The head of the US agency in charge of developing a vaccine against the coronavirus says he was removed from his job for opposing the chloroquine treatment promoted by US President Donald Trump.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) says there are “worrying upward trends” in early epidemics in parts of Africa and Central and South America, warning that the “virus will be with us for a long time”.
More than 2.5 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. At least 178,000 have died with the United States accounting for about a quarter of all deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The United Nations is warning global hunger could double as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, putting 265 million people at risk.
Here are the latest updates:
Thursday, April 23
09:25 GMT – Migrants in Greece shot after apparently breaking quarantine
Two asylum-seekers on the Greek island of Lesbos were shot and injured after apparently violating coronavirus quarantine rules, officials said.
The two men, an Iranian and an Afghan, reported to the camp’s infirmary with buckshot wounds late Wednesday, sources at the Moria camp said.
They were taken to the local hospital but their condition was not deemed serious.
06:10 GMT – Digital video game spending hits record high under virus lockdown
Spending on digital video games hit a record high $10 billion in March as people stuck at home under coronavirus lockdowns turned to gaming, market tracker SuperData reported.
Money spent on major console games leapt to $1.5 billion in March from $883 million in February, while spending on games played on high-performance personal computers climbed 56 percent to $567 million in the same comparison.
Console and PC games tend to be popular in Europe and North America where restrictions on going out were ramped up in March due to the pandemic.
05:52 GMT – Vietnam relaxes virus restrictions as cases plateau
Communist Vietnam eased social distancing measures Thursday, with experts pointing to a decisive response involving mass quarantines and expansive contact tracing for the apparent success in containing the coronavirus.
Despite a long and porous border with China, the Southeast Asian nation has recorded just 268 virus cases and zero deaths, according to official tallies.
Although numbers tested for COVID-19 are relatively low and experts caution the authoritarian government’s health ministry is the sole source for the figures, they also say there is little reason to distrust them.
Vietnam Conduct COVID-19 Tests To Contain Spread Of The Coronavirus
Market staff wear face shields while taking information from vendors and labourers at Long Bien market for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) rapid test [Linh Pham/Getty Images]
05:35 GMT – US sees 1,738 new coronavirus deaths in 24 hours: Johns Hopkins
The United States recorded 1,738 deaths from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, a lower toll than the day before, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The new deaths bring the total number of COVID-19 fatalities in the US to 46,583 since the outbreak began there, by far the highest figures recorded by any country caught in the global pandemic.
05:20 GMT – Half of German firms using shortened working hours due to coronavirus – Ifo
Half of German companies are using the government’s short-time work facility as most see a decline in revenues due to the coronavirus outbreak, a survey published by the Ifo economic institute showed.
Short-time work is a form of state aid that allows employers to switch employees to shorter working hours during an economic downturn to keep them on the payroll. It has been widely used by industry, including Germany’s car sector.
Hello, this is Usaid Siddiqui in Doha taking over from my colleague Zaheen Rashid.
04:45 GMT – Using pandemic to erode human rights is ‘unacceptable’
Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, has warned that the coronavirus pandemic risks becoming a human rights crisis with some governments using the outbreak as an excuse to adopt repressive measures for unrelated reasons.
“This is unacceptable,” he says, unveiling a report on how human rights should guide the response and recovery to the health, social and economic crisis gripping the world.
“We see the disproportionate effects on certain communities, the rise of hate speech, the targeting of vulnerable groups, and the risks of heavy-handed security responses undermining the health response,” he adds.
04:20 GMT – Philippines’s Duterte to decide whether to continue lockdown
Little more than a week remains before the scheduled end of the Philippines’s strict community quarantine measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus and the country is expected to find out how the government plans to transition out of the lockdown later on Thursday.
But has the Philippines flattened its curve?
Find out in this report from Ana P Santos in Manila.
04:09 GMT – Australia says all WHO members should support virus inquiry
Scott Morrison, the prime minister of Australia, said all WHO member nations should support a proposed independent review into the origins of the coronavirus and its spread.
“If you’re going to be a member of a club like the World Health Organization, there should be responsibilities and obligations attached to that,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
“We’d like the world to be safer when it comes to viruses … I would hope that any other nation, be it China or anyone else, would share that objective.”
Beijing has fiercely rejected calls for an inquiry, describing the efforts as US-led propaganda against China.
03:38 GMT – Red Cross calls for proper planning to handle dead bodies
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has urged governments across the world to prepare and plan for mass casualties from the coronavirus, warning the number of deaths caused by the new coronavirus could overwhelm local capacity to handle dead bodies properly.
Failure to plan ahead risks people being buried in mass graves, with few records and little understanding of who died and where the body was taken.
“Mass fatality planning doesn’t mean there will be mass fatalities. But it’s imperative that plans are made and, if needed, carried out to help lower the pain that families and broader society feel in the face of a high death toll,” said Oran Finnegan, the head of the forensics unit at the ICRC.
Cemetery area for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) victims in Jakarta
Relatives wearing face masks stand next to graves of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) victims at a cemetery area provided by the government in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 3, 2020 [Willy Kurniawan/ Reuters]
03:24 GMT – Top UK adviser says social distancing may last until year-end
Professor Chris Whitty, the British government’s chief medical adviser, has warned that social distancing measures in the United Kingdom may have to stay in place for the rest of the year.
“In the long run, the exit from this is going to be one of two things, ideally. One of which is a highly effective vaccine … or highly effective drugs so that people stop dying of this disease even if they catch it,” he says.
“Until we have those, and the probability of having those any time in the next calendar year are incredibly small and I think we should be realistic about that. We’re going to have to rely on other social measures, which of course are very socially disruptive as everyone is finding at the moment.”
Ministers will have to decide what mix of measures will have to remain in place once the UK goes through the peak of the coronavirus and beyond, he adds.
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