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In Italy, at least 150 doctors have died after contracting coronavirus, the Italian Association of Doctors said on Friday.
Health care professionals account for about 10% of all infections, the organization said.
A separate Italian health care group, ANAAO, criticized the decree aimed at strengthening the health system, saying it’s not good enough.
ANAAO called the measures set out in the Cura Italia decree — which is worth 25 billion euros ($27 billion) and was approved by the government on Friday — “completely disappointing.”
Air France-KLM Group and Air France have secured $7.5 billion in financing to help it remain solvent during the Covid-19 crisis, the airline group announced in a statement.
The financing comes in two parts: a French state-backed loan of roughly $4.3 billion (4 billion euros) granted by a syndicate of six banks (guaranteed by the French state up to 90%) and a direct shareholder’s loan of roughly $3.2 billion (3 billion euros) from the French state to the airline group.
“This is not a blank check. There are conditions of profitability,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in an interview on French network TF1. “Air France must become the most environmentally-friendly company on the planet.”
The statement also said negotiations with the Dutch government over support to KLM are ongoing.
According to data from February 2019, the French state holds a 14.3% stake in Air France-KLM and the Dutch government has 14%. Delta owns 8.8% of the company.
The UK will host a “Global Vaccines Summit” on June 4 in an effort to encourage the international community to “come together” to support the development of a Covid-19 vaccine, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced Friday.
Gavi is an international organization that aims to bring together the public and private sectors to improve access to vaccines.
In a later tweet, the British foreign secretary added that the UK will also co-host the Coronavirus Global Response Summit on May 4 alongside its international partners, including the European Union, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Norway and South Africa.
“The UK is playing a leading role in efforts to develop a COVID vaccine and better testing. We’re pleased to co-host the Coronavirus Global Response Summit on 4 May with our partners…to develop a vaccine together,” he added.
London’s Metropolitan Police arrested more than 4,000 people for domestic abuse since the restrictions imposed to stop the spread of coronavirus were introduced, the force said in a statement on Friday.
She added: “Victims should be assured that they can leave their homes to escape harm or seek help, and they will not be penalized in any way for not maintaining social distancing, or otherwise breaching COVID-19 restrictions. Our prime concern is protecting victims and others who are affected, and bringing offenders to justice.”
The UK government has green-lit trials for drone delivery of medicines and medical equipment, UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said at the daily coronavirus briefing on Friday.
Plans were already in motion to use drones to make deliveries in the UK, but due to the coronavirus crisis, “now we have an urgent need” to fast-track them, he said.
The trials will begin next week and will carry medical equipment to St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight, off UK’s southern coast, Shapps said.
Leaders from around the world joined the World Health Organization, after it announced the launch of a new effort to accelerate the development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Here’s what they’re saying:
The United States will send ventilators to Ecuador, El Salvador and Indonesia, President Trump tweeted Friday, announcing he spoke with the countries’ presidents.
Trump said he had a “great conversation with President Lenin Moreno” of Ecuador. He added that the US “will be sending them desperately needed Ventilators, of which we have recently manufactured many, and helping them in other ways. They are fighting hard against CoronaVirus!”
Trump also praised El Salvador for helping the US on immigration.
“Will be helping them with Ventilators, which are desperately needed,” Trump wrote. “They have worked well with us on immigration at the Southern Border!”
Bavaria, Germany’s largest federal state, will allow church and other religious services to go ahead under certain conditions beginning on May 4, local authorities said on Friday.
Visitors must maintain a distance of about 2 meters, or about six feet, from each other and wear face coverings. There will also be a 60-minute time limit, Bavaria’s head of the state chancellery Florian Herrmann told CNN in a statement.
He warned that there needs to be an abundance of caution in conducting the services, adding: ”No infections should follow from encounters of faith! Faith and community strengthens us, especially in challenging times.”
Bavaria is the German state with the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths.
The European Union plans to raise 7.5 billion Euro — or about $8.1 billion USD — from a global pledging effort to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said the campaign will begin on May 4.
She said the money will be used to ramp up efforts to prevent the virus from spreading, as well as treatment options for those who fall ill.
“The European Union will spare no effort to help the world come together against coronavirus.”
France says it will not make a decision on when to lift Covid-19 restrictions on restaurants and cafés until the end of May.
Le Maire added “solidarity” must be shown by landlords toward restaurant owners who are unable to pay their rent, otherwise restaurants will have to declare bankruptcy and they “won’t be any money anyway” he added.
Undeterred by a barrage of criticism, the US state of Georgia is moving ahead with its plan to help restart its economy, reopening some nonessential businesses today. Gov. Brian Kemp is one of America’s first governors to ease restrictions, allowing gyms, barber shops, hair salons, tattoo parlors, massage therapists and bowling alleys to resume work, so long as they comply with social distancing guidelines.
But maintaining a safe distance in many of those businesses is next to impossible, leaving owners feeling conflicted, Faith Karimi writes. “Get your hair done for what? There’s a pandemic, people are dying,” one hair stylist said.
The House of Representatives approved a $480 billion package yesterday to help refresh a dwindling small-businesses loan program, as another 4.4 million people filed for unemployment. The coronavirus has put a staggering 26 million Americans out of work since mid-March.
But the aid did not include money for state governments to help keep workers on their payrolls — assistance that a bipartisan group of governors and mayors have been begging for from Washington.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell drew the ire of governors for suggesting that “blue states” hit hard by the outbreak seek bankruptcy protections rather than be given a federal bailout. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the remark from the Kentucky Republican was reckless and that the pandemic was no time for divisive politics: “It’s not red and blue. It’s red, white and blue.”
Here’s what else you need to know today.
Can sunlight and bleach cure the coronavirus? The short answer is: No. US health experts are rushing to warn against President Donald Trump’s suggestion that zapping patients with UV light or even injecting disinfectant into the lungs could help treat the virus. The claims, touted by Trump during yesterday’s press briefing, have been slammed for endangering public health. Too much UV light damage can lead to skin cancer. And chlorine bleach is toxic: it can and does kill people who drink it.
A silent, deadly spread: US health officials said months ago that the risk to the public was low. But new research and two February deaths confirmed as virus-related, prove that Covid-19 was already spreading much earlier than previously thought.
Drug hopes fade: Global stocks slumped today after a study into a potential coronavirus treatment was halted following inconclusive results. Drug maker Gilead said it had terminated a trial of Remdesivir early, and thus had no conclusive findings about its effectiveness.
24 hours in a UK intensive care unit: CNN spent a day inside a hospital in the Midlands, the worst-hit area of Britain outside of London. Nurses and doctors there offered these two warnings: 1. They fear a second wave as soon as lockdowns lift. 2. Just because the country’s capital city is seeing the virus ebb, doesn’t mean it isn’t ravaging other regions.
India’s Muslims attacked, blamed for spread: Hafiz Mohammed Naseerudin, a 44-year-old Imam, says that after a police officer assaulted him for being a Muslim and blamed him for spreading the coronavirus, he was left lying on the road for almost an hour. He’s not alone. As fears of a widespread outbreak mount in India, some of the country’s Muslims, who make up roughly 200 million of the country’s 1.3 billion population, have been targeted in Islamophobic attacks on the streets and online, and accused of spreading the virus.
Travel bans amid Ramadan: Indonesia has temporarily banned domestic road, air and sea travel, as the world’s most populous Muslim nation marks the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Tens of millions of people normally make their way home to celebrate the end of Ramadan each year, an annual tradition called mudik. But, as the country grapples with rapidly rising numbers of infections, there are concerns mass migration could spark further outbreaks.
A version of this story first appeared in CNN’s Coronavirus: Fact Vs. Fiction newsletter. You can sign up here.
EU leaders have agreed to create a fund that could raise at least 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) to rebuild regional economies ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.
“This fund shall be of a sufficient magnitude, targeted towards the sectors and geographical parts of Europe most affected, and be dedicated to dealing with this unprecedented crisis,” leaders of the 27 EU countries said in a statement after they met via video conference on Thursday.
The heads of the EU governments asked officials at the European Commission to come up with detailed proposals “urgently” that will include how the recovery fund will relate to the bloc’s budget for 2021-2027, they added.
The EU is planning to expand its budget from about 1.2% of GDP to 2% of GDP and then use those additional funds as a guarantee to borrow at low rates from financial markets.
Asked by reporters how much could be raised, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “This has to be looked at thoroughly … but we are not talking about billion[s], we are talking about trillion[s].”
The EU leaders also signed off on an immediate package of rescue measures worth at least €500 billion ($538 billion) drawn up earlier this month by finance ministers. That package includes up to €100 billion ($110 billion) in wage subsidies aimed at preventing mass layoffs, as well as hundreds of billions in loans to businesses and credit for EU governments.
“There are reasons for some optimism that, even if we don’t get as joined-up a response as we’d like overall, the European fiscal response to this crisis may yet end up being sizeable,” commented Societe Generale strategist Kit Juckes in a research note on Friday.
The maker of Lysol issued a statement Friday clarifying that under no circumstances should its products be administered into the human body, after US President Donald Trump suggested the possibility of injecting disinfectants to treat the coronavirus.
Manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser said that the range of disinfectants and cleaners must not enter the body “through injection, ingestion or any other route.”
“We have a responsibility in providing consumers with access to accurate, up-to-date information as advised by leading public health experts,” the company said.
The statement followed remarks from President Trump on Thursday on the use of disinfectants.
“And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in one minute. Is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning … it would be interesting to check that,” Trump said. “It sounds interesting to me,” he added.
CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta was quick to point out that this is simply wrong.
“He also said it needs to be studied. Actually, it doesn’t. I mean we know the answer to this one,” he said on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on Thursday.
“I think everybody would know that that would be dangerous and counter-productive.”
The US Food and Drug Administration regularly warns the public against drinking bleach, or even inhaling fumes from bleach. It’s also irritating to skin.
On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said calls about poisonings with cleaners and disinfectants had increased more than 20% in the first three months of 2020 – as coronavirus cleaning increased – than from the same period a year earlier. Among cleaners, bleaches accounted for the largest percentage increase in calls from 2019 to 2020.
The CDC recommends using soap and water or bleach on surfaces to kill the virus. Rubbing alcohol that’s at least 70% alcohol will also kill it on surfaces; 60% for your hands.
The UN’s human rights chief says she is “alarmed” by the treatment of the independent media by several nations over the reporting of Covid-19.
Michelle Bachelet said on Friday that “restrictive measures” imposed on media as well as the “arrest and intimidation” of journalists, is hindering the free flow information, “vital in fighting Covid-19.”
“Some states have used the outbreak of the new coronavirus as a pretext to restrict information and stifle criticism,” Bachelet said. “A free media is always essential, but we have never depended on it more than we do during this pandemic, when so many people are isolated and fearing for their health and livelihoods. Credible, accurate reporting is a lifeline for all of us,” the statement says.
Bachelet cites reports of violations against journalists in Asia-Pacific, Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She said there are cases of journalists being threatened and even disappearing for voicing criticism of state response to the pandemic or for “simply questioning the accuracy of official numbers.”
Concerns over treatment of the press: Earlier this week a leading media watchdog told CNN that the coronavirus pandemic could have been avoided had there been a free press in China.
“Reporting the truth at the earliest possible moment would have allowed the rest of the world to react probably earlier and probably more seriously,” Reporters Without Borders’ Rebecca Vincent said. “The consequences (of stifling media freedom) are actually deadly.”
The UK government’s new website designed to allow essential workers to directly book a coronavirus test has already been closed to new applications just hours after being launched.
The site went live at 6am UK time (1aET).
By late Friday morning, users trying to book a test were greeted by a message saying: “You can’t currently register for a Covid-19 test. Please check back here later.”
The Department of Health and Social Care said on Twitter: “There has been significant demand for booking tests today. We apologise for any inconvenience. We are continuing to rapidly increase availability. More tests will be available tomorrow.”
Boris Johnson’s government has been criticized for failing to provide the same level of testing that other European countries have, with several NHS hospitals, health care workers and care home employees complaining about being unable to access tests.
The government launched the site to try to increase the number of people being tested for the virus. Those classified as “essential workers” with coronavirus symptoms are eligible to be tested. People who live with essential workers and have symptoms are also eligible for a test.
Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock set a target of conducting 100,000 tests per day by the end of April – but on Wednesday, just 23,560 tests were carried out.
Researchers in China say they have successfully cloned antibodies from recovered coronavirus patients, a potential first step in developing a new type of treatment for the virus.
In test tubes, the antibodies prevented the binding of the novel coronavirus to its receptor, according to the researchers. Antibodies that block that step – which is critical for infection – could one day be a promising treatment for the virus.
But it’s not clear whether blocking the binding of the virus in a lab means the antibodies could prevent infection in real humans.
The researchers published their findings Monday in the medical journal Cellular and Molecular Immunology. They cloned two different antibodies – called 311mab-31B5 and 311mab-32D4 – and said the antibodies “neutralized” the entry of a fake coronavirus into cells.
The antibodies could one day be used as “prophylactic and therapeutic agents,” the researchers said, suggesting they could one day be used to both prevent and treat Covid-19.
Using cloned antibodies to treat diseases is not a new concept. The approach has been used to develop experimental treatments for Ebola, using antibodies from animals or people exposed to the virus.
The underlying idea – that antibodies can be used as a treatment – is also being tested in trials of so-called convalescent plasma. That treatment is somewhat different, though, with people who have recovered from the novel coronavirus giving their antibody-filled blood plasma to those who are sick.
It remains unclear whether cloned antibodies – such as those developed by the Chinese researchers – could be a successful treatment for the novel coronavirus, and this new research is in its earliest stages.
The approach may hold promise, though. In 2018, the top US infectious disease specialist, Anthony Fauci, wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that “effective antibodies have become easier to identify, select, optimize, and manufacture.”
Writing alongside other experts, Fauci said the treatments, technically called monoclonal antibodies, “are positioned to play a larger role in future public health responses involving the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of [emerging infectious diseases].”
But the antibodies come with a downside: they’re incredibly expensive. As Fauci wrote, “pragmatic concerns must be addressed – notably cost.”
It was just three months ago that Mr Wang was paying the workers at his Wuhan restaurant their Chinese New Year bonuses and celebrating his third year in business.
Now, after 76 days under lockdown in the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, he has been left mentally and financially drained, with his business facing ruin.
The lockdown on Wuhan was lifted on April 8. But two weeks later Wang’s restaurant is still not allowed to fully reopen, due to restrictions on eat-in dining.
Despite having no business, he’s still had to pay three months rent – worth almost $8,500 (60,000 yuan). With fears rising of a second wave of infections which could cause even more financial pain across China, Wang said he has no choice but to close shop.
“In Wuhan, there are many people like us who can no longer go back to what they were doing before the outbreak,” he said. Wang asked us to only use his first name over concerns about the consequences of talking to foreign media.
Wang is just one of Wuhan’s many business owners struggling to get back on their feet in a difficult local economy. In the first quarter of the year alone, the economy of Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, shrank by almost 40%, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
That’s in addition to the mental toll from a strict and lengthy lockdown, the fear of the viral outbreak itself and grief at the loss of loved ones and friends.
Wang said three relatives had caught the novel coronavirus, one of whom passed away from the disease. The family was unable to have a funeral for him.
“During that period, we were actually really terrified, really terrified,” he said.
Germany’s coronavirus reproduction rate has increased to 0.9 according to the country’s centre for disease and control, the Robert Koch Institute, meaning every 10 people with the virus infect an average of nine others.
That’s up from a reproduction rate of 0.7 a week ago, according to the Institute’s Vice President Lars Schaade.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has previously warned that if the number – also known as the R0 value – rises above 1, the country’s health system would eventually be overwhelmed.
Yesterday she expressed concern that some German states were moving to ease coronavirus restrictions too soon, saying it could undermine the results that have been achieved.
New cases slowing down: Germany now has 150,383 coronavirus cases and 5,321 related deaths, the Robert Koch Institute said on Friday.
The country reported 2,337 new cases in the past 24 hours – a slight slowdown, after three straight days of new infections accelerating.
Three southern Sydney beaches closed for a second time, only five days after being reopened, according to a statement from the Randwick City Council.
The beaches of Clovelly, Coogee and Maroubra were shut at 1pm Friday after “people failed to use beaches for exercise only.”
The three beaches will reopen Saturday and Sunday between 6am to 9am for exercise only, according to the council. The situation will be reassessed on Monday.
On Wednesday, Waverly Council, home to Bondi beach, announced Bondi and Bronte beaches would reopen starting next Tuesday (April 28) for swimming and surfing. All land-based activities on the beach, such as jogging, sunbathing, and social gatherings, will continue to be suspended.
In March, Bondi beach closed down after thousands of beachgoers ignored the advice from officials to avoid large gatherings and practice social distancing.
