Spain’s coronavirus death toll reaches 15,843
Spain recorded a 605 increase in the death toll on Friday, with the number of people who have died from the disease rising to 15,843 on Friday, up from 15,238 on Thursday.
The coronavirus crisis has produced some interesting ear worms, but this techno offering from Swiss TV Morning Show trio – which mixes techno track, the sound of a dripping tap and the voices of interior minister Alain Berset and president Simonetta Sommaruga telling people to stay home – is perhaps my favourite.
Thanks to Guardian reader Andrea Freiermuth for sending this!
A Chinese writer who published a diary during her time under lockdown in Wuhan has been subjected to widespread online criticism for publishing her book in English and German, writes my colleague Helen Davidson.
Fang Fang has been accused of contributing to a negative international narrative on China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The popular Wuhan writer began chronicling the lockdown in late January, including criticism of the official response.
“How many people have died in Wuhan and their families destroyed?” she wrote on 31 January. “But so far not a single person has said sorry or taken responsibility. I’ve even seen a writer use the phrase ‘complete victory’. What are they talking about?”
Her posts were shared widely on social media even as each was quickly deleted by censors, according to the Diplomat magazine.
The Guardian
(@guardian)Chinese writer faces online backlash over Wuhan lockdown diary https://t.co/MjndunsPb7
April 10, 2020
Yemen announces first confirmed case of coronavirus
Yemen’s internationally recognised government Friday announced the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the war-torn country, stoking fears that an outbreak could devastate an already crippled health care system, the Associated Press reports.
The national emergency committee for the COVID-19 disease in Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramawt said in a tweet the patient is being treated and in stable condition, without further details. Nasser Baoum, the minister of health for Yemen’s internationally recognized government, told the AP the case is a 73-year-old Yemeni national who works at the al-Shahr port in Hadramawt.
It comes after Saudi Arabia started a two-week unilateral ceasefire in the country, in a move designed to show its awareness of the threat the coronavirus poses to a war-torn country with only rudimentary health services.
Rescued migrants met by Maltese soldiers in bio-suits
A group of North African migrants rescued from a sinking boat came ashore in Malta early on Friday, hours after the government had said no further groups would be allowed in after it closed its ports due to the coronavirus emergency, Reuters reports.
The 64 migrants were rescued by the Maltese armed forces from a boat inside the Malta rescue zone south of the island and brought ashore. On Thursday Malta had followed Italy, the country that has so far seen the most deaths from the epidemic, in announcing it would no longer allow migrant boats to land due to the risk of coronavirus infection.
The Maltese government said in a statement the armed forces had been monitoring the migrants for some hours before a patrol boat picked them up.
However, it said Malta could not guarantee further rescues and would not allow any further disembarkation of rescued persons because resources have been strained by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new arrivals were received by soldiers wearing bio-suits shortly after midnight. They will be kept in detention.
The government said:
It is in the interest, and is the responsibility, of such people not to endanger themselves on a risky voyage to a country which is not in a position to offer them a secure harbour.
Malta has imposed a 14-day quarantine on all travellers entering the country, closed schools and told people to stay at home during the emergency.
It announced this week its first death from COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus, and had 319 active cases as of Thursday, according to government figures.
After a relative lull in arrivals of boat migrants from Africa, numbers had started to pick up again in the first two months of the year only to fall back sharply in March as Italy was hit by the coronavirus epidemic.
Before the crisis, ships operated by aid groups regularly patrolled the coast of Libya looking to rescue migrants from flimsy boats. Most have withdrawn but one ship operated by German charity Sea-Eye returned to the area last week and picked up 150 migrants on Monday.
With both Italy and Malta, the two nearest European countries, closed, it is unclear where they will be taken.
The New York Times reported on Friday that the Maltese Navy had been accused of sabotaging a migrant boat off the coast of Malta after letting it drift for over a day.
New York Times World
(@nytimesworld)The Maltese Navy was accused of sabotaging a migrant boat off the coast of Malta after letting it drift for over a day, the latest in a series of hard-line actions taken by European countries against migrants since the start of the coronavirus crisis. https://t.co/mFuQF0r3FI
April 10, 2020
Indonesia has reported 219 new coronavirus cases, putting the country’s total to 3,512 according to its health ministry.
Akhtar Mohammad Makoii
Oman’s capital, Muscat, went under full lockdown this morning as number of confirmed coronavirus cases reach 484 in the sultanate with 27 recorded in last 24 hours, writes Akhtar Mohammad Makoii.
The government announced that the isolation procedure will be implemented until April 22. The plan started 10 am this morning by “activating control and checkpoints”.
Oman reported its third death to Covid-19 yesterday.
(Oman VS COVID19) عمان تواجه كورونا
(@OmanVSCovid19)The Decision to Lockdown Muscat Governorate
comes into effect.#عمان_تواجه_كورونا pic.twitter.com/F6evI3u2ZvApril 10, 2020
Singapore suspends use of video-conferencing tool Zoom by teachers
Singapore has suspended the use of video-conferencing tool Zoom by teachers, its education ministry said on Friday, after “very serious incidents” occurred in the first week of a coronavirus lockdown that has seen schools move to home-based learning, Reuters reports.
One of the incidents involved obscene images appearing on screens and strange men making lewd comments during the streaming of a geography lesson with teenage girls, according to local media reports.
Zoom Video Communications Inc ZM.O has been plagued with safety and privacy concerns about its conferencing app which has seen a surge in usage as offices and schools around the world shut to try curb coronavirus infections. The Singapore government has also been using the tool to host media conferences.
Aaron Loh of the ministry’s educational technology division, without detailing the incidents, he said:
These are very serious incidents. MOE (Ministry of Education) is currently investigating both breaches and will lodge a police report if warranted. As a precautionary measure, our teachers will suspend their use of Zoom until these security issues are ironed out.
Loh said that they would further advise teachers on security protocols such as requiring secure log-ins and not sharing the meeting link beyond the students in the class.
Taiwan and Germany have already put restrictions on Zoom’s use, while Alphabet Inc’s Google banned the desktop version of Zoom from corporate laptops on Wednesday. The company also faces a class-action lawsuit.
Concerns have grown over its lack of end-to-end encryption of meeting sessions, routing of traffic through China and “zoombombing” when uninvited guests crash meetings.
Officials at Berkeley High School in California said they suspended use of the app after a “naked adult male using racial slurs” intruded on what the school said was a password-protected meeting on Zoom, according to a letter to parents seen by Reuters.
To address security concerns, Zoom has embarked on a 90-day plan to bolster privacy and security issues, and has also tapped former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos as an adviser.
Philippines health ministry reports 18 new coronavirus deaths, 119 new case
The Summit Express
(@mysummitexpress)BREAKING: The Department of Health (DOH) reports 119 new cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines, bringing the country total to 4,195. DOH also announces 16 new recoveries. pic.twitter.com/3OgcglXao8
April 10, 2020
EU agrees €500bn rescue package
Daniel Boffey
A messy compromise to unlock €500bn (£438bn) of EU support for countries hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic has been struck after Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, warned that the existence of the bloc was at stake, writes my colleague Daniel Boffey.
EU finance ministers on a video conference call struck a deal late on Thursday after the Netherlands shifted on a demand for “economic surveillance” of countries benefiting from €240bn of credit lines via the European stability mechanism, a bailout fund for struggling member states.
Italy and Spain have in turn accepted a delay on agreement on so-called “coronabonds” that would allow member states to raise funds on the same terms from the financial markets. The issue of a “recovery fund” yet to be fleshed out will be put to the EU’s heads of state and government at a future summit.
Just a reminder that for all our UK-facing coronavirus news please do follow the updates on our UK coronavirus liveblog
Russia reports new record daily rise of coronavirus cases
Russia reported 1,786 more coronavirus cases on Friday, its largest daily rise so far, which took the national tally of confirmed infections to 11,917.
The number of coronavirus-related deaths rose by 18 to 94, the Russian coronavirus crisis response center said in a statement.
Reuters
(@Reuters)Latest on the spread of the coronavirus around the world https://t.co/8YSPpVwCfX pic.twitter.com/0zvLc9JrJG
April 10, 2020
Here is the latest update from Reuters on the global coronavirus situation:
EUROPE
* Spain’s prime minister warned that nationwide confinement would likely last until May even though he said the worst should soon be over and the death toll slowed.
* The Italian government is planning to extend its lockdown until May 3, two trade union sources told Reuters on Thursday after meeting ministers.
* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson left intensive care on Thursday evening as he continues to recover from Covid-19, but he remains under close observation in hospital.
* The British government defended its early handling of the outbreak after a Reuters investigation found its scientific advisers were too slow to communicate their growing concerns.
* Britain urged its citizens to stay at home over the coming Easter holidays, amid fears that the pull of wanting to see family and friends over the Christian festival could undermine efforts to stop the virus spread.
* Social distancing measures have helped Germany to slightly slow the spread of the coronavirus, Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
* The number of confirmed infections in Germany rose by 5,323 in the past 24 hours to 113,525 on Friday, climbing for a fourth straight day, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed.
* Russia reported a record one-day rise in cases, pushing its tally to more than 10,000.
* The Czech Republic plans to roll out a system of quickly tracking and isolating contacts of people with the virus to eventually allow the lifting of blanket restrictions.
* Slovakia closed off several Roma settlements in the eastern part of the country after reports of virus clusters in five of them.
* Bulgaria’s prime minister said the country’s Orthodox churches and temples will be open for traditional Palm Sunday and Easter services despite the outbreak.
AMERICAS
* Americans must resist the impulse to ease social-separation measures at the first glimpse of progress now being seen in the coronavirus battle, state government and public health leaders warned. Meanwhile, total cases topped 459,000, with the death toll reaching 16,400.
* The Trump administration’s top economic officials said they believe the U.S. economy could start to reopen for normal business in May.
* Canada’s coronavirus death toll is set to soar from more than 500 currently to as high as 22,000 by the end of the pandemic, health officials said, while the economy lost a record 1 million jobs last month.
* Lockdowns in Brazil’s largest cities are beginning to slip, according to new data this week seen and analysed by Reuters, with more people leaving their homes as President Jair Bolsonaro continues to criticize the measures.
* Chile will start handing out certificates to people who have recovered from the coronavirus that will exempt them from adhering to quarantines or other restrictions.
* Mexico has recorded its first two deaths of pregnant women from the coronavirus as the number of fatalities reached 194, the health ministry said on Thursday.
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
* China will allocate more resources to prevent the spread of the virus from its land borders, as the country still faces risks of a comeback after new clusters are identified in some regions.
* Mainland China reported on Friday 42 new coronavirus cases, including 38 cases involving travellers from overseas.
* Tokyo and Japan’s central government resolved a high-profile feud over what businesses should shut down during a month-long emergency to fight the coronavirus, the city’s governor said. The number of cases in Japan rose to 5,548 on Thursday, public broadcaster NHK said. There have been 108 deaths.
* India claimed initial success in its fight against the epidemic, saying it would have been hit with 820,000 cases by next week had it not imposed a nationwide lockdown.
* Vietnam said more than 1,000 healthcare workers and 14,400 others linked to an outbreak at a Hanoi hospital have tested negative.
* Singapore confirmed 287 new infections on Thursday, its biggest daily increase yet, with more than 200 of them linked to outbreaks in dormitories for foreign workers.
* Indonesia reported its biggest daily jump in deaths on Thursday, while neighbouring Malaysia had its second-lowest daily increase since a partial lockdown was imposed on March 18.
* Australian police said they have taken the “black box” of a cruise ship which disembarked hundreds of infected passengers in Sydney, as part of a homicide investigation into the country’s deadliest infection source.
* South Korean’s Daegu city, which endured the first large coronavirus outbreak outside of China, on Friday reported zero new cases for the first time since late February, as new infections across the country dropped to record lows.
* Thailand reported 50 new cases and the death of a 43-year-old woman on Friday.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa extended a lockdown by two weeks to the end of April.
* A South African public sector union withdrew a court case against the government over shortages of protective gear for frontline health workers.
* All Botswana’s parliamentarians including the president will be quarantined for two weeks and tested, after a health worker screening lawmakers for the virus tested positive.
* Lebanon extended its almost month-long shutdown by another two weeks until April 26.
* Political and physical divisions in the West Bank and Gaza have induced two very different responses, with a strict lockdown in the first and crowds milling about freely in the second.
* Yemen reported its first coronavirus case in Hadhramaut Governorate, the supreme national emergency committee tweeted.
Updated
The UK Foreign Office has chartered 12 more flights to bring more than 3,000 stranded UK nationals back from India, the Press Association reports.
They follow seven flights that have already been arranged between April 8 and April 12 and will take the total number of Britons repatriated from India to around 5,000.
A £75m operation to charter flights from destinations where commercial routes have been severed due to the coronavirus pandemic was launched by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office last week.
But efforts to bring people home from India have previously been criticised by travellers complaining about lengthy waiting lists and expensive fares.
The new flights will leave from Goa, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram between April 13 and April 20, with bookings opened on Friday.
The Foreign Office’s Minister for South Asia and the Commonwealth, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, said:
We are doing all we can to get thousands of British travellers in India home. This is a huge and complex operation which also involves working with the Indian government to enable people to move within India to get on these flights.
Over 300 people arrived from Goa on Thursday morning, 1,400 more will arrive over the Easter weekend, and these 12 flights next week will bring back thousands more.
The Foreign Office said India is one of its priority countries for arranging charter flights, along with South Africa and Peru, due to the large number of Britons seeking to return.
New York makes mass graves
New York City officials have hired contract laborers to bury the rising number of dead in its potter’s field on Hart Island, an area which has for decades been used to bury those with no known next of kin, writes my colleague Joan E Greve.
New York broke its record for the largest single-day coronavirus death toll for the third consecutive day, Governor AndrewCuomoannounced on Thursday, as he warned the effect of the outbreak on the state’s economy is expected to be more devastating than 9/11.
New York recorded 799 deaths from coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the state’s total death toll to 7,067. New York has lost about the same number of people to coronavirus as the UK.
Cambodia’s parliament passed a law on Friday to prepare the way for a state of emergency, which Prime Minister Hun Sen has said he might have to declare to reinforce the campaign against the coronavirus, Reuters reports.
Human rights groups say an emergency would give sweeping powers to Hun Sen, who Western countries have long condemned for crackdowns on opponents, civil rights groups and the media.
The law allows the government under an emergency to monitor communications, control media and social media, prohibit or restrict distribution of information that could generate public fear or unrest, or that could damage national security.
Ministry of Justice spokesman Chin Malin said:
The purpose of making this law for Cambodia is not unique, as there is this law already in many other democratic countries. The law is intended to protect public order, security, people’s interests, lives, health, property and the environment.
Cambodia reported one new coronavirus case on Friday, taking its confirmed tally to 119, the health ministry said.
Hun Sen was initially sceptical about the threat posed by the coronavirus but cases have been increasing and in recent weeks the government has ordered restaurants, bars and casinos to close and limited entry visas for foreigners.
Hun Sen has said he might need emergency powers to help stem the outbreak.
Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said Cambodia should be passing laws to protect public health not using the coronavirus as an excuse to extend government powers. He said:
The Cambodian government is using the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to assert absolute power over all aspects of civil, political, social, and economic life all without any time limits or checks on abuses of power.
The rights group Amnesty International said the law had been rammed through the legislative process with no transparency, no consultation and no due process.
Group official David Griffiths said:
The idea of concentrating even more unchecked power into the hands of this government is worrying in the extreme.
Coronavirus live news: global deaths pass 95,000 as Easter begins under lockdown
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