At least 44 people have died of methanol poisoning in Iran — mistakenly thinking that downing bootleg booze would ward off Covid-19, according to the state news agency.
Despite alcohol being banned in most of the Islamic Republic, it is responsible for hundreds of patients being hospitalized because of fake rumors that it would save drinkers from the virus that has killed 291 and infected more than 8,000 there, the state news agency IRNA reported, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The death toll from alcohol poisoning in the province of Khuzestan reached 36 Tuesday — double those killed by the coronavirus in that region, the report says.
The bootleg alcohol has killed seven more people in the northern region of Alborz and one in Kermanshah, western Iran.
Jundishapur medical university in Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan, has seen more than 200 people hospitalized for poisoning, spokesman Ali Ehsanpour told the state agency, according to AFP. The cases were caused by “rumors that drinking alcohol can be effective in treating coronavirus,” Ehsanpour confirmed.
French officials were also forced to send out an alert on Twitter Sunday saying, “No, Cocaine does NOT protect against # COVID19. It is an addictive drug that causes serious side effects and is harmful to people’s health.”
Under current Russian law, Putin is required to step down as president in 2024, when his second consecutive term in office comes to an end.
The proposed constitutional amendment was brought by MP Valentina Tereshkova, a loyal Putin supporter, and called for the presidential term limit to either be scrapped or simply for Putin to be allowed to run for president again.
Tereshkova added her proposal to a package of other constitutional amendments just 20 minutes before MPs voted on a slew of sweeping constitutional reforms.
The amendments will go through two more rounds of approval in parliament Wednesday. They are seen as largely arbitrary procedures, and will need to get clearance from the Constitutional Court before they are put to the Russian people in a public vote on April 22.
Putin backed the proposed amendment ahead of the vote.
"The second proposal, which means removing obstacles for any Russian citizen, including the incumbent president, and allowing them to run in the next presidential election ... this would be possible in principle but only if the Constitutional Court officially rules that this is not against the main law," Putin said in his address to the Duma.
Putin had previously said he would abide by the law and step down in 2024.
Tereshkova, a cosmonaut who became the first woman in space, was more overt about her proposal's intentions on Tuesday, saying it was aimed at keeping Putin in power to promote stability in Russia.
"Why try to be disingenuous or overthink it? People are worried about what's going to happen after 2024 and I understand them. This is not a matter of just the presidential post but also about the person who is trusted and who made decisions in the toughest situations and answered for them, that people could count on. Whatever people say publicly for political reasons, I'm sure everyone in this room too deep down understands this and agrees with me," she said.
"I don't know if the president is ready to run in that election but what I know for sure is that the very existence of this possibility for the current president, given his huge authority, is a stabilizing factor for our society."
Putin is serving his fourth term as president. He ruled Russia from 2000 to 2008 in two consecutive runs, and again in 2012 until now. He served as prime minister in 1999 to 2000, and also in between his two presidential terms, a period in which he was seen to have more power than his allied president at the time, Dmitry Medvedev.
Putin has enjoyed high approval ratings in Russia over his long tenure, but in the past two years his popularity has dropped over his pension reforms and the country's stagnating economy.
(Reuters) - The number of people infected with the coronavirus topped 114,000 across the world as the outbreak spread to more countries, causing greater economic damage.
A man wearing a protective suit is seen neat the ferry port of Molo Beverello after Italy orders a countrywide lockdown to try and contain a coronavirus outbreak, in Naples, Italy, March 10, 2020. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca
(Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: open tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser)
DEATHS/INFECTIONS
- More than 114,300 people have been infected by the coronavirus globally and over 4,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally of government announcements.
- Mainland China reported 19 new cases as of Monday, down from 40 cases a day earlier. Total confirmed cases in mainland China stood at 80,754.
EUROPE
- In Italy, which has 9,172 cases and 463 deaths, the government ordered everyone across the country not to move around other than for work and emergencies, banned all public gatherings and suspended sporting events.
- Spain, with over 1,200 cases and 30 deaths, will close schools and universities in Madrid and the Basque capital Vitoria.
- The death toll in France rose to 30 from 25 a day earlier.
- Two passengers on a cruise ship being held outside the southern French port of Marseille are being tested for suspected infection.
- Italians arriving in Britain are being advised to self-isolate, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday.
- Poland, with 17 cases so far, on Tuesday announced cancellation of all mass events.
- Russia recommended on Tuesday that people avoid public transport, shopping malls and other public places at rush hour.
- Serbia closed its borders for people from coronavirus-affected countries, Moldova banned foreigners from entering by plane from any country affected, and Denmark suspended all air traffic from virus hotspots.
- Austria will deny entry to people arriving from Italy and has banned indoor events of more than 100 people.
- The Czech Republic, which has reported 40 cases, will suspend schools other than universities from Wednesday, and ban events hosting more than 100 people.
AMERICAS
- Canada recorded its first death, a resident at a British Columbia’s long-term care facility.
- Panama confirmed its first case on Monday.
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission issued warning letters to firms selling products that claim to prevent, treat or cure COVID-19.
- U.S. President Donald Trump has not been tested for the coronavirus, the White House said on Monday, though at least two lawmakers with whom he has recently come into contact have announced they were self-quarantining after attending a conference with a person who had tested positive for the virus.
ASIA
- President Xi Jinping visited Wuhan, where all temporary coronavirus hospitals have now been closed, on Tuesday for the first time since the epidemic began, indicating a possible turning point as the virus spread slows in China.
- China’s Hubei province said on Tuesday it will implement a “health code” mobile phone-based monitoring system to start allowing people to travel within the province.
- South Korea reported 35 new cases on Tuesday, bringing total infections to 7,513. The death toll rose by three to 54.
- Japan’s death toll rose to 16 and total cases climbed above 1,200. The country is set to revise a law allowing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to declare emergency, if needed.
- Mongolia reported its first case.
- Hong Kong will quarantine all visitors from Italy and parts of France, Germany and Japan for two weeks from March 13.
- Singapore started charging visitors for coronavirus treatment after it reported new imported cases from neighboring Indonesia.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
- Iran’s death toll jumped on Tuesday to 291 and the total number of infections rose to more than 8,000.
- Lebanon reported its first death on Tuesday.
- Israel, with 42 cases, will require anyone arriving from overseas to self-quarantine for 14 days
- Burkina Faso on Monday reported its first two cases.
- Tunisia will suspend all flights and shipping to Italy except to Rome and bring forward a scheduled school holiday to Thursday from next Monday.
- Saudi Arabia’s health ministry said on Monday it has detected five new cases, bringing the total to 20.
AUSTRALIA
- Australia’s cases rose overnight to 100 from 80 on Tuesday. The health minister said that the government has requested health experts to review the status of travel advisories for Italy.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
- Earnings of major global companies could fall 10% this year, Citigroup analysts said, citing the steep fall in oil prices and economic disruption due to the coronavirus.
- China will modify the environmental supervision of companies to boost post-coronavirus recovery, giving firms more time to rectify environmental problems, but stressed it was not relaxing standards.
- Italy will approve measures worth around 10 billion euros ($11.35 billion) to counteract the virus impact, the industry minister said on Tuesday.
- Global oil demand is set to contract in 2020 for the first time in more than a decade as global economic activity stalls due to the coronavirus, the International Energy Agency said on Monday.
- Global luxury brands including Gucci and Louis Vuitton are scaling back orders with Italian suppliers, as the spread of the coronavirus from key market China to Italy hits business, industry sources said.
MARKETS
- Oil and equity markets staged solid rebounds on Tuesday after the previous day’s pummeling, with signs of co-ordinated action by the world’s biggest economies to cushion the economic impact of coronavirus helping pull investors out of panic mode. [MKTS/GLOB]
EVENT CANCELED, POSTPONED, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
- The Boao Forum, which China is trying to promote as Asia’s answer to Davos, has been postponed.
- Ireland canceled all St. Patrick’s Day parades due next week and the government set aside 3 billion euros to tackle the infection.
- Madonna canceled shows in Paris on Tuesday and Wednesday, promoter Live Nation said on Monday.
Compiled by Milla Nissi, Krishna Chandra Eluri and Uttaresh.V; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Arun Koyyur
Rome, Italy - A few minutes after Italy announced unprecedented travel restrictions on its 60 million people on Monday to control the deadly coronavirus outbreak in the country, Al Jazeera talked to Nino Cartabellotta, a leading Italian public health expert, professor and president of Gruppo Italiano per la Medicina Basata sulle Evidenze or GIMBE - Italy's Group for Evidence-based Medicine.
"Finally, the decision has been taken," Cartabellotta said in an interview by phone, welcoming the extension of the quarantine zone to all of the country.
"It was about time. This is the only way we can tackle the spread of the virus effectively."
His research institute has been gathering data and following the coronavirus outbreak since its onset in China and belongs to a taskforce recently set up to advise Italy's Ministry of Health.
Cartabellotta has been vocal throughout the epidemic, calling for strict containment measures to be implemented since late February.
Al Jazeera: How has the virus has spread so quickly?
Nino Cartabellotta:We noticed that the virus had first extended across the Hubei province, then to its provincial neighbours, and eventually across China. We knew the same dynamic would have repeated in other countries. The more days that passed, the clearer it became that the virus would have reached everywhere, thanks to its high transmissibility and through asymptomatic cases.
The virus arrived in Italy most likely in the first or second week of January, much before the closure of the country's air traffic from and to China on January 30, when people still thought suspending flights might have spared us the infection.
Al Jazeera: Some say the current lockdown should have been implemented earlier. Has a delay made the situation more critical?
Cartabellotta: Following the announcement of the first few cases in Italy, we immediately understood we would have gone through such a vast epidemic. The COVID-19 outbreak was driven by the spread in hospitals in Italy. In such cases, the number of infected patients skyrockets very fast.
Before Monday, measures had been taken in fits and starts because of political and economic factors amid an attempt to protect the national economy, without considering in full all the evaluations that we had presented at the institutional level.
Italian politics took a wait-and-see approach. More or less rigorous measures have been taken based on what was unfolding on the ground. But the virus doesn't work this way. The virus moves extremely quickly.
We would have needed to take such draconian containment measures for the whole country since March 1. It doesn't make sense to put regional, provincial or city borders in such a situation. A policy of procrastination is not a solution amid an epidemic.
[Courtesy: Nino Cartabellotta]
But Europe is just doing the same. There hasn't been any coordination at the European level on this issue, no preparation plan in case of a pandemic neither at the national nor at the bloc level. I'm not aware of any European country having a plan against a pandemic ready to be rolled out.
Policies like those implemented by China's ruling Communist Party that closed down Hubei for about three weeks are those that really pay off at the moment. We are seeing their positive results as China is now getting out of the tunnel. All other partial containment measures are not proportioned to the speed of the virus.
Politics hasn't understood how this virus spreads yet. Each country thought of itself as being immune from the infection, as if the virus would have never reached its borders.
Decisions are simply taken as events precipitate.
Al Jazeera: How will Italy's health system cope?
Cartabellotta: I am very worried about the resilience of our healthcare system. All measures of social containment are meant to slow down the spread of the virus and distribute the emergence of new cases over a longer period. This could give the health system time to prepare. But this was not possible to do in Lombardy and I fear that we won't be able to prevent the infection escalation also in the other regions.
Italian citizens have been completely undisciplined, the government has been playing at drawing new hypothetical borders on a map, depending on the daily increment of the number of cases. We never acted with a clear goal of preventing the infection from spreading. We have already problems in the south to carry out normal healthcare routines, let's not even talk about coping with an epidemic of this sort. I fear we will witness a very high number of deaths.
Al Jazeera: How would you characterise the current situation?
Cartabellotta: We have been seeing an ever-growing increase of the number of cases in other regions as of March 1. So far, there hasn't been any positive effect resulting from the containment measures previously implemented. Based on the data we gathered, we are recording a daily increase of the cases by 25 percent. Until the moment that the containment measures start showing some results, this rate will stay pretty much stable, unless a new vast outbreak emerges.
Lethality in Italy is higher than China because we are only doing swab tests on patients with symptoms, while we have estimated that asymptomatic cases might be around 15,000 at the moment. We are just scratching the surface of the virus diagnostics here. Also, the 6.1 percent lethality rate registered in Lombardy, shows that the healthcare system no longer holds. More people are dying because the system is saturated.
Al Jazeera: Are you suggesting containment measures are ineffective?
Cartabellotta: Draconian measures are always effective. Still, we cannot predict to what extent, as we don't know how widespread the virus is, especially in Italy's central and southern regions. It is important that other countries understand that the later they implement severe measures, the fewer the results. Every day of delay creates more infected, patients in need of ICUs and deaths. China taught us this.
Al Jazeera: Has Italy ever dealt with a similar crisis?
Cartabellotta: Italy never faced such an epidemic in recent history. This is not comparable to what happened during the 2003 SARS outbreak. There is a generational lack of preparation to fight and handle a pandemic. The absence of a plan set in place will also completely wear out our public healthcare system, which has been already severely hit by cuts and lack of investment in the past decade.
Al Jazeera: What should be done in case containment measures do not work?
Cartabellotta: There are no other measures available. Everyone should stay home and obediently and completely stick to all the behavioural rules given by the government. European countries should also implement our stringent measures as soon as possible, as a similar destiny is coming to their doors. The longer we wait the higher the number of deaths.
Rome, Italy - A few minutes after Italy announced unprecedented travel restrictions on its 60 million people on Monday to control the deadly coronavirus outbreak in the country, Al Jazeera talked to Nino Cartabellotta, a leading Italian public health expert, professor and president of Gruppo Italiano per la Medicina Basata sulle Evidenze or GIMBE - Italy's Group for Evidence-based Medicine.
"Finally, the decision has been taken," Cartabellotta said in an interview by phone, welcoming the extension of the quarantine zone to all of the country.
"It was about time. This is the only way we can tackle the spread of the virus effectively."
His research institute has been gathering data and following the coronavirus outbreak since its onset in China and belongs to a taskforce recently set up to advise Italy's Ministry of Health.
Cartabellotta has been vocal throughout the epidemic, calling for strict containment measures to be implemented since late February.
Al Jazeera: How has the virus has spread so quickly?
Nino Cartabellotta:We noticed that the virus had first extended across the Hubei province, then to its provincial neighbours, and eventually across China. We knew the same dynamic would have repeated in other countries. The more days that passed, the clearer it became that the virus would have reached everywhere, thanks to its high transmissibility and through asymptomatic cases.
The virus arrived in Italy most likely in the first or second week of January, much before the closure of the country's air traffic from and to China on January 30, when people still thought suspending flights might have spared us the infection.
Al Jazeera: Some say the current lockdown should have been implemented earlier. Has a delay made the situation more critical?
Cartabellotta: Following the announcement of the first few cases in Italy, we immediately understood we would have gone through such a vast epidemic. The COVID-19 outbreak was driven by the spread in hospitals in Italy. In such cases, the number of infected patients skyrockets very fast.
Before Monday, measures had been taken in fits and starts because of political and economic factors amid an attempt to protect the national economy, without considering in full all the evaluations that we had presented at the institutional level.
Italian politics took a wait-and-see approach. More or less rigorous measures have been taken based on what was unfolding on the ground. But the virus doesn't work this way. The virus moves extremely quickly.
We would have needed to take such draconian containment measures for the whole country since March 1. It doesn't make sense to put regional, provincial or city borders in such a situation. A policy of procrastination is not a solution amid an epidemic.
[Courtesy: Nino Cartabellotta]
But Europe is just doing the same. There hasn't been any coordination at the European level on this issue, no preparation plan in case of a pandemic neither at the national nor at the bloc level. I'm not aware of any European country having a plan against a pandemic ready to be rolled out.
Policies like those implemented by China's ruling Communist Party that closed down Hubei for about three weeks are those that really pay off at the moment. We are seeing their positive results as China is now getting out of the tunnel. All other partial containment measures are not proportioned to the speed of the virus.
Politics hasn't understood how this virus spreads yet. Each country thought of itself as being immune from the infection, as if the virus would have never reached its borders.
Decisions are simply taken as events precipitate.
Al Jazeera: How will Italy's health system cope?
Cartabellotta: I am very worried about the resilience of our healthcare system. All measures of social containment are meant to slow down the spread of the virus and distribute the emergence of new cases over a longer period. This could give the health system time to prepare. But this was not possible to do in Lombardy and I fear that we won't be able to prevent the infection escalation also in the other regions.
Italian citizens have been completely undisciplined, the government has been playing at drawing new hypothetical borders on a map, depending on the daily increment of the number of cases. We never acted with a clear goal of preventing the infection from spreading. We have already problems in the south to carry out normal healthcare routines, let's not even talk about coping with an epidemic of this sort. I fear we will witness a very high number of deaths.
Al Jazeera: How would you characterise the current situation?
Cartabellotta: We have been seeing an ever-growing increase of the number of cases in other regions as of March 1. So far, there hasn't been any positive effect resulting from the containment measures previously implemented. Based on the data we gathered, we are recording a daily increase of the cases by 25 percent. Until the moment that the containment measures start showing some results, this rate will stay pretty much stable, unless a new vast outbreak emerges.
Lethality in Italy is higher than China because we are only doing swab tests on patients with symptoms, while we have estimated that asymptomatic cases might be around 15,000 at the moment. We are just scratching the surface of the virus diagnostics here. Also, the 6.1 percent lethality rate registered in Lombardy, shows that the healthcare system no longer holds. More people are dying because the system is saturated.
Al Jazeera: Are you suggesting containment measures are ineffective?
Cartabellotta: Draconian measures are always effective. Still, we cannot predict to what extent, as we don't know how widespread the virus is, especially in Italy's central and southern regions. It is important that other countries understand that the later they implement severe measures, the fewer the results. Every day of delay creates more infected, patients in need of ICUs and deaths. China taught us this.
Al Jazeera: Has Italy ever dealt with a similar crisis?
Cartabellotta: Italy never faced such an epidemic in recent history. This is not comparable to what happened during the 2003 SARS outbreak. There is a generational lack of preparation to fight and handle a pandemic. The absence of a plan set in place will also completely wear out our public healthcare system, which has been already severely hit by cuts and lack of investment in the past decade.
Al Jazeera: What should be done in case containment measures do not work?
Cartabellotta: There are no other measures available. Everyone should stay home and obediently and completely stick to all the behavioural rules given by the government. European countries should also implement our stringent measures as soon as possible, as a similar destiny is coming to their doors. The longer we wait the higher the number of deaths.
As Italians woke up to the most severe restrictions on their every-day lives since World War II, China said it was easing virus-control measures in the province where the COVID-19 disease emerged late last year. The contrasting conditions on two of the biggest battlefronts against the virus showed its severity, and the feasibility of corralling and controlling it.
With the death toll in the U.S. at 26 and infection rates continuing to climb fast there and in other countries, the fight for most of the world was still ramping up on Tuesday.
Health experts are still clambering to turn mountains of data into a firm understanding of how the disease spreads and exactly how dangerous it is. Almost 115,000 people have caught the virus, and it's killed more than 4,000 — but more than 64,000 people have recovered. But in spite of the rising death toll and infection rate in the U.S., President Trump has continued to downplay the threat posed by the virus, repeatedly comparing it to the seasonal flu.
The lack of clarity on the disease, any medicines to treat or prevent it, and the sometimes conflicting messages have cast a shadow of uncertainty over the world, and nothing sparks fear in financial markets like uncertainty. Monday was the worst day on Wall Street since the financial collapse in 2008, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling nearly 8%. While markets showed early rebounds Tuesday morning, several economic road signs were pointing to a possible coronavirus-induced recession.
Italy imposes nationwide coronavirus quarantine
In Italy, which has the largest outbreak outside China, all 60 million people were under travel restrictions, public gatherings and public sports events were cancelled, and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told his people to stay home. He called it Italy's "darkest hour."
For detailed information on coronavirus prevention and treatment, visit the Centers for Disease Control website here.
