Medicine i_need_contribute
COVID-19 news update Apr/17
source:WTMF 2020-04-17 [Medicine]

 

 

 

Country,
Other

Total
Cases

New
Cases

Total
Deaths

World

2,181,308

+95,022

145,471

USA

677,570

+29,567

34,617

Spain

184,948

+4,289

19,315

Italy

168,941

+3,786

22,170

France

165,027

+17,164

17,920

Germany

137,698

+2,945

4,052

UK

103,093

+4,617

13,729

China

82,341

+46

3,342

Iran

77,995

+1,606

4,869

Turkey

74,193

+4,801

1,643

Belgium

34,809

+1,236

4,857

Brazil

30,683

+2,073

1,947

Canada

30,106

+1,727

1,195

Netherlands

29,214

+1,061

3,315

Russia

27,938

+3,448

232

Switzerland

26,732

+396

1,281

Portugal

18,841

+750

629

Austria

14,476

+126

410

India

13,430

+1,060

448

Ireland

13,271

+724

486

Israel

12,758

+257

142

Sweden

12,540

+613

1,333

Peru

12,491

+1,016

274

S. Korea

10,613

+22

229

Japan

9,231

+605

190

Chile

8,807

+534

105

Ecuador

8,225

+367

403

Poland

7,918

+336

314

Romania

7,707

+491

392

Pakistan

6,919

+536

128

Norway

6,905

+108

152

Denmark

6,879

+198

321

Australia

6,468

+21

63

Czechia

6,433

+132

169

Saudi Arabia

6,380

+518

83

Mexico

5,847

+448

449

UAE

5,825

+460

35

Philippines

5,660

+207

362

Indonesia

5,516

+380

496

Serbia

5,318

+445

103

Malaysia

5,182

+110

84

Singapore

4,427

+728

10

Belarus

4,204

+476

40

Ukraine

4,161

+397

116

Qatar

4,103

+392

7

Dominican Republic

3,755

+141

196

Panama

3,751

 

103

Luxembourg

3,444

+71

69

Finland

3,369

+132

75

Colombia

3,233

+128

144

Egypt

2,673

+168

196

Thailand

2,672

+29

46

Argentina

2,669

+98

122

South Africa

2,605

+99

48

Morocco

2,283

+259

130

 

 

 

China revises its figures in Wuhan, adding 50 percent more deaths.

 

Faced with mounting skepticism over its official figures, China on Friday revised up its death toll in the city where the coronavirus first emerged.

Officials placed the new tally at 3,869 deaths from the coronavirus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, an increase of 1,290, or 50 percent, from the previous figure. The number of confirmed infections in the city was also revised upward to 50,333, an increase of 325.

 

Officials in Wuhan said the revised death toll now includes those who died at home in the early days of the outbreak, as well as deaths that were not properly reported by hospitals or registered on death certificates.

 

 

Brazil’s president fires the health minister in a clash over lockdown measures.

From:NYtimes

 

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/04/17/world/17virus-int-briefing-brazil2/merlin_171660288_2639d4ec-3d85-4358-b10a-4f0051fe2681-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

An empty street in São Paulo, Brazil. The city has experienced a significant decrease in air pollution as a result of social isolation.Credit...Victor Moriyama for The New York Times

President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil on Thursday fired his health minister after a disagreement over how tough lockdown measures should be.

Mr. Bolsonaro had repeatedly butted heads with the minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who pushed for strict social isolation guidelines to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Brazil, Latin America’s largest nation.

 

 

 

The U.S. said it’s aiding Palestinians hit by the outbreak, but don’t read too much into it.

 

A field hospital to treat coronavirus patients being built in the Gaza Strip  last month.Credit...Suliman Heji/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A late-night Twitter post by the United States ambassador to Israel, David M. Friedman, on Thursday trumpeted $5 million being provided “for Palestinian hospitals and households to meet immediate, lifesaving needs in combating Covid-19.”

It seemed, at first blush, like a possible reversal in the Trump administration’s longstanding policy of cutting off the spigot of cash to the Palestinians.

 

 

 

U.N. human rights investigator says Trump’s neglect of nation’s poor puts them at risk from the virus.

 

Just as tensions are rising between President Trump and the United Nations over his suspension of funding to the World Health Organization for its handling of the coronavirus crisis, his administration is under criticism from another corner of the U.N.’s network of agencies disliked by the administration, the Human Rights Council.

Philip Alston, the U.N.’s special rapporteur for extreme poverty and human rights, said Thursday that the United States’ coronavirus response had neglected the most disadvantaged in the world’s richest country.

“Low-income and poor people face far higher risks from the coronavirus due to chronic neglect and discrimination, and a muddled, corporate-driven, federal response has failed them,” Mr. Alston said.

In a statement that reflected what other advocates for poor and minority populations in the United States have been saying, Mr. Alston argued that the coronavirus has especially victimized people with the weakest safety net.

 

 

 

2% of known recovered patients in South Korea have retested positive for coronavirus

From CNN’s Jake Kwon in Seoul

 

A man receives a Covid-19 test swab at a testing booth outside the Yangji Hospital in Seoul, South Korea on March 17. Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images

South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported Friday that 2.1% of recovered coronavirus patients have retested positive.

Out of 7,829 patients who recovered from Covid-19 and were released from isolation, 163 retested positive.

It is currently unclear why patients could be retesting positive and the phenomena is being reviewed by the government. 

Most experts think it's unlikely that somebody will be reinfected right after recovering. It's possible that issues with testing – or varying amounts of viral RNA in the body, which the tests look for – could explain why people tested positive after testing negative.

KCDC reports that the positive tests came back between 24 hours and 35 days, but the average was around 13.5 days following release from isolation.

Out of 137 cases the KCDC observed, 43.9% showed mild symptoms.

Samples were taken from 28 of the cases that retested positive and so far six samples did not cultivate the virus. 

 

 

 

In Germany, each Covid-19 patient is now infecting fewer than one other person on average

From CNN's Fred Pleitgen in Berlin

 

The reproduction factor for coronavirus has dropped below R01 in Germany, the country‘s center for disease control, the Robert Koch Institute, announced in a new data set published on Friday. 

That means that a person who has Covid-19 is now infecting fewer than one other person on average.

The important R-number, which indicates the average number of people who will catch the disease from a single infected person, is currently at 0.7, the institute said.

At a news conference on Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said pushing the reproduction number below 1 and keeping it there was key to containing the coronavirus and being able to scale back some of the restrictions on public life.

Merkel warned that if the factor rose back to even 1.1, Germany’s health care system could be overwhelmed in a matter of months. 

 

 

 

French President Macron warns of EU "moment of truth" on financial solidarity

From CNN's Pierre Bairin in Paris

 

French President Emmanuel Macron warned of an EU "moment of truth" regarding financial solidarity amid the coronavirus crisis, in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday.

“We are at a moment of truth, which is whether the European Union is a political project or a market project only," Macron said from the Elysée Palace.

Macron said there was “no choice” but to set up a fund that “could issue common debt with a common guarantee” to finance member states according to their needs rather than the size of their economies.

This is an idea that Germany and the Netherlands have so far rejected.

 

 

 

French President Macron cautiously criticizes China’s transparency on coronavirus

 

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a video conference call with the president of the Research and Expertise Analysis Committee at the Elysee Palace in Paris on April 16. Yoan Valat/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

French President Emmanuel Macron has criticized China’s transparency on coronavirus, saying in an interview with the Financial Times that the country didn’t release all the facts about the virus.

"There are obviously things that have happened that we don't know. It is up to China to say them," Macron said from the Elysée Palace.

In the interview, Macron said China was a great power with whom France cooperates with a lot. The President added that crisis management in China cannot be compared with Europe’s.

“You cannot compare the situation of France, Germany, Italy with that of China or Russia, it is obvious. And the transparency that there is, the immediacy of information is not the same, the networks are not free in these countries.”

 

 

 

On North Korea's most important holiday, Kim Jong Un was nowhere to be seen

Analysis from CNN's Joshua Berlinger and Yoonjung Seo

 

Flowers are displayed outside the Ryugyong Hotel on the occasion of the 108th birthday anniversary of late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, known as the "Day of the Sun", in Pyongyang, North Korea on April 15. Kim Won Jin/AFP/Getty Images

April 15 is North Korea's most important holiday, the Day of the Sun.

It celebrates the birthday of the country's founding father, Kim Il Sung, and has in the past been marked with events like satellite launches and massive military parades. The North Korean calendar even begins on April 15 and years are measured from the date of Kim's birth. 

But this year, celebrations were more subdued and appear to have come and gone without a public appearance by leader Kim Jong Un, which is unusual. And at first glance, the coronavirus pandemic could be a culprit.

Though North Korea has not reported any cases within its borders -- a claim public health experts say is unlikely -- Pyongyang has taken the pandemic very seriously. The country quickly closed its borders to tourists and quarantined foreign diplomats, who eventually left. State media included several warnings and reports about the importance of proper hygiene in February, while also outlining steps the government was taking to combat the virus.

 

 

 

Trump puts onus on governors to reopen, stimulus chaos causes stress

Source: NBC NEWS

 

Image: New York City Fire Department and Emergency Medical Technicians lift a man after moving him from a nursing home into an ambulance

 

New York City Fire Department and Emergency Medical Technicians lift a man after moving him from a nursing home into an ambulance during an ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Brooklyn, N.Y., on April 16, 2020.Lucas Jackson / Reuters

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world topped 2 million Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, with more than 143,000 confirmed deaths as of Thursday night.

President Donald Trump unveiled a three-phased plan for reopening the U.S. that puts the onus on state governors for implementing the guidelines, despite earlier assertions that he had "total authority" to direct governors how and when to reopen.

Earlier in the day, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave no indication that he would "unpause" the state and extended the stay-at-home order until May 15.

Delays in stimulus payments and difficulty navigating the IRS website have left many cash-strapped Americans anxious as they struggle to pay for their homes or put food on the table.

In Europe, Germany became the latest nation to commit to cautiously reopening some businesses despite keeping a wider lockdown in place.

 

 

 

Wuhan, where COVID-19 epidemic began, raises death toll by 1,290

Leou Chen and Phil Helsel

 

The government in the Chinese city of Wuhan added 1,290 people to its COVID-19 death toll, bringing the number of deaths there now to 3,869.

Those deaths initially weren't counted because of overwhelmed medical facilities early in the epidemic and some patients died at home without being treated at hospitals, State media Xinhua reported 

There was also belated and mistaken reporting by medical staff amid the height of the epidemic, according to the news agency. Some medical institutions were not linked to an epidemic information network and failed to report data in time, Xinhua said.

Wuhan is the Chinese city where the coronavirus was first detected and where the outbreak that is now a global pandemic began. The new numbers were released by the city's government. 

China's National Health Commission had most recently reported 3,342 deaths linked to COVID-19 on the mainland, but that was before the revision in deaths in Wuhan.

 

 

 

Philippine president threatens martial law-style lockdown enforcement

From:The Associated Press

 

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine president has threatened a martial law-style enforcement of a monthlong lockdown in the main northern region of millions of people as violations soared.

President Rodrigo Duterte said in a late-night televised speech Thursday he would order the military and police to strictly enforce social distancing and curfews if compliance did not improve. Police said they have accosted about 120,000 quarantine violators since last month, including people who engaged in cockfighting and drinking sprees.

“The police and military will enforce social distancing and curfews. They will. It’s like martial law. You choose. I don’t like it,” Duterte said, but added that he may be forced to “if the country gets compromised and you won’t show discipline.”

Duterte, who took office in mid-2016, has been in the crosshairs of human rights groups long before the pandemic started for his bloody anti-drugs crackdown that has left thousands of mostly poor drug suspects dead.

 

 

 

California doctor charged after claiming 'cure' for COVID-19

From:Phil Helsel

 

A San Diego doctor was charged Thursday with mail fraud and accused of trying to sell what he called a cure for the coronavirus illness COVID-19, federal prosecutors said.

There is no cure for the illness. Dr. Jennings Ryan Staley, 44, operates Skinny Beach Med Spa and that spa had been advertising via email "COVID-19 treatment packs" that included the drugs hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, the U.S. Attorney's Officer for the District of Southern California said.

Staley also allegedly told a purported customer, who was actually an undercover FBI agent, that the drugs were a "miracle cure" that would not only cure COVID-19 "100 percent" but if someone without the illness took them "you’re immune for at least six weeks."

Officials called it a fraudulent claim. Staley allegedly denied in an FBI interview that the spa was claiming the drugs would cure the illness and that "we would never say anything like that." 

Online court records did not appear to show the case and whether Staley has an attorney who could speak on his behalf Thursday night. The phone number at the spa says it is closed due to statewide orders on non-essential businesses, and an email sent to a media request account seeking comment was not immediately returned.

 

 

 

CEOs on Trump's council say they weren't aware of plan to reopen economy\

From:Leticia Miranda

 

Less than 24 hours after having consulted with some of the leading corporate executives in America, President Donald Trump surprised many of them with his action plan to reopen the economy, which he suggested Thursday could begin in some states as soon as "tomorrow."

The new federal guidelines, which hand over authority to state governors to determine when their states will open up for business, came just a day after the rushed coordination of more than 200 executives and thought leaders across a number of industries to counsel the president on how to open the economy.

Many of those CEOs told NBC News that they were not aware Thursday that Trump would issue guidelines later in the day.

APRIL 16, 202002:09

 

 

 

Boeing to resume plane production in Washington state

From:Phil Helsel

 

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing said Thursday it will resume plane production starting next week at its Washington state facilities in a "phased approach," after operations had been suspended due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Boeing said the resumption at its Puget Sound area facilities will result in around 27,000 people getting back to work. The facilities have extra safeguards in place to protect employees from the coronavirus illness COVID-19, the company said. 

Among the safeguards will be staggered shift times to reduce the flow of workers, floor markings to help enforce physical distancing, a requirement that all workers have face coverings, and wellness checks before shifts. Employees who can work from home will continue to do, the company said.

Boeing’s shutdown went into effect March 25 after workers tested positive for the virus and a longtime inspector for the company died, The Associated Press reported. Gov. Jay Inslee at the time praised the company for the shutdown and for continuing to pay workers.

 

 

 

California governor expects $7 billion in virus spending

From:The Associated Press

 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom expects to spend up to $7 billion this year battling the coronavirus and the economic disruption it has unleashed, as state budget experts warn lawmakers to prepare for revenue loss akin to the Great Recession.

Newsom has already authorized spending more than $2 billion on things like hotel rooms for the homeless, loans to small businesses and cash payments to adults living in the country illegally who are not eligible for federal stimulus benefits.

The virus’ spread in California has not been as devastating as public health officials had feared, with the growth in hospitalizations slowing as the state has been under a mandatory stay-at-home order for nearly a month that has closed schools and nonessential businesses. But Newsom warned earlier this week that the steady presence of the virus would likely continue to disrupt public life well into the summer and beyond.