JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia has released some 18,000 inmates in a desperate bid to stop coronavirus from rampaging through its notoriously overcrowded prison system, authorities said Thursday. The mass release comes days after the Southeast Asian nation said it would free more than 30,000 inmates to take pressure off prisons and jails beset by unsanitary conditions and long at risk of infectious diseases. The UN has called on countries to release vulnerable inmates, with […]
Tag: Virus
Coronavirus spreads in Latin America as cases pass 20,000
More than 20,000 cases of COVID-19 were registered in Latin America and the Caribbean by Wednesday — double the figure from five days ago, according to an AFP tally. As infections spread across the region, a Guatemalan migrant died and more than 20 were wounded in a riot over coronavirus fears at a holding facility for Central American migrants in Mexico, officials said. A protest by mostly Honduran migrants at the facility in southeastern […]
Doctors warn of malaria drug scarcity
by Patrick GALEY PARIS, France (AFP) — Limited global stocks of two anti-malarial drugs could wreck plans to use the medicines, currently in clinical trials, to treat COVID-19, doctors cautioned on Thursday. Around the world, countries are expanding access to chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which are used to treat malaria and are known to have anti-viral properties. The medicines have shown early promise against the COVID-19 illness in studies in France and China. CQ, […]
Spain virus death toll tops 10,000: govt
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — The coronavirus death toll in Spain surged past 10,000 on Thursday after a record 950 deaths in 24 hours, with the number of confirmed cases passing the 110,000 marks, the government said. Spain has the world’s second-highest death toll after Italy, with the virus so far claiming 10,003 lives although the rate of new infections and deaths continued its downward trend, the health ministry figures showed. The number of new infections […]
PHL coronavirus-related deaths rise to 107 as COVID-19 cases reach 2,633
(Eagle News) – The country’s death toll due to COVID-19 rose to more than a hundred as total cases spiked to 2,633. The Department of Health (DOH), in its latest situationer on Thursday, April 2, said that 11 more deaths due to the coronavirus disease had been added to the previous toll of 96, bringing total fatalities to 107. There were also 322 new confirmed virus that were added to the earlier total of […]
Spanish jobless claims jump by over 300,000 in March
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain registered a leap of 302,265 jobless claims in March due to the “extraordinary impact” of the coronavirus pandemic, the labor ministry said Thursday. It is reportedly the biggest monthly increase on record in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, which has been locked down since March 14 to try to curb the spread of the virus. The pandemic “changed the trend” in unemployment figures for March, after only 2,857 workers filled jobless […]
Duterte warns Filipinos of the “Left” creating trouble; tells public to trust, listen to gov’t in this time of crisis
(Eagle News) – Amid the coronavirus pandemic, President Rodrigo Duterte came out on national television once again on Wednesday night, April 1, to stress the seriousness of the crisis and asked the people to listen to and trust the government. He also warned the “Left” not to create trouble or to instigate violence in this time of crisis, saying that this would create further problems for the country’s poor. “Mga kababayan kong Pilipino, I am […]
Under-fire Johnson says, UK will ‘massively increase testing’
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain would “massively increase testing” amid a growing wave of criticism on Thursday about his government’s failure to provide widespread coronavirus screening. In a video message posted online on Wednesday night from Downing Street, where he has been in self-isolation since announcing on March 27 that he had contracted the virus, Johnson said testing was the “way through”. “We’re also massively increasing testing. As I […]
At US food banks, a cupboard increasingly bare
by Cyril JULIEN WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Volunteers are staying home and donations have dried up. The coronavirus pandemic is pressuring US food banks, just as the number of people in need increases. With Americans told to stay home to help slow the virus’s spread, the number of volunteers to sort, package and distribute food for the needy has fallen from 100 to around 40 each day at Washington’s Capital Area Food Bank. Rob […]
China county in lockdown as fears grow over second wave of virus
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese county of around 600,000 residents has gone into lockdown after a woman who visited the area tested positive for the coronavirus, underscoring concerns over the second wave of domestic infections. The tightening comes as China reported 35 new confirmed cases on Thursday, drastically down from the peak of the crisis. But they were all imported, bringing the tally of such cases to 841 and adding to fears about infections […]
Italy extends lockdown as toll passes 13,000
ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italy on Wednesday extended its economically-crippling lockdown until April 13 to help stem coronavirus infections that have claimed 13,115 lives. “If we start loosening our measures now, all our efforts will have been in vain,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told the nation in a nationally televised address. The extension had been expected. Italy’s health minister said on Monday that businesses across the nation of 60 million would remain shuttered and public […]
US virus cases more than 216,000 as deaths hit 5,137, says John Hopkins University tracker
(Eagle News) — The number of coronavirus cases in the United States hits more than 216,000 on Thursday as the death toll continued to rise and breach 5,000, according to the virus dashboard of the Johns Hopkins University tracking global COVID-19 cases. As of Thursday noon, April 2 (PST), the US remains as the country with the most number of COVID-19 cases at 216,721, with reported coronavirus-related deaths at 5,137. The biggest number came […]





