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by Patrick GALEY PARIS, France (AFP) — The lockdown in the Chinese outbreak city of Wuhan brought the COVID-19 epidemic crashing to a halt, giving health systems crucial breathing room to deal with serious cases, new research showed Thursday. Chinese authorities ordered schools, universities and businesses shut following a cluster of COVID-19 cases in the transport hub in January, confining millions of people to their homes in a bid to contain the outbreak. The measures […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran on Thursday announced 157 new deaths from coronavirus, raising the official number of fatalities to 2,234, as it slapped a ban on intercity travel to try to curb the spread. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour also said that 2,389 new cases have been confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of declared infections in one of the world’s wost-hit countries to 29,406. “Fortunately, until today 10,457 of […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Hospitals in the British capital are being overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, the head of an organization representing bosses in the state-run National Health Service said on Thursday. The chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, told BBC radio that London hospitals had seen an “explosion of demand… in seriously ill patients”, likening it to a “continuous tsunami”, with numbers predicted to surge in the next fortnight. “They talk about the […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany has boosted its coronavirus test rate to 500,000 a week, a virologist said Thursday, adding that early detection has been key in keeping the country’s death rate relatively low. “The reason why Germany has so few deaths compared to the number of infected people can be explained by the fact that we carry out an extremely large number of laboratory diagnostic tests,” said Christian Drosten, who heads the Institute of […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — The Iraqi government said Thursday that it will extend a countrywide lockdown it imposed in response to the coronavirus pandemic until April 11. Schools, universities, shopping centers, and other large gathering places will remain closed, as will the country’s international airports. Authorities have confirmed that at least 29 Iraqis have died from COVID-19 and nearly 350 others have contracted the disease. But there are fears the real number is much higher, […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo’s governor urged residents to stay home this weekend, warning of a possible “explosion” of the coronavirus with a record 41 new cases discovered on Wednesday. Yuriko Koike said the Japanese capital, so far spared the draconian measures seen in other major global cities, was at a “critical stage” in containing the virus that has confined one-third of the planet to their homes. “We urge people at all costs to refrain […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The number of deaths caused by the novel coronavirus rose to 1,031 in the United States on Wednesday, with 68,572 confirmed cases nationwide, a tracker run by the Johns Hopkins University showed. The tracker had shown 827 just a few hours earlier. The United States has the third-highest number of confirmed cases behind China and Italy, and the US death rate is now 1.5 percent, based on reported cases. The […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The IMF on Wednesday approved a $1.3 billion aid plan for Jordan, made all the more necessary by the global coronavirus pandemic. The program was initially announced at the end of January before the novel virus rocked the world’s economy. “Changes were made to the program to support unbudgeted spending covering emergency outlays and medical supplies and equipment,” the IMF said in a statement. “If the impact of the outbreak […]
by Sophie Pons with Algiers, Rabat and Tunis bureaux RABAT, Morocco (AFP) — In Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, workers in informal jobs fear not only the novel coronavirus, but how they will survive emergency measures that have cut off their livelihoods. “We are stuck at home, with no work and no pay,” said Hakim, a 30-year-old father who until last week worked in a bar-restaurant in the Moroccan capital Rabat. His boss told employees he […]
by Michael Mathes WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Republican opposition to expanding certain unemployment benefits was delaying Senate passage Wednesday of the largest economic rescue package in modern US history, amid fears that New York could be the next epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. The United States now has over 65,000 confirmed cases, the third-highest number globally behind China and Italy. About half are in New York state. “We still have the trajectory going up,” […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — There is a strong chance the new coronavirus could return in seasonal cycles, a senior US scientist said Wednesday, underscoring the urgent need to find a vaccine and effective treatments. Anthony Fauci, who leads research into infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, told a briefing the virus was beginning to take root in the southern hemisphere, where winter is on its way. “What we’re starting to see now… […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US Defense Secretary Mark Esper ordered a 60-day freeze Wednesday on moves by US troops and civilian defense employees overseas in an effort to halt the spread of the coronavirus. The move stopped the deployment or redeployment of some 90,000 US service members for the next two months. It also freezes in place the families of service members who traveled overseas with their deployments. “This measure is taken to aid […]
