Heat Waves And Covid-19: A Killers Mix On Its Way

Coronavirus Worldwide Breaking News Updates. Updates from around the world from different news sources. Stay safe and take the right precautions if you are going to travel to potentially contaminated areas! All times mentioned are according to UK time.

Coronavirus Worldwide Breaking News Updates 04-06-2020

Coronavirus: 388.041+ Death and 6.573.585 proven infected worldwide.

Photo by: PTI. Amid coronavirus lockdown, heat wave has intensified in several states across north India. A railway employee refills water bottles of migrants sitting in a train to reach their native places, during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, in Jabalpur.

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Heat Waves And Covid-19: A Killers Mix On Its Way

The world faces mass unemployment caused by the COVID-19 crisis and a climate emergency that could spell the end of humanity. But there is no sign in the UK, US, or anywhere in the world of the effort required to combine our need for jobs with the pursuit of alternatives to fossil fuels and a concomitant reduction in greenhouse gases.

Heat Waves: Dust Storms

The dust storms that devastated the US prairie during the Great Depression were the worst ecological disaster in American history. They were also, partly, humanmade. Decades of farming in the Great Plains had rid the topsoil of its native grass, leaving nothing to prevent fields crumbling to dust when drought struck in 1931. Across the Dust Bowl in midwest America, millions of acres of farmland were swept away in brown blizzards. Forced off the land, hungry families headed west in search of new jobs and lives. The dust blew so far east that it settled on the White House lawn.

The 'White-House battling another 'storm'.

Almost 90 years ago the US president’s response was not to lie about the scale of disaster or blame others. Instead, Franklin D Roosevelt launched one of his New Deal’s signature relief programs: the Civilian Conservation Corps. Its mission was to put unemployed Americans to work. More than 3 million people planted 3bn trees, built shelterbelts across the Great Plains to reduce the risk of dust storms, and created 700 state parks. FDR’s legacy survives, but his policy is venerated more in name than indeed.

COVID-19: The Environment

The coronavirus pandemic and the environmental crisis share the same roots: humans’ success as a species in arrogating global resources for themselves and the consequent ecological disturbance. This is increasing viral exchanges – first from animal to human, then from human to human – on a pandemic scale. Our environmental footprint is too large for the planet, leading to accelerated species extinctions and atmospheric chaos. Both the COVID-19  and climate catastrophes are not misfortunes that befell us. They are part of a pattern of decisions that we humans are taking. We need to make different choices.

Heat Waves And Covid-19: The US

As underserved populations face hotter neighborhoods and limited access to air conditioning, the pandemic threatens the malls and libraries where they typically find relief. This year is on track to be one of the hottest on record, and public health officials worry that in cities across the US, summer heatwaves will collide with the coronavirus pandemic, with deadly consequences for poor, minority and older populations. 

Even before the pandemic hit, the heat was killing more Americans than all other natural disasters combined. People who live in cities are especially vulnerable to heatwaves because of a phenomenon called the ‘urban heat island effect’. Cities with populations of 1 million or more can be up to 5F (1,8C) hotter than surrounding areas due to high population density, a lack of greenery and shade, and because materials like steel, concrete, and asphalt tend to absorb more heat. 

Heat Waves: Low-Income Families

Analyses have also found that cities’ poorest neighborhoods tend to be hotter and that many low-income families have been struggling to cope for years. Due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, many families are unable to pay to run their AC. And even as cities begin reopening after lockdown, many of the malls, public libraries, and recreation centers where overheated Americans traditionally went to cool down remain risky, especially for older people and others with a heightened risk of dying from Covid-19. 

"This summer is definitely not going to be like any other summer," said Deanne Criswell, the commissioner of New York City Emergency Management. "We’re not going to have the same level of facilities open that New Yorkers typically go to all the time to stay cool. It’s a big concern." 

A Killers Mix On Its Way: Cooling Centres

At five cooling centers in LA, anyone who enters has their temperature checked and is required to wear a mask and remain 6ft away from other people. In Nevada’s Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, four cooling centers stayed open during the most recent heatwave. But none of these solutions are broad enough to catch everyone at risk of dying from heatstroke. It is just a staggering problem. 

In South LA, where 64% of residents fall below the poverty line, more than 40% of households lack air conditioning, according to a study published this month by researchers at the University of Southern California who analyzed data from the electrical meters of nearly 180,500 households. Poverty was a better predictor of whether or not people had AC than even how hot or cool it was in a neighborhood.

Killers: Food Insecurity Crisis

If above is not enough. America’s food insecurity crisis was dire even before the COVID-19 pandemic when at least 37 million people lived in households without adequate resources to guarantee consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. 'Today' with COVID-19, there are 54m Americans without food.

A Killers Mix On Its Way: Worldwide

The vast majority of heat-related deaths in cities occur inside homes that aren’t air-conditioned. Add to this the COVID-19 problems, mass unemployment, food-, water shortages, locust swarms in East Africa, Pakistan, India, the coming storm season, and forest fires, we can expect 2020 to be a disaster year. 

Coronavirus Global Updates

Updates 04-06-2020

Headlines
06:30

• Known coronavirus cases pass 6.4 m. According to Johns Hopkins University, there have been 6,430,705 known coronavirus cases so far, and 385,947 deaths reported.
• Brazil looks to reopen despite record coronavirus deaths. Brazil registered a record number of daily deaths from the novel coronavirus for a second consecutive day, according to Health Ministry data released on Wednesday, even as city and state authorities move aggressively to open commerce back up. The nation recorded 1,349 new coronavirus deaths on Wednesday and 28,633 additional confirmed cases, the data showed. Brazil has now registered 32,548 deaths and 584,016 total confirmed cases. In Brazil, right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus, saying on Tuesday that death was “everyone’s destiny.”
• George Floyd had coronavirus, according to autopsy. Floyd tested positive for coronavirus, according to a full autopsy report released by the Hennepin county medical examiner’s office. The report noted that the virus was not a contributing factor in his death and that Floyd was asymptomatic.KSTP news reports: “A postmortem nasal swab was taken, which confirmed that Floyd was positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It is noted that Floyd was known to be positive for Covid-19 on April 3. The postmortem positivity likely reflects asymptomatic but persistent PCR positivity from previous infection, the report said.”
• Mexico sees deaths twice as high as previous record. Mexican health authorities reported 1,092 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, the highest toll in one day so far, with total infections surging past 100,000. The number of deaths was more than twice a previous record, and daily infections were also at an all time high of 3,912. The additions bring the total number of known cases to 101,238 and deaths to 11,729. Health authorities have previously said the real number is higher.
• California: rise in Covid-19 cases raises fears over reopening and protests. The number of coronavirus cases in California is on the rise after weeks of optimism that infections had slowed, raising fears that plans to reopen counties, along with mass protests against police brutality, could accelerate transmission of the virus.According to numbers from Johns Hopkins University, which has been tracking coronavirus cases and deaths, California is one of 20 states that have seen an uptick in cases in the past five days.
• Coronavirus crisis could cause $25tn fossil fuel industry collapse. The coronavirus outbreak could trigger a $25tn (£20tn) collapse in the fossil fuel industry by accelerating a terminal decline for the world’s most polluting companies.A study has found that the value of the world’s fossil fuel reserves could fall by two-thirds, sooner than the industry expects, because the Covid-19 crisishas hastened the peak for oil, gas and coal demand.The looming fossil fuel collapse could pose “a significant threat to global financial stability” by wiping out the market value of fossil fuel companies, according to financial thinktank Carbon Tracker.
• Spain’s congress voted to approve a sixth and final two-week extension of the country’s state of emergency. It has been in effect since 14 March and Wednesday’s vote means that the exceptional measures that have underpinned one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns will now remain in force until 21 June.
• The UK’s business secretary Alok Sharma went into self-isolation after beginning to feel unwell in the House of Commons chamber.He was delivering the second reading of the corporate governance and insolvency bill.
• WHO reports 100,000 new cases a day for five days. The World Health Organization has received reports of 100,000 new cases of coronavirus every day for the past five days, as the outbreak gathers pace in various regions around the world, its director general has said.
• The WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also said it has resumed trials of hydroxychloroquine, an arthritis drug that had been used to treat Covid-19 patients, after reviewing studies that apparently showed it was dangerous.

Updates:
06:24

• 17 new cases in Thailand 
• 28 new cases in Kyrgyzstan 
• 4,801 new cases and 82 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 95 new cases in India  
• 133 new cases and 2 new deaths in Haiti 
• 1 new case in Mongolia 
• 271 new cases in Kazakhstan 
• 647 new cases and 24 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 174 new cases and 20 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 14 new cases in Sri Lanka 
• 11 new cases in Australia     
• 39 new cases in South Korea 
• 163 new cases and 9 new deaths in Honduras  
• 2 new deaths in El Salvador 
• 3,912 new cases and 1,092 new deaths in Mexico  
• 582 new cases and 21 new deaths in Brazil 
• 1 new case and 1 new death in Jamaica 
• 1 new case in China 

                          
                                             Coronavirus: The latest COVID-19 news, second of June 2020

Source worldometers, the guardian

Updates 03-06-2020

Headlines
08:05

• Known deaths in the coronavirus pandemic passed 380,000 on Wednesday, with Johns Hopkins University figures showing the toll currently standing at 380,250. Confirmed infections are nearing 3.4 million, with 6,378,239 so dar.
• Brazil's deaths passed 30,000. A record 1,262 Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in Brazil today - taking the country’s total death toll to 31,199 - but the president continues to downplay the pandemic. The figures were announced on Tuesday evening by Brazil’s health ministry, which also said the number of coronavirus cases had risen to 555,383, second only to the United States. The South American country is now on the verge of overtaking Italy, where 33,530 deaths have been recorded, as the country with the third-highest number of deaths.
• Australia’s economy is in recession. Australian treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has confirmed Australia is now in a recession as the economy reels from the coronavirus pandemic. His confirmation came after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported the economy shrank by 0.3% in the March quarter, on the back of the bushfires, drought and coronavirus pandemic. Asked whether the country was now in recession, he said: “Well, the answer to that is ‘yes’. And that is on the basis of the advice that I have from the Treasury department about where the June quarter is expected to be.”
• New Zealand saw its 12th consecutive day with no new cases. New Zealand has reported a 12th straight day of no new cases of Covid-19, as the government considers abandoning as early as next week all remaining restrictions on the country except stringent border controls. Just one person in New Zealand is still recovering from the illness, health officials said on Wednesday. They are not in the hospital. There have been fewer than 1,500 confirmed cases of the virus in the country, with 22 deaths.
• French anti-racism protesters defied a coronavirus gathering ban. Clashes broke out between police and protesters in Paris on Tuesday after around 20,000 people defied a ban to rally over the 2016 death of a black man in police custody, galvanized by US demonstrations against racism and deadly police violence.
• China’s service sector is bouncing back. China’s huge service sector has bounced back to growth for the first time since January in a sign that the world’s second-largest economy is recovering strongly from strict coronavirus-induced containment measures. Although employment and overseas demand remain weak in the economy, the Caixin/Markit services purchasing managers’ index rose to 55.0 in May from 44.4 in April, hitting the highest level since late 2010. The 50-mark separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis.
• Yemen aid funding falls short by US$1bn. Yemen remains on the brink of “a macabre tragedy”, the UN has warned after a humanitarian fundraising summit raised only $1.35bn for this year, around $1bn short of the target and only half the sum raised at the equivalent pledging conference last year. Dr. Abdullah al-Rabiah, the head of the
• King Salman Centre for Relief and Humanitarian Aid in Saudi Arabia, which co-hosted the virtual summit, put the overall shortfall down to the impact of coronavirus on national budgets and concerns about the restrictions on aid flow imposed by the parties to Yemen’s five-year civil war.
• Hopes were raised about the possible availability of a vaccine. A senior US army researcher said it was reasonable to expect that some sort of vaccine could be available to some parts of the US population by the end of the year.
• France’s death toll rose by more than 100 in a 24-hour period for the first time in 13 days. It came as the country enacts a new easing of lockdown measures.
• Iran confirmed its second-highest number of new cases in a 24-hour period since its outbreak began, with the health ministry saying 3,117 people tested positive. The number of new daily infections in Iran has now returned to levels previously seen at the peak of its outbreak in late March.
• Germany’s travel warning for Europe will be lifted on Wednesday, its foreign minister, Heiko Maas, announced. The worldwide travel warning still applies. But, for the countries of the EU and associated states, the warning will be replaced by travel advice that will give travelers detailed information about the situation in each state.
• The UK’s official death toll passed 50,000, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics. The total differs from the government’s daily counts, which only include deaths in hospitals and care homes where the person had tested positive.
• The UK statistics watchdog criticized the government’s testing data. Whitehall’s use of testing data appears to be aimed more at making it look like a lot is being done than actually painting a clear picture, the chairman of the UK Statistics Authority warned the health secretary, Matt Hancock.
• A Wuhan doctor who worked with the whistleblower Li Wenliang died of the virus last week, Chinese state media reported. Hu Weifeng, a urologist at Wuhan central hospital, reportedly became China’s first Covid-19 fatality in weeks when he died on Friday after being treated for more than four months.

Updates:
06:31

• 1 new case in Thailand 
• 424 new cases in India  
• 4,065 new cases and 67 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 225 new cases in Kazakhstan  
• 8 new cases in Australia     
• 165 new cases and 8 new deaths in Honduras 
• 3 new deaths in El Salvador 
• 460 new cases and 33 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 1,569 new cases and 31 new deaths in Brazil 
• 49 new cases and 1 new death in South Korea 
• 2 new cases in Jamaica 
• 250 new cases and 7 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 3,891 new cases and 470 new deaths in Mexico 

Source worldometers, the guardian

Updates 02-06-2020

Headlines
08:05

• Global infections from Covid-19 stand at 6,266,193 with deaths at 375,554, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
• South Korea will begin trialing QR codes as part of its track and trace efforts to contain the virus. From 10 June, visitors to nightclubs, bars, karaoke clubs, daytime discos, indoor gyms that hold group exercises and indoor standing concert halls will be required to use an app that generates a one-time personalized QR code that can be scanned at the door. It follows difficulties tracing potential infections from last month’s Seoul nightclubs cluster of 270 cases after people gave false or incomplete information.
• Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has defended his decision to lift almost all lockdown measures because of economic losses, as cases arise. In a televised address, Khan said his government could not afford to continue giving cash handouts to the poor on such a large scale. He urged people to act responsibly but said more infections and deaths were inevitable. “This virus will spread more. I have to say it with regret that there will be more deaths,” Khan warned. “If people do take care they can live with the virus.”
• New Zealand’s PM, Jacinda Ardern, has said restrictions may be eased again sooner than planned as the country was “ahead of schedule” in tackling Covid-19. Cabinet will decide next Monday whether to move to level-1 restrictions – the most lenient – two weeks ahead of when the government had planned to make that decision. New Zealand has had no Covid-19 cases for 11 straight days. Level-1 is thought only to involve border restrictions.
• The World Health Organization has warned that the increased use of antibiotics to combat the pandemic will strengthen bacterial resistance and ultimately lead to more deaths during the crisis and beyond. WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Monday a “worrying number” of bacterial infections were becoming increasingly resistant to the medicines traditionally used to treat them.
• The risk of Covid-19 infection could double if the 2-meter rule is reduced in the UK, a study part-funded by the WHO, and published in The Lancet has found. Last week, Boris Johnson said he hoped to “be able to reduce that [2-meter] distance”, to make it easier to travel on public transport and boost the hospitality industry.
• Deaths in Mexico passed 10,000 as the WHO warned that Central and South America had become “intense zones for transmission of this virus” and had not reached their peak in cases.
• Brazil registered 11,598 additional cases of coronavirus and 623 new deaths on Monday, taking its confirmed cases to 526,447 and deaths to 29,937.
• The Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has tested positive to Covid-19. Armenia, which has a population of 3 million, had registered 9,492 confirmed coronavirus cases and 139 deaths as of Monday.
• China reported five new imported cases and no deaths on Tuesday. As of Monday, there were 73 active cases in the country, according to the national health commission.

Updates:
06:31

• 19 new cases and 4 new deaths in Bulgaria 
• 16 new cases in Uzbekistan 
• 2 new cases in Dominica 
• 1 new case and 1 new death in Thailand 
• 263 new cases in Kazakhstan 
• 28 new cases in Kyrgyzstan 
• 3,938 new cases and 78 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 336 new cases in India  
• 4 new cases in Bhutan 
• 17 new cases in Australia     
• 549 new cases and 30 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 2 new cases in Jamaica 
• 38 new cases and 1 new death in South Korea 
• 102 new cases and 1 new death in Haiti 
• 160 new cases and 5 new deaths in Honduras  
• 2,771 new cases and 237 new deaths in Mexico 
• 249 new cases and 8 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 5 new cases in China 

Source worldometers, the guardian

Updates 01-06-2020

Headlines
08:05

• Manila eases lockdown. Traffic jams and crowds of commuters returned to the Philippine capital on Monday, as Manilla relaxed antivirus measures in a high-stakes gamble to slowly reopen the economy while fighting the coronavirus outbreak. Public transport was still limited and many commuters waited for hours to get a ride despite the government deploying special buses. School classes remain suspended for the next two weeks. Barbershops and beauty salons can open next week at a third of their capacity. The Philippines remains a south-east Asian hotspot for Covid-19, with more than 18,000 infections and 957 deaths.
• Japan may open doors to travelers from selected countries. Japan is considering reopening its borders to travelers from selected countries that have low levels of coronavirus infections, as it begins to ease restrictions put in place earlier this year to control the outbreak. As schools, cinemas, sports clubs, and department stores reopened in Tokyo on Monday, the media have reported that the government is also planning to allow travelers in from Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, and New Zealand in the coming months. There was no immediate comment from the foreign ministry.
• Hong Kong reports the first locally transmitted case in two weeks. Hong Kong has confirmed its first locally transmitted coronavirus cases in more than two weeks, fuelling concerns over its spread as restrictions on movement are relaxed, Reuters reports. The Centre for Health Protection said on Sunday it was investigating two confirmed cases of coronavirus, taking the number of cases so far to 1,085. Four people have died of the disease in Hong Kong.
• Wuhan reports zero new asymptomatic cases. Wuhan, the Chinese city of around 11 million people where the Covid-19 pandemic began, reported no new asymptomatic cases on Sunday, according to Chinese health officials. State media, Xinhua, said on Monday more than 60,000 nucleic acid tests were conducted on Sunday, finding no asymptomatic cases. Mainland China reported 16 new cases overall on Sunday, the highest daily number in three weeks. All were reported as imported cases – 11 in Sichuan province, three in Inner Mongolia, and two in Guangdong.
• Brazil passes 500,000 Covid-19 cases. Brazil has reported 16,409 new cases, taking the total of infected cases to 514,849. It keeps the country in second place in terms of infections, behind the US on 1.78 million cases. Brazil has moved into fourth in terms of deaths, with 29,314 fatalities, according to the health ministry. President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly dismissed the severity of the virus and continued to flout social distancing measures. On Sunday he rode a horse to a rally calling for the supreme court to be shut down for investigating him.
• Moscow eases lockdown despite high virus caseload. Shopping malls and parks are set to reopen in Moscow on Monday as the Russian capital eases coronavirus restrictions despite having the world’s third-largest caseload, with 405,843 infections. The relaxation of the confinement orders in Moscow, the epicenter of Russia’s outbreak with a population of more than 12 million, comes after President Vladimir Putin announced the epidemic had passed its peak in the country.
• North Korea to reopen schools. North Korea will reopen schools this month after shuttering them over the coronavirus pandemic, reports said Monday. Pyongyang has not confirmed a single infection but has imposed strict rules, including closing its borders and putting thousands of its people into isolation. The new school term – initially scheduled to start in early April – has been repeatedly postponed, although some universities and high schools were allowed to resume classes in mid-April.
• The Queen makes a first public appearance. In the UK, the Queen has been pictured riding in the grounds of Windsor Castle – her first public appearance since the lockdown began. Windsor is said to be the Queen’s favorite royal residence and she has been photographed over the weekend riding one of her ponies, a 14-year-old Fell pony called Balmoral Fern. The 94-year-old regularly rides in the grounds of Windsor and has been a passionate horse lover and breeder of thoroughbred racehorses throughout her reign.
• Spain to extend lockdown. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has said the country needs 15 more days of lockdown until 21 June “to finish with the pandemic once and for all”, and that he would ask parliament to approve a final two-week extension to the stay home rule. “We have almost achieved what we set out to do,” Sanchez told a press conference, as he expressed his intense relief that the number of new cases in Spain, one of the nations hardest-hit by the virus, had fallen dramatically.
• Bangladesh lifts lockdown. Bangladesh lifted its coronavirus lockdown on Sunday, with millions heading back to work in densely populated cities and towns even as the country logged a record spike in deaths and new infections. “The lockdown has been lifted and we are heading almost towards our regular life,” health department spokeswoman Nasima Sultana said, calling on those returning to work to wear masks and observe social distancing. It comes as Bangladesh – which on Friday took an emergency pandemic loan from the International Monetary Fund – reported its biggest daily jump in infections Sunday, with 2,545 new cases and a record 40 deaths.

Updates:
06:31

• 182 new cases in India  
• 35 new cases in Israel 
• 6 new cases in Bulgaria 
• 39 new cases in Uzbekistan 
• 1 new case in Thailand 
• 69 new cases in Kyrgyzstan 
• 450 new cases and 1 new death in Kazakhstan  
• 2,964 new cases and 60 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 1 new death in Sri Lanka 
• 6 new cases in Mongolia 
• 4 new cases in Myanmar 
• 143 new cases and 27 new deaths in Brazil 
• 390 new cases and 3 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 108 new cases and 11 new deaths in Honduras  
• 189 new cases in Ghana 
• 7 new cases in Australia     
• 259 new cases and 3 new deaths in Haiti 
• 35 new cases and 1 new death in South Korea 
• 348 new cases and 6 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 16 new cases in China 
• 3,152 new cases and 151 new deaths in Mexico 
• 5 new cases in Jamaica 

Source worldometers, the guardian

Updates 31-05-2020

Headlines
08:05

• Global cases pass 6 million. The world has passed the milestone of six million confirmed coronavirus cases, with 6,057,553 confirmed infections worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, and 369,106 deaths. The US is the worst-affected country in terms of cases and deaths, with 1,769,776 infections and 103,685 fatalities.
• Donald Trump postpones the G7 summit. US President Donald Trump has postponed the Group of Seven summit that he wanted to hold in June and will also expand the list of countries invited to attend the rescheduled event to include Australia, Russia, South
• Korea and India. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during his return to Washington from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Trump said the G7 in its current format was a “very outdated group of countries”.“I’m postponing it because I don’t feel that as a G7 it properly represents what’s going on in the world,” Trump said.
• Lockdown to be eased for England’s most clinically vulnerable. The more than 2 million people who have been “shielding” from Covid-19 in England because they are deemed to be clinically extremely vulnerable will be allowed to spend time outdoors from Monday for the first time in 10 weeks. Boris Johnson praised their resilience as their particular lockdown measures are set to be eased. The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, will confirm the move on Sunday.
• Brazil cases near 500,000 after record increase. Brazil registered a record 33,274 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday, its health ministry said, raising the total to 498,440 in a country with one of the world’s worst outbreaks. The death toll in Brazil from Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, increased to 28,834, with 956 new deaths in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.
• Los Angeles shuts down COVID testing amid protests. Coronavirus testing centers in Los Angeles, California have been closed due to safety concerns amid the protests, according to LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said the centers were being closed “because of the safety worries across the city.”
• South Korea reports 27 new cases. South Korea has reported 27 new cases of the coronavirus, including 21 from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, where officials have been scrambling to stem transmissions linked to club-goers and warehouse workers. The figures announced by South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday brought national totals to 11,468 cases and 270 deaths. Twelve of the new cases were linked to international arrivals.
• Pope Francis implores world leaders to provide social and economic relief for the many workers who have lost jobs and called for the enormous sums of money used to grow and perfect armaments be instead used to fund research to prevent similar catastrophes in the future.
• Britain’s top public health leaders warn Boris Johnson that trust in the government has been shattered by the Dominic Cummings affair and now poses a real danger to life when lockdown measures are lifted this week. Cummings, Johnson’s top aide, has been embroiled in a scandal after he was seen in Durham, 264 miles from his London home, despite having had coronavirus symptoms.
• Greece will conduct coronavirus tests on visitors arriving from airports deemed high-risk by the European Union’s aviation safety agency EASA when it opens its airports to tourism traffic on 15 June. The list currently includes 13 airports in the United Kingdom, all those in 22 US states, and those in the Ile de France region surrounding Paris.
• South Africa’s infection cases now exceed 30,000, the country’s health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Saturday. The country reported 1,727 new cases, taking the cumulative total to 30,967. The death toll increased by 32 to 643.

Updates:
06:31

• 8 new cases in Uzbekistan 
• 4 new cases in Thailand 
• 26 new cases in Kyrgyzstan 
• 316 new cases in India  
• 3,039 new cases and 88 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 476 new cases in Kazakhstan  
• 10 new cases in Bhutan 
• 6 new cases in Jamaica 
• 861 new cases and 10 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 1,526 new cases and 15 new deaths in Brazil 
• 7 new cases in Australia     
• 208 new cases and 2 new deaths in Honduras 
• 132 new cases and 12 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 281 new cases and 6 new deaths in Haiti 
• 2 new deaths in El Salvador 
• 27 new cases and 1 new death in South Korea 
• 1 new case in Trinidad and Tobago  
• 7 new cases in Sri Lanka 
• 2 new cases in Suriname 
• 2,885 new cases and 364 new deaths in Mexico 
• 2 new cases in China 

Updates 30-05-2020

Headlines
08:05

• Deaths surge in Brazil and Russia
• Trump says US is quitting WHO
• 12 migrants in Mexican government shelter test positive
• US supreme court rejects the church's dispute against California lockdown laws
• The US supreme court has rejected a challenge by a church group to block California’s lockdown laws, which limit attendance at religious worship to 25% of building capacity or 100 people.
• Ruby Princess passengers warned about tuberculosis infection
• Passengers on the Ruby Princess cruise ship, a voyage which was responsible for 10% of all coronavirus cases in Australia after an outbreak on board, have been issued with yet another health warning – this time for tuberculosis.

Updates:
07:55

• 21 new cases in Israel 
• 14 new cases and 3 new deaths in Bulgaria 
• 45 new cases in Uzbekistan  
• 1 new case in Cambodia  
• 1 new case in Thailand 
• 1 new death in El Salvador 
• 60 new cases in Kyrgyzstan 
• 11 new cases in Australia     
• 272 new cases in India  
• 2 new cases in Bhutan 
• 17 new cases in Myanmar 
• 2,429 new cases and 78 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 450 new cases in Kazakhstan  
• 134 new cases and 3 new deaths in Honduras 
• 4 new cases in China 
• 141 new cases in Haiti 
• 344 new cases and 7 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 259 new cases and 10 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 6 new cases in Jamaica 
• 39 new cases in South Korea 
• 1 new case in Vietnam 
• 3,227 new cases and 371 new deaths in Mexico 

Source worldometers, the guardian

Updates 29-05-2020

Headlines
08:05

• The number of people infected by Covid-19 has exceeded 5.8 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. At least 360,000 people have died from the virus. The US accounts for about 30% of cases, way ahead of Brazil (7.2%), Russia (6.6%), the UK (4.7%), Spain (4.1%), and Italy (4%).
• The Philippines records its highest daily infection rate- 539 new cases - but will ease lockdowns. Residents in Manila will see their lockdown – one of the toughest and longest in the world – ease from Monday, despite the Philippines seeing its biggest spike in coronavirus cases on Thursday. The Philippines reported 539 infections on Thursday, its highest-ever daily tally, to make a total of 15,588. It has recorded 921 deaths. “For me, this does not look bad,” Duterte said in a late-night televised address, citing what he described as the country’s low mortality rate. His health minister, Francisco Duque, said 90% of the country’s Covid-19 cases were “mild” and only less than 2% are “severe and critical”.
• India’s health system is at risk of being overwhelmed by Covid-19 spread. In Mumbai’s Sion hospital emergency ward there are two people to a bed. Patients, many with coronavirus symptoms and strapped two to a single oxygen tank, were captured lying almost on top of each other, top-to-toe on shared stretchers or just lying on the floor, in footage shared on social media in India this week. Mumbai, a city of more than 20 million people, is weeks into the pandemic, but with new cases showing no sign of slowing down the city’s already weak healthcare system appears to be on the brink of collapse. State hospitals such as Sion, overcrowded in normal times, are overrun. With frontline doctors and nurses falling sick with the virus in their droves, it is also leading to a shortage of medical staff. Life during the coronavirus lockdown has reinforced gender inequality across
• Europe with research emphasizing that the economic and social consequences of the crisis are far greater for women and threaten to push them back into traditional roles in the home which they will struggle to shake off once it is over. Throughout the continent, campaign groups are warning that the burdens of the home office and homeschooling together with additional household duties and extra cooking, has been unequally carried by women. Improvements made in their lives by the growing inequality over the past decades are in danger of being rolled back by the health crisis.
• The number of Americans who have lost their jobs in the past 10 weeks soared to more than 40 million, with 2.1 million people filing for unemployment last week. The growth in the number of claims has slowed, but millions more have continued to file for unemployment each week, bringing the total number to a rate not seen since the Great Depression.
• New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he would sign an executive order allowing businesses to deny entry to customers not wearing masks. He said: “That store owner has a right to protect himself. You don’t want to wear a mask, fine. But you don’t have a right to then go into that store if that store owner doesn’t want you to.”
• The US has now recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, as many states continued to relax mitigation measures. The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic. Almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, the UK.
• There have been more than 159,000 excess deaths in Europe since early March, during the height of the coronavirus epidemic, the head of the World Health
• Organization’s regional office for the continent said. Hans Kluge said 2 million people had been confirmed to have caught the coronavirus since it was first detected on the continent four months ago. About 175,000 had died.
• Up to six people will be able to meet outside in the UK from Monday, providing members of different households continue to stay two meters apart, the prime minister has said. This will be allowed in gardens and other private outdoor spaces, Boris Johnson added.
• Paris is no longer a “red” coronavirus danger zone, the risks posed by the virus moving down a notch to “orange”, according to France’s prime minister, Edouard Philippe. The rating means Paris is not as free as the majority of French regions designated “green”.
• Health officials in Moscow updated their figures on coronavirus deaths to add those who “died with” the virus. On top of 636 deaths in April directly caused by Covid-19 reported earlier, the health department added the deaths of 756 people who tested positive for the virus but died of other causes.

Updates:
07:55

• 25 new cases and 8 new deaths in Hungary  
• 15 new cases in Israel 
• 11 new cases in Thailand 
• 2,801 new cases and 57 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 356 new cases in Kazakhstan  
• 413 new cases in India  
• 18 new cases in Mongolia 
• 123 new cases and 1 new death in Haiti 
• 619 new cases and 13 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 15 new cases in Australia    
• 203 new cases and 12 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 58 new cases in South Korea 
• 112 new cases and 2 new deaths in Honduras  
• 1 new case in the Bahamas 
• 3,377 new cases and 447 new deaths in Mexico 

Source worldometers, the guardian

Updates 28-05-2020

Headlines
08:05

• Known global cases near 5.7m. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, at least 5,693,066 people are known to have contracted the virus since the pandemic began, while at least 355,653 people are known to have died. The true death toll and the number of cases are likely to be significantly higher due to differing definitions and testing rates, delays, and suspected underreporting.
• US deaths pass 100,000. Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the United States has recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, moving past a somber milestone even as many states relax mitigation measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic. Almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, Britain.
• Trump silent on the US death toll. Donald Trump remained silent on the death of more than 100,000 Americans from Covid-19 as the US mourned the milestone. The president made no comment on Twitter about the momentous day but used the platform to attack tech companies for trying to censor him, a day after Twitter put a fact-check warning on one of his claims.
• WHO launches foundation to put finances in better health. The World Health Organization on Wednesday launched a new foundation for private donations, as US President Donald Trump threatens to pull the plug over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, AFP reports.
• South Korea could face return to coronavirus restrictions. South Korea has reported its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases in 53 days, triggering warnings it may have to revert to stricter social distancing measures after appearing to have brought the outbreak under control. The Korean Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 79 new infections on Thursday with 67 of them from the Seoul metropolitan area, home to about half of the country’s population of 51 million.
• UN: Virus could push 14 million into hunger in Latin America. The UN World Food Program is warning that at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on. New projections released late on Wednesday estimate a startling four-fold increase in severe food insecurity.
• European investment slashed. Over a third of European foreign direct investment projects announced in 2019 have been either delayed or canceled outright because of the coronavirus pandemic, an annual survey by professional services group EY found. Some 65% of the 6,412 projects in question are already in place or continuing “albeit with downgraded capacity and recruitment”, EY said. A further 25% were delayed and 10 percent canceled, its Europe Attractiveness survey found.
• Ireland faces record recession: think tank. Ireland is facing its deepest-ever recession as the coronavirus lockdown devastates jobs and strains the public finances, a think tank said Thursday. A report by Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute predicts the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) will decline by 12.4% this year. That was the “most likely” scenario under a government plan to lift the lockdown in August. Still, with the economy struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels owing to physical distancing measures, ESRI said.
• Tory anger at Dominic Cummings builds. 61 Conservative MPs defied British PM Boris Johnson’s calls to “move on” from the Dominic Cummings crisis as a senior minister broke ranks to accuse the special adviser of inconsistencies in his account of his behavior during the lockdown. Former chancellor Sajid Javid also said the journey was not “necessary or justified” as the number of backbenchers calling for Cummings to resign or be sacked grew to 44, with more than 60 Tory MPs weighing in to criticize him. Two of those condemning Cummings are government whips.
• Hydroxychloroquine study raises concerns. Questions have been raised about a study published in the Lancet that prompted the World Health Organization to halt global trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine. The Lancet said the authors were “investigating urgently” an apparent discrepancy in the data. It comes amid scientists’ concerns that rigorous standards are falling by the wayside in the race to understand the virus.

Updates:
07:55

• 329 new cases in India   
• 17 new cases and 1 new death in Bulgaria 
• 16 new cases in Israel 
• 560 new cases and 8 new deaths in Afghanistan 
• 27 new cases in Uzbekistan 
• 23 new cases and 4 new deaths in Hungary  
• 11 new cases in Thailand 
• 74 new cases in Kyrgyzstan 
• 2,076 new cases and 35 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 13 new cases in Mongolia 
• 272 new cases in Kazakhstan 
• 11 new cases in Australia     
• 632 new cases and 6 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 146 new cases and 1 new death in Haiti 
• 200 new cases and 11 new deaths in Sudan  
• 79 new cases in South Korea 
• 1 new death in New Zealand 
• 2 new deaths in El Salvador 
• 191 new cases and 5 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 239 new cases and 6 new deaths in Honduras  
• 2 new cases in China 
• 5 new cases in Jamaica 
• 3,463 new cases and 463 new deaths in Mexico  

Source worldometers, the guardian

Updates 27-05-2020

Headlines
07:17

Known global deaths pass 350,000. More than 350,000 people have now lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The current toll stands at 350,456. The number of confirmed cases is 5,589,932, after the number of declared cases doubled in a month, with more than one million new cases registered in the last 11 days. There were 500,000 cases registered in just 48 hours, between Sunday, when cases passed 5 million, and Tuesday, when cases passed 5.5 million. True death tolls and cases are likely to be significantly higher due to differing definitions and testing rates, delays and suspected underreporting. The US alone accounts for less than a third of the global toll, with 98,916 deaths.

Tory unrest increases pressure on PM to sack Dominic Cummings. There is a growing revolt within Boris Johnson’s party over his refusal to fire Dominic Cummings, his chief adviser, over his lockdown breach. A junior minister has resigned, and 30 other Conservative MPs have called for Cummings to go. Eight more Tory MPs were publicly critical of Cummings’ actions and three said privately that he should be forced out, according to the Guardian’s Heather Stewart, Rowena Mason, and Kate Proctor.

The WHO says the Americas are the new epicenter of the disease. The World Health Organization’s regional director Dr. Carissa Etienne said outbreaks were accelerating in countries such as Brazil, where the number of deaths reported in the last week was the highest in the world for seven days since the coronavirus pandemic began. The number of coronavirus infections to accelerate in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, she said.

New Zealand expects a plan for safe travel with Australia in June. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday that a draft blueprint on safely starting travel between New Zealand and Australia will be presented to both governments in early June, Reuters reports. The neighbors have been discussing the possibility of a travel bubble between them as both have slowed the spread of the novel coronavirus to levels well below those in United States, Britain, and some other European countries. New Zealand has also reported a fifth consecutive day of no new cases of Covid-19.

South Korea reports the biggest daily jump in almost 50 days. South Korea South Korea has reported 40 new coronavirus cases for its biggest daily jump in nearly 50 days, causing alarm in a country where millions of children are returning to school. All but four of the new cases came from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, where officials have been scrambling to stem transmissions linked to nightclubs, karaoke rooms, and an e-commerce warehouse. Three cases were linked to international arrivals. South Korea has also jailed a man for four months for breaking quarantine rules, in the country’s first such prison sentence.

Vietnam to readmit foreigners. Vietnam will resume issuing e-visas to citizens from 80 countries from 1 July, the government said, though it was unclear whether quarantine measures would be lifted. The country imposed a blanket ban on foreigners entering the country in March as part of its aggressive response to the pandemic, which has also involved mass quarantines and expansive contact tracing. So far, Vietnam has not reported any coronavirus deaths.

Macron unveils €8bn French auto rescue, champions electric cars. President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday announced an €8bn (US$8.8bn) plan to revive France’s auto industry by making it the European leader in electric cars, boosting a sector brought to its knees by the coronavirus. Macron said the package would include one billion euros in subsidies to encourage purchases of electric and hybrid cars and set a target of France producing a million green cars annually by 2025. The “historic” intervention will aim to turn France’s rechargeable car industry into Europe’s biggest, the president said.

Germany extends distancing rules to the end of June. Germany has extended social distancing rules aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus epidemic to 29 June, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government said on Tuesday. Merkel’s government had been embroiled in disagreements with the least-affected states, some of which wanted to ditch the measures and open up entirely. Germany’s virus caseload now tops 181,200 with just over 8,372 deaths - much lower than European counterparts such as Britain, France, Spain, and Italy.

India backs hydroxychloroquine for virus prevention. India’s top biomedical research body has backed the use of the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine as a preventive against coronavirus after the WHO suspended clinical trials of the drug over safety concerns. The endorsement from the Indian Council of Medical Research came a week after US President Donald Trump said he was taking the drug as a preventative measure. India - which accounts for 70% of global production of hydroxychloroquine - on Tuesday reported 145,380 cases of the virus including 4,167 deaths.

Spain begins 10 days of mourning. Starting on Wednesday, the country will mourn for the nearly 27,000 people who have died from coronavirus in the country. Flags will be hoisted to half-staff in more than 14,000 public buildings across the country and on Spanish naval vessels until 5 June. It marks the longest official mourning period in Spain’s four-decade-old democracy.

Updates:
07:14

• 9 new cases in Thailand 
• 335 new cases in Kazakhstan 
• 52 new cases in Kyrgyzstan 
• 1,083 new cases and 2 new deaths in India   
• 1 new case in China 
• 7 new cases in Mongolia 
• 111 new cases and 2 new deaths in Haiti 
• 476 new cases and 13 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 212 new cases and 6 new deaths in Honduras 
• 194 new cases and 4 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 2,147 new cases and 44 new deaths in Brazil 
• 6 new cases and 1 new death in Australia     
• 40 new cases in South Korea 
• 8 new cases in Jamaica 
• 3,455 new cases and 501 new deaths in Mexico  

Source worldometers, the guardian

Updates 26-05-2020

Headlines
06:47

• There are almost 5.5m cases worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins university coronavirus tracker, which has counted a total of 5,495,061 confirmed infections. The death toll stands at 346,232.
• WHO warns of “second peak” in areas where Covid-19 declining. Countries, where coronavirus infections are declining, could still face an “immediate second peak” if they let up too soon on measures to halt the outbreak, the World Health Organization said on Monday. WHO emergencies head Dr. Mike Ryan told an online briefing, “We cannot make assumptions that just because the disease is on the way down now it is going to keep going down and we get some months to get ready for a second wave. We may get a second peak in this wave.”
• This year, Mexico City has issued 8,072 more death certificates than the average for the same period in the past four years, according to a new study that suggests the country’s coronavirus death toll could be significantly higher than the official figure of nearly 7,400. The report’s authors found 37% more death certificates were issued in April 2020 than that month’s average during the previous four years. By the end of May, they estimated the number would mushroom by 120%.
• White House brings forward Brazil travel restrictions by two days, amending the timing to 11.59 pm ET on Tuesday, 26 May. The White House announced Sunday it was restricting travel from Brazil, two days after Brazil became the world’s No. 2 hotspot for coronavirus cases. In its original announcement, it said the restrictions would come into force on 28 May.
• Dutch PM Mark Rutte did not visit the dying mother due to Covid-19 restrictions. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was unable to visit his dying mother in her final weeks because he obeyed coronavirus restrictions against visiting care homes, his office has said. His mother did not die of Covid-19 although there had earlier been an outbreak of the disease in the home where she was living, Dutch media reported.
• Dominic Cummings, the UK PM’s aide, has said he does not regret breaching the lockdown. Dominic Cummings, the chief of staff to Boris Johnson, admitted driving about 250 miles (400km) from his home during the UK’s lockdown but insisted he acted reasonably.

Dominic Cummings, the UK PM’s aide, does not regret breaching the lockdown

• The World Health Organization has suspended testing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in Covid-19 patients due to safety concerns. The WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, cited a paper published in The Lancet that showed people taking hydroxychloroquine were at higher risk of death and heart problems.
• WHO worries about the ‘silent epidemic’ unless Africa prioritizes virus testing. Africa has so far been spared the worst impact of the coronavirus,. Still, theWorld Health Organization is worried the continent could face a “silent epidemic” if its leaders do not prioritize testing for it, a WHO envoy said on Monday.
• Coronavirus measures ‘disastrous’ for children: Dutch watchdog. The coronavirus pandemic will have a “disastrous” impact on children’s rights worldwide, making them more vulnerable to forced labor and underage marriage, a rights group said Tuesday. School closures left boys and girls more vulnerable to child labor, early marriage, and teenage pregnancy,. At the same time, millions would fall into extreme poverty because of the coronavirus outbreak, the NGO KidsRights said.
• Australia will not open the country’s borders ‘anytime soon’. Australia will not open the country’s borders “anytime soon”, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday but added the country will continue its discussions with neighboring New Zealand for a trans-Tasman safe travel zone.
• Masks too dangerous for children under two, Japan medical group says. Children under the age of two shouldn’t wear masks because they can make breathing difficult and increase the risk of choking, a Japan medical group said, launching an urgent appeal to parents as the country reopens from the coronavirus crisis.
• Saudi Arabia to revise curfew times. Saudi Arabia will revise curfew times this week, and lift it entirely across the Kingdom except for the holy city of Mecca starting 21 June, state news agency reported in a statement early on Tuesday. Bans on domestic travel, holding prayers in mosques, and workplace attendance in both government and private sectors will be lifted, starting 31 May, the statement added.
• For Mecca, the curfew time will be adjusted to 3 pm-6M, and prayers will be allowed to be held in mosques from 21 June.
• Germany offers Lufthansa $9.8bn lifeline. Germany threw Lufthansa a €9bn (US$9.8bn) lifeline on Monday, agreeing on a bailout which gives Berlin a veto in the event of a hostile bid for the airline, Reuters reports. The largest German corporate rescue since the coronavirus crisis struck will see the government get a 20% stake, which could rise to 25% plus one share in the event of a takeover attempt, as it seeks to protect thousands of jobs.
• Iceland eases national alerts. Iceland eased its national alert against the coronavirus on Monday, allowing for public gatherings of up to 200 people and night clubs and gyms to reopen as the country nears complete recovery from the outbreak. Iceland limited the virus spread through a meticulous test and trace strategy and a full lockdown, has confirmed 1,804 infections and 10 deaths. But there have been only five reported new cases in May, and more than 99% of infected persons have recovered.
• California issues guidelines for the house of worship reopenings. The state released guidance under which county health departments can approve the reopening of churches, mosques, synagogues, and other houses of worship. They have been closed since Governor Gavin Newsom issued a stay-at-home order in March to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
• About 15,000 Rohingya refugees are now under coronavirus quarantine in Bangladesh’s vast camps, officials said Monday, as the number of confirmed infections among them rose to 29. Health experts have long warned that the virus could race through the cramped settlements, housing almost a million Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar, and officials had restricted movement to the area in April.

Updates:
08:22

• 35 new cases in Kyrgyzstan 
• 105 new cases and 4 new deaths in Haiti  
• 506 new cases in India   
• 1,356 new cases and 30 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 336 new cases and 1 new death in Guatemala 
• 438 new cases in Kazakhstan 
• 397 new cases and 11 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 19 new cases and 2 new deaths in South Korea 
• 156 new cases and 5 new deaths in Sudan 
• 239 new cases and 2 new deaths in Honduras  
• 8 new cases in Australia     
• 4 new cases in Jamaica 
• 2,485 new cases and 239 new deaths in Mexico 
• 7 new cases in China 

Source worldometers, the guardian

Updates 25-05-2020

Headlines
08:21

• Cummings 'fatally' undermines virus response, says, government adviser
• The pressure on Boris Johnson to sanction Dominic Cummings is already being ratcheted up after a member of the government’s advisory group on behavioral science told morning TV that said the “debacle” has “fatally undermined” efforts to fight coronavirus.
• Germany enters the recession in the first quarter. Falling consumer spending, capital investments and exports pushed the German economy into a recession in the first three months of the year, the national statistics office said this morning, as the virus continued to hurt the major economies.
• Capital investments slumped by 6.9%, private consumption by 3.2%, and exports by 3.1% between January and March compared with the last three months of 2019.
• More than 100 prominent writers, including several top Asian American authors, have called for an end to a surge in anti-Asian hostility in the US which they say has been “egged on” during the pandemic by the Trump administration’s pandering to racist tropes.
• Asian stock markets have given back earlier gains amid concerns about growing US-Sino antagonism over the coronavirus crisis and trade. Hong Kong has slumped 1.4% to a two-month low after sinking 5.5% on Friday
• Spain is easing lockdown restrictions today, with the country entering Phase 1 of the relaxed restrictions, while some parts will enter Phase 2, which is more relaxed
• Thailand confirmed two new coronavirus cases and one additional death on Monday, a health ministry spokesman said. The new numbers brought the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian country to 3,042 and deaths to 57 since the outbreak began in January, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the Covid-19 Administration Centre

Updates:
08:22

• 2 new cases in Latvia 
• 452 new cases and 6 new deaths in Armenia 
• 1 new case in Georgia 
• 259 new cases and 6 new deaths in Ukraine 
• 3 new cases and 1 new death in Israel 
• 513 new cases in India    
• 4 new cases in Australia      
• 16 new cases in Uzbekistan 
• 6 new cases in Bulgaria 
• 72 new cases in Nepal 
• 1,748 new cases and 34 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 68 new cases in El Salvador 
• 2 new cases and 1 new death in Thailand 
• 15 new cases and 5 new deaths in Hungary  
• 30 new cases and 2 new deaths in Kyrgyzstan 
• 1,595 new cases and 30 new deaths in Brazil 
• 93 new cases and 1 new death in Haiti  
• 3 new cases in Bhutan 
• 370 new cases and 3 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 209 new cases in Kazakhstan 
• 348 new cases and 10 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 207 new cases and 6 new deaths in Honduras  
• 16 new cases and 1 new death in South Korea 
• 11 new cases in China 
• 192 new cases and 19 new deaths in Sudan 
• 3 new cases in Tunisia 
• 2 new cases in Jamaica 
• 2,764 new cases and 215 new deaths in Mexico 

Source worldometers, the guardian

Updates 24-05-2020

Headlines
06:21

• New testimony from sources suggests that Dominic Cummings, chief aide to the British prime minister, made at least two trips from London to Durham, and traveled to tourist hotspots in the north-east of England. The reports have led to a chorus of calls for the spin doctor to be sacked, including from the leaders of the Liberal Democrats and SNP, while Labour called for an urgent investigation. Police rebut UK government claims over chief adviser
• Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York had recorded 84 new deaths from coronavirus on 22 May, the first time the figure has dropped below 100 since late March. He also eased the ban on group gatherings, altering restrictions to allow up to 10 people to meet up.
• France recorded a further 250 deaths, bringing the total to 144,806. However, after confirming several hundred deaths on Friday, Spain’s death toll stood at 28,678 on Saturday, 346 more than France. This is the first time the Spanish toll has overtaken the French for 10 days, giving Spain the world’s fourth-highest death toll after the US, Britain, and Italy.
• Donald Trump has stirred fresh controversy after traveling from the White House to play a round of golf at his Virginia club. Despite a rising American death toll, which is now approaching 100,000, Trump has been keen to return the US to normality and encouraging states to kickstart their economies.
• The British government has announced it is investing £283m into getting public transport back to normal services, having been cut back during the coronavirus pandemic. However, transport secretary Grant Shapps said that even a fully restored service would only be capable of carrying, at best, one-fifth of normal capacity, to allow for social distancing.
• More than 40 people have been infected with coronavirus after attending a mass in Frankfurt earlier this month. Six were admitted to the hospital. The service was held on 10 May, a few days after the reopening of places of worship in Germany, the daily Frankfurter Rundschau reported. Germany began to relax the restrictions put in place to control the spread of the virus at the beginning of May, after a strong decline in new cases, but fears remain of a second wave in the country.
• The Indian government has pledged to organize special trains to get at least 3.6 million stranded migrant workers back to their homes. Many have been walking for hundreds of miles, after becoming stranded in cities where work ceased to be available due to the pandemic.
• Beaches in Cyprus have reopened, as the country marks its first day of zero new cases of coronavirus since its first cases were reported on 9 March. Residents had only been allowed to swim, but can now congregate on the beaches as long as they remain spaced apart. Only members of the same family can participate in water sports together.

Updates:
05:54

• 2,164 new cases and 32 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 38 new cases in Kyrgyzstan 
• 497 new cases and 1 new death in India   
• 3 new cases in Australia     
• 266 new cases and 7 new deaths in Honduras 
• 403 new cases in Kazakhstan  
• 1,715 new cases and 152 new deaths in Brazil 
• 336 new cases and 10 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 250 new cases and 9 new deaths in Sudan 
• 25 new cases in South Korea 
• 1 new case in Vietnam 
• 311 new cases and 4 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 53 new cases and 1 new death in Haiti  
• 1 new death in Tunisia 
• 3 new cases in China 
• 6 new cases in Jamaica 
• 3,329 new cases and 190 new deaths in Mexico 

Updates 23-05-2020

Headlines
06:21

• Australia’s death toll has risen by one to 102 after the death of a man in a hospital in Victoria.
• Still in Australia, the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, said the government’s massive multibillion-dollar job keeper mistake raises questions over how it will manage the economic recovery coming out of the pandemic. It follows the government admitting on Friday to a $60bn reporting error in the much-heralded subsidy scheme. Rather than costing the budget $130bn, that figure has been slashed to $70bn and is forecast to assist 3.5m employees instead of 6.5m.
• The World Health Organization says South America is a new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with Brazil and Chile recording more than 333,000 and 60,000 cases respectively.
• China recorded no new confirmed Covid-19 cases on the mainland for 22 May, the first time it had seen no daily rise since the pandemic began in the central city of Wuhan late last year.
• Efforts to highlight Donald Trump’s largesse during his time in office have backfired after his press secretary appeared to display the US president’s bank details to the world.
• The more than a century old car rental firm Hertz Global Holdings Inc has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US.

Updates:
06:33

• 16 new cases and 1 new death in Australia      
• 3 new cases in Bhutan 
• 1,743 new cases and 34 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 355 new cases and 2 new deaths in India   
• 1 new case in Cambodia  
• 8 new cases in Uzbekistan 
• 15 new cases in Kyrgyzstan 
• 32 new cases in Nepal 
• 273 new cases and 11 new deaths in Honduras 
• 322 new cases in Kazakhstan 
• 23 new cases and 2 new deaths in South Korea 
• 1,492 new cases and 68 new deaths in Brazil 
• 78 new cases in Haiti 
• 392 new cases and 15 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 231 new cases and 3 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 10 new cases in Jamaica 
• 2,960 new cases and 479 new deaths in Mexico 
• No new cases and no new deaths in China for the first time since the beginning of official reporting (January 11, 2020) 

Updates 22-05-2020

Headlines
07:23

• Global infections have passed 5.1 million, deaths pass 332,000: Global cases stand at 5,102,573, with deaths reported at 332,924, according to the Johns Hopkins university tracker. Deaths in the US, stand at 94,702. The UK’s death toll is 36,124, with 252,246 infections
• China has not set a GDP target in due to “great uncertainty”: Beijing has taken the rate step of not setting a GDP target for the first time since it began publishing such goals in 1990. Instead, given “great uncertainty” caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,
• China will “give priority to stabilizing employment and ensuring living standards”, Premier Li Keqiang told the opening of the National People’s Congress. He also said governments at all levels should “tighten their belts”, and that all types of surplus, idle, and carryover funds will be withdrawn and re-allocated, be put to better use. China reported four new cases of Covid-19 on Friday.
• Trump didn’t wear masks at factory visit and has pushed for churches to open: The president toured a Ford plant in the battleground state of Michigan, without wearing a face mask in front of TV cameras. The plant had been recast to produce ventilators and personal protective equipment. On Tuesday Ford said its policy was that all visitors must wear face masks. Trump told reporters he had put one on out of the view of cameras: “I had gone on before. I wore one in the back area. I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,” he said. Earlier Trump said there would be an announcement “very soon” on reopening churches to the public.

• Brazil has passed 20,000 deaths: Latin America’s biggest country passed the grim milestone with a record one-day death toll of 1,188, taking the confirmed total to 20,047. The country has 310,087 infections, third behind the US (1,577,287), and Russia (317,554). President Bolsonaro, a long-running advocate of malaria drug chloroquine to treat Covid-19, said on Thursday he knew there was no proof it works, but said there are cases in which it appears to have been successful.
• Russia’s industrial output dropped 6.5% in April: TThe coronavirus lockdown hit the country’s economic performance The state statistics agency said “consumer demand fell for a range of goods and services”. Russia’s commodities sector only decreased by 3.2% year-on-year, and oil production grew by 0.2%. Pharmaceutical industries grew by 13.5%, year-on-year.
• Indonesia has had its biggest one day jump in cases: The world’s fourth most populous country reported 973 new infections on Thursday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 20,162. The authorities have asked the military and the police to prevent arrivals in Jakarta.
• South Korea has reported 20 new cases: The new coronavirus cases came as health authorities worked to contain the cluster connected to Seoul nightclubs. South Korea has had a total of 11,142 infections and 264 deaths.
• Australian’s most populous state eased restrictions further: New South Wales has announced cafes and restaurants will be allowed to have up to 50 patrons from 1 June, up from 10 currently allowed. Australia has had remarkable success in flattening the curve of infections from the coronavirus. The country of 25m has recorded 101 deaths and just over 7,000 cases. The country is consistently recording fewer than 20 new cases a day.

Updates:
06:33

• 2 new cases in Georgia 
• 42 new cases in Uzbekistan  
• 41 new cases and 5 new deaths in Bulgaria 
• 7 new cases in Israel 
• 37 new cases and 3 new deaths in Hungary  
• 217 new cases in Ghana 
• 2,603 new cases and 50 new deaths in Pakistan 
• 37 new cases in Kyrgyzstan 
• 275 new cases and 1 new death in India  
• 30 new cases in Nepal 
• 363 new cases in Kazakhstan  
• 1 new case in Mongolia 
• 104 new cases and 5 new deaths in Honduras  
• 7 new cases in Sri Lanka 
• 71 new cases and 3 new deaths in Haiti 
• 268 new cases and 16 new deaths in Bolivia 
• 247 new cases and 3 new deaths in Guatemala 
• 20 new cases in South Korea 
• 1 new case in New Zealand 
• 5 new cases in Jamaica 
• 14 new cases and 1 new death in Australia    
• 2,973 new cases and 420 new deaths in Mexico 
• 4 new cases in China 

Source worldometers, the guardian

Click on Coronavirus History Updates 2020 Globally to read about updates about the Coronavirus starting on January 24, 2020

Photo by: Amarjeet Kumar Singh. Police cordon off the Nizamuddin area of Delhi on Wednesday after several members of an Islamic congregation tested positive for coronavirus. 

5 Online Tools Provide Up-to-Date Tracking of The New Coronavirus Spread

WHO and Centres for Disease Control data to track outbreaks and recoveries, while others are aimed only at a Chinese audience, and focused on controlling the infection be helping people track who they might have come into contact with.

Using these tools, along with preventative measures like handwashing and avoiding contact with sick people, could slow the spread of the coronavirus. The outbreak originated in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and is now in at least 26 countries. Experts are now calling it a 'mild pandemic', and theorizing that it could become a permanent virus that humans face, akin to the seasonal flu.

Here are five tools to follow the coronavirus:

1. Johns Hopkins CSSE map

This online dashboard from Johns Hopkins uses CDC and WHO data to track the outbreak in real-time. Click here for Johns Hopkins CSSE map

2. Health Map

This map also tracks outbreaks of the virus, but it uses AI to scrape posts on news sites and social media to create a heat map of the virus, which can be useful to health officials.

Click here for the Health Map which tracks outbreaks of the coronavirus worldwide

3. Coronavirus app

This app from two French ex-pats in Taiwan has a useful breakdown of infections, deaths, and recoveries by region.

Click here for the Coronavirus Map

4.     Baidu map

Chinese search engine Baidu has created an epidemic map alongside its normal map, which shows real-time locations of confirmed and suspected coronavirus cases.

Click here for the Baidu map

5. Chinese flight and train checker

A Chinese cybersecurity firm created a tool available in China that lets people input flight or train numbers to see if they have traveled with anyone infected with the coronavirus.

Click here for the Chinese flight and train tracker

Recommended previous updates from this article back to the 24th of January 2020: 

Coronavirus History Updates 2020 Globally

Before you go!

Recommended: Travel The World: Keeping The Environment Healthy

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