Worldwide Covid-19 deaths pass 290,000 – as it happened

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Dan Collyns reports for the Guardian:

More than half of the medics fighting a Covid-19 outbreak in the Peruvian jungle city of Iquitos have been infected with the virus, according to the sub-director of the regional health office, Graciela Meza.

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Out of 350 doctors working in the city’s two main hospitals, 189 had been infected with the deadly virus, she said.

Eleven doctors have died from the coronavirus in recent weeks in Iquitos, two-thirds of the nationwide total of 16 medics killed by the virus, according to Peru’s main doctors’ union.

“Just yesterday, we had three doctors die,” Meza told The Guardian by phone from the city situated in the huge Amazon region of Loreto. She said a further 36 were in hospital in Iquitos, eight of whom were in intensive care while 30 had been rushed to the capital Lima on government flights.

“The government is delaying in sending aid,” said Meza, who last week told The Guardian of severe shortage of medicine, supplies and most of all oxygen in the city, the largest in the world which cannot be reached by road.

The two main hospitals in the city recorded a total of a 1,000 dead and more than 5,000 Covid-19 infections, Meza said, far exceeding the official toll of 82 dead and 1,933 cases in the region, since the pandemic began.

The situation in Iquitos shows the dangers faced by medics and nurses in Peru who have routinely complained of being unprotected against Covid-19 with prolonged exposure to patients with the virus and a lack of personal protective equipment.

Jaime Moro, a doctor working in Iquitos, told local media: “Doctors, nurses, technicians and porters are working without masks which are a basic sanitary security requirement.”

Peru has extended its lockdown of nearly two months as its official number of coronavirus cases soared to above 72,000 with more than 2,057 deaths on Tuesday.

In New Zealand, a rule limiting funerals to a maximum of ten people -- while cinemas will be able to host up to 100 under new, looser restrictions for the country -- has drawn criticism from the parliamentary opposition as “inhumane.”

“It’s not fair that you can have 30 people on a rugby field playing close contact sport but you can’t have more than ten people at a funeral so they can grieve together,” said Simon Bridges, the leader of the National party.

He added that some people had held off holding funerals during the month-long lockdown from which New Zealand is emerging, under the impression that they would be able to host more people. Bridges is calling for the cap to be lifted to 100.

On Thursday, New Zealand will move from so-called “level 3” rules – where socialising outside the home has been barred – into looser, level 2 restrictions. Bars will re-open next week and restaurants tomorrow – and while individual groups at those venues can only number a maximum of 10 people, the venue as a whole can hold more.

But funerals, tangi – Māori funeral services – and weddings can still only have 10 attendees, as was the case under level 3.

“We know this is causing pain,” Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, said of the gathering rules. But she added that numbers needed to be limited at events where people would “mix and mingle” or want to physically comfort one another.
Brides said National had launched a petition against the rule.

California State University system to cancel in-person classes in fall

The California State University system — the largest in the US — plans to cancel almost all classes in the fall, chancellor Timothy White announced.

Most classes will be taught online, with a few exceptions. “Our university when open without restrictions and fully in person… is a place where over 500,000 people come together in close and vibrant proximity,” White said at a meeting of Cal State’s Board of Trustees. “That approach sadly just isn’t in the cards now.”

“Our university, when open without restrictions and fully in person, as is the traditional norm of the past, is a place where over 500,000 people come together in close and vibrant proximity with each other on a daily basis,” White added. “That approach, sadly, just isn’t in the cards now as I have described.”

Although many universities have gone out of their way to say that they will hold in-person classes in the fall, CSU’s cautious approach comes as public health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, warn against reopening too soon.

Here are the main developments from the last few hours:

• Confirmed deaths worldwide pass 290,000. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, at least 4,247,709 people around the world are known to have contracted the virus, while at least 290,838 have died since the pandemic began. The numbers, which are based on official and media reports, are likely to be significant underestimates due to suspected underreporting and differing recording and testing regimes.
• Pence avoiding Trump after aide’s positive test. The US vice-president, Mike Pence, is keeping his distance from Donald Trump after the former’s press secretary tested positive, the White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany has confirmed.
• French schools reopen. Thousands of schools have reopened throughout France as the government eased its lockdown rules, despite fears of a second waves of infections, Agence France-Presse reports.
• Covid-19 R number falls below 1 in Germany. The reproduction rate for the coronavirus pandemic in Germany fell below the critical threshold of 1 with an estimated value of 0.94 on Tuesday after 1.07 on Monday, the Robert Koch Institute for public health and disease control said.
• UK official death toll passes 40,000. The Office for National Statistics says 35,044 deaths involving Covid-19 have been registered in England and Wales up to 9 May. Adding the latest figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland and more up to date fatalities from the four nations, the total official UK death toll now stands at 40,496.
• Spain’s new daily cases lowest in two months. The health ministry identified 594 new cases, bringing the total since the country’s epidemic began to 228,030. The number of fatalities related to the disease rises by 176 to 26,920.
• “Potentially positive data” on drugs, WHO says. The World Health Organization says some treatments appear to be limiting the severity or length of suffering caused by Covid-19 and that it is focusing on learning more about four or five of the most promising ones. “We do have some treatments that seem to be, in very early studies, limiting the severity or the length of the illness, but we do not have anything that can kill or stop the virus,” its spokeswoman Margaret Harris says.
• Kremlin spokesman in hospital. Dmitry Peskov, the Russian government’s spokesman, is admitted to hospital with Covid-19, local media report. “Yes, I got sick, I’m being treated,” Peskov is quoted as saying. He is at least the second person in Vladimir Putin’s administration to test positive.
• Lebanon orders ‘total lockdown’. People in the eastern Mediterranean country are told to stay at home for four days after an increase in infections followed an easing of restrictions. Lebanese health authorities have officially announced 870 cases of Covid-19, including 11 newly detected on Tuesday, and 26 deaths.
• UK recession ‘already happening’ The UK is effectively in the midst of a recession, its chancellor says. Rishi Sunak tells the BBC: “We already know that many people have lost their jobs and it breaks my heart. We’ve seen what’s happening with universal credit claims already. This is not something that we’re going to wait to see; it’s already happening.”
• Top US adviser testifies. Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top public health expert, warned that official figures are underestimating the death toll in the US and that “the consequences could be really serious” if the country relaxes safeguards too abruptly. Fauci delivered testimony to the Senate on Tuesday as the US president, Donald Trump, encouraged businesses to reopen.
• Virus hits South Sudanese camp. For the first time, Covid-19 has been confirmed in a crowded civilian protection camp in South Sudan’s capital, the United Nations says. It is a worrying development in a country that is one of the world’s least prepared for the virus’s spread.

Hi, Helen Sullivan joining you now for the next few hours.

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The housing market in England has been given the green light to reopen after seven weeks of lockdown, with renters and buyers allowed to move home and view properties as long as they observe physical distancing.

Under new regulations, key activities relating to moving home will be permitted, allowing estate agents to get back to work.

The rules, which come into force on Wednesday, are a substantial change as the UK housing market had been all but frozen during lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus, with nearly half a million people estimated to have been unable to progress their plans to move.

Austria aims to ease some border controls with Switzerland within days and to end all controls by June, its chancellor Sebastian Kurz has told the Swiss broadcaster SRF.

We are in a good exchange with the Swiss government. Our goal is that we can reach an agreement in coming days over a significant easing and that the border controls can be completely ended in June.

Switzerland and Austria are among European countries that enacted border controls weeks ago. They have been moving to open some closed crossings in recent weeks and also ease migration restrictions as new infections and deaths waned.

Switzerland has about 30,400 confirmed infections and 1,561 deaths, while Austria reported about 16,000 infections and 600 fatalities.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that another 1,064 people have died and 18,106 new infections have been detected, taking the totals to 80,820 and 1,342,594, respectively.

Parts of Mexico that have been spared the worst of the epidemic could reopen as soon as 17 May – a date some health experts worry is too ambitious as the country still hasn’t carried out widespread testing or enforced strict quarantine.

Jorge Alcocer told reporters that roughly 300 of Mexico’s more than 2,400 municipalities would likely to be reopened, depending on assessments from the health authorities. The rest of the country is projected to reopen at the end of month – with school returning 1 June – according to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who will unveil plans on Wednesday for “returning to a new normalcy”.

López Obrador has spoken of Mexico “being able to tame” the virus and ranking among the 10 least-impacted countries in the Covid-19 pandemic. His coronavirus czar Hugo López–Gatell says the country has flattened its Covid-19 curve and hit its peak of cases.

Mexico has recorded 36,327 confirmed cases and 3,573 deaths as of Monday, according to the Health Secretariat.

Those numbers and government claims of having the epidemic under control have come under scrutiny. Stories appearing 8 May in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and El País raised accusations of undercounting both cases and deaths.

López-Gatell suggested there had been some kind of conspiracy – the stories were published the same day – but also acknowledged that the counts are likely low – something he said is not unusual in pandemics. López Obrador accused the Times of lacking ethics.

Mexico has some of the lowest testing rates in Latin America, with just 0.4 tests per 1,000 people.

Mexico has depended on disease modelling to guide its response, rather than widespread testing, which health experts say explains its low case numbers.

Malaquías López-Cervantes, an epidemiologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the model Mexico is depending on – which takes samples from 475 stations around the country – can provide a national picture. But he cautioned:

They cannot know [which cities to open] because if a sample is not representative at the state level, would it be much less representative at the municipal level … It’s a national sample. Nothing more.

Cuba has begun mass testing as it appeared to have contained infections, amid a partial shutdown that has exacerbated a shortage of basic goods. New cases have fallen to fewer than 20 per day from a peak of around 50 in April.

Thousands of schools have reopened throughout France as the government eased its lockdown rules, despite fears of a second wave of infections, Agence France-Presse reports.

According to official figures there were 348 more deaths on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 26,991.

Primary and nursery schools reopened, however, with teachers wearing face masks and the children’s chairs separated to avoid spreading the disease.

A leading US Republican senator has proposed legislation that would authorise the White House to impose far-reaching sanctions on China if it fails to give a full account of events leading to the pandemic.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Donald Trump, said he is convinced had it not been for “deception” by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, the virus would not be in the United States, where it has now killed more than 80,000 Americans.

Graham said China had refused to allow investigators to study how the outbreak started.

I’m convinced China will never cooperate with a serious investigation unless they are made to do so.

Graham said his “Covid-19 Accountability Act” would require the president to make a certification to Congress within 60 days that China had “provided a full and complete accounting to any Covid-19 investigation led by the United States, its allies or UN affiliate such as the World Health Organization”.

Trump critics, including some former officials, have said that while China has much to answer for, the US administration appears to be seeking to deflect attention from what they see as a slow response to the crisis.

McDonald’s plans to reopen all its drive-throughs in the United Kingdom and Ireland by early June, it has said.

The restaurant chain will reopen 30 outlets from 20 May and will open 15 pilot restaurants in south-east England on Wednesday, but offer services only through delivery via Uber Eats.

Spending at drive-throughs will be capped at £25 per car and restaurants will have reduced menus and hours.

The US vice-president, Mike Pence, is keeping his distance from Donald Trump after the former’s press secretary tested positive, the White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany has confirmed.

Pence was not at Trump’s Rose Garden news conference on Monday, nor was he at a White House meeting with US military and national security officials on Saturday after the press aide Katie Miller received her positive test last week. McEnany said:

The vice-president has made the choice to keep his distance for a few days.

US airlines carried 51% fewer passengers in March as the air travel collapsed to its lowest level in nearly two decades, the US Transportation Department has said.

Airlines carried slightly more total, domestic and international passengers in March 2020 than around the time of the September 11 terror attacks.

In total, airlines carried 38.7 million passengers in March, down on March 2019 by more than half. Prior to March 2020, air travel had risen for 29 consecutive months year-over-year dating back to October 2017.

Police officers, teachers and other state employees must be the focus of a major federal stimulus package, rather than “greedy corporations”, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, has said.

Warning against a repeat of the corporate-focused bailouts after the 2008 financial crisis, he said:

Don’t do it again. No handouts to greedy corporations, no political pork and no partisanship.