The head of state said on Twitter that he had asked the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the national health authority, to issue an advisory closed
discouraging travel to enter or leave these states, without closing their borders.
The world’s leading power, which has been hit hard by COVID-19, now has more than 120,000 confirmed cases and 2,147 deaths, including 672 in New York City alone.
A very young child has also died of COVID-19, the governor of the state of Illinois announced on Saturday, without specifying his exact age.
The disease is known to be relatively sparing in children, and very young victims are very rare. This child is therefore probably one of the youngest victims of the pandemic. The governor also did not specify whether the child suffered from other pathologies.
Car manufacturers involved
US President Donald Trump has ordered carmaker General Motors by decree to produce artificial respirators, vital for people with COVID-19, who are increasingly in hospital. Because the equipment runs out after weeks of pandemic.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) thus estimated that the chronic global shortage of personal protective equipment
for nursing staff represented a imminent threat
in the fight against COVID-19.
Some 662,850 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed in 183 countries and territories since the start of the epidemic. However, this number of diagnosed cases only reflects a fraction of the actual number of infections, with a large number of countries now only testing cases requiring hospital treatment. Of these cases, at least 142,061 are now considered cured.
Death records in Italy and Spain
In the Italian peninsula, COVID-19 has killed nearly a thousand people in 24 hours, an unprecedented daily toll for a single country since the start of the crisis.
The contagion continues to slow in Italy, however, raising hopes that the extreme containment measures taken two weeks ago are finally yielding results, even if the peak has still not been reached. However, the country has passed the milestone of 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus
After Italy, Spain has the most deaths in the world with 5,982 for 73,225 cases. Madrid also decided on Saturday to toughen the measures taken to fight COVID-19 by ordering all employees working in non-essential sectors to stay at home for two weeks.
This measure announced by the head of government Pedro Sanchez comes as the country recorded the record number of 832 deaths in 24 hours, according to a latest report.
The situation is deteriorating further in Spain, which recorded its largest increase in daily deaths on Saturday, with 832 deaths in 24 hours.
Photo : Reuters / Sergio Perez
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France extends confinement, Russia closes its borders
In France, the government extended the confinement of the population by two weeks from Tuesday, until April 15. We will have to hold on
, warned French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, warning against the extremely high wave
of the disease that sweeps over France
.
As such, Paris has ordered more than a billion protective masks and wishes to achieve a target of 14,000 to 14,500 resuscitation beds to deal with the pandemic, the government announced on Saturday, defending its management of the health crisis. in the face of criticism.
In Britain, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Friday to be infected, but only with mild symptoms, we are preparing for a gigantic wave of patients in hospitals. There are now 1,019 deaths in the UK with 260 new deaths in a single day, according to an official report released on Saturday.
Russia, the last major country to have yet to take any generalized containment measures, decided to completely close its borders on Monday. The Russian authorities had already ordered the closure of restaurants and most businesses. The authorities hope that the Russians will stay at home in this way, even if they do not have to.
Germany has repatriated more than 160,000 of its nationals stranded abroad by border closures aimed at fighting the novel coronavirus pandemic, the German Foreign Minister said on Saturday.
Berlin estimates that 200,000 of its nationals were abroad and who, due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, wanted to return to their country. Most of them are tourists stranded abroad after border closures and the suspension of air links.
The fight to slow the spread of COVID-19 continues in France, whose latest death toll stands at 2,314 deaths.
Photo: Reuters / Charles Platiau
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And not all countries face the pandemic on an equal footing.
Africa on alert
All continents are affected by the pandemic, but it is on the African continent that the worst is feared. Africa now has 3,300 cases of infection and 90 deaths, according to a latest count transmitted by the director of the World Health Organization.
A few hours after entering in turn in confinement for three weeks, South Africa announced Friday its first two deaths. The most industrialized country in Africa is by far the most affected on the continent with 927 cases recorded for 57 million inhabitants.
It is prevent a human catastrophe of enormous proportions
, explained President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The UN is sounding the alarm bells about Africa’s precarious health situation in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: Reuters / Thierry Gouegnon
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In central Johannesburg, the police dispersed customers crowded in front of a supermarket with lashes.
In Kinshasa, the overpopulated capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, containment has been postponed for fear insecurity
after a surge in the prices of basic goods.
The other disaster
Faced with another looming economic disaster, the international community is trying to mobilize astronomical sums, with the European Union judged to be lagging behind by certain countries.
The G20 countries have pledged to inject $ 5 trillion to support the global economy. The United States, for its part, adopted a gigantic stimulus package of more than 2 trillion dollars to save its economy threatened with paralysis. Europe for its part referred to in two weeks strong measures
against the coronavirus, attracting the disappointment and the anger of Italy and Spain, the countries most affected on the old continent.
We will not overcome this crisis without strong European solidarity, at the health and budgetary level
, French President Emmanuel Macron told three Italian newspapers on Saturday, calling for joint loans to be launched throughout the European Union, which Germany is totally opposed to.
Meanwhile, the markets are holding their breath after a week that ended in the green, despite a Friday in the red.
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