TOKYO - 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 2 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 prioritize 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.
The Nikkei newspaper reported on Sunday that in efforts to reduce its dependence on China as its manufacturing hub, it will subsidize companies that will move some of their production facilities back to Japan.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday a stimulus package to combat the coronavirus pandemic will target small firms and households hardest hit by social distancing policies that are affecting consumption.
The package will include cash payouts to small firms and households facing sharp falls in income, Abe said.
The government will also urge private financial institutions to join government-affiliated lenders in offering zero-interest rate loans to cash-strapped small and midsized firms, he said.
Philippine Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Sunday there has been an offer for a clinical trial coming from Japan, "whereby this drug will be used and we are going to identify hospitals and patients."
"We had communicated already through our (Department of Foreign Affairs) that we are interested in joining so that we can access this drug," Vergeire told ANC.
-- with ABS-CBN News
-Reuters-
The Japanese government is considering offering the anti-influenza drug Avigan for free to countries looking to use it to treat new coronavirus patients, its top government spokesman said Friday.
"Some 30 countries have made requests through diplomatic channels to Japan for the procurement of Avigan," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference. The drug developed by a group firm of Fujifilm Holdings Corp. is seen as effective in treating the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus.
"We intend to expand clinical research on Avigan with countries wishing to cooperate," Suga said.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a press conference last Saturday that the government will push the development of drugs and vaccines, including Avigan, to fight the pneumonia-causing coronavirus.
Fujifilm Toyama Chemical Co. said Tuesday it has started clinical tests to evaluate the efficacy of the drug, also known as Favipiravir, to COVID-19 patients.
On Thursday, the German health ministry said it will seek to purchase Avigan tablets as a treatment drug for the new coronavirus. Local media said the ministry will buy several million tablets to treat patients with severe symptoms.
A study by researchers at Wuhan University and other institutions in China has shown cases in which Avigan was effective against the coronavirus, especially for the treatment of those with mild symptoms.
Avigan has been manufactured and stocked in Japan as an anti-influenza drug. There is hope it can also help treat other diseases, including Ebola, as well as a tick-borne illness.
Kyodo News
Simon Powell watches fever hotspots in America. Stephen Innes pores over real-time measurements of vehicle traffic -- or the lack of it-- in cities around the globe. And, Mark Galasiewski studies stock performance charts from the time of Sars and the 1968 flu pandemic.
The three financial analysts are tapping diverse and sometimes quite esoteric data to try to predict how the spreading coronavirus pandemic will affect the price of assets -- everything from stocks on Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index to gold and orange juice futures.
Even obesity rates in the US may be worth pondering because they might explain why young people seem to account for a higher portion of infections in America than in China. That, in turn, has implications not only for short-term stock prices but also for the future of the US workforce.
And those orange juice futures? They spiked, signaling a surge in demand for Vitamin C just when supplies were getting harder to transport.
"Economics in the time of Covid-19 is a different beast, with the best data being real time that provides insight into the extent of the slowdown," said Thailand-based Innes, chief global asset strategist at AxiCorp, who finds himself up before dawn to check data from other parts of the world.
"I'm using more real-time data now than I ever have before. I would never ever care about initial (US unemployment) claims, but it is huge now. ... I would never wake up at 2 a.m. (to check it) on such a regular basis," he said.
"One of the more interesting ones is traffic data from TomTom. It shows the speed with which Houston went into a virtual shutdown, which both illustrates the ghost town outlook due to the collapse of the shale industry and mobility restrictions," he explained.
Coronavirus turns stock markets into the wildest ride on the planet " and that's not likely to change soon
Even from a strictly financial perspective, this moment is like being trapped in the early chapters of a Stephen King horror novel, he says. And the saga of this pandemic is unfolding in terrifying twists and turns that are buffeting the portfolios handled by professionals and family investors alike.
Here are five questions investors should be asking.
1. When will markets hit bottom?
Volatility is generally expected to continue in Hong Kong and elsewhere for at least the next few weeks.
Powell, the global head of thematic research at Jefferies, thinks global markets have further to fall.
"What the market is trying to figure out is, 'Are we in for a global recession? Could it actually be a thing that starts with a 'D' -- a depression? And how much stimulus might be needed to dampen the impact on people's lives?
"If the economy grinds to a halt globally, then maybe there could be another leg down in markets ... This shock could be bigger than anything we've seen since WWII in terms of shock to global trade and global demand," Powell said.
Some analysts believe a bottom is likely already behind us " at least in Hong Kong and China, and possibly in the US.
"From now on, the (Hong Kong) market will stabilize a bit, because the wave of panic selling and liquidation is over," said Alex Wong, director of asset management at Ample Capital.
Twice in recent weeks -- on March 19 and March 23 -- the Hang Seng Index closed below 22,000. It won't go lower, Wong predicts, saying it will now trade between 22,000 and 26,000, as traders finish shifting to more promising sectors and gain confidence in making larger bets.
2. Is anywhere a fairly safe place to invest?
Predictably, analysts point in different directions.
In Hong Kong, avoid retail, local property, as well as airlines, restaurants, casinos and anything else connected with tourism, argues Wong of Ample Capital.
Last week saw investors shifting out of those sectors and into social media giant Tencent and other new-economy stocks likely to thrive on lockdowns and work-from-home directives.
Could coronavirus lockdown have big upside for China's new economy stocks as users and smartphones become BFFs?
Yet casino operator Galaxy Entertainment is one of the pummeled stocks liked by Morningstar's Lorraine Tan. She also points to Anta Sports, which like Galaxy is listed in Hong Kong, and US-listed Ctrip.com, a Chinese online travel agency.
"It has been difficult to keep on top of the rapidly shifting environment, but collectively we find more opportunities to buy than sell shares at the current level," said Tan, Morningstar's director of equity research, Asia.
"We think there are a number of names with strong competitive advantage that investors should consider adding to their portfolios as well as heavily sold-down stocks that could see a good post-virus bounce," she added.
China's health care, infrastructure stocks lure global bargain hunters even as coronavirus pandemic roiled equity markets in March
In the US, Wong likes e-commerce giant Amazon, Microsoft, and Netflix.
Internet-based companies are seeing a surge in traffic, Goldman Sachs analysts note.
Those include Tencent Holdings, China Literature, office software maker Kingsoft, all listed in Hong Kong, and Chinese game-streaming platform Huya, and Baozun, which helps foreign brands sell to online Chinese customers, both of which are listed in the US.
3. Is a virus-triggered downturn different from an ordinary financial crisis?
In many ways, yes.
US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell stressed that the US economy, the world's largest, was fundamentally strong before the pandemic and predicted that it will rebound quickly once the virus's spread is controlled. That makes today's situation different from, say, the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, which was caused by underlying financial problems.
But the modern world has never been assaulted by a pandemic of this scale, and its threat to global GDP is undeniably real, as is the danger -- pointed out by US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci -- that this coronavirus come back until there is a vaccine.
"We're dealing with a pandemic economic crisis that, at this stage, is medically unstoppable, which is flat-out scary, which we only thought existed in Stephen King's horror stories," AxiCorp's Innes said.
"We tend to overlook that during the (2008) Lehman(Brothers' bankruptcy) crash, outside the financial sector, life went on. In essence, restaurants took bookings; taxis took rides; shops were still bustling. This time around, the entire world is on the precipice of shutting down. Unemployment will soar," Innes said.
Indeed, US unemployment already has, skyrocketing to an unprecedented 3.3 million claims last week alone -- up from about 200,000 just 3 weeks ago.
Yet Galasiewski, chief equity analyst for Asia and emerging markets at Elliott Wave International, is positively bullish. His study of infectious diseases has lead him to see them as long-term buy signals in the local markets. Sars in 2002, for example, led to a tremendous bull run in Hong Kong. He is now especially bullish on stocks listed in China, where the coronavirus outbreak began.
"A big advance has begun in the main Asia and emerging market indexes. This is not just a rebound. It's the early stages of a secular bull market," he said, referring to a long period of rising stock prices due to policy supports.
4. What data might offer clues for smart asset management?
Analysts are closely watching Italy's new infection totals to see whether its containment efforts are beginning to work. The numbers coming out of Italy will help analysts project the length and depth of the crisis in the world's largest economy, where the pandemic is much newer.
The US Federal Reserve and government have thrown in the "kitchen sink" to try to keep businesses and workers afloat. So analysts are looking for economic indicators that show that the US effort is having the desired effects of increased lending and stable stock markets, for example.
And, of course, analysts are watching for news of promising therapies and a vaccine, generally not expected until next year.
Unusual windows into the virus include TomTom.com, which shows real time traffic around the globe, Kinsa's tracking of fevers in America through smart thermometers (healthweatherus.com), and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention's website, which is tracking infections and deaths, as well as outbreaks of influenza-like illnesses on its FLUVIEW chart.
"I never thought I would be looking at the collective body temperature of people in the US," said Jefferies analyst Powell.
5. What are the 'what ifs' ahead?
What if the pandemic dies away but comes back with equal fury?
What if people who recover remain infectious?
What if the disease causes permanent lung damage to young people? "Could we end up with a generation of people who are disabled and sick as a result of what this virus does?" Jefferies' Powell asks.
What if the pandemic explodes in India, a country with 1.3 billion people, an inadequate health care system and little sanitation for many countless slum dwellers?
India, now under a nationwide lockdown for 21 days, is the world's largest supplier of generic drugs. It has already halted the export of ventilators and an antimalarial drug used with some success against the new coronavirus.
What if a vaccine simply can't be found?
Despite everyone's endless "what ifs" about the future health of the world's people and finances, Powell, an experience yachtsman's who has weathered frightening tempests before remains hopeful.
"I am hugely optimistic that humankind can turn a veritable firehose of intellectual property and money and research and development at this virus to understand it and find a therapy and find a vaccine and get it out. Humankind has defeated many pandemic viruses ...
"But investors do need to be cautious."
Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
MADRID - The death toll from coronavirus in Spain surged over 5,600 on Saturday after a record 832 people died in 24 hours, and the number of infections soared over 72,000, the government said.
Spain has the world's second-highest coronavirus death toll after Italy with 5,690 fatalities. The number of confirmed cases has jumped to 72,248 as the country moves to significantly increase testing.
Although Spain's latest figures showed a daily increase of more than 8,000 cases, the rate of new infections appears to be slowing, with officials saying the epidemic appeared to be nearing its peak.
Madrid remains the worst-hit region, with 2,757 deaths and 21,520 infections, leaving hospitals and mortuaries overwhelmed, and the regional authorities working to open a second temporary morgue in an unused public building near the airport to house the dead.
An initial site was opened last week at the ice skating rink at the Palacio de Hielo (Ice Palace) shopping center.
With undertakers also overwhelmed, the government has authorized the army's involvement in the collection and transport of bodies for the duration of the state of emergency.
The latest figures came as Spain marked two weeks since the imposition of an unprecedented national lockdown which will remain in place until at least April 11.
Earlier on Saturday, Spain received a delivery of 1.2 million masks from China for health workers and those in the transport sector, the government said.
The delivery, which arrived at Madrid's Barajas airport, includes some 387,000 surgical masks for healthcare personnel, 75,000 masks for the security forces and more than 725,000 for those in the transport sector, from bus drivers to port and airport staff as well as those working for the postal service.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
They have been hailed as India's coronavirus "heroes", but doctors, nurses, delivery drivers and other frontline workers have been attacked and in some cases evicted from their homes by panicked residents.
Some e-commerce giants have even halted deliveries partly due to the harassment of staff, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi said abuse of hospital workers had become a "huge issue".
Reports of attacks and abuse have come from across India, increasing with the imposition this week of a 21-day nationwide lockdown. In at least one case, police were accused of beating a delivery driver carrying medicines.
Sanjibani Panigrahi, a doctor in the western city of Surat, described how she was accosted as she returned home from a long day at a hospital that is treating COVID-19 patients.
She said neighbors blocked her at the entrance to her apartment building and threatened "consequences" if she continued to work.
"These are the same people who have happily interacted with me (in the past). Whenever they've faced a problem, I've helped them out," the 36-year-old told AFP.
"There is a sense of fear among people. I do understand. But it's like I suddenly became an untouchable."
This week, doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences appealed to the government for help after health workers were forced out of their homes by panicked landlords and housing societies.
"Many doctors are stranded on the roads with all their luggage, nowhere to go, across the country," the letter said.
Modi called on Indians to stop treating medical workers as pariahs, describing those fighting the virus were "god-like".
"Today they are the people who are saving us from dying, putting their lives in danger."
Fake news and paranoia
Health workers are not the only ones facing the brunt of the frightened population in an environment where misinformation and rumours are thriving.
Airline and airport staff, who are still being called on for evacuations of Indians stuck overseas and management of key cargo deliveries, have also been threatened.
Indigo and Air India have condemned threats made against their staff.
An Air India flight attendant told AFP her neighbors threatened to evict her from her apartment while she was heading to the United States, saying she would "infect everyone".
"I couldn't sleep that night," she said, afraid to reveal her name over fear of further stigmatisation.
"I was scared that even if I did go home, would someone break open the door or call people to kick me out?"
Her husband had to ask the police for help.
Others have not been as lucky, the flight attendant said, with one colleague -- who declined to speak to AFP -- forced out of her home and now living with her parents.
"With all the fake news and WhatsApp forwards, they don't know what is going on, so there's this paranoia that makes them behave like this," she said.
T. Praveen Keerthi, general secretary of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (IPCA), told AFP they had received more than 50 complaints from airline crew.
"Airline staffers are being stopped from entering their own residential premises by security guards," he said.
"We also have families and children that we leave at home to help fellow citizens... The least we expect is for our colleagues to not be harassed and ostracised."
Airport workers involved in moving essential supplies have also faced attacks as have delivery workers transporting medicines and groceries.
E-commerce giant Flipkart temporarily suspended services this week.
The Walmart-owned group said it only resumed home deliveries after police guaranteed "the safe and smooth passage of our supply chain and delivery executives".
source: news.abs-cbn.com
The United States now has more than 100,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University showed Friday.
There have been 100,717 cases including 1,544 deaths as of 6:00 pm Eastern time (2200 GMT).
The biggest cluster by far is in New York, home to almost half the cases, overwhelming the hospital system.
The United States has around 15,000 more confirmed cases than the second country on the list, Italy, and 20,000 more than China, where the disease was first identified but has since peaked.
The US death rate based on confirmed cases is about 1.5 percent, compared to around 10.5 percent in Italy.
This death rate figure could fall, as greater testing reveals more people who are positive but asymptomatic.
It may also rise if more cities and states find themselves in a similar position to New York, which has seen more than 500 deaths and is experiencing a drastic shortage of hospital beds, personal protective equipment and ventilators.
"We're still seeing a rising number of cases, a rising number of hospitalizations, rising number of intensive care unit admission, a rising number of patients with the mechanical ventilators," Thomas Tsai, a professor of health policy at Harvard told AFP.
"And unfortunately, the death rate is likely going to follow that pattern. It's just that it's going to be days or weeks behind."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
44 doctors in Italy dead from COVID-19; nearly 6,500 health workers infected
Italy recorded almost 1,000 deaths from the coronavirus Friday in the worst one-day toll anywhere around the world since the pandemic began, as experts said the country's epidemic could be nearing its peak.
Five weeks after the virus took root in Italy, the country's recorded cases rose to nearly 86,500 -- more than the United States, or China -- where the flu-like disease emerged in December.
The death toll surged by 969 victims to 9,134, the civil protection agency said, though that included 50 victims who had been missing from the previous day's count.
Contagion was slowing however -- Friday saw a 7.4 percent increase in cases, down from around 8.0 percent in previous days -- and the national health institute (ISS) cautiously suggested the lockdown may soon bear fruit.
"I want to be clear on one point. We have not peaked yet," the institute's head Silvio Brusaferro said.
"There are signs of a slowdown, which makes us believe that we are close, we could peak in the next few days."
- Extreme caution -
But virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco warned that would not translate into a go-ahead to ease lockdown measures.
The slight slowing in case numbers "should strengthen our desire to continue. We must not drop our guard."
And Brusaferro said any lifting of strict measures would have to be done with extreme caution.
"We'll have to take careful measures for some months in order to avoid the epidemic curve rising again," he said.
Italy's lockdown came into effect nationwide on March 9, extending strict measures put in place earlier across swathes of the north, where the epidemic began.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said last week that the measures taken to close schools, bars and restaurants and restrict movement would be prolonged beyond the original end-date of April 3, without specifying until when.
- 'Saturation point' -
Regional authorities in Italy's hard-hit north warned their hospitals were still under enormous strain.
"We have reached saturation point in intensive therapy, despite having doubled bed numbers," said the head of the Piedmont region, Alberto Cirio.
"If this rate does not drop, we risk not being able to make it," he said, while appealing urgently for extra ventilators.
The national commissioner for the emergency, Domenico Arcuri, said army helicopters were going to be used to speed up the distribution of emergency medical and sanitary supplies.
The number of doctors killed by the virus rose to 44 on Friday, with nearly 6,500 health workers infected, ISS said.
The latest victim was doctor Annamaria Focarete, 70. One tearful colleague told AdnKronos news agency that "with her fighting spirit she seemed to have beaten it. Then a superinfection got her."
Military doctors and nurses battling the disease in field hospitals were thanked by Italy's defence minister Lorenzo Guerini, who said they were making the country proud.
"The battle is still a long one, we have a lot of work to do, but together we will succeed," he said via Skype.
- 'More sacrifices needed' -
He warned, however, that "more sacrifices will be required of you" before the worst was over.
And fears persisted that case numbers would continue to rise in central and southern Italy despite the lockdown.
"The gloom is deepening hour by hour. Psychological support for doctors right now is not only necessary, it's indispensable," said surgeon Liberato Aceto from the Santissima Annunziata hospital in Chieti, east of Rome.
"Conditions are getting increasingly difficult in the areas reserved for COVID-19 patients," he said.
It was particularly hard not to be able to reassure those gripped by the disease and fearful for their lives.
The sanitary protective gear worn by doctors obliged to keep their distance as much as possible created "a barrier... an emotional distance", and prevented them from making even the most basic of gestures.
"We can longer comfort a patient by holding their hand, or reassure them with a pat on the shoulder," he said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
France on Friday reported that 299 more people had died in hospital from the coronavirus epidemic over the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll from the epidemic in the country to 1,995.
Top French health official Jerome Salomon told reporters that 32,964 people had tested positive for the virus so far in France, although the real number of cases is likely far higher as testing was reserved for high-risk patients.
The daily toll, while severe, is lower than the 365 new deaths reported on Thursday.
The toll in France does not include those who died at home or at retirement homes but Salomon said this data would be announced on a daily basis from Monday.
As of now, 3,787 patients were in intensive care out of a total of 15,732 people hospitalised in France after becoming infected with the coronavirus, he said.
France has been in lockdown since March 17 in a bid to slow the spread of the epidemic and officials have repeatedly warned it will take time for the measures to bear fruit.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Friday that the lockdown would be extended by another two weeks to April 15 given the gravity of the crisis.
Salomon said that the data in the next days would show if the lockdown "is beginning to make itself felt in the number of those sick", noting that the average incubation period for the virus was around a week.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK - US doctors and nurses on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak came under increasing stress on Friday as the number of cases skyrocketed and doctors and nurses were forced to ration care for an overwhelming number of patients.
The United States surpassed two grim milestones on Thursday. The death toll soared past 1,000, reaching 1,261 by the end of the day, and the total number of infections topped 85,000, surpassing the national totals of China and Italy to make the United States the world leader in confirmed cases.
"This is past a movie plot. Nobody could ever think of this, or be totally prepared for this. You're going to have to wing it on the fly," said Eric Neibart, infectious disease specialist and clinical assistant professor at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. "The scale is unbelievable."
Meanwhile, with much of the country on lockdown in an attempt to contain the virus, a record 3.3 million Americans filed jobless claims last week, nearly five times the previous record set during the recession of 1982.
Even so, the stock market extended a three-day rally on Thursday after the US Congress neared passage of a $2.2 trillion relief package, a step that reinforced an extraordinary array of economic measures that the U.S. Federal Reserve rolled out on Monday.
Stock futures were down before the start of trade on Friday after the Dow and S&P 500 scored their biggest three-day percentage gains since the 1930s.
After the Senate voted 96-0 to pass the relief package on Wednesday, leaders of the US House of Representatives said they hoped to follow suit on Friday or Saturday at the latest, sending the bill to President Donald Trump, who has promised to sign it.
The federal largesse will aid hospitals, unemployed workers and businesses, welcome relief for hot spots such as New York and New Orleans.
The surge of critically ill coronavirus patients has placed unprecedented strain on hospitals, which do not have enough ventilators needed by sufferers of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, to help them breathe.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said any realistic scenario about the unfolding outbreak would overwhelm the healthcare system. His state, which has become the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak with more than 37,000 cases and 385 deaths, is scrambling to create more sick beds. It is looking to convert hotel rooms, office space and other venues into healthcare centers, while setting up a convention center as a temporary hospital.
As of Thursday, Mount Sinai hospital had 215 inpatients with COVID-19, the respiratory ailment caused by the coronavirus.
"The fear is next week we'll have 400," Neibart said, expecting a shortage of doctors and nurses.
He has seen preparations under way for additional bed capacity in the hospital's cafeteria and the atrium. Tape marks off where each makeshift hospital "room" will be in the wide open areas.
Neibart said he and his coworkers at the hospital are subsisting on fast food like pizza and doughnuts in the frenzy of their long hours.
In lighter moments, he and his colleagues morbidly joke about using thick-tipped markers to write their names on the tape to claim their spots, for when they inevitably fall ill with the virus, although he said they routinely check on one another's well being.
The Department of Veterans Affairs may be asked to help in New York, even as it struggles to provide enough staffing and equipment for armed forces veterans hospitalized with the coronavirus illness.
Maria Lobifaro, a New York intensive care unit (ICU) nurse treating veterans with COVID-19, said they normally change masks after every patient interaction. Now, they are getting one surgical mask to use for an entire 12-hour shift.
The ratio of patients to nurses in the ICU is usually two-to-one. As of Monday it was already four-to-one, she said.
"Right now we can barely handle the veterans that we have," Lobifaro added.
Cuomo wants to expand the number of available hospital beds in the state from 53,000 to 140,000.
Many hospitals are running low on crucial protective supplies, such as masks, gloves and gowns, to guard staff from the disease.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio projected that over half of the city of more than 8 million people will become infected with coronavirus and appealed to the federal government to provide New York with more ventilators to face a public health crisis he estimated would last into May.
"The overall projection, we believe that over half the people in this city will ultimately be infected," de Blasio told ABC's Good Morning America, although he added that for the vast majority of those the illness would have little impact.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MILAN - Italian researchers are looking at whether a higher than usual number of cases of severe pneumonia and flu in Lombardy in the last quarter of 2019 may be a signal that the new coronavirus might have spread beyond China earlier than previously thought.
Adriano Decarli, an epidemiologist and medical statistics professor at the University of Milan, said there had been a "significant" increase in the number of people hospitalized for pneumonia and flu in the areas of Milan and Lodi between October and December last year.
He told Reuters he could not give exact figures but "hundreds" more people than usual had been taken to hospital in the last 3 months of 2019 in those areas - 2 of Lombardy's worst hit cities - with pneumonia and flu-like symptoms, and some of those had died.
Decarli is reviewing the hospital records and other clinical details of those cases, including people who later died at home, to try to understand whether the new coronavirus epidemic had already spread to Italy back then.
"We want to know if the virus was already here in Italy at the end of 2019, and - if yes - why it remained undetected for a relatively long period so that we could have a clearer picture in case we have to face a second wave of the epidemic," he said.
The World Health Organization has said the new coronavirus and COVID-19, the respiratory disease it causes, were unknown before the outbreak was first reported in Wuhan in central China in December.
Decarli said once his research was concluded, local health authorities might decide to request authorization to exhume bodies of people with suspect symptoms.
Other experts cast doubt on the hypothesis that the new virus could have been circulating in Europe before the end of 2019.
"I think it extremely unlikely that the virus was present in Europe before January," said Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at Britain's University of East Anglia who has been tracking the evolving pandemic.
Hunter said that unless Italian scientists get positive results from samples taken and stored at that time, then the suggestion should not be given credence.
He added that, given what we know about how infectious the virus is, and the ratio of patients showing no symptoms compared with those that get sick, "it is inconceivable that we would not have had a pretty major epidemic in Europe much earlier if these cases had in fact been COVID-19".
HIGHEST DEATH TOLL
Italy, which now has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, recorded its first case of infection on Feb. 21, though some scientists think the virus began circulating in the country at least a month earlier.
"The virus was already here in the second half of January," said Massimo Galli, head of the infectious disease unit at Milan's Sacco hospital and a professor at the department of biomedical and clinical sciences at the University of Milan.
He said, however, that the probability of the virus circulating in Italy before January was "very low."
Giuseppe Remuzzi, director of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, said some family doctors in Lombardy had reported unusual cases of pneumonia late last year that now looked potentially suspicious.
He said among those were several cases of bilateral pneumonia - which means both lungs are affected - in the areas of Gera D'Adda and Crema in late November and December, with high fever, cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing.
"None of these cases have been documented as COVID-19 because there was no evidence yet of the existence of COVID-19," he said.
Remuzzi said that if evidence of COVID-19 cases in Italy as far back as November was confirmed, this may signal that the virus can go undetected for months.
He said some reports in scientific journals had also led other scientists to question whether the virus may have emerged in China as early as October.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MADRID - The coronavirus death toll in Spain surged to 4,089 after 655 people died within 24 hours, the health ministry said on Thursday.
It was a 19-percent increase in figures released Wednesday by the authorities in Spain, which has the world's second highest death toll from the disease after Italy.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose to 56,188, the ministry said.
Despite a national lockdown imposed on March 14, which parliament on Thursday agreed to extend until April 11, both deaths and infections have continued to mount, with officials warning this week would be particularly bad.
But the rise in the number of new deaths was smaller than that recorded on Wednesday when the figure rose by 738 or 27 percent.
Health authorities are hoping it will soon become clear whether the lockdown is having the desired effect.
The Madrid region has suffered the brunt of the epidemic with 17,166 infections -- just under a third of the total -- and 2,090 deaths, or 51 percent of the national figure.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose wife is infected with the virus, has said this is the country's most difficult moment since its 1936-39 civil war.
"Only the oldest, who knew the hardships of the civil war and its aftermath, can remember collective situations that were harsher than the current one. The other generations in Spain have never, ever had to face as a collective something so hard,” he said when he imposed the state of emergency on March 14.
Spain's demographics partly explain why it has been one of the worst-affected nations.
The country has one of the longest life expectancies in Europe and the pandemic has taken a high toll on its large elderly population, who are especially vulnerable to the disease.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Patients wear personal protective equipment while maintaining social distancing as they wait in line for a COVID-19 test at Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York On Wednesday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo sounded his most dire warning yet about the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday, saying the infection rate in New York is accelerating and the state could be as close as two weeks away from a crisis that sees 40,000 people in intensive care. Such a surge would overwhelm hospitals, which now have just 3,000 intensive care unit beds statewide.
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GENEVA, Switzerland -- Tennis great Roger Federer on Wednesday donated more than a million dollars to help support his "most vulnerable" Swiss compatriots through the coronavirus crisis.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion and his wife donated one million Swiss francs ($1.02 million, 943,000 euros), saying nobody should be left behind as Switzerland battles against the global pandemic.
According to official figures reported to the World Health Organization, Switzerland has the ninth-highest number of infections in the world.
According to the Swiss health ministry, more than 8,800 people have tested positive for COVID-19, while 86 people had died as of Monday.
"These are challenging times for everyone and nobody should be left behind. Mirka and I have personally decided to donate one million Swiss francs for the most vulnerable families in Switzerland," world number four Federer, 38, said on Instagram.
"Our contribution is just a start. We hope that others might join in supporting more families in need. Together we can overcome this crisis! Stay healthy!"
On Friday the Swiss government further tightened measures against the new coronavirus, banning all gatherings of more than five people, while anyone standing closer than two metres to others risks a fine.
The government had already ordered the closure of schools and all places of leisure, including restaurants, bars and non-food shops.
Agence France-Presse
India's 1.3 billion people will go under "total lockdown" from midnight Tuesday (1830 GMT) for 21 days to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
"From 12 midnight today, the entire country will be in lockdown, total lockdown," Modi said in a national television address to the world's second most-populous nation.
"To save India, to save its every citizen, you, your family... every street, every neighbourhood is being put under lockdown."
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LOS ANGELES - James can't afford to quarantine: he lost his job as a waiter in a Los Angeles restaurant and is two weeks away from running out of money for rent and food.
But as an undocumented immigrant, the 30-year-old Colombian cannot turn to the social aid programs being offered by the US government to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
James is not his real name. It is the name on his fake social security card that, like many in his precarious position, he uses to get low-paying, hourly jobs.
He usually gets by on around $400 a week.
"I have to find a way to at least cover rent and food, and with this situation, getting a job is complicated," he told AFP.
Life as an undocumented immigrant is always anxiety-inducing, especially since Donald Trump became president having campaigned on a promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
Now there is the extra pressure of the pandemic, which has killed 417 people in the US out of more than 33,000 confirmed cases.
'HEALTH FIRST'
Luz Gallegos, from the TODEC non-profit which provides legal help to immigrants, held a workshop last weekend in a rural community north of Los Angeles.
Questions included: can I go to the hospital without insurance? Am I in danger of being deported? If I use government services for coronavirus, will it hurt me later applying for residency?
"COVID-19 is an additional stress for the community," Gallegos said. "It's a community that doesn't trust the government."
TODEC's message is "health first" -- but that does not erase the issue.
Many immigrants' chief concern is the new "public charge" rule, which allows health issues to be considered when granting visas or permanent residency.
US immigration officials insist medical tests to detect coronavirus or receive treatment for the disease will not be penalized.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement also announced it will temporarily stop arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants during the crisis.
But uncertainty over the law means fear persists, especially as "the Trump administration keeps on changing" its policies on handling immigrants, said Gallegos.
'START OVER'
The US has pledged $100 billion in social aid for workers directly hit by the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
This includes paid leave for employees who fall ill, and easier access to unemployment benefits and food stamps for those who lose their jobs.
But these benefits can appear unattainable for the country's 11 million undocumented, many of whom are Latino.
"When we were notified that our jobs were gone, we were given a link to apply for government aid," said James.
"But I read that it's for citizens who have fully legal social security."
Although California is a "sanctuary state" for immigrants, half of the 15 staff at his Japanese restaurant have no papers and remain concerned.
"I think the situation will get more difficult in 15 days, a month, when we can't afford rent and bills," said the young man, who pays $580 per month for a small room.
His immediate plan is to deliver goods using a second-hand car he bought just two weeks ago, before the crisis struck.
"After two years in this country I finally felt at the point where I was getting my life organized," he said.
"And then this coronavirus thing came."
jt/amz/bgs
Agence France-Presse
OTTAWA - The Canadian death toll from the coronavirus outbreak jumped almost 50 percent percent to 19 in less than a day and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau predicted on Sunday the crisis would last for months.
Ottawa said late on Saturday that 13 people had died from the respiratory illness caused by the virus, but by 9 a.m. ET (1300 GMT) on Sunday that number had grown to 19.
The number of confirmed cases rose to 1,302 from 1,099, with a further 69 people listed as probably suffering from the highly contagious virus.
Canada has already closed its borders to all but essential travel and announced a C$27 billion aid package for the people and businesses most affected by the crisis.
"These are only a very first step -- we're looking now at what those next steps are to ensure that our economy is able to pick up again once we're through this, whether it takes weeks or months. It is likely to take months," Trudeau told reporters.
Trudeau said the House of Commons would return on Tuesday to approve the stimulus package. A minimum of 20 members of Parliament are needed to conduct business and officials said it was likely 32 legislators would be present.
Trudeau said Ottawa was looking at a range of other measures to help the economy but declined to give details.
The government is urging people to practice self-isolation but has yet to invoke emergency powers to clamp down on the movement of citizens, despite evidence on social media that some people are ignoring orders to avoid gathering in large crowds.
Nova Scotia on Sunday became the latest of Canada's 10 provinces to declare a state of emergency, closing its borders to non-residents and threatening to arrest those who did not practice self-distancing.
Premier Stephen McNeil told a news conference that despite warnings to avoid meeting in large groups, people were flocking to provincial parks and other common areas.
"We are dealing with a deadly virus and this behavior is unacceptable," he said. His Atlantic province is banning gatherings of more than five people, a much stricter limit than other jurisdictions. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Bill Berkrot)
MANILA - The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines has climbed to 380, as 73 new patients were recorded, the Department of Health said Sunday.
Six more people died from the disease, raising the toll to 25, while the number of patients who recovered increased to 15, according to DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
In an earlier interview on ANC, Vergeire said most of the patients who recovered do not have underlying conditions and are in the middle-aged group.
Four patients, though, were from the vulnerable group of the elderly, she added.
COVID-19 may be fatal for the elderly, the immunocompromised, and those with underlying medical condition but 80 percent of cases globally showed a high chance of recovery "without needing special treatment," according to the World Health Organization.
The virus, which emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan in late December, has killed 12,725 worldwide as worst-hit Italy reported a one-day record number of deaths at nearly 800, with the country's overall toll shooting past 4,800.
Nearly one billion people around the world were confined to their homes as governments implement home quarantine in a bid to halt the pandemic.
with reports from Agence France-Presse
MADRID, Spain -- Former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz, who was hospitalised with coronavirus, died on Saturday at the age of 76, his son announced.
Sanz was in charge of the Spanish giants from 1995-2000, overseeing two Champions League titles.
"My father has just passed away. He did not deserve this ending and in this way," tweeted his son, Lorenzo Sanz junior.
"One of the best, bravest and hardest-working people I have ever seen. His family and Real Madrid were his passions."
Three days ago, Sanz Jr., a former professional basketball player, said that his father had been admitted to a Madrid hospital after suffering the symptoms of the coronavirus which has killed more than 1,320 people in Spain.
Sanz claimed a place on the Real Madrid board in the mid-1980s, when the president was Ramon Mendoza.
He replaced Mendoza as president in 1995.
With Jupp Heynckes as coach and star players such as Davor Suker, Roberto Carlos, Clarence Seedorf, Fernando Hierro and Raul, Real won the Champions League in 1998 by beating Juventus in the final.
It was their seventh European Cup but first in 32 years.
Two years later, in Paris, Real claimed an eighth by beating Valencia in the final.
However, that same year, Sanz was ousted as president by Florentino Perez, who opened a new era at the club, adding five more Champions Leagues in two decades.
Current club captain and Spanish international Sergio Ramos, who with teammates is in quarantine after one of the club's basketball players tested positive for the virus, hailed Sanz.
"Very sad day for Real Madrid. Lorenzo Sanz connected yesterday and today with two numbers for history -- 7 and 8," tweeted Ramos in reference to the key Champions League titles.
"His death saddens us even more in these difficult days in which we find ourselves. My deep condolences to his family and friends. Rest in peace."
Agence France-Presse
DUBAI - Iran's death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose on Saturday by more than 100 to 1,556, and the total number of people infected now exceeds 20,000, a health ministry official said.
Iran, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic outside of China, reported on Friday a death toll of 1,433 and a total number of confirmed infections of 19,644.
The total number of people diagnosed with the disease stood at 20,610 on Saturday, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said on state TV.
President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that social distancing measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, including travel restrictions, will apply for only two to three weeks, expecting the crisis to ease by then.
Iran "has to do everything necessary to return economic production to normal," he said in comments broadcast on state TV. He also accused "counter-revolutionaries" of plotting to shut down economic production.
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New York and Illinois followed California Friday in locking down to stem the coronavirus pandemic as President Donald Trump declared the United States was already "winning" the war despite a rapid rise in confirmed cases and deaths.
The move effectively seals off America's largest cities -- New York, Los Angeles and Chicago -- with New Jersey also preparing to follow and Connecticut shutting.
But Trump insisted there was no need for a national lockdown, arguing that other parts of the US weren't hurting as much as its most populous states.
Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered non-essential businesses to close and banned gatherings in New York state, a day after his counterpart Gavin Newsom told California's 40 million residents to stay home.
"We're all in quarantine now," Cuomo told reporters, warning of civil fines and mandatory closures for anyone violating the order, which takes effect on Sunday evening.
The escalation came as COVID-19-linked deaths in the US rose to 216 -- more than doubling in three days -- with more than 16,600 confirmed infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Despite the surge, Trump said the world's number one power was "winning" and "going to win this war."
"Those are really two hotbeds. Those are probably the two hottest of them all in terms of hotspots," Trump told the daily White House news conference, adding that states in the American midwest were not registering as many confirmed cases.
"So no, we're working with the governors and I don't think we'll ever find that necessary," he added.
But shortly afterwards Illinois Governor J.B Pritzker announced an immediate stay-at-home order for the state "to avoid the loss of potentially tens of thousands of lives."
"The only strategy available to us to limit the increase in cases... is to mitigate the spread of coronavirus in the most robust manner possible," he said.
The order is in place from Saturday evening until April 7, Pritzker added.
The head of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Todd Semonite, said the agency was working on refitting more than 10,000 hotel and dormitory rooms in New York into temporary hospitals to alleviate the burden on health centers.
"We would like to think we can do this in three or four weeks and try to go as fast as we can," he said.
The number of confirmed infections in New York state jumped past 7,000 Friday, largely because of an increase in testing, Cuomo said, as he announced he would pass an executive order mandating that only essential businesses can remain open from late Sunday.
He stressed that essential services included grocery stores, pharmacies and food delivery.
Cuomo said that under "Matilda's Law," named after his mother, "non-essential gatherings of individuals of any size" were canceled.
[BOLD] 'Strong steps'
He ordered residents to exercise alone and not hold group activities outside, such as basketball.
He said citizens should avoid public transport "unless urgent and absolutely necessary."
"New York state (is) on pause," he said.
"These actions will cause disruption. They will cause much unhappiness. I understand that," Cuomo added.
He dismissed references to the measures as "shelter-in-place," which they have been called in California, but the rules effectively amount to the same thing.
California's statewide directive, which went into force Thursday evening, also instructs residents to remain at home.
It allows gas stations, pharmacies, banks and laundry services to remain open while restaurants can still provide take-out and delivery.
"They are taking strong steps. I applaud them," Trump said, referring to Cuomo and Newsom.
Trump also announced Friday that the US and Mexico have agreed to restrict non-essential travel across their border beginning on Saturday.
He said the move, similar to one already announced with northern neighbor Canada, was necessary to prevent the "spread of the infection to our border agents, migrants, and to the public at large."
On Capitol Hill, US senators began critical negotiations over a $1 trillion emergency stimulus package to help Americans ravaged by the coronavirus.
The version unveiled late Thursday includes one-time "recovery rebates" of up to $1,200 for adults earning under $99,000 annually, and hundreds of billions of dollars in loan guarantees to industries hard hit by the crises including airlines and small businesses.
Wall Street stocks finished a volatile session much lower Friday, with the Dow down 4.6 percent, bringing the market's worst week since 2008 to a grim conclusion.
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