Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Six In The Morning Wednesday 1 April 2020

China pivots to tackle 'silent' Covid-19 carriers as US says a quarter of cases may have no symptoms

Authorities in China will release tally of asymptomatic patients and order them into quarantine for 14 days as infections rise again

Chinese authorities have shifted their focus to tackling “silent”, or asymptomatic, carriers of the coronavirus as part of the next phase of the pandemic, amid concern among US health chiefs that a quarter of patients do not suffer symptoms.
The National Health Commission in China said it would start releasing a tally of asymptomatic patients from Wednesday and would order those cases into quarantine for 14 days, after the mainland witnessed its first rise in infections in five days.
Authorities reported 130 new asymptomatic cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of such cases under observation to 1,367. Previously, China has regarded asymptomatic patients as a low risk and not included them in their tally of confirmed cases. Asymptomatic patients, found through tracing the contacts of confirmed cases, had been quarantined and then released if they did not show symptoms.

Idaho governor signs two anti-transgender bills

Governor Brad Little signed bill 500 and 509 into law


The governor of Idaho has signed two bills into law that limit the rights of transgender people.
According to a report by The Associated Press, Governor Brad Little signed two bills into law that stop people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates, and ban transgender girls and women from competing in women’s sports.
House Bill 500 states that all athletic teams will be expressly designated based on biological sex within most educational institutions and cites ”inherent differences between men and women” as reasoning.

Coronavirus and mental health: 'We are not made for social isolation'

Wash your hands, keep your distance, be flexible: This is difficult for many, but for people with mental illnesses it is a huge problem. We fear for our lungs — and forget the most vulnerable among us.
Under normal circumstances, all of this would have been less of a strain on her. But this time it was too much. Jacqueline Krützmann was ill, with a cough to boot. So she preferred not to leave the house and not to expose herself to the suspicious looks of others. Not at this time.
With the unerring sense children have for such exceptional situations, her son saw his chance and really turned up the heat, running up and down the living room and jumping tirelessly on the sofa. Krützmann soon had no choice but to sit down on the floor and let the situation pass by. To wait until it was over.

Lack of compassion, more than resources, marks India’s deadly lockdown mismanagement

More than 20 migrant labourers have died trying to flee India’s coronavirus locked-down cities for their villages over the past few days. Critics blame Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hasty 21-day curfew call that, like many of his recent directives, was long on populist symbolism, but short on foresight or compassion.
It was the biggest human lockdown ordered at the shortest notice without adequate planning or preparation for the fallout of a sweeping policy measure that was weeks in the making.
In a televised address to the nation at 8pm on Tuesday, March 24, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi put 1.3 billion people under a three-week lockdown. It was the world’s largest coronavirus directive – not even China, the world’s most populous country and source of the Covid-19 outbreak, imposed such a sweeping nationwide shutdown, with Beijing isolating only the worst-affected Hubei province. The time frame was breathlessly tight: the measures would start at midnight, Modi announced, giving his people less than four hours to stock up and disregard earlier directives to avoid hoarding.

A family mourns as US drone attacks in Somalia continue

Civilians paying a heavy price as al-Shabab punishes them and American drone attacks kill them, Somali politician says.


It was a dark warm Sunday night and the Kusow family was gathered outside their home on the edge of Jilib, a small farming town in southern Somalia.
The family of five was having dinner outside their tin-roof house. In the distance, they could hear neighbours listening to the evening news bulletin on radios and the unique slap-slap of anjera, Somali pancakes, being mixed for the next morning.

David Hockney shares exclusive art from Normandy, as 'a respite from the news'


David Hockney is in lockdown at his house in Normandy with his dog Ruby and two of his long-standing assistants, JP and Jonathan.
He is in the garden most days, drawing the spring awakening on his iPad. In a BBC exclusive, he is sharing 10 of his most recent images (including one animation), nine of which have never been published before, for us all to enjoy at this difficult time, along with his thoughts on the role of art in life.
The artist previously visited Normandy in the autumn of 2018 following the installation of his stained-glass window in Westminster Abbey. He thought it would be a good place to draw and paint the arrival of spring, something he'd done around a decade earlier in East Yorkshire. Those pictures, paintings, and films were the basis for a successful exhibition in 2012 at the Royal Academy in London.




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