BERLIN – Governments\nbattling a virus that has crossed borders with breathtaking swiftness pinned\ntheir hopes Tuesday on tests, technology and a coordinated approach to ease the\ntight social-distancing restrictions that have slowed the pandemic but\nstrangled the global economy.
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\nWhile the European Union looked into creating a COVID-19 smartphone app that could\nfunction across the bloc, governors on both U.S. coasts pledged to work\ntogether as they planned an end to the confinement of millions. The main\nconcern is to avoid new coronavirus hot spots and flare-ups of infections. But\ntrying to build such infrastructure while still in mid-crisis during the\npandemic is proving difficult.
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\nIn India, the government on Tuesday extended the world’s largest lockdown on\n1.3 billion people for two more weeks, until May 3 for most of the country, as\nits caseload crossed 10,000.
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\nChina faced a new flare-up along its remote northern border with Russia, far\nfrom the original epicenter of Wuhan, which has all but declared victory in its\nbattle against the pandemic. That vast border has been sealed and emergency\nmedical units have rushed to the area to prevent travelers from bringing the\nvirus back from overseas.
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\nNew infections appear to have leveled off in much of Asia and Europe, including\nItaly, France, Spain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even in New York \u2014\nwhere reported coronavirus deaths passed 10,000 on Monday \u2014 Gov. Andrew Cuomo\ndeclared the “worst is over if we can continue to be smart.” More\nthan 23,000 people have died of the virus in the United States overall, with\n582,000 confirmed infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
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\nWith social distancing and lockdowns in place across a large portion of the\nworld, grim projections that the virus that would spread with equal ferocity to\nother corners have yet to materialize. But without widespread antibody tests to\ndetermine how many people are immune to the virus, governments fear that\nrelaxing social distancing could lead to new outbreaks.
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\nGermany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, called Tuesday for a single smartphone\napp to be used across the 27-nation EU to help countries coordinate when and\nhow to relax their pandemic lockdown measures.
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\n“It’s important we don’t end up with a patchwork of 27 corona apps and 27\ndata protection regimes, but coordinate as best as possible,” he told\nGermany’s Funke media group.
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\nMaas said a contract tracing app already being jointly developed by several\ncountries showed that the EU “doesn’t have to copy the Big Brother methods\nof authoritarian states” but can instead safeguard personal privacy and\npublic health at the same time.
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\nThe head of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s disease control center, said\nexchanging information between countries and institutions is key to combating\nthe pandemic. Lothar Wieler said Tuesday his group is in constant contact with\nothers to share which measures are effective in preventing the virus from\nspreading, how to test for infection, which vaccine studies to fund and how\nbest to protect vulnerable populations.
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\nApple and Google last week announced a separate joint effort to help public\nhealth agencies worldwide leverage smartphones by using Bluetooth wireless\ntechnology to trace the contacts of those infected so as to slow the spread of\nthe virus. That will run on iPhones and Android phones alike. The apps would\ngather a record of other phones when they came into close proximity.
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\nIn China, where new reported virus cases have dwindled, life is ruled by a\ngreen symbol on a smartphone screen that says a user is symptom-free and can\nboard a subway, check into a hotel or just enter Wuhan, the city of 11 million\npeople where the pandemic began in December.
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\nSouth Korea and Israel have both aggressively used smartphone data to track the\nmovements of virus carriers. But in general, epidemiologists say contact\ntracing can only be effective with widely available testing, which has been\ndifficult even in wealthy countries such as the United States and Britain.
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\nExperts say the infection rate still remains relatively low in areas of the\ndeveloping world that have poor or nonexistent health care infrastructure and\nfar fewer resources to trace the contacts of coronavirus patients.
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\nThe rapid spread of the coronavirus beyond cities to more rural areas often\ndepends on travel and social connections, said Dr. Mike Ryan, the World Health\nOrganization’s emergencies chief. That could explain why Germany and\nSwitzerland, with their world-class train systems, have over 155,000 infections\nbetween them.
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\nBut he noted that rural areas often have less sophisticated health surveillance\nsystems to pick up potential disease clusters,,
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\n“Is it that it’s not there, or is it that we’re not detecting the disease\nwhen it is there?” he asked.
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\nJohnston, the Imperial College professor, said he worried the virus might take\noff across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. He also expressed concern\nabout Russia.
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\nDespite the absence of a coordinated exit strategy, in some European countries,\nofficials pointed to positive signs as they began prepping to reopen largely\nshuttered economies and industries.
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\nItaly’s day-to-day increase in infections was one of the lowest in weeks,\nbolstering a generally downward trend. Slightly eased restrictions were about\nto take effect in some sectors of the country, such as allowing stores selling\nbaby necessities to reopen.
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\nIn hard-hit Spain, workers returned Monday to some factory and construction\njobs. Retail stores and services were still closed and the government required\noffice workers to keep working from home.
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\nIn the United States, governors in the Northeast and along the West Coast\nannounced separate state compacts to coordinate reopenings.
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\nCalifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would announce a detailed plan Tuesday for\nlifting virus restrictions. He cautioned it would use “science to guide\nour decision-making and not political pressure.”
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\n“The house is still on fire,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said.\n“We still have to put the fire out … (but we need) to make sure this\ndoesn’t reignite.”
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\nHis state is in a coalition with Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New\nYork, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island while the governors of California, Oregon\nand Washington announced a similar plan.
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\nPresident Donald Trump pushed back against the governors, claiming “the\nfederal government has absolute power” over easing the restrictions if it\nchooses. The Constitution, however, largely gives states the authority to\nregulate their own affairs.
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\nMore than 1.9 million infections have been reported and over 119,000 people\nhave died worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. The figures\nunderstates the true size of the pandemic, due to limited testing, uneven\ncounting of the dead and unreliable figures from some governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: Voice of America<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"