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Countries pledge billions for vaccine, Middle East eases 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.

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New Delhi: The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate several countries across the world with over 36,46,211 cases and more than 2,52,407 deaths.

Various world leaders, except the US, got together and pledged billions to support coronavirus vaccine research. Meanwhile, in Spain, politics is making the coronavirus response harder and Trump is not the only one using long press briefings for his personal political promotion.

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

World leaders pledge billions for virus vaccine research, US sits out

As US and China continue to bicker over the coronavirus pandemic, the European Union (EU) has taken a lead on coordinating the global vaccine development efforts. During a video conference hosted by EU, various world leaders, international organisations, and banks pledged 7.4 billion euros (nearly $8 billion) for the Covid-19 vaccine research, the Associate Press reports.

Two important countries absent from the meeting were US and Russia. Apart from EU leaders, global heads of states and governments of Australia, Japan, South Africa, Canada, Israel among others were present at the meeting.

“Among the larger contributions, Japan pledged more than $800 million while Germany offered 525 million euros. Italy and Spain, perhaps the hardest hit by the virus in Europe, each said they would provide more than 100 million euros. Switzerland, the Netherlands and Israel also pledged 378 million euros, 192 million euros and 60 million dollars, respectively,” notes AP.


Also read: Israel develops key Covid antibody that ‘attacks and neutralises’ the virus in patient’s body


Expect a Tiananmen like global backlash against coronavirus: Internal Chinese report

In a major scoop, Reuters has accessed details of an internal Chinese government report that warns Beijing of an unprecedented Tiananmen-like global backlash against China’s initial handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

The report has been prepared by a think tank called China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), which is affiliated with the Ministry of State Security. It was officially under the ministry until 1980, but now it advises the government on security and foreign policy.

“The report described to Reuters warned that anti-China sentiment sparked by the coronavirus could fuel resistance to China’s Belt and Road infrastructure investment projects, and that Washington could step up financial and military support for regional allies, making the security situation in Asia more volatile,” notes the report. 

Spain’s polarised politics clashes with coronavirus crisis

Spain, with over 2,48,000 cases and 25,000 deaths, is the second worst-hit country in the world by Covid-19. However, things got worse Monday after the key opposition party, the People’s party announced that it would no longer back the government on a sustained lockdown going ahead, reports the Financial Times.

The leader of the centre Right People’s party Pablo Casado announced that he would no longer be supporting the government’s decision to extend the lockdown by two more weeks. Spain has already seen a stringent seven-week lockdown, and the government had recently announced the decision to extend it by another two weeks.

Casado argued that the government should no longer be using emergency powers to enforce restrictions and should rather be using actual legislations. This is being seen as an attempt to wrest the power back in favour of the Parliament and away from the executive.

With approximately 164 deaths daily, Spain has managed to reach its lowest daily fatality rate since 18 March, and the government argued that “without strict province by province controls, the planned transition to a ‘new normality’ over the next six to eight weeks risks sparking off a new spike in infections,” notes FT.


Also read: World could leap ‘from Covid frying pan into climate fire’ if carbon emissions aren’t cut


Several Middle East countries ease lockdown restrictions

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread through the Middle East, few countries such as UAE, Jordan and Iran are beginning to partially lift the lockdown, according to Al Jazeera. While observing social distancing and wearing masks is mandated, some of these countries are going ahead and partially reopening their malls as well.

“Iran — one of the worst-hit countries with more than 6,200 official deaths — announced it will reopen mosques in areas consistently free of the coronavirus,” notes the report. Iran has over 98,000 cases.

In Jordan there has been full resumption of economic activity and public transport. However, schools and universities continue to remain closed. Bahrain would be opening some stores and shopping malls on 9 April.

UAE is opening malls and key shopping places from noon to 9 pm on a city-by-city basis and to a limited number of customers. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has decided to reopen retail and wholesale trade stores between 29 April and 13 May given the holy month of Ramadan.

Trump is not the only one holding coronavirus press briefings to do politics

Mexico’s President Lopez Obrador might have hostile relations with his US counterpart, but he seems to have taken a leaf out of US President Donald Trump’s coronavirus playbook. Much like Trump, Obrador has also been holding long press briefings that are essentially aimed at pushing his own personal political promotion, notes the Guardian.

“In the course of a two-and-a-half-hour press briefing, the president claimed the country had ‘flattened’ its coronavirus curve (despite official figures showing a relentless rise in cases), he spent several minutes assailing a national newspaper for what he said was unfair coverage, and he defended his attempt to seize control of the budget,” the report states.

Mexico has 24,905 cases of coronavirus and has recorded 2,271 deaths.


Also read: Not just India, these 12 countries also eased their Covid-19 restrictions on Monday


Japan, India and Philippines managed to avoid coronavirus explosion but with different lockdown strategies

While India and Philippines account for some of the harshest lockdown measures imposed in the world, Japan adopted a relatively relaxed form of social restrictions. Regardless, a few months into the pandemic, all the three countries have nearly similar results to show in their response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Nikkei Asian Review reports.

“At least according to the official figures, their infections and deaths are well below those in the U.S. and hardest-hit European countries. Yet, short of a clear victory, they need more sustainable long-term battle plans,” notes the newspaper.

The Nikkei Asian Review has come up with a methodology that scores the level of restrictions in each country and then checks the overall impact on containing the coronavirus pandemic. Their data shows that even with different levels of restrictions, Japan, India and Philippines have managed to reach a similar level of containment.

How Portugal ducked the coronavirus tide while its neighbor Spain couldn’t

While Spain has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, its neighbour Portugal has managed to duck the coronavirus tide. A report in the Financial Times tries to explain how it managed to do so.

Much like Spain, Portugal also has an ageing population and a very close-knit society, yet it has recorded only 1,063 deaths compared to 25,428 in Spain.

“Portugal detected its first coronavirus cases on March 2, a month later than Italy and Spain. The government declared a state of emergency 16 days after the outbreak began, by which time the country had recorded 642 cases and two deaths. In comparison, Spain announced tough lockdown measures about six weeks after the first case appeared, by which time it had recorded almost 5,800 cases and 200 deaths,” notes the Financial Times.

What else we are reading:

Coronavirus: countries move to shield companies from foreign acquisition, especially by China: South China Morning Post

The coronavirus pandemic is pushing America into a mental health crisis: Washington Post

South Korea to reopen schools from May 13 as Covid-19 outbreak tapers off: Straits Times

Who pays the bill? The coming deluge of pandemic litigation: Financial Times

Under Trump, America has gone a bit late Weimar. We know how that ended: The Guardian

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