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Coronavirus: Spain becomes third country with more infections than China
A spike in Tokyo’s coronavirus cases following the postponement of the Olympics has raised questions as to whether Japan purposely understated the extent of the outbreak in the hope the Games would run as scheduled.
With the Olympics now off, many are voicing suspicion that the numbers are rising because Japan suddenly has no reason to hide them.
“In order to make an impression that the city was taking control of the coronavirus, Tokyo avoided making strict requests and made the number of patients look smaller,” former Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a tweet.
“The coronavirus has spread while they waited. (For Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike) it was Olympics first, not Tokyo’s residents.”
Experts have found a rise of untraceable cases mushrooming in Tokyo, Osaka and other urban areas — signs of an explosive increase in infections.
The prime minister Shinzo Abe said on Saturday that Japan is now on the brink of a huge jump in cases as it becomes increasingly difficult to trace and keep clusters under control.
“Once infections overshoot, our strategy ... will instantly fall apart,” Mr Abe warned. “Under the current situation, we are just barely holding up.”
He said a state of emergency is not needed just yet, but that Japan could at any time face a situation as bad as in the United States or Europe.
On Saturday, Tokyo reported 63 new cases, another single-day record.
The governor said that infections in Tokyo were on the brink of an explosive increase, and that stronger measures, including a lockdown, could be needed if the spread of the virus doesn’t slow.
The Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato said there is “absolutely no relationship” between the Olympic postponement and the number of confirmed cases.
From February 18th to March 27th, Japan tested about 50,000 people, a daily average of 1,270. South Korea, by contrast, had tested about 250,000 people by mid-March.
I’m aware that some people suspect Japan is hiding the numbers, but I believe that’s not true,” the prime minister said. “If there is a cover-up, it will show up in the number of deaths.”
As of Sunday, Japan had 2,578 confirmed cases, including 712 from a cruise ship, with 64 deaths, according to the health ministry.
United States
Global coronavirus cases climbed above 720,000 and a top scientist suggested US deaths may reach 200,000, while US president Donald Trump abandoned his ambition to return American life to normal by Easter.
Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, said that while the figure was still a “moving target”, there could be between “100,000 and 200,000” deaths.
Late last night, Mr Trump extended federal guidelines on the coronavirus to the end of April, following the warning.
It came after Mr Trump had touted high television ratings the White House coronavirus briefings have attracted. In a series of tweets on Sunday, Mr Trump quoted a New York Times article highlighting the high viewership numbers.
“Because the ‘Ratings’ of my News Conferences etc. are so high… the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY,” he tweeted.
Germany
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Germany has risen to 57,298 and 455 people have died of the disease, statistics from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Monday.
Cases rose by 4,751 compared with the previous day while the death toll climbed by 66, the statistics showed.
The highest number of cases, 13,989, are in the southern state of Bavaria, where the disease first appeared in Germany.
China
Mainland China reported a drop in new coronavirus cases for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday, as Beijing seeks to stamp out the risk of a second wave of infections by shutting its borders to foreign travellers and cutting international flights.
The National Health Commission said in a statement on Monday that 31 new coronavirus cases were recorded on Sunday, including one locally transmitted infection, dropping from 45 cases a day earlier. Four new deaths were reported, taking the cumulative death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in the mainland to 3,304, from 81,470 infections.
The number of new infections has fallen sharply in the mainland from the peak in February.
The government is now exhorting businesses and factories to reopen for business as it rolls out various fiscal and monetary stimulus to drive a recovery from what many now expect to be an outright economic contraction in January-March.
Hubei province, where the coronavirus outbreak first emerged in late 2019, reported no new cases for the sixth consecutive day on Sunday after the province of 60 million people lifted its traffic restrictions and resumed some domestic flights to other parts of China.
The northwestern province of Gansu reported a new case on Sunday of a traveller from Hubei who drove back with a health code declaring the person free of virus, however.
Beijing remains worried about the risk of a second wave of the epidemic triggered by cases involving travellers coming to China who were infected overseas.
Chile the messiness.......
A spike in Tokyo’s coronavirus cases following the postponement of the Olympics has raised questions as to whether Japan purposely understated the extent of the outbreak in the hope the Games would run as scheduled.
With the Olympics now off, many are voicing suspicion that the numbers are rising because Japan suddenly has no reason to hide them.
“In order to make an impression that the city was taking control of the coronavirus, Tokyo avoided making strict requests and made the number of patients look smaller,” former Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a tweet.
“The coronavirus has spread while they waited. (For Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike) it was Olympics first, not Tokyo’s residents.”
Experts have found a rise of untraceable cases mushrooming in Tokyo, Osaka and other urban areas — signs of an explosive increase in infections.
The prime minister Shinzo Abe said on Saturday that Japan is now on the brink of a huge jump in cases as it becomes increasingly difficult to trace and keep clusters under control.
“Once infections overshoot, our strategy ... will instantly fall apart,” Mr Abe warned. “Under the current situation, we are just barely holding up.”
He said a state of emergency is not needed just yet, but that Japan could at any time face a situation as bad as in the United States or Europe.
On Saturday, Tokyo reported 63 new cases, another single-day record.
The governor said that infections in Tokyo were on the brink of an explosive increase, and that stronger measures, including a lockdown, could be needed if the spread of the virus doesn’t slow.
The Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato said there is “absolutely no relationship” between the Olympic postponement and the number of confirmed cases.
From February 18th to March 27th, Japan tested about 50,000 people, a daily average of 1,270. South Korea, by contrast, had tested about 250,000 people by mid-March.
I’m aware that some people suspect Japan is hiding the numbers, but I believe that’s not true,” the prime minister said. “If there is a cover-up, it will show up in the number of deaths.”
As of Sunday, Japan had 2,578 confirmed cases, including 712 from a cruise ship, with 64 deaths, according to the health ministry.
United States
Global coronavirus cases climbed above 720,000 and a top scientist suggested US deaths may reach 200,000, while US president Donald Trump abandoned his ambition to return American life to normal by Easter.
Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, said that while the figure was still a “moving target”, there could be between “100,000 and 200,000” deaths.
Late last night, Mr Trump extended federal guidelines on the coronavirus to the end of April, following the warning.
It came after Mr Trump had touted high television ratings the White House coronavirus briefings have attracted. In a series of tweets on Sunday, Mr Trump quoted a New York Times article highlighting the high viewership numbers.
“Because the ‘Ratings’ of my News Conferences etc. are so high… the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY,” he tweeted.
Germany
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Germany has risen to 57,298 and 455 people have died of the disease, statistics from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Monday.
Cases rose by 4,751 compared with the previous day while the death toll climbed by 66, the statistics showed.
The highest number of cases, 13,989, are in the southern state of Bavaria, where the disease first appeared in Germany.
China
Mainland China reported a drop in new coronavirus cases for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday, as Beijing seeks to stamp out the risk of a second wave of infections by shutting its borders to foreign travellers and cutting international flights.
The National Health Commission said in a statement on Monday that 31 new coronavirus cases were recorded on Sunday, including one locally transmitted infection, dropping from 45 cases a day earlier. Four new deaths were reported, taking the cumulative death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in the mainland to 3,304, from 81,470 infections.
The number of new infections has fallen sharply in the mainland from the peak in February.
The government is now exhorting businesses and factories to reopen for business as it rolls out various fiscal and monetary stimulus to drive a recovery from what many now expect to be an outright economic contraction in January-March.
Hubei province, where the coronavirus outbreak first emerged in late 2019, reported no new cases for the sixth consecutive day on Sunday after the province of 60 million people lifted its traffic restrictions and resumed some domestic flights to other parts of China.
The northwestern province of Gansu reported a new case on Sunday of a traveller from Hubei who drove back with a health code declaring the person free of virus, however.
Beijing remains worried about the risk of a second wave of the epidemic triggered by cases involving travellers coming to China who were infected overseas.
Chile the messiness.......