Doctors are not waiting for test results

THE coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 1.5 million people worldwide and an estimated 90,000 deaths have been recorded.

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

“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 yesterday, taking the country’s total to 11,917.

Hungary: Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said the country now has about 2,000 of the 8,000 ventilators it expects to need at the peak of the pandemic.

Mr Orban also said on state radio he expects about 20 per cent of the country’s health workers to be infected with Covid-19.

The PM, 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 of coronavirus, while 77 people 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 virus, said Pakistani police and rescue officials.

Pandemonium broke out at a school in Multan, a city in eastern Punjab province, when hundreds of women gathered to receive 12,000 rupees (about £127) promised by the government for each family.

Pakistan plans to give financial help to

10.2 million low-income families across the country.

Israel: The number of Covid-19 infections across the country 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 ultra-orthodox religious community.

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

Singapore: The use of Zoom for online education has been suspended 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 as part of partial lockdown measures to curb local transmissions of Covid-19.

Japan: A sumo wrestler has tested positive for the virus, further threatening postponement of next month’s Summer Grand Sumo Tournament, which has already been delayed.

The wrestler, whose name has not been disclosed, first developed a fever last week, but none of his stablemates or officials have complained of symptoms of the virus.