We are going to close this liveblog now. Thank you for your company and correspondence.
If you’d like to continue to follow our live coverage, we have a new blog running here (I’ll be there should you need me):
I leave you with a summary of today’s developments in the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic:
- The number of people infected by Covid-19 has exceeded 5.7 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The US accounts for about 30% of cases, way ahead of Brazil (7.2%), Russia (6.6%), the UK (4.7%), Spain (4.1%) and Italy (4%).
- Up to six people will be able to meet outside in England from Monday, providing members of different households continue to stay two metres apart, the prime minister has said. This will be allowed in gardens and other private outdoor spaces, Boris Johnson added.
- Paris is no longer a “red” coronavirus danger zone, the risks posed by the virus moving down a notch to “orange”, according to France’s prime minister, Edouard Philippe. The rating means Paris is not as free as the majority French regions designated “green”.
- Health officials in Moscow updated their figures on coronavirus deaths to add those who “died with” the virus. On top of 636 deaths in April directly caused by Covid-19 reported earlier, the health department added the deaths of 756 people who tested positive for the virus but died of other causes.
- The number of Americans who have lost their jobs in the past 10 weeks soared to more than 40 million, with 2.1 million people filing for unemployment last week. The growth in the number of claims has slowed, but millions more have continued to file for unemployment each week, bringing the total number to a rate not seen since the Great Depression.
- New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he would sign an executive order allowing businesses to deny entry to customers not wearing masks. He said: “That store owner has a right to protect himself … You don’t want to wear a mask, fine. But you don’t have a right to then go into that store if that storeowner doesn’t want you to.”
- The US has now recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, as many states continued to relax mitigation measures. The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic, and almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, the UK.
- There have been more than 159,000 excess deaths in Europe since since early March, during the height of the coronavirus epidemic, the head of the World Health Organization’s regional office for the continent said. Hans Kluge said 2 million people had been confirmed to have caught the coronavirus since it was first detected on the continent four months ago. About 175,000 had died.
- The number of Covid-19 cases linked to a live export ship which docked in Western Australia doubled from six to 12. Of these seven new cases recorded in the state on Thursday, six are crew members from the Al-Kuwait ship which docked in Fremantle this week. The only other case was a returned overseas traveller who is already in hotel quarantine.
- The president of Namibia and several of the country’s top officials have been fined after breaching coronavirus regulations last month by hosting a celebration to mark his party’s 60th anniversary. The South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) birthday party took place in parliament on 19 April, when Namibia was under lockdown and group gatherings were banned to limit the spread of coronavirus. As well as the president, Hage Geingob, himself, the guests included vice-president Nangolo Mbumba, prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and SWAPO secretary-general Sophia Shaningwa. All have since been fined N$2,000 (£92.34).
- In sport, Premier League football is poised to return after a three-month coronavirus shutdown, with top-flight games in England provisionally set to resume in June. Aston Villa will host Sheffield United and Manchester City face Arsenal on 17 June. Serie A, Italy’s top division, will return on 20 June after a three-month suspension, the sports minister, Vincenzo Spadafora, said on Thursday. Australia’s professional rugby league competition, the NRL, resumed on Thursday night with Parramatta defeating Brisbane.
- Cancer patients with Covid-19 treated with a drug combination promoted by US President Donald Trump to counter coronavirus were three times more likely to die within 30 days than those who got either drug alone, U.S. researchers said. The preliminary results suggest doctors may want to refrain from prescribing the decades-old malaria treatment hydroxychloroquine with the antibiotic azithromycin for these patients until more study is done, researchers said. “Treatment with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin were strongly associated with increased risk of death,” Dr. Howard Burris, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology(ASCO), said in a briefing with reporters on the results.
• This entry was amended on 29 May 2020. An earlier version said that up to six people will be able to meet outside in the UK from Monday, however, that applies only to England.
Updated
More on hydroxychloroquine, and the US President’s regimen. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked how Donald Trump was feeling and would he take the drug again.
Here is the exchange:
Reporter: The President has completed his two weeks of hydroxychloroquine. Have you spoken to him what his feeling about? Is he feeling better? What’s his feedback about that?
McEnany: I went to him just before coming out here and I asked him that. And he said, quote, he’s “feeling perfect.” Quote, he’s “feeling absolutely great” after taking this regimen. And, quote, he “would take it again” if he thought that he was exposed. So he is feeling very good.
Good morning/afternoon/evening wherever this finds you. Ben Doherty here in Sydney, taking over this liveblog from my colleague Nadeem Badshah. I can be contacted by email at ben.doherty@theguardian.com or via twitter @BenDohertyCorro.
The health ministry of Cyprus has advised doctors to curtail the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine on some COVID-19 patients amid renewed concerns that the drugs could trigger heart problems and put lives at risk.
This is after Cypriot health authorities bought enough of the drugs to treat a quarter of its population if they became infected in the early days of the pandemic.
The ministry urged doctors on Thursday to be particularly vigilant and to even stop administering the two substances to COVID-19 patients with pre-existing heart conditions.
The ministry said an advisory body of medical experts is re-evaluating the use of the drugs and may revise its directives.
The announcement came after the World Health Organization said it would temporarily drop hydroxychloroquine from its global study into experimental COVID-19 treatments.
A paper published last week in the Lancet showed people taking hydroxychloroquine were at higher risk of death and heart problems than those that were not.
Cyprus health minister said last month that the country was among the first nations to approve use of the anti-malaria drug to treat COVID-19 patients.
Cypriot authorities procured enough chloroquine to treat as many as 240,000 people roughly a quarter of the island nations population if they became infected.
It was part of a five-ton consignment of the drug that Cyprus and Israel jointly purchased from India.
Updated
Global death toll passes 358,000 mark
The global death toll has increased to 358,369, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University, which has tracked the spread of the virus during the pandemic.
The number of cases currently stands at 5,768,908 which is about 230,000 lower than the figure Johns Hopkins was reporting a few hours ago.
Updated
One in 10 diabetics with coronavirus dies within seven days of hospital admission, according to a study of more than 1,300 patients.
Two-thirds of the patients were men, and the average age across both sexes was 70, the study published in the journal Diabetologia found.
“The presence of diabetic complications and increased age increase the risk of death,” the researchers said.
“Increased BMI” - body mass index, a ratio of height to weight - “is associated with both increased risk of needing mechanical ventilation and with increased risk of death,” they said.
Worse blood sugar control in and of itself, however, did not seem to impact a patient’s outcome.
So-called microvascular complications - affecting the eyes, kidney and nerves - were found in nearly half of the patients, who were admitted to 53 French hospitals from March 10 to March 31.
Problems related to larger arteries in the heart, brain and legs were reported in more than 40 percent of the patients.
The presence of either type of complication doubled the risk of death by the seventh day of hospitalisation.
Patients over 75 years old were 14 times more likely to die than those 55 or younger.
By the seventh day of hospitalisation, a fifth of patients had been intubated on ventilators, and a tenth had died. Nearly a quarter of patients had been discharged home by this point.
The study confirmed that insulin and other treatments modifying blood sugar were not a risk factor for severe forms of COVID-19, and should be continued for persons with diabetes.
Other significant risk factors included heart disease, high blood pressure, and a history of lung disease.
Stefany Carvallido, her two-year-old daughter and about 200 other Colombians have been camping out inside Brazil’s busiest international airport for days in a desperate attempt to get back to their home country.
More than two months after the coronavirus pandemic triggered worldwide lockdowns, much of the world is gradually reopening. But Latin America remains highly isolated by travel restrictions across the region.
Colombia has suspended all international flights until at least Aug. 31, preventing its own citizens from returning by air. It has also suspended river and land border crossings with neighbors including Brazil.
Carvallido said she and her daughter Maria Jose had spent nearly two weeks at Guarulhos International Airport, located on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, the city with the lion’s share of Brazil’s coronavirus cases so far. The same airport saw a surge in traffic last week, when travelers descended on it hoping to beat a new U.S. ban on foreigners coming from Brazil.
“In this situation, we want to be with our families and my daughter wants it too ... It is very, very difficult,” said Carvallido.
Carvallido, 24, and others are eating from lunch boxes and donations and also take turns at an improvised kitchen set up outside the airport. They wash in the airport bathrooms using a small hose.
They are demanding humanitarian flights. But Colombia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday no new flights from Brazil were scheduled until next week.
Since late April there have been three such flights, taking a total of 346 people back to Colombia.
Though called humanitarian, Colombians must pay $350 for the flights, and that is money Carvallido and many others at the airport do not have. Their calls for a free flight home have led nowhere so far.
“Under current regulations, this request is not possible,” the Colombian consulate in Sao Paulo said.
A Public Health England (PHE) proposal to enact a stronger lockdown of care homes to prevent spiralling coronavirus deaths was rejected by the UK government.
Care homes have increasingly become the epicentres for deaths linked to Covid-19 across the UK, with the toll standing at more than 10,000 in England.
Downing Street received an 11-point plan proposing “a further lockdown of care homes” from PHE on April 28, The Guardian reported.
A man from Georgia was charged in a fedreral court with trying to swindle a foreign government out of $317 million (£257 million) by promising to sell it face masks to protect against the coronavirus with a huge shipment that never existed.
Paul Penn faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of criminal attempt and conspiracy, according to documents filed by prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Savannah.
Prosecutors said Penn and at least two partners negotiated a deal between March and April to sell 50 million N95 respirator masks to a foreign government. Prosecutors did not identity the government involved.
The sellers never had the masks, prosecutors said in a court filing, yet they persuaded the foreign government to wire $317 million to a bank account. Prosecutors said the sales price was five times the market value for the masks.
The U.S. Secret Service stopped the transaction before it could be completed, according to a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Bobby Christine of the Southern District of Georgia.
Using a worldwide pandemic as an opportunity to take advantage of those searching for badly needed personal protective equipment is reprehensible,” Christine said in a statement.
He pledged that federal authorities “will aggressively seek out any fraudsters who exploit this crisis as a way to make a quick buck.
Court records did not list an attorney for Penn. Prosecutors did not identify the two people they said were Penn’s partners in the scheme.
Prosecutors said Penn helped negotiate the sale through his company, Spectrum Global Holdings LLC. Georgia incorporation records show Penn formed the company in 2018 in the Atlanta suburb of Norcross.
Hydroxychloroquine combination risky for cancer patients with Covid-19 - study
Cancer patients with Covid-19 treated with a drug combination promoted by US President Donald Trump to counter coronavirus were three times more likely to die within 30 days than those who got either drug alone, U.S. researchers said.
The preliminary results suggest doctors may want to refrain from prescribing the decades-old malaria treatment hydroxychloroquine with the antibiotic azithromycin for these patients until more study is done, researchers said.
“Treatment with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin were strongly associated with increased risk of death,” Dr. Howard Burris, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology(ASCO), said in a briefing with reporters on the results.
The drug combination initially was thought to help Covid-19 patients, but recent data has cast doubt.
The preliminary findings, to be presented this week at ASCO’s virtual scientific meeting, show that the combination may pose a significant risk to cancer patients.
“Taking the combination gives a three times increased risk of dying within 30 days of any cause,” Dr. Jeremy Warner of Vanderbilt University Medical System told reporters.
Trump, who has often promoted hydroxychloroquine, in a March 21 tweet called the combination potentially “one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine.”
That was based on a study of fewer than 40 patients in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. More recent studies have shown little or no benefit and increased risks.
Warner and colleagues analysed data on 925 patients with cancer who became infected with the coronavirus between March and April. Thirteen percent of the patients died within 30 days of their diagnosis.
Overall, patients whose cancers were actively progressing at the time of infection were five times more likely to die within 30 days than those who were in remission or had no current evidence of cancer.
In the trial, 180 patients were taking hydroxychloroquine in combination with azithromycin, and 90 were taking hydroxychloroquine alone.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has allowed healthcare providers to prescribe the drugs for Covid-19 through an emergency-use authorisation, but has not approved the treatment.
The governments of France, Italy and Belgium moved on Wednesday to halt the use of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 patients following a World Health Organization decision on Monday to pause a large trial of the drug due to safety concerns.
Top officials from several UN agencies appealed for urgent international financial support in Yemen with coronavirus spreading in the country.
“We are increasingly alarmed about the situation in Yemen,” officials from the UN Humanitarian Affairs Department, UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization said in a joint statement.
“We are running out of time,” they said.
The United Nations says COVID-19 has likely already spread throughout most of Yemen, which was already immersed in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis because of a war that shows no sign of abating.
The UN officials said they currently have enough “skills, staff and capacity.”
“What we don’t have is the money. We ask donors to pledge generously and pay pledges promptly,” they said, noting that a donors conference has been organized for June 2 by Saudi Arabia and the United Nations.
Mark Lowcock, the under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said $2.4 billion needed to be raised by the end of the year for Yemen, including $180 million to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Yemen is in desperate need of assistance,” Muhannad Hadi of the World Food Programme said, while UNICEF’s director, Henriette Fore, warned of a “major disaster.”
More than 12 million children in Yemen are in need of humanitarian aid, she said.
The inaugural flight of the Ariane 6 rocket will be set back until next year because the coronavirus pandemic has led to project delays at development sites, the European Space Agency said.
“We can say for certain that the launch will not happen in 2020,” Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA’s director of space transportation, told AFP.
The ESA, which groups 13 European countries, has not indicated when in 2021 a launch from the Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, may now be possible.
Total number of global coronavirus cases nears 6 million
The number of cases currently stands at around 5.7 million, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University.
The US accounts for 1,712,816, the highest of any country, followed by Brazil with 411,821 and Russia with 379,051.
Updated
A lawyer for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has admitted in court that the agency is not testing prisoners for Covid-19 before transferring them to other jails unless they are showing symptoms of the illness.
Assistant US Attorney Dexter Lee in a video court hearing: “If the individual is actively ill, if the individual has tested positive or showing symptoms, they are not cleared for travel and they will not be transferred until those issues are resolved.
“The problem is that there are individuals who are asymptomatic and they may be positive for coronavirus,” the Miami Herald reported him as saying.
The ongoing case is over a Florida judge’s order that Ice reduce its local prison population to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Immigration advocates argue that Ice found a “loophole” by transferring them to jails in other states.
Dubai’s media office has announced the emirate will reopen four beaches, major parks and the Dubai Frame landmark to the general public on Friday.
The beaches are JBR, Al Mamzar, Jumeirah and Umm Suqeim.
Updated
Comedian Chris Rock and actress Rosie Perez made a surprise appearance at New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily news conference to underscore his message that the public should wear masks to help curb the coronavirus pandemic.
The celebrities said they would take part in public service campaigns urging New Yorkers to take the pandemic seriously, wear masks and take other steps to prevent the spread of the virus.
Rock said he was seeing about 40 percent of people in Brooklyn wearing masks.
“It’s the kids who really aren’t wearing a mask, and you know, it’s sad,” he said.
“It*s sad that our health has become, you know, a sort of political issue ... It’s a status symbol, almost, to not wear a mask.”
Perez briefly spoke in Spanish.
“To mi gente, wear a mask, please,” she said.
“The numbers in our communities are staggering. This is not a joke. This is not a hoax. This is real.”
Key developments in the global coronavirus outbreak today include:
- The number of people infected by Covid-19 has exceeded 5.7 million, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University. The US accounts for about 30% of cases, way ahead of Brazil (7.2%), Russia (6.6%), the UK (4.7%), Spain (4.1%) and Italy (4%).
- Thousands of people in the UK take part in the tenth week of Clap For Carers in what could be the last time the weekly event takes place.
- Up to six people will be able to meet outside in England from Monday, providing members of different households continue to stay two metres apart, the prime minister said. Boris Johnson also confirmed primary schools and nurseries can reopen from Monday and from 15 June, some secondary school pupils will be able to return to provide “some face to face contact time” for years 10 and 12.
- Paris is no longer deemed to be a “red” coronavirus danger zone, the risks posed by the virus moving down a notch to “orange”, France’s prime minister, Edouard Philippe, said. The rating means Paris is not as free as the majority French regions designated “green”.
- Health officials in Moscow updated their figures on coronavirus deaths to add those who “died with” the virus. On top of 636 deaths in April directly caused by Covid-19 reported earlier, the health department added the deaths of 756 people who tested positive for the virus but died of other causes.
- A travel ban between Turkey’s worst affected cities is being lifted while restaurants, cafes and sports facilities will reopen on June 1, the country’s president said. Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said public sector workers, except for those with chronic illnesses, will return to their workplaces on June 1, while child care facilities will be allowed to resume their services.
- The number of Americans who have lost their jobs in the past 10 weeks soared to more than 40 million, with 2.1 million people filing for unemployment last week. While the growth of claims has slowed, millions more have continued to file for unemployment each week, bringing the total number to a rate not seen since the Great Depression.
- New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he would sign an executive order allowing businesses to deny entry to customers not wearing masks. He said: “That store owner has a right to protect himself … You don’t want to wear a mask, fine. But you don’t have a right to then go into that store if that storeowner doesn’t want you to.”
- The US has now recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, as many states continued to relax mitigation measures. The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic, and almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, the UK.
- There have been more than 159,000 excess deaths in Europe since since early March, during the height of the coronavirus epidemic, the head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional office for the continent said. Hans Kluge said 2 million people had been confirmed to have caught the coronavirus since it was first detected on the continent four months ago. About 175,000 had died of Covid-19.
- The number of Covid-19 cases linked to a live export ship which docked in Western Australia doubled from six to 12. Of these seven new cases recorded in the state on Thursday, six are crew members from the Al-Kuwait ship which docked in Fremantle this week. The only other case was a returned overseas traveller who is already in hotel quarantine.
• This entry was amended on 29 May 2020. An earlier version said that up to six people will be able to meet outside in the UK from Monday, however, that applies only to England.
Updated
A travel ban between Turkey’s worst affected cities is being lifted while restaurants, cafes and sports facilities will reopen on June 1, the country’s president said.
In a televised address following a weekly Cabinet meeting, Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said public sector workers, except for those with chronic illnesses, will return to their workplaces on June 1, while child care facilities will be allowed to resume their services.
Erdogan said parks, beaches and museums will also be opened up while people will be permitted to attend open-air concerts. Bars and hookah bars, will remain shut.
The president also said that a stay-at-home order for people aged 65 and over, and for minors will remain for a while longer. Youths aged 19 and 20 will now be allowed outdoors, he said.
The announcement comes amid a drop in the number of reported daily COVID-19 deaths and infections in the past weeks, although some experts say the lifting of restrictions may be premature.
In his speech, Erdogan called on people to exercise caution, wear masks and stick to social distancing guidelines.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry announced a new, two-day curfew over the weekend in 15 of the country’s worst-affected provinces, including Ankara and Istanbul.
Earlier, intercity train services resumed on a limited basis. Trains will make 16 trips daily, connecting the cities of Ankara, Istanbul, Konya and Eskisehir.
The trains are operating at half-capacity, and passengers are being allowed on board only with a government-issued permission to travel and a code certifying they are not being monitored for a suspected COVID-19 infection.
Turkish Transportation Minister Adil Karaismailoglu said travelers showing signs of illness would not be allowed onto trains. Any passenger exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms on a train will be taken to a special isolation section and handed over to health officials at the nearest station, he said.
The government has also opened shopping malls and hairdressers. Mosques will allow congregations for two daytime prayers starting Friday.
Turkey’s total number of confirmed infections has surpassed 160,000, with the Health Ministry announcing 1,182 new cases in the past 24 hours and 30 new deaths, raising the total COVID-19 fatalities to 4,461.
White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany defended US states’ decisions to reopen, saying “everything does not depend on a vaccine”.
“There’s therapeutics,” she told a press briefing on Thursday.
She also defended President Donald Trump’s tweet commemorating the 100,000 US death toll, which went out the day after the number was passed.
McEnany said flags being lowered to half-mast on federal buildings during the previous Memorial Day weekend was an acknowledgment of the death toll.
She also accused Google of allowing China “to spread misinformation about the coronavirus”.
Trump said he will sign an executive order targeting tech companies and will give a news conference on China on Friday.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in France rose to 149,071 on Thursday compared to 145,746 on Wednesday.
There was an increase of 3,325 new confirmed cases due to a systems update, the French health ministry said.
Updated
From Monday, almost 70% of Spain will be in at least the third and penultimate stage of the country’s staggered lockdown exit, our Madrid correspondent, Sam Jones, writes.
The Madrid region and the Barcelona metropolitan area, two of the hardest-hit zones, will remain in the second phase, which they belatedly entered in Monday.
Under the rules for the third phase, people can eat inside restaurants and visit shopping centres, but both will operate are reduced capacities. Groups of up to 15 people are allowed to meet, providing their observe physical distancing.
Some areas, such as the Balearic island of Formentera and three Canary islands will move into the final phase on Monday.
The health minister, Salvador Illa, called on people to behave responsibly and not to squander the advances made during one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns.
“There is a risk of fresh outbreaks and so our best ally is caution,” he said.
The country’s health emergency chief, Fernando Simón, also warned again this week that the country’s hard-won progress – new cases in Spain have fallen to between 400 and 500 a day from more than 7,500 at the peak – must not be taken for granted. An outbreak caused by “a small, innocent party could be the start of another epidemic,” he said.
Simón was speaking after six new cases were discovered in a small town in the south-eastern region of Murcia, apparently linked to an agricultural worker who went to work despite showing symptoms of the disease.
Spain also had an earlier spike in Lleida, Catalonia, after 20 people gathered for a birthday party, ignoring phase-one lockdown rules which stipulated gatherings of no more than 10 people. Four had the virus and infected the other 16.
Updated
Head over to our UK blog for coverage of the weekly Clap For Carers at 8pm
The nationwide applause, which has become synonymous with Thursday nights, could come to an end.
The founder Annemarie Plas said she had been overwhelmed by the support for the ritual, but that it was better to stop while it was at its peak.
Updated
Kuwait will ease its full-time curfew to a 12-hour night time one, the interior minister, Khaled Al Jarrah Al Sabah, said.
The curfew will be from 6pm to 6am starting on Sunday.
Easing the curfew will be part of the first phase in a five-phase plan to return to normal life, each of which will last at least three weeks.
Updated
Argentina plans to maintain its flight ban until 1 September 1 to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the worldwide airline industry group Iata, which has been lobbying to lift restrictions faster, said.
Peter Cerda, IATA’s iice president for the Americas, said they are in constant communication with the Argentine government whose position has not changed.
Updated
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has called for debt relief to be offered to all developing and middle-income countries as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
He also urged the International Monetary Fund to consider boosting global liquidity by issuing a new allocation of its Special Drawing Rights (SDR) currency.
He said: “Alleviating crushing debt cannot be limited to the least-developed countries.
“It must be extended to all developing and middle-income countries that request forbearance as they lose access to financial markets.
“Many developing and middle-income countries are highly vulnerable and already in debt distress — or will soon become so, due to the global recession.”
Updated
Premier League football is poised to return after a three-month coronavirus shutdown, with top-flight games in England provisionally set to resume in June.
Aston Villa will host Sheffield United and Manchester City face Arsenal on 17 June.
Serie A, Italy’s top division, will return on 20 June after a three-month suspension, the sports minister, Vincenzo Spadafora, said on Thursday.
📅 17.06.2020
— Premier League (@premierleague) May 28, 2020
Premier League Shareholders today agreed to a new provisional restart date for the 2019/20 season of Wednesday 17 June, provided that all safety requirements are in place
Updated
The president of Namibia and several of the country’s top officials have been fined after breaching coronavirus regulations last month by hosting a celebration to mark his party’s 60th anniversary, AFP reports.
The South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) birthday party took place in parliament on 19 April, when Namibia was under lockdown and group gatherings were banned to limit the spread of coronavirus.
As well as the president, Hage Geingob, himself, the guests included vice-president Nangolo Mbumba, prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and SWAPO secretary-general Sophia Shaningwa.
All have since been fined N$2,000 (£92.34).
“We had a very important occasion of the 60th anniversary of Swapo,” Geingob confessed on Thursday, during a press conference on the country’s Covid-19 response.
“Although we were as little as ten leaders... we were found not on the right side of the regulations and law. We had to admit guilt and we were punished, we paid.”
Geingob raised controversy in March for inviting several African presidents to his swearing-in ceremony, prompting them to breach their own travel bans.
Summary
Key developments in the global coronavirus outbreak on Thursday include:
- The number of people infected by Covid-19 has exceeded 5.7 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The US accounts for about 30% of cases, way ahead of Brazil (7.2%), Russia (6.6%), the UK (4.7%), Spain (4.1%) and Italy (4%).
- Up to six people will be able to meet outside in England from Monday, providing members of different households continue to stay two metres apart, the prime minister has said. This will be allowed in gardens and other private outdoor spaces, Boris Johnson added.
- Paris is no longer a “red” coronavirus danger zone, the risks posed by the virus moving down a notch to “orange”, according to France’s prime minister, Edouard Philippe. The rating means Paris is not as free as the majority French regions designated “green”.
- Health officials in Moscow updated their figures on coronavirus deaths to add those who “died with” the virus. On top of 636 deaths in April directly caused by Covid-19 reported earlier, the health department added the deaths of 756 people who tested positive for the virus but died of other causes.
- The number of Americans who have lost their jobs in the past 10 weeks soared to more than 40 million, with 2.1 million people filing for unemployment last week. The growth in the number of claims has slowed, but millions more have continued to file for unemployment each week, bringing the total number to a rate not seen since the Great Depression.
- New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he would sign an executive order allowing businesses to deny entry to customers not wearing masks. He said: “That store owner has a right to protect himself … You don’t want to wear a mask, fine. But you don’t have a right to then go into that store if that storeowner doesn’t want you to.”
- The US has now recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, as many states continued to relax mitigation measures. The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic, and almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, the UK.
- There have been more than 159,000 excess deaths in Europe since since early March, during the height of the coronavirus epidemic, the head of the World Health Organization’s regional office for the continent said. Hans Kluge said 2 million people had been confirmed to have caught the coronavirus since it was first detected on the continent four months ago. About 175,000 had died.
- The number of Covid-19 cases linked to a live export ship which docked in Western Australia doubled from six to 12. Of these seven new cases recorded in the state on Thursday, six are crew members from the Al-Kuwait ship which docked in Fremantle this week. The only other case was a returned overseas traveller who is already in hotel quarantine.
That’s it from me, Damien Gayle, for today. I’ll be back tomorrow.
• This entry was amended on 29 May 2020. An earlier version said that up to six people will be able to meet outside in the UK from Monday, however, that applies only to England.
Updated
The European Commission has put down a marker for the world with its green recovery package, writes Damian Carrington, the Guardian’s environment editor.
It sets a high standard for other nations, using the rebuilding of economies ravaged by coronavirus to tackle the even greater threat of the climate emergency, in principle at least.
With the world fast approaching the point when climate chaos becomes inevitable, how the trillions of recovery euros are spent is a use-it-or-lose-it moment, so what the EU does really matters. Climate change is a global crisis, meaning all nations must act and some must lead the way.
Under Donald Trump, the US is slashing green protections while the biggest polluter, China, is sending mixed messages by backing coal power stations as part of its recovery. The UK, host of the next critical UN summit, has been all but silent.
The EU’s plan seeks to pour money into emissions-busting sectors: €91bn (£81bn) a year for home energy efficiency and green heating, €25bn of renewable energy, and €20bn for clean cars over two years, plus 2m charging points in five years. Up to €60bn will go to zero-emissions trains and the production of 1m tonnes of clean hydrogen is planned.
Updated
France announced further easing of lockdown restrictions on Thursday, with life slowly returning to normal for much of the country, writes Kim Willsher, the Guardian’s Paris correspondent. However, certain restrictions will remain in the Paris area and the overseas territories Mayotte and Guyane for at least the next three weeks.
In a 90-minute press conference, the prime minister, Édouard Philippe, said the Covid-19 figures in the country were better than expected, but urged the French to continue respecting the rules and remain careful and vigilant.
Most of the country was declared “green” where the virus is not widely circulating, but the Paris region is “orange”.
Among the main points announced by Philippe:
- An end to the maximum 100km for journeys as of 2 June.
- Cafes, bars and restaurants in most of the country designated green, will reopen on 2 June. No more than 10 people at a table and 1m distance between tables. Kitchen and restaurant staff must wear masks. Establishments in orange areas will only be able to reopen terraces.
- Secondary schools and lycées in green areas to reopen all classes, but retaining health measures including a maximum 15 pupils per class. In orange areas most classes will remain closed until September.
- France’s external borders will remain closed until 15 June when it is hoped they can reopen to EU nationals in coordination with other EU27 states. The general opening of borders to non-EU nationals will be decided in coordination with EU27. France will impose a reciprocal quarantine on nationals arriving in France that impose quarantine on French citizens.
- Parks and gardens as well as lakes and beches to open across France from 2 June. Camping sites, holiday villages, gites and other auberges can open in green areas from 2 June and in orange areas from 22 June.
- In green areas, theatres, gyms, sports halls, swimming pools, leisure parks. No more than 5,000 people at events. In orange ares, the above an only open on 22 June.
You can read an in-depth, blow-by-blow account of Philippe’s briefing, on Kim’s Twitter account. The first tweet is below.
French PM Édouard Philippe has arrived for the press conference on Phase 2 of the easing of the lockdown. (I will be trying to translate and type as he speaks, so please forgive lapses in translation and grammar!).
— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) May 28, 2020
Updated
The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has said he would sign an executive order allowing businesses to deny entry to customers who are not wearing masks, the Guardian US coronavirus blog reports.
“That store owner has a right to protect himself,” Cuomo said of the order. “That store owner has a right to protect the other patrons in that store.”
The Democratic governor has repeatedly said mask usage can limit the spread of the coronavirus, noting that rates of infection among frontline healthcare workers are lower than that of the general population in the region.
“You don’t want to wear a mask, fine,” Cuomo said. “But you don’t have a right to then go into that store if that storeowner doesn’t want you to.”
Today I am signing an Executive Order authorizing businesses to deny entry to those who do not wear masks or face-coverings. No mask - No entry.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) May 28, 2020
If you are interested in more US-focused coronavirus news, head over to our US blog.
Updated
The leaders of the World Health Organisation’s Africa region have described their continued concern at the accelerating spread of Covid-19 on the continent, writes Jason Burke, the Guardian’s Africa correspondent.
Speaking at WHO Africa’s weekly briefing, broadcast earlier on Thursday, the regional director, Matshidiso Moeti, said:
It took 36 days to reach 1000 cases, but only 62 cases to reach 100,000. Compared to two weeks ago, reported cases have tripled in five countries and doubled in 10 countries.
Overall levels of Covid-19 in Africa compare favourably with other parts of the world, but there are still fears that the true extent of the pandemic on the continent is unknown due to a lack of testing. There are now 125,000 cases and 3,700 deaths.
Some observers have raised the possibility that the slow spread of the disease in Africa is due to the relative youth of populations. Moeti said data suggested that, as elsewhere, age and pre-existing conditions appeared important in determining the severity of each case, but countries everywhere on the continent faced significant difficulties accessing test materials and personal protective equipment for health workers.
A traditional remedy endorsed and distributed by the government of Madagascar will be tested thoroughly, she said. The WHO has previously said there is no scientific evidence that the herbal treatment is in any way effective.
Governments in Africa moved quickly to impose lockdowns and restrictions which helped slow the spread of the virus, but caused very significant problems to hundreds of millions of people living in poverty.
These are now being progressively removed, with South Africa, which imposed one of the strictest lockdowns, moving to level three on a scale of five this Monday. There has been controversy in the country - sub-Saharan Africa’s most-developed - over a decision to allow religious services to go ahead if worshippers are restricted to less than 50 and strict social distancing precautions are observed. A ban on alcohol sale and transport will also be lifted.
Zweli Mkhize, South Africa’s health minister, told reporters that no lockdown could last for ever and that it was time to provide some social and economic relief. It was hoped that religious leaders could educate congregations about the virus and how to keep safe, Mkhize said, adding that it had become clear that the country would be dealing with the pandemic for one to two years so “there has to be a degree of easing”.
The emerging hotspot for the disease in South Africa - and in Africa overall - has been the Western Cape province, which includes Cape Town, the international tourist destination.
GSK, the British pharmaceutical company, said on Thursday that its previous flu pandemic vaccine was not linked to a rise in cases of the sleep disorder narcolepsy.
The claim comes as the company said it planned to produce large volumes of an ingredient used in that vaccine for possible use in Covid-19 vaccines currently being developed.
According to Reuters, a spokesman for GSK said the “science has moved on” since concerns were raised about links between narcolepsy and its H1N1 vaccine, called Pandemrix, which was developed during the flu pandemic 10 years ago. He said evidence now suggests the link is to the H1N1 flu virus itself, not the vaccine.
Previous studies in several countries, including Britain, Finland, Sweden and Ireland, had suggested Pandemrix was linked to a significant rise in cases of narcolepsy in children.
Pandemrix’s ingredients included a booster, or adjuvant, known as AS03, that could potentially be an ingredient in at least seven experimental COVID-19 vaccines, including one being developed by Sanofi, with whom GSK signed a collaboration deal in April.
Wendy Barclay, a professor and chair in flu virology at Imperial College London, said that since the link between narcolepsy and the 2009/10 flu pandemic is thought to have been due to cross-reactivity between parts of the H1N1 virus and human proteins that control sleep patterns, the Pandemrix vaccine’s adjuvant may have played a role.
“If the virus/host cross-reactivity is the mechanism or explanation, then using an adjuvant in the vaccine to boost the immune response may have increased the chances that this cross-reactivity was generated,” she told Reuters. “We still don’t really know if this was the case or not.”
Israel has launched a campaign to test 100,000 people for coronavirus antibodies, in preparation for a potential “second wave” of cases, a top official said on Thursday, according to AFP.
The initiative is one of the world’s largest such schemes and aims to test Israel’s “collective immunity” against the COVID-19 disease by determining how widely the virus has spread and who is most at risk going forward.
In parallel to the national campaign, authorities are also running separate surveys of “high-risk areas”. Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has been particularly hard-hit by the pandemic, while other focus groups include hospital staff treating coronavirus patients.
Israel has gradually relaxed its anti-coronavirus measures in recent weeks, reopening schools, beaches and restaurants. The country has registered 281 deaths from COVID-19 and more than 16,800 cases in a population of around nine million, according to official figures.
Yair Schindel, a senior official on the task force tackling the pandemic, said the government has bought around 2.5 million tests for the antibodies scheme. They are being distributed to the country’s four health insurance companies, before the samples are brought together for analysis.
Moscow adds patients who 'died with' coronavirus to Covid-19 toll
Health officials in Moscow updated their figures on coronavirus deaths on Thursday, seeking to dispel doubts about Russia’s comparatively low Covid-19 death toll, the Associated Press reports.
On top of 636 deaths in April directly caused by Covid-19 reported earlier, the Moscow health department added the deaths of 756 people who tested positive for the virus but died of other causes.
Un 360 of those cases, it noted, the coronavirus acted as a catalyst, exacerbating the patients conditions and contributing to their deaths. The health department also factored in 169 deaths of people who tested negative but autopsies showed had likely succumbed to the virus.
The department previously only counted deaths directly resulting from the virus, leaving an increase in deaths compared to April 2019 as an unexplained excess.
That aroused suspicions in Russian and Western health experts, who alleged that the authorities in Moscow and other Russian regions may have under-reported coronavirus deaths for political reasons.
Deaths from coronavirus in Italy rose by 70 on Thursday, down from 117 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 33,142, writes Angela Giuffrida, the Guardian’s Rome correspondent
New infections increased by 593, slightly up compared to Wednesday, with 382 cases in the Lombardy region.
There are 47,986 people who are currently suffering from the virus in Italy, down by 2,980 within the last 24 hours.
Italy has 231,732 confirmed cases to date, including the deaths and 150, 604 survivors.
Female leaders from around the world came together on Thursday to call for women and girls to be at the forefront of the Covid-19 response and in efforts to rebuild health systems and economies in the wake of the pandemic, writes Liz Ford, the deputy editor of the Guardian’s global development desk.
“We’re coming together because none of us are prepared to standby and see this pandemic erode the significant progress that has been made on the health and rights of women, and children and adolescents,” said Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand. Clark was co-convener of the virtual roundtable meeting, which was attended by female presidents, ministers and leaders of international agencies and NGOs from around the world. She said:
We see Covid-19 now for the deadly and disabling disease that it is. And we’re also seeing the many impacts that the global crisis the pandemic has created and how the are magnifying inequalities around our world.
So often in addressing past pandemics, the rights of women, children and adolescents haven’t exactly been top of mind, so the services they need haven’t been properly resourced, their voices haven’t been heard, and often we don’t see women at all prominent in decision-making about pandemic responses in many countries.
We are now seeing the economic impact and social impact of this crisis unfold in the increasing poverty and increasing hunger.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights were “suffering especially” in these circumstances, Clark said, adding that children will suffer “life-long impacts” if they miss out on their immunisations and if they grow up in impoverished families.
All of us as stakeholders, whether we’re government, civil society, philanthropy, whoever we are, we have got to work together and commit to engaging women and children and adolescents in decisions about the pandemic response, as the decisions being made are going to profoundly impact on their lives.
The former president of Chile and now UN commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, told the meeting: “We can’t go back to the day before covid ... we have the opportunity to put in place a new way of operating, putting women at the forefront.” She added:
We have to strengthen our health systems, prioritise services required by women. The participation of women must be part of the solution. In member states and civil society responses to the crisis, and in recovery, [we] must make sure women’s voices are included in the response, otherwise it won’t be adequate.
Sobering projections from the UN population fund (UNFPA) last month predicted an additional 15 million cases of domestic violence this year as a result of lockdowns and restrictions from the pandemic. The agency also calculated tens of millions of women will not be able to access contraceptives, leading to an increase number of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions and maternal deaths.
“Sexual and reproductive health and rights, that is essential care, and it is more essential now than it has ever been before,” said Katja Iversen, president of advocacy group Women Deliver.
“We need a gender lens across all response and recovery efforts,” she said. “With a gender lens, we can lay down the tracks for a more gender equal world tomorrow.”
The high-level meeting was organised by the Every Woman Every Child movement, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Women Deliver to call attention to the disproportionate affect the pandemic is, and is expected to have, on the health and wellbeing of women and children.
Updated
Health authorities in the UK have reported 377 more deaths from Covid-19, bringing the total death toll in Europe’s worst affected country to 37,837 - still the second highest of any country in the world.
So far, the country has recorded 269,127 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with the latest update reporting that another 1,887 had tested positive.
As of 9am 28 May, there have been 3,918,079 tests, with 119,587 tests on 27 May.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) May 28, 2020
269,127 people have tested positive.
As of 5pm on 27 May, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 37,837 have sadly died. pic.twitter.com/zj0HjOtMDG
Norway is to open its borders to business travellers from its Nordic neighbours next month, in a further easing of its coronavirus restrictions.
The new rules mean business travellers arriving from Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden will no longer be subject to a mandatory 10-day quarantine currently enforced for almost all arrivals from abroad, according to Reuters.
There had been discussion over whether the relaxation should differentiate between countries because of Sweden’s significantly higher rate of coronavirus infections, but in the end the government decided against such a move.
“This is about bringing back everyday work, slowly and controlled. Not every meeting, negotiation and deal can be done digitally,” the industry minister, Iselin Nyboe, told a news conference
Paris Covid-19 risk lowered to 'orange'
Paris is no longer deemed to be a “red” coronavirus danger zone, the risks posed by the virus moving down a notch to “orange”, France’s prime minister, Edouard Philippe, said on Thursday, Reuters reports.
The orange rating means Paris is not as free of the virus as the majority of regions in France designated “green”, however, earlier lockdown measures will be eased in Paris, with parks in the capital due to re-open next week.
Health results have been good so far in France, the prime minister, Edouard Philippe, said on Thursday, as the country prepares to enter a second phase in its relaxation of lockdown rules on June 2.
“Results are good from a health point of view, even if we remain cautious”, Philippe told a news conference.
Updated
The road to recovery after a spell in intensive care can be long and arduous.
David McWilliams is a consultant physiotherapist helping ICU patients recover from Covid-19 – from when they first open their eyes since arriving to their first steps. His team support patients at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth hospital, which has one of the largest critical care units in Europe and recently was treating more than 200 Covid-19 patients at one time.
Watch our video report.
As schools prepare to reopen, many wonder how small children are expected to maintain “social distancing”, writes Steven Poole, for the Guardian’s books section. Some French teachers have been isolating their charges within little plague squares chalked on the playground. But maybe the choice of the phrase “social distancing” in the first place has been counterproductive.
If “social distancing” sounds to you more like snubbing or ghosting a friend, you are right. It was a 1957 collection of work by sociologist Karl Mannheim that first described it as a way to enforce power hierarchies. “The inhibition of free expression can also serve as a means of social distancing,” he wrote. “Thus, the higher ranks can constrain themselves to preserve a certain kind of deportment or dignity.” In doing so, they distance themselves socially from the plebs.
It was only in the mid-2000s that “social distancing” was adopted for pandemic measures, but it is potentially alienating: after all, we are not actually advised to distance our social selves, only our bodies. So perhaps we should all adopt the clearer alternative preferred by, among others, the Irish government: “physical distancing”. Physical distancing might lead in some sad cases to social distancing, too, but it’s not the same thing.
US Covid-19 crisis job losses pass 40m
The number of Americans who have lost their jobs in the past 10 weeks soared to more than 40 million as the number of unemployment claims continued to rise with 2.1 million people filing for unemployment last week, writes Lauren Aratani for the Guardian US.
The staggering job losses mark a grim milestone in the economic crisis that has gripped the US since the coronavirus triggered widespread shutdowns and stay-at-home orders in an effort to halt the spread of the deadly pandemic.
The latest figures from the Department of Labor show that the rate of new unemployment claims has continued to fall over the last few weeks, down from its peak in early April, when 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment in a single week.
Earlier this month, the department reported that more than 20 million Americans lost their jobs in April, bringing the unemployment rate to 14.7%, up from 4.4% in March.
While the growth of unemployment claims has slowed, millions more have continued to file for unemployment each week, bringing the total number of unemployed to a disastrous rate not seen since the Great Depression.
The US government is funding a website in Armenia which is spreading disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, including warnings that Armenians ought to “refuse” future vaccine programmes, write Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and David Roth in Moscow.
The website, Medmedia.am, was launched with the help of a US State Department grant meant to promote democracy, but instead has been used to promote false information about Covid-19, according to an investigation by the British news website openDemocracy.
Among Medmedia’s most popular articles are pieces that have called Covid-19 a “fake pandemic” and falsely reported that a morgue offered to pay hundreds of dollars to a dead patient’s family if they claimed the death had been caused by the coronavirus.
The grant was awarded by the State Department to a group called the Armenian Association of Young Doctors, which launched the website last year and is led by a controversial doctor called Gevorg Grigoryan.
He has been known for his strong criticism of the government’s health ministry and its vaccine programmes, and has a history of anti-LGBT statements, including remarks posted on Facebook in 2014 in which he called for gay people to be burned.
Sweden has reported 46 more deaths from Covid-19, bringing its total death toll from the coronavirus outbreak to 4,266, according to its public health authority.
The Scandinavian country, one of the few in Europe not to have imposed mandatory restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, has now recorded 35,727 cases of coronavirus, with 639 new cases reported on Thursday.
Swedish authorities’ decision not to impose the kinds of lockdowns seen elsewhere has been a source of endless controversy, as well as intense interest from observers keen to see whether such restrictive measures have actually made a difference in those countries where they have been implemented, many of which have nonetheless seen high death tolls.
Deaths in Sweden from the outbreak continue to fall from a peak reached on 21 April, however the number of infections reported daily have fallen more slowly.
As elsewhere in the world, the brunt of the outbreak has been carried by older people. On Thursday, the Swedish register of palliative care said that Stockholm had seen a near tripling of deaths in elderly care homes in April, compared to the same period last year.
Nearly 800 deaths were reported to SRPC from the Stockholm region alone last month, Swedish Television reported on Thursday, according to Xinhua. By comparison, in April 2019, 270 deaths were reported to SRPC.
President Trump has broken his silence on the grim milestone of more than 100,000 American deaths, commenting on Twitter.
We have just reached a very sad milestone with the coronavirus pandemic deaths reaching 100,000. To all of the families & friends of those who have passed, I want to extend my heartfelt sympathy & love for everything that these great people stood for & represent. God be with you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2020
Hi. Caroline Davies here just taking over the live blog for a while. You can get in touch via caroline.davies@theguardian.com
Three Zimbabwe opposition leaders who accused police of abducting and sexually assaulting them have been charged with breaching lockdown rules by staging an illegal demonstration.
Joanna Mamombe, Netsai Marova and Cecilia Chimbiri say they were abducted by police at a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party protest in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare on 13 May.
The women, who are prominent members of the MDC’s youth wing, were found dumped on the side of a road two days later and taken to hospital, where they are still recovering from multiple injuries. Nelson Chamisa, the MDC leader, said they had been severely beaten and sexually assaulted.
On Thursday, at bedside hearings, all three were charged with participating in a gathering with intent to promote public violence, breach of peace, and bigotry.
Zimbabwean news site NewsDay reports prosecutors alleged that the trio defied lockdown regulations by staging a demonstration that drew more than 50 people.
It was alleged that protesters carried placards saying “unlock us before we revolt,” which prosecutors described as “a visible representation that was threatening, intending to provoke the breach of peace or realising that there was a risk or possibility that a breach of peace may occur.”
Patrick Chinamasa, a spokesman for the ruling party, the Zanu PF, said it was up to Mamombe, Marova and Chimbiri to prove they were abducted.
“We find it abhorrent that to date neither the three lady complainants nor their family members or their friends have made a formal report to the police suggesting that they don’t want the truth to come out,” NewsDay quoted him as saying.
Coronavirus cases in Zimbabwe more than doubled to 132 over two days, the state broadcaster reported Wednesday, after 76 new infections were detected mainly among citizens returning from neighbouring South Africa and Botswana.
Almost 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America and the Caribbean this year, as a result of the socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Food Programme has said.
According to estimates published by the agency on Thursday, in 11 countries in the region where there are already nearly 4 million people facing food insecurity, an additional 10 million people could be pushed into poverty and hunger.
The worst affected country is likely to be Haiti, where the number of people facing severe food insecurity could rise from 700,000 to 1.6 million, WFP said. Also at particular risk are Venezuelan migrants living in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Miguel Barreto, WFP regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said:
It is vital and urgent that we provide food assistance to the growing number of vulnerable people in the region, as well as those who depend on informal work. We still have time to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from becoming a hunger pandemic.
Summary
Here are the key lines from our global coronavirus coverage so far on Thursday:
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South Korea has tightened restrictions in the metropolitan area of Seoul after a spike in infections. Restrictions had been lifted across the country on 6 May after the outbreak appeared to be brought under control. However, officials have recorded the biggest spike in infections in nearly two months, prompting the closure of museums, parks and art galleries in the Seoul area for two weeks from Friday. Half of South Korea’s 51 million people live in the metropolitan area where restrictions are being tightened.
- • US deaths pass 100,000. Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the United States has recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, moving past a sombre milestone even as many states relax mitigation measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic, and almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, Britain.
- • Trump silent on US death toll. Donald Trump remained silent on the death of more than 100,000 Americans from Covid-19 as the US mourned the milestone. The president made no comment on Twitter about the momentous day, but used the platform to attack tech companies for trying to censor him, a day after Twitter put a fact-check warning on one of his claims.
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• The number of people infected by the coronavirus has exceeded 5.7 million, according to data compiled by the John Hopkins University. The US is home to to 29.8% of the 5,707,163 people with the disease around the world, the data shows, way ahead of Brazil (7.2%), Russia (6.6%), the UK (4.7%), Spain (4.1%) and Italy (4%). The true number of infections is likely to be much higher, however, given the vast number of unrecorded and asymptomatic cases.
- • UN: Virus could push 14 million into hunger in Latin America. The UN World Food Program is warning that at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on. New projections released late on Wednesday estimate a startling four-fold increase in severe food insecurity.
- • European investment slashed. Over a third of European foreign direct investment projects announced in 2019 have been either delayed or cancelled outright because of the coronavirus pandemic, an annual survey by professional services group EY found. Some 65% of the 6,412 projects in question are already in place or continuing “albeit with downgraded capacity and recruitment”, EY said. A further 25% were delayed and 10 percent cancelled, its Europe Attractiveness survey found.
- • Ireland faces record recession: think tank. Ireland is facing its deepest ever recession as the coronavirus lockdown devastates jobs and strains the public finances, a think tank said Thursday. A report by Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute predicts the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) will decline 12.4% this year. That was the “most likely” scenario under a government plan to lift the lockdown in August but with the economy struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels owing to physical distancing measures, ESRI said.
- • Tory anger at Dominic Cummings builds. 61 Conservative MPs defied British PM Boris Johnson’s calls to “move on” from the Dominic Cummings crisis as a senior minister broke ranks to accuse the special adviser of inconsistencies in his account of his behaviour during lockdown. Former chancellor Sajid Javid also said the journey was not “necessary or justified” as the number of backbenchers calling for Cummings to resign or be sacked grew to 44, with more than 60 Tory MPs weighing in to criticise him. Two of those condemning Cummings are government whips.
- • Hydroxychloroquine study raises concerns. Questions have been raised about a study published in the Lancet that prompted the World Health Organization to halt global trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine. The Lancet said the authors were “investigating urgently” an apparent discrepancy in the data. It comes amid scientists’ concerns that rigorous standards are falling by the wayside in the race to understand the virus.
159,000 excess deaths in Europe since early March
There have been more than 159,000 excess deaths in Europe since since early March, during the height of the coronavirus epidemic, the head of the World Health Organization’s regional office for the continent has said.
In his weekly briefing coronavirus briefing, Hans Kluge, director of WHO Europe, said that 2 million people had been confirmed to have caught the coronavirus since it was first detected on the continent four months ago. About 175,000 had died of Covid-19.
“Perhaps a less reported, but equally alarming figure is that since early March, more than 159,000 excess deaths, coinciding with the pandemic, have been reported from 24 European countries,” Kluge said. “These are deaths above and beyond what we would have expected normally at this time of the year.”
Kluge said that across Europe, 94% of all Covid-19 deaths were of people aged 60 or over, and nearly six in ten were men. Nearly all - 97% - of those who died had at least one underlying condition, with cardiovascular disease being the most common, he said.
Despite the WHO saying that the worst affected region is now the Americas, Europe still accounts for 36% of the world’s confirmed cases of coronavirus, and half of all deaths.
With national economies badly affected by coronavirus lockdowns, Kluge called on governments to avoid cutting healthcare spending in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Manhunts have begun after hundreds of people, some with the coronavirus, fled quarantine centres in Zimbabwe and Malawi, the Associated Press reports.
In Malawi, more than 400 people recently repatriated from South Africa and elsewhere fled a centre at a stadium in Blantyre, jumping over a fence or strolling out the gate while police and health workers watched.
Police and health workers told reporters they were unable to stop them as they lacked adequate protective gear.
At least 46 escapees had tested positive for the virus. Some of those who fled told reporters they had bribed police.
And in Zimbabwe, police spokesman Paul Nyathi said officers were hunting down more than 100 people who escaped from centres where a 21-day quarantine is mandatory for those returning from abroad.
“They escape and sneak into the villages We are warning people to stop sheltering them. These escapees are becoming a serious danger to communities,” Nyathi said.
Afghanistan is in immediate need of masks and ventilators, health authorities said, as the number of confirmed infections passed 13,000 despite no tests being carried out in Kandahar for two weeks, Akhtar Mohammad Makoii reports from Herat.
The Afghan health ministry announced on Thursday that it has run out of facilities and equipment for Covid-19 patients. Wahid Majroh, deputy health minister said that the ministry had received nothing in the past 30 days.
“We need ventilators and NIV masks immediately, in some provinces we have run out of hospital beds for patients” Majroh said. “In the last 10 days, as people continue to break the lockdown regulations, the number of transmission has been rising and we are yet to reach the peak of the crisis”.
“In some cases patients wait in doorsteps of ICU for the death of another patient in ICU to go and fill the bed” Majroh said. He warned that tests are not possible for everyone and asked people with symptoms to quarantine themselves at home, and only go to medical centres if their condition worsened.
In Kandahar no suspected patient has been tested in nearly a fortnight, due to a problem in the testing process. The problem risks generating a huge backlog, since health officials send samples of suspected patients in nearby provinces such as Helmand to Kandahar. Majroh said he has instructed health services in Kandahar and nearby provinces to send samples to Kabul until the problem is solved.
“We have serious problem in Kandahar, the PCR machine is off and there is no flight toward Kandahar so our engineers can go and fix that,” Majroh said. “There will be a UN flight to Kandahar in coming days and our team will go with that.”
On Thursday the heath ministry reported that it had tested 1,072 suspected patients of whom 580 were positive, taking the total number of confirmed infections to 13,036. Eight patients also died overnight, raising Afghanistan’s Covid-19 death toll to 235. There have been 1,209 recoveries. According to the health ministry 19 patients are in critical condition.
Majroh said 40% of confirmed cases were recorded in last 10 days and added that previously he was “warning that the flood [of coronavirus] will come, but now the flood has arrived and many people are sinking”. The health sector had its worst days during three days of Eid, he said.
Most of the new cases wee recorded in the capital, Kabul, where 322 out of 662 tests came back positive. Kabul is the country’s worst affected area by cases, with 5,093 infected patients so far, of whom 29 have died.
The western province of Herat recorded two deaths of Covid-19 and 139 new infections. Herat borders Iran and recorded the first case of the virus reported in the country after thousands of Afghan migrants poured back from Iran in February and March. The total number of infections in Herat is 2,105, with its 44 deaths making it region with the highest death toll.
Meanwhile, members of local police forces were killed in a Taliban attack in Parwan province, north of Kabul, as a ceasefire among Afghan forces and Taliban fighters ended on Wednesday.
A technical delegation of the Taliban is in Kabul “to work with a technical team of the government” on the release of prisoners of both sides, the Office of National Security Council said.
The president, Ashraf Ghani, announced Sunday that the government will release up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners as a “goodwill gesture” in response to the Taliban’s calling for a three-day ceasefire, the president also pledged to take further steps in the peace process.
Taliban confirmed the delegation on Thursday and said the team will work on “verification and identification of prisoners”.
Updated
VIDEO: South Africa's strict lockdown provides a number of challenges for its large immigrant community, who have been left with no source of income for weeks pic.twitter.com/7rbHJRT026
— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 28, 2020
Millions of women worldwide are facing shortages of sanitary products, price hikes, and worsened stigma while managing periods during the coronavirus pandemic, a charity warned on Thursday, according to Reuters.
About three-quarters of health professionals in 30 countries surveyed by Plan International, from Kenya to Australia, reported supply shortages, while 58% complained of rising and prohibitive prices of sanitary products.
Around half the respondents cited reduced access to clean water to help manage periods, and a quarter worried about greater stigma or discriminative cultural practices linked to menstruation for women who were trapped at home by lockdowns.
“Periods don’t stop during a pandemic, but managing them safely and with dignity has become a whole lot harder,” Susanne Legena, chief executive officer of Plan International Australia, said in a statement to mark Menstrual Hygiene Day.
“In many countries, period products have become scarce and vulnerable girls and young women, in particular, are going without,” she said, urging governments to include menstrual hygiene in virus response plans and invest in water and sanitation services.
A British pilot who was critically ill with Covid-19 in Vietnam has awoken from a coma and is showing signs of improvement, yet his long-term outlook remains ominous, doctors have said, writes Chris Humphrey in Hanoi.
The man, 43, who works for Vietnam Airlines, had awoken from a coma and was capable of basic communication after doctors reduced his levels of sedative medication, Vietnamese state media announced on Wednesday.
The patient, referred to in Vietnam as Patient 91, developed a fever and cough on 17 March and was later admitted to Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Since then, he has spent more than two months on life support.
Tran Thanh Linh, the deputy head of Ho Chi Minh City-based Cho Ray hospital’s intensive care unit, told local media the man was able to perform simple gestures such as moving fingers and toes, yet breathing issues, organ damage and limb weaknesses remain.
The pilot is on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine (ECMO), a form of life support used when a person’s heart or lungs are unable to fully function, and is being treated with antibiotics, according to a report posted on the government’s official news portal early in May.
Linh added that, by the end of this week, an official decision would be announced on whether or not doctors would gradually wean him off ECMO, or even stop the treatment altogether. His lungs are currently functioning at about 20-30%, an increase from 10% a few weeks ago.
Finland has seen no evidence of the coronavirus spreading faster since schools started to reopen in the middle of May, the top health official said on Thursday, Reuters reports.
“The time has been short, but so far we have seen no evidence,” Mika Salminen, director of health security at the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare, told a news conference.
Finland started to reopen schools and daycare centres from 14 May following an almost two-month shutdown.
On Thursday, the country’s health authority reported that 51 more people had tested positive for coronavirus. The country has so far recorded 313 deaths from its outbreak.
Sixty-three more people have died from coronavirus in Iran in the past 24 hours, the country’s health ministry reports, bringing the country’s total death toll from the disease to 7,627.
In his daily update, Kianoush Jahanpour, the health ministry spokesman, said that 2,258 more people had tested positive for the virus, taking the country’s total cumulative caseload to 143,849 since the outbreak began in the country, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Of those, 112,988 have survived and recovered, while 2,543 patients were in a critical condition in hospital.
The latest figures came as Iran reopened a number of border points with neighbouring countries that had been closed since before the start of spring in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Seventeen out of 31 border checkpoints had now reopened.
The World Health Organization’s regional office for Africa is conducting its weekly coronavirus briefing. You can watch the live broadcast in the player on this tweet.
COVID-19 in Africa: watch a joint media briefing with @WHOAFRO and WEF @MoetiTshidi @JaneRuth_Aceng @DrZweliMkhize @drmichelyao1 https://t.co/qVs4QgbYCq
— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) May 28, 2020
VIDEO: Doctors protest in Buenos Aires to demand more personal protective equipment and fair wages as coronavirus cases spike in Argentina's capital. They say the government is not doing enough to keep them safe pic.twitter.com/7WdxKZo026
— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 28, 2020
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 353 to 179,717, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday, according to Reuters.
The reported death toll rose by 62 to 8,411, the tally showed.
Germany reached its peak in new cases at the end of March, according to data collected by the Worldometers website, recording 6,993 new cases on 27 March. Peak death toll was reached in early April.
In one of the rare expressions of empathy that Donald Trump has displayed during the course of the coronavirus pandemic, he talked earlier this month about the disease claiming so many lives it was “filling up Yankee Stadium with death”, writes Ed Pilkington, chief reporter for the Guardian US.
Now the death toll from Covid-19 stands at almost twice the capacity of the Yankees’ home stadium, and has reached another booming landmark: 100,000 deaths.
A country that prides itself on its exceptionalism can now without ambiguity claim that title for its experience of the virus. The United States stands head and shoulders at the top of the world league table of confirmed cases, as well as the total number of deaths.
There will be much to analyse in coming years about how the US responded to this contagion, including how many lives have been lost needlessly as a result of Trump’s maverick response.
Already one lesson of the pandemic is clear: America’s deep and brutal fault lines – of race, partisanship, gender, poverty and misinformation – rendered the country ill-prepared to meet the challenges of this disease. The ravages of Covid-19 have revealed the deep cracks in the glittering facade of the richest and most powerful nation on Earth.
The 52 countries of Africa have reported a total of more than 123,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, the World Health Organization’s regional office for the continent reported on Thursday.
So far more than 50,000 people infected with the virus have recovered, and about 3,600 have died, the UN health agency said.
Over 123,000 confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent - with more than 50,000 recoveries & 3,600 deaths. View country figures & more with the WHO African Region COVID-19 Dashboard: https://t.co/V0fkK8dYTg pic.twitter.com/Bcjcya67En
— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) May 28, 2020
Hi this is Damien Gayle now taking over the live blog, bringing you the latest news from around the world on the coronavirus outbreak. If you have any comments, tips or suggestions for coverage then drop me a line, either via email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.
My colleague Damian Gayle points to interesting data from Italy’s national health authority on the characteristics of those who died with Covid-19 in the country.
An analysis of more than 3,000 fatalities found the average age of those who died was about 80, and that 96% had previous medical conditions. Nearly 60% had three or more illnesses.
This underlines what we already know: those most vulnerable to Covid-19 are the elderly and those with certain co-morbidities.
Interesting breakdown of the characteristics of people who died from/with Covid-19 in Italy.https://t.co/R3OFOflVLd
— Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) May 28, 2020
The news recently has been unrelentingly grim, I think we’d all agree. So let’s enjoy this postcard from Denmark, where schools, cafes, restaurants, shops and hairdressers (remember those?) have reopened as the country returns to a semblance of normality.
You can read the full lovely piece here, but here’s an extract:
Under the shade of umbrellas, pensioners eat cake at a cafe, children slosh cups of juice, and students clink beer bottles, smoking, laughing and talking loudly enough to be heard above the buzz of people who are now … everywhere.
On 18 May, the doors of cafes, restaurants and shops were flung wide in Denmark and the high streets are bustling again. Even hairdressers have reopened (what did we learn during lockdown? How many Danes are natural blondes).
There are no face masks in sight, few gloved hands, and little sign of any seismic global interruption. The only visible difference between the throng pre-lockdown and now is that pedestrians walk in “lanes”, depending on their direction of traffic, and mobile hand sanitiser stations are parked at intervals along the high streets. Sanitiser pumps grace every shop doorway and smaller retailers display signs instructing customers how many are allowed in at any given time. But Danes are happy to comply for the most part – if there are already four people buying ice-cream, they’ll just come back later.
Updated
Indonesia has reported 687 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, down from a peak of 973 a week ago.
It also confirmed 23 new deaths from the virus, taking total fatalities to 1,496 and infections to 24,538, according to health ministry official Achmad Yurianto.
In Malaysia, authorities reported 10 new coronavirus cases in the past day and no new deaths. Its number of fatalities remains at 115, with cases at 7,629.
Global infections exceed 5.7m
The number of people infected by the coronavirus has exceeded 5.7 million, according to data compiled by the John Hopkins University.
The US is home to to 29.8% of the 5,707,163 people with the disease around the world, the data shows, way ahead of Brazil (7.2%), Russia (6.6%), the UK (4.7%), Spain (4.1%) and Italy (4%).
The true number of infections is likely to be much higher, however, given the vast number of unrecorded and asymptomatic cases.
Amazon accused over infections in German warehouses
Online retailer Amazon has been accused by German unions of enjoying record profits during the Covid-19 pandemic at the cost of exposing its workers to the virus, as details of outbreaks at two of the US company’s logistics centres have emerged.
Last Tuesday, a parliamentary query from the Green party revealed that at least 53 out of 1,800 employees at an Amazon centre in Winsen, Lower Saxony, were infected with the virus between 16 March and 29 April.
A spokesperson for the city of Pforzheim, in Baden-Württemberg, said there had also been at least seven infections that could be traced to an Amazon warehouse in the city.
German services union ver.di accuses the retail giant of having been slow to adapt working conditions to social distancing guidelines.
Amazon told German media that it had adjusted its hygiene protocols and there had been no further confirmed infections at the Winsen centre in May: “Nothing is more important to us than the health and wellbeing of our workers”, said a spokesperson.
In mid-March, Switzerland launched the biggest mobilisation of its military since World War Two to help combat the growing threat of the coronavirus. More than 8,000 members of the military were brought into active service, protecting borders and carrying out logistical exercises.
Today, they were officially stood down. The AFP news agency has video of the moment below.
VIDEO: The Swiss anthem is played at the beginning of the ceremony marking the end of the emergency mobilisation for Swiss soldiers due to Covid-19 pandemic pic.twitter.com/y2wudyXSj4
— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 28, 2020
According to the John Hopkins University tracker, its number of daily recorded cases has plummeted from a peak of 1,300 on 23 March to 15 earlier this week. In total, Switzerland (pop: 8.6 million) has suffered 1,917 deaths and recorded 30,776 infections.
Updated
The UK government wants primary schools in England to reopen in just four days time for some pupils. It looks like most schools will stick to this date but thousands have said it is too soon to reopen, amid concerns about social distancing especially in areas where infection rates are higher than in London.
In Finland, schools and daycare centres started to reopen on 14 May for the first time in nearly two months. Today, Finnish officials gave some reassuring news, saying there was no evidence of Covid-19 spreading faster since schools started to reopen.
“The time has been short, but so far we have seen no evidence,” Mika Salminen, director of health security at the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare, told a news conference.
The Philippines’ health ministry has reported 17 more coronavirus deaths and 539 new infections, the biggest number of cases reported in a single day since the virus was first detected in the country.
In a bulletin, the ministry said total infections have risen to 15,588 and deaths have reached 921. The number of recovered patients was 3,598.
As we reported earlier, the country’s hardline president, Rodrigo Duterte, is due to make a statement later today after being urged to ease one of the toughest and longest lockdowns in the world for resident in the capital Manila.
South Korea tightens restrictions after spike in cases
Officials in South Korea have re-implemented lockdown measures in the metropolitan area of Seoul, home to half the country’s 52 million population, following the biggest spike in infections in nearly two months.
Museums, parks and art galleries will all be closed again from Friday for two weeks, said health minister Park Neung-hoo, while companies have been urged to reintroduce flexible working among other measures.
“We have decided to strengthen all quarantine measures in the metropolitan area for two weeks from tomorrow to June 14,” he said, reports the AFP news agency.
Residents of Seoul have also been advised to avoid social gatherings or going to crowded places, including restaurants and bars, while religious facilities have been asked to be extra vigilant with quarantine measures. There were no new delays, however, to the phased re-opening of schools that is currently underway.
“The next two weeks are crucial to prevent the spread of the infection in the metropolitan area,” Park said, adding: “We will have to return to social distancing if we fail.”
Restrictions had been lifted across the country on 6 May after the outbreak appeared to be brought under control. We have more on the latest cluster of cases here.
Updated
Staying on China for a moment, Reuters has footage of a pro-democracy lawmaker being forcibly removed from the legislature during a debate over the national security law that has just been passed.
Two pro-democracy lawmakers were removed from Hong Kong's Legislative Council where lawmakers were debating a bill that would make disrespect of China's national anthem a criminal offense https://t.co/v6qCFEWOko pic.twitter.com/iGcp4de8MO
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 28, 2020
China’s legislature has approved a decision to force a controversial national security law on Hong Kong, in an extraordinary and unprecedented move aimed at bringing the semi-autonomous territory further under Beijing’s control.
On Thursday, China’s National People’s Congress voted and passed a draft decision that paves the way for anti-sedition laws to be directly enacted in Hong Kong, bypassing the semi-autonomous territory’s legislature. The Legislative Council (LegCo) has been unable to pass similar legislation on its own because of widespread public opposition.
Now, a detailed law will be drafted and could be enacted in a matter of weeks, according to Chinese state media.
The move by China has prompted widespread condemnation and anxiety inside and outside Hong Kong about Beijing’s plans for the semi-autonomous territory. Riot police were deployed across Hong Kong to stop any potential protests.
Read the full story here.
Deaths in Russia pass 4,000
Russia has reported 174 new coronavirus deaths, matching its record daily rise for fatalities and taking the overall death toll to 4,142.
The country’s coronavirus crisis response centre said the overall number of infections had risen by 8,371 to 379,051.
Comparing death rates between countries is notoriously difficult. For one, not all countries report the same data in their death statistics. Secondly, each country is at a different stage in its own epidemic, making comparisons tricky.
But the Financial Times reports that it has compiled data from national statistics agencies in 19 countries where “sufficient information exists to make robust comparisons”. The figures include all of the European countries hit hard by coronavirus, and the US. The periods for comparison are from when death rates in individual countries climbed above five-year averages.
Its conclusions are stark: the UK has suffered the highest rate of deaths from Covid-19 among these countries 19 countries, including the US, Italy, Spain and Belgium. It also found that the UK has had the highest global excess death rate per million, and only Peru has had a higher increase in deaths.
Chris Giles, the FT’s economics editor, said the data shows the UK suffered excess deaths across all nations and regions, whereas other countries such as Italy and France had “definitive hotspots” but other areas with lower than normal death rates. He adds:
As many experts say, the UK was late to lockdown and that cost many lives
— Chris Giles (@ChrisGiles_) May 28, 2020
10/ pic.twitter.com/nr8hv8nquk
Updated
Easyjet has announced plans to cut up to 4,500 jobs – 30% of its total global workforce – as the travel industry continues to be battered by Covid-19.
The low-cost airline said it will start flying on 15 June but doesn’t expect demand to return to 19 levels until 2023.
Johan Lundgren, its chief executive, said:
“We realise that these are very difficult times and we are having to consider very difficult decisions which will impact our people, but we want to protect as many jobs as we can for the long term.
“We remain focused on doing what is right for the company and its long-term health and success, following the swift action we have taken over the last three months to meet the challenges of the virus. Against this backdrop, we are planning to reduce the size of our fleet and to optimise the network and our bases.”
In April EasyJet secured a £600m loan from the UK Treasury and Bank of England’s emergency coronavirus fund after its founder and biggest shareholder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, claimed it would run out of cash by the year end regardless.
Rodrigo Duterte, the hardline president of the Philippines, has been urged to ease one of the toughest and longest lockdowns in the world for resident in the capital Manila.
The country’s coronavirus task force has advised Duterte to gradually lift the nearly 11-week lockdown in Manila when he addresses the nation later on Thursday. The metropolitan area’s 12.9 million residents have endured restrictions longer than the 76-day quarantine imposed in Wuhan, China, when the outbreak first emerged.
The recommendation came even as daily infections this week were the highest since 6 April, the news agency Reuters reported. Confirmed cases in the past six days comprise nearly 11% of the total 15,049 recorded, of which 904 led to deaths.
“This is really a compromise. The need to reopen the economy and the need to contain the spread of Covid-19,” said presidential spokesman Harry Roque.
Update: an earlier version of this post suggested the lockdown only applied to the city of Manila, in fact it applied to the larger metropolitan area.
Updated
The news that South Korea has seen a spike in new cases will be met with international concern. Government scientists in the UK and beyond are closely watching events in South Korea, a country widely praised for its rapid and expansive efforts to crack down on the disease when the first clusters emerged in February.
Scarred by its encounter with Middle East respiratory syndrome in 2015, South Korea implemented a comprehensive test, trace and contain policy that brought the number of daily cases down from a peak of 909 on 29 February to the dozens by late March and single figures a few weeks later. The country of 51 million people started lifting its lockdown earlier this month.
It’s worth looking closer at the latest outbreak. Health officials have said at least 69 of the new cases this week have been linked to a cluster of infections at a distribution centre operated by the e-commerce firm Coupang, where workers have been fulfilling the ever-rising demand for online shopping.
The new outbreak appears also to be connected to an earlier cluster of infections that emerged in several Seoul nightclubs and bars earlier this month, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
As a result, health officials said they would be conducting on-site inspections of logistics centres across the country – a huge operation – while Coupong said it had closed the facility in Bucheon on Monday and closed a separate warehouse in a Seoul suburb after an employee tested there.
The new spike in cases will be seen as a warning to scientists across the world – but South Korea’s apparently swift response will also be seen as instructive.
Hello from Manchester, England. It’s Josh Halliday here to guide you through the next few hours.
As ever, we’ll bring you the latest developments from around the world on the coronavirus pandemic as some countries, particularly in Europe and the Middle East, begin to cautiously ease out of lockdown while others, in Africa and the Americas, brace for the worst that may yet be to come.
Do get in touch to share news tips or insight from where you are. You can contact me on:
Twitter: @JoshHalliday
Email: josh.halliday@theguardian.com
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. I’ll be back on Sunday. In the meantime, I’ll be learning how to walk optimally:
Summary
- Known global cases near 5.7m. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, at least 5,693,066 people are known to have contracted the virus since the pandemic began, while at least 355,653 people are known to have died. The true death toll and number of cases are likely to be significantly higher due to differing definitions and testing rates, delays and suspected underreporting.
- US deaths pass 100,000. Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the United States has recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, moving past a sombre milestone even as many states relax mitigation measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic, and almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, Britain.
- Trump silent on US death toll. Donald Trump remained silent on the death of more than 100,000 Americans from Covid-19 as the US mourned the milestone. The president made no comment on Twitter about the momentous day, but used the platform to attack tech companies for trying to censor him, a day after Twitter put a fact-check warning on one of his claims.
- WHO launches foundation to put finances in better health. The World Health Organization on Wednesday launched a new foundation for private donations, as US President Donald Trump threatens to pull the plug over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, AFP reports.
- South Korea could face return to coronavirus restrictions. South Korea has reported its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases in 53 days, triggering warnings it may have to revert to stricter social distancing measures after appearing to have brought the outbreak under control.The Korean Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 79 new infections on Thursday with 67 of them from the Seoul metropolitan area, home to about half of the country’s population of 51 million.
- UN: Virus could push 14 million into hunger in Latin America. The UN World Food Program is warning that at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on. New projections released late on Wednesday estimate a startling four-fold increase in severe food insecurity.
- European investment slashed. Over a third of European foreign direct investment projects announced in 2019 have been either delayed or cancelled outright because of the coronavirus pandemic, an annual survey by professional services group EY found. Some 65% of the 6,412 projects in question are already in place or continuing “albeit with downgraded capacity and recruitment”, EY said. A further 25% were delayed and 10 percent cancelled, its Europe Attractiveness survey found.
- Ireland faces record recession: think tank. Ireland is facing its deepest ever recession as the coronavirus lockdown devastates jobs and strains the public finances, a think tank said Thursday. A report by Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute predicts the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) will decline 12.4% this year. That was the “most likely” scenario under a government plan to lift the lockdown in August but with the economy struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels owing to physical distancing measures, ESRI said.
- Tory anger at Dominic Cummings builds. 61 Conservative MPs defied British PM Boris Johnson’s calls to “move on” from the Dominic Cummings crisis as a senior minister broke ranks to accuse the special adviser of inconsistencies in his account of his behaviour during lockdown. Former chancellor Sajid Javid also said the journey was not “necessary or justified” as the number of backbenchers calling for Cummings to resign or be sacked grew to 44, with more than 60 Tory MPs weighing in to criticise him. Two of those condemning Cummings are government whips.
- Hydroxychloroquine study raises concerns. Questions have been raised about a study published in the Lancet that prompted the World Health Organization to halt global trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine. The Lancet said the authors were “investigating urgently” an apparent discrepancy in the data. It comes amid scientists’ concerns that rigorous standards are falling by the wayside in the race to understand the virus.
Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
‘Things have to change’: tourism businesses look to a greener future
No planes in the sky, empty hotels and deserted attractions: with the world at a standstill, the tourism industry has been one of the industries worst-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. International arrivals this year could be down by 80% compared with 2019, according to the World Tourism Organization, and more than 100 million jobs are under threat.
But as destinations slowly start to emerge from lockdown and borders tentatively reopen, many in the sector are wondering if this is a chance for tourism to rebuild in a greener, more sustainable way.
WHO launches foundation to put finances in better health
The World Health Organization on Wednesday launched a new foundation for private donations, as US President Donald Trump threatens to pull the plug over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, AFP reports.
The UN health agency launched the independently-run WHO Foundation, which the organisation hopes will give it greater control to direct philanthropic and public donations towards pressing problems such as the coronavirus crisis.
Trump, accusing the WHO of mismanaging the pandemic, has frozen US funding and could pull out of the organisation next month if he does not see what he believes to be satisfactory changes. Trump claims the WHO is too close to Beijing and covered up the initial outbreak in China.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted the new grant-making funding stream was not related to Trump’s threat to freeze its contributions.
“It has nothing to do with the recent funding issues,” he said, detailing that greater financial flexibility had been among his long-term reform plans since taking over the organisation in July 2017.
The vast majority of the WHO’s budget is in voluntary contributions which go straight from countries and other donors to their chosen destination. The WHO therefore only has control over the spending of countries’ “assessed contributions” membership fees, which are calculated on their wealth and population.
The new foundation will facilitate contributions from the general public, individual major donors and corporate partners to the WHO. Its goal is to help the organisation achieve more sustainable and predictable funding.
Given the ongoing coronavirus crisis, the WHO Foundation will focus initially on emergencies and pandemic response.
UK front pages, Thursday 28 May
The fallout from Dominic Cummings trip to Durham continues to be splashed across the front pages, including the news that senior ministers are breaking ranks over the beleaguered advisor’s trip.
The Guardian says “Tories defy PM to pile pressure on Cummings”, including 61 MPs who are refusing to heed Boris Johnson’s calls to “move on”. It says two of those condemning Cummings are government whips, in addition to Penny Mordaunt, now the paymaster general, who said there were “inconsistencies” in Cummings’ account of the trip.
The Guardian also gives prominence to Emily Maitlis, who was replaced as the BBC’s Newsnight presenter on Wednesday after a statement from the broadcaster said she broke impartiality rules on Tuesday’s programme, when she said Cummings broke the rules and: “the country can see that and is shocked the government cannot”. The programme’s editor, Esme Wren, wrote on Twitter that Maitlis “hasn’t been replaced tonight in response to the BBC statement”.
Guardian front page, Thursday 28 May 2020: Tories defy PM to pile pressure on Cummings pic.twitter.com/8Vb8jpRAnf
— The Guardian (@guardian) May 27, 2020
Thursday’s FINANCIAL TIMES: “Johnson brushes aside Cummings inquiry demands despite backlash” #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/ow184Tm2f0
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) May 27, 2020
Tomorrow’s Telegraph front page: “Public told they have ‘duty’ to test and trace”#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/qEudlm5hJi
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 27, 2020
Tomorrow's #frontpage - Why don't YOU do YOUR duty...#tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/k2B5f1jjjD
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) May 27, 2020
Thursday’s TIMES: “Do your duty and we can defeat virus, Britain told” #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/C89wxA7TOn
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) May 27, 2020
A full roundup of the papers at the link below:
Trump silent on US death toll
Donald Trump remained silent on the death of more than 100,000 Americans from Covid-19 as the US mourned the milestone. The president made no comment on Twitter about the momentous day, but used the platform to attack tech companies for trying to censor him, a day after Twitter put a fact-check warning on one of his claims.
As US deaths from Covid-19 topped 100,000 and infections neared 1.7 million, White House officials on Wednesday said Trump would sign an executive order that could threaten punishment on social media companies on Thursday, sparking a fall in the share prices of both Twitter and Facebook.
“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning. “We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.”
Eric Trump, the president’s son, also attracted criticism for ignoring the coronavirus fatalities, instead tweeting about the day’s stock market’s surge.
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said it has recorded 208 Covid-19-related attacks against health workers and installations in 13 countries since March, a striking contrast to the cheers and clapping in gratitude for their work in many nations, AP reports.
Peter Maurer said health workers are being attacked and abused and health systems are being targeted at a time when they are most needed.
The Covid-19 crisis is fast threatening to become a protection crisis,” he told the UN Security Council. Maurer told reporters the ICRC compiled data from 13 countries in the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Africa where it operates, and its likely the actual numbers are much higher than what we calculated.
He said the incidents range from verbal threats to burning down facilities reportedly housing Covid-19 patients.
Maurer said 23% of incidents included physical assaults, 20% were discriminatory-related attacks on health workers, and the rest included the deliberate failure to provide or deny assistance, verbal assaults and threats, and a disregard for health personnel protective measures.
Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan[at]theguardian.com
Summary
Here are the latest developments from the last few hours:
-
Known global cases near 5.7m, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. According to their tally of official figures at least 5,693,066 people are known to have contracted the virus since the pandemic began, while at least 355,653 people are known to have died.
-
US deaths pass 100,000. Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the United States has recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, moving past a sombre milestone even as many states relax mitigation measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic, and almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, Britain, which has recorded more than 37,000 Covid-19 deaths. The latest count of fatalities is 100,442. Earlier this month, president Donald Trump said 100,000 deaths would be “horrible”, but he claimed that actions by his administration had prevented a much higher toll.
- Military virus aid could look different if 2nd wave hits, says US defence secretary. US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said that as the US military prepares for another potential wave of the coronavirus, it may do things a bit differently, providing more targeted aid for cities and states and possibly shorter quarantine times for troops, AP reports.
- South Korea faces return to coronavirus restrictions after spike in new cases. South Korea has reported its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases in 53 days, triggering warnings it may have to revert to stricter social distancing measures after appearing to have brought the outbreak under control.The Korean Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 79 new infections on Thursday with 67 of them from the Seoul metropolitan area, home to about half of the country’s population of 51 million.
- UN: Virus could push 14 million into hunger in Latin America. The UN World Food Program is warning that upward of at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, shuttering people in their homes, drying up work and crippling the economy, AP reports.
- Coronavirus knocks a third of European Foreign Direct Investment – survey. Over a third of European foreign direct investment projects announced in 2019 have been either delayed or cancelled outright because of the coronavirus pandemic, an annual survey by professional services group EY found. Some 65% of the 6,412 projects in question are already in place or continuing “albeit with downgraded capacity and recruitment”, EY said. A further 25% were delayed and 10 percent cancelled, its Europe Attractiveness survey found.
- Ireland faces record recession: think tank. Ireland is facing its deepest ever recession as the coronavirus lockdown devastates jobs and strains the public finances, a think tank said Thursday. A report by Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute predicts the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) will decline 12.4% this year. That was the “most likely” scenario under a government plan to lift the lockdown in August but with the economy struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels owing to physical distancing measures, ESRI said.
- Britain temporarily closes its embassy in North Korea. Britain has temporarily closed its embassy in North Korea and all its diplomatic staff have left the country, the UK ambassador said on Thursday, the latest foreign delegation to leave amid strict coronavirus restrictions.
- 61 Conservative MPs continued to defy British PM Boris Johnson’s calls to “move on” from the Dominic Cummings crisis as a senior minister broke ranks to accuse the special adviser of inconsistencies in his account of his behaviour during lockdown.The intervention of Penny Mordaunt deepened the turmoil within government following revelations by the Guardian and Daily Mirror that Cummings had travelled 260 miles to his family estate in Durham with his wife suffering coronavirus symptoms.The former chancellor Sajid Javid also said the journey was not “necessary or justified” as the number of backbenchers calling for Cummings to resign or be sacked grew to 44, with more than 60 Tory MPs weighing in to criticise him.Two of those condemning Cummings are government whips.
Updated
As the coronavirus spreads into indigenous lands in Brazil, killing at least 40 people so far by the government’s count, the first two Covid-19 deaths were registered this week in the Xingu area, one of the biggest reserves in the world, the AP reports.
The two fatalities were in the Kayapo indigenous group, which has reported a total of 22 virus cases. The community’s leader, Megaron, told The Associated Press he wants President Jair Bolsonaro and other officials to stop loggers, miners and fishermen from illegally entering the territory, incursions he believes have sped up the spread of the virus.
Bolsonaro has encouraged development in the Amazon, regardless of indigenous lands, although the state-run indigenous agency, FUNAI, issued an order in mid-March barring access to those lands because of the virus. Still, reports in Brazilian media have said missionaries, health care agents, loggers and miners carried the virus into those areas.
“It is not us that are leaving and taking (the virus). There are people seizing this disease to invade indigenous land,” Megaron said.
Megaron, who is a nephew of acclaimed environmentalist Raoni Metuktire, said his community now lives in fear because of the coronavirus.
“It is the government’s obligation to take care of our land, our community, give us help, care, even more now because this disease is killing a lot of people. Our request is to be isolated in our village until the government or the health ministry say there is no more Covid-19,” he said.
South Korea faces return to coronavirus restrictions after spike in new cases
South Korea has reported its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases in 53 days, triggering warnings it may have to revert to stricter social distancing measures after appearing to have brought the outbreak under control.
The Korean Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 79 new infections on Thursday with 67 of them from the Seoul metropolitan area, home to about half of the country’s population of 51 million.
Officials said health authorities were finding it increasingly difficult to track the transmission routes for new infections and urged people to remain vigilant amid fears of a second wave of Covid-19 infections.
The health minister, Park Neung-hoo, pleaded with residents in and around the capital to avoid unnecessary gatherings and urged companies to allow sick employees to take time off work.
“Infection routes are being diversified in workplaces, crammed schools and karaoke rooms in the metropolitan area,” Park said.
The recent spike in infections has underlined the risks that come with relaxing social distancing rules, as countries seek to breathe life into their struggling economies.
In Australia, empty offices and restaurants in the city of Sydney are driving hungry rats into homes and suburbs, and the loosening of restrictions could create “a new rat plague”, according to a leading rat-catcher.
As city centres have closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, suburban rat infestations have spiked, according to Geoff Milton, a Sydney rat-catcher with 35 years’ experience.
Prof Peter Banks, a rodent expert from the University of Sydney, said rats had begun eating each other.
Banks said that cannibalism would have happened “within days” of our restrictions being enacted, as city-dwelling rats ran out of food.
A study of New Zealanders working from home during coronavirus lockdown has found many were just as productive as when they were in the office, and a majority were reluctant to return to traditional workplaces.
New Zealand went into lockdown for seven weeks from 25 March, and has become a global success story in containing the coronavirus, with fewer than 1,500 people infected and 21 deaths.
During lockdown, many workers experimented with working from home for the first time, and a University of Otago study of more than 2,500 people found the arrangement suited many.
According to the study 73% of people were “equally or more productive” when working from home, and 89% wanted to continue post-lockdown, at least part-time.
Despite 38% of respondents never having worked from home before, 66% of people found it “easy or somewhat easy” to adapt, with 82% saying they felt they had the right resources to do their job, although only 17% had all of those resources provided by their employer.
UN: Virus could push 14 million into hunger in Latin America
The UN World Food Program is warning that upward of at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, shuttering people in their homes, drying up work and crippling the economy, AP reports.
New projections released late Wednesday estimate a startling increase: Whereas 3.4 million experienced severe food insecurity in 2019, that number could more than quadruple this year in one of the worlds most vulnerable regions.
“We are entering a very complicated stage,” said Miguel Barreto, the WFPs regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “It is what we are calling a hunger pandemic.”
Signs of mounting hunger are already being felt around the region, where desperate citizens are violating quarantines to go out in search of money and food and hanging red and white flags from their homes in a cry for aid. Many of the hungry are informal workers who make up a sizeable portion of Latin Americas workforce, while others are newly poor who have lost jobs amidst a historic economic downturn.
In Europe’s red-light capital Amsterdam, sex work is due to officially resume in September. Prostitution in the Netherlands is legal and regulated, which allows for more support and structure during the coronavirus lockdown, AFP reports.
But many sex workers in Britain and beyond are now moving online to make ends meet. Britain counted about 72,000 sex workers - 32,000 of them in London - in 2016, according to a government report.
Prostitution is legal in Britain but various related activities such as solicitation are not, so thousands are operating in the shadows and lack access to government support and protections.
Although some may have found a way to make money online, many have been left “doing what they can” during the lockdown, according to Laura Watson, a spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes.
“If you’ve got three children at home running around, it’s very hard to do online work,” she said.
Support groups such as the UK Sex Worker Advocacy and Resistance Movement (SWARM) have set up hardship funds to help “sex workers in urgent need”.
“It shouldn’t be up to us and up to sex workers themselves to organise their own way out of this,” said Watson, who urged the government to do more.
Ireland faces record recession: think tank
Ireland is facing its deepest ever recession as the coronavirus lockdown devastates jobs and strains the public finances, a think tank said Thursday.
A report by Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute predicts the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) will decline 12.4% this year. That was the “most likely” scenario under a government plan to lift the lockdown in August but with the economy struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels owing to physical distancing measures, ESRI said.
A more modest scenario predicting a vigorous recovery after lockdown would still see GDP shrink 8.6%, whilst a second wave of coronavirus infections could cause output plunge 17.1%.
Ireland’s unemployment rate soared to 28% in April, almost double the figure following the 2008 global financial crisis that led to a huge international bailout of the eurozone member state. According to ESRI’s most-likely scenario, unemployment is set to remain above 17% in 2020.
Ireland has suffered 1,615 deaths from the coronavirus, according to official figures.
Questions raised over hydroxychloroquine study which caused WHO to halt trials for Covid-19
Questions have been raised by Australian infectious disease researchers about a study published in the Lancet which prompted the World Health Organization to halt global trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19.
The study published on Friday found Covid-19 patients who received the malaria drug were dying at higher rates and experiencing more heart-related complications than other virus patients. The large observational study analysed data from nearly 15,000 patients with Covid-19 who received the drug alone or in combination with antibiotics, comparing this data with 81,000 controls who did not receive the drug.
The findings prompted researchers from around the world to reassess their own clinical trials of the drug for preventing and treating Covid-19. The World Health Organization halted all its trials involving hydroxychloroquine due to the concerns raised in the study about its efficacy and safety. It was once viewed as among the most promising medicines to treat the virus, though no study to date has found this to be the case, and the drug can have toxic side-effects. The Australian Department of Health had been stockpiling millions of doses of the drug in case clinical trials found it proved useful.
The study, led by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Advanced Heart Disease in Boston, examined patients in hospitals around the world, including in Australia. It said researchers gained access to data from five hospitals recording 600 Australian Covid-19 patients and 73 Australian deaths as of 21 April.
But data from Johns Hopkins University shows only 67 deaths from Covid-19 had been recorded in Australia by 21 April. The number did not rise to 73 until 23 April. The data relied upon by researchers to draw their conclusions in the Lancet is not readily available in Australian clinical databases, leading many to ask where it came from.
The Philippines’ coronavirus task force has recommended to President Rodrigo Duterte easing lockdown measures in Manila from 1 June, despite the country still reporting some of its highest daily numbers of Covid-19 cases and missing testing targets.
The restrictions, introduced in mid-March and eased slightly in mid-May to jump start the economy, are set to expire on 31 May.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will address the nation later on Thursday about his decision on the containment measures.
Podcast: The scandal of Covid-19 in care homes
Why did so many people die in care homes? That may be the most urgent question of the likely public inquiry into the UK’s Covid-19 response. Rob Booth, the Guardian’s social affairs correspondent, on the government failures that led to thousands of care home deaths.
Military virus aid could look different if 2nd wave hits, says US defence secretary
US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said that as the US military prepares for another potential wave of the coronavirus, it may do things a bit differently, providing more targeted aid for cities and states and possibly shorter quarantine times for troops, AP reports.
Speaking as he flew back from a trip to the Marine Corps recruit base at Parris Island, South Carolina, Esper said the Pentagon is looking at a variety of plans. But he said US forces may not be deployed the same way if or when the virus surges in a second large wave or even, more likely, a series of smaller bursts.
The Pentagon, Esper said, is taking a broad look at how best to respond to any future outbreaks.
Noting that a lot of the military aid rushed to communities as the pandemic struck ended up going unused or was used much less than anticipated, he said the military may send medical staff rather than entire hospital ships and Army field hospitals.
The two US Navy hospital ships that went to New York City and Los Angeles, for example, treated few patients. And Army field hospitals deployed to other cities also got less use than initially anticipated. Instead, they ended up pulling doctors and nurses out of those facilities and sending them to local hospitals, where they could bolster overworked and stressed medical staffs.
“I think thats a big lesson learned,” Esper said.
In South Africa, where the government imposed a ban on the sale of tobacco and alcohol nearly eight weeks ago as part of its strict lockdown to combat the spread of the coronavirus, a bootlegging culture has sprung up across the country. in response to the government’s nearly 8-week-old ban on the sale of tobacco and alcohol, part of its strict lockdown to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
AP has this report:
A soccer mom in one of Cape Town’s posh suburbs drops off a cardboard box of blankets to a neighbor. Inside the box are several bottles of red wine.
In Johannesburg’s Alexandra township, two men in face masks greet each other on a sunny street. One has surreptitiously sold the other a pack of cigarettes.
“They’ve banned the sale of cigarettes but we’re still able to buy them,” said street vendor Mluleki Mbhele. “We buy cigarettes in the streets in the black market. The officials know about it because they themselves continue to smoke.
Critics describe the prohibitions imposed by President Cyril Ramaphosa as puritanical, hypocritical and unrealistic. Around the world, only Panama and Sri Lanka are reported to be prohibiting the sale of liquor during the pandemic, while India and Thailand temporarily banned it.
South African government officials say the number of admissions to hospital emergency rooms from alcohol-related crimes and vehicle accidents have been reduced significantly. Supporters of the ban on cigarette sales say smoking weakens the respiratory system, which is attacked by the virus.
South Africa has the continent’s highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases with over 24,000. The virus has spread relatively slowly across Africa, whose 54 countries with a population of 1.3 billion have reported a total of over 115,000 cases.
More than 230,000 South Africans have been arrested for breaking the lockdown regulations, including the bans on alcohol and tobacco sales, said national police minister Bheki Cele.
Britain temporarily closes its embassy in North Korea
Britain has temporarily closed its embassy in North Korea and all its diplomatic staff have left the country, the UK ambassador said on Thursday, the latest foreign delegation to leave amid strict coronavirus restrictions.
“The British Embassy in Pyongyang closed temporarily on 27 May 2020 and all diplomatic staff have left the DPRK for the time being,” ambassador Colin Crooks said in a post on Twitter, using the initials of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The decision was made because “restrictions on entry to the country have made it impossible to rotate our staff and sustain the operation of the embassy,” the Foreign Office said in a statement, adding that the UK would seek to re-establish its presence in Pyongyang as soon as possible.
NK News, a Seoul-based website, said the “surprise” move was linked to coronavirus-related restrictions the regime introduced early this year.
Foreign residents and diplomats from other countries, including France and Germany, were evacuated in March after the country attempted to prevent the virus from spreading via air routes and its land borders with China and Russia. The British embassy staff reportedly entered China on Wednesday by land, as flights in and out of North Korea remain suspended.
North Korea insists that it has not discovered a single case of Covid-19, although experts have questioned those claims.
NK News said hundreds of foreigners were still living in Pyongyang, including diplomats from Sweden and Russia and a small number of aid workers. The Swedish ambassador to North Korea, Joachim Bergstrom, tweeted on Thursday that “a new working day begins” in the city.
South Korea reports highest daily case rise in 53 days
South Korea reported 79 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, the highest one-day increase in 53 days, the BBC reports.
This week, infections continued to creep up in and around Seoul, South Korea, prompting Jeong Eun-kyeong, the director of Korea Centers for Disease control and Prevention, to say social distancing measures eased in April may need to be reimposed.
On Wednesday, South Korea reported 40 new cases, its biggest daily rise in nearly 50 days, as officials scrambled to trace hundreds of infections linked to nightclubs, restaurants and a massive e-commerce warehouse near Seoul.
South Korea reports 79 new cases of coronavirus today.
— Laura Bicker (@BBCLBicker) May 28, 2020
67 cases on the edge of Seoul in connection with the Bucheon warehouse outbreak.
This is the highest number of daily new cases in 53 days.
Coronavirus knocks a third of European Foreign Direct Investment – survey
Over a third of European foreign direct investment projects announced in 2019 have been either delayed or cancelled outright because of the coronavirus pandemic, an annual survey by professional services group EY found.
Some 65% of the 6,412 projects in question are already in place or continuing “albeit with downgraded capacity and recruitment”, EY said. A further 25% were delayed and 10 percent cancelled, its Europe Attractiveness survey found.
The data on the impact of the pandemic was gathered last month from a panel of 113 corporate decision-makers and a series of webinars with European investment agencies, Reuters reports.
The survey also showed France for the first time overtaking Britain as Europe’s most popular investment destination, attracting 1,197 new projects in 2019 for a 17% rise on the year before. FDI in Britain climbed 5% in the same period.
“Growth of FDI projects in France come as local and global businesses and investors welcome reforms around labour legislation and corporate taxation,” EY EMEIA Area Managing Partner Julie Teigland, said of President Emmanuel Macron’s reform agenda.
Colombia will begin easing restrictions put in place to control the spread of the coronavirus starting from June, President Ivan Duque said Wednesday, though he asked the public to continue isolating at home and keep using measures to contain the disease.
Colombia has reported more than 24,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, as well as 803 deaths. The country began a nationwide quarantine in late March.
“The pandemic hasn’t gone away,” Duque said in his televised nightly address. “This is going to be a very important month for all of us.”
Sectors like retail and non-Covid-related medical care can begin normalising gradually once the lockdown ends, but large events, bars and nightclubs will continue to be closed. Restaurants will be open for takeaway orders only, Duque said.
“We are not reviving social life,” Duque said. “We have to continue protecting health and lives and going forward we have to adapt to a disease that will be around for a long time.”
Even as restrictions begin to ease, public transport in cities must not exceed 35% of their capacity and land borders will continue to be closed. International flights, domestic flights and inter-city buses will continue to be suspended.
As part of the relaxed rules, children aged 2 to 5 years old will be allowed out three times a week for 30 minutes from the first of June, while those aged 6 to 17 will be permitted outside three times a week for up to an hour.
Adults under 70 years old will be allowed out three times a week for up to two hours at a time. People aged 70 and over are considered a high-risk population and should remain at home, though they may go out for 30 minutes three times a week.
Since allegations first emerged that Dominic Cummings had flouted lockdown measures while ill with coronavirus symptoms, the prime minister and members of the cabinet have been floundering to defend the adviser from accusations that he broke government guidance he helped devise.
Cummings has admitted to, but not apologised for, travelling to his family’s home in Durham on two occasions between 27 March and 13 April, as well as making a separate trip to Barnard Castle, which he said was to test his eyesight:
In Australia, Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp has announced the end of more than 100 Australian print newspapers in a huge shift to digital.
News Corp Australia has confirmed that more than 100 local and regional newspapers will become digital only or disappear entirely, and there will be a significant number of job losses.
The executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, thanked the departing employees for their “professionalism, dedication and contribution”.
The media union says staff found out through leaks to the press and have not been told personally yet. Numbers have not been confirmed but estimates are as high as several hundred.
Three Sydney newspapers in affluent areas – the Wentworth Courier, the Mosman Daily and the North Shore Times – will resume print editions as they have healthy real estate advertising revenue.
News Corp suspended 60 papers in April when the coronavirus hit the economy but it always seemed unlikely they would ever return to print.
Updated
China reported two new confirmed coronavirus cases in the mainland on 27 May, up from one a day earlier, the country’s health authority said on Thursday.
Both of the cases were imported from abroad, the National Health Commission said in its daily bulletin.
China also confirmed 23 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases on 27 May, compared to 28 the day before.
Joe Biden released a video Wednesday evening marking the US death toll passing 100,000, saying, “To all of you hurting so badly, Im so sorry for your loss” and This nation grieves with you.
In the video, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee directly addresses those who have lost relatives and friends. Evoking the personal tragedies he’s faced in his own life, Biden said, “I think I know what you’re feeling.”
“You feel like you’re being sucked into a black hole in the middle of your chest, said Biden, who lost his first wife and young daughter in a 1972 car crash and an adult son to cancer in 2015. “It’s suffocating.”
There are moments in our history so grim, so heart-rending, that they're forever fixed in each of our hearts as shared grief. Today is one of those moments. 100,000 lives have now been lost to this virus.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 27, 2020
To those hurting, I'm so sorry for your loss. The nation grieves with you. pic.twitter.com/SBBRKV4mPZ
Biden was attempting to display compassion in contrast to President Donald Trump, who critics say has shown little empathy and made only passing acknowledgement of the pandemic’s death toll instead focusing on issues like an escalating battle with Twitter for fact-checking a post of his, AP reports.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live global coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
As always, please do get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan[at]theguardian.com. Comments, tips, news from your part of the world are all much appreciated.
As the US death toll passed the sombre milestone of 100,000 – accounting for more than one in four deaths worldwide and far higher than the UK’s toll, which is the next highest at 37,542 – Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said that Trump had mismanaged the crisis. “So much of this could have been prevented if we had a president who listened to someone other than himself,” Biden said in a statement.
My colleague Tom McCarthy notes that, “The first confirmed coronavirus case in the United States emerged on 20 January, in Washington state, the same day that a first case was confirmed in South Korea. The United States has increased its testing capacity but has yet to stand up a national plan for the contact tracing of positive cases, a step South Korea took immediately. That country has since recorded 269 deaths from coronavirus.”
Here are the key developments from around the world from the last few hours:
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Known global cases near 5.7m, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. According to their tally of official figures at least 5,682,389 people are known to have contracted the virus since the pandemic began, while at least 354,944 people are known to have died.
- US deaths pass 100,000. Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the United States has recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, moving past a sombre milestone even as many states relax mitigation measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic, and almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, Britain, which has recorded more than 37,000 Covid-19 deaths. The latest count of fatalities is 100,047. Earlier this month, president Donald Trump said 100,000 deaths would be “horrible”, but he claimed that actions by his administration had prevented a much higher toll.
- Conservative MPs continued to defy British PM Boris Johnson’s calls to “move on” from the Dominic Cummings crisis as a senior minister broke ranks to accuse the special adviser of inconsistencies in his account of his behaviour during lockdown.The intervention of Penny Mordaunt deepened the turmoil within government following revelations by the Guardian and Daily Mirror that Cummings had travelled 260 miles to his family estate in Durham with his wife suffering coronavirus symptoms. The former chancellor Sajid Javid also said the journey was not “necessary or justified” as the number of backbenchers calling for Cummings to resign or be sacked grew to 44, with more than 60 Tory MPs weighing in to criticise him.Two of those condemning Cummings are government whips.
- Argentina ‘cordons off slums’ after surge in cases. Security forces in Buenos Aires cordoned off one of the city’s largest and poorest slums, stopping inhabitants from entering or leaving Villa Azul, on the outskirts of the Argentinian capital, after a surge of Covid-19 cases.Police officers erected barriers on Monday after widespread testing was launched in Villa Azul. By Wednesday 174 of 301 tests come back positive, and officials feared the 4,000 or so inhabitants of the neighbourhood could spread the virus to other areas.
- A medical study in France suggests even mild cases of Covid-19 produce antibodies in almost all patients. The research raises hopes that everyone who has had the disease could acquire some degree of immunity, although it is not clear for how long or to what degree.
- The European commission proposed a €750bn coronavirus recovery fund, as part of a €1.85tn budget to help member states whose economies have suffered as a result of the pandemic. The principal beneficiaries will reportedly be Italy and Spain, the hardest-hit EU member states.
- Greece is preparing to send riot police to its border with Turkey. Greece’s citizens protection minister, Michalis Chrisochoidis, visited the region ahead of the redeployment of some 400 officers, in anticipation of a resumption of people trying to cross. Turkey is home to nearly 4 million Syrian refugees.
- Restrictions on movement in Moscow are to be eased from 1 Juneafter the rate of new infections began to slow in the city, its mayor said. Sergei Sobyanin also announced plans to reopen non-food stores and services such as laundries, dry cleaners, and repair shops.
- Qatar’s contact tracing app put the sensitive personal details of more than 1 million people at risk, according to an investigation by Amnesty International. The app, which is mandatory for Qatari residents to install, was configured in a way that would have allowed hackers “to access … the name, national ID, health status and location data” of users, Amnesty said.
- Kenya recorded its highest one day rise in cases on Wednesday, hitting a triple-digit figure for new infections for the first time since the outbreak began. The health minister, Mutahi Kagwe, says it is “sombre news”.
Updated
