Protesters push for lockdown reviews
Countries worldwide are wrestling with when and how to ease the restrictions meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus amid rising unemployment. Spain, which imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe in midMarch, announced it will start easing restrictions on children.
In the US, 17 governors whose states are home to about half the country’s population have joined one of three regional pacts meant to smooth the eventual reopening of their economies. Adding to the pressure are protests against stay-at-home orders organised by small-government groups and Trump supporters.
California is on its way to acquiring 15,000 hotel rooms to house the homeless during the pandemic, said Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday.
Hundreds of people denouncing pandemic lockdown measures opposed by President Jair Bolsonaro snarled traffic in major Brazilian cities yesterday.
France’s national health agency says the number of virus patients in intensive care dropped for the 10th straight day, while the number of overall virus hospitalisations has fallen for three consecutive days. Health officials say confinement is ‘‘stopping the viral spread.’’
The total number of deaths in France from Covid-19 reached 19,323, and nursing home deaths amount to more than one third of the total.
Sri Lanka’s government has announced it will start relaxing a countrywide curfew. The government has instructed that only one third of state workers should report to their offices in Colombo. In other areas 50 per cent of the state workers will be required to report to their offices. Sri Lanka has so far reported 248 Covid-19 patients with seven deaths, while 86 have recovered.
The Health Ministry in Italy says there were 3491 new coronavirus cases, nearly identical to the previous day increase in confirmed infections.
There were 482 more deaths, raising the official toll to 23,227 in Italy, which has Europe’s highest number of deaths.
The country is approaching the end of its sixth week of nationwide lockdown, with people allowed out of their homes only for essential work or buying food and tending to family members. Overall, Italy has nearly 176,000 confirmed cases.
Turkey’s health minister says 121 more people have died of Covid-19, with total deaths at 1890. Minister Fahrettin Koca said 3783 more people were infected with the novel coronavirus. The number of confirmed infections is 82,329.
Sweden has reported total deaths at 1511 with 13,822 confirmed infections.
Africa surpasses 20,000 cases, with more than 1000 deaths.
Japan’s health ministry said yesterday that 568 new cases of the coronavirus were reported on Saturday, bringing a domestic total to 10,361. A combined total including 712 others from a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo earlier this year came to 11,073, with 174 deaths.
The number of cases is still relatively small compared to the US and Europe, but that’s only as many as Japan’s limited testing has detected and actual infections are believed to be far more widespread. Japan has started setting up additional testing centres, allowing primary care doctors to send suspected patients directly to testing stations rather than having them go through public health centres to screen eligibility, an earlier requirement that had prevented and delayed testing and treatment of many people.
South Korea has reported eight more cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, the first time for a daily jump in the country to drop to a single digit in about two months.
The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says the additional figures released yesterday took the country’s total to 10,661 with 234 deaths. It says 8042 of the total have been recovered and released from quarantine and that 12,243 others were under tests to determine whether they contracted the virus.
In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has directed his government from Chequers, as Downing Street attempts to get a grip on the coronavirus crisis. Johnson’s intervention comes as he recovers from coronavirus at Chequers before making a decision about when to return to work.
It followed criticism of the Government’s handling of the pandemic, including a national shortage of key personal protective equipment (PPE) used by NHS staff. Downing Street announced that Lord Deighton, the former Olympics chief, will lead the national effort to produce PPE in this country.
Even as Pakistan’s daily confirmed cases inches upwards, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government buckled to pressure from religious clerics refusing to order mosques throughout the country closed during Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
Pakistan recorded 7993 confirmed cases yesterday, with the death toll at 159. Pakistan has been blamed for contributing to the outbreak of the virus in other parts of the world after it refused to stop a gathering of tens of thousands of Tableeghi Jamaat (Islamic missionaries) until early March. By the time it was cancelled thousands were already in Pakistan and many returned to their countries infected. In Pakistan there are still several hundred of the Tableeghi jamaat in quarantine because they tested positive and hundreds more who spread throughout the country carrying the virus.
Fast food giant McDonald’s says it will suspend all operations in Singapore for two weeks from yesterday after seven of its employees tested positive for the coronavirus. McDonald’s said it would continue to pay the salary of 10,000 employees working in more than 135 outlets across the city-state during this period.
The city-state Saturday reported a record daily jump of 942 new infections, the highest one-day spike seen in Southeast Asia, to bring its total to 5992. – AP, Telegraph Group