NUB NEWS FOCUSES FIRST TONIGHT ON AREAS AWAY FROM THE COVID-19 WORLD HOT-SPOTS

CORONAVIRUS is undoubtedly public enemy number one but it has literally stopped a war in its tracks this week.

Tonight Nub News focuses first on other areas in the world other than the obvious hot spots of the last week as the UK death toll crept agonisingly close to 5,000 – tripling in the last seven days – with confirmed cases more than doubling to 47,806.

But in Thailand, a Muslim separatist group has announced it is suspending guerrilla activity to facilitate humanitarian access during the Covid-19 crisis.

The Barisan Revolusi Nasional said it was acting "in order to create a safer and more suitable environment . . . for healthcare agencies and other organisations tasked with preventing and containing the outbreak of coronavirus".

It said its suspension will remain in effect as long as the group is not attacked by government forces.

The BRN has been leading a loose alliance fighting for autonomy for Thailand's three southernmost provinces, the only ones with Muslim majorities in the predominantly Buddhist nation.

About 7,000 people have been killed since the conflict flared up in 2004.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said warring parties in 11 countries had responded positively to his appeal for a global ceasefire to tackle the coronavirus pandemic

Guatemala – towards the bottom of the league table of confirmed cases with 61 including two deaths – is currently taking some drastic action to stop the spread of Covid-19.

During Holy Week, it's prohibited most internal travel, stopped the population spending time on the beach – and slapped a ban on all alcohol sales.

President Alejandro Giammattei said in a national broadcast that travel would only be allowed for work reasons. All recreational travel would be prohibited, and freight transport would be limited to essential goods in the lead-up to Easter.

The measures will be in effect from today until Easter Sunday.

Away from the seemingly unstoppable surge of cases and deaths in the US – talk tonight was around crucial opportunities by the Trump administration to respond being "squandered by systemic federal government failures".

As confirmed cases shot up 23,000 since yesterday to 323,953 and deaths were up a 1,000 at 9,186, critics were saying it had taken 70 days from the first time the White House was formally notified of the outbreak in China on January until President Donald Trump began to treat the virus "as a lethal force that had outflanked America's defenses and was poised to kill tens of thousands of citizens".

Some 21 days in February were lost as the administration relied on a coronavirus test known to be flawed and prevented private labs from deploying better ones.

And it was 18 months – long before the outbreak – "the Trump administration received detailed plans for a new machine designed to turn out millions of protective respirator masks at high speed during a pandemic", the Washington Post reported.

It was never built and in 11 days it has calculated there will be a need for 32,000 ventilators – far more than are stockpiled.

Those critics at Trumps's back door are saying it will mean "the United States will likely go down as the country that was supposedly best prepared to fight a pandemic but ended up catastrophically overmatched by the novel coronavirus, sustaining heavier casualties than any other nation."

New York governor Andrew Cuomo says China is facilitating a shipment of 1,000 donated ventilators to his state, in another example of the extreme measures being taken in what is now a scramble to source lifesaving devices in the coronavirus pandemic.

Out of the 9,000+ US deaths, more than 4,000 of those have been in New York state, including more than 2,000 in New York City.

Elsewhere, with the highest number of infections in Europe and their hospitals overwhelmed, Spain and Italy are struggling to protect medical staff on the front lines, while 17 medics in Egypt's main cancer hospital have also tested positive for the virus.

Italy and Spain, with combined deaths of more than 25,000 and nearly a quarter-million infections, have reported a high percentage of infections among health care workers.

Spain's Health Ministry reported 18,324 infected health workers as of Saturday, representing 15 per cent of the total number of infections in the country.

As Spain completes its third week in a state of emergency, it recorded 6,023 confirmed new infections on Sunday, taking the national tally to 130,759.

That is down from an increase of 7,026 infections in the previous 24-hour period, confirming the downward tendency of the past week.

Confirmed new deaths also dropped to 674 fatalities, taking the national tally to 12,418.

That is the first time new deaths have fallen below 800 new fatalities in the past week.

As its outbreak loses steam, Spain's government has started to cautiously consider when it can start to reactivate an economy that has been shut down and put hundreds of thousands out of work.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday: "We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Overall, new infections continued to slow their once-exponential pace in Italy, with 4,316 new cases registered Saturday bringing the country's official count to 128,948.

The death toll continues to mount, with 525 new victims taking the world's highest national toll to 15,887.

In France, 7,560 people have died of coronavirus-related issues including at least 2,028 in nursing homes. More than 440 of the overall deaths happened in the 24 hours to Saturday night.

Jerome Salomon said France has experienced 441 more deaths in hospitals in the last 24 hours.

He also said that 28,143 people were currently in hospital – of which 6,838 are in intensive care, accounting for a rise of 176 people in 24 hours in intensive care.

Among the critical patients 35 per cent are under 60 years old.

"The number of people being cured is also increasing very quickly," Mr Salomon said.

With the UK entering its third week in of lockdown, and the Government urging the "small minority" of people who are breaking social distancing rules to change their behaviour or risk forcing the Government to ban outdoor exercise, how are other countries on restrictions?

China has begun to lift measures, with shopping centres opening and people leaving their homes in Wuhan, the original epicentre of Covid-19.

However in Europe, many countries are extending the rules.

On Saturday, Spain extended its own measures until at least April 25, and in France rules will be in place until at least April 15, with a second extension expected.

Italy's lockdown will last until at least April 13.

Footnote: Nub News has introduced a new element to its death per million population table with stats on testing in the world and a tests per million column.