April 27 coronavirus news

A medical staff member tests a shopper in his car at a pop-up community Covid-19 testing station at a supermarket carpark in Christchurch, New Zealand, on April 17.

New Zealand claims it has”eliminated” the coronavirus as the country announced the easing of restrictions from “level four” to “level three,” with new cases in single figures. 

At a news conference on Monday, authorities reported one new case, four “probable cases” and one new death from the virus.

Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s Director General of Health, said the low number “does give us confidence that we’ve achieved our goal of elimination, which – that never meant zero but it does mean we know where our cases are coming from.”

He added: “Our goal is elimination. And again, that doesn’t mean eradication but it means we get down to a small number of cases so that we are able to stamp out any cases and any outbreak that might come out.” 

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the coronavirus was “currently” eliminated but that the country needed to remain alert and could still expect to continue to see new cases.

Read the full story here.

Formula One Chairman Chase Carey speaks at a press conference in Melbourne on March 13 after the F1 Grand Prix of Australia was cancelled at Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit.

Formula One’s chairman Chase Carey says he plans to start the 2020 season in Austria in July, after the French Grand Prix was called off.

French Grand Prix organisers announced on Monday that it was impossible for the race to go ahead as planned on June 28. French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this month expanded the country’s ban on major events until at least the middle of July and imposed travel restrictions.

The 2020 season has yet to begin – the French Grand Prix is the 10th race to have been canceled or postponed in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Carey said in a statement that he was “increasingly confident with the progress of our plans to begin our season this summer” with a view to kicking off in Austria in July – albeit in all likelihood behind closed doors.

He added: “We’re targeting a start to racing in Europe through July, August and beginning of September, with the first race taking place in Austria on 3-5 July weekend.”

He said he hoped fans would be part of the events further into the schedule, adding that there were many issues to work out regarding travel to each country.

British Grand Prix organisers announced on Monday that their event remains on course to take place on July 19 – but that it will be held without spectators.

A social distancing sign is seen at the entrance of Regent's Park in London on April 26.

The UK could experience more than 100,000 coronavirus deaths later this year if the government eases restrictions to focus on just protecting those most at risk, according to one of the country’s leading epidemiologists.

Neil Ferguson is one of the scientists who has been advising the government in its response to the pandemic.

“The people most at risk of death are in care homes or have other health conditions,” Ferguson said in an interview with the ‘Unherd’ website.

The government is coming under pressure to ease some coronavirus restrictions.

Positive signs: Ferguson, a professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London whose modelling has influenced UK government policy, says the restrictions have been working.

He said there has been an 80 to 90 percent drop in contact between people from different households, and this is believed to have brought transmission rates down.

“We’ve brought the reproduction number down somewhere in the region of 0.6 to 0.7, which (means) the epidemic is in decline now,” he said.

No time to relax: Ferguson said the challenge is that there isn’t a lot of “leeway to relax without other interventions.”

“So, if we want to move away from lockdown – reopen schools, reopen workplaces, let people go shopping again – we have to substitute other measures.”

##Travel

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a statement at 10 Downing Street in London on Monday, April 27, his first day back at work after recovering from Covid-19.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned against relaxing the United Kingdom’s coronavirus restrictions too soon in his first remarks since returning to work after contracting the disease, imploring the nation to “contain your impatience.”

Speaking outside Downing Street in London, Johnson said that the UK was making progress in tackling the outbreak, with fewer ICU hospital admissions for Covid-19 patients, and “real signs now that we are passing through the peak.”

The virus has killed more than 20,000 people in the UK.

But he warned that the UK was at a moment of “maximum risk” as people’s patience might be fraying with the restrictive measures imposed to stop the spread of the virus. 

Johnson said he understood the worries of shopkeepers and entrepreneurs, and that without a functioning economy there was no way of funding the NHS.

But he warned that he “refused to throw away all the effort and sacrifice of British people” and risk a second peak of the disease and further loss of life by relaxing those restrictions too soon.

Johnson also thanked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab for deputizing for him, saying: ”I’m sorry I’ve been away from my desk for much longer than I would have liked.”

Germany received a shipment of 10 million face masks from China today.

The world’s largest cargo plane, the Antonov AN-225 – chartered by the German military –landed with the consignment at Leipzig airport.

Two further flights chartered by the German military are expected to deliver another 15 million masks.

Nearly all German states now require citizens to wear face masks in varying situations across the country.

Medical workers tend to a coronavirus patient at Stamford Hospital on April 24, in Stamford, Connecticut.

A new week in the coronavirus pandemic is beginning with a United States case count approaching 1 million and several cities and states preparing to loosen stay-at-home restrictions.

At least 54,883 coronavirus deaths and more than 965,000 cases have been recorded in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

As the numbers continue to climb, several state and city officials are expected to announce plans to reopen their economies this week. A University of Washington model frequently cited by the White House coronavirus task force suggests that no state should open their economies before Friday – and many should wait much longer. 

In New York, one of the hardest hit states, rates of hospitalization, intubation and deaths are down, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.

Officials at all levels of government are weighing how to proceed and when to reopen their communities.

Meanwhile, several states also are grappling with an increase in calls to their poison control centers, following President Donald Trump’s suggestion of injecting disinfectants as a treatment for the coronavirus during a White House briefing on Thursday. He later said he was being “sarcastic.”

Read the full story here.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison lays a wreath during an Anzac Day Commemorative Service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia on April 25.

Mateship, an egalitarian concept, is characterized by ingenuity, honesty, humor, courage and compassion. It calls on communities to come together during hardship, adapt to challenging circumstances and provide a fair go for all.

Anzac Day: For 15-year-old Australian Patrick Stibbard, mateship means looking out for one another. On Saturday, like millions of other Australians and New Zealanders, he stood on his driveway to commemorate Anzac Day and to the lives lost during war.

Traditional dawn services were canceled this year due to the coronavirus lockdown, but the 60 seconds of silence felt all the more poignant this year. It was a tribute not only to those who served and sacrificed on battlefields abroad, but also the frontline heroes fighting Covid-19 right now at home.

Passing the baton: For 240 days over the summer, wildfires blazed across Australia, killing 33 people, over a billion animals, and destroying thousands of houses. Before flowers had time to sprout through the ashes, the nation was already grappling with a new crisis, the global coronavirus pandemic. Firefighters passed the baton to health care workers, in what will be remembered as the year of the frontline worker.

From those in uniform to ordinary Aussies, mateship is “understanding that even the smallest acts of kindness can make a huge difference,” according to Erin Boutros, the co-founder of volunteer group Empty Esky.

Read more about how Australians are helping each other through mateship here:

100 year old war veteran Tom Newby stands to attention as families and friends perform a drive by parade at the RAAFA Air Force Memorial Estate as family and friends perform a drive by parade on April 25, 2020 in Perth, Australia. Traditional Anzac Day ceremonies have been cancelled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent restrictions on gatherings of people. Anzac day is a national holiday in Australia, traditionally marked by a dawn service held during the time of the original Gallipoli landing and commemorated with ceremonies and parades throughout the day, however with social distancing measures in place because of coronavirus (COVID-19), this year Australians are observing the day differently. Anzac Day commemorates the day the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC) landed on the shores of Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, during World War I.

Related article Lessons in mateship as Australia lurches from one crisis to another

Healthcare workers prepare to conduct coronavirus tests at a foreign workers' domitory in Singapore on April 27.

Singapore recorded 799 new cases of coronavirus in the 24 hours before noon local time on Monday, according to a statement by the country’s Ministry of Health.

Among the new cases, 14 are Singaporeans or permanent residents, while the vast majority are work permit holders in foreign worker dormitories. 

In recent weeks, the Asian city-state has recorded a dramatic spike in coronavirus infections, with thousands of new cases linked to clusters in foreign worker dormitories. To control the spread, the government has attempted to isolate the dormitories, test workers and move symptomatic patients into quarantine facilities.

Singapore has recorded more than 13,000 coronavirus cases – the highest in Southeast Asia – and at least 12 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Read more on how coronavirus is affecting Singapore’s migrant workers:

Men stand along a balcony of a dormitory used by foreign workers at Cochrane Lodge 2, which has been made an isolation area to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, in Singapore on April 17.

Related article Singapore's migrant workers are suffering the brunt of the country's coronavirus outbreak

A medical worker speaks to a driver about a coronavirus test kit at a testing facility in London on April 25.

The UK government’s promise to reach 100,000 coronavirus tests per day by Thursday is “quite a challenge,” said Michael Malim, the head of immunology and microbial sciences at King’s College London.

The Department of Health and Social Care said 29,058 tests were carried out on Saturday, although the government says the capacity is much higher.

Malim added that a more reasonable time frame for the UK to be able to test 100,000 a day would be “within two or three weeks.”

The UK government has faced criticism for low levels of testing, although Health Secretary Matt Hancock remains confident the 100,000 target will be reached by the end of April.

People walk through a shopping area in Yokohama, near Tokyo, on April 27.

The novel coronavirus has now infected nearly 3 million people and killed at least 206,553 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.

If you’re just joining us, here’s the latest on the pandemic:

Now is not the time to ease the coronavirus lockdown, British junior health minister Edward Argar said on Monday.

Argar said the nation has “made huge progress … but we’re not there yet.” He added that the lockdown restrictions in the United Kingdom were working and that “now is not the time to let up.”

Many countries across Europe, including Switzerland and Italy, are starting to relax some of the rules that were introduced to curb the spread of the virus.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is returning to work on Monday and will chair the government’s daily coronavirus meeting in the morning.

The UK has reported at least 154,037 coronavirus cases and 20,795 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Switzerland has started to ease coronavirus measures six weeks after it imposed severe restrictions on public life.

The Swiss Federal Council announced a three-stage plan aimed at easing the country’s lockdown.

Starting today:

Swiss federal authorities said that wearing face coverings is not mandatory, however 1 million masks will be provided daily for two weeks from today to retailers.

Further reopenings:

Switzerland has reported a total of 29,061 coronavirus cases and 1,337 deaths, according to the country’s Federal Office for Public Health.

Tyson Foods is warning that “millions of pounds of meat” will disappear from the supply chain as the coronavirus pandemic pushes food processing plants to close, leading to product shortages in grocery stores across the country.

“The food supply chain is breaking,” wrote board chairman John Tyson in a full-page advertisement published Sunday in The New York Times, Washington Post and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

US farmers don’t have anywhere to sell their livestock, he said, adding that “millions of animals – chickens, pigs and cattle – will be depopulated because of the closure of our processing facilities.”

Tyson Foods, which employs roughly 100,000 workers, closed its pork plants in Waterloo, Iowa, and Logansport, Indiana, last week so that workers in those facilities could be tested for the virus.

Read the full story here:

Tyson meat processing plant in Emporia, Kansas.

Related article 'The food supply chain is breaking,' Tyson says as plants close

A woman with a face mask sits in a bus in Berlin, Germany, on April 22.

Almost all of Germany’s 83 million population will be required to wear face coverings in public spaces as of Monday, according to announcements on federal state websites.

Germany is a decentralized country so every state has its own set of rules.

Here’s a breakdown of when and where you need to wear a mask:

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government urgently recommended citizens to wear masks in public when it loosened some of the restrictions placed on public life to combat the coronavirus pandemic a week ago.

But all German states have since separately enacted laws making the wearing of face coverings a requirement in some public spaces.

Dr. Deborah Birx speaks during the daily coronavirus briefing at the White House on April 22, in Washington.

Dr. Deborah Birx’s balancing act between science and US President Donald Trump’s disinformation may be reaching the point of no return.

The US coronavirus task force official has been caught in an unenviable spot, juggling her public health mission and reputation with the need to stay in the good graces of Trump, who has shown both a penchant for touting unproven therapies and a willingness to show his critics the exit.

Birx, a physician and diplomat, came under scrutiny Thursday when she failed, in real time, to correct Trump’s assertion at the White House briefing that injecting disinfectant into the body might combat the virus. She further compromised her science focus Sunday by defending the President’s remark as an example of the way he processes information aloud.

But Birx is facing what may become an even more difficult challenge to her credibility in the weeks ahead: the gap between the insufficient level of coronavirus testing – a lynchpin to opening the economy – and the federal government’s failure to put a viable testing infrastructure and guidelines in place.

Read the full analysis here:

Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, listens as President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Thursday, April 23, 2020, in Washington.

Related article Trump is driving Birx's balancing act to the limit

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation is investigating several complaints that a nail salon provided services to Beaumont Mayor Becky Ames despite the governor’s executive order closing hair and nail salons, Tela Goodwin Mange, the public information officer with the agency said.

This comes after a photo surfaced on social media last week showing Ames in a nail salon soaking her hands in a bowl. At the time of the visit, there were executive orders in place requiring salons to remain closed because of the Covid-19 crisis.

Ames told CNN affiliate KFDM that she was not having her nails done, but had gone to the salon to pick up solution needed to remove her artificial nails because “they hurt.” Once at the salon, the mayor said the owner had her come in for a few minutes to show her how to perform the process.

Ames said she and the owner of the salon were alone in the closed salon, both wearing masks, at least six feet apart, before she left within minutes, according to KFDM.

The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office is planning to investigate the mayor’s actions. 

Ames issued an apology on Thursday, for entering the nail salon, calling it a “lapse in judgement.”  

The investigation by TDLR involves the services provided by the nail technician and not the mayor, said Mange. Failure to comply with the governor’s executive order carries criminal penalties and could result in jail time, fines of up to $1,000 and additional administrative fines for the cosmetologist.

Texas remains under a stay-at-home order that expires on April 30.

People walk in a street in Tokyo's Akihabara area on April 24.

The Bank of Japan expects the country’s economy to contract by 3% to 5% this year – a sharp departure from its forecast at the start of the year, which predicted slight growth.

While it said Japan’s economy is likely to improve as the outbreak wanes, the central bank added that “future developments are extremely unclear.” Officials had earlier predicted growth between 0.8% and 1.1% for 2020.

The Bank of Japan kept interest rates steady Monday at its policy meeting, which usually lasts two days but was shortened to just half a day this month. But it did announce more easing measures as it tries to offset economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and address corporate funding strains.

The central bank said it would now buy an unlimited amount of government bonds, scrapping an annual cap of 80 trillion yen ($745 billion). The move was largely symbolic, since the central bank has in recent years been buying about a quarter of that amount annually, so it had a lot of room to increase its purchases even without removing the cap.

However, Monday’s announcement sends the message that Japan will do whatever it takes to shore up its economy. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has already committed roughly $1.1 trillion to protecting the country from virus-related fallout.

Japan’s economy had been flirting with recession even before the outbreak. The world’s third-largest economy shrank in the fourth quarter of 2019 as it absorbed a sales tax hike and grappled with the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, a powerful storm that hit the country last fall.

Japan will report first quarter GDP next month. 

A staff member sprays disinfectant on empty beds after all patients left Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province. The hospital, built in less than two weeks to handle a large number of Covid-19 patients closed on April 14.

All hospitalized coronavirus patients in Wuhan, the original epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, have been discharged from hospitals, Mi Feng, a spokesperson for China’s National Health Commission said on Sunday.

Wuhan was the first city in the world to go into lockdown due to the virus. It has been slowly returning to something that might be described as normal, after months of fear and anxiety.

But the scars of the viral outbreak, which for 76 days shut down the Chinese city and much of the surrounding Hubei province, lie just beneath the surface. Many citizens are worried about a second outbreak and businesses are struggling to get back on their feet.

The first known cases of the virus were detected in Wuhan in mid-December. In the weeks that followed, case numbers spiked and from January 23 until April 8, residents were unable to leave the city as the Chinese government attempted to contain the outbreak.

But despite the attempts to halt the spread of the virus, it has now infected nearly 3 million people worldwide.

Read more:

TOPSHOT - A man (C) wearing a face mask arrives to buy vegetables at a stall in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on April 18, 2020. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP) (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Wuhan is on a slow path back to normality after 76-day coronavirus lockdown

An empty street is seen in Auckland, New Zealand, on March 26.

New Zealand will lift some of its strictest lockdown restrictions at midnight local time as the country moves from level 4 to a level 3 alert for two weeks.

What it means: Under level 3, New Zealand will still essentially be under lockdown, but there will be an easing of restrictions. Schools can open. People will be able to buy takeaway food, and take part in more recreational activities, such as swimming at the beach. Up to 10 people will be allowed to gather for weddings and funerals. 

Alert level 3 does not permit more social activity, but would allow more economic activity like construction, manufacturing and forestry.

Dwindling cases: The move comes as New Zealand has seen a dwindling number of coronavirus cases over the past few weeks. On Monday, New Zealand reported one new case, four “probable cases” and one new death.

Ardern said that New Zealand had one of the highest testing rates per capita in the world, with the capacity to process up to 8,000 tests per day. The country also has one of the lowest mortality rates and a low rate of transmission, with each case infecting less than half an additional person, she said.

What happens next: Ardern said that the ambition is to be able to ease the social restrictions, but said to do that confidently, they would need to move “slowly and cautiously.”

“We must make sure that we do not let the virus run away on us again and cause a new wave of cases and deaths,” she said. “To succeed we must hunt down the last few cases of the virus.”

Level 3 will remain in place until May 11, when Cabinet will review whether to extend.

At least 965,942 cases of coronavirus, including 54,883 related deaths have been reported in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally.

On Sunday, JHU reported 26,732 new cases and 1,092 deaths in the US.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases and those in the US military, veterans hospitals and federal prisons.  

CNN has an interactive map tracking coronavirus cases across the country:

Bill Gates says US states should focus on "high value" segments of the economy, and how to reopen them with masks and social distancing.

The ability for parts of the United States to safely and effectively begin to lift coronavirus restrictions will depend on the country’s capacity to aggressively test for and trace new cases of the virus, Bill Gates said Sunday.

Here’s what he said:

Warning: Just because some areas looking to reopen have experienced relatively small outbreaks doesn’t mean they’re not at risk, Gates said. Many are concerned that reopening too soon could prompt a second wave of infections

In stages: It will require thinking critically about which elements of society are most essential to get back to work, implementing safety measures as they are reopened and ensuring diagnostic testing and contact tracing are in place.

Finding the cause of a rebound: “What we don’t know is, (if) we go slightly back to normal, which activities create the risk of a rebound?” Gates said. 

Ramp up testing: “We need to put in place a very dense testing regime so you would detect that rebound going back into exponential growth very quickly and not wait for the ICUs to fill up and there to be a lot of deaths. If you see the hot spot, you kind of understand the activities causing that,” he said.

Planning for reopening: States should focus on “high value” segments of the economy such as schools, manufacturing and construction, and should figure out how to operate those things with masks and social distancing, Gates said.

Continue tracking: Once some schools and businesses get back to work, communities should continue to track the effects on infection rates, he said. But it will take time. “The inequality has gotten greater in education, so if we can figure out how to do K through 12 in the fall, that would be good,” Gates said.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has studied pandemics for years and is now involved in fighting coronavirus.

Read more here.

Another 4.4 million Americans filed first-time jobless claims last week, bringing the number of people who’ve lost work in the past five weeks to an apocalyptic 26.5 million.

Each individual claim represents a life on edge.

People who never had their hands out before are going to food banks, and the unemployment rate is suddenly approaching Great Depression territory. It’s the same story around the world.

President Donald Trump thinks pent-up demand will ensure that the US economy takes off when normal life creaks open and once customers are free to shop and spend again. But even if the virus were waning across the US – which it isn’t – shops, restaurants, bars and movie theaters would likely reopen at reduced capacity.

And there’s no guarantee those other jobs will ever come back.

Fewer workers will mean fewer people with money to buy cars and go on vacation – which will mean that industries like tourism, entertainment and hospitality have a long haul.

After the battle against the coronavirus is won, the war to revive America will likely continue. We’re talking years, not months.

Read the full analysis:

A person wearing a protective mask walks through the take-out only food court in the re-opened Anderson Mall in Anderson, South Carolina, on Friday, April 24, 2020. After rescinding an April 3 executive order, Governor Henry McMaster set the stage for clothing, department, furniture, jewelry and sporting goods stores to reopen their doors to customers. Photographer: Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Related article Reviving America after Covid-19 will take years, not months

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has returned to 10 Downing Street and will be back at work on Monday.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will return to work on Monday after recovering from coronavirus, according to a Downing Street spokesperson.

Dominic Raab, the UK’s Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State, will step aside after deputizing for the Prime Minister, allowing Johnson to make a full return. 

Downing Street confirmed the previously waylaid Johnson is now “raring to go.” 

Johnson left hospital on Easter Sunday after contracting Covid-19 and has spent several days recovering further at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s countryside retreat.

US President Donald Trump attends the daily coronavirus briefing at the White House on April 24, in Washington.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday denied he was going to fire Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

In a tweet, Trump said that “Reports that H.H.S. Secretary @AlexAzar is going to be ‘fired’ by me” are false.

Azar echoed Trump’s message in his own tweet thread later Sunday evening attacking the media and praising the President’s coronavirus response. 

The public pushback comes after multiple calls between Trump, Azar and top White House advisers, which culminated in the coordinated issuing of a series of tweets that Azar’s job was safe for now, CNN has learned.

The flurry of phone calls surrounded a series of news reports Saturday night quoting anonymous sources saying White House officials were looking at the possibility of replacing Azar, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Read the full story:

Related article Trump denies he is about to fire Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar

A staff member of the Yokosuka Medical Association holds a coronavirus test at the Yokosuka Emergency Medical Center on April 23, in Yokosuka, Japan.

Japan reported 199 new coronavirus cases on Sunday and three deaths, according to the country’s health ministry.

The total number of reported infections in Japan now stands at 14,097, including 364 deaths. Some 712 cases and 13 deaths are linked to the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

The number of confirmed cases of the virus in Japan has spiked in the past month – dashing hopes that the government’s initial virus response had succeeded in controlling its spread. 

On March 1, the country had reported 243 cases.

Medical workers load a body into an ambulance at Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center on April 16, in Andover, New Jersey.

At least 965,435 cases of coronavirus, including 54,856 related deaths have been reported in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases and those in the US military, veterans hospitals and federal prisons.  

CNN has an interactive map tracking coronavirus cases across the country: 

South Korea reported 10 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, raising the national tally to 10,738, according to the South Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Of the new cases, seven are imported from overseas.

South Korea reported one death on Sunday, taking the national death toll to 243, the KCDC said.

Forty-seven more people have been discharged from isolation, bringing the national total of recovered cases to 8,764.

The exterior of the JBS USA plant in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on April 17.

A US beef production plant in Green Bay, Wisconsin will temporarily close after 189 coronavirus cases were linked to the facility, the company announced Sunday.

The Green Bay beef plant employees 1,200 people and “feeds nearly 3.2 million Americans every day,” according to JBS USA.  

A planned reopening date was not given in the initial announcement. 

Brown County, where the plant is located, has at least 776 confirmed cases and two deaths related to the virus as of Sunday, according to the county health department.

The Green Bay beef plant is the fourth JBS meat plant to close due to Covid-19. 

Greeley, Colorado reopened at a reduced capacity on Friday. A JBS beef plant in Pennsylvania opened back up a week ago. The JBS pork processing facility in Worthington, Minnesota remains closed down indefinitely. 

Read more:

The Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in South Dakota, one of the countrys largest known Coronavirus clusters, is seen on April 20, 2020 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. - Smithfield Foods pork plant in South Dakota is closed indefinitely in the wake of its coronavirus outbreak. (Photo by Kerem Yucel / AFP) (Photo by KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Meat processing plants across the US are closing due to the pandemic. Will consumers feel the impact?

Health workers tend to a Covid-19 patient in a Stamford Hospital intensive care unit, on April 24, in Stamford, Connecticut.

The novel coronavirus has infected almost 3 million people, including 206,495 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. If you’re just joining us, here’s what has been happening over the past few hours.

Medical personnel take coronavirus test swabs at a health services center, in Suifenhe, China, on April 24.

China reported three new cases of the novel coronavirus and no new deaths on Sunday, the National Health Commission announced today.

The three cases include two imported from overseas and one local infection from Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost province that borders Russia.

There has been growing concern over cases coming into China from Russia, amid fears they could spark a new outbreak in the north as most of the country returns to normal.

In addition, 25 new asymptomatic cases were also reported. Some 974 asymptomatic patients are still under medical observation around the country. China previously did not include those patients not showing symptoms in some of its tallies.

The total number of confirmed cases to date is 82,830, the NHC said.

Of those confirmed cases, 77,474 have recovered and been discharged.

The country’s official death toll stands at 4,633. 

EcoHealth Alliance's team take samples from a bat. Over the past decade, they have collected 15,000 bat samples.

Before entering the cave, the small team of scientists pull on hazmat suits, face masks and thick gloves to cover every inch of their skin. Contact with bat droppings or urine could expose them to some of the world’s deadliest unknown viruses.

Equipped with headlights, they set their nets up at the entrance of the dark opening overhung with bamboo trees, which is part of a vast system of limestone caves in China’s south-western Yunnan province.

Then they patiently wait for dusk. When the sun sets, thousands of bats fly out of the caves, looking for food – and straight into their nets.

Peter Daszak is a virus hunter. He presides over EcoHealth Alliance, an American NGO which specializes in detecting new viruses and pandemic prevention.

Over the past 10 years, he has visited over 20 countries trying to prevent the next big pandemic by searching bat caves for new pathogens. More specifically, new coronaviruses. 

The findings of Daszak, and others like him, inform an open-source library of all known animal viruses, from which scientists can forecast which strains are most likely to spill over to humans, in order to ready the world for a new pandemic like Covid-19. 

“We (have) collected more than 15,000 bat samples, which led to the identification of around 500 new coronaviruses,” he says.

And one of those, found in a cave in China in 2013, was a possible ancestor of Covid-19.

Read the full story:

The Smithsonian Institution carries out bat sampling in Myanmar and Kenya, allowing them to discover 6 new coronaviruses.

Related article The virus hunters who search bat caves to predict the next pandemic

As the need for widespread Covid-19 testing grows, officials are looking to flush out hidden cases of the virus by examining sewage.

Groups of scientists around the world are using wastewater testing as a non-invasive way to measure the prevalence of coronavirus in their communities.

Local governments in the US are also turning to the tests, which detect traces of coronavirus genetic material – known as RNA – in fecal matter.

The data can be used to gain a sense of how many people may have had the virus asymptomatically and are passing it through, in addition to those testing positive because they are outwardly sick, New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer told CNN.

Read the full story:

This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Groups of scientists around the world are using wastewater testing as a non-invasive way to measure the prevalence of coronavirus in their communities.

Related article Some scientists are using sewage to measure the prevalence of coronavirus in their communities

A priest conducts a funeral service for a coronavirus victim on April 24, in Cuneo, Italy.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced Sunday that the country’s funeral ban will be lifted on May 4. 

Speaking at a news conference, Conte confirmed that funerals will be allowed – preferably outdoors – with a maximum of 15 family members in attendance, adding that he understands “the suffering of not being able to exercise freedom of worship.”

He went on to say that other religious ceremonies will require the approval of the scientific committee.

In a statement, Italian Bishops complained, saying that the Prime Minister’s decree “arbitrarily excludes the possibility of celebrating Mass with the people.”

An NYPD car is seen in Canal Street during the coronavirus pandemic on April 12, 2020 in New York City.

Two additional members of the New York Police Department have died due to complications from Covid-19, bringing the total number of NYPD deaths to 37, according to a daily NYPD coronavirus report.

Principal Administrative Associate Josephine Hill dedicated 33 years to the NYPD, the last 19 assigned to the Manhattan Tow Pound Unit. Associate Traffic Enforcement Agent Mohammad Ahsan served 15 years with the police department, most recently assigned to the Bronx Traffic Enforcement Unit, the NYPD said.

Both were members of the NYPD’s Transportation Bureau, the report said.

About 8.8% – or 3,166 members – of the NYPD’s uniformed workforce were out sick on Saturday, down from a high of 19.8%, according to the NYPD.

As of Sunday, 3,530 members of the NYPD have returned to work full-time after recovering from a positive Covid-19 test, while 953 uniformed members and 317 civilian members are still out sick with a Covid-19 diagnosis.

In total, 4,837 NYPD members have tested positive for Covid-19 to date, the NYPD said.

At least 965,426 cases of coronavirus, including 54,614 related deaths have been reported in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases and those in the US military, veterans hospitals and federal prisons.  

CNN has an interactive map tracking coronavirus cases across the country: