Around the world...

FRANCE

FRANCE’S only aircraft carrier has confirmed 50 cases of coronavirus on board and is heading back to port. The French military said three of those on board the Charles de Gaulle with the virus have been flown to a French hospital for treatment. Medics are staying on board to track the infections and prevent further spread among the 1,700 crew after 50 of the 66 tests were positive.

US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt experienced a similar outbreak, leading to controversy after its captain was fired.

Amid suspicions of an outbreak aboard the Charles de Gaulle, a medical team equipped with tests was flown to the French aircraft carrier on Wednesday while it was on a mission in the Atlantic Ocean.

RUSSIA

RUSSIAN doctors are to start treating all patients with pneumonia for Covid-19 without waiting for test results to confirm the diagnosis, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said.

“We’re seeing that the disease progresses fast, and it has specific clinical presentation, (allowing) to diagnose (it) without confirming in the lab based on the clinical presentation,” he said.

His statement echoes earlier comments from Moscow doctors involved in treating coronavirus patients, who say the vast majority of pneumonia cases in Russia are most likely caused by Covid-19 and should be treated as such.

Russian health officials reported 1,786 new cases of coronavirus yesterday, taking the total to 11,917.

HUNGARY

HUNGARY’S prime minister has said the country now has about 2,000 of the 8,000 ventilators it expects to need at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Viktor Orban also said on state radio yesterday that he expects about 20% of Hungary’s health workers to be infected with Covid-19.

Mr Orban, who has extended indefinitely restrictions put in place two weeks ago to make people stay home, said the country is learning from measures implemented in neighbouring Austria, which he called “our large laboratory”, where the pandemic is at a more advanced stage.

Hungary has 1,190 cases and 77 people with it have died.

PAKISTAN

AT LEAST one woman was trampled to death and 20 others were injured in a stampede as authorities distributed money among families affected by a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, Pakistani police and rescue officials said.

Pandemonium broke out at a school in Multan, a city in eastern Punjab province, when hundreds of women gathered yesterday to receive 12,000 rupees (about £127) promised by the government for each family. Pakistan plans to distribute financial assistance among 10.2 million low-income families across the country.

ISRAEL

THE number of coronavirus infections in Israel has risen to more than 10,000. The government imposed strict measures to contain the pandemic early on but has seen it tear through the insular ultraOrthodox religious community.

Yesterday, the Health Ministry reported a total of 10,095 cases, including 92 deaths.

Israeli authorities moved quickly in mid-March to close borders, ground flights and shut down non-essential businesses. But in the early weeks of the pandemic many in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community ignored guidelines on social distancing.

SINGAPORE

SINGAPORE has suspended the use of Zoom for online education after hackers hijacked a lesson and showed obscene images to students.

In an incident known as “Zoombombing”, two hackers interrupted a geography lesson a day after Singapore closed schools on Wednesday as part of partial lockdown measures to curb local transmissions of Covid-19. Lessons have moved online, with some teachers using video conferencing tools like Zoom.

INDONESIA

AUTHORITIES in Indonesia’s capital have started to implement stricter restrictions to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Jakarta is home to 10 million people, 30 million including those in a greater metropolitan area which has become Indonesia’s coronavirus epicentre with 1,706 cases out of 3,293 nationwide. The country has recorded 280 deaths, with 142 of them in the capital alone. People who violating the restrictions face up to a year in jail and a 100 million rupiah (£5,000) fine.

Television footage showed padlocked parks and empty roads where lines of cars once idled in bumper-to-bumper traffic as motorbikes zoomed through the narrow gaps in between.

According to the decree, police can ban any event that would involve more than five participants, including preventing people from going to mosques to pray on Friday.

YEMEN

YEMEN’S internationally recognised government has announced the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the war-torn country, stoking fears an outbreak could devastate an already crippled healthcare system.

The national emergency committee for Covid-19 disease in Yemen’s south-eastern province of Hadramout said in a tweet yesterday that the patient is being treated and is in a stable condition, without further details.

Yemen is a uniquely dangerous place for the coronavirus to spread. Repeated bombings over five years of war have destroyed or closed more than half its health facilities.

Deep poverty, dire water shortages and a lack of adequate sanitation have made the country a breeding ground for disease.