New Delhi: The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate countries across the world — the latest count is over 1.08 crore cases and more than 5.18 lakh deaths.
Health experts in the US fear that the 4 July Independence Day celebrations could lead to massive Covid-19 transmission. US’ secret service agents have got infected by the virus in Arizona and the pandemic has led to massive economic upheaval in Russia, leading many families into poverty.
ThePrint brings you some of the most important global stories on the coronavirus pandemic.
US Independence Day could be a super-spreader event
The 4 July Independence Day celebrations in the US are one of the biggest events of the year. Now, as the country struggles to bring its daily new infections under control, another day of parades and mass gatherings could spin the pandemic out of control, fear country’s health officials, reports the Financial Times.
“As the US prepares to celebrate Independence Day on Friday and throughout this weekend, public health experts fear thousands more will contract the virus at indoor parties, crowded outdoor events, religious services and family gatherings,” states the reports.
“If you look at the outbreaks in the south and west, they started right after Memorial day — and that’s just an ordinary holiday, it’s not a ‘let’s get drunk’ holiday like July 4,” remarked Barry Bloom, professor of public health at Harvard University.
Also read: US envoys can’t return to their posts yet due to disputes over testing, quarantining them
US Secret Service agents preparing for Vice President’s trip contract coronavirus
In an unexpected turn of events, US’ Secret Service agents that were trying to look for threats against Vice President Mike Pence before his trip to Arizona ended up contracting the novel coronavirus, reports Washington Post.
Pence was scheduled to visit Phoenix Tuesday but postponed his trip by a day. “On Monday night, the Secret Service urged Pence’s staff to delay the Tuesday trip until Wednesday because at least one agent on the ground had a confirmed case of Covid-19 and other agents and federal officers preparing for the Arizona visit were showing signs of illness, according to two administration officials,” notes the report.
“The Secret Service needed time to bring in healthy agents and other personnel to replace the ones who were either sick or most likely sick, one of the officials said,” it adds.
Kim hails North Korea’s ‘shining success’ against the pandemic
North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has called his country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as a “shining success” and said that it has managed to keep the virus away, according to country’s state-run KCNA News agency, reports the Al Jazeera.
“We have thoroughly prevented the inroad of the malignant virus and maintained a stable anti-epidemic situation despite the worldwide health crisis, which is a shining success achieved,” Kim said during a meeting of the politburo.
While North Korea has reportedly not reported even a single infection, its public health ministry notes that 922 citizens have been tested, and they all tested negative. According to a WHO official, school have been reopened in the country, but mass gatherings remain banned.
Also read: Pubs are set to open but Boris Johnson says UK isn’t ‘out of the woods’ yet
Restaurant, bars open in Brazil, experts say people being sent to ‘slaughterhouses’
As several cities across Brazil such as the capital Rio de Janerio open bars and restaurants to the public, health experts think that it could make the existing out-of-control pandemic in the country even worse, reports CNN.
“Like many cities in Brazil, under pressure from growing unemployment and a tanking economy, Rio de Janeiro is relaxing restrictions — despite warnings from experts that the city has so far failed to bring Covid-19 under control. Starting Thursday, restaurants, bars and gyms were allowed to reopen, following new health guidelines that required the wearing of masks and social distancing,” says the report.
Currently, with over 1 lakh cases and 61,000 deaths, Brazil is the second most-affected country in the world and the easing of lockdown restrictions could make the situation worse, according to country’s experts.
“Governors and mayors are sending the population to the slaughterhouse with the prerogative of an economic recovery,” remarks Domingos Alves a member of Covid-19 Brazil Group, a research unit that brings together scientists from several Brazilian universities.
Australia thought the virus was over, then it found a weak spot
A little over a month after the Australian government thought that it had left the pandemic behind, the virus came back to haunt the authorities, reports the New York Times. Victoria, the province experiencing the outbreak, reported 77 new infections Thursday, the highest since the month of March.
“As it has elsewhere in the world, the coronavirus found a hole in Australia’s system: It spread in part because of the sharing of a cigarette lighter among security guards working at a hotel where returning international travelers are being quarantined,” notes the report.
“It later circulated in low-income neighborhoods in the Melbourne area with sizable migrant populations, including inside a supermarket distribution center,” it adds.
Now, authorities have locked down nearly 3,00,000 people around Melbourne, most of these are immigrants.
Also read: Hong Kong bans protest movement’s rallying cry for ‘revolution’
How pandemic in Russia tanked the economy and plunged people into poverty
A new feature by the Washington Post tries to provide a glimpse on the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic in Russia. “Russia has been particularly hard hit by the twin blows of the coronavirus and the collapse in oil prices. Russia relies on taxes from the oil and gas sector for 40 percent of its budget,” states the report.
“Since March, Russian charities and nonprofit organizations experienced a surge in the kind of clients they have not had before: families that had never been in financial crisis, but are now desperate. Some of them were unable to buy even food. Some were left homeless,” it adds.
As 4.5 million people are estimated to be out of work and thousands of small businesses bankrupt, the overwhelming feeling among people is that they have been “abandoned” by the government.
WHO says no large hidden death toll in Africa
Considering most African countries have not reported a large number of Covid-19 cases, there was a perception that some of them might be hiding the number of cases and deaths. Now the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that it does not believe that Africa has a large “hidden toll”, reports The Guardian.
“The World Health Organization has said it does not believe African countries are harbouring a significant number of unrecorded coronavirus infections, though it said there may be underestimates in some places,” says the report.
“Africa has reported 416,063 confirmed coronavirus cases and 10,297 deaths, according to a Reuters tally based on government statistics and WHO data,” it adds.
Also read: Fauci says new mutation may speed the spread of coronavirus
As stimulus dries out, 100 million global jobs hang in balance
Nearly 100 million jobs in Europe, US and Japan hang in balance as the threat of another wave of unemployment looms over these economies, reports the Nikkei Asian Review.
“Roughly 9 million could become unemployed across the five European countries next year, according to financial service company Allianz. Allianz chief economist Ludovic Subran also said coronavirus relief measures could keep workers in industries with little growth potential, instead of diverting them to growing fields like information technology and health care,” adds the report.
This comes as a nearly combined $1 trillion of global stimulus packages are set to expire this month.
What else we are reading:
Mexico City deaths spiked to three times normal during covid-19 outbreak, official says: Washington Post
Oil majors face up to plunging asset values: Financial Times
US students throw ‘coronavirus parties’ to infect guests, giving prizes to those who catch Covid-19 first: South China Morning Post
Seriously, Just Wear Your Mask: The New York Times