News Headlines - 21 April 2020

▽11 unnatural death cases in Japan in March-April were coronavirus-related: NPA - The Mainichi

A total of 11 cases of unnatural deaths nationwide, as determined by Japanese police from mid-March to April 19 where a person died at home or on the streets after there was a sudden change in their condition, were confirmed as being related to novel coronavirus infections, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned.
According to the National Police Agency (NPA), the 11 cases comprise six people from Tokyo, two from Hyogo Prefecture, and one each from the prefectures of Saitama, Kanagawa, and Mie, who are all male.

▽Istanbul deaths suggest a wider outbreak than Turkey admits - The New York Times

Turkey has surpassed China in its number of confirmed coronavirus cases, as the tally rose to more than 90,000 by Monday, with deaths reaching at least 2,140, according to official government figures. But the true death toll may be much higher.
Data compiled by The New York Times from records of deaths in Istanbul indicate that Turkey is grappling with a far bigger calamity from the coronavirus than official figures and statements indicate. The city alone recorded about 2,100 more deaths than expected from March 9 to April 12, based on weekly averages from the last two years, far more than officials reported for the whole of Turkey during that time.

▽Brazil coronavirus: Bolsonaro defends joining anti-lockdown protest - CNN

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has defended his participation in a public protest against coronavirus lockdown measures, saying that he was not calling for military action against the country's other branches of government.
Sunday's protest, which was held in Brasilia outside the army's headquarters, gathered dozens of Bolsonaro supporters wearing the country's emblematic yellow and green. Large signs, including one reading "military intervention with Bolsonaro in power," were visible in a livestream of the event posted to the president's personal Facebook page... Brazil has more than 40,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and at least 2,575 deaths, according to a Health Ministry update.
Bolsonaro has said that he expects 70% of Brazil's population to become infected and that the quarantine measures imposed by governors in some of the hardest-hit states, like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, are not working.
"I hope this is the last week of this quarantine," Bolsonaro said. "The masses can't afford to stay home because the refrigerator is empty."

▽Tracking covid-19 excess deaths across countries | The Economist

A better way to measure the damage caused by such a medical crisis is to look at “excess mortality”: the gap between the total number of people who died from any cause, and the historical average for the same place and time of year. The chart above uses data from EuroMOMO, a network of epidemiologists who collect weekly reports on deaths from all causes in 24 European countries, covering 350m people.
Compared to the baseline average of deaths from 2009-19, the flu seasons of 2017, 2018 and 2019 were all unusually lethal. But the covid-19 pandemic, which arrived much later in the year, has already reached a higher peak-and would have been far more damaging without social-distancing measures. Compared with the baseline, EuroMOMO’s figures suggest that there were about 70,000 excess deaths between March 16th and April 12th.

▽'COVID Toes': Could skin conditions offer coronavirus clues? - ABC News

A growing number of prominent dermatologists treating suspected and confirmed coronavirus-positive patients are reporting patterns and trends of skin conditions, suggesting the skin could be a kind of window about what may be happening with COVID-19 inside the body.
Italian doctors published a series of cases signaling a trend about the skin in late March. In that study, one in five patients had a skin issue, most commonly a red rash or a hive-like eruption.
Dubbed “COVID toes” by the dermatology community, frostbite-like areas of typically red or purple discoloration can appear on the feet can also be seen on the fingers as well, according to Dr. Misha Rosenbach, associate professor of Dermatology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. But the discoloration doesn't appear to have anything to do with the weather.