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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 […]
SUVA, Fiji (AFP) — Fiji confirmed its first coronavirus case Thursday, sparking panic buying in major centers on the Pacific island nation. The announcement followed rampant speculation across the country of 930,000 that the global pandemic had arrived on its shores. “There is a single confirmed case of COVID-19 in Lautoka that was imported from a patient who had recently traveled abroad,” Health Minister Ifereimi Waqainabete said on Twitter. “He was immediately isolated, where he […]
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, […]
by Armel Baily with David Esnault in Abidjan Agence France-Presse OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AFP) —Sub-Saharan Africa has recorded its first COVID-19 death, a high-ranking politician in Burkina Faso, as the head of the World Health Organization urged the continent to “prepare for the worst”. “Africa should wake up,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday, pointing out that “in other countries, we have seen how the virus actually accelerates after a certain […]
by Michael Mathes WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a $100-billion emergency aid package that ensures sick leave to Americans workers who fall ill from the new coronavirus, with more federal assistance in the pipeline. The bipartisan House-passed measure easily cleared the Senate by a vote of 90 to eight earlier Wednesday. Hours later Trump said in a statement that he signed the legislation into law, providing a rare […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — The devastating coronavirus outbreak at a nursing home near Seattle where 35 have died was likely fueled by infected staff members continuing to come to work, a report found Wednesday. The care home is responsible for over half the deaths in the northwestern state of Washington — itself the US epicenter of the deadly pandemic. After visiting homes in the region, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found “staff […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China on Thursday reported no new domestic cases of the coronavirus for the first time since it started recording them in January but recorded a spike in infections from abroad. The lack of domestic infections marks a major milestone in China’s containment efforts, but the rise in imported cases threatens to unravel its progress. There were 34 cases that were brought in from abroad, the biggest daily increase in two weeks, […]
