Across Europe, many governments seized on spring-like weather and stabilising infection levels to move away from economically ruinous lockdowns toward lighter social distancing measures that they hope will revive moribund business and tourism sectors.

China recorded three new confirmed Cases on the mainland for May 23, following the first day with no new cases since the outbreak began, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Sunday.

Of the new cases, two were imported while one was a local transmission, the NHC said.

These are the latest developments:

Beijing willing to cooperate with WHO probe

China is “open” to international cooperation to identify the source of the novel coronavirus, but any investigation must be led by the World Health Organisation and “free of political interference”, China’s foreign minister said on Sunday.

Wang Yi blasted what he called efforts by US politicians to “fabricate rumours” about the origins of the virus and “stigmatise China”.

The US and Australia have called in recent weeks for an investigation into the source of the pandemic.

Both US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have accused China of a lack of transparency over the issue, and repeatedly pushed the theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese maximum-security laboratory.

Most scientists believe the virus jumped from animals to humans, possibly from a market selling exotic animals for meat in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

“China is open to working with the international scientific community to look into the source of the virus,” Wang said at a press conference on the sidelines of China’s annual parliament session.

“At the same time, we believe that this should be professional, fair and constructive. Fairness means the process be free of political interference, respect the sovereignty of all countries, and oppose any presumption of guilt.”

Wuhan lab head calls virus leak claims ‘pure fabrication’

The institute did not have “any knowledge before that nor had we ever met, researched or kept the virus … We didn’t even know about the existence of the virus, so how could it be leaked from our lab when we didn’t have it?”

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have repeatedly said they suspect the virus that was first detected in Wuhan was somehow released from the laboratory.

Most scientists say the pathogen was passed from bats to humans via an intermediary species likely sold at a wet market in Wuhan late last year.

Japan to lift emergency, reports say

Japan is set to lift the state of emergency in Tokyo, its surrounding regions and the northern island of Hokkaido on Monday as new virus cases tail off, NHK and other local media reported.

Tokyo reported just two cases Saturday in the city of 14 million people, the lowest number of infections since the state of emergency was declared early last month. If the trends are confirmed in data for Sunday, the government plans to end the state of emergency, NHK reported, without saying where it got the information.

The move will bring the measure to an end across the whole nation a week ahead of schedule and enable more businesses to restart in the Tokyo region, whose economy is about the size of Canada’s.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared an emergency in the capital and some other areas from April 7, later expanding it nationwide. From mid-May he began lifting it in places where the rate of new infections subsided. The Tokyo region – the worst-hit by the virus – was the final and largest site of infection.

Infections dampen Eid festivities in Indonesia

The world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, with more than 240 million people, has reported nearly 22,000 infections and 1,350 fatalities, the most in Southeast Asia. It means no congregational prayers at mosques and open fields, no family reunions, no relatives bearing gifts for children.

“This outbreak is not just dampening spirits of Eid, but also has made the tradition entirely different,” said Andieka Rabbani, a university student in Jakarta.

Mosques across Asia deserted during Ramadan, but some ignore restrictions

This year, like other Indonesians, he can only greet his cousins and friends through video calls.

In deeply conservative Aceh, Indonesia’s only province enforcing Islamic sharia law, public Eid prayers can still be performed at mosques and fields, but without shaking hands and with limited sermons. The iconic public parade of decorated vehicles with loudspeakers invoking God’s name was scrapped this year.

Unlike Aceh, mosques and fields in Jakarta, which are usually always crowded with Eid worshippers, stood empty after authorities extended the lockdown to June 4, suspended communal gatherings and banned private cars from leaving the capital.

Jakarta has become the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in Indonesia with 6,515 confirmed cases with 501 deaths as of Saturday.

Brazil registers 965 new deaths

Brazil’s coronavirus curve steepened further a day after it overtook Russia to become the country with the second-highest number of cases.

The Latin American nation added 16,508 cases Saturday and said the death toll rose by 965.

Brazil now has 347,398 confirmed cases, trailing only the US globally, from 330,890 on Friday. Still, its death toll of 22,013, up from 21,048 in the previous 24 hours, trails the US and some of the most infected European countries, including the UK and Spain.

As the country shattered records and the contamination curve fails to flatten, President Jair Bolsonaro remains adamant about his crusade to reopen commerce and the economy, and to tout the malaria and lupus drug chloroquine even though there isn’t sufficient scientific proof to back it up for Covid-19. His stance has proved too much – two health ministers have resigned amid the pandemic. The ministry is currently being run provisionally by an army general.

Earlier on Saturday, Nelson Teich, who resigned last week as health minister after 29 days on the job, refused an invitation to act as a counsellor for his replacement. In a Twitter post, Teich said that it wouldn’t be coherent to accept that one week after leaving the job.

Patients not infectious after 11 days: study

Covid-19 patients are no longer infectious after 11 days of getting sick even though some may still test positive, according to a new study by infectious disease experts in Singapore.

A positive test “does not equate to infectiousness or viable virus,” a joint research paper by Singapore’s National Centre for Infectious Diseases and the Academy of Medicine, Singapore said. The virus “could not be isolated or cultured after day 11 of illness”.

The paper was based on a study of 73 patents in the city state.

The latest findings may have implications on the country’s patient discharge policy. The discharge criteria is currently based on negative test results rather than infectiousness.

Singapore’s strategy on managing Covid-19 patients is guided by the latest local and international clinical scientific evidence, and the Ministry of Health will evaluate if the latest evidence can be incorporated into its patient clinical management plan, according to a report by The Straits Times.

Singapore’s health ministry said on Sunday it had confirmed 548 more coronavirus cases, taking its tally of infections to 31,616.

The vast majority of the newly infected people are migrant workers living in dormitories, the ministry said in a statement. Three are permanent residents.

The government has been actively screening preschool staff as it prepares to reopen preschools from June 2. On Friday, two preschool employees tested positive for the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases among preschool staff to seven, according to the Ministry of Health.

African countries ‘may be spared the worst of the pandemic’

New York state records 24-hour death total under 100

New York state reported its lowest number of daily coronavirus deaths in weeks in what Governor Andrew Cuomo described Saturday as a critical benchmark.

The daily death tally was 84 after a peak of 799 on April 8.

Reducing the state’s daily death count to fewer than 100 seemed almost impossible several weeks ago, the Democratic governor said. That figure has remained stubbornly high even amid other signs of encouragement.

“In my head, I was always looking to get under 100,” Cuomo said. “For me, it’s a sign that we’re making real progress.”

The number of hospitalised patients in the state that has been the epicentre of the pandemic in the US continued to fall, dropping to over 4,600.

Cuomo also announced that the region along the Hudson River north of New York City and south of Albany is set to begin reopening Tuesday, and that Long Island could follow suit Wednesday.

Trump makes first golf outing since outbreak

President Donald Trump headed to the golf course for the first time in over two months, engaging in his personal passion as well as attempting to show how the country can return to normal after stay-at-home orders taken against the coronavirus.

Trump arrived at the Trump National Golf Club in suburban Virginia around 10:30am on Saturday. He was spotted earlier wearing a white polo shirt and signature white “Make America Great Again” cap.

The president’s most recent golf outing was March 8 at the Trump International course in West Palm Beach, Florida. He teed it up with members of the World Series-winning Washington Nationals baseball team. Trump played at the same course on March 7.

Deborah Birx, the immunologist who coordinates the White House coronavirus task force, specifically mentioned golf as an activity Americans might safely enjoy this weekend during a news conference on Friday.

Trump is eager to promote the idea that the United States is returning to normal, although the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak continues to rise and is expected to surpass 100,000 in the coming days.

One-hour test rolled out in London

A Covid-19 test that gives results in just over an hour and which requires no laboratory, potentially allowing for swifter testing of much larger numbers of people, is being rolled out at a number of London hospitals after getting regulatory clearance.

As Britain tries to ramp up testing to help revive the stalled economy, it is still mainly using laboratory tests that take around 48 hours to produce a result and either require people to travel often long distances to regional testing centres or receive by post at home.

The new test, based on the design of a DNA test developed by a professor at Imperial College London, received approval for clinical use by the Medicines and health care Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) at the end of April after successful trials.

With a sensitivity of over 98 per cent and specificity of 100 per cent, the DnaNudge test is being rolled out in cancer wards, accident and emergency, and maternity departments, as a prelude to possible wider application.

The test, which requires one nostril swab, is being rolled out at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, West Middlesex University Hospital, St Mary’s, and at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital.

UK defends PM’s top aide Dominic Cummings over breaking lockdown rules

Thailand begins vaccine trials on monkeys

Thailand started testing a vaccine against the coronavirus on monkeys after positive trials in mice, an official said.

Thailand’s minister of higher education, science, and research and innovation, Suvit Maesincee, said researchers had moved testing of the vaccine to monkeys and hoped to have a “clearer outcome” of its effectiveness by September.

Thailand announced on Wednesday that it was developing a vaccine – one of at least 100 potential vaccines in the works worldwide – and hoped to have it into production by next year.

Suvit said that Thailand has started reserving two manufacturers for its Covid-19 vaccine.

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

More Australians use virus app

Six million Australians have downloaded a mobile phone app that helps health authorities trace coronavirus infections, officials said Sunday.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the COVIDSafe app is playing a strong role in Australia’s response to the pandemic and several countries have expressed interest in learning from its positive impacts.

If a user is diagnosed, the app works to identify other users who have been in proximity for 15 minutes or more in the previous three weeks.

The government has said at least 40 per cent of Australia’s 26 million people need to use the app for it to be effective. There are approximately 17 million mobile phones in Australia.

The government and states have been easing restrictions on travel and increased use of restaurants and bars in the past few weeks. Australia has recorded more than 7,100 cases of Covid-19, with 102 deaths.

03:35

Coronavirus: India’s migrant workers desperate to return home after lockdown

Coronavirus: India’s migrant workers desperate to return home after lockdown

Dozens infected at mass

More than 40 people were infected with the new coronavirus after attending a mass in Frankfurt earlier this month, German media reported.

Six people were admitted to hospital, local health authorities told the news agency DPA.

The service was held on May 10, a few days after the reopening of places of worship in Germany, the daily Frankfurter Rundschau reported.

Officials in the nearby Main-Kinzig-Kreis district had announced on Friday that 16 people who attended an event in Frankfurt became infected.

Germany began to relax the restrictions put in place to control the spread of the virus at the beginning of May, as it saw a strong decline in new cases.

Earlier on Saturday, authorities in the northern state of Lower Saxony announced that seven people had been infected in a restaurant in the city of Leer. A total of around 50 people have been quarantined.

Spike in Iraq infections

Iraq’s Health Ministry reported the steepest single-day spike in confirmed coronavirus cases since the government began recording cases in late February.

The ministry reported 308 new cases Saturday, one day ahead of celebrations to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Curfew hours had been relaxed during the month of fasting, which contributed to higher daily rates of infection.

According to ministry figures, more than 4,200 people have tested positive for the virus in Iraq. At least 152 people have died.

Roads have been clogged with traffic and supermarkets and shops have been packed with people preparing for the celebrations, likely contributing to the increase in infections.

Portuguese enjoy first beach weekend

Surfboards, beach buckets and picnic baskets in tow, Portuguese flocked to the ocean in droves on Saturday for their first state-sanctioned beach weekend of the year.

“It’s so great to see the sea and get some sun after two months,” said Catarina, who arrived to Carcavelos Beach, half an hour from Lisbon, at 9am with her husband and daughter.

But despite her relief, Catarina wasn’t sure this new-found freedom could last long.

“Most are behaving … but there are a lot of groups, and that’s what causes contagion, isn’t it? I don’t know, by next month I think we’ll all be back in our homes,” she said.

The nation of 10 million people has reported just 30,471 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 1,302 deaths.

Restrictions imposed during a six-week state of emergency starting March 18 are being lifted in 15-day intervals, as long as the number of cases keeps falling.

As temperatures rose, people were itching to get back into the water. “Yesterday was already busy,” Jose Primo, a waiter at a beach restaurant in Carcavelos, said. “But today, my God! It’s chaos.”

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