Coronavirus latest: Trump unveils plan to reopen US; China’s Wuhan revises death toll

Authorities in Britain and New York state in the United States have announced they will extend lockdowns designed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, even as US President Donald Trump unveiled a three-phase plan on when and how to reopen the country.

“Our experts say the curve has flattened and the peak is behind us,” Trump said at a press conference, stressing that each state would act individually, based on its own data. “We are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time. “We’re starting our life again. We’re starting rejuvenation of our economy again. This is a gradual process.”

Trump also indicated that 29 states would be able to reopen, and flagged the resumption of professional sports, although likely without fans. In some states, protesters have begun taking to the streets to urge governors to rethink restrictions.

The US has become the epicentre of the pandemic, with more than 32,000 deaths reported and nearly 700,000 infections confirmed.

Trump has sharply criticised China over the virus that was first detected in its metropolis of Wuhan. In recent days, his position appears to have drawn support from other Western politicians.

In the UK, Britain’s acting leader Dominic Raab said it could no longer be “business as usual” with China when the coronavirus pandemic is over, the latest sign of hardening attitudes towards Beijing as the crisis drags on.

“There absolutely needs to be a very, very deep dive after the event and review of the lessons, including of the outbreak of the virus,” the foreign secretary said at a press conference in London on Thursday. “I don’t think we can flinch from that at all.”

Raab also ordered Britons to stay at home for at least another three weeks to prevent the spread of a coronavirus outbreak which has already claimed over 138,000 lives globally.

French President Emmanuel Macron also warned not to be “naive” in believing China has handled the outbreak well. “There are clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian – who previously outraged the US by referencing an unfounded theory that US troops introduced the coronavirus in Wuhan – quoted the World Health Organisation as saying there was no evidence the virus came from a lab.

“Many well-known medical experts in the world also believe that the so-called laboratory leak hypothesis has no scientific basis,” Zhao said.

Here are other developments:

Japan to give residents US$930 in stimulus payments

Japan will offer a cash payment of 100,000 yen (US$930) to every resident, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced on Friday, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to decimate the world’s third-biggest economy.

“We are moving quickly to deliver cash to all people,” Abe said in a news conference to explain his decision to expand a state of emergency nationwide.

An initial plan to provide three times that amount to households, which have seen incomes slashed because of the coronavirus, was ditched and Abe apologised for the confusion.

Japan has seen relatively few cases and deaths compared to hotspots in Europe and the United States but a recent spike in Tokyo – which logged a daily record 201 new cases on Friday – has sparked concern.

Wuhan revises up virus toll to cover deaths at home

The central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic was first reported, has revised up its death toll to include 1,290 more people – increasing the total by roughly half.

The municipal government announced on Friday that the city’s official death toll was now 3,869. It said it initially added 1,454 coronavirus deaths but cut 164 cases that had been duplicated or were the result of other diseases.

The government said the increase in the death toll was mainly because many people died at home in the early stages of the epidemic as medical facilities were overwhelmed by an influx of patients.

At the same time, Wuhan’s number of confirmed patients increased from 50,008 to 50,333. A total of 542 cases that were not reported to hospitals at the time were added, but 217 duplicates were removed from the total, the authorities said.

Singapore reports 623 new cases

Singapore’s health ministry on Friday evening for the first time reported preliminary figures for daily infections, saying it had recorded 623 new cases as of 12pm, bringing the number of total infections to 5,050.

The ministry said in a statement that "the majority" of these cases are foreign workers living in dormitories, with more updates to be released later in the evening.

The 323,000 migrant workers living in cramped conditions have become the Lion City’s latest battle against the coronavirus, making up 61 per cent of Singapore’s total infections as of Thursday.

With mass testing of workers continuing, daily infections have climbed steadily, with a record high of 728 infections reported on Thursday.

Singapore’s ‘gold standard’ coronavirus response loses its shine

Singapore reported its first Covid-19 infection on January 23 and seemed to be successfully containing the disease, although returning Singaporeans brought a second wave of infections, with cases quickly ballooning to 1,000 by April 1.

As the country focused on the rise in imported cases, it missed the infections happening among migrant workers. The national development minister said many workers had continued working as their symptoms were mild. “We did drop the ball on foreign workers,” wrote former Singapore diplomat Bilahari Kausikan, an active commentator on social media.

UK’s death toll crosses 14,500

Britain’s death toll from the coronavirus rose by 847 to 14,576 on Friday, daily health ministry figures showed, a slightly slower increase than the 861 new deaths recorded the previous day.

Nevertheless, the number of deaths over a 24-hour period was still higher than in previous days when the number of fatalities had been on a downward trend.

Britain remains among the countries worst hit by the pandemic, with the latest data also showing the total number of infections in the country has climbed to nearly 109,000.

Coronavirus outbreak may have started in September, say UK scientists

On Thursday, the government extended its lockdown to tackle the coronavirus for at least the next three weeks.

“The worst thing we could do right now is ease up too soon,” said Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recuperates from Covid-19.

Johnson, who is now off work and recovering after a week in hospital, ordered the initial three-week lockdown on March 23, which saw the closure of “non-essential” shops and services, gatherings of more than two people banned, and gave police powers to fine those flouting the rules.

Coronavirus infections top 32,000 in Russia

Russia on Friday recorded 32,008 coronavirus cases, including a record 4,070 in the last 24 hours, with officials warning that Moscow was two to three weeks away from a peak in infections.

Official figures showed more than half of the new cases were registered in Moscow and the surrounding region. So far 273 deaths have been recorded in Russia, including 41 in the last 24 hours.

Moscow, Europe’s largest city with some 12 million inhabitants, has been under lockdown since the end of March but officials have complained that many residents are flouting confinement rules.

Russia has carried out more than 1.7 million coronavirus tests, though there have been concerns about their reliability.

Xi and Putin show a united front as China criticised over pandemic

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered the postponement of a Victory Day parade marking the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II, an event planned as a lavish celebration that had topped the Kremlin’s political agenda.

“The risks linked to the epidemic that hasn’t yet reached its peak are extremely high, and we don’t have the right to prepare for the parade and other festivities,” the Russian leader said on Thursday, adding that the anniversary celebration will be held later this year.

The postponement follows Putin’s decision to put off a vote originally scheduled for this month on constitutional changes that would allow him to try to stay in office until 2036, if he desired.

France to probe virus cases on aircraft carrier

The French Navy on Friday said it was investigating how the coronavirus infected more than 900 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, now in a lengthy disinfection process since returning to its home base in Toulon five days ago.

One person remained in intensive care and some 20 others were hospitalised, Navy spokesman Commander Eric Lavault said in an interview on Friday.

He said the commander sought to increase the physical distancing of those on the vessel — where there was no testing equipment or, for most of its three months on operations, no masks.

It is “very difficult to apply social distancing measures … on a combat vessel”, Lavault said. But “security of the crew is the first concern. A combat ship, especially an aircraft carrier, is nothing without its crew”.

A similar outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt led to the firing of its captain and the resignation this month of the acting US Navy secretary, in a controversy about how that at-sea crisis was handled — and that the French have been spared.

Spain to pay basic income to low-income households

Spain is planning to pay a basic monthly income to about a million of the country’s poorest households to help them weather the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Social Security Minister Jose Luis Escriva said on Friday.

Those receiving the basic income, which will be approved by the cabinet in May, will have incentives to find work, such as being allowed to combine the monthly stipend with wages from a new job for a period of time, Escriva told COPE radio station.

“Without incentives to find a job, there is a temptation to exhaust the stipend and not look on the job market,” said Escriva, who added up to a fifth of Spanish households have an income of less than €246 (US$266) a month.

It has yet to be decided how much will be paid per month and Escriva declined to say what it would cost the government, though he said it would be funded with new public debt.

Germany: rate of infection has fallen, but elderly remain at risk

Germany’s agency for disease control and prevention said said the country’s infection rate for the novel coronavirus had fallen significantly, with every patient now infecting less than one other person on average.

After the so-called reproduction number drops below one, an epidemic usually will slowly subside. Germany is currently at 0.7, said the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). This means that 10 coronavirus patients will only end up infecting seven other people – leading to a drop in the number of daily new infections.

But the RKI also cautioned that the projected number of cases among people over 80 years old was increasing particularly strongly, which will probably result in a “larger increase in the number of cases requiring hospitalisation and intensive care”.

Germany easing out of lockdown, as Merkel hails ‘fragile success’

Its announcement was likely to further fuel a debate in Germany about when its coronavirus-related restrictions on people’s movements and social contacts should be lifted. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on Wednesday that the nationwide lockdown would be extended until at least May 3, although restrictions would be loosened to allow smaller businesses and public places to reopen.

Germany has the fourth-highest number of cases in Europe behind Spain, Italy and France. Some 60,000 people have died from the virus in those three nations combined.

Nepal’s top court orders rescue of overseas workers

Nepal’s top court has ordered the government to bring back vulnerable migrant workers stranded abroad in the coronavirus crisis after the country barred its own citizens from returning.

Up to 2.6 million Nepali migrants are estimated to be in the Gulf, Malaysia and Korea and labour rights activists say many have lost their jobs due to coronavirus lockdowns in those countries, leaving them highly vulnerable.

The government has banned them from returning home for fear they could spread the virus in a country that has so far registered only 30 cases and no deaths and is ill equipped to deal with a major epidemic.

But the Supreme Court, ruling on a petition filed by a human rights charity, said the government could not sit by while its own citizens struggled.

“The government ... must take additional and effective steps to ensure the security and good health of its migrant workers,” the judge said in her order on Thursday, requiring authorities to allow them to return or provide help where they are.

Netflix offers some educational films for free

Netflix said on Friday it had made some documentary features and series, including Our Planet and Explained, available on the company’s YouTube channel for free at the request of teachers.

The move comes as the coronavirus outbreak has forced schools to shut down, and confined millions of students to their homes, compelling schools and colleges to tap virtual tools to keep the classes running.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has driven an internet boom, boosting shares of Netflix, the company faces tightening competition from Apple TV+ and Disney+, which has attracted more than 50 million paid users globally.

“For many years, Netflix has allowed teachers to screen documentaries in their classrooms. However, this isn’t possible with schools closed,” the company said in a blog post explaining the move.

Diamond Princess owners target China return

The CEO of the cruise ship company that owns the Diamond Princess, which became a hotbed of infections, has said China might be among the first areas where cruise lines start sailing again as the coronavirus pandemic eases.

It’s logical for China to be among the first regions to restart sailing, because it is starting to open up to some types of social gathering, Arnold said on Thursday on a conference call with journalists.

“Because of that – and that alone – it’s possible that China could be one of the first markets where cruise can be renewed,” Donald said. “There are other issues, though, not the least of which is where the cruise is going to go.”

Duterte threatens ‘martial law’

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened a martial law-like crackdown to stop people flouting a virus lockdown in the nation’s capital.

Duterte spoke a day after authorities reported an upsurge of cars on Manila’s roads, which have been nearly deserted since a sweeping lockdown was imposed a month ago on about half the country’s 110 million people.

“I’m just asking for a little discipline. If not, if you do not believe me, then the military and police will take over,” Duterte said in a televised speech late on Thursday. “The military and police will enforce social distancing at curfew ... It’s like martial law. You choose.”

The Philippines on Friday reported 25 new coronavirus deaths and 218 additional infections, bringing the total to 5,878 infections and 387 deaths. It added that 52 more patients had recovered, bringing the total to 487.

Hackers hit companies researching treatment

A senior US cybersecurity official with the FBI said foreign government hackers had broken into companies conducting research into treatments for the Covid-19 disease.

FBI deputy assistant director Tonya Ugoretz told participants in an online panel discussion hosted by the Aspen Institute that the bureau had recently seen state-backed hackers poking around a series of healthcare and research institutions.

“We certainly have seen reconnaissance activity, and some intrusions, into some of those institutions, especially those that have publicly identified themselves as working on Covid-related research,” she said.

Ugoretz said it made sense for institutions working on promising treatments or a potential vaccine to tout their work publicly. However, she said: “The sad flipside is that it kind of makes them a mark for other nation-states that are interested in gleaning details about what exactly they’re doing and maybe even stealing proprietary information that those institutions have.”

Ugoretz said that state-backed hackers had often targeted biopharmaceutical industry, but said “it’s certainly heightened during this crisis”. She did not name specific countries or identify targeted organisations.

New York hospitalisations and deaths fall

The number of coronavirus-related hospitalisations and deaths in New York fell to their lowest levels in more than a week, adding to evidence that the hardest-hit state was controlling its spread, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday.

Cuomo also extended an order closing businesses and schools by two weeks until at least May 15 in coordination with other states in the region, and added details to mask requirements, saying New Yorkers should wear them on buses, taxis and trains.

Cuomo, who has emerged as a leading national voice on the pandemic, said the improvement in key metrics reflected social distancing efforts which had brought the state’s infection rate low enough to control the outbreak.

The governor said 17,735 people were hospitalised across New York because of Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, down from 18,335 a day earlier and the lowest number since April 6. On Wednesday, 606 people died from the virus, also the lowest number in more than a week.

Standoff over WHO funding

Republican US lawmakers called on President Donald Trump on Thursday to withhold payments to the World Health Organisation until its director general resigns, backing Trump’s criticism of the UN agency’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Seventeen of Trump’s fellow Republicans on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee wrote to Trump supporting his announcement this week that he was withholding funding for the WHO, and saying he should condition the resumption of contributions on the resignation of director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Trump drew immediately condemnation on Tuesday from many world leaders and health experts, as well as US Democrats, by saying he would halt US funding of the Geneva-based WHO over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump, who has reacted angrily to criticism of his own handling of the virus outbreak, said the WHO had promoted China’s “disinformation” about the coronavirus and been too lenient with Beijing in the early weeks of the crisis.

In their letter, the House Republicans said they had lost faith in Tedros and blamed the WHO and Chinese Communist Party for the extent of the current global health crisis, although they praised the “vital role” the WHO plays around the world.

Australian PM warns restrictions could last another year

Australian public life could be constrained for another year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned on Friday, as the country’s most populous state mulled sending children to school in shifts.

Australia has so far avoided the high numbers of coronavirus casualties reported around the world after closing its borders and imposing strict “social distancing” measures for the past month.

Restaurants, bars and other “non-essential” businesses have closed and public gatherings of more than two people are banned under the threat of fines and even prison, measures that are expected to double the unemployment rate by mid-year.

Morrison said some measures, like the rule requiring people to stand at least 1.5 metres apart, would likely remain for several months, given there was no guarantee a vaccine would be developed in that time.

“Social distancing is something we should get very used to,” Morrison told Melbourne radio station 3AW. “It could be a year, but I’m not speculating about that. “Certainly while the virus is prevalent across the world [the 1.5-metre rule] should be a natural instinct.”

Downturn could kill hundreds of thousands of children, UN warns

Hundreds of thousands of children could die this year due to the global economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, and tens of millions more could fall into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis, the United Nations warned on Thursday.

The world body also said in a risk report that nearly 369 million children across 143 countries who normally rely on school meals for a reliable source of daily nutrition have now been forced to look elsewhere.

“We must act now on each of these threats to our children,” UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said. “Leaders must do everything in their power to cushion the impact of the pandemic. What started as a public health emergency has snowballed into a formidable test for the global promise to leave no one behind.”

The UN report warned that “economic hardship experienced by families as a result of the global economic downturn could result in an hundreds of thousands of additional child deaths in 2020, reversing the last two to three years of progress in reducing infant mortality within a single year”.

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Brazil health minister fired

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro fired his health minister on Thursday after a series of disagreements over government efforts to contain the new coronavirus.

“I just heard from the President Jair Bolsonaro the news of my dismissal from the health ministry,” Luiz Henrique Mandetta posted on his verified Twitter profile, adding that he wished success to his replacement, who is yet to be named officially.

Mandetta, a doctor, garnered popular support for his pandemic response that included promotion of broad isolation measures enacted by state governors.

Bolsonaro, for his part, repeatedly characterised the virus as a “little flu”, said shutting down the economy would cause more damage than confining only high-risk Brazilians, and touted the yet-unproven efficacy of an antimalarial drug.

US-Canada border won’t reopen soon

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday the border between Canada and the United States is not opening any time soon for non-essential travel. He added that it will still be a “significant amount of time” before Canada can loosen such a restriction.

The US and Canada agreed last month to limit border crossings to essential travel amid the pandemic but that agreement is due to expire on April 19.

US President Trump said on Wednesday the US and Canada are “doing well” amid the pandemic and said the US-Canada border will be among the first borders to open.

Nearly 200,000 people cross that border every day in normal times. Canada sends 75 per cent of its exports to the US and about 18 per cent of American exports go to Canada.

Why Britain’s ethnic minorities have been hit so hard by coronavirus

Britain’s Princess Beatrice cancels wedding

Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter Princess Beatrice and her fiancé Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi have cancelled their royal wedding due to the lockdown in Britain, media reports said on Thursday.

Princess Beatrice had earlier in March scaled back her wedding plans and cancelled a planned reception which was due to be held at Buckingham Palace in May.

“There are no plans to switch venues or hold a bigger wedding. They aren’t even thinking about their wedding at this time. There will come a time to rearrange, but that’s not yet”, People magazine reported, quoting a spokesperson for the couple.

Buckingham Palace could not immediately be reached for a comment.

Nigeria reports chloroquine poisonings after Trump touts drug

Facebook steps up fake news fight

Facebook said on Thursday it would start sending tailor-made warnings to users highlighting facts about the coronavirus pandemic, after the world’s leading social media platform was accused of tolerating the spread of outlandish conspiracy theories.

The US giant has already been publishing fact-checking articles about the global outbreak through its partnerships with media organisations.

“We will also soon begin showing messages in News Feed to people who previously engaged with harmful misinformation related to Covid-19 that we’ve since removed, connecting them with accurate information,” chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

The messages will pop up in the relevant language for users who have previously “liked”, shared or commented on virus disinformation, and point them to myth-busting facts compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Africa to roll out more than 1 million tests

More than 1 million coronavirus tests will be rolled out starting next week in Africa to address the “big gap” in assessing the true number of cases on the continent, the head of the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

“Maybe 15 million tests” will be required in Africa over the next three months, John Nkengasong said.

The new initiative to dramatically accelerate testing comes as the continent of 1.3 billion people braces for its turn in the pandemic that has rolled from China to Europe and the US and now beyond. Experts have said Africa is weeks behind Europe and the US, but the rise in cases has looked alarmingly similar.

Africa has suffered in the global race to obtain testing kits and other badly needed medical equipment. While the number of virus cases across the continent was above 17,000 on Thursday, health officials have said the testing shortage means more are out there.

Nigerian forces kill 18 people during lockdowns

Nigerian security forces killed 18 people in two weeks while enforcing lockdowns imposed to halt the spread of the new coronavirus, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said.

Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa’s most populous country and biggest energy producer, has recorded 407 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 12 deaths from the highly contagious disease.

Lockdowns initially slated to last 14 days were put in place on March 30 in the southern commercial hub Lagos, neighbouring Ogun state and the capital Abuja. They were extended on Sunday by two weeks and other states, such as the northern economic hub Kano, have also imposed restrictions.

The NHRC, an independent body, said in a statement dated April 15 that there had been “eight documented incidents of extrajudicial killings leading to 18 deaths” between March 30 and April 13.

It said the killings were carried out by the Nigerian Correctional Service, the police force and army.

In response, a spokesman for the Nigerian Correctional Service said four inmates had died after violence broke out and left a number of prisoners and staff hospitalised. The rights commission report alleged eight deaths.

Vietnam gives US 250,000 locally-made masks

Vietnam is donating 250,000 domestically made medical masks to the United States, which has seen deaths from the novel coronavirus top 30,000.

The masks, including 50,000 given to the White House, are worth at least US$100,000, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Vietnam also gave Japan masks and locally made medical equipment worth US$100,000, the ministry said in an emailed statement.

The gifts to the US, Vietnam’s largest single export market, and Japan follow similar mask donations to Cambodia, Laos and European countries including Russia, France, and Italy.

Vietnam delivered 450,000 medical protective suits made by DuPont’s Haiphong facility to Dallas, Texas, earlier this month.

Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Bloomberg