Coronavirus update, worldwide

This 29 March 2020 video is called The COVID-19 pandemic: Capitalism and the making of a catastrophe. See also here.

By Steve Sweeney:

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Political prisoners in Turkey threatened with deliberate infection with coronavirus unless they obey

POLITICAL prisoners held in a Turkish jail have been threatened that they would be infected with coronavirus unless they kept compliant, according to a prisoner welfare group.

The Arrested & Convicted Families Law Solidarity Associations Federation (Med Tuhad-Fed) reported that the chilling warning was made to detainees held in the Aksaray T-Type prison in central Anatolia last week.

In its weekly report, Med Tuhad-Fed said the prison administration warned those held: “You have to obey the rules, otherwise we will bring in someone who has the coronavirus.”

From daily The Morning Star in Britain, 29 March 2020:

Portugal grants asylum seekers access to public services during coronavirus outbreak

PORTUGAL’S socialist government has taken steps to ensure that asylum-seekers and other migrants are treated as permanent residents, opening up access to the country’s public services during the coronavirus outbreak.

Under the plans, existing applicants will be able to access Portugal’s national health service, welfare benefits, bank accounts, work and rental contracts.

The measures will come into force today and are expected to last until at least July 1.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain, 29 March 2020:

Doctors demand urgent action from European Union to house refugees and prevent a viral catastrophe

DOCTORS issued a rallying call today, demanding urgent action from the EU and governments across Europe to bring refugees stuck in appalling conditions on the Greek islands to safety immediately.

Organised under the banner #SOSMoria, a reference to the overcrowded camp on the island of Lesbos, the medics warned of the “catastrophic consequences” of a coronavirus outbreak there.

“It is an illusion to think that a Covid-19 outbreak in these camps could be kept under control — 40,000 people are living on a few square kilometres…

THE DEATHS of more than 50 doctors from Covid-19 in Italy must serve as an ‘urgent warning’ to the British government on PPE supply. The BMA says that the tragic deaths of these doctors must serve as an urgent warning to the British government over the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) to doctors and healthcare workers in the UK: here.

Britain: THE TORY government hid the outcome of an exercise it conducted on how the NHS would cope with a pandemic because it considered the results ‘terrifying’, it was revealed yesterday. A three-day major exercise in October 2016 testing the UK’s ability to deal with a pandemic, codenamed Cygnus, exposed ‘terrifying’ failings, yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported: here.