We are closing this live blog now. You can keep up to date on the new blog we have just launched here.
He’s just told the next reporter that she is “one of the most inaccurate reporters”. This anger at the press is sadly so common at these press conferences.
Trump is now getting a question about why he didn’t warn Americans about the virus earlier. Trump responds by asking the reporter which network she is from (CBS). She follows up her question and he tells her to “relax”. He doesn’t answer and goes to his stock answer that he put a ban on flights from China in the end of January.
He’s getting quite angry now. In a back and forth with the reporter, Trump tells her to “keep your voice down”.
Now he is shouting at her and telling her she should say to him “thank you very much for (my) good judgement”.
Another female reporter is asking a question now. He talks over her and it’s hard to hear her question.
Trump is asked what advice he would give to the many protestors who are against the government’s restrictions.
“You’re allowed to protest,” he says, adding that “some governors have gone too far”.
He says he watched footage of the protests and was happy they were all practicing social distancing, which is very much not true.
You can follow our detailed coverage of the press conference on our US live blog.
Trump is asked about Iran and if he would help them in the pandemic. Trump says he would be happy to consider it. “They have been hit very hard,” he says.
Trump has gone off script and appears to be in full stream-of-consciousness mode ... very much in the spirit of his campaign rallies.
He says the coronavirus has taught the nation and important less about the “supply chain” and the need to not have to rely on other countries in times of crisis. He then spends a few minutes criticising trade policies with hard words for Nafta and the World Trade Organization.
“I want to read something I saw on television,” he says, before reading his own tweet from 19 Feburary off a large printed page.
Hello, this is Alison Rourke picking up our live coverage of coronavirus as Donald Trump gives his daily White House briefing.
The president began the briefing by saying a deal with the Democrats is “close” on the latest relief bill for small businesses and workers ... and could be resolved as soon as tomorrow.
He says 4.18 million Americans have been tested for the coronavirus. “That’s a record anywhere in the world,” Trump says. “More total tests than all the following nations combined: France, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, India, Austria, Australia, Sweden and Canada.”
Trump says there is a “tremendous capacity” for testing before showing off a medical swab, likening it to a Q-tip. “We have ordered a lot of them,” he said, but notes that some states “don’t know where they are”.
Then a return to what’s become a recurring motif over the past few days: “We are now the king of ventilators,” he says. “We have so many ventilators.”
Summary
That’s all from me for now - I’m handing over to my colleague Alison Rourke to take you through the next few hours. Thanks for reading and writing in.
Here’s a quick summary of the latest:
- The global death toll has reached 164,938, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The total number of infections worldwide is at 2,394,291.
-
Turkey’s death toll has passed 2,000, with the announcement of 127 new deaths bringing the official death toll to 2,017.
- Poland recorded its biggest spike in coronavirus cases on Sunday with 545 new infections registered, a day before the country plans to ease some of its restrictions.
- Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US president Donald Trump have agreed on a phone call to cooperate in protecting healthcare and economies from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
- The British government will charter flights to repatriate the most vulnerable Britons stranded in New Zealand this week.
- France has doubled its production of face masks from 4m to 8m a week and there are now enough for essential healthcare and frontline staff.
- Peru has reported over 15,000 cases of coronavirus, the second-highest tally in Latin America after Brazil. The country has reported a total of 15,628 cases and 400 deaths, according to the health ministry.
- US governors have accused Donald Trump of making “delusional” and “dangerous” statements amid mounting tensions between the president and state leaders over coronavirus testing and pressure to roll back stay-at-home measures.
- Tunisia is extending its lockdown to 4 May, then it will ease restrictions gradually on some economic activities, prime minister Elyes Fakhfakh has said.
- Thousands of Israelis have demonstrated against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu while maintaining social distancing measures, calling on Gantz’s Blue and White party not to join in a coalition led by a premier charged with corruption.
Updated
Lockdowns across Europe have had a dramatic impact on air traffic, with 90% fewer flights taking off from the continent’s largest airports compared to a year ago
Updated
Wearing face masks, waving black flags and keeping two yards apart, thousands of Israelis demonstrated against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu under strict coronavirus restrictions on Sunday.
Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, is under criminal indictment in three corruption cases.
He is also negotiating a power-sharing deal with his rival Benny Gantz to form a coalition government that would end a year of political deadlock after three inconclusive elections.
Demonstrations are allowed under Israel’s coronavirus restrictions, as long as participants maintain distance from each other and wear face masks.
Under the banner of “Save the Democracy,” protesters called on Gantz’s Blue and White party not to join in a coalition led by a premier charged with corruption.
Ten Britons and a UK resident who had been stranded by the coronavirus lockdown in the Peruvian city of Cusco for more than a month have left Lima on a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt after successfully being transferred from the Andean city to the capital.
The group, which included UK citizens who had tested positive for Covid-19, were among more than 30 travellers who boarded the German Boeing-747 to Frankfurt on Sunday afternoon.
Among the UK nationals Chris Ramsay, 29, an engineer from Salisbury, and Ian Lindsay, 68, a retired general practitioner living in Dublin, had both been diagnosed with Covid-19 but Peruvian authorities allowed them to leave as they had completed the quarantine and were no longer considered to be infectious.
“It was a great relief,” said Lindsay’s sister, Patricia Pacheco, who had been travelling with him along with their partners. “I honestly thought the Peruvian authorities would block it again.”
The group had been turned away from a military flight sent to transfer them to Lima for the last UK repatriation flight on Wednesday following health screening.
The acting UK ambassador in Peru, Andrew Soper tweeted : “Pleased we were able to help another group of British travellers start their journey home today, including those who had been stranded in Cusco.”
“Thanks to our German partners for organising the flights. We will continue to do everything we can to support those UK nationals who remain in Peru.”
Other travellers who were on the flight to Frankfurt included citizens from Canada, Sweden, Norway, Austria, the Netherlands and Germany.
Updated
Tunisia is extending its lockdown to 4 May, then it will ease restrictions gradually on some economic activities, prime minister Elyes Fakhfakh has said.
The government has said it expected Tunisia’s economy would shrink by up to 4.3%, the steepest drop since independence in 1956, because of the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.
“The situation is relatively under control, but more caution is required,” Fakhfakh told state-run TV. He added that the pace of normal life will not return quickly even after 4 May. Tunisia’s vital tourism sector could lose $1.4 billion and 400,000 jobs this year, an official letter sent to the IMF showed.
The North African country has confirmed 866 cases of the coronavirus and 37 people have died, according to Reuters.
US governors have accused Donald Trump of making “delusional” and “dangerous” statements amid mounting tensions between the president and state leaders over coronavirus testing and pressure to roll back stay-at-home measures.
Read Richard Luscombe and Edward Helmore’s report here:
Updated
For those of you in need of a heartwarming scene: a taxi driver in Spain who has been taking patients to hospital for free is surprised with a standing ovation and an envelope of cash.
"Es una sorpresa que le hemos dado a un taxista que lleva a pacientes sin cobrar al hospital.Le hemos dado un sobre con dinero y una dedicatoria.Le hemos llamado para decirle que tenía que hacer un traslado y ha sido muy emocionante. No paraba de llorar."
— #ElTaxiUnido (@eltaxiunido) April 18, 2020
Gracias a el y a ellos. pic.twitter.com/CcXX1BVfko
Get in touch with me on Twitter @cleaskopeliti.
Peru has reported over 15,000 cases of coronavirus, the second-highest tally in Latin America after Brazil.
Peru has reported a total of 15,628 cases and 400 deaths, the health ministry said. The crisis has paralysed Peru and left millions without jobs.
Peru recorded its first coronavirus case on March 6 and took 25 days to reach 1,000 cases. It took only 14 more days to reach 10,000 cases on April 14, according to a Reuters tally.
Updated
UK to repatriate vulnerable Britons from New Zealand
The British government will charter flights to repatriate the most vulnerable Britons stranded in New Zealand this week, with three flights from Auckland and two from Christchurch.
People most at risk from of coronavirus will be prioritised for the flights, which will bring back over 1,500 people in total. This includes people over 70, those under 70 with an underlying serious or complex health condition and those who are pregnant.
The first flight is expected to depart on Friday 24th April and flights will continue to run every second day, with alternating departures from Auckland and Christchurch.
This follows the government having previously stated it would be unable to repatriate Britons in New Zealand due to the country’s strict lockdown.
After a phone call between Dominic Raab and the New Zealand’s foreign minister Winston Peters at the end of March, the British high commissioner Laura Clarke had said there would be no “immediate fixes” because New Zealand’s strict lockdown and the closure of international flights made it almost impossible.
“The New Zealand government’s level-four Covid guidance is now absolutely clear in limiting domestic flights and transport to essential works only. That means if you are not close to your departure airport you are going to struggle to get on an international flight home,” Clarke had said in a video statement on 30 March.
Tickets for the charter flights will cost £800. Travellers able to prove financial hardship may be able to get an emergency loan from public funds.
2,600 Britons have already returned home via commercial means since the outbreak of the coronavirus, with some being quoted over £40,000 for a ticket.
Updated
In the UK, hospital leaders have directly attacked the government for the first time during the coronavirus crisis over the shortage of personal protective equipment after a desperately needed consignment of surgical gowns that had been announced by ministers failed to arrive, Denis Campbell reports.
As Poland prepares to relax some restrictions, take a look at which other European countries are easing lockdown measures this week:
Poland new coronavirus cases spike
Poland saw its biggest spike in coronavirus cases on Sunday with 545 new infections recorded, according to health ministry data, a day before the country plans to ease some of its restrictions.
Reuters reports that the daily rise in new cases has held roughly steady in April after a jump in March, with a dip over Easter. Until Sunday, Poland had not reported more than 500 new cases in one day.
As of Sunday, Poland had 9,287 confirmed cases and 360 deaths. The health ministry said it had carried out around 11,200 tests over the course of the last day.
A spokesman for the health ministry told Polish state news agency PAP that the spike was associated with the discovery of three new coronavirus outbreaks across the country - two in care homes and the other in a hospital.
Updated
Greeks haven’t allowed the country’s strict lockdown rules to ruin their Easter celebrations, enjoying traditional spit-roasted lamb and dancing despite being unable to visit their loved ones and home towns.
As thousands of Greeks travel from Athens to their family homes for the Easter every year, the government was worried people would relax social distancing measures and banned unnecessary movement from Holy Saturday night to Easter Monday midnight, doubling the fines for offenders.
Greeks stuck to the restrictions and spent the day with their close families and roasted lamb on verandas and balconies for the traditional Easter meal, Reuters reports.
“We had ordered and sent lambs to Corfu in order to go and celebrate Easter with relatives, but coronavirus came along and we are stuck here,” Vassilis Kourtelis, 62, told Reuters from his porch of his house in Athens while roasting lamb.
“But we are not going to let it ruin our mood, (we are celebrating) here with the family, as if we were there with our relatives. We send them video calls, they see us as we sing and dance.”
Greece has a relatively low rate of infections, with 2,235 reported on Saturday, including 110 fatalities.
“We have pushed aside the first waves with discipline and solidarity,” prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in his Easter address. “Staying on the same course, we will soon be starting a gradually transition to a new era”.
Athens has said it would unwind its plan to ease the lockdown which ends 27 April after Easter but cautioned this will be a slow process.
Updated
Here’s a graphic that showing the confirmed number of deaths of a few selected countries:
Updated
Sirens wailed and Jewish prayers were said for the heroes of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising, but the annual memorial observances were scaled down on Sunday and moved online owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Associated Press reports that Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said prayers at the monument to the ghetto fighters in downtown Warsaw.
The Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, and representatives of Jewish and Polish organisations laid wreaths while wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing. President Andrzej Duda and Warsaw’s mayor, Rafal Trzaskowski, also sent wreaths.
History lectures and virtual visits to ghetto sites were offered on the internet, mainly by the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Commemorative concerts were broadcast on Radio POLIN and on Poland’s state radio.
The museum’s director, Zygmunt Stępiński, said that the coronavirus pandemic had “forced us to change the formula” of the commemorations on the 77th anniversary.
Updated
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Donald Trump have agreed on a phone call to cooperate in protecting healthcare and economies from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
The two leaders “agreed to continue their close cooperation against the threats that the coronavirus pandemic poses to public health and our economies”, the Turkish presidency announced on Twitter.
President @RTErdogan has spoken by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this evening.
— Turkish Presidency (@trpresidency) April 19, 2020
Views were exchanged on bilateral relations and regional developments.
Updated
Turkey's death toll passes 2,000
Turkey has announced 127 new deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the official death toll to 2,017.
The health minister, Fahrettin Koca, shared an image showing there were 3,977 new cases of Covid-19 infection in the past 24 hours, bringing total reported infections to 86,306.
Tedbirlere gösterdiğimiz özen meyvelerini veriyor. Biz günlük test imkanlarını artırırken, sorumlu davranışlarınız da yeni vaka sayılarını azaltacak. Sağlık ordumuza ve sağlık sistemimizin gücüne güvenin. Tedbiri elden bırakmayın.
— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) April 19, 2020
https://t.co/RVlhe7786O pic.twitter.com/3pg0WRQuey
Turkey is the worst affected country in the Middle East, ahead of Iran, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Turkish authorities have carried out nearly 635,000 tests while almost 12,000 people have recovered from the virus, the minister said.
Updated
From the Guardian Paris correspondent Kim Willsher:
France has doubled its production of masks from 4m to 8m a week and there are now sufficient for essential healthcare and frontline staff. The French prime minister, Édouard Philippe, has said there are still not enough for everyone and asked people to be patient.
Following Emmanuel Macron’s announcement last week that nurseries, primary and secondary schools would begin to open on 11 May, Philippe said: “Our aim is to find a good method and that method will be progressive. They will not open everywhere on 11 May ... but we have to start opening schools for the continuity of the nation that I evoked before.”
Philippe said the government was considering various options, including having half a class in rotation, or opening schools in areas where there have been few or no Covid-19 cases before others.
Updated
More on the relaxation of Iran’s lockdown from the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour:
More shops and markets will be reopened across Iran in the coming fortnight, but mosques and holy places will remain shut at least through the opening part of Ramadan the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, said today following a meeting of his coronavirus taskforce.
The step by step opening of the Iranian economy in the face of many Iranians desperately needing to return to work, comes despite a warning from the mayor of Tehran, Mohsen Hashemi, that the coronavirus crisis is spreading and the true number of deaths is far higher than official statistics show.
Rouhani also said that furloughed political prisoners will not be required to return to prison for at least a another month, a ruling that would on the surface apply to the Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Furloughed inmates had been due to return to prison at the end of April.
Rouhani announced that stores and bazaars deemed as “medium and low-risk” would be allowed to open until 6pm. Low-risk shops had been allowed to open in the provinces on 11 April, and in Tehran on Saturday. Restaurants will be allowed to provide take-aways. Schools, colleges and gyms would remain closed. Mosques and holy sites would be kept closed at least until 4 May, but he urged Iranians to pray at home. The holy month of Ramadan starts on 23 April.
Tehran was gridlocked with traffic on Saturday when office employees were asked to return to work. Public transport, seen as a major transmitter of the virus, is unable to cope with the passenger traffic, making government commitments to implement smart distancing largely ineffectual. Traffic into Tehran was up 70% from traffic on the same day last year, Tehran police chief Mohammad Reza Mehmandar said.
Rouhani acknowledged the dilemma, but said the solution was for councils to purchase more buses, or bring back into use those that had broken down. Crowds also gathered outside banks on Saturday to purchase a SIM card required to access a government grant of 1m Iranian toman ($23). Pictures of the crowds were emblazoned on Iranian newspapers with reporters questioning government policy. As many as 600,000 made unemployed due to the lockdown had registered for the government grant, but living standards of the middle class are also sliding.
Health ministry figures on Saturday showed the number of new deaths had fallen to a record low of 73. The number of new infections was 1,374, part of a steady downward trend. But Tehran’s mayor pointed to an Iranian parliament report saying the official figures undercounted the number of deaths caused by the virus due to the lack of effective testing in hospitals. Opposition sources produce figures for deaths that are as high as 30,000, more than six times the official figures. New reporting instructions have just been sent to the regions by the health ministry.
Iran’s own coronavirus headquarters’ epidemiology group has warned that in the six provinces of Tehran, East Azerbaijan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Khuzestan, Gilan and Mazandaran, a new wave of epidemics seems to have begun. A reversal of the downward trend in the official infection figures would be a severe blow, and provide ammunition to charges that Iran’s dire economic state is forcing the government to lift restrictions prematurely.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a summary of the key events over the last few hours:
- Europe’s death toll has passed 100,000, excluding Russia. The global death toll has reached 162,070, while the total number of infections worldwide is at 2,356,475, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
- Hospitalisations in New York continue to fall, with governor Andrew Cuomo announcing that the total number of Covid-19 hospitalisations is down to 16,213, marking the sixth consecutive day that number has dropped.
- Italy’s infection curve appears to have begun to decline, as the number of fatalities from coronavirus rose by 433 on Sunday, 49 less than on Saturday, taking the death toll to 23,660. The number of people currently infected has risen by 486 in a day, representing a drop of 323 on Saturday.
- Hospitalisations have declined in France for the the fifth consecutive day, while the number of people in ICUs fell for the 11th consecutive day.
- Chile has passed 10,000 coronavirus cases, making it the third-highest tally in Latin America after Brazil and Peru.
- Pakistan has started repatriating citizens from the United Arab Emirates, which had threatened to review labour ties with countries refusing to take back their nationals during the pandemic.
- Zimbabwe has extended its lockdown by two weeks after the president said the country had not yet met conditions set by the WHO to lift the measures.
- The UK’s death toll has risen to 16,060, the Department of Health and Social Care has said. The number represents those who have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus.
- The Netherlands has reported its smallest daily death toll in over three weeks, with the number of deaths rising by 83, the lowest daily increase since 26 March.
- Switzerland’s coronavirus death toll has reached 1,135, rising from 1,111 on Saturday.
Updated
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that the total number of Covid-19 hospitalisations is down to 16,213, marking the sixth consecutive day that number has dropped.
Speaking during his daily coronavirus briefing, Cuomo said: “If the data holds, we are past the high point and all indications ... at this point are that we are on a descent. Whether or not that descent continues depends on what we do.”
Follow the New York governor’s briefing on the US liveblog:
Updated
Italy's infection curve appears to begin decline
The number of fatalities from coronavirus in Italy rose by 433 on Sunday, 49 fewer than on Saturday, taking the total number of deaths to 23,660.
The infection curve appears to have started its decline, with the number of people currently infected rising by 486 in a day, a drop of 323 since Saturday. Italy’s civil protection authority said the number of intensive care beds in use continues to fall.
To date, there have been 178,972 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Italy and 47,055 survivors.
Updated
France’s prime minister has said the country’s coronavirus situation is improving “slowly but surely”, but that the health crisis is not over.
The country’s total death toll in hospitals and nursing homes has risen to 19,718, from 19,323 on Saturday.
The number of people in hospitals with coronavirus is down to 30,610, from 30,639 on Saturday, marking the fifth consecutive day of decline, France’s health authority announced.
The number of people in ICU units has fallen from 5,833 on Saturday to 5,744 on Sunday - the country’s 11th consecutive day of decline.
Jérome Salomon, head of French Public Heath authority gives brief resumé of figures (during PM's press conference).
— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) April 19, 2020
30,610 in hospital (+890 gross - 29 net)
5,744 in i/c (+137 gross -89 net)
12,069 deaths in hospital
7,649 deaths in care homes
19,718 total deaths
1/2
Updated
Chile reported on Sunday that the number of coronavirus cases in the country had passed 10,000, the third-highest tally in Latin America after Brazil and Peru.
Chile has registered 133 deaths, according to its health ministry. The country recorded its first coronavirus case on 3 March.
Updated
Pakistan has started repatriating some of its citizens from the United Arab Emirates, which had threatened to review labour ties with countries refusing to take back their nationals during the pandemic, according to Reuters.
The first Pakistan International Airlines flight carrying 227 “stranded passengers” from Dubai and other emirates left for Islamabad on Saturday evening, Pakistan’s consulate general in Dubai said in a Twitter post.
First PIA flight carrying 227 stranded passengers from Dubai and Northern Emirates left for Islamabad today at 1900 hours.@SMQureshiPTI @ForeignOfficePk @pid_gov pic.twitter.com/aF4RHwtMij
— Consulate General of Pakistan, Dubai (@ParepDubai) April 18, 2020
It was not clear when other flights would depart. More than 40,000 Pakistanis in the Gulf state have registered with the consulate to return home, two UAE newspapers reported.
The UAE and other Gulf states have reported increased infections among low-income migrant workers who live in overcrowded quarters. Some have moved to rehouse them in shuttered schools or dedicated centres, and are trying to arrange flights to repatriate them. On Sunday the UAE announced 479 new cases of coronavirus and four more deaths, bringing its total to 6,781 cases and 41 deaths so far.
The UAE last week said it would review labour relations with states refusing to evacuate citizens, including those who have lost jobs or been put on leave, after the ambassadors of India and Pakistan said their countries were not yet ready to do so.
Updated
Head over to the UK live blog to follow Downing Street’s daily coronavirus briefing:
Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has extended the country’s lockdown by two weeks, saying the country had not yet met conditions set by the World Health Organization to lift the measures.
Reuters reports that three people have died from the virus out of the 25 confirmed infected in the southern African nation, but health experts expect the figures to rise once authorities ramp up testing.
“It has been a very hard decision that my government has had to take reluctantly,” Mnangagwa said in a live television broadcast.
Updated
Hello, I’m taking over the blog from my colleague Jedidajah Otte. Spot a story you think I’ve missed? Please get in touch via Twitter @cleaskopeliti. Thanks in advance.
The city of Dresden in east Germany will distribute 200,000 face masks to its citizens on Monday, the Bild newspaper reports.
Residents who haven’t been able to obtain masks can pick a maximum of two per person up at the gates of the town hall from 11am.
As of Monday, mouth protection is mandatory in the state of Saxony in shops and on local public transport. People have been advised that a scarf would also suffice, as long as mouth and nose are covered.
That’s it from me, I’m handing over to my colleague Clea Skopeliti now.
Updated
The US house speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has condemned Donald Trump’s support for anti-lockdown demonstrations, which took place in various US states this week, as “a distraction” from failures in the White House response to the coronavirus pandemic, my colleague Enjoli Liston reports.
On Saturday, further rallies were held in state capitals in Maryland, Texas and Ohio, after Trump had encouraged Americans to protest against strict public health measures aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus.
Updated
Scotland’s health secretary, Jeane Freeman, has addressed reports in the media that schools could reopen in three weeks.
Speaking at a briefing at the Scottish government’s headquarters in Edinburgh, she said: “These are not plans that the Scottish Government has seen, and not ones we endorse.”
Freeman added: “We have committed to publishing later this week our initial thinking on how Scotland plots our way forward.
“This will focus on the issues that have to be weighed up and the changes that will be required for society to adapt as safely as possible to the presence of the virus.
“We confirmed only three days ago that the current lockdown remains in place for another three weeks. We will use that time to assess the evidence and the options before we make any further decisions”.
Updated
The Sampaloc district of Manila will be placed on lockdown owing to the rising number of coronavirus infections cases in the area, the city’s mayor, Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, confirmed.
He said the schedule of the lockdown was yet to be announced, as authorities are “still planning it carefully”, according to CNN Philippines.
On Sunday, the news outlet shared an image of the president, Rodrigo Duterte, while on a phone call to Donald Trump, along reports that US president had called his Filipino counterpart “to discuss bilateral cooperation on Covid-19 response”.
LOOK: President Rodrigo Duterte on the phone with US President Donald Trump | 📷: Senator Bong Go pic.twitter.com/knVcpHbwuq
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) April 19, 2020
Manila’s Sampaloc district has the most number of confirmed cases in the city, with 98 confirmed Covid-19 patients and 158 suspected cases found in the area.
As of Sunday, there are 445 confirmed cases in the city.
Updated
The Portuguese government has attributed the country’s low coronavirus infection and death rates to a swift, flexible “worst-case scenario” response and to the early closure of schools and universities on 16 March, my colleague Sam Jones reports.
Despite the fact that around 22% of Portugal’s 10.3 million people are aged 65 or over, making them particularly vulnerable to the virus, the country has so far registered just over 20,000 cases and 714 deaths – far fewer than its neighbours, he writes.
Read the full story below.
New York’s daily Covid-19 death toll has hit its lowest point in more than two weeks, but officials still warn that New York City and the rest of the state aren’t ready to ease up on shutdowns of schools, businesses and gatherings.
The daily number of new coronavirus deaths dropped under 550 for the first time in overa fortnight as hospitalisations continue to decline, the Associated Press reports.
But the state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, emphasised the crisis was far from over, and said hospitals were still reporting nearly 2,000 new Covid-19 cases a day, while nursing homes remain dangerous infection hotspots.
Cuomo took to Twitter to reiterate that New Yorkers must keep adhering to social distancing guidelines and stay at home.
The curve may be flattening but we can’t stop what we’re doing now.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 19, 2020
Social distancing saves lives.
Stay Home. Stop the Spread. Save Lives. pic.twitter.com/GPeAMWPXLW
New York State is the country’s worst affected area, and worldwide the place with the 6th highest death toll.
Updated
Experts in Hungary expect the national coronavirus epidemic to peak on 3 May, the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said in a video posted on his official Facebook page on Sunday.
Orbán, who was visiting a hospital in the town of Ajka, west of Budapest, said that by then Hungary would have 5,000 ventilators, up from just over 2,000, Reuters reports.
“The number [of ventilators] will go up to 8,000 and then anything can happen. That is enough, even at a time of war,” he told a doctor in the video.
On Sunday, Hungary had 1,916 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 189 deaths.
Updated
Officially recorded deaths in Europe exceed 100,000
The updated death toll from the UK, the smallest increase in nearly two weeks, brings the total number of officially recorded deaths from Covid-19 in Europe to more than 100,000.
The figures from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center record 100,316 deaths in total in European countries, excluding Russia.
Italy still has the highest number of deaths in Europe with 23,227 fatalities, followed by Spain with 20,453 and France with 19,323.
Updated
Death toll in UK rises to 16,060
As of 5pm Saturday, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 16,060 have died, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
As of 9am on Sunday, 372,967 people in the UK have been tested, of which 120,067 tested positive.
Of the 482 new deaths announced on Sunday, 118 occurred on 18 April, 243 occurred on 17 April and 62 occurred on 16 April.
Updated
Lady Gaga, the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney were among the headline acts in a virtual concert celebrating frontline workers across the world.
Taiwan has quarantined 700 navy officers, service personnel and cadets for testing after 24 members tested positive for Covid-19, the government said.
Chen Shih-chung, the country’s health hinister, said 22 new daily cases had been confirmed including those in the military.
The cases were found on one of three ships in a fleet that visited the small Pacific island of Palau last month.
The latest confirmed cases bring the total on the island to 420 with six deaths.
Updated
Iran has become the latest country to ease restrictions by allowing bazaars and shopping malls to reopen from Monday.
Some shops and businesses were allowed to open again on Saturday but Monday’s openings will apply to “medium-risk” businesses.
Germany will also allow shops of up to 800 sq metres (8,611 sq ft) in addition to car dealers and bike shops while Poland is progressively its lifting lockdown measures from Sunday, with shops among the businesses allowed to reopen.
Updated
Vladimir Putin has said Russian authorities have the coronavirus crisis under “full control” and everything would work out with God’s help, despite registering a record daily rise in cases.
Russia reported 6,060 new cases in the previous 24 hours, bringing its nationwide tally to 42,853, although the official death toll of 361 remains relatively low compared with other countries with a similar number of cases.
In a video message to congratulate Christians on the Orthodox Easter, Putin said the religious festival would strengthen Russians’ hope and faith because the resurrection of Christ was a powerful symbol of rebirth and a reminder that life goes on.
The Russian president said: “All levels of power are working in an organised, responsible and timely way. The situation is under full control. All of our society is united in front of the common threat.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying there was hope that signs miay start appearing next week of the number of cases, which has risen relentlessly, beginning to plateau.
Updated
The Netherlands has reported the lowest daily coronavirus death rate in more than three weeks.
The number of deaths has risen by 83, Dutch health authorities said on Sunday. This was the smallest reported daily increase since 26 March.
The total number of deaths among people known to have been infected increased to 3,684, while the number of confirmed infections rose by 1,066 to 32,655.
Updated
Denmark’s ambassador to the UK, Lars Thuesen, has said it helps to be honest with the public about lockdown exit strategies.
“It does work,” Thuesen said on the Sophy Ridge on Sunday TV programme.
“Before Easter, the prime minister told the Danes that it would be possible to ease some of the restrictions if they behaved during Easter time, during these wonderful summer temperatures, if they behaved responsibly, if they continued what they had done the first weeks, then we would be able to open up again so it was sort of a pact between the government and the population.”
He said Denmark had been able to lift some lockdown restrictions as the numbers for people in hospital, the numbers for people in intensive care, and the numbers for people on ventilators had been stable or have been coming down over the last two weeks.
“We are definitely not out of the woods yet but we are moving in the right direction and we can’t stay in a lockdown forever, so this decision about the schools, the primary schools and the kindergartens [which reopened this week] is based on scientific advice to the government as such.”
“It might sound strange but the children in this country is not a vulnerable group and that is probably the reason why they chose to open the schools. It is vital for our economy,” he added.
He revealed Denmark was about to widen its testing strategy from only testing people with symptoms. “We are going to test a large proportion of the population in the future, in the days to come, and right now we are building more testing facilities,” Thuesen said.
Updated
The Parisian mayor, Anne Hidalgo, had said that she plans to distribute 2.2m face masks to the citizens of the French capital, free of charge.
Around half a million reusable masks will initially be available by the end of April, Hidalgo told the newspaper Journal du Dimanche. By mid-May, all residents of the Paris are supposed to have been provided with a mask. According to Hidalgo, the measure will cost €3m.
“Masks and tests are our priority,” she said, adding: “All Parisians can be equipped.”
Outlining her vision for the next phase of the pandemic, post-confinement, the proposals also include providing people who have tested positive with hotel rooms for a fortnight if they cannot remain confined to their homes without contaminating others, and provisionally creating cycle lanes above the most popular metro lines.
Updated
Pope Francis has called for global solidarity after the pandemic, and said that moving on while excluding sectors of society from the recovery would result in “an even worse virus”.
The pope left the Vatican for the first time in more than a month to say Mass in an almost empty church a few blocks away to mark Divine Mercy Sunday, Reuters reports.
In his homily at the Mass, as well as in his traditional Sunday message afterwards, Francis said the recovery could not leave anyone behind and that now was the time to heal injustice around the world because it undermined the health of the entire human family.
“Now, while we are looking forward to a slow and arduous recovery from the pandemic, there is a danger that we will forget those who are left behind,” Francis said.
“The risk is that we may then be struck by an even worse virus, that of selfish indifference. A virus spread by the thought that life is better if it is better for me, and that everything will be fine if it is fine for me.”
Updated
The Swiss Covid-19 death toll has reached 1,135 people, the country’s public health agency said on Sunday, rising from 1,111 on Saturday.
The number of confirmed infections increased to 27,740, it said, up from 27,404.
The New York Times has run into a buzz-saw of indignation after trying to get residents of an Irish village to spill some beans about Matt Damon, who is living there under lockdown.
Heather Tal Murphy, a reporter, triggered a backlash by asking people in Dalkey what it’s like to have the actor as a neighbour during the pandemic.
“Anyone living in Dalkey has a right to their privacy. Leave him alone, jesus, he’s only human,” said one response on the Facebook forum she contacted.
“How about just leaving him be?” said another. “Its one of the reasons celebs love Ireland, they get left alone and treated like a normal human.”
Damon was in Ireland to film The Last Duel, to be directed by Ridley Scott, and has ended up staying in Dalkey, a wealthy seaside enclave south of Dublin that is home to Bono and Enya. The Bourne Identity star is reportedly staying with his wife and children at a property advertised on Airbnb for €7,000 a week.
Sightings have been reported on social media, including a picture of Damon clutching a local supermarket bag, purportedly with his togs, after a swim in the sea.
However residents bristled when the NYT reporter sought more details. “Leave him be, he belongs to us now,” said one. “Don’t forget social distancing, leave the man alone,” said another.
A few voices defended the journalist for just doing her job and faulted residents for having posted about their famous neighour in the first place.
Murphy, who did not respond to a request for comment, appears to have abandoned the project: “I have gotten the message that people don’t think it’s appropriate to ask about Matt Damon,” she wrote on the forum. “I think he would appreciate how protective you’re all being.”
Updated
Summary
Here the latest global developments relating to the coronavirus pandemic at a glance:
- Spain’s death toll slows to a one-month low, as the country reported 410 further deaths on Sunday, down from 565 on Saturday, the lowest daily increase since March 22.
- Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, the Council of Senior Scholars, has urged Muslims worldwide to pray at home during Ramadan if their countries require social distancing to combat coronavirus.
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At least 6.5m jobs in the UK economy are at risk if the lockdown continues for an extended period, a new study suggests. The government is under intense pressure after being accused of a series of failings in their response to the pandemic.
- India’s Maharashtra state, the country’s largest regional economy, will partially reopen business activity on Monday, after a weeks-long shutdown to slow the spread of coronavirus left millions out of work.
- Israel, South Korea and Albania are also loosening lockdown restrictions, and New Zealand is likely to announce a lockdown overhaul on Monday, after more than a week of low new infections.
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Protesters in Brazil are demanding laxer social distancing measures, after president Jair Bolsonaro reiterated his aversion to the measures on Saturday, hinting he would relax restrictions soon.
Updated
Hundreds of people have taken to the streets across large cities in Brazil, bringing traffic to a standstill and protesting against the country’s social distancing measures.
Drivers in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and the capital Brasilia honked their horns, calling for resignations of politicians who decided to implement a strict economic and social lockdown, forcing most businesses to close for weeks.
Carreata em SP mira Doria e Maia em meio a pedidos de intervenção militar (via @folha_poder)https://t.co/8leYa3v9SX pic.twitter.com/MjnXLOU3jP
— Folha de S.Paulo (@folha) April 18, 2020
President Jair Bolsonaro has been fiercely criticising the measures and fired his health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who had defended physical distancing, on Thursday.
On Saturday, Bolsonaro gave further hints that he planned to reopen the economy soon.
“People want a return to normality,” the president said in a Facebook Live session. “We’re going to start adding more flexibility.”
Brazil is South America’s worst affected country with 36,925 confirmed infections and 2,372 reported deaths.
Updated
Spain's death toll slows to one-month low
Spain’s Covid-19 death toll rose by 410 on Sunday, down from 565 on Saturday, the Health Ministry said, the lowest daily increase since March 22.
Spain is still one of the world’s hardest hit countries, with its overall death toll standing at 20,639, globally the third highest after the US and Italy.
Spain’s daily death rate peaked at 950 on April 2. The country had imposed Europe’s strictest lockdown in mid-March.
The overall number of coronavirus cases rose to 195,944 on Sunday from 191,726 on Saturday, the Health Ministry added.
Updated
India's largest regional business hub to partially reopen economy
India’s Maharashtra state, the country’s largest regional economy, will allow a limited number of sectors to resume business on Monday, after a weeks-long shutdown to slow the spread of coronavirus left millions out of work, Reuters reports.
Maharashtra, home to financial centre Mumbai, has the biggest share of India’s 16,365 infections, including a large number in its densely-packed slums.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray told a news conference on Sunday that some activity would be permitted in the least-affected parts of the state while observing a strict lockdown in the red zones that have the maximum number of cases.
“We need to start the economic wheels again. We are giving selective permissions from tomorrow, especially in orange zones and green zones,” he said, referring to areas with lower levels of infection.
In uplifting news, a Spanish taxi driver who had been taking patients to hospital free of charge received a standing ovation from hospital staff.
In Spain, a taxi driver was known for taking patients to the hospital, free of charge.
— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) April 18, 2020
One day, he got a call to pickup a patient from the hospital.
When he arrived, doctors and nurses surprised him with a standing ovation, plus an envelope of money. 🇪🇸🚕pic.twitter.com/OOL6WOcLJb
Figures from France’s military leadership reveal that more than half the sailors aboard the country’s flagship aircraft carrier contracted coronavirus as the ship traveled through the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
A navy official says 1,046 of the 1,760 people aboard the Charles de Gaulle tested positive for the virus, according to the Associated Press.
Navy chief of staff Christophe Prazuck attributed the quick spread to the “great population density aboard the ship.”
Speaking Saturday evening to Europe-1 radio, Prazuck said virus protection measures weren’t followed properly, which “did not allow us to detect the beginning of the epidemic, and therefore to contain it.”
The ship is undergoing a lengthy disinfection process since returning to its home base in Toulon last week.
One person who served aboard is in intensive care and more than 20 others are hospitalized. Among those infected are two U.S. sailors serving as part of an exchange program.
Albania to partially reopen economy
Albania’s government plans to allow its mining and oil industries to reopen on Monday, along with hundreds of businesses including small retailers, food and fish processing, farming and fishing.
In late March, the country had imposed a 40 hour curfew at the weekend and limited shopping to just one family member, who had to seek permission via an app to leave their home.
The country’s reported death toll stands at 26.
Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem
As we reported, Israel has begun gradually lifting some of its virus restrictions following a stringent five-week lockdown.
Overnight, the cabinet approved the below measures:
- Increase office workers from 15% to 30% employment.
- Reopen the hi-tech sector with restrictions.
- The partial reopening of shops, including hardware, electrical, and office supplies. Only two customers allowed in at a time.
- Allow children from three families to share one caregiver.
- Allow group prayer – a Jewish custom – of up to 19 people, but outside and with people standing two metres apart
- Allow weddings and circumcision ceremonies for up to 10 people, also outside and two metres apart
- Allow people to venture 500 metres from their homes for exercise (previously 100m).
Pre-schools, schools, hairdressers and malls will remain closed. People will also have to continue to wear a mask in public spaces, subject to a fine.
Israel, a country of 9 million people, responded relatively fast to the pandemic and has registered around 13,000 cases of the illness, with 158 fatalities. The past week has seen a slowdown in the number of new confirmed cases.
The new measures will be in place for two weeks and reassessed in case infection rates begin to climb again. If that happens, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned he would reinstate a clampdown.
South Korea to loosen lockdown restrictions
South Korea has reported only eight new coronavirus cases for the first time in two months, and will loosen some of its lockdown restrictions, prime minister Chung Sye-Kyun said on Sunday.
It is the first time new infections fell to single digits since the country’s outbreak escalated in mid-February.
The prime minister said the government would consider opening public outdoor facilities, and would relax the guidelines under which sports facilities and restaurants could open in particular circumstances. Other social distancing measures that were set to expire today were extended until May 5.
Sye-Kyun had urged South Koreans on Saturday to minimise outdoor activities and adhere to social distancing rules during the upcoming holidays.
In total, South Korea has recorded 10,661 infections, including 234 deaths. 8,042 were reported to have recovered from Covid-19.
“We must not let down our guard until the last confirmed patient is recovered”, president Moon Jae-in said on Sunday.
Updated
The British government is under fire after it emerged that it ignored key recommendations made three years ago after a major simulation exercise found that Britain’s National Health Service would not cope in the face of a flu pandemic, my colleague Jamie Doward reports.
It is the latest in a series of scandals the government is embroiled in over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, including its delayed efforts to procure ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare staff.
The Sunday Times newspaper revealed in an investigation today that prime minister Boris Johnson had missed five emergency cabinet office meetings between late January and early March, causing Britain to “sleepwalk into disaster”, as the reporters wrote.
Iran has extended furloughs for prisoners for another month, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday, as the Middle East’s worst-hit country tries to prevent the virus from spreading in its crowded jails, Reuters reports.
Iran’s reported temporary release of 100,000 prisoners since February - including prisoners of conscience and dual and foreign nationals - was welcomed by the United Nations on Friday as a good step, but one that must be expanded.
“Furloughs of those prisoners, who pose no threat to the society, have been extended until May 20,” Rouhani said in a televised cabinet meeting.
However, a letter by U.N. human rights experts, including Special Rapporteur on Iran Javaid Rehman, said “most prisoners of conscience, human rights defenders, conservationists and dual and foreign nationals” remained imprisoned in Iran.
Rouhani said mosques and holy sites in Iran would remain closed until at least May 4.
Iran allowed so-called low-risk businesses - including many shops, factories and workshops - to resume operations in Tehran on Saturday, a week after re-opening in the rest of the country.
Schools and universities, as well as theatres, gyms, saunas, beauty salons and shopping centres remain closed, and a ban on cultural, religious and sports gatherings has been imposed.
Iran has reported 80,868 confirmed cases of infection and more than 5,000 officially recorded deaths.
Saudia Arabia urges all Muslims to pray at home during Ramadan
Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, the Council of Senior Scholars, urged Muslims worldwide to pray at home during Ramadan if their countries require social distancing to combat coronavirus, the state news agency SPA reported on Sunday.
“Muslims shall avoid gatherings, because they are the main cause of the spread of infection … and shall remember that preserving the lives of people is a great act that brings them closer to God,” it said in a statement.
Updated
Ireland is highly unlikely to allow large gatherings this year and the “cocooning” of people over 70 years old in their homes may persist for quite a while, health minister Simon Harris said on Sunday.
“What’s not going to come back quickly are scenarios in which we can’t safely socially distance,” Harris told the Sunday Independent newspaper.
“I can’t see how people can be in packed pubs again as long as this virus is still with us and we don’t have a vaccine or an effective treatment,” he added.
Ireland’s chief medical officer declared on Thursday that the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak had been contained in the population at large, raising hopes that stay-at-home restrictions could begin to be rolled back from May 5, Reuters reports.
But Harris cautioned that any easing back of the most severe constraints will be done on a slow and phased basis.
“I’d like to see a situation where you could expand somewhat the areas in which people can go beyond their home,” he said.
Currently people can only go out to shop for groceries or for brief physical exercise within a 2 kilometre radius of their homes. Over 70s have been told not to leave their homes.
Harris said he would like to see a situation where schools could reopen or at least partially reopen.
Allowing students back just one day a week “would provide breathing space for families and information and I think that would help,” Harris said.
Last week, a comparison of the lower death rates in Ireland with the death rates in Britain provoked a debate on differences between two countries, dividing experts.
Russia has reported 6,060 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, compared to 4,785 on the previous day.
So far, 313 people in the country are confirmed to have died from Covid-19.
My colleague Richard Orange reports that anger is growing in Sweden as the elderly are paying the price for the governments’ coronavirus strategy, which is much more relaxed than in other countries.
A third of the 1,511 recorded fatalities in Sweden have been people living in care homes.
Last week, the Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven said that the country faced a “serious situation” in its old people’s homes, announced efforts to step up protections, and ordered the country’s health inspectorate to investigate.
In Afghanistan, the health ministry has warned that difficult days are yet to come in the war-torn country as the number of confirmed cases reached 993, triggered by an increase of infections in the capital Kabul.
Wahidullah Mayar, spokesman for the ministry of health, warned that the number of coronavirus cases will continue to surge in the country.
Of the 63 new coronavirus cases reported in the last 24 hours, 31 were recorded in Kabul, Mayar said, which has so far recorded 307.
Kabul is close to overtake Herat which had up until now been the country’s worst affected city with 332 confirmed coronavirus cases, four recorded in the last 24 hours.
Herat in under lockdown but experts warn that as streets are packed with vehicles and people walking freely around, fighting the virus will be challenging. The province’s governor had recently warned the public to take the virus serious and said he was “digging graves” in Herat.
Photos: Despite a government-authorized lockdown in #Herat, the streets are crowded. #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/WXgxL5PZVU
— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) April 19, 2020
In a bid to contain the spread of the virus, the government has recently extended Kabul’s lockdown for a further three weeks and warned that more severe restrictions on movements might be introduced. The lockdown will also be implemented in provincial districts, and roads that connect Kabul with other provinces will also remain closed.
Ferozuddin Feroz, the country’s health minister, said that Afghanistan, a country of around 30m, has around 50,000 testing kits “but RNA extraction kits are not enough”. He added that talks are being held with Chinese and Japanese officials about the issue.
Afghanistan has so far recorded 33 deaths of Covid-19 and 131 recoveries.
Updated
Israel announces easing of lockdown restrictions
The Israeli government has announced a series of relaxations of some of the country’s lockdown restrictions, including partially reopening the economy, the Haaratz newspaper reports.
All stores that operate outside shopping centers will be allowed to open, praying in groups of up to 19 will be permitted in an open space and special education is to resume activity in classes of up to three childre.
The measures will come into effect today and will last until May 3.
Updated
An additional 596 cases of coronavirus infections were confirmed in Singapore today, the Straits Times newspaper reports. This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 6,588.
The majority of these cases are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories.
So far, 11 people have died from Covid-19 related complications in Singapore.
My colleague Ben Doherty reports that wild animals are being spotted in Australian cities as they reclaim an increasingly deserted world.
First Llandudno in Wales being noisily browsed by a herd of goats, then deer venturing into Nara, Japan.
Here is a video of a kangaroo checking out the streets of Adelaide.
Protective Security Officers tracked a suspect wearing a grey fur coat hopping through the heart of the #adelaide CBD this morning. He was last seen on foot heading into the West Parklands 🦘🚔👮#animaltakeover #whatsthatskip #kangaroo #cityslicker pic.twitter.com/JPyVXIYQRw
— South Australia Police (@SAPoliceNews) April 19, 2020
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. My colleague Jedidajah Otte is taking the live blog reins.
Updated
Nearly seven million UK jobs at risk if lockdown lasts for months
More than half of the jobs in some sectors of the UK economy are at risk if the lockdown continues for an extended period, a new study suggests.
Estimates produced by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex suggest the lockdown threatens to temporarily take at least 6.5 million jobs out of the economy – around a fifth of the national total.
The institute’s modelling factors in the ability of employees to work from home, which means some sectors are less affected than others. It also estimates how the reduction in demand for goods and services is having an impact on jobs.
Updated
India has not yet taken a decision on when to lift or ease restrictions on domestic and international flights and urged airlines to take travel bookings only after a final decision is made, a government minister said.
The government announced a halt to domestic flights on 23 March, ordering commercial airlines to shut down domestic operations on top of an existing ban on international flights to try and contain the spread of the coronavirus.
“The Ministry of Civil Aviation clarifies that so far no decision has been taken to open domestic or international operations,” civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet late on Saturday.
“Airlines are advised to open their bookings only after a decision in this regard has been taken by the Government”, he added.
India has agreed to send hydroxychloroquine tablets to the United Arab Emirates to be used for treating Covid-19 patients, the Gulf Arab state’s embassy in New Delhi said.
UAE thanks India for facilitating first consignment of Hydroxychloroquine tablets https://t.co/1WimDzZjr1
— UAE Embassy-Newdelhi (@UAEembassyIndia) April 19, 2020
India last month put a ban on exports as sales soared to secure supplies for itself as US President Donald Trump touted the drug as a potential effective treatment for the deadly virus. It said this month it would send supplies to some countries, Reuters reports.
“The first shipment of medicine, currently on its way to the UAE, includes 5.5 million pills for treatment of patients with Covid-19,” the embassy tweeted late on Saturday.
For sick US coal miners Covid-19 is a death sentence
While miners with black lung struggle during the pandemic, the coal industry is seeking to use the crisis to its advantage, cutting payouts to the federal black lung funds. Last month the National Mining Association asked Congress to decrease the excise tax that coal companies pay toward the fund by 55%. The federal black lung program, which pays out benefits to former coal miners diagnosed with the condition , has already faced financial problems in recent years in part due to coal companies filing for bankruptcy and shifting millions of dollars in liabilities onto taxpayers.
Coronavirus latest: at a glance
A summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak.
Pressure intensifies for 100% government-backed business loans
Philip Inman reports for the Guardian:
Pressure was mounting this weekend on chancellor Rishi Sunak to offer 100% government-backed loans as part of the Covid-19 business lifeboat scheme to prevent thousands of small and medium-sized firms from going bust.
Business groups said commercial lenders, which must currently cover 20% of loan losses under the Cbils government scheme, were turning down requests to borrow rescue funds that could allow firms to remain solvent through the coronavirus lockdown.
Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said it was a matter of urgency that the Treasury simplify the system to allow more businesses to access the one-year, interest-free loans.
A major British city should be used to trial mass testing as a way out of the coronavirus lockdown, according to a group of leading epidemiologists and public health experts.
They warn that simply using periods of mass lockdowns and relaxations to control the virus could lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people before a vaccine becomes available “with the most disadvantaged groups experiencing the greatest suffering”.
Instead, the group states that one or more cities with a population of 200,000 to 300,000 – about a dozen ranging in size from Aberdeen to Bradford – should be used to trial a mass-testing programme. The group includes Julian Peto, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, David Hunter, professor of epidemiology at the University of Oxford, and Nisreen A Alwan, an associate professor in public health at Southampton University.
A look at the UK papers for Sunday, 19 April:
The Observer: Don’t bet on a vaccine to protect us from virus threat: world health expert #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/4nKYt9yZta
— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) April 18, 2020
The Sunday Telegraph: Johnson starts to take back control #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/0wmgIBx5bf
— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) April 18, 2020
Sunday's Times: "Ministers plan for schools to reopen in three weeks' time" #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday (via @BBCHelena) pic.twitter.com/E9LcwkNsr8
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) April 18, 2020
The Independent: Olympics chief drafted in to fix PPE supply failures #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/wzXkI6SNCL
— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) April 18, 2020
Sunday Mirror: Doctors fear we’ll run out of oxygen #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/joEO3eIynN
— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) April 18, 2020
The Mail on Sunday: Get Britain moving again #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/QfmzH2wZZ4
— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) April 18, 2020
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has also asked Kiwis to keep a diary of their daily movements, AAP reports.
Ms Ardern believes the homespun idea could help the country’s contact-tracers with their work.
“I would ask New Zealanders to think about doing that. Just keeping a quick note of where you’ve been, and who you’ve been with,” Ms Ardern said.
“It will not only help them, it will help us.
“If you imagine, even asking someone six days later to account every movement over a period of time, it’s an incredibly hard task.
“So I would ask New Zealanders to have new practises, new things that they do at the end of the day.
“The better that we are able to do ... the sooner we can move through the down the alert levels and the sooner life feels more normal.”
Updated
More on New Zealand now, which looks likely to announce a lockdown overhaul on Monday, after more than a week of low Covid-19 new cases.
On Monday, the Cabinet will meet to decide whether to end four weeks of level four restrictions and downscale to a level three lockdown, which mirrors many of Australia’s restrictions.
That will include re-opening schools, allowing more businesses - including the construction and forestry industries - to get back to work and let restaurants operate for delivery orders only.
On Sunday, health officials announced just nine new cases across the country, the eighth straight day in which new cases have been no higher than 20. The country’s death toll stands at 12.
In keeping with the country’s health-first approach, Ms Ardern announced four criteria that would decide whether the country would relax its restrictions - with none related to the economy:
- The satisfaction of health professionals that undetected community transmission is unlikely
- Strong contact tracing capacity
- The strength of border controls
- The health system’s ability to stand up
Get in touch with me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
The US, UK and the International Bar Association have criticised the arrest of 15 Hong Kong democracy activists on charges of organising and participating in anti-government protests last year.
The arrests on Saturday were the biggest crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement since the outbreak of mass protests last year.
The International Bar Association said Hong Kong authorities should not encroach on human rights and the legal system must guard against any abuses of power while the world was preoccupied with the coronavirus pandemic.
The association condemned the arrests of Lee and Ng, who have been active human rights and rule of law campaigners during their careers.
It was vital that justice was applied transparently in Hong Kong, especially while the world was gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, it said.
CEOs, not the unemployed, are America’s real ‘moral hazard’, writes Robert Reich, professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and former US secretary of labour.
The coronavirus relief enacted by Congress is barely reaching Americans in need.
This week, checks of up to $1,200 are being delivered through direct-deposit filings with the Internal Revenue Service. But low-income people who have not directly deposited their taxes won’t get them for weeks or months. Worse yet, the US treasury is allowing banks to seize payments to satisfy outstanding debts.
Meanwhile, most of the promised $600 weekly extra unemployment benefits remain stuck in offices now overwhelmed with claims.
None of this seems to bother conservative Republicans, who believe all such relief creates what’s called “moral hazard” – the risk that government benefits will allow people to slack off.
Thirty-two Guatemalan migrants on a deportation flight from the United States earlier this week have now tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Central American nation’s health ministry.
“One of them tested positive on Monday, 12 yesterday and 19 today,” health ministry spokeswoman Ana Lucia Gudiel told Reuters. Four deportees on a flight in March also tested positive for the virus.
The Trump administration has pressured Guatemala to keep receiving deported migrants despite growing concerns returnees are bringing the virus with them and could infect remote communities.
Guatemala’s migration institute could not confirm which of two deportation flights that arrived on Monday carried the infected passengers.
Guatemala temporarily suspended flights deporting migrants from the United States on Thursday after reports of the mass infection.
Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases have risen by 2,458 to 139,897, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday.
That was lower than a 3,609 increase reported on Saturday, but this may be due to the “weekend effect”, with fewer people being tested. During the week, cases increased for four days in a row.
The reported death toll has risen by 184 to 4,294, the Sunday tally showed.
That was down from a day-on-day increase shown on Saturday of 242, and 299 on Friday.
Updated
Australia calls for independent probe into WHO virus response
Australia on Sunday called for an independent investigation into the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, including the World Health Organization’s handling of the crisis.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the country would “insist” on a review that would probe, in part, China’s early response to the outbreak in Wuhan, the city where Covid-19 emerged late last year.
Payne said Australia shared similar concerns to the United States, whose President Donald Trump has accused the WHO of “mismanaging” the crisis and covering up the seriousness of China’s outbreak before it spread.
Trump has also announced that Washington will halt payments to the UN body that amounted to $400 million last year.
Payne added she believed the fallout from the pandemic was set to change the relationship between Australia and China “in some ways”, with her concern around Beijing’s transparency now “at a very high point”.
Health Minister Greg Hunt backed the call for an independent review, saying Australia had achieved success in limiting the spread of the virus in part by going against WHO advice.
Summary
- Deaths so far in the global coronavirus pandemic have passed 160,000, according to Johns Hopkins University figures. The toll is currently at 160,717. This news comes as the total number of deaths in Europe approaches 100,000. The US has the highest toll globally, with 38,910 fatalities.
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China reports lowest new cases since 17 March. China’s National Health Commission reported 16 new confirmed coronavirus cases on April 18, the lowest number since March 17 and down from 27 a day earlier, according to data published on Sunday.
- Restrictions to be lifted in some US states. Texas and Vermont will allow certain businesses to reopen on Monday while still observing coronavirus-related precautions and Montana will begin lifting restrictions on Friday.
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Donald Trump warned that China should face consequences if it was “knowingly responsible” for the coronavirus pandemic. “If they were knowingly responsible, yeah, I mean, then sure there should be consequences,” Trump said in his daily White House briefing.
- Canada and the United States have agreed to extend border restrictions for another 30 days to help control the spread of coronavirus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday.
- New Yorkers will be able to get marriage licenses online and wed via video during the crisis, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, waiving a provision that requires the betrothed to complete their application in person.
- Ireland has successfully “flattened the curve” of coronavirus transmission and no longer expects a peak in infections, chief medical officer Tony Holohan said.
- South Korea on Sunday reported single digit new coronavirus cases for the first time in two months with eight new daily cases, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The nation’s total tally is 10,661 cases and 234 deaths.
- Israel eases some Coronavirus restrictions. Israel on Saturday approved some easing to its tight coronavirus restrictions while pointedly avoiding announcing the first stage of an exit from lockdown.
- Spain’s PM to ask for extension of lockdown to 9 May. Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday he would ask parliament for a third 15-day extension of the lockdown imposed to curb one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the new coronavirus, taking the restrictions up to 9 May.
- Turkey’s coronavirus cases overtake Iran to become highest in Middle East. Turkey’s confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 82,329, overtaking neighbouring Iran for the first time to register the highest total in the Middle East.
- Morocco has extended its lockdown measures by another month. Morocco will extend lockdown measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus for another month until May 20, the government said on Saturday.
- France reports 642 more coronavirus deaths as country’s toll hits 19,323. France registered 642 more deaths from coronavirus infections on Saturday, bringing the total to 19,323, the fourth-highest tally in the world, although the number of people in hospital declined for a fourth day running.
- UK’s Covid-19 hospital death toll surpasses 15,000. In the UK, the official Covid-19 death toll has passed 15,000 – with 888 new fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours. It means as of 5pm on Friday, of those hospitalised in the UK who have tested positive for coronavirus, 15,464 people have died.
- New York daily death toll at two-week low. Deaths in New York State rose by 540 on Friday, the lowest daily death tally since the beginning of April.
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Croatia extends its lockdown for another 15 days. Croatia is extending its coronavirus lockdown for another 15 days, but a minister says the country is exploring the possibility of gradually easing restrictions.
Global deaths pass 160,000
The number of people who have lost their lives so far in the global coronavirus pandemic has passed the sombre milestone of 160,000 according to Johns Hopkins University figures.
The toll is currently at 160,717.
This news comes as the total number of deaths in Europe approaches 100,000.
The US has the highest toll globally, with 38,910 fatalities.
Thailand on Sunday reported 32 new coronavirus cases, bringing its total to 2,765, a senior official said.
Of the new cases, 28 were in the capital, Bangkok, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government’s Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration.
No new fatalities were reported. Thailand has had 47 deaths from the coronavirus.
In the US, the coronavirus pandemic is leading to a spike in demand for food pantries, AP reports.
Food pantries stay busy even in the best of economic times; the coronavirus pandemic has prompted a spike in demand as millions of people find themselves furloughed, laid off or with businesses that have suffered huge financial blows.
Just as demand is skyrocketing, however, many of the food banks sources are drying up. Restaurants, hotels and resorts many of which are shuttered or sharply limiting their operations are no longer supplying them with food, while other suppliers are busy restocking grocery shelves. Farmers have switched from shipping vegetables and meats in bulk to individual packaging for grocery stores.
Feeding America, a nationwide association of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries, has seen an increase in demand from 98% of its member banks, according to a recent survey. “It is a perfect storm scenario,” Katie Fitzgerald, the organisation’s chief operating officer told the AP.
Congress included a significant boost for emergency food assistance in its coronavirus relief legislation, but Fitzgerald warned that funding may take months to reach localities while food banks contend with a flood of need in the near term.
Trump warns China over Covid-19 outbreak as Europe approaches 100,000 deaths
Donald Trump has warned that China should face consequences if it was “knowingly responsible” for the coronavirus pandemic, as deaths in Europe from Covid-19 approached 100,000
“It could have been stopped in China before it started and it wasn’t, and the whole world is suffering because of it,” Trump said in his daily White House briefing, as US cases topped 730,000 and fatalities in the country approached 39,000.
“If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake. But if they were knowingly responsible, yeah, I mean, then sure there should be consequences,” Trump said. He did not elaborate on what form that might take.
He said the Chinese were “embarrassed” and the question now was whether what happened with the coronavirus was “a mistake that got out of control, or was it done deliberately?”
“There’s a big difference between those two,” he said.
On Sunday China reported just 16 new confirmed coronavirus cases, its lowest number since 17 March and down from 27 a day earlier. No new deaths were reported.
Britain’s government, which has been sharply criticised by healthcare workers over a shortage of personal protective equipment, has turned to the investment banker who led the country’s 2012 Olympic planning to boost domestic production.
Reuters reports that Paul Deighton, who was chief executive of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, was appointed by health secretary Matt Hancock on Sunday to “lead a singular and relentless focus on PPE as the country’s top manufacturing priority, with the full weight of the government behind him”.
Deighton’s unpaid role will be to scale up domestic production of equipment such as masks and gowns. Brands like Barbour and Burberry have already switched factory lines from high-end fashion to PPE.
In New Zealand, a twelfth coronavirus death has been confirmed, Stuff.nz reports, and the country has reported nine new cases, bringing the country’s total to 1431.
On Monday, the New Zealand cabinet is set to decide whether the country’s strict level 4 lockdown – in place for almost four weeks – can be lifted.
Now for a video filmed round the corner from my mother’s house in Simon’s Town, South Africa (and before you #natureishealing, take it from her – penguins have been very much In Control of this area for a long time):
#Lockdown perks for #Africanpenguins in Simon’s Town while #penguinrangers keep a watchful eye. #endangeredspecies @CityofCT @TableMountainNP @CTEnviroEd #savesseabirds #marinewildlife #conservationpartners pic.twitter.com/37I4KNrLPq
— SANCCOB (@SANCCOB) April 17, 2020
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‘Together at home’: Lady Gaga and Rolling Stones headline tribute to frontline workers
Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones and Beyonce headlined a global special of music, comedy and personal stories in what Gaga called a “love letter” to frontline workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.
The One World: Together at Home, broadcast across multiple television and streaming channels around the world, featured a who’s who of pop culture. Filmed from their homes, contributors included Elton John, Stevie Wonder, David Beckham and former US first ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush.
“I’m so grateful for the healthcare workers, the medical workers, all the grocery store workers and delivery people, the postal workers, all the other nonprofits that are working so hard,” Gaga said.
In much of the wider Orthodox region, churches will not be open to the public.
The Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has announced that services will be closed to the public and broadcast online. The same decision has been taken in Cyprus, Greece, Serbia and North Macedonia as well as in Egypt, where Orthodox Coptic Christians comprise 10-15 percent of the population.
Jerusalem’s Old City is normally packed for Orthodox Easter but was almost deserted at the weekend due to Israel’s strict lockdown measures. The annual Holy Fire ceremony took place behind closed doors in the city’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The flame is then taken to Orthodox countries worldwide.
According to tradition, the Holy Sepulchre stands on the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial.
In Romania, while churches have closed their doors, volunteers and priests will go to people’s homes handing out loaves of consecrated bread and sharing the holy flame.
More than 260 million Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter Sunday, with church leaders asking worshippers to stay at home to avoid spreading the novel coronavirus.
Orthodox Christians, the world’s third largest group of Christian believers, this year celebrate Easter a week after Catholics and Protestants because they follow a different calendar.
Most Orthodox Christians will also skip traditional midnight services, even though Eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union where most live have relatively low numbers of confirmed cases of the virus so far.
Moscow Patriarch Kirill, who leads 150 million believers, has urged the faithful to pray at home and not go to church until he gives his blessing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is dropping his usual attendance at an Easter service and will go to a chapel in the grounds of his residence outside Moscow.
In Moscow and the surrounding region, where most Russian COVID-19 cases are concentrated, churches will hold services behind closed doors with broadcasts online or on television.
However churches will remain open in many regions of the country, which has reported around 36,800 cases of coronavirus and more than 300 deaths.
China reports 16 new coronavirus cases, lowest since March 17
China’s National Health Commission reported 16 new confirmed coronavirus cases on April 18, the lowest number since March 17 and down from 27 a day earlier, according to data published on Sunday.
Of the new cases, 9 were imported infections, the lowest since March 13 and down from 17 a day earlier. The remaining 7 confirmed cases were locally transmitted, down from 10 the previous day.
Newly discovered asymptomatic cases were at 44, down from 54 a day earlier. Three of the new cases were imported, according to the health commission.
No new deaths were reported, it said.
The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country reached 82,735 as of April 18, while the total death toll from the virus stood at 4,632, it said.
The NATO general leading the group’s response to the coronavirus in Europe has conceded all key figures were caught “off-guard” by the outbreak, PA media reports.
Defending NATO’s work in reaction to the virus, including coordinating the distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) through various European countries, Lieutenant-General Olivier Rittiman said “no one” fully understood the depth of the crisis that lay ahead in the early days of the outbreak.
“I think that everybody was taken a little bit off-guard by this crisis,” Lt Gen Rittiman, the Commander of NATO’s Europe Covid-19 Task Force, told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday.
The general said the organisation had so far deployed 4,000 medics and 250 field hospitals - amounting to some 25,000 beds - across various nations. Lt Gen Rittiman conceded there was a global shortage of PPE, but said NATO was appropriately managing the delivery of equipment to different nations, after which domestic distribution was “a national decision”.
The general gave a guarded response to reports the United States had hijacked PPE in China that was meant to be shipped to Europe, saying nations had had to take “all appropriate measures to make the best choices” in the early days of the outbreak.
Earlier this month German media reported on allegations from the interior minister for Berlin state, Andreas Geisel, that 200,000 N95 masks destined for Europe were instead diverted to the US as they were being transferred between planes in Thailand.
Hundreds of Bulgarian Christians flocked to the Orthodox temples for outdoor services on a surreal Saturday night with the Balkan state one of the few countries where churches remained open over the Easter holidays amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Easter holiday is the most significant date on the calendar for the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians with thousands of Bulgarians usually packing the churches and their ancestral homes all around the country to celebrate Christ’s resurrection.
This year many Bulgarians opted to watch services live on TV instead after the government urged people to celebrate and pray from home. The restrictions, imposed due to the coronavirus outbreak, have meant observing an Easter Sunday unlike any Bulgarians have lived through before.
But while most worshippers maintained social distancing between each other to stem transmission of the virus, clergymen largely failed to observe it during the services.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has been criticised on social media for keeping its houses of worship open in spite of the coronavirus crisis. Many Bulgarians also pointed fingers at the church for keeping the practices of people kissing icons in churches, and using shared spoons during communion services.
Here’s our full story on the protests in the US:
A day after Donald Trump encouraged Americans to protest against strict public health measures aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus, rallies were held in state capitals in Maryland, Texas and Ohio, with more planned for next week in other states.
Hundreds of people stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the Texas Capitol on Saturday, chanting “Fire Fauci!” as part of a protest organized by the conspiracy theory site InfoWars. Anthony Fauci is the top public health expert on the White House coronavirus taskforce.
In Maryland, protesters stayed inside their cars and honked their horns as they drove around the capital, Annapolis, to demand that Governor Larry Hogan “reopen Maryland”. In Columbus, Ohio, hundreds of protesters gathered, some chanting “We are not sheep”.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said on Saturday that 19 more Guatemalans deported from the United States to the Central American nation have tested positive for coronavirus.
On Friday, Giammattei said 12 randomly selected migrants who took the flight from the US tested positive for coronavirus when examined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US health protection agency. Flights deporting Guatemalan migrants from the United States have been once again temporarily suspended after reports of the infections
South Korea reports single digit new cases for the first time in two months
South Korea on Sunday reported single digit new coronavirus cases for the first time in two months with eight new daily cases, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.
The nation’s total tally is 10,661 cases and 234 deaths.
News from Australia now, where the health minister has taken a swipe at the World Health Organization, saying the WHO’s coronavirus response ‘didn’t help the world’.
Health minister Greg Hunt has backed foreign affairs minister Marise Payne’s call for an independent review of the global response to Covid-19, including the role of the World Health Organisation. He also takes a swipe at the WHO’s handling of the crisis in the process.
What we have seen is Australia has been able to have, by global standards, just a profoundly important and successful human outcome, but we have done that by following the course that our medical experts here in Australia set out.
We do know there was very considerable criticism when we imposed on the 1 February the China ban from some of the officials and the WHO in Geneva. The regional body has done well in terms of polio, measles, malaria, but what we saw from some officials in Geneva, we think was a response which didn’t help the world. We have done well because we made our own decisions as a country.
Updated
when you actually have 2 cats
— Humor And Animals (@humorandanimals) April 17, 2020
(captians_adventure IG) pic.twitter.com/3SOVz13kQI
Hundreds of people denouncing pandemic lockdown measures opposed by President Jair Bolsonaro snarled traffic in major Brazilian cities on Saturday, AP reports.
Protesters in trucks, cars and motorcycles, some wrapped in the country’s green and yellow flag, honked horns in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and the capital of Brasilia, calling for governors to resign over measures that have forced most businesses to close for weeks.
Bolsonaro has been a fierce critic of the states’ stay-at-home measures, arguing that the economic harm could be more damaging than the illness. The protests took place a day after Bolsonaro fired his health minister, who had been promoting isolation measures.
In Rio de Janeiro, about 100 vehicles took part in the gridlock, cruising down Atlantica Avenue, along the iconic and temporarily shut-down Copacabana beach.
In Brasilia, Bolsonaro reiterated his intention to start reopening the economy. The fear was excessive, he said Saturday, denouncing the greed of politicians who have shut down everything and created panic.
Brazil has the most confirmed Covid-19 cases in Latin America more than 36,500 and at least 2,347 deaths. That is a relatively low number in relation to the country’s population of 211 million, but the outbreak is expected to peak in May.
Mexican Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said on Saturday that Mexico has registered 7,497 confirmed coronavirus cases and 650 deaths.
That is up from 6,875 cases and 546 deaths on Friday.
Lopez-Gatell said on Thursday the country might have nearly 56,000 people infected with the fast-spreading coronavirus.
US governors eager to rescue their economies and feeling heat from President Donald Trump are moving to ease restrictions meant to control the spread of the coronavirus, even as new hot spots emerge and experts warn that moving too fast could prove disastrous.
Adding to the pressure are protests against stay-at-home orders organised by small-government groups and Trump supporters. They staged demonstrations Saturday in several cities after the president urged them to liberate three states led by Democratic governors.
Protests happened in Republican-led states, too, including at the Texas Capitol and in front of the Indiana governor’s home. Texas Governor Greg Abbott already said that restrictions will begin easing next week. Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb who signed an agreement with six other Midwestern states to coordinate reopening said he would extend his stay-at-home order until 1 May.
Trump, whose administration waited months to bolster stockpiles of key medical supplies and equipment, appeared to back protesters.
LIBERATE MINNESOTA! LIBERATE MICHIGAN! LIBERATE VIRGINIA, Trump said in a tweet-storm in which he also lashed out at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, for criticising the federal response. Cuomo should spend more time doing and less time complaining, the president said.
US President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that China could face consequences if it was “knowingly responsible” for the coronavirus pandemic, in a press briefing at the White House that felt more like a rally, writes the Guardian’s Washington Correspondent, David Smith:
He bashed ‘Sleepy Joe’ Biden. He railed against the Russia investigation and ‘fake people’ in the media. He predicted that had he not been elected, the world might have ended.
And somewhere along the way, he talked about the coronavirus.
The past few weeks have seen a battle between Donald Trump, the president, and Donald Trump, the candidate. He has always been more comfortable in campaign mode and, slowly but surely, Trump the candidate is winning the struggle. Saturday was one of those days.
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New York to OK video weddings
New York’s daily toll of coronavirus deaths hit its lowest point in more than two weeks, but Governor Andrew Cuomo warned Saturday that the state isn’t ready to ease up on shutdowns of schools, businesses and gatherings.
For those looking for something to celebrate, however, the state is untangling some red tape around tying the knot: New Yorkers will be able to get marriage licenses online and wed via video during the crisis.
Many marriage bureaus have been closed because of the health emergency, leaving couples unable to get licenses because the state requires the betrothed to complete their application in person.
But Cuomo is going to order that provision waived to let couples apply remotely, his office said Saturday. The state will also enable town and city clerks to conduct weddings by video.
“There is now no excuse when the question comes up for marriage. No excuse. You can do it by Zoom. Yes or no,” the governor said with a chuckle.
Earlier this week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked at a news briefing about the possibility of online marriage applications, particularly for any couples seeking to wed so they could share health insurance after a job loss.
Officials have said an estimated half-million city residents are out of work or likely to lose their jobs soon.
Canada, US extend border restrictions 30 days to control coronavirus spread
Canada and the United States have agreed to extend border restrictions for another 30 days to help control the spread of coronavirus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday. Washington and Ottawa agreed last month to clamp down on non-essential travel while allowing trade to continue across their long shared frontier during the coronavirus outbreak. The agreement was due to expire this week.
Trudeau says it will keep people on both sides of the border safe amid the pandemic. US President Donald Trump said Wednesday the US-Canada border will be among the first borders to open. Nearly 200,000 people normally cross the border daily.
Paris’ bus stops and metro entrances will be equipped with hand gel dispensers and commuters will likely be obliged to wear face masks to use public transport once coronavirus confinement measures are lifted, according to the city’s mayor.
France is due to start exiting its strict lockdown from 11 May, with schools set to reopen then, but the government has yet to spell out when businesses like cafes and cinemas can restart and to what extent people will be allowed to move around.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told the Journal Du Dimanche (JDD) newspaper in an interview published on Sunday that hand gel would be made widely available as the French capital tries to keep the virus spread under control.
This will include free dispensers at swimming pools, sports stadiums and nurseries, but also in the street and at bus stops, she said, adding that JCDecaux, a company known for making advertising billboards, was working on the scheme.
Asked whether authorities in the broader Paris region should make it compulsory to wear face masks in metros and on commuter trains, Hidalgo said discussions on that were under way.
Israel eases some Coronavirus restrictions
Israel on Saturday approved some easing to its tight coronavirus restrictions while pointedly avoiding announcing the first stage of an exit from lockdown.
In a televised address, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined “a responsible and gradual” plan which would allow the return of some workers to offices and industry.
He also promised to reopen some high street shops and allow a return to school for children with special educational needs, in groups of up to three.
The measures are to take effect from Sunday, the first day of the Israeli week.
By Saturday Istrael had registered 13,107 cases of the illness, with 158 fatalities.
The past few days have seen a slowdown in new confirmed cases, but Netanyahu warned that if infection rates started climbing again there would be a fresh clampdown.
More now on Spain, where Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday announced the nationwide coronavirus lockdown would be extended two weeks to 9 May, hours after the official death toll passed 20,000.
“We have done the hardest part through responsibility and social discipline... we are putting the most extreme moments behind us,” Sanchez said. But Spaniards must not jeopardise the fragile gains made so far with hasty decisions.
The restrictions currently in place would however be loosened slightly to allow children time outside from 27 April, said Sanchez.
Until now only adults have been able to leave the house for specific reasons: to go to work, to go shopping for food or medicine, for a medical appointment or to work the dog.
But there were growing calls to let children outside, as is permitted in most other countries observing a lockdown.
Spain, which has been under confinement since March 14, has recorded 20,043 deaths from the virus, the latest health ministry figures showed - the third-highest official toll after the United States and Italy.
We’ll have Washington correspondent David Smith’s story on the latest US developments shortly, but in the meantime, in case you missed it – US President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that China could face consequences if it was “knowingly responsible” for the coronavirus pandemic.
“It could have been stopped in China before it started and it wasn’t,” Trump told reporters at a White House briefing. “And now the whole world is suffering because of it.”
The Trump administration has said it doesn’t rule out that the novel coronavirus was spread - accidentally - from a laboratory researching bats in Wuhan.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian - who previously alleged that the US military may have brought the virus into China - has rejected US media reports on the subject and said there is “no scientific basis.”
Trump also cast doubt on official Chinese figures showing the country has suffered just 0.33 deaths per 100,000 people.
“The number’s impossible,” he said. “It’s an impossible number to hit.”
The United States, according to a chart displayed at the briefing, has had 11.24 deaths per 100,000 people while France has had 27.92 and Spain 42.81.
Ireland has ‘flattened curve’ of coronavirus spread: chief medical officer
Ireland has successfully “flattened the curve” of coronavirus transmission and no longer expects a peak in infections, chief medical officer Tony Holohan said. “We think we’ve flattened that [...] curve so much that there is no peak,” he said on RTE’s Late Late show on Friday. “We think we can go along at a low level and reduce it even further.”
He said nationwide adherence to a lockdown - imposed until 5 May - had “already saved hundreds of lives and admissions to intensive care”. There have been 530 Covid-19 related deaths and 13,980 confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland according to department of health figures released Friday.
Ireland, like many other countries, had been bracing for a surge in cases, where transmission would peak and hospitals become overrun with patients. But Holohan said analysis shows the reproductive rate of the virus - the number of people a confirmed case typically spreads to - is now below one.
“That means that on average a person who’s infected is passing it down to less than one person,” he said.
“If you continue on that path, the rate of infection in the population will continue to drop.”
Concerns remain over the high number of cases and mortality in residential care homes across the republic. Around 60% of those who die from the virus come from long term residential care homes, Ireland’s Health Service Executive reported Friday.
British Muslims find new ways to be together for Ramadan under lockdown
The world’s 1.8bn Muslims are facing the most important period of the Islamic year, the holy month of Ramadan, which starts this week, under lockdown because of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Mosques in most countries are shut and gatherings forbidden. The holy sites of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia are under curfew. The al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem’s Old City are closed and prayers suspended.
In the UK, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) called for the suspension of all congregational activities at mosques and Islamic centres on 16 March, a week before the government announced all places of worship must close under the lockdown order.
Summary
Hello and welcome to a new coronavirus live blog with me, Helen Sullivan. Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
As the number of people in Europe who have lost their lives in this pandemic so far approaches 100,000, Spain is planning to extend its lockdown. But in Italy, a church in Bergamo that served as a temporary morgue at the height of Italy’s coronavirus epidemic “is finally empty”, the mayor said Saturday.
Meanwhile in the US, Donald Trump has announced that some states will start reopening: Texas and Vermont will allow certain businesses to reopen on Monday while still observing coronavirus-related precautions and Montana will begin lifting restrictions on Friday.
Several dozen protesters gathered in the Texas capital of Austin on Saturday, chanting “USA! USA!” and “Let us work!”.
- Spain’s PM to ask for extension of lockdown to 9 May. Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday he would ask parliament for a third 15-day extension of the lockdown imposed to curb one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the new coronavirus, taking the restrictions up to 9 May.
- Restrictions to be lifted in some US states. Texas and Vermont will allow certain businesses to reopen on Monday while still observing coronavirus-related precautions and Montana will begin lifting restrictions on Friday. Some state governors have warned that they will not act prematurely to reopen their economies until there is more testing for the virus, however. Business leaders have also told Trump the country needs to have widespread testing in place before their companies can return to normal operations.
- Turkey’s coronavirus cases overtake Iran to become highest in Middle East. Turkey’s confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 82,329, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Saturday, overtaking neighbouring Iran for the first time to register the highest total in the Middle East.
- Morocco has extended its lockdown measures by another month. Morocco will extend lockdown measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus for another month until May 20, the government said on Saturday.
- France reports 642 more coronavirus deaths as country’s toll hits 19,323. France registered 642 more deaths from coronavirus infections on Saturday, bringing the total to 19,323, the fourth-highest tally in the world, although the number of people in hospital declined for a fourth day running.
- UK’s Covid-19 hospital death toll surpasses 15,000. In the UK, the official Covid-19 death toll has passed 15,000 – with 888 new fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours. It means as of 5pm on Friday, of those hospitalised in the UK who have tested positive for coronavirus, 15,464 people have died.
- Bangladesh garment workers pack streets to demand wages during coronavirus lockdown. Hundreds of workers in Bangladesh have taken to the streets in defiance of physical distancing rules to demand unpaid wages during the Covid-19 shutdown.
- New York daily death toll at two-week low. Deaths in New York State rose by 540 on Friday, the lowest daily death tally since the beginning of April.Andrew Cuomo, the state’s governor, said new hospital admissions stayed around the 2,000-patient mark, which he said was still an “overwhelming number”.
- Some shops in Iran have reopened as country’s daily death toll fell to 73. Iran allowed some businesses in the capital Tehran to reopen on Saturday as the country’s daily death toll from coronavirus fell to 73, its lowest in more than a month.
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Croatia extends its lockdown for another 15 days. Croatia is extending its coronavirus lockdown for another 15 days, but a minister says the country is exploring the possibility of gradually easing restrictions.
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