Coronavirus: Italy's daily death toll and new cases climb
Read the latest on the spread of the novel coronavirus around the world here
Global coronavirus death toll crosses 300,000
The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed more than 300,000 people worldwide.
According to Worldometer, the global death toll stood at 300,284 as of Thursday evening.
The coronavirus was first reported in China in December last year. Since then, the virus has infected 4,479,823 people worldwide.
The US has been the worst-hit country with the highest number of infections and deaths – more than 1,430,000 cases and 85,000 deaths.
Canada's Trudeau sees 'a summer like no other', more aid to hard hit sectors
Canada will give C$470 million in aid to the fisheries sector and extend the federal wage subsidy program to help keep workers on payrolls, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday, but warned this would be a ‘summer like no other’ and urged people to accept the world had changed due to Covid-19.
The government will partially reopen some national parks in June and limit access to some vulnerable northern communities.
Italy's daily coronavirus death toll and new cases climb
Deaths from the Covid-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 262 on Thursday, against 195 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases rose to 992 from 888 on Wednesday.
It was the largest number of deaths in one day since May 7.
The total death toll since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 now stands at 31,368 the agency said, the third highest in the world after those of the United States and Britain.
The number of confirmed cases amounts to 223,096, the fifth highest global tally behind those of the United States, Spain, Britain and Russia.
Coronavirus leaves a legacy of unprecedented global debt
Enormous doses of stimulus spending are offering relief from coronavirus damage but their lifelong legacy of debt could seed future crises by hobbling economic growth and worsening poverty, especially in developing countries.
Central banks and governments worldwide have unleashed at least $15 trillion of stimulus via bond-buying and budget spending to cushion the blow of a global recession tipped to be the worst since the 1930s.
But the steps will pile even more debt on countries already struggling with the aftermath of the 2008-9 financial crisis — total global debt has risen $87 trillion since 2007, and governments, with $70 trillion, accounted for the lion's share of that increase, the Institute of International Finance estimates (IIF).
Lufthansa plans 1,800 round trips a week by the end of June
German flagship carrier Lufthansa on Thursday said it would be offering 1,800 round trips a week to more than 130 destinations around the world by the end of June.
The group, which includes Swiss International Air Lines and Austrian Airlines, had already announced last week that it would start flying more aircraft in June after the company grounded much of its vast fleet due to the coronavirus pandemic.
South Africa to assign coronavirus restrictions by district: minister
South Africa will assign levels of lockdown restrictions for each of the country’s roughly 50 districts, depending on the number of active coronavirus infections there, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday.
The National Coronavirus Command Council, the government body overseeing efforts to contain the virus, will review the restrictions for each district every two weeks, Mkhize added, saying the country was moving away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
It was not immediately clear whether there would be restrictions on movement between districts, which vary widely in size and in population.
South Africa imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March, only allowing people to leave their homes under a narrow set of circumstances, such as buying food or seeking medical help.
Wuhan residents brave rain, queues for Covid-19 mass-testing campaign
Residents in Wuhan braved pouring rain in queues of more than an hour to take part in a government-led exercise to test the city’s 11 million people for the novel coronavirus, a scale health experts describe as unprecedented.
Authorities in the central Chinese city, where the global pandemic began last year and whose cases account for more than 80 percent of the country’s total, started the campaign this week after a cluster of new cases raised fears of a second wave of infections.
While Wuhan lifted its 76-day lockdown last month, concerns persist over how many asymptomatic cases - people who show no symptoms but are capable of spreading the virus - there may be.
In Wuhan’s Qiaokou district, at the Zirun Mingyuan apartment community where about 10,000 people live, men, women and children stood under umbrellas while elderly residents perched on stools as they waited to get tested at four sites set up in the middle of the compound.
Moscow to launch free mass coronavirus tests from May 15 - mayor
Moscow will begin free mass testing of citizens for the coronavirus from May 15, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on his website on Thursday, with a target of 100,000 people a day by the end of the month.
Around 70,000 blood analysis tests will be offered every few days, in the initial roll-out, Sobyanin said.
Bangladesh says coronavirus detected in Rohingya refugee camp
The novel coronavirus has been detected in one of the camps in southern Bangladesh that are home to more than one million Rohingya refugees, officials said on Thursday.
An ethnic Rohingya refugee and another person had tested positive for Covid-19, a senior Bangladeshi official and a UN spokeswoman said. It was the first confirmed case in the camps, which are more densely populated than most crowded cities on earth.
"Today they have been taken to an isolation centre after they tested positive," Mahbub Alam Talukder, the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, told Reuters by phone.
Trump rips into China over coronavirus, 'very disappointed'
US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he was very disappointed in China over its failure to contain the novel coronavirus, saying the worldwide pandemic cast a pall over his US-China trade deal.
The coronavirus outbreak originated in Wuhan, China, in December and was spreading silently as Washington and Beijing signed a Phase 1 trade deal hailed by the Republican president as a major achievement.
"I'm very disappointed in China," the Republican president said in an interview broadcast Thursday on Fox Business Network.
Armenia extends coronavirus state of emergency until June 13
Armenia on Thursday extended a state of emergency because of the coronavirus outbreak until June 13, the government said, after the number of new daily infections began rising at the end of April.
Despite the extension, preschools, shopping centres and gyms will reopen starting from May 18, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said in parliament. The wearing of masks will also be mandatory in public spaces.
India to provide free food grains to millions of migrant workers
India will provide free food grains to millions of migrant workers hardest hit by a weeks-long lockdown as well as offer employment under a rural jobs program, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday.
The government will spend 35 billion rupees ($463.06 million) on food for nearly 80 million migrant workers over the next two months, Sitharaman told a news conference.
The allocation is part of a 20 trillion rupee ($266 billion) fiscal and monetary package to prop up the ailing economy. Millions of workers have fled large towns and cities after they lost their jobs during the lockdown, which is aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“The government is concerned about migrant workers,” Sitharaman said, and had provided funds to states to provide shelter, food grain and transport for migrants.
Since April, the government has spent 100 billion rupees to offer work to near 23 million unemployed people in rural areas under the ongoing rural job guarantee program, she said.
Pandemic hampers Philippines mass evacuation as typhoon hits
The coronavirus pandemic is complicating Philippine efforts to move hundreds of thousands of people into evacuation centres where social distancing is hard to enforce as a strong typhoon pummeled through its eastern provinces.
Typhoon Vongfong, the first to hit the country this year, intensified after slamming into the eastern Philippines on Thursday afternoon, packing winds of 155 kilometres per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 255 kph (158 miles per hour), the state weather bureau said in a bulletin.
Provincial and city governments, many of which are already strapped for resources due to the outbreak, are grappling with logistical and space issues, with an estimated 200,000 people needed to be moved from their homes in coastal and mountainous areas because of fears of flooding and landslides.
“This is really a nightmare for us here,” Ben Evardone, governor of the Eastern Samar province, told CNN Philippines. “Our problem right now is where to squeeze our people, while making sure they practice social distancing”.
US unemployment at 36 million, another 3 million file for benefits
The terrible toll of the coronavirus pandemic on the US economy continued unabated last week as another three million people filed for unemployment benefits.
A total of more than 36 million in the last two months have lost their jobs, reports The Guardian.
The latest figures from the US labor department show the rate of claims is slowing but the record-breaking pace of layoffs has already pushed unemployment to levels unseen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. For comparison just 188,264 unemployment claims were filed in the same week in 2019.
Poland to extend school closures until June 26
Poland will close schools until the end of the school year on June 26, a deputy education minister said on Thursday, as part of its efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to Polish state news agency PAP.
In recent weeks, Poland, the largest economy among the EU’s eastern states, has sought to loosen some restrictions put in place due to the coronavirus. Restaurants and hairdressers will reopen on Monday.
Poland’s education ministry was not immediately available for comment.
Coronavirus crisis a window of opportunity for bankers to the rich
When markets slumped in March as the spread of coronavirus gathered pace, wealth managers' trading volumes soared as ultra rich clients reshuffled their portfolios.
It was this market frenzy that helped Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse – the world's biggest wealth managers – post bumper first-quarter profits while much of the global banking sector was scrambling to make provisions to withstand the economic fallout from the pandemic.
UBS received up to 4 million quote requests a day from private clients in the quarter - double the December level of such enquiries about potential transactions - while its advisers conducted tens of thousands of portfolio reviews each month.
China's task to prevent rebound in local coronavirus cases remains arduous
China’s task to prevent rebound in local coronavirus cases remains arduous, the ruling Communist Party’s politburo said on Thursday, state television reported.
The government should step up targeted prevention and control measures for clusters coronavirus cases in northeastern Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, it said quoting the politburo meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping.
China will also take more flexible measures to prevent imported coronavirus cases, it said.
China says it will step up testing to prevent Covid-19 rebound
China said on Thursday it will step up Covid-19 testing and screening to prevent a rebound of the coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 4,600 in its mainland territories.
National Health Commission spokeswoman Song Shuli made the remarks during a daily press briefing.
Numbers of new Covid-19 cases reported on a daily basis have fallen sharply from those seen at the height of the epidemic in February, but an increase in new cases in the country's northeastern provinces such as Jilin and Liaoning have raised fresh concerns for Beijing.
Kidney injury seen in more than a third of hospitalized Covid-19 patients: US study
Over a third of patients treated for Covid-19 in a large New York medical system developed acute kidney injury, and nearly 15 percent required dialysis, US researchers reported on Thursday.
The study was conducted by a team at Northwell Health, the largest health provider in New York state.
"We found in the first 5,449 patients admitted, 36.6 percent developed acute kidney injury," said study co-author Dr Kenar Jhaveri, associated chief of nephrology at Hofstra/Northwell in Great Neck, New York, whose findings were published in the journal Kidney International.
India follows China's lead to widen use of coronavirus tracing app
India is aggressively pushing a state-backed contact tracing app to fight the spread of Covid-19, raising fears that the world's second-most populous nation is on its way to Chinese-style methods of high tech social control.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has touted its app, Aarogya Setu, or "Health Bridge," as a key tool in fighting the deadly coronavirus. With more than 70,000 people already infected, the number of cases in India is expected to exceed China, the origin of the outbreak, within a week.
Like many apps being rolled out around the world, Aarogya Setu uses Bluetooth signals on smartphones to record when people come in close contact with one another, so that contacts can be quickly alerted when a person tests positive for Covid-19.
City at centre of Italy's Covid-19 tragedy works to heal 'deep scar'
After months leading his city through one of Europe's worst Covid-19 outbreaks, Giorgio Gori, mayor of the northern Italian town of Bergamo, says the worst of the health crisis may be past. The new challenge of rebuilding is just beginning.
Once best known for the Renaissance-era architecture of its historic old town, which sits on a hill overlooking the modern city, Bergamo quickly found itself at the what Gori described as the epicentre of an earthquake.
After the first case of the new coronavirus emerged in late February, the city's hospitals were soon overwhelmed, and with morgues unable to keep up, convoys of army trucks carrying away the dead became a chilling symbol of the global pandemic.
Hong Kong aims to test more than 800 people as new local cluster grows
Hong Kong will try to test around 860 people living in two apartment buildings for coronavirus, after a third locally transmitted case of Covid-19 was identified as part of a new cluster in the city.
On Wednesday, a 66-year-old woman and her five-year-old granddaughter were confirmed as the first two locally transmitted coronavirus cases in 22 days. The pair do not live together, Reports the CNN.
The new case, confirmed on Thursday, is the 66-year-old woman's husband.
Hong Kong’s Housing Authority said it would distribute deep throat saliva sample kits to all residents living in the same buildings as the couple and their granddaughter by the end of Thursday.
France says US priority on Sanofi virus vaccine would be unacceptable
Giving some countries such as the United States priority access to any coronavirus vaccine developed by Sanofi would be unacceptable, France's junior economy minister said on Thursday, after the firm suggested Americans could get it first.
The French drugmaker's chief executive, Paul Hudson, said on Wednesday that vaccine doses produced in the United States could go to US patients first, given the country had supported the research financially.
Sanofi, which had already flagged this possibility in recent weeks and had urged stronger European coordination in the hunt for a vaccine, has since clarified that it would be made available to all, following a backlash in France in particular.
Hungary could end emergency powers in late June: PM aide
Hungary’s government could end emergency powers obtained to fight the coronavirus pandemic in late June, depending on the evolution of the pandemic, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff said on Thursday.
Gergely Gulyas also told an online press briefing earlier that the government was considering an easing of restrictions in Budapest from next week due to a decline in infections.
Snaking queues at Jakarta airport as crowds ignore distancing rules
Thousands of travellers queued cheek by jowl at an airport terminal in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Thursday, ignoring regulations on social distancing and despite an official lockdown slated to run until the start of June.
Photographs posted on social media, days after the government announced that several airlines could conditionally resume operations, showed passengers queuing to enter the airport and crowding inside the terminal.
One traveller, who asked to remain anonymous, said that confusion reigned as officials attempted to ensure all airline passengers underwent health checks and get flight approval letters stamped.
“Once I entered terminal 2E, there was no clarity,” said the 27-year-old, who was travelling for work, one of the designated travel exceptions. “The crowd even reached to the entrance door without any physical distancing measure implemented.”
US coronavirus death toll crosses 84,000
At least 84,136 people have died in the US from coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University's latest tally.
The organization said 1,390,764 cases had been recorded across the country, reports the CNN.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
The US currently has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world.
Spain's daily coronavirus death toll rises above 200 on Thursday
Spain’s daily coronavirus death toll rose on Thursday above 200 for the first time since May 8, the health ministry reported.
The overall death toll from the disease rose to 27,321 on Thursday from 27,104 as 217 people reportedly died overnight, the ministry said.
The overall number of diagnosed cases rose to 229,540 on Thursday.
UN warns of global mental health crisis due to Covid-19 pandemic
A mental illness crisis is looming as millions of people worldwide are surrounded by death and disease and forced into isolation, poverty and anxiety by the pandemic of Covid-19, United Nations health experts said on Thursday.
"The isolation, the fear, the uncertainty, the economic turmoil - they all cause or could cause psychological distress," said Devora Kestel, director of the World Health Organization's (WHO) mental health department.
Presenting a UN report and policy guidance on Covid-19 and mental health, Kestel said an upsurge in the number and severity of mental illnesses is likely, and governments should put the issue "front and centre" of their responses.
Indonesia reports 568 new coronavirus infections, 15 deaths
Indonesia reported 568 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, taking the total in the Southeast Asian country to 16,006, health ministry official Achmad Yurianto said.
Yurianto reported 15 new deaths related to Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, taking the total to 1,043, while 3,518 have recovered. More than 127,800 people have been tested, he added.
Temperature checks, masks the new normal for air travel, says Dubai airport CEO
Around the world, governments, airports and airlines are considering temporary safety measures to restart air travel, including mandatory temperature checks, wearing face masks and keeping passengers apart
Around the world, governments, airports and airlines are considering temporary safety measures to restart air travel, including mandatory temperature checks, wearing face masks and keeping passengers apart.
"We are going to have to take whatever measures are necessary to protect the travelling public and our staff," Chief Executive Paul Griffiths told Reuters.
Malaysia reports 40 new coronavirus cases; one additional death
Malaysia on Thursday reported 40 new coronavirus cases with one additional death, the health ministry said.
The country has so far recorded a total of 6,819 infections, with 112 fatalities.
Taiwan says WHO has 'forgotten' neutrality by barring island
The World Health Organization (WHO) has "forgotten" its professionalism and neutrality in locking Taiwan out of the body for political reasons, Taiwan Vice President Chen Chien-jen said on Thursday.
Taiwan says China and the WHO have conspired for political purposes to keep it out of key meetings, that the WHO has not responded to requests for coronavirus information and has misreported the number of its infections.
The WHO and China have strongly dispute the accusations, saying Taiwan has been given all the help it needed, but that only China, which claims democratic Taiwan as one of its provinces, has the right to fully represent it in the WHO.
Health groups ask India to rescind Gilead's patents for Covid-19 drug remdesivir
Two health advocacy groups have written to the Indian government asking it to rescind patents given to Gilead Sciences for the drug remdesivir so it can be distributed more fairly to coronavirus patients around the world, particularly in poorer nations.
Drug patents in India are an important issue as many countries depend on generic drugmakers to make and sell cheaper versions of critical drugs to them. Gilead's three patents in India for remdesivir stem from 2009 when the drug was in development to treat Ebola.
Remdesivir is the only drug approved to treat Covid-19 patients after promising early trial results prompted US regulators to grant emergency use authorisation on May 2. To expand its access, Gilead said this week it had signed non-exclusive licensing pacts with five generic drugmakers based in India and Pakistan, allowing them make and sell remdesivir for 127 countries.
Coronavirus vaccine possible in early 2021, says European agency
A vaccine to counter the new coronavirus could be approved in about a year in an "optimistic" scenario, a agency which approves medicines for the European Union said on Thursday.
The European Medicines Agency, in communication with 33 developers, was doing all it could to speed up the approval process, the EMA's head of vaccines, Marco Cavaleri, said, but he was sceptical of claims any could be ready by September.
"For vaccines, since the development has to start from scratch ... we might look from an optimistic side in a year from now, so beginning of 2021," he told journalists.
Bangladesh reports 14 more deaths from coronavirus, 1,041 new cases
Bangladesh today confirmed 14 more deaths from the novel coronavirus and 1,041 new cases of infection testing 7,392 samples in the last 24 hours.
With this, the death toll from the deadly virus rose to 283 and the number of total infections stood at 18,863.
"Among the dead patients, 11 are male and three female. Nine of them resided in Dhaka and five in Chattogram. Five of them were aged above 50," Additional Director General of Health Directorate Professor Dr Nasima Sultana made the disclosure during a virtual briefing today.
Japan lifts state of emergency in most areas; Tokyo stays on alert: PM Abe
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifted a state of emergency across a large part of the country on Thursday, but said the biggest urban centres of Tokyo and Osaka will remain under restrictions until there is a convincing containment of the new coronavirus.
Abe announced the lifting of the emergency in 39 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, as the country strives to balance the damage to the economy from prolonged shutdowns and the need to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
France reports drop in coronavirus deaths, toll tops 27,000
France on Wednesday reported a drop in coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours compared with previous days, as its overall toll passed the 27,000 mark.
The new deaths brought the total toll in hospitals and nursing homes from the pandemic in France to 27,074, the health ministry said, AFP reported.
But the ministry also acknowledged a counting error has revised down the toll in nursing homes by 15 people from the day earlier, adding it did not yet have a toll from nursing homes for Wednesday.
It said that over the last 24 hours, 98 people had died in hospital.
According to the health ministry’s official toll, this means 83 people were registered to have died over the last 24 hours, compared with 348 the previous day.
Germany's coronavirus infections rise by 933 cases to 172,239
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany rose 933 to stand at 172,239, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday.
The reported death toll rose by 89 to 7,723, the tally showed, Reuters reported.
US adds more than 1,800 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours
The United States recorded 1,813 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 84,059, according to the latest real-time tally Wednesday 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 1,389,935 cases, the Baltimore-based school reported, AFP reported.
