Australian academic, psychologist and author Lea Waters discusses how altruistic behaviours are vital for our mental health as we come to grips both personally and as a society with the coronavirus crisis. This video is one of a multi-part series looking at ways we can all stay positive during the coronavirus crisis.
Parisians have been told to remain indoors for 15 days, with exemptions on buying groceries, visiting doctors and getting medication, or commuting for those unable to work from home
Continue reading...Chilean lawmakers have voted to postpone a much-anticipated referendum on a new constitution as safety concerns around the coronavirus outbreak take precedence over politics.
The vote on rewriting the country’s Pinochet-era constitution was originally due to take place on 26 April – a date that the country’s health ministry now predicts will be the height of the virus outbreak in the country.
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Connecticut has become the latest state to announce it is moving its presidential primary, which was originally scheduled to take place on April 28.
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said the primary would instead take place on June 2.
In coordination with other states and our Secretary of the State, and in an effort to carry out Democracy while keeping public health a top priority, I have decided to move our presidential primary to June 2nd. I will provide more information later today. #COVID19 #2020Primaries
The State Department’s Level 4 advisory on all international travel comes a week after the government issued a Level 3 advisory, which urged Americans to reconsider their travel plans.
A number of Americans are already trying to get back home from countries like Guatemala, which has implemented harsh restrictions on flights going into and out of the country.
Continue reading...The US president has sought to deflect criticism of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic by attacking China and the media over their coverage of it. Speaking at his daily taskforce briefing, Trump accused Beijing of suppressing early information about the spread of the virus in Wuhan, and the media of corruption. ‘They’re siding with China,’ he said. ‘It’s more than fake news; it’s corrupt news’
Continue reading...Covid-19 struck 44 guests at a glamorous wedding after a designer attended despite having had a fever and just arriving from Spain
It was supposed to be a highlight of the social season in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo: but a glamorous wedding celebration in the upmarket neighbourhood of Carrasco has gained a different kind of notoriety after it emerged that 44 guests contracted the coronavirus at the party.
Related: Bolsonaro’s son enrages Beijing by blaming China for coronavirus crisis
Continue reading...Quantitative easing stimulus is equivalent to almost 2% off interest rates
The Bank of England has gone all in. By cutting interest rates to 0.1% and announcing a fresh £200bn of money creation via its quantitative easing programme it has fired all the conventional weapons in its arsenal.
There will be some who say this is all reminiscent of the Beyond the Fringe sketch where Peter Cook demands “a futile gesture” to raise the whole tone of the war. Others will saythe Bank’s new governor Andrew Bailey had no choice given the state of the markets and the imminent lockdown in London. Bailey has had a good first week in the job.
Continue reading...The prime minister has said the UK can 'turn the tide' in the fight against coronavirus in three months. Speaking at his daily press briefing on the pandemic, he said that after that period, science would be able to help treat and contain the virus
Continue reading...The world was astonished by the Wuhan quarantine but it seems to have worked
When China announced it was shutting down Wuhan, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, in a bid to prevent further spread of the disease, the world was stunned and experts sceptical.
Beijing’s decision was a vast experiment, epidemiologists warned, that might not work despite its huge human and economic cost. Quarantine had never been tried on such an enormous scale in the modern world.
Continue reading...The coronavirus pandemic is causing increased stress and anxiety, particularly people with existing mental health problems, practitioners and campaigners have said. The behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings has been talking through how to cope with these feelings and offering advice to those who have a fear of isolation
Chris Whitty argues it is improbable that the virus can be entirely eliminated and suggests basing a strategy on the idea would be a mistake: 'The idea that we can somehow contain it in the UK and then it goes away doesn't strike me as terribly plausible.'
The chief medical adviser also said that the mortality rate in the country would appear higher than expected until more testing was done
Continue reading...One of the last places to be hit by coronavirus, experts in Kenya are worried it doesn’t have the resources to cope
Callers to BK radio, a station broadcasting to the remote region around Mount Elgon in western Kenya, were worried on Wednesday evening.
“Will the government help us if we stay indoors and we need food?” one asked. “What if we have small houses, where we can’t stay too far apart?” asked another.
Continue reading...The truth about how you can catch coronavirus, how much more elderly people are at risk and what you can do to avoid infection
Wearing a face mask is certainly not an iron-clad guarantee that you won’t get sick – viruses can also transmit through the eyes and tiny viral particles, known as aerosols, can penetrate masks. However, masks are effective at capturing droplets, which is a main transmission route of coronavirus, and some studies have estimated a roughly fivefold protection versus no barrier alone (although others have found lower levels of effectiveness).
Continue reading...Bank now realises Europe will sustain grievous economic damage from Covid-19
Weak. Clumsy. Behind the curve. The European Central Bank took stick for its initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic – and rightly so.
Those accusations can no longer be levied after the ECB used an emergency meeting to launch a gigantic new package of quantitative easing (QE) – the electronic money creation device that has become a key tool for central banks since the financial crisis of 2008.
Continue reading...Across Europe and around the world, as people are confined to their apartments, they gather on balconies to applaud medical staff working on the frontline against the virus, as well as perform music, take part in spontaneous flash mobs, or just make the most of the sunshine
Continue reading...As the coronavirus outbreak continues, musicians, teachers and government organisations are turning to song to spread awareness
Continue reading...Campaigners call for fashion brands to protect workers in their supply chains globally as coronavirus causes orders to dry up
The fashion industry is facing calls to step in and protect the wages of the 40 million garment workers in their supply chains around the world who face destitution as factories close and orders dry up in the wake of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Many factories in garment-producing countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam are already closing due to a shortage of raw materials from China and declining orders from western clothing brands.
Continue reading...Nuns from Rome's Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus have taken to their rooftop to sing prayers to the Italian capital amid the coronavirus crisis. The country has been among the hardest hit by the virus, with the nuns saying: 'We ask heavenly mother to keep all coronavirus sufferers and all carers safe'
Continue reading...US says vaccine is 12 months away, Hubei reports no new cases and cases in Peru rise 61% in single day
Competition laws will be temporarily relaxed to allow supermarkets to collaborate in feeding the UK.
Retailers will be able to pool staff, share data on stock levels, and share distribution depots and delivery vans as supermarkets face intense demand, the government confirmed.
Donald Trump sowed fresh confusion about the US government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic by claiming that a therapeutic drug will be available “almost immediately” – only to be contradicted by officials.
In a rambling performance at Thursday’s White House press conference, the president asserted that chloroquine, used to combat malaria, had been approved and would be made available by prescription.
They’re doing great with the vaccines but there’s still a long process, but the therapies are something we can move on much faster potentially. And the treatments that will be able to reduce the severity or duration of the symptoms – make people better.
Chloroquine, or hydroxychloroquine, this is a common malaria drug. It’s also a drug used for strong arthritis … It’s been around for a long time, so we know if things don’t go as planned it’s not going to kill anybody … It’s shown very, very encouraging early results, and we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.
Pres. Trump touts chloroquine, an old malaria drug, that doctors say may help treat novel coronavirus, claims it will be available "almost immediately."
Read more about chloroquine: https://t.co/cYt0fxdlfB pic.twitter.com/9oPsMSD3HV
With 58 courts still open, the prospect of courthouses acting as incubators and disseminators of the virus remains pronounced
The Trump administration is putting the health and potentially lives of thousands of federal judges, lawyers, court staff and undocumented immigrants and their families at risk by insisting that immigration courts remain open for the deportation hearings of detained immigrants, despite the threat of coronavirus.
On Wednesday the Department of Justice announced the temporary closure of 10 immigration courts in addition to the already shuttered location in Seattle. All deportation hearings relating to undocumented people who are not in custody have also been suspended.
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