BUSINESS | Page 1
‘Qatar govt at
forefront of
supporting
the private
sector’
GULF TIMES
Enjoy double data and a complimentary
*Valid during Ramadan
beIN CONNECT voucher from home with Shahry 5G
Amir sends
greetings to
king of Norway
His Highness the Amir Sheikh
Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and His
Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh
Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani sent
yesterday cables of congratulations
to King Harald V of Norway on
his country’s Constitution Day. HE
the Prime Minister and Minister of
Interior Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin
Abdulaziz al-Thani also sent a similar
cable to Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
Eid al-Fitr holidays
from May 19-28 for
govt employees
Eid al-Fitr holidays for ministries,
other government entities and
public institutions starts on Tuesday,
May 19 and ends on Thursday, May
28, according to an Amiri Diwan
announcement. Employees will
resume their work on Sunday, May 31.
As for Qatar Central Bank (QCB),
banks and financial institutions
working under the supervision of
QCB and Qatar Financial Markets
Authority (QFMA), HE the Governor
of QCB shall specify the start and the
end of the holiday. (QNA)
QOC: sports activities
to resume after July 20
Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC)
has extended the suspension of all
local sports activities until July 20,
2020. Events from the 2019-2020
sporting calendar will resume after
that date. QOC said in a statement
yesterday that the decision came in
line with the protective measures
taken by Qatar to limit the spread
of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19),
and in co-ordination with the
Ministry of Public Health. Last
week, QOC announced extending
the suspension of all local sporting
events until May 31. Sport Page 1
RAMADAN THOUGHT
And when We cause mankind
to taste of mercy, they rejoice
1 therein; but when some evil
afflicts them because of (evil
deeds and sins) that their
1 (own) hands have sent forth,
behold, they are in despair!
(Qur’an 30: 36)
Prayer times
Fajr....3.22 Zuhr....11.30 Asr....2.57
Maghrib.....6.16 Isha.....7.46
Fasting times
Iftar today.................................6.16 pm
Suhoor tomorrow................ 3.22 am
‘No spike in virus cases in US areas reopening’
T
here has so far not been a surge
in coronavirus cases in areas of
the United States that are reo-
pening, US Health Secretary Alex Azar
said yesterday.
“We are seeing that in places that
are opening, we’re not seeing this
spike in cases,” Azar told broadcaster
CNN. “We still see spikes in some ar-
eas that are in fact close to very local-
ized situations.”
Many states across the nation,
which has seen more than 88,000 vi-
rus-related deaths — by far the most
in the world — are starting to ease re-
strictions to varying degrees.
US President Donald Trump is
pushing for a swift reopening of the
economy, amid warnings by health of-
ficials about a resurgence of the virus if
states move too quickly.
Azar said local leaders must judge
“whether an outlet being open, a res-
taurant, a school is the right thing.”
“These are very localised determi-
nations; there should not be a one size
fits all to reopening,” he said.
“But reopen we must because it’s
not health versus the economy.
It’s actually health versus health,”
Qatar’s residents, both citizens and expatriates, were found to be strictly following government orders to wear
facemasks while going out of their homes yesterday. PICTURE: Jayan Orma
Residents comply with govt order;
demand surges for masks, gloves
By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter
T
he demand for protective
gear against the novel coro-
navirus (Covid-19) surged as
the wearing of face masks in public
became mandatory in Qatar yester-
day.
The latest directive from the gov-
ernment forms part of its efforts to
prevent and control the spread of
Covid-19 and ensure the safety and
welfare of people in the country.
Based on Decree Law No 17 of 1990
regarding the prevention of infectious
diseases, violators will face jail time
not exceeding three years and a fine
of up to QR200,000, or either of these
two penalties.
The implementation of this new
directive witnessed many pharmacies
and other shops in Doha receiving
more customers for face masks and
face shields.
Speaking to Gulf Times, an em-
ployee at a leading pharmacy in Qatar
said most of the customers yesterday
bought face masks, gloves and hand
sanitisers.
“We are extremely busy, a lot of
customers today (Sunday). We expect
the demand to increase further in the
coming days,” she observed while
noting that they have a steady supply
he said, pointing to possible health
consequences of maintaining shut-
downs, such as suicides and a lack of
cardiac procedures and other vacci-
nations.
Asked about images of crowded out-
lets in some parts of the country, the
health and human services secretary
said that was the cost of freedom.
“I think in any individual instance
you’re going to see people doing things
that are irresponsible, that’s part of the
freedom that we have here in America,”
Azar said.
Peter Navarro, a top economic advi-
sor to Trump, slammed the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
for its response to the virus outbreak,
saying the agency “really let the coun-
try down” on testing.
“Not only did they keep the testing
within the bureaucracy, they had a bad
test, and that did set us back,” Navarro
told NBC, referring to delays in diag-
noses due to faulty test kits developed
by the CDC in February that took sev-
eral weeks to fix.
Trump has come under fire for his
handling of the pandemic, including
for a lack of testing capability.
MoPH reports 4,370
Covid-19 recoveries
The Ministry of Public Health
(MoPH) yesterday announced 1,632
confirmed new cases of Covid-19,
and 582 new recoveries in the last
24 hours, bringing the total number
of recovered cases in Qatar to
4,370. During the last 24 hours, the
MoPH recorded 18 cases admitted
to intensive care unit (ICU) due to
complications resulting from the
infection, bringing the total number
of cases receiving care in the ICU to
165. Page 2
of such items and enough stocks for
several months.
This was echoed by a staff member
of an online shop that sells similar
items, saying they recorded a surge in
the number of orders yesterday.
“Besides individuals, we also re-
ceived many additional orders of face
masks from companies, which I think
will be distributed to their employ-
ees,” the staff member said.
LuLu Group International regional
manager Shanavas P M said all their
stores have enough supplies and
stocks of face masks to meet the de-
mand surge.
Expecting the demand to continue
People are seen practising social distancing in white circles in Domino Park, during the Covid-19 pandemic yesterday
in Brooklyn borough of New York City.
even beyond the Covid-19 pandem-
ic, he said these items will always be
available at all their stores across the
country.
It is learnt that many employees,
particularly those who regularly re-
port to work, also bring extra pieces
of face masks whenever they leave
home.
“A face mask is an extremely im-
portant item, which we should not
forget to take before going out. It is
on top of my checklist,” said Filipino
expatriate Joseph R, who has “at least
two more masks” in his bag. He said
he also constantly wears goggles for
added protection against Covid-19.
According to a number of shops,
the demand for face shields and gog-
gles also continues to increase.
Under a recent Cabinet decision,
people in Qatar have to compulsorily
wear face masks while stepping out of
home for any reason, except “when a
person is alone while driving a vehi-
cle”. The Ministry of Interior is au-
thorised to take necessary measures
to enforce the rule.
The decision will remain in effect
until further notice.
On its part, the Ministry of Public
Health has stressed the need for peo-
ple to properly dispose of used masks
and gloves. “Inappropriate disposal
can put others’ lives at risk,” it noted
in a video advisory. Page 20
QATAR | Page 20
Ashghal opens new
underpass to traffic on
Mesaimeer Interchange
MONDAY Vol. XXXXI No. 11552
May 18, 2020
Ramadan 25, 1441 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
HMC providing
state-of-the-art
treatment to all
Covid-19 patients
l To date, 91 patients have received plasma
from 79 recovered donors
l Severely ill Covid-19 patients are currently
being treated at the Intensive Care Unit of
Hazm Mebeireek General Hospital
QNA
Doha
H
amad Medical Corporation
(HMC) is using state-of-the-
art treatment options for pa-
tients with Covid-19 who are currently
under its care.
The healthcare provider has six
hospitals dedicated to the treatment
of Covid-19 patients who require
specialised care – Hazm Mebeireek
General Hospital, the Communica-
ble Disease Centre (CDC), The Cuban
Hospital, Ras Laffan Hospital, Me-
saieed Hospital and the newly opened
field hospital in Al Sheehaniya, bring-
ing the total bed capacity in all these
facilities to more than 4,000.
“There are no approved vaccines or
medicine for Covid-19, but patients
can receive medical care to relieve their
symptoms. While most Covid-19 pa-
tients in Qatar experience only mild
symptoms, some do require additional
levels of care and support,” said Dr Muna
al-Maslamani, CDC medical director.
One treatment uses the blood plasma
of recovered Covid-19 patients. The
plasma contains antibodies that have
been shown to help improve immunity
against Covid-19. Dr al-Maslamani says
there is some evidence suggesting the
plasma treatment improves the overall
condition of Covid-19 patients.
“The plasma therapy is showing
promise as a treatment for Covid-19.
It is also called convalescent plasma
treatment and requires blood plas-
ma donations from people who have
recovered from Covid-19. We have
started using plasma treatment at the
Communicable Disease Centre us-
ing plasma from patients who have
recovered from Covid-19,” said Dr al-
Maslamani.
To date, 91 patients have received
plasma from 79 recovered donors and the
team is seeing the number of donations
from recovered patients rise each week.
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Dr Ahmed al-Mohamed and Dr Muna
al-Maslamani.
Most critically ill Covid-19 patients
are currently being treated at the In-
tensive Care Unit (ICU) of Hazm Me-
beireek General Hospital and severely
ill Covid-19 patients often require me-
chanical ventilation. A small percent-
age will require extracorporeal mem-
brane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy.
“The ECMO technology can oxy-
genate a severely sick Covid-19 pneu-
monia patient’s blood without the
need to transfer the oxygen through
fluid-filled lungs. ECMO replaces the
function of the lung like the dialysis
function for a kidney,” said Dr Ahmed
al-Mohamed, acting chairman of
HMC’s Intensive Care Units.
Dr al-Mohamed said Covid-19 pa-
tients who undergo ECMO therapy are
among the sickest being treated.
“Severely ill Covid-19 patients re-
quire sophisticated treatment and we
have not only sufficient numbers of
staff and equipment but also the spe-
cialised skills and experience required
to care for the sickest patients,” said Dr
al-Mohamed.
“The average length of stay for
Covid-19 patients in the ICU has been
between two and three weeks but pa-
tients with existing medical conditions
often take longer to recover from the
virus. Should the number of Covid-19
patients who require ICU-level care
rise, HMC has contingency plans in
place which would enable us to rede-
ploy manpower from other parts of
the healthcare system,” added Dr al-
Mohamed.
The president’s son, Eric Trump, on
Saturday accused the Democrats of
milking” coronavirus lockdowns in or-
der to “deprive” his father of campaign
rallies and hurt him in November’s
election, including through tactics
such as mail-in ballots in pandemic
relief legislation.
“You watch, they’ll milk it every
single day between now and Novem-
ber 3. And guess what, after Novem-
ber 3 coronavirus will magically all of
a sudden go away and disappear and
everybody will be able to reopen,” the
younger Trump told broadcaster Fox
News.
He claimed the presumptive Demo-
cratic presidential nominee, former
vice president Joe Biden, was happy
that the Republican president was not
able to “draw massive crowds.”
“Biden loves this. Biden can’t go on
stage without making some horrible
blunder...
So his campaign is thrilled that he’s
not going out there,” he said. “And
they think they’re taking away Donald
Trump’s greatest tool, which is being
able to go into an arena and fill it with
50,000 people every single time.”
 Gulf Times
2 Monday, May 18, 2020
QATAR
Sheikha Alya: Qatar is an active player at the UN
QNA
Doha
H
E the Permanent Rep-
resentative of Qatar
to the United Nations,
ambassador Sheikha Alya bint
Ahmed bin Saif al-Thani has
affirmed that Qatar is an active
player in most activities of the
UN organs, and in regional and
international groups, thanks
to the wise policy of the State
leadership.
In an interview with Al-Diplo-
macy Magazine, prepared by the
Diplomatic Institute of the Minis-
try of Foreign Affairs, HE Sheikha
Alya said that the UN’s selection
of Qatar to open offices for its or-
ganisations is an important mes-
sage indicating that Qatar is at the
forefront of the reliable countries
in the region, as an effective and
trustworthy partner for the UN in
facing challenges and its regional
impacts.
Stability, prosperity, and the
space of freedoms in Qatar al-
low those organisations to oper-
PHCC Covid test centres
open for walk-in patients
z Muaither, Rawdat Al Khail, Um Slal and Gharafat Al Rayyan
HCs designated as Covid-19 Test and Hold centres
z PHCC health centres have to date tested more than 14,500 patients
z Testing is being further expanded to protect the most vulnerable
A
n individual can now visit
a Covid-19 Test and Hold
centre as a walk-in pa-
tient to be swabbed if s/he dis-
plays novel coronavirus symp-
toms, the Primary Health Care
Corporation (PHCC) has said.
The corporation has dedicated
four of its health centres (HCs)
as Covid-19 Test and Hold cen-
tres in response to the Covid-19
outbreak, it was highlighted in
an infographic published on the
social media pages of the Minis-
try of Public Health, PHCC and
Hamad Medical Corporation
yesterday.
The four health centres are
Muaither, Rawdat Al Khail, Um
Slal and Gharafat Al Rayyan.
Regular virtual contact with elderly to
maintain positive mental state urged
S
ince the social distancing
as part of the preventive
and precautionary meas-
ures against Covid-19 could
cause some depression among
the elderly, relatives and friends
should maintain regular virtual
contact with them, Dr Kawa
Amin, a consultant geriatrician
at Hamad Medical Corporation
(HMC) has said.
Speaking to Qatar TV yester-
day, Dr Amin cautioned that the
elderly should be spared nega-
QRCS, QFFD to provide medical, food
aid for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
Q
atar Red Crescent So-
ciety (QRCS) and Qatar
Fund for Development
(QFFD) have signed a memo-
randum of understanding (MoU)
to co-launch an immediate re-
sponse to Covid-19 at Palestin-
ian refugee camps in Lebanon.
“The project is part of Qa-
tar’s ongoing support for many
friendly countries of the world.
It is aligned with the United Na-
tions Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) 2 and 3,” a press
statement notes.
The joint project seeks to re-
duce the spread of Covid-19 at
the camps and lessen the socio-
economic impact of the nation-
wide virus mitigation measures
on vulnerable Palestinian fami-
lies.
The total estimation of direct
beneficiaries is 139,400 individ-
uals, mostly children, including
8,430 individuals with disability.
Twelve refugee camps are tar-
geted, six in the South, three in
ate freely and independently, in
accordance with the standards
adopted by the UN, she added.
Sheikha Alya stressed that
Qatar is an essential pillar of
international co-operation for
burden-sharing and for the UN
to carry out its functions and
achieve its goals, in accordance
with its Charter.
She said that Qatar’s role and
contributions could be seen in
the political, humanitarian and
social fields of concern to the
international community, as
also its role in promoting inter-
national peace and security and
human rights, implementation
of the UN Development Plan
2030, the response to the effects
of climate change, fight against
terrorism and extremism, the
dialogue of civilizations, cul-
tures, and religions, education,
youth, women and children, and
humanitarian relief.
In addition, this role is visible
in mediating peaceful settle-
ment of disputes. So, these ef-
forts and the impressive results
are universally admired.
“Committed to curbing the
disease, PHCC health centres
have to date tested more than
14,500 patients,” the infographic
tive news as much as possible.
This is very important for the
positive mental state of the eld-
erly who are a high risk group
when it comes to the Covid-19
infection.
“The department concerned
at HMC has initiated a process to
make phone calls to all residents
who are above 65 years to inquire
about their health, wellbeing
and their needs for any related
health service to spare them any
chance of contacting Covid-19
Beirut, two in the North, and one
in Al-Bekaa.
As for the detailed com-
ponents of the project, 10
hospitals and health centres
will receive personal protec-
tive equipment to protect at
least 400 healthcare providers
while dealing with cases, five
ambulances will be provided
to transfer an average of 300
cases per month from camps to
hospitals, and one quarantine
hospital will be equipped and
prepared to serve camp inhab-
itants infected with Covid-19,
HE Sheikha Alya bint Ahmed bin
Saif al-Thani
Sheikha Alya said, “Perhaps
the last major achievement of the
State is the signing of the peace
agreement by the US and the Af-
ghan Taliban at the end of Feb-
ruary in Doha after four decades
of cruel wars. Worth mention-
ing, Qatar is also a signatory to a
number of international treaties,
agreements, and instruments, and
states. “Testing is being further
expanded to protect the most
vulnerable.”
The four health centres desig-
infection if they have to go out
and seek such services.
“Besides, HMC has opened a
speedy health care unit at Ru-
mailah Hospital for the elderly
to serve their immediate needs
and give due care without the
requirement for reporting to the
departments concerned at HMC
and the involved referral proce-
dures.
“HMC also launched vir-
tual clinics where audiovisual
contact is maintained with the
the statement explains.
Also, 1,000 families will re-
ceive hygiene promotion kits for
prevention of infection, while
27,800 families would receive
food parcels to meet their needs
during the lockdown period.
The project will be co-im-
plemented by QRCS’s repre-
sentation mission in Lebanon,
the Lebanese Red Cross and
Palestine Red Crescent Society
in Lebanon. They will work to-
gether on selecting lists of ben-
eficiaries, identifying the tar-
get health facilities, procuring
and storing medical, food and
nonfood items, and distribut-
ing the aid through their field
personnel.
A scheme has been developed
to ensure data update and de-
livery of medical supplies, food
it has a demonstrated an active
role in promoting human rights
and protecting it, and accordingly,
the Permanent Delegation is ac-
tive in all matters that fall within
the priorities of the state’s foreign
policy.”
“As Permanent Representa-
tive of Qatar, I have been as-
signed by the UN to many of core
functions of the international
organisation of interest to mem-
ber states,” she added.
Sheikha Alya said, “My ap-
pointment as the first perma-
nent representative in Geneva
and New York was a tribute to
Qatari women by the leadership
of the State, a message that con-
firmed the confidence in their
capacities and responsibilities,
which placed me with additional
responsibility to fulfill that task
and towards our leadership.”
She pointed out: “The inter-
national status achieved by His
Highness the Amir places us with
a great responsibility to maintain
this status. As His Highness has
so well deservedly placed Qatar in
the ranks of influential countries
nated for Covid-19 testing have
highly qualified and trained staff,
as well as the necessary facilities,
to handle cases. This was stressed
by Dr Mohamed al-Otaibi, senior
consultant of family medicine at
the PHCC’s Leabaib Health Cen-
tre, while speaking to Qatar TV on
Saturday.
The staff at the four centres
have the necessary protective
equipment and know how to
properly use them, and con-
stant training is imparted in line
with the latest updates and data
received from the entities con-
cerned with Covid-19, as new
information on different aspects
of the novel coronavirus keeps
coming in, he added.
elderly patients to check their
health complaints and follow
up accordingly. It is also set to
launch virtual physiotherapy
clinics for them to give them the
necessary physical training at
home and guide them through
the process as the limitation on
their movement and physical
activities outside home could
impact their health negatively.”
Dr Amin added the hotline
16000 is always available for as-
sistance.
aid and hygiene kits to the tar-
get camps as soon as possible. A
rapid assessment will be done to
identify the exact needs of each
health facility.
At the community level,
priority will be given to poor
families with elderly persons,
families headed by women
and families having members
with chronic diseases or dis-
abilities.
For maximum safety of per-
sonnel and beneficiaries, the
distribution of health items,
food parcels and hygiene kits
will be arranged so that crowd-
ing and gathering is avoided all
the time.
Among the outcomes of the
project are to achieve food se-
curity for the vulnerable fami-
lies in a manner that preserves
their dignity, help them during
the period of market lockdown
and provide them with much-
needed hygiene items to prevent
infection, the statement adds.
in the world, and to continue the
path of prosperity and progress
in various areas. This is what mo-
tivates us to exert our utmost ef-
forts to preserve the status and
reputation of our country, which
has become respected and appre-
ciated by all.”
Sheikha Alya pointed to the
success of Qatari diplomacy, led
by HE the Deputy Prime Min-
ister and Minister of Foreign
Affairs, particularly during the
blockade, stressing: “Defending
our interests was impressive and
had become an approach to our
diplomacy.”
She added, “The delegation
has adopted a strategy based
on Qatar’s record, position and
world’s confidence in it to re-
spond to the baseless accusa-
tions that the blockade states
have been charging Qatar with,
where we have strongly re-
sponded, with argument and
clear evidence, to any attempt
by those states to convince the
member stales of their allega-
tions.”
“The permanent delegation,
MoPH reports 4,370 total
Covid-19 recovery cases
QNA
Doha
T
he Ministry of Public
Health (MoPH) yesterday
announced 1,632 con-
firmed new cases of Covid-19,
and 582 new recoveries in the
last 24 hours, bringing the total
number of recovered cases in
Qatar to 4,370.
During the last 24 hours, the
MoPH recorded 18 cases admit-
ted to intensive care unit (ICU)
due to complications resulting
from the infection, bringing the
total number of cases receiving
care in the ICU to 165.
The ministry pointed that the
new cases are expatriate work-
ers who were infected as a result
of contact with individuals who
were previously infected, in ad-
dition to recording new cases
of infection among groups of
workers in different regions. The
new cases have been identified
after conducting investigations
by the research and investigation
teams of the MoPH.
Cases of infection have also
increased among citizens and
residents as a result of contact
with infected family members
who had been infected in the
workplace or through visits and
family gatherings, MoPH said
stressing that the high number
of cases among citizens and
residents is due to the lack of
compliance by some with pre-
cautionary measures, the most
important of which are social
distancing, staying home and
not going out on social visits.
The MoPH also said that Qatar
has now entered the peak phase
of the virus outbreak, causing
a rise in the number of infec-
tions recorded daily. It is there-
fore more important than ever
to strictly follow recommended
prevention and social distancing
measures.
The ministry underlined the
importance for the elderly or
those suffering from chronic
diseases and their family mem-
bers to follow strict measures
to reduce the chances of infec-
tion with the virus and to refrain
from social visits during the rest
of Ramadan as well as on the oc-
casion of Eid Al-Fitr.
The reasons for the high num-
bers of new cases are the minis-
try’s redoubling of its efforts in
tracking the transitional chains
of the virus and expanding the
circle of searching for infected
PHCC launches Community Call Centre
z Service launched in collaboration with MoPH and HMC
T
he Primary Health Care
Corporation (PHCC) has
launched the Community
Call Centre to answer all ques-
tions and respond to all enquir-
ies about the services provided,
it has been announced.
The service has been launched
in collaboration with the Minis-
try of Public Health (MoPH) and
Hamad Medical Corporation
(HMC), according to informa-
tion shared on the social media
by presenting our sober politi-
cal and legal position, has man-
aged to refute the allegations
and falsehoods of the blockade
countries, as well as by hold-
ing meetings with the American
and international media, which
further weakened the blockade
countries’ position.”
Sheikha Alya pointed out,
“There is a common saying in
the UN, that we in Qatar “say and
do”, unlike the blockade states
that ‘say and do not do”, speaking
about Qatari contributions, prac-
tically, in drying up the sources of
terrorism, underscoring that the
crisis greatly consolidated Qatar’s
position internationally, as the
sound legal and political position
of Qatar has helped the world to
see how it respects international
law and conventions and its role
in promoting the security and sta-
bility of the region and the world.
Shaikha Alya touched on the
multilateral action, in which
Qatar was a member of the Hu-
man Rights Council, the Execu-
tive Board of the World Health
Organisation, the Governing
people through intensive and
proactive investigations of large
numbers of contacts with people
who have been confirmed with
the virus recently.
The MoPH further noted that
the number of daily tests that it
conducts on people depends pri-
marily on the number of contacts
with individuals confirmed to be
infected with the virus, as it con-
ducts random checks in different
places of the country as a proac-
tive measure. This is in addition
to the tests performed on patients
in health centres and emergency
departments. The number of tests
performed daily is not linked to
the number of cases detected in
terms of any rise or fall.
The MoPH stressed that be-
cause the Covid-19 outbreak is at
the peak stage in Qatar, it is im-
portant not to leave the house ex-
cept when absolutely essential. It
also highlighted the importance of
adhering to all measures to protect
against virus infection, includ-
ing maintaining social distancing
both in the workplace and public
places, as well as wearing a medi-
cal mask and avoiding social visits
to reduce the risk of contracting
Covid-19.
According to a tweet from
the MoPH, with a total of 4,866
people tested for Covid-19 in the
pages of the country’s health
entities.
An accompanying infographic
explains how people can avail of
the service:
z Step 1 - Dial the Qatar
healthcare unified contact cen-
tre number, 16000; then press
(1) for Arabic or press (2) for
Council of the International La-
bour Organisation, which repre-
sent an aspiration of every state
that wished to assume an active
role in multilateral international
action and it is a challenge that
must be successfully met.
Sheikha Alya said, “In rec-
ognition of Qatar’s position at
the UN and at the international
level, I, as a Permanent Repre-
sentative of Qatar, and the Per-
manent Representative of Swe-
den, had been entrusted with a
key task by the President of the
General Assembly to lead inter-
governmental negotiations to
develop and adopt a political
declaration of world leaders
on that occasion. The decla-
ration will be adopted at the
High-level Meeting, with the
participation of heads of state
and government, on September
21, 2020”.
The interview addressed many
topics of concern to children’s
rights, empowering women to
hold leadership positions, many
UN-related issues, and Qatar’s
relevant role.
last 24 hours, as many as 157,570
have been tested so far in Qatar.
The total number of infected
people in Qatar since the start of
the Covid-10 outbreak is 32,604.
The total number of current ac-
tive cases is 28,219. The total
number of people currently un-
der acute hospital care is 1,421,
including 242 acute hospital ad-
missions in the last 24 hours.
A total of 165 Covid-19 pa-
tients are currently in ICU, with
18 admitted in the last 24 hours.
The total number of Covid-19
deaths so far in Qatar is 15.
The MoPH also called on
anyone who has symptoms of
Covid-19 should either quickly
contact the 16000 helpline or
go directly to one of the desig-
nated health centres for testing
the virus. The earlier the disease
is detected the easier it will be to
receive the right treatment and
recover from it.
The four main testing centres
are Muaither Health Centre;
Rawdat Al Khalil Health Centre;
Um Slal Health Centre; and Al
Gharafa Health Centre, MoPH
said.
The MoPH also urged the
public to regularly visit its web-
site regularly to view the latest
information and instructions
related to Covid-19.
English
z Step 2 - Press (2) for PHCC
medical services
z Step 3 - Press (1) for rou-
tine medical consultations; then
press (1) for dental clinics, press
(2) for general practitioner (GP)
or press (3) for other clinics -
Press (2) for urgent medical con-
sultations; then press (1) for ur-
gent medical consultation with
a doctor, or press (2) for urgent
dental consultation

World needs Covid-19 clarity to check
mental health decline: Doha Debates
S
afeguarding jobs, provid-
ing the public with clear
governmental guidance,
and not using the phrase “social
distancing” have been marked
out as key to avoiding people’s
mental health plummeting
across the world amid Covid-19,
an online discussion by Qa-
tar Foundation’s Doha Debates
pointed out.
Coping With The Crisis:
Mental Health and Covid-19 –
the theme of the latest edition
of Doha Debates’ #DearWorld-
Live series – saw a University
of Oxford academic whose work
focuses on human well-being
warn that, after a period of early
resilience, people’s mental state
may now be starting to decline
with no end to the pandemic
currently in sight.
Dr Jan-Emmanuel De Neve,
an economics professor who has
won accolades for his contribu-
tions to the scientific study of
happiness, told the show: “In
the first month following the
lockdown, people adapted, and
we were quite resilient.
“However, the latest data
QCRI offers
perspectives
on coronavirus
treatment, news
manipulation
T
he Qatar Comput-
ing Research Institute
(QCRI), part of Hamad
Bin Khalifa University (HBKU),
delivered the fifth and sixth
instalments of its webinar
series centred on Covid-19.
Organised by QCRI’s Qa-
tar Centre for Artificial Intel-
ligence, the series focuses on
the use of artificial intelligence
and data science for Covid-19
data.
The presentations focused
on the race to develop vaccines
and treatments and the ‘info-
demic’ of inaccurate and false
news undermining efforts to
overcome the pandemic.
A ‘Data-Driven Perspective
on Drug Discovery’ highlight-
ed technologies and meth-
odologies used by scientists
in their pursuit of finding a
treatment or a vaccine for
Covid-19.
QCRI speakers Raghvendra
Mall, research scientist; and
Ehsan Ullah, software engi-
neer in the Health Group, dis-
cussed the pros and cons of
some of the directions being
pursued in search of a treat-
ment, showcasing quantita-
tive measures that are widely
utilised to measure a drug’s
effectiveness. They present-
ed an AI-based approach to
design the drug repurpos-
ing task to identify potential
drug candidates for the Sars-
CoV-2 virus.
Speaking after the lecture,
Dr Mall said, “As scientists
across the globe work non-
stop to find a vaccine for
Covid-19, the world waits
with hope and uncertainty.
This webinar explored the
scientific techniques and
methodologies used by these
scientists and provided a
perspective on the possi-
ble consequences of fast-
tracking the process.”
Flattening the Curve of the
Covid-19 Infodemic, pre-
sented by QCRI’s principal
scientists Kareem Darwish
(acting managing director of
Arabic Language Technolo-
gies), Preslav Nakov (Giovanni
“However, the latest data shows we are
now at an inflection point where we are
muddling through, and there are the
first signs of things pointing downward
again, partially driven by people being
fed up. I think that’s because people are
now coming to terms with the idea this
is not going to be a V-shaped recovery
where we sprint back to the old normal”
shows we are now at an inflec-
tion point where we are mud-
dling through, and there are
the first signs of things point-
ing downward again, partially
driven by people being fed up. I
think that’s because people are
now coming to terms with the
idea this is not going to be a V-
shaped recovery where we sprint
back to the old normal.
“People are fearful about
what will happen in the next few
months and governments are
not being clear on this. This rais-
es uncertainty and psychologi-
cal instability, and we could see
“The prolifera-
tion of fabricat-
ed news that
has accompa-
nied the Cov-
id-19 pandemic
is putting many
lives at risk and
impeding the
progress in
containing the
virus”
Da San Martino scientist),
discussed the politicisation
of the pandemic and its effect
on the perception of medical
realities.
They also presented tools
developed by QCRI to help
address misinformation and
information manipulation in
the context of social media
and traditional media out-
lets. These include “Tanbih”,
a news aggregator developed
to limit the effect of fake
news, propaganda, and me-
dia bias by promoting media
literacy and critical thinking.
Dr Nakov said: “The
proliferation of fabricated
news that has accompa-
nied the Covid-19 pan-
demic is putting many lives
at risk and impeding the
progress in containing the
virus. With this webinar, we
aimed to educate and direct
the public to resources that
can help them identify fake
news.”
The final instalment in
QCRI’s online webinar series
on Covid-19 will be a panel
titled Responding to Global
Crises in the Age of Data and
Information Overload to-
day. Experts will discuss the
outcomes of Covid-19 cov-
ering the physical reality on
the ground and the overload
of new information. The free
webinar can be accessed at
https://www.hbku.edu.qa/
en/data-science-covid-19.
Gulf Times
Monday, May 18, 2020 3
QATAR
“In psychiatry, there is the
idea of defence mechanism –
unconscious ways of dealing
with difficulty – and they in-
clude creativity and altruism,”
he said. “People can be inclined
to help others as a way of helping
themselves through this.
Emmy Award-winning writer
and speaker Suleika Jaouad, a
cancer survivor, told #Dear-
WorldLive: “We need to recog-
nise how the imprints of an ex-
perience like a global pandemic
will remain long after the crisis is
a general decrease in our mental over – there will be a long-term
health and well-being without fallout, and we need to give peo-
government guidance on what ple space and give a language to
to do, what is right, and what is the very real hardship people are
wrong.” experiencing.
The #DearWorldLive dis- “It’s important to focus on
cussion, moderated by Nelufar acts we can do beyond our own
Hedayat, also included psychia- lives, in the service of others,
trist, writer, filmmaker, and en- and take precautions to protect
trepreneur Dr Kamran Ahmed, our mental and emotional well- Screenshot of the online discussion by Qatar Foundation’s Doha Debates.
who specialises in treating being just as we take precautions
mental issues. He told the show in terms of staying at home. The year medical student at Qatar may seem on pause, it is not call it post-traumatic growth,
he has seen patients “severely temptation is to focus on physi- Foundation partner university necessarily a pause on yourself. which is a form of connectedness
anxious about catching the vi- cal illness without also focusing Weill Cornell Medicine – Qa- “We should try to take this and togetherness. There are no
rus”, struggling with losing jobs on the more holistic impact of tar, said: “People should look at time to learn more about our- sides in this pandemic – we are
and businesses, and grieving for this pandemic.” this as a time for self-learning selves and reflect on what we all on the same side, battling the
loved ones. And Dana al-Ali, a fourth- and self-growth – although life have seen to become stronger. We same thing.”
Doha Bank MC debit card customers
to get 5% cashback on online spending
I
n continuation of its constant efforts ation, combating the spread of Covid-19, ing safely at their homes. Our clients can
to cater to the various needs of its a plenty of precautionary measures have now pay with ease via the internet for
customers, Doha Bank has announced been put in place by the Qatari govern- multiple purposes, such as shopping for
its e-commerce MasterCard (MC) debit ment, including instructing people to goods, bill payment, food delivery and
cards’ campaign. use cashless and contactless modes of online subscription.”
The promotion, which takes place un- payment instead of banknotes. In order to qualify for the 5% cashback
til July 31, rewards Doha Bank customers “Therefore, Doha Bank, in support of reward on their online spending, Doha
with 5% cashback upon using their Mas- such directive, has recently launched the Bank clients have to execute at least seven
terCard Debit cards for online purchases. E-Commerce MasterCard Debit cards’ online transactions, a month with their
The step comes in synch with the promotion, which encourages its cus- MasterCard Debit cards.
Qatari government directives to curb tomers to secure their transactions elec- The promotion comes as part of facili-
the spread of the the novel coronavirus retail banking Braik Ali al-Marri said, tronically to get the chance of earning 5% tating the use of e-commerce and online
disease (Covid-19), advising people “Doha Bank once again reasserts its com- cashback on their spends.” marketplaces for Doha Bank customers
to perform financial transactions us- mitment to serve its clients during differ- He added: “With such an offer, our cus- following the closure of shopping malls,
ing cashless and contactless payment ent circumstances and under all condi- tomers can use their MasterCard Debit a preventive action implemented by the
methods. tions. As our country and the world are cards online and get rewarded QR300 Qatari government to contain the spread
On the new campaign, Doha Bank chief now experiencing an extraordinary situ- maximum per month in total while stay- of the infection.
Indian forum is mulling chartered
flights for Kerala-bound passengers
approve the proposals, we can for the needy community mem- ernments permit us. It is done
By Joseph Varghese
Staff Reporter arrange the flights to the four bers from Kerala to fly home, without any profit and purely
international flights in Kerala according to Basheer. on humanitarian consideration,”
continued, Basheer.
within a few days on a very com- “What we are offering is a
A
n Indian organisation petitive and reasonable fare,” he one-way ticket on discounted The KMCC official said that
is mulling the idea of
chartering flights to the
said.
It is learnt that over 44,000
rates to Kerala. We are in talks
with the Indian Embassy, Min-
among the stranded people,
there are many jobless people
S A M Basheer
southern state of Kerala at a ‘rea- Indians, including several thou- istry of Civil Aviation, Ministry without any income and not in food kits to over 20,000 people
sonable and competent fare’ to sand Keralites, have registered of External Affairs and different a position to meet their daily as well as 1,250 Iftar kits daily
repatriate community members with the Indian embassy for re- airlines to charter the flights. We needs. There are also many during the holy month of Ra-
stranded due to Covid-19. patriation citing urgent matters. have already submitted applica- suffering from illnesses. madan. In collaboration with
“We are in talks with vari- The number of flights allotted tion to the authorities concerned “The number of chartered Hamad Blood Donation Centre,
ous ministries of the Govern- to Kerala from Qatar as part of and waiting for approvals. The flights will depend on the ap- KMCC recently organised blood
ment of India as well as various ‘Vande Bharat’ mission are few facility is exclusively for Keral- proval from the government donation camps twice.
airlines to charter flights,” S A in number while the demand is ites, not just for our members,” and the number of people who KMCC has also a ‘Medichain’
M Basheer, president of Qatar so high. Basheer explained. come forward to register for the service to bring medicines from
Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre KMCC has over 26,000 mem- “We are happy to make the facility, noted Basheer. India for patients, which was
(KMCC), told Gulf Times. bers in Qatar. The organisation necessary arrangements to char- The official highlighted that helpful to thousands of expats
“If the authorities concerned is happy to make arrangements ter the flights, provided the gov- last month, KMCC delivered suffering from illnesses.
17 environmental violations detected in Industrial Area
The Ministry of Municipality and Environment’s (MME) Department of Industrial Inspection and Pollution
Control has carried out a number of inspections on the industrial organisations and facilities with the
Industrial Area to ensure that that all relevant environmental standards are followed strictly. The campaign
covered more than 92 factories and resulted in spotting 17 environmental violations. Reports were issued
to the violators who were referred to the security entities concerned. In addition, three factories were
asked to modify their environmental conditions based on the plans they had submitted earlier.
 Gulf Times
4 Monday, May 18, 2020

QATAR
Ooredoo Money sub-wallets to benefit family members, domestic staff
T
he Ooredoo Money service has
a brand-new feature that al-
lows users to register family
members and domestic staff by shar-
ing their wallet’s limit so they can have
their own sub-wallet and get the same
quick, easy, and efficient access to
Ooredoo Money services.
The new feature means family mem-
bers over the age of eight for Qatari na-
tionals, and over the age of 18 for residents
of other nationalities, and any domestic
staff with their Ooredoo mobile number
registered under the main wallet holder’s
QID can have their own sub-wallet, which
they can operate independently.
This will enable them to access the type as the main wallet, either basic necessarily have their mobile number
raft of services offered by Ooredoo or full — being assigned a share of the registered under their QID, including
Money from the safety of their home. main wallet limit. family members and domestic staff.
Family or staff members can request The main wallet holder can edit lim- “Now, with our new sub-wallet fea-
a sub-wallet by using the ‘Register’ its at any time via the Ooredoo app. ture, these customers will be able to ac-
option on the Ooredoo Money app, Once set up, sub-wallet holders can cess all the Ooredoo Money services the
and the main wallet-holder will then use their sub-wallet as an independ- main wallet holder can access, meaning
be prompted to approve the request. ent wallet and enjoy Ooredoo Money they can take care of a number of eve-
A sub-wallet can be assigned by the services including sending remit- ryday tasks quickly, easily and digitally
main wallet holder by using the ‘sub- tances, recharging mobile numbers, via the Ooredoo Money app.”
wallet’ option on the app, entering the recharging international numbers, He added: “This is a timely devel-
holder’s QID and uploading images of paying bills, booking movie tickets, opment, given we are all following the
the sub-wallet holder’s QID. and much more. stay-home directive for the safety of
Main wallet holders will be able to Sabah Rabiah al-Kuwari, director, our community, and we’re pleased to
set transaction limits for all their sub- PR at Ooredoo, said: “We recognise be able to help our customers manage
wallets with sub-wallets – the same that many of our customers don’t these challenging times.”

QF opens way for entrepreneurs

CRA cautions and startups to fight Covid-19
telecom users Q
atar Science and Tech-
nology Park (QSTP)
and Qatar Foundation
Research, Development, and
Innovation (QF RDI) are fast-
tracking programmes and fund
The Tech Venture Fund (sup-
ports embryonic companies in
Qatar, and also provides back-
ing to more established, inter-
national start-ups with invest-
ment of up to $500,000 at a seed

about fraud
applications from innovators stage and up to $3m at a Series
with potential solutions for B round.
Covid-19. Meanwhile, QSTP’s Product
“Although much of the world Development Fund and the QF
remains in lockdown in the RDI Innovation Coupon aim to
fight against an invisible enemy strengthen the private sector
called Covid-19, people are con- and contribute to the diversi-

messages
tinuing to work around the clock
in search of ways to overcome
the challenges global society
is facing,” a QF statement said
yesterday.
Among them are the world’s
entrepreneurs, who are shifting
QSTP executive director Yosouf al-Salehi. fication of Qatar’s economy by
funding SMEs and start-ups
geared towards supporting any Covid-19 continues to affect our that develop products and serv-
eligible tech ventures, they are world, we are striving to address ices relevant to the local market
now specifically calling for en- the challenges it has created and needs.
trepreneurs who have novel so- to be what these unprecedented The QSTP Incubation Center
lutions to the challenges posed times demand. accelerates the establishment

T
he Communications Reg-
ulatory Authority (CRA)
has cautioned telecom
consumers not to respond to
fraud messages.
The CRA had conducted re-
cently a bi-lingual survey in Ara-
bic and English, on social media
channels about fraud messages.
“We urge telecom consumers
not to respond to fraud messages,
delete them to avoid the risk of re-
plying accidentally, avoid calling
the mentioned number, report it
to their telecom service provider
or bank to validate this message,
and avoid opening the link at-
tached as hackers use this method
to obtain their personal informa-
tion or direct them to a malware
site that can affect the data on
their devices,” said Amel Salem
al-Hanawi, director of Consumer
Affairs Department at CRA.
The survey was conducted in
line with CRA’s efforts to spread
awareness among telecom con-
sumers in Qatar and with the aim
Amel Salem al-Hanawi
of measuring telecom consum-
ers level of awareness of fraud
messages, that inform consum-
ers that they won a prize, or that
their bank card has been sus-
pended or compromised, and ask
them to call as suspicious mobile
number, so they can get their
personal or bank information.
The bi-lingual survey covered
around 1,200 participants.
The results indicate that 95%
of telecom consumers are aware
of fraud messages and its pur-
poses and that they take the nec-
essary measures to protect them-
selves and devices from hacking,
by either ignoring the messages,
deleting it, or by blocking the
number and report it to their tel-
ecom service provider.
Also, through the survey around
83% stated that they can spot
fraud messages through some
signs, such as the sender number
or grammar and spelling mistakes.
“Due to the increase of fraud
messages recently, I want to con-
firm that telecom service provid-
ers and banks will never contact
their customers through messag-
ing and Voice over IP (VoIP) mo-
bile applications to ask for their
passwords, activation code, or
personal and financial informa-
tion. By following these preven-
tive measures, telecom consum-
ers can help to limit these fraud
messages and save their devices
and personal information from
being hacked,” she added.
focus and re-evaluating their
priorities in order to help devel-
op creative, functional, and ef-
fective solutions to the difficul-
ties that the Covid-19 pandemic
has presented.
Whether it’s helping parents
school their children whilst jug-
gling household duties and full-
time jobs, providing Personal
Protective Equipment to medi-
cal staff, or ensuring the deliv-
ery of necessities to people who
are self-isolating, entrepre-
neurs, start-ups, and SMEs are
playing their part in combating
this crisis.
QF RDI offers a number of
programmes that help entre-
preneurs take their ideas from
the drawing board to the mar-
ket. These include QSTP’s Incu-
bation and XLR8 programmes,
Product Development Fund,
Tech Venture Fund, and Mena
Dojo, as well as QF RDI’s Inno-
vation Coupon.
While these programmes are
by Covid-19 – in the fields of
healthcare, remote learning,
and supply chain optimisation
– to apply.
These programmes usually
run on a yearly schedule, but
are now accepting applications
on a rolling basis with no dead-
line, and applications with ideas
specifically targeting issues sur-
rounding Covid-19 will be ex-
pedited, with the Mena Dojo be-
ing open to regional applicants
and the Tech Venture Fund open
to international applicants.
“At Qatar Foundation, we are
determined to play our part in
the global fight against Cov-
id-19,” said Yosouf al-Salehi,
QSTP executive director.
“Technology and innovation
are at the forefront of this glo-
bal battle against the pandemic.
QSTP has been a byword for
tech innovation that addresses
the needs of Qatar and global
society since its establishment
more than 10 years ago, and, as
“We want to make a posi-
tive and tangible contribution
to developing solutions that
our world urgently needs right
now, and that is why we want
to hear from local and interna-
tional start-ups and SMEs with
ideas that can support the fight
against Covid-19.”
Start-ups and SMEs accepted
into these programmes have the
opportunity to be incubated,
acquire funding, and gain access
to mentorship, training, and
technical guidance that sup-
ports them in taking their prod-
ucts and services to the point of
commercialisation.
QSTP is a premier environment
for start-ups and SMEs to develop
their technologies, with its Incu-
bator offering an array of benefits
that include rapid and affordable
incorporation in a collaborative
co-working space, business fa-
cilitation, and access to a network
of mentors, funding schemes, and
prototyping facilities.
and growth of promising tech-
nology startups by offering
co-working space and support
services – including access to
mentors, funding, training, and
prototyping facilities – over
a 12-month period, while the
two-month QSTP XLR8 pro-
gramme enables tech entre-
preneurs to determine whether
their idea has commercial po-
tential and take it to the proto-
type stage.
Established through a part-
nership with 500 Startups, the
Mena Dojo is a six-week invest-
ment programme offering in-
tensive one-to-one training and
mentoring for tech startups that
have already raised investment
but are now looking to scale up.
For more information about
QSTP’s programmes and how
to apply, visit www.qstp.org.
qa. More information about QF
RDI’s Innovation Coupon can
be found at https://www.qf.org.
qa/innovation-coupon

Lexus, Toyota
Qmic report finds significant reduction in congestion levels in Qatar models recalled

T
he Ministry of Commerce and In-

W
eekly congestion level in Qatar has
dropped significantly by 55% to 66%
since late March, with biggest drop of
66% in the first week of May, according to the
Covid-19 Mobility Analytics report released by
the Qatar Mobility Innovations Centre (Qmic)
yesterday.
The Qmic report also points upto 80% reduc-
tion in weekly airport trips since early April.
The weekly outdoor mobility activity dropped
by about 45% in late March to late April, how-
ever level of activity increased in early May and
weekly number of car trips dropped by about
50% in late March to mid-April, however level
of activity increased in late April and early May
which coincides with Ramadan.
The Qmic statistics provides insight into
movement and mobility behaviour in Qatar
since the beginning of the pandemic until the
first week of May 2020.
The report is based on the unique and rich
traffic data bank produced by Qmic’s Advanced
Traffic Monitoring & Analytics Platform (Masa-
rak) which collects millions of data records on a
daily basis about mobility behaviour in Qatar.
Using mobility behaviour during the first half
of February as a baseline (before the Covid-19
Pandemic), the report focuses on a few key per-
formance metrics that show how mobility be-
haviour has changed on a weekly basis since the
middle of February till the first week of May.
These metrics include: weekly change in con-
gestion level, weekly change in city outdoor ac-
tivity, weekly change in number of car trips, and
weekly change in trip activity to/from Hamad
International Airport.
Such data and metrics give an indication
about public compliance with stay-at-home in-
structions and shed light into changes in social
distancing behaviour.
“For the last few weeks, our team has been
busy into looking into how we can utilise our ex-
isting digital platforms and how to leverage our
technology know-how to build new applications
and services to support the national fight against
Covid-19,” Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya, the executive
director (CEO) of Qmic said.
“Today’s mobility report is an example of how
our extensive traffic data bank can be used to
track mobility behaviour in Qatar which can be
useful in aiding decision makers and planners in
assessing compliance with national guidelines
associated with Covid-19”.
For many years, Qmic has been utilising its
vast multi-source data collection network and
mobility analytics platform to collect various
metrics and inputs in order to analyse and draw
important conclusions regarding mobility in
Qatar.
This data is in turn used to power a number
of applications and services, including but not
only the annual Qatar Traffic Report as well as
monthly reports shared with Qmic’s key part-
ners.
Qmic plans to update its mobility report on a
weekly basis starting on the second half of May
in order to track weekly trends and changes in
mobility behaviour.
Additionally, this data could serve as a rich
and informative source for stakeholders and a
valued tool for future and current planning pur-
poses.
dustry, in co-operation with Ab-
dullah Abdulghani & Bros Co, an-
nounced the recall of Lexus ES350 and
Toyota Avalon Models of 2018-2019, due
to a possible fuel pump malfunction that
may cause the vehicles to stop functioning.
The ministry confirmed the recall cam-
paign comes within the framework of its
ongoing efforts to protect consumers and
ensure that vehicle dealers follow up on
defects and repairs.
The ministry has said that it will co-or-
dinate with the dealer to follow up on the
maintenance and repair works and will
communicate with customers to ensure
that the necessary repairs are carried out.
The ministry customers to report any vio-
lations to its Consumer Protection and Anti-
Commercial Fraud Department, which proc-
esses complaints, inquiries and suggestions
through the following channels: Call Centre:
16001, e-mail: info@moci.gov.qa, Twitter: @
MOCIQATAR, Instagram: MOCIQATAR, mo-
Qmic’s Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya. bile app for Android and IOS: MOCIQATAR.

Qatar National Library supports open access for Qatari research

E
xperts at Qatar National
Library (QNL) have guided
researchers through the
Library’s Open Access Author
Fund, as part of a commitment to
sharing knowledge and informa-
tion across the world.
The online sessions saw prac-
tical advice given to researchers
wishing to publish open access
articles, as well as detailed in-
structions of gaining access to
funding for publishing in open
access journals.
The Open Access Author Fund
aims to support Qatar-based re-
search through the provision of
a national fund that covers costs
related to open access publishing.
It is available for students, fac-
QNL is a leading centre in open access in the Gulf and Mena. ulty, researchers and staff from
any institute of higher education
or non-profit research institute
within Qatar.
Qatar National Library is a lead-
ing centre in open access in the
Gulf and Middle East and North
Africa (Mena) region, and is work-
ing towards making a global im-
pact, particularly in areas where
access to information is limited
due to factors such as funding.
QNL has funded 782 articles
since 2017. The QNL Consortium
recently announced a partner-
ship with a major publisher Else-
vier for an open access publish-
ing pilot in Qatar.
This linkup represents the
company’s first combined read-
ing and publishing agreement in
the Gulf region.
QNL also has open access
agreements with other tradition-
ally subscription-based publish-
ers, including Springer Nature,
Taylor and Francis, Emerald,
Sage, Ovid, Wolters, Karger, De
Gruyter and Wiley.
Dr Alwaleed Alkhaja, senior
intellectual property librar-
ian and OA fund manager at
QNL said: “We are committed
to supporting the researchers
of Qatar to disseminate their
findings as far and wide as pos-
sible. Wherever we can, we will
support innovative scholars,
creative thinkers and scien-
tific pioneers to maximise the
impact of their findings across
the world.”
“We were delighted to be able
to assist researchers in Qatar this
week to understand how they can
finance their research publica-
tions. Open access is one of our
core values, which can also be
seen in our commitment to of-
fering free, unrestricted access to
our collections and services such
as the Qatar Digital Library and
our repository.
“We have created opportuni-
ties for scholars across Qatar to
publish in open access journals
by covering article processing
charges for local and interna-
tional journals, as well as nego-
tiating agreements with major
publishers to make sure that re-
search findings create as many
waves as possible across the re-
search community and beyond.”
 Gulf Times
Monday, May 18, 2020 5

QATAR
Qatar Charity distributes Zakat Al-Fitr
to thousands of people worldwide
Q
atar Charity (QC), with the generous support
of donors in Qatar, continues to distribute
Zakat al-Fitr to families in need, families
of orphans and refugees in 23 countries around the
world.
Zakat al-Fitr is distributed in the form of food
baskets that include the main food items, especially
rice, or by providing coupons that allow beneficiaries
to choose their necessary foodstuffs.
The project aims to benefit 341,583 people at a cost
of more than 5.1 million Qatari riyals to alleviate the
suffering of the vulnerable, especially in light of the
current situation due to the coronavirus.
Albania
In Albania, 6000 food baskets were distributed to poor families and orphans in many governorates
within the framework of the Zakat al-Fitr project, in the presence of His Excellency Ali bin Hamad Al-
Marri, Qatar’s ambassador to Albania, in addition to local officials including Mr. Erion Veliaj, Mayor
of Tirana.
Turkey
In Turkey, coupons were distributed to needy families of Syrian refugees and Turkish families in
major provinces of the country. Some 7,500 coupons were distributed to 4,000 families, bringing the
total number of beneficiaries to 20,000.
Palestine
In the Gaza Strip, the Zakat al-Fitr project is under the implementation. Some 1,442 families
sponsored by Qatar Charity are expected to benefit from the project by providing them with food
baskets.
Kyrgyzstan
In Kyrgyzstan, zakat al-Fitr was distributed to those in need, benefiting 7,635 people.

Zakat al Fitr: A source of delight for the poor and needy

A
s only a few days of the blessed month of Ramadan are left to go, Qatar Charity
seeks to make Zakat al Fitr a source of delight for the poor and needy across
the globe. By distributing Zakat al Fitr, Qatar Charity aims at lightening the
burdens upon poor families, meeting the needs of orphans, and promoting solidarity and
cooperation among people.
Zakat al-Fitr is one of the seasonal projects of Qatar Charity. This year, it targets 500
families with 2,500 individuals in Qatar, at a total cost of 1,477,230 Qatar riyals, and
341,583 people outside Qatar in 23 countries, a total cost estimated at more than five
million Qatari riyals.
Qatar Charity urges people in Qatar to pay their zakat al-Fitr in the remaining days of
the blessed month of Ramadan, as a purification of the fasting from empty and obscene
talk and as food for the poor. Zakat al-Fitr is QR15 for each individual this year. Qatar
Charity will continue to receive donations from benefactors in Qatar until the morning
of Eid Al-Fitr.
Ways to Pay Zakat al-Fitr
Zakat al-Fitr can be given at Qatar Charity’s headquarters, branches, and collection
points across the country, in addition to paying it by dialing 44667711, and through Qatar
Charity’s website and app.

Qatar Charity distributes
Eid gifts and clothes to
orphans in Qatar
Q Q
atar Charity (QC) has started its preparations to implement the Eid Gift and
Eid Clothing projects within the State of Qatar to share the joy of Eid with
orphans, and low-income families.
The Eid Gift Project targets 450 orphans sponsored by Qatar Charity, while the
Eid Clothing Project targets 400 children belonging to low-income families. A sum
of money will be deposited in the bank accounts of these families to enable them to
purchase clothes and other necessary items for Eid.
How to Donate
Benefactors can donate to the Eid Gift Project by sending an SMS with the code
QARA. To donate QR50, QR100, and QR500, an SMS with the code ‘QARA’ can
be sent to 92632, 92642, and 92428, respectively. Also, donations can be made by
visiting the website (http://qch.qa/Edia) and dialing 44667711.
To donate the Eid clothing, you can contribute through the link (http://qch.qa/
kswa) or you can send an SMS with the code ‘QARC’. To donate QR50 and QR150,
please send an SMS with the code ‘QARC’ to 92632 and 92014, respectively.
10 x 10: Charity for the
last ten days of
Ramadan
atar Charity (QC) launched the “10 nights x 10 projects” charity for the last
ten days of Ramadan to allow donors to increase their rewards by donating
daily in an easy way for charitable projects.
Donors can contribute to the “10 nights x 10 projects” charity by visiting the
link (Qch.qa) or through Qatar Charity’s mobile app, using credit and debit cards,
in addition to donating by dialing 44667711.
Orphans in Gaza and
Kyrgyzstan receive Eid
clothes from Qatar Charity
Qatar Charity (QC) has distributed clothes to over 400 orphans in Gaza
and Kyrgyzstan on Eid al Fitr.
In Kyrgyzstan, 80 orphans sponsored by Qatar Charity received Eid
clothes through its office in Bishkek, while these clothes were distributed to
333 orphans in Gaza, with the support of benefactors in Qatar.
Qatar Charity, with the support of benefactors in Qatar, aims to provide
Eid clothes to 3,355 orphans in 25 countries worldwide.
It is worth mentioning that Qatar Charity has earlier distributed Eid
clothing to orphans in Indonesia, benefiting 160 children in Jakarta, Depok,
and West Java.
 Gulf Times
6 Monday, May 18, 2020

RAMADAN/AFRICA
Zakatul-Fitr: When Zumba break for nurses

is the payment due

I
maams Ash-Shaafi’ee and Ah-
mad state that the Zakatul-Fitr
payment becomes obligatory
after sunset on Eid’s eve, or the
last day of fasting, because this is
the end of Ramadan. Abu Haneefah
(and also Ash-Shaafi’ee in an earlier
opinion of his) held that the sum of
Zakatul-Fitr becomes obligatory
at the dawn of Eid day because it is
reported that the Prophet, sallal-
laahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, commanded
his Companions to pay Zakatul-
Fitr before going out to perform
the prayer of Eid [Al-Bukhari and
Muslim]. (Therefore, if one has a
newborn before the dawn of Eid, or
one dies after the sunset of the final
day of fasting, his or her Zakatul-
Fitr must be paid, according to Abu
Haneefah).
Also, according to Abu Haneefah
it is possible to pay Zakatul-Fitr
in Ramadan in advance, or even
just prior to the commencement of
Ramadan. Ash-Shaafi’ee however,
holds that Zakatul-Fitr can be given
on the first day of fasting Ramadan.
Imaams Maalik and Ahmad state
that its payment becomes obligatory
after the sunset of the last day of
Ramadan, but can be paid one or two
days earlier.
Where should Zakatul-Fitr be
paid?
In general, the best place for
the collection and distribution of
one’s Zakaah and charity—and this
includes Zakatul-Fitr—is one’s
locality or community, be it in
one’s city, state, or country. This is
strongly implied in the statement
concern for the payment and
collection of all Zakaah resources
and charities—especially Zakatul-
Fitr —is an auspicious sign, indeed,
for the Muslim community. Zakaah
has increasingly taken a central place
in contemporary Muslim discourse,
as its dynamic (almost miraculous)
possibilities are again being realised
by Muslims. It is one of the most
blessed and pleasing expressions of
our worship, to which Allah alone has
guided us. And all goodness and truth
is from Him alone.
1. Zakatul-Fitr is obligatory upon
every Muslim who has the food
or provision to sustain himself,
foods, such as rice, meat, milk and
so forth, but should be valued in
accordance with the items specified
by the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa
sallam. Moreover, it is permissible
to give Zakatul-Fitr in currency by
paying the equivalent value of what is
obligated. Those Muslim institutions
entrusted with its collection and
distribution are required to assess the
value of the originally specified items
in their areas, and to disseminate that
information in their communities,
accordingly.
4. Zakatul-Fitr must be given
before the prayer of Eid. It is
forbidden to delay it until after
the Eid day. If one, for any reason,
is prevented from giving it at that Nurses assigned to the Infectious Diseases Unit (IDU) at the Kenyatta University Hospital dance during a Zumba class
particular time, one must pay it after held at the hospital compound in Nairobi, yesterday. Coinciding with the morning shift rotation, the class aimed to
that time passes. If there is a need, offer some respite to nurses charged with the management of patients infected with Covid-19 coronavirus, and was
Zakatul-Fitr may be given at any time organised by the Nursing Council of Kenya (NCK) and the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and
from the beginning of the month of Research Hospital in the capital.
Ramadan that is, its first day—until
the end of the specified time [of Eid
day].
5. It is permissible for one to
delegate another to give Zakatul-Fitr
on one’s behalf.
6. It is permissible for the
institutions that collect Zakatul-
Fitr to exchange it from goods to
currency, and vice versa, based on the
Armed group kills 20
general interest of the community.
7. It is permissible, in special cases,
to transfer Zakatul-Fitr collections
from the people or locality in which it
was collected to nearby communities
in northeast Congo
in more need. And it is equally Reuters “It’s unbearable to see people die like orders yet, said army spokesman Ju-
permissible to spend Zakatul-Fitr Beni that.” les Ngongo. Rich in natural resources
in another community, if the giving The attackers fled after United Na- including gold, diamonds and coltan,
community has no one in need of it. tions peacekeepers arrived at the vil- Ituri province was the site of some of

of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi
wa sallam, in sending the famed
Companion Mu’aath Ibn Jabal,
radhiallah ‘anhu, to teach the people
of Yemen. He said to him, “Inform
them that Allah has made the paying
of Zakaah obligatory on them. Take
it from their rich and give it to their
poor.”
There are provisions for
transferring Zakaah resources to
other communities among Muslims;
however, special guidelines for doing
so have been established by Muslim
scholars in accordance with Islamic
legislation, to which the institutions
responsible for the collection and
distribution of Zakaah among
Muslims must adhere.
Zakatul-Fitr: A favourable sign
for our community
The reemergence of Muslim
and those whom he is obligated to
support, on the eve and the day of
Eid, provided that this exceeds his
basic needs.
2. A man is obliged to pay Zakatul-
Fitr for his wife and minor children
who have no money of their own. In
the case of one who has independent
children, one is not obliged for their
payment.
3. What is obligatory is the giving
of a Saa’ (four handfuls) of dates,
barley, raisins, or other such grain,
equal to about 2.25kg of wheat.
Originally, the giving of Zakatul-
Fitr was limited to the kinds of food
that had been stated in the relevant
statement of the Prophet, sallallaahu
‘alaihi wa sallam. However, jurists
have established (through proper
methods) that it may be given out
of other commonly consumed
8. One must have a clear intention
before giving one’s Zakatul-Fitr. If
one delegates, or gives permission,
to another to give Zakatul-Fitr on
his behalf, it is considered an explicit
intention.
9. The Zakatul-Fitr payment
should be dedicated to the poor and
the needy. In some cases, however,
it can be given to eligible recipients
of Zakat of wealth; namely those
stated by Allah in the following verse
(which means): “for the poor and the
needy, and for those who work [to
administer it], and for those whose
hearts are to be reconciled, and for
freeing captives (or slaves), and for
those in debt, and for the cause of
Allah, and for the wayfarer…” [Qur’an
9:60]
Article source: http://www.
islamweb.net/emainpage/
A
n armed group killed at least 20
civilians in an overnight raid on
a village in northeast Demo-
cratic Republic of Congo yesterday, the
latest incident in a surge of ethnic vio-
lence that has forced 200,000 people
from their homes in two months.
Fighters from the Co-operative for
the Development of the Congo (Co-
deco) militia group, which is made
up of fighters from the Lendu ethnic
group, attacked the Hema village of
Ndjala in Ituri province at around 1am
yesterday, the army and local authori-
ties said.
“They cut with the machetes several
of my compatriots, 20 have already
died and more than 14 seriously in-
jured,” said Solo Bukutupa, a local ad-
ministrator.
lage and they later fired on a nearby UN
base, a UN source said.
Fighting by an array of armed groups
in the region has complicated Congo’s
response to the coronavirus pandemic
and an Ebola epidemic that has killed
more than 2,200 people since 2018.
Codeco split into several compet-
ing factions after the Congolese army
killed its leader Justin Ngudjolo in late
March.
Earlier this month Ngabu Ngawi Ol-
ivier, who claimed to have taken over
the leadership of Codeco, surrendered
to the army and called for the militia to
lay down its weapons.
Another faction later issued a state-
ment denouncing Olivier as an im-
poster.
No fighters have followed Olivier’s
the country’s worst fighting between
1999 and 2007, after a power struggle
between rebel groups descended into
ethnic violence — much of it between
the Hema and Lendu.
After several years of relative calm,
tit-for-tat fighting erupted again in
December 2017, reviving longstanding
tensions over land.
The unrest has since evolved into
more co-ordinated attacks by the
Lendu community on the army and the
Hema ethnic group.
Late last year the army launched a
large-scale operation to uproot a con-
stellation of militias operating in the
east of the country, sparking a back-
lash that has seen at least 350 people
killed by armed groups in Ituri, the UN
source said.
UNREST

Benin votes in disputed

Somali governor
 
    
 
     killed in Al Shebaab
suicide blast
          
poll despite coronavirus
 
  

  
A Somali governor and three bod-
yguards were killed in a suicide
                                                attack claimed by the Al Shebaab

 

militant group in the regional capi-
        AFP of the election agents” to move forward tal of Galkayo yesterday, a security
Parakou to cast his vote. official said.
 
 
   
 

 “It may seem excessive but it’s nec-
essary,” Hounga said.
The attacker rammed a scooter
taxi into a car carrying Ahmed

B
enin staged local elections minus Campaigning has been limited to Muse Nur, the governor of the
 
    
      key opposition parties yesterday posters and media appearances as can- north-central Mudug province, and
with authorities pushing ahead didates were forced to call off rallies due his security detail before detonat-
      
   despite the coronavirus threat and calls
for a delay.
to a ban on gatherings of over 50 people.
Critics warned the health risks were
ing an explosive device, official
Muse Ahmed said.
The West African nation of 11mn this too high for a vote that opponents of A witness named Bile Mohamed
      
                week lifted a raft of restrictions aimed President Patrice Talon insist should described the attack in a phone
at halting the spread of the virus. not be happening in the first place. call with AFP, saying: “Everyone in
Covid-19 has caused 339 confirmed Talon sported a mask when he voted the vehicle including the governor
 (106              infections and two deaths in the coun- early in Cotonou’s Zongo-Ehuzu area. and his driver died, there was
try. In the city’s first district Arnold Mi- smoke and fire all everywhere.”
  
    
    The autonomous national election
commission (CENA) made face masks
gan voted early in the morning. “With
the threat from Covid-19 it’s best to
Muse Ahmed confirmed the toll
of four and added: “There are

  
  

 
mandatory for voters and enforced so- vote quickly and go home before a lot of other casualties but the details
cial distancing measures at polling sta- people arrive,” he said. are still being investigated.” In late
 March, the governor of Puntland,
     
tions. “We have received a lot of hydro- Benin, seen as one of the region’s
  
      alcohol gels and masks for all voters,” most stable democracies, has been in a neighbouring semi-autonomous
returning officer Mathieu Daki said at political crisis since a disputed parlia- province, was killed in similar cir-

     
   
cumstances. Al Shebaab, a militant

N’dali in the north of the country. mentary poll last April sparked protests.
In the economic capital Cotonou Talon, a former business magnate group waging a deadly insurgency
where most coronavirus deaths have who came to power in 2016, has been in Somalia, claimed responsibility
    
  occurred, election officials ensured
voters were more than a metre apart.
accused of a crackdown that drove key
rivals into exile.
for that attack as well.


    
  
  
However, not everyone appeared to Parties allied to the president won all
HEALTH
have been reassured. the seats at the polls last year after op-
In the city’s 5th district election position groups were effectively banned Tanzania plans

    
   
 agent Dimitri Assani admitted voters
were “few and far between”. Donatien
from standing but turnout was only
25%. Now leading opposition parties to lift virus
     
  
     
 
Sagbo Hounga wore a mask to enter the again find themselves barred from the restrictions
polling station, but said he was waiting vote for control of 77 councils across
“till there were no other voters in front the country. Tanzania’s President John Magu-
     

 fuli said yesterday he plans to
reopen universities and allow the

       

resumption of sports and interna-
 

 tional flights if the decline in new
coronavirus infections continues,
             Reuters reported. The Tanzanian
government closed schools,
 
     
 
stopped international flights and
  banned large gatherings but much
of the regular economic activity has
    
   
  
 continued and religious services
have been allowed to continue

      

unlike neighbours like Rwanda
and Uganda which imposed total
lockdowns. Magufuli, who has ques-
      
         tioned the quality of Covid-19 test
kits and at one time asked citizens

  
to pray away the virus, said activities
  
  

 could resume in the coming days.
“If the trend I am seeing continues
           in the coming week, I plan to open
up universities so students can con-
tinue with their education,” Magufuli
        
  Voters queue at a primary school in Cotonou yesterday, to cast their vote for the said while speaking at a church
Benin local election. service in northwest Tanzania.

Getting prepared for Eid al-Fitr
Palestinian women, wearing protective face masks and gloves during the Covid-19 pandemic, form traditional cookies in preparation for
the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, yesterday.
Iran’s coronavirus
deaths near 7,000
AFP
Tehran
I
ran said yesterday it had re-
corded nearly 7,000 deaths
from the novel coronavirus,
warning of infection clusters
in new regions after it partially
eased lockdown measures.
Health ministry spokesman
Kianoush Jahanpour said the
Covid-19 illness had claimed a
further 51 lives over 24 hours into
yesterday.
The ministry raised the overall
death toll to 6,988 since Iran an-
nounced its first fatalities in the
pilgrimage city of Qom in Febru-
ary.
Jahanpour warned that cases
were rising “in the province of
Lorestan, and to some extent in
Kermanshah, Sistan and Balu-
Outcry in Algeria
after pregnant doctor
dies of Covid-19
AFP
Algiers
T
he death of a pregnant
Algerian doctor from the
Covid-19 disease after she
was denied maternity leave has
sparked an uproar and prompted
the dismissal yesterday of a hos-
pital director.
Health Minister Abderrahman
Benbouzid sacked the director
of the Ras El Oued hospital in
eastern Algeria after Wafa Boud-
issa succumbed to Covid-19, a
source close to the case said.
The 28-year-old doctor was
eight months pregnant and
worked at the IC surgery unit of
the hospital when she died on
Friday.
She had asked the hospital
chief, who was not named, for
early maternity leave, but he
refused to let her take any time
MARITIME
Tanker repulses pirate attack in Gulf of Aden
Armed pirates attacked a British-flagged chemical tanker in the Gulf
of Aden yesterday but were repulsed, the ship’s manager Stolt Tankers
said, Reuters reported. The pirates approached the Stolt Apal in two
speedboats some 75 nautical miles off Yemen, it said, in one of the
most important trade routes for oil heading from the Middle East to
Europe. “After multiple warning shots were fired by the armed guard
team aboard Stolt Apal, the skiffs opened fire on the ship. The armed
guard team returned fire, disabling one skiff and ending the pursuit,” a
company spokesman told Reuters in e-mailed comments.
chistan”. “Khuzestan province
is still in a critical situation,” he
added.
The southwestern province
has become Iran’s new coro-
navirus focal point, with the
most critical “red” ranking on
the country’s colour-coded
risk scale. It is the only region
so far where authorities have
reimposed business lockdowns
after a country-wide relaxation
in April.
Iran stopped publishing pro-
vincial figures for the corona-
virus last month, but the health
ministry’s latest report said
there is a “rising trend or the
beginning of a peak” in eight
provinces, including Khuz-
estan.
The country on Friday re-
ported its highest number of
new infections in more than a
off. Colleagues of the victim
had backed her request and
signed a petition in solidarity,
one of them said.
Benbouzid on Saturday or-
dered an investigation into the
death of Boudissa and, in an
unprecedented move, tasked
the inspector general of the
health ministry to head the
probe. The source close to the
case said that anyone found di-
rectly responsible for her death
could face trial for negligent
homicide.
State television meanwhile
broadcast footage showing
Benbouzid visiting the hospi-
tal and then Boudissa’s family
home to offer his condolences.
In the footage, Benbouzid
said he could not comprehend
why a pregnant woman was
forced to work, while Boud-
issa’s co-workers denounced
those behind her death.
month. A virus taskforce of-
ficial said yesterday that the
increase was due to a surge in
testing, not just of Covid-19
patients with severe symp-
toms.
Early in the outbreak “our
focus was on severe cases that
had to be hospitalised, but as
we started to manage the dis-
ease we looked at those infect-
ed and not hospitalised,” said
Ali Akbar Haghdoost, head of
the taskforce’s epidemiology
committee. “It is possible that
the reported number of infec-
tions have gone up, but this in
no way means more have been
infected with Covid-19,” he
told ISNA news agency.
According to Jahanpour,
1,806 new cases had been
confirmed across Iran in the
past day, bringing the total to
Lebanon PM says on track to end
lockdown despite virus uptick
AFP
Beirut
L
ebanon will gradually lift
a coronavirus lockdown
that has compounded its
economic crisis, Prime Minis-
ter Hassan Diab said yesterday,
despite an uptick in cases that
prompted a four-day lock-
down.
Speaking on television, Diab
said that the country would
“reopen based on the five-
stage plan” as of today, refer-
ring to a government roadmap
aiming to completely lift re-
strictions by early June.
“We realise that continu-
ing the lockdown has serious
economic and social reper-
cussions,” he added. “We are
trying, as much as we can,
to minimise these repercus-
Sudan airports to remain closed until May 31
Reuters/AFP
Cairo
S
udan will keep its airports closed
for both internal and international
commercial passenger flights until
May 31, the state news agency SUNA said
yesterday, extending a shutdown that be-
120,198. Over 1,460 of the new
cases were “outpatients, in-
cluding those who had been in
close contact with the infect-
ed,” he said.
The ministry said 94,464
people hospitalised with the
virus have recovered and been
discharged.
Iran also cancelled rallies
held annually in solidarity with
the Palestinians, set for Friday
next week.
President Hassan Rouhani
had said Saturday that the
Qods (Jerusalem) Day parades
would go ahead with some
measures against the virus.
But organisers said yester-
day the event could not be
held “decently” and would be
scrapped apart from a televised
speech by the supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A picture taken yesterday, shows a deserted road on the
southeastern outskirts of the Lebanese capital Beirut, during
a lockdown imposed by the authorities due to Covid-19.
sions.” Lebanon has recorded
911 cases of Covid-19, includ-
ing 26 deaths.
The prime minister spoke
on the last day of a four-day
lockdown that went into force
Wednesday night, following
an uptick in infections.
gan in March due to the coronavirus out-
break. The airport will remain open only
for flights for cargo, humanitarian aid,
oil organisations’ workers and evacuat-
ing foreigners.
Meanwhile, a Sudanese soldier fatally
shot the occupants of a tuk-tuk that
sped through a military checkpoint in
Khartoum during a coronavirus curfew,
Gulf Times
Monday, May 18, 2020 7
REGION/ARAB WORLD
Embattled Syrian
tycoon vows not to
quit despite pressure
DPA war, I did not give up my post, overdue taxes in order to avoid
Damascus my country and my president,” collapse.Yesterday, Makhlouf
he added in the video, his third said the firm was ready to pay
since late last month. the money as a sort of support
A
business tycoon in Syria The 50-year-old tycoon said of the state, but not as taxes.
— the cousin of Presi- negotiations to free employ- “This money was unfairly lev-
dent Bashar al-Assad ees being detained by security ied,” he added.
— said yesterday that he would agencies have been unsuccess- Syrian security forces have
not let himself be ousted from ful so far. cracked down on Makhlouf’s
his telecommunication firm Makhlouf warned that the businesses since late April,
despite pressure from agencies collapse of his company would detaining so far 60 employees,
inside the regime. be a “big catastrophe” for the a monitoring group reported
The United States and the Syrian economy. yesterday.
European Union have put Rami “The continuation of this The clampdown took place
Makhlouf, co-owner of the approach will lead to the ruin of in five Syrian provinces includ-
Syrian telecommunications the company that is serving the ing the capital Damascus and
company Syriatel, on their country and employing 6,500 Aleppo in the north, the Syrian
sanctions lists because of his people. Observatory for Human rights
links to al-Assad’s government, This will result in a big ca- added.
but a rift has emerged between tastrophe for the Syrian econ- Many Syrians see Makhlouf,
him and the regime. omy,” he said. who made his fortune in the
In a video posted online, Ma- “The company is one of the telecommunications and con-
khlouf said agencies he did not most successful in Syria and struction fields, as one of the
name had demanded he step probably in the Arab world.” most notorious members of
down as the board chairman of Late last month, Makhlouf the ruling elite and a symbol
Syriatel. appealed in a video to al-Assad of corruption in the war-torn
“I won’t quit. During the to give his business time to pay country.
Zarif warns US against
disrupting oil shipments
AFP
Tehran
measure.” Iran’s Fars News claimed Saturday that
it had received information that four US Navy
warships are in the Caribbean for a “possible
confrontation with Iran’s tankers.”
I
ran’s foreign minister yesterday warned the Elliot Abrams, the State Department’s Ven-
US against deploying its navy in the Carib- ezuela envoy, has alleged that Caracas is paying
bean to disrupt Iranian fuel shipments to Iran in gold to restore its troubled oil sector.
Venezuela. The US has imposed unilateral sanctions aimed
In a letter to United Nations chief Antonio at ending oil exports by both Iran and Venezuela,
Guterres, Mohamed Javad Zarif warned against both major crude producers. Zarif’s deputy has
“America’s movements in deploying its navy to summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents
the Caribbean in order to intervene and create Washington’s interests in Tehran, to communicate
disruption in (the) transfer of Iran’s fuel to Ven- Iran’s “serious warning”. Abbas Araghchi said any
ezuela.” potential threat to Iran’s tankers would be met with
He said that any such action would be “illegal a “quick and decisive response.”
and a form of piracy,” according to a foreign min- Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil
istry statement. Zarif added that the US would be reserves but analysts say that the sector operates
responsible for “the consequences of any illegal below capacity.
Chinese envoy to Israel found dead, ‘health reasons’ likely cause: Beijing
China’s ambassador to Israel, Du Wei, died at his Rosenfeld said that officers had gone to the
home in Tel Aviv yesterday, apparently from natu- scene as part of “regular procedure”, but that
ral causes, a statement from Beijing said. police did not conduct an investigation into Du’s
The 57-year-old envoy, who had arrived in Israel death. Du’s wife and son were not with him in
in mid-February, was found dead in his home Israel. Du had previously served as ambassador
in Herzliya, north of the city, spokesman Micky to Ukraine, according to his biography on the
Rosenfeld said. A statement from China’s foreign embassy’s website. Du had undergone a 14-day
ministry said: “The preliminary verdict is that home quarantine on arrival in Israel because of
ambassador Du Wei died unexpectedly of health the new coronavirus outbreak, according to an
reasons. The details await further confirmation.” interview with local media in May.
POLITICS
Israel parliament
swears in unity
government
Israel’s parliament swore in a new
unity government yesterday led by
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and his former rival Benny Gantz,
mosques and many people ending the longest political crisis in
were back at work. the nation’s history.
Diab also said that authori- After more than 500 days without
ties will impose quarantines a stable government and three
on “neighbourhoods and re- inconclusive elections, lawmakers in
gions with high infections the 120-seat parliament approved a
rates” to stem the spread of three-year coalition, with 73 voting
the virus. for and 46 against.
Lebanon is in the thick of One member was absent.
its worst economic crisis since The new government was set to
the 1975-1990 civil war, com- confront serious crises in its first
pounded by the coronavirus weeks, including the economic dev-
pandemic. astation wrought by the coronavirus
Forty-five per cent of Leba- and a looming battle over Israel’s
non’s population now lives be- possible annexation of large parts of
low the poverty line, and tens the occupied West Bank. Address-
of thousands of people have ing the parliament, or Knesset,
He said the number of cases lost their jobs or seen salaries before the vote, Netanyahu said his
had spike late last week, in- slashed because of the down- incoming government should apply
creasing almost five-fold over turn. Israeli sovereignty over West Bank
a period of 10 days. The Lebanese pound — settlements. “It’s time to apply the Is-
Prior to the four-day lock- pegged to the dollar at 1,500 raeli law and write another glorious
down, restaurants and cafes since 1997 — has seen its value chapter in the history of Zionism,”
had reopened at 30% capac- plunge by more than half on Netanyahu said. Such a move is
ity, prayers had resumed at the black market. seen as likely to cause international
uproar and inflame tensions in the
West Bank, home to nearly 3mn
Palestinians and some 400,000
Israelis living in settlements consid-
ered illegal under international law.
Netanyahu told the chamber that
annexation “won’t distance us from
peace, it will bring us closer”. The
the army said, AFP reported. “A speed- coalition government was agreed
ing motorised rickshaw drove through a last month between veteran right-
military checkpoint in Khartoum with- wing leader Netanyahu and the
out stopping...at 9:00pm” Saturday centrist Gantz, a former army chief.
evening, army spokesman Brigadier Plans had been set for an inaugura-
Amer Mohamed al-Hassan said in a brief tion last Thursday, but Netanyahu
statement. asked for three more days to decide
He said the two people in the vehicle on cabinet assignments among his
were taken to hospital, where they died. Likud party loyalists.
 Gulf Times
8 Monday, May 18, 2020

AMERICAS

Leaders aren’t even pretending to be in charge: Obama

AFP of the pandemic during the on- responsibility, fairness, generos- benefits as America grapples mindset is operationalised in our
Washington line event, without naming any ity, respect for others.” with the fallout from months of government,” he said in that call.
specific leaders. The ceremony, carried by all lockdown and business closings. In his comments on Saturday,
That celebration was fol- the major American television The gravity of Obama’s mes- Obama also highlighted how the

F
ormer president Barack
Obama on Saturday crit-
icised the response to the
Covid-19 pandemic ravaging
America, in what was widely
regarded as a rare public re-
buke of his successor Donald
Trump.
His remarks came as he spoke
at two virtual commencements
for high school and university
students locked down instead of
celebrating their graduations, a
rite of passage every spring in the
United States.
“More than anything, this
pandemic has fully, finally torn
back the curtain on the idea that
so many of the folks in charge
know what they’re doing,”
Obama told graduates from sev-
lowed by a second, star-studded
prime-time ceremony for high
school students in which Obama
continued along the same lines,
telling students to step up where
leaders had failed.
“If the world is going to get
better, it’s going to be up to you,”
he said.
“Doing what feels good, what’s
convenient, what’s easy — that’s
how little kids think. Unfortu-
nately, a lot of so-called grown-
ups, including some with fancy
A graduating student and family and friends watch former president titles and important jobs, still
Barack Obama deliver a virtual commencement address at home in think that way — which is why
San Diego on Saturday. things are so screwed up,” he
continued.
eral dozen historically black col- “A lot of them aren’t even pre- “I hope that instead, you de-
leges and universities at the first tending to be in charge,” he said cide to ground yourself in values
ceremony. as he discussed the implications that last, like honesty, hard work,
networks, flashed between stir-
ring speeches and performances
students and celebrities alike, in-
cluding basketball superstar Le-
bron James and singers the Jonas
Brothers.
James echoed Obama’s call
for the students to step up, urg-
ing them to “Stay close to home”
and help rebuild communities
devastated by the virus and shut-
downs.
The US leads the world with
coronavirus cases and deaths,
at 1.4mn and nearly 90,000, re-
spectively.
This year’s graduates face a
grim reality: the US unemploy-
ment rate has shot up to nearly
15% and more than 36mn peo-
ple have filed for unemployment
sage was underscored by the fact
it was the second time in a week
he had hit out at the response
to the pandemic, having point-
edly refused to criticise Trump
in public in the three years since
leaving office.
He kept his profile low despite
being frequently attacked by the
president.
But on May 9, in remarks leaked
from a web call with people who
worked in his administration, he
called Trump’s handling of the
pandemic a catastrophe.
“It would have been bad even
with the best of governments.
It has been an absolute chaotic
disaster when that mindset — of
‘what’s in it for me’ and ‘to heck
with everybody else’ — when that
health crisis has underscored ra-
cial inequality in America, and
expressed outrage at the shoot-
ing death of 25-year-old Ahmaud
Arbery, killed on February 23
while out for a jog in Georgia.
“A disease like this just spot-
lights the underlying inequali-
ties and extra burdens that black
communities have historically
had to deal with in this country,”
he said at the first ceremony.
“We see it in the dispropor-
tionate impact of Covid-19 on
our communities. Just as we see
it when a black man goes for a
jog and some folks feel like they
can stop and question, and shoot
him, if he doesn’t submit to their
question,” he continued, without
naming Arbery.

Georgia rally for slain black jogger

White House hits calls for removing district attorneys

out at ‘Deep State’

Reuters “Ahmaud’s death won’t be in would have been swept under
Atlanta vain,” his aunt Thea Brooks said the rug,” he had said in a Reuters
on the steps of the Glynn Coun- interview on Friday.
ty Courthouse as other family The suspects, former police

AFP erwise apolitical civil service they see as
Washington committed to undermining the president.
There is no evidence that such a move-
ment exists.
launched a probe into the late night dismiss-
al of an official they say was investigating
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“The president has the right to fire any fed-
P
rotesters on Saturday de-
manded the removal of two
district attorneys accused
of dragging their feet in arresting
two white men suspected in the
shooting death of a young black
jogger in the Brunswick, Georgia
members stood next to her.
“We are going to fight for Ah-
maud. We are going to get an-
swers when it comes down to
justice for Ahmaud.”
Speakers told the crowd that
Jackie Johnson and George Barn-
officer Gregory McMichael, 64,
and his son Travis, 34, were ul-
timately arrested and charged on
May 7 with aggravated assault
and murder, after the Georgia
Bureau of Investigation began to
probe the case.

T
he White House yesterday hit back at
fierce criticism over the firing of the
State Department’s top watchdog,
suggesting he was a disloyal member of a
“Deep State” conspiracy out to get President
Donald Trump.
Trump told the House of Representatives
late on Friday he planned to dismiss Steve
Linick, the fourth inspector general to be
ousted by the president in the last six weeks.
Asked about the move by ABC, White
House trade adviser Peter Navarro slammed
“a bureaucracy out there” of people who
“think they got elected president and not
Donald J Trump.”
“And we’ve had tremendous problems
with — some people call it the ‘Deep State,’
I think that’s apt. So I don’t mourn the loss
of people when they leave this bureaucracy,”
Navarro said.
Trump and his allies regularly rail against
a “Deep State” of shadowy forces in an oth-
Reusable drone for space experiments launched
Navarro said officials leaving the adminis-
tration could always be replaced by someone
more “loyal.”
“Not to the president necessarily, but to
the Trump agenda. That’s what’s impor-
tant,” Navarro added.
Linick was Trump’s fourth dismissal of an
official tasked with monitoring government
misconduct and abuse since April, and drew
criticism even from members of his own
party.
Casualties of the purge include corona-
virus response watchdog Glenn Fine and
intelligence community inspector general
Michael Atkinson, who was involved in the
impeachment investigation.
Trump has also ousted health and hu-
man services watchdog Christi Grimm, who
reported on dire shortages in US hospitals
fighting the coronavirus outbreak.
Navarro’s comments were immediately
countered by top Democrats, who have
Tropical Storm Arthur
eral employee,” House speaker Nancy Pelosi,
the top Democrat in Congress, told CBS.
“But the fact is, if it looks like it is in retali-
ation for something that the IG, the inspec-
tor general, is doing, that could be unlawful.”
Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders told
ABC Trump believed he was “above the law,
he’s above criticism.”
“And he does not understand that, in the
function of government, you have a Con-
gress, you have inspector generals who say,
by the way, Mr President, what you’re doing
is wrong, and it may be illegal.”
By law, the administration must give Con-
gress 30 days’ notice of its plans to terminate
an inspector general, in theory giving law-
makers time to study the move — and protest
if warranted.
But previous such firings have gone
through unimpeded, and those dismissed
have been replaced by political allies of the
Republican president.
area.
Speeches rang out from the
steps of the small coastal com-
munity’s courthouse during a
rally that drew hundreds out-
raged by the video of the killing
of Ahmaud Arbery, 25.
Activists saw his death as the
latest US case of white perpetra-
tors killing a black man and go-
ing unpunished.
The father-and-son suspects
were not arrested until weeks
after the shooting, and just days
after the video surfaced online.
Some of the protesters made a
four-hour trek from Atlanta on
Saturday morning.
They chanted “Justice of Ah-
maud” and “I am Ahmaud,” and
also wore T-shirts memorializ-
ing Arbery.
Local clergy led prayers for his
family members, some of whom
attended the rally.
hill — the district attorneys for
the Brunswick and Waycross
judicial circuits — must be re-
moved from office for their han-
dling of the case.
It took 74 days after the shoot-
ing for the suspects to be arrest-
ed and charged.
“Racism is real in America
and racism is real in Brunswick,
Georgia and we come today to
send a message to the racists
and the supremacist that we will
fight you with everything that
we have,” said Rev Timothy Mc-
Donald, the pastor of First Ico-
nium Baptist Church in Atlanta
said.
Atlanta civil rights attorney
Mawuli Davis, 51, one of the or-
ganizers of the demonstration,
said the case reflects a US justice
system that is biased in favor of
whites.
“If it wasn’t for the video, this
Last week, Georgia Attorney
General Chris Carr asked the
US Justice Department to open
a probe into how the case was
handled by Johnson and Barnhill
as well as the Glynn County Po-
lice Department.
According to Carr, both pros-
ecutors recused themselves from
the investigation.
One of them, the Waycross
district attorney, had provided
police with a written opinion
that no arrests should be made in
connection with the February 23
shooting.
Both defendants remain in jail
without bond and have yet to en-
ter a plea.
No court date has been set yet.
The US Department of Jus-
tice is investigating why charges
were not brought sooner and
whether to charge the suspects
with federal hate crimes.

The US Air Force yesterday suc-

cessfully launched its high-tech
drone X-37B, placing the reusable
vehicle into orbit for its sixth
secretive mission in space.
The drone, which resembles
a smaller version of the manned
space shuttles retired by the US
space programme in 2011, was
launched from Cape Canaveral in
Florida, the Air Force said.
It will spend months in orbit,
remotely conducting a series of
experiments.
“Congratulations on the 6th
mission of the X-37B reusable
spacecraft,” Defense Secretary
Mark Esper tweeted shortly after
the launch.
The huge Atlas V launch vehi-
cle took off with an earth-shaking
roar at 9.14am to loft the drone,
also known as an Orbital Test
Vehicle (OTV), into space.
The drone in turn will deploy
a small research satellite dubbed
FalconSat-8, to carry out additional
experiments, Secretary of the Air
Force Barbara Barrett explained
earlier this month, elaborating on
what up to now has been a highly
secretive project.
“This X-37B mission will host
more experiments than any prior
missions,” said Barrett, who also
heads the recently created US
Space Force.
Among the experiments:
testing the effect of radiation
on seeds and other materials,
and transforming solar power
into radio-frequency microwave
energy that could be transmitted
to the ground.
The X-37B is 9m, with a wing
span of 4.5m. The Pentagon has
published photos of the drone, but
up to now had revealed few details
about its missions and capabilities.
On each of its successive
flights — the first took place in
2010 — the solar-powered craft
has remained in orbit for longer
periods.
Its last flight ended in October
2019, after 780 days in orbit.
That brought the craft’s cumu-
lative time in orbit to 2,865 days.
takes shape off Florida
Bloom gloom
T
he National Hurricane Center sent its Air Force Reserve
Hurricane Hunter aircraft into a tropical depression
churning off the east Florida coast and confirmed late on
Saturday it has strengthened into the year’s first named storm.
The Center’s 11pm advisory announced Tropical Storm
Arthur’s forming and said it’s moving at 19kph in a north-
north-east direction. The Center has calculated maximum
winds at 72kph.
This is the sixth season in a row in which a named storm has
formed before the official June 1 start of hurricane season.
A tropical storm watch remains in effect for a portion of the
North Carolina coast, as South Florida will see no threat from
the storm.
The current projection of the tropical depression shows it
continuing to travel up the East Coast of the US and briefly
touching North Carolina’s east coast.
The Center also said dangerous coastal surf conditions and
rip currents are expected to spread northward from Florida to
the mid-Atlantic states during the next few days.
At the most practical sense, the state is getting another run
through of what to expect for the next six months or so until
hurricane season ends November 30.
“This is a reminder that hurricane season is coming up real
soon and a good reminder to start thinking about what your
risk is and get ready in the general sense,” Michael Brennan,
branch chief of the centre’s Hurricane Specialist Unit, told The People wear facemasks as they shop for flowers in Washington, DC.
Miami Herald last week.

Canada parliament goes virtual during pandemic

By Michel Comte, AFP Anthony Rota said when it be- Liberal government of Trudeau Thirty MPs also meet each concerns such as job losses, and Interpreters who translate Bains, a devout Sikh, actually
Ottawa gan, while admonishing MPs over uses daily press briefings to dis- Wednesday in person — striking challenges of politicking by phone English into French and vice ver- won praise from viewers for using
sounds of camera clicks “not to cuss policy. “a balance that is yielding very across 5,500km from coast to coast. sa, meanwhile, reported a steep a painting of colourful turbans as
post photos on the Internet of the “It’s very difficult in these mass good results,” Trudeau said. “When people are scattered increase in workplace injuries a backdrop.

C
anada’s parliament has
gone virtual through the
pandemic, assembling
MPs across six time zones and
giving a rare peek at Prime Min-
ister Justin Trudeau’s bookcase, a
deer head and a stifled opposition.
Every Tuesday and Thursday
over the past month 338 Cana-
dian MPs logged into Zoom from
home to question ministers in
lieu of holding a daily in-person
question period.
The first sessions were marred
by glitches — “Can you hear me
now?” “There’s an issue with the
translation.” “The minister is be-
ing cut off.” “Please unclick your
mute.” “You might also hear my
son, he doesn’t sound too happy,
in the background.”
“This is a historic day,” Speaker
screen,” as per parliamentary rules.
A few others including the
British and Latvian parliaments
have also gone online to limit
person-to-person spreading of
the Covid-19 virus.
“We cannot be vectors for the
virus,” New Democrat MP Peter
Julien told AFP, explaining why
his party pushed for this arrange-
ment to maintain democracy in a
crisis.
“The only way to ask questions
on behalf of constituents and
hold government accountable
without endangering the public
is a virtual parliament,” he said.
Critics such as Democracy
Watch co-founder Duff Co-
nacher lamented that it has di-
minished the role of the official
opposition, while the minority
virtual sessions to put a minis-
ter or the prime minister on the
spot,” Conacher said, describing
the sessions as “chaotic.”
He also warned of the risk of
abuse if parliamentary oversight
is curtailed.
The official opposition Tories
had from the start objected to the
virtual confabs.
“Mr Trudeau should not be us-
ing a pandemic to avoid account-
ability and oversight and should
not be eliminating the role of the
peoples’ representatives,” leader
Andrew Scheer said last Friday.
But the prime minister, with the
backing of New Democrats and the
Bloc Quebecois, had said it would
be irresponsible to have regular
sittings while public health offi-
cials urged social distancing.
No legislation except emer-
gency spending bills have been
passed during the nationwide
lockdown.
A ban on assault weapons was
enacted by executive order after a
mass shooting in Nova Scotia.
Western provinces, which
elected mostly Conservatives, say
they’re not seeing their priorities
reflected in the Liberal agenda.
And the government has
racked up C$325bn (US$230bn)
in pandemic aid.
Working from home in a sub-
urb of balmy Vancouver, Julien
doesn’t miss Ottawa, which had
flurries this week.
“It’s nice spending more time
in Vancouver,” he said.
But his days are longer as he
deals with a surge in constituents’
across the world’s largest de-
mocracy (geographically) it takes
longer to actually get people on
the phone,” he said, versus walk-
ing down the hall to MPs’ offices
in Ottawa “for a quick face-to-
face meeting.”
Now, an MP in Newfoundland
might start work at 8.30am lo-
cal time, when it’s 4am in British
Columbia.
A committee report released
on Friday called for setting up a
“secure electronic voting sys-
tem” for the virtual parliament to
fully function.
It noted that Zoom also did not
provide sufficient security for in-
camera meetings.
Dozens of rural and northern
MPs have also been unable to
connect due to poor Internet.
including acute acoustic shock
and tinnitus. MPs were urged
to “please speak at a reasonable
pace” for their sake.
The speaker also chided MPs
over their choice of backdrops,
which should be neutral, he
wrote in a letter the House affairs
committee, to “ensure that what
is debated and decided upon in
the House remains more impor-
tant than what is seen.”
A deer head, for example, was
mounted on a wall behind an MP
criticizing the government’s new
gun control measures.
Another MP streamed in front
of a white bedsheet, described
as looking like a “hostage video
situation.” It was meant to hide
home renovations.
Industry Minister Navdeep
Others noted what books were
on the prime minister’s shelf.
This “peek inside of MPs’
homes,” said Julien, has “allowed
Canadians to learn a bit about their
personalities, it’s humanising.”
Another upside: no heckling
online, although one MP accused
Rota of being “a little dictatorial”
for threatening to mute MPs who
interrupted.
In the coming days, parties will
need to agree to extend the virtu-
al parliament beyond May 25.
Some said regular sessions
likely won’t resume until next
year.
Alternately, one MP suggested
moving parliament into the NHL
Senators’ hockey arena, with
17,000 seats to allow social dis-
tancing.

Move Rohingya
on Bangladesh
island to refugee
camps: UN chief
AFP
Dhaka
H
undreds of Rohingya
rescued by Bangladesh
and sent to a flood-prone
island after being stranded at sea
for weeks should be moved to
existing refugee camps, the UN
secretary-general said.
The appeal by Antonio Gu-
terres to Bangladesh’s foreign
minister in a letter obtained yes-
terday by AFP comes as concern
grows over a coronavirus out-
break in the sprawling, crowded
camps near the border with
Myanmar.
The Rohingya were rescued
in early May after floating adrift
in the Bay of Bengal. Dhaka has
said they were not sent on to the
camps in the southeast as au-
thorities were afraid they might
have Covid-19.
Guterres said the 308 refugees
on Bhashan Char island – a silty
strip of land prone to violent
and potentially deadly mon-
soon storms – should be moved
to the camps after their time in
quarantine is completed.
Thai malls reopen after virus shutdown Nepal reports
AFP
Bangkok
S
hoppers flocked to Thai-
land’s top-end malls yes-
terday, eager for retail
therapy as shopping centres
reopened in a gradual easing of
restrictions to revive the virus-
ravaged economy.
Hundreds of masked custom-
ers passed through temperature
checks, disinfection stations,
and had their photos taken be-
fore they were allowed into plush
malls in Bangkok.
In the main downtown shop-
ping district, Central World
touted a “new normal” of do-
ing business on posters, while
screens on the mall’s exterior
declared “We are open”.
The shopping centre relaunch
comes with Thailand’s infec-
tion numbers slowing in recent
weeks – authorities announced
three new cases Sunday, with
the total at just over 3,000.
Shopper Taewich Penpattakul
said he was “not really wor-
ried” about contracting Cov-
id-19 because of Thailand’s low
caseload.
“Mentally, it makes me feel
Vietnam
reports 2
new Covid
cases
Reuters
Hanoi
V
ietnam yesterday reported
two new coronavirus cas-
es, both imported, taking
the country’s tally to 320 with no
deaths, the health ministry said.
Both of the cases are Vietnamese
citizens repatriated from Russia and
were isolated on arrival, the health
ministry said in a statement. Over
80% of Vietnam’s confirmed cases
have recovered and 9,000 people
have been under quarantine.
Vietnam has won plaudits for its
fast and aggressive response to the
spread of the coronavirus, which
has so far kept infections down to
320 with zero deaths despite its
long, porous border with China.
“The 308 refugees on
Bhashan Char island
– a silty strip of land
prone to violent and
potentially deadly
monsoon storms –
should be moved to
the camps after their
time in quarantine is
completed”
Dhaka has not said how long
they will remain in isolation.
“While those rescued at sea
may be quarantined for public
health purposes, they must also
be extended the protection they
deserve as refugees,” Guterres
said in the letter to Foreign Min-
ister A K Abdul Momen dated
Friday.
“I trust that they too, will
benefit from the humanitarian
services offered to the Rohingya
in Bangladesh and that, at the
end of their quarantine period...
they will be allowed to rejoin
their families in Cox’s Bazar.”
first virus death
People stand in line to enter the Siam Paragon shopping mall as it reopened after restrictions to halt the
spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) were lifted in Bangkok yesterday.
better that all the malls are now
opened,” the 23-year-old said.
Customers and businesses
were advised to adhere to re-
strictions, which include limits
on the number of people al-
Indonesia plans $8.6bn bailout for state firms
Reuters
Jakarta
I
ndonesia is planning an
$8.6bn bailout for 12 state-
owned firms, to reduce the
impact of the coronavirus pan-
demic, mostly as cash com-
pensation and working capital
investments, according to gov-
ernment documents reviewed by
Reuters.
The government has pro-
posed to parliament to provide
128.04tn rupiah ($8.63bn) in
financial support to the com-
panies, according to Ministry
of Finance documents pre-
sented in a May 11 meeting
with parliament’s financial
commission.
A finance ministry spokes-
woman yesterday confirmed the
authenticity of the documents
and that they were used in the
parliament presentation. But,
the documents were used in an
early stage consultation with
Momen said he had yet to re-
ceive the letter, but said those
concerned about Bhashan Char
– where facilities for 100,000
people were built last year –
should host the Rohingya in
their own countries.
“We don’t want any more
Rohingya,” Momen said.
“We don’t have any other
place to keep them. If they (oth-
er countries) don’t like Bhashan
Char, let them take them back
to their countries. (Or) else, let
them return to Myanmar.”
He said more pressure should
be put on Myanmar to repatriate
the Rohingya to their home state
of Rakhine.
The foreign minister previ-
ously said the refugees would
“most likely” have to live in the
shelters on Bhashan Char until
they return to Rakhine.
Nearly 1mn Rohingya live in
squalid camps in Cox’s Bazar.
Many fled Myanmar after a 2017
military crackdown.
Emergency teams are racing to
contain the spread of the coro-
navirus in the camps after three
Rohingya tested positive late last
week.
lowed in retail spaces and a ban
on alcohol sales in restaurants.
Cinemas, however, remain
closed.
The food court – often the
most popular part of Thai shop-
lawmakers and still need Presi-
dent Joko Widodo’s approval,
she said.
National flag carrier Garuda
Indonesia, which is trying to
restructure $500mn worth of
Islamic bonds that mature next
month amid a plunge in pas-
sengers, would receive 8.5tn
rupiah in working capital in-
vestments, according to the
documents.
Kartika Wirjoatmodjo, deputy
minister of state-owned enter-
prises, told Reuters last week
the government was arrang-
ing a $500mn bridging loan for
Garuda.
Power utility Perusahaan
Listrik Negara would receive
cash compensation of 35.42tn
rupiah this year, while oil and
gas firm Pertamina would get
43.91tn rupiah paid in instal-
ments through to 2022, the
documents showed.
Both companies have previ-
ously said sales of electricity
and fuel declined because of
Migrant people travel back to their home places on a ferry ahead of the Eid al-Fitr festival which marks the end of Ramadan, during a government-
imposed lockdown as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, in Munshiganj on the outskirts of Dhaka yesterday.
Bangladesh issues warning to
ports as cyclone Amphan nears
DPA
Dhaka
B
angladesh has issued
a warning to its mari-
time ports as a cyclonic
storm in the Bay of Bengal
heads toward its south-west-
ern coast, meteorologists said
yesterday.
ping centres – filled up quick-
ly, and a mobile robot roamed
around monitoring people’s
temperatures.
Tables had plastic dividers set
up to encourage social distanc-
curbs on travel and work to
control the coronavirus out-
break, which as of Saturday
has infected 17,025 and killed
1,089 in the Southeast Asian
country.
Steelmaker Krakatau Steel
would also receive 3trn rupiah
in working capital investment
under the plan.
Outright capital injections of
7.5tn rupiah and 6tn rupiah are
each planned for construction
firm Hutama Karya and insur-
ance holding company Bahana
Pembinaan Usaha Indonesia.
Bahana’s subsidiaries are tasked
to provide credit guarantees
for micro, small and medium
companies.
The bailout funds will be pro-
vided on top of capital injection
plans made before the pandemic.
The documents also showed
the government plans to help
commercial banks restructure
souring loans by making 35tn
rupiah of funds available to the
banking industry.
The cyclone, Amphan,
with wind speed of 89 to
117km per hour within 64km
of its centre was located
1,230km away from south-
ern Payra port by yesterday
afternoon, meteorologist
Aftab Uddin said.
The storm is likely to intensify
further and move towards the
coast, he said.
ing, while one restaurant placed
cardboard dinosaurs opposite
customers to indicate the place
was not to be used.
The government is also urging
retailers and shoppers to check
in on a digital platform when
entering malls – it will send a
message if a coronavirus case is
discovered in a specific store.
“We would have to wait until a
few weeks to see if this is a good
idea and if they (the government)
can still control Covid-19,” said
Jason Noel, 25, who was eyeing
up some purchases.
Shopping centres – along with
other public spaces like stadi-
ums, gyms and parks – were
ordered to close in mid-March
as Thailand entered a state of
emergency to curb the spread of
infections.
But retailers have felt the
slump since January when an
economic malaise settled over a
kingdom heavily dependent on
spending from Chinese tourists.
Thailand on Saturday extend-
ed a ban on inbound interna-
tional flights until June 30.
Its economy is forecast to
contract by more than 6% – the
sharpest plunge since the crisis
of 1997.
Motorists wearing face masks amid concerns of the coronavirus in Takengon, Indonesia’s Aceh province yesterday.
ASIA
Maritime ports were asked to
remain alert.
Fishing boats in the bay were
advised not to venture into the
deep waters, according to a spe-
cial bulletin of the meteorological
department.
Cyclonic storms are very
common in the Bay of Bengal.
They often cross the coastline
of Bangladesh and India.
AFP
Kathmandu
N
epal reported its first
coronavirus death late
Saturday – a 29-year-
old woman who recently gave
birth – as the total number of
people infected in the country
reached 281.
The victim – who was from
Sindhupalchowk district,
some 90km (about 55 miles)
from the capital Kathmandu
– was on her way to a hospital
for treatment when she died.
“It has been proven that
is this the first case of death
caused by Covid-19 in Nepal,”
the deputy spokesman for the
health ministry, Samir Kumar
Adhikari, said in a statement.
The woman gave birth at
a hospital in Kathmandu on
May 6 and then returned to
her home district a day later.
She was treated at a local
hospital after suffering from
fever and respiratory prob-
Gulf Times
Monday, May 18, 2020 9
A powerful cyclone devas-
tated the south-eastern parts
of Bangladesh on April 29,
1991, killing more than 100,000
people and making millions
homeless.
Cyclone Sidr, with wind
speed up to 240km/h lashed the
south-west coast of Bangladesh
on November 15, 2007, leaving
3,500 people killed.
lems. When her condition
worsened, she was referred to
another hospital.
Her newborn and other
family members will be test-
ed to see if they have con-
tracted the virus, local media
reported.
Nepal, which has a popula-
tion of 28mn, has conducted
fewer than 100,000 tests so
far. Experts say the lack of
mass testing may have pre-
vented identification of other
fatalities.
“I don’t think this is the first
death. There have been cases of
deaths where similar symptoms
were seen, but the cause was
unclear,” said epidemiologist
Lhamo Sherpa.
“There needs to be more
tests, contact tracing... and
more transparency.”
In January, Nepal was the
first south Asian country to
report a case of coronavirus.
The country has been under
lockdown since March 24 after
a second case was confirmed.
 Gulf Times
10 Monday, May 18, 2020

ASIA/AUSTRALASIA
S Korea reports single digit coronavirus cases; plans to reopen schools
Reuters After weeks of nearly no new bars in the capital were ordered to tion entering South Korea from of Korea Centers for Disease firmed that 6,800 out of about or students have a fever using
Seoul domestic coronavirus cases, close again, and authorities have abroad. Control and Prevention (KCDC) 9,000 bars and nightclubs na- an online self-diagnostic system
South Korea relaxed its lockdown also delayed the planned reopen- It was the second consecutive warned the clubgoers to stay in tionwide were shut down on Sat- and anyone with a temperature
on May 6, but a subsequent spike ing of schools by a week. South day in single figures for new do- isolation as their incubation pe- urday and 61,000 tests have been over 37.5C (99.5F) would be kept

S
outh Korea yesterday re-
ported five new domestic
cases of coronavirus, all
linked to a cluster of cases cen-
tred around bars and nightclubs
in the capital which has raised
fears in the country of a fresh
wave of contagion.
in infections linked to Seoul’s
Itaewon nightlife neighbourhood
forced a rapid re-think.
The government has stood by
its decision to ease broader re-
strictions by reopening offices,
public facilities and sports cen-
tres, but some nightclubs and
Korea reported 13 new cases as of
midnight Saturday, bringing the
country’s total to 11,050 with 263
deaths.
Of those new cases, five were
linked to the outbreak from the
night spots in Seoul, and seven
were people with the infec-
mestic cases since the latest scare
erupted, but so far there have
been 168 cases linked to the Itae-
won cluster, including clubgoers
as well as secondary infections
in family members, co-workers,
and students.
Director Jeong Eun-kyeong
riod hasn’t passed yet.
“Even if you have been tested
negative, there still is a risk of
infection during the incubation
period. Please do get tested again
if you have any symptoms,” said
Jeong.
South Korean authorities con-
carried out linked to the Itaewon
outbreak, Health Minister Park
Neung-hoo told a briefing. Park
said schools will reopen in phas-
es as planned, starting with high
school seniors on Wednesday.
The education ministry will
keep track of whether teachers
from attending school.
The ministry will partner
with the National Fire Agency to
transfer any students who devel-
op symptoms at schools to local
health clinics to get tested, Vice
Minister of Education Park Baeg-
beom told a briefing.

Chinese state media

China adviser says risk slams ‘lawless’ HK
schools after test row
of second wave remains Reuters
Hong Kong
lously promote heresies, attack
the ‘one country, two systems’
and discredit the nation state,”
Xinhua wrote on its website.

C
Reuters hinese state media said
Beijing Hong Kong schools have
become “lawless” as con-
troversy builds over a history
“Some immature students
have been tricked into use by
the anti-China forces and have
become pawns to disrupt Hong

M
ainland China reported
five new confirmed
Covid-19 cases for May
16, down from eight the previous
day, the National Health Com-
mission (NHC) said in a state-
ment yesterday. Two of the five
confirmed cases were so-called
imported infections, while three
were locally transmitted in the
northeastern Chinese city of Jilin.
The number of confirmed cas-
es in the mainland now stands
at 82,947 and the death toll at
4,634. China does not include
people who have been tested
and found to be asymptomatic
carriers in its tally of confirmed
cases. The three domestically-
transmitted cases are related to a
district in Jilin city called Feng-
man, which has been classified
by Chinese officials as a high-
risk area for Covid-19.
Heightened disease control
measures in the district include
allowing only one person from
a family to go out and purchase
daily necessities each day, ac-
cording to the district’s official
post on WeChat.
Residents were advised not
to leave the city and any who
do need to leave must provide a
negative test result taken within
the previous 48 hours.
Jilin is the second largest city
of Jilin province, which borders
North Korea and Russia. It tem-
porarily suspended passenger
train services last Wednesday.
Fengman district said in a We-
chat post on Sunday that it will
People walk in Moshan Scenic Area Qinshui Platform in the East Lake in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province. Authorities in the pandemic
ground zero of Wuhan have ordered mass Covid-19 testing for all 11mn residents after a new cluster of cases emerged over the weekend.
Saturday night fever back in Wuhan
Reuters fresh cases on the virus. While
Wuhan most large indoor gatherings
are still banned, people are re-
claiming their daily lives and
and mostly kept apart. “It’s
quite hard to breathe when
wearing this mask to dance and
you can’t get rid of the perspi-
accounting for about 80% of the
country’s coronavirus cases, but
the strict lockdown helped stifle
new infections, allowing curbs
question in a school exam, re-
kindling tensions over academic
freedoms in the semi-autono-
mous city.
Beijing and some Hong Kong
officials have frequently flagged
the education system as a po-
tential breeding ground for the
large-scale, often-violent pro-
democracy protests which roiled
the city in the second half of last
year.
The latest row was sparked
over a question on a Diploma of
Secondary Education test, which
asked students to argue whether
Japan had done “more good than
harm to China during the period
between 1900 and 1945.” A Xin-
hua commentary published late
Friday said Hong Kong schools
had failed to ‘decolonise’ and the
territory’s education system had
not developed in line with the
‘one country, two systems’ rule.
Hong Kong returned to Chi-
nese rule in 1997 under an agree-
ment with former colonial mas-
ter Britain that the city would
have a high degree of autonomy
and enjoy some freedoms una-
vailable in the mainland. “The
schools seem to have become a
lawless place that can unscrupu-
PM Ardern turned away from
cafe under coronavirus rules
Hailed for her leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner were turned away from
a cafe on Saturday because it was too full under the physical distancing
Kong.” Hong Kong Educa-
tion Secretary Kevin Yeung has
asked the Hong Kong Examina-
tions and Assessment Authority
(HKEAA) to investigate why the
question was part of the history
exam, sat by 5,200 students, and
asked for it to be invalidated.
The question “seriously hurt
the feelings and dignity of the
Chinese people who suffered
great pain during the Japanese
invasion of China,” Yeung said
yesterday.
Public broadcaster RTHK re-
ported on Saturday, citing un-
named sources, that two officials
from the HKEAA had resigned
following the controversy. In an
interview with pro-Beijing pub-
lication Ta Kung Pao, Hong Kong
chief executive Carrie Lam said
last week the government would
examine the future structure of
the subject, which is part of the
university entrance exams cur-
riculum.
An attempt by the government
to introduce “national educa-
tion” in Hong Kong in 2012 to
instil patriotism and promote
appreciation of mainland China
was met with large protests and
scrapped.

tighten the lockdown by clos-
ing stores including depart-
ment stores, house appliance
stores and furniture stores but
will keep supermarkets open to
maintain supply to residents.
The number of China’s new
asymptomatic cases of the
coronavirus fell to 12 from 13,
the NHC said. Zhong Nanshan,
the Chinese government’s sen-
ior medical adviser told CNN
on Saturday that the danger of
a second wave of infections is
looming large.
W
earing masks and
keeping about a metre
apart, men and wom-
en in Wuhan were dancing once
again on a Saturday night by the
side of the Yangtze river, which
winds through the central Chi-
nese city where the novel coro-
navirus pandemic began.
Wuhan’s 76-day lockdown
ended on April 8, and the city
is slowly getting back on its
feet, hopeful that the worst
is passed, but worried by the
emergence last week of a few
hobbies, which in many parts of
China includes “square danc-
ing”, or mass dances, usually in
the evenings in public squares,
plazas or parks.
On Saturday night, over a
hundred masked people danced
on an open-air riverside walk-
way in central Wuhan as loud-
speakers blared out everything
from electronic dance music to
Japanese pop.
Some waltzed in pairs. Others
moved in sync to choreographed
dance routines. All wore masks,
ration, but my mood is great, we
can finally gather,” said Zhang
Jing, 42, adding that she had re-
joined her dancing group at the
start of May. Still, worries about
the virus linger.
“I do still feel a little con-
strained, (dancing) doesn’t feel
as free with a mask, and I am
a little afraid that there could
be cross infection,” said Fang
Yuanyuan, 50.
Covid-19 first struck Wuhan
late last year, and it became the
epicentre of China’s outbreak,
on movement to be relaxed.
Last week, however, the city
reported its first cluster of new
infections since the lockdown
was lifted, stoking fears of a
second wave, and prompting
authorities to launch a cam-
paign to test all 11 million resi-
dents for the coronavirus.
Mainland China reported five
new confirmed Covid-19 cases
for May 16, down from eight
the previous day, the National
Health Commission (NHC) said
in a statement yesterday.
guidelines. Ardern’s government relaxed many social distancing rules
on Thursday, reopening cafes, cinemas and malls after two months of
some of the tightest restrictions in the world to stop the spread of the
coronavirus. Ardern and Clarke Gayford walked for a brunch to a cafe
in the country’s capital, Wellington, where they were initially told it was
too full, New Zealand media reported. An employee ran after them a
few minutes later when a table became free and the couple went back.
Arden’s partner, Clarke Gayford, took the blame on himself. “I have to
take responsibility for this, I didn’t get organised and book anywhere,”
Gayford said on Twitter. “Was very nice of them to chase us down st when
a spot freed up. A+ service.” The prime minister’s press service said that
waiting at a cafe is likely with the virus restrictions. “The PM says she
just waits like everyone else,” the public Television New Zealand cited
Ardern’s press service as saying. New Zealand has managed to contain
the coronavirus pandemic before it strained the public health system.

Penang reopens
Australia says China ignores
calls to reduce trade tension
Reuters Relations between countries in pushing for the probe
Melbourne Canberra and Beijing when the World Health Assembly,
have been strained amid the decision-making body of the
Australian accusations World Health Organisation, gath-

A
ustralia urged China yes-
terday to respond to its
requests to discuss easing
tensions between the two trading
partners after Canberra called for
an international enquiry into the
origins of the novel coronavirus.
China, accusing Australia of
playing “petty tricks”, has recent-
ly suspended beef imports from
four of Australia’s largest meat
processors and is considering im-
posing hefty tariffs on imports of
barley.
Australian Trade Minister Si-
mon Birmingham has requested
discussions on the trade issues
with his Chinese counterpart, he
said in a television interview on
the Australian Broadcasting Corp
(ABC) yesterday.
“That request has not been met
with a call being accommodated
at this stage,” he said on the ABC’s
‘Insiders’ programme. “We are
open to have that discussion, even
where there are difficult issues to
be discussed.”
Birmingham said Australia re-
served its rights to bring a case
against China at the World Trade
of Chinese meddling
in domestic affairs and
concern about what
Australia sees as China’s
growing influence in the
Pacific region
Organisation if Beijing imposed
the tariffs on Australian barley.
Relations between Canberra
and Beijing have been strained
amid Australian accusations of
Chinese meddling in domestic
affairs and concern about what
Australia sees as China’s growing
influence in the Pacific region.
The call for the probe into the
coronavirus’ origins came amid
rising criticism of China’s han-
dling of the outbreak by US Presi-
dent Donald Trump, who has said
that Beijing should face conse-
quences if it was “knowingly re-
sponsible” for the pandemic.
Canberra has insisted the call
for the enquiry into the pandem-
ic, which it says most likely origi-
nated in a wildlife market in the
Chinese city of Wuhan, was not
politically targeted at Beijing.
Australia is set to join other
ers next week in Switzerland for
its first annual meeting since the
Covid-19 pandemic began. Cov-
id-19 is the respiratory disease
caused by the coronavirus.
The pandemic has caused more
than 4.6mn infections and more
than 310,000 deaths worldwide,
according to Reuters data, para- Shoppers visit a mall as businesses reopened in Penang yesterday
lysing life in major cities and dev- with Malaysia relaxing its partial lockdown to contain the spread
astating economies. Australia has of the coronavirus.
so far succeeded in containing the
pandemic with swift and strict,
albeit economically very costly,
social distancing measures and
aggressive testing.
The country, with a population
of 25mn, has recorded 7,036 Cov-
id-19 cases and 98 deaths, signifi-
cantly below the levels reported in
North America and Europe. As
of Saturday, the government has
reported testing more than 1mn
people for the virus.
With new daily cases falling,
Australia has begun easing its so-
cial distancing restrictions with
most states allowing for public
gatherings and some allowing Young shoppers go around a shopping mall as businesses Workers in a food court prepare for social distancing measures at
pubs, malls, parks and beaches to reopened in Penang yesterday. a shopping mall as businesses reopened in Penang yesterday.
reopen after weeks of lockdown.

20% of patients ‘got Covid-19 while in hospital for another illness’
Guardian News and Media
London
U
p to a fifth of patients
with Covid-19 in several
hospitals contracted the
disease over the course of the
pandemic while already being
treated there for another illness,
NHS bosses have told senior
doctors and nurses.
Some of the infections were
passed on by hospital staff who
were unaware they had the virus
and were displaying no symp-
toms, while patients with coro-
Coronavirus
death toll
rises by 170
Reuters
London
T
he number of people who
have died in the United
Kingdom after testing
positive for Covid-19 rose by
170 to 34,636, Business Minis-
ter Alok Sharma said yesterday,
the lowest increase in the official
death toll since March 24.
The increase reported yes-
terday was sharply down from
the 468 rise in deaths reported
24 hours earlier and the lowest
since Britain brought in a lock-
down to curb the spread of the
virus on March 23.
However, at weekends the
number of recorded deaths has
been lower than the number
reported during the week, and
health officials in England also
said its Covid Patient Notifica-
tion System had not operated for
a while on Saturday.
“The consequences of this
situation may therefore be re-
flected in the number of deaths
reported,” NHS England said.
The rise in the number of
deaths in Britain from the vi-
rus peaked at 1,172 on April 21
according to official data and
has been falling steadily since
then.
Other government statistics
which include deaths due to
suspected cases indicate that
Britain’s toll is over 40,000.
Sharma said 243,303 people in
Britain had so far tested positive
for the virus, an increase of 3,142
since Saturday.
Sharma also said that Oxford
University and drug maker As-
traZeneca had struck a global
licensing deal for a vaccine that
Oxford scientists were working
on, one of the front runners in
the global race to provide pro-
tection against the new coro-
navirus causing the Covid-19
pandemic.
If the vaccine proves success-
ful, AstraZeneca will mass pro-
duce 100mn doses with up to
30mn doses available for people
in the UK by September.
“The UK will be first to get ac-
cess,” Sharma said, adding that
the government was providing
an additional £84mn in funding
to British researchers working
on potential vaccines.
Socialite suing Andrew and
wife ‘was once close friend’
Daily Mail
London
T
he millionaire suing the
Duke and Duchess of York
over claims they missed
payments on their luxury chalet is
a glamorous French socialite who
was once a close friend, it was re-
vealed.
Isabelle de Rouvre, who is dat-
ing French art dealer Michael
Kennedy, is pursuing the couple
through the courts for £6.7mn.
The 74-year-old mother-of-
four became friends with the
Yorks when they repeatedly rented
her chalet in the Swiss ski resort of
Verbier.
Aware of their fondness for the
seven-bedroom luxury lodge, she
decided to sell it to the couple for
about £18mn in 2014, rather than
put it on the market with an agent.
But de Rouvre now claims the
Yorks missed a deadline on De-
cember 31 by which another chunk
of the outstanding £6.7mn was
supposed to be paid.
The socialite confirmed that she
navirus were responsible for the
others.
The figures represent NHS
England’s first estimate of the
size of the problem of hospital-
acquired Covid-19, which Boris
Johnson last week said was caus-
ing an “epidemic” of deaths.
In a national briefing last
month on infection control and
Covid-19, NHS England told
the medical directors and chief
nurses of all acute hospitals in
England that it had found that
10-20% of people in hospital
with the disease had got it while
they were inpatients.
People cycle through Parliament Square in central London yesterday following an easing of lockdown
rules in England.
is taking action against the royal
couple and said the “case is really
very difficult”.
“I am now charged with a law-
yer,” she told the Mail. “They have
a lawyer and I have mine too. What
you read in the newspapers is really
the reality of the case.”
A source close to de Rouvre said
her aggressive court action has
“severely tarnished” her friend-
ship with Prince Andrew and Sa-
rah Ferguson, both now 60.
“Isabelle always loved having
the Yorks to stay in their chalet and
was particularly fond of their two
children,” the source said.
“So she was thrilled that the
chalet, which has given her so
many happy memories, was be-
ing bought by friends. Sadly this
dispute has ruined everything.
Isabelle is deeply upset that it has
come to this.”
Born in Paris, de Rouvre was
previously married to the col-
ourful French businessman Cyril
Bourlon de Rouvre.
The couple are thought to have
bought Chalet Helora during their
marriage and enjoyed numerous
Senior figures at several NHS
trusts have confirmed to the
Guardian that a senior official at
NHS England said in the brief-
ing, held by telephone confer-
ence in late April, that the rate of
hospital-acquired Covid-19 in-
fections was running at 10-20%
and that asymptomatic staff had
caused some of the cases.
Senior doctors and hospi-
tal managers say that doctors,
nurses and other staff have in-
advertently passed on the virus
to patients because they did not
have adequate personal protec-
tive equipment (PPE) or could
skiing holidays there with their
children.
After their divorce, de Rou-
vre became the sole owner of the
property.
She employed six full-time staff
and rented it out for more than
£22,000 a week.
Said to be decorated with chic
antiques, the master bedroom is
draped in animal furs, and there is
a 650sq ft indoor swimming pool,
sauna, sun terrace, boot-room and
lavish entertaining area.
Neighbours include Sir Richard
Branson and singer James Blunt.
De Rouvre is understood to still
live in Verbier with Kennedy, who
is in his late 60s and who dated
Donald Trump’s first wife Ivana in
2011.
The socialite’s former hus-
band became incredibly wealthy
through tragic circumstances at
the age of 33.
He inherited his family’s busi-
ness empire when his father Evrard
was stabbed to death by his valet in
1979. Ten years later Cyril de Rou-
vre, now 74, was elected mayor of
Chaumont.
not get tested for the virus.
Doctors say that hospital-ac-
quired Covid-19 is a significant
problem and that patients have
died after becoming infected
that way.
One surgeon, who did not
want to be named, said: “Mul-
tiple patients my department
treated who were inpatients pre
lockdown got the bug and died.
Obviously the timeline supports
that they acquired it from staff
and other patients.”
However, NHS sources main-
tain that the true rate nationally
is currently between 5% and 7%.
Out for a swim
A member of the Serpentine swimming club trains near a
swan in the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park yesterday during a
test session prior to it’s official reopening today.
Extensive swab testing at the
trusts and analysis of how long
patients had been in hospital
revealed that between 10% and
20% had become infected dur-
ing their stay.
But the headline figure passed
on in the national briefing was
skewed because one trust was
known to have poor infection
control procedures in place.
NHS chiefs remain concerned
about the extent of a problem
doctors call nosocomial infec-
tion.
More recent research among
staff in the hospitals run by a
Schools are
safe to open,
minister
tells councils
Guardian News and Media
London
M
ichael Gove has told lo-
cal authorities refusing
to reopen their schools
on June 1 to “look to their respon-
sibilities”, saying: “If you really
care about children, you’ll want
them in schools.”
Appearing on the BBC’s The
Andrew Marr Show, the Cabinet
Office minister said: “We are con-
fident that children and teachers
will be safe.”
He said schools could imple-
ment staggered lunch breaks and
arrival times, seat children at in-
dividual desks and teach them in
classes of 15 at most, supervised
by one adult.
Asked what he would say to
councils, including Liverpool’s
and Greater Manchester’s, which
have questioned the plan, he said:
“I respectfully ask them to think
again.
“The clear scientific and clini-
cal advice is that it is safe to have
schools reopen, accompanied
with social distancing.”
He added: “Children only have
one chance at education. Over the
course of the last decade we’ve
made significant strides in clos-
ing the gap between the richest
and the poorest in our schools.
This lockdown has put that back-
wards. If you really care about
children, you’ll want them to be
in schools. You will want them to
be learning. You will want them to
have new opportunities. So look
to your responsibilities.”
The government has asked
schools to prepare to open their
BRITAIN
leading NHS trust in the north
of England found that 7% had
coronavirus but had no symp-
toms, and thus posed a risk to
patients.
Two weeks ago, hospitals be-
gan testing all new admissions
upon their arrival.
While it is also easier now for
staff to get swabbed than earlier
in the pandemic, problems of
access remain.
Johnson last week acknowl-
edged that people had died
after contracting Covid-19
in hospital and described the
problem as an epidemic.
doors to children from reception,
year 1 and year 6 from next month.
But some councils, including Liv-
erpool, Hartlepool and Greater
Manchester, have said they will
not be implementing the plan.
In a letter to parents, Liv-
erpool’s director of children’s
services, Steve Reddy, said: “Our
guiding principle is that schools
can only reopen to other pupils
when it is safe to do so and not a
moment before.”
In the clearest explanation yet
of the government’s rationale
for its “stay alert” approach to
the next phase of the crisis, Gove
said it was impossible to elimi-
nate completely the risk of catch-
ing Covid-19, unless people were
kept “perpetually imprisoned in
their homes”.
“The whole point about life is
that you need to manage risk,” he
said.“We cannot have a situation
where we keep our economy and
our schools and our public serv-
ices continually closed down, be-
cause the health consequences of
doing so would be malign as well.”
In a separate interview on Sky
News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday,
Gove announced that the gov-
ernment had recruited 17,000
coronavirus contact tracers, and
would be ready to roll out the sys-
tem nationwide by the end of this
month.
Building up the ability to find
and control new local outbreaks
is a central part of the govern-
ment’s approach to progressively
reopening schools, and the wider
economy.
The outsourcing giant Serco
was given the contract to recruit
the call-centre workers needed to
Baby’s body found
dumped in waste skip
Daily Mail
London
P
olice are searching for
the mother of a newborn
whose body was found at a
waste recycling centre.
The baby, thought to be barely
48 hours old, is said to have been
dumped in a skip that was taken
to the facility by a bin lorry.
Horrified staff made the dis-
covery while they were sorting
through recycling on Thursday
afternoon.
Detectives are waiting for re-
sults of a post-mortem examina-
tion to show whether the infant
was alive when she was dumped
and to determine cause of death.
They are urging the mother to
come forward and seek medical
attention.
They are also trying to estab-
lish which skip in Ipswich the girl
had been dumped in and where
it had been before it reached the
Sackers waste centre nine miles
away at Needham Market.
Detective chief superintend-
ent Eamonn Bridger of Suffolk
Police said: “The current think-
Gulf Times
Monday, May 18, 2020 11
In a parliamentary debate
Laurence Robertson, the Con-
servative MP for Tewkesbury,
told the prime minister that
“just a few days ago my father
Jim died of coronavirus in hos-
pital. He did not catch the virus
in the community; he caught it
in the hospital when he went in
for another illness.” In a little-
noticed reply Johnson referred
to the need to tackle “these twin
epidemics” of both care home
residents and hospital patients
dying after picking up the infec-
tion while being looked after.
run the new system.
The Northern Ireland Secre-
tary, Brandon Lewis, suggested
last week that just 1,500 had been
hired, but when Gove was asked
for a number yesterday, he said,
“just over 17,000”.
The Health Secretary, Matt
Hancock, had suggested 18,000
contact tracers would be in place
by the middle of this month.
Gove heaped praise on Han-
cock, amid reports of a testy re-
lationship between the health
secretary and No 10. “We’re on
course to meet that target. It’s
more evidence that we have, in
Matt, an energetic and deter-
mined health secretary who is
throwing everything into the fight
against this virus,” he said.
The government gave up trying
to track every case of Covid-19 in
March, when the virus began cir-
culating in the community, with
the deputy chief medical officer
for England Jenny Harries saying
at the time: “There comes a point
in a pandemic where that is not an
appropriate intervention.”
But the shadow health sec-
retary, Jon Ashworth, and Han-
cock’s predecessor Jeremy Hunt
have consistently called for com-
munity tracing.
The government also an-
nounced this weekend a third
large-scale study to track the
progress of the virus, and try to
establish how many people may
have built up some immunity to it.
Teaching unions have said the
implementation of a testing and
tracking system should be a pre-
condition for schools reopening
– so that individual outbreaks can
be controlled.
ing is that the baby was born
within the last 48 hours and dis-
posed of. The vast majority of
collections to arrive at the site
were from Ipswich and the im-
mediate surrounding area.
“It’s a really busy plant and we
are still working with them to try
and understand the movement of
waste.”
He said officers were keeping
an open mind over the investi-
gation, adding: “We understand
this would have been a very
distressing experience for the
mother. Our current priority is to
ensure she receives the care and
assistance she requires and we
would urge that she contacts us
so we can help.
“There is no doubt she may
be frightened but it is very im-
portant that we reach her or we
speak to someone who might
know her.”
Helen Crapnell of Sackers said
staff who found the baby were
being supported by the firm.”Our
recycling sorting facilities are
so thorough that we believe the
baby was found very quickly
once she was at our Needham
Market site,” she added.
 Gulf Times
12 Monday, May 18, 2020
EUROPE
Russia’s Covid-19 spread stabilising: top health official
AFP
Moscow
T
he growth of novel coro-
navirus cases in Russia is
stabilising, a top health of-
ficial said yesterday as the daily
tally fell under 10,000 for the
third time this week.
The coronavirus causes the
Covid-19 respiratory disease.
The country has the world’s
second highest number of infec-
tions at 281,752, topped only by
the United States.
Yesterday, it announced new
cases had dropped below 10,000
Spain’s daily coronavirus
death toll falls below 100
Italy’s daily coronavirus
death toll and new cases drop
Reuters
Madrid/Milan
S
pain’s daily death toll from
the coronavirus fell below
100 for the first time in two
months, the health ministry said
yesterday, as some parts of the
country prepared for a further
loosening of lockdown measures.
Total deaths from the virus
rose by 87 to 27,650, while the
number of confirmed cases edged
up to 231,350 from 230,698, the
ministry said.
Spain introduced one of Eu-
No children’s parade
as Norwegians mark
Constitution Day
DPA
Stockholm
T
housands of Norwegians
– many online, others in
parks, balconies, and at
home – joined in singing the na-
tional anthem yesterday to cel-
ebrate Constitution Day in the
shadow of the coronavirus pan-
demic.
In Oslo, King Harald, Queen
Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon and
Crown Princess Mette-Marit
and the crown prince couple’s
children Ingrid Aexandra and
Sverre Magnus appeared on the
main balcony of the royal palace
to join in the anthem.
The anthem was preceded by a
21-gun salute fired at 1pm (1100
GMT) from batteries around the
country.
Traditionally, thousands of
school children and bands march
past the royal palace to mark the
day.
Due to the pandemic the chil-
dren’s parades – first held in
1906 – were cancelled all over
Norway.
The King’s Guard Band how-
Pandemic drains Vatican coffers as income falls and deficits loom
By Philip Pullella, Reuters
Vatican City
L
ate last month, the Vatican
announced the coronavirus
pandemic had forced Pope
Francis to postpone an annual
fund raising campaign among
Catholics worldwide to help him
carry out his ministry.
The delay of “Peter’s Pence”
by more than three months to
the first weekend in October has
come at a particularly bad time,
as other revenues, notably from
the Vatican Museums, slow to a
trickle.
The pandemic has wreaked
havoc with the Vatican’s financ-
es, forcing it to dip into reserve
funds and implement some of the
toughest cost control measures
ever in the tiny city-state.
Against this bleak backdrop,
top Vatican administrators held
an emergency meeting in late
March.
for the third day this week at
9,709.
“We’ve moved towards the
level of stability that we’ve all
been waiting for,” said the head
of Russia’s public health watch-
dog, Anna Popova, in a televised
interview.
“I would say that of today, we
have halted the growth” in num-
bers of cases, Popova said on
Rossiya-1 television.
“For the last 10 or 11 days
now, we haven’t seen additional
growth or it’s been very small,”
she said.
“Stabilisation can be seen over
the whole country. All the re-
rope’s strictest lockdowns on
March 14 in a bid to contain the
virus, which threatened to over-
whelm the country’s health serv-
ice.
As the population has re-
mained largely confined to their
homes, the rate of new infections
and fatalities has steadily fallen,
prompting the government to
begin unwinding the lockdown.
Health emergency chief Fern-
ando Simon cautioned however,
that the low death tally yesterday
could be due to delays in report-
ing at weekends.
Asked at a press conference if
health authorities had sufficient
resources to deal with current
patient levels, he said: “The min-
ever performed in front of the
palace, and some school children
were also present.
Afterwards, the royals left the
palace in two convertibles for
a drive around Oslo, waving to
cheering bystanders.
The drive included a brief stop
at Oslo University Hospital, Ul-
leval where corona patients have
been treated.
Earlier, the crown prince and
his family greeted a small dele-
gation of school children, a band
and local politicians outside the
gates to their residence Skau-
gum, outside Oslo.
The crown prince and his fam-
ily drove in the same convertibles
to a nearby nursing home.
May 17 marks the 1814 signing
of Norway’s first constitution,
and the end of over 400 years of
Danish rule.
However, the powers of the day
did not accept full Norwegian
independence and in November
1814 Norway and Sweden formed
a loose union that was dissolved
in 1905.
The constitution was briefly
shown yesterday at parliament in
the presence of the speaker.
People urged to follow health rules during worship
Pope Francis called on worshippers to take care and to follow regula-
tions to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus when taking part in
religious services in a statement yesterday.
“In some countries, liturgical celebrations with the faithful have begun
again, while in others this step is under consideration,” he said. “Please,
let us follow the guidelines we are given to protect the health of each
individual, and of the people.”
In Italy, religious services may be celebrated as of today, but the public is
called on to observe social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus.
They ordered a freeze on pro-
motions and hirings, and a ban on
overtime, travel and large events.
An internal memo seen by
Reuters said that the decisions,
effective for the rest of the year,
were taken “to mitigate, at least
in the short-term, the grave eco-
nomic impact ... and to avoid any
further immediate drastic meas-
ures”.
A follow-up letter in April told
department heads that, in keep-
ing with the Pope’s policy, they
could not fire people.
gions have managed to stabilise
the situation,” she said.
The state watchdog Rospot-
rebnadzor announces daily coro-
navirus numbers and has been
working to develop a viable vac-
cine within months at its Vector
virus research centre, located in
Siberia.
Popova said that it is too early
to say if Russians can make plans
for summer travel, saying “we
need to look at the next two or
three weeks”.
Russia on Saturday announced
the highest daily death rate at 119,
while it has confirmed a total of
2,631 deaths, 10 times fewer than
istry is gathering reserves, but
now there is enough material for
current needs.”
A doctor in Madrid told Reu-
ters that she is worried hospitals
would not be able to cope if there
was a second surge of the disease.
“I have to say that we are not
yet ready to face a second wave
even if it is smaller,” said Be-
len, who did not give her second
name.
As the government begins to
lift restrictions on movement,
authorities are considering ex-
tending mandatory mask use on
public transport to cover all pub-
lic spaces.
“There is an ample consen-
sus that we should reinforce the
A cortege of boats are seen at Blindleia, Norway’s 20km-long inland waterway, during the Norwegian Constitution Day.
The Peter’s Pence fund, which
brings in an estimated $50-65mn
yearly, aims to help the Pope’s
activities as head of the 1.3bn-
member church and support
charitable projects in the world’s
neediest areas.
However, for more than 30
years the Holy See has been
forced to tap into it to keep regu-
lar operations going and to plug
the Holy See’s administrative
budget deficit.
The pandemic has also dras-
tically slowed the flow of funds
Britain, France, Italy and Spain.
Critics have cast doubt on
Russia’s low official mortality
rate, accusing the authorities of
under-reporting deaths in order
to play down the scale of the cri-
sis.
Russian health officials say
one of the reasons the count is
lower is that only deaths directly
caused by the virus are being in-
cluded.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana
Golikova denied any manipula-
tion of numbers, saying yester-
day that hospitals had a financial
interest in identifying corona-
virus cases since they get allo-
obligatory use of masks,” Health
Minister Salvador Illa told a news
conference.
From today, inhabitants of the
sparsely populated Canary Is-
lands of La Graciosa, El Hierro,
and La Gomera, and Formentera
in the Balearics, will be able to go
for walks at any time of day.
However, in Madrid and Bar-
celona, which have been particu-
larly badly hit, tougher restric-
tions will remain in place.
Protests have sprung up
around the country in the past
week, with Spaniards airing their
frustration at the government’s
handling of the crisis.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
said on Saturday that he would
from the Vatican Museums,
which received some 7mn visi-
tors last year and are the city’s
most reliable cash cow.
The museums, which gener-
ate an estimated $100mn yearly,
have been closed since March 8,
resulting in up to three months of
lost revenue.
Even after they reopen, offi-
cials fear that enhanced security
measures, social distancing re-
quirements, new health regula-
tions and the expected dearth of
international tourists will erode
ticket and souvenir sales for
years.
“We definitely have difficult
years ahead of us,” Father Juan
Antonio Guerrero, the new head
of the Vatican’s Secretariat for
the Economy, told the official
Vatican News website this week.
He estimated that Holy See
income would fall between 25%
and 45% because of the coro-
navirus, depending on how well
cost-cutting measures worked.
Baby born with coronavirus in Russia’s Caucasus region
A baby was born with the coronavirus in Russia’s
Caucasus region, health officials were quoted by Tass
news agency as saying yesterday, to a mother who is
also infected.
The birth in the North Ossetia city of Beslan follows
one in mid-April in Peru, which health officials there
said was the second known case of a Covid-19 positive
newborn worldwide.
The Covid-19 respiratory disease is caused by the
coronavirus.
cated more money to treat such
patients.
“From the economic point of
view, any hospital should have
seek parliament’s approval to
extend the country’s state of
emergency until the end of June,
when most regions should have
returned to normality.
In Italy, meanwhile, the daily
death toll from the coronavirus
epidemic in Italy fell to 145 yes-
terday, the lowest since March
9, against 153 the day before, the
Civil Protection Agency said,
while the daily tally of new cases
fell to a March-4 low of 675 from
875 on Saturday.
The total death toll since the
outbreak came to light on Febru-
ary 21 now stands at 31,908 the
agency said, the third highest in
the world after those of the Unit-
ed States and Britain.
Another unknown is that there
is no indication when the Pope
can resume activities which at-
tract tens of thousands of people
at a time, such as general audi-
ences and Masses on religious
feast days.
Many pilgrims and tourists
who come to Rome primarily to
see the Pope also leave donations
in St Peter’s Basilica, where there
is no entry fee.
But they pay to visit the Vati-
can Museums, which boast some
of the world’s greatest master-
pieces.
Adding to the income short-
fall, the two Vatican departments
that manage real estate holdings
in Italy offered reduced rents for
commercial tenants whose busi-
nesses have been adversely af-
fected by the pandemic, such as
some 600 stores and offices in
Rome.
“I don’t think that we are in a
different situation than anybody
else,” Father Augusto Zampini,
In North Ossetia, “a pregnant woman was infected by
the coronavirus, and her baby was born infected”, a
regional health ministry spokesman was quoted by
the state agency Tass as saying.
“They are now at home, their state is satisfactory,” the
spokesman added.
The head of the hospital’s maternity unit, Hassan
Tagaiev, was quoted by local television as saying that
17 of 35 women who were about to give birth there
had tested positive for Covid-19.
an interest in diagnosing more
“Covid cases”, she said in tel-
evised comments.
Authorities say that since the
The number of confirmed cas-
es amounts to 225,435, the sixth
highest global tally behind those
of the United States, Spain, Brit-
ain, Russia, and Brazil.
People registered as currently
carrying the illness fell to 68,351
from 70,187 the day before.
There were 762 people in in-
tensive care yesterday, down
from 775 on Saturday, maintain-
ing a long-running decline.
Of those originally infected,
125,176 were declared recovered
against 122,810 a day earlier.
The agency said yesterday that
a total of 1.933mn people had
been tested for the virus, against
1.900mn on Saturday, out of a
population of around 60mn.
member of a Vatican commission
that the Pope set up to advise him
on the social effects of the crisis,
told reporters on a conference
call.
“As any company or state, you
have some reserves and emer-
gency funds and we are reaching
for that, but that is only tempo-
rary,” said Zampini, 50, an Argen-
tine who was a lawyer before he
became a priest.
Bishops conferences in rich
countries such as the United
States and Germany make large
contributions to the running of
the Vatican but the pandemic has
also hit their finances.
The headquarters of the Ro-
man Catholic Church has two
budgets.
One is that of Holy See, the
government of the Catholic
Church which is recognised as a
sovereign entity in international
law.
It includes the central admin-
istration and embassies that keep
virus came later to Russia, the
country had more time to prepare
hospital beds and launch wide-
scale testing to slow its spread.
Hospital
staff snub
Belgian
premier
AFP
Brussels
S
taff at a Brussels hospital
gave Belgian Prime Minis-
ter Sophie Wilmes a frosty
reception, turning their backs on
her as she visited the frontline of
the fight against the coronavirus
pandemic.
Nurses and other staff lined
up at the entrance of the Saint
Pierre hospital in Brussels as
Wilmes arrived on Saturday and
pointedly turned away as her of-
ficial car drew up.
They were protesting about
under-resourcing in hospitals
and against official decrees that
could compel them to work if the
virus crisis demands it, Belgian
media reported.
“Politicians constantly turn
their backs on our appeals for
help,” one protesting nurse,
speaking anonymously, told the
RTBF broadcaster. “The teams
are under-staffed and the burn-
out rates show it. We want the
profession to be valued prop-
erly.”
A spokesman for Wilmes said
she had spoken for 40 minutes
with representatives of the pro-
testing staff, and that the at-
mosphere inside the hospital had
been more cordial.
Wilmes tweeted that meeting
and talking to the hospital staff
had been an “important mo-
ment”.
Rescued migrants
put on quarantine
A group of migrants rescued
off the coast of Fuerteventura
have been placed in mandatory
quarantine as Spain moves to
reduce the likelihood of imported
virus cases, local officials said on
Saturday.
Their boat was pulled to safety by
the Spanish coastguard on Friday
night and all 38 migrants were
taken to a port on Fuerteventura
in the Canary Islands.
They were rescued on the day
that Spain began imposing a new
mandatory 14-day quarantine
requirement on any incoming
travellers arriving by sea or air
in a bid to avoid any imported
coronavirus cases.
On arrival, the migrants were
placed in quarantine, a Canaries
government official told AFP.
up diplomatic relations with
more than 180 countries.
Its income is from real estate
holdings, investments and con-
tributions such as Peter’s Pence.
It has run a deficit for many
years.
The other budget is for Vatican
City, a 108-acre city-state sur-
rounded by Rome.
It includes the vital income
from the Vatican Museums and it
traditionally runs a surplus.
The surplus from the Vatican
City budget, as well as contribu-
tions from the faithful and profits
from the Vatican bank, have been
used to plug the Holy See’s defi-
cits for years.
The last year for which the
Vatican has published full budget
figures was 2015, when the Holy
See had a deficit of $13.1mn.
Since then, Guerrero said, the
Holy See has had yearly income
of about $293mn and expenses
of about $347mn, resulting in a
yearly deficit of about $54mn.

Corona negative report must for people entering Haryana
IANS
Chandigarh
T
he Haryana government
said yesterday those en-
tering the state from the
national capital must have a
negative test report for Covid-19
as more than 70% of the corona-
virus cases are reported from four
districts adjoining Delhi.
Haryana Home Minister Anil
Vij said the state has indicated
Maharashtra
sees surge in
virus cases as
63 more die
IANS
Mumbai
M
aharashtra yesterday re-
corded the highest figure
of new Covid-19 cases
- 2,347 - and the second highest
number of 63 deaths - exactly 60
days after the first fatality due to
the highly infectious disease was
registered in Mumbai on March 17,
officials said.
This comes to a staggering surge
of roughly 98 new cases every
hour in the state and a death rate
of roughly one fatality every 22
minutes.
With 63 fatalities - slightly
down from the previous high of 67
on May 16 - the state’s death toll
now stands at 1,198.
The total number of corona-
virus patients increased from
30,706 to 33,053 yesterday, after
the previous steepest single-day
jump of 1,606 recorded on May 16.
The Health Department said of
the total number of cases, 24,161
were ‘active cases’.
Of the total deaths, 38 were re-
corded in Mumbai alone, taking
up the city’s toll from Saturday’s
696 to 734, and the number of
Covid-19 positive patients here
shot up by the highest ever - 1,595
cases - to touch 20,150.
Mumbai’s Dharavi slum alone
continued to be a major hotspot
and a headache for the health au-
thorities, notching 44 new cases,
taking the total number of patients
to 1,242, and 56 deaths so far.
Besides Mumbai’s 38, there
were nine deaths in Pune, six in
Aurangabad, four in Raigad, three
in Solapur, and one each in Thane,
Latur and Amravati.
The victims comprise 44 men
and 19 women, and 65% of them
suffered from other serious ail-
ments such as diabetes, hyperten-
sion, heart problems and asthma.
On the positive side, 600 more
fully cured patients returned
home, taking the number of those
discharged to 7,688.
In a heart-warming develop-
ment, a six-week-old girl and her
4-year-old brother valiantly con-
quered Covid-19 and returned to
a rousing welcome at their home
in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune yes-
terday.
Meanwhile, Minority Af-
fairs Minister Nawab Malik has
said that each housing society in
Mumbai will now carry out the
Migrant risks his life, stays with friend till the end
IANS
Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh
T
his is the tale of stark con-
trasts in human behaviour.
One part shows how a
friend put his life at risk to save
another. The other shows how
governments are looking the
other way while truck opera-
tors make a killing out of migrant
workers’ misery.
Mohamed Saiyub could not
save his friend Amrit Kumar de-
spite his best efforts, and now he
himself is awaiting a verdict on
his health status in an isolation
ward as doctors hope he would
test negative for the dreaded
coronavirus.
They were touched by the
strong bond between the friends.
Till the reports come, doctors
and staff who treated Kumat have
to the central government that
commercial activities may be
resumed in areas excluding con-
tainment zones in Haryana dur-
ing the fourth phase of the na-
tionwide lockdown.
Vij said in this hour of crisis
“we have to save lives and focus
on expanding business. Hence,
there is a need to formulate strict
laws along with relaxation in
lockdown”.
“Just as wearing helmets is
mandatory, wearing face masks
basic screening of its residents for
Covid-19.
Moved by around a dozen
deaths of police warriors in the
state, legendary singer Lata Man-
geshkar sent her prayers and best
wishes to the police personnel in
the state.
“With heartfelt gratitude, I send
my best wishes and prayers to the
entire police force of Maharashtra.
You all are putting your lives at risk
to safeguard ours. Proud of you all.
Stay safe and blessed,” she said in
a tweet.
New Delhi has witnessed more
than 2,800 new cases and 75 more
deaths, as the tally reached 9,755
positive cases and toll mounted to
148 yesterday.
The data from the Health De-
partment says the 11th week (May
11-17) recorded 2,832 new cases -
the highest in a week.
In Chennai, officials said 639
more people tested positive for
coronavirus in Tamil Nadu even as
634 Covid-19 patients were cured
and discharged.
Four patients died, taking the
total death toll to 78 in the state.
In Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan
14 new cases were detected in the
state, taking the total number of
active cases to 101.
“Of these two came from abroad,
10 are from within the country,” Vi-
jayan said in a Facebook post.
As of yesterday, 497 people have
been cured of coronavirus in the
state.
Vijayan also said that at present,
there are 61,855 people under ob-
servation at home while 674 are in
various hospitals.
In a related development, the
state government announced
those wishing to opt for paid
quarantine can do so as the the
authorities have prepared a list of
169 hotels with 4,617 rooms across
the state.
They can book their room
through the Norka-Roots website.
Meanwhile, a 54-year-old man
from Udupi succumbed to Cov-
id-19, even as 54 new positive cas-
es raised Karnataka’s tally to 1,146,
an official said.
“Positive case number 1,093, a
54-year-old male resident of Udupi
died due to cardiac arrest on Thurs-
day. Tested positive for Covid on
Saturday,” the official tweeted.
This is Karnataka’s 37th death
due to the coronavirus and Udupi’s
first.
been quarantined.
Shivpuri Chief Medical Of-
ficer Dr A L Sharma said samples
were taken because Kumar and
his friend had arrived from a red
zone.
The family members of Kumar
who reached here on Saturday
after learning of his death were
allowed to take possession of the
body.
Kumar had a fever when he
along with Saiyub and other mi-
grant workers boarded a truck at
Surat early on Thursday.
The two friends, both 23, from
Devri village in Basti district in
Uttar Pradesh, worked in dif-
ferent textile units but shared a
room.
Kumar had taken paracetamol
tablets but it did not help much.
The journey for which the two
paid Rs8,000 to travel cattle class
in a fully loaded truck with more
must be made compulsory,” he
said in a statement.
Vij said “the world is in a crisis
and we have to think before tak-
ing any step.”
Meanwhile, over 3,160 pris-
oners, including those in deten-
tion camps, have been released
from jails across Assam in a bid
to decongest prisons amid the
Covid-19 pandemic, officials said
yesterday.
Assam’s Inspector General
of Prisons Dasaratha Das said a
Stranded migrant workers and their families wait to get thermally screened outside the Guru Nanak Auditorium in Amritsar before going to a railway station to take a train to
Bhagalpur in Bihar, yesterday.
Coronavirus lockdown
extended until May 31
Agencies
New Delhi
I
ndia extended yesterday its
coronavirus lockdown until
the end of May as the country
reported its biggest single-day
jump in cases, but said some sec-
tors would be permitted to open
up to ease the economic pain.
The lockdown affecting 1.3bn
people - the world’s largest - has
been in force since late March
and has been devastating for the
poor, with millions of migrant
workers losing their jobs.
“Lockdown measures to con-
tain the spread of Covid-19 will
continue” until at least May
31, the Home Ministry said in a
statement.
Schools, places of worship,
shopping malls, cinemas and
gyms must remain closed, the
ministry said, and bans on large
gatherings for religious and
sporting events will be extended.
City metro train services and do-
mestic and international air travel
will remain suspended, it said.
A night curfew restricting
A worker wearing protective gear attends to a customer at a hair
and beauty salon located in an area declared as green zone for the
coronavirus pandemic, in Nadiad some 50km from Ahmedabad
yesterday.
than 40 others was going to be
treacherous in the hostile sun.
When the truck reached Kolar-
as in Madhya Pradesh on Friday,
majority of the prisoners were
released for a specific period fol-
lowing a Supreme Court order,
while others were freed as per
normal legal procedures and oth-
er reasons.
The Supreme Court in March
had asked all high courts, states
and Union Territories to consti-
tute high-level committees to
consider releasing prisoners on
parole or interim bail.
The Gauhati High Court last
month also asked the Assam po-
public movement, except for es-
sential services, will be kept in
place between 7pm and 7am.
Restaurants however will now
be allowed to operate their kitch-
ens for takeaway services.
Sports complexes and stadi-
ums are permitted to host events
- but without spectators.
Inter-state and intra-state
buses and passenger vehicles
were authorised to operate, but
with the discretion of states and
union territories.
But outside of containment
zones with high numbers of ac-
tive cases “all other activities will
be permitted”, the ministry said,
potentially allowing commerce
and industry to reopen across
much of the country.
Several states, some of which
had lobbied the federal govern-
ment for a relaxation in the lock-
down, immediately said they
would allow many businesses to
restart.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay
Rupani said all industries and
offices would be allowed to oper-
ate, barring those in containment
zones.
Kumar’s health deteriorated.
The truck crew, who had al-
ready charged over Rs1,60,000
from the passengers, refused to
lice to release on bail “declared
foreigners” who have completed
two years in detention camps.
In other developments, a sen-
ior horticulture department
employee in Bengaluru was sus-
pended for allowing a police of-
ficer and others to enter the Cub-
bon park amid the lockdown, an
official said.
“Horticulture department of
Karnataka has suspended Ku-
suma, deputy director, Cubbon
park for violating government
India also softened its stance
on a contact tracing app, which
it previously said was mandatory
for all public and private sector
employees returning to work.
While it once said that heads
of companies and organisations
needed “to ensure 100% cover-
age” of the Aarogya Setu app
among employees, it now says
employers should get employees
to use the app on a “best effort
basis”.
The National Disaster Man-
agement Authority said the re-
strictions would be updated “as
necessary, keeping in view the
need to open up economic activi-
ties” while containing the virus.
“India will not see the worst
of Covid-19, like in other coun-
tries,” Health Minister Harsh
Vardhan tweeted, adding that
state governments had the flex-
ibility to implement locally tai-
lored measures.
The third extension to the
lockdown came as India recorded
its biggest single-day jump in
cases with 4,987 new infections
in the last 24 hours.
It took the total number of cas-
break the journey midway to help
Kumar get medical assistance.
Neither the workers nor the
truck driver wanted to wait.
The others insisted that Kumar
be offloaded as he could be a risk
to them.
“I wanted him to get better so
that we could reach home safely.
Our parents were waiting for us. I
will stay with him till he is cured,”
Saiyub said.
Having forced Kumar to get
off, the driver asked Saiyub to
hand him his luggage and stay
aboard.
“How could I leave him in such
a condition,” Saiyub said as he re-
alised the gravity of the situation
and tried to speak to Kumar who
was too weak.
Local journalist Samuel Das,
who helped the two friends, said
Kumar’s father was handicapped.
Saiyub said, being the sole
INDIA
guidelines and allowing a sen-
ior police officer and groups of
people inside the park during the
lockdown period,” Horticulture
Department Principal Secretary
T Manjappa said.
He said that Kusuma was sus-
pended for the violation under
Karnataka Public Service Rules
(Movement and Prohibition).
“Kusuma has violated govern-
ment guidelines and allowed peo-
ple to go into the park during the
lockdown period, thereby breaking
es to 90,927 with 2,872 deaths.
Health experts say infections
may only peak in June or July,
and have called for more testing
to determine the spread of the
disease.
Earlier yesterday, India’s
worst-affected coronavirus state
Maharashtra extended its lock-
down to end-May ahead of the
national announcement.
Maharashtra, with a popula-
tion of 112mn, has reported 30,706
cases including 1,135 deaths.
Mumbai - India’s worst-hit
city - has 18,555 infections, and
the pandemic has pushed its hos-
pitals to breaking point.
A city authority spokesman
said Mumbai was considering
turning Wankhede Stadium - the
site of India’s cricket World Cup
final triumph in 2011 - into a vi-
rus treatment facility.
The conversion could hap-
pen if other facilities get over-
whelmed with the onset of the
monsoon, which usually starts
around mid-June - and mon-
soon-related illnesses, although
“nothing has been decided yet”,
the spokesman said.
breadwinner, Kumar was always
tense.
He earned around Rs10,000 and
had to send enough money to sup-
port his five siblings and parents.
Saiyub had asked the driver
to pay some money back as they
were being dropped midway and
needed some money for Kumar’s
treatment.
But he refused to pay.
As Kumar continued to sink,
Saiyub sat cradling his friend by
the roadside.
Some bystanders clicked an
image that went viral on social
media.
A half-empty water bottle and
a red backpack lay next to the two
friends.
When an ambulance arrived a
few minutes later, another image
showed Saiyub hurrying to move
his friend inside.
Saiyub kept sponging his
Gulf Times
Monday, May 18, 2020 13
the government rules and behav-
ing very irresponsibly for a gov-
ernment servant,” he said.
However, the identities of the
senior police officer and others
who visited the park were not re-
vealed.
Located in the heart of Ben-
galuru abutting the Karnataka
High Court and Bangalore Press
Club, Cubbon park is a major
lung space of the city.
The park is also famous for
massive bamboo trees.
There were some nationwide
relaxations for industry and agri-
culture last month, while offices
last week were allowed to operate
with one-third capacity.
Limited service resumed
Tuesday on the country’s mas-
sive rail network.
The dire economic situation
has sparked a migrant worker
crisis, as many businesses shut
down when the lockdown was
imposed.
Jobless and hungry, many mi-
grants fled the cities, some walk-
ing hundreds of kilometres.
Dozens have lost their lives to
accidents or exhaustion.
Some of those stranded in ur-
ban areas have also clashed with
police in a recent spate of pro-
tests as they clamoured to be
allowed to return home to their
villages.
Yesterday, five policemen and a
journalist were injured in Rajkot
in Gujarat after up to 3,000 mi-
grant workers clashed with offic-
ers when a special train to bring
them home was cancelled.
Twenty-nine people were ar-
rested.
friend’s forehead with a kerchief
till the ambulance arrived.
The doctors who untiringly
tried to save Kumar gave up on
Friday night.
His lungs were clear but he
had severe dehydration. He was
shifted to ICU and was kept on
a ventilator but he died around
midnight.
Kumar was taken to the com-
munity health centre in Kolaras
where Dr Vivek Sharma tried to
revive him.
“His sugar was low.I gave him
ORS. His temperature was high.
I thought it was a case of heat
stroke. He had febrile convul-
sions,’” said Dr Sharma, who
thought Saiyub was Kumar’s
brother because he was con-
stantly touching his friend.
“Even ward boys are scared to
touch patients these days. They
had to be pushed to do so.”
 Gulf Times
14 Monday, May 18, 2020
INDIA
Suspended doctor ends up in mental hospital
IANS
Visakhapatnam
A
n Andhra Pradesh gov-
ernment doctor, who was
suspended for question-
ing the shortage of N95 masks
for doctors treating Covid pa-
tients, was admitted to a mental
hospital yesterday, a day after he
was manhandled by police for
creating nuisance on a road.
According to doctors at the
Government Hospital for Mental
West Bengal
and Odisha
brace for
cyclone fury
IANS
New Delhi
T
he India Meteorological
Department (IMD) said
yesterday that Cyclone
Amphan has gathered strength
and turned into a very severe cy-
clonic storm.
The weather phenomenon will
cause heavy rainfall and high-
velocity wind in coastal districts
of Odisha, West Bengal and An-
daman and Nicobar.
It is likely to make landfall on
the West Bengal coast on May 20.
The National Disaster Re-
sponse Force has sent 10 teams
to Odisha and seven to West
Bengal to tackle the cyclone.
“The severe cyclonic storm Am-
phan over central parts of South
Bay of Bengal and neighbourhood
moved slowly northwards with
speed of 4kmph during past six
hours. It has further intensified
into a very severe cyclonic storm,”
IMD scientist R K Jenamani said.
The cyclone currently lies cen-
tred at about 960km south of
Odisha’s Paradip, 1,110km south-
southwest of West Bengal’s Digha
and 1,230km south-southwest
of Bangladesh’s Khepupara. It is
very likely to intensify further
into an extremely severe cyclonic
storm during the next 24 hours.
According to the weather de-
partment, the cyclone is also
very likely to move nearly north-
wards slowly during next 12
hours and then re-curve north
by northeastwards and move fast
across northwest Bay of Bengal
and cross West Bengal and Bang-
ladesh coasts between Digha and
Hatiya islands on May 20.
The weather agency said there
can be light to moderate rainfall in
Andaman and Nicobar in the next
24 hours. Coastal districts of West
Bengal are also likely to experience
light to moderate rainfall at many
places with heavy rainfall at iso-
lated places on May 19.
Over 560 cyclone shelters and
7,000 buildings have been iden-
tified to accommodate about
1.1mn people in Odisha.
In view of the cyclone, the
Bhubaneswar-New Delhi-Bhu-
baneswar special train will run on
diverted route via Bhubaneswar-
Angul-Sambalpur City-Jharsu-
guda-Rourkela-Tata bypassing
Bhadrak-Balasore-Hijli route.
Covid-19 cases see huge surge in NE region
IANS
Guwahati/Agartala
I
n around two weeks, the
northeast states have seen a
huge increase in the number
of coronavirus cases, even as
they also face the challenge
of hundreds of thousands of
stranded migrant workers re-
turning home.
According to the health offi-
cials, as on May 1, there were 61
coronavirus cases in six of the
eight northeastern states.
But by yesterday, the number
had mounted to 286, with an
abrupt rise in the number of
cases in Tripura and a steady in-
crease of infection in Assam.
Assam Health Minister
Himanta Biswa Sarma and health
officials in Manipur attributed
the rise in corona cases to the re-
turn of people in the region.
In Tripura, the rise is due to
infections among the 159 Border
Security Force (BSF) person-
nel of two battalions (86th and
Health, the preliminary investi-
gations show K
Sudhakar Rao is suffering
from acute and transient psy-
chosis.
After the late Saturday inci-
dent at Akkayapalem in Visa-
khapatnam, police shifted the
doctor to King George Hospital,
where the doctors found him un-
der the influence of alcohol.
Hospital Superintendent G
Arjun referred him to the gov-
ernment mental hospital.
According to the police, the
Lockdown wedding
A Sikh bride and groom wearing masks hold bouquets of flowers as they arrive for their
wedding at a gurdwara on the outskirts of Amritsar in Punjab yesterday.
138th) and their family members.
Manipur had reported its first
case of coronavirus on March
24 when a 23-year-old woman
who returned from the UK tested
positive, making it the first case
in the northeast region, which is
home to only 4% of the country’s
population.
Sikkim and Nagaland have not
reported positive any case; and
Arunachal Pradesh and Mizo-
ram have no active cases as two
patients, one each in state, have
recovered and discharged from
hospital.
On May 1, Assam with 42
positive cases and one death was
leading in the corona cases in the
northeastern region.
But yesterday, Tripura leads
with 167 of the total cases, of
which 101 are active, followed by
Assam with 96 (51 active and two
deaths), Meghalaya 13 (1 active
and 1 dead) and Manipur with
seven cases, of which five are ac-
tive cases.
All the latest five coronavi-
rus-infected people, including
doctor behaved rudely with a
traffic policeman, snatched his
mobile phone and threw it away.
He allegedly behaved aggres-
sively with an auto-rickshaw
driver and others and caused a
traffic jam.
Police claimed that as the
doctor could have harmed him-
self, he was taken into custody
and since he was in an inebriated
condition, he was shifted to the
KGH for an alcohol test.
The doctors found him to be
suffering from mental problems
three women, returned to Ma-
nipur from Mumbai, Kolkata and
Chennai.
According to health officials
in Guwahati, the lone corona
patient from Nagaland, a trader,
was admitted to the Guwahati
Medical College and Hospital on
April 12 after he tested positive.
The patient was released from
the hospital earlier this month
after he recovered.
The Nagaland government
continues to maintain that there is
no positive case in the state, while
the Assam government’s corona-
virus update makes no mention of
the 33-year-old trader’s case.
Federal Minister of State for
Development of North East-
ern Region Jitendra Singh held
several meetings through video
link with senior North Eastern
Council (NEC) officers and of-
ficials of northeastern states as
well representatives of different
government bodies and public
sector units.
Singh, appreciating the steps
of the state governments of
and referred him to the mental
hospital.
Rao was suspended two
months ago after he publicly
criticised the government for
failing to provide N95 masks to
the doctors treating Covid-19
patients.
Video clips of the police ty-
ing the doctor’s hands, dragging
and manhandling him triggered
outrage and opposition parties,
doctors’ associations and Dalit
groups condemned the police
action.
the region in dealing with the
Covid-19 management, had
on April 27 declared five of the
eight northeast states – Sikkim,
Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh,
Manipur and Tripura – coro-
navirus-free after the patients
of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur
and Tripura recovered.
Meanwhile, for the past four-
days, a three-member central
team continued their study
about the coronavirus infection
among the BSF troopers and
their family members, visiting
the 86th and 138th Battalion
headquarters in Ambassa, 82km
north of Agartala, yesterday and
different parts of Dhalai district,
including India-Bangladesh
bordering areas.
The central team, led by G K
Medhi of the Shillong-based
North Eastern Indira Gandhi
Regional Institute of Health and
Medical Sciences, is studying
the source and other aspects of
the coronavirus infection among
troopers, officials and their fam-
ily members.
The main opposition Telugu
Desam Party (TDP) and Left
parties alleged that the inhuman
treatment was meted out to the
doctor for questioning the gov-
ernment.
TDP president N Chandrab-
abu Naidu demanded that the
policemen who manhandled the
doctor be arrested and booked
under SC/ST (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act.
Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh
termed the state government as
“anti-Dalit”.
Govt opens
all sectors
to private
companies
Agencies
New Delhi
T
he government will open
all business sectors to
private ownership, while
leaving room for state-run en-
terprises to still operate in some
defined areas, Finance Minister
Nirmala Sitharaman said yes-
terday.
The announcement is part of
a series of measures Sithara-
man has announced during the
past four days aimed at tackling
the economic fallout of the new
new coronavirus.
“One to four public sector
enterprises would continue to
play a critical role in strategic
sectors,” Sitharaman said.
India’s state-run enterpris-
es, many dating back to the so-
cialist economic programmes
immediately post independ-
ence in 1947, operate in a range
of sectors from mining, manu-
facturing of steel, chemicals,
fertilisers, telecom and more.
The railways and atomic en-
ergy are the two major sectors
where private players are not
allowed.
The new public sector enter-
prise policy is likely to see both
the dismantling and privatisa-
tion of public sector enterprises
that employ hundreds of thou-
sands of people.
Asked which sectors would
be deemed strategic and in
which the public sector enter-
prises would play a role, Sithar-
aman said a list of these would
be drafted soon.
Sitharaman said the total ex-
penditure of the government
on various measures to provide
relief to the poor, workers and
vendors affected by the lock-
down, as well as farmers and
Satyendra Kumar, a migrant worker, massages the feet of his daughter after walking for three days, as
they wait to cross the border to their home state of Uttar Pradesh, in New Delhi yesterday.
Meanwhile, family members
of the doctor met him at the
mental hospital yesterday
His mother Kaveribai broke
down on seeing him.
She alleged that he was sus-
pended for demanding N95
masks for doctors for their pro-
tection and now his life was
being ruined by branding him
mentally unsound.
Stating that there is a threat to
his life, she demanded that he be
shifted to a private hospital.
His wife Manjari said ever
small business and tax reliefs,
would cost the exchequer about
Rs20tn (about $263bn).
Sitharaman also said health
expenditure will be increased
and health reforms will be
made at the grassroots level.
“To prepare India for any fu-
ture pandemic, health expendi-
ture will be increased and in-
vestment at the grassroots level
will be ramped up for health and
wellness centres, with par-
ticular focus on aspirational
districts. All districts will have
infectious diseases block in hos-
pitals. Public health labs will be
set up at block levels,” she said.
Talking about the steps taken
by the government for the con-
tainment of Covid-19 in the
country, the minister said that
the government has commit-
ted Rs150bn for health-related
measures for the containment
of Covid-19, which includes
Rs5mn insurance per person for
health professionals.
“More than Rs4,113 crores
(Rs41.13bn) have been released
to states,” Sitharaman said.
The medical fraternity wel-
comed Sitharaman’s meas-
ures for health reforms, saying
these would go a long way in
strengthening the healthcare
services across the country as
well as help prepare India for
any future outbreak.
“The government’s decision
to allot funds for public health
labs and build infectious dis-
ease blocks in all district-level
hospitals is praise-worthy. This
will go a long way in strength-
ening healthcare services in
the country as well as prepare
the country for any future out-
break,” Federation of Resident
Doctor Association India presi-
dent Dr Shivaji Dev Barman.
“Allotment of funds for pro-
since his suspension he was very
upset.
The family members blamed
the government for his current
condition.
Andhra Pradesh Civil Liber-
ties Committee condemned the
attitude of the police with Dr
Rao.
APCLC president M Subba
Rao demanded that the police-
men who attacked the doctor be
arrested and the unfair suspen-
sion of the doctor immediately
revoked.
viding adequate quantities of
PPEs (personal protective equip-
ment) for healthcare workers will
ensure their protection in the
ongoing fight against Covid-19
epidemic,” said Barman.
“Healthcare planning should
include necessary inputs from
doctors working at ground level
and by introducing the Indian
Medical Service (IMS) cadre.
Healthcare system needs to
be strengthened at every level
along with an improved disease
surveillance system. Research
in the health sector should also
be stepped up.”
Dr Sudarshan Ballal, presi-
dent of NatHealth – Healthcare
Federation of India, said: “The
healthcare industry welcomes
these strategic reforms and
looks forward to working with
the government on expanding
India’s healthcare footprint. In
view of the tremendous head-
winds faced by the industry, we
look forward to continuously
engaging with central and state
governments for short-term
support to sustain and maintain
resilience in the face of Covid”.
Dr Shankar Narang of Paras
Healthcare, which is among
‘hospitals-turned Covid-19
centres’ in Ranchi, said, “If there
is one positive that can be pulled
out from the calamitous Cov-
id-19 crisis, it is the fact that it
has woken us up to the need for
giving healthcare its due. We are
happy that the finance minister
has announced a slew of reforms
and measures to improve health-
care infrastructure, including
increased public expenditure
on health, greater investment
in ramping up grassroots-level
healthcare systems, creating in-
fectious disease hospital blocks
in all districts and boosting IC-
MR’s research capability.”

Mexico food
markets stir
unease about
virus infections
Reuters
Mexico City
E
very day, thousands of
Mexicans crowd a mas-
sive food market that is
a lynchpin of the capital’s food
supply, though it sits at the
heart of a major hotspot for the
virus.
Mexico City’s sprawl-
ing Central de Abasto mar-
ket, stretching across an area
equivalent to about 327 foot-
ball pitches, poses a major
headache for officials trying
to keep food supplies flowing
without magnifying the spread
of the coronavirus.
It is a daunting task in a mar-
ket known to attract about a
half a million people a day in
normal times, according to fig-
ures from officials in Iztapala-
pa, a neighbourhood with the
highest numbers of coronavirus
infections in Mexico.
In addition to shoppers and
wholesale buyers who throng
the market at night to supply
retail outlets in the metropolis,
another 100,000 workers typi-
cally cram the corridors lined
with sacks of potatoes, rice and
boxes of bananas.
Local officials have not de-
tailed how many visitors the
market is receiving during the
quarantine, but the market’s
organisers say vehicle traffic
has fallen by about 30%.
In early May, the capital’s
government included the shop-
ping complex in a list of 89 ar-
eas deemed to have “high-risk
of contagion” as part of efforts
to prevent an outbreak.
Still, completely shutting the
market that serves a sizeable
swathe of Mexico’s 25mn peo-
ple is not an option, said Mexico
City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum,
because it would devastate the
regional food supply.
“Central de Abasto cannot
be closed,” Sheinbaum said late
last month.”We are taking very
strict measures so that as few
people as possible go.”
Unlike those living in the
leafy upscale areas of Mexico’s
cosmopolitan capital, the driv-
ers, cleaners and vendors in the
working class Iztapalapa area
say they have no choice but to
risk the virus.
“The government says to
stay in quarantine. So how are
we going to eat?”, asked Fern-
ando Torres, one of the thou-
sands of people who work in
the market.
With about 2,500 confirmed
cases and more than 200
deaths, Iztapalapa accounts for
about a fifth of the total number
of infections and deaths related
to the virus in Mexico City, the
epicentre of the pandemic in
the country.
Experts attribute the rapid
‘Indescribable pride’ for
Cuban medic in Italy
AFP
Crema, Italy
N
either the northern Ital-
ian chill nor the unfamiliar
language has deterred a
young Cuban doctor who for the
past two months has been helping
in the fight against coronavirus in
Europe, thousands of miles from
home.
Roberto Arias Hernandez, one
of Cuba’s so-called “Army of
White Coats” sent by his country
in March to help Italy battle a spi-
ralling epidemic of Covid-19, said
he and his colleagues were “simply
doctors.”
“Today it is our turn more
than ever to play our role,” the
28-year-old internist said on a
recent morning, before starting
his shift at the Crema Maggiore
Hospital in the heart of Lom-
bardy, the region hardest hit by
the virus.
Arias, who is on his first mission
abroad, is part of a group of 51 oth-
er doctors and specialists, more
spread of the disease in part to
the location of the neighbour-
hood, the most populous in the
capital, connecting the centre
of the sprawling city with the
dense suburbs of the state of
Mexico.
Residents are further handi-
capped by poor public services,
such as scarcity of drinking wa-
ter.
More than a third of the pop-
ulation lives in poverty in the
city borough, according to gov-
ernment data.
Two of the four public hospi-
tals serving Covid-19 patients
in Iztapalapa were saturated on
Saturday, according to govern-
ment data.
Area funeral homes and cre-
matoriums have also said they
were getting slammed.
Reuters made repeated re-
quests for an interview with
Clara Brugada, mayor of the Iz-
tapalapa area, but she was not
made available in time for pub-
lication.
Due to the coronavirus, the
market is operating at 85% of
capacity.
It typically receives more
than 15,000 products every
day from all over the country in
more than 60,000 cargo vehi-
cles, officials say.
The decision to tighten sur-
veillance came just after mar-
ket authorities acknowledged
about 25 people had been in-
fected and reported two deaths
related to the virus at the facil-
ity, where about $9bn changes
hands each year.
As part of the precaution-
ary measures, children and
pregnant women are prohib-
ited from entering, while health
personnel have begun to carry
out Covid-19 tests.
Hundreds of police officers
and other public employees are
stationed to measure visitors’
temperatures.
“What we are trying (to do)
is cut the transmission chain,”
said Javier Serna, health officer
at the Iztapalapa mayor’s of-
fice.
However, Serna said 34 ad-
ditional cases of coronavirus
were detected last week after
conducting 450 tests among
market personnel.
In the neighbourhood around
the market, dozens of shops
remain open and residents can
be seen walking without face
masks — in contrast to the des-
olate streets in more affluent
areas of the capital.
Angeles Medina, 33, lost her
job in a plastic factory after the
coronavirus outbreak, and now
sells tacos and coffee outside a
metro station 10 minutes from
the market.
“I am afraid of getting infect-
ed or bringing an infection to
my house, but we have to work,”
Medina said.
than half of whom have experience
fighting Ebola in Africa.
Their mission began on March
22, a rainy day marked by “abys-
mal” cold, recalled the Caribbean
islander. The group of Cubans was
dispatched to the city of Crema,
whose 34,000 inhabitants were
suffering under a dizzying rise in
the number of coronavirus cases
and a seemingly relentless number
of deaths.
In Lombardy, over 15,000 peo-
ple have died from the virus, nearly
half of the 31,610 recorded so far
in the entire country, according to
latest figures on Saturday.
“Fear is always felt, because
you’re going to fight...in the epi-
centre of the pandemic world-
wide,” confessed Arias.
“You want to do it, but you’re
also afraid that you won’t be up to
it,” he said, adding that after the
initial worries subsided, the team
“performed quite well.”
Working side by side with
colleagues from the other side
of the world who trained at dif-
ferent universities posed no
Mexico fears pandemic will push millions into poverty
The economic fallout from
coronavirus could add 9mn
people to Mexico’s poor,
according to a government
study calling for aid like
pensions and insurance in the
country that provides no federal
jobless benefits.
Increased hardship could
translate to at least 70mn
Mexicans, 56% of the country,
not earning enough to cover
basic needs, said CONEVAL, the
autonomous public agency that
measures poverty.
That would be an increase from
about 50% in 2018.
A boy runs after geese at a park after authorities allowed children to go out for an hour for recreational purposes according to the ID number of their parents – some on Saturdays
and others on Sundays – amid the lockdown imposed against the spread of the new coronavirus in Buenos Aires.
Dengue stalking Latin America
in Covid-19 shadow: experts
Reuters
Bogota
A
s the coronavirus kills
thousands and dominates
government attention
across Latin America, another
deadly viral infection is quietly
stalking the region.
Dengue — colloquially called
breakbone fever for the severe
joint pain it causes — is endemic in
much of Latin America, but Cov-
id-19’s arrival has pulled crucial
attention and resources away from
the fight against it, doctors and of-
ficials say.
The Pan-American Health Or-
ganisation (PAHO) expects 2020
to be marked by high rates of
dengue, which can fill intensive
problems, Arias said.
In terms of technical language,
“we understand each other per-
fectly.”
Moreover, Arias said he ap-
preciated the good humour and
warmth of the Italians, even under
trying circumstances.
“Italian doctors have a person-
ality like the Cubans,” Arias said.
“They’re cheerful, they all greet
you, they thank you for being here.
Some of them make jokes.”
Arias, father of an 11-month-
old baby, said he has been filled
with “indescribable pride” hear-
ing Italians applauding from their
balconies and windows for the
doctors, nurses and health workers
during the quarantine.
He has received hundreds of
messages and letters of thanks,
many from children.
Some people in Crema, hung
signs from their windows saying
“Thank you Cuba,” he said.
The head of the Cuban contin-
gent, Carlos Perez Diaz, said the
team would stay as long as neces-
sary to fight the coronavirus.
Mexico’s overall poverty
rate, a different measure that
includes income and factors
like education and access to
food, dropped in the decade
before 2018 to about 42% of the
population, it said.
During that time, access to
health care and the quality of
housing improved most, the
report said.
“The general conclusion is that
this crisis threatens Mexico’s
advances in social development
and will disproportionately
affect the most vulnerable
groups,” CONEVAL said.
care units and kill patients.
Around the world, Covid-19 has
affected other diseases in different
ways.
Though in Europe measures to
stop the coronavirus have ban-
ished seasonal flu, in Africa border
closures have stopped transporta-
tion of measles vaccines and other
supplies.
In Latin America, a dengue epi-
demic which started in late 2018 is
still being felt.
Dengue infections in the
Americas surged to an all-time
high of 3.1mn in 2019, with over
1,500 deaths in Latin America and
the Caribbean, according to the
PAHO.
Cases of the disease should be-
gin to decline in the second half of
the year, the organisation said.
Doctor Roberto Arias Hernandez examines an elderly patient in
a non-Covid medicine ward at the Maggiore Hospital of Crema,
southeast of Milan.
LATIN AMERICA
“Facing this challenge, it is
necessary to broaden and
strengthen the response
measures.”
Mexico has about 35,000
confirmed cases of coronavirus,
which has killed at least 3,400
people.
With businesses forced to close
to help stop the spread of the
disease, more than 346,000
formal jobs were lost between
mid-March and early April, the
government said, with further
layoffs expected as the economy
shrinks.
CONEVAL suggested
Spread by mosquitoes, dengue
outbreaks typically occur three
to five years after the previous
epidemic. And with four strains of
dengue in circulation, people may
catch it more than once, with sec-
ond cases more likely to be severe.
“Covid is the star right now, so
all of the attention is being put on
Covid, but there are still problems
with dengue,” said doctor Jaime
Gomez, who works at a hospital
in Floridablanca, in Colombia’s
Santander province.
Although dengue is not usually
fatal and can be treated with pain-
killers, some sufferers deal with
persistent symptoms like fatigue,
weight loss, and depression that
affect their ability to work.
Severe dengue is treated with
intravenous fluids and those who
policymakers consider
introducing minimum universal
pensions, unemployment
insurance or universal basic
incomes to help the most
vulnerable.
Currently, there is little help for
workers who lose their jobs
because Mexico has no federal
unemployment benefits.
Jobless workers are mostly
forced to rely on savings, their
families or upon private charity
to survive.
The effects of losing a job are
long lasting, and many workers
in Mexico earn salaries near
do not get tested are at risk of dan-
gerous complications.
Such medical intervention can-
not be given if patients stay home,
worried about contracting the
coronavirus, or if overcrowded
hospitals have to turn them away.
With relatively few cases of
Covid-19 in the province where he
works, Gomez said his clinic had
seen hospitalisations fall by half,
as people were fearful of venturing
outdoors.
Paraguayan lawyer Sonia Fern-
andez avoided seeking care when
she and her two daughters, ages 11
and 8, got sick with dengue at the
beginning of April.
“All three of us had dengue, we
had all the symptoms, the pain, the
rash, but we didn’t go to a clinic or
a health centre so as not to expose
Peru set to build
hospital in Amazon
AFP
Lima
P
eru said it will construct
a fast-build hospital in
the Amazon as it seeks to
respond to a growing Covid-19
emergency sweeping through the
indigenous population.
State social security body Es-
Salud said it expects the 100-bed
hospital in Pucallpa, capital of
the remote Ucayali region on the
border with Brazil, to be opera-
tional within three weeks.
“EsSalud will install a fast-
build hospital in Ucayali to serve
Covid-19 patients,” the govern-
ment body said in a statement.
The Peruvian Amazon is already
facing a dire emergency, with
hospitals in its largest city Iquitos
overwhelmed with Covid-19 pa-
tients and local morgues unable to
cope with the number of bodies.
The government said it would
rush 220 healthworker rein-
forcements to the Amazon.
“We have been working inten-
sively to expand the services and
provide hospitals in the Peruvian
Amazon with all the necessary
Gulf Times
Monday, May 18, 2020 15
the poverty line, said David
Kaplan, lead labour market
specialist at the Inter-American
Development Bank (IADB), a
lender to governments in the
region.
“It doesn’t take a big hit to knock
these people into poverty,”
he told the Thomson Reuters
Foundation.
In Mexico, women have been
particularly vulnerable to the
pandemic as they make up the
majority of healthcare workers
and face longer hours, risk
of illness and housekeeping
responsibilities, the report said.
ourselves (to Covid-19),” Fernan-
dez said.
All three have since recovered.
Dengue cases in Paraguay have
exploded this year.
In the first 18 weeks of 2020,
the country reported 42,710 con-
firmed cases and 64 deaths, com-
pared to 384 confirmed cases and
six deaths in the year-earlier pe-
riod.
In Ecuador, where the corona-
virus outbreak has hit hard and
hospitals in the largest city of
Guayaquil been overwhelmed, an
apparent fall in the number of den-
gue cases could mask other issues.
According to Ecuador’s health
ministry, dengue cases peaked at
888 in the week ending March 14,
two weeks after the country con-
firmed its first case of Covid-19.
means to care for patients with
Covid-19,” said Federico Tong
Hurtado, a spokesman for the
social security services.
Prime Minister Gustavo Ze-
ballos said the government would
ensure the supply of oxygen and
other vital medical materials via
“an air and land bridge” to the
region.
Roads are practically non-
existent in the Peruvian jungle
and rivers are the main means of
transportation.
The government has pledged
to ramp up the frequency of
flights from Lima to ensure aid
deliveries.
An oxygen plant will begin op-
erating in Iquitos, capital of the
neighbouring Amazon region of
Loreto, today, supplying a local
40-bed hospital.
Desperate Covid-19 patients
have been dying in the region’s
hospitals for lack of oxygen, of-
ficials say.
“The world’s lung is dying
from lack of oxygen and this is
our sad reality,” the director of
health for the Amazon region of
Loreto, Carlos Calampa, said in a
video call.
 Gulf Times
16 Monday, May 18, 2020
PAKISTAN
Pakistan’s coronavirus
cases rise above 40,000
16 health staff isolated after
contact with suspected
Covid-19 case
Internews
Islamabad
T
he nationwide tally of
coronavirus cases in Paki-
stan has soared to 40,151,
with 1,352 new cases reported
during the last 24 hours.
Overall 14,584 cases have so
far been detected in Punjab,
15,590 in Sindh, 5,847 in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, 2,544 in Balu-
chistan, 527 in Gilgit Baltistan,
947 in Islamabad, and 112 in Azad
Jammu Kashmir.
A total of 11,341 patients have
so far recovered from the virus
whilst the death toll stands at
Five-day Kalash
spring fest concludes
without outsiders
Internews
Islamabad
T
he five-day Chilim Jusht
spring festival of Ka-
lash people concluded
in Bumburate valley with the
ritual dance by young men and
women at the centre of the val-
ley in north of Pakistan.
This year the festival was a
sombre event due to the coro-
navirus pandemic, as non-lo-
cals and tourists were not al-
lowed to enter the valley.
It was for the first time that
only the Kalash people were
present in the closing festivi-
ties, which used to attract large
crowds from other parts of the
country.
The men and women had to
dance at a distance, contrary
to their customary practice of
performing in groups of five to
eight and hugging each other.
Before arriving at the cen-
tral place in Charsu, the Kalash
men and women, accompanied
by children, reached a nearby
grassy ground from different
Two arrests over ‘honour killings’
Pakistani authorities have arrested two men for allegedly
murdering two female family members after a video which
showed them being kissed by a man was posted online, police said
yesterday.
The two women were killed on Thursday in a northwestern district
near the Afghan border.
“Both men have confessed to killing them,” said police official
Mohamed Nawaz.
The two men – one of whom was the father of the first victim and
the other was the brother of the second, were both being held in
custody pending trial.
Police said authorities were searching for two other suspects who
were believed to have been involved in the killings.
Railways minister predicts NAB action after Eid
Internews
Lahore
M
inister for Railways
Sheikh Rashid Ahmad
has said that those en-
joying life on bail or any other
pretext would be taken to task by
the National Accountability Bu-
reau (NAB) before July 31.
He says that Shehbaz Sharif
can save himself if he changes his
“software”.
“You are seeing that opposi-
tion party leaders are repeat-
edly asking for curtailment of the
NAB. But I tell you clearly that
the NAB will sweep till July 31, as
those enjoying life on bail would
be no more in such a situation,”
he told journalists at his weekly
press conference here at the Pa-
kistan Railways (PR) headquar-
ters.
Senior Pakistan Peoples Party
(PPP) leader Chaudhry Manzoor
Hussain, while commenting on
Ahmad’s press conference, ac-
cused the NAB of victimising the
opposition on the instructions of
Prime Minister Imran Khan.
873, with 39 new deaths reported
during the last 24 hours.
Six doctors and 10 nurses at
the Benazir Bhutto Hospital
(BBH) in Pakistan’s garrison city
of Rawalpindi have been isolated
after coming in contact with two
suspected patients of Covid-19,
one of whom died on Saturday.
The Covid-19 respiratory dis-
ease is caused by the coronavirus.
The deceased was a 38-year-
old resident of Sargodha, while
the other patient is a resident of
Rawalpindi.
Six nurses in the paediatric
intensive care unit (ICU) were
isolated earlier after they treated
a child who had contracted Cov-
id-19.
The ICU in question has not
been sealed yet, a hospital official
said.
villages where they held a spe-
cial session of collective danc-
ing and sang in praise of their
near and dear ones who have
died.
Afterwards, they left for
Charsu in a procession waving
green twigs of walnut in their
hands escorted by smartly
dressed boys and girls.
The Kalash people resumed
their farming activities a day
after the festival, with many
leaving for the pastures in the
highlands with their goats,
where they will remain until
September.
Special Assistant to the
Chief Minister on Minori-
ties Wazirzada, who was the
special guest on the occasion,
distributed gifts among the
participants and congratulated
them for attending yet another
festival in their lifetime.
He said the government had
taken a number of initiatives to
improve the living standard of
Kalash people.
Wazirzada said that efforts
are underway to preserve their
customs and traditions.
“We have already termed this
so-called accountability drive a
NAB-Niazi Gath Jorr, made just
to target the opposition. Actually
this government is itself allegedly
involved in corruption as evident
from the wheat flour, sugar, IPP,
drugs, etc scams,” he said.
“But neither the NAB nor the
courts are taking action. We also
don’t see relief from courts if we
approach them on this issue,” he
said, adding: “The courts know
all this.”
While focusing on the Pakistan
Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-
N), Minister Ahmad said that the
party president Shehbaz Sharif
would not be allowed to leave
the country to take some papers
about his case in the NAB.
“This lockdown will be a lock-
up for Shehbaz Sharif, as he can-
not save himself. But he can save
himself if he changes his ‘soft-
ware’,” the minister claimed.
Ahmad says he does not think
the Chaudhrys would go against
the government.
“If Moonis Elahi has a meeting
with Jahangir Tareen, he has right
to do so. But I clearly tell you that
The official said the hospi-
tal authorities allowed the de-
ceased’s relatives to take the body
to Sargodha in a private vehicle,
where the burial was carried out
without taking any precaution-
ary measures.
The deceased was brought to
the BBH from Sargodha by his
family in critical condition, with
difficulty in breathing.
Doctors admitted him to the
ICU instead of the high depend-
ency unit.
Six doctors and 10 nurses at-
tended to the patient in different
shifts without being provided
personal protective equipment
(PPE).
During that time, the patient
was tested for the coronavirus.
After the patient died, the rel-
atives took the body to Sargodha
Life goes on
Fishermen are seen cleaning fishing nets along the deserted Clifton beach in Karachi, as public places remain closed after the Sindh
provincial government imposed a complete lockdown for three days and ordered people to stay home, despite Pakistan starting to ease
the coronavirus lockdown.
Punjab cuts public transport fares by 20%
Internews
Lahore
T
he Punjab government
formally granted permis-
sion to resume inter-city
and inter-district transport be-
sides announcing a 20% cut in
transport fare.
In the wake of reduction in pe-
troleum prices, the Punjab gov-
ernment has directed transport
owners to reduce fares by 20%.
The government also decided
to allow online and app-based
the Chaudhrys are wise people
and they will not go against the
government,” he added.
Talking about railways, Ahmad
said that the department might
default on its financial obliga-
tions if its train operations re-
mained stopped.
“Now we have even no money
to pay salaries and pensions (of
over Rs5bn). And we may face
default soon if the situation re-
mains same,” he said.
He said Pakistan Railways is
ready to resume a limited opera-
tion within 24 hours if the gov-
ernment allowed it to do so.
“We have requested Prime
Minister Khan to also allow us to
resume railways operations since
public transport (buses, coaches,
planes) has been opened. Let see
what he decides,” the minister
said.
According to PPP leader
Chaudhry Manzoor, like Minister
Ahmad, the Special Assistant to
the Prime Minister on Account-
ability Shahzad Akbar continued
to speak against the opposition.
“But no one is here to look into
the corruption of the govern-
without adhering to Punjab’s
standard operating procedures
(SOPs) for suspected Covid-19
cases and waiting for the final
test results.
The hospital official said doc-
tors and nurses have been iso-
lated as a precautionary measure.
The BBH’s focal person for
Covid-19, Dr Mohamed Inayat,
when contacted, said that the
hospital’s management is work-
ing with dedication and commit-
ment, and is fighting the corona-
virus around the clock.
He said the test results of the
deceased patient are still bring
awaited, while the other patient
had tested positive for Covid-19
and three nurses have been iso-
lated.
Dr Inayat said both patients
were brought to the surgery de-
transport services to operate.
However, all public transport
companies will be required to
ensure implementation of the
laid-down standard operating
procedures (SOPs).
Wearing masks have also been
made mandatory for passengers,
drivers and conductors.
Passengers will be required to
observe proper distance.
Chief Minister Usman Buzdar
said that while the well-to-do
were able to travel in their own
vehicles, with public transport
services shut, those relying on
ment in sugar, wheat and other
scams. Most of sugar millers are
at present sitting in the govern-
ment,” he deplored.
So, Manzoor said, whatever
is going on against the opposi-
tion is pre-planned. “All is pre-
planned. And do you think that
the courts are unaware of this?”
PML-N Punjab leaders
object to prime minister’s
assistant’s ‘directives’ to
anti-corruption watchdog
to go after opposition
politicians
Meanwhile, the PML-N has
raised questions over the federal
cabinet members’ “open direc-
tives” to the NAB and intelligence
agencies to take action against its
leadership.
PML-N Punjab leaders Azma
Bokhari, Atta Tarar, Rana Mash-
hood, and Malik Ahmed de-
manded to know under which
law the federal cabinet members,
particularly Akbar, could control
the investigation agencies in the
country.
Speaking at a press conference
partment, where they were re-
ferred to him with requests for
screening.
“We screened both the pa-
tients, took their samples, and
sent them for testing in laborato-
ries,” he said.
To a question, he said that
doctors and hospital staff are at-
tending to patients according to
the government’s SOPs.
“We routinely test doctors and
nurses for Covid-19 before they
go home after 15 days of continu-
ous duty, and when they return
from 15 days of rest,” he said.
The Rawalpindi Cantonment
Board (RCB) has also directed 26
staffers to quarantine themselves
at home after they were found to
have been in contact with a col-
league in the tax branch who was
diagnosed with Covid-19.
them were heavily burdened.
Realising the difficulties of
the common man, he said, the
government had decided to al-
low inter-city and inter-district
transport services after approv-
ing the recommendations of the
steering committee.
He said that SOPs evolved for
maintaining social distance at
bus stands would be observed
and buses disinfected after
reaching their destinations.
The government also decided
to open mega shopping malls.
Powerlooms have also been
at Model Town, they said that the
leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-
e-Insaf (PTI) had made mockery
of Pakistan’s justice system, as
the Supreme Court had observed
that there should not be any
political interference in the ac-
countability process.
Earlier in the day, Akbar,
speaking at a press conference,
urged the NAB to file a new ref-
erence against PML-N president
Shehbaz Sharif and get his name
placed on the exit control list so
that he could not “escape” to
London to evade accountability.
Bokhari said that when noth-
ing is established by the PTI
government in its allegations of
billion-rupee corruption against
the Sharif family, it brought “its
(Sharifs’) residence into politics”.
“We demand that Shahzad
Akbar produce allotment letters
of Banigala and Zaman Park resi-
dences of [Prime Minister] Imran
Khan,” Bokhari said in response
to the NAB decision to open an
investigation against the Sharif
family for “illegally acquiring”
land in Raiwind around their Jati
Umra residence.
Chaklala Cantonment Board
vice-president Raja Irfan Imtiaz
has tested positive for the disease
and is isolated at home, while
RCB vice-president Malik Munir
was taken to a private hospital on
Saturday with Covid-19 symp-
toms.
Also on Saturday, 37 new pa-
tients in Rawalpindi took the tally
of Covid-19 cases to 1,616, while
nine patients were discharged
from hospitals after recovering.
The 146 passengers quaran-
tined in the district have been al-
lowed to leave after testing nega-
tive.
Commissioner Captain (re-
tired) Mohamed Mehmood said
that the number of new patients
reported in the Rawalpindi divi-
sion is falling, and no deaths have
been reported in two days.
given permission to operate,
with, the industries department
to take measures to ensure the
implementation on SOPs.
The government also decided
to allow communal service in
churches on Sundays under the
SOPs.
The decisions were taken at a
meeting of the Cabinet Commit-
tee on coronavirus, held through
video link and chaired by Chief
Minister Buzdar at his office.
He stressed that the corona-
virus threat is not over and that
there is a need to be more careful.
“Aleema Khan (Prime Minis-
ter Khan’s sister) had confessed
in writing that Imran Khan had
made properties in her name,”
Bokhari alleged.
She said that the allegations
against Shehbaz Sharif and his
family members were nothing
but a media trial which Shahzad
Akbar is conducting by waving
papers in the pressers.
The PML-N leader said that on
the instruction of the prime min-
ister, the NAB is making prepa-
rations to arrest the opposition
leaders after the Eid.
Bokhari alleged that Akbar, in
connivance with his brother, had
occupied the land of Moham-
medmian Soomro.
She asked Akbar to tell the
people about the culprits who
were involved in sugar and wheat
scams.
Malik Ahmed meanwhile said
that there had been doubts about
Akbar’s law degree.
“Do you know about criminal
proceedings? You have a fascist
mindset and believe in media
trial. We are ready to respond to
your so-called 18 questions,” he
Sindh to
resume
public
transport
services
Internews
Karachi
S
indh Transport Minister
Awais Shah has said that
the province will permit
the resumption public transport
services after Eid al-Fitr.
The development comes a day
after he refused to allow the re-
sumption of transport services,
citing the rising number of coro-
navirus patients in the country
and a “critical situation” in the
province as cases, deaths, and
recoveries continued to increase
simultaneously.
Shah said: “[Sindh] has start-
ed preparations to reopen public
transport under standard oper-
ating procedures (SOPs).”
Talking about providing relief
to the transport industry, since
public transport had been shut
due to the lockdown, he said that
a four-point summary had been
drafted for them.
“The summary has been sent
to [Sindh] Chief Minister [Mu-
rad Ali Shah] and a final decision
on the matter will be made in a
meeting on Monday,” Shah said.
Meanwhile, Baluchistan gov-
ernment spokesperson Liaquat
Shahwani had said that the pro-
vincial government had not yet
made a decision regarding the
resumption of transport serv-
ices.
He said that Chief Minister
Jam Kamal will review the situ-
ation across various districts
and the province overall, before
making any decision.
A day earlier, Khyber Pa-
khtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab de-
cided to resume transport serv-
ices.
The announcements came af-
ter Prime Minister Imran Khan
had requested that the provin-
cial authorities re-open public
transport.
The KP government has sub-
jected the reopening of transport
beginning today on the condi-
tion that the SOPs on prevention
of the deadly coronavirus be fol-
lowed by all those using trans-
port as well as operators.
The KP chief minister’s in-
formation adviser, Ajmal Khan
Wazir, said that the SOPs that
need to be heeded would be set
up by the commissioners in col-
laboration with the regional
transport authority and trans-
porters, and that fares would be
revised on basis of new oil prices.
Furthermore, Punjab finalised
the SOPs in a meeting with the
transport association, with the
latter’s representative agreeing
to reduce the fares on the back
of a steep decline in petroleum
prices.
It was decided that the pas-
sengers would be obligated to
wear face masks and maintain
a distance of three feet during
travel.
Transporters were also bound
to check the temperature of eve-
ryone travelling and avoid over-
loading their vehicles.
said, adding that like in the past,
“Akbar and company” could not
prove anything against Shehbaz
Sharif in the court.
Atta Tarar said that “Shahzad
Akbar and company” that had
earlier been accusing Shehbaz
Sharif of being involved in cor-
ruption of billions of rupees were
now hurling the allegation of
Rs4.9mn corruption against the
man (Shehbaz) who paid millions
in taxes every year.
Meanwhile, PML-N informa-
tion secretary Marriyum Au-
rangzeb said that the “NAB-Nia-
zi alliance” dug a mountain over
the past two years of persecution
and political victimisation, and
came up with a molehill of “dead,
stinky and petty” accusation of
Rs4.9mn corruption.
“The faces that are rebuked
and embarrassed in courts over
false allegations against the
PML-N leaders are now using
public money for press confer-
ences at the PID (Press Informa-
tion Department) every day. This
smear campaign and witch-hunt
cannot hide Imran Khan’s mega
corruption,” she said.

Metro Manila begins gradual
reopening as worries linger
By Catherine S Valente
Manila Times
M
etro Manila began a
gradual reopening
even as parts of it were
hesitant to lift the lockdown,
and parts of Cebu extended the
enhanced community quar-
antine because cases there re-
mained high.
Besides Metro Manila, the
other areas that transitioned
from an enhanced community
quarantine (ECQ) to a modified
version of it included the prov-
inces of Laguna, Bataan, Bula-
can, Nueva Ecija, Zambales and
Pampanga as well as its capital,
Angeles City. The modified ECQ
in those areas will remain in
place until May 31, 2020.
Navotas, one of 17 cities in
Metro Manila, actually appealed
to remain under hard lockdown
as the number of coronavirus
disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases
there remained high. Governors
in several provinces near Metro
Manila had similar concerns.
But all those local officials
later accepted the move to grad-
ually reopen under a modified
ECQ.
Under a modified ECQ, local
governments can allow the lim-
ited resumption of public trans-
portation, certain industries
to operate at half capacity and
persons to leave their houses for
essential goods and work.
Meanwhile, a hard lockdown
will remain in Cebu and Man-
daue cities until the end of May
because of concerns about the
high number of cases there.
This move was in accordance
with Resolution 37 of the Inter-
Agency Task Force for the Man-
agement of Emerging Infectious
Diseases (IATF-EID), which ap-
proved the continuance in those
Visayan cities on Friday.
Most other parts of the Phil-
ippines saw even more restric-
tions lifted as they were placed
under a modified general com-
munity quarantine (MGCQ)
from Saturday.
In those areas, almost all
industries, except those in
amusement, were allowed to
operate up to 75% capacity. And
mass gatherings remain prohib-
ited.
In an MGCQ, all individuals
residing in these areas can go
outside their homes, according
to the IATF-EID guidelines.
Individuals and group out-
door exercises, including non-
Village chief
eludes
arrest
By Dempsey Reyes
Manila Times
A T
barangay (village) cap-
tain from Balamban, Cebu
eluded arrest in a raid on
his “secretly organised” cock-
fighting event over the weekend,
although five others were not as
lucky, the Philippine National Po-
lice (PNP) announced yesterday.
A police report identified the
village chief as Wilfredo Al-
varado of Barangay Lamesa in
Balamban, Cebu, whom the PNP
said was the “target” of the joint
operations against illegal gam-
bling last Friday.
Alvarado eluded arrest “after
sensing the arrival of the operat-
ing team,” Police BGen. Bernard
Banac, PNP spokesman, said.
However, authorities were
able to collar five others who
were identified as Ruben Gabu-
tin, 56; Judito Dumdum, 35;
Teodoro Madarang, 61; Jeronio
Banate, 49; and Jovanie Basil-
lote, 27, who are all residents of
Balamban.
Also seized were two gaff spurs
with scabbards, two red fighting
roosters, two rooster cages, two
motorcycles and cash amount-
ing to P3,420 used for betting.
Banac said the five arrested
suspects were brought to the
Balamban Municipal Police Sta-
tion for proper disposition and
filing of criminal charges for vio-
lating Presidential Decree 449 or
the Cockfighting Law.
A poster reminding shoppers to maintain social distance to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is placed beside an
escalator in a shopping mall in Quezon City, Metro Manila, yesterday.
contact sports like golf, tennis,
table tennis and swimming, will
be allowed, provided that mini-
mum public health standards
are strictly enforced, the new
guideline added.
Dine-in service in supermar-
kets, grocery stores and food
preparation stalls will also be
allowed, provided that the seat-
ing capacity does not exceed
50%.
Residential or face-to-face
classes may resume in higher
education institutions, pro-
vided that there is strict com-
pliance with minimum health
standards, consultation with
local government units, and
compliance with guidelines set
by Commission on Higher Edu-
cation.
Work in all public and private
offices will also be allowed to
resume physical work in “full
capacity,” with alternative ar-
rangements for senior citizens,
individuals with health risks
and pregnant women.
Work in government offices
may be at full operational ca-
pacity or under alternative work
Private sector-led
project boosts
testing for Covid-19
By Catherine S Valente
Manila Times
he private sector-led
Project Antibody Rapid
Test Kits or Project ARK
helped the government ramp
up testing for coronavirus dis-
ease 2019 (Covid-19) by pro-
viding more than a million test
kits.
Presidential Adviser for En-
trepreneurship and Go Nego-
syo founder Joey Concepcion
said the project had generated
1,021,293 rapid test kits from
186 companies.
He added that 880,693 of
the kits would be used by part-
ner companies, while 140,600
would go to barangay (village)
donations.
“We are in a war with an
invisible enemy. Gaining vis-
ibility is key to successfully
overcoming this pandemic.
Our goal at Project ARK is to
bring testing to everybody,”
Concepcion said.
“Just recently, President
(Rodrigo) Duterte approved
the move for some regions
to shift from ECQ (enhanced
community quarantine)
to modified ECQ (MECQ),
which is an improvement and
it takes us one step closer to
GCQ (general community
quarantine).To completely
lift the lockdowns, however,
we have to test, test, test!” he
added.
arrangements, as agencies may
deem appropriate, following the
rules and regulations set by the
Civil Service Commission.
Accredited diplomatic mis-
sions and international organi-
sations may also resume full
operations. Road, rail, maritime
and aviation sectors of public
transportation in areas under
a modified GCQ are allowed to
operate.
Passengers must strictly be
seated with one-meter dis-
tance, and appropriate engi-
neering controls must be in
place.
The IATF-EID also author-
ised the use of private company
shuttles, personal vehicles,
bikes, and non-motorised ve-
hicles in areas under an MGCQ.
Also, some gatherings will be
allowed under an MGCQ.
Allowable activities are mov-
ie screenings, concerts, sport-
ing events, entertainment ac-
tivities, community assemblies,
religious gatherings, and non-
essential work gatherings — so
long as the seating capacity at
the venue is also limited to 50%.
Duterte placed Metro Ma-
nila, Laguna and Cebu City
under MECQ from May 16 to
May 31, as the government
gradually reopens the econo-
my after a two-month shut-
down.
“With this, we can reinstate
public confidence. I hope that
more businesses will be al-
lowed to operate under the
MECQ.
Congress has already pro-
posed a very generous stimu-
lus package, but we must go
back to the ‘real normal’ of
helping our people by bring-
ing back jobs and livelihoods,”
Concepcion said.
“The task of balancing
buhay (life) and kabuhayan
(livelihood) is very chal-
lenging.Though we cannot
achieve that perfect balance,
we must strive to save as
many lives and livelihoods as
possible,” he continued.
Concepcion said in Antipo-
lo City in Rizal, Project ARK
conducted 1,486 tests out
of the target 1,700 sampling
size, using antibody rapid test
kits donated by the Federation
of Filipino Chinese Chambers
of Commerce & Industry Inc
“From those tested, 0.5%
were deemed presump-
tive positive for Covid-19.
This number is signifi-
cantly low and supports the
city’s move towards Gen-
eral Community Quarantine,”
he added.
Contrary to an earlier pro-
nouncement that a GCQ will
be part of the “new normal,”
the IATF-EID felt comfortable
enough to lift more restrictions
than it had earlier anticipated
to allow for a rebooting of the
economy.
Meanwhile in Navotas, Mayor
Tobias Tiangco lifted the extreme
ECQ in his city after the IATF-
EID denied his request to retain
the ECQ because of the increas-
ing number of Covid-19 cases.
Like elsewhere in Metro Manila,
Navotas shifted to MECQ, de-
spite Tiangco’s reluctance.
“I have no choice even if ac-
cording to data, cases are in-
creasing and even according to
Department of Health (DOH),
Covid-19 cases in Navotas are
accelerating,” he told Manila
Times.
“We need to take drastic
measures to help flatten the
curve of Covid-19 cases, but
as I had said I have no choice
but abide by the IATF decision
for the city to shift to MECQ,”
Tiangco said.
Despite his concerns, he has
Government urges shoppers
to follow safety protocols
Reuters
Manila
T
he Philippine govern-
ment yesterday called
for vigilance against the
coronavirus, a day after hordes
of people trooped to shopping
malls and ignored safety proto-
cols, as authorities began loos-
ening a two-month lockdown.
Photos and videos showing
shoppers in some malls in the
capital Manila violating physi-
cal distancing rules went viral
on Saturday, drawing wide-
spread public criticism and
alarm, prompting the gov-
ernment to issue fresh health
warnings.
“We advise the public not to
be complacent and to follow
health protocols set by authori-
ties after we received reports of
people who trooped to the malls
with complete disregard of so-
cial/physical distancing meas-
ures,” presidential spokesman
Harry Roque said.
The government warned
malls would be closed again if
they do not strictly implement
physical distancing and crowd
control measures.
The Southeast Asian coun-
try has reported 12,513 cases of
coronavirus infections and a
death toll of 824.
Fears linger over the possibil-
ity of a new wave of novel coro-
navirus cases following reports
of infections accelerating again
permitted tricycles and pedi-
cabs to operate, but their opera-
tors were told to strictly follow
health and safety precautions,
including limiting every trip to
just one passenger.
“We will also give way for the
continuation of government in-
frastructure projects especially
on flood control and school
building,” the mayor added.
Tiangco said the curfew and
three-day limit for going to the
market would be retained, but
the liquor ban has been lifted.
The city will continue to limit
residents from going outside.
Only one resident per house-
hold, whose name is printed in
the home quarantine pass, will
be allowed to go out of their
homes. And when they do so,
they must wear face masks and
observe physical distancing
by avoiding large groups and
crowds.
Essential workers who are
exempted by the IATF-EID, in-
cluding those who work at the
Philippine Fisheries Develop-
ment Authority, are allowed
to go to work. But they should
Shoppers maintain social distance as they queue to enter a store inside a shopping mall, which has
reopened as lockdown restrictions were eased, in Quezon City, Metro Manila, yesterday.
in Germany, new cases in the
city of Wuhan in central China,
the origin of the outbreak, and
in South Korea.
The Philippines has joined a
growing number of countries
gradually reopening econo-
PHILIPPINES
have a valid company ID and es-
sential work pass issued by the
barangay or village.
In Quezon City, Mayor Jose-
fina Belmonte issued a memo-
randum prescribing localised
guidelines for an MGCQ.
The city government will con-
tinue implementing the Special
Concern Lockdown Areas, where
select places with high Covid-19
cases or high probability of virus
spreading will be placed under
strict containment, Belmonte
said in a statement. The city
would require businesses with 10
or more employees to submit to
the City Health Department their
program for employee testing, at
cost to the establishments.
Public transportation would
not be allowed in the city, the
mayor said.
She permitted those “opera-
tional” establishments under
an MECQ to provide point-to-
point private transport services
or shuttles, including the hiring
of public utility buses, public
utility jeepneys or high occu-
pancy vehicles, for the “exclu-
sive use” of their employees.
Belmonte also allowed tri-
cycles to operate under strict
health and safety conditions
and adherence to the route indi-
cated in their franchise.
The mayor encouraged all
drivers concerned to submit
themselves for Covid-19 check-
ing in one of the city’s commu-
nity-based centres.
The city government plans
to expand its current “Libreng
Sakay” (Free Rides) bus serv-
ices to accommodate residents
travelling to and from permitted
establishments.
Belmonte urged every baran-
gay to provide free parking
spaces for residents who use bi-
cycles while public transporta-
tion remained restricted.
All establishments in Que-
zon City were asked to assign
a Health and Safety Officer ac-
countable to ensure that these
guidelines are strictly imple-
mented.
Businesses like manufactur-
ers of food, water and non-al-
coholic beverage, and medical
and hygiene products; hospitals
and clinics; and essential retail-
ers could now fully operate un-
der the MECQ.
They were also allowed to
operate with up to 50% of their
workforce on-site, including
general manufacturing, office
administration and support
services.
mies shut down by restric-
tions aimed at containing the
pandemic, although its biggest
cities — Manila and Cebu — re-
main in lockdown.
“We must understand that
we have started to slowly ease
Gulf Times
Monday, May 18, 2020 17
Palace official
raises funds
for job
displaced
A Palace official created a way
to help those not covered by
government amelioration pro-
grammes because they were not
included in among those most in
need of assistance, Manila Times
reported. Lawyer Michael Kristian
Ablan, assistant secretary of the
Presidential Communications
Operations Office, created the
Hating Kapatid Programme (Sib-
ling Sharing Programme or HKP)
that allowed those who were
receiving a salary, either from the
government or the private sector,
during the lockdown to donate
part of their pay to help those
who were not able to receive any
aid. “I thought we in government,
who are still earning our salaries,
could help our counterparts in
the private sector by sharing a
portion of our income,” he told
The Manila Times in a message
sent on Viber.
The programme gives qualified
recipients P5,000 in cash, which
is transmitted through their bank
accounts, or through electronic
cash transfer. As of May 16, 2020,
the total number of people who
were helped by the project is at
360, and a total of P1.4mn has
been raised.
Ablan explained they vetted their
prospective beneficiaries using
Facebook messenger, asking
them questions like their salary
and if they had applied to any
social protection programme of
the government.
“If they haven’t, then they qualify
for HKP. That’s it. I ask for their
bank details or their GCash num-
bers and add them to the list of
HKP recipients,” he explained.
Ablan also said he felt heartbro-
ken after hearing stories of those
who were applying for the pro-
gramme, as some of them were
dependent on their monthly sala-
ries not just to pay for their bills,
but also to support their children
and other family members. While
Luzon was under an enhanced
community quarantine to coun-
teract the coronavirus disease
2019 (Covid-19), many employees
were not able to come to work
because of government restric-
tions on transportation and the
need for physical distancing,
causing them to lose a source of
income to their family.
While the government offered
aid programmes, such as the
Social Amelioration Programme
or SAP for 18mn poor house-
holds, Covid-19 Adjustment
Measures Program or CAMP of
the Department of Labour and
Employment and the Small Busi-
ness Wage Subsidy (SBWS) of
the Department of Finance and
Social Security System, many
others, particularly in the middle
class, did not benefit from these
programmes simply because
they were “not poor.”
restrictions in order to revital-
ise the economy, and not be-
cause we are safe,” Roque said
in a statement.
“We must continue to
be vigilant of the risks of
Covid-19.”
 Gulf Times
18 Monday, May 18, 2020

COMMENT
CHAIRMAN
Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Faisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka
Deputy Managing Editor
K T Chacko

P.O.Box 2888, Doha, Qatar

editor@gulf-times.com
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GULF TIMES
Nations open the
final frontier for
new space mission
While major powers are engrossed in a never-before battle
against the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic, the US
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) initiated
a global debate over the basic principles governing how humans
will live and work on the Moon, as it released the main tenets of

How technology will help

an international pact for Moon exploration called the Artemis
Accords. The document is described by Nasa as ‘Principles for a
Safe, Peaceful, and Prosperous Future.’
Via the Artemis programme, Nasa intends to land the first
woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024, “heralding in
a new era for space exploration and utilisation”. While Nasa

bring life back to normal

is leading the Artemis programme, the agency claims that
“international partnerships will play a key role in achieving a
sustainable and robust presence on the Moon while preparing to
conduct a historic human mission to Mars”.
With numerous countries and private sector players
conducting missions and operations in cislunar space (the
volume within the Moon’s orbit, or a sphere formed by rotating
that orbit), Nasa says it is critical to establish a common set of
principles to govern the civil exploration and use of outer space.
International space agencies that join Nasa in the Artemis
programme “will do so by executing bilateral Artemis Accords
agreements, which will describe a shared vision for principles,
grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, to create a safe and
transparent environment which facilitates exploration, science,
and commercial activities for the benefit of humanity”.
International co-operation
on Artemis is intended
Nasa intends not only to bolster space
to land the first exploration but to enhance
peaceful relationships
We are in a time where we
need the most advanced
technologies to help reduce
the risks of Covid-19. This
is ultimately a time to
prevent the situation from
getting out of control
By Kamran Rehmat
ways to safeguard social and economic
development. They are finding new
ways to shape a world more suitable
to our current needs in which we are
sharing information, collaborating, and
learning in decentralised environments.
Most importantly, these technologies
are also being used to protect public
health and safety.
These capabilities have, of course,
only been possible on the back of
incredible technological progress and
innovation — especially in 2019. It
was the year the commercial launch
of 5G technology took place globally,
more are all examples of how technologies
like 5G and AI are now being combined for
the betterment of our society. At the same
time, there’s an urgent need to strengthen
the capabilities of telecom networks to
deal with the pressures they are facing
with the increased demand for data
traffic, in some cases increasing by more
than 100%.
Despite all the
challenges, the
swift embrace
the time to entertain falsehoods and
rumours. No single company or country
should be restricted from participating
in solutions right now. For example,
there appears to be little benefit from
the US administration continuing to
ban a global 5G technology leader for
geopolitical accusations. Politics do
not speak on behalf of technology, and
these companies have a lot to offer the
world through strong research and
development capabilities. We are in a
time where we need the most advanced
technologies to help reduce the risks
of Covid-19 regardless of a company’s

T
he spread of Covid-19 has with several countries in the Middle origins or trade competition.
woman and the between nations. Therefore, undoubtedly altered all of our East being early pioneers. This was of advanced This is ultimately a time to prevent

next man on the at the core is the requirement

that all activities will be
lives, habits, and behaviour. It
has challenged several of our
supported by national initiatives
to foster applications in AI, cloud technology is giving the Covid-19 situation from getting
out of control. Qatar has been vigilant

Moon by 2024 conducted for peaceful social norms while turning the business
and financial world upside down. This
computing, and related sectors.
International companies have also
many of us hope to in its response to combat the spread of
Covid-19 within the country, taking
purposes, per the tenets
of the Outer Space Treaty. Transparency is a key principle for
is happening as schools and companies
are closed across the world, events are
committed to bringing new solutions
to local governments and industry,
set a new normal in measures that will ultimately reduce
the number of new cases reported.
responsible civil space exploration. Partner nations will be being cancelled, people are quarantined offering the tools that are now our lives The government has acted quickly
and successfully by reinforcing strict
required to publicly describe their own policies and plans in a in their homes, and there’s a possibility connecting our societies in light of
that millions of people may lose their Covid-19. In these crucial times, we must social distancing guidelines and regular
transparent manner. optimise these technological inspections and sanitisation.
jobs. In particular, the impact of 5G
Interoperability of systems is critical to ensure safe and Today the world’s scientists, doctors, technology cannot be overstated. It is capabilities through a unified, co- Partnerships with companies in
robust space exploration. Partner nations have to utilise and policy experts are looking for a not limited to simply downloading HD operative approach. The technology the private sector are more essential
open international standards, develop new standards when lifeboat. In fact, we’re all looking for movies, but includes much more robust sector embodies innovation and is filled now than ever. By allowing private
necessary, and strive to support interoperability to the greatest news that will bring hope to solving this capabilities in connecting humans to with the resources and tools to tackle companies to fulfil their own social
pandemic. humans, humans to machines, and our upcoming challenges. It is not the responsibility role, and activating
extent practical. The Artemis Accords reaffirm Nasa’s and
Despite all the challenges, the swift machines to machines. time to put up walls, but rather, to build communication channels between
partner nations’ commitments to the Agreement on the embrace of advanced technology is This has opened new opportunities for bridges. the private and public sectors, we
Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return giving many of us hope to set a new industries to develop the quality of their In the technology world, this co- can all take advantage of emerging
of Objects Launched into Outer Space. Additionally, under normal in our lives. Through the use of services in a better way, and deal with operation is under threat by a trade technologies to bring things back to
the Accords, Nasa and partner nations commit to taking all 5G connectivity, artificial intelligence, disruptions like Covid-19 faster. Remote war between the United States and normal, faster.
reasonable steps possible to render assistance to astronauts in cloud computing, and big data analysis, studying, emergency response, digital China. While those discussions may
nations and industries are finding new medicine, remote patient diagnosis, and be far from over, it is simply no longer z The writer is Features Editor.
distress.
Other salient features include establishment of safety zones
and registration of space objects to protect each country or
company from “harmful interference,” orderly extraction
and utilisation of space resources, release of scientific data,
protection of sites and artefacts with historic value, and orbital
debris and spacecraft disposal. The last objective is among the
most crucial as according to an estimate from January 2019,
there are over 128mn pieces of debris smaller than 1cm. There
are about 900,000 pieces from 1-10cm. The then count of large
debris (defined as 10cm across or larger) was 34,000.
Therefore, under the Artemis Accords, Nasa and partner
nations will agree to act in a manner consistent with the
principles reflected in the Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines
of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer
Space. They will also agree to plan for the mitigation of orbital
debris, including the safe, timely, and efficient passivation and
disposal of spacecraft at the end of their missions. Now begins
the long drawn out process of getting all stakeholders on board
for a space mission with a difference.

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NEED OF THE HOUR: In these crucial times, we must optimise technological capabilities through a unified, co-operative approach. The technology sector embodies
© 2020 Gulf Times. All rights reserved innovation and is filled with the resources and tools to tackle our upcoming challenges.

The EU’s nullification crisis
By Daniel Gros
Berkeley
A
recent ruling by Germany’s
Federal Constitutional
Court (GCC) has opened a
deep rift in the eurozone. In
three months, the Bundesbank will be
prohibited from participating in the
European Central Bank’s Public Sector
Purchase Programme (PSPP) unless
the GCC receives a satisfactory ex-
planation that the ECB’s bond buying
constitutes a “proportionate” meas-
ure for maintaining price stability.
Never mind that the ECB has
already explained itself in countless
publications, speeches by its
Governing Council’s members, and
in academic publications by its staff.
That apparently is not enough for
the German justices, who have long
wrung their hands over the arcane
question of whether central-bank
bond buying constitutes a form
of fiscal policy. As any economist
knows, all monetary policies have
fiscal implications; and insofar
as central banks have deployed
“unconventional” instruments, they
may indeed be operating in a gray
zone between monetary and fiscal
policy.
The problem is that lawyers
abhor gray zones. The Treaty on the
Functioning of the European Union
stipulates that while the ECB has sole
authority over EU monetary policy,
fiscal policy is the exclusive preserve
of member states. This division of
labour implies that the Court of
Justice of the European Union (CJEU)
should decide on any legal issue
concerning monetary policy, whereas
national courts should rule on matters
of fiscal and other economic policies.
The question, of course, is who should
judge whether the ECB has exceeded
its legal monetary-policy remit.
Managing the coming global debt crisis
By Barry Eichengreen
Berkeley
T
he developing world is on the
cusp of its worst debt crisis
since 1982. Back then, three
years had to pass before credi-
tors mounted the concerted response
known as the Baker Plan, named after
then-US Treasury Secretary James
Baker. This time, fortunately, G20 gov-
ernments have responded more quickly,
calling for a moratorium on payments by
low-income countries.
Predictably, perhaps, the G20’s
declaration resembles the Baker Plan.
There’s just one problem: the Baker Plan
didn’t work.
The crisis currently engulfing the
emerging and developing world is
unprecedented. More than $100bn of
financial capital has flowed out of these
markets – three times as much as in
the first two months of the 2008 global
financial crisis.
Remittances are poised to fall by an
additional $100bn this year. Developing
countries’ oil and gas revenues may
plunge by 85%. Global trade is on course
to fall by up to 32%, three times as much
as in 2009. All this is unfolding against
the backdrop of a plague of locusts in
Africa.
The financial context is an
international monetary system that is
still disproportionately dollar-based.
For five years, we have been reassured
that emerging economies have fully
atoned for their “original sin.” In other
Live issues
Remote working set to stay post pandemic
AFP
London
A
n explosion in remote working
owing to the coronavirus pan-
demic could see companies
slash office space, saving them
money but not necessarily improving
productivity among staff, according to
experts.
Businesses allowing staff to work
from home on a permanent basis, even
as lockdowns ease worldwide, calls into
question the future of skyscrapers used
by multinationals which are seen as
symbols of modern capitalism.
Major financial districts, such as
London’s Canary Wharf and La Defense
in Paris, remain extremely quiet, even as
governments lift restrictions on social
distancing and travel by public transport.
Jes Staley, chief executive of British
bank Barclays, has said “the notion of
putting 7,000 people in a building may
be a thing of the past”.
In its latest ruling, the GCC accepts
(with some reservations) a previous
CJEU ruling that determined the
PSPP to be legal. But it also claims
the authority to challenge CJEU
decisions “where an interpretation
of the Treaties is not comprehensible
and must thus be considered arbitrary
from an objective perspective.” On
that basis, the GCC argues that
the ECB failed to conduct a proper
“proportionality test.”
Such “competency” (jurisdictional)
disputes are common in all
federations. The United States
experienced a similar debate in the
1830s, when its federal system was
still younger than the EU is today.
How that crisis came about, and how
it was resolved, offers interesting
clues about the EU’s future. Then
as now, the key issue was whether a
policy instrument that was intended
for a specific purpose could be used to
favour particular states or sectors at
the expense of others.
In antebellum America, the federal
government’s primary economic
competence was limited to trade
policy, because tariffs in that period
were the federal government’s main
source of revenue. After the War of
1812, additional revenue was sorely
needed to service the national debt,
so Congress, in the late 1820s, decided
to increase tariffs substantially. But
raising revenues was not the sole
aim. The ulterior motive was to
protect northern manufacturers of
textiles and other products from the
industrial superpower of the day,
Great Britain.
In the event, the southern states,
which exported cotton but had no
local textile industries, objected,
arguing that US trade policy was
being misused as a de facto industrial
policy to serve select constituencies.
The case against the policy was
made most forcefully in the South
words, their governments now can
borrow in their own currencies, allowing
them greater leeway to use monetary
and fiscal policies.
Unfortunately, this observation
ignores the inconvenient truth that these
countries’ private companies borrow in
dollars. It ignores that the dollar debts of
emerging markets (excluding China) have
doubled since 2008.
It also ignores that emerging markets,
aside from the “Favoured 4” (Mexico,
Brazil, Singapore, and South Korea),
lack swap lines with the US Federal
Reserve. True, the Fed recently added
a “repo facility” through which central
banks can borrow dollars against their
holdings of US Treasury securities. But
that is cold comfort to countries that
have already run down their reserves.
All of this means that, when it comes
to the stabilising use of monetary and
fiscal policies, emerging markets are
hamstrung.
Which is why we are back to Baker
Plan 2.0. The G20 has offered to suspend
interest payments on intergovernmental
loans for the poorest countries. Private
creditors, for their part, agreed to roll
over an additional $8 billion worth
of commercial debt. That, at least, is
something.
But, to borrow the baseball apostle
Yogi Berra’s line, it is also “déjà vu all
over again.” The Baker Plan likewise
proceeded on the premise that the shock
was transient and that a temporary debt
standstill would be enough. Creditors
would roll over their loans. Growth
would resume. Interest arrears then
“We will find ways to operate with
more distancing over a much longer
period of time,” he added.
French car giant PSA, which makes
Peugeot and Citroen vehicles, now sees
remote working as a benchmark for tens
of thousands of its office-based staff.
Twitter has indicated that some of
its employees could do their jobs from
home on a permanent basis.
“The revolution is going to come with
a mindset shift,” said Cydney Roach,
global chair of employee experience at
US consultancy Edelman.
“Companies have been debating
on the future of work for 10 years, but
people were really not very keen to pull
the trigger and commit to it fully,” she
told AFP, adding that the “pandemic has
proven that the technology is supportive
of this kind of remote working”.
Roach said “flexibility is going to
take on a bigger meaning”, adding that
bosses should listen to employees’
views on the matter. Already, around
95% of 107,000 staff at British adver-
Gulf Times
Monday, May 18, 2020 19
COMMENT
a political compromise, because both
sides realised that they had much
to lose from open conflict (as would
become abundantly clear when the
Civil War erupted 30 years later). The
tariff schedule was reduced slightly,
allowing South Carolina to declare
victory while avoiding a conflict that
it could not win (no other state shared
its extreme position). Recognising
that the South had a legitimate
grievance, the federal government
(and the northern states) worried that
opposition to the tariff would increase
unless they did something to relieve
the pressure.
A compromise to defuse Germany
and the EU’s legal conflict over
monetary policy is already on the
table: a simple explanation by the
ECB should be sufficient for the
GCC. Still, some commentators
worry that meeting the GCC’s
demand would threaten the ECB’s
own independence. In any case, the
ECB will have to walk a fine line.
In Albert O Hirschman’s famous
taxonomy of political strategies –
exit, voice, and loyalty – the GCC’s
latest move should be seen as a
demonstration of “voice,” carrying
an implicit threat of “exit.” But as
Hirschman was always quick to point
out, the choice between exit and voice
The European Central Bank. cannot be understood without the
third element.
Carolina Exposition and Protest, a by what department to be exercised), considers unconstitutional. In the coming months, the German
pamphlet later attributed to then- is to convert it, in fact, into a great This idea became so dominant political system’s loyalty to the
vice-president John C Calhoun, consolidated government, with in South Carolina during the tariff European project will be tested.
which rejected the Tariff of 1828 unlimited powers, and to divest the debate that, in 1832, the state Fortunately, most German leaders
as unconstitutional. Calhoun’s States, in reality, of all their rights.” legislature ordered state officials not place far more value on the EU than
reasoning was very similar to that of Likewise, the GCC contends that to enforce the measure, and later they would on a minor victory in the
the GCC today: Germany’s Basic Law is vulnerable to declared the US tariff schedule null GCC’s quibble with the ECB. Much
“In fact, to divide power, and being undermined if an EU institution and void in the state. The GCC’s like South Carolina in the 1830s, the
to give to one of the parties the (like the CJEU) can judge whether threat to bar the Bundesbank from GCC might have scored an “own goal”
exclusive right of judging of the another EU institution (the ECB) is participating in the ECB’s bond- by picking a fight that it cannot win. -
portion allotted to each, is, in adhering to EU treaties. The German buying programme reflects a similar Project Syndicate
reality, not to divide it at all; and to justices are channelling the doctrine evolution.
reserve such exclusive right to the of nullification: the ultimate right of In the American case, the z Daniel Gros is Director of the
General Government (it matters not a state to reject federal decisions it nullification crisis was resolved with Centre for European Policy Studies.
Three-day forecast
would be paid off once the crisis passed. pick up anytime soon. And unless the TODAY
Maximum Temperature : 380c
This of course was not the case. debt overhang is addressed, capital flows
Minimum Temperature : 270c
There was no “Phoenix miracle” in will not resume.
low- and middle-income countries; Now – and not seven years from TUESDAY
instead, there was a lost decade. Not now – is the time for a new Brady Plan, Maximum Temperature : 380c
only were emerging markets unable to in which debts rendered unsustainable Minimum Temperature : 280c
repay; because their debts had not been through no fault of the borrowers are WEDNESDAY
restructured, they also were unable to written down and converted into new Maximum Temperature : 380c
borrow. instruments. This can be done without Minimum Temperature : 280c
The creditors’ commitment to destabilising the banks, because Fisherman's forecast
put in new money was particularly emerging-market bonds are held
problematic. In practice, each bank mainly outside the banking system. A
preferred that other banks contribute large-scale conversion would also be WARNING
new finance – a free-rider problem if an occasion for many countries to issue Inshore : Nil
ever there was one. innovative instruments with stabilizing
By 1989, seven unproductive years properties, such as GDP-indexed and Offshore : Nil
after the onset of the crisis, the Baker commodity-price-indexed bonds, WEATHER
Plan finally was superseded by the without requiring them to pay a novelty
Brady Plan, named after a subsequent premium. Inshore : Hot daytime with some
clouds, mild by night
US Treasury secretary, Nicholas Brady. This debt crisis is also a humanitarian WIND
Debts were written down. Bank loans crisis and a global public-policy crisis.
were converted into bonds – often The appropriate entity to organize the Inshore : Northwesterly-North-
easterly- 05-15 KT
a menu of securities from which response is therefore the International
investors selected their preferred terms Monetary Fund, not the Institute of Offshore : Northwesterly-North-
and maturities. Advanced-economy International Finance, the house organ easterly 03-12 KT
governments facilitated the transaction of the creditors (as recommended by the Visibility : 4-8 KM
by providing “sweeteners” – subsidies G20). As a United Nations organisation,
that collateralised the new securities the IMF could request that Chapter VII Offshore : 1-3 FT
and enhanced their liquidity. of the UN Charter be invoked to shield
Today’s crisis is also being treated debtors from disruptive legal action by Around the region
as temporary, with a moratorium on opportunistic investors. A crisis of this
Weather Weather
interest payments and a promise of magnitude warrants no less. - Project
today Max/min tomorrow Max/min
commercial credits remaining valid Syndicate
Baghdad Sunny 43/24 Sunny 43/24
only through the end of the year. The
Kuwait City Sunny 39/27 P Cloudy 39/27
reality is different. Weak global growth zBarry Eichengreen is Professor
Manama M Sunny 37/27 P Cloudy 38/28
and depressed primary commodity of Economics at the University of
Muscat Sunny 36/31 Sunny 37/31
prices will persist. Supply chains will California, Berkeley. His latest book is
Tehran M Sunny 28/19 P Cloudy 28/17
be reorganised and shortened, auguring The Populist Temptation: Economic
further disruptions of trade. Receipts Grievance and Political Reaction in the
from tourism and remittances will not Modern Era.
Around the world
tiser WPP are working remotely. But they cautioned: “Employers should Weather Weather
Real estate developer Land Securities be aware of the potentially negative effects today Max/min tomorrow Max/min
last week estimated that only 10 % of its this may incur over the longer-term. Athens P Cloudy 33/19 P Cloudy 32/18
office space was being used. “For example, reduced wellbeing and Beirut Sunny 32/26 Sunny 33/26
“There will never be a back-to-nor- loyalty to the organisation may lead to Bangkok P Cloudy 36/28 S T Storms 34/28
mal,” said Alex Ham, joint chief execu- reduced productivity, which will serve to Berlin M Cloudy 21/11 M Cloudy 19/08
tive at brokers Numis. deplete any savings made from reduced Cairo M Sunny 42/24 Sunny 43/27
“It would be a great shame if, having office space and resources.” Cape Town M Cloudy 20/12 P Cloudy 21/12
been through this virtual working that we According to Roach, “real estate is Colombo T Storms 29/27 T Storms 29/27
were thrust into, we didn’t make some one of the areas that cost businesses the Dhaka P Cloudy 36/27 Cloudy 32/26
permanent changes to the way we work.” most” but “just because of real estate Hong Kong T Storms 27/24 T Storms 28/25
A recent survey by real estate con- exigencies in small spaces like Manhat- Istanbul P Cloudy 24/16 P Cloudy 26/16
sultancy Cushman & Wakefield of 300 tan, skyscrapers will never go away”. Jakarta I T Storms 33/26 S T Storms 33/26
companies worldwide showed 89% of Corporate giants may however be Karachi Sunny 35/27 Sunny 39/27
them believed remote working would tempted to reduce the number of their London P Cloudy 23/11 P Cloudy 25/12
continue beyond the pandemic. buildings to slash costs following the Manila S T Storms 33/28 T Storms 33/28
In a recent blog, professors Clare economic shock caused by Covid-19. Moscow Rain 12/04 P Cloudy 14/06
Lyonette and Beate Baldauf pointed out According to VPN provider Nor- New Delhi M Sunny 41/25 Sunny 41/24
the advantages of home working. dVPN, some remote employees are New York M Cloudy 22/12 M Cloudy 18/10
“The majority of research highlights working longer hours than they would in Paris P Cloudy 24/09 M Sunny 25/12
positive organisational outcomes... an office, affecting their work-life bal- Sao Paulo P Cloudy 25/13 P Cloudy 25/14
including cost savings, better pro- ance while not necessarily making them Seoul T Storms 26/11 Rain 16/09
ductivity, improved recruitment and more productive. Singapore M Cloudy 33/26 S T Storms 33/28
retention and reduced absenteeism,” NordVPN said US employees were Sydney S Showers 18/12 M Sunny 20/12
said the academics from the University on average working three hours a day Tokyo Cloudy 22/18 Rain 21/17
of Warwick in central England. longer.
 Gulf Times
20 Monday, May 18, 2020

QATAR

A view of the newly opened underpass

Ashghal opens new underpass to

traffic on Mesaimeer Interchange The new underpass is the eighth
T
he Public Works Author- that the new underpass provides Industrial Area Road and Rawd- It’s located in a vital area that terchange, which is a strategic

in a series of openings among

ity (Ashghal) yesterday
announced the opening of
a new 600m underpass on Me-
saimeer Interchange to traffic
towards Rawdat Al Khail Street
and D-Ring Road from Doha Ex-
pressway.
The opening was carried out in
co-ordination with the General
Directorate of Traffic.
The new underpass is the
eighth in a series of openings,
among nine underpasses on Me-
saimeer Interchange. With the
new opening, the construction
of the interchange reached 87%.
The new one-lane underpass
can accommodate about 2,000
vehicles per hour. Ashghal’s en-
gineer Hassan al-Ghanim said
free flow for vehicles coming
from Doha Expressway and 22
February Street towards Rawdat
Al Khail Street to serve residents
of Nuaija and those heading to E-
Ring Road, Al Mansoura, Rawdat
Al Khail and Doha Central. Ac-
cordingly, it will reduce traffic
congestion on other surrounding
roads and provide new alterna-
tives.
Features of the Interchange
Described as the first of its
kind in Qatar, the interchange
contains nine underpasses and
two major bridges. One of the
bridges connects Rawdhat Al
Khail Street and Industrial area
road in both directions and the
nine underpasses on Mesaimeer
Interchange and with it the
construction of the interchange
has reached 87%
other one connects E-Ring Road
with the southern part of Doha
Expressway in one direction en-
suring a smooth flow of traffic in
all directions.
The 6.1km-long interchange
consists of three to four lanes in
each direction to accommodate
about 30,000 vehicles per hour
in both directions. Once com-
pleted in the second quarter of
2020, the new interchange will
significantly improve traffic flow
reducing travel time by more
than 70%.
Hexagon Interchange
The Mesaimeer Interchange
connects roads of Mesaimeer
Interchange, Doha Expressway,
southern part of Doha Express-
way, Sabah Al Ahmed Corridor,
hat Al Khail Street.
The interchange provides a vi-
tal traffic link between the south,
central and north of the coun-
try. It links traffic from the south
through the southern part of
Doha Expressway, main carriage-
way of Doha Expressway and Al
Shamal Road.
It also connects traffic be-
tween Industrial Area Road and
the heart of Doha through a con-
nection to Rawdat Al Khail Street
that intersects with D-Ring
and C-Ring Road as well as be-
tween the busy areas of Nuaija,
Al Thumama, Bu Hamour, Al
Maamoura, Mesaimeer provid-
ing an easy access to Al Wakra, Al
Wukair and the Industrial Area.
has many facilities including Al
Thumama Stadium, which is one
of the World Cup stadiums.
Here, the interchange has
three pedestrian bridges to ease
people’s access to Al Thumama
Stadium.
The interchange also serves
many important educational,
health and commercial facilities
such as the Medical Commission,
Meteorological Department,
many schools, health centres and
nearby shopping malls.
Integration with Sabah Al
Ahmad Corridor
The Mesaimeer Interchange
integrates with Sabah Al Ahmad
Corridor linking Al Watiyyat In-
link between the southern part
of Doha Expressway and its main
highway. This link provides free
flow traffic between the north
and south of the country through
Doha.
The project is one of the vi-
tal interchanges in the country,
with two levels comprising three
bridges and four underpasses for
easy access of vehicles to nearby
residential areas of Al Thumama,
Mesaimeer, Bu Hamour, Nuaija,
Al Wakra and Al Wukair.
The interchange provides free
flow traffic for commuters from
these areas to Hamad Interna-
tional Airport, to southern areas,
Doha and northern areas of the
country.

Demand rises for masks, gloves as govt order takes effect

The wearing of face masks in public became mandatory in Qatar yesterday spiking the demand for
protective gear against the novel coronavirus . People across the city were in compliance with the
govt order as is seen in the pictures taken from different public places yesterday. PICTURES: Noushad
Thekkayil, Ram Chand, Jayan Orma, Shemeer Rasheed and Shaji Kayamkulam

Goggles are in high demand.