Europe is now the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, as more countries declared a national state of emergency over COVID-19.
“More cases are now being reported every day [in Europe] than were being reported by China at the height of its epidemic,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
He said 5,000 people have now died of the virus, calling it “a tragic milestone,” and urged governments to implement social distancing measures to slow the spread.
“Do not let this fire burn,” he said. “Isolate the sick.”
EU divided over border measures
EU President Ursula von der Leyen has condemned some European countries for introducing blanket travel bans and border closures in response to coronavirus, saying: ‘The single market has to function’.
Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are among the nations forbidding entry to anyone arriving from Italy or without a certificate of health.
“It is not good when member states take unilateral action because it always causes a domino effect and that prevents urgently-needed medical equipment from reaching patients and hospitals,” she said.
“It amounts to the reintroduction of internal borders at a time when solidarity between member states is needed.”
She made the comments as she announced new Europe-wide guidelines on health checks at border crossings and the suspension of rules forbidding state aid as part of a €37 billion rescue package to fight the impact of COVID-19.
The pandemic is “a major shock” for Europe’s economy, she said, “but we must work together to ensure it is as short and as limited as possible.”
Von der Leyen said she understood the pressure on countries to protect themselves from the spread of coronavirus.
“Certain controls may be justified but general travel bans are not seen as being the most effective by the WHO,” she said. “Moreover, they have a strong social and economic impact, they disrupt people’s lives and business across the borders concerned. Any measure that is taken must be proportionate.”
She said: “I want to be very clear — the single market has to function.”
Other key coronavirus developments on Friday:
- Spain declares a national state of emergency
- Bulgaria orders the closure of all non-essential businesses
- English Premier League, Champions League, Europa League games suspended
- 208 new cases in UK – biggest single-day rise
- India registers its first coronavirus death amid 73 cases overall
- Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu proposes interim unity government
- Macron orders schools, creches and universities to be closed from Monday
- Vatican orders closure of Catholic churches in Rome
Brussels really struggling with #CoronaVirus
EU telling members borders should remain open, ths single market must function and yet country after country is simply ignoring
For #Brexit tweeters
YES it shows EU can be dis-functional BUT also countries do control own borders
— Darren McCaffrey (@DarrenEuronews) March 13, 2020
South Korea to limit information
South Korea plans to limit the amount of information it releases about coronavirus patients amid criticism that the details currently shared reveal too much personal information and exacerbate panic.
The director of South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jung Eun-kyeong, said Friday her agency is drafting a new guideline for local governments to prevent them from releasing details that are unnecessary for quarantine and prevention work.
She didn’t say what specific recommendations would be included in the guideline.
South Korean health authorities have been actively using personal information — including immigration, public transportation, credit card and smartphone GPS data — to track patients and their contacts.
Details about the places patients visited before testing positive are posted online and shared through smartphone alerts to inform people who may have been in their vicinity.
South Korea’s Human Rights Commission on Monday raised concerns about the release of the data, saying patients were being exposed to “criticism, ridicule and hate.”
Some people have used the information to identify the patients and have publicly condemned them for moving around while sick.
There are concerns that the release of the detailed information is worsening panic and discouraging sick people from coming forward. A recent survey by Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Health found that many people were more afraid of being stigmatised as a virus patient than of catching the virus itself.
Role reversal in China
From quarantining arriving travellers from overseas to nabbing those sneaking in with fevers, China and other parts of Asia are scrambling to prevent the new coronavirus from coming back to where it first broke out.
Just as the spread of the disease is stabilising in much of Asia, following a major outbreak in China and sizable ones in South Korea and Japan, it is popping up in new hot spots around the world.
China reported Friday just eight new cases of the virus in the previous 24 hours, and three were imported from Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom. The number has dropped sharply from a month ago when the daily figure was in the thousands.
Europe gears up for COVID-19
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany will not shut schools but recommended that public events be cancelled to avoid the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, Spain announced a full lockdown of four provinces in the Catalonia region.
Around 66,000 people across four municipalities in northern Spain will be allowed to leave their homes but not beyond the limits of their towns, the government said.
In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged anyone with a cough to stay at home for seven days but ruled out closing schools as “too early” because the UK was “about four weeks behind Italy.”
Although Britain has more than 500 confirmed cases, the true number infected is likely to be between 5,000 and 10,000.
“This is the worst public health crisis for a generation,” Johnson said, adding that “the true number of cases is higher perhaps than the number of cases we have so far confirmed with tests.”
“I must level with you, the British public … more families, many more families, are going to lose loved ones before their time.”
European health systems at ‘high’ risk
The EU warned that healthcare systems across Europe are at “high” risk of being overwhelmed by coronavirus as the death toll in Italy surged past 1,000 and financial markets suffered their worst losses on record.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) urged countries to begin prioritising cases to protect the elderly and vulnerable.
“A rapid shift from containment to a mitigation approach is required” ahead of an expected spike in cases, it said. “The risk of healthcare system capacity being exceeded in the EU/EEA and the UK in the coming weeks is considered high.”
