International COVID-19 Megathread

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-montenegro/montenegro-becomes-europes-first-coronavirus-free-state-pm-says-idUSKBN2311NV

Montenegro’s prime minister on Monday declared the country coronavirus-free - a move vital for its Adriatic tourism industry coming 69 days after it reported its first case and after 20 without a new one.

Montenegro has reported 324 confirmed cases of COVID-19 illness and nine deaths.

“The battle with such a vicious virus has been won and Montenegro now becomes the first coronavirus-free country in Europe,” Dusko Markovic, the Prime Minister told a news conference after meeting a body tasked with combating the disease.

This is really good news, if true.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://thehill.com/policy/international/499756-new-zealand-officials-say-country-has-discharged-last-hospitalized-covid

Health officials in New Zealand announced this week that there are currently no COVID-19 patients in its hospitals.

Ashley Bloomfield, the country’s director-general of health, said during a press briefing on Wednesday that "there is nobody in hospital with COVID-19" following the recent discharge of a patient that had been treated at a hospital in Auckland.

New Zealand has not admitted someone with COVID-19 into a hospital in five days.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-zealand-eradicates-coronavirus-at-least-for-now-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern/

New Zealand appears to have completely eradicated the coronavirus — at least for now — after health officials said Monday the last known infected person had recovered. The announcement was greeted with joy around the country and means the nation of 5 million people will be among the first to welcome throngs of fans back into sports stadiums, embrace crowded concerts and remove seating restrictions from flights.

It's been 17 days since the last new case was reported, during which time an additional 40,000 people have been tested, bringing the total number tested to about 300,000. Monday marked the first time since late February there have been no active cases.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://nypost.com/2020/06/10/burundis-pierre-nkurunziza-may-have-died-from-covid-19/

Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza has died after a suspected bout with the coronavirus — which would make him the first world leader to succumb to the pandemic, according to a report.

The government announced Tuesday that 55-year-old Nkurunziza had died from a heart attack, but opposition sources say the cause of death was COVID-19, according to the Telegraph.

I suppose it's a good thing Burundi will be swearing in a new President in a few weeks, Evariste Ndayishimye...but Nkurunziza is still the first world leader to die from COVID-19 apparently.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/16/878316880/after-weeks-of-no-new-cases-of-covid-19-in-new-zealand-2-cases-arrive-from-u-k

After 24 days with no new cases of the coronavirus, New Zealand now has two. Both are women in the same family and traveled from the U.K. via Australia.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/26/kim-jong-un-conveys-urgent-meeting-after-suspected-case-of-covid-19

It took what seems like forever, but COVID-19 has come to North Korea...at least offically.

Odds are there were likely plenty of cases that Kim-Jong-Un just would not admit to.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-zealand-coronavirus-100-days-no-new-cases/

There have been no new cases of the coronavirus due to community transmission in New Zealand in 100 days, the country's Ministry of Health reported on Sunday. The news came the same weekend the United States surpassed 5 million confirmed cases of the disease, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.


New Zealand's director-general of Health, Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, thanked those who have been tested and the people doing the testing for contributing to the success. However, Bloomfield said the country cannot become complacent amid the pandemic.

"Achieving 100 days without community transmission is a significant milestone, however, as we all know, we can't afford to be complacent," Bloomfield said, in a Ministry of Health news release. "We have seen overseas how quickly the virus can re-emerge and spread in places where it was previously under control, and we need to be prepared to quickly stamp out any future cases in New Zealand."

New Zealand has had a total of 1,219 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-covid-19-chicken-wings-brazil/

Frozen chicken wings imported to China from Brazil have tested positive for the coronavirus, local authorities said on Thursday. A sample was taken from the surface of the wings and tested positive, making them one of the latest food imports to test positive for the virus, according to Reuters.


In addition to the frozen wings, which were imported to Shenzhen, the outer packaging of frozen Ecuadorian shrimp sold in Xian also tested positive for the virus on Thursday, Reuters reported, citing local authorities.

On Wednesday, traces of coronavirus were found on a package of frozen shrimp in Anhui province. The shrimp was also from Ecuador. 

[NewYorkExpress]

After over almost three years, North Korea has finally confirmed cases of COVID-19.

North Korea has declared a “severe national emergency” after confirming its first outbreak of Covid-19, prompting its leader, Kim Jong-un, to vow to quickly eliminate the virus.

State media reported on Thursday that a sub-variant of the highly transmissible Omicron virus, known as BA.2, had been detected in the capital, Pyongyang.

“There has been the biggest emergency incident in the country, with a hole in our emergency quarantine front, that has been kept safely over the past two years and three months since February 2020,” the official KCNA news agency said.

The report said people in Pyongyang had contracted the Omicron variant, without providing details on case numbers or possible sources of infection.

North Korea had claimed it had not recorded a single case of Covid-19 since it closed its borders at the start of the pandemic more than two years ago.

The discovery of the Omicron variant presents a potentially serious risk to North Korea, which has not vaccinated any of its 25 million people, according to experts, and its poorly resourced healthcare system would also struggle to cope with a major outbreak.