We’ve fired up a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest news in the coronavirus pandemic from around the world:
The son of CNN host Chris Cuomo (brother of New York governor Andrew Cuomo) has tested positive for coronavirus. Chris Cuomo has the virus, too.
That briefing has now ended. We’ll bring you more news and a summary shortly.
Trump says of Dr Fauci, “If I let him speak, I’ll let anyone speak.”
It’s quite the comment after that performance with Dr Redfield.
Good news for pet owners: our favourite fluffy friends are unlikely transmitters of coronavirus, according to Dr Fauci.
Pets and animals can get infected with the virus, but “there’s no evidence that the virus is transmitted from a pet to a human,” Fauci said.
“Anything is possible,” Fauci added, but right now it seems unlikely.
Trump is being asked about accountability.
He is asked about this story – he says he doesn’t know anything about it:
He ran the coronavirus response for the Trump Administration. Before that he was a professional Labradoodle breeder for 6 years. My latest with @marisaataylor https://t.co/iLkd4cc6Ov
— Aram Roston (@AramRoston) April 22, 2020
Trump has claimed, once again, that the US is the “best” in the world at testing. That’s not true.
Overall, the US had administered more than 4.5m coronavirus tests, according to the Covid Tracking Project. From a very slow start, the US, with a population of 329m, had ramped up to a testing rate of one in every 80 people — a bit better than to South Korea’s rate of 1 in every 90 people. Germany has done even better, testing every 1 in 63 people.
In America, despite the recent increase in testing, backlogs are reported in labs across the country, and many people with symptoms — including health workers — are still struggling to access tests.
Trump is being asked about his planned 4th of July event on the Washington Mall.
“We’ll probably have about 25% of what we had last year,” he says. Then he compares photographs of his fourth of July celebrations last year to Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s address at the Washington Mall in 1963, during the civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
That’s this photo, of the day Dr King delivered his “I have a dream” speech.
Here’s some of our coverage of Trump’s event:
Updated
Trump says the immigration order is “a very powerful order,” and that after 60 days he will review it, he may then change how it works, he may extend it.
“Our southern border is very tight. It hasn’t been this tight in years,” he says.
More on the immigration executive order:
- Medical and other essential workers from abroad will be exempt, as will the spouses and minor children of American children, and “certain other aliens”.
- The administration will review guest worker programs/
- “The Administration will continue to monitor the labor market to amend or extend the proclamation if needed,” per the White House.
“There will be coronavirus in the fall,” says Dr Fauci.
Dr Fauci, the country’s leading expert on infectious diseases, is speaking now.
“Remember a few weeks ago when we said we were going to have a really bad week?”
What has happened now is that the mitigation program worked, and got the US to “where we are today.”
He is warning people to keep following the instructions. “The one way not to reopen the economy is to have a rebound we can’t take care of.”
Trump said that he is establishing a new council to help Black and Latino communities and other underserved communities access testing and care. The council will be headed by housing secretary Ben Carson.
Trump said he told Georgia Governor Brian Kemp that he disagreed strongly with Kemp’s decision to begin allowing some nonessential businesses to reopen in the coming days.
Speaking at a daily White House briefing Wednesday evening, Trump said he had spoken with Kemp over the phone.
At the same time he must do what he thinks is right, Trump said of the Republican governor.
Kemp’s plan to begin cracking open the Georgia economy faces two major hurdles: the state is struggling to increase testing for new coronavirus infections and boost tracking of those in contact with infected people, AP reports.
Without those capabilities, experts said Georgia risks a quick rebound of the Covid-19 illness as Kemp allows some businesses to reopen in coming days. The Republican governor’s decision has been questioned because the state has yet to show continuing progress in those areas, and it could be difficult to catch up.
Trump signs immigration order
Trump says he signed the order halting immigration to the US “just before coming into the room.”
Updated
Trump said he will be holding a July 4 celebration in Washington, DC’s national mall, like last year.
“On July 4, we will be doing what we had at the Mall. As you know, we’re gonna be doing it. Last year was a tremendous success and I would imagine we’ll do it, hopefully, I can use the term ‘forever.’ That was a great success, as you remember,” he said.
Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Trump says reopening “spas, beauty salons, barbershops, and tattoo parlours” is a bad idea.
“I love ‘those people who use all of those things,” he adds. “I love ‘em, but they can wait just a little bit longer. Because safety has to predominate.”
Trump says that Harvard and Stanford and other university will not be accepting the funds they were allocated under the CARES act.
Harvard tweeted about this earlier today:
1/5 Harvard will not accept funds from the CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund. Like most colleges & universities, Harvard has been allocated funds as part of the CARES Act. Harvard did not apply for this support, nor has it requested, received or accessed the funds
— Harvard University (@Harvard) April 22, 2020
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Trump says he discouraged Georgia’s governor from reopening
The US president says he told Georgia governor Brian Kemp that he disagreed “very strongly” with the decision to reopen businesses in the state. “I think it’s too soon,” he says. Georgia has not yet met the requirements to enter “Phase 1” of the White House plan to reopen the country, Trump noted.
Trump says there will be airshows over major cities “and not such major cities” in the coming weeks. The Air Force Thunderbirds and Navy Blue Angels will be performing the “tremendous airshows” in honour of medical workers and those who have died.
Trump is now complaining that the “fake news” never asks him about ventilators.
Trump: “Instead you say, ‘Trump was slow’.”
“We weren’t slow,” he says.
You can watch the White House press briefing live here:
Jonathan Karl just read this comment back to Redfield. Redfield, in his answer, makes clear that he was not misquoted. https://t.co/XlycrDV824
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) April 22, 2020
Here's CDC Director Redfield trying to make a painstaking distinction between "worse" and "complicated" in an effort to walk back comments he made on the record indicating that a second wave of coronavirus this fall could be really bad pic.twitter.com/q9eClOqxkz
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 22, 2020
Trump says there’s a chance Covid-19 won’t come back.
Dr Birx says “Well, we don’t know.”
She says that if it does come back the US will be able to detect it earlier.
Trump has taken particular issue with the Washington Post’s coverage of Dr Redfield’s comments.
Dr Redfield has just been asked whether he was accurately quoted by the Washington Post. He was, he says. Trump jumps in to say the headline was the problem.
The Post’s headline was “CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus is likely to be even more devastating”. Here is their response to Trump’s criticism.
Dr Redfield is asked why he retweeted the article if it was inaccurate. Trump steps in, immediately, to say that the journalist speaking wasn’t called upon to ask a question.
White House press briefing begins
Hi, Helen Sullivan with you now.
The White House coronavirus update has started.
Donald Trump kicks off by saying, “more states will soon be in the position to gradually and safely reopen.”
He then moves on to fake news. His accusation today is that Dr Robert Redfield, current Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was misquoted in the media.
He says it’s important to emphasise that he didn’t say next season would be “worse”, but that it would be “more difficult and potentially complicated”.
Dr Redfield warned yesterday that a wave of coronavirus next winter would coincide with the normal influenza season.
The Guardian wrote about Dr Redfield’s warnings, under the headline “CDC chief warns of ‘even more difficult’ wave of coronavirus next winter.”
The key to his comments, he said, was to encourage Americans to “embrace the flu vaccine”.
You can read that story here:
Updated
European Union leaders will move towards joint financing of a recovery by asking the European commission to propose a fund sufficient for the job that targets the most affected sectors and regions, Reuters reports.
Many leaders see the massive joint recovery financing as a crucial tool of EU solidarity as some in the 27-nation bloc will have a harder time than others regaining their economic footing after the deepest-ever EU recession this year.
“The idea of having a special instrument to deal with the crisis is starting to be consensual,” one senior EU official involved in the preparation of the summit said.
The fashion industry needs to rethink what it stands for once the pandemic has passed, Vogue editor-in-chief Dame Anna Wintour has said.
She told the supermodel Naomi Campbell during an interview on her YouTube programme No Filter With Naomi that she thinks people’s values “are really going to have shifted” because of the crisis.
Dame Anna added that the amount of waste and excess in the industry will need to be reconsidered.
I feel very strongly that when we come out at the other end - which we will do – that people’s values are really going to have shifted.
I think it’s an opportunity for all of us to look at our industry and to look at our lives, and to rethink our values, and to really think about the waste, and the amount of money, and consumption, and excess – and I obviously include myself in this - that we have all indulged in and how we really need to rethink what this industry stands for.
Dame Anna said there would need to be “more of an emphasis on sustainability” and “more of an emphasis on luxury, on creativity, on craft”.
Updated
Donald Trump and conservative supporters have backed away from hyping the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential cure. Fox News staffers have also pivoted from promoting the anti-malarial drug. The dial-back came as a new report showed that a recent US trial of hydroxychloroquine had not gone well.
The doctor who was head of the federal agency overseeing research into a vaccine said he was ousted from his post after he questioned the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug the US president Donald Trump has often touted.
Rick Bright, who was the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), was reassigned to a role with fewer responsibilities, according to a statement from his lawyer. The New York Times first reported the news.
While I am prepared to look at all options and to think ‘outside the box’ for effective treatments, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public.
I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way.
The UK government is being urged to recognise that race and racial inequalities are a risk factor for Covid-19 as Guardian research reveals that ethnic minorities in England are dying in disproportionately high numbers compared with white people, Caelainn Barr, Niko Kommenda, Niamh McIntyre and Antonio Voce write.
The revelation that people from minority groups appear to be over-represented among the deaths, by as much as 27%, “confirmed the worst fears” of campaigners who said there was now no question of an excessive toll.
The Guardian analysis found that of 12,593 patients who died in hospital up to 19 April, 19% were Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) even though these groups make up only 15% of the general population in England.
And the analysis revealed that three London boroughs with high BAME populations - Harrow, Brent and Barnet - were also among the five local authorities with the highest death rates in hospitals and the community.
UK government ministers are being pressed to reveal the full details of how they missed out on four opportunities to join an EU medical supplies consortium, in the wake of a U-turn by the top civil servant in the Foreign Office over comments suggesting it was a “political decision”, Patrick Wintour and Daniel Boffey write.
The Labour MP Chris Bryant, who sits on the foreign affairs select committee, said on Wednesday that he “feared the government was involved in a full-on cover-up” over how it came to miss out on four rounds of procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators and laboratory supplies launched by the EU in late February and March.
UK officials failed to take up an invitation to join the steering committee of participating countries that issues orders for medical equipment until 19 March – after the bulk purchases had been made.
Bryant said he feared either Foreign Office ministers or the prime minister decided not to be associated with any EU scheme for political reasons “even though it was patently in the interests of the NHS and its staff to explore every possible avenue to acquire masks, gowns and ventilator equipment, as fast and most effectively as possible”.
Updated
Egypt’s parliament has approved amendments to the country’s emergency laws that give expanded powers to the presidency and the military prosecution as authorities try to counter the epidemic.
The amendments allow the state to take and enforce a series of measures, some of which have already been deployed. These include suspending schools, banning public or private gatherings, quarantining returning travellers, prohibiting the export of certain goods and placing restrictions on the trade or transfer of commodities, according to a parliamentary report on the amendments.
The state will also be allowed to direct private hospitals and their staff to help with general healthcare for a specific period, and to convert schools, companies and other publicly-owned sites into field hospitals.
The family of the acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking has donated his ventilator to a hospital that had treated him in Cambridge. The hospital said:
Professor Stephen Hawking’s family has donated his ventilator to Royal Papworth hospital as we care for increasing numbers of Covid-19 patients.
His daughter, Lucy Hawking, described the care her father received there as “brilliant, dedicated and compassionate”, it said.
“We’d like to say a huge thank you to the Hawking family for supporting us at this challenging time,” said the hospital, which is a world-leading centre for heart and lung transplants.
The medical equipment was bought by Hawking himself, the BBC reported, and after checks had been added to the hospital’s fleet.
Bahrain has extended its lockdown measures for two more weeks, from 23 April until 7 May, its state news agency has reported.
Those measures include closing all cinemas, sports centres, gyms, salons, and restricting restaurants operations to food delivery and takeaway only, among other measures. Bahrain has registered 2,009 cases, with a death tally that stands at seven.
The footballer Gareth Bale will hand over £1m to fund the fight in Wales and Spain.
The Real Madrid forward and his wife Emma have made a £500,000 donation to help NHS staff fighting the crisis in Cardiff and will follow that up with a further £500,000 for the health service in Madrid, where he and his family have been on lockdown since 14 March.
Updated
The director general of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has warned that complacency is the “greatest danger” facing countries in the fight against the pandemic:
Updated
Marianne Faithfull has been discharged from hospital after she was admitted for treatment while displaying symptoms of Covid-19. The singer spent nearly three weeks in hospital. Her agent said:
We are really happy to say that Marianne has been discharged from hospital today, 22 days after being admitted suffering from the symptoms of Covid-19. She will continue to recuperate in London.
Marianne thanks you all for your kind messages of concern, which have meant a great deal through what is such a difficult time for so many. She is also very grateful to all the NHS staff who cared for her at the hospital and, without doubt, saved her life.
Updated
Finland will adopt a hybrid strategy it hopes will allow a semblance of normality while still containing the outbreak, its prime minister, Sanna Marin, has said.
She said the strategy would involve Finland gradually scaling back the restrictions in place to contain the virus while further increasing testing.
Test, trace, isolate and treat thinking, alongside winding up restrictive measures in a controlled manner. We want to move towards even more widespread testing and tracking down those who have been exposed.
Updated
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 802,583 cases as of Tuesday; an increase of 26,490 from Monday. It said the number of deaths had risen by 2,817 to 44,575.
The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.
Updated
MIA has claimed that British Vogue magazine has cancelled a feature about her because of comments she made on vaccination in the coronavirus pandemic, reports Laura Snapes, the Guardian’s deputy music editor.
Last month, the Sri Lankan musician, whose real name is Mara Arulpragasam, said she would “choose death” over a vaccine for the coronavirus.
On Wednesday, the 44-year-old posted on her Instagram page screenshots of a text conversation with an unidentified person who said that the editor of British Vogue, Edward Enninful, had withdrawn his offer for a feature. She has since removed the post.
The message quoted a Vogue editor as saying:
Considering our August is an issue where we’re chronicling the struggles of the NHS to cope while a vaccine is tried to be made we don’t feel we can have her involved. It just wouldn’t be right. All of our issues July-September will be supporting the frontline healthcare workers and we need to be respectful of them and all they are doing until a vaccine exists.
Updated
It seems that everyone got something different out of today’s World Health Organization coronavirus press conference. Reuters focused on the funding issues caused by Donald Trump’s decision to withhold US payments to the global health body. The agency reports:
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that he hoped the Trump administration would reconsider its suspension of funding, but that his main focus was on ending the pandemic and saving lives.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, told a Geneva news conference: “I hope the freezing of the funding will be reconsidered and the US will once again support WHO’s work and continue to save lives.”
“I hope the US believes that this an important investment, not just to help others but for the US to stay safe also,” Tedros said.
Dr Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergencies expert, said that it was important to understand the animal origins of the new coronavirus which jumped the species barrier to humans in China late last year, adding: “It can be breached again.”
Updated
More than a dozen government-backed hacking groups are using the coronavirus pandemic as cover for phishing and malware attempts, according to security experts at Google.
Google said its Threat Analysis Group found hackers targeting international health organisations, including activity that corroborated a Reuters report from early April that the World Health Organization was targeted.
The WHO and other organisations at the centre of a global effort to contain the coronavirus have come under a sustained digital bombardment by hackers seeking information about the outbreak.
Google said it has detected 18m malware and phishing Gmail messages each day related to the coronavirus outbreak.
However, it said the number of phishing attacks was not in itself unusual, adding in the blog post published on Wednesday:
Generally, we’re not seeing an overall rise in phishing attacks by government-backed groups; this is just a change in tactics. In fact, we saw a slight decrease in overall volumes in March compared to January and February. While it’s not unusual to see some fluctuations in these numbers, it could be that attackers, just like many other organizations, are experiencing productivity lags and issues due to global lockdowns and quarantine efforts.
Updated
Turkey has its coronavirus outbreak under control, the health minister, Dr Fahrettin Koca, said on Wednesday as data showed deaths from the virus increasing by 117 to 2,376 with 3,083 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, Reuters reports.
The total number of cases in the country stood at 98,674, the data showed.
A total of 16,477 people have recovered from the virus so far, while the number of tests carried out over the past 24 hours stood at 37,535.
Updated
The coronavirus was killing Americans in the US weeks before health officials, doctors or the government realised, it emerged early on Wednesday, reports Joanna Walters in New York.
Health officials now say two people died from Covid-19 in California in early February before the first reported death from the disease in the US.
Santa Clara county officials, in northern California, said they now know the people died at their homes on 6 and 17 February. The first official recorded death in the US from the virus was reported on 29 February in Kirkland, in the state of Washington.
The medical examiner-coroner of Santa Clara county received confirmation on Tuesday that tissue samples obtained during autopsies and sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested positive for the virus, officials said.
A third such death had occurred on 6 March. Santa Clara county is south of San Francisco and includes San Jose.
“These three individuals died at home during a time when very limited testing was available only through the CDC,” the Santa Clara county health department said in a statement.
“Testing criteria set by the CDC at the time restricted testing to only individuals with a known travel history and who sought medical care for specific symptoms. As the medical examiner-coroner continues to carefully investigate deaths throughout the county, we anticipate additional deaths from Covid-19 will be identified,” the statement added.
Updated
One of the main themes at today’s World Health Organization press conference is the major role that US experts and officials play inside the WHO, writes Julian Borger, the Guardian’s world affairs editor.
This follows multiple accusations from Donald Trump and his officials that the WHO was privy to information about Covid-19 that it hid from the US.
The Guardian reported on Saturday that there were more than a dozen officials from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) embedded in the WHO in January and February.
Today, the head of the WHO health emergencies programme, Michael Ryan, said there were 31 US nationals on his team and pointed to Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO technical lead on Covid-19 also sitting on the podium, who is a US epidemiologist.
The WHO director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the close association with CDC and having CDC staff at WHO headquarters in Geneva meant there was “nothing hidden from the US, from day one, because these are Americans who are working with us, and it just comes naturally.
Since our CDC colleagues also know that we give information immediately to anyone, they also can pass information to their institution. No problem. There is no secret in the WHO, because keeping things confidential or secret is dangerous.
Updated
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose by 708 to 34,842, health authorities said on Wednesday, with 138 new deaths, Reuters reports.
The country’s death toll stands at 4,054, the Netherlands Institute for Public Health (RIVM) said in its daily update. The RIVM repeated the actual numbers are probably higher, as not all likely cases are tested.
Updated
The spokesman for Belgium’s coronavirus task force has pushed back against his country’s being singled out by the US government as the worst-affected in the world by coronavirus.
On Saturday, the White House highlighted Belgium as having the highest deaths per 100,000 population, at 45.20 ahead of badly hit Spain and Italy and four times the rate of the US.
But Steven van Gucht, a virologist who is the public face of his country’s coronavirus response, told Reuters the comparison was unfair.
It’s not a fair comparison because our counting system is much more comprehensive.
We take into account not only the hospital cases but also cases that occur in the community for example in the nursing homes.
Belgium is one of few countries in Europe that includes the deaths of non-hospitalised people suspected of having Covid-19. For most countries, the death toll counts only patients in hospital who tested positive for the virus.
On Wednesday, Belgium reported 933 new cases and 264 new deaths from Covid-19, bringing to a total of 41,889 confirmed cases and 6,262 deaths.
However, 52% of the fatalities included in Belgium’s death toll are patients in nursing homes. Of those, only 4.5% are confirmed to have had Covid-19, with the rest just suspected cases.
For a more accurate comparison with other countries, Van Gucht said the Belgian death rate should be divided by two.
Updated
The mayor of one of the largest cities in the Caribbean has come up with a novel way to enforce social distancing: ordering fire crews to drench anyone seen within two metres of anyone else, Tom Phillips, the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, reports.
H20MG! https://t.co/ElTUFGx9me
— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) April 22, 2020
Abel Martínez, the mayor of Santiago in the Dominican Republic, sent two fire trucks out onto the city’s streets on Tuesday equipped with water hoses and loudspeakers.
“Attention. Warning. If you don’t stay two metres apart they will start to shoot water to separate you,” the speakers tell passersby as the hose is trained on them.
“Respect distancing. This is your last warning. They are ready to soak you!”
Images of the fire trucks moving through Santiago do not show them following through on the threat.
#CDN37 Desde tempranas horas de este martes camiones de bomberos salieron a las calles de Santiago para cumplir con la medida del alcalde Abel Martínez, quien dispuso se mojen a la personas que incumplan el distanciamiento social en los establecimientos comerciales. pic.twitter.com/faq9shgEs8
— CDN 37 (@CDN37) April 21, 2020
Italy reported 437 new deaths from coronavirus on Tuesday, 97 less than on Monday, bringing the death toll to 25,085, reports Angela Giuffrida, the Guardian’s Rome correspondent.
The number of people currently infected with the virus fell for the third day in a row, by 10 to 107,699, while there was a record jump of 2,943 in the number of people to have recovered.
Italy’s total cases to date, including the victims and 54,543 survivors, rose by 3,370 to 187,327.
Updated
On Wednesday afternoon, the regional government of Madrid said that 11,852 people in the area had died from the coronavirus, or while showing symptoms consistent with the disease, since 8 March, reports Sam Jones, the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent.
The figures, which include deaths at home and in care homes, are far higher than the 7,577 deaths it has reported to the central government, which compiles the nationwide toll in Spain.
This is because Spain’s health ministry logs only the deaths of people who have died in hospital after testing positive for Covid-19. According to the regional government, 5,558 people have died in care homes in and around Madrid since 8 March.
Updated
The family of a Bolsonarista congressman have been detained by police in Rio de Janeiro after taking a dip off Copacabana beach in violation of orders to stay indoors because of the coronavirus, Tom Phillips reports from Rio de Janeiro.
The wife and daughter of Luiz Lima - an avid supporter of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro - were reportedly spotted in the Atlantic waves on Tuesday during a police patrol and twice asked to remove themselves from the ocean.
When Lima’s family declined they were reportedly taken to a nearby police station where they and two others were fined under article 268 of the criminal code: disobeying government orders designed to prevent the introduction or spread of a contagious disease.
Lima was not happy.
He accused Rio’s governor - who has ordered beaches to be closed as part of a state-wide shutdown designed to slow the advance of Covid-19 - of behaving like a dictator.
In a Twitter video, Lima said: “Governor, forgive my language, but you’re a shit.”
Governador Wilson Witzel, um ditador, escroto, destemperado e desequilibrado. pic.twitter.com/YkpL2MkT4f
— Luiz Lima (@Oficialluizlima) April 21, 2020
Earlier this month Bolsonaro - who has faced global condemnation for undermining social distancing measures and downplaying the pandemic - attacked Rio’s supposedly “dictatorial” beach ban.
“There’s no problem going there at all,” claimed Bolsonaro.
World has 'a long way to go', warns WHO chief
The director general of the World Health Organization has said that there is still “a long way to go” in tackling the coronavirus crisis around the world.
Speaking at the WHO’s thrice-weekly press conference, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that while most national epidemics in western Europe had appeared to have stabilised or were declining, outbreaks appeared to be growing in Africa, central and south America, and eastern Europe.
And he warned against complacency, insisting that lockdown measures had no doubt helped curb the spread of the virus.
Most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics and some that were affected early in the pandemic are now starting to see a resurgence in cases.
Make no mistake, we have a long way to go. This virus will be with us for a long time. There is no question that stay-at-home orders and other physical distancing measures have successfully suppressed transmission in many countries. But this virus remains extremely dangerous.
"One of the greatest dangers we face now is complacency. People in countries with #StayHome orders are understandably frustrated with being confined to their homes for weeks on end"-@DrTedros #COVID19
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 22, 2020
Updated
Covid-19 infections in Singapore pass 10,000
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Singapore has passed 10,000, despite concerted and strenuous attempts to contain the spread of the infection in the city state.
The milestone comes after Singapore’s ministry of health reported 1,016 new cases on Wednesday, the third day in a row that the city’s daily tally has exceeded 1,000, bringing the overall total in the city to 10,141.
The overwhelming majority - 967 - of the new cases were discovered among the migrant workers that Singapore relies on to carry out basic services in the city, suggesting that they had hitherto been overlooked in efforts to contain Covid-19.
The city also reported a 12th death from Covid-19. The victim, an 84-year-old woman, died on Tuesday night from complications due to the infection, the health ministry said.
As of 22 Apr, 12pm, we have confirmed and verified an additional 1,016 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. Breakdown: 0 imported, 17 cases in the community, 32 Work Permit holders residing outside dorms & 967Work Permit holders residing in dorms. https://t.co/5vV7dsiWoN
— Ministry of Health (@sporeMOH) April 22, 2020
Of the new cases, 73% are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing. https://t.co/5vV7dsiWoN
— Ministry of Health (@sporeMOH) April 22, 2020
As of 22 Apr, 12 pm, 57 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 896 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged. https://t.co/5vV7dsiWoN
— Ministry of Health (@sporeMOH) April 22, 2020
Of the 4,234 confirmed cases who are still in hospital, most are stable or improving. 25 are in critical condition in the intensive care unit. https://t.co/5vV7dsiWoN
— Ministry of Health (@sporeMOH) April 22, 2020
Updated
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, is about to begin his thrice-weekly press conference. You can tune in live on the player at the top of the blog.
Updated
US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has predicted that “most if not all” of the US economy would reopen later in the summer.
“We’re looking forward to by the time we hit later in the summer having most of the economy if not all of the economy open,” Mnuchin told Fox Business Network on Wednesday morning.
However, the Trump administration has previously been guilty of setting lofty goals for reopening the economy that have not come to fruition.
The president previously said he hoped the economy would be “opened up and just raring to go by Easter” before shifting the reopening target date to 1 May, even as a number of states extended their stay-at-home orders well into May.
Public health experts have said some level of social distancing will probably be necessary until a coronavirus vaccine is developed, which could take a year or more.
Follow the latest updates from the US:
Updated
Missing Wuhan citizen journalist reappears
A Chinese citizen journalist who was missing for almost two months after posting videos from Wuhan during the coronavirus outbreak has re-appeared, claiming that he was detained by police and forcibly quarantined, Lily Kuo reports from Beijing.
Li Zehua was one of three Chinese journalists who had been reporting in Wuhan during some of the worst weeks of the epidemic. He was last seen on 26 February after posting a video in which he was chased by a white SUV and an hours-long livestream that ended when several agents entered his apartment.
In a video posted on YouTube, Weibo and Twitter, Li said that on 26 February, the white SUV had pulled out in front of him while he was driving in the Wuchang district in Wuhan and the people in it had yelled for him to stop. Li panicked and drove off with the car in pursuit, recording the video that he posted online later that day.
我是李泽华Kcriss，这是2月26日至今关于我的一些情况。I'm Kcriss, here is something about me si... https://t.co/ETjY7QaacY via @YouTube
— Kcriss Li (@KcrissLi) April 22, 2020
After making it back to his apartment, he saw uniformed police and staff in protective suits knocking on the doors of his neighbours. Li turned the lights off and sat quietly in front of his computer for hours, waiting. Three hours later, a knock came.
Updated
Airlines in Europe have applied for €12.8bn (£11.3bn) in government support since the start of the coronavirus pandemic with no binding environmental conditions attached, according to an analysis of the sector’s bailout pleas, Sandra Laville reports.
By Tuesday this week, airlines including easyJet, Scandinavian Airlines and Tui had secured loans and other financial support amounting to €3.36bn. A further €9.47bn is being sought by other airlines, data tracking by Transport & Environment, Greenpeace and Carbon Watch reveals.
By the time air travel came to a near-halt in March, greenhouse gas emissions from the sector had reached record levels. But there are no binding environmental conditions being attached to any of the already agreed bailouts or future loans being sought.
The exception is in Austria, where the transport minister, Leonore Gewessler, responded to a request for public support by Austrian Airlines (part of the Lufthansa group) by saying any bailout should be linked to climate targets.
Updated
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Wednesday that it will run out of masks within three to four weeks, raising the prospect that it will have to halt operations, AFP reports.
Kenneth Lavelle, MSF’s deputy director of operations, said in a virtual press conference in Geneva, where the organisation is based, that the NGO would need about a million masks a week for the next six months.
Otherwise, “we might be faced with taking even more difficult decisions about stopping activities”, said Lavelle.
Due to the phenomenal demand for PPE as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic, the organisation is finding itself priced out of the market, he said.
We have stocks, globally, for three, maybe four weeks maximum.
The small quantities that remain will be distributed to our missions, but we have got virtually zero visibility on what stocks we will have in three to four weeks.
Our supply pipeline will be empty.
Trish Newport, MSF’s emergency coordinator for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, warned of the dangers of scaling back operations in countries with fragile health systems.
If we’re not able to continue providing care safely, we will see an increase in mortality of non-Covid-19-related things: malaria, diarrhoea, maternal health.
We also would have limited capacity to be able to respond to an emergency outbreak, such as the measles outbreak in the Congo or in Chad, or other possible outbreaks such as cholera.
Updated
The World Health Organization has reported a 45% increase in the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in a week across its African region, which excludes parts of north Africa such as Egypt, and a 38% increase in the number of deaths.
In its latest regional situation report, almost two months after the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Africa, the UN health body said the only African member states yet to report cases were Comoros and Lesotho.
It said that as of Tuesday, a cumulative total of 15,394 confirmed Covid-19 cases, with 716 deaths, had been reported across the 45 affected countries in the region, giving a case fatality ratio of 4.7%. It added:
Out of the 45 affected countries, nine (20%) reported over 500 cases, 12 (27%) reported between 100 and 499 cases and 24 (53%) reported fewer than 100 cases. Cameroon and Ghana are the latest countries to cross the 1,000-cases threshold, joining Algeria and South Africa in this group.
Updated
Serbia has reported 224 new confirmed cases of Covid-19, and four more deaths, Telegraf reports.
The Balkan country has so far recorded 7,114 cases from the coronavirus, and a death toll of 134.
According to Telegraf, it was confirmed on Wednesday that a Serbian orthodox church bishop who serves as vicar to Patriarch Irinej, the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Serbs, had also tested positive.
Irinej was also tested but was found to be clear of the virus.
Updated
This is Damien Gayle back at the controls now. Remember, you can reach me with any comments, tips or suggestions for coverage by emailing damien.gayle@theguardian.com or via Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.
665 more hospital deaths in England, bringing total to 16,272
From our UK-focused live blog, NHS England has announced 665 further deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 16,272. Full numbers can be found in the link below
Updated
UN human rights expert says ‘responses to Covid-19 are failing people in poverty worldwide’
Many governments’ responses to Covid-19 have had devastating effects on people in poverty, said the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, in a statement on Wednesday.
Despite often far-reaching policy reversals and huge financial support packages, the most vulnerable have been short-changed or excluded.
He added:
The policies of many states reflect a social Darwinism philosophy that prioritises the economic interests of the wealthiest, while doing little for those who are hard at work providing essential services or unable to support themselves.
This is a crisis that disproportionately affects poor people, who are more likely to have health complications, live in crowded housing, lack the resources to stay at home for long periods, and work low-paid jobs that force them to choose between risking their health or losing their income.
Updated
Lithuania will start to ease coronavirus lockdown measures this week after they were imposed last month to prevent the spread of the virus, the government said.
“Due to the strict restrictions, Lithuania avoided a sharp increase of Covid-19 cases which was seen elsewhere in Europe, such as in Italy, Spain, Great Britain,” Lithuania’s public health authority chief said in a letter to government.
Shops can re-open from Thursday and customer service businesses, such as hairdressers, libraries, museums and golf courses, can resume from 27 April, according to the government website.
Businesses will need to limit numbers of customers on their premises to no more than one person per 10 sq metre.
The government also said full lockdown measures would not be lifted until 11 May, delayed from the original date of 27 April.
Updated
The amount of money migrant workers send back to their home countries is expected to decrease by more than $110bn this year as the Covid-19 pandemic increases unemployment across the world, reports Phillip Inman.
Remittances to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are projected to fall by nearly 20% to $445bn (£360bn), “representing the loss of a crucial financial lifeline for many vulnerable households”, the World Bank said.
Updated
Good afternoon, this is Gregory Robinson, taking over the live blog for the next hour. If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter to share insight or send tips, I’m on @Gregoryjourno or send me an email at gregory.robinson@guardian.co.uk
Turkey’s top medical association has accused the government of failing to protect health workers after 24 - including 14 doctors - died of the coronavirus this month.
So far, close to 3,500 medics in Turkey have been infected with the virus - 3.6% of the country’s total cases, AFP reports.
The Turkish Medical Association (TTB), which represents 80% of the country’s physicians, blamed the deaths and infections on a lack of action from Ankara. It accused the government of “not taking the necessary precautions on time and effectively” and “failing to provide personal protective equipment on time”.
Turkey has so far officially recorded 95,591 infections and 2,259 deaths from the coronavirus outbreak. Most cases have been reported in the country’s most populous city of Istanbul and the TTB said the city was also where the majority of infected health workers were.
Turkey’s government has shut schools, universities and public spaces to halt the spread of the virus but has not imposed a total lockdown like many countries across Europe. Instead, all-day weekend lockdowns have been rolled out in 31 cities across the country.
The president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said this week’s shut-in orders would start early on Thursday, which is a public holiday, and last until midnight on Sunday.
Updated
In a further sign that Spain is turning a corner in its efforts to contain Covid-19, the emergency morgue set up at a huge ice rink in Madrid to help the Spanish capital store its coronavirus dead closed its doors on Wednesday, reports Sam Jones, the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent.
The facility, at the Palacio de Hielo rink in north-east Madrid, was opened on 24 March as regional authorities struggled to find places to keep the dead before they were buried.
Over the course of almost a month, it took in 1,146 bodies, which were brought in by the Military Emergencies Unit of the Spanish army.
The closure took place on Wednesday following the midday moment of silence to remember Madrid’s dead, and a solemn ceremony was attended by the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, and Spain’s defence minister, Margarita Robles.
Díaz Ayuso said the closure marked another small victory in the region’s fight against the virus. She said:
It’s been a huge consolation to know that none of the people who were brought here was ever alone. They were looked after and watched over by our army and treated with absolute respect in accordance with the protocols laid out for police, firefighters and priests.
Madrid has been the hardest hit region of Spain. Of the 21,717 people who have died from the virus, 7,577 perished in or around the capital.
Updated
Karen Kruse Thomas, the staff historian of the Bloomberg school of public health, at Johns Hopkins University, has picked out an interesting historical parallel to Donald Trump’s withdrawal of funds to the World Health Organization.
There have been two times since 1948 that a U.S. president has withheld funds and criticized the @WHO early in a historic pandemic:
— Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (@JohnsHopkinsSPH) April 22, 2020
1⃣ In the 1980s as HIV/AIDS began to emerge as a global killer.
2⃣ Last week, as the #coronavirus continued to spread. https://t.co/dxdSxyF7Ok
Somalia has recorded a rise in coronavirus cases in the past week, with the majority of those affected reportedly young people, Moulid Hujale reports for the Guardian.
So far there have been 237 confirmed cases and eight deaths in the country. A member of parliament and a state minister are among those who have died.
“The sharp increase is due to the fact that we are testing patients with all symptoms, not necessarily contact tracing,” said Dr Mohamed M Ali Fuje, the government’s newly appointed chief medical officer.
Ninety per cent of the confirmed cases are in the capital, Mogadishu, and although the government has introduced measures to contain the virus, widespread behavioural change is proving difficult. People continue to congregate in mosques, and gather in groups at teashops and restaurants, increasing the risk of infections. Khadija Hassan, a resident in Mogadishu, said:
Life is normal here. It is like the global pandemic has not reached us yet. Personally, I won’t leave my house for two weeks because I see people in my neighbourhood showing symptoms of the coronavirus. They talk of loss of smell, fever and cough and they say it is just a common cold as they continue to mingle with no isolation or social distancing.
Updated
"US handling Covid-19 like 3rd world country," says Nobel prize economist
Donald Trump’s botched handling of the Covid-19 crisis has left the US looking like a third world country and on course for a second Great Depression, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said.
In an interview with Guardian economics editor Larry Elliott, Stiglitz said millions of people were turning to food banks, turning up for work due to a lack of sick pay and dying because of health inequalities.
Stiglitz said:
The numbers turning to food banks are just enormous and beyond the capacity of them to supply. It is like a third world country. The public social safety net is not working.
Stiglitz, a long-term critic of Trump, said 14% of the population were dependent on food stamps and predicted the social infrastructure could not cope with an unemployment rate that could hit 30% in the coming months.
We have a safety net that is inadequate. The inequality in the US is so large. This disease has targeted those with the poorest health. In the advanced world, the US is one of the countries with the poorest health overall and the greatest health inequality.
Updated
Summary
These are the headlines in our world coronavirus coverage so far on Wednesday.
- The first coronavirus case has been recorded at a refugee camp in Lebanon. The outbreak of the virus at crowded and often unhygienic refugee camps has been feared since the start of the crisis.
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Spain announced it plans to phase out its lockdown in the second half of May. The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, also asked lawmakers to extend the country’s state of emergency until 9 May.
- Germany approved its first human trials for a Covid-19 vaccine. 200 healthy people between 18 and 55 will receive several variants of the vaccine candidate.
- Pope Francis called for unity among EU member states on the eve of European council summit to discuss a huge but divisive economic stimulus package to respond to the coronavirus crisis. EU states have clashed repeatedly over financial responses to the epidemic.
- At least 34 crew members have tested positive for coronavirus on a cruise ship docked in Japan for maintenance. The outbreak onboard the Italian-operated Costa Atlantica adds to concerns about testing and hospital capacity in Nagasaki, where only 102 beds are available.
- Half of France’s working population has signed up to the country’s temporary unemployment scheme, according to the minister of labour, Muriel Pénicaud. 10.2 million private sector workers have applied for support, or one employee out of two and six companies out of 10, she said.
- Coronavirus-related deaths in the UK may be as high as 41,000, according to a Financial Times analysis of the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Their findings include deaths that occurred outside hospitals updated to reflect recent mortality trends.
- The European commission has said the UK was well aware of its coronavirus procurement initiative when it decided not to participate. Its account contradicts the UK government claim that a “misunderstanding” was to blame for the UK not getting involved.
- Officials in Beijing dismissed the US state of Missouri’s move to sue the Chinese government over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak as “nothing short of absurdity” and lacking any factual or legal basis.
Updated
Wearing face masks in some public spaces is to become mandatory in Romania from 15 May, the day lockdown measures will be eased in the country, the president, Klaus Iohannis, announced on Wednesday.
In a televised address, Iohannis, wearing a surgical mask, told Romanians that masks would be compulsory on public transport and in other closed public spaces. According to a transcript published by Romanian news site Adevarul, he said:
Today we had a new meeting with Prime Minister [Ludovic] Orban and a group of ministers and advisers, to begin to detail what we announced yesterday, the so-called relaxation plan. It is, of course, about the relaxation of the measures we have taken for the protection of the population and, in this sense, we will have, in a short time, a fairly detailed plan that we will present to the public. But we felt that some of the issues that concern us all, concern you all, need to be announced in advance so that we can prepare.
One of these measures is the one with the protective mask. Thus, we decided today that after 15 May, everyone will be required to wear protective masks in closed public spaces and when we use public transport. This measure is not limited in time and we will be able to opt out of wearing the mask maybe a year, when this pandemic is under control and there is no risk of infection.
On Wednesday, Romania reported 468 new cases of coronavirus and 10 new deaths. So far the country has had 9,710 cases, of whom 508 have died.
Updated
Bangladesh has reported 390 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and 10 more deaths from in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll in the country to 120.
The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research said that it had recorded a total of 3,772 cases so far.
With a population of 160 million, including close to 1 million Rohingya refugees, but with reportedly just 1,100 intensive care beds, Bangladesh is apparently ill-prepared for the Covid-19 outbreak.
According to an Associated Press report on Wednesday, there has been little, if any, testing in Cox’s Bazar, the district where the worlds largest refugee camp houses Rohingya who have fled Myanmar.
While coronavirus cases have been reported in the district, none have been detected inside the camp, where more than 40,000 people are packed into each square kilometre - more than 40 times the average population density of Bangladesh.
However, Kate White, the emergency medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, told AP that what limited testing capacity there was in Bangladesh is mainly concentrated in the capital, Dhaka.
Preparations are under way for when the virus arrives. Camps in Cox’s Bazar have been under lockdown since 8 April. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is building isolation and treatment centres that can house 150-200 patients.
In a release distributed by UNHCR on Tuesday, Saidul Hoque, a Rohingya born in Cox’s Bazar, said he and his community faced particular difficulties in adhering to the hygiene and social distancing recommendations to avoid the spread of coronavirus. He was quoted as saying:
We all know everyone is facing difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, even European countries with their strong economies and advanced treatment facilities. So just imagine what will happen if the virus comes to the world’s largest and most congested refugee camp?
We live in very small houses with too many people. Seven members of my family are sharing an eight by 10-foot shelter. Everyone is asking us to maintain social distance, but how can we? It’s totally impossible for us.
To prevent the coronavirus, we all need to wash our hands frequently, but we don’t have enough toilets and wash facilities. We don’t even have enough water to meet our basic needs.
We are all totally dependent on NGOs and the Bangladesh government because we are not able to protect ourselves from this virus.
Updated
Spain has been in lockdown since 14 March, and the confinement is set to run until at least 9 May.
Some, however, have found an upside to being cooped up with their families and believe the lockdown has served to strengthen the sense of community.
“We have all got to know our neighbours in the building and the surrounding buildings better and are having fun sharing conversations, drinks and music through our balconies,” said Maite Domingo, who lives in central Barcelona with her two daughters Abril 14, and Martina, 12.
“We’ve even celebrated one of their birthdays and Martina played happy birthday on the piano for him.”
Miguel Vega, who has been in lockdown with his wife, Purita, and two teenage sons, said the emergency measures had reinforced the importance of family.
“I speak regularly with my mother and my sisters and I have the sensation that, living far away from each other, communication has been at times more significant and fluent than in the past,” he said.
“My mum, being alone and the most vulnerable, has taken the role of a protective parent again, which I find very sweet. I’ve had great conversations with neighbours I had never spoken to and have reconnected with long missed friends all around the world.”
Carmen Espinosa, who lives alone in a 47 sq metre apartment, said she had only been out for five shopping trips since mid-March.
“The hardest thing about confinement is loneliness, the lack of physical contact, the inability to walk down the street and enjoy nature, as well as the uncertainty about the immediate and not so immediate future,” she said.
“On the positive side, we’ve had a chance to reflect on how we live and want to live, to see the fragility of being a human being and to appreciate small gestures of affection, solidarity and the strength of cooperation.”
Updated
More than 24,000 #COVID19 cases have been reported on the African continent - with over 6,250 recoveries and 1,100 deaths. View country figures & more with the WHO African Region COVID-19 Dashboard: https://t.co/V0fkK8dYTg pic.twitter.com/azrg6Yc4g3
— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) April 22, 2020
Three new confirmed cases of coronavirus were reported in Rwanda on Tuesday, bringing the total number in the country to 150, the World Health Organization reports.
So far 80 patients have recovered, including four in the past 24 hours, while the number of active cases is 66, according to the agency’s latest situation report from the country.
All active cases are in isolation in stable condition, and one patient is receiving oxygen as a precaution, the WHO said.
On Saturday, Rwanda’s health minister, Diane Gashumba, called on the public to stay home as much as possible and wear face masks in public places, as part of efforts to contain the spread of the virus.
Updated
Zambia has reported four new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours.
Catch the daily update by Hon. Chitalu Chilufya on the @mohzambia facebook page https://t.co/wITtwtfnil In the last 24hrs, #Zambia recorded 4 new confirmed cases of #COVID19. #StayHome #StaySafe #WashYourHands #MaskUp #SocialDistance pic.twitter.com/rKOODgwSBf
— Zambia National Public Health Institute (@ZMPublicHealth) April 22, 2020
Profile of 4 new cases: 1. 52yr old male, Nangongwe, Kafue tested during community mass screening 2. 63yr old male George Compound, Lsk tested following community alert
— Zambia National Public Health Institute (@ZMPublicHealth) April 22, 2020
3. 23-year old female, Matero tested following community alert 4. 30yr old Doctor from Chilenje Hospital
Mass screening and targeted testing also planned for Emmasdale, Kamwala, Makeni areas
— Zambia National Public Health Institute (@ZMPublicHealth) April 22, 2020
Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 2,237 to 145,694, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday, marking a second consecutive day of new infections accelerating.
The reported death toll rose by 281 to 4,879, the tally showed.
As Germany began relaxing its lockdown on Monday, the chancellor, Angela Merkel, urged Germans to remain “disciplined and watchful”, and warned that if attitudes towards the pandemic relaxed too quickly, another tougher lockdown may follow.
Already there have been protests in the country against the measures, as well as so-called “vaccine terrorism”.
Extraordinary Reuters picture of Saturday’s protest against lockdown measures and “vaccine terrorism” outside Berlin’s Volksbühne theatre, drawing in conspiracy theorists from across the political spectrum https://t.co/0hpeI7NheT pic.twitter.com/c2L1ckwZ3T
— Philip Oltermann (@philipoltermann) April 19, 2020
Updated
Iran reported 94 new deaths from coronavirus on Wednesday - the highest number in more than a week - and 1,194 new confirmed cases.
The total death toll in the Islamic republic, which has so far suffered the Middle East’s worst Covid-19 outbreak, is 5,391, according to a health ministry official quoted by Reuters. The total number of people in the country who have been infected stands at 85,996.
The latest figures from Iran come as the head of the Tehran emergency department said authorities in the country were prepared for a possible second-wave of infections.
Tehran Emergency Department prepared for possible #COVIDー19 wave, official says https://t.co/kT9KYL80Ay #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/x5sIMUKv2H
— IRNA News Agency (@IrnaEnglish) April 22, 2020
Updated
Hello and happy Earth Day, this is Damien Gayle taking charge of the coronavirus live blog now, and taking you through the next eight hours or so of pandemic-related world news.
As usual you can contact me at damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.
Chinese doctors in Wuhan, where the coronavirus first emerged in December, say a growing number of cases in which people recover from the virus, but continue to test positive without showing symptoms, is one of their biggest challenges as the country moves into a new phase of its containment battle.
Those patients all tested negative for the virus at some point after recovering, but then tested positive again, some up to 70 days later, the doctors said.
Many have done so over 50-60 days.
The prospect of people remaining positive for the virus, and therefore potentially infectious, is of international concern, as many countries seek to end lockdowns and resume economic activity as the spread of the virus slows.
The globally recommended isolation period after exposure is 14 days.
So far, there have been no confirmations of newly positive patients infecting others, according to Chinese health officials.
China has not published precise figures for how many patients fall into this category. But disclosures by Chinese hospitals to Reuters, as well as in other media reports, indicate there are at least dozens of such cases.
In South Korea, about 1,000 people have been testing positive for four weeks or more. In Italy, the first European country ravaged by the pandemic, health officials noticed coronavirus patients could test positive for the virus for about a month.
Reuters reported that one man in Wuhan, who appeared to be in his 50s, was still testing positive for Covid-19 more than two months after he first contracted it.
He had been treated at two hospitals before being transferred to a quarantine centre set up in a cluster of apartment blocks in an industrial part of Wuhan.
“I really can’t take it anymore,” he said
Updated
The coronavirus death toll in Europe has passed 110,000 according to figures compiled by AFP news agency.
#BREAKING The death toll from the novel #coronavirus in Europe has passed 110,000, according to figures compiled by AFP from official sources by 0920 GMT pic.twitter.com/37rnWR9eJE
— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 22, 2020
More than 10 million French employees are now “partially unemployed” and having most of their salaries paid for by the state, the French employment minister, Muriel Pénicaud, said on Wednesday.
The government scheme, described as the most generous in Europe, is being used by 820,000 French companies - 60% of those in the country - most of which have been forced to stop business because of the strict lockdown since 17 March.
In the building and construction sector, 93% of the 1.2 million workers are currently on the scheme as well as 90% of those in the hotel and restaurant sector.
Staff at companies deemed temporarily unemployed are receiving 84% of their salaries from the state as a measure to avoid mass lay-offs. The scheme includes those on permanent and short-term contracts of 12-months or more, but not freelancers.
Pénicaud told BFMTV that 10.2 million workers were now on the scheme and that 98% of demands for “partial unemployment” payments were being settled with companies within 7-10 days.
The first case of Covid-19 among Palestinian refugees has been registered in Lebanon - a milestone moment that had been feared throughout the global pandemic.
The patient, an adult woman, was taken from the al-Jalil camp in the Bekaa Valley to a hospital in Beirut overnight.
A team from the state run Rafiq Hariri hospital is travelling to the camp to screen the woman’s relatives and anyone else she came into contact with while infected.
A total of 9,400 refugees are registered there, but the camp population is thought to be as low as 3,000.
Waves of departures to Gulf states and undocumented arrivals from Syria over the past nine years have made actual numbers difficult to discern.
An outbreak of the virus among the cramped and often unhygienic confines of refugee camps has been a nightmare scenario that the UN and NGOs have been preparing for as the virus has taken hold in much of the developed world.
Palestinians are routinely denied access to state care in Lebanon and Lebanese officials have expressed a reluctance to treat refugees afflicted by the virus.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which supports Palstinian refugees, is paying for the woman’s treatment and has said it will also do so for other infected patients.
Despite being nearly crippled by the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw funding, UNRWA has raised $14 million for it’s initial Covid response.
With much of that money now spent, and fears of infections now being realised, UNRWA leaders are about to launch a second appeal for funding.
Lebanon hosts around 475,000 Palestinian refugees living in 12 camps and 26 unofficial sites.
They are among the most impoverished people in the country, which is also believed to be playing host to up to one million Syrian refugees, many living in informal settlements, which are even harder for health authorities to manage.
Updated
Germany approves first human trials for vaccine
A clinical test of a Covid-19 vaccine has been approved in Germany, the country’s Federal Institute for Vaccines has said.
In the first part of the trial, 200 healthy people between 18 and 55 will receive several variants of the vaccine.
The vaccine candidate was produced by biotech firm BioNTech, and is an RNA vaccine.
The French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has set up a working group to look into establishing further insurance cover for exceptional, one-off events such as pandemics, his department said on Wednesday.
The French move echoes a similar step taken this week by Britain, whose insurance industry is also going to work with the UK government-backed terrorism reinsurance fund Pool Re to develop insurance cover for pandemics.
Eight babies and toddlers at a Tokyo care centre have tested positive for the coronavirus after a staff member contracted the disease, its operator said on Wednesday.
Tokyo Saiseikai Central Hospital, which operates the facility, said the affected children had been hospitalised, while another 21 tested negative and were under observation.
The facility is for orphans or children separated from their parents because of possible abuse or neglect.
A staff member tested positive for the virus on 16 April, prompting tests for all the children, the hospital said in a brief statement, without disclosing further details.
Tests are being carried out on 46 staff members who are self-isolating at home.
The children who tested positive were not experiencing high fever, local media said.
Malaysia reported 50 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the cumulative total to 5,532.
The health ministry also reported one new death, bringing the total number of fatalities up to 93.
Updated
Spain recorded 435 deaths overnight, bringing the total death toll from Covid-19 to 21,717.
The figure was slightly up on recent days, but the number of new cases is continuing to fall.
Wednesday saw a 2.1% rise in cases over the previous day, with 4,211 new cases logged. To date, Spain has confirmed 208,389 cases of the virus.
The latest figures come as Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the country was aiming to lift lockdown restrictions in the second half of May.
His government performed a u-turn on allowing children on to the streets, after it was fiercely criticised on Tuesday for saying children would be allowed out only to accompany a parent to buy food or medicine or go to the bank.
Following the backlash, the government changed tack, saying children under 14 would be allowed out for walks – if accompanied by a parent – from 26 April. Older teenagers will be allowed out alone to buy food or medicine.
The spread of the virus has led to the cancellation of Pamplona’s famous running of the bulls festival, while authorities in the small town of Buñol, near Valencia, said on Wednesday that the celebrated Tomatina tomato-throwing fiesta would not be held this August.
Updated
New advice on how to adapt Islamic religious practices during the coronavirus crisis have been released ahead of the holy month of Ramadan by international aid charity Islamic Relief, in a bid to stop the spread of the deadly virus in Muslim communities across the world.
Ramadan, expected to start on 23 April, is traditionally a time when communities and families come together, but the threat of Covid-19 means that in many places, festivities will need to
be adapted or cancelled.
Atallah Fitzgibbon, faith partnership advisor at Islamic Relief Worldwide, said:
There has been much controversy and sometimes anger over the closure of mosques in the Muslim world, but this is based on misinformation and misunderstanding.
The guidelines provide clarity and religious justifications for altering behaviour for different aspects of religious practices that Muslims perform daily, from congregational prayers at mosques to safe funeral and burial rites.
The world learnt the hard way during the Ebola crisis that not talking to communities of faith costs lives. By making sure people have the information they need, we’re arming them with the skills they need to adapt practices and keep people safe from this deadly virus.
The guidance, developed in partnership with the British Board of Scholars and Imams and in consultation with the World Health Organization and international aid agencies, will be distributed to support faith leaders, mosques, funeral workers, health professionals and chaplains as well as aid and community workers across the world.
Updated
The Philippines’ health ministry on Wednesday reported nine new coronavirus deaths and 111 new confirmed infections.
In a bulletin, the health ministry said total deaths have increased to 446, while infections have risen to 6,710. But 39 more patients have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 693.
Meanwhile, Indonesia reported 283 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases to 7,418, a health ministry official said.
The official, Achmad Yurianto, said there were 19 new coronavirus deaths, taking the total to 635.
More than 47,300 people have been tested and 913 had recovered, he said.
Updated
In Beijing, officials dismissed the US state of Missouri’s move to sue the Chinese government over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak as “nothing short of absurdity” and lacking any factual or legal basis.
Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China’s coronavirus response was not under the jurisdiction of US courts, adding that it had provided updates on the outbreak to the United States since 3 January.
“Such abuse of litigation is not conducive to the epidemic response at home in the United States and also runs counter to international cooperation,” Geng told a daily briefing on Wednesday, speaking about Missouri’s move.
“What the United States should do is refute and reject such abuse of litigation.”
Chimène Keitner, an international law professor at the University of California, said: “If the United States wants to bring claims against China, it will have to do so in an international forum. There is no civil jurisdiction over such claims in US courts.”
Dutch brewer Heineken reported on Wednesday that first-quarter net profit plunged by 68.5%, impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The company said net profit fell to €94m ($102m) from €299m in the first quarter of 2019, as the volume of sales trickled off in March.
Heineken chief executive, Jean-François van Boxmeer, said measures to contain the crisis were “having a significant impact” on the company’s business.
“We have taken necessary measures to reduce our costs, secure additional financing and adapt to the fast changes,” a statement said.
But the group pledged that “until the end of 2020, it will not carry out structural layoffs, as a consequence of Covid-19”.
In addition, “the Executive Board and Executive Team have also collectively agreed to reduce their base salary by 20% between May and December 2020”.
Deaths from Covid-19 reached 40 in Afghanistan as the number of confirmed cases continued to surge in the capital, Kabul, amid a shortage of testing kits and raging war across the country.
The health ministry said there had been 51 new confirmed cases and four deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing the total number of infections to 1,143.
Most of new cases confirmed were in Kabul, which has so far recorded 413 cases and 14 deaths.
Three new cases were confirmed in the western province of Herat, after a day-long pause in the testing process, taking the total number of infections to 341. Until yesterday, Herat was the worst affected area in Afghanistan.
The testing process has been on hold for the fourth day straight in Kandahar and some other eastern and southern provinces, including Helmand, due to shortages.
Afghanistan is struggling with a lack of diagnostic testing equipment known as RNA extraction kits, which scientists use to isolate the RNA (ribonucleic acid) in samples of the coronavirus.
Wahidullah Mayar, a health ministry spokesman, said the ministry had received some kits from the World Health Organization yesterday, and would distribute these among the provinces facing shortages.
Meanwhile, war continues to rage across the country and at least 19 soldiers and security force personnel were killed in separate incidents in northern Sar-e-Pul and central Logar province overnight.
In Kandahar, “at least 31 Taliban” were killed in the province on Tuesday night, Kandahar police confirmed, adding that “seven Afghan forces were also wounded in the attacks”.
And at least four civilians were killed on Wednesday in Ghazni province after their vehicle struck a roadside mine, the interior ministry said.
Mayar said the ministry is concerned about the spread of coronavirus in war zones.
He said the country is fighting with both terror and coronavirus, adding:
You won’t find any country like us, war is our biggest challenge in order to fight with coronavirus.
The number of people infected with the coronavirus in Poland exceeded 10,000 on Wednesday, with the death toll reaching 404, the health ministry said.
The ministry said the number of people infected rose to 10,034 in the country of 38 million.
On Monday the government started to relax some of the restrictions imposed during the outbreak.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he expects a first consensus in Thursday’s EU summit on coronavirus aid.
“I expect the European Council tomorrow will reach a first consensus because it is indispensable,” Sanchez told parliament on Wednesday.
Spain has proposed the creation of a fund of up to 1.5 trillion euros ($1.63 trillion) financed by perpetual debt.
On the eve of the summit to discuss a huge but divisive economic stimulus package, Pope Francis urged Europe to remain united in overcoming the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic has put new strains on the unity of the 27-member bloc, again exposing splits between the richer north and the poorer south.
“In these times in which we need so much unity among us, among nations, let us pray today for Europe,” Francis said at the start of his daily morning Mass, which he dedicates each day to a different theme related to the global crisis.
He asked for prayers “so that Europe manages to have this unity, this fraternal unity of which the founding fathers of the European Union dreamed”.
It was the second time in 10 days that Francis, a big supporter of the EU, had expressed concern about the bloc.
On Easter Sunday he warned that it risked collapse if it did not agree on how to recover together.
The EU’s fiscally conservative northern nations remain keen to keep a tight rein on spending and have rejected calls from the ailing southern states for a joint debt - or ‘coronabonds’ - to fund the recovery.
EU states - whose leaders are holding a video summit on Thursday - have clashed repeatedly over financial responses to the epidemic, on issues from sharing medical equipment to cushioning the immediate economic hit.
The bloc has relaxed state aid rules and limits on public spending as well as unlocking a half-a-trillion euro rescue plan.
But Rome, Madrid, Paris, Lisbon and others believe that is not enough and call for more solidarity, casting the challenge as an existential choice for the EU.
Updated
Some blood tests being marketed to tell people if they have ever had Covid-19 are a “disaster”, Roche chief executive, Severin Schwan, said on Wednesday, as he prepares to launch the Swiss drugmaker’s own antibody test in May.
In developing its test, Schwan said, Roche scrutinised some existing products now on offer but rejected them as unreliable in determining if somebody has actually ever had the disease.
“It’s a disaster. These tests are not worth anything, or have very little use,” Schwan told reporters on a conference call on the Basel-based company’s first-quarter results. “Some of these companies, I tell you, this is ethically very questionable to get out with this stuff.”
A Chinese writer is facing backlash for her ‘Wuhan Diary’, AFP reports.
After Wuhan was sealed off from the world, acclaimed writer Fang Fang started an online diary about the coronavirus tragedy unfolding in her hometown.
Her journal drew tens of millions of readers, but now that it is about to be published abroad in several languages, she is facing a nationalist backlash at home.
Critics say the 64-year-old, who was awarded China’s most prestigious literary prize in 2010, is providing fodder to countries that have slammed Beijing’s handling of the pandemic.
Fang began to document life in Wuhan, the city of 11 million where Covid-19 first emerged in December, after it was placed under an unprecedented lockdown on January 23.
In one entry she describes residents helping each other, and the simple pleasure of the sun lighting up her room.
But she also touched on politically sensitive topics such as overcrowded hospitals turning away patients, mask shortages and relatives’ deaths.
“A doctor friend said to me: in fact, we doctors have all known for a while that there is a human-to-human transmission of the disease, we reported this to our superiors, but yet nobody warned people,” she wrote in one entry.
Readers flocked to the online diary to get an unfiltered account from Wuhan in a Communist-ruled country that lacks independent media.
But some social media users have turned on the author, especially as a new diplomatic spat has erupted between China and the US, which accuses Beijing of a lack of transparency in the outbreak’s early days, costing the world valuable time.
“Bravo Fang Fang. You’re giving Western countries ammunition to target China,” said one post about her on the country’s Twitter-like Weibo platform.
“You’ve shown your treacherous nature,” it said.
Another accused Fang of making money off Wuhan’s nearly 4,000 virus victims, writing: “How much did you sell the diary for?”
Hit by a barrage of online insults, Fang wrote on Weibo that she was the victim of “cyberbullying” by fringe nationalists.
And in an interview posted on the website of Chinese weekly Caixin, the author said she had received death threats and that her home address was posted online.
The way US publisher HarperCollins introduces the book - which goes on sale in June and is succinctly titled Wuhan Diary - has added fuel to the online fury.
“The stark reality of this devastating situation drives Fang Fang to courageously speak out against social injustice, corruption, abuse, and the systemic political problems which impeded the response to the epidemic,” the publishing house says on its website.
Russia recorded 5,236 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, bringing its nationwide total to 57,999, the Russian coronavirus crisis response centre said on Wednesday.
That’s compared to a rise of 5,642 new cases the previous day.
57 people with the virus died in the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 513, it said.
Poland may open hotels in May as part of the second phase of relaxing coronavirus restrictions, government spokesman Piotr Müller said on Wednesday.
“The opening of hotels should be decided in May, including hotels at the seaside,” Müller told state broadcaster TVP Info.
First virus case recorded in Lebanon refugee camp
A team from Lebanon’s Rafik Hariri University Hospital will test for Covid-19 at a refugee camp on Wednesday, after a resident was found to be infected, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said.
A Palestinian refugee from Syria at the Wavel refugee camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley was transferred to hospital in Beirut for treatment that will be covered by the relief agency, a statement said.
The Lebanese government has worried about the virus hitting camps for Syrian and Palestinian refugees where high population densities are likely to accelerate its spread.
UNRWA said it was “taking all necessary steps to provide the required assistance to the patient’s family to allow them to isolate themselves inside the house”.
The UNHCR refugee agency said last month that efforts to curb the coronavirus among refugee communities had started early on with awareness campaigns, distribution of hygiene materials, and preparations for additional hospital capacity.
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Tuesday it had not recorded a new case of coronavirus in 24 hours, with total infections at 677 and 21 deaths.
Updated
Spain aims to phase out lockdown in second half of May
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said on Wednesday his government plans to begin winding down the coronavirus lockdown measures in the second half of May.
Restrictions will be eased slowly and gradually to ensure safety, Sánchez said at a parliamentary session where he asked lawmakers to extend Spain’s state of emergency until 9 May.
“We’re living through a time of extraordinary sacrifices,” the prime minister said.
“We can’t let our guard down. What I ask for today is an extension as we get a glimpse of how the exit could look.
“We can start to think about a de-escalation scenario. [But] we must be prudent.”
The lockdown was first enforced in Spain on 14 March.
Updated
Singapore’s health ministry said on Wednesday it had preliminarily confirmed another 1,016 cases of coronavirus, taking the total infections there to 10,141.
Most of the new cases were among migrant workers living in dormitories, a group that accounts for more than three-quarters of the city-state’s infections.
Singapore authorities have extended a partial lockdown until 1 June.
Updated
Bulgaria said on Wednesday it had 1,015 confirmed cases of Covid-19, up from 975 the day before.
Although cases have been gradually increasing for more than a month, the health ministry said the new total represented a climb of more than 300 cases over the last week.
It added that 47 people had died from the virus, an increase of two from a day earlier.
The number of people who have recovered from the virus increased to 174.
Like other countries in Europe, Bulgaria has introduced strict curbs on travel between cities and abroad, closed schools, restaurants and bars, and restricted access to parks.
New photos show the drastic improvement of air quality in India as a result of the nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19.
The coronavirus outbreak has caused as many as 41,000 deaths in the United Kingdom, according to a Financial Times analysis of the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The FT extrapolation, based on figures from the ONS that were published on Tuesday, includes deaths that occurred outside hospitals updated to reflect recent mortality trends.
The French minister of labour, Muriel Pénicaud, has said more than 10 million workers have signed up for the country’s temporary unemployment scheme.
That means around 50% of France’s working population has signed up for the scheme, designed to avoid mass layoffs by allowing companies to put staff on reduced or zero hours while the government pays all or most of their wages.
“As of today, 10.2 million private sector workers have been put on temporary unemployment.
“That’s more than one employee out of two and six companies out of 10,” Pénicaud said in a interview with BFM Business radio.
Updated
Also in Japan, efforts to distribute protective cloth masks have been marred by complaints about mould, insects, and stains, fuelling further concern that the government has botched its handling of the pandemic.
Just weeks after it began supplying every household with two washable, reusable masks at a cost of $430m as part of its strategy to contain the coronavirus, the government has been forced to replace some masks following reports of defects from recipients.
“I’m thankful to receive these masks, but is this a bug? Debris? Dirt?” asked Twitter user Aiai, posting a photo of two white masks in their original packaging, with what appeared to be an small insect trapped near the side seam of one.
In a manga sketch posted by another user, two soiled masks crash through a bedroom window to wake a man from sleep.
The issue has generated its own Twitter hashtag, #Abenomask, a pun on prime minister Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” economic strategy.
A pic comparing an "Abenomask" (above) from the health min. and an ordinary mask in use at a care facility in southern Japan. Their difference in size is appalling -- perhaps the difference between Abe's perception of COVID-19 crisis & the reality. https://t.co/ff3K0PnIAL
— 和 田 浩 明 / H i r o a k i W a d a # 現 場 に 感 謝 (@spearsden) April 15, 2020
The health ministry confirmed that by Friday it had shipped nearly 30m masks to pregnant women, medical and nursing facilities and schools.
These drew 1,903 complaints of soiled or defective products, the vast majority from pregnant women.
“We are asking manufacturers to confirm how these defects occurred, and asking for their cooperation in replacing the defective products,” a ministry spokesman said.
Updated
This is Jessica Murray, I’ll be taking the lead on the blog for the next few hours.
As always you can reach me on jessica.murray@theguardian.com or on Twitter (@journojess_). I might not have time to reply to all your messages but I’ll certainly read them all.
Japanese officials said on Wednesday that 34 crew members on a docked cruise ship had tested positive for the coronavirus in one day of testing among 57 crew after the first case from the ship was reported.
The Italian-operated Costa Atlantica has been docked in Nagasaki since late January for repairs and maintenance by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry. The ship carries 623 crew members, including a Japanese translator, but it was empty of passengers during the work.
The outbreak surfaced on Tuesday when the first crew member, identified only as a foreign national, tested positive for the virus. None of those infected had serious symptoms and all are isolated in single rooms on the ship, officials said.
Mitsubishi officials said no crew members had left the ship since mid-March. Before then, crew members had been allowed to come and go from ship to shore if they passed temperature checks and had not recently travelled to high-risk countries such as China and Italy.
Nagasaki officials are investigating how and where the crew members contracted the virus.
“Many infections have been confirmed on the ship,” Nagasaki governor, Hodo Nakamura, told reporters on Wednesday. “We hope that they will be able to go home in full health as soon as possible. We are asking the national government for help.”
The outbreak on the ship adds to concerns about testing and hospital capacity in Nagasaki, where only 102 beds are available. All of Japan is under a coronavirus state of emergency as cases rise in the world’s oldest population and third-largest economy.
Japan has about 11,500 cases of infection, with 280 deaths.
Those numbers are separate from an earlier outbreak on another cruise ship which docked in Japan, the Diamond Princess, carrying more than 3,700 passengers and crew, where 712 of them were infected.
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleague Jessica Murray will take it from here.
But first, in the name of tranquil images, I present to you the “fog harp”:
This is a fog harp. It catches "ambient water" from even the thinnest of fogs: https://t.co/OEmJUc0GTK pic.twitter.com/penDXkwgd4
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) April 22, 2020
Updated
Summary
- Global deaths pass 175,000. At least 177,445 people have died in the coronavirus pandemic so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There are more than 2.5 million confirmed cases worldwide.
- Global recession could be prolonged. The prospect of a prolonged worldwide impact has hardened after a survey of thousands of business leaders warned of a drawn-out recession, with many companies likely to fold. Around 60% of chief executives surveyed are preparing for a U-shaped recovery – a long period between recession and an upturn.
- Trump lays out parts of US immigration ban. Donald Trump has announced a 60-day ban on immigrants seeking to live and work in America permanently, and said he could extend it depending on the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
- UN warns of ‘famines of biblical proportions’. David Beasley, chief of the UN’s food relief agency, told the Guardian that urgent action must be taken to prevent widespread famines across more than 30 countries in the developing world, pushing at least 265 million people to the brink of starvation.
- US state sues China’s leaders over virus. The US state of Missouri sued China’s leadership over coronavirus, seeking damages over what it described as deliberate deception and insufficient action to stop the pandemic.
- CDC chief warns of ‘even more difficult’ second wave of cases. A leading US public health official warned on Tuesday that a new wave of coronavirus hitting the US next winter could be “even more difficult” for America to deal with than the current outbreak because it would coincide with the traditional flu season.
- South African president unveils $26bn virus relief plan. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday announced a $26bn relief package – equivalent to 10% of the country’s GDP – to support the economy and the vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Italy look at easing lockdown after first significant fall in infections. The country’s prime minister said the government would unveil plans for the gradual reopening from lockdown before the end of this week.
Updated
“With so many coronavirus deaths, Labour should not be holding back,” writes Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former director of communications.
It has been both a curse and a blessing for Keir Starmer that he has become Labour leader amid a global pandemic.
A curse because in normal times his arrival would be huge news, an opportunity quickly to establish himself firmly in the national conversation; yet in a crisis the last thing the public wants is politics as usual, so this limits his chance to be heard.
A blessing, because the current situation plays to Starmer’s strengths – he is serious, forensic, consensus-seeking, and has a strong grasp of detail. These qualities will become especially important when we are through the worst, and “Starmer or Johnson?” becomes the choice of prime minister. They are qualities Boris Johnson proudly lacks, one of the reasons the UK has been so badly hit.
UK papers Wednesday 22 April
The Guardian: Revealed: UK missed chances to buy 16m face masks in past month #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/KllajmI5Mb
— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) April 21, 2020
The Times: British human vaccine trials to start tomorrow #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/wNQAuCdIc0
— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) April 21, 2020
Independent: First UK human vaccine trials to begin tomorrow #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/SGFV91YsTI
— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) April 21, 2020
The Daily Telegraph: NHS workers given flawed virus tests #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/nCP5p61Qdi
— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) April 21, 2020
Financial Times: ‘Political decision’ kept Britain out of joint EU ventilator pact #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/8Q48VJYJIS
— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) April 21, 2020
Daily Mail: 2,700 cancers missed each week #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/gqdPeRnN4c
— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) April 21, 2020
All of the UK’s biggest airlines and most big holiday companies are systematically breaking the law by denying timely refunds to customers for travel cancelled during the pandemic, researchers have found.
Consumer groups have warned that the sector risks permanently losing public confidence in booking travel, with Which? finding 20 of the UK’s largest operators are illegally withholding refunds that should be paid within 14 days.
Most have instead offered vouchers or credit notes, and customers have complained they have been unable to obtain refunds online or get through to make a claim on the phone.
A third of the UK’s community radio stations could face closure due to the impact of coronavirus without urgent government support, according to the body that represents the broadcasters’ interests.
Fears of prolonged coronavirus downturn amid second wave of US cases
The prospect of a prolonged worldwide impact from the coronavirus pandemic has hardened after business leaders warned of a drawn-out recession and US health chiefs highlighted the prospect of a second wave of US cases in winter.
As financial markets staggered under fresh blows to the global oil industry on Wednesday, a survey of thousands of bosses revealed that they fear many companies will not survive the onslaught.
Around 60% of chief executives are preparing for a U-shaped recovery – a long period between recession and an upturn – according to a poll of 3,534 chief executives from 109 countries conducted by YPO, a business leadership network.
It came as a leading US public health chief warned that a new wave of coronavirus hitting the US next winter could be “even more difficult” for America to deal with than the current outbreak because it would coincide with the normal influenza season.
Taiwanese authorities are trying to track down thousands of people who might have come into contact with more than 700 sailors who were allowed to disembark after a “goodwill” mission to the Pacific Islands, despite several reporting fevers and respiratory problems while on board.
So far 27 sailors have been diagnosed with Covid-19, prompting accusations of “serious lapses” in a country which has been internationally lauded for its successful virus response.
Taiwan has recorded fewer than 430 cases since the outbreak began. Last week it was celebrating three consecutive days with no new cases, with buildings in Taipei lit up with the word “zero”.
Then on Saturday health officials announced three new diagnoses of Covid-19. All were military personnel from the supply ship Panshi which was sent on a “goodwill” mission to the Pacific Island nation of Palau. On Sunday they added 22 cases – including 21 from the ship. On Monday, another three.
More than 700 sailors from the mission have now been recalled into quarantine and authorities have contacted more than 200,000 Taiwanese people by text message, to alert anyone who may have been in contact with them after the ship was disembarked.
Egypt on Tuesday flew a plane of medical supplies to the United States to assist in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, a role reversal for a top US aid recipient.
Egypt’s general-turned-president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has been eager to cement relations with President Donald Trump, and his country has already shipped medical goods with fanfare to China and Italy. A video statement from Sisi’s office showed crates in wrapping that read in English and Arabic, “From the Egyptian people to the American people,” being loaded into a military cargo plane.
Dutch Ruppersberger, who leads a group in the US House of Representatives that promotes relations with Egypt, said the plane landed at Andrews Air Force base outside Washington. The plane brought 200,000 masks, 48,000 shoe covers and 20,000 surgical caps among other supplies, said Ruppersberger, a Democrat who heads the bipartisan group.
“This is why international diplomacy and maintaining relationships with allies like Egypt are essential not in times of crisis, but every day,” he wrote on Twitter:
As co-chair of the #bipartisan House Egyptian Caucus, I want to thank Egypt and its people for its generous donation of nearly 8 tons of desperately-needed PPE as we combat t#COVIDー19, especially as they are amid their own fight against the same outbreak... https://t.co/N5MPuYZkpT
— Dutch Ruppersberger (@Call_Me_Dutch) April 21, 2020
This is why international diplomacy and maintaining relationships with allies like Egypt are essential not in times of crisis, but every day. #usegyptrelations
— Dutch Ruppersberger (@Call_Me_Dutch) April 21, 2020
Here is Trump being asked at Tuesday’s White House press briefing about the terms of the immigration ban he announced on Twitter:
In times of national tragedy, the US president has, going back at least to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, filled the unique role of consoler-in-chief.
As Roosevelt did during his Great Depression-era fireside chats, the president has given voice to personal suffering and made victims of hardship feel recognized.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump was widely viewed as a weak consoler-in-chief.
But Trump has especially fallen short as consoler-in-chief during the coronavirus crisis, analysts say, failing day after day to muster expressions of sympathy for victims and their families as the death toll in America increased into the tens of thousands.
And in the current crisis, Trump’s failure to grasp the scale of the American tragedy on a human level could do more than fuel emotional turmoil – it could cost more lives, according to historians, public affairs experts and political analysts interviewed by the Guardian.
Summary
-
Global deaths pass 175,000. At least 177,445 people have lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There are more than 2.5 million confirmed cases worldwide.
- US President Donald Trump lays out some terms of the US immigration ban. At the White House press briefing Trump said the ban, which he will sign on Wednesday, will be in effect for 60 days, after which he will reevaluate the need. The ban will not affect temporary immigration, he said.
- The UN has warned that 265 million people could starve in a widespread famine caused by the coronavirus. “We are looking at widespread famines of biblical proportions,” David Beasley, chief of the UN’s food relief agency told the Guardian.
- US state sues China’s leaders over virus. The US state of Missouri on Tuesday sued China’s leadership over coronavirus, seeking damages over what it described as deliberate deception and insufficient action to stop the pandemic, AFP reports.
- Global business leaders are preparing for a drawn-out U-shaped recession due to the impact of coronavirus and many fear their companies won’t survive the pandemic, a survey of thousands of chief executives showed on Wednesday.
- US CDC chief warns of ‘even more difficult’ wave of coronavirus next winter. A leading US public health official warned on Tuesday that a new wave of coronavirus hitting the US next winter could be “even more difficult” for America to deal with than the current outbreak.
- South African president unveils $26bn virus relief plan. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday announced a $26bn relief package – equivalent to 10% of the country’s GDP – to support the economy and the vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic.
-
World Health Organization says evidence that coronavirus came from bats. The WHO said all available evidence suggested the coronavirus originated in bats in China late last year and was not manipulated or constructed in a laboratory. Trump said last week the US was trying to determine whether the virus emanated from a lab in Wuhan in central China.
- Italy to announce plan to ease lockdown this week as confirmed cases fall by 20. The country’s prime minister said the government would unveil plans for the gradual reopening from lockdown before the end of this week. Italy recorded its first significant fall in infections on Tuesday.
- A team from the University of Oxford will begin trialling a vaccine on people from Thursday.
Guardian correspondents in five countries have compiled this feature, “Ramadan in a time of plague”, as the Muslim holy month, which begins this week, proceeds without the usual special prayers and iftar dinners.
Michael Safi in Amman, Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi, Bethan McKernan in Istanbul, Rebecca Ratcliffe in Bangkok and Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem:
Mosques will be deserted, daylong fasts will be broken in isolation and in some places the calls to prayer that rally believers together will end with a different exhortation: worship from where you are.
Bans on religious and family gatherings will persist across much of the Islamic world even as businesses and government offices start to reopen.
The virus has emptied Islam’s holiest sites at the most sacred time of year. The Ka’bah, the gold-embroidered shrine in Mecca’s Grand Mosque, is closed to worshippers along with the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina and Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque.
“Our hearts are tortured from pain in the holy month of Ramadan,” said Sheikh Omar al-Kiswami, the imam and director of al-Aqsa, where only guards and mosque employees will be permitted to pray. “It is a very sad moment in the history of Islam.
As the coronavirus pandemic bears down on vulnerable nations in Africa and South Asia, experts say there are only weeks to help fill chronic shortages of oxygen, AFP reports.
Medical oxygen is a core component of the life-saving therapies hospitals are giving patients with severe cases of Covid-19, as the world waits for scientists to find vaccines and treatments.
The pandemic has pushed even the most advanced health systems to their limits, with concerns often focused on the supply of mechanical ventilators at the high-tech end of the breathing assistance spectrum.
But one report in February on thousands of cases in China’s epidemic found that nearly 20% of patients with Covid-19 required oxygen. Of those, 14% needed some form of oxygen therapy, while a further five percent required mechanical ventilation.
Surveys throughout Africa and Asia-Pacific have shown that less than half of hospitals have oxygen available on wards at any given time, says Hamish Graham – a consultant paediatrician and research fellow at Melbourne University Hospital and International Centre for Child Health – and even fewer have the pulse oximeters that allow medical staff to measure blood oxygen levels and guide dosages.
China’s northeastern border province of Heilongjiang on Tuesday reported seven new locally transmitted coronavirus cases and one imported case - a Chinese national returning from Russia - prompting authorities to issue more restrictions.
In Harbin, the capital of the province and where the seven new cases were reported, authorities said only local residents may enter their residential compounds. More screenings would be implemented at airports, train stations and highways. Those living in residential buildings where there have been confirmed or suspicious cases must also quarantine for 14 days. Anyone arriving from outside the city must be quarantined.
While the number of imported infections has levelled off in China, the border region has become a risk to the country’s recovery. The province of Heilongjiang has reported a total of 537 locally transmitted cases and 119 imported cases, mostly Chinese nationals returning from Russia. In the border town of Suifenhe, residents have been ordered to stay at home, with only one person from each household permitted to leave every three days to get supplies.
Neighbouring provinces including Jilin and Liaoning have started to require quarantines and several rounds of tests for anyone travelling from the cities of Harbin or Mudanjiang in Heilongjjiang.
Saudi king Salman approved performing Tarawih in the two holy mosques and reducing them with the continued suspension of entry of pilgrims, the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques’ Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia plans to ease curfew hours it imposed on several cities during the month of Ramadan to allow people more time to shop for essential needs within the boundaries of their neighbourhoods, state news agency (SPA) reported on Tuesday.
A chronically ill refugee held in immigration detention in Australia – and at serious risk of contracting Covid-19 – has launched a case in the high court seeking his release into the community to protect him from infection.
His challenge, lodged in Melbourne late Tuesday by the Human Rights Law Centre, is being seen as a test case for other women and men living in close confines in immigration detention and at risk of a Covid-19 outbreak. Guardian Australia understands his case is likely to be “the first of many”.
Business leaders expect drawn out, U-shaped recession
Global business leaders are preparing for a drawn-out U-shaped recession due to the impact of coronavirus and many fear their companies won’t survive the pandemic, a survey of thousands of chief executives showed on Wednesday.
Reuters reports around 60% of chief executives are preparing for a U-shaped recovery - a long period between recession and an upturn - compared with 22% who predict a double-dip recession, according to an April 15-19 poll of 3,534 chief executives from 109 countries conducted by YPO, a business leadership network.
Business leaders in the hospitality and restaurant sectors were the most vulnerable with 41% of executives saying their firms were at risk of not surviving, while 30% in aviation and 19% in wholesale and retail sales feared they may go under, the survey found.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has just tweeted about his conversation with US President Donald Trump.
Don’t worry, the two countries are still “the best of mates”.
Morrison added that the pair discussed the World Health Organizations’ response to the virus.
On Sunday, Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne told the ABC television programme Insiders, that that her concerns over China’s transparency were “at a very high point”, and that she shared some of the US’s concerns about the WHO.
We also talked about the @WHO & working together to improve the transparency & effectiveness of international responses to pandemics.
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 22, 2020
Australia & the US are the best of mates & we’ll continue to align our efforts as we work towards the recovery on the other side of this virus.
Canadian exercise apparel brand Lululemon issued statements on Tuesday apologising for, and distancing itself from, a T-shirt design promoted by one of its art directors that triggered outrage and accusations of racism online. The T-shirt design said “bat fried rice”, Reuters reports.
The hashtag “Lululemon insults China” was viewed 204 million times on China’s Weibo platform by Tuesday afternoon, with some commentators demanding a boycott of the brand.
“We acted immediately, and the person involved is no longer an employee of Lululemon,” the firm said in an Instagram response to a customer on Tuesday, without identifying the individual.
Reports of racially charged assaults on Asians have grown since the pandemic first emerged in a market selling wildlife in China late last year. Early studies said the virus could have come from bats.
Trump announces 60-day ban on immigrants seeking permanent status in US
Donald Trump has announced a 60-day ban on immigrants seeking to live and work in America permanently, and said he could extend it depending on the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The US president framed the executive order, which he expects to sign on Wednesday, as an effort to protect American workers from foreign competition. He said it would apply only to those seeking green cards and not temporary workers, but he did not explain how those whose applications are currently being processed would be affected.
“By pausing immigration, we will help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens – so important,” Trump told reporters at Tuesday’s coronavirus taskforce briefing. “It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrant labour flown in from abroad. We must first take care of the American worker.”
The “pause” would be in effect for 60 days, he added, after which the need for an extension or alternation would be reviewed “based on economic conditions at the time”. Under questioning, he confirmed that he might then decide to add a further 30 days or more.
Podcast: How the 5G conspiracy theories took hold
The Guardian’s media editor, Jim Waterson, looks at why conspiracy theories linking 5G technology to coronavirus have taken hold in the UK, with dozens of phone masts vandalised across the country over the past few weeks:
The head of Russia’s renowned Hermitage Museum said on Tuesday the government should ensure the survival of museums which are struggling during a coronavirus lockdown, AFP reports.
Since the introduction of a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people in mid-March, museums across Russia have gradually closed their doors to the public. President Vladimir Putin then declared April a non-working month, encouraging Russians to stay home to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Hermitage chief Mikhail Piotrovsky said the museum had already lost half of its annual budget and was now in talks with the government in the hope to secure financial aid.
“The state must ensure the survival of culture,” Piotrovsky said during an online news conference. The museum earned 2.5 billion rubles ($32 million) in 2018.
Piotrovsky said that once the lockdown is over the museum would need about a month to prepare for a re-opening.
The museum was founded in 1764 under Empress Catherine the Great and features more than three million works of art and world culture artefacts. Nearly five million people visited the Hermitage last year.
A Navy hospital ship deployed to New York City to help fight the coronavirus outbreak is no longer needed, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday, expressing confidence that stresses on the hospital system are easing.
Cuomo told MSNBC after meeting with President Donald Trump that the USNS Comfort was helpful, but could now be sent elsewhere after being docked for weeks off of Manhattan.
“It did give us comfort, but we don’t need it anymore,” Cuomo said. “So if they need to deploy that somewhere else, they should take it.”
Trump said at his Tuesday briefing that he asked Cuomo if we could bring the Comfort back to its base in Virginia so that we could have it in other locations. Trump said they would bring the ship back soon.
The Navy ship arrived 30 March as state and city officials scrambled to add hospital beds to prepare for a potentially catastrophic surge in Covid-19 cases.
But hospitalization levels appeared to have peaked recently amid strict stay-at home restrictions. Total statewide hospitalizations have slowly dropped to about 16,000, more than 2,000 below a week ago.
The Comfort has treated 178 patients, with 56 on board Tuesday.
My colleague Charlotte Graham-McLay has this lovely feature on what lockdown has been like for people in the beachfront suburb of Lyall Bay, New Zealand:
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Old McDonald’s: now a farm https://t.co/2hCIGAaEhE
— Ben Bong (@Mrs_Foo_Cough) April 21, 2020
China has released its figures, reporting no new coronavirus-related deaths for the fifth day in a row.
There were 7 new domestic cases, 23 imported cases and 42 asymptomatic cases, the People’s Daily reports:
On Tuesday, the Chinese mainland reported:
— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) April 22, 2020
- No new #COVID19 deaths
- 7 new domestic cases and 23 more imported cases
- 42 asymptomatic cases
- 1,005 active cases in total, including 78 in critical condition pic.twitter.com/2rxXxnsWI8
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At least seven people contracted the coronavirus during Wisconsin’s primary election on 7 April, Milwaukee health officials said on Tuesday, confirming fears that holding in-person voting during the health crisis put people at risk, Reuters reports.
The seven cases include six voters and one poll worker in Milwaukee, the state’s largest city, where nearly 200 voting locations were pared back to five and there were hours-long lines to cast ballots, the office of Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik confirmed.
The number of election-related infections could grow as the 14-day incubation period ends on Wednesday, health officials said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Milwaukee had 1,697 confirmed cases of Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, and 92 deaths related to the virus. Wisconsin had 4,620 confirmed cases and 242 deaths overall, according to city and state data.
Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who declared a state of emergency on March 12, tried to delay the 7 April election or move all voting to mail-in ballots. But courts sided with the Republican-controlled state legislature to hold in-person voting.
US CDC chief warns of 'even more difficult' wave of coronavirus next winter
A leading US public health official warned on Tuesday that a new wave of coronavirus hitting the US next winter could be “even more difficult” for America to deal with than the current outbreak.
And in a double blow for the prospect of ending the coronavirus pandemic, a US trial of the controversial treatment Donald Trump has referred to as “like a miracle” has produced poor results.
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) federal agency, warned that a wave of coronavirus next winter would coincide with the normal influenza season.
“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” he said, in an interview with the Washington Post.
“We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time,” he said.
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South African president unveils $26bn virus relief plan
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday announced a $26bn relief package to support the economy and the vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reports.
In a special address to the nation, Ramaphosa announced “a massive social and economic support package of R500bn ($26.3 billion), which amounts to about 10% of our GDP.”
“The impact of the coronavirus requires an extraordinary coronavirus budget...the scale of this emergency programme is historical,” he said.
Ramaphosa said South Africa was now entering the second phase of its Covid-19 response, aimed at stabilising the economy, addressing the decline in supply and demand and protecting jobs.
The president said around $2.6bn would go to the most vulnerable through grants, and 250,000 food parcels would be distributed among citizens in need over the next two weeks.
Nearly 30% of South Africans were unemployed before the virus struck.
US state sues China’s leaders over virus
The US state of Missouri on Tuesday sued China’s leadership over coronavirus, seeking damages over what it described as deliberate deception and insufficient action to stop the pandemic, AFP reports.
The first-of-a-kind state lawsuit comes amid calls in Congress to punish China and a campaign by President Donald Trump to focus on Beijing’s role, amid criticism of his own handling of the crisis.
Missouri, led by Trump’s Republican Party, filed a lawsuit in a federal court seeking an unspecified amount in damages and an injunction on continuing actions by China that are alleged to include hoarding of protective equipment.
The lawsuit’s chances of success are far from certain as US law, under the principle of sovereign immunity, generally forbids court action against foreign governments.
Missouri addressed the issue by suing the ruling Communist Party, arguing that it is not formally an organ of the Chinese state.
Under its conservative leadership, Missouri has imposed fewer Covid-19 restrictions than most US states, including allowing businesses to remain open as long as they limit the number of people present and ensure space between them.
A summary of US news from the last few hours now:
- Donald Trump announced that he would soon sign an executive order restricting immigration for 60 days. Temporary visa holders would be exempt, he said at the daily coronavirus briefing — but the policy would apply to those seeking green cards.
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The Senate passed a nearly $500 billion coronavirus relief bill by unanimous consent. The bill, which provides funding for small businesses, hospitals and testing, will now advance to the House.
- Attorney general William Barr said the justice department may eventually join lawsuits against stay-at-home orders. “We’re looking carefully at a number of these rules that are being put into place,” Barr said. “And if we think one goes too far, we initially try to jawbone the governors into rolling them back or adjusting them. And if they’re not and people bring lawsuits, we file statement of interest and side with the plaintiffs.”
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The number of coronavirus cases in the US has surpassed 820,000. The US has confirmed 823,786 cases of the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Nearly 44,845 Americans have died of the virus.
- New York governor Andrew Cuomo met with Trump at the White House. The meeting came as the Democratic governor has repeatedly called on the federal government to play a more active role in helping states expand testing capacity.
Updated
Coronavirus pandemic 'will cause famine of biblical proportions'
The world is facing widespread famine “of biblical proportions” because of the coronavirus pandemic, the chief of the UN’s food relief agency has warned, with a short time to act before hundreds of millions starve.
More than 30 countries in the developing world could experience widespread famine, and in 10 of those countries there are already more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation, said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme.
“We are not talking about people going to bed hungry,” he told the Guardian in an interview. “We are talking about extreme conditions, emergency status – people literally marching to the brink of starvation. If we don’t get food to people, people will die.”
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan. You can get in touch directly on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
US President Donald Trump has announced some of the details of his immigration ban. He will sign the executive order putting the ban in place on Wednesday, he said at the White House press briefing, and it will be in place for 60 days, after which he will review whether an extension is needed.
Meanwhile, the UN has warned that 265 million people could starve in a widespread famine caused by the coronavirus. “We are looking at widespread famines of biblical proportions,” David Beasley, chief of the UN’s food relief agency told the Guardian.
- Global deaths pass 175,000. At least 176,926 people have lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There have been more than 2.5 million cases worldwide.
- US President Donald Trump lays out some terms of the US immigration ban. At the White House press briefing Trump said the ban, which he will sign on Wednesday, will be in effect for 60 days, after which he will reevaluate the need. The ban will not affect temporary immigration, he said.
- The UN has warned that 265 million people could starve in a widespread famine caused by the coronavirus. “We are looking at widespread famines of biblical proportions,” David Beasley, chief of the UN’s food relief agency told the Guardian.
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World Health Organization says evidence that coronavirus came from bats. The WHO said all available evidence suggested the coronavirus originated in bats in China late last year and was not manipulated or constructed in a laboratory. Trump said last week the US was trying to determine whether the virus emanated from a lab in Wuhan in central China.
- Italy to announce plan to ease lockdown this week as confirmed cases fall by 20. The country’s prime minister said the government would unveil plans for the gradual reopening from lockdown before the end of this week. Italy recorded its first significant fall in infections on Tuesday.
- A team from the University of Oxford will begin trialling a vaccine on people from Thursday.
- The UK’s choice to stay out of a EU ventilator scheme was “political decision” said Sir Simon McDonald, the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary, challenging previous claims that the UK did not take part due to missed emails.
- The UK government’s PPE claims came under scrutiny from the leader of the opposition Labour party, Sir Keir Starmer, who claimed there is an “increasing gap” between government claims on PPE and reality.
- Mexico’s government said the country had entered the “most serious stage” of its outbreak. The country’s deputy health minister, Hugo López-Gatell, said: “We are in the phase of rapid spread where a large number of infections and hospitalisations are accumulated.”
- The Pamplona bull run is cancelled. The annual event, where hundreds of daredevils play a risky and controversial game of catch-me-if-you-can with half-tonne fighting bulls, was supposed to take place in Spain in July.
- Singapore extends lockdown after second-wave rise in cases. Singapore, which has been lauded for its initial response to the outbreak, has seen a surge in cases, reporting a record 1,426 new coronavirus cases on Monday, mostly among foreign workers. The city state’s prime minister announced a lockdown would be extended by four weeks until 1 June.
- Denmark’s ban on gatherings of more than 500 will be in place until September. The country’s government has announced it will not allow gatherings of more than 500 people until at least 1 September.
- Oktoberfest is cancelled. Bavaria’s leaders have cancelled Oktoberfest, the world’s biggest beer festival, due to fears that it could become a breeding ground for the coronavirus.
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