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Friday, July 10, 2020, 22:11
WHO's COVID-19 reviewer: 'It's going to happen again'
By Agencies
Friday, July 10, 2020, 22:11 By Agencies

In this file photo, New Zealand’s former prime minister Helen Clark briefs journalists at the UN headquarters in New York. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

ALGIERS / CAIRO / RABAT / BUCHAREST / PARIS / GABORONE / LA PAZ / NAIROBI / WELLINGTON / OTTAWA / ATHENS — New Zealand’s former prime minister Helen Clark warned if the world remained “flat-footed” in its response to pandemics it faces future economic, social and political crisis, after she was appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to lead a review of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

WHO announced late on Thursday that Clark and Liberia’s former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will lead a panel scrutinising the global response.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called both women “strong-minded, independent leaders”, aiming to underscore their freedom in assessing his agency’s and governments’ COVID-19 responses.

The COVID-19 outbreak has infected a reported 12.16 million people globally and 550,242 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

After accepting the role, Clark said the job could only be described as “exceptionally challenging”.

In an interview with local broadcaster TVNZ on Friday, Clark said this was the sixth time in 17 years that the WHO has declared a public health emergency.

“This is going to happen again. If the world is as flat-footed in response as it has been to this we are in serious ongoing economic, social, political crisis,” Clark told TVNZ.

She said there would be a lot of consultation about appointing panel members.

“But there’s also a very real job to do, which is to look at how the WHO has been able to lead. Does it have the right mechanisms? What actually happened here? And there’s a lot of politics in that,” she said.

She said she will be working from her home in Auckland for the foreseeable future while delivering the project.

New Zealand is among only a handful of countries to virtually eliminate the virus, with no known cases of community transmission in the South Pacific island nation, and the economy back to pre-pandemic normalcy.

Bolivia's interim President Jeanine Anez, wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus, waves during a procession Corpus Christi, in La Paz, Bolivia, June 11, 2020. (PHOTO / AP)

Bolivia

Bolivia’s President Jeanine Anez said on Thursday she has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Anez said in a tweet she was “well” and continuing to work while in isolation. “Together, we will come out of this,” she said.

The Bolivian government confirmed that at least seven ministers, including its health minister, had tested positive and were either undergoing treatment or recuperating at home.

Anez said she had conducted a test given that many of her team had fallen ill.

Bolivia is due to hold general elections on Sept 6. The elections were originally planned for May but delayed due to the pandemic.

Bolivia, a landlocked Andean nation of over 11.5 million people has registered more than 42,000 confirmed cases of the disease and 1,500 deaths and is one of the worst affected countries per capita in the world.

Canada

Canada added some 952,900 jobs in June, mostly in the service sector, Statistics Canada said on Friday. The jobless rate improved to 12.3 percent.

Employment in the goods producing sector rose by 158,600. The services sector gained some 794,400 positions.

UK

The estimated reproduction number for COVID-19 for England edged up to between 0.8 and 1, the government said on Friday, from 0.8 to 0.9 the week before.

Across the whole United Kingdom, the so called R number is unchanged between 0.7 and 0.9, indicating the pandemic is shrinking.

The growth rate of infections per day for the UK is -5 percent to -2 percent, while for England it is -4 percent to -1 percent.

Quarantine measures for those travelling to Britain from around 70 countries and overseas territories, including France and Italy, no longer apply from Friday in a boost to the ailing aviation and travel industries hit by COVID-19.

Those arriving from higher risk countries will still have to self-quarantine for 14 days but many popular destinations are now exempt, meaning millions of Britons are able to take summer holidays without having to stay at home when they return.

The boss of Heathrow, Britain’s biggest airport, welcomed the move but said more was needed to facilitate travel from other low-risk countries and areas.

The British government has decided not to join an European Union coronavirus vaccine scheme because of concerns there could be costly delays in securing the vaccines, The Telegraph reported on Thursday, citing sources.

The European Commission is expected to be notified on Friday, according to the report.

UK business minister Alok Sharma is believed to have withdrawn from the plan after failing to get “sufficient assurance” that the UK would receive the number of vaccines it needs on time, the report added.

The officials believed that signing up to the scheme could delay the rollout of a successful vaccine in the UK by up to six months as talks on distribution took place, the report said, citing government sources.

The decision comes a week after officials in London and Brussels said Britain was in discussions with the EU about whether it would join a plan by the bloc to secure supplies of potential vaccines against COVID-19.

Another 85 COVID-19 patients have died in Britain as of Wednesday afternoon, bringing the total coronavirus-related death toll in the country to 44,602, the British Department of Health and Social Care said Thursday.

The figures include deaths in all settings, including hospitals, care homes and the wider community.

As of Thursday morning, 287,621 people have tested positive for the disease in Britain, a daily increase of 642, according to the department.

Brazil

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is in good health after testing positive for the novel coronavirus earlier this week, his press office said on Thursday.

“President Jair Bolsonaro, diagnosed with COVID-19 on (July) 7, is getting on well, without complications,” the statement said. “He is in good health and continues to be monitored routinely by the medical team of the Presidency of the Republic.”

Brazil's mayors and governors need to reopen the country for business, said President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday in an online broadcast.

The president emphasized that a potential economic crisis is more dangerous than the novel coronavirus, warning the consequences will be harmful to the country.

The death toll from COVID-19 in Brazil has reached 69,184, with 1,220 deaths registered in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health reported on Thursday.

The number of total confirmed cases of the disease in the country has reached 1,755,779, with 42,169 new cases registered over the last 24-hour period.

This is the third consecutive day when Brazil reported more than 1,200 deaths and 40,000 new cases of the virus.

Brazil is the second worst-hit country by the pandemic after the United States.

ALSO READ: EU raises its bet on blood plasma in search for virus therapy

Sudan

Sudan's Civil Aviation Authority on Thursday decided to reopen Khartoum airport for passenger flights from Egypt, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

"This decision comes in line with the decision of the Higher Committee for Health Emergencies relating to gradual return to normal life," said Ibrahim Adlan, director of the Civil Aviation Authority, in a statement.

"Egypt, Turkey and the UAE have announced opening of their airports to air traffic, which allows Sudan to communicate with them via national airlines or through the airlines companies in these countries," he added.

Adlan further explained that all passengers arriving at the Khartoum airport should follow the protocol of the Health Ministry, while Sudanese nationals or expats will have to go through medical examination procedures at the airport.

Greece

Greece will allow in visitors through its land border crossing with Bulgaria only if they show a negative COVID-19 test, the country’s government spokesman said on Friday.

The latest restriction will come into effect on July 14, at 0300 GMT, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said. The PCR test must be conducted within 72 hours prior the visit.

Algeria

A member of Algeria's Scientific Committee monitoring the spread of COVID-19 said on Thursday that about 1,700 medical staff in the country have been infected with the coronavirus.

Professor Abdelkrim Soukhal, a member of the committee, was quoted by local media as saying that "we have identified about 1,700 infections among the medical staff in the whole country."

He said that about 40 of the 1,700 infected people have died from the deadly infectious respiratory disease.

Soukhal said the medical staff entered the fight against the pandemic without "enough weapons."

At the same time, he assured that the situation was "under control" in Algeria and the committee is closely monitoring its developments.

As of July 9, Algeria has reported a total of 17,804 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 988 deaths.

Egypt

Egypt confirmed on Thursday 950 new COVID-19 infections and 53 fatalities, bringing the total cases registered in the country to 79,254 and the death toll to 3,617, said the health ministry.

Thursday's number of new infections is the lowest since May 28 when the daily increase started to surpass 1,000, while the new single-day deaths mark the fewest since June 13.

A record 1,774 daily infections was seen in Egypt on June 19.

Meanwhile, 512 patients were cured and discharged from hospitals on Thursday, raising the total recoveries to 22,753, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement.

The Cairo Opera House reopened on Thursday for about 400 visitors who attended a concert performed in an open-air theatre amid strict anti-COVID-19 measures.

"The organization has been a success and all anti-coronavirus precautionary measures have been strictly implemented," Egyptian Culture Ministry spokesman Mohamed Mounir told Xinhua, adding that the concert was attended by Culture Minister Inas Abdel-Dayem.

Morocco

Morocco announced on Thursday one-month extension of the state of health emergency since March 24 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state of health emergency throughout the country will be extended until Aug. 10 as part of efforts to fight coronavirus, said Saaid Amzazi, the government spokesman, at a press briefing.

Morocco reported 308 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, raising the total number in the North African country to 15,079, including 242 deaths.

Kenya

Kenya's total number of COVID-19 cases neared 9,000 mark on Thursday after the country confirmed 447 positive cases, the highest daily tally since the virus was reported in March, the health ministry said.

Mutahi Kagwe, cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Health, said the latest infections are from 3,803 samples tested in the last 24 hours.

Kagwe said the cumulative number of tests conducted so far now stands at 200,311 and the total caseload in the country is 8,975.

Botswana

Botswana's state-owned national flag carrier, Air Botswana will resume its domestic operations on July 17.

A statement issued by the airline on Thursday said Air Botswana will gradually increase frequency of operations on the basis of demand and reinstate regional operations as soon as the current travel restrictions are lifted.

Operations will be subject to health and safety protocols and the new ways of working.

Ghana

Ghana's number of COVID-19 infections increased to 23,463, with 641 new cases confirmed on Thursday, said the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

The number of persons discharged after treatment increased to 18,622, as authorities discharged 1,058 positive cases under treatment, said the Director-General of the GHS Patrick Kuma-Aboagye during the bi-weekly COVID-19 press briefing on Thursday.

With 322,910 tests, the death toll of the pandemic in Ghana remained at 129, while the number of active COVID-19 cases was 4,712.

"Our case fatality rate is 0.55 percent or 55 deaths in every 10,000 cases. There are 26 severe cases, out of which eight are critical and six on ventilators," Kuma-Aboagye said.

Romania

Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on Thursday asked for "general mobilization" of the ministries involved in the the fight against COVID-19, as the epidemic continued to intensify in the country, with daily new cases breaking the records for two consecutive days.

"All the ministries that are involved in the anti-COVID-19 battle must be mobilized to the maximum and use all the legal instruments in order to reduce the number of persons infected," Orban stressed at the beginning of  the government meeting.

"Priority Zero is ... respecting health protection norms everywhere: in public transport, in the metro, in the workplace," said Orban, warning about possible scenarios where Romania will be isolated from other European countries, following the increase of COVID-19 cases.

The latest official figures released Thursday showed that in the past 24 hours, the number of newly diagnosed patients exceeded the 600 mark to 614 for the first time since the outbreak, surpassing the record of 555 cases set a day ago.

So far, the total number of persons infected reached 30,789, out of 809,663 tests processed nationwide, announced the Strategic Communication Group (GCS), the official novel coronavirus communication task force.

France

Nearly two months into lockdown exit, France now sees its population back with their rituals again, with all indicators suggesting the epidemic situation is well under control. However, fears of a resurgence of coronavirus epidemic linger, forcing the government to be ready to protect the fragile recovery of economic activities.

Since June, the average of daily deaths caused by the respiratory disease stood below 50, sharply down from 500 in early April. Hospitalization data maintained its long-running decline and daily confirmed infections remained well below 3,000, the limit set by the government for reimposing restriction on people's movement.

The government, however, repeatedly warned that the epidemic is not over.

As of Thursday, France has registered 29,979 COVID-19 deaths and 170,094 confirm infection cases. Some 333 clusters have been detected since mid-May.

US

Coronavirus cases in the US rose by 61,791 from a day earlier to 3.08 million, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News. It was the first time the number of reported new cases exceeded the 60,000-a-day mark. The 2 percent increase was higher than the average daily increase of 1.9 percent over the past week. Deaths rose 0.7 percent to 132,803.

As many as 48 hospitals across US state Florida have reached their capacity in their intensive care units and show zero ICU beds available, a CNN report said Thursday.

Another 52 hospitals show ICU bed availability of 10 percent or less, according to data released by the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).

The sunshine state on Thursday reported nearly 9,000 new COVID-19 cases and at least 120 coronavirus-related deaths, bringing the total cases to more than 232,000 with over 4,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the state, said the report.

Texas reported a record number of deaths for the third straight day, topping 100 for the first time. Total fatalities rose 3.7 percent, to 2,918. The sharp increase in deaths this week follows a similar upturn in cases about three weeks ago.

The state has identified about 10,000 new cases for the past three days, bringing the total to 230,346. The 9,782 added Thursday was a 4.4 percent increase, exceeding the seven-day average of 4 percent.

New cases are eating up capacity for beds in intensive care units in Houston, which has the state’s worst outbreak. The city’s Texas Medical Center hospitals filled up all the ICU beds generally available last week, and has begun tapping converted beds.

READ MORE: World leaders discuss comprehensive approaches to tackle COVID-19

Finland

Finnish national carrier Finnair announced on Thursday that it is set to increase its traffic in July, as the Finnish government decided to lift travel restrictions for a raft of countries in and outside Europe.

Finnair is increasing its traffic in July and serves more than 30 destinations in Europe and some Asian destinations, including Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Seoul. The Shanghai route is still subject to government approvals, said the airline in a press release on Thursday.

In July, the number of the daily one-way flights to domestic, European and Asian destinations will increase up to 80. Finnair said that it has the capability to increase flights rapidly, when travel restrictions are removed and demand recovers.

Germany 

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 395 to 198,178, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Friday.

The reported death toll rose by six to 9,054, the tally showed.

Mexico

Mexico reported a record daily rise of 7,280 confirmed Covid-19 cases, bringing the total to 282,283, according to data released by the Health Ministry Thursday night. Deaths rose by 730 to 33,526.

It’s the second straight day that Mexico has posted a record daily rise in cases. The country has seen infections rise as the government moves forward with reopening the economy and as Latin America has emerged as a hotspot for the pandemic. Like other countries in the region, Mexican officials must balance the needs of people who have to work to meet basic needs while trying to slow the spread of the deadly illness.

Bulgaria

The Bulgarian Health Ministry on Friday morning reported a record high of 330 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the national tally to 6,672.

The previous daily record of new cases, 240, was reported on Thursday.

The nationwide death toll now stands at 262 after three more patients died in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.

It added that 525 patients are currently hospitalized, with 28 in intensive care, while the number of infected medical workers has reached 490.

Meanwhile, another 63 people have recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 3,229, the ministry said.

In a bid to stop the upward trend of COVID-19 cases, Bulgarian Health Minister Kiril Ananiev announced on Thursday the resumption of certain anti-epidemic measures, including closing indoor discos, piano bars, and nightclubs.

Russia

Russia registered 6,635 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking its total to 713,936, the country's coronavirus response center said in a statement Friday.

The country's death toll has risen by 174 to 11,017, while 489,068 people have recovered, including 7,752 over the last 24 hours, according to the statement.

Moscow, the country's worst-hit region, reported 637 newly confirmed cases, taking its tally of infections to 228,000.

On Thursday, 278,410 people were still under medical observation, while over 22.3 million tests have been conducted nationwide, Russia's consumer rights and human well-being watchdog said Friday in a separate statement.

Georgia 

Georgia confirmed five new COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing its total to 973.

Meanwhile, 4,851 people are under a 14-day mandatory quarantine, while 231 are under observation in hospital, according to the country's center for disease control.

As of Friday, 846 of the 973 patients have recovered, while 15 others have died, the center said.

According to the country's defense ministry, 28 Georgian soldiers were transported back from Afghanistan earlier Friday after having tested positive for the coronavirus.



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