Kenya’s Health Ministry says a six-year-old child has died of coronavirus complications, becoming the youngest victim of the virus to die in Kenya. As of Friday, more than 120 people in Kenya have been confirmed to have COVID-19.Mercy Mwangagi, the chief administrative secretary at Kenya’s Ministry of Health, announced the death at a news conference Friday.“I am saddened to inform you that we have lost another patient to the coronavirus disease. The person, a six-year-old male child, who was also ailing from other medical conditions and had been admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital. This now brings to four the number of those who have died as a result of this disease,” Mwangagi said.The Ministry of Health said some of the new cases were not imported but were the result of community transmission.Experts have warned that Nairobi’s crowded slums could be breeding grounds for the virus. The health ministry has projected that the country’s coronavirus load could rise 5,000 cases by the end of April. Last week, the government imposed a daily 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, among other measures, in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19.A worker sews surgical-type face masks to be used to curb transmission of the new coronavirus, at the New Dawn company in Kikuyu, north of Nairobi, in Kenya, April 4, 2020.Preparing for tough times ahead, Minister of Trade Betty Maina announced Friday that Kenya has started manufacturing masks and other equipment for health workers in order to avoid any shortages in the future.“Since last week, we have been working hard to see if we can actually supply this within the country, because it has proved a challenge to trace them and to be able order them around the world because the demand from Europe and the U.S is very large,” she said. ” I am very excited that as we announced on Sunday, the Kenyan textile industry has risen up to the task and is currently able to produce as many masks as we require.Maina said companies also are starting to make personal protective gear for medical staff on the front lines against the disease.
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Month: April 2020
Officials Hopeful Australia Is Flattening COVID-19 Curve
Health officials say there is more evidence that Australia’s efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak are working. While they are hopeful Australia can avoid the kind of devastation the coronavirus has caused in countries like Italy and the United States, they caution there is no room for complacency. There are more than 5,600 confirmed coronavirus cases in Australia. Thirty-four mostly elderly people have died.Health officials are cautiously hopeful that Australia is “flattening the curve” of COVID-19 infections. The rate of new cases fell to three per cent over the weekend.Almost 300,000 coronavirus tests have been carried out. Strict social distancing measures are also in place. Australians are not allowed to leave their homes without good reason or gather in groups of more than two, although households are exempt. Fines are being issued by the police for those who flout the regulations.Cafes, bars, cinemas and many beaches have been closed in an attempt to slow the spread of the highly infectious disease. Australia has closed its international borders, and some states, including Western Australia and Tasmania, have shut themselves off from the rest of the country. Community transmission of COVID-19 remains the authorities’ biggest concern. A man walks at a desert train station amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sydney, Australia, April 6, 2020.But Australia’s chief medical officer Brendan Murphy believes the overall signs are good.“Many of you are watching the situation thats happening in New York for example and other parts of the world with a lot of fear. We have been very keen to bring in the measures that we brought in in recent weeks to prevent that happening, and we are increasingly confident that if people continue to adhere to what we have been asking them to do, we can prevent a situation like we have seen in many other countries of the world,” he said.Australian police are also launching a criminal investigation into whether the operator of a cruise liner downplayed potential Covid-19 cases before thousands of passengers disembarked in Sydney last month.The Ruby Princess is responsible for more than a tenth of Australia’s confirmed coronavirus cases. At least 11 passengers have died. The vessel is moored south of Sydney. Almost 200 crew members who remain onboard have Covid-19 symptoms.The ship’s owner, Carnival Australia, said it would cooperate with the police inquiry.Five other cruise liners were forced to leave and head home by Australian authorities at the weekend.
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Nations Flood Economies With Aid; Airlines Retreat From NYC
Central banks and governments
The White House is considering coronavirus “war bonds” to fund the federal response to the pandemic.
Larry Kudlow, the director of the national economic council, says the federal government, like most Americans, should make the most of low interest rates.
The U.S. government has had little trouble finding people willing to lend it money so far, even without anything branded as “war bonds.” It’s been able to borrow at interest rates near record lows despite ballooning deficits, as investors around the world look for safe places to park cash.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is preparing to announce a 108 trillion yen ($1 trillion) economic package to help the country weather the coronavirus crisis. Abe said Monday he plans to disclose details of the package as early as Tuesday.
Abe is expected to announce a state of emergency Tuesday, at least for cities like Tokyo.
Hungary’s prime minister announced a second package of economic measures. Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Monday that the measures would reallocate some 18% to 20% of Hungary’s state budget, or as much as around $32 billion, while raising the budget deficit from 1% of GDP to 2.7%.
Airlines
New York City is largely an island, and seems more so each day as the number of flights in and out of the metropolis plunge.
American Airlines is suspending more flights at the city’s three major airports, JFK, LaGuardia and Newark, in New Jersey.
American said late Sunday that it will run 13 flights daily from the three airports beginning this week, down from an average of 271 flights per day last April.
United Airlines over the weekend reduced its 157 daily flights, to 17. Spirit Airlines has completely cut off service to the city and JetBlue, which is based in New York City, has slashed operations in the city by about 80%.
The Transportation Security Administration screened 32% fewer passengers nationwide Sunday than just a week ago, and 95% fewer than the same day a year ago.
Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, United Airlines and JetBlue applied for a share of the $25 billion in federal grants designed to cover airline payrolls for the next six months. None disclosed the amount they are seeking.
The founder of easyJet says the company has enough money only to get through August at best and wants to cancel a 4.5 billion-pound ($5.5 billion) contract with Airbus for what he calls 107 “useless aircraft.” EasyJet, which flies predominantly in Europe, has grounded all of its 344 planes.
European companies are expected to get financial support from the government, though unlike the U.S. there has not been a coordinated regional plan to bail out airlines or planemakers.
Singapore will suspend its Changi Airport Terminal 2 for 18 months beginning next month. Changi Airport may suspending operations temporarily if the remaining airlines choose to suspend or adjust their flight schedules.
Stepping up
Apple has sourced more than 20 million face masks through its supply chain, CEO Tim Cook said in a video posted on Twitter.
Apple hopes to quickly expand distribution beyond the U.S. It plans to ship over a million face shields to healthcare workers by the end of the week, and continue to send that many every week going forward, Cook said.
Ford Motor Co. has manufactured and shipped over 1 million clear plastic face shields to hospitals and first responders all over the U.S. The company sent its millionth protective shield to New York City as part of a shipment of more than 30,000 spokeswoman Elizabeth Kraft said.
Hilton and American Express are donating 1 million U.S. hotel rooms to medical workers who need to sleep, relax or isolate from their families. The program, which begins next week and runs through the end of May, will provide free rooms to doctors, nurses, paramedics and others, the companies said Monday. American Express and Hilton are paying for the rooms, which are being provided at or below cost by Hilton franchisees. Hilton will offer the rooms through 10 professional organizations, including the American Hospital Association and the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians.
The lodging industry is being devastated by the pandemic, with conferences, business and leisure travel coming to a standstill.
Markets
Stocks jumped in markets around the world Monday after some of the hardest-hit areas offered sparks of hope that the worst of the coronavirus outbreak may be on the horizon. Crude oil fell, giving up some of its huge gains from the prior week when expectations rose that Saudi Arabia and Russia may cut back on some of their production.
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Rural-to-Urban Transition May Explain Viral Outbreaks: Vietnam Study
Vietnam has a possible lesson for the world as the global community copes with the COVID-19 emergency — monitor the places where odds of an outbreak are highest. Research indicates these are not the most urban or the most rural areas, but rather those that are in transition. Scholars from the East-West Center in Hawaii based this assessment on a review of Vietnam’s response to an avian flu outbreak in 2003. In researching that outbreak, the scholars found that infection rates were highest in areas that were in the process of urbanization, and thus had a mix of conditions, such as different rates of toilet access and diverse bird populations near national highways.Thus, governments may have higher odds of detecting a viral outbreak early and efficiently if they monitor such urbanizing areas, say James Spencer, Sumeet Saksena and Jefferson Fox, all senior Fellows at the Center, which is a nonprofit organization for research and education.“On a practical level, information on the link between urban development and disease outbreaks can help government agencies identify which locations are most likely to experience an outbreak of avian influenza so that prevention efforts can be less costly, more targeted, and more effective,” the Fellows wrote in a joint analysis April 1 for the Center.They added, “The concepts and methodology that were developed for this study could easily be adapted to many other disease threats, ranging from SARS, Ebola, and dengue fever to the current pandemic of COVID-19.”The authors were referring to a study, first done in 2017, which identified regions of Vietnam that were at risk of infection because as they urbanized, they had uneven levels of sanitation and a high chance of interaction between humans and animals.Those factors are relevant for the coronavirus in 2020 because some scientists believe that today’s disease originated in a transmission from animals to humans in China, which borders Vietnam and shares its experience of an uneven transition to urbanization. Bill Gates’ warning Philanthropist Bill Gates also discussed viruses and the rural-urban contrast in a TED talk that went viral for its seeming prescience. In 2015, he examined an Ebola emergency that killed 10,000 people, mostly in rural areas in West Africa.“It didn’t get into many urban areas, and that was just luck,” he said. “If it had gotten into a lot more urban areas the case numbers would have been much larger. So next time we might not be so lucky.”Expanding on the point made by Gates about Ebola, the East-West Center Fellows explained how Vietnam’s move from rural to urban development affected its avian flu cases, and what that could mean as the world fights the coronavirus.A hen tends to her chicks outside Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.The 2017 study, conducted with Vietnamese colleagues Nong Huu Duong and Chinh Tran, noted that as cities grow in developing countries, the demand for eggs and chicken increases.“Much of this demand is being met by large farms in the peri-urban areas surrounding cities,” the study said. “In Vietnam and other countries of Southeast Asia, numerous intensive chicken farms have sprung up in these areas.”These “peri-urban” areas transitioning from rural to city life have a variety of birds, a location near highways to help with transporting goods, and sanitation inequality among those who have toilets that flush and those who don’t.“This uneven process can be characterized as a period of confusion and social and environmental instability,” the study said. “One important result is a heightened risk of infectious disease in both humans and domestic animals.”Farmers raise chickens outside cities to serve urban customers; if those farmers contract avian flu, the disease could be transported into the nearby city, where the denser population would help it spread even faster. That could have been the case with COVID-19 as well.The scholars recommend that governmental authorities target their monitoring in these peri-urban areas, so they can see early signs of an outbreak and respond, such as by culling chickens. And then if authorities agree that “discrepancies in sanitation” cause outbreaks, they “might reduce disease risk by increasing efforts to standardize community infrastructure,” Spencer and his colleagues said.“For example, they might prioritize the introduction of flush toilets more widely in communities where access to modern sanitation is currently mixed,” they said.Millions of chickens were slaughtered in Vietnam and elsewhere to stop the avian flu from spreading.
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Queen’s Address Overshadowed as British Prime Minister Hospitalized
British Prime Minster Boris Johnson remains in a central London hospital under observation, having been admitted there on the advice of doctors Sunday night. He was hospitalized on precautionary grounds for further tests as his symptoms had not improved. Johnson was diagnosed with the coronavirus eleven days ago. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the shock announcement overshadowed Queen Elizabeth’s rare televised address to the nation
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Slovak Court Sentences Journalist’s Killer to 23 Years in Prison
A Slovak court on Monday sentenced former soldier Miroslav Marcek to 23 years in prison for shooting and killing investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova in February 2018.
Marcek, 37, who was not present at the sentencing, had admitted guilt in the case, which led to nationwide protests and eventually brought down the Slovak government.
“It was cold-blooded and malicious. Victims did not have a chance to defend themselves,” presiding judge Ruzena Szabova of the Specialised Criminal Court said at the hearing in Pezinok, north of Bratislava. “His confession was a mitigating circumstance.”
Prosecutor Juraj Novocky, who asked for a 25-year sentence, appealed against the sentence.
Kuciak had covered corruption and the links of influential businessmen to political, judicial and police leaders.
Businessman Marian Kocner, who was a target of Kuciak’s reporting, is standing trial with two others in separate hearings on charges of procuring the murder.
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African Union Predicts Continental Recession Due to COVID-19
With the African Union now predicting the continent’s economy will contract by 0.8 percent this year, African finance ministers are scheduled to meet via video conference on Thursday to discuss ways countries can mitigate a looming economic disaster.Researchers at the AU now believe the continent will slip into a recession this year due to the impact the coronavirus is currently having on trade, remittances, tourism and a huge fall in global oil prices. An AU report seen by VOA estimates governments will lose around $270 billion from lost trade. The report, first published by Reuters, also says governments will need at least $130 billion in additional public spending to fight the virus.François Conradie, senior political economist at NKC African Economics, a research firm in South Africa, said via a messaging app that African governments do not have much firepower to fight the impacts of COVID-19.“The only thing we can do really — and that’s what these negotiations [on Thursday] are about — is to try and boost state spending capacity by organizing low interest loans from multilateral and maybe private lenders and then inject that money into the economy in the form of some sort of help,” he said.”We’re doing that in Africa by giving tax holidays to employees of minimum wage people to try and save those jobs. There is some other initiatives to make financing available at low interest to SMEs to try and get them on their feet. It’s the kind of thing that will help companies that are still viable but it won’t do anything for the companies that have seen their markets disappear,” said Conradie.Member of the country’s armed forces and a Red Cross worker distribute food to people affected by the lockdown measures aimed at curbing the spread of the new coronavirus, in the Bwaise suburb of the capital Kampala, Uganda, April 4, 2020.One big task for African finance ministers will be to convince institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to suspend or even cancel some of the continent’s debt load. But, experts say, most of Africa’s debt is owed to private bondholders who may not have political or humanitarian considerations in mind when asked to cancel debt. Yeo Dossina, head of the economic policy and research division at the AU, was asked what Africa can do to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19. He spoke to VOA via a messaging app.“You will see some measures already taken by member states, including from central banks. We’ve tried to narrow down the interest rate and also to provide liquidity to commercial banks so that we can also put some money in the treasury of enterprises. Also, there are some special measures that governments are taking to provide for vulnerable people with some resources so they can buy food to eat, and also to try and purchase medical material and products to persons that are now sick,” said Dossina. Dossina added that remittances that are an average of $50 billion per year from the African diaspora have gone down since the coronavirus outbreak began. On Thursday, he said, finance ministers will try and reach a common position on how much debt they want to see suspended or canceled. African governments will also closely watch an OPEC meeting Thursday where members are to discuss oil production cuts that would help raise prices and help oil-dependent countries such as Nigeria, Angola and Gabon.While the full effects of the virus still remain to be seen in Africa, cases are beginning to rise in countries such as Burkina Faso and Cameroon, where there are 345 and 650 coronavirus patients, respectively.
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Once Just for Business, Virtual Meetups Offer Social Lifeline During Pandemic
Madison Keesler clears furniture and pets from the living room, while Benjamin Freemantle chomps on a banana topped with peanut butter. The two, who live together, are preparing to dance with dozens of other members of the San Francisco Ballet company currently sequestered throughout the city and around the world. Since shelter-in-place rules went into effect three weeks ago, the company has met virtually – by video chat – for its daily class. Once used mostly for corporate meetings, video conferences have suddenly become the lifeline connecting isolated friends, co-workers, and family members. “A ballet company in particular, the people you work with and especially the dancers, they become like family,” says Keesler who is a soloist with the company. The abrupt cancellation of performances and loss of the daily ritual and camaraderie has been challenging. “So at least this offers waking up, turning on your computer and you still get to chat with them and see them a little bit,” she says. The virtual classes, which the company has been sharing publicly, have also been a comfort to thousands of fans, deprived of a performance season but now given access to an intimate view of dancers at work in kitchens, bedrooms and hallways. “People really want to know who the dancers are, and you just don’t get to know that on stage,” says Freemantle, a principal dancer with the company. “So even just this little glimpse into your living room or something where, I think you get to see a little bit of who that person is.” “You also get to see who are the real ballet nerds, with the ballet barre bolted into the wall,” chuckles Freemantle, who is improvising with kitchen chairs for the moment. Dancers Madison Keesler and Benjamin Freemantle take a virtual class with other members of the San Francisco Ballet company. (Courtesy Madison Keesler and Benjamin Freemantle)Amateurs are also joining in the class. Writes one fan, “Dream come true to see this and do a class at home with the SF Ballet! Be still my heart.” Support of old comrades Old friends are also connecting in new ways. Lexine Alpert is in touch every week with a group of women activists she’s known since the early 80’s when they joined forces in San Francisco as the “Nuclear Beauty Parlor.” Now dispersed around the country, the group normally gathers every two years. But since physical distancing began, they’ve felt compelled to meet each week using Zoom. Ten women appeared for a recent call, many with cocktails in hand. “It was wonderful,” says Alpert. “Each of us spontaneously spoke about what we’re going through with this virus. It was a really nice to hear everybody’s take on how they’re handling the situation.” Alpert, a retired social worker, also meets virtually with her book club and refugee support organizations she is affiliated with. “It’s just a way to stay connected to one another,” she says. Since social distancing began, this group of women activists, who’ve known each other since the 1980s, have started meeting weekly using Zoom.Coming soon to a laptop near you Louie Schwartzberg had spent months generating buzz and cultivating an audience for his documentary film “Fantastic Fungi,” selling out theaters in the U.S. and Europe for the planned release date of March 26. When theaters were forced to close, he had to quickly come up with a new plan. “We pivoted when we heard about this pandemic because people can no longer come to the theater and we really wanted to continue this feeling of connection,” says Schwartzberg. The solution was a virtual release: people could enjoy the film at home and watch live Q&A sessions with the film’s panel of experts. “It was amazing. We probably got 20,000 attendees and participation from 101 countries,” says Schwartzberg. Known for his dazzling time-lapse nature photography, Schwartzberg has had a camera clicking away somewhere every day for the past 30 years and knows a lot about waiting patiently. Of the forced sequestration he has this to say, “Maybe there is a little bit more time to stare at a certain flower in the garden. Maybe there’s a little bit more time to think about your friends and your family.” Ten years of closely observing mushrooms for his current film has also given Schwartzberg a perspective on surviving natural threats, “One of the messages in the movie, which I didn’t realize until I finished the movie, is that individuals with a community survive better than individuals alone, that ecosystems flourish with this connectivity.” And during the pandemic, technology is playing a vital role in sustaining those communities.
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Senior Trump Administration Adviser Promotes Use of of Drug Hydroxychloroquine
The debate over using an anti-malaria drug that has not yet officially been approved for fighting COVID-19 has erupted.
Trump administration adviser Peter Navarro on Monday emphatically promoted using the drug even though scientists say more testing is needed before it’s clear it’s safe and effective against the virus.
Navarro is a trade adviser who is on the White House coronavirus task force. He acknowledged on CNN that he had a heated debate over the drug with top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci during a weekend meeting in the Situation Room.
Fauci says the current studies provide only anecdotal findings that the drug works. Navarro says he responded: “I would have two words for you ‘second opinion.”
The drug hydroxychloroquine is officially approved for treating malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, but not COVID-19.
Small, preliminary studies have suggested it might help prevent coronavirus from entering cells and possibly help patients clear the virus sooner. Doctors can already prescribe the malaria drug to patients with COVID-19, a practice known as off-label prescribing.
But Fauci says more testing is needed before it’s clear that the drug works against the coronavirus.
Navarro told “Fox & Friends” that doctors in New York hospitals are already giving out the drug to COVID-19 patients and that health care workers are taking it in hopes it will protect them from being infected.
He says the confrontation in the Situation Room was over whether the administration should take 29 million doses of the drug in FEMA warehouses and surge them into hard-hit cities. It was unanimous that it should be done.
Asked on CNN why he thinks he’s qualified to dispute Fauci, Navarro cited his doctorate degree in social science.
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Cameroon Clears its Streets of Abandoned Kids
The coronavirus outbreak in Cameroon, with over 655 confirmed infections, has accelerated a government plan to remove thousands of homeless children from the streets. About 3,000 street children are to be reunited with their families or receive job training, including orphans and asylum-seekers from the neighboring Central African Republic. Henri Nyambi Dikosso, director of national solidarity at Cameroon Ministry of Social Affairs is leading a group of social workers and hospital staff removing hundreds of children from streets in the capital Yaoundé this Monday morning. Dikosso says they are making sure they screen against COVID-19, which has been spreading in the central African state.He says they are taking body temperatures so that the Ministry of Health, which is their partner in the operation to clear children from the streets, can start taking care of suspected COVID-19 cases. He says they are also making sure that street corners where the children lived are disinfected and the children are washed to stop the risk of infections.Safia Djamila, 17, is among the children who have agreed to leave the streets. She says she has been on her own for three years, living on donations from well-wishers and on leftover food from restaurants. Djamila says she escaped from their family home in the northern town of Mokollo when she lost her mother, and her father brought in another wife who molested her and refused to send her to school.She says she is leaving the streets because she wants to learn how to cook, sew dresses and do embroidery. She says her dream is to raise money to attend literacy classes so she can read and write. Ten years ago, Cameroon said it had counted a thousand street children with ages from 4 years to 17 years in the towns of Yaoundé and Douala. The figures increased to over 10,000 when the separatist crisis broke out in the country’s English speaking north west and south west regions, and Boko Haram terrorism intensified on Cameroons northern border with Nigeria.Many asylum seekers also came from the troubled Central African Republic.Cameroon had plans to clear at least 3,000 children from the streets before the end of this year, but the spread of COVID-19, confirmed in 655 of its citizens in about a month, has forced officials to begin removing them from the streets earlier than planned.Marie-Therese Abena Ondoua, Cameroon minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family says parents in particular and communities in general should save the lives of the children by clearing them off the streets.She says they are asking parents who want their children back home to assume their responsibilities by assuring that there is family stability and rigor. She says the government will be giving either education or job training to orphans, asylum seekers and those who refuse to be reunited with their families. Ondoua said high levels of poverty, conflict, family disunity and a high rate of divorce, illiteracy, rural exodus and early marriage were responsible for the increasing number of street children.
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Growing Calls for China to Release Rights Lawyer from Compulsory Quarantine
One day after his release from prison, Chinese rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang told friends that he is being watched by state agents — fueling calls at home and abroad for China to stop using the pandemic as an excuse to extend his incarceration. The European Union said, in a press statement, that it expects Wang’s release to be “unconditional, with particular regard to his freedom of movement and to establish residence, including the possibility to reunite with his family in Beijing” — a stance endorsed by many international rights groups. “His rights under China’s legislation and international commitments were not respected during trial and detention. Reports about Mr. Wang being subject to serious mistreatment and torture must be thoroughly investigated,” the EU statement added. An illusion Amnesty International (AI) China researcher Doriane Lau called Wang’s freedom an “illusion” until the Chinese government lifts all restrictions. After Wang completed his four-and-a-half-year detention, “the politically motivated campaign against him is only likely to enter a new phase. Despite his release, he will be subject to heavy surveillance and unable to return to [Beijing],” Lau warned in a statement. “They are taking advantage of the COVID virus situation and using that as a very convenient excuse to basically detain him further or control him further,” another AI analyst William Nee told VOA. Nee said that Wang’s case is emblematic of China’s flawed rule of law as it has been riddled with inconsistencies and illegalities even according to China’s own criminal procedures. “The Chinese authorities should stop any form of harassment,” the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group said in an earlier joint statement signed by ten other organizations to call for the international society’s attention on Wang’s condition. Set him free “Beijing’s insistence on prosecuting Wang… reinforces a dangerous mindset: that stability trumps free speech, and a ‘harmonious society’, human rights,” Sarah Brooks, Asia Advocate at International Service for Human Rights, also said in the statement. Wang, a lawyer who had defended political activists, victims of land seizures and members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, is being placed under a 14-day quarantine in his hometown Jinan, China’s eastern Shandong province 400 km south of Beijing, where his family of three live. During a phone conversation, Wang told peer lawyer Li Heping that state agents in the corridor outside his apartment in Jinan are keeping an eye on him and, before his release, he’d been tested five times for coronavirus, Li’s wife Wang Qiaoling tweeted early Monday. Unreasonable quarantine That prompted Li’s wife to say that lawyer Wang “should immediately go home [to his family in Beijing]. No need to wait for another 14 days. The 14-day [quarantine] is unreasonable.” In earlier tweets, she complained that police in Jinan were keeping lawyer Wang away from everyone including delivery boys and his closest kin. His cousin and those who tried to deliver food and flowers to his apartment were once taken into the police station for questioning, she tweeted. Li Wenzu, wife to lawyer Wang, reiterated the family’s wishes to be reunited in Beijing. “It’s an illegal act for the government to limit individual personal freedom. This is against our free will. What I and Quanzhang want is to be reunited. We want a family reunion in Beijing,” she told VOA. She said their son, who turns seven, keeps asking why his father hasn’t returned on Sunday. Calling Chinese officials “liars” and “hooligans,” Li said she is worried that Wang will be permanently put under house arrest in Jinan even if the 14-day quarantine comes to an end. On Twitter, support for Wang’s genuine freedom has been growing. Growing support online One user wrote “Wang’s fate in 14 days will be decided by how [strongly] the international society reacts… China may adjust [its control of him] if it is under heavy pressure. If not, it will continue its evil act.” Shao Jiang, a former Tiananmen movement student protester, who now lives in London, tweeted that Wang “must be granted freedom, not ‘non-release release’.” Non-release release is a term coined by leading New York University School of Law China expert Jerome Cohen to describe China’s practice of putting rights activists under de facto house arrest upon their release from detention. According to Safeguard Defenders, China’s practice of ‘non-release release’ may last up to a year or more commonly for a few months. “It is an exercise in controlling news, diplomatic and general media attention in high profile cases, and especially to block reports on victim testimonies of torture or other illegal behavior,” the rights group said in a press statement last week. A Chinese lawyer who befriends Wang told VOA anonymously that he remains worried about Wang’s mental and physical condition after years of incarceration. He added he’s pessimistic that China will cave into international pressure or ease its control of Wang. The rise of China has empowered itself to build up its own narrative, growing more and more reluctant to take criticism from other governments, despite that “what China has done [to Wang] is illegal and against human nature,” he said. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social microblogging platform, no mention of Wang’s release can be found as state censorship is common.
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Japanese Prime Minister Declares One-Month State of Emergency for Tokyo, 6 Other Prefectures
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he will declare a 30-day state of emergency in parts of the country in response to the rising confirmed cases of coronavirus. Prime Minister Abe announced his intentions Monday during a televised speech after meeting with a special task force created to deal with the outbreak. Abe said he will formally impose the declaration Tuesday for Tokyo and six other prefectures, including the central port city of Osaka. The declaration will give local authorities the legal power to call on its citizens to stay at home and to ask schools and businesses to close. Japan’s constitution, which weighs heavily in favor of civil liberties, does not empower the government to impose a mandatory quarantine. The prime minister also announced a $990 billion stimulus bill to blunt the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, including $55 billion in direct payments to households and small businesses. Abe has been reluctant to invoke a state of emergency, but appears to have been prompted to move after Tokyo reported 143 new cases reported Sunday, the largest number of confirmations in a single day, bringing the total number of cases in the capital to over 1,000. Nationally, there are 3,500 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus, including more than 70 fatalities.
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US Military Helps in Efforts to Fight Coronavirus
The U.S. President expects rough weeks ahead in the fight against the coronavirus as the number of people who die will likely increase. At the same time, White House officials says they are also hopeful that they will start seeing a stabilization of cases across large metropolitan areas where the outbreak began. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details on what the U.S. military is doing to help fight the disease.
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Rwandan, Armenian Genocides Remembered in April
Two major genocides are being memorialized in April…the 1994 mass killings in Rwanda and the Armenian genocide of a century ago. A husband-and-wife team of researchers are now publishing oral testimonies from the Rwandan atrocities. Mike O’Sullivan reports.
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US Health Officials: Shocking US Coronavirus Death Toll Just Ahead
U.S. officials warned Sunday of a difficult upcoming week as the nation deals with the toll of the coronavirus outbreak. “This is going to be the hardest and saddest week of most Americans’ lives, quite frankly,” U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told “Fox News Sunday.” “This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it’s not going to be localized. It’s going to be happening all over the country.” President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters at an evening briefing, expressed some optimism, saying there is a “light at the end of the tunnel,” while noting the difficult circumstances that lay ahead. “The next week and a half, two weeks are going to be, I think they’re going to be very difficult,” Trump said. “At the same time, we understand what they represent and what that time represents. And hopefully we can get this over with, because this is a very horrible thing for the world.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, highlighted that stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines take time to show their effects. “What you’re hearing about potential light at the end of the tunnel doesn’t take away from the fact that tomorrow, the next day, are going to look really bad,” Fauci said. FILE – Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is seen at the White House, in Washington, April 1, 2020.The United States is by far the world leader with 337,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University figures early Monday. The country also had more than 9,600 deaths, with about one-third of those in New York City where hospitals are scrambling to cope with the patient load. Trump has not issued national lockdown orders like those seen in Italy and Spain, preferring to leave that decision up to the individual governors of the 50 states. Most have given their own order, but nine have not. Fauci said the people in the nine states are “putting themselves at risk” by not self-isolating even if their governors have not issued stay-at-home orders. “This virus does not discriminate” whether one lives in a small community or a large city,” Fauci said. The president also spent part of his Sunday briefing again pushing a drug used to treat malaria, lupus and arthritis. Hydroxychloroquine carries major potential side effects and studies are still being done to see if it could be a safe and effective treatment for coronavirus patients. Fauci said in an interview earlier with CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday there is nothing that scientifically proves it has any benefit against the coronavirus. “The data are really just, at best, suggestive. There have been cases that show there may be an effect and there are others to show there’s no effect,” Fauci said.
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Coronavirus Concerns in US, Britain as Italy and Spain Show Signs of Progress
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who last week tested positive for coronavirus, remained hospitalized Monday after being admitted for additional testing after having a persistent high fever. His office called the development “precautionary” and said he remained in charge of the government. Britain has emerged as one of the latest hot spots in the pandemic, reporting more than 600 deaths Sunday. Other parts of Europe showed some improvement after weeks of devastating impacts from the virus that have caused governments to put residents on lockdown to try to slow its spread. Italy, which has the most deaths, reported its smallest increase in two weeks, while Spain also reported its latest in a string of lower daily death and new infection counts. In the United States, the western states of Oregon and Washington said they will send thousands of badly needed ventilators across the country to New York, the hardest-hit area in the country.A ventilator is displayed during a news conference on March 24, 2020 at the New York City Emergency Management Warehouse, where 400 ventilators have arrived and will be distributed.About one-third of 9,600 people who have died from the coronavirus in the United States have been in New York City, where makeshift field hospitals and a U.S. Navy medical ship are trying to take some of the strain off the city’s health care system. Other parts of the country are emerging as concerns with mounting case numbers, including Pennsylvania, Colorado and the nation’s capital, Washington, DC, where about 1,000 cases have been confirmed. South Korea, one of the first hot spots in the outbreak, reported just 47 new cases Monday, but the country’s vice health minister cautioned the need for continued vigilance and for people to stay home to prevent an infection “explosion.” Kim Gang-lip said data from smartphones showed too many people were going out to restaurants and parks in recent weeks. Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is urging governments to take steps to protect women after a “horrifying” increase in domestic violence during the outbreak.
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Fires Near Chernobyl Increase Radiation Level
Two forest fires near the now defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine have boosted the radiation level in the area. Ukrainian firefighters worked into Sunday night to put the fires under control. Emergency services said one of the fires that spread to an area of about five hectares was contained. The other fire was covering a much larger area, of about 20 hectares. Fire officials said radiation levels in the area near Chernobyl were considerably higher than normal. The emergencies service, however, said radiation levels in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, about 100 kilometers south, were within normal range. The fires were within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone established after the 1986 explosion at the plant, an area of 2600 square kilometers which was largely evacuated because of radioactive contamination. Since than about 200 people have remained in the area, disregarding orders to leave.
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Why China is Developing Military Vessels at the Center of its Coronavirus Outbreak
As China continues to recover from COVID-19, the city where the now global disease began is stepping up ship production for military and commercial purposes as part of its broader economic recovery, domestic media and experts say. A state-owned builder of ships and submarines in Wuhan has worked overtime since March 3, the Chinese state-controlled Global Times news website reported last week. The facility of the China State Shipbuilding Corp. is “making up for time lost during the city’s lockdown” and keeping an “undisclosed major project” on track, the website said. China looks to Wuhan, where the COVID-19 coronavirus surfaced in December, as a key site for building vessels for the People’s Liberation Army Navy, said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Factories in the central Chinese industrial hub turn out submarines for export, for example, to Pakistan and Thailand, he added. “Wuhan is a key industrial city when it comes to indigenous production for the PLA modernization, as well as the fact that when you talk about exports of submarines, this is increasingly going to become a crown jewel of China’s present and future arms export,” Koh said. In that vein, Chinese defense contractor Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Co. built a complex 10 years ago on 3.3 square kilometers in Wuhan, U.S.-based defense research organization GlobalSecurity.org says. The site has “made significant contribution to the updating of the naval equipment and national defense of China,” GlobalSecurity.org says. Wuchang Shipbuilding let its second wave of workers back on the job March 26 for a factory reopening a day later, the Global Times report says. The subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp. makes ships and submarines. Despite Wuhan’s location 840 kilometers from the sea, completed ships reach the Chinese coastline via the Yangtze River. A Chinese naval Z-9 helicopter prepares to land aboard the PeopleÕs Liberation Army (Navy) frigate CNS Huangshan (FFG-570) as the ship conducts a series of maneuvers and exchanges with the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett.Wuhan is also known for a military school, a PLA chemical-biological weapons research center, and military logistics, said Alexander Huang, a defense-specialized strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. “Wuhan is the center or the probably most important location for several things,” Huang said. “These are the things I know, the logistics center, the chem-bio research institute and some transportation and others.” Much of China, including Wuhan, began powering back up in March after weeks of lockdowns that barred people from going to work. About 50,000 COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Wuhan through March 19, the official Xinhua News Agency says. Renewed shipbuilding would fit in with what analysts call sustained Chinese coast guard and military activity near Taiwan and in the South China Sea, even at the peak of the virus outbreak. Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, all of which contest Beijing’s South China Sea claims, are still too tied up fighting COVID-19 to bolster their own defenses, experts say. China is “taking advantage of the lull in activity” around the world by bolstering its military in nearby seas, said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines. Vietnam, which has issued shelter-in-place orders to contain COVID-19, on Friday filed a complaint with China over what Vietnamese media call the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel near the disputed sea’s Paracel Islands. On Thursday a Chinese surveillance vessel “hit and sank” the Vietnamese boat with eight fishermen aboard, Viet Nam News reported. “The forward positioning of the coast guard ships is pretty constant,” said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia. “The PLAN (Chinese navy) stays out of it basically, but they get off the bench when an American warship begins sailing through the area and then whatever regular exercises or port calls.” Washington periodically sends warships to the South China Sea to confirm that it remains an international waterway. Submarine production in Wuhan is probably linked to export orders, too, Koh said. Exports drive the Chinese economy, but they are expected to slow because of the slump in demand from Western countries fighting COVID-19. Pakistan had announced plans in 2015 to buy eight new Chinese-made submarines, for example. Thailand is on track to get up to three Chinese subs by 2023, according to media reports from Bangkok.
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UN Chief: Coronavirus Pressures Leading to Global Surge in Domestic Violence
The U.N. secretary-general warned Sunday that the increase in social and economic pressures brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has led to a global increase in violence against women and girls. Last week, Antonio Guterres called for a global cease-fire so that the international community could focus all of its attention on stopping the virus and helping those who have contracted it. “But violence is not confined to the battlefield,” he said in a statement Sunday evening. “For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest – in their own homes. And so I make a new appeal today for peace at home — and in homes — around the world.” Many countries have reported a surge in domestic violence incidents and calls to abuse hotlines since the pandemic started spreading globally earlier this year. In France, domestic violence rates surged by a third in one week. In South Africa, authorities received nearly 90,000 reports of violence against women in the first week of its lockdown. Australia’s government says online searches for support on domestic violence have risen 75%, while in Turkey, activists are demanding greater protections after the killing of women rose sharply after a stay at home order was issued March 11. Badges showing an emergency phone number created to fight domestic violence are pictured, Sept. 3, 2019, at the hotel Matignon, the French prime minister’s official residence in Paris, at the outset of a multiparty debate on domestic violence.Entire countries have called for quarantines and lockdowns to slow the spread of the respiratory virus that has sickened more than 1.25 million people worldwide and killed nearly 70,000. These stay at home orders mean many women and girls are stuck in crowded homes with men who have lost their jobs or have no outlet for their frustrations, such as watching sports or meeting friends at a local bar, and are instead taking them on out on them. At the same time, authorities, such as police, are overwhelmed with their coronavirus response, and civil society groups are struggling to maintain staff and resources. In some cities, domestic violence shelters have been commandeered as health centers. “I urge all governments to make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans for COVID-19,” Guterres said of the disease caused by the coronavirus. He said that includes declaring shelters as essential services, setting up emergency warning systems in pharmacies and grocery stores, declaring shelters essential services, and creating safe ways for women to seek support, without alerting their abusers.
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Trump Pushes Unproven COVID Treatment
U.S. President Donald Trump is again pushing a successful treatment for malaria, lupus, and arthritis to use against the new coronavirus despite its unproven effectiveness for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. “What have you got to lose?” Trump asked at a Sunday White House briefing in which he touted hydroxychloroquine. He said there are 29 million doses of the drug stockpiled, calling it a “very strong and powerful medicine…that doesn’t kill people.” Trump said people are dying and there is no time to take a couple of years to test it out. The Food and Drug Administration says it made an emergency approval for the drug to be prescribed because it says there are no alternative treatments for COVID-19. But White House task force member and the country’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday there is nothing that scientifically proves it has any benefit against the coronavirus. “The data are really just, at best, suggestive. There have been cases that show there may be an effect and there are others to show there’s no effect,” Fauci said. When a reporter at Sunday’s briefing tried to ask Fauci to comment on hydroxychloroquine, Trump jumped in and wouldn’t let the doctor answer the question that Trump said was already asked “15 times”. President Donald Trump listens as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, Sunday, April 5, 2020, in Washington.Other medical experts say it may not be advisable for someone who is not a doctor, like Trump, to give out such advice because of possible dangerous side effects. Despite Surgeon General Jerome Adams’ warning Sunday to Americans to prepare for a week he calls “Our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment,” task force member Dr. Karen Birx said declines in deaths and number of cases in Italy and Spain – two of the world’s COVID-19 hot spots — gives U.S. experts hope. Task force leader Vice President Mike Pence said he is seeing “glimmers of hope” and said the cooperation by Americans in social distancing and listening to other expert advice means the country will “get through this a lot sooner than we thought.” Sunday, former Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril died of the coronavirus in a Cairo hospital, his Facebook page and Egyptian officials announced. He was 67. Jibril was briefly Libya’s leader after longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was toppled and killed in 2011. Meanwhile, the Bronx Zoo in New York City says Nadia, a 4-year-old female Malayan tiger, has tested positive for coronavirus. Veterinarians tested her after she and six other big cats developed dry coughs. Nadia and the others are said to be doing well, have strong appetites, and are fully expected to recover. The zoo is closed to visitors and it didn’t say how the tiger came down with the virus. But vets say there is no evidence that cats and dogs can pass coronavirus to their owners.
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New York’s Death Count Nears 4,200, but There’s a Glimmer of Hope
A slight dip in new coronavirus deaths in New York over the last 24 hours may be a glimmer of hope that the spread is slowing, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday as overall fatalities in the state climbed to nearly 4,200.
Cuomo said it was too soon to determine whether the pandemic had reached its apex.
“We could either be very near the apex, or the apex could be a plateau and we could be on the plateau right now,” Cuomo said. “You can’t do this day to day. You have to look at three or four days to see a pattern.”
The state reported 594 new coronavirus deaths on Sunday — a small decrease compared to the 630 new fatalities announced the day before. ICU admissions and intubations were also down, the governor said, while the discharge rate from hospitals was rising.
Later in the evening, New York City officials also reported a dip in fatalities. As of 4:45 p.m. it said deaths had risen by 218 since the evening before, to a total of 2,472. By comparison, there were 387 new deaths reported in the previous 24 hours and 305 the day before that.
Cuomo sounded cautiously optimistic even as he urged New Yorkers to remain vigilant and continue adhering to the strict social distancing policies in place.
“The coronavirus is truly vicious,” he said. “It’s an effective killer. People who are very vulnerable must stay isolated and protected.”
New Yorkers hunkered down Sunday as the city entered what authorities called a critical phase of the crisis. Those venturing outdoors for groceries or exercise largely heeded the city’s new guidance to wear face coverings such as scarves or bandannas — a sight far less common a week ago.
Mayor Bill de Blasio also found cause for encouragement, telling reporters that while the city still needs thousands more ventilators, its supply had outlasted earlier projections. Like Cuomo, he stopped short of declaring a turning point in the crisis.
“I see a few signs that are a little hopeful, for sure,” he said. “But I think it’s early to be able to declare that. Let’s hope and pray, but we’re not quite there yet.”
Here are the latest coronavirus developments in New York:HEALTH CARE CHALLENGES
The governor said the state’s health care system remained over capacity, adding New York is “running short on supplies all across the board.” More than 122,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus and at least 16,000 people remain hospitalized.
“The operational challenge for the health care system is impossible,” Cuomo said. “It’s not an exercise. It’s not a drill. It’s a statement of reality.”
The federal government was deploying 1,000 doctors, nurses and respiratory technicians to New York, including 325 scheduled to begin arriving in New York City as early as Sunday.
The statewide balance of coronavirus cases has been “relatively stable” over the past few days, Cuomo said, but officials were tracking what they called a shift to Long Island. Nassau and Suffolk counties together have more than 26,000 cases.MORE MEDICS REQUESTED
De Blasio reiterated his call Sunday for a federal enlistment of health care workers, warning of a “huge surge in these coming days” that could cripple the city’s already strained hospital system.
In all, he said New York City is going to need 45,000 doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists to get through the crisis.
Some 300 military medical personnel were arriving in New York, an infusion the mayor called a good start. He has asked for about 1,450.
“Right now there’s a peacetime approach in Washington,” de Blasio said, “and that won’t cut it.”
SPRING BREAK SCRAPPED
The city canceled all of spring break for its public schools and, in a controversial reversal, called for classes to be held on the start of Passover and Good Friday. School officials announced the decision Friday, saying it was important to keep remote learning uninterrupted.
The announcement roiled the city’s teachers union.
“No matter how angry and frustrated we are right now, we must focus on the most important thing, which is to get through the crisis,” Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said in a letter to his members. “I am sadly sure that there will be many more tough challenges in the days and weeks to come.”
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Tiger at NYC’s Bronx Zoo Tests Positive for Coronavirus
A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywhere, federal officials and the zoo said Sunday.The 4-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia — and six other tigers and lions that have also fallen ill — are believed to have been infected by a zoo employee who wasn’t yet showing symptoms, the zoo said. The first animal started showing symptoms March 27, and all are doing well and expected to recover, said the zoo, which has been closed to the public since March 16 amid the surging coronavirus outbreak in New York.The test result stunned zoo officials: “I couldn’t believe it,” director Jim Breheny said. But he hopes the finding can contribute to the global fight against the virus that causes COVID-19.”Any kind of knowledge that we get on how it’s transmitted, how different species react to it, that knowledge somehow is going to provide a greater base resource for people,” he said in an interview. The finding raises new questions about transmission of the virus in animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which confirmed Nadia’s test result at its veterinary lab, says there are no known cases of the virus in U.S. pets or livestock.”There doesn’t appear to be, at this time, any evidence that suggests that the animals can spread the virus to people or that they can be a source of the infection in the United States,” Dr. Jane Rooney, a veterinarian and a USDA official, said in an interview.The USDA said Sunday it’s not recommending routine coronavirus testing of animals, in zoos or elsewhere, or of zoo employees. Still, Rooney said a small number of animals in the U.S. have been tested through the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories, and all those tests came back negative except Nadia’s.The coronavirus outbreaks around the world are driven by person-to-person transmission, experts say.There have been a handful of reports outside the U.S. of pet dogs or cats becoming infected after close contact with contagious people, including a Hong Kong dog that tested positive for a low level of the pathogen in February and early March. Hong Kong agriculture authorities concluded that pet dogs and cats couldn’t pass the virus to human beings but could test positive if exposed by their owners.Some researchers have been trying to understand the susceptibility of different animal species to the virus, and to determine how it spreads among animals, according to the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.The American Veterinary Medical Association and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been recommending that out of an abundance of caution, people ill with the coronavirus should limit contact with animals — advice that the veterinary group reiterated after learning of the tiger’s test result. In general, the CDC also advises people to wash their hands after handling animals and do other things to keep pets and their homes clean. At the Bronx Zoo, Nadia, her sister Azul, two Amur tigers and three African lions developed dry coughs, and some of the cats exhibited some wheezing and loss of appetite, said Dr. Paul Calle, the zoo’s chief veterinarian. The staff figured there could be a relatively routine explanation for the cats’ symptoms but tested Nadia for coronavirus out of “due diligence and an abundance of caution,” Breheny said. Only Nadia was tested because it takes anesthesia to get a sample from a big cat, and she had already been knocked out to be examined.The seven sickened cats live in two areas at the zoo, and the animals had contact with the same worker, who is doing OK, zoo officials said. They said there are no signs of illness in other big cats on the property.Staffers who work with the cats will now wear infection-protection garb, as primate keepers have done for years because of the animals’ closer genetic ties to human beings, Breheny said. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as a fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and can be fatal.
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2 Children Brutally Raped in Field Near Mogadishu
Two small Somali children are being treated at a hospital in Mogadishu after being abducted and brutally raped in a field in a town 30 kilometers west of the capital.The doctor treating the girls spoke to the media last week about their condition.“They need a major surgery,” Dr. Mohammed Yusuf of Medina Hospital said. “This is a serious injury. I hope they will get their rights.”Yusuf said the children are ages 3 and 4 years old.The Somali government condemned the “inhumane act.”“We condemn it in the strongest terms possible of this gross act of violation against the two children in Afgoye,” Minister of Information Mohamed Abdi Mareye said.Officials in the town of Afgoye, where the incident took place, said the two girls were abducted Monday from their homes while their parents were away attending a wedding.“They were abducted in the evening and were taken to a place four kilometers away from the town,” Afgoye Mayor Ibrahim Omar Qasim told VOA Somali. He says the two children are extremely traumatized.“They are crying when they see a man,” he said. “They are in a shock.”After being left in the field to die, they were discovered the next morning by farmers who alerted authorities.“They look very bad,” said Qasim, describing the current condition of the girls. “They were extensively sexually assaulted.”Authorities in Afgoye say they have arrested a number of suspects in connection with the attack.Incidents of rape have been widely reported in different parts of Somalia in recent years. In February, authorities in the Somali region of Puntland executed two men who abducted, gang raped and then brutally killed a 12-year-old girl in the town of Galkayo in 2019. Three men were sentenced to death in May under a 2016 sexual offenses law in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, the first in Somalia to criminalize offenses such as sexual harassment and rape. The execution of the third man was delayed without official explanation. But it was later revealed by a relative of the victim that the man was released after an agreement to pay the family 75 camels as compensation for the girl’s rape and murder. Rape is pervasive and often goes unpunished in much of Somalia. Victims have traditionally been forced to accept compensation — often in the form of camels or livestock — and marry their assailants, a centuries-old practice designed to end war between rival clans. Activists have been calling for tough legislation to bring these crimes to justice. Asha Aden contributed to the report
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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson Hospitalized With Coronavirus
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was diagnosed with the new coronavirus more than a week ago, was admitted to a hospital Sunday for tests. Johnson’s office said he was hospitalized because he still has symptoms 10 days after testing positive for the virus. His admission to an undisclosed hospital in London wasn’t an emergency.Downing St. said it was a “precautionary step” and Johnson remains in charge of the government.Johnson, 55, has been quarantined in his Downing St. residence since being diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 26.Johnson has continued to chair daily meetings on Britain’s response to the outbreak, and has released several video messages during his 10 days in isolation.In a message on Friday, he said he was feeling better but still had a fever.The virus causes mild to moderate symptoms in most people, but for some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause pneumonia and lead to death.Johnson has received medical advice by phone during his illness, but going to a hospital means doctors can see him in person.Johnson’s fiancee Carrie Symonds, 32, revealed Saturday that she spent a week with coronavirus symptoms, though she wasn’t tested. Symonds, who is pregnant, said she was now “on the mend.”The government said Sunday that almost 48,000 people have been confirmed to have COVID-19 in the U.K., and 4,934 have died.Johnson replaced Theresa May as prime minister in July and won a resounding election victory in December on a promise to complete Britain’s exit from the European Union. But Brexit has been overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe.Johnson’s government was slower than those in some European countries to impose restrictions on daily life in response to the pandemic, but Britain has been effectively in lockdown since March 23.Several other members of Johnson’s government have also tested positive for the virus, including Health Secretary Matt Hancock and junior Health Minister Nadine Dorries. Both have recovered.News of Johnson’s admission to hospital came an hour after Queen Elizabeth II made a rare televised address to the nation, urging Britons to remain “united and resolute” in the fight against the virus.Drawing parallels to the struggle of World War II, the 93-year-old queen said that “while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.”
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