E3: Coronavirus live news: US deaths could reach 240,000 as UN says world faces worst crisis since WW2

US has one 1 in 5 cases globally; global cases pass 860,000; record daily fatalities in UK, France, Spain and Russia

The UK government is aiming to test 25,000 a day for Covid-19 within a fortnight, housing minister Robert Jenrick has said.

Downing Street is facing mounting criticism over a perceived lack of testing compared with other nations, with only 143,186 carried out to date. By comparison, Germany is testing 70,000 a day.

Housing Secretary @RobertJenrick says the UK will be able to test up to 25,000 people per day for #COVID19 by the middle of April.#KayBurley

Read the latest on #coronavirus here: https://t.co/jsgvwe2oND pic.twitter.com/3UQ4HHHWqn

'I hope on testing, which you rightly identify, you will see significant increases this week.'

'We do need to go further and we need to that faster.'

Housing and Communities Secretary @RobertJenrick responds to @piersmorgan's question over a lack of testing for coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/Apy2HjBuu5

British housebuilding firm, Taylor Wimpey, has scrapped annual bonuses and decided that its board will take a 30% pay cut.

It comes after the company temporarily closed all of its show homes, sales centres and construction sites due to the coronavirus outbreak.

To recap for those waking up in the UK, it has emerged that a British national is among four people who have died on a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship.

Two of those who have died on board the Zaandam have been confirmed to have Covid-19, a further nine people have also tested positive, with 189 reporting flu-like symptoms.

Lockdown measures in Wuhan, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak in China, may slowly be starting to lift but life is still far from ordinary for the city’s residents.

In one neighbourhood, residents and traders are doing business over two-metre plastic walls set up early in the crisis to enforce social distancing.

It’s safer for us to sell behind these barricades,” the owner of a pork stall said.

White-board signs hung up on the barriers told shoppers what was for sale on the other side. Most listed vegetables, rice, oil and meat but one promised crayfish, a local delicacy.

Hello readers, it’s Simon Murphy here taking the helm of the live blog from the UK to steer you through today’s world coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. It has been a pretty sombre start to April, even by the standards of this crisis. As New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern said last week, things are going to get worse before they get better.

The Bangladesh government appears to have lifted an internet ban imposed on more than 1 million Rohingya refugees living in cramped camps in Cox’s Bazar.

Chinese authorities have shifted their focus to tackling “silent”, or asymptomatic, carriers of the coronavirus as part of the next phase of the pandemic, amid concern among US health chiefs that a quarter of patients do not suffer symptoms.

Related: China pivots to tackle 'silent' Covid-19 carriers as US says a quarter of cases may have no symptoms

China’s National Health Commission on Wednesday reported 36 new Covid-19 cases and 130 new asymptomatic cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of such cases under observation to 1,367.

Previously, China has regarded asymptomatic patients as a low risk and not included them in their tally of confirmed cases.

More on Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David’s coronavirus message shared late on Tuesday in the US.

The comedian, 72, warned older people are being endangered by those going outside for non-essential trips and “socialising too close”.

In a video shared by the Office of the Governor of California, David said:

“Obviously, somebody put me up to this because it’s generally not the kind of thing I do, but I basically want to address the idiots out there - and you know who you are.

“You’re going out - I don’t know what you’re doing. You’re socialising too close, it’s not good.”

The only celebrity PSA any of us needed today, from Larry David:

"If you've seen my show – nothing good ever happens going out of the house. You know that." pic.twitter.com/0wdob5x6Te

The UK papers on 1 April, 2020 after the very long month of March:

GUARDIAN: Coronavirus pushing care homes toward breaking point, warn staff #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/97wJQiS0EJ

TIMES: PM takes control of drive for virus tests #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/bdWf6gxNRL

TELEGRAPH: NHS plans route out of virus lockdown #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/eoZXKy6pMF

FT: ⁦@michaelgove⁩ admits problems obtaining kits to test medical staff for virus #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/ZW8Sa8feqP

DAILY MAIL: Fix testing fiasco NOW #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/9qisdsbLJJ

A British national is among four people to have died on a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship embroiled in a bitter dispute over plans to disembark passengers in the US, PA news agency reports.

Public schools in Tokyo could remain closed for a second month, according to media reports, as speculation mounts that the government could declare a state of emergency in response to a rise in Covid-19 infections in the capital and other parts of Japan.

Here are the latest global figures now, according to Johns Hopkins University.

There are just shy of 860,000 confirmed cases worldwide, with the total currently at 859,796.

There have been 42,332 deaths. Here are ten worst-affected countries by number of confirmed cases, with the US more than 80,000 cases ahead of the next worst-affected country, Italy.

People are sharing before and after shots on Twitter – where “before” is the beginning of March and “after” is now:

Me on March 1 vs. Me on March 31#MarchSadness #March2020 pic.twitter.com/ZAnWExR1gQ

march 1 / april 1 pic.twitter.com/glCSpwu5Uy

https://t.co/hBBfnuBlga pic.twitter.com/vym9SbBlqh

March 1 vs. March 31 pic.twitter.com/vH7Hsg3Nry

Cuba said on Tuesday it was suspending the arrival of international passenger flights and asking all foreign boats to withdraw from the Caribbean island’s waters to curb the spread of the new coronavirus.

New Zealand on Wednesday reported 61 new cases of the coronavirus, but said it was too early to assess if the lower number of cases this week meant the nationwide lockdown measures were working.

The number of cases in Germany has risen by 5,453 to 67,366, according to the RKI health institute.

That rise is up from yesterday’s +4,615 cases.

The first two cases of the coronavirus were confirmed among Colombia’s indigenous people on Tuesday, local authorities said, fanning fears that the highly contagious disease could decimate vulnerable tribal communities, Reuters reports.

The cases were found in two people from the Yukpa group who live in dire poverty in a cluster of makeshift shelters and tents in the northern border city of Cucuta, according to the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), the country’s leading indigenous authority.

Health experts said they fear the coronavirus could spread rapidly among tribes who have little immunity to diseases common in the general population.

Their immune systems often are weakened as well by malnutrition, hepatitis B, diabetes and respiratory diseases like tuberculosis, experts say.

As it eases its strict coronavirus curbs, China has urged authorities to pay more attention to asymptomatic cases, part of efforts to allay public fears that large numbers of infectious people have gone unreported.

Puerto Rico on Tuesday closed its fourth police station in a week, raising concerns about the ability of the US territory to respond to the coronavirus pandemic as officers accused the government of exposing one of the largest police departments in a U.S. jurisdiction to Covid-19.

More than 100 officers now remain quarantined as dozens of police await test results on an island that has reported eight deaths and more than 230 confirmed cases amid a month long curfew that has shuttered beaches, parks and non-essential businesses.

The first police station to close is located in the popular tourist town of Rincon, where the 42-year-old wife of one officer recently died from Covid-19, according to health officials. A couple of days later, authorities shuttered the police station in the eastern town of Aguas Buenas after one officer tested positive. Two more then closed over coronavirus infection fears.

Shortly afterward, the government announced that it also closed a station in the western town of Moca and sent more than 40 officers home after the relative of one policeman showed symptoms that could be related to Covid-19.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has offered a prayer for the national cabinet to stay “strong and united” and committed the Australian nation to God during times of “great need and suffering” as it responds to Covid-19.

The prayer is contained in a video, first published by Eternity News but later removed and republished by Queensland Parents for Secular State Schools, in which Morrison explains his faith gives him “enormous encouragement” in how to respond to the crisis.

Related: Scott Morrison prays for Australia and commits nation to God amid coronavirus crisis

Thousands of people have urged Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic to let them briefly walk pets during a curfew introduced over the coronavirus crisis, local media reported Tuesday.

A very worrying report out of the Pacific region now.

The Northern Mariana Islands, which is a US commonwealth in the north Pacific, has seen its first coronavirus-related death – a 70-year-old man. The commonwealth now has six confirmed cases of coronavirus and officials warn there is evidence of community transmission.

The Northern Mariana Islands now has six confirmed #COVID19 cases including one death of a 70-year-old man. The CNMI lacks #coronavirus testing capacity and just 19 tests have been conducted on neighboring Guam, with 12 pending. Officials say there’s evidence of community spread. pic.twitter.com/FBpuHEk9wV

A pet cat has tested positive for the coronavirus in Hong Kong after its owner was confirmed with having the virus, the city’s Agricultural and Fisheries department said, cautioning that the animal has not shown any signs of the disease.

Japan remains on the brink of a state of emergency as the rate of coronavirus infections continues to increase in the country, its top government spokesman said on Wednesday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters controlling the virus was a top priority, and that the government would do “whatever is needed” to minimise the economic impact after a nationwide poll released earlier in the day showed a pessimistic turn in sentiment among manufacturers because of the virus.

Taiwan’s economic stimulus response to the coronavirus outbreak could reach T$1 trillion (US$33.09 billion), Taiwan media reported late on Tuesday citing Premier Su Tseng-chang.

Twenty-eight students who returned to Texas after spring break at Mexico’s Cabo San Lucas beach resort have tested positive for coronavirus, although Mexican officials pushed back against the suggestion that they picked up the virus at the tourist spot, Reuters reports.

The 28 confirmed cases are self-isolating and dozens more are under quarantine while being monitored and tested, the city of Austin said in a statement on Tuesday, drawing attention to possibly low detection of cases in Mexico.

However, the Los Cabos Trust, which runs tourism sites including the resort where the vacationers stayed, said the group departed on 11 March, implying they did not come in contact with the coronavirus until later.

“Twenty days after their return to Austin, Texas, they had already passed the incubation period established by the World Health Organization,” the trust said in a statement. It added that no resort staff member presented coronavirus symptoms.

Britain’s first coronavirus field hospital has been built in London and will treat up to 4,000 previously fit and healthy people struck down by Covid-19. London patients in need of intensive care but with the best chance of survival will be taken to the Nightingale hospital, which has been constructed within the ExCel arena in the capital’s Docklands area in the space of a week.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday that the number of Covid-19 hospitalisations in the state had nearly doubled over the past four days and the number of ICU patients tripled during that time.

By Monday, 1,421 California patients had been hospitalised with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, up from 746 four days ago, Newsom said. The number of patients requiring intensive care beds rose to 597 from 200, he said. Altogether, 5,763 people have tested positive for the disease in the state, he said.

In New York, a surge in deaths has overwhelmed the city’s permanent morgues and filled storage spaces in many hospitals to capacity.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending 85 refrigerated trucks to serve as temporary morgues, the city said.

Its been that way for days at Brooklyn Hospital Center, which said in a statement that the unprecedented crisis calls for extraordinary measures and that extra storage is needed to accommodate the tragic spike in deaths, placing a strain on the entire system of care from hospitals to funeral homes.

“Grieving families cannot quickly make arrangements, and their loved ones who have passed are remaining in hospitals longer, thus the need for this accommodation,” the hospital in Brooklyns Fort Greene neighbourhood said.

The city’s medical examiner’s office has also started operating a makeshift morgue, as it did after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to provide emergency capacity as the city’s permanent facilities fill up.

The city’s coronavirus death toll more than doubled in the past four days, surging from 450 on Friday to 932 as of Tuesday morning, AP reports.

“I basically want to address the idiots out there”: Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm creator Larry David has filmed a stay-home message for the Office of the Governor of California.

“You’re hurting old people like me. Well, not me... I’ll never see you,” he says.

The only celebrity PSA any of us needed today, from Larry David:

"If you've seen my show – nothing good ever happens going out of the house. You know that." pic.twitter.com/0wdob5x6Te

More now on that warning from US Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said the world faces the most challenging crisis since the second world war.

The New York Times reports that the US Centers for Disease Control is reconsidering its guidelines on masks, as it warns that up to 25% of people infected with the virus do not show symptoms.

As coronavirus lockdowns have been expanded globally, billions of people have found that they are now faced with unprecedented restrictions. Policeacross the world have been given licence to control behaviour in a way that would normally be extreme even for an authoritarian state.

Related: Teargas, beatings and bleach: the most extreme Covid-19 lockdown controls around the world

South Korea has reported 101 new cases of the virus, which is in keeping with the average.

Yesterday it reported 125 new cases, higher than the around 100 cases reported daily for the past three weeks.

The captain of a US Navy aircraft carrier facing a growing outbreak of the coronavirus is asking for permission to isolate the bulk of his roughly 5,000 crew members on shore, which would take the warship out of duty in an effort to save lives, AP reports.

In a memo to Navy leaders, the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt said the spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating, and said that removing all but 10% of the crew is a necessary risk in order to stop the spread of the virus. The ship is docked in Guam.

Related: Captain of coronavirus-hit US aircraft carrier warns sailors will die if not let off ship

If you have questions, stories you think we should be covering, tips, or something on the lighter side to share you can get in touch with me directly on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

Panama has announced strict quarantine measures that separate citizens by gender, AFP reports.

From Wednesday for 15 days, men and women will only be able to leave their homes for two hours at a time, and on different days. On Sunday all outings are banned.

President Trump has said he will speak to Florida governor about two coronavirus-stricken cruise ships stranded at sea during his White House Press briefing on Tuesday.

Four people have died, nine people have tested positive for Covid-19 and dozens are ill on the Zaandam and Rotterdam ships, which are traveling towards Florida to attempt to dock after several Latin American countries refused to allow them into port.

Port Everglades has not yet confirmed whether the boats will be allowed to dock in Fort Lauderdale.

An international media freedom watchdog says the autocratic ex-Soviet nation of Turkmenistan has banned the media from using the word “coronavirus”, AP reports.

Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday the word also has been removed from health information brochures distributed in schools, hospitals and workplaces. The gas-rich Central Asian nation that neighbours Iran so far has reported no cases of the new coronavirus. Iran has reported more than 44,000 cases.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said people wearing face masks or talking about the coronavirus are liable to be arrested by plainclothes police. Ranked last in the group’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index, Turkmenistan is one of the world’s most closed countries.

Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has ruled the country since 2006 through an all-encompassing personality cult that styles him as Turkmenistan’s “arkadaq,” or protector.

Here is our story on that Trump press conference on Tuesday:

Donald Trump has warned America to brace for a “very, very painful two weeks” as the White House projected that the coronavirus pandemic could claim 100,000 to 240,000 lives, even if current social distancing guidelines are maintained.

Related: Trump warns of 'painful two weeks' as officials predict up to 240,000 US coronavirus deaths

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has released a statement saying two local US embassy staff members have died in Jakarta, Indonesia and Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Foreign Policy reports:

NEW: Pompeo in statement says two locally employed staff, at US embassies in Jakarta and Kinshasa, have died from Coronavirus. No deaths to report from American State Department staff

In the US, Politico reports: “Trump officials have decided against reopening Obamacare enrolment to uninsured Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, defying calls from health insurers and Dems to create a special sign-up window amid the health crisis.”

Trump and officials in his administration had said they were considering relaunching the federal Obamacare enrolment site.

https://t.co/cawqG2DGXV

In lighter news, with humans sheltering indoors to escape the new coronavirus, mountain goats are taking advantage of the peace and space to roam in frisky clumps through the streets of Llandudno, a town in North Wales.

These goats aren’t kidding around.

Llandudno is run by goats pic.twitter.com/C7nENePcEA

If you haven’t got a goat correspondent like we do then you can just piss off https://t.co/viQSNoCwRH

Related: Llandudno marauders: the herd of goats running riot through a Welsh town

Health experts call virus pandemic a window into future climate threats

The coronavirus pandemic is a preview of the types of global health threats that will emerge as the planet becomes hotter, and how it is tackled has implications for dealing with climate threats as well, health experts said on Tuesday. Reuters reports:

US president Donald Trump has shared guidelines on Twitter under the heading “30 Days to Slow the Spread”.

The points mainly relate to those who are sick, elderly or have underlying health conditions – all of these people should stay home and not go to work.

30 DAYS TO SLOW THE SPREAD#COVIDー19 https://t.co/p9j7kZsD7b pic.twitter.com/RSUHRfT8If

Moving away from the US now to Saudi Arabia, which has urged Muslims to wait before making plans to attend the annual Hajj pilgrimage until there is more clarity about the pandemic.

Some 2.5 million pilgrims from around the world usually flock to the holiest sites of Islam in Mecca and Medina for the week-long ritual, which is a once-in-a-lifetime duty for every able-bodied Muslim and a major source of income for the kingdom.

Trump also said that “nobody knew how contagious this virus was”.

My colleagues have fact checked this:

Fact check: “Nobody knew”

“Nobody knew how contagious this was,” Trump said. “I don’t think any doctor new it at the time. People have not seen anything like this.”

US president Donald Trump has just finished a White House briefing, one of the more memorable because of the predictions coming out of the coronavirus task force’s modelling.

“It’s an incredibly dark topic,” Trump said, before leaving the podium. “An incredibly horrible topic. And it’s incredibly interesting. That’s why everybody is, They’re going crazy, they can’t get enough of it.”

This White House briefing room slide lists as "goals" 100,000 to 240,000 deaths.

Breathtaking. pic.twitter.com/CrajjVGqVf

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, which the UN secretary general António Guterres called the greatest challenge faced by the planet since the second world war.

There are now more than 850,000 cases worldwide, a fifth of which are in the United States. Tuesday saw several countries, including France, the US, Spain, Russia and the UK declare record daily increases in pandemic-related deaths.

Continue reading...

Back Original Source