- Russia reports a record increase of 232 deaths
- India’s infections continue to rise with another single-day high
- France and the UK are preparing to further ease lockdowns next week
- Global cases are approaching 6 million with at least 359,000 dead
12:43 Norway and Denmark will resume free travel between the two countries from June 15, but that freedom won’t be afforded to another Scandinavian neighbor, Sweden, at least for now.
The number of coronavirus infections remains much higher in Sweden and more than 4,250 Swedes have died from COVID-19 — more than five times the combined total of the other two Nordic countries.
Read more: Sweden says exclusion from Nordic travel zone would be ‘political’
Denmark will also open its borders to holidaymakers from Germany and Iceland from June 15.
12:25 A so-called second wave of coronavirus infections in Germany could well be avoided, thus negating the necessity for another nationwide lockdown, according to some of the country’s top virologists.
“Perhaps… we avoid a second shutdown,” virologist Christian Drosten told German magazine Der Spiegel. And it is now a “theoretical possibility” that citizens will “get through without a second wave.”
Similarly, virologist Hendrik Streeck from the University of Bonn said there may well be local outbreaks from time to time, like the ones in Leer and Frankfurt, but not a large second outbreak. Streeck told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) in a preliminary report: “I don’t think we’ll be seeing a second wave, that literally floods and overwhelms us.”
Last weekend, two other leading German public health experts warned that a second wave of infections could be brought back to Germany from abroad by holidaymakers.
12:12 Germans have been doing more home cooking during their coronavirus lockdown, while also using a greater number of fresh ingredients, rather than processed foods, according to the food and agriculture ministry.
Results from a survey about eating habits revealed some 30% of those questioned said they cooked more meals themselves than before the crisis, while 28% said they ate more often with other members of the same household than before the crisis. Only 7% of those interviewed said they ate more processed foods than before.
Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner said: “Corona is changing the daily nutrition of Germans. Regional foods have gained in importance.”
11:05 Iran has declared its highest number of new infections in almost two months and warned the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak was worsening in some regions.
The government has largely lifted its lockdown restrictions after Iran’s first infections were revealed in February but has been keeping an eye out for emerging clusters.
Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said 2,819 new cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to 146,668.
That daily figure is the highest since April 2. New infections have been on a rising trajectory ever since a near two-month low was reached on May 2.
10:53 Portugal has seen a drop 98.3% in overnight stays at hotels in comparison with this time last year as flights were grounded, keeping visitors away as the industry suffered heavy losses.
The National Statistics Institute (INE) revealed overnight stays by Britons, the main source of tourism for Portugal, fell 99.3% in April compared to the same period last year.
Portugal’s tourism board has said that the country’s beaches and hotels will be ready to welcome tourists by mid-June. However, there is still concern about how to check that new arrivals have been tested for the novel coronavirus, a measure the government wants to see implemented, and how to control whether social distancing rules are maintained on beaches.
A complete cancellation of the tourist season this year could have resulted in the Portuguese economy contracting up to 6%.
10:17 Polish football fans will be able to attend matches from June 19, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has announced, but only 25% of the capacity of stadiums will be used in order to maintain social distancing and curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“The Polish Football Association and the Premier League have chosen the 19th, so it will be possible to prepare everything according to the correct procedures,” Morawiecki said.
The Bundesliga in Germany returned two weeks ago but with games behind closed doors.
Belarus is the exception to the rule, where football has continued unaffected by the pandemic.
09:45 Spain has begun a 10-day period of national mourning for the victims of COVID-19.
09:25 Russia has reported an increase of 232 fatalities, a record high, as Moscow authorities released mortality figures in an effort to quash suggestions they were being manipulated.
A total of 4,374 have died from COVID-19, according to health officials.
Officials confirmed there had been a total of 387,623 cases, only the United States and Brazil have more.
Authorities have forecast a higher death toll in May compared to April, attributing this to deaths among patients who were hospitalized during the peak of the outbreak several weeks ago. The hardest-hit city in Russia is Moscow and officials reported a further 2,332 cases. They also released data about mortality statistics for April in an effort to dispel allegations they had been under-reporting deaths.
09:10 In New Zealand, only one person currently has the novel coronavirus after not detecting any new infections for the past week.
The country of some five million people has registered 1,504 infections in total, with just one remaining case. 1,481 have recovered and 22 have died from COVID-19.
08:55 Pakistan has reported 57 deaths from the novel virus over the last 24 hours, its most in one day since the outbreak first emerged in February.
The country’s death toll now stands at 1,317. The government has also registered 2,636 new cases, raising the total number of infections to 64,028.
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08:34 India has recorded another single-day high of 7,466 cases, overtaking China’s numbers, both in terms of confirmed infections and deaths from the novel coronavirus.
The Health Ministry said the total number of cases in India is 165,799, from which 4,706 people have died. China has reported 4,634 deaths and 82,995 cases overall.
The surge in infections comes as India’s two-month-old lockdown is set to end on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is expected to announce a new set of guidelines this weekend, possibly extending the lockdown in the worst-hit areas.
Read more: Citizenship law: Is India using COVID-19 emergency to arrest protesters?
08:12 In April, German retailers have suffered their worst month-on-month losses since 2007, as lockdown measures were in place for the entire month.
Sales fell by 5.1% compared with March and according to the Federal Statistical Office this is “the strongest decline in sales compared to a previous month since January 2007.”
Despite the fact that shops have reopened in the meantime, The German Retailers Association (HDE) said revenue has yet to return to pre-crisis level. “So the crisis is by no means over,” said HDE managing director Stefan Genth.
Read more: 50,000 German retailers could go bust
07:55 In Sweden, competitive and professional sport is open to resume from June 14, the government has announced, but without a mass audience in attendance.
Sweden has had a slightly more relaxed approach to the outbreak. Children’s sports activities, for instance, continued and adults were able to attend practice sessions.
“Now we’re also opening up for competitive play among all ages, which means that high-level sports can resume once again,” culture minister Amanda Lind told reporters.
Sporting events will have to take place outdoors and in front of no more than 50 people. The Swedish football league is now set to return to action, though an exact date has yet to be confirmed.
07:44 South Korean health authorities have said they would request imports of Gilead’s anti-viral drug remdesivir to treat patients with the novel coronavirus, as new clusters emerge.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has not yet approved the import of the drug but a government panel revealed remdesivir had shown positive results, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) Director Jeong Eun-kyeong said.
California-based pharmaceutical firm Gilead has said the drug has improved situations for patients with COVID-19 and has provided data indicating it works better when given in the early stages of infection.
07:25 Thailand will further ease lockdown measures next week, as the government seeks to stimulate the country’s economy.
As of Monday, cinemas and theaters will reopen, but with a maximum of 200 people at a time and implementing strict social distancing measures, said Somsak Roongsita, secretary-general of the National Security Council.
A curfew will be reduced by one hour, so that it now is in place from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. Shopping malls, which reopened for business earlier this month, will also be allowed to extend their opening hours, Roongsita added.
“The reopening will help stimulate the economy and ease some financial burdens,” Somsak said.
Zoos, beauty clinics, spas, and traditional Thai massage parlors will be up and running, albeit with social distancing in place. Soccer fields and volleyball and basketball courts will be available, but only for training and with limits on spectators. Fitness clubs can also reopen but with limited numbers being able to use the facilities at any one time.
07:00 The Japanese air force’s aerobatic squadron, Blue Impulse, has been out in force over the skies of Tokyo, to salute medical workers fighting the coronavirus outbreak.
As a team of six T-4 training planes streaked across a clear blue sky, doctors and nurses on hospital rooftops in the Japanese capital waved and held up cell phones to take photos of the spectacular demonstration.
“We have been working under strain for the past four months … I heard them (medical workers) saying the demonstration lifted their spirits,” said Shuichi Mikami, a spokesman for Tokyo’s Ebara Hospital.
06:30 Authorities in Indonesia have been ordering those that violate social distancing measures to recite verses from the Koran and receive public shaming on social media.
The Southeast Asian archipelago has deployed some 340,000 troops across more than 20 cities to oversee operations aimed at curbing the outbreak.
Indeed, police in western Bengkulu province have deployed a 40-person team to find lockdown breakers and force them to wear placards with promises to wear face masks and maintain social distancing. Pictures of the violators are then put on social media for maximum shaming effect, according to an official. Farther north, in Aceh province, those breaking the rules have been forced to read passages from the Koran, the central religious text of Islam. The province’s non-Muslim minority is spared from the punishment, though.
06:00 A job protection scheme in the UK brought in due to the outbreak cannot continue indefinitely, Environment Minister George Eustice said, as Britain looks to ease lockdown measures.
“The furlough scheme has been incredibly important in terms of keeping people on standby and ready to return to work,” he told Sky News. “Clearly as we start to emerge from the lockdown and start to get our economy back to work, we can’t keep people on that furlough scheme indefinitely.”
“We need to start identifying ways of moving them off the furlough scheme and back into work… We need a furlough scheme that can be tapered down as people return to work.”
05:15 Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said some areas of the country’s economy will require additional stimulus. Australia’s government and central bank haves already pledged to spend AU$250 billion ($166.1 billion, €149.8 billion) to avoid a longterm depression due to the pandemic.
04:45 China plans to extend a ban on international flights until June 30, the US embassy in Beijing said in a travel advisory.
The country has drastically reduced international flights since March, with the implementation of the so-called “Five One” policy, which allows foreign airlines to operate just one flight a week to China, and mainland carriers to conduct one flight per week on one route to any country.
China has reported over 84,000 cases of the virus, with a death toll of 4,638.
03:55 The number of confirmed cases in Germany has increased by 741 to 180,458 in the last 24 hours, Germany’s infectious diseases agency announced. The Robert Koch Institute also announced 39 new deaths, bringing the total death count to 8,450.
Germany is in the middle of a lengthy period of easing restrictions on public life. Businesses are seeking to make up for lost profits.
In the most-populous state of North-Rhine Westphalia, news figures show that all kinds of crime rates decreased since the pandemic began. Despite fears that domestic violence rates would increase, there has been a steady decrease in reported incidents since March 1 compared to previous years, German newspaper the Rheinische Post reported on Friday. Experts have suggested that the decrease may simply be down to fewer crimes being reported.
03:20 Colombia has extended its lockdown till the end of June, the country’s President Ivan Duque declared on Thursday. The Latin American country has been subject to restrictions since March. Duque said that Colombia would continue opening up some sectors to revive its economy, despite the continued restrictions.
Colombia is currently mulling reopening shopping centers, museums and salons in a phased manner, depending on consensus from local authorities. The Mayor of Bogota has however said that new economic sectors such as salons and shopping centers won’t open up in the capital. Duque announced that international flights would resume from September 1.
02:52 South Korea has reported 58 new cases of coronavirus, all in Seoul. Officials have linked transmissions to an e-commerce warehouse near the capital.
The country was, for a while, reporting almost no new cases of COVID-19, but this week it reinstated some lockdown restrictions after health authorities grew concerned around new clusters of infections. All in all, 177 new cases have been reported over the last three days.
Officials now want to complete testing on 4,000 workers and visitors to the warehouse. Overall, 11,402 cases have been confirmed and 269 people have died.
02:45 Japan’s industrial production dropped by 9.1% in April from the previous month, the third straight month of decline.
The decrease was steeper than the predicted 5.7% decline that analysts forecast. Tokyo stocks also opened lower on Friday, tracking falls on Wall Street.
The state of emergency ended in most of Japan’s prefectures on Monday, including Tokyo, ahead of the expiry on May 31. Experts hope the economy will be able to pick up as businesses begin to trade again. The nation’s unemployment rate also rose to 2.6% compared to 2.5% the month before.
01:33 The Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has announced that the coronavirus pandemic could cost as much as AUS $20 billion ($13.3 billion, roughly €12 billion) in lost revenues over the next four years. The southeastern state is the country’s economic powerhouse.
“We are facing the type of economic challenge not seen in generations, perhaps not since people were hammering the last rivet into the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the 1930s,” said NSW state Treasurer Dominic Perrottet.
The budget deficit estimate of between AUS $10 billion and AUS $20 billion is a sharp increase from the preview estimate in December 2019, before the pandemic began, which estimated a budget surplus of AUS $1.9 billion.
Social distancing measures will begin to be lifted in NSW next week in the state which has seen half of Australia’s coronavirus cases. Over 7,000 cases have been confirmed in Australia and 103 people have died.
01:10 The US has recorded 1,297 coronavirus deaths within the last 24 hours, bringing its total to 101,573 since the pandemic began. There have been over 1.7 million cases of COVID-19 in the US, by far the worst-hit country in the world in overall terms.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has outlined plans to allow hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to return to work in the coming days. The United States’ most populous city has been the worst affected and has also been under one of the strictest lockdowns in the country.
00:45 Houthi rebels in Yemen have acknowledged for the first time that coronavirus has spread to multiple governorates under their control. The Houthi health ministry said they were working to track isolated cases.
The rebels also accused the World Health Organization of sending them “inaccurate” and deficient tests.
The internationally-recognized government of war-torn Yemen has reported 278 cases and 58 deaths, with fears mounting over the devastating effects of a major outbreak given the poor condition of the country’s health system and its fragile food supply.
00:30 Mainland China has reported no new confirmed cases of coronavirus as of the end of May 28, down from two a day earlier. There were five new asymptomatic cases of coronavirus in the country.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that China has room to stimulate the economy following the downturn in the wake of coronavirus, but does not want to open the “floodgates.” China’s economy suffered a 6.8% contraction in the first quarter of the year, with the country hard hit by the epidemic that began in Wuhan.
00:05 Brazil has recorded its highest single-day jump in cases. The South American country has the second-highest number of cases after the US, with 26,417 new cases reported within 24 hours. The Health Ministry recorded 1,156 new deaths in the same time period, bringing the total number of deaths to 26,754 and the total number of cases to 438,238.
00:00 You can catch up with our rolling updates from May 28 here
ed/mm (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
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.
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