Coronavirus latest: Singapore cases surpass South Korea’s; doctors slam Trump’s disinfectant cure idea

Doctors and disinfectant makers on Friday urged people not to drink or inject disinfectant, after US President Donald Trump suggested scientists should investigate inserting the cleaning agent into the body as a cure for the novel coronavirus.

“The disinfectant knocks it out in a minute. One minute. Is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside (the body)?” Trump asked at his daily briefing on Thursday. “Because, you see, it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that out.”

Trump’s comments – which came after a government scientist’s presentation about studies showing that sunlight, humidity and disinfectants could kill the coronavirus on surfaces – was condemned by doctors and disinfectant producers as “dangerous” and “hugely irresponsible”.

“This is one of the most dangerous and idiotic suggestions made so far in how one might actually treat Covid-19,” said Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia. “You may not die of Covid-19 after injecting disinfectant, but only because you may already be dead from the injection.”

The novel coronavirus has killed over 50,000 people in the United States, the worst-hit country in the world. It now has more than 875,000 confirmed infections, but due to a lack of testing, the actual number of infections is likely to be much higher.

Meanwhile on Friday, Singapore reported 897 new coronavirus cases, a slight dip compared to the past four days, when it recorded more than 1,000 daily infections.

This brings the total number of infections to 12,075 – the highest in Southeast Asia, surpassing South Korea, which at one point was battling the largest outbreak outside mainland China. South Korea had 10,708 infections as of Friday and in recent days has reported fewer than 20 new cases every day.

In Asia, Singapore now trails only China, India and Japan in total cases.

Preliminary data from Singapore’s health ministry showed the vast majority of the new cases are migrant workers living in dormitories, and 13 of them are Singapore citizens and residents.

Authorities expect the number of infections to rise as they aggressively test hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers living in cramped conditions. They have become the country’s latest challenge in its fight against the virus, making up 81 per cent of Singapore’s total infections as of Thursday.

As the number of infections surge among Indian and Bangladeshi workers, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he called his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Thursday.

“I assured him that we will care for Indian migrant workers here, just as we care for Singaporeans. The migrant workers made personal sacrifices to come to work here,” Lee wrote in a Facebook post. “They have made many contributions to Singapore, so we have a responsibility for them.”

Singapore recently extended its partial lockdown for a month until June 1.

Here are the developments:

Pentagon confirms coronavirus outbreak on US destroyer

The Pentagon on Friday confirmed an outbreak of coronavirus aboard a US Navy destroyer, saying one of the sailors infected was medically evacuated from the vessel and it was halting operations and returning to port.

Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman, speaking in a news briefing, confirmed the outbreak aboard the Kidd, which was first reported by Reuters.

The Reuters report quoted US officials as saying more than a dozen sailors had tested positive for the virus. He referred queries about the specific number of infections to the Navy.

Dettol maker urges people not to inject disinfectants after Trump remarks

Reckitt Benckiser, the maker of Lysol and Dettol, warned people against using disinfectants to treat the coronavirus, after US President Donald Trump suggested researchers try putting disinfectants into patients’ bodies.

“Under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),” the company said.

Trump said researchers should try to apply their findings to coronavirus patients by inserting light or disinfectant into their bodies.

In interviews and on social networks, doctors and others dismissed Trump’s idea out of hand.

“This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible, and it’s dangerous,” Vin Gupta, pulmonologist and global health expert told NBC News.

Last month, an Arizona man died and his wife was put in critical condition after ingesting chloroquine phosphate, an additive used to clean fish tanks that is also found in the medicine promoted by the US president.

WHO forms alliance to urgently fund Covid-19 vaccine

The World Health Organisation, major powers and philanthropists launched a campaign on Friday to raise billions of dollars to speed up work on diagnostics, medicine and a vaccine for the coronavirus disease.

“We are facing a common threat, which we can only defeat with a common approach,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a virtual presentation of the programme.

The initiative's goal is to make sure that these newly developed medical tools will be widely available across the world, not just in wealthy countries.

UK virus death toll crosses 19,000

Britain on Friday reported 684 more casualties from hospital, taking the death toll to 19,506.

The figure is more than the 616 reported the previous day and comes after the government claimed the virus had hit its peak.

Britain is one of the worst-hit countries in the world by the virus, and has been under a national lockdown for more than a month.

But there are fears the true figures could be higher when deaths in the community, particularly at care homes, are taken into account.

The government is coming under pressure to reveal its plans for lifting the restrictions, as well as boost testing capacity and plug gaps in the supply of protective equipment for health and social care workers.

Brazil reports over 400 new deaths

Brazil has for the first time recorded more than 400 coronavirus-related deaths in a 24-hour period.

Some 3,313 people have now died in total after contracting the virus in the largest country in South America.

The number of infected people stands at nearly 50,000. A lack of available tests means the actual number of people infected is assumed to be far higher.

Brazil was the first country on the continent to register a confirmed case of the coronavirus.

Russia’s infections close in on 70,000

Russia on Friday reported 5,849 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, pushing its nationwide tally to 68,622. It also reported 60 new casualties, taking the death toll to 615.

To help Russia’s health system cope with the pandemic, hospitals across the country, including private ones, are being asked to turn their focus on the outbreak.

A temporary hospital in St Petersburg with just over 1,000 beds for coronavirus patients will open in the city’s Lenexpo exhibition centre by the end of the week, RIA news agency said.

St Petersburg, Russia’s second biggest city, had reported 2,700 coronavirus cases and 20 deaths as of Friday. Russia as a whole had nearly 70,000 confirmed cases and 615 deaths.

The defence ministry is also building 16 new hospitals across the country. It expects the buildings to be ready by mid-May.

Nasa engineers build medical devices to help fight virus

Nasa engineers in California have designed and built a mass-manufacturable ventilator in just 37 days, according to the US space agency.

“We usually build spacecraft, not medical devices, but we want to help,” they said in a tweet.

The device has already been tested at a hospital in New York, the epicentre of the virus outbreak in the US, and is now is under review for emergency approval by the Food and Drug Administration, Nasa said.

Other devices being developed by the agency include an oxygen helmet to treat coronavirus patients with minor symptoms.

Europe’s virus spread slows

With more than 110,000 deaths, or nearly 60 per cent of the global total, Europe has been hit hard by the pandemic. But as new infections decline, the region’s leaders are starting to implement looser curbs on contact between people as they try to revive business activity.

Italy’s unprecedented shutdown, which began March 10, has brought daily life for 60 million people to a near standstill. An initial reopening of businesses is planned for May 4.

France is working on a plan to gradually lift restrictions on non-essential travel and reopen the economy starting May 11.

Despite progress, Germany’s latest data reflect the struggles in controlling the disease, with new cases and deaths rising the most in nearly a week. There were 2,481 new infections in the 24 hours through Friday morning, bringing the total to 153,129, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Fatalities rose to 5,575.

“We are not at the end of the pandemic but at the beginning,” Merkel said on Thursday in a speech to the lower house of parliament. “Let’s not gamble away what we’ve achieved and risk a setback.”

German state to impose US$5,000 anti-mask fines

Violations of anti-coronavirus mask rules soon to be introduced in Bavaria, Germany’s worst-hit state, could be punished with fines of up to €5,000 (US$5,400), according to a report seen by dpa.

The highest penalty is reserved for shop owners who do not ensure that their workers are wearing the required mouth-and-nose coverings, under measures set to come into effect on Monday.

People who go into shops or travel on public transport without such a mask will face fines of €150.

All 16 of Germany's federal states are making face coverings mandatory in public to varying degrees, mostly starting next week. In Bavaria, which has some 40,000 cases of infection and over 1,500 deaths, the rules apply to anyone aged six and above. A scarf is also permitted as a face covering.

China reports six new cases

Mainland China reported six new coronavirus cases as of end-April 23, down from 10 reported a day earlier, putting the total number of Covid-19 infections at 82,804.

China’s National Health Commission said in a statement on Friday that two of the new cases were imported ones involving travellers from overseas.

There were six such imported cases reported a day earlier.

Number of new asymptomatic patients, those infected with the virus but not exhibiting symptoms, rose to 34 from 27 reported a day earlier. Covid-19 death toll for mainland China remained unchanged at 4,632.

Manila lockdown extended; Indonesia bans air, sea travel

The Philippines is extending until May 15 the lockdown of its capital region and nearby areas that account for majority of its economic output as it tries to stem the coronavirus outbreak.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque announced the two-week extension of the lockdown in Metro Manila, central and southern parts of the main Luzon island – which have been under strict quarantine since mid-March – in a taped briefing Friday. President Rodrigo Duterte also placed Cebu, Davao and Iloilo provinces in Visayas and Mindanao under lockdown.

Muslims worldwide adjust Ramadan plans amid virus pandemic

Indonesia will temporarily ban domestic and international air and sea travel, with some exceptions, starting this week to prevent a further spread of the coronavirus, the transport ministry said.

The ban on sea travel took immediate effect, but the restriction on air travel will start on Saturday so that some pre-booked flights can go-ahead. The ban will apply across the board until May 31.

Indonesia on Friday reported its biggest daily jump in infections after identifying 436 new cases, taking the total to 8,211. Forty-two more people who had tested positive for the virus died, taking the total number of deaths to 689.

Turkey’s ‘Wuhan’ now under control, says minister

Turkey’s health minister has compared the city of Istanbul to Wuhan — the Chinese city where the first outbreak of the novel coronavirus was reported — as the epicentre of infections.

“Turkey’s Wuhan was Istanbul,” Fahrettin Koca told the pro-government Sabah newspaper in an interview published on Friday. Koca claimed the spread of Covid-19 in Istanbul was brought under control through contact tracing executed by a team of experts, and early treatment.

“They followed trails like medical detectives,” he said, adding it would have been difficult to contain the virus otherwise.

Turkey has reported 101,790 Covid-19 cases and 2,491 deaths. The country ranks seventh in the world in the number of confirmed infections, surpassing Iran and China, according to Johns Hopkins University.

South Korea rolls out new testing equipment

South Korea on Friday established an online information service and new technology to combat the coronavirus outbreak, including efficient diagnostic kits and walk-through testing booths.

Seoul will also shorten the approval process for clinical trials and research for experimental vaccines and treatment to less than a week from the current period of between one and two months, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) initially launched the “Covid-19 Patents Information Navigation” on its website in Korean, detailing technologies and patents related to quarantine, protection gear and face masks. However, a flood of requests from foreign countries prompted it to publish in English as well.

“In the English-language page, you may browse all related patents and technologies in the world, many of them patented by Koreans here and abroad, that are related with protection against Covid-19,” a KIPO official said.

This service includes contacts of manufacturers and exporters of Covid-19 diagnostic kits as well as details of certification, size and production capability.

“The Covid-19 Patents Information Navigation is expected to be used not simply for providing patent information but also for sharing various technologies and information on ways to overcome the coronavirus pandemic globally,” KIPO head Park Won-joo said.

A page introducing “K-WalkThru” refers to a method of collecting test samples while subjects pass through outdoor screening booths, designed to improve test speed while preserving safety.

Walk-through screening booths are the latest method used by South Korea after it earlier opened drive-though screening centres across the country. This method has a drawback: it needs plenty of space.

The K-WalkThru system includes a medical box 70cm wide and two metres high with a glove attached. It enables medical personnel to collect samples from test subjects without direct contact.

Infections on Italian cruise ship in Japan rise to 91

The number of infections on an Italian cruise ship in Japan rose to 91 on Friday, and one crew member showing severe symptoms remained hospitalised in the city of Nagasaki, a local government official said.

The Nagasaki government has so far tested 335 of the 623 crew members on the Costa Atlantica, which arrived in the prefecture a few months ago to undergo repairs. There are no remaining passengers on board.

Those on the ship who have tested negative will be repatriated “as soon as possible”, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said on Friday.

Nagasaki has so far confirmed 108 coronavirus cases, including the 91 on the ship. Overall, Japan has reported more than 13,000 coronavirus cases, including 712 on the Princess Diamond cruise ship quarantined in the port of Yokohama in February.

Meanwhile about 130 Japanese students who were unable to return home after international flights were suspended will be repatriated on a charter flight that departs Fiji late on Friday, according to authorities.

The students of an English language school in Lautoka, Fiji’s second largest city, were unable to board a repatriation flight earlier in April because the city had been placed in lockdown. Fiji has 18 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and no deaths.

With the support of the Japanese embassy, the students will be repatriated on the charter flight along with about 15 people from Japanese firms posted in Fiji, and a further 15 from the Japan International Cooperation Agency who arrived from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu earlier on Friday.

Also on board the flight – which will arrive in Japan on Saturday – will be students from South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Norway and Taiwan. They will transit through Japan to their final destinations, according to the Free Bird Institute, the English language school.

Climate activists take global protest online

Youth groups are staging a long-planned global climate demonstration online on Friday because of restrictions on public protests.

The student group Fridays for Future, whose past rallies have drawn hundreds of thousands onto the streets worldwide, is using a livestream to call on world leaders to act against global warming.

Some groups have found creative ways to stage very limited demonstrations despite the lockdown. In Berlin, activists placed thousands of protest placards in front of the German parliament.

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 17, the most prominent face of the youth climate movement, said Wednesday during an online Earth Day event that the climate crisis “may not be as immediate as the corona crisis but we need to tackle this now, otherwise it will be irreversible”.

Virus testing on US aircraft carrier complete

Four weeks to the day after the San Diego-based aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt diverted to Guam because the coronavirus was spreading on board, the ship has finished testing all of its crew for the illness, the US Navy said.

Figures released on Thursday showed 840 sailors tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which was more than 17 per cent of the roughly 4,845 sailors on board.

Some who were positive for the virus were housed on base in isolation. Four sailors with Covid-19 were in the hospital on Naval Base Guam. One sailor died from the virus last week.

More than 4,000 sailors had tested negative, and 4,234 had moved off the ship into hotels and facilities on Guam.

A Pacific Fleet spokesman said on Thursday there was no timeline yet for the crew to move back aboard the ship.

UK PM in ‘incredible’ shape, may resume work Monday

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in “incredible” shape after falling gravely ill with Covid-19, US President Donald Trump said, as speculation mounted that the British leader was preparing to return to work to decide how to lift the lockdown.

Johnson, 55, spent three nights in intensive care at a London hospital earlier this month with Covid-19 complications for which he was treated with oxygen. He later said he owed his life to the hospital staff.

“He sounded incredible. He was ready to go,” Trump said of how Johnson sounded on a call earlier this week. “It’s like the old Boris. He’s doing great.”

As reports suggested Johnson may return to work as early as Monday, the leader faces the biggest conundrum of his premiership: how to lift a lockdown that is destroying swathes of the UK economy without triggering a deadly second wave of the outbreak.

Tom Hanks writes to bullied boy called ‘Corona’

Hollywood megastar and coronavirus survivor Tom Hanks has written a comforting letter to a bullied Australian boy called Corona and gifted him a cherished typewriter bearing the same name.

Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson contracted Covid-19 in March and spent two weeks recovering in a Queensland hospital, before returning home to the US.

Eight-year-old Corona De Vries sent a letter to Hanks asking after his health, local media reported.

“I heard on the news you and your wife had caught the coronavirus,” the boy wrote.

“Are you OK? I love my name but at school people call me the coronavirus,” De Vries said, 7 News reported. “I get very sad and angry when people call me this.”

Hanks reportedly responded with words of encouragement, typed out on one of the typewriters he often carries around.

“Your letter made my wife and I feel so wonderful!” he wrote. “You’ve got a friend in me!”

Hanks also gave him a Corona-branded typewriter that he had brought to Australia saying “I thought this typewriter would suit you”. He added: “Ask a grown-up how it works. And use it to write me back.”

Australia says using tracing data for non-health purposes illegal

Australia will make it illegal for non-health officials to access data collected on smartphone software to trace the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, amid privacy concerns raised by the measure.

Australia has so far avoided the high death toll of other countries, with only 78 deaths, largely as a result of tough restrictions on movement that have brought public life to a standstill.

The federal government has said existing “social distancing” measures will remain until at least mid-May, and that its willingness to relax them will depend on whether people download the smartphone “app” to identify who a person with the illness has had contact with.

The tracing app, which is yet to be released, has raised concerns from legal and privacy advocates who have said the location data it collects may be used by unrelated bodies like law enforcement agencies. 

Agence France-Presse, Reuters, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Park Chan-kyong, Kyodo and DPA