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Dan Collyns reports for the Guardian:
More than half of the medics fighting a Covid-19 outbreak in the Peruvian jungle city of Iquitos have been infected with the virus, according to the sub-director of the regional health office, Graciela Meza.
Out of 350 doctors working in the city’s two main hospitals, 189 had been infected with the deadly virus, she said.
Eleven doctors have died from the coronavirus in recent weeks in Iquitos, two-thirds of the nationwide total of 16 medics killed by the virus, according to Peru’s main doctors’ union.
“Just yesterday, we had three doctors die,” Meza told The Guardian by phone from the city situated in the huge Amazon region of Loreto. She said a further 36 were in hospital in Iquitos, eight of whom were in intensive care while 30 had been rushed to the capital Lima on government flights.
“The government is delaying in sending aid,” said Meza, who last week told The Guardian of severe shortage of medicine, supplies and most of all oxygen in the city, the largest in the world which cannot be reached by road.
The two main hospitals in the city recorded a total of a 1,000 dead and more than 5,000 Covid-19 infections, Meza said, far exceeding the official toll of 82 dead and 1,933 cases in the region, since the pandemic began.
The situation in Iquitos shows the dangers faced by medics and nurses in Peru who have routinely complained of being unprotected against Covid-19 with prolonged exposure to patients with the virus and a lack of personal protective equipment.
Jaime Moro, a doctor working in Iquitos, told local media: “Doctors, nurses, technicians and porters are working without masks which are a basic sanitary security requirement.”
Peru has extended its lockdown of nearly two months as its official number of coronavirus cases soared to above 72,000 with more than 2,057 deaths on Tuesday.
In New Zealand, a rule limiting funerals to a maximum of ten people -- while cinemas will be able to host up to 100 under new, looser restrictions for the country -- has drawn criticism from the parliamentary opposition as “inhumane.”
“It’s not fair that you can have 30 people on a rugby field playing close contact sport but you can’t have more than ten people at a funeral so they can grieve together,” said Simon Bridges, the leader of the National party.
He added that some people had held off holding funerals during the month-long lockdown from which New Zealand is emerging, under the impression that they would be able to host more people. Bridges is calling for the cap to be lifted to 100.
On Thursday, New Zealand will move from so-called “level 3” rules – where socialising outside the home has been barred – into looser, level 2 restrictions. Bars will re-open next week and restaurants tomorrow – and while individual groups at those venues can only number a maximum of 10 people, the venue as a whole can hold more.
But funerals, tangi – Māori funeral services – and weddings can still only have 10 attendees, as was the case under level 3.
“We know this is causing pain,” Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, said of the gathering rules. But she added that numbers needed to be limited at events where people would “mix and mingle” or want to physically comfort one another.
Brides said National had launched a petition against the rule.
California State University system to cancel in-person classes in fall
The California State University system — the largest in the US — plans to cancel almost all classes in the fall, chancellor Timothy White announced.
Most classes will be taught online, with a few exceptions. “Our university when open without restrictions and fully in person… is a place where over 500,000 people come together in close and vibrant proximity,” White said at a meeting of Cal State’s Board of Trustees. “That approach sadly just isn’t in the cards now.”
“Our university, when open without restrictions and fully in person, as is the traditional norm of the past, is a place where over 500,000 people come together in close and vibrant proximity with each other on a daily basis,” White added. “That approach, sadly, just isn’t in the cards now as I have described.”
Although many universities have gone out of their way to say that they will hold in-person classes in the fall, CSU’s cautious approach comes as public health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, warn against reopening too soon.
Summary
Here are the main developments from the last few hours:
- Confirmed deaths worldwide pass 290,000. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, at least 4,247,709 people around the world are known to have contracted the virus, while at least 290,838 have died since the pandemic began. The numbers, which are based on official and media reports, are likely to be significant underestimates due to suspected underreporting and differing recording and testing regimes.
- Pence avoiding Trump after aide’s positive test. The US vice-president, Mike Pence, is keeping his distance from Donald Trump after the former’s press secretary tested positive, the White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany has confirmed.
- French schools reopen. Thousands of schools have reopened throughout France as the government eased its lockdown rules, despite fears of a second waves of infections, Agence France-Presse reports.
- Covid-19 R number falls below 1 in Germany. The reproduction rate for the coronavirus pandemic in Germany fell below the critical threshold of 1 with an estimated value of 0.94 on Tuesday after 1.07 on Monday, the Robert Koch Institute for public health and disease control said.
- UK official death toll passes 40,000. The Office for National Statistics says 35,044 deaths involving Covid-19 have been registered in England and Wales up to 9 May. Adding the latest figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland and more up to date fatalities from the four nations, the total official UK death toll now stands at 40,496.
- Spain’s new daily cases lowest in two months. The health ministry identified 594 new cases, bringing the total since the country’s epidemic began to 228,030. The number of fatalities related to the disease rises by 176 to 26,920.
- “Potentially positive data” on drugs, WHO says. The World Health Organization says some treatments appear to be limiting the severity or length of suffering caused by Covid-19 and that it is focusing on learning more about four or five of the most promising ones. “We do have some treatments that seem to be, in very early studies, limiting the severity or the length of the illness, but we do not have anything that can kill or stop the virus,” its spokeswoman Margaret Harris says.
- Kremlin spokesman in hospital. Dmitry Peskov, the Russian government’s spokesman, is admitted to hospital with Covid-19, local media report. “Yes, I got sick, I’m being treated,” Peskov is quoted as saying. He is at least the second person in Vladimir Putin’s administration to test positive.
- Lebanon orders ‘total lockdown’. People in the eastern Mediterranean country are told to stay at home for four days after an increase in infections followed an easing of restrictions. Lebanese health authorities have officially announced 870 cases of Covid-19, including 11 newly detected on Tuesday, and 26 deaths.
- UK recession ‘already happening’ The UK is effectively in the midst of a recession, its chancellor says. Rishi Sunak tells the BBC: “We already know that many people have lost their jobs and it breaks my heart. We’ve seen what’s happening with universal credit claims already. This is not something that we’re going to wait to see; it’s already happening.”
- Top US adviser testifies. Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top public health expert, warned that official figures are underestimating the death toll in the US and that “the consequences could be really serious” if the country relaxes safeguards too abruptly. Fauci delivered testimony to the Senate on Tuesday as the US president, Donald Trump, encouraged businesses to reopen.
- Virus hits South Sudanese camp. For the first time, Covid-19 has been confirmed in a crowded civilian protection camp in South Sudan’s capital, the United Nations says. It is a worrying development in a country that is one of the world’s least prepared for the virus’s spread.
Updated
Hi, Helen Sullivan joining you now for the next few hours.
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The housing market in England has been given the green light to reopen after seven weeks of lockdown, with renters and buyers allowed to move home and view properties as long as they observe physical distancing.
Under new regulations, key activities relating to moving home will be permitted, allowing estate agents to get back to work.
The rules, which come into force on Wednesday, are a substantial change as the UK housing market had been all but frozen during lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus, with nearly half a million people estimated to have been unable to progress their plans to move.
Austria aims to ease some border controls with Switzerland within days and to end all controls by June, its chancellor Sebastian Kurz has told the Swiss broadcaster SRF.
We are in a good exchange with the Swiss government. Our goal is that we can reach an agreement in coming days over a significant easing and that the border controls can be completely ended in June.
Switzerland and Austria are among European countries that enacted border controls weeks ago. They have been moving to open some closed crossings in recent weeks and also ease migration restrictions as new infections and deaths waned.
Switzerland has about 30,400 confirmed infections and 1,561 deaths, while Austria reported about 16,000 infections and 600 fatalities.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that another 1,064 people have died and 18,106 new infections have been detected, taking the totals to 80,820 and 1,342,594, respectively.
Parts of Mexico that have been spared the worst of the epidemic could reopen as soon as 17 May – a date some health experts worry is too ambitious as the country still hasn’t carried out widespread testing or enforced strict quarantine.
Jorge Alcocer told reporters that roughly 300 of Mexico’s more than 2,400 municipalities would likely to be reopened, depending on assessments from the health authorities. The rest of the country is projected to reopen at the end of month – with school returning 1 June – according to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who will unveil plans on Wednesday for “returning to a new normalcy”.
López Obrador has spoken of Mexico “being able to tame” the virus and ranking among the 10 least-impacted countries in the Covid-19 pandemic. His coronavirus czar Hugo López–Gatell says the country has flattened its Covid-19 curve and hit its peak of cases.
Mexico has recorded 36,327 confirmed cases and 3,573 deaths as of Monday, according to the Health Secretariat.
Those numbers and government claims of having the epidemic under control have come under scrutiny. Stories appearing 8 May in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and El País raised accusations of undercounting both cases and deaths.
López-Gatell suggested there had been some kind of conspiracy – the stories were published the same day – but also acknowledged that the counts are likely low – something he said is not unusual in pandemics. López Obrador accused the Times of lacking ethics.
Mexico has some of the lowest testing rates in Latin America, with just 0.4 tests per 1,000 people.
Mexico has depended on disease modelling to guide its response, rather than widespread testing, which health experts say explains its low case numbers.
Malaquías López-Cervantes, an epidemiologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the model Mexico is depending on – which takes samples from 475 stations around the country – can provide a national picture. But he cautioned:
They cannot know [which cities to open] because if a sample is not representative at the state level, would it be much less representative at the municipal level … It’s a national sample. Nothing more.
Cuba has begun mass testing as it appeared to have contained infections, amid a partial shutdown that has exacerbated a shortage of basic goods. New cases have fallen to fewer than 20 per day from a peak of around 50 in April.
French schools reopen
Thousands of schools have reopened throughout France as the government eased its lockdown rules, despite fears of a second wave of infections, Agence France-Presse reports.
According to official figures there were 348 more deaths on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 26,991.
Primary and nursery schools reopened, however, with teachers wearing face masks and the children’s chairs separated to avoid spreading the disease.
Updated
A leading US Republican senator has proposed legislation that would authorise the White House to impose far-reaching sanctions on China if it fails to give a full account of events leading to the pandemic.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Donald Trump, said he is convinced had it not been for “deception” by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, the virus would not be in the United States, where it has now killed more than 80,000 Americans.
Graham said China had refused to allow investigators to study how the outbreak started.
I’m convinced China will never cooperate with a serious investigation unless they are made to do so.
Graham said his “Covid-19 Accountability Act” would require the president to make a certification to Congress within 60 days that China had “provided a full and complete accounting to any Covid-19 investigation led by the United States, its allies or UN affiliate such as the World Health Organization”.
Trump critics, including some former officials, have said that while China has much to answer for, the US administration appears to be seeking to deflect attention from what they see as a slow response to the crisis.
McDonald’s plans to reopen all its drive-throughs in the United Kingdom and Ireland by early June, it has said.
The restaurant chain will reopen 30 outlets from 20 May and will open 15 pilot restaurants in south-east England on Wednesday, but offer services only through delivery via Uber Eats.
Spending at drive-throughs will be capped at £25 per car and restaurants will have reduced menus and hours.
Pence avoiding Trump after aide's positive test
The US vice-president, Mike Pence, is keeping his distance from Donald Trump after the former’s press secretary tested positive, the White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany has confirmed.
Pence was not at Trump’s Rose Garden news conference on Monday, nor was he at a White House meeting with US military and national security officials on Saturday after the press aide Katie Miller received her positive test last week. McEnany said:
The vice-president has made the choice to keep his distance for a few days.
Updated
US airlines carried 51% fewer passengers in March as the air travel collapsed to its lowest level in nearly two decades, the US Transportation Department has said.
Airlines carried slightly more total, domestic and international passengers in March 2020 than around the time of the September 11 terror attacks.
In total, airlines carried 38.7 million passengers in March, down on March 2019 by more than half. Prior to March 2020, air travel had risen for 29 consecutive months year-over-year dating back to October 2017.
Updated
Police officers, teachers and other state employees must be the focus of a major federal stimulus package, rather than “greedy corporations”, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, has said.
Warning against a repeat of the corporate-focused bailouts after the 2008 financial crisis, he said:
Don’t do it again. No handouts to greedy corporations, no political pork and no partisanship.
Updated
Facebook has reported a sharp increase in the number of posts it removed for promoting violence and hate speech across its apps, which it attributed to improvements made to its technology for automatically identifying text and images.
The world’s biggest social media company claimed to have removed about 4.7m posts connected to organised hate groups on its Facebook app in the first quarter of 2020 – up from 1.6m in the previous quarter.
It also said it removed 9.6m Facebook posts containing hate speech in the first quarter, compared with 5.7m in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Facebook released the data as part of its fifth Community Standards Enforcement Report, which it introduced in response to criticism of its lax approach to policing its platforms.
Updated
Two people who arrived on Greece’s outlying Lesbos island have tested positive, migration ministry sources have told the Reuters news agency, adding that the people have been isolated with no contact with local refugee camps.
The individuals arrived on Lesbos on 6 May. Since 1 March, anyone arriving on the island has been placed in quarantine at a separate facility with no contact with larger groups of asylum seekers at other facilities on the island, the sources said.
Despite years of austerity which placed strains on the nation’s healthcare system, Greece has contained the COVID-19 outbreak. By Tuesday, it had reported 2,744 cases since the outbreak and 152 deaths, a fraction of the infections seen in neighbouring countries.
On 4 May, Greece started easing the lockdowns introduced in mid-March.
Germany must help its EU neighbours revive their economies after the pandemic, its chancellor Angela Merkel has told a meeting of lawmakers from her conservative bloc.
According to several participants, she said it is in nobody’s interest for only Germany to be strong after the crisis.
Germany has been the most successful large European country in curbing the spread of the virus, partly thanks to massive testing, which has prompted a partial reopening of the economy.
Officials in Canada are growing increasingly concerned that new cases could emerge from the United States.
For nearly two months, their shared border has been closed to non-essential travel; a deal that expires next week. On Tuesday, the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau warned his country needed “stronger measures” in place to counter a predicted rise in cross-border movement as economies on both sides begin to restart.
We’re going to be very, very careful about reopening any international travel, including in the United States, before we feel that it is time. Preventing transmission from outside of Canada into Canada, once we have controlled the spread within Canada, will be an essential part of ensuring that we don’t fall back into a second wave that could be as serious as this wave we’re going through, or even more so.
Provincial leaders have also expressed worry that an influx of Americans could put hard-won victories against the virus at risk.
“I do not want those borders open,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Friday; a view he said was shared by many of his counterparts across the country. In British Columbia, the province’s health minister Adrian Dix said reopening the border would not be in the interest of the province.
It would make no sense to have visitors travelling either from Canada to the United States and returning, or to have visitors … coming from the US to Canada.
While Canada has struggled to rein in the spread of the virus, it has suffered far fewer cases than the United States and a lower proportional fatality rate. With a population of 37m, Canada has recorded nearly 5,000 deaths. Its southern neighbour has logged 1.4m cases, with 82,500 deaths.
On Tuesday, the country’s chief public health officer Theresa Tam warned extreme caution was needed before lifting border restrictions, including more information about the trajectory of viral infections in the United States.
Summary
Here’s a summary of the most recent news:
According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, at least 4,222,968 people around the world are known to have contracted the virus, while at least 287,809 have died since the pandemic began. The numbers, which are based on official and media reports, are likely to be significant underestimates due to suspected underreporting and differing recording and testing regimes.
UK official death toll passes 40,000. The Office for National Statistics says 35,044 deaths involving Covid-19 have been registered in England and Wales up to 9 May. Adding the latest figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland and more up to date fatalities from the four nations, the total official UK death toll now stands at 40,496.
The number of cases diagnosed in Spain in one day falls to its lowest level in more than two months on Tuesday. The health ministry identifies 594 new cases, bringing the total since the country’s epidemic began to 228,030. The number of fatalities related to the disease rises by 176 to 26,920.
The World Health Organization says some treatments appear to be limiting the severity or length of suffering caused by Covid-19 and that it is focusing on learning more about four or five of the most promising ones. “We do have some treatments that seem to be, in very early studies, limiting the severity or the length of the illness, but we do not have anything that can kill or stop the virus,” its spokeswoman Margaret Harris says.
Dmitry Peskov, the Russian government’s spokesman, is admitted to hospital with Covid-19, local media report. “Yes, I got sick, I’m being treated,” Peskov is quoted as saying. He is at least the second person in Vladimir Putin’s administration to test positive.
People in the eastern Mediterranean country are told to stay at home for four days after an increase in infections followed an easing of restrictions. Lebanese health authorities have officially announced 870 cases of Covid-19, including 11 newly detected on Tuesday, and 26 deaths.
The UK is effectively in the midst of a recession, its chancellor says. Rishi Sunak tells the BBC: “We already know that many people have lost their jobs and it breaks my heart. We’ve seen what’s happening with universal credit claims already. This is not something that we’re going to wait to see; it’s already happening.”
Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top public health expert, warns that official figures are underestimating the death toll in the US and that “the consequences could be really serious” if the country relaxes safeguards too abruptly. Fauci delivered testimony to the Senate on Tuesday as the US president, Donald Trump, encouraged businesses to reopen.
Virus hits South Sudanese camp. For the first time, Covid-19 has been confirmed in a crowded civilian protection camp in South Sudan’s capital, the United Nations says. It is a worrying development in a country that is one of the world’s least prepared for the virus’s spread.
That’s it from me, Damien Gayle, for another day. I’ll leave you in the more than capable hands of my colleague, Kevin Rawlinson.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the US’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has warned of serious consequences if US states reopen before building capacity to deal with new Covid-19 outbreaks.
Nine out of 10 people arrested for coronavirus-related offenses in New York City have been black or Hispanic, police department data released Tuesday shows, according to the Associated Press.
Of 125 arrested between March 16 and Sunday, 83 were black, 30 were Hispanic, 9 were white and 3 were Asian.
The New York Police Department says the pandemic-related arrests fall into broad categories such as hate crimes, domestic violence and resisting arrest. They include fights that broke out over cutting supermarket lines and a bank robbery suspect who gave a note to a teller saying: “This is a bank robbery, I have Covid.”
These are not social distancing arrests, the department said in a statement. Many were responses to calls for service where there was a clear victim and police took necessary action.
Data released Friday showed that of the 374 summonses issued through May 5 for violating social distancing orders, 52% were given to black people and 30% to Hispanic people.
Covid-19 R number falls below 1 in Germany
The reproduction rate for the coronavirus pandemic in Germany fell below the critical threshold of 1 with an estimated value of 0.94 on Tuesday after 1.07 on Monday, the Robert Koch Institute for public health and disease control said, according to Reuters.
The so-called ‘R’ number indicates that 100 infected people on average infect 94 others, meaning the number of new infections is slowing after accelerating at the beginning of the week.
“So far, we do not expect a renewed rising trend,” the RKI said in its daily report, adding the overall number of cases in Germany was diminishing, meaning local outbreaks had a greater impact on ‘R’ than with higher case numbers.
Germany reported 236 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday and 15 new deaths. So far 172,812 people in the country have tested positive for Sars-CoV-2, of whom 7,676 have died.
Updated
Iceland, which has successfully contained the new coronavirus and conducted more tests per capita than any other country, said Tuesday it plans to offer arriving travellers a COVID-19 test to avoid a 14-day quarantine, AFP reports.
The north Atlantic island state has confirmed 1,801 cases of the illness and 10 deaths. Only three cases have been confirmed in May.
The government said it would be offering testis to travellers landing at Keflavik airport, the country’s only international airport, as of 15 June at the latest, with the government initially paying the cost of the tests.
It said it was still working out the exact details, but travellers would later be asked to repay the cost of the test.
Under the scheme, once the traveller has submitted their test sample, they would be allowed to proceed to their hotel or home. If their test result available later that day is positive, they will be quarantined for at least 14 days.
Travellers who provide a medical document proving they are free of the coronavirus infection will not need to take a test.
Iceland has carried out tests on 54,791 people so far, or more than 15% of its 364,000-strong population.
Updated
Reading and Leeds festival, the two-city weekender that is one of the UK’s biggest outdoor events, has been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis, writes Ben Beaumont-Thomas, the Guardian’s music editor.
Organisers of the festival said: “We were hopeful we could deliver the ultimate festival to you in August … however it has become clear it is just not possible.” Ticket holders can choose to have a refund or roll their ticket over to 2021’s event.
The festival had been due to host headliners Stormzy, Rage Against the Machine and Liam Gallagher over the August bank holiday weekend. A total of 195,000 people attend the two events, which feature the same lineup of artists.
(Once you have finished reading Ben’s story, you might also be interested in reading this article published by the American Institute for Economic Research about how Woodstock, the iconic epoch-defining festival of the Sixties, continued even though the US was gripped by a flu epidemic that claimed 100,000 lives.)
The health ministry in Afghanistan has recorded 281 new coronavirus cases and five deaths over past 24 hours, as attacks on a funeral and maternity hospital killed dozens of civilians including two newborn babies, Akhtar Mohammad Makoii reports from Herat.
Most of the new infections were reported in Kabul, the Afghan capital, with eighty-four out of 212 tests in the city coming back positive. The total number of infections in Kabul is now 1,341, making it the country’s worst affected area.
Overall, the number of infections in Afghanistan now stands at 4,963 and death toll is 127.
Officials in western province of Herat confirmed 12 new infections overnight. Herat borders Iran and Afghanistan’s first cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the province as thousands of Afghan migrants poured back from Iran in February and March, fanning out across the country without being tested or quarantined. The total number of infections in Herat is 913.
Elsewhere, five new cases were reported in the remote province of Zabul, where the only hospital was destroyed in a Taliban attack last year.
Meanwhile 38 people, including newborn babies, were killed and dozens more wounded as a result of two attacks in Kabul and the eastern province of Nangarhar.
Updated
Unicef has launched a fresh appeal for funding to support its humanitarian response for children affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The UN children’s fund is calling for $1.6bn, up from $651.6, requested in a similar appeal in late March, to fund work it says will focus on countries already struggling with existing humanitarian crises.
Henrietta Fore, Unicef’s executive director, said:
The pandemic is a health crisis which is quickly becoming a child rights crisis. Schools are closed, parents are out of work and families are under growing strain. As we begin to reimagine what a post-COVID world would look like, these funds will help us respond to the crisis, recover from its aftermath, and protect children from its knock-on effects.
We have seen what the pandemic is doing to countries with developed health systems and we are concerned about what it would do to countries with weaker systems and fewer available resources.
Athens is the latest city to announce that it will undergo a radical facelift – taking advantage of lessons learned during lockdown, writes Helena Smith, the Guardian’s Athens correspondent.
Echoing similar plans in Milan where public space is to be reclaimed for cyclists and pedestrians, the Greek capital will also see urban space opened up in response to the coronavirus crisis.
The scheme, which foresees the creation of a 6.8km-long pedestrian walkway connecting Athens’ archaeological sites, will also see cars being banned from the historic city centre around the Acropolis. The creation of extended pavements along major boulevards will facilitate social distancing.
It will be the biggest intervention in the life of the city in more than a decade. Although it will begin to be enforced in pilot form at the end of the month, the ambitious project is not expected to be completed until the end of 2022.
Athens’ mayor Kostas Bakoyannis says the corona-induced lockdown has enabled municipal authorities to accelerate works that might previously have taken years to achieve. He told the Guardian:
We have this once in a lifetime opportunity and are fast forwarding all our public works.
Milan, Paris, Berlin Bergota, New York Mexico city are all giving priority to walking and cycling and creating public spaces by regulating traffic and that’s what we want to do here as well.
In a rare piece of good news, the pandemic had enabled local authorities to “liberate public space from cars and give it to people who want to walk and enjoy the city.”
Greece has handled the coronavirus pandemic unexpectedly well, recording 2,744 confirmed cases to date and a death toll of 152 following enforcement of strict lockdown measures early on.
Updated
The European Union asylum agency has said the coronavirus lockdown has cut the number of asylum seekers able to reach Europe, but the pandemic could trigger more arrivals in future if it worsens turmoil to the Middle East and north Africa, Reuters reports.
With global travel all but grounded, the EASO agency said that in March the bloc logged only about half as many asylum claims as in February. The bloc’s border agency has also said illegal crossings into Europe halved from February to March.
But EASO said coronavirus outbreaks in the Middle East and North Africa could potentially cause food shortages, destabilise security and strengthen the hand of militant groups such as Islamic State. That could lead to “increases in asylum-related migration in the medium term”, EASO said in a report.
The main countries of origin of applicants for asylum ... have medium to high vulnerability to hazards (including infections) and suffer from a lack of coping capacity. The risk of destabilising effects resulting from Covid-19 outbreaks have the potential to affect future asylum trends.
Updated
There were 172 new coronavirus fatalities in Italy on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 30,911, while the number of new infections rose by 1,402, almost double that of Monday, reports Angela Giuffrida, the Guardian’s Rome correspondent.
The majority of the new infections – 1,033 – were registered in the northern Lombardy region, although authorities there said that 419 of the cases referred to those detected over the last week and not within the past 24 hours.
The number of people in hospital and intensive care continues to fall, while the number of those recovered has risen by 2,452 to 109,039. Italy has 221,216 confirmed coronavirus cases to date.
The government has given the green light to regional authorities to allow bars, restaurants, hairdressers and beauty salons to reopen on 18 May, earlier than originally planned.
Restrictions on friends seeing each other might also be lifted from Monday, Italian media reported, although the ban on inter-regional travel will probably be maintained until 1 June. People have been able to see relatives and partners within their regions since 4 May.
Saudi oil profits plunge 25%
Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, has posted a 25% dip in profits following the collapse of global oil markets triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, writes Jillian Ambrose, the Guardian’s energy correspondent.
The world’s most profitable company reported net profits of 62.48bn riyals ($16.64bn) for the first quarter of the year, down sharply from 83.29bn riyals a year earlier, after a two-thirds drop in the global price of oil.
Global oil prices fell to 21-year lows last month before the world’s largest oil producing countries, led by Saudi Arabia, struck a deal to limit global oil production from May to help drain the glut of crude in the global market.
The most ambitious oil supply deal ever brokered by the Opec oil cartel could see 9.7m barrels of oil a day held back from the global market, which is awash with oil following the collapse in demand for crude and transport fuels during pandemic.
Updated
Egypt has received $2.77bn in emergency financing from the International Monetary Fund, its state news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a senior central bank source, according to Reuters.
The IMF had had approved the funds on Monday in an effort to help Egypt to contend with the new coronavirus pandemic that has brought tourism to a standstill and triggered capital flight.
Egypt has so far reported 9,746 cases of coronavirus, and 533 deaths.
Updated
Italian police on Tuesday arrested 91 suspected members of the Sicilian mafia that were trying to exploit economic woes triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, reports Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo.
Charges range from mafia association to extortion, fraudulent assets possession, receiving stolen goods, money laundering, drug trafficking, sporting fraud and fraud and arrests were made in Palermo and Milan.
According to Sicilian investigators, who launched the operation, mobsters were laundering extortion and drug trafficking revenue. The magistrates said bosses were preparing to use ill-gained cash to buy struggling businesses that shut down during the lockdown.
Police uncovered evidence that Cosa Nostra bosses were also rigging horse races across the country.
Authorities have also seized €15m ($16.5m) in suspected ill-gained assets, including 13 racehorses.
Updated
What does the R number of coronavirus mean?
The R number of coronavirus is a figure that is being closely scrutinised as politicians try to decide when to end lockdowns across the world.
But what does the R number mean and why is it important? Kate Proctor, the Guardian’s political correspondent, explains why the UK government is keeping a close eye on Covid-19’s R number and what it signifies.
Updated
Police in Angola shot a young man dead while enforcing social distancing measures in the capital, Luanda, AFP reports.
Antonio Domingos Vulola, 21, was gunned down on Saturday after police clashed with a group of people caught flouting a nationwide curfew and a ban on social gatherings in Luanda’s impoverished Huambo neighbourhood.
An interior ministry statement published late on Monday claimed the officers acted in self defence. It said:
The citizens showed resistance and set out to attack the forces of law, throwing sticks stones and bottles.
In defence of their own physical integrity, law enforcement officers fired shots that accidentally hit the citizens in question.
But the victim’s brother told AFP that Vulola was shot in the head while fleeing the scuffle. Joao Antonio Vulola said:
The police arrived and started hitting (even) those with masks.
My brother had no mask... so he decided to flee and it was from there that the agent shot three bullets: one in the air and two at my brother’s head, who died on the spot.
To date Angola has recorded just 43 cases of coronavirus, including two deaths.
President João Lourenço declared a state of emergency in March, banning public gatherings and restricting movement to limit the spread of Covid-19.
Updated
Police have arrested 25 people after a protest at a migrant detention centre in northern Greece that caused damage to shipping containers converted for use as dormitories and other facilities, the Associated Press reports.
Authorities said officers waded in to stop several hours of rioting at the detention centre in the village of Fylakio, near the border with Turkey. People who enter Greece illegally are registered there and detained until they apply for asylum.
The protest occurred following weeks of delays in processing asylum claims due to the coronavirus pandemic. The centre houses 250 asylum seekers, including unaccompanied minors, the Evros police department said.
The Greek asylum services operations have been scaled back, like many public services, amid restrictions on travel and movement the government set in response to the pandemic.
On Tuesday, Greece reported 18 new cases of coronavirus and one death. The total death toll in the country has been 152, out of 2,744 infected people.
Updated
Protests have erupted in a city in Mali after the killing of a teenager by police escalated resentments against the government’s coronavirus restrictions, AFP reports.
The 18-year-old, Seyba Tamboura, was shot by an off-duty police officer who was trying to stop youngsters riding motorbikes in the western city of Kayes, shortly after the government lifted an unpopular nighttime curfew, government officials told the agency.
Mamadou Zoumana Sidibe, the governor of the Kayes region, said Tamboura’s friends responded by torching a police station during the night, before barricading themselves on a bridge in the city, where they remained on Tuesday.
“This morning tension is still high,” Sidibe said.
Mali’s security minister, Salif Traore, has travelled to Kayes to oversee the police operation. “We have asked the forces not to use force,” he said.
The unrest follows a string of anti-government protests in Kayes, concerning both Mali’s legislative election and its coronavirus restrictions. Mali has recorded 712 confirmed cases of coronavirus, and 39 deaths from Covid-19.
Seydou Diallo, the regional director of Kayes police force, apologised for the killing of Tamboura and said the offending officer had been arrested.
“We cannot tolerate such indiscipline,” he said. “This is an unfortunate incident for the police”.
Updated
Lebanon orders four-day 'total lockdown'
People in Lebanon have been told to stay at home for a four-day period of “total lockdown” to curb the spread of coronavirus after an increase in infections followed an ease of restrictions.
Lebanese health authorities have officially announced 870 cases of Covid-19, including 11 newly detected on Tuesday, and 26 deaths.
The “total lockdown” starts at 7pm on Wednesday and ends at 5am on Monday, the information minister, Manal Abdel Samad, said after a cabinet meeting.
It excludes the health, agriculture, food and manufacturing industries, but “citizens should stay home and avoid going out except for urgent cases,” Samad said.
Last month the crisis-hit country started to slowly emerge from a weeks-long lockdown that has aggravated its worst economic crisis since 1975-1990 civil. Restaurants and cafes have reopened at 30% capacity, mosques have resumed prayers, and many people are back at work.
But “the rate at which the coronavirus is spreading from one person to the other has accelerated in our community in the past three days,” Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Tuesday, explaining why his government is tightening lockdown measures.
He said the country has recorded more than 100 new infections over four days, accusing some of “negligence and lack of responsibility” for violating government measures to stem the coronavirus.
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Sixty-seven more people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Serbia in the past 24 hours, and two have died, the country’s government said on Tuesday.
So far the Balkan country has recorded 10,243 cases of coronavirus, of whom 220 have died.
The number of new cases and deaths is on a steady downward curve in the country, where more than 150,000 people have been tested so far.
Updated
Zambia reports 174 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, and no new deaths.
Catch the daily #COVID19 update by Hon. Chitalu Chilufya on the @mohzambia facebook page. In the last 24hrs #Zambia recorded 174 new cases (0 Lusaka, 174 Muchinga; 29 Copperbelt, 5 N/Western, 14 Central) #StayHome #StaySafe #MaskUp #WashYourHands pic.twitter.com/ZHK0lo0CXs
— Zambia National Public Health Institute (@ZMPublicHealth) May 12, 2020
Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top public health expert, will testify on Tuesday that reopening the economy too soon will result in “needless suffering and death”, writes Guardian US reporter Adam Gabbatt.
Fauci is due to appear before the Senate, as Donald Trump encourages businesses across the US to reopen. The New York Times reported that Fauci will deliver a stark warning of the dangers of lifting restrictions in the US too soon.
Fauci told the paper:
The major message that I wish to convey … is the danger of trying to open the country prematurely.
If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines then we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country. This will not only result in needless suffering and death, but would actually set us back on our quest to return to normal.
Fifty-seven more people have died from Covid-19 in Sweden, the country’s health authorities reported on Tuesday, as deaths in the country, which chose not to implement a lockdown, continue to decline after peaking last month.
The latest update brings Sweden’s total Covid-19 death toll to 3,313. So far 27,272 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the country, with 602 new cases reported on Tuesday.
Differences in deaths and infection rates around the country remain large, Sweden’s statistical agency said in a release on Monday, which identified the peak in deaths as coming in mid-April.
Statistics Sweden said:
The top level [of mortality] at national level is still week 15, which has now been adjusted to 2,554 deaths. It is the highest number of deaths in a week reported throughout the 21st century …
Since the peak of week 15, national mortality counts per week have fallen.
Updated
The news you’ve all been waiting for: Slovenia has given permission for mountain huts to reopen, Travel Slovenia reports.
On Tuesday, the country reported one new case of coronavirus, and no deaths. In total, 102 people are reported to have died from Covid-19 in Slovenia, out of a confirmed 1,461 infections.
Damien Gayle back again after my break, taking you through the next three hours or so. Remember you can drop me a line with any comments, tips or suggestions to coverage via email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com or via Twitter DM to @damiengayle.
Nurses in central London admired a giant projection of Florence Nightingale on the buildings of Guys and St Thomas’ hospitals on Monday night, there to mark 200 years since her birth and her legacy to modern nursing.
Her birth date also marks International Nurses Day, being recognised across the globe on Tuesday.
The projection will be repeated on Tuesday night and includes a tribute to all those who serve today in the care sector.
Nightingale became famous after she and a small team of nurses travelled to modern-day Istanbul in 1854 to treat British soldiers wounded in the Crimean War, in which British, French and Ottoman forces fought the Russian Empire.
In a filthy hospital she saw thousands of soldiers die from infectious diseases rather than their wounds, prompting her to try to improve conditions.
“It’s so nice to see Florence Nightingale on the side of a hospital. She is a big part of our history,” said the nurse Rebecca Boxall, speaking outside St Thomas’.
Throughout her life, Nightingale stressed the vital importance of good hygiene and the advice to wash hands thoroughly to prevent infection remains central, including in the fight against Covid-19.
“I can’t believe it’s 200 years since she said basically ‘wash your hands’ and how prevalent that is now,” said the nurse Janet Carroll.
Nightingale was also a pioneer of evidence-based healthcare, gathering data and producing statistics to prove the importance of cleanliness, sanitation, and suitable facilities.
She died at the age of 90 in 1910, having continued to work and write late into her life.
St Thomas’ in London continues to treat those suffering with Covid-19. Past patients include the prime minister, Boris Johnson.
“There is so much we can learn from now and that’s what we need to take forward ... that’s what I think Florence did in her critical time and we have got our critical time,” said Carroll.
Updated
For the first time, Covid-19 has been confirmed in a crowded civilian protection camp in South Sudan’s capital, the United Nations said, a worrying development in a country that is one of the world’s least prepared for the virus’s spread.
The health ministry’s emergency preparedness manager, Dr Mathew Tut, said the two infected people at the camp in Juba were South Sudanese and in their 20s. South Sudan was one of the last countries in Africa to confirm a case of the disease and now has 174.
As of mid-April more than 190,000 people were still sheltering in several UN-run civilian protection camps across South Sudan, more than a year after a peace deal ended a five-year civil war. Nearly 30,000 are sheltering in Juba.
The prospect of the coronavirus’ spread to refugee and displaced persons’ camps in Africa, the Middle East and Asia has alarmed health and other aid officials, as often remote locations, travel restrictions and shortages of medical supplies make any containment and treatment extremely challenging.
As of late April, almost none of the 10 million people packed into such camps around the world had been tested for the virus, The Associated Press found.
Aid workers in South Sudan have warned there is little more than isolation centres in place to treat people if the virus begins to spread in the crowded camps. The country’s health system relies on NGOs for almost all health services.
Most of the infected people so far have been treated at home instead of being isolated at the Dr John Garang Infectious Diseases Unit, which the WHO has said is being expanded from 24 beds to 80.
Last week the South Sudan Doctors Union expressed concern over the government’s decision to partly relax virus lockdown measures, saying it does not see urgency in doing so as the number of cases are rising.
Most cases in the past month were from local transmission, the union said.
Bars, restaurants and markets have resumed business.
Updated
US healthcare workers are dying. In some states, medical staff account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. From doctors to hospital cleaners and from nursing home aides to paramedics, those most at risk have already helped save thousands of lives.
Health authorities in the US have no consistent way of tallying the deaths of healthcare workers. As of 14 April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 27 deaths among health workers – but our reporting shows that is likely a vast undercount.
Lost on the frontline is a collaboration between the Guardian and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the lives of healthcare workers in the US who die from Covid-19, and to understand why so many are falling victim to the pandemic.
These are some of the first tragic cases. We are creating a database and will investigate and record new cases as this project unfolds.
Updated
“The BAME experience during this pandemic tells us that race is not about individual morality, it profoundly shapes people’s lives,” writes Alana Lentin, associate professor in cultural and social analysis at Western Sydney University.
As coronavirus continues to rampage across the globe, it has become apparent that, while biologically the virus may not discriminate, it is having a much worse effect on people from ethnic minorities.
As the researcher Omar Khan has noted, BAME Covid-19 deaths “track existing social determinants of health” such as overcrowding in homes, insecure work and lack of access to green spaces.
In other words, the virus is hitting people harder not because it can see their race but because “racialised” people – those who are categorised by societies as, say, black or brown – are more vulnerable.
The French government has rejected a request by the Paris mayor to reopen parks and public gardens, a day after people in the capital flouted strict distancing rules to celebrate the beginning of the end of the coronavirus lockdown.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Twitter she had renewed a request to open parks and gardens closed since mid-March, “taking into account the needs of Parisians, because Paris is a very dense city”.
Access would be conditional on everyone wearing a face mask, which, the mayor said, should also become compulsory on the streets of Paris.
Her request came a day after Parisians were seen gathering in droves in public spaces, laughing, hugging and sharing meals, despite the government urging people to maintain physical distancing to limit the spread of the virus.
On the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin, police had to intervene to break up groups of people violating the rules with celebratory gatherings that prompted the interior minister, Christophe Castaner, to outlaw alcohol consumption on all the city’s canal and river banks.
Updated
Algeria will extend measures aimed at restricting movement by 15 days to 29 May to cope with rising coronavirus cases, the prime minister, Abdelaziz Djerad, has said.
The government last month decided to extend until 14 May restrictions on movement including a nationwide night curfew and closures of universities, schools and mosques. Public transport and air travel are still suspended.
The authorities this month ordered the closure of businesses including shops, just days after being reopened, for not observing social distancing.
“Some behaviour that may take us back are to be avoided,” Djerad said.
The north African country has reported 5,891 confirmed infections, with 507 deaths and 2,841 recoveries.
Updated
An Angolan citizen has been shot dead by police enforcing social distancing measures against the coronavirus in the capital, Luanda, the government and a witness said.
Antonio Domingos Vulola, 21, was gunned down on Saturday after police clashed with a group of people caught flouting a nationwide curfew and a ban on social gatherings in Luanda’s impoverished Huambo neighbourhood.
An interior ministry statement said on Monday:
The citizens showed resistance and set out to attack the forces of law, throwing sticks stones and bottles.
In defence of their own physical integrity, law enforcement officers fired shots that accidentally hit the citizens in question.
The victim’s brother told AFP that Vulola was shot in the head while fleeing the scuffle.
“The police arrived and started hitting (even) those with masks,” Joao Antonio Vulola recalled.
“My brother had no mask ... so he decided to flee and it was from there that the agent shot three bullets: one in the air and two at my brother’s head, who died on the spot.”
The interior ministry has opened an investigation into the incident.
To date Angola has recorded 43 cases of coronavirus, including two deaths.
President Joao Lourenco declared a state of emergency in March, banning public gatherings and restricting movement to limit the spread of Covid-19.
Rights groups across the continent have denounced widespread incidents of violence by security officials enforcing anti-coronavirus restrictions.
The Angolan human rights defender Rafael Marques said:
There have been many excesses of force by national police when acting on the state of emergency.
Police must understand that the government has not guaranteed living conditions or support for vulnerable families.
(So) there will always be the presence of many people on the street.
Updated
This is Jessica Murray, I’ll be briefly taking over the blog while Damien goes for a lunch break.
While the coronavirus pandemic has grabbed most of the headlines recently, it is important to remember that there are other problems still far more pressing for billions of people across the planet.
According to a new analysis, malnutrition is now the leading cause of ill health and deaths globally, Karen McVeigh reports for the Guardian’s global development desk.
The Global Nutrition Report 2020 found that most people across the world cannot access or afford healthy food, due to agricultural systems that favour calories over nutrition as well as the ubiquity and low cost of highly processed foods. Inequalities exist across and within countries, it says.
One in nine people is hungry, or 820 million people worldwide, the report found, while one in three is overweight or obese. An increasing number of countries have the “double burden” of malnutrition, obesity and other diet-related diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Here’s more on Dmitry Peskov being admitted to hospital with Covid-19 from Shaun Walker, the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent:
Vladimir Putin’s press secretary has been diagnosed with coronavirus and is currently receiving treatment, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday afternoon.
“Yes, I am sick, and receiving treatment,” Dmitry Peskov told news agency Interfax, which added that he was being treated “in a clinic”. During a trip to a coronavirus ward back in March, Peskov was the only person in Putin’s entourage to wear a mask.
Putin has been working from his residence outside Moscow in recent weeks, and it is not clear whether he has been in contact with Peskov. The Russian prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, also has Covid-19 and is being treated in hospital, though was well enough to take part in a government video call in recent days.
Russia has more than 220,000 coronavirus cases, and currently has the second highest rate of growth in the world after the US.
Updated
Kremlin spokesman in hospital with Covid-19
Dmitry Peskov, the Russian government spokesman, has been admitted to hospital with Covid-19, the Moscow Times reports.
“Yes, I got sick, I’m being treated,” Peskov was quoted as saying by the English-language paper, citing Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the Kremlin, is at least the second person in Putin’s administration to test positive for coronavirus.
Updated
The president of Senegal, Macky Sall, has agreed to allow the bodies of nationals who died of Covid-19 abroad back into the West African state, soothing distraught families who had fought the ban, AFP reports.
The government banned the repatriations in April to stem the spread of the coronavirus, leaving scores in limbo in countries including France, Italy and the US.
The issue was emotionally fraught in Senegal, where family bonds are tight and many see holding a religious burial in one’s birthplace as a matter of dignity.
A group of families with dead relatives abroad sought to overturn the ban but lost a Supreme Court case earlier this month, when judges ruled that the government had followed medical precautions.
But in a televised address on Monday night, Sall evoked the grief of the affected families and lifted the ban, while also loosening other anti-virus measures.
Senegalese authorities have recorded 1,995 coronavirus cases to date, including 19 fatalities.
Updated
Britain’s reputation for its handling of the coronavirus epidemic has taken another global pasting after newspapers worldwide reported on what they described as confusion and internal divisions that is rapidly turning into a crisis as big as Brexit for the UK, writes Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic correspondent.
With many diplomats admitting that soft power reputations are being forged or destroyed in this global crisis, the European press in particular is taking time to point out that the UK is experiencing the worst death rate in Europe, revealing a National Health Service that is underfunded and under-prepared.
The UK is also being singled out as the country that led on the theory of herd immunity only to backtrack.
One of the UK’s diplomatic strengths has long been its international advocacy for global health, and its poor domestic performance may impact its global influence.
Updated
Russia continued to ease its nationwide coronavirus lockdown on Tuesday despite a surge in cases that pushed it to the the world’s second highest number of infections, AFP reports.
Containment measures remained in many parts of the vast country, including hard-hit Moscow which is on lockdown until the end of May, but others began to lift some restrictions.
In Bashkortostan in the Urals officials reopened parks and river banks and in Magadan in the Far East residents were allowed to leave their homes to exercise.
In Moscow some half a million construction and industrial workers were allowed back on the job, as wearing masks and gloves became mandatory in shops and on public transport.
Russian health officials said Tuesday that another 10,899 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the country’s total number of confirmed infections to 232,243.
After reporting more than 10,000 new cases per day for more than a week, Russia has moved into the top four countries in the number of infections and is on track to soon have the second most in the world after the United States.
But with only 2,116 virus deaths reported so far, Russia’s mortality rate has been much lower in comparison with the US, UK, Spain, Italy and other countries with similar infection rates.
The Kremlin has left it up to individual regions to decide how to proceed with easing restrictions and in Moscow residents will still only be allowed to leave their homes for brief trips or to travel to work with a permit.
Updated
South Africa reports 698 new cases of coronavirus, according to a tweet by the country’s minister for health, Zweli Mkhize. It is the second highest daily rise in reported cases so far for the country.
As of today, the total number of confirmed #COVID19 cases in South Africa is 11 350. pic.twitter.com/PIZcr2rZYy
— Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) May 12, 2020
An interactive map highlighting alleged cases where the rights of ethnic and racial minorities have been infringed during the coronavirus pandemic has been launched by the European Network Against Racism, an NGO focused on tackling discrimination, Daniel Boffey, the Guardian’s Brussels bureau chief, reports.
The map shows country-by-country where minority groups have suffered in terms of poor healthcare provision, lack of housing and employment or racist violence and speech.
See the impact of #COVID19.
— ENAR Europe (@ENAREurope) May 12, 2020
👉 ENAR launched an interactive map on the #Covid_19 impact on racialized communities: https://t.co/CUwA29meXv
The map shining a light on existing structural racism and inequalities accross #EU. #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus #CovidImpact @MPriv_o @EU_Justice pic.twitter.com/GbuORnts7e
Karen Taylor, chair of the pan-European organisation, said:
Disease affects us all and we should all have the care and support we need, leaving no one behind. In their responses to the pandemic, governments should acknowledge the greater risks and needs of racialised groups and put measures in place to ensure they do not bear the brunt of the pandemic’s impact.
Updated
European countries will be advised to open borders to countries with similar coronavirus risk profiles, under a plan to aid the tourism sector being discussed in Brussels, writes Jennifer Rankin, the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent.
The European commission is expected on Wednesday to recommend a three-phase approach to reopening borders that brings together member states with “similar overall risk profiles”, according to a leaked version of the draft seen by the website Euractiv.
But it remains unclear whether the commission will throw its weight behind “tourism corridors”, whereby member states make bilateral deals to open to each other’s tourists.
The EU includes some of the countries worst hit by the pandemic – notably Spain and Italy – but others such as Greece and the Czech Republic that limited its impact.
Senior EU officials acknowledge they cannot stop governments from striking such bilateral deals, but continue to argue against selective treatment. “Member states cannot open borders for citizens from one EU country, but not from others. This is essential,” the EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, told MEPs last week.
Denmark’s chief epidemiologist has said the country is “very unlikely” to be hit with a second wave of Covid-19, after the government laid out plans for increased testing and contact tracing, Reuters reports.
Denmark, which has had 533 coronavirus-related deaths so far, was the first in Europe to relax its lockdown almost a month ago. The infection rate and the number of deaths have continued to drop.
“No country has seen an actual second wave yet. Some countries have seen the spread go up and down,” state epidemiologist Kare Molbak said at a news briefing.
“But with the knowledge we have today, I find it very unlikely that we’ll see a second wave,” he said.
Fears that a second wave of infections could thwart the reopening of the global economy were triggered on Monday after Germany, which has relatively successful in slowing the outbreak, reported that infections had accelerated again after the first tentative steps to ease its lockdown.
Denmark this week began a second phase of relaxing its lockdown which will include the reopening of restaurants and shopping malls. Despite the reopening, the reproductive rate, which shows the average number of infections one person with the virus causes, fell to 0.7 in the first week of May from 0.9
Updated
Twitter has announced it is imposing new measures on its social network to “limit the spread of potentially harmful and misleading content” about the coronavirus outbreak.
The social messaging service will introduce new labels and warning messages on tweets that contain “disputed or misleading information related to Covid-19”, it said in a blogpost published late on Monday.
The post says:
During active conversations about disputed issues, it can be helpful to see additional context from trusted sources. Earlier this year, we introduced a new label for tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media. Similar labels will now appear on tweets containing potentially harmful, misleading information related to Covid-19. This will also apply to tweets sent before today.
These labels will link to a Twitter-curated page or external trusted source containing additional information on the claims made within the tweet.
Depending on the propensity for harm and type of misleading information, warnings may also be applied to a Tweet. These warnings will inform people that the information in the Tweet conflicts with public health experts’ guidance before they view it.
You can read more about the new policy on the Twitter blog.
Updated
More than 66,000 people have been found to have been infected with Sars-CoV-2 across Africa as of Tuesday morning, the World Health Organization’s regional office for the continent reports.
So far there have been 2,300 “associated deaths” and more than 22,000 people have recovered, it adds.
Over 66,000 confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent - with more than 22,000 recoveries & 2,300 associated deaths. View country figures & more with the WHO African Region COVID-19 Dashboard: https://t.co/V0fkK8dYTg pic.twitter.com/ZjDUr4eGdD
— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) May 12, 2020
WHO says there is "potentially positive data" on Covid-19 drugs
The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that some treatments appear to be limiting the severity or length of the Covid-19 respiratory disease and that it was is focusing on learning more about four or five of the most promising ones.
“We do have some treatments that seem to be, in very early studies, limiting the severity or the length of the illness, but we do not have anything that can kill or stop the virus,” spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a virtual briefing, referring to the body’s “solidarity trial” of drugs against the disease.
“We do have potentially positive data coming out but we need to see more data to be 100% confident that we can say this treatment over that one,” she added.
Updated
Iran has announced 48 more deaths from Covid-19, three more than on Monday, bringing the total death toll in the country to 6,733.
Kianoush Jahanpour, the health ministry spokesman, said that 1,481 new infections had been detected in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 110,767, of whom 88,357 have recovered.
The latest figures come after it was announced that all mosques in Iran will reopen temporarily on Tuesday, the latest step in the government’s plans to ease coronavirus restrictions.
The decision to reopen the mosques was made in consultation with the ministry of health, IRIB quoted Mohammad Qomi, the director of the Islamic Development Organization, as saying, according to a report on Reuters.
Qomi said later on Monday that mosques would only be open for three days commemorating specific nights for the holy month of Ramadan and it was unclear whether they would stay open, according to the Fars news agency.
The move comes even though some parts of the country have seen a rise in infections.
Sam Jones, the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent, has more on the quarantine measures being implemented for all new arrivals to Spain from later this week:
According to the health ministry, the quarantine measure will apply to “everyone arriving from foreign countries”, suggesting it will also cover Spaniards who are returning from overseas.
“These people will have to stay in their homes or accommodation, and must limit their trips out to buying food, pharmaceutical products, or visiting a health centre, or on emergency grounds,” the ministry said in a statement.
It said anyone leaving quarantine for any of the above reasons would need to wear a face mask.
Anyone undergoing the two-week isolation who thinks they could have the virus is advised to call the regional health authorities.
Fernando Simón, the head of Spain’’s centre for health emergencies, said the quarantine measures were designed to halt the importation of new cases from abroad.
Updated
Summary
Here are the latest headlines in our global coronavirus coverage.
- Bars, restaurants, hairdressing and beauty salons will reopen across Italy from 18 May. Regional authorities have been given the power to lift restrictions on the businesses, which had originally been due to reopen from 1 June.
- Russia has reported 10,899 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide total past that of Britain and Spain to 232,243, the second highest total worldwide according to Johns Hopkins university data. Russia puts the continued daily rise in cases down to widespread testing. It has carried out more than 5.8m tests.
- The UK’s coronavirus death toll passed 40,000. The Office for National Statistics said that 35,044 deaths involving Covid-19 were registered in England and Wales up to 9 May. Together with the latest figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland and more up to date fatalities announced daily by the government, the total official UK death toll now stands at 40,011.
- A fire in a Russian hospital killed coronavirus patients attached to ventilators. A source in Russia’s emergencies ministry source said five patients had died and 150 were evacuated after the blaze broke out early on Tuesday morning on the sixth floor of St George hospital in St Petersburg.
- The Spanish government ordered the quarantine of all overseas travellers coming to the country from 15 May. Incoming travellers will have to remain indoors and will only be allowed to exit for grocery shopping, to visit health centres and in case of a “situation of need”.
- French economic activity down 27% in April. Economic activity plunged 27% in April compared with its expected trajectory before the coronavirus pandemic but this was still a slight improvement on March, the Bank of France said.
- South Korea investigators are combing digital data to trace a nightclub coronavirus cluster. Authorities have been looking through mobile phone data, credit card statements and CCTV footage to identify people who visited nightclubs at the centre of one of the capital’s biggest coronavirus clusters.
- Ryanair aims to restart 40% of services in July. Under new rules laid out by the airline, passengers will have to ask permission to use the toilet, undergo temperature tests at the airport, wear face masks or other coverings and wash their hands and use hand sanitiser in terminals.
Fossil fuel companies and coal-powered utilities in the US are set for a potential bonanza under federal government plans for a bond bailout, part of the rescue package for the coronavirus crisis, writes Fiona Harvey, the Guardian’s environment correspondent.
At least 90 fossil fuel companies, many of them established giants such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and Koch Industries, stand to gain from the Federal Reserve’s coronavirus bond buyback programme, alongside more than 150 utilities including coal-heavy firms such as American Electric Power and Duke Energy, according to a new analysis.
The bond buyback scheme is expected to be worth at least $750bn (£605bn) altogether and to benefit thousands of companies by the end of September, and the size of the payout that could go to fossil fuels and utilities is as yet unknown. The scheme is to be discussed in the US Senate on Tuesday.
Jason Disterhoft, a senior campaigner at Rainforest Action Network, which conducted the study, said public money should be used to bail out companies only with strict conditions attached.
Our concern is that these recovery funds should be prioritising people and communities and they are going instead to big companies to pay down their debts.
Spain reports fewest daily infections in two months
The number of newly diagnosed cases of coronavirus in Spain in one day fell on Tuesday to its lowest in more than two months, the health ministry reported, according to Reuters.
Health authorities identified 594 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the total to 228,030. The number of fatalities related to the disease rose 176 on Tuesday to 26,920.
The prime minister of Kosovo has emerged from a brief spell of self-imposed quarantine after coronavirus tests on an official in his government came back negative.
Albin Kurti, 44, had gone into self-isolation on Monday as a precaution after a close contact of an official in the Ministry of European Integrations had tested positive for Sars-CoV-2.
After tests cleared the official of infection, the premier returned to the office on Tuesday, the government spokesman Perparim Kryeziu confirmed to AFP.
Kosovo has so far been spared an explosive coronavirus outbreak among its population of 1.8 million.
According to government figures, almost 900 infections have been detected and 28 people have died from the respiratory disease.
Updated
Brazilian culture has suffered an unusually devastating year, robbed of some of its leading lights in just a few painful weeks, write Tom Phillips and Caio Barretto Briso in Rio de Janeiro.
The deceased, some of whom fell victim to the coronavirus pandemic, include the musical giants Aldir Blanc and Moraes Moreira; the carnival legend Dona Neném; the actor Flávio Migliaccio; and a trio of top writers – Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, Sérgio Sant’Anna and Rubem Fonseca.
In most countries, such passings would be marked with official mourning or words of tribute and regret.
But while there has been public remembrance, Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has responded with silence – a reflection, critics say, of his loathing of the arts and academia.
Parisians have been banned from drinking alcohol on the banks of the Saint-Martin canal and the Seine river after police were forced to disperse crowds just hours after France’s eight-week coronavirus lockdown was eased, writes Kim Willsher, the Guardian’s Paris correspondent.
Many city dwellers stuck in flats without balconies, terraces or gardens for almost two months turned out on Monday evening to celebrate. Photos quickly circulated of unmasked revellers gathering by the water in the French capital.
On the orders of the interior ministry, Paris’s police prefect issued a ban, saying it “deplored” having to do so in an indignant press release reminding everyone that the success of the déconfinement rested on “the principle of each citizen’s individual responsibility”. The press release said:
Barely a few hours after the lifting of the lockdown, dozens of people gathered … without respecting social distances and the health recommendations that have even so been hammered home for the past few weeks.
The prefect of police deplores the fact that, on the first day of deconfinement, he has had to take measures to prohibit the consumption of alcohol on the public highway.
Hi, this is Damien Gayle taking over on the live blog now, and bringing you the latest in the Guardian’s coverage of the world coronavirus situation, plus whatever else I can gather up.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions for coverage please drop me a line at damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or a Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.
That’s it for me today, I’m handing over the blog to my colleague Damien Gayle for the rest of the day. Thanks for all your messages and suggestions.
European Union plans for a multi-billion euro defence fund have been thrown into doubt by the economic shock of the coronavirus, officials and diplomats say, potentially threatening three years of unprecedented military cooperation.
With EU governments focused on a trillion-euro plan to offset the worst economic contraction since the 1940s, the billions for defence in the 2021-2027 budget are at risk.
Deep cuts would undermine EU ambitions to reduce a military reliance on the United States, complicate efforts to streamline a bewildering plethora of military systems in Europe, and decimate contracts for the European defence industry.
“We can expect an additional strain on resources, it is already looming,” said Jiri Sedivy, new chief executive of the European Defence Agency, which helps EU governments develop military capabilities. He told Reuters:
It’s especially disappointing considering that defence budgets only recently recovered from the financial shock of ten years ago.
With the European Commission expected to present revised budget proposals next week, defence ministers were to gather for a video call on Tuesday in a pessimistic mood, according to EU officials and diplomats.
“We need to argue that the case for defence cooperation is still there,” said an EU diplomat, who said that working together in defence could squeeze more out of a tight budget.
Military cooperation could also help advances in technology for pandemics, officials say, including in chemical and biological research such as hi-tech, resistant clothing.
Guardian documentaries has released a series of videos offering a rare glimpse into the lives of a young couple in lockdown in Iran.
Filmed over several weeks in quarantine, Sara and Mohammad Reza attempt to process the devastating loss of a family member to Covid-19.
The news of coronavirus spreading in Tehran is the backdrop to their lives indoors, they see the outside world from their window, neighbours setting off fireworks and street musicians playing for spare change.
As they approach Persian new year, usually a time of family reunion, the couple find hope and happiness in the traditional rituals that mark the spring equinox.
Berlin has completed the construction of a coronavirus emergency hospital with almost 500 beds and more than 100 ventilators in just six weeks – though the city’s senate says it might never host any patients as regular hospitals are operating below capacity.
Costing €43m euros, the hospital unit on the grounds of the Berlin Messe trade fair was given the green light in mid-March, when the spread of the Covid-19 virus in Germany was growing exponentially.
Yet as the new hospital was unveiled to the press on Monday, the situation in the German capital’s healthcare system was more relaxed than many had anticipated.
Of 6,269 confirmed infections in the city, 5,586 have recovered and 165 have died.
Berlin’s regular hospitals with intensive units say 40% of their beds are free to take in patients, around 8,000 stationary beds.
Outside the German capital, four municipalities are currently trying to contain new outbreaks of more than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days – the threshold for more localised lockdowns announced by chancellor Angela Merkel last week.
In the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig Holstein, North-Rhine Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, abattoirs and food-processing plants have been identified as the centre of these new outbreaks, shining an unforgiving light on the working conditions of the country’s meat industry.
Health authorities believe that while the virus may not have spread in the processing plants themselves, it would have found a fertile ground in crammed accommodation where Eastern European contract workers share rooms and washing facilities.
Germany’s disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute, said on Tuesday that the recent rise of the virus’ reproduction number – which has stayed above 1 for three days in a row – may be linked to these outbreaks in the meat industry.
Malaysian health authorities on Tuesday reported 16 new coronavirus cases, the lowest daily increase there since the government imposed curbs on movement and businesses to contain the spread of the pandemic in March.
The new cases bring the cumulative total to 6,742 cases.
The health ministry reported no new deaths, keeping the total number of fatalities at 109.
The coronavirus lockdown has so far reduced the number of asylum seekers able to reach Europe, but the pandemic could lead to a bigger wave in future if it brings turmoil to the Middle East and North Africa, the European Union’s asylum agency said.
With global travel all but grounded, the EASO agency said that in March the bloc logged only about half as many asylum claims as in February.
The bloc’s border agency has also said illegal crossings into Europe halved from February to March.
But EASO said coronavirus outbreaks in the Middle East and North Africa could potentially cause food shortages, destabilise security and strengthen the hand of militant groups such as Islamic State. That could lead to “increases in asylum-related migration in the medium term”.
“The main countries of origin of applicants for asylum in the EU+ have medium to high vulnerability to hazards (including infections) and suffer from a lack of coping capacity,” it said.
The risk of destabilising effects resulting from Covid-19 outbreaks have the potential to affect future asylum trends.
Some EU countries on the Mediterranean sea have said the coronavirus crisis makes it more difficult to accept migrants rescued at sea.
The Council of Europe rights watchdog wrote to Malta last week saying it was obliged to accept rescued migrants despite the virus.
“I am fully aware of the challenges that sea crossings and arrivals have posed for Malta for a considerable time, which have only increased since the recent outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic,” the Council of Europe’s top migration official, Dunja Mijatović, said in a letter.
“However, such challenges cannot negate clear obligations to save lives at sea and to ensure prompt and safe disembarkation.”
Updated
Deaths from the coronavirus in Indonesia passed the 1,000 mark on Tuesday as the southeast Asian nation reported 16 new fatalities and 484 new infections, health ministry official Achmad Yurianto said.
Indonesia has now reported 1,007 deaths and 14,749 cases.
Across the country, Yurianto said there were also more than 32,000 suspected cases of the virus, while 119,728 people have been tested and 3,063 recovered.
Factory and construction workers in Russia were set to return to work on Tuesday after president Vladimir Putin ordered a gradual easing of coronavirus lockdown measures, despite a sharp increase in new cases.
Putin, in a surprise announcement on Monday, said it was time after six weeks to lift nationwide restrictions that had forced many people to work from home and businesses to temporarily close.
He made the announcement on a day when Russia overtook Italy, Spain and Britain to become the country with the second-highest number of cases in the world, according to Johns Hopkins university in the United States.
Although he gave wide leeway to Russia’s regions to ease or tighten restrictions as they saw fit, he said it made sense for certain sectors of the bruised economy such as construction and heavy industry to be allowed to restart work from Tuesday.
Most Russian regions have been on lockdown since late March in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The overall case tally rose to 232,243 on Tuesday with 2,116 deaths.
Other countries have yet to update their own tallies, but Russia was likely later on Tuesday to move further up the league table of countries with the highest number of infections.
Taiwan confirmed no new Covid-19 cases for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, keeping the country’s total at 440, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
At a daily press briefing, the health minister and head of the CECC, Chen Shih-chung, said it was also the 30th straight day that no domestically transmitted infections had been recorded in Taiwan, CNA reports.
According to CECC statistics, Taiwan has recorded 440 cases in total, 349 of which were classified as imported and 55 as local infections.
The other 36 cases relate to an outbreak on a Navy vessel that returned on 9 April from a Pacific goodwill mission. These cases have not yet been classified as either local or imported, CECC data showed.
To date, 372 Covid-19 patients in Taiwan have recovered, seven have died, and the others are in hospital, the CECC said.
Updated
The United Kingdom’s Covid-19 death toll topped 38,000 at the start of the month, including suspected cases, by far the worst official toll yet in Europe, according to official data published on Tuesday.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said it recorded 34,978 Covid-19 related deaths as of 1 May in England and Wales.
Adding previously released data from Scotland and Northern Ireland, the toll stood at 38,289 as of 3 May, according to Reuters calculations.
While different ways of counting make comparisons with other countries difficult, the figure confirmed Britain was among those hit worst by a pandemic that has killed more than 285,000 worldwide.
Ministers dislike comparisons of the headline death toll, saying that excess mortality - the number of deaths from all causes that exceed the average for the time of year - is more meaningful because it is internationally comparable.
The figures on that front painted a grim picture, albeit improving slowly.
The ONS said it recorded 17,953 deaths from all causes during the week ending 1 May. While a decrease for the second week running, this was 8,012 more than average for the time of year.
Updated
Denmark will significantly increase testing for Covid-19 and put a contact tracing system in place to prevent a second wave of the coronavirus, prime minister Mette Frederiksen said.
She told reporters:
If the spread reignites, we need to know in time. This is why we need an effective tracing of the virus spreading.
We need to isolate the sick, so we can break the infection chains without having to close down society again.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by coverage of the pandemic, try this daily list of non-coronavirus articles that our readers spent the most time with
The Philippines’ health ministry on Tuesday reported 25 more coronavirus deaths and 264 additional infections.
In a bulletin, the ministry said total deaths had reached 751 while confirmed cases have risen to 11,350.
But 107 more patients have recovered, bringing total recoveries to 2,106.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday announced an extension of lockdown measures in the capital to June, making it among the world’s longest community quarantines to try to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Uganda’s long-serving president, Yoweri Museveni, has said it would be wrong to hold a presidential election due early next year if the coronavirus persists, signalling for the first time a possible postponement.
“To have elections when the virus is still there... It will be madness,” the 75-year-old, whom opponents cast as an authoritarian clinging to power, said in an interview with the local NBS Television aired late on Monday.
Uganda has recorded a relatively low Covid-19 case load of the disease - 121 infections and no deaths - and began easing a strict national lockdown a few days ago.
Though no date had been fixed for the 2021 election, it is typically held in February.
In power since 1986, former rebel fighter Museveni has not confirmed whether he would run again, though the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party has already asked him to be their flagbearer and voters expect him to stand.
The strongest opposition aspirant is pop star and lawmaker Bobi Wine whose music endears him to the young.
Opposition leaders and rights groups accuse Museveni of cracking down on critics with intimidation, detentions, torture and tear-gassing of opposition rallies. The government denies that, saying arrests are to preserve the law.
Under the 45-day lockdown that authorities started to ease last week, most businesses were shuttered, public gatherings banned, schools closed and movements largely curtailed.
Museveni’s doubt over holding the election contrasts with nearby Burundi where campaigns are in full throttle ahead of a presidential election next week.
Updated
Italy to reopen bars and restaurants from next week
Bars, restaurants, hairdressing and beauty salons will reopen across Italy from 18 May.
Regional authorities have been given the power to lift restrictions on the businesses, which had originally been due to reopen from 1 June.
Retailers, museums and libraries are also due to reopen from 18 May.
The move, announced by the government late last night, came after pressure from regional leaders to be allowed to establish their own reopening plan.
Safety measures will need to be implemented before the establishments can open, with restaurants required to set distances of four metres between diners.
There were 744 new cases of coronavirus in Italy on Monday – the lowest daily rise since 4 March. Deaths rose by 179 to 30,739.
Updated
For months the ranchers had laid the groundwork; grazing and exercising a select crop of half-tonne fighting bulls to be transported to arenas and festivals across the country.
Then – just as Spain’s bullfighting season was set to kick off – the country was plunged into lockdown.
“It was dreadful,” said Victorino Martín, a second-generation breeder of fighting bulls. “The coronavirus came at the worst possible moment.”
The lockdown brought the bullfighting sector to a standstill as Spanish authorities scrambled to control one of the world’s deadliest outbreaks, which has claimed more than 26,000 lives.
Weeks later, though urban hotspots like Madrid and Barcelona remain under lockdown, measures have eased elsewhere, and industries ranging from travel to car manufacturing have turned to the government for help in navigating Spain’s new normal.
No request has been as controversial as that made by the bullfighting sector. Long reviled by animal rights campaigners who see it as cruel and outdated, bullfighting’s fight for survival has triggered a fierce debate over its future in Spanish society.
Tokyo confirmed 28 new cases of coronavirus infection on Tuesday, marking the seventh straight day the daily tally has stayed below 40, Nippon TV reported.
Passengers travelling with Ryanair will have to ask permission to use the toilet under new rules laid out by the airline, as it prepares to restart 40% of flights in July in the hope that government restrictions on travel in Europe will be lifted.
Europe’s biggest budget carrier published a return to flying video that advises passengers to check their temperature before going to the airport, check in online and download their boarding pass to their smartphone.
Travellers will undergo further temperature tests at the airport, must wear face masks or other coverings and wash their hands and use hand sanitiser in terminals.
On board the aircraft, they will be able to buy pre-packaged snacks and drinks, using cashless payments only.
Queuing for toilets will be prohibited on board, although individual passengers will be able to use the facilities “upon request”.
Physical distancing at airports and onboard will be encouraged where possible.
The measures include fewer checked bags and a deep clean of the aircraft every night with chemicals that are effective for more than 24 hours. All Ryanair planes are fitted with Hepa air filters similar to those used in critical hospital wards, the airline says.
Updated
China’s health authority has said that the reappearance of local clusters of coronavirus cases in recent days suggests that counter-epidemic measures cannot be relaxed yet.
While prevention and control efforts have normalised, that does not mean measures can be eased, Mi Feng, spokesman at the National Health Commission, said at a media briefing.
Wuhan on Monday reported its first cluster of coronavirus infections since a lockdown on the city, the original centre of the outbreak in China, was lifted a month ago.
Russia surpasses UK tally with more than 10,000 new cases
Russia has reported 10,899 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide total past that of Britain to 232,243, the third highest total worldwide.
The country’s coronavirus response centre said the death toll from the virus rose by 107 people to 2,116.
Russia puts the continued daily rise in cases down to widespread testing. It has carried out more than 5.8m tests.
Updated
Some more information on reports of an attack on a Médecins Sans Frontières facility in Afghanistan.
Gunmen stormed a maternity hospital in the Afghan capital of Kebul on Tuesday setting off a gun battle with police, officials said.
Afghan forces carried out newborn babies and their mothers as they evacuated the hospital, AP reports. At least four people were reported wounded.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in Kabul and its surroundings, and both frequently target the military and security forces, as well as civilians.
Black smoke rose into the sky over the hospital in Kabul’s Dashti Barchi, a mostly Shiite neighborhood that has been the site of past attacks by Islamic State militants.
Interior ministry spokesman Tareq Arian said that over 80 women and babies were evacuated by Afghan security forces as the firefight got underway.
A pediatrician who fled the hospital told AFP he heard a loud explosion at the entrance of the building.
“The hospital was full of patients and doctors; there was total panic inside,” he said, asking not to be named.
The attack comes just a day after four roadside bombs detonated in a northern district in Kabul, wounding four civilians including a child.
The bombings were later claimed by the Islamic State group, according to the SITE intelligence group.
Updated
China has suspended imports from four major Australian beef suppliers just weeks after Beijing’s ambassador warned of a consumer boycott in retaliation for Canberra’s push to investigate the origins of the coronavirus.
Analysts said the move raised concerns of a possible standoff between Australia and its most important trading partner, which could spill over into other crucial sectors as it struggles to navigate the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus.
The federal trade minister, Simon Birmingham, said shipments of meat from the abattoirs had been suspended over “minor technical” breaches related to Chinese health and labelling certificate requirements. He added:
We are concerned that the suspensions appear to be based on highly technical issues, which in some cases date back more than a year.
We will work with industry and authorities in both Australia and China to seek to find a solution that allows these businesses to resume their normal operations as soon as possible.
The four meatworks account for around 35% of Australia’s beef exports to China in a trade worth about A$1.7bn (US$1.1bn), according to national broadcaster ABC.
China has also flagged major tariffs on Australian barley over allegations it is selling the grain in China for less than it costs to produce it - known as dumping. The Australian Financial Review cited confidential documents as saying Beijing is considering duties of 73.6%.
Tensions between the two countries have increased since Australia started calling for an independent investigation into the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, which was first detected in China in late 2019.
Updated
Ryanair will restore 40% of flights from 1 July, after running a skeleton service since mid-March as the coronavirus pandemic grounded planes worldwide.
However, the air carrier warned the move was dependent on EU flight restrictions being lifted, as well as public health measures put in place at airports.
“Ryanair will operate a daily flight schedule of almost 1,000 flights, restoring 90% of its pre-Covid-19 route network,” the Irish low-cost carrier said in a statement.
Crew and passengers will wear face masks and have to pass temperature checks, while social distancing at airports and on aircraft would be encouraged, it added.
“It is important for our customers and our people that we return to some normal schedules from 1 July,” said Ryanair chief executive, Eddie Wilson.
After four months, it is time to get Europe flying again so we can reunite friends and families, allow people to return to work, and restart Europe’s tourism industry, which provides so many millions of jobs.
Wilson added that Ryanair would “work closely with public health authorities to ensure that these flights comply, where possible, with effective measures to limit the spread of Covid-19”.
As had been the case in Asia, “temperature checks and face masks/coverings are the most effective way to achieve this on short haul” flights in Europe.
He said the resumption of nearly half of Ryanair’s flights schedule would “allow those tourism-based economies such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, France and others, to recover what is left of this year’s tourism season”.
Ryanair is cutting 3,000 pilot and cabin crew jobs, or 15% of staff, mirroring moves by airlines globally.
News of flights resuming comes after the UK, a significant market for Ryanair, revealed at the weekend that international arrivals will soon face a 14-day quarantine to stop new coronavirus infections.
Updated
Spain orders two-week quarantine for all incoming travellers from 15 May
The Spanish government has ordered a two-week quarantine for all travellers coming into the country from 15 May.
These people will have to remain indoors and will only be allowed to exit for grocery shopping, to visit health centres and in case of a “situation of need”, an official order published on Tuesday said.
The quarantine has been enforced for all travellers entering Spain until at least 24 May, when the state of emergency is due to end.
The quarantine order can be extended jointly with possible state of emergency extensions. Spain has so far extended its restrictions four times since mid-March.
The measures apply to all travellers, including Spanish citizens returning to the country. Only truck drivers, airplane and ship crews, cross-border workers and health staff who are entering Spain to work are exempt from the quarantine.
Updated
Singapore’s health ministry said on Tuesday it had confirmed another 884 coronavirus cases, taking the city-state’s tally of infections to 24,671.
French economic activity down 27% in April
French economic activity plunged 27% in April compared with its expected trajectory before the coronavirus pandemic but this was still a slight improvement on March, the Bank of France said.
The economy had been predicted to grow 0.1% in the first quarter of the year, the central bank said, with the 27% drop counted from where it would have reached in April.
While the lost output was massive, the outcome actually represented an improvement on the last two weeks in March after the lockdown began, when the downturn was running at an estimated 32%, it said.
“With a full month of lockdown in April, economic activity hit a particularly low level,” it said.
Industrial capacity use, for example, fell from 77% in February to 56% in March and then 46% in April, “the lowest level ever recorded,” the Bank of France said in a regular report.
For April alone, industrial capacity in use varied from 77% in the pharmaceutical sector to just 8% in the auto industry.
The central bank noted that companies had adapted to the new conditions, putting in place health measures for workers and this meant fewer plant closures and the resumption of output.
Services such as restaurants and hotels were badly hit, with closures running at 24 days for the month of April, while other sectors such as programming and consultancy suffered much less.
“For the month of May and after the lockdown, companies expect a pickup in activity, with the exception of hotels and restaurants, but this will be a long way from making up for the losses of the two previous months,” the central bank said.
Separately, Bank of France governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said the two-month coronavirus lockdown from mid-March had already knocked nearly six percentage points off GDP and worse could be to come.
“The loss for the whole year will be larger than that because as things get going again, activity will remain partial,” he told France Inter.
The British government will today set out details on how to make workplaces safer as some businesses start to resume operations after the prime minister, Boris Johnson, set out a cautious plan to exit the coronavirus lockdown.
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said the business ministry would set out details of how employers could make workplaces safer. He said:
This stuff isn’t straight forward but we’ll be coming forward with a huge amount of more detail on how to make work places safe today.
We work not only with employers but also with the trade unions who last night called what we’re coming out with a step forward.
Hancock said the coronavirus reproduction number - R0 or ‘R nought’ - was in the middle of the 0.5 to 0.9 range.
You can follow the latest UK-specific coronavirus developments on our UK live blog, currently being headed up by my colleague Simon Murphy.
Gunmen attacked a Médecins Sans Frontières medical clinic in the western part of the Afghan capital of Kabul, a source from the ministry of interior said on Tuesday.
“A hospital belonging to Doctors Without Borders is under attack,” the source told Reuters, adding that security forces were working to counter the attack and the deputy health minister may have been visiting the clinic at the time.
A ministry of interior statement confirmed an attack had taken place at a hospital.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack or whether there were any casualties.
Médecins Sans Frontières, the international medical aid charity, did not immediately respond to request for comment.
India’s enormous railway network was grinding back to life on Tuesday in a gradual lifting of the world’s biggest coronavirus lockdown, even as new cases surge.
The country imposed a strict shutdown in late March, which prime minister Narendra Modi’s government has credited with keeping cases to a relatively modest 70,000 with some 2,000 deaths.
Restrictions have been steadily eased and on Tuesday parts of India’s passenger train network, which in normal times transports over 20 million people on 20,000 trains daily, were scheduled to resume.
Several tens of thousands of tickets for the initial 30 trains sold out online within three hours on Monday, reports said, with the first set to depart New Delhi at 4pm (10.30 GMT).
There have already been special train services to transport some of the millions of poor migrant workers left jobless and destitute by the shutdown back to their home states.
The government did not set out a programme for when more services will resume.
Haruki Murakami, one of Japan’s most acclaimed novelists, will host a radio special to try to lift the nation’s spirits as a state of emergency over coronavirus lingers.
Murakami, whose breakout novel Norwegian Wood debuted in 1987, will play favourite songs and welcome listener comments during a Stay Home Special, the name evoking a plea from Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike for residents to avoid going out.
“I’m hoping that the power of music can do a little to blow away some of the corona-related blues that have been piling up,” Murakami wrote.
While a nationwide state of emergency is due to last until 31 May, officials said some regions may be able to lift restrictions as early as this week if infections are under control.
Tokyo, the centre of Japan’s outbreak, confirmed 15 new cases on Monday, the first time in 42 days that the daily number has fallen below 20.
Murakami, a perennial favourite for the Nobel Prize in Literature, is a notorious recluse but has hosted his Murakami Radio Show every couple months.
As a teenager he developed a passion for jazz and spoke of writing to its beat. He and his wife, Yoko, opened a jazz club while still university students and ran it for seven years.
The Murakami Radio Stay Home Special will play on Tokyo FM 80.0 and 38 stations nationwide on 22 May.
Russian hospital fire kills coronavirus patients attached to ventilators
A fire at a hospital in St Petersburg has killed coronavirus patients who had been attached to ventilators.
A source in Russia’s emergencies ministry source said five patients had died and 150 were evacuated after the blaze broke out early on Tuesday morning on the sixth floor of St George hospital.
The building had been repurposed to treat Covid-19 victims, Tass news agency reported, and the patients who died had been connected to ventilators.
RIA Novosti news agency quoted an emergency services spokesman as saying the fire appeared to have been caused by an electrical malfunction, while Interfax cited a source saying it was an “overload” with ventilators being “pushed to their limit”.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which examines serious crimes, said it had launched an inquiry into the incident.
A fire at a Moscow hospital treating coronavirus patients last week killed one person and forced hundreds to evacuate.
Investigators were also examining the cause of two deadly fires at residence homes in Moscow.
Russia has confirmed more than 220,000 coronavirus cases and currently ranks second in the Johns Hopkins university global tally of total infections, after the US.
Updated
South Korean authorities have been combing through mobile phone data, credit card statements and CCTV footage to identify people who visited nightclubs at the centre of one of the capital’s biggest coronavirus clusters.
More than 100 new cases linked to the nightclubs have brought fears of a second wave of infections in a country held up as a coronavirus mitigation success story.
Health authorities have tracked and tested thousands of people linked to the nightclubs and bars in Seoul’s Itaewon nightlife neighbourhood, but want to find others who they have not been able to identify.
Authorities fear that the fact some of the establishments were known as gay bars might be putting people off coming forward for testing in a conservative country where homosexuality if still taboo.
“We are using telecom station information and credit card transactions from the nightclubs to identify 1,982 of those who are not available,” health ministry official Yoon Tae-ho told a briefing.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday said at least 102 people have tested positive in connection with the cases linked to nightclubs and bars.
The Seoul mayor, Park Won-soon, put the total at 101 confirmed cases and said 7,272 people had been tested in connection with the cluster, including family members or coworkers of clubgoers.
Officials had identified 10,905 people who were in the Itaewon area when the cluster of cases is believed to have got going this month, based on cell tower information, and another 494 who used credit cards, Park said.
Media outlets have identified the nightclubs the first patient visited as gay clubs, sparking concern that the disclosures and media coverage could out lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people against their will or lead to discrimination.
This is a really interesting story from Susan Smillie about the people who have been left stranded on small boats across the world as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and who now face dangerous voyages home across the Atlantic to beat hurricane season. Well worth a read.
Hello, this is Jessica Murray, I’ll be steering the live blog for the next few hours.
If you’d like to get in touch with any questions, suggestions or experiences, please do.
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. Thank you to those of you who got in touch via email and Twitter.
Here is Andrew Cotter narrating the nightly walk of the fairy penguins of Victoria, Australia’s Phillip Island as a high-stakes, long-distance race.
Cotter has become one of the pandemic’s viral hits after commentating the antics of his labradors, Olive and Mabel – as there is so little sport to commentate on under lockdown – in videos posted to Twitter.
His latest video is in collaboration with Visit Victoria and Phillip Island Nature Parks in a bid to keep the top tourist attraction in people’s minds even though the park remains closed to visitors amid Covid-19 lockdowns:
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Global cases approach 4.2 million. The number of people known to have died since the pandemic began has reached at least 286,330, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. They say at least 4,177,584 people are known to have been infected. The figures are likely to significantly underestimate the true scale of the pandemic.
- South Korea’s Seoul nightclub cluster grows to 64. In the country so often cited as a beacon of success in tackling the coronavirus, 64 cases have now been connected to a cluster in Seoul’s nightclub district that was visited on 1 May by a man in his late 20s before he tested positive for the virus, Yonhap reported. Since mid April, the country had been adding fewer than 15 cases per day, including some days when there were no domestic infections.
- China reports no new domestic cases after spike on weekend. China reported zero new domestic coronavirus infections on Tuesday, after two consecutive days of double-digit increases fuelled fears of a second wave of infections. A new cluster reappeared over the weekend in the city of Wuhan, where the pandemic first emerged, while the northeastern city of Shulan was placed under lockdown Sunday after another outbreak emerged. On Monday, China’s National Health Commission reported 17 new cases, five of them in Wuhan. Seven of the new cases were imported.
- New York City’s death toll may be 5,000 higher than official toll. Between 11 March and 2 May, about 24,000 more people died in the city than researchers would ordinarily expect during that time period, a report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That’s about 5,300 more deaths than were blamed on the coronavirus in official tallies during those weeks.
- Fauci to tell US senate reopening early risks ‘needless suffering and death. The New York Times reported that Dr Anthony Fauci, the leading US expert on infectious diseases and a key member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, will on Tuesday tell the US senate that reopening the economy early risks “needless suffering and death”.
- Trump accused of racism over press conference comments. The president was criticised for telling an Asian-American journalist to direct her questions on the US’s epidemic to China, instead of to him. Trump insisted he would have answered the question the same way regardless of who had asked it. Trump refused to take further questions and abruptly ended the press conference. CNN’s influential chief media correspondent, Brian Stelter, said Trump’s actions had “racist overtones”. Trump also declared victory over the “invisible enemy” as US deaths pass 80,000. The White House has directed staff working in the West Wing to wear masks.
- WHO warns ‘extreme vigilance’ needed as lockdowns eased. The World Health Organization says “extreme vigilance” is needed as countries begin to exit lockdowns imposed to curb the virus’ spread. The warning comes after Germany reported an acceleration in new infections after easing its lockdown, and South Korea, another country that succeeded in limiting infections, saw a new outbreak in nightclubs.
- Easing restrictions to boost Australian economy by US$6bn a month. Once Australia removes most social distancing restrictions by July, its economy will be boosted by AU$9.4bn (US$6.15bn) each month, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will say on Tuesday in a speech updating lawmakers on his budget planning.
- All mosques in Iran will reopen temporarily on Tuesday. The temporary reopening marks a further step in the government’s plans to ease restrictions that aimed to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, the official IRIB news agency reported. Mosques will only be open for three days commemorating specific nights for the holy month of Ramadan and it was unclear whether they would stay open, according to the Fars news agency.
Global report: Fauci warns of ‘needless death’ as WHO urges vigilance in lifting lockdowns
The World Health Organization has called on countries to show “extreme vigilance” when loosening Covid-19 restrictions as the top US infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, warned that prematurely reopening the American economy would cause “needless suffering and death”.
The WHO’s emergencies chief, Michael Ryan, has hailed the gradual lifting of coronavirus lockdowns in some countries whose death and infection rates were dropping, as a sign of “hope”, but he cautioned that “extreme vigilance is required”.
He urged countries to boost their public health responses, ensuring they could identify fresh cases, and trace and isolate all contacts, which he said could help “avoid a major second wave”.
His statement came amid concern over new spikes of infection in South Korea and China.
Ryan’s message was echoed late on Monday by Anthony Fauci, a key member of the US coronavirus taskforce team. Fauci told the New York Times he intended to tell the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee on Tuesday that Americans would experience “needless suffering and death” if the country opened prematurely.
UK front pages, Tuesday 12 May 2020
GUARDIAN: Johnson ‘providing no clear direction’ on lockdown exit #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/XorCL3C5Y1
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 11, 2020
THE TIMES: See friends and family in ‘flexible’ lockdown #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/XsLKSGU8Cr
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 11, 2020
TELEGRAPH: Use good British common sense, @BorisJohnson tells public #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/QUXN5wL8Ri
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 11, 2020
INDEPENDENT DIGITAL: The new face of a nation #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/UAZYHAjLmu
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 11, 2020
China’s factory-gate prices fell to a four-year low, official data showed Tuesday, with firms suffering from the economic devastation unleashed by the coronavirus on the global economy.
The producer price index (PPI) - which reflects what factories charge wholesalers - dropped again, fuelling concern among analysts about the post-pandemic recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.
The PPI plunged 3.1% on-year in April - a 1.3% monthly drop compared with March - according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics noted that the slump in PPI was its “steepest monthly drop since the Global Financial Crisis” of 2007-08.
Toyota on Tuesday said it expected a 79.5% drop in its annual operating profit this fiscal year as it suffers “significant” fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Japanese auto giant declined to give a net profit forecast for the fiscal year to March 2021 but noted that the impact of the crisis on its business was “wide-ranging, significant and serious”.
The company now expects an annual operating profit of ¥500bn (US$4.6bn), down 79.5% from the ¥2.44tn logged in the past year to March.
Toyota forecast a near-20% drop in annual sales to ¥24tn, compared with ¥29.93tn achieved in the past fiscal year.
“As for the global economy going forward, there is concern that there will be a sharp decline in many countries and regions due to the impact of Covid-19,” Toyota said in a statement.
“While we assume that the global automobile market as a whole will gradually recover after bottoming out during April and June of 2020... the impact of Covid-19 is wide-ranging, significant and serious, and it is expected that weakness will continue for the time being.”
Here is the full story on New Zealand’s foreign minister saying the country has to stand up for itself after China warned its call for Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Organization (WHO) could damage bilateral ties:
Australian treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has had an especially ill-timed coughing fit – while delivering an economic update in parliament:
He also touched the despatch box several times between coughing on his hands:
This is excruciating to watch https://t.co/5lIUz0Iz0g
— Patrick Keneally (@patrickkeneally) May 12, 2020
Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Workers in the gig economy are being exposed to coronavirus infection because the government is failing to enforce EU safety at work regulations, a union has said.
The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has written to the Department for Work and Pensions threatening legal action if the duty of care is not extended to include those who are not employees.
The union, whose members are cleaners, drivers, couriers, foster-care workers and others in non-staff roles, says many are not being provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) or testing for infection.
Summary
-
Global confirmed death toll exceeds 285,000. The number of people known to have died since the pandemic began has reached at least 286,330, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. They say at least 4,177,584 people are known to have been infected. The figures are likely to significantly underestimate the true scale of the pandemic.
- China reports no new domestic cases after spike on weekend. China reported zero new domestic coronavirus infections on Tuesday, after two consecutive days of double-digit increases fuelled fears of a second wave of infections. A new cluster reappeared over the weekend in the city of Wuhan, where the pandemic first emerged, while the northeastern city of Shulan was placed under lockdown Sunday after another outbreak emerged. On Monday, China’s National Health Commission reported 17 new cases, five of them in Wuhan. Seven of the new cases were imported.
- Easing restrictions to boost Australian economy by US$6bn a month. Once Australia removes most social distancing restrictions by July, its economy will be boosted by AU$9.4bn (US$6.15bn) each month, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will say on Tuesday in a speech updating lawmakers on his budget planning, Reuters reports.
- All mosques in Iran will reopen temporarily on Tuesday, a further step in the government’s plans to ease restrictions that aimed to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, the official IRIB news agency reported. Mosques will only be open for three days commemorating specific nights for the holy month of Ramadan and it was unclear whether they would stay open, according to the Fars news agency.
- New York City’s death toll may be 5,000 higher than official toll. Between 11 March and 2 May, about 24,000 more people died in the city than researchers would ordinarily expect during that time period, a report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That’s about 5,300 more deaths than were blamed on the coronavirus in official tallies during those weeks.
- The Japanese Health Ministry is set to approve antigen coronavirus testing kits on Wednesday, a ministry official said on Tuesday, in a move to boost the number of diagnostic tests available to battle the pandemic.
-
Fauci to tell US senate reopening early risks “needless suffering and death”. The New York Times reported that Dr Anthony Fauci, the leading US expert on infectious diseases and a key member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, will on Tuesday tell the US senate that reopening the economy early risks “needless suffering and death”.
- Trump declared victory over the “invisible enemy” as deaths surpassed 80,000 in the US.“We have met the moment and we have prevailed,” Trump, flanked by ventilators and testing supplies, said during a briefing in the White House Rose Garden on Monday. He later said he was referring to testing.
- Trump accused of racism over press conference comments. The president was criticised for telling an Asian-American journalist to direct her questions on the US’s epidemic to China, instead of to him. Trump insisted he would have answered the question the same way regardless of who had asked it. Trump refused to take further questions and abruptly ended the press conference. CNN’s influential chief media correspondent, Brian Stelter, said Trump’s actions had “racist overtones”, adding: “It’s racist to look at an Asian-American correspondent and say ‘ask China’; it’s part of a pattern from the president.”
- White House staff ordered to wear masks. The White House has directed staff working in the West Wing, where the daily operations of Donald Trump’s administration are carried out, to wear masks. With Trump’s valet and vice-president Mike Pence’s press secretary both testing positive for the virus last week, pressure is growing for the White House to take further steps in protecting the health of country’s 73-year-old president.
- The World Health Organization says “extreme vigilance” is needed as countries begin to exit lockdowns imposed to curb the virus’ spread. The warning comes after Germany reported an acceleration in new infections after easing its lockdown, and South Korea, another country that succeeded in limiting infections, saw a new outbreak in nightclubs.
- Boris Johnson denies reports his senior scientific and medical advisers were not consulted on the new messaging attached to his plan to ease the country’s lockdown as he set out the details in parliament. Amid muddled guidance from ministers on what the new rules actually allow, Johnson insists the public understands his government’s message.
-
“No guarantee” of vaccine, UK’s PM says. There is no guarantee of a Covid-19 vaccine, says the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, but he adds that the UK is heavily involved in the work to develop one.
- Germany has reported an acceleration in new infections after taking early steps to ease its lockdown. South Korea, another country that succeeded in limiting infections, has seen a new outbreak in nightclubs.
- Putin eases Russia lockdown despite infection surge. The Russian president announces an easing of the nationwide lockdown, even as the country sees a record number of new infections.
Updated
South Korean authorities said Tuesday they were using mobile phone data to trace Seoul nightclub visitors as they try to tackle a coronavirus cluster, promising anonymity to those being tested due to the stigma surrounding homosexuality, AFP reports. Homosexuality is not illegal in South Korea, but rights groups say discrimination is widespread.
The country has been held up as a global model in how to curb the virus, but a spike of new cases, driven by the cluster in venues in Seoul’s Itaewon district – including several gay clubs – forced authorities to delay this week’s planned re-opening of schools.
Many nightclub customers are believed to be reluctant to come forward because of the stigma surrounding homosexuality in the socially conservative country. Seoul, as well as its neighbouring Gyeonggi province and the nearby city of Incheon, and the southern city of Daegu, have ordered the closure of all clubs and bars.
As of Tuesday morning, 101 cases had been linked to the Itaewon cluster, Seoul mayor Park Won-soon told reporters.
The city secured a list of 10,905 people who visited the district through data provided by mobile operators and has sent text messages asking them to get tested, he added.
The Korea Disaster Management Headquarters said nearly 2,000 people who are believed to have visited the clubs are currently unreachable, and thousands of police will be deployed to track them down.
Relief mixes with anxiety as New Zealand eases lockdown
Anticipation is building among New Zealanders as an easing of the strict coronavirus lockdown rules approaches, but not everyone is relishing the prospect of re-entering society after months confined to their homes.
New Zealand has been in a stringent lockdown for seven weeks and on Thursday most restrictions will be loosened, allowing people to go back to work and school, to shop, eat in restaurants and go to the cinema, playground or library.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her “team of 5 million” sacrificed normality to protect the nation’s most vulnerable people – including the elderly and immunosuppressed – but now restrictions can begin to loosen as health authorities gain control of the disease. The country reported no new cases or deaths on Tuesday.
While many are relishing the prospect of resuming their normal lives – and economists are sighing with relief that the economy can kick back into life – a small sense of anxiety is growing among some at what will be a very altered version of New Zealand’s “normal”.
‘It’s a very different Ramadan’: how coronavirus has upended rituals in Australia
Mufti Zeeyad Ravat is an Islamic scholar, an authority on the day-to-day practice of Islam. His path to Australia was a circuitous one, from his birthplace in Johannesburg, South Africa, through India, Syria (where he studied Arabic), Brazil, Brisbane and Melbourne. In March last year, he travelled to New Zealand to lead a prayer service in Christchurch after 50 worshipers at a mosque were slaughtered.
Ravat, 39, is a bundle of energy, his arms waving to make a point, one leg tucked underneath him on a recliner in his home in Dandenong in south-east Melbourne. The everyday noise of family life (he is married with five children) break through from the next room as he explains how important Ramadan is, and how the coronavirus pandemic has upended its rituals.
China reports no new domestic infections after weekend spike
More now on China’s cases from AFP:
China reported no new domestic coronavirus infections on Tuesday, after two consecutive days of double-digit increases fuelled fears of a second wave of infections.
China has largely brought the virus under control, but it remains on edge, fearful that a second wave could undermine its efforts to get the economy back up and running.
A new cluster reappeared over the weekend in the city of Wuhan, where the pandemic first emerged, while the northeastern city of Shulan was placed under lockdown Sunday after another outbreak emerged.
On Monday, China’s National Health Commission reported 17 new cases, five of them in Wuhan. Seven of the new cases were imported.
A day earlier, China announced the first double-digit increase in nationwide cases in nearly 10 days, saying 14 new infections had been confirmed. Wuhan also saw its first new case in over a month.
For the 27th consecutive day, there were no deaths reported. One imported case was recorded.
The country’s official death toll remains at 4,633, while the total number of infections in the mainland is 82,919.
Updated
New Zealand’s foreign minister on Tuesday said the country has to stand up for itself after China warned its backing of Taiwan’s participation at the World Health Organization (WHO) could damage bilateral ties, Reuters reports.
Taiwan, with the strong support of the United States, has stepped up its lobbying to be allowed to take part as an observer at next week’s World Health Assembly (WHA), the WHO’s decision-making body – a move which has angered China.
Taiwan is excluded from the WHO due to the objections of China, which views the island as one of its provinces.
Senior ministers in New Zealand last week said Taiwan should be allowed to join the WHO as an observer given its success in limiting the spread of the novel coronavirus, drawing China’s ire which asked the Pacific country to “stop making wrong statements”.
“We have got to stand up for ourselves,” Winston Peters, New Zealand’s foreign minister, said at a news conference when asked about China’s response to New Zealand’s position on Taiwan.
“And true friendship is based on equality. It’s based on the ability in this friendship to nevertheless disagree.”
Peters said he did not think the issue would harm diplomatic ties with China, which is New Zealand’s biggest trading partner.
Mexico’s health ministry confirmed 1,305 new cases of coronavirus infections on Monday, along with 108 additional deaths.
The new infections brought confirmed coronavirus cases to 36,327 and 3,573 deaths in total, according to the official tally.
The daily death toll has been falling since Thursday, when Mexico reported its highest one-day total since the start of the crisis, with 257 fatalities.
New York Times healthcare reporter Sheryl Stolberg:
Full Fauci email message to me: pic.twitter.com/yq8IAa9f8g
— Sheryl Gay Stolberg (@SherylNYT) May 12, 2020
Fauci to tell US senate reopening early risks “needless suffering and death”.
The New York Times reports that Dr Anthony Fauci, the leading US expert on infectious diseases and a key member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, will on Tuesday tell the US senate that reopening the economy early risks “needless suffering and death”.
The New York Times writes:
Dr. Fauci, who has emerged as the perhaps nation’s most respected voice during the coronavirus crisis, is one of four top government doctors scheduled to testify remotely at a high-profile hearing on Tuesday before the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
It will be his first appearance before Congress since President Trump declared a national emergency in March, and a chance for him to address lawmakers and the public without President Trump by his side. In an email message to a reporter late Monday night, he laid out what he intends to tell senators.
Updated
The global pandemic has left millions of Indonesians struggling to make ends meet. Now the authorities are rolling out “rice ATMs” in a bid to ensure greater access for those in need to the essential Asian staple, Reuters reports.
Ten rice dispensaries in and around Jakarta are part of a government initiative to assist those worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak, which has caused millions to lose their jobs in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
Stacked with kilos of good-quality rice and operated by magnetic cards, the tall automated teller machines look much like normal cashpoints, only that they pump out grain instead of banknotes.
Residents eligible for the rice ration include daily wage earners, the unemployed, those who do not own a house and people who live below the poverty line.
More than 14,000 Indonesians have contracted the coronavirus since early March, with 991 killed by the disease, the highest death toll in East Asia outside China.
Japanese Health Ministry to approve antigen coronavirus testing kits
The Japanese Health Ministry is set to approve antigen coronavirus testing kits on Wednesday, a ministry official said on Tuesday, in a move to boost the number of diagnostic tests available to battle the pandemic.
Fujirebio, a subsidiary of Japanese diagnostics and laboratory testing service provider Miraca Holdings, last month applied for government approval for Japan’s first antigen coronavirus testing kits.
Updated
New York City’s death toll may be 5,000 higher than official toll
New York City’s death toll from the coronavirus may be thousands of fatalities worse than the tally kept by the city and state, according to an analysis released Monday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Between 11 March and 2 May, about 24,000 more people died in the city than researchers would ordinarily expect during that time period, the report said.
Thats about 5,300 more deaths than were blamed on the coronavirus in official tallies during those weeks.
Some of those excess fatalities could be Covid-19 deaths that went uncounted because a person died at home, or without medical providers realising they were infected, the researchers at New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said.
It might also represent a ripple effect of the health crisis, they wrote. Public fear over contracting the virus and the enormous strain on hospitals might have led to delays in people seeking or receiving lifesaving care for unrelated conditions like heart disease or diabetes.
Updated
Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Here’s the video of that Obamagate exchange:
In other US news: Obamagate.
What started ‘Obamagate’?
On Friday, former US president Barack Obama expressed disquiet at the justice department dropping charges against Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired in early 2017 for lying about conversations with the Russian ambassador. On a recording obtained by Yahoo News, Obama warned that the “rule of law is at risk”. He also described Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as “an absolute chaotic disaster”:
So Trump took the moral high ground and kept a dignified silence?
Not quite. He spent Mother’s Day diving into the rightwing fever swamps and unleashing a barrage of tweets and retweets assailing his predecessor. One said simply “OBAMAGATE!” (the suffix “gate” is a frequently used play on the Watergate scandal that toppled President Richard Nixon).
Another linked to a post that declared, “Barack Hussain Obama is the first Ex-President to ever speak against his successor, which was long tradition of decorum and decency.” Trump added: “He got caught, OBAMAGATE!”
The reporter who confronted US President Donald Trump for directing comments about China at her has Tweeted about the incident, thanking the other reporters who made room for her to ask her question.
.@kaitlancollins allowed me to ask a follow up question after the President called on her, and then @Yamiche deferred to Kaitlin. I am fortunate to work alongside them. https://t.co/aG1F3xYIQO
— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) May 12, 2020
As my colleague Lauren Gambino reported, asked by CBS White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang why he is fixated on comparing the US’s testing capability with other countries as opposed to focusing on the lag that still exists in the US, Trump replied: “Maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me, ask China that question, OK?”
He then called on CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who ceded the mic to Jiang so she could ask her follow-up. Jiang, who is Asian-American, replied to Trump: “Sir, why are you saying that to me, specifically, that I should ask China.”
“I’m telling you, I’m not saying it specifically to anybody. I’m saying it to anybody that would ask a nasty question like that,” he said.
Collins then tried to ask her question but Trump skipped her. He then refused to take any more questions and left the podium.
Trump was accused of racism over his press conference comments.
CNN’s influential chief media correspondent, Brian Stelter, said Trump’s actions had “racist overtones”, adding: “It’s racist to look at an Asian-American correspondent and say ‘ask China’; it’s part of a pattern from the president.”
In case you missed it, here is the full story from David Smith:
The death toll from the novel coronavirus among medical personnel in Mexico has reached 111, and the virus has infected between 8,500 and 15,000 hospital staffers, officials said Monday.
Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell said the dead included 66 doctors, 16 nurses and 29 other hospital staff, including support personnel, dentists and lab techs.
There are 8,544 confirmed COVID-19 cases among health professionals in Mexico, and another 6,747 suspected cases, many of which are awaiting test results.
The country’s total coronavirus case load has increased to 36,327 cases, with 3,573 deaths, though officials have acknowledged the true number is probably much higher. Some cities in Mexico have seen a lot of cases but are tapering off, AP reports.
Others like Mexico City appear to be at their peak. And still other cities have not seen many cases at all.
López-Gatell said the plan for a partial re-opening of Mexico expected later this week would be different in each region, noting it no longer makes sense to have a safe-distancing policy on a national level.
Mainland China confirmed just one new symptomatic case of coronavirus on 11 May, according to the National Health Commission, and no deaths.
The confirmed case was imported, and there was also a suspected case. There were no deaths.
There were 15 new asymptomatic cases.
China has a total of 84,010 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University figures, which are based on China’s official data, and 4,637 deaths.
China is no longer among the ten worst-affected countries worldwide in terms of infections.
The Mexican border city of Nogales, Sonora, has set up ‘sanitizing tunnels’ to disinfect people leaving the US through Nogales, Arizona. On the Mexican side of two major border crossings, drivers coming from Arizona must exit their vehicles and step into an inflatable tunnel that sprays them with a cleansing solution. The border city’s mayor has told Mexican news outlets that a majority of the people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in Nogales, Sonora, had recently returned from the US:
All mosques in Iran to reopen temporarily on Tuesday
All mosques in Iran will reopen temporarily on Tuesday, a further step in the government’s plans to ease restrictions that aimed to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, the official IRIB news agency reported.
The decision to reopen the mosques was made in consultation with the ministry of health, IRIB quoted Mohammad Qomi, the director of the Islamic Development Organization, as saying.
Qomi said later on Monday that mosques would only be open for three days commemorating specific nights for the holy month of Ramadan and it was unclear whether they would stay open, according to the Fars news agency.
Last Friday, prayer gatherings resumed in up to 180 Iranian cities and towns seen as being at low risk of coronavirus contagion after a two-month suspension, state media reported.
The move comes even though some parts of the country have seen a rise in infections. Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday that a county in southwestern Iran had been placed under lockdown. It also quoted the governor of Khuzestan province, where the county is located, as saying there had been a sharp rise in new cases across the province.
Schools will reopen next week, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday, according to the official presidency website. Iran has already lifted a ban on inter-city trips and malls, with large shopping centres resuming activities.
Iran’s coronavirus deaths rose by 45 in the past 24 hours to 6,685, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement on state TV. It has 109,286 diagnosed cases.
‘Don’t ask me. Ask China’: Trump clashes with reporters then abruptly leaves press briefing
More now on that Trump presser earlier:
Trump has frequently been criticisied for adopting a particularly harsh or patronising tone at press conferences to women in general and women of colour in particular.
Tara Setmayer, a political commentator, tweeted: “Another disgraceful, racist, temper tantrum by Trump b/c he was asked a pointed question by @weijia… Trump can’t handle smart, assertive women.”
Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu of California tweeted: “Dear @realDonaldTrump: Asian Americans are Americans. Some of us served on active duty in the U.S. military. Some are on the frontlines fighting this pandemic as paramedics and health care workers. Some are reporters like @weijia. Stop dividing our nation.”
Earlier at the briefing, Trump claimed that the US’s testing capacity is “unmatched and unrivalled anywhere in the world, and it’s not even close”. More than 9m tests have now been performed, he said, and where three weeks ago roughly 150,000 per day were done, the total is now 300,000 per day and will go up.
Production of the world’s longest-running cartoon has been interrupted by the coronavirus, forcing the broadcast of re-runs for the first time in decades.
Sazae-san, a mainstay of the Japanese weekend that first aired in 1969, revolves around a typical Tokyo family consisting of Mrs Sazae, who lives with her parents, husband, son, brother and sister.
WOW
— Ninty 🌸Play Sakura Wars!🌸 (@NintenZ) May 11, 2020
EVEN SAZAE-SAN ISN'T INVINCIBLE https://t.co/BVPTgXLbvv
The 30-minute episodes broadcast on Sunday nights are very popular, and for many in Japan have come to denote the end of the weekend.
But the cartoon, recognised as the longest-running animated TV series by Guinness World Records, has been hampered by the outbreak of the virus, with animation dubbing halted to keep staff safe, broadcaster Fuji Television Network said.
“We will halt broadcast of new episodes of Sazae-san for the time being from May 17 and instead air re-runs,” it announced on Sunday.
The network said upcoming broadcasts would be episodes from two years ago, adding it would announce a date for the resumption of new episodes as soon as possible.
It is the first time the network has been forced to air re-runs since 1975, when the economic effects of an earlier oil crisis lingered.
Elon Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla would resume production at its northern California factory on Monday afternoon, in defiance of a local public health order designed to slow the spread of coronavirus.
“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules,” the billionaire CEO tweeted. “I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”
Musk’s announcement followed a weekend of escalating threats by the entrepreneur against the county that is home to Tesla’s only car factory in the US, in the city of Fremont. On Saturday, Tesla sued Alameda county, alleging that the local public health order violated California’s constitution. Musk also threatened to move its headquarters and “future programs” to Texas or Nevada “immediately” and suggested that the company may not continue to “retain Fremont manufacturing at all”.
Easing restrictions to boost Australian economy by US$6bn a month
Once Australia removes most social distancing restrictions by July, its economy will be boosted by AU$9.4bn (US$6.15bn) each month, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will say on Tuesday in a speech updating lawmakers on his budget planning, Reuters reports.
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said last week social distancing restrictions imposed since March will be eased in a three-step process, as Canberra aims to remove most curbs by July and get nearly 1 million people back to work.
While the lockdown measures have successfully prevented local hospitals being swamped by coronavirus patients, they have taken a devastating toll on the economy.
Australia has recorded about 7,000 cases of coronavirus and 97 deaths from the virus. In a bid to stave-off a prolonged economic depression, Australia’s government and central bank pledged to inject A$320 billion into the country’s economy.
To fund the staggering fiscal package, Australia may have to borrow more than A$300 billion over the next 15 months - 15% of annual economic output, and Frydenberg will say a period of economic austerity will be needed in the future.
The bulk of the financial aid goes toward funding the government’s scheme to subsidise the wages of about 6 million locals that keeps them out of unemployment statistics.
But still about 10% of the country’s labour force is also expected to be without a job this year.
The government expects about 850,000 people will return to work once the third phase or relaxation on social distancing restrictions is implemented.
Let’s take a minute to check in with Olive and Mabel, shall we:
Still having the company meetings online. pic.twitter.com/aR3LfuSdKl
— Andrew Cotter (@MrAndrewCotter) May 11, 2020
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s global live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Helen Sullivan, and I’ll be with you for the next few hours.
Please do get in touch with questions, comments or news from your part of the world on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
After a tense interaction with reporters, President Trump ended a press conference on Monday, refusing to take any more questions and leaving the podium.
Asked by CBS White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang why he is fixated on comparing the US’s testing capability with other countries, Trump replied: “Maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me, ask China that question, OK?”
Jiang, who is Asian-American, asked Trump why he had said directed that comment at her, specifically, Trump said, “I’m telling you, I’m not saying it specifically to anybody. I’m saying it to anybody that would ask a nasty question like that.” Trump then cut off the CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins as she asked a question and walked away from the podium
Here is what else has happened in the last few hours:
- Global confirmed death toll exceeds 285,000. The number of people known to have died since the pandemic began has reached at least 285,445, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. They say at least 4,168,427 people are known to have been infected. The figures are likely to significantly underestimate the true scale of the pandemic.
- Trump declared victory over the “invisible enemy” as deaths surpassed 80,000 in the US.“We have met the moment and we have prevailed,” Trump, flanked by ventilators and testing supplies, said during a briefing in the White House Rose Garden on Monday. He later said he was referring to testing.
- Trump accused of racism over press conference comments. The president was criticised for telling an Asian-American journalist to direct her questions on the US’s epidemic to China, instead of to him. Trump insisted he would have answered the question the same way regardless of who had asked it. Trump refused to take further questions and abruptly ended the press conference. CNN’s influential chief media correspondent, Brian Stelter, said Trump’s actions had “racist overtones”, adding: “It’s racist to look at an Asian-American correspondent and say ‘ask China’; it’s part of a pattern from the president.”
- White House staff ordered to wear masks. The White House has directed staff working in the West Wing, where the daily operations of Donald Trump’s administration are carried out, to wear masks. With Trump’s valet and vice-president Mike Pence’s press secretary both testing positive for the virus last week, pressure is growing for the White House to take further steps in protecting the health of country’s 73-year-old president.
- The World Health Organization says “extreme vigilance” is needed as countries begin to exit lockdowns imposed to curb the virus’ spread. The warning comes after Germany reported an acceleration in new infections after easing its lockdown, and South Korea, another country that succeeded in limiting infections, saw a new outbreak in nightclubs.
- Boris Johnson denies reports his senior scientific and medical advisers were not consulted on the new messaging attached to his plan to ease the country’s lockdown as he set out the details in parliament. Amid muddled guidance from ministers on what the new rules actually allow, Johnson insists the public understands his government’s message.
-
“No guarantee” of vaccine, UK’s PM says. There is no guarantee of a Covid-19 vaccine, says the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, but he adds that the UK is heavily involved in the work to develop one.
- Germany has reported an acceleration in new infections after taking early steps to ease its lockdown. South Korea, another country that succeeded in limiting infections, has seen a new outbreak in nightclubs.
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Putin eases Russia lockdown despite infection surge. The Russian president announces an easing of the nationwide lockdown, even as the country sees a record number of new infections.
- Men’s blood has higher levels of an enzyme used by the Sars-CoV-2 virus to infect cells, the results of a study published in the European Heart Journal show. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is found in the heart, kidneys and other organs. It is thought to play a role in how the infection progresses into the lungs.
- Saudi-backed authorities in Yemen declared Aden an “infested” city as the number of cases there rose. The Aden-based national coronavirus committee announced 17 new cases, 10 of them in the southern port city. That raises the total count in areas under the Saudi-backed government’s control to 51, with eight deaths.
- Half a million more people could die from Aids-related illnesses in sub-Saharan Africa if efforts are not made to overcome interruptions to health services as a result of the pandemic, the World Health Organization warned. According to modelling, the disruption to health services could take Aids-related deaths in the next year back to 2008 levels, when it claimed 950,000 lives.
- The UK and WHO are to lead a global information campaign around the coronavirus pandemic. The “Stop the Spread” campaign, intended to counteract “incorrect and false information” about the virus, will appear across BBC World television channels, websites and apps from this month and throughout June.
