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A28 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 9 July 2020
Japan battered by more heavy rain, floods; 58 dead

By MARI YAMAGUCHI from around the country
TOKYO (AP) — Pounding to assist. Rescue operations
rain that already caused have been hampered by
deadly floods in southern the rains, flooding, mud-
Japan was moving north- slides and disrupted com-
east Wednesday, batter- munications.
ing large areas of Japan's In Kagoshima, a pickup
main island, swelling more truck was hit by a mudslide
rivers, triggering mudslides and fell into the ocean,
and destroying houses and but the driver was airlifted
roads. At least 58 people out with a head injury, ac-
died in several days of cording to Fuji Television. In
flooding. another town in Oita, two
Parts of Nagano and Gifu, brothers in their 80s were
including areas known for extracted alive after a
scenic mountain trails and mudslide smashed into their
hot springs, were flooded hillside house, NHK said.
by massive downpours. Flood waters carrying mud and debris flows through Takayama city, Gifu prefecture, central Ja- Chief Cabinet Secretary
Public broadcaster NHK pan Wednesday, July 8, 2020. Yoshihide Suga urged resi-
showed a swollen river Associated Press dents to use caution. "Di-
gouging into its embank- sasters may happen even
ment and destroying a town of Takayama, several tory and the number who sence." with little rain where ground
highway. In the city of houses were hit by a mud- sought shelter was not In Oita, teachers at a nurs- has loosened from previous
Gero, the rising river was slide, but their residents known. About half of the ery school were wiping the rainfall," he said.
flowing just below a bridge. were safely rescued. advisories had been lifted floor and drying wet fur- Suga pledged continuing
Flooding and mudslides As of Wednesday morn- by Wednesday afternoon. niture. "I hope we can re- search and rescue efforts,
blocked parts of a main ing, the death toll from the In places where rain has turn to normal life as soon as well as emergency funds
road connecting Kamiko- heavy rains which started subsided, residents were as possible," Principal Yuko for affected areas.
chi and Matsumoto, two over the weekend had ris- busy cleaning up their Kitaguchi told NHK. Japan is at high risk of
major tourist destinations en to 58, most of them from homes and workplaces. As the rains pounded cen- heavy rain in early sum-
in Nagano, stranding hun- hardest-hit Kumamoto pre- In Gero, a man washed tral Japan, flooding contin- mer when wet and warm
dreds of residents and visi- fecture. Four others died off mud at the entrance of ued to affect the southern air from the East China Sea
tors, though they were be- in Fukuoka, another pre- his riverside house despite region. Search and rescue flows into a seasonal rain
lieved to have safely evac- fecture on Kyushu, Japan's the evacuation advisory. "I operations continued in Ku- front above the country.
uated. In neighboring Gifu, third-largest island. was told to run away and mamoto, where 14 people In July 2018, more than 200
hundreds were isolated At the peak, as many as my neighbors all went, but remained missing. people, about half of them
in the hot spring towns of 3.6 million people were I stayed," he said. "I didn't Tens of thousands of army in Hiroshima, died from
Gero and Ontake. advised to evacuate, al- want my house to be troops, police and other heavy rain and flooding in
In the scenic mountainous though it wasn't manda- washed away in my ab- rescue workers mobilized southwestern Japan.q

Africa's confirmed COVID-19 cases surge above a half-million

try makes up 43% of Africa's ID-19 overwhelming fragile or better pay.
cases.The true number of health systems on the con- The African continent has
cases among Africa's 1.3 tinent is escalating," Moeti just 2.2 health workers —
billion people is unknown said Wednesday. and 0.3 doctors — per
as its 54 countries face a "So far the continent has 1,000 people, according
serious shortage of test- avoided disaster," she add- to the WHO.
ing materials for the virus. ed. If countries can contin- Experts have warned that
"A tremendous problem, ue to improve testing, trac- even if badly needed sup-
a real crisis of access," the ing and isolating, "we can plies such as ventilators are
World Health Organiza- slow down the spread of provided to African na-
tion's Africa chief, Matshi- the virus to a manageable tions, another challenge
diso Moeti, said last week. level." is having enough trained
So far most testing has Africa's health systems are workers to operate them.
been concentrated in the most poorly funded So far, WHO-organized
capital cities, but infec- and thinly staffed in the shipments to African coun-
A pupil's temperature is checked on returning to school in Jo-
hannesburg, Tuesday July 7, 2020, as more learners were per- tions in many cases have world. Already more than tries have included more
mitted to return to class. spread beyond them. 4,800 health workers have than 3,000 oxygen con-
Associated Press Already COVID-19 has been infected by the vi- centrators, another key
killed more people in Af- rus in South Africa alone, piece of equipment to
By CARA ANNA The continent-wide total rica — 11,955 — than Eb- Health Minister Zweli Mkh- help with breathing.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — is over 509,000, accord- ola did in its deadliest out- ize said Wednesday. Half Even simple items are run-
Africa now has more than ing to the Africa Centers break from 2014 to 2016 in of them are nurses. ning short. "Bed capac-
a half-million confirmed for Disease Control and West Africa, the WHO said This week alone, some anx- ity is still expected to be
coronavirus cases, while Prevention, after South Wednesday. ious health workers in Nige- breached or overwhelmed
South Africa's health min- Africa recorded another "With more than a third of ria, Zimbabwe, Congo and in all provinces" in the
ister declared Wednes- day of more than 10,000 countries in Africa doubling Sierra Leone have gone on coming weeks, South Af-
day that "we have now confirmed cases as a new their cases over the past strike or demonstrated for rica's health minister told
reached the surge." global hot spot. The coun- month, the threat of COV- adequate protective gear lawmakers.q