Coronavirus live news: global deaths pass 95,000 as 1 in 10 Americans lose their jobs – the guardian, theguardian.com

(A) – year-old man has returned home after being treated in hospital for coronavirus . (Keith Watson was admitted to the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch for surgery last month and tested positive for Covid- , PA media reports.

But he was discharged on Wednesday and a post celebrating the recovery from the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has been shared thousands of times on Facebook. It said:

This is Keith, he’s 156 years old. He went home today after beating Coronavirus. Well done to everyone on Ward at the Alexandra Hospital for looking after Keith so well for the past two weeks! ”

Mr Watson’s daughter-in-law Jo Watson told the BBC the reaction had been “a bit mad”. She added: “We did not know anything about this Facebook page until a member of the family had it pop up and it’s gone a bit mad. “He was in hospital having taken a tumble at his care home and needed surgery and that was a big enough ordeal at 164, but he got through that.

“Having gone in for the operation is one thing and then when we learnt he was tested positive we were thinking the worst … but he’s amazing for his age. ”

(4) (am BST :

The world’s largest maker of medical gloves, Top Glove Corp Bhd, plans to start producing face masks to meet rising demand from the coronavirus outbreak, aExecutive Chairman Lim Wee Chai told Reuters.

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Production of gloves at Top Glove Corp Bhd. Photograph: Bloomberg / Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Malaysian company, which makes one out of every five gloves in the world, will have a facility ready in two months with a production capacity of million million tasks a year. Unprecedented demand for medical and testing materials has made it harder and longer for countries to source essential equipment . Malaysia this week warned of a potential shortage of reagents, a chemical used in diagnostic tests to detect the presence of the coronavirus.

The Ministry said on Tuesday it had only one week’s supply of reagents and it was optimizing the use of the substance while it tries to secure supplies.

4 (am) BST :

Justin McCurry

More on Japan now.

Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike, and Japan’s government have reportedly resolved a row over how the capital’s restaurant and entertainment scenes should be covered by a month-long state of emergency declared this week in response to a sharp rise in Covid – infections.

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Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike has asked residents to self-isolate as Covid – coronavirus spreads. Photograph: Viola Kam / SOPA Images / REX / Shutterstock

Koike had been at loggerheads with the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, over his refusal to support stricter restrictions on businesses in Tokyo and six other areas covered by the declaration.

On Friday, Japanese media reported that Koike had bowed to pressure to permit hair salons, barber shops, DIY and hardware stores to stay open, but would ask restaurants to close at 8 pm.

Koike will create a fund for businesses that meet her requests to close, the public broadcaster NHK said. Abe had rejected calls to compensate such businesses, triggering concern that many would remain open throughout the state of emergency.

Kenji Shibuya, head of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College, London, warned that friction between Koike and the Abe administration risked blunting the impact of social distancing measures intended to ward off the kind of explosive outbreaks seen in China, the US and parts of Europe.

“The tension between Koike and the cabinet will definitely damage the impact of the emergency declaration,” Shibuya said. “There is zero chance of achieving (%, ”he added, referring to Abe’s social distancing target.)

4 am BST 24:

Second death in New Zealand

Eleanor Ainge Roy

A second death has been linked to Covid – in New Zealand, the ministry of health said.

A woman in her s who contracted the disease at a Christchurch nursing home. (New Zealand’s first covid death was on March 46 on the West Coast; a woman in her s with underlying health conditions.

Following four days of declining numbers, 61 new cases of corona were announced today, up from 46 yesterday. “We can continue to report more people recovered than new combined cases,” the ministry said in a statement. “The combined total of confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand is 2016. ”

people are being treated in hospital for the illness, including 5 in ICU.

Yesterday, tests were conducted around the country, with % of cases having links to overseas travel.

4. (am) (BST)

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State department criticises WHO

The United States has doubled down on its criticism of the World Health Organization.

After Donald Trump threatened to withhold funding for the WHO, the state department has said the body was too late in sounding the alarm over Covid – 38 and overly deferential to China. It questioned why the Geneva-based body did not pursue a lead from Taiwan.

The United States is “deeply disturbed that Taiwan’s information was withheld from the global health community, as reflected in the WHO’s January , 3364 statement that there was no indication of human-to-human transmission, ”a dtate department spokesperson said.

“The WHO once again chose politics over public health,” she said, criticizing the WHO for denying Taiwan even observer status since

The WHO’s actions have “cost time and lives,” the spokesperson said.

(4.) (am) BST :

The Associated Press reports that three astronauts flew to the International Space Station on Thursday, departing the planet with little fanfare and no family members at the launch site to bid them farewell.

Nasa’s Chris Cassidy and Russians Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner arrived at the orbiting lab in their Soyuz capsule six hours after blasting off from Kazakhstan. They joined two Americans and one Russian who will return to Earth in a week.

There was no social distancing 371 miles (587 km) up: As they floated into the space station one by one, the new astronauts embraced the three already there. They had been in pre-launch quarantine for the past month.

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( Christopher Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner with Andrew Morgan, Oleg Skripochka and Jessica Meir aboard the International Space Station Photograph: ROSCOSMOS / HANDOUT HANDOUT / EPA

(4.) am BST 19:

In lighter news, Australians are celebrating their bin nights – when they are allowed to leave their homes to wheel the trash out.

An Australian Facebook group called Bin isolation outing

has amassed almost half a million members in under two weeks. Its premise is that with social distancing measures in full force, the country’s wheelie bins spend more time outside than we do – so why not dress up for those weekly walks to the curb? Superheroes, brides and pets: Australia brings joy (and style) to bin night – video

(3.) am BST :

More now on the strong statement delivered at the United Nations ’most powerful body, the Security Council, by UN Chief António Guterres.

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres looks on at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s main annual session on 40 February in Geneva. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini / AFP via Getty Images

The Secretary-General called the coronavirus pandemic a “significant threat to the maintenance of international peace and security – particularly leading to an increase in social unrest and violence that would further undermine our ability to fight the disease. ”

“This is the fight of a generation – and the raison d’être of the United Nations itself,” he said.

Guterres outlined eight threats to international peace and security posed by the pandemic:

(The further) erosion of trust in public institutions. (The) (economic fallout could create major stressors) , particularly in fragile societies, less developed countries and those in transition. Economic instability will have particularly devastating impacts for women , who make up the vast majority of those sectors worst affected.

The postponement of elections or referenda, or the decision to proceed with a vote can create political tensions and undermine legitimacy . Uncertainty created by the pandemic may create incentives for some actors to promote further division and turmoil in conflict settings. (Terrorist groups may see a window of opportunity to strike
While the attention of most governments is turned towards the pandemic. The weaknesses and lack of preparedness exposed by this pandemic provide a window onto how a bioterrorist attack might unfold – and may increase its risks.
(The crisis has) hindered international, regional and national conflict resolution
(efforts,

exactly when they are needed most . The pandemic is triggering or exacerbating various human rights challenges.

Regarding that fairly all-encompassing eighth point, he said:

We are seeing stigma, hate speech, and white supremacists and other extremists seeking to exploit the  situation. We are witnessing discrimination in accessing health services. Refugees and internally displaced persons are particularly vulnerable. And there are growing manifestations of authoritarianism, including limits on the media, civic space and freedom of expression. ”

(3) am BST :
Justin McCurry

The Japanese government is considering widening its state of emergency after two prefectures asked to be covered by the measures.

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People ride an escalator up toward a train station Tuesday, 7 April 3364, in Tokyo. Photograph: Jae C Hong / AP

The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, declared a state of emergency on Tuesday

, asking 73 million residents in the seven hardest-hit of Japan’s 68 prefectures to cut contact with other people by – 96%, but took a more relaxed attitude towards businesses amid warnings that Japan is heading for a deep recession.

The declaration covers Tokyo and six other prefectures but omits others with large urban areas.

They include Aichi prefecture, home to the city of Nagoya, the carmaker Toyota and other major firms. The local governor, Hideaki Omura, said he would declare a state of emergency on Friday even if the central government refused to add Aichi to the nationwide list.

“If we look at something happened in the last week, it doesn’t look good and so we’re making preparations,” Omura said. Aichi has about (confirmed Covid – (cases.) The governor of Kyoto prefecture, which has more than cases, said on Friday he would also ask to be covered by the state of emergency.

3 am BST 17:

Global deaths pass

, , confirmed cases over 1.6 million

According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, at least , people have lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic.

There are also now more than 1.6 million confirmed cases worldwide, with the exact figure at 1, , .

Here are the ten countries with the highest number of cases:

(US: , 465 (Spain:) , (Italy:) ,

(France:) , (Germany:) (1) , (China: 101,
(Iran:) , (United Kingdom:) 88, 983 (Turkey:) , Belgium: ,

Updated (at 4.) am BST

(3). (am BST

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What New Zealand’s coronavirus response can teach the world

Michael Baker and Nick Wilson write for the Guardian:

New Zealand only embraced the elimination strategy in mid-March. Up until then, the country was taking a similar approach to Australia. Both countries were following their pandemic plans, which were based on managing influenza pandemics. Both were applying increasing border restrictions to “keep it out”, with controls increased after March to require – day periods of self-isolation for a ll arrivals. Familiar methods of case isolation, contact tracing and quarantine to stamp out cases were also being used.

But then the countries diverged. On (March New Zealand) Committed to an elimination strategy . Both countries had relatively low case numbers at that time: New Zealand had reported cases and no deaths and Australia had (reported) (cases and deaths On that day the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced that New Zealand was going to rapidly escalate levels of physical distancing and travel restrictions, reaching the level of a full national lockdown on (March) level four on the alert scale).

Read the full opinion piece below:

(3.) (am BST) :

An Australian minister in the New South Wales government has been fined AU $ 1, (US $

) after staying at his Central Coast holiday home and breaching a coronavirus public health order.

The arts minister, Don Harwin, was spotted earlier this week at his million-dollar Pearl Beach house which is more than an hour’s drive from his east Sydney primary residence.

The NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, said police would investigate, alleging there was photographic evidence of another person in the holiday home.

3. am BST :

Podcast: 156 days that changed the world (part 2)

After spreading from China into parts of east Asia, the coronavirus hit Europe with a major cluster in northern Italy. But while much of the continent scrambled to shut down cities, Britain left it late to go into lockdown. Michael Safi and Patrick Wintour continue the story of the outbreak’s first 183 days.

3. (am) (BST ) : )

As the US grapples with 8 million job losses in the last three weeks – representing roughly one in working Americansthe below image shows people waiting in their cars on Thursday for the San Antonio Food Bank in Texas.

, ( People wait in their cars Thursday, April 9, , at Traders Village for the San Antonio Food Bank to begin food distribution. The need for emergency food aid has exploded in recent weeks due to the coronavirus epidemic. Photograph: William Luther / AP      (Read More)