Coronavirus latest: Trump says he takes anti-malaria drug for COVID-19
- US President Donald Trump has been taking hydroxychloroquine against the new coronavirus, despite medical warnings about the use of the drug
- Brazil is now the country with the third-highest number of COVID-19 infections, after the US and Russia
- Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron have proposed a major European rescue fund, to come from an increased long-term EU budget
Updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC/GMT)
04:11 President Donald Trump has threatened to permanently cut off US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) in a letter addressed to its Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, which he also tweeted. Trump called for “substantive improvements” to be made in the organization’s functioning in the next 30 days or payments would be canceled permanently.
“It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world. The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China,” Trump said in the letter. “If the World Health Organization does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization,” he said.
The tweet was posted hours after the WHO acknowledged that there had been shortcomings in the organization’s virus response, giving in to calls for an independent review.
03:35 Australian children are set to return to school next week in the country’s most populous state. New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian is hoping the move will lift childcare responsibilities for the parents and carers of around 800,000 children in public schools, as Australia hopes to stem a surge in unemployment and restart the economy.
The move comes as Australia’s states and territories are beginning to allow more public activity under a three-step plan to end two months of shutdown. Officials have credited the lockdown with keeping the country’s exposure to the pandemic relatively low.
Australian carrier Qantas Airways Ltd, meanwhile, said it could restart 40-50% of its domestic capacity in July, provided that states relax border controls. The airline said it would offer low and flexible fares to stimulate travel demand.
Qantas said it will introduce measures on board such as providing masks and cleaning wipes to ensure safe travel and give passengers peace of mind during the pandemic, but will not leave middle seats empty.
03:11 Almost half of Chile’s senate has been placed under quarantine after at least three senators tested positive for the coronavirus. Four ministers of the Chilean government have also been quarantined, as the country reported over 46,000 confirmed cases and 478 deaths.
Finance Minister Ignacio Briones was tested on Friday after being in regular contact with Senator Jorge Pizarro who was infected with the virus. Briones’ test came back negative, but he has begun “preventative quarantine.”
Around 20 of Chile’s 50 senators are currently in isolation. As the number of coronavirus cases in the country keeps rising, violence has been reported from parts of Santiago, where economically-disadvantaged sections of society demand food aid that was promised by the government last month.
02:09 Tokyo stocks opened higher, following gains on Wall Street the previous day, as markets reacted with some optimism to the easing of coronavirus lockdowns across the world and promising preliminary clinical results of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
The Nikkei 225 index was up 1.65% in early trade, while the broader Topix index rose by 1.44%. The rally rubbed off in Hong Kong, where stocks of the Hang Seng Index jumped 2.32% at the opening.
As a result, the dollar saw losses against major currencies, as encouraging data from the trial of a vaccine for COVID-19 reduced safe-haven demand for the US currency.
01:47 Mexico is set to start reopening its economy under new guidelines issued overnight. The country has so far recorded 51,633 coronavirus infections, with 5,332 deaths. The guidelines will impact the automotive, mining and construction sectors, as the country faces pressure from the US to reopen its factories.
“Today they can start doing the paperwork so that companies in the construction, transport and mining industries can start their activities, beginning with their health protocols,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced during his daily news conference.
Under the guidelines, companies will be required to report the health protocols that they will be implementing. Within 72 hours, the authorities will inform the company if operations may be resumed. As a part of the process, firms will also be required to fill an extensive questionnaire. The move has faced criticism from several sections of society over unsafe work sites and rising virus numbers.
Read more: Mexico drug cartels turn charities in coronavirus pandemic
01:23 New data from New York City shows that the coronavirus had a disproportionate effect on predominantly poorer, nonwhite neighborhoods, outside of Manhattan.
The ZIP code with more deaths per capita than any other place in New York was that of Starrett City, a huge complex of apartment towers in Brooklyn, which is the largest federally subsidized housing development in the US.
Nearly 63% of the people living in the ZIP code are black and it has the largest percentage of older people in the city, which likely contributed to the high fatality rate.
Brooklyn’s Coney Island and the Far Rockaway section of Queens both had high fatality rates, as did the northeastern-most parts of the Bronx, including Co-Op City, another huge apartment project similar to Starrett City.
The data released by the city confirmed earlier revelations that black and Hispanic New Yorkers were both more than twice as likely to be killed by the virus as white people.
The figures also showed a direct link between death and poverty. Neighborhoods with very high poverty levels suffered an average of 232 deaths per 100,000 residents while areas with low poverty rates experienced 100 deaths per 100,000 residents.
01:00 Brazil confirmed 674 new coronavirus deaths and a total of 254,220 confirmed cases, overtaking the UK to become the country with the third-highest number of infections behind the US and Russia.
16,792 people in Brazil have so far died from the virus. President Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the health crisis and encouraged measures to open up the economy. The president has clashed with state governors and health ministers, who have backed lockdowns and disagreed with his relaxed approach.
Read more: Coronavirus pandemic: Is Brazil the new epicenter?
00:25 The Supreme Court of El Salvador ordered the immediate suspension of a coronavirus state of emergency that had been declared by President Nayib Bukele.
The emergency declaration had been rejected by the legislature, but the president signed it anyway. It was supposed to be in force over the next 30 days, extending previous lockdown measures such as the suspension of classes, restrictions on movement in areas affected by the pandemic and a ban on gatherings of large groups.
It also authorized additional government spending during the emergency. But Bukele has been harshly criticized by human rights groups for using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to enforce authoritarian policies in the Central American nation.
Salvadorans have protested measures taken during the quarantine — which they say have led to job losses — by banging pots, honking car horns and playing loud music.
Recently, photos of hundreds of jailed gang members stripped to underwear and pressed together in formation, while wearing facemasks, were met with outcry from human rights advocates.
“All presidents in the democratic history of our country have had the power to declare a state of emergency and have exercised it, without legislative approval,” Bukele wrote in a post on Twitter on Sunday. “Will a president be prevented for the first time from exercising that vital power?”
00:15 US President Donald Trump said that he is taking the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to protect against the new coronavirus, despite warnings from his own government that it should only be administered for COVID-19 in a hospital or research setting due to potentially fatal side effects.
Trump said he has been taking hydroxychloroquine and a zinc supplement daily “for about a week and a half now.”
The president spent a number of weeks pushing the drug as a potential cure for the novel coronavirus, despite several of his administration’s top medical professionals urging caution. The drug has the potential to cause significant side effects in some patients. Trump said his doctor did not recommend the drug to him, but he requested it from the White House physician. The president told reporters: “I started taking it, because I think it’s good. I’ve heard a lot of good stories.”
Meanwhile, Trump continued his attack on the World Health Organization (WHO), saying he would make a decision on financing soon, having previously said he would withdraw from funding the UN’s health body.
Asked why he had not addressed a virtual meeting of the WHO’s annual assembly earlier in the day, he replied: “I chose not to make a statement today. I’ll be giving them a statement, sometime in the near future, but … I think they’ve done a very sad job in the last period of time.”
00:00 Catch up on yesterday’s coronavirus news here: France, Germany propose vast recovery fund
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.
jcg/sri (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)
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