Latest Coronavirus updates from around the world

 

30 MARCH 2020

Pope joins UN appeal for global ceasefire

Pope Francis on Sunday joined UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres's appeal for an "immediate global ceasefire", on the fifth anniversary of Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemen's civil war.

"I join all those who have accepted this appeal and invite everyone to follow it by ceasing all forms of hostility, promoting the creation of humanitarian aid corridors, being open to diplomacy, and paying attention to the most vulnerable," the pope said in a message delivered after holding prayers.

Saudi seizes 5 million illegally stored medical masks

Saudi authorities have seized more than five million medical masks that were illegally stockpiled amid the coronavirus outbreak, state media reported on Sunday.

The commerce ministry seized 1.17 million masks from a private store in Hail, northwest of the capital, after authorities Wednesday confiscated more than four million masks stored in a facility in the western city of Jeddah in violation of commercial regulations, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The ministry said people behind such activities would be prosecuted, and that the confiscated masks would be redistributed to the open market.

Pharmacies in the oil-rich kingdom have reported shortages of masks amid panic buying, as authorities warned against

prices hikes.

Stranded Britons in New Zealand quoted £40,000 to fly home

Tourists are furious with the Foreign Office's failure to respond to Britons marooned on New Zealand, while other countries are moving much quicker.

While many European countries are going the extra mile to repatriate their citizens from around the world, with the German government chartering Lufthansa planes, Britons stranded in New Zealand are having to pay exorbitant prices to catch one out of only a few available flights home.

The Guardian reported that tourists are faced with flight tickets of up to £40,000 from Auckland to London. The UK embassy and consular services in New Zealand shut their doors last week, so desperate travellers stuck in the country have nowhere to go.

There are an estimated 6,000 Britons left on the island. The newspaper quoted that a Foreign Office spokesperson was "working around the clock to support British travellers".

Passengers transferred from virus-stricken cruise ship off Panama

Passengers on a virus-stricken cruise liner stranded off Central America were transferred to another ship Saturday, after the US-bound vessel was given permission to pass through the Panama Canal.

The Zaandam had been stuck in the Pacific Ocean since March 14 after dozens of the 1,800 people on board reported flu-like symptoms and several South American ports refused to let it dock.

The ship's Dutch owner Holland America said Friday four passengers had died and two more had tested positive for COVID-19.

Dutch government recalls 600,000 face masks imported from China

A large share of the 1.3 million face masks imported from China turn out to be defective. Some 600,000 face masks distributed to hospitals across the Netherlands have been recalled for being defective, public news broadcaster NOS writes.

The FFP2 masks failed quality standards by not fitting well around mouth and nose, and obtaining over a faulty membrane, endangering health workers when treating patients.

Numerous hospitals took the initiative to test the masks themselves.

"I immediately rejected those masks when they were delivered to us," one person from an affected hospital said to NOS.

Egypt shuts hospitals, isolates villages to slow virus

Egypt has shuttered several hospitals and quarantined villages in an attempt to halt the rising infection rate of new coronavirus in the most populous Arab state.

A Cairo hospital was closed for sterilisation late Saturday after two COVID-19 cases were confirmed.

An official at Al-Salam hospital told AFP on Sunday: "We are currently disinfecting the hospital for the safety of everyone concerned.

One patient had come in tested positive and a member of our staff was infected after".

Egypt shuts hospitals, isolates villages to slow virus

Egypt has shuttered several hospitals and quarantined villages in an attempt to halt the rising infection rate of new coronavirus in the most populous Arab state.

A Cairo hospital was closed for sterilisation late Saturday after two COVID-19 cases were confirmed.

An official at Al-Salam hospital told AFP on Sunday: "We are currently disinfecting the hospital for the safety of everyone concerned One patient had come in tested positive and a member of our staff was infected after".

Netherlands tops 10,000 coronavirus cases

He number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the Netherlands passed the 10,000 mark on Sunday, the authorities

said, as the country focuses on building up herd immunity rathe than confining the population of 17 million.

A total of 771 people have died from the COVID-19 epidemic in the Netherlands and 10,866 have tested positive, the country's institute for public health and environment (RIVM) said.

China reports slightly fewer imported cases

China reported 45 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, all but one of them imported from abroad. That compares with 54 cases the previous day, all imported.

After taking draconian steps to bring the virus spread under control domestically, China is now doing the same to prevent

imported infections.

It announced this week it would drastically reduce the number of international flights into the country and banned foreigners from entering beginning Saturday.

Australia limits gatherings to pairs

Gatherings will be restricted to just two people in Australia from Monday — down from the current limit of 10 — and playgrounds, outdoor gyms and skateparks will be closed across the country. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said all over-70s as well as indigenous people over 50, who are more susceptible to diseases, are now being strongly advised to self-isolate at home.

India PM asks citizens for forgiveness

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologised to citizens for the sweeping 21-day lockdown that has brought the country of 1.3 billion people to a halt, leaving many migrant workers jobless and penniless.

"I believe that you will forgive me... I had to take some decisions which have inconvenienced you in various ways, especially my poor brothers and sisters," he said Sunday in a weekly radio address, arguing there was "no other way" to

fight the virus.

French expert says second study shows malaria drug helps fight coronavirus

The controversial French professor who believes the anti-malaria drug chloroquine can help beat the coronavirus, has claimed that a new study he has conducted confirms its "efficiency" at combatting the virus.

But several other scientists and critics of microbiologist Didier Raoult, who heads the infectious diseases department of La Timone hospital in Marseille, were quick to cast doubt upon his findings.

Record virus deaths in Spain as world hunkers down for long haul

Spain reported a national daily record of 838 coronavirus deaths on Sunday in a fresh warning to the world that long-term

lockdowns may be needed to halt the deadly march of a disease that has claimed more than 31,000 lives.

A deluge of patients are overwhelming hospitals in Europe and the United States, now the focal points of a pandemic that is upending the global economy in unprecedented ways.

Alcohol sale banned in Greenland's capital to reduce violence

The sale of alcohol has been banned in Nuuk to help reduce violence against children during the confinement period. Domestic violence has been on the rise in the city since its lockdown.

SOURCES

RTL; AFP