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Coronavirus pandemic - World News

The Philippines has reported 276 new coronavirus infections and 10 more deaths, bringing its total number of cases to 8,488 and fatalities to 568.
It also said 20 more individuals have recovered, bringing total recoveries to 1,043.
 
Russia has reported 7,099 new cases of the novel coronavirus, a record daily rise, bringing its nationwide tally to 106,498.

The official nationwide death toll rose to 1,073 after 101 people with the virus died in the last 24 hours, Russia's coronavirus crisis response centre said.
 
Virus not accelerating in Denmark as lockdown eased

The spread of the coronavirus in Denmark has not accelerated since lockdown measures started to be loosened earlier this month.

The so-called R0 rate, which shows the average number of infections one person with the virus causes, has increased a little since mid-April but remains below 1.0, according to the State Serum Institute, which is responsible for preparedness against infectious diseases.

"However, there are no signs that the Covid-19 epidemic is accelerating," it said.

Meanwhile, Germany began easing restrictions at the beginning of last week. It is also seeking to achieve a R0 rate below one.

In early March the German rate was three but by mid-April it was below one. On Monday evening, that rate did rise briefly to one before falling back again, and the current figure is 0.76.
 
Germany is to further ease coronavirus restrictions by re-opening museums, galleries, zoos and playgrounds and allowing religious services to resume.

This has been agreed by Chancellor Angel,a Merkel and the leaders of Germany's 16 states.

The states will ensure this will take place under strict conditions. Certain states have already allowed some of these activities to restart.

But restrictions will stay in force on people keeping physical distance from each other.

Large-scale public gatherings will remain banned until the end of August.

Germany began easing restrictions at the beginning of last week. It has seen 6,288 deaths, according to its RKI public health agency.
 
The eurozone economy is estimated to have shrunk by 3.8% in the first quarter – worse than in the 2008 financial crisis. European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde says the eurozone economy could contract by as much as 12% this year.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel says children’s play areas and museums can reopen and church services can resume, under strict social distancing and hygiene rules. But her talks with regional heads did not result in any easing for locked-down schools or suspended Bundesliga football matches. And she said it was still too early for Germans to book foreign holidays.

In France, the League One title has been awarded to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), 12 points clear at the top with 11 matches suspended. Sports events have been banned in France until at least September because of the pandemic.

Russia's Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has caught coronavirus. Russian TV showed him telling that to President Vladimir Putin.
 
Japan to extend coronavirus emergency as early as Monday: NHK

Japan will extend its state of emergency for containing the novel coronavirus as early as Monday, public broadcaster NHK reported on Friday, after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said it would be difficult to return to everyday life.

Some countries are restarting business activity after closures and social distancing measures to contain the spread of the virus, even as Japan has seen far fewer infections and deaths than hot spots in the United States and Europe.

But the Japanese government has called for vigilance during the long Golden Week holiday - normally a peak travel period - that runs through May 6, calling on people to stay home and reduce contact with others.

The government will formally decide to extend the emergency as soon as Monday after convening a meeting of experts on the virus, NHK said, without citing sources. The emergency is currently set to expire on May 6.

The government is planning to extend the emergency for about a month, sources have told Reuters.

Abe told reporters on Thursday night that Japan needed to prepare for a “drawn-out battle.” He initially declared the emergency on April 7 for Tokyo and other major population areas after a jump in infections, and later extended it nationwide.

The emergency gives governors greater power to tell people to stay at home and ask businesses to close, but it does not mandate penalties in most cases for non-compliance, relying instead on social pressure and respect for authority.

Japan has had more than 14,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 436 deaths, according to an NHK tally. Of the confirmed cases, more than 4,000 were in Tokyo, with 46 new ones on Thursday.

Tokyo has seen a decline in daily reported cases since hitting a peak of 201 on April 17, with further falls into double digits this week, but the city’s Governor Yuriko Koike has warned residents not to be complacent.

There are also worries that Japan’s low testing regime has undercounted many coronavirus cases.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...mergency-as-early-as-monday-nhk-idUSKBN22C3U2
 
More than 1,014,000 people known to have had the virus have recovered, Johns Hopkins University says

It remains unclear how many people who were not tested have also made a recovery

Some Australian states are easing their restrictions as the number of cases fall, starting with the Northern Territory

In New South Wales, households can soon welcome some visitors and Queensland will allow non-essential shopping

President Trump says he has seen evidence the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, without giving details

However US intelligence agencies conclude the virus was not manmade or genetically modified

Economic fallout continues, with nearly 4m more Americans filing for jobless benefits

Total infections stand at 3.25m and deaths at 231,000
 
Japan will formally decide as early as Monday whether to extend its nationwide state of emergency, public broadcaster NHK reported, as experts said current containment policies should be kept in place until the number of new infections fell further.
 
The Australian government said on Friday it would meet a week ahead of schedule to decide whether to ease social distancing restrictions, as the numbers of new coronavirus infections dwindle and pressure mounts for business and schools to reopen.
 
Afghanistan likely facing coronavirus 'health disaster': U.S. watchdog

Afghanistan, beset by a poor healthcare system, malnutrition, war and other vulnerabilities, likely is facing a "health disaster" from the coronavirus, a watchdog report to the U.S. Congress warns.
 
Afghanistan likely facing coronavirus 'health disaster': Watchdog

Afghanistan, beset by a poor healthcare system, malnutrition, war and other vulnerabilities, is likely facing a "health disaster" from the coronavirus, a watchdog report to the United States Congress has warned.

The report, released by Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko late on Thursday, could heighten concerns among US officials and legislators that the pandemic threatens to derail stalled US-led peace efforts.

The spread of COVID-19 has already significantly affected Afghanistan, the report said, from complicating the peace initiative to forcing border crossing closures that have disrupted commercial and humanitarian deliveries.

"Afghanistan's numerous and, in some cases, unique vulnerabilities - a weak healthcare system, widespread malnutrition, porous borders, massive internal displacement, contiguity with Iran, and ongoing conflict - make it likely the country will confront a health disaster in the coming months," the report said.

Rising food prices in the impoverished country will likely worsen the crisis, Sopko said in a letter accompanying the report.

As the pandemic has spread, Washington has pressed the Taliban and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to free thousands of at-risk rebels and government prisoners as a precursor to peace talks originally set to begin on March 10.

Differences over prisoner release
Kabul, however, was not a party to a February 29 US troops withdrawal deal between the Taliban and Washington that called for the releases.

Differences over the pace and numbers of prisoners to be freed have helped stall the peace effort, which could suffer a major blow if many prisoners were to die.

Afghanistan has confirmed nearly 2,200 coronavirus cases and 64 deaths, according to local news reports quoting the Health Ministry.

The report said the NATO-led international coalition declined to make available for public release data on the number of attacks launched by the Taliban in the first three months of 2020.

It was the first time that publication of the data has been denied since SIGAR began using them to track levels and locations of violence in 2018, the report said.

The coalition, it said, explained that the data is "now a critical part" of internal US government deliberations on negotiations with the Taliban, which has escalated attacks on Afghan security forces since the February 29 deal.

The Pentagon added that the release of the data could resume once those deliberations end, the report said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...health-disaster-watchdog-200501055154270.html
 
Coronavirus: Millions of children risk missing vaccines, says UN

Millions of children risk missing "life-saving" vaccines, the UN has warned, after a "massive backlog" of shipments built up due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The outbreak has had a huge impact on the air industry, drastically reducing commercial and charter flights.

Dozens of countries are at risk of running out of vital vaccines, the UN children's agency Unicef says.

It wants governments and the private sector to free up freight space.

Immunisation programmes are one of Unicef's key activities. The organisation estimates that vaccinations for serious diseases like measles, polio and tetanus save the lives of up to three million children a year.

With medical researchers hard at work on a coronavirus vaccine, Unicef says the outbreak is disrupting active efforts against other illnesses.

"Unicef is calling for support to unlock a massive backlog in vaccine shipments due to unprecedented logistical constraints related to Covid-19 mitigation measures including lockdowns in some countries," said spokesperson Marixie Mercado.

Warning of a "dramatic decline" in commercial flights and the "exorbitant" cost of securing them, she said: "Countries with limited resources will struggle to pay these higher prices, leaving children vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases.

"Unicef is appealing to governments, the private sector, the airline industry, and others to free up freight space at an affordable cost for these life-saving vaccines."

Last month the organisation warned measles outbreaks might occur as a result of vaccine programmes being delayed by the coronavirus outbreak.

Even before coronavirus emerged Unicef estimated that more than 20 million children a year were missing out on a measles vaccine, with the organisation citing scepticism of vaccines as a factor.

On Thursday, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg donated $100,000 (£80,000) she won from a Danish charity to Unicef to help its fight against coronavirus.

Launching a campaign to help protect children's lives in the outbreak, she said: "Like the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic is a child-rights crisis. It will affect all children, now and in the long-term, but vulnerable groups will be impacted the most."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52503313
 
Imported by the rich, coronavirus now devastating Brazil's poor

RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Imported by the Brazilian elite vacationing in Europe, the new coronavirus is now ravaging the country’s poor, ripping through tightly-packed neighborhoods where the disease is harder to control.

Public health data analyzed by Reuters for the cities of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza show a shift in recent weeks from the wealthy boroughs that seeded the outbreak to the gritty urban outskirts.

The change has coincided with a spike in confirmed coronavirus deaths, which are now just shy of 6,000 in Brazil. Many scientists point to Latin America’s largest country as the next deadly hotspot for COVID-19.

Researchers at Imperial College London estimate Brazil’s transmission rate this week will have been the highest in the world.

The trend revealed by the data complicates Brazil’s battle against the virus. Many favelas, as the labyrinths of cinder block homes that constitute the poorest neighborhoods are known, suffer from a lack of running water, septic systems and healthcare facilities.

Perhaps more challenging still, the state is weak in the favelas, with drug gangs often the de facto authority. That would make lockdown measures difficult to enforce - even if they had the support of the country’s skeptical leader, President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly shrugged off fears about the coronavirus and described state and city measures to slow its spread as extreme.

Residents in Brasilandia, a poor district at the north end of Sao Paulo with the highest coronavirus death toll in the city, told Reuters that bars were still crowded and open-air dance parties attracted thousands of revelers on the weekends.

Brasilandia only had one confirmed case at the end of March, according to city data, at a time when the vast majority of cases were clustered in the wealthier center-west districts. The most recent report from this week showed 67 deaths from COVID-19.

“For those that haven’t been through it, it’s like the disease doesn’t exist,” said Paulo dos Santos, 43, who lost his father to the virus in Brasilandia.

In Rio, the tony neighborhoods of Leblon, Copacabana and Barra da Tijuca were the first to suffer at the start of the outbreak in Brazil, reporting 190 confirmed cases by March 27.

In contrast, the low-income areas of Campo Grande, Bangu and Iraja had only reported eight cases at the time.

That has changed in the past week, with those poorer neighborhoods reporting 66 new cases, while the wealthier trio saw 55. Reuters observed the same trend in Fortaleza, a northeastern state capital with over 25,000 cases.

Despite the rising death toll, calls are growing for lockdown measures to be relaxed. Bolsonaro has pushed to restart the economy, describing shelter-in-place policies as a “poison” that could kill more via unemployment and hunger than the virus.

In poor neighborhoods, where hunger is an acute threat, few are adhering to quarantine measures.

William de Oliveira, a community leader in Rio’s poor hillside neighborhood of Rocinha, can rattle off the names of several friends killed by the virus. Yet it was clear on Wednesday that life continued more or less as usual, with shops and bars bustling, which he lamented.

“We can reverse economic problems,” Oliveira said, “but we can’t reverse deaths.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...us-now-devastating-brazils-poor-idUSKBN22D549
 
The latest from around the world:

Millions of children risk missing "life-saving" vaccines after a "massive backlog" of shipments built up due to the pandemic, the UN says
May Day rallies are taking place globally in support of workers' rights - but they have been scaled back in accordance with social distancing rules

Some parts of Australia are beginning to lift their lockdowns as the country sees a continuously low infection rate

India has extended its nationwide lockdown for another two weeks from 4 May. It was one of the first countries to impose strict travel restrictions when the outbreak began

US President Donald Trump has again blamed China for the pandemic and threatened consequences for Beijing

The outbreak has now led to 30 million Americans losing their jobs since mid-March. Ten states have begun lifting lockdown restrictions

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK was "past the peak" of its outbreak. He promised to set out a lockdown exit strategy next week

Meanwhile, the UK government said it was "likely to get very close to or meet" its target of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests

More than one million people have now officially recovered from Covid-19, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University
 
The Republic of Ireland has extended its current restrictions on people leaving their home for non-essential reasons until 18 May.

A couple of restrictions will be eased from Tuesday. People will be allowed to exercise up to 5km (3.1 miles) from their home - up from the previous 2km - and cocooning residents will be allowed to leave their house up to the 5km limit.

Cocooning protects people who are over 70 and those who are medically vulnerable to Covid-19, by minimising interaction between them and other people.

The Irish government is planning five stages to ease restrictions, with a possible end on 10 August.
 
The death toll in France's hospitals and nursing homes has risen by 218 to reach 24,594, the government announced on Friday.

The number is a slight increase from the previous day, but the number of daily deaths has been gradually decreasing over the past two weeks.

The country has the fourth-highest death toll in Europe after Italy, the UK and Spain.

France is due to begin easing its lockdown restrictions from 11 May, although face masks will be obligatory on public transport and in secondary schools.
 
The latest from Asia

Here are some of the stories making the headlines in Asia:

The world's biggest casino hub, in the Chinese territory of Macau, has seen a 97% drop in gaming revenues from a year earlier. The former Portuguese colony closed all of its gaming venues for two weeks in February - but they remain largely empty because anti-virus restrictions are barring visitors from the Chinese mainland

New Zealanders have been warned to cancel any parties planned for this weekend. Grant Robertson, the country's finance minister, said people should not be "idiots", the New Zealand Herald reports

Singapore has started moving migrants who have recovered from coronavirus to two unused cruise ships, news agency AFP reports. Other migrants - who normally live in crowded dorms where many of the city state's cases have emerged - have been moved into sites like military barracks and empty blocks of flats as officials try to stop the spread of the disease
 
A doctor working in one of the main hospitals treating coronavirus patients in the Russian capital, Moscow, has compared the current situation to a warzone.

Former military doctor Mikhail Ketskalo, who now works at Moscow Hospital No 52, told Reuters news agency how the influx of Covid-19 patients was similar to receiving masses of wounded during a conflict.

"I had a similar situation in December 1999 during the siege of Grozny," the medic said, referring to the conflict between the Russian troops and Chechen separatists in a battle which left the Chechen capital almost completely destroyed.

Dr Ketskalo added that each death caused heartbreak to him and his colleagues.

"It feels like we are challenged by the 'other side'," he said, referring to the virus as the enemy. "It hurts when our patients lose their lives, we do feel close to them."

Russia has recorded over 110,000 cases of coronavirus, over half of them in Moscow, while 1,169 people have died.
 
This week Brazil passed a painful milestone: the country's number of confirmed cases and its death toll are now higher than in China, where the virus originated.

It definitely feels like the crisis has stepped up a gear – that the situation is going to become more acute in the coming weeks.

The images coming out of Manaus, the biggest city in the Amazon, have been shocking. They’re digging mass graves to cope with the numbers dying and the mayor himself has said the scenes are like a horror film.

But at the same time, there’s growing pressure to open up the economy. There’s been no national lockdown, but schools and businesses in many states have been shut and movement has slowed.

Now governors are talking about how to gradually start up again. But it feels premature.

One city in the south, Blumenau, reopened its shopping centres a couple of weeks ago – since then, there’s been a massive spike in the numbers of cases.

If that happens nationwide, Brazil and its struggling public health system will be in trouble.
 
The US government was slow to understand how fast coronavirus was spreading from Europe, which accelerated outbreaks across the country, said Dr Anne Schuchat, the number-two official at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The World Health Organization has reiterated that the coronavirus is believed to be "natural in origin", responding to a claim by US President Donald Trump that he had seen evidence that indicated the virus emerged from a virology institute in Wuhan, China.

Worldwide, the number of confirmed infections stands at almost 3.4 million, with some 239,000 deaths and around 1.08 million recoveries.

The coronavirus is ravaging Brazil's poor, tightly-packed neighbourhoods where the disease is harder to control. There were 92,000 cases in Brazil with 6,400 deaths reported as of Friday.
 
People are walking, jogging and cycling on Spanish streets for the first time in weeks as the country's tight coronavirus restrictions are eased.

The decision to allow adults to exercise follows a relaxation of the rules for children a week ago.

Spain has suffered one of the world's worst outbreaks of the coronavirus - more than 213,000 cases and 24,500 deaths - and imposed a stringent lockdown in March.

People were only allowed to leave the house to buy food or medicine, to go to work if working from home was not possible, or to briefly walk the dog.

Until last week it was the only country in Europe where children could not leave home at all.

However, daily exercise is still subject to timetables for different sections of the population to avoid crowds. Training must be carried out close to home and social distancing rules remain.
 
Singapore’s health ministry confirmed 447 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, the smallest daily rise in two weeks, according to a report by Reuters.

The increase takes the city state’s tally of cases to 17,548, with 16 virus-related deaths.

The ministry said most of the new cases were among migrant workers living in dormitories.
 
Two per cent of Moscow infected, says mayor

The mayor of Moscow says about 2% of the city’s population, more than 250,000 people, have the virus.

“According to screening tests of various population groups, the real number of the infected is around 2% of Moscow’s total population,” Sergei Sobyanin wrote on his blog, Agence France-Presse reported.

Russia has so far reported more than 114,000 cases of the coronavirus, including 57,300 cases in Moscow, which is the centre of the country’s contagion.

According to official statistics, Moscow has a population of 12.7 million people but the real figure is believed to be higher.

Sobyanin said Moscow has significantly increased testing capacity over the past few weeks, adding the city has managed to “contain the spread of the infection” due to the enforcement of stay-at-home rules and other measures.

But he reiterated that the city was not yet past the peak of the outbreak.

“The threat is apparently on the rise,” he said.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wishing PM of Russia Mikhail Mishustin a speedy recovery and good health. Corona virus is a common challenge and we stand together with our Russian friends in battling this challenge.<a href="https://twitter.com/mfa_russia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mfa_russia</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/GovernmentRF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@governmentRF</a></p>— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ImranKhanPTI/status/1256431528894181378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Malaysian authorities rounded up undocumented migrants as part of efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus, the country's police chief said.

Over 700 migrants were taken into custody, including young children and Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, during Friday's raid in a downtown area where thousands of migrants and asylum-seekers live, rights groups had said.

"We cannot allow them to move freely... as it will be difficult for us to track them down if they leave identified locations," Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador told state news agency Bernama.

Those detained would be placed at a single location for monitoring until the movement curbs are lifted, he said, according to state news agency Bernama.
 
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany rose by 945 to 161,703, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Saturday.

The death toll rose by 94 to 6,575.
 
Here's a roundup of the latest coronavirus developments in Asia and Australia.

The Indian government has made it compulsory for all public and private sector workers to use a smartphone app designed to trace people who may have been infected with coronavirus. The Aarogya Setu app alerts users who have come in contact with people later found to have Covid-19. India has recorded 37,336 cases and 1,223 deaths

Meanwhile in Australia, more than four million people have downloaded a contact-tracing app but the information it gathers is not yet available, broadcaster ABC reports. Health chiefs say privacy rules and final tests are still being carried out. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called the COVIDSafe app "a ticket" to easing restrictions

Singapore has announced a timetable to ease coronavirus measures. Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine will resume some activities from Tuesday and other businesses such as hairdressers and laundry services will be allowed to operate from 12 May. On Friday the city-state's oldest coronavirus survivor, 102-year-old Madam Yap Lay Hong, was discharged from hospital. There have been more than 17,500 cases in Singapore but only 16 deaths

Thailand, meanwhile, reported six more cases of Covid-19, taking the total to 2,966. The number of deaths stays the same at 54
 
Spain's health ministry says the number of COVID-19 deaths in the country has risen by 276 to 25,100 and the number of confirmed cases has risen by 1,366 to 216,582
 
Russian Construction Minister Vladimir Yakushev has gone to hospital with coronavirus, just a day after the prime minister did so.

The construction minister's deputy was also infected, Russian media said.

On Thursday Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told President Vladimir Putin that he had the virus.

President Putin is now ruling via videoconference from a residence just outside Moscow.

In the past 24 hours, 9,623 more people tested positive for Covid-19 in Russia, more than half of them in Moscow.

The infections have been growing daily and the Russian death toll now stands at 1,222.
 
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France to ease lockdown during emergency

Some more now on France's decision to extend its state of health emergency until 24 July.

Although emergency powers are set to be extended, the government still plans to start lifting lockdown measures from 11 May.

Restrictions will be adjusted regionally and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said "if conditions are met", people will no longer require permission to be out on the street.

But Prime Minister Édouard Philippe will be able "to take measures by decree to regulate the movement of people as well as the use of means of transport", Mr Castaner said.
 
Here's a round-up of the latest coronavirus developments from across the globe:

Adults in Spain are now allowed to exercise outside for the first time in seven weeks. Spain's lockdown - one of Europe's strictest - was eased for children a week ago. Exercise time remains limited with specific slots for different age groups

Austria has allowed thousands of shops, hairdressers and beauty salons to reopen

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorised emergency use of an Ebola drug, remdesivir, for treating coronavirus after a recent clinical trial showed the drug helped shorten the recovery time of seriously ill people

A nursing home in New York has reported 98 deaths linked to Covid-19. The death toll at the Isabella Geriatric Center is one of the worst such outbreaks in the country

The Indian government has made it compulsory for all public and private sector workers to use a smartphone app designed to trace people who may have been infected with coronavirus
 
Priest hears open-air confessions in Belfast

How do you conduct something as private and intimate as confessions at church while observing social distancing? Father Paddy McCafferty of Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Belfast has the solution - listening to members of his congregation through locked gates.

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Coronavirus deaths in Italy have risen by 474, after 269 new deaths were recorded on Friday, marking the largest daily toll since 21 April, authorities have announced.

The steep increase in deaths followed a gradual declining trend and was driven largely by Lombardy, the country’s worst affected region, where there were 329 deaths in the last 24 hours compared with 88 the day before.

The daily tally of new infections nationwide was broadly stable for a third day running at 1,900 against 1,965 on Friday.

It brings the total death toll in the Mediterranean country to 28,710, the second highest in the world after the US.
 
Italy has experienced its largest daily death toll since 21 April with 474 fatalities reported, up on 269 the day before.

The total death toll now stands at 28,710, the Civil Protection Agency reported - second only to the United States.

But the increased figure is distorted and might actually mask positive news, La Repubblica newspaper reports, as 282 deaths not reported in April were only just registered and added to the toll.

That would put the most recent daily figure at 192 deaths - the first time it has dropped below 200 since 14 March, it says.

The news comes just two days before Italy plans to ease the restrictions it imposed seven weeks ago to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

From 4 May people will be allowed to visit their relatives in small numbers. Parks, factories and building sites will also reopen.
 
Russia reported 9,623 new coronavirus cases - its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic - bringing the total to 124,054, mostly in the capital Moscow.

The death toll nationwide rose to 1,222 after 57 people died in the last 24 hours, Russia's coronavirus crisis response centre said.

Concern was growing in Moscow that hospitals might become overwhelmed after recording the new one-day high of infections, a 20 percent increase over Friday's count, which itself was a new daily record.
 
The coronavirus is ravaging Brazil's poor, tightly-packed neighbourhoods where the disease is harder to control. There were 92,200 cases in Brazil with 6,412 deaths reported.
 
Summary

Global cases near 3.5 million as death toll approaches 250,000. According to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker there were 3,428,422 confirmed cases worldwide on Sunday, with 243,831 people losing their lives to the disease. The US continues to be the most affected country, with more than 1.3 million cases and 66,385 deaths.

Warren Buffett says ‘world has changed’ for airlines. The legendary American investor has dumped his firm’s holdings in the four major US airlines, warning that the “world has changed” for the aviation industry in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. In comments that will send shockwaves through financial markets already pulverised by the economic shock of the outbreak, Buffett said the outbreak could have an “extraordinarily wide” range of possible economic outcomes.

Only 17% of Brits want schools, pubs and restaurants reopened. Fewer than one in five Britons believe the time is right to consider reopening schools, restaurants, pubs and stadiums. The findings, in a new poll for the Observer, suggest Boris Johnson will struggle to convince people to return their lives to normal if he tries to ease the lockdown soon.

Half of UK doctors say they have had to source their own PPE. Almost half of Britain’s doctors have sourced their own personal protective equipment or relied on a donation when none was available through normal NHS channels, according to a survey. The British Medical Association said its latest survey was the biggest of frontline NHS staff during the coronavirus crisis.

European leaders join forces to combat Covid-19. European leaders have pledged to raise billions of pounds to help find a vaccine and treatments for Covid-19 as part of an “international alliance” fighting the disease. An online pledging conference due to be held on Monday will aim to pull in €7.5bn (£6.6bn) in funding to support the global response to the coronavirus pandemic.

YouTube deletes conspiracy theorist David Icke’s account. The video-sharing site said the 68-year-old conspiracy theorist David Icke had violated its policies on sharing information about coronavirus. The former footballer has made controversial unproven claims about the virus on several internet platforms, including one that it is linked to the 5G mobile network.

India imposes jail lockdowns as virus spreads in overcrowded prisons. The spread of the coronavirus in India’s notoriously crowded prisons has prompted authorities to impose jail lockdowns and release thousands of pretrial detainees on parole, as health experts worry that the cramped facilities are serving as breeding grounds for the disease.

Boris Johnson’s doctors had plan to announce his death. Boris Johnson has revealed that doctors prepared to announce his death as he spent three nights in intensive care last month. Britain’s PM told the Sun on Sunday: “They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario. The doctors had all sorts of arrangements for what to do if things went badly wrong.” Johnson, 55, said: “The bad moment came when it was 50-50 whether they were going to have to put a tube down my windpipe. That was when it got a bit ... they were starting to think about how to handle it presentationally.”

Travel within China surges. China’s most populous cities saw a leap in outbound travellers, tourists and day-trippers on 1 May, first day of a long holiday weekend, led by Wuhan, epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic that first struck the country late last year. The number of people travelling outside their home cities jumped nearly 50% at the start of the Labour Day weekend, compared with the first day of the Tomb Sweeping holiday on 4 April, according to Reuters calculations on data from China’s internet giant Baidu Inc.
 
Singapore has confirmed 657 new coronavirus infections, taking its total to 18,205. According to the country’s health ministry, most of the new cases were diagnosed among migrant workers living in dormitories.
 
Six new polio cases have been reported in Afghanistan as the war-torn country recorded its highest one-day rise of new coronavirus cases and deaths, triggered by the continued surge of transmission in Kandahar and Kabul amid an intensified war across the country.

The country confirmed 235 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, marking its biggest one-day rise of new infections, and 12 patients died overnight – bringing the total number of infections to 2,704 and death toll to 85. There have so far been 345 recoveries. Wahidullah Mayar, a health ministry spokesman, said 256 health workers have also tested positive in the country.
 
Russia has recorded its highest daily rise in confirmed Covid-19 cases, with 10,633 new cases listed today. It brings the overall number to 134,686. A further 58 deaths have been reported by the country’s coronavirus crisis response centre, increasing the total number of fatalities to 1,280.
 
The number of coronavirus cases in the Philippines climbed to 9,223 after the Health Ministry reported 295 new infections on Sunday.
 
The United States government was slow to understand how fast coronavirus was spreading from Europe, which accelerated outbreaks across the country, says Dr Anne Schuchat, the number-two official at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Venezuela, more than 40 people died during a riot about coronavirus-related restrictions on family visits, while prisoners at a Brazilian jail held guards hostage for several hours in protest to the suspension of all visits.

Worldwide, the number of confirmed infections stands above 3.35 million, with nearly 239,000 deaths and approximately 1.05 million recoveries.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reiterated the coronavirus is believed to be "natural in origin", responding to a claim by US President Donald Trump that he had seen evidence that indicated the virus emerged from a virology institute in Wuhan, China.
 
Spain's health ministry says the number of COVID-19 deaths in the country has risen by 164 to 25,264 and the number of confirmed cases has risen by 884 to 217,466
 
(Reuters) - More than 3.44 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 243,015 have died, according to a Reuters tally, as of 0200 GMT on Sunday.

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

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

EUROPE
* The British government had a contingency plan for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s death as he battled COVID-19 in intensive care last month, he said in an interview with The Sun newspaper.

* The United Kingdom’s COVID-19 death toll rose 621 to 28,131 as of May 1, just short of Italy which has so far had the world’s second most deadly outbreak of the disease after the United States.

* Russia recorded its highest daily rise in confirmed coronavirus cases with 10,633 new cases, bringing the total to 134,687, with more than half of cases and deaths in Moscow.

* Roche Holding <AG ROG.S> received emergency use approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an antibody test to help determine if people have ever been infected with the coronavirus, the Swiss drugmaker said.


* Spain’s coronavirus death toll rose by 164 to 25,264, according to Health Ministry data, marking the lowest one-day increase since March 18.

* Adults in Spain were allowed out for exercise for the first time in seven weeks on Saturday as the government began easing tough restrictions.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Japan could ease some coronavirus curbs by allowing places such as parks and museums to reopen, provided proper preventive measures were in place, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said.

* Singapore will progressively ramp up its manufacturing activities, its minister of trade and industry said, with the city-state looking to restart its economy as coronavirus curbs start to ease over the next few weeks.

* India’s air force flew aircraft low over more than a dozen cities, part of a nationwide campaign by the armed forces to thank healthcare workers and other essential services personnel fighting the outbreak.

* China has published a short animation titled “Once Upon a Virus” mocking the U.S. response to the new coronavirus, using Lego-like figures to represent the two countries.

* China’s most populous cities saw a spike in outbound travellers, tourists and day-trippers on May 1, first day of a long holiday weekend, led by Wuhan, epicentre of the epidemic that first struck the country late last year.

* Australia’s state of Victoria saw its highest increase in new coronavirus cases in weeks and New South Wales state struggled with a cluster of infections at an aged care facility, as parts of the country began easing distancing rules.


AMERICAS

* New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed back against what he called premature demands that he reopen the state, saying he knew people were struggling without jobs but that more understanding of the coronavirus was needed.

* Families in a poor satellite city of Mexico’s capital with one of the country’s highest tallies of the coronavirus have staged protests to demand news of sick relatives and the return of the bodies of the dead after videos surfaced showing cadavers at a hospital.

* An inmate uprising at a Brazilian prison stoked by fears of a coronavirus outbreak saw seven prison guards briefly taken hostage in Manaus, a state capital deep in the Amazon rainforest where public services have been overwhelmed by the pandemic.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Iran plans to reopen mosques and schools in areas that have been consistently free of the coronavirus as President Hassan Rouhani’s government starts to ease restrictions.

* Malls in the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi began reopening to a restricted number of customers as the UAE eases lockdown measures imposed more than a month ago.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

* Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said the United States’ capacity to withstand crises provides a silver lining as it combats the coronavirus, even as he acknowledged that the global pandemic could significantly damage the economy and his investments.

* Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold its entire stakes in the four largest U.S. airlines in April, Chairman Warren Buffett said at the company’s annual meeting, saying “the world has changed” for the aviation industry.

* The ongoing U.S. travel crisis is causing thousands of job cuts as the aviation sector waits for passengers to return to the skies but braces for years of lower demand because of the pandemic.

* Most major bourses in the Gulf fell sharply on Sunday with Saudi Arabia falling the most, mirroring Friday’s slide in global shares after President Donald Trump’s revived threat of new U.S. tariffs against China dampened risk appetite.

* Austria’s central bank expects economic output to shrink more than twice as much this year as it forecast just a month ago as the coronavirus lockdown lasts longer than anticipated, its Governor Robert Holzmann said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...e-spread-of-the-new-coronavirus-idUSKBN22F0AI
 
Netherlands reports 335 new Covid-19 infections and 69 deaths

Dutch health authorities have confirmed a daily increase of 335 coronavirus infections, meaning the country’s total is now 40,571, while 69 new deaths have been recorded. In total, the Netherlands has now seen 5,056 fatalities.

This rise means the Netherlands is still 15th in the global ranking of Covid-19 cases, although the authorities have warned that the actual number of infections is probably higher because not all suspected patients are being tested.
 
Vietnam has confirmed its first Coronavirus case in nine days, meaning its total now stands at 271. The country of 95 million locked down for more than a month but began to re-open in late April. To date it has not recorded any deaths caused by Covid-19.
 
In charts - Death toll has peaked in major European countries

Latest figures show the daily coronavirus death tolls in major European countries have passed their highest point since the outbreak began.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK was "past the peak" of the virus outbreak, but stressed the country must not "risk a second spike".

47d62d8c-3dcb-4d44-802d-29681b67557a.jpg


While there is some room for optimism in the European statistics, the number of daily Covid-19 deaths have risen in other parts of the world such as Russia and Brazil where the death toll has roughly doubled in 10 days.

b97b716f-6f82-4321-a721-74160d8480dd.jpg
 
Portugal ends state of emergency after early lockdown

Having been in a state of emergency since mid-March, Portugal has begun easing some restrictions after recording just over 1,000 deaths for a population of around 10 million people.

Portugal will allow small stores to reopen from Monday, though the larger stores will have to wait until 1 June to reopen.

The country declared a state of emergency on 18 March, when its death toll was just two. The lockdown shut most non-essential services to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Portugal has not been hit nearly as badly as neighbouring Spain, where more than 25,000 deaths have been recorded.

Even before the state of emergency was imposed, Portugal closed schools and nightclubs, banned gatherings of large groups, suspended flights to Italy and halted tourism with Spain.
 
Italy has reported 174 new coronavirus-related deaths, which is the country's lowest toll since lockdown measures were rolled out in early March.

The total number of people who have died is 28,884, while the total number of cases has increased to 210,717.

There are 17,242 patients in hospital with symptoms, 1,501 in intensive care, while 81,436 are self-isolating at home.

Italy is preparing to relax measures from Monday, with people being allowed to visit their relatives in small numbers. Parks, factories and building sites will reopen, but schools will not restart classes until September.
 
Turkey death toll rises by 61

The number of people who have died from COVID-19 in Turkey has risen by 61 in the last 24 hours to 3,397, according to data from the country's health ministry.

The overall number of cases rose by 1,670 to 126,045, the data showed, the highest total outside Western Europe, the United States and Russia.

A total of 63,151 people have so far recovered from the new coronavirus, the ministry added.
 
US President Donald Trump says "we are very confident" of a vaccine by the end of the year

But he acknowledges it is optimistic: "The doctors would say 'well, you shouldn't say that'"

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says there is "significant evidence" that virus came from Wuhan lab

It is a repeat of a claim President Trump made last week, but experts say there is little evidence any lab was the source of Covid-19

New Zealand reports no new cases for the first time in six weeks

In Brazil, President Bolsonaro again criticises lockdown as cases exceed 100,000

Global confirmed cases exceed 3.5m and the number of deaths almost 250,000
 
Philippines reports 16 deaths, 262 infections

The Philippines' health ministry reported 16 new coronavirus deaths and 262 additional cases.

The health ministry said total confirmed cases have risen to 9,485, while 623 people have died. But 101 more patients have recovered, bringing total recoveries to 1,315.
 
Singapore reports 573 new cases

Singapore's health ministry said on Monday it confirmed 573 new cases, taking the city-state's tally of infections to 18,778.
 
This morning, after more than two months of enforced quarantine, Italy has begun easing some of its lockdown restrictions.

It was the first country to impose a nationwide stay at home order, and was once at the epicentre of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte says his approach to ending lockdown will be adjusted depending on contagion trends.

He stressed that the latest easing - though it brings relief for many - "must not be seen as a signal that we’re all free".

-------------

Japan has extended its state of emergency until the end of May after a government meeting late on Monday.

The country has so far avoided a widespread outbreak of the virus, but still has around 15,000 confirmed cases and just under 500 deaths that have been linked to Covid-19. Observers have warned there is insufficient testing and that hospitals are already pushed to the limit.

The state of emergency was due to expire on Wednesday, but will now remain in place until 31 May. It gives governors the authority to ask residents to stay at home and businesses to close. There are no penalties for non-compliance, however.
 
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose by 199 on Monday to 40,770, with 26 new deaths, health authorities said.

Total deaths in the country rose to 5,082, the Netherlands Institute for Health (RIVM) said in its daily update.

The RIVM cautioned that it only reports confirmed cases and deaths, and actual numbers are higher.
 
Globally, the growth rate of the daily new cases of the virus has come down to about 2.5% compared to 9% at the start of April. Keep in mind that daily testing has increased manifolds in the last month. So the number of new cases slowing down while testing is increasing is a very good sign. Slowly but surely things are coming under control.
 
A recap of today's key news

Italy is easing some of its restrictions, with deaths at their lowest level since just after its lockdown began two months ago

But the virus is rapidly spreading in Russia, with 10,000 new infections for the second day running

European leaders have pledged support for a plan to raise €7.5bn (£6.6bn; $8.3bn) to find a coronavirus vaccine in a jointly signed open letter

The UK Government is exploring options to allow workplaces to reopen gradually. According to a draft plan, staggered shift times, home working and and reduced hot desking are among a range of things being considered

Japan has extended its state of emergency until the end of May after a government meeting late on Monday

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is optimistic about having a vaccine by the end of the year.
 
Disease meets deforestation at heart of Brazil's Amazon

In the middle of the rainforest, the virus has taken hold. Manaus, the Amazon's biggest city, is at breaking point. They are digging mass graves, or trenches. It is the only way overwhelmed authorities can cope with the deaths from Covid-19.

People are asking whether this city, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, will become the next Guayaquil. It is hard not to compare the two, as the images of unburied bodies in Ecuador are still etched on many peoples' minds here.

Amazonas has one of Brazil's highest infection rates and also one of the most underfunded health systems, a combination that has brought chaos to the heart of the jungle.

In April, Manaus saw a rise of 578% in the number of people who died from respiratory problems. They are not officially noted as victims of Covid-19 but experts believe there can only be one explanation. With testing still low, there is a massive underreporting of the real numbers.

But even the official figures - about 92,000 confirmed cases and more than 6,500 deaths - saw Brazil reach a grim milestone as it passed China where the outbreak started.

"We don't want miracles," said the mayor of Manaus, Arthur Virgilio Neto. It was a dig at President Jair Bolsonaro, who mocked the rising numbers of deaths by joking that his middle name was Messiah but he did not work miracles.

"What we need is a plane full of scanners, ventilators, medicines and PPE," he said, referring to protective equipment for health workers. But help has been slow, while Mr Bolsonaro continues to downplay the severity of the virus.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52502369
 
After retesting samples, French hospital discovers COVID-19 case from December

PARIS (Reuters) - A French hospital which has retested old samples from pneumonia patients discovered that it treated a man who had COVID-19 as early as Dec. 27, nearly a month before the French government confirmed its first cases.

Yves Cohen, head of resuscitation at the Avicenne and Jean Verdier hospitals in the northern suburbs of Paris, told BFM TV that scientists had retested samples from 24 patients treated in December and January who tested negative for the flu.

“Of the 24, we had one who was positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 27,” he told the news channel on Sunday.

The samples had all initially been collected to detect flu using PCR tests, the same genetic screening process that can also be used to detect the presence of the novel coronavirus in patients infected at the time the sample is collected.

Each sample was retested several times to ensure there were no errors, he added. Neither Cohen nor his team were immediately available for comment on Monday.

France, which has seen almost 25,000 people die from the virus since March 1, confirmed its first three COVID-19 cases on Jan. 24, including two patients in Paris and another in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

Cohen said it was too early to know if the patient whose Dec. 27 test was COVID-19 positive is France’s “patient zero”. Knowing who was the first is critical to understanding how the virus spread.

Cohen said the patient had survived and that a first investigation to trace the first contamination has been carried out.

“He was sick for 15 days and infected his two children, but not his wife, who works in a supermarket.

“He was amazed, he didn’t understand how he had been infected. We put the puzzle together and he had not made any trips. The only contact that he had was with his wife.”

The man’s wife worked alongside a Sushi stand, close to colleagues of Chinese origin, Cohen said. It was not clear whether those colleagues had travelled to China, and the local health authority should investigate, he said.

“We’re wondering whether she was asymptomatic,” he said.

“He may be the ‘patient zero’, but perhaps there are others in other regions. All the negative PCRs for pneumonia must be tested again. The virus was probably circulating (then),” he said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ers-covid-19-case-from-december-idUSKBN22G20L
 
World leaders pledge $8 billion to fight coronavirus

World leaders promised $8bn on Monday for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said at the end of a pledging event that she chaired.
 
Italy may be relaxing its lockdown but the death toll from coronavirus could be far higher than has currently been reported, a new report says.

The Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) says thousands of fatalities not officially attributed to Covid-19 could have been caused by the virus.

The official death toll in Italy stands at 28,884, the second highest total in the world after the US. But from 21 February, when the first Covid-19 deaths occurred in Italy, until March 31, nationwide deaths were up 39% compared to the average of the past five years.

Of the 25,354 excess deaths during the period, coronavirus was registered as the official cause for 13,710, leaving around 11,600 unaccounted for.

ISTAT said these people may either have died of coronavirus without being tested or that the extra pressure on the health system meant they died of other causes they were not treated for.
 
The number of people who have died with coronavirus around the world has passed a quarter of a million - rising to 250,134, according to figures published by Johns Hopkins University.
 
Global coronavirus deaths pass 250,000

The number of deaths related to coronavirus around the world has passed 250,000, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the disease globally.

The US is the country with the highest number of fatalities, with nearly 69,000. Italy has over 29,000 deaths while the UK has almost 29,000.

Comparisons are difficult though because of different methods employed by countries in reporting their figures - such as including only the deaths that happened in hospitals. Lack of testing, a problem in many nations, may also hide the true extent of the outbreak.

Article share tools
 
Spain’s opposition says it will not back an extension to the state of emergency, and a French patient from December is thought to have had coronavirus. Here’s the latest from Europe:

Spain has gradually eased its lockdown measures - allowing people outside to exercise for the first time in weeks, for instance. But the government wants to extend the state of emergency by another two weeks on Wednesday, and the opposition says it will not back the move. Pablo Casado, leader of the opposition Popular Party, said it “makes no sense”

Officially, France recorded its first coronavirus cases on 24 January. But a Parisian doctor now says one of his patients had the virus in December. Amirouche Hammar was admitted to hospital with pneumonia last year, when the virus was thought to be confined to China

Cafes and restaurants will reopen in Finland from 1 June, with pupils returning to school and borders partially reopening for essential travel and work from 14 May. Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced the moves on Monday, weeks after imposing strict lockdown measures in her country

And a major study in Germany suggests up to 1.8 million people there may have been infected with the virus. The University of Bonn reported the figure after studying the town of Gangelt, which was badly affected in the outbreak
 
A patient diagnosed with pneumonia near Paris on 27 December actually had the coronavirus, his doctor has said.

Dr Yves Cohen told French media a swab taken at the time was recently tested, and came back positive for Covid-19.

The patient, who has since fully recovered, said he had no idea where he caught the virus as he had not been to any infected areas.

The claim means the virus may have arrived in France almost a month earlier than previously thought.

Dr Cohen pointed out that the patient's wife worked at a supermarket near Charles de Gaulle airport, meaning she could have come into contact with people who had recently arrived from China.
 
Spain reports 185 new Covid-19 deaths

Spain has reported 185 new deaths across 24 hours, meaning that the overall toll has risen to 25,613 from 25,428. The country’s health ministry also said the overall number of diagnosed Covid-19 cases has risen to 219,329, from 218,011.

It marks the third consecutive day on which Spain’s increase in confirmed Coronavirus deaths has been below 200.
 
Afghanistan has announced its highest one-day rise of new infections to Covid-19, triggered by a continued surge of transmission in Herat, Kabul and Kandahar amid intensified war across 20 provinces – as the country announced no polio vaccinations were carried out in the last two months.

A total of 330 new Covid-19 patients were confirmed overnight, marking the biggest one-day rise of infections in the war-torn country. Five deaths have also been recorded, pushing the total number of infections to 3,224 and death toll to 95. There have so far been 421 recoveries.

Fifty-nine of the new cases were confirmed in the western province of Herat, which borders Iran. The total number of infections in Herat stands at 630, with 59 recorded overnight.

More than 250,000 Afghans have returned home from Iran since the beginning of the year, fanning out across the country without being tested or quarantined.

The number of transmissions continued to surge in Kandahar and Kabul as 86 new cases were recorded in the provinces. The capital, Kabul, is the country’s worst affected area with 824.

Despite the lockdown in several provinces to contain the spread of the virus, in most cities the streets are still crowded. Experts fear fighting Coronavirus might be challenging.

Wahid Majroh, the deputy health minister, warned on Monday that the threat of the coronavirus is currently at its “highest level” and asked the people to cooperate with health workers and stay at home.

The Afghan government pledged to distribute bread to poor people via Kabul bakeries and started the process over the weekend, but the health ministry warned it may worsen the situation.

Meanwhile, the health ministry has said that it could not carry out a vaccination campaign during March and April because of the Covid-19 pandemic as it recorded six new polio cases over the weekend.

Despite multiple offers of ceasefire, Taliban intensified their attacks on Afghan security forces in last 24 hours. The defence ministry said the insurgents carried out attacks in around 20 provinces overnight.
 
Latest coronavirus headlines from around the world
A very warm welcome to those just joining us in the UK and globally. Here are some of the latest coronavirus news stories from around the world today:

A patient in France had coronavirus on 27 December, a recent testing of a swab taken at the time has shown. That would mean coronavirus came to Europe almost a month earlier than previously thought

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the country will not have open borders with the rest of the world for "a long time to come" - although she discussed a possible arrangement to open up travel between Australia and NZ in a "trans-Tasman bubble"

Chinese state media have accused US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of lying, after he said there was "enormous evidence" the coronavirus emanated from a laboratory in Wuhan

The US has said it wants to borrow a record $3tn (£2.4tn) in the second quarter of this year, as coronavirus-related rescue packages blow up the budget

Privacy concerns have been raised over a new app to track the spread of coronavirus in the UK, which is being rolled out as part of a trial on the Isle of Wight. Health Minister Matt Hancock insists it's not a threat to civil liberties

Workers who have developed Covid-19 antibodies could be given risky frontline roles in "adverse discrimination" by employers, according to a paper being considered by UK government advisers

A trial is under way in South Africa to test whether the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis might also be effective against coronavirus - something for which the World Health Organization says there is currently no evidence
 
Asia coronavirus cases hit 250,000 but pace much slower than U.S., Europe

Coronavirus cases in Asia rose to a quarter of a million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, driven by outbreaks in Singapore, Pakistan and India, even as China, South Korea and Japan significantly slowed the spread of the disease.

The region where the COVID-19 pandemic started has fared better overall than North America and Europe since the first case was reported in Wuhan, China on Jan. 10.

It has taken Asia almost four months to reach the 250,000 infection milestone, a level that Spain alone is approaching just a little over two months since reporting its first case.

At 250,650, Asia now accounts for just 7% of global cases, compared with 40% for Europe and 34% for North America, although experts worry that unreported infections are masking the true extent of the pandemic.

Infection may cause only mild symptoms and not everyone with symptoms is tested, while most countries only record hospital deaths, meaning deaths in private homes and nursing homes have not yet been included.

The death toll in Asia has also slowed significantly in most countries and is now nearing 10,000 for the region as a whole, representing just 4% of global deaths. Europe accounts for 57% and North America for 29%.

By comparison, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and France have all recorded more than 25,000 deaths each. The United States leads the grim tally with 70,000 fatalities.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ace-much-slower-than-u-s-europe-idUSKBN22H1V2
 
Schools reopen in China's virus epicentre for the first time since the outbreak began

Senior students in Hubei return - but most pupils will remain at home

The Queen tells Australian PM Scott Morrison she is "so pleased" at the country's Covid-19 success

The head of state also tells the PM she is pleased the country continued its horse racing

In the UK, an adviser resigns after claims he had a relationship that broke lockdown rules

The UK now has the world's second highest death toll (29,502) after the US (70,646)

President Trump announces a "different group" will replace the White House coronavirus taskforce later this month
 
Global confirmed cases exceed 3.65 million. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University say at least 3,656,644 people have been infected since the outbreak began, while at least 256,736 are known to have died. The figures, which are based on official and media reports, are likely to significantly underestimate the true scale of the outbreak.

White House wants to wind down Covid-19 taskforce. Mike Pence has confirmed that the Trump administration is reportedly looking to wind down the coronavirus taskforce in the coming weeks, even as the rate of new infections continues to rise across most of the US. Meanwhile, at least 70,847 people are now known to have died in the US, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That represents more than a quarter of all pandemic-linked deaths reported across the world.

Donald Trump says it’s time to reopen businesses. Speaking in Arizona at a factory manufacturing medical masks, Trump said it was time to reopen businesses. “Will some people be affected? Yes. Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open and we have to get it open soon.” he said.

New York subway shuts for cleaning. New York City’s subway system went silent in the early morning hours of Wednesday, as part of a plan for the normally round-the-clock system to shut down for train cleaning. The trains, which had been running on a reduced schedule since late March, are now going to be stopped from 1am to 5am each day, AP reports.

Asia Pacific nations push to end lockdown. Several Asia Pacific countries are aiming to ease their lockdowns and kickstart their economies, including South Korea, Australia and Hong Kong. Vietnam is also easing its restrictions but the country’s economy, in which tourism plays a major role, faces a severe test.

Record daily deaths in Brazil. According to the country’s health ministry, there have been 6,935 new cases of the novel coronavirus in Brazil since Monday evening and 600 new deaths. The previous record of 474 deaths came on 28 April. Meanwhile, the capital of tropical Maranhão state ground largely to a halt on Tuesday, becoming the first major Brazilian city to enter a lockdown in the hopes of preventing the coronavirus pandemic from overwhelming the health care system of one of the country’s poorest states.

UK youth unemployment may reach 1 million. Youth unemployment in Britain will reach 1 million over the coming year, a thinktank has warned, saying Britain faces the risk of a “dole queue” future for young people unless the government provides job guarantees or incentives for school leavers and graduates to stay on in education.

Covid-19 lockdown risks 1.4 million extra TB deaths by 2025: study. The global lockdown caused by Covid-19 risks a “devastating” surge in tuberculosis cases, with nearly 1.4 million additional deaths from the world’s biggest infectious killer by 2025, new research showed on Wednesday.

New Zealand reports one new case after two days with no cases. After two consecutive days of zero new corona cases reported, New Zealand reported one new case of the virus on Wednesday, and one new death.

The pandemic has cost Walt Disney US$1.4bn in the last three months. Walt Disney will kick off its strategy next week to begin restoring its lucrative parks business that has suffered $1bn in lost profits from the coronavirus-led shutdown. Disney said on Tuesday it will reopen its Shanghai Disneyland park on 11 May but severely limit the number of guests and enforce strict social distancing measures on rides and in restaurants.
 
In Russia, the number of new Covid-19 cases surged by 10,559 over the past 24 hours, bringing the countrywide tally to 165,929, the country’s coronavirus crisis response centre has announced.

It is the fourth consecutive day that cases have risen by more than 10,000. The crisis response centre also reported 86 new coronavirus deaths, meaning the death toll in Russia has reached 1,537.
 
Spain's death toll rose by 244 in the last 24 hours, the first time since Saturday the number has risen above 200.

In total there have been 25,857 confirmed deaths from the virus, and the country has confirmed 220,325 cases - a rise of 996 compared to Tuesday.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is asking parliament to extend the state of emergency for a few more weeks, telling lawmakers on Wednesday that "the goal is near" but "we are not there yet".
 
As coronavirus lockdown eases, Cypriots still in limbo

Deniz Birinci had just hours to stuff her and her baby daughter's belongings into suitcases and bin bags on March 16 before the two sides on the divided island of Cyprus imposed lockdowns to halt the spread of the new coronavirus.
 
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose by 232 to 41,319 on Wednesday, with 36 new deaths, health authorities said.

The country’s death toll stands at 5,204, the National Institute for Health (RIVM) said in its daily update. The RIVM cautioned that it only reports confirmed cases, and actual numbers are higher.
 
BREAKING: First phase of pandemic is behind us - Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken with the leaders of all 16 German states, and is now giving a press conference about how to lift the lockdown.

"The first phase of the pandemic is behind us," she said, although she said the country is "still very much in early phases of pandemic and will be in it for the long haul".

Social distancing will remain in place until 5 June - but Germany will now start to loosen its restrictions.

Two households will be allowed to meet in public, she said.
 
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