Health

19 April 2020; MEMO: Algeria will extend a lockdown by 10 days until April 29 as it tries to limit the spread of the coronavirus amid increases in deaths and confirmed cases, the prime minister’s office said on Saturday.

The government had imposed a full lockdown in the Blida area, south of the capital Algiers, and a night curfew in the country’s remaining 47 provinces until April 19.

New Delhi, Apr 18 (PTI) All postal employees, including Gramin Dak Sevaks, will get Rs 10 lakh compensation in case they succumb to COVID-19, the government said on Saturday.

The postal services come under essential services and apart from regular services, the post offices are also delivering food packets, rations and essential medicines, among others, across the country by liasioning with local administration and police.

Washington, Apr 19 (AFP/PTI) President Donald Trump has said he hopes US Muslims will be held to the same social distancing standards during Ramzan as Christians at Easter, when a number of faithful chafed against coronavirus-related restrictions on large gatherings.

The US president made the comments after being asked to defend a retweet of a conservative commentator who seemed to question whether Muslims would be treated with the same severity as Christians who broke social distancing rules.

Pune, Apr18 (PTI) One hundred and twenty-five Bahrain nationals, stranded here because of coronavirus outbreak, were evacuated on Saturday, an airport official said.

A special flight of Gulf Air evacuated 125 Bahrain nationals from here and flew to Chennai to take on board others, said a senior official of the Pune International Airport.

Before boarding the flight, they were screened.

"One of them had a high temperature so he was not allowed to get onto the plane. He was referred to a hostel facility," the official said.

NEW DELH, April 19 (Bernama) — A Malindo Air special flight on Saturday evacuated 179 people, mostly Malaysian citizens, from India and Sri Lanka amid the coronavirus curbs on travel.

The plane carried 97 passengers, including an infant and a few permanent residents of Malaysia, from Chennai in the afternoon and flew to Colombo to pick up 82 Malaysians from there, a person familiar with the rescue flight said.

TUNIS, Apr 19 (NNN-TAP) – Tunisian Minister of Health, Abdellatif Mekki, said that, the number of COVID-19 cases in Tunisia remains moderate, which shows that the country has passed the danger stage.

“The situation would have been better if we were more engaged in general confinement,” Mekki assured, while speaking on regional radio station of Tatouine, a public radio broadcast from the province of Tataouine in southeastern Tunisia.

ROME, Apr 19 (NNN-XINHUA) – A further 482 people died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours in Italy, raising the country’s death toll to 23,227.

The total number of confirmed cases — combining active infections, fatalities and recoveries — rose to 175,925, an increase of 3,491 against Friday, according to fresh figures from Italy’s Civil Protection Department.

Also, there were 2,200 additional recoveries in the past 24 hours, bringing the total recoveries to 44,927, since the pandemic first broke out in the northern Lombardy region on Feb 21.

BRUSSELS, Apr 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The COVID-19 pandemic continued to hit Europe, as more deaths were registered on Saturday in the continent, especially in those worst-affected countries.

Spain became the second European country to have over 20,000 deaths after Italy, while fatalities in France and Britain passed 19,000 and 15,000, respectively.

Across Europe, over 1.08 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and some 97,200 deaths have been reported so far, according to the latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

LONDON, Apr 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Another 888 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died in hospitals in Britain as of Friday afternoon, bringing the total number of virus-related deaths to 15,464, the Department of Health and Social Care said Saturday.

As of Saturday morning, 114,217 people have tested positive for the virus, marking a daily increase of 5,526, said the department.

The figures were announced amid growing concerns over a serious shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline medical staff in hospitals.

WASHINGTON, Apr 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) – U.S. Department of Defence extended its freeze order on the movement of U.S. troops through June 30, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, a Pentagon official announced on Saturday.

Undersecretary of Defence for Personnel and Readiness, Matthew Donovan, said, the new order, which comes into force on Monday, would include eased restrictions and more exemptions allowed, compared to the previous order.