Sick people from remote areas of Brazil are transported by helicopter to city hospitals. Relatives of those who died from Covid-19 in Italy have filed several complaints with the Bergamo Public Prosecutor’s Office, the coronavirus situation in Latin America is deteriorating sharply, Slovakia is reopening nightclubs, and the captain of the Australian rugby team has been placed in isolation for kissing a journalist.
According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 7.2 million cases of Covid-19 have been recorded worldwide, with more than 411.5 thousand deaths. Brazil has had the highest daily mortality rate in the world for several days. The Russian service of the BBC in its daily selection tells about the latest news related to the spread of the coronavirus around the world.
According to the Pan American Health Organization, the spread of the coronavirus is exponential in many regions of the continent, and nearly half of the world’s cases are in the Americas. Of the more than 7.2 million cases of Covid-19 worldwide, nearly 2 million are in the United States, 739,500 are in Brazil, 199,600 are in Peru, and more than 100,000 are in Chile and Mexico, with tens of thousands in other countries on the continent. According to the head of the Pan American Health Organization, Carissa Etienne, the rapid spread of the virus began in Venezuela and Haiti, where infection rates had been minimal. Experts are concerned about further complications in South American countries where winter has set in and hurricane season is approaching. “During the winter, respiratory infections worsen and spread much faster because people are in closer contact inside their homes,” Etienne said during an online press conference.
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On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a further relaxation of the quarantine regime in the UK. Britons who live alone will be allowed to spend the night in someone else’s house. He spoke of “forming support bubbles”. “Anyone in such a sphere can behave as if they live in the same house,” Johnson said, adding that in such a situation it is not necessary to follow the rules of social distancing. “However, the Prime Minister emphasized that you can only choose who to visit once.” “You cannot change the house with which you entered the support sphere, nor can you form such spheres with multiple houses,” he said. Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, whose recommendations led to strict restrictions in Britain after the start of the coronavirus epidemic, said on Wednesday that the quarantine should have been imposed a week earlier, and then there would have been half as many deaths. The quarantine in Britain was not imposed until March 23. According to official figures, 41,128 people have died from Covid-19 in the country.
A Slovakian border guard checks the documents of a woman arriving from the Austrian town of Berg. On Wednesday, Slovakia lifted the mandatory quarantine for citizens of 19 countries (including 16 European countries) that are considered the safest according to COVID-19 statistics. However, those arriving from more affected countries are still required to self-isolate and undergo a coronavirus test. According to Prime Minister Igor Matovic, flights from the United Kingdom pose the greatest risk of spreading the virus. Also, as of Wednesday, it is no longer mandatory to wear masks in public places in Slovakia. Nightclubs will reopen, and the two-meter distance in restaurants is now a recommendation, not a requirement. On June 15, Germany will open its borders with France, Austria, Denmark, and Switzerland, said the country’s interior minister, Horst Seehofer. However, he warned that travel restrictions would be reintroduced if the infection rate in those countries rose again.
In Italy, 50 relatives of coronavirus victims have filed an official complaint against the authorities, accusing them of misconduct during the height of the pandemic. This is the first legal action of its kind to be taken collectively. The complaint was filed with the public prosecutor’s office in Bergamo, because, as the group’s initiator, Stefano Fusco, explained, this city has become a sad symbol of the tragedy for all of Italy. Prosecutors in Bergamo are expected to question Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and the ministers of health and the interior as part of the investigation. In particular, they will be asked why the towns of Nembro and Alzano were not quarantined in February, when it became clear that the virus had spread beyond the “red zone” declared in the town of Codogno just a few days earlier on February 21. Italy’s health minister, Giulio Gallera, acknowledged that there had been several cases of infection in Nembro and Alzano by February 23. However, the northern region of Italy was not completely quarantined until March 8. Central authorities blame the Lombardy provincial authorities for their slowness, but they argue that decisions to close entire parts of the country can only be made by the federal government. Not all European countries, even those that introduced quarantine measures early on, have approved of their governments’ actions. In May, families of the deceased filed a lawsuit against Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, and on Tuesday, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced it would investigate whether the government’s response to the pandemic falls under articles on involuntary manslaughter and creating a threat to human life. Leaders of Germany, France and several other European Union countries have said that Europe should better prepare for possible new epidemics, developing mechanisms for protection and rapid response. Many prominent European politicians signed a letter yesterday raising questions about how unprepared Europe is for such a situation and what urgent measures should be taken. In their special report, European Union leaders also accused Russia and China of using high-tech platforms to spread disinformation about the coronavirus to improve their own image, undermine democratic processes in addressing the problem and divide society. According to European diplomats, Beijing and Moscow spread false information not only in European countries, but also on a global scale. EU representatives are calling on technology companies to stop any unreliable information that could harm the world in the midst of an emergency situation.
In Russia, 8,404 new cases of Covid-19 were identified in the past 24 hours. Moscow accounted for 14.2% of these cases (1,195) – the lowest daily increase since 11 April. In total, 493,657 people have been infected and 6,358 people have died in Russia since the beginning of the pandemic. According to official data, the daily rate of infection in Russia has remained roughly the same for the fourth week, ranging from 8,300 to 9,400. Covid-19 infection rates in Pakistan have reached record levels, but the country continues to move rapidly out of lockdown. BBC correspondent Ilyas Khan reports from Islamabad that the two-metre distance markings in shops and institutions have disappeared. Guards who used to ensure that a certain number of people were present in buildings have also disappeared. No one is obeying the authorities’ orders to maintain social distance in markets.
The WHO believes that the peak of infection in Pakistan has not yet been reached. The WHO is concerned about the situation in Pakistan and has urged the central and provincial authorities to reinstate restrictive measures, as it is clear that the peak of infection in the country has not yet been reached. In most cases, however, the position of local authorities is in line with that of the country’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, who has said since the beginning of the epidemic that quarantine is a deadly measure in conditions of poverty for the majority of the population. Only in the province of Sindh, where the governor is from the opposition party, were strict quarantine measures imposed across the board, but after three months under pressure from Islamabad, the regime had to relax significantly. According to Johns Hopkins University, since the beginning of the epidemic in Pakistan, 113.7 thousand people have been infected with the coronavirus and 2,255 have died. The chief epidemiologist of the United States, White House advisor on Covid-19, Anthony Fauci, warned that the pandemic is far from over. The scientist attributes the high infection and mortality rates in the world to the highly contagious nature of this virus and the fact that infected people traveled freely around the world long after the problem became apparent. Few countries were able to respond quickly and take the necessary measures at their borders. But Fauci is confident that a vaccine will be found. The weekly statistics on the spread of coronavirus in 21 U.S. states have increased again. New outbreaks have been reported in California and other areas in the southwestern part of the country. A state of emergency has been declared in Arizona hospitals. In that state, as well as in Utah and New Mexico, the number of registered cases rose by 40% last week compared with the previous week.
Australian rugby player Benjamin Marshall kissed a journalist and was placed in isolation. One of the leaders of the Australian rugby team, Benjamin “Benji” Marshall, has been placed in quarantine after greeting a well-known journalist with a kiss on the cheek during training. The management of Sydney’s Wests Tigers club, for whom Marshall plays, said the midfielder would remain in isolation until Seven Network reporter Michelle Bishop tested negative for Covid-19. She wrote on her Twitter page that the situation “clearly demonstrates how easy it is to forget, even for a moment, the new reality. The Australian National Rugby League has resumed after a 10-week break. Players are not allowed to interact with people outside of their clubs and families due to the risk of infection.
The lower house of Japan’s parliament has approved a 258 billion euro budget to revive the country’s economy, which has been hit by the Covid-19 epidemic. It is expected to pass all stages of approval by Friday. This is the second package of measures approved by the government, which will mainly be used to support small businesses and make one-time payments to healthcare workers. Despite relatively low infection rates, consumer spending in Japan has declined significantly. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report, the pandemic has undermined economic growth in most developed countries by about five years. The report’s authors predict that the global economy will contract by about 7.6% this year, assuming there is no second wave of the epidemic. According to the OECD, all countries in the world are facing a deep recession and a long recovery from the crisis.
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in Africa has surpassed 200,000. Yesterday, the president of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza, died. According to some reports, he and his wife were infected with the coronavirus, but this information has not yet been confirmed.
There are eight species of pangolins in Asia and Africa, three of which are critically endangered and on the endangered species lists of various conservation organizations. The Chinese government has removed pangolin scales from the previously approved list of ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine. Zoologists and activists have welcomed the move, saying it will help protect this rare species from extinction. In addition, pangolins are believed to be carriers of the coronavirus that has caused a worldwide epidemic. Previously, virologists hypothesized that human infection with the coronavirus may have occurred in traditional Chinese markets selling wildlife meat. The world community has long criticized China for the existence of such markets, and since the start of the pandemic, Beijing has been under considerable pressure to close them. The coronavirus has brought the world to a medical and economic collapse and made it forget another crisis – the climate crisis. For now or forever?