VIRUS SHUTS COUNTRIES

Spain reports over 1,500 new cases in a day; Trump declares national emergency, passes relief bill; China-us conspiracy theory spat escalates

WASHINGTON/ MADRID/ BEIJING: US President Donald Trump has taken a coronavirus test but said on Saturday that his temperature was “totally normal”, as his administration declared a national emergency and extended a travel ban to Britain and Ireland.

Spain confirmed more than 1,500 new cases between Friday and Saturday, raising its total to 5,753, the second-highest in Europe after Italy, as the country and much of the region shut down. Covid-19 cases in Spain increased tenfold since Sunday, with the death toll reaching 190. The Madrid region, the country’s worst-hit with nearly 3,000 cases, has ordered businesses to be closed. Death toll in Italy, meanwhile, rose to 1,441 on Saturday.

More than 150,000 cases have been reported globally, with the death toll going past 5,600.

In the US, the House of Representatives approved legislation on Saturday to provide direct relief. Trump’s national emergency declaration unleashed $50 billion for state and local governments to respond to the crisis.

The White House is now conducting temperature checks on people in close contact with Trump and vice-president Mike Pence, as a precaution.

Cases topped 1,700 across the US, where thousands of schools have been closed, concerts and sporting events cancelled and Broadway theatres shut down. New York reported its first fatality, an 82-year-old woman, raising the US death toll to 50.

The US on Friday summoned China’s ambassador after a senior official in Beijing tweeted the suggestion that the US military started the pandemic, the US state department said.

David Stilwell, a top US diplomat for Asia, issued a “stern representation” to ambassador Cui Tiankai a day after foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted the conspiracy theory.

In China, health authorities said they received reports of 11 new confirmed cases and 13 deaths on the mainland on Friday. The overall cases in China reached 80,824 by the end of Friday, including 3,189 people who died from the disease. Chinese authorities are tackling more imported cases than local ones.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who met with Trump in the US less than a week ago, will reportedly be retested next week after a negative test on Friday.