(Rio de Janeiro) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, self-proclaimed skeptic about the coronavirus pandemic, has announced that he has contracted COVID – 16 at the same time that the United States, faced with a new record of contamination, officially began its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Posted on July 8 2020 at 744 Updated at 8 a.m. 34
Louis GENOT with Gildas LE ROUX in Paris and AFP offices around the world
France Media Agency
President Donald Trump, also known for minimizing the severity of the epidemic in his country, yet the most affected in the world in terms of number of cases and deaths, notified the American withdrawal from the WHO, accused of having delayed reacting after the virus appeared in China in December in order to spare Beijing.
A controversial decision announced at a time when, according to the WHO, “the epidemic is accelerating and we have not reached the peak of the pandemic”. 367 00 new cases were thus recorded during the last weekend.
Second most affected country after the United States, Brazil has more than 66 00 dead, but its president 65 years, even sick, remains defiant. “I'm perfectly fine,” he said on television after announcing that he was positive.
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He said he was taking treatment with azithromycin, an antibiotic, and hydroxychloroquine, a controversial drug which the WHO ended up concluding that it had no beneficial effect.
Devalued supermarkets
In Australia, supermarket shelves in Melbourne, the second largest city in the country, were robbed on Wednesday, a few hours before the entry into force of new containment measures for five million inhabitants from midnight Wednesday evening for six weeks.
“As frustrating as it may be, I support (confinement) – but ask me the question again in six weeks,” Michael Albert, a Melbourne resident, told AFP.
Restaurants and cafes can only serve take-out meals, while gyms and cinemas are once again forced to close their doors.
In this tense context, WHO has warned against the probable ability of the virus to be transmitted by air, that is to say in a much more contagious way than initially envisaged.
“The possibility of airborne transmission in particularly crowded public places cannot be excluded,” said WHO official Benedetta Allegranzi, stressing that the evidence still needs to be ” gathered and interpreted ”.
“To the knees”
The United States continues to break contamination records with 60 00 new cases for the single day of Tuesday. More than 1100 people died there during of recent 20 hours.
The director of the American Institute of Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, said that his country was still “knee deep” in the pandemic.
Donald Trump does not agree with this analysis: he believes he has done “good work” and predicts that “within two, three, four weeks” the country will be “in an excellent position” .
In Latin America and the Caribbean, more than three million cases of COVID – 19 have been identified since the start of the epidemic, more than half of it in Brazil, according to an assessment made Tuesday evening by AFP.
Faced with this crisis, the last active guerrilla in Colombia, the National Liberation Army (ELN), proposed a three-month bilateral ceasefire to the government, in response to the call of the '' UN to stop hostilities in countries in conflict to facilitate the fight against the new coronavirus.
In Africa, near 50 millions of Africans could fall into extreme poverty due to the economic impact of the epidemic, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Signposted routes
In Europe, the situation seems to be under control, even if the Old Continent remains the hardest hit by the virus with more 200 00 dead, more than two-thirds of them in the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Spain.
In Serbia, around 60 people were injured and around 20 others arrested during violent demonstrations Tuesday evening in Belgrade against the reintroduction of a curfew to fight a rebound in the coronavirus pandemic.
Thousands of furious protesters gathered in front of Parliament after President Aleksandar Vucic's announcement on Tuesday evening that residents will again have to stay at home over the weekend. Calm at the start, the demonstration, which brought together protesters of all stripes, degenerated.
After the Louvre on Monday, the National Gallery reopens on Wednesday, the first major London museum to come out of more than three months of confinement, with masks and signposted routes for visitors requested to book in advance.
Museum director Gabriele Finaldi said he hoped for a quarter of the usual number of visitors, or about 3000 at 4000 per day.
On the economic front, the British government is preparing to unveil on Wednesday a vast post-coronavirus recovery plan comprising an investment of 3 billion pounds dedicated to “green” jobs to “revitalize employment and protect the environment “. It will be “the biggest plan to tackle youth unemployment in decades,” according to the British Treasury.
Many voices have, however, already been raised to criticize measures which appear to be too unambitious in view of the looming historical recession.
In France, the decline in gross domestic product (GDP) in France should be limited to 9% in 2020, the National Statistics Institute announced on Wednesday as the government expects a collapse of 10% and the Banque de France de 10 %.