As northern Italy is ravaged by coronavirus, there's trouble brewing down south
Updated 0732 GMT (1532 HKT) April 4, 2020
Four weeks into a nationwide lockdown, very few Italians are still singing from their balconies or banging pots and pans in solidarity. Instead, flags were lowered to half-staff this week for the nearly 15,000 coronavirus victims including doctors, nurses and health care professionals who have perished since February 23.
The lockdown, which was originally scheduled to end Friday, April 3, has now been extended to beyond Easter, and Italians from north to south are nearing a breaking point just as the draconian measures have begun to show signs of stopping the spread of Covid-19.
Italy's wealthy northern provinces have taken the brunt of the coronavirus outbreak with more than 75% of overall cases and deaths north of Tuscany, in the center of the country, per the Italian Civil Protection agency.
NHS worker quit when she was stopped from wearing face mask
Tracy Brennan chastised superiors at hospitals trust for making her remove mask she had bought herself
A healthcare worker in north-west London quit her job after she was refused permission to wear a protective face mask, the Guardian has learned.
In her resignation letter (below), Tracy Brennan chastised her superiors at Hillingdon Hospitals NHS foundation trust for forbidding her from wearing a surgical mask she had bought to protect herself – and the patients she was caring for – from contracting the deadly virus.
Brennan, a healthcare assistant, which is also sometimes referred to as an auxiliary nurse, said she had returned to work after self-isolating for 14 days because her daughter had shown symptoms of Covid-19. She said that patients in the ward where she was working, which was not a coronavirus treatment ward, felt comfortable with her wearing the surgical mask and some positively encouraged her to do so.
While focus is on the coronavirus, these states are criminalizing fossil fuel protests
The legislation 'strikes at the heart of every American’s right to free speech and assembly', say critics
Louise BoyleNew York
Criminal penalties for protesting against the fossil fuel industry are being introduced into law by three states with others expected to follow suit.
As the nation focuses on the raging coronavirus pandemic, governors in Kentucky, South Dakota and West Virginia signed laws last month deeming oil and gas pipelines and facilities “critical” or “key” infrastructure and enacting strong penalties for protests.
Kentucky Governor, Democrat Andy Beshear, led the way with legislation around gas and oil pipeline “assets” that make “tampering with, impeding, or inhibiting operations of a key infrastructure asset [a] criminal mischief in the first degree”.
US firm denies German 'piracy' claims over vanished face masks
The US company at the center of allegations that thousands of face masks destined for Germany were confiscated has denied the accusations. The current global lack of such items is causing a flurry of such incidents.
The US conglomerate 3M on Saturday denied German claims that a shipment of 200,000 medical face masks ordered by the city of Berlin amid the coronavirus pandemic was confiscated in the Thai capital, Bangkok, by US officials.
The company told Germany's DPA news agency that it had neither any reports of masks being seized nor any paperwork on such a shipment being destined for Berlin.
The denial comes after Berlin's regional interior minister, Andreas Geisel, on Friday accused the US of "modern piracy" for having confiscated the FFP-2 respirators, intended for used by police officers in the capital. He said the masks, which were reportedly manufactured in China, were paid for.
Crossing 10,000-case threshold: A look back on coronavirus chaos
South Korea, one of the first countries hit by novel coronavirus outside China, marked a grim coronavirus milestone Friday when the virus toll surpassed 10,000 -- 74 days after the first case was reported.
Grim as it may look, the crossing of the 10,000 mark came amid a stabilizing trend of new infections.
The country counted 86 new cases in the 24 hours to midnight Thursday, markedly down from a peak of 909 on Feb 29.
Grim as it may look, the crossing of the 10,000 mark came amid a stabilizing trend of new infections.
The country counted 86 new cases in the 24 hours to midnight Thursday, markedly down from a peak of 909 on Feb 29.
Racism row as French doctors suggest virus vaccine test in Africa
Two doctors spark criticism for discussing in a TV show the idea of testing a vaccine for the coronavirus in Africa.
Two French doctors have been accused of racism for suggesting that a potential vaccine for coronavirus should first be tested on people in Africa.
The comments were made on the French television channel, LCI, during a discussion on Wednesday about COVID-19 trials set to be launched in Europe and Australia to see if the BCG tuberculosis vaccine could be used to treat the virus.
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