South Korea elevates distancing as virus nears spring levels

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Beaches and churches were closed and baseball games were played in empty stadiums on Sunday after South Korea added hundreds of new cases to its growing coronavirus caseload amid concerns that the epidemic is getting out of control.

The 397 new cases reported by South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention marked the 10th straight day of triple-digit increases and indicated that the speed of the virus’s spread was nearing the levels seen during the worst of the outbreak in the spring.

The resurgence, which began in the densely populated capital area before reaching practically every major city and provincial town over the past week, is a major setback for a country that had been eager to tout its hard-won gains against the virus.

KCDC Director Jeong Eun-kyeong said things will probably get worse before they get better. The daily jumps could become even bigger in the coming days because health workers are increasingly struggling to keep up with the pace of infection, scrambling to trace and test the contacts of virus carriers, she said.

“We don’t see the current state as the peak ... we believe that infections could further increase,” Jeong said during a virus briefing. “Patients are increasing not only in the Seoul metropolitan region, but also across the 17 (major) cities and provinces throughout the country, pushing us on the verge of a massive nationwide outbreak.”

After avoiding stringent social distancing measures because of concerns about hurting the economy, officials stepped up restrictions nationwide on Sunday.

They banned gatherings of more than 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors and shut nightclubs, karaoke rooms, buffet restaurants and computer-gaming cafes. Churches can hold online services only while fans were removed from professional sports, just weeks after baseball and soccer teams had been allowed to sell limited portions of their seats.

The Seoul city government said it will require people to wear masks in public — indoors and outdoors — starting Monday. It wasn’t immediately clear how the city could effectively enforce such requirements. Seoul has been mandating masks on mass transport since May, but enforcement has been relatively lax as it depends on bus drivers and subway station workers.

Some experts say such measures are too little, too late.

There’s a possibility that government officials this week could further elevate social distancing measures to “Level 3,” which could include prohibiting gatherings of more than 10 people, shutting schools, halting professional sports and advising private companies to have employees work from home.

“An elevation to ‘Level 3’ practically means the stoppage of all daily activities aside of essential social and economic activities, and that would bring painful results to all our people and the economy as a whole,” senior Health Ministry official Yoon Taeho said during a separate briefing. He called for vigilance by citizens to slow the spread of the virus, and pleaded that people cancel or push back large events such as weddings.

Sunday’s jump in infections marked the third consecutive day they’ve crossed 300. Most of the new cases have come from the Seoul area, home to half of the country’s 51 million people. Cases were also reported in other major cities such as Busan, Gwangju, Daejeon and Daegu, the epicenter of the previous major outbreak in late February and March.

The country managed to stabilize the situation in the Daegu area by April through aggressive testing and contact tracing. That approach worked because many of the infections had been tied to a single church congregation with thousands of members.

But it’s unclear if the formula will be as effective now, with the virus spreading nationwide.

South Korea has 17,399 confirmed cases overall, including 309 deaths.

“With the number of virus patients rising rapidly, it has become difficult for anti-virus measures alone to contain the outbreak — the reduction of human-to-human contact is crucial,” Jeong said.

Churches have constantly been a major source of infection. More than 840 cases so far have been linked to a Seoul church led by a bitter critic of the country’s president.

The spread worsened after thousands of anti-government protesters, including members of the Sarang Jeil Church and its conservative pastor, Jun Kwang-hun, marched in downtown Seoul last week despite official pleas to stay home.

Jeong said at least 136 infections have so far been linked to the protest. Jun has been hospitalized since Monday after testing positive for the virus.

Health workers have used cellphone location data to identify some 50,000 people who spent more than 30 minutes on the street during the Aug. 15 protest 15 and have been urging them to get tested.

Associated Press

South Korea says second wave of coronavirus already ‘in progress’

SEOUL — A second wave of the novel coronavirus has already hit South Korea, with Seoul as the epicenter, according to Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Jung Eun-kyeong.

“If a wave is defined as an explosion of infections that significantly strains the health care system, I believe a second wave is in progress in the Greater Seoul area,” she said in a Monday briefing.

The KCDC director said the rise in cases appears to have stemmed from an increase in movements during the holiday weekend in early May.

“As long as close contact amongst people continues to take place, the coronavirus trends in and around Seoul have the makings of the next big wave,” she said, warning that in the absence of physical distancing, the second rush of the coronavirus may arrive sooner than the previously anticipated fall or winter.


“The aim is to keep the speed and size of the outbreaks below our capacity and minimize damages until there is a cure or vaccine,” she said, urging yet again, compliance to physical distancing.

So far in the month of June, the patient count in the Seoul area stands at 788, having already exceeded May’s 505 and April’s 412, growing at an average of 38 a day.


Nearly half of the new patients confirmed last week were in their 50s or older, making severe outcomes more common. The number of severely or critically ill patients rose from eight on June 2 to 34 by Saturday, according to the Health Ministry.

The National Medical Center’s central clinical committee for emerging infectious diseases has warned of an impending intensive care unit bed shortage in the capital, where the number of patients has surged most.

“We worry that densely populated Seoul may be facing explosive and concentrated outbreaks,” the state-run hospital’s Director Chung Ki-hyun told reporters Sunday.


Addressing the NMC’s concerns, Yoon Tae-ho, the public health policy director at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said in a Monday briefing that patients with no or minimal symptoms would be housed at care facilities instead of hospitals. There are four such facilities in operation nationwide, with one more to be installed this week, he said.

Yoon said the government was also seeking solutions such as flexible work shifts for health workers on the frontline to alleviate the “COVID-19 burden.” In addition, 200,000 surgical gowns which are lighter and more heat-friendly will be distributed at testing centers around the country every month until September, he said.


Minister of Health Park Neung-hoo, speaking at a meeting at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters on Monday, said the recent uptick in the number of imported cases called for amplified border checks. The number of cases linked to overseas travel almost doubled to 90 during the week of June 15-21, from 48 the week prior.

“The disease control authorities are having to fight local outbreaks while at the same time monitoring potential infections coming in from outside the country,” he said.


In response, starting Tuesday, visa applications will be restricted for people from Pakistan and Bangladesh, as a high proportion of passengers flying in from those countries have arrived infected.

Korea added 17 cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours ending Sunday at midnight, according to the KCDC’s daily situation report.

Eleven of those were locally transmitted — seven in the Greater Seoul, two in South Chungcheong Province, and one each in North Jeolla Province and Daegu. The remaining six cases were imported.

To date, there have been 12,438 coronavirus patients here, of whom 280 have died.

- The Korea Herald

Scientists in China believe new drug can stop pandemic 'without vaccine'

A Chinese laboratory has been developing a drug it believes has the power to bring the coronavirus pandemic to a halt.

The outbreak first emerged in China late last year before spreading across the world, prompting an international race to find treatments and vaccines.

A drug being tested by scientists at China's prestigious Peking University could not only shorten the recovery time for those infected, but even offer short-term immunity from the virus, researchers say.

Sunney Xie, director of the university's Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics, told AFP that the drug has been successful at the animal testing stage.

"When we injected neutralising antibodies into infected mice, after five days the viral load was reduced by a factor of 2,500," said Xie.


"That means this potential drug has (a) therapeutic effect."

The drug uses neutralising antibodies -- produced by the human immune system to prevent the virus infecting cells -- which Xie's team isolated from the blood of 60 recovered patients.

A study on the team's research, published Sunday in the scientific journal Cell, suggests that using the antibodies provides a potential "cure" for the disease and shortens recovery time.

Xie said his team had been working "day and night" searching for the antibody.

"Our expertise is single-cell genomics rather than immunology or virology. When we realised that the single-cell genomic approach can effectively find the neutralising antibody we were thrilled."

He said he hopes that the drug will be ready for use later this year and in time for any potential winter outbreak of the virus, which has infected 4.8 million people around the world and killed more than 315,000.

"Planning for the clinical trial is underway," said Xie, adding it will be carried out in Australia and other countries since cases have dwindled in China, offering fewer human guinea pigs for testing.

"The hope is these neutralising antibodies can become a specialised drug that would stop the pandemic," he said.

China already has five potential coronavirus vaccines at the human trial stage, a health official said last week.

But the World Health Organization has warned that developing a vaccine could take 12 to 18 months.

Scientists have also pointed to the potential benefits of plasma -- a blood fluid -- from recovered individuals who have developed antibodies to the virus enabling the body's defences to attack it.

More than 700 patients have received plasma therapy in China, a process which authorities said showed "very good therapeutic effects".

"However, it (plasma) is limited in supply," Xie said, noting that the 14 neutralising antibodies used in their drug could be put into mass production quickly.

- Prevention and cure -

Using antibodies in drug treatments is not a new approach, and it has been successful in treating several other viruses such as HIV, Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

Xie said his researchers had "an early start" since the outbreak started in China before spreading to other countries.



Ebola drug Remdesivir was considered a hopeful early treatment for COVID-19 -- clinical trials in the US showed it shortened the recovery time in some patients by a third -- but the difference in mortality rate was not significant.

The new drug could even offer short-term protection against the virus.

The study showed that if the neutralising antibody was injected before the mice were infected with the virus, the mice stayed free of infection and no virus was detected.

This may offer temporary protection for medical workers for a few weeks, which Xie said they are hoping to "extend to a few months".

More than 100 vaccines for COVID-19 are in the works globally, but as the process of vaccine development is more demanding, Xie is hoping that the new drug could be a faster and more efficient way to stop the global march of the coronavirus.

"We would be able to stop the pandemic with an effective drug, even without a vaccine," he said.

Agence France-Presse

France orders 10 metres between joggers, cyclists

France's sports ministry said Thursday that joggers and cyclists will have to stay at least 10 metres (33 feet) from one another once stay-at-home orders are lifted on May 11.

The measures are designed to prevent a surge of new coronavirus cases.

Running has become a popular way to get a break from the nationwide lockdown in place since mid-March, since short exercise jaunts close to home are among the handful of accepted reasons for being outside.

But officials have been alarmed by scenes of hundreds of runners crowding sunny sidewalks and promenades in recent weeks, leading Paris authorities to even ban day-time running.

French guidelines urge people to maintain at least one metre of social distancing in public, but a preliminary study that went viral early in April suggested this is not enough for runners or cyclists.

The study suggested that air currents generated by fast-moving bodies could spread virus particles projected by infected athletes much further than a person standing still.

The results have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Nevertheless, the sports ministry said it wanted "a minimum distance of 10 metres between two people who are cycling or jogging."

It did not clarify how the measure would be enforced in Paris and other crowded cities, where runners often pass each other closely on sidewalks and footpaths.

For yoga, tennis and other activities, the ministry advised making sure that each participant had four square metres (43 square feet) of personal space.

In any case, no more than 10 people will be allowed to gather for any group activity, and changing rooms will remain off-limits.

Team sports such as football will also remain prohibited, it said.

The ministry reiterated that no professional sports matches will be held before August, even in empty stadiums, and France's football and rugby leagues declared their seasons on Thursday.

The new rules came as France this week unveiled 20 million euros ($21.8 million) in aid to encourage the use of bicycles post-lockdown, which could reduce crowding on public transport and also avoid a surge in car use by people afraid of contagion.

The funds will include a 50-euro subsidy for tune-ups of the estimated 30 million used bikes around the country, the environmental ministry said late Wednesday.

Agence France-Presse

San Diego Comic-Con canceled due to coronavirus

San Diego Comic-Con, one of the world’s largest pop culture gatherings, has been canceled for the first time in its 50-year history due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The sprawling convention which draws Hollywood A-listers, billion-dollar franchises and 135,000 screaming fans each year had been due to take place in July.


But it became the latest major festival to be scratched due to the global pandemic, after California Governor Gavin Newsom this week indicated mass gatherings were unlikely to be allowed for months to come.

Organizers announced Friday “with deep regret that there will be no Comic-Con in 2020.”

They “had hoped to delay this decision in anticipation that COVID-19 concerns might lessen by summer,” but warnings including Newsom’s comments “made it clear that it would not be safe to move forward with plans for this year.”

Fans who had already purchased tickets for the four-day extravaganza will be offered refunds, or the option of attending in 2021.


Comic-Con began life as a small gathering of around 100 comic book fans in a San Diego hotel basement in 1970.

But it has sprawled into a giant launchpad for mainstream Hollywood films and television shows attended by movie stars, studio heads and the world’s press.

In scrapping its 2020 edition, Comic-Con follows other major U.S. events such as the Coachella music festival, Las Vegas Cinema-Con summit, and SXSW media and technology festival in Texas.

“The prospect of mass gatherings is negligible, at best, until we get to herd immunity, and we get to a vaccine,” Newsom warned at a press conference Tuesday.

“When you suggest June, July, August, it is unlikely.”

Agence France-Presse

Google launches ‘journalism relief fund,’ following Facebook

Google said Wednesday it will launch an emergency fund to help local news outlets struggling to maintain operations in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

The internet giant gave no specific figure for its fund, but said it would offer grants ranging from the “low thousands of dollars” for the smallest operations to “low tens of thousands for larger newsrooms.”


The move comes with the media sector facing deep cutbacks resulting from the global consumer lockdown, an intense economic slump and a retrenchment in advertising revenues that many news outlets depend on.

“Local news is a vital resource for keeping people and communities connected in the best of times,” Google News vice president Richard Gingras said in a statement. “Today, it plays an even greater function in reporting on local lockdowns or shelter at home orders, school and park closures, and data about how COVID-19 is affecting daily life.”

Gingras said the fund will open to outlets “producing original news for local communities during this time of crisis,” with applications due by April 29.

“At the end of the process, we’ll announce who has received funding and how publishers are spending the money,” he said. “We believe it is important to do what we can to alleviate the financial pressures on newsrooms, and will continue to look at other ways to help with more to announce soon.”


The New York Times has estimated that news outlets have cut 28,000 jobs as a result of the health crisis and subsequent economic impact. Other outlets have furloughed journalists or announced pay cuts.

Facebook on March 30 said it was donating $100 million to support news organizations globally hurting from the coronavirus pandemic. This includes $25 million in grants and ramped up ad spending by the social media giant.

In recent months Facebook and Google have stepped up efforts to help news organizations, following criticism that their dominance of online advertising has made it difficult for media to profit from digital operations.

Agence France-Presse 

Scared but desperate, Thai sex workers forced to the street

BANGKOK — A shutdown to contain the coronavirus has killed Thailand’s party scene and forced sex workers like Pim out of bars and onto desolate streets. She’s scared but desperately needs customers to pay her rent.

Red-light districts from Bangkok to Pattaya have gone quiet with night clubs and massage parlors closed and tourists blocked from entering the country.


That has left an estimated 300,000 sex workers out of a job, pressing some onto the streets where the risks are sharpened by the pandemic.

“I’m afraid of the virus but I need to find customers so I can pay for my room and food,” Pim, a 32-year-old transgender sex worker, told AFP in an area of Bangkok where previously bawdy neon-lit bars and brothels have gone dark.

Since Friday Thais have been under a 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew. Bars and eat-in restaurants closed several days earlier.

Many of Bangkok’s sex workers had jobs in the relative safety of bars, working for tips and willing to go home with customers.

When their workplaces suddenly closed most returned home to wait out the crisis.

Others like Pim went to work on the streets.

The government said it is ready to enforce a 24-hour curfew if necessary to control a virus that has infected more than 2,000 people and killed 20, according to official figures.

Pim is paying a heavy price for the movement restrictions – she has not had a customer for 10 days and the bills are stacking up.

Her friend Alice, another transgender sex worker, has also been forced to move from a go-go bar to the roadside.

“I used to make decent money sometimes $300-600 a week,” Alice said.

“But when businesses shut down my income stopped too. We are doing this because we’re poor. If we can’t pay our hotel they will kick us out.”

High risk

The occasional tourist loiters near clusters of sex workers, before a furtive negotiation and a quick march to a nearby hotel, one of the few still open on Bangkok’s main tourist drag.

The already high risks of sex work have rocketed as the virus spreads.

Sex workers have flocked back to homes across the country in anticipation of several weeks of virtual lockdown before Thailand’s night economy comes back to life.

There were fears the malaise could last for months, yanking billions of tourist dollars from the economy and leaving those working in the informal sector destitute.

They include sex workers – an illegal but widely accepted part of Thailand’s nightlife.

There were concerns that a Thai government emergency scheme to give 5,000 baht ($150) to millions of newly jobless over the next three months will exclude sex workers because they cannot prove formal employment.

The Empower Foundation, an advocacy group for the kingdom’s sex workers, said entertainment venues make around $6.4 billion a year, many of them selling sex in some form.

Women are suffering the most from the virus measures, it said. Many are mothers and their family’s main income earner, forced into sex work by lack of opportunities or low graduate salaries.

The group has written an open letter to the government urging it to “find a way to provide assistance to all workers who have lost their earnings”.

As the 10 pm curfew looms, Pim and Alice prepared for a final forlorn patrol for customers.

“I think the government has been really slow. They don’t care about people like us who work in the sex industry,” Alice said.

“We’re more afraid of having nothing to eat than the virus.”

Agence France-Presse

4 Filipinos in New York, New Jersey succumb to coronavirus

MANILA, Philippines — At least four Filipinos in New York and New Jersey have died due to the coronavirus disease  2019 (COVID-19), the Philippine Consulate General there said.
“Marami na rin po ang nag-positive dito po sa New York at New Jersey, apat na po iyong kababayan natin (ang) nasawi dahil sa COVID-19,” Philippine Consul General Claro Cristobal said in an interview on dzBB on Thursday.

“(Ang) ilang mga kababayan natin ang nasa ospital ngayon at nilalaban ang kanilang buhay,” he added.


Cristobal, said that there are around 143,000 Filipinos in New York and around 137,000 in New Jersey.

He said that New York was one of the first states to implement a stay-at-home order in a bid to contain the spread of the disease.

“Ibig sabihin, kung hindi essential yung paglabas-labas ng mga tao, ipinagbabawal yun,” he said.

Restaurants, department stores and other establishments that do not offer essential services have been temporarily closed, Cristobal added.


He said members of the Filipino community in New York and New Jersey have been following quarantine protocols set by local authorities.

“Ang kagandahan, nakikinig yung ating mga kabaayan at tayo po ay nagpapaalala sa kanilang lahat na patuloy na sumunod sa panuntunan ng siyudad,” Cristobal said.

He added that a field hospital has been set up at Central Park.

“Ang pinaiiral na panuntnan sa New York is kahit sino ka man, kahit meron kang papel dito o wala, kahit may pambayad ka o wala ay makakatanggap ka ng serbisyong medikal kung iyong kinakailangan,” he said.

“Ultimo dito sa Central Park na malapit sa opisina natin ay nagtayo na po ng tinatawag na field hospital at bukas na po yun so sa loob mismo ng pinaka malaking parke dito sa ay meron nang mga medical facilities na tatanggap ng ating pasyente, maging mga kababayan natin, kung kinakailangan,” Cristobal added.


As of Wednesday, 401 overseas Filipinos have contracted the disease, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Of the number, 270 are currently undergoing treatment while 118 have already recovered.

There are 13 deaths reported so far.

globalnation.inquirer.net

Barcelona FC to cut salaries during coronavirus stoppage

BARCELONA, Spain — Barcelona will reduce the salaries of its players amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The Spanish club said late Thursday that its executive board decided to temporarily suspend player contracts, which leads to a “proportional reduction of the remuneration provided for in the respective contracts.”


The player contracts will remain intact during the suspension. Employers in Spain are allowed to reduce labor costs while guaranteeing that workers will return to their jobs once conditions improve.

The club said it had not decided by how much the salaries will be lowered.

Barcelona is the first Spanish league club to say it will reduce salaries.

In the 2018-19 season, Barcelona said player salaries for its sports teams accounted for 671 million euros ($727 million) of its 973 million euros ($1.05 billion) in expenses. Barcelona also fields teams in basketball, handball and other smaller sports, but its soccer squad takes up most of its salary costs.

The Spanish league stopped play two weeks ago because of the coronavirus outbreak.

AP

Economic fears as Africa escalates coronavirus response

DAKAR, Senegal — African nations have ordered curfews and lockdowns in response to the growing coronavirus epidemic, raising fears of turmoil for low-income workers and cash-strapped governments across the continent.

Cases have risen across the world's poorest continent over the past week to a total of 2,137 and 62 deaths, according to an AFP tally, prompting countries to enact strict counter measures.

South Africa, the continent's most developed economy — which at 554 cases has Africa's largest outbreak — on Monday announced a nationwide lockdown.


"Without decisive action, the number of people infected will rapidly increase... to hundreds of thousands," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at the time.

There are fears that weak health infrastructure in Africa will leave the continent particularly exposed to an outbreak on the scale of virus-stricken Europe.


Other countries are following suit with similar measures. More are expected to be announced in the coming days.

On Monday, Senegal and Ivory Coast both declared states of emergency and ordered night-time curfews.

Ivory Coast on Tuesday said it had recorded 73 coronavirus cases in total and would lock areas down progressively, depending on how the virus spreads.

Senegal has recorded 86 coronavirus cases to date, its health ministry said on Tuesday. Ivory Coast has 25 known coronavirus cases.

Ivory Coast PM in self-isolation

In a sign of coronavirus' increasing reach, Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly said on Twitter on Tuesday that he was in a self-isolation after coming into contact with a positive case.

As the virus spreads, there are also fears that poor and debt-saddled countries will unable to provide an adequate response.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday asked G20 leaders for $150 billion in emergency funding to deal with coronavirus, saying that it "poses an existential threat" to the economies of African countries.

He added that creditors should partly write off national debt for low-income countries.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France's parliament on Tuesday that there would be a European financial aid package for poor countries fighting the virus.

"I'm thinking in particular about Africa," he said.

'How do we pay the rent?'

Adopting lockdowns and social distancing measures in poor African nations is also generating economic worries at the local level.

Homes are often overcrowded, and workers in the informal economy cannot self-isolate at home without abandoning their livelihoods.

Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organisation's regional director for Africa, admitted these difficulties in a briefing with reporters last week.

She said such measures were "quite a challenge" and that the WHO is working on other approaches such as making hand sanitisers more widely available.

Locals are increasingly concerned as containment measures bite.

"They're closing down the stalls, the restaurants, but how are we supposed to feed our families?" asked Nemy Fery, who runs a street-food stall in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's main city.

He added that he would try selling takeaway meals -- and look for another job.

There are similar concerns in Muslim-majority Senegal, where the authorities were already struggling last week to enforce a ban on praying in mosques.

Sabah Amar, who works in a souvenir shop, said that Senegalese people "will die of hunger" before they succumb to coronavirus.

Several people interviewed by AFP in Dakar nonetheless said they supported the government's coronavirus measures.

"I prefer that everything closes. We're not selling anything anyway," said Amar. "Otherwise we're all going to die."

In the north of the continent, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli on Tuesday announced a two-week night-time curfew.

And in the east, cases have doubled in Rwanda, to 36, while South Sudan has closed its air and land borders, except for food and fuel supplies.

Rising cases

The archipelago nation of Cape Verde on Tuesday announced its first coronavirus fatality after a 62-year-old British tourist died.

Cameroon also recorded its first death — a man who had contracted the disease in Italy and tested positive on March 14, according to Health Minister Manachi Manaouda.

Four people have died in Burkina Faso, which is West Africa's worst-hit country with 115 confirmed cases.

Countries that have announced strict containment measures are turning to the army to enforce them.

Military patrols in Senegal will ensure people respecting the dusk-to-dawn curfew, for example.

South Africa's president has also said the army will enforce his country's lockdown.

Nombulelo Tyokolo, 41, a domestic worker  in Cape Town, who shares a one-bedroom shack with her son, told AFP she was worried about how the lockdown will work.

"I am scared, worried and panicking about 21 days indoors," she said.

"We have to fetch water outside and go outside to the toilets. God have mercy." — with AFP Africa bureaux

Agence France-Presse

Myanmar confirms first coronavirus cases

YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar confirmed its first cases of of the deadly novel coronavirus late Monday after weeks of increasing scepticism over the under-developed southeast Asian nation's claims to be free of the disease.

The country of 54 million people had been the world's largest country by population not to report a single case of the pandemic that has confined more than 1.7 billion to their homes.

With only 214 people tested by late Monday, medical experts and rights groups have urged Myanmar to stand up and face the pending crisis.

Myanmar's health ministry late Monday confirmed a 36-year-old Myanmar man travelling back from the United States and a 26-year-old Myanmar man returning from Britain had both tested positive.

"We will investigate all the people who were in close contact with these two men," the statement said.

Late night panic buying

The announcement immediately sparked panic-buying at one 24-hour supermarket in commercial capital Yangon, where hours before life had largely continued as normal.

The Myanmar government had claimed the country's "lifestyle and diet" -- including the lack of physical contact and the use of cash, rather than credit cards -- offered protection to the nation.

The country shares a porous 2,100 kilometre border with China, where the virus was first found.

Phil Robertson from Human Rights Watch last week branded the government's attitude as "irresponsible", saying it served only to give people a false sense of security.

Some public spaces were closed down in recent days, from schools and cinemas to karaoke bars and massage parlours.

The country also took the unprecedented step of cancelling the planned street celebrations and huge water fights that normally mark the country's New Year in April.

On Monday thousands of Myanmar migrant workers flooded back over the border from Thailand before the planned closure of land border points.

Foreigners have left the country in droves, heeding warnings from various embassies about being trapped in a nation with what Yangon-based analyst Richard Horsey described as "one of the weakest public health systems in the world".

"It also has almost no social safety net, so the poorest and most vulnerable will bear the brunt of the health and economic crisis," he told AFP.

One doctor in provincial town Pathein, even took to Facebook to plea for resources, saying his hospital had just seven beds in the isolation ward and only one ventilator and were "no way" ready for the virus.

"If we have more than seven patients, where shall we put them?" hospital head Dr. Than Min Htut wrote.

Humanitarian groups fear for Myanmar's hundreds of thousands of displaced people, confined to camps in conflict-ridden corners of the country.

The government, parliament and many other institutions are also largely led by elderly men - the demographic most vulnerable to COVID-19, Horsey warned.

Agence France-Presse

First French doctor dies as virus death toll rockets

PARIS, France — The first French doctor battling the coronavirus has died as the death toll in the country spiralled to 674 Sunday.

With the outbreak spreading to eight regions — and 112 more dying in a single day — authorities admitted their count does not include those who died at home and in old people's homes.

"We are looking at an epidemic that is widening and escalating," the head of the health service Jerome Salomon said.


With hospitals flooded with 7,240 victims, the military are having to transfer some from the worst-hit areas.

"The virus kills and it is continuing to kill," Salomon added.

The 67-year-old emergency room medic who died worked at Compiegne hospital, north of Paris, the town's mayor told AFP.

He was hailed as a hero by his family for coming back from holiday to treat the first major outbreak in the country.

Mayor Philippe Marini said that Madagascar-born Jean-Jacques Razafindranazy "came back to work voluntarily to treat people and knew he was taking a risk".

Calls for curfew
His wife, a family doctor, is now also sick with the virus and has been quarantined at home.

Dr Razafindranazy's death came as controversy raged over a shortage of protective gear for medical staff in some parts of France.

Despite Health Minister Olivier Veran saying more than 250 million masks had been ordered, some doctors and nurses have complained that they have had to do without.

The French government is also under pressure from doctors' unions to impose a total nationwide curfew.

The northeast city of Mulhouse, where French soldiers have already set up a military field hospital to help hospital staff overwhelmed by the number of cases, declared its own curfew from Sunday night from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am.

Some other cities, including Nice and Perpignan, have already imposed their own curfews.

With authorities expected to extend the lockdown beyond the end of March, doctors want it tightened to "at a minimum" stopping people going out to jog or exercise.

Parliament toughened fines for people who break the current confinement measures late Saturday. Repeat offenders now face six months in prison and a fine of 3,700 euros ($3,950).

And on Sunday it declared a health emergency in the country, granting greater powers to the government to fight the pandemic.

Shortage of masks
Dr Razafindranazy died on Saturday in a hospital in the  northern city of Lille, with his son paying an emotional tribute to him on Facebook.

"He was passionate about his work and chose not to retire. He has left a family behind him who will never forget him," he added.

The family also warned that "this illness is extremely serious and must not be taken lightly".

Marini said Dr Razafindranazy "would soon have been 68" and had treated some of the first cases in the Oise department, the first area in France to be badly hit by COVID-19.

He was infected in early March, the mayor added.

A quarter of the more than 7,200 people now in hospital with the virus are in intensive care.

Veran said many medical staff who contract the virus could in fact be getting infected outside of their work, while adding that protection for frontline staff was "absolutely indispensable".

But doctors and nurses were losing patience, with the Frederic Adnet, the head of an emergency department at Seine-Saint-Denis in the northern suburbs of Paris, saying supplies of protective clothing were clearly under strain.

"We know we are exposed," he told French television. "We know a number of us are going to contract it and there will be a price to pay... with protective gear cruelly lacking."

Agence France-Presse

France to use helicopters, drones to enforce virus restrictions

PARIS, France — France is calling up helicopters and drones to boost the government's attempts to keep people in their homes, police officials said Saturday.

"The helicopters will give us a larger vision and a panoramic view of the situation in real time to help guide the patrols on the ground," a national gendarmerie source said.

One helicopter was already in use on Saturday, hovering above major Paris parks to ensure that confinement rules were respected.


Later Saturday, a French navy helicopter-carrier was on the way to Toulon on the south coast of France to evacuate coronavirus patients from the Mediterranean island of Corsica to hospitals in nearby Marseille.

And on Saturday evening, a French navy helicopter-carrier was on the way to Toulon from where the vessel's helicopters will evacuate coronavirus patients from Corsica to Marseille.


Drones will also be used to help keep people confined, in particular to keep an eye on the banks of the Seine river.

However the head of the army health service (SSA) Marilyne Gygax-Genero told the Journal du Dimanche weekly: "We don't have unlimited means."

The French army has already been supporting the hard-pressed medical services in the northeast city of Mulhouse.

Inmates in several prisons meanwhile refused to return to their cells after exercise, the prison service said Saturday.

More than 9,000 infected

France has been in lockdown since midday on Tuesday, with excursions from the home limited to buying food, visiting the doctor, walking the dog or going for a solitary jog.

The measures came as the government mulled expanding the two-week home confinement imposed on all residents in a bid to brake the epidemic that has seen more than 14,000 infected with the virus in France, and 562 deaths.

No gatherings are allowed, and workers can only go to work if their employer does not provide an option for working from home.

People who venture outside need to print out and fill in a government form. They risk a 135-euro ($145) fine if they cannot show one.

Although a full curfew has not been imposed, the government has deployed 100,000 police to monitor people's movements and make sure people who are outside keep their distance.

250 million face masks

The French government's scientific council will on Monday make an announcement on the length and extent of the emergency measures, according to Health Minister Olivier Veran. 

To help contain the COVID-19 virus, 250 million protective face masks will become available 'progressively", the minister told a news conference.

There is currently a lack of masks, especially for health workers who are prone to catch and spread the disease.

Veran said the government was also seeking to multiply the coronavirus test kits available in order to increase testing once the restrictions on movement are lifted.

Businesses are suffering from the restrictions. Many have been told to close with only key businesses like supermarkets and pharmacies allowed to keep their doors open.

"Here we are still making the bread but we're not giving out the change," said one baker in the eastern Paris suburb of Montreuil.

Coins are laid out by denomination on the counter and customers take whatever is their due, in order not to spread the virus.

Ordinary citizens are also, increasingly, doing their bit to assuage the effects of the forced confinement.

A florist shop in the Sarthe region of western France is losing heavily as his stock of roses and tulips can't be preserved.

"Rather than throw them away we decided to send the flowers to hospitals throughout France to give a boost to the nursing staff," said the florist, Philippe Bigot. "It's our contribution".

Agence France-Presse

Twitter gets more serious about its coronavirus misinformation control

On Wednesday Twitter broadened its definition of “harmful” in relation to its removal of harmful misinformation about COVID-19 on its platform.

Now, its policy goes so far as to say that “content that increases the chance that someone contracts or transmits the virus” is harmful and must be removed, not simply misinformation about the disease itself.


Content that increases the chance that someone contracts or transmits the virus, including:
– Denial of expert guidance
– Encouragement to use fake or ineffective treatments, preventions, and diagnostic techniques
– Misleading content purporting to be from experts or authorities

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) March 18, 2020

Content now deemed as dangerous includes those posts that claim expert guidance—like that issued by nationally recognized health officials—is false, those that encourage people to use “fake or ineffective treatments, preventions, and diagnostic techniques,” and those consisting of misleading information published by self-proclaimed “experts.”

These changes are in effect as of Wednesday; however, considering how the virus and the media’s response to it evolves every day that the pandemic continues, it’s likely that this list will expand even more in the near future. IB

technology.inquirer.net

No more new hotel bookings allowed during Luzon quarantine

MANILA, Philippines — Hotels and other similar establishments will no longer be allowed to accept new booking accommodations during the enhanced community quarantine of the entire island of Luzon due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

On Monday night, President Rodrigo Duterte placed the whole of Luzon under an enhanced community quarantine until April 12 to prevent the further spread of COVID-19, which has infected 187 in the country and killed 14.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said no hotels or similar establishment will be allowed to operate during the quarantine period, except those accommodating the following:

* guests who have existing booking accommodation for foreigners as of March 17

* guests who have existing long-term leases

* employees from exempted establishments under the provisions of March 16, 2020, memorandum from Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and its subsequent modifications and clarifications.

Duterte’s order stopped all public transportation and strictly enforced home quarantine protocols.

Exempted from the work stoppage, however, are all businesses, services, and activities related to the production or provision of food, medicine and health, banking and finance, public utilities and mass media.

The President also allows BPO establishments and export-oriented industries to continue operations provided that they would observe “strict social distancing measures.”

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Thai immigration officers at Bangkok airport diagnosed with COVID-19

BANGKOK, Thailand — Two immigration officers at Bangkok's main airport have coronavirus and may have handled the passports of visitors to Thailand, a health official said Wednesday.

The men, both working at Suvarnabhumi airport, fell ill on March 7 and 8 respectively and potentially came into contact with arriving passengers in the days before their diagnosis.


One of the officers was among a team leading health screenings of Thai returnees from South Korea—which has reported the second most COVID-19 infections in Asia after China.

"They were not working at the same spots," Sopon Iamsirithaworn of the Disease Control Department said.

"There is a chance they came into contact with foreigners or touched passports," he added.

Thailand's Interior Minister said Wednesday it will suspend visa-free arrivals from South Korea, Hong Kong and Italy, as well as visa-on-arrival from 18 countries—including China and India.

All affected visitors must apply for visas at Thai embassies in their own countries and present a medical certificate.

Thailand's economy is heavily reliant on tourism.


The deadly virus has hammered the sector costing the country billions of dollars, mainly after Chinese tourists were quarantined on the mainland or stayed at home.

Many western visitors have also canceled holidays or deferred bookings as Thai authorities issue a baffling barrage of advice.

After days drip-feeding conflicting information to holidaymakers, health authorities said on Friday there will be no compulsory quarantine for people from countries hardest hit by the virus.

Thailand has reported 59 cases of the new coronavirus, but there are concerns the low figure may be a reflection of very limited testing program.

Flag carrier Thai Airways said from Friday it will suspend all flights to Italy, where over 630 people have died with around 10,000 infected so far.

Agence France-Presse