Our weekly update of the Corona news worldwide 18 – 24 May 2020

Africa:

  1. Health workers in Tanzania think that the government is underestimating the true magnitude of the coronavirus outbreak in the country. The government refers to the deadly outbreak as “a security issue, not a public health issue”. – The New Humanitarian
  2. While the World Health Organization predicted that coronavirus would spread slowly throughout Africa, country responses differ, and hotspots are beginning to emerge. Mysterious surges of illnesses and deaths in Kano, Nigeria lead experts to believe that Kano is a new hotspot, even though official counts of coronavirus are low. – The New York Times

 

United States:

  1. With over 1.5 million COVID-19 cases, the US began easing restrictions to start focusing on building up the economy despite having the most cases and deaths due to coronavirus. Harvard Global Health Institute director Ashish Jha noted the US is only conducting about a third of the 900,000 tests it would need daily to reopen safely. However, all 50 states are open to some degree. – BBC, The New York Times

 

Latin America:

  1. With over 241,000 coronavirus cases, Brazil might be a new epicentre for the virus. The number of cases continue to rise exponentially and testing is still limited; yet, the country is still not at its peak. Estimates show that the actual number of cases are 15 times higher. – TIME, Deutsche Well
  2. Public hospitals in Brazil’s capital, São Paulo, have reached 90% of capacity and could possibly run out of room in the next two weeks. – BBC
  3. Quarantine centres across El Salvador have become hotspots for coronavirus transmission. These “contaminant centres” where thousands of Salvadorans have been detained for more than a month at a time without judicial review, have mixed the sick with the healthy, leading to controversy. – AP

 

Europe:

  1. A number of countries began easing restrictions, including Italy and Spain. Most businesses, like bars and hair salons, restarted work in Italy. Most of Spain has entered phase 1 of a 4-phase reopening strategy, allowing some businesses to open and have people at half capacity. Belgium and Greece have begun reopening secondary schools. – BBC
  2. Sweden, which took a more lax restriction approach in response to coronavirus, now has the world’s highest per capita death rate from COVID-19: an average of 6.25 deaths per million inhabitants (daily rolling average from May 12-19). The country’s death rate is higher than other European hotspots like Spain, Italy, and the UK for the first time. – Reuters, Our World in Data

 

Middle East:

  1. After reopening the country late last month, coronavirus cases have been rising in Iran. Health experts warned country officials that this could happen due to early reopening. – The New York Times
  2. According to a recent study, scientists have isolated a special antibody from llamas that could prevent or treat COVID-19 and be delivered via an inhaler. – Cell

 

Research & Technology:

  1. According to a study of patients in a hospital near Wuhan, COVID-19 patients shed the virus for a median period of 17 days. Longer periods of viral shedding in patients were linked to fever at hospital admission, longer time from symptom onset to admission, and lengthier hospital stays. – CIDRAP