Brazil sees record increase in Covid-19 cases – as it happened

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29 Apr 202018.58 EDT

Joan E Greve

Trump says he won’t extend distancing guidelines as death toll passes 60,000

Donald Trump has said the federal government will not be extending its coronavirus social distancing guidelines once they expire on Thursday, even as the number of Americans who have died of coronavirus surpassed 60,000.

The country has recorded 60,207 deaths from coronavirus, and 1,030,487 cases of the virus have been confirmed in the US according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The US accounts for around one third of all confirmed cases worldwide.

Here are the most important recent developments from around the world:

• The official global death toll exceeded 225,000, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University researchers, with the official toll at 226,771. At least 3,187,919 people have been infected worldwide.
  
• Half world’s workers ‘at risk of unemployment’. The International Labour Organisation has warned that almost half the global workforce – 1.6 billion people – are in “immediate danger of having their livelihoods destroyed” by the economic impact of Covid-19, Philip Inman, a Guardian economics writer, reports.
• More cases of ‘Covid-linked’ syndrome in children. Doctors around the world have reported more cases of a rare but potentially lethal inflammatory syndrome in children that appears to be linked to coronavirus infections. Nearly 100 cases of the unusual illness have emerged in at least six countries, with doctors in Britain, the US, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland now reported to be investigating the condition.
• Official UK death toll up by 4,419, after the government included deaths outside hospital for the first time. As of 5pm on Tuesday, total of 26,097 patients had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK, according to Public Health England.
  
• Brazil sees record increase in cases. Brazil has reported a record increase in cases, with its ministry of health confirming 6,276 more infections in a 24-hour period, taking the country’s total to 78,162.
• Ireland looks set to extend its lockdown, despite growing calls to ease restrictions and salvage the economy.The taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said on Wednesday that new cases of Covid-19 infections, deaths and intensive care admissions appeared too high to start relaxing rules that are to expire on 5 May.
• Swiss government extends ban on large public events. The Swiss government has extended its ban on public events exceeding 1000 people until the end of August, even as it announced the easing of some other restrictions on sporting events, shops, restaurants and museums.
• Sweden passes 20,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus. The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Sweden rose past the 20,000 mark on Wednesday, after the Nordic country reported another 681 infections.
• Five coronavirus cases have been reported in Aden, southern Yemen, by the country’s internationally recognised government, raising the prospect that the war-ravaged country will soon also have an outbreak of the new disease.
• China’s parliament is to hold its annual meeting from 22 May - more than two months later than planned. Conditions for holding the meeting have been met as the coronavirus situation has improved, decision makers said.
  
• Russia’s coronavirus case tally neared the 100,000 milestone, after the country reported 5,841 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing its overall nationwide tally to 99,399, Reuters reports.
• UK government is still aiming for 100,000 daily tests by tomorrow, according to the environment secretary, George Eustice. He said the search for an effective antibody test was still under way and denied that earlier introduction of testing at care homes would have saved lives.
• The coronavirus outbreak needs to be contained before 2021 Olympics can go ahead, the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said. “The Olympic Games must be held in a way that shows the world has won its battle against the coronavirus pandemic.”
• The UK prime minister Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds announced the birth of a baby boy. Johnson returned to frontline work on Monday after falling ill with coronavirus and spending time in intensive care.
• Air passenger numbers are down 99% in the UK, the home secretary told MPs, as she defended the government’s decision not to test individuals entering the country. On Friday, a total of 9,906 people entered the country.

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Hi, Helen Sullivan with you now and for the next few hours.

A reminder that you can get in touch with me directly on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

Trump has said his administration will soon release a plan to help US oil companies, which the treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said could include adding millions of barrels of oil to already-teeming national reserves.

We’re also exploring potentially having the ability to store another several hundred million barrels, so we’re looking at lots of different options.

And, as oil-producing nations try to deal with the pandemic-driven fall in prices, Norway has agreed to slash its output from June to December, marking the first time in 18 years western Europe’s principal producer of oil has joined up with other major nations to shore up prices. Its oil minister Tina Bru has said:

We will cut Norwegian production by 250,000 barrels per day in June and by 134,000 barrels per day in the second half of 2020. In addition, the start-up of production of several fields will be delayed until 2021.

Consequently, the total Norwegian production in December 2020 will be 300,000 barrels less per day than originally planned by the companies. The regulation will cease by the end of the year.

In Washington, the US president Donald Trump has suggested a vaccine may not be needed as part of a recovery from the pandemic.

If you don’t have a vaccine, if the virus is gone, you’re like where we were before.

At least 89 vaccines are in development, according to the World Health Organization. But even the most promising options still need to undergo rigorous safety testing, which could take a year to 18 months.

But without a vaccine, why does Trump think the pandemic will just go away? He dodged the question. “It’s gonna go, it’s gonna leave,” Trump said, without explaining his thinking. “It’s gonna be eradicated.”

Brazil’s new health minister Nelson Teich has said he does not know when the epidemic will peak in Brazil and that a “second wave” is a very real possibility.

According to the O Globo newspaper, Teich said a “critical point” is a lack of ventilators in the country, adding: “We’ve never had so many big problems at the same time.”

In the Amazon city of Manaus, where the overloaded health system has collapsed, reports from Yahoo News said many people were dying at home without being tested and others in ambulances as they drove around the city looking for beds in intensive care. Relatives of some victims were even opening the sealed coffins of relatives being buried in mass graves to ensure they were really inside.

Talking privately, one Manaus doctor working in the public health sector said there are about 100 people on the waiting list for intensive care beds. Hospitals are also struggling to remove bodies.

There’s no room and nowhere to put them. The refrigerated containers fill up occasionally.

In Rio de Janeiro, a doctor also speaking anonymously said one hospital was running out of sedatives and neuromuscular blockers used for intubating and managing intubated patients. Local media has published photos of the vertical structures cemeteries are building to stack coffins up to eight high.

Brazil has reported a record increase in cases, with its ministry of health confirming 6,276 more infections in a 24-hour period, taking the country’s total to 78,162.

It has also suffered another 449 deaths in that time, raising its toll to at least 5,466 people since the outbreak began. Health specialists believe the real numbers are much higher.

Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed the rising death toll and, in recent weeks, has insisted the virus was “going away”. He shrugged off Tuesday’s news that the official Brazilian total had surpassed the WHO-reported death toll in China, saying: “So what? I’m sorry. What do you want me to do?”

Now, he has sought to blame state governors and mayors for the deaths – even though they have introduced social distancing measures against his orders while he repeatedly mingled with supporters and other Brazilians.

He argued that they should be asked why they “took such restrictive measures and people kept dying” and told reporters: “You won’t put that bill on my lap.”

Asked what responsibility he held for rising deaths, he replied: “The question is so idiotic I’m not going to reply.”

Another 31 people have died in Ireland and 376 more cases have been diagnosed, the country’s chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan has said.

One of the deaths reported on Wednesday involved a person in the 15-24 age group, the second in this category. Dr Holohan warned the number in intensive care units was too high as the prospect of a rapid easing of movement restrictions dwindles.

That is simply too high and we need to get that down further not only because it is about protecting occupancy but the lower the figure is it is a reflection of better protection of the public and lower levels of spread of the infection.

Bolivia will extend its lockdown against the pandemic until 10 May, the government has announced, though it is planning to relax rules in less affected parts of the country from the following day.

The president Jeanine Áñez has said Bolivia will move to a “dynamic” or “less rigid” quarantine on 11 May, allowing some people to return to work.

Future policy will hinge on the country’s success at containing the pandemic, which has killed 55 Bolivians so far with a total 1,053 cases confirmed.

Opening the quarantine a little or closing it completely will depend on how the pandemic is being controlled in each region. The Ministry of Health will evaluate every seven days how the pandemic evolves in each region. On that basis, decisions will be taken to relax or harden the quarantine.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported a total of 1,005,147 cases; an increase of 23,901 from its previous count. The number of deaths in the US has risen by 2,247 to 57,505.

The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.

Slovenia is to lift a restriction prohibiting citizens from traveling outside their local community, the prime minister Janez Janša has said.

The country has confirmed 1,418 cases and 89 deaths. Janša thanked citizens for following restrictions that have been imposed from the middle of March and told them:

Thanks to you Slovenia is the most successful (in curbing the virus) among all neighbours of the focal country Italy.

He claimed that Slovenia is also among countries that have suffered less economic and social damage than most due to the government’s quick response, which included financial help of about €3bn (£2.6bn) or some 6% of GDP to companies and citizens hurt by the epidemics.

He said more restrictions will be lifted on Monday but gave no details. The government said earlier hairdressers and beauty parlours, as well as outdoor bars and restaurants and a number of shops, will be able to open from Monday. Libraries and museums are also expected to open on Monday.

South Africa’s health department has reported another 354 cases; the greatest number in one day, which brings the country’s total to 5,350.

Venezuela is asking the Bank of England to sell part of the South American nation’s gold reserves held in its coffers and send the proceeds to the United Nations to help with the country’s pandemic efforts, Reuters is reporting. The agency cites two sources with knowledge of the situation.

For decades, Venezuela has stored gold that makes up part of its central bank reserves in the vaults of foreign financial institutions. That included the Bank of England, which provides gold custodian services to many developing countries.

But, since 2018, the Bank has refused to transfer the 31 tonnes of gold to the government of the president Nicolás Maduro, whom the UK has refused to recognise as the country’s legitimate leader after his disputed 2018 re-election.

Reuters reports that the effort signals Maduro is desperately seeking financial resources around the world as the country’s economy struggles under low oil prices, crippling U.S. sanctions and a paralysing quarantine.

Bosnia has reported its sharpest daily rise in new infections after its two autonomous regions gradually began to ease lockdowns.

There were 93 new infections and two deaths in the previous 24 hours, compared with 20 new infections a day earlier and 49 the day before that, officials have said. The total number of infected people rose to 1,677 with 65 deaths, while 29,130 have been tested.