Coronavirus: the state of the world facing the pandemic on Tuesday, May 19

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While the WHO is still under fire from criticism from the United States, the pandemic continues to progress, especially in Latin America. To date, the new coronavirus has killed at least 318,517 people worldwide, AFP said.

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WHO, a battleground

US President Donald Trump gives the World Health Organization (WHO) a month to commit to "  noticeable improvements  ." Otherwise, the United States could leave the organization and permanently suspend its funding.

Washington accuses the WHO of being a "  puppet of China  ", a country in which the pandemic started at the end of 2019. Beijing replies that the United States is trying to "  evade its obligations  ". Russia, for its part, denounces an attempt to "  break the WHO " . For the European Commission, it is a question of "  showing solidarity " and not " undermining multilateral cooperation  ".

In this context of great tension, the 194 member countries of WHO still managed to agree on an "  impartial, independent and complete assessment  " of the UN agency's response to the pandemic. The contours of this investigation are still unclear. "  Sufficiently vague so that China does not feel targeted ," analyzes our correspondent in Geneva, Jérémie Lanche .  

France : the second round of municipal elections in June ?

The scientific council, in any case, does not formally oppose it . This group, on which the executive has relied since the start of the epidemic without systematically following its recommendations, gave an opinion this Tuesday, May 19, on the possible organization of the second round of municipal elections, initially scheduled for March 22. The traffic light is not, however, completely green because the scientific council mentions in particular “ significant  ” health risks  inherent in the electoral campaign. He asked to reassess the situation 15 days before the election. The June 28 option is being considered. This would be the last limit to organize only the second round. If the poll was postponed to September or later, then the two rounds would have to be repeated.

In parallel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces that from Wednesday May 20 all French travelers and permanent residents in France arriving from abroad (outside the European Union) will be invited to submit "  voluntarily  " to a quarantine of 14 days . "  It will be a self-sustaining initiative, based on personal responsibility, and this fortnight may be carried out at home or in the chosen location , " specifies Jean-Yves Le Drian. This measure does not currently concern non-European foreigners since the external borders of the EU have been closed to them since March 17.

Cordoba tightens containment again in Argentina

The second city of Argentina has returned to the relaxation of containment measures after a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases. Mandatory confinement has been in effect across the country since March 20, but certain municipal and provincial authorities are authorized to lighten this device. The city of Cordoba, last week authorized the opening of shops, hairdressers, places of worship and recreational outings during the weekend.

Hunger riots in Chile

Clashes with the police continued overnight from Monday to Tuesday at several points in Santiago de Chile. The clashes had started during the day in El Bosque, a poor city on the outskirts of the capital. A hundred residents, mostly wearing hoods and masks, protested against the food shortages and launched slogans hostile to the government, which they say is abandoning them. They were dispersed by the police. In the evening, concerts of saucepans were heard in the capital and its suburbs. A strict containment was decreed Friday by the Chilean government in all the area of ​​Santiago, which concentrates 80% of the cases of coronavirus of the country. Even before the health crisis, Chile had experienced long months of violent protests, after the announcement of an increase in the price of the metro ticket in October.

Peru : new mutiny in a prison, for fear of contagion

The prisoner revolt at Camana prison, 830km south of Lima, injured 14 people on Monday evening. They demanded the presence of the Ombudsman responsible for protecting human rights in Peru, and the assistance of doctors inside this overcrowded prison. According to the authorities, no case of coronavirus has been detected so far in Camana. But in Peru as a whole, the second country most affected by coronavirus in Latin America after Brazil, 30 prisoners died from Covid19 and several hundred others were contaminated.

Reopening of the Mosque esplanade in Jerusalem

The third holiest site in Islam had been closed to the public for two months, but the esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem will reopen after Eid el-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of Ramadan this weekend. The announcement was made on Tuesday by the council of Waqf, the body that manages Muslim holy sites in the holy city. The reopening procedures are not yet known. The director of the al-Aqsa mosque says he hopes there will be no restrictions on the number of worshipers able to access the esplanade.

In the Gulf, the number of cases remains low

Over 130,000 Covid-19 positive cases have been identified by the authorities of the six Arab monarchies united in the Gulf Cooperation Council. However, the case fatality rate remains very low in the region thanks, in particular, to an early strategy focused on screening, explains our correspondent in Dubai, Nicolas Keraudren . The United Arab Emirates, for example, conducted one million tests on a total population of nine million inhabitants. Already confronted with the MERS-CoV respiratory syndrome in 2012, the health systems of the Gulf States have improved their expertise in “  case identification, care in hospitals and also prevention  ”.

India : part of the country begins its deconfinement

The streets of New Delhi have found their horn noises and part of their chaos, reports our correspondent in India, Sébastien Farcis . The capital is one of the regions that began their deconfinement on Tuesday, although the virus is still actively circulating there. Shops can reopen every other day. The metro remains closed, but the buses run again, with a maximum of 20 people on board.

Three Nigerians stranded at Bangkok airport for more than two months

The Nation newspaper compares their story to that of the passenger in the movie The Terminal , played by Tom Hanks. Three Nigerians have been stranded for more than two months inside Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. While in transit, their destination countries, Laos and Burma, closed their borders. These three travelers can neither enter Thailand for lack of visa, nor return to Nigeria because the flights between the two countries have been suspended. Thai Immigration Services say they are in touch with their embassy to find a solution. In the meantime, the airport says it will provide them with food and drinking water.

Indonesia : boom in births ... and burials

According to the national agency responsible for family planning, Indonesia could experience a baby boom early next year with 420,000 additional births linked to containment measures. Indeed, the measures in force complicate access to contraceptives and family planning consultations.

At the same time, the number of burials in Jakarta calls into question the official figures for deaths linked to the coronavirus.According to the funeral directors, at least 2,107 people were buried according to protocols established for the victims of Covid-19, in the capital alone. This is almost double the figures reported by authorities for all of Indonesia, says the South China Morning Post .

China subsidizes retraining of wild animal breeders

120 yuan per kilo of cobra, 75 yuan per kilo of bamboo rat. Farmers in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces can receive financial compensation if they abandon the breeding of wild animals, formally banned by Beijing since February. Beyond the financial compensation according to the weight of the animal, this plan plans to support the conversion of breeders to other industries such as conventional breeding, the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, tea or medicinal plants. According to most scientists, the Covid-19 epidemic is due to the transmission of a virus from animals to humans. A market in Wuhan has been criticized by Chinese scientists for allegedly selling live wild animals.

Australia : football players urged to limit sexual partners

The Australian Football League (AFL) has officially asked players to limit their sexual partners to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection. Evening adventures will not be prohibited, specifies the Australian newspaper Herald Sun , but the players could be punished if they multiply the partners and behave " at risk  ". " It doesn't really affect me . I have a little baby and a wife, ” said one of them to the Melbourne newspaper. But he says some of his single teammates are "  really disappointed .  " The resumption of the championship, suspended at the end of March, is scheduled for June 11.

Our selection on the coronavirus

• Listen to our Coronavirus Info column 

• Our  explanations  :
→  What we know about the mode of contagion
→  Disparities and inequalities in the face of the coronavirus: what must be remembered
→  Triple therapy, Discovery… update on research
→  The race for the vaccine is in full swing
→  How to make a mask and use it well

• Our series  : "  The response, country by country  "

• After Covid-19, towards a new world?

• Each evening, find the State of the world and Africa facing the pandemic

• See also the files of RFI Savoirs on the Covid-19:
→  Birth of a pandemic
→  Everyday life put to the test
→  The history of epidemics
→  Science facing the Covid-19
→  The geopolitical consequences

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• Coronavirus: the state of the world facing the pandemic
• Health and Medicine
• WHO