Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, says international travel and mass gatherings will not be resuming ‘anytime soon’.
On lifting restrictions, Scott Morrison says don’t get your hopes up for a return to normal as we knew it.
Not until there is a vaccine (and even then, things will continue to be different. We are not going back to what we knew before):
Putting the protections in place for a Covid-safe Australia, which means we can get an economic growth occurring again, and move on to what Australians like doing again.
It won’t be exactly like it was before. I can’t see international travel occurring anytime soon. Can’t see that. The risks there are obvious.
The only exception to that, as I have flagged, is potentially with New Zealand, and we have had some good discussions about that. But outside of that, that is unlikely.
Fitch downgrades Italy rating to BBB-
Fitch said Tuesday it was downgrading Italy’s rating to BBB- due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reports.
Italy is the European country most affected by Covid-19 and trails only the United States in the number of deaths.
The government has said it expects the country’s economic output to shrink by 8% this year and has launched a host of stimulus measures.
“The downgrade reflects the significant impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic on Italy’s economy and the sovereign’s fiscal position,” the Fitch ratings agency said in a statement.
Italy’s finance ministry responded by saying that “the fundamentals of the Italian economy and public finances are solid.”
“The other rating agencies have adopted a more cautious attitude,” the ministry said in a statement.
Lebanese protesters confronted soldiers for a second day Tuesday as anger over a spiraling economic crisis re-energised a months-old anti-government movement despite a coronavirus lockdown, AFP reports.
Lebanon has 717 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University figures, and 24 people have died.
Tuesday’s confrontations were the latest in a string of anti-government protests fuelled by unprecedented inflation and a plummeting Lebanese pound.
The Lebanese pound has lost more than half of its value against the dollar on the black market, hitting record lows of 4,000 pounds to the dollar this week. Economy Minister Raoul Nehme on Tuesday said that prices have risen by 55%, while the government estimates that 45% of the population now lives below the poverty line.
In the city of Tripoli, protesters hurled rocks at security forces, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
The violence came after a protester died on Tuesday from a bullet wound he had sustained during overnight confrontations between troops and hundreds of demonstrators in Tripoli.
Following the funeral of 26-year-old Fawaz al-Samman in the city’s central Al-Nour Square, demonstrators torched and vandalised banks and military vehicles.
The story of an unlikely self-isolation cooking hero from Australia now, from the author Jenny Valentish:
Nat’s What I Reckon: the sweary, ranty YouTuber who’s become an isolation cooking sensation
“What’s going on, Iso-Lords?” he says, introducing his latest clip, The Crowd Goes Mild Curry. “We’re back in the kitchen, saying no to jar sauce.”
Behind a sparkling-clean counter laden with fresh vegetables, spices and herbs stands Nat: black band T-shirt, hair halfway down his torso, arms and neck covered in tattoos. He walks us through the ingredients before getting stuck into the methodology.
“If you’ve got one of these cheeky bastards, use this. It’s called a microplane. I know it sounds like a small aircraft, but it’s just a pretentious name for a fine grater. If you don’t have one of these pratty things you can just use a normal grater, and if you don’t think you’ve got one of these, you’re wrong. You’ve got four of them and they’re buried behind the other three.”
Navy sailors who have been quarantined on Guam for weeks will begin moving back to the USS Theodore Roosevelt Tuesday night, US officials said. A coronavirus outbreak sidelined the aircraft carrier in late March, AP reports.
Hundreds of sailors are expected to reboard the ship over the next several days, after spending about a month in gyms, hotels and other facilities while the ship was cleaned, officials said. The sailors were expected to begin moving back during the late evening and overnight Eastern time, which would be Wednesday in Guam.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss events ahead of the announcement.
The ship gained attention when it was forced to dock in Guam because of the virus outbreak. The ship’s commander, Navy Captain Brett Crozier, was fired for sending an email pleading with commanders to take faster action to address the virus.
As of Tuesday, 940 sailors have tested positive for the virus, and 29 have recovered.
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China has reported zero new deaths as of the end of 28 April.
There were 26 new asymptomatic cases, down from 40 the day before, but 21 new imported cases, compared to three a day earlier, and 22 cases in the mainland, compared to six the day before, Reuters reports.
The total number of cases stands at 82,858 and 4633 people have died.
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Trump offers rosy predictions for coronavirus testing as US passes 1m cases
Donald Trump has predicted a “great” economic rebound in the fall and claimed the country would soon be performing 5m coronavirus diagnostic tests a day, as the number of confirmed cases in the US surpassed a million.
Some health experts have suggested that the US would have to carry out 5m tests a day by June to reopen its economy safely. Others have suggested as many as 20m tests a day would ultimately be needed. The US daily rate is currently 200,000.
Addressing a news conference on aid to small businesses on Tuesday, Trump appeared unaware of the current figures, suggesting “it could be that we’re getting very close” to 5m daily tests. “We’re going to be there very soon,” he said.
The US has carried out 5.6m tests over the past two months, which as Trump pointed out was far more than any other country, but represented about 1.6% of the population, a higher percentage than most countries, though significantly below Italy.
Trump was also bullish on the prospects for economic recovery in the fall. In what looks almost certain to become another hostage to fortune, the president implied that the pandemic would be largely cleared by the fourth quarter of the year.
The false belief that toxic methanol cures the coronavirus has seen over 700 people killed in Iran, an official said Monday. That represents a higher death toll than so far released by the Iranian Health Ministry, The Associated Press reports.
An adviser to the ministry, Hossein Hassanian, said that the difference in death tallies is because some alcohol poisoning victims died outside of hospital. Some 200 people died outside of hospitals, Hassanian told AP.
The national coroner’s authority said that alcohol poisoning killed 728 Iranians between 20 February and 7 April. Last year there were only 66 deaths from alcohol poisoning, according to the report.
Separately, the Iranian health ministry spokesman, Kianoush Jahanpour said that 525 people have died from swallowing toxic methanol alcohol since 20 February, state TV reported on Monday. Jahanpour said that a total of 5,011 people had been poisoned from methanol alcohol. He added that some 90 people have lost their eye sight or are suffering eye damage from the alcohol poisoning.
Hassanian also said the final tally of people who lost their eye sight could be much higher.
Iran is facing the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East with 5,806 deaths and more than 91,000 confirmed case.
Nearly 70 residents infected with coronavirus have died at a Massachusetts home for ageing veterans, as state and federal officials try to figure out what went wrong in the deadliest known outbreak at a long-term care facility in the US, AP reports.
While the death toll at the state-run Holyoke Soldiers’ Home continues to climb, federal officials are investigating whether residents were denied proper medical care and the state’s top prosecutor is deciding whether to bring legal action.
Sixty-eight veteran residents who tested positive for the virus have died, officials said Tuesday, and it’s not known whether another person who died had Covid-19. Another 82 residents and 81 employees have tested positive.
The home’s superintendent, who’s been placed on administrative leave, has defended his response and accused state officials of falsely claiming they were unaware of the scope of the problem there.
The superintendent, Bennett Walsh, said earlier this month state officials knew that the home was in crisis mode when it came to staffing shortages and were notified early and often about the contagion at the facility.
There were nearly 230 residents living at the home in late March and only about 100 remained on Monday, The Boston Globe reported.
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