© Bundesregierung/Steffen Kugler/HandoutChancellor Angela Merkel addressing the nation on coronavirus disease (COVID-19) measures in Berlin, Germany, March 18, 2020.
"This is serious, and you need to take it seriously," she said, addressing the nation on Wednesday evening. "There has been no such challenge to our country since German reunification - no, since World War II - that relies so much on our joint action in solidarity."
The fact that it was Merkel's first-ever such speech in her 15 years in power - aside from the traditional holiday addresses at New Year - underscored the gravity of the situation.
Even some of her fans found the invocation of WWII hyperbolic and over the top, while praising her "calm and practical" handling of the crisis.
Others were outraged that she did not mention "Europe" even once, calling it a shocking failure of European solidarity.
Merkel may have deliberately mentioned "the war" in order to avoid being accused of authoritarianism, a perpetual concern in modern German politics. Instead, she argued that giving up "hard-fought rights" like freedom of movement and travel was difficult, but only temporary and "necessary right now to save lives."
Germany's public health authority, the Robert Koch Institute, has estimated that there could be up to 10 million infections within three months if the people refused to follow "social distancing" recommendations.
"We are at the beginning of an epidemic that will be on the move in our country for many weeks and months," institute president Lothar Wieler said at a press conference on Wednesday, describing the growth of the infection as "exponential" and adding that the effectiveness of current measures will only become clear in two weeks.
Merkel has not imposed the same kind of lockdown on Germany as Italy and Spain have, the European countries hardest-hit by the coronavirus.
As of Wednesday evening, Germany had recorded 11,979 confirmed cases of Covid-19, of which 28 have resulted in deaths. Schools, bars, clubs and gyms have been closed, but the population has not been ordered to shelter at home.
Coronavirus death toll in Italy jumps by 475, highest daily rise on record
© Reuters / Flavio Lo ScalzoFuneral agency workers transport a coffin of a coronavirus victim to a cemetery in Bergamo, Italy March 16, 2020
The global pandemic has hit Italy harder than any other European country. The latest round of deaths come as the total number of cases in the Mediterranean nation rose above 35,500 on Wednesday, according to the Italian Civil Protection Agency.
Comment: Evidently there's a serious problem of claiming these deaths are coronavirus related when 99% of those who died had other illnesses.
While a nationwide quarantine has been put in place - enforced by police and soldiers, the death toll from the Covid-19 coronavirus has continued to rise unabated in Italy. Hospitals in the country have been overwhelmed, with the number of patients requiring intensive care beds exceeding the system's capacity over the weekend.
Israel closes borders to all non-resident foreigners as cases spike 40 percent in one day
© Reuters / Corinna KernAn empty beach in Tel Aviv
Israel announced the blanket ban on foreign nationals on Wednesday, with an exception for non-citizen residents. The country now has 427 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to medical authorities.
With mass testing about to be rolled out, case numbers will likely rocket up further, Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov told Israeli Army Radio, warning "we will reach a situation in which there are many hundreds of new patients every day, and possibly more." PM Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to conduct at least 3,000 coronavirus tests per day, calling on Israelis to play their part by staying home - and submitting to unprecedented levels of cyber-monitoring using technology supposedly developed to fight terrorism.
The Palestinian Authority is also tightening movement controls in the West Bank, which has 44 confirmed coronavirus cases. No further movement into or out of Bethlehem will be permitted, and residents of the city and two nearby towns have been ordered to remain indoors, aside from medical personnel, PM Mohammad Shtayyeh announced on Wednesday. Palestinians working in Israeli West Bank settlements are no longer permitted to do so.
No cases have been detected in Gaza, and no deaths have been recorded from Covid-19 in either Israel or Palestine.
Israel is not just cracking down on movement into and out of the country. Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion told the Jerusalem Post that a total lockdown will likely be announced within the next two days, but admitted he didn't fully understand what that would entail, pointing out that it was all but impossible to "close the city completely so that no one leaves and no one comes."
The city has sealed off all Palestinian crossings, and demolitions of Palestinian homes have reportedly not slowed, despite the coronavirus pandemic. At least nine Palestinians were arrested in dawn raids on Wednesday in Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Qalqilya, according to local media.
'Very poorly equipped': UK facing dire scarcity of ventilators as Covid-19 cases increase, says largest manufacturer
© Reuters / Arnd WiegmannA Hamilton employee testing the company's ventilators
"England is very poorly equipped... They're going to have a massive shortage, once the virus really arrives there."
Comment: Lest we forget that this CEO profits from the coronavirus hysteria.
Hamilton claims to be the world's largest manufacturer of the devices, which are needed to help severe coronavirus cases and other patients with respiratory difficulties to breathe. However, even after kicking up production by 30 to 40 percent in an effort to keep up with the raging pandemic, the company can still only produce about 80 ventilators every day. The machines sell for about £15,400 (€16,383), according to the Financial Times.
Weiland said that while he had been in "close contact" with UK medical authorities, the much worse situation in Italy was currently eating up his resources. Nearly 3,000 people have died of coronavirus in the country as of Wednesday, and more than 35,000 have been diagnosed with the disease. He warned that a similar-scale outbreak would utterly overwhelm the British system.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock urged British manufacturers to consider repurposing their factories toward making more ventilators, noting that the country had a mere 5,000 but needed "many times" that. To free up resources, he said the NHS would be postponing non-urgent surgeries, drafting recently-retired doctors, and sending doctors working in non-hospital roles back to serving patients. However, critics of the plan, including Doctors' Association UK chair Dr. Rinesh Parmar, pointed out that the NHS has nearly 43,000 nurse and 10,000 doctor vacancies. "It's pointless acquiring new ventilators without enough highly-trained staff to operate them," Parmar told the Guardian.
Successive governments have chipped away at the UK's state-run NHS system, leaving it dangerously underfunded in what some high-ranking members of the British Medical Association have claimed in recent years is a deliberate effort to force it to fail so that it can be profitably privatized.
Until (and unless) that happens, however, the US remains the sole major Western country that does not provide its citizens free healthcare. The US is also facing massive medical supply shortages, from ventilators to masks to a staggering array of drugs that are made overseas - many in China, where production has not yet recovered from the devastating coronavirus outbreak.
According to the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the US only has about 21 percent of the 960,000 ventilators it will likely need at the peak of a coronavirus outbreak in the country, and while hospitals are scurrying to rent more as manufacturers focus their energies on churning out extra machines, time is running out. Adding to the disaster-in-waiting, like the UK, the US is sorely lacking in qualified respiratory therapists, specialist nurses, and doctors with the proper skills to hook a patient up to a ventilator.
China sending one MILLION masks & gloves to France following shipment to crisis-hit Italy
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed the shipments on Wednesday in an interview with France's BFM TV. The first of two planes has already arrived via Belgium and a second will arrive on Thursday, he said.
China's gesture comes after France sent 17 tonnes of equipment to Beijing when the Covid-19 virus first broke out in Wuhan last December.
France reported 89 new deaths from Covid-19 on Wednesday, updating the total to 264. The number of confirmed cases has also risen to 9,134 - up from 7,730 on Tuesday - health agency director Jerome Salomon said.
Last week, China also shipped a planeload of medical supplies including respirators and masks to Italy, which has suffered more than any other European country so far, and has seen hospitals overloaded with the rapidly increasing numbers of cases.
Along with the 30 tons of equipment, Beijing also sent nine of its medical staff to Italy to help in its battle against the disease. Italian Red Cross head Francesco Rocca said the country was in "desperate need" of the masks and was grateful for the donation in a moment of "great difficulty."
In addition to the government help, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma sent a shipment of surgical masks and Covid-19 test kits to the US, which has its own shortage of kits. Ma said Monday he would also donate masks and test kits to all countries in Africa.
Despite its efforts to step up and aid other hard-hit countries, China has faced a barrage of negative media coverage in the West, with Trump administration officials repeatedly referring to Covid-19 as the "Chinese virus" and the "Wuhan virus" given the fact that it originated there in December.
US embassies and consulates to cancel all routine visa appointments in most countries over coronavirus
A number of US embassies around the world will suspend routine visa services due to coronavirus precautions, the US State Department confirmed on Wednesday. A department spokeswoman declined to give an exact number but said that "most countries" would be affected. Emergency visa services would remain available "as resources allow," while US citizens would continue to receive services, she clarified.
The suspension will affect both immigrant and non-immigrant visa services at embassies in countries with a US State Department travel advisory level of 2, 3, or 4, according to an earlier statement from the US Embassy in South Korea.
As of Wednesday, that includes around 100 countries for which warnings have been issued, according to the US State Department website. In South Korea, which has seen the largest number of infections in Asia outside of China, embassy appointments will be cancelled from Thursday, Reuters said.
The US has banned the entry of foreigners who have traveled through China, Iran and European Union in the preceding two weeks.
Trump signs 'families first' coronavirus act, with additional $1 trillion stimulus in the works
The US Senate has voted 90-8 for the House bill providing for free coronavirus testing, paid emergency leave for those infected, and more funding for social programs. Next up is another bill that would give Americans cash.
Dubbed the "Families First Coronavirus Response Act" by the Democrat-dominated House, the bill sailed through the Senate on Wednesday with 90 votes in favor and only eight opposed. President Donald Trump signed the bill into law just a few hours after it passed through the upper chamber, according to the White House.
In selling the bill to fellow Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) had to deal with pushback from his party over what they said were attempts by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) to ram through a wish list of permanent entitlement expansions in what was supposed to be an emergency bill.
It was unclear which provisions may have been dropped in the final negotiations. Some estimates said the bill could cost up to $350 billion, mainly in paid sick and child care leave mandate for companies already stressed by the economy that has ground to a halt due to the outbreak.
"It is a well-intentioned bipartisan product assembled by House Democrats and President Trump's team that tries to stand up and expand some new relief measures for American workers," McConnell said.
While it has "real shortcomings," he added, "in this case, I do not believe we should let perfection be the enemy of something that will help even a subset of workers."
The bill provides free Covid-19 coronavirus testing for all who need it, as well as paid emergency leave for those who are infected or caring for a family member who is. In addition, it gives additional funding to the federal Medicaid healthcare program, food stamps and unemployment benefits.
It is the second massive spending bill the US Congress has adopted in response to the pandemic, following last week's $8.3 billion appropriation for vaccine research and development.
Senate Republicans are now moving at "warp speed," per McConnell, to draft the third bill - based on a $1 trillion White House proposal that would include up to $500 billion in direct payments to Americans, starting as early as April 6. The rest of the money would go to bail out the airline industry and other "distressed" sectors of the US economy, as well as small businesses forced to shutter by the pandemic.
Quarantines, lockdowns and "social distancing" have put a great strain on Americans, the vast majority of whom live paycheck to paycheck and rely on schools for child care. Work closures also mean layoffs and workers losing their health insurance. The White House has already moved to halt debt payments, evictions and foreclosures in an effort to mitigate the hardship.
There have been 8,403 confirmed Covid-19 infections in the US so far, and the disease has been reported in every state. More are expected as testing expands. As of Wednesday, there have been a total of 133 deaths due to the disease.
Coronavirus strikes US Congress: Florida's Diaz-Balart, Utah's McAdams test positive
© Reuters / Yuri Gripas; Wikipedia / US Department of Labor(L) US Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL); US Rep. Ben McAdams (D-UT).
"My doctor instructed me to get tested for Covid-19 and following his referral, I went to the local testing clinic for a test," McAdams said in a statement on Wednesday evening. "Today I learned that I tested positive."
I [will] continue doing my job from home until I know it is safe to end my self-quarantine.
McAdams said he began feeling ill after returning home from the nation's capital last weekend, developing "mild cold-like symptoms" which worsened into "a fever, a dry cough and labored breathing."
Florida representative Diaz-Balart announced his own diagnosis earlier on Wednesday, stating his symptoms had subsided.
"I want everyone to know that I am feeling much better," he said in a statement, but urged others to take the disease "extremely seriously."
Diaz-Balart added that he entered self-quarantine on Friday out of abundance of caution and stayed in Washington rather than return to South Florida, because that would put his wife at risk due to her pre-existing conditions. He developed symptoms on Saturday, including fever and a headache, and was notified on Wednesday that he was indeed infected by the novel coronavirus.
Several other lawmakers have self-quarantined as a precaution since a Covid-19 carrier was reported to have attended the CPAC conference last month, but so far all of their tests have come back negative.
Signed,
Wall Street and Wal Mart