SATISH KANADY THE PENINSULA

The S&P Global Ratings has affirmed its ‘AA-/A-1+’ long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Qatar. The outlook is stable.

“The stable outlook indi-cates our view of broadly bal-anced risks to the ratings. Despite a sharp economic con-traction and low hydrocarbon prices, we don’t expect the gov-ernment’s fiscal and external stock positions will materially deteriorate beyond our expec-tations. We expect a timely policy response from the government in the context of continued liquidity challenges in the inter-national capital markets,” the rating agency said yesterday.

Despite the sharp decline in economic activity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic

and low hydrocarbon prices, income levels in Qatar remain among the highest of rated sov-ereigns, supporting its strong credit profile. High GDP per capita, rebounding to an average of $66,500 in 2021-2023 from a low of $55,700 in 2020, will mit-igate the effect of weak trend

growth expected throughout the forecast horizon.

S&P expects the rebound to be linked with an increase in hydrocarbon prices. It projects Qatar will continue to generate surpluses in its budgetary accounts on the general gov-ernment level from 2021. �P2

Despite the sharp decline in economic activity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and low hydrocarbon prices, income levels in Qatar remain among the highest of rated sovereigns, supporting its strong credit profile.

Qatar's strong general-government net asset position remains credit strength. The government’s large liquid financial assets, averaging about 177 percent of GDP in 2021-2023, provide it with a strong buffer during economic and financial shocks.

Amir receives message from Amir of Kuwait

Al Thumama Stadium taking shape

Monday 11 May 2020

18 Ramadan - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8254

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Enjoy double speed with Ooredoo ONE while you’re at home

BUSINESS | 01 PENMAG | 06 SPORT | 12

F1 star

Hamilton has

only himself to

beat online

Classifieds

and Services

section

included

KPMG predicts

COVID-19 pandemic will

'peter out' in Qatar

by late summer

Ramadan Timing

Today's Iftar:6:12pm

Tomorrow's Imsak:03:17am

NEW CASES

TOTAL RECOVERIES

ACTIVE CASES

NEW DEATH

NEW

RECOVERIES 254

TOTAL POSITIVE TOTAL DEATHS TOTAL RECOVERED

GLOBALLY

C VID-19

C VID-19

QATAR UPDATES ON 10 MAY 2020

4,081,970 281,399 1,395,197

19,7532,753

1,189 01

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has received a verbal message from the Amir of the sisterly State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, pertaining to the fraternal ties and the prospects for enhancing and developing them, in addition to a number of issues of mutual interest. The message was conveyed by the Kuwaiti Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Nasser Al Mohammad Al Sabah during a meeting with H H the Amir, last evening at Al Bahr Palace. The Minister conveyed greetings of H H the Amir of Kuwait to H H the Amir, wishing His Highness good health and happiness and the Qatari people further progress and prosperity. H H the Amir entrusted the Kuwaiti Minister to convey his greetings to H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, wishing him good health and well-being, and the brotherly Kuwaiti people further development.

S&P affirms Qatar’s rating; outlook remains stable

Qatar Airways Cargo creates air bridge between Vietnam and FranceTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Airways Cargo is continuing to support global trade and facilitate supply chains across the world amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline has now introduced an air bridge between Vietnam and France. Through this arrangement, 11 Boeing 777 freighters will operate from Hanoi in the month of May and four weekly freight-only Boeing 777 passenger aircraft will operate from Ho Chi Minh City until June for its customer, Bollore Logistics.

The flights will transport more than 2,000 tonnes of essential medical items, face masks and personal protective equipment to support the French Government and French Ministry of Health in the fight against the pandemic. These

flights are in addition to the air-line’s scheduled 10 weekly freighters from Vietnam, said the airline in a press release.

Guillaume Halleux, Chief Officer Cargo said: “We are glad to support France in their fight against the COVID-19. Our entire team is working hard to ensure critical medical supplies are reaching places where they are needed the most. We couldn’t have done this without the help of our commercial customers who have supported us to prioritise aid and relief shipments over their existing commercial arrangements. These are difficult times, but I am con-fident that we will all emerge stronger after the crisis is over.”

Since March 2020, the cargo carrier has operated a number of Boeing 777F charters and scheduled flights, bringing in over 5,000 tonnes of medical

supplies and relief goods into France. The carrier also operated numerous charters with human-itarian aid and relief goods to multiple destinations in Europe.

The airline continues to operate a significant cargo schedule with approximately 175 flights per day. During the past months, the cargo operator has worked closely with governments and NGOs to transport over 100,000 tonnes of medical and aid supplies to impacted regions around the world on both scheduled and charter services, the equivalent of roughly 1,000 fully loaded Boeing 777 freighters. To ensure the safety of its crew and cargo, the carrier has implemented special proce-dures for ground handling including adherence to social dis-tancing guidelines to ensure there is minimum contact between staff.

The Al Thumama Stadium nearing completion. The stadium is steeped in the culture, history and symbolism of Qatar and the region. This 40,000-seat stadium will host FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 matches through to the quarter-finals. PIC: BAHER AMIN/THE PENINSULA

Strict adherence to social distancing needed to curb epidemic: OfficialSANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

Dr. Abdul Latif Al Khal, Chair of the National Strategic Group on COVID-19 and Head of the Infectious Diseases Division at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has said that more social distancing is required to flatten the curve of COVID-19 in the country.

“The social distancing measured by the Google Mobility report suggested that the social distancing situation in Qatar improved in the beginning then less adherence to the social distance was recorded at retail and recre-ation facilities like super-markets and shopping com-plexes,” said Dr. Abdul Latif Al Khal.

Dr. Al Khal delivered yes-terday a lecture on ‘COVID-19 Epidemic in Qatar: Reality, Confrontation and Con-tainment Strategy’ at Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.

“The adherence rate of maintaining social distance in Qatar is not enough, we advise people to adhere strictly to the social distancing as long as the coronavirus exists in the com-

munity,” said Dr. Al Khal. He said that first reading

was taken on March 29 and latest one on May 2 from a number of places including retail & recreation, groceries & pharmacies, workplaces and residential areas.

“The recommended state measures like social dis-tancing, adhering to wearing face masks while going out, cleaning hands frequently, suspending visits will help flattening the curve,” said Dr. Al Khal.

Regarding low rate of mor-tality in coronavirus patients, he said that Qatar provided high level intensive care services to the patients of

coronavirus with the help of qualified medical cadres who serve the patients like family members.

“Qatar conducted inten-sified early detection screening of coronavirus resulting in revealing many cases which did not show any symptom. The screening was conducted randomly and the contacts of the positive cases,” said Dr. Al Khal.

Speaking about the time-frame of returning to normal life, he said that World Health Organization recommended not to hurry in restoring nor-malcy because it could cause second wave of infection.

�P2

Nurses Day to be

marked tomorrow

to recognise their

courageous work

FAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

Qatar will join countries across the world in marking the International Nurses Day recognising the courageous work of nurses in face of COVID-19, tomorrow.

“Nurses are critical to delivering care no matter what the situation. In times such as a pandemic, nurses have been even more flexible adapting to different and challenging sit-uations to ensure patient’s needs are met no matter what,” Julie Smith, Chief Nursing Officer at Sidra Med-icine told The Peninsula. �P2

Coronavirus: 254 recovered; 1,189 new cases and one deathTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health has announced registration of 1,189 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 254 new recovered cases yesterday. The Ministry has also announced one new death from COVID-19. The total number of positive COVID-19 cases recorded in Qatar till now stands at 21,331 and there are 18,819 active cases under treatment. So far, 14 people died from the coronavirus in Qatar. Ministry conducted 3,215 tests yesterday taking the total tests done so far to 124,554 tests.

The Ministry has explained that most of the new cases are due to expatriate workers who have been infected with the virus as a result of contact with individuals who have been previously infected, in addition to recording new cases from within groups of workers from various regions. These cases have been iden-tified as a result of investigations carried out by the Ministry.

There was also an increase in the number of infections among citizens and residents who had contact with COVID-19 positive family members, who had in turn been infected at the workplace or other locations. All the new infected cases have been quaran-tined where they are receiving the necessary medical care. �P2

Dr. Abdul Latif Al Khal, Chair of the National Strategic Group on COVID-19.

The adherence rate of maintaining social distance in Qatar is not enough, we advise people to adhere strictly to the social distancing as long as the coronavirus exists in the community.”

02 MONDAY 11 MAY 2020HOME

Deputy PM and Minister of Foreign Affairs meets Kuwaiti Foreign Minister

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met yesterday with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the sisterly State of Kuwait, H E Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Nasser Al Mohammad Al Sabah, who is currently visiting the State of Qatar. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral cooperation and relations, and issues of common interest.

Companies urged to ask employees to register their National AddressTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has urged the public and private companies and establishments to remind all their employees including workers, who didn’t register in the National Address until now, to register before July 26, 2020.

The Ministry said in statement that as an implemen-tation for the provisions of the Law No. 24 for the year 2017 on National Address, and Minister of Interior Decree No. 96 of 2019 on implementing certain provisions of the above law, the Ministry of Interior urges the HR/Admin Managers of the public and private companies and establishments to remind their all employees including workers to register their national address before July 26, 2020.

In order to avoid the

violation of the above law and thus facing its legal conse-quences, the Ministry advised people to register through Metrash2 mobile phone app or through MoI website (www.moi.gov.qa).

For any query, people can contact the Service Centers of the Ministry of Interior during the normal working days.

The National Address helps identify addresses of indi-viduals and organisations to access services, assist in the completion of personal trans-actions with ease, and delivery of judicial declarations and government notifications among others.

So far, over one million people in Qatar have registered in the National Address while the registration process will continue until July 26, 2020.

The National Address is the address chosen by the person

to correspond with the State or other bodies, and the National Address data will include one’s residence address in Qatar, landline and cell phone numbers, e-mail address, and work address for those who work in government or private sector.

It will serve many gov-ernment entities such as the Ministry of Municipality and Environment; the Ministry of Justice; the Supreme Judiciary Council and Planning and Sta-tistics Authority, a senior official had said earlier.

The registration was started on January 27, 2020. There is a QR10,000 fine for giving false information.

The fine also applies for not registering during the 6-month period, which ends on July 26, 2020. The fine can be recon-ciled to QR5,000 before reaching the court.

HMC Acute Care Surgery dept sets protocol amid COVID-19FAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Acute Care Surgery section has set a specific protocol in response to COVID-19 outbreak and to ensure safety of patients and healthcare workers.

HMC has restructured the Acute Care Surgery section in many aspects to provide high quality care to all required patients during the COVID-19 outbreak, said Dr. Ahmed Zarour, Head of Acute Care Surgery at HMC in a video posted on social media accounts.

Hazm Mebaireek General

Hospital (HMGH) has been ded-icated for COVID-19 suspects and patients who need to undergo Acute Care Surgery. And an operation theater at Hamad General Hospital has been assigned for other patients who require Acute Care Surgery.

“We aim to provide best available quality care to our patients. We have established a path way and protocol for all the patients who require emer-gency surgery. We have started a virtual clinic for continued consultation. Also a communi-cation network has been formed among the staff and patients,” said Dr. Zarour.

Also steps have been taken

to ensure the safety of patients and healthcare workers. “Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital has been dedicated to do acute care surgeries for those who are suspected or have tested positive for COVID-19. An on-call surgeon will be called to assess as soon as a patient is received at the hospital. We will assess the patient and provide suitable care,” said Dr. Hijran Mahdi, Senior Consultant at HMC.

“We have applied all measures to ensure the safety of our patients, surgeons and nurses and we provide optimum care for patients,” he added.

Acute care surgery is an

evolving specialty that aims to ensure timely access to high-quality emergency surgical care and improve outcomes for patients with acute surgical conditions.

HMC’s Acute Care Surgery section is responsible for all urgent and emergency general surgery cases.

Around 4,000 urgent and emergency surgeries are per-formed at HMC each year. Various conditions including acute appendicitis, gallstones, pancreatitis, intestinal obstruc-tions, and diabetic foot infec-tions are among the most common conditions that require urgent surgical intervention.

Lulu Hypermarket contributes $4m to EAA FoundationTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Lulu Hypermarket Qatar has contributed $1m (QR3.65m) per year since 2017, to the Education Above All (EAA) Foundation to support its mission to transform millions of lives by improving access to education.

The funds allocated to some ‘Educate A Child’ (EAC) projects are supporting the commitment to ensure that millions of the most marginalised and hardest to reach out-of-school children can enrol in quality primary education.

Director of Lulu Hypermarket Qatar Dr. Mohamed Althaf said: “We are delighted to support Education Above All as a partner, and to reaffirm our pledge to good causes around the world.

“Like our company, EAA’s reach tran-scends geographic boundaries. Its work enhances the lives of children in the most marginalised communities around the world. We are proud to support them in their mission to transform lives through education.”

EAC and partners Unicef USA, Mercy Corps and Unisco are working to ensure the enrollment of more than 350,000 out of school children in Syria, Somalia and Iraq, respectively. Children in these coun-tries face barriers to education such as poverty, insecurity and conflict, shortage of teachers and gender discrimination.

Leena Al derham, Senior Education

Specialist at EAA, said: “Education Above All foundation thanks the Lulu Group Inter-national for its support.

“This donation will contribute to our mission of breaking down the barriers that prevent children accessing a quality primary education. Such barriers include poverty, lack of infrastructure, cultural issues, conflict and challenging geographies.”

“Through ‘Educate A Child’ and EAA’s other programmes, millions of children in more than 50 countries have been receiving an education where it was once impossible due to the often multiple and compounding barriers.

“Lulu’s generous support has helped us reach thousands more children who may not otherwise have been able to enrol in quality primary education”, she added.

Children study in a classroom under an initiative by the Education Above All Foundation.

S&P affirms Qatar’s rating; outlook remains stableFROM PAGE 1

The country’s strong gen-eral-government net asset position remains credit strength. The government’s large liquid financial assets, averaging about 177 percent of GDP in 2021-2023, provide it with a strong buffer during economic and financial shocks.

The rating agency noted that despite current account deficits through 2021, Qatar’s external balance sheet remains strong, with liquid external assets continuing to offset the country’s stock of external debt by a sizable margin.

It expects the government will provide extraordinary liquidity support to the banking system, in case of sudden reversals in capital flows

related to non-resident funding.

However, amid rising shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic and low oil prices, S&P expects Qatar’s GDP will contract 5.2 percent in 2020, before recov-ering to 3.1 percent in 2021.

Travel restr ict ions , including suspension of inter-national passenger flights, closure of non-essential busi-nesses and part of the Indus-trial Area, and banning all public gatherings, will weigh on key sectors of the non-hydrocarbon economy including manufacturing, retail, logistics, and con-struction. They together make up about 30 percent of Qatar’s overall GDP.

In its base-case scenario,

S&P does not expect the ongoing blockade by some of the neighbouring countries to significantly affect the Qatari economy, given its very strong gas exports largely to markets outside the region.

Qatar derives about 50 percent of its GDP, 80 percent of government revenue, and more than 85 percent of exports from the hydrocarbon sector. This makes the coun-try’s undiversified economy and credit profile vulnerable to sharp volatility in oil prices, to which most of its long-term gas contracts are linked.

S&P projects an oil price of $30 per barrel in 2020 and expect the current account balance to record a deficit of about 3.5 percent of GDP on

average in 2020-2021. A sharp fall in current account receipts will be partially offset by reduced import bills for capital and consumer goods asso-ciated with lower domestic investment and private con-sumption amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In the remainder of the forecast horizon through 2023, it projects external bal-ances to revert to a surplus of about three percent of GDP supported by relatively high oil prices.

The rating agency noted that Non-resident funding (deposits and interbank place-ments) to Qatar’s financial sector have risen significantly since late 2017, when they fell to their lowest point following the blockade.

The share of Qatari banks’ external liabilities maturing within 12 months to be about two-thirds of the total. In its base-case scenario, the rating agency envisages that banks’ external liabilities will decrease somewhat this year, as deposits are withdrawn at maturity in line with a global trend of cash accumulation, and increase moderately from 2021 through 2023. It projects Qatar’s gross external financing needs will rise to about 224 percent of current account receipts and usable reserves in 2020-2023, compared with 83 percent in 2014. Deterioration in external liquidity is largely from falling current account receipts against the backdrop of lower hydrocarbon prices.

Coronavirus: 254

recovered; 1,189

new cases and

one death

FROM PAGE 1

The Ministry also reported that the new death was a 54-year-old resident who had received medical care in the Intensive Care Unit and was suffering from chronic dis-eases. The Ministry offers sincere condolences and great sympathy to the family of the deceased.

The Ministry has noted that the current period is con-sidered to be the peak stage in the virus outbreak when numbers may continue to rise before they begin to stabilize and then gradually decline.

The reasons for the high numbers of new cases are due to the Ministry’s redoubling of its efforts in tracking the tran-sitional chains of the virus and expanding the circle of searching for infected people through intensive and proactive investigations.

Nurses Day to be

marked tomorrow

FROM PAGE 1

International Nurses Day (IND) is an international day observed around the world on May 12, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth of each year, to mark the contri-butions that nurses make to society.

Due to the worldwide pan-demic and the safety measures put in place at Sidra Medicine, activities will be virtual and we will be focusing on profiling individual nurses and midwives.

“We want to demonstrate the diversity of the career pathways that nursing offers along with the skill, knowledge and training our nurses have,” said Smith.

“Nursing is a profession built on science, evidence based practice delivered with care and compassion. With nurses being one of the largest workforce at Sidra Medicine, it is without a doubt one of the most important professions here in our hospital. Throughout a patient’s journey receiving care, nurses are the most frequent caregivers they come across and their interac-tions with their nurses can make a huge difference in their experience. The important work that nurses do within the walls of any hospital and cer-tainly at Sidra Medicine cannot be overstated,” she added.

Though Sidra Medicine is not a hospital designated to treat COVID-19 patients, nurses are still at a risk of getting infected and measures have been taken to protect them.

“All of our staff are screened on arrival at the hos-pital every day and we have a dedicated telephone line for them to call staffed by trained personnel if they themselves feel unwell, or are worried about anything related to their health. All our inpatients as well as their guardians and companions who will be staying with them in the hos-pital, are also tested for COVID-19 prior to their admission,” said Smith.

“Clear guidance and training is in place for all staff on the wearing of PPE it is crit-ically important that the appropriate PPE is worn in every situation, this is readily available to all our staff,” she added. Also all Sidra Medicine nurses are aware of the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and there are clear pathways to follow in line with Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health, should a patient show any of these signs or symptoms.

This year’s International Nurses Day theme builds on the international year of the nurse and midwife as set by the WHO, recognising the impact nurses and midwives make on global health on a daily basis.

Strict adherence to

social distancing

needed to curb

epidemic: OfficialFROM PAGE 1

“The life will return to normal gradually in several phases. The beginning of phase 1 depends on the extent of the spread of virus in the com-munity for example the infection rate which requires one percent, stability for two to four weeks and a number other health factors,” said Dr. Al Khal.

Regarding vaccination against COVID-19, Dr. Al Khal said that the about 8 types of vaccinations are under exper-iments in all over the world and results of these tests will come soon.

FAJR SUNRISE 03.27 am 04.51 am

W A L R U WA I S : 24o↗ 30o W A L K H O R : 25o↗ 36o W D U K H A N : 21o↗ 31o W WA K R A H : 23o↗ 38o W M E S A I E E D 23o↗ 38o W A B U S A M R A 21o↗ 34o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 06:08–19:59 LOW TIDE 02:42 – 13:44

Hot daytime with some clouds and slight dust to blowing dust at some places, mild by night.

Minimum Maximum27oC 38oC

ZUHRMAGHRIB

11.30 am06.12 pm

ASR ISHA

02.58 pm07.42 pm

03MONDAY 11 MAY 2020 HOME

Qatar is bird ‘stopover’ site for about 300 speciesQNA — DOHA

The World Migratory Bird Day was celebrated on Saturday under the slogan “Birds Connect Our World”.

According to the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), the State of Qatar is an important ‘Stopover’ site for migratory birds, and a per-manent residency for about 300 species, including a number of endangered species.

The State also attaches great importance to the protection of wildlife and its natural habitats

and has endeavoured in this regard to the establishment of many areas and natural reserves to protect and maintain environmental systems and its components.

Al Karaana lake has become a new habitat for wild and water life, providing a natural and healthy envi-ronment that includes different types of birds and pelicans. The lake also provides a green resting station and clean water for migratory birds that pass over the country.

The World Migratory Bird

Day which was celebrated for the first time in 2006, is a new global platform aimed at uniting conservation efforts, enhancing knowledge and raising public awareness of the urgent need to protect migratory birds and their hab-itats, as well as addressing threats to their migratory pathways around the world.

In addition to countries, international organisations, and associations, including those of the United Nations, are participating in this global event.

Woqod opens new Umm Slal petrol station

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

As part of it’s ongoing expansion plans to be able to serve every area in the country, Qatar Fuel (Woqod) opened Umm Slal petrol station, on Al Majd Road, yesterday, raising its network of petrol stations to 105.

Woqod’s Managing Director & CEO, Saad Rashid Al Muhannadi, said: “We are pleased to open a new petrol station in Umm Slal, Al Majd Road, Woqod aspires to expand its petrol station network in the country to meet the rising demand for petroleum products and achieve the goal of pro-viding customers with access to best-in-class products and services at their convenience and comfort. Woqod team

would like to extend their grat-itude to all concerned govern-mental and private entities that contributed to the completion of this project.”

New Umm Slal petrol station is spread over an area of 28,000 square meters and has four lanes with eight dis-pensers for light vehicles, and two lanes with four dispensers for Heavy Vehicles, which will

serve Umm Slal area, Al Majd Road and its neighbourhood.

Umm Al Slal petrol station offers round-the-clock services to residents, and includes Sidra convenience store, manual car wash, oil change and tyre repair, for Light Vehicles and sale of LPG cylinders “SHAFAF”, in addition to sale of gasoline and diesel products for light vehicles and heavy vehicles.

A view of newly-opened Umm Slal petrol station.

NHRC calls for more awareness efforts to protect workers from COVID-19QNA — DOHA

The field visits and monitoring team of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has stressed the need for taking further awareness-raising measures and campaigns to protect workers and vulnerable groups, noting that the Committee continues to provide the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs (MADLSA) with cases and complaints received by the NHRC under the current circumstances in order to resolve it.

During their meeting with officials from the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), the team underlined the need to make more efforts to provide the nec-essary health services and the right to treatment and medicine for all citizens and residents in Qatar, especially the vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, people with disabilities, people with chronic disease, and low-income workers, in light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) spread.

This came as a continuation of the series of meetings and field visits that the NHRC has undertaken to penal institu-tions, detention centres, police stations, the Industrial Area,

workers’ accommodations and hotel guests who are under quarantine in order to stand on the implementation of the pre-cautionary measures approved by the official authorities to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Vice-Chairman of the NHRC, Dr. Mohammed bin Saif Al Kuwari, confirmed in a press statement that the NHRC’s field visits and monitoring team have met with officials of the Labour Relations Department at the MADLSA with the aim of famil-iarising with the Ministry’s measures and procedures regarding protecting workers’ rights in light of the current health crisis and the extent of their happiness of their rights mentioned in the laws and international human rights agreements and conventions.

Dr. Al Kuwari noted that officials of the Ministry provided an overview of the measures taken by the Ministry regarding

workers’ rights and payment of wages during the coronavirus crisis, as well as the awareness campaign launched by the Min-istry, including carrying out nearly 2,400 field visits tar-geting approximately 160,000 workers.

He added that the Ministry’s officials indicated that it had instructed a number of measures to be taken by com-panies, which include exchanging information to increase workers ‘awareness and taking into account per-sonal hygiene, restricting assembly to a minimum and reducing housing density, whether in housing or work sites.

Other measures to be taken includes the role of the Occu-pational Safety and Health Supervisor defined by the policy on the procedures applied by companies to take advantage of clinics and conduct check ups for workers to ensure their

safety and to reduce their bus capacity to 50 percent, as well as reiterating that the Ministry’s Labour Inspection Department will monitor the companies’ compliance with this policy.

Concerning the facilities offered to workers and the reg-ulations used to facilitate the transfer of their salaries and money in light of the precau-tionary measures taken by the State, officials indicated that the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs coordinated with the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) in this regard due to the precautionary measures and the closure of exchange shops, by facilitating the procedures and providing applications for financial transfers and to the applications currently in the country. In addition, the Ministry conducted awareness campaigns directly and through the ministry’s social media, on the mechanism of using those applications, whether for workers or the employer.

They also reaffirmed that the payment of wages for workers, whether they are in quarantine or who have been isolated, will continue based on instructions issued by the Ministry of Admin-istrative Development, Labour

and Social Affairs.On the other hand, in their

meeting with MoPH, the field visits and monitoring team of NHRC reviewed the precau-tionary measures and health services provided by the health institutions to combat the out-break of COVID-19, and monitor the conditions and rights of cit-izens and residents, especially those who are vulnerable, such as elderly, people with disabil-ities or chronic diseases, workers and those with low-income, in accordance with the interna-tional laws, agreements and cov-enants of human rights.

Dr. Mohammad Saif Al Kuwari, said that the meeting

came to determine the extent of providing health care and improving the people’s health, especially those who are vul-nerable, in implementation of Article 3/10 of Decree Law No. 17 of 2010.

He explained that the offi-cials from the Ministry con-firmed that the precautionary measures were taken in imple-mentation of the health pre-ventive measures taken by the official authorities in order to avoid the transmission of COVID-19 inside community, and as a part of the compre-hensive strategy that cares about the health of citizens and resi-dents, equally.

Officials from the National Human Rights Committee during a meeting to review steps taken so far to protect workers from the coronavirus disease.

National Human Rights Committee has also emphasised the need to make more efforts to provide the necessary health services, and the right to treatment and medicine for all citizens and residents in Qatar.

Students of Religious Institute take exam under special arrangementsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The final examinations of senior secondary level of the

students of the Religious Institute (Al Mahad Al Adini) for the academic year 2019-20 have begun with

s p e c i a l a r r a n g e m e n t fo l lowing the State ’s preventive and precautionary measures to curb the spread

of COVID-19. A total of 48 students who are taking the examination were divided into six groups at the rate of eight students in each group, said the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in a release.

The examinations are being conducted adhering to the social distancing following the State’s preventive and pre-cautionary measures to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The examinations which

began on May 4, 2020 will continue till May 14 and the second round of examinations will be held from June 1 to 13.

Following the directive of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the Reli-gious Institute took all pre-ventive measures to ensure safety of students and staff amid the outbreak of coronavirus.

The Religious Institute in coordination with the Ministry of Education provided thermal

screening device for testing stu-dents, academic staffs and other people.

Students and examiners were asked strictly to undergo the screening and wear face masks and gloves.

Waiting rooms were pre-pared for the students to maintain the social distance. The seating arrangement at the examination halls were made at the distance of two meters between two students.

Students of the Religious Institute (Al Mahad Al Adini) boarding a school bus while following the social distancing guidelines to prevent the COVID-19 spread.

04 MONDAY 11 MAY 2020HOME

Sidra successfully establishes treatment protocol for hybrid insulin pump in children with T1DTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Sidra Medicine, a member of Qatar Foundation, has success-fully established its Type 1 diabetes (T1D) treatment protocol for children and young people as a best practice model.

The protocol is based on the effective use of an insulin pump. The pump, which is a hybrid closed-loop system, acts as an artificial pancreas to help children and young people with T1D control their insulin dosage, without the need for multiple daily injections. Based on an ini-tiation schedule developed in-house at Sidra Medicine, the protocol also allows for remote follow-up care.

The protocol was launched two years ago as a pilot program by Prof. Goran Petrovski an attending physician of pediatric endocrinology and his team at the Diabetes Clinic at Sidra Medicine. It follows a step by step process and initiation schedule for the hybrid closed-loop, provided by a multidisci-plinary team of endocrinolo-gists, nurse educators, dietitians and nurses. Since its implemen-tation, it has fast tracked the treatment process of nearly 100 children and teenagers with T1D being cared for at the hospital’s diabetes clinic.

The first step of the protocol involves the children and

teenagers (between the ages of 7-17 years) being assessed for eligibility and compatibility with the closed-loop system. They then undergo training for five consecutive days, where both patient and family are pro-vided consistent information and support. The patient first trials the system on manual mode – before it is switched to automatic mode. The whole transfer from “injection to pump” process can be achieved in ten days.

Prof. Petrovski said: “Hos-pitals worldwide follow dif-ferent protocols in diabetes management depending on the

treatment, technologies and the ease and access to insulin. As a result of the work that was achieved in Qatar at Sidra Med-icine, we are now in a position to be considered as a best practice center that showcased the most effective use of the hybrid closed-loop. Our pro-tocol was able to prove that we are truly empowering the children to have better glycemic control and improving their quality of life, all within a matter of days. Given the current cir-cumstances and safety measures about social dis-tancing, the protocol is effective as we can provide remote

follow up care without expecting families to come in to the clinic.”

“We recently published the results of our protocol in Acta Diabetologica and presented it at several international confer-ences a few months ago. We have many children’s hospitals from neighbouring countries and as far as Europe and Aus-tralia, reaching out to us to find out how they can implement the protocol. In fact, Qatar is the first Middle Eastern country to successfully show the best results in using the closed-loop system with our treatment pro-tocol program,” continued Prof. Petrovski.

The hybrid closed loop system uses a sensor and a controller-aided insulin pump to monitor glucose levels. The device is attached to the body of the patient. The sensor reads the glucose levels in the body and sends the information to the controller in the pump which based on the reading, uses algorithms to calculate the amount of insulin that the patient needs and pumps the correct dosage. While patients still need to calculate the amount of food and to enter the number of carbohydrate grams, the pump automatically takes care of calculating the insulin dosage.

Previously, patients in Qatar

had to travel abroad to the United States to be implanted with the closed-loop system, often having to wait a long time before gaining access to the device. Other drawbacks included slower international administrative processes, delays in educating parents and complex international insurance policies.

Following the success of the protocol, Sidra Medicine has established the use of the most advanced model of the hybrid closed-loop system as the pre-ferred treatment program for many of its pediatric and teen

patients with T1D (provided their compatibility with the system).

Alia is a seven year old girl who was one of the first cohort of young patients to use the hybrid closed-loop pump, which was administered at Sidra Medicine’s Diabetes clinic. Her mother said: “I am grateful that we inserted the hybrid closed-loop pump at Sidra Med-icine and made the life-changing decision for our daughter Alia, as both the tran-sition and the transformation were visible in such a short span of time.”

Alia, right, with her sister. She was one of the first cohort of young patients to use the hybrid closed-loop pump

GU-Q student represents QF at CGI U meeting on COVID-19THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Kartikeya Uniyal, a student at QF partner Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) and a member of the 2020 Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), took part in the virtual convening of the program, an online event that featured former US president Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton and focused on ways college students can make a difference during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Kartikeya, an international student from New Delhi, was one of a select group of under-graduate and graduate students from around the globe who were chosen by CGI U to develop “Commitments to Action” — social impact projects that address pressing challenges on campus or in local and global communities. The program offers leadership development, mentorship, skills training, and partnership building to bring the idea into action.

In response to the ongoing pandemic, Kartikeya modified his original project focused on

assisting local governments in rural India to govern more effectively, to become a digital platform that provides a 5-week needs assessment and training program aimed at strength-ening local political units and encouraging political partici-pation among youth in India.

“The crisis meant that launching the project on the ground wasn’t going to be pos-sible. But the pandemic pre-sented another opportunity to make a difference,” said Kar-tikeya, referring to the need to support village-level crisis response efforts. “Due to lack of experience or formal training, many people on the local level don’t have access to resources that are essential to deal with this unprecedented crisis. It is my hope that the online version of my action plan can have an impact by con-necting local efforts to available resources, in order to improve health and economic outcomes at the local level.” He hopes to launch the digital program as soon as technical issues are finalized.

The former president

opened the event by encour-aging young leaders to keep asking themselves questions about what they want to learn and how they can help. At the virtual meeting, participating students also heard from key government and health leaders, including US state gov-ernors, members of congress, UN special envoys, and scholars and experts in the medical field.

Virtual breakout sessions over the following days allowed

Kartikeya to meet with other CGI U members working to create impact in South Asia. “It was very helpful to share ideas, to share best practices, and to seek out areas of collaboration,” he said.

The CGI U meeting at the University of Edinburgh was originally slated to take place in April 2020 but was post-poned to spring 2021. Kartikeya, and the entire 2020 cohort of the program, will attend next year’s meeting.

Kartikeya Uniyal, a GU-Q student, with other participants during the 2020 Clinton Global Initiative University online event.

QRCS to distribute food baskets to 3,780 Palestinian familiesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The representative mission of Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) in the West Bank and Al Quds has commenced the distri-bution of food baskets to poor families in many Palestinian villages and towns.

In cooperation with Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), the project is limited to food baskets, due to the coronavirus pandemic. All preventive precautions are taken to ensure the safety of staff and beneficiaries. The food baskets will be received by a total of 3,780 poor families (18,900 persons) badly affected by the crisis. As markets and business are locked down, many vulnerable families have lost their income.

Priority is given to the fam-ilies of day labourers working at workshops and small enter-prises, families of quarantined persons in isolated cities, and families registered with PRCS social assistance programs.

The overall value of the food aid given by QRCS is $272,700 (nearly QR1m). Each food basket contains 30 kg of food staples like

rice, sugar, tahina, dates, tomato paste, vegetable oil, pasta, freekeh, lentils, noodles, chickpeas, beans, tea, and halawa.

PRCS personnel are cur-rently deployed in many villages and towns to deliver the food baskets to target groups, in coor-dination with village and town municipalities and local commu-nities. Special focus is put on the day laborers isolated at quar-antine centers.

This is part of QRCS’s Ramadan Campaign for 1441 AH, which involves humanitarian and development projects for the benefit of 1 million persons in 23 countries, at a total cost of QR60m.

Food baskets

beIN brings more entertainment options this weekTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

beIN, the leading global sports and entertainment network brings more entertainment options this week — keeping families entertained at home with a selection of the best content from MENA and the world during the holy month of Ramadan.

Ramadan programming from beIN offers entertainment content curated for all ages — including channels such as beIN MOVIES, beIN DRAMA, beIN SERIES, beIN GOURMET, FATAFEAT, Baraem and Jeem TV.

Families can also access content from world-leading networks such as Fox, CBS, HGTV, Food Network, Nat Geo, BBC, Cartoon Network and more — providing viewers with the best movies, series, lifestyle and kids content.

When it comes to beIN DRAMA, the following Ramadan series con-tinue to impress viewers and sub-scribers across MENA: Sawaha El Bakht – Daily at 18:00 Makkah Time on beIN DRAMA HD1; C i n e -maeyat – Daily at 18:30 Makkah Time on beIN DRAMA HD1; Law Ma Iltagyna – Daily at 19:00 Makkah Time on beIN DRAMA HD1; Hob Omry – Daily at 20:00 Makkah Time on beIN DRAMA HD1; Bel Qalb – Daily at 21:00 Makkah Time on beIN DRAMA HD1; Fe Thakerat Althil – Daily at 22:00 Makkah Time on beIN DRAMA HD1; Ghorba – Daily at 23:00 Makkah Time on beIN DRAMA HD1.

beIN SERIES continues to broadcast international titles for its

viewers across MENA, including: Young Sheldon, season 3; Roswell, New Mexico season 2; Katy Keene, season 1; FBI: Most Wanted, season 1; The Late Late Show with James Cordon, season 6.

In terms of lifestyle and the best recipes from around the world, beIN GOURMET and FATAFEAT channels broadcast the best cooking shows from world-renowned chefs including Manal Al Alem and Fatimah Al Basiri.

Kuwait’s and beIN GOURMET’s famous chef Fatima Al Basiri said: “beIN GOURMET’s Fikra W Tabkha brings popular dishes from all over the world as it is curated for eve-ryone. I try to present the dishes I make in a different way, as I put my own touches to reach the perfect

taste. Our dishes during the holy month of Ramadan are fast and easy to make, as it is an opportunity for our viewers to try something new and enjoy a delicious meal. The real secret ingredient behind any of these dishes is that I add my passion and love for cooking to make it just perfect.”

The entertainment does not stop there — last month beIN launched an amazing new cinema service, which brings the latest movies straight to subscribers before they are seen at the cinema. More than 20 new movies will be released and available on beIN ON DEMAND under CINEMA category in April and May. beIN has also launched two brand new entertainment channels, beIN CINEMA HD and beIN Box Office HD2 for its viewers and subscribers across MENA.

beIN GOURMET’s Fikra W Tabkha brings popular dishes from all over the world.

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Dr. Goran Petrovski, Attending physician of Pediatric Endocrinology at Sidra Medicine

05MONDAY 11 MAY 2020 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

US yet to respond about prisoner swap, says IranREUTERS — DUBAI

Washington has yet to respond to Iran about a prisoner swap, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei was quoted as saying by the government’s website yesterday, reiterating that Tehran was ready for a full prisoner exchange with the United States without precon-ditions.

If a swap goes ahead, it would be one of very few instances of cooperation in an otherwise deeply frayed US-Iran relationship, which has grown more hostile since US President Donald Trump took office.

“We have stated our read-iness to discuss the release of all prisoners without precondi-tions... but Americans have not responded yet. It seems to us

that Americans are more pre-pared than before to end this situation,” Rabiei said, according to the government’s website Dolat.ir.

Both countries have called for the release of prisoners because of the new coronavirus outbreak. Iran is the worst hit country in the Middle East, while the United States has reported the highest number of deaths worldwide from the virus.

Three Iranian officials told Reuters last week that a prisoner swap between the two countries was in the works. Michael White, a US navy veteran who has been detained in Iran since 2018, is a likely candidate to be swapped. He was released from prison in mid-March on medical furlough but remains in Iran.

“Washington is aware of our readiness and we think there is no need for a third country to

mediate between Tehran and Washington for the prisoner exchange,” Rabiei said.

“However, if the American side agrees, the interest section of Iran in Washington will inform the US of our views on the details, including how and when the exchange will take place.”

Tehran and Washington cut diplomatic relations shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revo-lution after hardline Iranians seized the US embassy and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Switzerland looks after US interests with Tehran.

“We are worried about the safety and health of jailed Ira-nians in America... We hold America responsible for their safety amid the coronavirus outbreak,” Rabiei was quoted as saying.

It is not clear exactly how many Americans Iran may hold, but they include father and son Baquer and Siamak Namazi. Several dozen Iranians are being held in US prisons, many of them for breaking sanctions.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in December that Tehran was ready for a full prisoner exchange with the United States, tweeting: “The ball is in the US’ court”.

In mid-March US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Tehran to free American pris-oners as a humanitarian gesture because of the coronavirus.

Last December, Iran freed US citizen Xiyue Wang, who had been held for three years on spying charges, and the United States released Iranian Massoud

Soleimani, who faced charges of violating US sanctions on Iran.

The United States is set to deport Iranian professor Sirous Asgari, who was acquitted of stealing trade secrets, once he receives medical clearance to leave, US and Iranian officials said on Tuesday.

Relations have grown more hostile again since 2018 when Trump exited Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran that has crippled its economy. Iran has responded by gradually scaling back its commitments under the agreement.

Animosity reached historic heights in early January when top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad.

Iran warns of virus resurgence after 51 new deathsAFP — TEHRAN

Iran warned yesterday of a resurgence of the novel coro-navirus as it reported 51 new deaths, almost a month after it started to relax a nationwide lockdown.

Authorities reimposed more stringent measures in the south-western Khuzestan province, reversing a phased return to work meant to revitalise the battered economy.

“The situation should in no way be considered normal” in Iran, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in tel-evised remarks.

“This virus will be present” for the time being, he added, in the country that has suffered the most deadly outbreak in the Middle East.

The new fatalities raised the overall confirmed death toll to 6,640 since the country reported its first cases in Feb-ruary 19.

Iran has allowed a phased return to work since April 11 and has since also reopened mosques in parts of the country deemed to be at low risk.

But Jahanpour said Iran was “witnessing a critical situation in Khuzestan province and to an extent in Tehran”.

Both the capital Tehran and Khuzestan remained at “red”, the top level of its colour-coded risk scale.

In the capital, a member of the virus taskforce warned that current health protocols could not contain the spread of the illness in Tehran.

“With businesses reopening, people have forgotten about the protocols,” Ali Maher told ISNA news agency.

“Maybe it was too soon” for a return to normal life, Maher said.

The situation is Khuzestan meanwhile quashed hopes that the virus would die in warmer climates.

Khuzestan’s governor Ali Shariati said that state bodies, banks and non-essential busi-nesses in nine counties would be shut down again and inter-city movements limited.

This aimed to “prevent the coronavirus’ spread from getting out of hand” and would remain in force until further notice, state news agency IRNA

quoted him as saying.President Hassan Rouhani

meanwhile said in a televised meeting that schools would partially reopen next Saturday.

This applied only “for stu-dents seeking to meet and talk to their teachers” and attendance would not be man-datory, he said.

Cinemas, stadiums and uni-versities remain closed across Iran.

Jahanpour also said that 1,383 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, raising total infections to 107,603. Out of those hospi-talised, 86,143 had recovered and were discharged, but 2,675 were in critical condition.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei taking part in a video conference with Iranian government members, about the novel coronavirus crisis in Tehran, yesterday.

Houthis urge EU

to act on political

solution in

Yemen

ANATOLIA — SANA'A

The head of the Houthis’ Supreme Political Council urged the EU on Saturday to take action on a political solution in Yemen, according to the Saba News Agency.

Mahdi Al Mashat, in a tel-egram sent to the President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen marking Europe Day on May 9, said the Houthis welcomed the call of UN Sec-retary General Antonio Guterres and the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Grif-fiths to end the war there, said the agency.

Al Mashat said the Council expects the EU to play a pos-itive role in halting coalition attacks led by Saudi Arabia and a comprehensive political solution.

In a statement at the end of March, Griffiths said the UN is particularly concerned about continuing military activities in Marib and its surroundings, and urged conflict parties to create a favourable environment for ending hostilities and providing a nationwide cease-fire.

Saudi Arabian-led coa-lition forces, which support the Yemeni government, declared a unilateral two-week cease-fire April 9 because of the novel coronavirus. But despite the cease-fire declaration, government forces and Houthis continued fighting and lodged mutual accusations.

Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including Sana’a. The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

Iraq PM releases protesters, promotes respected generalAP — BAGHDAD

Iraq’s judiciary ordered courts yesterday to release anti-government protesters, carrying out one of the first decisions of the recently inaugurated prime minister just as dozens of demonstrators burned tires in renewed protests against the new leadership.

Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi also promoted a well-respected Iraqi general, who played a key role in the military campaign against the Islamic State, to lead counter-terrorism

operations. Former leader Adel Abdul Mahdi had previously mysteriously demoted the general, prompting outrage and sparking popular protests in northern Iraq and Baghdad in October.

The Supreme Judiciary Council said in a statement that it had ordered the release of protesters detained since those demonstrations erupted, in line with the new prime minister’s call.

The council released detainees based on Article 38 of the constitution which

guarantees the right to protest, “provided that it is not accompanied by an act contrary to the law,” the statement said.

In a press briefing on Sat-urday night following his first Cabinet meeting as premier, Al Kadhimi said demonstrators should be protected and that all protesters should be released, except those involved in violence.

Protests erupted in Baghdad and across the country’s south on Oct. 1, when frustrated Iraqis took to the streets to decry

rampant government cor-ruption, unemployment and poor services. Human rights groups say at least 600 people died in the following three months at the hands of Iraqi security forces who used live fire and tear gas to disperse the crowds.

The demonstrations petered out with the rise of the corona-virus pandemic, though dozens of protesters are still camped out in Baghdad’s Tahrir square determined not to let the movement die.

Al Kadhimi also said he was

promoting Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab Al Saadi to become head of Iraq’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service, just as the country was experiencing an uptick in attacks by the Islamic State group in the north. Previously he was a force com-mander in the service before Abdul-Mahdi demoted him in September to a post in the Defense Ministry.

The Iraqi public considered his sudden demotion a sign of corrupt government practices and took to the streets in outrage.

Syrian refugee children play together, as Lebanon extends a lockdown at a Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon, yesterday.

Clashes in northwest Syria kills 22: MonitorAFP — BEIRUT

Clashes in northwest Syria killed 22 regime fighters and militia yesterday in the highest such death toll since the start of a two-month-old ceasefire there, a monitor said.

A truce since March 6 had largely stemmed fighting in Syria’s last major rebel bastion of Idlib after a months-long regime assault that killed hun-dreds of civilians and forced almost a million to flee.

But before dawn yesterday rebels attacked the positions of pro-regime fighters on the western flank of the jihadist-dominated region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The clashes in the Sahl al-Ghab area killed 15 regime fighters as well as seven jihadists including from the Al Qaeda-affiliated Hurras Al Deen group, the Britain-based monitor said.

“It’s the highest death toll for fighters since the truce came

into force,” said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman, who relies on sources inside Syria.

“There had been inter-mittent clashes and mutual bombardment between both sides before, but this is the most violent attack yet.” The Idlib region of some three million people is dominated by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group led by Syria’s former Al Qaeda affiliate, but other jihadists such as Hurras Al Deen and rebel groups are also present.

Modest anti-government rallies resume in IraqAFP — BAGHDAD

Modest anti-government rallies resumed in some Iraqi cities yesterday, clashing with security forces and ending months of relative calm just days after Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhemi’s government came to power.

The protests first erupted in Baghdad and Shia-majority southern cities in October, demanding an end to cor-ruption and unemployment and an overhaul of the ruling class.

But internal splits, a rise in US-Iran tensions and a lockdown imposed by corona-virus effectively snuffed out the movement earlier this year, leaving a few desolate pro-testers camped out in squares across the country.

This week, after Iraq’s par-liament approved a new cabinet headed by Kadhemi, activists promptly issued calls on social media for fresh pro-tests, saying the new premier was part of the same reviled political class.

By noon, dozens had gathered at the epicentre of the

protest movement in Tahrir (Liberation) Square, a corre-spondent said.

“The people want the fall of the regime!” they shouted, pelting rocks and Molotov cocktails at security forces blocking off the adjacent Al Jumhuriyah bridge, which leads into the high-security Green Zone hosting government offices and foreign embassies.

The protesters, mostly teenage boys, managed to clamber over a first barrier on the bridge as security forces responded with water cannons and tear gas.

A medical source told AFP that 20 protesters had suffered breathing difficulties from the gas but no shots were fired.

In Nasiriyah, a protest hotspot further south, dozens of protesters shut off streets with burning tyres and threw rocks at security forces, who responded with tear gas.

Their demands echoed the previous rallies: early elections under a new voting law and accountability for the more than 550 people killed in protest-related violence since October.

Lebanon army

says 13 COVID-19

cases at

military court

AFP — BEIRUT

Lebanon’s army said yesterday 13 soldiers at a military court had contracted the novel coro-navirus, as state media said judges would be tested for the illness. Lebanon has so far announced 845 cases of COVID-19, including 26 deaths.

The country started to lift confinement measures this week, although the number of cases has increased in recent days, including among Leb-anese repatriated from abroad.

The army said it has recorded “13 cases among members at the military court”, and that it had taken “all necessary preventive and medical measures”.

Some 40 lawyers who had been to court in the past week were tested, with results expected on Monday, the state-run National News Agency said.

Judges and other soldiers would be tested from Monday too, it said.

“We have stated our readiness to discuss the release of all prisoners without preconditions... but Americans have not responded yet. It seems to us that Americans are more prepared than before to end this situation,” a government spokesman said.

06 MONDAY 11 MAY 2020MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Libya says 4 killed in rocket attacks as Turkey warns HaftarAFP — TRIPOLI

Libya’s Government of National Accord said yesterday at least four civilians, including a child, were killed as rockets rained down on the capital Tripoli and damaged its only working airport.

The UN-recognised GNA blamed Saturday’s attacks on eastern Commander Khalifa Haftar, who has been waging a campaign to take control of the capital since April last year.

GNA supporter Turkey, for its part, warned that it would target Haftar’s forces if attacks continued on Ankara’s missions and “interests”, citing the airport.

Haftar’s forces “fired more than a hundred rockets and missiles at residential areas in the centre of the capital”, the GNA said in a statement on Facebook.

At least four civilians, including a five-year-old girl, were killed and 16 others wounded in the working-class districts of Abu Slim and Ben Gashir, south of the city, the GNA’s health ministry spokesman Amin Al Hashemi said.

Dozens of rockets also tar-geted Mitiga airport, hitting a civilian aircraft lined up to repatriate Libyans stuck abroad due to the coronavirus pan-demic, the GNA statement added.

Turkey warned that Haftar’s forces would become “legit-imate targets” if such attacks continued.

Overnight on Thursday to Friday, rockets fell on Tripoli’s Zawiyat Al Dahmani neigh-bourhood, which is home to the GNA foreign ministry and the Italian and Turkish embassies.

At least two policemen and one civilian were killed, Hashemi said at the time.

“We stress that if

our missions and interests are targeted in Libya, Haftar’s forces will be considered legitimate targets,” the Turkish foreign ministry said.

“The attacks on diplomatic missions including our Tripoli embassy, Mitiga airport, civilian planes preparing to take off and other civilian infrastructure, and those which kill civilians or injure them, constitute a war crime,” it added.

Mitiga airport was badly damaged Saturday and came under renewed rocket fire on Sunday morning.

An airport source said the passenger halls and two civilian planes sustained serious damage.

Images of an aircraft with its fuselage ripped open and of a badly damaged runway and airport buildings were posted on social media.

Libya’s National Oil Corpo-ration (NOC) said Saturday that rockets and missiles hit a fuel depot at the airport, destroying four tanks and damaging the facility’s other six.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) called the bombardment “an all

too familiar but frightening spectacle”.

“These horrifying attacks occur on a regular basis in close proximity to civilian neighbour-hoods,” UNSMIL said on Twitter.

It called the shelling “one in a series of indiscriminate attacks, most of which are attributable to pro-LNA (Haftar) forces, killing more than 15 and injuring 50 civilians since 1 May”.

Since Wednesday, 17 civilians and two police officers have been killed and more than 66 other civilians wounded in rocket fire targeting several areas of the capital, according to the GNA.

UNSMIL slammed the attacks hitting civilians and civilian infrastructure and called for “those responsible for crimes under international law to be brought to justice”.

But the GNA said interna-tional condemnation was not enough. “We no longer pay any attention to the timid condem-nations of the international community, incapable as it is of naming” Haftar, holding him to account or stopping those sup-porting him, the GNA said.

“The senseless acts... of the past days... are proof of his weakness and desperation after the suc-cessive defeats of his militias and mercenaries,” it added.

Haftar’s forces have suf-fered several setbacks in recent weeks, with GNA fighters ousting them from two key coastal cities west of Tripoli in April.

Backed by Turkey, GNA troops now surround Haftar’s main rear base at Tarhuna, southeast of the capital.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said the international com-munity had a “collective respon-sibility” to stop “putschist Haftar”.

F o r e i g n m i l i t a r y involvement in Libya has exac-erbated the conflict, with the United Arab Emirates and Russia backing Haftar.

A policeman and a man inspect a passenger plane damaged by shelling at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport in Tripoli, Libya, yesterday.

Hard-hit Djibouti delays plan to ease virus lockdownAFP — DJIBOUTI

Djibouti, the tiny Horn of Africa nation with the highest number of coronavirus cases on the continent per capita, yesterday reversed course on a plan to begin lifting lockdown measures this week, saying it was premature.

“The government, through the voice of the prime minister, has decided to extend the con-finement for another week until May 17,” Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said in a Twitter post.

“Not ing that the

prerequisite conditions are not yet in place, the government made this decision just now,” he said.

The tiny but strategically important country that hosts major US and French military bases has recorded 1,189 positive cases — few on a global scale, but the highest number in East Africa. Three people have died.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says Djibouti has the highest number of cases in Africa rel-ative to its population, though its testing has also outpaced many of its neighbours.

On March 23 the gov-ernment announced a nationwide lockdown, closing borders and places of worship, banning public transport and allowing only workers in essential industries to go outside.

Yet the measures have been largely ignored, with large crowds still common in the capital city.

President Ismail Omar Guelleh, in power since 1999, warned last month of “even tougher measures” if the pop-ulation did not respect con-finement rules.

But the imposition of the

lockdown has prompted crit-icism of Guelleh, who could run for the presidency again next year after term limits were abol-ished in a constitutional change.

In his earlier posts announcing that lockdown rules would be relaxed, Youssouf said public transport would resume and places of worship would be reopened provided “very strict measures” on masks and physicial dis-tancing were observed.

Even if such measures were taken, Youssouf said “new epi-centres of contamination could emerge in the capital city”.

Coronavirus or not, African migrants push on toward EuropeAFP — NIAMEY

Many Africans are managing to evade coronavirus lockdown barriers in Niger, the Sahel’s migrant crossroads, as they press on with their perilous desert trek to the Mediterranean Sea and ultimately Europe.

The migrant flow has slowed down but not dried up despite tight checks in the capital Niamey, and an increase of desert security patrols that have detained hundreds of people as desperate as ever to reach Europe, officials and former smugglers said.

“Gambians, Senegalese, Malians, they are all deter-mined to head there,” said Alassane Mamane, a retired civil servent who lives in Agadez, a desert crossroads and departure point for many migrants heading to Libya on the Mediterranean.

“One migrant said to me: ‘I would rather die from corona-virus than live in misery,” Mamane said.

Slipping through the holes of the net is becoming increas-ingly difficult.

Since the anti-migrant plan set up in 2015 to reinforce patrols, security forces “have intensified further their surveil-lance to enforce border closing measures aimed at fighting the coronavirus,” a local official said.

Former people smuggler Idrissa Salifou confirmed it was now much harder for migrants.

“Before we could cross little by little but because of the anti-coronavirus measures (like

border closures), the road is really blocked,” Salifou said.

“Soldiers comb the entire length of the border day and night. And on the other side, the Libyans have become very vig-ilant,” he said.

Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, has officially only recorded 781 coronavirus infec-tions, with 42 people who have died from the COVID-19 disease.

Niger has already decreed a state of emergency, closed its borders with Libya and its other neighbours as well as cut off the capital Niamey from the rest of the country.

Libya, where migrants have suffered from the violence and lawlessness that followed Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow in 2011, is also affected by the coronavirus.

Nonetheless, migrants are heading to the Niger border communities Dirkou and Madama in hopes of entering Libya but measures have been taken to block them, according to Bourkari Mamane, the mayor of Agadez, a large town in northern Niger.

But the flow is far from drying up.

Migrants “are trying in large numbers to enter Libya. They manage to skirt the checkpoints. The unlucky ones are picked up by military patrols,” Boubakar Jerome, the mayor of Dirkou, a city close to Libya, said.

In less than two months, more than 300 migrants have been caught by Niger’s army along the border with Libya, the mayor said.

Benin tests teachers for coronavirusA teacher is tested at the Cadjèhoun Health Center in Cotonou. Benin on Saturday was conducting mass coronavirus testing of teachers ahead of the reopening of schools as part of a plan to loosen measures against the pandemic. The West African nation of 11 million is set to end six weeks of travel restrictions to key cities and allow some students back to classrooms from today.

Needy Tunisians get food aid via text messagesAFP — TUNIS

A Tunisian NGO has set up a food bank that dispenses aid by text message to some 300 needy families rendered more vulnerable because of the coro-navirus pandemic.

The initiative, which had been long in the making, was finally launched at the end of April to coincide with the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

It targets families who have lost jobs because of the lockdown imposed by Tunisia to contain the spread of the virus, like that of Messaouda Raouafi, a cleaning woman forced to stay indoors.

“Because of Ramadan and

the lockdown I can no longer go out to work,” said the 49-year-old.

“I cannot clean homes and earn money to feed my seven children.” Her family was among the 300 chosen by the women’s affairs ministry and signalled to the NGO known as the “Banque Alimentaire Durable” or Sustainable Food Bank.

Under the initiative, Raouafi receives a code by text message allowing her to spend 40 to 60 Tunisian dinars (around $21-32) weekly at specially designated grocery stores.

With that money, Raouafi has been able to buy basic goods such as oil, milk, coffee

and flour. Farah, who runs a grocery store in the working-class district of Kram, is among those who signed up to take part in the project.

“The money is sent to us ahead of time — that way the clients can buy what they want with the funds allocated to them,” she said.

Farah said this works much better than allowing customers to buy on credit, a system that takes its toll on her own finances.

“In our area there are many poor families and unemployed people,” she said, explaining why she decided to embrace the initiative.

A member of the NGO, Aisha

Zakraoui, said she hopes the initiative will grow so as to reach more needy families across Tunisia.

The NGO also aims to help families become more self-suf-ficient through training in skills such as growing their own veg-etables or baking bread to sell.

“Our objective is to provide food aid to needy people and in exchange they agree to take part in initiatives aimed at inte-grating them socially and pro-fessionally,” Zakraoui said.

Even before the virus out-break, Tunisia has been strug-gling with economic and social hardship that has worsened since the country went into lockdown in March to battle the

pandemic. The government estimated that two million of Tunisia’s 11.5 million population were in need of financial assistance during that time.

In March and April, the gov-ernment made emergency handouts of 200 dinars to vul-nerable families.

Tunisia, which has officially declared 1,000 cases of the novel coronavirus including 45 deaths, began easing its lockdown on May 4.

In the early days of the con-tainment measures, several hundred Tunisians had dem-onstrated in working class dis-tricts of the capital demanding government support and pro-testing the lockdown.

Total cases of

COVID-19 in

Africa at 60,657

ANATOLIA — ADDIS ABABA

Total cases of the novel coro-navirus in Africa officially reached 60,657 yesterday with a rise of 2,911, according to an update by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).According to the update, 2,114 people have died due to COVID-19, while 20,792 recovered.

North Africa recorded the most cases with 21,500, while there were 17,900 in West Africa, 10,100 in Southern Africa, 5,800 in East Africa and 5,300 in Central Africa.

The most fatalities — 1,200 — were also registered in North Africa. Some 385 deaths were confirmed in the west, along with 205 in the south, 182 in the east and 100 in Central Africa.

More than 7,700 patients have recovered in the north of the continent, as well as 5,100 in West Africa, 4,200 in Southern Africa, 2,200 in East Africa and 1,600 in Central Africa.

South Africa has reported 9,400 cases so far, while 9,000 have been registered in Egypt. However, the death toll in South Africa is much less with 186, while Egypt has suf-fered 514 fatalities.

In West Africa, Nigeria has the highest death toll with 128, while the most deaths in East Africa were in Sudan with 64, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo with 41 in Central Africa. In terms of cases, Ghana had the highest in West Africa with 4,300, Djibouti in East Africa with 1,200, and Cameroon in Central Africa with 2,300.

Sudan has 1,200 cases, Somalia 997, Kenya 649, Tan-zania 509, Mauritania 332, Rwanda 280, Ethiopia 210, Madagascar 193, South Sudan 120, Uganda 116 and Eritrea 39.

GNA supporter Turkey, for its part, warned that it would target Haftar’s forces if attacks continued on Ankara’s missions and “interests”, citing the airport.

07MONDAY 11 MAY 2020 ASIA

Australia’s biggest state to ease lockdown from May 15REUTERS — MELBOURNE

Australia’s most populous state, home to Sydney, will allow restaurants, playgrounds and outdoor pools to reopen on Friday as extensive testing has shown the spread of the coro-navirus has slowed sharply, New South Wales state’s premier said yesterday.

The state has been worst hit by the coronavirus in Australia, with about 45% of the country’s confirmed cases and deaths. However it recorded just two new cases on Saturday out of nearly 10,000 people tested, clearing the way for a cautious loosening of lockdown measures.

“Just because we’re easing restrictions doesn’t mean the virus is less deadly or less of a threat. All it means is we have done well to date,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters yesterday.

From May 15, New South Wales will allow cafes and res-taurants to seat 10 patrons at a time, permit outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people, and visits of up to five people to a household.

Playgrounds and outdoor pools will also be allowed to

reopen with strict limits. The moves are in line with

a three-step plan to relax lockdown measures outlined by the Australian government on Friday, which would see nearly 1 million people return to work by July.

Places of worship in New South Wales (NSW) will be per-mitted to open to up to 10 people from Friday. Weddings, which had been restricted to two guests, will be able to host up to 10, and indoor funerals will be allowed to have 20 mourners.

Schools in NSW are set to reopen today, but only allowing students to attend one day a week on a staggered basis.

Berejiklian gave no time frame for any further reopening of the economy, saying that would depend on infection rates. “We continue to take a cautious approach in New South Wales, but also one which has a focus on jobs and the economy, because we can’t continue to live like this for the next year or until there is a vaccine,” Berejiklian said.

NSW and Victoria, which has had the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases and

deaths in the country, have maintained their tight restric-tions longer than other states.

Victoria’s premier said he would announce plans for easing lockdown measures in the state today.

Dozens of people protested against the lockdown measures o u t s i d e V i c t o r i a ’ s

state parliament in Melbourne yesterday, leading police to arrest 10 people for breaching coronavirus restrictions on large gatherings.

“It’s incredibly disap-pointing that people would be protesting or seeking to suggest we don’t have a pandemic,” Vic-toria Health Minister Jenny

Mikakos told reporters.Meanwhile Australia’s chief

medical officer, Brendan Murphy, told reporters in Can-berra that state and federal offi-cials will meet on Monday to discuss ways of dealing with the risks of crowds on public transport as businesses start to reopen.

Western Australia (WA), which shut its borders to combat the spread of the virus and has had only 1 new COVID-19 case in the past 11 days, has moved faster than other states in easing restrictions.

Yesterday, WA Premier Mark McGowan said from May 18 the state would allow indoor and outdoor gatherings of up to 20 people, including at cafes and restaurants.

Queensland state will allow restaurants, pubs and cafes to reopen with up to 10 people at a time from next Saturday, and said it would increase that to 20 people from June 12.

In South Australia, from today, holiday travel will be allowed within the state, in a push to revive tourism that has been devastated this year by bush f ires and the coronavirus.

Protesters opposed to lockdown measures implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease, clash with police outside Parliament House in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday.

India, China in

high-altitude

fistfight at borderAFP — KOLKATA

Several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a high-altitude cross-border clash involving fistfights and stone-throwing at a remote but strategically important mountain pass near Tibet, the Indian Army said yesterday.

There have been long-running border tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours, with a bitter war fought over India’s north-eastern-most state of Aru-nachal Pradesh in 1962.

“Aggressive behaviour by the two sides resulted in minor injuries to troops. It was stone-throwing and argu-ments that ended in a fist-fight,” Indian Army Eastern Command spokesman Mandeep Hooda said.

The “stand-off” on Sat-urday at Naku La sector near the 15,000-feet (4,572-metre) Nathu La crossing in the northeastern state of Sikkim — which borders Bhutan, Nepal and China — was later resolved after “dialogue and interaction” at a local level, Hooda said.

“Temporary and short duration face-offs between border-guarding troops do occur as boundaries are not resolved,” he added.

The violent clash is the first between the two countries since 2017, when there was a brawl between Chinese and Indian soldiers near the northwest Indian region of Ladakh.

In the same year, there was a high-altitude standoff in Bhutan’s Doklam region after the Indian army sent troops to stop China from con-structing a road there.

China still claims about 90,000 sq km of territory under New Delhi’s control.

India denies new road breaches territory disputed with NepalAP — NEW DELHI

India says a newly inaugurated road does not illegally cross into neighbouring Nepal, denying the Himalayan coun-try’s claim that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is ignoring a long-standing dispute over a border with China and Tibet.

Inaugurated by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday, the 80km Lipu Lekh road is the shortest route from New Delhi to Kailash-Mansa-rovar, a revered Hindu pil-grimage site in the Tibetan plateau.

The road cuts through the Lipu Lekh Himalayan pass, which is considered one of the shortest and most feasible trade routes between India and China. Nepal has fiercely con-tested India’s claim on the ter-ritory, which it includes in

contemporary boundary maps as part of the Indian state of Uttarakhand, since the early 19th century, because of its potential as an economic cor-ridor. Nepal views the alleged incursions as a stark example of bullying by its much larger neighbour.

“The Government of Nepal has learnt with regret about the ‘inauguration’ yesterday by India of ‘Link Road’ connecting to Lipu Lekh (Nepal), which passes through Nepali territory,” Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Nepal asked India “to refrain from car-rying out any activity” on the road that has triggered a fresh dispute over the strategically important territory.

India quickly rejected Nepal’s claims, saying the road falls exclusively within India.

“India is committed to resolving outstanding boundary

issues through diplomatic dia-logue and in the spirit of our close and friendly bilateral rela-tions with Nepal,” Indian foreign affairs spokesman Anurag Srivastava said.

Nepal, which was never under colonial rule, has long claimed the areas of Limpiya-dhura, Kalapani and Lipu Lekh in accordance with the 1816 Sugauli treaty with the British Raj, although these areas have remained in control of Indian troops since India fought a war with China in 1962.

In 2015, Nepal opposed an agreement between India and China to promote Lipu Lekh as a bilateral trade route without its consent. Kathmandu also registered its opposition when New Delhi unveiled a new political map in 2019 that shows some disputed terri-tories, including Lipu Lekh, as part of India.

Bangladesh sees highest one-day virus death tollANATOLIA & REUTERS — DHAKA/BANGKOK

Bangladesh suffered its highest daily death toll from corona-virus yesterday, with 14 people succumbing to the disease, according to the latest data from the government. The country has now recorded 228 deaths from the novel virus.

Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country with more than 165 million population, mean-while, surpassed the 14,000 mark including 887 new infec-tions, bringing the total to 14,657, said the Directorate General of Health Services.

Prof. Nasima Sultana, addi-tional director general of DGHS, said 5,738 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. “We have tested samples of 122,657 people since March 8,” she said during a briefing.

Some 236 new recoveries were also registered, taking the number of people regaining health to 2,650. Another policeman, constable Jalal Uddin Khoka, 48, died of the virus late on Saturday, police said. He was under treatment in the capital Dhaka’s Central Police Hospital.

With the new casualties, seven members of the law enforcing agency have perished thus far. Dozens of others are under treatment at hospitals or have self-quarantined at home.

Some shopping malls and markets have reopened as the South Asian country eased restrictions ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid Al Fitr.

Authorities have also allowed to resume manufac-turing of ready-made gar-ments, the country’s main export. The industry covers

more than 80% of the total exports, and employs at least four million people, mostly women.

Meanwhile, Thailand reported five new coronavirus cases but no deaths yesterday, bringing the total to 3,009 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in the country in January. However, there are four more infected people from the resort island of Phuket, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, spokesman for the govern-ment’s Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration.

Of the new cases reported yesterday, two were linked to previous cases and three had travelled abroad, he said. Slowing numbers of new cases have prompted Thailand to allow some businesses to reopen after weeks of semi-lockdown. Malaysian health authorities yesterday reported 67 new coronavirus cases, bringing the cumulative total to 6,656. The health ministry reported no new deaths, with total fatalities at 108.

Police detain demonstrators during a protest against India’s newly inaugurated link road to the Chinese border, in Kathmandu, yesterday.

Warship from Maldives with virus evacuees arrives in IndiaAFP — KOCHI, INDIA

A navy ship carrying evacuees from the Maldives arrived in India yesterday as part of a massive effort to bring home hundreds of thousands of nationals stranded overseas due to the corona-virus lockdown.

Workers and students were unable to return home after India banned all incoming international flights in late March as part of the world’s biggest lockdown to combat the spread of the deadly infectious disease.

The warship INS Jalashwa carrying 698 Indians from the Maldives capital of Male arrived at Cochin port on the southwestern coast of India last morning. It followed the arrival of 326 Indians from London early yesterday at Mum-bai’s international airport.

Another warship, INS Magar, is expected to arrive at Male to repatriate

more stranded Indians. Around 4,000 of the 27,000 Indians living in the Mal-dives have registered to be taken home. The naval efforts are part of an initial operation to repatriate almost 15,000 Indians from 12 countries.

The repatriation process is expected to be expanded in the next few weeks to include more stranded citizens in other European and Southeast Asian nations, local media reported.

On Thursday, the first two repatri-ation flights brought back 354 Indians from Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. They then went into quar-antine centres.

Two returnees have since tested pos-itive for coronavirus, Kerala state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said late on Saturday.

He added that it was “a warning to those coming back from abroad and for other states to be on the alert”.

Kerala police personnel watch and take photos as the INS Jalashwa ship enters the Cochin port carrying Indian citizens who were stranded in Maldives due to the COVID-19 disease, in Kochi in the south Indian state of Kerala, yesterday.

Indonesia condemns abuse of its fishermen on Chinese boatsAP — BEIJING

Indonesia’s government yesterday condemned what it called the “inhuman” treatment of its nationals by a Chinese fishing company that allegedly kept Indonesian fish-ermen as virtual slaves, leading to the deaths of at least three of them.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told a video con-ference from the capital, Jakarta, that 49 Indonesian fishermen, ranging from 19 to 24 years old, were forced to work an average of over 18 hours a day on at least four Chinese fishing boats.

Marsudi said some of the fishermen were either not paid at all or did not receive the amount they had agreed to. The tireless work and poor conditions on the ship caused illnesses among the crew members, killing at least three Indonesians, whose bodies were cast overboard into the Pacific Ocean, she said.

“We condemn the inhuman treatment against our crew members working at the Chinese fishing company,” Marsudi said. “Based on the information from the crews, the company has violated human rights.”

Marsudi said almost all of the fishermen were repatriated to Indonesia from four Chinese fishing vessels after under-going a mandatory corona-virus quarantine at a hotel in the South Korean city of Busan, where their boats were docked after 13 months at sea.

The move came after videos released by local media in South Korea drew a public outcry. On May 5, an uniden-tified Indonesian fisherman told the South Korean television station MBC about the unfair treatment the crew members received while working on the Chinese boats. The station also aired a video that showed the dead body of another Indo-nesian fisherman being thrown overboard one of the vessels.

With 14 people succumbing to the disease, Bangladesh has now recorded 228 deaths from the novel virus. Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country with more than 165 million population, meanwhile, surpassed the 14,000 mark including 887 new infections.

H E Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani stressed that preventing conflict, mediation and maintaining peace is a priority of the foreign policy of the State of Qatar.

08 MONDAY 11 MAY 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMEDm.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

EDITORIAL

JUST as Bundesliga, the German football league, gets down to resume action after a break of more than two months, news has popped up from Spain that five La Liga players - from two leagues in their set-up - have tested positive for the coronavirus. Players and teams across the European continent and rest of the world are preparing - in a staggered way - to resume action behind closed doors but yesterday’s news on La Liga players contracting the virus won’t be an encouraging soundbite for football fans.

Though the players have not been named by La Liga officials as of yet but teams preparing at training grounds in Europe will have to be all the more careful with their plans to resume football. La Liga giants Real Madrid are set to resume training today (Monday) while Barcelona are scheduled to hit the training pitches on Friday. A La Liga statement released yes-terday said: “Among La Liga Santander and La Liga SmartBank (Segunda) clubs, five positive cases were detected in players, all of them asymptomatic and in the final phase of the disease. One of the objectives of these medical tests, according to the La Liga’s protocol for returning to training, according to rec-ommendations of the CSD (Supreme Sports Council) and the Ministry of Health, was precisely to detect the denominated or asymptomatic, that is, those people who are infected and that, without presenting symptoms, they can infect other people,” the statement added.

Stringent rules and regulations have been put in place for players willing to train: they have to wear masks and gloves and train in small groups. And what’s more, players have been advised to shower at home besides bringing in a fresh kit bag to training on a daily basis. In Bundesliga, the medical protocols that have to be followed includes training at three separate zones at stadiums to ‘limit human contact’.

It was reported on Saturday that second-tier Dynamo Dresden side in Germany have been ordered to go into quarantine after two coronavirus cases were announced. This latest development means Dynamo Dresde will not be able to play their restart game on May 15.

Since La Liga is at least a month from resuming play, but questions arise: Are the players hitting the training pitch too soon? Are the teams targeting to resume action - like in the case of Bundesliga starting on May 16 - a little too soon? Only time will tell if the football teams in Europe should have waited out at least another month before resuming play.

Playing too soon?

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Quote of the day

The coronavirus pandemic has made an already difficult timeline for a British-European Union trade deal virtually impossible.

Simon Coveney, Irish Foreign Minister

QNA — NEW YORK

The State of Qatar has reit-erated its deep commitment to achieving peace in Afghan-istan, continuing its positive role and making efforts to facilitate peace talks between the parties in Afghanistan.

This came during the par-ticipation of H E Ambassador Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, Permanent Repre-sentative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, as a speaker at a virtual event organized by “Women Forward International” and Georgetown University, in cooperation with the Embassy of the State of Qatar to the United States, under the title “Launching Peace in Afghanistan”.

Her Excellency high-lighted the role played by the State of Qatar in Afghanistan’s peace talks, and touched on Qatar’s broad participation in the mediation efforts, facili-tating and hosting the peace talks and sponsoring the rec-onciliation process led and shared by all Afghan parties.

H E Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani stressed that preventing conflict, mediation and maintaining peace is a priority of the foreign policy of the State of Qatar.

She expressed the satis-faction and pleasure of the State of Qatar that its efforts resulted in a historic agreement signed in Doha to bring peace to Afghanistan between the United States and the Taliban.

She also expressed the hope of the State of Qatar that the agreement would lead to talks between Afghans, the Taliban and stakeholders in Afghanistan.

She noted that the Afghan peace conference that Doha hosted in July 2019, held under the auspices of the State of Qatar and Germany, aimed at pushing forward the Afghan negotiations for peace.Her Excellency stressed the need

for involving women in Afghan peace talks, pointing to the commitment of the State of Qatar to guarantee the right of women to peace operations, and made it clear that the lack of participation of women would reduce the possibility of a peaceful settlement on a large scale.

HE Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani praised the participation of 11 prominent women from the government and civil society sectors in the Doha Afghan Peace Con-ference, as well as the partici-pation of civil society repre-sentatives, political and reli-gious leaders and youth in the peace conference.

She also highlighted the support of the State of Qatar since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 implementing the women’s, peace and security agenda, noting the State of Qatar’s pride in supporting the global study on the imple-mentation of Council Reso-lution 1325, which provided a comprehensive and important information that demon-strates that women’s partici-pation in peace processes is vital to sustaining peace .

H E Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani stressed the importance and necessity of the participation of young women and men in the peace process, where the State of Qatar welcomed the Security Council Resolution 2250 on youth, peace and security, noting the State of Qatar’s participation in March 2019 along with Colombia, Finland and the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General’s

envoy for youth in the first international conference on youth participation in medi-ation processes held in Helsinki.

She highlighted the State of Qatar’s determination to hold the second international conference in coordination with the envoy of the Sec-retary-General for Youth, with a special focus on the role of young women in peace and security. She expressed the State of Qatar’s hope that the conference that will be hosted by Doha provides a concrete opportunity to enhance the integration of young women in effective and sustainable peace processes, emphasizing the paramount importance of the compre-hensive integration of young women and men into peace processes.

Meanwhile, the State of Qatar has affirmed that adherence to international law; good governance at all levels; friendly relations between states and respect for their sovereignty; and the peaceful settlement of dis-putes have been necessary to spare humanity massive suf-fering, adding that these as well as principles stipulated in the Charter of the United Nations are of renewed importance, and must be respected and strengthened if the world is to avoid a return to the dark past. Qatar further emphasized that these prin-ciples constitute basic pillars of its foreign policy.

This came in the State of Qatar’s statement, delivered by H E Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the United

Nations before the UN Security Council (UNSC) Arria-formula meeting held on the 75th anni-versary of the end of World War II (WW II), with the par-ticipation of a large number of foreign ministers of the UNCS member states and non-members states.

H E Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations said that in the same vein, comes the State of Qatar’s commitment to the United Nations as the most important international organ-ization and the most prom-inent platform for cooperation and multilateralism, which the world desperately needs today, as humankind faces the challenge of the novel corona-virus (COVID-19) pandemic as an unprecedented test dealing with common challenges by strengthening international cooperation for the benefit of humanity.

Contrary to this vision comes the approach of fabri-cating regional crises and undermining cooperation and solidarity between brotherly and neighboring countries, with all the consequences this entails for undermining regional and international peace and security, Her Excel-lency said adding that this approach is embodied in the unjust illegal blockade imposed on Qatar nearly three years ago without any justifi-cation, in a clear and delib-erate disregard to the Charter of the United Nations and its principles. She pointed out that the third anniversary of the cyber hack crime that marked the beginning of this contrived crisis will come on May 23rd.

BETSEY STEVENSON THE WASHINGTON POST

The scale of job losses over the past two months has been unimaginable, and the data probably understate the bleak reality that many are currently facing. At the same time, there is some small basis for optimism. The latest numbers don’t yet represent permanent job loss. We still have time to make choices to ensure that as many people as possible have jobs to return to once it’s safe for them to do so.

To see why this moment is so unusual, consider a typical recession. Job losses in those circumstances accumulate over many months as busi-nesses slowly realize that demand for their products is waning. Peak unemployment

happens long after a recession has begun. In the 2008 recession, total non-farm pay-rolls declined each month for two years, hitting a low point in February 2010, when nearly 9 million jobs had been lost. Most of those jobs had been perma-nently destroyed. The recovery that followed was driven by existing businesses hiring new workers and new businesses getting off the ground. This is a time-consuming process, and non-farm payrolls grew slowly, only returning to pre-recession highs in 2014.

Our current situation is different. States ordered all but essential businesses to send employees home for their own safety. The businesses that closed did so with the intention of bringing their workers back. The result? The

Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that 18.1 million people said that they were on temporary layoff and another 11.5 million were employed, but absent from work. Those jobs were lost for a time, but not necessarily destroyed. The destruction of jobs will only happen as employers realize that they won’t need some of those workers to return and as some businesses fail to stay afloat.

The next employment report will capture how many people are on employers’ pay-rolls next week. It may show that we have started to recover. States have started relaxing rules, and while many businesses are staying closed for now, furloughs have likely slowed. If more workers are brought back from furlough by

next week than were laid off in the second half of April and early May, then non-farm pay-rolls could even start to climb. This shouldn’t be surprising: Workers such as dental hygi-enists, nurses, hairdressers, and even some restaurant and hotel workers may not be essential to fighting a pan-demic in the short term, but the demand for their old jobs has not vanished and the business model behind them has not failed.

But we shouldn’t over-interpret any short-term improvements, either, just as we shouldn’t assume the horrible jobs numbers of the last few months are permanent. Job reports will show non-farm jobs growing at first as workers are recalled to their old jobs, but these recalls will eventually slow.

Qatar reiterates deep commitment to achieving peace in Afghanistan

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The job numbers are horrible. But there’s more to this story.

Established in 1996

H E Ambassador Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, speaking at a virtual event organized by “Women Forward International” and Georgetown University, in cooperation with the Embassy of the State of Qatar to the United States, under the title “Launching Peace in Afghanistan”.

09MONDAY 11 MAY 2020 ASIA

South Korean leader warns of virus second wave as cases reboundREUTERS — SEOUL

South Korea warned of a second wave of the new coronavirus yesterday as infections rebounded to a one-month high, just as the authorities were starting to ease some pandemic restrictions.

“It’s not over until it’s over,” President Moon Jae-in told the nation, saying a new cluster shows the virus can spread widely at any time, and warning of a second wave late this year.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 34 new infec-tions, the highest since April 9, after a small outbreak emerged around a slew of nightclubs, prompting the authorities to temporary close all nightly entertainment facilities around the capital.

The death toll remained at 256.

Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said the gov-ernment will decide on whether it will reopen schools in stages starting from May 13 as planned after examining the impact of

the club cases for two to three days.

Battling the first major coro-navirus outbreak outside China, South Korea brought infections of the virus, and the disease COVID-19 that it causes, down drastically through widespread testing, aggressive contact tracing and tracking apps. The response has helped Asia’s fourth-largest economy come to grips with the pandemic without extensive the lock-downs seen elsewhere.

The daily tally of new infec-tions had hovered around 10 or less in recent weeks, with no or very few domestic cases over the past 10 days.

The fresh outbreak comes just as the government was easing some social distancing restrictions and moving to fully reopen schools and businesses, in a transition from intensive social distancing to “distancing in daily life.”

We must never lower our guard regarding epidemic pre-vention,” Moon said in a tele-vised speech marking the third anniversary of his inauguration.

“We are in a prolonged war. I ask everyone to comply with safety precautions and rules until the situation is over even after resuming daily lives.”

He said the KCDC will get greater power as part of the long-term fight and be renamed the Disease Control and Pre-vention Administration to reflect its enhanced position, while the authorities beef up local expertise.

The resurgence is driven by an outbreak centred around a handful of Seoul nightclubs, which a man in his late 20s had visited before testing positive last week.

At least 24 out of the 26 new domestically transmitted infec-tions were traced to that man, bringing the infections related to the case to 54, the KCDC said.

The KCDC said officials are tracking down about 1,900

people who have gone to the clubs, which could be increased to 7,000, asking anyone who was there last week to self-isolate for 14 days and be tested.

“This case is once again showing a rapid spread of the virus as well as high infec-tiousness,” KCDC director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a briefing. “We’re in a battle against time to head off additional transmissions in the local communities.”

People watching a television news broadcast showing a speech of South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the occasion of the third anniversary of his inauguration, at a railway station in Seoul, yesterday.

Police officers clash with pro-democracy demonstrators (centre) in the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront during a protest calling for the city’s independence, in Hong Kong, yesterday.

Riot police chase Hong Kong protestersAFP — HONG KONG

Riot police chased protesters through Hong Kong shopping malls yesterday as democracy activists launched Mother’s Day flash mob rallies calling for independence and the city’s unpopular leader to resign.

The semi-autonomous Chinese city was convulsed by seven straight months of often-violent pro-democracy protests last year with millions hitting the streets.

Mass arrests and the coro-navirus pandemic ushered in a period of enforced calm.

But with the finance hub successfully tackling its out-break small protests have bubbled up once more in the last fortnight.

Small flashmob demonstra-tions broke out in at least eight malls throughout yesterday afternoon prompting riot police to rush in and disperse heckling crowds of activists and shoppers.

At least three arrests were made while groups of officers conducted multiple stop and searches.

Live broadcasts also showed police issuing $2,000

($260) on the spot fines to those allegedly breaching emergency anti-virus measures banning more than eight people gath-ering in public.

Hong Kong celebrates the American Mother’s Day and protester chat groups had pushed the occasion to focus on chief executive Carrie Lam, a Beijing loyalist appointee.

At the start of last year’s pro-tests, Lam likened herself to an exasperated mother — and pro-testing Hong Kongers to demanding children — in com-ments that only poured oil on the fire of public anger at the time.

Chinese vessels chase Japanese fishing boat near disputed islands

Taliban blamed for extorting food aid in AfghanistanANATOLIA — KABUL

Afghanistan’s human rights commission yesterday blamed the Taliban for taking away truckloads of food aid sent by Turkmenistan for needy people amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The insurgents extorted five trucks loaded with fresh food items in Faryab province’s restive Sheren Tagab district,

the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said in a statement.

“During Ramadan, when the country is in dire need of food aid and people are suffering from a deadly disease (corona-virus) under quarantine, the commission expresses concerns over the holding of this aid, urge the Taliban to stop hindering delivery of humanitarian aid,

and to keep their promises in this regard,” it reads.

Naqibullah Fayeq, the gov-ernor of Faryab province, received the aid at the Aqina dry port at the border with Turk-menistan in an official cer-emony earlier this month. However, according to local officials, the Taliban stopped the convoy before it could reach the provincial capital Maimana.

There was no immediate reaction from the Taliban on the matter. The development comes as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Afghanistan. With 361 more infections yesterday, the overall count has risen to 4,402.

As many as 120 patients have died, while 558 have recovered in the country thus far, according to government figures.

Azerbaijanis mark 97th birth anniversary of Heydar AliyevEMBASSY OF AZERBAIJANBAKU/DOHA

This year on May 10, Azerbaijanis celebrate 97th birthday anni-versary of their national leader Heydar Aliyev (pictured). He was a great historical leader of Azerbaijan, who dedicated his life to the development and pros-perity of his country and people.

Heydar Aliyev was born on May 10, 1923, in Nakhchivan, city of Azerbaijan. Working ever since in the security bodies, from 1967 he held the position of chairman of the Committee of State Security in Azerbaijan,

and was conferred the rank of lieutenant general.

In July 1969, being elected as the First Secretary of the Central

Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev became the Head of

Azerbaijan. In December 1982, Heydar Aliyev was elected a member of Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and appointed to the post of the First Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR, and became one of the leaders of the Soviet Union.

In October 1987, Heydar Aliyev, protesting against the policy pursued by Political Bureau of the Central Com-mittee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and per-sonally the Secretary General Michael Gorbachev, resigned

from his position.In July 1990, Heydar Aliyev

returned to Azerbaijan and in the same year he was elected Deputy to the Parliament of Azerbaijan.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and beginning of Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan, the country faced the threat of civil war and loss of independence. In such a dif-ficult time the people of Azerbaijan invited Heydar Aliyev to Baku to retake the power and lead the country.

On October 3, 1993, as a result of nationwide voting,

Heydar Aliyev was elected Pres-ident of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On October 11, 1998, gaining 76.1 percent of the votes, he was re-elected President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

On December 12, 2003 national leader of the Azerba-ijani people, President Heydar Aliyev passed away. As a result of Heydar Aliyev’s far-sighted domestic and foreign policy and intensive activities Azerbaijan has started to play the role of a reliable bridge between the East and the West and become one of the most dynamic economies in the world.

China refutes 24 ‘lies’ by US politicians over coronavirusREUTERS — BEIJING

China has issued a lengthy rebuttal of what it said were 24 “preposterous allegations” by some leading US politicians over its handling of the new coronavirus outbreak.

The Chinese foreign ministry has dedicated most of its press briefings over the past week to rejecting accusations by US pol-iticians, especially Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that China had withheld information about the new coronavirus and that it had originated in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan.

A 30-page, 11,000-word article posted on the ministry website on Saturday night repeated and expanded on the refutations made during the press briefings, and began by invoking Abraham Lincoln, the 19th century US president.

“As Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people all the time and fool all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time,” it said in the prologue.

The article also cited media reports that said Americans had been infected with the virus before the first case was con-firmed in Wuhan. There is no evidence to suggest that is the case.

Keen to quash US sugges-tions that the virus was delib-erately created or somehow leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the article said that

all evidence shows the virus is not man-made and that the institute is not capable of syn-thesising a new coronavirus.

The article also provided a timeline of how China had pro-vided information to the inter-national community in a “timely”, “open and trans-parent” manner to rebuke US suggestions that it had been slow to sound the alarm.

Despite China’s repeated assurances, concerns about the timeliness of its information have persisted in some quarters.

A report by Der Spiegel magazine last Friday cited Ger-many’s BND spy agency as saying that China’s initial attempt to hold back infor-mation had cost the world four to six weeks that could have been used to fight the virus.

The article rejected Western criticism of Beijing’s handling of the case of Li Wen-liang, a 34-year-old doctor who had tried to raise the alarm over the outbreak of the new virus in Wuhan. His death from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, prompted an outpouring of rage and grief across China.

It ministry article said Li was not a “whistle-blower” and he was never arrested, contrary to many Western reports. However, the article did not mention that Li was repri-manded by the police for “spreading rumours”.

On October 3, 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On October 11, 1998, gaining 76.1 percent of the votes, he was re-elected.

Pakistan ranks as 20th most affected country from virusINTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD

Pakistan climbed to the 20th spot on the global coronavirus ranking yesterday after the nationwide tally of COVID-19 patients crossed 30,000 as Sindh reported 709 new cases.

According to the corona-virus tracker by John Hopkins University, the country is now ranked 27th with 648 deaths.

Earlier today, the national dashboard in its daily update had stated that 1,991 cases were detected in the country in the last 24 hours taking the national tally to 29,465.

This was the biggest single-day jump since Feb-ruary 26 when the first case was reported.

Sindh leads the tally with 11,480 cases, followed by Punjab with 11,093. In Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, 4,509 cases have been recorded while 1,935 cases have been reported in Balochistan. Gilgit Baltistan has reported 430, Islamabad 641 and AJK has reported 86 cases so far.

In the last 24 hours, 13,341 tests have been conducted of which 1,991 came back pos-itive. In total, 283,517 tests have been conducted in the country so far.

Meanwhile, 267 patients have recovered from the virus, taking the total number of recoveries in the country to 8,023.

Globally there are now at least 4,001,437 cases of coro-navirus with 277,127 deaths.

The United States has been the hardest-hit country, with 1,305,544 cases and 78,618 deaths. Europe is the hardest-hit continent, with 1,708,648 cases and 155,074 deaths.

AFP — TOKYO

Two Chinese ships chased a Japanese fishing boat close to disputed islands in the East China Sea, the Japan Coast Guard said yesterday.

Japan lodged an official protest with China over the incident — which took place on Friday — via a call to the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo by Shigeki Takizaki, head of the Japanese foreign ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, local media reported.

There was also a call from the Japanese Embassy in Beijing to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, media said.

The Japanese foreign min-istry could not immediately confirm the reports.

The flashpoint islands, called Senkaku in Japan and known in China as the Diaoyus, are at the centre of a festering row between Tokyo and Beijing.

The Japanese government has long complained about China’s routine dispatch of its coast guard ships to waters surrounding the islands.

On Friday, the Japan Coast Guard ordered the Chinese vessels to leave the waters, and deployed several patrol ships to safeguard the fishing boat, whose three crew members were unhurt, a coast guard spokesman said.

Two “Chinese ships loi-tering around the islands are still inside the Japanese terri-torial waters,” he said yes-terday, adding “the fishing boat is not in a dangerous situation”.

Relations between Japan and China deteriorated in 2012 when Tokyo “nationalised” some of the disputed islets.

Since then, the two top Asian economies have taken gradual steps to mend fences but relations at times get tense.

REUTERS — LONDON

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday the coro-navirus lockdown will not end yet, urging people to “stay alert” to the risks as he outlined plans to begin slowly easing measures that have closed down much of the economy for nearly seven weeks.

While his government was giving directions for England, it wants the United Kingdom’s other constituent nations - Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland — to take the same approach. But there were immediate divisions, with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon saying she was sticking with the existing “stay at home” message.

Johnson announced a limited easing of restrictions, including allowing people to exercise outside more often and encour-aging those who cannot work from home to return to their jobs.

“This is not the time simply to end the lockdown this week,” he said in a televised address. “Instead we are taking the first careful steps to modify our measures.”

Johnson’s government has faced criticism from opposition

parties and others over its han-dling of the pandemic and the prime minister is wary of taking the brakes off too soon. Britain’s coronavirus death toll — 31,855 — is the second highest in the world, behind only the United States. The bulk of the cases and deaths have been in England.

The government’s decision to replace its “stay at home” slogan, drummed into the public for weeks, was criticised by opposition parties who called the new “stay alert” message too ambiguous.

Johnson earlier tweeted a new government poster with rules including “stay at home as much as possible”, “limit contact

with other people” and “keep your distance if you go out”.

In his address, Johnson said people should continue to work from home if they could, but from today those who cannot, such people working in construction and manufacturing, should be “actively encouraged to go to work”.

From Wednesday, people will be allowed to to take unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise, he said, and can sit in the sun in their local park, drive to other destinations, and play sports with members of their own household.

Until now, people have been expected to exercise outdoors once a day, do so locally, and - despite recent spells of warm weather — told not to go to parks to sit in the sun.

Social distancing rules must still be obeyed, Johnson said, adding that fines would be increased for those who break them.

He detailed an alert system ranging from level 1, where virus is no longer present, to level 5, the most critical, that will allow the government to flag risks in different parts of England and to decrease or increase restrictions

where necessary.Scotland’s Sturgeon said the

only modification she was making to lockdown measures was to allow people to exercise more than once a day.

“(That) is the only change that the Scottish government judges that it is safe to make right now without risking a rapid resur-gence of the virus,” she told a news conference.

Sturgeon also said she had asked the UK government not to use its “stay alert” advertising campaign in Scotland.

Labour health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth also criticised the “stay alert” slogan. “Many

people will be puzzled by it,” he told BBC TV.

“This virus really does exploit ambivalence and thrive on ambi-guity, we need clarity at all times.”

Britain’s economy - the world’s fifth largest - has been hammered by the pandemic and the lockdown measures.

The government has faced steady questions from Labour and others on why the country was not locked down earlier, why it has struggled to administer mass testing and why there have been shortages of protective equipment for medics and care workers.

Johnson himself is recovering after falling critically ill with COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, last month.

The Sunday Times reported that scientific advisers had told the government that deaths could exceed 100,000 by the end of the year if lockdown measures are relaxed too fast. As of yesterday, Britain had reported some 219,183 confirmed infections.

Johnson said that by the ear-liest by June 1, the government might be in a position to begin the phased reopening of shops and to get primary pupils back into schools, in stages.

10 MONDAY 11 MAY 2020EUROPE

A medical worker tests a key worker for the novel coronavirus at a drive-in testing centre set up in a car park, south of London, yesterday.

Spain registers lowest daily virus deaths since mid-MarchREUTERS — MADRID

Spain registered its lowest daily number of coronavirus deaths since mid-March yesterday, as half the population prepared for an easing of one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns.

Emergency Health Chief Fernando Simon said in a press conference that the daily death toll of 143 down from 179 on Sat-urday was the lowest since March 18.

“We continue with the downward trend reported in

recent days,” he said.Overall deaths rose to 26,621

from 26,478 on Saturday and the number of diagnosed corona-virus cases rose to 224,390 from 223,578 the day before, the Health Ministry said.

Some 51 percent of the pop-ulation will progress to Phase 1 of a four-step easing plan today after the government decided the regions in which they lived met the necessary criteria.

It will include a considerable easing of measures that will allow gatherings of up to 10 people and

let people move around their province.

In regions that made the cut such as the Canary and Balearic Islands, restaurants and shops will open at reduced capacity and museums, gyms and hotels will open their doors for the first time in nearly two months.

But Spain’s two biggest cities — Madrid and Barcelona — do not currently meet the criteria for easing and will remain on Phase 0. Regional governments in some areas that have not been allowed to pass completely to Phase 1,

including Andalusia and Madrid, have been vocal in criticising the decision.

“It’s a blow for the economy,” Madrid regional President Isabel Diaz Ayuso said in an interview with newspaper El Mundo yesterday.

“If everything continues as the experts indicate, this virus is going to be here for between one and two years, so since it is a long race for the health service we have to go to the next phase.” Cyclists, joggers and walkers, many wearing face masks,

packed the bridges and streets around Madrid Rio park on Sunday morning, as the park itself remained closed.

“Madrid is still in Phase 0, we can’t move onto Phase 1 tomorrow and I think that’s the right decision. I don’t think Madrid is ready yet to move onto the next phase,” said David Starton, 53, from Scotland, who has lived in Madrid for 20 years.

“It’s unfortunate, it’s quite sad and we’ll just have to put up with another week of restrictions and lockdown.”

Freed Italian aid

worker returns

home on

special flightREUTERS — ROME

Silvia Romano, an Italian aid worker kidnapped 18 months ago in East Africa, landed in Rome yesterday a day after being freed.

Gunmen seized Romano, who was working for an Italian charity called Africa Milele, in northern Kenya in November 2018.

She was found in Somalia, some 30km outside the capital of Mogadishu, and was released thanks to efforts by the external intel-ligence agency, Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said.

Romano touched down at Rome’s Ciampino airport aboard a special flight at about 2pm.

Escorted by masked men from the intelligence service, she temporarily removed her protective mask to wave as descended the steps from the jet before hugging relatives waiting for her at the airport.

She was greeted by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Di Maio. In her home neigh-bourhood in Milan, church bells saluted her arrival, with many people on their bal-conies, SKY TG24 showed.

Romano was expected to meet prosecutors in Rome later yesterday.

“I was strong, and resisted,” Romano was quoted by Italian news-papers as saying after her release.

Italy confirms 165 new deaths from virusANATOLIA — ROME

Italy yesterday reported 165 new fatalities from the coronavirus, bringing the toll to 30,560, as the number of active infections continued to fall.

Data released by Italy’s Civil Protection Department con-firmed the peak of the outbreak passed, but experts keep warning that a relaxation of the rules in the second phase of the emergency could spark a rebound in the virus contagions.

The tally of active infections yesterday fell by 1,518, putting the total at 83,324.

Meanwhile, recoveries con-tinued to climb, jumping to 105,186 as more patients left intensive care, easing pressure on Italy’s overwhelmed healthcare system.

The epicentre of the Italian outbreak remains the northern

Lombardy region, where fatal-ities has kept rising, reaching 14,986, almost half of the coun-try’s total deaths.

The government insists that phase 2 — which started on May 4 — consists of “living with the virus” and that restrictions need to be lifted gradually. This means the announced steps could be pushed back or even canceled if scientific evidence shows the spread of the virus starts picking up again.

The lockdown measures are scheduled to be further eased in gradual steps: first on May 18 for retailers, and on June 1 for res-taurants. Schools will stay closed until September, while travel between regions — except for justified reasons — is still banned.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte reassured Italians yesterday that they will not be spending the summer in

quarantine and that they will be able to go on vacation.

In an interview with Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera, Conte said that special rules will have to be applied, but they will not force people to stay at home

and allow them to enjoy their holidays. Italian tourism industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, so the premier sug-gested Italians to pick their country as a holiday destination.

“This summer we won’t stay on our balconies and the Italian beauty won’t be quarantined,” Conte said. “We will be allowed to go to the beaches, or to the mountains, we will enjoy our cities.”

People walk in central Rome during the country’s lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19, on Saturday.

Infections accelerating again in GermanyREUTERS — BERLIN

New coronavirus infections are accelerating again in Germany just days after its leaders loosened social restrictions, raising concerns that the pandemic could once again slip out of control.

The Robert Koch Institute for disease control said in a daily bul-letin the number of people each sick person now infects — known as the reproduction rate, or R — had risen to 1.1. When it goes above 1, it means the number of infections is growing.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, bowing to pressure from leaders of Germany’s 16 federal states to restart social life and revive the economy, announced on Wednesday measures that included more shop openings and a gradual return to school.

At the same time, she

launched an “emergency brake” to allow for the reimposition of restrictions if infections pick up again. Karl Lauterbach, a Social Democrat lawmaker and pro-fessor of epidemiology, warned that the new coronavirus could start spreading again quickly after seeing large crowds out and about on Saturday in his home city of Cologne.

“It has to be expected that the R rate will go over 1 and we will return to exponential growth,” Lauterbach said in a tweet.

“The loosening measures were far too poorly prepared.” The Robert Koch Institute said yesterday the confirmed number of new coronavirus cases had increased by a daily 667 to 169,218, while the daily death toll had risen by 26 to 7,395.

“It is too early to infer whether the number of new infections will continue to

decrease as in the past weeks or increase again,” the institute said in a separate daily bulletin issued on Saturday evening.

It cautioned that the R figure

was subject to statistical uncer-tainty, adding: “The increase of the reproduction number R necessitates a close monitoring of the situation.”

France reports lowest recent virus toll ahead of easingAFP — PARIS

France yesterday reported 70 more deaths from the coronavirus, its lowest daily toll in recent weeks just ahead of the first easing of an almost two-month lockdown.

The new deaths brought the total toll in hospitals and nursing homes from the pandemic in France to 26,380, the health min-istry said. It was the lowest daily toll announced since March 17, the day the lockdown in France began. Saturday had also seen a record low toll of 80 deaths.

France will today emerge from its lockdown, although many restrictions will remain in place nationwide.

“Our efforts during the lockdown worked and saved thou-sands of lives,” said the health ministry.

“They need to succeed so that this new phase succeeds,” it added, warning that the epidemic is still “active and evolving”.

There has been a steady downward trend in France’s key coro-navirus figures in recent days, although officials warn that caution is still needed and the risk of a second wave remains.

Continuing recent trends, there were 36 fewer coronavirus patients in total in intensive care for a total of 2,776 and 45 less in hospital for a total of 22,569 people.

The government has divided France into green and red areas for today’s easing of the lockdown, with Paris and three other regions classified as red seeing a more limited relaxation.

Members of a coronavirus testing station stand on the factory premises of a meat processing company in Hamm, as all workers of the company have to be tested for virus, in western Germany.

No end to lockdown yet but ‘careful’ easing begins, says British PM Johnson

Johnson announced a limited easing of restrictions, including allowing people to exercise outside more often and encouraging those who cannot work from home to return to their jobs.

11MONDAY 11 MAY 2020 EUROPE / AMERICAS

Virus cases in Russia surpass 209,000

ANATOLIA — MOSCOW

The number of novel coronavirus cases in Russia surpassed 200,000 yesterday as the number of deaths approached 2,000, according to the country’s emergency task force.

With 11,012 infections regis-tered over the past day, the total number of cases rose to 209,688, it said in a daily report.

In the same period, 88 people died, raising the death toll to 1,915, while recoveries reached 34,306, including 2,390 in the last 24 hours.

The growth rate of new cases in the country has fallen, despite new cases exceeding 10,000 for the eighth day in a row, said the emergency task force.

“The daily increase was 5.5

percent, the lowest since the out-break began. It is noted that 4,674 (42.4 percent) of the newly recorded cases were actively identified as asymptomatic,” it said. To date, 5.44 million tests were carried out in Russia aiming to diagnose the illness at early stages when it is less contagious.

The capital Moscow remains the worst-hit area, counting more than half — 109,740 — of all cases, with 80 percent of patients being under 65 years old and 6 percent children.

Four top Russian officials, including Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, were hospitalized over the past two weeks after con-tracting COVID-19.

Despite the country’s measures, including a lockdown

in Moscow, a ban on foreign entry and suspension of international air and railway traffic, Russia is the fifth-worst coronavirus-hit country in terms of number of cases. After originating in China

last December, COVID-19 has spread to at least 187 countries and regions. Europe and the US are currently the worst-hit regions.

The pandemic has killed over

279,000 worldwide with more than 4.03 million total infections, while recoveries surpassed 1.38 million, according to figures compiled by the US’ Johns Hopkins University.

Coronavirus patients of a hospital, where a fire erupted, are being transferred to other hospitals in Moscow, on Saturday.

Russia accuses US

of downplaying

Soviet role in WWIIAFP — MOSCOW

Russia yesterday accused the United States of downplaying the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, with Moscow seeking “a serious conversation” on the matter with US counter-parts.

“We are extremely indignant at the attempt to distort the effect... of our country’s decisive contribution,” Russia’s foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.

A White House statement on Facebook this week, to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, only mentioned the United States and Britain as victors over the Nazis “American officials have neither the courage nor the will to pay homage to the undeniable role and the huge death toll suffered by the Red Army and the Soviet people in the name of all humanity,” the Russian statement continued.

Calling the US statement “particularly petty,” Moscow urged Washington not to make the memory of 1945 “a new problem for bilateral relations, which are already going through a difficult time”.

The history of World War II is a very sensitive one in post-Soviet Russia which is seeking to rebuild its prestige and power under President Vladimir Putin.

There were some 27 million deaths on the Soviet side during the war.

Moscow also accuses Western Europe, Poland and Ukraine of minimising its role in the conflict.

Russia marked the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe in more modest fashion than normal on Sat-urday, due to the coronavirus pandemic, scrapping the normal large-scale military parade which attracts thousands of people onto the streets.

Russian rocket breaks up in Earth orbitAFP — MOSCOW

Russia’s space agency yesterday confirmed one of its rockets used in past launches and floating in space has broken down, leaving debris in orbit.

The agency said the Fregat-SB upper stage rocket was used to deliver the Russian scientific satellite Spektr-R to orbit in 2011.

“The breakdown happened on May 8 2020” between 0500 and 0600GMT, above the Indian ocean, the agency said in a statement.

“Currently we are working to collect data to confirm the quantity and orbit parameters of the fragments,” it said.

The disintegration of Fregat was reported on Sat-urday by the Twitter account of the 18th Space Control Squadron, a US Airforce unit which tracks space debris.

It said the rocket broke up into 65 pieces but there was no indication it was caused by collision. The Spektr-R radio telescope stopped responding to ground control in January 2019 and the mission was declared completed several months later.

Sweden admits failure to protect elderly in care homesAFP STOCKHOLM

Bjorn Branngard’s mother died in a Stockholm nursing home where five of the eight people in her section and more than a third of residents have so far succumbed to the new corona-virus.

“They didn’t have time to take care of my mother,” he said.

Her coronavirus test came back negative two days after her death, but Branngard, who claims she died of neglect, says the nursing home staff lacked pro-tective gear and were spreading the virus around the home.

Sweden, whose softer approach to the coronavirus has garnered international attention, admits it has failed to adequately

protect the elderly, with around half of COVID-19 deaths occurring among nursing home residents. Reports have flooded Swedish media in recent weeks of care home staff continuing to work despite a lack of protective gear. Others have refused to work and workers are encouraged to stay home even with mild symptoms, leaving homes short-staffed.

Other personnel have admitted going to work despite exhibiting symptoms of the virus, potentially infecting residents, while some elderly have reportedly been infected while admitted to hospital for other treatments and then sent back to care homes where they unwit-tingly spread the disease.

Sweden has reported 3,220 deaths from the virus as of Sat-urday. The country said early on that shielding those 70 and older was its top priority.

Yet 90 percent of those who had died as of April 28 were over the age of 70. Half were nursing home residents, and another quarter were receiving care at home, statistics from the Swedish Board of Health and Welfare show.

“We failed to protect our elderly. That’s really serious, and a failure for society as a whole. We have to learn from this, we’re not done with this pandemic yet,” Health and Social Affairs Minister Lena Hallengren told Swedish Television recently.

Unlike many European

countries, Sweden has kept its primary schools open as well as restaurants, while urging people to respect social distancing and hygiene recommendations.

It did, however, ban visits to care homes on March 31.

Sweden’s Nordic neighbours also introduced bans around the same time, but have recorded far fewer care home deaths. But unlike in those countries, Swedish nursing homes are often large complexes with hundreds of residents. They are only available to those in very poor health and unable to care for themselves, and residents are therefore “a very vulnerable group”, according to Henrik Lysell of the Board of Health and Welfare.

Virus deaths in Brazil climb to 10,627; cases at 155,939AFP — RIO DE JANEIRO

Brazil, the hardest-hit Latin American country in the coro-navirus pandemic, has surpassed 10,000 deaths, according to figures released on Saturday by the Ministry of Health.

While Brazil’s numbers are high — 10,627 deaths and 155,939 confirmed cases — sci-entists think the real figures could be 15 or even 20 times worse, given the country’s ina-bility to carry out widespread testing.

Congress and the Supreme Court decreed an official mourning period of three days and lawmakers asked Brazilians to follow health authorities’ rec-ommendations to reduce

infection rates while the country prepares for “a safe and definitive return back to normal.” Meanwhile President Jair Bolsonaro, who opposes stay-at-home measures due to their impact on the country’s economy, was seen jet skiing on Lake Paranoa in Brasilia, according to the Metropoles news website.

Officials said he did not plan to make a statement on the country reaching 10,000 deaths.

In the last 24 hours alone, the nation saw 10,611 new cases and 730 fatalities, Brazil’s second-highest daily death toll, after a record set on Friday (751 deaths).

Resisting pressure from Bolsonaro, the governors of Sao

Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states have said they will extend the partial quarantine measures in force since March until the end of May.

The pandemic has given rise to ongoing governmental clashes, pitting the president against governors and mayors who have implemented social distancing and confinement measures to contain the virus’ spread — efforts supported by the country’s Supreme Court.

In announcing that his state’s lockdown would be pro-longed, Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria said on Friday: “We are at the height of this pan-demic. The situation is dire.”

His southeastern state of almost 46 million inhabitants has seen more than 3,600

deaths and over 44,400 cases.Neighbouring Rio de

Janeiro state, home to more than 16 million people, follows with 1,653 deaths and 16,929 infections. Less populated states such as Ceara, Per-nambuco and Amazonas already have around a thousand dead each.

Amazonas, home to a number of indigenous tribes that are extremely vulnerable to the virus, has recorded 232 deaths per million inhabitants, almost three times the rate in Sao Paulo state.

While Brazil’s coronavirus peak is not expected for several more weeks, seven states have already seen their intensive care units fill to 90 percent capacity.

Bolsonaro, who has com-pared the coronavirus to a “little flu,” tweeted on Saturday that the country’s “army of unemployed continues to grow” in reference to a factory closure in the northeast, before asking “is chaos coming?”

On Thursday the country’s economy minister, Paulo Guedes, said Brazil could face “economic collapse” in a month’s time due to stay-at-home measures.

According to the IMF, Brazil risks a 5.3 percent contraction in GDP this year.

Worldwide the virus has claimed more than 277,000 lives and the number of coro-navirus cases has surpassed four million, according to a tally.

Poland’s ruling coalition leader defends govt over cancelled electionAP — WARSAW

The leader of Poland’s ruling coalition has defended the government amid questions of how it plans to handle a political crisis over the country’s post-poned presidential election, according to excerpts of an interview published yesterday.

The election which was due yesterday was suspended fol-lowing debate over how and when voting could be done safely during the coronavirus pandemic.

The government had pro-posed an all-postal vote, but criticism of the plan and infighting complicated prepa-rations and led to the post-ponement announced late Wednesday..

In excerpts from an interview with a weekly news-paper, Law and Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Poland was “changing for the better” under the coalition gov-ernment led by his party and two smaller parties. At the same

time, Kaczynski said it was no secret the coalition was divided.

The three-party governing coalition has “quite a radical wing and a very moderate one, too. Friction between them is nothing new, I think,” said Kac-zynski, who is Poland’s chief policymaker.

Poland’s Niezalezna.pl portal yesterday quoted from the interview set to be pub-lished on Wednesday by weekly newspaper Gazeta Polska.

One of the junior parties in the coalition wanted the election delayed and warned

last week that it would vote against the legislation author-izing the postal vote. Under pressure, the ruling coalition said the election would be declared void and new date set.

President Andrzej Duda, whose term expires August 6 is seeking reelection, with the support from Law and Justice. He leads opinion polls ahead of nine other candidates.

The election is the first in almost 31 years of democracy that a vote scheduled in accordance with with Poland’s Constitution did not take place. Leaders of the ruling coalition held at least one emergency meeting over the weekend, but a new date for the election has not been announced.

Left-wing leaders have called on all opposition parties

to meet on Wednesday to discuss options for holding the election. Kaczynski, Prime Min-ister Mateusz Morawiecki and ruling party members laid wreaths and prayed at the mon-uments to the victims of the April 10, 2010 plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski, the party leader’s twin, and 95 others, who are remembered on the 10th of every month.

Anti-government demonstrators hold a huge piece of white fabric during a demonstration in one of the central squares of Warsaw, yesterday.

Ecuador President takes 50% paycut as virus batters economyAFP — QUITO

Ecuador’s president has taken a 50 percent pay cut along with top officials and ministers as the coronavirus crisis batters the coun-try’s already fragile economy, his office announced on Saturday.

The South American country has recorded more than 30,000 COVID-19 infections — trailing behind only Brazil and Peru in the region — and at least 1,654 deaths.

The minimum monthly wage in Ecuador is equivalent to roughly $400. The president’s monthly salary is around $5,000.

President Lenin Moreno’s press office said the government would “reduce by fifty percent the salaries of the President of the Republic, the Vice-President of the Republic, the ministers and the vice-ministers”.

“The fall in state revenues, a result of the COVID-19 crisis, has had negative effects on the country’s economy, which is why it is imperative to reduce the salaries” of leading officials, it added.

The measures — first announced by Moreno on April 12 -- came into effect on May 8. Such cuts could lead to a general review of public sector wages as Ecuadorian law states that civil servants cannot be paid more than the president.

With 11,012 infections registered over the past day, the total number of cases rose to 209,688, it said in a daily report. In the same period, 88 people died, raising the death toll to 1,915 while recoveries reached 34,306 including 2,390 in the last 24 hours.

The election which was due yesterday was suspended following debate over how and when voting could be done safely during the coronavirus pandemic.

12 MONDAY 11 MAY 2020AMERICAS

Three US officials to self-isolateafter exposure to COVID-19

REUTERS — NEW YORK

Three senior officials guiding the US response to the corona-virus pandemic were in self-quarantine on Saturday after coming into contact with someone who had tested positive for the disease, their agencies and spokesmen said.

Anthony Fauci, a high-profile member of the White House coronavirus response team, is considered to be at rel-atively low risk based on the degree of his exposure, according to a representative for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci, the 79-year-old director of that institute, has tested negative for COVID-19 and he will continue to be tested reg-ularly, the official said in an emailed statement.

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “will be teleworking for the next two weeks” after a “low-risk exposure” on Wednesday to a person at the White House who has the disease, the CDC said in

a statement. Redfield is 68 years old. He is “feeling fine” and has no symptoms, the statement added. If required to go to the White House, Redfield will follow the CDC’s safety practices like taking temperature, screening for symptoms each day, wearing a face covering, and distancing, the CDC said.

US Food and Drug Adminis-tration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn, who is 60, is also in self-quarantine for a couple of weeks after coming into contact with someone who tested

positive for the illness, an FDA spokesman told Reuters late on Friday.

All three officials were scheduled to testify on Tuesday to a Senate committee looking at steps that states and the federal government are taking to reopen businesses and schools after coronavirus shut-downs. The coronavirus is

especially dangerous to the elderly. According to the CDC, eight out of 10 deaths in the United States from COVID-19 have been people 65-years and older. Hahn immediately took a diagnostic test for the coro-navirus and the results were negative, FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum said in an emailed statement.

“As Dr Hahn wrote in a note to staff today, he recently came into contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19. Per CDC guidelines, he is now in self-quarantine for the next two weeks,” the spokesman said.

Politico reported Hahn had come into contact with Katie Miller, US Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary.

Miller, the wife of one of Trump’s senior advisers, tested positive on Friday, raising alarm about the potential spread of the virus within the White House’s innermost circle.

Miller is married to White House immigration adviser and speech writer Stephen Miller. A valet for Vice President Mike Pence has also tested positive.

There have been some 1.32 million cases of the corona-virus recorded in the United States, with some 78,000 deaths, while overall there have been more than four million reported infections and nearly 277,000 deaths around the world, according to a tally as of early yesterday.

A file photo of Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, who will self-quarantine for the next two weeks after exposure to a COVID-19 positive person.

Pence says he would welcome Flynn’s return

REUTERS — WASHINGTON

US Vice President Mike Pence yesterday said he would welcome Michael Flynn’s return to the Trump adminis-tration after the US Justice Department’s controversial move last week to drop criminal charges against the president’s former national security adviser.

In an interview with online news site Axios, Pence was asked if he would like Flynn to return to work for President Donald Trump.

“For my part, I’d be happy to see Michael Flynn again,” Pence said, and defended the department’s action. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators more than two years ago. In 2017, Trump said he had fired Flynn for misleading Pence about his dealings with Russia’s US ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the weeks before Trump took office.

Pence’s statement could help pave the way for Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general and 2016 Trump cam-paign adviser, to return to the president’s orbit if the courts grant the department’s request.

Flynn, charged under former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that detailed Moscow’s interference in the 2016 US election, ini-tially pleaded guilty and vowed to cooperate with US prose-cutors before hiring new lawyers and reversing himself.

On Thursday, the Justice Department asked a judge to drop criminal charges against Flynn amid mounting pressure from the Republican president and his political allies, sparking criticism from Democrats and others who accused Attorney General William Barr of improperly protecting Trump’s friends and associates.

It is unclear how the federal judge handling the case will proceed.

Flynn’s lawyer Sidney Powell told Fox News in an interview yesterday she expected US District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington to sign off on the department’s request this week.

Last month, Trump told reporters he might rehire Flynn and would weigh Pence’s comments on the matter, and on Sunday re-aired his grievances with a slew of related retweets.

Critics have accused Trump of becoming emboldened after his February acquittal in his Senate impeachment trial to interfere in cases involving people close to him. Democratic lawmakers have also called on the depart-ment’s internal watchdog to investigate the Flynn matter.

New York enacts new virus protections for nursing home residentsREUTERS — NEW WORK

New York state announced new protections yesterday for resi-dents of nursing homes, which have accounted for a large percentage of the almost 80,000 coronavirus deaths recorded across the country.

All nursing home staff must be tested twice a week for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and hospitals may not discharge any COVID-19 patient to a nursing home until the patient tests negative, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. If a nursing home cannot provide proper care, the patient must be trans-ferred to the state, which he said has ample available hospital beds.

“Our number one priority is protecting people in nursing homes,” Cuomo said.

“It’s where it (COVID-19) feeds.”

Nursing homes around the country have restricted or banned visitors to try to keep their residents safe as the number of recorded coronavirus infec-tions in the United States rises past 1.3 million.

While the elderly are most at

risk from COVID-19, New York is also investigating up to 85 cases of children with a rare inflam-matory syndrome believed to be linked to the coronavirus. So far three children, who also tested positive for the novel corona-virus, have died in New York from the illness and two more deaths are under investigation, Cuomo said.

The syndrome shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, which can include inflammation of the blood vessels and potentially fatal damage to the heart.

Despite much remaining unknown about the coronavirus and the failure so far to find any effective treatment or vaccine, nearly all 50 US states were taking steps to relax lockdown measures by this weekend.

While New York continues to see declines in key metrics — with hospitalisations yesterday falling to their lowest since March 20 — many states including Min-nesota, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas are recording rising numbers of cases even as they move to reopen their economies. In addition to the loss of life, Americans are facing

a devastating economic toll underscored by government data released on Friday showing the US unemployment rate rose to 14.7 percent last month, up from 3.5 percent in February and shat-tering the post-World War Two record of 10.8 percent set in November 1982.

The White House has started informal talks with Republicans and Democrats in Congress about next steps on coronavirus relief legislation, officials said yes-terday, but they stressed any new federal money would come with conditions. The coronavirus has

also penetrated the White House, where two staff members tested positive in recent days. As a result, three of the most senior officials guiding the US response to the pandemic have gone into self-quarantine.

Anthony Fauci, a high-profile member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, is con-sidered to be at relatively low risk based on the degree of his exposure. Also quarantining are Robert Redfield, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the com-missioner of the Food and Drug

Administration, Stephen Hahn.Former President Barack

Obama, who has largely kept out of the fray even as Trump has blamed him for problems with the country’s preparedness, on Friday called Trump’s handling of the pandemic an “absolute chaotic disaster” during a con-ference call with former members of his Democratic administration, according to a source. White House spokes-woman Kayleigh McEnany said Trump’s response to the corona-virus “has been unprecedented” and has saved American lives.

Volunteers distribute food to people in need in Everett, Massachusetts, yesterday.

3 more arrests in

Venezuela

‘invasion’ probe,

says Maduro

AFP — CARACAS

Three alleged mercenaries were arrested on Saturday in connection with the attempted invasion of Vene-zuela, President Nicolas Maduro said, bringing the total captured to 34.

“We have captured three more mercenaries today... We have been meticulously looking for all those involved and we are going to capture them all,” Maduro announced during a television address.

The failed invasion — which Venezuela’s leader has compared to the Bay of Pigs incident in 1961 — saw men landing in early May at Macuto, less than an hour from Caracas.

Two former US soldiers, Luke Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, have been imprisoned and charg ed with “terrorism, conspiracy, illicit trafficking of weapons of war and (criminal) association.” They could face between 25 to 30 years in prison.

The others implicated in the case are Venezuelans.

Visitors flock to Smoky Mountains park on reopening dayAP — GATLINBURG

The reopening of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was a little too tempting of a draw Saturday as scores of nature lovers from dozens of states crowded trails and trekked into blocked-off areas, a spokeswoman said.

Even with some of the most popular trails closed, parking lots were packed and lines of cars snaked down tree-lined streets, in one case for about a mile leading up to

a waterfall path, according to park spokeswoman Dana Soehn. Many people did not wear masks.

“It seemed like people were not respecting our sug-gestion that they avoid crowded areas,” said Soehn, adding that she counted license plates from 24 dif-ferent states in one visitor center parking lot.

Visitors also walked past heavy barricades on one of the park’s most trafficked trails, Laurel Falls, which was closed

off to heed federal social dis-tancing guidelines, she said.

On the Tennessee-North Carolina border, the Great Smoky Mountains is the county’s most visited national park. It was closed March 24 after officials said it was becoming too congested during the coronavirus pan-demic. The reopening was announced after park officials said they made sure the park was aligned with federal, state and local authorities and that employees had enough

personal protective gear. Authorities have stressed that visitors must also practice social distancing.

At the Smokies, officials have said rangers will monitor roads and emergency situations, but won’t be specifically policing people. Instead, Soehn has said she hopes people will visit the park in a way that keeps staffers safe.

“We’ll continue to push out our messaging that we want them to be responsible,” Soehn said.

“We would encourage them to make choices to keep them-selves safe.” President Donald Trump has prioritized reopening national parks as a sign of “sig-nificant progress against the inv isible enemy” of the pandemic, even as cases rise in an outbreak that has devastated the US economy. Park officials said the first phase of restrictions will last at least two weeks. Management will then decide whether to reopen secondary roads and campgrounds, and later, lift all restrictions.

US Supreme Court to take on Trump taxes and presidential immunityAFP — WASHINGTON

Can Donald Trump refuse to turn over his tax returns and financial records to Congress and New York prosecutors? The Supreme Court takes up this politically charged question on Tuesday, and it may use the occasion to better define the limits of presidential immunity.

The high court’s nine jus-tices, confined at home by the novel coronavirus pandemic, will question lawyers for both sides by telephone in a highly anticipated session to be broadcast live.

The hearing, initially set for late March, is being held now to allow time for the justices to render a decision before the presidential election in November, as Trump seeks a second term.

The former real estate magnate, who used his fortune as an argument in his 2016 election campaign, is the first president since Richard Nixon in the 1970s to refuse to release his tax returns — prompting speculation about his true worth and his possible financial entanglements.

“There is clearly something

in these documents that the president does not want us to see,” Steven Mazie, an author and educator, said during a webinar.

Since retaking control of the House of Representatives in midterm elections in 2018, the Democratic opposition has been eager to find out just what that “something” might be.

Several congressional com-mittees have issued subpoenas to Trump’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars, as well as to Deutsche Bank and Capital One bank, demanding Trump’s financial records for the

2011-2018 period. Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance, a Democrat, meantime made a similar demand to Mazars as part of an investigation into payments to the porn actress known as Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about an alleged liaison with the billionaire.

Trump immediately sued to block the documents’ release.

“What they are doing is not legal,” he said on Twitter, adding, “the Witch Hunt con-tinues.” Having lost his argument in the lower courts, Trump turned to the nation’s highest legal body. With two

conservative Trump appointees on the nine-justice panel, the high court has taken a clear turn to the right.

The justices will devote the first hour of Tuesday’s oral arguments to the congressional subpoenas, highlighting a fierce battle over the legislature’s investigative powers.

“Unleashing each and every House committee to torment the president with legislative subpoena after legislative sub-poena is a recipe for constitu-tional crisis,” the president’s lawyers said in a brief to the court.

All three officials were scheduled to testify on Tuesday to a Senate committee looking at steps that states and the federal government are taking to reopen businesses and schools after coronavirus shut-downs.