Europe and US in desperate search for medical supplies as virus rates soar
Healthcare workers have reported they are having to reuse and ration disposable masks and gloves.
The hunt for masks, ventilators and other medical supplies has consumed the US and Europe, as more than 1.5 billion people — a fifth of the world’s population — were asked or ordered to stay home to try to blunt the spread of the coronavirus.
Political paralysis stalled efforts for a quick aid package from Congress in the US, and stocks fell at the opening bell even after the Federal Reserve said it would buy as much government debt as necessary and lend to small and large businesses and local governments to help them cope with the economic damage from the outbreak.
In New York, where a near-lockdown took effect statewide over the weekend amid fears the city could become one of the world’s biggest hotspots, mayor Bill de Blasio warned that hospitals are 10 days away from shortages in “really basic supplies” needed to protect healthcare workers and patients alike.
A surge in infections has caused a critical shortage of medical supplies in many places. Italy has already seen 18 doctors with coronavirus die. A senior Spanish health official called the infection of 3,910 healthcare workers, roughly 12% of the country’s total cases, “very bad news”.
Spain has erected a field hospital in a convention centre, while US President Donald Trump has ordered mobile hospital centres to be sent to Washington, California and New York.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, promised that medical supplies are about to start pouring in and will be “clearly directed to those hot spots that need it most”.
However, efforts for a quick aid package from US congress have faltered as the senate voted against advancing a nearly two trillion-dollar (£1.71 trillion) economic rescue package.
The delay shook investors, as has the accumulation of cancelled events large and small, the soaring numbers of unemployed and a general, widespread shrinking in spending.
An untold number of burials are going forward with nothing more than a priest or other religious figure, funeral home staff and one loved one to bear witness.
Share benchmarks in many Asian markets logged sharp losses.
Worldwide, nearly 350,000 people have been infected and more than 15,000 have died from the virus that first emerged in central China late last year.
As cases in China ebbed, the dangers to Europe and the US have grown exponentially. After just weeks, the US has more than 33,000 cases and more than 400 deaths. Worldwide, some 99,000 people have recovered, mostly in China.
Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky became the first US senator to announce he was infected. Opera superstar Placido Domingo confirmed he has Covid-19, and German chancellor Angela Merkel put herself into quarantine after a doctor who gave her a pneumonia vaccine tested positive.
Italy’s infections continued to spike on Sunday, hitting 59,000 cases and 5,476 deaths, and India’s prime minister asked, with mixed results, his nation of 1.3 billion people to stay at home.
With no end in sight to the global uncertainty, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged that a postponement of this year’s Summer Olympics could be unavoidable.
Canada and Australia added to the immense pressure on Japan and Olympic organisers by suggesting they would not send athletes to Tokyo this summer, with the games scheduled to start in July.
The International Olympic Committee’s announced a plan to examine the situation over the next few weeks and make a decision that could include the option to postpone.
“If it is difficult to hold in a complete way, a decision of postponement would be unavoidable,” Mr Abe said.
While other countries struggled to contain the virus, the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus outbreak emerged late last year and the first metropolitan area be locked down, said on Monday that it is now allowing for limited movement, both within the city and out of it, as its months-long lockdown gradually eases.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump suggested that the remedies to fight the epidemic — including worldwide financial pain — may be more harmful than the outbreak itself and vowed to reassess government restrictions after the 15-day mark of the US shutdown.
