Summary for Thursday, 7th May
Welcome back to our rolling coverage where we’ll keep you up to date on all news around the global coronavirus pandemic, writing from across Asia and Australia and later Europe and the US.
Here’s what you need to know so far.
"And it should have never happened. Could've been stopped at the source. Could've been stopped in China. It should've been stopped right at the source. And it wasn't."
The US has now recorded more than 70,000 deaths with Covid-19.
Up to five people from the same home can visit another person. “I think this is going to be welcomed by families,” said state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Queensland only has 50 active cases.
Australian states are all moving at their own speeds out of lockdown after largely containing the virus. While this is a boon for Queensland mums, in neighbouring New South Wales, the two-visitor rule still holds. And in Victoria, any non-essential households visits are still banned.
But on Friday all state leaders and the prime minister are set to review the rules, and Australians everywhere are anticipating new freedoms.
Ruby Princess, the cruise ship at the centre of a public inquiry and criminal investigation about the spread of Covid-19 in Australia, has arrived in the Philippines. It is currently anchored in Manila Bay waiting to repatriate Filipino crew.
In March the Carnival Corporation-owned ship allowed passengers to disembark in Sydney despite some exhibiting flu-like symptoms. More than 660 people associated with Ruby Princess passengers later tested positive for coronavirus and 13 have since died.
Crew currently on board the Ruby Princess will now have to undergo 14 days of self-isolation in ship cabins, followed by swab tests as mandated by the Philippine coast guard. More than 10 other cruise ships remain in Manila Bay’s anchorage area owing to large number of Filipinos who work in the cruise ship industry.
Roger Frizzell, a spokesperson for Carnival Corporation, told me they were working closely with governments and health authorities to repatriate their staff worldwide, but the process had become “more difficult lately with global port closures and travel restrictions”.
The ongoing public inquiry in Australia is expected to report its findings in mid-August.
The last match was played on 11 March, before football across most of Europe was halted. All remaining matches in Germany will be played behind closed doors.
Top-flight leagues in England, Spain and Italy are trying to find a way to complete their campaigns, although France's Ligue 1 will not resume and Paris St-Germain have been declared champions, while the Netherlands' Eredivisie season has been abandoned, with no champions, relegations or promotions.
Only 69,463 tests were provided in the 24 hours up to 08:00 GMT on that day.
The UK also became the first country in Europe to pass 30,000 coronavirus deaths, according to the latest government figures.
This brings the country's overall coronavirus-related death toll to more than 8,500.
Health Minister Nelson Teich said the government may now recommend the introduction of lockdown measures in some of the worst affected cities.
President Jair Bolsonaro has so far dismissed the severity of the pandemic, encouraging people to carry on working.
Around two million people have lost their jobs in the last weeks in what is South East Asia's biggest economy and most populous country.
"All of our achievement in reducing the poverty rate between 2011 to 2020 is reversed," Sri Mulyani Indrawati said.
The government expects cases to peak in late May and then go down the following month, unless there will be a second wave.
But like many of its neighbours, Indonesia is thought to have a much higher number of infections than official data suggests as testing capacity remains low.
The first flight heading out to pick people up will now take off at 23:15 local time from the national capital, Delhi, to Singapore on Thursday night. And the second one, a flight from Mumbai to London, is expected to depart on Friday morning.
Nearly 15,000 Indians are expected to return on more than 60 flights from 12 countries over the next week.
Passengers will pay their own fares and be quarantined on return. Indian navy ships are also assisting in the exercise.
India suspended all international travel in March before it went into lockdown to curb Covid-19 infections. The country currently has 33,414 active cases.
Eventually, about 200,000 Indians will be brought back, report local media. If successful, this would be India's biggest evacuation mission since 1990, when it rescued 170,000 civilians from Kuwait during the Gulf War. You can read more on the operation here.
Rallies have recently been held in Poland calling for the postponement of the presidential election
Poland's governing coalition parties have agreed to postpone this Sunday's presidential election because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party had wanted the vote to go ahead to get President Andrzej Duda re-elected.
But junior coalition partner Agreement and the opposition said PiS was putting political gain ahead of public health.
The election will now be rescheduled to a date "as soon as possible", and it will be a postal-only ballot
The earlier plan had received widespread criticism and Trump explained his reversal by saying he had no idea how popular the task force was.
The task force currently reports to the president and co-ordinates with medical institutes, political staff and state governors. It also consults medical experts to formulate national guidelines on social distancing.
The US has about one third of all confirmed cases globally and more than double the number of deaths of any other country.
While infection and death rates have plateaued, there is acute concern over a second wave should lockdown measures be lifted.
The reopening could provide useful insights for companies looking to restart their operations after lockdowns.
The Chinese theme park is bringing in a raft of new health and safety measures for guests, including face masks, contact tracing and temperature checks. Virtual queuing and other technologies are also being considered Disney said.
The park was closed three months ago at the height of the virus outbreak in China.
Under "Level 2" lockdown - home gatherings should still be small, but up to 100 people will be able to attend events like weddings.
People will be able to go back to work or school, restaurants can re-open with tables spaced apart, and travel around the country will be allowed again. Public facilities can re-open, and sport competitions can resume too.
"Physical distancing, good hygiene and contact tracing will be essential to making Level 2 work," said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
A decision on this all going ahead will come Monday, but certainly, it's a big acceleration from the deep lockdown the nation was in just three weeks ago - where everyone had to stay home and only supermarkets and pharmacies were open.
In the meantime, the situation inside the shelters and on the streets of Tijuana is steadily getting worse.
But after colleagues said he was close to making "significant findings" on his studies of Covid-19, there's been online speculation on both Chinese social media and Twitter, floating conspiracy theories about his death.
Read more in this piece by the BBC's Zhaoyin Feng in Washington DC.
So if you saw someone breaking the rules, would you report them? Is it a civic duty - or just spying on the people living next to you?
The BBC's Frances Mao looked at how people around the world have been reacting towards recalcitrant neighbours and the people who "dob" on them - read more here.
Welcome back to our rolling coverage where we’ll keep you up to date on all news around the global coronavirus pandemic, writing from across Asia and Australia and later Europe and the US.
Here’s what you need to know so far.
- US President Donald Trump has described the pandemic as an “attack” on the country worse than Pearl Harbor or 9/11, again blaming China for failing to stop the outbreak
- He has also changed his plans to end his administration’s coronavirus task force, saying he didn’t know it was so popular
- India begins a large repatriation operation to bring home nearly 15,000 of its citizens but some of the flights have been pushed to Friday as crew members’ tests have been delayed
- The pandemic has set Indonesia’s poverty eradication efforts back by a decade, the government said, as two million people lost their jobs in the past six weeks
- Australia hopes to reopen its economy by July, banking its success in containing the virus will continue
- In Europe, the gradual easing of lockdown measures continues - Germany will allow its football league to resume in empty stadiums, while in Belgium retailers will be allowed to open from next week
- In the UK, the recorded death toll has risen past 30,000 which is the highest in Europe and second only to the United States.
Trump decries 'worst attack' on US
US President Donald Trump has again turned his anger at China, where the virus was first detected, now outright calling it the "worst attack we've ever had". He said it was worse than the Pearl Harbour attack that brought the US into World War Two and worse than the 9/11 attacks on New York."And it should have never happened. Could've been stopped at the source. Could've been stopped in China. It should've been stopped right at the source. And it wasn't."
The US has now recorded more than 70,000 deaths with Covid-19.
Queensland expands home visits for Mothers' Day
It’s Mothers’ Day this weekend in many parts of the world, and in Queensland families will be able to visit each other in groups.Up to five people from the same home can visit another person. “I think this is going to be welcomed by families,” said state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Queensland only has 50 active cases.
Australian states are all moving at their own speeds out of lockdown after largely containing the virus. While this is a boon for Queensland mums, in neighbouring New South Wales, the two-visitor rule still holds. And in Victoria, any non-essential households visits are still banned.
But on Friday all state leaders and the prime minister are set to review the rules, and Australians everywhere are anticipating new freedoms.
Controversial cruise ship now in Manila
Howard Johnson - Philippines Correspondent, BBC NewsRuby Princess, the cruise ship at the centre of a public inquiry and criminal investigation about the spread of Covid-19 in Australia, has arrived in the Philippines. It is currently anchored in Manila Bay waiting to repatriate Filipino crew.
In March the Carnival Corporation-owned ship allowed passengers to disembark in Sydney despite some exhibiting flu-like symptoms. More than 660 people associated with Ruby Princess passengers later tested positive for coronavirus and 13 have since died.
Crew currently on board the Ruby Princess will now have to undergo 14 days of self-isolation in ship cabins, followed by swab tests as mandated by the Philippine coast guard. More than 10 other cruise ships remain in Manila Bay’s anchorage area owing to large number of Filipinos who work in the cruise ship industry.
Roger Frizzell, a spokesperson for Carnival Corporation, told me they were working closely with governments and health authorities to repatriate their staff worldwide, but the process had become “more difficult lately with global port closures and travel restrictions”.
The ongoing public inquiry in Australia is expected to report its findings in mid-August.
German football to restart on 15 May
Good news for those of you missing sport. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that the country's top football league, the Bundesliga, could resume on 15 May.The last match was played on 11 March, before football across most of Europe was halted. All remaining matches in Germany will be played behind closed doors.
Top-flight leagues in England, Spain and Italy are trying to find a way to complete their campaigns, although France's Ligue 1 will not resume and Paris St-Germain have been declared champions, while the Netherlands' Eredivisie season has been abandoned, with no champions, relegations or promotions.
UK again misses testing target as death toll rises
In the UK, the government on Wednesday missed its 100,000 per day testing target for the fourth consecutive day.Only 69,463 tests were provided in the 24 hours up to 08:00 GMT on that day.
The UK also became the first country in Europe to pass 30,000 coronavirus deaths, according to the latest government figures.
Brazil reports highest daily death toll
In Brazil, 615 deaths were reported on Wednesday - the highest death toll for a single day anywhere in the southern hemisphere.This brings the country's overall coronavirus-related death toll to more than 8,500.
Health Minister Nelson Teich said the government may now recommend the introduction of lockdown measures in some of the worst affected cities.
President Jair Bolsonaro has so far dismissed the severity of the pandemic, encouraging people to carry on working.
Indonesia's poverty battle 'set back a decade'
The virus outbreak has set back Indonesia's struggle to eradicate poverty by a decade, the country's finance minister says.Around two million people have lost their jobs in the last weeks in what is South East Asia's biggest economy and most populous country.
"All of our achievement in reducing the poverty rate between 2011 to 2020 is reversed," Sri Mulyani Indrawati said.
The government expects cases to peak in late May and then go down the following month, unless there will be a second wave.
But like many of its neighbours, Indonesia is thought to have a much higher number of infections than official data suggests as testing capacity remains low.
India's big evacuation plan slightly delayed
India's mammoth repatriation operation has had a setback. Some flights were delayed as crew members are still waiting for their Covid-19 test results to come back, local media have reported.The first flight heading out to pick people up will now take off at 23:15 local time from the national capital, Delhi, to Singapore on Thursday night. And the second one, a flight from Mumbai to London, is expected to depart on Friday morning.
Nearly 15,000 Indians are expected to return on more than 60 flights from 12 countries over the next week.
Passengers will pay their own fares and be quarantined on return. Indian navy ships are also assisting in the exercise.
India suspended all international travel in March before it went into lockdown to curb Covid-19 infections. The country currently has 33,414 active cases.
Eventually, about 200,000 Indians will be brought back, report local media. If successful, this would be India's biggest evacuation mission since 1990, when it rescued 170,000 civilians from Kuwait during the Gulf War. You can read more on the operation here.
Poland's presidential poll halted
Rallies have recently been held in Poland calling for the postponement of the presidential election
Poland's governing coalition parties have agreed to postpone this Sunday's presidential election because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party had wanted the vote to go ahead to get President Andrzej Duda re-elected.
But junior coalition partner Agreement and the opposition said PiS was putting political gain ahead of public health.
The election will now be rescheduled to a date "as soon as possible", and it will be a postal-only ballot
Trump reverses plan to axe virus task force
US President Donald Trump has made a turn on his earlier decision to end the White House virus task force.The earlier plan had received widespread criticism and Trump explained his reversal by saying he had no idea how popular the task force was.
The task force currently reports to the president and co-ordinates with medical institutes, political staff and state governors. It also consults medical experts to formulate national guidelines on social distancing.
The US has about one third of all confirmed cases globally and more than double the number of deaths of any other country.
While infection and death rates have plateaued, there is acute concern over a second wave should lockdown measures be lifted.
Spotlight on Shanghai Disneyland's reopening
All eyes will be on Shanghai next week as Disney reopens its first theme park since the pandemic started.The reopening could provide useful insights for companies looking to restart their operations after lockdowns.
The Chinese theme park is bringing in a raft of new health and safety measures for guests, including face masks, contact tracing and temperature checks. Virtual queuing and other technologies are also being considered Disney said.
The park was closed three months ago at the height of the virus outbreak in China.
NZ flags big society re-opening next week
New Zealand - hailed as one of the world leaders in containing the virus - has now announced it's looking at re-opening most elements of society as soon as next Wednesday.Under "Level 2" lockdown - home gatherings should still be small, but up to 100 people will be able to attend events like weddings.
People will be able to go back to work or school, restaurants can re-open with tables spaced apart, and travel around the country will be allowed again. Public facilities can re-open, and sport competitions can resume too.
"Physical distancing, good hygiene and contact tracing will be essential to making Level 2 work," said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
A decision on this all going ahead will come Monday, but certainly, it's a big acceleration from the deep lockdown the nation was in just three weeks ago - where everyone had to stay home and only supermarkets and pharmacies were open.
The asylum seekers trapped in Mexican border cities
With all immigration into the US suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, many asylum seekers are trapped in dangerous Mexican border cities. Activists fear that court dates are being indefinitely postponed and claims for asylum simply dismissed without their day in court.In the meantime, the situation inside the shelters and on the streets of Tijuana is steadily getting worse.
Researcher's murder sparks conspiracy theories
Bing Liu, a 37-year-old Chinese-born coronavirus researcher, was found dead over the weekend in his Pittsburgh house in the US. Police say it was a murder-suicide, and so far there's been no evidence pointing to anything otherwise.But after colleagues said he was close to making "significant findings" on his studies of Covid-19, there's been online speculation on both Chinese social media and Twitter, floating conspiracy theories about his death.
Read more in this piece by the BBC's Zhaoyin Feng in Washington DC.
What's the latest from South Asia?
Here's a brief breakdown of headlines from across the South Asia region:- with railway employees being called in to work to make necessary arrangements, local media report
- It's a similar trend of mounting numbers in Bangladesh, which crossed 11,000 cases on Wednesday, after daily infections spiked to 790 - the highest it's seen so far
- In Nepal, authorities have extended their lockdown by 10 days to 18 May as infections rise to 82
- And in Sri Lanka, officials on Tuesday said that more than 300 of the country's active 548 cases are from the Navy.
Would you report on your neighbour?
Much of the world is in some form of a coronavirus lockdown.So if you saw someone breaking the rules, would you report them? Is it a civic duty - or just spying on the people living next to you?
The BBC's Frances Mao looked at how people around the world have been reacting towards recalcitrant neighbours and the people who "dob" on them - read more here.