AROUND THE WORLD

CORONAVIRUS has infected more than 4.3 million people and killed over 297,000, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Here are the latest updates on the pandemic from around the world:

SLOVAKIA

Slovakia’s government has approved a tracking app designed to alert authorities if people break selfquarantine rules during the coronavirus pandemic.

Health minister Marek Krajci says Slovaks returning home from abroad will not have to go to government quarantine facilities any longer but will be allowed to self-quarantine at home if they download the app.

To break self-quarantine rules will be punishable by up to €1,650. If approved by parliament, the selfquarantine at home with the app

might be possible as soon as next week.

Slovakia has under 1,500 tested positive for the coronavirus, according to government figures released yesterday. Twenty-seven have died.

NICARAGUA

Nicaragua released more than 2,800 prisoners, one day after the death of an inmate who reportedly had suffered from respiratory problems and while the government maintained there was no local spread of coronavirus in the country.

Loyda Valle, a friend of inmate Silvio Perez’s family, said his relatives were still awaiting his death certificate while the government said in a statement that it was releasing the prisoners to house arrest as a gesture for upcoming Mother’s Day, but also mentioned that the release included elderly inmates and those with chronic illnesses.

It made no reference to Covid-19, which has emerged in prison populations around the world and