President Donald Trump has further limited travel to the US from the world’s coronavirus hotspots by denying entry to foreigners coming from Brazil, which is second to the US in the number of confirmed cases.
Trump had already banned certain travellers from China, Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland and, to a lesser extent, Iran. He has not moved to ban travel from Russia, which has the world’s third-highest caseload, approximately 20,000 fewer than Brazil’s.
The new restrictions will come into force on 28 May, and prohibit most non-US citizens from traveling to the United States if they have been in Brazil in the last two weeks. Green card holders, close relatives of US citizens and flight crew members, among select others, would be exempt.
The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, cast the step as another “decisive action to protect our country” by Trump, whose management of the crisis has come under sharp scrutiny.
As the US approached 100,000 deaths on Memorial Day weekend, the president went golfing. The US leads the world with more than 1.6 million confirmed cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
Brazil has more than 363,000 cases and more than 22,000 deaths. Last week, the World Heath Organisation declared that Latin America had become the centre of the pandemic.
On Sunday, Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera said the nation’s healthcare system was “very close to the limit”, as the number of confirmed novel coronavirus infections approached 70,000 after a rapid increase in recent days. The ministry of health reported 3,709 new cases over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 69,102. The death toll was at 718.
“We are very close to the limit because we have had a very large increase in the needs and demands for medical care, and for intensive care unit beds and ventilators,” Pinera said during a visit to a hospital in Santiago, which has the highest concentration of cases.
The worsening situation in Latin America came as other nations started to emerge from coronavirus lockdown. Japan was expected to lift a state of emergency on Monday and India restarted domestic flights. Australia’s most populous state sent children back to school for the first time since the pandemic began.
The authorities in New South Wales deployed hundreds of crowd-control staff on Monday to enforce social distancing on public transport amid an expected commuter surge as schools and offices reopened and coronavirus cases fell.
But officials warned locals to expect travel delays, with buses and trains operating at significantly reduced capacity due to distancing requirements.
“We’ve got 1.2 million kids on the move,” NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance told Australia’s Channel 9. “We just need everyone to be patient.”
Australia has reported just over 7,100 Covid-19 infections, including 102 deaths, well below figures reported by other developed countries. With fewer than 20 new Covid-19 cases most days, Australian states are pressing ahead with a three-stage plan to remove most social restrictions imposed by July.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has said the reopening of schools is essential for revive Australia’s economy.
As Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Fitr to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, thousands of migrant workers in Singapore have spent the holiday in quarantine because of outbreaks of the novel coronavirus in their dormitories.
In other coronavirus developments:
Japan was reportedly considering a fresh stimulus package worth over $929bn that will consist mostly of financial aid programmes for companies hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Thousands of migrant workers in Singapore have spent the Eid holiday in quarantine because of outbreaks of coronavirus in their dormitories.
South Africa announced its ban on buying alcohol would be lifted in June.
China reported 11 new confirmed coronavirus cases for the 24 hours to Monday, all imported, up from three reported the day earlier.
Authorities in France reported the smallest daily rise in new coronavirus cases and deaths on Sunday since before a lockdown began on 17 March.
New Zealand announced groups of up to 100 could gather from Friday.
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has spoken to the heads of the country’s six big banks to get their views on the state of the economy and the Covid-19 relief efforts, the Globe and Mail reported on Sunday, citing multiple sources.