Global confirmed Covid-19 cases top 400,000 – as it happened
This article is more than 4 years old
WHO says US could be next virus hotspot; EU urged to evacuate Greek refugee camps; Greta Thunberg says she believes she had Covid-19. This blog is now closed.
The remote Pacific outpost of Easter Island has confirmed its first case of COVID19 – a 42-year old who is reportedly in stable condition.
Authorities on the island, which has been ruled by Chile since 1888, had attempted to seal it off after the virus was first detected on the mainland in early March. After mounting pressure, LATAM – the only airline with direct flights to the island – eventually cancelled fights last Tuesday, and all tourists were evacuated.
Subsequently, Chile’s Health Minister announced the island would be quarantined for a period of 14 days.
Easter Island is 2,182 miles away from Chile’s mainland - around a 6-hour flight. Given its isolation, and lack of medical facilities, an outbreak on the island is cause for concern.
Any critical patients would have to be transported back to the mainland, which typically takes around two days to organise.
Despite the precautions taken by local authorities, it is unclear how the virus reached the island. The patient had not been off the island, nor in contact with anyone with confirmed symptoms.
The mayor, Pedro Edmunds Paoa, has criticised Chile’s central government for their slow handling of the situation.
In mainland Chile, citizens are calling the government to order a total lockdown. Over the weekend, President Sebastian Piñera declared a curfew from 10 pm-05 am, but health professionals argue such measures are not enough to stop the spread.
A file picture taken on July 13, 2010, shows stone statues of the Rapa Nui culture on Easter Island. Photograph: Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images
Conte, who is addressing Italians on television, also said that fines are being increased for rule breakers and regions are to be given more powers if they want to tighten restrictions.
More than 1,500 medical and other academics in Sweden ranging from full professors to post-doc researchers have signed a petition calling on the government to change its coronavirus strategy.
Sweden has closed senior high schools and universities, banned gatherings of more than 500, asked all citizens to avoid non-essential travel and advised those who feel ill and are aged over 70 to stay at home.
But unlike most EU countries it has not introduced stricter suppression and social distancing orders, such as closing lower schools, non-essential shops, cafes and restaurants, or confining citizens to their homes.
The country, which on Tuesday reported a total of 2,272 confirmed cases and 36 deaths, an increase of 44% from Monday, is also no longer testing the majority of people who show symptoms of Covid-19.
Anders Tegnell, the country’s chief epidemiologist, has described Sweden’s strategy as trying to ensure “a slow spread of infection, and that the health services have a reasonable workload”, arguing that it is important for part of the population to acquire immunity.
Initiated by six professors at the Karolinska Institutet, the country’s largest centre of medical research, and Goteborg university, the petition urges the government to “immediately take measures to follow the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) to their full extent, including interventions to reduce mobility and contact in the population and ... increase our capacity to test for Covid-19 infections.”
The professors say that experience from China and South Korea “confirms that these measures are important and that they need to be incorporated as soon as possible, similar to what most of our neighbour countries in Europe are doing, instead of only hoping to create herd immunity”.
Scientific evidence for the ability of the coronavirus to rapidly create herd immunity in the same way as an influenza virus is weak, the petition says. It concludes: “We still have some time to react and suppress the virus. Our nation should not be the exception in Europe. We request that our government takes action now!”
The president of Harvard University, Larry Bacow, and his partner Adele have announced that they have tested positive for Covid-19.
In a statement issued by Harvard, they said: “Earlier today, Adele and I learned that we tested positive for COVID-19. We started experiencing symptoms on Sunday—first coughs then fevers, chills, and muscle aches—and contacted our doctors on Monday. We were tested yesterday and just received the results a few minutes ago. We wanted to share this news with all of you as soon as possible.
They add: “Neither of us knows how we contracted the virus, but the good news—if there is any to be had—is that far fewer people crossed our paths recently than is usually the case.”
Doctors complain of lack of equipment in hard-hit Spain
Sam Jones
Doctors in Spain have complained of a lack of basic protective equipment as 514 people died with the virus in the country in a single day and the latest figures revealed that Spanish healthcare workers account for more than 13% of the country’s 39,673 cases.
Spain, the second-most affected country in Europe after Italy, has been in lockdown since 14 March, but is struggling to slow the spread of the disease, which has so far claimed 2,696 lives.
The Madrid region has logged 12,352 cases – almost a third of the national total – and 1,535 deaths.
With hospitals, funeral homes and crematoriums in and around the capital struggling to keep pace, an ice rink in the city has been pressed into service as a makeshift morgue and Madrid’s cavernous Ifema conference centre has been converted into a field hospital with capacity for 5,500 beds.
In the US, President Donald Tump has been cautioning against a prolonged shut down or issuing stay-at-home orders.
Trump, speaking a virtual ‘town hall’ meeting, said that a country could be destroyed by shutting it down and pointed to other causes of large numbers of death in an attempt to defend his administration’s approach to the coronavirus outbreak.
“Well you have to make the decision. I brought some numbers here. We lose thousands and thousands of people per year to the flu. We don’t turn the country off,” Trump said.
“We lose thousands of people a year to the flu. We never turn the country off. We lose thousands of people per year to automobile accidents.”
That appearance by Trump is being covered in detail here by my colleagues in the US
Britain’s health minister has appeared to implicitly criticised transport authorities in London for not running enough train services on the city’s underground network, something which has become increasingly controversial as health workers found themselves being crammed into crowded carriages.
It’s an issue that has also caused controversy elsewhere in Europe. Swedish media reported yesterday about anger among people in Stockholm towards authorities for running a reduced bus service.
Other developments from that press conference include the news that the government has brought 3.5m antibody tests.
The UK’s deputy chief medical officer, Jennifer Harries, said the antibody testing will give the British government a real insight into the way that the disease has spread.
In Greece there are now 743 confirmed coronavirus cases with the death toll from Covid-19 climbing to 20, health authorities have announced.
Professor Sotiris Tsiodras, an expert on infectious diseases who has emerged as the health ministry’s leading spokesperson on coronavirus, told reporters that 134 patients had been hospitalised with 45 in intensive care.
In Cyprus the health ministry also reported an increase in fatalities saying two men had succumbed to the disease, bringing the death toll to three on the Mediterranean island. The country has 124 confirmed coronavirus cases after a rise of eight overnight, it said.
Slovenia is to introduce health checks on Wednesday on its border with Austria, a measure already in place on its border with Italy.
Only people with a certificate showing they tested negative for coronavirus within the past three days or those who show no signs of fever will be able to cross the border into Slovenia, according to Jelko Kacin, a government spokesperson
He told a news conference that the decree would not apply to Slovenian citizens and foreign citizens who live or work in Slovenia, and those transporting cargo.
The country of 2.08 million people has so far confirmed 480 cases of coronavirus and four people have died. It has cancelled all public transport, including air traffic, closed all schools, bars, restaurants, hotels, sport centres and prohibited any socialising in public spaces.
A medical worker measures body temperature at one of the entrances of the Community Health Centre in Kranj, Slovenia on March 23, 2020. Photograph: Jure Makovec/AFP via Getty Images
