Coronavirus: England's hospital death toll rises to 18,420

Deaths from the Covid-19 epidemic in Italy rose by 260 on Sunday, the smallest daily tally since March 14, the Civil Protection Agency said.

The number of new infections was the lowest since April 20 at 2,324 from 2,357 on Saturday.

Sunday’s death toll was sharply down from 415 on Saturday, to mark the third daily fall in succession.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said isolation measures to fight the coronavirus had to stay in place for the time being even as data showed the death toll had risen by less than 10 percent for the seventh day in a row.

The public health agency said the total number of people killed by the coronavirus climbed by under 6 percent to 2,489 in a day.

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The total number of people killed by the coronavirus in Canada rose by under 6 percent to 2,489 in a day, official data posted by the public health agency showed on Sunday.

The figure for those diagnosed with the coronavirus had climbed to 45,791, according to a statement. On Saturday there were 2,350 deaths and 44,364 positive diagnoses.

French energy major Total said on Sunday that 14 workers including two of its staff have tested positive for the new coronavirus at its sites in Congo Republic, but output at the 190,000 barrels per day operations have not been affected.

Congo Republic reported 200 positive coronavirus cases and eight deaths since the first case on March 15.

Total said it activated its pandemic plan after the first case to ensure the continuity of its activity and was postponing non-routine operations, so as to limit the number of workers strictly limited to maintaining its production.

Israel permitted some businesses to reopen on Sunday and said it would consider allowing children back to school as part of trial efforts to ease coronavirus restrictions and help the struggling economy.

After weeks of closures, shops with street access resumed operations, though malls and markets stayed off-limits as a precaution against public congregation. Restaurants were allowed to offer take-away food, in addition to delivery services.

Israel, with a population of 8.8 million, has had 15,398 coronavirus cases and 199 deaths. With around 100 COVID-19 sufferers on ventilators and 2,000 more hospital beds on standby, officials see an opportunity to review pandemic policy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene cabinet members by Monday for a decision on reopening schools, Defence Minister Naftali Bennett told Israel’s Channel 13 TV.

Portugal will test 500 asylum seekers for the coronavirus and move some into apartments left empty by tourists, after an outbreak at an immigrant hostel last week prompted scrutiny of overcrowded conditions that could lead to contagion.

Portugal is housing 800 asylum seekers in hostels across the country while they wait for their applications to be processed. A single case at one hostel in Lisbon last week prompted all 175 residents to be tested, revealing that 138 had contracted the virus.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Sunday it was planning to “take advantage of the reduced pressure on the housing market in the capital” to move some asylum seekers to hostels and apartments left empty because of the lack of tourists this summer.

A pregnant Belgian woman diagnosed with the coronavirus has given birth to a healthy baby daughter - but must now learn to care for her newborn wearing, and sleeping with, a protective mask.

Baby Mahaut was born on April 23 in Brussels by caesarean section because of earlier complications not linked to the respiratory disease COVID-19, but which led to mother Amandine being tested, even though she showed no symptoms.

“They told me they would test me for COVID-19 and I thought it would be negative. The next day, my gynaecologist called me to tell me that it was positive, I nearly fell off my chair,” Amandine, who asked not to give her surname, told Reuters.

Malta has had no new case of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours for the first time since the crisis began, and will start rolling back some of the restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus in the coming days, Health Minister Chris Fearne said on Sunday.

“Decisions on lifting measures will be taken on the basis of science and numbers,” he told a news conference.

Malta, with around half a million people, detected its first Covid-19 case on March 7 and since then has reported almost 450 cases. Four elderly patients with a number of medical complications have died.

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The number of people who have died in hospitals in England after testing positive for the new coronavirus has risen to 18,420, up by 336 in 24 hours, the National Health Service said on Sunday.

The patients who died were aged between 28 and 100 years old. Out of the total, 22 people aged between 41 and 94 had no known underlying health conditions.

Figures for the United Kingdom as a whole will be published later in the day.

Chinese diplomats approached German government officials in an attempt to encourage them to make positive statements on how Beijing is handling the coronavirus pandemic, the German interior ministry said in a letter this month.

"The German government is aware of individual contacts made by Chinese diplomats with the aim of effecting positive public statements on the coronavirus management by the People's Republic of China," said the letter, seen by Reuters on Sunday.

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Iran plans to reopen mosques in parts of the country that have been consistently free of the coronavirus outbreak as restrictions on Iranians gradually ease, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday.

Iran, one of the Middle Eastern countries hardest hit by the pandemic, will be divided up into white, yellow and red regions based on the number of infections and deaths, Rouhani said, according to the presidency's website.

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The original epicenter of the pandemic in China - Wuhan now has no coronavirus patients in its hospitals, a government official said on Sunday.

Wuhan is an industrial metropolis of 11 million and was the first to experience total lockdown and road bans as its hospitals became overwhelmed with patients, reports the New York Times.

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Two mink farms in the Netherlands have been put into quarantine after animals were found to be infected with the new coronavirus, the agriculture ministry said on Sunday, urging people to report any other likely cases in the animals.

The mink, which were tested after showing signs of having trouble breathing, were believed to have been infected by employees who had the virus, the ministry said in a statement.

The possibility that they could further spread the virus to humans or other animals on the farms was “minimal”, the ministry said, citing advice from national health authorities.

A French artist known for massive works of graffiti on grass best seen from the air presented his latest piece on Sunday in the Swiss Alps - a coronavirus-related picture of a girl looking towards the horizon.

The artist Saype, whose real name is Guillaume Legros, has painted his temporary, biodegradable images on lawns en.saype-artiste.com/lumiere from Yamoussoukro in Ivory Coast to the Champ de Mars next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, often depicting children or a close-up of two people's hands gripping each other's forearms.

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Six weeks after US President Donald Trump declared a national emergency over the spreading new coronavirus, the United States is deeply divided over the correct economic and health response.

What was meant as a grand experiment in fast action, nearly $3 trillion in federal support to keep US companies and individuals afloat as economic activity froze, is slipping into a morass of finger-pointing and uncertainty.

Millions of workers in the world's largest economy are wondering when their unemployment benefits will arrive or even when they might be able to register for them. Groups of businesses are squaring off to compete for help. State and city governments are going their own, sometimes conflicting, ways in decisions on when to let business reopen during an infectious national health crisis that does not respect borders.

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On foot, on skateboards and on scooters, Spanish children emerged from their homes on Sunday for the first time after six long weeks of living under one of Europe’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns.

The relaxation came as Spain, one of the worst hit by the global Covid-19 epidemic, registered its lowest daily increase in the coronavirus death toll in more than a month.

Children wearing protective masks were out in Madrid, with under 14s allowed outside for the first time since the government declared a state of emergency on March 14 and shut down most activity.

The death toll from the new coronavirus outbreak in Iran rose by 60 in the past 24 hours to 5,710, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said on Sunday.

The total number of diagnosed cases of the new coronavirus in Iran has reached 90,481, he said in a statement on state TV.

Britain's stand-in leader resisted pressure on Sunday to explain how the government plans to ease a coronavirus lockdown that has been in place for a month, warning that hasty action could result in a second peak of infections.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recovers from Covid-19, said the government was working privately on how to move out of the lockdown but it would be irresponsible to speculate in public.

"We are at a delicate and dangerous stage and we need to make sure that the next steps are sure-footed," Raab said during an interview on Sky News, urging the public to keep focusing on the current guidance to stay at home.

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Afghan authorities are struggling to implement lockdowns to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in a province bordering Iran where the outbreak is widening due to an influx of Afghan returnees and men refusing to adhere to social distancing.

Herat, the country’s third largest city and a bustling province in eastern Afghanistan, has reported a high number of coronavirus cases.

The country is grappling with acute shortages of testing facilities at a time when violent clashes between government forces and the Taliban insurgents show no signs of decline.

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China is dropping a requirement that a number of key virus care products get domestic regulatory approval before export, as long as they are approved in the importing countries, the commerce ministry said on Saturday.

China had been stipulating such extra approval at home since the end of March after several European countries complained that Chinese-made test kits were inaccurate, in effect hampering many firms’ efforts to supply global efforts against the coronavirus pandemic.

The new ruling applies to products such as coronavirus tests, medical masks, protective suits, infrared thermometers and ventilators.

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South Korea’s large churches reopened on Sunday, requiring worshipers to keep their distance and wear masks, after the government relaxed restrictions on religious gatherings aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

Onnuri Church, one of the biggest churches in Seoul, required members to sign up online ahead of the service and sit on designated seats to maintain distance. It has also limited attendance to 700 in a hall with a capacity of 3,000 people, a church official said.

Last Sunday, South Korea extended its social distancing policy until May 5 but offered some relief for religious and sports facilities previously subject to strict restrictions.

A secretive church, the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, was at the epicenter of South Korea’s coroavirus outbreak, with about half of the country’s total infections of 10,728 linked to its members.

Spain said on Sunday the number of daily coronavirus-related fatalities fell to its lowest level in more than a month, with 288 deaths in the previous 24 hours.

That took total fatalities to 23,190 from 22,902 the day before, Reuters reported. 

The overall number of coronavirus cases rose to 207,634 from 205,905 the day before.

Italy will start reopening its manufacturing industry on May 4 as part of plans to ease its coronavirus lockdown, and schools will reopen in September, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in a newspaper interview on Sunday.

“We are working in these hours to allow the reopening of a good part of businesses from manufacturing to construction for May 4,” Conte told Italian daily La Repubblica, Reuters reported. 

He said the measures would be presented by the beginning of next week at the latest.

Photo : Collected

Italy was the first European country to be hard-hit by the novel coronavirus, and the first to impose a lockdown in March. Its path to reopening its economy is being closely watched around the world as other countries where severe outbreaks arrived in the following week contemplate similar moves.

Conte said companies would have to introduce strict health safety measures before being allowed to open their gates.

But he said some businesses considered “strategic”, including activity that was mainly export-oriented, could reopen next week providing they got the go ahead from local prefects.

Conte said schools would reopen in September but added studies showed the risk of contagion was very high. Teaching remotely was working well, he said.

Coronavirus infections in Bangladesh crossed the 5,000 mark today after the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) reported five more deaths and 418 new cases after testing 3,473 samples in last 24 hours.

With this, the death toll from the deadly virus rises to 145 and the number of total infected person stands at 5,416, The Business Standard reported. 

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The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the global coronavirus pandemic began, now has no remaining cases in its hospitals, a health official told reporters on Sunday.

"The latest news is that by April 26, the number of new coronavirus patients in Wuhan was at zero, thanks to the joint efforts of Wuhan and medical staff from around the country," National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said at a briefing, Reuters reported. 

People wait for the train at the Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan as travel restrictions for leaving the city, the epicentre of a global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, are lifted and people will be allowed to leave the city via road, rail and air, in Wuhan, Hubei, China April 8, 2020/ Reuters

The city had reported 46,452 cases, 56% of the national total. It saw 3,869 fatalities, or 84% of China's total.

The Australian government launched a controversial coronavirus tracing app on Sunday and promised to legislate privacy protections around it as authorities try to get the country and the economy back onto more normal footing.

Australia and neighbouring New Zealand have both managed to get their coronavirus outbreaks under control before it strained public health systems, but officials in both two countries continue to worry about the risk of another flareup, Reuters reported. 

"We are winning, but we have not yet won," Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said at a televised briefing announcing the app's launch

The app, which is based on Singapore's TraceTogether software, uses Bluetooth signals to log when people have been close to one another. It has been criticised by civil liberties groups as an invasion of privacy.

The Australian government, which wants at least 40% of the population to sign up to make the effort effective, said the voluntary app, which would not track location, is safe.

The app's stored contact data will enable health officials to trace people potentially exposed to infections.

"It will help us as we seek to return to normal and the Australian way of life," Hunt said. "No one has access to that, not even yourself ... only a state public health official can be given access to that data."

A legislative directive ensuring that will be proposed to the parliament in May, the health ministry said on the app's website on Sunday.

Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 1,737 to 154,175, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday.

On Saturday, confirmed coronavirus cases had increased by 2,055, Reuters reported. 

A man is seen in front of the television tower during sunset, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Berlin, Germany, April 7, 2020/ Reuters

Germany's death toll rose by 140 to 5,640, the RKI said on Sunday.

Singapore registered 931 new coronavirus infections, its health ministry said on Sunday, taking the city-state’s total number of Covid-19 cases to 13,624.

The vast majority of the new cases are migrant workers living in dormitories, the health ministry said in the statement. Fifteen of the new cases are permanent residents, Reuters reported. 

The number of new cases rose from 618 reported on Saturday.

The tiny country of 5.7 million people now has one of the highest infection rates in Asia, according to official figures, due to outbreaks in cramped dormitories housing over 300,000 mainly South Asian workers.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe will present the government’s plan to unwind the country’s coronavirus lockdown to parliament on Tuesday, followed by a debate and vote, his office said in a statement.

The lockdown ordered by President Emmanuel Macron to slow the spread of the virus has been in place since March 17 and is due to be lifted on May 11, Reuters reported. 

Macron is aiming to ease some of the lockdown measures then with schools reopening first, although the government has yet to finalise how it might work in practice.

A view shows the deserted Iena Bridge near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, during a lockdown imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in France, April 8, 2020/ Reuters

France has also offered retailers some relief by saying it wants them to reopen on May 11, though some curbs could remain in certain areas to delay a new wave of the coronavirus.

The death toll in France from the coronavirus now stands at 22,614, the health ministry said on Saturday.

A municipal worker sprays disinfectant in a market area during an extended nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), in New Delhi, India, April 21, 2020. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis

India has recorded 26,496 coronavirus cases with 824 deaths so far.

Around 22% of the total patients have recovered, The Hindustan Times reported.  

Thailand on Sunday reported 15 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases since its outbreak in January to 2,922 cases and 51 deaths.

Of the new cases, four were linked to previous cases, another four had no known links, while five new patients are arrivals from overseas who have been under state quarantine, Reuters reported. 

Two other new cases were reported from the southern province of Yala, where the authorities are aggressively testing the population because of high infection rates there, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government's Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration.

Since the outbreak in Thailand, 2,594 patients have recovered and gone home.

Cuba sent 216 healthcare workers to South Africa on Saturday, the latest of more than 20 medical brigades it has sent worldwide to combat the coronavirus pandemic, in what some call socialist solidarity and others medical diplomacy.

The Communist-run country has sent around 1,200 healthcare workers largely to vulnerable African and Caribbean nations but also to rich European countries such as Italy that have been particularly hard hit by the novel coronavirus, Reuters reported. 

The administration of US President Donald Trump has urged nations not to accept Cuba's medical missions on charges it exploits its workers, which Havana denies. But the calls have largely gone unheeded as overwhelmed healthcare systems have welcomed the help.

Cuba, which has confirmed ,1337 cases of the virus at home and 51 deaths, has one of the world's highest number of doctors per capita and is renowned for its focus on prevention, community-oriented primary health care and preparedness to fight epidemics.

"The advantage of Cuba is that they are a community health model, one that we would like to use," South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told a news briefing earlier this month.

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South Africa has recorded 4,361 cases, including 86 deaths, with 161,004 people tested for the virus as of Saturday.

The country has a special relationship with Cuba, which supported the fight against apartheid - a conflict that included Cuban troops who fought and died in southern Angola. After Nelson Mandela was freed from prison in 1990, he repeatedly thanked revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

South Africa sent medical supplies to Cuba to assist in the fight against coronavirus in the plane that is now returning with the Cuban medical brigade, Cuba's embassy there wrote on Twitter.

"These are times of solidarity and cooperation. If we act together, we can halt the spread of coronavirus in a faster and more cost effective manner," Cuba's ambassador to South Africa, Rodolfo Benítez Verson, said in a statement.

Cuba has sent its “armies of white robes” to disaster sites and disease outbreaks around the world largely in poor countries since its 1959 leftist revolution. Its doctors were in the front lines in the fight against cholera in Haiti and against ebola in West Africa in the 2010s.

Cuba also exports doctors in exchange for cash, often sending them to remote, impoverished locations where local doctors do not want to work.

Medical services exports are its top source of hard currency, ahead of tourism or sugar, despite the governments of Brazil, Bolivia and Ecuador sending their Cuban doctors packing in recent years after shifting to the right.

Cuba has more than 37,000 health care workers in 67 countries worldwide, according to the foreign ministry.

Argentina will extend a mandatory nationwide quarantine period until May 10 in a bid to combat the advance of the coronavirus, President Alberto Fernandez said on Saturday.

The government-imposed shelter-in-place measure, in effect since mid-March, had been set to expire on Sunday, Reuters reported. 

“We have come a long way and have met some of the objectives we initially set for ourselves, but that does not mean that we have resolved the issue,” Fernández said in a televised address.

A soldier is seen at the military mobile hospital that will care for patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in San Miguel, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina March 24, 2020/ Reuters

Fernández loosened some restrictions, however, saying Argentines would be allowed to take short walks outside their homes during the day.

Provincial governors will also be allowed to issue exceptions to isolation measures provided certain sanitary conditions are met, he said.

“We continue in the midst of a pandemic that is ravaging the globe but which, in Argentina, has not been as harmful as in other parts of the world,” he said.

The South American nation has recorded 3,780 coronavirus cases with 185 deaths, a modest tally compared with neighbors Peru, Chile and Brazil.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued an order to partially lift the curfew in all regions of the kingdom, to become from 9am to 5 pm, starting Sunday through Wednesday May 13, while keeping a 24-hour curfew in Mecca and in previously isolated neighbourhoods, state news agency (SPA) said early on Sunday.

The order also allowed the opening of some economic and commercial activities, which includes wholesale and retail shops in addition to malls, in the period from 6 to 20 Ramadan, which is from Wednesday April 29 to Wednesday May 13, Reuters reported 

China reported 11 new coronavirus cases on April 25, compared to 12 on the previous day, with no fatalities, according to official data published on Sunday.

Of the total, there were six cases of local transmission, including five in the northeastern border province of Heilongjiang, and one in southeast Guangdong province, which neighbours Hong Kong, Reuters reported

The remaining five cases were imported, down from 11 on the previous day, National Health Commission data showed.

The commission also reported 30 new asymptomatic cases, up slightly from 29 on the previous day.

China has now reported a total of 82,827 confirmed infections, with 4,632 deaths.

France reported 369 more coronavirus deaths on Saturday, a drop on previous days, with the number of people in intensive care falling for the 17th day in a row.

While 22,614 people have died from the virus in France since the beginning of March, health officials said the mortality rate in hospitals was the lowest in a month, with 198 deaths in 24 hours, AFP reported. 

A view shows the deserted Iena Bridge near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, during a lockdown imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in France, April 8, 2020/ Reuters

However, 171 died in retirement and care homes, and officials said they were worried by an increase in critically ill patients suffering from other conditions.

More than 7,500 people are now being treated in the intensive care units across France — which is 50 percent more than the country’s total capacity before the epidemic struck.

Global deaths linked to the coronavirus passed 200,000 on Saturday, while confirmed cases of the virus are expected to hit 3 million in coming days, according to a Reuters tally.

More than half of the fatalities have been reported by the United States, Spain and Italy, Reuters reported. 

The first death linked to the disease was reported on Jan. 10 in Wuhan, China. It took 91 days for the death toll to pass 100,000 and a further 16 days to reach 200,000, according to the Reuters tally of official reports from governments.

A medical worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) at the back of an ambulance outside Lewisham hospital as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, London, Britain, April 20, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

By comparison, there are an estimated 400,000 deaths annually from malaria, one of the world’s most deadly infectious diseases.

The United States had reported more than 52,400 deaths as of Saturday morning, while Italy, Spain and France have reported between 22,000-26,000 fatalities each.

Of the top 20 most severely affected countries, Belgium has reported the highest number of fatalities per capita, with six deaths per 10,000 people, compared to 4.9 in Spain and 1.6 in the United States.

Asia and Latin America have each reported more than 7,000 deaths, while the Middle East has reported upwards of 8,800. The current toll in Africa is around 1,350.

The global death toll has continued to grow at a rate of 3-4% per day over the past 10 days, though that rate has slowed since the beginning of the month.

The United States recorded 2,494 more coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, according to figures reported Saturday night by Johns Hopkins University.

The country now has an overall death toll of 53,511, with 936,293 confirmed infections, according to a tally by the Baltimore-based university, AFP reported. 

The United States is by far the hardest-hit country in the global pandemic, in terms of both confirmed infections and deaths.

The toll of 2,494 was a jump from Friday, when the US recorded the lowest number of virus deaths — 1,258 — in nearly three weeks.

Dubai on Friday launched a mobile testing service to carry out free coronavirus screening at home for the elderly and most vulnerable, after slightly easing strict confinement measures.

The new “Mobile Laboratory Units” are converted ambulances fitted with auto-sterilisation equipment, thermal scanners and safe storage cabins for samples, state news agency WAM said, AFP reported. 

They will “play a key role in reducing pressure on hospitals amidst the Covid-19 crisis and help protect people at high risk,” it said.

Dubai and fellow members of the United Arab Emirates decided Thursday to reopen malls, cafes and restaurants and to ease lockdown restrictions imposed last month to prevent the spread of the illness.

The measures were timed for the start Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The UAE has declared more than 9,000 cases of the Covid-19 illness, with 64 deaths.

FILE PHOTO: A general view of Business Bay area, after a curfew was imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 28, 2020. REUTERS/Satish Kumar/File Photo

Dubai had been the only emirate that imposed a total curfew, while the other six members of the federation had restricted movement at night.

Dubai has also authorised public transport, including its metro, to resume services from Sunday.

Residents are however required to wear face masks at all times, with violators to be fined 1,000 dirhams ($272).

Confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in Panama reached 5,538 on Saturday, a rise of 200 from the previous day, while related deaths increased by five to 159, the health ministry said.

Director of epidemiology Lourdes Moreno presented the Central American country’s latest figures at a news conference, Reuters reported.