Wellington, April 2, 2020 (dpa/NAN) Foreigners stranded in New Zealand will be able to leave the country from Friday.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters on Thursday announced the plan to enable the “safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands” of stranded foreign nationals.

“When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the government rightly prioritised public health, and limited the movement of people so as to restrict the spread of Covid-19.

“But it is clear that many foreign nationals travelling here do not have the resources or capability to adequately self-isolate, and wish to return home.

“We have taken the time and care to develop a seriously detailed plan for the exit of foreign nationals, without endangering the lives of others,” he said.

Under the managed exit plan, foreign governments will be able to organise charter flights to repatriate their citizens, but only if they can satisfy New Zealand health requirements.

Foreign nationals returning home will be able to travel within New Zealand so long as they have a confirmed and scheduled international flight out of the country.

Peters said the public health and economic considerations of New Zealand and New Zealanders was paramount in the decision to facilitate the managed exit of stranded foreign nationals.

“We are conscious that returning foreign nationals to their home countries will reduce the potential pressure on health services in New Zealand, and reduce the risk of welfare issues developing for those people who are stranded and unable to afford to be here much longer,” he added.

Foreign nationals seeking to leave New Zealand will not be allowed to leave self-isolation to travel if they are at risk of Covid-19.

“All passengers will also be required to complete any health requirements as necessary at their airport of departure,” Peters said.

More flights will be provided between New Zealand and Europe, with the New Zealand government approving a second daily flight from Doha to Auckland by Qatar Airways.

Peters asked foreign nationals to contact their embassy or high commission for further advice.

New Zealand has 797 confirmed cases of Covid-19 as of Thursday afternoon, with a rise of 89 new cases in 24 hours.

One person has died of the illness in New Zealand.

More than 26,000 coronavirus tests have been carried out, the government said.  (dpa/NAN)

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Berlin, April 2, 2020 (dpa.NAN) German hospitals have taken in 113 patients infected with the coronavirus from partner states in the European Union.

Of the patients, 85 came from overburdened areas in France, 26 from Italy, and two from the Netherlands, the German Foreign Office told dpa.

Some were transported by the German air force.

A further 81 beds across Germany have been reserved for sick people from Italy, and 13 beds for patients from France.

Germany said it had also offered Spain places for intensive care patients, but the Spanish government has not yet responded and is focusing on redistributing patients within Spain.

A private-sector aid initiative by the Helios clinic group sent a team of five doctors and one nurse, as well as ventilators, to Madrid on Monday.

A team of doctors and nurses from the University Hospital in the German city of Jena has been on duty in Naples, Italy, since Wednesday.

Germany has sent seven tons of relief supplies, including respirators and breathing masks, to Italy, according to the German Foreign Office. (dpa/NAN)

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Beijing, April 2, 2020 (dpa/NAN) German businesses in China are seeing improvements as the country’s economy restarts, but still face serious challenges from the fallout of the coronavirus crisis, according to a newly released survey.

The results of a March survey of members of the German Chamber of Commerce in China were published on Thursday.

“German companies in China are technically capable of producing almost at pre-crisis levels,” said Maximilian Butek, a member of the board.

Staffing ratios, production capacities and internal logistics have normalized for most of the respondents, the survey showed.

However, actual business activity has barely resumed.

“The economic effects on companies are still serious,” according to the chamber.

More than two-thirds of the companies surveyed predicted a double-digit decline in sales for the first half of the year.

This is 20 per cent more than in a survey conducted in February.

Most companies are trying to postpone or even cancel investments, and business will probably not return to pre-crisis levels until the beginning of the second half of the year, according to the research.

Limitations on domestic travel and a ban on allowing foreigners into China for fear of “imported” cases of the virus has made business more complicated.

Global supply chains have been heavily disrupted and the demand for goods manufactured in China has decreased.

The mood in China’s industry had dropped to record lows in January and February, as the economy was forced to a near standstill.

However, factories and companies are slowly resuming work and hardly any new cases of community transmission of coronavirus have been reported for weeks. (dpa/NAN)

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Brussels, April 2, 2020 (dpa/NAN) NATO foreign ministers are due on Thursday to discuss their countries’ response to the global coronavirus pandemic, while stressing that the defence alliance remains ready to defend itself against any threat.

“Our primary objective is to ensure that this health crisis does not become a security crisis,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.

The ministers will replace their regular talks with a videoconference, meeting for the first time in such a format due to restrictions on travel and physical interaction to contain the spread of the virus.

They are due to assess ways of coordinating response efforts more closely.

NATO has already helped deliver emergency supplies to its worst-hit members, such as Italy and Spain, while national armed forces are supporting domestic measures to combat the crisis.

At the same time, allies are concerned that NATO’s adversaries could exploit the situation and conduct hostile activities at a time when they are focused primarily on combating the potentially lethal disease.

The alliance is working to prevent the spread of disinformation around Covid-19, with many pointing the finger at Russia and China.

“This is not the time for blame and it’s not the time to try to divide our publics either,” U.S. ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison said on Wednesday.

The ministers are expected to reiterate NATO’s resolve and readiness to respond to any acts of aggression.

They are also due to take decisions relating to NATO’s activities in Iraq and focus on developments in Afghanistan, while welcoming their 30th ally, North Macedonia, which joined the Western alliance last week. (dpa/NAN)

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Washington, April 2, 2020 (dpa/2020) The U.S. is stepping up its military presence on the southern border with Mexico over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

U.S. Northern Command chief Terrence O’Shaughnessy told reporters on Wednesday in a phone conference that the deployment is aimed at protecting the U.S. from potentially infected migrants, who try to cross the border.

Some 540 soldiers will be sent to the border “very soon,” Commanding General Laura Richardson added.

The troops will support border forces in apprehending infected migrants and immediately sending them back, Richardson said.

The U.S. said some two weeks ago that it would send migrants illegally crossing into the country directly back to their countries, in a measure that applies to both the southern border with Mexico and the northern border with Canada.

Washington justified the move by saying that migrants could spread the virus amongst themselves, infect border forces, and speed up the spread among the U.S. population.

There are already several thousand soldiers at the crossing with Mexico.

U.S. President Donald Trump has promised to have a new wall built there by the beginning of 2021. (dpa/NAN)

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Rome, April 1, 2020 (dpa/NAN) Italy’s record death toll from the novel coronavirus grew by more than 700 on Wednesday, as a top official said that social restrictions were getting harder to bear for the population.

The nationwide lockdown had been due to expire on April 3, but Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced it would now be extended to April 13 – Easter Monday.

“We are not in a condition to ease the restrictive measures we have put in place,” he told a late evening press conference.

“If we were to stop respecting the (social distancing) rules, if we were to relax them, all the efforts made so far would have been in vain,” the prime minister added.

Earlier, the Civil Protection Agency announced 727 fatalities linked to the Covid-19 disease, bringing the total number of dead to 13,155, by far the world’s highest figure.

Conte called the rising death toll “a particularly painful wound, a wound which we will never be able to heal.”

Total infections, including recoveries and deaths, reached 110,574, a 4.5-per-cent daily increase, up from a 4-per-cent change registered on Tuesday.

Italian health authorities have said that the contagion curve has reached “a plateau,” and that more efforts are needed to bring it down.

Speaking in the Senate, Health Minister Roberto Speranza warned against “facile optimism that may undermine the efforts made: the first positive signals do not mean that the alarm is over.”

Schools are shut, most shops and factories are closed, public gatherings are banned and people are under orders to stay home unless for work, emergencies and unavoidable errands like buying food.

The “social malaise” brought about by the restrictions “is one of the relevant aspects” of the crisis, Agostino Miozzo, a senior Civil Protection Agency official, told a group of foreign journalists.

At the start of the emergency the focus was on saving lives, but now “with the whole country [locked down] at home … we realize that this is a very stressful situation,” he said.

He mentioned cases of scuffles in supermarket queues, as well as the increased risk of domestic violence, as clear signs of growing social tensions. (dpa/NAN)

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Washington/New York, April 1, 2020 (dpa/NAN) U.S. coronavirus cases topped 200,000 on Wednesday, doubling in less than a week, and deaths passed 4,000 as the nation’s top public health officials predicted grim weeks ahead in the battle against the outbreak.

Meanwhile Democrats in Washington are starting to push for a fourth economic stimulus package aimed at massive infrastructure projects.

Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, said on Wednesday that she wants lawmakers to pursue the stimulus package once Congress is back in session on April 20.

However, Republicans have demurred on the subject.

The country is gearing up to battle the pandemic with President Donald Trump predicting a “very, very painful” two weeks ahead.

The White House has said the toll could reach 240,000 U.S. deaths.

In a sign that some holdouts are taking the virus more seriously, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced a state-wide stay at home order, to take effect on Thursday evening.

DeSantis was facing mounting criticism that he was not taking enough measures to curb the outbreak and on Wednesday he said that Trump had influenced his decision.

In New York, the epicentre of the current outbreak, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that some 16,000 people could die there, citing projections.

Cuomo warned other regions: “Look at us today, see yourself tomorrow.”

New York’s death toll has reached 1,941, accounting for nearly half of fatalities nationwide, Cuomo said.

There are at least 83,712 confirmed coronavirus cases in the state.

“That number will continue to go up,” he said, predicting that the local outbreak would hit its apex “roughly at the end of April.”

He said at the peak that New York would need 110,000 hospital beds and 37,000 ventilators, but that the federal government had only sent 4,000 units of the breathing equipment.

Cuomo also announced New York City playgrounds will be shut down as social distancing guidelines are still not being followed closely enough, especially by young people.

“Who else has to die for you to understand you have a responsibility?” Cuomo said.

On a personal note, Cuomo said he was “frightened” for his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who tested positive for the coronavirus.

“I couldn’t protect my own brother,” an emotional governor said, adding that “anyone can get this disease.” (dpa/NAN)

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