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BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) –Belgium’s death toll from the novel coronavirus passed the 500 mark Monday, with almost 12,000 cases detected since the start of the epidemic. Health authorities in the country of 11.4 million said 513 COVID-19 deaths had been recorded and 11,899 cases confirmed by laboratory tests. But officials said the rise in admissions to hospital and to intensive care units had slowed slightly over the previous 24 hours. “We’re not at the peak, […]
MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday that he would remain in self-imposed isolation even though his wife, who had contracted the coronavirus, has recovered. Although Sophie Gregoire Trudeau received the all-clear from her physicians on Saturday, the prime minister said, and he himself has no symptoms, he had been “sharing a roof with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.” “I have to continue in isolation in order to be sure […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran’s official coronavirus death toll reached 2,757 on Monday and the number of infections crossed 40,000, as President Hassan Rouhani’s political opponents slammed his response to the outbreak. The Islamic republic is one of the countries worst hit by the virus, which originated in China. Iran has been scrambling to contain COVID-19’s spread since it reported its first cases on February 19. After weeks of refraining from imposing lockdown or quarantine […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Moscow on Monday imposed a lockdown in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus as Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin asked regional authorities to make similar preparations. The enforcement of the tough new rules, which were suddenly announced by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin late Sunday, coincide with the beginning of a “non-working” week declared by President Vladimir Putin last week. Europe’s largest city announced the strict new isolation measures […]
CHENZHOU, China (AFP) — One person was killed and 127 injured when a passenger train derailed in central China on Monday after striking debris from a landslide that had fallen to the track, the state-run railway system said. The accident happened around midday in a rural part of Hunan province and came after recent heavy rains triggered landslides in the area, a statement said. One car caught fire and five were derailed, it said. A […]
by Sebastien SAUGUES and Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN in Nancy, and Sebastien BOZON in Mulhouse NANCY France (AFP) — France staged its largest evacuation of coronavirus patients to date from hospitals in the hard-hit east on Sunday, increasing efforts to free up intensive care units as officials warned of an influx of serious cases in the coming days. Two specially equipped high-speed trains carried 36 patients from Mulhouse and Nancy to hospitals along France’s western coast, where […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The United Arab Emirates said it has launched a drive-through coronavirus testing facility as part of the Gulf state’s efforts to fight the disease. The facility, inaugurated by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, will provide screenings within five minutes, using state-of-the-art equipment and a medical team, the Abu Dhabi government’s media office said. “A new drive-through testing facility for COVID-19 has launched … to offer safe […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain confirmed another 838 deaths in 24 hours from coronavirus on Sunday, a new daily record bringing the total number of deaths to 6,528, according to health ministry figures. The number of confirmed cases in Spain has now reached 78,797 — after the one-day increase of 9.1 percent — as the country battles the world’s second most deadly outbreak after Italy. Except for a brief lull recorded on Thursday, Spain’s death […]
by Catherine TRIOMPHE NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — New York food banks have become inundated with newcomers deprived of income since the near-total halt of business in the United States’ economic capital. Sacks of oranges, sweet potatoes and onions are spread over three tables at an open-air market in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in the north of Manhattan. Sterilized milk and cans of tuna and salmon cover three others. Hundreds of people came over […]
by Sunghee Hwang SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Nuclear-armed North Korea successfully tested “super-large multiple rocket launchers”, state media said on Monday, but leader Kim Jong Un was not described as commanding the drill as analysts say Pyongyang seeks to normalize its launches. With the world focused on the coronavirus pandemic and North Korea insisting it has not had a single COVID-19 case, the isolated state has carried out four such firings this month. Unusually, […]
by Brian KNOWLTON Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Senior US scientist Dr. Anthony Fauci issued a cautious prediction Sunday that the novel coronavirus could claim as many as 200,000 lives in the United States, as state and local officials described increasingly desperate shortages in hard-pressed hospitals. And with stress, uncertainty and exhaustion rising across the country, House speaker Nancy Pelosi squarely blamed President Donald Trump for unnecessary loss of life by […]
TRIPOLI, Libya (AFP) — Libya’s justice ministry announced Sunday over 450 prisoners were being freed in a bid to protect against the spread of coronavirus in the wake of the war-torn country’s first declared infections. Judicial officials decided to “free 466 detainees from correctional facilities” in Tripoli, according to a statement by the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord’s justice ministry. The detainees were in pretrial detention or had qualified for conditional release, the statement added. […]
