Bacteria behind rare disease found in US soil and water samples

WASHINGTON, United States - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday issued a health advisory to clinicians after discovering the bacteria behind a rare but serious disease for the first time in the continental United States. 

Burkholderia pseudomallei (B. pseudomallei) was detected in soil and puddle water samples in the Gulf Coast region of southern Mississippi during an investigation of two human melioidosis cases.

The two unrelated people lived in close geographic proximity and became sick with the disease two years apart -- in 2020 and in 2022 -- prompting health authorities to investigate household products and the environment around their homes.

Melioidosis causes nonspecific symptoms such as fever, joint pain, and headaches, but can also cause pneumonia, abscess formation, and blood infections. 

There are about 12 cases in the US per year on average, mostly related to travel to tropical and subtropical regions, where the bacteria is endemic.

A 2021 cluster that included four people across four states was linked to imported contaminated aromatherapy spray.

Most healthy people who come into contact with the bacteria do not develop melioidosis, but the global death rate for those who do is 10-50 percent.

The CDC said people in southern Mississippi who have underlying conditions such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung disease, or excessive alcohol use, should take extra precautions.

These include avoiding contact with soil and muddy water, protecting open wounds with dressing, and wearing waterproof boots and gloves while gardening.

"Given the very small number of cases of melioidosis identified historically in the United States, CDC believes the risk of melioidosis for the general population continues to be very low," the agency said.

Agence France-Presse

Virus curbs tightened over fears of a second wave

PARIS, France — Spain and Germany were among the countries tightening restrictions on Tuesday in a bid to cool coronavirus hotspots that have sparked fears of a second wave.

The World Health Organization warned that the virus did not appear to be affected by seasonality, as the global death toll from the pandemic passed 654,000 Tuesday -- nearly a third of the dead in Europe, according to an AFP tally.

More than 100,000 deaths have been recorded since July 9 and the global toll has doubled in just over two months.

The UN's World Tourism Organization said the sector lost $320 billion in revenue globally during the first five months of 2020, threatening millions of livelihoods.

This is "more than three times the loss during the Global Financial Crisis of 2009", the Madrid-based body said in a statement.

The International Air Transport Association meanwhile warned that global air traffic would not return to levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic until at least 2024.

Spain, one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic, insisted it was still a safe destination for tourists despite tackling 361 active outbreaks and more than 4,000 new cases.

Several countries have nonetheless imposed quarantines on people returning from Spain, including its biggest tourist market, Britain.

The strict lockdown in Spain destroyed more than a million jobs during the second quarter of the year, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported Tuesday -- mainly in tourism.

'Situation worrying' in Iran
Germany, which has registered an average of 557 new cases a day over the past week, also tweaked its mask rules, saying they must be worn outdoors wherever social distancing was not possible.

"We must prevent that the virus once again spreads rapidly and uncontrollably," its disease control agency said Tuesday.

Iran suffered its worst day yet of the pandemic, reporting 235 new deaths on Tuesday, a record toll for a single day in the Middle East's hardest-hit country.

"The situation is worrying," health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said, with Tehran, the most populous province, hitting the highest category on the country's coronavirus risk scale.

Officials have made masks mandatory in enclosed public spaces and allowed Tehran and other hard-hit provinces to reimpose the restrictions progressively lifted since April to reopen Iran's sanctions-hit economy.

Lebanon also raised fears for its crisis-hit health sector after recording 175 cases on Saturday, its highest daily tally.

On Tuesday, it announced a full lockdown over the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha from July 30 until August 3, and limits on bar and restaurant capacity.

Trump retweets 'misinformation'
Twitter removed a video retweeted by President Donald Trump in which doctors made allegedly false claims about the pandemic, saying it was in violation of its "COVID-19 misinformation policy".

Earlier, Facebook had also withdrawn the video, which claimed masks and lockdowns were not necessary to counter the pandemic.

Florida's virus death toll passed 6,000 on Tuesday as the disease claimed another 186 lives.

McDonald's meanwhile blamed coronavirus closures for a 68 percent drop in second-quarter profits to $483.8 million.

The virus continued to hit major sporting events, as Major League Baseball on Tuesday shut down the Miami Marlins for the remainder of the week. Four more members of the virus-stricken franchise had tested positive for COVID-19.

And in American football, the New England Patriots' pre-season preparations were hit after six players opted out of the 2020 campaign over coronavirus fears.

The 2020-21 Belgian football season will begin behind closed doors following new measures announced by the government to stem a flare-up in coronavirus cases, the Pro League announced Tuesday.

Not a seasonal virus: WHO
In China, officials moved to head off the possibility of a second wave after a new cluster in the northwest port city of Dalian spread to other provinces.

Health authorities said the Dalian cluster had now spread to nine cities in five regions across the country, including as far away as the southeast coastal province of Fujian.

Beijing has tightened measures in the affected region, introducing mass testing in Dalian and heightened scrutiny of travellers arriving in the city.

China had largely brought the virus under control since it first emerged in the country late last year, through a series of strict lockdowns and travel restrictions.

Greece said it would reopen six of its ports, including Piraeus in Athens, to cruise ships at the weekend. But responding to a recent rise in infections, it made masks compulsory again in shops and public services.

"Season does not seem to be affecting the transmission of this virus," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters.

It is summer in the United States, which with nearly 148,000 deaths and close to 4.3 million cases is the hardest-hit country.

It is winter in the second most affected country Brazil, which has recorded more than 87,000 deaths.

"What we all need to get our heads around is this is a new virus... and even though it is a respiratory virus and even though respiratory viruses in the past did tend to do these different seasonal waves, this one is behaving differently," Harris said. — Barney Spender with AFP bureaus

Agence France-Presse

US company trials coronavirus vaccine candidate in Australia

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A U.S. biotechnology company began injecting a coronavirus vaccine candidate into people in Australia on Tuesday with hopes of releasing a proven vaccine this year.

Novavax will inject 131 volunteers in the first phase of the trial testing the safety of the vaccine and looking for signs of its effectiveness, the company’s research chief Dr. Gregory Glenn said.

About a dozen experimental vaccines against the coronavirus are in early stages of testing or poised to start, mostly in China, the U.S. and Europe. It’s not clear that any will prove safe and effective. But many work in different ways, and are made with different technologies, increasing the odds that at least one approach might succeed.

“We are in parallel making doses, making vaccine in anticipation that we’ll be able to show it’s working and be able to start deploying it by the end of this year,” Glenn told a virtual news conference in Melbourne from Novavax’ headquarters in Maryland.

Animal testing suggested the vaccine is effective in low doses. Novavax could manufacture at least 100 million doses this year and 1.5 billion in 2021, he said.

Manufacture of the vaccine, named NVX-CoV2373, was being scaled up with $388 million invested by Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations since March, Glenn said.

The results of the first phase of clinical trials in Melbourne and Brisbane are expected to be known in July, Novavax said. Thousands of candidates in several countries would then become involved in a second phase.

The trial began with six volunteers being injected with the potential vaccine in Melbourne on Tuesday, said Paul Griffin, infectious disease expert with Australian collaborator Nucleus Network.

Most of the experimental vaccines in progress aim to train the immune system to recognize the “spike” protein that studs the coronavirus’ outer surface, priming the body to react if it was exposed to the real virus. Some candidates are made using just the genetic code for that protein, and others use a harmless virus to deliver the protein-producing information. Still other vaccine candidates are more old-fashioned, made with dead, whole virus.

Novavax adds another new kind to that list, what’s called a recombinant vaccine. Novavax used genetic engineering to grow harmless copies of the coronavirus spike protein in giant vats of insect cells in a laboratory. Scientists extracted and purified the protein, and packaged it into virus-sized nanoparticles.

“The way we make a vaccine is we never touch the virus,” Novavax told The Associated Press last month. But ultimately, “it looks just like a virus to the immune system.”

It’s the same process that Novavax used to create a nanoparticle flu vaccine that recently passed late-stage testing.

Associated Press 

Europe steps up reopening, unveils plans for summer travel

Europe moved ahead with its emergence from coronavirus lockdown on Wednesday and laid out plans for summer tourism, but the pandemic gathered pace elsewhere.

Britain followed France, Italy and Spain in easing its lockdown but only in England, where people were given more freedom to leave their homes and return to their jobs if they cannot work remotely.

Austria said its borders with Germany would reopen from mid-June and Berlin said it aimed to end virus checks at its land borders in about a month.

Desperate to save millions of tourism jobs, the European Union set out plans for a phased restart of travel this summer, with EU border controls eventually lifted and measures to minimise the risks of infection, like wearing face masks on shared transport.

"Today's guidance can be the chance of a better season for the many Europeans whose livelihood depends on tourism and, of course, for those who would like to travel this summer," EU Commission executive vice president Margrethe Vestager told reporters.

- Second wave fears -

But with the global death toll from the coronavirus exceeding 292,000, the picture was grim in other parts of the world.

Russia, now the country with the second-highest number of virus cases, recorded more than 10,000 new infections after authorities this week eased restrictions to allow some people back to work.

Brazil registered its highest virus death toll in a single day, with 881 new fatalities bringing the total to 12,400, and the country was emerging as a new global hotspot despite President Jair Bolsonaro dismissing the pandemic as a "little flu".

Fears were growing of a second wave of infections in China, with the northeastern city of Jilin put in partial lockdown and Wuhan, where the virus was first reported last year, planning to test its entire population after clusters of new cases.

- 'Risk of uncontrollable outbreak' -

And the United States, which has confirmed more than 1.36 million cases, saw a sharp rise in fatalities, with 1,894 new deaths reported on Tuesday after daily tolls fell below 1,000.

The country's top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci issued a stark warning about the dangers of resuming normal life too soon, saying a run of 14 days with falling cases was a vital first step.

"If a community or a state or region doesn't go by those guidelines and reopens... the consequences could be really serious," he said Tuesday.


"There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control."

Fauci said the true number killed by the epidemic in the US is likely greater than the official toll of over 82,000 -- the world's highest.

Facing a re-election campaign later this year, President Donald Trump is pressing for rapid steps to get the US economy moving again, despite warnings from health officials.

Washington has increasingly blamed China for the global outbreak and on Wednesday authorities warned healthcare and scientific researchers that Chinese-backed hackers were attempting to steal research and intellectual property related to treatments and vaccines for the coronavirus.

"China's efforts to target these sectors pose a significant threat to our nation's response to COVID-19," a statement from the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said.

- Moves to reboot economies -

Countries around the world are grappling with how to reopen businesses after the pandemic forced half of the planet into some form of lockdown and ground the global economy to a near-halt.


Dire economic data from March and April have pointed to the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s after millions of people were thrown out of work.

Figures from Britain on Wednesday showed its economy shrinking by two percent in January-March, its fastest slump since 2008 and with a far worse contraction to come.

The Bank of England last week warned that the economic paralysis could lead to Britain's worst recession in centuries, with output forecast to crash 14 percent this year.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said shutdowns in the United States would do "lasting damage" but "the economy should substantially recover once the virus is under control".

He said crisis measures, including spending beyond the nearly $3 trillion already approved in the United States, would be crucial to ensuring a strong recovery.

Health experts have warned of the potentially devastating consequences as the virus spreads through the developing world, where healthcare systems are under-funded and isolation regimes are often not possible.

- 'Tough old lady' -

In northern Nigeria, surging death tolls have sparked fears that the virus is spreading, with a team of government investigators saying hundreds of deaths were suspected to be linked to the pandemic.

Making the problem worse, hospitals have shut their doors to the sick out of fears over the virus -- meaning treatment for a raft of ailments has stopped.

Civil servant Binta Mohammed said she had to watch her husband die from "diabetic complications" after he was turned away for treatment.

"The four private hospitals we took him to refused to admit him for fear he had the virus," she said.

But there were stories of hope amid the gloom, including two centenarians who survived the virus.

In Spain, 113-year-old Maria Branyas fought off the illness during weeks of isolation at a retirement home where several other residents died from the disease.

And in Russia, 100-year-old Pelageya Poyarkova was discharged from a Moscow hospital after having recovered.

Russian television showed Poyarkova wearing a face mask and clutching a bouquet of red roses as she exited in a wheelchair, surrounded by doctors and journalists.

"She turned out to be a tough old lady," the hospital's acting director Vsevolod Belousov said.

burs-mm/jv

Agence France-Presse

Seoul closes bars and clubs over fears of second virus wave

SEOUL — South Korea's capital has ordered the closure of all clubs and bars after a burst of new cases sparked fears of a second coronavirus wave.

The nation has been held up as a global model in how to curb the virus, but the order from the Seoul mayor on Saturday followed the new infection cluster in Itaewon, one of the city's busiest nightlife districts.

More than two dozen cases were linked to a 29-year-old man who tested positive after spending time at five clubs and bars in Itaewon last weekend.

Health authorities have warned of a further spike in infections, with around 7,200 people estimated to have visited the five establishments identified.

"Carelessness can lead to an explosion in infections," Seoul mayor Park Won-soon said, adding the order will remain in effect indefinitely.

Park asked those who visited those clubs and bars to come forward voluntarily.

Of the 18 new South Korean cases reported on Saturday, 17 were tied to the Itaewon cluster, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The jump in new infections comes as everyday life in South Korea has slowly started returning to normal, with the government relaxing social distancing rules last Wednesday.

The nation endured one of the worst early outbreaks of the disease outside mainland China, and while it never imposed a compulsory lockdown, strick social distancing had been widely observed since March.

But it appears to have brought its outbreak under control thanks to an extensive "trace, test and treat" programme that has drawn widespread praise.

Facilities like museums and art galleries have returned to business and some professional sports, including baseball and soccer, have started new seasons, while schools are set to reopen starting next week.

South Korea reported 34 new cases on Sunday, taking the total to 10,874, its largest daily increase in a month.

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

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

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

Fauci says coronavirus could claim up to 200,000 US lives

A senior US scientist issued a cautious prediction Sunday that the novel coronavirus could claim as many as 200,000 lives in the United States, as state and local officials described increasingly desperate shortages in hard-pressed hospitals.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who leads research into infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, told CNN that models predicting a million or more US deaths were "not impossible, but very, very unlikely."

He offered a rough estimate of 100,000 to 200,000 deaths and "millions of cases."

But Fauci, a leading member of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force and for many Americans a comforting voice of authority, quickly added, "I don't want to be held to that ... It's such a moving target that you can so easily be wrong and mislead people."

By way of comparison, a US flu epidemic in 2018-19 killed 34,000 people.

COVID-19 has hit the US with explosive force in recent days and weeks, following a path seen earlier in parts of Asia and Europe.

It took a month for the US to move from its first confirmed death, on February 29, to its 1,000th. But in two days this week that number doubled, to nearly 2,200 on Sunday. The case total of 124,763 -- as tallied by Johns Hopkins University -- is the world's highest.

"This is the way pandemics work, and that's why we all are deeply concerned and why we have been raising the alert," Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House task force, said Sunday on NBC.

"No state, no metro area will be spared."

- 'A sharp escalation ahead' -

In the US, the epicenter has been New York City, with 672 deaths so far. Hospital staff have issued desperate pleas for more protective equipment.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that his city's hospitals have enough protective equipment -- but not enough of the life-saving ventilators -- for only another week.

He said he had made a direct request to President Donald Trump and the US military "to find us immediately more military medical personnel and get them here by next Sunday."

De Blasio credited federal officials with being "very responsive," but added, "we're talking about a sharp escalation ahead."

From Washington state, where the disease first struck with force, Governor Jay Inslee described "a desperate need for all kinds of equipment." He said the nation needed to be put on an essentially wartime footing.

Inslee pushed back against the notion, advocated earlier by Trump, that the country could begin returning to work by Easter.

"There are some hard realities we have to understand," he said on CNN. "Unless we continue a very vigorous social distancing program in my state, this will continue to spread like wildfire."

- 'Worse by the minute' -

Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan also described a deteriorating picture, especially in her state's largest city, Detroit.

"We had a thousand new cases yesterday," she said. "We know that number will be even higher today... The dire situation in Detroit is getting worse by the minute."

Whitmer bemoaned a system that has states competing against one another for desperately needed supplies.

"We're bidding against one another, and in some cases the federal government is taking priority," she said.

"It's really, I think, creating a lot more problems for all of us."

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Trump's "continued delay in getting equipment to where it's needed is deadly."

Asked on CNN whether she believed that Trump, by initially downplaying the severity of coronavirus, had cost American lives, she replied bluntly, "Yes, I'm saying that."

Dr. Birx declined to say what her recommendation would be to the president about an eventual easing of work and travel restrictions, but she offered this advice:

"Every metro area should assume that they could have an outbreak equivalent to New York, and do everything right now to prevent it."

Agence France-Presse

Pope holds dramatic solitary service for relief vs COVID

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis stood alone in vast Saint Peter’s Square Friday to bless Catholics around the world suffering under the coronavirus pandemic, urging people to ease their fears through faith.

“Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void that stops everything as it passes by,” he said.

In a historic first, the Argentine performed the rarely recited “Urbi et Orbi” blessing from the steps of the basilica to an empty square, addressing those in lockdown across the globe via television, radio and social media.


“We find ourselves afraid and lost,” he said in a homily ahead of the blessing, as he stood under a canopy protecting him from a downpour.

He described the coronavirus “tempest” which he said had put everybody “in the same boat.”

The hour had come to “reawaken and put into practice that solidarity and hope capable of giving strength, support and meaning to these hours when

everything seems to be floundering,” he said.

‘Did not listen’

The blessing – which translates as “To the City (Rome) and the World” – is usually given on just three occasions: when a pope is elected, and each year

at Christmas and Easter.

The pontiff traditionally speaks out against armed conflicts around the globe before delivering the Urbi et Orbi blessing.

But on Friday, the COVID-19 pandemic which has already killed more than 23,000 people was in his sights – and humanity’s errors and lack of faith

leading up to the crisis.

“We have gone ahead at breakneck speed, feeling powerful and able to do anything. Greedy for profit, we let ourselves get caught up in things, and

lured away by haste,” said Francis in his homily.

“We were not shaken awake by wars or injustice across the world, nor did we listen to the cry of the poor or of our ailing planet. We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick.”

Today was not “the time of your judgement,” the Pope clarified, but rather a time for people to focus on the important, “a time to separate what is necessary from what is not.”

‘Forgotten people’  

The pontiff saluted “ordinary people – often forgotten people“ who are showing courage and selflessness in the current crisis, citing doctors and nurses, supermarket employees, police forces, volunteers, priests and nuns.

And at the end of the service, Francis granted Catholics the chance to have a rare remission for the punishment of sins.

Earlier this month, when the Italian capital was already in lockdown, Francis made a solitary pilgrimage to two of the city’s churches.

At one, he borrowed a crucifix believed to have saved Rome from plague in the 16th century. On Friday, that crucifix was placed in front of Saint Peter’s.

“During the plague in the Middle Ages, the Church was the only visible presence in public, through the processions of priests who were supposed to produce miracles,“ Vatican expert Marco Politi told AFP.

“The pope wants to recapture a part of that scene and of the collective imagination,“ he said.

The head of the world‘s 1.3 billion Catholics is a high-risk subject for

the virus himself. Since coming down with a cold late last month, the 83-year-old has remained largely secluded within the Vatican.

Italian media reported that the pope had tested negative for coronavirus after a prelate who lived at his residence – a guest house in the Vatican was hospitalized on Wednesday with the virus.

“The anti-contagion cordon has been tight around the pope for weeks,“ La Stampa daily wrote.

The Vatican has only officially reported four positive cases of the coronavirus within the tiny city state, without confirming the alleged case in the guest house.

Agence France-Presse

Dasma residents tell Pacquiao: Stay home

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Manny Pacquiao and his family have been told to stay home by his neighbors in an exclusive village in Makati City after a video showing him partying with another lawmaker infected by the coronavirus went viral on social media.

In a letter to the senator, Barangay Dasmariñas homeowners said Pacquiao is effectively a “person under monitoring” after a video of Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III partying at Pacquiao’s house circulated on the internet.

Pimentel, who announced this week he contracted the disease, received public condemnation for breaching quarantine protocol when he accompanied his pregnant wife to a hospital and exposed health workers to the virus. He also went shopping at an S&R store.

Pacquiao earlier said members of PDP-Laban, including their president Pimentel, had a meeting at Pacquiao’s residence in Makati last March 4.

Pimentel said he received his test results on the evening of March 24. He took a swab test last March 20 after having experienced body pains.

“Many of your colleagues in Senate have been identified to be COVID-positive. Therefore, you have to be quarantined at your own house,” Barangay Dasmariñas residents told Pacquiao.

“For your own family and household’s safety, please have yourself self-quarantined, stay home. No one, including any of your household, can come out,” they added. “If you need something, please call the barangay... We can procure things for you and send it to your doorstep.” – philstar.com

Wuhan recovery gives rest of world hope: WHO

GENEVA, Switzerland — The World Health Organization said Friday that the original epicenter in China of the coronavirus outbreak at last reporting no new cases gave hope to the rest of the world battling the pandemic.

The city of Wuhan registered no new cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours—for the first time since reporting its first case in December in an outbreak that has gone on to infect more than 250,000 people around the world and kill more than 11,000 people.

"Yesterday, Wuhan reported no new cases for the first time since the outbreak started," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference in Geneva.

"Wuhan provides hope for the rest of the world that even the most severe situation can be turned around.

"Of course, we must exercise caution; the situation can reverse. But the experience of cities and countries that have pushed back this coronavirus gives hope and courage to the rest of the world."


China as a whole is now reporting only a handful of new infections each day—all of them apparently from overseas visitors—as the crisis has shifted from Asia to Europe, which has now reported more deaths than China.

Tedros said the WHO's greatest worry was the impact that the virus could have if it took hold in countries with weaker health systems or more vulnerable populations.

"That concern has now become very real and urgent," he said, but added that significant sickness and loss of life in such countries was not inevitable.


"Unlike any pandemic in history, we have the power to change the way this goes," he said.

Young 'not invincible' 

Tedros said that although older people had been the hardest hit by the disease, younger people were not spared, saying they made up many of the sufferers needing hospital treatment.

He said solidarity between the generations was one of the keys to defeating the spread of the pandemic.

"Today I have a message for young people: you are not invincible. This virus could put you in hospital for weeks—or even kill you," Tedros warned.

"Even if you don't get sick, the choices you make about where you go could be the difference between life and death for someone else.

"I'm grateful that so many young people are spreading the word and not the virus."

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said that two out of three people in intensive care in badly-hit Italy were aged under 70.

Physical distancing 

The WHO also said it was now using the term "physical distancing" rather than "social distancing" to describe the need to maintain space between people to avoid the virus passing.

Although people may need to go into physical isolation, they did not need to become socially isolated, he said, adding it was important to maintain good mental health during the crisis.

"We can keep connected in many ways without physically being in the same space," said Maria Van Kerkhove, who heads the WHO's emerging diseases unit.

"We want people to still remain connected."

Tedros added: "It's normal to feel stressed, confused and scared during a crisis. Talking to people you know and trust can help."

Whilst advising people to maintain their mental and physical health during the crisis, including exercising and eating a healthy diet to help the immune system, Tedros also had a message for the world's smokers.

"Don't smoke. Smoking can increase your risk of developing severe disease if you become infected with COVID-19," he said.

The WHO also said it was launching a new health alert messaging service on WhatsApp, containing news, information, details on symptoms and how to prevent against catching the virus.

To access it, WhatsApp users need to send the word "hi" to the number 0041 798 931 892.

The service is initially available in English, with other languages to be rolled out next week.

Agence France-Presse

Philippines logs 13 new COVID-19 cases; total now at 230

MANILA, Philippines  — The Philippines detected 13 additional novel coronavirus cases on Friday, raising the total to 230 since the country first confirmed an infection in late January.

A vast majority of COVID-19 infections are in Luzon, prompting President Rodrigo Duterte to place the main island under enhanced community quarantine.

The Department of Health also reported one new fatality, bringing the death toll to 18.

A 65-year-old Filipino male from Quezon City, identified as Patient 124, passed away on Tuesday. He had a travel history to Singapore, which has 345 confirmed cases.

Meanwhile, the number of recoveries in the Philippines still stands at eight.


There are additional 506 patients under investigation for possible COVID-19 infection and 6,321 persons under monitoring.

There are concerns that the number of new coronavirus cases in the Philippines may be bigger due to the country’s very limited testing program. Only 1,269 tests have been conducted since January.

Secretary Francisco Duque III on Friday designated the UP-Philippine General Hospital and the Dr. Jose M. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital as exclusive facilities for patients infected with the new coronavirus.

This, after 11 private hospitals called on the government to centralize efforts into one or two facilities as the escalating health crisis continues to overwhelm healthcare centers.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday warned that millions of people could die from COVID-19 if the virus spreads unchecked as he appealed for a coordinated global response to the pandemic.

The virus has infected nearly 244,517 people across the globe and caused over 10,000 deaths. More than 86,000, meanwhile, have recovered.

philstar.com

With COVID-19 cases rising, Philippines now under state of calamity

MANILA, Philippines  — President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday evening declared a nationwide state of calamity in the Philippines as a result of the worsening spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Invoking Republic Act 10121, the newly issued Proclamation 929 declares a state of calamity for a period of six months unless lifted earlier extended "as circumstances may warrant."

The proclamation enjoins all government agencies to render full assistance in combating the spread of the new pathogen.

The declaration also directs law enforcement agencies including the Armed Forces of the Philippines "to undertake all necessary measures to ensure peace and order."

Section 16 of RA 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 reads:


Section 16. Declaration of State of Calamity. - The National Council shall recommend to the President of the Philippines the declaration of a cluster of barangays, municipalities, cities, provinces, and regions under a state of calamity, and the lifting thereof, based on the criteria set by the National Council. The President's declaration may warrant international humanitarian assistance as deemed necessary.

The declaration and lifting of the state of calamity may also be issued by the local sanggunian, upon the recommendation of the LDRRMC, based on the results of the damage assessment and needs analysis.

Mark Timbal, spokesperson of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, confirmed to Philstar.com that meetings on recommending the state of calamity began on Monday.

"This was formally recommended today," he said.

The proclamation admitted that "the number of confirmed cases continues to rise despite government intervention."

The Department of Health confirmed earlier on Tuesday that there is already a community transmission of the virus. This is declared when a person is diagnosed with the disease despite not having been to a high-risk area and not having been in contact with any other confirmed cases.

There are 187 recorded cases of the virus in the Philippines with four recoveries as of press time.

Last Thursday, the chief executive also hoisted Code Red Sub Level 2 which placed Metro Manila under community quarantine, restricting travel and movement.

philstar.com

Catholic churches across Rome shut due to virus

VATICAN CITY, Holy See — All Catholic churches across Rome have been closed to stem the spread of a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 1,000 people across Italy.

The churches will reopen when a broader Italian government crackdown on public gatherings expires on April 3, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the papal vicar for Rome, said in a statement.

Catholic faithful have been exempted from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass.

The Vatican had spent days resisting having to take the drastic measure of shuttering places of worship in the overwhelmingly Catholic country.

It closed its museums and even the Saint Peter's Basilica — parts of its soaring dome designed by Michelangelo — to tourists as the death toll continued to mount.

All masses, weddings and funerals across the country have also been called off.

But some church buildings in the country will stay open as long as the faithful follow government regulations and remain a metre (three feet) apart while inside.

It was not immediately clear when Rome's churches were last forced to close en masse.

The Nazis and Italian Fascists kept Pope Pius XII confined to the Vatican during World War II.

Some Rome churches kept their doors open during the war.

'Domestic churches'

The closures come with the pope himself suffering from a cold and communicating with the faithful by livestream as a safety precaution.

Pope Francis complained of feeling "caged" while reading his traditional Sunday Angelus Prayer into a camera from a Vatican library instead of his usual window overlooking crowds on Saint Peter's Square.

The 83-year-old was also forced to miss his weekly Wednesday appearance on the square that he often uses to hug and shake hands with the faithful from across the world.

The new regulations cover the Italian capital and not the Vatican City statelet located entirely within Rome.

The Holy See has recorded one COVID-19 infection and is awaiting the results of another person who attended one of its functions at the start of the month.

The cardinal's statement said access to "churches of the Diocese of Rome open to the public — and more generally to religious buildings of any kind open to the public — is forbidden to all the faithful".

The statement added that monasteries would remain open to "communities that habitually use them as residents".

"This provision is for the common good," De Donatis wrote.

The Italian government on Wednesday announced a comprehensive crackdown that closed all stores except for pharmacies and groceries.

De Donatis said he was finally moved to close Rome's churches by "the even more binding restrictions placed on the ordinary movement of people".

Agence France-Presse

Italy limits travel and bans public gatherings across whole country

ROME, Italy — Italy's prime minister told people to "stay at home" as the government limited travel and banned public gatherings across the whole country to combat the threat posed by the new coronavirus.

From Tuesday, the unprecedented quarantine measures will be extended from several large areas of the north to Italy's entire population of more than 60 million, according to a new decree signed on Monday night.

Since the COVID-19 disease first emerged in China late last year, Italy has become Europe's hardest-hit country and has seen a rapid rise in cases to more than 9,000 with 463 deaths reported so far.

The strict new rules, in place until April 3, also cancel sporting events "of all levels and disciplines", stopping play in the top-flight Serie A football league.

Only competitions organised by international bodies will be allowed to go ahead, but without spectators.

Before signing the decree, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in a dramatic evening television address that it could "be summarised as follows: I stay at home".

"Travel must be avoided across the entire peninsula unless it is justified by professional reasons, by cases of need or for health reasons," he told Italians.

The measures extend a quarantine zone that Italy had imposed for its industrial northern heartland around the cities of Milan and Venice on Sunday.


An AFP count showed Italy had recorded more than half of the 862 deaths reported outside China as of Monday night.

'Moment of responsibility'

The national restrictions mean that schools and universities will all immediately close.

However, it was not immediately clear how all these measures would be enforced.

Trains and numerous flights continued to operate into and out of Milan on Monday despite the earlier set of restrictions for its Lombardy region.

The government's first set of restrictions for Italy's north sent the stock market into a tailspin that saw the Milan exchange lose more than 11 percent on the day.

But the expansion of the northern restrictions to the rest of the country just a day later suggests a government struggling to cope with the scale of the medical emergency on its hands.

Italian health officials had warned on Saturday that the northern Lombardy region was starting to run out of hospital beds for its intensive care patients.

The government also began to recall retired doctors as part of an effort to quickly bolster the health service with 20,000 staff.

But the toll has kept growing by the day.

Italy recorded a record 133 deaths on Sunday and immediately announced that it was ordering 22 million surgical masks -- even though doctors question how effective they are in halting the spread of viral infections.

The government's latest set of measures mean that people will need to fill out a standard "self-certification" form justifying their reasons for travel.

These would be submitted to the authorities at train stations and airports as well as major roads running between cities.

The government decree says its forms will work on an honours system and no proof of "need" will be required.

"Everyone must give up something to protect the health of citizens," said Conte.

"Today is our moment of responsibility. We cannot let our guard down."

Agence France-Presse

Virus fears, violence hit International Women's Day rallies

PARIS, France — Tens of thousands took to the streets across the globe to mark International Women's Day on Sunday despite many events in Asia being cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak, and attacks on women at some events in Europe and Asia.

Women were attacked at events in Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan, police fired tear gas at women marching in Turkey and some politicians condemned what they said was police violence at a women's rally in Paris.


Some women who marched in ultra-conservative Pakistan came under attack with stones and sticks, reflecting the movement's challenge in a society where females are still put to death under ancient "honour" codes.

And in Kyrgyzstan, masked men attacked one rally in the capital Bishkek, tearing up placards carried by the participants, police arrested dozens of demonstrators.

A police spokesman said they were detained for their own safety.



In Turkey, Istanbul police fired tear gas to stop hundreds of women marching on the city's central avenue after the authorities banned the march for the second year running.

'Unacceptable violence'

In France, topless Femen activists, wearing protective glasses and masks, gathered at Place de la Concorde in Paris to denounce "the patriarchal pandemic", despite the best efforts of police to control them.

"Who's doing the washing up?" they chanted. "We are making a revolution".


But rights groups and politicians denounced what they said was police violence at a women's march in Paris the night before, after scuffles broke out and police arrested nine people.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, currently seeking re-election, said she was shocked by the "unacceptable and incomprehensible" violence and expressed her solidarity with the demonstrators.

Some women tweeted pictures of marchers left battered and bruised, prompting Europe Ecology-The Greens party secretary Julien Bayou to blast what he termed "absolutely unjustifiable police violence".

In China, the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic, state broadcaster CCTV highlighted the work of female medical workers on the frontlines in the fight against the virus.

Despite growing fears over the worsening epidemic, marches went ahead in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

A women's marathon planned in India was postponed over virus concerns.

In South Korea, where more than 7,000 virus infections make it the hardest-hit country outside China, several events were cancelled.

"Although we can't be physically together, our minds for realising gender equality are stronger than ever," the country's gender equality minister Lee Jung-Ok said in a video message.

'Violence and poverty getting worse'

In Bangkok, protesters called for improved labour protections amid the epidemic that has infected dozens in Thailand, and greater rights under a military-aligned government.

Hundreds of women and men rallied in the Philippine capital Manila, burning a giant effigy of President Rodrigo Duterte -- whom they accuse of misogyny -- to mark the day.

"The violence and poverty among women are getting worse," Joms Salvador of women's group Gabriela told AFP.

Women also turned out in force in Iraq and Lebanon.

There were rallies too in Mexico, which has long battled deep-rooted violence against women. Women marched in the capital Mexico City, but also in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, the scene of a string of murders of women.

Thousands marched in the Spanish capital Madrid, and thousands more in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

In Peru, women demonstrated in the capital Lima calling for legal abortion, better working conditions and an end to violence against women.

In Sudan, women demonstrated outside the justice ministry in the capital Khartoum on Sunday, calling for an end to discriminatory laws.

In Brazil, several women marched against the policies of the country's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.

"The government's policies have consisted of taking away the rights of women workers," 35-year-old Marcela Azevedo, with the group Women in Combat, told AFP.

Agence France-Presse