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The COVID-19 numbers continue to rise around the world. Forcing some countries to take extreme measures to keep the Coronavirus in check. Italy, Spain and Germany are struggling to meet the demands of the health threatening pandemic while the country, where the virus originated, is still refusing to accept responsibility for the mishandling of the outbreak. China is putting unspoken pressure on the World Health Organization (WHO) to not render and hinder assistance to the country of Taiwan because of different political philosophies. Still, the crisis continues.
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Philippines
The Philippine health ministry on March 28, 2020 reported 343 new coronavirus cases, marking the country’s largest daily increase in infections, and three additional deaths. That raised the total number of known infections in the country to 3,660, while the death toll has reached 163. Seven more patients have recovered, however, bringing the total number of recoveries to 52. Coronavirus testing is expected to increase substantially in coming days in the Philippines, where the high number of deaths relative to confirmed cases reflects lower testing so far.
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Japan
The Coronavirus has affected the host country of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Veteran International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound announced that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are going to be postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), The International Paralympic Committee (IPC), The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, The Tokyo Metropolitan Government and The Government of Japan all agreed new dates for The Games of the XXXII Olympiad, in 2021. The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will take place from July 23 to August 8, 2021. They also agreed on new dates for the Paralympic Games, which will be held from August 24 to September 5, 2021.
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Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised an unprecedented package of steps to cushion the world’s third-biggest economy from the coronavirus pandemic, saying the country was close to a national emergency as infections surged.
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India
India: On March 24, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the world’s largest lockdown asking 1.3 billion Indians to stay home for 21 days to slow the spread of COVID-19.
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The move was partly a response to apocalyptic projections. Fewer than 600 cases had been confirmed at the time of Modi’s announcement, although that number is widely believed to be an undercount. But without control measures, 300 million to 500 million Indians could be infected by the end of July and 30 million to 50 million could have severe disease, according to one model. The world’s second most populous country has large numbers of poor living in crowded, unsanitary conditions and a weak public health infrastructure, with just 0.7 hospital beds per 1000 persons, compared with Italy’s 3.4 and the United States’s 2.9; India also has fewer than 50,000 ventilators.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom saw its largest single-day death toll from the coronavirus with 563 deaths, according to data released by the British government. The 31% spike brings the national total to 2,921 deaths. As of the morning of April 1, 2020, 33,718 people in the U.K. have tested positive for the virusno. The new deaths included 16 in Scotland, 29 in Wales and two in Northern Ireland.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said officials “know things will get worse before they get better” in a letter posted shortly after he himself tested positive for the virus. “It’s important for me to level with you – we know things will get worse before they get better,” Johnson wrote in the letter. “But we are making the right preparations, and the more we all follow the rules, the fewer lives will be lost and the sooner life can return to normal.”
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Senior minister Michael Gove said that the U.K. remains “very concerned” about the number of deaths, adding that the country hopes to more than double daily testing to 25,000. The nation has banned gatherings of more than two people and prohibited people from leaving their homes for any reason other than medical needs, buying essentials, daily exercise and traveling to essential jobs.
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Brazil
President Jair Bolsonaro, who has called the virus a “measly cold,” is the sole major world leader continuing to question the merits of lockdown measures to fight the pandemic. As coronavirus cases and deaths mount in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro has remained defiant. He declared that Brazilians are uniquely suited to weather the pandemic because they can be dunked in raw sewage and “don’t catch a thing.”
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Defying guidelines issued by his own health ministry, the president koovisited a busy commercial district in Brasília, the capital, where he called on all but elderly Brazilians to get back to work. Then he insisted that an anti-malaria pill of unproved efficacy would cure those who fall ill with the virus that has killed more than 74,654 people worldwide.
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Courtesy of AP
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COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc all over the world. As of this publication the number of affected cases have now surpassed the 1 million mark. Many have responded to stay-at-home orders and are practicing “social distancing” in the hope that these actions will deter the spread of the Coronavirus.
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TopicalWave.Com will continue to follow this crisis and inform all of you with the details on the fight against COVID-19.
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