– The global death toll from COVID-19 has risen to over 263,000, while over 3.7 million people are known to have been infected
– Brazil has reported its largest rise in coronavirus deaths over a 24-hour period
– The UN warns that illegal drug shortages could prompt users to turn to more dangerous substances and expose themselves to further risk
– Germany is scaling back its lockdown measures even further, with all shops set to reopen later in May
Updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC/GMT)
03:15 New Zealand Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson says that the country could restart professional sport as early as next week. The move would make New Zealand the first major rugby nation to resume playing the sport at an elite level.
New Zealand will decide on Monday whether to move the alert “Level 3” to “Level 2.” The nation has been relatively successful in containing COVID-19, and eased some restrictions last week, allowing 400,000 people to return to work.
Read more: Australia, New Zealand consider ‘trans-Tasman bubble’
03:00 Outside of the US, here’s the latest from the Americas:
Brazil: The country saw its largest rise in COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, with 10,503 new cases and 615 fatalities in the last 24 hours. Brazil’s health minister acknowledged for the first time that lockdowns are necessary to control the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, the spokesman of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has downplayed the threat of the virus, tested positive for COVID-19, raising concerns about Bolsonaro’s exposure.
Colombia: President Ivan Duque declared a second state of emergency to help companies that were shut down to slow the spread of the virus. Duque said he would use the 30-day emergency to enact measures to help small and medium-sized companies, including subsidizing up to 40% of employees’ salaries and postponing income tax payments until the end of this year. Colombia has logged over 8,600 cases and nearly 400 deaths.
Panama: The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Panama rose by 208 for a total of 7,731 on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said. The number of deaths climbed as well, bringing the current total of fatalities in the Central American country to 218.
Read more: Panama’s coronavirus gender curfew sidelines transgender people
Costa Rica: The government is currently embroiled in a spat with El Salvador over testing figures. Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele has accused Costa Rica of purposefully carrying out fewer tests to keep its case figures low. Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry expressed “concern” over Bukele’s comments and defended its testing practices. Costa Rica has had relative success in containing the virus, reporting no new deaths in over two weeks — although its daily test total is only half of what it was at the end of March.
El Salvador: Public transportation across El Salvador will be suspended starting on Thursday. The suspension will last for 15 days, the government said. El Salvador has enacted some of the strictest measures in the Americas to curb the spread of the virus and has been carrying out more tests than some of its neighbors.
Mexico: Mexico’s government plans to cut funds for women’s shelters, despite a spike in domestic violence cases since lockdowns went into effect. The cuts, which are part of an austerity drive to soften the economic blow of the virus, would primarily affect counselling centers for indigenous women. Activists say cutting funds would harm women seeking help while only saving the government up to $40,000. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador flatly denied that violence against women has risen during the crisis, despite data from the government’s domestic violence hotline which suggests otherwise.
Read more: Coronavirus crisis: Children suffer most from being locked down
Canada: The province of British Columbia will start reopening its economy in mid-May. The provincial government said it would provide guidelines on how stores, restaurants and hair salons can safely reopen. The Pacific Coast province recorded Canada’s first COVID-19 death, but the number of new cases has since dropped off.
02:48 Germany has reported 1,284 new cases of COVID-19, bringing its total number of infections to 166,091, data from the Robert Koch Institute showed on Thursday. The country’s death toll has risen by 123 to 7,119. The latest figures are an increase from the 947 new cases logged a day prior, with the number of new cases rising steadily over the past three days.
01:50 Germany’s military, the Bundeswehr, has provided administrative assistance to other authorities more than 200 times as part of government efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus, according to a report in the Rheinische Post newspaper. The assistance ranges from transporting masks — the Bundeswehr transported 10 million masks from China to Germany during the month of April — to manufacturing disinfectants and controlling access to clinics. Eighty-two assistance measures have already been carried out, 121 are ongoing and 33 more are planned, according to the newspaper report.
01:00 More than 500 cases of coronavirus in the southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala have been linked to a fruit and vegetable market in the city of Chennai. Health officials have traced contacts and quarantined over 7,000 people linked to the Koyambedu wholesale market, which is one of the biggest such markets in Asia.
Fearing food shortages, authorities had allowed the market to remain open during India’s six-week lockdown. Now, some shops are to be relocated to the city’s suburbs so that the supply does not stop completely.
Read more: Coronavirus: India’s contact tracing app comes under fire
00:44 German cities and municipalities estimate the coronavirus crisis will lead to revenue losses of €40 to 60 billion ($43.1 to $64.7 billion).
“The tax revenues, especially the business tax, are plummeting dramatically,” Gerd Landsberg, the head of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB), told the daily Bild newspaper.
Other sources of funds like museums, public transportation and swimming pools have also dried up — and covering the missing billions won’t be possible for towns to do by themselves.
Local governments rely on tax revenues to fund basic services, including the local health departments which have been working nonstop since the pandemic began.
Landsberg urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to approve a safety net for local municipalities.
He suggested the federal government take over some of the costs that currently fall under the responsibility of local leaders — such as covering the housing costs for people on welfare.
00:03 The United Nations says that the COVID-19 crisis has hampered drug trafficking around the world, leading to shortages of illegal drugs in several countries.
These shortages could have serious consequences for users as they turn to dangerous synthetic drugs, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report published Thursday.
Heroin, in particular, is in short supply in Europe, North America and Southwest Asia. Drug shortages in the past have also led to a rise in sharing needles, which can spread hepatitis and HIV as well as COVID-19.
The UN also warned that organized crime rings and drug traffickers are exploiting the pandemic “to enhance their image among the population by providing services, in particular to the vulnerable.”
Read more: Mexico drug cartels turn charities in coronavirus pandemic
00:00 Catch up on yesterday’s coronavirus news here: Poland postpones presidential election
In reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, unless otherwise specified, DW uses figures provided by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Coronavirus Resource Center in the United States. JHU updates figures in real-time, collating data from world health organizations, state and national governments and other public official sources, all of whom have their own systems for compiling information.
Germany’s national statistics are compiled by its public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). These figures depend on data transmission from state and local levels and are updated around once a day, which can lead to deviation from JHU.
rs, tg/dr (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)
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