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The OutbreakJune 2020Issue the Sixth

India’s count climbs as the country reopens

India’s count climbs as it reopens, Singapore steps out of its circuit breaker and heads to the polls, and a cheap steroid is found to save lives.

Customers approach a reopened shop on day 1 of Unlock 1 in Delhi, 1 June 2020.
Customers approach a reopened shop on day 1 of Unlock 1 in Delhi, 1 June 2020.Photograph by Sumita Roy Dutta, June 1, 2020 · CC BY-SA 4.0

NEW DELHI, Tuesday 30 June.—India ends its first month of reopening with more than half a million confirmed cases, and a warning from the Prime Minister that people have grown careless.

In Mumbai, as people went back to work in the first days of Unlock 1, one resident wrote on Reddit: “Sure some are dying to get back to work, but many HAVE to.”

On 7 June India passed Spain to become the fifth most-affected country in the world, by WHO figures.

Sure some are dying to get back to work, but many HAVE tostupidarg

In Delhi, every bed in the intensive care unit at Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital was taken by coronavirus patients, AFP reported on 11 June. “We don’t know when this is going to peak,” said Dr Deven Juneja.

Nurses described the strain of a shift in protective gear. “After putting on the PPE we can’t drink water, can’t eat, can’t even go to the washroom,” said Vinita Thakur, a nurse on a Covid ward. “There is a lot of sweating and because of that we get burns and rashes. But we have to do it, we are on the frontline, we can’t make any excuses.”

Today Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation. “But we have also seen that since Unlock-One, there is increasing negligence in personal and social behaviour,” he said. He extended free rations for 80 crore people, 5 kg of wheat or rice per person a month, to the end of November.

India’s count today stood at 566,840 confirmed cases and 16,893 deaths, by the WHO’s figures.

Reddit (r/mumbai), June 8 · Business Today (India), June 7 · Agence France-Presse (via Raw Story), June 11 · Press Information Bureau, Government of India, June 30 · World Health Organization, June 30

Singapore reopens in steps, and goes to the polls

Social distancing markers at the entrance of a Raffles Medical clinic in Bugis, Singapore, 26 June 2020.
Social distancing markers at the entrance of a Raffles Medical clinic in Bugis, Singapore, 26 June 2020.Photograph by ZKang123, June 26, 2020 · CC BY-SA 4.0

SINGAPORE, Tuesday 30 June.—Singapore has spent June coming out of its circuit breaker, and its Prime Minister has called a general election.

On 1 June the Ministry of Manpower said 40,000 migrant workers had been cleared of the virus and the first 60 dormitories would be declared cleared.

Phase One began the next day. “I hope employers don’t force workers to return to work if they can WFH. The morning mrt was extremely crowded :(“ one Singaporean wrote on Reddit.

I hope employers don’t force workers to return to work if they can WFH. The morning mrt was extremely crowded :(PumpkinTaro

On 15 June the taskforce announced Phase Two from 19 June, with dining in at food outlets and hawker centres, retail reopening and groups of up to five.

On 23 June Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called the election, saying new community cases had come down sharply. “Right now, we only have one patient in the ICU in hospital.” The dormitories would take a few more months to resolve, he said.

Today the health ministry reported 246 new cases, the vast majority in foreign worker dormitories and six in the community. Singapore’s total stands at 43,907, with 26 deaths.

Ministry of Manpower, Singapore, June 1 · Reddit (r/singapore), June 2 · Mothership.sg, June 15 · Prime Minister's Office, Singapore, June 23 · Ministry of Health, Singapore, June 30 · MS News (Singapore), June 30

Cheap steroid cuts deaths among the sickest patients, trial finds

OXFORD, Tuesday 16 June.—A cheap and common steroid, dexamethasone, reduces deaths among patients severely ill with COVID-19, the RECOVERY trial in Britain reported today.

Of patients on ventilators, one-third fewer died; of those on oxygen only, one-fifth fewer. There was no benefit for patients who did not need help breathing. The trial gave 2,104 patients the drug and compared them with 4,321 on usual care.

“Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19,” said Professor Peter Horby, one of the trial’s chief investigators. “These preliminary results from the RECOVERY trial are very clear,” said his fellow chief investigator, Martin Landray.

Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19Peter Horby

The World Health Organization welcomed the news the next day. “Dexamethasone, a common steroid, has been shown to have a beneficial effect on those patients severely ill with COVID-19,” said its Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Health Data Research UK (copy of the RECOVERY Trial chief investigators' statement), June 16 · RECOVERY Trial statement (University of Oxford), as reproduced by PreScouter, June 16 · World Health Organization, June 17

Beijing shuts food market as new cluster appears

BEIJING, Saturday 13 June.—Beijing has closed its largest wholesale food market and locked down 11 residential communities after a fresh cluster of cases.

More than 50 people have tested positive in the capital. Forty-five workers at the market tested positive without symptoms, in addition to seven earlier cases with symptoms. China does not include cases without symptoms in its official count.

“The epidemic was already almost over, and then suddenly there’s one or two more new hot spots,” said Jin Zheng, a Beijing resident.

Associated Press (via MPR News), June 13, 2020.

In Brief

AIIMS nurses protest over long shifts in protective gear

NEW DELHI, Wednesday 3 June.—Nurses at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences are protesting over six-hour shifts in protective gear that often stretch to seven or eight, and plan mass leave on 10 June. “Several of our staff are facing health complications like body rashes and urinary tract infections, while several others have lost weight,” said union president Harish Kajla. The hospital says 329 health workers have caught the virus since 1 February.

Press Trust of India (via Deccan Herald), June 3, 2020.

World records its biggest daily rise yet

GENEVA, Monday 22 June.—More than 183,000 new cases were reported to the World Health Organization yesterday, the most in a single day so far. “It seems that almost every day we reach a new and grim record,” said Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

World Health Organization, June 22, 2020.

Start The Outbreak from issue one tomorrow

Wayback Wire · No. 6 · June 2020