Russia’s coronavirus infections pass 350,000: Live updates

 

• Cases of the coronavirus in Russia has climbed to 353,427, with 8,946 new infections in the past 24 hours.

• The United States has barred arrivals from Brazil, the country with the second-highest number of cases in the world after the US.

• Domestic flights are due to resume in India on Monday, a day after the country confirmed a record 6,767 new cases of coronavirus. 

• More than 5.3 million people around the world have been infected with the coronavirus to date, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 344,000 people have died, while more than two million have recovered.

Here are the latest updates:

Monday, May 25

08:15 GMT – Foreign tourists can book holidays in Spain from July: minister

Foreign tourists can book vacations in Spain from July as the two-week self-quarantine for overseas travellers is likely to be suspended by then, the tourism minister said.

One of the worst-hit nations in the world from the coronavirus, tourism-dependent Spain is gradually easing a strict lockdown though it has kept a quarantine for visitors so as to prevent a second wave of infections.

“It is perfectly coherent to plan summer vacations to come to Spain in July,” Reyes Maroto said in an interview with local radio station Onda Cero.

07:50 – Russia’s coronavirus infections pass 350,000

Cases of the coronavirus in Russia climbed to 353,427, having risen by 8,946 in the past 24 hours, the country’s coronavirus crisis response centre said.

It said the number of fatalities had risen by 92 overnight, taking the overall nationwide death toll from the virus to 3,633.

07:30 GMT – Hungary partially reopens border with Serbia for local citizens

Hungary opened its southern border for citizens of Serbia and Hungary, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a news conference.

Hungary decided to reciprocate a similar measure taken by Serbia on Friday, Szijjarto said, adding that the novel coronavirus pandemic was under control in both countries, which allowed the easing of restrictions.

The move followed a gradual reopening of landlocked Hungary’s other borders, which now allow some movement although restrictions have not been fully lifted.

07:00 – Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 289 to 178,570

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 289 to 178,570, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Monday.

The reported death toll rose by 10 to 8,257, the data showed.

06:35 GMT – Hungary’s 2021 budget to contain $9.3bn anti-pandemic fund

Hungary’s 2021 budget will contain a nearly the trillion forint ($9.34bn) anti-pandemic fund, Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said in a video posted on Facebook, adding that he would submit the budget to parliament.

Like other governments, Hungary’s cabinet unrolled a massive economic stimulus package earlier this year to fight the fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic. The government hopes that a projected 3-plus percent recession will turn around in 2021.

06:10 GMT – Thailand reports two new cases, one more death

Thailand confirmed two new coronavirus cases and one additional death, a health ministry spokesman said.

The new numbers brought the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian country to 3,042 and deaths to 57 since the outbreak began in January, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the COVID-19 Administration Centre.

More than 96 percent of the patients, or 2,928 people, have recovered, he said.

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Hello, this is Umut Uras in Doha taking over from my colleague Kate Mayberry.

I’m handing over this blog to my colleagues in Doha. Before I go, here’s a quick reminder of what has been happening in the past few hours. First up, the US has added Brazil to the list of countries with which it has imposed travel bans. Brazil has the second highest number of cases in the world – after the US. In Australia, where the outbreak is under control, children across New South Wales have returned to school, while Japan is preparing to lift the state of emergency in Tokyo. 

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05:30 GMT – Duterte calls for Philippines government to get workers home

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has given his government a week to process some 24,000 repatriated Filipino workers stuck for weeks on cruise ships or in coronavirus quarantine, so they can finally go home.

Thousands are aboard some 29 vessels off Manila Bay or stuck in hotels and crowded health facilities, some growing frustrated having tested negative for the coronavirus and completed the mandated 14-day quarantine.

Overseas Filipino Workers, or OFWs, are breadwinners and a key support base of Duterte. Their more than $30 billion of annual remittances is a key driver of the Philippine economy, supporting millions of family members.

“The president said they can use all government resources and whatever means of transportation – bus, airplane, ships – to bring the OFWs home,” Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said on Monday.

05:05 GMT – Masked, disinfected: China’s clubs try to get back into the groove

Nightclubs have begun to reopen in China as coronavirus curbs are eased.

All customers have to give their names and numbers before entering and go through a temperature check.

Charles Guo, owner of 44KW in Shanghai, told Reuters that business was slow to begin with because people were “quite worried about their safety” but had picked up by the end of last month.

All staff wear masks and gloves, while door handles, toilets and other surfaces are disinfected every hour. Customers are not required to wear masks, but hand santiser is freely available and drinks are served in disposable glasses.

04:05 GMT – Singaporean cooks up Eid feast for migrant workers

Singaporean Dushyant Kumar, his wife and a team of chefs cooked up an Eid feast of Briyani for hundreds of migrant workers spending the festival in quarantine because of the coronavirus outbreak in the city state.

“We want to make sure they don’t get left out,” Kumar told Reuters as he prepared the food for about 600 men. “The smile on their faces gives you a lot of satisfaction.”

Singapore has some 300,000 migrant workers mainly from India, Bangladesh and China who live in crowded dormitories that have become the epicentre of the country’s coronavirus outbreak.

Kumar’s initiative was funded by public donations and an NGO. He has also been delivering 1,000 meals a day to the men who have been in strict quarantine since early April.

03:40 GMT – One million jobs lost: The price of coronavirus in Mexico

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says the novel coronavirus could cost up to one million jobs, because many industries considered not essential remain shut.

“My prediction is that with coronavirus, a million jobs will be lost,” Lopez Obrador said in a televised speech on Sunday. He then promised the government would create two million new jobs.

Lopez Obrador’s government has repeatedly said it has the outbreak under control but has since posted record numbers for new cases and deaths. The Mexican economy was already in recession before the pandemic struck and some banks have predicted it could contract 9 percent this year. Read more here. 

03:00 GMT – COVID-19 emerges in Malaysia immigration detention centres

Malaysia’s top civil servant in the health ministry has called for medical attention and decontamination in the country’s immigration detention centres after three were found to have cases of coronavirus.

Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, who is secretary-general at the Ministry of Health, said there should ne no discrimination against non-Malaysians in dealing with the virus.

“We need to enhance the active cases detection and isolate and treat those positive cases immediately,” Dr Noor Hisham wrote on his Facebook page. “Quarantine those close contacts and decontaminate the respective centres. The virus knows no boundaries and does not favour any ethnicity and social status.”

Malaysia has carried out a series of raids on undocumented migrants during the country’s coronavirus lockdown. Health ministry data shows 115 confirmed cases across the three centres.

02:15 GMT – Japanese fashion retailer Uniqlo to start selling face masks 

Japanese retailer Uniqlo is to start selling masks in its stores to meet coronavirus demand.

The masks will be made from the same quick-drying material as its AIRism brand of underwear to help keep the wearer cool, according to the Nikkei Asian Review.

Japanese clothing brand #Uniqlo will start selling face masks this summer at its stores, as global demand surges for protection against the coronavirus. By @NAR #coronavirus #masks https://t.co/XouzFdnWMa

— Dean Napolitano (@NapolitanoDean) May 25, 2020

02:00 GMT – Japan to lift state of emergency for Tokyo

Japan is expected to lift the state of emergency in Tokyo and four other areas that are still under coronavirus restrictions.

The government will seek approval for the plan from key advisers on Monday with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe due to hold a press conference at 6pm (09:00 GMT)

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said the capital would move to reopen libraries and museums with the state of emergency lifted and allow restaurants to open for longer. Theatres, cinemas and other venues would reopen at a later stage.

01:20 GMT – Children in NSW return to class, as parents go back to work

Chlldren of all ages across Australia’s most-populous state of New South Wales went back to class on Monday, as offices began to reopen.

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian told the media only a “very, very small proportion” of parents had chosen to keep their children at home because of concerns about COVID-19.

 

00:00 GMT – US bans Brazil arrivals as coronavirus toll surges 

The United States said on Sunday that it was banning all travel into the US by non-citizens who have been in Brazil.

“We hope that it will be temporary, but because of the situation in Brazil, we’re going to take every step necessary to protect the American people,” National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien told CBS’s Face the Nation programme.

Brazil registered 653 deaths on Sunday and an additional 15,813 cases, bringing the total to 363,211.

Writing on Twitter, Filipe Martins, a foreign affairs adviser to President Jair Bolsonaro played down the move saying the ban was “nothing specific against Brazil” and the US was following “preciously established parameters”. 

Ao banir temporariamente a entrada de brasileiros nos EUA, o governo americano está seguindo parâmetros quantitativos previamente estabelecidos, que alcançam naturalmente um país tão populoso quanto o nosso. Não há nada específico contra o Brasil. Ignorem a histeria da imprensa.

— Filipe G. Martins (@filgmartin) May 24, 2020

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Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

Read all the updates from yesterday (May 24) here.

 

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