Global Covid-19 deaths near 355,000 – as it happened

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UK’s most vulnerable people at risk of losing 60% of their income

A loophole in government guidance has caused some of the country’s most vulnerable people to lose up to 60% of their income and is now forcing many to put their health at risk as lockdown comes to an end, one of the UK’s biggest charities has warned.

Around 2.5 million UK residents, hundreds of thousands of whom are in employment, have been identified by the government as being “extremely clinically vulnerable”. They were ordered to shield at home until the end of June, although their employers did not have to furlough them.

Research by Citizens Advice found that of the 2,000 people contacting them for help who were either shielding or at higher risk from coronavirus, over 70% had not been furloughed.

The research also found that more than one in 10 of the shielded group were working outside the home, including people who had undergone organ transplants or who had serious lung conditions.

Hi, Helen Sullivan with you now. I’ll be taking you through the latest updates for the next few hours.

As always, please do get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan[at]theguardian.com. Comments, tips, news from your part of the world are all much appreciated.

Tom McCarthy writes that one of the key problems facing American efforts to emerge from the Covid-19 crisis is the population’s aversion to vaccines.

Only about half of Americans say they would get a Covid-19 vaccine if available, according to a poll, as a top US government scientist tempered claims by Donald Trump that the United States would be able to invent, manufacture and administer hundreds of millions of vaccine doses by the end of the year.

Trump has routinely touted the speedy development of a vaccine as America’s path out of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now taken 100,000 lives in the US. As part of an effort branded “Operation Warp Speed”, Trump has set a goal of a 300m-dose stockpile by January.

Vaccine developers say that time frame is “aspirational”. But polling published on Wednesday indicates that the country could run up against another obstacle in its fight against the virus: vaccine refusal.

Read the full story here

Chechnya’s autocratic leader Ramzan Kadyrov has reappeared in public for the first time in nearly a fortnight, Andrew Roth writes, after unconfirmed reports that he had flown to Moscow for treatment for coronavirus.

Kadyrov was filmed on Tuesday in Grozny, Chechnya’s capital, holding a government meeting on the region’s response to the pandemic and delivering 10 ambulances to local hospitals. Russian journalists noted what appeared to be a cannula
on his right arm.

In remarks on Instagram on Wednesday, Kadyrov did not confirm that he had contracted coronavirus but offered a vigorous defence of his right to fall ill.

Read the full story here

Hollywood studios are planning on recruiting COVID-19 consultants to keep sets safe, according to a report by Reuters.

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted producers, movie studios and workers’ unions to seek expert advice on how to safely reopen film and TV sets, which shut down worldwide in mid-March.

In demand are epidemiologists and other public health specialists to provide detailed strategies for dealing with large crews who work in cramped spaces, makeup artists who get face-to-face with stars, and actors who kiss, hug and fight on set.

The shutdown has taken a severe financial toll across the industry, as well as on cities such as Los Angeles that benefit economically from production.Restarting is important to companies, including Netflix Inc, Walt Disney Co and others, which need fresh programming to engage audiences.

While sets remain empty in the United States, productions are ramping back up in South Korea, Australia, Sweden, as well as New Zealand, where James Cameron’s Avatar 2 is restarting this week.

People who work in the industry expect to see smaller crews, regular testing, hand sanitiser everywhere and the use of computer-generated imagery to create big crowds on screen when work resumes.

Our current splash by Rowena Mason reports that 60 Conservative MPs continued to defy British PM Boris Johnson’s calls to “move on” from the Dominic Cummings crisis as a senior minister broke ranks to accuse the special adviser of inconsistencies in his account of his behaviour during lockdown.

The intervention of Penny Mordaunt deepened the turmoil within government following revelations by the Guardian and Daily Mirror that Cummings had travelled 260 miles to his family estate in Durham with his wife suffering coronavirus symptoms.

The former chancellor Sajid Javid also said the journey was not “necessary or justified” as the number of backbenchers calling for Cummings to resign or be sacked grew to 44, with a total of 60 Tory MPs weighing in to criticise him.

Two of those condemning Cummings are government whips.

Read the full story here

Reuters reports that New York governor Andrew Cuomo called on Congress to “stop abusing” New York and other Democratic-controlled states and release more federal funds to help them combat the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking after meeting Donald Trump at the White House, Cuomo said funding for states and local governments was essential to fostering a national recovery from the outbreak, which has killed almost 100,000 Americans and ravaged the economy.

“States that bore the brunt of the pandemic account for one-third of the national GDP,” said Cuomo, a Democrat whose state has been hit hardest by the outbreak. “How can you tell one-third of the country to go to heck?”

“So my point to our friends in the Congress - stop abusing New York, stop abusing New Jersey, stop abusing Massachusetts and Illinois and Michigan and Pennsylvania - stop abusing the states who bore the brunt of the COVID virus through no fault of their own,” Cuomo said.

Massachusetts has a Republican governor, but the other five states’ governors are Democrats.

States have sought more help from the federal government to get through the crisis. Democrats who control the House of Representatives passed legislation on 15 May that would provide nearly $1 trillion for state and local governments, but the bill was rejected by Trump and the Republican-led Senate’s leaders.

Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell last month suggested that states whose finances are depleted by the coronavirus pandemic could declare bankruptcy instead of receiving federal aid. The suggestion sparked outrage from some state leaders.

Cuomo said his meeting with Trump on Wednesday focused on how to “supercharge” the economy by investing in infrastructure.

The NHS tracing system was meant to allow the country to emerge confidently from lockdown. But its development has been characterised by missteps, conflict and frustration behind the scenes, write Dan Sabbagh, Sarah Marsh and Jessica Murray.

At the heart of the difficulties have been tensions between central government and local public health officials, or as one insider complained: “There has been control freakery from start to finish by the NHS and the department of health.”

Public health officials say systems and protocols to manage so called “complex cases” involving central and local cooperation, such as the outbreak in Weston-super-Mare, have not yet been fully worked out days before schools start reopening on 1 June.

Read the full story here

Our colleagues running the Guardian US blog write that America’s coronavirus death toll is just hundreds away from reaching 100,000, and at least one database shows the country has already hit that grim milestone.

According to NBC News’ numbers, more than 100,000 Americans have already died from coronavirus.

However, other databases show slightly different totals because they rely on different sources to calculate the toll.

According to widely used data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, which the Guardian has been citing, the US death toll stands at 99,674.

The city of Sydney is bracing itself for a rat ‘plague’ after Covid-19 had forced hungry rodents to turn to cannibalism, Naaman Zhou reports from Australia.

Empty offices and restaurants in the city are driving hungry rats into homes and suburbs, and the loosening of restrictions could create “a new rat plague”, according to a leading rat-catcher.

As city centres have closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, suburban rat infestations have spiked, according to Geoff Milton, a Sydney rat-catcher with 35 years’ experience.

Rats naturally seek out houses during winter, and the sudden drop-off in food and rubbish in our cities is exacerbating the problem. Calls about suburban rats have risen 30% compared with the same time last year, Milton told Guardian Australia.

Read the full story here

Uki Goñi in Buenos Aires reports that security forces in Argentina’s capital have cordoned off one of the country’s poorest slums, preventing inhabitants from entering or leaving the neighbourhood after a surge of coronavirus cases.

Police officers erected barriers at the entrance to Villa Azul on the outskirts of Buenos Aires on Monday after widespread testing was launched in poorer districts.

By Wednesday 174 of 301 tests carried out in Villa Azul had come back positive, and officials expressed concern that if the 4,000 or so inhabitants of the neighbourhood were allowed to move freely, they could spread the virus to other areas nearby.

Read the full story here

As Latin America emerges as the new epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, Santiago has become one of the region’s most intense battlegrounds, writes John Bartlett in the Chilean capital.

The whole of Santiago’s metropolitan area has been placed under quarantine, and health minister Jaime Mañalich made a plea for lockdowns to be respected as the health system approaches breaking point.

Chile now has 82,289 confirmed coronavirus cases, more than 80% of which are concentrated in the capital where several hospitals have declared that they have reached maximum capacity and 94% of available ventilators are already in use.

According to official statistics, 841 people have died in Chile having tested positive for the virus.

Mañalich announced that 404 new ventilators would soon arrive in Chile, although fears over the health system’s ability to handle the crisis increased on Tuesday as four more patients were flown out of the capital to be treated elsewhere in the country.

“The situation in Santiago is critical, and we are already seeing the first signs of systemic collapse,” explained José Miguel Bernucci, the national secretary of Chile’s medical union. “The worse it gets in the capital, the more we will have to rely on regional health systems which are already disadvantaged in terms of infrastructure and capacity.”

Santiago’s metropolitan region has been under quarantine since 15 May and tensions have flared in parts of the city as income and supply chains have been stretched and social security found wanting.

Unemployment in the capital has risen to 15.6%, the highest rate in 35 years, and food shortages in the southern suburb of El Bosque saw residents take to the streets in protest last week, with barricades erected across roads and fires lit in parts of the city as unrest simmered.

Residents in some districts have since come together to set up makeshift community kitchens to bolster the government’s own emergency food aid programme.

The government’s communication strategy has repeatedly come under fire. Three weeks ago, when there were around 16,000 confirmed cases, it had prematurely promoted a ‘gradual return to normality’ and plans were being made for shopping malls to reopen.

Last night’s applause for care workers was more subdued than usual in the centre of Santiago, where it soon tailed off into bursts of pan-bashing from balconies as residents registered their disapproval with the pandemic response.

While much of the country has seen cases confirmed, concern remains over the spread of the virus to the coastal cities of Viña del Mar and Valparaíso, the country’s second-largest population centre, which has thus far managed to avoid widespread contagion.

Just hours after Mexico recorded its highest rise in infections and deaths of the Covid-19 outbreak so far, its president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has announced he will resume his travel schedule with a commercial flight to Cancun.

The Associated Press reports that López Obrador has raised concerns throughout his country’s two months of coronavirus restrictions about their potential impact on the economy. Mexico’s social security Institute said in April that the country had lost 550,000 jobs during the epidemic and López Obrador recently said another 400,000 had been lost in May.

His visit to Cancun will be as work gets underway on the Mayan Train railway, one of a number of key infrastructure projects he has refused to halt. He has said the Mayan Train project will be a critical source of employment, expected to generate 80,000 jobs.

“I’m going to be careful,” AP quoted him as saying. “If the airline requires you to use a mask, I’m going to use it.” He said doctors are recommending that he limit his flying and travel more by car, so he planned to drive back to the capital from the Caribbean coast with stops in epidemic hotspots. They will include Veracruz and his home state of Tabasco, where he will visit an oil refinery project.

On Tuesday night, the health undersecretary, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, said Mexico was reaching the crest of the epidemic, but said in parts of the country it could drag on into October. For the first time, officials reported more than 500 new confirmed Covid-19 deaths.

Mexico has reported more than 74,500 infections and more than 8,100 deaths, both considered to be substantial undercounts because of the country’s extremely low testing rate.

The UK has reported another 412 Covid-19 deaths, taking the total official death toll in Europe’s worst affected country to 37,460.

So far 267,240 people have tested positive for the coronavirus that causes the disease, with 2,013 more reported in this latest update.

Opposition politicians in Tanzania have accused president John Magufuli of covering up a major outbreak of Covid-19 in the southern African country, writes Jason Burke, the Guardian’s Africa correspondent.

Magufuli has repeatedly played down the threat from the pandemic and refused to impose a strict lockdown as many other leaders on the continent have.

Instead the 60-year-old has encouraged the country’s 56 million inhabitants to keep working and socialising, while a key ally announced a three-day ‘Corona Party’ in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital, this weekend to give thanks to God for what he claimed was a reduction in levels of infection.

An effective track and trace system to prevent a second coronavirus peak will not only save lives, it could reduce the number of working hours lost to illness by as much as 50%, according to a major global study, writes Philip Inman for the Guardian’s business desk.

The International Labour Organisation said the effective testing and tracing of infections was essential if employers wanted staff to return to work and for them to stay healthy.

The Geneva-based, United Nations body estimates that working hour losses can be reduced from around 14% in countries that put in place weak tracking and tracing down to 7% in countries with the “highest intensity of tracking and tracing”.

With only four days until England introduces a testing and tracing scheme to prevent a second peak of the virus, the ILO said an effective system was needed or employers and workers would miss out on much of the benefit of returning to work.

If workers remained wary about the health threats of returning to work, it would leave many vulnerable people excluded and exposed to the threat of redundancy.

More than 400 repatriated Malawians, including more than a dozen infected with coronavirus, have fled a stadium and isolation centre where they were being detained.

The 441 people, who were bussed back to the country from South Africa on Monday, had been held while they underwent testing for the virus. Sixteen were being kept in an isolation centre after testing positive, while the rest were being were being kept at a football stadium awaiting their test results, a local health official told AFP.

“They have all gone home on their own,” district health officer Gift Kawaladzira told AFP. “By then, 16 were positive already. Others were waiting for lab results,” he said. “If most of them have Covid-19, then we are facing very difficult times ahead.”

Kawaladzira said his team had mobilised other district offices to track down the escapees. “The danger is that they will be hiding from authorities... and hence cannot follow the set procedures for COVID-19 prevention,” he said.

Malawi has recorded just 101 coronavirus cases so far, including four deaths. South Africa by contrast has the highest number of infections of the continent, with more than 24,000 cases and 524 fatalities to date.

Deaths from coronavirus in Italy rose by 117 on Wednesday, up from 78 on Tuesday, bringing the total to 33,072, writes Angela Giuffrida, the Guardian’s Rome correspondent.

New infections increased by 584, up from 397, the vast majority in the Lombardy region.

There are 50,966 people who are currently suffering from the virus in Italy, down by 1,976 within the last 24 hours.

Italy has 231,139 confirmed cases to date, including the deaths and 147, 101 survivors.

Kenya recorded its highest one day rise in coronavirus cases on Wednesday, hitting a triple-digit figure for new infections for the first time since the outbreak began.

“Today, I come to you with sombre news,” the health minister, Mutahi Kagwe, was quoted as saying by France’s AFP news agency.

“Our figures today are staggering. Out of the 3,077 samples tested, we have 123 positive cases. For the first time we have hit a triple digit.

“This is the highest number of positive cases we have ever recorded in a single day since we recorded the first case on March 13.”

A total of 1,471 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Kenya since the start of the epidemic. Of these, 55 have been fatal.

The tally of infections has doubled since mid-May but the country has also tripled its number of daily tests, from less than 1,000 to nearly 3,000, which has helped unearth more cases.

Among its anti-coronavirus measures, Kenya has a national 7pm-5am curfew, which is currently in force until 6 June, and a ban on entering or exiting the cities of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale and Mandera.

A medical study in France suggests that even mild cases of coronavirus infection, not requiring hospital treatment, produce antibodies in almost all patients, the body’s defences against the virus increasing during the weeks of recovery, writes Peter Beaumont.

The research, led by a team from the Pasteur Institute, France, raises hopes that everyone who has had the disease could acquire some degree of immunity, although it is not clear for how long or to what degree.

The question of immunity has become one of the most vexed issues concerning coronavirus, in terms of governments’ public health policies – including the controversial herd immunity route – and in the understanding of the mechanics of the disease, which divides scientists. Early reports had suggested an absence or limited presence of antibodies in some individuals with mild symptoms.

The research, jointly led by Olivier Schwartz, head of the Pasteur Institute’s virus and immunity unit, took samples from more than 160 staff from the CHU hospital, in Strasbourg, who became infected with Covid-19 early in March after a “super-propagation” event – linked to a five-day long prayer and fasting gathering of the evangelical Christian Open Door church in Mulhouse, eastern France.

Coronavirus restrictions will be eased in Moscow, the Russian capital, from 1 June, after the rate of new infections began to slow in the city, its mayor has said.

During a teleconference with the president, Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday, Sergei Sobyanin said people will be allowed to take walks at designated times, and he announced plans to reopen non-food stores and services such as laundries, dry cleaners, and repair shops.

Muscovites have been subject to movement restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus since 31 March. With a total of 171,443 confirmed coronavirus cases, the accounts for a little less than half of Russia’s caseload of 370,000, and about 55% of the country’s confirmed death toll from Covid-19.

Sobyanin said the number of new infections in the city has been going down in the past two weeks.

Brazil’s top diplomat in the US has dismissed suggestions that relations between the countries have been hurt by a travel ban imposed by Washington on Wednesday.

Nestor Forster, Brazil’s chargé d’affaires in Washington, told the Associated Press that the ban on arrivals to the US from Brazil was not a setback, “not in any shape or form. It’s a public health measure confined to that area.”

On the contrary, Forster said, the Bolsonaro administration is grateful that the US gave it advance warning of the measure, as well as for “gifts” to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, including 1,000 ventilators for the Brazilian Health Ministry and a $7 million to fund health services.

“We are very appreciative of the fact that, you know, there was some consultation beforehand when the president decided to go forward with this measure,” Forster said in a video call from his Washington home on Tuesday.

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president, is an outspoken admirer of the US president, Donald Trump.

Brazil is the Latin American country hardest hit by the coronavirus, with more than 24,000 deaths and almost 400,000 confirmed cases. Experts say those figures are significantly underestimated due to insufficient testing.

France, Italy and Belgium have begun to halt the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat patients with Covid-19, amid questions about the safety of the generic anti-malaria drug, Reuters reports.

The moves by three of the countries hardest hit by coronavirus infections and deaths follow a World Health Organization decision on Monday to pause a large trial of hydroxychloroquine due to safety concerns.

British medical journal The Lancet has reported patients taking hydroxychloroquine had increased death rates and irregular heartbeats, adding to several disappointing results for the drug as a Covid-19 treatment.

The World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has used his statement at the WHO’S thrice-weekly coronavirus briefing to outline the organisation’s call for a “green recovery” to the Covid-19 crisis.

As usual, his comments are being live tweeted by the WHO Twitter account.

The World Health Organization’s coronavirus briefing is just beginning. You can watch it in the player at the top of the blog.

Jennifer Rankin, the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, has now written a report on Europe’s Covid-19 bailout plan. She writes:

The European Union executive has called for a €750bn (£671bn) recovery plan to help the hardest hit countries find a way out of the unprecedented economic downturn caused by the pandemic.

The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU faced a defining moment, never seen in its 70-year history. “The crisis has huge externalities and spillovers across all countries and none of that can be fixed by any single country alone.”

Addressing the European parliament, where MEPs wore face masks and sat further apart than usual under mandatory physical-distancing rules, von der Leyen said the sum would be split into €500bn of grants for EU member states and €250bn of loans.

Under the commission’s blueprint, Italy would get €82bn in grants, Spain €77bn, France €39bn, Poland €37bn and Germany €29bn.

The money would be raised by the EU borrowing on capital markets on a far bigger scale than ever before, meeting a key demand from France and Germany, but provoking opposition from fiscal hardliners opposed to shared debt.

Reuters has more details on the European commission’s proposals to rescue the economies of member states affected most severely by the coronavirus.

The European Union’s executive has proposed €750bn in grants and loans to prop up economies hammered by the coronavirus crisis, the agency reports.

Under the proposal the European commission would borrow the funds from the market and then disburse two-thirds in grants and the rest in loans to cushion the unprecedented slump expected this year due to the coronavirus lockdowns.

Much of the money will go to Italy and Spain, the EU nations worst affected by the pandemic.

The recovery fund package comes in addition to the EU’s long-term budget for 2021-27, which the commission proposed should be set at €1.100tn ($1.21tn).

“In total, this European recovery plan will put €1.85tn to help kick-start our economy and ensure Europe bounces forward,” the commission said.

At least 15 Syrian refugees living in the same building in east Lebanon have tested positive for coronavirus, the UN said on Wednesday.

“There are 15 confirmed cases of Covid-19 among Syrian refugees in Majdal Anjar,” a town in the Bekaa Valley, said Lisa Abou Khaled of UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, according to the AFP news agency.

Before the outbreak in Majdal Anjar, only one other Syrian refugee in Lebanon had tested positive for Covid-19, UNHCR says. The patients in Majdal Anjar are now in self-isolation, receiving food and disinfection kits from UNHCR, Abou Khaled said.

Lebanon has officially recorded 1,161 coronavirus cases, including 26 deaths. On Wednesday, the country reported 21 new cases.

Among Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee population, at least six cases have been detected in a camp in the Bekaa Valley.

Although the coronavirus outbreak among Lebanon’s refugee population remains limited, aid groups are concerned that overcrowded settlements could make refugees especially vulnerable to the virus.

Abou Khaled said UNHCR and Lebanon’s health ministry have “initiated a testing campaign in informal settlements and collective shelters, focusing on areas with high concentration of refugees”.

“Thousands of refugees will be included in the testing campaign... over the next weeks,” she added.

A reader has written to me with some clarification of the situation in Poland, after I earlier reported that the government in the country was to lift a requirement that people wear masks in public.

That is only part of the story, I’m told. According to the email sent to me earlier:

In your coronavirus live news coverage you published information that “People in Poland will be allowed to go outside without face masks from 30 May,” That’s not whole truth From 30 May people going outside can not wear masks if they can keep 2m distance, but if that is not possible eg. in the crowded sidewalk we are still obliged to cover our mouth and nose (with masks, scarfs or other things).

We are also still obliged to cover our mouth and nose in buses, shops, cinemas and theatres, tattoo salons, churches and offices.

Here is a link to the Polish government’s official information on requirements (in Polish).

Damien Gayle back on the case now. Remember, if you have any comments, tips or suggestions for coverage you can reach me via email at damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.

Cyprus hopes to regain lost ground in its tourism sector from July and expects to be able to readmit British and Russian visitors by then after weeks of lockdown, Reuters reports.

The Mediterranean island moved swiftly to contain the outbreak, ordering a broad lockdown within days of its first registered case on 9 March. It started easing it on 4 May and hotels will reopen on 1 June.

Tourism accounts for about 13% of output. With five months of the season lost, Cyprus expects, at best, about 30% of last year’s total of 3.98 million visitors.

“The hit is massive, and we are trying to do our best now and do what we can for the remainder of the season. We have worked extremely hard to keep the virus in check here,” Savvas Perdios, the deputy tourism minister, said.

Cyprus has emerged relatively unscathed by the pandemic. It has reported fewer than 950 cases, and 17 deaths.

It will open on 9 June to travellers from countries including Germany, Greece and Israel. A group from mainly central Europe will be added on 20 June, though Perdios said the list was being reviewed continuously.

“For our important markets like the UK, Russia and Sweden I expect in early July the situation (there) will allow their travel to Cyprus. I am quite optimistic about that,” Perdios said. Britain and Russia alone represent 55% of arrivals.

Hi. This is Caroline Davies taking over the live blog for a while. You can get in touch via caroline.davies@theguardian.com

Tourists in Japan could soon be tucking into ramen and sushi, and buying souvenirs in the knowledge that a good portion of the bill will be picked up by the Japanese government, writes Justin McCurry, the Guardian’s Tokyo correspondent.

Under an initiative that could come into effect within a couple of months, Japan is to provide subsidies to travellers in an attempt to breathe life into the country’s coronavirus-hit tourist industry.

The Go To Travel initiative will subsidise holidays by up to ¥20,000 [(£151 GDP] ) a day in the form of steep discounts and vouchers that can be used at local shops and restaurants, the Kyodo news agency said.

The scheme, which could begin in late July after coronavirus travel restrictions have eased, applies to tourists who make bookings through Japanese travel agencies or directly with hotels and traditional ryokan inns.

The programme does not explicitly exclude foreign visitors, but the Japan Travel Agency said in a tweet on Wednesday that it was intended to “stimulate domestic travel demand within Japan after the Covid-19 pandemic and only cover a portion of domestic travel expenses.” The subsidies do not apply to travel expenses for visitors from overseas.

Here is some news from England, but that will no doubt resonate with families all around the world in which parents are remote working from lockdown.

Working mothers have been able to do only one hour of uninterrupted paid work for every three hours done by men during lockdown, according to a study that exposes the work imbalance between men and women, writes Guardian senior news reporter Alexandra Topping.

A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the UCL institute of education also says mothers are more likely than fathers to have lost their jobs during lockdown, increasing fears that the coronavirus crisis has exacerbated inequality and could lead to the gender pay gap increasing.

The Office for National Statistics said separately that men were doing more than an hour less unpaid labour than women each day, despite increasing their responsibilities during lockdown.

The IFS-UCL study interviewed 3,500 families of two opposite-gender parents and found that mothers were doing more childcare and more housework than fathers.

The mothers interviewed were looking after children for an average of 10.3 hours a day – 2.3 hours more than fathers – and doing housework for 1.7 more hours than fathers.

In families where the father had stopped work while his partner continued, on average they did the same amount of household work – while the woman did an average of five hours of paid work a day.

The Netherlands has recorded 15 more deaths from Covid-19 since yesterday, and 190 new cases of coronavirus, according to its public health institute.

The latest update from the Dutch institute for public health and the environment (RIVM) showed the cumulative number of cases of coronavirus in the country had now reached 45,768, while the death toll was 5,871.

Polling data also released on Wednesday showed that the Dutch had become more concerned about their health and the health of their loved ones, RIVM said.

The need for information of people has also changed in recent months. Confidence in the information provided by the RIVM national institute for public health and the environment , and the measures taken by the cabinet is high (78-85%). This is evident from the interim results of survey questionnaires conducted by Nivel, the Netherlands institute for healthcare research and RIVM.

Ninety-five more people have died from Covid-19 in Sweden, according to the latest update from the public health authority, increasing the total death toll from the country’s coronavirus outbreak to 4,220.

The number of confirmed cases in the country, which has eschewed the kind of coronavirus lockdown measures imposed elsewhere in the world, has now passed 35,000, after 648 more people tested positive for the coronavirus.

Key developments in the global coronavirus outbreak today include:

• The French government has stopped the country’s hospitals using the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine, the antimalarial drug Donald Trump said he was taking as a precaution, to treat Covid-19 patients after serious concerns about its safety.
• There have been 118,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the 54 countries of Africa, according to the World Health Organization’s regional office for the continent. So far, about 48,000 people in Africa who have tested positive for the virus have recovered, while 3,500 have died.
• Greece is ready to welcome back tourists and has lifted many of its curbs on the general population – but movement restrictions for refugees in all island camps and a number of mainland camps have been extended until 7 June.
• South Korea may need to reimpose social distancing measures eased in April, its top infectious diseases expert has said, as coronavirus transmissions creep up in the Seoul metropolitan area.
• Officials in Strasbourg have appealed for hundreds of spectators who attended an illegal football match at the weekend to be tested for Covid-19. An estimated 400 people played in or watched the game and authorities have called on them to attend a testing centre for anonymous screening.
• Russia’s death toll neared 4,000, after authorities confirmed that 161 people with coronavirus died in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide death toll to 3,968. Officials have also reported 8,338 new infections, pushing the country’s overall figure of confirmed cases to 370,680.
• France’s economy could contract by around 20% in the second quarter as lockdown measures meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus slashed activity, the national statistics agency Insee says.
• Bulgaria will allow restaurants, bars and cafes to reopen at full capacity on Monday, further easing restrictions imposed in mid-March to stop the spread of coronavirus.

People in Poland will be allowed to go outside without face masks from 30 May, the government said on Wednesday.

The announcement, reported by Reuters, is part of a steady lifting of restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus. It also included the reopening of cinemas, theatres and gyms on 6 June.

In the coming days, public gatherings of up to 150 people will be allowed, and limits in the number of people in churches will also by relaxed.

Poland’s health ministry reported one new death from Covid-19 on Wednesday, taking the country’s total death toll from the pandemic to 1,025. According to the latest update, 229 more people had tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 22,303.

The health minister, Lukasz Szumowski, told a news conference:

At the moment the number of sick people is falling, also the number of deaths is falling, which is the best measure of control over the epidemic … 80% of hospital beds dedicated to Covid patients are vacant, 90% of respirators are not in use while awaiting patients with Covid.

As researchers around the world race to perfect a coronavirus vaccine, new polling suggests that only half of people in the US might actually take it.

The results of the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, released on Wednesday, found 31% weren’t sure if they’d get vaccinated, while one in five said they would refuse.

Among Americans who say they wouldn’t get vaccinated, seven in 10 worry about safety. Among those who want a vaccine, the AP-NORC poll found protecting themselves, their family and the community are the top reasons.

The coronavirus is most dangerous to older adults and people of any age who have chronic health problems such as diabetes or heart disease. The poll found 67% of people 60 and older say they’d get vaccinated, compared with 40% who are younger.

And death counts suggest black and Hispanic Americans are more vulnerable to Covid-19, because of unequal access to healthcare and other factors. Yet the poll found just 25% of African Americans and 37% of Hispanics would get a vaccine compared to 56% of whites.

Political divisions seen over how the country reopens the economy are reflected in desire for a vaccine, too. More than half of Democrats call a vaccine necessary for reopening, compared with about a third of Republicans. While 62% of Democrats would get the vaccine, only 43% of Republicans say the same.

As prospects of summer holidays abroad increase for some people in Europe, the race is already on to lure tourists for whom personal health and safety will be a high priority when choosing a destination this year, writes Kate Connolly, the Guardian’s Berlin correspondent.

Italy’s South Tyrol region is focusing its attention on German holidaymakers who are being warned to not take risks if they travel, particularly as the government has said it will not be making a repeat of its multimillion-euro airlift operation to bring its citizens back from all corners of the globe back in March and April.

The leader of the Italian province, Arno Kompatscher, has offered German tourists the chance of a free coronavirus test as soon as they arrive at their destination.

“This is a voluntary service offer,” Kompatsscher told the radio broacaster Rai 1, saying tourists would be able to avail themselves of antibody blood tests (to show if they might have had the illness already) as well as the standard swab tests, to prove that someone has the virus.

Kompatscher said the plan was for hotels to automatically offer the service as part of holiday packages. But the move appears to be as much to reassure Italian hosts as to who they are letting in, as it is the holidaymakers that their hosts take the dangers of the virus seriously. If positive,the holidaymakers would face the humiliation and inconvenience of being sent back home.

Italy has said it plans to open its borders for EU citizens on 3 June. But Germans will have to wait until next week to find out their government’s decision on whether they can go abroad this summer, and if so, under what conditions (such as quarantines and medical certificates).

Twenty years ago Nelson Mandela made an impassioned plea for international cooperation on “one of the greatest threats humankind has faced”, writes Carien du Plessis in Johannesburg. Aids was ravaging lives and overwhelming health systems, at its peak killing up to 1,000 people a day in South Africa.

Mandela’s successor as president, Thabo Mbeki, was in obstinate denial. On the sidelines of the conference where Mandela made his appeal, Mbeki’s controversial health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, scolded scientists for daring to oppose the government’s stance.

One of those scientists, Salim Abdool Karim, now leads South Africa’s Covid-19 advisory team, earning this government plaudits from the World Health Organization for its response to the pandemic. Tshabalala-Msimang succumbed to liver problems in 2009 and left a legacy of 300,000 preventable deaths.

In early April, two weeks into South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown, Abdool Karim led a live two-hour briefing explaining the reasoning behind the strict measures, which confine people to their homes and prohibit public exercise and the sale of alcohol and tobacco.

It is in sharp contrast with the Aids response two decades ago.

Fifty-six more people in Iran have died from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours the health ministry has reported, taking the total death toll to 7,564.

In his latest update, the health ministry spokesman, Kianoush Jahanpour, said that 2,080 new infected cases had been detected since Tuesday.

The cumulative number of cases in Iran now stands at 141,591, of whom 111,176 have survived and recovered and 2,551 remain in a critical condition.

A cardboard hospital bed that doubles as a coffin may seem an idea as morbid as it is pragmatic, but as Latin America emerges as the latest coronavirus hotspot, doctors have suggested it may be an innovation whose time has come, writes Joe Parkin Daniels in Bogotá.

With Covid-19 cases surging across the region, a team of Colombian designers came up with the idea as a pragmatic solution for anticipated shortages of hospital beds and funerary caskets.

“We were shut down for a couple of months like everyone else, until we had this idea,” said Rodolfo Gómez, the founder of ABC Displays, which normally creates cardboard advertising props. “But when we saw what was happening in Ecuador, where bodies were piling up on the streets, we knew we had to prepare somehow.”

Health authorities in Germany reported a further 362 confirmed cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, taking the cumulative total in the country to 179,364.

The reported death toll rose by 47 to 8,349, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.

On Tuesday, the chancellor’s office said it was extending social distancing rules until 29 June. Angela Merkel’s government had been embroiled in disagreements with the least-affected states, some of which wanted to ditch the measures and open up entirely.

There have now been 118,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the 54 nations of Africa, according to the World Health Organization’s regional office for the continent.

So far, about 48,000 people in Africa who have tested positive for the virus have recovered, while 3,500 have died, according to the latest update from the WHO African region on Wednesday morning.

However, while the Covid-19 pandemic has so far had a soft landing on the continent, restrictions put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus have brought their own problems.

In west Africa, breakdowns in trade are contributing to fears of a spiralling food crisis, AFP reports. The UN says the pandemic could cause the number of west Africans living in food insecurity to double to 43 million in the next six months.

Data collected by the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) shows west African traders of perishable produce and livestock have seen losses of 10% to 30% since health restrictions came in, as transport is disrupted and markets close while illegal tax collection at checkpoints has leapt nearly 50%.

A separate survey by Réseau Billital Maroobé, a collective of west African herders, showed economic activities were at a standstill for 42% of herders in the region as of last week.

Hi, this is Damien Gayle taking the reins of the live blog now, bringing you the latest headlines and stories, and the best of the Guardian’s coverage, from the coronavirus pandemic around the world.

If you have any comments, tips or suggestions for coverage please drop me a line, either via email to damien.gayle@gmail.com, or via Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.

I’m handing you over now to my colleague Damien Gayle. Thanks for company in the last few hours.

Serbia has banned inbound flights by Montenegro’s flag carrier, Montenegro Airlines, after the neighbouring country refused to open its borders to people from Serbia, where coronavirus persists. Serbia’s directorate for civilian aviation said it decided to act as Montenegro’s move affected reciprocity in air transportation, Reuters reports.

Montenegro’s prime minister, Duško Marković, declared his country free of coronavirus on Monday. Marković also said Montenegro would open its borders to travellers from countries reporting no more than 25 cases of infection per 100,000 people. Serbia, where the infection rate is higher, was not on the list.

As the coronavirus infection rate dropped, Serbia earlier this month opened borders with most of its neighbours, including Montenegro, Croatia and Hungary. Serbia’s prime minister, Ana Brnabić, told Serbians, who visit Montenegro in large numbers, “they should not go where they are undesirable”.

So far, Serbia, which has a population of 7.2 million, has reported 11,227 cases of coronavirus infection and 239 deaths. Montenegro, whose population is about 631,000, has reported 324 cases and nine deaths.

More nurses are thought to be dying from Covid-19 in Brazil than in any other country. This report from Caio Barretto Briso and Tom Phillips tells some heartbreaking stories.

In the capital of Amazonas, Manaus – where the soaring death toll has forced authorities to dig mass graves – Deizeane Romão is mourning her husband, a 46-year-old nurse named Nicolares Curico who died on 14 April.

“Take care of our daughters. I love them,” he wrote in a message to his wife before being admitted to intensive care a week before his death.

Romão said her husband had also loved his profession: “It wasn’t about the money – his salary was less than 2,000 reais (£600) per month.”

But a lack of PPE and staff, because so many colleagues were falling ill, had left him overworked and exposed.

“He felt unprotected because he didn’t have an N95 mask,” Romão said. “He was seeing more than 100 patients a day.”

You can read the whole piece here:

Updated Covid-19 figures continue to come through from south-east Asia. Malaysia is the latest, reporting 15 new cases – raising the cumulative total to 7,619. The countries health ministry also reported no new deaths, keeping the number of total fatalities at 115.

Officials in Strasbourg have appealed for hundreds of spectators who attended an illegal football match at the weekend to be tested for Covid-19, writes Kim Willsher. An estimated 400 people played in or watched the game and the authorities, who fear a second wave of the pandemic, have called on them to attend a testing centre for anonymous screening.

The match was played on Sunday between teams from two of the city’s districts – Neuhof and Hautepierre – in a local stadium in defiance of rules that limit public gatherings to a maximum of 10 people.

“We must absolutely avoid another virus cluster in Strasbourg and protect those who took part as well as their families,” local prefect Josiane Chevalier said.

She described the event as “incomprehensible, irresponsible and very serious”, but said the aim of the massive testing operation was not punishment. “This isn’t a trap. Our number one priority is health,” Chevalier added.

Here is the piece in full:

Nearly 200 chefs, including some with Michelin stars, gathered outside the Spanish parliament yesterday. They were demanding greater dialogue between the government and the hard-hit catering sector during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The French government has stopped the country’s hospitals using the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug Donald Trump said he was taking as a precaution, to treat Covid-19 patients after serious concerns about its safety.

A decree allowing hospitals to prescribe the drug to those with coronavirus – outside of clinical trials – was revoked today after a recommendation by the country’s High Council for Public Health.

A study published in the Lancet medical journal last week suggested hydroxychloroquine – promoted by the controversial Marseille doctor Didier Raoult – might increase mortality rates.

The French decision to stop hospitals prescribing hydroxychloroquine with or without an antibiotic for coronavirus patients came two days after the World Health Organisation “temporarily” suspended a global trial of the drug as a matter of precaution.

Raoult has dismissed the Lancet study as “messy” and based on “big data”, not hands-on medical treatment. He continues to insist hydroxychloroquine – a derivative of the antimalarial chloroquine – works for coronavirus patients.

His theory has been supported by the United States president Trump and the Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro.

Indonesia has confirmed 55 new deaths from Covid-19, meaning its death toll stands at 1,473. Additionally it has reported 686 new infections, making a total of 23,851 Covid-19 cases in the south-east Asian country.

If you are just joining today’s blog, remember you can email me at nick.ames@theguardian.com or send a direct message on Twitter @NickAmes82 with any comments, news tips or feedback.

The Philippines has confirmed 18 new coronavirus deaths and 380 additional infections, its highest single-day increase in cases for more than seven weeks.

The country’s health ministry said the total death tally has reached 904, while confirmed cases have risen to 15,049. It said 94 more patients have recovered, bringing total recoveries to 3,506.

Germany’s powerful chemical sector can expect significant blows to activity due to the coronavirus pandemic this year, an industry federation has warned.

The VCI chemical makers’ group said it “expects a significant reduction in production and revenues in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in Germany,” as it published a report on first-quarter activity.

Some 75% of member firms are expecting their European revenues to fall, Reuters reports. In January-March, the sector “did not feel the full force of the coronavirus pandemic”, as demand for certain pharmaceuticals, “various hygiene products” and packaging was high.

Revenues increased 0.6% quarter-on-quarter, to €49.5bn, with rising sales within Germany and a smaller retreat in exports.

But as the pandemic spread from Asia to Europe in March, the chemical industry – upstream from many manufacturing activities – was also increasingly affected. Now “falling orders, disrupted supply chains and lacking transport capacity are all posing problems for companies,” the VCI said.

With companies ranging from global giants Bayer and BASF to tiny firms, the chemical industry is Germany’s third-largest by revenue after cars and machine tools, employing over 460,000 people and boasting revenues of almost €200bn euros in 2019.

Here is Andrzej Krauze’s latest cartoon, on the fallout from the pandemic.

Countries across the Middle East are cautiously eyeing a return to normality following the end of Eid al-Fitr.

In Turkey, a four-day nationwide lockdown over the holiday lifted at midnight on Tuesday. Malls and hairdressers, which were allowed to partially reopen earlier this month, were again open for business on Wednesday morning as the country now focuses on the challenge of how to reopen safely for the peak summer tourism season. Turks under the age of 20 and over 65 remain under curfew.

Government-held Syria, struggling with a crippling economic crisis, cancelled its night-time curfew from Tuesday, reopening mosques and allowing inter-city travel.

Mosques in Saudi Arabia will also reopen for Friday prayer from this week, the country’s religious authority said, and with the exception of the holy city of Mecca a daytime curfew will be lifted from Saturday, allowing both public and private sector workers to return to offices.

Major Shia shrines in Iran were allowed to open over the Eid holiday, more than two months after they were closed, as the country reported its lowest deaths from coronavirus since March.

Greece is ready to welcome back tourists and has lifted many of its curbs on the general population – but movement restrictions for refugees in all island camps and a number of mainland camps have been extended til 7 June. Katy Fallon has reported for us from Lesbos.

The news of the extended lockdown has been met with dismay by some in the camp. “Why do they keep extending it just for refugees?” one resident says. Hadi, 17, an artist from Afghanistan, is distributing flyers, which underline the importance of hand washing. He gingerly taps on the outside of a tent or makeshift hut to hand over the flyer. “People were dancing at the prospect of being able to leave, now they have another two weeks of lockdown,” he says.

Here is the piece in full:

Singapore’s health ministry has reported 533 new coronavirus cases, taking its confirmed total to 32,876. It is an increase on yesterday’s figure of 383 new cases. To date, there have been 23 deaths attributed to Covid-19 in the country.

For many people, it will be months since grabbing a coffee on the go. In South Korea, a socially distanced robot barista is easing customers back in.

Here is a collection of photos to raise the spirits – art galleries and other cultural institutions across Europe are reopening as lockdowns begin to ease. Guy Lane has this compilation for you:

Our UK coronavirus live blog is now up and running, with Alexandra Topping at the helm. If recent days are much to go by, it will be well worth keeping a close eye on the breaking news there.

Bulgaria will allow restaurants, bars and cafes to reopen at full capacity on Monday, further easing restrictions imposed in mid-March to stop the spread of coronavirus.

The health minister, Kiril Ananiev, issued a new order on Tuesday night allowing bars and restaurants in the tourism-dependent country to go fully back to business ahead of the summer season, Reuters reports.

Ananiev also allowed the resumption of cultural and entertainment events, including theatres, concerts and stage performances. Dance classes could also resume, using up to 30% of their indoor capacity and up to 50% of the outdoor capacity.

According to the order, however, discos, piano bars and night bars must stay closed as the country remains under a declared epidemic situation because of Covid-19 until 14 June. Ananiev had already given the green light for restaurants, bars and cafes in the Black Sea state to resume operations in their outdoor sections on 5 May.

Bulgaria has 2,460 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 133 deaths, a relatively low number in Europe. The country still requires social distancing in public places.

Donald Trump has welcomed staffing cuts made by The Atlantic, one of the oldest and most celebrated magazines in the United States, this month.

Unemployment in the US, of which Trump is president, stood at 14.7% last week – the worst figures since records began.

Thanks Helen. And good morning, afternoon or evening to everyone. I’ll be taking you through the next few hours of global coronavirus news and updates; as ever, we’d like to hear your tips, feedback, comments and observations so do get in contact. You can email me at nick.ames@theguardian.com or send a direct message on Twitter @NickAmes82.

Sabrina Toppa reports for the Guardian from Lahore:

Pakistan’s garment workers fight for rights amid Covid-19 crisis

Police in Karachi last week allegedly shot at hundreds of unarmed garment workers protesting outside a factory supplying denim for global fashion brands.

Garment workers claimed to have been charged by police with batons outside a factory which is reported to have fired more than 15,000 workers since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Nasir Mansoor from the National Trade Union Federation. He said some workers had been terminated without written notice.

The workers were chanting slogans demanding better conditions and wages when police arrived. Closures and job losses and the suspension of the normal holiday bonus, which enables rural migrants to travel home before the Eid holiday marking the end of Ramadan, had left many of the demonstrators close to despair.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says students will only go back to school if a coronavirus vaccine is available, AFP reports.

Schools were shut in March and children were due to return to classes at the end of August.

“Unless I am sure that they are really safe, it’s useless to be talking about opening of classes,” the president said in a speech aired late Monday.

Uki Goñi reports for the Guardian:

Uruguay’s capital city of Montevideo turned its Carrasco international airport, closed because of the coronavirus lockdown, into a drive-in-cinema Tuesday evening. Some 100 cars turned up for the opening night, although authorities say the airport could potentially accommodate up to 1500 cars. All entertainment venues, including cinemas, have been closed in Uruguay since its lockdown on 13 March.

The movie sound was transmitted on a radio station for good audio quality and even the furthest away cars could see clearly on a giant 20-metre-high screen. “We hope to have about 80 screenings for some 20 thousand spectators, weather permitting,” said Rodrigo García of Magnolia, one of the firms behind the initiative.

Hundreds of migrant workers blocked roads and staged protests at quarantine centres in India’s poorest state Bihar Tuesday, calling for better food and living conditions, police said.

The labourers were among millions of India’s poor who have badly hit by the coronavirus lockdown. Many were left jobless, hungry and stranded in cities far away from home.

Migrants said they had found insects in their food and dirty toilets in the quarantine centres. They also said there was not enough water.

Protesters dispersed after being told that their concerns would be addressed by authorities, police told AFP.

Indonesia said Tuesday it is deploying 340,000 troops to clamp down on rampant social-distancing violations as coronavirus infections surge in the world’s fourth most populous country, AFP reports.

The military will be on the ground in two dozen cities - including the capital Jakarta - to make sure people wear masks and stay apart, as the government eyes a possible re-opening of shuttered businesses.

‘People adore it’: Australian man spends lockdown building giant kookaburra

An Australian man has used his time in lockdown to create a 750kg sculpture of a laughing kookaburra that he says will bring joy to the community in bleak times.

Dr Farvardin Daliri, an academic and artist, debuted the huge bird this week on the streets of Brisbane, and will soon take it north to the Townsville Cultural Festival.

“I started making it during Christmas,” he said. “Then the design was altered and I decided to have it laughing, with movement and stuff. It didn’t get completed. But when the lockdown started I had time to basically make it laugh.”

Japan launches remote cheering app to boost atmosphere in empty stadiums

When Japan’s coronavirus-hit football league finally resumes in a few weeks’ time, it will be in stadiums devoid of supporters. But a new smartphone app could mean the action won’t unfold in atmosphere-sapping silence.

The Remote Cheerer system developed by the Japanese firm Yamaha allows fans following the match on TV, the radio or online to encourage – or berate – players via their smartphones, their voices reverberating around the stadium in realtime via loudspeakers.

In a recent field test, users in multiple remote locations chose from a range of on-screen options that sent their cheers, applause, chants and boos into the 50,000-seat Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa via 58 speakers set up among the empty seats.

The app does not, as yet, allow fans to question the referee’s eyesight, or the eating habits of players who struggled to stay match-fit during the league’s virus-enforced break.

As always, you can get in touch with me directly on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan[at]theguardian.com. Comments, tips, news from your part of the world are all much appreciated.

Surgical masks wash up on Sydney beaches after 40 containers fall off cargo ship

Residents of Sydney’s east have woken to beaches covered in face masks, plastic containers and other items after 40 shipping containers fell off a ship on the weekend.

The APL England lost the cargo in rough seas on Sunday while en route from China to Melbourne, forcing the ship to turn around and head to Brisbane.

The containers lost overboard held a wide range of goods including household appliances, building materials and medical supplies.

Australian Maritime Safety Authority officials received reports of face masks “washing up between Magenta Beach and The Entrance”, north of Sydney.

In Australia, Aboriginal people in prisons are going without soap, and children in out-of-home care are being refused contact with their families under “punitive” restrictions enforced due to Covid-19, a report released on Wednesday has said.

Aboriginal people are disproportionately affected by Covid-19 policy responses at a state, territory and commonwealth level, the report by the Change the Record coalition, said.

Change the Record is the Aboriginal-led justice coalition including Amnesty International, the Law Council of Australia, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (Natsils) and National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (Naccho), representing hundreds of services across Australia.

The report said there have been increased use of lockdowns and isolation within correctional facilities, and a reduced access to education, family and legal visits.

More from New Zealand now:

New Zealand sheltered its homeless during Covid-19 – but can it last?

Charlotte Graham-McLay reports for the Guardian from Wellington:

It was an unexpected outcome of the strict lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 in New Zealand: after one month rough sleeping appeared to have been all but eliminated in the country. Advocates said it was the closest New Zealand had come in modern times to ensuring everyone had shelter, with only “a handful” of people living on streets in the country.

But in a country facing a severe housing shortage and affordability crisis – where home construction is slow work and the public housing waiting list reaches a new high each quarter – the social sector has warned of obstacles to cementing progress made during the most stringent weeks of the Covid-19 shutdown.

These are the ten worst-affected countries in terms of number of confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins data:

1. US: 1,680,625 (Deaths: 98,902)
2. Brazil: 391,222 (Deaths: 24,512)
   
3. Russia: 362,342 (Deaths: 3,807)
   
4. United Kingdom: 266,599 (Deaths: 37,130)
   
5. Spain: 236,259 (Deaths: 27,117)
   
6. Italy: 230,555 (Deaths: 32,955)
   
7. France: 182,847 (Deaths: 28,533)
   
8. Germany: 181,200 (Deaths: 8,372)
   
9. Turkey: 158,762 (Deaths: 4,397)
   
10. India: 150,793 (Deaths: 4,344)
    

Who is Dominic Cummings, and why has his lockdown car trip convulsed UK politics?

The Rose Garden at 10 Downing Street is normally reserved for British prime ministers to make set-piece announcements. But on Monday it was the scene of epic political theatre when Boris Johnson’s Svengali-like aide Dominic Cummings sat down and explained to a frenzied British media pack why he had broken the Covid-19 lockdown rules – or not.

The scene tells us a great deal about the country’s politics in the first two decades of the 21st century. Cummings is the embodiment of the bewildering change that has transformed the country from clubbable member of the globalised world into a reckless, Brexit-voting outlier that is now enduring the biggest failure of statecraft since the 1930s. But how did an unelected adviser get to be the most powerful person in the UK after the prime minister? And what will his uncomfortable moment in the spotlight mean for Britain’s immediate future?

Starting with his portrayal by Benedict Cumberbatch in a TV drama about his triumphant leadership of the Brexit campaign, Cummings has seeped slowly into the public consciousness. However, he remained a slightly mysterious figure to most Britons outside political circles until this weekend.

Walt Disney Co will present its proposal for a phased reopening of its Orlando, Florida, theme parks to a local task force on Wednesday, the company said in a statement.

Disney closed theme parks around the world starting in January to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. It began reopening the parks earlier this month by allowing a limited number of guests into Shanghai Disneyland with social distancing and other safeguards. Guests must wear masks and have their temperatures checked, among other measures, Reuters reports.

A Disney executive will detail the company’s plans for Walt Disney World in Orlando to the Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force on Wednesday. The county must approve Disney’s plan before sending it to the governor’s office, which also must sign off before the parks can open their gates to the public.

Disney operates four theme parks at Walt Disney World that attracted 157.3 million visitors in 2018, according to the Themed Entertainment Association. They rank as the most-visited theme parks in the world.

Last week, shops and restaurants at the Disney Springs shopping area outside the Orlando parks reopened to visitors for the first time since March. Sea World Entertainment Inc also will present a reopening plan to the Orange County task force on Wednesday, a statement from the county said.