Key developments in the global coronavirus pandemic today include:
Record daily jump of Covid-19 cases in Russia
The Covid-19 death toll in Russia has risen to 313, with the country reporting a record daily jump in confirmed infections.
The number of coronavirus-related deaths increased by 40 overnight, with authorities reporting 4,785 new cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 36,793.
Moscow, which became the centre of Russia’s coronavirus outbreak and was also the first region in the country to introduce a lockdown, recorded 2,649 new cases and 21 deaths, the Russian coronavirus crisis response centre said.
Extra PPE to be delivered to Scottish care homes amid supply concerns
Extra supplies of personal protective equipment will be delivered directly to more than 1,000 care homes in Scotland, as concerns about the supply and quality of PPE continue.
While the care sector usually sources its own PPE, the pandemic has put extreme pressure on supply chains with concerns raised earlier this week that some manufacturers did not have capacity to deliver to Scotland.
The Scottish government announced overnight that NHS National Services Scotland would prioritise the delivery of stock directly to care homes where the virus is known to be present, although stock would still be provided to local hubs which supply PPE to other care workers.
Trump administration accused of dereliction of duty over testing failure
Donald Trump’s administration has been accused of a dereliction of duty by a senator over its failure to rapidly expand coronavirus testing.
Angus King, the independent senator for Maine, vented his frustration in a phone call with the vice-president, Mike Pence, on Friday, according to reports.
“I have never been so mad about a phone call in my life,” King reportedly said during the conversation.
Iran’s coronavirus death toll hits 5,000
Iran’s official Covid-19 death toll has topped 5,000. In the last 24 hours, there have been 73 new coronavirus deaths, bringing the country’s total to 5,031, the health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpour told state TV.
The daily death toll was one of the lowest in recent days, he said, adding that the number of people diagnosed with Covid-19 in the country had reached 80,868.
According to a parliamentary report released earlier this week, the coronavirus death toll might be almost double the figure announced by the health ministry, and the number of infections eight to 10 times higher. Iran is the worst-affected country in the Middle East, with one of the world’s highest coronavirus-related death tolls.
Hundreds of Taiwanese navy sailors quarantined
About 700 Taiwanese navy sailors are being put in quarantine after three Covid-19 cases were confirmed among the crew of a goodwill mission to the Pacific island state of Palau, the country’s government has announced.
Three Taiwan navy vessels visited Palau – an archipelago of islands which was under US administration until its independence in 1994 and is one of only 15 countries to maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan – in the middle of March and returned to Taiwan a month later, Chen Shih-chung, the health minister, said.
