Live news about the coronavirus: Trump ‘shocked’ by Fauci’s reopening warnings when WHO says Covid-19 can never go | World News

I am Helen Sullivan, with you for the next few hours. Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

The coronavirus could become endemic like HIV, the World Health Organization said, warning against any attempt to predict how long it would continue to circulate and calling for a “massive effort” to counter it.

Meanwhile, Trump has rejected Dr. Anthony Fauci’s comments in testimony in the United States Senate about the dangers of reopening the economy too soon, and told reporters at the White House, “For me it is not an answer. acceptable, especially when it comes to schools. ”

Meanwhile, Russia, with the second highest number of infections worldwide, has one of the lowest official death tolls.

The city of Moscow said on Wednesday that it had attributed the deaths of more than 60% of coronavirus patients in April to other causes, as it defended what it said was the best way and Russia counted the number of people killed by the new virus. More on this shortly.

Here are the key recent developments:

• At least 4.3 million people are known to have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, while at least 295,671 people have died. The figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University are likely to be a great understatement of the true scale of the pandemic.
• Trump says Fauci’s warning about reopening the economy too early as “is not an acceptable response.” United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday described as unacceptable a warning given by the United States’ top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, this week about the dangers of reopening the economy too quickly. “For me, it is not an acceptable response, especially when it comes to schools,” Trump told reporters at the White House, noting that he was surprised by Fauci’s response to lawmakers in testimony before the United States Senate on Tuesday.
• The virus can never be eradicated – WHO. The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 could become endemic like HIV, the World Health Organization said, warning against any attempt to predict how long it would continue to circulate and calling for a “massive effort” to counter it.
• All African countries are now affected by the outbreak, after Lesotho announced its first case. The virus was detected in one of the 81 people tested after arriving last week from Saudi Arabia and neighboring South Africa, the Lesotho health ministry said.
• The former UK spymaster dismisses the Wuhan lab conspiracy theory. In the UK, the former director-general of the domestic intelligence service poured cold water on White House speculation that Covid-19 may have arisen through a leak from a coronavirus research laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. .
• Public Health England passes antibody test – report. Public Health England (PHE) reportedly approved an antibody test kit, the first to receive such support. The kit is made by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG, Daily Telegraph reported. The newspaper added that it understands that the UK Department of Health and Social Care is in negotiations with Roche to buy millions of kits.
• Afghanistan reached 5,000 confirmed cases, as the country’s health ministry warned that reducing blockades would bring a “catastrophe”. Of 619 suspicious patients examined in the last 24 hours, 259 tested positive, bringing the total number of infections to 5,226. The death toll reached 132, after five more patients died overnight. The number of recoveries is 648.
• Sweden announced it would hire up to 10,000 more care workers to address deficiencies in elder care exposed by the pandemic. About half of the 3,460 Swedish coronavirus-related deaths occurred among nursing home residents, and another quarter among those receiving home care.
• Mexico said it would reopen parts of the economy after 51 days of closure, despite the country reporting its highest number of daily deaths so far. Mexico has confirmed 1,992 new cases and 353 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 3,926 and the total number of cases to 38,324.
• Hotels and restaurants across Europe have been asked to impose physical distance among guests to allow Europeans to take their annual summer holidays. The EU executive called for a “gradual and careful reduction of blockade restrictions across the continent.”
• The automaker Ford announced plans to restart production, including at two factories in the UK.. Work will resume on May 18 at the company’s engine plants at Dagenham in Essex and Bridgend in South Wales. The move, along with the reopening of the Valencia engine plant in Spain, will open all of Ford’s European manufacturing facilities.