Coronavirus latest: Donald Trump bans entry into the US from Brazil
- The US has put a stop to visitors from Brazil who have been there in the last 14 days
- Brazil’s numbers continue to surge, with almost 16,000 infections and 653 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours
- Domestic flights are resuming in India despite a record increase in infections
- More than 5.4 million cases have been recorded globally and at least 344,000 people have died from COVID-19
Updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC/GMT)
04:25 The number of confirmed cases in Germany has increased by 289 to 178,570, according to the latest data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases. The reported death toll rose by 10 to 8,257.
04:02 China’s foreign minister has rejected suggestions that Beijing is taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to expand its footprint in the South China Sea, describing the accusations as “sheer nonsense.”
State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a press conference that China was working closely on anti-virus endeavors with numerous Southeast Asian countries, many of whom have overlapping territorial claims with China in the strategically vital stretch in the Pacific Ocean.
While Beijing has long been increasing its presence in the marginal sea, Wang said other countries, implying the United States and its allies, have been causing instability in the region with military flights and sea patrols.
Wang told reporters: “Their ill-intentioned and despicable moves are meant to sow discord between China and (Southeast Asian countries) and undermine the hard-won stability in the region.”
Read more: South China Sea – what you need to know
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South China Sea countries are building larger navies
Pride of the Chinese armada
The first Chinese aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was originally a Soviet model built in 1986. In 1998, the stripped hulk was sold to China by Ukraine and rebuilt by the Dailian Shipbuilding Industry Company in northeastern China. It was completed in 2012 and has been ready for service since 2016.
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South China Sea countries are building larger navies
‘Black holes’ for Vietnam
In recent years, Vietnam has acquired six Russian Kilo-class submarines. Two were delivered in 2017. The subs are nicknamed “black holes” by the US Navy, because they run very quietly and are difficult to locate. They are specialized for missions in shallow waters and for defense against enemy ships and submarines.
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South China Sea countries are building larger navies
Flagship of the Philippines
The BRP Gregorio del Pilar is the flagship of the Philippine Navy. The vessel is one of three former US Coast Guard cutters that were acquired by the Philippines. The ship was first put in service in 1967 and it was modernized in 2011. In 2012, it was involved in the dispute with the People’s Republic of China over Scarborough Shoal.
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South China Sea countries are building larger navies
Warships from European shipyards
Indonesia is in the process of buying new ships and modernizing its navy. Pictured here is the KRI Sultan Hasanuddin, a Sigma-class corvette. The ship was built in 2007 in the Netherlands. Germany also supplies warships to countries in the region. The Kasturi-class corvettes in Malaysia and Brunei’s Darussalam-class high-seas patrol boats come from German shipyards.
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South China Sea countries are building larger navies
Singapore’s stealth ships
Singapore is unmatched for hi-tech in the region. Since 2007, the city-state has put six Formidable-class stealth ships in service. All of them were built in France.
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South China Sea countries are building larger navies
The long arm of the US Navy
The only truly global naval power remains the US Navy. The seventh fleet is stationed in the Pacific. It is the largest forward-deployed fleet of the US Navy with 50-60 ships, 350 aircraft and 60,000 personnel. This includes the only US aircraft carrier stationed outside of the US, the USS Ronald Regan, stationed at the US naval base in Yokosuka, Japan.
03:30 A total of 147 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 at a slaughterhouse in the Dutch town of Groenlo, authorities revealed. Among the infected, 79 reside in neighboring Germany while the other 68 live in the Netherlands, according to the local newspaper De Gelderlander.
There still 25 more employees awaiting testing among the entire workforce of 657 at the slaughterhouse, owned by Vion Food Group.
This is not the first instance of an outbreak occurring at a Vion slaughterhouse after dozens of workers had already been infected in other German branches.
Read more: Germany agrees stricter meat industry regulations following coronavirus outbreaks
03:27 Austria’s President Alexander Van der Bellen has apologized after staying at a restaurant past the 11 p.m. curfew implemented by the government. Owners face fines of up to €30,000 ($32,700) if they break the rules.
“I went out for the first time since the lockdown with two friends and my wife,” Van der Bellen tweeted, adding: “We then lost track of time while chatting. I’m sincerely sorry. It was a mistake.”
France recorded its lowest daily increase in confirmed new infections since the country went into lockdown on March 17.
As a further illustration of the country opening up, families have been heading for the Grande Motte beach on the Mediterranean coast, swimming and sunbathing in areas specially marked to keep a safe distance from each other. Cordoned off areas and wooden stakes were carefully spaced out across the beach, giving each visitor or group an eight-square-meter (85-square-foot) space of their own. Online reservations are required, though at no cost, and there is already a two-day waiting list.
Elsewhere, beaches have also reopened, but only for individual sports or walks, and people weren’t permitted to sit or sunbathe.
In Germany, the state premier of Thuringia has called for an end to all restrictions for the region. Bodo Ramelow said that he hopes to lift the remaining statewide rules on June 6 and replace them with “a concept of recommendations and fighting COVID-19 locally if infection figures rise.”
All 16 states currently have regulations in place, such as social distancing and an instruction to wear face masks on public transport and in shops.
Ramelow was heavily criticized by the chief of staff of neighboring Bavaria’s premier, saying his government was “appalled” at Ramelow’s suggestion. “Thuringia’s plans are a highly dangerous experiment for everyone in this country,” Florian Herrmann told German newspaper Bild. “Lifting all protective measures comes too soon and isn’t appropriate in the current situation, because the virus hasn’t yet been defeated.”
Restriction measures are still in place in the mostly-Muslim Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia and Kosovo. Mosques have reopened in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo but visitors must wear face masks and maintain physical distancing, while older citizens were urged to pray from home.
Turkey’s health minister announced 32 new COVID-19 fatalities, taking the country’s death toll to 4,340.
Fahrettin Koca also tweeted there were 1,141 new cases. The total number of infections currently stands at 156,827, making it the ninth highest in the world, though some experts believe it could be much higher than reported.
Read more: Lufthansa to resume to 20 destinations in June
03:06 British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is standing by his top aide Dominic Cummings regarding allegations he breached the government’s own lockdown rules.
Pressure is building from within the ruling Conservative party, however, to get rid of Cummings but so far Johnson is resisting those calls. For more information on this, click here: Boris Johnson rejects calls to fire top aide for breaking lockdown
02:46 Japan is set to drop the state of emergency currently in place in Tokyo, and four other remaining prefectures, later Monday, ending the measure first implemented on April 7 for the capital.
Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura has asked experts on a government-commissioned panel to evaluate a plan to remove the state of emergency. “It appears the measure is no longer needed in all of the prefectures,” Nishimura said.
An official announcement is expected later today by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, confirming the decision.
Unlike many strict lockdowns across the globe, Japan’s state of emergency is lenient and largely a request for people to stay at home and for non-essential companies to shut down or work less hours.
Read more: Coronavirus in Japan: Arson, ostracism, online attacks against medics, victims
02:10 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has held discussions with the CEOs of the country’s six biggest banks in order to gauge their opinions on the current state of the economy in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, newspaper The Globe and Mail reported, citing multiple sources.
This was Trudeau’s first direct dialogue with the banking heads since the pandemic first emerged in Canada, according to the report, which added that the calls occurred last weekend.
The topics they spoke about included adjustments required in relief efforts rolled out by the government, the need for additional support and pressures faced by clients of the financial institutions, the newspaper said.
01:16 China has recorded 11 new cases in the mainland, up from three in the previous day’s figures, the National Health Commission reported.
The commission said in a statement that all of the new cases were travelers coming from abroad. Ten of the new infections of COVID-19 were reported in Inner Mongolia region, with one in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
00:54 The Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has deployed hundreds of crowd control staff to implement physical distancing on public transport amid an expected commuter surge as schools opened their gates and offices reopened for business.
Australia has registered just over 7,100 cases, including 102 deaths, and with fewer than 20 new infections recorded most days, states are pursuing a three-stage plan to remove most restrictions by July.
Many parents in NSW are now able to go back to the office with children back at school. But officials warned residents to expect delays, with buses and trains operating at significantly reduced capacity due to the social distancing regulations.
“We’ve got 1.2 million kids on the move,” NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance told Australia’s Channel 9. “We just need everyone to be patient.”
00:32 An advisor to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has played down the significance of the travel ban imposed on people coming into the United States from Brazil, saying it is merely a case of previously established protocol.
President Donald Trump earlier announced citizens who have been in Brazil in the last 14 days will not be allowed entry into the US, but Filipe Martins, an advisor on international affairs to the Brazilian president, said on Twitter: “By temporarily banning the entry of Brazilians into the USA, the American government is following previously established quantitative parameters, which naturally reach a country as populous as ours. There is nothing specific against Brazil. Ignore the press hysteria.”
00:27 Berlin Mayor Michael Müller has offered to take in patients from Moscow in light of the Russian capital’s continuing struggles with the pandemic.
“Together with the Charite hospital, we made an offer to Italy, which they did not need to take us up on. Instead, our university clinic took in patients from France, which President Emmanuel Macron thanked us for a few days ago in a letter,” Müller said in an interview with The Tagesspiegel.
“We would like to help more if our clinics see the possibility to do so. I have also offered help to Moscow, our twin city,” Müller added.
00:12 President Donald Trump has banned entry into the US for any individual who has been in Brazil within the last 14 days, with the Latin American country struggling to control the pandemic.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the decision was an example of “decisive action to protect our country.”
“Today’s action will help ensure foreign nationals who have been in Brazil do not become a source of additional infections in our country,” McEnany continued. “These new restrictions do not apply to the flow of commerce between the United States and Brazil.”
Bolsonaro has been criticized for mishandling COVID-19 in Brazil
00:08 Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that COVID-19 could result in the loss of roughly a million jobs as numerous industries regarded as not essential remain shutdown.
The Mexican economy was already in recession prior to the emergence of the novel coronavirus and various investment banks have forecast contractions as large as 9% for 2020.
“My prediction is that with coronavirus, a million jobs will be lost,” Lopez Obrador said in a televised speech. “But we will create two million new jobs,” he pledged.
Read more: Coronavirus: Mexican factories risk workers’ lives
00:05 Domestic flights will resume in India today after “hard negotiations” brokered the arrangement, the federal civil aviation ministry said.
The internal trips will resume as restrictions become more relaxed in the country home to some 1.3 billion people, though the number of new coronavirus infections rose by a record 24-hour amount on Sunday. The 6,767 new cases took the overall figure to more than 131,000.
Airlines are preparing to restart about a third of their domestic operations as of Monday, though quarantine rules have yet to be clarified.
Read more: India, Bangladesh begin Cyclone Amphan cleanup
00:00 Catch up on yesterday’s coronavirus news here: Coronavirus latest: Donald Trump bans travel to the US from Brazil
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.
jsi/shs (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
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