Spain and the United Kingdom have recorded their biggest one-day death tolls from the novel coronavirus, which has so far infected over 900,000 people across the world.

Spain on Wednesday recorded its highest daily death toll – another 864 people – while infections jumped to 102,136, up from 94,417.

The country, which has the second highest number of COVID-19 fatalities after Italy, has imposed a lockdown that brings economic activity to a virtual standstill.

The UK’s death toll also rose by 563 in 24 hours, a record jump that brought the number of patients who died in hospital to 2,352, the country’s Health Ministry announced.

The death toll in the United States has also exceeded 4,000 and the number of confirmed cases surpassed 200,000.

Also in Germany, the social distancing measures were extended through the end of the Easter holiday break (at least April 19), Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on Wednesday following a call with state leaders.

“A pandemic doesn’t take a vacation,” Merkel said announcing the decision. The restrictions were initially due to end on April 5.

The decision was made shortly after the country confirmed 5,453 new cases, including 149 deaths. The figures increased Germany’s death toll to 909 and total cases to 77,558, according to the data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

Right now, at least 926,095 people have been infected by the deadly virus across the world, out of whom 46,252 have died, and 193,031 have recovered.

On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the coronavirus outbreak as the worst global crisis since World War II, warning that it could trigger conflicts around the world.

He said that the large magnitude of the crisis was due to “a disease that represents a threat to everybody in the world and… an economic impact that will bring a recession that probably has no parallel in the recent past.”

“A stronger and more effective response… is only possible in solidarity if everybody comes together and if we forget political games and understand that it is humankind that is at stake,” Guterres said.

Source: Presstv

A group of fake chloroquine manufacturers has been caught in the West regional headquarters of Bafoussam in Cameroon by the country’s forces of law and order.

The group, which wants to cash in on the desperation of the population, got to work once there were rumors that Chloroquine could help in the curing of people affected by the deadly Coronavirus.

As Chloroquine gets tested in the Western world, Cameroon’s fake drug manufacturers have decided to make hay while the sun shines by setting up shops and establishing marketing networks for their illegally produced medications.

The Coronavirus is spreading death and destruction across the world and anything that can bring some hope and reduce fear is very much welcome, especially in a third world country like Cameroon which lacks state-of-the-art laboratories and world-class law enforcement agents who can discourage irresponsible behavior.

With the dismantling of this group of dangerous crooks who are passing off as chemists and pharmacists, ordinary citizens in Cameroon must understand that the only place wherein they can get genuine medication remains government approved pharmacies and the medication should be consumed only when prescribed by a certified medical practitioner.

Currently, the insidious Coronavirus is rolling into many Cameroonian cities and town and many Cameroonians do not know where to turn to when it comes to obtaining medication.

So far, there is no definitive cure for the Coronavirus pandemic. Preventive measures remain the only steps that can help any society to check the spread of the pandemic.

National governments and the World Health Organization have issued guidelines which must be strictly followed by every citizen if the virus has to be booted out of this beautiful planet.

Rita Akana and edited by Dr Joachim Arrey

Cameroon has registered 51 new infections of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total to 193, Cameroonian Minister of Public Health Manaouda Malachie said in a tweet Tuesday morning.

According to the minister, these 51 new cases were diagnosed out of a total of 94 travelers quarantined in hotels in Yaounde, the Cameroonian capital. Twenty-four of them have tested negative, while 19 have a questionable result and will need to be tested again.

This is a new record of daily growth in the number of infections in Cameroon after 40 new cases were reported on a single day last Sunday.

Cameroon is now one of the countries most affected by COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa. The country currently has 193 confirmed cases, including six deaths and “a dozen” of cured, according to the health minister.

Most of the cases are in Yaounde and Douala, the country’s economic hub. Western city of Bafoussam and southwestern city of Limbe also have a few patients.

Source: Xinhuanet

The country’s coronavirus cases officially stand at 91. The situation is concerning as things are spiraling out of control. The government has taken a few good measures, but they are unfortunately ineffective.

The government wants to recruit over 500 health workers to combat the Coronavirus which is spreading at an alarming rate.

Cameroonians are still converging on public places and public transport means cannot really be controlled.

The nature of the country’s economy is also an additional headache. The informal sector is bigger than the formal sector and this implies more people hustle to make ends meet.

They are therefore flouting government Coronavirus rules, as they live from hand to mouth.

Meanwhile, the country’s opposition leader, Prof. Maurice Kamto, is challenging the country’s president, Paul Biya, to address the nation as COVID-19 threatens to ruin the economy and send thousands to an early grave.

Early this week, it was rumored that the country’s president had died since he had not been seen in public ever since the Coronavirus showed up on the country’s shores.

The country’s communications minister, Rene Sadi, held a press conference on Friday wherein he informed the public that the president was alive and healthy.

He added that Mr. Biya was closely monitoring the evolution of the virus in the country, but critics still feel that the government is hiding something and many are calling on Mr. Biya to address the nation.

Also, business will resume tomorrow in the Douala II markets after a shutdown on Friday due to a massive disinfection by City Hall.

Similarly,   a medical team has been dispatched from Yaoundé to screen over 200 passengers in Douala. This is to help check the spread of the insidious virus.

Also, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the government of Cameroon to decongest prisons as a move to check the spread of the virus.

Cameroon’s prisons are noted for their congestion and it is feared that if the virus makes its way to the prisons, the prison population will be rapidly decimated as Cameroon has not got the resources to deal with such a disaster.

By Rita Akana with additional reporting and editing from Dr Joachim Arrey

Mainland China reported its first locally transmitted coronavirus case in three days and 54 new imported cases, as Beijing ordered airlines to sharply cut international flights fearing travellers could reignite the coronavirus outbreak.

The 55 new cases reported on Thursday was down from 67 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said in a statement on Friday. There are now 81,340 confirmed cases in mainland China.

The death toll stands at 3,292 with five new deaths.

Imported coronavirus cases, mostly Chinese nationals returning home, now pose the biggest concern for authorities.

Shanghai reported the most new imported cases with 17, followed by 12 in Guangdong and four each in capital Beijing and nearby Tianjin.

Hubei province, a region of some 60 million people where the virus first appeared late last year, reported zero new cases on Thursday – a day after lifting a lockdown and reopening its borders as the epidemic there eased.

China on Thursday ordered local airlines to maintain only one route to any country and limit flights per such routes to one per week, effective March 29. Foreign airlines have also been ordered to cut routes to China to one and limit flights to one per week, although many had already stopped flying to China.

China will temporarily suspend the entry of foreigners with valid Chinese visas and residence permits starting on March 28, as an interim measure, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

(REUTERS)

Singaporeans could be jailed for up to six months if they intentionally stand close to someone else, under tough new rules announced Friday to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

The city-state has introduced a series of new measures to tackle the virus, including closing bars and cinemas as well as banning large events.

One step aimed at ensuring “social-distancing” — a key approach being used worldwide to halt the spread of the contagious disease — is a ban on individuals standing less than one metre (three feet) apart in certain settings.

People are barred from intentionally standing too close to someone else in a queue, or sitting on a seat less than one metre from another individual in a public place, according to the regulations.

Those found guilty of breaking the rules face a jail term of up to six months and a maximum fine of Sg$10,000 (US$7,000).

Business owners are also required to take steps such as putting seats not fixed to the ground at least one metre apart, and making sure that people keep their distance when queueing.

They face the same punishments if found to have broken the rules.

Singapore, known for having a low crime rate and a tough approach to law and order, introduced stricter curbs after a spike in infections being brought in from overseas.

The health ministry said earlier this week that “we must implement tighter safe distancing measures now to minimise activities and exposure”.

The city-state has reported 683 virus infections and two deaths, but has won praise for its approach and has so far avoided going into a total lockdown.

The rapidly spreading pandemic has infected over half a million people worldwide and killed more than 23,000.

Source: AFP

France on Tuesday reported a daily coronavirus death toll rise of 240, taking the total number of fatalities from the outbreak to 1,100, according to health officials. The increase makes France the fifth country to cross the 1,000 death toll mark since the epidemic originated in China late last year.

France now has 22,300 confirmed coronavirus cases, including an increase of 2,444 in the past 24 hours, said the country’s Director General of Health, Jerome Salomon, at a press briefing Tuesday.

Across the country, 10,176 people were hospitalised for coronavirus, including 2,516 in a serious condition, said Salomon.

Tuesday’s death toll rise made France the fifth country to exceed a grim 1,000 fatalities milestone after Italy, China, Spain and Iran.

The spike in coronavirus cases and deaths came after the country’s scientific council, which advises French President Emmanuel Macron on the coronavirus crisis, said a lockdown to contain the epidemic should last a total of six weeks since it was put in place.

France has been under a strict lockdown since March 17, when Macron announced restrictive measures, including fines for people violating the rules. The lockdown was initially expected to last 15 days.

In its statement, France’s scientific council said the lockdown was at present the only really efficient strategy.

The council also said it was “necessary to strengthen” the containment measures without providing details.

Responding to the council’s lockdown recommendations, French Health Minister Olivier Véran said it was not possible to put a clear time frame just yet. “The members of the scientific council aren’t able to say with precision if the confinement should be for such a set duration. They said, may be we need to prepare for the confinement to last longer. Beyond 15 days we know, but perhaps it could extend past that – another five or six weeks,” he said. “It will only end when the epidemic curve allows it, this is the basic principle. Confinement has a purpose, to protect the French people. It will last as long as it has to last.”

‘Only truly operational strategy’

Noting that three weeks were needed to obtain an initial estimate of the impact of the lockdown, the council said, “Containment is currently the only truly operational strategy, as the alternative policy of large-scale screenings and isolation of those detected is not currently feasible on a national scale.”

A decision to end the lockdown “could be taken on the basis of epidemiological indicators. in particular the saturation of hospital services and especially of intensive care units”. The government will also have to ensure that the elements of a post-confinement strategy are operational, the council added.

‘Full transparency’ on medical equipment

Members of the council also issued an “alert” on “the real or perceived shortage of various types of equipment, starting with essential health protection equipment”.

They recommended that the government “should provide full transparency and clarity” to answer questions from hospitals and health care providers about existing stocks and how services will be supplied.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

Cameroon on Tuesday confirmed the first death in the country due to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) as more new cases of the pandemic were also reported.

The Minister for Public Health Manaouda Malachie said the victim is a Cameroonian who returned from Italy on March 7 “already very affected by the disease”.

There were no further details, including name, age and sex of the patient.

CONFIRMED CASES

The government said there were 66 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 pandemic in the central African country by Tuesday, an increase from 56 the previous day.

Source: Daily Nation

Officials in Cameroon are calling on citizens to stop attacks on foreigners and visitors from the diaspora who are being blamed for an increase in coronavirus cases.  The attacks began after some passengers on an Air France flight that landed in Cameroon last week ignored a quarantine order.  

Forty-three-year-old businessman Ferdinand Muffo Che says he has been victim of regular attacks and harassment since he returned to Yaounde from Milan, Italy through France on March 17.  

He says residents of Ekounou, the neighborhood where he lives, accuse him of being a healthy carrier infecting people with COVID-19. 

“I do not see why my own country where I was born will reject me because I have been out. The coronavirus is a problem that concerns the whole world,” he said.

Che is one of 198 passengers of an Air France flight that landed at the Douala International airport on March 17. The government ordered all of its passengers to be isolated in hotels for at least 15 days.  

Instead, many of them escaped to their homes, provoking the anger of some Cameroonians. 

On the streets of Yaounde, attacks and insults on people identified as foreigners, especially whites and Chinese, have increased sharply in the last week.  

The U.S. Embassy in Yaounde has reported a rise in verbal and online harassments, stone throwing and banging of vehicles occupied by expatriates. 

Spreading misinformation

Ebenezer Mukete, 29, says he is among those who joined the attacks.  

He alleges that COVID-19 was created by either the U.S. or China for commercial purposes and unfortunately, developed into a health crisis.  There is no scientific evidence to support his allegation. 

“They create the so called pandemic, and they come and inflict{spread} in Africa,” he said. “When you listen to the French president, he says France is at war, American president comes out and says America is at war. Let them fight their war not in Africa. The minister of public health is telling us that the cases are from abroad. Whites coming to transmit it to Cameroonians, so let them go away. We do not have any other choice than to attack them.” 

Cameroon health minister Manaouda Malachie has called on the population to stop the attacks.  

He adds that everyone should respect measures put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19. 

He says people who came in from Europe, China and America before Cameroon closed its borders should not be stigmatized, but that they as well as any other Cameroonian who has cold, severe respiratory syndrome, runny nose, cough, sore throat and tiredness, should contact the nearest hospital. He says those who are running from isolation should know that they may be putting the lives of their families and communities in danger and that they will be treated free of charge if tested positive. 

Confirmed cases

Cameroon confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on February 6.  On Monday, officials said the number of confirmed cases had increased to 40, with a majority of them imported. Seven are Cameroonians infected by their relatives who came from Europe. 

In an effort to stop the spread of the virus, Cameroon last week closed all its borders and suspended issuance of visas into the country until further notice. 

Source: VOA

China has registered 78 new cases of coronavirus infection, most of them imported from abroad, sparking concerns about a second wave of infections in the country.

The Chinese National Health Commission said on Tuesday that of the 78 individuals, 74 had arrived from overseas, the highest since the beginning of March, when officials began reporting imported cases, and almost double the figure for Monday.

The commission said only one of the four local transmissions had taken place in Wuhan, where the new deadly virus first emerged late last year and afflicted the most people. The infection on Monday was the first new case in the city in nearly a week.

Also on Monday, seven more people died, all of them in Wuhan, the commission added.

China is believed to have brought the country’s coronavirus outbreak under control, but there is now growing anxiety about an influx of new infections coming in from nations grappling with the beginning of their own epidemics.

More than 381,000 people worldwide have been infected and over 16,500 have died of the viral disease, according to a running tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

China has so far recorded over 81,000 infections, and 3,277 deaths.

Chinese state media warned of a second wave of infections on Tuesday.

“Inadequate quarantine measures” mean a second wave of infections is “highly likely, even inevitable,” the Global Times daily warned on its front page.

South Korea records 76 new cases

In South Korea, which has the second highest number of infections in Asia after China, 76 new coronavirus cases were reported on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 9,037.

The death toll from the coronavirus epidemic in South Korea also increased to 120 after the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported that two more people had died of the disease.

Despite a declining trend, Health Ministry official Yoon Tae-ho said that authorities “cannot assess the occurrence of a pandemic or an explosion of cases through the number of confirmed patients for one day,” nor can they be optimistic about the outbreak coming to an end.

A peak of 909 new infections had been recorded in South Korea on February 29.

In Italy, ‘light at the end of the tunnel’

Meanwhile, Italy, which turned into the new epicenter of the pandemic last week, reported 601 new deaths and 4,789 new infections on Monday, marking a second successive drop in daily tallies.

The top medical officer for Milan’s devastated Lombardy region appeared on television smiling for the first time in many weeks.

“We cannot declare victory just yet,” Giulio Gallera said. “But there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Italy’s National Health Institute (ISS) chief Silvio Brusaferro was more guarded.

“These are positive numbers but I do not have the courage to firmly state that there is a downward trend,” Brusaferro told reporters.

The Italian government has imposed a lockdown nationwide to contain the virus, which has killed more than 6,000 people in the country in a month.

In Spain, elderly people found dead, abandoned in retirement homes

Meanwhile, soldiers deployed to help fight the new coronavirus outbreak in Spain — Europe’s second hardest-hit country — found elderly patients abandoned and sometimes dead in retirement homes.

The military has been charged with helping disinfect retirement homes in Spain, where dozens of coronavirus deaths have been recorded.

“The army, during certain visits, found some old people completely abandoned, sometimes even dead in their beds,” Defense Minister Margarita Robles said in an interview with private television channel Telecinco.

The general prosecutor announced that an investigation had been launched into the matter.

Spain’s Health Ministry said on Monday that the death toll had reached 2,182, following the deaths of 462 people within 24 hours.

Amid the surge in fatalities, a spokeswoman for Madrid city hall told AFP that an ice rink at the Palacio de Hielo (Ice Palace) shopping center in the city had been turned into a temporary morgue.

Germany reports 4,764 new cases

Germany reported 4,764 new infections on Monday, bringing the tally in the country to 27,436.

The Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases also said on Tuesday that the death toll from the outbreak had surged by 28 to 114 the day before.

Source: Presstv