(Reuters) – Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:
Urge to ban wet markets selling wildlife
In addition to its calls this week for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, Australia on Thursday said G20 nations should close their wildlife wet markets.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud cited the risks these markets pose to human health and agriculture. The novel coronavirus is thought to have emerged in a market selling wildlife in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Wet markets exist throughout Asia selling fresh fruit and vegetables, seafood and meat, with some also selling exotic animals.
Ramadan congregational prayers ill-advised
As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts this week, Pakistani doctors warned the government and clerics that it was ill-advised to allow prayer congregations at mosques.
Pakistan lifted precautionary restrictions on congregational prayers on Saturday, after several clashes between police and worshippers, and clerics had said such limitations were not acceptable.
The doctors said medical facilities in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, had already reached maximum capacity.
Illegal drug trade disrupted too
The coronavirus outbreak has hit the airline industry and businesses big and small, including the illegal narcotics trade.
On three continents, Reuters spoke to more than two dozen law enforcement officials, narcotics experts, diplomats and people involved in the illicit trade, who described a business experiencing broken supply chains, delivery delays, disgruntled workers and millions of customers on lockdown.
Coca farmers in Peru, the world’s second-biggest producer of cocaine, say they are crafting a plan to ask the government to buy up excess coca inventory amid a price slump of 70%.
The closing of the U.S.-Mexico border to all non-essential travel, too, has thrown a wrench into the well-oiled drug-smuggling machine. Cartels appear to be looking for alternative transport routes, U.S. officials said, with increased drone and ultralight aircraft sightings at the border and signs that gangs are moving more drugs through cross-border tunnels.
Positive outcome from terrifying situation
Concerned about how fast the coronavirus could spread in the densely populated wards of psychiatric hospitals, some residents of the Russian capital, Moscow, are using a new government emergency measure allowing people to take residents of state institutions home during the lockdown to get some patients out.
Five staff members at a charity foundation have also taken in severely disabled children home for the quarantine period, installing medical beds rigged with all the necessary equipment to support the children’s breathing and movement.
“It’s terrifying, but sometimes terrifying situations can produce unexpectedly positive outcomes,” said Lida Moniava, director of a Moscow children’s hospice, referring to the new government policy.
(Compiled by Karishma Singh)
