Mexico’s health ministry on Tuesday reported 5,681 new cases of coronavirus infection and 741 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 231,770 cases and 28,510 deaths.
With the additional deaths, Mexico’s coronavirus toll has surpassed Spain’s total number of fatalities from the virus, which on Wednesday was 28,363.
Mexico now has the sixth-largest number of fatal Covid-19 cases.
The US has, by far, the highest number of Covid-19. deaths, with 127,970 fatal cases.
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NZ prime minister Jacinda Ardern has concluded her press conference on the departure of health minister David Clark, saying he would not be reappointed to the role if she was elected for another term.
Clark’s role as health minister had become “a distraction” from the government’s efforts to fight and contain COVID-19, that beating the pandemic had to be the priority.
“I had a conversation with Dr Clark, we talked frankly about his current position... after giving it some thought he decided to stand-down.”
Ardern said she thought he had made the right decision.
Minister Chris Hipkins already holds the education portfolio and has now also been charged with health - in the midst of a global pandemic.
Hipkins said Clark has done some outstanding work in mental health and he wanted to continue that work.
Hipkins said he had no background in health, but deflected questions that it was a “caretaker” position, saying he was ready for the “challenge”.
Despite the WHO’S dire warning of the Middle East’s “critical threshold”, Egypt has restarted international flights and reopened major tourist attractions including the Great Pyramids of Giza after more than three months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Reuters reports: the country closed its airports to scheduled international flights and shut famous historical sites in mid-March as the government looked to curb the spread of the virus.
That brought the tourist industry, which the government says accounts for 5% of economic output but which analysts say may account for as much as 15% if jobs and investment indirectly related to the industry are included, to a virtual halt.
Visitors were few at Giza on the first day, witnesses said, adding that they spotted only a handful of people at the normally packed site.
“It’s a pretty place, this is where we see the symbol of Egypt and this is why we come here,” said tourist Ravalonandrasana Maurice.
Meanwhile, 16 flights took off from Cairo International Airport on Wednesday, the aviation minister said. Two arrival terminals were empty in the morning but a screen showed four scheduled flights expected to arrive from Toulouse, Kuwait, Tunis and Amman.
Tourism and antiquities minister Khaled al-Anany said two chartered flights arrived Wednesday morning to airports in South Sinai and the Red Sea carrying tourists from Ukraine.
These provinces along the Red Sea Coast as well as Marsa Matrouh on the Mediterranean were allowed to reopen as they had the lowest case numbers so far.
The health ministry has registered 68,311 cases of the coronavirus and 2,953 deaths.
New Zealand health minister resigns
New Zealand’s beleaguered health minister David Clark has resigned, following a series of serious missteps during the coronavirus crisis.
Clark was demoted by Ardern in April after breaking the lockdown rules in his home of Dunedin and going mountain-biking; a prohibited activity.
The minister described himself as an “idiot” for flouting the lockdown rules, but weeks later it was revealed he had broken them a second time by taking his family for a trip to the beach more than 25km from his home.
Ardern was scathing of Clark’s conduct and said minister’s needed to be examples to all New Zealanders during tough times.
The PM demoted him in the cabinet rankings, but let him keep the health portfolio as she said his departure would be too disruptive during the crisis.
Political commentators have described Clark as missing in action on New Zealand’s response to the crisis, noting his departure from Wellington to lockdown with him family in Dunedin, his decision to leave daily briefings to the director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, and later blaming Bloomfield for mistakes in border quarantining rather than taking responsibility himself.
The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has accepted David Clark’s resignation.
“David Clark contacted me yesterday to confirm his wish to resign as a Minister and I accepted that resignation,” Jacinda Ardern said.
“David has come to the conclusion his presence in the role is creating an unhelpful distraction from the Government’s ongoing response to COVID-19 and wider health reforms.
“It’s essential our health leadership has the confidence of the New Zealand public. As David has said to me the needs of the team must come before him as an individual.”
Chris Hipkins has been appointed as Health Minister until the election, Ardern said, which is to be held in September.
“Our response to COVID is on a stable footing and I have full confidence that Minister Hipkins will oversee the portfolio with the thoroughness and diligence he brings to his other areas of responsibility.”
“Post-election I intend to reassess who is best placed to take the health portfolio forward,”Ardern said.
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