RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – One-third of humanity is confined to their homes. The Olympic Games have been deferred for the first time in history. Economic activity plummets and governments frantically seek ways to assist their people.
The coronavirus that caused the Covid-19 disease has created a typical science fiction film scenario in the four months since the first cases of a strange pneumonia were detected in December in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Up to date, the Covid-19 has killed over 19,000 people and infected around 430,000 in 175 countries, figures that increase by thousands daily. The focus, originally in the Chinese Hubei province – where Wuhan is located – has shifted to Europe, and the World Health Organization (WHO) believes that in a few weeks it could again shift to America.
“The pandemic is accelerating,” warned the WHO. As it spreads, more countries are taking more or less strict measures to limit the population’s travel or confine them altogether: at least 2.6 billion people are under this type of restriction. Schools remain closed in many countries, from Chile to Japan.
The main positive signal on Wednesday was the lifting of quarantine in the Hubei province, expecting Wuhan to do the same on April 8th. The first trains and buses linking the region with the rest of China started to run after two months of disruption.
The mountains of Wudang, a major tourist destination in the region, have reopened. The risk of an epidemic in Wuhan was reduced from high to medium. No new cases have been reported in the city on Wednesday, although two deaths were recorded. Since the outbreak, 81,000 people have been infected across the country, of whom 3,287 have died.
On the other hand, India, the second-most populous country in the world, awoke on Wednesday with its nearly 1.3 billion inhabitants in “total confinement” for 21 days, amid doubts about whether it will be possible to carry it through.
The aim is to halt the spread of the virus after 482 cases and nine deaths were detected, despite the latest measures taken — close schools, suspend sports events, passenger transportation and close the country to foreigners.
“We estimate that there could be between 20,000 and 50,000 (coronavirus) patients in India in the worst case scenario,” Dr. K. Aggarwal said, a member of the India Medical Association (IMA).
Similar measures have been taken in other countries in Southeast Asia, from Thailand to Malaysia. In Indonesia, where the real number of infections is feared to be much higher than declared after a slow official reaction – 686 cases and 55 deaths – there is concern that an escalation of infections could increase the pressure on a health system more fragile than those in other countries in the region.
The numbers are also rising in South Korea -a hundred new cases- and in Japan, two countries that have managed to keep their curves under control. In Tokyo, the capital’s governor, Yuriko Koike, urged the city’s nearly 14 million inhabitants not to leave their homes in the next few days, after 41 new infections were confirmed in this metropolis.
In Europe, attempts to flatten the curves in different countries are ongoing. In Spain, a further 7,937 cases were detected, reaching 47,610, exceeding the number of deaths in China, with 3,434 deaths. Fernando Simón, director of the Ministry of Health’s Alert and Emergency Coordination Center, stressed that “we are not too far” from the peak.
Italy, the most affected country in Europe and the one recording the highest number of deaths in the world, accounts for 69,176 infections and 6,820 deaths. In the Vatican, Pope Francis led a Lord’s Prayer to which Catholics from all over the world joined in asking for an end to the pandemic.
Germany, for its part, has banned the inflow of almost 300,000 temporary workers, the majority from Romania and Poland, which it employs annually in the agricultural sector. France, which has also ordered its population to remain at home, estimates that the measures will be in place “for about six weeks”.
In the United Kingdom, after a period of hesitation, confinement was also imposed on its 66 million inhabitants. One can only leave home, alone or in pairs, to shop for food, go to work if “strictly necessary” or do some exercise. In the country, Prince Charles, heir to the throne, tested positive for the coronavirus, as confirmed by Buckingham Palace.
Russia has also joined the quarantined countries and its citizens will not work next week, announced its president, Vladimir Putin. Key services will remain open. The coronavirus also forced the Russian leader to defer the popular consultation on constitutional reform for the time being, which could extend his term in power.
The incidence of the virus has prompted Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet to call for the easing or suspension of sanctions on countries that are severely punished and with very poor health systems, such as North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Iran, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic and which has suspended interprovincial transportation in an attempt to contain the pandemic.
In Latin America, where the Spanish case triggered great alarm, Panama decreed a quarantine, Paraguay closed its borders and airports until Sunday, and Uruguay also blocked the inflow of foreigners.
However, Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, continues to downplay the pandemic and claims that the governors who imposed quarantine measures are endangering the economy with a “scorched earth” policy.
In Africa, where the spread of the pandemic is of major concern, South Africa now counts over 700 cases. Libya and Mali confirmed their first infections on Wednesday, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which said goodbye to Ebola with songs and dances, declared a state of emergency and confined Kinshasa, its capital.
In Washington, the International Monetary Fund warned that the spread of the coronavirus in the sub-Saharan region will be a hard blow for these countries, causing a reduction in trade, a drop in the prices of raw materials and direct impacts on the livelihood of its inhabitants, among other issues.
Despite widespread caution, the United States, which already records over 85,000 infections and threatens to become one of the world’s hot spots for the disease, is considering easing its isolation measures in mid-April.
“Our country was not made to close. You can destroy a country that way by closing it,” US President Donald Trump said in a statement to Fox News. However, Dr. Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease expert and White House advisor, called for “great flexibility” regarding the date.
Source: El País