16, April 2020

Germany set to be European pioneer in partially lifting Covid-19 restrictions ⁰

Germany has drawn up a list of steps, including mandatory mask-wearing in public, limits on gatherings and the rapid tracing of infection chains, to help enable a phased return to normal life after its coronavirus lockdown is set to end on April 19.

Germany on Wednesday unveiled plans to lift some restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic, becoming the first major European nation to take on the delicate task of reopening without triggering a new wave of infections.

As US President Donald Trump came under increasing fire for ordering a freeze on American funding for the World Health Organization, the Group of 20 (G20) announced a one-year debt moratorium for the world’s poorest nations.

The number of COVID-19 cases around the globe soared past two million, meanwhile, according to an AFP tally, and the death toll topped 131,000.

Germany was the largest of several European countries announcing tentative steps on Wednesday to reopen their economies and societies.

Denmark began reopening schools for younger children after a month-long closure and Finland lifted a two-week rail and road blockade on the Helsinki region.

Lithuania said it would allow smaller shops to reopen from Thursday.

Other countries are also tweaking confinement rules, with Iran set to let some small businesses reopen and India allowing millions of rural people to return to work.

In South Korea, people went to the polls on Wednesday and delivered a strong show of support for President Moon Jae-in, commending his handling of the epidemic.

Once home to the world’s second-largest outbreak, South Korea has largely brought the virus under control through widespread testing, contact-tracing and social distancing.

Yet a full-scale return to normality still appears a long way off in most other countries.

Harvard scientists have warned that repeated periods of social distancing could be needed as far ahead as 2022 to avoid overwhelming hospitals.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has allowed work to restart in some factories and building sites, warned that “nothing will be the same until a vaccine is found.”

Belgium extended its stay-at-home order until at least May 3 and banned mass gatherings until the end of August.

‘Extreme caution’

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced first steps in undoing coronavirus restrictions that have plunged the economy into a recession.

Most shops will be allowed to open once they have “plans to maintain hygiene” although schools must stay closed until May 4 and a ban on large public events will remain in place until August 31.

“We have to proceed with extreme caution,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin.

Schools will gradually be reopened with priority given to pupils about to take leaving examinations.

And the government urged people to wear face masks when out shopping or on public transport, but stopped short of making it a requirement like in neighbouring Austria.

Offering a lifeline for the world’s poorest countries, the G20 — a group of the world’s leading economies — said it would temporarily suspend debt repayments from the most impoverished nations.

The reprieve will free up more than $20 billion for those countries to focus on the pandemic and will last at least a year, according to Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan.

But the global economic outlook remains gloomy, with Germany already in recession and US industrial output declining by 6.3 percent — its biggest fall in seven decades.

More than a third of French workers are on temporary unemployment, the government said.

The virus death toll topped 17,000 in France but in a hopeful sign hospitalizations went down for the first time.

On the horizon looms the worst economic downturn in a century, which the IMF has said could see $9 trillion wiped from the global economy.

‘Lessons’

As the world tries to chart a way out of the crisis, Trump came in for criticism for his freeze on payments to the WHO, the UN’s health agency.

“No doubt, areas for improvement will be identified and there will be lessons for all of us to learn,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned Trump’s move while billionaire Bill Gates, a major WHO contributor, tweeted that cutting funding was “as dangerous as it sounds.”

European allies were similarly disapproving and Washington’s rivals also took aim — Russia condemning the “selfish approach” of the US, and China and Iran blasting the decision.

Trump accused the WHO on Tuesday of “severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus” and said it could have been contained if the organisation had accurately assessed the situation in China late last year.

As European nations made tentative moves to open up, in poorer and more densely populated countries, governments are still struggling to enforce restrictions on movement that are piling misery on the needy.

Fears over hunger and possible social unrest are especially acute in parts of Africa and Latin America.

In Cape Town, clashes erupted Tuesday as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at residents protesting access to food aid.

A similar crisis is taking hold in Ecuador, where hunger trumps fear of the virus for residents in rundown areas of the badly affected city of Guayaquil.

“The police come with a whip to send people running, but how do you say to a poor person ‘Stay home’ if you don’t have enough to eat?” said Carlos Valencia, a 35-year-old teacher.

(AFP)

16, April 2020

Global COVID-19 cases over 2 million, but true figures probably much higher ⁰

The number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in the world has risen to more than two million, out of whom over 130,000 have died, but experts believe the figures understate the true toll of the contagion.

The death toll and number of infections have roughly doubled in 13 days and continue to grow steadily.

Some European countries like Germany think they have passed the peak of the disease and begin to take careful steps to lift restrictions imposed to slow the virus.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday announced first steps in undoing coronavirus lockdowns for the coming weeks, with most shops allowed to open although schools must stay closed until May 4.

Shops up to 800 square meters will be allowed to reopen once they have “plans to maintain hygiene”, Merkel said, while schools will gradually reopen with priority given to pupils about to take exams.

However, outbreaks in many parts of the world are still considered far from their peaks.

In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended a nationwide lockdown for nearly three more weeks. The decision is going to leave more than one billion people under severe restrictions.

Deaths from thepandemic in Italy rose by 578 on Wednesday, down from 602 the day before, while the number of new cases slowed to 2,667 from a previous 2,972, continuing the recent downward trend.The number of new cases was the lowest since March 13, but the daily tally of deaths remains stubbornly high.

In France, the death toll increased to 17,000 on Wednesday, but the total number currently hospitalized fell for the first time since the epidemic began.

Meanwhile, nearly 700 sailors assigned to the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle’s naval group tested positive for the coronavirus. The country’s armed forces ministry said on Wednesday 1,767 mariners, nearly all from the Charles de Gaulle itself, had been tested and results showed at least 668 to be infected with the new coronavirus.

In the United Kingdom, the number of people who have died in hospitals from the coronavirus has risen to 12,868, according to Health Ministry figures.

The United States marked a record 2,569 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, the heaviest daily toll recorded by the country since the outbreak first began, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

In the US, the lack of testing capacity has emerged as a signature failure of the Trump administration’s response and now threatens to hamper efforts across the country to plan for an eventual reopening of the economy, the New York Times reports.

Turkey confirmed 115 more deaths from the novel coronavirus in the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 1,518.The total number of registered coronavirus cases surged to 69,392 as 4,281 more people tested positive for the virus, Health Minister FahrettinKoca said on Twitter.

Libya’s internationally-recognized government, in the west, imposed a curfew for 10 days effective from Friday, April 17, the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) said in a statement. Libya’s National center for disease control reported 36 cases of coronavirus in Libya and only one death.

More than 500,000 people have recovered from the coronavirus globally, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.

China has the highest number of recovered people with 78,282.

However, experts believe the real numbers of infections and deaths are much higher than the official figures suggest, and the official numbers are just bleak markets that understate the true spread of the disease, mainly because of a lack of testing and the extent to which different countries test their citizens.

Source: Presstv

15, April 2020

Douala: Struggle, fear and heartbreak for medical staff on coronavirus frontline ⁰

Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers have become the unwitting heroes of the coronavirus pandemic, winning applause from balconies and streets around the world. They are dealing with a huge influx of patients, while also facing a lack of equipment in many cases and the fear of becoming infected themselves. Often, they face heartbreaking decisions while treating their patients.

Let’s take a look at Dr Roger Etoa’s experience in Douala:

Roger Etoa, a doctor in Cameroon, one of the worst-affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, admits that fear of catching the disease also affects healthcare workers.

“I live with my wife and children,” the 36-year-old said. “When I arrive in the evening I rush to the shower, but it is difficult to stop the children from jumping on you.”

Etoa is the director of a healthcare centre in Douala, the commercial capital of Cameroon.

As a precaution, he’s started taking chloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria.

We don’t yet know if it works preventively or even curatively, but I prefer (to take it) just in case,” he said.

Early studies have shown that chloroquine, may be effective in the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, though more evidence is needed.

“We are afraid, like the rest of the population. Afraid that our masks or suits are not fitted properly when we are dealing with a patient who is showing symptoms,” the doctor said.

“We’re obviously afraid of catching it. When you get up in the morning and you have a bit of a headache, you ask yourself, ‘What if this is it? What if it’s our turn to get the virus?'”

Culled from Wionews.com

15, April 2020

One civilian killed and six others kidnapped in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia ⁰

At least one civilian was killed and six others abducted by armed separatists Monday night in Bonakanda, a locality in Cameroon’s troubled English-speaking region of Southwest, local authorities said on Tuesday.

Heavily armed separatists raided the locality, killing a woman and kidnapping six other civilians after accusing them of “defying laws” put in place by the separatists, witnesses said.

The army has launched a search and rescue mission in the locality, officials said.

Clashes between government forces and the separatists in the region have “dropped drastically” since the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Cameroon on March 6, according to security sources.

“Most of the boys kidnapping people for ransom and stealing now are actually thieves not the separatists,” an army official who asked not to be named told Xinhua.

Since 2017, separatists have been fighting to create an independent nation in the two Anglophone regions of the largely-French-speaking Cameroon.

Source: Xinhuanet

15, April 2020

People with COVID-19 may be infectious days before symptoms ⁰

People infected with the new coronavirus may start spreading the virus several days before they have any noticeable symptoms, according to a new modelling study published Wednesday.

The study comes as nations have broadened restrictions aimed at curbing the epidemic, amid concerns over patients who may be infectious despite not showing signs of ill health.

The findings challenge key assumptions behind measures put in place to stop the spread of the pandemic, such as tracing contacts of an infected person only as far back as the time at which they began to show symptoms.

Experts have long conjectured that some people who do not even know they are infected may transmit the virus.

But the new study suggests that even those who get visibly sick may be highly infectious before the onset of symptoms.

“More inclusive criteria for contact tracing to capture potential transmission events two to three days before symptom onset should be urgently considered for effective control of the outbreak,” the authors said in the paper published in Nature Medicine.

– Infectious before symptoms show –

Researchers compared clinical data on virus shedding from patients at a hospital in China with separate data on “transmission pairs” — where one person is believed to have infected the other — to draw inferences about periods of infectiousness.

The research team co-led by Eric Lau of the University of Hong Kong took throat swabs from 94 patients admitted to Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital and measured infectiousness from the first day of symptoms for 32 days.

They found that the patients, none of whom were classed as severe or critical, had the highest viral load soon after the onset of symptoms, which then gradually decreased.

The study used publicly-available data on 77 transmission pairs, within China and internationally, to assess how much time elapsed between the onset of symptoms in each patient.

It assumed an incubation period — the time between exposure to infection and appearance of symptoms — of a little over five days.

The authors inferred that infectiousness started 2.3 days before symptoms appeared and was at its peak at 0.7 days before the first signs of illness — although they cautioned that pinpointing the exact timing of the onset of symptoms relied on patient memory.

They estimated that 44 percent of secondary cases in the transmission chains were infected during the pre-symptomatic stage.

Infectiousness was predicted to decrease quickly within seven days.

– ‘Important implications’ –

Responding to the study, Babak Javid of Tsinghua University School of Medicine in Beijing said the findings would have “important implications” for measures to control the pandemic, such as whether masks should be worn by those with no symptoms.

“This is important because current public health control measures advised, for example, by the WHO and UK government assume that maximum contagion is after symptom onset. Hence one reason masks are not advocated for wearing by asymptomatic members of the public,” he said.

Javid added that several studies had now suggested that a large number of patients shed the virus before they show signs of illness and said the findings are “likely to be real and robust”.

At the beginning of this month China said it had more than 1,300 asymptomatic coronavirus cases, the first time it has released such data following public concern over people who have tested positive but are not showing symptoms.

As the pandemic has spread, many nations that initially advised only individuals with symptoms to self-isolate and wear masks have expanded their responses to measures that apply across the board.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said up to a quarter of people who are infected may be asymptomatic.

Source: AFP

15, April 2020

Biya’s deliberate silence to coronavirus pandemic ruining Cameroon’s reputation ⁰

President Biya’s complete absence from the nation’s capital Yaoundé and his little or no response to the coronavirus pandemic, has been seriously condemned by a cream of French Cameroun political commentators including some prominent regime barons as shameful, disgusting and disgraceful with many observing that his poor management of the virus outbreak is ruining Cameroon’s reputation as the giant of the Sub Saharan region.

Biya’s recent decision to self isolate at his Mvomeka’a palace and his 37 documented years of incompetence and dishonesty in managing state affairs including the COVID-19 pandemic has left many in Yaoundé in disbelief.

Biya’s arrogant style of governance rich in several trips abroad tolerated in the past is now seen as downright dangerous by members of his own Beti Ewondo ruling clan. A prominent member of the CPDM political bureau who hails from the Centre Region told Cameroon Concord News that no one in government including Prime Minister Dion Ngute trust President Biya. The French Cameroun political elite who sued for anonymity also said the 87 year old Biya is now been seen as a threat to the future of the nation.

The regime in Yaoundé is noted for failed leadership and a sea of reckless actions. So far, Prime Minister Dion Ngute has made the wearing of face mask compulsory in all government buildings. But the whole mechanism put in place by the Francophone dominated government to combat the spread of COVID-19 ranges from plain fiction to the most absurd.

The new coronavirus, which causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19, is believed to have emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and President Trump’s latest decision to halt US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) will of course affect countries like Cameroon that rely on the international system for survival.

The United States is the biggest overall donor to the Geneva-based WHO, contributing more than $400 million in 2019, roughly 15% of its budget.

Last month, the Group of Seven (G7) countries failed to agree on a joint statement on tackling the COVID-19 pandemic because US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted on calling it the “Wuhan virus”.

Mask wearing is one of seven supplementary preventive measures, Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, announced last week as part of government response to Covid-19 as Cameroon counted 848 confirmed cases on Sunday, including 98 recoveries and 14 deaths.

The additional measures also include the local production of medicines, protective masks and hand sanitisers, the establishment of specialised treatment centres for Covid-19 patients in all regional capitals, intensification of screening and awareness-raising campaigns.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow and Chi Prudence Asong in London

15, April 2020

Migrant workers face predicament in Persian Gulf countries amid pandemic ⁰

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

15, April 2020

Austria, Spain ease Covid-19 restrictions, others extend lockdown measures ⁰

Spain and Austria allowed partial returns to work on Tuesday but Britain, France and India extended lockdowns to rein in the new coronavirus while the United States, where the death toll exceeded 25,000, debated how to reopen its economy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that infections had “certainly” not yet peaked.

Nearly 2 million people globally have been infected and more than 124,000 have died in the most serious pandemic in a century, according to a Reuters tally.

The epicentre has shifted from China, where the virus emerged in December, to the United States, which has now recorded the most deaths.

World leaders, in considering easing curbs, have to balance risks to health and to the economy as the lockdowns have strangled supply lines, especially in China, and brought economic activity to a virtual halt.

The shutdown is costing the U.S. economy perhaps $25 billion a day in lost output, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said, calling for widespread testing and risk management strategies so the economy can restart.

President Donald Trump, who has declared he will decide when to lift lockdowns, suggested some Democratic state governors were “mutineers” after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would refuse any order that risked reigniting the outbreak.

The White House said Trump would hold a video teleconference with leaders from the Group of Seven nations on Thursday to coordinate responses.

The global economy is expected to shrink by 3% this year, the International Monetary Fund said, marking the steepest downturn since the Great Depression.

The WHO said the number of new cases was tailing off in some parts of Europe, including Italy and Spain, but outbreaks were growing in Britain and Turkey.

“The overall world outbreak – 90 percent of cases are coming from Europe and the United States of America. So we are certainly not seeing the peak yet,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a briefing in Geneva.

But world stocks gained after Chinese trade data came in better than expected and as some countries partly lifted restrictions.

Some Spanish businesses, including construction and manufacturing, were allowed to resume. Shops, bars and public spaces are to stay closed until at least April 26.

Spain was flattening the curve on the graph representing the rate of growth of the outbreak, Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Tuesday. The overnight death toll from the coronavirus rose to 567 on Tuesday from 517 a day earlier, but the country reported its lowest increase in new cases since March 18. Total deaths climbed to 18,056.

Some Spanish workers expressed concern that the relaxation of restrictions could trigger a new surge of infections. But for Roberto Aguayo, a 50-year-old Barcelona construction worker, the restart came just in time.

“We really needed it, just when we were going to run out of food we returned to work,” he told Reuters.

Italy, which has the world’s second highest death toll at 21,067, maintained some tight restrictions on movement, while Denmark, one of the first European countries to shut down, will reopen day care centres and schools for children in first to fifth grade on April 15.

The Czech government will gradually reopen stores and restaurants from April 20, although people will continue to be required to wear masks.

Thousands of shops across Austria reopened on Tuesday, but the government cautioned that the country was “not out of the woods”.

Austria acted early to shut schools, bars, theatres, restaurants, non-essential shops and other gathering places about four weeks ago. It has told the public to stay home.

The Alpine republic has reported 384 deaths in total, fewer than some larger European countries have been suffering each day. Hospitalisations have stabilised.

Lockdowns extended

Britain, where the government has come under criticism for its slow approach to testing and for not getting protective equipment to the frontlines of health care, has the fifth-highest death toll globally.

The toll in British hospitals rose to 12,107 as of Monday but is expected to be much higher when deaths in the community are included. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said there would be no easing of lockdown measures when they come up for review this week.

The Times newspaper said on Tuesday that Raab, deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson who is recuperating from a COVID-19 infection, would extend the curbs until at least May 7.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron on Monday extended a virtual lockdown to May 11.

India, the world’s second-most populous country after China, extended its nationwide lockdown until May 3 as the number of coronavirus cases crossed 10,000.

Neighbours Pakistan and Nepal also extended their curbs.

Russia might need to call in the army to help tackle the crisis, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday. Moscow warned the capital might run out of hospital beds in coming weeks.

China’s northeastern border province of Heilongjiang saw 79 new cases on Monday – all Chinese citizens travelling back from Russia, state media said.

As of Tuesday, China had reported 82,249 coronavirus cases and 3,341 deaths. There were no deaths in the past 24 hours.

Health ministers from the Group of 20 major economies will speak by video conference on Sunday to address the outbreak’s impact.

(REUTERS)

15, April 2020

New York City death toll exceeds 10,000 as untested Covid-19 victims added to official count ⁰

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)

14, April 2020

African diaspora questions China relationship after spike in discrimination over Covid-19 ⁰

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