Here’s what you need to know:
- Lockdown, then evacuation: The pandemic and natural disasters deal a one-two punch.
- A vast discrepancy in Mexico’s death toll will be investigated.
- Health agencies offer tips on sex during the pandemic.
- Despite travel restrictions, a New Zealand woman will see her dying sister in Australia.
- China’s leader sees the crisis as a way to strengthen his rule.
- Disease modelers find that tens of thousands of U.S. deaths could have been prevented with earlier lockdowns.
- In a Bangkok shopping mall, robots are enforcing social distancing.
Lockdown, then evacuation: The pandemic and natural disasters deal a one-two punch.
Around the world, people already struggling with lockdowns and social distancing are facing additional threats from natural disasters, forcing them to make an impossible choice: shelter in place or evacuate.
When Cyclone Amphan tore through eastern India and Bangladesh on Wednesday, it upended communities where people had been locked down amid alarming rises in coronavirus infections.
More than three million people were whisked from their homes, but many were apprehensive about rushing into packed emergency shelters, where they feared they would catch the virus.
The Indian subcontinent isn’t the only place where the pandemic and natural disasters are dealing a one-two punch to local residents.
In the U.S. state of Michigan, for example, torrential rainfall breached two privately owned dams on Tuesday night. Thousands of residents were forced to flee their homes in a state that is among the hardest-hit by the coronavirus in America.
And in the Philippines last week, more than 50,000 people took refuge in evacuation centers as a typhoon barreled ashore, destroying fishing boats and hundreds of buildings. The typhoon made landfall on the country’s main island, Luzon, which is home to about 60 million people and has been on an extended lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Now, as officials respond to the disasters, they must also ensure that shelters don’t become breeding grounds for more infections. And some shelters that would normally be used to house evacuees are not available because they have already been converted into quarantine centers.
“It is a unique situation because it is the first time that we’re going to face a natural hazard like a storm while taking into consideration a pandemic situation,” said Mark Timbal, a spokesman for the Office of Civil Defense in Manila.
Here’s what else is happening around the world:
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The average number of daily coronavirus cases worldwide over the last week — more than 91,000 — is higher than it has ever been, according to data compiled by The New York Times. But the average weekly death toll has been decreasing.
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Japan plans to end a state of emergency on Thursday in three western prefectures, but not in the Tokyo region.
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The authorities in Bolivia fired the health minister on Wednesday, the Reuters news agency reported, and opened an investigation into allegations that officials bought ventilators at inflated prices.
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The National People’s Congress, China’s annual legislative meeting, is set to open on Friday after a monthslong delay.
A vast discrepancy in Mexico’s death toll will be investigated.
The government of Mexico City has acknowledged that its count of deaths related to the coronavirus is higher than federal data show, and it has named a special commission to review all fatalities in the capital connected to Covid-19.
“This team will evaluate, based on each death certificate and medical report, how many confirmed Covid deaths there are, how many suspicious Covid deaths and how many probable Covid deaths there are,” said Mexico City’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum.
The New York Times first reported a discrepancy between city and federal data on May 8, citing a private database maintained by local officials that showed the death toll in the capital was more than three times higher than what the federal government reported to the public.
That data, which city officials gather by placing calls to every public hospital in the city on a daily basis, includes both confirmed Covid deaths and those where doctors determine the virus was the most likely cause.
The federal data counts only confirmed cases. That number is exceptionally low, however, because Mexico has conducted fewer tests than almost any other developed nation.
The federal government declined to comment on The Times’s story, but after publication released a video claiming the article, along with others by The Wall Street Journal and El País that also questioned official data, was “unethical.”
Federal officials did not, however, deny the existence of the database or the veracity of the numbers published by The Times. Instead, officials claimed that coordination between the city and federal government was excellent.
Several days later, government officials announced the creation of the new commission to review Covid-related deaths in Mexico City. And shortly after, Ms. Sheinbaum, the mayor, acknowledged the death toll tabulated by city officials was higher than that published by the federal government.
Health agencies offer tips on sex during the pandemic.
As countries around the world slowly begin to come back to life, governments are experimenting with exactly how prescriptive they should be when giving guidelines on how people should navigate the new normal — including on sex and dating. It has involved some trial and error.
In the Netherlands, Dutch officials relaxed the government’s rules on sex during the coronavirus pandemic, advising last week that locked-down singles find “sex buddies.” Acknowledging that human touch is important, the guidance said the two parties must be in strict agreement about limiting the spread of the virus.
“Discuss together how to best do that,” the guidelines said. “Follow the rules around the new coronavirus.”
Officials at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands later clarified that advice, however, removing the term “seksbuddy” from the website after it drew attention from the international news media.
A spokeswoman for the agency told the Dutch news website NU.nl that the advice did not encourage “random sex contacts,” but that people who already knew each other or were in relationships but did not live in the same household could have sex without violating health guidelines.
Earlier in the pandemic, the Dutch government, like others around the world, had advised people to have sex only with steady partners.
Different cities and countries have taken varying approaches to guidance on sex during the pandemic, with some more skittish than others.
Despite travel restrictions, a New Zealand woman will see her dying sister in Australia.
After six tries, reams of paperwork and repeated rejections, a New Zealand woman will be reunited with her dying sister in Australia, receiving a rare exemption to strict travel bans.
Gail Baker, who lives north of Sydney, was diagnosed with incurable ovarian cancer in late March, when travel bans locked down borders all over the world. She and her sister, Christine Archer, a nurse in New Zealand, have been trying to reconnect ever since.
“I just want to spend every minute I can with her,” Ms Archer told ABC News of Australia.
Both countries have been easing restrictions in recent weeks, but not on international travel.
Mr. Archer said she had already bought a plane ticket and was relieved to have finally received the Australian government’s permission to go. But, she added, the process was onerous and more difficult than it needed to be, especially given that both Australia and New Zealand have brought their coronavirus outbreaks to heel.
“It’s just been such a huge job, it really has,” she said. “I am sure there are so many other people in the same position as I have been in and maybe now it will open the door for others to see their loved ones, sooner rather than later.”
China’s leader sees the crisis as a way to strengthen his rule.
President Xi Jinping of China has seized on the pandemic as an opportunity in disguise — a chance to redeem the party after early mistakes let infections slip out of control, and to rally national pride in the face of international ire over those mistakes.
Now, Mr. Xi needs to turn his exhortations of resolute unity into action — a theme likely to underpin the National People’s Congress, the annual legislative meeting that opens on Friday after a monthslong delay.
He is pushing to restore the pre-pandemic agenda, including his pledge to eradicate extreme poverty by this year, while cautioning against complacency that could let a second wave of infections spread.
He must do all this while the country faces a diplomatic and economic climate as daunting as any since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.
“If you position yourself as a great helmsman uniquely capable of leading your country, that has a lot of domestic political risk if you fail to handle the job appropriately,” said Carl Minzner, a professor of Chinese law and politics at Fordham University.
So far, Mr. Xi has largely succeeded in rewriting the narrative in China. The disarray in other countries, especially the United States, has given him a reprieve from domestic political pressure by allowing officials to highlight China’s lower death toll, despite questions about the accuracy of the numbers.
The Trump administration’s withholding of funds from the World Health Organization also handed Mr. Xi a chance to appear munificent when he pledged $2 billion in assistance.
It is a dramatic turnaround from only months ago, when Mr. Xi faced a shaken and skeptical public.
Disease modelers find that tens of thousands of U.S. deaths could have been prevented with earlier lockdowns.
Total reported deaths in the
United States on May 3
Estimated deaths on May 3 if social distancing
started one week earlier than it did
New York City
17,581
65,307
29,410
New York City
2,838
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
1,223
451
Total reported deaths in the
United States on May 3
Estimated deaths on May 3 if social distancing
started one week earlier than it did
65,307
29,410
New York City
New York City
17,581
2,838
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
1,223
451
Total reported deaths in the
United States on May 3
65,307
New York City
17,581
Los Angeles
1,223
Estimated deaths on May 3 if social distancing
started one week earlier than it did
29,410
New York City
2,838
Los Angeles
451
Total reported deaths in the
United States on May 3
65,307
New York City
17,581
Los Angeles
1,223
Estimated deaths on May 3 if social distancing
started one week earlier than it did
29,410
New York City
2,838
Los Angeles
451
Estimated deaths on May 3 if social distancing
started one week earlier than it did
Total reported deaths in the
United States on May 3
New York City
17,581
65,307
29,410
New York City
2,838
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
1,223
451
If the United States had begun imposing social-distancing measures one week earlier in March, about 36,000 fewer people would have died in the pandemic, according to new estimates from Columbia University disease modelers.
And if the country had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact on March 1, two weeks earlier than when most people started staying home, a vast majority of the nation’s deaths — about 83 percent — would have been avoided, the researchers estimated.
“It’s a big, big difference,” said Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia and the leader of the research team. “That small moment in time, catching it in that growth phase, is incredibly critical in reducing the number of deaths.”
How Earlier Control Measures Could Have Saved Lives
Number of reported
deaths by May 3
65,307
60,000 deaths
Estimated deaths if
social distancing
started …
40,000
… one week earlier
than it did in March
Range of
estimates
29,410
20,000
… two weeks earlier
11,253
0
March 1
April 1
May 3
Number of reported
deaths by May 3
65,307
60,000 deaths
Estimated deaths
if social distancing
started …
40,000
… one week earlier
than it did in March
Range of
estimates
29,410
20,000
… two weeks earlier
11,253
0
March 1
April 1
May 3
Number of reported
deaths by May 3
65,307
60,000 deaths
Estimated deaths
if social distancing
started …
40,000
… one week earlier
than it did in March
29,410
20,000
… two weeks earlier
11,253
0
March 1
April 1
May 3
Number of reported
deaths by May 3
65,307
60,000 deaths
Estimated deaths if
social distancing
started …
40,000
… one week earlier
than it did in March
29,410
20,000
… two weeks earlier
11,253
0
March 1
April 1
May 3
The enormous cost of waiting to take action reflects the unforgiving dynamics of the outbreak that swept through American cities in early March. Even small differences in timing would have prevented the worst exponential growth, which by April had subsumed New York City, New Orleans and other major cities, the researchers found.
In other U.S. news:
-
As of Wednesday, all 50 states had begun to reopen to some degree, two months after the outbreak thrust the country into lockdown. But vast variations remain in how states are deciding to open up, and many began to reopen despite not meeting White House guidelines for progress against the virus.
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Newly reported cases have been increasing in some states, including Minnesota and Texas, that are moving to ease restrictions. Public health officials warn that moving too fast could risk more outbreaks.
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President Trump plans to spend Memorial Day in Baltimore, which remains under a stay-at-home order. He has repeatedly criticized the city during the pandemic — once calling it a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
In a Bangkok shopping mall, robots are enforcing social distancing.
Hannah Beech is the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times. She lives in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.
I wandered past the shop selling premium salmon skin with salted egg yolk, past vials of perfumes I could not sniff because of my mask, past the Japanese soufflé pancake place where, I must admit, I bought a box full of pillowy deliciousness.
After 30 minutes of meandering through Siam Paragon, one of Bangkok’s many malls that have reopened since the city’s coronavirus lockdown began to ease, I finally found my quarry.
Just past Cartier and not quite to Bottega Veneta, the robot was wheeling its way past a gaggle of Thais in floral-patterned masks. I stepped in front of it and the robot politely veered to my left.
In front of Louis Vuitton, the robot, about the size of a leprechaun, came upon a foreign woman in short shorts and a mouth painted with lipstick.
The robot’s camera whirred. Something inside clicked. “Please wear masks,” the robot said in both Thai and English.
If robots could look admonishing, this machine was delivering a very stern gaze.
The woman giggled, then looked a bit nervous. Security guards in black suits and face shields showed her the exit.
After weeks of recording few new coronavirus cases, Thailand is opening up again. But the deluge of shoppers — one Ikea was overwhelmed by a line of hundreds of people — has public health experts worried. Incoming commercial flights have been banned until at least the end of June.
To get into Siam Paragon, I snapped a QR code with my phone, stepped through a mist of disinfectant and waited for my temperature to be taken.
The reading appeared to indicate that I was a lizard. The guard waved me through anyway.
Reporting was contributed by Damien Cave, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Steven Lee Myers, Chris Buckley, Russell Goldman, Jeffrey Gettleman, Sameer Yasir, Kai Schultz, Hari Kumar, Jin Qu, Mike Ives, Jason Gutierrez, Hannah Beech, Lorraine Allen, Jenny Gross and Claire Moses.
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