More than 400,000 volunteers signed up in just 24 hours to support the NHS in helping vulnerable people who have been told not to leave their homes during the coronavirus crisis, writes my colleague Simon Murphy.
Four people per second enlisted in the government’s new volunteering scheme in the hours after the health secretary, Matt Hancock, launched a call on Tuesday for 250,000 people in England to help bolster the NHS’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Overnight, the number of volunteers who had pledged support topped 170,000 but as the day went on the target was smashed. “That is already, in one day, as many people as the population of Coventry,” said Boris Johnson in the daily Downing Street press conference, as he provided the new figure of 405,000.
He thanked those who had signed up to help. “They will be absolutely crucial in the fight against this virus,” he said.
The overwhelming response has prompted the NHS to extend its target to recruit 750,000 volunteers in total. Those volunteers who have already signed up will start next week.
The rate of new infections in Italy slows for a fourth day
Lorenzo Tondo
The death toll from coronavirus in Italy rose by 683 to 7,503 on Tuesday, writes Lorenzo Tondo in Italy.
The rate of new infections slowed for a fourth day, rising by 3491 compared with 3,612 new cases on Tuesday.
Civil Protection said 57,521 people in Italy are currently infected with the coronavirus.
Total cases of Covid 19 in Italy (currently infected, deaths and recovered): 74,386
Britain’s deputy ambassador to Hungary, Steven Dick, has died after contracting coronavirus, writes the Guardian’s Shaun Walker in Budapest.
Shaun Walker(@shaunwalker7)
Deputy British ambassador Steven Dick, 37, died yesterday after contracting coronavirus. He was a really nice bloke and a great diplomat. Last week he told me he had the virus but was feeling fine. Awful. pic.twitter.com/d88iTDIOSF
Dick died in hospital in Budapest on Tuesday. He was 37. He had been with the foreign office since 2008 and had previously served in Kabul and Riyadh.
In a statement put out by the FCO this afternoon announcing the death, Steven’s parents Steven and Carol Dick said: “Steven was a much-loved son, grandson and nephew. He was kind, funny and generous. It was always his dream to work for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and he was very happy representing our country overseas.”
I got to know Steven a bit in the short time since he was posted to Hungary last October. He was a jovial, intellectually curious and extremely helpful person. He spoke fluent Hungarian, having undergone a year’s training before taking up his position last autumn.
Early last week, when I was on my way back to Budapest from abroad, he helped coordinate arrangements for me to get back into the country, and mentioned that he had tested positive for coronavirus, but at that time said he was feeling fine.
The foreign secretary Dominic Raab said: “I am desperately saddened by the news of Steven’s death and my heart goes out to his parents Steven and Carol. Steven was a dedicated diplomat and represented his country with great skill and passion. He will be missed by all those who knew him and worked with him.”
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As cases of the coronavirus continue to surge in Canada, the country’s
health minister will use powers under the Quarantine Act to levy
fines—and criminal sanctions— against travellers refusing to
self-isolate after entering the country, writes Leyland Cecco in Toronto
“Effective at midnight tonight, travellers returning to Canada— with the exceptions of essential workers, will be subject to a mandatory 14-day isolation under the Quarantine Act,” minister Patty Hajdu said Wednesday. “Individuals who exhibit symptoms upon arrival in Canada will be forbidden, also, from using public transit to travel to their places self isolation.”
The act, passed in 2005 in wake of the SARS outbreak, has wide-ranging powers and gives officials the ability to levy as much as $1million in fines and three years in jail.
Canada is preparing for a surge in cases after nearly one million residents returned home from abroad in the last week. Many have come from the United States, where the virus is spreading rapidly. Last week, the two countries agreed to close their shared border as a way of slowing the spread of Covid-19.
For weeks, public health officials—and prime minister Justin Trudeau have employed a mixture of pleas and stern messaging to discourage residents taking trips to the grocery store after arriving home from travel. Using powers under the Quarantine Act marks the government’s firm stance on enforcing guidelines from health experts.
Canada has recored more than 3,000 infections with 27 deaths from the virus, amid warnings that hospitals in many parts of the country might soon be overwhelmed.
Nigeria has received test kits and protective gear from China’s richest man, Jack Ma, to help fight coronavirus.
So far, the virus has claimed one life and infected 45 others in Africa’s most populous nation.
Nigeria’s top health official, Abdulaziz Abdullahi, told AFP that the country had received 100,000 face masks, 1,000 protective gowns and 20,000 test kits. He said the equipment would be distributed to frontline health workers and hospital laboratories.
Ma, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has vowed to donate equal amounts of gear to all 54 countries in Africa. He has also offered the United States half a million test kits and a million masks.
Health experts are worried about Nigeria’s vulnerability to coronavirus because of its huge population and poor healthcare infrastructure.
Turkey will extend the closure of all schools in the country until 30 April over the coronavirus outbreak and home schooling will continue during this period, the education minister, Ziya Selçuk, said on Wednesday.
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesTurkey had shut schools and set up a home-schooling system for students to continue lessons after the outbreak of the virus two weeks ago. The health minister, Fahrettin Koca, speaking alongside Selçuk, said the closure was not a break, but rather a preventative measure to protect families.
The first Palestinian death from the coronavirus was reported on Wednesday, a woman in her 60s who lived in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“The woman had experienced symptoms and was later hospitalised” before succumbing to the illness, said Ibrahim Melhem, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule in the West Bank.
The woman was from Bidu, a Palestinian village north of Jerusalem and south-west of Ramallah, Melhem added.
There are 62 confirmed coronavirus cases among Palestinians in the West Bank, and two in the Gaza Strip.
Canada is imposing mandatory self-isolation for those returning to the country under the Quarantine Act.
The health minister, Patty Hajdu, tweeted that the government was making it mandatory to better protect Canada’s most vulnerable.
The deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, said it would begin at midnight on Wednesday and the requirement will be for 14 days.
Britain’s upper house of parliament has approved emergency legislation designed to help the government tackle the coronavirus outbreak, paving the way for the far-reaching bill to become law.
The laws will create temporary powers across different areas, from giving police and immigration officers the ability to detain people to protect public health, to allowing people to leave their jobs to volunteer for the NHS.
The death toll in Switzerland from coronavirus infections has increased to 103, the Swiss government has said. The number of dead was up from the 90 reported on Tuesday. Total confirmed cases also increased to 9,765, it said, from just under 9,000 on Tuesday.
Spanish deputy prime minister tests positive for Covid-19
Spain’s deputy prime minister, Carmen Calvo, has tested positive for coronavirus. It comes after she was hospitalised on Sunday with a respiratory infection.
Calvo tested positive in a test performed on Tuesday after previously testing negative, but one more test was performed because the last one proved inconclusive, the government said.
It added that Calvo, who was born in 1957, was doing well and receiving medical treatment.
Hello, Sarah Marsh here taking the blog from Alexandra Topping for a bit. Please do share any stories with me via the usual channels below.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
India locks down; Prince Charles tests positive for coronavirus; Senate and White House reach stimulus deal
