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BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday urged China to be as transparent as possible about the coronavirus outbreak, as Beijing faces mounting pressure over its management of the crisis. Critics have accused China of downplaying the scale and scope of the outbreak when it first emerged late last year, while conspiracy theories have swirled in the US the virus could have been leaked from a lab. Merkel urged for more information […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday the death toll from an “evil” weekend shooting rampage in Nova Scotia had risen to at least 18. “Our country stands united in our effort to defeat a pandemic, to save lives and to help each other make it to a better day,” he told a news conference. “But yesterday we were jolted from that common cause by the senseless violence and tragedy in […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — US President Donald Trump announced Monday that he would welcome New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has spearheaded the response to his state’s coronavirus outbreaks, to the White House on Tuesday. “He is coming to the Oval Office tomorrow afternoon,” Trump told reporters. New York is the epicenter of the US coronavirus epidemic, and more than a third of the 41,000 deaths nationwide have come from the state. Trump has been […]
by Catherine TRIOMPHE Agence France Presse The incessant clang of car horns rang out in the US state of Pennsylvania Monday as hundreds of vehicles circled the Capitol building in a protest against confinement measures aimed at combatting the coronavirus. During the rally that lasted about three hours, many drove pick-up trucks decorated with American flags or slogans like “shelter in place isn’t freedom!” The Harrisburg demonstrators, arguing that public health regulations unduly threaten […]
by Stuart WILLIAMS Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — France on Monday announced it had become the fourth country worldwide to register over 20,000 deaths from the novel coronavirus, after recording 547 new fatalities in the epidemic. “Tonight, our country has passed a barrier that is symbolic and particularly painful,” top health official Jerome Salomon told reporters. He announced that the country’s total death toll was 20,265, while welcoming new falls in the numbers […]
by Robin MILLARD Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization insisted Monday that it sounded the alarm on the novel coronavirus right from the very start and had hidden nothing from Washington about the deadly pandemic. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there were no secrets at the UN agency after being blasted by the United States for allegedly downplaying the initial COVID-19 outbreak in China. “We have been warning from […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US state of Maryland has received 500,000 coronavirus tests ordered from South Korea, a shipment Governor Larry Hogan said would be “game-changing” to efforts to implement widespread testing. “It enables us to identify those who are sick and those who have the virus and it can help us isolate them and do our contact tracing,” Hogan told a press conference in the state capital Annapolis. The $9 million purchase […]
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday joined hundreds of demonstrators outside army headquarters in the capital Brasilia protesting stay-at-home orders issued by state governors. The crowd of around 600 called on the army to intervene in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and demanded the closure of Congress. Some held up posters declaring “Military intervention with Bolsonaro”. “I am here because I believe in you and you are here […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain said 399 people died of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours in what was the lowest daily number of deaths in four weeks, the government said on Monday. The latest figures, which showed a slight drop from Sunday when 410 people died, brought further relief to a country which has suffered the third-highest number of virus deaths in the world after the United States and Italy. “Today for the first […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Singapore reported a record daily jump of more than 1,400 coronavirus cases Monday, taking its total to over 8,000, with almost all new infections linked to dormitories housing foreign laborers. The city-state was initially successful in keeping its outbreak in check with a strict regime of testing and contact-tracing, but is now facing a fast-moving second wave. Health authorities in the financial hub, which now has the highest number of infections […]
LAGO, Nigeria (AGP) — Nigeria on Monday confirmed its first coronavirus case in the insurgency-hit northeast of the country, a medic with Doctors Without Borders who died from COVID-19. The region has been ravaged by a decade-long insurgency by Boko Haram jihadists that has forced around 1.8 million people from their homes. Aid workers fear the virus could prove devastating if it spreads inside the crowded camps holding hundreds of thousands of displaced people. The […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — The coronavirus pandemic has exposed “systemic weaknesses” in global health systems, the G20 said Monday, but there was no mention of Washington’s contentious decision to halt World Health Organization funding. The statement came after health ministers from the 20 most advanced economies held a virtual meeting on Sunday hosted by the group’s current president Saudi Arabia following criticism the institution was slow to address the pandemic. “Health Ministers recognized that […]
