Virus an ‘enemy against humanity’ as cases spread

Refraining from touching your face is one of the golden rules of preventing the spread of coronavirus.

But why do we touch our faces in the first place? Let psychologist Natasha Tiwari explain.

The Queen has left Buckingham Palace for Windsor Castle in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, according to BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond.

Her Easter visit to Windsor has been brought forward by a week and she is likely to stay there beyond the Easter period, Buckingham Palace has said.

It comes after the palace announced that the state visit of the emperor and empress of Japan to the UK had been postponed. It was planned for the spring but will be rescheduled to a later date.

House of Commons

Parliament

British nationals in Peru have no way of leaving the country as a result of the restrictions imposed over coronavirus, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said.

But, speaking to the Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Raab said he was being updated on the situation daily.

He said he had also spoken to Spain’s foreign minister and had been assured that British nationals in hotels there would not be “kicked out on to the streets” when they closed next Tuesday.

Mr Raab also said he was confident that the 600 UK nationals on the Braemar cruise ship trapped in the Caribbean would fly back from Cuba to the UK later today.

The minister for medical care, Bruno Bruins, fainted in parliament on Wednesday as far-right politician Geert Wilders was speaking during a debate on the coronavirus.

The 56-year-old minister later cited exhaustion from weeks of intense work.

“I am feeling better now. I am going home to rest,” he said on social media, adding that he would be back at work on Thursday.

On Wednesday thousands of people gathered in southern Bangladesh to pray for the country to be rid of coronavirus, in a move that has not gone down well with the rest of the country.

The prayer meeting, held in Raipur, saw 10,000 Muslims offering “healing verses” for the country. A local police chief told news agency AFP the organisers had not sought permission from the authorities to hold the event,

Photos and videos of the event, such as the footage below, show people standing and praying shoulder to shoulder in a field. Many Bangladeshis have expressed shock and anger online over the event.

Officially the country has 14 positive cases of the virus but many experts fear that not enough testing has been done and that there are many more undetected cases.

Three more patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to six.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that, as of 09:00 on Thursday, there were 266 cases of coronavirus in Scotland, an increase of 39 from Wednesday.

Those on the frontline of the NHS, she said, were the priority in terms of testing and it would be used to allow critical workers to get to work.

The region is home to one of the outbreak’s hot spots, Iran, and has seen some of the tightest curbs to tackle it, notably in Israel:

• After 1,284 deaths and 18,407 infections Iran‘s authorities hope people will heed their advice and stay at home when the two-week holiday for Nowruz, the Persian New Year, starts on Friday. The sight of busy markets and traffic jams has been causing health experts anxiety
• The health ministry in Israel, where 529 people have tested positive, has begun texting people who have come into contact with confirmed patients, telling them to self-isolate, while civil rights groups are up in arms at news the Shin Bet security agency has been given permission to monitor mobile phones in order to prevent the spread of the virus
• Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, has meanwhile been importing essential medical equipment to battle Covid-19. Local media said it had already purchased 100,000 testing kits from abroad, but that it had been told by the health ministry they were “not exactly what we needed”
• The United Arab Emirates, which has reported 98 cases, says it will bar the re-entry of all foreign residents who are currently abroad for two weeks. About 90% of the population – 9 million people – are foreign nationals
• Saudi Arabia, which has reported 171 cases, has suspended most private sector activities, ordering business to implement home-working. The kingdom has also cut its state budget by almost 5%, as the outbreak and low oil prices threaten growth

House of Commons

Parliament

There are no moves yet to close the UK’s border, the foreign secretary has told MPs, but the situation is under “constant
review”.

Asked whether the UK would follow the EU in
implementing restrictions, Dominic Raab said the UK home secretary was keeping the situation “under constant review”.

“When we ask the question, the scientific advice comes back
that this, is at least at this stage, this is not the advice they would give us
to do it [to close the border],” he said.

“What we are very clear on at this point is taking these
measures is not in the UK’s interest. It won’t affect spread of disease.”

Speculation about the fate of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo has been rife and some athletes have called for them to be postponed but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said they could still take place as planned.

World Athletics chief Lord Sebastian Coe has told BBC Sport he believes that is the right decision, for now.

“Let’s not make a precipitous decision when we don’t have to four months out,” he said. Events were “changing by the hour” but it was “not a decision that has to be made at the moment”. However, he added that “anything” was possible.

Read the full story: Lord Coe says too early to decide on cancellation

There is “zero prospect of any restrictions being placed on travelling in and out of London”, the UK government has said.

A spokesperson said there were also “no plans to use military personnel for public order during the coronavirus pandemic”.

Asked to comment on the suggestion only one person would be allowed to leave a house at a time, Downing Street said this was “not true”, according to BBC political correspondent Chris Mason.

It comes after speculation London could face a lockdown by the weekend.

Adam Fleming

Brussels reporter

Michel Barnier, the head of the EU task force handling the post-Brexit relationship with the UK, has tested positive for coronavirus and says he is doing well.

Face-to-face negotiations between the UK and the EU have already effectively stopped because of the health advice on either side of the Channel. Some of Mr Barnier’s close-knit team are also now in isolation.

But there’s still plenty of work to be done. Both sides have shared with each other hundreds of pages of draft legal text which need to be analysed and mined for areas of agreement or potential compromise.

Plus, the deadlock will probably only be broken with some big political decisions and we’ve learnt they can happen very quickly if the conditions are right.

As for Mr Barnier… he’s a devotee of exercise, mountain air and healthy eating (he recently told me off for eating quiche rather than salad) and he’s feeling fine.

The UK’s science and medical advisers, including chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, are holding a press briefing on the coronavirus crisis.

Prof Whitty said the UK was “dealing with uncertainty”, but added that scientists had “accelerated knowledge from virtually nothing in January through to where we are now”.

He said: “But there are quite a lot of critical questions which we do not know the answer to now – we will know the answer in six months or a year’s time.”

The health ministry has reported 209 new deaths, bringing the total to 767, and a jump in infections by a quarter – from 13,716 to 17,147.

The country has the fourth highest death toll in the world after China, Italy and Iran.

The Spanish health ministry says 939 people are in intensive care while 1,107 people diagnosed with the virus have recovered.

Sita Dewi

BBC News Indonesia

Indonesia – the most populous Muslim nation in the world – only reported the first confirmed cases on 2 March but the number had already reached 227 with 19 deaths in just over two weeks. Many believe the real figure could be much higher.

Experts have predicted that the worst is yet to come, a modelling forecast put the number of confirmed cases at more than 8,000 by mid-April.

The government has ordered a “partial lockdown”, with calls for citizens to “work, study and worship” at home.Officials have called on people to exercise social distancing but vulnerable groups are already struggling.

Small businesses and street vendors, who have suffered losses, may not be able to sustain their livelihood if this situation continues in the coming weeks (the government has already announced various stimulus packages).

Schools have resorted to online learning for the time being but this method only favours privileged students with devices and an internet connection at home.

Social distancing is paramount to contain the spread of the virus, but how can people living in densely populated, slum areas even do that? Next month, devout Muslims in Indonesia will start observing Ramadan, during which religious gatherings intensify.

Fergus Walsh

Medical correspondent

It varies a lot on the type of surface. On hard surfaces like door handles, lift buttons or kitchen worktops it is probably around 48 hours, although some previous research on coronaviruses has found they can survive for perhaps a week in the right conditions.

On soft surfaces like clothes it will survive far less long, so if you have a coat that has virus on and you don’t wear it for a day or two the virus shouldn’t be active any more.

Remember, simply touching an infected surface will not give you Covid-19.

You have to then pass the virus to your mouth, nose or eyes so that’s why we need to stop touching our faces when out and about.

The region’s first coronavirus death has been confirmed.

The patient was elderly, had an underlying medical condition and was being treated in a hospital in the greater Belfast area.

Health Minister Robin Swann said: “I want to express my deep sadness at this death and send my condolences to the patient’s family and friends.”

The much anticipated reunion of Friends may be delayed because of the virus. That’s at least according to US magazine Variety.

Filming was due to begin next week but has now been put on hold until at least May, according to Variety’s sources.

The one-off special, more than 15 years since the hit show ended, had drawn widespread attention when it was announced just last week.

You can hardly avoid them now on the city streets of Asia and Europe but do those masks people are putting on actually offer much protection against coronavirus?

This is what Dr Shunmay Yeung of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has to say.