The head of the United Nations food agency warned Tuesday that, as the world is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, it is also “on the brink of a hunger pandemic” that could lead to “multiple famines of biblical proportions” within a few months if immediate action isn’t taken.
World Food Program (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley told the UN Security Council that even before COVID-19 became an issue, he was telling world leaders that “2020 would be facing the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.” That’s because of wars in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere, locust swarms in Africa, frequent natural disasters and economic crises including in Lebanon, Congo, Sudan and Ethiopia, he said.
Beasley said today 821 million people go to bed hungry every night all over the world, a further 135 million people are facing “crisis levels of hunger or worse,” and a new WFP analysis shows that as a result of COVID-19 an additional 130 million people “could be pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020.”
He said in the video briefing that WFP is providing food to nearly 100 million people on any given day, including “about 30 million people who literally depend on us to stay alive.”
Beasley, who is himself recovering from COVID-19, said if those 30 million people can’t be reached, “our analysis shows that 300,000 people could starve to death every single day over a three-month period” — and that doesn’t include increased starvation due to the coronavirus.
“In a worst-case scenario, we could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries, and in fact, in 10 of these countries we already have more than one million people per country who are on the verge of starvation,” he said.
Volunteers carry sacks filled with food for vulnerable residents in Lagos, Nigeria, on April 9. (Temilade Adelaja/Reuters)
According to WFP, the 10 countries with the worst food crises in 2019 were Yemen, Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria, Sudan, Nigeria and Haiti.
Beasley said in many countries the food crisis is the result of conflict.
But he said he raised the prospect of “a hunger pandemic” because “there is also a real danger that more people could potentially die from the economic impact of COVID-19 than from the virus itself.”
The WFP chief said lockdowns and economic recession are expected to lead to major income losses for the working poor.
Collapse of tourism, oil
He pointed to a sharp drop in overseas remittances that will hurt countries such as Haiti, Nepal and Somalia; a loss of tourism revenue which, for example, will damage Ethiopia where it accounts for 47 percent of total exports; and the collapse of oil prices which will have a significant impact in lower-income countries like South Sudan where oil accounts for almost 99 percent of total exports.
As the UN’s logistics backbone, Beasley said WFP has played a major role in tackling COVID-19 by delivering millions of pieces of protective equipment, testing kits and face masks to 78 countries on behalf of the World Health Organization and by running humanitarian air services to get doctors, nurses and humanitarian staff into countries that need help.
He urged greater humanitarian access, coordinated action to deliver aid, an end to trade disruptions, and accelerated and increased funding including $350 million US to set up a network of logistics hubs and transport systems to keep supply chains running worldwide.
“The truth is, we do not have time on our side, so let’s act wisely — and let’s act fast,” Beasley said. “I do believe that with our expertise and partnerships, we can bring together the teams and the programs necessary to make certain the COVID-19 pandemic does not become a humanitarian and food crisis catastrophe.”
President Donald Trump said on Monday he will suspend all immigration into the United States temporarily through an executive order in response to the coronavirus outbreak and to protect American jobs.
The move, which the Republican president announced on Twitter, effectively achieves a long-term Trump policy goal to curb immigration, making use of the health and economic crisis that has swept the country as a result of the pandemic to do so.
The decision drew swift condemnation from some Democrats, who accused the president of creating a distraction from what they view as a slow and faulty response to the coronavirus.
Trump said he was taking the action to protect the U.S. workforce. Millions of Americans are suffering unemployment after companies shed employees amid nationwide lockdowns to stop the contagion.
In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!
“In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States,” Trump said in a tweet.
The White House declined to offer further details about the reasoning behind the decision, its timing, or its legal basis.
Mexican migrant workers line up to pay for snacks after harvest at an oranges farm in Lake Wales, Florida. April 1. There were few details to go along with Trump’s tweet; it’s not clear if migrant and farm workers would be excluded from any temporary suspension of immigration. (Marco Bello/Reuters)
“As our country battles the pandemic, as workers put their lives on the line, the President attacks immigrants & blames others for his own failures,” former Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar said in a tweet.
Immigration is largely halted into the United States anyway thanks to border restrictions and flight bans put in place as the virus spread across the globe.
But the issue remains an effective rallying cry for Trump’s supporters.
As our country battles the pandemic, as workers put their lives on the line, the President attacks immigrants & blames others for his own failures. The order I’d like to see tonight? Testing. Instead he twists “the buck stops here” into this: “the buck stops anywhere but here.”
Trump won the White House in 2016 in part on a promise to curb immigration by building a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. He and his advisers have spent the first three years of his tenure cracking down on both legal and illegal entries into the country. Crowds regularly chant “Build the Wall!” at Trump’s political rallies, which are now idled because of the virus.
Trump has lamented the economic fallout of the outbreak; his stewardship of the U.S. economy was set to be his key argument for re-election in November.
The U.S. death toll from the virus topped 42,000 on Monday, according to a Reuters tally.
The U.S. economy has come to a near standstill because of the pandemic; more than 22 million people applied for unemployment benefits in the last month.
Trump says peak has passed
“You cut off immigration, you crater our nation’s already weakened economy,” former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro said in a tweet. “What a dumb move.”
The United States has the world’s largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 780,000 infections, up 27,000 on Monday.
But the president has made a point of saying the peak had passed and has been encouraging U.S. states to reopen their economies.
“It makes sense to protect opportunities for our workforce while this pandemic plays out,” said Thomas Homan, Trump’s former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “It’s really not about immigration. It’s about the pandemic and keeping our country safer while protecting opportunities for unemployed Americans.”
The United States in mid-March suspended all routine visa services, both immigrant and non-immigrant, in most countries worldwide due to the coronavirus outbreak in a move that has potentially impacted hundreds of thousands of people.
U.S. missions have continued to provide emergency visa services as resources allowed and a senior State Department official in late March said the U.S. was ready to work with people who were already identified as being eligible for various types of visas, including one for medical professionals.
The administration recently announced an easing of rules to allow in more agricultural workers on temporary H2A visas to help farmers with their crops.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that all available evidence suggests the novel coronavirus originated in animals in China late last year and was not manipulated or produced in a laboratory.
U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that his government was trying to determine whether the virus emanated from a lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic emerged in December.
“All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed in a lab or somewhere else,” WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib told a Geneva news briefing. “It is probable, likely, that the virus is of animal origin.”
It was not clear, Chaib added, how the virus had jumped the species barrier to humans but there had “certainly” been an intermediate animal host. “It most likely has its ecological reservoir in bats but how the virus came from bats to humans is still to be seen and discovered.”
She did not respond to a request to elaborate on whether it was possible the virus may have inadvertently escaped from a lab. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has dismissed rumours both that it synthesized the virus or allowed it to escape.
Wuhan lab partner France sees no evidence
France said last week there was no evidence so far of a link between the new coronavirus and the work of the P4 research laboratory in Wuhan
“We would like to make it clear that there is to this day no factual evidence corroborating the information recently circulating in the United States press that establishes a link between the origins of COVID-19 and the work of the P4 laboratory of Wuhan, China,” an official at President Emmanuel Macron’s office said on April 17.
France signed an agreement with China in 2004 to establish a research lab on infectious diseases of biosafety level 4, the highest level, in Wuhan.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said U.S. intelligence indicates that the coronavirus likely occurred naturally, as opposed to being created in a laboratory in China, but there is no certainty either way.
The Washington Post reported last week that national security officials in the Trump administration have long suspected research facilities in Wuhan to be the source of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Scientists are still trying to determine the origin of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but a predominant theory is that it began in a “wet market” in Wuhan, China. This has put the spotlight on China’s wet markets, with growing calls to shut them down entirely. But, what are these wet markets, what makes them so controversial — and why do some think a ban is the only answer? Today on Front Burner, we take a deep dive into China’s world of wet markets with Peter Li, China policy specialist for the Humane Society International. 22:51
But the U.S. and China — in conflict on issues ranging from trade, the global expansion of Huawei’s 5G technology, the status of Taiwan and China’s muscular military presence in the South China Sea — have traded unsubstantiated allegations.
For example, a Beijing official in the country’s foreign ministry last month made the claim that the U.S. Army brought the virus to China.
Meanwhile, Chaib was also asked about the impact of Trump’s decision last week to suspend funding to the UN agency over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
We are still assessing the situation about the announcement by President Trump … and we will assess the situation and we will work with our partners to fill any gaps,” she said.
“It is very important to continue what we are doing not only for COVID but for many, many, many, many other health programs,” Chaib added, referring to action against polio, HIV and malaria among other diseases.
She said that the WHO was 81 per cent funded for the next two years as of the end of March, referring to its $4.8 billion biennial budget. The United States is the Geneva-based agency’s biggest donor. Other big contributors are the Gates Foundation and Britain.
Ontario health officials say the community spread of COVID-19 in Ontario “appears to have peaked” earlier than originally expected, a result they attribute to restrictions such as physical distancing.
The total number of cases for the span of this wave of the outbreak is “now likely less than 20,000” — if the distancing and other emergency measures remain in place, documents provided by the province’s dedicated COVID-19 task force say.
Experts initially anticipated a peak of community spread to occur at some point in May.
Adalsteinn Brown, dean of the University of Toronto’s public health department, said a peak can go on for several days. He also had a less positive note about transmission in long-term care homes.
“We’re at peak in the community, but still in that accelerating upswing of the curve in long-term care,” he told reporters at a briefing Monday.
WATCH | Brown explains how infection peaks can work:
Adalsteinn Brown, dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, says Ontario is now expecting a much lower number of COVID-19 cases this month than earlier models anticipated. 1:06
Outbreaks of COVID-19 have been reported in 127 long-term care facilities, according to the province’s task force. Long-term care homes have also been especially hard hit in Quebec.
NEW: The curve that has *not* been flattened: <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#COVID19</a> cases and death in Ontario long-term care homes. <br>”We’re at peak in the community but we are still at the accelerating upswing of the curve in long-term care homes,” says Adalsteinn Brown, dean of <a href=”https://twitter.com/UofT_dlsph?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@UofT_dlsph</a> <a href=”https://t.co/Us5NuCJ9qo”>pic.twitter.com/Us5NuCJ9qo</a>
Military members with medical training are now helping at Quebec care facilities struggling with COVID-19 outbreaks after the province asked Ottawa for help.
Quebec is the hardest-hit province in Canada, and its long-term care facilities have seen devastating and deadly outbreaks. Premier François Legault’s government asked for the military assistance — and has also asked retired nurses, orderlies and specialist doctors to help at residential facilities struggling to keep up with staffing.
The province is also delaying all non-urgent activities in hospitals for the next two weeks to allow more medical professionals to work full time in long-term care homes.
A member of the Canadian Armed Forces talks to a health-care worker at Residence Villa Val des Arbres, a long-term care home in Laval, Que., on Sunday as COVID-19 cases rise in Canada and around the world. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
As of 7:00 p.m. ET on Monday, provinces and territories had reported 36,831 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases. The regions that provide public data on recoveries listed 12,599 cases as recovered or resolved.
A CBC News tally of COVID-19-related deaths, based on provincial and regional health data, as well as CBC’s reporting, listed 1,762 coronavirus-related deaths in Canada. There have been two reported COVID-19-related deaths of Canadians abroad.
Quebec accounts for 19,319 of the cases and 939 deaths, with many of the recorded deaths linked to the long-term care system.
Public health officials in Canada have noted that recorded numbers don’t include people who have not been tested or cases that are still under investigation, and have urged people to behave as though coronavirus is in their community even if there are no known cases.
The novel coronavirus, which was first reported in China in late 2019, causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. The virus, which is formally known as SARS-CoV-2, causes an illness known as COVID-19. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.
‘Senseless violence’
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has been providing regular briefings on the pandemic and the government’s response, on Monday focused his remarks on the aftermath of a mass shooting in Nova Scotia.
Trudeau offered condolences to people whose loved ones were killed in the “senseless violence” and said the entire country is grieving with Nova Scotians.
“Violence of any kind has no place in Canada.”
WATCH | ‘We stand with you and we grieve with you’: Trudeau:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offers his condolences after a mass killing in Nova Scotia. 6:14
The prime minister said there will be a virtual vigil on Friday night for all of Canada to support the community.
Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Robert Strang, acknowledged that not being able to gather in person to mourn will be hard, but he urged people to maintain physical distancing even during this difficult time for the province.
“COVID-19 is not going to pause because of our pain,” he said.
Stricter gun control ahead: Trudeau
Trudeau also said his government is looking at moving ahead with stricter gun control measures, as Parliament returns for some regular sittings during the pandemic.
“I can say we were on the verge of introducing legislation to ban assault-style weapons across the country. It was interrupted when the pandemic caused Parliament to be suspended. We have every intention of moving forward on that measure, and potentially other measures, when Parliament returns,” he said.
WATCH | Trudeau talks about his government’s plans for stricter gun laws:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with reporters on Monday. 2:27
In the House of Commons Monday, the Conservatives lost their bid to have Parliament sit in person several times a week throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Liberal government motion calling for once-a-week in-person sittings, to be supplemented eventually by virtual sittings, passed in the House of Commons today with a vote of 22 to 15.
Non-medical masks required for air travellers
Governments in Canada have introduced a range of measures, including rules around gatherings, a call for physical distancing and mandatory self-isolation for people returning from abroad.
When they are at airport screening checkpoints and the screeners can’t keep two metres between themselves and the traveller.
When they can’t maintain physical distancing from other people or when asked to by an airline employee.
When directed to by a public health official or order.
According to a case tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 2.4 million known coronavirus cases around the world, with more than 165,000 deaths.
Here’s a look at what’s happening in Canada, the U.S. and around the world.
Here’s what’s happening in the provinces and territories
In Saskatchewan, a plan to gradually lift restrictions put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19 is expected this week. Only one new case was reported Monday. Read more about what’s happening in Saskatchewan.
New Brunswick reported no new cases Monday — the sixth time in 10 days that there have been no new infections. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jennifer Russell said there have only been four new cases in the past week, but that it’s still important to maintain distancing measures. Read more about what’s happening in N.B.
WATCH | How to handle physical distancing in tricky situations:
Physical distancing has radically changed how we socialize. But there’s still some scenarios where it’s difficult to limit our physical contact with others. Here’s how to best navigate them. 3:23
From Reuters and The Associated Press, updated at 2:30 p.m. ET
The head of the World Health Organization said Monday that nothing in its coronavirus response had been “hidden” from the United States. Senior officials said U.S. technical experts had been an important part of the WHO’s effort.
The comments appeared to be a response to U.S. President Donald Trump, who has criticized WHO’s handling of the pandemic, accusing it of promoting Chinese “disinformation.” He suspended U.S. funding last week.
Watch | ‘There is nothing hidden from the U.S.,’ WHO says
The World Health Organization says its close relationship with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ensures it is completely transparent with the United States. 3:17
At the same time, the debate over when to lift restrictions to control the coronavirus outbreak in the country intensified Monday, with protesters gathering in state capitals to demand an end to lockdowns and officials urging caution until more testing becomes available.
“All the projections were wrong, but we are still telling people to stay home and businesses to close. This is not quarantine, this is tyranny,” said Mark Cooper, a 61-year-old retired truck driver and “Reopen Maryland” protester.
Trump, who has sparred with a number of Democratic governors critical of his response to the health crisis, wrote on Twitter that governors — not the federal government — should take charge of COVID-19 testing. A number of politicians, including New York Mayor Bill de Blasio — had said the federal government should be doing more to aid them with testing.
“Now they scream ‘Testing, Testing, Testing,’ again playing a very dangerous political game. States, not the Federal Government, should be doing the Testing – But we will work with the Governors and get it done,” Trump said in a tweet.
On Monday, the governor of Georgia, which has nearly 19,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, announced plans to reopen the state’s economy before the end of the week.
Georgia’s timetable, one of the most aggressive in the U.S., would allow gyms, hair salons, bowling alleys and tattoo parlors to reopen as long as owners follow strict social-distancing and hygiene requirements. By Monday, movie theatres may resume selling tickets, and restaurants could return to limited dine-in service.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has unveiled a plan to reopen the state’s economy by later this week. (Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/The Associated Press)
Such a swift reopening runs counter to the advice of many experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top authority on infectious diseases, who warned again Monday that resuming business too soon risked a fresh spike in infections.
Georgia’s death toll from COVID-19 rose above 700 Monday.
The Trump administration and Congress also indicated Monday they were working toward agreement on a coronavirus aid package the Senate could take up as soon as Tuesday with more than $450 billion US to boost a small-business loan program that’s out of money, help for hospitals and virus testing.
People take advantage of a Duval County beach opening for physical activity amid coronavirus restrictions in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sunday. (Sam Thomas/Reuters)
The Senate missed a potential deadline Monday and frustrations are mounting, but the emerging draft measure — originally designed as an interim step aimed at replenishing payroll subsidies for smaller businesses — has grown into the second largest of the four coronavirus response bills so far.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, set up another Senate session for Tuesday in hopes an agreement will likely be sealed and written up by then.
The Trump administration also announced new guidelines requiring nursing homes nationwide to report to patients, their families and the federal government when they have cases of coronavirus.
Even still, there were signs of life elsewhere. Boeing said it will put about 27,000 people back to work this week building passenger jets at its Seattle-area plants, with virus-slowing precautions in place, including face masks and staggered shifts.
It’s among a small number of other manufacturers around the U.S. geared up Monday to resume production amid pressure from Trump to reopen the economy.
A volunteer wearing a face covering controls traffic flow as households receive boxes of food at a drive-thru food distribution site from the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor as authorities encourage physical distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. (Patrick T. Fallon/Reuters)
Oil prices plunged below zero on Monday as demand for energy collapses amid the COVID-19 pandemic and traders don’t want to get stuck owning crude with nowhere to store it. Demand for oil has collapsed so much that storage facilities are now nearly full.
Much of the drop into negative territory was chalked up to technical reasons — the May delivery contract is close to expiring so it was seeing less trading volume, which can exacerbate swings. But prices for deliveries even further into the future, which were seeing larger trading volumes, also plunged.
Here’s a look at what’s happening around the world
From The Associated Press and Reuters, updated at 4 p.m. ET
France on Monday became the fourth country to register more than 20,000 COVID-19 deaths, after Italy, Spain and the United States. The rate of increase in both infections and fatalities also increased, after several days of slowing. “The epidemic is very deadly and is far from over,” France’s public health chief Jérôme Salomon told a news briefing.
Spain has surpassed the 200,000 mark of coronavirus infections while recording the lowest number of new deaths in four weeks. Health ministry data showed Monday that 399 more people have succumbed to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s total death toll to 20,852. Spain had counted more than 400 daily deaths since March 22.
The outbreak’s spread has continued at a slower pace than in previous weeks, with 4,266 new infections, which brings the country’s total to 200,210. The Spanish government is starting to relax its confinement measures, trying to re-activate the economy after a two-week freeze and allowing children under 12 to venture out to the streets for brief periods from next week.
Some shops are reopening in much of Germany as Europe’s biggest economy takes its first tentative step toward restarting public life after a four-week shutdown. Shops with a surface area of up to 800 square metres are being allowed to reopen on Monday, along with auto showrooms, bike shops and bookshops of any size, under an agreement reached last week between the federal and state governments.
A health worker wearing protective gear takes care of a patient at the level intensive care unit, treating COVID-19 patients, at the San Filippo Neri hospital in Rome, on Monday. Italy on Monday reported its first drop in the number of people currently suffering from the novel coronavirus since it recorded its first infection in February. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images)
Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy rose by 454 on Monday, slightly up from Sunday’s tally, while the number of new cases dropped to 2,256, the lowest level in well over a month, the Civil Protection Agency said. Given current trends, Italy’s regional health observatory forecast on Monday that two of the country’s 20 regions — Basilicata and Umbria — would be registering no new cases by the end of April. By contrast, it would take until the end of June for the worst-hit region, Lombardy, to have zero new coronavirus cases.
Some shops are reopening in much of Germany as Europe’s biggest economy takes its first tentative step toward restarting public life after a four-week shutdown. Shops with a surface area of up to 800 square metres are being allowed to reopen on Monday, along with auto showrooms, bike shops and bookshops of any size, under an agreement reached last week between the federal and state governments.
Employees disinfects a shopping cart at a hardware store after its re-opening, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Munich, Germany, April 20, 2020. (Andreas Gebert/Reuters)
At the same time, when Chancellor Angela Merkel was asked if she backed proposals to help fellow EU countries hardest hit by the pandemic such as Italy and Spain via a bigger European Union budget and the issuance of EU bonds, she said an EU treaty article already allowed such action and that it was used to finance a European short-time work scheme.
The German economy is in a severe recession and recovery is unlikely to be quick, as many coronavirus-related restrictions could stay in place for an extended period, the Bundesbank said in a regular monthly economic report on Monday.
Turkish PresidentTayyip Erdogan said on Monday that the country would impose a four-day lockdown for 31 cities, starting Thursday. Turkey has imposed such measures over the past two weekends. Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Erdogan said the lockdown would be longer this time due to a national holiday that falls on Thursday, adding that weekend lockdowns could continue “for some time.”
Over the weekend, the number of confirmed cases in Turkey exceeded any country outside Europe and the United States. Total cases rose to 90,980 on Monday.
Denmark will now test every person with symptoms of the new coronavirus. Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said the country has control of the epidemic, but he said if a person has a dry cough, fever or respiratory problems, they should call the doctor to be tested. The country took another small step toward reopening society when hair salons, dentists, physiotherapists, tattoo parlours and driving schools, among others, were allowed to reopen Monday.
A pedestrian walks past graffiti depicting the logo of Britain’s National Health Service, merged with the emblem of the fictional superheroes Superman and Superwoman, on the shuttered entrance of a closed pizza restaurant in Liverpool on Monday. (Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images)
Britain needs to be sure that any lifting or easing of physical distancing measures does not lead to a second wave of the coronavirus outbreak, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday.
“The big concern is a second peak, that is what ultimately will do the most damage to health and the most damage to the economy,” the spokesperson told reporters. “If you move too quickly then the virus could begin to spread exponentially again. What we need to be certain of is that if we move to lift some of the social distancing measures, it isn’t going to lead to the virus starting to spread exponentially again.”
Employers in Britain have already put more than a million staff on temporary leave, while finance minister Rishi Sunak said they had received 140,000 applications from firms in the first eight hours their 80 per cent wage subsidy was available on Monday.
Russia reported 4,268 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Monday, fewer than the 6,060 on the previous day, which took the total number of cases to 47,121. Forty-four Russian coronavirus patients died in the last 24 hours, the Russian coronavirus crisis response centre said.
Like the United States, Russia has seen limited — though passionate — protests against COVID-19 isolation measures. Hundreds gathered in southern Russia on Monday to demonstrate against forced business closures, as they have caused particular pain to households in such regions where salaries are lower and the virus less entrenched.
Singapore is reporting a record 1,426 new coronavirus cases, mostly among foreign workers, pushing its total number of confirmed infections above 8,000. The tiny city-state now has the highest number of cases in Southeast Asia, a massive increase from just 200 infections on March 15, when its outbreak appeared to be nearly under control. About 3,000 cases have been reported in just the past three days. Low-wage migrant workers, a vital part of Singapore’s workforce, now account for at least 60 per cent of its infections. More than 200,000 workers from poorer Asian countries live in tightly packed dormitories.
WATCH | COVID-19: Some Asian countries seeing case numbers rise — again:
Japan and Singapore are seeing a resurgence of COVID-19 after initial success managing the virus. 3:24
Japan boosted its new economic stimulus package on Monday to a record $1.1 trillion US to expand cash payouts to its citizens, as the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic threatens to push the world’s third-largest economy deeper into recession.
India has recorded its biggest single-day spike in coronavirus cases as the government eases one of the world’s strictest lockdowns to allow some manufacturing and agricultural activity to resume. An additional 1,553 cases were reported over 24 hours, raising the national total over 17,000. At least 543 people have died from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus.
The shelter-in-place orders imposed in India on March 24 halted all but essential services. But beginning Monday, limited industry and farming were allowed to resume where employers could meet physical distancing and hygiene norms, and migrant workers can travel within states to factories, farms and other work sites.
The reported death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Iran reached 5,209 on Monday with 91 deaths in the past 24 hours, Health Ministry spokesperson Kianush Jahanpur said Monday in a statement on state TV. The total number of diagnosed cases of the novel coronavirus in Iran, the Middle Eastern country hardest hit by the outbreak, has reached 83,505, he said.
South Africa will increase welfare provisions to help poor households suffering because of a nationwide lockdown aimed at containing the country’s coronavirus outbreak, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday.
WATCH | Bolsonaro downplays COVID-19 threat as Brazil’s death toll rises:
An infectious disease specialist says Brazil is fighting two enemies during the COVID-19 pandemic: the virus and the president. 1:53
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday that he hoped this would be the last week of stay-at-home measures to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus, wishing for an end to a policy that he has branded an ill-founded jobs killer. Speaking with supporters in Brasilia, he also opposed the view of a fan who called for the country’s supreme court to be shut, with Bolsonaro saying Brazil was a democratic country and the top court would remain open.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Texas and Vermont will allow certain businesses to reopen on Monday while still observing coronavirus-related precautions and Montana will begin lifting restrictions on Friday.
“We continue to see a number of positive signs that the virus has passed its peak,” Trump told reporters at a daily briefing.
Some state governors have warned that they will not act prematurely to reopen their economies until there is more testing for the virus, however. Business leaders have also told Trump the country needs to have widespread testing in place before their companies can return to normal operations.
Trump said “our testing is getting better and better,” but offered no concrete evidence.
He said both Republican and Democratic governors “have announced concrete steps to begin a safe and gradual phased opening.” Texas and Vermont “will allow certain business to open on Monday while still requiring appropriate social distancing precautions,” he said.
Several dozen protesters gathered in the Texas capital of Austin on Saturday, chanting “USA! USA!” and “Let us work!”
A protester holds up a sign at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, joining other protesters across the U.S. calling for the economy to be opened up despite the risk of COVID-19. (Sergio Flores/Getty Images)
Trump also said the $500 million US that the United States has been giving to the World Health Organization can be spent more efficiently elsewhere.
The president announced earlier in the week that he has directed a halt of U.S. payments to WHO pending a review of its warnings about the coronavirus and China.
He also said there should be consequences for China if the country was “knowingly” responsible for the coronavirus outbreak.
South Korea’s first line of defence against COVID-19 now is at the Seoul airport, and it’s an impressive sight.
Thousands of passengers in orderly lineups, almost all masked, wait patiently to have their temperatures scanned. They pass before many infrared cameras, and then electronic thermometers are held up to their ears. If they show any symptoms, they are immediately ushered to adjacent testing facilities.
All inbound passengers have to download a cellphone app that allows the government to monitor them for a 14-day quarantine period, during which they are not allowed to leave their homes or hotels.
Passengers wearing masks to prevent contracting coronavirus walk past a thermal camera upon their arrival at Incheon International Airport in South Korea. (Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)
“They will be communicating with those people twice a day, morning and night, while they are doing self-reporting through the app,” says Lee Hoon-sang, a professor of global health security at Yonsei University. He says the government is now especially worried about the potential for a second wave of the virus that could arrive with passengers from the United States, Europe or China.
South Korea has an enviable record of handling the outbreak. It has recorded five deaths per million of population, compared to 42 in Canada, 122 in the United States and 437 in Spain. On Sunday, there were just eight new cases reported in South Korea.
Workers wearing protective gear arrive to disinfect the airplane bound for New York at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea. (Suh Myoung-geon/Yonhap via AP)
Lessons from the past
How did South Korea perform so well? It is a combination of intensive testing and elaborate contact-tracing, Lee says.
In some ways the country experienced a full dress rehearsal for this pandemic back in 2015, when it fought an outbreak of MERS, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome.
A South Korean businessman returned then from a trip to Bahrain and quickly developed a cough and fever. He made his way to several medical clinics in search of a diagnosis.
Finally his condition was correctly assessed at the Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul, but by that time he had infected many other patients in waiting rooms and others he encountered along his path. A slow response from the Korean Centre for Disease Control (KCDC) meant there were eventually 186 infections and 36 deaths, and was heavily criticized at the time.
“After 2015, there was a massive revamping of the Korean CDC,” says Lee. “A new testing method was prepared out of that experience, which was very helpful when COVID-19 came to Korea.”
The Korean government partnered with many private bio-medical labs on medical testing, and that public-private partnership quickly generated millions of test-kits shortly after China publicized the new virus’s genome in January.
A medical staff member in protective gear prepares to take samples from a visitor in a car at a ‘drive-thru’ testing center at the Yeungnam University Medical Center in Daegu. (Reuters)
Over 500 testing facilities were established across the country, starting in February. Many of them are drive-thru, so that Koreans with families can be checked for the virus without having to hire babysitters or bring their children to a hospital.
Perhaps more astonishing is the system of contact-tracing. Infected people are asked to recall everyone they have encountered in recent days. Then their memories are checked with credit card information and cellphone location-tracking data.
An acceptable trade-off
Privacy laws were changed after the MERS outbreak to allow this intrusion only in the case of a national medical emergency. “They can use big data and AI [Artificial Intelligence],” says Lee, “So in 10 minutes all that information can be gathered automatically and the contact-tracing time has been drastically reduced.”
Koreans now receive multiple notifications every day on their cellphones advising them that they may have crossed paths with an infected person at a particular store or restaurant. They are encouraged to seek testing if they experience any symptoms.
While citizens in many in Western countries would see this as an outrageous infringement of privacy, Yeong-seon Kim, a journalist with the Korean public broadcaster KBS, says the public has accepted it.
Some streets in Seoul have been closed to vehicle traffic in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. (Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)
“First, the government keeps the balance between protecting public safety and protecting private information. The information made public does not include any private information that allows people to identify whose information they are receiving. You know it only says male or female and their age, that’s all. So you cannot tell who he or she is.
“Second, the people understand extraordinary measures are necessary during an extraordinary time. I feel like that too, and I think the government is doing the right thing, right now.”
On March 2, schools were closed and work from home protocols went into place. People were told to stop seeing relatives and friends and to avoid large gatherings.
Lee Man-hee, the 88-year-old leader of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, bows during the press conference in Gapyeong, South Korea. (Kim Ju-sung/Yonhap via AP)
Masks are not mandated, but they are recommended and people are often shamed if they appear in public without wearing them.
While the Korean public has been largely compliant with all the new health policies, there was one glaring exception.
In mid-February, a 61-year-old woman belonging to a religious sect called the Shincheonji Church of Jesus resisted advice to self-isolate after she developed symptoms of COVID-19. She attended a wedding, a funeral and other large religious services in the southern city of Daegu.
By the time she was tested and diagnosed, she had passed the disease to over 5,000 people. Then the church refused to co-operate with medical investigations of the “super-spreader.”
“This church keeps their followers’ identity secret,” says Kim. “Initially they were reluctant to hand over the list of their followers to the authorities. That’s why the Korean people were so mad at this church, because they were not willing to share this list of their followers.”
Faced with a wave of public rage and widespread demands to have the church disbanded, church leader Lee Man-hee quickly reversed course. He passed over the membership list, apologized profusely and even prostrated himself before TV cameras at a press conference on March 2.
A poll worker, wearing a mask and gloves, hands out a voting pass for the parliamentary election held last week. (Heo Ran/Reuters)
Korea has been so successful in containing coronavirus that the country never had to close bars and restaurants, and a few days ago the government even proceeded with a national election. There were elaborate sterilization precautions and every voter was issued a pair of disposable plastic gloves. There were even separate polling stations for infected persons.
Before the outbreak, the scandal-ridden government of Moon Jae-in was expected to do badly in the elections. As it turned out, the public was apparently pleased with his party’s handling of the pandemic. Koreans turned out in record numbers and gave Moon’s party an increased majority.
