News Headlines - 29 March 2020
▽France uses special trains to evacuate coronavirus patients from overwhelmed hospitals - The Local
France on Sunday staged its largest evacuation of coronavirus patients to date from hospitals in the hard-hit east, increasing efforts to free up intensive care units as officials brace for even more serious cases in the coming days.
The two specially modified TGV high-speed trains carried 36 patients from Mulhouse and Nancy toward hospitals along France's western coast, in an effort to free up intensive care units as officials brace for even more serious cases in the coming days.
Dozens of hospital workers, flanked by police and soldiers standing guard, spent hours installing four patients in each wagon in an operation that began before dawn.
Eight people were killed when an ambulance plane caught fire as it was taxiing on a runway at Manila’s main airport on Sunday evening (March 29).
A flight manifest showed the plane was carrying an ailing Canadian and his American companion, three pilots, a doctor, a nurse and a flight medic. All died. The incident happened at around 8pm.
The plane, operated by local charter service Lionair, was headed to Tokyo, in Japan.
▽Italian scientists investigate possible earlier emergence of coronavirus - Reuters
Italian researchers are looking at whether a higher than usual number of cases of severe pneumonia and flu in Lombardy in the last quarter of 2019 may be a signal that the new coronavirus might have spread beyond China earlier than previously thought.
Adriano Decarli, an epidemiologist and medical statistics professor at the University of Milan, said there had been a “significant” increase in the number of people hospitalized for pneumonia and flu in the areas of Milan and Lodi between October and December last year.
He told Reuters he could not give exact figures but “hundreds” more people than usual had been taken to hospital in the last three months of 2019 in those areas - two of Lombardy’s worst hit cities - with pneumonia and flu-like symptoms, and some of those had died.
PRINCE Harry and Meghan have fled Canada amid the coronavirus pandemic and have moved permanently to California.
They took a private flight to the Los Angeles area before the borders between Canada and the US were shut.
The Sussexes will set up a new home close to Hollywood, where we are told they are currently living in lockdown with their ten-month-old baby Archie.
▽Cirque du Soleil considering options after closing shows, laying off most staff | CTV News
Cirque du Soleil says it hasn't made a decision on steps it will take to stay afloat after cancelling all of its shows and laying off almost all of its employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Company spokeswoman Caroline Couillard says the company is working with all of its partners, as well as with the federal and Quebec governments, to determine how to best support it and prepare for a return to activities as soon as the pandemic is brought under control.
The company's debt is estimated to be US$900 million.
