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LIVE: Mideast reports growing cases of coronavirus as more containment measures announced

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Members of the Iranian Red Crescent test people for coronavirus Covid-19 symptoms, as police blocked Tehran to Alborz highway to check every car following orders by the Iranian government, outside Tehran on March 26, 2020. (File/AFP)
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Updated 04 April 2020
Arab News
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LIVE: Mideast reports growing cases of coronavirus as more containment measures announced

  • The UAE’s National Sterilization Program will be extended across the UAE
Updated 04 April 2020
Arab News

DUBAI: Countries in the Middle East continue to report more infections of COVID-19, as governments launch different programs to curb its spread.

The virus has infected over 1.1 million people in the world, with the US topping the list of countries with the most number of infections at nearly 80,000.

Saturday, April 4 (All times in GMT)

20:38 - Abu Dhabi extended on Saturday the temporary closure of commercial centres, shopping malls, cinemas, arcades and other places of entertainment in the emirate until further notice to prevent the spread of coronavirus. 

20:00 - The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States has topped 300,000 and there have been more than 8,100 deaths, Johns Hopkins University reported on Saturday.
The Baltimore-based university, which has been keeping a running tally of global coronavirus numbers, said there are at least 300,915 confirmed virus cases in the US and there have been 8,162 deaths.

19:26 - Algeria will extend curfews it has put in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus from Sunday, the prime minister said on Saturday, as the number of confirmed cases rose to 1,251.
The curfew will last from 3 p.m. until 7 a.m. in the capital Algiers and eight other provinces, and from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. in most of the others. The two southernmost provinces, which are almost entirely desert, have no confirmed cases and will not be under curfew.

18:32 - Tunisia's parliament on Saturday ceded some powers to the North African country's government for two months to help it handle the coronavirus crisis and the expected economic fallout.
The decision, backed by all political parties, will allow Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh's government to issue decrees, strike purchasing agreements and seek finance without consulting parliament.

18:15 - Jordan announced 13 new coronavirus cases in the country on Saturday bringing the total number of cases to 323. 

18:10 - Dubai announced that its metro service would be suspended as of Sunday to prevent the spread of coronavirus. 

17:58 - France on Saturday reported 441 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, lower than the record number of 588 the previous day.
This brought the total to 7,560 deaths since the epidemic began, top health official Jerome Salomon told reporters. Of these, 5,532 died in hospital.

17:30 - Oman announced a second death from coronavirus on Saturday. 

17:25 - Dubai announced a two week lockdown to disinfect the city around the clock on Saturday. 

17:20 - Confirmed coronavirus cases in Turkey rose by more than 3,000 to 23,934 on Saturday with deaths related to COVID-19 rising by 76 to 501 people, Heath Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.
In the last 24 hours, 19,664 tests were conducted bringing the total performed in Turkey so far to 161,380, Koca, said

16:34 - Qatar records 250 new cases of coronavirus infections, bringing the total to 1,325.

16:25 - Total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Italy rises to 124,632 from 119,827 on Friday, with deaths rising by 681 to 15,362.

16:10 - Algeria records 80 new coronavirus infections and 25 new deaths, brinign the total tallies to 1,251 cases and 130 deaths.

15:49 - The conspiracy theory that 5G mobile telecommunications masts play a role in spreading the novel coronavirus is disgusting fake news and completely false, Britain said on Saturday.
"That is just nonsense, dangerous nonsense as well," British Cabinet Officer Minister Michael Gove, when asked about the theory by a reporter.
NHS England's national medical director, Stephen Powis, said the “theory” was complete nonsense.
"The 5G story is complete and utter rubbish, it's nonsense, it's the worst kind of fake news," Powis said. "The reality is that the mobile phone networks are absolutely critical to all of us, particularly at a time when we are asking people to stay at home."
"Those are also the phone networks that are used by our emergency services and our health workers and I'm absolutely outraged, absolutely disgusted that people would be taking action against the very infrastructure that we need to respond to this health emergency," Powis said. 

15:44 - It will take a week or two before Britain's social distancing measures start to translate into lower hospitalisation rates but there has been a bit of a plateauing in London in recent days, NHS England Medical Director Stephen Powis said.
"There is reason to be hopeful that some of the changes we are observing in infections and perhaps in hospitalisations is now reflecting the benefit of the social distancing," he told a news conference.
"It will be a week or two before the measures that are put in place translate into lower hospitalisation rates. But ... in London in the last few days there has been a bit of a plateauing in terms of numbers." 




NHS England Medical Director Professor Stephen Powis (L) and Britain's Michael Gove (R) hold a remote coronavirus press conference at 10 Downing Street on April 4, 2020. (AFP)

15:28 - Britain took delivery of 300 ventilators from China on Saturday and more will start being produced soon by a consortium of aerospace, engineering and Formula One teams, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said.
"We've been buying invasive ventilators from partners abroad, including Germany and Switzerland, and today 300 new ventilators arrived from China, I'd like to thank the Chinese government," he told a news conference. 

15:15 - British Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said his thoughts went out to the family of a 5-year-old child who died in hospital after being infected with the novel coronavirus.
The United Kingdom's hospital death toll from the coronavirus rose by 20% to 4,313 at 1600 GMT on April 3, the health ministry said.

14:30 - Britain is temporarily releasing about 4,000 inmates to ease crowding and try to slow the spread of the new coronavirus in prisons.
The Ministry of Justice says “low-risk” offenders will be freed with electronic tags. People guilty of violent or sexual offenses or terrorism will not be eligible for release.
Pregnant prisoners or those with infants have also been approved for release.
Britain has one of the largest prison populations in western Europe with more than 80,000 people behind bars. Many prisons hold far more inmates than they were built for.
According to official figures, 88 inmates and 15 prison staff have tested positive for COVID-19. Three prisoners are reported to have died.

14:25 - Egypt postpones opening of new administrative capital and Grand Egyptian Museum to 2021 from 2020 due to coronavirus.

13:55 - More than 60,000 people have died worldwide from coronavirus so far. 

13:15 - UK announces 3,735 new coronavirus cases and 708 new deaths, bringing total tallies to 41,903 and 4,313 respectively.

13:05 - UAE announces 241 new coronavirus cases and one new death, bringing total tallies to 1,505 and 10 respectively.

12:50 – Saudi Arabia records 140 new cases of coronavirus infections and 4 new deaths, brining total positive infections to 2,179 and total deaths to 29.

11:54 – Spain has extended its state of emergency until April 26 due to the coronavirus outbreak.

10:04 – France has reported more than 7,000 coronavirus cases in one day.

09:48 – The number of coronavirus cases in Iran has reached about 56,000 with death toll rising to almost 3,500.

09:44 – Spain has recorded 7,000 new coronavirus cases within 24 hours. The number of deaths in the country has reached 11,744.

09:37 – Malaysia has reported four new coronavirus deaths and 150 cases, bringing the total number of infected patients to 3,500.

09:21 – Egypt's Awqaf ministry has denied reports of return of prayer in mosques next week.

09:21 – Lebanon has reported 12 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 520.

09:12 – Belgium has reported 1,661 coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of infected patients to 18,431.

09:10 – Bahrain’s Gulf Air said transit flights are open again for passengers through Bahrain Airport. The entry to the country is restricted to citizens and residents, the airline added.

08:32 – Russia has recorded nine new coronavirus deaths, raising death toll to 43.

08:31 – Palestine has reported 11 new coronavirus cases of workers arriving from Israel. The total number of infected cases is 205.

08:07 – Morocco has confirmed 53 new coronavirus cases, raising total to 844

08:06 – Oman health ministry has reported 25 new coronavirus cases, bringing total to 277.

06:18 – Kuwait health ministry has announced the recovery of 11 coronavirus patients, bringing total of those recovered to 93. The country has also reported its first coronavirus death and confirmed 62 new cases, bringing the total number of infected patients to 479.

03:34 – China came to a standstill to mourn patients and medical staff killed by the coronavirus, as the world’s most populous country observed a nationwide three-minute silence.

At 10 am (0200 GMT), citizens paused, cars, trains and ships sounded their horns, and air-raid sirens rang out in memory of the more than 3,000 lives claimed by the virus in China.

01:15 – Mexico’s health ministry said that the number of people who have died of coronavirus in the country has risen to 60, up from 50 a day earlier. It registered a total of 1,688 coronavirus cases, up from 1,510.

Friday, April 3 (All times in GMT)

08:45 – The UAE’s National Sterilization Program will be extended across the UAE, state news agency WAM reported on Friday citing the Ministry of Health and Prevention and the Ministry of Interior.

Topics: Coronavirus (COVID-19) China Coronavirus

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Winter is hitting Gaza and many Palestinians have little protection from the cold

Updated 35 sec ago
AP
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Winter is hitting Gaza and many Palestinians have little protection from the cold

  • Nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 14-month Israeli offensive
  • The UN warns of people living in precarious makeshift shelters that might not survive the winter
Updated 35 sec ago
AP
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: Winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and many of the nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 14-month war with Israel are struggling to protect themselves from the wind, cold and rain.
There is a shortage of blankets and warm clothing, little wood for fires, and the tents and patched-together tarps families are living in have grown increasingly threadbare after months of heavy use, according to aid workers and residents.
Shadia Aiyada, who was displaced from the southern city of Rafah to the coastal area of Muwasi, has only one blanket and a hot water bottle to keep her eight children from shivering inside their fragile tent.
“We get scared every time we learn from the weather forecast that rainy and windy days are coming up because our tents are lifted with the wind. We fear that strong windy weather would knock out our tents one day while we’re inside,” she said.
With nighttime temperatures that can drop into the 40s (the mid-to-high single digits Celsius), Aiyada fears that her kids will get sick without warm clothing.
When they fled their home, her children only had their summer clothes, she said. They have been forced to borrow some from relatives and friends to keep warm.
The United Nations warns of people living in precarious makeshift shelters that might not survive the winter. At least 945,000 people need winterization supplies, which have become prohibitively expensive in Gaza, the UN said in an update Tuesday. The UN also fears infectious disease, which spiked last winter, will climb again amid rising malnutrition.
The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, known as UNRWA, has been planning all year for winter in Gaza, but the aid it was able to get into the territory is “not even close to being enough for people,” said Louise Wateridge, an agency spokeswoman.
UNRWA distributed 6,000 tents over the past four weeks in northern Gaza but was unable to get them to other parts of the Strip, including areas where there has been fighting. About 22,000 tents have been stuck in Jordan and 600,000 blankets and 33 truckloads of mattresses have been sitting in Egypt since the summer because the agency doesn’t have Israeli approval or a safe route to bring them into Gaza and because it had to prioritize desperately needed food aid, Wateridge said.
Many of the mattresses and blankets have since been looted or destroyed by the weather and rodents, she said.
The International Rescue Committee is struggling to bring in children’s winter clothing because there “are a lot of approvals to get from relevant authorities,” said Dionne Wong, the organization’s deputy director of programs for the occupied Palestinian territories.
“The ability for Palestinians to prepare for winter is essentially very limited,” Wong said.
The Israeli government agency responsible for coordinating aid shipments into Gaza said in a statement that Israel has worked for months with international organizations to prepare Gaza for the winter, including facilitating the shipment of heaters, warm clothing, tents and blankets into the territory.
More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry’s count doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but it has said more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war was sparked by Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israel, where the militant group killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages in Gaza.
Negotiators say Israel and Hamas are inching toward a ceasefire deal, which would include a surge in aid into the territory.
For now, the winter clothing for sale in Gaza’s markets is far too expensive for most people to afford, residents and aid workers said.
Reda Abu Zarada, 50, who was displaced from northern Gaza with her family, said the adults sleep with the children in their arms to keep them warm inside their tent.
“Rats walk on us at night because we don’t have doors and tents are torn. The blankets don’t keep us warm. We feel frost coming out from the ground. We wake up freezing in the morning,” she said. “I’m scared of waking up one day to find one of the children frozen to death.”
On Thursday night, she fought through knee pain exacerbated by cold weather to fry zucchini over a fire made of paper and cardboard scraps outside their tent. She hoped the small meal would warm the children before bed.
Omar Shabet, who is displaced from Gaza City and staying with his three children, feared that lighting a fire outside his tent would make his family a target for Israeli warplanes.
“We go inside our tents after sunset and don’t go out because it is very cold and it gets colder by midnight,” he said. “My 7-year-old daughter almost cries at night because of how cold she is.”

American pilots in ‘friendly fire’ incident as US military hits Houthi targets in Sanaa

Updated 33 min 5 sec ago
Arab News
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AP
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American pilots in ‘friendly fire’ incident as US military hits Houthi targets in Sanaa

  • Houthis have targeted international shipping in Red Sea to impose Israel’s naval blockade
  • The group that controls large parts of Yemen hit Tel Aviv with a missile strike, injuring 16 people
Updated 33 min 5 sec ago
Arab News & AP

DUBAI: Two US Navy pilots were shot down over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said Sunday. Both pilots were recovered alive, with one suffering minor injuries in the incident.

The incident came as the US military conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels, though the US military’s Central Command did not elaborate on what their mission was at the time.

“The guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18, which was flying off the USS Harry S. Truman,” Central Command said in a statement.

The command said on X, shortly after midnight local time: “CENTCOM forces conducted the deliberate strikes to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden,”

The video released by the US military showed a jet taking off from a carrier.

“During the operation, CENTCOM forces also shot down multiple Houthi one way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and an anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) over the Red Sea.”

Videos on social media showed people fleeing large explosions in the capital, but Arab News could not immediately verify the authenticity of the footage.

The command said that US air and naval assets were used in the operation, including F/A-18s, adding the “strike reflects CENTCOM's ongoing commitment to protect U.S. and coalition personnel, regional partners, and international shipping.”

The Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, seized the capital in 2014 and have  been conducting drone and missile attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea in an effort to impose a naval blockade on Israel, who, for more than a year, has been carrying out a devastating war against Hamas in Gaza.

Earlier on Saturday, a Houthi missile hit Tel Aviv, injuring 16 people.

Topics: US pilots Houthi Sanaa

Syrian soldiers distance themselves from Assad in return for promised amnesty

Updated 22 December 2024
AP
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Syrian soldiers distance themselves from Assad in return for promised amnesty

  • Lt. Col. Walid Abd Rabbo, who works with the new Interior Ministry, said the army has been dissolved and the interim government has not decided yet on whether those “whose hands are not tainted in blood” can apply to join the military again
Updated 22 December 2024
AP

DAMASCUS, Syria: Hundreds of former Syrian soldiers on Saturday reported to the country’s new rulers for the first time since Bashar Assad was ousted to answer questions about whether they may have been involved in crimes against civilians in exchange for a promised amnesty and return to civilian life.
The former soldiers trooped to what used to be the head office in Damascus of Assad’s Baath party that had ruled Syria for six decades. They were met with interrogators, former insurgents who stormed Damascus on Dec. 8, and given a list of questions and a registration number. They were free to leave.
Some members of the defunct military and security services waiting outside the building told The Associated Press that they had joined Assad’s forces because it meant a stable monthly income and free medical care.
The fall of Assad took many by surprise as tens of thousands of soldiers and members of security services failed to stop the advancing insurgents. Now in control of the country, and Assad in exile in Russia, the new authorities are investigating atrocities by Assad’s forces, mass graves and an array of prisons run by the military, intelligence and security agencies notorious for systematic torture, mass executions and brutal conditions.
Lt. Col. Walid Abd Rabbo, who works with the new Interior Ministry, said the army has been dissolved and the interim government has not decided yet on whether those “whose hands are not tainted in blood” can apply to join the military again. The new leaders have vowed to punish those responsible for crimes against Syrians under Assad.
Several locations for the interrogation and registration of former soldiers were opened in other parts of Syria in recent days.
“Today I am coming for the reconciliation and don’t know what will happen next,” said Abdul-Rahman Ali, 43, who last served in the northern city of Aleppo until it was captured by insurgents in early December.
“We received orders to leave everything and withdraw,” he said. “I dropped my weapon and put on civilian clothes,” he said, adding that he walked 14 hours until he reached the central town of Salamiyeh, from where he took a bus to Damascus.
Ali, who was making 700,000 pounds ($45) a month in Assad’s army, said he would serve his country again.
Inside the building, men stood in short lines in front of four rooms where interrogators asked each a list of questions on a paper.
“I see regret in their eyes,” an interrogator told AP as he questioned a soldier who now works at a shawarma restaurant in the Damascus suburb of Harasta. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to media.
The interrogator asked the soldier where his rifle is and the man responded that he left it at the base where he served. He then asked for and was handed the soldier’s military ID.
“He has become a civilian,” the interrogator said, adding that the authorities will carry out their own investigation before questioning the same soldier again within weeks to make sure there are no changes in the answers that he gave on Saturday.
The interrogator said after nearly two hours that he had quizzed 20 soldiers and the numbers are expected to increase in the coming days.
 

 

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria

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Israel accuses Pope of ‘double standards’, after Gaza criticism

Updated 22 December 2024
AFP
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Israel accuses Pope of ‘double standards’, after Gaza criticism

Updated 22 December 2024
AFP

JERUSALEM: Israel accused Pope Francis of “double standards” Saturday after he condemned the bombing of children in Gaza as “cruelty” following an air strike that killed seven children from one family.
“The Pope’s remarks are particularly disappointing as they are disconnected from the true and factual context of Israel’s fight against jihadist terrorism — a multi-front war that was forced upon it starting on October 7,” an Israeli foreign ministry statement said.
“Enough with the double standards and the singling out of the Jewish state and its people.”
Gaza’s civil defense rescue agency had reported that an Israeli air strike killed 10 members of a family on Friday in the northern part of the Palestinian territory, including seven children.
“Yesterday they did not allow the Patriarch (of Jerusalem) into Gaza as promised. Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” he told members of the government of the Holy See.
“I want to say it because it touches my heart.”
The Israeli statement said: “Cruelty is terrorists hiding behind children while trying to murder Israeli children; cruelty is holding 100 hostages for 442 days, including a baby and children, by terrorists and abusing them,” a reference to the Palestinian Hamas militants who attacked Israel and took hostages on October 7, 2023, triggering the Gaza war.
“Unfortunately, the Pope has chosen to ignore all of this,” the Israeli ministry said.

Topics: War on Gaza Pope Francis Israel

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American pilots in ‘friendly fire’ incident as US military hits Houthi targets in Sanaa

Updated 33 min 51 sec ago
AP
Arab News
Follow

American pilots in ‘friendly fire’ incident as US military hits Houthi targets in Sanaa

Updated 33 min 51 sec ago
AP Arab News

DUBAI: Two US Navy pilots were shot down over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said Sunday. Both pilots were recovered alive, with one suffering minor injuries in the incident.
The incident came as the US military conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels, though the US military’s Central Command did not elaborate on what their mission was at the time.
“The guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18, which was flying off the USS Harry S. Truman,” Central Command said in a statement.

The command said on X, shortly after midnight local time: “CENTCOM forces conducted the deliberate strikes to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden,”
The video released by the US military showed a jet taking off from a carrier.
“During the operation, CENTCOM forces also shot down multiple Houthi one way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and an anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) over the Red Sea.”
Videos on social media showed people fleeing large explosions in the capital, but Arab News could not immediately verify the authenticity of the footage.
The command said that US air and naval assets were used in the operation, including F/A-18s, adding the “strike reflects CENTCOM's ongoing commitment to protect U.S. and coalition personnel, regional partners, and international shipping.”
The Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, seized the capital in 2014 and have  been conducting drone and missile attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea in an effort to impose a naval blockade on Israel, who, for more than a year, has been carrying out a devastating war against Hamas in Gaza.
Earlier on Saturday, a Houthi missile hit Tel Aviv, injuring 16 people.

Topics: Yemen US Houthi

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