World’s medical supplies start to dwindle rapidly
MELBOURNE: The virus pandemic has advanced with the US and Europe reporting soaring new cases, prompting a scramble in some regions to set up additional hospital beds and replenish much-needed medical supplies.
Italy announced its biggest day-to-day increase of infections, which rose by 6600 with nearly 800 new fatalities from the virus that causes COVID-19. The country’s total death toll of more than 4825 has surpassed the number of deaths in China, where the first cases emerged late last year.
In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that the National Health Service could, like the Italian health system, be overwhelmed within weeks by coronavirus.
In France, a newspaper has reported President Emmanuel Macron threatened to close France’s border with Britain unless Mr Johnson took more stringent measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Late last week, Mr Johnson ordered pubs, restaurants, theatres, cinemas and gyms to shut their doors to slow the accelerating spread of the disease, days after other European countries put their citizens on lockdown.
French newspaper Liberation, citing sources in Mr Macron’s office, said Mr Johnson’s decision came after the French leader gave him an ultimatum threatening an entry ban on any traveller from the UK if there were no new measures.
“We had to clearly threaten him to make him finally budge,” the report quoted an official saying.
In the US, where multiple states have ordered residents to stay indoors, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the government is “literally scouring the globe looking for medical supplies”.
Healthcare workers from Oklahoma City to Minneapolis sought donations of protective equipment. Staff at a Detroit hospital began creating homemade face masks for workers. Even rural hospitals were strained as people increasingly felt the pandemic closing in.
US President Donald Trump continued to strike a confident tone about the nation’s ability to defeat the pandemic soon, even as health leaders nationwide acknowledged that the US is nowhere near the peak for the outbreak.
There are now more than 300,000 confirmed cases worldwide, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University.
In Italy, local authorities in the hard-hit northern regions have been pleading with the national government to enact stricter measures.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte told the nation he was tightening a lockdown and shutting down all production facilities except those providing essential goods and services. He cautioned citizens to be calm and patient, saying there is no alternative.
“Our sacrifice in staying home is minimum compared to that of other citizens trying to keep the nation well and functioning,” he said in a Facebook address.
Behind China and Italy, Spain now has the third-highest number of infections worldwide, followed by the US
Spanish health authorities have acknowledged that some intensive care units in the hardest-hit areas are close to their limit. The army was building a field hospital with 5500 beds in a convention centre in Madrid, where hotels are also being turned into wards for virus patients without serious breathing problems.
Lockdowns and curfews continue across the globe in a bid to contain the spread of infections before healthcare systems are overwhelmed.
The Chinese city of Wuhan – where the global pandemic was first detected and the first city to be locked down – went a fourth consecutive day on Sunday without reporting any new or suspected cases of the virus.
