In the US - the world’s worst-hit nation with a fifth of all deaths and more than half a million confirmed cases - the government’s top infectious disease expert added to cautious optimism that the pandemic may have reached its peak.

Here are the developments:

China’s new cases rise to near six-week high

China reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases in nearly six weeks on Monday, as it tried to prevent a second wave of Covid-19 infections.

Having largely stamped out domestic transmission of the disease, China has been slowly easing curbs on movement as it tries to get its economy back on track, but there are fears that a rise in imported cases could spark a second wave of Covid-19 - especially among Chinese citizens returning from abroad.

Authorities counted 108 new coronavirus infections over the past day, including 98 cases among travellers returning from abroad, according to data released Monday by the National Health Commission.

This is the highest number of reported infections since March 6, when authorities counted 143 new cases.

China tightens controls on Russia border

Beijing on March 28 banned the entry of foreigners into China. However, state media has reported that travellers crossing the border from Russia are spreading the coronavirus in the Chinese border city of Suifenhe in the north-eastern Heilongjiang province.

Around 300 cases of the coronavirus had been confirmed in the city by Saturday, including 100 infected people who did not appear to be showing any symptoms.

China has so far reported 82,160 coronavirus cases including 3,341 deaths and 77,663 recovered patients.

ADB triples aid package for Asia-Pacific

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday tripled an aid package to help member countries fight the coronavirus, which has severely impacted life, society and economy in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Manila-based bank said it was adding US$13.5 billion to the initial support package it announced in March to assist countries counter macro-economic and health impacts caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The additional assistance includes about US$2.5 billion in concessional and grant resources, the bank said.

“This pandemic threatens to severely set back economic, social, and development gains in Asia and the Pacific, reverse progress on poverty reduction, and throw economies into recession,” said ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa.

“The human costs are significant and rising every day at an alarming rate,” he added. “Many households face the bleak prospect of being pushed back into poverty. ADB estimates global economic losses of between US$2 and US$4.1 trillion.”

The new package includes the establishment of a Covid-19 outbreak response option that countries can tap to implement programmes aimed at mitigating the impact of the pandemic, especially on the poor and the vulnerable.

Infections slow in Spain

Hundreds of thousands of people were allowed to return to work on Monday for the first time since a coronavirus outbreak in Spain caused the government to impose a lockdown.

People in regions of Spain where Easter Monday is not a national holiday were allowed to leave their homes to go to work in a slight relaxation of a lockdown that has been in place since last month.

According to media estimates, around 300,000 people returned to work in the capital Madrid.

Prior to Monday, only people employed in positions considered essential have been allowed to work at their job sites. Many factory and construction workers can now resume their activities.

Spain’s Health Ministry on Monday recorded 3,477 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, taking the total to 169,496 and offering more evidence the hard-hit country could be on the road to recovery. At its height, Spain saw more than 8,000 new infections in a day.

Spain reported 517 new deaths, bringing the total to 17,489.

Sailor from US aircraft carrier dies of Covid-19

The sailor, whose name is being withheld for now, tested positive for the coronavirus on March 30. He was found unresponsive during a medical check on April 9 and died from complications related to the virus on Monday, according to the statement.

The death comes about two weeks after the captain of the Roosevelt, Brett Crozier, was dismissed by then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly for writing a letter late last month warning the service about the potentially dire situation aboard the carrier because of the outbreak. The letter, which leaked to several media outlets, said, “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die.”

Modly last week resigned after widespread criticism of his move and subsequent comments criticising Crozier to his crew.

Singapore logs record 386 new cases

Singapore’s health ministry confirmed 386 more cases of coronavirus infection on Monday in the city-state’s biggest daily jump, taking its total to 2,918.

The island nation, which is under partial lockdown to try to curb a recent surge in infections, also reported its ninth death from the disease.

A large number of the new cases are linked to outbreaks in migrant workers’ dormitories. Singapore has quarantined thousands of workers in dormitories after they were connected to several cases of the Covid-19 respiratory disease.

To date, a total of 586 people have fully recovered from the infection, the health ministry said.

Cardboard ‘hotel’ for stranded travellers in Japan

Though flights at Narita are down so sharply that the airport has closed one of its runways, planes are still landing with passengers arriving from countries including the United States and Italy who are required to undergo tests for the virus before they can head home.

Results can come as quickly as six hours, but delays now mean many take as long as one or two days, an official at the Health Ministry said, declining to give his name.

With passengers forbidden to take public transport, those with nobody to pick them up have to wait - and the cardboard beds have been readied in case nearby facilities currently being used to house passengers are full, he added.

Developed for use in evacuation centres during disasters and any other time when temporary bedding is needed, the beds - made of heavy-duty cardboard - contain a mattress and a quilt.

Boris Johnson tests negative for virus

Johnson was discharged from St. Thomas’ Hospital in London on Sunday and then went to Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence, around 65km northwest of the capital.

James Slack confirmed that Johnson has now tested negative for the coronavirus and denied that the government had downplayed the seriousness of his condition.

Johnson was admitted to St. Thomas’ on April 5 after his condition worsened and he was transferred the following day to its intensive care unit, where he received oxygen but was not put onto a ventilator. He spent three nights there before moving back to a regular hospital ward. After leaving the hospital, Johnson expressed his gratitude to the staff of the National Health Service for saving his life when it could have “gone either way.”

Slack said Johnson spoke over the weekend to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who has been deputising for the prime minister during his illness.

South Korea to send 600,000 testing kits to US

South Korea plans to send 600,000 coronavirus testing kits to the United States on Tuesday in the first such shipment following a request from US President Donald Trump.

Trump made the request for testing kits in a phone call on March 25 with President Moon Jae-in, as the United States was grappling with fast-growing outbreaks in many states.

The kits were made by two of the three companies that secured preliminary arrival late last month from the US Food and Drug Administration, a Seoul official said, but declined to name them.

The shipments will be handed over to and paid for by the US government, while the additional 150,000 kits will be exported in the near future to be sold via an unspecified local retailer, the official said.

South Korean companies have previously shipped test kits to US cities including Los Angeles but this would mark the first bulk order from the US federal government.

Moscow blames hackers for lockdown permit problems

Authorities in Moscow on Monday blamed hackers for bringing down a new website meant to issue travel permits to the city’s residents to use during the coronavirus lockdown after cases of the new virus rose by a record daily amount.

Russia reported 2,558 new cases on Monday, bringing the overall nationwide tally to 18,328. Eighteen people diagnosed with the virus died overnight, pushing the death toll to 148.

Moscow, the worst-hit area, and several other regions have imposed a lockdown to try to stop the spread of the virus, ordering residents to stay at home except to buy food, seek urgent medical treatment, take out the rubbish, or got to work if absolutely necessary.

Moscow on Monday launched a new website ahead of a permit system they want to start working on Wednesday. It would tighten monitoring of the lockdown by obliging people to apply for digital passes if they plan to make any journeys by public or private transport.

China got it right by locking down Wuhan, German study says

But the site was only intermittently available on Monday morning, a failure authorities blamed on malicious hacking attacks.

Eduard Lysenko, a Moscow city official, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station that the new website and the Moscow government’s website had been hit by more hacking attacks overnight than during the last six months combined.

Moscow’s crisis response centre said authorities had nonetheless managed to issue almost 700,000 permits for people to use private or public transport to get to work.

President Vladimir Putin said on Monday the coronavirus situation was getting worse and that Russia may draw on the Defence Ministry’s resources to tackle the crisis if needed.

Putin, who was speaking at a meeting with senior officials broadcast on state television, said the situation was constantly changing and that the next few weeks would prove decisive in its battle to halt the contagion.

Philippine capital ramps up testing

The Philippine capital of Manila has started wider-scale targeted coronavirus testing of residents, authorities said on Monday, providing more than 1,600 tests weekly on people with serious symptoms to see if they are infected.

Mayor Francisco Domagoso endorsed the testing at a local health department quarantine facility and six of the city’s major hospitals, the city government’s Public Information Office said.

The undertaking allows more than 230 swab tests to be conducted per day on people under monitoring or investigation for possible infection, with results available two to three days later.

The office added that Covid-19 patients can also be sent to the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, which has been turned into a 112-bed quarantine facility.

Meanwhile, the government is easing a ban on overseas deployment of health workers, allowing those with existing contracts abroad to leave, according to Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin.

“Further applications frozen until further notice,” Locsin said on Twitter.

The Philippines, which sends thousands of medical practitioners to work overseas, earlier barred doctors, nurses and other health workers from leaving for overseas work to reinforce its health care system amid the coronavirus outbreak.

As of Monday, the country had recorded 4,932 infection cases nationwide, with 315 deaths due to the disease caused by the virus.

WHO says 70 vaccines in the works

There are 70 coronavirus vaccines in development globally, with three candidates already being tested in human trials, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as drugmakers race to find a cure for the deadly pathogen.

The furthest along in the clinical process is an experimental vaccine developed by Hong Kong-listed CanSino Biologics Inc. and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, which is in phase 2. The other two being tested in humans are treatments developed separately by US drugmakers Moderna Inc. and Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc., according to a WHO document.

Progress is occurring at unprecedented speed in developing vaccines as the infectious pathogen looks unlikely to be stamped out through containment measures alone. The drug industry is hoping to compress the time it takes to get a vaccine to market - usually about 10 to 15 years - to within the next year.

Drugmakers big and small have jumped in to try to develop a vaccine, which would be the most effective way to contain the virus. Pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer and Sanofi have vaccine candidates in the preclinical stages, according to the WHO document.

North Korea still claims zero cases

North Korea has held a session of its top legislature for the first time since August, state-run media reported on Monday, amid speculation the coronavirus pandemic may be dealing a blow to the country’s economy.

Photos released by state news agency KCNA showed hundreds of lawmakers sitting in close proximity to each other with no masks or other visible anti-infection measures.

Ahead of the session of the Supreme People’s Assembly on Sunday, a key ruling party gathering presided over by leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday decided to take “more thorough state measures” against the new virus, according to the media.

North Korea claims the coronavirus has not made inroads into the country, with travel to and from China and Russia having been shut down since earlier this year. It has tested at least 700 people and has put more than 500 in quarantine, but has no confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, according to the World Health Organisation.

France reports lower coronavirus daily death toll

President Emmanuel Macron is on Monday expected to warn France its lockdown to combat the coronavirus must go on for several more weeks at least, while also outlining how the country will recover from the crisis.

Macron will give his third prime-time televised address to the nation on the epidemic from the Elysee palace. In his last, he announced the nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the virus from March 17.

This speech will come after the first indications of a tentative easing of the crisis in France and that the lockdown is starting to have an effect, with the epidemic starting to plateau, albeit at a high level.

France on Sunday reported a lower number of Covid-19 fatalities over the last 24 hours, with 315 deaths in hospital over the last day, compared with 345 the previous day.

Its total toll from the coronavirus epidemic, including those who have died in nursing homes, now stands at 14,393, the health ministry said.

Agence France-Presse, Reuters, Associated Press, Bloomberg and dpa