Health

PARIS, May 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France reported 289 coronavirus deaths on Thursday, a drop of more than 100 from the previous day, as well as another decline in the number of patients in intensive care.

Top health official Jerome Salomon said the increase brought the country’s total death toll to 24,376, the world’s fifth highest figure after the United States, Italy, Britain and Spain.

The daily toll was well down from the 427 reported on Wednesday.

BRASILIA, May 1 (NNN-Xinhua) — Brazil registered 7,218 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health reported, showing that the pandemic contagion curve in the country has accelerated in recent days.

According to data on the country’s official COVID-19 platform, confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus rose from 78,162 on Wednesday to 85,380 on Thursday, an increase of 9 percent.

The death toll rose from 5,466 to 5,901, with a fatality rate of 6.9 percent. In the last 24 hours, 435 new deaths were registered, compared to 449 in the previous day.

SINGAPORE, May 1 (NNN-CNA) — Some foreign workers who have recovered from COVID-19 in Singapore have started living aboard a cruise ship docked at Marina Bay Cruise Centre, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said.

The first workers boarded the SuperStar Gemini – one of two cruise ships cleared to house these workers temporarily – on Wednesday.

The second ship, the SuperStar Aquarius, has also passed checks by the authorities and is ready to receive the workers.

WASHINGTON, May 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The IMF approved loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Mali and Ethiopia to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The Washington-based crisis lender has stepped up its global financing efforts in recent weeks to help countries weather the coronavirus crisis.

The IMF board granted $411 million to Ethiopia on the Horn of Africa to help relieve the pandemic’s effects on its fast-growing economy.

NAIROBI, May 1 (NNN-Xinhua) — The World Health Organization (WHO) urged African countries to carry out gradual easing of anti-COVID-19 measures to avert new infections in the continent.

Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said that lifting of lockdowns and curfews for preventing the spread of the highly contagious viral disease should not be rushed in order to forestall a second wave of infections.

UNITED NATIONS, May 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States and China remained at loggerheads Thursday over a UN Security Council draft resolution calling for a 90-day humanitarian pause in conflicts worldwide in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

The stalemate — over a mention of the World Health Organization — leaves little hope of a quick vote as the Security Council struggles to find a response to the global crisis, remaining largely mute since the once-in-a-century pandemic began killing tens of thousands of people and shutting down economies across the world.

MOSCOW, May 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin says he has been diagnosed with coronavirus.

His positive test came on the same day that Russia recorded a record 7,099 cases, taking the total number of infections above 100,000.

Mishustin was given the role of prime minister in January and has been actively involved in Russia’s handling of the epidemic.

Russian TV showed him telling President Vladimir Putin of his diagnosis.

PUTRAJAYA, May 1 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The Malaysian government will implement the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO), with most economic and social activities allowed to resume on May 4, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said. 

He said this decision was taken after two of the six strategies adopted by the government to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and build resilience through the Prihatin Economic Stimulus Package have yielded positive results. 

TOKYO, May 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to extend a nationwide state of emergency imposed over the coronavirus, possibly by another month, local media reported.

The measure was initially declared on April 7 across seven regions experiencing a spike in infections, but was later expanded to cover the entire country.

30 April 2020; MEMO: A member of the city council in the Iranian capital Tehran has claimed that at least 13,000 people have died there between February and March.

“In the past two months, 13,000 people have been buried in Tehran,” Mohammad Javad Haghshenas told the daily reformist newspaper Aftab-e Yazd yesterday.

However, Haghshenas stopped short of disclosing how many of these deaths were related to COVID-19 in the worst-affected country in the region.