Arab countries in the Persian Gulf region have locked down over-crowded labor camps and areas with large populations of low-wage workers in an attempt to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, leaving migrant workers stranded and jobless.

The over-crowded labor camps in the region, often unsanitary and populated with mostly Asian workers, are believed to be hotspots of the new coronavirus.

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), charity groups are looking for empty buildings to separate migrant workers, while Bahrain is repurposing closed schools to relocate low-income laborers from other overcrowded accommodation.

The deadly virus has also spread in densely-populated commercial districts where many expatriates share housing to save on rent.

“Many people are infected and are staying with other people,” Krishna Kumar, the president of the UAE-based Kerala Social Center, said on Wednesday. “We are trying to isolate them.”

Despite measures being taken to contain the spread of coronavirus, such as suspending passenger flights, closing most public venues, and imposing curfews, the number of coronavirus cases in the Arab states has been rising.

Doctors in the UAE, who spoke with Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said overcrowding is one of the biggest factors for the surge in cases.

Several Persian Gulf Arab states have allowed outbound flights for foreign workers who have lost jobs or been put on leave, but some of the home countries say they are not prepared to take them back.

On Sunday, the UAE threatened to review labor ties with countries that refuse to allow workers who have lost their jobs to be repatriated. The UAE said it would limit quotas for work visas issued to the citizens of those countries.

The new coronavirus, which causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19, emerged in the city of Wuhan in December last year, incrementally affecting the rest of the world.

The virus has so far infected 2,000,065 people worldwide, and over 126,754 have died, according to a running count by worldometers.info.

The UAE, which has the second largest number of coronavirus cases after Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf, has so far recorded more than 4,933 confirmed cases and 28 deaths.

Source: Presstv

New York City, the hardest hit U.S. city in the coronavirus pandemic, revised its official COVID-19 death toll sharply higher to more than 10,000 on Tuesday to include victims presumed to have perished from the disease but never tested.

The new cumulative figure for “confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths” released by the New York City Health Department marked a staggering increase of over 3,700 deaths formally attributed to the highly contagious illness since March 11.

The 60 percent spike in reported deaths underscored the enormous losses endured in the nation’s most populous city, where the sounds of wailing sirens have echoed almost non-stop through largely empty streets for weeks.

The city’s revised count, 10,367 in all, raised the number of coronavirus deaths nationwide to more than 28,300 – New York accounting for the biggest share of deaths.

With only a tiny fraction of the U.S. population tested for coronavirus, the number of known infections climbed to more than 600,000 as of Tuesday, according to a running Reuters tally.

U.S. public health authorities have generally only attributed deaths to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, when patients tested positive for the virus.

New York City’s Health Department said it will now also count any fatality deemed a “probable” coronavirus death, defined as a victim whose “death certificate lists as a cause of death ‘COVID-19’ or an equivalent.”

March 11 was used as the starting point because that was the date of the first confirmed coronavirus death, the city said.

“Behind every death is a friend, a family member, a loved one,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot. “We are focused on ensuring that every New Yorker who died because of COVID-19 gets counted.”

The new approach in New York City could pave the way for similar policies across the country, possibly leading to a surge in the US number of reported coronavirus deaths.

Even before Tuesday’s revision in New York City, the number of new U.S. deaths on Tuesday had reached at least 2,228, the highest toll yet in a single 24-hour period.

‘Not a comfortable place’

Louisiana, another coronavirus hot spot, and California also reported record daily spikes in deaths on Tuesday, despite tentative signs across the country in recent days the outbreak was beginning to ebb.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state’s healthcare network was strained to breaking point by a wave of COVID-19 hospitalisations, had said on Monday it appeared “the worst is over.”

Health officials have cautioned that death figures are a lagging indicator of the outbreak, coming after the most severely ill patients fall sick, and do not mean stay-at-home restrictions are failing to curb transmissions.

New York state and some other hard-hit areas continue to report sharp decreases in hospitalisations and numbers of patients on ventilators, although front-line healthcare workers and resources remained under extraordinary stress.

“The plateau is not a very comfortable place to live,” David Reich, president of New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, said in a telephone interview. “So I don’t think people should be celebrating prematurely.”

That cautious note was also sounded by President Donald Trump’s top infectious diseases adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said Trump’s May 1 target for restarting the economy was “overly optimistic”.

Fauci, echoing many governors, said in an Associated Press interview that health officials must first be able to test for the virus quickly, isolate new cases and track down new infections.

At his daily White House briefing later in the day, Trump said he was close to completing a plan for ending America’s coronavirus shutdown, which has thrown millions out of work, and may forge ahead with restarting the battered U.S. economy in some parts of the country even before May 1.

The president took renewed aim at the World Health Organization at the briefing, saying he has instructed his administration to halt U.S. funding to the Geneva-based institution over its handling of the pandemic.

Mutiny on the bounty

Trump, a Republican who before the outbreak touted a vibrant economy as a pillar of his Nov. 3 re-election bid, earlier lashed out at Democratic state governors, after Cuomo said he would refuse any presidential order to reopen the economy too soon.

“Tell the Democrat Governors that ‘Mutiny On The Bounty’ was one of my all time favorite movies,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, referring to a classic film about an 18th-century rebellion against the commanding officer of a British naval vessel.

But Trump toned down his remarks at the White House briefing saying he would “authorize” governors – despite doubts from some experts that the presidency has such powers – to implement plans in their states at the appropriate time.

Cuomo, a Democrat, and governors of six other northeastern states have announced they are coordinating on a regional plan to gradually lift restrictions. The governors of California, Oregon and Washington formed a similar West Coast regional pact.

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Oregon Governor Kate Brown, both Democrats, on Tuesday offered frameworks for eventually restarting public life and business in their states.

Some Republicans, including the governors of Ohio, Maryland and New Hampshire, also said states have the right to decide when and how to reopen.

(REUTERS)

A spike in racial discrimination in China prompted by fears over the Covid-19 pandemic has led some in the African diapora to reevaluate the relationship between the African continent and Beijing.

Over the past week, footage has been published on social media showing Africans in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou being evicted from their apartments, refused access to hotels or restaurants, and being forced to sleep on the streets. These incidents occurred ostensibly as part of efforts to halt the spread of Covid-19 in the country but have led to a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and African nations.

The images sparked outrage across Africa, with the hashtag #chinamustexplain trending on Twitter and Chinese ambassadors being summoned by irate officials in Nigeria and Ghana, to name but a few. African ambassadors in China wrote to the foreign minister this week over what they called the “stigmatisation and discrimination” being faced by their citizens.

Beijing initially chose to dismiss and deny the accounts of unfair treatment.

“We do not have discrimination in China against African brothers,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Monday. He then accused the United States of trying to exploit the issue to undermine China’s relations with Africa. The statement came after a group of African ambassadors in Beijing expressed concern over numerous reports of Africans being forced into quarantine or being singled out for scrutiny by health authorities.

The tone then appeared to soften, as China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke on the phone with Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairperson of the African Union Commission, with Wang assuring Mahamat that measures were being taken to improve the situation of Africans in Guanghzou. Mahamat later described the relationship between China and Africa in a tweet as being “strong and brotherly”. It now appears that most of the displaced Africans in Guangzhou have found places to stay and that city authorities are engaging in consultations with the African community as well as academics to repair the relationship.

On Monday, ambassadors and envoys from more than 20 African nations met with China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs, Chen Xiaodong. Chen vowed to lift the health measures aimed at African residents except for those with confirmed cases of Covid-19, AFP reported.  

Over the past 20 years, China has become an increasingly influential presence on the continent as Africa’s natural resources have helped fuel the country’s meteoric economic development. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the Chinese government as well as its banks and companies have lent some $143 billion to Africa between 2000 and 2017, often to finance large infrastructure projects. Recent estimates put the number of Chinese citizens currently residing in Africa at one million while some 200,000 Africans live and work in China.

But for some within the African diaspora, the events of the past week have signaled a change in how they view the China-Africa relationship. Nillah Nyakoa, a Kenyan citizen who has been living in China since 2009 and who works for China Radio International, told FRANCE 24 that the events of the past few weeks might change her view on her host country as imbalances in the relationship come to the fore.

“I’ve called China home for so many years, my narrative has always been about pushing a positive image about China because of my experiences. But when I see my fellow African people being treated as second-class citizens, obviously it makes me want to change my mind.”

“We give good treatment to Chinese people in Africa and it’s not being reciprocated,” she added.

For Samantha Sibanda, the founder of the Appreciate Africa Network, this discrimination has always been present. Her organisation has been trying to counteract the negative perception of Africans in China since 2013 and organises an annual Pride of Africa Asia Award to promote the achievements of her fellow Africans in China.

“People are blowing things out of proportion; this is not new for me,” she said. “This is what we go through every other day.” She cites the difficulty Africans face in obtaining visas or securing equal pay, and said these difficulties will remain even once the pandemic is over.

As for the recent incidents, she said African governments – which have a responsibility to defend the interests of their citizens in China – and media coverage are both to blame.

“Chinese people are never shown Africans doing well in China,” Sibanda said.

Source: France 24

China has rejected accusations that it is discriminating against Africans amid the COVID-19 epidemic in the country.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian emphasized during a daily briefing on Monday that all individuals in the country, including “African brothers,” were being treated as equals.

The Chinese official rejected accusations by American and African officials about the alleged mistreatment of black people in in China in the middle of the coronavirus epidemic, particularly in the southern city of Guangzhou.

He said accusations that Beijing was racially discriminating in its measures to prevent the spread of the disease were an abortive attempt by the US to harm China’s growing relations with African countries.

China treats all foreigners equally, Zhao insisted.

A US Embassy security alert on Saturday claimed that Chinese “police ordered bars and restaurants not to serve clients who appear to be of African origin,” and local officials launched mandatory testing and self-quarantine for “anyone with African contacts.”

It had allegedly been rumored that some infected Africans had ignored quarantine measures and gone to a family restaurant, infecting both the owner and his eight-year-old son, who later died due to complications from the infection.

The police and public health bureau in Guangzhou told reporters that officials had responded to rumors that “300,000 black people in Guangzhou were setting off a second epidemic.”

In related news, the Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe dismissed the accusation that Africans were being targeted and mistreated in the country.

While acknowledging that there had been some incidents, it pointed out that highlighting the events could be detrimental to bilateral relations.

“It is harmful to sensationalize isolated incidents,” it said in a Twitter statement. “China treats all individuals in the country, Chinese and foreign alike, as equals.”

Over 1.84 million people are diagnosed with COVID-19 across the globe, and 114,090 others have died according to the latest data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

China, where the virus first emerged, has brought its epidemic under control, while essentially the rest of the world continues to grapple with rising cases.

Source: Presstv

The United States on Friday became the first country to record more than 2,000 coronavirus deaths in one day, with 2,108 fatalities in the past 24 hours, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.

The US has now recorded over 18,680 deaths and is closing in on the toll of 18,850 dead in Italy, which has seen the most fatalities so far in the global pandemic.

America is also approaching half a million confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 501,000 as of Saturday morning an increase of 35,098 in the past 24 hours.

Globally, there have been nearly 1.7 million confirmed cases, with the death toll topping 100,000 on Friday.

New York state, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, along with the neighboring states of New Jersey and Connecticut, were recording some of the worst outbreaks in the country, even as public health authorities expressed optimism that the pace of infections appeared to be slowing.

As of Saturday, the New York City metropolitan area had 5,820 coronavirus deaths, counting for more than half the nation’s fatalities.

The US is on track to overtake Italy as the country with the highest number of dead, though the true figures on infections and lives lost around the world are believed be much higher because of limited testing, government cover-ups and different counting practices.

With many Americans celebrating the Easter holiday on Sunday, the top US infectious disease expert warned that it is too early to relax restrictions on Americans.

“Now is no time to back off,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said.

The social distancing guidelines have taken a toll on the U.S. economy. Some economists are forecasting job losses of up to 20 million in April, raising questions about how long business closures and travel restrictions can be sustained.

(Source: Agencies)

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged the Security Council on Thursday to display unity as it met to discuss what he called the “fight of a generation” — the global coronavirus pandemic.

“A signal of unity and resolve from the Council would count for a lot at this anxious time,” Guterres told the divided body holding its first meeting about the crisis.

The meeting of the 15-member Security Council is being held behind closed doors by videoconference but the UN released a copy of the secretary general’s remarks. 

“The engagement of the Security Council will be critical to mitigate the peace and security implications of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Guterres said.

“To prevail against the pandemic today, we will need to work together,” he said. “That means heightened solidarity.

“This is the fight of a generation — and the raison d’être of the United Nations itself,” he said.

Security Council members gathered after weeks of disagreement — especially between the United States and China, where the coronavirus outbreak began in December.

Led by Germany, the meeting was requested last week by nine of the council’s 10 non-permanent members who were fed up with the body’s inaction over the unprecedented global crisis.

Though the council meeting was closed-door, several ambassadors taking part released extracts of their remarks on Twitter or to reporters.

While Germany described the pandemic as an “international peace and security issue,” several other countries, notably Russia, China and South Africa, said health matters were not part of the Security Council’s brief.

France, meanwhile, confirmed that it would provide 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) to fight the virus in Africa.

Non-permanent member Estonia, for its part, said holding the Security Council meeting was “better late than never,” a jab at those seen as delaying the talks.

‘Missing in action’

Ahead of the meeting, the United States and China had been arguing over the origins of the virus, which President Donald Trump has referred to as the “Chinese virus.”

There were two competing draft resolutions up for debate.

One, spearheaded by Tunisia on behalf of the 10 non-permanent members and obtained by AFP, calls for “an urgent, coordinated and united international action to curb the impact of COVID-19.”

It calls for the Security Council to “monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international peace and security and asks the Secretary General to brief the Council on such developments when appropriate.”

It also seeks an “immediate global ceasefire to allow for adequate humanitarian response” to the pandemic.

That draft resolution has been in development since March 30 and has only been discussed by the 10 non-permanent members.

The second text, proposed by France, focuses on Guterres’s call last month to cease all hostilities around the world as part of a “humanitarian pause” to fight the pandemic.

That one has only had input from the five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — which diplomats from non-permanent countries told AFP has been “very frustrating.”

France has argued that the so-called P5 need to smooth out their differences before any wider negotiations with the council.

But efforts to convene a meeting of the five have been stymied by the hospitalization of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has the COVID-19 illness, and Chinese reticence to participate without first setting a clear agenda.

While Gutteres has been outspoken about the crisis and the 193 members of the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution calling for “cooperation,” an ambassador to the UN described the Security Council as “missing in action.”

In the Security Council, at least nine votes out of 15 are necessary to adopt a resolution, without a veto by one of the five permanent members.

Source: AFP

Confirmed coronavirus cases across the globe now number at 1,347,803, and a total of 74,807 people have lost their lives as a result of complications caused by the virus, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. More than 277,400 people have recovered.

The United States leads all the 213 countries and territories affected by the highly contagious virus across the world with 368,196 confirmed infections. Italy remains the country with the highest death toll, which now stands at 16,523. And China — where the virus first emerged late last year — has reported no deaths from the virus for the first time since it began releasing daily data in January.

Source: Presstv

A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywhere, federal officials and the zoo said Sunday.

The 4-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia – and six other tigers and lions that have also fallen ill – are believed to have been infected by a zoo employee who wasn’t yet showing symptoms, the zoo said. The first animal started showing symptoms March 27, and all are doing well and expected to recover, said the zoo, which has been closed to the public since March 16 amid the surging coronavirus outbreak in New York.

The test result stunned zoo officials: “I couldn’t believe it,” director Jim Breheny said. But he hopes the finding can contribute to the global fight against the virus that causes COVID-19.

“Any kind of knowledge that we get on how it’s transmitted, how different species react to it, that knowledge somehow is going to provide a greater base resource for people,” he said in an interview.

The finding raises new questions about transmission of the virus in animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which confirmed Nadia’s test result at its veterinary lab, said there are no known cases of the virus in U.S. pets or livestock.

“There doesn’t appear to be, at this time, any evidence that suggests that the animals can spread the virus to people or that they can be a source of the infection in the United States,” Dr. Jane Rooney, a veterinarian and a USDA official, said in an interview.

The USDA said Sunday it’s not recommending routine coronavirus testing of animals, in zoos or elsewhere, or of zoo employees. Still, Rooney said a small number of animals in the U.S. have been tested through the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories, and all those tests came back negative except Nadia’s.

The coronavirus outbreaks around the world are driven by person-to-person transmission, experts say.

There have been a handful of reports outside the U.S. of pet dogs or cats becoming infected after close contact with contagious people, including a Hong Kong dog that tested positive for a low level of the pathogen in February and early March. Hong Kong agriculture authorities concluded that pet dogs and cats couldn’t pass the virus to human beings but could test positive if exposed by their owners.

Some researchers have been trying to understand the susceptibility of different animal species to the virus, and to determine how it spreads among animals, according to the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.

The American Veterinary Medical Association and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  have been recommending that out of an abundance of caution, people ill with the coronavirus should limit contact with animals – advice that the veterinary group reiterated after learning of the tiger’s test result.

In general, the CDC also advises people to wash their hands after handling animals and do other things to keep pets and their homes clean.

Dry coughs, wheezing and loss of appetite

At the Bronx Zoo, Nadia, her sister Azul, two Amur tigers and three African lions developed dry coughs, and some of the cats exhibited some wheezing and loss of appetite, said Dr. Paul Calle, the zoo’s chief veterinarian.

The staff figured there could be a relatively routine explanation for the cats’ symptoms but tested Nadia for coronavirus out of “due diligence and an abundance of caution,” Breheny said. Only Nadia was tested because it takes anesthesia to get a sample from a big cat, and she had already been knocked out to be examined.

Calle said the test was different from the one used for people and was carried out by a veterinary school laboratory, not one that handles human samples.

“There is no competition for testing between these two very different situations,” he said.

The seven sickened cats live in two areas at the zoo, and the animals had contact with the same worker, who is doing OK, zoo officials said. They said there are no signs of illness in other big cats on the property.

Staffers who work with the cats will now wear infection-protection garb, as primate keepers have done for years because of the animals’ closer genetic ties to human beings, Breheny said.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as a fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and can be fatal.

Source: AP

Queen Elizabeth told the British people on Sunday that they would overcome the coronavirus outbreak if they stayed resolute in the face of lockdown and self-isolation, invoking the spirit of World War Two in an extremely rare broadcast to the nation.

In what was only the fifth televised address of her 68-year reign, Elizabeth called upon Britons to show the resolve of their forbears and demonstrate they were as strong as generations of the past.

“Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it,” the 93-year-old monarch said in the address from her Windsor Castle home where she is staying with her husband Prince Philip, 98.

“While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed – and that success will belong to every one of us.”

The broadcast came hours after officials said the death toll in Britain from the virus had risen by 621 in the last 24 hours to 4,934 with high fatalities still expected in the next week.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is among those in self-isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, and the queen’s own son and heir Prince Charles, 71, has recovered after suffering mild symptoms of the virus.

Like many countries in Europe, Britain is in a state of virtual lockdown, with people told to stay at home unless it was essential to go out. Health minister Matt Hancock said even stricter rules might be imposed if the current rules to curb the spread of the virus were flouted.

World War Two Spirit

Elizabeth thanked those who were staying at home, thereby helping to spare others from suffering the grief already felt by some families.

She also paid tribute to health care staff for their selfless work and commended the “heart-warming” stories of people across the Commonwealth, of which she is head, and beyond for delivering food and medicines to those who needed them.

Sunday’s address was extremely rare as the queen usually only speaks to the nation in her annual televised Christmas Day message.

In order to ensure any risk to the elderly monarch herself was mitigated, it was filmed in a big room to ensure a safe distance between her and the cameraman, who wore gloves and a mask and was the only other person present.

Elizabeth said the situation reminded her of her first ever broadcast in 1940, when she and her late sister Margaret spoke from Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes to escape bombing raids by Nazi German aircraft.

She said that in the future people could take pride in how they too had dealt with such a challenge and disruption to their lives.

“Those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any,” she said. “That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country. The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future.”

She even invoked the words of the famous song “We’ll Meet Again” by Vera Lynn from World War Two which became a symbol of hope for Britons during the conflict.

“We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return,” she said. “We will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.”

(REUTERS)