Cincunri Sakia

Minggu, 12 April 2020

UK PM Boris Johnson discharged from hospital - CNN

"The PM has been discharged from hospital to continue his recovery, at Chequers," he said.

UK's concern for Boris Johnson overrides politics

Chequers is the official country residence of British prime ministers.

Johnson was admitted to hospital last Sunday and was moved to intensive care on Monday. He spent three nights in the ICU and received "standard oxygen treatment," according to his spokesman, but did not require mechanical or invasive ventilation.

The spokesperson said that on the advice of his medical team, the PM won't immediately be returning to work.

Johnson's decision to continue working after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 was questioned by some when he was admitted to hospital.

Johnson announced he tested positive for the novel coronavirus on March 27. He said he was experiencing "mild symptoms" and would continue leading the country -- while self-isolating in his apartment in Downing Street. The 55-year-old was taken to St. Thomas' Hospital in London 10 days later.

On Saturday, the PM issued a statement thanking the National Health Service staff at St. Thomas' Hospital. "I can't thank them enough. I owe them my life," he said.

The PM's fiancée, Carrie Symonds, expressed similar gratitude on Sunday. In a series of tweets, Symonds thanked the NHS staff: "I cannot thank our magnificent NHS enough. The staff at St Thomas' Hospital have been incredible. I will never, ever be able to repay you and I will never stop thanking you."

Symonds is pregnant with the couple's first child and has been apart from the PM during his self-isolation and hospitalization.

"There were times last week that were very dark indeed. My heart goes out to all those in similar situations, worried sick about their loved ones," Symonds added.

The strength with which Covid-19 struck the Prime Minister shook the UK, where the virus has claimed 9,875 deaths so far, according to a tally by the Department of Health and Social Care. Nearly 79,000 people have tested positive.

Is Britain's minority community disproportionately affected by the coronavirus? Lack of public data makes it difficult to answer

Some experts have warned the situation could get much worse in the UK. An influential coronavirus model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington's School of Medicine in Seattle predicted earlier this week that the UK will be the worst-hit European country, with a death toll from Covid-19 reaching 66,314 by early August.

While some British scientists pushed back against the forecast, Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust and a UK government adviser said Sunday the UK is "likely to be one of the worst, if not the worst, affected countries in Europe."

"The numbers in the UK have continued to go up, I do hope that we're coming close to the number of new infections reducing, and in a week or two the number of people of people needing hospital reducing," he told the BBC.

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2020-04-12 13:55:08Z
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Spain's coronavirus deaths rise as some businesses prepare to reopen - Reuters

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s coronavirus death toll rose for the first time in three days on Sunday, as some businesses prepared to reopen under an easing of the country’s strict lockdown regime.

A woman kneels as she prays after Easter Sunday mass at a empty Santa Maria de Cana parish amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Pozuelo de Alarcon, Spain, April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Sergio Perez

A total of 619 people died over the past 24 hours, health ministry data showed, bringing the cumulative toll to 16,972. Confirmed cases increased by around 2.6% to 166,019.

Tough lockdown measures have helped bring down a spiralling death rate that reached its peak in early April, and the new deaths reported on Saturday were the lowest in 19 days while the increase of confirmed cases has roughly halved from a week ago.

All non-essential workers had been told to stay at home, but the government plans on Monday to revert back to less strict curbs that were in force up to March 27, allowing some businesses to resume activities.

That has triggered concerns of a resurgence in an epidemic that has caused more deaths in Spain than anywhere apart from the United States and Italy.

Catalonia’s regional leader Quim Torra said in a Twitter posting that the government was ignoring scientific advice to “maintain total confinement.”

Antoni Trilla, an epidemics expert and government advisor from the University of Barcelona, had said on Thursday that the stricter confinement measures should be extended.

However, Social Security Minister Jose Luis Escriva said a less strict lockdown was now sufficient to prevent the disease from spreading.

“What we have seen in the past days is the result of conditions that were in place between March 17 and 27, and which will still be in place from Monday,” he told the La Sexta TV channel on Saturday.

The coronavirus is weighing heavily on the Spanish economy, with some 900,000 jobs lost since mid-March. [L8N2BQ1ZF]

European Central Bank Vice-President Luis de Guindos said Spain’s reliance on tourism would likely leave it exposed to a worse recession than the rest of Europe.

“We’re talking about the worst economic situation since the (1936-39 Spanish) Civil War,” he said in an interview with the La Vanguardia newspaper.

Industry Minister Maria Reyes Maroto said the tourism sector would be slow to recover.

Restoring confidence in Spain as a safe destination for tourists would be key, and measures to prevent the spread of the virus, such as hand-washing and social distancing, would have to continue, even on the beach.

“Those patterns will be in our day-to-day lives for a time, you cannot take a step back,” she was quoted as telling newspaper El Pais.

Reporting by Nathan Allen and Graham Keeley; Editing by Andrei Khalip

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-04-12 13:32:35Z
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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson released from hospital amid coronavirus fight - Fox News

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U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was released Sunday from a London hospital where he has battled coronavirus for nearly a week, according to officials.

Downing Street said the British prime minister will not immediately return to work and will instead recuperate at Chequers, his official country retreat in Buckinghamshire.

Johnson, 55, was admitted to St. Thomas’ Hospital in London last Sunday because of worsening COVID-19 symptoms and on Monday moved into intensive care. Downing Street said throughout his spell in the hospital that Johnson was “in good spirits,” and assured the public that he was conscious and not on a ventilator -- although he was receiving oxygen assistance.

BORIS JOHNSON OUT OF ICU AMID CORONAVIRUS BATTLE, IN 'GOOD SPIRITS,' SPOKESMAN SAYS

On Sunday, Johnson said in his first public statement since he was moved out of intensive care Thursday that he owes his life to the National Health Service staff who treated him for COVID-19.

“I can’t thank them enough," Johnson said. "I owe them my life.”

In this file photo dated Tuesday, March 17, 2020, Britain's Chancellor Rishi Sunak, left, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrive for a press briefing about the ongoing situation with the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Johnson's pregnant fiancee, Carrie Symonds, also expressed thanks for the "magnificent" NHS and staff at the hospital. She was also sickened with the virus.

"There were times last week that were very dark indeed. My heart goes out to all those in similar situations, worried sick about their loved ones," she said on Twitter.

"Thank you also to everyone who sent such kind messages of support. Today I’m feeling incredibly lucky," Symonds added.

The British prime minister was diagnosed over two weeks ago, becoming the first world leader confirmed to have the illness. His coronavirus symptoms at first were said to have been mild, including a cough and a fever, and he was working from home during the first few days before he was hospitalized.

A drawing of a rainbow with the words "we are in this together" is displayed in one of the windows of 10 Downing Street in London, Thursday, April 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Johnson's move had raised questions and concerns about how the British government would run, especially considering that the line of succession is not explicitly set out in the unwritten British constitution.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab had been deputized "where necessary" in Johnson’s absence and was conducting daily cabinet meetings as well as daily government briefings to the public in Johnson's place.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Britain has been in an effective lockdown since March 23 and the government is set to extend the restrictions sometime next week.

Three police officers at left and a security guard at right guard an entrance outside St Thomas' Hospital in London, where British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was being treated for coronavirus. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Figures later Sunday are expected to show that over 10,000 people in the U.K. have died after testing positive for coronavirus. On Saturday, Britain reported 917 new coronavirus-related deaths.

That would make Britain the fourth European country after Italy, Spain, and France to reach that grim milestone, even with its limited testing.

With Britain's death toll increasing at such a rapid daily pace, and the virus death tolls in Italy and Spain on a downward slope, there are growing fears that the U.K. will end up being the country with the most virus deaths in Europe.

The continent has had almost 74,000 reported coronavirus deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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Britain's business secretary, Alok Sharma, refused to be drawn in on whether the U.K. will end up with the highest death toll in Europe.

“We are at different trajectories,” he said told the BBC. “We are starting to see these measures work.”

Fox News' Adam Shaw and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2020-04-12 12:44:15Z
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As Christians Mark Easter in Isolation, Pope Francis Proclaims ‘Contagion of Hope’ - The Wall Street Journal

Pope Francis offered Easter Sunday Mass in a near-empty St. Peter’s Basilica.
Photo: andreas solaro/pool/Shutterstock

Francis X. Rocca

The Wall Street Journal

Biography
@FrancisXRocca
fxrocca
francis.rocca@wsj.com

April 12, 2020 7:43 am ET

ROME—Celebrating Easter in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis on Sunday proclaimed what he called a “contagion of hope,” after he offered Mass in a near-empty St. Peter’s Basilica.

Speaking before just a handful of people, the pontiff called for the “victory of love over the root of evil, a victory that does not bypass suffering and death, but passes through them, opening a path in the abyss, transforming evil into good.”

Similar scenes played out in churches large and small throughout the world.

Easter, which Catholics and Protestants observed on Sunday and Orthodox Christians will celebrate on April 19, is the holiest day in the Christian calendar, when the faithful believe that Jesus rose from dead.

Under restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic, millions marked the day in isolation at home, unable to receive Communion but in many cases watching their priests or ministers on TV or over the internet.

“Offer this Easter celebration of the Holy Eucharist and your hunger for it, for the safety of your loved ones, yourselves and our world at this time. God is not limited by our separation,” Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, celebrating with a congregation of just 10 in the city’s cathedral, said in his homily Sunday.

In the U.S., some Protestant churches were planning to hold services despite restrictions by civil authorities, raising the prospect of clashes with law enforcement in some jurisdictions.

On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence, chairman of the White House’s coronavirus task force, urged fellow Christians to heed national guidelines discouraging gatherings of more than 10 people.

This year’s Easter was marked not only by the unprecedented circumstance of churches closed world-wide but by uncertainty over the pandemic’s duration and its consequences for society, including religious life.

“We do not know what will be our life after the lock down,” said Bishop Broderick Pabillo, leader of the Catholic Archdiocese of Manila, in his Easter Message on Friday. “We will rise up, hopefully not to go back to our former way of life...We will rise up with greater trust in our God who never leaves us and who sustains us in difficult times.”

Yet history suggests that the devastating effects of the pandemic, on the economy as well as public health, could weaken religious faith in some parts of the world.

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“For the West, this could be a really catastrophic blow for institutional religion,” said Philip Jenkins, a professor of history at Baylor University, who noted that the 2008 economic crisis was followed by a precipitous decline in religious affiliation among Americans.

Mr. Jenkins said the effect could be very different in developing countries.

“In Africa or Asia, you could imagine an upsurge of healing movements and healing churches when all kinds of secular medicine have failed,” he said, recalling the rise of such movements in Africa during the 1918 influenza pandemic. “If all systems are collapsing then people turn to religion.”

In another view, the lockdowns are an opportunity for Pope Francis and other Christian leaders to stress their teachings on social justice and the environment.

“We’re seeing some of the benefits of the cessation of economic activity,” such as improving air quality, said John Milbank, an Anglican theologian and professor emeritus at the University of Nottingham in the U.K.. “It brings benefits to humans as well as nature, to some degree, because it reminds us of priorities: family, home, neighbors, region.”

“The church needs to be talking about these ethical and theological lessons that we can be taking from this,” Mr. Milbank added.

Pope Francis has taken the occasion to stress such lessons.

“Every crisis contains both danger and opportunity: the opportunity to move out from the danger,” the pope told his biographer, Austen Ivereigh, in an interview published earlier this week. “This is the time to take the decisive step, to move from using and misusing nature to contemplating it.”

Italian Carabinieri police standing inside an empty St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sunday.
Photo: Andrew Medichini/Associated Press

The pope observed a long moment of silence in lieu of a homily at Mass on Sunday, but afterward, in his traditional Easter message “to the city (of Rome) and the world,” the pope consoled victims of Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and thanked health-care workers on the front lines.

Along with a survey of trouble spots around the world, including the Middle East, the pope called for forgiveness or reduction of the debt owed by poorer countries, the relaxation of international sanctions during the pandemic and a reaffirmation of solidarity within the European Union, whose unity has been strained by the crisis.

Yet nothing the pope has said since the start of the pandemic has stirred as much interest as his gestures and use of traditional symbols, especially his dramatic blessing of Rome and the world on the rainy night of March 27, when he stood alone in an empty St. Peter’s Square, holding up a gold monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament.

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That ceremony also featured a “miraculous crucifix,” which normally hangs in a Rome church, and which devotees carried through the city’s streets during an outbreak of the plague in the 16th century. The crucifix has remained in St. Peter’s for this year’s Holy Week celebrations, including Sunday’s Easter Mass.

Some say such relics can be powerful signs of hope that resonate even beyond the ranks of believers.

“The Catholic Church is the most stable institution in the world, it’s got a 2,000-year history of continuity,” said the Rev. John O’Malley, a church historian at Georgetown University. “It’s lived through all kinds of upheavals and somehow or other has survived. So this is not the end of everything. The church is a good symbol of that.”

Write to Francis X. Rocca at francis.rocca@wsj.com

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2020-04-12 12:22:52Z
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Spain's coronavirus deaths rise as some businesses prepare to reopen - Reuters

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s overnight death toll from the coronavirus rose to 619 on Sunday from a nearly three-week low of 510 on Saturday, the Health Ministry said, breaking a three-day streak of daily declines.

The country’s total death toll from the virus climbed to 16,972 from 16,353, the ministry said in a statement. Overall cases rose to 166,019 from 161,852.

Reporting by Nathan Allen and Graham Keeley ; Editing by Andrei Khalip

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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In Easter Mass, Pope Speaks of ‘a Contagion of Hope’ Amid Coronavirus: Live Coverage - The New York Times

新冠病毒疫情最新消息

Here’s what you need to know:

Pope Francis celebrated Easter Sunday Mass behind closed doors at St. Peter’s Basilica. — Credit...Pool photo by Andreas Solaro

The pope livestreams Easter Mass. Britain’s queen says, ‘Coronavirus will not overcome us.’

Pope Francis celebrated Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday morning, empty of faithful and assisted by a handful of attendants. The Mass, sung mostly in Latin, was livestreamed for the tens of thousands who could not attend in person.

Last year, an estimated 70,000 faithful crammed into St. Peter’s Square on Easter morning to hear the pope deliver his “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and to the World”) message after Easter Mass. But this year people are prohibited to gather in the square because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Francis acknowledged that for many, “this is an Easter of solitude lived amid the sorrow and hardship that the pandemic is causing, from physical suffering to economic difficulties,” and said his thoughts were with those directly affected by the virus: doctors and nurses, the sick, those who had died and family members in mourning.

Addressing “a world already faced with epochal challenges and now oppressed by a pandemic severely testing our whole human family,” Francis spoke of “the contagion of hope.” God is with us, he said, “firmly reassuring us: Do not be afraid, I have risen and I am with you still.”

Acknowledging the concerns of many people who face an uncertain economic future and fears surrounding unemployment, he called on political leaders “to work actively for the common good, to provide the means and resources needed to enable everyone to lead a dignified life and, when circumstances allow, to assist them in resuming their normal daily activities.”

“This is not a time for indifference,” Francis said, “because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic.”

Other leaders have also delivered messages of hope amid the outbreak.

In Britain, Queen Elizabeth II released a recorded Easter message Saturday night in which she said that the holiday was a time of “light overcoming darkness.”

“This year, Easter will be different for many of us, but by keeping apart we keep others safe,” she said. “Easter isn’t canceled. Indeed, we need Easter as much as ever.”

“We know that coronavirus will not overcome us,” the queen said. “As dark as death can be, particularly for those suffering with grief, light and life are greater. May the living flame of the Easter hope be a steady guide as we face the future.”

Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak

The virus has infected more than 1,737,000 people in at least 177 countries.

Countries weigh the costs and benefits of lifting lockdowns.

As European countries gingerly move to ease their lockdowns, Denmark’s first phase — beginning on Wednesday, when schools and day care centers reopen — will be measured in tape.

Headmasters are scrambling to follow detailed government instructions on hygiene and social distancing to avoid setting off a surge in new cases. They will use tape measure and barriers in playgrounds to partition groups, as up to five children will be allowed to play together without mixing with other groups.

An animated film released by the Danish Health Authority cautioned children that while they’ve all been “really cool” in avoiding the virus, some things will be different when school reopens after four weeks. They may have math class in the playground, the video says, and there won’t be “too many high fives” for now.

A full reopening in Denmark is still months away, but getting children out of their parents’ way will ease the burden on those working from home.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said last week that she would begin easing restrictions as hospital admissions remain well below full capacity and the number of coronavirus deaths and new admissions appeared to decline. She described the move as “walking a tightrope.”

As the pandemic continued its assault, with more than 1.7 million cases recorded worldwide and at least 108,000 deaths, Iran, the country hit the hardest in the Middle East, began opening some government offices and shops, factories and other businesses this weekend.

President Hassan Rouhani has said that economic and government activity must continue, but on Saturday he warned that people should still observe social distancing. The country has recorded more than 70,000 cases and over 4,300 deaths.

Austria plans to reopen smaller shops after this weekend. The Czech Republic is opening small stores, and people can play tennis and go swimming. And Norway will allow pupils to attend kindergarten.

China has ended its lockdown of Wuhan, where the coronavirus first emerged, but is now concerned about a rise in imported cases.

In Spain, which is preparing to allow some nonessential employees to return to work on Monday, there are also fears of a second wave of infections.

Politicians from the regional governments of Madrid and Catalonia, the two areas most affected by the virus, questioned why factory workers and builders would be allowed to resume work after Easter, even as Spain’s population remains under lockdown until at least April 26.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the conservative leader of the Madrid region, who underwent a quarantine after testing positive for the virus, said on Saturday that she would respect the central government’s orders. But she said it would be “unforgivable” if the authorities allowed “another wave right now.”

Japan’s leader, urging citizens to stay home, pets a dog in a video.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan took to social media on Sunday to urge people across the country to stay home as confirmed coronavirus cases rose by a record number for the fourth day running.

In a video posted on Twitter, Mr. Abe pets a dog, sips tea, reads and listlessly clicks a remote control while appearing to watch television. Adding a little pep to the video, Gen Hoshino, a popular Japanese singer, strums an acoustic guitar on a split screen and sings a few words of encouragement to people staying at home.

By early afternoon, the video had received more than 220,000 likes as well as a number of scathing parodies, including a video that switched Mr. Hoshino’s clip for one showing an apocalyptic scene from a zombie movie.

The video was posted as Japan was in its first weekend on emergency footing. Mr. Abe declared a national emergency on Tuesday, calling on seven of the country’s prefectures, including its largest metropolitan areas, to reduce social contact by 80 percent.

On Saturday, Mr. Abe said he had asked the country’s remaining prefectures to request that residents avoid going out at night and work remotely if possible. The country had nearly 7,500 confirmed cases as of Sunday, and more than 100 coronavirus-related deaths.

Egypt arrests villagers who tried to stop the burial of a doctor who died from the virus.

Egyptian police officers on Saturday fired tear gas and arrested 23 people at a village in the Nile Delta where residents tried to prevent the burial of a doctor who had died from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

People amassed on a road leading to the cemetery in Dakhliya governorate where the physician was to be buried. He had died at a quarantine hospital, and villagers said they feared that the body would spread the infection. After the police intervened, an ambulance carrying the body reached the cemetery.

A school in the village has been named after the doctor.

Egypt has reported over 1,900 cases of coronavirus and 146 fatalities, a relatively low toll for a country of 100 million people. But misinformation is rife and the government is struggling to balance public health concerns with a population that is chafing under restrictions that have slashed incomes, particularly among the poor.

The government has blamed any unrest on the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. In a statement on Saturday, the Interior Ministry said the village riot had been caused by rumors spread by the Brotherhood.

But there are growing signs of strain. Last week, a doctor in Sharqiya, also in the Nile Delta, was questioned by the police after he posted a video appealing for personal protective equipment at the hospital where he works.

A video that surfaced last week showed President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi loudly reprimanding construction workers for not wearing masks. “Orders must be followed,” he says in the video. “Why aren’t these people wearing masks?”

Partygoers attack police officers in Germany; and Russia reports its highest daily tally of new cases.

As Germany endured another week in which gatherings of more than two people are banned, the police in Frankfurt were attacked with stones and metal pipes when they moved in to break up a party of about 20 people in the city late Friday.

Six people who were detained and later released are being investigated on charges of attacking an officer and attempted assault, the police said.

As the country enjoyed sunny skies and warm temperatures over Easter weekend, hundreds of officers fanned out across parks and along riverbanks to ensure that rules were being observed to fight the spread of the coronavirus. In most cases, a reminder was all that was needed, officials said.

Germans have been highly restricted in their movements since March 22, and Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet on Wednesday with state governors to discuss whether the measures can be eased. Germany has recorded over 120,000 infections and more than 2,600 deaths, but the country’s health system has been largely able to withstand the strain.

The country’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said in an Easter address to the nation this weekend that the pandemic was not a war, but a chance to reconsider what is important in life and recalibrate how society functions.

“The pandemic has shown us that we are vulnerable,” he said in remarks that were televised on Saturday. “Perhaps we believed for too long that we are invulnerable, that it could continue ever faster and higher. That was delusion. But this crisis has also shown us how strong we are.”

In other parts of the world:

Singapore’s transportation minister said on Saturday that all commuters in the city-state of five million people would soon be required to wear masks when using public transportation. Anyone breaking the rules on social distancing faces a fine of $200.

In Russia, officials on Sunday reported 2,186 new coronavirus cases, the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak, bringing the national tally of confirmed cases to 15,770. The number of deaths rose by 24 to 130.

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin of Moscow said on Saturday that the city would introduce digital permits this week to control residents’ movement to help enforce a lockdown. He said the permits would contain a code that identifies the holder. Residents will have to request the permits in order to travel by motorcycle, scooter, car or taxi, or via the city’s vast public transit network.

In India, the coronavirus fans anti-Muslim attacks.

Young Muslim men who were passing out food to the poor were assaulted with cricket bats. Other Muslims have been beaten up, nearly lynched, run out of their neighborhoods or attacked in mosques, branded as virus spreaders. In Punjab State, loudspeakers at Sikh temples broadcast messages telling people not to buy milk from Muslim dairy farmers because it was said to be infected with the coronavirus.

A spree of anti-Muslim attacks has broken out across India after the country’s health ministry repeatedly blamed an Islamic seminary for spreading the coronavirus and officials spoke of “human bombs” and “corona jihad.”

Hateful messages have bloomed online. And a wave of apparently fake videos has popped up telling Muslims not to wear masks, not to practice social distancing and not to worry about the virus at all, as if the makers of the videos wanted Muslims to get sick.

In a pandemic, there is always the hunt for blame. President Trump has done it, on numerous occasions calling the coronavirus a “Chinese virus.’’ All over the world people are pointing fingers, driven by their fears and anxieties to go after The Other.

In India, no other group has been demonized more than the country’s 200 million Muslims, minorities in a Hindu-dominated land of 1.3 billion people.

To curb the spread of the coronavirus, India imposed a nationwide 21-day lockdown, and officials indicated this weekend that it will be extended.

A statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office said the chief ministers of India’s states had reached a consensus to extend the lockdown for two weeks when it ends on April 15. The statement did not make clear Mr. Modi’s final decision, but some states have already extended the restrictions to the end of the month.

Ultra-Orthodox areas of Jerusalem are closed off to contain the virus.

Israel sealed off large swaths of Jerusalem on Sunday in an effort to contain the coronavirus, with the restrictions primarily affecting densely populated ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods where the outbreak has been spreading most rapidly.

The police set up 100 roadblocks and began enforcing rules barring residents from leaving, except for work considered essential, medical treatment, funerals for immediate family members, and children shuttling between parents under custody arrangements.

Ultra-Orthodox communities have proved fertile ground for the virus, with large families typically living in crowded apartments and with daily life organized around communal rituals. Many ultra-Orthodox Jews distrust state authority and reject smartphones and other sources of news and information, and have been slower to comply with social distancing rules than other Israelis.

Yet health officials insisted that religious identification had nothing to do with the closures and that they were relying only on data about the spread of the virus: the total number of infected in each neighborhood, the percentage of the population that is infected, and the rate of growth of infection in the community over the most recent three days.

China sees a rise in new imported cases amid growing anger over racism against Africans.

China’s health ministry on Sunday reported a jump in new coronavirus infections, most of which were detected in people returning from other countries.

The country recorded 162 new cases on Saturday, including 63 cases of people who have no symptoms. More than 100 of the new cases were imported. Two cases of local transmissions were reported in Heilongjiang, a province in the northeast that borders Russia.

China has barred nearly all foreigners from entering the country over concerns that imported coronavirus cases would set off a new wave of infections. It has drastically reduced the number of international flights, making it increasingly difficult for even Chinese nationals to return home.

As China works to stop new cases from being imported into the country, it is seeing growing displays of xenophobia. The most extreme cases have been reported in the southern city of Guangzhou.

African traders and students say they have faced racial widespread discrimination, including being evicted from apartments and forced to sleep on the streets, after five Nigerians who frequented a Guangzhou restaurant tested positive for the coronavirus.

African governments stepped up their protests against the abuse of African nationals in Guangzhou.

Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, the foreign minister of Ghana, summoned the Chinese ambassador and demanded that Beijing address what she called the “inhuman treatment being meted out to Ghanaians and other African nationals.” On Saturday, Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission, met with the Chinese ambassador to the African Union to express his concern about the treatment of Africans in Guangzhou.

The State Department also warned travelers that Guangzhou authorities were targeting Africans for mandatory testing and quarantine, regardless of travel history. It advised African Americans and anyone who believed they might draw scrutiny for contact with African nationals to avoid Guangzhou.

North Korea says it will adopt stronger measures.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has warned that the coronavirus pandemic is undermining his efforts to rebuild the North’s decrepit economy, the North’s state media reported on Sunday.

North Korea has taken some of the most drastic actions against the virus, including sealing its borders with China in late January even though its giant neighbor accounts for nine-tenths of its external trade.

It was thanks to such steps that the North was able to maintain a “very stable” anti-epidemic situation, the Political Bureau of Mr. Kim’s ruling Workers’ Party reported.

Outside analysts fear that North Korea remains deeply vulnerable to the epidemic because of its underequipped public health system, and that the country might be hiding an outbreak.

In a meeting with Mr. Kim on Saturday, the Political Bureau did not repeat the country’s claim that it had no confirmed coronavirus cases. But it warned that the pandemic ravaging the world could create “some obstacles to our struggle and progress” in Mr. Kim’s large construction projects and other efforts to rebuild the economy, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Sunday.

The meeting ended with officials adopting a resolution to step up anti-epidemic efforts, the news agency said.

The resolution also said the country would improve its national defense capability. The North Korean military resumed live-fire training of its artillery, rockets and short-range missile units last month.

Despite the calls for stricter disease-control measures, photos in North Korean media showed that most of the senior officials around Mr. Kim in the Political Bureau meeting did not wear masks. That meant that those officials had tested negative for the coronavirus before being allowed to be near Mr. Kim, outside analysts said.

The World Health Organization has confirmed that some testing is taking place in the North.

A Times examination reveals the extent of President Trump’s slow response to the virus.

Throughout January, as President Trump repeatedly played down the seriousness of the virus and focused on other issues, an array of figures inside his government — from top White House advisers to experts deep in the cabinet departments and intelligence agencies — identified the threat, sounded alarms and made clear the need for aggressive action.

Dozens of interviews and a review of emails and other records by The New York Times revealed many previously unreported details of the roots and extent of Mr. Trump’s halting response. Read the full investigation.

The country now has more than 530,000 confirmed cases, by far the world’s largest count, and more than 20,600 deaths, surpassing Italy’s as the world’s heaviest toll. More than 16 million Americans have lost their jobs.

Here’s what else is happening in the United States:

The U.S. surpassed Italy in the total number of confirmed deaths from the coronavirus this weekend. Government projections obtained by The New York Times found that without any mitigation, the death toll from the virus could have reached 300,000 — and that it could reach 200,000 if the Trump administration lifts 30-day stay-at-home orders. Read the latest updates for the United States.
Christians in the United States celebrated Easter by gathering virtually on Sunday, largely following stay-at-home orders and guidance from health officials. A handful of lone pastors in states like Louisiana and Mississippi planned to hold in-person services in defiance of restrictions on mass gatherings, citing their religious freedoms. President Trump said in a tweet that he would watch the online service of First Baptist Dallas, led by Robert Jeffress, one of his prominent supporters.

The largest states are split on when and how to reopen. The governors of Texas and Florida, both Republicans, have started talking about reopening businesses and schools, echoing signals from Mr. Trump. But the leaders of California and New York, both Democrats, are sounding more cautious notes.

Top officials in New York, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak with more than 180,000 cases, appear to disagree over whether New York City schools will remain closed for the rest of the academic year. Read the latest updates for the New York region.
Citing the virus, the Trump administration said it would issue visa penalties on countries that refuse to accept people the U.S. aims to deport.
With so many restaurants and schools closed and other sources of demand disrupted, many of the largest farms in the country are destroying tens of millions of pounds of fresh food that they haven’t been able to sell or donate to food banks, which can absorb only so much perishable food.

Montreal police open a criminal investigation into deaths at a nursing home.

The police in Montreal said on Saturday night that they had opened a criminal investigation into a private residence for older people after 31 people had died there since March 13, at least five of them from confirmed cases of Covid-19.

Quebec’s premier, François Legault, said that the government had learned of the deaths at the 150-bed Résidence Herron, in a suburb west of Montreal, on Friday, and that he believed they amounted to “gross negligence.”

“This is terrible what happened,” Mr. Legault said, adding that when officials from the regional health authority had arrived at the residence on March 29 to investigate, “almost all the staff was gone.”

At that point, he said, the authority dispatched a team of health workers to care for the residents, and it has now taken over the running of the residence.

An investigation by Montreal Gazette, a local newspaper, said that residents had been discovered unfed and wearing clothing covered with feces.

Mr. Legault said that it was “unacceptable” how older people were being cared for in Quebec, and that staff shortages and insufficient salaries had been an ongoing issue at privately run residences. “I am not proud to see what is happening,” he said.

Résidence Herron is owned by a Quebec real estate company called Katasa, which owns six other retirement residences. The company was not immediately available for comment on Saturday. But it previously said it had been doing its best under challenging circumstances.

Quebec has been hit hard by the coronavirus. As of Saturday, it had 12,292 confirmed cases and 289 deaths. More than 90 percent of those who have died were 70 or older.

Quebec’s minister of health, Danielle McCann, has ordered checks of private residences for older people across the province.

Australians take out the trash in style.

In Australia, where coronavirus infections have risen past 6,200 and large states are on lockdown and enduring an unprecedented economic crisis, residents have found joy in simply taking out the trash.

Bin Isolation Outing, a public Facebook group, which started last month and has grown to over 600,000 members, encourages Australians to get creative with their garbage disposal.

“So basically the bin goes out more than us so let’s dress up for the occasion,” a description of the group said. “Fancy dress, makeup, tutu … be creative!”

Thousands of photos have been uploaded. There’s no shortage of Easter bunnies, dinosaurs and other recognizable faces like Snow White and Peppa Pig, all taking out the trash. Even some pets have been added to the mix.

One of the more creative posts showed a man having a spa day in his trash can and another showed one family holding a mock wedding where the bride married a trash can, followed by a reception.

The trend has reached Twitter and Instagram, where people are tagging their photos #BinIsolationOuting.

Guam is the center of the U.S. Navy’s coronavirus outbreak.

Strapped by the same problems facing health care workers around the world, including a limited supply of personal protective equipment, hospital beds and ventilators, Guam’s government is contending with how it can protect its people and simultaneously help the crew of infected sailors on the Theodore Roosevelt carrier, which arrived in Guam on March 27. The outbreak on the ship ended up creating a moral crisis for the military.

As an American territory roughly 7,200 miles from the continental United States, Guam in many ways represents the edge of the United States empire, one that happens to be on the front lines of the American deterrence strategy against China.

The island, at 212 square miles, is home to Joint Region Marianas, a military command made up of Andersen Air Force Base on the northern part of the island that supports stealth-bomber rotations, and Naval Base Guam to the south, where four attack submarines are stationed to counter Chinese military expansion in the South China Sea. It is also now home to the Theodore Roosevelt carrier, which is not likely to redeploy anytime soon.

“They’re the ones that are out there, protecting our waters,” Lourdes Leon Guerrero, the island’s governor, said of the Navy. With about two dozen Guam residents serving aboard the carrier, finding space was the “least we could do.”

Local residents and Theodore Roosevelt sailors and their loved ones described a complicated situation in which the island is providing logistical support to the Navy while also trying to protect the local population from the coronavirus, which could quickly overwhelm Guam’s fragile health care system.

Reporting was contributed by Elisabetta Povoledo, Austin Ramzy, Tiffany May, Melissa Eddy, Jeffrey Gettleman, Kai Schultz, Suhasini Raj, David M. Halbfinger, Declan Walsh, Andrew Higgins, Ivan Nechepurenko, Raphael Minder, Martin Selsoe Sorensen, Gillian Wong, Yonette Joseph, Ben Dooley, Choe Sang-Hun, Dan Bilefsky, Derrick Taylor and Courtney Mabeus.

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2020-04-12 12:16:09Z
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Pope Francis celebrates Easter Mass at St. Peter's Basilica Fox News
In Easter Mass, Pope Speaks of ‘a Contagion of Hope’ Amid Coronavirus: Live Coverage The New York Times
Pope Francis says, 'Do not be afraid, do not yield to fear' this Easter CNN
Letters to the Editor - Religion in the time of coronavirus The Dallas Morning News
COMMENTARY: Why Easter 2020 Could be the Greatest of our Lifetime CBN News
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Minggu, 12 April 2020

Pope Francis offered Easter Sunday Mass in a near-empty St. Peter’s Basilica.

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Italian Carabinieri police standing inside an empty St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sunday.

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Here’s what you need to know:

The pope livestreams Easter Mass. Britain’s queen says, ‘Coronavirus will not overcome us.’

Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak

Countries weigh the costs and benefits of lifting lockdowns.

Japan’s leader, urging citizens to stay home, pets a dog in a video.

Egypt arrests villagers who tried to stop the burial of a doctor who died from the virus.

Partygoers attack police officers in Germany; and Russia reports its highest daily tally of new cases.

In India, the coronavirus fans anti-Muslim attacks.

Ultra-Orthodox areas of Jerusalem are closed off to contain the virus.

China sees a rise in new imported cases amid growing anger over racism against Africans.

North Korea says it will adopt stronger measures.

A Times examination reveals the extent of President Trump’s slow response to the virus.

Montreal police open a criminal investigation into deaths at a nursing home.

Australians take out the trash in style.

Guam is the center of the U.S. Navy’s coronavirus outbreak.