Trump has fiercely defended his administration’s response to the crisis, repeatedly deflecting blame for the virus’s spread on to Beijing and the World Health Organisation. He has also called America’s 1.5 million cases a “badge of honour” for US testing efforts.

The path back to normality is slow, however.

Experts have warned that the social distancing measures that have affected more than half of humanity will remain necessary until a vaccine or viable treatment is found.

Here are the latest developments:

Philippine police raid illegal hospital for Chinese

Philippine police have raided a small clandestine hospital and a chemist catering to Chinese citizens suspected to be infected with the Covid-19 disease and arrested two Chinese administrators.

Police Brigadier General Rhoderick Armamento said law enforcers found a Chinese patient in the seven-bed hospital and chemist during Tuesday’s raid at a residential villa, which was illegally turned into a medical facility at the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone northwest of Manila.

More than 200 suspected Chinese-brand coronavirus rapid test kits and syringes, which have been used, were recovered in trash cans, he said.

“They have practised medicine and prescribed drug without license,” Armamento said. “The Chinese patients who were brought there may still be walking around in public and can infect other people.”

The Chinese who have gone to the underground hospital may include the large numbers of workers in online gambling outfits in Clark, a former US Air Force base turned into a commercial and leisure hub.

Police Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar said the illegal hospital and chemist can endanger patients instead of saving them because they do not conform with government health regulations and standards.

The Philippines has reported nearly 13,000 coronavirus infections, including 837 deaths, among the highest in Southeast Asia

Philippine police raid illegal hospital for Chinese virus patients

Singapore to allow transit through airport

Singapore will gradually allow travellers to transit through its Changi Airport from June 2, the city state’s aviation regulator said on Wednesday.

Currently, foreign passengers may only transit through Singapore if they are on repatriation flights arranged by their governments. In March, visitors were banned from entering or transiting through the city state to help combat the pandemic.

“This is part of Singapore’s strategy to gradually reopen air transport to meet the needs of our economy and our people, whilst ensuring sufficient safeguards for safe travel,” the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said.

It said airlines should submit their proposals for transfer lanes, which will be evaluated taking into account aviation safety, public health considerations, as well as the health of passengers and aircrew.

Changi Airport, among the world’s busiest last year, recorded 25,200 passenger movements in April, crashing 99.5 per cent from the year ago.

Singapore is set to start easing its coronavirus curbs from June 2.

China reports 5 new cases

China is continuing to combat a cluster of new coronavirus infections in its northeastern province of Jilin, with four out of five new cases reported Wednesday located in the region north of Beijing.

Authorities believe the outbreak may have begun among a group of family members and friends who gathered for dining and drinking without maintaining the social distancing regulations that have been increasingly relaxed nearly four months after they were imposed over much of the country.

No deaths were reported on Wednesday and just 87 people remained in treatment, while 375 others were under isolation and monitoring for being suspected cases or for having tested positive without showing symptoms.

China has recorded a total of 4,634 deaths from the virus among 82,965 cases.

Brazil suffers record deaths

Brazil’s daily death toll from the new coronavirus jumped to a record 1,179 on Tuesday as President Jair Bolsonaro doubled down on chloroquine as a possible remedy.

The highest daily toll before Tuesday had been 881 deaths on May 12. The pandemic has killed at least 17,971 people in Brazil, according to the Health Ministry.

Brazil overtook Britain on Monday to become the country with the third-highest number of confirmed infections, behind Russia and the United States. Brazil’s confirmed cases also jumped by a record 17,408 on Tuesday, for a total of 271,628 people who have tested positive for the virus.

Bolsonaro, an ideological ally of Trump, has been criticised for his handling of the outbreak, such as opposition to restrictions on movement he sees as too damaging to the economy.

Bolsonaro said Interim Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello would issue new guidelines on Wednesday expanding the recommended use of the antimalarial drug chloroquine to treat the coronavirus.

Two trained doctors have resigned as health minister in the past month as Bolsonaro defies public health expert advice.

Pan American Health Organisation officials said in a virtual briefing they were concerned about the virus’ spread in the tri-border area of the Amazon between Colombia, Peru and Brazil. They urged special measures to protect vulnerable populations.

South Korea starts reopening schools

After an unprecedented five-month break, South Korean high school seniors began returning to their classrooms with younger students slated to go back to school in the following weeks.

But in the city of Incheon near Seoul, more than 60 schools stayed closed after two high-school students were confirmed to have the coronavirus. Both caught it after visiting a karaoke bar in Incheon, which has been linked to a cluster of infections originating from nightspots in Seoul’s Itaewon entertainment district.

South Korea reported 32 new cases on Wednesday, the highest number in nine days. While health authorities maintained the country seemed to have the outbreak under control, they are still concerned about another infection cluster among health care workers. Four nurses at Samsung Medical Centre, one of the country’s five major general hospitals, were infected with Covid-19 and officials have sent 623 people who came into contact with them for testing. But Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said the country would not return to the strict social distancing measures that were in place before May 6.

South Korea LGBT stigma complicates testing as new cases rise

Australia warns of cyberattacks on hospitals

Australia has expressed concern over “malicious” hacking attacks across the world by cyber criminals and state-based actors targeting hospitals, medical services and facilities as well as crisis response organisations amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The government “is concerned that malicious cyber actors are seeking to exploit the pandemic for their own gain,” Australia’s department of foreign affairs and its trade and cybersecurity centre said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

“The Australian government calls on all countries to cease immediately any cyber activity – or support for such activity …” Tobias Feakin, Australia’s ambassador for cyber affairs, said in the statement, without saying who those countries were.

Australian Cybersecurity Centre’s chief, Abigail Bradshaw, said the “tradecraft used by malicious adversaries ranges from the simple to the very sophisticated”.

Earlier this month, the centre, which is part of the country’s spy agency, the Australian Signals Directorate, warned that state-based hackers were actively targeting health sector organisations and medical research facilities amid the pandemic outbreak.

They “may be seeking information and intellectual property relating to vaccine development, treatments, research and responses to the outbreak,” the centre said.

Trump: US cases a ‘badge of honour’

US President Donald Trump said it’s “a badge of honour” that the US has more than 1.5 million cases of coronavirus – the highest number of infections globally – saying the total is simply a reflection of a successful testing regime.

“I view it as a badge of honour, really, it’s a badge of honour,” Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday. “It’s a great tribute to the testing and all of the work that a lot of professionals have done.”

At least 91,000 Americans have died from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, since February. The US has now performed more than 11.8 million tests for infection by the virus, according to the Covid Tracking Project, after the government experienced delays in getting tests developed and manufactured. The US continues to face testing shortages and sets priorities for who gets one.

Contrary to Trump’s claim, US testing levels aren’t extraordinary. The US trails countries like the UK, Italy and Germany in tests conducted per 1,000 people, Bloomberg data show.

The US has the largest publicly reported outbreak in the world. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says the US has conducted a reported 11.3 million tests, though Trump said he believed the number was closer to 14 million.

Coronavirus-related deaths among Americans are projected to surpass 113,000 by mid-June, according to modelling by the Covid-19 Forecast Hub at the University of Massachusetts.

60 million face extreme poverty

The head of the World Bank warned that the coronavirus crisis threatens to push some 60 million people into extreme poverty, wiping out the gains made over the past three years.

The global lending institution is already financing aid programmes in 100 countries, under its commitment to spend US$160 billion over the next 15 months, bank president David Malpass said.

“That’s home to 70 per cent of the world’s population. This represents a significant milestone,” Malpass told a conference call.

Malpass said the bank anticipates a five per cent contraction in the world economy this year, with severe effects on the poorest countries.

“Our estimate is that up to 60 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty, erasing all the progress made in poverty alleviation in the past three years, and our forecasts indicate a deep recession,” Malpass said.

So far, the World Bank has spent US$5.5 billion to shore up beleaguered health systems, economies and social services in poor countries.

But Malpass stressed that the World Bank’s efforts alone were insufficient, and urged donor nations to step up bilateral aid to poorer countries to ensure a durable recovery.

According to Malpass, 14 countries have agreed to such a suspension of debt payments, another 23 are expected to request it, and 17 were giving it serious consideration.

Russia accuses US of trying to ‘break’ WHO

Russia on Tuesday denounced President Donald Trump’s threat to pull the United States out of the World Health Organisation over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Yes, there are opportunities to improve it … and we are ready – as before – to play an active role in this work,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by news agency Interfax.

“But we are against breaking everything that is there for the sake of one state’s political or geopolitical preferences, I mean the United States or even a group of states with the United States at its helm,” Ryabkov said after a meeting with lawmakers of the ruling United Russia party.

“We are against politicising everything that is linked to the Covid-19 spread,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA Novosti. “The WHO cannot become a puck that is passed back and forth.”

Trump has accused the WHO of botching the global coronavirus response and of being a “puppet of China”. He has been locked in a bitter spat with Beijing, alleging it covered up the initial outbreak in central China late last year before the disease spread across the planet.

Restrictions brought steep CO2 emission decline

Global daily carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions sometimes declined by up to 17 per cent at the peak of strict coronavirus measures at the beginning of April compared to the 2019 average, researchers wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change.

On April 7, for example, 83 million tonnes of CO2 were emitted worldwide due to the burning of fossil fuels and cement production, the research team led by Corinne Le Quere at the University of East Anglia in Britain estimated. In 2019, the daily average was 100 million tonnes.

In some countries, CO2 emissions dropped by up to 26 per cent on average during the peak of coronavirus measures, the researchers wrote.

The coronavirus restrictions led to drastic changes in energy consumption and CO2 emissions, Le Quere explained. However, the extreme decline was probably only temporary, because it wasn’t caused by structural changes in the economy, transport or the energy sector, she added.

Amid pandemic, wildlife safaris go online

Virtual safaris are helping to distract people under coronavirus lockdowns while attracting badly needed support for African wildlife parks hit hard by the disappearance of tourists.

Wildlife tourism is a major source of revenue for countries like Kenya. Some operators are now sharing live broadcasts of safaris on social media in the hope that attention to endangered and other species does not fade.

In the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, workers have created what they call Sofa Safari, driving around filming with a smartphone from an open-top vehicle.

“One of the ways we are trying to be innovative is looking at virtual ways of bringing wildlife to people’s homes, to their television sets and to their telephones,” said the conservancy’s managing director, Richard Vigne.

Among the animals featured are the world’s last two surviving northern white rhinos. Researchers have been trying to use in vitro fertilisation to save the species, using eggs taken from the two females and frozen sperm from dead males.

“It’s really important to continue to raise awareness,” said Ellie Jones-Perrott, a zoology student and creator of Sofa Safari.

With limited internet in the rural areas, the live broadcast can be unstable.

“The connection is sometime very hit and miss, we go in and out of signal especially when we see some cool stuff like the leopard who often live in the bush,” Jones-Perrott said. “It’s hard to broadcast that live without cutting off.”

Indonesia reports highest daily jump in cases

Indonesia recorded 693 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the country’s highest daily jump, bringing the national tally to 19,189, according to the country’s Covid-19 task force.

Spokesman Achmad Yurianto said 21 additional deaths were reported overnight, taking the total number of fatalities to 1,242.

The capital, Jakarta, remains the epicentre of the outbreak, with more than 6,000 confirmed cases.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan announced overnight that a partial lockdown in the city, which came into force on April 10, would be extended until June 4.

Baswedan said Jakarta experienced growth in daily reported cases, apparently linked to increased activities during the holy month of Ramadan after a period of lull. “We fear we are headed for a second wave of transmission,” he said at an online news conference.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday said that the government would not ease restrictions, amid criticism that it is silently relaxing measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 to keep the economy running.

Traffic in the greater Jakarta region, a metropolis of 30 million people, has also been busier in recent days ahead of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival marking the end of Ramadan, while airports, seaports and markets have also started to reopen.

Large parts of the country have been under partial lockdown since the first Covid-19 cases were reported in early March.

UK knights war veteran for fundraising

The British government on Tuesday announced a knighthood for World War II veteran Tom Moore, who became a national hero by raising huge sums for health care charities during the coronavirus outbreak.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson nominated 100-year-old “Captain Tom” for the honour after he raised almost £32.8 million (US$40.2 million) by walking around his garden.

Moore set himself the goal of doing 100 laps of the 25-metre garden before his 100th birthday last month, hoping to raise £1,000 for health care charities.

But the money started pouring in after his effort drew national and then international interest, a rare good news story in the midst of a bleak global pandemic.

Royal Air Force jets performed a fly-past for his birthday and 140,000 people sent cards, while the army made Moore, who served as an engineer in India and Myanmar, an honorary Colonel.

The knighthood, which brings with it the title of “Sir”, will be formally issued by Queen Elizabeth.

Thailand expects vaccine next year after tests in mice

Thailand expects to have a vaccine for the novel coronavirus ready next year, a senior official said on Wednesday, after finding positive trial results in mice.

Thailand will begin testing the mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccine in monkeys next week after successful trials in mice, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, spokesman for the government’s Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration.

“The Thai vaccine is expected to be used next year,” he said.

More than 100 potential vaccines for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, are being developed, including several in clinical trials, but the World Health Organisation in April had warned that a vaccine would take at least 12 months.

The Thai vaccine is being developed by the National Vaccine Institute, the Department of Medical Science and Chulalongkorn University’s vaccine research centre.

Messenger RNA prompts body cells to produce so-called antigens, molecules on the surface of viruses, that spur the immune system into action.

Moderna Inc’s experimental Covid-19 vaccine, the first to be tested in the US, produced protective antibodies in a small group of healthy volunteers, according to very early data released by the company on Monday.

Oscars may be postponed

Next year’s Oscars could be postponed due to the disruption caused by the coronavirus in Hollywood, trade publication Variety reported Tuesday.

The movie industry’s biggest night is currently scheduled for February 28.

But with theatres closed, blockbusters delayed and productions halted, the prize-giving Academy has already been forced to make significant rules changes.

One of multiple anonymous sources told Variety it was now “likely” the ceremony itself will be postponed.

No formal proposals or detailed discussions have yet taken place over moving the event, or potential new dates, the report said.

Last month, the Academy – seen as the apex body of the Hollywood film industry – eased eligibility rules, allowing films that skip the big screen this year to contend for Oscars.

Currently, films must be released by December 31 to be considered for the following year’s Oscars, which usually take place in February or March.

The Oscars are the grand finale of a movie award season starting in earnest with the Golden Globes in early January.

Television’s prime time Emmys ceremony is currently still expected to take place in September.

Japan set to lose more than 3 million jobs

More than 3 million jobs in Japan could be lost because of the coronavirus pandemic in the year through next March, an impact more serious than the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, a research institute said on Wednesday.

In the worst case scenario in which containment of the global virus is achieved at the end of this year, Japan could see a 4.5 per cent fall in the number of workers from the previous year, according to the Chubu Region Institute for Social and Economic Research based in Nagoya, central Japan.

The financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers led to about 950,000 people losing their jobs in Japan, resulting in a 1.5 per cent decline in the number of workers, according to the institute.

It made the latest projection also based on the assumption that the number of foreign visitors to Japan, which has buoyed consumption in retail, restaurant and tourism sectors, would not recover through to next March.

By sector, the institute estimated retailers and wholesalers would see losses of 845,000 jobs, manufacturing 614,000 jobs, accommodation and restaurants 589,000 jobs.

Japan’s unemployment rate rose to a one-year high of 2.5 per cent in March, signalling the negative impact of the global pandemic on the workforce, with analysts and government officials expecting the situation to become more severe in the following months.

Spaniards older than five ordered to wear masks

Everyone in Spain aged six and above must wear a mask in public places where social distancing is not possible, officials said on Wednesday.

A government decree declared the new rule would be enforced from Thursday, without specifying penalties for failing to comply.

Commuters are already obliged to wear masks on public transport in Spain, one of the hardest-hit countries with almost 28,000 deaths from the pandemic.

But the death rate has slowed and the strict lockdown measures are being gradually eased, although population centres including Madrid and Barcelona have not been allowed to relax their rules.

“Using masks will be compulsory on the street, in open spaces and any closed place of public use … when it is not possible to maintain a safe distance of at least two metres,” the decree said.

It affects everyone aged six years and older, but people with breathing difficulties or other issues of necessity are exempt.

Virus transmission in Spain has slowed considerably since mid-March, when officials imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in the world.

On Tuesday, the death toll remained below 100 for the third consecutive day, down from a high of more than 900 a day in early April.

Russia’s PM says virus peak has passed

Russia appears to have passed the peak of its wave of coronavirus infections, enabling authorities to “cautiously remove” quarantine restrictions, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Wednesday.

“Today is the first day that the number of those who have recovered is exceeding the number of those falling ill,” Mishustin told a meeting of senior officials, according to comments carried by the Russian news agency Interfax.

Senior officials have been noting a declining infection rate in the past week and a half as they seek to lift lockdown measures that have compounded the country’s economic woes.

“It is possible that our health care system has begun to pass the peak of its workload,” Mishustin said. “This shows that the situation is gradually stabilising, especially in Moscow, which was the first to struggle with new infections.”

The Russian capital has accounted for about half of the country’s coronavirus caseload, which surpassed 300,000 on Wednesday – around one-third of those patients currently in hospital.

Russia has more than 90,000 hospital beds occupied by coronavirus patients, with more than 2,000 of those patients using ventilators, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said in comments carried by state news agency TASS.

“The mortality rate from Covid-19 in Russia is currently 0.95 per cent, significantly lower than in the world as a whole,” Golikova said, explaining that experts were working to figure out why Russia’s rate has been so low.

Russia has adamantly denied Western media reports that have accused the country of having under-reported its death toll.

Researchers say South Africa could see 3 million cases

Scientists say more than a million people in South Africa could be infected by coronavirus, causing at least 40,000 deaths, by the time the disease reaches a likely peak in the country in November.

A consortium called the Modelling and Simulation Hub Africa (MASHA), comprising experts from the University of Cape Town and the Department of Health, released its first projections of the impact of the pandemic late on Tuesday.

In an optimistic scenario there would be just over 40,000 deaths by November, said MASHA’s head, Sheetal Silal.

In a pessimistic scenario, the death toll would be 45,000-48,000, she said.

Silal stressed the wide degree of uncertainty for making forecasts at this stage.

“Here we are trying to make projections on the entire span of the epidemic for the next six to eight months, so there is considerable uncertainty,” she said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced last week that the country would ease lockdown restrictions from June, allowing certain sectors of the economy to return to work. The education ministry has also announced the reopening of schools from June.

Dozens escape virus quarantine in Zimbabwe

Close to two dozen people have escaped from coronavirus quarantine centres in Zimbabwe, state-run media reported on Wednesday, adding that others are illegally crossing the border from South Africa and not reporting to the centres.

The Herald newspaper, citing officials, reported that 23 people have escaped in the past week, 19 of them from a hotel in Beitbridge, a usually busy border town.

Zimbabwe is using schools, colleges and hotels for the mandatory isolation of people entering the country during a lockdown that is now in its sixth week.

Some returnees have complained about poor conditions at quarantine centres. Zimbabwe’s government has said it is doing its best to ensure a comfortable stay.

Hundreds of people have arrived from South Africa by the busload in recent weeks. With more than 17,000 confirmed cases, South Africa has the highest number of infections in Africa.

Millions of Zimbabweans live in South Africa legally and illegally to escape worsening economic conditions back home, but some are returning after jobs dried up due to South Africa’s virus lockdown.

Zimbabwe has close to 50 confirmed cases but remains on high alert as the number is expected to rise.

Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, Bloomberg, DPA, Kyodo