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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 20 May 2020
'This is war': Virus charges beyond Latin American hot spots

By GONZALO SOLANO and containers that served as
MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN makeshift morgues.
Associated Press The number of deaths in
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Be- Quito jumped alarmingly
yond the hot spots of Brazil over the weekend, from
and Mexico, the coronavi- 114 to 209, and doctors
rus is threatening to over- said they dreaded the
whelm Latin American cit- coming days.
ies large and small in an "I have a 26-year-old wom-
alarming sign that the pan- an next to me who walked
demic may be only at the in. Three hours later, she's
start of its destructive march suffocating because we
through the region. More don't have a respirator
than 90% of intensive care available,'' said an intensive
beds were full last week in care doctor, who spoke on
Chile's capital, Santiago, condition of anonymity be-
whose main cemetery dug cause he was not allowed
1,000 emergency graves to speak to the media. "I
to prepare for a wave of Freshly dug graves are readied at the General Cemetery amid the new coronavirus pandemic, in think we're getting to the
deaths. Santiago, Chile, Friday, May 15, 2020. point that you saw in Eu-
In Lima, Peru, patients took Associated Press rope, where people died
up 80% of intensive care for lack of respirators."
beds as of Friday. Peru has halted international flights have struggled to enforce capital of Quito, where 80% Ecuador has banned most
the world's 12th-highest and rolled out social dis- them, whether among the of intensive care beds were private car trips and im-
number of confirmed cas- tancing guidelines around wealthy who are used to occupied as of Friday. posed a 2 p.m. to 5 a.m.
es, with more than 90,000. the same time as the U.S. flouting regulations or low- "In terms of intensive care, daily quarantine, but thou-
"We're in bad shape," said and Europe, delaying the er-income people who de- we're stripped bare," city sands of people can be
Pilar Mazzetti, head of the arrival of large-scale infec- pend on day labor or sell- health secretary Lenín seen buying from street
Peruvian government's tion, said Dr. Marcos Espi- ing things on the street to Mantilla said. vendors across the capital.
COVID-19 task force. "This is nal, director of communi- feed their families. Quito has more than 2,400 The worst-hit country in Lat-
war." cable diseases at the Pan Latin America is the world's confirmed infections, and in America remains Brazil,
In some cities, doctors say American Health Organiza- most unequal region, a Health Minister Juan Carlos which is third in the world
patients are dying because tion. reality that Espinal said Zevallos said he expected for reported infections — at
of a lack of ventilators or "Latin America was the last made it difficult to balance the peak to come toward more than 250,000 — even
because they couldn't get wave," said Espinal, who health and economic the end of June. He as- with limited testing. More
to a hospital fast enough. previously worked at the growth, with millions facing sured citizens that the city than 85 percent of inten-
With intensive care units World Health Organization. increased poverty during was prepared and would sive care beds are full in Rio
swamped, officials plan to He warned that authori- quarantines, curfews and avoid the fate of Guaya- de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
move patients from capi- ties need to maintain anti- shutdowns. quil, where hundreds died Now, other countries are
tals like Lima and Santiago virus restrictions even as the A month after swamping at home, left in living rooms surging. Chile has imposed
to hospitals in smaller cities U.S. and Europe reopen. the Ecuadorian coastal for days before overworked new restrictions in Santiago
that aren't as busy — run- Some of the hardest-hit city of Guayaquil in one coroners could retrieve the after cases doubled over
ning the risk of spreading cities, like Lima and San- of the first serious blows to bodies. Those who perished the past week, to more
the disease further. tiago, imposed strict, early Latin America, COVID-19 is in hospitals in coastal cities than 34,000 in the country
Latin American countries lockdowns. But officials sickening thousands in the were put in chilled shipping of 18 million people.q

U.N. chief recommends scaled-back UN meeting of world leaders

By EDITH M. LEDERER bly Hall. Assembly President ter of the coronavirus pan-
Associated Press Tijjani Muhammad-Bande demic with over 190,000
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — has said a decision on the cases and nearly 16,000
Secretary-General Antonio annual gathering will be confirmed deaths. Guterres
Guterres is recommending made after consultations said in the letter, first report-
that the annual gather- with U.N. member states. ed by the Press Trust of In-
ing of world leaders in late The meeting of world lead- dia and obtained Tuesday
September, which was sup- ers usually brings thousands by The Associated Press,
posed to celebrate the of government officials, that although September
75th anniversary of the Unit- diplomats and civil society is some months away "the
ed Nations, be dramatical- representatives to New York medical community antici-
ly scaled back because of for over a week of speech- pates that the pandemic
the COVID-19 pandemic. es, dinners, receptions, will continue to cycle with
Guterres suggested in a one-on-one meetings and varying degrees of sever-
letter to the president of hundreds of side events. ity, depending on the abil-
the General Assembly that This year was expected to ity of the affected nation
heads of state and govern- bring an especially large to implement aggressive In this Dec. 17, 2019 file photo, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio
ment deliver prerecorded number of leaders to U.N. identification, testing, trac- Guterres attends the UNHCR - Global Refugee Forum at the
messages instead, with only headquarters to celebrate ing and containment mea- European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva,
one New York-based diplo- the founding of the United sures." While the General Switzerland. Associated Press
mat from each of the 193 Nations in 1945 on the ash- Assembly could consider
U.N. member nations pres- es of World War II. But New postponing the high-level he said it would be better new General Assembly ses-
ent in the General Assem- York has been an epicen- meeting to a date in 2021, to hold it at the start of the sion in September. q