Health

NAIROBI, March 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Kenya’s lower parliamentary chamber wants some 50 lawmakers to be tested for coronavirus amid fears they may have contracted the virus from a member who recently tested positive.

Local media reports say the parliament has submitted the names of MPs and parliamentary staff it wants tested to the health ministry. It wants them placed on mandatory quarantine as well.

ABUJA, March 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US is evacuating its nationals from Nigeria’s commercial hub, Lagos and the capital, Abuja, after the two cities were were placed on a two-week lockdown in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The US embassy has tweeted that multiple emergency flights will leave the two cities this week.

Those to be moved will be contacted directly and the embassy has advised all American nationals in the country to stay put until they are contacted.

JERUSALEM, Mar 31 (NNN-MA’AN) – A total of 448 people in Israel tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 4,695, the Israeli Ministry of Health said.

It said the death toll of the virus in the country has hit 16, adding, of the 527 patients being treated in hospitals across Israel, 79 are in serious condition.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced further measures to tighten the closure in the country.

NEW YORK, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The United States has tested 1 million people in its stepped-up effort to tackle the novel coronavirus, with a capacity to test 100,000 samples daily.

"Today we reached a historic milestone in our war against the coronavirus. Over 1 million Americans have been tested," President Donald Trump announced Monday at a White House briefing.

Alex Azar, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, said the United States is now testing 100,000 samples a day in their effort to combat the outbreak.

30 Mar 2020; MEMO: Iran is to allocate 20% of its annual state budget to fighting the coronavirus outbreak in the country, one of the worst-hit in the world, President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday, as reported by Reuters.

Iran’s death toll from coronavirus rose to 2,517 on Saturday, with 139 fatalities in the past 24 hours, as cases rose 3,076 to 35,408, Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said on state television.

In comments broadcast on state TV, Rouhani said:

New Delhi, Mar 30 (PTI) A high powered committee, headed by a Delhi High Court judge, has directed authorities to take steps like releasing inmates on emergency parole for reducing over-crowding in jails to prevent the spread of coronavirus which has infected 1,071 people in India and claimed 29 lives.

New Delhi, Mar 30 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday sought a status report from the Centre by Tuesday on the measures taken in view of the large-scale migration of labourers from cities to their native villages amid the coronavirus outbreak and the consequent lockdown across the country.

The top court observed that the migration of labourers out of panic and fear is becoming a bigger problem than the coronavirus.

New Delhi, Mar 30 (PTI) The government on Monday said that there was no immediate plan to extend the 21-day lockdown amid fears that shutdown of businesses across the country to counter the spread of coronavirus may trigger severe economic and social distress.

The clarification by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba came after hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers undertook long journeys from major urban centres on foot to their homes in the last five days, reflecting their struggle for survival due to job losses following the lockdown.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 (NNN-BERNAMA) — ADT Biotech Sdn Bhd has received the Health Ministry’s (MoH) approval to supply the LyteStar 2019-nCoV RT-PCR test kit to MoH facilities which have been tasked to run tests for the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2.

Managing director Dr Finn Zedler said the test kit has been certified by the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) as its results were consistent with the IMR’s tests and is in line with the World Health Organisation’s guidelines.

PANAMA CITY, March 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Passengers on a virus-stricken cruise liner entered the Panama Canal in Central America Sunday after they were told the company was still searching for a port which will allow them to disembark, even as they pleaded for help.

The Panama Canal Authority said the Zaandam liner had entered the canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, on Sunday afternoon after transferring healthy passengers to another ship and restocking supplies.