Nanaimo City Hall. (News Bulletin file photo)

The stress for many families will become overwhelming, says letter writer

To the editor,

Having a resource-based economy, Nanaimo has long suffered the challenges for people to find gainful employment locally. As well, the mid-Island region generally has been identified as having one of the highest child poverty rates in all of B.C. Now, during these difficult times of the pandemic and people being isolated, the stress for many families will become overwhelming, especially with uncertainty as to economic viability post-pandemic.

Last year, Nanaimo city council deciding to increase property taxes by approximately five per cent for 2020. This increase not only affects homeowners but gets passed on to renters and those leasing buildings for small businesses. A number of municipalities in the Lower Mainland are considering lowering the property tax rates for 2020. I urge Nanaimo city council to not increase property taxes for this year or, at least to only fund those aspects identified as essential to our community.

M. Dore, Nanaimo

RELATED: City of Nanaimo looking at ways it can lessen property tax increase

RELATED: Lantzville considers lessening property tax increase because of COVID-19 impacts

The views and opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the writer and do not reflect the views of Black Press or the Nanaimo News Bulletin. If you have a different view, we encourage you to write to us or contribute to the discussion below.

Letter to the Editor

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: City should follow through with lowering taxes in midst of pandemic - Nanaimo News Bulletin

Jackie Kozak Thiel Published 7:00 a.m. MT April 26, 2020 | Updated 1:46 p.m. MT April 26, 2020

Jackie Kozak Thiel(Photo: Courtesy of the city of Fort Collins)

The coronavirus pandemic has introduced unique and unprecedented challenges to everyone, and we are all currently navigating a new normal.

One sector of our community that has been particularly impacted is our businesses. Local businesses need support now more than ever, which is especially difficult since we are currently maintaining physical distancing practices and many people have been recently laid off or furloughed.

The city is working to help support all businesses and members of the workforce because they are vitalassets to the community.

We know that relief is not coming fast enough and can be hard to navigate. Last week, the citys Economic Health Office in partnership with the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, Larimer County Economic and Workforce Development, Larimer Small Business Development Center, and Old Town Media launched the new NoCo Recovers website, which serves as a one-stop-shop for business recovery information in Northern Colorado.

The site NoCoRecovers.com provides up-to-date information on potential funding resources available to support the regions business community. The website also features a COVID-19 Business Resource Hub, where businesses can easily sort through resources based on industry, geography, and type of need.

The city is happy to announce the Fort Collins Small Business Relief and Recovery Fund is now open to small businesses in Fort Collins impacted by COVID-19.

We have partnered with Colorado Lending Source to commit $110,000 to this effort. These two-year loans are up to $10,000 of working capital, with the first six-month at 0% interest and deferral of all principal and interest payments, and 2% interest and principal payments for months 7-24.

We know $110,000 is not enough, and the city is working to expand this program and will share regular updates when other forms of financial support become available.

Another tool recently created to support the local economy is the Support Fort Collins Business tool. Acting as a community connector, this tool maps out businesses offering online sales, gift cards, delivery/take-out services, and other specials during the pandemic. As shopping habits continue to shift during this time, this website hopes to promote and encourage the creative adaptations of our local businesses.

The city is currently allowing qualified businesses to defer sales tax payments for 60 days. Tax payments that are currently scheduled on April or May 20 will be extended to June 22 and interest and penalties will be waived.

The citys Sales Tax Department has a dedicated email address and phone hotline for those interested in deferring their payments: salestax@fcgov.om , 970-221-6780.

Our treasured local businesses are the fabric of Fort Collins. Over the last several weeks we have heard countless stories of Fort Collins businesses and nonprofits supporting each other and front-line workers during this time of crisis.

Stories like creating and donating much needed hand sanitizer to hospitals and providing free meals to front-line and essential workers. These acts of kindness give me hope that by taking care of each other during this pandemic, we can work toward rebuilding the vibrant Fort Collins that we know and love.

To learn more about all the programs mentioned here and get regular updates, please visit http://www.fcgov.com/business.

Jackie Kozak Thiel is the chief sustainability officer for the City of Fort Collins. She can be reached at 970-416-2170 or jkozak-thiel@fcgov.com.

Read or Share this story: https://www.coloradoan.com/story/opinion/2020/04/26/city-resources-and-support-local-businesses/3005217001/

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In the City: Resources and support for local businesses - Coloradoan

California is working with Oregon and Washington on coordinated plans for phasing in the reopening of restaurants, stores and other parts of their economies in a way that can keep the coronavirus pandemic at bay. Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Hilary Godwin, University of Washington

Editor's Note: In this Q&A, Hilary Godwin, dean of the University of Washington School of Public Health, explains why reopening the economy will vary state to state and what states need to consider.

Governors are walking a tightrope as they try to figure out how to safely ease off social distancing restrictions and restart their economies without triggering a new surge in coronavirus cases.

Do they start allowing businesses like restaurants, theaters and hair salons to reopen, as Georgia plans to do by Monday despite more than 20,000 COVID-19 cases there so far and opposition from several mayors? Is it OK to reopen beaches and stores, like South Carolina did this week? Or do they take a more cautious approach, as Massachusetts is doing by keeping schools closed through the end of the school year?

These decisions aren't simple.

How and when states reopen their economies will look different from one state to the next state depending, in part, on where that state is in the trajectory of its coronavirus illnesses.

At this point, we expect to see some rise in cases when economic and social activities restart. We don't want to wait until there is no chance that would happen - people would literally go stir-crazy in their homes and it would decimate the economy.

What we want is to be confident that we have the capacity to identify coronavirus cases quickly and control the spread through contact tracing and isolation when we see them start to emerge again.

Under our country's federalist system, protection of public health and safety is reserved to the state, so it is up to each governor to choose a path forward.

The White House's plan provides a helpful starting point by offering a least restrictive path, but it suggests removing restrictions much more quickly than many public health people feel comfortable with.

For example, one trigger for the first phase of lifting restrictions is a downward trajectory, with 14 days of decreasing numbers of new COVID-19 cases. At that point, the White House plan says there can be large gatherings including at sports events and movie theaters, provided social distancing is followed.

Washington state has probably met that two-week threshold, but don't expect Washington to allow large gatherings soon. Statistically, the chance of someone asymptomatic and infectious being at one of those gatherings and exposing a large number of people is pretty high. That's a risk many states aren't going to take.

A number of different models, including by researchers at Harvard Chan School of Public Health and Kathryn Peebles at the University of Washington, have suggested that you need to wait longer than just seeing 14 days of a downward trajectory to be confident you wouldn't get a large resurgence of cases. That could mean three or four weeks - I'm not saying months and months and months. But 14 days seems really short based on what I've seen of the coronavirus case curves and where most places are on that trajectory.

Going into the first phase of lifting restrictions, states need to have enough testing and contact tracing capacity to be confident they can manage the cases that will still turn up. Even if a state isn't seeing cases spreading within communities, travelers are still coming in from places where the pandemic is active.

Right now, we don't have that capacity, even in Washington, and we have better capacity that most of the country.

That's one reason partnering with other states makes sense.

When Washington partners with California and Oregon, we can pool our resources for developing testing capacity and contact tracing capacity. That bumps up the timeline for getting enough resources in place that we can be confident we can start lifting restrictions. It should take us much less time if we're working together, and that's huge.

Another big advantage is consistent messaging across a region where people cross state lines all the time.

For states to coordinate, it's helpful if they're at similar stages in the epidemic. That's part of why it makes sense for a few states to coordinate on the same plan rather than having one plan for the entire country.

New York is having such a different experience right now that it would be difficult for that state to coordinate reopening plans with Washington or California. In Washington, when the cases numbers plateaued, we were able to send extra ventilators to other regions that needed them. New York needs to be taking different steps at different times and has different resource challenges.

In Washington, Oregon and California, we also have similarities in how people and the governors weigh public health risk versus economic risk in a situation like this. Part of the reason Washington has done well after the early outbreak was that our local health departments were good about jumping on contact tracing and preparations, so by the time we did have community-level transmission, they had been preparing for weeks. We also have elected officials who have worked hand in hand with their public health officials.

It is possible that we won't see a second peak. There are things that could keep that from happening.

Having a vaccine widely available or a treatment people could take to prevent transmitting the disease could help the country avoid another surge in cases. It's also possible, as we saw with MERS and SARS, that once we are able to contain everything and get it to a low enough level, the coronavirus could die out on its own.

But we don't want to count on that and not prepare for the possibility it comes back, particularly since so many people haven't been infected. We still have a lot of people who are really vulnerable, so if we're not careful enough about how we bring economic and social activities back online, we could have a resurgence.

[Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter.]

Hilary Godwin, Dean, School of Public Health, University of Washington

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Why there isn't a one-size-fits-all plan for states to reopen their economies - Kiowa County Press

In SummaryIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have adopted lockdowns, virus testing regimes and social distancing measures. African countries have followed suit, mostly with 'copy and paste' versions of these actions, resulting in profound social and economic stresses on their people.

What is immediately evident is that without creativity, contextualisation and civil participation in political decisions, African countries will struggle to weather the storm and resuscitate after the pandemic.

It is important that the interventions, particularly lockdowns, are implemented without the brutal repression of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Agriculture is a key economic driver for Africa. This crisis presents an opportunity for African countries to harness potential in this sector and innovate across various industries.

Without question, the COVID-19 pandemic has created chaos, panic, and hopelessness for people across the world. Markedly, and for the first time in recent years, an infectious disease has ravaged the global north defying modern stereotyping of contagious diseases. There is no known cure or vaccine yet for this disease. As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads throughout Africa, we must ask, will the continent be spared or left reeling from the fierce blows being dealt to all aspects of social, economic and political life across the globe? How is Africa absorbing the shocks from the disease and resultant policy responses? What will the policy responses produce when the economies are weak, the majority of citizens rely on the informal sector, contested legitimacy forces the state to largely rely on the use of force to enforce the responses, democratic rights and freedoms are routinely violated, citizens distrust the state and sophisticated corruption networks are embedded?

What is immediately evident is that without creativity, contextualisation and civil participation in political decisions, African countries will struggle to weather the storm and resuscitate after the pandemic. In response, countries have adopted lockdowns, virus testing regimes and social distancing measures. African countries have followed suit, mostly with 'copy and paste' versions of these actions, resulting in profound social and economic stresses on their people. Admittedly, the radical lockdown and social distancing measures are meant to avert health crises, and rightly so. However, owing to deep underlying socio-economic and political disparities, these policies will, and are, bound to cause significant harm.

At the time of writing, Africa had confirmed relatively few infections and deaths. The Australian Department of Health estimates that globally, only about 20% and 3-5% of COVID-19 patients will require hospitalisation and ICU respectively. Should these numbers be applicable in Africa, disaster will strike. Very few African countries have robust healthcare systems that can deal with such a situation. Even South Africa, the most industrialised country on the continent, declared a National State of Disaster to increase its preparedness in the face of serious impediments like limited availability of ventilators. This has exposed the inequalities in that country and evoked ethical questions on which members of the population can access certain health services. Moreover, countries must simultaneously respond to other equally deadly seasonal diseases, like Cerebrospinal Meningitis in northern Ghana and Lassa Fever in Nigeria. Other crises like war in South Sudan, internally displaced populations in Cameroon and Ethiopia and increased urban poverty in Kenya and Nigeria complicate the responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The informal sector that employs more than 75% of urban dwellers petty trading, craftwork, and transport will be crippled in many ways. This involves the most vulnerable members of society, women, migrants, and minority groups. Within two weeks of Ghana's lockdown, the Finance Minister presented a scenario of a dead economy. The pre-COVID-19 annual finance gap for small-scale enterprises (SMEs) in sub-Saharan Africa stood at USD331 billion in 2019; this will now be exacerbated. Many of these SMEs are neither registered nor organised, thus, no reliable data exists to ensure that they benefit from government support programmes. African economies are largely cash-based, few citizens are bank or mobile money account holders, thus affecting financial inclusion. Any attempt to provide direct support to individuals and households that does not take these factors into account will fail.

Large scale loss of incomes will wipe out livelihoods of the masses and result in hunger and lack of access to food as already reported in Lagos after Day One of lockdown. People live in penury under lockdown, with implications on health and resilience of the immune system. Distribution of basic goods and services by governments and NGOs have instead undermined the social distance strategies because of stampedes and clashes with police. Ghana has recently reversed a partial lockdown of two cities after three weeks, citing the economy, data and science. Coupled with the Finance Minister's already mentioned bleak outlook, this is a demonstration of the inherent bottlenecks of the strategy.

The activation of sweeping State of Emergency powers to legitimise the restriction of movements is harming political stability and democratic freedoms. Kenya has recorded an alarming death toll following curfew crackdowns, and in Guinea-Bissau, journalists have been harassed under lockdown laws. With few exceptions, civil society voices have widely been muted by concerns of the rapid spread and the need for immediate action. Africa's history of post-colonial authoritarianism and abuse of power, make this a worrying trend with fears that such COVID-19-related governing powers will not be reversed timely and responsibly afterwards. This is likely to erode some of the democratic gains which have been made in Africa.

Relatedly, the crisis has fostered an environment for extending the tentacles of corruption in the continent. Rather than take advantage of the global meltdown for broad based economic innovation, African governments are courting the IMF and World Bank for credit facilities, which, without transparent processes in place, lend themselves to misapplication. News about how COVID-19 funds are being misappropriated reverberates across the continent and diminishes citizen trust in governments as evidenced by an extravagant launch of a COVID-19 tracker in Ghana which attracted widespread criticism as a misplaced priority.

To mitigate these harms, African countries will for one, need to intensify efforts towards instilling behaviour change through social distancing, staying at home, use of protective clothing when outdoors, and practising personal hygiene. Simultaneously, it is important that the interventions, particularly lockdowns, are implemented without the brutal repression of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Extensive public education on the facts of the virus, its prevention, spread and management, produced and disseminated in local languages, is vital to mitigating policy response impacts. People must know what to do when they develop symptoms. Stigmatisation should be categorically discouraged and myths debunked as these derail early reporting and self-isolation efforts. The Ghana Health Service uses a COVID-19GH short code that circulates SMS information using the hashtag #SpreadCalmNotFear, among others. Such messaging must continue and be pushed vigorously on all media platforms across the continent. Edifying stories of recovered patients should be shared alongside other messages to inculcate a positive attitude towards recovered persons. These mass communication strategies must be complemented by civil society action to push for accountability and transparency in the use of emergency powers at this time. Human rights must be preserved even during such a crisis.

Agriculture is a key economic driver for Africa. This crisis presents an opportunity for African countries to harness potential in this sector and innovate across various industries. Two-thirds of economically active people in Africa are employed in agriculture. As the global supply of goods and services has been strained and disrupted, agrarian communities can still produce food to meet the value chain needs of populations; this would complement the African Union's Africa Continent Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA). Countries are already adapting and utilising their comparative advantage. Ghana and Nigeria have begun producing healthcare equipment that would otherwise be imported. Factory specifications have been modified to meet domestic needs, as reported in Kenya and South Africa. Such initiatives must be expanded to include the agro-industry and other non-health sectors. This means that governments must continue to engage stakeholders to explore ways of supporting the private sector.

The COVID-19 pandemic has largely caught states across the world unprepared to respond to it. In the post-COVID-19 era, governments must prioritize the development of national databases for individuals and households a shortcoming of this crisis which would be a useful tool for engaging citizens during these times. This would have the added advantage of promoting the financial inclusion of citizens and for better planning and handling of future pandemics.

Clement Sefa-Nyarko is a PhD Candidate at La Trobe University, Australia and the Research Manager for Participatory Development Associates, Ghana. His doctoral research aims to reframe the natural resource curse discourse in Ghana using political and historical theory analyses. Clement is an alumnus of the African Leadership Centre-King's College London's African Scholars in Peace, Security and Development Fellowship programme.

Email: [emailprotected]Originally Published here by ALC

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Absorbing the Shocks or Irreversible Damage? The Impact of COVID-19 on Africas Political Economy - Modern Ghana

Editors Note: How and when states reopen their economies will look different from one state to the next state depending, in part, on where that state is in the trajectory of its coronavirus illnesses. In this Q&A, Hilary Godwin, dean of the University of Washington School of Public Health, explains why, and why it makes sense for groups of states, such as Washington, Oregon and California, to coordinate their plans.

Governors are walking a tightrope as they try to figure out how to safely ease off social distancing restrictions and restart their economies without triggering a new surge in coronavirus cases.

Do they start allowing businesses like restaurants, theaters and hair salons to reopen, as Georgia plans to do by Monday despite more than 20,000 COVID-19 cases there so far and opposition from several mayors? Is it OK to reopen beaches and stores, like South Carolina did this week? Or do they take a more cautious approach, as Massachusetts is doing by keeping schools closed through the end of the school year?

These decisions arent simple.

Can states start reopening without triggering a new COVID-19 surge?

At this point, we expect to see some rise in cases when economic and social activities restart. We dont want to wait until there is no chance that would happen people would literally go stir-crazy in their homes and it would decimate the economy.

What we want is to be confident that we have the capacity to identify coronavirus cases quickly and control the spread through contact tracing and isolation when we see them start to emerge again.

Can every state just follow the White House plan?

Under our countrys federalist system, protection of public health and safety is reserved to the state, so it is up to each governor to choose a path forward.

The White Houses plan provides a helpful starting point by offering a least restrictive path, but it suggests removing restrictions much more quickly than many public health people feel comfortable with.

For example, one trigger for the first phase of lifting restrictions is a downward trajectory, with 14 days of decreasing numbers of new COVID-19 cases. At that point, the White House plan says there can be large gatherings including at sports events and movie theaters, provided social distancing is followed.

Washington state has probably met that two-week threshold, but dont expect Washington to allow large gatherings soon. Statistically, the chance of someone asymptomatic and infectious being at one of those gatherings and exposing a large number of people is pretty high. Thats a risk many states arent going to take.

A number of different models, including by researchers at Harvard Chan School of Public Health and Kathryn Peebles at the University of Washington, have suggested that you need to wait longer than just seeing 14 days of a downward trajectory to be confident you wouldnt get a large resurgence of cases. That could mean three or four weeks Im not saying months and months and months. But 14 days seems really short based on what Ive seen of the coronavirus case curves and where most places are on that trajectory.

What do states gain by coordinating their plans?

Going into the first phase of lifting restrictions, states need to have enough testing and contact tracing capacity to be confident they can manage the cases that will still turn up. Even if a state isnt seeing cases spreading within communities, travelers are still coming in from places where the pandemic is active.

Right now, we dont have that capacity, even in Washington, and we have better capacity that most of the country.

Thats one reason partnering with other states makes sense.

When Washington partners with California and Oregon, we can pool our resources for developing testing capacity and contact tracing capacity. That bumps up the timeline for getting enough resources in place that we can be confident we can start lifting restrictions. It should take us much less time if were working together, and thats huge.

Another big advantage is consistent messaging across a region where people cross state lines all the time.

Should all states be coordinating with others?

For states to coordinate, its helpful if theyre at similar stages in the epidemic. Thats part of why it makes sense for a few states to coordinate on the same plan rather than having one plan for the entire country.

New York is having such a different experience right now that it would be difficult for that state to coordinate reopening plans with Washington or California. In Washington, when the cases numbers plateaued, we were able to send extra ventilators to other regions that needed them. New York needs to be taking different steps at different times and has different resource challenges.

In Washington, Oregon and California, we also have similarities in how people and the governors weigh public health risk versus economic risk in a situation like this. Part of the reason Washington has done well after the early outbreak was that our local health departments were good about jumping on contact tracing and preparations, so by the time we did have community-level transmission, they had been preparing for weeks. We also have elected officials who have worked hand in hand with their public health officials.

Is a second surge of cases a foregone conclusion?

It is possible that we wont see a second peak. There are things that could keep that from happening.

Having a vaccine widely available or a treatment people could take to prevent transmitting the disease could help the country avoid another surge in cases. Its also possible, as we saw with MERS and SARS, that once we are able to contain everything and get it to a low enough level, the coronavirus could die out on its own.

But we dont want to count on that and not prepare for the possibility it comes back, particularly since so many people havent been infected. We still have a lot of people who are really vulnerable, so if were not careful enough about how we bring economic and social activities back online, we could have a resurgence.

[Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research. Sign up for The Conversations newsletter.]

Hilary Godwin, Dean, School of Public Health, University of Washington

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image: Reuters

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Why States Need to Come up With Their Own Plans to Reopen Their Economies - The National Interest

DETROIT, MI -- Tiffiney Moses refused to sign her husbands do-not-resuscitate order.

Well, hell probably only live for another two days, so I dont know if its worth it, Moses, a Detroit resident, said she was told by a nurse. I said, Yeah, its worth it."

Her husband, Anthony Moses, a 62-year-old IT specialist who loves jazz and survived cancer six years ago, was taken off his ventilator. His wife said her faith outweighed statistics that indicate COVID-19 patients who end up on ventilators often die.

After nearly two weeks hooked to a breathing machine, the tubes came out and Anthony Moses kept breathing on his own.

Weeks after making that life-and-death decision, Tiffiney Moses leans against an SUV in the driveway of her west Detroit home. Shes visibly excited when the phone rings. "Its him, she says, the words muffled by her protective face mask, holding her phone with her husbands picture on the screen.

They havent seen each other in real life in 35 days. Tiffiney Moses, 54, hoped to catch a glimpse through a window once hes moved to a 90-day rehab facility to relearn how to walk, but shes not allowed visit there either.

I miss you," Anthony Moses tells her in a drawn, breathless voice via video call from his bed at Beaumont Hospital in Farmington Hills. Im just exhausted.

Exhaustion is a sentiment shared by many in Detroit.

In little more than a month, the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic shocked vibrant Detroit to near a stand-still and exposed its socioeconomic scars. The devastation in Michigans largest city serves as a warning to similar urban areas around the nation: renovated skyscrapers, swanky restaurants and wealthy commuters do not protect residents from an invisible virus.

With 922 confirmed deaths as of Sunday, April 26, Detroit, a city of nearly 690,000 people, nearly 80 percent of whom are black, has more deaths than the majority of U.S. states, including neighboring Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin. More people have died in Detroit than in Los Angeles County, which as nearly 14 1/2 times the population.

Hospitals are strained, morgues are packed, funeral homes cant keep up with new business and the streets of downtown are eerily quiet. Most residents of the coronavirus hot spot city are dutifully avoiding parks, wearing masks in public and anticipating a return to some sort of normality.

How much more real can this get

An aspect of the pandemic that seems to distinguish Detroit residents from others across Michigan is their connection to someone who died or came close. Everyone seems to be no more than one degree of separation from a coronavirus casualty.

Its a monster, said one nurse at Detroit Medical Centers Sinai-Grace Hospital, recalling patients shes watched die.

Though, there are fewer deaths and new patients of late, the casualties in Detroit continue to pile up. The toll rose by 189 in less than a week, from 733 deaths as of Wednesday to 922 be Sunday afternoon. Many families are saying goodbye to sick loved ones over video chats on cell phones and tablets.

Weve actually had to turn cases away (because) weve reached our capacity, said Antonio Green, a fourth-generation director of Detroits 101-year-old James H. Cole funeral homes. Weve just had to let families know right now we cant pick up your loved one until we can clear up some of our own.

If we were to see maybe eight new families a day, probably five of those would be COVID-19 cases.

The funeral home has morticians who have worked there for over 40 years and nobody has ever seen anything like this, Green said.

Ceremonies are impacted, too. Whitmers executive order limits funerals and visitations to 10 people. Detroit health officials are distributing masks to funeral homes in case attendees dont bring their own.

Whitmer, at a recent press conference, spoke about Skylar Herbert, the 5-year-old daughter of a Detroit firefighter and police officer who died of coronavirus.

They did not deserve to lose their child to this virus, Whitmer said. Nobody does.

At least two Wayne County sheriffs employees, Deputy Dean Sevard and Commander Donafay Collins, died of the virus. Detroit police lost Captain Jonathan Parnell and a 38-year-old 911 dispatcher. Detroit Police Chief James Craig contracted the virus but has since recovered.

Detroit bus driver Jason Hargrove died after sounding the alarm on social media about his concerns of exposure to a coughing rider.

Detroit Fire Capt. Franklin Williams lost his life. Forty-four-year-old state Rep. Isaac Robinson, D-Detroit, became a victim. The list goes on.

The Carter family learned how quickly the coronavirus slips into and collapses once-vital lives.

Its the flu on steroids, Democratic state Rep. Tyrone Carter said while wearing Michigan State University gear and sitting with his wife, Lisa Carter, and 23-year-old son, Tyler, on porch of their Detroit home. Petie their bulldog barks inside.

Rep. Carter contracted the virus, he believes, during a Detroit party in early March, nearly a week after having a conversation with Whitmer about how things were starting to get serious with the coronavirus.

The first loss was Commander Donafay Collins, who was a good friend, Rep. Carter said. "We were all together on March 6.

The next week, (Collins) put on Facebook, I cant shake this flu. I dont know what it is. Pray for me. And then the next thing I heard, he was on a ventilator."

Carter began to develop his own symptoms.

It started with the chills," Carter said. "I mean, I couldnt get warm. Under the covers with socks on, my teeth were still rattling.

He developed a 102-degree temperature. Still, he hoped it wasnt the coronavirus. After all, he only had a couple symptoms. He took a few Tylenol.

The next day I was sore, Carter said. I mean, every muscle joint hurt. Then I had the cough, the dry cough. And you cant shake it."

Rep. Carter and his wife, Lisa Carter, Chair of the Detroit Police Commission, were tested for the coronavirus on March 17.

On (Wednesday, March 25) she gets a text telling her that shes negative, Rep. Carter said. That night, Donofay (Collins) passes.

The next morning, Carter received a phone call. Hed tested positive for the coronavirus.

Just days later, Carters close Lansing colleague, Rep. Robinson, died.

It was like, wait a minute, Carter said. her

Tiffiney Moses, whose husband is now in rehab because his muscles atrophied while he was bed ridden for over a month, said her husbands kidneys began to shut down after the hospital put him on a ventilator.

I did not know if I would see him alive, so I was calling the hospital, asking them, can I come and see him, she said. I can dress up like you do ... I dont want him to die and I not get to see him.

" ... You cant get any glory from his life if he dies, because its not like we can have any funeral and minister to the people that come because theyre not allowing people to congregate."

After multiple days of not speaking to her husband, a nurse called and put Antonio Moses on.

I was dead, Antonio Moses told his wife. I saw death, and God brought me back.

Highest cases in the state

Detroit quickly became a coronavirus hot spot - the number of cases in the city surpassing the totals in any Michigan county. As of Sunday, April 26, Detroit had 8,613 cases and 922 deaths. Wayne County, reported separately from the city, trailed with 7,135 cases and 658 deaths. Nearby Oakland and Macomb counties, which help make up Metro Detroit, also have positive cases in the thousands.

Multiple Metro Detroit hospitals had to use refrigerated storage trailers for coronavirus victims. Beaumont Hospital in Wayne used an empty warehouse to store its dead. The governor said efforts by the state to obtain more cold storage capacity for hospitals overwhelmed with bodies of COVID-19 patients are underway.

Anticipation that Metro Detroit hospital resources could be swallowed whole by the virus led the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to convert the TCF Center in downtown Detroit -- formerly Cobo Center -- from a 2.4 million-square-foot convention space to a FEMA hospital equipped to potentially treat up to 1,000 COVID-19 patients at once. A second similar hospital just opened at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Metro Detroits Novi.

Had it not been for the pandemic, the TCF Center would likely be prepping for the now-cancelled annual Detroit auto show scheduled for June.

Instead, its massive digital marquee thanks healthcare workers. The entrance is heavily guarded by police and flanked by a Detroit Homeland Security and Emergency Management mobile command center.

As of Monday, the makeshift hospital, staffed by 70 workers, had treated 30 patients with 19 beds still occupied, said Michelle Grinnell, a spokesman for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and regional care center.

The TCF Regional Care Center is not set up to treat patients who require a respirator, or have other underlying medical conditions that require specialized care, she said. If people continue to practice social distancing we would not anticipate reaching capacity at the facilities, but we also want to ensure we are maintaining a position of readiness for the needs of the community.

The coronavirus has silenced much of Detroit.

At lunchtime In downtown Detroit on a sunny but chilly spring day, the streets are mostly vacant. The shiny office building that houses Quicken Loans overlooks an empty Grand Martius Park. The only person there is a fluorescent-vested maintenance worker.

The People Mover stations are closed and the QLine street cars are parked. There is no crack of the bat echoing from Comerica Park, no cheering crowds.

Penny, a 67-year-old Detroit resident who declined to give her last name, walks along Michigan Avenue in a Detroit Tigers coat and face mask. Until Major League Baseball was postponed, Penny worked at Comerica Park and loved how the games would jolt the city to life this time of year.

Now weve got to wear around masks and gloves, watch who were passing and just have to be careful," she said. "Because this stuff is real.

Her days are spent alone inside with occasional calls to family.

Detroits a tough city, you know," Penny said. "Were going to beat this. This aint nothing. Its like a little glitch.

At the Rosa Parks Transit Center, a few dozen people wearing mask wait for public buses. Service has continued amid the outbreak, but ridership has dropped, eliminating some routes and fees. Riders are now provided masks if they dont have their own.

Police tape blocks picnic tables under a gazebo at Rouge Park in Detroit, on Thursday, April 16, 2020. Police put tape up to try to stop park visitors from gathering during the coronavirus outbreak. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)Mike Mulholland | MLive.com

Parks are now mostly empty, particularly after Detroit police began issuing citations for those violating the stay-home order to gather in large groups, have parties or play basketball games. Last week, the department issued more than 1,600 warnings and 700 citations for violating the order.

At Rouge Park, the citys largest with nearly 1,180 acres, rims of the basketball hoops have been removed and police lines wraps around gazebos and the childrens playground. Police drive through periodically looking for violators.

Before the big resurgence downtown, it looked like a ghost town, said Dr. Blandina Rose, 72, who stopped to buy cookies at a grocery store during a masked walk with her husband near Detroits Mexican Town. Thats how it looks once again.

Louis D. Johnson Jr. has his temperature taken on his temple at Detroit Rescue Mission in Detroit, on Thursday, April 16, 2020. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)Mike Mulholland | MLive.com

Taking precautions

Life has changed for nearly everyone.

Near the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries mens emergency shelter on Third Street, just blocks from Little Caesars Arena, men would often gather outside to socialize. Now the sidewalks are mostly deserted.

Inside the shelter, about 20 men quietly sit in dinged-up metal folding chairs beneath a wobbly ceiling fan watching TV. Most of them are separated by the recommended six feet but dont wear protective face masks.

Right here, right now, all day, Edward Hits, 57, said, describing his average coronavirus pandemic afternoon. Hes been living in the shelter for three weeks, ever since losing a home in Hamtramck and his job as a cab driver.

In order to avoid a revolving door and increased coronavirus exposure, shelter manager Herbert Morris Jr. deters people from leaving by barring return until the following day.

It is stricter here because of the virus," said resident Louis D. Johnson Jr., one of the few wearing a mask. Normally, I would be outside, I would be looking for work.

Health officials identified the homeless as vulnerable and began testing at shelters across Detroit.

Theyve been here twice in the last week, Morris said. "Ive got a list upstairs. I told them, if they got tested, I want to know. If they didnt get tested or refused tests, I want to know.

Herbert Morris Jr., the Building Director at Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, poses for a portrait at the rescue mission in Detroit, on Thursday, April 16, 2020. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)Mike Mulholland | MLive.com

The city, with help from the Detroit Rescue Mission, opened a separate coronavirus quarantine shelter at the Salvation Army Harbor Lights Ellen Thompson Center in March.

More than 36 men and women who tested positive were living in the quarantine shelter as of April 15, Detroit Rescue Mission President Dr. Chad Audi said.

While streets and parks are quiet, aisles in Detroits 60-year-old Honey Bee Market grocery store are not.

Owner Tammy Alfaro-Koehler directed a growing line of customers outside with a blue-gloved hand Monday afternoon while talking to employees over a walkie-talkie.

She and three managers attempt to strategically limit the store to 15 shoppers at a time, based on crowding in the produce section, meat counter or checkout. However, other duties sometimes distract them.

Honor system, reads the sign out front. 1 person exits. 1 person enters.

Other signs inside direct shoppers down tight aisles like one-way streets in order to decrease congestion and promote social distancing.

Alfaro-Koehler said nearly 25 employees have quit over fears of exposure since the coronavirus pandemic began. The remaining employees are working six days a week with overtime to keep up with the additional demand and new sanitation needs.

We wash our baskets, we sterilize our buggies, we do it constantly through the day, Alfaro-Koehler said.

Despite Gov. Gretchen Whitmers plea for residents to stay home unless leaving is necessary, Alfaro-Koehler said some customers treat shopping as their last form of entertainment. Entire extended families with multiple kids peruse the aisles aimlessly and some shoppers come in multiple times a day for just a few items, she said.

Im getting tired because we feel like its a burden on our shoulders" Alfaro-Koehler said " ... My job is to protect everybody, whether its my workers, myself and especially the customers."

Shed like to see more people take the precautions seriously.

The quicker we can listen to this, the quicker it can get over, Alfaro-Koehler said. So I would just say, please, so we can all go back. I know it may not go back to normal, but we can at least feel like we have some freedom.

In this April 10, 2020, photo, Detroit Police Capt. Jevon Johnson, right, talks with Lt. Pride Henry outside the TCF Center, in Detroit. The coronavirus pandemic that has crippled big-box retailers and mom and pop shops worldwide may be making a dent in illicit business, too. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)AP

Getting back to normal

What that freedom will look like remains uncertain.

Less than six years since the city emerged from the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggans administration projects the coronavirus pandemic will strip the budget of $348 million in projected revenue, a large chunk from losses due to the temporary shuttering of the citys three casinos and their hotels.

Detroit this week opened up its drive-through testing facility at the former state fairgrounds to any essential workers, even if they arent displaying coronavirus symptoms. Duggan said employee testing will become crucial to reopening the economy safely.

We need to be able to have this city recover economically as quickly as possible, the mayor said. And so its time to start testing people who dont have symptoms, so people will know for sure whether theyre infected or whether theyre not.

Detroits automakers are in discussions with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union regarding safely restarting production, Reuters reported this week.

Duggan said he wants Detroit to lead the nation with the plan to reopen its economy. He expects the medical protocols established for city government to become a road map for private business.

Michigan is already beginning to look at why the states black residents, who make up about 13.6% of Michigans population, experienced such disproportionately high number of cases and deaths. Black patients, many from Detroit, account for 33%, of the 35,000 cases in Michigan, and 40% of the 2,800 deaths, according to state data.

Whitmer created the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities to explore the issue and make recommendations to help correct it.

This has magnified the problems of underlying issues, said state Rep. Carter. " ... We always have always known this in the black community. Now its almost like the world knows it."

Carter absolutely believes the pandemic will result in positive change.

I hope the disparity and resource issue in under-served black communities is addressed, he said. "Its almost like the Flint water crisis.

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Daily life grinds to a halt with empty streets, a rising death toll as coronavirus lays siege to Detroit - MLive.com

Alhaji Ahmed Matane is the Chairman, Technical Support Team for the preparation of Niger State Urban Policy and Secretary to the State Government. He spoke to Property & Environment Editor, CHINEDUM UWAEGBULAM on the critical issues surrounding urban development policy and affordable housing.

Niger State Government last year inaugurated a committee saddled with the responsibility of monitoring effectively the process of preparation and validation of the State Urban Development Policy (SUP), what has been the outcome of the process?I have the privilege of chairing the 32-member Technical Support Team (TST), whose primary function is to guide the stakeholders in all the 25 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state towards producing a State Urban Policy (SUP) that sets out an effective and sustainable path for developing and modernizing the state; addressing its development challenges, and generating individual and collective prosperity for all Nigerlites.

The TST has been able to identify and sensitise the stakeholders in all the LGAs and got them involved in the generation of the data/evidence that formed the basis for the SUP. We are targeting the end of April 2020 to produce a draft of the policy. This will be presented to the stakeholders for review and validation in a Niger State Urban Forum. The draft policy will be presented to the Executive Council for approval, and presentation to Niger State House of Assembly for enactment into law.

The bottom-up and stakeholder-driven approach adopted by TST has given many more stakeholders, the opportunity to join the process, at different stages. This had tended to slightly delay the scheduled activities toward the formulation of the policy. Otherwise, the share number of stakeholders involved has helped to ensure that there is a shared understanding among Nigerlites, of the individual and collective responsibilities and benefits for all in effective implementation of the SUP.

You may be interested to know that the motivation to prepare the Niger State Urban Policy came from Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, Governor of Niger State when he articulated his vision for Niger State at an international conference on National Urban Policy in Paris, France in May 2017. When he assumed duty as the Governor of Niger State in May 2015, he came to the conclusion that the effectiveness and sustainability of our towns and cities are hinged on their level of good governance, especially transparency and accountability to their residents; and their ability to operate on a self-sustaining basis.

The current over-reliance of the states and local governments in Nigeria, on the monthly federal allocation has been such that their economic potentials have remained undeveloped with inadequate efforts at achieving internal resource mobilization. Fiscal transfers from the Federation account have tended to make the management of the affairs of the two tiers of sub-national government top-down, substantially excluding the residents and other stakeholders in key decisions.

I am convinced that we need a profound paradigm shift that builds good understanding, mutual respect and a sustainable partnership between the state government and the residents of our towns and cities. This will enable them to demonstrate local ownership and contribute resources to pay their equitable share of the cost of service provision and to instil in them proprietary pride in the communities, town and cities.

How will the SUPensure that the resources of the state especially, land for urban development is used efficiently and effectively for the present and future generations without unnecessarily depleting good agricultural land?The key objective of the policy is to enable the state and local governments to operate on a self-sustaining basis such as to run the state and councils as a business with a human face. This is in addition to becoming transparent and accountable to their residents.

You may be aware that Niger State has the largest land mass in the country put at 76,000 square kilometres. The social and economic development of the state is going to be predicated on judicious utilization of its land asset. This will involve partnership with the private sector from within and outside Nigeria for largescale agriculture with complimentary value-addition facilities, that integrates the local farmers into the process. We will, in addition, digitize the land asset of the state to ensure effective and transparent utilisation and generation of land-based taxes at the local government level in particular.

What are the core issues to be addressed by the state urban policy? Do you foreseesustainable partnership between the state government and the residents in towns and cities?There are ten core issues to be addressed by the policy. These include Integrated and balanced territorial development; inclusive, productive and competitive economy; effective land governance; urban security and safety; strengthening urban-rural linkages; resilient infrastructure and services; sustainable transportation and mobility; urban resilience, climate change mitigation and adaptation; smart cities strategies. The policy is developed through effective bottom-up and stakeholder-driven approach that builds good understanding, mutual respect and sustainable partnership between the state government and the residents of our towns and cities. Accordingly, a sustainable partnership among the stakeholders will be the basis for implementing the policy, ensuring the individual and collective prosperity for all Nigerlites. We already have a very good start with the stakeholders unanimously adopting the following as a motto for the state- Equity in Development: A State for all Nigerlites.

How will the state pool private funds to execute some of these projects lined up or recommended under SUP? What support are you expecting from development partners in this programme?We will develop the capacity of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to be able to prepare bankable projects that can attract grants, concessional funding, investors from Nigeria and beyond. The government will also be able to establish a mutually beneficial partnership with the private sector that will enable us to attract finance, include Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and expertise from all parts of the world to drive the social and economic development of the state.

Right now we are fortunate to attract grant from the South Korean government, who has also requested the World Bank and Cities Alliance to participate in the process of preparing our policy and to finance bankable projects that will come out of the policy.

The state shares a common boundary with Abuja and several slums are emerging along your side of the divide, what impacts will this new policy have in the urban development of your towns and cities such as Suleja close to the Federal Capital Territory?There are also emerging slums on the Abuja side of the border. However, the slums on our side of the border have a lot to do with the fact that Abuja has not been able to provide mass affordable housing for the vast majority of its workers. Up to 1.5 million people commute to Abuja daily from Suleja, towns and villages around it. We have embarked on the development of a Smart City in Suleja to provide modern, affordable housing for our people and for Abuja workers. This is in addition to embarking on comprehensive urban renewal projects too, among others, improve the quality of life, wellbeing of the poor and low-income families in the area. Above all, we will be vigorously promoting the establishment of a Metropolitan Development and Management System to cover Niger State-Abuja-Nasarawa State. This will enable Niger and Nasarawa States to partner with Federal Capital Development Authority to develop socioeconomic and infrastructure projects that will enhance the development of the three entities.

Like other states,the development of mass and affordable housing for the teeming population has remained a major challenge. How do plan to use the policy in changing the narrative?Niger State government will harness the tremendous expertise, experience of the private sector; the seemingly abundant concessional funding from the Development Finance Institutions to develop bankable mass and affordable housing for all Nigerlites. The government will eliminate bottlenecks associated with the other housing components such as land, infrastructure, building materials and labour.

The SUP itself will be the most powerful tool for marketing the state and its commitment to forge a mutually beneficial partnership with the private investors within and outside Nigeria. There is a profound determination and commitment, by the state government, to develop a housing delivery system in the state that will operate on a self-sustaining basis.

Nigerias path to sustainable development is through green economy. What part will your state play through the SUP in ensuring green growth and development inpublic and private investments?The policy contains a commitment of the state government to pursue a green economic development in the State. This will enable us to reduce environmental risk, ecological scarcity, and institutionalise sustainable development, resilience, social justice, and equity. The target of the state government is to ensure that growth in employment and income is driven by public and private investment into such sectors as infrastructure, value-added agriculture and building assets that allow reduced carbon emissions, pollution, prevent loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

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'We will digitise assets to generate land-based taxes' - Guardian

Is the presidents address signalling a shift from one-size-fits-all to equal consideration to all persons?

What if Kayamandi mattered?

Would the government policy responses to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic have been designed differently?

Who is Kayamandi and why does it matter that Kayamandi matters?

Kayamandi is a township accounting for four municipal wards in the Stellenbosch municipality.

Its population was 24 640, with the median age between 24 and 26, and unemployment was at 55% in 2011.

Things are worse now, with all three measures of poverty increasing, according to the Western Cape governments Social-Economic Profile of Stellenbosch in 2017.

The annual average income in the same year was R30 000, with 10% having zero income and only 4% earning between R75 000 and R600 000.

Only 6% of Kayamandians had cars and most worked in the informal economy.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Tuesday a whopping R500 billion social relief and economic support package as a phase 2 response to the coronavirus.

Read: Ramaphosa levels with SA on plans to reopen the economy

Until then, in Covid-19 policy responses, I had been concerned about the governments deafening silence on constitutional social justice commitments, including freedom from poverty and the duty to advance equality.

As a social justice think-tank convened by the social justice hub at Stellenbosch University, we were increasingly concerned about the apparent dereliction of the equality duty in policy responses to the virus.

We thought this was pushing many disadvantaged groups further behind or off the social life grid.

This, we knew, would not augur well for hunger, anger and, concomitantly, the rule of law, sustainable democracy and peace.

We must applaud Ramaphosa for the audacity to invest such a huge amount of money, mostly in people, to contain the effects of Covid-19 and the movement restricting policy responses to it.

Equally encouraging is that the theory of change behind the presidents address balances considerations regarding igniting economic growth with preserving lives and livelihoods for all, including disadvantaged groups and communities.

In this regard, the president appears to be shifting from years of neoliberal economic approaches and reclaiming the social democracy path former president Nelson Mandela expounded through the reconciliation and development programme and related policy interventions.

It also appears that the government listened to the voices of more than 200 economists and associates, expressed through an open letter prepared under the auspices of the Institute for Economic Justice.

Equally encouraging is that the theory of change behind the presidents address balances considerations regarding igniting economic growth with preserving lives and livelihoods for all, including disadvantaged groups and communities

Thuli Madonsela

This reflects a shift towards policy influence beyond a small group of mostly big business, health experts and corporate embedded economists.

It is good that the economists letter leans towards the World Banks shared view that cash transfers to the poor are not anathema to economic growth and stability because they reinforce local economic systems and peoples agency.

The social relief package also seems to have learnt from Greece that strategic spending is better for economic and social regeneration than blanket austerity measures.

I have a caveat though.

The temporary universal grant should be accompanied by a community service duty, as should the duly expanded child grant to parents.

My heart sang when Ramaphosa said: Our new economy must be founded on fairness, empowerment, justice and equality.

I have another caveat, though. Humanity cannot live on bread alone said Jesus as quoted in Matthew 4:4. The effect of Covid-19 and the restrictions of movements far transcend economic and food security.

Our social justice M-Plan research suggests that this would have been known had more diverse societal voices participated in the policy design, beyond a few business, labour and health oligarchs, and the economists who intervened.

We need more voices shaping policy design.

The missing voices include those of students and pupils who have been forced back to Kayamandi and thrown into e-learning and teaching.

Read:Should varsities receive a Covid-19 stimulus package?

Disadvantaged students are competing on (un)equal footing with their counterparts with laptops, own rooms/studies, data and a generally supportive family environment, comprising a digitally literate family and extended social network on the other side of town.

Consider Noma*, whose university sent her back to a village without internet reception, and who needs a taxi to take her to Empangeni daily to take part in online learning at an internet cafe.

To compound matters, taxis refuse to take her because e-learning is not an essential service. And her mother can no longer raise transport and data money through selling magwinya (vetkoek).

Their counterparts have cars that can take them to buy groceries at a mall where they accidentally bump into colleagues and discuss whatever challenges they might have.

The temporary universal grant should be accompanied by a community service duty, as should the duly expanded child grant to parents

Thuli Madonsela

Where are the voices of historically disadvantaged universities, such as Fort Hare, which do not even have e-learning resources and competencies?

What about the voice of Lucy* from Kayamandi who, after testing positive, refused to stay in hospital because she feared leaving her nine-year-old daughter with her abusive boyfriend in a one-room shack in Malmesbury?

Then theres Linda*, the hospital cleaner, who normally leaves her two daughters with Aunt Mara* but now cannot do so because the regulations have closed early childhood development centres, even though there is no childcare for emergency workers.

Theres also Palesa*, who called recently asking for money to buy prepaid electricity and food for her child because she had become indigent when movement restrictions stopped her freelancing.

And what happens to Ben*, whose mental health therapy included walking the dog around the block for at least 30 minutes?

These are some of the stories and questions that have emerged in working groups, established after the inaugural Virtual Roundtable on Social Justice and Corona, as we prepare for a follow-up round table on April 23 2023.

One of the questions asked was if Kayamandi mattered, what would the policy responses have looked like from the very outset?

Each working group is required to consider:

This is in addition to answering questions on equality, discrimination, consultation and the use of disaggregated data to predict the effect of planned policies and laws.

The social relief package is likely to offset some of the effect of unfair indirect discrimination that has been suffered, mostly by poor people, township and village communities, and the missing middle.

It is also understandable that some harm was inevitable.

One of the considerations in determining if such harm is constitutionally permissible in the light of the equality duty is whether the purpose of the harmful policy outweighs its disproportionate harm or burden on a group and there is no less intrusive way to achieve such purpose.

An emerging research conclusion is that the policy misses are owed to the inadequate use of disaggregated data and the democratisation of the policy design process.

Both disaggregated data and inclusive consultations are essential for impact prediction.

Not using municipal ward-based data leads to spray-gun approaches that are both inefficient in terms of resource use and not responsive to meeting people where they are.

An example is unnecessary food parcels or items because a one-size-fits-all causes many to fall through the cracks.

Is the presidents address signalling a shift from one-size-fits-all, from neoliberal economics and other problematic approaches to an epic journey of advancing shared prosperity and equal consideration to all persons?

Will the lived reality and pressing socioeconomic concerns of Kayamandi and the Gogo Dlaminis have equal validity in our policy design? Epic journeys have humble beginnings.

*Names changed to protect the identities of the people quoted

Madonsela is professor, social justice chair and M-Plan convener at Stellenbosch University, and founder of the Thuma Foundation

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Thuli Madonsela: What if the poor mattered? - News24

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fortuna Silver Mines, Inc. (NYSE: FSM) (TSX: FVI) provides an update on the status of its operations at the Caylloma Mine in Peru (refer to Fortuna news releases dated March 17, 2020 and April 2, 2020), which is continuing to operate and contribute to the local economy during these challenging times for the world.

On Sunday, March 15, 2020, the Government of Peru introduced a series of measures to contain the rapid spread of COVID-19 which included a declaration of a fifteen-day period of mandatory national social isolation, which has been subsequently extended to May 10, 2020.

During this period, the Company has been working under the regulatory framework issued by the Ministerio de Energa y Minas (MINEM) and the Ministerio del Interior (MININTER), which allows mines to operate during this period with essential personnel.

The well-being of our personnel is our top priority. We have prepared and implemented health and safety protocols to safeguard the health and safety of our personnel and the local communities where we operate. The Caylloma mine is located approximately 14 kilometers from the nearest town of Caylloma.

These protocols, which have been approved by the Ministerio de Salud, include among others:

We continue to test all personnel at our site, and through our testing we have identified positive results for COVID-19 in six individuals all of whom remain asymptomatic. Each positive case has been handled according to our demanding protocols. All actions taken have been coordinated with the health authorities and informed of in a timely manner.

Managers at the mine site have kept all personnel informed of the positive tests. The Company has requested personnel to be vigilant in self-monitoring for signs of symptoms.

About Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.

Fortuna is a growth oriented, precious metals producer focused on mining opportunities in Latin America. Our primary assets are the Caylloma silver Mine in southern Peru, the San Jose silver-gold Mine in Mexico and the Lindero gold Project, currently under construction, in Argentina. The Company is selectively pursuing acquisition opportunities throughout the Americas and in select other areas. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.fortunasilver.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Jorge A. Ganoza President, CEO and DirectorFortuna Silver Mines Inc.

Trading symbols: NYSE: FSM | TSX: FVI

Investor Relations:

Carlos BacaT (Peru): +51.1.616.6060, ext. 0

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements which constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, Forward-looking Statements). All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are Forward-looking Statements and are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the Forward-looking Statements. The Forward-looking Statements in this news release may include, without limitation, statements about the duration and effects of COVID-19 and any other pandemics on the Companys workforce, business, operations and financial condition, and the risks relating to a global pandemic, which unless contained could cause a slowdown in global economic growth and impact the Companys business, operations, financial condition and share price; the duration of the reduced operations at the Caylloma mine, and the number of personnel that may be affected by COVID-19. Often, but not always, these Forward-looking Statements can be identified by the use of words such as estimated, potential, open, future, assumed, projected, used, detailed, has been, gain, planned, reflecting, will, containing, remaining, to be, or statements that events, could or should occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations.

Forward-looking Statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward-looking Statements. Such uncertainties and factors include, among others, the worldwide economic and social impact of COVID-19, the duration and extent of COVID-19, changes in general economic conditions and financial markets; the duration of government restrictions on business related to COVID-19 including operations at the Caylloma mine; changes in prices for silver and other metals; technological and operational hazards in Fortunas mining and mine development activities; risks inherent in mineral exploration; uncertainties inherent in the estimation of mineral reserves, mineral resources, and metal recoveries; changes to current estimates of mineral reserves and resources; changes to production estimates; governmental and other approvals; changes in government, political unrest or instability in countries where Fortuna is active; labor relations issues; as well as those factors discussed under Risk Factors in the Company's Annual Information Form. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward-looking Statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward-looking Statements contained herein are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to the management of the worldwide economic and social impact of COVID-19, that the duration and extent of COVID-19 is minimized and not long-term, the expected trends in mineral prices and currency exchange rates; the accuracy of the Companys current mineral resource and reserve estimates; that the Companys activities will be in accordance with the Companys public statements and stated goals; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; that all required approvals will be obtained; that there will be no significant disruptions affecting operations and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward-looking Statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any Forward-looking Statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that the Company will be successful in its legal proceedings or that these Forward-looking Statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on Forward-looking Statements.

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Fortuna provides an update on its operations at the Caylloma Mine in Peru - Junior Mining Network

By Ajibola Olayinka

Prologue

It was 2020, a year seen only once in a century. Records were dug out of outlandish events on the spectaculars only seen in the something twenties and 2020 was believed to belong to the pantheon. There was the 1720 plague, 1820 cholera, 1920 Spanish flu and now 2020 Coronavirus. The 100 years clock-set has remained a mystery beyond the Nostradamus 1551 writings interpreted as prediction of the current crisis. Individuals, families, corporations and nations were occupied with planning, scenarios and futuristic modelling to make history out of the leap year.

When the smoke of Coronavirus (COVID-19) spewed out of Wuhan China therefore, the emergence was a butt of joke from the rest of the world. Social media was inundated with the usual animal consumption by Chinese without respect for preparation and promptly concluded this as the veritable source of the new attack. The height of disbelief even by those who should know better came from Americas White House when the President dismissed the Chinese Virus that it will not see the end of the day in the United States. Her citizens were daily glued to the television interviews and campaigns for the next presidential election and the new leader.

For the rest of the world, it was business as usual. While the world played the ostrich, globalization continued unabated with people, aircraft, luxury ships, etc. ferrying mankind and goods from one end of the world to another end. You can control your action but you cannot control its consequences. Before the world could usher in the 2020 new year, the raging infection has scattered to political, economic and social centers of the universe ready to wreak unprecedented havoc never seen before in this generation.

It was obvious the universe has gone on a forced holiday. Others believe the earth is ripe for Sabbath or a year of Jubilee. The megalomaniac concluded it is the apocalypse before the earth crash. Welcome to a new world on reverse gear as COVID-19 Pandemic is gifting the world rewind mode from civilization to the early man.

Pandemics or War?

The acceleration dynamics confounded the experts and the World Health Organization (WHO) quickly moved the Virus (code named COVID-19) from a local infection to a global pandemic. Discovered in December 2019, it has zigzagged to global extremes within weeks due to movement of people, goods and cargoes. The pestilential devastation peaked by mid-February in Hubei province in China and this compelled the supreme commander to take over its management. Horror films and videos were salaciously served daily how human packs of the dead were moved to the graves as statistics of the disease. Mega hospitals were constructed in record time to accommodate the sick. In spite of elaborate procedures by health authorities, the novel virus has no known medication for now. Patients at the critical stage only got access to Ventilators to recover bursting lungs and loosing breath and once it went beyond this, a new death record was created. This was only in China.

Fleetingly, there was the rude incursion of conspiracy theories. The virus was the outcome of the launch of 5G, the latest generation of the data super highway invented to deliver explosive score-card with China and the western nations on the forefront. China must have embarked on a biological warfare to show her superiority over America and the Wuhan results were outcome of tests carried out. There were also outright denial that Coronavirus was a figment of WHO imagination. Unfortunately, the virus is a novel landfall and data about it were few and far between. Nevertheless, the transmission continued on its exponential scale, unprecedented in this generation.

Subsequently, Europe and the United States became the epicenter and curves in Italy and Spain in particular started climbing north very fast. With the emergence of the moment of truth, panic set in as hospitals could no longer hold massive infected patients while hotels, luxury ships, military bases and sport facilities were augmented to accommodate the pandemic surge. Cities and countries became locked down in all the nations of the world. Aviation and global transportation came to a standstill. Freedom was curtailed with stay at home orders to minimize community spread.

The outcome of the situation could not be better demonstrated than the scene in Italian cities. For weeks the streets were deserted, devoid of life and busting they were accustomed to. Having wiped off many families and generations, people began to throw into the streets cash and expensive materials. Work flows and food supply chains became abruptly truncated. Despite release of strategic food banks hunger loomed large even in rich suburbs. In dense municipalities hoodlums engage state securities in rampage, looting, stealing and killing in the name of survival. Foods and survival kits are being rationed in several countries as hunger looms in the corner for those who escaped the Virus. Hope was on a tenterhook. Wild goats and dangerous animals flooded several counties in Wales and the bewildered creatures were shown watching families locked up in various houses due to lockdown. Ecuador witnessed dead bodies of the victims of the virus lying on streets without burial attention. Finally, the US Surgeon General told a shocked audience that infection and subsequent death from Coronavirus is worse than 9/11 attack and Pearl Harbour at the peak of World War II.

In wartime, people die from attack; Fear hangs in the air; Lockdown becomes compulsory; foods are rationed; Lives and livelihood are disconnected; Devastation hits hard and what takes years to build are forcefully taken down; Ceasefire becomes unpredictable; Peace wings away leaving crisis behind; Freedom is curtailed and work abandoned. Life becomes nasty, brutish and short and uncertainty rules the air.

The boundariless pandemic is war on a universal scale with no respect for race, color, social status or nation. Nuclear arsenal, biological weapon, economic supremacy, intellectual property, mega prosperity (name it) pales to nothing against the contagion of Coronavirus. It is the worst war fighting invisible enemy.

Places, Cases and Faces

The first Coronavirus index in Nigeria, an Italian was on a call of duty when he arrived at Lafarge. Two weeks before then, the stakeholders were honking the nation for shutting the airports and borders to commence the protocols for fighting the spread from importation. Now it is known with the benefit of hindsight that the Committee delayed the shut down because several important personalities were abroad for business, government or personal reasons and their interests were protected with that position. By the time the shutdown was activated the infection has been generously transmitted to families, friends, cronies and acquaintances by the new arrivals. Those who responded for quarantine and isolation began to get government attention and mild and serious cases became admitted into special hospitals. However, the second categories of returnees ignored instruction and ended up in regular hospitals when the virus became critical. The latter set accounted for the major deaths recorded so far across the country. Thereafter, community infection has accounted for daily increase in the number of the sick.

Italy, Spain, UK, France and USA were not as lucky. These nations are paying for inaction, indiscipline, arrogance and negligence to keep the rampaging virus at bay. First, the epicenter has migrated from China to Europe and America. Second, there has been a harvest of death and Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York State in the US captured its gory picture in his daily media briefing. Third, the disease has remained an equal opportunity predator with the high and mighty coming under its hammer, the highest ranked being the Prime Minister of UK, Mr. Boris Johnson. The world breathed a sigh of relief on his recovery. Fourth, global economy has changed tragically from what we used to know with stock market free fall, record high unemployment, heavy deficit in budget numbers, economic depression of the highest magnitude, tendency towards zero productivity, trade and currency exchange losses, virtual collapse of the SMEs amongst others.

Paris, Tokyo, New York, London and Rome have lost their allure of beauty with deserted streets and frightened populace. The newly commissioned Disney Studio has taken the back seat. Nevertheless, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and probably Japan have managed to keep reasonable numbers of the virus carriers. Germany is also reputed to account for a low death turnout due to aggressive testing and early treatment. Over the last 10 weeks, average death of infected people has moved from 2% to above 6% with a prospect for a more frightening figure on a global scale.

Trust human nature for survival, skin for skin, all that a man has will he give for his life. Stimulus packages not witnessed in war time are being announced by country leaders. Money bags have created a common purse as additional resources to restore hope. Mankind is racing against time for COVID-19 Vaccine as huge resources have been deployed across the globe. While the drug front-liners have announced approval for between three and nine months, some trial and error cocktail of drugs are been dispensed to save lives. Challenge for the production of adequate ventilators have been taken up even by automobile manufacturers. The traditional contributions are not left out with herb recipes from the mundane to the bizarre.

Who will save the world from desolation, decimation and demotion to its humble beginnings? Except there is an intervention of the Invisible Hand as in the past pestilences, civilization will be reversed and we will see the early man again.

Predicting the Beginning of the End

Imminence of Coronavirus is an exchange of baton from present civilization to a journey in the past as the world used to know the history. We should begin to take seriously the metamorphosis of dinosaur from being the biggest creature to its extinction. We should peep into the future and see what the new world will look like on the other side provided humanity is not wiped out.

We will see power concentrated into a few hands to direct the affairs of the world. Remember, in war time, leaders are empowered to decide and act without recourse to any other arm of government. Such situation will end broad participation in governance and nations will be accustomed to a one-man rule.

For sure, sophisticated machines invented to ease movement and transportation currently grounded will no longer be needed. Every person will be limited to the neighborhood and movement by foot will be adequate for human purpose.

Man is a gregarious animal will become an old saying because being gregarious is a game of death. As related in Yoruba, Karin kapo, yiye ni ye ni yoo di ka rin ka po, pipa ni pa ni. Social gathering is a veritable source of virus, as such, everyone will keep to self and families will stay home.

The immediate environment will be the only source of succor, supplies, food and comfort. Every item within the vicinity will count for survival and it will be everyone for self and God for all of us. Man will hopefully cling to these until either they are exhausted and succumb to the inevitable or the end eventually comes.

Mankind will begin to live by a true nuclear family concept as there will be no room to accommodate beyond this family pack. As the family grows in size, questions will be raised on raising a new family. However, there will be high tendency that siblings will begin to raise new families.

There will be a dramatic change in diet and you can count on generous green. This may even prolong lives as lifestyle and age sicknesses will no longer intimidate the gerontocrats. Remember that global fashion headquarters now exist in dreams, as such our dress sense will borrow a leaf from Mr. and Mrs. Adam in the Garden of Eden.

Education and interaction will move to virtual online. GTB made history in Nigeria holding its 2020 AGM by proxy. Others in the private sector are exploring this method. Again, since we cannot enjoy any resource in the new world paradigm ad infinitum, current information highway may become a past event and communication limited to word of mouth amongst the family.

As economic activities grind to a halt, trade by barter will reclaim its place of glory. Since money and banking sophistry will relocate to the archives, man will devise other means of exchange for the complementary survival resources localized with other families.

New measures of wealth will be created on family, national and international levels. This will become imperative even if only for score-keeping and record purposes. Economic jargons about GDP, GNP, Reserves, per capital analyses, Fortune 500, etc. will be substituted for other methods based on the new realities. The Forbes billionaires will detest this!

Epilogue

Wuhan, the first epicenter of Coronavirus has sprung from its ashes. The 11-million city has resumed business, leisure and movements after eleven weeks lockdown; Its streets shriek of rubber on the road; Its airports roar with aircraft take-off and landing; Its factories hummed with working machines; Its city center resumes human and vehicular traffic. All thanks to the ingenious Chinese IT experts who devised an app to allow only virus-free beings out on the streets. While new cases have remained muted, fatalities appear to be receding to the past. Other Chinese cities and communities continue to enjoy quality life and liberty, two indices desired most by the western world.

Boris Johnson recovered from the killer attack-I owed my life to NHS-and currently recuperates from his country home. Just like the British PM, 80% of infected patients recover with a little fuss, 15% are treated with cocktail of drugs while the rest battle through ventilators. From all indications, major countries with high infection and death rates are close to their peaks and hope of flattening the curves are surging.

At least three key scientific companies are in the fore-front of COVID-19 Vaccines with a timeline of between three and six months. For once, the entire world in general and the super powers in particular have rediscovered their collabo mojo to defeat a common enemy. Resources such as ventilators, PPE, and drugs (India directed its pharmaceutical companies to release Chloroquine for export to needy countries such as US) are shared around the world and China is sending ambassadors to help in the epic battle.

Denmark and Austria have joined the winning countries as they relaxed the lockdown rules to return to normalcy. America is gung-ho to reopen for business and decision on this is being considered at the highest level. New York shakes off the tag of the new coronavirus epicenter as employment forms are being distributed to the record jobless to return to work.

For Nigeria, the hen has come home to roost. Officials confessed they never knew our health care system is in such an abysmal hole. The public was not amused by this discovery since a serving minister once quipped that migration of medical personnel abroad was normal while a doctor serves 100,000 patients compared with a doctor to patient ratio of 1 to 600 prescribed by WHO. For as long as any could remember, our hospitals have remained death centers, even the morgues serving the needs of ritualists. Coronavirus might yet be a blessing in disguise if only governments at Federal, States and Local levels role up their sleeves to devote attention to this critical responsibility.

Oh yes, the world has vowed to move on in spite of the dreaded virus with its routine prevention and cure protocol

Wash hands regularly and vigorously with foaming soap and clean water;

Employ alcohol based hand-sanitizer as stop gap when you are out and about;

Avoid crowd and keep a social distance of at least six feet from others;

Avoid touching the nose, eye or mouth with hands;

Wear protective devices to prevent contacting by accident;

Stay home and keep safe;

When you notice coronavirus symptoms, contact the authorities.

Maybe, just maybe it is not time to embark on the backward journey to the early man of the Stone Age. Those outside our lunar world are watching as mankind drops its last blood to preserve its digital age civilization.

*Ajibola Olayinka writes from Legos

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COVID-19: Steady Rewind Mode on Global Civilization - THISDAY Newspapers