Wrap of the Week 2020-04-24
We, the world, are coming to the end of another week in a pandemic none of us will ever forget. When your grandchildren asked what you did in the Coronavirus of 2020 I’m sure most of us would like to say that we worked on our minds & bodies, learned some new skills, built a treehouse. However, if your time in quarantine has rather been spent becoming something of a self-taught wine connoisseur, and a medical-expert alongside your classmate Donald Trump with a degree from the The Daily Mail, then this weekly summary of the coronavirus might just be right up your alley.
(Since 31 December 2019 and as of 24 April 2020, 2 668 135 cases of COVID-19 (in accordance with the applied case definitions and testing strategies in the affected countries) have been reported, including 190 236 deaths)
U.S.A
The U.S has stayed the second country most at risk from coronavirus this week behind Indonesia. The states most affected has varied but are mostly concentrated in the north-east corner with New Jersey and New York suffering the worst.
Trump’s lies about multiple aspects of the coronavirus are racking up, particularly fake news regarding treatments and how it was handled alongside other governments in the preliminary stages. Here are some of his controversies for this week:
Trump lied about the travel ban from Europe. Trump’s claim that when the virus struck, he promptly banned travel to the United States from Europe. However, it actually took till March 14th to suspend all travel from Europe & then blamed the outbreak in in the U.S. on the European Union’s failure to restrict travel from China. Since then the story has been altered, fabricated and repeated so many times it’s hard to remembered what exactly happened so Trump has returned to his original narrative that their borders to Europe were closed at the same time as they closed them to China. What a load of nonsense.
Trump’s other claim from this week came on Tuesday 21st when he stated that Protesters who gathered in a handful of states over the weekend to oppose social distancing were “doing social distancing” themselves and “were all six feet apart.” When in actuality protesters had been clogging the streets in at least seven states after the demonstration in Michigan state capitol grabbed attention on April 15th. Demonstrators were not following guidelines in California and Colorado, amoungst other places. Photos and videos from the ground show tightly packed protests.
Read more of Trump’s other lies about coronavirus here:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/04/trumps-lies-about-coronavirus/608647/
Meanwhile, Democratic nominee Joe Biden called the coronavirus pandemic a "wake up call" on climate change. Thinking positively rather than sympathising with the victims of the crisis, Biden says he is excited for the opportunities to make “institutional changes”.
"COVID is shining a bright light on the structural racism that plagues our laws, our institutions and our culture. And it's a wake up call, a wake up call to action to climate change overall and to climate justice," Biden.
Coronavirus Cases: 886,709 Deaths: 50,243 Recovered: 85,922
Europe
The EU had a council meeting on 23rd April to work towards a common agreement on the COVID-19 recovery fund. Meanwhile The European Commission estimates the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak could be greater than the financial crisis of 2008. In our predictions this week Great Britain and Sweden have been on the top ten list for countries at risk with the peak yet still having potentially not been reached.
In Belgium, a draft devising the country’s lockdown exit strategy has been leaked. It proposes that some shops be re-opened, and that restrictions on social gatherings and outdoor activities are relaxed.Experts suggest reopening some shops from 4 May to avoid “unfair competition” from big stores, most of which also sell products other than just basic necessities. The experts also want “a perspective” to be given to the hospitality sector as the draft foresees restaurants and cafes will remain closed for some time. However, Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès expressed disappointment at the leaking of the recommendations. She has said that extreme caution is required an the answers will provided today, on Friday.
“We regret this leak. The challenges that lie ahead are too great to present unvalidated information lightly” says Wilmès.
Germany has already approved an initial rescue package in March worth over €750 billion to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, with the government taking on new debt for the first time since 2013. The country successfully managed to slow down the pandemic through drastic restrictions, however, this had significant economic and social consequences. The restrictions are being loosened in small steps because the virus is still widespread and they do not want to jeopardise the success so far with another exponential wave of infections.
OnThursday (23rd April) Germany’s coalition parties agreed to further measures worth some €10 billion to shield workers and companies from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The aid package includes higher state transfers for people in short-time work schemes, according to a document agreed by senior members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition.
The package will allow the government to keep financial means for future measures, the parties said, suggesting that the government wants to keep some of its fiscal powder dry in the event of another escalation in the outbreak.
The UK’s National Health Service has begun testing a mobile application designed to trace the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the UK Parliament on Wednesday (22nd April) that trials had so far been proceeding well, and that that an application would be available within a “matter of weeks.”
There may be a huge hitch in the plan though because in the European Commission’s common toolbox for mobile applications to combat COVID-19, developers were warned against the processing and storage of location data.
“Location data is not necessary nor recommended for the purpose of contact tracing apps, as their goal is not to follow the movements of individuals or to enforce prescriptions,” said the Commission document, published on Thursday (April 16th).
“Collecting an individual’s movements in the context of contact tracing apps would violate the principle of data minimisation and would create major security and privacy issues.”
Europe: 1 158 623 cases; the five countries reporting most cases are Spain (213 024), Italy (189 973), Germany (150 383), United Kingdom (138 078) and France (120 804).
Australia
Although fatalities this week have risen from 4 to 8 in Western Australia, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer has said that the national COVID-19 case numbers are at the lower end of what modelling predicted! He has given a glowing appraisal of the country's coronavirus response, saying cases in the Northern Territory and ACT are so low "that there's no statistical purpose in showing them". He was also questioned on Trumps’s latest suggested treatments for coronavirus and stifled a laugh. For those who haven’t heard, this week Trump cited US Government research suggesting coronavirus could be killed off more quickly when exposed to sunlight, heat and humidity, and is destroyed altogether when hit by disinfectants.
In other news, a cruise ship that is the subject of a criminal investigation after it became Australia’s largest single source of coronavirus infections set off from the country’s shores Thursday a month after it was ordered by police to leave. The Ruby Princess has been linked to 19 deaths in Australia and 2 in the United States. Australia has recorded 75 coronavirus deaths. A government inquiry is underway into why 2,700 passengers and crew were allowed to disembark in Sydney on March 19th before the test results of sick passengers were known.
Oceania: 8 036 cases; the five countries reporting most cases are Australia (6 667), New Zealand (1 114), Guam (140), French Polynesia (57) and Fiji (18).
Asia
Indonesia has consistently been the world’s hardest hit country from coronavirus this week. The number of coronavirus infections in SouthEast has risen quickly in recent weeks, with mounting worries among experts that the region could turn into a hot spot for the fast-spreading disease.
Collectively, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore account for 87.9% of total cases reported in Southeast Asia, the data showed. While the region’s tally is still far off the hundreds of thousands seen in the U.S. and some European nations, several studies suggest that tens of thousands more infections could be undetected due to the low testing rate in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines.
Meanwhile in Singapore, cases have spiked dramatically in the last two weeks, with new clusters of infections found among migrant workers living in packed dormitories — despite the fact that at one point in time the government’s handling of the outbreak was hailed internationally as a model for others to follow.
In Manila, Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman reported he has extended lockdown until May 15th, stretching one of the world's strictest community quarantines to to eight weeks. The Philippines became the third country to order tight lockdown and home quarantine after China and Italy, but just a few days before Spain. This occurred even though the Philippines had only a fraction of the infections and deaths of nations that took similar measures. Manila, a heavily congested city of at least 13 million people and millions more informal settlers, accounts for more than two-thirds of the country's 6,981 infections and 462 deaths. As well as extending the lockdown Duterte has also offered a reward of 50 million pesos (US$986,000) to any Filipino who could create a vaccine.
Asia: 431 034 cases; the five countries reporting most cases are Turkey (101 790), Iran (87 026), China (83 884), India (23 077) and Israel (14 882).
Africa
Beijing is facing a diplomatic crisis in Africa after reports of alleged coronavirus-related discrimination against African nationals in China sparked widespread anger across the continent. African students and expatriates in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou were last week subject to forced coronavirus testing and arbitrary 14-day self-quarantine, regardless of recent travel history, amid heightened fears of imported infections. Large numbers of African nationals were also left homeless, after being evicted by landlords and rejected by hotels in the city. Having reportedly contained the virus within China, concerns have grown in recent weeks over a so-called second wave, brought into the country by overseas travellers.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian responded saying "We are still facing great risks of imported cases and domestic resurgence. Particularly, as the pandemic spreads all over the world, imported cases are causing mounting pressure.” He continued reassuring that "All foreigners are treated equally. We reject differential treatment, and we have zero tolerance for discrimination.”
Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is forecast to fall sharply in 2020 and the region will suffer its first recession in 25 years. On Thursday the World Bank released a report that estimates "COVID-19 will cost the region between $37 billion and $79 billion in output losses for 2020 due to a combination of effects," including trade disruption and reduced remittances, tourism and foreign aid.
While most countries in the region will see a decline in growth, "real gross domestic product growth is projected to fall sharply particularly in the region's three largest economies -- Nigeria, Angola, and South Africa -- as a result of persistently weak growth and investment," the report said.
The bank also warned of a potential food security crisis in Africa as a result of disrupted agricultural production and food imports.
To end on a more lighthearted note, President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni is getting personally involved in the effort to keep his citizens inside. The 75-year-old-leader has released his own home workout video, and for the record, it is brilliant. So far, there have been 53 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Uganda, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University and the country's Ministry of Health. So on Wednesday, Museveni took to Twitter to warn Ugandans not to exercise outdoors, writing: "If you want to exercise, you can do that indoors."
Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vREpJIeuGQg
Africa: 27 221 cases; the five countries reporting most cases are South Africa (3 953), Egypt (3 659), Morocco (3 568), Algeria (3 007) and Cameroon (1 401).
We are sending our thoughts to those in high risk areas, please take care.
Sources:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/trump-lies-travel-ban-europe-coronavirus.html
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases
https://www.euractiv.com/section/coronavirus/linksdossier/coronavirus-whats-happening-in-europe/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52407177
https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/coronavirus-cruise-ship-finally-leaves-australian-port/ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-24/coronavirus-australia-live-news-covid19-latest-national-cabinet/12179164
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/13/asia/china-guangzhou-african-blacklash-hnk-intl/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/09/africa/africa-recession-coronavirus/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/10/africa/uganda-president-work-out-video-intl-scli/index.html