Category Archives: Infectious Diseases

Coronavirus live news: Spain wakes to more restrictive lockdown as New York state passes 1,000 deaths

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Moscow announces lockdown of 12m people; Syria records first death

Covid-19 infections worldwide have risen to 732,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The US had the most cases, with over 142,000; Italy was second with nearly 98,000; and Spain has passed China’s 82,000 cases with 85,000. Italy still had the highest death toll, with nearly 10,800. Spain was second with 7,340. More than 2,500 people have died in the US.

Two of Brazil’s most iconic football stadiums - Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã and the Pacaembu in São Paulo - are being converted into Covid-19 field hospitals as the country braces for an explosion of coronavirus cases.

The Pacaembu - whose turf has been graced by giants of Brazilian football including Pelé, Socrates and Ronaldo - is expected to open on Wednesday as a 200-bed clinic for coronavirus patients who do not require intensive care treatment.

“From what we have seen in Asia and Europe, the hospital system will fast become overloaded if we don’t have parallel infrastructure,” told Brazilian television network Globo on Sunday night.

The Maracanã - which has hosted two World Cup finals, in 1950 and 2014 - will also reportedly be turned into a hospital in early April.

Other Brazilian cities turning football stadiums into temporary hospitals include Boa Vista in the Amazon state of Roraima and Fortaleza in northeast Brazil.

As of Sunday Brazil had officially confirmed 4,256 cases and 136 Covid-19 deaths - the majority in Rio (17) and São Paulo (98). Those numbers are expected to rise significantly in the coming days as testing increases and the virus spreads. Brazil’s health ministry has warned the hospital system could collapse by the end of April.

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Britons on virus-hit ship wait for Panama Canal green light

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Passengers on cruise liner where four died and its sister ship hope to be flying home soon

Hundreds of passengers, many of them British, on a coronavirus-stricken cruise trip where four people have died are confined to their cabins awaiting the go-ahead to pass through the Panama Canal.

Dozens have fallen ill on the Zaandam cruise ship, which was stranded off the Pacific coast of Panama after several Latin American countries refused to let it into port. Some passengers were transferred to a second ship – the Rotterdam – on Saturday night.

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‘As the president fiddles, people are dying’: Nancy Pelosi slams Trump’s coronavirus delays – video

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The House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, delivered a devastating critique of Donald Trump on Sunday, accusing the president directly of costing American lives through his constant denials and delays in response to the coronavirus outbreak. ‘The president’s denial at the beginning was deadly,’ the House Speaker told CNN’s State of the Union. ‘His delay in getting equipment to where it’s needed is deadly … As the president fiddles, people are dying’

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For a billion Indians, lockdown has not prevented tragedy | Supriya Nair

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Without adequate healthcare and unable to deliver basic needs, India now faces twin catastrophes of coronavirus and starvation

The world’s second-most crowded city is trying to stay home, but it wasn’t built for social distancing. Ever since it became an entrepôt of the British empire, Mumbai has been optimised to keep things moving – both labour and capital. Over the last fortnight, its citizens have been retreating from public premises. A majority are now confined to one- or two-room tenement housing, often with dividing walls made of tin and tarpaulin. These stand cheek-by-jowl with shops, restaurants and crowded medical clinics. Isolation is for people who live in homes with attached toilets.

The numbers aren’t yet staggering. Unlike New York City, which currently accounts for nearly 10% of the world’s known Covid-19 cases, Mumbai counts 74 as of this writing. Unlike London, authorities here initiated shutdowns before India’s government passed orders for a national lockdown.

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Coronavirus live news: New York, New Jersey and Connecticut told to halt non-essential travel

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Centers for Disease Control advice after president backed away from sealing state borders; worldwide deaths pass 30,000 with a third in Italy

Qatar Airways will continue to operate flights as long as necessary to get stranded travellers home but might run out of cash soon, Reuters reported.

Chief executive Akbar al-Baker said: “We have enough cash to take us through a very short period of time,” adding that the airline would eventually have to seek support from its owner, the Qatar government.

Domestic abuse victims are allowed to leave home to seek help despite the lockdown rules, the home secretary Priti Patel has said.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Patel said restrictions imposed on the population by the government to stay indoors were even more challenging to cope with for people whose “home is not the safe haven it should be”.

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US awol from world stage as China tries on global leadership for size

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Mike Pompeo labelling the virus ‘Chinese’ has added to lack of international cooperation

When the UN security council and the G7 group sought to agree a global response to the coronavirus pandemic, the efforts stumbled on the US insistence on describing the threat as distinctively Chinese.

There are other reasons for the lack of collaboration in the face of a global crisis, but the focus on labelling the virus Chinese and blaming China pursued by the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, helped ensure there would be no meaningful collective response from the world’s most powerful nations.

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Late-breaking news: there’s been a pandemic while you were away

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A full-scale disaster unfolded as we switched our phones back on after nine days of Colombian beaches and jungles

You can learn a lot about yourself in times of crisis, but you learn a hell of a lot more about the person you weather said crisis with. Best to strap in and bite your tongue. A lifetime of three weeks ago, my clever, rational other half and I went on a holiday to Colombia. He’s a man who rarely travels without a first aid kit, gaffer tape and a multi-tool thing allegedly essential for “survival”. I rarely travel without what he assumes are decadent luxuries – basic toiletries, to the rest of us – and three more books than I could possibly read. It’s a delightful match.

For eight or so days, we adventured on the country’s Caribbean coastline, trekked the jungle and landed on remote beaches far away from phone signal. It’s fair to say we were late to the memo. Turning our phones on after a self-imposed period of isolation was like watching a disaster film unfold. First, on a six-inch screen squinting at ticker tapes of rolling news. Then in full-blown Technicolor as Cartagena went into lockdown, with face masks being dealt out on street corners and a strict curfew enforced by police.

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We can scrutinise our leaders, but we must all improve our responses to coronavirus covid-19

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In a rapidly evolving situation, we must think ahead and react fast, says a special envoy of the WHO director general

Covid-19 is a new virus. Its high transmission rate and rapid exponential growth make its effects particularly serious. We are seeing how, in country after country, this is now far more than a public health issue. Politicians everywhere are having to balance their responses to the health consequences of Covid-19 with the needs of their economies and societies. The interactions are complex and can be highly contextual as differences in the strength of the economy, the age of the population and local health systems and society all interact. People and businesses are hurting and fearful for the future.

There are many lessons from countries where the disease appeared early in the pandemic, but global leaders also need to be aware of the global context. It is right that we scrutinise our leaders’ actions, but it is right because we all need to learn quickly, and to improve our responses. In such a rapidly evolving situation it is far too early to judge what has worked and what has not. What is critical is that we develop our actions fast in response to new information.

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My NHS colleagues are committed but we are at maximum stretch

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Psychiatrist and former minister Dan Poulter says the crisis is unprecedented, but his fellow health workers will see it through

As I walk across the hospital complex and pause to look at the London tower blocks in the near distance, life could not be further removed from the green benches of parliament, a mere 45 minutes walk away. Covid-19 has changed everything. In mental health services, in the central London epicentre of Britain’s outbreak, we are used to caring for people who have severe mental illness, but we have been confronted with a new reality of caring for people who are also infected with coronavirus.

Hundreds of healthcare colleagues are already off sick. Others are self-isolating because a family member is showing symptoms. Our service is at maximum stretch.

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UK can keep Covid-19 deaths below 20,000, says medical director

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Professor Stephen Powis has said the national effort can work if everyone plays their part

Every citizen in the United Kingdom must play a part if the number of deaths from coronavirus are to be kept below 20,000, the national medical director has said.

The call for a national effort to reduce deaths came as the total who have died rose by 260 since Friday to 1,019. In total, 17,089 have tested positive in the UK.

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Coronavirus live news: Cases in Italy overtake China, US infections pass 100,000

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Trump invokes Defence Production Act; Syria introduces travel restrictions; The UK, Spain, Italy see biggest daily rise in deaths. Follow the latest updates

Afghanistan has reported 15 new Coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the total number of infections to 110 - including four NATO forces and two foreign diplomats, Akhtar Mohammad Makoii reports from Herat.

Eleven of the new positive cases have been confirmed in western province of Herat, raising the total number of infections in Afghanistan’s worst affected province to 76. Herat neighbours Iran, where authorities have been struggling to control one of the world’s worst outbreaks.

This tweet from the air traffic tracking service Flightradar24, showing the number of planes in the air on Friday evening compared to four weeks earlier, shows the remarkable impact of travel restrictions across Europe.

Friday evening in Europe - February 28 vs March 27https://t.co/EqV2Vo80Kd pic.twitter.com/4puKM9G1f2

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Tackle climate crisis and poverty with zeal of Covid-19 fight, scientists urge

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Actions taken to suppress coronavirus reveal what measures are possible in an emergency, say experts

Government responses to climate breakdown and to the challenges of poverty and inequality must be changed permanently after the coronavirus has been dealt with, leading scientists have urged, as the actions taken to suppress the spread of the virus have revealed what measures are possible in an emergency.

The Covid-19 crisis has revealed what governments are capable of doing and shone a new light on the motivation for past policies and their outcomes, said Sir Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London, and chair of the commission of the social determinants of health at the World Health Organisation.

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One day we will tell stories of the virus, a time when we held our breath passing people in the street | David Marr

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Coronavirus has us all waiting. We have so little idea when and where this story will take us. Its arc is a mystery

I’ve been on to my solicitor to draft a certificate setting out why I should be saved when the Great Triage comes.

I can’t think of a single reason off the top of my head but he’ll come up with something. He’s good. He’s expensive. I want the document on me when I’m wheeled into ICU.

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‘There is a lot of Covid-19 in Westminster’: how politicians fell ill

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Were Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock practising what they have been preaching?

Prof Neil Ferguson was the first to sound the alarm – and perhaps provide a clue as to how the prime minister, the health secretary and the chief medical officer all became victims of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ferguson is the scientist whose research at London’s Imperial College led to the government’s dramatic pivot in its handling of the outbreak.

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Australians trapped in India’s coronavirus lockdown fear running out of food and water

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Thousands of Australians caught up in India’s sweeping lockdown are pleading for government help to get home

Thousands of Australians caught by India’s dramatic nationwide shutdown say they face running out of food and water or being evicted from accommodation, as 1.3 billion people across world’s second-most populous nation are ordered to stay indoors.

One state leader, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, warned if the lockdown was not obeyed, he would order police to shoot-on-sight those who went outside.

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Michael Gove: rate of coronavirus infection in UK doubling every three to four days – video

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Michael Gove has said the rate of coronavirus infections in the UK is doubling every three to four days. The Conservative politician gave the update during the government’s daily Covid-19 briefing after Boris Johnson was diagnosed with the virus

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Applause for NHS was bittersweet | Letter

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For Corinne Fowler, the clapping event transcended the bitter rows of the last few years, but also caused a pang of sorrow

The mass clapping event (Millions of Britons clap for carers on coronavirus frontline, 26 March) was bittersweet and loaded with irony. It was an unprecedented show of collective gratitude, inspired by a Dutch woman living in the UK, by a nation whose Brexit vote caused a shortage of medical staff as it sent EU citizens away. A clapping nation whose government created a “hostile environment” to banish the Windrush generation, who made vital contributions to the NHS.

I also thought of supermarket workers on low wages now risking life and limb, generally with no gloves or masks. There is little consideration for their safety. If it weren’t for them we would not be eating.

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‘I shook hands with everybody,’ says Boris Johnson weeks before coronavirus diagnosis – video

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Boris Johnson said he was shaking hands with coronavirus patients just weeks before he tested positive for Covid-19. The prime minister confirmed he had entered self-isolation on Friday 27 March. Early this month, he insisted that people would be 'pleased to know' that the virus would not stop him greeting hospital patients with a handshake

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Back poor countries fighting Covid-19 with trillions or face disaster, G20 told

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Experts warn leaders of huge social and economic consequences of failing to support developing states against ‘unprecedented threat’

Economists and global health experts have called on G20 leaders to provide trillions of dollars to poorer countries to shore up ailing healthcare systems and economies, or face a disaster that will rebound on wealthier states through migration and health crises.

Twenty experts, among them four Nobel prizewinners, including Joseph Stiglitz, Lord Nicholas Stern and seven chief economists of the World Bank and other development banks, have written to G20 leaders to warn of “unimaginable health and social impacts” as coronavirus rips through the developing world, taking overburdened healthcare systems beyond breaking point, and causing economic and social devastation.

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‘We fear, but have to work’: isolation not an option for the poor of Nairobi

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As coronavirus arrives in Kenya, retreat behind closed doors is only an alternative for those who can afford it

All photographs by Duncan Moore

Benson Kinyale is a security guard who works the door at a luxury apartment complex in the Parklands neighbourhood of Nairobi. While residents of the building have started to hoard supplies and stay at home because of Covid-19, he continues to make the 80km commute by bus from his home outside the city, six days a week.

He knows standing outside and opening doors all day is now a high-risk activity, as is travelling on a crowded matatu minibus almost every day. But he has little choice.

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