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by Bhuvan Bagga with Aishwarya Kumar and Vishal Manve in Mumbai NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India’s 1.3 billion people will go under “total lockdown” for 21 days to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday, sparking panic buying. “From 12 midnight today (1830 GMT Tuesday), the entire country will be in lockdown, total lockdown,” Modi said in a national television address to the world’s second-most-populous nation. “To save India, […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The COVID-19 outbreak in the United States has the potential to exceed that in Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday as the number of reported US cases surges. The pandemic began in China in December but the epicenter has since shifted from Asia to Europe. WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters during a virtual press conference that 85 percent of the new cases reported to the global body overnight […]
LYON, France (AFP) — French diagnostics firm Biomerieux said Tuesday it had secured emergency approval from US regulators for a coronavirus test that can produce results in 45 minutes, potentially offering a new tool for stemming the outbreak. The company said its Biofire Covid-19 test was developed with funding from the US Defense Department, which will be distributing the tests while Biomerieux awaits full commercial approval for the US market and elsewhere. Biomerieux said it […]
AMMAN, Jordan (AFP) — More than 1,600 people have been arrested in Jordan in three days for violating a curfew aimed at stemming the spread of coronavirus, a security official said Tuesday. The source said the 1,657 people arrested across Jordan since the curfew came into effect on Saturday had been placed in quarantine centers run by the army. The government has warned that people caught breaking the rules would be quarantined for 14 days […]
by Alice RITCHIE LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain’s leaders on Tuesday urged people to respect an unprecedented countrywide lockdown, saying that following advice to stay at home would stop people dying of coronavirus. “Unless you stay at home, then the people you love most may die,” senior minister Michael Gove said in a round of broadcast interviews. Prime Minister Boris Johnson late on Monday bowed to pressure to follow other European countries in shutting […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Another 514 people have died in Spain over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 2,696, as the number of infections surged towards 40,000, the government said Tuesday. As the health authorities step up the number of tests, the number of people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 rose by nearly 20 percent to 39,673, the health ministry said. At the same time, the death toll showed an increase […]
by Sophie Bouillon and AFP bureaux in Africa LAGOS, Nigeria (AFP) — Equipment shortages, scarce beds, and poorly-paid doctors and nurses: Africa is finding that it has few means to protect itself as a feared coronavirus tsunami looms. Earth’s poorest continent has so far confirmed around 1,800 cases and 57 deaths — a tally that is low compared with Europe, the Middle East, and Asia but is now ratcheting up quickly as testing remains patchy. […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran on Tuesday announced 122 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the official toll to 1,934 in one of the world’s worst-hit countries. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said a record 1,762 new cases have been confirmed in Iran over the past 24 hours and 24,811 people are now known to have been infected. © Agence France-Presse
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China announced Tuesday that a lockdown would be lifted on more than 50 million people in central Hubei province where the coronavirus first emerged late last year. But fears rose over a second wave of infections fuelled by people arriving from overseas. After two months living with draconian curbs on daily life, residents will be allowed to leave Hubei from midnight Tuesday if healthy, while Wuhan city — the initial epicentre […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China reported 78 new cases of the deadly coronavirus on Tuesday, with the vast majority brought in from overseas as fears rise of a second wave of infections. The first new case in nearly a week was also reported in Wuhan — the epicenter where the virus emerged last year — along with three other local infections elsewhere in the country. Seven more people died, the National Health Commission said, all […]
by Philippe RATER UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed Monday for an “immediate global ceasefire” to protect vulnerable civilians in conflict zones from the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic. “The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war,” he said in a brief speech at UN headquarters in New York, mentioning no country by name. “That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — France is to tighten its lockdown imposed to battle the coronavirus, strictly limiting physical exercise and closing most open-air markets, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Monday. Philippe told TF1 TV in a live interview that he would later sign a decree banning from Tuesday physical exercise such as jogging more than one kilometer (0.6 miles) from a person’s place of residence and also halting open-air markets, although local authorities could […]
