14.03.2020 12:50
(Act. 14.03.2020 13:00)
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China was the starting point for the coronavirus pandemic
© APA (AFP)
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In China, the number of viral infections among travelers from abroad was higher for the first time on Friday than the number of infections from domestic transmissions. Of the eleven new infections, seven were found in people who came from abroad, the National Health Commission said on Saturday. In the remaining four cases, there is no foreign reference.
They were all registered in Hubei Province, the epicenter of the pandemic. This seems to indicate that the risk of contagion in China from foreign influences is greater than from domestic ones. The coronavirus epidemic broke out in China last December. From there, the virus spread and became a worldwide pandemic.
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In Iran, the number of coronavirus victims has risen again dramatically. In just 24 hours, the death toll increased from 514 to 611, Ministry of Health spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in Tehran on Saturday. The number of officially recorded infections with Sars-CoV-2 rose by 1,365 to 12,729 in the daytime. Most infections were again in the capital, Tehran. At the same time, over 4,300 infected patients were cured from the hospitals, the spokesman said on state television.
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Meanwhile, further cases of the new corona virus have become known in Africa. While a military transporter with 122 South Africans from Wuhan arrived in the Cape State in front of live TV cameras on Saturday, Namibia and the mountain kingdom Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) announced their first cases.
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In Eswatini, health minister Lizzie Nkosi is a 33-year-old who recently returned from a business trip to the United States; In Namibia, Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula announced at a press conference that a Spanish couple had tested positive.
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Africa had been spared the novel corona virus for some time, but the disease is now spreading across the continent. To date, Sars-CoV-2 cases have occurred in at least 20 African countries. Experts have always warned that health systems in many African countries are weak and spreading lung disease there could be devastating.
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According to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the economies of numerous countries on the continent could be badly affected by the aftermath of the crisis. “Africa could lose half of its gross national product if growth declined from 3.2 to 2 percent,” said Vera Songwe at a press conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. Oil-exporting countries in particular could lose up to $ 65 billion in income due to the drop in oil prices.
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Saudi Arabia has suspended all international flights for two weeks due to the corona virus. The measure will come into effect on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. local time (9:00 a.m.CET), reported the Saudi state-run news agency SPA on Saturday, citing the Ministry of the Interior in Riyadh.
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The Kingdom has so far reported 86 cases of the novel corona virus. In its neighborhood, Iran, but also Bahrain and Qatar, are particularly affected by the lung disease.
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