The coronavirus pandemic is “not even close to being over”, the WHO warned Monday, as the global death toll passed half a million and cases surged in Latin America and the United States.

In another grim milestone, the number of infections recorded worldwide topped 10 million, while some authorities reimposed lockdown measures that have crippled the economies worldwide.

“We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over,” he said, adding that “although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up.”

The virus emerged at least six months ago in China, where the WHO will send a team next week in the search for its origin, Tedros said.

Covid-19 is still rampaging across the US, which has recorded more than 125,000 deaths and 2.5 million cases — both around a quarter of the global totals.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the April-June quarter was expected to see the largest decline in GDP on record, adding that recovery would depend on government efforts to contain the outbreak.

Many of the south and west US states where the virus is most rampant are where state leaders pushed for early reopenings.

But even in New York, deemed to be in good health comparatively, the iconic Broadway theatre district announced it would remain closed through the end of the year.

And with numerous US states forced to reimpose restrictions on restaurants, bars and beaches, President Donald Trump has come under growing pressure to set an example by wearing a mask.

Trump’s health secretary has warned the “window is closing” for the US to regain control, but the president has largely turned away from the crisis, holding indoor rallies with big, largely maskless crowds against the advice of his experts and refusing to cover his own face in public.

‘Profound shock’

And while opposition Democrats have urged Trump to reissue an emergency declaration on coronavirus, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president had “no interest” in doing so.

However, he may not be able to avoid masks forever — the Florida city of Jacksonville, where Trump’s Republicans are due to hold their national convention in August, declared face masks mandatory on Monday.

Underlining Trump’s increasing isolation on the issue, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is usually in lock step with the president, spoke out on the urgency of mask-wearing.

“We must have no stigma, none, about wearing masks when we leave our homes and come near other people,” he said.

“Wearing simple face coverings is not about protecting ourselves, it is about protecting everyone we encounter.”

The second hardest-hit country Brazil registered 259,105 infections in the seven days through Sunday — the country’s highest of any week during the pandemic.

Ireland’s pubs began pouring pints for the first time in 15 weeks, as Europe — still the hardest-hit continent — continues to open up after seeing numbers of new cases fall.

“Guinness is good for you,” quipped Mark O’Mahony — the first to order a pint with his breakfast at a Dublin pub. “Without it, it hasn’t been much good really for 15 weeks.”

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his country had gone through a “profound shock” as he prepared to unveil a large stimulus programme.

Constant threat

His government plans to reopen pubs, restaurants and hairdressers across England on July 4, but on Monday ordered schools and non-essential shops in Leicester, central England, to close after a localised outbreak.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron called for a “strong” and “efficient” recovery fund for the European Union.

In Merkel’s Germany, which has been praised for how it has tackled its Covid-19 outbreak, the North Rhine-Westphalia state extended a lockdown on a district hit hard by a slaughterhouse outbreak.

In neighbouring Switzerland, organisers said that 2021’s Geneva International Motor Show was cancelled, after already scrapping this year’s event.

China has imposed a strict lockdown on nearly half a million people in a province surrounding Beijing to contain a fresh cluster.

In a reminder of the constant threat of newly-emerged pathogens, researchers in Chinese universities and the country’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced they had discovered a novel swine flu that was capable of triggering another pandemic.

Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.

It possesses “all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans,” said the authors of a study published Monday in the US science journal PNAS.

The Middle East’s most affected country Iran reported 162 more deaths on Monday, its highest single-day toll yet, a day after it also made mask-wearing mandatory for inside gatherings.

India, which is gradually easing a nationwide lockdown, registered a daily record of 18,500 new cases and 385 new deaths on Saturday.

Alka, one of the country’s million accredited social health activists, said it was difficult for the unprotected and poorly paid all-women workers to get people to heed their advice.

“People are struggling to feed their families,” she said. “What can we do?” 

(AFP)

Some health facilities in Cameroon are turning to telemedicine as patients have been keeping away from and fleeing medical facilities for fear of contracting the coronavirus Covid-19, which has so far killed 313 people in the country.

Cameroon reported its first case of the virus on March 6 and as at Wednesday had 12,592 confirmed cases with 10,100 recoveries, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

Early this month, Dr Manaouda Malachie, Cameroon’s minister of Public Health, said patients have fled health facilities following the daily spike in the number of Covid-19 cases especially in the towns of Bamenda, Bafoussam, Douala and the capital Yaoundé.

Mr Edwin Biyeh Abi, Country Manager of Unite for Health Foundation, a local NGO that assists Cameroonians to access healthcare through its micro-clinics, said there has been a drastic decline in the number of patients visiting their health centres since the coronavirus figures soared.

Even pregnant women are not going for routine prenatal care visits, he said.

As a result of the far-reaching drop in patient turnover, the organisation, which operates two clinics in the capital Yaoundé and one in Bamenda in the Northwest, said it has resorted to telemedicine.

“We have decided to launch a telemedicine programme to permit those in the communities we serve to be able to use their phone and reach out to us either through direct phone call or video calls to consult with our doctors and get the best of advice on what to do about their health,” Mr Abi said.

The telemedicine programme will also be used to screen for and educate patients on Covid-19.

“We do not want to let the Covid-19 emergency separate pregnant women, mothers and children from our urgent, life-saving medical care or disease prevention programmes. Both are absolutely critical to the public health of thousands of Cameroonians,” Mr Abi said.

Several other health facilities have also adopted telemedicine.

The central African country has been struggling with the pandemic with a fragile healthcare system and limited financial resources.

Source: The East African

With the upsurge of the Covid-19 pandemic in Cameroon, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Japanese government have joined hands with other partners to intensify the fight against Covid-19 in the country. UNICEF welcomes the latest contribution of over $2,300,000 from the Japanese government for the fight against the pandemic.

Faced with the crisis, Japan believes that it is necessary to implement urgent measures that will protect life and minimise socio-economic impacts as well as strengthen health systems to fight against infectious diseases in the medium and long term.

“We are delighted that the Japanese government has responded so quickly and so generously to the urgent needs of the government of Cameroon to fight the pandemic,” said UNICEF country representative Jacques Boyer. “The needs are very urgent, and we are grateful for this strong and early support that will reinforce health systems in the country, thereby responding to the pressing needs of women and children.

Funds recently donated by the government of Japan will permit at least 300,000 people including women and children to run lesser risks of being contaminated by Covid-19. Likely, 300 health professionals and community health workers will have better technical capacities to prevent and control the pandemic; 2,000 children and women access to essential health care services, including immunisation, prenatal and postnatal care, HIV and GBV care will be increased. Last but not the least, 450,000 children have been supported with inclusive distance-based learning.

Source: Logistics Update Africa

The governor of Germany’s most populous state on Tuesday put two municipalities back into lockdown until June 30 after a regional outbreak had seen a large increase in Covid-19 cases.

German authorities on Tuesday ordered new lockdowns for two districts in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the first since easing coronavirus restrictions and a major setback for hopes of a swift return to normality.

The move came after a coronavirus outbreak at a slaughterhouse that has infected more than 1,500 workers.

“For the first time in Germany, we will return an entire district to the measures that applied several weeks ago,” said Armin Laschet, state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia.

He said the lockdown would affect 360,000 people in the district of Gutersloh, and would stay in place until at least June 30.

A second neighbouring district was placed under lockdown just hours after restrictions were re-imposed for Gutersloh.

“In order to protect the population, we are now launching a further safety and security package to effectively combat the spread of the virus,” North Rhine-Westphalia health minister Karl-Josef Laumann said on Tuesday, ordering a lockdown for the district of Warendorf.

Biggest outbreak since early May

The new outbreak occurred at a slaughterhouse in the town of Rheda-Wiedenbrueck that employs nearly 7,000 people.

As of Sunday, 21 people were being treated in hospital, six of them in intensive care.

The outbreak in Germany’s most populous state is the biggest since the country began lifting the lockdown in early May.

Local authorities across Germany agreed then to pull an “emergency brake” and reimpose social curbs if the infection rate rises above 50 cases per 100,000 residents over a week in a particular district.

The rate in Gutersloh has soared well above that, sitting at 263 cases per 100,000 residents on Monday.

The new lockdown means a return to measures first introduced in March, with cinemas, museums, concert halls, bars, gyms, indoor swimming pools and saunas shut down, Laschet said.

Schools and kindergartens have also been closed ahead of school holidays which will start this weekend.

The move comes as Germany and the rest of the EU begin taking steps towards getting tourism up and running again, with many European borders reopening just last week.

Several planeloads of German tourists have flown to Spain’s Mallorca island to take part in a test of plans to reopen the popular destination as the country emerges from its coronavirus lockdown.

But the latest flareup in Gutersloh prompted authorities in the German island of Usedom to turn away a couple who had travelled from the affected district.

Under control     

Several COVID-19 outbreaks at slaughterhouses, not just in Germany but also in France, have put a spotlight on the working and housing conditions facing the workers — many of whom come from Romania or Bulgaria.

The German government has responded by banning the use of subcontractors in the meat industry in a bid to curb the controversial practice of companies using middlemen to supply workers from abroad who are more vulnerable to abuses.

But Germany has also seen new coronavirus clusters in residential buildings in Lower Saxony and in Berlin, where 370 families living in high-rise flats were placed under quarantine in one neighbourhood last week.

Despite the new outbreaks, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) disease control centre remained optimistic on Tuesday that the virus remains under control in Germany.

“If we are able to keep the number of cases low the whole time, then we will be able to contain and end outbreaks locally, and that will remain the case,” RKI head Lothar Wieler said.

With new infection rates sharply down from highs in March and a death toll significantly lower than those of its neighbours, Germany became the first major EU country to begin easing virus restrictions about seven weeks ago.

The government has noted that rules to maintain a minimum distance of 1.5 metres (five feet) as well as requirements to cover up noses and mouths in closed public spaces have helped in the fight against new transmissions.

It is now counting on contact tracing — both through human trackers as well as through a new app — to ensure that any new infections are isolated.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly warned against complacency before a viable vaccine is found.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Global coronavirus infections topped 9 million as the World Health Organization blamed a “lack of global solidarity and leadership” for allowing the pandemic to spread and Saudi Arabia announced it would scale back the Hajj Islamic pilgrimage next month.

Many parts of the world, including Latin America and South Asia, are only beginning to feel the full force of the pandemic, while other regions that appeared to have vanquished the virus are being hit with second waves.

Europe has steadily eased its travel lockdowns in recent weeks, and France took its biggest step back to normality on Monday by allowing millions of children to return to school.

“The pandemic is still accelerating,” the WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual health forum organised in the United Arab Emirates later that day.

Tedros said the greatest threat was not the virus itself, which has now killed over 470,000 people, but “the lack of global solidarity and global leadership.”

“We cannot defeat this pandemic with a divided world,” he said. “The politicisation of the pandemic has exacerbated it.”

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is one of the leaders to have repeatedly played down the threat, comparing the virus to a “little flu” and arguing the economic impact of shutdowns is worse than the virus itself.

More than 50,000 people have been confirmed to have died from the virus in Brazil, with the true number believed to be far higher.

Brazil’s official death toll is second only to the United States, which has recorded 120,000 fatalities, and President Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis has been widely criticised as erratic and chaotic.

Trump on Monday said the American toll could surpass 150,000, as two more members of his team that helped organise a controversial weekend rally for him in Oklahoma tested positive.

Mexico, Peru, Chile and Argentina are also coping with crises — Mexico City being forced to delay plans for a broad reopening of the economy as the country’s death toll raced past 20,000.

With a vaccine still far away, the WHO has called for a rapid increase in production of the steroid dexamethasone, which has been shown to have life-saving potential.

‘Very limited’ Hajj                 

Saudi Arabia said it would allow a “very limited” number of pilgrims to its annual Hajj ritual, which last year drew 2.5 million pilgrims from around the world.

The Hajj, a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime, represents a potentially major source of contagion.

Authorities said a hajj only involving pilgrims already in the kingdom would be permitted.

In Europe however, countries continued to ease their restrictions.

Thousands of French people danced and partied in the streets well into Monday for an annual music festival, in the first big blowout since the lockdown, leading to criticism of the authorities for being too lax.

“This is not what a gradual end to the lockdown looks like,” said Dr Gilbert Deray.

“I understand that the Festival of Music is something of a liberation, but did we really have to have it this year?”

In England authorities said cinemas, museums and galleries would reopen on July 4 in the next phase of easing lockdowns as infection rates there also slow.

But illustrating the persisting risks, Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Costa said restrictions on gatherings of more than 10 people would be reimposed and cafes and shops ordered to close at 8pm in Lisbon.

Australians were warned to avoid travelling to Melbourne as the country’s second-biggest city tightened restrictions over fears of an upsurge in cases.

China, Germany, South Korea and Japan are also battling new outbreaks, with some reintroducing containment measures.

Meanwhile, the sports world has been slowly re-emerging from the virus darkness, although for every step forward it seems to take one back.

Three of the world’s top male tennis players tested positive after taking part in a tournament in the Balkans featuring world number one Novak Djokovic, raising questions over the sport’s planned return in August.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Cameroon police said on Monday they have seized a “huge quantity” of fake anti-malaria medication chloroquine and nivaquine in Douala, the commercial capital.

Police commissioner, Richard Djonwe told reporters the operation was successfully carried out thanks to a tip-off from locals.

He said, thousands of the fake tablets were smuggled into the city from neighbouring Nigeria. Those suspects caught with the drugs have been remanded in custody.

Officials said Cameroon has seen a rise in the production and proliferation of fake chloroquine, as people rush to obtain the anti-malaria drug in the unproven belief it can prevent the infection of COVID-19.

Last week, police seized 41 cartons of fake paracetamol in the city, according to the police.

In April, health authorities in the country shut down six pharmaceutical companies that were producing and selling counterfeit drugs.

Source: Xinhuanet

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that testing of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in its large multi-country trial of treatments for COVID-19 patients had been halted after new data and studies showed no benefit.

WHO expert Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo said investigators leading the so-called Solidarity Trial testing the drug – which had been promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump – had reviewed recent evidence and decided to stop recruiting new patients.

“After deliberation, they have concluded that the hydroxychloroquine arm will be stopped from the Solidarity Trial,” Henao-Restrepo told a media briefing.

In a statement issued later on Wednesday, the WHO said the decision was based on evidence from the Solidarity Trial itself, as well as from a UK-led trial that had found the drug did not help COVID-19 patients, and from a review of other evidence on hydroxychloroquine.

Data from those studies “showed that hydroxychloroquine does not result in the reduction of mortality of hospitalised COVID-19 patients,” the WHO statement said.

It said Solidarity Trial investigators would not add any more patients to the hydroxychloroquine arm.

But it added: “Patients who had already started hydroxychloroquine but who have not yet finished their course in the trial may complete their course or stop at the discretion of the supervising physician.”

Data from a UK-led clinical trial known as the Recovery trial found last week that the anti-malaria drug showed no benefit for patients with COVID-19.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday revoked its emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, saying it was no longer reasonable to believe that hydroxychloroquine and the related drug chloroquine would be effective in treating the disease.

Source: REUTERS

The total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cameroon has reached 10,140, according to Africa CDC’s real time statistics updated Tuesday morning, making it the sixth African nation that passed the 10,000 mark.

The death toll stands at 277, while number of recovered cases rose to 5,601, according to data from the Africa CDC.

Last week, the Cameroonian government said it will scale up testing capacity for COVID-19 to limit transmission. As of Monday, some 50,000 samples have been analyzed since the start of the pandemic in Cameroon in March, health minister Malachine Manaouda tweeted Monday evening.

“We will therefore strengthen our three-T (tracking-testing-treat) strategy and set a new testing target”, tweeted Manaouda.

Cameroon reported its first coronavirus infection on March 6, an imported case from Europe, and has closed national borders and applied social distancing since March 18.

Despite the increase of COVID-19 cases in the country, Cameroon eased some restrictions in May, and reopened schools for students in examination classes on June 1 to allow partial restoration of activities.

Source: Xinhuanet