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"Silence the guns": UN calls for global ceasefire to fight Covid-19

Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, has appealed for an immediate global ceasefire, calling on an end to all armed conflicts so that the world can instead focus on fighting Coronavirus.
My colleague in Afghanistan, Akhtar Mohammad Makoii, has transcribed Gutteres’s speech:
The world faces a common enemy: Covid19. The virus doesn’t care about nationality or ethnicity, faction or faith. It attacks all relentlessly.
Meanwhile, armed conflict rages on around the world. The most vulnerable - women and children, people with disabilities, the marginalised and displaced - pay the highest price. They are also at the highest risk of suffering devastating losses from Covid-19.
Let’s not forget that in war ravaged countries health systems have collapsed. Heath professionals, already few in number, have often been targeted. Refugees and others displaced by violent conflict are doubly vulnerable. The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war.
That is why today I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.
To warring parties, I say: pull back from hostilities. Put aside mistrust and animosity. Silence the guns; stop the artillery; end the airstrikes.
This is crucial to help create corridors for life saving aids. To open precious windows for diplomacy. To bring hope to places among the most vulnerable to Covid-19.
Let us take inspiration from coalitions and dialogue slowing taking shape among rival parties in some parts to enable joint approaches to Covid-19. But we need much more. End the sickness of war and fight the disease that is ravaging our world.
It starts by stopping the fighting everywhere, now. That is what our human family needs, now more that ever.
World health leaders are investigating whether the loss of taste and smell could be an early symptom of coronavirus, amid widespread reports of impaired senses in patients, Mark Rice-Oxley reports.
Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the World Health Organisation’s emerging diseases team, said several countries were investigating the reports to establish whether the correlation was significant. He said:
We have seen quite a few reports now about people who are in their early stages of disease may lose their sense of smell, may lose the sense of taste, but this is something that we need to look in to, to really capture to see whether this is one of the signs of Covid-19.
We have a number of countries that are conducting early investigations where they are capturing standardised information from cases and contacts where they are looking at signs and symptoms.
ENT UK, a body representing ear nose and throat doctors, said in a statement that there was evidence from South Korea, China and Italy that significant numbers of patients had developed ‘anosmia’. The statement, issued jointly by top rhinologists Claire Hopkins and Nirmal Kumar, said:
In Germany it is reported that more than 2 in 3 confirmed cases have anosmia. In South Korea, where testing has been more widespread, 30% of patients testing positive have had anosmia as their major presenting symptom in otherwise mild cases.

Total lockdown imposed in South Africa

President Cyril Ramapahosa has imposed a 21 day total lockdown on the 56 million inhabitants of South Africa, telling them in an address on Monday night that the unprecedented and sweeping measures were necessary to avoid a “catastrophe of huge proportions”, Jason Burke reports from Johannesburg.
The lockdown will come into effect on Thursday night and be enforced by the police and the army. International flights to major airports have been suspended and strict new quarantine regulations will be imposed.
The number of Coronavirus cases in South Africa has risen steeply in recent days, going from 61 to more than 400 in just over a week.
Two people watch on a phone as president Cyril Ramaphosa announces lockdown measures to restrict the spread of coronavirus in South Africa
 Two people watch on a phone as president Cyril Ramaphosa announces lockdown measures to restrict the spread of coronavirus in South Africa Photograph: Mike Hutchings/Reuters
“The numbers will continue to rise. It is clear that ... we need to urgently and dramatically escalate our response,” Ramaphosa said, raising the prospect of tens of thousands or “within a few weeks” hundreds of thousands of cases if nothing was done.
South Africa declared a national disaster last week, closed schools and called for social distancing. But the measures were clearly seen as insufficient to stem the spread of the disease in Africa’s most developed nation.
Though South Africa has a young population, there are millions who are vulnerable as HIV sufferers or have been weakened by malnutrition. The healthcare system has long suffered an acute lack of resources and critical facilities are extremely limited.
Updated 
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France nears 20,000 confirmed infections

The latest coronavirus figures in France were announced by health minister Olivier Véran on Monday evening, Kim Willsher, the Guardian’s correspondent in Paris, reports.
France now has 19,856 confirmed cases of coronavirus, 3,176 more than the previous day, and the death toll from the virus has reached 860, a jump of 186 in 24 hours.
There are 8,675 people in hospital with the virus, of whom 2,080 are in intensive care.
A banner which reads “Thanks to the caregivers” hangs from a balcony in Paris, where a lockdown is in place to slow the spread of Covid-19
 A banner which reads “Thanks to the caregivers” hangs from a balcony in Paris, where a lockdown is in place to slow the spread of Covid-19 Photograph: Benoît Tessier/Reuters
Véran also announced the death of two doctors; a GP and a gynaecologist.
They died doing their job and we will not forget them.
Véran said 5,000 tests are carried out in France every day. Germany carries out double this number and France is looking to introduce new tests that are “quicker and more rapid”. There are hopes to have these new tests available in the next couple of weeks.
I am aware of the sacrifice we are asking of the French people. Everyone understands the importance of the confinement. It is the only way we can stop the coronavirus and save lives.
We are all hoping there will be a visible impact and we all hope this impact will happen soon. The confinement is absolutely necessary.
He said the French committee for public health had met to look at possible treatments including the anti-malarial hydro-chloroquine. He said the authority had agreed this treatment could not be recommended except in extremely serious cases in hospital conditions, with the agreement of all the clinicians and doctors.
All prescriptions of chloroquine were to be banned and people are urged not to self medicate because of the absence of “proven data” showing the benefits.
Véran concluded:
Fraternity is not an abstract idea or just a word in a motto. The French are proving that fraternity is a choice. The situation is difficult but we will not lose hope. We think of those who are ill and those who are caring for them.
Angela Giuffrida, the Guardian’s correspondent in Rome, has some more on the latest Covid-19 death toll and infection statistics from Italy, Europe’s worst affected country
Italy’s coronavirus death toll and infection rate slowed for a second day on Monday. Deaths rose by 601 to 6,077, 50 less than on Sunday. New infections rose by 3,780, 177 less than on Sunday. Italy’s civil protection authority said 408 more people had recovered from the virus since Sunday, bringing the total number of people recovered to 7,432.
The total number of cases in Italy to date, comprising deaths and those recovered, is at 63,927.
“Today the downward trend is confirmed,” said Giulio Gallera, the welfare councillor for Lombardy, the region worst hit.
We can say that it is the first positive day, it is not the time to sing victory but we finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Relatives keep a safe distance from the coffin while gathering for a funeral ceremony outside the small cemetery of Bolgare, Lombardy
 Relatives keep a safe distance from the coffin while gathering for a funeral ceremony outside the small cemetery of Bolgare, Lombardy Photograph: Piero Cruciatti/AFP via Getty Images

EU to defy US sanctions with Iran aid

The European Union will send 20 million euros in humanitarian aid to Iran, which is subject to U.S. sanctions, to help alleviate the coronavirus, Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, reports.
In a video news conference on Monday the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, also said the bloc support Tehran’s request for IMF financial help.
We’ve not been able to provide a lot of humanitarian help but there is some 20 million euros in the pipeline ... that we expect to be delivered over the next weeks ...
We also agree in supporting the request by Iran and also by Venezuela to the International Monetary Fund to have financial support.
Ashrafi Esfahani road in Tehran is quiet after decision of the closure of workplaces as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus outbreak
 Ashrafi Esfahani road in Tehran is quiet after decision of the closure of workplaces as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus outbreak Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Iran is set to see an increase in the numbers recorded as infected with coronavirus due to increase in the numbers being tested, Iran’s Ministry of Health warned on Monday as the latest figures showed over 20,00 had been infected and killed.
There are also predictions that Tehran would be hit be a specially large increase due to the big numbers that left the capital for the Iranian new year and due to return soon. The ministry said it was willing to introduce new measures to enforce social distancing saying pleading and pleading was not enough.
The widely criticised official figures show the numbers killed each 24 hours by the virus remained steady at 127 with 1,411 new Coronavirus victims. The total number of patients was 23,049 and total deaths 1,812. The number of listed recoveries was 8,376. The average age of infected patients 59 years and age of those died 64 years.
The official death rate has now been stable broadly for a week, raising suspicions that the figures have been manipulated.
Updated 
Germany is to take in six coronavirus patients from Italy for treatment. The patients from Lombardy, the Italian region worst-affected by the virus, will be transported to Saxony in the next few hours, according to a report in La Repubblica.
Giles Tremlett 
The rest of Europe is watching the UK’s coronavirus plan with disbelief, writes Giles Tremlett, a journalist and author based in Madrid, for the Guardian’s comment pages.
Watching the UK from a distance has felt like scrambling out of your car at the front of a multiple pile-up on the motorway, only to see other cars smashing into the rear 20 minutes later. Didn’t anyone warn them about what lay ahead? Surely everyone knew. That is what it looks like from mainland Europe – the new centre of the pandemic.
Damien Gayle taking back over live blogging duties now, with news that authorities in Madrid, the Spanish capital, have commandeered the city’s ice rink to create an improvised morgue for Covid-19 victims.
From today, the 1,800m rink at the Ice Palace, in Madrid’s Hortaleza district, is to be turned into an improvised cold storage facility for the dead, after the closure of the city’s municipal funeral home.Making the announcement on Monday, Madrid’s city council said:
Given the progressive increase in the number of deceased and the [inability] of funeral homes to be able to bury them within the established period, the Ice Palace concessionary company has ceded its facilities to house these bodies.
According to a report in El Mundo, a “technical surface of synthetic material about two-three centimetres thick” will be installed on the ice rink, so that bodies will not be resting directly on the ice.

Foreign Office tells 1m Britons to return to the UK

Rowena Mason 
Up to 1 million Britons on holiday or on business trips abroad have been asked to return to the UK immediately by the Foreign Office, as they may not be able to get commercial flights within days.
In updated advice, the FCO said British citizens abroad who are resident in the UK should make urgent plans to cut short holidays and other trips and come back home straight away.
Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said: “We are strongly urging UK travellers overseas to return home now where and while there are still commercial routes to do so. Around the world, more airlines are suspending flights and more airports are closing, some without any notice.
“Where commercial routes don’t exist, our staff are working round the clock to give advice and support to UK nationals. If you are on holiday abroad the time to come home is now while you still can.”
Updated 
An update on the situation with the 2020 Olympics, due to be held in Tokyo later this year.
Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization’s emergencies programme, said the WHO was feeding into deliberations by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Japanese government and the Tokyo 2020 Committee.
Australia and Canada have already said they are withdrawing from the 2020 Games, while the Swiss Olympic Committee today said the games should be postponed.
Organisers are facing increasing pressure to postpone them first time in their 124-year modern history.
“I believe a decision will be made very soon,” Ryan said.
He said any decision to postpone the Games would be made by Japan and the IOC, adding:
We have every confidence that the Japanese government and the IOC will not proceed with any Games should they be dangerous to athletes or spectators.
British Olympic Association chairman Hugh Robertson warned it was unlikely the country could send a team to Tokyo should the 2020 Games go ahead as scheduled.
“I think it is very simple. If the virus continues as predicted by the (UK) government, I don’t think there is any way we can send a team,” Robertson, a former British sports minister, told Sky Sports News.
We are actually in a process where we are talking to all our sports. We will complete that over the next couple of days. At the end of that we have already said to the IOC that we think their four-week pause is absolutely the right thing to do.
We can’t see any way that this can go ahead as things are constituted at the moment.
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has suggested the possibility of postoponing the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
 Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has suggested the possibility of postponing the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Photograph: Kimimasa Mayama/EPA
Earlier, a spokesman for Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, urged the IOC to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
“Athletes are facing significant uncertainty in the current environment... We want the International Olympic Committee to make a definitive decision soon, to bring clarity to all of those involved,” the spokesman said.
Updated 

Smaller daily increase for second day in Italy

Italy has registered a smaller day-to-day increase in new coronavirus cases for the second straight day.
The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has grown by 602 to 6,078, the head of the Civil Protection Agency said, an 11% increase but the smallest rise in numerical terms since Thursday, suggesting a clear downward trend.
On Sunday, 651 people died. That followed 793 on Saturday and 627 on Friday.
Updated 
France and China are seeking emergency G20 talks over coronavirus.
The two countries have agreed on the need for emergency talks by leaders of the G20 major economies to coordinate an international response to the coronavirus crisis, the French presidency has said.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping today, after Saudi Arabia, which currently presides over the G20, last week called for a “virtual” summit.
“The two leaders agreed a summit would be helpful in particular on the health front... and on the economic front” the Elysee Palace said in a statement, citing “coordinated fiscal and monetary measures.”
Saudi Arabia has called for an extraordinary videoconference of G20 leaders as the economic fallout from the coronavirus lockdowns spreading worldwide hammered financial markets, putting many countries on course for a recession.

Coronavirus pandemic is accelerating, the WHO says

The spread of the coronavirus is accelerating, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, with more than 300,000 cases now recorded and infections reported from nearly every country worldwide.
It took 67 days from the first reported case to reach the first 100,000 cases of Covid-19, but it took only 11 days for the second 100,000 cases, and just four days for the third 100,000 cases, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said.
Speaking in an online briefing to journalists he said:
But we are not prisoners to statistics. We’re not helpless bystanders. We can change the trajectory of this pandemic.
He called for global political commitment to change the trajectory of the pandemic, urging countries to take both defensive and attacking measures.
Asking people to stay at home and other social distancing measures are an important way of slowing down the spread of the virus and buying time, but they are defensive measures.
To win we need to attack the virus with aggressive and targeted tactics - testing every suspect case, isolating and caring for every confirmed cases and tracing and quarantining every close contact.”
Updated 
A number of French fashion houses have announced they will be producing coronavirus masks
Design houses Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga will shift their attentions from high fashion to producing surgical face masks to aid the global coronavirus assault, their parent company Kering said.
In a statement posted on its website, Kering said:
The French workshops of Kering’s houses Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent are preparing to manufacture masks while complying with the strictest health protection measures for their staff members.
Kering also said it would purchase three million masks from China and import them for the French health services.
A doctor takes samples from patients using a drive-through coronavirus testing facility near Paris, France.
 A doctor takes samples from patients using a drive-through coronavirus testing facility near Paris, France. Photograph: Chesnot/Getty Images
Another Kering company, Gucci, has committed to donating 1.1 million masks and 55,000 protective medical gowns to aid Italy’s fight against the coronavirus, the statement said.
Kering’s French rival, LVMH, has for its part launched into the production of sanitising hand gel for hospitals at three perfume and cosmetics factories in France.
This is Jessica Murray, I’ll be running the live blog while Damien takes a break.




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