Corona Update May 31
USA
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been under intense scrutiny since producing a faulty test for COVID-19 that caused weeks of delays in the US response.
"Early on in this crisis, the CDC, which really had the most trusted brand around the world in this space, really let the country down with the testing," White House official Peter Navarro told NBC. "Because not only did they keep the testing within the bureaucracy, they had a bad test. And that did set us back."
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,467,065 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 31,967 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 1,394 to 88,709.
France
French health authorities reported 483 new corona virus deaths on Sunday, bringing the total to 28,108.
Israel
Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque reopened to worshippers on Sunday after a two-and-a-half month coronavirus closure, but Muslim authorities imposed some precautions as health officials warn of an uptick in local infections.
Hundreds of Muslims chanted “God is the greatest” as they packed into the compound in Jerusalem’s walled Old City early on Sunday for dawn prayers, a Reuters witness said.
Brazil
Germany
The reported death toll rose by 11 to 8,500, the data showed.
Rwanda
He passed away from severe respiratory complications while receiving treatment at a specialised COVID-19 treatment facility.
Russia
Russia on Sunday reported 9,268 new cases of the novel corona virus, raising the national tally to 405,843.
Officials said 138 people had died of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the corona virus, in the last 24 hours, pushing to nationwide toll up to 4,693.
China
The National Health Commission (NHC) confirmed three new asymptomatic cases on Saturday.
Egypt
Egypt suspended international flights in March and shut down restaurants, hotels and cafes in order to combat the pandemic. Although airports remain closed to all but domestic and repatriation flights, hotels were recently allowed to reopen at a quarter of their usual capacity if they met strict health and safety protocols.
Around 78 hotels, mostly along the Red Sea coast, met these rules and are currently operating with an occupancy rate of 20%-22%, said the ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. An additional 173 hotels across the country have applied for a licence to reopen and will be considered in the coming week, he added.
England
India
“The fight against the corona virus is intense, we cannot drop our guard,” Modi said in his national radio address, a day after his government extended the lockdown until June 30 in high-risk zones but permitted restaurants, malls and religious buildings to reopen elsewhere from June 8.
The novel corona virus has infected more than 182,000 people and claimed the lives of 5,164 in India.
Spain
Spain’s prime minister said on Sunday he will ask parliament to agree to a last two-week extension of the state of emergency lockdown until 21st June, after which the government will no longer restrict citizens’ movements, newspaper El Pais reported.
The country’s death toll rose by four on Saturday to 27,125, the health ministry said, reflecting a dramatic decline in daily fatalities as Spain brings the outbreak under control.
The number of COVID-19 infections increased by 271 overnight to 239,228 on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia
“It is great to feel the mercy of God and once again call people for prayers at mosques instead of at their homes,” said Abdulmajeed Al Mohaisen, who issues the call to prayer at Al Rajhi Mosque, one of the largest in the capital Riyadh.
Worshippers headed to mosques for dawn prayers amid strict regulations requiring use of face masks and personal prayer mats, avoiding handshakes and standing at least 2 metres apart.
Iran
Iran says its caseload of novel corona virus infections has passed the grim milestone of 150,000, as the country struggles to contain a recent upward trend.
The government has largely lifted the restrictions it imposed in order to halt a COVID-19 outbreak that first emerged in mid-February.
Jahanpour said the virus had claimed another 63 lives over the same period, raising the overall toll to 7,797.
Indonesia
Kamtim, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, was discharged from hospital this week after a month of treatment in her hometown Surabaya, Indonesia's second-biggest city, officials said.
East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa said she hoped Kamtim's story would give a boost to at-risk residents — the illness is especially dangerous for older people and those with chronic conditions.
Indonesia has confirmed more than 26,000 cases of corona virus and 1,613 deaths.
Pakistan
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has reported 20 more deaths, taking the total to 473 in the province and the number of deaths nationwide to 1,519.
Japan
More than 80 percent of respondents said they felt the government's economic aid, including cash handouts of 100,000 yen to residents, in response to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak was slow.
The government has no immediate plan to place Tokyo and Fukuoka under a state of emergency again despite the areas seeing an increase in the number of coronavirus infection cases in recent days, economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said Sunday.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he is postponing the Group of Seven summit from June until September and that he wants to invite Russia and other countries to the meeting, the latest in a series of flip-flops over the corona virus pandemic-impacted talks.
A probe by nuclear regulators into the causes of the March 2011 Fukushima crisis has been hampered by the corona virus pandemic, with the dispatch of staff from Tokyo postponed for fear of spreading infection among the some 4,000 on-site decommissioning workers.
Thirty-eight of Japan's 47 prefectures are set to fully reopen their economies on Monday as they seek to strike a balance between rebuilding the economies hit by the corona virus and implementing measures to prevent a second wave of infections.
With many smokers reconsidering a habit that seems more dangerous than ever as the corona virus pandemic rages, an app promoted by a city in western Japan last year may be the way forward for those ready to quit.
New York City, the hardest-hit spot in the corona virus outbreak in the United States, will start easing its restrictions on businesses in phases from June 8 as the local spread of the virus has apparently peaked, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.
View Update on-