HONG KONG/WASHINGTON/ROME/MADRID: The coronavirus pandemic that is affecting 210 countries and territories around the world, has so far claimed 1,918,679 cases with 66,314 new cases and 119,212 deaths with more than 5,000 new deaths.
As the novel coronavirus pandemic has shut down businesses globally and sends countries into lockdown, the disruptions are threatening to cut off supply chains and increase food insecurity. “Supermarket shelves remain stocked for now,” the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) said in a report released. “But a protracted pandemic crisis could quickly put a strain on the food supply chains, a complex web of interactions involving farmers, agricultural inputs, processing plants, shipping, retailers and more.” The issue, however, is not food scarcity – at least, not yet. Rather, it’s the world's drastic measures in response to the virus, reported CNN on Monday.
Border closures, movement restrictions, and disruptions in the shipping and aviation industries have made it harder to continue food production and transport goods internationally – placing countries with few alternative food sources at high risk.
Airlines have grounded thousands of planes and ports have closed – stranding containers of food, medicine, and other products on tarmacs and holding areas, said the UN Conference on Trade and Development on March 25.
Heightened instability in global food supply will affect the poorest citizens most, warned the UN’s Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in a paper last month. Even private companies and organizations have called for immediate action to address the looming food catastrophe.
“Governments, businesses, civil society and international agencies need to take urgent, coordinated action to prevent the COVID pandemic turning into a global food and humanitarian crisis,” said an open letter to world leaders from scientists, politicians, and companies like Nestle and Unilever.
Meanwhile, A sailor who was aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier died Monday of COVID-19, the first fatality from nearly 600 confirmed cases among its crew, the US Navy said Monday.
The sailor, who tested positive on March 30, was discovered unresponsive on April 9 and placed in the intensive care unit of the Navy’s hospital in Guam, where the Roosevelt is docked.
The death came six days after Thomas Modly resigned as acting navy secretary over his mishandling of an outbreak on the Roosevelt, one of two US aircraft carriers in the western Pacific. Modly had earlier fired the Roosevelt’s captain, Brett Crozier, after the officer’s warning that the shipboard outbreak could dangerously incapacitate much of the crew became public.
Crozier had sought to evacuate most of the ship’s 4,800 crew after it stopped in Guam on March 27, to test all of them and sterilize the vessel, but the idea was rejected by his superiors.
With the number of proven cases approaching 100, on March 30 the veteran captain wrote an unclassified, widely-distributed letter addressed to his superiors that quickly leaked to his hometown newspaper, theSan Francisco Chronicle. “The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating,” Crozier wrote. “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die.”
Both Modly and Defense Secretary Mark Esper expressed anger that Crozier had violated the Pentagon´s chain of command, and they insinuated that the leak to the media was deliberate.
With 92 percent of the crew tested, 585 have been infected with the virus, according to the Navy on Monday. Modly removed Crozier from his command on April 2.
The controversial firing sparked questions over whether and why the Navy hierarchy had ignored Crozier´s internal requests to evacuate the warship, as coronavirus cases were cropping up on military bases and vessels elsewhere. Meanwhile, Italy´s death toll from the novel coronavirus topped 20,000 on Monday but its number of critically ill patients dropped for the tenth successive day.
The 566 new deaths reported by the civil protection service take Italy´s fatalities total to 20,465 — officially second in the world behind the United States. The drop in patients receiving intensive care from a peak of 4,068 on April 3 to 3,260 on Monday confirmed a general improvement in Italy´s COVID-19 trends. The rise in new infections dropped to a new low of just two percent.
The Mediterranean country last week extended its national lockdown until May 3. Meanwhile, Spain reopened parts of its coronavirus-stricken economy on Monday as slowing death tolls in some of the worst-hit countries boosted hopes the outbreak may be peaking and lockdowns could soon be eased.
Watched by a world that wants to temper a brutal pandemic-induced recession, Spain allowed factory and construction staff to go back to work, while police handed out free masks on the metro. But there were warnings that lifting curbs too soon could unleash a second wave of COVID-19, with China, where the virus emerged late last year, recording its highest number of cases in weeks — most of them imported.
French President Emmanuel Macron was set to tell the nation that its lockdown would stay in place for several more weeks, while India braced for an extension of restrictions for its 1.3 billion people.
Yet there is cautious optimism the curve may be starting to flatten. Spain´s death toll fell again on Monday with 517 fatalities, plus the lowest daily figure of new confirmed infections since March 20.
Britain, France and the US also saw a drop in daily COVID-19 deaths, along with Italy which reported its lowest fatalities in three weeks.
Governments are facing increasing pressure ease lockdown restrictions to keep economies from total collapse while ensuring citizens stay safe.
US President Donald Trump said Monday top oil producers could cut production by 20 million barrels per day after nations reached a landmark deal to prop up prices hammered by the coronavirus crisis.
Police in Madrid handed out face masks to commuters at a train station where life appeared to be creeping back to normal, as workers in protective gear wiped down turnstiles.
However Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned Sunday Spain was “far from victory”, with the rest of the nation´s 47 million people remaining under lockdown to avoid a relapse.
In the US — now the world´s worst-hit nation with a fifth of all deaths and more than half a million confirmed cases — the government´s top infectious disease expert added to hopes the virus may have peaked.
Anthony Fauci said parts of the country could begin easing restrictions in May, but warned that the world´s biggest economy would not turn back on like a “light switch”.
As it was, many of the world´s more than two billion Christians celebrated the Easter holiday from the confines of their homes.
Pope Francis delivered a Easter Monday prayer expressing concern for the growing number of women subjected to domestic abuse while living under lockdown.
Governments in many countries continued to warn citizens to stay indoors during the holiday as they grapple with a virus that has even infected national leaders.
In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was resting at his official country residence Chequers a day after being discharged from a state-run hospital where he said staff had “saved my life, no question.”
Britain recorded 717 deaths on Monday, a slight drop from the day before, taking the toll to over 11,000. Daily deaths tolls are often lower on Mondays as weekend fatalities have not been collected. Johnson, like Trump, had initially resisted stringent measures such as shutting down public places.
German scientists meanwhile recommended a progressive lifting of restrictions later this week as new infections fall and the death toll remains far below its European neighbours.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has warned countries not to lift lockdown measures prematurely, amid fears of a downturn not seen since the Great Depression.
In China, where authorities appeared to have the virus under control last week, officials reported 108 new symptomatic cases Monday, the highest number of confirmed infections in a single day in over a month. Imported cases accounted for most of the total, the National Health Commission said.
China only recently lifted the lockdown on the city of Wuhan where the virus first emerged in December. Moscow meanwhile tightened its virus lockdown by issuing digital travel permits, as Russia reported its highest daily rise in cases.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday ordered a fresh lockdown next weekend, warning the move would be imposed as long as necessary to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Late last Friday the government announced a weekend lockdown for 31 cities, but given just two hours´ notice, hundreds of thousands of people rushed out to make last-minute purchases. Erdogan has already asked the Turkish people to stay at home and practise social isolation. The weekend lockdowns are a stricter measure, enforced by the police, and coincide with the improving weather, which has raised government concerns that citizens might ignore the calls to stay at home. “As part of the fight against the pandemic, we have decided that we would continue the weekend lockdowns as long as necessary in the period ahead,” Erdogan said in Istanbul.
Turkey has recorded more than 61,000 COVID-19 infections and nearly 1,300 have died, according to health ministry figures published Monday.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has appeared in a video playing with his dog and watching TV as part of efforts to encourage Japanese people to stay at home, but was attacked online with many using the hashtag “Who do you think you are?”.
In the video posted online Sunday, Abe cuddled a miniature dachshund, sipped a drink from a mug, read a book and watched TV with a message saying “You cannot see your friends. You cannot go drinking. But such actions by everyone are definitely saving many lives”.
While, France´s lockdown to combat the coronavirus will last until May 11, when a progressive relaxation of the measures will begin if the outbreak has slowed, President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday.
The epidemic was “beginning to steady and hope is returning”, Macron said in an address to the nation. Schools would start to reopen from May 11 but restaurants and cafes would remain shut. Borders with non-European countries would remain closed until further notice, Macron added. “May 11 will be the start of a new phase. It will be progressive and the rules can be adapted according to our results,” he said.
Some 574 people have died in France from COVID-19 in 24 hours, the health ministry said on Monday, bringing the total to 14,967 since the coronavirus outbreak began. A total of 335 of the deaths occurred in hospitals, up from 315 the previous day, while 239 deaths were recorded in nursing homes.
For the fifth day in a row, the number of patients in intensive care fell, with 24 fewer people, leaving 6,821 in a serious condition.
