China is not the only nation coming to the aid of others in the fight against COVID-19.In business attire and surgical masks, five European ambassadors stood on a stage in Hanoi on Tuesday and greeted Vietnamese officials who announced they were donating face masks to Europe. Besides donating 500,000 masks, Vietnam has sent medical aid to China, Cambodia and Laos in recent weeks.Hanoi is now in talks with the United States to supply it with protective equipment. Health workers walk through the grounds at a makeshift COVID-19 testing facility in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 31, 2020.Vietnam continues to try to control COVID-19 domestically, but the virus has also marked a moment for the communist nation to make overtures abroad. Upending tradition, Vietnam, which historically has been an aid recipient, is showing that it can also be a contributor. “Thanks to our Vietnamese friends for their support,” Petra Sigmund, director general for Asia and the Pacific at the Foreign Office of Germany, said on Twitter. “We should stay united in solidarity and continue to join hands to fight against the coronavirus.”In another post, she shared a photo of herself in a colorful mask thanking Vietnam for its generosity in donating masks to Germany.As hospitals across the United States face big shortfalls in masks and medical equipment, the U.S. Agency for International Development is asking Vietnamese firms what supplies they can manufacture. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency said it created an “air bridge” to quickly get medical supplies exported from Vietnam, in addition to nations such as Thailand, India and Honduras.The Vietnam Embassy in Washington said it created a direct channel of communication to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.“This is a very good opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to export personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies to European and American markets,” Nhan Dan, the official newspaper for the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, said in a web post. The newspaper called on domestic firms to manufacture supplies for export. The post noted that one opportunity is in California, which is asking for 500 million pairs of N95 breathing masks, 10 million goggles and 1 billion pairs of gloves.While Vietnam is a developing nation with an economy smaller than that of California, a combination of factors allows it to fill some holes created by the COVID-19 emergency. Vietnam responded early to the emergency, keeping its reported numbers of infections under 300 cases as of Wednesday, and giving it the relative stability to aid others. The single-party state ordered a national lockdown and mobilized resources and people, including health workers and volunteers. Last week, it asked firms to increase mask production to 5 million a day. Labourers wearing protective masks wait for a ferry on the way home after work, despite a government rule on social distancing during the coronavirus outbreak in Hai Duong province, Vietnam, April 7, 2020.Besides having a history of citizens wearing masks daily, Vietnam has an export-based economy dominated by manufacturing. Those factories give it a base to switch to making medical supplies in times of emergency.Vietnam’s biggest conglomerate is starting to make ventilators and thermometers for the first time, for instance. “Vingroup has an advantage of having both an automobile factory and an electronics factory, which enable us to manufacture both large and mechanical parts, as well as rare and smaller parts at the same time such as electronic boards,” said Le Thi Thu Thuy, vice chairwoman of Vingroup.One of her colleagues said the medical equipment will be sent overseas in the future, though the firm will start by selling it to the Ministry of Health at cost until domestic demand is met. Vingroup CEO Nguyen Viet Quang said the firm will start with 5,000 ventilators delivered to the Ministry starting next week and hopes to be producing tens of thousands of ventilators a month.He said the firm “can support other manufacturers around the world by processing equipment for them or providing part of the demand.”
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Month: April 2020
Somali Officials Confirm US Airstrike Killed Senior Al-Shabab Leader
A Somali intelligence official has confirmed that a U.S. airstrike in southern Somalia killed a senior leader of militant group al-Shabab.The official in Somalia’s southwest region told VOA that the airstrike on April 2 killed Yusuf Jiis, a long-standing, high-ranking leader in the al-Qaida-affiliated group.The airstrike took place near Bush Madina, about 55 kilometers east of the town of Dinsor, in a Shabab-controlled area.”This individual was a key leader in the al-Shabab organization,” said U.S. Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of U.S. Africa Command. “He was violent, ruthless and responsible for the loss of many innocent lives. His removal makes Somalia and neighboring countries safer.” Jiis, whose real name was Yusuf Nur Sheikh Hassan, was the al-Shabab official in charge of dealing with humanitarian agencies. He was accused of leading militants who raided and looted the offices of aid agencies in 2009.Al-Shabab has been accused of blocking aid to Somali civilians in need, particularly during a 2011 drought that killed an estimated 260,000 people.Somali officials believe more recently, Jiis worked in the Hisba, or police department, of al-Shabab and was recently added to the group’s consultative council, or Shura.Yusuf Jiis used different aliases including Bashar, Yusuf Jeeri and Moallim Sahal, according to Somali security officials.AFRICOM reported that the April 2 strike killed three militants.Somali security officials identified a second militant killed in the strike as Yonis Sheikh Dahir, a counterintelligence operative. The third person was also a member of al-Shabab’s Amniyat wing, but his identity has not been confirmed.A regional intelligence official told VOA he is surprised that these top officials traveled in the same vehicle amid relentless U.S. airstrikes.Separate airstrikesSeparately, the U.S. military Tuesday said airstrikes also killed five al-Shabab militants this past Monday in the vicinity of Jilib town in Lower Jubba region. AFRICOM said its current assessment is that no civilians were injured or killed, adding that Africa Command is aware of reports alleging civilian casualties resulting from Monday’s airstrikes.The U.S. military has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Somalia since the early 2010s as part of efforts to defeat al-Shabab. The group has tried to overthrow the Somali government in order to impose its version of strict Islamic law on the Horn of Africa nation.
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Rome Empty at Easter
It is usually the most crowded week of the year in the Eternal City, but for the first time in recorded history, Rome — including the Vatican — are deserted on Holy Week as travel and fear of contagion keep thousands of pilgrims away. For VOA, Sabina Castelfranco reports.
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Making Plans, Defiantly, amid the Chaos and Madness
In the “new normal” that is America during the coronavirus pandemic, the act of making plans has taken on a complicated new meaning. People are craving structure amid the uncertainty and chaos, and for some, that means holding on to plans, both short-term and long-term, they had before the virus struck. Or it means making new plans – for a summer wedding or a fall vacation. But how can one make plans when nobody knows how long the current situation will last? As owners of a wedding and event-planning business, Karina Lopez and Curtis Rogers have always known how the best-laid plans can go awry. But there’s no way they could have imagined just a few weeks ago what would happen to their very own wedding plans.First, the joyous bash they’d been meticulously planning for many months — a three-day celebration for 200 guests — was thrown into indefinite limbo. Then they both tested positive for coronavirus.Yet now, as they recover in quarantine and try to keep their distance from each other in a one-bedroom New York City apartment, Lopez and Rogers are still making wedding plans — methodically and, indeed, defiantly. After all, they’re planners. It’s what keeps them going.“I definitely had one or two meltdowns,” says Lopez, 32, who is still experiencing symptoms but feels she’s on the mend. “Which I look back and realize is so silly, considering what people are going through.” But now, she says, wedding planning has become therapy: “It went from making me insane, to keeping me sane.”Karina L. Lopez, left, poses with her fiance Curtis Rogers and their dog Fifi at their home in the Long Island City section of the Queens borough of New York, April 4, 2020.Making plans. In normal times, it’s a process we don’t really think about. But during this pandemic, the process of planning — be it a short-term grocery list or organizing an entire summer wedding — has taken on an entirely different meaning, serving for some as a life preserver amid all the fear and uncertainty.It depends on the personality. Some people thrive by living in the moment. But others really need their plans.“For many, having schedules and structure and timelines and things they can count on is important. Knowing they can count on something happening gives them security, some stability, some purpose,” says Helen Park, a family therapist, social worker and specialist in mindfulness. In current conditions, Park notes, even non-planner types are seeking ways to organize their lives. If you’re hunkered down at home, suddenly Friday doesn’t seem like Friday because the weekend hardly feels different. Monday morning carries little of that back-to-the trenches feeling, even if a Zoom call is waiting at the kitchen table.On social media, jokes abound about this unsettling sense of timelessness.“What year is it this week?” asks one meme. “It’s the 87th of March,” goes another. Or: “Today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.”As Park conducts therapy sessions to help families eke out a quasi-normal existence, she finds them unmoored “because it’s not just day-to-day life that has been upended,” she says. “The nature of what we’re dealing with is so new and unknown. Is it two weeks like this, two months, until the summer, or after? If we knew, we could start to internally organize our lives. But the sands are shifting constantly.”For some families, especially those in apartments with younger children, it’s about trying to get through the day intact. In another family, where a high school senior is looking ahead to college in the fall, the mother is reluctant to accept that it may not happen as planned.“She just needs to keep planning and counting on it,” says Park. “It gives her hope and something to stay grounded in.”Lopez and Rogers refuse to accept they won’t be getting married on August 1. A few days ago, they agreed their wedding would proceed, whether as the extravaganza they’d planned or, if necessary, a marriage via Zoom, Lopez says, “with our immediate families and our officiant in our living room.”“As silly as it sounds, this gave me hope,” she says of the decision. The couple recently wrote a blog post promising friends their invitations soon — and untouched.Kasey Woods works from her home in Mount Vernon, New York, April 3, 2020.Kasey Woods cannot give her son his senior prom via Zoom, much as she’d like to. Woods, a New York mother of three who works in public relations, alternates her anxiety about the pandemic with feelings of pride for her oldest son, who’s been accepted for the fall to his mother’s own alma mater, Howard University. She was hoping that attending admitted students day would seal the deal for him, since he’s choosing between several schools. That, of course, was canceled, along with prom and a surprise 18th birthday party she’d been planning. And yet Woods keeps planning, too, whatever she can. “One of my ways of regulating my life and my mental health is that I have to write everything down,” she says. “My notebook and my calendars are my lifeline.”Michelle Bushee, a real estate broker in Pittsburgh, has always been an avid planner. And she’s old-school: Bushee eschews digital planners for the paper kind — not little black books, but those big spiral volumes with expansive pages that she normally fills up with meetings, house showings, closings and volunteer activities.“My weeks used to look really scary,” she says, meaning scary busy. Now her planner instills a different kind of fear: The entire month of April is empty — big white pages of miserable nothingness. “Now THIS,” she says, “scares me.”A couple weeks ago, Bushee had what she admits was “a really bad mental health week, I’ll be honest. I think it was the shock and the anger of the situation. I kind of got off track.”She decided to double down on her morning routine. For years, this has included rituals like journaling, writing down three things she’s grateful for and deciding what will be the “win” of the day.“Just something so that at the end of the day, regardless of how crappy it was, there’s something that was a win — even taking the dog for a walk,” she says. Most helpful, though, is when she’s able to do something for others — for example, a recent initiative to deliver 500 catered meals to a hospital emergency room for health care workers.“I find that my purpose is somewhat displaced right now, and I’m trying to find another purpose,’ she says. “So part of my planning has become, ‘Who can I help today?’“A big music fan, she’s also holding onto the list of concerts she bought tickets for this spring and summer: the Rolling Stones, the Doobie Brothers, Dave Matthews. Some have been canceled; others surely will be. But she keeps the list.Park, the family therapist, appreciates that people need their plans. She worries, though, that trying to hold onto a rigid structure that no longer makes sense may produce anxiety in itself. “You can be putting in a lot of energy to fight to keep that structure in place,” she says.If a day is particularly bad — and Bushee says she’s had plenty — she finds she can at least draw comfort from a very simple bit of prescribed structure that’s really a built-in piece of planning in miniature: a recipe. Cooking at home has become not only a necessity, but a release.“I made chicken pot pie for my family the other day,” she says. “including homemade crust, which I never do. You know what? It was pretty awesome.”
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Black Voters Weigh History, Health As They Vote in Wisconsin
After going to sleep angry and afraid to vote, Xavier Thomas woke up on Election Day in Wisconsin thinking about how hard black people had to fight for the right to cast a ballot.He didn’t want to be deterred despite the coronavirus pandemic and the government’s failure to get him an absentee ballot in time.”We had to be willing to die to get our vote, and the same thing is happening right now,” said Thomas, a 33-year-old director of youth ministry at a Milwaukee church.Across Wisconsin on Tuesday, voters had an impossible decision to make: whether to risk their health and possibly their lives to cast a ballot, or stay away and miss exercising a fundamental right of democracy. The conservative-learning state Supreme Court declined to delay the election, despite a statewide order from the Democratic governor telling people to stay home and avoid crowds to contain the spread of the highly infectious disease.Going forward with the election was especially problematic in the state’s largest city, Milwaukee, where roughly 4 in 10 residents are black. The city of 590,000 has suffered roughly half the state’s coronavirus deaths, many of them minorities. Officials closed all but five of the city’s 180 polling places, forcing thousands of voters to congregate at only a handful of voting sites.Vanessa Wroten-Gassama waited for two hours to cast her ballot at Washington High School in the Sherman Park neighborhood, a predominantly black community where rioting broke out in 2016 over a fatal shooting by police. The wait was particularly difficult for her because she has a variety of health problems, including the need for dialysis.
“A lot of people aren’t going to go vote, especially the elderly,” said the 59-year-old, who wore a mask and gloves. “A lot of people aren’t going to go because they are desperately scared, especially in my community.”Another problem: Many voters said they requested absentee ballots but had not received them by Election Day.Calena Roberts was trying to figure out how she would tell her 89-year-old mother-in-law, who now lives in a Milwaukee nursing home, that she would not be able to vote because her absentee ballot hadn’t shown up.
“What do I say to her? Other than, ‘Mother, I am so sorry you won’t be able to cast your ballot in 2020, after all the years and all the struggles for African Americans to get the right to vote,'” said Roberts, 67.
She said she could not “in good conscience” take her mother out of the nursing home and bring her to a crowded polling place. More than half of the city’s known infections are within the black community.
“People should not have to make a choice about being able to cast their ballot or taking a chance on becoming deathly ill or dying,” Roberts said. “There was no reason, no excuse for any human being to think this is OK.”
Tuesday’s election was remarkable in that it happened at all. All other states scheduled to hold primaries in recent weeks have delayed voting by days, weeks or months so election officials can adjust to the coronavirus restrictions and prepare for a dramatic increase in absentee ballot requests. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers tried to postpone the primary but was stopped by the conservative-leaning state Supreme Court, which ordered the election to proceed.
Traditional voter-outreach efforts to push people to the polls were largely abandoned. Concerns over public safety prompted the presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to cancel its planned get-out-the-vote activities. The campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden said it began weeks ago shifting all of its voter turnout efforts toward vote-by-mail.
Michael Claus, 66, was among voters who lined up Tuesday morning outside one of Milwaukee’s five polling places.
Claus, who is black, wore a protective mask and a Tuskegee Airmen cap. He said he tried to vote absentee and requested a ballot in March, but it never showed up and his only option was to vote in person. He blamed the Republican-controlled Legislature, saying the election “is more about politics for them than our safety.”
“They could have delayed the election with no problem,” Claus said. “They decided if they can suppress the vote in Milwaukee and Madison, where you have a large minority presence, you can get people elected you want elected. And that’s sad.”
Democrats had accused Republicans of holding to the Tuesday election date in part to benefit from reduced turnout in the state’s most populous cities, which lean Democratic. Reduced turnout there would benefit a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who is on the ballot for re-election.
Republicans had defended moving ahead with the election, saying it can be done safely and that elections have not been delayed during other times of national crisis. They also argue it’s important to fill thousands of local offices where terms expire later this month.
It was too early to say how much of an effect fears over coronavirus along with all the last-minute confusion about whether the election would happen would reduce turnout. But any decline could have long-term consequences.
“If black voices are not represented in the vote and in decisions that are made by folks that are elected, their communities suffer,” said Ryeshia Farmer with the ACLU of Wisconsin. “They don’t receive the same amount of resources, the same amount of funding in their communities. Long term, this will have a ripple effect.”
Keisha Robinson, 43, of Milwaukee, works to mobilize voters with BLOC — Black Leaders Organizing Communities. Robinson herself requested an absentee ballot from the city on Thursday, a day before the deadline.
She had her fingers crossed that it would arrive in Tuesday’s mail. When it didn’t, Robinson had to decide whether to go vote in person. With an immune system she said “is not so strong,” and feeling scared, she decided against it.
“Not being able to vote when that’s exactly what I urge and inform my community to do feels like hypocrisy almost,” she said. “It feels like i didn’t complete my end of an important deal or something.”
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Italy, Spain ICU Pressures Decline, but Emotional Toll Rises
Maddalena Ferrari lets herself cry when she takes off the surgical mask she wears even at home to protect her elderly parents from the coronavirus that surrounds her at work in one of Italy’s hardest-hit intensive care units.In the privacy of her own bedroom, where no one can see, the nursing coordinator peels away the mask that both protects her and hides her, and weeps for all the patients lost that day at Bergamo’s Pope John XXIII Hospital.”We’re losing an entire generation,” Ferrari said at the end of one of her shifts. “They still had so much to teach us.”The pressures on hospital ICUs in Italy and Spain may have eased in recent days as new virus cases decline. But the emotional and psychological toll the pandemic has taken on the doctors and nurses working there is only now beginning to emerge. Already, two nurses in Italy have killed themselves, and psychologists have mobilized therapists and online platforms to provide free consultation for medical personnel. Individual hospitals hold small group therapy sessions to help staff cope with the trauma of seeing so much death among patients who are utterly alone.Seven weeks into Italy’s outbreak, the world’s deadliest, the adrenaline rush that kept medical personnel going at the start has been replaced by crushing fatigue and fear of getting the virus, researchers say. With many doctors and nurses deprived of their normal family support because they are isolating themselves, the mental health of Italy and Spain’s overwhelmed medical personnel is now a focus of their already stressed health care systems.”The adrenaline factor works for a month, maximum,” said Dr. Alessandro Colombo, director of the health care training academy for the Lombardy region, who is researching the psychological toll of the outbreak on medical personnel. “We are entering the second month, so these people are physically and mentally tired.”According to his preliminary research, the solitude of the patients has had a grievous impact on doctors and nurses. They are being asked to step in at the bedside of the dying in place of relatives and even priests. The sense of failure among hospital staff, he said, is overwhelming.”Each time it’s a failure,” said Ferrari, the nursing coordinator at the Bergamo’ hospital. You do everything for the patient, and “at the end, if you’re a believer, there is someone above you who has decided another destiny for that person.”Her colleague, Maria Berardelli, said medical personnel aren’t used to seeing patients die after two weeks on ventilators, and the emotional toll is devastating. “This virus is strong. Strong, strong strong,” she said in a Skype interview with Ferrari, both of them in masks. “You cannot get used to it, because every patient has his own story.”In Italy, the national association of nurses and psychologists asked the government for a coordinated, nationwide response for the mental health care needs of medical personnel, warning the “typical wave of stress disturbances is only going to grow over time.”The situation is similar in Spain.Dr. Luis Díaz Izquierdo, from the emergency service ward in suburban Madrid’s Severo Ochoa Hospital, said the sense of helplessness is crushing for those who watch as patients deteriorate in a matter of hours.”No matter what we did, they go, they pass away,” he said. “And that person knows that they are dying, because breathing becomes more difficult. And they look into your eyes, they get worse, until they finally surrender.”Diego Alonso, a nurse at Hospital de la Princesa, said he has been using tranquilizers to cope, as have many of his colleagues. For Alonso, the fear is especially acute, given that his wife is due to give birth soon.”The psychological stress from this time is going to be difficult to forget. It has just been too much,” he said.Dr. Julio Mayol, medical director at the San Carlos Clinic Hospital in Madrid, said staff will be suffering from “numerous scars” in both the short and long term. In addition to the many dead and fears for their own safety, Mayol said staff had been traumatized by “the noise surrounding the pandemic,” with daily news of death tolls and suggestions that other countries are faring better than Spain.”The fear, the envy and the fantasy in continuous communication, repeated 24 hours per day in media, has been an obsession that health workers couldn’t forget,” he said, adding that his hospital had mental health professionals working with patients and staff from the start, and that effort will continue. At San Carlos, nearly 15% of the 1,400-member staff have been infected, in line with medical workers nationwide. In Italy, over 13,000 medical personnel have contracted the virus. More than 90 doctors and 20 nurses have died.Perhaps no hospital has seen more than Pope John XXIII, where operating rooms were converted to ICUs to add 12 precious beds to meet the influx of patients. Ferrari, the OR nursing coordinator, remembers March 18, the first day the ORs were open for ICU business. Eight intubated patients were wheeled in over the course of a shift, an overwhelming number for the staff. Ferrari said she hadn’t had time for any of the group counseling sessions organized by the hospital but allows herself to weep once she gets home and says goodnight to her parents, whom she keeps at a distance behind her mask and latex gloves.One day, the tears were triggered by TV footage of coffins being hauled from Bergamo by an army convoy. On another day, they flowed after she drove by a motorcade of trucks flying Russian flags that were heading to sanitize Bergamo’s virus-ravaged nursing homes. Ferrari said she cries in the privacy of her bedroom. “When I remove the mask, it’s like removing a protection (an armor) from my face, it’s like saying with this protection mask I don’t fear anything. It helps me appear strong,” she said. “And when I remove the surgical protection mask, then all my weakness comes out.”
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Japan’s State of Emergency Is No Lockdown. What’s in it?
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and six other hard-hit Japanese prefectures to fortify the fight against the coronavirus outbreak. But this is no European or Wuhan-style lockdown. A look at what Japan’s state of emergency entails:Why Did Abe Declare A State Of Emergency?
A. Abe was facing heavy pressure to declare a state of emergency after the number of new cases in Tokyo began doubling every several days in late March. The city of 14 million had 1,339 cases as of Wednesday, up from about 600 a week earlier. Japan focused on dealing with clusters of infections and selective testing for the virus, a strategy that has failed to curb its spread. Experts found that one-third of Tokyo’s recent cases were linked to hostess clubs and other night entertainment districts where cluster tracing is difficult. Meanwhile, compliance with calls for working remotely and other social distancing has been weak. Is All Of Japan Affected?
A. The state of emergency announced Tuesday applies to only Tokyo, neighboring Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, Osaka, and Hyogo in the west and Fukuoka in the south. That is only seven of Japan’s 47 prefectures. Residents are requested to avoid nonessential trips within and outside the designated areas, but there are no restrictions on travel. Some Tokyo residents drew criticism for rushing to escape from Tokyo to the countryside. Does A State Of Emergency Cause A Tokyo Lockdown?
A. No, Abe and officials say Japan cannot legally enforce hard lockdowns. Public transportation is operating as normal. Most state of emergency measures are requests and instructions. Violators cannot be punished unless they fail to comply with orders related to storage or shipment of emergency relief goods and medical supplies. Why Is Japan Not Imposing A Hard Lockdown?
A. Japan’s history of repression under fascist governments before and during World War II has left the public wary of government overreach. The country’s postwar constitution lays out strict protections for civil liberties. Abe’s government was reluctant to risk severe economic repercussions from more severe measures. What Measures Are Taken In State Of Emergency?
A. The state of emergency allows prefectural leaders to ask residents to stay home. They can also request closures of schools, some child and senior care or community centers, and stores and businesses that are considered nonessential. They can advise organizers to cancel or postpone events. The governors can also request use of private property to build hospitals and other medical facilities. What Are Essential Activities?
A. Essential activities and facilities, including banks, grocery stores, postal services, pharmacies and utility companies, remain open. Some retail stores and entertainment venues such as movie theaters, concert halls and amusement parks can be asked to shut down. Public schools in Tokyo and some neighboring prefectures already are closed until at least early May.Can People Still Go Out?
A. Yes, residents can go out for purposes considered essential, including work, hospital visits and grocery shopping, according to a Cabinet Office statement. Residents in designated areas can still go out for a walk, a jog or other individual exercise. How Effective Is The Measure?
A. Abe on Wednesday repeated his request for the people to stay home and reduce interactions with others by up to 80%. But in Tokyo’s downtown Shibuya district, business was almost normal. Rush hour trains were still crowded and commuters were heading to work, though fewer people were seen in other areas of the capital. Akihito Aminaka, an education industry worker, said heeding Abe’s request was difficult because “to me, it sounds like they’re saying, ‘Please don’t go out, but we won’t help you.'”What’s The Potential Economic Impact?
A. Abe also announced an unprecedented 108 trillion yen ($1 trillion) stimulus package, equivalent to about a fifth of Japan’s annual GDP, to pay for coronavirus measures and protect businesses and jobs. It includes 300,000 yen ($2,750) cash handouts for some hard-hit households. A monthlong state of emergency in the Tokyo area could cause consumer spending to fall nearly 2.5 trillion yen ($23 billion), according to Nomura Research Institute.
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Masked Crowds Fill Streets, Trains after Wuhan Lockdown Ends
After more than two months indoors, Wuhan resident Tong Zhengkun was one of millions of people enjoying a renewed sense of freedom when the Chinese city’s 76-day coronavirus lockdown was lifted Wednesday. “I haven’t been outside for more than 70 days,” an emotional Tong said as he watched a celebratory light display from a bridge across the broad Yangtze River flowing through the city, where the coronavirus outbreak started late last year. “Being indoors for so long drove me crazy.” Later in the day, Wang Chun took to a downtown street to film a mask-free dance routine with a friend for posting on the internet “I’ve been inside for 2 1/2 months. I’m so happy Wuhan has defeated the virus,” Wang said after again donning her mask. Like so many others in the city, Wang was still waiting to hear about when she would get back to work. “That’s a very good question,” she said with a laugh. FILE – Residents wearing face masks walk at an old residential community blocked by barriers in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicentre of China’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, Apr. 5, 2020.Streets in the city of 11 million people were clogged with traffic and masked pedestrians visited the few snack shops that had reopened in the nightlife area. Long lines formed at the airport and train and bus stations as thousands streamed out of the city to return to their homes and jobs elsewhere. Yellow barriers that had blocked off some streets were gone, although the gates to residential compounds remained guarded. Tong said his apartment complex was shut down after residents were found to have contracted the coronavirus. Neighborhood workers delivered groceries to his door. Such measures won’t be entirely abandoned following the end of Wuhan’s closure, which began on Jan. 23 as the virus was raging through the city and overwhelming hospitals. Schools are still closed, temperatures are checked when people enter buildings and masks are strongly encouraged. City leaders say they want to simultaneously bring back social and commercial life while avoiding a second wave of infections. Travelers wearing face masks and goggles to protect against the spread of new coronavirus sit at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province, April 8, 2020.The ability to travel again is a huge relief, however, and around 65,000 people were expected to depart Wednesday by plane and train. Wuhan residents are now permitted to leave without special authorization as long as a mandatory smartphone application powered by a mix of data-tracking and government surveillance shows they are healthy and have not been in recent contact with anyone confirmed to have the virus. It didn’t take long for traffic to begin moving swiftly through the reopened bridges, tunnels and highway toll booths. Nearly 1,000 vehicles went through a busy highway toll booth at Wuhan’s border between midnight — when barricades were lifted — and 7 a.m., according to Yan Xiangsheng, a district police chief. According to airport official Lou Guowei, the first departing flight left Wuhan Tianhe International Airport at 7:25 a.m. for Sanya, a coastal city in Hainan province known for its beaches. “The crew will wear goggles, masks, and gloves throughout the flight,” chief flight attendant Guo Binxue was quoted as saying by China’s official Xinhua News Agency. “It will be very smooth because we have made much preparation for this flight.” Xiao Yonghong had found herself stuck in Wuhan after returning to her hometown on Jan. 17 to spend the Lunar New Year with her husband, son and parents-in-law. “We were too excited to fall asleep last night. I was looking forward to the lockdown lift very much. I set up an alert to remind myself. I was very happy,” said Xiao, who was waiting for her train outside Hankou station with her son and husband, all three of them wearing masks and gloves. At the airport, Chen Yating took personal protection a step further, wearing white coveralls, gloves, a mask and a baseball cap. She was waiting to catch a flight to the southern Chinese business hub of Guangzhou. “We are living in a good era,” Chen said. “It is not easy to have today’s achievement.” The end of Wuhan’s lockdown came one day after Japan declared a state of emergency for Tokyo, Osaka and five other prefectures in an effort to stem the virus’s spread. India and much of Europe and the U.S. have also ordered stay-at-home orders, although not nearly to the same extreme as Wuhan. Restrictions in the city where most of China’s more than 82,000 virus cases and over 3,300 deaths from COVID-19 were reported have been gradually eased as cases declined. The government reported no new cases in the city on Wednesday. People wearing protective suits are seen in Biandanshan cemetery in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicenter of China’s coronavirus disease outbreak, April 1, 2020.While there are questions about the veracity of China’s count, the unprecedented lockdown of Wuhan and Hubei province, where the city is located, have been successful enough that other countries adopted similar measures. “The people in Wuhan paid out a lot and bore a lot mentally and psychologically,” resident Zhang Xiang said. “Wuhan people are historically famous for their strong will.” During the lockdown, Wuhan residents could leave their homes only to buy food or attend to other tasks deemed absolutely necessary. Some were allowed to leave the city, but only if they had paperwork showing they were not a health risk and a letter attesting to where they were going and why. Even then, authorities could turn them back on a technicality such as missing a stamp, preventing thousands from returning to their jobs outside the city. Residents of other parts of Hubei were allowed to leave the province starting about three weeks ago, as long as they could provide a clean bill of health. People leaving the city still face numerous hurdles at their final destinations, such as 14-day quarantines and nucleic acid tests. Wuhan is a major center for heavy industry, particularly autos, and while major plants have restarted, the small and midsize businesses that employ the most people are still hurting from both a lack of workers and demand. Measures are being instituted to get them back on their feet, including 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) in preferential loans, according to the city government. The exact source of the virus remains under investigation, though many of the first COVID-19 patients were linked to an outdoor food market in the city.
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Iran Says US Oil Production Must Be Known Before OPEC+ Call
Iran demanded on Wednesday that U.S. oil production levels must be known before an upcoming OPEC meeting with Russia and others seeking to boost global energy prices. The meeting of the so-called OPEC+ is scheduled to be held Thursday after officials delayed it following Saudi Arabia criticizing Russia over its comments about the price collapse. A meeting in March saw OPEC and other nations led by Russia fail to agree to a production cut as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has drastically cut demand for oil. In the time since, prices have collapsed. International benchmark Brent crude traded Wednesday over $34 a barrel as U.S. benchmark West Texas crude traded under $25. Iranian state television quoted Oil Minister Bijan Zabganeh as saying he discussed the “method of decision-making” for the meeting Thursday with OPEC’s president, as well as his Kuwaiti and Russian counterparts. “Other producers, including the U.S. and Canada, should participate in this topic and there should be an agreement about production base of each country that is a basis for production cut,” Zanganeh was quoted as saying. The U.S. and Canada are not part of OPEC. However, U.S. officials have been in discussions with other oil producers over the price collapse, which has hurt American shale oil firms. Iran, a founding member of OPEC, faces its own challenge as U.S. sanctions bar it from selling its crude oil abroad since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
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Explosion on Road in Southeast Turkey Kills 5
An improvised explosive device went off on a road in southeast Turkey on Wednesday, killing five forestry workers traveling to work, officials said.The regional governor’s office blamed the early morning explosion near the town of Kulp, in the mainly-Kurdish populated Diyarbakir province, on Kurdish rebels, who have carried out similar attacks in the past.There was no immediate claim of responsibility.The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has waged a more than three-decade old insurgency in Turkey’s mostly Kurdish southeast region. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since it started in 1984.The group is considered a terror organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.The Diyarbakir governor’s office said Turkey’s military has launched an operation to catch the perpetrators of the attack.Four villagers were killed last year in a similar attack on a road in Kulp, which was also blamed on the PKK.Last week, an explosion in eastern Turkey, believed to be the work of the PKK, damaged a natural gas pipeline and halted gas flows from Iran.
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PM Johnson Spends Second Night in Intensive Care
A British official said Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in stable condition Wednesday after spending a second night in the intensive care unit at a London hospital for coronavirus disease treatment. Junior Health Minister Edward Argar said Johnson was “comfortable and in good spirits.” The prime minister has been hospitalized since Sunday after his symptoms persisted during a period of self-isolation following his positive coronavirus test. Britain, which has been under lockdown orders for about two weeks, has about 56,000 confirmed coronavirus cases with 6,100 deaths. South Korea has not followed many other countries in instituting strict stay-at-home measures, but has had success in greatly reducing its number of new virus transmissions with calls for social distancing and closing schools. The government announced 53 new cases Wednesday, keeping intact a string of similar levels this week. There have been concerns about the possibility for greater infection numbers in the capital, Seoul, and on Wednesday the city’s mayor announced the closure of bars and night clubs. South Korea’s Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun also announced the suspension of visa-free entries for people coming from countries that currently ban entry to South Korean nationals, as well as rules for denying entry to foreigners traveling for non-urgent reasons.People wearing face masks to help protect against the spread of the new coronavirus walk at a park in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 8, 2020.Meanwhile, Norway is joining Austria and Denmark with plans to begin loosening lockdown restrictions. The government plans to reopen kindergartens on April 20, with other kids due to go back to their schools a week later. Norway has about 5,900 confirmed cases. While officials in some parts of the United States have pointed to potential signs of hope that rates of infections are slowing down in the country with the most confirmed cases, leaders such as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo say now is not the time to let up on lockdown measures that have helped. The United States has about 400,000 confirmed cases, more than double the number found in any other nation. New York has been the biggest hot spot and reported more than 700 new deaths on Tuesday. But Cuomo said death statistics are a so-called “lagging indicator” related to people who became sick weeks ago. He said the number of hospitalizations and people sick enough to need breathing treatments are going down. Germany on Wednesday became the fifth country to cross 100,000 cases, joining the U.S., Spain, Italy and France. The novel coronavirus was first found in China, with the majority of infections there taking place in Hubei province and its capital, Wuhan. That prompted a strict lockdown for about three months until the number of locally transmitted cases subsided. Tens of thousands of people took to roads, rails and air Wednesday as they finally got government permission to leave Wuhan, provided a mandatory smartphone app shows they are healthy and have not had recent contact with anyone who has the coronavirus.
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South Sudan Facing Coronavirus with Weak Healthcare System
South Sudan on Sunday announced its first confirmed coronavirus infection, a United Nations staff member, becoming one the last African countries to confirm the virus. But, years of civil war and low funding have left the world’s youngest nation with a fragile healthcare system, raising fears that the virus – if left unchecked – could quickly spread. Sheila Ponnie reports from Juba.
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Countries Worldwide in Different Stages of COVID-19 Trajectory
Tuesday saw an increase in deaths and new COVID-19 cases in Britain, France, some eastern European countries, Sweden, Japan and the United States, while China, South Korea and a handful of other countries reported a decline in deaths and new infections. China on Tuesday ended the 76-day lockdown in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, where the coronavirus outbreak began in late December. Residents who can produce a smartphone application that shows they do not have COVID-19 and have not been in recent contact with anyone infected with the disease, can move about freely, and traffic has returned to roadways and railways. In South Korea, steady progress continued with just 47 new infections reported Tuesday, but officials remain concerned about a return of the virus and are urging people to stay at home. Austria, Denmark and Norway announced easing their own lockdowns, including the re-opening of schools, after the spread of the virus showed a decline. Even Italy and Spain, the worst hit European countries reported a slow but steady decline in deaths and new infections. But after a spike in new deaths in the past two days, France on Tuesday became the fourth country to surpass 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus, after Italy, Spain and the United States. Authorities in Paris banned residents from doing outdoor exercise between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. to keep them off the streets. The ban starts Wednesday and applies to the French capital only. France has been in lockdown since March 17, and the measures have been extended until April 15, with another extension expected soon. A woman walks her dog on a Paris bridge, with the Eiffel tower seen in background, during a nationwide confinement to counter the COVID-19, Tuesday, April 7, 2020.The United States has recorded more than 12,000 deaths, making it the country with the third-highest official death toll, after Italy and Spain. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases was nearly 400,000 Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Almost a half of U.S. deaths caused by COVID-19 have occurred in the state of New York, most of them in densely populated New York City. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the state of New York recorded its highest single-day death toll Tuesday. The 731 deaths reported since Monday brought the total to 5,589 deaths and 138,836 infections, according to University of Minnesota figures. Britain also reported the largest daily death toll caused by the virus — 758 people over a 24-hour period. The country’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in intensive care where he is being treated for the virus. Officials say he has been given oxygen but there was no need to put him on a ventilator. While some Scandinavian countries are ready to relax their COVID-19 restrictions, Sweden may have to go in the opposite direction. After month of relative freedom and no official lockdowns, the country has seen a sudden spike in the number of cases and hundreds of deaths. A number of countries have yet to report any COVID-19 cases, among them Sierra Leone and Turkmenistan. Health experts warn that many authoritarian governments suppress reports of COVID-19 cases, thus making it harder to track the virus and stop its transmission. Turkmenistan held a mass bike rally on Tuesday to mark World Health Day. Russian news media reported Tuesday that the country’s Vector Institute, a state research center in Novosibirsk, will start testing a COVID-19 vaccine on volunteers in June. The center’s director, Rinat Maksutov, told Rosija1 television that initial testing on animals, mostly mice, have made them immune to the coronavirus. The pre-clinical trials are to start in May. In Seattle, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine, released a forecast Tuesday predicting that more than 150,000 people will die during what they call the “first wave” of the pandemic. The IHME researchers say that “it is unequivocally evident” that social distancing can help control the epidemic and lead to declining death rates, if implemented timely and correctly. IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray warned that easing these precautions too soon during “the first wave” of the pandemic could lead to new rounds of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. He defines the end of this wave as a ratio of 0.3 deaths per 1 million people. Close to 1.5 million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed worldwide and more than 82,000 have died so far.
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OPEC Meeting Could End Oil Tug-of-War Between Russia, Saudi Arabia
Russia and Saudi Arabia meet with other countries Thursday on cutting oil production while they continue a price war that has driven down U.S. gasoline and oil prices.The talks could calm prices that declined in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told Russian television several days ago that the coronavirus crisis is one of the principal causes of what he called the “unprecedented fall of world oil prices.” This, he maintained, “affects the economic interests of the major world nations, including Russia.” In a round table discussion broadcast on Russian television, President Vladimir Putin suggested that his aim in the current tug-of-war with Saudi Arabia and other major producers, including the United States, was “to cut world production by around 10 million barrels, give or take.” U.S. President Donald Trump has tried to broker a solution between Russia and Saudi Arabia, which have each increased production to try and intimidate the other. Trump said Sunday that he might consider using tariffs to halt the slide of domestic U.S. oil prices. “Tariffs are a way of evening the score. Tariffs are a way of just neutralizing. They have tariffs on us and we can now put tariffs on them. Am I using it for oil? It’s something we can (do). Am I doing it now? No,” Trump said.Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Venezuela’s Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo and Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih are seen at an OPEC and NON-OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, July 2, 2019.Saudi oil analyst Abdel Aziz Miqbal told Sky News Arabia that he thought the U.S. will eventually sit down to discuss oil production levels, since the U.S. is “one of the principal parties hurt” by the ongoing price war. Riyadh will also host a virtual meeting Friday with energy ministers from the Group of 20 nations that represent the world’s most powerful economies. Khattar Abou Diab teaches political science at the University of Paris. He tells VOA that he thinks both Russia and Saudi Arabia have reached a stalemate in their game of double-or-nothing and that each side has come out a loser. He says neither Russia nor the Saudis wants to lose the important Asian oil market. Russia, he thinks, may be trying to hurt U.S. producers as a response to U.S. sanctions prompted by a gas pipeline to Germany. Saudi Arabia, he argues, is trying to defend its interests in a show of force with both Russia and the U.S., after feeling slighted by what the Saudis considered insufficient solidarity, when its Aramco oil installations were attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in June. Paul Sullivan is a professor at the U.S. National Defense University. Sullivan tells VOA that he thinks “shale producers in the U.S. seem to be the target” of the current oil price war. “It is much more expensive,” he argues, “to produce an average barrel of shale oil in the U.S. than to produce an average barrel of oil in Saudi Arabia and in most of the better fields in Russia.”
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Sudan to Return Remains of Officers Executed by Bashir Regime
The Sudanese military says the remains of 28 officers who were executed three decades ago will be returned to their families. The men were arrested in April 1990 and accused of taking part in a coup plot against then-President Omar al-Bashir. Families of the executed officers now want to see Bashir and his aides face justice.Abbas Ghalib was an army colonel when he and 37 other military officers were placed under arrest in 1990. Ghalib, however, was one of only 10 officers who escaped the death penalty. Ghalib says he remembers seeing his fellow officers put on trial in Khartoum. Ghalib says there were mock trials. He said, “You stand in the court if you are guilty or not. If yes, the sentence is execution. If not guilty, the sentence is also execution. You don’t have the right to defend yourself or any kind of rights, you don’t have any right to talk. Once the execution sentence was issued, they led the officers away, chained in handcuffs,” he added. The executions took place less than a year after Bashir took power in a 1989 military coup. They were intended to eliminate those who opposed Bashir and his Islamist government. Last week, the public prosecutor charged Bashir and a group of his aides with undermining Sudan’s constitutional order through the 1989 coup. That was welcome news to Khartoum resident Mohamed Bashir, the son of one of the officers executed. When his father, Lieutenant Colonel Bashir Abu Deek, was put to death, Mohamed was only four years old. He has maintained a dream of achieving justice for his father ever since. Mohamed Bashir says he has been waiting for this day for the past 30 years, to finally find the remains of the martyrs, to know how the trial went and the conditions they went through. Bashir says these have been their demands for the past 30 years.Colonel Ghalib was spared death only through luck and pressure by the military to stop the executions. In the end, he spent three years in prison. Ghalib says he supports efforts to hold Bashir accountable for his crimes and to turn Sudan into a viable democracy. Ghalib says their main goal was to restore democracy, legitimacy for the exited political parties and finding a constitutional draft determining the democratic governance structures in Sudan in addition to establishing a politically unbiased army, along with police and other forces. Last month, the military announced it will upgrade the ranks of the executed officers to restore their honor. But that is just a first step for Ghalib and the families of the executed officers. They want the officers’ bodies returned for a proper burial, and for the executioners to face trial.
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Smart Thermometer Shows Fevers Dropping in Areas with Sheltering Measure
There’s a race on to predict where the COVID-19 virus is growing, what social distancing measures are working and when it will be safe to open society again. But to do that takes data and the ability to detect signals in the noise of information. Governments are turning to tech companies such as Facebook and Google to see if location data might offer help. One unlikely place to turn: A smart thermometer that is connected to the internet. Fever is one of the common symptoms of the novel coronavirus and capturing fever data – in real time – might be an indicator of where the virus is moving.More than 100,000 temperatures are taken each day on a Kinsa smart thermometer, which starts at about $35. A user’s temperature connects via Bluetooth and is uploaded to a central database at Kinsa Health, a San Francisco-based firm. The data is aggregated, and the company looks for patterns such as where the seasonal flu is popping up, often weeks ahead of public health organizations, according to the firm. Rings of outbreak In mid-March, the company’s data began to see fever clusters in Florida and New York. Kinsa doesn’t know for sure that those were COVID-19 cases, but it’s a signal, said Inder Singh, chief executive of Kinsa Health. “That’s like a flashlight going off,” he said. “It’s saying, ‘Hey there’s an outbreak. There’s an outbreak here. Come look at it. Send the virologists in. Send the test kits in.’” The firm created its U.S. Health Weather Map, where people can enter their county to see if atypical fever outbreaks are falling or rising.Fevers falling Singh recently looked at his firm’s regional fever data and compared it to places with strict social-distancing measures. His conclusion: social distancing efforts are working. “It’s clear, it’s very clear when you start implementing aggressive social distancing activity – stay at home, shelter in place, even bar and restaurant closures – within three to seven days, you see the fever curves level off and start dropping and that’s because you are breaking the chain of infection,” he said. Leveling off, but still too high But Singh also is seeing something that is worrisome: fevers holding steady – still higher than normal – even in places where fever cases are leveling off. “The worry is that there’s small groups of people or small communities of people where virus is being passed around. That could act as a reservoir, that could be a hiding place for COVID-19 and after we relax our social distancing activities, it will start spreading again.” To be sure, smart thermometers like Kinsa may just offer a sliver of information. Some critics say that these devices give a skewed view of an illness, perhaps because they are owned more by people who are young and affluent. Still, a smart thermometer’s fever data may be one signal for health officials scrambling to figure out what to address next.
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To the Farms, Citoyens! France Urges Citizens to Fill Labor Gaps
Across a locked-down France, strawberries, lettuce and asparagus are ripening, near-ready for picking. Other plants are poking through the warming soil, thanks to rising temperatures and generous sunshine. But the tens of thousands of Polish, Romanian and Moroccan workers who normally flood in for spring harvest are nowhere in sight.France is not the only country facing a migrant labor crunch. With the coronavirus battening down national borders, many other European farmers also are hurting. In Britain, agricultural unions are pressing the government to fly in Eastern European workers on chartered planes. Germany announced Thursday it would relax border restrictions to fill gaps in fields and food processing plants. Spain and Italy also worry about unpicked fruits and vegetables rotting in fields, further hurting their coronavirus-battered economies. But in France, the European Union’s biggest agricultural producer, filling the labor shortage has become a national cause — although reactions from the farming world are mixed. Appealing to leagues of newly sidelined workers — waitresses, hotel workers, hairdressers and others rendered jobless and confined by COVID-19 — Farm Minister Didier Guillaume urged them to “join the great army of French agriculture.”Solid responseThe rallying cry has resonated strongly in a country where food and rural life are embedded in popular culture and the nation’s very identity. Local residents practice social distancing as they shop fruits and vegetable directly from “Le potager de Saquier” farm in Nice, France, as a lockdown is imposed to slow the rate of the coronavirus, April 3, 2020.No matter that many French can’t tell the difference between a strawberry and a potato plant. In a matter of days, more than 200,000 have signed up for fieldwork — if only to escape stuffy confinement. That’s about the same number of extra hands the country’s main FNSEA agricultural union estimates are needed through May.“I’m in good health, so why not,” speech therapist Florence Khong told French TV, pausing between pulling up leeks. “During these times we need to help each other.”Many farmers applaud the drive, and the public’s reaction.“It’s a double win,” said wheat grower Jerome Regnault. “Obviously it will help professionals who need labor, but it also gives people an opportunity to get some fresh air — both psychologically and physically.” Cereal farmer Jerome Regnault in his tractor in Plaisir, outside of Paris. He says working in his business needs experience. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Co-founder of an association trying to reconnect French with the farm world, Regnault’s phone rings incessantly these days. He points aspiring laborers to local associations and a new online volunteer platform, Des bras pour ton assiette (arms for your plate). But Regnault himself doesn’t need extra help. His two long-time workers are still coronavirus-free. Besides, cereal farming demands experience. “Obviously, I can’t allow a novice to handle equipment worth several tens of thousands of euros,” he said.Farmers dividedOther growers have similar reservations. “We’re worried we’ll get people without the needed experience or competence,” vegetable farmer Robert Francais told local media, standing before rows of lettuce that he said demanded special techniques to harvest. “We have the impression, with this government call, that just about anybody can suddenly become a farmer without training or skills,” said Nicolas Girod, a dairy farmer and spokesman for the Confédération paysanne, France’s third-largest agricultural union. “It feels pretty degrading.”A French farmer, wearing a protective face mask, gives a driving lesson to a new young farm worker for his tractor in Anneux, France, March 27, 2020.While applauding the initiative’s spirit, Girod also criticized the idea of unpaid labor—although some jobs come with salaries. His union is selecting only volunteers with past farming experience or agricultural students to fill labor gaps. For French authorities, the farm drive is part of a broader call to arms to shore up the French economy. Yet as President Emmanuel Macron laments the lack of European unity in its coronavirus response, his finance minister Bruno Le Maire urges the country to display “economic patriotism,” by stocking up on local products. On social media, some critics compare the government farm drive with China’s traumatic cultural revolution, where millions of young people were sent to work in the countryside. Others suggest it does not square with the nationwide lockdown and other tough health safety measures. The overall reaction, though, has been massively positive. The volunteer platform is crammed with help-wanted notices: for people to drive tractors, prune trees or generally help at vegetable farms and vineyards. “A magnificent initiative,” saluted agricultural association Au Coeur de Paysans on Twitter. Livestock farmer Clement Traineau agreed. “Don’t waste your energy in permanently criticizing,” he tweeted of naysayers. “Save it to make a difference.”
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As COVID-19 Spreads, Chinese Americans Battle Racism
Lu Ping does battle for her adopted country armed with a smartphone.Every day from 6 a.m. to midnight, Lu coordinates donations of masks, medical supplies and money to Chinese Americans Support Hospitals (CASH), a GoFundMe group she started with friends in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States.The group’s mission is to get needed supplies for hospitals in the Washington, D.C., metro area, which includes portions of Maryland and Virginia, and is known by residents as the DMV.”This is my home,” Lu said about why she spends hours on WeChat, the Chinese version of WhatsApp, soliciting donations. “I must help.”Her group is not alone. Chinese Americans throughout the United States are mobilizing to provide supplies and equipment to front-line medical professionals, even as the FBI warns of the likelihood of an increase in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans as the pandemic continues.”The community itself, just in general, is organized,” Mai Ngai, a professor of Asian American studies and history at Columbia University, told FILE – New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference at her office in New York, Nov. 19, 2019.New York Attorney General Letitia James also launched a hotline to cope with an increase in reports of harassment and assaults, as well as the use of slurs against all Asian Americans during the coronavirus outbreak.Which is why Ryan Lin bought not one gun but two.”My wife has been against me having a gun, but this time, she made no objection,” said Lin, a resident of the same leafy Maryland suburbs as Lu and Wei. Afraid for his family, Lin asked VOA not to use his real name.Lu created CASH as a WeChat group on March 17, and within days some 400 people joined. WeChat is heavily censored by China’s Communist Party and used regularly as a platform for its propaganda. But for those with family and friends in China, it is the preferred social media platform for staying in touch.Many CASH members were part of an informal group started a week earlier by Liang Zhao, a native of Hebei province, who arrived in the U.S. in 1998. With a life science background, he and friends who are medical and pharmaceutical professionals anticipated a shortage of protective gear in the U.S. as they watched the epidemic take hold in China.”We were worried about the health workers on the front lines, and we wanted to do something to show that we Chinese Americans care about our community,” Zhao told VOA Mandarin. “It’s our own home.”As of March 31, the two groups, working with another grassroots Chinese American group, have raised about $100,000. Zhao said with that money, they reached out to medical suppliers approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in China and the United States.The first shipment from China — 112,000 surgical masks, 3,000 N95 masks, more than 1,000 gowns and 360 face shields — was delivered to 12 local hospitals on Friday.Yaya Zhang, a native of Jiangsu province who arrived in the U.S. in 2004, is a real estate agent and a CASH co-founder responsible for acquiring masks. She believes she and other members are making a meaningful contribution. CASH has collected 650 surgical masks — 20 N95 and about 900 Chinese-approved KN95.’We are American’Lu is also president of the Alumni Association of Zhejiang University in the Washington, D.C., area, which has partnered with the Chinese Alumni Associations of Greater Washington to express alarm about the rising xenophobia.”We are American,” the groups proclaim. “Guard our homeland and fight the epidemic.” But that sentiment has not protected them from racial attacks.The Committee of 100 (C100), a nonpartisan organization of prominent Chinese Americans, issued a statement March 25 condemning “racially charged slurs, actions, and violence against the Chinese American and Asian American community.”Lin, of Maryland, told VOA Mandarin that two men verbally attacked his younger sister a few days ago for wearing a face mask while she shopped at a Costco in Baltimore.”They told her to go back to China and shouted at her that she shouldn’t come out to infect others when she was sick,” he said.Lin said his sister’s experience is what prompted him to buy the guns, despite Trump’s call to “protect our Asian American community.”After living in the U.S. for 32 years, Lin said he is no longer sure of where he belongs.”I have always regarded the United States as my own country, and now, I don’t know which country I am (in),” he said.
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Bombing Kills 10, Triggers Renewed Boko Haram Fear in Cameroon
Cameroon is calling on people living in two villages bordering Nigeria to return from their hideouts after two teenagers detonated explosives and killed at least 10 civilians. The military says it has secured the area, but civilians maintain that the villages have been infiltrated by Boko Haram terrorists.Speaking via a messaging app from the northern village of Blama Kamsoulou, community official Adamu Sidiki says dozens of people have fled since Sunday night’s suicide bombing, fearing Boko Haram.About 70 people have escaped to the bushes and nearest towns because they believe Boko Haram is making a powerful comeback, Sidiki said, adding that barely two weeks ago, the terrorist group killed at least 90 Chadian soldiers in the nearby Boma peninsula. It is high time Cameroon protected its citizens by redeploying its military to border zones that terrorists are again occupying, he said.Cameroon’s government said in a release Monday that two male suicide bombers were spotted by civilians Sunday near the Blama Kamsoulou village primary school. When the attackers noticed that they were being monitored, they rushed to the traditional ruler’s palace and detonated the explosives they were carrying.Roger Saffo, secretary general of the Far North Region governor’s office, said the blasts took the lives of many villagers.”On the spot, there were nine people killed and 15 people wounded,” Saffo said. “I want to seize this opportunity to appeal to our population to be more vigilant, to be cautious, to collaborate with the forces of law and security.”FILE – Cameroonian soldiers stand guard at a lookout post as they take part in operations against Boko Haram militants on Elbeid bridge that separates northern Cameroon form Nigeria’s Borno state near the village of Fotokol, Cameroon, Feb. 25, 2015.Suffo said the wounded were transported to a hospital in the nearby town of Mora, where one person died. Nine others are in critical condition.Midjiyawa Bakary, governor of the Far North region, said he has ordered soldiers to deploy to the border villages that Boko Haram fighters have allegedly infiltrated.Local vigilante committees should be reinforced immediately and civilians should work in collaboration with the militias to make sure both the military and administrative authorities are informed anytime strange people are found in their villages, Bakary said.On March 24, Chad’s president, Idriss Deby, announced that 92 Chadian troops were killed in a Boko Haram attack that lasted several hours. He said 24 army vehicles were destroyed, and captured military arms were taken away in speedboats by Boko Haram.Boko Haram has also renewed attacks on the Nigerian military, with the killing of at least 50 soldiers in an ambush near Goneri village in Nigeria’s northern Yobe state in March.Cameroon has not reported a large-scale Boko Haram attack for the past two months, but the Islamist militant group invades the territory regularly for supplies or to kidnap citizens for ransom.
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China’s Virus Pandemic Epicenter Wuhan Ends 76-Day Lockdown
The lockdown that served as a model for countries battling the coronavirus around the world is set to end after 11 weeks: Chinese authorities are moving to allow residents of Wuhan to once again travel in and out of the sprawling city where the pandemic began.
Just after midnight Wednesday, the city’s 11 million residents will be permitted to leave without special authorization as long as a mandatory smartphone application powered by a mix of data-tracking and government surveillance shows they are healthy and have not been in recent contact with anyone confirmed to have the virus.
Restrictions in the city where most of China’s more than 82,000 virus cases and over 3,300 deaths were reported have been gradually relaxed in recent weeks as the number of new cases steadily declined. The latest government figures reported Tuesday listed no new cases.
While there are questions about the veracity of China’s count, the unprecedented lockdown of Wuhan and its surrounding province of Hubei have been successful enough that countries around the world adopted similar measures.
During the 76-day lockdown, Wuhan residents had been allowed out of their homes only to buy food or attend to other tasks deemed absolutely necessary. Some were allowed to leave the city, but only if they had paperwork showing they were not a health risk and a letter attesting to where they were going and why. Even then, authorities could turn them back on a technicality such as missing a stamp, preventing thousands from returning to their jobs outside the city.
Residents of other parts of Hubei were allowed to leave the province starting about three weeks ago, as long as they could provide a clean bill of health.
Prevention measures such as wearing masks, temperature checks and limiting access to residential communities will remain in place in Wuhan, which is the capital of Hubei.
In an editorial, the ruling Communist Party’s flagship People’s Daily warned against celebrating too soon.
“This day that people have long been looking forward to and it is right to be excited. However, this day does not mark the final victory,” the paper said. “At this moment, we still need to remind ourselves that as Wuhan is unblocked, we can be pleased, but we must not relax.”
In anticipation of the lockdown’s lifting, SWAT teams and staff in white hazmat suits patrolled outside the city’s Hankou railway station, while guards attended a security briefing under the marble arches of its entrance.
Tickets for trains out of Wuhan to cities across China already were advertised on electronic billboards, with the first train leaving for Beijing at 6:25 a.m. A line designated for passengers headed to the capital already was roped off, while loudspeakers blared announcements about pandemic control measures, such as keeping safe distances and wearing masks.
Wuhan is a major center for heavy industry, particularly autos, and while many major plants have restarted production, the small and medium-sized businesses that provide the most employment are still hurting from both a lack of workers and demand. Measures are being instituted to get them back on their feet, including 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) in preferential loans, according to the city government.
China blocked people from leaving or entering Wuhan starting Jan. 23 in a surprise middle-of-the-night announcement and expanded the lockdown to most of the province in succeeding days. Train service and flights were canceled and checkpoints were set up on roads into the central province.
The drastic steps came as the coronavirus began spreading to the rest of China and overseas during the Lunar New Year holiday in late January, when many Chinese travel.
The exact source of the virus remains under investigation, though it is thought to be linked to an outdoor food market in the city.
In preparation for the end of the lockdown, Party Secretary Wang Zhonglin, the city’s highest-ranking official, inspected the city’s airport and train stations Monday to ensure they were ready. The city must “enforce prevention while opening up, maintain safety and orderliness and the assurance of stability,” Wang said.
Mission one: to make sure the epidemic doesn’t resurge, he said.
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Refugees Defy COVID-19 Safety Measures in Uganda
Ugandan authorities say refugees are defying safety measures set up to control the spread of COVID-19. Uganda has at least 52 confirmed COVID-19 cases and is currently under a lockdown that saw the government suspend admission of new refugees for a month. Now authorities say they are going to discuss new ways to enforce the restrictions. Authorities in Uganda are finding it difficult to get residents of refugee settlements to adhere to safety measures meant to control the spread of COVID-19.FILE – Ugandan police and other security forces chase people off the streets to avoid unrest, as part of measures to prevent the potential spread of coronavirus disease, in Kampala, March 26, 2020.To date, Uganda has recorded fewer than 100 confirmed COVID-19 cases. To keep the number down, last month President Yoweri Museveni closed all borders and suspended movement of refugees into the country.Titus Jogoo is the Adjumani Regional Refugee desk officer. He tells VOA via Whatsapp that while authorities have managed to halt movement through both official border posts and informal crossings, the internal movement of refugees remains a challenge.“They are now on cash. So, they receive cash and they have to run to the markets to buy food. We also have issues of internal settlement movement,” he said. “We have tried to talk to them but they continue moving, going to relatives, checking on this and this. And of course, we still have boda boda [Motor] cyclists deep there in the refugee settlements. They have not heed to these instructions.”Jogoo says they’ve stepped up measures to ensure refugees know how to prevent the spread of the virus.“We have translated them in the most commonly used languages among the South Sudanese. We have engaged public address systems. We have engaged people on boda boda’s with recorded spot messages om COVID-19,” he said.Uganda is host to more than 1.4 million refugees, the largest such population in Africa.Thirteen districts in Uganda host refugees from countries such as South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Somalia, Rwanda and Kenya. Uganda’s State Minister for Disaster Preparedness Musa Ecweru says the refugees may need some extra persuasion to accept the restrictions.“Our people come from countries where there have not been governments. So, to submit to authority takes time. (I) Am going to discuss with the High Commissioner today. We want to send a team to go and make sure that they are talked to and then the enforcement starts,” he said.But if there is an outbreak in refugee areas, says Ecweru, the government has prepared the isolation centers that were set up earlier to handle potential Ebola outbreaks.
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Spain Sees Uptick in Spread of COVID Cases, Overnight Deaths
After dropping for straight days, Spain’s health ministry announced Tuesday both the coronavirus daily rate of new infections and the death rate were higher overnight.At news briefing in Madrid, the health ministry’s Dr. Maria Jose Sierra reported the number of new infections grew at a faster pace from Monday, rising 4.1 percent to 140,510 total cases. That number had risen by 3.3 percent on Monday.Sierra also reported deaths spiked from Monday to Tuesday, with 743 new deaths, raising the total toll to 13,798. That compared to 637 deaths from Sunday to Monday.She said Tuesday’s increases may be attributed to delayed reporting from the weekend. The ministry noted the proportional daily increase in cases of 5.7 percent reported Tuesday is still a fraction of the figures reported in mid-March, when the rate of increase was more than 20 percent per day. Spain’s current total of coronavirus cases is second only to the United States.
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Zimbabwe’s Government Says Herbal Treatment OK for COVID-19
Zimbabwe’s government has authorized traditional herbalists to treat coronavirus patients, but health experts are skeptical and are urging extreme caution.Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health delivered a letter Monday to the head of the country’s main COVID-19 treatment center in Harare, asking him to consider using a herbalist who has questionable claims to have a cure for the virus.Speaking via WhatsApp, Dr. Nyika Mahachi, the president of Zimbabwe College of Public Health Physicians, said the coronavirus was still evolving and its mortality was fairly high.”So we cannot take a chance with traditional medicine that is not proven,” he added. “Even on the regular medicines that we have, none of them have been proven to be effective in treatment or cure of COVID-19. So, this is an unwelcome development. I am hoping that this is not a true approval, something went wrong somewhere, and the ministry urgently addresses this.”FILE – City health workers spray disinfectant at a bus terminus during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Harare, Zimbabwe, April 1, 2020.Mahachi said the government should stick to WHO guidelines on how to contain the virus. Ten people have tested positive in Zimbabwe, and one person has died.But Tribert Chishanyu, president of Zimbabwe Traditional Practitioners Association, said his organization was happy that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government is allowing herbalists to treat coronavirus-positive Zimbabweans.”Traditional medicine practice is older … than science and it is accepted by the majority of Zimbabweans,” he said. “If modern scientists are given opportunities to try whenever there is an emergency disease (outbreak), why can’t we do the same to traditional medicine practice? We are treating symptoms related to COVID-19, so by (some) chance we may be able to treat COVID-19.”He added that traditional practitioners are consulting with “spirit mediums” in hopes of finding new COVID-19 treatments.Hundreds of people buy goods at a fruit and vegetable market, despite a lockdown in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus, in Harare, Zimbabwe, April 7, 2020.Fortune Nyamande, chairman of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, said using herbs may derail the gains that came with the nationwide 21-day lockdown which ends next week.”We wish to highlight that those who are going to use this approach (herbs) need to be aware of how to use protective personal equipment because they may end up being affected by the virus and they may end up being agents of transmission to the broader communities,” Nyamande said. “By and large, we say this needs to be treated with caution. We also advocate for interventions which are grounded in science, that are grounded in evidence and that have shown to work elsewhere.”Ministry of Health officials Tuesday refused to comment on the matter, but confirmed the authenticity of the letter authorizing herbalists to treat Zimbabweans affected by the coronavirus.
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82,000 COVID-19 Deaths Projected in US by Early August
President Donald Trump speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, April 5, 2020, in Washington.U.S. President Donald Trump, whose pandemic messaging has ranged from optimism that the country will “open up sooner rather than later” to frustration that “we’re paying people not to go to work,” has warned Americans to brace for the worst.“This will be probably the toughest week, between this week and next week,” Trump said on Sunday. “And there’ll be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn’t done. But there will be death.”Not all states are using the federal government’s forecasting model. While the White House projects that coronavirus cases in the nation’s capital would peak later this month, the local Washington, DC government is relying on a different computer model that says it won’t peak until late June or early July.In any case, health experts warn against early optimism and say it’s best to prepare for worst case scenarios.The numbers are sobering, but the talk helps both people and health professionals to think seriously about this issue, said William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “It helps us prepare psychologically for what’s ahead,” he added.For their coronavirus modeling, the White House has relied on projections created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, in Seattle. The White House has also reached out to a number of universities, including the University of Texas at Austin. Mathematical epidemiologist and head of the university’s research team, Lauren Meyers, underscored that pandemic modelling is almost never precise. “There is a lot of uncertainty in the projections that we make because of lack of access to good data, because we just don’t understand yet about the coronavirus, and especially because of uncertainty about how people will behave and what kinds of policies will be enacted to change contact patterns in the weeks and months ahead,” Meyers said.People practice social distancing as they wait in line to enter a grocery store, April 7, 2020, in Miami Beach, Florida.Meyers stressed that projections “are not like weather forecasts.” “When you forecast a tropical storm, there’s nothing you can do about changing the path of the storm, but when you project that an infectious disease outbreak could lead to many, many deaths, there are actually measures you can take, things you can do, especially if you act early enough, that can change the course of the outbreak,” Meyers said.“The ranges that we estimated really depends on what we put into the model with respect to how much people actually adhere to social distancing,” she added.While the coronavirus has spread to almost the entire planet, not all countries have the tracking capacity, nor the political will to record cases accurately, which will directly impact the ability to come up with pandemic projections and how to prepare for it.Daniel Runde, an international development analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, urged countries to be transparent with their data and in their pandemic messaging.South Korea was one of the worst-hit countries in the early stages of the pandemic, but has been praised for its effective, aggressive response, that includes a swift implementation of mass-scale testing, and consistent, transparent messaging to the public throughout the crisis. “Lying about numbers, suppressing science, suppressing doctors, censoring the media — this is the absolute wrong time to be doing that,” Runde said.
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