Coronavirus: Italy looks to reopen borders next month as lockdown eases
Read the latest on the spread of the novel coronavirus around the world here
Thailand reports three new coronavirus cases, no additional deaths
Thailand reported three additional cases of the new coronavirus, bringing its total cases to 3,028 as the country relaxes local restrictions and re-opens malls and department stores.
The three new cases, detected in state quarantine, were students returning from overseas, one from Pakistan and two from Egypt, a spokesman for the government’s Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, Taweesin Wisanuyothin, said on Sunday, Reuters reported.
Thailand has reported a total of 56 deaths and 116 patients were still being treated. Some 2,856 patients have recovered.
Italy to reopen shops, restaurants as lockdown eases further
Shops, restaurants and hair salons prepared to reopen in Italy on Monday as the government further eased one of the world’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns, saying it was taking a “calculated risk” to put the country back on its feet.
The euro zone’s third biggest economy is slowly emerging from more than two months of hibernation, with businesses allowed to gradually go back to work as long they can enforce tight sanitary protocols and keep people at least 1 metre apart.
At Milan’s upscale Rinascente department store, guards will keep count through an app of how many people are in the store at any one time. Clothes tried on in changing rooms will be quarantined for 24 hours and shop assistants will spill perfumes on paper tissues rather than having customers handle testers. Access to restaurants will be strictly limited, with only family members allowed to sit close to each other.
Skiers return to Slovenian resort after lockdown eases
Hundreds of skiers hit the slopes at Slovenia’s highest ski resort on Sunday after it reopened following a coronavirus lockdown that lasted nearly two months.
Slovenia became the first European country on Thursday to declare an official end to its coronavirus epidemic.
The small mountainous country of around two million people has so far reported 1,466 coronavirus cases and 104 deaths. Slovenes still have to respect social distancing and are obliged to wear face masks in indoor public spaces as well as disinfect their hands when entering such areas.
In Mexico, one of world's biggest food markets stirs unease about infections
Every day, thousands of Mexicans crowd a massive food market that is a lynchpin of the capital’s food supply, though it sits at the heart of a major hotspot for the virus.
Mexico City’s sprawling Central de Abasto market, stretching across an area equivalent to about 327 football pitches, poses a major headache for officials trying to keep food supplies flowing without magnifying the spread of the coronavirus.
It is a daunting task in a market known to attract about a half a million people a day in normal times, according to figures from officials in Iztapalapa, a neighborhood with the highest numbers of coronavirus infections in Mexico.
In addition to shoppers and wholesale buyers who throng the market at night to supply retail outlets in the metropolis, another 100,000 workers typically cram the corridors lined with sacks of potatoes, rice and boxes of bananas.
Emirates Group planning to cut about 30,000 jobs amid virus outbreak
Emirates Group plans to cut about 30,000 jobs to reduce costs amid the coronavirus outbreak, reducing employees by about 30% from more than 105,000 at the end of March, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company is also considering speeding up the planned retirement of its A380 fleet, the report added.
India’s lockdown extended till May 31, shops and markets to open with staggered timings
India's countrywide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus will continue till May 31.
The fourth phase of the country's lockdown has put the ball in the court of states, reports the NDTV.
It will allow the states not only to colour code the zones according to the incidence of coronavirus, thereby taking a final decision on what activities take place in any particular area.
Fourteen million Britons ready to get on their bikes
Britain could experience a transport revolution sparked by the coronavirus pandemic with up to 14 million people ready to swap cars for bikes, British Cycling believes.
However, the opportunity could be lost if towns and cities fail to follow Department for Transport guidance to provide new emergency infrastructure such as pop-up cycle lanes.
Despite a loosening of the lockdown measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, travelling on buses and trains is still discouraged because of social distancing concerns.
The government has announced a 2 billion-pound ($2.42 billion) funding package for “active travel” such as cycling and walking, with 250 million available immediately for local authorities to make changes to their roads.
China's Wuhan nearly doubles number of Covid-19 tests per day
The city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus outbreak originated in China, conducted 222,675 nucleic acid tests on May 16, the local health authority said on Sunday, nearly doubling from a day earlier.
Wuhan kicked off a campaign on May 14 to look for asymptomatic carriers - people who are infected but show no outward sign of illness - after confirming last weekend its first cluster of Covid-19 infections since its release from a virtual lockdown on April 8.
The number of tests carried out on May 16 in the city of 11 million residents was more than the 186,400 tests conducted on May 14-15, and was also the highest since the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission started publishing the data on Feb. 21.
Wuhan is conducting the testing on a voluntary basis.
Egypt tightens coronavirus restrictions for Eid holiday
Egypt will bring forward the start of its curfew by four hours to 5pm and halt public transport during the six-day Eid holiday from May 24 as it seeks to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, the prime minister said on Sunday.
Shops, restaurants and parks will also be closed for the holiday at the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, and restrictions on citizens’ movements will be extended for a further two weeks afterwards, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said.
Madagascar records its first Covid-19 death
Madagascar has registered its first coronavirus death, of a 57-year-old medical worker who suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure, the national Covid-19 taskforce said on Sunday.
Taskforce spokeswoman Hanta Danielle Vololontiana said in a televised statement that the man had died on Saturday night.
“A man died from Covid-19 in Madagascar ... he is 57 years old and a member of the medical staff,” she said.
Dancers bring Saturday night fever back to Wuhan as lockdown relaxed
Wearing masks and keeping about a metre apart, men and women in Wuhan were dancing once again on a Saturday night by the side of the Yangtze river, which winds through the central Chinese city where the novel coronavirus pandemic began.
Wuhan’s 76-day lockdown ended on April 8, and the city is slowly getting back on its feet, hopeful that the worst is passed, but worried by the emergence last week of a few fresh cases on the virus.
While most large indoor gatherings are still banned, people are reclaiming their daily lives and hobbies, which in many parts of China includes “square dancing”, or mass dances, usually in the evenings in public squares, plazas or parks.
On Saturday night, over a hundred masked people danced on an open-air riverside walkway in central Wuhan as loudspeakers blared out everything from electronic dance music to Japanese pop.
UK recruits more than 17,000 coronavirus contact tracers
The UK government is close to reaching its target of recruiting 18,000 contact tracers to help health authorities understand who may have been exposed to Covid-19 patients, Cabinet minister Michel Gove said Sunday.
“More than 17,000 people have been recruited for contact tracing, so we’re on course the meet that target,” Gove told Sky News, reports the CNN.
Gove said the contact-tracing scheme should be up and running “by the end of this month.”
The job advert says contact tracers will be responsible for “liaising over the phone with Covid-19 patients, understanding their situation and assisting in the tracing and tracking of anyone they have been in contact with.”
Italy looks to reopen borders next month as lockdown measures ease
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte outlined a further loosening of movement restrictions on Saturday, including opening borders to travellers from Europe from next month to unwind one of the world’s most rigid coronavirus lockdowns.
With shops as well as bars and restaurants due to reopen from Monday, the government has also announced that people will no longer have to justify travel within their own region and will be able to meet friends as well as family.
“People will be able to go wherever they want - to a shop, to the mountains, to a lake or the seaside,” he said.
The announcements came as coronavirus deaths in Italy, the third-highest in the world, fell to 153 on Saturday, the lowest since March 9.
Philippines urges coronavirus vigilance as shoppers ignore safety protocols
The Philippine government on Sunday called for vigilance against the coronavirus, a day after hordes of people trooped to shopping malls and ignored safety protocols, as authorities began loosening a two-month lockdown.
Photos and videos showing shoppers in some malls in the capital Manila violating physical distancing rules went viral on Saturday, drawing widespread public criticism and alarm, prompting the government to issue fresh health warnings.
“We advise the public not to be complacent and to follow health protocols set by authorities after we received reports of people who trooped to the malls with complete disregard of social/physical distancing measures,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.
French Health Minister promises new hospital support plan by summer
French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Sunday he wanted to unveil by summer a new support plan for French hospitals and health workers who have been on the frontline of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview with French Sunday weekly Le Journal Du Dimanche (JDD), Veran said consultations with social partners and health representatives would start from May 25.
“I want to go fast. I want the plan to be presented this summer, to include everything that can be presented in the next Social Security budget,” he said.
The new plan would increase the wages of health workers beyond recent bonuses awarded during the coronavirus crisis, he said.
Thailand opens malls after nearly two months amid coronavirus outbreak
Thailand on Sunday opened malls and department stores for the first time since March in its second phase of relaxing measures as the number of new coronavirus cases slowed.
The country’s top mall operator, Central Pattana Pcl said it was reopening 33 of its shopping centers nationwide.
Central Pattana said it would control density by only allowing one person per 5 square meters (54 square feet) and use robots to measure body temperatures and by using touchless elevators. Scores of shoppers were seen queuing before entering the Iconsiam mall in central Bangkok. Customers are asked to scan a QR code and register on a government website before entering.
Johnson accepts public frustration with lockdown easing rules
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted on Sunday that there was public frustration with his government's measures to ease the coronavirus lockdown following widespread criticism of the new rules, which he admitted were more complex.
As a poll for the Observer newspaper indicated growing dissatisfaction with Johnson's handling of the crisis, he wrote in the Mail on Sunday paper: "I understand that people will feel frustrated with some of the new rules."
On Wednesday, ministers began a gradual easing of restrictions in England, with people who could not work from home encouraged to return to their jobs whilst being told to avoid using public transport if possible.
India to privatise state-run companies, bar fresh insolvencies amid virus outbreak
India said on Sunday it would privatise state-run companies in non-strategic sectors and stop fresh insolvency cases for a year, as the economy grapples with a coronavirus-related standstill.
A list of strategic sectors will also be announced in which only one to four public sector enterprises will remain, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, as part of a slew of measures to kick-start the economy.
Indian officials said most of the privatisations would happen in the next fiscal year.
India has been trying to divest parts of state-run companies in sectors ranging from aviation to power to fill its coffers, but poor investor sentiment and limited demand have crippled its efforts so far.
Spain plans last emergency decree extension as protests break out
Spain's government will seek to extend its coronavirus state of emergency one last time until late June, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday as anti-government protests broke out around the hard-hit country.
"The path that we are taking is the only one possible," Sanchez told a news conference, saying he would ask parliament for an extension of about a month until the end of June when most of the nation should be returning to normality.
Spain first decreed a state of emergency on March 14. Officials say that while the outbreak has been brought largely under control, restrictions must stay in place a bit longer as the lockdown is gradually phased out.
After weeks of lockdown, overjoyed Greeks return to church
Thousands of Greeks returned to church on Sunday after weeks of staying away as a ban on mass gatherings to curb the spread of the coronavirus was eased.
It was a special moment for those who gathered from early Sunday morning in the courtyard of Ayios Spiridonas Church in Piraeus, where the melodious chants of the Sunday liturgy were broadcast on loudspeakers and heard down to the sea port.
“I can’t describe my feelings. After two and a half months of quarantine we are in our church again,” said Stella Kasimati, 76. “We are allowed what we were deprived of for two and a half months, going to church and Holy Communion,” she told Reuters.
Greeks were not only deprived of weekly congregations but had to spend the highlight of their religious calendar, Easter, which was on April 19, indoors. The lockdown was introduced in mid-March.
South Korea reports single digit domestic coronavirus cases
South Korea on Sunday reported five new domestic cases of coronavirus, all linked to a cluster of cases centred around bars and nightclubs in the capital which has raised fears in the country of a fresh wave of contagion.
After weeks of nearly no new domestic coronavirus cases, South Korea relaxed its lockdown on May 6, but a subsequent spike in infections linked to Seoul’s Itaewon nightlife neighbourhood forced a rapid re-think.
The government has stood by its decision to ease broader restrictions by reopening offices, public facilities and sports centres, but some nightclubs and bars in the capital were ordered to close again, and authorities have also delayed the planned reopening of schools by a week.
New Covid-19 cases in New York coming from people leaving home - Cuomo
New York's new confirmed Covid-19 cases are predominantly coming from people who left their homes to shop, exercise or socialize, rather than from essential workers, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday.
"That person got infected and went to the hospital or that person got infected and went home and infected the other people at home," Cuomo said during his daily news conference on the coronavirus outbreak.
State data showed the number of new cases statewide has fluctuated between 2,100 and 2,500 per day. On Saturday, the number of new cases decreased to 2,419, from 2,762 on Friday.
Spain's daily coronavirus death toll below 100 for first time in two months
Spain’s daily death toll from the coronavirus was 87 on Sunday, the health ministry said, dropping below 100 for the first time in two months.
Total deaths from the virus climbed to 27,650, while the number of confirmed cases edged up to 231,350 from 230,698, the ministry said, Reuters reported.
Indonesia reports 489 new coronavirus cases, 59 new deaths
Indonesia reported 489 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, taking the total to 17,514.
Indonesia also reported 59 deaths from the Covid-19, the disease caused by the new virus, bringing the toll to 1,148, health ministry official Achmad Yurianto told an online news conference, Reuters reported.
The Southeast Asian country has tested around 140,473 people, Yurianto said.
Singapore reports 682 more coronavirus cases, taking total to 28,038
Singapore registered 682 more infections of the new coronavirus, its health ministry said on Sunday, taking the city-state’s total to 28,038 cases.
The vast majority of the newly infected people are migrant workers living in dormitories, the ministry said in a statement. Four are permanent residents, Reuters reported.
Bangladesh reports 14 more deaths from coronavirus, 1,273 new cases
Bangladesh today confirmed 14 more deaths from the novel coronavirus and 1,273 new cases of infection testing 8,114 samples in 42 labs in the last 24 hours.
With this, the death toll from the deadly virus rose to 328 and the number of total infections stood at 22,268, The Business Standard reported.
Latin America and Caribbean record 500,000 virus cases
Latin America and the Caribbean have recorded more than half a million coronavirus infections, according to an AFP tally based on official reports.
Almost half have been recorded in Brazil — the country worst-hit by the pandemic in the region — which also has more than 15,000 deaths, AFP reported.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organisation (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of Covid-19 infections.
Many countries are testing only the most serious cases.
More than 4.6 million people have been infected around the world since the virus first appeared in China late last year.
At least 309,000 have died from the disease and more than 1.6 million have recovered.
Russia reports 9,709 new coronavirus infections
Russia reported 9,709 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, a rise from 9,200 new cases reported the previous day.
Russia’s coronavirus taskforce said the overall number of cases nationwide stood at 281,752. It added that 94 people had died over the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll from the virus to 2,631, Reuters reported.
Brazil passes Italy and Spain in confirmed coronavirus cases
Brazil's confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus rose on Saturday past those of Spain and Italy, which was once the epicenter of the pandemic, making Brazil's outbreak the fourth largest in the world, according to official figures.
Brazil's Health Ministry registered 14,919 new confirmed cases in the prior 24 hours, taking the total to 233,142, behind the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom. Brazil has done just a fraction of the testing seen in those three countries, Reuters reported.
French 24-hour virus toll drops below 100
France on Saturday reported 96 new coronavirus deaths, a lower figure than in previous days, as its overall toll from the pandemic reached 27,625.
Several other recent positive trends continued as well, with 71 fewer people in intensive care, the health ministry said, AFP reported.
The latest figures came as France enjoyed the sixth day of the partial easing of a nationwide lockdown imposed on March 17 to battle the virus.
At present, there are 19,432 people in hospital for Covid-19 treatment in France, down from 22,614 one week ago, the ministry figures showed.
But the number of admissions within 24 hours released on Saturday came to 350, an increase from the week-earlier number of 265.
Health officials in the central Val de Loire region meanwhile reported an outbreak at an abattoir in which 34 cases of coronavirus had been detected.
Experts were called in on Friday to start testing and were still contacting all the workers to check them.
The abattoir itself, at Fleury-les-Aubrais near the city of Orleans, has been shut down for on-site tests and cleaning.
Spraying disinfectants can be ‘harmful’, says WHO
Spraying disinfectant on the streets, as practised in some countries, does not eliminate the new coronavirus and even poses a health risk, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned on Saturday.
In a document on cleaning and disinfecting surfaces as part of the response to the virus, the WHO says spraying can be ineffective, Reuters reported.
First virus death in Nepal — a new mother
Nepal reported its first coronavirus death late Saturday — a 29-year-old woman who recently gave birth — as the total number of people infected in the country reached 281.
The victim — who was from Sindhupalchowk district, some 90 kilometres (about 55 miles) from the capital Kathmandu — was on her way to a hospital for treatment when she died, AFP reported.
“It has been proven that is this the first case of death caused by COVID-19 in Nepal,” the deputy spokesman for the health ministry, Samir Kumar Adhikari, said in a statement.
The woman gave birth at a hospital in Kathmandu on May 6 and then returned to her home district a day later.
She was treated at a local hospital after suffering from fever and respiratory problems. When her condition worsened, she was referred to another hospital.
Her newborn and other family members will be tested to see if they have contracted the virus, local media reported.
Nepal, which has a population of 28 million, has conducted fewer than 100,000 tests so far. Experts say the lack of mass testing may have prevented identification of other fatalities.
In January, Nepal was the first south Asian country to report a case of coronavirus. The country has been under lockdown since March 24 after a second case was confirmed.
China reports five new coronavirus cases, down from eight a day earlier
Mainland China reported five new confirmed Covid-19 cases for May 16, down from eight the previous day, the National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement on Sunday.
Two of the five confirmed cases are so-called imported infections, while three are locally transmitted in northeastern Jilin Province, Reuters reported.
The number of new asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus fell to 12 from 13, the NHC said.
The number of confirmed cases in the mainland stands at 82,947 and the death toll at 4,634.
US adds 1,237 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours
The United States recorded 1,237 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing its grim total to 88,730, according to the latest real-time tally Saturday reported by Johns Hopkins University.
The country — hardest hit by the pandemic in terms of the number of fatalities — has now confirmed a total of 1,466,682 cases, the Baltimore-based school reported, AFP reported.
Mexico registers 47,144 cases of coronavirus and 5,045 deaths
Mexico registered 47,144 cases of coronavirus on Saturday, with the country’s death toll rising to 5,045, health authorities said.
Mexico has seen a slightly higher death rate from coronavirus than the global average so far due to the widespread presence of pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity, experts say, Reuters reported.