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27 March, 2020
By SJA Jafri + Int’l Monitoring Desk + Agencies
GENEVA/ WASHINGTON: The United States now has more coronavirus cases than any other country with close to 86,000 infections, according to Johns Hopkins University, pushing the total numbers worldwide to more than 531,000, as the global death toll surged past 24,000.
More than 122,000 people worldwide have recovered from COVID-19, while more than 24,054 people have died, including 1,288 in the US.
Italy reported the highest death toll with more than 8,200 deaths.
In India, where the country’s 1.3 billion people were under orders to stay home, legions of poor were suddenly thrown out of work and many families were left struggling for something to eat.
Malaysia reported 130 new coronavirus cases and a total of 2,161 infections, the highest total in Southeast Asia.
The number of deaths from the virus outbreak rose to 26, the health ministry said.
Indonesia has confirmed 153 new coronavirus cases, the biggest daily rise so far and taking the Southeast Asian country’s total to 1,046, Health Ministry official Achmad Yurianto said.
The number of new deaths due to coronavirus rose by 9, bringing the total number of deaths to 87, he said, adding a total of 46 people had recovered from the virus.
Some 57 million people are restricted to their homes during South Africa’s three-week total lockdown which began at midnight on Thursday.
Researchers this week began validation trials on a COVID-19 diagnostic test that can be done at home and produce results in as little as 10 minutes – all for $1.
The Philippines has recorded nine new coronavirus deaths, bringing the total to 54, the health ministry said.
It also reported 96 new confirmed cases, the highest daily increase, bringing the tally to 803.
Hong Kong reported 65 new coronavirus infections, its biggest daily rise so far, taking the total number of cases in the Chinese-ruled city to 518, health officials said.
Of the latest cases, 41 had recently returned from travelling abroad.
Russia reported 196 new cases of coronavirus, a daily record, taking its official total for those infected with the disease to 1,036.
One more person had been killed by the virus in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of deaths to four.
A rescue flight arranged by the German government picked up hundreds of tourists who had been stranded in Nepal since the Himalayan nation went on lockdown earlier this week, officials said.
The Qatar Airways charter flight took off with 305 people on board, said Deo Chandra Lal Karna, an official at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport.
Immigration official Sagar Acharya said most of the passengers were German nationals or had some connection to the country.
Israel will deploy its army to assist police on street patrols to enforce a lockdown, the military said.
About 500 troops will join police from Sunday to help “in patrolling, isolating and securing certain areas, blocking routes and additional similar assignments”, the army said in a statement.
Israel has reported more than 3,000 infections and 10 deaths from the disease. This week, authorities tightened a partial lockdown, requiring people to stay within 100 metres (110 yards) of home and setting sanctions for defying rules.
The Russian government has ordered all cafes and restaurants to close for a week from Saturday to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Russian regions are to “halt the activities of public food service organisations,” except for delivery services, a government decree said.
The health ministry in South Africa reported the country’s first two deaths.
To date, there are more than 1,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in South Africa, the ministry said in a statement.
“This morning, we South Africans wake up with sad news that we now have our first deaths resulting from COVID-19,” the ministry said.
To reduce the number of social contacts, Hungary will impose restrictions on citizens leaving their homes between March 28 and April 11, Prime Miniszter Viktor Orban said.
Orban added he will present a plan of action to restart the economy in the first half of April.
Vietnam will limit domestic flights and stop public gatherings for two weeks starting Saturday, the government said in a statement.
Indoor gatherings of more than 20 people and outdoor gatherings of 10 people or more will be banned, the government said, citing an order signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
Phuc also ordered that flights between the capital, Hanoi, and the southern business hub of Ho Chi Minh City and cities across the country be reduced.
A 72-year-old woman in the city of Namangan died of cardiac infarction, the healthcare ministry said, adding that she had suffered from a host of other diseases in addition to the coronavirus.
Municipal authorities in the province of Navoi said they were locking down the cities of Navoi and Zarafshan, as well as several districts.
Authorities in the major tourism hub of Bukhara also said the city would close its borders.
The central Asian nation has already locked down some of its biggest cities, including Namangan and the capital, Tashkent.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a call with his US counterpart Donald Trump, said that the two countries should “unite to fight” the coronavirus, state media reported.
Xi told Trump China “wishes to continue sharing all information and experience with the US,” said state broadcaster CCTV.
Following the call, Trump said in a Twitter post that the two leaders were “working closely together”.
France and Malaysia have organised chartered flights to fly out hundreds of their citizens stranded in Cambodia after the country sealed its borders and cancelled flights in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Malaysia also sent a special plane to take home 111 stranded Malaysian nationals on Wednesday, said Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn.
At the same time, Cambodia coordinated with Malaysia to repatriate six Cambodians stranded in Malaysia, Sokhonn said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
Australia is introducing enforced quarantine by midnight on Saturday for citizens returning home from overseas and will deploy armed forces to ensure people already subjected to self-isolation measures are complying, Reuters news agency is reporting.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said everyone arriving by plane would be detained in a hotel in the city of their arrival for two weeks, toughening up the previous self-isolation requirements.
Morrison said returning Australians accounted for around two thirds of the country’s more than 3,000 coronavirus cases, making it the “biggest issue” to be addressed.
Thailand reported 91 new coronavirus cases and one fatality, bringing the total to 1,136 cases and five deaths, a health official said on Friday.
The latest death was of a patient in Narathiwat province bordering Malaysia, the health official said.
The new infections consist of 30 patients linked to previous cases and 19 cases including imported ones, said Anupong Sujariyakul, a senior expert in preventive medicine at the Disease Control Department.
So far, 97 patients have recovered and gone home since the outbreak.
The United States has cancelled annual military exercises with treaty ally 
the Philippines, it said on Friday, as a precaution against a coronavirus pandemic.
The exercises, set to run from May 4 to May 15, have taken place in the southeast Asian nation for decades, involving thousands of troops from both countries.
The alliance with the Philippines is one of Washington’s most important in Asia.
Queues formed at supermarkets and stores in Tokyo on Friday as residents in the Japanese capital prepared for a weekend at home after the city’s governor called on them to stay at hunker down to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Reuters news agency reported.
After Governor Yuriko Koike’s plea on Wednesday to refrain from non-essential, non-urgent outings through April 12, and especially this weekend, residents were stocking up on everything from instant noodles and rice to toiletries and fresh produce, despite public-service warnings against hoarding.
Tokyo has seen a surge in coronavirus cases this week, reporting a record 47 cases on Thursday for a total of 259.
Nationwide, there were 1,400 reported nationwide with 47 deaths, excluding those from a cruise ship that was quarantined last month.
North Korea says about 2,280 citizens and two foreigners remain under coronavirus quarantine after authorities released thousands of people in past weeks who were confirmed to have no symptoms.
The Associated Press news agency quoted the North’s official Korean Central News Agency as saying on Friday that Pyongyang will maintain an alert status as the virus continues to spread across the world.
North Korea has not publicly confirmed a single case of the coronavirus illness, but state media has described anti-virus efforts as a matter of “national existence.”
Indonesia’s flag carrier Garuda has returned from China on Friday carrying 40 tonnes of health supplies, which will be distributed immediately across the country where new coronavirus patients have surged in the past week.
Jodi Mahardi, the maritime and investment coordinating ministry’s spokesman, said the supplies included personal protective equipment and rapid test kits and masks.
They were donations from several Chinese investors in Indonesia to help the country in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak which could overwhelm the government’s healthcare system, as 78 people have died in the past three weeks and nearly 900 others tested positive.
The Indonesian government has planned to distribute about 500,000 test kits across the archipelago nation, home for nearly 270 million.
US President Donald Trump has said he would not cancel the Republican National Convention in August in Charlotte, North Carolina, because of the coronavirus.
In an interview on Fox News, Trump said he believed the country would have rebounded from the coronavirus outbreak by then.
“We’re not going to cancel,” Trump said. “I think we’re going to be in great shape long before then.”
Singapore imposed stiff penalties beginning on Friday against individuals who are violating new rules on physical distancing, as part of its new policy to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Violators can be fined up to $10,000 (US$7,000), jailed for up to six months, or face both penalties, if they are found guilty of not keeping at least a one-metre (3.2 feet) distance from another individual in a public place.
The new rules, based on the updated Infectious Diseases Act took effect, at 11:59pm local time (15:59 GMT) on Thursday.
Canada has denounced a proposal of the Trump administration to deploy troops along their undefended border to help fight the spread of the coronavirus, saying the idea was unnecessary and would damage relations.
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland had made clear the Liberal government had no time for a plan to send hundreds of troops to the border to boost security.
“Canada is strongly opposed to this US proposal and we have made that opposition very, very clear … this is an entirely unnecessary step which we would view as damaging to our relationship,” Freeland told a news conference.
“The public health situation does not require such action,” she said, noting Washington had yet to take a final decision.
South Korea has reported 91 new coronavirus cases on Friday.
The total number of cases in the country has now reached 9,332, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New Zealand confirmed on Friday at least 85 new cases of coronavirus.
The total number of cases in the country has now reached 368, of which 37 have recovered.
Most of the cases in New Zealand have links to overseas travel, according to health authorities.
The coronavirus pandemic could kill more than 81,000 people in the US in the next four months and may not subside until June, according to a data analysis conducted by the University of Washington School of Medicine.
The number of hospitalised patients is expected to peak nationally by the second week of April, though the peak may come later in some states. Some people could continue to die of the virus as late as July, although deaths should be below epidemic levels of 10 per day by June at the latest, according to the analysis.
The analysis, using data from governments, hospitals and other sources, predicts that the number of US deaths could vary widely, ranging from as low as about 38,000 to as high as approximately 162,000.
Nearly 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week – almost five times the previous record set in 1982 – amid a widespread economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus, according to the Associated Press news agency.
The surge in weekly applications was a stunning reflection of the damage the viral outbreak is inflicting on the economy. Filings for unemployment aid generally reflect the pace of layoffs.
As job losses mount, some economists say the nation’s unemployment rate could approach 13 percent by May. By comparison, the highest jobless rate during the Great Recession, which ended in 2009, was 10 percent.
China’s National Health Commission reported on Friday at least 54 new imported cases of coronavirus as of March 26 – slightly lower than the 67 cases the previous day.
The health agency also reported five new deaths with no new cases in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak. Nationwide, the death toll has reached 3,292 as of the end of Thursday.
Late on Thursday, Beijing announced a temporary ban on foreigners arriving in the country with a few exceptions, including diplomats.
Brazil’s governors pressed President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday for more federal support in the coronavirus battle after he blasted them as job-killers and undermined their orders with a decree keeping churches open at the evangelical preachers’ request, the Associated Press news agency reported.
In a public letter, Brazil’s governors argued that the federal government had not done enough to fund the fight against the virus that has infected about half a million people globally.
Bolsonaro has increasingly echoed the view of US President Donald Trump that jobs should be prioritised over restrictive measures to slow the outbreak, as world health experts suggest.
“Tourism has plummeted to zero,” he said on a Facebook Live broadcast on Thursday night. “Nothing is working. This wave of panic and hysteria is bigger than the virus itself.”
Confirmed coronavirus cases in the US reached 83,500 as of late Thursday, more than any other country, overtaking Italy and China, the Johns Hopkins University tally showed.
China had 81,782 cases, and Italy had 80,589 cases.
I’m Ted Regencia in Kuala Lumpur with Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
