Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he has reached an agreement with the International Olympic Committee, President Thomas Bach, to postpone the Olympics for about one year.
One in five people around the globe are now under lockdown, ordered or asked to stay home, as the world enters a critical week in responding to the accelerating coronavirus pandemic. The UK is the latest country to impose a Greek-style, strict lockdown.
Greece, already in complete lockdown, recorded 71 new cases on Monday. The total number in the country has now risen to 695. 114 people are hospitalized, with 35 of those individuals in serious condition. A total of 19 people have died so far.
Technology giants Microsoft and Bing have created an interactive map, on which you can select areas and see active, recovered and fatal cases of coronavirus infections. You can also see results by country, along with useful information on the disease. View it here.
Updates on Tuesday
20:28: ”I understand that there is fear. Both for our lives and our health and for the financial consequences of the crisis. We will not let it overwhelm us!” were the words the President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou used to describe the current situation in her first address to the nation. Full Story.
19:27: Italy has recorded 743 new deaths in the last 24 hours. The total number of deaths has now risen to 6,820 there.
19:10: Cyprus records two new deaths from the coronavirus. The first one was a British national of 63 years of age and the second one a 58-year old Greek Cypriot. The total number of confirmed cases in the country has risen to 124.
19:07: International organizations are calling for immediate measures to prevent a coronavirus outbreak in Greece’s migrant camps. Full story.
18:02: Greece records 48 new cases. The total number of confirmed cases rose to 743. Forty-five people are hospitalized in serious condition in the country. Greece’s death toll has now risen to 20.
18:00: The death toll in the UK rises to 422. 87 people died in the last 24 hours.
17:51: Bank withdrawals up to 400 euros in cash on a daily basis must be conducted through an ATM machine and not through a teller, the Hellenic Bank Association (HBA) announced on Tuesday, introducing measures to discourage in-person transactions in banks.
17:48: The Greek government presented on Tuesday afternoon in detail all its relief measures to assist both individuals and businesses due to the coronavirus lockdown.
17:12: The prime minister of India Narendra Modi said that the country will go into a nationwide lockdown from Tuesday midnight for a total of 21 days. This will limit the movement of 1.4 billion people.
17:08: The most iconic square in the US, the Times Square, remains eerily empty as people try to self-isolate.
QUIET TIMES SQUARE: Live views of Time Square show it nearly empty as New York City becomes the newest epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. With over 13,000 coronavirus cases within NYC, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the NYPD will be ‘out there spreading the message, telling people to break it up, move along’ to enforce social distancing rules.
Posted by NowThis Politics on Tuesday, 24 March 2020
17:00: Priests in Aegion, Western Greece made a tour around the city, spraying the roads with holy water. This peculiar move came only days after the former bishop of the region Ambrosios told people that holy water is the best medicine.
16:30: The President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou is expected to address the nation on Tuesday afternoon about the situation the country faces in its fight to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
15:55: Rick Pitino, the American basketball coach and the current coach of Greece’s national basketball team, praised the stance of the Greek government and its Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the fight against the covid-19 coronavirus on Tuesday.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece has done an awesome job as Prime Minister. Shut down everything and has kept the death toll to under 20 people. So happy to hear that with this dreaded virus.
— Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) March 23, 2020
15:20: The EuroPride 2020 event, which had been scheduled to take place in Thessaloniki, Greece in June will have to be postponed, it was announced on Tuesday. Full story.
14:30: Following a conference call between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike and IOC president Thomas Bach, the Olympics have been postponed for 12 months. Full story.
14:00: There are 383,944 cases of novel coronavirus and 16,595 deaths globally, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking figures from the World Health Organization and additional sources.
13:00: The number of new coronavirus cases in Spain jumped on Tuesday to 39,673 from the tally of 33,089 cases registered on Monday, the health ministry reported on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
The number of Spanish fatalities rose to 2,696 overnight from the previous total of 2,182, the Ministry said.
12:40: A spokeswoman from the World Health Organization has said that the US risks becoming the next epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak as the country is seeing a “very large acceleration” in cases.
WHO spokesperson also says it is seeing a “very large acceleration” in case numbers in the US. And says it has to potential to be epicentre of outbreak #COVIDー19 https://t.co/e8ysjvZwd9
— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) March 24, 2020
12:30: Health authorities in Greece announced that two more people had died of the Covid-19 coronavirus on Tuesday morning, bringing the total number of fatalities to 19. Full story
11:20: The central Chinese province of Hubei, ground zero for the novel coronavirus pandemic, plans to lift nearly all its lockdown restrictions on Wednesday. However, measures will remain in place in the provincial capital, Wuhan, until April 8.
11:15: More than a dozen Greek police officers were quarantined after a 26-year-old man went into a tantrum while being arrested and spat on them while claiming he was infected with coronavirus. Full story
11:00: A 95-year-old became the oldest woman in Italy to recover from the coronavirus. Full story
Questa simpatica signora in foto si chiama Alma Clara Corsini, ha 95 anni, ed è appena guarita dal #COVID19! Un grande augurio a lei, e un grazie di cuore allo staff medico dell'ospedale di Pavullo (Modena) per averci regalato un timido sorriso! #COVID19italia pic.twitter.com/GXzdQgjRr3
— Fabio Massimo Castaldo (@FMCastaldo) March 21, 2020
09:40: Greece’s Civil Protection uploaded the necessary movement permits for the total lockdown in English late on Monday evening. Full story
09:00: Greece’s Health Ministry announced that the number of beds in hospitals dedicated to COVID-19 patients are 2,158. The Ministry says that more beds will be made available.
#Briefing_COVID19
Οι κλίνες που έχουν αναπτυχθεί ήδη για την απλή νοσηλεία ασθενών με #COVIDー19 είναι 2.158. Αυτοί οι αριθμοί θα συνεχίσουν να αυξάνονται, με βάση τις ανάγκες και το πλάνο που έχει εκπονήσει το Υπουργείο Υγείας.@Vkikilias— ΥΠΟΥΡΓΕΙΟ ΥΓΕΙΑΣ (@YpYgGR) March 23, 2020
08:45: UN Secretary General António Guterres on Monday called for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world, so that humanity can concentrate on fighting the coronavirus.
Today I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world.
It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives – the #COVID19 pandemic.https://t.co/F6JRA6ekvZ pic.twitter.com/7WgtFMk5GC
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 23, 2020
08:30: On Monday, Cyprus announced a lockdown on the island until April 13 to fight the spread of coronavirus, saying the movement of people was banned until that time unless absolutely necessary.
08:20: Millions of people across India have been placed under lockdown until the end of the month.
Residents living in 75 districts across the country, including major cities such as the capital New Delhi, as well as Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata, have been placed under travel, work and movement restrictions until March 31.
08:00: The United Kingdom imposed a Greek-style lockdown on Monday evening. As of Monday, some 335 people have died from the virus in the UK. Some 83,945 people in the UK have been tested for coronavirus, with 6,650 testing positive. Full story
07:50: The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the coronavirus disease pandemic is “accelerating”, with more than 300,000 cases now confirmed.
It took 67 days from the first reported instance of Covid-19 to reach 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000, and just four days for the third 100,000 worldwide. Full Story
Related
March 23 Updates
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