Friday 24 April 2020

1 Ramadan - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8237

2,699,338 188,437 737,735

COVID-19 QATAR UPDATES ON 23 APRIL 2020

TOTAL POSITIVE TOTAL DEATHS TOTAL RECOVERED

COVID-19 GLOBALLY

623 61 7764 750

10

NEW CASES ANNOUNCED

NEW RECOVERIES

TOTAL CASES

TOTAL RECOVERIES

TOTAL DEATHS

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, H E Sheikh Khalid bin Abdulaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani, yesterday inaugurated Ras Laffan Hospital and the Ruwais Health Center for Health and Recovery. �P2

Qatar Olympic Committee submits intention to bid for 2030 Asian GamesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) has submitted its intention to bid for the 21st Asian Games 2030, as it looks to build on its impressive track record of hosting world-class international sporting events.

Qatar last hosted the Asian Games in 2006, which served as a catalyst for a period of unprecedented growth and development of

sport within the country. Under the leadership of

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar has amassed an extensive knowledge in sport event planning and developed a wealth state-of-the-art sports venues and facilities.

QOC President H E Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani said: “The QOC, with the total support of the Qatar Gov-ernment, is fully committed to

bidding to host the 21st Asian Games.

"We had the honour of hosting the Asian Games in 2006 and we believe it is time to bid again and welcome Asia back to our country. The Doha of today is very different to the Doha of 2006 and the Doha of 2030 will be even more advanced. Athletes, NOCs, fans and all stakeholders can be assured of the very highest standards." �P3

Amir exchanges Ramadan greetings with leaders of Arab, Muslim countries

QNA — DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani exchanged cables of congratulations and phone calls with Their Majesties, Excellencies, and Highnesses leaders of Arab and Islamic countries, on the occasion of the advent of the holy month of Ramadan.

H H the Amir exchanged greetings on that occasion with the Amir of the State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, H M Sultan Haitham bin Tarik bin Taimur of the Sultanate of Oman, and H M King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

H H the Amir also exchanged greetings on the advent of the holy month of Ramadan with H M King Mohammed VI of the Kingdom of Morocco and H E President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo of the Federal Republic of Somalia. �P2

Amir exchanges Ramadan greetings with Speaker

QNA — DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has received a cable from Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud on the occasion of the advent of the holy month of Ramadan, containing his greetings and greetings of members of the Shura Council on this blessed occasion. H H the Amir responded with a reply cable of thanks.

Today is the first day of RamadanQNA — DOHA

The Crescent Sighting Committee at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs announced yesterday that April 23, was the final day of the month of Shaaban and that Friday, April 24, is the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.

This came in a statement of the committee issued after its meeting yesterday evening at the headquarters of the Min-istry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs under the chair-manship of the head of the committee Sheikh Dr. Thaqil Al Shammari.

The Committee said the Ramadan crescent was sighted and announced that Friday, April 24, is the first of the holy month of Ramadan. �P3

Ramadan Timing

Today's Iftar:6:04pm

Tomorrow's Imask:03:32

PM opens Ras Laffan Hospital and Ruwais Health CenterQNA — DOHA

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, H E Sheikh Khalid bin Abdulaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani, yesterday inaugurated Ras Laffan Hospital and the Ruwais Health Center for Health and Recovery, which are dedicated to treating patients with the novel corona-virus (COVID-19), as part of the State of Qatar’s continuous efforts to secure the necessary require-ments to provide care for patients infected with the virus.

During his visit to the hos-pital and health center, His Excellency listened to a brief on the capabilities and medical

equipment in the new facilities, which are equipped with the latest medical technologies in the field of care and diagnostic services and the capacity of Ras Laffan Hospital, which exceeds 400 beds, as well as the emer-gency service and the laboratory in Ruwais Health Center.

H E the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior was accom-panied by Minister of Public Health, H E Dr. Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari, and a number of senior officials in the Ministry of Public Health, Hamad Medical Corporation, and the Primary Health Care Corporation.

Amir: Qatar to overcome pandemic with people’s potential, tenacity and unity

QNA — DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani delivered yesterday a speech on the occasion of the advent of the Holy Month of Ramadan of the year 1441 AH. H H the Amir said that Qatar will overcome COVID-19 pandemic with people’s potential, tenacity and unity. Collaboration and joint efforts are must to face the economic consequences of this pandemic and Qatar has started conducting studies and drawing up plans to overcome the consequence of this pandemic.

H H the Amir said in his address to the nation: “The Holy Month has come while we, and the whole world, are in the

midst of confronting the COVID-19 pandemic which medical researches have neither reached a vaccine for, nor an effective cure. Work is ongoing to reach, produce and distribute them, which requires the utmost levels of interna-tional cooperation.

“Until then, societies can only protect themselves by pre-vention and stemming its spread. This is based mainly on what has become known as “social distancing”, as there is no infection without contact, in addition to sterilisation and per-sonal protection of all kinds, home and non-home isolation of those suspected of being infected, or for the more vul-nerable ones to the

complications of the disease,” said H H the Amir.

H H the Amir added that Qatar had early realised the gravity of the crisis and relied upon its expertise in crisis man-agement, and medical institu-tions and staff, benefiting from the best international experi-ences and practices, as well as the successes and failures of others. All this is carried out in collaboration with international organisations.

“It was clear for us that this situation is exceptional and dif-ferent from the epidemics wit-nessed by the contemporary world, and that preserving people’s lives requires enforcing strict measures that we have already taken including

suspending education in schools and universities, reducing contact in public places, closing com-mercial complexes, entertainment centers, public parks and facilities, in addition to reducing the number of employees in public and private institutions, cutting

working hours and other measures,” said H H the Amir.

H H the Amir said that Qatar has carried out wide scale medical testing campaign to detect infected people, to limit the spread of the infection. �P2

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani delivering the address yesterday.

Collaboration and joint efforts are must to face the economic consequences

The State has allocated large funds to confront the pandemic

Qatar has carried out wide scale medical testing campaign

Each individual must realize that negligence will not only lead to contracting the disease, but also to exposing others to danger

We have strengthened the necessary medical staff and equipment, and established field hospitals

We will examine, in consultation with the competent bodies, the appropriate time for a gradual opening of different fields

Cabinet directed to undertake radical reforms to liberalize our economies

As we enter the blessed month of Ramadan, we ask Allah's mercy, forgiveness, and the safety from every evil. We congratulate everyone who resides on the land of Qatar and all our Arab and Muslim brothers everywhere, on the occasion of the holy month, hoping Allah Almighty to accept our fasting and prayers, and to last on us the security and comfort.

OFFICIAL NEWS

Doha: Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khal-ifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani exchanged cables of congratulations with their Excellencies Prime Ministers of Arab and Islamic countries, on the occa-sion of the advent of the holy month of Ramadan. -QNA

Doha: Prime Minister and Minis-ter of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani held on Thursday a telephone conversa-tion with HE Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Morocco Saad-Eddine El Othmani. At the beginning of the call, they exchanged greetings on the advent of the holy month of Ramadan. Also, they reviewed the solid bilateral relations between the two countries and the prospects for strengthening them.-QNA

Doha: Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani held yesterday a telephone conversation with Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, H E KP Sharma Oli.At the beginning of the call, H E the Nepalese Prime Minister conveyed the greetings of President of the Fed-eral Democratic Republic of Nepal, H E Bidhya Devi Bhandari to Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, whishing H H the Amir health and happiness and the people of Qatar more progress and development. For his part, H E the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior entrusted H E the Nepalese Prime Minister to convey the greetings of H H the Amir to H E the Nepalese Presi-dent, whishing H E the President health and happiness and the peo-ple of Nepal more progress and prosperity.During the call, they discussed cooperation relations between the two friendly countries and ways of enhancing them in various fields. In this regard, H E the Nepalese Prime Minister expressed thanks and appre-ciation to H H the Amir for the care and interest of the Nepalese community in the State of Qatar. For his part, H E the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior praised the role of the Nepalese com-munity in various fields of development in Qatar. During the call, they reviewed the two countries’ efforts to combat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic and ways to limit its spread. -QNA

Doha: Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani exchanged cables of congratulations with their Highnesses and Excellencies crown princes and vice-pres-idents of Arab and Islamic countries, on the occasion of the advent of the holy month of Ramadan. -QNA

Doha: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani exchanged greetings with President H E Kais Saied of the Republic of Tunisia, President H E Barham Salih of the Republic of Iraq, H E President Mahmoud Abbas of the State of Palestine, and the Crown Prince of the State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah. H H the Amir held yester-day evening via telephone a conversation with Chair-man of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Political Bureau Dr. Ismail Haniyeh, during which he congratu-lated H H the Amir on the advent of the holy month of Ramadan. -QNA

PM exchanges Ramadan greetings with Prime Ministers of Arab, Islamic Countries

PM holds phone call with Moroccan counterpart

PM holds phone call with Nepalese counterpart

Deputy Amir exchanges Ramadan greetings with Deputy Presidents of Arab, Muslim Countries

Amir exchanges Ramadan greetings with Arab, Muslim leaders

02 FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2020HOME

FAJR SUNRISE 03.44 am 05.05 am

W A L R U WA I S : 24o↗ 35o W A L K H O R : 25o↗ 31o W D U K H A N : 24o↗ 35o W WA K R A H : 25o↗ 33o W M E S A I E E D 25o↗ 33o W A B U S A M R A 24o↗ 38o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 04:30– 18:03 LOW TIDE 00:13 – 12:14

Relatively hot daytime with some clouds and mild by night.

Minimum Maximum25oC 34

ZUHRMAGHRIB

11.32 am06.02 pm

ASR ISHA

03.02 pm07.32 pm

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, H E Sheikh Khalid bin Abdulaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani after inaugurating the Ras Laffan Hospital and the Ruwais Health Center for Health and Recovery, yesterday. Also seen is Minister of Public Health, H E Dr. Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari

QU ranks among top 300 universities globally in THE University Impact Rankings 2020THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar University (QU) ranked in the top 300 out of 766 universities globally and ranked 16th worldwide on (SDG-13) in Climate Action category, according to THE University Impact Rankings 2020.

The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings are the only global per-formance tables that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).QU partici-pated in seven SDGs out of 17 SDGs and scored 74.8 out of 100 overall.

The seven Sustainable Development

Goals QU participated in are as following, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, Partnership for goals, Affordable and Clean energy, decent work and Economic growth, Climate action and Peace, Justice and strong Institutions.

Commenting on the accomplishment, QU President, Dr. Hassan Al Derham said, “QU is proud to consolidate its place in the top 300 universities worldwide on the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking for the 2nd year in a row. More importantly, QU ranks 16th worldwide on SDG 13 Climate Action that tackles

among other issues, reducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, helping to limit ground-level ozone and black carbon emissions which shows the alignment of QU with the State of Qatar commitment to organize the FIFA World Cup 2022 with zero emission and its important role in supporting this effort. QU’s excellence in delivering quality edu-cation is also recognized in the same ranking, having been ranked 61st worldwide.”

The seven (SDGs) breakdown are (SDG-3) Good Health and Well-being, SDG score 53.1, ranked 301-400 out of

620 institutions; (SDG-4) Quality Edu-cation, SDG score 73, ranked 61 out of 676 institutions; (SDG-7) Affordable and Clean energy, SDG score 56.9, ranked 101-200 out of 361 institutions; (SDG-8) Decent work and Economic growth, SDG score 57.2, ranked 101-200 out of 479 institutions; (SDG-13)Climate action, SDG score 70.5, ranked 16 out of 376 institu-tions; (SDG-16)Peace, Justice and strong Institutions, SDG score 66, ranked 101-200 out of 453 institutions and (SDG-17) Partnership for goals, SDG score 71.1, ranked 101-200 out of 806 institutions.

COVID-19: 623 new cases, 61 recoveriesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) announced the registration of 623 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the recovery of 61 cases, yesterday.

Most of the new cases are of expatriate workers most of who have been subject to quarantine, after it was found that they were in contact with confirmed cases. All new infected cases have been put into iso-lation and are receiving the necessary medical care, said the Ministry.

With the registration of 61 new recovered cases, the total number people to have recovered from COVID-19 in Qatar is 750.The total number of positive COVID-19 cases recorded in Qatar till yes-terday was 7764 and there are 7004 active

cases under treatment. So far, 10 people have died from the coronavirus in Qatar. Ministry conducted 3445 tests yesterday taking the total tests done so far to 73457 tests.

The Ministry has stated that the recent increase in the number of confirmed new cases of coronavirus is due to several reasons, including that the spread of the virus has begun to enter the peak stage (i.e. the highest wave that affects the country), which may continue to increase for a period of time before it begins to decline.

It is also due to the increase in the efforts of the Ministry and its medical teams to track the transmission chains of coronavirus and expand the surveillance process, including of groups of contacts with people who were previously diag-nosed with the disease.

Minister: Ras Laffan, Mesaieed Hospitals will provide necessary care for coronavirus patientsQNA — DOHA

Minister of Public Health, H E Dr. Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari confirmed that the opening of Ras Laffan Hospital yesterday represents an important addition to the absorptive capacity of the health system in the State of Qatar by providing an additional clinical capacity dedicated to acute cases of coronavirus with the possibility of increasing the clinical capacity if necessary.

In addition to Ras Laffan Hospital, Mesaieed Hospital was opened today, which was also dedicated to treating Coronavirus (COVID-19) patients, in addition to Hamad Hospital Corpo-ration (HMC) hospitals, as part of the continuous efforts made by the State of Qatar to ensure that all the nec-essary capabilities to provide care for infected patients are available.

The new hospitals join HMC’s Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital, The Cuban Hospital, and the Communicable Disease Centre as dedicated COVID-19 treatment facilities, as part of the con-tinuous efforts made by the State of Qatar to ensure that all the necessary capabilities to provide care for infected patients are available.

H E the Minister of Public Health said, “The opening of these new hos-pitals increases the health systems capacity by over 400 acute beds for the sickest patients in our dedicated COVID-19 hospitals and we are able to expand that even further if the need arises.”

“This is central to our strategy of

ensuring the right care is available at the right time and place for all COVID-19 patients who need it, keeping our other facilities - Hamad General Hospital and the other com-munity and specialists hospitals - pro-tected to continue to provide care for our general public.”

H E Dr. Al Kuwari said the opening of the new hospitals is part of the gov-ernment’s response to curbing the spread of COVID-19, which has also included a focus on creating awareness among the community, conducting screenings, and tracing the sources of infection. She added that Qatar has sufficient healthcare facilities and staff to cope with the current number of COVID-19 patients who require intensive treatment and advanced respiratory support, and said the country is prepared, should the number rise.

“COVID-19 patients in Qatar receive world-class care from expe-rienced, highly qualified medical, nursing, and allied healthcare pro-fessionals. The Ras Laffan and Mesaieed Hospitals will significantly enhance our capacity to care for COVID-19 patients who need acute and critical care,” said H E Minister of Public Health.

H E Dr. Al Kuwari said that while Qatar has sufficient staff and facilities to care for COVID-19 patients, the country must continue working together to stop the spread of the virus to ensure that our most vulnerable members of society are safe and protected.

Amir: Qatar to overcome pandemic with people’s potential, tenacity and unityFROM PAGE 1

“We have taken into con-sideration that these measures will not be successful unless they are coupled with a wide medical testing campaign to detect infected people and trace their contact-net, especially since the symptoms of the disease appear on the infected only after a period of time suf-ficient to infect others unknow-ingly,” said H H the Amir.

H H the Amir said that since the first day Qatar has adhered to transparency, which is our authentic approach, and one of the most important conditions of prevention, because con-cealing the facts would expose people to danger.

“The first party in this equation is the State and its institutions, while the second party is the responsible citizen who is committed to the instructions, and who abstains from contact or going out of his home — unless it is absolutely necessary — while adhering to sterilisation and other personal protective measures. Each indi-vidual must realise that negli-gence will not only lead to con-tracting the disease, but also to exposing others to danger,” said H H the Amir.

H H the Amir said that the State has been keen on pro-viding all the necessities for individual prevention in the markets. New factories have been established to provide some of these necessities.

“We have strengthened the necessary medical staff and equipment, and established field hospitals that can accom-modate thousands of people, hopefully we never need to use them,” said H H the Amir.

“This is an occasion to thank on your behalf and myself, the medical staff members, citizens and residents, who work with devotion and dedication on the frontline against the pandemic, as well as the police, the security authorities, the admin-istrative bodies, all staff in the teams of the crisis, and workers in the vital services of the State and economic sectors, which are indispensable even during these circumstances. We also commend the tens of thousands of volunteers who have taken the initiative to assist the State’s bodies and provide necessary help to those in need. This is a source of pride for us and an evidence of a high degree of social awareness. We appre-ciate what you are doing and I

ask you all to take care of your-selves,” said H H the Amir.

H H the Amir said that numerous means have been introduced to continue remote work from home in the fields where that is possible. Mean-while, the process of distance education in schools and uni-versities has recorded a signif-icant success.

“We will examine, in con-sultation with the competent bodies, the appropriate time for a gradual opening of different fields, but only after making sure of identifying all the cases that need to be held in quar-antine, and that individuals, institutions, commercial stores and various utilities are com-plying with the strict prevention measures. We will never put peoples health at risk,” said H H the Amir.

H H the Amir said that the process of testing and diagnosis of cases that need isolation must continue even after getting back to normal life, otherwise, there would be a new outbreak of the pandemic; and Qatar will not hesitate to take the necessary measures again, if needed.

The State has allocated large funds to confront the pandemic and so that our economy could

safely surpass this critical stage. “I have directed that a

package of financial and eco-nomic incentives be provided for the private sector. We are aware of the nature of the unprecedented challenge that our country and all States and societies, are going through. We are also aware of our people’s potential, tenacity and unity from which we derive determi-nation to overcome this pan-demic, God willing,” said H H the Amir.

“We must all collaborate and join efforts to face the eco-nomic consequences of this pandemic, which are marked by low oil prices and a possible global economic recession”.

H H the Amir said that the objective circumstances indicate that the next stage will not be easy, economically and financially, for countries engaging in the global economy, and for those where energy exports is the main source of income.

“We will take the necessary steps and procedures to cross that stage. We have started con-ducting studies and drawing up plans for that. Your cooperation with us will be vital to counter the repercussions of the

pandemic in the future. This is what national responsibility requires,” said H H the Amir.

“Our economy should not stay hostage to fluctuations in energy prices, and I have directed Cabinet to undertake radical reforms to liberalize our economies and limit the impact of such changes on it in the future. This issue is not new, we have discussed it over and over. Now is the time for action,” said H H the Amir.

H H the Amir asked world leaders to cooperated and not to compete in finding cure for the pandemic. “On this occasion, I ask the heads of state in the world, especially, the major industrialized countries, and the relevant international organizations, to cooperate, not to compete, in the field of vac-cines and cures production. I assure that it will not be pos-sible to counter the pandemics economic and social repercus-sions without international cooperation and coordination at the highest and most com-prehensive level possible,” said H H the Amir. “In conclusion, I would like to bring you good tidings, that in Qatar we are proceeding with confident strides on the right track.”

03FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2020 HOME

Countries must not shut out refugees after COVID-19, UN Human Rights chief tells QF’s Doha DebatesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

One of the United Nations’ leading human rights advocates has told Qatar Foundation’s Doha Debates that a “serious human crisis” will develop if countries keep their borders closed to refugees once the global COVID-19 pandemic passes.

Speaking during the latest edition of Doha Debates’ #Dear-World Live online series, Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, also voiced his fears that dona-tions to agencies that support refugees and humanitarian aid to developing countries may start drying up over the coming years, as economies count the cost of the coronavirus crisis.

The episode was described by Doha Debates correspondent and host Nelufar Hedayat – who was herself a refugee as a child – as an opportunity to “give a voice to a community that is often voiceless”, and also heard from a doctor and two aid workers currently based in refugee camps in Greece and Bangladesh.

“Let us not allow the right to asylum, and the possibility for refugees to seek refuge from persecution and war, become victims of coronavirus as well. It is possible to keep the door

open in a controlled and regu-lated manner that still safe-guards the right of asylum,” said Grandi.

Grandi also warned: “Often, when you have a big emer-gency, the first response from the world is very generous, but I am worried about what will happen when the pandemic moves away from richer coun-tries and stops affecting the daily lives of people there.

“That is when it will become more challenging, because donor countries’ budgets will be focused on dealing with the effects of pandemic in their own nation. Another victim may be humanitarian aid, and we will only see the extent of this one or two years down the line. People need to campaign for their gov-ernments to keep it intact, because it will be all the more important in the years to come.

“I hope this crisis allows everyone to understand that there is no problem or challenge in the world that only affects a small number of people. The refugee crisis is not something that is far away from us, and COVID-19 has shown that if you don’t address crises together, they can come back to haunt all of us.”

Jamilah Sherally, a doctor working with the Boat Refugee

Foundation at the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, said: “While we have not had any confirmed COVID-19 cases in the camp, the effect of coronavirus is still tangible.

“The number of healthcare workers able to come to the island has decreased substan-tially, so the level of care we can offer – which was never optimal – is even less now, and that is heartbreaking. Measures like movement restrictions affect general morale and lead

to tensions rising. The pandemic has highlighted the plight of ref-ugees which has been present for decades, and, on the ground, the only solutions we can see is decongestion of the camp.

“What the pandemic is teaching us is that, at the end of the day, we are all vulnerable. I hope that, in two years’ time, we will have a global health system that is more sustainable and more inclusive of the most marginalized and vulnerable members of society, including refugees.”

Speaking to #DearWorld

Live from Cox’s Bazar, home to the world’s largest refugee set-tlement, aid worker Immad Ahmed said COVID-19 has led to vital resources being scaled back, and uncertainty among those living there.

“Messaging about corona-virus is not really contextualized for those in this camp, and internet facilities are limited,” he said. “The best way of commu-nicating information in a camp of 840,000 people is via word of mouth, but COVID-19 has made that very difficult. “The old prac-tices may not work any more, and – as NGOs, development agencies, and aid workers – we have to change the way we work and focus on finding really inno-vative solutions.”

FROM LEFT: Nelufar Hedayat and Filippo Grandi. TOP: Jamilah Sherally

Immad Ahmed (left) and Shafiqur Rahman

Intention to bid for 2030 Asian Games submittedFROM PAGE 1

“We have had the privilege of hosting many prestigious sports events and we humbly believe that we have developed the expertise and infrastructure to be able to host a fantastic Asian Games.

“We want to put our expe-rience and resources at the service of Asian sport. Working with all our friends in the Asian NOC family, we would provide the best platform to showcase their athletes and inspire the youth of Asia.”

Today is the first day of RamadanFROM PAGE 1

The Committee extended greetings to Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Father Amir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani, as well as the Government, the people of Qatar and all Muslims, on the advent of the holy month of Ramadan.

HMC announces Ramadan service timingsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has announced changes to the operating hours of a number of services for the Holy Month of Ramadan. All emer-gency and inpatient services across HMC’s network of hospitals will continue to operate as normal, 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

The changes to operating hours affect a number of services delivered remotely via the

national COVID-19 helpline number, 16000. COVID-19 hel-pline will be operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during Ramadan. To access the service call 16000 , select lan-guage and select 1 for COVID-19 helpline.

HMC Urgent Consultation will be available from 8am to 1pm and 8pm to 1am, Saturday to Thursday, 8am to 1pm on Fridays. To access the service, call 16000, select language, select 3 for HMC and select 1 for

HMC Urgent Consultation. Mental Health Helpline will

be available from 8am to 1pm and 8pm to 1am, Saturday to Thursday, 8am to 1pm on Fridays. To access the service call 16000, select language, select 3 for HMC, select 1 for HMC Urgent Consultation’s mental health services. HMC Pharmacy Medication Delivery will be available from 8am to 2pm, Saturday to Thursday (closed on Fridays). To access the service call 16000 select

language, select 3 for HMC and select 2 for Medication Delivery.

All Emergency Departments, Pediatric Emergency Depart-ments and inpatient services across HMC’s network of hos-pitals will continue to operate as normal, 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

The Blood Donor Center next to Hamad General Hospital from Sunday to Thursday, from 8am to 1pm and 6pm to 12 midnight. New Blood Donor Center opposite Outpatient Department

next to Surgical Specialty Center will operate 6pm to 12 midnight, from Sunday to Thursday. Blood Donor Center at Al Wakra Hos-pital will be open from 8pm to 12 midnight, from Sunday to Thursday. Blood Donor Center at Al Obaib Health Center will open from 8pm to 12 midnight, Sunday to Thursday.HMC’s Nesma’ak Customer Service hel-pline, 16060, to operate from 7am to 10pm Sunday to Thursday and 10am to 4pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

34 Qatari citizens return to DohaQNA — DOHA

As part of the efforts of the State of Qatar to bring citizens wishing to return home, 34 Qatari citizens arrived at Hamad International Airport through a special flight coming from Algeria and Tunisia. The flight included 95 persons from different nation-alities including 34 Qatari citizens, reported Qatar TV.

According to safety pro-cedures, everyone will be sub-jected to health quarantine for 14 days. The Qatari citizens praised the efforts of the state, announcing their readiness for quarantine and adherence to safety measures.

04 FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2020MIDDLE EAST

Kuwait reports 151 new virus cases

QNA & REUTERS — KUWAIT CITY

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health reported yesterday 151 new coronavirus (COVID-19) infec-tions in the last 24 hours, bringing the tally to 2,399, while one death was reported. The total number of deaths reached 14.

During a daily briefing, Health Ministry spokesperson Dr. Abdullah Al-Sanad announced that the total recoveries is 498.

He added that 55 patients were in intensive care, 22 of them were in critical con-dition. Those currently receiving treatment at hos-pitals reached 1,887 patients, said the spokesperson.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates has shortened a nationwide coronavirus curfew by two hours to now run daily from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. (1800 to 0200 GMT) for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Reuters quoted state news agency WAM as saying.

The curfew to help stem the spread of the coronavirus had previously run from 8 pm to 6 am daily. It was unclear whether Dubai, one of the Gulf country’s seven emirates and which has been under a 24-hour curfew since March 26, was included in the latest decision.

A Gaza court has sen-tenced a Palestinian man to six months in jail for escaping from a coronavirus quarantine facility on the Egyptian border, the Interior Ministry said.

The 33-year-old was arrested on Saturday, a few hours after breaking out of the compound at Rafah, where people crossing from Egypt into Hamas Islamist-con-trolled Gaza are confined for a mandatory 21-day period.

He had been in the facility for less than a week and tested negative for the novel corona-virus after being apprehended, the ministry said.

A view of Iraq’s historical Shorjh Marketplace with human density after measures taken against the novel coronavirus were moderated, in Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday.

Iran Guards chief vows ‘decisive response’ after Trump threatAFP — TEHRAN

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief yesterday warned the US of a “decisive response” after President Donald Trump said he ordered the US Navy to destroy Iranian boats that harass American ships in the Gulf.

Iran and the United States have appeared to be on the brink of an all-out confron-tation twice in the past year.

Decades-old acrimony between the two sides worsened in 2018 when Trump unilaterally withdrew from a deal that gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

Tensions escalated further in January when a US air strike killed Qasem Soleimani, the top Iranian general who headed the Guards’ foreign arm, the Quds Force.

“We declare to the Amer-icans that we are absolutely determined and serious... and that all action will be met with a decisive response that will be efficient and quick,” Major General Hossein Salami said.

“We have also ordered our naval units to target (US boats and forces) if they try to endanger the safety of our ships or boats of war.”

The latest confrontation

between the arch-foes came after the United States accused Iran of harassing its ships in the Gulf last week.

Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday as the Guards said they had launched the Islamic republic’s first military satellite.

The US president said he had “instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gun-boats if they harass our ships at sea”.

In response, Iran on Thursday summoned the Swiss ambassador to Tehran that rep-resents US interests in the Islamic republic, state media said.

Salami said last week’s maritime incident was the result of “unprofessional and dangerous behaviour by the Americans in the Persian Gulf”.

The Guards commander also indicated that US actions in the sensitive waterway had been affected by an outbreak

of the novel coronavirus. “In last week’s incident,

there was operational turmoil and disorder among US naval units at sea,” said Salami.

This, he added, was an indication that the “command and control of their military units may have been weakened by... the coronavirus disease”.

Iran and the United States are among the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Tehran called for Wash-ington to be held accountable for the sanctions that have hampered its efforts to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

The Iranian health ministry said 90 new deaths in the past 24 hours took the country’s overall coronavirus death toll to 5,481. “Today, the corona-virus has spread not only in Iran but in almost all countries, and it requires serious effort and collective action to deal with it,” said Iran’s deputy foreign min-ister, Abbas Araghchi.

Iraq releases 20,000 detainees amid COVID-19 pandemicANATOLIA — BAGHDAD

The Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council yesterday announced that more than 20,000 detainees had been released so far as part of measures to curb the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The council’s statement said that this decision came “in line with the decisions of the [Iraqi]

Crisis Cell regarding reducing the risks of the spread of the coronavirus.”

The statement said that the number of defendants detainees released as of April 22 had risen to 20,040.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Iraq, the author-ities have taken several measures to curb the virus, including a complete

lockdown, suspension of flights, closure of universities and schools and ban on the entry of foreigners.

As of Wednesday, 1,631 coronavirus infections were confirmed across Iraq, including 83 deaths and a total of 1,146 recoveries.

Iraqi authorities expect to have fully contained the virus by next summer.

Turkey begins 4-day coronavirus curfew in 31 provincesANATOLIA — ANKARA

Turkey began enforcing a four-day curfew in 31 provinces to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The curfew notice, sent in a circular by the Interior Min-istry to the governors of the provinces, was ordered in the capital Ankara as well as Adana, Antalya, Aydin, Balikesir, Bursa, Denizli, Diya-rbakir, Erzurum, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahramanmaras, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mersin, Mugla, Ordu, Sakarya, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Tekirdag, T r a b z o n , V a n a n d Zonguldak.

According to the circular, bakeries, hospitals, pharmacies and workplaces producing health products and medical supplies will continue to operate.

Markets and grocery stores will operate from 9 am to 2 pm. on April 23-24 due to the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

They will be closed on April

25 and 26. People who work in certain job sectors will be exempted.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that

Turkey planned to extend its curfew over the weekend in 31 provinces as part of measures against the virus.

April 23 is a public holiday

commemorating the foundation of Turkey’s parliament and the country also observes National Sovereignty Day and Children’s Day every year.

For the first time, Turkey imposed a 48-hour curfew in 31 provinces across the country on April 11-12 as part of measures to combat COVID-19.

The country confirmed 117 more fatalities from the coro-navirus Wednesday, bringing

Meanwhile, the death toll in Israel from coronavirus has risen to 191 after two more people died, the country’s Health Ministry said yesterday.

The ministry said 94 new cases were reported in the country, bringing the tally to 14,592.

At least 136 of them are in critical condition, it added.

The government has taken some measures to stem the spread of the virus, including closure of all educational insti-tutes and banning gatherings of more than two people.

All businesses with the exception of supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations and banks have been closed since March 15. Moreover, Tel Aviv banned the entry of foreign cit-izens except those with Israeli residency.

Turkish citizens stand in line as they check in for the flight of the Turkish Airlines, during their evacuation amid the coronavirus pandemic, at the Boryspil International Airport near Kiev, Ukraine, yesterday.

Iran’s coronavirus toll rises, but holding steady at under 100 new deaths per dayREUTERS — TEHRAN

Iranians have returned to shops, bazaars and parks this week as the country eases coro-navirus restrictions, and the daily increase in the death toll from the illness remained below 100 yesterday.

Iran has been one of the countries worst hit by the out-break in the Middle East.

The death toll rose by 90 in the past 24 hours to 5,481, while the total number of con-firmed cases rose to 87,026, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement.

The daily rise in the death toll has held below 100 since April 14 as the country’s leaders have pushed to resume ordinary life.

Authorities allowed shopping malls, bazaars and parks to re-open this week and also lifted a ban on inter-city travel. State TV showed footage earlier this week of highways in Tehran packed with cars and groups of people out shopping.

Seeking a balance between protecting public health and shielding an economy already battered by sanctions, the gov-ernment has refrained from

imposing wholesale lockdowns of cities like those seen in many other countries.

But it has extended closures of schools and universities and banned cultural, religious and sports gatherings.

Iran called for the US to be held accountable for “cruel” sanctions that have hampered its efforts to fight a coronavirus outbreak that it said claimed another 90 lives.

The Islamic republic has been struggling to contain the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease since revealing its first cases more than two months ago.

UN warns Israel over West Bank annexationAFP — UNITED NATIONS

The UN’s special Middle East envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, yesterday warned Israel not to annex parts of the West Bank, saying such a move would be a “devastating blow” to the interna-tionally-backed two-state solution.

In a video briefing with the Security Council, which holds a meeting each month on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mladenov hailed what he called “inspiring examples of cooper-ation across conflict lines” in the

coronavirus battle. But he warned that in the

past month, there has also been “continued confrontation and fighting, as the human toll of war continues to rise.”

“The dangerous prospect of annexation by Israel of parts of the occupied West Bank is a growing threat,” Mladenov said, warning that such a move would violate international law.

The envoy said annexation would also “deal a devastating blow to the two-state solution, close the door to a renewal of

negotiations, and threaten efforts to advance regional peace.”

A peace plan unveiled earlier this year by US President Donald Trump — which was rejected by the Palestinians and condemned by much of the international community — gave Israel the green light to annex Jewish settlements and other strategic territory in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu and par-liament speaker Benny Gantz

struck a power-sharing deal this week, after three inconclusive elections in less than a year. Netanyahu has heralded the Trump plan as a historic oppor-tunity for Israel but Gantz has been more cautious.

Mladenov called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to “seize this moment to take steps towards peace.” He also urged them to “reject unilateral moves that will only deepen the wedge between the two peoples and undermine the chances for peace.”

Saudi-led truce in Yemen expires amid fears of COVID-19 disasterREUTERS — DUBAI

A two-week ceasefire in Yemen announced by a Saudi-led military coalition expired yesterday without leading to a permanent truce, raising fears that the country’s war will grind on and shatter its already weakened ability to combat coronavirus.

The latest Yemen peace push follows UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s call last month for a global ceasefire so the world can focus on fighting COVID-19, which aids groups worry could cause a catastrophe in Yemen after five years of war.

But the Iran-aligned Houthi group battling the coalition did not accept the coalition’s ceasefire announcement, and violence has continued in several provinces including Marib, the last stronghold of the Saudi-backed government.

Two diplomats and two other sources familiar with the matter had expected an extension of the ceasefire for at least another two weeks, if not until the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, expected to begin this week.

But since the Houthis continued their attacks, the coalition did not extend it, they said. The Western-backed alliance has responded to recent Houthi advances with air strikes.

“It was rather a symbolic ceasefire than an actual one, the coalition does not see the point of extending it,” one of the sources close to the discussions told Reuters. A spokesman of the coa-lition did not respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

“The Houthis could conduct an assault on Marib city very soon if there is no agreement, this would be another disastrous episode in the ground war after the battles for (the Red Sea port of) Hodeidah in 2018,” said a Saudi-based Western diplomat.

The Saudi-backed government was ousted from power in the capital, Sana'a, in late 2014 by the Houthi movement, which now holds most big urban centres.

During the past two weeks, the United Nations has sought to hold virtual talks among the parties to cement a truce, coordinate a coronavirus response and agree confidence-building measures to restart peace talks. The pressing need is to end a ruinous war that has left millions vulnerable to disease. While Yemen has reported only one laboratory-confirmed case of the novel coro-navirus, aid organisations fear a “catastrophic” outbreak should the virus spread among an acutely malnourished population, due to the country’s inadequate testing capabilities.

The latest confrontation came after the United States accused Iran of harassing its ships in the Gulf last week. The US president said he had “instructed the Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea”.

05FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2020 ISLAM

The essence of RamadanHABIB SIDDIQUI

Muslims throughout the world are now observing Ramadan from today, the month of

fasting in accordance with the dictates of the Holy Quran, in which they are commanded by Allah:

O ye who believe! Fasting is pre-scribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint (Taqwa). (Quran 2:183)

The word “Ramadan” comes from the Arabic root word for “parched thirst” and “sun-baked ground.” Through fasting, a Muslim experiences hunger and thirst, and sympathizes with those in the world who have little to eat and drink every day. It teaches him/her to be charitable. Through increased charity, Muslims develop feelings of generosity and good-will toward others.

As is clear from the above Quranic verse, the essence of fasting is learning Taqwa, which is more than self-restraint (translated above). It is God-consciousness which endows the person (the Muttaqi) to be aware of the presence of Allah in every moment of his/her life.

As to the characteristics of a Muttaqi, the Quran says:

It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces towards east or west; but it is righteousness - to believe in God and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers; to spend of your substance, out of love for Him, for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer, and practice regular charity; to fulfill the contracts which ye have made; and to be firm and patient, in pain (or suffering) and adversity, and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of truth, the muttaqoon. (Quran 2:177)

In his famous book Kimiya-e Sa’dat, Imam Al Ghazzali (r) tells the story of a Shaykh, Junayd Al Baghdadi (r), who favoured one of his disciples over others because of the latter’s God-consciousness. Other disciples obvi-ously were jealous about the Shaykh’s favouritism. One day to prove the point, the Shaykh gave each disciple a fowl to kill it in a place where no one could see him. All the disciples returned after killing their fowls, except the favoured disciple. The Shaykh inquired why he had returned with the live fowl. The disciple replied, “I could not find a place where Allah would not see me.”

His God-consciousness (Taqwa) did not allow him to be heedless of Allah’s presence. The Shaykh then told his other disciples: “Now you know this youth’s real rank; he has attained to the constant remembrance of Allah.”

Fasting increases devotion, and brings a Muslim closer to the Creator. It creates the recognition that every-thing we have in this life is a blessing from Him. It teaches self-control or -restraint, and thereby, good manners, good speech, and good habits.

Fasting during Ramadan is one of the major pillars of Islam, and this is also noted in the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) blessings of Allah and peace be upon him who said: “Islam is based on (the following) five (principles):

To testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and Muhammad (peace be upon him) is

Allah’s Apostle; to establish the prayers;to pay Zakat (i.e. obligatory charity);to perform Haj (i.e. Pilgrimage to

Makkah);to observe fast during the month

of Ramadan.” [Bukhari: (narrated by) Abdullah Ibn ‘Umar]

While fasting is an obligation for all able-bodied persons who are not traveling or sick, it is also clear from some other verses of the Quran and numerous sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that fasting is not restricted to the month of Ramadan, and can be observed voluntarily at other times.

The Prophet (PBUH) used to fast on Mondays and Thursdays almost on a regular basis. Fasting a certain number of days (or offering charity or sacrifice) can be an expiation for missing out (or unintentionally breaking) some religious obligations of either Haj or ‘Umrah (Quran 2:196, 5:96), and for forgetting or breaking one’s oaths or promises (Quran 5:89).

Great merits and rewards - both physical and spiritual - can be drawn from fasting. As noted by Dr. Shahid Athar, M.D., “The physiological effect of fasting includes lowering of blood sugar, lowering of cholesterol and low-ering of the systolic blood pressure. In fact, Ramadan fasting would be an ideal recommendation for the treatment of mild to moderate, stable, non-insulin diabetes, obesity, and essential hypertension.”

As stated in the Quran, Allah promises forgiveness and vast reward for a fasting person: Lo! Muslim men and women (who submit to Allah), and

men who believe and women who believe, and men who obey and women who obey, and men who speak the truth and women who speak the truth, and men who persevere (in right-eousness) and women who persevere, and men who are humble and women who are humble, and men who give alms and women who give alms, and men who fast and women who fast, and men who guard their modesty and women who guard (their modesty), and men who remember Allah much and women who remember - Allah hath prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward. (Quran 33:35)

In a well-known hadith, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “Allah, the Almighty and Master of Honour, says: ‘All actions of a person are for himself, except the case of his fasting which is exclusively for Me and I shall pay (rec-ompense) for him for the same.’ The fast is a shield (against vice and the fire of Hell). Therefore when anyone of you is fasting he should abstain from loose talk and avoid verbosity and noisy exchange of words.” [Bukhari and Muslim: Abu Hurayrah]

And when one combines such mer-itorious deeds like prayer, fasting and charity (three of the five pillars of Islam) during the month of Ramadan, which is described as a month of blessing when the Quran was revealed, Allah promises immense rewards. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Allah’s Apostle said: “Whoever establishes prayers during the nights of Ramadan faithfully out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah’s rewards (not for showing off), all his past sins will be forgiven.” [Bukhari: Abu Hurayrah]

To a Muslim, it is this state of God-consciousness, attainable through fasting — for surely, the evils of the nafs (ego, evil-self, etc.) cannot be tamed without this, which is learned in the blessed month of Ramadan. It is at this stage that a person truly becomes Allah’s servant (‘abd) for whom He says in the Quran:

When My servants ask thee (Muhammad) concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them): I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calleth on Me: Let them also, with a will, Listen to My call, and believe in Me: That they may walk in the right way. (2: 186)

Alas, today’s Muslims are a far cry from those who follow the dictates of the Quran. They may like to listen to the advice of Ibrahim ibn Adham (r), a great saint of Islam, when he was asked, “Allahu ta’ala declares: ‘O My human creatures! Ask Me! I will accept, I will give!’ Nonetheless, we ask but He does not give?”

Ibrahim (r) said: “You entreat Allahu ta’ala, but you do not obey Him. You know His Prophet (PBUH), but you do not follow him. You read the Quran Al Karim, but you do not follow the way it prescribes. You utilize Allah ta’ala’s blessings, but you do not thank Him. You know that Paradise is for those who worship, but you do not make preparations for it. You know that He has created Hell for the disobedient, but you do not fear it. You see what happened to your fathers and grand-fathers, but you do not take a warning. You do not see your own defects, and you search for defects in others. Such people must be thankful, since it does

not rain stones on them, since they do not sink into the earth, and since it does not rain fire from the sky! What else could they want? Would not this suffice as a recompense for their prayers?” (Ithbat an-Nubuwwat)

On another occasion, somebody asked the Ibrahim ibn Adham (r) for advice. He said: “If you accept six things, nothing you do will harm you. These six things are: When you intend to commit a sin, do not eat the food Allah gives. Does it befit you to eat His food and to disobey Him?

When you want to rebel against Him, go out of His Domain. Does it befit you to be in His Domain and to be in rebellion against Him?

When you want to disobey Him, do not sin where He sees you. Sin where He does not see you! It is simply unbe-coming to be in His Domain, to eat His food and then to sin where He sees you!

When the Angel of Death comes to take away your soul, ask him to wait till you repent. You cannot turn that angel back! Repent before he comes, while you have the chance at this very hour, for the Angel of Death comes unexpectedly!

When the two angels Munkar and Nakir come to question you in the grave, turn them back. Do not let them test you!”

“It is impossible,” said the person who asked for his advice.

Ibrahim (r) said, “Then prepare your answers now!”

On the Day of Resurrection, when Allah ta’ala declares: “Sinners, go to Hell!” say that you will not!

The person said, “Nobody will listen to me,” and then repented; he did not disavow his sense of penitence up until death. There is a Divine effect in the words of a saint. Islamic Wisdom.

May this Ramadan lay the foun-dation stone to the path of Taqwa!

Dr Habib Siddiqui has authored 10 books. His latest book is Devotional Stories. www.islamcity.org

MOHAMED ABDEL RAOUF

Fasting during Ramadan involves refraining from food, liquids and sex from

dawn to sunset as well as focusing on prayers, charity, helping others, and on good deeds. The responsible attitude of a Muslim during Ramadan is very crucial for the correctness and acceptance of his fast, Insha Allah.

In fact, Ramadan offers a real chance to inculcate a pos-itive change in our attitude towards the environment. Without doubt, adopting an eco-friendly lifestyle in general and especially during Ramadan is not only a social responsi-bility, but also a religious duty as man’s existence and well-being is dependent upon a healthy environment.

In Islam, man’s relation to the earth is seen as that of a custodian mainly responsible for improving the quality of life and guaranteeing a healthy environment. “Now, behold! Your Lord said to the angels: I

am placing upon the earth a human successor to steward it” (Quran, 2:30).

It is required that man should work towards the con-servation of earth, ensuring sustainability of natural resources for future genera-tions. In short, to be a Muslim is to pray (worship) and to be a custodian (to develop earth). This is very clear in the liter-ature on the fundamentals of Islamic religion.

Recently, in environmental science, the concept of “eco-logical footprint” is used fre-quently as a metaphor to depict the amount of land and water area a human population would hypothetically need to provide the resources required to support itself and to absorb its wastes and emissions, given prevailing technology.

Footprinting is now widely used around the globe as an indicator of environmental sus-tainability. It can be used to measure and manage the use of resources throughout the

economy. It is commonly used to explore the sustainability of individual lifestyles, goods and services, organisations, industry, regions and nations.

The idea of footprint is already rooted in Islamic culture and values and there are many examples and verses in the Quran and Sunnah that urge Muslims to reduce their footprint and ask them to live lightly on earth. The Quran describes believers of Allah as those who “walk on the Earth in humility” (Quran, 25:63).

When asked about how the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to live in his house, the Prophet’s wife, Ayeshah (may Allah be pleased with her), said that he used to repair his shoes, sew his clothes, and carry out all such household tasks without complaint or want for more (authenticated by Al Albani).

The idea behind this was to show Muslims that menial tasks were not degrading for Allah’s Prophet (PBUH). Reusing and repairing things instead of

always buying new is not a sign of poverty, they are a sign of power. By performing household duties, the Prophet (PBUH) was saying we can build foundations on less ‘stuff,’ we are in control of what we consume, and we do not need more.

Of course, every individual is in control of what he uses, what he eats, what he does, and where he goes. Every person will leave an ecological footprint.

Your ecological footprint, in simple words, is related to your consumption and the total amount of pollution and emis-sions that you produce in life by using energy, especially fossil fuel, through transpor-tation, use of electricity, con-sumption of certain food, clothes that require transpor-tation and industrial fertilisers and so on.

Muslims should seize the opportunity of the holy month of Ramadan as a time to reduce, for instance, their carbon foot-prints by recycling, carpooling, using public transportation

more often, reducing energy and water consumption, and investing in clean energy.

Also, we need to rethink many of our current con-sumption patterns from a sus-tainability point of view. In other words, our consumption has to be “green” and that means doing something that protects and supports the envi-ronment and doing things that take into consideration the car-rying capacity and ecological footprint. That, in turn, means that natural resources should be able to support current as well as future generations.

Muslims should go beyond fasting and really look at the broader consequences of responsibilities towards earth and humanity. The month of Ramadan is a golden oppor-tunity to consider reducing their footprint through deeds that are non-polluting, non-wasteful, and are not damaging to natural resources. Reducing footprint will simply mean achieving sustainable

development and ensuring better quality of life for future generations as well.

Let us seize the opportunity that Ramadan offers and adopt exemplary behavior that really reduces our footprint and hope that this responsible pro-envi-ronmental lifestyle will continue all year round. There is an opportunity for real change, not only in Ramadan, but also afterward.

The writer is a research fellow in the Environmental Research Programme of the Gulf Research Center.

Being eco-friendly in the holy month

A view of sunset is seen from Abu Hanifa Mosque in Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday. Today is the first day of Ramadan fasting in the Middle East and many parts of the world.

In Islam, man’s relation to the earth is seen as that of a custodian mainly responsible for improving the quality of life and guaranteeing a healthy environment. “Now, behold! Your Lord said to the angels: I am placing upon the earth a human successor to steward it” (Quran, 2:30)

The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: “Allah, the Almighty and Master of Honour, says: 'All actions of a person are for himself, except the case of his fasting which is exclusively for Me and I shall pay (recompense) for him for the same.’ The fast is a shield against vice and the fire of Hell. Therefore when anyone of you is fasting he should abstain from loose talk and avoid verbosity and noisy exchange of words.” (Bukhari & Muslim)

06 FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2020MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

WHO warns malaria deaths could double during virus pandemicAFP — GENEVA

The new coronavirus pandemic could severely disrupt access to anti-malaria nets and drugs in sub-Saharan Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday, warning that malaria deaths risked doubling if efforts are not urgently scaled up.

The UN health agency called on countries in sub-Saharan Africa — where nearly 95 percent of all the world’s malaria cases and deaths occur — to distribute malaria pre-vention and treatment tools now, before they become over-whelmed with novel corona-virus cases.

“Severe disruptions to insecticide-treated net cam-paigns and access to antima-larial medicines could lead to a doubling in the number of malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa this year compared to 2018,” the WHO warned, citing new modelling analysis.

The analysis, it said, con-siders nine scenarios for potential disruptions in access to core malaria control tools during the pandemic across 41 countries, and the resulting possible increases in cases and deaths.

Under the worst-case sce-nario, in which all campaigns to distribute insecticide-treated nets are suspended and there is a 75-percent reduction in access to effective antimalarial medicines, “the estimated tally of malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020 would reach 769,000,” WHO said.

That is twice the number of deaths reported in the region in 2018, it stressed.

“This would be the highest number of deaths seen in the region since the year 2000,” WHO Africa director Matshidiso Moeti told journalists during a virtual briefing from Brazzaville.

The hike would have par-ticularly dire consequences for young children, with those under five making up more than two-thirds of all malaria deaths in 2018.

WHO stressed that so far, sub-Saharan African countries had reported relatively few cases in the COVID-19 pan-demic, which has killed more than 180,000 people globally and infected more than 2.6 million.

But the agency, which has long warned that weak health systems in the region risked becoming seriously over-whelmed as cases increase, said

the virus was picking up pace there.

“This means that countries across the region have a critical window of opportunity to min-imise disruptions in malaria prevention and treatment and save lives at this stage of the COVID-19 outbreak,” it said.

Not acting now could have serious repercussions, Moeti warned.

She pointed to the expe-rience of tackling the Ebola crisis from 2014 to 2016, when more people died from diseases previously under control than from the epidemic.

“Let us not repeat that with COVID-19,” Moeti said.

“I urge and encourage all countries to maintain malaria interventions in line with WHO recommendations to ensure that health workers and com-munities are protected.”

In a separate statement Thursday, the WHO also reit-erated its call to maintain immunisation services worldwide to ensure the measures taken to halt the pan-demic do not end up sparking a resurgence of vaccine-pre-ventable diseases like measles and polio.

“While the world strives to develop a new vaccine for COVID-19 at record speed, we must not risk losing the fight to protect everyone, everywhere against vaccine-preventable diseases,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement.

“These diseases will come roaring back if we do not vaccinate.”

A resident walks past members of the military at Bara taxi rank, during a nationwide lockdown, aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus disease, in Soweto, South Africa, yesterday.

African nations to get 300 ventilators from Jack Ma FoundationREUTERS — ADDIS ABABA

African nations that lack venti-lators for the treatment of COVID-19 patients will receive some from a donation of 300 supplied by the Jack Ma Foun-dation, the head of the conti-nent’s disease control body said yesterday.

John Nkengasong, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a branch of the African Union, said last week that ten uniden-tified African nations were facing the pandemic without a single ventilator.

“Those countries without ventilators will be prioritised,” he told a news conference, adding that they will arrive in the coming weeks.

Ma, the Chinese billionaire founder of Alibaba Group, has

donated thousands of tests kits for the new coronavirus, masks and protective gear to all African nations.

The African Union was working to set up its own joint procurement system, to facilitate market access for diagnostic and medical supplies to its member states. The COVID-19 pandemic has driven up demand for those products across the world.

“We have to recognise that we as a continent are competing for the same resources that eve-rybody else in the world is com-peting for,” Nkengasong said.

He described the testing sit-uation across Africa as “very dis-appointing.” “As of this week in a continent of 1.3 billion people, just about 415 thousands tests have been conducted,” he said, urging governments to scale up testing to be ahead of the virus.

He said that in the coming months, the goal is to test 10 million people across the con-tinent. Africa’s 54 countries have so far reported fewer than 26,000 confirmed cases of the disease, just a fraction of the more than two million cases reported globally.

But the World Health Organi-sation warned last week that Africa could see as many as 10 million cases in three to six months, citing its own tentative model.

The African CDC is working with governments on plans for easing the restrictions placed to slow the virus.

Two West African countries, Burkina Faso and Ghana, eased some coronavirus-related restrictions this week, to test the possibility of a return to a semblance of normality after weeks of shutdowns .

Rwanda employs drones to battle killer malariaANATOLIA — KIGALI

When the world is battling to stem the spread of coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic, African country Rwanda is employing drones to eradicate another killer disease malaria. But this aerial spraying which began on March 10 has brought environ-mentalists face to face with health activists.

Dismissing fears of green activists, health officials say the aerial spraying has proved precise and effective in killing the larva that spread malaria.

According to the latest World malaria report, released in December 2019, 228 million cases of malaria were reported in 2018 with 405,000 deaths.

The African continent is home to 94 percent of malaria deaths.

Living in a swampy area in the Gasabo district, farmers like Coltida Mukakimenyi, are pinning hopes on drone spray technology, expecting that it may save them from the killer disease. The mother of three children, malaria has devas-tated her family.

“It is common to have all my children suffer from malaria at least once a month because we live near swamps and I partly blame myself for not taking mosquito nets,” she said.

It is the same story for Maria Mukamana, 35, living in Rugenge village, in the same swampy Gasabo district. Living in the wetlands — a mosquito

breeding ground — at least once in two months one of her family members gets infected with malaria.

The single mother of two children is among the 10 million Rwandans who are covered by the Community Based Health Insurance, locally known as CBHI. But, she complains that this does not cover her primary needs of food.

Both the lady farmers rue that they had not registered for a free mosque net, distributed by the government last year.

This is not the first time that Rwanda has turned to tech-nology to improve access to healthcare services.

In June 2016, Rwanda became the first country in the

world to use drones developed by Zipline, a Silicon Valley company, to deliver blood samples to health workers on the ground. The technique reduced the time from four hours to just 15 minutes, as ambulances had to negotiate with treacherous roads.

“Mosquitoes have become resistant to the indoor sprays thus continue to survive in the open environment. This means they continue spreading the disease especially among young people who spend more time out in the evenings,” Aline Uwimana, manager at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) told Anadolu Agency. The center is part of the National Malaria Prevention Unit.

Nigerian governors to ban interstate movement to contain coronavirusREUTERS — ABUJA

The governors of Nigeria’s 36 states have agreed to ban inter-state movement for two weeks in an effort to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, a joint statement said.

Lagos and Ogun states, as well as Nigerian capital Abuja, are already under federally imposed lockdowns, while various states have instigated their own con-tainment measures.

“Governors unanimously agreed to the implementation of an interstate lockdown in the country over the next two weeks to mitigate the spread of the virus from state to state,” the Nigeria Governors’ Forum

said in a statement issued late on Wednesday.

Only essential services will be permitted, the statement added without providing further detail.

Only President Muhammadu Buhari can impose a total ces-sation of interstate movement. However, individual states can block entry points. States including Akwa Ibom, Cross Rivers, Ebonyi, and Abia have already used barriers to stop people entering their states.

A spokesman for the pres-ident’s office declined to comment.

Nigeria has reported 873 confirmed coronavirus cases and 28 deaths from the virus.

Libyans shopping on eve of RamadanLibyans buy fresh vegetables at a market in the capital Tripoli, ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, amid coronavirus pandemic crisis, yesterday.

Madagascar hands out ‘miracle’ virus cureAFP — ANTANANARIVO

Unarmed Madagascar soldiers went door-to-door in the capital Antananarivo, doling out sachets of a local herbal tea touted by President Andry Rajoelina as a powerful remedy against the novel coronavirus.

Named Covid-Organics, the tonic is derived from artemisia — a plant with proven efficacy in treating malaria — as well as other indigenous herbs.

It has been developed by the Madagascar Institute of Applied Research (IMRA) but has not been tested interna-tionally. “This herbal tea gives results in seven days,” Rajoelina announced at its official launch on Tuesday.

“We can change the history of the entire world,” he said, after downing a dose. “Two people have now been cured by this treatment.” Mainstream scientists have warned of the potential risk from untested herbal brews.

There is currently no known cure for coronavirus, which has infected at least 121 people in Madagascar and more than 2.6 million worldwide.

Yet military officials on the Indian Ocean island nation say the infusion would be better

than nothing. “It will strengthen immunity,” said military doctor Colonel Willy Ratovondrainy on state television, as troops launched a mass distribution campaign.

In pairs, soldiers followed people through Antananarivo’s narrow alleyways into their homes.

“Good morning, we are here to distribute the Covid-Organics tea,” one of them said.

Jean-Louis Rakotonan-drasana gratefully accepted the free packet of herbs. “We are eager to try this infusion since we saw president Rajoelina drink it on tel-evision,” the 58-year-old said.

Most of Madagascar’s 26 million inhabitants live in grinding poverty with limited access to healthcare and regu-larly take herbal teas for a variety of common ailments.

“I think it’s great,” said Dominique Rabefarihy, clutching a sachet of Covid-Organics in the poor Anka-zomanga neighbourhood.

“It reassures me that sol-diers are watching out for my family’s health and security,” the housewife said.

Madagascar deployed the army last month to help enforce a lockdown in its three main cities to curb the spread of COVID-19.

GNA forces strike Haftar’s militia in southern TripoliANATOLIA — TRIPOLI

Libya’s UN-recognised government of National Accord (GNA) yesterday launched an offensive against fighters affil-iated with renegade general Khalifa Haftar in the south of the capital Tripoli.

Mustafa Al Majei, spokesman for the GNA-led Burkan Al Ghadab (Volcano of Rage)

Operation, said that the GNA forces launched an offensive against Haftar’s militia in the Al Khallatat area. He added that GNA forces destroyed three armed vehicles for Haftar’s militia, noting that fighting still continued in the area.

The GNA has been under attack by Haftar’s forces since last April, with more than 1,000 killed in the violence. It

launched Operation ‘Peace Storm’ on March 26 to counter attacks on the capital.

Since the ouster of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, two seats of power have emerged in Libya: Haftar in eastern Libya, supported by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, and the GNA in Tripoli, which enjoys UN and international recognition.

Split in Sudan’s ruling political coalitionANATOLIA — KHARTOUM

Sudan’s ruling political coalition, the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), saw a split yesterday as one of the main political parties suspended its participation in the alliance.

The National Umma Party (NUP), headed by ex-Prime Min-ister Alsadig Almahdi and which led protests against former Pres-ident Omar Al Bashir, has called for reformation in the pro-democracy coalition.

It urged the coalition to adopt a new “social contract” to push forward the transi-tional period that is supposed to end in 2022 with new general elections. In a statement, the NUP gave the coalition two weeks to respond to its demands.

“The FFC components have engaged in blame game and minor political tactics against each other,” the communique read. “Disputes over the eco-nomic reformation have worsened the situation... The current methodology of peace talks will end with nothing.” The FFC is a coalition of a number of parties that organised the popular protests against Bashir, and pushed the army to remove him in April 2019.

“Severe disruptions to insecticide-treated net campaigns and access to antimalarial medicines could lead to a doubling in the number of malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa this year compared to 2018,” the WHO warned

07FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2020 ASIA

Delhi suspends rapid antibody testing for COVID-19IANS — NEW DELHI

The Delhi government has suspended the rapid antibody testing for coronavirus (COVID-19), after the Indian Council of Medical Research told the states to stop using the newly-distributed Chinese testing kits.

The ICMR has said huge variations in the accuracy of results were noticed across the regions.

A health official said that the government had started using the kits on Monday.

“We have stopped using the rapid testing kits and will restart it after Centre’s nod,” an

official said yesterday.A day after its trial in the

Lok Nayak hospital here, the Delhi government on Monday started the use of rapid antibody test kits in the con-tainment zones in the Central district.

According to the Health Department, the kits were used in the Nabi Karim area and all the people have been tested negative.

The national capital acquired 42,000 rapid antibody test kits on Sunday and was aiming to use all the kits in a week.

The kits, according to the

Health Department, were totest the presence of coronavirus antibodies.

“This will be used on people who have even minor (corona-virus) symptoms. In this test, we will see if the body has developed the antibodies. If this comes pos-itive, then we will need to have a confirmatory RT-PCR test,” the official had said.

About 90 containment zones have been formed across the city to contain the spread of the infection after positive cases were found in the locality.

Several of Delhi’s con-tainment zones have seen a jump in coronavirus cases.

China to give $30m more to WHO after US freezes fundsAFP — BEIJING

China announced yesterday that it will give another $30m to the World Health Organi-zation (WHO) to help in the global fight against the corona-virus pandemic, days after Washington said it would freeze funding.

The US, which is the WHO’s biggest contributor, accused the organisation last week of “mis-managing” the COVID-19 crisis, drawing ire from Beijing as both countries spar over the deadly virus.

F o r e i g n m i n i s t r y spokesman Geng Shuang said the new donation would be in addition to a previous $20m committed, and would help “strengthen developing coun-tries’ health systems”.

He added that China’s con-tribution to the UN agency “reflects the support and trust of the Chinese government and people for the WHO”.

In announcing the funding freeze last week, US President Donald Trump accused the WHO of covering up the seri-ousness of the coronavirus out-break in China before it spread.

He has also charged the WHO with being “very China-centric” despite Washington’s heavy funding.

According to Trump, US taxpayers provided between $400m and $500m per year to the WHO, while “in contrast, China contributes roughly $40m a year and even less”.

Trump also claimed the outbreak could have been con-tained with “very little death” had the WHO assessed the sit-uation in China accurately.

The deadly virus, which has claimed more than 181,000 lives worldwide, first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, which was locked down in late January to curb the spread.

It continued its global march, however, with cases reported in 193 countries and territories to date, ravaging economies around the globe.

Beijing has urged the US to support WHO-led international action against the pandemic after it halted funding, while observers warned that the US freeze would have conse-quences for the WHO’s other disease control programmes around the world.

China has denied Western suggestions that it covered up the extent of the virus out-break, rejecting claims it has an overly cosy relationship

with the WHO as well.But local authorities did

silence doctors who tried to raise the alarm about the virus in Wuhan in December.

An investigation deter-mined that police “inappropri-ately” punished one of the whistleblowers, Li Wenliang, an eye doctor who later died of the COVID-19 disease.

The WHO, under the lead-ership of Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has been accused by Washington of uncritically accepting China’s early assertions that the virus was not spread between humans, and of wrongly praising Beijing’s “trans-parency” over the magnitude of the crisis.

The pandemic, combined with the threat of a halt in US funding, marks the biggest challenge to date in Tedros’ near three-year tenure.

“Supporting the WHO at this critical time in the global fight against the epidemic is defending the ideals and prin-ciples of multilateralism and upholding the status and authority of the United Nations,” Geng said.

The US is the country worst-hit by the coronavirus, with a death toll of around 46,000.

Numbers in China have dwindled as it begins to cau-tiously lift virus control measures, although fears remain over a potential resur-gence and imported infections from abroad.

A health official uses a swab to collect a sample from a man for coronavirus testing from inside a mobile testing van, at Changodar village some 20km from Ahmedabad, yesterday.

UN concerned over ‘grave immediate risk’ to Rohingyas on boatsREUTERS — DHAKA

The UN refugee agency UNHCR voiced mounting concern yesterday over a “grave imme-diate risk” to Rohingya refugees aboard boats in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, urging Southeast Asian nations not to close avenues to asylum.

Several fishing trawlers car-rying hundreds of Rohingya, members of a minority from Myanmar, are bound for Bang-ladesh, after being turned back from Malaysia where they were seeking asylum, according to

the rights groups.Last week, a boat carrying

nearly 400 starving and ema-ciated Rohingya arrived on the southern coast of Bangladesh after drifting for weeks in the sea between Thailand and Malaysia, the Bangladesh coast guard said. Survivors said dozens had died.

Indrika Ratwatte, director of UNHCR’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, said it was urging “greater coordination and responsibility-sharing by states” to avert a crisis.

“We are increasingly

concerned by reports of failure to disembark vessels in distress and of the grave immediate risk this poses to the men, women and children on board,” he said.

“In the context of the unprecedented current COVID-19 crisis, all states must manage their borders as they see fit. But such measures should not result in the closure of avenues to asylum, or of forcing people to return to sit-uations of danger.”

Malaysian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Human rights groups fear restrictions to stem the spread of the virus across Southeast Asia could trigger a repeat of a 2015 crisis when a crackdown by Thailand prompted smug-glers to abandon Rohingya at sea on crowded, rickety boats.

Bangladesh officials have said they will not accept new arrivals, but a coast guard official said a search was underway for the boats.

“If we cannot rescue these Rohingya people then who will take the responsibility for their lives?” another official said.

More than a million Rohingya live in refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, the majority having been driven from homes in Myanmar after a 2017 military crackdown which the Myanmar army said was a response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents.

Myanmar denies perse-cuting Rohingya and says they are not an indigenous ethnic group but rather immigrants from South Asia, even though many Rohingya are able to trace their ancestry back centuries.

Motorists wearing face masks ride on a busy road in Hanoi, as Vietnam eased its nationwide social isolation effort to prevent the spread of the COVID-19, yesterday.

Vietnam relaxes virus restrictions as cases plateauAFP — HANOI

Vietnam government eased social distancing measures yesterday, with experts pointing to a decisive response involving mass quarantines and expansive contact tracing for the apparent success in containing the coronavirus.

Despite a long and porous border with China, the Southeast Asian nation has recorded just 268 virus cases and zero deaths, according to official tallies.

Although the numbers tested for COVID-19 are rela-tively low and experts caution the authoritarian government’s health ministry is the sole source for the figures, they also say there is little reason to dis-trust them.

Vietnam was one of the first nations to ban flights to and

from mainland China and in early February, when it had barely more than a dozen cases, villages with 10,000 people close to the country’s capital Hanoi were placed under quarantine.

There has also been aggressive contact tracing.

Vietnam’s success in con-vincing the public to cooperate has been key, said Takeshi Kasai, the World Health Organ-ization’s Western Pacific regional director.

“They’re really doing their part,” he said earlier this week, adding he believed around 80,000 people were placed under quarantine.

“I think that’s the reason why they were able to continue to keep the number (of infec-tions) small.”

There are now almost no international flights arriving

in Vietnam and the country has been under partial lockdown since the beginning of April.

The streets of Hanoi — nor-mally flooded with motorbikes, tourists and vendors — have been virtually deserted, save those most in need queueing at so-called rice ATMs for handouts.

The strict controls have apparently paid off.

After reporting no new infections for the sixth consec-utive day on Wednesday, the government said some shops and services will be allowed to reopen.

Yesterday, a few of the cap-ital’s cafes had resumed service, although the streets were still fairly quiet.

Some schools up and down the country will reopen next week.

Virus-stricken cruise ship leaves AustraliaAFP — SYDNEY

A cruise ship linked to hundreds of coronavirus infec-tions and at least 19 deaths in Australia departed yesterday, leaving behind a criminal investigation and public outrage over the handling of the stricken vessel.

Crew members waved from the Ruby Princess as it left Port Kembla, about 80km south of Sydney and where it was docked for more than two weeks, with a large banner hanging from the stern thanking locals.

It is reportedly bound for Manila in the Philippines.

Police are investigating operator Carnival Australia over the circumstances that led to nearly 2,700 passengers — some showing flu-like symptoms — disembarking in mid-March and going home.

Hundreds were later diag-nosed with COVID-19 and at least 19 have died from the disease — accounting for about a quarter of the total number of virus-related fatalities in Australia.

Almost 200 crew members were also diagnosed with the virus, though only the most seriously ill were brought ashore for treatment.

An independent inquiry is also under way into the incident.

China has denied Western suggestions that it covered up the extent of the virus outbreak, rejecting claims it has an overly cosy relationship with the WHO as well.

South Asia coronavirus cases top 37,000, headache for govts eyeing lockdown endREUTERS — NEW DELHI

South Asia’s coronavirus infec-tions have crossed 37,000, with more than half in India, official data showed yesterday, compli-cating the task of governments looking to scale back lock-downs that have destroyed the livelihoods of millions.

Authorities in India sought this week to ease a stringent 40-day lockdown of the popu-lation of 1.3 billion by allowing farm and industrial activity in the least-affected rural areas.

But more than 1,400 new cases reported on Wednesday, for one of India’s biggest single-day jumps in recent weeks, carried its tally to 21,392 infections.

“We have to remain focused in this fight, the effort is to stop the spread at any cost,” said Satyendra Jain, the health min-

ister of Delhi.“If we want end the

lockdown, we have to bring down the number of red zones.”

In neighbouring Pakistan, which has roughly half as many cases as India, Prime Minister Imran Khan tested negative for the virus, after a meeting last week with the head of coun-try’s charity organisations, who later proved to have the virus.

But concern is growing over Pakistan’s move, in response to appeals from religious groups, to allow mosque gatherings during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, despite experts’ warnings that they could fuel uncontrollable spread of the virus.

Until now, South Asia has suffered fewer infections in the pandemic than rich nations such as Britain, Spain and the US. But that could be the result

of lower rates of testing that health experts believe may allow the virus to lurk undetected.

“We have repeatedly said there is no alternative to a testing, trace and quarantine pro-gramme,” said Sonia Gandhi, the chief of India’s main opposition Congress party. “Unfortunately, testing still remains low and testing kits are still in short supply and of poor quality.”

India has reported 21,392 cases, including 681 deaths; Pakistan has reported 10,513 cases, including 224 deaths; Afghanistan has reported 1,176 cases, including 40 deaths; Sri Lanka has reported 330 cases, including seven deaths; Bang-ladesh has reported 3,772 cases, including 120 deaths;Maldives has reported 34 cases and no deaths; Nepal has reported 45 cases and no deaths; Bhutan has reported six cases and no deaths.

Malaysia extends COVID-19 curbs, but likely with more exceptions

REUTERS — KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia will extend travel and other curbs aimed at fighting the spread of COVID-19 by two weeks to May 12, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said yesterday, but more sectors may be allowed to resume operations.

The country, which has so far reported 5,603 COVID-19 infections and 95 deaths, started a partial lockdown on March 18. For weeks Malaysia had the highest number of infections in Southeast Asia, but daily increases have now slowed to double digits.

“Should the number of

COVID-19 cases show signif-icant reduction, the gov-ernment may ease curbs on movement in stages in several sectors including the social sector,” Muhyiddin said in an address to the nation.

He added that the so-called movement control order (MCO) could still be extended further.

“Detailed guidelines will be given to investors and the cor-porate sector to restart their sectors,” he said.

“With the possibility of extending the period of the MCO, the government is studying methods to revive the economy in stages.

The novel coronavirus causing the current crisis presents a multidimensional challenge - to personal, public, economic and mental health.

08 FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMAN

SHEIKH DR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

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MOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

EDITORIAL

EVER since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the State of Qatar has taken a number of measures to safeguard the rights of its workers. The authorities have moved swiftly, not only to protect the workforce from the coronavirus infection but also from the adverse economic effects of the pandemic which are unfolding around the globe.

Qatar has looked after its workers — as well as the visitors, residents and citizens — really well, by providing state-of-the-art healthcare to all. Diplomats, observers and UN representatives have praised the country’s healthcare system which discriminates against no one.

At the same time, the government has ensured that workers who have been quarantined as a precautionary step are paid regularly every month. Those in quarantine or outside are being provided with all the necessities including food, lodging and personal hygiene stuff.

The government has slashed working hours in many sectors and implemented stringent safety and hygiene rules to protect the workers from the coronavirus. Around 80 percent of the workforce in most public and private offices is now working remotely, as per the guidelines issued by the authorities.

The government has also taken steps to ensure that all workers, even if they are working from home, continue receiving all the wages and benefits they were getting before the epidemic. The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs has also said in its guidelines that the number of teleworking hours should not exceed the average that was previously applied at the workplace.

At the same time, the Government of Qatar has briefed ambassadors and representatives of the UN agencies about the steps it has taken to fight the coronavirus pandemic and safeguard workers’ rights. On Tuesday, labour attaches from the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, Pakistan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco, and Tunisia as well as leaders from expatriate communities praised the efforts made by Qatari authorities to safeguard the workers’ rights.

The State’s strategy to deal with the pandemic, particularly in the Industrial Area, where several infection cases were detected early on, has been very effective. The reopening of some of the streets which were closed in the Industrial Area as a precautionary measure shows the success of the strategy implemented by the government. It shows the country is slowly but surely turning the tide on the coronavirus.

Protecting workers’ rights

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Quote of the day

A fundamental reform of the World Health Organization is needed following its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and that the United States, WHO's biggest donor,

may never restore funding to the UN body.

Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State

A Chinese citizen undergoing testing for coronavirus while passing through a temporary corridor opened at a border checkpoint.

The scientific method can’t save us - because it doesn’t exist.

Claims on television and Twitter notwithstanding, there is no such thing as “the scientific method,” no single set of steps or one-size-fits-all solution to the problems we face. Ask any sci-entist: what they do, individually and collectively, is too diverse, too dynamic, too difficult to follow one recipe.

But its nonexistence has never dampened the scientific method’s appeal. And now, in the face of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the question of who is (or is not) adhering to the scien-tific method feels more urgent than ever. We want to be reas-sured that rules are being fol-lowed and informed decisions are being made as we battle the virus and its disease, covid-19. Fictional or not, “the scientific method” seems to offer safety in unsafe times.

If science saves us, though, it will be because it lacks a single method. The novel coronavirus causing the current crisis presents a multidimensional challenge - to personal, public, economic and mental health. There is no single tool with which to confront such a threat; what we need is a vast tool kit.

Luckily, scientists know this. Science is about staying flexible,

trying out a variety of tools as the questions we try to answer change before our eyes. It is a process, not a product. Sup-porting scientists in our moment of need should start with a better understanding of what exactly they do all day.

Ironically, this is the same goal that got us “the scientific method.” In 1910, the philos-opher and psychologist John Dewey published a brief intro-duction to thinking in general, based on research at the Labo-ratory School he had founded at the University of Chicago. Called “How We Think,” Dewey’s book argued that teaching science properly meant paying attention to how children actually think.

If you paid attention, Dewey argued, you saw that children were already scientific thinkers - they were creative, they solved problems, they worked together. Science came naturally to them. Sure, the science practiced by adults was more advanced, with its own tools and specialized techniques. But at bottom, how scientists think is just how we think - hence the title.

Dewey emphasized that science was all around us and that was its strength. What mat-tered was that people were solving problems that interested them, that mattered. Teaching children chemistry would work only if students cared about the outcome; that was why he and his fellow teachers taught it not with chemicals in test tubes but by cooking with ingredients. The kitchen was a laboratory, a site for solving problems and showing students that science was all around them.

He also argued that science wasn’t exclusively human. Animals, too, solved problems by trying things until one worked. With cats trapped in cages and rats in mazes, Dewey and his contemporaries found the method of hypothesis-testing “out there,” in the adaptive behaviors of all sorts of organisms. It was about trying to solve whatever problems life presented.

Finally, Dewey contended that science evolves. Constant change is how organisms keep up with their environments; the same is true for science. Facts matter, but not as much as flexi-bility. As Dewey watched children learn to solve puzzles, he saw this flexibility in action. The students who were too obsessed with one solution, too committed to a single example, or who refused to work with others, often failed. It was those who were willing to guess and try, to bounce ideas off one another without fear of reprisal, who arrived at the surprising solutions.

Over time, however, we have forgotten Dewey’s message. In fact, as the historian John Rudolph has shown, it was a single paragraph in “How We Think” that made that forgetting possible. Authors in the bur-geoning science textbook industry seized on a short summary of logical thinking in the middle of Dewey’s book and transformed it into “the scientific method,” a shorthand for what made science different from other ways of thinking. How we think was transformed into how they think.

AFP

Fears that cash-rich corporate raiders could use the corona-virus crisis to swoop on weakened European firms were perhaps best exemplified by Donald Trump’s alleged bid for a German biotech firm working on a vaccine.

The outrage that followed has spurred fresh action by European Union nations to bolster their defences against hostile takeovers that could see key technologies and know-how being lost to countries like China and the United States.

Although Germany’s CureVac company denied last month’s reports that Trump had offered a billion dollars for exclusive rights to any corona-virus vaccine, the furore never-theless prompted Economy Minister Peter Altmaier to declare that “Germany is not for sale”.

Days later, European

Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen urged the bloc’s 27 members to “use all options to protect critical European com-panies” from unwanted foreign takeovers at a time when many firms are hit hard by the pan-demic-induced downturn.

Some listed companies have seen their share price plummet as they grapple with the economic fallout, making them prime targets for bargain hunters, while previously-niche firms in health tech-nology or medical research are catching investors’ eyes.

The EU last year agreed regulations for screening foreign investments and although member states have until the autumn of 2020 to adjust their national laws, the coronavirus has given the matter fresh urgency.

“Europe doesn’t want to see takeovers of strategically important firms with key tech-nologies or whose valuations

are very low at the moment,” said Ulrich Wolff, a partner at Linklaters in Frankfurt.

Germany has been among the first to act, with ministers approving a draft law this month that makes it easier than before for Berlin to block a non-EU takeover of companies deemed strategically important.

The government will also be able to put takeovers on ice while it assesses their impact, preventing the potential new owners from laying their hands on the target firm’s intellectual property. “This will definitely make certain acquisitions longer and more difficult,” Wolff said.

Neighbouring France has taken similar steps, with authorities now examining bids involving stakes from non-EU investors starting at 25 percent, down from a 33-percent threshold previously.

The French government also expanded the sectors that

qualify for scrutiny to include food safety and the press.

In a sign that the measures could be starting to bite, the American group Teledyne recently said it had received a “negative opinion” from French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on its desired pur-chase of French firm Photonis, which makes night vision technology.

Spain and Italy have also announced steps to look more closely at deals involving foreign investors. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said earlier this month that the gov-ernment had widened its powers to halt hostile take-overs in key sectors, from within and outside the EU.

The government is now able to veto not just deals involving critical infrastructure or defence, but also those affecting the health and food industries, the insurance sector and artificial intelligence.

The scientific method can’t save us from the coronavirus

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Europe races to shield virus-hit firms from bargain hunters

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09FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2020 ASIA

The Italian cruise ship, Costa Atlantica, is seen at a port in the Japanese city of Nagasaki.

Italian cruise ship in Japan has 48 virus cases

Malaysia calls for peaceful end to South China Sea standoff

Moon sighting

REUTERS — KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia called yesterday for disputes over the South China Sea to be resolved by peaceful means, amid a standoff between Chinese and Malaysian vessels that a US think-tank said had been going on for months.

US and Australian warships arrived in the South China Sea this week near an area where a Chinese government survey vessel, the Haiyang Dizhi 8, has been operating close to a drillship under contract to Malaysian state oil company Petronas, regional security sources have said.

The standoff was the latest development in a series of tar-geted harassments by Chinese vessels of drilling operations in five oil blocks off the Malaysian coast in the past year, said Greg P o l i n g , d i r e c t o r o f

the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initi-ative (AMTI).

Since December, Chinese forces have been harassing supply ships servicing the West Capella, an oil exploration vessel operated by Petronas, Poling said.

Last week, the Haiyang Dizhi 8, accompanied by a Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessel, entered Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and began a survey close to where the West Capella was operating.

Yesterday, the Haiyang Dizhi 8 was still within Malay-sia’s EEZ, about 337km off Borneo, data from ship tracking website Marine Traffic Showed.

Three US warships and an Australian frigate conducted a joint exercise in the South China Sea this week, near the site of the West Capella’s operations,

officials and security sources have said.

China has denied reports of a standoff, saying the Haiyang Dizhi 8 was carrying out normal activities.

Malaysia said yesterday that it remained committed to safe-guarding its interests in the South China Sea.

“While international law guarantees the freedom of nav-igation, the presence of warships and vessels in the South China Sea has the potential to increase tensions that in turn may result in miscalculations which may affect peace, security and sta-bility in the region,” Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in his first official remarks on the standoff.

Hishammuddin said Malaysia maintained “open and continuous communication” with all relevant parties, including China and the US.

Appeal filed against acquittal of Daniel Pearl murder suspectsAFP — ISLAMABAD

Pakistan prosecutors have appealed against the acquittal of British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced to death 18 years ago for the kidnapping and brutal murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

The Wall Street Journal reporter’s beheading sparked revulsion and international outrage in early 2002, putting pressure on Pakistan’s military government just as it was remaking its image following years of backing the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Sheikh and three accom-plices had their convictions overturned by a provincial court earlier this month, spurring condemnation from the US and media watchdog groups.

Fiaz Shah, the prosecutor-general for Sindh, said yes-terday the appeal had been for-mally lodged by the provincial government. He could not say when it might be heard.

Following their acquittal, the four men were immediately re-arrested by authorities and will be held for at least three months while the appeal plays out.

Australia to push for international probe into COVID-19REUTERS — SYDNEY

Australia will push for an inter-national investigation into the coronavirus pandemic at next month’s annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), its prime minister said yesterday.

Australia wants the WHO to be strengthened and is sug-gesting introducing inspectors with the power to enter a country to respond more quickly to a health crisis in the style of weapons inspectors.

Australia sits on the exec-utive board of the assembly, which determines WHO policies and appoints the director-general. The assembly is due to meet on May 17.

The coronavirus is believed to have emerged in a market selling wildlife in the central

Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has spread around the world infecting some 2.6 million people and killing more than 183,000 of them, according to Reuters calculations.

The WHO’s response to the outbreak has become conten-tious with US President Donald Trump accusing it of being “China-centric” and suspending US funding.

Diplomats believe the May meeting opens the door for dis-cussion of Australia’s call for an enquiry because agenda items

already include calls for a “lessons learned” review of health emergencies, and urge members to comply with inter-national health regulations introduced after the 2004 SARS outbreak in China.

“The World Health Assembly is coming up in May. There are opportunities to pursue that matter there and that is our first port of call,” Aus-tralian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

Australia has overcome the worst of its coronavirus out-break, which is why it has moved on to lobbying other countries to support its call for an enquiry, but it understood that other nations were still dealing with high death rates, government sources said.

Morrison has called leaders in France, Germany and the United States and is expected to lobby Britain and Canada as

Australia seeks support from “like-minded” nations.

France and Britain said on Wednesday it was not the time for an investigation.

Morrison said he under-stood hesitation about the timing and played down sug-gestions China would be tar-geted. “Our purpose here is just pretty simple, we would like the world to be safer when it comes to viruses.”

Although the proposal would be for a broad review of the coronavirus outbreak and the WHO response, which could then propose ways to strengthen WHO powers, Mor-rison said he supported a weapons-inspector-style arrangement for health emer-gencies that countries would sign up to.

“They don’t have a roving commission to go anywhere they want in the world, but if

you are going to be a member of a club like the World Health Organization there should be obligations and responsibilities attached,” he said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said the agency would carry out an “after-action” review when the crisis was over.

Morrison told Australian broadcaster Sky that “nothing was changed” after the WHO held a review of an Ebola out-break in Africa that critics said it handled poorly.

Former Australian diplomat and intelligence chief, Richard Maude, said Australia had led coalitions of nations on issues including disarmament, non-proliferation and Russia’s downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine.

“Australia has a good record of getting things done in multi-lateral processes, including the

United Nations,” said Maude, the executive director of policy at the Asia Society Australia.

“The problem for Australia right now is that while the objectives _ greater trans-parency and learning lessons _are reasonable and important, the issue of the origins of the virus and the path of its trans-mission have become so caught up in geo-politics and deterio-rating US-China ties that China is very unlikely to cooperate.”

China has criticised Aus-tralia’s call for an investigation as “political manipulation” and accused Australian lawmakers of parroting Trump.

Australian foreign minister Marise Payne wrote in a news-paper column that no country would be singled out and the WHO’s role should be reviewed because Australia wanted s t r o n g m u l t i l a t e r a l institutions.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said the agency would carry out an “after-action” review when the crisis was over.

REUTERS — TOKYO

Nearly 50 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked for repairs in Japan’s Nagasaki have tested positive for the new coronavirus, raising concern about the strain on the city’s hospitals if conditions worsen for those infected.

Results yesterday showed 14 more aboard, all either cooks or those serving food, were infected with the virus, an official in Nagasaki prefecture said. One patient who had been taken to hospital previously was

now in a serious condition and on a ventilator, he told a live-streamed news conference.

The Costa Atlantica infec-tions come after the cases on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama two months ago, where more than 700 pas-sengers and crew were found to be infected, although this time only crew members were on board.

The Costa Cruises-operated ship was taken into a shipyard in Nagasaki in western Japan in late February by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries after the

COVID-19 pandemic had scuttled plans for scheduled repairs in China.

The latest cases have raised concern about the potential impact on Nagasaki residents after revelations some crew had left the restricted area despite assurances from the ship operator that they would stay within the wharf, according to Nagasaki officials.

On the Costa Atlantica, 48 positive cases have been found out of 127 people tested so far, bringing the infection rate to 38 percent.

Members of the media taking pictures of Pakistan’s moon sighting committee, as they use a telescope to look for the new moon that will mark the start of the holy month of Ramadan, amid spread of the coronavirus disease, from Pakistan’s Meteorological Department building in Karachi, Pakistan, yesterday.

Tom Hanks sends typewriter to boy named CoronaREUTERS — MELBOURNE

Tom Hanks (pictured) has sent a letter and a Corona brand typewriter to an Australian boy who wrote to him about being bullied over his name, Corona, Australian television networks reported yesterday.

Corona De Vries, an eight-year-old from the Gold Coast in Queensland state wrote to the Hollywood star after he and his wife, Rita, had spent more than two weeks in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 in the Australian beach resort.

The boy had written to Hanks saying: “I heard on the news you and your wife had caught the coronavirus,” Channel 7 News reported. “Are you ok?”

He said he loved his name but people at school called him the coronavirus, which made him “sad and angry”.

“Your letter made my wife and I feel so wonderful!” Hanks replied in a letter typed on a Corona typewriter which he had taken to the Gold Coast.

“You know, you are the only person I’ve ever known to have the name Corona —like the ring around the sun, a crown,” the double Oscar winner wrote to the boy.

“I thought this typewriter would suit you,” an image of the letter aired by Channel 7 News showed. “Ask a grown up how it works. And use it to write me back.”

Hanks handwrote at the end: “P.S. You got a friend in ME!”

Indonesia to ban air, sea travel until June 1: OfficialsREUTERS — JAKARTA

Indonesia will temporarily ban domestic and international air and sea travel, with some exceptions, starting today to prevent a further spread of the coronavirus, Transport Ministry officials said.

The ban on air travel will be in place until June 1, said Novie Riyanto Rahardjo, Transport Ministry’s director general of aviation. The ban on travel by sea will run until June

8, sea transportation director general Agus Purnomo said.

Cargo transport is exempted from the bans.

Other exceptions would include flights to repatriate Indonesian and foreign citizens, as well as travel by state offi-cials, diplomatic staff and rep-resentatives of international organisations, the officials said.

The government has also banned Indonesia’s traditional annual exodus for Muslim holidays.

Pyongyang sees ‘panic buying’ of food, says reportBLOOMBERG — SEOUL

Consumers in North Korea’s capital this week have been “panic buying” food staples, causing some store shelves to empty, according to a news service that specialises in the country.

The purchases may be due to stricter coronavirus measures on the way for Pyongyang and don’t appear related to reports this week that leader Kim

Jong-Un may be seriously ill, NK News reported, citing people who live in Pyongyang and were able to communicate outside the country. Shortages were initially limited to imported fruit and vegetables and then moved on to other goods, it said.

Radio Free Asia also reported last week that the prices of food staples in North Korea were rising sharply because of panic buying.

North Korea closed its borders in January when coro-navirus cases in neighboring China began to skyrocket. Kim’s regime has said it has no con-firmed infections from the virus but the US is “fairly certain” it has cases because of a noticeable lack of military activity, General Robert Abrams, commander of US Forces Korea, told reporters in a teleconference briefing in March.

Food shortages are common in North Korea, which is one of the world’s poorest states. In the 1990s, a famine killed as much as 10 percent of the population, according to some estimates.

The virus could make things worse. The United Nations’ World Food Program warned this week that economic hardship caused by the pan-demic may lead to starvation in the developing world. The WFP, which has operations in North

Korea, has said about 40 percent of the population is undernourished, adding “food insecurity and malnutrition are widespread.”

Kim was conspicuously absent from birthday celebra-tions on April 15 of his grand-father and state founder Kim Il Sung.

He has not been seen since a politburo meeting on April 11, raising speculation about his condition.

10 FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2020EUROPE

UK virus death toll climbs to 18,738 as govt expands testingAFP — LONDON

Britain yesterday said another 616 people had died in hospital from the novel coronavirus, as the government detailed a new testing regime that could allow the country to ease its lockdown.

The latest death count — recorded in the 24 hours to 1600 GMT on Wednesday — was lower than the 759 from the previous day and follows other signs the virus may have hit its peak.

It takes Britain’s hospital death toll to 18,738, according to the health ministry.

The actual number of deaths from the COVID-19 illness is likely to be far higher once offi-cials count fatalities at care

homes and in the community, which take longer to be included in the official statistics.

Britain remains one of the worst-hit by the pandemic and has been under stringent social distancing rules for a month.

The government has been criticised for its response to the outbreak, with claims it was slow to impose restrictions and introduce widespread testing.

Health officials have also faced repeated questions about the supply of personal pro-tective equipment to frontline

health and social care workers dealing with virus patients.

The government is under growing pressure to explain how it will lift the lockdown, which has led to the economy grinding to a virtual halt.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon published her devolved government’s plans yesterday, saying they could be eased in a phased manner north of the border with England.

But British health minister Matt Hancock again refused to disclose the UK government’s proposals at the daily Downing

Street briefing. He instead detailed expanded testing for the virus in the coming weeks, following criticism of the coun-try’s sluggish sampling and a failure to use the growing available capacity.

“Our ultimate goal is that everyone who could benefit from a test gets a test,” Hancock said.

Hancock vowed earlier this month that 100,000 tests would be carried out every day by the end of April, and insisted the target would be met.

Capacity for testing was currently at 51,000 tests per day, he told reporters.

He said the government would now make it “easier, faster and simpler” for so-called essential workers to get tested,

through an online booking system, and expanded regional and mobile sampling sites.

Meanwhile, it will reintroduce within weeks a “test, track and trace” strategy, which was first used at the outset of the outbreak before it became uncontrollable.

Health officials are hiring 18,000 people, including 3,000 clinicians, to spearhead the scheme.

“This test, track and trace will be vital to stop a second peak of the virus,” Hancock said.

But he warned there was “no automatic link” between the programme’s rollout and lifting the lockdown, which would be contingent on lower rates of transmission and other factors.

“You’ve got to get it down first for test, track and trace to be effective,” he added.

Britain’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty warned on Wednesday that some of the tough social distancing measures could be in place for the rest of the year until a vaccine is found.

Oxford University began a human trial of a potential coro-navirus vaccine on Thursday, with the aim of making it available to the public later this year if successful.

The university is also involved in a nationwide survey with the Office for National Sta-tistics of 25,000 people to determine the extent of the virus’ spread in the community.

Merkel says Germany still at beginning of pandemic, calls for endurance REUTERS — BERLIN

Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans yesterday to show endurance and discipline to get through the coronavirus pandemic that is “still at the beginning”, and called for a bigger European Union budget to support economic recovery in the bloc.

Merkel is worried that Germans are relaxing their social distancing efforts after the federal and regional gov-ernments agreed to reopen some shops this week.

Germany has the fifth highest COVID-19 caseload behind the United States, Spain, Italy and France, but has kept fatalities down after early and extensive testing.

Germany has reported 148,046 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 5,094 deaths, but the latest figures showed cases where people recovered out-numbering new infections.

“It is precisely because the figures give rise to hope that I feel obliged to say that this

interim result is fragile. We are on thin ice, the thinnest ice even,” Merkel told the Bun-destag lower house of parliament.

“We are still far from out of the woods,” she said. “We are not living in the final phase of the pandemic, but still at the beginning.” Germany’s gradual easing of restrictions provides for social distancing rules to remain in place until May 3. Schools will start opening from May 4, with priority for final-year students. Hairdressers can also reopen then.

Merkel and state leaders will meet again on April 30 to review how to proceed after May 3.

Focus Online, an online news magazine, reported that three states — Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Wuerttemberg — wanted to push at the meeting for a loosening of restrictions on restaurants, hotels and retailers. Merkel voiced concern that some states were being “very brisk, not to say too brisk”

in embracing more relaxed restrictions.

Christian Drosten, the top virologist at Berlin’s Charite hospital, said on Wednesday widespread testing helped Germany early in the crisis. But, with the easing of the lockdown, he said: “I regret to see that we are perhaps about to lose this advantage.” Retailers whose shops are up to 800 square metres are now allowed to open, along with car and bicycle dealers, and book-stores, though they must practise strict social distancing and hygiene rules.

“If we show the greatest possible endurance and disci-pline at the beginning of this pandemic, we will be able to return to economic, social and public life more quickly and sustainably,” Merkel said.

Turning to the EU’s response to the economic impact of the virus, Merkel said calls from some EU countries for common debt with common liabilities were not the right way to go.

“That would be a very

difficult process, cost time and wouldn’t even help anyone in the current situation, since we need rapid-fire instruments to tackle the crisis,” Merkel said.

Instead, she called for a European economic package aimed at supporting an upswing in the coming two years.

She said it was clear that “in the spirit of solidarity, we

should be prepared, over a limited period of time, to make very different - meaning much higher - contributions to the EU budget.” Germany is in a severe recession, according to the central bank, the Bundesbank.

The government has responded with measures including a ¤750bn ($810 billion) stimulus package.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during a session at Germany’s lower house of parliament in Berlin, yesterday.

France reports 516 new COVID-19 deaths, total 21,856AFP — PARIS

France yesterday reported 516 new deaths from the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing its overall toll to 21,856 fatalities, the country’s health department said.

But it said the number of patients in intensive care is con-tinuing a two-week decline, falling by 165 over 24 hours to 5,053.

“We nonetheless remain at an exceptional level, over and above maximum pre-crisis intensive care capacity in France” amounting to 5,000 beds, the health department said in a statement.

A majority of the deaths reported (13,547) were in hos-pital, and the rest in retirement homes and other facilities.

Although hospitals across France are still receiving a steady stream of new cases the

overall number of those who remain hospitalised with the virus continues to drop, under-scoring an eight-day trend.

A total of 29,219 cases are now being treated in hospital, down 522 on Wednesday.

Since the start of the epi-demic 42,088 people have left hospital, not taking into account the tens of thousands of people who healed without being interned, the health service said.

French authorities say the coming days are key if the country is to be able to meet a May 11 target to begin a gradual end to national lockdown measures imposed in mid-March.

Officials have warned that confinement must have proved to be a success before decon-finement can begin.

Resident Mrs Oury, 89, reacts as her daughters Anne and Cecile wave behind a glass during a visit at “Les Figuiers” retirement home for the elderly amid the coronavirus disease outbreak in Villeneuve-Loubet, France, yesterday.

Dutch PM visits mosque ahead of Ramadan Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte talks to an imam in the Al Islam mosque in The Hague, yesterday, a few hours before the start of Ramadan, as the country faces a lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose by 887 to 35,729, health authorities said yesterday, with 123 new deaths. The country's death toll stands at 4,177, the Netherlands Institute for Public Health (RIVM) said in its daily update. The actual numbers are likely higher, as not all likely cases are tested, the RIVM said.

Spanish govt apologises to children for virus lockdownAFP — MADRID

One of Spain’s deputy prime ministers apologised yesterday to the country’s children for confining them to their homes since mid-March as part of a nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

“This confinement was not at all easy for you. You had to stop going to school, you stopped seeing many of your friends and family members, you had to play at home and could not go outside,” Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias told a news conference.

“For all of that we ask for your forgiveness and we thank you for everything you have done,” added the leader of hard left party Podemos which governs in coalition with the Socialists.

Spain, one of the hardest-hit nations by the pandemic, imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe on March 14, with people allowed out only for short trips to buy food, medicine, walk their dog and

go to work if they can’t work from home.

Minors must remain in their homes at all times except for a few exceptions such as for children with special educa-tional needs or from single-parent families.

The ban on children going outside has come increasingly under fire from regional poli-ticians and healthcare profes-sionals and the government on Tuesday bowed to pressure and said that as of Sunday those under 14 would be able to take short walks outside under adult supervision as in other European nations.

Iglesias also apologised for the confusion generated by the way the government announced the easing of restrictions for children.

“I want to apologise because it is true that in these last few days and at the heart of the gov-ernment we have not been as clear as we should have been when it came time to explain how you can go out,” the father of three youngsters said.

Italy launches antibody tests for virus immunityAFP — ROME

Italy began conducting antibody tests in the northern region of Lombardy yesterday, seeking information about coronavirus immunity to help guide authorities as they reopen the long locked-down country.

Lombardy, the region hardest-hit by the coronavirus crisis in Europe’s worst-affected country, is betting that the science about “herd immunity” derived from the blood tests will help the pros-perous industrial region return to work faster and safer.

Nearly 13,000 people have already died of the virus in densely populated Lombardy, whose capital is Milan — more than half of Italy’s total dead.

Although Germany has already started nationwide antibody tests and countries such as Finland and Britain have announced plans to roll them out, many questions remain about how reliable data derived from the tests will be.

Health authorities have said 20,000 tests would be performed every day in Lom-bardy. First to be tested are those in the worst-hit prov-inces: health workers, those under quarantine showing coronavirus symptoms and those they have been in contact with, as well as others with mild symptoms.

Authorities hope to roll out the tests to the wider region after April 29.

The head of Italy’s National Health Council, Franco Loc-atelli, said last month that antibody tests would help authorities determine the spread of the coronavirus.

Data would also provide “very relevant information on herd immunity” which would useful in developing strat-egies to help restart the country, he said, such as who could be allowed to go back to work.

Renovation of Notre-Dame to resume on Monday

AFP — PARIS

Work on restoring the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris will gradually resume on Monday after the coronavirus lockdown forced a halt to repairing the gothic landmark nearly destroyed by a fire one year ago, the general heading the project said yesterday.

Reconstruction was halted in mid-March as France imposed strict stay-at-home orders and business closures to halt the spread of the new coronavirus.

“I have made sure that the necessary measures and pro-cedures to guarantee that social distancing and pro-tective measures will be in place” for workers at the site, General Jean-Louis Georgelin said in a statement.

The 13th-century mon-ument was the victim of a dev-astating blaze on April 15, 2019, that caused its roof and steeple to collapse, and despite the intense cleanup and stabi-lisation efforts the fragile structure remains at risk.

Before rebuilding was sus-pended, the 60 to 70 workers on the site had been preparing to remove more of the toxic lead particles deposited as the roof melted, which contami-nated swathes of the French capital.

Once work resumes as normal in May, they will also attempt the delicate removal of a tangled web of metal scaf-folding tubes that fused together in the inferno, which erupted during renovation work on the roof.

Until they do, they cannot install a more durable tem-porary roof to protect the church’s priceless artworks from rain.

President Emmanuel Macron reiterated his goal of restoring Notre-Dame to its former glory within five years, calling the effort “a symbol of the resilience of our people.”

Britain remains one of the worst-hit by the pandemic and has been under stringent social distancing rules for a month.

11FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2020 EUROPE / AMERICAS

Russia coronavirus cases fall, Kremlin says situation still tenseREUTERS — MOSCOW

Russia’s official coronavirus data showed tentative signs of a flattening infection curve yesterday, but the Kremlin said the situation remained tense and officials moved to tighten lockdown measures in 21 Russian regions.

Russia reported 4,774 new coronavirus cases yesterday, a fall in its daily case tally for the third day running, bringing its nationwide total to 62,773. Forty-two people with the virus died overnight, pushing the death toll to 555, officials said.

Moscow, which has borne the brunt of Russia’s epidemic so far and is in its fourth week of a lockdown, recorded 1,959 new cases, its lowest daily tally since April 17. But officials also

said the number of sick people being hospitalised was rising.

Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said hospitals might reach their full capacity in three to four weeks if the capital’s infection rate continued at the same pace. Moscow’s author-ities rushed to add more hos-pital beds last week, fearing that they were running out of space.

Moscow’s residents are only allowed outside to buy food or medicine nearby, receive medical treatment, walk the dog or take out the rubbish. Last week, authorities introduced a

digital permit system for anyone wanting to travel by transport.

Russia’s Communications Ministry said late on Wednesday there were plans to roll out a similar system in 21 regions, requiring employers to supply lists of staff if their companies had been given dispensation to continue working despite lockdowns.

Those people would be issued digital passes on a gov-ernment website, it said, adding that people would be able to apply individually for other reasons too. “All measures that

could be effective must be taken. The situation remains quite tense,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The pass system has raised

fears among rights advocates that authorities could use it to harvest data, such as residential addresses, which could later be leaked online or used for other purposes. The Agora rights

advocacy group yesterday urged regional governors to offer guarantees that personal data would be destroyed when no longer needed and not be passed on.

An aerial view shows a new hospital built for patients affected by the coronavirus disease on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia, yesterday.

Greece extends lockdown, delays migrant transfersAFP — ATHENS

Greece is extending corona-virus lockdown measures by a week to May 4, the government said yesterday, a move that will delay the planned removal of hundreds of migrants from congested camps.

The country has managed to keep fatalities at a low level after registering its first virus death on March 12, despite a decade of cuts imposed on its public health system during the post-2010 debt crisis.

Supermarkets, banks and food delivery restaurants are among the few businesses still operating, and Greeks must

inform authorities when leaving their homes for neces-sities, or risk fines.

“Restrictive measures that apply until April 27 are extended by a week to May 4,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas told reporters.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis next week will be announcing steps to remove some of the nationwide lockdown measures imposed on March 22, Petsas added.

“Transition to the new nor-mality will be slow and will unfold progressively in May and June,” he said. He also added that effects on public health will be evaluated on a

“week-to-week” basis.The spokesman noted that

the lockdown extension will delay the planned removal of hundreds of elderly and ailing asylum seekers from over-stretched migrant camps on Greek islands.

“Naturally this plan will now be slightly delayed,” he said.

One of the largest transfers, involving 1,500 people from Greece’s largest camp on the island of Lesbos, has now been scaled back in size according to local officials.

Despite strict quarantine measures, there have been coronavirus cases in two

camps and a migrant hotel on the Greek mainland, where 150 people tested positive this week.

So far, no cases have been reported in camps on the islands, with no widespread screening conducted by authorities.

The relaxation of the restrictions is set to begin with a partial reopening of courts and land registers on April 27.

The education ministry has also announced plans for final-year school pupils to hold uni-versity entry exams in June.

Greece has so far officially announced 121 deaths, with 55 people still in intensive care.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy surrounded by officials addresses the media in front of an Antonov-225 Mriya cargo plane after its arrival with medical cargo from China, at an airfield in Gostomel, outside Kiev, yesterday.

World’s largest plane brings medical supplies to UkraineREUTERS — KIEV

The World’s biggest cargo plane brought more than 100 tonnes of medical equipment to Ukraine from China yesterday, in what Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described as the biggest cargo shipment by volume in history.

The Ukrainian-designed Antonov-225 Mriya aircraft is typically used to lift large and heavy loads for industry. Yesterday it brought 12 million masks, 260,000 pro-tective glasses and 100,000 gowns to help protect Ukrainian medics treating corona-virus patients.

“This is a record for the volume of cargo, which can be included in the Guinness Book of Records,” Zelenskiy told reporters after it landed. Zelenskiy said several more flights were planned for the near future.

US extends aid to Greenland to counter China, Russia in ArcticREUTERS — COPENHAGEN/WASHINGTON

The United States announced a $12.1m economic aid package for Greenland yesterday aimed at strengthening mutual ties and boost a renewed US push for a greater military presence in the Arctic.

The move to improve ties with Greenland drew criticism from Denmark, which less than a year ago rebuffed US Pres-ident Donald Trump’s offer to buy the vast Arctic island as “absurd.” Greenland, which

yesterday welcomed the money, is becoming increas-ingly important for the US mil-itary and for the US ballistic missile early warning system because of a Russian and Chinese commercial and mil-itary buildup in the Arctic.

The aid package is aimed particularly at the areas of natural resources and education.

Greenland, home to only 56,000 people but rich in natural resources, is an auton-omous Danish territory. With its tiny economy heavily

dependant on fishing, the island, which has no roads between its 17 towns and one commercial international airport, relies on annual grants from Denmark.

“They have clearly crossed the line,” said Karsten Honge, member of the foreign affairs committee for the Socialist Peo-ple’s Party, a government ally.

“It’s completely unheard of that a close ally tries to create division between Greenland and Denmark this way,” he said.

Soren Espersen, a member of the Danish parliament’s

foreign affairs committee for opposition party The Danish People’s Party, called the US offer “an insult” to Greenland and Denmark.

A senior US State Department official, at a briefing yesterday, denied Washington’s efforts were intended to create divisions, saying the United States has been working closely with Denmark for months on this initiative.

“I think what we’re doing here is good old-fashioned dip-lomatic stagecraft designed to

enhance our engagement,” the official said, adding that the aid package was not “designed to pave the way to purchase Greenland.” The United States plans this year to open a con-sulate in Greenland’s capital Nuuk for the first time since 1953.

Russia has stepped up its military capabilities in the Arctic, while China calls itself a “near Arctic state” and has laid plans for a Polar Silk Road focused on new Arctic shipping routes and access to natural resources.

Pupils return to school in Uruguay A teacher gives instructions to students on how to wear a face mask at a rural school that has resumed classes after a month off due to the coronavirus disease, in San Jose, Uruguay, on Wednesday.

Venezuela’s Maduro warns of new price controls as inflation spikesREUTERS — CARACAS

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro warned on Wednesday that strict price controls on basic goods could return, as the coronavirus outbreak and an acute gasoline shortage prompt inflation to accelerate.

The socialist government last year relaxed enforcement of price controls, which had been in place for nearly two decades, to allow the private sector to play a greater role in the import and sale of goods in the face of US sanctions designed to oust Maduro, accused of corruption and

human rights violations.But in recent weeks, prices

have begun to spike, in part because gasoline shortages - the result of years of lack of maintenance and investment at the OPEC nation’s refineries, and more recently due to the sanctions - have complicated the transport of products.

“I have given precise instructions to tackle specu-lation by those sectors of the economy that do not want to cooperate with the country,” Maduro said in a state television address. “All the mechanisms to regulate and monitor pro-duction, costs and prices are

activated.” Venezuela is in a sixth year of a hyperinflationary economic collapse, which economists attribute to rampant money-printing to cover gaping fiscal deficits and heavy state intervention in the economy.

Maduro frequently blames US sanctions and alleged oppo-sition sabotage for the country’s woes.

Maduro’s steps toward lib-eralizing economic policy last year have not turned around the economy. According to the opposition-held National Assembly, interannual inflation is running at 3,365%.

Huge fire ravages Poland’s largest nature reserveAFP — WARSAW

Massive wildfires have ravaged Poland’s largest nature reserve, the Biebrza National Park, as the country faces its worst drought in years.

After the first flames struck Sunday, the blaze spread across 6,000 hectares or 10 percent of the park, which fea-tures some of Europe’s best preserved wetlands and is home to moose, beavers, wolves and unique birds.

“It’s a great tragedy... Usually at this time of year, everything here is under water. I spoke to a firefighter who said they’ve never dealt with anything like this before,” local resident Joanna Skrzyp-kowska said.

“They’re fighting really hard... they didn’t sleep for three nights, just battled the fires, before help arrived,” said the 56-year-old teacher, ecol-ogist and farmer.

The environment ministry said it believes illegal grass burning was to blame for the fire, with the situation aggra-vated by strong wind and drought.

Skrzypkowska said climate change, a snowless winter and local water management also played a role in the fire. Pres-ident Andrzej Duda spoke of the drought on Wednesday, calling on citizens to be rea-sonable about their water use and telling reporters: “Without rain, we could be in danger.”

Sweden passes 2,000 deaths from coronavirusAFP — STOCKHOLM

Swedish officials said yesterday they had recorded more than 2,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the country, while revising earlier state-ments about when the capital Stockholm was believed to have passed the peak of infec-tions.

The Public Health Agency of Sweden said it had recorded 16,755 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, and 2,021 deaths.

The agency also corrected a report it published earlier this week on Stockholm, the epicentre of the Swedish epidemic.

The report, based on sta-tistical modelling, initially said the capital region passed the peak of simultaneous infec-tions on April 15 with 86,000 people believed to be have been infected.

But yesterday it revised the date to April 8, with some 70,500 believed to have been infected.

“The number of infected is still at a high level, now is not the time to ease any cau-tionary measures,” deputy state epidemiologist Anders Wallensten said in a statement.

The agency also said in the report that it expected 26 percent of Stockholmers to be infected with the new corona-virus by May 1.

Sweden has not imposed the extraordinary lockdown measures seen across Europe, instead urging people to take responsibility and follow official recommendations. Gatherings of more than 50 people have been barred along with visits to nursing homes.

The strategy has come under scrutiny since its mor-tality rates leapt ahead of its Nordic neighbours, Finland, Denmark and Norway, which have all instituted more restrictive containment measures. Yesterday, the Karo-linska University Hospital con-firmed that a nurse, who had tested positive for COVID-19, had died. The nurse was on sick leave for symptoms relating to COVID-19, but the cause of death has not yet been confirmed.

Russia reported 4,774 new coronavirus cases yesterday, a fall in its daily case tally for the third day running, bringing its nationwide total to 62,773.

12 FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2020AMERICAS

NY survey suggests 2.7 million in state may have virus antibodiesREUTERS — NEW YORK

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday a prelim-inary survey found that nearly 14% tested positive for anti-bodies against the novel coro-navirus, suggesting that as many as 2.7 million New Yorkers may have been infected with the disease.

While noting the sample size of 3,000 people and other limitations of the survey, Cuomo said the implied fatality rate of 0.5 percent of those infected by COVID-19, the res-piratory illness caused by the virus, was lower than some experts feared.

“If the infection rate is 13.9 percent, then it changes the the-ories of what the death rate is if you get infected,” Cuomo told a daily briefing.

The survey targeted people who were out shopping, but not working, meaning they were not essential workers like grocery clerks or bus drivers but were more likely to test positive for antibodies than someone

isolated at home, Cuomo said.Even after discounting for

those caveats, Cuomo said the preliminary data added to his understanding of the virus and would inform his reopening plan, with social distancing measures relaxed more quickly in less infected regions of the state.

Cuomo said the state would keep adding to the sample size in the coming weeks and would test more in African-American and Hispanic communities, which made up disproportion-ately high percentages of pos-itive tests in the survey so far, with whites registering a dis-proportionately lower infection rate.

“I want to see snapshots of

what is happening with that rate — is it going up, is it flat, is it going down,” Cuomo told a daily briefing. “It can really give us data to make decisions.”

The infection rate implied by the New York survey was less than 4.1% found in a similar but smaller study of Los Angeles County residents released earlier this week.

That survey, conducted by University of Southern California researchers on 863 people, also suggested a death rate that was lower than previously thought but also that the virus may be being spread more widely by people who show no symptoms.

Among other limitations, Cuomo said the official death count of 15,500 was surely an

undercount because it only included people who had died in hospitals or nursing homes and not those who expired at home without a COVID-19 diagnosis.

The true death toll could result in a higher fatality rate than the survey’s 0.5 percent, which was calculated by dividing

the estimated number of infected — 14% of New York’s 19 million residents, or 2.7 million people — by the 15,500 figure.

Over the past week, Cuomo has increasingly turned his attention to ramping up testing as hospitalizations, intubations and other metrics continue to improve, suggesting the state hit

hardest by the pandemic has likely passed the worst stage.

Cuomo told a daily briefing that hospitalizations fell by 578 to 15,021 patients on Wednesday, the 10th straight day of decline. He reported an additional 438 coronavirus deaths, down from 474 a day earlier and the lowest total since April 1.

Hospital staff at the New York-Presbyterian Behavioral Health Center applaud as emergency personnel pass by the front of the hospital, in White Plains, New York, on Wednesday. EMS, firefighters and police units have been visiting hospital workers throughout Westchester County to thank them for their work during the coronavirus pandemic.

US House to pass $484bn coronavirus relief billREUTERS — WASHINGTON

The US House of Representa-tives returned to Washington yesterday to pass a $484bn coronavirus relief bill, funding small businesses and hospitals and pushing the total spending response to the crisis to an unprecedented nearly $3 trillion.

The measure is expected to receive solid bipartisan support in the Democratic-led House, but threatened opposition by some members of both parties forced legislators to return to Washington despite stay-at-home orders meant to control the spread of the virus.

The Republican-led Senate passed the legislation on Tuesday by unanimous consent, so senators did not have to travel.

Approval by the House will send the latest relief bill to the White House, where Republican President Donald Trump has promised to quickly sign it into law.

The bill — which would be the fourth passed to address the crisis — provides funds to small businesses and hospitals strug-gling with the economic toll of a pandemic that has killed more than 47,000 Americans and thrown a record 26 million out of work over the past five weeks, wiping out all the jobs

created during the longest employment boom in US history.

“This is really a very, very, very sad day. We come to the floor with nearly 50,000 dead, a huge number of people, and the uncertainty of it all,” Dem-ocratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said as debate began.

Congress passed the last coronavirus relief bill, worth more than $2 trillion, in March, with overwhelming support from members of both parties. It was the largest such funding bill ever passed.

But the two parties have set the stage for an angry fight over additional funding for state and

local governments reeling from the impact of lost revenue after Republicans refused to include it in the current relief bill.

Trump has said he supports more funding for states, and has promised to back it in future legislation.

But congressional Repub-licans have resisted. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCo-nnell suggested in a radio interview on Wednesday that states could go bankrupt, but said later he did not want states to use federal funds for any-thing unrelated to the corona-virus. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo opposed the bankruptcy proposal during a

regular news briefing.Yesterday’s voting will take

place under safety protocols that will considerably lengthen proceedings. Lawmakers have been instructed to wait in their offices for the vote, then come to the House in alphabetical order in small groups and to stand in line, six feet apart, before entering the chamber.

There will also be a half-hour break to clean the chamber between the first and second votes.

About 40 House members were in the room to watch the hours of debate in person, at any given point during the day. Most wore face masks and removed them to speak, after using cleaning wipes to swab off their lecterns and microphones.

The House will first vote on a new select committee, with subpoena power, to probe the US coronavirus response. Pelosi said the panel is essential to ensure funds go to those who need them and to prevent scams.

Republicans said the panel is not needed, and that the three coronavirus relief bills already passed have enough oversight in them. After that vote, which is likely to go along party lines, the House is expected to pass the new $484bn coronavirus bill.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (center) walks out of the chamber of the US House of Representatives after the debate on the additional relief package, at the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Civil Protection and Fire Department officials attending a training course on pre-hospital management of patients with COVID-19, in Zapopan, Jalisco State, Mexico, on Wednesday.

Canada sends army to combat pandemic in Ontario, QuebecAFP — OTTAWA

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday the army would be sent in to help Ontario and Quebec provinces combat coronavirus outbreaks at long-term care facilities hardest-hit by the pandemic.

“There have been requests for military assistance by both Ontario and Quebec which, of course, we will be answering,” Trudeau told a daily briefing.

“Our women and men in uniform will step up with the valour and courage they’ve always shown.” Quebec asked

for 1,000 troops in addition to 130 military doctors and medics previously requested, to help overwhelmed staff at elderly care homes.

Ontario has asked for an unspecified number of soldiers to be deployed at five of its most affected care homes.

Seventy to 80 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the two provinces were at long-term care homes, with the number of fatalities at the homes sur-passing 1,000 in Quebec and 500 in Ontario.

Trudeau said the Canadian military “will be there with

support so that provinces can get control of the situation.” “But this is not a long-term solution,” he added. “In Canada, we shouldn’t have soldiers taking care of seniors.” “Going forward in the weeks and months to come, we will all have to ask tough questions about how it came to this,” he commented.

“I think the system needs to be changed, and we are (going to be) changing the system,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters.

“But right now, our main focus is to make sure we protect

the people inside these long-term care homes,” he said Quebec had tried to recruit 2,000 new staff for its long-term care facilities in recent weeks to ease the workload for existing staff, but few applied.

Even with a salary top-up from the government, the jobs are relatively low-paying.

One of the worst cases in Montreal, where 31 elderly res-idents died after their car-egivers fled the Herron nursing home, leaving them to fend for themselves, provoked a public outcry.

Another in Laval, north of

Montreal, has recorded 69 COVID-19 deaths.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault lamented on Thursday that 9,500 healthcare and senior care workers in the province had not shown up for work this week; 4,000 are under quarantine or are being treated for the virus, while 5,500 feared exposure.

“This isn’t a normal situ-ation,” he said. “This is a crisis and we need more hands.” As of 1800 GMT yesterday, there were 41,752 coronavirus cases in Canada, including 2,199 deaths.

Mexico’s daily coronavirus cases top 1,000 for first timeBLOOMBERG — MEXICO CITY

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mexico rose by more than 1,000 in one day for the first time on Wednesday, signaling the country’s curve is moving sharply higher.

Confirmed cases rose by 11% to 10,544, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said at a nightly press con-ference. The number of deaths rose by 13% to 970.

The Health Ministry esti-mates as many as eight times more people have had the virus than is shown by the official data. Lopez-Gatell said the tally of deaths includes cases when

conditions indicate the victim had Covid-19, even if it hasn’t been confirmed. Mexico has faced criticism for its lax approach to the coronavirus including a lack of testing.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said Mexico won’t enforce stricter measures on companies that don’t follow guidelines as the virus spreads. Instead the president will name the companies that don’t comply. “Everything is done through per-suasion,” Lopez Obrador said in his morning press conference on Wednesday. “Nothing will be done with the use of force, all is done through reason and the law.”

The true death toll could result in a higher fatality rate than the survey’s 0.5 percent, which was calculated by dividing the estimated number of infected — 14% of New York’s 19 million residents, or 2.7 million people — by the 15,500 figure.

Senator Elizabeth Warren's brother dies from virusAFP — WASHINGTON

Former US presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren said yesterday her oldest brother had died from the novel coronavirus, expressing her deep regret that no family members were allowed at his side and no funeral was held.

Don Reed Herring, 86, who spent much of his career in the military, died in Oklahoma on Tuesday about three weeks after testing positive for COVID-19, according to US media.

“It’s hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say ‘I love you’ one more time — and no funeral for those of us who loved him to hold each other close,” Warren tweeted.

“He was charming and funny, a natural leader.” Worldwide, many relatives have been unable to be at the bedsides of dying coronavirus victims or to hold proper funerals due to the risk of infection.

Warren, 70, from the left of the Democratic party, was once a frontrunner to win the nomination, but she dropped out last month.

Trump curbs immigration to protect US job marketAFP — WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday he has partially suspended immi-gration to the United States, with the aim of keeping foreigners out of local jobs during the coronavirus crisis.

“In order to protect our great American workers, I’ve just signed an executive order temporarily suspending immi-gration into the United States. This will ensure that unem-ployed Americans of all back-grounds will be first in line for jobs as our economy reopens,” he told a press conference.

The 60-day suspension hits some of the people applying for permanent resi-dency, or green cards.

Seasonal workers, such as immigrants vital to US farm labor, are still allowed to enter. The order also exempts several categories of green card appli-cants, including people working in health care and immediate relatives of US citizens.

Trump said he is seeking to shield the job market for US citizens at a time when the previously booming economy has gone off a cliff, with 22 million joining the unem-ployment ranks due to the c o r o n a v i r u s - r e l a t e d shutdown.

“Without intervention, the United States faces a poten-tially protracted economic recovery with persistently high unemployment,” the presi-dential order read.

Trump has already made restrictions on immigration — both legal and illegal — a cor-nerstone of his nationalist “America first” presidency. The dramatic-sounding but ulti-mately limited new ban is expected to fuel his bid for a second term in November.

The United States is the world’s hardest-hit country, and healthcare workers in hotspots such as New York have struggled to cope.

As the worst-hit areas report a decline in new cases and some states look to reopen their economies, Trump’s ree-lection campaign is also grad-ually attempting to recover momentum.

A key for Trump will be either getting the economy fired up or at least persuading voters that he has done eve-rything to protect them.

Trump insisted again that he is optimistic.

“I feel much different today than I did two or three days ago,” he said. “I’ll not rest until that prosperity has been fully restored.” However, he is walking a political minefield on whether to encourage a quick end to social distancing or to remain cautious in case the virus rebounds.