We’ve launched a new global coronavirus news blog at the link below:
Eight mobile coronavirus testing units staffed by the army are starting to travel around Britain, with dozens more to follow, to help the government approach its target of 100,000 tests a day for the new coronavirus, Reuters reports.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has promised that number of daily tests by 30 April, but by Friday only 28,760 had been achieved.
Refitted vehicles will collect throat swabs, which will be sent to laboratories for processing, the Department of Health said in a statement on Sunday.
A further 96 of the units will start operating during May.
The units can be set up in under 20 minutes and will carry out tests on essential staff such as those who work in care homes, the police and prisons, and have found it difficult to travel to fixed, drive-through test centres.
There are concerns that a lack of testing could slow Britain’s gradual exit from lockdown and delay the revival of its economy, the world’s fifth-largest.
The mobile units carried out a trial run last week in Salisbury, Southport and Teesside. In Northern Ireland, the units will be staffed by contractors, not the army, the statement said.
Hundreds of thousands take part in government-decreed civic labor in Belarus
Hundreds of thousands of state employees in Belarus, including doctors and nurses, took part in a government-decreed national day of civic labor Saturday despite worries about the country’s sharply rising coronavirus infections, AP reports.
The work, including painting, tree-planting and general clean-ups, was ordered by President Alexander Lukashenko, who has dismissed concerns about the virus even though Belarus has recorded more cases than neighbouring Ukraine, a county with four times as many people.
Lukashenko, a former collective farm manager, has retained many Soviet-era practices during his quarter-century in power, including the day of civic labor known as a subbotnik from the Russian word for Saturday.
The Belarusian government has not imposed social-distancing requirements or restricted public activities in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Of the hundreds of people working along with the president, none were seen wearing masks.
Sainsbury’s top man steps down just as the panic-buying revenues roll in
Mike Coupe is preparing to deliver Sainsbury’s annual results on Thursday, his last presentation to investors as head of Britain’s second biggest supermarket chain. After almost six years at the top, the 59-year-old is retiring on 31 May, and will hand over to Simon Roberts, the group’s retail and operations director.
You wonder how Roberts might be feeling about that. Few could have predicted the challenges facing the retailer, and the country, when Coupe’s departure was announced in January – just as Public Health England was declaring that the risk to the British public from coronavirus was low.
Even for a business that goes back 150 years, Sainsbury’s (and its retail rivals) are dealing with truly historic circumstances, and huge pressure on supply chains.
China has been accused of using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to take some bold and provocative actions, including expansions in the South China Sea, crackdowns on activists in Hong Kong and further detention of activists in the mainland. Some analysts have suggested Beijing is sending a message that China’s aggressive foreign policy is still business as usual, or testing its adversaries for weaknesses.
Here are some examples:
Hi, Helen Sullivan with you now. I’ll be bringing you the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic from around the world for the next few hours.
You can get in touch with my directly on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Evening summary
- The total number of people to die worldwide after contracting the novel coronavirus has surpassed 200,000, figures show. The global death toll increased to 202,368 on Saturday, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. The figures for infections are likely to underestimate the true scale of the pandemic due to suspected under-reporting and differing testing regimes. Death toll figures are also controversial, with some countries reporting deaths as confirmed Covid-19 cases on the basis of symptoms and in the absence of a positive test, while others are not including them.
- Boris Johnson will return to work on Monday and is ‘raring to go’, a Downing street spokeswoman has confirmed. The prime minister has been recovering in his country residence after spending three nights in intensive care in April. He returns to face a dilemma over whether to ease the coronavirus lockdown, as leading scientists warn that the number of new cases remains much too high.
- German police arrested dozens of protesters in Berlin on Saturday for flouting the coronavirus lockdown measures they were demonstrating against. About 1,000 people turned out for the rally, which has become a weekly event in the German capital. Saturday’s protest attracted mainly far-left activists but there were also right-wing supporters and members of other fringe groups.
- Paraguayan authorities have laid out details of a plan to begin lifting the country’s total quarantine. Health minister Julio Mazzonleni announced at press conference on Friday that a new “intelligent quarantine” will begin on 4 May. It will gradually reintroduce public freedoms and economic activities through a four-stage plan set to run until early July.
- The UK’s biggest steel producer needs about £500m in government support to see it through the coronavirus crisis, according to Welsh MP Stephen Kinnock. Tata Steel has reportedly approached the UK and Welsh governments for a bailout after its big European customers halted production. The company employs 8,385 people across the UK, including more than 4,000 workers at the Port Talbot steelworks in south Wales.
- Spain could lift more lockdown restrictions and allow adults out to exercise from 2 May if efforts to contain the spread of the virus continue to pay off, prime minister Pedro Sánchez has said. The strict lockdown enacted after the declaration of a state of emergency on 14 March has been extended until 9 May, but children under the age of 14 will be allowed out for an hour’s exercise each day from Sunday.
- As rumours of Kim Jong-un’s death circulate on social media, one news agency has suggested that he may be sheltering from Covid-19 in a North Korean resort town. On Friday, South Korean news agency Newsis said that a special train for Kim’s use had been spotted by intelligence sources in the town of Wonsan. A Washington-based North Korea monitoring project called 38 North has captured satellite images which also appear to show a special train, possibly belonging to the Northern Korean leader, in Wonsan. Though the group said it was probably Kim Jong Un’s train, Reuters has not been able to confirm that independently, or whether he was in Wonsan.
Donald Trump stays away from briefings amid fallout from disinfectant comments
After more than a month of near-daily White House coronavirus press briefings, Donald Trump stayed behind closed doors on Saturday after advisers reportedly warned the president that his appearances were hurting his campaign.
In recent weeks Trump has used the briefings to dole out unproven and debunked medical advice, suggesting that things like sunlight and an anti-malaria drug are cures to Covid-19, often causing his own medical experts to try to correct the record.
But on Friday Trump surprised observers by taking no questions and stalking out of the room after an unusually short briefing of just 22 minutes. Some took the move as an acknowledgement from Trump himself that he may have taken things too far when he said on Thursday that disinfectant could be used to cure Covid-19.
My colleague Lauren Aratani has the full report:
Key workers should be given face masks – BMA
The chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) has urged the government to provide all essential workers with face masks to combat the spread of Covid-19.
It is currently not compulsory to wear a mask or face covering in public, but ministers are considering recommendations made by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) following a review of current advice.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the BMA council, is calling on the government to ask all members of the public to cover their mouths and noses when going outside.
He told the Daily Telegraph that the doctors’ union believes all key workers outside of the NHS should be provided with masks or suitable face coverings.
He said this includes “transport workers, shopkeepers, carers or supermarket staff” who are unable to abide by social distancing.
“Common sense tells you that a barrier between people must offer a level of protection, however small,” Dr Nagpaul said.
He added:
The Government must pursue all avenues of reducing the spread of infection.
This includes asking the public to wear face coverings to cover mouths and noses when people leave home for essential reasons.”
He said that until “sufficient supplies of PPE are provided” to the frontline, this may initially mean members of the public wearing cloth masks and scarves.
Current UK guidance has emphasised the importance of masks for doctors and nurses, but does not suggest widespread usage.
However, scientific advisers for the government have carried out a review of the use of face masks, despite the World Health Organization (WHO) saying that there is no evidence to support their use by the general population.
Updated
Turkey’s health ministry has reported 2,861 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and 106 more deaths but says the rate of positive tests for the virus is decreasing.
The daily figures the health minister, Fahrettin Koca, shared on Saturday brought the total number of virus-related deaths recorded by the Turkish government to 2,706.
Turkey ranks seventh in the world for confirmed infections, surpassing China and Iran, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.
The government reported a total of 107,773 cases as of Saturday.
But experts believe many more people have gotten sick or died during the pandemic than the ones included in the Johns Hopkins University project due to limited testing for the virus, the difficulty of counting the dead during the crisis and other factors.
Updated
An unexpected consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic is that sewing factories in the Gaza Strip are back to working at full capacity for the first time in years.
The AP his this report on how garment manufacturers in the enclave are producing masks, gloves and protective gowns, some of which are bound for Israel:
It’s a rare economic lifeline in the coastal territory, which has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since the Hamas militant group seized power from rival Palestinian forces in the strip in 2007. The blockade, and three wars between Hamas and Israel, have devastated the local economy, with unemployment hovering around 50%.
But the sudden opportunity also shows how Gaza’s economy is at the mercy of those enforcing the blockade and how depressed wages have become. Workers earn as little as $8 a day.
So far, Gaza appears to have been largely spared from the coronavirus pandemic, with only 17 cases detected, all within quarantine facilities set up for those returning from abroad. Many still fear an outbreak in the impoverished territory, which is home to two million people and where the health care system has been battered by years of conflict. But for now, authorities are cautiously allowing most businesses to stay open.
Rizq al-Madhoun, owner of the Bahaa garment company, said he has produced more than one million masks in the past three weeks, “all for the Israeli market.”
Gaza may not have the advanced machinery seen in other places, but he said residents’ sewing skills are unmatched. He added:
Gaza workers are distinguished in handiwork and they are better than workers in China or Turkey.
Another factory, Unipal 2000, is able to employ 800 workers across two shifts to produce protective equipment around the clock.
Both factories import fabric and other materials from customers in Israel and then produce items like masks, gloves and surgical gowns. Unipal makes about 150,000 pieces a day, and demand is high as countries around the world grapple with shortages.
Asked about doing business with Israeli customers, both factory owners said they did not want to discuss politics and framed their work in terms of business and humanitarian needs.
Bashir Bawab, the owner of Unipal 2000, said:
Despite the siege in Gaza, we export these masks and protective clothes to the whole world without exception.
We feel we are doing a humanitarian duty.
Gisha, an Israeli group that advocates for easing the blockade on Gaza, appealed to Israeli leaders to do more to promote economic activity in the territory. “The pandemic has created demand for these products,” it said.
It added:
But Israel must lift restrictions on trade entirely so that Gaza residents can work and so that Gaza’s faltering economy can brace itself as much as possible against the wider global crisis caused by the pandemic.
Updated
Dozens of anti-lockdown protesters arrested in Berlin, AFP reports.
German police arrested dozens of protesters in Berlin on Saturday for flouting the coronavirus lockdown measures they were demonstrating against.
About 1,000 people turned out for the rally, which has become a weekly event in the German capital.
Saturday’s protest attracted mainly far-left activists but there were also right-wing supporters and members of other fringe groups.
Police put up barriers around Rosa Luxemburg square, where the protesters were headed, leaving the participants to gather in nearby roads.
The protest “is not in line with the rules” in place to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus, police said on Twitter, telling those taking part to disperse.
Some of the demonstrators wore T-shirts accusing Chancellor Angela Merkel of “banning life” while others simply called for “freedom”.
Others brandished placards bearing slogans such as “Stop the pharmaceutical lobby”.
The protest was unauthorised as a result of emergency rules in Berlin banning gatherings of more than 20 people.
The protest organisers’ website called for “an end to the state of emergency” and played down the threat posed by the virus.
Public discontent with the confinement rules has been growing gradually in Germany, as in other countries, though Merkel’s popularity remains high.
She has received plaudits for her management of the health crisis which has seen Germany’s Covid-19 toll – 5,500 according to an AFP tally – remain significantly lower than in Italy, Spain, France and Britain where the death tolls have all risen above 20,000.
Opposition to the lockdown measures is being led by the far-right, the main opposition force in the German parliament.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party accuses the government of exaggerating the risk posed by the virus and has called for the immediate reopening of all businesses.
Boris Johnson to return to work on Monday – reports
Boris Johnson will return to Downing Street on Monday and is “raring to go”, Sky News reports.
The PM was discharged from hospital on Easter Sunday, after spending three nights in intensive care.
He may host on Monday’s daily Downing Street news conference and take on new Labour leader Keir Starmer at PMQs on Wednesday, depending the advice of doctors.
“He is ‘raring to go’ and will be back Monday,” a Downing Street source told Sky News.
Johnson now faces a dilemma over whether to ease lockdown measures.
Leading scientists have warned the number of new cases of Covid-19 being diagnosed is still much too high, as highlighted in this report:
Updated
Algeria has taken further steps to ease restrictions over coronavirus by allowing several businesses to reopen “to reduce the economic and social impact of the health crisis” caused by the pandemic, the prime minister’s office said on Saturday.
It said shops to be reopened include those for materials for building and public works, appliances, fabrics, jewellery, clothing and shoes, cosmetics and perfumes, home and office furniture, pastries and hairdressers in addition to urban transport by taxi.
The government on Thursday decided to ease confinement measures by shortening the curfew for some provinces but called on citizens to be “vigilant”. That measure came hours before the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan on Friday.
Algeria has said restrictions linked to coronavirus has significantly hit the economy which is under financial pressure due to a sharp fall in global oil prices.
The government has reported a total of 3,256 confirmed infections with the virus, with 419 deaths and 1,479 recoveries.
Updated
As unconfirmed rumours of Kim Jong-un’s death circulate on social media, one news agency has suggested that he may be sheltering from Covid-19 in a North Korean resort town.
On Friday, South Korean news agency Newsis said that a special train for Kim’s use had been spotted by intelligence sources in the town of Wonsan. It suggested he may be sheltering from the novel coronavirus.
Washington-based North Korea monitoring project, 38 North, also captured satellite images of special train possibly belonging to the Northern Korean leader in Wonsan.
A report the project published on Saturday said that the train was parked at the “leadership station” in Wonsan on April 21 and April 23. The station is reserved for the use of the Kim family, it said.
Though the group said it was probably Kim Jong Un’s train, Reuters has not been able to confirm that independently, or whether he was in Wonsan.
“The train’s presence does not prove the whereabouts of the North Korean leader or indicate anything about his health but it does lend weight to reports that Kim is staying at an elite area on the country’s eastern coast,” the report said.
It comes after a series of conflicting and unconfirmed reports on the leader’s health and whereabouts.
Speculation about Kim’s health first arose due to his absence from the anniversary of the birthday of North Korea’s founding father and Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, on April 15.
China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on Kim Jong-un, according to three people familiar with the situation.
Updated
Venezuelan food and beverage producer Empresas Polar, the largest private company in the socialist country, on Saturday called a new government move to supervise the company’s food unit’s sales amid rising prices nationwide “arbitrary.”
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez announced the measure on Friday as part of a slew of steps to try to control prices and slow inflation during the coronavirus pandemic, which together with an acute fuel shortage complicating the transport of goods is prompting a rise in consumer prices.
Inflation was 124% in the first three months of 2020, according to the central bank.
“There is no reason or justification for this arbitrary measure,” Empresas Polar’s chairman, Lorenzo Mendoza, said in a statement calling on the government to walk back the move targeting Alimentos Polar, the company’s food unit, which manufactures many Venezuelan staples including corn flour dough.
Venezuela’s information ministry, which fields media requests on the government’s behalf, did not respond to a request for comment.
The move toward price controls marks a shift away from a gradual liberalization of economic policy in the OPEC nation.
In the face of U.S. sanctions imposed early last year, President Nicolas Maduro relaxed enforcement of decades-old price controls and eased restrictions on the use of foreign currency.
That has not been enough to turn around a six-year economic recession marked by hyperinflation, shortages of basic goods and a collapse in public services such as electricity and water. Gasoline shortages have grown worse in recent months, prompting sporadic lootings in eastern Venezuela last week.
The government also said it would supervise the sales of Plumrose, a meat producer, and a 180-day intervention at cooking oils producer Coposa. It also announced fixed prices on 27 basic products.
“This action is completely contrary to what the population expects at this moment,” Mendoza said in the statement. “It is a threat to the public and private supply chains the company serves. Far from calming the country down, it generates anxiety and panic.”
In the UK, the selection of Trevor Phillips to investigate why Covid-19 is killing more Black, Asian and minority ethnic people has sparked a row after leading Muslims criticised his appointment as “insensitive”.
Phillips, the former chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, was asked by Public Health England to provide expert support to an inquiry into why increasing numbers of victims of the coronavirus pandemic are from BAME backgrounds.
Philips has been suspended from the Labour party over allegations of Islamophobia.
The Muslim Council of Britain’s general secretary, Harun Khan, has said that Phillips has a “consistent record in pushing the divisive narrative of Muslims being apart from the rest of British society”.
Prof Kevin Fenton, PHE’s regional director, London, said Phillips and Prof Richard Webber have been selected as “their specialist consultancy has the right skills and experience”.
Here is the full report:
In Israel, several thousand protestors took to the streets of Tel Aviv to denounce a unity government deal reached last week that leaves prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in power as he prepares to go on trial for corruption charges.
The protest filled central Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, although demonstrators stayed two metres apart from each other in line with health regulations in place for weeks meant to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
Here is a selection of photos from the protests:
The UK’s biggest steel producer needs about £500m in government support to see it through the coronavirus crisis, according to Welsh MP Stephen Kinnock.
Tata Steel has approached the UK and Welsh governments for a bailout after its big European customers halted production, Sky News reported on Saturday.
The company employs 8,385 people across the UK, including more than 4,000 workers at the Port Talbot steelworks in south Wales.
Here is the full report:
Prime minister Édouard Philippe will present France’s parliament with a plan to unwind the nation’s lockdown on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
The nation has been subject to confinement measures since March 17.
Mobile phone data shows Britons beginning to ignore lockdown
Health officials fear Britons are starting to get complacent about the Covid-19 lockdown after traffic and mobile phone data revealed more of us are on the roads and looking for directions, PA reports.
Mobility data released by Apple shows that, despite a dramatic drop in requests for directions, in recent days searches for maps for walking or driving have increased by eight percentage points.
The news came as professor Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, said on Saturday “there was a little bit of concern” after the unseasonably warm weather drew big crowds to public spaces.
At the Downing Street briefing, Prof Powis said traffic levels are down 59% compared to February, but grew by three percentage points in the last seven days compared to the previous week.
Prof Powis said:
It won’t take much for this virus to start increasing its transmission again and to spread more widely.
He added:
It would be foolish and not right if we lost the benefits that we have gained over the last four weeks, which I know have been hard for everybody.
So it’s really important that despite the weather, we stay at home, we keep to the guidelines that we’ve been issued with.
Elsewhere, B&Q’s decision to reopen 130 stores saw massive queues forming outside its outlets in Bristol and in Swansea, as the public use the shutdown to catch up on DIY.
The Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF), a body representing Met officers, said despite its assertions to the contrary, the government was sending out mixed messages around the shutdown.
MPF chairman Ken Marsh questioned the wisdom of allowing DIY stores to reopen.
Mr Marsh said:
Police officers are on the front line of combating the coronavirus crisis
We need clear and unambiguous laws, guidance and communication from the Government around what the public can and can’t do. What is essential and what isn’t.
If officers are confused about all this then so will the public be.
UK government ‘reviewing’ NHS surcharge for migrant medics
The UK government is “reviewing” the surcharge that some migrant doctors and nurses working in the NHS must pay to access the health service, the home secretary Priti Patel has said.
The government was criticised in December for planning to increase the immigration health surcharge for migrants from outside the European Economic Area, including nurses and doctors, from £400 to £625 a year each. The fees were introduced in 2015.
In the daily press conference at Downing Street on Saturday, Patel was asked if this is the right to abolish it for NHS workers.
She said:
You’ll be aware of many changes we have already made around the immigration status and the visa status for NHS workers for extending their visas already if they were coming up for expiry.
We have a range of measures that are, like most things in government, under review, and we are looking at everything including visa surcharge … We are looking at everything we can do to continue to support everyone on the frontline in the NHS.
My colleague Mattha Busby has the full report:
Spain could lift more lockdown restrictions and allow adults out to exercise from 2 May if efforts to contain the spread of the virus continue to pay off, the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said.
The strict lockdown enacted after the declaration of a state of emergency on 14 March has been extended until 9 May, but children under the age of 14 will be allowed out for an hour’s exercise each day from tomorrow.
Addressing the nation on Saturday night, Sánchez said: “If things keep going in a positive direction with the pandemic, from 2 May people will be allowed out to exercise individually or to go out for a walk with the person they live with.”
However, the prime minister stressed that the loosening of the lockdown would depend on continuing progress to halt the virus.
Sánchez also warned once again that any “de-escalation” would be gradual.
“We’re not going to get back to all kinds of activity and social movement right away,” he said. “We’ll do it in stages.”
Experts have warned that anti-Muslim hatred India could undermine the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The AP has this report:
India’s government is blaming an Islamic missionary meeting for a surge in coronavirus cases, triggering a wave of violence, business boycotts and hate speech toward Muslims that experts warn could worsen the pandemic in the world’s second-most populous country.
The stigma faced by India’s Muslims, poorer and with less access to health care than other groups, is making health workers’ battle against the virus even tougher, according to veterans of other epidemics.
India has about 24,500 confirmed coronavirus cases about one in five of which have been linked to the missionary meeting and 775 deaths, and the outbreak may not peak until June.
Dr. Anant Bhan, a bioethics and global health expert, said:
Not only is the (Muslim) community at a higher risk of being infected, but they will also be at a high risk of spreading the virus.
It becomes a cycle that will continue.
About 8,000 people in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation met for three days in March at the group’s compound in the crowded Nizamuddin area of New Delhi, shortly before the Indian government banned large gatherings.
The compound stayed open, later giving shelter to people stranded in a 21-day lockdown imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24, according to the group’s spokesman, Mujeeb ur Rehman.
Credit: Photo by Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times/REX/Shutterstock Photograph: Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times/REX/Shutterstock
On the second day of the lockdown, a government raid on the compound discovered the largest virus cluster in India. Police filed a case against some of the group’s leaders for violating the ban, a charge the group denies. Officials said Tuesday they have arrested 29 people, including 16 foreigners, who participated in the missionary meeting.
India’s communal fault lines, still stressed by deadly riots over a new naturalisation law that excludes Muslims, were split wide open by the allegations against Jamaat.
Politicians in Modi’s ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party were quoted on TV and in newspapers describing the Jamaat incident as “corona terrorism.”
False news targeting Muslims began to circulate, including video clips purportedly showing congregation members spitting on authorities. The clips were quickly proven to be fake, yet by April 1, the hashtag “CoronaJihad” was trending on Twitter in India.
Lav Aggarwal, joint secretary of India’s health ministry, repeatedly called out the congregation by name in daily news briefings. On April 5, he said the number of virus cases was doubling in just 4.1 days, and would have been a slower 7.4 days “if the additional ... cases due to the Tablighi Jamaat meeting would not have arisen.”
That same day, Dilshad Mohammad took his life.
Panic, blame and stigma were spreading across India when the 37-year-old chicken peddler was shunned by his neighbours in Bangarh, a village in the hilly state of Himachal Pradesh, for giving two members of the Jamaat congregation a ride to their village on his scooter.
Neighbours accused him of deliberately trying to infect them with the virus, which causes the Covid-19 disease.
Karthikeyan Gokulachandran, the district police superintendent, blamed his suicide on stigma.
Doctors who studied previous epidemics warn that stigma and blame for a contagious disease weaken trust in marginalised communities, threatening decades-long efforts against illnesses such as polio and tuberculosis by making people less likely to seek treatment.
Stigma in general is adding to India’s coronavirus death toll, said Dr. Randeep Guleria, head of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi and among the architects of the country’s response.
He said:
It is actually causing increasing morbidity and mortality. Because of the stigma that is happening, many patients who have COVID-19 or who have flu-like symptoms are not coming forward.
Muslims were already at a disadvantage when the coronavirus entered India.
India’s 200 million Muslims account for 14% of the population and are the largest minority group in the Hindu-majority nation and also the poorest, surviving on an average of 32.6 rupees ($0.43) per day, a 2013 government survey found.
Muslims also have less access to health care. About 40% of villages with large Muslims populations don’t have medical facilities, a government report in 2006 said.
The “vilification of Muslims was done to hide the government’s mismanagement in dealing with the virus and their callousness,” said Professor Tanweer Fazal, a sociologist at the University of Hyderabad.
Paraguayan authorities have laid out details of a plan to begin lifting the country’s total quarantine.
Health minister Julio Mazzonleni announced at press conference on Friday that a new “intelligent quarantine” will begin on 4 May. It will gradually reintroduce public freedoms and economic activities through a four-stage plan set to run until early July.
On Saturday, Paraguay had 223 coronavirus cases and nine deaths – according to figures from researchers at Johns Hopkins University – among the lowest rates in South America.
The government has built two emergency hospitals and recently received a large cargo flight of medical supplies.
World Covid-19 death toll exceeds 200,000
The total number of people to die worldwide after contracting the novel coronavirus has surpassed 200,000, figures show.
The Coronavirus Resource Centre, run by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, shows that the global death toll stands at 200,698 as of Saturday.
The figures for infections are likely to underestimate the true scale of the pandemic due to suspected under-reporting and differing testing regimes.
Death toll figures are also controversial, with some countries reporting deaths as confirmed Covid-19 cases on the basis of symptoms and in the absence of a positive test, while others are not including them.
If you’re only just joining us – here is a recap of the biggest global developments in the coronavirus pandemic as of 6pm on Saturday.
This is Aaron Walawalkar, in London, keeping you updated for the next eight hours or so with the latest in coronavirus world news developments.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions for coverage, please send me a direct message on Twitter (@AaronWala). Due to the overwhelming interest, I may not be able to respond to all messages but I will certainly read them.
Once we have a vaccine, how will it be shared fairly around the world?
While we may not yet be at the point of having a tried-and-tested vaccine against the novel coronavirus, experts say that governments must start looking now for an ethical and equitable distribution process.
With vaccines seen as one of the few real routes out of the coronavirus crisis, fears of “vaccine nationalism” are already increasing.
Each step of creating, testing and mass-producing a vaccine is an epic challenge – but the political and ethical decisions around its subsequent distribution pose another.
How will any eventual vaccine be shared out? Who decides? Will supplies go to the highest bidder?
My colleague Michael Savage has this report:
The death toll in France from the coronavirus has risen by 369 to stand at 22,614, the health ministry said on Saturday.
Nigerian state governors have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to approve the compulsory use of face masks in public as confirmed coronavirus cases rise, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Saturday.
The 36 state governors argued the approval was necessary to have a uniform and coordinated policy at federal and state levels to tackle the virus, the letter from the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) said.
Nigeria reported 114 new cases of the coronavirus on Friday, bringing its total to 1,095 with 32 deaths. A total of 28 states have so far reported cases, with more than half of those in the commercial hub Lagos.
Nigeria, with 200 million people, is Africa’s most populous country. Some 20 million reside in Lagos.
Among measures to be announced by Buhari the governors want the government to incorporate a lockdown on flights and on interstate movement, restrictions on large gatherings, overnight curfews and compulsory face mask use in public.
The measures would exclude movement of food, beverages, medical and pharmaceuticals, petroleum supplies and agricultural products, said the governors who on Thursday agreed to ban interstate movement for two weeks.
Lagos and Ogun states, as well as the capital Abuja, are already under federally imposed lockdowns, while various states have instigated their own containment measures.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday that he would allow independent pharmacists to collect samples to test for the novel coronavirus and would expand screening for antibodies, starting with first responders and other essential workers.
Cuomo also told a daily briefing that hospitalisations across his state for Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, had fallen to same level as 21 days ago.
There now around 1,100 hospitalisations per day – down from 1,300 seen previously, he said.
Italy’s coronavirus death toll rose by 415 on Saturday, five deaths fewer than on Friday and the lowest day-to-to increase since 17 March. The total number of people who have died after contracting the virus now stands at 26,384, while the number who have recovered has risen to 63,120.
The number of people currently infected with the virus fell for the sixth day in a row, by 680 to 105,847, while the number of intensive care beds in use has fallen by almost half since 31 March.
Italy has recorded 195,351 coronavirus cases to date, including the victims and survivors.
The total number of coronavirus deaths in Canada has risen to 2,350, according to public health agency data.
Figures released on Saturday show an increase of 153 deaths in the 24 hours since April 23. The total number of cases has risen to 44,364 from 42,750.
South Africa’s government and specialists appointed to try to save the state-owned airline have agreed to extend a deadline for trade unions to agree staff severance terms, Reuters reports.
South African Airways (SAA) entered a form of bankruptcy protection in December and its fortunes deteriorated further when the coronavirus pandemic forced it to suspend all commercial flights.
The airline offered severance packages to its roughly 5,000-strong workforce after the government said it would not provide more funds for rescue efforts.
The proposal was put to trade union leaders, with the business rescue team advising that a deal should be reached by Saturday. However, that deadline has been extended until 1 May.
The department of public enterprises minister, Pravin Gordhan, issued a letter to the unions at the airline on Saturday. It said:
We advise that the department agreed with Business Rescue Practitioners on moratorium on the signing of the retrenchment (layoffs) agreements until Friday 1 May 2020.
It added:
As a result, the employees are not obliged to sign the collective agreement for the retrenchments for the period of the moratorium.
Public enterprises ministry spokesman Sam Mkokeli confirmed the contents of the letter and said the department would issue a statement later.
SAA has not been profitable since 2011 and has received more than 20bn rand ($1.05bn) in bailouts in the past three years, a drain on public resources at a time of weak economic growth.
Updated
Far-right groups in the UK, US and EU are exploiting the coronavirus crisis to push their anti-minority agendas and win new support.
A report by the Zinc Network, a communications agency that tracks disinformation and propaganda, suggests there has been a clear pivot among far-right movements to “utilise the pandemic to bring new relevancy, attention and support for their key grievances”.
A favoured tactic among these extremist groups is to put fake documents into circulation, designed to look like real medical or government communications.
My colleague Jamie Doward has the full report:
Chelsea have said they will not impose a pay cut on their first-team squad in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
But the Premier League side added they had asked players to continue donating to charities during the ongoing pandemic.
It has been reported the west London club have been in talks with their players about a salary reduction of about 10% in a bid to reduce costs at a time when football has been suspended because of the virus.
That figure, however, is significantly lower than the Premier League’s suggestion of 30% for all clubs.
But that has not stopped the Stamford Bridge side from taking their own course of action as they highlighted the PlayersTogether initiative launched by Premier League players earlier this month, which aims to raise and distribute funds for charities supporting the NHS.
The said club representatives of the Chelsea board had held “extensive talks with the men’s first team to discuss how they can contribute financially to the club during the coronavirus crisis”.
The statement said:
The objective of these talks has been to find a meaningful partnership around ensuring we preserve jobs for staff, compensate fans and participate in activities for good causes.
We are grateful to the team for having played their role in assisting the club with community activities as well as all the charitable causes they have been supporting in their respective home countries and through the Players Together initiative supporting the NHS.
It added:
At this time, the men’s first team will not be contributing towards the club financially and instead the board have directed the team to focus their efforts on further supporting other charitable causes.
As this crisis develops the club will continue to have conversations with the men’s first team regarding financial contributions to the club’s activities.
Meanwhile, the Blues said they would not be taking advantage of the British government’s coronavirus job retention or furlough scheme, with casual workers and matchday staff being compensated by the club through to 30 June.
Updated
In the UK, home secretary, Priti Patel, is delivering the daily Downing Street briefing on the coronavirus crisis.
She is joined by Lynne Owens, director general of the National Crime Agency, and NHS England director, Stephen Powis.
She said there has been an overall drop in crime rates during lockdown, with car crime, burglary and shoplifting down on this time last year.
However, she added that sophisticated criminals are trying to exploit the crisis, citing how police have seized £1m worth of cocaine smuggled into the UK in boxes of face masks.
Follow the latest developments on our UK-focused coronavirus live blog:
Updated
This is Aaron Walawalkar taking over the live blog in London now, keeping you updated for the next eight hours or so with the latest in coronavirus world news developments.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions for coverage, please send me a direct message on Twitter (@AaronWala). Due to the overwhelming interest, I may not be able to respond to all messages but I will certainly read them.
People on South Africa will have to wear face masks from 1 May when coronavirus lockdown restrictions will begin to be eased, the government said on Saturday.
“It is going to be mandatory to use a cloth mask as you step out of your home,” Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told a press conference in Pretoria, AFP reports.
“You will need to have your nose and mouth covered in public,” Dlamini-Zuma said, adding that people could use a scarf or T-shirt if they do not have a mask.
South Africa has been on lockdown since 27 March. On Thursday, Cyril Ramaphosa, the president, said restrictions would gradually begin to be eased from the beginning of next month.
The industry and commerce minister, Ebrahim Patel, said on Saturday that among the changes, agriculture will be allowed to resume completely; restaurants can open but only for home delivery while mines can restart some activities.
But Dlamini-Zuma said restrictions would remain in place for those not working in essential industries. “If you are not an essential worker or do not work in the prioritised sectors continue to stay at home, except when you are buying essential goods or services or for emergency medical services,” she said.
Updated
The vast illegal wildlife trade and humanity’s excessive intrusion into nature is to blame for the coronavirus pandemic, according to a leading US scientist who says “this is not nature’s revenge, we did it to ourselves”, Phoebe Weston, the Guardian’s biodiversity writer, reports.
Scientists are discovering two to four new viruses are created every year as a result of human infringement on the natural world, and any one of those could turn into a pandemic, according to Thomas Lovejoy, who coined the term “biological diversity” in 1980 and is often referred to as the godfather of biodiversity.
Lovejoy, a senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation and professor of environment science at George Mason University, said:
This pandemic is the consequence of our persistent and excessive intrusion in nature and the vast illegal wildlife trade, and in particular, the wildlife markets, the wet markets, of south Asia and bush meat markets of Africa … It’s pretty obvious, it was just a matter of time before something like this was going to happen.
Updated
UK hospital Covid-19 death toll passes 20,000
In the UK, a further 813 people have died in hospital after testing positive for Covid-19, taking the country’s total to 20,319.
It comes almost six weeks after the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said on 17 March that keeping the toll under 20,000 would be “a good outcome in terms of where we would hope to get”.
As of 9am 25 April, 640,792 tests have concluded, with 28,760 tests on 24 April.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) April 25, 2020
517,836 people have been tested of which 148,377 tested positive.
As of 5pm on 24 April, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 20,319 have sadly died. pic.twitter.com/5HLhOFWdlu
Follow our UK blog for more updates:
Updated
As lockdowns drag on and the economic consequences are felt, particularly among the poorest, organised crime groups are stepping in to fill a gap vacated by officials, according to Roberto Saviano, the Italian journalist famous for his work on the Mafia, in an article for the Observer. He writes:
The art of profit is based on exploiting need, and no one has perfected that dark art better than organised crime. The Covid-19 pandemic is already demonstrating this. With their usual business acumen, criminal organisations have, in recent decades, invested in a number of companies that have turned out to be very relevant to the present crisis: multi-service businesses (catering, cleaning or disinfection), industrial laundries, transport, funeral homes, waste collection, food distribution – and the health. All of these sectors have become fundamental to our survival over recent weeks, and will probably remain so for a good while.
Today is World Malaria Day. As we approach 200,000 deaths so far this year from Covid-19, it’s worth remembering that the World Health Organization has warned that deaths from malaria could double to 700,000 this year as a result of the disruption caused by the new disease.
As we work on tackling #COVID19, we can't afford to lose ground on the gains we have made against other diseases like malaria.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 25, 2020
On #WorldMalariaDay I join @WHO's call for maintained malaria prevention & treatment services during the #coronavirus crisis to save lives. pic.twitter.com/vtm3X6twva
Dozens of doctors and nurses in Pakistan have launched a hunger strike over a lack of protective masks and other equipment for treating patients with Covid-19.
More than 150 doctors in Pakistan have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Young Doctors Association in Punjab, the country’s worst-hit province.
Several doctors and nurses have already died from Covid-19, including a 26-year-old physician who had recently started his career. An official told AFP that a specialist at a state-run hospital died from the disease on Saturday.
Salman Haseeb, head of the Punjab’s Grand Health Alliance, said about 30 doctors and nurses in Punjab were on hunger strike. The protesters have kept working in their hospitals while taking turns to demonstrate outside the health authority offices in provincial capital Lahore, where they have been joined by up to 200 colleagues.
“We do not intend on stopping until the government listens to our demands. They have been consistently refusing to adhere to our demands,” Haseeb told AFP.
“We are on the frontline of this virus and if we are not protected then the whole population is at risk.”
Updated
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose by 655 to 37,190, health authorities said on Saturday, with 120 new deaths, Reuters reports.
The country’s death toll stands at 4,409, the Netherlands Institute for Public Health (RIVM) said in its daily update. The actual numbers are probably higher, as not all suspected cases are tested, the RIVM said.
Updated
Health officials in Iran have raised fears of a “fresh outbreak” of coronavirus cases in their country, already the worst-affected in the region.
As the predominantly Shia country marked the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a day later than much of the Muslim world, Alireza Zali, the anti-coronavirus coordinator for the capital, Tehran, criticised “hasty reopenings”.
Since 11 April, Iran has allowed the reopening of a number of businesses that were closed as part of measures to curb Covid-19.
Zali was quoted by the official news agency, Irna, as saying reopenings could “create new waves of sickness in Tehran and complicate efforts to bring the epidemic under control”, Reuters reports.
Iran reported 76 new deaths from coronavirus on Saturday, raising its total death to 6,650.
Announcing the latest figures on Saturday, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said social distancing and hygiene measures to guard against the coronavirus needed to remain in place.
The ministry’s infectious diseases department head, Mohammad Mehdi Gouya, warned of signs of a fresh outbreak in provinces such as Gilan and Mazandaran in the north and Qom in central Iran, “where we made great efforts to control the epidemic”.
Updated
The number of new coronavirus cases in Russia has risen by 5,966 over the past 24 hours, bringing its nationwide tally to 74,588, the country’s coronavirus crisis response centre said on Saturday, according to Reuters.
It also reported 66 new deaths from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, bringing the total death toll to 681.
The number of coronavirus cases in Russia began rising sharply this month, although it had reported far fewer infections than many western European countries in the early stages of the outbreak.
Updated
The Singapore ministry of health has announced it has detected a further 618 cases of coronavirus infection, “the vast majority of whom are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories”.
Singapore reacted quickly and aggressively to the virus as soon as it was identified earlier this year. It seemed that the city state had controlled its spread but from Monday it registered more than 1,000 new confirmed cases for four days in a row, mainly among migrant workers.
More details on the latest infections will be published later, the ministry said.
For more on how the virus has spread through Singapore’s army of migrant workers, who perform many of the basic functions that keep the city running, see this report by Rebecca Ratcliffe, the Guardian’s south-east Asia correspondent.
Updated
Kenya has detected seven more cases of coronavirus, bringing the total in the country to 343, the country’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, said as he extended lockdown measures for a further three weeks.
President Uhuru Kenyatta confirms the country is now at 343 confirmed cases of Covid-19.#KomeshaCorona update pic.twitter.com/C89Yd7C68W
— Ministry of Health (@MOH_Kenya) April 25, 2020
President Uhuru; Cessation of movement into and out of Nairobi, Kilifi, Kwale, Mombasa and Mandera counties has been extended for a further period of 21 days on advice of @NationalERKe #KomesaCorona update
— Ministry of Health (@MOH_Kenya) April 25, 2020
Updated
Infections on Italian cruise in Japan ship near 150
Confirmed coronavirus cases on the Italian Costa Atlantica cruise ship are nearing 150, AFP reports.
Almost a quarter of the 623 crew members on the ship, docked in western Japan, have tested positive for the coronavirus, an official said on Saturday.
The Costa Atlantica has no passengers onboard and arrived in the southern port of Nagasaki for repairs in January.
Its operator first notified local authorities of suspected virus infections last weekend.
All crew members have now been tested, with another 57 testing positive on Saturday, raising the number of cases to 148, a local official told reporters.
Further details, such as their nationalities or age, were not immediately available, the official said.
Japan has already dealt with one virus outbreak on a cruise ship – the Diamond Princess, which docked in Yokohama in February after a former passenger tested positive for the disease.
Authorities ordered an on-ship quarantine but more than 700 people were infected with the virus and 13 died.
Updated
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose by 655 to 37,190, health authorities said on Saturday, with 120 new deaths, Reuters reports.
The country’s death toll stands at 4,409, the National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) said in its daily update.
The actual numbers are probably higher, as not all suspected cases are tested, the RIVM said.
Updated
A reader has written in to alert me to these striking images of Sergio Mattarella, the Italian president, celebrating Liberation Day alone, wearing a protective mask, in front of the Altare della Patria monument in Rome.
Liberation Day is a national holiday commemorating the end of the Nazi occupation during the second world war and the victory of Italy’s resistance.
#25Aprile, il Presidente #Mattarella si è voluto recare all’#AltaredellaPatria dove ha deposto una corona d’alloro sulla tomba del Milite Ignoto pic.twitter.com/vV4SeDF9UZ
— Quirinale (@Quirinale) April 25, 2020
Updated
Serbia has sent four planes carrying medical equipment including gloves, masks and protective suits to Italy on Saturday, as a donation.
Another four equipment-laden planes will be sent in the next two days, also donated by the Serbian government, the president Aleksandar Vučićsaid, according to Reuters.
“We will win together, be brave Italy, Serbia is with you,” Vučić wrote on one of the boxes of equipment before it was loaded on to a plane.
“On its path to Europe, Serbia always had help from Italy,” Vučić said, noting that during devastating floods in 2014, Italy was one of the first countries to send aid.
“This is our opportunity to say thank you,” he said.
Last year, Italy was Serbia’s second-largest trade partner after Germany, data from January showed. Italian companies including Fiat employ more than 20,000 people in Serbia.
Serbia has so far reported 7,483 cases of people infected with the coronavirus and 144 deaths.
Updated
India reopened neighbourhood stores on Saturday, which many of the country’s 1.3 billion people rely on.
The country’s extremely strict lockdown was imposed on 24 March, and with only a few hours’ warning, causing widespread anger in the population.
But the relaxation of the restrictions came with significant caveats, the Associated Press reports.
Hundreds of quarantined towns and other infection hotspots are exempt from the eased measures.
The outbreak has killed at least 780 people in India and created huge pressure on the millions of people living in slum conditions too crowded for social distancing.
Shopping malls also remained closed across the country.
Last week, India allowed manufacturing and farming activities to resume in rural areas to ease the economic plight of millions of daily wage-earners left without work by the lockdown, under which people can only leave their homes to buy food, medicine or other essentials.
Updated
Spain’s coronavirus death toll rose to 22,902 on Saturday, up from 22,524 the day before, media outlets including El País and El Mundo reported.
The number of daily fatalities was 378, a slight increase on Friday’s 367, which was the lowest figure recorded in the past month.
The overall number of coronavirus cases rose to 223,759 from 219,764 the day before.
Spain’s health ministry could not immediately confirm the figures, Reuters reports.
Updated
Hong Kong’s top epidemiologist has warned against easing lockdowns in Europe, saying “you need a sledgehammer” to bring down the rate of infections before reopening society.
Gabriel Leung, the dean of medicine at the University of Hong Kong, told Der Spiegel that lockdowns of the kind that have frozen societies and economies will be “a marathon, not a sprint”, and the world needs to learn to live with the coronavirus.
“Containment has failed everywhere,” Leung said. “What we need is suppression, or better: cycles of suppression and lift, probably many of them,” he said, adding that measures needed to be tuned to the “surge capacity” of national health systems.
Taking the example of the flu, which kills tens of thousands every year in Europe, Leung said:
Nobody likes it, but it is tolerated. Nobody asks for zero flu deaths. But if you exceed the capacity of your ICUs, then you would be breaching a very red line. So, somewhere between what people tolerate by implication every year and having completely overwhelmed ICUs like in New York City, somewhere between these extremes lie your tolerance levels ...
If you have a sustained [coronavirus] outbreak like in most of Europe, you need the sledgehammer to bring down the Rt to below 1. Rt is the virus’s actual transmission rate at a given moment. But you need to go much below 1 to bring the baseline level to a low enough level that you can accept.
Updated
Germany will focus its six-month presidency of the European Union from 1 July on the fight against the coronavirus and its social and economic impact, as well as environmental issues, the chancellor, Angela Merkel, said on Saturday, according to Reuters.
“It will be clearly dominated by the issue of combating the pandemic and its consequences,” Merkel said of the presidency in her weekly video podcast. She added that as long as there was no vaccine, the virus would dominate life in Europe.
Merkel said Germany would promote the idea of an efficient European healthcare system for all member states, as well as a financial transaction tax, minimum tax rates and a joint carbon emissions trading system for ships and planes.
The German cabinet will hold a special session on Wednesday to discuss the agenda for the German presidency of the EU, along with Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen, the secretary-general of the European council.
Updated
In this video, people protest against the Brazilian president after the resignation of popular minister Sérgio Moro. There were calls for Bolsonaro’s impeachment and an investigation into claims he had improperly interfered in the country’s federal police.
Bolsonaro denied claims from his outgoing justice minister that he had sought to appoint a new federal police chief in order to gain access to secret intelligence reports.
Iran’s coronavirus death toll has risen by 76, to a total of 5,650, health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said on state TV on Saturday.
The total number of people diagnosed with the disease is 89,328, of whom 3,096 are in a critical condition, he added.
'No evidence' you can't get Covid-19 twice, says WHO
The World Health Organization said on Saturday there was currently “no evidence” that people who have recovered from coronavirus are protected from a second infection – even if they now have antibodies against it.
In a statement, the UN health agency warned against issuing “immunity passports” or “risk-free certificates” to people who have been infected, saying the practice may actually increase the risk of spread as they may ignore standard advice.
It also warned that the accuracy and reliability of tests for antibodies to coronavirus were not certain.
“Inaccurate immunodiagnostic tests may falsely categorise people in two ways,” the WHO’s latest scientific brief said. “The first is that they may falsely label people who have been infected as negative, and the second is that people who have not been infected are falsely labelled as positive. Both errors have serious consequences and will affect control efforts.”
Chile said last week it would begin handing out “health passports” to people deemed to have recovered from the illness, Reuters reports. Once screened to determine if they have developed antibodies to make them immune to the virus, they could immediately rejoin the workforce.
But, the WHO said: “At this point in the pandemic, there is not enough evidence about the effectiveness of antibody-mediated immunity to guarantee the accuracy of an ‘immunity passport’ or ‘risk-free certificate’. People who assume that they are immune to a second infection because they have received a positive test result may ignore public health advice. The use of such certificates may therefore increase the risks of continued transmission.”
Updated
Haberdashery shops in France have been authorised to reopen before the official end of the lockdown to allow people to buy materials to make face masks, Kim Willsher, the Guardian’s Paris correspondent, reports.
Only specialised shops whose primary business is “selling fabrics, material, threads and other sewing articles” are allowed to trade according to the new decree, which came into effect immediately on Friday.
“The government is working with the textile industry in order to release a guide in the next few days on how to use the materials and the correct shapes to create home-made masks that will be completely effective,” the junior economy minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher, said in a statement.
“It is important, given the approaching end of the lockdown, to give each French person who wishes to make a mask, the means to do so,” the minister added.
Bonne nouvelle ! @laurent_sceaux a obtenu du Préfet la réouverture de la mercerie (commerce de 1ère nécessité) de @Ville_de_Sceaux
— Florence Presson 🐞 (@Scx_Flo) April 25, 2020
Essentielle pour continuer à pouvoir coudre des masques artisanaux en attendant la distribution des masques de la ville par la Mairie#SceauxLIDARITÉ pic.twitter.com/Iu4mqBAOKe
Non-essential shops and businesses, including haberdashers, known in France as ‘merceries’, have been closed since the strict lockdown began in France on 17 March.
The French government is expected to release details of how the lockdown will be eased on 11 May, but is likely to make it obligatory for anyone using public transport to wear a mask.
South Africa remains the African country with the most cases of coronavirus, while Algeria has recorded the most deaths, according to the daily tally of figures on the continent published by the World Health Organization’s regional office.
A predicted surge of cases in Africa has yet to occur, with strict lockdowns across the continent apparently successfully halting the spread of the virus. However, this week the WHO’s regional director for the continent, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, issued a warning that the stresses on civil society and healthcare systems caused by the response to the outbreak could lead to a doubling of deaths from malaria to 700,000.
Over 28,000 #COVID19 cases reported on the African continent - with over 8,000 associated recoveries & 1,300 deaths recorded. View country figures & more with the WHO African Region COVID-19 Dashboard: https://t.co/V0fkK8dYTg pic.twitter.com/V6rAi9McrC
— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) April 25, 2020
Nato has urged warring sides in Afghanistan to declare an immediate ceasefire as the war-torn country reported a record number of cases for the third day straight, triggered by a surge in transmission in Kandahar, writes Akhtar Mohammad Makoii in Herat.
In a statement, Nato called for both sides “to demonstrate good will by accelerating the release of prisoners” as a confidence building measure, and to embrace the international community’s call “for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.
“The continued spread of the Covid-19 pandemic underscores the urgency of such measures. We call on the Taliban to do their part to prevent the spread of Covid-19 among the Afghan people,” NATO said.
The Nato call came hours after the Taliban rejected the president, Ashraf Ghani’s, plea for a ceasefire. Ghani, speaking on the eve of Ramadan, asked the militant group to declare a ceasefire during the holy month as the nation is struggling with coronavirus.
But the Taliban’s spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, tweeted late Thursday a rejection of the request, citing ongoing disagreements over a potential peace process and delayed prisoner exchange as reasons to keep fighting.
“Asking for ceasefire is not rational and convincing,” wrote Shaheen as he accused the government of putting prisoners’ lives at risk during the outbreak.
The Taliban have intensified their war against the Afghan government in recent days, killing about 100 security forces in the last week, according to local media. A government spokesman said 34 civilians were killed in Taliban attacks.
Wahidullah Mayar, the health ministry spokesman, said on Saturday the country is in a “very sensitive” time and and once again called on the Taliban to agree to a ceasefire.
He said: “No one is secure against the the virus, we are all vulnerable. we need an immediate ceasefires, instead of fighting with ourselves, let’s get united and fight with one enemy.”
Meanwhile, the country’s health ministry has reported a record number of cases for the third day straight. In the past 24 hours, 133 new cases were confirmed, pushing the total number of infections to 1463. The death toll from Covid-19 reached 47, with four more confirmed today.
Afghanistan reported 83 cases on Thursday and 95 on Friday. There have so far been 188 recoveries.
The number of new infections continued to surge in Kandahar on Saturday as 20 new patients tested positive for Covid-19. Kandahar has so far recorded 203 cases. In Kabul, which is the country’s worst-affected area, 16 new cases were confirmed, taking the total number to 446.
Mayar said the country’s struggle with a shortage of RNA extraction kits has been solved as the ministry received 10,000, with more arriving in coming days, and will increase number of tests.
Updated
Bill Gates, the Microsoft tycoon, has said the global coronavirus pandemic is his “worst nightmare”, and he will fund the manufacture of several vaccines even prior to their being approved so they are ready to distribute as quickly as possible.
In an interview with the Times, the billionaire – whose charitable foundation is reportedly the biggest funder of the World Health Organization – said he had been concerned about the impact of a viral pandemic for years.
Gates told the Times the global health charity in his name will arrange funding to build factories to produce billions of doses of different potential vaccines, so it is ready to distribute around the world. In particular, he said, he was speaking to pharmaceutical companies about scaling up production of a vaccine under development at Oxford university, for which human trials have begun.
They are going to put it in humans fairly soon . . . if their antibody results are one of the ones that are promising then we and others in a consortium will help make sure that massive manufacturing gets done.
… Fortunately nobody doing the vaccines expects they’re going to make money on them … They know this is a public good — partly because they will need indemnification as part of the regulatory approval, which will have to be expedited. Three months after you dose the humans you will see those responses and you will know at that point. Maybe there will be four or five that we will build factories for even though in the end we may only use one or two of them. That compresses the time.
Updated
Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 2,055 to 152,438, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday - a second day of deceleration after three days of acceleration in new infections, Reuters reports.
On Friday confirmed coronavirus cases had increased by 2,337.
The reported death toll rose by 179 to 5,500, the tally showed on Saturday.
Greece prepares to end lockdown
Greece is preparing to reverse lockdown measures with the country’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis holding back-to-back teleconference calls today to discuss how best to revoke the restrictions, Helena Smith, the Guardian’s Athens correspondent, reports.
Return to normality is expected to begin Monday, 4 May, when small shops, hairdressers, barbers and beauticians will be to go back to work again. One senior government aide told the Guardian the opening of barbers and hairdressers was regarded as a much-needed “psychological boost” after what would be almost two months of lockdown.
“People can’t only be ordered around,” he said. “They also need psychological support.”
The centre right administration took a “hard and early” approach to enforcing restrictions, closing schools on 10 March amid fears of Greece’s austerity-hit health system being quickly overwhelmed. Within days cafes, restaurants, malls, museums and shops followed.
After a decade of riding the country’s roller coaster debt crisis it was thought that a nation more usually associated with civil disobedience would rebel against adhering to the barrage of rules and regulations that containment of the pandemic has demanded. Instead they were adhered to in almost exemplary fashion. As a result Greece, to date, has had a sum total of 2,490 confirmed coronavirus cases and 130 fatalities.
“The objective of the confinement measures is not to remain in a glass bowl, stuck in our homes,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas said earlier this week. “The objective is to take back our lives and win back our way of life temporarily deprived of us by this cunning and invisible enemy.”
But recent outbreaks in a migrant facility and medical clinics in Athens have also proved there is no room for complacency. “The situation is good but can easily slip,” the infections diseases professor and health ministry spokesman on the coronavirus, Sotiris Tsiodras, told reporters Thursday.
With that in mind the loosening of restrictions will be gradual and, officials say, staggered over the course of several weeks possibly through to July. Schoolchildren are expected to begin returning to class on 11 May but younger pupils may not be back at school until the end of the month.
Mitsotakis, who has deferred to scientific advice throughout the crisis, is expected to address the nation on Monday to explain how the easing of measures will unfold.
Updated
Hundreds of people who live in Poland and work in Germany protested on Friday evening in the south-western Polish border town of Zgorzelec against a mandatory coronavirus quarantine for those who cross the border, Reuters reports.
About 300 people gathered at the Polish side and some 100 at the German, some wearing face masks. The two groups were separated by a provisional metal fence that has been erected in the middle of the bridge to prevent people from crossing the border.
Poland was one of the first European Union states to close borders due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus. It also imposed a mandatory two-week lockdown for those who enter its territory – a major jolt for those who live their lives in between two EU states.
The protest was the latest in a swelling wave of dissent over lockdown measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. Protesters have already gathered in several US cities, and a protest in the Austrian capital, Vienna, was broken up by police on Friday.
On Friday, protests were staged also in other Polish towns located on the German and Czech borders, according to Reuters.
Updated
While the US president has apparently suggested that transfusions of disinfectant could be used to cure coronavirus, in the UK it has emerged that British armed forces are to be given insect repellant to protect them against Covid-19 infection.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed on Friday that it plans to buy stocks of a product containing a lemon eucalyptus oil extract called citriodiol. But questions remain over its effectiveness, with British officials refusing to reveal any evidence it would work, writes Guardian reporter Kevin Rawlinson.
After the news emerged, Public Health England confirmed the government’s guidance does not include using any such substance to protect against Covid-19 infection.
Similarly, the World Health Organization said there was no evidence the virus can be transmitted by mosquitoes and that an insect repellant would therefore be ineffective. The use of citriodiol to prevent infection does not form part of its advice.
The World Health Organization has warned agains the introduction of “immunity passports” or “risk-free certificates” that would exempt people who have developed immunity to Covid-19 from lockdown conditions.
Some governments had suggested the introduction of such certifications, which would be given to individuals who are found to have antibodies to the Sars-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease and enable them to travel or return to work.
But in a scientific brief circulated on Saturday, the WHO said there was so far no evidence that people who have recovered from Covid-19 are immune to a second infection – even if they are found to have antibodies. The UN health body said:
At this point in the pandemic, there is not enough evidence about the effectiveness of antibody-mediated immunity to guarantee the accuracy of an ‘immunity passport’ or ‘risk-free certificate’. People who assume that they are immune to a second infection because they have received a positive test result may ignore public health advice. The use of such certificates may therefore increase the risks of continued transmission.
Updated
Britons urged to go to hospital in an emergency
The British health service has launched an awareness campaign to urge people to seek medical help if they need it, after visits to hospital emergency departments fell by almost half this month amid fears over the coronavirus outbreak.
National Health Service (NHS) officials said they were worried that people were avoiding hospitals for fear of catching , thereby jeopardising survival and potentially becoming collateral damage to the virus, the PA news agency reports.
PA reported that recent research found four in 10 people are too worried about being a burden on the NHS to seek help from their GP. Recent messaging from the government has ordered Britons to: “Stay home; save lives; protect the NHS.”
However, a predicted surge in admissions to hospitals as a result of Covid-19 has not materialised.
Announcing the campaign, Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of the NHS, said:
While NHS staff have pulled out all the stops to deal with coronavirus, they have also worked hard to ensure that patients who don’t have Covid-19 can safely access essential services. Ignoring problems can have serious consequences - now or in the future.
Prof Carrie MacEwen, chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, said:
We are very concerned that patients may not be accessing the NHS for care because they either don’t want to be a burden or because they are fearful about catching the virus.
Everyone should know that the NHS is still open for business and it is vitally important that if people have serious conditions or concerns they seek help.
Recent figures reported by the UK’s Private Eye magazine showed that in a single week in April there were 6,000 more deaths than the average for the previous five years, but that half were not linked to the coronavirus.
The British Heart Foundation has reported a 50% fall in the number of people attending A&E with heart attacks, thereby risking their survival.
And, earlier this week, Cancer Research UK warned 2,250 new cases of the disease could be going undetected each week – partly down to patients’ reluctance to go and see their GP.
Updated
This is Damien Gayle taking over the live blog in London now, keeping you updated for the next eight hours or so with the latest in coronavirus world news developments.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions for coverage, please send me an email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or a direct message on Twitter to @damiengayle.
I’ll hand over to my colleagues in London shortly. In the meantime catch up with the most recent developments with our ‘Coronavirus: at a glance’ here.
Thailand reported 53 new coronavirus cases and the death of a 48-year-old Thai man who was infected with the virus along with four other family members.
Of the new cases, three were linked to previous cases, one had no known links, and 42 are migrant workers who have been under quarantine at an immigration detention centre in the southern province of Songkhla.
Seven other new cases were reported from the southern province of Yala, where authorities are aggressively testing the population because of high infection rates there, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government’s Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration.
Since the outbreak escalated in January, Thailand has reported a total of 2,907 cases and 51 deaths, while 2,547 patients have recovered and gone home.
Catch up on our global report here.
Nearly 60 new cases found on cruise ship in Japan, as Thailand reports more infections, and report says China pressured EU to tone down assessment of disinformation campaign by Beijing.
With the US coronavirus death toll topping 51,000 and nearly one in six workers out of a job, Georgia, Oklahoma and several other states took tentative steps at reopening businesses on Friday, despite disapproval from President Donald Trump and medical experts.
Fitness clubs, hair salons, tattoo parlors and some other workplaces were allowed to open their doors by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, disregarding warnings from public health officials https://t.co/0cDwx2BcgU https://t.co/ChrgVygBXB
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 25, 2020
Sri Lanka has reimposed a countrywide 24-hour curfew after a surge in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases, most of them navy sailors who were hunting those evading quarantine.
The 46 new infections on Friday were the highest in a day, bringing the total to 420, including seven deaths.
Sri Lanka partially lifted a monthlong curfew on Monday during daytime hours in more than two thirds of the country.
The new curfew remains in effect until Monday. Police have arrested more than 30,000 violators.
Among the newly infected were 30 navy sailors from a camp on the outskirts of the capital, Colombo. A total 60 sailors so far have been infected and the camp isolated.
Boris Johnson return expected soon
Boris Johnson is expected to return to work soon after his recovery from Covid-19, as pressure mounts on his government to explain how to get Britain out of lockdown.
Johnson, 55, has been recuperating at the British prime ministerial retreat, Chequers, outside London since his release from hospital on 12 April.
But there have been increasing signs his return to Downing Street could be imminent, after officials said he had spoken to Queen Elizabeth II and also US President Donald Trump.
The Daily Telegraph, Johnson’s former employer, suggested he could be back at his desk on Monday, and hold briefing meetings with individual cabinet ministers.
But health secretary Matt Hancock was more cautious, despite the prime minister’s progress.
“I spoke to him yesterday, he’s cheerful, and he’s ebullient and he’s definitely on the mend in a big way,” he said on Friday.
“When exactly he comes back is a matter for him and his doctors.”
Updated
Australia’s national sporting codes - like most in the world - have been shut down by the pandemic, but its national rugby league competition is determined to come back as soon as possible.
There’s been talk of staging a televised competition on an island, or another dedicated site cut off from the outside world. The organisation also went rogue and declared it would restart in May, despite government advice or a plan on how to do it.
Today, the chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission has floated the possibility of having rugby fans download an app and “self-isolate” for 14 days if they want to go to the State of Origin - one of the year’s most significant and competitive series of games.
Peter V’landys made the comments to Triple M radio this morning, saying he was looking at ways to hold the event with a safer or smaller crowd.
The ARLC has already announced that a three-game Origin series will be held at the end of the year, but the exact details are yet to be determined.
Today V’landys floated a number of possibilities, including holding the games in a way that “rewards health workers”.
“We may not have the crowds of a normal State of Origin, but a limited crowd with social distancing, and there’s a few ideas we have in rewarding the emergency workers,” he said.
“There’s another one where we put people on an app and if you’re a really hardcore supporter and you can stay at home for 14 days and isolate yourself and we track you on the app, you can go to the game.
“There’s a few things we can do in that period of time.”
Updated
Why do female leaders seem to be more successful at managing the coronavirus crisis? Plenty of countries with male leaders have also done well. But few with female leaders have done badly, write my colleagues John Henley and Eleanor Ainge Roy.
Jacinda Ardern, 39, New Zealand’s prime minister, has held Kiwis’ hands through the lockdown, delivering empathetic “stay home, save lives” video messages from her couch and communicating daily through non-combative press conferences or intimate Facebook Live videos, her favourite medium.
In Germany, Angela Merkel has been hailed for direct but uncharacteristically personal public interventions, warning that up to 70% of people would contract the virus – the country’s “greatest challenge” since 1945 – and lamenting every death as that of “a father or grandfather, a mother or grandmother, a partner …”
Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen responded equally fast, activating the country’s central epidemic command centre in early January and introducing travel restrictions and quarantine measures. Mass public hygiene measures were rolled out, including disinfecting public areas and buildings.
Read more:
About 150 Australians and New Zealanders are scheduled to leave Buenos Aires on Saturday afternoon local time in what will be the final government-supported repatriation flight from Argentina.
The Qantas flight is due to land in Melbourne at 7.30pm on Sunday. It was announced last weekend, after an earlier attempt to organise a commercial flight was delayed.
Argentina has closed its borders, meaning the flight was only open to those already in the country. Another flight is due to leave Uruguay on Sunday.
Message for #Australian and #NewZealanders taking the flight home departing from #BuenosAires tomorrow #COVID19Aus @NZinBuenosAires @carlworker @dfat @Qantas pic.twitter.com/AWAyiESVDs
— Brett Hackett (@EmbAustraliaBA) April 24, 2020
US Navy wants to reinstate Captain Crozier
The US navy has recommended reinstating the fired captain of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, whose crew hailed him as their hero for risking his job to safeguard their lives from coronavirus, officials have said.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the navy’s leadership made the recommendation to reinstate Brett Crozier to the defence secretary, Mark Esper, on Friday, three weeks after Crozier was relieved of command after the leak of a letter he wrote calling on the navy for stronger measures to protect the crew.
Crozier was fired by the navy’s top civilian, then-acting navy secretary Thomas Modly, against the recommendations of uniformed leaders, who suggested he wait for an investigation into the letter’s leak.
Modly’s decision backfired badly, as members of the crew hailed their captain as a hero in an emotional sendoff captured on video that went viral on social media.
Captain Crozier was faithful to his duty—both to his sailors and his country. Navy leadership sent a chilling message about speaking truth to power. The poor judgment here belongs to the Trump Admin, not a courageous officer trying to protect his sailors. pic.twitter.com/AkGFdlYjwt
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 3, 2020
Updated
Almost 60 new cases on Italian cruise ship
Around one quarter of the crew on board an Italian cruise ship docked in Japan have been diagnosed with Covid-19, after 57 new cases were reported on Saturday.
All 623 crew members on board the Costa Atlantica have been tested, with almost 150 returning a positive reading, TV Asahi and NHK reported. One person is in hospital.
The ship has been docked at Nagasaki since February for repairs and maintenance after the pandemic prevented scheduled repairs in China.
Nagasaki authorities had quarantined the vessel on arrival, and ordered its crew not to venture beyond the quay except for hospital visits.
But prefecture officials said earlier this week that some of the crew had departed without their knowledge, and sought detailed information on their movements.
Updated
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has downgraded its outlook for Greece on forecasts the economy will plunge into recession on the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, while maintaining the country’s credit rating.
S&P forecast the Greek economy would contract by around 9% in 2020 on “uncertainty about the duration of the pandemic and resulting economic crisis”, revising its outlook from “positive” to “stable”.
After a nearly decade-long debt crisis and the loss of almost a quarter of GDP, the Mediterranean country had expected growth of at least 2.4% for 2020.
The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, recently warned of a “deep” recession due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, before a recovery in 2021.
Meanwhile Italy’s economically punishing coronavirus lockdown, combined with big-spend stimulus packages to support families and firms, will push public debt and deficit to dizzying heights, the government said on Friday.
The cabinet approved the spring budget document (DEF), which forecast that the eurozone’s third-largest economy would plunge into a deep recession this year, with gross domestic product retracting by 8%.
The government is widening the budget deficit by €55bn, the “shock cure necessary to enable the country to face this difficult phase”, Riccardo Fraccaro, cabinet undersecretary, was quoted as saying by Italian media.
Poland’s health minister, who is also a cardiologist, said Friday that delaying next month’s presidential election untill 2022 would be “the only safe option” given the coronavirus pandemic.
“One option would be to put this whole issue on hold for two years and really deal with the epidemic. I think that’s the best option and I recommend it,” Minister Lukasz Szumowski told Poland’s Polsat commercial television.
Despite pressure from the opposition, medical workers, the majority of the public and even members and allies of the ruling conservative party, the government has refused to postpone the May 10 ballot.
China sought to block EU disinformation report
Reuters: China sought to block a European Union report alleging that Beijing was spreading disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak, according to four sources and diplomatic correspondence reviewed by Reuters.
The report was eventually released, albeit just before the start of the weekend Europe time and with some criticism of the Chinese government rearranged or removed, a sign of the balancing act Brussels is trying to pull off as the coronavirus outbreak scrambles international relations.
The Chinese Mission to the EU was not immediately available for comment and China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to faxed questions about the exchange.
An EU spokeswoman said “we never comment on content or alleged content of internal diplomatic contacts and communication with our partners from another countries.”
Another EU official Reuters said that the disinformation report had been published as usual and denied any of it had been watered down.
Four diplomatic sources told Reuters that the report had initially been slated for release on April 21 but was delayed after Chinese officials picked up on a Politico news report hat previewed its findings.
A senior Chinese official contacted European officials in Beijing the same day to tell them that, “if the report is as described and it is released today it will be very bad for cooperation,” according to EU diplomatic correspondence reviewed by Reuters.
The correspondence quoted senior Chinese foreign ministry official Yang Xiaoguang as saying that publishing the report would make Beijing “very angry” and accused European officials of trying to please “someone else” - something the EU diplomats understood to be a reference to Washington.
The four sources said the report had been delayed as a result, and a comparison of the internal version of the report obtained by Reuters and the final version published late Friday showed several differences.
For example, on the first page of the internal report shared with EU governments on April 20, the EU’s foreign policy arm said: “China has continued to run a global disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the outbreak of the pandemic and improve its international image. Both overt and covert tactics have been observed.”
Updated
In Australia, remote Indigenous communities have been closed to outsiders for weeks.
The communities are at high risk from Covid-19 because of the much lower life expectancy, poorer health outcomes and higher rates of pre-existing conditions, and drastically reduced access to the level of healthcare available elsewhere in Australia.
In Arnhem Land, in the country’s north, this means that important cultural gatherings and a number of events planned for the approaching dry season have been cancelled, including the annual Garma festival.
It’s a blow to tourism, and a huge interruption to cultural life. But as Guardian Australia’s Indigenous affairs editor, Lorena Allam, reports, some are finding a way around it.
Artists in north-east Arnhem Land are giving free performances online instead, with live music and bunggul (dance) to keep people connected.
Yirrmal Marika is the son of Witiyana Marika, manikay singer for Yothu Yindi and an accomplished singer-songwriter in his own right.
“We sing stories about the country, what we feel and what we have been told by our elders, and that’s what we’re sharing,” Marika says, on the phone from Nhulunbuy.
“Elders are really scared because the virus would impact them and they have great knowledge to teach us, for the next generation who will stand strong in this part of the country,” Yirrmal Marika said.
“And they see that Arnhem Land is the most beautiful country and they see we are lucky enough that we still have language here in this part of the country, so that’s why we all have to be aware of it and really alert.”
White House discussing Trump step back from briefing
There are moves to scale back Donald Trump’s public presence on the US’s coronavirus response, the AP reports.
There have been discussions within the White House about changing the format of the briefings to curtail the president’s role, according to four White House officials and Republicans close to the White House who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly.
The briefings often stretch well beyond an hour and feature combative exchanges between Trump and reporters.
Trump was angry after a day of punishing headlines Friday, largely about his comment at the previous evening’s briefing wondering if it would be helpful to inject disinfectant into people to fight the coronavirus.
That idea drew loud warnings from health experts who said the idea was dangerous and sharp criticism from Democrats.
Trump did answer questions from reporters earlier Friday and claimed that his suggestion about disinfectant had been sarcastic.”
That doesn’t square with a transcript of his remarks.
For weeks, advisers have been urging the president to scale back his appearances at the briefings, saying that he should come before the cameras only when there is major news or a positive development to discuss, according to the officials.
Otherwise, they suggested, he should leave it to Vice President Mike Pence and health officials to take the lead.
Trump has been reluctant to cede the spotlight at the briefings, which are the closest thing he currently has to his beloved political rallies.
Updated
South and Central America is experiencing a significant crisis with the virus. We earlier reported on Brazil and fears that its health system was on the verge of collapse. Here are some more updates from the region:
In Brazil’s Manaus, the biggest city in the Amazon, officials said a cemetery has been forced to dig mass graves because there have been so many deaths. Workers have been burying 100 corpses a day, triple the pre-virus average of burials.
So far, the health ministry has confirmed nearly 53,000 Covid-19 cases and more than 3,600 deaths. Experts warned that paltry testing means the true number of infections is far greater.
Honduras has reported nearly 600 confirmed coronavirus cases to date, as well around 50 deaths. An estimated 40% of the population already live in extreme poverty and the pandemic has also pushed many more into homelessness, Reuters reports.
Since 25 March, the government has delivered to an estimated 3.2m people care packages of basic foodstuffs door-to-door, which include items like beans, rice, hand sanitiser, and face masks.
But the newly homeless who Reuters spoke said that without their own place, they had received nothing.
“We’re all here because we don’t have anywhere else to go,” said Jose Cruz, a 27-year-old, who now camps out along with his mother.
In Ecuador, which has been hit particularly hard in Guayaquil on the coast, the official reported figure more than doubled after the release of delayed test results on Thursday. Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo said it wasn’t a “rebound” of numbers, bu a reflection of an increased capacity to test.
People have died without being tested and autopsies have been complicated by social distancing measures.
To address those shortcomings, the government said Thursday it would begin conducting “verbal autopsies,” using consultations with family members about what symptoms a person had before dying to determine their cause of death.
Inmates at an Argentine prison in Buenos Aires set fire to mattresses and protested on the roof of the jail, demanding some people be released due to fears of infection by the coronavirus, according to local media and a Reuters witness.
Indigenous tribes in Peru’s Amazon say the government has left them to fend for themselves against the coronavirus, risking “ethnocide by inaction,” according to a letter from natives to the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Water shortages are leaving poorer Mexicans high and dry in the coronavirus fight.
Grappling with the largest public health crisis in modern times, Mexican health authorities battling to stem a jump in new coronavirus infections have made the phrases “wash your hands” and “stay at home” their mantras.
The Costa Rican economy is seen contracting 3.6% this year due in large part to falling exports and consumer spending as the coronavirus pandemic causes widespread economic pain, the central bank announced on Friday.
A doctor in the Colombian city of Cali said this week that he was forced from his apartment just eight days after he moved in because other residents of the building feared he would bring the new coronavirus into their homes. It is the latest example of hostility to medical workers in Latin America, who have faced discrimination and even attacks amidst concerns they could be spreading the virus.
New York reports lowest daily number in weeks
AP: New York reported its lowest number of daily Covid-19 deaths in weeks on Friday.
The state said there were 422 deaths Thursday. That’s the fewest since March 31, when it recorded 391 deaths. More than 16,000 people have died in the state from the outbreak.
“Again, this is at an unimaginable level, and it’s dropping somewhat. But it’s still devastating news,” governor Andrew Cuomo said at his daily briefing.
The total number of people hospitalised statewide continues to drop slowly, hitting 14,258, though the number of new patients coming into hospitals is basically flat at around 1,300, Cuomo said.
Though the overall trends provide some hope, the governor continued to stress that any gains could be lost quickly if social distancing restrictions are relaxed too quickly.
Updated
Some new reported figures.
Mainland China says it has 12 new cases, of which 11 were people who travelled into the country. One locally transmitted case was in Heilongjiang. The national health commission reported 29 new asymptomatic cases. More than 84,000 people have been reported to have had Covid-19 in China.
Panama has reported 172 new cases, bringing the country’s total number of people infected by Covid-19 to 5,338. 154 people have died.
n Australia and New Zealand it is Anzac Day, the annual day of remembrance for armed forces. With both countries under lockdowns or strict social distancing rules, there was not the usual parades or public dawn services.
Instead, people were encouraged to stand at the ends of their driveways for moments of silence.
New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern was one of many thousands of Kiwis who spent at least a minute of their mornings in contemplation by their letterbox, while Australia’s leader Scott Morrison attended a ceremony at the national War Memorial in Canberra.
Brisbane residents stand in silence outside their homes in observance of Anzac Day amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Brisbane, Australia, April 25, 2020. Photograph: Reuters
Brazilian city health systems on verge of collapse
The AP has this report from Brazil, which is on the way to becoming a major virus outbreak centre:
Cases of the new coronavirus are overwhelming hospitals, morgues and cemeteries across Brazil as Latin Americas largest nation veers closer to becoming one of the world’s pandemic hot spots.
Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse, or already too overwhelmed to take any more patients.
Health experts expect the number of infections in the country of 211 million people will be much higher than what has been reported because of insufficient, delayed testing.
Meanwhile, President Jair Bolsonaro has shown no sign of wavering from his insistence that Covid-19 is a relatively minor disease and that broad social-distancing measures are not needed to stop it. He has said only Brazilians at high risk should be isolated.
In Manaus, the biggest city in the Amazon, officials said a cemetery has been forced to dig mass graves because there have been so many deaths. Workers have been burying 100 corpses a day, triple the pre-virus average of burials.
Updated
Summary
Hello, and welcome to our continuing global coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. This is Helen Davidson in Sydney to take you through the next few hours.
Here’s a quick look at the latest big developments:
Global confirmed death toll passes 195,000
According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, at least 195,920 people are confirmed to have died worldwide, while at least 2.7 million are known to have been infected.
The figures are likely to significantly underestimate the true scale of the pandemic due to suspected under-reporting and differing testing regimes.
Political adviser attends independent scientific advisory meetings
Questions are being raised about political interference as it emerges that the UK prime minister’s chief political aide has been participating in meetings of the government’s group of independent scientific advisers; membership of which Downing Street had insisted on keeping secret until the list was leaked to the Guardian.
After the news emerged, No 10 acknowledged that, while Dominic Cummings and another adviser have been attending and participating in the committee’s meetings, they are not members of the committee.
US authorities warn doctors against prescribing hydroxychloroquine
The US Food and Drug Administration warned doctors against prescribing the malaria drug Donald Trump has been touting, citing reports of sometimes fatal heart side effects among patients.
The warning excluded hospital and research studies.
Chinese delegation goes to North Korean leader’s aid – report
China has dispatched a team to North Korea that includes medical experts to advise on the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, according to a Reuters report. The news agency cites three people familiar with the situation.
The trip by the Chinese doctors and officials comes amid conflicting reports about the health of the North Korean leader. There was no indication of what, if anything, it signalled in terms of Kim’s health.
Air France to get state backing
The airline will receive a €7bn (£6.1bn) loan package backed by the French government to avert a cash crisis brought on by the pandemic, the country’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire announces.
France will issue €3bn in direct loans and guarantees on another €4bn in bank lending to the carrier, part of airline group Air France-KLM, Le Maire said.
US navy captain should be reinstated, say officials
Senior officials recommend the reinstatement of the commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, who was fired after he pleaded for help with a coronavirus outbreak onboard.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, officials told the Reuters news agency the recommendation to reinstate Captain Brett Crozier was made during a meeting on Friday between the US defence secretary, Mark Esper, and navy leaders.
UK records 684 more hospital deaths
The Department for Health and Social Care reports 684 more deaths in UK hospitals, bringing the death toll to 19,506. Friday’s update also showed an increase of 5,386 confirmed cases, bringing the UK total to at least 143,464.
Recoveries outstrip infections in Spain
Authorities in Spain, which has seen the second largest number of confirmed cases in the world, pointed out that more people are being diagnosed as cured than are falling sick for the first time since the beginning of the outbreak.
On Friday, there were 2,796 new infections confirmed while 3,105 overcame the infection. “With all the effort that we have done, the evolution of the epidemic is obviously beginning to be where it should be,” said Fernando Simón, the ministry’s health emergency centre coordinator.
Italy to ease lockdown, local media report
Newspapers in Italy are reporting that the country’s lockdown, the longest and toughest in Europe, is to be eased over the next four weeks. There has been no official confirmation, however.
