New Delhi: The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate several countries across the world — the latest count is over 1.19 crore cases and more than 5.4 lakh deaths.
After being urged by over 200 scientists, the World Health Organization has said that it cannot rule out the possibility of airborne transmission of Covid-19. Israel is on the brink of another major virus outbreak. Meanwhile, the pandemic has changed the masks and grocery shopping industry, perhaps indefinitely.
ThePrint brings you the most important global stories on the coronavirus pandemic and why they matter.
WHO admits airborne transmission cannot be ruled out
After 239 scientists wrote to the World Health Organization (WHO), urging them to seriously consider the evidence regarding possible airborne transmission of Covid-19, the global health body has acknowledged the emerging evidence and said that it is not ruling out the possibility, reports Reuters.
“The possibility of airborne transmission in public settings — especially in very specific conditions, crowded, closed, poorly ventilated settings that have been described, cannot be ruled out,” said Benedetta Allegranzi, the WHO’s technical head for infection prevention and control, to Reuters.
“However, the evidence needs to be gathered and interpreted, and we continue to support this,” she added.
“Historically, there has been a fierce opposition in the medical profession to the notion of aerosol transmission, and the bar for proof has been set very high. A key concern has been a fear of panic,” according to Jose Jimenez, from University of Colorado and one of the 239 signatories.
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Trump visa rules seen as a tactic to pressurise colleges to reopen
The US government’s decision directing international students to return to their home countries if their universities have moved to complete online instruction, is now being seen as a tactic by the government to force the universities to remain physically open, reports the New York Times.
“The White House measure, announced on Monday, was seen as an effort to pressure universities into reopening their gates and abandoning the cautious approaches that many have announced they would adopt to reduce Covid-19 transmission,” states the report.
“To maintain their status, many international students raced this week to enroll in in-person classes, even if they were not connected to their majors, and students at nearly a dozen universities started an online spreadsheet so that American students could try to swap in-person course spots with their foreign classmates,” it adds.
As US withdraws from WHO, it is America vs the world
As the US officially withdraws from the WHO at the peak of a lethal pandemic, it has pitted Washington against the rest of the world, reports the Washington Post.
“Amid a resurgent pandemic and rising hospitalizations, President Trump pitted America against the world on Tuesday, moving to pull the United States out of the World Health Organization while his FBI director accused China of hacking U.S. health-care companies that are researching the novel coronavirus,” notes the report.
“The Trump administration on Tuesday formally notified the United Nations that it is withdrawing the United States from the WHO, a move that prompted swift criticism from Democrats and showed Trump’s impulse to isolate the country even during a public health crisis. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) wrote on Twitter that Trump’s decision ‘leaves Americans sick & America alone,'” it adds.
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Israel is seeing a fresh coronavirus spike
After having successfully quashed the first wave of the novel coronavirus infections, Israel is now on the brink of being consumed by a second outbreak as the number of infections are rising faster than ever before, reports the Washington Post.
There were more than 1,000 new cases reported Tuesday — marking the second consecutive day when the number of cases crossed thousand, according to another report in the Financial Times. Following this, the country’s top health bureaucrat Siegal Sadetzki resigned, stating that the government’s inaction and delays were taking Israel to a “dangerous place”.
“An Israeli official with knowledge of the pandemic response said government researchers have traced the bulk of new infections to a single category of activity: public gatherings, particularly weddings. The official said a huge spike in weddings — some 2,092 between June 15 and June 25 — proved the events to be Covid-19 incubators,” according to the Washington Post report.
Sweden went from the model to emulate to a cautionary tale
Until a month ago, public health experts and policy researchers were seriously studying Sweden’s response to the pandemic as a model that could be emulated in other countries as well. But now the Sweden model is increasingly being cited a “cautionary tale”, reports the New York Times.
The crux of the Swedish model was not to enforce mandatory social distancing and other restrictions, instead these were only voluntary recommendations.
“Its decision to carry on in the face of the pandemic has yielded a surge of deaths without sparing its economy from damage — a red flag as the United States and Britain move to lift lockdowns,” adds the report.
Sweden has recorded over 73,000 cases and 5,400 deaths.
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Pure self-interest by helping other countries too: Raghuram Rajan
In an opinion piece for the Financial Times, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has argued that countries that have done relatively well during the pandemic would be serving their own self-interest by helping the ones that are struggling with the pandemic.
“Out of self-interest, the world’s more industrialised countries need to avoid beggaring the rest. What happens elsewhere will not stay there. A decade of lost growth in the industrialising world would affect more developed countries severely,” argues Rajan.
“Perceptive leaders should persuade less-farsighted colleagues that closing borders to trade and investment will only subject them to endless flotillas and caravans of the desperate. Sharing growth is in everyone’s interest,” he adds.
Japanese masks go from commodities to ‘cool’ value-added products
Wearing masks was a regular practice in Japan even before the pandemic, but now as Japanese citizens demand more variation in their masks, companies are using this opportunity to make serious innovations to the product, reports Nikkei Asian Review.
Uniqlo, Japan’s big fast fashion brand is selling masks it has made out of “an underwear material that the company markets as being cool and fast-drying”. Sportswear brand Mizuno has also “started selling masks made of stretchy bathing suit and sportswear materials as well as masks made of stay-cool materials,” notes the report.
“Some apparel makers are jumping into the market with fashion-conscious masks. Sanyo Shokai has released 16 types, including ones with checked and striped patterns, so buyers can choose the mask that best suits their mood or whose fabric best suits the season,” it adds.
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How Covid-19 has changed grocery shopping
As social distancing becomes the new normal, many sectors of the economy are being forced to rapidly innovate, and grocery shops feature on top of that list, reports a feature in the BBC.
“Enter Canadian start-up Grocery Neighbour. The company believes it has come up with a potential solution to the grocery store conundrum: a mobile supermarket in a semi-open-air truck that shoppers can step aboard to grab essentials while maintaining social distancing measures,” states the report.
“The concept of a supermarket-on-wheels isn’t entirely new: companies in the US states of Oklahoma and California, for example, have rolled out services delivering fresh produce to food deserts and connecting local farmers with their communities respectively. Sinopoli hopes his will be the tailor-made solution for the coronavirus era, yet experts suggest these types of businesses will need to pinpoint their niche in the market to compete with the surge in online food delivery,” it adds.
What else we are reading:
‘It’s a matter of fairness’: squeezing more tax from multinationals: Financial Times
Ecuador’s vice president resigns after leading state COVID-19 response: Reuters
WHO experts to travel to China at weekend to study COVID-19 origins: Reuters
Florida invited the nation to its reopening — then it became a new coronavirus epicentre: Washington Post
Virus on retreat in Spain despite flare-ups, says health chief: Financial Times
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