Putin takes coronavirus precautions as Moscow unveils tracking app

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin is taking precautions to protect himself against coronavirus, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, as Moscow authorities launched a smartphone app designed to track people who have been ordered to stay home because of the virus.

Putin will hold a government meeting later on Wednesday by video conference, the Kremlin said, a day after a doctor who met him last week said he had been diagnosed with the highly infectious virus.

Denis Protsenko last week gave Putin a tour of Moscow’s main coronavirus hospital and shook hands with the Russian leader. Protsenko is now self-isolating in his office.

The Kremlin, which has said that everything is fine with Putin’s health, said the president was now keeping his distance from other people and preferred to work remotely.

Asked if Putin had changed the way he greeted people and was now keeping a distance, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:

“Of course, now everyone is maintaining a social distance. Everyone is doing this.”

‘DIGITAL CONCENTRATION CAMP’

Russia expanded its coronavirus lockdown on Wednesday to cover more of its sprawling territory as the official tally of infections rose to 2,777, a one-day increase of 440. Twenty-four people have so far died in Russia, authorities say.

Moscow, a bustling metropolis of more than 12.5 million that has become the epicenter of Russia’s outbreak, has come to an eerie standstill since announcing a partial lockdown on Sunday.

Residents can leave their homes only to buy food or medicine nearby, get urgent medical treatment, walk the dog or empty their bins. Red Square was largely empty on Tuesday except for police who stopped occasional passersby to check their papers.

On Wednesday, a Moscow city official said authorities had developed a smartphone app for residents who have contracted the virus that would allow officials to monitor their movements. The app will be available from Thursday, the official, Eduard Lysenko, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

The Russian capital is also preparing to roll out a QR-code system where each resident that registers online will be assigned a unique code that they can show to police officers if stopped when going to the shop or the chemist, he said.

Both measures appeared in an unconfirmed draft blueprint for a city-wide surveillance system that was circulated online this week. Kremlin critics said it risked turning Moscow into a “digital concentration camp”.

Lysenko said that anyone without a device that is able to download the tracking app would be lent one by city authorities that they would later return.

Eight southern Russian regions rolled out lockdown measures similar to Moscow on Wednesday, meaning that over two thirds of Russia’s more than 80 regions are now in a state of partial lockdown.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-russia/putin-takes-coronavirus-precautions-as-moscow-unveils-tracking-app-idUSKBN21J4W8

Russian plane takes off for U.S. with coronavirus help onboard: state TV

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian military transport plane took off from an airfield outside Moscow early on Wednesday and headed for the United States with a load of medical equipment and masks to help Washington fight coronavirus, Russian state TV reported.

President Vladimir Putin offered Russian help in a phone conversation with President Donald Trump on Monday, when the two leaders discussed how best to respond to the virus.

The flight, which was organised by the Russian Defence Ministry, is likely to be unpopular with some critics of Trump who have urged him to keep his distance from Putin and who argue that Moscow uses such aid as a geopolitical and propaganda tool to advance its influence, something the Kremlin denies.

“Trump gratefully accepted this humanitarian aid,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited as saying by the Interfax news agency on Tuesday night. Trump himself spoke enthusiastically about the Russian help after his call with Putin.

Russia’s Rossiya 24 channel on Wednesday morning showed the plane taking off from a military air base outside Moscow in darkness. Its cargo hold was filled with cardboard boxes and other packages.

Confirmed U.S. cases have surged to 187,000 and nearly 3,900 people have already died there from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.

In Russia, where some doctors have questioned the accuracy of official data, the official tally of confirmed cases is 2,337 cases with 17 deaths.

Relations between Moscow and Washington have been strained in recent years by everything from Syria to Ukraine to election interference, something Russia denies.

Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said Moscow hoped the United States might also be able to provide medical help to Russia if necessary when the time came.

“It is important to note that when offering assistance to U.S. colleagues, the president (Putin) assumes that when U.S. manufacturers of medical equipment and materials gain momentum, they will also be able to reciprocate if necessary,” Peskov was cited as saying.

Peskov, who complained about difficulties expediting the aid to the United States thrown up by some U.S. officials, was quoted as saying that Russia and China cooperated in a similar way because “at a time when the current situation affects everyone without exception … there is no alternative to working together in a spirit of partnership and mutual assistance”.

Russia has also used its military to send planeloads of aid to Italy to combat the spread of coronavirus, exposing the European Union’s failure to provide swift help to a member in crisis and handing Putin a publicity coup at home and abroad.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-russia-usa/russian-plane-takes-off-for-u-s-with-coronavirus-help-onboard-state-tv-idUSKBN21I37W

Spanish COVID-19 Cases Pass 100k, Japan Closes Border To US & UK Citizens

Summary:

Iran reports 138 deaths on Wednesday

Hong Kong closes bars, karaoke lounges, beauty salons and other public areas as new cases jump

Japan closes borders to travelers from 73 countries, including UK and US

US case total nears 200k

Italian finance minister says government agrees with business lobby's projection for 6% GDP contraction

Spanish cases top 100k

UK pubs hatch plan to become grocers

Chinese provinces report 56 'asymptomatic' cases

• • *

Just as the rate of new infections finally appears to have plateaued in Italy, Spain and France are reporting enough new cases to steal the spotlight. On Wednesday, the big story was Spain: Health Officials in Madrid reported.

Once again, health officials reported a "record" number of new deaths after 864 people died on Tuesday. It marked the fifth straight day of Spanish authorities reporting 800 or more deaths. So far, 9,053 people have died after contracting the virus.

According to the Spanish government, 102,136 Spaniards have contracted the coronavirus in Spain, after another 8% jump on Tuesday. OF the confirmed cases 22,647 people have reportedly recovered.

US total cases 188,639 (prev. 188,530), death toll 4,059 (prev. 4,053).

ITALY total cases (prev. 105,792), death toll (prev. 12,428).

SPAIN total cases 102,136 (prev. 95,923), death toll 9,053 (prev. 8,464).

CHINA total cases 81,554 (prev. 81,518), death toll 3,312 (prev. 3,305).

GERMANY total cases 72,383 (prev. 71,808), death toll 788 (prev. 775).

FRANCE total cases (prev. 52,128), death toll (prev. 3,523).

UK total cases (prev. 25,150), death toll (prev. 1,789).

SWITZERLAND total cases (prev. 16,605), death toll (prev. 433).

NETHERLANDS total cases (prev. 12,595), death toll (prev. 1,039).

SOUTH KOREA total cases 9,887 (prev. 9,786), death toll 165 (prev. 162).

Boris Johnson has been granted what one critic described as "eye watering" new powers to lead his country through the pandemic. But the private sector also appears to be dreaming up impressive new initiatives, including providing pubs with the means to set up a click-and-collect service for foodstuffs like bread, eggs and milk, in effect transforming them into neighborhood grocers. Those living nearby can simply place an order online, then pop round the shop to pick up their goods.

Italian Finance Minister Roberto Gualtieri said Wednesday that estimates of a fall in GDP of at least 6% by Confindustria, Italy’s business lobby, would likely be confirmed by Rome's own forecasts set to be published later this month. If this rate of growth comes to pass, it would exceed the 5.5 % contraction the country suffered in 2009.

As we noted yesterday, health officials in Beijing have ordered local officials to begin reporting 'asymptomatic' cases that apparently left out of China's numbers. Beijing announced ~1,500 such cases as of yesterday. On Wednesday, health officials in Liaoning Province were the first out the gate, reporting 52 such cases on Tuesday. Hunan Province followed by reporting 4 such infections, all of which were "imported", according to Nikkei.

Across the world in Asia, Japan announced that it will close its borders to foreigners from 73 different countries, including the US and UK, and require all other arrivals to isolate themselves for two weeks in its latest measures to control the coronavirus as several Asian countries and territories see a resurgence in cases. Similarly, Hong Kong on Wednesday ordered karaoke lounges, beauty salons, massage parlors, nightclubs and mahjong clubs to temporarily close after officials announced a nearly fourfold increase in cases to 766 over the past two weeks.

Authorities in Iran reported 138 new deaths on Wednesday as the official Iranian death toll surpassed 3,000. Authorities were encouraging people to stay at home on the last day of Persian New Year celebrations, known as Nowruz, on Wednesday while they look into using new technologies to track cases and help combat the outbreak.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/spanish-covid-19-cases-pass-100k-japan-closes-border-us-uk-citizens-live-updates

As Pandemic Rages, NATO Shows Itself To Be As Irrelevant As Ever

Authored by Brian Cloughley via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

In 2015 Bill Gates gave a talk titled “We’re Not Ready for the Next Epidemic” in which, in a remarkable exhibition of understated and uncannily accurate prescience, he reflected on the outbreak of Ebola virus and forecast worse to come. This amazing man told us that “As awful as this epidemic has been, the next one could be much worse. The world is simply not prepared to deal with a disease — an especially virulent flu, for example — that infects large numbers of people very quickly. Of all the things that could kill 10 million people or more, by far the most likely is an epidemic. But I believe we can prevent such a catastrophe by building a global warning and response system for epidemics. It would apply the kind of planning that goes into national defence — systems for recruiting, training, and equipping health workers; investments in new tools; etc — to the effort to prevent and contain outbreaks.”

The world did nothing, with Trump, for example, claiming on March 20 that “nobody could have ever seen something like this coming,” and we are now suffering the ravages of a terrifying virus that threatens to kill countless millions of people if such heads of state as the criminally dithering Trump continue to wield influence on our destiny.

It is likely, however, that logic and science will overcome ignorance and political point-scoring, and that Trump and his ilk will fade away while the world limps to normality after a price in lives and suffering that nobody can estimate

But there could be positive spin-offs that could make the world a better place, and one of them is movement towards rapprochement between the US and Russia and China, both of which Washington’s finest insist are “a greater threat than terrorism”, so that the world will be spared the debilitating effects of continuing confrontation.

Moar

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/pandemic-rages-nato-shows-itself-be-irrelevant-ever

https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/1245104578087059467?s=19&fbclid=IwAR2H5R-3qOOBR3z0cLydmegJdkfxZ_N7E_wCngzgshrjM-fDVQJiNwdPalg

>>8647205

This will show the WH did everything they could to no avail.