Updated: 12:30pm
Reuters
Geneva, Switzerland
The head of the World Health Organization voiced deep concern on Wednesday about the rapid escalation and global spread of COVID-19 cases from the new coronavirus, which has now reached 205 countries and territories.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that his agency, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund backed debt relief to help developing countries cope with the pandemic’s social and economic consequences.
“In the past five weeks there has been a near-exponential growth in the number of new cases and the number of deaths has more than doubled in the past week,” Tedros told a virtual news conference in Geneva where the UN health organisation is based.
“In the next few days we will reach one million confirmed cases and 50,000 deaths worldwide,” he said.
General view of the United Nations Headquarters during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New York City, New York, US, on 17th March. PICTURE: Reuters/Eduardo Munoz
China, where the coronavirus outbreak first emerged in December, reported dwindling new infections on Wednesday and for the first time disclosed the number of asymptomatic cases, which could complicate how trends in the outbreak are read. Its latest figures excluded 130 new sufferers of the highly contagious disease who do not show symptoms, its statistics showed.
Asked about the distinction, Dr Maria ver Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist who was part of an international team who went to China in February, said WHO’s definition included laboratory-confirmed cases “regardless of the development of symptoms”.
“From data that we have seen from China in particular, we know that individuals who are identified, who are listed as asymptomatic, about 75 per cent of those actually go on to develop symptoms,” she said, describing them as having been in a “pre-symptomatic phase”. The new coronavirus causes the respiratory disease COVID-19.
The outbreak continues to be driven by people who show signs of disease including fever and cough, but it is important for the WHO to capture that “full spectrum of illness”, she added.
Tedros praised India’s $US22.6 billion economic stimulus plan – announced after a 21-day lockdown imposed last week – to provide free food rations for 800 million disadvantaged people, cash transfers to 204 million poor women and free cooking gas for 80 million households for the next three months.
“Many developing countries will struggle to implement social welfare programs of this nature,” he said.
“For those countries, debt relief is essential to enable them to take care of their people and avoid economic collapse. This is a call from the WHO, the World Bank and IMF – debt relief for developing countries,” he said.
But debt relief processes are lengthy, Tedros said.
“What we are proposing together with the World Bank and IMF is an expedited process to support countries so their economies will not be getting into crisis and their communities will not be really getting into crisis,” he said.
Meanwhile, the UN has warned of potentially “dire” long-term effects of the coronavirus outbreak on countries and the global economy and called for greater international cooperation to fight the pandemic.
“COVID-19 is the greatest test that we have faced together since the formation of the United Nations,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres as he launched a report this week to address responses to the crisis. The UN was founded 75 years ago, after World War II.
The UN report appealed to countries to follow the World Health Organization’s guidelines and for an immediate health response to curb the spread of the virus, including stepping up testing, quarantine and treatment.
“We are still very far from where we need to be to effectively fight the COVID-19 worldwide and to be able to tackle the negative impacts,” Guterres told reporters at a virtual news conference.
Guterres said he was particularly concerned for Africa and urged developed countries to do more for less prepared nations.
“Let us remember that we are only as strong as the weakest health system in our interconnected world,” Guterres said.
The report also called for a multilateral response amounting to at least 10 per cent of global gross domestic product.
CORONAVIRUS LATEST
Lockdowns to halt the spread of the coronavirus have brought silence to some of the world’s busiest places. Transport hubs that should be teeming with travellers such as New York’s Grand Central Terminal or Istanbul’s Eminonu ferry docks are all but deserted.
• More than 878,300 people have been infected across the world and more than 43,400 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
EUROPE
• Italy will extend lockdown restrictions to 13th April, as data from this week suggests a slowdown of growth in total cases, though its national health institute says official death toll could be underestimated.
• Cases in Spain topped 100,000 on Wednesday, and two planes with protective equipment arrived to restock an overloaded public health system.
• France became the fourth country to pass the 4,000 coronavirus deaths threshold.
• Britain said it would ramp up the number of tests amid widespread criticism that it was doing far too few.
• Switzerland no longer faces shortages in coronavirus testing, its top health official dealing with the pandemic said on Wednesday.
• Measures to limit the outbreak in the Netherlands appear to have halved the rate of infection but need to be continued to be really effective, a top health official said.
* Germany will extend social distancing measures introduced last month to slow the spread of the coronavirus to April 19 and the government will re-evaluate the situation after the Easter holiday.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking precautions to protect himself, as Moscow launched a smartphone app designed to track people who have been ordered to stay home.
• Russia sent the United States medical equipment on Wednesday to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, a public relations coup for Putin.
• Turkey will step up measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak if it keeps spreading and people ignore “voluntary” quarantine rules, President Tayyip Erdogan said.
• European scientists and engineers will launch an initiative to support the use of digital contact tracing applications.
AMERICAS
• US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wants to virus-proof the November election by including funding to boost voting by mail in the next pandemic response plan, as confirmed cases in the country climbed to 186,101 and while deaths rose to 3,603.
• The Governor of New York cracked down even harder on public gatherings, calling residents who disregarded stay-at-home rules “selfish” as California’s Governor warned his state will run out of hospital beds by next month.
• Canada’s death toll jumped by 35 per cent in less than a day and Quebec said it was running low on key medical equipment.
• An Indigenous woman in a village deep in the Amazon rainforest has contracted the coronavirus.
• Cuba suspended arriving international flights and asked all foreign boats to withdraw from its waters.
• Nearly 30 medical workers at a hospital in northern Mexico have been infected, as the national tally climbed to 1,215.
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
• Mainland China reported dwindling new infections on Wednesday and for the first time disclosed the number of asymptomatic cases, which could complicate how trends in the outbreak are read.
• Singapore reported 74 new cases in its biggest intraday jump, bringing its total to 1,000.
• Japan will ban entry to foreigners from 73 countries and ask everyone arriving from abroad to begin quarantine.
• India scoured mosques on Wednesday to trace people who attended a Muslim gathering in New Delhi that later emerged as a hotspot.
• The rate of new infections in Malaysia appears to be slowing amid month-long curbs on movement, a senior health official said.
• A team of Chinese scientists has isolated several antibodies that it says are “extremely effective” at blocking the ability of the virus to enter cells.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
• Iran’s President said the US had missed an opportunity to lift sanctions on his country, though he said the penalties had not hampered Tehran’s fight against the infection.
• Ugandan doctors accused the government of endangering the lives of those in medical emergencies by requiring that all seek permission to secure transportation to hospitals.
• Egypt has ramped up efforts to fight the coronavirus, ordering manufacturers to channel medical protective equipment to public hospitals.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
• World equity markets began the new quarter with steep losses on Wednesday.
• Factories fell quiet across much of the world in March as the coronavirus pandemic paralysed economic activity, with evidence mounting that the world is sliding into deep recession.
• China’s ports and shipping firms are bracing for a second wave of supply chain disruptions that may be deeper and more prolonged than during the country’s lockdown.
• The European Commision proposed a short-time work scheme modelled on Germany’s Kurzarbeit programme to help people keep their jobs.
• Italy plans to spend another $US11 billion to guarantee debt and liquidity for professionals and companies hit by the crisis.
• Switzerland is preparing to expand an emergency liquidity programme for businesses, as banks have already lent out more than half of the $US20.70 billion set aside for state-backed loans.
• US restaurants asked the White House and congressional leaders for at least $US325 billion in aid.
– Compiled by SARAH MORLAND, MILLA NISSI, ADITYA SONI and UTTARESH V.
