Medical staff demonstrate at a Paris hospital on Wednesday. French nurses and doctors demand better pay and a rethink of the health system. Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP
Medical staff demonstrate at a Paris hospital on Wednesday. French nurses and doctors demand better pay and a rethink of the health system. Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP
I leave you with a summary of today’s developments in the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic:
The number of people infected by Covid-19 has exceeded 5.7 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The US accounts for about 30% of cases, way ahead of Brazil (7.2%), Russia (6.6%), the UK (4.7%), Spain (4.1%) and Italy (4%).
Up to six people will be able to meet outside in England from Monday, providing members of different households continue to stay two metres apart, the prime minister has said. This will be allowed in gardens and other private outdoor spaces, Boris Johnson added.
Paris is no longer a “red” coronavirus danger zone, the risks posed by the virus moving down a notch to “orange”, according to France’s prime minister, Edouard Philippe. The rating means Paris is not as free as the majority French regions designated “green”.
Health officials in Moscow updated their figures on coronavirus deaths to add those who “died with” the virus. On top of 636 deaths in April directly caused by Covid-19 reported earlier, the health department added the deaths of 756 people who tested positive for the virus but died of other causes.
The number of Americans who have lost their jobs in the past 10 weeks soared to more than 40 million, with 2.1 million people filing for unemployment last week. The growth in the number of claims has slowed, but millions more have continued to file for unemployment each week, bringing the total number to a rate not seen since the Great Depression.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he would sign an executive order allowing businesses to deny entry to customers not wearing masks. He said: “That store owner has a right to protect himself … You don’t want to wear a mask, fine. But you don’t have a right to then go into that store if that storeowner doesn’t want you to.”
The US has now recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, as many states continued to relax mitigation measures. The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic, and almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, the UK.
There have been more than 159,000 excess deaths in Europe since since early March, during the height of the coronavirus epidemic, the head of the World Health Organization’s regional office for the continent said. Hans Kluge said 2 million people had been confirmed to have caught the coronavirus since it was first detected on the continent four months ago. About 175,000 had died.
The number of Covid-19 cases linked to a live export ship which docked in Western Australia doubled from six to 12. Of these seven new cases recorded in the state on Thursday, six are crew members from the Al-Kuwait ship which docked in Fremantle this week. The only other case was a returned overseas traveller who is already in hotel quarantine.
The president of Namibia and several of the country’s top officials have been fined after breaching coronavirus regulations last month by hosting a celebration to mark his party’s 60th anniversary. The South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) birthday party took place in parliament on 19 April, when Namibia was under lockdown and group gatherings were banned to limit the spread of coronavirus. As well as the president, Hage Geingob, himself, the guests included vice-president Nangolo Mbumba, prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and SWAPO secretary-general Sophia Shaningwa. All have since been fined N$2,000 (£92.34).
In sport, Premier League football is poised to return after a three-month coronavirus shutdown, with top-flight games in England provisionally set to resume in June. Aston Villa will host Sheffield United and Manchester City face Arsenal on 17 June. Serie A, Italy’s top division, will return on 20 June after a three-month suspension, the sports minister, Vincenzo Spadafora, said on Thursday. Australia’s professional rugby league competition, the NRL, resumed on Thursday night with Parramatta defeating Brisbane.
Cancer patients with Covid-19 treated with a drug combination promoted by US President Donald Trump to counter coronavirus were three times more likely to die within 30 days than those who got either drug alone, U.S. researchers said. The preliminary results suggest doctors may want to refrain from prescribing the decades-old malaria treatment hydroxychloroquine with the antibiotic azithromycin for these patients until more study is done, researchers said. “Treatment with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin were strongly associated with increased risk of death,” Dr. Howard Burris, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology(ASCO), said in a briefing with reporters on the results.
More on hydroxychloroquine, and the US President’s regimen. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked how Donald Trump was feeling and would he take the drug again.
Here is the exchange:
Reporter: The President has completed his two weeks of hydroxychloroquine. Have you spoken to him what his feeling about? Is he feeling better? What’s his feedback about that?
McEnany: I went to him just before coming out here and I asked him that. And he said, quote, he’s “feeling perfect.” Quote, he’s “feeling absolutely great” after taking this regimen. And, quote, he “would take it again” if he thought that he was exposed. So he is feeling very good.
Good morning/afternoon/evening wherever this finds you. Ben Doherty here in Sydney, taking over this liveblog from my colleague Nadeem Badshah. I can be contacted by email at ben.doherty@theguardian.com or via twitter @BenDohertyCorro.
The health ministry of Cyprus has advised doctors to curtail the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine on some COVID-19 patients amid renewed concerns that the drugs could trigger heart problems and put lives at risk.
This is after Cypriot health authorities bought enough of the drugs to treat a quarter of its population if they became infected in the early days of the pandemic.
The ministry urged doctors on Thursday to be particularly vigilant and to even stop administering the two substances to COVID-19 patients with pre-existing heart conditions.
The ministry said an advisory body of medical experts is re-evaluating the use of the drugs and may revise its directives.
The announcement came after the World Health Organization said it would temporarily drop hydroxychloroquine from its global study into experimental COVID-19 treatments. A paper published last week in the Lancet showed people taking hydroxychloroquine were at higher risk of death and heart problems than those that were not.
Cyprus health minister said last month that the country was among the first nations to approve use of the anti-malaria drug to treat COVID-19 patients.
Cypriot authorities procured enough chloroquine to treat as many as 240,000 people roughly a quarter of the island nations population if they became infected.
It was part of a five-ton consignment of the drug that Cyprus and Israel jointly purchased from India.
The global death toll has increased to 358,369, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University, which has tracked the spread of the virus during the pandemic.
The number of cases currently stands at 5,768,908 which is about 230,000 lower than the figure Johns Hopkins was reporting a few hours ago.
One in 10 diabetics with coronavirus dies within seven days of hospital admission, according to a study of more than 1,300 patients.
Two-thirds of the patients were men, and the average age across both sexes was 70, the study published in the journal Diabetologia found.
“The presence of diabetic complications and increased age increase the risk of death,” the researchers said.
“Increased BMI” - body mass index, a ratio of height to weight - “is associated with both increased risk of needing mechanical ventilation and with increased risk of death,” they said.
Worse blood sugar control in and of itself, however, did not seem to impact a patient’s outcome.
So-called microvascular complications - affecting the eyes, kidney and nerves - were found in nearly half of the patients, who were admitted to 53 French hospitals from March 10 to March 31.
Problems related to larger arteries in the heart, brain and legs were reported in more than 40 percent of the patients.
The presence of either type of complication doubled the risk of death by the seventh day of hospitalisation.
Patients over 75 years old were 14 times more likely to die than those 55 or younger.
By the seventh day of hospitalisation, a fifth of patients had been intubated on ventilators, and a tenth had died. Nearly a quarter of patients had been discharged home by this point.
The study confirmed that insulin and other treatments modifying blood sugar were not a risk factor for severe forms of COVID-19, and should be continued for persons with diabetes.
Other significant risk factors included heart disease, high blood pressure, and a history of lung disease.
Stefany Carvallido, her two-year-old daughter and about 200 other Colombians have been camping out inside Brazil’s busiest international airport for days in a desperate attempt to get back to their home country.
More than two months after the coronavirus pandemic triggered worldwide lockdowns, much of the world is gradually reopening. But Latin America remains highly isolated by travel restrictions across the region.
Colombia has suspended all international flights until at least Aug. 31, preventing its own citizens from returning by air. It has also suspended river and land border crossings with neighbors including Brazil.
Carvallido said she and her daughter Maria Jose had spent nearly two weeks at Guarulhos International Airport, located on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, the city with the lion’s share of Brazil’s coronavirus cases so far. The same airport saw a surge in traffic last week, when travelers descended on it hoping to beat a new U.S. ban on foreigners coming from Brazil.
“In this situation, we want to be with our families and my daughter wants it too ... It is very, very difficult,” said Carvallido.
Carvallido, 24, and others are eating from lunch boxes and donations and also take turns at an improvised kitchen set up outside the airport. They wash in the airport bathrooms using a small hose.
They are demanding humanitarian flights. But Colombia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday no new flights from Brazil were scheduled until next week.
Since late April there have been three such flights, taking a total of 346 people back to Colombia.
Though called humanitarian, Colombians must pay $350 for the flights, and that is money Carvallido and many others at the airport do not have. Their calls for a free flight home have led nowhere so far.
“Under current regulations, this request is not possible,” the Colombian consulate in Sao Paulo said.
A Public Health England (PHE) proposal to enact a stronger lockdown of care homes to prevent spiralling coronavirus deaths was rejected by the UK government.
Care homes have increasingly become the epicentres for deaths linked to Covid-19 across the UK, with the toll standing at more than 10,000 in England.
Downing Street received an 11-point plan proposing “a further lockdown of care homes” from PHE on April 28, The Guardian reported.
A man from Georgia was charged in a fedreral court with trying to swindle a foreign government out of $317 million (£257 million) by promising to sell it face masks to protect against the coronavirus with a huge shipment that never existed.
Paul Penn faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of criminal attempt and conspiracy, according to documents filed by prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Savannah.
Prosecutors said Penn and at least two partners negotiated a deal between March and April to sell 50 million N95 respirator masks to a foreign government. Prosecutors did not identity the government involved.
The sellers never had the masks, prosecutors said in a court filing, yet they persuaded the foreign government to wire $317 million to a bank account. Prosecutors said the sales price was five times the market value for the masks.
The U.S. Secret Service stopped the transaction before it could be completed, according to a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Bobby Christine of the Southern District of Georgia.
Using a worldwide pandemic as an opportunity to take advantage of those searching for badly needed personal protective equipment is reprehensible,” Christine said in a statement.
He pledged that federal authorities “will aggressively seek out any fraudsters who exploit this crisis as a way to make a quick buck.
Court records did not list an attorney for Penn. Prosecutors did not identify the two people they said were Penn’s partners in the scheme.
Prosecutors said Penn helped negotiate the sale through his company, Spectrum Global Holdings LLC. Georgia incorporation records show Penn formed the company in 2018 in the Atlanta suburb of Norcross.
Hydroxychloroquine combination risky for cancer patients with Covid-19 - study
Cancer patients with Covid-19 treated with a drug combination promoted by US President Donald Trump to counter coronavirus were three times more likely to die within 30 days than those who got either drug alone, U.S. researchers said.
The preliminary results suggest doctors may want to refrain from prescribing the decades-old malaria treatment hydroxychloroquine with the antibiotic azithromycin for these patients until more study is done, researchers said.
“Treatment with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin were strongly associated with increased risk of death,” Dr. Howard Burris, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology(ASCO), said in a briefing with reporters on the results.
The drug combination initially was thought to help Covid-19 patients, but recent data has cast doubt.
The preliminary findings, to be presented this week at ASCO’s virtual scientific meeting, show that the combination may pose a significant risk to cancer patients.
“Taking the combination gives a three times increased risk of dying within 30 days of any cause,” Dr. Jeremy Warner of Vanderbilt University Medical System told reporters.
Trump, who has often promoted hydroxychloroquine, in a March 21 tweet called the combination potentially “one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine.”
That was based on a study of fewer than 40 patients in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. More recent studies have shown little or no benefit and increased risks.
Warner and colleagues analysed data on 925 patients with cancer who became infected with the coronavirus between March and April. Thirteen percent of the patients died within 30 days of their diagnosis.
Overall, patients whose cancers were actively progressing at the time of infection were five times more likely to die within 30 days than those who were in remission or had no current evidence of cancer.
In the trial, 180 patients were taking hydroxychloroquine in combination with azithromycin, and 90 were taking hydroxychloroquine alone.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has allowed healthcare providers to prescribe the drugs for Covid-19 through an emergency-use authorisation, but has not approved the treatment.
The governments of France, Italy and Belgium moved on Wednesday to halt the use of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 patients following a World Health Organization decision on Monday to pause a large trial of the drug due to safety concerns.
Top officials from several UN agencies appealed for urgent international financial support in Yemen with coronavirus spreading in the country.
“We are increasingly alarmed about the situation in Yemen,” officials from the UN Humanitarian Affairs Department, UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization said in a joint statement.
“We are running out of time,” they said.
The United Nations says COVID-19 has likely already spread throughout most of Yemen, which was already immersed in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis because of a war that shows no sign of abating.
The UN officials said they currently have enough “skills, staff and capacity.”
“What we don’t have is the money. We ask donors to pledge generously and pay pledges promptly,” they said, noting that a donors conference has been organized for June 2 by Saudi Arabia and the United Nations.
Mark Lowcock, the under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said $2.4 billion needed to be raised by the end of the year for Yemen, including $180 million to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Yemen is in desperate need of assistance,” Muhannad Hadi of the World Food Programme said, while UNICEF’s director, Henriette Fore, warned of a “major disaster.”
More than 12 million children in Yemen are in need of humanitarian aid, she said.
The inaugural flight of the Ariane 6 rocket will be set back until next year because the coronavirus pandemic has led to project delays at development sites, the European Space Agency said.
“We can say for certain that the launch will not happen in 2020,” Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA’s director of space transportation, told AFP.
The ESA, which groups 13 European countries, has not indicated when in 2021 a launch from the Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, may now be possible.
