Mexican Deputy Hugo Lopez-Gatell said on Saturday that decades of poor eating habits in the country have created an epidemic of obesity, diabetes and other related health complications that make its people more vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.
The Mexican health ministry has so far registered a total of 1,890 cases of the novel coronavirus and 79 deaths.
“These people, unfortunately, had chronic diseases or were older,” Lopez-Gatell said during a press conference, adding that the country had one of the world’s highest rates of diabetes and obesity.
“This is the product of many years, at least four decades, of poor nutrition, a diet that has been created by products of low nutritional quality and very high calories, in particular in processed foods,” Lopez-Gatell said.
The World Health Organization has said people with diabetes and its related health complications are among those most vulnerable to severe cases of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly illness caused by the new coronavirus.
Japan is considering increasing the stockpile of Fujifilm Holding Corp’s Avigan anti-flu drug during this fiscal year so it can be used to treat two million people, according to a planning document seen by Reuters.
Local media reported on Sunday that Japan was hoping to triple the production of the drug from current levels, which is enough to treat 700,000 people if used by coronavirus patients.
Avigan, also known as Favipiravir, is manufactured by a subsidiary of Fujifilm, which has a healthcare arm although it is better known for its cameras. The drug was approved for use in Japan in 2014.
Avigan is being tested in China as a treatment for Covid-19.
In the emergency stimulus package expected to be rolled out on Tuesday, the government also planned to prioritise the clinical trial process of the drug so it can be formally approved to be used in treating coronavirus patients.
According to the document, Japan also plans to boost subsidies to domestic companies that supply masks and disinfectants and will secure enough capacity to supply 700 million masks a month.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian and Syrian refugees living in overcrowded and rundown camps in Lebanon are bracing for the novel coronavirus as aid groups mobilise to help, AFP reports.
Lebanon is home to tens of thousands of Palestinians in camps that over the decades have become bustling neighbourhoods, and at least 1.5 million Syrians who have fled the war next door.
So far just one Palestinian, who lives outside a camp, and three Syrians have tested positive for Covid-19 compared to 520 infections and 17 deaths across Lebanon, according to officials.
But Palestinian and Syrian refugees who live in cramped quarters, including tent camps where basic services like water are poor, are particularly vulnerable to the illness.
UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA is looking to set up “isolation centres” inside the camps to quarantine anybody who needs it.
Similar structures are being set up for Syrians living in close quarters in seas of canvas tents in the east of the country, the UN refugee agency UNHCR says.
But deteriorating cases will have to be evacuated to Lebanese intensive care units, where aid workers fear there may not be enough beds.
Two workers at London’s Pentonville prison die from Covid-19
Two staff members at north London’s Pentonville prison have died after suffering Covid-19 symptoms, the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said.
Bovil Peter and Patrick Beckford were both support staff workers at the jail, and were believed to be aged in their 60s.
POA national chairman Mark Fairhurst said: “My thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved with these tragic deaths – two at the same prison is very concerning.”
Fairhurst said he did not know if either of the men had any underlying health conditions.
Mexico seeks to build ventilators as cases rise to 1,890
Mexico’s president said Saturday that his government hopes to build ventilators domestically, as coronavirus cases rose to 1,890 and officials reported 79 deaths so far in the pandemic, Reuters reports.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Mexico also is seeking to buy up to 5,000 ventilators abroad. But, he added, we are testing prototypes to manufacture ventilators in our country, and do it soon.
Mexico also faces a shortage of specialized doctors, and has gone on a recruitment campaign to train and get more qualified people working.
But López Obrador said he would try to avoid government budget deficits in coping with the spread of the coronavirus and in dealing with the economic damage from the pandemic.
British retailer Cath Kidston has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators as part of its attempt to find a buyer, Sky News reported on Saturday.
Photograph: Russell Hart/Alamy Stock Photo
Sky said the move by the lifestyle retailer did not mean it would automatically fall into administration, a form of creditor protection, but it buys the company breathing space as it tries to secure a sale.
Many retailers are battling for survival in Britain after the coronavirus pandemic forced the closure of most stores.
Another cruise ship with coronavirus victims on board, including two fatalities, docked in Florida on Saturday, AP reports.
Princess Cruises spokeswoman Negin Kamali said in an email that the Coral Princess ship was docking in Miami. The ship with 1,020 passengers and 878 crew members had been in limbo for days awaiting permission to dock.
As of Thursday, Kamali said seven passengers and five crew members had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Four passengers were rushed to hospital, AAP reports, including one Australian and three Americans.
Two other passengers died before the ship arrived in Miami on Saturday.
The Coral Princess, with 1020 passengers and 878 crew, is the latest cruise to turn into a nightmare when people began falling ill with coronavirus symptoms and nations refused to let the ship dock.
Anyone in need of hospitalisation would disembark first, the cruise line said, although it wasn’t immediately clear when that would happen. Those who are fit to fly will begin leaving on Sunday, while others who have symptoms of respiratory illness will remain on board until cleared by ship doctors.
Egypt’s Coptic church suspends Easter Holy Week
Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox church has decided to suspend prayers preceding Easter celebrations later this month as part of efforts to stem the spread of coronavirus, AFP reports.
The church, which last month ordered the closure of churches and suspension of services nationwide, said the decision was taken on Thursday during a meeting chaired by Pope Tawadros II.
Holy Week prayers precede Easter Sunday, which this year will be celebrated on April 19 by the Orthodox community, one week later than the Catholic Easter.
Church spokesman Boulos Halim said these were “unprecedented and historic” measures implemented to stem the crisis.
On 21 March, the church ordered the closure of all churches and suspended ritual services, masses and other religious activities for two weeks to combat the spread of the virus.
With Thursday’s decision, these measures will continue until further notice.
It was not yet clear if Pope Tawadros II, who heads the Coptic church, would go ahead with a pared-down midnight mass ahead of Easter.
Coptic Christians are the largest non-Muslim religious minority in the Middle East and account for 10-15 percent of Egypt’s predominantly Sunni Muslim population of 100 million.
Australians warned of dodgy ‘home’ Covid-19 test kits
Australia’s home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, is urging Australians to be wary of imported, dodgy ‘home’ Covid-19 tests kits that could pose a serious risk to public health, AAP reports.
A number of these faulty kits have been intercepted by Australian Border Force officers in recent weeks.
He warned using these kits would undermine the vital, lifesaving work of health professionals.
“Inaccurate results could prevent people from seeking the medical help they need, or alternatively, discourage people who should be self-isolating from doing so,” Mr Dutton said in a statement on Sunday.
He said the Therapeutic Goods Administration has ruled the tests kits as unapproved medical devices.
The ABF intercepted a consignment of 200 units that originated from China and arrived in Perth as air cargo via Singapore on March 16.
Similar detections have now been made in Perth (50 units) on March 23 and Melbourne (39 units) on March 27, both originating in Hong Kong.
Mr Dutton said the only approved tests for Covid-19 in Australia are laboratory based tests or tests that can be used by health professionals at the point of care such as in hospitals or clinics.
Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved a constitutional amendment for a “war budget” to separate coronavirus-related spending from the government’s main budget and shield the economy as the country surpassed 10,000 confirmed cases.
The war budget still needs the Senate’s approval by three-fifths of the votes in two rounds expected to take place next week.
Late on Friday, the lower house approved the main text of the bill with 423 votes in favour and one opposed in a second round of voting after a first score of 505 in favour and two against.
The amendment creates an extraordinary regime to prevent expenses related to a “state of emergency” decree triggered by the pandemic, which is valid until Dec. 31, from being mixed with the federal budget over the same period.
Besides easing fiscal and budgetary constraints to speed up measures tackling the outbreak, the war budget also grants the Brazilian central bank emergency bond-buying powers to stabilize financial markets.
New York not yet at apex, says Cuomo
Coronavirus-related illnesses killed 630 people in the last day in New York state, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday, in the grimmest 24 hours yet for the US state hit hardest by the pandemic, Reuters reports.
The novel coronavirus has now killed 3,565 people in the state and the situation is particularly worrying on Long Island, east of New York City, where the number of cases “is like a fire spreading,” Cuomo told a news conference.
Health experts calculate that New York, home both to bustling Manhattan and hilly farm country stretching to the Canadian border, might be around a week away from the worst point in the health crisis which has killed about 60,000 people worldwide.
“We’re not yet at the apex, we’re getting closer … Our reading of the projections is we’re somewhere in the seven-day range,” Cuomo said.
“It’s only been 30 days since our first case,” he said. “It feels like an entire lifetime.”
The number of crew on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier who have tested positive for the coronavirus has risen 13% in the past 24 hours to 155, the Navy said on Saturday, in the wake of the firing of the carrier’s captain.
The Navy said 44% of the carrier’s nearly 5,000-strong crew had been tested and 1,548 sailors from the crew have moved ashore. None of the infected sailors have been hospitalised, it said in a statement
Captain Brett Crozier was relieved of his command of the Theodore Roosevelt on Thursday after the public leak of a scathing letter in which he called on the Navy for stronger action to halt the spread of the virus aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
