Tag Archives: death toll

Death toll reaches 23 from last year’s mass shooting in El Paso, Texas

By Julio-Cesar Chavez

(Reuters) – The death toll from a mass shooting last August at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart store has climbed to 23 after the last victim left hospitalized from the rampage succumbed to his injuries over the weekend, the hospital said on Sunday.

“After a nearly nine-month fight, our hearts are heavy as we report Guillermo ‘Memo’ Garcia, our last remaining patient being treated from the El Paso shooting, has passed away,” David Shimp, chief executive of Del Sol Medical Center in El Paso, said in a statement.

Garcia was a youth soccer coach who was on a fundraising event with his team outside the store on the morning of Aug. 3, 2019, when a man opened fire on shoppers with an AK-47 rifle in a massacre prosecutors have branded an anti-Hispanic hate crime.

About four dozen people were struck by gunfire, and 20 were killed outright. Two more victims died of their wounds two days later.

Garcia had remained hospitalized since the shooting, undergoing several surgeries and spending almost nine months in intensive care before he died on Saturday night. He is survived by his wife, Jessica Coca Garcia, who was also injured in the shooting, and two children.

The accused gunman, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, who police said drove 11 hours from his hometown in the Dallas suburb of Allen, Texas, to commit the slayings, remains in custody charged with capital murder and federal hate crimes. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Prosecutors said Crusius deliberately targeted people of Mexican heritage in the massacre, citing an anti-immigrant manifesto he allegedly posted online calling the attack “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

The assault in the Texas border city was followed just 13 hours later by a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, where a gunman killed nine people and wounded 27 others before he was shot dead by police.

The back-to-back massacres sparked a political outcry, with El Paso native and then-Democratic Party presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke demanding the mandatory confiscation of the assault-style rifles often used in mass shootings.

The El Paso shooting also prompted leading Texas Republicans including Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to retreat somewhat on their staunch defense of gun rights.

(This story has been refiled to restore dropped word in headline)

(Reporting by Julio-Cesar Chavez in Washington; Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Cooney)

Global coronavirus cases pass 2.5 million as U.S. tally nears 800,000

(Reuters) – Global coronavirus infections surpassed 2.5 million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, with U.S. cases surpassing 800,000.

The figure includes more than 170,000 deaths, two-thirds of which have been reported in Europe.

It took around 75 days for the first 500,000 cases to be reported, and just six days for the most recent half million to be registered.

The first 41 cases were confirmed on Jan. 10, just over three months ago, and new cases have accelerated to over 70,000 a day in April.

It compares to 3 million to 5 million cases of severe illness caused annually by seasonal influenza, according to World Health Organisation estimates.

While experts say actual cases of the new coronavirus are likely higher than current reports, the number still falls far short of the Spanish flu, which began in 1918 and infected an estimated 500 million people.

Despite the growing number of cases in the current pandemic, there are signs that the spread of the coronavirus is slowing with many countries exercising lockdown measures.

At the beginning of April, the total case figure grew at a rate of 8%-9% per day and this has since slowed to between 3%-4% per day in the past week.

More than 1.1 million cases have been reported in Europe, including almost 400,000 cases in Italy and Spain, where over 10% of reported cases have been fatal.

North America accounts for a third of all cases, though so far the region has reported lower death rates. In both the United States and Canada, 5% of reported cases have been fatal.

Cases in Latin America continue to grow faster than other regions, and topped 100,000 in the past 24 hours.

In China, where the virus is thought to have originated, daily new cases have dwindled to less than 20 a day over the past three days and no new deaths have been reported this week.

However, last week China raised its official death toll by 40%, adding another 1,290 fatalities which health authorities said were not reported earlier.

Currently, many countries continue to experience a shortage of testing resources, artificially lowering case numbers and excluding infections in nursing homes.

(Reporting by Cate Cadell in Beijing; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Alistair Bell)

U.S. coronavirus death toll passes 35,000, cases top 700,000: Reuters tally

By Lisa Shumaker

(Reuters) – U.S. coronavirus deaths topped 35,400 on Friday, rising by more than 2,000 for the fourth day in a row, according to a Reuters tally, as some states announced timetables for lifting restrictions aimed at blunting the pandemic.

Total deaths in California topped 1,000 on Friday, the eighth state to reach that milestone and the first on the West Coast, according to a Reuters tally.

U.S. coronavirus confirmed cases were over 700,000, up 30,884 with a few states yet to report.

The number of new cases reported has accelerated in the past three days, with 31,425 cases reported on Thursday. A record increase of 35,715 new cases was reported on April 10.

The infections and fatalities are spread unevenly across the country, with more densely populated places such as New York accounting for nearly half the total U.S. deaths.

Sweeping stay-at-home orders in 42 states to combat the new coronavirus have shuttered businesses, disrupted lives and decimated the economy, and some protesters have begun taking to the streets to urge governors to rethink the restrictions.

(Writing by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Daniel Wallis and Sonya Hepinstall)

U.S. coronavirus deaths march higher to over 31,000: Reuters tally

By Lisa Shumaker

(Reuters) – U.S. coronavirus deaths rose above 31,000 on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, as President Donald Trump prepares to announce guidelines for reopening the economy.

The United States is the world’s worst-affected country with fatalities doubling in just a week and setting a record single-day increase for two days in a row.

The governors of Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania began cautiously preparing Americans for a post-virus life where residents wear face masks as they emerge from isolation in the coming weeks.

The U.S. shutdown has crushed the nation’s economy to levels not seen since the Great Depression nearly a century ago as more than 20 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits amid shuttered stores and restaurants.

U.S. cases totaled over 635,000 and rose by 30,000 on Wednesday, the biggest increase in five days, according to the Reuters tally.

GRAPHIC: Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S. https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T

(Writing by Lisa Shumaker; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

U.S. may need to extend social distancing for virus until 2022, study says

(Reuters) – The United States may need to endure social distancing measures adopted during the coronavirus outbreak until 2022, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The study comes as more than 2,200 people died in the United States from the outbreak on Tuesday, a record, according to a Reuters tally, even as the country debated how to reopen its economy. The overall death toll in the U.S. from the virus stands at more than 28,300 as of Tuesday.

“Intermittent distancing may be required into 2022 unless critical care capacity is increased substantially or a treatment or vaccine becomes available”, the Harvard researchers said in findings published Tuesday in the journal Science.

Giving examples of South Korea and Singapore, the researchers wrote that effective distancing could reduce the strain on healthcare systems and enable contact tracing and quarantine to be feasible.

The study acknowledged that prolonged distancing would most likely have profoundly negative economic, social, and educational consequences.

The study added that even in the case of “apparent elimination”, SARS-CoV-2 surveillance should still be maintained, as a resurgence in contagion may be possible as late as 2024.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that infections had “certainly” not yet peaked. Nearly 2 million people globally have been infected and more than 124,000 have died in the most serious pandemic in a century.

The epicenter has shifted from China, where the virus emerged in December, to the United States, which has now recorded the most deaths.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

U.S. coronavirus death toll tops 24,000: Reuters tally

(Reuters) – U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus topped 24,000 on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as officials debated how to reopen the economy without reigniting the outbreak.

The United States, with the world’s third-largest population, has recorded more fatalities from COVID-19 than any other country. There were a total of nearly 583,000 U.S. cases with nearly 2 million reported cases globally.

On Monday, the United States reported about 1,500 new fatalities, far below last week’s running tally of roughly 2,000 deaths every 24 hours, according to a Reuters tally. U.S. deaths exceeded 24,400 on Tuesday with many states yet to report.

Sweeping stay-at-home restrictions to curb the spread of the illness, in place for weeks in many areas of the United States, have taken a painful toll on the economy. With businesses closed and curbs on travel, officials and lawmakers are debating when it might be safe to begin reopening some sectors.

(Writing by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Howard Goller)

U.S. coronavirus outbreak could peak this week, CDC director says

By Doina Chiacu and Lisa Lambert

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The coronavirus outbreak could reach its peak in the United States this week, a top U.S. health official said on Monday, pointing to signs of stabilization across the country.

The United States, with the world’s third-largest population, has recorded more fatalities from COVID-19 than any other country, more than 22,000 as of Monday morning according to a Reuters tally.

About 2,000 deaths were reported for each of the last four days in a row, the largest number of them in and around New York City. Experts say official statistics have understated the actual number of people who have succumbed to the respiratory disease, having excluded coronavirus-related deaths at home.

“We are nearing the peak right now,” Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told NBC’s “Today” show. “You’ll know when you’re at the peak when the next day is actually less than the day before.”

Sweeping stay-at-home restrictions to curb the spread of the disease, in place for weeks in many areas of the country, have taken a painful toll on the economy, raising questions over how the country can sustain business closures and travel curbs.

On Sunday, a Trump administration official indicated May 1 as a potential date for easing the restrictions while cautioning that it was still too early to say whether that goal would be met.

Redfield refused to give a time frame for the re-opening of the U.S. economy and praised social-distancing measures that he said helped curb the mortality rate.

“There’s no doubt we have to reopen correctly,” Redfield said. “It’s going to be a step-by-step gradual process. It’s got to be data-driven.”

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, cautioned that the country was not prepared to end the shutdown.

“We all desire an end to the shutdown orders so we can get Americans back to work and back to normal,” Pelosi said in a statement. “However, there is still not enough testing available to realistically allow that to happen.”

This week Congress will work on further measures to soften the blow of the pandemic. Democrats want to add money for other anti-coronavirus efforts to a measure targeted at small businesses, including funding for rapid national testing and personal protective equipment.

“It cannot wait,” Pelosi said.

President Donald Trump retweeted a call to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after the country’s top expert on infectious diseases said lives could have been saved if the country had shut down sooner during the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The retweet fueled speculation Trump was running out of patience with the popular scientist and could fire him. The White House on Monday did not comment on Trump’s retweet.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Lisa Lambert in Washington, writing by Maria Caspani; Editing by)

Latest on the spread of the coronavirus around the world

(Reuters) – The number of confirmed infections of the novel coronavirus were reported to have exceeded 1.56 million globally and the death toll rose above 95,000, according to a Reuters tally as of 0200 GMT.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.

* U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.

EUROPE

* Spain’s prime minister warned that nationwide confinement would likely last until May even though the worst should soon be over. The death toll fell again on Friday with 605 fatalities registered over the past 24 hours.

* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was resting in hospital on Friday as he recovered from COVID-19 while Britons were told to avoid the temptation of spring during the Easter break with the outbreak approaching a peak.

* Social distancing measures have helped Germany to slightly slow the spread of the coronavirus, Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

* Hungary needs more ventilators and intensive care hospital beds, its prime minister said, as the government reported the single biggest daily increase in infections.

* Poland said it infections may peak in the coming days.

* Bulgaria’s prime minister said the country’s Orthodox churches and temples will be open for traditional Palm Sunday and Easter services despite the outbreak.

* North African migrants rescued from a sinking boat came ashore in Malta early on Friday, hours after the government had said no further groups would be allowed in after it closed its ports.

AMERICAS

* Americans must resist the impulse to ease social-separation measures at the first glimpse of progress now being seen in the coronavirus battle, state government and public health leaders warned.

* Lockdowns in Brazil’s largest cities are beginning to slip, according to new data this week seen and analysed by Reuters, with more people leaving their homes as President Jair Bolsonaro continues to criticize the measures.

* Hundreds of Ecuadorean prisoners will begin making coffins to help cover a shortage emerging in Guayaquil, the epicenter of one of the worst outbreaks in Latin America.

* Chile will start handing out certificates to people who have recovered that will exempt them from adhering to quarantines or other restrictions.

* Mexico has recorded its first two deaths of pregnant women from the coronavirus as the death toll reached 194, the health ministry said.

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

* China’s Wuhan, where the pandemic began, is still testing residents regularly despite relaxing its tough two-month lockdown, with the country wary of a rebound as it sets its sights on normalising the economy.

* Suifenhe, on China’s far northeastern border with Russia, has seen an influx of people returning home, many infected with the virus, travelling by road from Vladivostok.

* Metropolitan Tokyo asked some businesses to close and Kyoto told tourists to stay away, amid fears the government’s measures are too little and too late.

* Some Catholic penitents flagellated themselves and prayed outside closed churches in the Philippines on Good Friday, despite strict orders for people to stay indoors.

* Malaysia extended movement and travel restrictions until April 28.

* Early voting in South Korea’s parliamentary election began on Friday with coronavirus patients casting ballots at disinfected polling stations.

* Cambodia’s parliament passed a law on Friday to prepare for a state of emergency.

* Kazakhstan will extend its state of emergency until the end of April.

* Australia will deploy helicopters, set up police checkpoints and hand out hefty fines to deter people from breaking an Easter travel ban.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Days after Congo announced emergency restrictions, a police video started circulating online showing an officer in the capital beating a taxi driver for violating a one-passenger limit.

* All Botswana’s parliamentarians including the president will be quarantined for two weeks and tested, after a health worker screening lawmakers for the virus tested positive.

* The epidemic has so far infected over 440 people in Burkina Faso, including six government ministers, and killed 24.

* Yemen reported its first case on Friday, as aid groups try to prepare for an outbreak where war has shattered the health system and spread hunger and disease.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

* The pandemic will trigger the worst economic fallout since the 1930s Great Depression in 2020, with only a partial recovery seen in 2021, the head of the International Monetary Fund said.

* The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits in the last three weeks has blown past 15 million, with weekly new claims topping 6 million for the second straight time.

* U.S. President Trump said he is expediting help to farmers, especially small farmers.

* European Union finance ministers agreed on Thursday on half-a-trillion euros worth of support for their economies but left open the question of how to finance recovery in the bloc headed for a steep recession.

* The French government more than doubled the expected cost of its coronavirus crisis measures, pushing the budget deficit and national debt to record levels.

* Over 200,000 Irish workers are now in receipt of a new wage subsidy scheme, meaning the state is supporting nearly 30% of the labour force.

* Malaysia’s biggest palm oil producing state has agreed to reopen plantations and mills that do not have any coronavirus infections.

* The IMF has approved $147 million under its Rapid Financing Instrument to help Gabon confront the pandemic.

(Compiled by Sarah Morland, Milla Nissi, Aditya Soni and Subhranshu Sahu; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Anil D’Silva and Arun Koyyur)

New York, New Jersey report record coronavirus deaths, U.S. cases reach 417,000

By Peter Szekely and Maria Caspani

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The number of coronavirus cases in New York state alone approached 150,000 on Wednesday, surpassing Spain for the most infections anywhere in the world, even as authorities warned the state’s official death tally may understate the true toll.

New York and neighboring New Jersey on Wednesday again reported new single-day highs for coronavirus deaths.

New York state has 149,316 reported cases compared to Spain’s 146,690, according to a Reuters tally. In total, the United States has recorded more than 417,000 coronavirus cases and 14,100 deaths.

New York officials said a recent surge in the number of people dying at home suggests that the most populous U.S. city may be undercounting how many people have died of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus.

“I think that’s a very real possibility,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in his daily news briefing.

Cuomo said 779 people died from the coronavirus in the past day in his state and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said another 275 had died there. Both totals exceeded one-day records reported just a day earlier.

Despite the grim tally, Cuomo said overall trends still appear positive, with the rate of hospitalizations down in the state at the epicenter of the U.S. epidemic.

“Every number is a face, right,” Cuomo said of the death statistics. “This virus attacked the vulnerable and attacked the weak and it’s our job as a society to protect the vulnerable.”

Murphy tightened New Jersey’s social-distancing requirements, ordering retailers including grocery stores still allowed to operate to limit customers, ensure that customers and employees wear face coverings and regularly sanitize the premises.

“We need to continue to be absolutely vigilant and, if anything tighten, as opposed to loosen,” Murphy said of coronavirus-related restrictions on residents. “And I don’t say that with any joy.”

Louisiana announced 70 more deaths in the past day, matching that state’s single-day record announced a day earlier.

President Donald Trump’s administration has called for 30 days of measures, including staying at least six feet (1.8 meters) away from other people, that have upended American life, with most people staying isolated at home, schools and businesses closed and millions losing their jobs. Some 94% of the U.S. population has been ordered to stay at home.

“What’s really important is that people don’t turn these early signs of hope into releasing from the 30 days to stop the spread – it’s really critical,” said Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force.

“If people start going out again and socially interacting, we could see a really acute second wave” of infections, Birx added.

DEATH TOLL PROJECTIONS

The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model lowered its projected U.S. death toll by 26%, to 60,000 from 80,000 by August 4. The model is one of several that the White House task force has cited.

The task force previously projected 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could die.

The institute also moved up its projected peak in the number to U.S. deaths to this Sunday, when it predicted 2,212 people will succumb to the disease. The revision moves forward the projected peak by four days, suggesting the strain on the country’s healthcare system will lessen sooner than previously expected.

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio estimated an undercount in the death toll of 100 to 200 people per day who are dying at home but excluded from the city’s rapidly growing tally. So far the city’s announced death toll has reflected only COVID-19 diagnoses confirmed in a laboratory.

More than 200 people are dying at home in New York City each day during the pandemic, up from 22 to 32 during the March 20 to April 5 period a year ago, according to city fire officials.

The city will now try to quantify how many of those died from coronavirus-related causes and add that to the its official death toll, New York’s health department said.

“People are dying outside the hospital, unfortunately. It happens every day,” Oren Barzilay, the president of a labor union representing city paramedics, said. “I think those numbers, those statistics in New York for deaths would significantly go up if they tested everyone that expired.”

Authorities in various states have disclosed data showing the health crisis having a disproportionate impact on African Americans, reflecting longstanding racial inequities in health outcomes in the United States.

De Blasio said there were “clear inequalities” in how the coronavirus is affecting his city’s population, though the disparities have been less pronounced than in some other jurisdictions. Data released on Wednesday showed Hispanic residents dying at more than twice the rate as non-Hispanic white people and slightly outpacing the death rate of African Americans in the city.

(Reporting by Peter Szekely, Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, Maria Caspani, Brad Brooks, Nathan Layne, Lisa Lambert, Stephanie Kelly, and Gabriella Borter; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Will Dunham; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and Bill Berkrot)

Factbox: Latest on the spread of the coronavirus around the world

(Reuters) – The number of confirmed infections of the novel coronavirus exceeded 1.41 million globally and the death toll crossed 83,400, according to a Reuters tally as of 1400 GMT.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

– For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.

– U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.

EUROPE

– European Union finance ministers failed in all-night talks to agree on more economic support, spurring Spain to warn the bloc’s future was on the line without a joint response to the crisis.

– The president of the European Union’s main science organisation quit over frustration at the response to the pandemic.

– Italian ports cannot be considered safe because of the epidemic and will not let charity migrant boats dock, the government ruled.

– British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was “clinically stable” in intensive care on Wednesday and responding to treatment.

– Switzerland’s government, which said its economy could contract by as much 10.4% this year, extended the nation’s restrictions for another week but said a gradual loosening of measures would begin this month.

– The World Health Organization’s regional director described the outbreak in Europe as “very concerning” and urged governments to give “very careful consideration” before relaxing measures to control its spread.

– Pope Francis condemned people he said were exploiting the pandemic to turn a quick profit and decried the “hypocrisy” of how some politicians are dealing with the crisis.

– The European Union is drawing up common rules for using mobile apps to track the spread, aiming to make better use of the technology and address privacy concerns.

– Refugees in eastern German are sewing face masks for pensioners in a retirement home.

AMERICAS

– Some 60,000 Americans could die in the pandemic, a university model often cited by U.S. and state policymakers projected, a 26% reduction in its most recent forecast.

– U.S. health officials are planning ways for the country to return to normal if virus efforts work, the top U.S. infectious disease official said on Wednesday.

– Democratic congressional leaders said they would back the Trump administration’s request for another $250 billion for small businesses, but said the bill must include more funding for hospitals, local governments and food assistance.

– Maryland-based biotechnology company Novavax Inc said it had identified a vaccine candidate and would start human trials in mid-May.

– U.S. immigration officials have rapidly deported nearly 400 migrant children intercepted at the U.S.-Mexico border in the past two weeks under new rules.

– Brazil’s health minister said the country faced a “serious problem” getting enough mechanical ventilators and had spoken to China to try and ensure it would be able to fill an order for face masks.

– Ecuador is preparing an emergency burial ground in Guayaquil, the country’s largest city, to address a shortage of burial plots.

ASIA

– The Chinese city of Wuhan ended its two-month lockdown, even as a small northern city ordered restrictions on its residents amid concern about a second wave of infections.

– India is considering plans to seal off hotspots in Delhi, Mumbai and parts of the south while easing restrictions elsewhere as a way out of a three-week lockdown that has caused deep economic distress.

– Tokyo recorded its biggest daily jump on Wednesday since the start of the pandemic, the city’s governor said on the first day of a state of emergency.

– Expatriates in Hong Kong are buying up masks to send to family and friends back home as supplies return to shops.

– Thailand automatically extends visas for all foreigners who entered legally, to prevent long queues at immigration centres and stem the spread, a senior immigration official said.

– East Timor’s prime minister withdrew his resignation as the government approved a $250-million fund.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

– Most Middle Eastern countries are seeing worrying daily increases in cases but the region still has a chance to contain its spread, a senior WHO official said.

– Lebanon’s food importers, already hit by a dollar crunch, have struggled to book new cargoes as the pandemic threatens supplies and sparks fears of more painful price hikes.

– Egypt will extend a nationwide night-time curfew by 15 days until April 23.

– Ethiopia declared a state of emergency.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

– World equity markets edged higher and oil prices stabilized on Wednesday on hopes the coronavirus pandemic is peaking and that more government stimulus measures could be on the way. [MKTS/GLOB]

– The European Central Bank told euro zone finance ministers the area could need fiscal measures worth up to 1.5 trillion euros this year.

– Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest, will probably shrink by 9.8% in the second quarter, its biggest decline since records began, the country’s leading think tanks said.

– The pandemic has cost Austria $12 billion so far, or 2.8% of its annual gross domestic product, according to its central bank.

– China’s government will work on expanding domestic demand and actively boosting consumption as the pandemic makes economic development more difficult, state television reported.

– A second stimulus package India is poised to announce in coming days will be worth around $13 billion and focus on helping small and medium businesses, senior officials said.

– Australia’s conservative government will subsidise the wages of 6 million people for at least the next six months.

– Hong Kong announced relief measures worth $17.7 billion to help businesses and people crippled by the outbreak to stay afloat.

– Nearly 140 campaign groups and charities urged the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, G20 governments and private creditors to help the world’s poorest countries by cancelling debt payments.

(Compiled by Sarah Morland and Milla Nissi; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Arun Koyyur)