Coronavirus live news: Trump backs anti-lockdown protests as global deaths pass 150,000 | World news

Singapore has recorded a new daily record rise in the number of coronavirus cases, with 942 infections reported today.

It takes Covid-19 cases in the country – which has a population of 5.7million – to 5,992. “The vast majority of whom are Work Permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories,” the country’s ministry of health said.

It follows my colleague, Rebecca Ratcliffe, reporting yesterday that the country, praised for its gold standard approach to tracing coronavirus cases, is facing a surge in transmission linked to its cramped migrant workers’ dormitories, where thousands more infections are expected to emerge.

Officials have been accused of overlooking the dormitories, where thousands of workers live in close quarters and between 12 and 20 men might share a single room.

The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases has hit 10,000 in Japan, the country’s public broadcaster has reported.

It comes just days after Japan’s state of emergency was extended to the entire nation in a bid to stem the spread of the disease.

Yesterday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appealed for people to stay indoors amid fears medical services could fail.

Just over 200 people have died from the virus in Japan, with capital Tokyo the hardest-hit area. The city recorded 201 new infections on Friday, a new record, and an additional 181 cases today.

In the UK, a senior clinician at the first Nightingale hospital, the world’s largest critical care facility which was built in less than a fortnight, has called for military expertise to help protect the mental health of staff and volunteers.

Prof James Calder, who had a 14-year military career and is one of the clinical leads at NHS Nightingale in east London, said it was crucial to call on veterans who have worked in challenging situations as the UK rapidly expands its hospital care capacity to deal with the pandemic.

One report this week suggested the hospital was failing to help the capital’s “drowning” intensive care units and had diverted much-needed equipment away from the city’s hospitals. The vast new hospital had just 30 patients on Tuesday, the Independent reported.

Prof Calder admitted he was sceptical about the new facility when he was brought on board but had been overwhelmed by what he characterised as early success. He told PA Media:

When I looked at it a few weeks ago I thought: ‘That’s nigh-on impossible.’ I was very suspicious about how on Earth we’re going to deliver this. But it’s gradually evolved and you realise: ‘This can work now.’

When we turned up here for the first time we said: ‘Wow, this is a big empty space, it’s got water, it’s got electricity, it’s got a roof, and nobody’s shooting at you.

So actually this is achievable – that’s not necessarily the case in other theatres we’ve been working in.

The 52-year-old said it was “incredibly impressive” that a high-quality intensive care unit had been set up in what was, in effect, a warehouse.

Somebody said you’re on the train and laying the tracks ahead of you as you are going along – and that’s absolutely right, you just have to make sure the train doesn’t go too quickly and run away with you.

Part of the success, he says, has been through dedication to the welfare of staff, many of whom are working “pretty exhausting” 12-hour shifts. Nightingale workers had borrowed a technique deployed on military operations where staff are paired with a buddy at the start of their shift, encouraging them to look out for one another throughout.

“If you have eyes with each other when you first go on a shift, you introduce yourselves, and speak to each other after the shift. If they get upset, have a difficult time with a patient or a death, they sit down and have a cup of tea. It worked very well in the past in the military and it’s working very well here,” he said.

Good morning from the UK, folks. Simon Murphy here taking over the global live blog now to take you through today’s coronavirus coverage as the world continues to battle the pandemic.

Teachers, nurses and other workers who are regularly exposed to the public must now take a coronavirus test if they want to leave Wuhan, China has ruled.

The order comes after the central city, where the coronavirus emerged late last year, lifted a 70-day lockdown that all but ended the epidemic there.

People in Wuhan work in nursing, education, security and other sectors with high exposure to the public must take a nucleic acid test before leaving, the National Health Commission said.

Since the city relaxed its lockdown restrictions people who arrived in there before Chinese New Year, when the virus was peaking in China, are allowed to go back to their homes.

More than 2.2 million people have now been infected worldwide with Covid-19 and at least 154,219 people have died since the outbreak began, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The figures, which are based on official data and media reports, are likely to underestimate the true scale of the pandemic due to suspected underreporting and differing testing regimes.

Here is the latest summary of the biggest developments around the world:

Thailand has reported 33 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total to 2,733 cases.

Eleven of the new cases were in Bangkok and had a history of going to public areas, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government’s Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration.

Some have questioned if the low number of detected cases is down to a lack of testing in the country.

Thailand has reported 47 fatalities since the outbreak escalated in January. No new deaths were reported on Saturday.

Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases have risen by 3,609 to 137,439, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday.

This post has been updated to clarify that the number of daily cases often fluctuates over the course of a week, and that this may reflect the number of tests being carried out each day. Thank you to readers who have got in touch about this. Both Robert Koch Institute and Johns Hopkins University have a lot of useful data showing daily cases in Germany.

Australia’s coronavirus-related death toll rose by three to a total of 68 on Saturday, health data showed.

The daily growth rate of new infections has steadied in the country, following the introduction of strict curbs on public movement.

Australia recorded 36 new cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases to 6,533, according to the health ministry data. The government has stepped up calls for people to sign up for a controversial movement-tracking mobile phone app, which ministers say will help the government to monitor outbreaks.

Government services minister Stuart Robert said there would there will be no surveillance involved with the app, which is to be ready within weeks. “The app is simply a health app,” Robert said in a televised briefing.

Prime minister Scott Morrison has also said that people are being asked to download the app voluntarily.

Here’s a brief summary of some the developments from the US, including Friday’s White House briefing.

• President Donald Trump said that protestors who flouted social distancing measures “seem to be very responsible people”. Demonstrations against stay-at-home orders, which have drawn elements of the far right, have been held in Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia. Some protesters have carried guns, waved Trump and Confederate flags and sought to frame the debate as a defence of constitutional freedoms.
• Trump said that some states are going too far with social distancing measures, but added that he did not believe stay-at-home orders should be dropped altogether. Asked to address a series of incendiary tweets which appeared to stoke protests against social restrictions in three states led by Democratic governors, he said he was “very comfortable” with what he posted.
• Trump cast doubt on China’s death toll, which was revised up on Friday, and said that “a lot of strange things are happening” regarding the origins of the novel coronavirus. While the source of the virus is unknown, the broad scientific consensus is that it originated in bats.
• Trump’s coronavirus task force members pushed back against criticism that limited testing ability is preventing the country from tackling the virus.
• A $19 billion relief program will help US farmers cope with the impact of the coronavirus. This includes $16 billion in direct payments to producers and mass purchases of meat, dairy, vegetables and other products.

Japan, alarmed by rising coronavirus deaths, is scrambling to expand testing with drive-through facilities and general practitioners helping to collect samples.

For weeks Japan has limited its testing for the coronavirus, despite calls from many health experts who see testing as vital to detecting and isolating cases and slowing the spread.

Japan conducted about 52,000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in March, or just 16% of the number carried out in South Korea, according to data from Oxford University.

Experts say Japan’s strategy of keeping the number of PCR tests low has made it difficult to trace the disease as it spread in Tokyo and other big cities and led to a wave of in-hospital infections, crippling some facilities.

Japan’s total infections stand at more than 9,800, with 207 deaths, according to a tally by public broadcaster NHK.

In the US, Democratic lawmakers want police departments to be vigilant about any racially biased policing during the coronavirus pandemic, as people in communities of color express fears of being profiled while wearing masks or other face coverings in public.

Senator Kamala Harris of California was among several senators to write to the Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray urging agencies to give anti-bias training to officers.

With the ongoing public health emergency, it is more important than ever for law enforcement to build trust with communities of color, the senators said in the letter, which was first shared with The Associated Press.

Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that people who go out in public wear a surgical mask or a cloth covering their nose and mouth to prevent the spread of the virus. And already, some black men have reported incidents of racial profiling while following the recommendations.

One World: Together at Home, a benefit concert curated by Lady Gaga, will be broadcast across the US television networks ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as being streamed online, at 8pm EST tonight. In the UK, BBC One will show an adapted version of the concert on 19 April.

The concert is being held in support of the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 solidarity response fund and in celebration of health workers around the world.

The lineup includes Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas, Lizzo, J Balvin, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Burna Boy, Andrea Bocelli, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Elton John, John Legend, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban and Lang Lang.

Walmart said on Friday it would hire 50,000 more workers at its stores, clubs and distribution centers to meet a surge in demand for groceries and household essentials from consumers stockpiling during the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters has reported.

The retailer said it had reached its earlier target of hiring 150,000 workers six weeks ahead of schedule, taking in 5,000 people per day on average at a time when millions of Americans are losing their jobs amid unprecedented “stay-at-home” orders.

Walmart said it had worked with more than 70 companies that furloughed workers due to the pandemic to hire its 150,000 new employees, many of whom came from the restaurant and hospitality industries. The majority of workers being hired are going into temporary or part-time roles.

Skyrocketing demand for food, hand sanitizer, toilet paper and other household products has also prompted retailers Kroger, Target and Amazon to hire by the thousands.

Hospitals in Japan are increasingly turning away sick people as the country struggles with surging coronavirus infections and its emergency medical system collapses, Associated Press has reported.

In one recent case, an ambulance carrying a man with a fever and difficulty breathing was rejected by 80 hospitals and forced to search for hours for a hospital in downtown Tokyo that would treat him. Another feverish man finally reached a hospital after paramedics unsuccessfully contacted 40 clinics.

The Japanese Association for Acute Medicine and the Japanese Society for Emergency Medicine say many hospital emergency rooms are refusing to treat people including those suffering strokes, heart attacks and external injuries.
Japan initially seemed to have controlled the outbreak by going after clusters of infections in specific places, usually enclosed spaces such as clubs, gyms and meeting venues. But the spread of virus outpaced this approach and most new cases are untraceable.

Apart from a general unwillingness to embrace social distancing, experts fault government incompetence and a widespread shortage of the protective gear and equipment medical workers need to do their jobs.

Japan lacks enough hospital beds, medical workers or equipment. Forcing hospitalization of anyone with the virus, even those with mild symptoms, has left hospitals overcrowded and understaffed.

Here is some further detail from Guatemala, where president Alejandro Giammattei has said that migrants who arrived in the country on Monday were infected with Covid-19.

Giammattei said 12 randomly selected migrants who took the deportation flight from the US tested positive for coronavirus when examined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US health protection agency.

He suggested more on the flight had tested positive for the virus. “A large part of it was infected,” the president said in a televised address.

Flights deporting Guatemalan migrants from the United States were on Thursday once again temporarily suspended after reports of the mass infection. Deportation flights had only started again on Monday following a five-day suspension.