DAY 46: 2020-04-29: Coronavirus Reveals Country’s Cracks...
Coronavirus Reveals Country’s Cracks...
As of 29th April our global predictions for the spread of coronavirus stay the same as yesterday, with the only change being Peru rising about the UAE. What’s interesting is to see the pressure applied by the virus around the world and the cracks which are starting to show in various countries.
New Zealand, one of the areas which dealt best with the corona crisis, has showed it’s biggest problem in the virus’ aftermath to be an unprecedented desire for burgers! The country relaxed it’s lockdown measures on Tuesday allowing some children back to school and 400,000 people went back to work. However, for many these changes most importantly meant they could satisfy cravings and long queues of cars outside KFC and Macdonalds restaurants in Auckland resulted in the police being called for crowd control!
The State of The States
My Telescope’s predictions for states at risk remains the same, however, the cracks in the US are getting deeper on a daily basis. As of today, 58,355 Americans have died and over 1 million have been infected. If the US starts lifting restrictions too soon then a second wave will be inevitable around Autumn or maybe sooner. There needs to be a 14-day decline in cases and deaths before states consider lifting restrictions, but states like Georgia are not following these guidelines to experts are expecting to see a sharp rise in the number of cases there following the opening of several small businesses last week.
South America’s Situation
Coronavirus in South America is rapidly highlighting the cracks in the continent’s relatively weak health infrastructure as it is becoming easily overwhelmed. Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been seen by some as having been complacent about the spread of COIVD-19 and cases in South America's largest country are increasing. At least 4,000 people have died and there are 58,000 registered infections. However, public health experts think that figure could be up to 15 times higher.
Ecuador is also finding the scale of the outbreak difficult to cope with and outside the port city of Guayaquil, bodies are piling up in refrigerated trucks because hospitals are overwhelmed. Doctors are in short supply and bulldozers are digging mass graves at cemeteries as it is thought the peak of the pandemic has yet to come. In one of the city's hospitals, the dead are even being piled up in the bathrooms.
Cuba seems to be handling the virus well judging by the fact that now 1,200 medical personnel have been dispatched to 23 different countries around the world, most recently South Africa. Interestingly though Cuba has recorded 51 deaths and in South Africa the fatalities aren’t that much higher with 86 deaths. Is Cuba spreading itself too thin?
Is Africa Alright?
Countries most at risk in Africa remain the same as yesterday and as a continent there are definite cracks beginning to show in West Africa. Millions of people in West Africa and the Sahel region in particular have long been prone to droughts and food shortages, and over the past decade, rising insecurity. Malnutrition rates in the Sahel are one of the highest in the world, where some 2.5 million children – more than a quarter in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – suffer from severe and acute malnutrition. Children and mothers are being hit hardest by the pandemic, along with those who are already hungry or displaced. Many Mauritanian herders, for example, head to Mali and Senegal in search of pasture. But, as borders close, nomadic herders are no longer able to move in search of fodder and water or to trade their animals for other foods or essential items.
However, on the more positive side, in a new paper by the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), there is talk of building long term development strategies post-Covid-19 that are focussed on low carbon climate resilient development pathways bring multiple wins for society, economies and the environment. With the inevitable rise in unemployment that the economic impacts of Covid-19 will result in, an African economic rebound based on resilience and powered by the continent’s abundant clean energy resources will create more jobs, enhance trade and contribute to global climate action, while addressing the continent’s chronic energy access deficit.
Which other countries are going to get on board with tackling climate change, or will there be a spike in global pollution just as there was after the financial crash of 2008?
Stockholm’s Syndrome
My telescope predicts results around two weeks ahead of time which is why although Stockholm has been the area hit hardest in Sweden so far, it has fallen down in our list. As of April 29th, a total of 1,287 people have died in Stockholm after testing positive for the virus which is more than half of the fatalities in the country. Despite this, according to Stockholm health authorities, there are currently 500 unoccupied hospital beds in the region and around 60 beds available in intensive care units. However, the main reason for the large fatality count, and the authorities have admitted their failure, is that the virus spread to a large extent of Stockholm’s elderly care homes. Out of 313 elderly care homes in Stockholm, 205 have at least one resident with the virus. This is a clear crack in the system for how Sweden went about preventing the virus’ spread. Another crack that has been revealed is that Stockholm’s suburbs Rinkeby-Kista and Spånga-Tensta have been overrepresented in the statistics, however Sweden’s Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lövin has a plan to tackle the health inequalities exposed by the virus in the future. She said:
"It's like all other serious events in society, the vulnerable are hit the hardest. It is that sad. We need to strengthen these groups and decrease inequality in society, that's the most important thing."
We are sending our thoughts to those in high risk areas, please take care.
Sources:
https://www.thelocal.se/20200429/new-figures-reveal-how-the-coronavirus-is-spreading-in-stockholm
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/29/health/us-coronavirus-wednesday/index.html