Coronavirus latest: Singapore reports 931 new cases; Japan weighs extending emergency

The World Health Organisation warned that recovery from coronavirus might not protect a person from reinfection as the global death toll from the pandemic surpassed 200,000.

Even as governments from Sri Lanka to Belgium to the United States began moving in the direction of partial reopening, the Covid-19 pandemic still had nearly half of humanity under some form of lockdown or confinement.

Total cases around the world rose to 2.88 million and deaths mounted past the 200,000 mark, doubling since April 10.

The global death toll has continued to grow at a rate of 3-4 per cent per day over the past 10 days, though that rate has slowed since the beginning of the month.

The true number of fatalities is expected to be higher as many countries have not included deaths recorded in nursing homes and other locations outside hospitals.

Europe, the hardest-hit region, has recorded 122,171 coronavirus deaths. The United States has seen the highest number of deaths for a single country with 53,449 fatalities, followed by Italy at 26,384, Spain 22,902, France 22,614 and the United Kingdom 20,381.

In Asia, authorities reported no new deaths on Sunday for the 11th straight day in mainland China, where the virus was first detected.

However the world remained in wait as companies and governments raced to develop treatments and, further down the road, a vaccine for the virus.

“There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from #COVID19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection,” the UN health body said in a statement.

It warned that such people may tend to ignore public health advice, such as continuing to wear face masks, assuming they are not a danger to themselves or others.

The warning came as some governments study measures such as “immunity passports” for those who have recovered as one way to get people back to work after weeks of economic shutdown.

Here are the developments:

Singapore reports 931 new cases

Singapore registered 931 new coronavirus infections, its health ministry said on Sunday, taking the city state’s total number of Covid-19 cases to 13,624.

The vast majority of the new cases are migrant workers living in dormitories, the health ministry said in the statement. Fifteen of the new cases are permanent residents.

The number of new cases rose from 618 reported on Saturday.

The tiny country of 5.7 million people now has one of the highest infection rates in Asia, according to official figures, due to outbreaks in cramped dormitories housing over 300,000 mainly South Asian workers.

Inside Singapore’s sprawling coronavirus isolation centre, robots included

Japan mulls extending emergency

There is a growing view within the Japanese government that lifting the nation’s emergency as planned on May 6 will be difficult, national broadcaster NHK said, without citing sources.

While daily new coronavirus cases in Osaka and Tokyo have begun to fall, experts said the rate of change is not as fast as expected, NHK reported. More than 100 new cases have still been reported in Tokyo every day for almost two weeks, while deaths in the capital passed 100 on Saturday.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared the state of emergency for seven regions on April 8, later extending it to include the whole country.

The nation’s so-called Golden Week holidays – when in normal times salaried employees combine official holiday and personal time off to return to hometowns or take trips abroad – begin Wednesday.

Filipino ex-soldier slain by police buried with honours

A retired soldier shot dead by police for allegedly violating a coronavirus lockdown in the Philippines was buried with military honours on Sunday.

Six troops wearing masks carried the flag-draped casket of Winston Ragos, 34, at the country’s Heroes’ Cemetery, as a military band played. The military also gave the slain soldier a gun salute.

Ragos was shot dead on April 21 in the city of Quezon after he allegedly reached for a pistol in his sling bag when police accosted him for being outside his house. His family and witnesses denied he was armed.

The killing sparked outrage in the Philippines, where human rights groups have warned of increasing abuses amid the lockdown imposed on the most populous island of Luzon since mid-March.

President Rodrigo Duterte had told police and military to “shoot them dead” if people create trouble and refuse to follow the restrictions. He also threatened to impose martial law if communist rebels do not halt attacks amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

Ragos served in the army for more than seven years, but was discharged in 2017 due to post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia, said army spokesman Colonel Ramon Zagala.

Zagala said the army has asked the National Bureau of Investigation to look into the killing due to inconsistencies in the police’s account of what happened and those of witnesses and a viral video.

“Although he had retired and was sick, he served the army,” he said. “For us, he’s one of us and we leave no man behind.”

China reports 11 new virus cases, no deaths

China on Sunday confirmed 11 more cases of the coronavirus and no new deaths for the 11th day in a row.

It brings its official count to 82,827 infected people. The death toll remained the same at 4,632.

Five of the new cases were in Heilongjiang province, a northeastern border area with Russia that has seen a surge in infections. Another was in Guangdong province, a manufacturing and tech region bordering Hong Kong in the south.

The other five were imported from overseas. China has identified 1,634 imported cases in all.

China said it also has 1,000 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus but do not have any symptoms. They are under medical observation but not included in the confirmed case count.

China has instituted stringent checks at its ports and border points, banning the entry of foreign nationals on March 28, and even diverting international flights from its capital city Beijing.

Still it has faced a continuous trickle of cases brought in by Chinese citizens wanting to return home in spite of risks of getting infected. In recent days, many of these have come back from Russia.

Trump questions holding daily briefings

US President Donald Trump says his press briefings are “not worth the time & effort” as his administration prepares to adjust his public presence amid the coronavirus pandemic toward addressing the nation’s economic woes.

Tweeting on Saturday, one of the few days in which he has not held a daily briefing since the start of the outbreak, Trump says: “What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately.”

The president’s tweet comes two days after he used a briefing to muse about the injection of chemical disinfectants, drawing warnings from manufacturers and the nation’s top medical professionals. The White House claimed Friday that Trump was misinterpreted, though the president later asserted he was speaking “sarcastically.”

His tweet questioning the value of press briefings also comes as White House aides are developing plans to shift the president’s public emphasis from the virus to addressing the economic crisis it has caused and the government’s plans for reopening the economy.

Reports: White House considering replacing Azar

US President Donald Trump’s administration is considering replacing its secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, because of early missteps in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, The Wall Street Journal and Politico reported on Saturday.

The Journal, which cited six people familiar with the discussions, said frustration with Azar was growing but the administration was reluctant to make big changes while the country was seeking to stop the virus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19 and has killed more than 53,000 people in the United States.

A White House spokesman told the newspaper that there was no plan to replace Azar and called talk of replacing him “speculation and a distraction.”

Politico said the shortlist of names to replace Azar included Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator; Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Seema Verma and deputy HHS Secretary Eric Hargan.

Indian woman gang raped after quarantined alone in school

An Indian woman was allegedly gang raped in a school in the desert state of Rajasthan where she had been quarantined for a night by the police amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, a police official said on Sunday.

The incident occurred last week when the victim, a daily wage earner, sought shelter at a police station after walking alone for miles and losing the way to her native village.

In the absence of a quarantine centre, local police housed her for the night in a school building, where she was allegedly raped by three men.

“Three local men who raped the woman inside the school on April 23 have been arrested and sent to jail,” said Parth Sharma, a deputy superintendent of police in Sawai Madhopur district in Rajasthan and the investigating officer in the case.

The victim, aged between 40-45 years, said in a statement to the police that she had been walking for several days from Sawai Madhopur before she reached a village where she was raped.

Sharma said the woman had been sent to a local quarantine facility to get tested for Covid-19.

“We don’t know how long she was on her own for, and who she came into contact with, and her test results are not yet known,” he said, adding that a junior police official had been suspended for negligence.

The nationwide lockdown imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month to contain the spread of the virus prompted tens of thousands of workers who lost their jobs in cities to walk for days in desperation to reach their homes in rural India.

Many of them are now in overcrowded quarantine centres and authorities are struggling to cope.

British PM will be back at work on Monday

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be back at work on Monday, a Downing Street spokeswoman confirmed on Saturday, after having recovered from a case of coronavirus that sent him to intensive care for three nights in early April.

Johnson, 55, will take back control of a government under pressure from the economic fallout of shutdowns aimed at curbing the spread of the highly infectious virus, as well as a rising death toll.

As of Saturday, Britain has recorded more than 20,000 deaths from Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Criticism is growing over the government response to the pandemic, with limited testing and shortages of protective equipment for medical workers and carers.

Johnson’s stand-in leader Dominic Raab has faced questions over how Britain will ease the lockdown without a deadly second wave of infections.

Britain’s interior minister urged Britons to stick to the lockdown rules earlier on Saturday. But many lawmakers want restrictions to be eased to bolster the economy, which budget forecasters say could be heading into its deepest recession in more than 300 years.

Johnson was taken to St Thomas’s Hospital in central London suffering from Covid-19 symptoms on April 5, and spent April 6-9 in intensive care.

Branson ‘seeking buyer for Virgin Atlantic’

Richard Branson is seeking a buyer for Virgin Atlantic as he struggles to secure a €500 million (US$618 million) government bailout, The Telegraph reported.

Branson has set an end-of-May deadline to save the UK airline from collapse and is focused on securing new private investment from more than 100 financial institutions, the newspaper quoted people familiar as saying.

“Houlihan Lokey has been appointed to assist the process, focusing on private-sector funding,” a Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman said. “Discussions with a number of stakeholders continue and are constructive, meanwhile the airline remains in a stable position.”

Virgin’s application for government aid has effectively been shelved, though negotiations could be revived if investment can’t be found elsewhere, the newspaper reported.

About 50 investors have asked for information and they will be narrowed down to a handful of bidders, according to the report. Centerbridge Partners, Cerberus Capital Management, Lansdowne Partners, Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek and Northill Capital are among those in the running.

Delta Air Lines Inc., which owns a 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic and is consumed with its own pandemic-related problems, has already bumped up against UK limits on foreign airline ownership, the US company’s chief executive officer, Ed Bastian, said Thursday.

Branson, 69, has become the highest-profile victim of an airline-industry crisis that’s only just getting started. Virgin Australia, another carrier he founded, entered administration last week after failing to obtain a state bailout.

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Two Dutch mink farms infected with coronavirus

Dutch authorities on Sunday cordoned off two mink farms in the southern Netherlands after tests showed the animals had been infected with the coronavirus, most likely from human contact.

The farms are located east of Eindhoven in the Northern Brabant province, one of the regions hardest hit by the country’s outbreak which has killed more than 4,400 people and infected 37,000 others.

“The mink showed various signs of the disease including breathing difficulties,” the Dutch agricultural ministry said in a statement.

Tests showed the furry animals suffering from Covid-19.

“As several employees at the businesses had symptoms of coronavirus, it is believed that they passed it on to the animals,” the ministry said.

Previous examples showed that the weasel-like animals “were susceptible to the virus,” it added.

“Currently there is no indication that domestic or farm animals play any role in the spread of Covid-19 … and there is no risk that the viral infection will be passed back to humans,” the ministry said.

“Human-to-human transmission is the driving force behind the current corona pandemic.”

Dutch Agricultural Minister Carola Schouten however ordered that a public road be closed off near the farms and advised people not to come closer than 400 metres.

Mink farmers are also ordered to report any respiratory problems or a jump in mink deaths to authorities.

Keeping mink for their fur has been a controversial issue in the Netherlands, with its highest court in 2016 ordering that all mink breeding must cease by 2024.

Spain to allow exercise and walks

Spaniards will be allowed out for exercise and to take walks from next weekend, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said, in the latest move to ease one of the world’s tightest coronavirus lockdowns.

And the government will on Tuesday unveil its broader lockdown exit plan that is likely to be put into action in the second half of May, he said.

Unlike most other countries in the world, since imposing a lockdown on March 14, Spain has not allowed anyone out for walks, jogs or bike rides, allowing them to leave home only to buy food or medicine or to briefly walk the dog, other than for a medical emergency.

Children have not been allowed out under any circumstances but that will change on Sunday when they will be allowed out for up to an hour a day, accompanied by one parent, to walk, run or play in an area no further than a kilometre from their home.

Spain’s daily coronavirus death toll dropped to 288 on Sunday, the lowest since March 20. The health ministry said the figure dropped from 378 on Saturday and brought Spain’s total toll to 23,190, the third highest number of deaths after the United States and Italy.

Australia to launch contact-tracing app

Australia will launch a contact-tracing mobile app to boost its efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

“It’s an incredibly important next step in helping us maintain the success that we’ve been able to achieve,” Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told Sky News Australia. “We don’t want society locked down. We want people to get back to work, we want our economy to grow again.”

The app is based on Singapore’s TraceTogether, and records the “bluetooth handshake” a mobile phone makes with others in close proximity. If users catch the virus, they can then share that contact data with health authorities to speed up tracing.

A broader testing regime and the contact-tracing app are seen as necessary for Australia to consider relaxing restrictions on the economy. Dutton said all the requisite privacy protections will be in place. The government has stressed the data will only be used by health officials and won’t be accessible by police or other federal or state agencies.

The nation had 6,677 confirmed Covid-19 cases – up just 112 from a week ago. It has had 79 deaths.

Ramadan begins in Iran amid fears of ‘fresh outbreak’

Germans protest against lockdown

Hundreds of people gathered at demonstrations in Berlin and Stuttgart on Saturday, protesting about the loss of freedoms and rights due to measures to protect the German populace from the novel coronavirus.

Around 1,000 people in Berlin gathered to protest against the restrictions imposed by the government to stem the spread of the virus, in spite of the ban on demonstrations.

The Berlin protest was conducted in front of the Volksbuehne, a theatre in the city's centre. Many of those attending were prevented from reaching the square in front of the building as it was cordoned off by police who wanted to prevent crowding.

Police repeatedly used megaphones to call on the protesters to leave the area. A few people were arrested. Protesters gradually left the site during the afternoon.

Liechtenstein to test if fertility bracelets give virus warning

Liechtenstein will put fertility monitoring bracelets on some 2,200 people to see if they can pick up early signs of coronavirus, the managers of the experiment said on Sunday.

If successful, the project will give doctors a better chance of dealing with the virus spread, by isolating patients, giving targeted support and also protecting health care workers, they said.

“The aim is to see whether a sensory bracelet, which is already successfully being used to monitor women’s fertility cycles, can detect Cvodi-19 infection early,” the Dr Risch Group laboratory and its partner, the Swiss start-up AVA which developed the technology, said in a statement.

The bracelets allow women to identify the best time to conceive by monitoring five indicators during sleep – skin temperature, resting pulse rate, blood flow, breathing rate and heart rate variability.

This same data, the companies said, can also be analysed to fight the coronavirus.

“The underlying hypothesis is that this will allow the creation of a new algorithm that enables identification of Covid-19 at an early stage even when no typical disease symptoms are present,” the statement said.

Bangladesh garment factories reopen, defying lockdown

Hundreds of Bangladesh garment factories defied a nationwide coronavirus lockdown to reopen on Sunday, raising fears the industry’s vulnerable and largely female workforce could be exposed to the contagion.

Big-name international brands have cancelled or held up billions of dollars in orders due to the pandemic, crippling an industry that accounts for over nearly all of the South Asian country’s export earnings.

Factories shut their doors in late March but some suppliers said they were now being pushed by retailers to fulfil outstanding export orders.

“We have to accept coronavirus as part of life. If we don’t open factories, there will be economic crisis,” said Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Mohammad Hatem.

He said his MB Knit company had reopened part of a factory that makes clothing for Britain’s Primark and several other retailers.

Factories were “under pressure” from brands to meet export deadlines and feared the risk that billions in orders could be diverted to competing operations in countries like Vietnam or China, Hatem added.

More than four million people work in thousands of garment factories across Bangladesh, which last year shipped out US$35 billion of apparel to retailers such as H&M, Inditex and Walmart last year – second only to China.

Hundreds of those factories had resumed operations over the weekend in the industrial areas of Gazipur and Ashulia, just outside the capital Dhaka.

Saudi Arabia allows businesses top reopen

Saudi Arabia on Sunday began to loosen its nationwide curfew imposed last month to limit an outbreak of the coronavirus.

King Salman ordered the curfew partially lifted starting from Sunday until May 13, allowing people to go out from 9am until 5pm, the state Saudi news agency SPA reported.

A 24-hour curfew will, however, remain in place in the holy city of Mecca, the agency added.

In his decree, the monarch also allowed some businesses, including shopping centres, retail and wholesale stores, and factories to reopen for two weeks, beginning next Wednesday.

The agency said the latest steps were taken on a recommendation from the health bodies and out of the monarch’s interest to ease restrictions on the public.

Saudi Arabia has suspended congregational prayers in mosques and halted religious journeys to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina as part of strict measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The country has reported so far a total of 1,699 virus cases and 136 deaths.

Iran plans to reopen mosques in areas free of coronavirus

Iran plans to reopen mosques in parts of the country that have been consistently free of the coronavirus outbreak as restrictions on Iranians gradually ease, President Hassan Rowhani said on Sunday.

Iran, one of the Middle Eastern countries hardest hit by the pandemic, will be divided up into white, yellow and red regions based on the number of infections and deaths, Rowhani said, according to the presidency’s website.

Activities in each region will be restricted accordingly, so an area that has been consistently free of infections or deaths will be labelled white and mosques could be reopened with Friday prayers resuming, Rowhani said.

He said the label given to any region in the Islamic Republic could change and he did not say when the colour-coding programme would come into force.

Iranians have returned to shops, bazaars and parks over the past week as the country eases coronavirus restrictions with the daily increase in the death toll below 100 since April 14.

The toll rose by 60 over the past 24 hours to 5,710 with 90,481 confirmed cases, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state TV on Sunday.

Seeking a balance between protecting public health and shielding an economy already battered by sanctions, the government has refrained from imposing the kind of wholesale lockdowns on cities seen in many other countries.

But it has extended closures of schools and universities and banned cultural, religious and sports gatherings.

Afghan men reject social distancing for religious gathering

Afghan authorities are struggling to implement lockdowns to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in a province bordering Iran where the outbreak is widening due to an influx of Afghan returnees and men refusing to adhere to social distancing. Herat, the country’s third largest city and a bustling province in eastern Afghanistan, has reported a high number of coronavirus cases.

The country is grappling with acute shortages of testing facilities at a time when violent clashes between government forces and Taliban insurgents show no signs of decline.

The medical and security crisis has worsened in the province as thousands of men continue to ignore social distancing rules and attended a mass religious gathering at the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

“We request people to follow the rules but they just don’t listen, the religious preachers are not obeying too,” said Jailani Farhad, a spokesman for Herat’s provincial governor.

Verified photographs and videos shared on social media of the event organised last week on a vacant plot of land highlighted the challenges faced by officials to prevent gatherings organised by powerful religious preachers.

“We request people to take the virus seriously, for God’s sake it is not a joke,” Farhad said.

As of Sunday, Afghanistan reported 1,531 cases of Covid-19 and 50 deaths, but international observers and doctors on the ground believe the real number of infections could be much higher.

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