New Zealand reported zero new coronavirus cases Monday for the first time since the middle of March. The milestone comes a week after the country began loosening strict lockdown rules in place for a month as the government sought to stop the spread of the virus. “Clearly these are encouraging figures today, but it is just one moment in time,” said Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield. “The real test is later this week when we factor in the incubation period for the virus and the time it takes for people to display symptoms which is generally five to six days after exposure,” Bloomfield added. While New Zealand has made significant progress against the virus with about 1,500 total confirmed cases and 20 deaths, it is taking a cautious approach to reversing stay-at-home measures. Most schools are still closed, as are most shops and restaurants. Italy, one of the hardest-hit nations, began the process of reopening Monday with factory and construction workers allowed to return to their jobs. People will also be allowed to take walks and visit relatives, while restaurants will be allowed to provide take-away service. The country has confirmed more than 210,000 cases and about 29,000 deaths. Health officials reported 174 new deaths Sunday, the lowest daily figure in about two months. Businesses also started returning to operations Monday in parts of Malaysia as Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin eased lockdown restrictions originally set to expire May 12. Yassin’s government is one of many across the globe considering how to balance measures meant to stop the coronavirus from spreading against the desire to get economic activity going. A man shares supplies through barbed wire fence in the coronavirus lockdown area of Selayang Baru, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 3, 2020. Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin says the economy needs to be revived.Health officials have cautioned against reopening too quickly and risking a new wave of infections that reverse progress made in recent weeks in areas under lockdown. The virus has strained health care systems and forced governments to take novel approaches to increasing capacity to care for patients. In Mexico City, officials are converting areas of the Formula One racetrack into medical bays with about 200 beds along with facilities for consultations with people who are reporting COVID-19 symptoms. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to announce his government is extending Japan’s state of emergency through the end of the month. The restrictions were due to expire Wednesday in the country that has reported about 15,000 infections and 500 deaths. A major focus for dealing with COVID-19 is the search for a vaccine, which the World Health Organization says currently involves about 90 different potential formulations in several countries. Those vaccines must be tested both for safety and to prove they are effective before doses can be manufactured for the public. Health officials have cautioned the process could take 12 to 18 months. But U.S. President Donald Trump was more optimistic Sunday, saying he thinks there will be a vaccine by the end of this year. There are more than 3.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with nearly 250,000 deaths.
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Month: May 2020
Russia Reports Record Daily Rise of New Coronavirus Cases
Russia has seen a record rise in coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, according to government figures reported Sunday. The daily rise of 10,633 new cases is the highest since the beginning of the outbreak in the country and brings the total of cases to almost 135,000. On Sunday, 58 more people in Russia were reported dead, bringing the death toll from coronavirus-linked cases to 1,280. The death rate is still lower than in the United States, Italy and some other countries.Russia’s Tass news agency reports that 4.1 million coronavirus tests have been administered so far, 174,000 in the last official report issued Sunday. Earlier in the week Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin tested positive for the coronavirus, the highest Russian official who has been diagnosed with COVID-19.Tailor Yalcine of Boulard Retouche prepares face protective masks in cotton sewn in his shop at the Daguerre district in Paris, Sunday, May 3, 2020 as a nationwide confinement continue to counter the COVID-19.Meanwhile France reports that the number of new cases is flattening and has declined in three of the hardest hit regions. The total number of new cases reported Sunday was less than 300 and the total of new deaths was 135, compared to April 7 when the number of new cases was close to 9,000 and the death toll was more than 14,000. France is one of the most affected European countries with a total of nearly 170,000 COVID-19 cases and close to 25,000 deaths. The government has extended health emergency for two more months, until the end of July.About a half of European Union countries will begin relaxing coronavirus measures starting Monday after weeks of shutdowns which have brought down their economies. Italy and Spain, Europe’s most affected countries, are among them. On Sunday, both reported the lowest daily death tolls in weeks. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the only head of state to have had COVID-19, is expected to announce a plan to reopen his country next week after declaring that the number of new cases is flattening in the country. Britain has had close to 187,000 COVID cases and the coronavirus has killed close to 29,000.Sweden also announced a drop in new infections. The European country has raised eyebrows with its liberal coronavirus policy, keeping its schools and restaurants open throughout the outbreak. On Sunday it said that one infected person on average passes the infection to less than one person, which means the pandemic is in decline. Sweden has had more than 22,000 cases and nearly 2,700 deaths, which is more than double the numbers of Denmark and Norway put together.European leaders have announced plans to establish an international organization to fight the coronavirus. The group wants to raise $8 billion in an online pledging campaign to finance finding a COVID-19 vaccine and treatment. A man wearing a protective gear mourns next to the body of his father who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at a graveyard in New Delhi, India, May 2, 2020.Another campaign is seeking to raise funds to stop the spread of coronavirus in India. International stars including Mick Jagger, Will Smith, Kate Bosworth and Jack Black joined Bollywood celebrities in the 4-hour-long “iFor India” concert livestreamed Sunday on Facebook to help COVID-19 relief in the second most populous Asian country. India reported a daily record of 2,600 new cases on Saturday, despite tough shutdown measures. The country now has more than 42,500 COVID-19 cases with close to 1,400 deaths, despite the government’s tough restrictions aimed at stopping the outbreak.The number of new cases grew sharply in Bangladesh in the past 24 hours, with 665 new cases reported on Sunday.China, the continent’s most populous country, where the virus was first recorded in December, reported only two new cases since Saturday. Monsignor Kieran Harrington, Vicar for Communications for the Diocese of Brooklyn, prays over the body of the Rev. Jorge Ortiz-Garay in the Brooklyn borough of New York as they prepare to transport his body to JFK International Airport, May 3, 2020.The United States has about 1,200.000 cases, with close to 69,000 deaths so far. On Friday, the country saw the highest number of coronavirus-related deaths – 2909 within 24 hours, according to the World Health Organization. It also recorded 34,000 new cases, the highest daily total since April 24. More than 1,000 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours. In South America, Brazil and Peru are experiencing a spike in new cases.Close to 3.5 million cases of COVID-19 and about nearly 250,000 resulting deaths have been confirmed and reported around the world.
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Hard-to-count Arab Americans Urged to Prioritize Census
At a Michigan gas station, the message is obvious — at least to Arabic speakers: Be counted in the 2020 census.”Provide your community with more/additional opportunities,” the ad on the pump handle reads in Arabic. In the fine print, next to “United States Census 2020,” it adds: “To shape your future with your own hands, start here.”As state officials and nonprofit groups target hard-to-count groups like immigrants, people of color and those in poverty, many Arab Americans say the undercount is even more pronounced for them. That means one of the largest and most concentrated Arab populations outside the Middle East — those in the Detroit area — could be missing out on federal funding for education, health care, crime prevention and other programs that the census determines how to divvy up.That also includes money to help states address the fallout from the coronavirus.A 2020 census letter and a multilingual guide mailed to a U.S. resident in Fairfax, Virginia, March 12, 2020. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)”We are trying to encourage people not just to fill it out because of all the reasons we had given before, where there’s education and health care and all of that, but also because it is essential for the federal government to know who is in Michigan at this point more than ever before,” said Rima Meroueh, director of policy and advocacy with Dearborn-based ACCESS, one of the largest Arab American advocacy nonprofits in the country. The Arab American community checks many boxes that census and nonprofit officials say are hallmarks of the hardest-to-count communities: large numbers of young children, non-English speakers, recent immigrants and those who often live in multifamily or rental housing.Arabs arrived en masse to the U.S. as the auto industry ramped up and worker demand grew. By the time those jobs began to decline in more recent decades, communities with strong Middle Eastern cultural roots had been firmly established in the Detroit area. It has remained a destination for people from across the Middle East fleeing conflict, reconnecting with family or simply seeking a better life. Even those who resettle elsewhere often first make their way to Detroit and surrounding cities.Advocates have pressed ahead with “get out the count” campaigns despite restrictions designed to curb COVID-19. The pandemic has forced the Census Bureau to push back its deadline for finishing the 2020 count from the end of July to the end of October. It’s also asking Congress for permission to delay deadlines next year for giving census data to the states so they can draw new voting maps.With the changes, ACCESS is stepping up its social media effort, mirroring it to focus as much on the once-a-decade count as their offices, which had been plastered with census posters, Meroueh said. “If you check out our social media, it’s very census-heavy,” she said. But groups face a hurdle after the Trump administration decided not to include a category that counts people from the Middle East or North Africa as their own group. The Census Bureau recommended the so-called MENA box in 2017 after years of research and decades of advocacy.A gas pump message is obvious — at least to Arabic speakers: Be counted in the 2020 census, April 30, 2020.The decision to scrap the choice angers many Arab Americans, who say it hinders representation and needed funding. Democratic U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, an Arab American representing part of Detroit and several suburbs, expressed her displeasure while questioning Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham on Capitol Hill in February.”The community did it right — they went through the process,” she said. “You’re making us invisible.”Dillingham said the form would have a write-in box, allowing people to describe their ethnicity. It falls short for Tlaib, but Matthew Jaber Stiffler, a University of Michigan lecturer and research and content manager at the Arab American National Museum, said it’s better than nothing. Advocates will have to push harder to get people counted, he said.”The onus is on community organizations, and local and state governments to get the people to complete the form, because it doesn’t say, ‘Are you Middle Eastern or North African?'” Stiffler said. “We’ll get really good data if enough people fill it out.”Even though the MENA option isn’t there, Stiffler says census officials did preparatory work for it. If someone writes “Syrian” on their form, for instance, Stiffler has been told that the census will code that within the larger MENA ancestry group.That’s precisely what Abdullah Haydar did when he filled out his census form electronically, which he said took five minutes.”I definitely filled it out as soon as I got it. I believe in representation,” said Haydar, a 44-year-old from Canton Township, Michigan, who works in LinkedIn’s software engineering department.But support for the census isn’t unanimous. Some in the Arab community have raised concerns about government questions over their citizenship status if they participate, though that is not part of the form. Many have reported extra scrutiny since the Trump administration issued a ban on travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries in 2017 — creating an overall chilling effect when it comes to interacting with the government.”They don’t trust the current administration. They don’t trust what they’re going to do with the information. And when you look at the the so-called Muslim ban that was put in, people don’t want to be on the government’s radar,” said Haydar, who assisted some elderly relatives in filling out their forms.”I just told them, ‘Look, yes, there may be abuses. There’s always a risk of that. This administration seems to be pushing boundaries. But at the end of the day, this is the basis of our system of government, for people to count,'” he said.
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As Lockdowns Ease, Some Countries Report new Infection Peaks
While millions of people took advantage of easing coronavirus lockdowns to enjoy spring weather, some of the world’s most populous countries reported worrisome new peaks in infections Sunday, including India, which saw its biggest single-day jump yet.Second in population only to China, India reported more than 2,600 new infections. In Russia, new cases exceeded 10,000 for the first time. The confirmed death toll in Britain climbed near that of Italy, the epicenter of Europe’s outbreak, even though the U.K. population is younger than Italy’s and Britain had more time to prepare before the pandemic hit.A woman wearing a home made face shield and mask walks a dog in Piccadilly Circus, central London, Sunday, May 3, 2020.The United States continues to see tens of thousands of new infections each day, with more than 1,400 additional deaths reported Saturday.Health experts have warned of a potential second wave of infections unless testing is expanded dramatically once the lockdowns are relaxed. But pressure to reopen keeps building after the weeks-long shutdown of businesses worldwide plunged the global economy into its deepest slump since the 1930s and wiped out millions of jobs.China, which reported only two new cases, saw a surge in visitors to newly reopened tourist spots after domestic travel restrictions were loosened ahead of a five-day holiday that runs through Tuesday. Nearly 1.7 million people visited Beijing parks on the first two days of the holiday, and Shanghai’s main tourist spots welcomed more than 1 million visitors, according to Chinese media. Many spots limited daily visitors to 30% of capacity.On the eve of Italy’s first steps toward easing restrictions, the Health Ministry reported 174 COVID deaths in the 24-hour period ending Sunday evening — the lowest day-to-day number since the national lockdown began on March 10. Parks and public gardens were set to reopen on Monday.In Spain, many ventured outside for the first time since the country’s lockdown began March 14, but social distancing rules remained in place. Masks are mandatory starting Monday on public transit.In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under pressure to reveal how the country will lift its lockdown. The restrictions are due to last through Thursday, but with hundreds of deaths still being reported daily — twice as many recently as Italy or Spain — it’s unclear how the country can safely loosen the restrictions.The 55-year-old Johnson, who spent three nights in intensive care while being treated for COVID-19, told The Sun newspaper that he knew his doctors were preparing for the worst.”It was a tough old moment, I won’t deny it,” he said. “They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario” if he succumbed to the virus.Another potentially troubling sign emerged in Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul, where a third of the 500 people selected in random test came up positive for the virus.In the U.S., New Jersey reopened state parks, though several had to turn people away after reaching a 50% limit in their parking lots. Margie Roebuck and her husband were among the first on the sand at Island Beach State Park.”Forty-six days in the house was enough,” she said.Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx expressed concern about protests by armed and mostly maskless crowds demanding an end to stay-at-home orders and a full reboot of the economy. President Donald Trump has encouraged people to “liberate” their states.”It’s devastatingly worrisome to me personally, because if they go home and infect their grandmother or their grandfather … they will feel guilty for the rest of our lives,” she said. “So we need to protect each other at the same time we’re voicing our discontent.”If restrictions are lifted too soon, the virus could come back in “small waves in various places around the country,” said Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.”Nothing has changed in the underlying dynamics of this virus,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that his state would join with six others to create a regional supply chain for masks, gowns, ventilators, testing supplies and other equipment for fighting the disease.”It will make us more competitive in the international marketplace, and I believe it will save taxpayers money,” Cuomo said. Meanwhile, the divide in the United States between those who want lockdowns to end and those who want to move more cautiously extended to Congress.The Republican-majority Senate will reopen Monday in Washington. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives is staying shuttered. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to convene 100 senators gives Trump, a Republican, the imagery he wants of America getting back to work, despite the risks.Doctors attend to a patient inside the intensive care unit for people infected with the new coronavirus, at a hospital in Moscow, Russia, May 2, 2020.Elsewhere, Russia’s latest tally of infections was nearly double the new cases reported a week ago. More than half of Russia’s new cases were in Moscow, where concern is rising about whether the capital’s medical facilities will be overwhelmed.Indian air force helicopters showered flower petals on hospitals in several cities to thank doctors, nurses and police at the forefront of the battle against the pandemic. The country’s number of confirmed cases neared 40,000 as the population of 1.3 billion marked the 40th day of a nationwide lockdown. The official death toll reached 1,323.And in Mexico City, where authorities expect infections to peak next week, workers will turn the Hernandez Rodriguez Formula 1 racecourse into a temporary hospital for COVID-19 patients. The paddocks and suites along the front straightaway will have eight hospital modules with 24 beds each. The pits will be used as offices for consultations.The virus has infected 3.5 million people and killed more than 246,000 worldwide, including more than 66,000 dead in the United States, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University. All the numbers are considered to be undercounts, due to testing issues, the problems of counting deaths in a pandemic and deliberate concealment by some governments.
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President Queries Tanzania Coronavirus Kits After Goat Test
Coronavirus test kits used in Tanzania were dismissed as faulty by President John Magufuli on Sunday, because he said they had returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw.Magufuli, whose government has already drawn criticism for being secretive about the coronavirus outbreak and has previously asked Tanzanians to pray the coronavirus away, said the kits had “technical errors”.
The COVID-19 testing kits had been imported from abroad, Magufuli said during an event in Chato in the north west of Tanzania, although he did not give further details.
The president said he had instructed Tanzanian security forces to check the quality of the kits. They had randomly obtained several non-human samples, including from a pawpaw, a goat and a sheep, but had assigned them human names and ages.
These samples were then submitted to Tanzania’s laboratory to test for the coronavirus, with the lab technicians left deliberately unaware of their origins.
Samples from the pawpaw and the goat tested positive for COVID-19, the president said, adding this meant it was likely that some people were being tested positive when in fact they were not infected by the coronavirus.
“There is something happening. I said before we should not accept that every aid is meant to be good for this nation,” Magufuli said, adding the kits should be investigated.
As of Sunday, Tanzania had recorded 480 cases of COVID-19 and 17 deaths but unlike most other African countries, Dar es Salaam sometimes goes for days without offering updates, with the last bulletin on cases on Wednesday.
Magufuli also said that he was sending a plane to collect a cure being promoted by Madagascar’s president. The herbal mix has not yet undergone internationally recognised scientific testing.
“I’m communicating with Madagascar,” he said during a speech, adding: “They have got a medicine. We will send a flight there and the medicine will be brought in the country so that Tanzanians too can benefit.”
COVID-19 infections and fatalities reported across Africa have been relatively low compared with the United States, parts of Asia and Europe. But Africa also has extremely low levels of testing, with rates of only around 500 per million people.
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Algerian Singer Idir, a Berber Icon, has Died in Paris
Idir, an Algerian singer who gave voice to the Berber and Kabyle cultures, has died in Paris. He was 70.Saturday’s death of the singer, whose real name was Hamid Cheriet, was confirmed on a post on his official Facebook page that read “we regret to announce the passing of our father (to all), Idir. Rest in peace.”French media report that he died from pulmonary disease after being hospitalized on Friday.Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune paid tribute to him on Twitter, saying that “with his passing, Algeria has lost one of its monuments,” and referred to him as “an icon of Algerian art.”Idir was a national treasure in his native Algeria.Born on Oct. 25, 1949 in Ait Lahcene, near the Kabylie capital of Tizi Ouzou and part of French Algeria at the time, he studied to be a geologist, but his life took a twist in 1973 when he was called up as a last-minute replacement on the radio to sing “A Vava Inouva.” It was a lullaby with the “rich oral traditions” of the Berber culture and became a beloved song in the country.Idir moved to France in 1975, after finishing military service, where he recorded his first album, also titled “A Vava Inouva,” and a series of popular North African-style songs in the same decade.The style of his music, with lone vocals and acoustic guitar, championed the sounds of Kabyle music, and as such he was widely considered an ambassador of the Kabyle culture.The Berber-speaking Kabyle people are a sub-group of North and West Africa’s wider Berber ethnic population. In Algeria, the Kabyles are a minority that have historically been repressed by the central government and are indigenous to the north of the country, spanning the Atlas Mountains. Many Kabyle settled in France following the Algerian civil war.
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Pompeo: ‘Enormous Evidence’ Coronavirus Originated in Chinese Lab
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday there is “enormous evidence” that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, not a nearby market, but declined to say whether the U.S. believes the virus was intentionally released. U.S. intelligence officials said last week that it is investigating whether the initial COVID-19 outbreak was the result of exposure to wild animals or a laboratory accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. “Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories,” Pompeo said on ABC News’s “This Week.” “These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as the result of failures in a Chinese lab.” The top U.S. diplomat said there is a “high degree of confidence” that the virus came from the Wuhan lab, which was studying the presence of the virus in bats. “There’s enormous evidence that that’s where this began,” Pompeo said. Pompeo said he has no reason to doubt the U.S. intelligence community’s consensus that the virus was “not manmade or genetically modified.” But he blamed China for delays in informing the world of the emerging threat of Covid-19. He said the worldwide number of cases — now more than 3.4 million, with a death toll of nearly 245,000 — would not have been so extensive had China not “attempted to conceal and hide and confuse. It employed the World Health Organization as a tool to do the same. “We can confirm that the Chinese communist party did all that it could to make sure world didn’t learn in a timely fashion about was taking place,” he said. “There’s lots of evidence of that.” Pompeo said that U.S. and international scientists have not been allowed to visit the Wuhan laboratory and that China has not provided a sample of the original virus. “We have said from the beginning, that this was a virus that originated in Wuhan, China,” Pompeo said. “We took a lot of grief for that from the outset.” Now, he said, China has embarked on a campaign to keep the world from further investigating its role in the pandemic’s origin. “We’ve seen the fact they’ve kicked journalists out,” Pompeo said. “We saw the fact that those who were trying to report on this, medical professionals inside of China, were silenced. “This is a classic communist disinformation effort that created enormous risk,” he said. “And now you can see hundreds of thousands of people around the world and tens of thousands in the U.S.” who have contracted the virus. He said U.S. President Donald Trump is “very clear: we’re going to hold those responsible, accountable. We’ll do so on a timeline that is ours.”
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Being a Journalist is Risky Business in Somalia
Journalists in Somalia routinely face many difficulties but this year, under the stress of the spread of COVID-19, they say feel even more threatened by intimidation and arrest by what they call hostile leaders. Cautiously celebrating World Press Freedom Day, a number of Somali journalists and journalists’ rights activists shared their experiences with the VOA Somali service. “Somalia has always been a hostile environment for journalists but this year the situation was extreme as authorities stepped up their intimidation of journalists and specially this time when our country faces the spread of the novel coronavirus,” said Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimu, secretary general of the Federation of Somali Journalists. Moalimu says three journalists were arbitrarily detained in different parts of Somalia. Two of them were accused of various crimes, and a local radio station was barred from broadcasting in a local dialect since mid-April 2020. FILE – Somali journalists are seen during a stake-out on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, July 25, 2019.“Facing jail and threats in a time of pandemic, when journalists are struggling with changing roles and behaviors to maintain their service to the public interest is not acceptable,” said Moalimu. Journalists in Somalia say they go to extreme lengths to report on sensitive and controversial issues in the public interest. Luqman Mohamed Farah is a journalist who works with Bulsho TV, a private outlet based in Hargeisa Somaliland. “Authorities are not friendly with the media and they do not provide the information journalists need and that forces some journalists to report stories from non-government sources and because of that they face arrests and intimidations,” said Farah. Burhan Diini Farah, the director of Kulmiye radio, a private VOA affiliate radio station based in Mogadishu says getting information from the authorities has been a challenge. “Nowadays, the government’s top leaders do not hold press conferences, where they can take questions. they pre-record videos and audio messages and distribute via government media. So, it is a kind of indirectly normalizing a government censorship,” Farah said. Somali government authorities often deny such accusations and instead accuse journalists of impartiality and providing misinformation. “I categorically deny that government security agencies arrest journalists for reasons relating to stifling them and silencing them and I can tell you that there are ongoing efforts to train and develop journalists to give the journalists an environment where journalists can work freely without fear” said Somalia’s director of the Ministry of Information, Abduraham Yusuf (Al-dala).FILE – Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo addresses lawmakers in the capital Mogadishu, Feb. 8, 2017.Somali President Mohamed Abdullah Farmajo tweeted “Congrats to Somali journalists on World Press Freedom Day. Journalism is noble profession & Penal Code of 1964 will be reformed to ensure it is not used against journos. My administration fully supports the de-criminalization of journalism & free expression through legal reform.” The penal code, which came into force in 1964, includes a number of vague and overly broad crimes, including criminal defamation, offending the honor and prestige of the head of state, insulting a public officer or institution and contempt against the nation, state or flag. Somalia is categorized as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, as they face threats from authorities, armed private individuals, and the al-Shabab terrorist group. In its latest World Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders ranked Somalia 163 out of 180 nations. “Pressure on journalists can come from many quarters, especially as much of the country is controlled by non-state entities or by autonomous regional governments that either do not or only barely recognize the central government’s authority,” Reporters Without Borders said. Some journalists leave the country and prefer live in exile. Abdulkadir Omar Abdulle is one of them. In July 2012 two suspected al-Shabab gunmen shot him in the leg and the chest He was working as Universal Somali TV anchor at the time but went on to work and live in Nairobi Kenya. “That was a painful and shocking experience and still it rings in my ears and hurts my heart.” Abdulle told VOA Somali. “They fired about seven bullets at me, two of them hit me in the stomach and one in the leg, thanks to Allah I survived, but still I live with the trauma.” After few years, Abdulle went back to Mogadishu to continue his profession, but again received threatening phone calls about the way he talked about the attack. This led him to return to Nairobi. Khadar Akulle, Khadar Hared and Hassan Kafi have contributed this report.
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Cameroon Journalists Protest Harassment, Abusive Arrests
Cameroonian journalists are marking World Press Freedom Day with protests against abuse from the government as well as from rebels fighting for an independent English-speaking state. “The separatists think that we have not been doing much to project their independence ideology, and that is why our reporters in the field are targeted. I have not gone out of Yaoundé [to the English-speaking North-West and South-West regions] since 2017 that [when] the crisis metamorphosed into an armed conflict because they have openly called to tell me that I am a target. We receive calls from top government officials who say we are a newspaper that is working for the separatists,” he said.Cameroon’s government did not issue a statement on for World Press Freedom Day, as there were no public ceremonies due to COVID-19. However, the government has always maintained that there is press freedom in Cameroon and journalists are only arrested when they act unprofessionally.Jude Viban, president of the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists said the government should decriminalize media offenses and make sure abuses against the rights of journalists by government officials and separatist fighters are stopped.”What we are doing is to inform, and we do so for the interest of the population, so a handful of people should not attack the press. When stories are not told because journalists are under attack, the population would not be informed, which, of course, is their right to be informed in a democracy like ours,” said Viban.Reporters Without Borders says press freedom continues its long decline in Cameroon, and reporters continue to be subjected to threats, attacks, intimidation and arrests after President Paul Biya’s reelection for a seventh term in October 2018.
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Malaysia Rounds up Hundreds of Undocumented Migrants amid Coronavirus Fears
Malaysian authorities Friday rounded up hundreds of undocumented migrants, including children and refugees, in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, in what the police are calling an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus.Rights groups say the Labor Day raid was more of an immigration exercise at a time of rising xenophobia against refugees and that it may do more harm than good by discouraging many from coming forward for testing or treatment voluntarily.Authorities say the raid on the downtown neighborhood of Masjid India, home to many migrant workers, yielded nearly 600 people staying in the country illegally. The site has been under strict lockdown barring movement in or out since a cluster of COVID-19 cases was discovered there last month.The entire country has been under a partial lockdown, or “movement control order,” since mid-March. It reported 6,176 cases of COVID-19 and 103 deaths as of Sunday.National Police Inspector-General Abdul Hamid Bador said the undocumented migrants had to be rounded up to prevent them from sneaking out of the area and possibly spreading the virus to other parts of the city or country, state news agency Bernama reported.”We cannot allow them to move freely while the MCO is still in progress as it will be difficult for us to track them down if they leave the identified locations,” he said.Hamid Bador added that those arrested would be held until the MCO is lifted and that the government would decide what to do with them after that.Police referred a call for comment from VOA to the Immigration Department. Calls and emails to the department went unanswered.Dozens of local rights groups have signed an open letter condemning the mass arrest as a step backward in the country’s fight against the coronavirus just when it had started to flatten the curve.Malaysia relies on millions of migrant workers from neighboring countries to supply the cheap, unskilled labor running many of the country’s rubber and palm oil plantations and factories. Most are believed to be in the country illegally, having either entered without the proper documents or remained after they expired. “The fear we have is if you start arresting now, the rest of the population … will not go for testing even though the testing is free,” said Sumitha Shaanthinni Kishna, director of migrant worker rights group Our Journey.”In terms of COVID, it’s definitely not going to help because … it’s going to [instill] more fear. And if people like this go into hiding, how are you going to get them to come for testing?”In its own statement on Friday’s raid, the United Nations said pushing undocumented workers into hiding could leave more potential cases untreated, “creating further risks to the spreading of Covid-19 to others.””Now is not the time for mass arrest and mass detention, simply because this does not stop the spread of the virus at all; in fact it encourages it,” agreed Heidy Quah, founder of Refuge for the Refugees, another local rights group.Government officials had for weeks been trying to coax the country’s refugees and undocumented migrants to get tested by offering to perform the procedure free of charge and promising not to dig into their immigration status.Police officers wearing protective suits pick up an illegal immigrant from an apartment under enhanced lockdown, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 1, 2020.Quah said Friday’s raids have foiled those efforts.”We promised that we will not arrest or detain you; that was the promise. And us NGOs on the ground worked so hard to convince refugees and migrants to step forward, promising them protection when they step forward. So whatever that we promised as the government and as nonprofit organizations to the refugee and migrant communities in terms of protection, this has all been reversed because of the mass arrest that took place,” she said.Rights workers said the raids also made little sense as a virus-busting move because most of the residents of the targeted apartment blocks had been tested already, according to neighbors, and were living under strict lockdown for weeks. They said the mass arrest also flouted social distancing rules by jamming those rounded up into packed trucks and detention centers, adding to the risks of transmission.”So this was actually a clearly immigration exercise,” said Shaanthinni Kishna.The raid occurred against the backdrop of a spike in xenophobia in Malaysia targeting refugees, landing hardest on the country’s Rohingya immigrants. Driven from their homes in Myanmar by communal violence and military raids, or fleeing squalid camp conditions in neighboring Bangladesh, more than 100,000 Rohingya have ended up in Malaysia.Motivated by a sense of Islamic solidarity, the government of Muslim-majority Malaysia has been mostly accommodating to their fellow faithful. It denies them official refugee status, so that they cannot work legally, but lets them stay and register with the country’s U.N. refugee office.Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, though, some Malaysians have accused the Rohingya of being a high risk and drain on resources. A purported call for Malaysian citizenship attributed to and denied by a local Rohingya activist last month drew a flood of public rebuke. Online petitions calling on the government to stop letting Rohingya into the country or deport those already here attracted more than 100,000 supporters in a matter of days.
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European Leaders Unite Against COVID-19
European leaders are establishing an international medical organization to mount a united battle against the coronavirus.In their announcement in The Independent, a British newspaper, they said they are following in the footsteps of “Louis Pasteur, one of the world’s greatest scientists and a mastermind behind vaccines and breakthroughs which have saved millions of lives spanning three centuries.”“Our aim is simple,” the group said, about its goal of raising $8 billion Monday in an online pledging campaign to finance finding a COVID-19 vaccine and treatment.The leaders listed as being responsible for The Independent article are: Giuseppe Conte, prime minister of Italy; Emmanuel Macron, president of France; Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany; Charles Michel, president of the European Council; Erna Solberg, prime minister of Norway; and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.“We will all put our own pledges on the table and we are glad to be joined by partners from the world over,” they said. “We support the WHO and we are delighted to join forces with experienced organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.”U.S. President Donald Trump has suspended payments to the World Health Organization, saying that WHO did not act swiftly enough in alerting the world about the deadly virus.The European leaders said, “Every single euro or dollar that we raise together will be channeled primarily through recognized global health organizations such as CEPI, Gavi, the Vaccines Alliance, the Global Fund and Unitaid into developing and deploying as quickly as possible, for as many as possible the diagnostics, treatments and vaccines that will help the world overcome the pandemic.”“If we can develop a vaccine that is produced by the world, for the whole world, this will be a unique global public good of the 21st century,” the alliance said. “Together with our partners, we commit to making it available, accessible and affordable to all.”There are more than 3.4 million global cases of COVID-19 worldwide, and nearly 244,000 deaths.
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New Flashmob Has Americans Unpacking Christmas Lights
Even as some U.S. states prepare to reopen, doctors and scientists say coronavirus cases will continue to rise. But it appears the holiday spirit is helping some people get through the pandemic despite those holidays being many months away. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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Comedians Manage to Get Laughs During Pandemic Lockdowns
With the coronavirus having closed nightclubs across the world, comedians are still managing to get the laughs from people on a pandemic lockdowns all over the world. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports on Hollywood’s Laugh Factory and The Stand comedy club in Edinburgh. And she looks at a Japanese comedian who stormed the world with his hit ‘Pineapple-pen,’ is back with a new message: Wash your hands!
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North, South Korea Exchange Fire in DMZ; No Casualties Reported
North Korea fired multiple gunshots that struck a South Korean guard post in the heavily fortified border region separating the two countries, Seoul’s military said Sunday.The South Korean side reported no casualties or damage but returned fire along with a warning broadcast across the border, according to the South Korean joint chiefs of staff.South Korea’s military says it is trying to understand the situation and prevent any further tension by using a military communication channel with the North. However, the statement is vague about whether the North has responded.It is not clear what led to the North Korean gunfire, which South Korea says began at 7:41 a.m. local time. North Korea has not commented on the incident.The exchange comes a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared in public for the first time in 21 days, amid intense speculation about his health.
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Military Jets Fly Over US Cities to Salute Frontline Workers
Military jets flew over U.S. cities on Saturday to salute front-line workers in the country with the highest coronavirus caseload and death toll in the world.Residents of the nation’s capital, Washington, as well as Baltimore and Atlanta, were treated to sights of the Navy’s Blue Angels and the Air Force’s Thunderbirds arcing across the sky.Crowds turned out on the National Mall to see the jets fly in formation past sites such as the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument.Most of those in attendance appeared to be following social distancing rules, and many wore face masks.”Proud to see the #AmericaStrong salute to our healthcare & frontline workers with a spectacular flyover today in Washington, D.C. Thank you to the @AFThunderbirds and @BlueAngels for this beautiful display of solidarity,” first lady Melania Trump tweeted, including a photo of herself watching the fly-by from outside the White House.The Thunderbirds hailed health workers and first responders battling the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 1.1 million in the U.S. and killed more than 66,000.”They are an inspiration for the entire country during these challenging times and it was an honor to fly for them today,” the group said on Twitter.The Blue Angels and Thunderbirds last month flew over U.S. virus epicenter New York City, as well as Newark and Trenton, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.
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Trump Says He’s ‘Glad’ Kim Jong Un ‘Is Back, and Well’
U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he was “glad” about the reappearance of Kim Jong Un and that the North Korean leader was apparently healthy.”I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!” Trump tweeted, following Kim’s first public appearance in nearly three weeks after intense speculation that he was seriously ill or possibly dead.North Korean state television showed Kim walking, smiling broadly and smoking a cigarette at what the North said was the opening of a fertilizer factory on Friday in Sunchon, north of Pyongyang.Rumors about Kim’s health have been swirling since his conspicuous no-show at April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung — the most important day in the country’s political calendar.His absence triggered a series of fevered rumors and unconfirmed reports over his condition.Kim’s disappearance from public view came as Pyongyang’s talks with Washington over the North’s nuclear arsenal are at a standstill, despite three meetings between Kim and Trump.If Kim had been incapacitated or dead, it would have increased uncertainty over the process.Trump had downplayed reports of Kim’s poor health and possible demise.
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Amid Backsliding on Press Freedoms, Phnom Penh Calls for ‘Professional’ Reporting
Press freedom in Cambodia, in decline since the 2017 FILE – The Cambodian government’s suppression of Radio Free Asia and Voice of America broadcasts was front page news in The Cambodia Daily on Aug. 29, 2017. The paper has since closed. (Hean Socheata / VOA Khmer)International condemnationLocal journalists and media organizations say the government’s assault on free and independent media is ongoing.“Threats to press freedom, intimidation and harassment against journalists, including lawsuits, [criminal] charges and arrests, remain as reflected in the RSF report,” said Nop Vy, the outgoing media director of Cambodian Center for Independent Media.The center is one of the few remaining independent media organizations still operating in the country.“The media have not been pluralistic, with mostly one-sided reporting,” said Vy, who now leads a new Cambodian Journalists Alliance, established to promote and protect press freedom and journalists working in Cambodia.Despite constitutional guarantees of press freedom, the media are tightly controlled by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and its allies.Tightening restrictionsAs the CPP sought to consolidate its power ahead of the 2017 local and 2018 national elections, there was a rise in independent journalists and political and civic activists being charged, threatened or attacked.Radio Free Asia (RFA), one of VOA’s sister broadcast outlets funded by the U.S. Congress, closed its Phnom Penh bureau in September 2017, citing “unprecedented” government intimidation of the media. By the end of 2017, Cambodia’s government had closed more than two dozen local radio stations, some of which had rebroadcast VOA and RFA programming.The Cambodia Daily, an award-winning English-language newspaper that had helped train journalists and strengthen the country’s fragile democracy for over 20 years, was also forced to close.Two of its former reporters, one of whom is now a FILE – Journalists Uon Chhin, left, and Yeang Sothearin arrive at the municipal court, in Phnom Penh, Oct. 3, 2019.Yeang Sothearin, who was arrested along with former RFA colleague Uon Chhin, said their case was pending.“Even though we can now live with our families, we have no freedom as anybody else does,” Sothearin told VOA Khmer.He has become more cautious since his arrest, especially when posting to social media, in case “those ideas could be deemed affecting the government or any governmental agencies.”“Sometimes, because of those concerns, I am refraining from expressing my opinions on social media,” said Sothearin, who is now working on a short-term project with a local organization. “This is one form of my self-restriction.”Questioning ‘professionalism’Information Ministry spokesperson Ouk Kimseng denies that the government has restricted press freedom or harassed journalists.“[RSF] has never seen anything positive in press freedom or freedom of expression the government has provided so far in Cambodia,” he told VOA, adding that de-licensing measures were justified.“Those [reporters] did not follow the [professional] journalistic roles and responsibilities,” he said. He declined to comment on the earlier arrests of the RFA and Daily reporters, saying the cases were in the hands of the courts.Echoing the government view that Cambodia has greater press freedom than at any other time, Pen Bona, top editor of PNN TV — owned by business tycoon and ruling CPP party Senator Ly Yong Phat — said authorities need a better grasp of journalistic roles and responsibilities.“In some cases, authorities have taken too strong measures, like the arrests and lawsuits [against journalists],” said Bona, adding that both journalists and state officials should try harder to understand each other.A veteran journalist and president of the independent Club of Cambodian Journalists, which is widely viewed as a government-aligned organization, Bona also said some journalists aren’t actual professionals, but just “self-proclaimed journalists” who “practice the profession incorrectly.”“So, it’s both ways,” he said.VOA contributor Chhengpor Aun reported from Phnom Penh. This story originated in VOA’s Cambodian service.
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White House Blocks Fauci’s Testimony on Administration’s COVID Response
The White House is blocking Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, from testifying Wednesday before a House of Representatives committee that is investigating how the Trump administration has handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci’s testimony would be “counter-productive,” Judd Deere, a White House spokesman said in a statement.
“While the Trump administration continues its whole-of-government response to Covid-19, including safely opening up America again, and expediting vaccine development,” Deere said, “it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at congressional hearings.”
Fauci and U.S. President Donald Trump have not always agreed on how best to fight the spread of the virus. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has criticized the country’s testing capacity for the virus, calling it “a failing.” Last month, Trump retweeted a #FireFauci posting from another account, but the White House insists that the president is not looking to fire highly popular scientist.
More than half of the 50 U.S. governors have taken steps to partially relax lockdown restrictions, while hoping a spike in infections won’t trigger another round of business closures.
Other U.S. governors, many of whom are Democrats, are taking a more guarded approach, trying to balance the need to reopen their state economies with concerns about the coronavirus.
As some U.S. governors push to relax restrictions after Thursday’s expiration of White House distancing guidelines, Fauci, warned them to avoid lifting state limits prematurely. “Obviously you could get away with that, but you’re taking a really significant risk,” Fauci said on CNN.
Another warning came in a report by the University of Minnesota, which said the pandemic could last two more years. The report, released Thursday by the university’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, warned that the U.S. should prepare for a decline in infections followed by a spike as early as this fall.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted an emergency use authorization for the antiviral drug remdesivir, clearing the way for more hospitals to use the drug. Recent clinical data show the drug might be a promising treatment for the coronavirus.
More than 3.3 million people around the world have been infected with the coronavirus and nearly 240,000 have died of COVID-19.
In the U.S., there are more than 1.1 million COVID cases and more than 65,000 deaths.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told BBC that it is a tragedy that the world’s leaders have not been able “to come together to face COVID-19 in an articulated coordinated way.”
The U.N. estimates that 8% of the world’s population, about 500 million people, could be forced into poverty by year’s end because of the devastation brought by the virus.
As countries consider how and when to reopen, India, the world’s second-most populous country, said Friday it would extend its nationwide lockdown for two more weeks after May 4. But the country’s ministry of home affairs said “considerable relaxations” would be allowed in lower-risk areas, including the manufacturing and distribution of essential goods between states.
Many European countries have begun gradually reopening or have plans to do so in the coming days. The economy in the eurozone – European countries that use the common euro currency – shrank a record 3.8% in the first quarter of the year.
In Britain, health minister Matt Hancock announced Friday the country has hit its target of carrying out 100,000 COVID-19 tests a day. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday that Britain is past the peak of the coronavirus outbreak and that cases are declining. The coronavirus has killed more than 27,500 people in Britain and infected about 178,700.
Italy, Spain and France on Friday reported declines in deaths from the virus, down from the peaks of their countries’ outbreaks.In Brief:COVID-19 disrupts May Day demonstrations around the world FridayFrench President Macron called this year’s May Day observance “like no other”U.S. workers at Amazon, Target and Instacart protested working conditionsItaly, Spain and France reported drops Friday in deaths from the virusMore than 3.3 million people around the world have now been infectedAlmost 240,000 people infected with the virus have diedThe U.S. has more than 1.1 million COVID cases and more than 65,000 deathsA University of Minnesota report says the pandemic could last two more yearsMore than half of U.S. governors have taken steps to relax lockdown restrictionsThe U.S. grants emergency use authorization for the drug remdesivir to treat COVID-19
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Hundreds Rush for Popular Cleric’s Herbal COVID ‘Cure’ in Cameroon
Cameroonians have been flooding into the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Douala, where Archbishop Samuel Kleda claims he has found an herbal cure for COVID-19.The popularity of the archbishop’s alleged cure has prompted some authorities to try to make the treatment more widely available, even though medical experts have urged extreme caution about its use.Paul Nyaga, curate of St. Paul’s Parish of the Douala Archdiocese, said through a messaging application that since information circulated a week ago that Kleda could treat COVID-19, many have been rushing to his parish for help.He said the parish had been overwhelmed by the number of people coming from Yaounde, Bafoussam and Douala with test results showing that they were COVID-19-positive and saying they did not have access to treatment. He said he told them to go to Catholic hospitals in the archdiocese, where they would be treated when there were additional supplies of the archbishop’s herbal remedy.Among the hundreds asking for help was hairdresser Clementine Eya, 27, who also spoke via a messaging application from Douala.She said she had no money to pay for the hospital treatment of her elder sister, who tested COVID-19-positive in Douala and wanted to see the archbishop because she had been told his treatment was efficient and free.Several dozen treatedKleda told state media CRTV on April 25 that he had treated several dozen people, including eight medical staff members, for conditions affecting their respiratory systems, just like the coronavirus does.Kleda, speaking via a messaging application from Douala, said he could confirm that his 30 years of medicinal plant research experience, especially on herbal treatment, had enabled him to find a cure for COVID-19.He said he was very happy because everyone who had taken the herbal remedy had been cured of COVID-19. He added that that his goal as a servant of God was to help poor and suffering people, and that was why he gave away the cure, which he named Essential Oils, free of charge.Last week, the Cameroonian government sent a team of researchers and doctors to determine the validity of Kleda’s claimed cure. Public Health Minister Malachie Manaouda said the government’s support would be determined by the outcome of the investigation. He said if Kleda was proven to be right, the government would make it more widely available for COVID-19 patients.The Cameroon Medical Council and the Cameroon Academy of Sciences have both called for research to determine the efficiency of Essential Oils.Advice: Rely on hospitalsDieudonne Kameni of the Cameroon Medical Council said that for now, COVID-19 patients should count only on treatment at authorized government hospitals.He said by telephone from Douala that medical practice has rules, regulations and professional ethics that must be observed before drugs can be used in patients, but that the archbishop’s collection of herbs was still at a preclinical testing stage and could not be scientifically called a cure for COVID-19. He said he was asking patients to go to hospitals, which for now were the only sure places COVID-19 could be treated.Kleda said he would continue administering the treatment to patients who sought help from him while waiting for scientists to complete their findings. Many patients have, however, complained of the difficulty of obtaining Essential Oils because of high demand.Cameroon has been hit harder by the coronavirus than any other country in Central Africa. As of Saturday afternoon EDT, the country had recorded 2,077 confirmed cases, with 64 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.
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Slain American Journalist’s Family Seeks Justice From Pakistan’s Top Court
The parents of a murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl filed an appeal Saturday with Pakistan’s Supreme Court against a recent lower court verdict that overturned the convictions of four men accused in the 2002 kidnapping and slaying case.
A special anti-terrorism court in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where the crime occurred 18 years ago, had sentenced to death British national Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh for masterminding the murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter. The three others were given life sentences.
Last month, an appeals court in the provincial capital, Karachi, overturned the verdict and ordered that Sheikh’s accomplices be freed. It also reduced Sheikh’s sentence to seven years in prison for kidnapping only, allowing him to be freed for time served.
The Sindh High Court had ruled there was enough evidence to link Sheikh to Pearl’s abduction but not his murder.
Saturday’s petition, posted online, sought the Supreme Court reversal of the ruling, noting that Pearl’s parents “are aggrieved by the impugned judgement passed by the Honorable Sindh High Court.”
Attorney Faisal Siddiqi, confirmed to VOA he has filed the petition on behalf of Pearl’s family in the Karachi chamber of the Supreme Court.
The deceased journalist’s father tweeted details of the petition along with an emotional video message. “We are standing up for justice for not only our son, Daniel Pearl, but for all of our dear friends in Pakistan, so they can know a society free of violence and terror, and raising their children in peace and harmony,” said Judea Pearl.
The April 2 judgment drew a swift denunciation from the United States and global outrage, as well as Pakistani groups campaigning for the rights and security of journalists.
The reaction prompted Pakistani authorities to halt the release of the four men, citing “public safety” concerns, a law often used in high-profile cases in Pakistan to buy time for prosecutors to file an appeal.
A federal interior ministry statement defended the move, saying it “reiterates its commitment to follow due process under the laws of the country to bring terrorists to task.”
The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) hailed Saturday’s decision, saying it “strongly supports” the Pearl family’s pursuit of justice in the case.
“The release of Omar Saeed Sheikh and his accomplices would only add to the threats facing journalists in Pakistan and deepen Pakistan’s reputation as a haven for terrorists,” Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, said.
Pearl, 38 at the time of his murder, was visiting Pakistan in January 2002 to investigate links between Islamist militants and planners of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes on the United States before he was kidnapped in Karachi and beheaded weeks later.
Pearl’s beheading made headlines around the world and the subsequent international outcry forced Pakistan to take swift action against the perpetrators. Later, a detailed report issued by a Georgetown University investigative journalism effort said that Pearl had been beheaded by al-Qaida’s Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Saturday’s petition identified British-Pakistani Sheikh as “an internationally known terrorist.” It noted the man was arrested in India in 1999 in relation to the kidnapping of foreigners in that country. Later that year, Sheikh was released from prison and sent to Afghanistan in exchange for passengers aboard hijacked Indian plane.
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Zimbabwe Extends COVID Lockdown, Despite Pleas From Workers
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has extended the country’s lockdown by two weeks to contain the coronavirus, while working people complain that they can’t make a living. Mnangagwa’s response to them – it’s better for the economy to suffer than for the pandemic to kill people. In a televised nationwide address, Mnangagwa said more people in Zimbabwe were getting infected by the coronavirus, and he feared the situation would get out control, hence a further extension of the lockdown, which began March 30. “From the upward trajectory of infections it is evident that our country is yet to reach its peak [of the number of infection].… I appeal to all stakeholders to continue to appreciate and recognize that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic presents a continuously evolving health situation that requires extreme caution on the part of government in order to protect everyone in the entire nation. We would rather err on the side of caution and not on the side of recklessness. Let’s all play our part,” Mnangagwa said.His words referred in part to protective practices to fight the spread of the coronavirus. In the address, Mnangagwa said all citizens were now supposed to wear face masks outside their homes.
But some Zimbabweans, like Edmore Hangamwe, an informal trader, says the lockdown, which will now end mid-May, will bring hunger to his home if he stops selling vegetables at a popular market in Harare. He says lockdowns only work in the developed world.“But in this third world we are in Zimbabwe, it’s unfortunate. I am dancing with death. I cannot be home. I have two children to look after. In the developed world, governments are paying [subsidies to the unemployed]. We just pray to the Lord that we’re going to get a vaccine or something that [won’t allow the virus to] spread all over southern Africa,” Hangamwe said.
Mnangagwa said his government would be releasing more funds to take care of the vulnerable, something Harare has been saying since the beginning of Zimbabwe’s lockdown. The 77-year-old Zimbabwean leader said funds also would be released to ensure the country’s health delivery system remains functional.Meanwhile, there is a call for an increased government effort to fight the disease. Dr. Tapiwa Mungofa, of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, says coronavirus testing should be intensified and that more equipment is needed. “Our worries are with the supplies. So far, the PPEs [personal protective equipment] that we have are mostly from donations. And, of course, we won’t know if the people who donated will keep donating. We are worried [about] what will happen if it runs out. We have heard reports that the government has started a procurement process of all PPEs available in the country. We won’t know how much we will get from that,” Mungofa said.Zimbabwe’s health delivery system collapsed years ago, and it has largely been relying on international aid organizations, such as USAID, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the European Union.
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Kenya Begins COVID Testing in Destitute Part of Nairobi
Kenyan Health Ministry staff began mass coronavirus tests in a low-income neighborhood of Nairobi Friday.
Kawangware, where voluntary testing rolled out, is an area where social distancing can be a challenge, according to Ministry of Health official Lydia Mudeyo.
“The social distancing in this area is difficult and therefore it is advisable for the government and the ministry as a whole to take the initiative of educating the common mwananchi [referring to an ordinary citizen] on how to do the hand washing and the social distancing and that is why we decided, first of all, to do the mass testing in this area so that it can advise us on the outbreak in this area,” Mudeyp said.
If they test negative, residents of Kawangware hope they stand a better chance of finding jobs in the impoverished African country.
“I am very happy because I know my status now and my family will be safe and also when I go to look for work elsewhere, since I am a hotelier, I know things will be good,” Monica Wairimu, a Kawangware resident who was among those tested.
Wairimu said that due to the coronavirus outbreak, her business has drastically declined and as the COVID-19 hit the country, she was selling a quarter of what she used to.
Africa has now more than 40,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported. There have been more than 1,600 deaths across the continent.
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Quake Hits Greek Island of Crete
An earthquake struck the Greek island of Crete Saturday.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the afternoon temblor, centered in the Mediterranean Sea.
The European Mediterranean Seismological Center reported the quake was of a 6.0 magnitude at a depth of 10 kilometers.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 at a depth of 17 kilometers.
The German Research Center for Geosciences also reported a preliminary magnitude of 6.6.
The quake rocked the island as Greece again confronts the possibility of a deep recession while it grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.
Ten years ago, the country was plunged into one of the world’s worst economic crisis in decades.
The economy has since shown signs of recovery, as its gross domestic product grew 1.9% last year and the jobless rate fell more than 10 points over the previous year to 17.3%.
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Spain Begins 4-Phase Easing of COVID Restrictions
Spaniards spent time outside near their homes Saturday as Spain is starting to reopen after weeks of lockdown triggered by one of Europe’s most deadly coronavirus outbreaks.Parks and gardens are still closed in the capital Madrid, and law enforcement personnel are still keeping people from entering many open spaces for leisure or exercise.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has issued a four-phase plan for easing restrictions to get the country back to “a new normal” following the COVID-19 outbreak.There will be at least two weeks between each phase, as authorities monitor the situation to assess possible adverse consequences of the reopening.As the first phase began Saturday, walks outside for exercise were allowed mornings between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. and in the evening from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. local time.People in capital expressed relief at their partially regained freedoms.”I feel great. There are very strong restrictions, but it is what it is. We have to follow the instructions from health ministry because they know more than us. This feeling of freedom is great. When this gets better, all of us feel even better,” said Manuel Garcia, a 52-year-old trader.”Well, I came to do some exercise, firstly just to walk because it is going to be hard to start straight away running after so much time, but I feel good,” said Angela Arroyo, a 60-year-old teacher, also a Madrid resident.Spain, the second hardest hit country in Europe after Italy, has reported more than 210,000 coronavirus infections and over 24,000 deaths.
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