COVID–19 Headlines April 13, 2020

 

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Relevant all the time: An article I wrote last year for the Holy Week. I edited a bit for easier reading and toned down the medical terms.

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A 97-year-old woman the oldest person to recover from COVID-19 in Brazil

When 97-year-old Brazilian Gina Dal Colleto was hospitalized on April 1 with coronavirus symptoms, few could have thought she would survive the deadly virus.

On Sunday, however, Ms Dal Colleto was pushed in a wheelchair out of Sao Paulo’s Vila Nova Star hospital to applause from doctors and nurses, becoming the oldest known survivor of COVID-19 in Brazil, the Latin American country worst-hit by the outbreak.

Study finds evidence of COVID-19 in air, on hospital surfaces

A study published late last week in Emerging Infectious Diseases found a wide distribution of COVID-19 virus genetic material on surfaces and in the air about 4 meters (13 feet) from patients in two hospital wards in Wuhan, China, posing a risk to healthcare workers.

I wrote about that here:

SARS-CoV-2 Contamination in the Hospital Setting

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Coronavirus: China got it right by locking down Wuhan, German study says

• In the weeks after the city closed its borders on January 23, ‘the number of [Covid-19] cases grew steadily slower and then flattened out’, Berlin researchers say
• Similar restrictions had shown to be effective in other countries, like Italy, but behavioural changes were still needed elsewhere in the world, they say

With plastic sheets, Japan’s convenience stores target social distancing

TOKYO (Reuters) – Some of Japan’s ubiquitous convenience stores have taken a novel approach to social distancing by hanging plastic sheets from the ceiling to provide a barrier between customers and staff at the cash register during the coronavirus pandemic.

9 pm EST update. An increase of 149,244 cases and 3,536 deaths. Death rate of  5.92%

Coronavirus: in Indonesia, ‘ghosts’ volunteer to keep people indoors

• Typically wrapped in white shrouds with powdered faces and dark-rimmed eyes, ‘pocong’ represent the trapped souls of the dead in Indonesian folklore
• In some areas, villagers are calling on the age-old superstition to scare people into stay inside

Pentagon awards $415 million contract to reuse N95 masks

The Pentagon announced a major contract for 60 decontamination units that will allow millions of N95 masks to be reused as the critical masks continue to be sought after by medical professionals amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The $415 million contract will allow for the acquisition of “60 Battelle Memorial Institute Critical Care Decontamination Systems (CCDS), that can decontaminate up to 80,000 used N95 respirators per system per day, enabling mask reuse up to 20 times,” according to a statement from the Pentagon.

India, Pakistan plan to restart some economic activity during coronavirus lockdown

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – India and Pakistan are planning to partially open up some parts of the economy, officials in the two countries said on Monday, as the costs of harsh lockdowns to limit the outbreak of the coronavirus mount across the region.

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How a stockpile of 39 million masks was exposed as fake-LA Times

SACRAMENTO — 

A powerful California union that claimed to have discovered 39 million masks for healthcare workers fighting the novel coronavirus was duped in an elaborate scam uncovered by FBI investigators, the U.S. attorney’s office said Friday.

U.S. Atty. Scott Brady of the Western District of Pennsylvania said FBI agents and prosecutors stumbled onto the arrangement while looking into whether they could intercept the masks for the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Defense Production Act.

12 NOON EST update. An increase of 15,612 cases and 1,712  deaths. Case fatality rate of 6.20%

Coronavirus: Japan airport builds cardboard ‘hotel’ for stranded travellers

• Narita Airport, near Tokyo, set up the facility in its baggage-claim area for passengers awaiting the results of virus tests
• Results can come as quickly as six hours, but delays now mean many take as long as one or two days, a health official said

Sheltering from tornadoes takes priority over social distancing, state officials say

More than 95 million people in nearly 20 states could experience severe weather today and Monday, including heavy rain, hail and tornadoes.

Emergency officials say sheltering from tornadoes and protecting yourself from severe weather takes priority over social distancing guidelines Americans are adhering to during the coronavirus pandemic.

Coronavirus: what’s behind Vietnam’s containment success?

• With no deaths reported and the number of confirmed cases in the mere hundreds, Vietnam’s response to the pandemic appears to be working
• Elsewhere, governments enforced lockdowns to cope with existing epidemics. Vietnam did so to prevent an avoidable national crisis

China says there is no discrimination against ‘African brothers’

BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Monday there was no discrimination against “African brothers” in the country and rejected U.S. accusations of mistreatment of Africans in Guangzhou as an attempt to harm Beijing’s relations with African nations.

Coronavirus: tourists made to write ‘I am so sorry’ 500 times for flouting India lockdown

• Ten visitors were caught taking a walk in the north Indian town of Rishikesh
• A local police officer said the unusual punishment was handed out to teach them a lesson

‘Rice ATM’ feeds Vietnam’s poor amid virus lockdown

HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) – A Vietnamese entrepreneur in Ho Chi Minh City has invented a 24/7 automatic dispensing machine providing free rice for people out of work following an ongoing nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Singapore readies ‘floating hotels’ for workers as coronavirus spreads

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore is preparing to house hundreds of foreign workers in accommodation vessels typically used for offshore and marine industry staff as it races to find alternatives to dormitories where the novel coronavirus has been spreading rapidly.

Tens of thousands of migrant workers, many from South Asia, live in cramped dormitories across Singapore, which have become the biggest source of coronavirus infections in recent days.

Authorities are moving some of the healthy residents of those facilities to other sites including military camps, an exhibition centre, vacant public housing blocks and the accommodation vessels, which they have called “floating hotels”.

Rio’s Christ the Redeemer dons doctor’s coat to honour coronavirus medics

Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer donned a doctor’s coat on Easter Sunday, to honour medics on the frontlines of hospitals around the world battling to stop the spread of coronavirus.

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From an empty church, Venezuela cardinal leads Instagram Easter Mass

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan Cardinal Baltazar Porras led Easter Mass on Sunday from an empty church, offering a sermon that was broadcast over Instagram to hundreds of people quarantined in their homes because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Stay home measures spread in Japan-NHK

In Japan, more people are being asked to take steps to slow down a surge in coronavirus infections.
People in Tokyo are adjusting to a sudden lifestyle shift as the number of cases there topped 2,000.

Shinjuku station is known for massive crowds. But the start of this work week shows a difference.
Many are staying home or shifting their schedules to avoid rush hour.

British comedian and Goodies star Tim Brooke-Taylor dies after contracting coronavirus-SBS

UK comedian and actor Tim Brooke-Taylor, best remembered as part of comedy team The Goodies, has died at 79 after contracting coronavirus.

Russian border becomes China’s frontline in fight against second virus wave

SUIFENHE, China (Reuters) – China’s northeastern border with Russia has become a frontline in the fight against a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic as new daily cases rose to the highest in nearly six weeks – with more than 90% involving people coming from abroad.

U.S. nearing brink of virus-linked meat shortage, major producer says-WIVB

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Virginia-based Smithfield Foods announced Sunday that it is closing its pork processing plant in Sioux Falls until further notice after hundreds of employees tested positive for the coronavirus – a step the head of the company warned could severely hurt the nation’s meat supply.

The announcement came a day after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken wrote to Smithfield and urged the company to suspend operations for 14 days so that its workers could self-isolate and the plant could be disinfected.

MIT Solve rises to meet health security and pandemic challenge-MIT News

In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, MIT Solve launched a new Global Challenge: How can communities around the world prepare for, detect, and respond to emerging pandemics and health security threats? Solve’s mission is to foster innovation, seeking out tech-based social entrepreneurs and helping them scale up their ideas.

The new Solve Health Security and Pandemics Challenge is designed to produce both short-term solutions to the impact of the current pandemic as well as longer-term strategies for future crises. “The reason that this pandemic is costing so many lives is that we were unprepared,” says Pooja Wagh ’06, Solve’s director of health community and results measurement. “We need stronger health care supply chains and better disease surveillance. This will happen again, and we need to be better positioned to mitigate the impact on human lives.”

Asian shares fall, Europe, Hong Kong closed after Easter

TOKYO (AP) — Shares were mostly lower Monday in Asia while crude prices lost earlier gains that had come after OPEC and other oil producing nations agreed to cut output to reflect the collapse of demand due to the pandemic.

Trading was muted with European trading closed the day after Easter Sunday. U.S. shares were set to drift lower with the future for the Dow industrials slipping 1.4% to 23,277.50. The S&P 500 future fell 1.5% to 2,738.88.

What Do Early Remdesivir Data Suggest?-Medscape

New data on the investigational antiviral drug remdesivir (Gilead) suggest clinical improvement in 36 of 53 patients (68%) hospitalized for severe COVID-19, according to a new study published online April 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

But experts are warning that these data come from compassionate use in a wide variety of patients, with no randomization and no control group. 

“It is impossible to know the outcome for this relatively small group of patients had they not received remdesivir,” commented Stephen Griffin, PhD, associate professor at the University of Leeds School of Medicine, United Kingdom, who was not involved with the study. 

Australia’s coronavirus restrictions to be reviewed within weeks as death toll rises-SBS

Health Minister Greg Hunt says Australia’s case fatality rate is “one of the lowest in the world” but cautions “we are not immune from the iron laws of the disease”.
There are now more than 6300 Australians who have been infected with coronavirus, while the death toll sits at 61 after two deaths were recorded overnight.

Some Spaniards head back to work in face masks as country loosens lockdown

MADRID (Reuters) – Spaniards at the country’s main transport hubs were handed face masks on a rainy Monday morning as the government relaxed some of the tough lockdown measures designed to rein in the coronavirus health crisis which has claimed nearly 17,000 lives.

As Spain enters its second month of lockdown, some businesses that cannot operate remotely, including construction and manufacturing, were allowed to reopen on Monday, sparking criticism from some regional leaders who fear a resurgence of the outbreak.

China reports over 100 new infections in one day-NHK

China has reported more than 100 new coronavirus infections in a single day for the first time in 38 days since March 5.

China’s health officials confirmed 108 new cases on Sunday and 98 of them are arrivals from abroad. They say the total number of infections confirmed in the country now stands at 82,160

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson thanks nurses who saved him-SBS

A nurse from New Zealand and one from Portugal were praised by the Prime Minister for their care while he was hospitalised for COVID-19.

Fauci says ‘rolling reentry’ of US economy possible in May

WASHINGTON (AP) — New cases of the coronavirus are certain to arise when restrictions imposed to limit the spread of the virus are eased, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert for the U.S.

But Fauci said Sunday that the economy in parts of the country could have a “rolling reentry” as early as next month, provided health authorities can quickly identify and isolate people who will inevitably be infected. Fauci also said he “can’t guarantee” that it will be safe for Americans to vote in person on Election Day, Nov. 3.

Exclusive: South Korea to ship 600,000 coronavirus testing kits to U.S. on Tuesday – source

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea plans to send 600,000 coronavirus testing kits to the United States on Tuesday in the first such shipment following a request from U.S. President Donald Trump, a Seoul official told Reuters on Monday.

Trump made the request for testing kits in a telephone call on March 25 with President Moon Jae-in, as the United States was grappling with fast-growing outbreaks in many states.

A U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency cargo plane carrying the equipment is scheduled to leave at 10:30 p.m. (1330 GMT) on Tuesday, the official said, on condition of anonymity due to the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue.

5 am EST. An increase of  10,054 cases and 383 deaths. Case Fatality Rate of 6.16%

New Zealand, Australia say too soon to ease restrictions despite coronavirus slowdown

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Officials in New Zealand and Australia, hailed globally for their early signs of success in combating the spread of the coronavirus, said on Monday it is too soon to start easing social distancing rules or reopening their economies.

Turkish citizens panic over short-notice lockdown-NHK

Turkey’s short notice to lockdown cities over the weekend as a measure to curb the spread of the coronavirus resulted in confusion and panic-buying among its citizens.

The Turkish government announced the 48-hour curfew across 31 provinces on Friday, just hours before it took effect.

Coronavirus: Hong Kong records single-digit count in new infections for second straight day with five cases, pushing tally to 1,009-SCMP

• Toddler who visited Britain among Monday’s coronavirus count, which takes city total to 1,009
• Figures revealed as top microbiologist says Singapore spike at the weekend serves as warning against Hong Kong complacency

Germany debates easing restrictions as new infections drop

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Senior politicians in Germany have begun debating a potential easing of restrictions imposed over the coronavirus epidemic ahead of a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday.

As virus deaths rise, Sweden sticks to ‘low-scale’ lockdown

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Crowds swarm Stockholm’s waterfront, with some people sipping cocktails in the sun. In much of the world, this sort of gathering would be frowned upon or even banned.

Not in Sweden.

It doesn’t worry Anders Tegnell, the country’s chief epidemiologist and top strategist in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

South Korea reports more recovered coronavirus patients testing positive again

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea reported on Monday that at least 116 people initially cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again, although officials suggested they would soon look at easing strict recommendations aimed at preventing new outbreaks.

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