Glimmer of hope in virus-hit Europe as US girds for 'hardest' week
LONDON, United Kingdom — European nations most ravaged by the new coronavirus on Sunday reported encouraging signs in their fight against the deadly pandemic, as the United States braced for what may be its "hardest" week in recent memory.
While Queen Elizabeth II delivered a rare televised address in a bid to calm public nerves about the deadly outbreak, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was taken to hospital 10 days after he was diagnosed with coronavirus.
Italy reported its lowest daily toll in two weeks, a possible indication the tide may be turning in the deadliest disaster the country has faced since World War II.
"This is good news but we should not let our guard down," civil protection service chief Angelo Borrelli told reporters.
In Spain, officials said fatality numbers had fallen for the third straight day while France reported its lowest daily toll in a week.
Across the Atlantic, US President Donald Trump has warned Americans to brace for a "very horrendous" death tally in coming days, as the number of confirmed cases there surged past 330,000 — the highest in the world.
In New York state alone, the US epicentre, the death toll jumped over the past 24 hours to over 4,100.
The rapid march of the virus has claimed over 69,000 lives in just three months and left about half the planet confined to their homes, drastically altering life for billions and plunging the global economy into recession.
With more than 1.25 million people confirmed as infected, the virus is also putting massive pressure on healthcare services, with nations both rich and poor struggling to find enough staff and equipment.
Pope Francis, head of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, appealed for people to show courage in the face of the pandemic.
The elderly pontiff, who himself has been tested twice for the virus, celebrated his Palm Sunday mass by livestream. But Saint Peter's Square was deserted of the usual crowds and the basilica was almost empty.
And as Christians prepare for Easter, the holiest event on their religious calendar, churches are closed and masses are being transmitted on television and on social networks.
But not everywhere. In the latest sign of Americans defying stay-at-home orders, a Louisiana pastor continues to hold church services, a move blasted Sunday as "grossly irresponsible" by Governor John Bel Edwards.
Worshippers also gathered, at what appeared to be respectful social distance, at a Sunday service in Houston, Texas.
'We will overcome'
In her address to Britain, which has almost 5,000 fatalities, the queen thanked healthcare workers on the front line.
"Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it," she said.
Prime Minister Johnson, 55, was taken to hospital as a "precautionary step," according to Downing Street, after failing to shake off coronavirus symptoms.
In Italy, which has been under a strict lockdown for almost a month, officials reported 525 new deaths over the past 24 hours, the lowest since March 19.
But its overall death toll remains the highest in the world at 15,887.
There were signs of hope too for Spain, which registered 674 deaths Sunday, its third straight day of declining numbers. The government has nevertheless announced it is extending a near-total lockdown until April 25.
At a field hospital set up at a Madrid conference centre, staff applauded whenever a patient was healthy enough to be discharged.
Builder Eduardo Lopez, 59, gave a "10/10" rating to the staff who cared for him "with tenderness and a great dose of humanity".
'Our Pearl Harbor'
In the United States, New York too has set up a massive conference centre hospital, with some 2,500 beds, expected to open in coming days and be run by the US military.
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned that the country was facing unprecedented death tolls ahead.
"This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives," Adams said on Fox News Sunday.
"This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localized; it's going to be happening all over the country."
The US death toll stood at 9,458 Sunday, far more than the Pearl Harbor and September 11, 2001 attacks combined.
Trump has insisted that the world's largest economy could not remain shut forever, and has repeatedly discussed possibly reopening businesses.
New York state, the US epicentre, saw 594 deaths Sunday, slightly down from the previous day, but Governor Andrew Cuomo said it was too early to tell whether it was a "blip".
Virus death 'better' than starving
Several Western countries including the US have encouraged mask use in public despite earlier saying only carers needed to cover their faces -- a U-turn that has angered and confused some citizens.
The advice came after some studies suggested coronavirus could be spread through speaking and breathing, not just coughing and sneezing.
The World Health Organization is reviewing its guidance.
Governments have launched massive, unprecedented stimulus programmes to ease pain caused by the virus lockdowns, but economists warn that the crisis could worsen poverty levels with millions of jobs lost.
Iran, whose economy has suffered the double blow of the virus and punishing US sanctions, said it would allow "low-risk" economic activity to resume as daily infection rates fell for a fifth straight day.
Some people in poor countries are chafing against curfews destroying their livelihoods.
"How can anyone stay home without anything to eat?" asked Garcia Landu, a motorcycle taxi driver in Angola's bustling capital Luanda.
"Better to die of this disease or a gunshot than to starve to death," he said.
Elsewhere in Africa, Ethiopia reported its first two deaths. — with Michael Mathes in Washington and AFP bureaus
Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.
Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.
The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP
The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.
The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.
So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP
The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".
The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP
The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.
Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP
Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.
The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".
But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.
In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.
He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".
Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP
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