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Updated
Global death toll hits 277, 127
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 277,127 people since the outbreak first emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by news agency AFP.
At least 4,001,437 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 195 countries and territories. Of these, at least 1,312,900 are now considered recovered.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections, as many countries are testing only the most serious cases.
The US has the highest number of total deaths worldwide at 78,320, with the UK second-highest at 31,587 deaths. Italy, Spain and France follow, with China, the home of the virus, recording less than 5000 fatalities.
Summary
Key developments in the global coronavirus outbreak today include:
Russia hit by 10,000 new cases as total infections near 200,000
Russia has been hit with more than 10,000 new Covid-19 cases in the last day, as the country approaches nearly 200,000 confirmed infections and lockdown measures continue.
Lagos could be put on lockdown again after social distancing rules disregarded
Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, could return to lockdown if residents continue to ignore social distancing rules, its governor warned on Saturday.
UK death toll rises by 346 as coastguard warns lockdown flouters
The UK death toll has risen by 346 to 31,587 across all settings, while 215,260 have tested positive, an increase of 3,896 cases on Friday. Meanwhile, the coastguard recorded the highest number of incidents in one day since the lockdown began as people “ignored” the government’s message to stay at home.
Indonesia records biggest daily increase in infections
Indonesia has reported its biggest daily increase in infections, with 533 new confirmed cases, taking the total to 13,645. But with Indonesia’s low testing rate criticised by medical experts, the number of infections in the country – which has the fourth biggest population in the world – is feared to be far higher than official figures show.
Germany’s plans to restart football suffer setback
Germany’s plans to restart competitive football next Saturday suffered an early setback after the entire Dynamo Dresden team were placed in a two-week quarantine following two positive coronavirus tests among the players.
Germany's plans to restart football suffers early setback
Germany’s plans to restart competitive football next Saturday suffered an early setback after the entire Dynamo Dresden team were placed in a two-week quarantine following two positive coronavirus tests among the players.
The Bundesliga 2 club announced on their website that tests taken on Friday had revealed two new positive cases and local health authorities had ordered the team into quarantine. Dresden were scheduled to play Hannover 96 next Sunday in their first game back following the stoppage caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
“After an intensive analysis of the situation, the health authority in Dresden … decided on Saturday that the entire second division squad, including the coaching and support team, must now go into a 14-day quarantine at home,” the club said. “Due to the quarantine measures, [we] will not be able to travel to Lower Saxony for the away game on matchday 26 as planned.”.
Read the rest of the article here:
Here’s an article we published a few days ago which explains the background to this.
Updated
Nigeria’s largest city Lagos could return to lockdown to halt the coronavirus if residents continue to ignore social distancing rules, the governor warned on Saturday.
The city emerged on Monday from a five-week stay at home order that left the city’s large number of poor struggling to make ends meet.
But since the easing of the restrictions people have been seen thronging markets and banks despite orders remaining in place to avoid mass gatherings.
“It is disappointing to see the crowd at banks and markets across the state flouting the guidelines,” Lagos governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu wrote on Twitter.
Lagos,
— Babajide Sanwo-Olu (@jidesanwoolu) May 9, 2020
We are at a critical point in the management of the #COVID19 pandemic in our state and every resident needs to #TakeResponsibility for their health and wellbeing.
“We will be forced to take the painful decision of bringing the state under lockdown if it remains clear that Lagosians are determined to flout the rules.”
Nigeria has confirmed 3,912 infections and 117 deaths from the novel coronavirus. Lagos, a city of some 20 million people, has been the country’s main hotspot and the daily increase in recorded cases has doubled in the past few days.
Sanwo-Olu said that Lagos state would change its “isolation strategy” and that district healthcare facilities would handle “mild-to-moderate” cases.
Half of Nigeria’s 200 million population live in dire poverty, making it a major challenge to impose lockdowns cutting them off from daily earnings.
Measures introduced in place of the total lockdown include a night-time curfew and the mandatory wearing of masks in public.
At least 12 Russian clerics have died since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, according to a list published by “Orthodoxy and the World”, an online media outlet that focuses on religious and social issues.
Father Andrei Molchanov, the latest Russian Orthodox priest to die from the novel coronavirus, was buried on Saturday by his heartbroken daughter who said she wished the Moscow church where he served had closed earlier.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, called in late March for believers to pray at home. However tough government lockdown measures at the end of that month, which closed down restaurants and most stores, and told people to stay at home, did not order churches to shut.
“I believe above all else that we should have closed churches, along with restaurants and other places,” Anastasia Molchanova, the late priest’s daughter, told Reuters after his burial.
Despite the patriarch’s call, most churches in Moscow, including Molchanov’s, remained open until mid-April before Russia’s consumer health watchdog, a government agency, issued an order to shut them.
The consumer health watchdog and the Russian Orthodox Church did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to Reuters.
The number of people who have died from coronavirus infections in France rose by 80 to 26,310 on Saturday, the health ministry said.
This is a much smaller daily increase than the previous day when it was 243.
The ministry said the number of people in intensive care units – a key measure of a health system’s ability to deal with the epidemic – fell by 56, or about 2%, to 2,812. That is less than half the peak of 7,148 seen on 8 April.
The number of people in hospital with the coronavirus also fell, to 22,614 from 22,724, continuing an uninterrupted three-week fall, and down 30% from a 14 April peak of 32,292.
France will start lifting its almost two-month-old national lockdown from Monday.
Updated
Three children in New York have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to the coronavirus, governor Andrew Cuomo told a daily briefing on Saturday.
Cuomo had on Friday disclosed the death of a five-year-old linked to the coronavirus and a syndrome that shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, which was the first known fatality tied to the rare illness in New York.
The governor told a daily briefing on Saturday that the illness had now taken the lives of at least three young people across the state. He did not provide details of their ages or the circumstances of their deaths.
But Cuomo said he was increasingly worried that the syndrome posed a newly emerging risk for children, who had previously been thought to be largely immune to severe illness from Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus.
Updated
Indian authorities used drones and fire engines to disinfect the city of Ahmedabad on Saturday, AFP reports.
The city of 5.5 million people in Narendra Modi’s home state has become a cause for concern
, accounting for 343 of the almost 2,000 coronavirus deaths reported nationwide and almost 10% of India’s cases. Other cities in Gujarat state have also been badly hit.
Locals watched from their balconies as drones sprayed disinfectant while fire engines and other vehicles toured the empty streets sending out clouds of the cleaning agent.
The acting chief administrator, Rajiv Gupta, said all zones of the city would be disinfected.
India has been in the grip of the world’s biggest lockdown since 25 March, and measures were tightened in Ahmedabad on Friday because of the accelerated spread of the virus.
Hundreds of paramilitaries kept people off the streets and virtually all stores have been closed for at least a week.
The virus is spreading quickly in other cities including the capital, Delhi, and the finance hub of Mumbai.
While the number of fatalities is low compared with the US and the worst-hit European nations, health specialists say India’s pandemic curve may not peak until June and July.
Shamika Ravi, an economic adviser to the government, said on Saturday that the “infection is way ahead of our knowledge” in Gujarat and Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai, because authorities were not carrying out enough tests.
Updated
Hi, this is Nicola Slawson in the UK. I’m taking over the reins of the live blog from Simon now.
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A child was among 16 migrants rescued four miles off the coast of France when their makeshift vessel bound for Britain ran into difficulties in the middle of the night, authorities said.
The group was picked up 3.8 miles off the French port of Calais after calling for help, French maritime authorities confirmed to AFP. A French maritime surveillance vessel rescued the migrants at around 5am and transported them to the Channel port of Dunkirk, where they were handed over to border police.
A charity leader said last month that migrants living in makeshift camps in northern France are dangerously exposed to Covid-19, warning that conditions were “the worst I’ve ever seen”.
Updated
Vladimir Putin has told Russians they are invincible when they stand together, as he sought to send a message of unity after the country’s tally of Covid-19 cases reached the fifth highest in the world.
Addressing the nation in a speech as he presided over Victory Day celebrations, a sombre Putin invoked the memory of the country’s veterans who fought in the second world war.
“Our veterans fought for life and against death, and we will always try to live up to their spirit of unanimity and resilience,” he said after laying a bouquet of red roses at the Eternal Flame war memorial near the Kremlin.
We are united by our shared memory, hopes and aspirations, as well as a sense of shared responsibility for the present and the future. We know and strongly believe that when we stand together, we are invincible.”
It comes after Russia’s total confirmed infections neared 200,000. Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany, is one of Russia’s most revered public events and provides Putin with a platform to promote the patriotism that is a cornerstone of his popular support. But the pandemic forced him to postpone the main highlight, a huge annual parade on Moscow’s Red Square showcasing Moscow’s most sophisticated military hardware.
In his first public appearance for weeks, Putin took part in a low-key remembrance ceremony, but he made clear he still planned to hold the usual parade to mark the anniversary when the time was right.
Updated
South Korea’s capital, Seoul, has shut down thousands of nightclubs, hostess bars and discos after a cluster of Covid-19 infections were linked to clubbers who went out last weekend after the country relaxed social distancing rules.
More than 2,100 venues have been ordered to close in measures imposed today by Seoul’s mayor, Park Won-soon, reports Associated Press. The national government urged venues to close or otherwise enforce anti-virus measures including distancing, temperature checks, keeping customer lists and requiring employees to wear masks.
The entry bans will be maintained until the city concludes that risks of infection have been meaningfully lowered, Park added. South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier in the day that 18 new cases were reported in the 24 hours to midnight yesterday, all but one of them linked to a 29-year-old man who visited three clubs in Seoul’s Itaewon district last Saturday before testing positive days later.
South Korea has confirmed at least 10,840 cases of the coronavirus, and 256 deaths.
Updated
Queue for food handouts stretches half a mile in one of world's richest cities
It is a city more commonly associated with the vast wealth of the financial world, but more than 1,000 people queued up in Geneva on Saturday to get free food parcels.
In a sign of the devastating impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on Switzerland’s poorest, including undocumented migrants, a line of people stretched more than half a mile outside of an ice rink where volunteers handed out around 1,500 parcels. Some of those queuing had arrived as early as 5am. A small child was pictured among the crowd waiting in line.
“At the end of the month, my pockets are empty. We have to pay the bills, the insurance, everything,” Ingrid Berala, a Geneva resident from Nicaragua who works part-time, told Reuters. “This is great, because there is food for a week, a week of relief … I don’t know for next week.”
As many as 660,000 people in the country of 8.6 million were poor in 2018, according to charity Caritas, particularly single parents and those with a low level of education unable to find work after losing work.
More than 1.1 million people were at risk of poverty, meaning they receive less than 60% of the median income, which was 6,538 Swiss francs ($6,736) for a full-time job in 2018.
Geneva is the second-most expensive global city for a family of three to live in, behind only Zurich. Although average incomes are also high, that helps little for people struggling to make ends meet.
“I think a lot people are aware of this, but it is different to see this with your own eyes,” said Silvana Matromatteo, head of the aid group Geneva Solidarity Caravan.
We had people in tears who said ‘It is not possible that it is happening in my country’. But it is here and maybe the Covid-19 brought everything out and this is good, because we will be able to take measures to support all these workers, because they are workers above all.”
Patrick Wieland, chief of mission for the Doctors Without Borders group, said a survey last week showed just over half the food recipients interviewed were undocumented, while others had attained legal status, were Swiss or were seeking asylum. Just over 3% had been tested positive for Covid-19, three times the overall rate in Geneva, which he attributed to poor and overcrowded housing.
One undocumented immigrant who called himself Fernando said he lost his restaurant job during the crisis and had no pay. “I’m very grateful to receive this help and if the situation changes for me, I am committing to do the same thing that they are doing for me,” he said.
Updated
In the UK, a trade body has said that an expected 14-day quarantine period for all travellers coming to the country would have a devastating impact on the aviation industry and wider economy.
It is anticipated that Boris Johnson will announce the quarantine tomorrow as part of measures to prevent a second peak of the coronavirus pandemic. It will affect people arriving at airports, ports and Eurostar railway stations, including Britons returning from abroad.
Under the plan, set to be in place by the end of early June, arrivals will be asked to provide the address at which they will self-isolate for two weeks by filling out a digital form.
But Karen Dee, the chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, said it would “not only have a devastating impact on the UK aviation industry, but also on the wider economy”.
However, some have questioned why the quarantine measure was not introduced sooner, and what the scientific reasoning is for it to be introduced at this point in the government’s response. Other countries including Australia and New Zealand ordered 14-day isolation periods for visitors as early as March.
Updated
I’m back at the helm of the live blog again now, with thanks to my colleague, Jedidajah Otte, for covering while I was away.
The Israeli government has approved a series of steps to relax lockdown restrictions, including allowing group prayer, partial reopening of the economy and stores, and fines for not wearing masks in public, as the number of daily infections decreases, the Haaretz newsaper reports.
There have been signs that lockdown fatigue is spreading in the population, with images showing hundreds gathering at beaches on Friday.
So far 16,444 coronavirus cases have been recorded in Israel, of which 11,313 have recovered, according to the health ministry. Eighty-one people are in serious condition, of whom 65 are on ventilators. The number of coronavirus deaths remains at 245.
In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, 527 people have tested positive and two people have died. In the Gaza Strip, 20 people were diagnosed, 12 of whom have recovered.
Updated
One in four Portuguese with a monthly household income of 650 euros ($705) or less have lost all their income because of the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak, according to a study by the National School of Public Health.
About 22% of Portugal’s 4.9 million workers take home the minimum monthly wage of 635 euros, the lowest in western Europe, Reuters reports.
“Preliminary data seems to indicate COVID-19 is noticeably unequal,” the study said, adding that inequalities can increase people’s risk of being infected by the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus because they might have no option but to leave their homes to work.
The researchers surveyed around 4,000 people between 25 April and 1 May.
Since the pandemic hit Portugal, 25% of people with a household income of up to 650 euros lost all their earnings, and only 6% of those with a monthly household income of 2,500 euros or more lost it all, the study showed.
Portugal, which has reported 27,268 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 1,114 deaths, started cautiously easing its lockdown restrictions on Monday.
A total of 91,500 people registered as unemployed between the beginning of Portugal’s lockdown on 18 March and the end of April, official figures showed, bringing total unemployment to just under 370,000 people.
Hello, I’m briefly taking over while Simon Murphy takes a break. Please feel free to get in touch with updates via Twitter or email me.
Summary
- Thousands of people, including elderly second world war veterans, have turned out for Belarus’s Victory Day military parade despite the coronavirus epidemic.
- As Spain’s daily death toll fell to its second lowest level since mid-March on Saturday, half of the country prepared to move into the next phase of exit from one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns.
- Russia has been hit with more than 10,000 new Covid-19 cases in the last day, as the country approaches nearly 200,000 confirmed infections with lockdown measures continuing.
- China’s president, Xi Jinping, has offered the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, support in tackling the coronavirus, state media said on Saturday.
- As debates rage in other countries about the return of professional football, games will be played on the Faroe Islands on Saturday for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak.
- Indonesia has reported its biggest daily increase in infections, with 533 new confirmed cases, taking the total to 13,645.
- And a French MP has failed in her bid to to get “love” added to the list of “compelling reasons” that must be given for anyone to travel more than 100km (62 miles) in the country.
Updated
In Beijing, there is welcome news for fitness fanatics as several of the city’s gyms reopen after being closed for nearly three months.
“After coming back to the gym I’ve been able to get my blood, my circulation going again and get my muscles flexed again,” said Lu, 38, a gym enthusiast at Mi Fitness, one of the facilities that was allowed to reopen at the end of April. “This kind of feeling is fantastic,” he told Reuters, after a few sets of lateral raises.
So far, only gyms stationed above ground level are allowed to operate, provided they follow rules. Temperature checks are made upon entry, and names and contacts are noted. Gym-goers are required to wear a mask unless they have difficulty breathing, and must maintain a distance of two metres from others.
Mi Fitness is also subject to three spot checks a day, from the city’s sports authorities, the local government and the building’s management. A breach of the rules may shut down the business.
The fitness studio is on the eighth floor of an office building in west Beijing. During a visit by Reuters on Friday, all those working out observed the mask rule, although some admitted it was a little uncomfortable to wear one while exercising. But student Peng Weichen, 21, was determined to see the positive side of things.
“I treat it as a form of resistance training,” Peng said. “That is, resistance training with a reduced oxygen intake. It’s not a big deal. It’s fine. I can take it.”
Updated
Spain's daily Covid-19 death toll continues to fall as country set for next phase of lockdown exit
As Spain’s daily death toll fell to its second lowest since mid-March on Saturday, half of the country prepared to move into the next phase of exit from one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns.
The first phase includes a considerable easing of measures, allowing people to move around their province as well as attending concerts and the theatre. Gatherings of up to 10 people will be allowed.
On Monday, 51% of the population will progress to phase one of a four-step easing plan after the government decided the regions in which they lived met the necessary criteria.
In regions that made the cut, including the Canary and Balearic Islands, bars, restaurants and shops will open at reduced capacity, and museums, gyms and hotels will open their doors for the first time in nearly two months. However, the country’s two biggest cities – Madrid and Barcelona – do not currently meet the criteria for easing.
It comes as the Covid-19 daily death toll in the country fell to 179 on Saturday, down from 229 the previous day and a fraction of highs above 900 in early April. The cumulative death total rose to 26,478, while the number of diagnosed cases rose to 223,578 from 222,857 the day before, the health ministry said.
Updated
It is known as the city of love so it’s perhaps fitting that in Paris last night there was a touching amendment requested to the French government’s “state of health emergency” bill when MPs debated it at the Assemblée Nationale.
Discussing the bill, which will extend the coronavirus measures until 23 July, MP Mireille Clapot suggested that “love” be added to the “compelling reasons” that must be given for anyone to travel more than 100km (62 miles).
Presenting what she called her “lovers amendment”, the MP for Emmanuel Macron’s ruling LREM party said the strict lockdown – which will be eased from Monday – had led to couples being separated since mid-March. “The law has put so many restraints on public freedoms that it has more or less banned love,” Clapot told the house.
She said the current reasons justifying long journeys after Monday for “compelling professional or family reasons” meant couples who were geographically separated – whether married, in civil partnerships or simply together – were suffering.
The health minister, Olivier Véran, said the government did not want to increase the number of exceptions to the rules and could not accept the amendment. However, before anyone could accuse him of being hard-hearted, he thanked the MP for “this tender moment” in the house.
Updated
In Afghanistan, at least six people have been killed after protesters clashed with police over claims that food aid is being distributed unfairly amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to a local member of parliament in Afghanistan’s western Ghor province where the incident occurred, seven people were killed. But a government spokesman said six had died, including four civilians and two police officers.
Fourteen others wounded during the protest, sparked by growing concern that distributions have been favouring people with political connections, said Gulzaman Nayeb, a politician representing Ghor, a province in central Afghanistan.
Reuters reported that Mohammad Arif Aber, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Ghor, claimed police started shooting after some of the protesters, who totalled around 300, threw stones and started firing guns, trying to enter the governor’s house. The spokesman said police were among the wounded. He denied that aid was being unfairly distributed.
Among the dead was Ahmad Naveed Khan, a local volunteer radio presenter who was sitting at his nearby shop and was hit in the head by a bullet, according to Ahmad Quraishi, the executive director of the Afghanistan Journalists Centre.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said it was looking into the “worrying reports of police firing on protesters”.
The government has been distributing food aid around the country as the restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic have led to many job losses and rising food prices.
Update: Tariq Aryan, an interior ministry spokesman, claimed some “irresponsible armed” people among the protesters opened fire. Calling the incident “horrific”, he said six people, including four civilians and two police officers, were killed. A dozen police officers and nine civilians were wounded, he said.
The country’s first vice president, Amrullah Saleh, apologised for the incident in a Facebook post and said the case would be investigated.
Updated
Czech Airlines will restart part of its operations later this month after a six-week interruption.
The airline will resume some of its services on 18 May, with flights to Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris and Stockholm among those reopened in the first wave. On 24 May the route to Kiev will reopen, followed by Odessa and Bucharest on 25 May, it said.
Passengers will be required to wear face masks during the entire flight, and a distance of two metres from person to person will be enforced. The cabin will undergo disinfection before and after each flight, the airline said.
Updated
Indonesia has reported its biggest daily increase in coronavirus infections, with 533 new confirmed cases taking the total number to 13,645.
But with Indonesia’s low testing rate criticised by medical experts, the number of infections in the country – which has the fourth biggest population in the world – is feared to be far higher than official figures show.
Achmad Yurianto, a health ministry official, said 16 more people had died from the disease, taking the total to 959, while 2,607 had recovered. Nearly 108,700 people had been tested as of Saturday, he added, and he urged Indonesians to continue obeying stay-at-home orders.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s health authorities reported 54 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, making a total of 6,589 in the country. One new death was recorded, bringing total fatalities to 108.
Japan’s capital, Tokyo, reported 36 new cases of coronavirus infections on Saturday, TV Asahi said, three fewer than a day earlier, meaning a seventh consecutive day that new infections remained below 100. The latest figures, for which the broadcaster cited unnamed sources, bring total coronavirus infections in Tokyo to 4,846.
Updated
Spain’s daily Covid-19 death tolls are continuing to fall, with 179 new fatalities reported on Saturday, down from 229 the previous day.
Overall deaths rose to 26,478, from 26,299 on Friday, with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rising to 223,578 from 222,857 the day before, the country’s health ministry said.
Elsewhere, Slovakia recorded no new cases of coronavirus on Friday for the first time since 10 March. The country of 5.5 million has had fewer cases and deaths than neighbouring nations, with cases totalling 1,455 and 26 people dying after contracting the disease. On Wednesday the country reopened all shops outside shopping malls, hotels, museums, galleries and outdoor tourist attractions and allowed religious services and weddings with limited numbers of guests.
Schools remain closed, however, and international passenger travel is still not possible. People returning from abroad must go to state-run quarantine centres for 14 days
Updated
Thousands turn out in Belarus for VE Day parade despite pandemic
Thousands of people, including elderly veterans of the second world war, have turned out for Belarus’s Victory Day military parade despite the coronavirus epidemic.
Images from the parade showed crowds packed on to parade bleachers as the country’s leader, Alexander Lukashenka, boasted of holding the only parade in the former Soviet Union to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Russia and other countries have cancelled their s and move many of the celebrations online.
“In this insane, disoriented world, there will be people who condemn us for the time and place of this sacred act,” Lukashenka said defiantly. “Don’t rush to conclusions or condemn us, descendants of the victory of Belarusians. We couldn’t have acted differently. We had no other choice. And even if we had one, we would have done the same.”
But one Belarusian journalist expressed concern at higher-risk attendees at the parade.
These are pictures of people at higher risk attending the parade (c)@Reuters. It is hard to say whether they came voluntarily. But one thing is certain:dangers and risks were not explained to them properly.The level of ignorance of the authorities is just scary #Belarus #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/H28njlPRyd
— Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) May 9, 2020
Meanwhile, the BBC’s Moscow correspondent wrote on Twitter:
Belarus marks the 75th anniversary of Victory Day as if there was no such thing as coronavirus. Even veterans turned out.
— Sarah Rainsford (@sarahrainsford) May 9, 2020
The country suffered massive losses in WWII, there’s a lot to commemorate. But in a pandemic?
So far, more than 21,000 have tested + for Covid19. pic.twitter.com/HLSOhsfIRb
Lukashenka has publicly downplayed the epidemic, appearing at Orthodox Easter services and other public events and telling reporters that the virus is not as deadly as has been claimed. Belarus is the only country in Europe to continue holding football matches during the crisis.
The country officially has 21,101 cases of coronavirus and 121 deaths from the disease. Local activists have played an important role in crowdfunding the country’s response to the disease and making up for shortages at local hospitals.
In Moscow, Vladimir Putin laid flowers at the eternal flame near the Kremlin this week and vowed to hold the parade and a memorial march called the Immortal Regiment by year’s end.
Updated
The former French president François Hollande has spoken of his concern for women suffering domestic abuse during the lockdown, as he endorsed a new app to help female victims of violence.
In an interview with the Guardian, Hollande called for schoolchildren to be taught that violence at home was unacceptable but that it affected every social group. “There’s this idea that it’s just a problem in working-class settings or immigrant areas, but this is so wrong. It happens in all types of families,” he said.
For too long violence against women has been pushed aside because it was considered part of the personal, the private, and not something that concerned society.”
Hollande was speaking to support a new phone app developed in France but also available in the UK and a dozen other countries, to help female victims of violence whether at home, in the workplace or in public.
App-Elles, available for Android or iOS, allows women and girls to discreetly alert three trusted contacts when they are being attacked, allowing them to call the police if necessary. As well as a GPS alert, a recording is made of the attack in real time on the victim’s and contacts’ phones.
Updated
The coronavirus death toll in the Philippines has passed 700 as the country recorded eight new fatalities.
Confirmed Covid-19 infections increased by 147 to 10,610, the country’s health ministry reported. Meanwhile, 108 recovered, bringing total recoveries to 1,842. The country recorded eight new coronavirus deaths, with the total climbing to 704, the health ministry said in a bulletin.
On Tuesday the Philippines’ biggest broadcaster, ABS-CBN, was forced off air by a cease-and-desist order that has been condemned as a brazen attack on press freedom.
The media group, which has been repeatedly attacked by the country’s president, Rodrigo Duterte, has faced months of uncertainty over its future, but it had been expected that the network would be allowed to continue broadcasting during the coronavirus lockdown, when access to reliable information is crucial to public health.
Updated
Russia hit by 10,000 new Covid-19 cases as total infections near 200,000
Russia has been hit with more than 10,000 new Covid-19 cases in the last day, as the country approaches nearly 200,000 confirmed infections with lockdown measures continuing.
The country’s coronavirus taskforce confirmed 104 people had died overnight, bringing the nation’s coronavirus death toll to 1,827.
On Saturday, the total number of confirmed cases in Russia reached 198,676 after 10,817 new infections were recorded. It is a slightly higher rise than previous day, when there were 10,699 new cases. Russia’s coronavirus cases overtook France and Germany this week to become the fifth highest in the world.
Updated
Confirmed coronavirus cases in Afghanistan have passed 4,000 following the highest one-day rise in infections in the country’s third largest city, Herat.
Six patients died overnight, increasing the Covid-19 death toll in the country to 115, with the total number of infections reaching 4,033, including 392 health workers. Six health workers have died from Covid-19.
Of the new infections, 71 were recorded in the western province of Herat, which borders Iran. More than 250,000 Afghans have returned home from Iran – which has recorded in excess of 100,000 confirmed cases – since the beginning of the year, fanning out across the country without being tested or quarantined.
Afghanistan’s health ministry has warned of a human catastrophe amid intensified conflict with the Taliban, which killed 43 civilians in the first 10 days of Ramadan.
Wahid Majroh, a deputy health minister, said on Saturday that a “big human catastrophe will take place” if people continued to break lockdown rules, adding that concerns had reached the “highest level”.
Despite a government-authorised lockdown in several provinces, cities are still crowded, raising fears among experts that the true number of Covid-19 infections may be significantly higher than official figures.
Some 529 suspected patients have been tested in the last 24 hours in the war-torn country, with 253 positive results. The deputy health minister insisted that patients with severe symptoms were tested, adding that the ministry is increasing hospital beds for Covid-19 patients.
Ferozuddin Feroz, the health minister, who was infected with the virus on Thursday, is in a “good condition”, Majroh said.
Total infections: 4,033
— Akhtar Mohammad Makoii (@akhtar_makoii) May 9, 2020
New infections: 253
May8: 215
May7: 171
May6: 168
May5: 330
May4: 190
May3: 235
May2: 179
May1: 164
Apr30: 232
Apr29:110
Ap28: 125
Ap27: 172
Ap26: 68
Ap25: 133
Ap24: 95
Ap23: 83
Ap22:51
Ap21:66
Ap20:30
Death toll: 115
Recoveries: 502
After three days of recording numbers below 20 in Kandahar, the number of transmissions increased in the southern province as 43 patients tested positive. The capital, Kabul, which is Afghanistan’s worst-affected area, recorded four new patients with Covid-19 out of 43 tests, Majroh said.
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Singapore has recorded 753 new coronavirus cases, its health ministry said, taking the city-state’s total to 22,460 infections.
The vast majority of the newly infected people are migrant workers living in dormitories, the health ministry said in a statement. Nine are permanent residents.
As debates rage in other countries about the return of professional football, games will be played on the Faroe Islands today for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak.
The north Atlantic archipelago, located 370 miles north of Scotland with a population of just 50,000, will provide some much-needed respite to football fans when games restart in the country’s 10-team top flight.
Normally, matches in the country’s league are watched by fewer than 1,000 fans in the terraces but now, given the lack of football elsewhere, TV audiences will be tuning in from Norway and Denmark for the first game, which is being held behind closed doors.
Mikkjal Thomassen, manager of KL KLasksvik, the top league’s reigning champions, told BBC Breakfast: “It’s just strange times, we are excited of course, very excited to be back.”
He added: “We are privileged to be in the spotlight for a moment, we will enjoy it and give it our best.”
Thomassen said he was thankful no one had died on the Faroe Islands after contracting Covid-19. “Last night, officially, we came down to zero incidents in the Faroes. There’s been a really loyal and active fight against corona and people have respected and so it went very well. There’s been no deaths, as you know.”
Any staff or players with symptoms have been tested and all have returned negative results, Thomassen added. “There has been a massive testing in the Faroes, more than 10% of the population has been tested,” he said.
South Korea’s K league restarted yesterday and Germany’s Bundesliga has been given the green light to resume on 16 May. The Belarusian Premier League prompted controversy by carrying on with matches despite the outbreak.
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China is set to reform its disease prevention and control system, a senior health official has confirmed, after mounting criticism that the country was initially slow to react to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Reuters, Li Bin, a vice-minister of the China National Health Commission, told reporters on Saturday:
This coronavirus epidemic is a big test of our country’s governance and governing ability, and it exposed the weak links in how we address major epidemic and public health systems.”
The commission will build a “centralised and efficient” chain of command, and modernise the disease prevention and control system, he said.
It is also aiming to improve the use of big data, artificial intelligence and cloud computing to better trace and analyse diseases and distribute resources.
Li Bin said the commission was also planning to step up research on core technology, improve medical insurance and ensure better availability of emergency materials.
As China eases lockdown measures, it has not recorded any new deaths from coronavirus for 24 days.
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That’s all from me - I’m now handing over to my colleague in London, Simon Murphy, who will keep you updated with the latest coronavirus developments from around the world.
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The head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, warned on Friday that economic forecasts could be revised down even further. The IMF’s April projection for a 3% contraction in the global economy would mark the steepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
A continuing trade war between the US and China could jeopardize a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, she added.
With no immediate medical solutions, more adverse scenarios might unfortunately materialise for some economies... It is the unknown about the behaviour of this virus that is clouding the horizon for projections,” said Georgieva.
Here is a full report:
China offers support to North Korea to tackle virus
President Xi Jinping has offered North Korean leader Kim Jong-un support in tackling the coronavirus, state media said on Saturday.
Xi said he was very concerned about the situation in North Korea and the health of its people, and said he was pleased that its efforts to control the respiratory illness had achieved positive results, state television said.
In an exchange of verbal messages, President Xi said that China is willing to strengthen cooperation with North Korea to fight the #COVID19 pandemic, and provide support within China's capacity based on North Korea's needs. https://t.co/LDzejuEpQT
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) May 9, 2020
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A major operation to repatriate thousands of Indian nationals who are stranded overseas is under way, with more than 60 flights due to bring people back from 12 countries over the next week.
In the early hours of Saturday, returnees arrived from UAE, while on Friday, hundreds of people were brought back from Bahrain, Singapore, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, the Indian Express newspaper reported. A naval ship has also set sail, repatriating nearly 700 Indian citizens stuck in the Maldives.
About 15,000 Indians are due to return on Air India flights, though this figure is expected to increase significantly over the coming weeks and months. Embassies abroad have received hundreds of thousands of applications from Indian nationals who want to travel home.
Tamil Nadu: A special flight from United Arab Emirates (UAE)'s Dubai, with around 182 Indian nationals - including 3 children, arrived at Chennai International Airport tonight.
— ANI (@ANI) May 8, 2020
All passengers are being screened & tested. They'll be placed under quarantine, as per the guidelines. pic.twitter.com/igd3O3lsln
India, which faced strict lockdowns for weeks, has recorded about 60,000 coronavirus cases. All returnees will be required to undergo quarantine for 14 days on arrival.
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Here is the Guardian’s latest summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak:
Egypt's president expands powers, citing the coronavirus pandemic
Egypt’s president Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi on Saturday approved amendments to the country’s state of emergency that grant him and security agencies additional powers, which the government says are needed to combat the coronavirus outbreak, Associated Press reports.
An international rights group condemned the amendments, saying the government has used the global pandemic to expand, not reform, Egypt’s emergency law.
The new amendments allow the president to take measures to contain the virus, such as suspending classes at schools and universities and quarantining those returning from abroad. But they also include expanded powers to ban public and private meetings, protests, celebrations and other forms of assembly.
The government has waged an unprecedented crackdown on dissent since 2013, when Sisi rose to power, and unauthorised protests have been banned for years.
The amendments allow military prosecutors to investigate incidents when army officers are tasked with law enforcement or when the president orders it. The country’s chief civilian prosecutor would have the final decision on whether to bring matters to trial. The amended law would also allow the president to postpone taxes and utility payments as well as provide economic support for affected sectors.
Parliament, which is packed with Sisi supporters, approved the measure last month.
Egypt has been under a state of emergency since April 2017, and the government extended it late last month for another three months. The law was originally passed to give the president broader powers to combat terrorism and drug trafficking.
The government said the amendments were needed to address a legal vacuum revealed by the coronavirus outbreak. Egypt, with a population of 100 million, has reported at least 504 deaths among around 8,500 confirmed cases.
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Russia to limit events marking 75 years since Soviet victory over Nazi Germany
Russia marks 75 years since the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany on Saturday, but the coronavirus outbreak has forced it to scale back celebrations, Reuters reports.
With coronavirus infections rising, Vladimir Putin last month postponed the highlight of Victory Day celebrations, a massive parade on Red Square that showcases Moscow’s most sophisticated military hardware, to an unspecified date.
In previous years, Putin basked in national pride as he watched Russian tanks rumble across the square with world leaders by his side. But a recent poll gave him his lowest approval rating in more than two decades and the country’s economy is slipping into a deep downturn.
Putin has described Victory Day celebrations as sacred to Russians but said a big public event was too risky during the pandemic. As of Friday, Russia had reported 187,859 coronavirus cases and 1,723 deaths.
In a slimmed-down celebration, Putin will lay flowers at the Eternal Flame war memorial outside the Kremlin walls and deliver a speech. Fireworks will be let off across Russia as much of the country remains in lockdown, and the Russian air force will carry out fly-pasts over more than 47 cities, as well as at its military base in Syria, with a full array of jets and helicopters.
Public processions commemorating Soviet participants in the war that are normally held on 9 May have been moved online, with people uploading pictures of family members and telling their war stories.
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Thailand reported four new coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing its total number of recorded infections to 3,004. One new death was also confirmed, which means there have been a total of 56 fatalities.
Thailand begun easing its lockdown measures on Sunday, when it allowed some businesses, including barber shops, pet groomers and outdoor markets, to reopen. A ban on alcohol sales has also been lifted, though a 10pm curfew remains in place.
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The US Food and Drug Administration commissioner Stephen Hahn will spend the next couple of weeks in self-quarantine after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19.
Hahn immediately took a diagnostic test and was tested negative himself for the novel coronavirus, FDA told Reuters.
Politico reported earlier that it was Katie Miller, the US vice-president Mike Pence’s press secretary, whom Hahn had come into contact with. The FDA did not confirm this.
Miller, also the wife of one ofTrump’s senior advisers, tested positive on Friday, raising alarm about the virus’ potential spread within the White House’s innermost circle.
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Summary
- The head of the International Monetary Fund suggested that the already bleak global economic forecasts could be revised down, and warned the United States and China against rekindling a trade war that could weaken a recovery.
- Meanwhile, the US accused China and Russia of cooperating to spread false narratives about the coronavirus, and tightened visa guidelines for Chinese journalists.
- The leaders of US congressional foreign affairs committees have written to more than 50 countries asking them to support Taiwan’s inclusion in the World Health Organization. Taiwan is excluded from the WHO due to diplomatic pressure from China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory.
- Donald Trump has said coronavirus is “going to go away without a vaccine”, but warned there could be “flare-ups” next year. Mike Pence’s press secretary, who is married to one of Donald Trump’s senior advisers, has tested positive for coronavirus.
- Roy Horn, of the double act Siegfried and Roy, died after contracting Covid-19, his publicist confirmed. He died in Las Vegas on Friday, aged 75.
- Argentina said it will extend a quarantine covering its capital Buenos Aires but relax restrictions in the rest of the country.
- Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday that he aims to present plans next week to reopen the economy, as key sectors like carmaking look to begin business again after over a month of quarantine measures
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Donald Trump has said coronavirus will “go away without a vaccine” and is expecting 95,000 or more deaths in the US, as Mike Pence’s press secretary tested positive for coronavirus, reports Alison Rourke in our latest global report on the coronavirus pandemic.
The president’s comments, at an event with Republican lawmakers, capped a horror week in the US, in which it was revealed unemployment had risen to 14.7%, up from 3.5% in February, with 20 million people losing their jobs in April.
The news that Mike Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller had Covid-19, having recently tested negative, again brought the danger of the virus to the White House inner circle. Miller is married to the White House immigration adviser and speech writer Stephen Miller. On Thursday one of Trump’s personal valets tested positive for the virus.
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Malaysians will find out early next week if restrictions imposed across the country on 18 March 18 be further extended, the Malaysian Star newspaper has reported.
Many are hoping the movement controls will be lifted when the current quarantine phase ends on 12 May. Most businesses have now begun operating, after curbs were eased to reduce pressures on the economy.
On Friday, Malaysia reported 68 more Covid-19 cases, bringing the total to 6,535.
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China reported one new coronavirus case on Friday, unchanged from the day before, data from the national health authority showed on Saturday. The case was linked to foreign travel, the National Health Commission said in a statement.
The commission also reported 15 new asymptomatic cases for Friday, versus 16 the previous day. China’s total number of coronavirus cases now stands at 82,887, while the death toll from Covid-19, the disease it causes, remained unchanged at 4,633, the national health authority said.
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Roy Horn, of the double act Siegfried and Roy, dies after contracting Covid-19
Roy Horn, of the double act Siegfried and Roy, has died after contracting Covid-19, according to US media reports. He died in Las Vegas on Friday, aged 75.
The duo’s performances - in which the illusionists would ride on elephants, cavort with tigers and make animals disappear - became one of Las Vegas’s biggest attractions.
In 2003, Horn was left in critical condition after being mauled by an albino tiger during their stage act. He eventually recovered and was able to return to the stage.
The cause of his death was complications from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Horn’s publicist, Dave Kirvin told New York Times.
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US tightens visa rules for Chinese journalists
The US issued a new rule on Friday tightening visa guidelines for Chinese journalists, saying it was in response to the treatment of US journalists in China.
The United States and China have been engaged in a series of retaliatory actions involving journalists in recent months. In March, China expelled American journalists from three US newspapers, a month after the United States said it would begin to treat five Chinese state-run media entities with US operations the same as foreign embassies. One day after the US verdict on the state-run entities, Beijing expelled three Wall Street Journal correspondents, two Americans and an Australian, following the publication of an opinion column that China denounced as racist.
In issuing the new regulation on Friday, the Department of Homeland Security cited what it called China’s “suppression of independent journalism.”
The regulation, which will take effect on Monday, will limit visas for Chinese reporters to a 90-day period, with the option for extension. Such visas are typically open-ended and do not need to be extended unless the employee moves to a different company or medium.
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Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday that he aims to present plans next week to reopen the economy, as key sectors like carmaking look to begin business again after over a month of quarantine measures.
“They’re going to present me with an initial proposal on Monday,” Lopez Obrador told reporters during a regular news conference. “And we want to announce it to you and to the Mexican public on Wednesday or Thursday.”
The government has been under pressure at home and abroad to set out plans for a return to normal as it battles the pandemic that has killed nearly 3,000 people in the country.
One sector facing heavy pressure is the automotive industry, which is the backbone of Mexico’s manufacturing sector and closely integrated with the rest of North America.
This week, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and Ford said they were targeting resuming production in North America on 18 May, but suppliers would need time to prepare. Industry sources say 18 May is also seen as the tentative date for reopening the sector in Mexico, provided it gets a green light from Lopez Obrador.
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The leaders of US congressional foreign affairs committees have written to more than 50 countries asking them to support Taiwan’s inclusion in the World Health Organization (WHO), Reuters has reported.
Taiwan is excluded from the WHO due to diplomatic pressure from China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory.
“As the world works to combat the spread of the Covid-19, a novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China, it has never been more important to ensure all countries prioritize global health and safety over politics,” said the lawmakers’ letter, sent on Friday, and seen by Reuters.
Washington’s growing support for Taiwan comes as tensions between China and the US over the origin of the coronavirus continue to escalate.
The Trump administration has accused China of making the pandemic worse by hiding information. Last month, Trump announced that he was suspending aid to the WHO, accusing it of being “China-centric” and promoting China’s “disinformation” about the outbreak, assertions the WHO denies.
Argentina extends quarantine in Buenos Aires
Argentina will extend a quarantine covering its capital Buenos Aires but relax restrictions in the rest of the country, President Alberto Fernandez said on Friday.
The national quarantine began on 20 March and will be extended in the capital until 24 May. Until Friday, the country had registered 5,611 confirmed cases of the virus and 293 deaths.
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IMF head warns global economic forecasts could worsen
The head of the International Monetary Fund on Friday signalled a possible downward revision of global economic forecasts, and warned the United States and China against rekindling a trade war that could weaken a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, told an online event hosted by the European University Institute that recent economic data for many countries was coming in below the fund’s already pessimistic forecast for a 3% contraction in 2020, Reuters reports.
“With no immediate medical solutions, more adverse scenarios might unfortunately materialise for some economies,” Georgieva said. “It is the unknown about the behaviour of this virus that is clouding the horizon for projections.”
The IMF’s April projection for a 3% contraction the global economy would mark the steepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The IMF forecast a partial rebound would follow in 2021, but warned that outcomes could be far worse, depending on the course of the pandemic.
Donald Trump has threatened to punish China for its handling of the virus by imposing new tariffs, and on Friday suggested he could end a phase-one US-China trade deal.
On Friday, Georgieva warned that a retreat into protectionism could weaken the prospects for a global recovery at a critical juncture. “It is hugely important for us to resist what may be a natural tendency to retreat behind our borders,” she said.
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Hello this is Rebecca Ratcliffe, bringing you the latest global coronavirus updates.
Global reported cases of coronavirus stand at 3,932,896, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, approaching the grim 4 million milestone. Across the world, 274,422 deaths have been registered, with the US on top with 77,126. The UK has recorded the second highest number of fatalities, with 31,315, followed by Italy on 30,201.
Here are a summary of the top news lines so far:
- US unemployment has hit 14.7%, as 20 million Americans lost their jobs in April. This is up from 4.4% in March.
- Donald Trump has said that coronavirus is “going to go away without a vaccine”, but warned there could be “flare-ups” next year. Mike Pence’s press secretary, who is married to one of Donald Trump’s senior advisers, has tested positive for coronavirus.
- The US accused China and Russia of cooperating to spread false narratives about the coronavirus, ratcheting up a war of words over the origin of the pandemic.
- Russia on Friday registered more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases for a sixth day in a row.
- Madrid and Barcelona will not progress to the next phase of Spain’s exit from lockdown, after failing to meet the Spanish government’s criteria for an easing of restrictions.
- Local authorities in the German state North Rhine-Westphalia are set to reimpose some lockdown measures after seeing a rise in new coronavirus cases.
- Bogota will lift restrictions which required men and women to shop on separate days, the city’s mayor has said. The rules, which have been in place for nearly a month, will end on Monday.
If you think we’ve missed a story or want to draw our attention to something please do get in touch. My email is rebecca.ratcliffe@theguardian.com and I’m @rebeccarat on Twitter.
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