Tiger tests positive for coronavirus at Bronx Zoo
New York: A tiger in New York City has tested positive for coronavirus, according to a news release from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo.
The four-year-old female Malayan tiger named Nadia, as well as three other tigers and three African lions, “developed a dry cough and all are expected to recover”, the BBC reported.
“We tested the cat out of an abundance of caution and will ensure any knowledge we gain about COVID-19 will contribute to the world’s continuing understanding of this novel coronavirus,” the zoo said in a statement.
“Though they have experienced some decrease in appetite, the cats at the Bronx Zoo are otherwise doing well under veterinary care and are bright, alert, and interactive with their keepers.”
The animals are believed to have been infected by a zookeeper. The zoo has been closed since mid-March. (IANS)
Frenchman fined after crossing mountains to buy cigarettes
Toulouse (France): A man who tried to walk from France to Spain to buy cheap cigarettes was rescued in the Pyrenees mountains – only to be fined for flouting anti-coronavirus regulations.
The man had initially set out by car Saturday from Perpignan in southern France to La Jonquera in Spain, but was stopped at a checkpoint, and decided to make his way on foot across the mountain range that separates the two countries.
“He fell into a stream, in brambles, got lost and ended up contacting” the emergency services, a mountain unit of the gendarmerie police force in the Pyrenees-Orientales region said on Twitter on Sunday.
A helicopter was sent to rescue the man, “exhausted, shivering with cold and lost,” it added. After being brought safely back, the man was given the 135-euro ($146) fine for breaking the confinement rules under which French residents can leave their homes only for essential reasons, and then with a self-certified note stating their business. “We remind you once more. STAY AT HOME,” concluded the gendarmerie’s Tweet.
Many people in southern France cross the border to buy cigarettes, alcohol, some foodstuffs and fuel, which are cheaper in Spain. (AFP)
Ecuador city runs out of coffins
Quito: Soaring numbers of COVID-19 deaths in Ecuador’s second city Guayaquil have led to a shortage of coffins, forcing locals to resort to using cardboard boxes, city authorities said on Sunday.
Authorities in the Pacific port city said they had received a donation of 1,000 pressed cardboard caskets from local producers, and delivered them for use in two local cemeteries. “It’s so they can meet demand,” a city hall spokesman told AFP. “There are either no coffins in the city or they are extremely expensive.”
Businessman Santiago Olivares, who owns a chain of funeral homes, said his company was unable to keep up with demand. “I sold the 40 that I had at the downtown branch, and 40 others from my headquarters. I had to order 10 more at the weekend and they’ve run out,” Olivares told AFP.
The cheapest coffins currently cost around USD 400. Olivares said a 15-hour curfew in the city was contributing to the shortage of basic raw materials for coffin makers like wood and metal. Last week, residents posted videos on social media showing abandoned bodies in the streets in the Latin American city worst hit by the pandemic.
The government called in troops to pick up 150 corpses from streets and homes earlier this week after mortuary workers in the city were unable to keep up with a backlog of removals. The cardboard coffins “will be a great help in providing a dignified burial for people who died during this health emergency,” the Guayaquil mayor’s office wrote on Twitter.
Ecuador reported 3,646 cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, including 180 deaths, the majority of them occurring in Guayaquil and its surrounding province of Guayas. (AFP)