Sydney Opera House cancels public performances
In Australia, the Sydney Opera House has announced it will cancel all public performances starting today, march 17, until March 29th, after which it “will reevaluate based on the latest health advice and developments in the evolving Covid-19 situation.”
“At this stage, public areas of the site including precinct food and beverage outlets, tours and retail will continue to operate.”
Californians urged to ‘shelter in place’
San Francisco and five other Bay Area counties in California have ordered all residents to shelter-in-place to curb the spread of coronavirus, in a drastic move similar to ones taken in Italy, Spain and China, but the first of its kind in the US.
The order came Monday following a 14% increase in positive coronavirus cases in California, with 335 reported and six deaths. More than a third of all positive cases were in Santa Clara county, the home of Silicon Valley, as well as two deaths. San Francisco has had 40 positive cases.
More than 6.7 million people live in San Francisco and the five counties issuing the order – Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda counties. The order, which goes into effect at midnight Tuesday until 7 April, does not confine residents to their home unless they have permission to leave, as the lockdown orders in Italy and China do, but directs them to stay inside unless absolutely necessary.
A bit more on New Zealand’s massive stimulus package in response to the coronavirus pandemic now. Just to give you an idea of how this compares to packages announced in other wealthy countries around the world, Grant Robertson, the NZ finance minister described it in the below terms.
He said the stimulus package totalling 4% of New Zealand’s GDP was bigger than:
- Australia’s (2.2% of Australia’s GDP)
- Britain’s (0.6% of Britain’s GDP)
- Ireland’s (0.9% of Ireland’s GDP)
- Singapore’s (1.3% of Singapore’s GDP)
New Zealand launches massive spending package
New Zealand’s government has announced a spending package equivalent to 4% of the country’s GDP in an attempt to fight the effects of Covid-19 on the country’s economy, in what ministers called the most significant peace-time economic plan in the country’s modern history.
“This package is one of the largest in the world on a per capita basis,” Grant Robertson, the finance minister, told reporters at New Zealand’s parliament on Tuesday.
Updated
Latest China figures – and what they mean
Mainland China had 21 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Monday, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday, up from 16 a day earlier.
The death toll from the outbreak was up by 13 from the previous day. Hubei province accounted for twelve pf these deaths, with 11 of these in Wuhan, the provincial capital.
The number of imported cases of the virus in mainland China reached 143 as of Monday, up 20 from a day earlier.
The official China Daily said in an editorial on Tuesday that the rest of the world should learn from China and follow the principles of early detection, early quarantine and early treatment in order to halt the global spread of the coronavirus, Reuters reports.
Though the coronavirus was first discovered last year in the city of Wuhan, where officials initially tried to cover up the outbreak, China has sought to emphasise the positive role it has played in controlling the global spread of the disease.
With the number of new domestic cases dwindling, China has now turned its attention to controlling new infections coming into the country from overseas, where the pandemic continues to spread.
China Daily said Singapore, Japan and South Korea had all “based their responses on the experience and lessons drawn from China’s successful battle with the virus,” and China was now “proactively sharing” its best practices.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week that China’s efforts to control the outbreak had given the world “precious time” to formulate their own responses.
China and the United States have been in a war of words about the pandemic, with many senior U.S. government officials, including President Donald Trump, continuing to refer to Covid-19 as the “Chinese virus”.
Donald J. Trump
(@realDonaldTrump)The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!
The Costa Rican president says predictive models on the virus are “not that precise”.
The Costa Rican president Carlos Alvarado has told the Guardian it is “hard to say” whether the coronavirus outbreak in Central America can be controlled and has cautioned that predictive models for the spread of virus are “not that precise”.
On Monday, Costa Rica declared a state of emergency over the global pandemic and announced it would close their borders to foreign nationals that do not reside in the country from the end of Wednesday.
Speaking to the Guardian hours after the announcement, President Alvarado said he expected the economic hit from the virus on the popular ecotourism destination to be temporary. He said:
We are following the situation regionally. I believe it is too soon to assess what the movement of it is going to be. That’s why I believe that all the region has to take extreme measures of social distancing. And yes, we are concerned about what can happen in the weeks to follow but we’re keeping track of how this is developing.”
When asked whether he believes Central America could control the spread of the virus, President Alvarado said:
It’s hard to say. When you look at other countries, many of them have had the exponential peaks and you’ve seen the cases that people are following the most are the ones like South Korea, which they say have been handled in the best manner.
But one of the more complicated things is that it is still not that precise to predict. The models are not that precise to predict [the spread of the virus]. I believe all the countries are hoping for the best but planning for the worst and taking the measures necessary to decrease the effects.”
All Australian cricket cancelled at all levels
All cricket in Australia has been cancelled, including the Sheffield Shield final, with NSW declared champions.
“Cricket Australia has today announced the cancellation of the Marsh Sheffield Shield final and recommended that all cricket played within the community is ceased for the remainder of the 2019-20 season in response to the global coronavirus pandemic,” a statement read.
NSW were awarded the title after leading the Sheffield Shield competition through nine rounds having won six, lost two and drawn one. Their nearest rivals Victoria had posted just three wins.
