nepalese immigration official said.The airport in Nepal’s capital reopened for the flight, which was designated to pick up the tourists and did not bring any passengers to the country.The government ordered a countrywide lockdown that included halting all flights and road travel as a prophylactic measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Businesses and government offices were also closed.Up to 10,000 tourists were stranded in Nepal as result of shutdown.Nepal has confirmed only three cases of the coronavirus, including one person who has recovered.
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Month: March 2020
Asian Markets Up Following Wall Street Gains
Asian markets rose by midday Friday after U.S. markets surged for a third straight day as the U.S. Senate passed the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill.Japan’s Nikkei index gained 1.2 percent, so did the Hang Seng in Hong Kong. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.7 percent and the Shanghai Composite index was up 1.4 percent.Jakarta’s benchmark shot up 7.2 percent and Singapore’s STI climbed 2.9 percent while in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 2.6 percent.The advances followed U.S. stocks surging again Thursday after the Senate passed the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill with the House likely to follow Friday.The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 1,352 points, a 6 percent gain. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ also climbed 6 percent.Analysts say U.S. investors shook off the record high 3.2 million new jobless claims recorded last week, expecting that number to be higher.U.S. President Donald Trump is promising to sign the economic stimulus package as soon as the House passes it Friday.It aims to flood the U.S. economy with billions of dollars in new spending for businesses, many of which have been brought to a standstill by the coronavirus.Those businesses have been forced to lay off millions of workers and those who are still working and getting paid aren’t finding too many stores and amusements open in which to spend.Millions more are expected to file for unemployment benefits in the coming weeks. The U.S. jobless rate is forecast to hit double digits and economists say a recession is almost a certainty. But it has always been the nature of Wall Street to shake off bad economic news, such as high unemployment. Experts say the markets don’t always run parallel with the economy and that traders buy and sell stocks based on what they see in the months ahead.
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Trump Cites Conversation with Xi as US Leads the World in Coronavirus Cases
U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Twitter early Friday: “Just finished a very good conversation with President Xi of China. Discussed in great detail the CoronaVirus that is ravaging large parts of our Planet. China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus. We are working closely together. Much respect!”The tone of this tweet is different from some of the president’s recent disparaging remarks about China in his press briefings where he often referred to the disease as “the Chinese virus.”The United States now leads the world in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases, and Congress is on the verge of action to relieve the outbreak’s economic toll.As of late Thursday, a count by Johns Hopkins Medical Center shows more than 85,000 cases in the United States, followed by China with more than 81,000 and Italy with about 80,500.New York state is the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, with New York City the hot spot. There were more 21,000 cases in the country’s largest city, with officials saying that number is growing by at least 3,000 a day.On Friday, the U.S. House plans to pass the $2 trillion economic relief package that the Senate passed Wednesday night, and President Donald Trump has indicated he will sign it.A statue of a Sioux Indian scout wears a face mask as it stands on a bluff overlooking Kansas City, Mo., March 26, 2020.The centerpiece of the bill is direct cash payments to individuals who have lost their jobs and businesses forced to close their doors because of the outbreak.Although the U.S. now has the largest number of cases, Trump said Thursday the government will be able to announce in the next two days what he calls good statistics and facts, “which will make your lives easier.”He also plans to go to Norfolk, Virginia, to see the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort leave for deployment in New York Harbor.A Reuters report says America’s home health care industry that can screen for the virus and that provides services to millions of the country’s most vulnerable residents is on the verge of collapse in the wake of the coronavirus.Roger Noyes, a spokesman for New York’s Home Care Association told Reuters, “it’s a hair-on-fire crisis.”The Reuters account said some caregivers are working without masks or gloves, while other workers have left their jobs and their patients.Canada is balking at a U.S. proposal to deploy hundreds of Americans troops along the U.S.-Candian border, which is closed to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.“Canada is strongly opposed to this U.S. proposal, and we have made that opposition very, very clear,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday. “The public health situation does not require such action.”South African Defense Forces patrol downtown Johannesburg, South Africa, March 27, 2020 amid a 21-day coronavirus lockdown.In their first-ever remote vote, the EU Parliament members approved a $41 billion package of economic aid to members whose economies have also taken a beating because of the outbreak.“From one day to the next, our lifestyles changed. Our streets emptied. Our doors closed. And we moved from a daily routine to the fight of our lives,” the head of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, told the lawmakers. Nearly all of them were under lockdown across the 27-member bloc.Italy and Spain have been particularly hard hit by the outbreak.Elsewhere, a second U.S. soldier stationed in South Korea has tested positive for the coronavirus. Officials at Camp Humphrey said she is isolated as they clean all areas she was known to have visited. They are also trying to determine who else has been exposed.A man removes his mask to stretch and take a deep breath across from cherry blossoms at the Yuyuantan Park in Beijing on Thursday, March 26, 2020.China is temporarily closing its borders to all foreign visitors. Nearly all the new coronavirus cases in the past week in China have come from people arriving from overseas.The outbreak appears to have eased in China, and authorities don’t want a resurgence.South Africa and the Saudi cities of Riyadh, Medina and Mecca — the last are two of Islam’s holiest cities — are the latest to go under lockdown.And the Associated Press reports U.N. ambassadors from eight countries under United States sanctions — China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela — are asking Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to press the U.S. to lift the sanctions so they can effectively fight the outbreak. The ambassadors accused the U.S. of politicizing the pandemic.
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Global Army of Volunteers Mobilizes to Battle Coronavirus
More than half a million people in Britain have volunteered to help the National Health Service cope with the coronavirus epidemic. Across the world, people are stepping forward to help the most vulnerable – offering hope that societies can overcome the huge disruption caused by the virus. VOA’s Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Puerto Rico Extends Coronavirus Curfew
The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico is extending a two-week curfew to April 12 and warning residents that new restrictions are on the way to help curb coronavirus cases.Gov. Wanda Vázquez said beginning Tuesday, nonessential workers will have to be home by 7 p.m., two hours earlier than the current curfew.She also said vehicles with license plates ending in even numbers can only be on the road Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Vehicles with tags ending in odd numbers are only permitted to move about on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.Vázquez said the new restrictions come in response to hundreds of people being cited for violating a curfew imposed nearly two weeks ago.The leader of Puerto Rico’s coronavirus task force, Dr. Segundo Rodríguez, estimates that there are more than 600 people infected on the island, with more than 60 already testing positive.Authorities also reported two tourists on the island had died of the virus.Meanwhile, there has been a shake-up in the territory’s health department over the handling of the coronavirus.The governor Thursday announced appointment of Lorenzo González as Puerto Rico’s third health secretary in less than two weeks. González was health secretary during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic. The move came hours after former health secretary Concepción Quiñones resigned for unclear reasons; her appointment followed the resignation of Rafael Rodríguez over complaints about the department’s handling of COVID-19.
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Spain Enters Third Week of Coronavirus Lockdown
As Spain entered the third week of lockdown Friday, the streets of Barcelona, the second-most populous municipality, were empty due to the coronavirus pandemic.Iconic tourist attractions in the capital of Catalonia region, such as Arc de Triomf, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia and La Rambla were deserted.The only people occasionally seen on the street were those walking dogs.On a Barcelona beach, police were patrolling the area, with no one else venturing out.Spain is the hardest-hit country by the coronavirus in Europe after Italy, recording more than 56,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 4,100 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.
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European Parliament Approves $40 Billion Emergency Package
The European Parliament on Thursday evening passed a $40 billion emergency package to help countries and their citizens most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.Only President David Sassoli returned to the building from protective quarantine for the extraordinary plenary session, while members cast their vote by email.The so-called Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative is intended to help people and businesses cope with the crisis.The package includes an extension of the EU Solidarity Fund for public health emergencies in Europe.Members of European Parliament also approved temporary suspension, until October, of an EU rule requiring air carriers to use 80 percent or more of their flight slots during a year to keep them.
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A New Beat for Police Across US: Enforcing Social Distance
In New York City, they’ve started dismantling basketball hoops to prevent people from gathering in parks and playing. In Lakewood, New Jersey, police broke up a wedding being held in violation of a ban on large gatherings. And in Austin, Texas, officers are encouraging people to call a hotline to snitch on violators of the city’s orders for people to stay home.Police departments are taking a lead role in enforcing social distancing guidelines that health officials say are critical to containing COVID-19. Along with park rangers, fire inspectors and other public servants, officers more accustomed to chasing suspects and solving crimes are spending these troubled days cajoling people to stay at least 6 feet apart.”We’re used to crowds, we’re used to lines, we’re used to being close together,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a briefing this week. “No more.”New York City Department of Parks and Recreation employees remove the basketball hoop from a court in Tompkins Square Park, March 26, 2020, in New York as part of the social distancing effort.The no-more mandate has forced the New York Police Department — a squad that normally prides itself on protecting packed crowds like the ones at the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration — into service dispersing small groups of people on city streets and public spaces.Instead of the threat of terrorism, they’re trying to stop the spread of a silent killer that as of Thursday had left more than 1,000 people dead in the U.S., at least 280 of them in New York City — all while trying to avoid using a heavy hand.For starters, the nation’s largest police department made thousands of visits to bars and restaurants to make sure they were observing a shutdown of dine-in services imposed this month, resulting in warnings but only a handful of citations.Now comes an effort to impose restrictions in parks, playgrounds, housing project courtyards and sidewalks, where some people to congregate out of habit or indifference as temperatures rise. On Wednesday, de Blasio said the city was removing basketball hoops at 80 of its 1,700 public courts — places where he said people were ignoring instructions not to shoot around with anyone outside their household.Enforcement also will include marked patrol cars driving through Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and other popular outdoor escapes around the city, broadcasting recorded reminders about the importance of social distancing.NYPD video shot in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and posted on Twitter showed a squad car slowly rolling down a nearly empty street — occupied by just two people running on opposite sides of the street — and playing a message that implores, “Please help us keep you safe.”Newark police officers, encouraging people to practice social distancing, patrol an intersection in Newark, N.J., March 26, 2020.In addition, the city is mobilizing departments to form roving enforcement teams for the effort, including members of the fire and parks departments and the mayor’s community affairs unit.People are not being discouraged from getting out for a breath of fresh air solo, as couples or as families. But other activities like team sports or gatherings like outdoor family barbecues are going to be shut down, de Blasio said.”If we see people in groups, we’re going to break them up,” he said. “If we see a place that’s too crowded, we are going to get people to disperse.”De Blasio said he would even consider closing playgrounds as soon as Saturday if families don’t follow new rules to “not overcrowd them” or allowing “kids playing with kids outside their own family.”Pedestrians stand near a bus stop at an intersection in Newark, N.J., March 26, 2020. Police departments are taking a lead role in enforcing social distancing guidelines that health officials say are critical to containing COVID-19.In New Jersey, police charged three people in recent days for holding large gatherings in defiance of a state ban. In San Jose, Calif., officers have checked 369 businesses for compliance and issued their first citation on Wednesday. If the city’s parks and trails continue to be crowded with residents, authorities could be forced to step up their enforcement — which Chief Eddie Garcia said could be difficult to determine.”They can’t play ‘red light, green light’ and say ‘everybody, freeze! Let’s get a tape measure out!’ ” he said.In New York City, officers patrolling recreation areas and enforcing social distancing this week were seeing “a lot of empty soccer fields and a lot of empty basketball courts, which is good,” NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said.For now, the department is trying to avoid a more lax approach used in Italy that is believed to have only fueled infection rates, while avoiding any semblance of the Big Brother-type crackdown in China.As the crisis worsened, Italy ordered police to patrol cafes to make sure that people kept their distance and that shops shut at 6 p.m. each day, only to see the death count continue to rise. It has since shut down bars and cafes altogether.In China, officials took more extreme measures, including locking people inside their apartment complexes. A state-run news agency even released what it claimed was video from a drone sent out to chase down and shame people not wearing masks.Social media photos and videos from India showed police officers in surgical masks using batons to keep violators in line.There also were reports that Singaporean authorities criminally charged a couple who lied about their travel history and revoked the residency of a man who broke his medical quarantine.At this point, New York police say, the effort is “more about education and getting compliance,” Monahan said. “It’s about explaining to people the dangers involved and that this is a different world.”
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South Africa Begins Nationwide Coronavirus Lockdown
South Africans on Friday began the first day of a three-week nationwide lockdown aimed at stemming the tide of coronavirus cases, now topping 900 in South Africa.President Cyril Ramaphosa urged troops on Thursday to be a “force of kindness,” saying people are terrified of the virus and the soldiers should not do anything to make their situation worse.Ramaphosa delivered a similar message to police, stressing that they understand that people are fearful of the virus and its potential impact, including losing their livelihoods.South Africa’s lockdown is considered one of the strictest, with bans on alcohol sales and dog-walking, among other things. People are also not allowed to jog in public for the next three weeks.South Africa’s borders are already closed for transporting people, but cargos of essential supplies can still come into the country.The lockdown could last beyond 21 days if the situation with the virus does not improve.
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G-20 Conducts Virtual Meeting as US Records Highest COVID-19 Cases
The leaders of the world’s foremost industrialized nations convened via teleconference Thursday to discuss the global coronavirus outbreak, as data emerged that the largest of those economies is on track to record the most known cases of COVID-19 and become the next epicenter of the pandemic. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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US Leads the World in Coronavirus Cases
The United States now leads the world in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases, and Congress is on the verge of action to relieve the outbreak’s economic toll.As of late Thursday, a count by Johns Hopkins Medical Center shows more than 85,000 cases in the United States, followed by China with more than 81,000 and Italy with about 80,500.New York state is the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, with New York City the hot spot. There were more 21,000 cases in the country’s largest city, with officials saying that number is growing by at least 3,000 a day.On Friday, the U.S. House plans to pass the $2 trillion economic relief package that the Senate passed Wednesday night, and President Donald Trump has indicated he will sign it.A statue of a Sioux Indian scout wears a face mask as it stands on a bluff overlooking Kansas City, Mo., March 26, 2020.The centerpiece of the bill is direct cash payments to individuals who have lost their jobs and businesses forced to close their doors because of the outbreak.Although the U.S. now has the largest number of cases, Trump said Thursday the government will be able to announce in the next two days what he calls good statistics and facts, “which will make your lives easier.”He also plans to go to Norfolk, Virginia, to see the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort leave for deployment in New York Harbor.Canada is balking at a U.S. proposal to deploy hundreds of Americans troops along the U.S.-Candian border, which is closed to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.“Canada is strongly opposed to this U.S. proposal, and we have made that opposition very, very clear,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday. “The public health situation does not require such action.”South African Defense Forces patrol downtown Johannesburg, South Africa, March 27, 2020 amid a 21-day coronavirus lockdown.In their first-ever remote vote, the EU Parliament members approved a $41 billion package of economic aid to members whose economies have also taken a beating because of the outbreak.“From one day to the next, our lifestyles changed. Our streets emptied. Our doors closed. And we moved from a daily routine to the fight of our lives,” the head of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, told the lawmakers. Nearly all of them were under lockdown across the 27-member bloc.Italy and Spain have been particularly hard hit by the outbreak.Elsewhere, a second U.S. soldier stationed in South Korea has tested positive for the coronavirus. Officials at Camp Humphrey said she is isolated as they clean all areas she was known to have visited. They are also trying to determine who else has been exposed.A man removes his mask to stretch and take a deep breath across from cherry blossoms at the Yuyuantan Park in Beijing on Thursday, March 26, 2020.China is temporarily closing its borders to all foreign visitors. Nearly all the new coronavirus cases in the past week in China have come from people arriving from overseas.The outbreak appears to have eased in China, and authorities don’t want a resurgence.South Africa and the Saudi cities of Riyadh, Medina and Mecca — the last are two of Islam’s holiest cities — are the latest to go under lockdown.And the Associated Press reports U.N. ambassadors from eight countries under United States sanctions — China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela — are asking Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to press the U.S. to lift the sanctions so they can effectively fight the outbreak. The ambassadors accused the U.S. of politicizing the pandemic.
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Experts: N. Korea Must Admit to COVID-19 Cases, Request Help Before Sanctions Lifted
North Korea needs to publicly admit there is a coronavirus outbreak inside its borders and officially ask the international community for help fighting COVID-19 before any sanctions are lifted, experts said.“North Korea has not even acknowledged a single case of coronavirus,” said Christopher Hill, a chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea during the George W. Bush administration. “Until [the North Koreans] acknowledge that they have a problem, I cannot see any relaxation of sanctions.”North Korea has not publicly reported any confirmed cases of COVID-19. But the regime has taken measures to contain the virus, including Workers of the Ryongaksan Soap Factory make disinfectants in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 19, 2020.North Korea’s all-out efforts against the virus raised speculation that a possible outbreak has occurred in the country that shares a porous border with China, where the virus originated in Wuhan.The Financial Times reported Thursday that North Korea FILE — In this file photo taken on June 30, 2019, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump shake hands during a meeting on the south side of the Military Demarcation Line that divides North and South Korea.Michelle Bachelet, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, on Tuesday People wear masks to protect from a new coronavirus as they walk through the Kwangbok Street in Pyongyang, North Korea, Feb. 26, 2020.“Although North Korea says [it’s] not affected … those sanctions should be lifted,” said DeTrani.During an interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show on Thursday, Pompeo said the U.S offered assistance for battling the coronavirus to countries like North Korea, Iran and Venezuela.“In countries like Venezuela — North Korea would be in a similar situation — we’re doing our best to ensure that humanitarian assistance can make its way,” said Pompeo. “In some of these countries, when humanitarian assistance is offered — we have offered assistance for Iran — they’ll often reject it.”In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s official state media, on Sunday, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said U.S. President Donald Trump sent a personal letter offering “anti-epidemic” help.She has not given any concrete reply to the offer but only welcomed the letter as “a good judgment and proper action for the U.S. president.” She also said it is not good to make a “hasty conclusion” that a close relationship between Trump and Kim could lead to improved relations between the two countries.Although the two leaders have been exchanging letters, nuclear talks have been deadlocked since October, when the working-level talks in Stockholm collapsed because of their differing demands. Since then, Washington has offered to resume the working-level talks, but Pyongyang has not responded to the offer.Christy Lee contributed to this report from the VOA Korean service.
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Kenya’s Turkana Herders Struggle to Survive in Cycle of Droughts, Floods
For nearly a decade, herders in Kenya’s arid northwest have depended on cash payments from the government to withstand a cycle of recurring severe droughts and floods. But herders say the payments don’t always arrive on time, and climate change is making it harder for them to maintain their livelihood. Droughts last year followed by heavy floods this year killed thousands of animals in the region. Philip Lopili, who has been herding sheep and goats for more than 60 years in Kenya’s dry northwest Turkana County, says he lost 114 animals last year. Turkana’s climate has changed for the worse, he added, and rainy seasons no longer arrive every six months, as they once did.Herder Ruth Akiru says it’s not just humans who are suffering. When the trees dry up, the goats start dying, she said, adding that when the goats lack food, it also becomes harder for humans to survive. Kenya in 2012 introduced cash payments to help herders affected by extreme weather from global warming.But the herders in Turkana say the money doesn’t always come when needed. Kenya’s National Droughts Management Authority says it lacks the money to help all the herders who are struggling.”We know what we are doing, we know where we are going,” said James Oduor, chief executive of the agency. “But because of resources, we are a bit slow to achieve what we want. So resource is a big, big problem.”In the meantime, herders like Akiru and Lopili can only wait for more support and hope for less extreme weather.
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Zimbabwe Doctors, Nurses Down Tools Over COVID-19 PPEs
Doctors and nurses in Zimbabwe’s public hospitals have gone on strike and are vowing not to return until the government gives them personal protective equipment so they can safely treat suspected coronavirus patients. Public health specialists warn that without action to resolve the matter, Zimbabwe could turn into another COVID-19 epicenter.Doctors and nurses from government hospitals said they went on strike because pleas to address their safety concerns had fallen on deaf ears.The issue first arose after Zororo Makamba, a well-known TV broadcaster, died Monday at Zimbabwe’s designated hospital for COVID-19 patients.A March 5, 2020 photo of Wilkins hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe’s designated hospital for COVID-19 patients, where Zororo Makamba, a well-known TV broadcaster, died on March 23, 2020. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)His family said the hospital lacked the necessary equipment for treating Makamba, and doctors said they did not have the right masks and protective clothing. On Thursday, doctors and nurses union officials addressed their members outside the country’s main hospital in Harare and circulated the audio on social media. “We need personal protective equipment for our doctors and nurses, and for everyone who is going to be working in the health sector, or anyone who is going to be in contact with anyone who is going to be affected by this coronavirus,” said Tapiwa Mungofa, treasurer of Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association. “Where we are right now is not a position that we wanted, and as soon as our protection as health workers is guaranteed, we are ready to serve the Zimbabwean population. We are ready to fight this coronavirus.”Fortune Nyamande, a public health specialist, is the spokesman from the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights. Speaking via WhatsApp, he said his organization was not surprised about the actions of the health personnel, given their low salaries and poor working conditions.“These issues which are being raised by the government doctors and nurses have been said for quite a lot of time,” said Nyamande. “The government has been paying lip service in terms of responding to grievances raised by medical personnel. It is the time for the state to recalibrate its commitment towards taking good care of the welfare of health workers.”Health Minister Obediah Moyo speaking to journalists in Harare, March 5, 2020, after Zimbabwe received some equipment from the World Health Organization to fight COVID19. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)Later Thursday, Health Minister Obediah Moyo told a government-controlled TV station that health personnel would receive protective gear that Chinese billionaire Jack Ma donated this week.“We want them to be back at work and not to worry, as we are even getting some more protective equipment,” said Moyo. “We cannot joke about the life of our nation, let alone of those who look after the sick. If I could add on: The government has decided that they should get risk allowance. A COVID-19 risk allowance is necessary for all those health workers who are providing this service.”So far, Zimbabwe has seen two confirmed COVID-19 cases, including Makamba. Doctors are waiting for test results on another suspected coronavirus patient.
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Malawi Orders Political Opposition to Halt Coronavirus Education Campaigns
Malawi has ordered opposition political parties to halt coronavirus awareness campaigns, calling the efforts a politicization of the pandemic. While Malawi has yet to confirm a case of the virus, President Peter Mutharika last week declared COVID-19 a national disaster and opposition parties have been going door-to-door to educate people on symptoms and prevention. FILE – Opposition leaders Chakwera, left, and Chilima, center, take part in post election protests. (Lameck Masina/VOA)Malawi government spokesman Mark Botoman says opposition parties must immediately stop education campaigns on the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. Speaking by telephone, he said their messages are not crafted by health experts, making the efforts a political move that could do more harm than good. “What we are also saying is that yes, they can be partners that would want to come in to help, but they need to go through the Ministry of Health because the Ministry of Health is the one spearheading all activities around the COVID-19,” he said. The opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and United Transformation Movement party (UTM) have been going door-to-door in rural areas to raise awareness of symptoms and prevention. They say their campaigners wear masks and gloves and preach handwashing to prevent coronavirus from spreading. The leader of the UTM party’s coronavirus awareness campaign, Felix Njawala, said there is nothing political in their messaging. “If the person doesn’t know anything about it, then we start enlightening a person about coronavirus; what it has done in other countries and from there, we provide details of the measure that are there for them to protect themselves from contracting the virus. Then we were providing them with hand washing soap,” he said. Malawi’s healthcare rights activists have welcomed all coronavirus education campaigns. Speaking by telephone, former president of Malawi’s National Organization of Nurses and Midwives (NONM) Dorothy Ngoma, said: “Do you think that committee of ministers will be managing to run top to bottom to teach people in the villages? I don’t think so. We should allow whatever political party, the chiefs, and the churches, to continue doing this, 24 hours a day, until we make sure that this infection is not going to knock on our doors.” A store assistant gives people hand sanitizer as shoppers stock up on groceries at a Makro Store ahead of a nationwide 21 day lockdown, in Durban, South Africa, March 24, 2020.As the coronavirus spreads across Africa, Malawi has intensified screening for the virus at all entry points and hospitals. Health authorities say over 500 people are being monitored while on self-quarantine across the country. The squabble over opposition political parties’ coronavirus campaigning comes as Malawi’s electoral commission on Monday said a rerun of last year’s annulled polls would be held on July 2nd. The Constitutional Court last month overturned the May 2019 election, citing widespread irregularities. President Mutharika’s party is appealing the decision at the Supreme Court.
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Spain Reels Under Coronavirus as Death Toll Tops 4,000
Spain is reeling under the onslaught of the coronavirus, with fatalities surpassing those of China, the health system collapsing and retirement homes becoming open graves. Hospitals are running out of critical supplies, and about a third of medical staff have been contaminated by the highly contagious virus, carried by tens of thousands of infected people cramming clinics in Madrid, Barcelona and other large cities. “Intensive care units and hospitals are on the verge of collapse,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told Congress on Wednesday evening, when he asked for his emergency powers to be extended until April 12. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez holds a videoconference with some of his ministers over the coronavirus outbreak, at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, March 13, 2020.He also asked Congress for $350 billion in emergency funding to confront the crisis and cushion the country against the economic consequences of confining people to their homes for a month. The government expects three months of economic paralysis, which could cause a 9.7% drop in GDP this year and a 10% rise in its deficit, according to Goldman Sachs. “There are more dark and uncertain days ahead,” Sanchez said before an almost empty congressional chamber. Most lawmakers could not attend because of quarantines and other travel restrictions. Several leading ministers have caught the virus. Spain’s coronavirus cases have risen to 48,000 this week, according to the health ministry. But Social Security Minister Jose Luis Escriva has said that almost twice that number could yet be infected, as there are 83,000 workers reporting coronavirus symptoms who have not yet been diagnosed. Twenty-five percent of hospital workers have contracted coronavirus, according to the health ministry, which reports that 5,400 medical staff have been contaminated on an accelerating scale, with 2,000 falling ill in the past two days. Patients are being neglected at Madrid’s Gregorio Marañon hospital, where videos broadcast over national television have shown patients strewn across the floor. A nurse at the hospital told reporters that they are out of essential supplies and that she and other medical staff are using garbage bags as protective gowns. Despite overstretched resources, health workers in Spain have managed to cure more than 5,000 coronavirus patients, who have been discharged, according to the health ministry. Spain’s King Felipe VI visits a military hospital set up at the IFEMA conference center in Madrid, March 26, 2020.The daily death toll was reported to be dropping Thursday, although Spain’s deaths have surpassed the 4,000 mark, well above the 3,200 reported in China, according to a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University in the United States. Italy remains the worst-hit country with more than 8,000 fatalities and more than 80,000 confirmed cases, almost equal to China’s figure. Coronavirus deaths have mostly struck people older than 70, considered the most vulnerable age group. Military emergency teams inspecting retirement homes in Madrid and other cities have found them abandoned by staff and with most of the residents dead in their beds. “Survivors mingled among cadavers,” an army officer told reporters. Army engineering units have set up field hospitals in parks and turned empty warehouses, fair pavilions and other public spaces into makeshift clinics to relieve the overcrowded hospitals. This has led to ugly scenes in some neighborhoods, where protests have erupted over the busing-in of potentially contaminated people. A youth gang in the city of La Linea, which has until now been a zone of low contamination, fought police in an attempt to block buses bringing groups of elderly citizens from badly hit regions. In a first-ever electronic vote, Congress unanimously passed the 15-day extension of emergency powers and funding requested by the government. But Sanchez faced strong criticism from opposition parties, which accused his administration of “dithering” and being late to act despite clear warning signs from health experts weeks before the pandemic broke out. Far-right leader Santiago Abascal held separatist authorities in Catalonia responsible for the spiraling number of coronavirus cases reported in Barcelona, where they tried to block a deployment of the army.
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Italian Patient Describes What It’s Like to Have COVID-19
As Italy continues to battle the coronavirus, a patient who contracted the virus earlier this month warns the world to be careful because the virus can be passed by those who show no symptoms.Italy’s rate of coronavirus infection slowed for a fourth day Thursday, with many hopeful that the long lockdown is providing the results everyone has been praying for. Authorities are cautious, though, asking Italians not to lower their guard and continue to respect the rules. One hospitalized patient is speaking about his experience. Fausto Rossi, 38, started feeling unwell with a fever March 5 and four days later he was taken to Santa Maria Goretti Hospital in the city of Latina, where he tested positive for the coronavirus. He says, “the problem with this virus is when it gets to your lungs because it attacks them aggressively and causes a very serious pneumonia with an extremely high percentage of death.” He stressed that this pneumonia is devastating.He said, “It’s incredibly strong and has a very high mortality rate.” He added that, if he suffered from other ailments or was of a different age, he would probably not be here today. “It’s a horrible feeling not to be able to breathe,” he said.Rossi, who is still in the hospital, but has been released from the intensive care unit and hopes to soon return to his family at home, said everyone in Italy underestimated this virus. He said he hopes this pandemic will end as quickly as possible so that everyone can return to their normal lives. He offered his advice.People wear masks as they line up to enter a pharmacy, in Rome, March 16, 2020.People must respect the restrictive measures that have been put in place, leaving the house only for primary needs; they must stay at home and avoid social contact with others because “this virus walks on his own legs of those who have no symptoms, so anyone could have it.”Rossi is very grateful towards those who treated him.”My thanks go to all the doctors and nurses of the hospital’s infectious diseases unit, they are the true heroes of this battle. Every day they work in extreme conditions, psychologically under pressure and with the constant fear of contracting the virus and of not being able to return home to their families,” he said.This Italian coronavirus patient says his days in the hospital were passed in great solitude with no family members nearby and no one to support him. He said the experience has changed his life and taught him to appreciate the small things he took for granted: “living, breathing, a walk, a hug, a glass of wine, freedom.”
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How COVID-19 Has Impacted American Religious Communities
As the coronavirus continues to disrupt people’s lives in ways both big and small, many are seeking greater spiritual nourishment. Religious institutions across the country are heeding that call by connecting with their congregations in a number of creative ways. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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100 New Yorkers Die in 24-Hour Period From COVID-19
The U.S. state of New York crossed a grim threshold Thursday, with 100 residents dying from the coronavirus in a 24-hour period, and the governor warning that the numbers will continue to rise. “The number of deaths is increasing,” Andrew Cuomo told reporters. With the latest deaths, 385 people have now succumbed to the virus in New York state. He said the fatalities are primarily among patients who have been on ventilators for weeks. COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is a respiratory virus and many patients experience difficulty breathing, requiring the assistance of a breathing machine. “We now have people who have been on ventilators for 20, 30 days,” Cuomo said. “The longer you are on a ventilator, the more likely you are not going to come off the ventilator. That is what is happening.” A worker walks past freezer trucks to store cadavers, part of a makeshift morgue behind a hospital, during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, March 26, 2020.It is a troubling development, as there are 1,300 COVID-19 patients in the state’s intensive care units — those are the hospital beds equipped with ventilators. Cuomo said in normal medical situations, patients tend to use a machine for 3 to 4 days, while patients with the coronavirus average 11 to 21 days. The state of 19.5 million people has become a global hotspot for the virus. There are now more than 37,000 confirmed cases statewide. More than 5,300 people are sick enough to be hospitalized. Many more may have the virus but do not meet criteria to be tested. Cuomo has a team working to procure new ventilators to meet his state’s projected needs when cases are likely to peak in 2 to 3 weeks time. Cuomo has said they are trying to secure 30,000 machines. So far they have about 12,000. New York is also looking at “splitting” ventilators — refitting one machine with two sets of tubes in order to assist two people simultaneously.”It is not ideal, but we believe it is workable,” Cuomo said. “We are also converting anaesthesia machines to ventilators.” FILE – Ventilators lie at the New York City Emergency Management Warehouse before being shipped out for distribution due to concerns over the rapid spread of coronavirus disease, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, March 24, 2020.He said the state’s hospitals have a couple of thousand anesthesia machines that could be converted. New York City is the epicenter of the state’s pandemic, with more than 21,000 cases. New cases are growing by more than 3,000 a day there. Cuomo said authorities are looking at moving some patients from the city to less overwhelmed hospitals in the north of the state. “We are working on a collaboration where we distribute the load between downstate hospitals and upstate hospitals, and we are also working on increasing capacity for upstate hospitals,” he said. Economic fallout While the state’s health care system tries to cope with the growing number of patients, officials are looking at the catastrophic fiscal fallout. A $2 trillion stimulus package passed in the U.S. Senate late Wednesday allocates $5 billion to the hardest-hit state. Cuomo said New York is looking at a loss of between $10 billion and $15 billion in revenue from the coronavirus and that the legislation did not address that. “The congressional action, in my opinion, simply failed to address the governmental need,” the governor said. “I said I was disappointed. I find it irresponsible, I find it reckless.”
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Migration to Greece Drops Dramatically, but EU Seeks Greater Refugee Coronavirus Protection
Illegal migration flows to Greece have dropped to their lowest point since the start of the year, counting upwards of 100 cases this week, after the governments in Athens and Ankara lock down their countries to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
The dramatic decrease offers some respite for Greece, which has been struggling to fend off thousands of asylum seekers from streaming into the country after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in late February he no longer would block their access to Europe.
Faced with a burgeoning health crisis, the Turkish leader rescinded his orders last week. By that time, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu explained Thursday, some 150,600 migrants and refugees had managed to enter Greece — the biggest migrant push to the West since more than 1 million, mainly Syrian refugees, fled to Europe to escape their country’s civil war in 2016.
Athens refutes the figures, and United Nations’ data show the total number of migrant entries to Greece totaling 9,486 since the start of the year. Just 105 were recorded in the last week, 10 times less than the 1,288 documented in early March, according to the U.N.’s refugee agency.
Coast guard and migration officials are calling the swoon “dramatic,” saying it is among the largest drop-offs since the EU and Turkey stitched together a landmark deal to limit the 2016 refugee crisis.“We’re seeing zip, zilch, zero rubber rafts for days now,” said a senior coast guard official on Lesbos, an island on the forefront of Europe’s lingering migration crisis. “Even so,” the official said on the condition of anonymity, “we remain vigilant.”
Many refugees are arriving at Istanbul’s bus station broke, exhausted and often sick after failing to cross the border into Greece. Formal aid organizations or journalists are not on the scene, March 20, 2020. (Courtesy of aid workers)NATO allies Greece and Turkey have been at loggerheads for years over conflicting sea and air rights, mainly in the oil and mineral-rich Aegean Sea. Athens frequently has accused Erdogan of using the more than 3 million refugees in his country to pressure the EU and Washington into supporting its own military offensive in the nine-year Syrian war.
Now that migratory pressures having eased, though, officials in the Greek capital are scrambling to shield more than 100,000 asylums seekers trapped in the country since a host of Balkan states sealed their borders and threw up steel fences to stop them from reaching the heart of Europe during the 2016 refugee crisis. More than 40,000 refugees are crammed in unsanitary and overcrowded camps on a host of Aegean islands.
“We are enforcing the strictest possible controls, even tougher than those imposed on the rest of the population in Greece, to cope with the situation,” Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said.
But Athens is refusing to heed pressure from the EU to move migrants from five island camps to the Greek mainland – a move the government fears could enflame the spread of coronavirus.
To date no cases of COVID-19 have been reported among Greece’s community of refugees and migrants.
On Thursday, Greek Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said she was working with the Greek government “to agree on an emergency plan to help reduce the risk as much as possible in the overcrowded hotspots on the islands.”
She suggested the plan could include relocating the most susceptible to the virus – mainly the disabled, elderly and chronically ill.
Earlier this month, the government imposed strict restrictions on the movement of asylum seekers in camps. It also has designs to turn at least two of the five Aegean camps into enclosed facilities.
Aid workers and human rights advocates have been critical of the measures, warning that if the virus spreads to the camps, it could decimate the migrant communities.
“The government’s strategy is to lock everyone in one place and throw away the key,” said Eva Cossé, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Thousands of people, including older people, those with chronic diseases, children… pregnant women, new mothers, and people with disabilities, are trapped in dangerously overcrowded, deplorable conditions on the islands amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” Human Rights Watch said.“Forcing asylum seekers to remain in conditions that violate their rights and are harmful to their well-being, health, and dignity cannot be justified on grounds of public health,” the international, New York-based non-governmental organization said in a statement.
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‘Made in Vietnam’ Goods Increasingly Popular in US
“Made in Vietnam” cell phones, lounge chairs and clothing have become more popular with Americans than ever before. U.S. imports from the Southeast Asian nation have increased to record levels, showing the two sides increasingly interlinked, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s taking a tougher line on commerce with Vietnam.
The United States increased its imports from Vietnam by 36% last year for a total value of $67 billion, which is the highest increase in a single year since 2003, according to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The increase shows Vietnam is making a “massive reorientation” in trade toward the U.S., according to Michael Ryan, the economics director at IHS Markit Economics, an investment research firm.
Businesses have moved to Vietnam in order to depend less on neighboring China, where it has become more expensive or harder to do business because of multiple reasons: the trade war with the U.S., the coronavirus pandemic, and the higher costs.
“The United States has become far and away the most important driver of Vietnam’s export engine, accounting for two-thirds of Vietnam’s total export growth in 2019,” Ryan said.
Vietnam is a key source of electronics, furniture, clothing, footwear, and fish for Americans. It also is a key global exporter of coffee, rice, and other food.
After the U.S. government asked it to buy more American goods, Vietnam announced this month it would buy $3 billion worth of farm goods, from soy animal feed to barley, in addition to previous announcements of buying U.S. airplanes.FILE – The U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City had a temporary mural depicting President Donald Trump painted in 2017.Trump has threatened tariffs, saying in June that Vietnam abuses the trade system but not explaining how. He said he wants to decrease the gap in what the U.S. exports to Vietnam, versus the larger number of what it imports from Vietnam.
Instead, that gap has increased every year from 2008 to 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. While economists say the trade balance is not a key way to measure trade success, Vietnam is exporting more because of the China-U.S. trade war.
Assistant professor Jing Wu says President Trump’s trade war did not get companies to move to the U.S., but instead shifted them to other nations like Vietnam.
“Contrary to the hypothesis that firms move production back home as it is more safe, we find [that] an increase in U.S. trade policy uncertainty tilts the production process of American firms overseas,” Wu said.
He and colleagues at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School studied the relationship between trade uncertainty and the movement of firms, finding that firms tended to diversify source countries amid the trade war. They cited as examples Apple, Chevron, and Victoria’s Secret owner L Brands, which all have moved more business to Vietnam.
Their study predates COVID-19, which has upended supply chains and exports around the world. Businesses still expect to be active in Vietnam after the crisis, though, and continue to invest. For instance, the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council went through with plans to send a business delegation to Vietnam this month amid the crisis.
“The record number of companies on our health delegation this year, especially during this critical time, speaks volumes to the value the business community places on working with the Vietnamese government to make health care more accessible,” Son Pham, chief executive officer of GE Vietnam, which includes GE Healthcare, said.
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Armenia Reports First Death Related to Coronavirus
A 72-year-old woman diagnosed with the coronavirus died in Armenia on Thursday, the Health Ministry’s spokeswoman said, reporting the country’s first death related to the virus.Armenia, a country of around 3 million people, had reported 290 coronavirus cases as of Thursday, the highest number among countries in the South Caucasus region.
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Lisbon’s First ‘Drive-thru’ Clinic Tests Patients for Coronavirus
In a redeveloped urban park in Lisbon, a “drive-thru” clinic is performing five-minute swab tests through car windows on people with coronavirus symptoms, as Portuguese authorities ramp up testing facilities to tackle the growing health emergency.Portugal reported on Thursday 3,544 confirmed cases of the virus since the start of the epidemic, with 60 deaths. That is still far below neighboring Spain or Italy, but the government expects the epidemic only to peak around mid-April.The model of mobile clinics now popping up across Europe and the Americas began in South Korea in February and has been recommended by the World Health Organization as a way of alleviating pressure on hospitals and reducing the risk of contagion by keeping patients in their cars.The Lisbon “drive-thru,” which opened on Monday and expects to perform 150 tests a day, is one of 10 new testing centers to be launched in coming weeks in Portugal.Portugal’s first such site, in the northern city of Porto where the country’s first coronavirus case was detected, started operations last week and now tests about 400 people a day.
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Record 3.3 Million US Workers Make Jobless Benefit Claims
A record 3.3 million U.S workers filed for unemployment compensation last week as thousands of businesses shut their doors or curtailed operations in the face of the deadly coronavirus and laid off their employees, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday. The wave of claims by the newly unemployed has overwhelmed some state agencies that handle the paperwork, with the jobless workers forced to wait hours in line at offices or online if they were filing electronically. Jobless claim websites in some states, including New York and Oregon, crashed. The vast number of claims easily surpassed the previous one-week record in the U.S. — 695,000 in 1982 as the U.S. battled high inflation at the time. Economists say the huge number of new unemployment insurance claims is just one indication of the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus. Some suggest the U.S. might already be in a recession, even if the technical definition of a recession, two straight quarters of declining growth, is not met. FILE – An empty restaurant is seen in Manhattan borough following the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New York City, March 15, 2020.Last week’s jobless benefit claims could be an indicator of millions more to come as many businesses are reassessing their plans by the day. They are faced with the question of whether to continue to pay employees when they have little or no work to do as would-be customers stay home in self-isolation to avoid public contact with others who might have contracted the virus. Normally, laid-off workers claiming unemployment compensation are paid a fraction of their regular salaries, a sort of stop-gap personal funding. But the massive $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package that was approved by the U.S. Senate late Wednesday includes $250 billion for bigger jobless payments that will benefit the newly unemployed at a time when the U.S. economy, the world’s largest, is facing unparalleled challenges. The legislation, when likely approved Friday by the House of Representatives and signed into law by President Donald Trump, extends jobless insurance from 26 to 39 weeks and increases the payouts to the jobless by $600 a week for four months above what states would normally pay the unemployed. In addition, for the first time, freelancers and gig workers, such as Uber drivers, will be eligible.
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