Virus numbers surge globally as many nations ease lockdowns
The number of global coronavirus cases have continued to surge in many large countries that have been lifting lockdowns, including the US, even as new infections stabilised or dropped in parts of Western Europe.
Hospitals in Pakistan are turning away patients, but with the economy there teetering, the government remains determined to reopen the country.
New cases have also been rising steeply in Mexico, Colombia and Indonesia.
Brazil, with more than 1.1 million cases and 51,000 deaths, has been affected more than anywhere but the US, which has reported more than 2.3 million cases and 120,000 deaths, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
COVID-19 has exacerbated school exclusion: UNESCO
Nearly 260 million children missed out on school in 2018 and the coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated the problem, according to UNESCO’s 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report, which also said the pandemic was an opportunity for change and a rethinking of education systems.
Poorer children, girls, the disabled and immigrants are among those at a disadvantage, a situation that worsened with COVID-19 when some 90 percent of the world’s schoolchildren found their learning affected by closures if their families could not afford internet, computers or mobile phones.
The report found 258 million children and young people were entirely excluded from education, with poverty as the main obstacle to access. In low- and middle-income countries, adolescents from the richest 20 percent of households were three times as likely to complete lower secondary school as those from the poorest homes.
Muslims disappointed,
but accepting, as Saudi
scales back Hajj
Muslims have expressed disappointment at Saudi Arabia’s decision to scale back this year’s hajj pilgrimage, but many accepted it was necessary as the kingdom battles a major coronavirus outbreak.
Riyadh said Monday the hajj would be “very limited” with only pilgrims already in the country allowed to perform the ritual, marking the first time in modern Saudi history that foreign visitors have been barred.
The move had looked inevitable for some time and several countries had already pulled out, but the announcement nevertheless added to disappointment for Muslims who invest huge sums and face long waits to go on hajj.
Saudi Arabia stops foreign pilgrims due to coronavirus.
SOURCE: Al Jazeera News
