Appeared last December in China, the Covid-19 coronavirus has already infected 124,000 people in more than a hundred countries and territories, causing the death of more than 4,500 people. The WHO has declared the Covid-19 epidemic to be a “pandemic” and deplored “alarming levels of spread and inaction”.
Now classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, the Covid-19 disrupts the daily life of affected populations every day, from limiting travel to cascading closures of public places or restrictions on the number of people who can gather . Worldwide, 124,101 cases of infection have been recorded in 113 countries and territories, causing the death of 4,566 people.
SEE THE WORLD MAP OF CORONAVIRUS (updated in real time)
EUROPE
More than 20,000 people (22,307) were infected in Europe, and 930 died from it.
In France, the latest report shows 2,281 people infected, including 105 in serious condition, and 48 deaths – 15 more in 24 hours and nearly 500 new infections.
TheItaly now has more than 12,000 cases, including 827 deaths. It is also increasingly isolated with the multiplication by some of its neighbors of precautionary measures, Austria and Slovenia at the head, while large airlines avoid it and that the tourists flee it massively. The 60 million Italians have been subject since Tuesday to severe restrictions that shake up their daily lives: it is not recommended to go eat with your parents, you can run but solo.
SEE THE CORONAVIRUS MAP IN ITALY (updated in real time)
Worsening also in Spain, where cases have almost quadrupled since Sunday to exceed 2,000.
The Denmark also prohibited the gathering of more than 100 people and asked officials to stay at home.
The Sweden, theAlbania, theIreland and the Bulgaria have announced the first deaths.
The Greece announced on Thursday its first death from the new coronavirus, a sixty-something Greek man who traveled to Israel in late February. This man had participated in the trip of a group of pilgrims to Egypt and Israel. The majority of the 98 cases of coronavirus in Greece come from this group or from people who have been in contact with these pilgrims. Greece closed all schools, nurseries and universities on Tuesday for two weeks to “slow the spread” of the virus.
In England, 459 cases have been confirmed and 8 people have died.
© Belga (Italy)
AMERICA
The United States surpassed the 1,200 cases of infection with the new coronavirus on Wednesday, and 38 people died, according to statistics from the American University Johns Hopkins. US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that travel from Europe to the United States will be suspended for 30 days.
Faced with the advance of the coronavirus, the governments of Latin America are in turn taking drastic measures, including in particular compulsory quarantines for travelers from the most affected countries and the suspension of sports or festive gatherings. The first case in Latin America was not confirmed until February 26, in Brazil, on a patient who had stayed in Italy. Since then, the virus has affected 11 Latin American countries, with around 150 confirmed cases.
Since then, the virus has affected 11 Latin American countries, with approximately 150 confirmed cases, including 52 in the Brazil, most affected country, followed by Chile with 23 cases. Two people died, one in Argentina, the other at Panama.
Cuba, the Bolivia and the Honduras confirmed on Wednesday (local time) the first case of coronavirus on their soil, bringing to more than a dozen the number of Latin American countries where the potentially deadly virus has appeared.
Cuba Wednesday became the 12th Latin American country affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, which appeared in late December in China, with the cases of three Italian tourists tested positive for coronavirus, announced the Ministry of Health. According to the Cuban Ministry of Health, three Italian tourists tested positive for the virus after four people from the Italian region of Lombardy, the region of Europe most affected by Covid-19, developed respiratory symptoms. They had recently arrived in the country and their condition seems “favorable”.
Before that, the Bolivian health authorities announced that two women aged 60 and 64, who had both recently traveled to Italy, had been infected. They were isolated in the cities of Oruro and Santa Cruz. Finally, in Honduras, the Ministry of Health reported that two women, aged 42 and 37, had tested positive after returning from Spain and Switzerland respectively.
In the wake of Chile where the 23 confirmed cases were all imported, the Colombia, theArgentina, the Peru announced on Wednesday that travelers from the most affected countries, including China, Italy, Spain and France, would be systematically placed in solitary confinement upon arrival.
The Colombia recorded on March 6 her first case of Covid-19 in a 19-year-old traveler, who arrived in Bogota from Italy, where she is studying. The country now has nine confirmed cases.
© Belga (Colombia)
In Argentina, where 19 cases have been recorded, the Argentine president, Alberto Fernandez, warned that any failure to comply with preventive quarantine would be considered “as an offense, because it endangers public health”. Fernandez also said his government was studying a complete suspension of entry for people from Italy, where the spread of the virus had exploded.
The Salvador, a small Central American country that has been spared for the time being, has taken a radical decision: no foreigners enter its territory, except residents and diplomats, who will be subject to a 30-day quarantine. Its neighbor, the Guatemala, closed its doors to people from the affected areas.
In addition to the decisions concerning travelers, several countries have announced the suspension of events bringing together the public, in particular sports competitions and concerts, as well as the temporary closure of schools, in particular in Panama, at Peru, at Paraguay and at Salvador.
TheArgentina has thus canceled all the competitions “in which athletes from the affected countries were to participate”, which could concern a World 2022 elimination match in Qatar at the end of March, several Argentine football stars, including Lionel Messi, playing in European clubs .
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which sits in San José, Costa Rica, has announced the suspension of its public hearings for the week of March 16 to 20.
The WHO has declared the Covid-19 epidemic to be a “pandemic” and deplored “alarming levels of spread and inaction”. However, the main fear in Latin America concerns the ability of health systems to cope with the spread of the virus, especially for countries already facing an increase in the prevalence of dengue since 2019.
At Venezuela, where a deep economic crisis is raging, and where no case of Covid-19 has yet been reported, 53% of hospitals do not have masks, 90% have no protocol for patients with respiratory diseases transmissible and none has an isolation zone, according to the NGO Médecins pour la santé.
Only 9% have continuous water. Gold “if there is no water, you cannot wash your hands, which is the most important and universal basic tool for controlling coronavirus“recalls Julio Castro, the director of the NGO.
Several Latin American governments now seem to want to emulate the draconian measures taken elsewhere. First of all, limit the risks linked to the arrival on their territory of people who have traveled to the most affected countries, in Europe and in Asia.
ASIA
A total of 80,793 people were infected in China. The number of new daily coronavirus contaminations in the country has dropped to 15, the health ministry said on Thursday, the lowest since statistics began to be released in mid-January. The Chinese National Health Commission said on Thursday that the peak of the country’s coronavirus epidemic has now passed and that the number of new infections continues to decline.
© Belga (China)
TheIran now has 9,000 cases and 354 deaths, the South Korea 7,755 cases and 60 deaths.
TheIndia, little affected for the moment with only 60 cases, suspended until April 15 the allocation of all tourist visas and decided to impose a quarantine on travelers from China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, France, Spain and Germany.
TheIndonesia announced the first deaths.
The Philippines have had few cases of the new coronavirus compared to countries like China and Italy but since Monday the number has increased from 24 to 49. Philippine health officials have announced that a second person has died from Covid-19, a month after the death of a Chinese tourist.
About 60 people aboard a river cruise ship that docked at Cambodia They were placed there in quarantine after three British passengers tested positive for Covid-19, local media reported on Thursday.
AFRICA
A first confirmed case of coronavirus was diagnosed in Democratic Republic of Congo in the capital Kinshasa. He is a 52-year-old man living in France.
Two first cases of coronavirus were detected at Burkina Faso, with a Burkinabe couple who returned from France in late February.
TheAlgeria recorded its first death from the new coronavirus, the Algerian Ministry of Health announced in a statement on Thursday. The press release, quoted by the official APS agency, gives no details on this death. In addition, five new cases of Covid-19 have been identified, which brings to 24 the number of cases confirmed on Algerian territory according to the ministry. A 25th case, the first recorded in Algeria, concerns an Italian national diagnosed positive in February, who has since returned to his country.
Emptied of its tourists Wednesday in Luxor (south), the cruise ship on the Nile A-Sara, where 45 people have recently tested positive for the new coronavirus, officially remains the main focus of Covid-19 in Egypt nowadays.
At Rwanda, the capital Kigali, decided Sunday evening to suspend until further notice all public gatherings – concerts, pilgrimages, mass gatherings – as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, even if no case is registered in the country, a we learned from an official source on Monday.
Other countries in Africa have taken strong measures in connection with the coronavirus. On March 6, Kenya thus prohibited all “meetings, conferences and events of international scope” in the country. Kenya has also banned all direct flights between its tourist coast and Italy, an important source of visitors for local tourism.
In Uganda, the Ministry of Health ordered this weekend that travelers from China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, France, Germany and Japan remain confined to their hotel or home for 14 days, even if they do not have no symptoms. Again, international conferences have been suspended indefinitely.
Seven cases were confirmed in South Africa.
© Belga (Uganda)
– .
