Coronavirus latest news: Boris Johnson asked US for ventilators, Donald Trump claims - Telegraph.co.uk, Telegraph.co.uk

Boris Johnson to run country from his coronavirus sick bed

Social distancing: two-meter rule may not be enough

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D onald Trump has claimed that Boris Johnson asked the United States to provide Britain with ventilators to fight the coronavirus. The US president asked Mr Johnson asked for American assistance in a phone call on Friday. Mr Trump wished the Prime Minister well after it was revealed earlier in the day that he had tested positive for coronavirus . Mr Trump also said that the US would provide ventilators for the rest of the world. He said: “Boris Johnson was asking for ventilators today. As you know, Boris, unfortunately he’s tested positive, and it’s a terrible thing. But he’s going to be great, I’m sure he’s going to be totally great. “But they want ventilators. Italy wants ventilators. Spain wants ventilators. Germany wants ventilators. They’re all calling for ventilators. Well we’re going to make a lot of ventilators and we’ll take care of our needs, but we’re also going to help other countries. “ The United States now has more than , Covid – cases, more than any other country in the world. In the UK, more than , People have tested positive while people have died

F) ollow the latest updates below.

(4:) (AM)

Families start returning to Wuhan

T) he Chinese city of 25 million people that was Ground Zero for what became the global coronavirus pandemic partly reopened on Saturday after more than two months of almost total isolation. Wuhan was placed under lockdown in January with residents forbidden to leave, roadblocks ring-fencing the city’s outskirts and drastic restrictions on daily life. But the major transport and industrial hub has now signalled the end of its long isolation, with state media showing the first officially sanctioned passenger train arriving back into the city just after midnight. People are now allowed to enter but not leave, and many trains arriving on Saturday had been fully booked days in advance. Some had managed to slip back into the city a day earlier on rail services that were stopping in the city – but nominally banned passengers from disembarking – as enforcement of the travel ban began to ease. One woman who arrived on Friday said she and her daughter had been away from her husband for nearly weeks.

(A woman holds a child as they arrive at a railway station in Wuhan on the first day that inbound train services resumed after the coronavirus outbreak.) Credit: ALY SONG / REUTERS

S taff at Wuhan station were clad in full protective gear, with reception desks lined up ready to process returnees who had been overseas. China is now battling to control a wave of imported cases as infections soar abroad. All arrivals in Wuhan have to show a green code on a mobile app to prove that they are healthy. Elsewhere in China, long lines of travelers queued up at train stations to board high-speed services back to Wuhan. Passengers in Shanghai had their temperatures checked by staff in goggles and masks after boarding their Saturday morning service. Restrictions on residents heading out of Wuhan will not be lifted until April 8, when the airport will reopen for domestic flights. Chinese researchers say that per cent of people who contracted coronavirus in Wuhan had mild or no symptoms and did not report for medical assistance.

4: AM

Four passengers die on cruise ship

The Zandaam cruise ship anchored off the coast of Panama City. Credit: CARLOS LEMOS / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

F) our passengers have died aboard a cruise ship now anchored off the coast of Panama and two people aboard the ship have tested positive for coronavirus, the cruise line said on Friday, with hundreds of passengers – including Brits – unsure how long they will remain at sea . Holland America Line said in a post on its Facebook page that more than People on the Zaandam had reported flu-like symptoms. “Holland America Line can confirm that four older guests have passed away on Zaandam,” the statement said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and we are doing everything we can to support them during this difficult time.” It did not identify the cause of death.

The ship, which had been turned away from other ports and now is being denied passage through the Panama Canal, was receiving medical supplies and medical personnel from another Holland America ship, the Rotterdam, and the company planned to begin transferring healthy passengers to that ship. There are 1, 0401 and (crew on the Zaandam.) The bodies of the virus victims will remain on the Zaandam until the ship arrives at its final destination.

READ THE FULL STORY:

Britons plead to come home amid coronavirus fears

(4: (AM)

Fake remedies killing desperate Iranians

People in protective clothing walk past rows of beds at a temporary 2, – bed hospital for coronavirus patients set up by the Iranian army at the international exhibition center. Credit: Ebrahim Noroozi / AP

S tanding over the still body of a five-year-old boy wearing nothing but a plastic nappy, an Iranian health care worker in a hazmat suit and mask begged the public for just one thing: Stop drinking industrial alcohol over fears about the new coronavirus. The The boy, now blind after his parents gave him toxic methanol in the mistaken belief it protects against the virus, is just one of hundreds of victims of an epidemic inside the pandemic now gripping Iran.

Iranian media report nearly (people have been killed and more than 1, sickened so far by ingesting methanol across the Islamic Republic, where drinking alcohol is banned and where those who do rely on bootleggers. An Iranian doctor helping the country’s Health Ministry told the Associated Press on Friday the problem was even greater, giving a death toll of around with 2, (people sickened.) The poisonings come as fake remedies spread across social media in Iran, where people remain deeply suspicious of the government after it downplayed the crisis for days before it overwhelmed the country. The Islamic Republic has reported more than 39, confirmed cases and more than 2, deaths from the virus; the highest toll of any country in the Middle East. International experts also fear Iran may be under-reporting its cases, as officials for days played down the virus ahead of a parliamentary election.

(3:) AM

Tokyo restricts movement, as some carry on

P eople in greater Tokyo and the Osaka area in western Japan hunkered down on Saturday as officials urged citizens to stay indoors to prevent a potential emergency, but some were carrying on as normal.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike’s plea for the tens of millions of people in the capital and surrounding regions to avoid non-essential, non-urgent outings until April 26, and particularly this weekend, followed a surge in coronavirus infections this week, which she said puts Tokyo on the brink of a state of emergency. Ms Koike urged the public to avoid the national pastime of congregating to drink and watch the cherry blossoms as they hit their peak in the capital, saying on Friday: “The cherry blossoms will bloom again next year.” “I realise it’s the weekend, but just ask yourself whether or not you can delay what you think you need to do to another day,” she said .

People are being urged to stay home, as the cherry blossoms in full bloom continue to attract the Japanese. Credit: The Asahi Shimbun / Getty Images

I nfections in Japan have climbed to more than 1, , with 90 deaths, excluding those from a cruise ship quarantined last month. Hit early by the coronavirus in its initial spread from China, Japan had seen a more gradual rise than the recent surge in much of Europe and the United States . This week, however, saw an acceleration that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called “a national crisis.” Infections on Friday rose by a daily record , said public broadcaster NHK. Tokyo reported (new cases on Friday, bringing its total to While those figures are not high for a city of nearly 26 million people, with many millions more in neighborhooding suburbs, experts warn of a high risk of an explosive rise in infections, since authorities have not been able to track all the contacts of more than half the newest cases. The government has deployed the military to greater Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports to assist in virus screenings and the transport of people placed in quarantine, NHK said.

3: (AM)

Fears domestic violence will increase

W ith families across Europe confined to their homes to curb the spread of coronavirus, fears are rising of a surge in domestic violence. From Berlin to Paris, Madrid, Rome and Bratislava, associations that help victims of domestic violence have sounded the alarm after Europe overtook China to become the epicentre of the pandemic. “For many people, their home is already not a safe place,” says the German federal association of women’s counseling centers and helplines (BFF). But the stress caused by social isolation is exacerbating tensions and increasing “the risk of domestic and sexual violence against women and children”, the association warns. And the risks are not limited to homes where violence was already a problem. On top of the stress caused by confinement, fears around job security and financial difficulties are also increasing the likelihood of conflicts. The warning comes as the Duchess of Cornwall said that people homes are not always a safe place during isolation .

2: AM

Bolsonaro claims government stats are inflated

T) he president of Brazil has cast doubt on his own government statistics on Covid – 30 deaths, saying he suspected they had been inflated to serve “political interests”. Jair Bolsonaro, who has railed against what he calls the “overblown” reaction to a disease he compares to a “little flu”, said he did not believe the coronavirus statistics coming out of the state of Sao Paulo, whose governor he has attacked for his response to the outbreak. Sao Paulo has been hit harder by Covid – 30 than anywhere else in Latin America so far, with 102 of the (deaths registered in Brazil, according to the federal health ministry.) But the far-right leader questioned that figure. “That’s a very big number for Sao Paulo,” he told Band TV. “We can’t have a numbers game to favor certain political interests. I don’t believe the numbers coming out of Sao Paulo.”

1: (AM)

Nurses told not to wear uniforms outside work

N) (HS nurses) have been ordered to stop wearing their uniforms outside work after being harassed outside hospitals and accused of “spreading the virus”. Frontline medical workers have been told to travel to and from work in plain clothes to avoid being abused by members of the public, according to official instructions seen by The Telegraph. An email setting out the new rules was sent to nurses across the country on Thursday, only hours before a nationwide round of applause was held in honor of the NHS. It comes after doctors and nurses were targeted by muggers who attempted to steal their identity badges outside hospitals.

1: AM

What happened yesterday

H ere’s a round-up of Friday’s biggest developments:

Boris Johnson revealed that he tested positive for coronavirus but will continue to lead the country from his sick bed

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, also tested positive and Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, is in isolation with clear symptoms

Carrie Symonds, the Prime Minister’s pregnant fiancee, is also self-isolating

The United States overtook China as the country with the most cases , with more than , 11 Americans now having the virus

Italy’s misery continued as (more than) people died in a day

China’s death toll figures have been questioned after thousands of urns were spotted in Wuhan

(Read More)