Tag: disease

‘Risk of Failure Real’: Italy’s PM Giuseppe Conte Warns Coronavirus Could Bring About EU’s Downfall

Sputnik News – April 9, 2020

As Europe has become the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic, with almost 700,000 confirmed cases, and Italy particularly hard-hit, the pandemic has become a stress-test for EU unity, as stark differences have thwarted an agreement on more support for coronavirus-hit economies, with talks suspended.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has warned that the European Union risks failing amid the coronavirus global pandemic, reported the BBC.

According to Conte, the EU must “rise to the challenge” of what he referred to as “the biggest test since the Second World War” and take concerted efforts to extend much-needed aid to the countries that were worst hit by the spread of the COVID-19 respiratory virus.

The Italian Prime Minister insisted that Europe’s leaders were “facing an appointment with history”.

“If we do not seize the opportunity to put new life into the European project, the risk of failure is real,” said Conte.

As the infection rate in Italy shows signs of decelerating, and the death toll gradually starting to diminish, Giuseppe Conte warned viewers  against lowering their guard and emphasised that the national lockdown could only be eased slowly.

https://sputniknews.com

Boris Johnson leaves intensive care, remains under observation

REUTERS – April 9, 2020

Prime Minister Boris Johnson left intensive care on Thursday evening as he continues to recover from COVID-19, but he remains under close observation in hospital, his office said on Thursday.

Johnson, 55, was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital on Sunday evening with a persistent high temperature and cough, and was rushed to intensive care on Monday where he spent three nights receiving treatment.

“The prime minister has been moved this evening from intensive care back to the ward, where he will receive close monitoring during the early phase of his recovery,” a spokesman from his office said in an emailed statement.

“He is in extremely good spirits.”

Johnson was the first world leader to be hospitalized with the coronavirus, forcing him to hand control of the world’s fifth-largest economy to foreign minister Dominic Raab just as Britain’s outbreak approaches its most deadly peak.

Raab tweeted that the improvement in Johnson’s condition was “the news we all wanted to hear.” U.S. President Donald Trump described it as “great news.”

https://www.jpost.com

Covid-19 cases reach 1 MILLION worldwide, 50,000 dead as pandemic continues to ravage the globe

RT – April 2, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has passed its landmark moment, as over one million people worldwide have tested positive for the disease, according to figures from multiple sources.

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases hit the 1 million mark on Thursday, according to tallies by both the AFP news agency and Johns Hopkins University in the US. Over 51,000 people have died worldwide from the virus.

The novel coronavirus outbreak was first recorded in December 2019, in the city of Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province. The number of infected people in Wuhan skyrocketed, prompting a lockdown by the government. The virus then quickly spread abroad, hitting nearly every country.

On March 11, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic. Two weeks later, the US became the most-affected nation, surpassing China. In Europe, Italy, Spain, Germany and France were hit the hardest, with each having more than 40,000 cases.

By April 1, close to half the world’s population – most of North America, Europe and India – had been ordered to stay at home, in hopes of slowing or stopping the spread of the contagion.

In many places, the rapidly-spreading virus has overwhelmed local healthcare systems. Doctors have struggled with shortages of hospital space and medical equipment, including testing kits and protective gear.

China said it had turned the tide on the spread of Covid-19 by late March, as the number of new domestic cases decreased significantly, prompting officials to gradually ease travel restrictions in Hubei.

https://www.rt.com

Double Whammy In India: Bird flu Comes Knocking In Times Of Lockdown

Strange Sounds – March 25, 2020

Two localities in Patna have been tested positive for bird flu.

Thousands birds have been culled in Kerala. A patient has also been confirmed positive for swine flu in Bihar. Several died from Monkey fever. What’s more for India?

While 1.3 billion people went under “total lockdown” for 21 days to combat the spread of the contagion in India, several states are reporting avian influenza in parallel.

Samples in Bihar and Kerala have tested positive for H5N1 virus. A patient has also been confirmed positive for swine flu in Bihar.

In Bihar, samples of dead crows were sent to the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) at Bhopal, where the results confirmed the worst fears.

In Kerala, the state government has decided to destroy the disease at the source and mass culling have already started since a week to contain a possible outbreak.

Avian influenza A (H5N1) is contagious among birds and can be fatal. There have been instances of human beings getting infected with the virus:

“In most of the cases, people having direct or close contact with H5N1-infected poultry or H5N1-contaminated surfaces contracted the disease.

“The H5N1 strain of bird flu is regarded as highly pathogenic and can also cause disease and death in humans.

https://strangesounds.org

Locust crisis poses a danger to millions, forecasters warn

LOCUST-SWARM-SKY

Gaurdian – March 20, 2020

The locust crisis that has now reached 10 countries could carry on to endanger millions more people, forecasters have said.

Climate change created unprecedented conditions for the locusts to breed in the usually barren desert of the Arabian gulf, according to experts, and the insects were then able to spread through Yemen, where civil war has devastated the ability to control locust populations.

It was Cyclone Mekunu, which struck in 2018, that allowed several generations of desert locusts the moist sand and vegetation to thrive in the desert between Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Oman known as the Empty Quarter, breeding and forming into crop-devouring swarms, said Keith Cressman, locust forecasting expert for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“That’s fine, that’s quite good in itself, but just about when those conditions are drying out and the breeding is coming to an end, a second cyclone came to the area,” he said.

“That allowed the conditions to continue to be favourable and another generation of breeding, so instead of increasing 400-fold, they increased 8,000-fold.

“Usually a cyclone brings favourable conditions for about six months and then the habitat dries out, and so it’s not favourable for reproduction and they die and migrate.”

The amount of cyclones in the area seem to be increasing, said Cressman, making it likely that locust swarms will also become more common.

The FAO has warned that the food security of 25 million people could be endangered by the locusts, which according to the agency’s locust monitoring service have been spotted in at least 10 countries over recent months. One swarm recently reported in Kenya covered an area the size of Luxembourg.

https://www.theguardian.com

Trump Announces National Emergency, More Tests, More Nimble Pandemic Response

Newsmax – March 13, 2020

President Donald Trump declared a coronavirus national emergency in a speech from the Rose Garden on Friday afternoon, invoking the Stafford Act for disaster relief and emergency assistance. The step will mean billions of dollars in additional federal cash for testing, resources and the shoring up of the flailing national economy.

In no uncertain terms, Trump also addressed the lack of sufficient testing capabilities, an issue that has inflamed critics who’ve deemed the administration’s pandemic response haphazard. He said that going forward, there would be a partnership with the private sector “to vastly increase and accelerate our capacity to test for the coronavirus” — including providing drive-through sites that will be able administer the tests and a way to self-screen online.

Trump assured the nation, “We will get through this together.”

In recent days, the Trump administration has been under intense fire for conflicting messages, a sluggish national response and insufficient testing for the COVID-19 virus, which began in China and has since afflicted tens of thousands of people around the world. (Vice President Mike Pence said the virus has now been detected in 46 states.)

In his speech, Trump touted Americans’ response thus far, compared to that seen in other parts of the world. But then he somberly declared, “I am officially declaring a national emergency,” saying that doing so would open up access to $50 billion.

He also urged every state to set up emergency operations, and hospitals to invoke their emergency preparedness plans.

https://www.newsmax.com

10 Plagues That Are Hitting Our Planet Simultaneously

– February 17, 2020

All of a sudden, really crazy things are starting to happen all over the world.  Giant swarms of locusts are absolutely devastating entire regions, extremely unusual storms are confounding meteorologists, earthquake and volcanic activity are both on the rise, and five very dangerous diseases are sweeping across the globe.  So far in 2020, it has just been one thing after another, and many are speculating about what could be ahead if events continue to escalate.  The other day my wife mentioned that one of her friends suggested that I should put together a list of all the weird stuff that has been taking place, and so that is what I have decided to do.  The following is a list of 10 plagues that are hitting our planet simultaneously…

#1 Armies Of Locusts – As I detailed the other day, swarms of locusts the size of major cities have been devouring entire farms in Africa in as little as 30 seconds.  These swarms have also been spreading throughout the Middle East, and now we have learned that they have even reached China…

#2 Extremely Bizarre Weather Patterns – It is almost as if virtually all of the old rules have suddenly been thrown out the window.  An all-time record 209 mph wind gust just hit Calfiornia, and absolutely crazy storms are happening all over the planet.  For example, just check out what just took place in Australia…

#3 Unprecedented Flooding – We are seeing unusual flooding all over the world right now, and the flooding that is devastating the southern U.S. at this moment is being called “unprecedented”…

#4 Major Earthquakes – Really big earthquakes are happening with such frequency now that it is very difficult for me to write about them all.  For example, a magnitude 7.7 quake recently struck off of the coast of Jamaica, but I have been so busy writing about other disasters that I have not even mentioned it until now…

#5 Unusual Volcanic Eruptions – Seismic activity has been rising all over the globe, and over the past couple of months we have seen volcanoes all over the world pop off like firecrackers.  One of the most notable eruptions that we have seen in recent days was the most powerful eruption of Mount Merapi in 90 years…

http://endoftheamericandream.com

New ‘Puzzling’ Virus of Unknown Origin Discovered in Brazil

Strange Sounds – February 12, 2020

The new unknown virus has been discovered in Lake Pampulha, an artificial lake in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil in January.

Named after the mythological mermaid Yara, the Yaravirus has left scientists baffled because it doesn’t appear to be related to any other viruses in the world.

The new virus contains 74 genes in total, from which only six had already been recorded in literature. In other words, 90 per cent of Yaravirus genes have never been seen before, making it wholly unique.

The discovery comes amid the outbreak of a new killer virus across the world which started in China.

Yaravirus was taken from a single-celled creature called amoeba and scientists already speculate it represents the first isolated case of an unknown group of amoebal virus, describing the Yayavirus as a ‘new lineage of amoebal virus with a puzzling origin and phylogeny.’ in a published paper on the server bioRxiv.

For now, Yaravirus doesn’t appear to pose any threat to humans. It can only transfer between amoeba.

https://strangesounds.org

No peak in sight as China reports 5,000 new coronavirus cases

Reuters – February 14, 2020

BEIJING/SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia, Feb 14 (Reuters) – China’s coronavirus outbreak showed no sign of peaking with health authorities on Friday reporting more than 5,000 new cases, while passengers on a cruise ship blocked from five countries due to virus fears finally disembarked in Cambodia.

Policymakers pledged to do more to stimulate Asian economies hit hard by the virus, helping Asia stock markets edge higher, with Chinese shares headed for their first weekly gain in four.

In its latest update, China’s National Health Commission said it had recorded 121 new deaths and 5,090 new coronavirus cases on the mainland on Feb. 13, taking the accumulated total infected to 63,851 people.

Some 55,748 people are currently undergoing treatment, while 1,380 people have died of the flu-like virus that emerged in Hubei province’s capital, Wuhan, in December. The latest toll takes account of some deaths that had been double counted in Hubei, the health commission said.

The new figures give no indication the outbreak is nearing a peak, said Adam Kamradt-Scott, an infectious diseases expert at the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney.

“Based on the current trend in confirmed cases, this appears to be a clear indication that while the Chinese authorities are doing their best to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the fairly drastic measures they have implemented to date would appear to have been too little, too late,” he said.

https://news.trust.org/item

US coronavirus evacuees headed to Texas, Nebraska, may be on last chartered flights: State Department

Madeline Farber – February 6, 2020

Two flights carrying American evacuees from Wuhan, China — the epicenter of the deadly coronavirus outbreak — that are slated to land sometime Friday in Texas and Nebraska, respectively, are likely to be the last State Department-chartered flights out of the city, an official told Fox News.

“At this time, we do not anticipate staging additional flights beyond those planned to depart February 6,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News, adding any U.S. citizens still in China “should attempt to depart by commercial means.”

The two flights are scheduled to depart from Wuhan on Thursday and are expected to land at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and Eppley Airfield in Omaha. Some 250 passengers are reportedly on the flight to Texas while an estimated 70 passengers are on the one to Nebraska.

The news comes after two planes chartered by the State Department arrived in the U.S. on Wednesday at Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, Calif., with one later traveling onto Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego. An estimated 350 Americans were on the two flights. All passengers are subject to a 14-day quarantine —  they remain in temporary housing units where they will be monitored by medical teams with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for possible symptoms of the coronavirus.

At least four evacuees — three adults and one child — who are being temporarily housed at Travis Air Force Base in San Diego were transported to area hospitals after showing signs of coronavirus, which have been reported to include fever, shortness of breath and a cough. In an update on Thursday, officials from U.C. San Diego Health and Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego said all four patients are stable, and that test results were expected as early as Saturday.

https://www.foxnews.com