South Korea leads virus success in Asia as drug trial raises hope

South Korea, once one of the hardest-hit countries in the coronavirus pandemic, reported no new cases on Thursday, boosting hopes of an eventual return to normality as US scientists hailed the results of a major drug trial.

The good medical news caused equities to rally, despite mounting deaths worldwide and abysmal economic figures caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

Data showed the pandemic, which has killed more than 224,000 people, has plunged the United States into its worst economic slump in a decade, and has left Germany expecting its biggest recession since the aftermath of World War II.

But for the first time since the new disease was detected there in mid-February, South Korea reported zero new infections.

The East Asian nation had the world's second-largest coronavirus outbreak for a period after the virus emerged in China late last year.

But with an aggressive test-and-trace strategy and widespread social distancing, it has managed to bring the spread of the pathogen under control.

"This is the strength of South Korea and its people," said President Moon Jae-in as he announced the milestone.

Meanwhile in the first proof of successful treatment, a clinical trial of the drug remdesivir showed that patients recovered about 30 percent faster than those on a placebo.

"The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery," said Anthony Fauci, the top US epidemiologist.

- Hope in Asia -

South Korea's virus death toll is around 250 -- vastly lower than that of Italy, Britain, Spain and France, which have each recorded more than 24,000 fatalities, and the United States, topping the table with a third of global deaths.

Other parts of the region have seen similar success in their fight against the virus.

Infections have dwindled in China after it imposed extremely strict lockdown measures on millions of people earlier this year. Its official toll is around 4,600, although doubt has been cast on the figures' accuracy.

Hong Kong, a city of seven million where there have been just four virus deaths, reported no new cases for the fifth straight day on Thursday.

And New Zealand has declared the battle won against widespread, undetected community transmission.

However the economic costs are beginning to mount, raising fears of an era-defining global crash and increasing pressure worldwide to ease lockdowns despite fears of a second wave of contagion.

- Recession warning -

The US announced that economic output collapsed 4.8 percent in the first quarter -- ending more than a decade of expansion.

On Thursday, France and Spain both said their economies had fared even worse, contracting 5.8 percent and 5.2 percent respectively, while the Eurozone economy as a whole also shrank.

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell warned worse was to come, and economic activity will likely drop "at an unprecedented rate" in the second quarter.

Germany, Europe's largest economy, has succeeded in holding off the devastating death tolls seen elsewhere, but is still bracing for an overwhelming economic hit.

Germany "will experience the worst recession in the history of the federal republic" founded in 1949, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier warned, predicting that GDP would shrink by a record 6.3 percent.

The International Labour Organization said half the global workforce -- around 1.6 billion people -- are in "immediate danger of having their livelihoods destroyed".

One of the worst-hit sectors is the aviation industry, but an unprecedented drop in demand for fossil fuels means global energy emissions are expected to fall a record eight percent this year, the International Energy Agency said.

- Drug trial -

Experts have warned that only a vaccine will allow the full removal of restrictions that this year put half of humanity under some form of lockdown.

But there have been encouraging signs in the search for a treatment.

Fauci likened remdesivir to the first retrovirals that worked, albeit with modest success, against HIV in the 1980s.

The drug failed in trials against the Ebola virus, and a smaller study, released last week by the WHO, found limited effects among patients in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the disease's original epicentre.

Senior WHO official Michael Ryan declined to weigh in on the latest findings, saying he had not reviewed the complete study.

"We are all hoping -- fervently hoping -- that one or more of the treatments currently under observation and under trial will result in altering clinical outcomes" and reducing deaths, he said.

While the world keeps looking for signs of progress against the pandemic, research is also revealing frightening new details about COVID-19.

Britain and France have both warned of a possible coronavirus-related syndrome emerging in children -- including abdominal pain and inflammation around the heart.

"I am taking this very seriously. We have absolutely no medical explanation at this stage," French Health Minister Olivier Veran said.

Experts have also warned of longer-term psychological tolls on both children and adults after weeks or even months in isolation.

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Agence France-Presse

Deutsche Bank says results will beat forecasts

Germany's biggest lender Deutsche Bank said it expects to report a net profit of 66 million euros ($71 million) for the first quarter, beating market forecasts.

Turnover is expected to reach 6.4 billion euros while provisions for credit losses should amount to 500 million euros, it said in a statement on its website late Sunday.

The bank's common equity tier 1 ratio, the main bank solvency ratio, was 12.8 percent at the end of the quarter, down from 13.6 percent at the end of 2019, it said.

"In light of the current macroeconomic environment", Deutsche Bank "has made the clear decision to allow capital to fall modestly and temporarily below its target in order to support clients and the broader economy at this time of economic crisis."

The bank is due to release its quarterly results on Wednesday.

"The short-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic make it difficult for the bank to accurately reflect the timing and the magnitude of changes to its original capital plan," it said.

"Deutsche Bank's priority is to stand by its clients without compromising on capital strength."

The German group lost 5.72 billion euros in 2019, its fifth consecutive net loss, and in July announced a major restructuring plan.

"We're very satisfied that our first-quarter results demonstrate the progress we're making with the transformation of our bank, the operating strength of our business, and our resilience," chief executive Christian Sewing said in the statement.

At the end of January, Sewing said he was optimistic for 2020 and convinced that the radical transformation of the German banking giant would pay off further ahead.

Agence France-Presse

Virus toll nears 200,000 as UN pushes for global vaccine effort

The global coronavirus death toll approached 200,000 on Saturday as the United Nations launched an international push for a vaccine to defeat the pandemic.

Governments around the world are struggling to limit the economic devastation unleashed by the virus, which has infected nearly 2.8 million people and left half of humanity under some form of lockdown.

The scale of the coronavirus pandemic has forced medical research on the virus to move at unprecedented speed, but effective treatments are still far off and the United Nations chief said the effort will require cooperation on a global scale.

"We face a global public enemy like no other," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a virtual briefing on Friday, asking for international organizations, world leaders and the private sector to join the effort.

"A world free of COVID-19 requires the most massive public health effort in history."


Any vaccine should be safe, affordable and available to all, Guterres said at the meeting, which was also attended by the leaders of Germany and France.

But notably absent were the leaders of China, where the virus first emerged late last year, and the United States, which has accused the UN's World Health Organization of not warning quickly enough about the original outbreak.

The spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, is increasing other medical risks as well with the WHO warning nearly 400,000 more people could die from malaria because of disruption to the supply of mosquito nets and medicines.

Saturday marked World Malaria Day, a disease which the WHO said could kill around 770,000 this year, or "twice as much as in 2018".

- Early stages -

With more than four billion people on lockdown or stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the virus, governments are weighing how to lift restrictions without causing a spike in infections and how to revive economies battered by weeks of closure.

The daily death toll in Western countries seems to be falling, a sign hopeful epidemiologists had been looking for, but the WHO has warned that other nations are still in the early stages of the fight.


Global COVID-19 deaths have climbed past 195,000, according to an AFP tally, but new reported cases appear to have leveled off at about 80,000 a day.

The United States is the hardest-hit country by far in the pandemic, recording more than 51,000 deaths and over 890,000 infections.

The UN chief's urgent vaccine appeal came a day after US President Donald Trump prompted outcry and ridicule with his suggestion that disinfectants be used to treat coronavirus patients.

As experts -- and disinfectant manufacturers -- rushed to caution against any such dangerous experiment, the president tried to walk back his comments, saying he had been speaking "sarcastically."

"I can't believe I have to say this, but please don't drink bleach," tweeted Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to face Trump in November's election.

The world's biggest economy has been hammered by the pandemic, with 26 million jobs lost since the crisis began, and American leaders are under pressure to find ways to ease social distancing measures.


Despite criticism from Trump, the governor of Georgia allowed some businesses, including nail salons and bowling alleys, to reopen on Friday, sparking both criticism and relief.

The mayor of the state's capital Atlanta condemned the "irresponsible" move, telling ABC News: "There is nothing essential about going to a bowling alley or giving a manicure in the middle of a pandemic."

In Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer extended her stay-at-home order until May 15, but she eased some restrictions by allowing landscapers and bike mechanics to return to work, and ended prohibitions against golfing and motorboating.

- Lifting lockdown -

The unprecedented situation has left the world staring at its worst downturn since the Great Depression, and world leaders are trying to balance public health concerns with economic need.

Beyond the US, other countries have already started loosening restrictions.


Sri Lanka said it would lift a nationwide curfew on Monday after more than five weeks, as Belgium became the latest European nation to announce an easing from mid-May.

In France, which will be on lockdown until May 11, residents still confined to home have taken to praising health workers and protesting their frustrations with officials on painted banners hung outside their windows.

"Thank you to the caregivers, shame on the leaders" read one such banner hanging outside a building in a Paris suburb.

On the other side of the world in Australia and New Zealand, people held vigils from the isolation of their own driveways to pay tribute to their war veterans on Anzac Day.

Official memorials were held behind closed doors.

Across the Muslim world, hundreds of millions of faithful also opened the Ramadan holy month under stay-at-home conditions, facing unprecedented bans on prayers in mosques and on the traditional large gatherings of families and friends to break the daily fast.

In the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the Grand Mosque, usually packed with tens of thousands of people during Ramadan, was deserted.

"We are used to seeing the holy mosque crowded with people during the day, night, all the time," said Ali Mulla, the muezzin who gives the call to prayer at the Grand Mosque.

"I feel pain deep inside."

burs-qan/amj/pma/bmm

Agence France-Presse

Canada sends army to combat pandemic in Ontario, Quebec

OTTAWA, Canada — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday the army would be sent in to help Ontario and Quebec provinces combat coronavirus outbreaks at long-term care facilities hardest-hit by the pandemic.

"There have been requests for military assistance by both Ontario and Quebec which, of course, we will be answering," Trudeau told a daily briefing.


"Our women and men in uniform will step up with the valour and courage they've always shown."

Quebec asked for 1,000 troops in addition to 130 military doctors and medics previously requested, to help overwhelmed staff at elderly care homes.

Ontario has asked for an unspecified number of soldiers to be deployed at five of its most affected care homes.

Seventy to 80 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the two provinces were at long-term care homes, with the number of fatalities at the homes surpassing 1,000 in Quebec and 500 in Ontario.

Trudeau said the Canadian military "will be there with support so that provinces can get control of the situation."

"But this is not a long-term solution," he added. "In Canada, we shouldn't have soldiers taking care of seniors."

"Going forward in the weeks and months to come, we will all have to ask tough questions about how it came to this," he commented.

"I think the system needs to be changed, and we are (going to be) changing the system," Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters.

"But right now, our main focus is to make sure we protect the people inside these long-term care homes," he said

Quebec had tried to recruit 2,000 new staff for its long-term care facilities in recent weeks to ease the workload for existing staff, but few applied.

Even with a salary top-up from the government, the jobs are relatively low-paying.

One of the worst cases in Montreal, where 31 elderly residents died after their caregivers fled the Herron nursing home, leaving them to fend for themselves, provoked a public outcry.

Another in Laval, north of Montreal, has recorded 69 COVID-19 deaths.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault lamented on Thursday that 9,500 healthcare and senior care workers in the province had not shown up for work this week; 4,000 are under quarantine or are being treated for the virus, while 5,500 feared exposure.

"This isn't a normal situation," he said. "This is a crisis and we need more hands."

As of 1800 GMT Thursday, there were 41,752 coronavirus cases in Canada, including 2,199 deaths.

Agence France-Presse

Continued oil market turmoil weighs on global stocks

Oil-price turmoil gripped markets once more Tuesday, a day after US crude futures crashed below zero for the first time as the coronavirus crisis crippled global energy demand and worsened a supply glut.

The commodity rout also sent world equity markets spiraling lower, as investors fretted it could compound an expected deep global economic downturn.

The benchmark WTI price collapsed Monday to an unprecedented low of minus $40.32. Negative prices mean traders must pay to find buyers to take physical possession of the oil -- a job made difficult with the world's storage capacity at bursting point.

A day after its historic slide into negative territory amid a supply glut, US oil futures finished in positive territory.

But the market remained under heavy pressure due to the oversupply as coronavirus shutdowns constrain global growth.

Storage is a particularly big problem in the US where WTI oil is delivered at a single, inland point.

In Europe, where Brent is the benchmark, there are several delivery sites and their proximity to the sea allows some of it to be stored on tankers.

"Players are now paying buyers to take oil volumes away as the physical storage limit will be reached. And they are paying top dollar," said Rystad Energy analyst Louise Dickson.

This week's massive sell-off came just ahead of Tuesday's expiration of the May contract. Most trading has now moved to the June contract, and May WTI was back in positive territory by the close of New York trading.

- 'Slice of pizza' -

Oil markets have been ravaged this year after the pandemic was compounded by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

"Ever thought that it could be imaginable to see the price of US oil valued at less than a pizza? Or even a slice of pizza? How about for it to actually cost (money) to sell US crude?" said Jameel Ahmad, head of currency strategy and market research at FXTM.

While the two big oil-producing nations have drawn a line under the dispute and agreed with other countries to slash output by almost 10 million barrels a day, that is not enough to offset the lack of demand and prices have remained low.

European benchmark Brent North Sea oil for June delivery tumbled to an 18-year low, before coming off worse levels in volatile deals.

- Stock markets sink -

Equity markets were meanwhile also deep in the red on Tuesday, having enjoyed a healthy couple of weeks thanks to massive stimulus measures and signs of an easing in the rate of new infections globally.

Key eurozone stocks markets closed with declines of up to four percent, while London did a little better thanks to a weaker pound.

On Wall Street, the Dow finished down more than 630 points, or 2.7 percent.

"Continued dysfunction in the crude oil markets" was the main factor behind the decline, analysts at Charles Schwab said, "while the Street continues to assess the timing of when the US economy may be able to reopen."

Analysts warned the drop in stock markets could be an indication that the recent surge may have been hasty, and that another prolonged sell-off is possible.

- Key figures around 2030 GMT -

West Texas Intermediate (May delivery): UP at $10.01 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate (June delivery): DOWN 43 percent at $11.57 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude (May delivery): DOWN 22.1 percent at $19.93

Brent North Sea crude (June delivery): DOWN 24.4 percent at $19.33

New York - Dow: DOWN 2.7 percent at 23,018.88 (close)

New York - S&P 500: DOWN 3.1 percent at 2,736.56 (close)

New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 3.5 percent at 8,263.23 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 3.0 percent at 5,641,03 points (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 4.0 percent at 10,249.85 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 3.8 percent at 4,357.46 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 4.1 percent at 2,791.34 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 2.0 percent at 19,280.78 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 2.2 percent at 23,793.55 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.9 percent at 2,827.01 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0859 from $1.0862 at 2100 GMT

Dollar/yen: UP at 107.77 yen from 107.62

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2301 from $1.2442

Euro/pound: UP at 88.27 pence from 87.30

burs-jmb/cs

Agence France-Presse

US surpasses 700,000 coronavirus cases: tracker

WASHINGTON, United States — The United States on Friday passed 700,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University.

With the highest number of cases and deaths of any country in the world, the US had recorded 700,282 cases of COVID-19 and 36,773 deaths as of 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Friday), according to the Baltimore-based university.

That marked an increase of 3,856 deaths in the past 24 hours, but that figure likely includes "probable" virus-linked deaths, which had not previously been counted.

This week, New York City said it would add 3,778 "probable" virus deaths to its official count.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave a toll Friday night of 33,049 dead, including 4,226 probable virus-linked deaths.

The United States has seen the highest death toll in the world in the coronavirus pandemic, ahead of Italy (22,745 deaths) although its population is just a fifth of that of the US.

Spain has recorded 19,478 deaths, followed by France with 18,681.

Agence France-Presse

Police thy neighbor: Virus fears fuel quarantine shaming

Some complain about joggers panting on passers-by. Others wonder what to do when they overhear drunken partygoers rejecting quarantine measures. Still more question whether people they see in the street are really on "essential" business.

Local social media networks, long places for recipe swaps and restaurant tips, are rapidly becoming sites where neighbors police neighbors during the global coronavirus pandemic.

And as users test the line between civic duty and intrusive surveillance -- often trying to shame their peers into obeying social distancing rules -- experts worry that a practice once frowned upon is becoming normalized.

"It distresses me greatly to see a few uncaring louts who scoff at the safety rules that are meant for all of us to get through this awful situation," said one user on a listserv for a wealthy suburb of the capital Washington, which has seen a slew of complaints about people ignoring distancing guidelines.

"I have a suggestion - if you see such behaviors as mentioned above - why not take photos/videos of the offenders? This could discourage their dangerous behaviors," said another.

Online shaming is nothing new -- and neither is neighbors keeping tabs on one another -- but never in history have so many people had such a high stake in enforcing social rules, or such a fast and accessible platform on which to do so.


"There is a sense that if you do it you can save lives... With COVID-19, we're scared and there is an urgency to enforce the social distancing rules. Shaming is really one of the only tools we have," says Dr Emily Laidlaw, an associate professor at the University of Calgary who studies privacy law and online shaming.

Examples are rife on platforms such as Nextdoor, a hyperlocal social media network which demands users post under their real names and verify their locations.

"My neighbors are all drunk and having a party next door. One of them went on a loud tirade near my door that another month of quarantine is stupid and that he wasn't going to do it," posted one frustrated resident of a middle class west Los Angeles neighborhood recently.

"You need to report them when it's happening because that just means another month for us to be indoors," another user replied.

Public shaming is against community guidelines and comments deemed as falling into the category will be removed, according to the app.

It also touts the Kindness Reminder, a feature announced last year to keep conversations respectful, and which has been modified in recent weeks with language specific to COVID-19.

Wicca Davidson, who runs a listserv for a municipality in Maryland, says that since the pandemic began she has seen an uptick in complaints about behavior.

"We don't want to give a few people the ability to derail the use of the listserv," she told AFP.

- 'Please stop being so judgemental' -

"There's definitely social shaming. That's part of what's working to stay home," 31-year-old Divya Sonti, an employee of IQ Solutions, which specializes in public health communications and health information technology, told AFP.


Privacy expert Laidlaw also believes such policing can be effective.

But "there is a cost that should be acknowledged -- casualties who are taken down by this unfairly, and the normalization of neighborhood surveillance," she said.

One member of the Washington suburb listserv echoed her fears.

"I sympathize with the concern but becoming a police-state type of community isn't healthy," the user wrote.

"This is not ok to take picture of people and post them," another person wrote on a Nextdoor group in Los Angeles, after a user posted photographs of people they felt were walking too closely together. "What is next? Train to Dachau?"

Laidlaw said policing and shaming were already on their way to being normalized online before the pandemic, noting that "shaming sites are not new, nor are neighborhood watch/surveillance sites".

But until now, she says, there was also strong condemnation of public shaming.

"I worry when the dust has settled, what was once contentious will be the new normal."

That is problematic because of the lack of context online, and the speed at which such condemnation can spread.

For example, in Brooklyn, one neighbor complained on Nextdoor about seeing a group of people in the street -- a group which another user said was likely from a local substance abuse meeting.

The sentiment is also echoed in one of the many viral Facebook posts calling for compassion at a time when so many are already struggling to cope.

"Do you ever think maybe that guy buying a gallon of paint knows he must keep busy because idle hands in the past has caused him to relapse and pick up that case of beer?" it reads.

"I know we are all on edge but please stop being so judgemental of others."

Agence France-Presse

Ex-NFL quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, 36, dies in car crash

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Former NFL quarterback Tarvaris Jackson has died in a one-car crash outside Montgomery, authorities said Monday. He was 36.

The 2012 Chevrolet Camaro that Jackson was driving went off the road, struck a tree and overturned at 8:50 p.m. Sunday, Trooper Benjamin “Michael” Carswell, an Alabama Law Enforcement Agency spokesman, said in a news release. Jackson was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The wreck occurred on Pike Road, about seven miles south of Montgomery, his hometown. No other details were immediately released about the crash, which remained under investigation.

Jackson was hired as quarterbacks coach for Tennessee State last season after a 10-year NFL career with the Seattle Seahawks, Minnesota Vikings and Buffalo Bills.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll posted a Twitter message calling Jackson “a beloved teammate, competitor, and Seahawk.”

Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson also posted about Jackson’s death: “TJack... you will be missed. Praying for your family...Love you man.”

Jackson was a second-round draft pick of the Vikings in 2006, starting 12 games in 2007 and going 8-4. He was part of the Seahawks’ Super Bowl championship team in 2014.

Jackson started 14 games for Seattle in 2011, leading the team to seven wins. The former Alabama State quarterback, who started his college career at Arkansas, went 17-17 as an NFL starter.

He passed for 7,263 yards with 39 touchdowns and 35 interceptions.

Jackson is survived by wife Lakitta and three children.

Associated Press

Robots may become heroes in war on coronavirus

SAN FRANCISCO — Long maligned as job-stealers and aspiring overlords, robots are being increasingly relied on as fast, efficient, contagion-proof champions in the war against the deadly coronavirus.

One team of robots temporarily cared for patients in a makeshift hospital in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the COVID-19 outbreak began.

Meals were served, temperatures taken and communications handled by machines, one of them named "Cloud Ginger" by its maker CloudMinds, which has operations in Beijing and California.


"It provided useful information, conversational engagement, entertainment with dancing, and even led patients through stretching exercises," CloudMinds president Karl Zhao said of the humanoid robot.

"The smart field hospital was completely run by robots."

A small medical team remotely controlled the field hospital robots. Patients wore wristbands that gathered blood pressure and other vital data.

The smart clinic only handled patients for a few days, but it foreshadowed a future in which robots tend to patients with contagious diseases while health care workers manage from safe distances.

Checkup and check out

Patients in hospitals in Thailand, Israel and elsewhere meet with robots for consultations done by doctors via videoconference. Some consultation robots even tend to the classic checkup task of listening to patients' lungs as they breathe.

Alexandra Hospital in Singapore will use a robot called BeamPro to deliver medicine and meals to patients diagnosed with COVID-19 or those suspected to be infected with the virus in its isolation wards.

Doctors and nurses can control the robot by using a computer from outside the room, and can hold conversations with the patient via the screen and camera.

The robot reduces the number of  "touch points" with patients who are isolated, thereby reducing risk for healthcare workers, the hospital's health innovation director Alexander Yip told local news channel CNA.

Robotic machines can also be sent to scan for the presence of the virus, such as when the Diamond Princess cruise ship cabins were checked for safety weeks after infected passengers were evacuated, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.

Additionally, hospitals are turning to robots to tirelessly rid room, halls and door handles of viruses and bacteria.

US firm Xenex has seen a surge in demand for its robots that disinfect rooms, according to director of media relations Melinda Hart.

Xenex's LightStrike robots have been used in more than 500 healthcare facilities, with the number of deployed bots rising due to the pandemic, Hart said.

"We are getting requests from around the world," Hart said.

"In addition to hospitals, we're being contacted by urgent care centers, hotels, government agencies and pharmaceutical companies" to disinfect rooms.

Shark Robotics in France began testing a decontamination unit about a month ago and has already started getting orders, according to co-founder Cyril Kabbara.

Worth the price?

The coronavirus pandemic has caused robotics innovation to accelerate, according to Lesley Rohrbaugh, the director of research for the US Consumer Technology Association.

"We are in a time of need for some of this technology, so it seems like benefits outweigh costs," Rohrbaugh said.

Artificial intelligence, sensors and other capabilities built into robots can push up prices, as can the need to bolster high-speed internet connections on which machines often rely, according to Rohrbaugh.

Innovations on the horizon include using drones equipped with sensors and cameras to scan crowds for signs of people showing symptoms of coronavirus infection.

A team at the University of South Australia is working on just that, in collaboration with Canadian drone maker Draganfly.

"The use will be to identify the possible presence of the virus by observing humans," said university professor Javaan Singh Chahl.

"It might form part of an early warning system or to establish statistically how many people are afflicted in a population."

His team is working on computer algorithms that can spot sneezing or coughing, say in an airport terminal, and remotely measure people's pulses and temperatures.

Agence France-Presse

Abra health worker wounded in shooting

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — A barangay health worker was wounded in a gun attack in Dolores, Abra on Tuesday.

Ana Maria Macapagat, 45, a resident of Barangay Cabaroan, Dolores, was in a tricycle on her way home after her duty at the task force on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the village when she was shot at past 5 p.m.

The tricycle driver, an unidentified barangay councilman, was unhurt.

Brig. Gen. Rwin Pagkalinawan, Cordillera police director, said they are investigating the incident, the first attack against a health worker in the region.

The Department of Health had condemned attacks, discrimination and harassment against health workers, noting that they help the country survive the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the city council of Lipa in Batangas has passed an anti-COVID-19 discrimination ordinance.

The measure prohibits any person from committing any action ”which causes stigma, disgrace, shame, humiliation, harassment or discrimination” against frontliners, COVID-19 patients  and persons suspected to be infected with the flu virus.

Frontliners are defined as medical and non-medical personnel, such as doctors, nurses, health volunteers, hsopital staff, janitors and security personnel. – With Arnell Ozaeta

philstar.com

US sets new global record with 1,480 virus deaths in 24 hours

WASHINGTON, United States — The United States on Friday advised all Americans to wear masks in public to protect against the new coronavirus, fearing the illness that has infected more than one million people worldwide may be spreading by normal breathing.

The recommendation came as the US set a new record for the number of COVID-19 deaths in one day with 1,480 dead, the most of any country since the pandemic began. That topped the record set by the US the previous day with 1,169 deaths.

President Donald Trump said the government recommendation for all 330 million Americans to wear non-medical masks in places such as grocery stores would last "for a period of time."


"It's going to be really a voluntary thing," Trump told reporters. "You don't have to do it and I'm choosing not to do it, but some people may want to do it and that's okay."

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the decision came because many people with the virus were showing no symptoms, but warned it was still vital to practice "social distancing" by maintaining space between people.

The announcement came after Anthony Fauci, who is leading the government's scientific response, backed recent scholarship that found SARS-CoV-2 can be suspended in the ultrafine mist formed when people exhale.

Research indicates "the virus can actually be spread even when people just speak as opposed to coughing and sneezing," Fauci said on Fox News.

The National Academy of Sciences sent a letter to the White House on April 1 summarizing recent research on the subject, saying it's not yet conclusive but "the results ... are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing."

Since the virus was first identified in China in late December last year, health experts have said it is primarily spread through coughing and sneezing.

The US recommendation will likely worsen an already severe shortage of masks in the United States and Europe, which both rely heavily on imports from China.

Trump urged Americans to "just make something" or use scarves, saving clinical masks for health professionals and patients.

Rising tolls but hope in Europe

More than 57,000 people have died from COVID-19 since it was first detected late last year.

Worse may be coming as a quarter of global infections are in the United States, where Trump has warned of a "very, very painful" first two weeks of April.

Europe reached the dark milestone of 40,000 dead, with Spain on Friday reporting more than 900 deaths in the past 24 hours.

Spaniard Javier Lara survived after being put on oxygen in an overcrowded intensive care unit -- a shock to a 29-year-old who was athletic and doesn't smoke.

"I was panicking that my daughter would get infected," he said, describing facing death with an eight-week-old as the "worst moment" in his life.

But there were also signs the peak may be passing in Europe.

Hardest-hit Italy recorded 766 new deaths but its infections rose by just four percent, the lowest yet, according to the civil protection service.

"It's true that the latest figures, as high as they are, give us a little bit of hope," said Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

"But it is definitely much too early to see a clear trend in that, and it is certainly too early to think in any way about relaxing the strict rules we have given ourselves," she added.

'Worst yet to come'

Prosperous countries have borne the brunt of the disease, but there are fears of an explosion among the world's most vulnerable living in conflict zones or refugee camps.

"The worst is yet to come," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, referring to countries such as Syria, Libya and Yemen. "The COVID-19 storm is now coming to all these theaters of conflict."

The world economy has been pummelled by the virus and associated lockdowns, with the US economy shedding 701,000 jobs in March -- its worst showing since March 2009 in the wake of the subprime banking crisis. Even more dire figures are expected for April.

Financial ratings agency Fitch predicted the US and eurozone economies would shrink this quarter by up to 30 percent and the Asian Development Bank warned the global economy could take a $4.1 trillion hit -- equivalent to five percent of worldwide output.

Latin America is heading into a "deep recession" with an expected drop of 1.8 to 4.0 percent in GDP, according to the UN economic commission for the region.

New measures taken

In signs that the world wants to avoid a repeat of the crisis, the African country of Gabon said it was banning the sale and consumption of bats and pangolins, the critically endangered, scaly mammals.

The novel coronavirus is believed to have come from bats, but researchers think it might have spread to humans via another mammal such as pangolins through an unsanitary meat market in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak in China.

The virus has chiefly killed the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions, but recent deaths among teenagers and babies have highlighted the dangers for people of all ages.

In Spain, 34-year-old Vanesa Muro gave birth with COVID-19 and has been warned not to touch her newborn without wearing gloves and masks.

"It's hard," she told AFP. "He grabs your finger, the poor little thing, and holds onto the plastic, not on to you."

Agence France-Presse

'Superheroes': Coronavirus survivors donate plasma hoping to heal the sick

NEW YORK, United States — As she emerges from quarantine, recovered COVID-19 patient Diana Berrent is eager to join the battle against the pandemic and donate precious antibodies that researchers hope might help others.

In mid-March, the New Yorker woke up with a 102-degree (39 Celsius) fever and intense chest heaviness, becoming one of the first from her Long Island neighborhood to test positive for coronavirus.

This week, Berrent was the first survivor in her state screened for antibodies — immune system-generated proteins that can ward off viruses -—to contribute to initial tests seeking treatment for the infection that's left more than 51,000 people dead worldwide.

Convalescent plasma, the fluid in blood teeming with antibodies post-illness, has proven effective in small studies to treat infectious diseases including Ebola and SARS.

Now, the US Food and Drug Administration has greenlit physicians to experiment with the strategy as coronavirus patients fill hospitals and the nation's positive caseload spikes to over 236,000.

Bruce Sachias, chief medical officer of the New York Blood Center — which will collect, test and distribute donations in the city — said while there is reason to believe plasma transfusions can help alleviate the current crisis, tests underway are not intended to yield golden-ticket solutions.

"It's really important for us to be very cognizant of the fact that we're still in very new territory," he said.

Crisis mode

Eldad Hod and Steven Spitalnik — transfusion medicine doctors leading trials at Columbia University's Irving Medical Center — are cautiously optimistic but, like Sachias, emphasize the unknowns.

Spitalnik told AFP they believe "within seven to 14 days after the onset of an infection, that people will develop an immune response and eventually make high amounts of antibodies -- although exactly when the peak of antibody production will be, we don't know."

He said some data suggests antibody production could peak around 28 days post-infection, and hopes the new research could provide a clearer picture.

Hod said each donation "can potentially save three to four lives."

The primary goal now is acquiring a significant plasma stock, so researchers can conduct formal studies with control groups who would receive non-convalescent plasma, and others the antibody-packed donations.

Initial plasma, however, will be distributed for "compassionate use," Hod said — to patients outside studies but for whom other strategies have failed.

They also aim to test treatments on already-hospitalized patients and as a preventative therapy in settings like nursing homes.

Spitalnik said that normally they would want "highly controlled" clinical trials, which take longer but are more definitive.

But "this is a crisis," he said.

"We understand and we are amenable to doing things that will take shorter amounts of time — but hopefully we'll yield at least some rigorous results."

Internal hazmat suit

Berrent is eager to open her personal blood bank and crossing her fingers in hope the process can prove life-saving.

"We can be superheroes," the 45-year-old photographer told AFP.

"These are unprecedented, frightening times where everything is beyond our control — except for we as survivors can help," Berrent said.

"We can be the ones running towards the fire in our own internally built hazmat suit. And that is a tremendous opportunity — how could you not take advantage of that?"

Berrent's antibody levels met donation requirements — but she is waiting on results of a nasal swab test to make sure any remnants of coronavirus have dissipated.

In the meantime, she's started the more than 17,000-member Facebook group "Survivor Corps" to mobilize other survivors to share their immunity.

"I can't wait to donate," Berrent said. "We need a forward-looking solution-based approach that offers hope because things are very, very bleak right now."

'Science will win'

A Houston hospital has already transfused plasma from a recovered patient into someone critically ill, though it's still too early to determine efficacy.

Sachias said hundreds of people who believe they have recovered from COVID-19 have applied to help in New York, the US epicenter of the highly contagious virus that accounts for nearly half of related deaths stateside.

As their research gets underway, Hod said one silver lining of coronavirus' global scale has been the boost to collaborative scientific efforts, saying data is being shared more openly than ever before.

"I think a lot of the scientific community has tried to put their egos aside... and banded together to try and work together for the common good," he said.

"And I think in the end, science will win."

Agence France-Presse

Now Trump says it's wrong to compare coronavirus to regular flu

WASHINGTON, United States — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the risk from coronavirus is emphatically worse than regular flu, reversing his previous statements.

Trump told a White House press conference that "a lot of people" had previously suggested the country should simply let the coronavirus take its course, just like the seasonal flu.

"Ride it out, don't do anything, just ride it out and think of it as the flu," they said, according to Trump, who said: "But it's not the flu. It is vicious."

Trump's clear statement contrasted with numerous recent times when he made the argument himself that the pandemic was comparable to the annual spread of flu.

He appeared to favor this thinking while questioning the need to shut down the US economy through social distancing measures and travel bans.

On March 9, for example, Trump noted that tens of thousands of Americans die from the flu annually.

"Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on," he tweeted. "At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!"

Just a week ago, Trump told Fox News in an interview that despite deaths of about 36,000 people a year on average from flu, "we've never closed down the country for the flu."

"So you say to yourself, 'What is this all about?'"

Projections that at least 100,000 people will have been killed by the coronavirus in the United States, even if social distancing measures are carried out, appear to have prompted a major shift in Trump's outlook.

On Tuesday, he said that with no social distancing, the projections ran as high as 2.2 million deaths.

"If we did nothing, if we just carried on with our life," he said, "you would have seen people dying on airplanes, you would have seen people dying in hotel lobbies. You would have seen death all over."

Agence France-Presse