What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

Here’s what you need to know about Covid-19 right now:

Global cases have surpassed five million, with Latin America overtaking the United States and Europe in the past week to report the largest portion of new daily cases globally.

A large number of those came from Brazil, which recently surpassed Germany, France and the United Kingdom as having the world’s third-largest outbreak behind the United States and Russia.

The first 41 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Wuhan, China, on Jan 10 and it took the world until April 1 to reach its first million cases. Since then, about one million new cases are reported every two weeks, according to a Reuters tally.

Governments should not count on a successful vaccine against Covid-19 being developed soon, said William Haseltine, a groundbreaking researcher of cancer, HIV/AIDS and human genome projects.

While a Covid-19 vaccine could be developed, Haseltine cautioned that vaccines developed for other types of coronaviruses had failed to protect mucous membranes in the nose where the virus typically enters the body.

However, he said the virus can still be controlled by careful tracing of infections and strict isolation measures, and urged people to wear masks, wash hands, clean surfaces and keep a distance.

China’s parliament is preparing new laws to ban the trade and consumption of wildlife, following up on a temporary move in January after exotic animals traded in a Wuhan market were identified as the most likely source of Covid-19.

But local action plans published this week suggest that the country’s fur trade and lucrative traditional medicine sectors will go on as usual.

That means practices that lead to cross-species virus transmission could continue, said Peter Li, China policy specialist with Humane Society International, an animal rights group.

The new bestsellers at Marks & Spencer are sportswear, sleepwear and bras, while sales of suits and ties are down to “a dribble” as the lockdown transforms shoppers’ priorities, Britain’s biggest clothing retailer said.

What customers are now buying is completely different from a year ago, M&S chairman Archie Norman said after the group published its response to the pandemic.

Along with a surge in sales of jogging pants, hoodies and leggings, an emphasis on home comforts and family needs has boosted bedding sales by 150% and children’s footwear sales by 98%.