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ABUJA, Nigeria (AFP) — Nigeria on Wednesday received test kits and protective gear from China’s richest man, Jack Ma, to help fight novel coronavirus, which has so far claimed one life and infected 45 others in Africa’s most populous nation. Nigeria’s top health official, Abdulaziz Abdullahi, told AFP that the country had received 100,000 face masks, 1,000 protective gowns and 20,000 test kits. The equipment will be distributed to frontline health workers and hospital laboratories, […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Metro and rail services in Paris and its suburbs will be cut to a minimum as part of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, officials said Wednesday. Both Paris transport operator RATP and national rail group SNCF have already sharply reduced services since the home confinement orders came into effect on March 17. They apply to all but essential employees and those who cannot work from home. Starting Thursday, about 50 of the […]
by Suzauddin RUBEL with Sam JAHAN in Dhaka KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh (AFP) — The sewage-soaked alleys and cramped canvas and bamboo shacks that house one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are a horrifying scene for experts watching the coronavirus pandemic creep closer. The wretched conditions in the camps, where most of the stateless Muslims arrived in 2017 to escape a Myanmar military clampdown across the nearby border, are fertile ground for any disease. The public in […]
by Hazel WARD, with Philippe RATER at the United Nations MADRID, Spain (AFP) — More than three billion people are living under lockdown measures as soaring death tolls in Europe and the US on Wednesday underlined a United Nations warning that the coronavirus pandemic threatens all of humanity. As the global death toll soared past 20,800, Spain joined Italy in seeing its number of fatalities overtake China, where the virus first emerged just three months […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Social distancing appears to be slowing the spread of the coronavirus in New York, the epicenter of America’s pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. In his daily update on efforts to contain the deadly pandemic, Cuomo said projection rates suggested hospitalizations were increasing at a slower rate than before. “The arrows are headed in the right direction,” he told reporters. Cuomo said New York was still “on the way […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the United States reached 60,115 on Wednesday while 827 people had died, a tracker run by Johns Hopkins University showed. The tracker showed 600 deaths around 24 hours earlier. The US has the third highest number of confirmed cases behind China and Italy, and the US death rate is now 1.38 percent, based on reported cases. The true number of […]
by Chris Lefkow WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Senators were poised Wednesday to pass the largest rescue package in modern US history for businesses and ordinary Americans devastated by the coronavirus amid fears that New York could be the next epicenter of the pandemic. The United States now has over 62,000 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,” […]
by Dmitry ZAKS ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italy’s coronavirus infections rate slowed for a fourth successive day Wednesday as fresh evidence emerged that long and painful lockdowns against pandemics will work. The latest data from the epicenter of the once-in-a-century outbreak comes with more and more nations weighing whether to shutter their own stores and factories — and for how long. Analysts at one of the big US investment banks said evidence from Italy this […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain has signed a multi-million-euro contract with China to acquire medical supplies to fight the coronavirus epidemic, Health Minister Salvador Illa said Wednesday. Worth some 432 million euros ($467 million), the deal will cover 550 million masks, 5.5 million rapid test kits, 950 respirators and 11 million pairs of gloves to address shortages in Spain. The announcement came as Spain saw the number of deaths surge to 3,434 after more than […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain’s coronavirus death toll overtook that of China on Wednesday, rising to 3,434 after 738 people died over the past 24 hours, the government said. Across the world, only Italy now has a higher death toll than that of Spain. In China, where the virus emerged late last year, 3,281 people have died. The spiralling number of deaths came as Spain entered the 11th day of an unprecedented lockdown to try […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Around 170,000 people signed up within hours of a British government call for volunteers to help those stuck at home due to the coronavirus outbreak, the health minister said Wednesday. Matt Hancock unveiled a plan on Monday to create a 250,000-strong volunteer force to help deliver groceries and medicines to the most vulnerable people instructed by the government to self-isolate. This is larger than Britain’s armed forces, which currently stand […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran’s president warned that his government was poised to introduce tough new measures against the coronavirus Wednesday as the death toll from one of the world’s deadliest outbreaks topped 2,000. President Hassan Rouhani said that the new measures, which could be adopted as soon as Wednesday evening, included Iran’s first restrictions on movement to try to stem the spread of the virus and were likely to be “difficult” for the public. […]
