C o r o n a   P l u s

                          Pro-Kremlin media have been spreading disinformation about coronavirus with the aim of “aggravating” the public health crisis in the west, the European Union’s diplomatic service has concluded in a leaked report.

A  EU monitoring team collected 80 examples of disinformation from Russian sources in nearly two months up to 16 March. Coronavirus was claimed to be a biological weapon deployed by China, the US or the UK. Other conspiracy theories contended the outbreak was caused by migrants or was a pure hoax.

The European commission’s chief spokesperson on foreign and security policy, Peter Stano, said,  there had been an increase in “disinformation, misleading information, outright lies and wrong things” since the start of the outbreak.

EU officials also commented on media narratives in other countries. In China, the report said, state media sought to depict Xi Jinping as doing an admirable job, while portraying China’s political system as an asset in tackling the virus.  In Iran, Covid-19 was described as a US bioweapon, as well as a disease weaponised by Israel to target Iran.

Researchers at Cardiff University’s centre for crime and security research, who carried out research found an evolution in tactics by pro-Kremlin media.

               While the coronavirus has prompted panic and emergency measures around the world,many Palestinians trapped in Gaza have responded with black humour on social media,joking that the blockaded enclave may now be the“safest place in the world”.Another person wrote:“it is hard for the coronavirus to reach Gaza.Gaza has been on quarantine lockdown for 14 years,”referring to the blockade imposed by Israel since 2006. Loai Harazine, a Palestinian activist,wrote on twitter :“One of blockade, travel difficulties, and isolation of Gaza, is that it is hard for the corona virus to reach Gaza.”

“We have not died of four wars - chemicals, toxic gases that half of our youth inhaled near the border fence with Israel, light bombs, or phosphorus.”

                            The coronavirus has now been confirmed in at least 30 of Africa’s 54 countries, officials said,  and regional power South Africa warned of a new crisis once the virus begins to spread at home and into crowded low-income communities.

The most alarming confirmation of a first case came from Somalia, the Horn of Africa nation with one of the continent’s weakest health systems after nearly three decades of conflict. Tanzania, Liberia and Benin also announced their  cases.

“However, when this outbreak starts affecting our poor communities where families do not have enough rooms or spaces to quarantine those affected.

Global health experts have openly worried for weeks that the virus could quickly overwhelm countries on the continent with weak health systems.

Large parts of Somalia remain under the control of the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group, which has been hostile to aid groups and often carries out deadly attacks in the capital, Mogadishu. The insecurity will hurt efforts to contain the virus.  Across Africa, some health experts worried that other virus cases were going undetected.

"We have to ask the question: How strong are our monitoring systems, especially those in rural areas or with limited technology? That is a reality on the continent and perhaps why we have not yet seen a surge in cases,” public health researcher Dr. Shakira Choonara told The Associated Press.

                         Scientists warned that the United States, someday would become the country, hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. It is nearing to one lakh. And that moment has arrived.

With 330 million residents, the United State is  the world’s third most populous nation, meaning, it provides a vast pool of people which can potentially get Covid-19, the decease caused by  the virus.

There was no coherent, unified response to a grave public health threat.  A series of missteps and lost opportunities dogged the nation’s response.  Among them,  a failure to take the pandemic seriously even as it engulfed China, a deeply flawed effort to provide broad testing for the virus that left the country blind to the extent of the crisis, and a dire shortage of masks and protective gear to protect doctors and nurses on the front lines, as well as ventilators to keep the critically ill alive, wrote Donald G McNeil Jr..

President Xi Jinping told US President Trump that he would have China’s support in fighting the corona virus.  Xi’s offer of assistance came amid a long running war of words between Beijing and Washington.  Trump, later tweeted “China has been  developed a strong understanding of the virus.  We are working closely together.  Much respect!.”