South America reopens as virus peak nears

South American countries on Monday began easing COVID19 restrictions even as the region hurtles toward its viral peak disregarding the example set by European nations that were battered earlier by the virusSome of Brazils hardest hit cities are starting to allow more activity Rio de Janeiro with the secondmost cases after Sao Paulo on Monday announced it would begin gradually relaxing restrictions the following dayBolivias government authorised reopening most of the country and the government of Venezuelas Nicolaacutes Maduro unwound restrictions Ecuadors airports were resuming flights and shoppers returning to some of Colombias mallsSituation far from stableThe executive director of the World Health Organisations emergencies program Mike Ryan expressed concern over South Americas climbing contagion telling reporters on Monday that the region had become an intense zone of transmission for this virus which had not yet reached its peakClearly the situation in many South American countries is far from stable There is a rapid increase in cases and those systems are coming under increasing pressure he saidData from the WHOs Pan American Health Organisation shows the regions sevenday rolling average of new cases continues rising due in large part to Brazil which accounts for more than half the totalBrazils caseload continues to surge yet its airport will resume international flights on June 3 according to Nicolaacutes Romero the airports spokesperson though he said arriving passengers must spend 15 days in quarantine without specifying how such quarantine will be enforcedChina sat on virus info frustrating WHO says reportThroughout January the WHO publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to COVID19 and thanked the government for sharing the genetic map of the virus immediately But in fact Chinese officials sat on releasing the genetic map or genome of the virus for over a week after multiple government labs had fully decoded it not sharing details key to designing tests drugs and vaccinesAlthough WHO continued to publicly commend China the recordings obtained by the AP show they were concerned China was not sharing key information costing the world valuable timePakistan experts wanted lockdownA leaked government document reveals authorities ignored experts who wanted a monthlong lockdown in Punjab province and who estimated 670000 might have been infected in Lahore After media published experts report on Tuesday residents criticised the government for easing the curbs in April instead of heeding the recommendation Pakistan has seen 1621 fatalities amid 76398 casesCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever