World Briefs

NORTH KOREAN leader Kim Jong Un acknowledged that his country lacks modern medical facilities and called for urgent improvements in a rare assessment of the North’s health care system that comes amid worries about the coronavirus in the impoverished country. Outside experts say a coronavirus epidemic in the North could be devastating due its chronic lack of medical supplies and outdated health care infrastructure.

PHILIPPINES lifted a deadline for thousands of foreign travelers to leave the northern third of the country, including the capital, after quarantining the region due to an increase in coronavirus infections, officials said yesterday.

PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte declared a unilateral cease-fire with communist guerrillas to focus on fighting the coronavirus outbreak that prompted him to place the northern third of the country under quarantine. Duterte ordered the military and police to stop offensives against New People’s Army guerrillas during the cease-fire, which is to start today and end April 15.

IRAN reported its single biggest jump in deaths from the new coronavirus yesterday as another 147 people died, raising the country’s overall death toll to 1,135. The nearly 15% spike in deaths — amid a total of 17,361 confirmed cases in Iran — marks the biggest 24-hour rise in fatalities since officials first acknowledged cases of the virus in Iran in mid-February.

ITALY A Christian evangelical group headed by the son of the late televangelist Billy Graham has sent a field hospital to northern Italy to tend to coronavirus patients, joining China in offering aid to Italy’s overwhelmed health care system. The Defense Ministry said a DC8 belonging to Samaritan’s Purse landed at the Verona airport yesterday. The group says it sent a 68-bed field hospital, including eight intensive care beds, 20 tons of medical equipment and 32 specialists.

SOUTH AFRICA became Africa’s new coronavirus focus of concern yesterday as cases nearly doubled to 116 from two days before. The country with the most cases in sub-Saharan Africa said 14 of the new ones were from local transmission — and six were in children under 10. Though the pandemic is in its early days on the continent, health experts have warned that even facilities in Africa’s richest nation could be overwhelmed by the virus’ spread.

USA In a massive federal effort, President Donald Trump’s proposed economic package alone could approach $1 trillion, a rescue initiative not seen since the Great Recession. Among the measures, a cash handout would be sent out in checks to Americans but the amount is not yet disclosed. The White House said it liked GOP Sen. Mitt Romney’s idea for $1,000 checks, though not necessarily at that sum and not for wealthier people.

USA Bernie Sanders was trying to determine his next moves yesterday, after Joe Biden swept to victory in Florida, Illinois and Arizona and seized a commanding lead in a Democratic presidential race upended by the coronavirus. The Vermont senator’s campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, said Sanders “is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign.”