Coronavirus latest: Venezuela calls for ‘collective quarantine’

• The German government is set to partially close borders with France, Austria, Denmark, Luxembourg, and Switzerland
• The US Federal Reserve has slashed interest rates to a target range of 0% to 0.25% and expanded its balance sheet by $700 billion (€630.7 billion)
• Countries across Europe and Latin America are suspending public life to fight the pandemic

Updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC/GMT)

02:29 New York has imposed a take-out only policy on all its bars and restaurants.

“I will sign an Executive Order limiting restaurants, bars and cafes to food take-out and delivery,” city mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement, calling for “a wartime mentality.”

“Nightclubs, movie theaters, small theater houses, and concert venues must all close,” he added.

New York has already put a limit on gatherings to 500 people.

02:16 Peru has declared a state of emergency due to the new coronavirus.

“The measures, which will last 15 calendar days, imply compulsory social isolation of our population,” Peruvian President Martin
Vizcarra said in a televised message. “During the state of emergency, constitutionally guaranteed rights will be reduced,” Vizcarra said, specifying that citizens would only be allowed to leave their homes to access essential services.

“During the state of emergency borders will be completely closed,” Vizcarra said, adding that the border closure will affect people but not goods.

The Peruvian president said that his country has had 71 cases thus far.

02:05 Cambodia has reported a four-month-old baby among its daily figure of novel coronavirus infections. It now has a tally of 12, up four on the day before.

01:22 South Korea has reported 74 new coronavirus cases.

The Asian nation has been experiencing a downward trend in new cases and the latest numbers are significantly lower than the
peak of 909 cases reported on February 29 and slightly down from the 76 reported the previous day.

01:08 The Argentinian government has announced a 15-day entry ban on all visitors to the Latin American country. “At the moment we know that all of our cases are imported, and we have to do all we can to prevent the virus from transmitting locally,” President Alberto Fernandez said in a press conference as he announced a series of “drastic measures.”

“For the next 15 days — a period that can be extended — Argentina’s borders will be closed,” Fernandez said. “Nobody will be able to enter Argentina, except of course Argentinian natives or foreigners who live in Argentina.” 

Among the new measures, the president also said that schools would be closed until the end of the months and that theaters and cinemas would also remain shut. Thus far, Argentina has had roughly 50 cases and two deaths from the virus.

00:56 Following the US Federal Reserve’s decision to slash interest rates to salvage an economy unraveling rapidly amid the pandemic, the central bank’s chair, Jerome Powell, held a press conference to explain the actions. Powell told reporters: “We thought it was quite important for us to take strong measures to support proper market functioning in important markets.”

He also said that it was difficult to predict the impact of the coronavirus on the economy, both in the short and long term. “It’s very hard to say how big the effects will be or how long they will last. That’s going to depend of course on how widely the virus spreads, which is something that is highly uncertain and I would say, in fact, unknowable.”

00:45 The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) — home to the capital city of Canberra and the country’s second most populous state, Victoria — have declared a state of emergency while large, non-essential gatherings have been banned in a bid to stem the spread after the national death toll rose to five.

Australia has nearly 300 cases and authorities are fearing a rapid rise, hence the new measures.

00:39 While the rest of the globe continues to reel from the outbreak, China’s downward trend of cases continued, with 16 new confirmed infections, down from 20 the previous day, the National Health Commission has said.

The total number of confirmed cases in China so far is 80,860. The death toll from the outbreak is 3,213.

00:32 Latin America is the latest part of the world to begin to suffer from COVID-19. Colombia has reported 34 cases, Brazil’s soccer confederation has suspended all competitions due to the outbreak after almost 200 confirmed infections, while Costa Rica reported its worst day so far on Sunday.

00:24 US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has lambasted Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis. Sanders said during his joust with fellow Democratic candidate Joe Biden that Trump needs to stop “blabbering” with inaccurate information about the coronavirus. Trump is “undermining” the scientific experts and “confusing the general public” with his comments, Sanders added.

00:21 With the latest on how the deadly virus is affecting the sporting world, click here.

00:06 Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has requested a “collective quarantine” for seven states, including the capital Caracas, from Monday, to halt the spread of COVID-19.

“It’s a collective quarantine that deserves great social discipline, great self-control,” said Maduro, adding that it meant people should stay “at home.” Maduro said this was “the only way, there’s no other option,” to stem the spread.

“The only way to contain the channels of transmission is to enter in a… drastic phase of collective quarantine throughout the country,” he said.

00:01 German travel company TUI Group is suspending the “vast majority of all travel operations until further notice. This temporary suspension is aimed at contributing to global governmental efforts to mitigate the effects of the spread of the COVID-19.” 

Germany now has 4,838 confirmed coronavirus cases, a jump of over 1,000 compared to Saturday. The virus has so far killed 12 people, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

jsi/sri (Reutrs, AP, AFP, dpa)

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