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by Kelly MACNAMARA with AFP bureaux PARIS, France (AFP) — As nations around the world fight the coronavirus pandemic with mass lockdowns and travel bans, UN experts warn that some three billion people lack even the most basic weapons to protect themselves: soap and running water. The outbreak has infected some 200,000 people and killed 9,000, scorching through populations across the globe after emerging in China late last year. While Europe has become the center […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany has recorded 10,999 cases of the coronavirus, official data showed Thursday, with the number of newly reported infections rising by 2,801 in a single day. Twenty people have died from the viral infection, data from the disease control agency Robert Koch Institute showed. North Rhine-Westphalia remains the worst-hit state, with 3,033 COVID-19 cases, up 661 from a day ago. © Agence France-Presse
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido on Thursday lifted a state of emergency declared last month over the new coronavirus, saying it sees signs of the outbreak tapering off. The governor of Hokkaido prefecture announced the emergency measure on February 28, as infections in the region grew. The call urged residents to avoid unnecessary outings, though it did not come with aggressive enforcement measures of the sort being implemented now in […]
WUHAN, China (AFP) — A network of makeshift barriers has kept residents walled in their neighborhoods for weeks in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the heart of the coronavirus pandemic. The city of 11 million, where the virus first erupted, became a ghost town after authorities prevented people from leaving on January 23. With thousands of patients swarming hospitals every week, authorities tightened the restrictions in early February, confining people to their homes. Closing off […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia registered the first death of a patient infected with the coronavirus on Thursday, an elderly woman who had been hospitalized in Moscow, health officials said. The 79-year-old, who had tested positive, was hospitalized on March 13 and had several other conditions including diabetes and heart problems, Moscow’s coronavirus response headquarters said on social media. © Agence France-Presse
ROME, Italy (AFP) — Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Thursday that the week-long lockdown in Italy, the European country hit worst by the coronavirus pandemic, will be extended beyond the April 3 deadline. “The measures we have taken… must be extended beyond their original deadline,” Conte told Thursday’s edition of the Corriere della Sera newspaper. © Agence France-Presse
by Pitcha DANGPRASITH and Lillian SUWANRUMPHA BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Thai hospitals are deploying “ninja robots” to measure fevers and protect the health of overburdened medical workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak. First built to monitor recovering stroke patients, the machines have been quickly repurposed to help fight the disease, which has so far killed nearly 9,000 people around the world. They have helped staff at four hospitals in and around Bangkok to […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Philippine shares plunged by nearly 25 percent on Thursday only moments after the Manila stock exchange resumed trade following a two-day trading suspension prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. The Southeast Asian nation was the first in the world to indefinitely suspend trading after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered more than half of its population to stay home for the next month. Manila’s bourse had suspended operations “until further notice” in response but […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States is suspending routine visa services in most countries because of the coronavirus pandemic, the State Department announced late Wednesday. It said embassies and consulates in “most countries worldwide… will cancel all routine immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments as of March 18, 2020.” It did not specify which countries would be exempted from the suspension, which was in response to “worldwide challenges” related to the deadly pandemic. © […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia on Thursday unveiled an unprecedented ban on any non-residents arriving into the country, ratcheting up efforts to seal the country off from transborder coronavirus infections. “A travel ban will be placed on all non-residents, non-Australian citizens coming to Australia, and that will be in place from 9:00 pm tomorrow evening,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced. © Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Two US lawmakers including a Florida representative on Wednesday became the first members of Congress to announce they have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart’s office said in a statement that “just a short while ago, he was notified that he has tested positive for COVID-19.” The Republican who represents part of Miami follows that city’s Mayor Francis Suarez, who announced that he had tested positive for […]
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The EU Commission chief said Wednesday that China will send Europe 50,000 coronavirus testing kits and two million surgical masks, as the continent battles to contain the pandemic. In a phone conversation, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China was also ready to provide 200,000 respirator masks for more serious cases, Ursula von der Leyen said in a video statement. “We are ramping up our production, we are converting our production lines, […]
