New York state has more Covid-19 cases than any other country in the world
Read the latest on the spread of the novel coronavirus around the world here
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US coronavirus deaths top 17,000
US deaths due to the coronavirus topped 17,000 on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, although there are signs that Americans staying home was curbing new infections.
US officials warned Americans to expect alarming numbers of coronavirus deaths this week, even as there was evidence that the number of new infections was flattening in New York state, the epicenter of the US outbreak.
With many Americans celebrating the Easter holiday on Sunday, the top US infectious disease expert warned on Friday that it is too early to relax restrictions on Americans.
In epicentre of French virus outbreak, medical workers believe peak has passed
As head of the urgent cases team in the Mulhouse ambulance service, Marc Noizet has been at the eye of the coronavirus storm that swept through this eastern French city. In the past few days, he has noticed a change.
“Things are getting better,” he said of the region around Mulhouse, the epicentre of France’s deadliest outbreak. His crews are being called out to fewer coronavirus-related cases. “That allows the staff to rest a bit, to take a breath.”
Public health officials in the Grand-Est region, near France’s border with Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg, say it is premature to say the crisis is over, but they believe they have passed the peak of the epidemic.
The virus hit the region earlier and harder than anywhere else in France, in large part because of a five-day prayer gathering at an evangelical church in Mulhouse where dozens of worshippers were infected.
Notre-Dame service a message of hope for France in coronavirus lockdown
Nearly a year after fire devastated Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, the city’s Archbishop held a small ceremony there to mark Good Friday, praying that Easter’s message of rebirth might bring comfort to a country stricken by the coronavirus pandemic.
Only seven people, including Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit, attended the solemn service in the apse behind Notre-Dame’s Pietà due to the nationwide lockdown across France, but many more watched on their televisions.
“A year ago, this cathedral was burning, causing bewilderment,” said Aupetit, after bowing before a relic of Christ’s crown of thorns that was famously saved from the blaze by a fireman.
Portugal set to extend coronavirus lockdown till May 1
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said on Friday he would propose next week extending a national lockdown till May 1 as the number of coronavirus cases in the country rose above 15,000.
Parliament is likely to approve his request. Portugal declared a 15-day state of emergency on March 18 and last week approved its extension by a further 15 days till April 17.
“We have to be very focused on a fight that we haven’t fully won yet,” Rebelo de Sousa, who was himself in quarantine for two weeks last month despite testing negative for coronavirus, told a news conference. “We cannot let our guard down.”
Portugal has so far reported 15,472 confirmed cases and 435 fatalities, far below neighbouring Spain’s death toll of 15,843, the second highest in the world after Italy.
India set to ship drug sought by Trump for coronavirus
India is set to begin shipping the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to the United States where President Donald Trump has touted it as a potential weapon against the coronavirus.
"The first shipments should start next week," said Sudarshan Jain, secretary general of Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA).
India is the world's largest producer of hydroxychloroquine but last month banned most exports to secure its own supplies, drawing warnings of retaliation from Trump.
In global war on coronavirus, some fear civil rights are collateral damage
In Armenia, journalists must by law include information from the government in their stories about COVID-19. In the Philippines, the president has told security forces that if anyone violates the lockdown they should "shoot them dead". In Hungary, the premier can rule by decree indefinitely.
Across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas, governments have introduced states of emergency to combat the spread of the new coronavirus, imposing some of the most stringent restrictions on civil liberties since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, lawyers and human rights campaigners said.
England's coronavirus hospital death toll rises by 866 to 8,114
The coronavirus death toll in English hospitals rose over the past 24 hours by 866 to a total of 8,114 on Friday, health officials reported.
Those who died were aged between 27 and 100, and 56 of them had no known underlying health condition, it said.
Dutch coronavirus cases rise by 1,335 to 23,097: health authorities
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose by 1,335 on Friday to 23,097, health authorities said, with 115 new deaths.
The total death toll is now 2,511, the Netherlands’ Institute for Public Health (RIVM) said in its daily update.
EU leaders to hold coronavirus video conference on April 23
European Union leaders will hold a video conference on April 23 to discuss the economic response to coronavirus, the President of the European Council Charles Michel said on Friday, a day after EU finance ministers agreed on half-a-trillion euros worth of support for their coronavirus-battered economies.
"It is time to lay the ground for a robust economic recovery. This plan has to relaunch our economies whilst promoting economic convergence in the EU. The EU budget will have to play a meaningful role here," Michel said in a statement issued via Twitter.
He called the deal reached on Thursday a "significant breakthrough."
Netherlands refuses to 'Go Dutch' on EU coronavirus debt
As the European Union hammered out an emergency economic package this week for countries reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Dutch held true to their reputation for thriftiness by refusing to support a plea by southern members to take on collective debt.
And while the bloc’s 27 finance ministers agreed to half-a-trillion euros in relief on Thursday, the contentious issue of “eurobonds” - jointly issued debt - was left unresolved. A reference to “innovative financial instruments” enabled both sides to declare having won political concessions.
EU powerhouse Germany, Austria, Finland and others had also expressed objections to debt mutualisation, but Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra was ultimately the sole holdout in 16 hours of talks that failed to work out a deal on Wednesday.
South Korea reports recovered coronavirus patients testing positive again
South Korean officials on Friday reported 91 patients thought cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again.
Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), told a briefing that the virus may have been "reactivated" rather than the patients being re-infected.
South Korean health officials said it remains unclear what is behind the trend, with epidemiological investigations still under way.
Easter season goes virtual as coronavirus locks out tradition
One Catholic priest in rural coastal Ireland delivered socially-distanced blessings from a moving vintage "popemobile".
Another in Germany taped pictures of his parishioners to empty pews and televised his Mass.
With many churches closed or affected by coronavirus lockdown restrictions for the Easter season, Christians of various denominations around the world have come up with novel ways to keep the faith.
French army reports 50 Covid-19 cases aboard aircraft carrier
Fifty crew members aboard France's flagship aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the armed forces ministry said on Friday.
In a statement, it added that three sailors had been preventively evacuated by air to a military hospital in Toulon, southern France, home port of the carrier.
China imposes more checks on mask exports to ensure quality control
China tightened restrictions on exports of masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) on Friday, calling for shipments of the items to be subjected to a mandatory customs inspection, with immediate effect.
The new rules mark the latest bid by China to balance the global demand for PPE to help treat the rising number of cases of the new coronavirus, while ensuring that manufacturers and sellers do not flood the market with uncertified or shoddy products.
The regulations follow highly publicised complaints from some governments and hospitals that they received PPE from China that they considered faulty.
German minister criticises US coronavirus response as too slow
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has criticised the United States' handling of the coronavirus outbreak as too slow, the latest sign of tensions between the two allies as they respond to the crisis.
Swiss coronavirus death toll passes 800, positive tests top 24,000
The Swiss death toll from coronavirus has reached 805, the country’s public health ministry said on Friday, rising from 756 people on Thursday.
The number of positive tests also increased to 24,308, up from 23,574 on Thursday, it said.
Philippines stops health workers going abroad to fight coronavirus
The Philippines has stopped doctors, nurses, medics and other healthcare workers from going abroad while it needs their skills to meet the threat of the coronavirus spreading at home, a foreign affairs official said.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration issued the order on April 2, though it was only made public on Friday.
India's coronavirus relief plan could leave millions without food aid, activists say
Tens of millions of Indians stand to see few benefits from a coronavirus relief package worth $22.6 billion, economists and food rights activists say, a scenario that spells catastrophe for Karan Kumar, a struggling day labourer in the capital.
Living in cramped quarters at a construction site where activity has been halted by a harsh three-week lockdown to stem the spread of the virus, Kumar has been without work for days, unable to earn a daily wage of about $4.
"I'm not suffering alone, my family is suffering with me," said 32-year-old Kumar, who relies on his earnings to support his wife, five children and ageing parents in his home state of Bihar, one of India's poorest.
Dutch report 2,000 extra deaths in early April, likely due to coronavirus
There were around 2,000 more deaths in the Netherlands in the first week of April than would normally be expected, its statistics office said on Friday, likely the result of the coronavirus outbreak.
Figures released by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) showed around 5,100 deaths registered in the country in the week ended April 5, compared to around 3,200 a week in the same period a year ago, and 3,100 a week in early 2020 before the country registered its first COVID-19 case in late February.
The CBS numbers are complementary to data released by the country’s National Institute for Public Health (RIVM), which registers only coronavirus cases that are officially diagnosed. The RIVM reported 881 coronavirus deaths in the same period.
‘Cluster of cases in India, not community transmission’: WHO admits error
Situation report showed India is at the stage of community transmission.
The organization said India has a cluster of cases and not community transmission, reports the NDTV.
While the India column in the report had said "community transmission", China, the first country where COVID-19 erupted late last year, showed a "cluster of cases".
India has 6,412 cases of coronavirus, including 199 deaths. Thirty-three deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours.
Sun, sea, sand and space as coronavirus empties Asia's beaches
Just weeks ago, some visitors were complaining that Bali's famous sand and surf spot of Kuta Beach was way too busy.
Now it is deserted, with access banned as part of measures to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, which has killed nearly 100,000 people around the world and infected more than 1.5 million.
The picture in Bali is similar at other top Asia Pacific destinations such as Sydney's Bondi Beach and Thailand's Phuket.
"To stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, all the beaches in Kuta area closed for public," reads a sign in Bali, Indonesia, the country with the highest coronavirus death toll in Asia after China, where the virus emerged.
South Asian nations weigh tighter lockdowns as coronavirus cases hit 12,000
India accounts for more than half the tally of those infected with coronavirus across south Asia, which crossed 12,000 on Friday, government data showed, despite a harsh weeks-long clampdown to control the outbreak.
India's capital of Delhi, and its financial hub of Mumbai, have emerged as hotspots and local officials are urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend a 21-day nationwide lockdown beyond its expiry date of Tuesday.
India's vast shutdown of 1.3 billion people has left millions out of work and forced an exodus of migrant workers from the cities to their homes in the hinterland, but state leaders say it is more important to save lives.
Spain's daily coronavirus death toll increase eases again
The number of people dying of coronavirus in Spain each day fell again on Friday as the country registered 605 fatalities over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.
The overall death toll rose to 15,843 on Friday from 15,238 the previous day, it said in a statement. The total number of coronavirus cases rose to 157,022 on Friday from 152,446 on Thursday.
New York City hires laborers to bury dead in Hart Island potter's field amid coronavirus surge
New York City officials have hired contract laborers to bury the dead in its potter's field on Hart Island as the city's daily death rate from the coronavirus epidemic has reached grim new records in each of the last three days.
The city has used Hart Island to bury New Yorkers with no known next of kin or whose family are unable to arrange a funeral since the 19th century.
Typically, some 25 bodies are interred each week by low-paid jail inmates working on the island, which sits off the east shore of the city's Bronx borough and is accessible only by boat. That number began increasing in March as the new coronavirus spread rapidly, making New York the epicenter of the global pandemic.
There are about two dozen bodies a day, five days a week buried on the island, said Jason Kersten, a spokesman for the Department of Correction, which oversees the burials.
Indonesian doctor's death exposes heartbreaking risks of coronavirus battle
When Indonesian doctor Ratih Purwarini was buried at dusk in a Jakarta cemetery, only her son Firos saw her plastic-wrapped coffin used for coronavirus victims lowered into the grave.
The rest of the family, instructed to keep a safe distance, watched the proceedings from afar: Firos standing alone by a mound of fresh earth wailing the Islamic call to prayer through his mask.
Two weeks before the healthy 46-year-old mother of two was laughing at a family outing in Bandung, a West Javan city by strawberry fields and volcanoes.
Now she is a number on a growing list, one of 26 Indonesian doctors killed by COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.
Malta takes in rescued migrants despite coronavirus ban
A group of North African migrants rescued from a sinking boat came ashore in Malta early on Friday, hours after the government had said no further groups would be allowed in after it closed its ports due to the coronavirus emergency.
The 64 migrants were rescued by the Maltese armed forces from a boat inside the Malta rescue zone south of the island and brought ashore. On Thursday Malta had followed Italy, the country that has so far seen the most deaths from the epidemic, in announcing it would no longer allow migrant boats to land due to the risk of coronavirus infection.
Hungary reports biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases
Hungary’s confirmed coronavirus cases have increased by 210 to 1,190, the single largest daily increase since the outbreak of the virus, government data showed on Friday.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government prolonged a nationwide lockdown indefinitely on Thursday to slow the spread of the coronavirus, asking citizens to observe the order despite the Easter holiday.
The crisis has presented Orban with the toughest challenge to his decade-long rule. His response - to rule by decree indefinitely - has drawn criticism from the European Union.
Seventy-seven people have died so far, according to the government. Friday’s jump in cases includes 151 infections in an old people’s home in Budapest, of whom seven people had died, the government tally showed.
Mexico reports first deaths of pregnant women from coronavirus
Mexico has recorded its first two deaths of pregnant women from the coronavirus as the overall number of fatalities in the country reached 194, the health ministry said on Thursday.
One of the two women gave birth to a son before passing away, deputy health minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell told a news conference, noting that pregnant women are highly susceptible to infection caused by the virus. For a short time the baby boy had respiratory problems and is still delicate, he added.
Adding to their risk factors for developing complications from coronavirus, both women were clinically obese, while one had hypertension and the other had diabetes, Lopez-Gatell said.
Don't lift lockdown fully untill vaccine found- new study warns
According to a study published in medical journal The Lancet, lockdowns regarding coronavirus across the globe should not be completely lifted untill a vaccine is found.
Using some mathemetical modeling, the researchers show that a premature lifting of measures can cause a sweeping second wave of infection, reportts CNN.
Authorities ended the 76-day lockdown of Wuhan in Hubei province on Wednesday, as the city at the original epicenter of the coronavirus crisis emerges from the deadly outbreak that is now raging across the globe. Some restrictions will remain in place, however, with officials conscious of the risk as trains and tourist sites were packed across the country.
Once the biggest outbreak outside of China, South Korean city reports zero new coronavirus cases
The South Korean city of Daegu, which endured the first large coronavirus outbreak outside of China, on Friday reported zero new cases for the first time since late February, as new infections across the country dropped to record lows.
With at least 6,807 confirmed cases, Daegu accounts for more than half of all South Korea's 10,450 infections.
Harvey Weinstein free of coronavirus symptoms, spokesman says
Harvey Weinstein, who is serving a prison sentence for rape, has no symptoms of the coronavirus, his spokesman said on Thursday, more than two weeks after a union official for corrections officers said the former movie producer had tested positive.
"As of now, it's been 14 days since reports of concern from people inside the prison, and he has no symptoms and no issues," Weinstein spokesman Juda Engelmayer said.
Japan might provide flu drug Avigan to other countries for free as COVID-19 treatment
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the government is considering providing Avigan for free to other countries that want to use the flu drug to treat coronavirus patients.
"Some 30 countries have made requests through diplomatic channels to Japan for the procurement of Avigan," Suga said at a news conference, Japantimes reported.
"We're coordinating to provide the necessary amounts for free to countries wanting it."
The drug, developed by a group firm of Fujifilm Holdings Corp., is considered effective for treating COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Vietnam challenges China's monopoly on virus diplomacy
Vietnam is challenging China's dominance of coronavirus diplomacy with the donation of medical supplies to Europe and Southeast Asia and even winning plaudits from US President Donald Trump for a shipment of protective suits.
China is looking to burnish its credentials as a responsible power by sharing expertise and donating masks and other protective equipment to countries seeing a surge in cases and to repair an image dented by the disease that originated there late last year.
UN chief calls for Security Council unity over pandemic
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged the Security Council on Thursday to display unity as it met to discuss what he called the "fight of a generation" — the global coronavirus pandemic.
"A signal of unity and resolve from the Council would count for a lot at this anxious time," Guterres told the divided body holding its first meeting about the crisis.
The meeting of the 15-member Security Council is being held behind closed doors by videoconference but the UN released a copy of the secretary general's remarks.
Germany's coronavirus cases rise by 5,323, deaths by 266: RKI
The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in Germany rose by 5,323 in the past 24 hours to 113,525 on Friday, climbing for a fourth straight day after four previous days of declines, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed.
The reported death toll rose by 266 to 2,373.
China's Wuhan to keep testing residents as coronavirus lockdown eases
China's Wuhan city, where the global coronavirus pandemic began, is still testing residents regularly despite relaxing its tough two-month lockdown, with the country wary of a rebound in cases even as it sets its sights on normalising the economy.
Concerns remain over an influx of infected patients from overseas as well as China's ability to detect asymptomatic patients, and the government in Wuhan has tried to reassure the public that it remains vigilant.
Yemen confirms first coronavirus case
Yemen has reported its first coronavirus case in Hadhramaut Governorate, supreme national emergency committee tweeted early on Friday.
The committee added that the patient was stable and receiving health care, without elaborating.
The United Nations and Western allies had pointed to the threat of coronavirus outbreak in the war-battered country.
Bangladesh records highest death toll in single day with 6 fatalities
Bangladesh today confirmed 6 more deaths from the novel coronavirus and 94 new cases of infection in the country.
Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control And Research (IEDCR) Director Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora made the disclosure in a virtual press briefing today (April 10).
With this, the death toll rises to 27 from the virus and a total of 424 people are infected so far.
