Coronavirus reaches Yanomami people in Amazon

AFP / POOLThe Yanomami people live in remote areas of the Amazon and are known for their vulnerability to foreign diseases

Brazil said Wednesday a first case of the new coronavirus had been detected among the Yanomami people, an Amazon indigenous group known for its remoteness and its vulnerability to foreign diseases.

"Today we confirmed a case (of the virus) among the Yanomami, which is very worrying," Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta told a news conference.

"We have to be triply cautious with (indigenous) communities, especially the ones that have very little contact with the outside world."

The Yanomami patient, a 15-year-old boy, is being treated in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Boa Vista, the capital of the northern state of Roraima, officials said.

Brazil has now confirmed at least seven coronavirus cases among the indigenous population, according to the newspaper Globo.

The first was a 20-year-old woman from the Kokama ethnic group who was confirmed positive a week ago.

Brazil is home to an estimated 800,000 indigenous people from more than 300 ethnic groups.

The Yanomami, who are known for their face paint and intricate piercings, number around 27,000.

Largely isolated from the outside world until the mid-20th century, they were devastated by diseases such as measles and malaria in the 1970s.

Indigenous peoples in the Amazon rainforest are particularly vulnerable to imported diseases, because they have been historically isolated from germs against which much of the world has developed immunity.

Coronavirus reaches Yanomami people in Amazon

Brazil said on Wednesday a first case of the new coronavirus had been detected among the Yanomami people, an Amazon indigenous group known for its remoteness and its vulnerability to foreign diseases.

“Today we confirmed a case (of the virus) among the Yanomami, which is very worrying,” Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta told a news conference.

“We have to be triply cautious with (indigenous) communities, especially the ones that have very little contact with the outside world.”

Huts of a Yanomami tribe, inside the Yanomami territory in Roraima, 
northern Brazil. File photo: AFT

The Yanomami patient, a 15-year-old boy, is being treated in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Boa Vista, the capital of the northern state of Roraima, officials said.

Brazil has now confirmed at least seven coronavirus cases among the indigenous population, according to the newspaper Globo.

The first was a 20-year-old woman from the Kokama ethnic group who was confirmed positive a week ago. Brazil is home to an estimated 800,000 indigenous people from more than 300 ethnic groups.

The Yanomami, who are known for their face paint and intricate piercings, number around 27,000.

Largely isolated from the outside world until the mid-20th century, they were devastated by diseases such as measles and malaria in the 1970s.


https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3079074/coronavirus-latest-us-cases-pass-400000-wto-warns

GOOD NEWS  

Air Canada to rehire 16,500 workers laid off due to pandemic

AFP/File / JOEL SAGETAir Canada says it will rehire furloughed employees under a government relief program

Some 16,500 Air Canada employees who were laid off because of the coronavirus pandemic will be rehired under a government relief package for businesses, the airline said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced during his daily news conference that the program would now be open to companies that suffered a drop of more than 15 percent in their revenues in March, against 30 percent previously.

Air Canada furloughed nearly half of its Canada-based workforce of 36,000 on March 30 after seeing business abruptly dry up by more than 90 percent as country after country imposed travel restrictions and people stopped flying.

The Canadian government stepped in April 1 with the emergency wage subsidy plan designed to help employers keep their workers or bring back ones that were laid off because of the pandemic.

It is retroactive to March 15 and the government will pay 75 percent of hard-hit companies' payrolls through June 6.

Air Canada said that under the "CEWS" relief package it will bring back the people it had furloughed.

"Subject to its adoption into law substantially as announced, Air Canada intends to adopt the CEWS for the benefit of its 36,000 Canadian-based employee workforce," the company said in a statement.

Trudeau also warned Canadians to brace for painful monthly unemployment figures to be released Thursday.

"It's going to be a hard day for the country," he said. "But I know that if we pull together, our economy will come roaring back after this crisis."

More than four million people have applied for emergency aid offered by the government since mid-March, about one fifth of the country's active population.

The figures point to an explosion in the unemployment rate for March from 5.6 percent in February.

Canada on Wednesday had more than 19,000 officially declared cases of coronavirus, and 456 deaths.

Strays feel the bite as pandemic spreads  

AFP / ANGELOS TZORTZINISThe global lockdowns against the coronavirus are tantamount to a death sentence of stray cats and dogs

As coronavirus forces billions of people around the world into lockdown, another sizeable population has also been hard hit -- stray animals.

While pet owners in many countries are still allowed to walk their dogs, thousands of other animals -- the exact numbers are unknown -- are starving and turning feral.

The mass closure of restaurants has also deprived hungry animals of leftover meals, forcing them to take greater risks.

For many, the restrictions are tantamount to a death sentence.

"We are seeing an increase in the numbers of cats in areas where we feed, some appear to have been abandoned, while others have roamed far from their usual spots in search of food," says Cordelia Madden-Kanellopoulou, a co-founder of Nine Lives Greece, a network of volunteers dedicated to reducing the overpopulation of stray cats in Athens and other cities.

According to the municipality, the stray dog population in Athens is put at hundreds while the cats run into the thousands.

"It is a huge worry to us that strays could be exposed to more cruelty and poisoning, being more visible and hungrier now, and thus more likely to trust and approach people," said Madden-Kanellopoulou.

Greek officials over the weekend said an online platform had been created for food donations and veterinary services for strays and pets whose owners are unable to care for them.

"During the lockdown, we make sure that all dogs have enough food so that they don't become aggressive. This week we will also start installing feeders in different areas of the city making sure that dogs and cats are fed regularly," said Serafina Avramidou, city of Athens councillor for animal welfare.

Avramidou said she has also already signed more than 350 permits for volunteers to visit feeding areas without getting fined.

In neighbouring Turkey, authorities in Istanbul distribute around a tonne of food for street cats and dogs every day.

- 'We'll care for your friends' -

"We were taking care of strays even before the coronavirus," Tayfun Koc, an Istanbul municipal feeding worker, told AFP.

"I say this to all our citizens, stay at home, we will take care of our little friends," he said.

AFP / ANGELOS TZORTZINISEuropean authorities are realising that allowances must be made for populations of stray animals

Authorities elsewhere in Europe are gradually realising that allowances must be made for stray populations.

After Spain went into a nationwide lockdown on March 14, Madrid officials closed down 125-hectare Retiro park in the city centre where around 270 cats live in 19 different colonies.

For days, volunteers were not able to enter. City hall authorities eventually allowed them to give food to park gardeners to distribute.

A single volunteer may also enter the park three times a week, for an hour at a time, to check on the health of the cats.

Mercedes Hervas, the president of the Association of Friends of the Cats of Retiro, says this was not enough time to check on them all and look after those in need of medical care.

On March 30, a park employee found dead a female cat that the group had been treating with antibiotics. Hervas predicted other cats would also die.

"You have to go from colony to colony and wait for the cat to come out. Maybe Olympic athletes can do it in one hour, we can't," she says.

Elsewhere in the Balkans, provision is more ad hoc.

In Serbia, where there is no state-organised effort to feed and shelter stray animals, people in several cities and towns have organised help locally.

A similar effort is under way in North Macedonia where NGOs are calling on people to leave food on the street for the estimated 10,000 stray dogs in Skopje.

In Croatia, about 40 animal shelters which had to close their doors for visitors are imploring citizens not to abandon their pets.

In Albania, locked-down citizens say it is impossible to secure permission to walk a dog, let alone feed strays, so people go out in secret.

- 'Death sentence' -

"These measures taken for humans are effectively a death sentence for dogs and cats," says Indrit Osmani who heads the Animal Rescue Albania volunteer group.

AFP / ANGELOS TZORTZINISPets are not entirely safe even at home

In Bulgaria, veterinary clinics ran an information campaign after pets were increasingly found on the street because their owners thought they may transmit the virus.

There was a similar campaign in Beirut, where Lebanese animal rights groups have reported an increase in abandoned pets.

The group, Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, last week said it had received "countless" calls concerning poisonings across the country, mainly around the capital.

Last month, it said that the number of abandoned pets had "at least tripled in recent weeks because of the panic" caused by the virus.

But in a time of heightened health concerns, pets are not entirely safe even at home.

French veterinarians last week warned owners against attempting to disinfect their dogs and cats with detergent or alcohol gel.

The move came after images online showed dogs whose legs had been burned by disinfectants.

"Soapy water or a dog shampoo works very well", said Christine Debove, regional adviser of the Order of veterinarians for Ile-de-France.

Not only are dogs and cats unable to digest alcohol properly, but these products can also cause respiratory irritation and skin reactions, Debove said.

burs-jph/bsp/spm/je

Coronavirus adds to struggles in City of God favela

GOD HAS ABANDONED THEM

AFP / MAURO PIMENTELA woman in Rio de Janeiro's City of God favela carries a box with donations of basic food supplies distributed by an NGO to people suffering economic hardship during the novel coronavirus in Brazil

There are no good options these days in City of God.

Venture out in this densely populated Rio de Janeiro favela, and residents risk exposing themselves to coronavirus.

Stay in, and many have nothing to eat.

The Brazilian slum rose to fame in 2002, when an acclaimed film of the same name chronicled the violence, crime and stark choices facing young people growing up on its streets.

"If you run, the beast will get you. If you stay, the beast will eat you," went the film's tagline.

It could just as well apply to the era of COVID-19.

AFP / MAURO PIMENTELLike 40 percent of Brazil's labor force, people in favelas tend to work in the informal sector, the kind of jobs that become impossible under the stay-at-home measures adopted to slow the spread of the new coronavirus

Like 40 percent of Brazil's labor force, people in favelas tend to work in the informal sector, the kind of jobs that become impossible under the stay-at-home measures adopted to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

"A lot of them are self-employed. They style hair, give manicures, collect cans to recycle, guard people's cars, sell things at the beach," says Samantha Messiades, founder of a charitable organization called Ligacao Cultural (Cultural Connection).

"All these people have lost their income. And they urgently need help," she says, wearing a pink face mask as she watches workers hand out food to needy residents in the slum of 37,000 people.

- A shadow of itself -

AFP / MAURO PIMENTELA volunteer loads a van with donations of basic food supplies for residents of the City of God favela -- one-quarter of Rio de Janeiro's residents live in such slums

Rio de Janeiro is a shadow of itself under coronavirus isolation measures. A hush reigns over its usually jam-packed streets, and authorities have closed non-essential businesses, as well as the city's iconic beaches and tourist attractions.

That means hard times for the 1.5 million people who live in favelas -- a quarter of the city's population.

Messiades originally launched her organization to bring music, theater, dance and other cultural opportunities to children in City of God.

But now she has reinvented it as a food pantry to help people get through the coronavirus crisis.

It is supplying food, soap and basic hygiene supplies to 800 families, thanks to donations from churches, associations and private citizens.

"This is very important and valuable to people here," says Monica Oliveira da Silva, a cleaner among those waiting in a closely-packed line, many with babies and young children.

AFP / MAURO PIMENTEL"Stay home and save lives" says this sign in City of God -- a hush reigns over the usually jam-packed streets of Rio de Janeiro

"The poor have no income and no savings. My children aren't working because they can't. They work in transportation. Everyone needs help," says Maria de Fatima Santos, a retiree.

Favela residents are also living in fear of the destruction a big outbreak could bring to their crowded, under-served communities.

On a street outside the community center where workers handed out boxes of food, a banner gives the global death toll and urges: "Stay home and save lives."

City of God has confirmed only one case of the new virus so far, authorities say.

 Singapore migrant workers live in fear as virus hits dorms

AFP / Roslan RAHMANSingapore has quarantined four large dormitory complexes housing tens of thousands of mostly South Asian workers, where more than 200 cases have so far been detected

Migrant workers in Singapore are living in fear following a surge of coronavirus infections in their dormitories where they say cramped and filthy conditions make social distancing impossible.

The city-state, which is battling a worsening outbreak, this week quarantined four large dormitory complexes housing tens of thousands of mostly South Asian workers, where more than 200 cases have so far been detected.

Infections have also been recorded in a handful of other facilities.

One worker from Bangladesh, who lives in a dorm where there are several known infections but has not yet been locked down, told AFP social distancing to halt the spread of the virus was not possible.

"One small room with 12 people living together... how can we make social distance?" the labourer said in English, on the condition of anonymity.

He said hygiene standards were poor and workers were forced to use a communal cooking area and bathroom.

"We know the virus character, how this is spread -- so if this living condition continue I am very worried," he added.

At least one dorm had overflowing toilets and rooms infested with cockroaches, the Straits Times newspaper reported, casting a harsh spotlight on what critics claim is the disgraceful treatment of foreign labourers in wealthy Singapore.

The huge dormitories mostly house construction workers who typically earn about $400 to $500 a month building the city-state's glittering skyscrapers and shopping malls.

A Bangladeshi man in one of the quarantined dormitories said workers were increasingly concerned about the growing number of asymptomatic cases.

"Definitely we all are worried," he told AFP, also speaking anonymously.

"Since last few days, we already got news that there are so many people affected without any symptoms."

- 'Recipe for disaster' -

There are about 280,000 migrant construction workers in Singapore who mostly live in self-contained dorms, with shops and other facilities on-site. They are often located in less desirable parts of the city, meaning they mix little with Singaporeans.

After reports emerged of unsanitary conditions at one of the quarantined dorms, the manpower ministry said it was working to improve the situation.

Caterers are providing meals to workers in lockdown and cleaning services have been increased.

AFP / Roslan RAHMANThere are about 280,000 migrant construction workers in Singapore who mostly live in self-contained dorms

A task force involving government officials, police and the armed forces has also been set up to provide support to foreign workers and dormitory operators.

The manpower ministry said it will "continue to keep a close eye on the dormitory conditions and will intervene proactively to ensure standards".

But Amnesty International warned quarantining workers in close proximity could be a "recipe for disaster".

"Migrant workers living in crowded quarters, without opportunities to self-isolate and protect themselves, are at particular risk of exposure to the virus," said Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Amnesty's Singapore researcher.

Alex Au, vice president of migrant rights group Transient Workers Count Too, called on the government to temporarily house some workers in other locations such as army barracks.

"We fear that if the density of the dorms are not lowered... if the men are not thinned out, infections in many of the dorms will rise," he said.

- 'Wake-up call' -

Singapore has reported more than 1,600 virus cases including six deaths, relatively low by global standards, and has won praise for its handling of the outbreak.

AFP / Roslan RAHMANVirus infections in the migrant worker dorms and the poor conditions have sparked soul-searching in Singapore about the treatment of foreign labourers

But infections are rising sharply and authorities this week introduced tough new curbs. The health ministry on Wednesday reported 142 new cases -- Singapore's biggest daily increase since the outbreak began.

The infections at the dorms and the poor conditions have sparked soul-searching in Singapore about the treatment of foreign labourers, who have played a key role in the city-state's dramatic transformation from a gritty port into an ultra-modern financial hub.

Writing on Facebook, veteran Singapore diplomat Tommy Koh said it should be a "wake-up call to treat our indispensable foreign workers like a first world country should, and not in the disgraceful way in which they are treated now".

The post was flooded with supportive comments, including one that asked: "Is this how we treat the very people who have built our city, our home?"

India's poor hit hardest by virus lockdown  

AFP/File / Arun SANKARIndia's poorest have been hit the hardest by the coronavirus lockdown

With his rickshaw sitting idle outside his one-room shack, Sailesh Kumar is one of the hundreds of millions of poor Indians hit the hardest by the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown.

His family of six are stuck in their slum home outside New Delhi earning nothing and waiting desperately for money promised by the government.

Like an estimated 100 million others, Kumar is a migrant worker. He left his home village in Bihar, India's poorest state, seven years ago "for a better life" and "good education" for his kids.

Before India's 21-day lockdown began on March 25, the 38-year-old earned -- on a good day -- the equivalent of $4 a day cycling his rickshaw, while his wife cooked and cleaned as a domestic worker.

Now with all activity except essential services halted in the country of 1.3 billion people, Kumar can't work, and his wife's employers wouldn't even let her in the building.

"They feel she will give them this disease," he said.

AFP/File / Prakash SINGHWith all activity except essential services halted, huge numbers of India's poor are out of work

Their home in the city of Ghaziabad on the outskirts of the capital is one of dozens of single-room structures in rows with shared toilets and no running water.

It is among the many potential coronavirus breeding grounds that have experts alarmed.

"We store water in buckets for drinking and cooking. We can't waste it to wash (our) hands every time," Kumar shrugged.

The situation is similarly grim for Ram Kumar Gautam, hundreds of kilometres (miles) away in the Mumbai neighbourhood of Dharavi, India's biggest slum.

The 30-year-old left his home in the northern city of Lucknow when he was just 17.

Until the lockdown, he used to send his family as much as he could from the $9 daily wage he earned in a factory making aluminium foil.

"How will I send money home or pay back loans? The future looks scary," he told AFP.

Gautam said he would have starved but for the generosity of his employer, who was looking after him and other stranded employees.

- 'Better to starve' -

The fear of going hungry sparked an exodus by hundreds of thousands of migrant workers and their families back to their villages last month, many on foot.

AFP/File / Money SHARMAThe ILO has warned that 400 million Indians working in the informal economy risk falling deeper into poverty during the pandemic

Some perished on the way.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) said this week that 400 million Indians working in the informal economy risk falling deeper into poverty during the crisis.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has announced direct cash transfers and food subsidies to help some 800 million people.

But all save one of the seven workers interviewed for this story said they have received nothing so far.

A government official insisted that payments are being made, saying that cash transfers to bank accounts opened by the poor under a national scheme would be completed this week.

For Rajni Devi, a mother of three who said she cries herself to sleep in a crowded tenement on the outskirts of New Delhi, it can't come soon enough.

"Last night we had roti (Indian flatbread) with salt mixed in mustard oil," she said.

"It's better to die than starve like this," the 30-year-old added.

"I keep hearing that the government will do this and that. No one has even come to see if we are alive or dead."

- No rations -

Back in Mumbai, Vatsala Shinde had a more unusual job, charging superstitious traders outside the stock exchange a small fee to feed her cow, an animal sacred to Hindus.

AFP/File / Prakash SINGHFearing hunger and lockdowns, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers and their families went back to their villages in India last month

Now forced out of business after 37 years, she recently visited a state-run ration shop desperate for basics like rice and lentils, but the manager told her she didn't qualify for free supplies.

She is subsisting on food distributed by a charity.

"I have never seen such a situation (where) our very survival seems to be at stake," Shinde said.

"So many of us live from one day to the next," said domestic worker Alambi Shaikh, 70, who is now the only earning member of her family.

"It's the poor who keep this country running," she said.

"But no one thinks we are worth anything."

 Virus claims record dead Globally 

EVERY AMERICAN CORONAVIRUS DEATH IS ON TRUMP

AFP / Ina FASSBENDERA mural painted by artist Kai 'Uzey' Wohlgemuth featuring a nurse as Superwoman on a wall in Hamm, Germany

The coronavirus pandemic notched up another round of record death tolls in the United States and Europe, dousing the optimism of US President Donald Trump who insisted there was light at the end of the tunnel.

The virus has now killed more than 87,000 people and infected over 1.5 million, according to an AFP tally on Thursday, sparing almost no country and tipping the world into a devastating economic crisis as global commerce shudders to a halt.

AFP / Jose SanchezPeople wearing protective suits sit next to a coffin on a truck near Los Ceibos hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador

For the second straight day, the US grieved nearly 2,000 deaths on Wednesday, as flags flew at half-mast in hardest-hit New York.

There was also a record death toll of 938 over 24 hours in Britain, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a third night in intensive care, his condition said to be "improving."

AFP / Bryan R. SmithRows of beds separated by black fabric are set up as a temporary field hospital for COVID-19 patients at the USTA Billie Jean King tennis center in New York

France saw its total number of dead climb over 10,000 as the country prepared to extend its strict lockdown measures. Spain and Italy are still seeing hundreds of deaths per day despite tentative signs the disease may have peaked.

And the pandemic is marching into areas previously only lightly affected: in Africa, Ethiopia declared a state of emergency and Liberia said it was locking down its capital Monrovia.

Its deadly tentacles also crept deep into the Amazon rainforest, with the first case detected among the Yanomami, an indigenous people isolated from the world until the mid-20th century and vulnerable to disease.

AFP / CRISTINA QUICLERA woman walks past a church in Seville, adorned with flowers and candles left by the faithful after Easter processions were cancelled

Nevertheless, some glimmers of hope shone in the darkness, with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo saying the epidemic curve seemed to be flattening.

"We are hopefully heading towards a final stretch, the light at the end of the tunnel," said Trump.

- 'Playing with fire' -

All around the world, medical facilities are at bursting point as they struggle with a relentless procession of critically-ill patients.

AFP / NORBERTO DUARTEA health worker conducts a test for COVID-19 in Asuncion, Paraguay

In the badly affected city of Guayaquil in Ecuador, sick patients are passing out before arriving at emergency care and the elderly are slumped outside in wheelchairs at overwhelmed hospitals.

"My grandmother died, my mother has all the symptoms, my 15-year-old sister too and the government is doing nothing, nothing! We need to be almost dying in order to receive assistance," said Xiomara Franco, a relative of a sick patient.

AFP / Isabel InfantesMedical staff from Britain's National Health Service (NHS) take a break outside St Thomas' Hospital in central London

"There is a lack of oxygen, a lack of medicine, a lack of nurses and doctors, a lack of stretchers," complained Henry Figueroa, another angry relative.

At the global level, the World Health Organization and Trump are embroiled in an ugly war of words, with Trump accusing the UN body of "blowing it" and being too close to China.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged unity at a time of global crisis, saying: "If you don't want many more body bags, then you refrain from politicising it."

"It's like playing with fire."

- 'Better to die' -

AFP / Tauseef MUSTAFALocal residents start a fight with a municipal worker (C) who they accuse of not properly sanitising their house in a declared Red Zone for coronavirus in Srinagar, India

Governments are wrestling with the problem of when to exit lockdown procedures and reboot a global economy that is effectively in deep freeze.

The World Trade Organization warned the pandemic was likely to spark the deepest recession "of our lifetimes," with global trade poised to plummet by one third.

The Bank of France estimated the country's economy shrank around six percent in the first quarter -- the worst performance since the end of World War II.

AFP / PAUL FAITHPolice conduct a traffic checkpoint on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland, to restrict people's movements in order to combat the novel coronavirus

Europe powerhouse Germany is seen contracting an eye-watering 10 percent as the eurozone squabbled about pooling debt for "coronabonds" to help the worst-affected members such as Spain and Italy.

In Miami, hundreds lined up in cars to get unemployment forms after the website crashed due to a surge in demand.

Gus Rios, a 67-year-old former factory worker, said: "People are looking for help, people (are) crazy right now, almost, to get something because we don't know the situation how long is going to be."

AFP / Alberto PIZZOLIA nurse prepares medical equipment at the new COVID-3 level intensive care unit, treating COVID-19 patients, at Casal Palocco hospital near Rome

Recent US data indicate 10 million people have lost their jobs in the world's top economy that is closed for business.

In India, a virus-induced lockdown is hitting the millions of poor hardest as they wait for promised government food subsidies that cannot come quick enough for mother-of-three Rajni Devi, 30.

"Last night we had roti (Indian flatbread) with salt mixed in mustard oil," she said.

"It's better to die than starve like this."

- 'Doing something good' -

The pandemic has forced half of humanity inside, an unprecedented measure that has allowed wildlife to reclaim previously choked streets.

AFP / NICHOLAS KAMMPeople stand in line to enter a grocery store in Washington, DC amid the coronavirus pandemic

In India, hundreds of monkeys are running riot in the roads around the presidential palace while peacocks display their spectacular trains on top of parked cars in Mumbai.

In Vienna, animals are being conscripted into the fight against the virus, with horse-drawn carriages converted from a tourist attraction to a food delivery service.

Christian Gerzabek, who drives one of the famous city "Fiaker", said business had crawled to a halt but "the horses still have to be moved, they want to get out after the winter."

"I thought that we should combine that... with doing something good for people who need it," he told AFP.

burs-ric/amj