African countries struggle for test kits, Russia to end lockdown & other global Covid news

As the Covid-19 pandemic shows no signs of letting up, ThePrint highlights the most important stories on the crisis from across the globe.

Ethiopian doctors attend training to use mechanical ventilators for COVID-19 patients at the American Medical Center (AMC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | Photo: Michael Tewelde | AFP/Getty Images for Bloomberg

New Delhi: The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate several countries across the world — the latest count is 42,56,022 cases and more than 2,87,332 deaths.

African leaders are pleading with other countries over social media for Covid-19 testing kits after they were sidelined in the global race for kits. Travel bubbles might be the way forward when it comes to inter-state travel. Meanwhile, a secluded district in France used to complain about being ignored by the urban political class, but now its isolation helped duck the pandemic wave.

ThePrint brings you the most important global stories on the coronavirus pandemic and why they matter.

Africa muscled aside in global race for testing kits

With countries across the world scrambling to import coronavirus testing kits, the poorer African countries have struggled to procure enough kits and find themselves at the end of the queue, the Globe and Mail report. The problem is acute in Africa because most of these countries are highly dependent on global supplies.

As a result, the testing levels across African countries have been abysmally low, according to an analysis conducted by Reuters. The average number of tests being conducted across African states just stands at 685 tests per million.

This has forced leaders of countries like Ghana and Nigeria to plead for more kits on social media.

Russia to end lockdown as fresh cases continue to surge

According to The Guardian, the Russian government has decided to end the nationwide lockdown even as it recorded the highest number of daily cases, with 11,656 new cases, in the past 24 hours.

“In a TV address, Russia’s president said his citizens could go back to work from Tuesday. But he made clear the return was ‘conditional’, and it would be up to individual regions to decide how fast to lift restrictions. It would be a cautious ‘step-by-step; exit, he said, adding: ‘We have a long and difficult process ahead,'” reports Guardian.

Key hotspots such as Moscow will continue under lockdown, the report adds.

Russia only trails US, Spain and UK in the total number of cases, with over 2.2 lakh cases.

The country also faces a looming economic crisis. The fall in oil prices coupled with the lockdown measures will see the Russian economy contracting by 6 per cent this year, its budget deficit is also set to rise to 4 per cent of the gross domestic product, and unemployment is expected to double, according to the Financial Times.

Yemen declares Aden as infected city

Even as Yemen grapples with a protracted war that devastated its health system, the country has now been hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Yemeni authorities announced Monday that Aden, the seat of power for the Saudi-backed government, is now an “infected city” after it reported a large number of cases, Al Jazeera is reporting.

Meanwhile, fresh clashes between the country’s separatists and government forces erupted in the south, highlighting the precarious position the country would find itself in if it were to be engulfed by the coronavirus pandemic.

“The World Health Organization (WHO) said there is a full-blown transmission of the virus in Yemen, with the disease spreading undetected among a population with some of the lowest levels of immunity to disease compared with other states,” the report added.

With lack of testing and little in the way of reliable government data, it is nearly impossible to assess the true number of active cases in the country.

‘Travel bubbles’ the way forward

The New Zealand and Australian governments recently decided to allow each other’s citizens to travel back and forth between the countries, as they continue to remain shut to the rest of the world. A similar “travel bubble” is being enforced in the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

An editorial by the Financial Times argues that such travel bubbles are the way forward.

“While tourist and business travel might take time to return to pre-pandemic levels, a sizeable chunk of global freight also travels in the bellies of passenger aircraft. It is useful for countries at a similar stage in their pandemic recovery to create safe travel zones between them. These could initially be partial — applying to limited regions or types of travel. In time, zones could start to link together,” argued the editorial. 

Bolsonaro allows Brazilians to go to gyms and hair salons as cases continue to surge

In a radical announcement, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announced Monday that both gyms and hair salons would now be categorised as essential services, allowing them to resume operations, reports Reuters.

So far, most countries have refrained from allowing their gyms and hair salons from functioning, as they are considered major points of coronavirus transmission.

“Bolsonaro’s latest decree allowing more establishments to stay open comes as Brazil registered 5,632 new coronavirus cases on Monday and 396 deaths from the disease, according to the Health Ministry,” it reports. The country currently has over 1.69 lakh cases and 11,653 deaths.

The President has been deeply critical of provincial governments and has accused them of going overboard with social distancing policies.

In rural France, the coronavirus bolstered a sense of community and isolation

A new feature by the Washington Post looks at how the secluded French district of Lozere prevented a major surge of coronavirus. What makes this district unique is that while France as a whole recorded more than 26,000 deaths, Lozere recorded only one.

Lozere’s residents had long complained about being secluded and isolated from the urban French mainstream.

“Now, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, isolation has become a means of survival, and the people of Lozère have found themselves at something of an advantage. As of Friday, only 20 people in the district had been found to have had the coronavirus, with just two of them hospitalized. Lozère is the only district in metropolitan France to count just one coronavirus death,” notes the feature.

What else we are reading:

New global cases spark fears of 2nd wave of Covid-19: Straits Times

Lebanon’s Economic Crisis Explodes, Threatening Decades of Prosperity: The New York Times

‘Wolf warrior’ diplomats reveal China’s ambitions: Financial Times

The Folly of Trump’s Blame-Beijing Coronavirus Strategy: The New Yorker

Infecting volunteers with Covid-19 may speed up vaccine: Financial Times