Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Chief Of Summer Olympics In Tokyo Admits Postponement Is Being 'Closely Examined'
The Associated Press: As Virus Spreads, Next Casualty Could Be Tokyo Olympics
As infections soared in Europe and the United States and the world economy spiraled downward, Japan on Monday hinted at the next possible victim of the globe-spanning coronavirus: The 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged that a postponement of the crown jewel of the sporting world could be unavoidable. Canada and Australia then added to the immense pressure that has been steadily mounting on organizers by suggesting that they wouldn’t send athletes to Tokyo this summer. (Klug, 3/23)
The Washington Post: After IOC Bends, Japan Finally Starts To Plan For Olympics Postponement
Japanese authorities finally bowed to the inevitable on Monday and said they would start planning for a possible postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a decision expected within four weeks. Yoshiro Mori, president of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, said on Monday the decision to consider a postponement but not a cancellation of the Games had been agreed with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach on Sunday. Bach himself wrote to athletes on Sunday to break the news to them. (Denyer and Kashiwagi, 3/23)
The Wall Street Journal: International Olympic Committee Considers Postponing Tokyo Games
The IOC has been criticized for taking a full-steam-ahead approach to the Games’ July 24 start date, failing to acknowledge the possibility of a delay despite a rising global death toll and the shutdown of many nations’ athletic-training facilities. It changed course on Sunday by saying it would assess the world-wide health situation and consult with the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, Japanese authorities and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The IOC didn’t detail possible postponement scenarios but said cancellation isn’t being considered. (Bachman, Radnofsky and Robinson, 3/22)
The New York Times: Italy, Pandemic’s New Epicenter, Has Lessons For The World
As Italy’s coronavirus infections ticked above 400 cases and deaths hit the double digits, the leader of the governing Democratic Party posted a picture of himself clinking glasses for “an aperitivo in Milan,” urging people “not to change our habits.” That was on Feb. 27. Not 10 days later, as the toll hit 5,883 infections and 233 dead, the party boss, Nicola Zingaretti, posted a new video, this time informing Italy that he, too, had the virus. Italy now has more than 53,000 recorded infections and more than 4,800 dead, and the rate of increase keeps growing, with more than half the cases and fatalities coming in the past week. (Horowitz, Bubola and Povoledo, 3/21)
Reuters: Italy Bans Internal Travel As A Further 651 Die From Coronavirus
Italy banned travel within the country on Sunday in yet another attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus, as data showed a further 651 people had died from the disease, lifting the number of fatalities to 5,476. (Balmer and Amante, 3/22)
The Associated Press: N. Korea Says Trump's Letter Offers Anti-Virus Cooperation
President Donald Trump sent a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, seeking to maintain good relations and offering cooperation in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, Kim’s sister said Sunday. The latest correspondence came as Kim observed the firing of tactical guided weapons over the weekend, drawing criticism from South Korea, as nuclear talks remain deadlocked. (Kim, 3/22)
Reuters: South Korea Reports Fewest New Coronavirus Cases Since February 29 Peak
South Korea reported on Monday its lowest number of new coronavirus cases and the extended downward trend in daily infections since the peak on Feb. 29 has boosted hopes that Asia’s largest outbreak outside China may be abating. (Shin, 3/22)
The New York Times: In A Pandemic, Religion Can Be A Balm And A Risk
Down on earth, the coronavirus outbreak was felling lives, livelihoods and normalcy. A nation-spanning blessing seemed called for. So up went a priest in a small airplane, rumbling overhead at an epidemiologically safe distance from the troubles below, wielding a sacred golden vessel from a cockpit-turned-pulpit. Before his flight over Lebanon, a soldier at an airport checkpoint asked the Rev. Majdi Allawi if he had a mask and hand sanitizer. (Yee, 3/22)
Reuters: 'We Are At War' Says Spain Of Its Coronavirus Efforts, Seeking Extended State Of Emergency
The Spanish government sought to extend until April 11 a state of emergency that it has imposed to try to control Europe’s second-worst outbreak of coronavirus while some regions on Sunday asked for harsher confinement measures to combat the pandemic. (Faus, 3/22)
The Washington Post: Europe Scrambles For Beds And Supplies Amid Coronavirus Surge
A team of firefighters and volunteers turned a 15,000-square-foot convention center hall in Vienna into an 880-bed coronavirus hospital over the course of a weekend. Soldiers in Germany, France and Spain have been deployed to help build similar temporary facilities for thousands of patients. Across Europe, tens of thousands of nurses and doctors are being graduated early or called back from retirement. (Morris, Booth and Beck, 3/22)
The Wall Street Journal: Countries Roll Out Restrictions To Curb Coronavirus
Governments world-wide are increasingly imposing mandatory restrictions on residents to force people to keep their distance from each other, stepping up efforts to slow the global spread of the coronavirus as cases surged past 330,000. New Zealand said it would impose a lockdown and move to the highest stage of alert, closing schools from Tuesday. India started a lockdown on a number of states and Australia enforced a shutdown of restaurants and bars after saying relying on voluntary measures wasn’t doing enough to flatten the upward curve of new infections. Globally, the death toll from Covid-19, the pneumonia-like disease caused by the virus, hit 14,706. (Khan, 3/23)
Los Angeles Times: Holocaust Survivor Is Israel's First COVID-19 Fatality
Arie Even had a knack for survival. As a youth, with the help of his grandfather, he managed to hide out in a countryside basement from the Nazis who slaughtered more than 500,000 Jews in his native Hungary. At 39, while serving as an Israeli envoy to Brussels, he crammed his family of six into a Renault 8, fleeing a summer holiday in Spain when a cholera outbreak threatened to engulf them. (Tarnopolsky, 3/22)
