Spanish-language twitter feeds have been reporting that Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for coronavirus, Tom Phillips reports from Rio de Janeiro.
It comes after Bolsonaro’s press secretary was found to have the disease following a trip to the US, but the reports are being denied as fake news and none of Brazil’s main media sites have confirmed them.
Bolsonaro has taken a test, however, according to local media, and results will be ready on Friday. His son Eduardo Bolsonaro, a congressman who was also on the trip, tweeted that his father “is not exhibiting any signs of the disease.”
On Thursday the Brazilian government confirmed media reports that Bolsonaro’s press secretary Fabio Wajngarten tested positive following the US trip he was also on, along with ministers, congressmen and First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro, as well as Eduardo Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro dined with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night and videos and photos, including some on Wajngarten’s own Instagram account, showed the press secretary, Bolsonaro and Trump all in close proximity. “I’m not concerned,” Trump told reporters on Thursday.
The Intercept has reported that aside from Wajngarten, three other members of the delegation have also reported feeling flu-like symptoms and been tested, quoting an anonymous source. It did not name the three others.
Meanwhile conservative Brazilians planning pro-Bolsonaro demonstrations across Brazil that are attacking Congress on Sunday have begun sharing images of people wearing masks – but are insisting the protests, which Bolsonaro himself endorsed, will go ahead. Bolsonaro has cancelled an interview for the launch of CNN Brasil due to air the same day, the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper site reported.
Australian home affairs minister Peter Dutton has confirmed via Twitter that he has coronavirus.
“This morning I woke up with a temperature and sore throat. I immediately contacted the Queensland Department of Health and was subsequently tested for Covid-19. I was advised by Queensland Health this afternoon that the test had returned positive,” he wrote.
Dutton has been admitted to hospital, per Queensland health’s general advice.
Peter Dutton
(@PeterDutton_MP)
Earlier today, Dutton did not attend his usual Today Show interview. Host Allison Langdon said it was “a stomach bug”.
As stated in his release today, Dutton said he woke up with the symptoms this morning and got the test back this afternoon.
Amy Remeikis
(@AmyRemeikis)I should add the Peter Dutton had just returned from the States. Uncertain what other ministers have had prolonged contact with him. But he sits on the National Security Committee which has met regularly. Includes the PM, treasurer and AG https://t.co/HFYpdSG9M1
Updated
Universities and colleges across the US are halting teaching, moving lessons online, and even asking students to move out of campus accommodation in an attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Dozens of institutions – including UCLA, NYU, Yale and Princeton – are cancelling in-person lessons in favour of online teaching. Harvard and Amherst have gone as far as to ask their students to move out, disrupting the lives of thousands of students in the process.
First Covid-19 case happened in November, China govt records show
The first case of someone suffering from Covid-19 can be traced back to 17 November, according to media reports on unpublished Chinese government data.
The report, in the South China Morning Post, said Chinese authorities had identified at least 266 people who contracted the virus last year and who came under medical surveillance, and the earliest case was 17 November – weeks before authorities announced the emergence of the new virus.
The Chinese government was widely criticised over attempts to cover up the outbreak in the early weeks, including crackdowns on doctors who tried to warn colleagues about a new Sars-like virus which was emerging in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province.
Nepal closes Mount Everest
Nepal has closed all of its Himalayan peaks including Mount Everest this climbing season because of fears of the coronavirus outbreak, a government minister said on Friday, Reuters reports.
Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains including Mount Everest, gets more than four million dollars in permit fees for the world’s highest peak and other mountains every year.
Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai said expeditions to all peaks in the March-May spring season had been suspended.
“Climbing this season has been closed,” Bhattarai told Reuters.
“It is as a precaution for that,” he added, when asked it its was because of the coronavirus.
Nepal has confirmed just one case of the coronavirus – a student studying in China on a trip home – out of 450 people tested.
The suspension of expeditions in Nepal will affect hundreds of foreign climbers now preparing for the spring season, a window of relatively good weather between the end of the bitterly cold winter and the rainy season, which begins in June.
Everest, the world’s highest mountain at 8,850 metres (29,035 feet), is on the border between Nepal and the Chinese region of Tibet. China announced the closure of its side of the mountain on Thursday.
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The coronavirus pandemic is forcing the food service industry to review its policies.
This brushing off of illness is common in many places within the food service and restaurant industry and has been for many years. But with the recent coronavirus outbreak, being sick is no longer something people can shrug off given the illness’ ability to spread rapidly and efficiently.
The culture around sick leave in the food service industry is that it is nearly nonexistent. The CDC says that 15% of food workers have paid sick leave. That means a bulk of people in the industry are part of the 32 million American workers who are without paid sick leave.
Poor sick leave policies are an “industry standard” in food service, particularly fast food, said Judy Conti, government affairs director for the National Employment Law Center. The US does not have a federal sick leave policy, with 12 states and Washington DC having paid sick leave laws.
A nurse on the frontline of Italy’s coronavirus outbreak has described the experience as “war-like”.
Doctors and nurses are working around the clock as the country tries to halt the spread of a virus that has so far claimed over 1000 Italian lives.
Among the dead was a 59-year-old doctor and close friend of Roberta Re, a nurse at Piacenza hospital in Emilia-Romagna, the region with the second highest number of cases.
“It’s an experience I would compare to a world war,” Re told the Guardian. “But it’s a war that isn’t fightable with traditional arms – as we don’t yet know who the enemy is and so it’s difficult to fight. The only weapon we do have to avoid things getting even worse is to stay at home and to respect the rules, to do what they did in China, as this is paying off.”
A second person has tested positive for coronavirus in Turkey, the country’s health ministry has said.
In Vietnam, there is also a risk of British nationals being turned away from, or asked to leave, hotels in Vietnam, the British Embassy in Hanoi said in a statement on Twitter.
UK in Vietnam????
(@UKinVietnam)(1) #TravelAdvice for British Nationals:
There is a high risk for British nationals of being put into 14 days of quarantine, either on arrival or during your trip to Vietnam, regardless of your route. Vietnamese quarantine centres are safe but basic, not guaranteed to… pic.twitter.com/VTfRNp61DD
“You are at risk of being put into quarantine or instructed to self-isolate for 14 days even after you have arrived in Vietnam if you either develop flu-like symptoms, or it is suspected you have been in contact with some who has tested for coronavirus. There are also increased restrictions on British nationals wishing to visit Vietnam.
“From 12 March, Vietnam has suspended its visa waiver programme for British nationals. There are reports that e-visas have also been suspended and the Vietnamese embassy in London will not be processing visa applications until further notice.
“The Vietnamese embassy in London say that it is possible to get a visa, but there is uncertainty around the replacement process and timeline for such applications.”
The statement added that British citizens are “strongly advised” to familiarise themselves with these risks before travelling.
So far, 10 British citizens are among those who have tested positive for the virus.
Key attractions across Hanoi, as well as the ancient town of Hoi An, in central Vietnam, have closed, while several areas in Quang Ninh province, including Ha Long Bay, a Unesco world heritage site, and Bai Tu Long Bay, have also stopped receiving visitors.
A total of 44 cases have so far been confirmed across the country.
