Keeping you up to date on the latest novel coronavirus
(Covid-19) news from around the world.
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German-funded mobile virus testing labs land in East
Africa
Frankfurt
am Main – Uganda and Rwanda have taken delivery of two mobile diagnostic labs
to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, the first in a network of German-funded
units for East Africa, public investment bank KfW said on Thursday.
While the project to procure the
labs and train staff has been under way since 2018, “they’re arriving at
exactly the right moment to help with fighting” the virus, KfW board
member Joachim Nagel said in a statement.
More of the mobile units “for speedy and modern diagnosis of infectious disease” will arrive
in the six countries of the East African Community (EAC) region in the coming
days, KfW said, for a total of nine in the first phase.
Under contract from the
Development Ministry in Berlin, KfW has pumped 27 million euros into the
project.
Lab staff from EAC countries
Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda have undergone
training at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for tropical medicine in Hamburg and
in Tanzanian city Arusha.
– AFP
Hard-hit Milan buries unclaimed virus dead
Milan
– Authorities in Milan on Thursday began burying dozens of coronavirus victims
whose bodies have not been claimed by relatives in Italy’s hardest-hit region.
With rows of small white crosses
lining bulldozed trenches to receive the dead, Deputy Mayor Roberta Cocco
stressed that the plot of land northwest of Italy’s commercial capital was not
a mass grave.
Nearly 13 000 people have already
died of the virus in Lombardy, whose capital is Milan – over half of Italy’s
total.
“This is not at all a mass
grave, this is an area completely devoted to these people who unfortunately
were dead without any relatives around,” Cocco told journalists as the
first 61 victims were laid to rest at the Musocco cemetery.
“Here
we have 61 people who died during this terrible period, each of them has a
specific name and has a cross just to be sure that they are recognisable,”
said Cocco. “This doesn’t mean that they do not have parents or family,
this simply means that in this specific period after five days of the death we
didn’t receive any communication about what to do with this person.”
– AFP
Virus-stricken cruise ship leaves Australia
Sydney
– A cruise ship linked to hundreds of coronavirus infections and at least 19
deaths in Australia departed on Thursday, leaving behind a criminal
investigation and public outrage over the handling of the stricken vessel.
Crew members waved from the Ruby
Princess as it left Port Kembla, about 80km south of Sydney and where it was
docked for more than two weeks, with a large banner hanging from the stern
thanking locals. It is reportedly bound for Manila in the Philippines.
Police are investigating operator
Carnival Australia over the circumstances that led to nearly 2 700 passengers –
some showing flu-like symptoms – disembarking in mid-March and going home.
“I’ve said from the beginning it is important that we
learn any lessons from this… I think it is important that we don’t prosecute
the evidence ahead of the special commission,” Kerry Chant, chief health
officer for New South Wales state, said on Thursday.
– AFP
Greece extends lockdown to 4 May
Athens
– Greece is extending coronavirus lockdown measures by a week to 4 May, the
government said on Thursday.
The country has managed to keep
fatalities at a low level after registering its first virus death on 12 March,
despite a decade of cuts imposed on its public health system during the
post-2010 debt crisis.
Supermarkets, banks and food
delivery restaurants are among the few businesses still operating, and Greeks
must inform authorities when leaving their homes for necessities, or risk
fines.
“Restrictive measures that
apply until April 27 are extended by a week to May 4,” government spokesperson
Stelios Petsas told reporters.
Prime Minister Kyriakos
Mitsotakis next week will be announcing steps to remove some of the nationwide
lockdown measures imposed on 22 March, Petsas added.
– AFP
Australia PM wants WHO to have ‘weapons inspector’ powers
Australia’s
prime minister called for the World Health Organisation to be given powers
similar to UN-backed weapons inspectors, allowing their experts to enter
virus-stricken countries to help prevent future pandemics.
WHO member countries should be
required to allow independent health inspectors to investigate new virus
outbreaks within their borders as a condition of membership, Scott Morrison
said.
– AFP
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