Total coronavirus cases in United States surge past Italy, China

Don Barrett

The United States is rapidly becoming the epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic. The number of cases in the country rocketed past both those in Italy and China. The US now has the largest number of officially recorded cases of COVID-19, 85,594, and the largest number of new cases in a 24-hour period, more than 17,000. The death toll in the United States is now 1,300.

The number of coronavirus cases in America has multiplied 10 times over in only a week. The exponentially increasing caseload is also reflected worldwide, where there are more than 532,000 cases, double the level of six days ago. Deaths are also skyrocketing, now at 24,000 worldwide.

As the US becomes the epicenter of the world pandemic, so New York City has become the epicenter within the country, with nearly 400 deaths, 5,237 hospitalized, and 1,290 in intensive care. These numbers currently double every three days. Mayor Bill de Blasio has released plans to build emergency facilities of more than 1,000 beds in each of its five boroughs, which even now would account for less than one week’s worth of new cases in the city. The arrival of the US Navy hospital ship USS Comfort to the area next week will absorb less than one day’s worth of new hospitalizations.

Similar efforts in other states, such as Louisiana’s plan to temporarily place 1,100 beds in a convention center, are similarly at risk of being rapidly overwhelmed. And such plans recall the nightmarish experience at the same convention center during Hurricane Katrina.

Kirkland Fire and Rescue ambulance workers load a patient into an ambulance, Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., near Seattle (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

All sectors of workers are affected. A Mt. Sinai nurse, Bevon Bloise, posted on Facebook, “We do not have enough PPE [Personal Protective Equipment], we do not have the correct PPE, and we do not have the appropriate staffing to handle this pandemic.”

The first death among New York City MTA conductors was reported, 49-year-old Peter Petrassi. The MTA is still not providing employees with necessary protective gear. Workers in other urban transit systems are also demanding masks and gear.

The record number of unemployment claims is another indication of the economic burden that is being placed on the working class. There were 155,000 claims in New Jersey alone, 16 times the previous week, and 3.3 million in the country as a whole, the highest number of weekly jobless claims in history.

In contrast, Wall Street and the big banks have already been given or promised trillions of dollars in liquidity to weather the economic storm the pandemic has triggered, and Congress is currently debating a further stimulus package to prop up the major corporations.

Fifteen states now have more than 1,000 cases, with California numbers climbing by 30 percent to 3,910, Washington by 24 percent to 3,207, Michigan by 25 percent to 2,856, Illinois by 36 percent to 2,538, etc. New hot spots are emerging, including major US cities Chicago and Detroit, which are poised to follow the example of the New York metropolitan area.

The response of the Trump administration was to suggest that the virus was somehow limited to the hardest-hit urban centers like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle, and that large sections of the country are relatively unscathed. At Thursday’s press briefing, White House Coronavirus Task Force Response Coordinator Deborah Birx declared proudly that 19 out of the 50 states still had fewer than 200 cases each, claiming this represented “40 percent of the country” where infection rates were “extraordinarily low numbers.”

She did not list them, but the 19 states with the lowest coronavirus tolls are mostly small in terms of population (including the 16 smallest) and relatively remote from global commerce. (The states are Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.) They may comprise 40 percent of the states, but only 13 percent of the population. To cite such statistics as progress, let alone success, is to deliberately disarm the American public in the face of a rapidly mounting threat.

In a further distortion, she stated that in “no country to date have we seen an attack rate of over one in 1,000,” leaving out the key word, yet. She was clearly seeking to suggest that no more than one in 1,000 Americans was likely to contract COVID-19, or about 330,000 people—a figure that could well be surpassed within a week.

Dr. Birx went on to denounce as unwarranted the reported discussions within hospitals as to how to allocate—and deallocate—critical ventilators when faced, as some hospitals already are, with an overflow of cases. She said it was improper “to make the implication, when they need a hospital bed, it’s not going to be there.” Some hospitals are in fact already at capacity, including two major Detroit-area hospitals, while hospitals in New York City are completely overwhelmed.

What Trump and his sycophantic aides claim as success is actually criminal malpractice. The infection could have been stopped in its tracks if proper testing, contact tracing and isolation measures had been taken from the very beginning of the crisis. Instead, the Trump administration ignored warnings from the World Health Organization in January and allowed the virus to spread essentially unchecked for several weeks.

Even now, coronavirus testing is still restricted to those exhibiting symptoms, despite the fact that COVID-19 is often contagious even when a patient is asymptomatic, one of the many reasons it is so dangerous.

For his part, Trump continued to insist, against overwhelming evidence of popular demands to shut down workplaces to minimize the contagion, that American workers “don’t want to sit around,” and therefore, “we have to go back [to work],” which will ostensibly happen after Easter weekend. One of the indications that this will in fact become policy is that car manufacturers Ford and Honda have announced that they will reopen their North American plants on April 6 and 7, respectively, to be followed by Toyota on April 20. Safety measures for workers have been promised, the details to be revealed—later.

The Trump administration is also planning to deploy 1,000 US troops to the over 5,000-mile-long Canadian border for the first time in modern history, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo. This will include the installation of remote sensors, to stop illegal migrants and their “potential to spread infectious disease.” Trump further justified this scheme in an afternoon press briefing by claiming that “we have illegal trade that we don’t like,” referring to alleged dumping of Chinese steel through crossborder Canadian trade.

The militarization of the US-Canadian border and the increased militarization of the US-Mexican border further speaks to the irrational and reactionary response of the Trump administration to the coronavirus pandemic. In yesterday’s remarks to the G20, World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted, “This is a global crisis that demands a global response. …

“No country can solve this crisis alone. We’re all in this together, and we will only get out of it together. That means a paradigm shift in global solidarity—in sharing experiences, expertise and resources, and in working together to keep supply lines open, and supporting nations who need our support.”

While Dr. Tedros’ words may be sincere, they fall on deaf ears. When facing a crisis which demands that the metaphorical and physical walls between nations come down, Trump and his counterparts are busy erecting even greater barriers to international collaboration. They are much more interested in the three straight days of gains on the stock market, which has risen 20 percent since Monday. The potentially millions of lives that will be lost if workers are ordered back to work are merely the cost of doing business.

Peru deploys army in the streets to enforce COVID-19 curfew

Cesar Uco & Don Knowland

Peru’s President Martín Vizcarra has called the country’s military into the street for the ostensible purpose of enforcing quarantine and curfew orders aimed at reducing the spread of the coronavirus, reporting the number of persons infected had reached 395 and that five had died from contracting it. As of Tuesday, the number of known cases in the country had risen to 412, and the number of deaths to seven. Over three quarters fo the cases are concentrated in the capital of Lima.

Vizcarra declared a national emergency and quarantine on March 15, imposing an immediate ban on all travel between provinces, and into and out of the country, as well as a ban on the use of planes, boats, trains, buses, and private automobiles. On March 17, citizens were required to fill out an online form in order to obtain permission to leave their homes.

On March 18, a curfew was imposed from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. with the military deployed on city streets to enforce these measures.

Soldier questioning a driver entering a wealthy neighborhood in Lima.

The underlying aims of the restrictions imposed by President Vizcarra are to protect the economic interests of the wealthy, while preparing for a possible armed confrontation with the masses of Peruvian working people.

The deployment of the military at major intersections, where cars and pedestrians are stopped for questioning as to where they are going, is designed to protect Lima’s wealthiest neighborhoods.

The Armed Forces are not present in the heavily populated poor neighborhoods surrounding Lima where millions of working families and small traders live. There the local police do not impose the quarantine rules, letting children take to the streets to play contact sports conducive to the transmission of virus.

Vizcarra announced that the paltry sum of 380 nuevo (new) soles (US$ 106)—a mere third of the already abysmally low monthly minimum wage—would be distributed at first to the 500,000 neediest families in Lima and the adjoining seaport of Callao, and then to 2.7 million similar families in all regions of the country.

Peruvian workers and poor did not have the purchasing power to buy sufficient food in poorly supplied markets last week, with prices doubling and even tripling. Meanwhile wealthy panic buyers in the posh La Molina district of Lima forced the closing of the well-stocked supermarket of the large national chain WONG.

A WSWS reporter interviewed Felipe, who has a stall at the Miraflores central market in Lima, about market supply conditions and prices.

“I am from the working-class neighborhood of San Juan de Lurigancho and it takes more than half an hour to get to my work here in the central market of Miraflores. There are military personnel here at all major intersections, but there’s none for my neighborhood. They say there are not enough military and local personnel. It seems to me that they are afraid or waiting for the moment when people without work and food rise en masse. It’s going to be big.

“Where I live there are no masks or gloves. The curfew at 8 p.m. is respected, but young people spend the day playing football in the streets under the eyes of police, who do not intervene to enforce the quarantine.

“In the first week, the Miraflores market was full of people buying everything. Now we’re back to normal. Imagine that a kilo of lemons rose from 5 soles to 15 soles, a kilo of carrots from 3 to 6 soles and garlic sold at four times its normal price.

“We are told that everything is planned so that the wholesale market, from where food is distributed to all other markets and grocery stores, will continue to work well and that we shouldn’t worry. But I’m told that the wholesale market staff works without gloves and masks”.

In an attempt to counteract the economic slowdown that is already arising from the coronavirus crisis, the Peruvian Central Reserve Bank (in Spanish, BCR) has taken its most drastic step since 2010, reducing its key interest rate from 2.25 percent to 1.25 percent, its lowest level since 2010. In the last month, yields on Peruvian 10-year Treasury bonds increased by 16.1 basis points, reflecting that the spreads—a measure of risk—of long-term bonds have increased.

Despite such measures by the BCR, analysts are projecting a contraction ranging from 1 percent to 4 percent. The Peruvian currency, the nuevo sol, has depreciated 6.5 percent, making it difficult for the government and corporations to meet loan obligations that are payable in dollars.

A new report by the Peruvian Institute of Economics (PIE) proposes “jumpstarting” the economy through promoting industries “that employ continuous processes” involving intensive use of machinery and equipment, and “little labor participation”, such as the mining sector, cement, glass, and brick-making.

The PIE report emphasizes that quarantine and subsequent measures have suddenly reduced a large portion of the population to a “state of vulnerability”. The report focuses on “a little-studied area within what is known as the ‘vulnerable middle class’, which is estimated at 40 percent of Peru’s population”. This figure is “very large because of the degree of economic informality.”

The report warns that these conditions can produce a social explosion, suggesting that workers must be kept on the job, no matter the threat to the health and lives of themselves and their families posed by the virus. “As far as possible, the government must sustain the continuity of the production of goods and services, and thus avoid the total collapse of the productive apparatus, with the consequent and immeasurable social cost,” it states.

Behind the scenes, President Vizcarra and the Peruvian military, in conjunction with US imperialism, are inevitably preparing for mass repression of the working class and “vulnerable middle class.”

Even before the coronavirus crisis the Andean countries witnessed uprisings, general strikes and confrontation with the police in Chile, Ecuador and Colombia, as the working class and poor revolted against social inequality and attacks on their living standards.

Peru, whose economy had fared somewhat better than other Andean countries, did not see such mass struggles. But given the economic and social tinderbox arising from the coronavirus and the government’s measures taken in its wake, such struggles are inevitable.

The wealth of Australia’s richest 250 soars to $377 billion

Clare Bruderlin

In the midst of the intensifying coronavirus pandemic, with workers losing their jobs and livelihoods, the Australian published “The List” last Saturday—an 82-page glossy magazine glorifying the growing wealth of Australia’s richest 250 people.

The introduction celebrates the fact that: “[T]he amount of wealth generated by the 250 keeps rising with each member’s average fortune now a whopping $1.51 billion—or about $240 million more than last year.”

According to the Murdoch media’s magazine, the number of Australian billionaires has more than trebled in two years, from 33 in 2018 to 117 in February 2020. Their combined wealth amounts to $377.77 billion, a sharp increase from $318.33 billion last year. The cut-off wealth for the list this year is $402 million; last year it was $320 million.

The List’s pages highlight the extravagant lifestyles of the super-rich. Millionaire Ian Malouf’s luxury 54 metre super-yacht is equipped with “Veuve Clicquot champagne on tap, staff at your beck and call, a party deck with a jacuzzi on the roof above us and six bedrooms below.”

The luxury apartments sold by property developer Larry Kestelman include “marble in the kitchens and bathrooms,” $4,000 doors and an amenities floor with “plush dining areas, billiards tables, libraries, a steam and sauna room, a private massage room, a yoga class space and a giant pool for the residents.”

Kestelman’s “exclusive” Azure Club development in Melbourne consists of 38 apartments, ranging in price from $4 million to about $25 million and sitting on floors 32 to 49 of a new tower named Capitol Grand. They come with commanding views, a separate street entrance and a full concierge service for security.

Frank Lowy, the co-founder of the Westfield shopping mall conglomerate, sold the company for $32 billion in 2017. Now retired, he spends most of the year out of Australia. He has a home in Tel Aviv, “the super-yacht Ilona, which moves between various Mediterranean ports in the northern summer,” and a home in New York.

Of the 250 richest, 64 have made their wealth as property moguls and through the rampant financial speculation in the housing market. On top of the list of property developers is Harry Triguboff, whose fortune grew from $12.31 billion to $15.5 billion in the past year, mostly derived from his lucrative Meriton empire, which builds, sells and rents out apartments.

Australia is ranked one of the worst countries in the developed world in terms of housing affordability and mortgage debt. Millions of young people have been locked out of home ownership, and many workers have astronomic mortgages, contributing to historically unprecedented levels of household debt.

Reflecting the domination of the financial elite, 42 individuals on the list made their fortunes through investment. A further 23 made their wealth in retail. The retail industry has one of the highest rates of casual employment in Australia and has seen waves of job cuts and store closures over the past year as companies seek to maintain profits amid the economic downturn.

Another 19 of the richest 250 are mining magnates, including iron ore baron Gina Rinehart, who is No. 2 on the list, with wealth exceeding $16 billion, up from $13.12 billion last year.

There are 19 technology entrepreneurs, benefiting from soaring share market valuations of the sector. Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, co-founders of the IT software company Atlassian, are the richest, at numbers 5 and 6 on the list, respectively.

Their combined fortunes total $25.27 billion, up from $18.02 billion. Between them they own the two most expensive houses in Australia. Farquhar bought a $71 million Sydney harbour-side mansion in 2017 and Cannon-Brookes purchased the Fairwater mansion, on the same shores, for $100 million in 2018.

The richest individual on the list is Anthony Pratt, with a personal wealth of $16.95 billion—nearly $4 billion more than last year. Manufacturing accounts for just 13 places on the list. Pratt’s increasing wealth reflects the ongoing destruction of the sector. His riches are in large part due to the fact that he owns Pratt Industries in the US, where nearly half of his box-making and recycling operations are based.

A friend of US President Donald Trump, Pratt has a family mansion, Raheen, in Melbourne, but spends much of his time at his penthouse atop the Sherry-Netherland hotel, which faces Central Park in New York’s Upper East Side. He and his family also own a residence in Westchester outside New York, “bought for a reported $15 million from actors Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones last July.”

The introduction to the List attempts to justify this unprecedented wealth by highlighting the alleged “generosity” of the rich. It asserts that a “big change” among the wealthy is their approach to philanthropy. It writes that in response to the recent bushfires, many made donations to charity and “Andrew Forrest made the biggest splash, with a $70 million pledge.”

Forrest, who heads iron ore mining company Fortescue Metals Group, has an estimated wealth of $13.06 billion, making him the fourth richest on the list. His wealth has almost doubled from last year, when it was at $7.34 billion.

In later pages of the magazine, it is revealed that $60 million of Forrest’s $70 million pledge was, in fact, donated to his own “Minderoo Foundation,” which has net assets of $1.35 billion, placing its value above the bottom 130 fortunes in the List.

The wealthy donate to such foundations to reduce their taxes, while exploiting their transfers for PR and advertising purposes. The List gives the example of multi-millionaire Graham Tuckwell, who “reportedly admitted in documents filed in a Jersey court that an $81 million donation of shares to a charitable foundation in his name were at least in part motivated by a large personal tax bill.”

The opulence of the financial and corporate elite on display in the List stands in stark contrast to the living and working conditions of millions of workers.

Far from being a “lucky country,” the gap between the wealthiest individuals in Australia and the vast majority of the population is widening. A report by Oxfam in January found that Australia’s richest 1 percent own 22.2 percent of all Australia’s wealth and have more than double the wealth of the bottom 50 percent of the population, some 12.5 million people.

Furthermore, the latest Poverty in Australia report, released last month, estimates that over 3 million people, or 13.6 percent of the population, now live below the poverty line. This includes some 774,000 children under the age of 15. The poverty line is defined as $457 per week for individuals and $960 per week for a couple with children.

The poverty report was compiled before the COVID-19 disaster saw the companies owned by the wealthy lay off hundreds of thousands of workers and plunge them toward financial ruin and immense distress.

Consecutive Labor and Liberal-National governments, with the help of the trade unions, have enforced a decades-long attack on jobs, deteriorating working conditions and declining real wages.

The “economic restructuring” imposed by the Hawke and Keating Labor governments in the 1980s and 1990s began the process, accompanied by the suppression of working-class struggles. This has facilitated the rapid enrichment of a small layer at the top of society.

Australia unprepared for surge as coronavirus infections, fatalities mount

Oscar Grenfell

Amid an exponential growth of COVID-19 infections across Australia, medical experts and health professionals have warned that the country is unprepared for an expected surge in case numbers and hospitalisations. Insufficient supplies of ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors and nurses, along with intensive care beds in hospitals, have been reported in virtually all states and territories.

As of this morning, the number of confirmed cases across the country stood at 2,613. The majority are in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, which has reported 1,219 infections. Another 466 have been confirmed in Victoria, 433 in Queensland, 205 in Western Australia, 197 in South Australia, 44 in the Australian Capital Territory, 34 in Tasmania and 5 in the Northern Territory.

Nationally, the rate of infection is doubling roughly every three days. Yesterday saw the highest number of new cases, with 212 in NSW alone, followed by 190 today. While the rise in new infections was slightly lower this morning than the previous day, fatalities grew by three. Victorian authorities announced another death this afternoon, bringing the national total since the pandemic began to 12.

The failure of federal and state governments, Labor and Liberal alike, to “flatten the curve” of infections has led to predictions of a massive rise in the number of cases over the coming weeks. Speaking on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Q&A” program on Monday night, Dr Norman Swan stated that unless current trends are reversed, there will likely be some 45,000 confirmed cases in two weeks’ time.

Referring to the sharp upward curve of new cases, which has been likened to a hockey stick, Swan bluntly stated: “If this hockey stick doesn’t change that much, we’ll be out of ICU [Intensive Care Unit] beds in New South Wales” within weeks, and “Victoria will be behind that, by April 10.” Swan said “in that case ICU physicians will be faced with some very difficult decisions” as to who they treat and who they do not.

After decades of funding cuts, there are just 100 intensive care units in public hospitals, with an estimated 1,485 beds. There are another 538 ICU beds in the private healthcare system. Swan’s prediction of 45,000 cases would indicate that at least 2,255 people would require treatment in intensive care units over the coming weeks, posing the prospect of the system being completely overwhelmed.

As part of its criminally-negligent response to the crisis, the federal Coalition government has not outlined any concrete measures to boost the number of hospital beds. Instead, state authorities are carrying out a grossly inadequate scramble for additional beds and spaces, in hospitals that are already so under-resourced that ambulances are frequently compelled to wait outside for hours before a bed is available.

The Victorian government has announced that it will fund 269 new beds. However, some are at the decommissioned Baxter House Hospital in Geelong, meaning that substantial delays are likely. Underscoring the impact of the raft of hospital closures over the past decades, the South Australian government has also stated that it will partially recommission the ECH College Grove and Wakefield Hospitals, in a move that will only establish a total of 188 new beds.

In Canberra, the nation’s capital, wards due for renovation are being used and there are preparations to expand intensive care units, including into what are currently operating theatres. In other words, staff are being forced to manufacture capacity in a system that is already stretched to breaking point.

There are also warnings of a shortage of ventilators, required to keep critically ill patients breathing. If the pandemic continues to spread, up to 50,000 may be required nationally. In Tasmania, for instance, there are only around 50 ventilators to cover a population of half a million.

The federal government has declared that it will boost the number of devices over the coming months. In an indication of the gutting of public medical manufacturing in Australia and the pro-business character of the government’s response to the entire crisis, it has placed orders with a number of private operators. ResMed, one of the companies that have been commissioned, is producing just 1,000 new ventilators and it is unclear when they will be available.

The reality behind official assurances that there are enough of the devices was indicated by an urgent appeal issued by the Australian Veterinarian Board Council this week for all private and university vets to immediately register their ventilators.

The appeal indicates that there are preparations to use machines in public hospitals that have previously treated cats and dogs if there is a rapid surge. Veterinarians have noted that it would be time-consuming and complex to repurpose the ventilators so that they were fit to treat humans.

There are already shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) at hospitals and doctor’s surgeries across the country. The ABC yesterday cited warnings from the anonymous director of a company that provides supplies to 500 hospitals nationally. He said that “most hospitals” were just days away from running out of protective masks. Elective surgery is being cancelled due to lack of PPE.

One Brisbane general practitioner noted that she only had 100 non-reusable masks, despite seeing more than 150 patients per day. Another doctor in a south east Queensland hospital told the ABC that their workplace would run out of protective equipment in “probably about a week.”

The doctor said: “A lot of the healthcare workers are getting to a point where they’re saying, ‘Well, we’ll not work or we’ll self-isolate and go away,’ which will then crash the healthcare system.”

Yesterday, four staff at the Werribee Emergency Department in Melbourne tested positive for COVID-19.

As the virus continues to spread, the refusal of federal and state authorities to put in place mass testing measures has come into starker focus. Last night, the national cabinet, composed of the federal government and state premiers, announced that it will expand testing by allowing examinations to be conducted on health workers, nursing home staff and individuals in “high risk zones” with a fever and flu symptoms.

Extraordinarily, workers in these industries have previously been refused tests unless they were able to prove that they have recently returned from overseas or have come into contact with a confirmed case. Other workers, who do not meet those criteria but who have symptoms, will still not be tested.

Indicating that there are not enough test kits, federal health authorities have directed universities to fossick around their campuses for materials that could be used to manufacture them.

This is one aspect of the inadequate official response, which has included a refusal to implement lockdown measures demanded by medical experts. The federal government announced on Sunday that non-essential businesses would be directed to close, but shopping centres, hairdressers and a number of other industries are exempt.

Schools remain partially or completely open in most states.

In Queensland, the state Labor government rejected calls for any reduction in school operations throughout the week, despite warnings from its own chief medical officer that the decision places the health of teachers over the age of 60 in jeopardy. Only today did Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk make a confusing statement that schools will move to become “pupil free,” while remaining open for the children of workers in “essential industries.”

The Victorian Labor government has brought forward school holidays, but forced teachers to continue to conduct their duties. The Liberal government in New South Wales announced that schools would not close but that parents should consider keeping their children at home.

Yesterday, Raina MacIntyre from the University of NSW’s Biosecurity Program revealed that the federal government had rejected the majority opinion of its own panel of university experts, which encouraged it to implement an immediate lockdown.

MacIntyre told the ABC: “I was hoping we’d see a more comprehensive lockdown for a short period of time, but that is not the approach we’re taking. It’s more a trickle sort of approach, a little bit by bit, which won’t be as effective at stopping the transmission in the community.”

Meanwhile, the Australian Academy of Science issued a statement yesterday demanding that the federal government “publish the scientific evidence that is supporting its decisions so the scientific know-how of the nation can be brought to bear.”

The refusal to implement a lockdown by state and federal governments is driven solely by concerns over corporate profits. This has been demonstrated by the massive cash handouts made to big business over the past week, while hundreds of thousands of workers have lost their jobs and been forced to queue outside Centrelink offices to claim a meagre welfare benefit.

Thousands of new job losses are being announced each day. This morning, fashion retail corporation Premier shut down all its stores, such as Just Jeans, Dotti, Portmans and Smiggle, until at least April 21. A press release bluntly declared that the company’s 9,000 employees “will not attend work and will not be paid.” On Wednesday Virgin Australia stood down 8,000 people from its 10,000-strong workforce. Today, the company revealed that more than 1,000 of those workers, including all the pilots at its budget arm Tigerair, would lose their jobs permanently.

Leaked government report warns of tens of thousands of deaths in one Canadian province

Roger Jordan

Coronavirus cases continue to grow like wildfire across Canada, with the total number of cases surpassing 3,400 yesterday, almost five times the 727 cases reported just one week before. Deaths have risen from 9 to at least 31.

The rapid spread of the deadly virus has been facilitated by the policies adopted by the federal Liberal government. As cases have surged, Ottawa has focused its energies on funneling hundreds of billions to the banks and big business, rather than mobilizing society’s resources, currently monopolized by the capitalist elite, to support the overstretched health care system and working people.

A warning of the catastrophe this threatens to produce was provided by a report drafted last week by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and leaked to the Canadian Press Tuesday. Unless urgent action is taken, says the report, Saskatchewan’s health system will be overwhelmed by the surge in coronavirus cases. This, it estimated, could result in between 9,000 and 15,000 deaths.

That health authorities in Saskatchewan, with a population of just 1.17 million, little more than 3 percent of Canada’s total, are warning of thousands of deaths underscores that hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk across Canada.

The internal SHA report says just 90 ventilators are currently available in the province’s hospitals, with another 240 on order. But it said that between 500 and 600 ventilators would be required each day at the peak of the pandemic if the virus was allowed to spread rapidly and infect 30 percent of the population.

The report says that even under the best scenarios, where the curve of transmission is “flattened,” the province’s health system will be severely taxed in coming weeks and months.

“Demand for acute services,” it warns, will “exceed existing capacity for hospital beds, ICU beds, ventilators, as well as creating a major burden on other acute services, supports, HR [personnel], supplies, and equipment. ..[E]ven under conservative assumptions, COVID-19 will almost certainly overwhelm the health system.”

There is growing criticism of the failure of the federal Liberal and various provincial governments to ramp-up testing and provide desperately-needed supplies for medical professionals across the country. Last weekend, doctors at the Royal Columbian Hospital in the Vancouver suburb of New Westminster warned in an open letter that urgent action was required by British Columbia’s New Democratic Party government to prevent the emergence of a situation like that in Italy, where doctors are forced to ration care due to a lack of supplies and leave patients to die who could otherwise be saved.

Responsibility for this disastrous situation lies with the ruling elite, which did nothing for two months to prepare for COVID-19 despite the news of its deadly impact in China. The Trudeau government has made available a paltry $1 billion in additional health care spending to combat the coronavirus, while trying to enlist manufacturing companies to produce urgently needed medical equipment that should have been stockpiled well in advance. This derisory response is compounded by the fact that Canada’s health care system was vastly overstretched even prior to the COVID-19 outbreak due to decades of vicious austerity and privatization overseen by all the establishment parties, from the Liberals and Conservatives, to the NDP, Parti Quebecois and CAQ.

In Ontario, doctors are also raising concerns about the failure of the provincial authorities to publicize the explosive growth of community transmission. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, close to half of all COVID-19 cases in Canada have been passed on through local communities and are not related to travelers returning from abroad. Health officers in Ottawa and Toronto have issued warnings about the risk of community spread, despite resistance from the province. “It would be very helpful for senior health leadership in Ontario to acknowledge that there is both travel-related and community-acquired cases of COVID-19, and that now, more than ever, it’s extremely important to adhere to the physical distancing measures recommended by public-health officials,” commented Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease physician at Toronto’s General Hospital.

As the health situation has deteriorated, the chief focus of the federal government and opposition parties has been to finalize the transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars to the banks and major corporations. In Parliament yesterday, the Liberal government, supported by the Conservatives, New Democrats, Bloc Quebecois and Greens, unanimously passed a $107 billion COVID-19 Economic Response Plan. The legislation includes $55 billion of tax deferrals, which will overwhelmingly benefit big business and the rich, and just $52 billion of support for lower income Canadians and those who lose their jobs or cannot work because of the pandemic. Laid-off workers will receive just 55 percent of their previous income, while the millions of gig economy and other contract workers who don’t qualify for Employment Insurance (EI), and those who contract COVID-19, or have to go into quarantine or look after others impacted by the pandemic, are to be given a $2,000 a month stipend for four months.

These sums are entirely inadequate to help workers and their families survive the economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. Just last week, 929,000 people—5 percent of Canada’s total labour force—applied for EI benefits.

Despite the dishonest efforts of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and all the opposition parties, the NDP included, to portray the $107 billion bailout as the main support package, the reality is that the government and Bank of Canada have already funneled upwards of $500 billion into the banks and major corporations. Through a $50 billion mortgage buy-back scheme, the halving of bank capitalization requirements and other “supports,” the federal government has demonstrated its determination to guarantee the vast wealth and profits of the super-rich during the pandemic.

Even more is to come, with Finance Minister Bill Morneau indicating Wednesday he will unveil a support package for the oil sector, rumoured to be of the order of at least $15 billion, in a matter of hours or days.

In contrast to the unlimited generosity towards big business, provincial governments across the country are forcing large numbers of workers in non-essential sectors to continue working even as the threat of infection increases. In Ontario and Quebec, where virtual lockdowns have been in place since Tuesday night, the right-wing provincial governments of Doug Ford and Francois Legault have defined “essential services” so broadly that large sections of manufacturing, construction and industry are continuing to operate, even when they have nothing to do with combating the health crisis. A World Socialist Web Site reader in Ontario reported that the hot tub manufacturer where he works has been declared an “essential service.”

In Ontario and British Columbia, the construction sector is largely running at full pace. Protests from workers about unhygienic conditions and a lack of facilities for handwashing have grown. The anger among construction workers is so great that the Carpenters District Council of Ontario, which has over 30,000 members, demanded that the government order the shutdown of construction projects in the province.

A growing number of protest walkouts have also been reported, including 35 miners in Snow Lake, Manitoba, who walked off the job over health and safety fears related to COVID-19.

In Alberta, where a similar lockdown is being prepared, the province is declaring oil and gas workers an “essential service.” This is in spite of the fact that many thousands of workers in the industry live at close quarters in isolated work camps that create ideal conditions for the rapid spread of COVID-19. Moreover, the camps experience a high rate of turnover, with workers flying in and out every two to three weeks. Summing up the casual indifference to the fate of these workers within ruling circles, a report in the Globe and Mail noted in passing that “symptoms of the virus may be mild in the sector’s mainly young and physically healthy workforce.”

Alberta Energy Minister Sonia Savage summed up the main concern of the financial elite, which is that billions in profits and shareholder payments must be sustained during the pandemic. “The oil sands are strategically important to Alberta and Canada,” she wrote in an email to the Globe.

After downplaying COVID-19 pandemic, Japan forced to postpone Olympics

Emiri Ochiai

As the COVID-19 crisis has spread throughout the world, the various national ruling elites have focused their response on propping up the financial markets, while accepting that millions will contract the illness and perish. Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has responded in no less a criminal fashion. His government has continued to insist that the population has little to worry about despite the World Health Organization’s declaration of a global pandemic.

For weeks, Abe downplayed the disease in an attempt to ensure that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics would be held this summer. He repeatedly stated that Japan would “continue to work towards holding the Olympics as planned.”

Together with Abe, the governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, stressed to reporters that cancellation of the summer games was “unthinkable.” This was driven in large part by the desire to protect the massive state investment in the event. The government has already spent 3 trillion yen to build the infrastructure and prepare the city. On top of this is the vast scale of corporate profiteering bound up with the event and the geo-strategic importance of hosting the Olympics.

Abe’s negligent attitude toward the pandemic and his effort to proceed on a “business as usual” basis sparked global outrage, with many countries demanding that the games be postponed to a future date. Discussing the decision to postpone the Olympics, International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Dick Pound told USA Today, “On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided... The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”

Abe had no choice but to accept the postponement and propose to hold the Olympics in the summer of 2021, which the committee accepted. It is estimated that the one-year delay will cost 300 billion yen.

The Abe administration has used the pandemic to implement undemocratic policies. The Japanese cabinet approved a bill to give the prime minister the ability to declare a state of emergency if and when the virus spreads throughout the country. In addition to ordering social distancing and stay-at-home measures necessitated by the pandemic, the bill gives the government the power to take over parcels of land and houses without the permission of the owners, restrict mail delivery, and take direct control of the press. Despite public criticism of these sweeping powers, little has been made of the authoritarian implications of the law by the Japanese media.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has also played a role in downplaying the pandemic. It has been pointed out that Japan is not using its full capacity to test for the coronavirus. Nationwide capacity to conduct PCR tests is 8,000 a day, but on average only 1,190 had been carried out daily as of March 18.

“Just because we have capacity, it doesn’t mean we need to use that capacity fully,” Health Ministry official Yasuyuki Sahara said. “It isn’t necessary to carry out tests on people who are just worried,” he added. This flies in the face of the insistence of the World Health Organization and other scientific and medical authorities of the critical importance of mass testing.

The virus, which is particularly deadly among the elderly, will likely disproportionately affect Japan, which already faces a phenomenon of “super-aging” both in rural and urban areas, meaning that a comparatively larger proportion of its population is above 60. In Japan, people aged 65 and older make up a quarter of the population. According to 2014 estimates, 33 percent of the Japanese population is above the age of 60, 25.9 percent are aged 65 or above, and 12.5 percent are aged 75 or above.

The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on families and young people. Recent reports note that companies are retracting job offers. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced that at least 20 new high school and college graduates have had job offers rescinded by a total of 12 companies.

Since most companies demand that their employees arrive for work at a set time, workers are forced to ride packed trains to commute during rush hour.

In the face of the impending public health catastrophe, the minister of health, labor and welfare, Katsunobu Kato, callously commented, “I don’t use the train to commute, so I do not know the situation well, but I hear some people say that ‘the train is not that crowded.’” Many people reacted to this comment by Kato, pointing out his contempt for the welfare of the people.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has requested that all schools resume classes after spring break, as planned. The ministry released guidelines for re-opening schools that list three conditions to be avoided: (1) bad ventilation, (2) conversation and speech at close quarters, and (3) allowing many people to be within reach.

Many schools expressed concern since they do not have the resources to follow the guidelines. Most classrooms are overcrowded, with more than 30 students, and there is not enough room for students to spread out in accordance with the guidelines. No real measures to ensure the safety of students have been implemented by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Warnings that hundreds of thousands of Indonesians may already have COVID-19

Owen Howell & Oscar Grenfell

Over the past week, as the coronavirus has begun to spread rapidly in historically oppressed regions of the world, including South America, Africa and Asia, medical experts have warned of a potential mass outbreak in Indonesia, South-East Asia’s most populous country.

After weeks of the Indonesian government downplaying the threat, its spokesman on COVID-19, Achmad Yurianto, admitted on Friday that, according to official estimates, between 600,000 and 700,000 people have likely come into contact with individuals infected by the virus. Indicating that the government has no idea of the true extent of infections, Yurianto said that this “high risk” population was scattered across the archipelago.

Since the beginning of the week, new cases have been reported in South Sumatra and West Nusa Tenggara, along with North Maluku, Jambi and Papua, on top of infections in Jakarta and Bali.

In comments cited by the Australian yesterday, Achmad Yurianto, an Essex University professor of applied mathematics, stated that, on current trends, half the Indonesian population, or some 135 million people, will be infected by mid-May. The projection, however, is based on the government carrying out a lockdown of Jakarta, the capital and apparent epicentre of the pandemic. No lockdown has yet been ordered. The warnings indicate that millions could die.

Already Indonesia has one of the highest mortality rates per confirmed case of any country in the world. As of yesterday, 55 people had died as a result of the virus, under conditions in which just 686 infections have been identified through testing. This means that over eight percent of confirmed cases have resulted in deaths, approaching the level of Italy, which is thus far the country that has been hardest hit by the global pandemic.

In Indonesia, fewer than 3,000 tests have been carried out. The high mortality rate among confirmed cases likely means that only those who are severely affected by the disease and who are approaching a critical medical condition are being treated. In other words, thousands of others are likely carrying the virus without any prospect of being examined.

Over the past week, horrific videos have circulated widely on social media of people collapsing and dying in public streets with symptoms consistent with COVID-19.

The reality was demonstrated by the death of 72-year-old French tourist Gerard Philippe Follet in Bali on March 15. Follet was found slumped over his motorcycle in Denpasar and unresponsive. In front of dozens of tourists and locals, he briefly appeared to regain consciousness before dying suddenly.

For over a week, Balinese authorities claimed that Follet’s death had been the result of an underlying heart condition combined with excessive alcohol consumption. This was despite the fact that witnesses to his death had immediately reported that he displayed symptoms consistent with coronavirus. Only several days ago did officials acknowledge that Follet died as a result of COVID-19. This means that any real prospect of contact tracing those with whom he had interacted and those who sought to treat him has been lost.

For the past month, President Joko Widodo’s administration has done nothing to expand access to testing. This week, China donated 125,000 testing kits, which are beginning to be rolled-out around the country. Given that the virus has likely already spread widely, the kits will rapidly be exhausted.

There are also warnings that the health system will not be able to cope with an influx of cases. Already, hospitals appear to be overwhelmed, leading the government to establish a make-shift medical centre on the grounds of the athlete’s village from the 2018 Asian games. Hospitals have reported shortages of personal protective equipment, including face masks.

The government has belatedly purchased 105,000 pieces of protective equipment and test kits from Singapore. However, doctors’ and nurses’ representatives warn that the supplies will be insufficient.

Indonesian Doctors Association spokesman Halik Malik told the media this week: “In Italy, 4,800 health workers were infected by coronavirus but in Indonesia we can’t afford a situation like that.”

Malik warned: “The system and the resources we have, in terms of funds, equipment and human resources, can’t handle an explosion of cases. We won’t be able to handle a worst-case scenario.” At least eight of the 55 confirmed deaths are doctors and nurses.

The under-resourced hospitals have been subjected to years of funding cuts, amid a rapid rise in Indonesia’s population.

Widodo’s government has embarked upon further pro-business policies since its victory in last year’s national election, including tax breaks for the wealthy and for international investors, privatisations and greater undermining of environment and safety regulations. This program has encountered growing opposition, including mass student protests late last year.

The class character of the government’s response to the pandemic has been graphically demonstrated by its refusal to institute a lockdown of Jakarta, which has a population of almost 10 million.

While office workers have been encouraged to work from home and the wealthiest layers of the population have reportedly fled the city, maids, nannies, vendors and other sections of the working class and the oppressed have been forced to continue working. Local authorities have announced a “state of emergency,” but parts of the city’s public transport network are continuing to operate. Moreover, there are no restrictions on people travelling in and out of the city, threatening to spread infections to provinces across the country.

An article in the Jakarta Post yesterday, which pointed to the lax measures, nervously asked: “Will Indonesia be Southeast Asia’s Italy?”

The government’s hostility to a lockdown is driven solely by fears that it would dramatically impact on corporate profits, including those of the many transnational corporations with operational bases in Jakarta.

Social anger has erupted on social media. Thousands of workers and young people have denounced the government’s decision to “fast-track” testing for all members of the national parliament, under conditions in which ordinary people have been denied any prospect of a medical examination, much less treatment.

As is the case internationally, the criminal response of the Widodo administration to the disaster is inextricably tied to the massive growth of social inequality and the dominance of the corporate and financial elite over every aspect of society. In 2017, Oxfam ranked Indonesia as the sixth-most unequal country in the world. In a country of some 264 million people, the four richest individuals have a combined wealth greater than the poorest 100 million.

Meanwhile, the pandemic is spreading throughout the region. In Malaysia, there were 1,518 confirmed cases as of Monday, the majority of them linked to a mass religious gathering late last month. Its government has implemented a partial lockdown, including the closure of the border with Singapore, and has deployed the military to enforce restrictions on internal movement.

As a result, residents in Singapore are becoming fearful of a potential food shortage. The city-state’s food self-sufficiency rate is less than 10 percent, and Malaysia is one of its key sources of imports. Long queues have begun to form at Singapore supermarkets.

In Thailand, the Public Health Ministry announced 121 new coronavirus infections on Monday, raising the total to 721 cases. Soaring by a rate of 33 percent daily, the number of infections is predicted to reach about 350,000 by April 15, with 7,000 deaths. By then the number of critically ill people would be an estimated 17,000, enough to exceed Thailand's medical resources.

In the Philippines, more than 670 Manila health workers were quarantined over fears they had been exposed to the virus, which placed additional strain on medical wards. Across the country, two doctors have died from the virus. “It is painful for us to hear about their deaths. This is the reality we face. We are risking our lives as we fulfill our duties,” Maria Theresa Depano, a health staff at a hospital outside Metro Manila, told the Guardian.

Indian prime minister’s coronavirus lockdown threatens social disaster for millions

Wasantha Rupasinghe

The day after the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that India’s swiftness in dealing with COVID-19 was vital to prevent the global spread of the disease, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a nation-wide three week lockdown starting from midnight on March 24.

Referring to India’s large population, WHO emergencies program director Mike Ryan stated on March 23: “The future of this pandemic will be determined by what happens to densely-populated countries. It’s important that India takes aggressive action at the public health level, and at the level of society to control and suppress this disease.”

Modi’s imposition of the lockdown came almost two precious months after India reported its first positive case of COVID-19. While the official figures of positive cases currently stands at 606, with 12 deaths, it is not clear how many of the country’s 1.3 billion people are infected, because barely 20,000 tests have been carried out.

Along with WHO, a series of medical experts warned of a looming incoming disaster. Modi and Indian authorities, however, repeatedly declared their intention “not to panic,” on the basis of claims that no communal transmission had taken place. Modi’s rush now to enforce a total national lockdown only indicates how potentially severe the situation has become.

India’s Economic Times reported on March 23 how the Indian government did not paid heed to the WHO’s demand in February for industry and governments to increase production of health care equipment by 40 percent, in preparation for an exponential rise in global demand. “But the government failed to make any forecast,” the Times commented, adding that “the resultant ‘last minute rush’ by the government is inadequate, feel industry experts.”

Sanjiiv Relhan, chairman of the Preventive Wear Manufacturer Association of India, stated: “Despite us reaching out to the ministry and requesting for anti-profiteering measures to be imposed, as early as February 7, the Indian government did not do that. The price of components used to make the three ply face masks have gone from 250 per kilogram to 3,000 per kilogram. Elastics are not available at any price. We are now facing a crisis which is of our own making.… We also repeatedly raised the need for creating stockpiles of protective gear, which were ignored.”

Modi, in his address, repeatedly asserted that social distancing was essential to stem the spread of infection. He declared that it was “the only way before us” and that “there is no other method or way to escape” the coronavirus.

While social distancing is an important part of preventing the spread of coronavirus, it is not, as Modi asserted, the “only” step. International experience has proven the essential role of large-scale testing to identify all positive cases combined with systematic “tracing” to identify and rapidly isolate and test those with whom an infected person has been in close contact. No less essential is sufficient protective clothing for workers who cannot “isolate,” especially in the health sector.

While declaring the Indian population “must not step outside our home,” Modi did not outline a comprehensive program to deal with enormous difficulties that millions of workers and the oppressed will face under the lockdown, including accessing the most basic food necessities.

A BBC report on March 25 noted: “At least 90 percent of India’s workforce is employed in the informal sector, according to the International Labour Organisation, working in roles like security guards, cleaners, rickshaw pullers, streets vendors, garbage collectors and domestic help.”

This vast section of the population, some 520 million workers in 2019, stand to lose their wages for the whole three-week lockdown period, as they are not guaranteed any salary.

Ramesh Kumar, a construction worker from Banda district in Utter Pradesh, told the BBC: “There won’t be anybody to hire us, but we still took our chances… I earn 600 rupees ($US8) every day and I have five people to feed. We will run out food in a few days. I know the risk of coronavirus, but I can’t see my children hungry.”

Mohammed Sabir, a street vendor, aptly summed up to the BBC the social disaster that faces millions: “I feel so helpless. I fear that hunger may kill many like us before coronavirus.”

Reports suggest that a third of all restaurants could be shut down, shedding more than two million jobs over the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the entire automotive sector is mothballing its factories, putting at risk the incomes of a million people employed in this area.

Modi loudly announced a provision of 150 billion rupees ($US1.9 billion) for “treating the coronavirus patients and strengthening the medical infrastructure of the country.” Given the dimensions of the incoming disaster, this is a drop in the ocean and reflects the negligence and indifference for human lives of the ruling class.

Just weeks ago, the Modi government allocated $66 billion to the defence budget—more than 30 times the outlay on combating the virus. The amount is less than what Modi agreed to spend to buy American-made military helicopters during US President Donald Trump’s visit on February 24-25.

One coronavirus test kit costs the government about 5,000 rupees ($67). If the entire $1.9 billion was spent on testing alone, it would pay for only 29 million tests within a population of 1.3 billion.

However, Modi’s $1.9 grant is not merely for testing, but as he boasted, to improve the severely deficient health infrastructure in country, which has just 2.3 intensive care unit (ICU) beds per 100,000 people. When this figure is compared with Iran, which has 4.6 ICU beds per 100,000 and has been overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, it brings into stark focus the dire situation that is developing in India over the coming weeks.

As of 2016, the Indian Medical Association reported a shortage of tens of thousands of critical-care specialists. Meanwhile, the majority of doctors and hospital beds are in the private healthcare, which is not affordable for the vast majority of the population, the working class and the rural poor.

Africa records over 2,400 cases of COVID-19

Stephan McCoy


The number of cases of coronavirus on the African continent continues to grow with more than 2,400 confirmed cases and 60 reported deaths across the continent as of Wednesday. There is the potential for a horrific loss of millions of lives, should the virus start to spread in working class areas and densely packed slums in many of the overcrowded cities across Africa. The spread can only be exacerbated by the conflicts, poverty and disease that are a scourge on the continent.

Jan Egeland, the Norwegian Refugee Council secretary-general, warns of the already desperate situation facing many in refugee camps, like the 1 million refugees in the Sahel region who have been displaced by the wars and intrigues of the imperialist powers and their proxy forces in the region. He told the Financial Times (FT), “How can you do social distancing when thousands of people are already crowded together in a tiny camp or refugee settlement?”

Atiya Mosam, a doctor and public health specialist from South Africa, told the FT, “In these areas once it gets in we will have widespread infection. We say, wash your hands, someone in the informal settlements will say, with what?”

In addition to tuberculosis and HIV, some experts are beginning to worry how the virus will affect malaria patients—a disease that kills 404,000 people across the continent each year, mostly children. Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, head of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and a prominent epidemiologist, told Bloomberg, “There are lots of unknowns. We don’t know how this virus will interact with malaria in our context. ... It’s a challenge around diagnoses, it’s a challenge around care. It makes it even more complex.”

Also speaking to Bloomberg, Dr. Ngozi Erondu, associate fellow in the Global Health Program at Chatham House in London, said, “We are seeing that the virus has a more severe impact on people with underlying health conditions and so it is logical to hypothesize that we may see more severe COVID-19 illness in a population that is malnourished, has malaria as well as a mound of other infections.”

An international and coordinated struggle against the spread of coronavirus on the African continent is an urgent necessity. This is underscored by the attitude of the major imperialist powers to the unfolding crisis. Having spent decades looting and impoverishing the continent, exploiting and oppressing its vast working class, instigating neo-colonial wars of conquest that have resulted in the death, displacement and destitution of millions, the financial oligarchy and its governments are set on abandoning millions to die.

Summing up the mood of the ruling elite to the impending catastrophe in Africa and the urgently needed assistance that will be required to halt the spread of the virus, the FT writes, “[W]ith every country looking inward, there are few with resources to spare.”

The FT quotes Gyude Moore, a government minister in Liberia during the 2014 Ebola outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa, that it was no good asking people to stay at home when they needed to work every day to survive. “People do not have resources to stock up. They have to go out and hustle daily to feed their families.”

Moore added, “Health systems back home are in no way as robust as in the West, they will be overwhelmed quickly. In the past you could look to the West to help. But they are battling the same thing so it’s not certain that any help is coming at all.”

South Africa recorded 155 new cases yesterday, for a total of 709. This was a nearly 28 percent increase from the previous day. Nigeria (46 cases) and Zimbabwe (3 cases) each recorded their first deaths. In Egypt, 402 cases have been reported and 21 deaths, and in Algeria, 302 cases and 21 deaths. In Tunisia, there are 173 cases and five deaths, and in Morocco, 225 cases and six deaths. In Ghana, 69 cases are reported and three deaths, and in Senegal, 99 cases. The first case has been reported in war-torn Libya.

In Zimbabwe, Zororo Makamba, a prominent journalist and son of a business tycoon, died from COVID-19 after returning from a trip to New York. He was just 30 years old and had underlying health problems.

With HIV and AIDS the most prominent underlying conditions on the African continent, many other young people are primed to succumb to COVID-19.

According to the international AIDS and HIV charity Avert, “AIDS is now the leading cause of death among young people in Africa,” with “The majority of young people living with HIV [being] in low- and middle-income countries, with 84 percent in sub-Saharan Africa...half of the 15- to 19-year-olds who are living with HIV in the world live in just six countries: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Mozambique and Tanzania.” Fully 73 percent of new HIV infections among adolescents occurred in Africa.

In a bid to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, many African countries have already instituted some form of lockdown and mass quarantine.

South Africa, on Monday, joined the list of countries to implement a lockdown with President Cyril Ramaphosa enforcing a 21-day stay-at-home order and shut down of all non-essential services—deploying the military and police. And in Senegal, the government has instituted a dusk-till-dawn lockdown.

But while African governments posture as taking decisive action to curb the spread of the virus, they have played a major role in the state of virtual collapse of health care. According to Bloomberg, Africa accounts for “16 percent of the global population but just 1 percent of health-care spending.” Italy, where the hospitals have been overwhelmed and over 7,500 have already died from COVID-19, has 41 medical doctors per 10,000 people, whereas in Africa there are just 2 per 10,000.

During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, “More people died from a lack of general health services than from Ebola,” Jimmy Whitworth, a professor of public health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, explained to Bloomberg Business earlier this month. That crisis resulted in the disruption of basic treatments and procedures for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis as clinics shuttered and patients avoided doctors out of fear of contracting the disease.

This horrific scenario is bound to repeat itself, as most doctors lacking personal protective equipment (PPE) are likely to contract the virus and pass it on patients and co-workers, making hospitals transmission hotbeds.

Decades after many African countries won formal independence, even the most basic social services and social infrastructure are a dream for the masses of working people. The bankruptcy of the various petty-bourgeois and bourgeois nationalist movements has been exposed. African governments preside over massive inequality, defend the interests of a narrow layer of capitalist elites and seek to balance between American imperialism, Chinese capitalism and the old European colonial powers.

Much was made of the low number of cases on the African continent in its initial stages, and why there was a long lag between the initial outbreak and its arrival on the continent. But this too was largely an expression of decades of underdevelopment, impoverishment and backwardness that imperialism and the African ruling elite are responsible for. In speaking to France24, Augustin Augier, executive director of Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), said the “most likely reason Africa has such a low number of cases is because of the low volume of contact between the continent and the world, including fewer planes and people coming here.”

An international campaign in the working class demanding the necessary resources, staff and equipment to stop the spread of the virus on the African continent is imperative. But this requires independent political leadership and a perspective based on the struggle against imperialism and its local agents and for socialism.