Johnson orders 3-week-long UK lockdown

Boris Johnson has become the latest European head of state to order a lockdown.

The British prime minister on Monday mandated the closure of most retails stores and banned gatherings for three weeks to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The decision follows similar steps taken by hard-hit Italy and Spain, as well as France.

Previously, the British government had resisted calls for stricter measures beyond closing schools, bars and restaurants and urging people to stay home.

In an evening address, Johnson said that he was giving “the British people a very simple instruction – you must stay at home.”

He offered a list of limited purposes for which leaving home would be allowed, including essential shopping, medical appointments and one form of exercise a day. – Jorge Ortiz

Global lockdown surpasses 1.5 billion

More than 1.5 billion people around the world were in forced or voluntary lockdown as the global death toll continued to climb. This despite an easing of restrictions across China, where the crisis began.

Nations are scrambling for masks, respirators and other equipment, and China has begun shipping the items around the world.

While deaths in China have slowed to a trickle, Italy added 651 people to its total on Sunday, down from 793 the previous day but still bringing the country’s COVID-19 death toll to more than 6,000.

“What we are experiencing are heavy, difficult days,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said. “But this is a battle that can be won by staying united.”

WHO: ‘The pandemic is accelerating’

Sixty-seven days from the first reported coronavirus case, the total was 100,000 cases. It took 11 more days to reach 200,000 – and just four more to reach 300,000, the head of the World Health Organization said.

“The pandemic is accelerating,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned. “But we’re not prisoners to statistics. We’re not helpless bystanders. We can change the trajectory.”

Social distancing is a valuable tool in slowing the outbreak, Tedros said. But government and health officials also must “attack,” he said, by testing every suspected case, isolating and caring for every confirmed case and tracing and quarantining every close contact.

He warned that using unproven treatments without the proper testing could raise false hope “and even do more harm than good.”

Fauci talks about disagreements with Trump

Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, frequently appears alongside Trump during task force news conferences. But he and the president have not always agreed on the facts: Fauci has contradicted Trump on such things as the timetable for a vaccine and the severity of the outbreak.

In an interview with Science magazine, Fauci said that he and Trump don’t disagree on substantive issues. Sometimes the physician disagrees with Trump on details, but he says he “can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down. OK, he said it. Let’s try and get it corrected for the next time.” – Will Cummings