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 No more eating out
Florida's greater Miami area became the latest U.S. coronavirus hot
spot to roll back its reopening, ordering restaurant dining closed
as COVID-19 cases surged nationwide by the tens of thousands and the
U.S. death toll topped 130,000.
Restaurants also were targeted for a weekend crackdown on
coronavirus enforcement in California, where hospitalisations for
COVID-19 have jumped 50% over the past two weeks and the state
capitol building in Sacramento was temporarily closed for deep
cleaning.
For an eighth straight day, Texas registered an all-time high in the
number of people hospitalised at any one moment with the highly
contagious respiratory illness, up more than 500 admissions from the
day before to nearly 8,700.
The U.S. military said it would deploy a special 50-member medical
team, including emergency room and critical-care nurses and
respiratory specialists, to a hard-hit area in and around San
Antonio.
Infections surge in India
India’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 20,000
and case numbers surged as the south Asian country pushed ahead with
relaxations to its almost two-month lockdown amid grim economic
forecasts.
The rate of both new virus infections and deaths are rising at the
fastest pace in three months, as officials lift a vast lockdown of
India’s 1.3 billion people that has left tens of thousands without
work and shuttered businesses.
The country reported 467 new deaths on Tuesday, taking the toll to
20,160. It also recorded 22,252 new infections, increasing the total
to 719,665. India on Monday overtook Russia as the third most
affected country globally, behind the United States and Brazil.
Health officials fear the number of deaths, which usually lag behind
the detection of new infections, could rise significantly in coming
weeks.
Chaos on the borders
Hundreds of police officers and soldiers are being deployed to
enforce the closure of the busy and highly porous border between
Australia's two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria,
as officials grapple to contain a new coronavirus outbreak.
Daily travel permits will be granted to people who live in border
towns and cities but with the closure just hours away at 11.59 p.m.
on Tuesday, the application system was still being developed.
Over in New Zealand, the national airline will not take new bookings
for three weeks as the country looks to limit the number of citizens
returning home to reduce the burden on overflowing quarantine
facilities.
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"The last thing we need are hastily set up facilities to meet demand," Housing
Minister Megan Woods said in a statement.
Care home deaths blame game
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a growing storm on Tuesday after
saying some care homes didn't follow procedures to stem the spread of COVID-19
deaths, sparking an accusation that he was trying to rewrite history.
Britain has one of the highest death tolls in the world from COVID-19, at more
than 44,000, with around 20,000 dying in care homes, according to government
statistics.
While the government has been heavily criticised by opposition politicians and
some medics over the slow delivery of protective clothing and testing in care
homes, Johnson appeared to suggest blame for the outbreaks lay with the care
homes themselves.
"We discovered too many care homes didn't really follow the procedures in the
way that they could have, but we're learning lessons," Johnson said on Monday.
A Reuters Special Report detailed how the government's focus on preventing
emergency wards from being overwhelmed left care home residents and staff
exposed to COVID-19.
A stronger-than-usual will to live
After a record 112 days on a specialised life-support system, a South Korean
COVID-19 patient is recovering from double lung transplant surgery, doctors say,
in only the ninth such procedure worldwide since the coronavirus outbreak began.
The 50-year-old woman was diagnosed with the disease and hospitalised in late
February and then spent 16 weeks on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)
support, which involves circulating a patient's blood through a machine that
adds oxygen to red blood cells. That's the longest that any COVID-19 patient in
the world has spent on ECMO support, her doctors said.
Lee Sun-hee, a head nurse of the ECMO programme who has cared for the patient
since February, said the woman seemed to have a stronger-than-usual will to
live, in part driven by being a mother of two. Lee said the woman already knows
the first thing she wants to do when released from the hospital: "To get a nice
bath."
(Compiled by Linda Noakes and Karishma Singh. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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