The head of the World Health Organization gave a strident defence of his agency’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism and suggestions that Washington could review its funding for the agency.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for unity and a halt to “politicization” of the global health crisis, specifically urging China and the United States to show “honest leadership”.

Tedros said he expected U.S. funding to continue with traditional bipartisan support.

Trump and his administration repeated its criticism, on Wednesday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington was re-evaluating U.S. funding to the body, saying international organizations utilizing U.S. taxpayer money needed to deliver on their goals. But he objected to a leadership change at the WHO at this time.

U.S. contributions to the WHO in 2019 exceeded $400 million, almost double the second-largest country donor, according to U.S. figures. The WHO website shows the United States as its top donor, contributing nearly 15% of the budget.

Trump told the daily White House briefing on the coronavirus that Beijing’s payment was a small fraction of Washington’s WHO contribution, and that was “not fair at all.”

“So, we’re going to do study, investigation. And we’re going to make a determination as to what we’re doing. In the meantime, we’re holding back. We … want to see.”

Trump said the WHO issued a statement on Jan. 14 saying “there was no human-to-human transmission” and criticized him “very strongly” when he said he was going to shut down flights from China.

Tedros said the WHO had “kept the world informed about the latest data, information and evidence” and noted that Thursday would mark 100 days since China first notified the organization of cases of “pneumonia with unknown cause” on Dec. 31.

Tedros, a former foreign minister of Ethiopia, rejected Trump’s suggestion that the WHO was “China-centric”, saying: “We are close to every nation, we are colour-blind.”

Earlier, Dr Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to Tedros, also defended the U.N. agency’s relationship with China, saying its work with Beijing authorities was important to understand the outbreak.

“It was absolutely critical in the early part of this outbreak to have full access to everything possible, to get on the ground and work with the Chinese to understand this,” said Aylward, who led a WHO expert mission to China in February.

In an interview with KDKA Radio, Pompeo said: “I think it’s pretty clear that the World Health Organization hasn’t lived up to its billing, it hasn’t been able to achieve what it was designed to achieve, and we just can’t continue to permit that to go on. We’ve got to find a way.”

Pompeo was asked at the coronavirus briefing whether it was time to change the WHO leadership and replied: “This is not the time to be doing that kind of change.”

‘We make mistakes’

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday now was not the time to assess the global response to the pandemic, calling instead for the international community to focus on working in solidarity to stop the virus.

Tedros said his U.N. agency would conduct its usual assessment of its performance after the emergency and draw lessons about its strengths and weaknesses, adding: “We make mistakes like other human beings.”

He summarised his advice as: “Please, unity at national level, no using COVID for political points. Second, honest solidarity at the global level. And honest leadership from the U.S. and China.”

“The most powerful should lead the way and please quarantine COVID politics,” he added, referring to COVID-19, the highly contagious, sometimes deadly illness caused by the new coronavirus.

Tedros said Beijing and Washington should follow the example of what the former Soviet Union and the United States did in 1967 when they launched a 10-year global campaign that eradicated smallpox, a disease then killing 2 million people annually.

Tedros rejected “racist slurs” against him, which he said had originated in Taiwan, and disclosed that he had also received a death threat during the crisis.

“We are losing people, why would I care about being attacked when people are dying?” he said, noting there were already “60,000 body bags” after more than 1.3 million infections.

“We will have many body bags in front of us if we don’t behave,” he added.

Source: REUTERS

President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to cut US funding to the World Health Organization, accusing it of bias toward China during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump told reporters he was “going to put a very powerful hold on” funding to WHO, the UN body whose biggest funding source is the United States.

“We’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO,” said Trump, who pursues an “America First” agenda and has previously criticised other UN and multilateral agencies.

He gave no details about how much money would be withheld and minutes later during the same press conference he said: “I’m not saying I’m going to do it.”

“We will look at ending funding,” he added.

According to Trump, the WHO “seems to be very biased toward China. That’s not right.”

His comments built on an earlier statement on Twitter in which he accused the WHO of being “very China centric.”

Trump asked why the WHO had given “such a faulty recommendation,” apparently referring to the UN body’s advice against curtailing international travel to stop the virus which first spread from China.

“Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on,” Trump wrote, referring to his decision to ban travel from the country.

China faces criticism in Washington, particularly from Republicans, over the way it handled the pandemic and Trump has expressed doubt over the accuracy of Chinese statistics for cases and deaths.

However, Trump himself has been widely criticized for initially downplaying the virus, which he likened to an ordinary flu and said was under control in the United States, before later accepting that it was a national emergency.

More than 12,000 Americans have now died from COVID-19.

(AFP)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the precautionary measures enforced by governments to curb the COVID-19 epidemic should not be lifted “too early” as health risks still largely persist.

In a statement on Tuesday, the UN agency said that it could not come up with a blanket recommendation for all countries and regions across the globe on easing the precautionary measures, but urged them not lift them prematurely.

“One of the most important parts is not to let go of the measures too early in order not to have a fall back again,” said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier in a virtual briefing. “It’s similar to being sick yourself; if you get out of bed too early and get running too early, you risk falling back and having complications.”

The COVID-19 disease, caused by a new coronavirus, is believed to have transmitted from wildlife to human beings in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and is currently affecting 209 countries and territories across the globe. It has so far affected more than 1,362,040 people and killed over 76,340. The WHO has already declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic.

The United States leads all countries and territories affected by the highly contagious virus across the world with 367,720 confirmed infections as of Tuesday. Italy remains the country with the highest death toll, now at 16,523.

The WHO warning comes as many European countries such as France, Spain, Belgium, and Finland are already looking to ease the crippling lockdowns imposed across their territories.

They have established expert committees to work out a gradual easing of stay-at-home orders for some businesses and schools while trying to avoid a likely second wave of the pandemic that could overwhelm their health services.

Source: Presstv

There are now more than over 9,300 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the continent, with a number of African countries imposing a range of prevention and containment measures against the spread of the pandemic.

According to the latest data by the John Hopkins University and Africa Center for Disease Control on COVID-19 in Africa, the breakdown remains fluid as countries confirm cases as and when. The whole of Africa has rising cases with only three countries holding out as of April 6.

We shall keep updating this list which will be put in sub-continental blocs: East, West, Central, southern and North Africa. All statistics are sourced from Africa CDC updates, from the John Hopkins University and from official government data.

The classifications are based on where the countries are located especially in the case of countries that belong to two different blocs, like Tanzania in East Africa, despite belonging to EAC and SADC.

Major stats as at April 3

Confirmed cases = 9,393

Number of deaths = 445

Recoveries = 906

Infected countries = 51

Virus-free countries = 3

Countries in alphabetical order

Algeria – 1,320

Angola – 14

Benin – 66

Botswana – 6

Burkina Faso – 345

Burundi – 3

Cameroon – 650

Cape Verde – 7

Central African Republic – 8

Chad – 9

Congo-Brazzaville – 45

DR Congo – 154

Djibouti – 59

Egypt – 1,173

Equatorial Guinea – 16

Eritrea – 29

Ethiopia – 44

Eswatini – 9

Gabon – 24

(The) Gambia – 4

Ghana – 214

Guinea – 121

Guinea-Bissau – 18

Ivory Coast – 261

Kenya – 142

Liberia – 13

Libya – 18

Madagascar – 72

Malawi – 4

Mali – 45

Mauritania – 6

Mauritius – 227

Morocco – 1,113

Mozambique – 10

Namibia – 16

Niger – 184

Nigeria- 232

Rwanda – 104

Senegal – 222

Seychelles – 10

Sierra Leone – 6

Somalia – 7

South Africa – 1,655

South Sudan – 1

Sudan – 12

Tanzania – 22

Togo – 44

Tunisia – 574

Uganda – 52

Zambia – 39

Zimbabwe – 9

Virus-free = Sao Tome and Principe, Comoros, Lesotho, South Sudan

Culled from Africa News

The world is used to thinking that American systems are the best in the world, but a small virus has simply exposed the so-called superpower.

While other countries have gone about the spread of the Coronavirus in a quiet and philosophical manner, in America, it has become a soap opera, with politics standing in the way of business.

Just agreeing on the way forward has been an Herculean task. America is not the only democracy in the world and it is not the only developed country in this planet of ours.

I have always held that size is not necessarily a sign of strength. For decades, Japan with a small population was a lot stronger, both militarily and economically than China that has always counted over a billion inhabitants.

Today, the American tenet that bigger is better is simply falling apart. Its ability to deal with health emergencies has been tested and this country has failed the test woefully.

The American health system leaves much to be desired and due to nasty politics, it will be tough to get the system fixed.

 The American healthcare system like the country’s electoral system needs a facelift, but this will not be possible in a context in which winning an election trumps over other components of life.

The political bickering is making it hard for even the smallest things to be achieved. Even in the face of a pandemic that is robbing many families of their happiness, Americans are still fighting, instead of working together to keep this invisible enemy at bay.

There is no cure for this pandemic and it seems to be determined to spread across the country at lightning speed. For now, the only hope is the use of hydroxychloroquine to save some lives, but the pushback is incredible.

For weeks, the American drama has been playing out, but it is not palatable to millions across the world.

 The world is really sick and tired of hearing Americans resisting the use of hydroxychloroquine which is already being used in other countries.

This medication is being tried in Canada and  a French expert has proven that lives have been saved, thanks to this medication.

I know some American media networks such as CNN hate Trump with his policies and they are doing a great job at giving him a very bad name for floating the idea that hydroxychloroquine could be used, especially in an election year. But what options do Americans really have in the face of this pandemic that is mowing down many of their fellow citizens?

 This medication has been used for decades against malaria in Africa and it did really save so many lives. Its side effects are known and its potential to slow down the virus is no longer a secret.

 Is the world going to wait for American laboratories to accept that this drug be used before it becomes useable across the world?

 Anyways, for many people across the world who are simply spectators, they will continue to watch this drama from a distance as Americans die like flies which have been sprayed with a strong insecticide.

There is an urgent need to save lives and many people around the world think that a lot of flexibility needs to be demonstrated when the world is faced with medical emergencies.

Of what value will it be to manufacture a ‘silver bullet’ that will take two years when everybody would have been dead and gone?

If this medication had all the side effects Americans are raising today, why did they ship this drug to Africa? Is it that Africans are not human enough? The number of deaths in America will continue to rise if strong and robust measures are not taken. And for now, only hydroxychloroquine holds that promise.

In less than a month, America has lost more than 8,000 people. How many more Americans need to die before the CNN and other media outfits that hate the Trump administration can understand that the world has been thrust into a race against time?

What if Trump’s gamble pays off, will the CNN and its likes acknowledge their own mistakes? Many non-Americans usually side with the Democrats, but in this case, they don’t think lives must be wasted just because the idea is Trump’s.

 A little bit of modesty and caution could help postpone death for thousands of Americans who are waiting for any medication that can bring them some relief.

How did China cure its own cases? Can Americans be humble enough to learn from those who have already gone through this ordeal? 

For how long are they going to continue fighting each other while the real enemy continues to blight their lives?

This is no time for talking. All efforts must be geared towards finding a solution. It does not really matter who comes up with one. The world just needs to roll back the insidious virus. That should be the focus.

By Dr Joachim Arrey

More than 1,206,480 declared cases have been registered in 190 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China in December. Of these cases, at least 233,300 are now considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP offices from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are only testing cases that require hospitalisation.

Italy, which recorded its first coronavirus death at the end of February, has 15,362 fatalities, with 124,632 infections and 20,996 people recovered.

Spain recorded 12,418 fatalities and 130,759 infections, followed by the United States with 8,503 deaths and 312,245 cases — the highest in the world.

France has reported 7,560 deaths and 89,953 infections, followed by Britain (4,313 deaths and 41,903 cases).

China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 3,329 deaths and 81,669 cases, with 76,964 recoveries.

Europe has listed 642,330 cases and 47,093 deaths to date, the US and Canada together have 326,117 cases with 8,747 deaths, Asia 117,571 cases and 4,172 deaths, the Middle East 74,670 cases and 3,779 deaths, Latin America and the Caribbean 30,539 cases with 1,052 deaths, Africa 8,578 cases with 388 deaths and Oceania 6,675 cases with 41 deaths.

Source: AFP

Prince Charles opened a new 4,000-bed temporary hospital in a conference centre in east London on Friday, the first of several being built in Britain to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

The new state-run National Health Service (NHS) Hospital is named after the trailblazing 19th-century nurse Florence Nightingale and has been built in just nine days.

Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest son and heir officially launched the facility via videolink from Scotland, where he has been in self-isolation after testing positive for COVID-19.

He paid tribute to everyone involved, calling it “quite frankly incredible” to have transformed the giant ExCeL centre into a critical care facility in such a short space of time.

“I was one of the lucky ones to have COVID-19 relatively mildly,” he said. “But for some, it will be a much harder journey.

“I am therefore so relieved that everyone can now have the reassurance that they will receive all the necessary technical care they may need, and every chance to return to a normal life.”

With Nightingale often named “The Lady of the Lamp” and seen as one of the founders of modern nursing, he said the name was appropriate.

“In this dark time, this place will place will be a shining light,” the prince said, but added that he hoped it would not required for long.

NHS Nightingale London will initially take 500 people in the coming days, said Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has also tested positive for COVID-19.

It will take intensive care patients with COVID-19 from other London hospitals, which have seen the most number of cases across Britain.

– ‘Invisible killer’ –

The size of 10 district general hospitals, the new facility has more than 80 wards, each containing 42 beds, and when fully operational will require more than 16,000 staff to run.

Hancock praised the NHS, a taxpayer funded service free at the point of use, which has been struggling in recent years as a result of public spending cuts.

“In these troubled times, with this invisible killer stalking the whole world, the fact that in this country we have the NHS is even more valuable than before,” he said.

Temporary hospitals are also being built in exhibition centres in the cities of Birmingham and Manchester, with capacity of up to 3,000 beds between them.

A third is under construction in Glasgow and plans are also in place to build two more in Bristol, in western England, and the northern city of Harrogate offering 1,500 beds.

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said he hoped the extra two sites would not be needed.

“That will partly depend on continuing public support for measures to reduce growth in the infection rate by staying at home to save lives,” he said in a statement.

However, health officials say the measures will take time to have an effect and the death toll continues to mount rapidly, reaching 2,921 on Wednesday.

Source: AFP

There are now more than over 6,700 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the continent, with a number of African countries imposing a range of prevention and containment measures against the spread of the pandemic.

According to the latest data by the Africa Center for Disease Control on COVID-19 in Africa, the breakdown remains fluid as countries confirm cases as and when. The whole of Africa has rising cases with a handful of countries holding out.

We shall keep updating this list which will be put in sub-continental blocs: East, West, Central, southern and North Africa. All statistics are sourced from Africa CDC updates, from the John Hopkins University and from official government data.

The classifications are based on where the countries are located especially in the case of countries that belong to two different blocs, like Tanzania in East Africa, despite belonging to EAC and SADC.SUGGESTED READING: Malawi records three cases of coronavirus

Major stats as at April 3

Confirmed cases = 7, 064
Number of deaths = 290
Recoveries =622
Infected countries = 50
Virus-free countries = 4

Countries in alphabetical order

• Algeria – 986
• Angola – 8
• Benin – 13
• Botswana – 4
• Burkina Faso – 306
• Burundi – 3
• Cameroon – 233
• Cape Verde – 6
• Central African Republic – 8
• Chad – 8
• Congo-Brazzaville – 22
• DR Congo – 134
• Djibouti – 40
• Egypt – 865
• Equatorial Guinea – 15
• Eritrea – 22
• Ethiopia – 35
• Eswatini – 9
• Gabon – 21
• (The) Gambia – 4
• Ghana – 204
• Guinea – 52
• Guinea-Bissau – 9
• Ivory Coast – 194
• Kenya – 110
• Liberia – 6
• Libya – 11
• Madagascar – 59
• Malawi – 3
• Mali – 36
• Mauritania – 6
• Mauritius – 169
• Morocco – 735
• Mozambique – 10
• Namibia – 14
• Niger – 98
• Nigeria- 184
• Rwanda – 84
• Senegal – 195
• Seychelles – 10
• Sierra Leone – 2
• Somalia – 5
• South Africa – 1,462
• Sudan – 8
• Tanzania – 20
• Togo – 39
• Tunisia – 455
• Uganda – 45
• Zambia – 39
• Zimbabwe – 9

Virus-free = Sao Tome and Principe, Comoros, Lesotho, South Sudan

Culled from Africa News

The UK government said Friday it was rushing to build more emergency field hospitals ahead of an expected surge in coronavirus cases, hours after recording a record 569 deaths from the disease.

Two new facilities will be built in Bristol in the west and Harrogate in the north to house up to 1,500 patients, the state-run National Health Service (NHS) said in a statement.

The announcement comes as a similar 4,000-bed facility in London — built in less than ten days — prepares to open Friday, and as criticism mounts over the government’s failure to provide screening, particularly for frontline healthcare workers.

“Further such hospitals will open next in Birmingham and Manchester, offering up to 3,000 beds between them,” the NHS statement added.

The health ministry announced a record 569 deaths from the virus in Britain in the 24 hours up to 1600 GMT on Wednesday — the largest single-day rise yet.

It followed 563 deaths over the previous corresponding period.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said Britain will “massively increase testing” for the COVID-19 virus following criticism of his initial light-touch approach to the outbreak.

Johnson has been in self-isolation “with mild symptoms” at his Downing Street official residence since announcing on March 27 that he had caught the virus.

Heir to the throne Prince Charles Thursday made his first public comments since coming out of self-quarantine after contracting the disease, telling the PA news agency the experience had been “strange, frustrating and often distressing”.

In a video message, he praised the “utter, selfless devotion to duty” of Britain’s health workers.

The country took part in another collective round of applause at 8:00 pm (2000 GMT) Thursday, with social media videos capturing cheers across its cities, towns and villages.

– Growing backlash –

Johnson is facing criticism even in normally supportive media outlets after officials revealed that just 2,000 out of about 500,000 NHS staff had been tested.

Health minister Matt Hancock said Thursday the government was “determined” to scale up tests across the board in the coming weeks, with a “goal of 100,000 tests per day by the end of this month”.

Hancock blamed global demand for swabs and reagents for the lack of tests, and said that some they had bought were faulty.

In order to meet the demand, the government said it would work with private firms such as Amazon and chemist Boots, and that three new “mega labs” would soon be online.

Testing for the general public has also been criticised as not widespread enough and is currently largely limited to hospital admissions of the most serious COVID-19 patients.

On Tuesday, 10,000 hospital patients and NHS staff were tested in England, well below the daily target of 25,000 and the 70,000 a day achieved in Germany, which has been used as a comparison.

Paul Nurse, chief executive of biomedical research centre the Francis Crick Institute, told the BBC Thursday that the government should summon “the Dunkirk spirit” and let “small ship” labs start screening for the killer disease.

So far, Public Health England (PHE), the body tasked with testing, has insisted all screening should be carried out centrally.

PHE medical director Professor Paul Cosford defended his organisation’s work.

“At the very outset we identified this, we got the tests in place, we designed the tests in our laboratories. We have played our part,” he told BBC radio.

Britain is currently in the second week of a three-week lockdown, with non-essential shops shut and the public asked to stay at home to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The government has promised an enormous package of support for businesses and employees hit by the measures.

New government figures show 950,000 people applied for state welfare support known as universal credit in the last two weeks. It is available to the unemployed and those on low incomes.

With economic headwinds gathering pace, national carrier British Airways is also to temporarily lay off 28,000 staff, the union representing its workers announced Thursday.

Hancock, meanwhile, demanded that English Premier League footballers take a pay cut amid outrage at top flight clubs using a government furlough scheme for non-playing staff.

(Source: AFP)

Despite loud appeals for caution, Africans are rushing to embrace chloroquine, the venerable anti-malaria drug touted as a possible treatment for coronavirus.

From hospitals in Senegal to pharmaceutical companies in South Africa and street sellers in Cameroon, chloroquine has fired hopes of a medicinal fix against a virus that is set to scythe through Africa’s poorly protected countries.

Chloroquine and derivatives such as hydroxychloroquine have been used for decades as cheap and safe drugs against malaria, although their effectiveness in this field is now undermined by growing parasite resistance.

Small-scale tests in China and France — either unpublished or outside the rigorous framework of mainstream drug trials — suggest that chloroquine reduces virus levels in people with coronavirus.

On March 24, President Donald Trump said chloroquine could be a “gift from God” — a comment that sparked strident criticism.

Health watchdogs have issued calls for caution until larger clinical trials are carried out, and there have been several recorded deaths from self-medication because of toxic side effects.

Despite this, in many settings across Africa, chloroquine has been placed in the front line against coronavirus.

Its rise stems partly from desperation, given Africa’s meager capacity to deal with a pandemic on the scale seen in Europe or the United States.

Burkina Faso, Cameroon and South Africa have swiftly authorized hospitals to treat virus patients with the drugs.

Around half of infected people in Senegal are already being prescribed hydroxychloroquine, Moussa Seydi, a professor at Dakar’s Fann Hospital, told AFP last Thursday.

Every patient who was recommended the drug accepted it, “with no exceptions,” he said.

In Democratic Republic of Congo, President Felix Tshisekedi last week declared it was “urgent” to produce chloroquine “in industrial quantities”.

South Africa has already said it will join a large-scale trial, and one of the country’s biggest pharmaceutical companies has promised to donate half a million pills to the health authorities.

Africa last in line?

Even if the effectiveness of the drugs against coronavirus remains for now unproven, concern about securing enough of them already runs deep.

Two decades ago, Africa, the continent worst hit by HIV, was last in line to get new antiretroviral AIDS drugs when the treatment emerged from the labs.

“If it turns out that chloroquine is effective, Africa, which imports most of its drugs, perhaps won’t be a priority for (the pharmaceutical) industry,” said Professor Yap Boum of Epicenter Africa, the research arm of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

France has already imposed a ban on exporting chloroquine and Morocco has requisitioned all stocks of the drug.

“You won’t find any in pharmacies in Yaounde, everyone is out of stock,” Boum said, referring to the Cameroonian capital.

“Local people have been buying it, apparently without prescription, which is dangerous.”

The Cameroonian government has officially asked health professionals “not to yield to the desire for profit” and to avoid prescribing chloroquine preventatively.

AFP correspondents report frantic demand in pharmacies in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s economic hub, in the Angolan capital Luanda and also in Malawi — one of a handful of sub-Saharan nations where there are still no recorded cases of coronavirus.

The rush is a deep source of anxiety for people with the auto-immune disease called lupus, which is also treated with chloroquine.

In the Gabonese capital Libreville, Armelle Oyabi, head of an association of people with lupus, has been closely monitoring purchases at the only pharmacy left in the city that still has chloroquine.

“I check that the drug is being given to people who actually need it,” she said.

“If we can’t get this drug, we will not only be hit by lupus but also be more vulnerable to coronavirus.”

Chloroquine has been part of the medical toolkit from before World War II — it was developed in 1934 as a synthetic derivative of quinine.

Backstreet sales

Alice Desclaux, a doctor at the Institute of Development Research (IRD) in Senegal, said the risks from self-medication from chloroquine were largely rooted in illegal sales.

“Chloroquine has always been on sale informally in Africa,” she said.

“It’s still used to cause abortions” and even for attempted suicide, Desclaux said.

In one backstreet pharmacy in Douala, Cameroon’s economic hub, the manager said he had run out of stock.

For anyone who wished to order some, “careful, the price has gone up,” he said. A pill now changes hands for the equivalent of 71 US cents, four times more than a month ago.

The chloroquine craze is not just affecting the black market for drugs — it is also spurring the production of counterfeit medications.

Cameroon’s government has already issued a warning about fake chloroquine, samples of which have surfaced in health centers.

Source: AFP