Spain death toll passes 10,000; Italy reports 760 new deaths, taking
total to 13,915, but a slower growth rate in infections; Thailand
imposes national curfew
Reuters reports that morgues and hospitals in New York City, the centre of the US outbreak, bent under the strain on Thursday, struggling to treat or bury casualties, as New York state’s Governor Andrew Cuomo offered a grim prediction the rest of the country would soon face the same misery.
Staff at one medical centre in Brooklyn were seen disposing of their
gowns and caps and other protective wear in a sidewalk trash can after
wheeling bodies out of the hospital and loading them into a refrigerated
truck.
Cuomo had earlier said the New York would run out of ventilators in six days.
'Worrying spike' in cases and deaths in Middle East, says WHO
Governments in the Middle East need to act fast to
limit the spread of the coronavirus after cases rose to nearly 60,000,
almost double their level a week earlier, the World Health Organization
said on Thursday.
“New cases have been reported in some of the most vulnerable countries
with fragile health systems,” said Ahmed Al-Mandhari, the WHO’s director
for the Eastern Mediterranean region, which includes Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Somalia and Djibouti, as well as Middle Eastern states.
“Even in countries with stronger heath systems, we have seen a worrying
spike in the numbers of cases and deaths reported,” he said in a
statement.
The Walt Disney Co says it will start standing down (furloughing)
non-essential employees on 19 April, citing the impact of the
coronavirus outbreak on its business.
The daily White House press briefing is underway. You can keep up today date with it on our US live blog here:
Donald Trump addressed the conference briefly, confirming he.
had tested negative to the coronavirus. The US now has just under
240,000 infections and 5, 798 deaths according to the Johns Hopkins
university tracker.
Trump spoke briefly about the production of new masks and establishing
dedicated Covid-19 hospitals in three states, including New York.
We have also just heard from the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who
spoke for about 5 minutes, but didn’t really announce anything, apart
from the fact that everyone was working hard and doing a good job. He’s
working on the coronavirus response team.
He said the president asked him to “break down every barrier” to help
the effort, he said. “The president wants us to think outside the box
and get the best ideas to keep Americans safe.”
The Zaandam cruise ship on which four people have died, including a
75-year-old British man, has docked in a port in Florida after
previously being denied entry. Its sister-ship, the Rotterdam has also
been granted permission to dock.
The operating company, Holland America, said that, following arrival in
Port Everglades, all guests will be health screened and cleared for
entry by US Customs and Border Protection. It added that disembarkation
is expected to be complete by Friday evening, with priority given today
to those who need immediate care.
The US president, Donald Trump, has said arrangements have been made with the UK government to evacuate British passengers.
Trump tests negative in 15-minute process – White House
The US president, Donald Trump, has tested negative for
the second time, with the result obtained in just 15 minutes, according
to a letter from his physician that has been released by the White
House.
In the note, Sean Conley, said Trump had undergone the
test for coronavirus, having already been tested last month after coming
into contact with a Brazilian official who had been infected. Conley
said Trump was tested with a new, rapid point-of-contact test. “He is
healthy and without symptoms.”
Francesca Chambers
✔@fran_chambers
True paper statement from the White House, passed out to reporters in the briefing room just now.
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Residents of Canada’s most populous city caught walking within six feet
(two metres) of anyone in a public park or square face a fine of as much
as 5,000 Canadian dollars (£2,850, $3,500).
According to the Associated Press, Toronto’s mayor John Tory says the public has been warned many times and the wilful disobedience needs to stop amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Lives are potentially at stake, and we will turn up the heat in the
hopes that the few who still don’t get it, or pretend not to get it,
will get with the programme.
The US navy has relieved the commander of the aircraft carrier, Theodore
Roosevelt, after he wrote a scathing letter asking for stronger
measures to control an outbreak onboard that ended up being leaked to
the public.
Egypt has reported 86 new cases, bringing the total number to 865, its
health ministry has said. That is the highest daily jump since
registering the first case in February. Six more people died of the
virus, the ministry said in a statement. In total, 58 people have died.
Darren Miller didn’t expect many people to come out to
clap for the NHS and frontline workers last week. Still, the
35-year-old, who works for the Scottish ambulance service, put on his
jacket and stepped out to stand in solidarity with his colleagues.
He was taken aback by the roar of applause and cheers that he was met
with in East Kilbride last week. On Thursday evening, he was overwhelmed
to see his neighbours had come again.
See how the UK paused to recognise its key workers:
We reported earlier that the UK government is thinking of issuing immunity certificates to people who have recovered.
But one expert is warning they could be dangerous. Eleanor Riley,
professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of
Edinburgh, say they could give people a “sense of false security”.
It’s not something that we’ve ever done before. When we vaccinate
people, particularly for certain diseases where they’re going to travel
overseas ... we give people a certificate saying they have been
vaccinated.
But that certificate doesn’t say they are immune and there’s a
difference. We don’t know yet whether somebody who has had this virus is
immune.
They have antibodies, they’ve clearly been exposed, yet will those
antibodies protect them against reinfection? I’m not sure that we know
that.
So to give a certificate saying somebody is immune, I think is actually
quite dangerous because: A, we don’t know if it’s true; and B, it could
give people a slight sense of false security, where they start to do
things that they wouldn’t otherwise do.
For the general public, saying you’re immune they will think ‘oh, OK, I
don’t need to worry anymore’ – and there will be people who will die as a
result of that. I think it’s very risky and I don’t think it’s
necessary.
The US president Donald Trump has invoked the Defense
Production Act to aid companies building ventilators for coronavirus
patients to receive the supply of materials they need.
In a memo released by the White House, Trump directed the US health and
human services secretary to use his authority to help facilitate the
supply of ventilator materials for six companies – General Electric Co,
Hill-Rom Holdings Inc and Medtronic Plc, as well as Resmed Inc, Royal
Philips N.V. and Vyaire Medical Inc.
France will probably extend the coronavirus confinement beyond 15 April,
the country’s prime minister Édouard Philippe has said. France went
into lockdown on 17 March and a first two-week period has already been
extended to 15 April. Philippe told TF1:
I can understand the impatience, but deconfinement is not for tomorrow morning.
Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, is
continuing to play down the pandemic, saying it is “not all it’s being
made out to be” and denying that any hospital in the country has reached
its full capacity due to the outbreak.
Speaking to church ministers outside his official residence in Brasilia,
he has urged state governors not to be so “radical,” warning that their
confinement and quarantine measures are taking a heavy toll on the
economy. He estimated that 60% to 70% of Brazilians will eventually
contract the virus.
Worldwide death toll passes 50,000. The
number of confirmed deaths has passed 50,000, according to the same
researchers. Italy remains the country worst affected by the outbreak,
with 13,915 deaths, followed by Spain, with 10,003 deaths. The US is now
the third worst affected country, with 5,316 total deaths.
British health minister sets goal of 100,000 tests a day. The
health secretary, Matt Hancock, said the government was hoping to build
an “at-scale” diagnostics industry to reach 100,000 tests a day by the
end of the month, as he unveiled his five-pillar strategy. Just 5,000
NHS staff have been tested so far.
UK hospital deaths rise by 569 to 2,921. A
total of 2,921 patients have died in hospital after testing positive
for coronavirus, according to the UK’s Department of Health. 163,194
people have been tested, with 33,718 testing positive.
Italy records 760 more deaths from coronavirus. Italy
registered 760 more deaths from Covid-19 on Thursday; 33 more than
Wednesday. A total of 13,915 people have now died from the virus in the
country.
US reveals 6.7 million applied for jobless benefits in a week. More
than 6.65 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in the US
last week, according to the latest official figures, highlighting the
devastating economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the American
economy.
Scottish death toll under-reported due to delays in reporting centrally. First
Minister Nicola Sturgeon admitted that the number of deaths in Scotland
had been underreported because of mistakes in notifying the government
of new fatalities. Partly because of this, the number of Covid-19 deaths
jumped 66% in one day, up by 50 to 126 fatalities.
Germany sees 1.1 million applications for “immediate financial help”. Authorities
in Germany have so far received 1.1 million applications for help from
self-employed and small businesses. €1bn (£875m) has already been paid
to them and €1.8bn worth of payments have been approved.
Catalonia asks Spanish army for help. The
pro-independence leader of Catalonia, the region of Spain hardest hit
by the coronavirus after Madrid, has abandoned his government’s initial
reluctance to seek help from the Spanish army, saying any assistance
would be gratefully received.
Medical staff in protective clothes carry a patient down a street in Naples. Photograph: Ciro de Luca/Reuters
