Melbourne, Australia
Reuters
Australia on Sunday added to growing pressure on China over its handling of the novel coronavirus, questioning its transparency and demanding an international investigation into the origins of the virus and how it spread.
The coronavirus is believed to have emerged in a market selling wildlife in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has spread around the world infecting some 2.3 million people and killing nearly 160,000 of them, according to Reuters calculations.
Police officers patrol near the Sydney Harbour Bridge following the implementation of stricter social-distancing and self-isolation rules to limit the spread of the coronavirus disease in Sydney, Australia, on 6th April. PICTURE: Reuters/Loren Elliott/file photo
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said her concern about China’s transparency was at a “a very high point”.
“The issues around the coronavirus are issues for independent review, and I think that it is important that we do that,” Payne told ABC television.
GOVERNMENT URGUES APP INSTALLATION
Australia’s coronavirus-related death toll rose by three to a total of 68 on Saturday, health data showed, with the government stepping up its calls for people to sign up for a controversial movement-tracking mobile phone app.
Australia and neighbouring New Zealand have shown early success in potentially stopping COVID-19 after closing their early and imposing strict curbs on public movement.
The daily growth rate of new infections has steadied in the low percentage single digits in both countries, a fraction of what was seen a month ago. Australia recorded 36 new cases on Saturday and a total of 6,533 cases, according to the health ministry data.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday that downloading a movement-tracking up, which would enable the government to detect potential new outbreaks and which has been criticised as invasion of privacy, would not be mandatory.
“We will be seeking the cooperation and support of Australians to download the app to help our health workers, to protect our community and help get our economy going again,” Morrison said on his Twitter account.
Government Services Minister Stuart Robert said there would there will be no surveillance involved with the app, which is to be ready within weeks.
“The app is simply a health app,” Robert said in a televised briefing.
The government said the app would help guild policymakers in winding back social distancing measures.
Australia’s bars and other “non-essential” businesses have closed, and public gatherings of more than two people are banned under the threat of fines and even prison. The measures are expected to double the unemployment rate by mid-year.
New Zealand, which adopted one the world’s harshest lockdowns even before reporting a first death, saw eight new confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing all infections to 1,094. So far 11 people have died, health ministry data showed.
“In fact, Australia will absolutely insist on that.”
Australia has managed to get its epidemic under control before it strained its public health system, reporting 53 new cases on Sunday. They took its total to 6,586, according to the health ministry data.
There have been 71 deaths in Australia. The rate of increase in new cases has been below one per cent for seven consecutive days – much lower than in many other countries.
Payne’s call for an enquiry into the outbreak comes at time of tense ties between her country and its most important trading partner.
Relations have deteriorated amid Australian accusations of Chinese meddling in domestic affairs and concern about what Australia sees as China’s growing, and undue, influence in the Pacific region.
“My trust in China is predicated in the long-term,” Payne said. “My concern is around transparency and ensuring that we are able to engage openly.”
Australia’s call for an investigation comes as US President Donald Trump has been stepping up his criticism of China.
Trump and his senior aides have also accused China of a lack of transparency after the coronavirus broke out. On Saturday, Trump said China should face consequences if it was “knowingly responsible” for the pandemic.
China dismisses such criticism saying it has been open about the outbreak and in warning the world about it.
“Didn’t help”
Last week, Trump suspended aid to the World Health Organization accusing it of being “China-centric”.
The Geneva-based agency rejected that but Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt also criticised it, saying some of its response to the coronavirus was not helpful.
“What we saw from some officials in Geneva, we think was a response which didn’t help the world,” Hunt told a briefing.
“We have done well because we made our own decisions as a country.”
Australia went against the advice of the WHO on Feb. 1 and banned people arriving from China. It later closed its borders and imposed strict curbs on public movements.
Hunt said Australia was winning in its campaign against the coronavirus but had not yet won.
“We have to focus on containment and capacity,” he said.
Neighbouring New Zealand, which adopted one the world’s harshest lockdowns even before reporting a first death, has been even more successful in suppressing coronavirus.
There were four new confirmed cases in New Zealand on Sunday, bringing the total of infections to 1,098. Eleven people have died, health ministry data showed.
“I know it hasn’t been easy, but it has been working,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a televised briefing. She said her government will meet on Monday to decide whether to ease social distancing restrictions.
CORONAVIRUS LATEST
Reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.33 million globally and 159,818 people have died, according to a Reuters tally as of 2000 GMT on Sunday.
AMERICAS
• Governors in US states hardest hit by the novel coronavirus sparred with President Donald Trump over his claims they have enough tests and should quickly reopen their economies as more protests are planned over the extension of stay-at-home orders.
• The US death toll from the novel coronavirus rose to more than 40,000 on Sunday, the highest in the world and almost double the number of deaths in the next highest country Italy, according to a Reuters tally.
• US lawmakers are very close to an agreement on approving extra money to help small businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic and could seal a deal as early as Sunday, congressional and Trump administration officials said.
• The number of people with the new coronavirus in Canada is trending in the right direction but strict physical distancing will need to stay in place, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday.
• Chile reported on Sunday that there were more than 10,000 people in the country with the coronavirus, the third-highest tally in Latin America, as the disease ravages the economy of the world’s top copper producer.
• Peru reported over 15,000 cases of coronavirus on Sunday, the second-highest tally in Latin America, as the disease continues to ravage the economy of the world’s number two copper producer.
EUROPE
• President Vladimir Putin said that Russian authorities had the coronavirus crisis under full control and that everything would work out with God’s help, even as the country on Sunday registered a record daily rise in cases of the new virus.
• Italy said on Sunday that deaths from the coronavirus pandemic rose by 433, the lowest daily tally in a week, and the number of new cases slowed to 3,047 from a previous 3,491.
• Ireland is highly unlikely to allow large gatherings this year and the “cocooning” of people over 70-years-old in their homes may persist for quite a while, Health Minister Simon Harris said.
• A delivery of protective equipment for British health workers that was due on Sunday from Turkey has been delayed, a British government official said, as medics on the frontline of the coronavirus outbreak increasingly report shortages of gear.
• Britain is not considering lifting the lockdown imposed almost four weeks ago to control the coronavirus outbreak given “deeply worrying” increases in the death toll, a senior minister said
• Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases have risen by 2,458 to 139,897, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Sunday. That was lower than a 3,609 increase reported on Saturday.
ASIA-PACIFIC
• China reported 16 new coronavirus cases but no deaths while authorities remained on guard against a major resurgence and monitored the spread of cases in Heilongjiang province.
• South Korea extended its social distancing policy for another 15 days but offered some relief for churches and sporting fixtures, as it reported just eight new coronavirus infections, the lowest in two months.
• Indonesia’s death toll from the new coronavirus has likely reached 1,000, nearly double the official figure of 535, Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) chairman Daeng Faqih was quoted saying.
• Pakistan has lifted restrictions on congregational prayers at mosques, but put in place a host of safety conditions to avert the further spread of the coronavirus in the country, a statement said.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
• Health ministers from the Group of 20 major economies began a virtual meeting on Sunday to work on a joint response to the coronavirus pandemic, Saudi Arabian state television reported.
• Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, the Council of Senior Scholars, urged Muslims worldwide to pray at home during Ramadan if their countries require social distancing to combat coronavirus, state news agency SPA reported.
• Turkey’s confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 82,329, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, overtaking neighbouring Iran for the first time to register the highest total in the Middle East.
• Iran has extended furloughs for prisoners for another month, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday, as the Islamic Republic endeavours to stem the spread of the new coronavirus in its crowded jails.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
• Neiman Marcus Group is preparing to seek bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, becoming the first major US department store operator to succumb to the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, people familiar with the matter said.
• Europe will need at least another €500 billion European Union institutions to finance its economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic, on top of the agreed half-a-trillion package, the head of the euro zone bailout fund said.
• Canada will invest $C2.5 billion in measures to help the hard-hit oil and gas industry during the coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
• Global stocks rallied on President Donald Trump’s plans to revive the coronavirus-hit US economy and a report about a clinical trial for a potential drug to treat COVID-19.
• China’s economy contracted for the first time on record in the first quarter as the coronavirus shut down factories and shopping malls and put millions out of work.
– SARAH MORLAND and DEVIKA SYAMNATH
