World
Indonesia announces biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases, 24 doctors now dead
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia announced its biggest daily increase in novel coronavirus cases on Monday and a medical association said 24 doctors had now died after contracting the virus. The rise in the death toll...
Mexico reports 296 new coronavirus cases, stresses need for medical personnel
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico posted its biggest single-day jump in coronavirus cases on Monday as the deputy health minister said the country needed to recruit more medical personnel to confront a worsening outbreak. Mexico registered 296 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total to 2,439 cases and 125 deaths, health officials told a news...
Iran death toll from coronavirus outbreak reaches 3,739 – health ministry
(Reuters) – The death toll in Iran from the coronavirus outbreak has reached 3,739, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said on state TV on Monday. The total number of people infected by coranavirus in the country has reached 60,500, he said.
Isolation a double-edged sword for West Bank’s Bedouin herders
AL UBEIDIYA, West Bank (Reuters) – Bedouin herders in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, already isolated by virtue of their nomadic lifestyle, have become more cut off than ever from ordinary Palestinian life since the coronavirus outbreak began. That isolation is a double-edged sword. They say their mobility makes them less vulnerable to catching the infection,...
Slovak court sentences journalist’s killer to 23 years in prison
BRATISLAVA (Reuters) – A Slovak court on Monday sentenced former soldier Miroslav Marcek to 23 years in prison for shooting and killing investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova in February 2018. Marcek, 37, who was not present at the sentencing, had admitted guilt in the case, which led to nationwide protests and...
U.S. small-business rescue loan program enters fourth day plagued by technical problems
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s $350 billion small-business rescue program entered its fourth day on Monday, plagued by technology and processing problems that are delaying disbursements to businesses hurt by the novel coronavirus, according to industry groups, bankers and an email seen by Reuters. U.S. lenders, inundated by thousands of loan applications, struggled to...
UK PM Johnson moved to intensive care as COVID-19 symptoms worsen
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to an intensive care unit on Monday after his coronavirus symptoms worsened, but his Downing Street office said he was still conscious. Britain has no formal succession plan should the prime minister become incapacitated, but Johnson, 55, asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputize for...
Pakistan police clash with doctors protesting lack of virus protection gear
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Riot police wielding batons used force to break up a protest by Pakistani doctors and medical staff against a lack of gear to protect against coronavirus, arresting dozens of medics who say the government has failed to deliver promised supplies. Reuters journalists at the scene, in the southwestern city of Quetta,...
Scots’ medical chief resigns after flouting own coronavirus rules
LONDON (Reuters) – Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood resigned on Sunday after she broke her own advice to stay at home to help slow the spread of the coronavirus by visiting her second home this weekend and last. Calderwood said that during discussions with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Sunday evening they agreed...
Canada coronavirus deaths jump 20%, Ottawa offers reservists full-time jobs
OTTAWA (Reuters) – The number of people killed by the coronavirus in Canada has jumped by just over 20% to 258 in a day, officials said on Sunday, while Ottawa offered full-time jobs to reservists in the armed forces. By 11:05 eastern time (1505 GMT), the number of those diagnosed with the coronavirus had risen...
Japan’s PM Abe to declare state of emergency as soon as Tuesday – Yomiuri
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will declare a state of emergency as early as Tuesday in a bid to stop the coronavirus spreading across the country, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, as the cumulative number of infections topped 1,000 in Tokyo alone. Abe will likely announce his plans to declare the emergency on...
American joins United, others in suspending more NYC flights on coronavirus spike
(Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc <AAL.O> said late Sunday it would suspend more flights in and out of New York City’s three main airports for about a month, joining other airlines that have cut flights to the area following a spike in coronavirus cases. Between April 9 and May 6, American will operate a...
Japan animal ventilator maker looks to boost output for human coronavirus patients
KAWAGUCHI, Japan (Reuters) – A Japanese medical equipment maker said it has been approached by Japan’s government to mass produce its animal ventilators to treat people diagnosed with the new coronavirus, and that other countries have also expressed interest. Metran Co Chief Executive Kazufuku Nitta said the approach was made late last month and that...
Barbados reports first death from coronavirus: health minister
BRIDGETOWN (Reuters) – Barbados on Sunday reported its first death from the new coronavirus after an 81-year-old man with diabetes died from pneumonia, the country’s health minister said. The Barbadian man had returned from the United Kingdom on March 22, according to Minister of Health and Wellness, Lt Col Jeffrey Bostic. Barbados now has 56...
Malta locks down migrants camp, puts 1,000 in quarantine after COVID cluster
VALLETTA (Reuters) – Some 1,000 African migrants were placed under mandatory quarantine on Sunday after an outbreak of COVID-19 and their camp at Hal Far in the south of Malta was surrounded by police and army trucks to ensure compliance. Health Minister Chris Fearne told reporters that eight cases had been confirmed in two days...
Indians light lamps to heed Modi’s call for coronavirus comradeship
MUMBAI/DHAKA (Reuters) – Millions of Indians turned off their lights and lit up balconies and doorsteps with lamps, candles and flashlights on Sunday, in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to “challenge the darkness” spread by the coronavirus crisis. Modi, who imposed a three-week long nationwide lockdown on March 25, asked all citizens to...
France’s death toll slows but coronavirus still hits hard
PARIS (Reuters) – France’s daily death toll from the novel coronavirus fell in the past 24 hours and admissions into intensive care also slowed, the health ministry said on Sunday, thanking citizens for largely respecting a lockdown to halt the spread of the virus. The health ministry data showed that 357 people died from COVID-19...
Ireland’s PM returns to medical practice to help in coronavirus crisis
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s prime minister Leo Varadkar has re-registered as a medical practitioner and will work one shift a week to help out during the coronavirus crisis, his office said on Sunday. Varadkar worked as a doctor for seven years before leaving the profession to become a politician and was removed from the medical...
Britain has sufficient critical care, ventilator capacity: health minister
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain still had enough critical care capacity to treat patients with COVID-19, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday, and it had more than half of the 18,000 ventilators he now forecast would be needed for the peak of the pandemic. “There are currently over 2,336 spare critical care beds for the...
6th April
Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers ordered home as factories stay closed
DHAKA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers were ordered home on Sunday voicing concerns about loss of income after arriving at work to find factories remained shut after the cancellation of Western orders due to the coronavirus pandemic. Although official numbers were not available, labour leaders said the majority of the workers...
Greece quarantines second migrant camp after COVID-19 case confirmed
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece has quarantined a second migrant facility on its mainland after a 53-year-old man tested positive for the new coronavirus, the migration ministry said on Sunday. The Afghan man lives with his family at the Malakasa camp, just north of Athens, along with hundreds of asylum seekers. He has been transferred to...
New York state reports 594 coronavirus deaths in past 24 hours
(Reuters) – New York state reported 594 deaths from the coronavirus and 8,327 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, increasing the numbers to 4,159 dead and 122,000 cases since the outbreak began, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday. But he said there was good news in that the number of people...
Ecuador stores coronavirus victims in giant fridges as morgues fill up
GUAYAQUIL (Reuters) – Ecuador’s government has begun storing the bodies of victims of the coronavirus in giant refrigerated containers as hundreds of deaths in the city of Guayaquil, the center of the country’s outbreak, have already filled morgues and hospitals. Ecuador has confirmed 318 deaths from the virus, one of the highest tallies in Latin...
South Korea extends intensive social distancing to reach 50 daily coronavirus cases
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea said on Saturday it will extend its intensive social distancing campaign scheduled to end on Monday by two weeks in a bid to curb the rate of coronavirus infections to around 50 a day. The country has largely managed to bring under control Asia’s largest epidemic outside China with around...
Olive branches handed out on Palm Sunday in near-deserted Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Franciscan friars wearing surgical masks and gloves made house calls in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, delivering olive branches to Christians who are self-isolating as a precaution against the coronavirus. One of the friars used a loud-hailer in the streets of the walled Old City to summon people to their front doors and...
Spain’s coronavirus death toll rises by 674 but pace keeps slowing
MADRID (Reuters) – The rate of new coronavirus infections and deaths in Spain slowed again on Sunday as the country, suffering from one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the pandemic, began its fourth week under a near-total lockdown. Deaths from the highly infectious COVID-19 respiratory disease rose to 12,418 on Saturday – the second...
Australia coronavirus cases stable, cruise ships sent home
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia reported a sustained fall in new coronavirus infections and conducted the biggest peacetime maritime operation on Sydney Harbour on Saturday, refuelling foreign cruise ships before expelling them from local waters. Confirmed cases rose by 198 over the 24-hour period to Saturday afternoon, bringing the national total to 5,548, health ministry data...
Tiger at New York’s Bronx Zoo tests positive for coronavirus
(Reuters) – A tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York City has tested positive for the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in the first known case of a human infecting an animal and making it sick, the zoo’s chief veterinarian said on Sunday. Nadia, the 4-year-old Malayan tiger that tested positive, was...
COVID-19: Fiji confirms two new cases; total 14 cases
Two more COVID-19 cases have been recorded in Fiji. The two are from Labasa and the sister of Fiji’s first COVID-19 case. Fiji now has 14 cases of COVID-19 altogether. Stay with us as we bring you more updates.
It’s April in Paris, but French told to stay indoors
PARIS (Reuters) – Parisians have been warned not to succumb to the tempting sunny spring weather and to remain indoors to help fight the spread of the coronavirus that has killed 7,560 in France. France, like other countries, has confined its residents to home since March 17 to curb the spread of the virus. The...
