Medical workers get ready for a shift treating coronavirus patients at the Spasokukotsky clinical hospital in Moscow on April 22, 2020. - Copyright YURI KADOBNOV/AFP
Coronavirus - latest summary
British PM Boris Johnson in very good health, says Health minister Matt Hancock
The British prime minister Boris Johnson, who is recovering from COVID-19, is in "very good health", the Health minister Matt Hancock said on Friday.
Speaking to Sky News TV channel, Hancock said: "I spoke to him on Thursday. He is in very good health and he is recovering."
"I am sure he will be back [at Downing Street] as soon as his doctors recommend that he does so;" Hancock added. "The decision has yet to be taken, but he is in contact with the cabinet and answers phone calls."
Boris Johnson spent a week in St Thomas hospital in London, including several days in intensive care, earlier this month after contracting COVID-19.
He is recovering in Chequers, the country estate of British prime ministers.
A single French care home has reported 15 coronavirus deaths out of 124 residents
A single French home in Vernon, Normandy, has reported the deaths of 15 residents due to coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, the Eure-Seine hospital in Evreux, which treated the patients, has said in a press release on Friday.
The Vernon care home has capacity for 124 residents. Since the start of the pandemic, 38 residents out of the 107 who were tested were found positive with COVID-19.
"This is a care home situation that we are following very closely," the director of the regional Health agency for Normandy Christine Gardel has said.
India must be self-reliant against virus, PM Modi says
Indias prime minister Narendra Modi says the countrys 1.3 billion people are bravely fighting the coronavirus epidemic with limited resources and the lesson they have learned so far is that the country has to be self-sufficient for meeting its needs.
Addressing the countrys village council heads through video conferencing on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the country cant afford to look outward to meet a crisis of this dimension in future.
Self-reliance is the biggest lesson taught by the epidemic, Modi said. India has so far reported 22,358 positive novel coronavirus cases and 718 deaths.
India has been importing critical medical supplies, including protective gears, masks and ventilators from China.
Alluding to low casualties as compared to other countries, Modi said that the countrys efforts to win the battle against the pandemic through a strict lockdown imposed on April 25 and social distancing is being appreciated by other countries.
Indias lockdown is due to end on May 3.
African authorities warn of scarce medical equipment and lack of ventilators
As Africa braces for a surge in coronavirus cases, its countries are dangerously behind in the global race for scarce medical equipment.
Ten nations have no ventilators at all.
Outbid by richer countries, and not receiving medical gear from top aid donor the United States, African officials scramble for solutions as virus cases climb past 25,000.
Even in the best scenario, the United Nations says 74 million test kits and 30,000 ventilators will be needed by the continents 1.3 billion people this year. Very few are in hand.
"We are competing with the developed world, John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told AP.
"The very future of the continent will depend on how this matter is handled."
Germany prepares for COVID-19 second wave
Germany is already getting ready to deal with a potential second wave of COVID-19 infections.
In Berlin, a hospital is under construction to welcome up to 1,000 patients in case of a second wave - an option the authorities are taking very seriously. The military is helping building the hospital, AFP reported.
There is a "fundamental danger" that infections start rising again "if the restrictive measures are stopped too early", Lars Schaade, the deputy director of the health agency Robert Koch Institu, has said.
"Germany is prepared to a possible second wave," Gerald Gass, the president of the German society of hospitals DKG, has said.
"We will keep 20% of our intensive care unit beds available and hope to develop an additional 20% of a second wave arrives and infections start again," he added.
US Congress approves new $483 billion coronavirus aid plan
The US Congress approved on Thursday a new $483 billion aid plan to support the economy and hospitals in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The funds will also help developing coronavirus testing.
US president Trump has said he supports the plan and is expected to promulgate it soon.
El Salvadors parliament evacuated after COVID-19 suspicion
The legislative Assembly of El Salvador suddenly ended its session on Thursday night after a suspected case of COVID-19 was announced in the building. The suspected patient was quickly evacuated.
"El Salvadors inter-disciplinary team for disease control has detected a serious suspicion of COVID-19 in the blue room of the Assembly," the Salvadorian president Nayib Bukele said in a tweet.
"We recommend that the session closes now and that all MPs and staff self-isolate while we confirm or dismiss the suspected cases and the people they were in contact with."
The presidents message was published after a left-wing MP, Yanci Urbina, suffered a heavy cough as she was speaking in the plenary session.
MPs immediately started to evacuated the building. Almost half of the 84 MPs decided to leave the room, which forced the president of the Assembly to suspend the session until Friday morning.
El Salvador has reported 250 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 8 deaths. A lockdown has been introduced on 21 March.
US president Trump wrongly suggests "injecting disinfectant in the body" could fight coronavirus
US president Donald Trump wrongly suggested that disinfectant injected in the body could help fighting the virus during a daily coronavirus briefing on Thursday.
During the White House briefing, William Bryan of the Department of Homeland Security said at a White House briefing Thursday that there are "emerging results from new research that suggest solar light has a powerful effect in killing the virus on surfaces and in the air.
He said scientists have seen a similar effect from higher temperatures and humidity.
"The virus is dying at a much more rapid pace just from exposure to higher temperatures and just from exposure to humidity, Bryan said, stressing however that the emerging results of the light and heat studies do not replace social distancing recommendations.
"Im here to present ideas, because we want ideas to get rid of this thing. And if heat is good, and if sunlight is good, thats a great thing as far as Im concerned, president Trump said.
Trump noted that the researchers were also looking at the effects of disinfectants on the virus and wondered aloud if they could be injected into people, saying the virus "does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.
Bryan said there was no consideration of that.
SOURCE: Euronews
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/16281
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