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India reports its largest increase in a single day in cases.
India reported 2,293 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, its biggest single-day increase so far, according to Health Ministry officials.
The country has recorded 37,336 infections and more than 1,100 deaths from the coronavirus, a relatively low number for a country of 1.3 billion people. But in recent days, outbreaks have It worsened in states like Maharashtra, where many cases have been traced to large, overcrowded neighborhoods in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India.
For more than five weeks, Indian officials have strictly applied a National closure to curb the spread of the coronavirus, seal state borders, halt transportation, and close airspace and most businesses.
India’s Interior Ministry announced Friday that the blockade would continue until at least May 17, although restrictions on movements will be reduced next week in districts with few or no infections.
The United States Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency approval Friday to withdraw as a treatment for seriously ill patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
The F.D.A. it was quick to approve remdesivir under emergency use provisions, after a federal trial showed modest improvements in seriously ill patients.
The trial, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, included more than 1,000 hospitalized patients and found that those who received remdesivir recovered faster than those who received a placebo: in 11 days, versus 15 days. But the drug did not significantly reduce death rates.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the results were “a very important proof of concept” but not a “knockout.” President Trump praised the drug on Friday as “an important and” really promising “treatment.
Remdesivir is approved only for seriously ill patients and only temporarily; Formal approval must come later.
Dr. Mark Denison of Vanderbilt University is one of the researchers who discovered the potential of the drug. In 2007, he discovered that coronaviruses have a powerful “patch” system. If an error occurs while copying the RNA as the coronavirus replicates, it corrects the error. In laboratory experiments, the mutated coronaviruses were weaker, outnumbered by those without mutations.
Dr. Denison and other experts wondered if it would be possible to trick the virus with a drug that bypassed the proofreading system and blocked the virus’s growing RNA chain, causing it to end prematurely.
When discussing this problem with another scientist at a meeting, Dr. Denison learned that Gilead Sciences had dozens of drugs that could be the solution. “All of these compounds had been archived for one reason or another,” said Dr. Denison.
He found that most worked in laboratory tests to turn off coronaviruses, some better than others. One of the best was GS-5734, now known as remdesivir.
But the drug in the past had failed multiple tests in real life, not only against hepatitis but also against Ebola in Africa. The drug languished, not approved for any use, until a new coronavirus emerged.
As SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, began to become a pandemic, many scientists realized that remdesivir might be the best solution available. It had already undergone animal testing and human safety testing.
Not everyone is convinced that remdesivir will deliver on its promise. A study in China, published this week in Lancet, found that the drug offers no benefit to seriously ill patients.
Despite skepticism, Gilead has been increasing production and currently has 1.5 million vials on hand, enough for about 150,000 patients. They will be provided to patients at no cost, said Daniel O’Day, the company’s chief executive.
An associate justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, Marvic Leonen, said Saturday that nearly 10,000 prisoners had been released across the country as part of efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Of the 9,731 inmates released between March 1 and April 29, more than 2,000 were released from jails in Manila, he said. Most of the rest, around 4,600, had been held elsewhere in Luzon, the region that includes the capital.
“We are continuing as much as we can to decongest the jails,” Judge Leonen said during an online press conference.
The announcement came days after Human Rights Watch asked the government to fully report the deaths in its Covid-19 prisons, after at least nine inmates and nine staff members tested positive for the coronavirus in the Jail of the Quezon city in the Manila area, one of the busiest prisons in the country.
The Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in central Philippines also reported a death from coronavirus this week, while the Cebu City Jail reported 212 infections.
Human Rights Watch said the government “has not fully reported” on the prison deaths and that there was concern that the disease was more widespread in the prison system than was reported.
Jeffrey Gettleman, head of The Times office in South Asia, moved to New Delhi with his family almost three years ago. We asked him to paint a picture of how life has changed under the Indian coronavirus blockade, one of the strictest in the world.
The first thing that disappeared was the annoying sound of an electric drill on the street from a house under construction.
Then the newspapers.
Then the fruit vendors, taxis, rickshaws, and chicken.
In many cities like New Delhi, practically nothing moves on the roads. People stay inside, as directed, and emerge only to gather basic necessities. A friend who receives his food told me that he had not left his house in a month.
All airlines are punished. Schools and offices are closed. The only businesses I’ve seen operate are grocery stores, pharmacies, and banks. The benches have lines that go out the door and down the sidewalk where red circles have been painted for people to stand six feet away like little islands.
The other day I drove to the outskirts of Delhi. India is a place well known for crowds and unbridled traffic. There seems to be a national aversion to sticking to your lane, which is why I felt almost guilty over an empty highway, beyond miles of closed shops, with no one to stop me.
Every time we got off the road, every village, no matter how small, had barricades, some with oil drums and others with ropes. Behind the barricades were villagers carrying sticks to keep strangers out and wearing frayed handkerchiefs on their faces, the vigilant viruses.
Even the sky above us is different these days. New Delhi is usually one of the most polluted cities in the world; its ceiling is invariably stained with gray. But now with so few cars and factories running, the air here is cleaner than it has been in decades.
The weather that first weekend under lockdown, in late March, was especially lovely: mid-80s, windy, clear skies. So the next Monday, when I saw The Times driver Jag Singh, one of the few Indians I now see regularly due to our isolation, I asked him if he had managed to get out.
“No.” His neighbors? Not again”.
Having seen the photos of some Americans running to the beaches as soon as they were allowed, I asked him why he thought the Indians felt so limited.
The Trump administration is moving to take a more aggressive position against China on economic, diplomatic and scientific issues at the heart of the relationship between the world’s two superpowers, further severing the ties that have reached their lowest point in decades.
White House advisers this week have urged President Trump to issue an executive order that would prevent a government pension fund from investing in Chinese companies, officials said, a move that could reverse capital flows in the Pacific. Trump announced Friday that he was restricting the use of electrical equipment in the home network system with links to “a foreign adversary,” a tacit reference to China.
China is likely to emerge from the pandemic recession faster than other nations. United States: Still recovering from the virus, with more than a million infected and More than 64,000 dead, will likely depend on economic activity in Asia to help shore up their own economy. Part of that involves getting Beijing to comply with a trade agreement signed in January.
Almost a dozen states in the US USA They tentatively returned to public life on Friday, the first massive reopening of businesses since the pandemic stopped the United States six weeks ago. But there were clashes across the country over how, when, and even if it should be done.
Partisan battles were fought in Illinois and Michigan, where Protesters demanded that Democratic governors loosen the restrictions. The skirmishes there and elsewhere revealed political dividing lines and geographic differences, but also something more basic: a wide and highly varied range of personal views on what the country should do.
Texas lifted orders to stay home for its 29 million residents. In Houston, the Galleria Mall was reopened, but a large nearby parking lot suggested that some customers were afraid to return. In Mobile, Alabama, a venerable boutique decided to reopen with a dresser, to disinfect between uses.
Diners will soon return to South Carolina restaurants, though not indoors: Governor Henry McMaster announced Friday that he would. Relief of more restrictions starting Monday, with restaurants, which have been limited to takeout and delivery, are allowed to serve diners outdoors.
Iowa loosened restrictions in some counties, but not others. At Davenport, which is still under restrictions, Glory Smith questioned that logic, as the virus does not respect county boundaries.
As more states began reopening on Friday, the governors of Illinois, Louisiana, and Michigan faced challenges to their authority to shut down some parts of public life. In California, hundreds of people gathered near the Huntington Beach shoreline to protest against Governor Gavin Newsom’s order that the beach and all Orange County beaches be marked off-limits.
But in a sign of the range of Americans’ opinions on how institutions should respond to the virus, workers at several large companies, including Amazon and Target, He protested the working conditions in the companies and discouraged them from withdrawing the security measures in a rush to return to business as usual. The protests came on May, or International Workers’ Day, traditionally a day for labor protests around the world.
In Gaza, an enclave of two million where unemployment, poverty and dependence on international aid have long been epidemic proportions, the coronavirus pandemic has been an economic blessing.
The virus itself has saved Gaza largely due to Israel’s tight controls on border crossings, and the ruling militant group Hamas’s decision to isolate all residents returning to quarantine facilities, now for three weeks. . Only 17 people are known to have been infected, and no deaths have been reported.
Gaza once had hundreds of clothing factories and employed 36,000 Palestinians, but the industry collapsed in 2007 when Hamas took control and Israel banned exports of clothing from Gaza to Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israeli authorities allowed exports to resume after the 2014 Gaza war with Israel, and now around a dozen factories have produced masks and protective clothing, several of them hiring new employees, extending their hours or even outsourcing the work overload.
Some factories have also quietly complied with their Israeli partners’ requests for politically risky designs, with Israeli flags, the logo of a popular Israeli soccer team or “Made in Israel” labels.
Several tailors said they had no orders to make masks to protect people in Israel, despite a series of bloody conflicts in the past 12 years.
“At the end of the day, we are all human,” said Raed Dahman, 42, at Hassanco in Gaza City. “We must try to make sure everyone is safe, without exception.”
Street art is the best visual source for social commentary, and the pandemic has lit a fire under the feet of muralists around the world.
In March, artist Pobel returned home to Norway after traveling to the Peruvian jungle and found a mandatory closure. He was beaten by people in masks, he said.
“There is a beautiful lamp on top, so at night it really lights up,” he said. His inspiration came from hope. “Although everyone has been through difficulties and difficult times, there is still heart, love and compassion,” he said.
In Bergen, Norway, street artist Pyritt painted a woman dressed in a traditional Norwegian outfit called bunad, wearing a golden face mask. He called it “May 2020, “a nod to the country’s May 17 Constitution Day, which is celebrated with parades and has not been canceled since World War II.” A bunad is a very important part of the collective self-image, “said Christer. Holm, who represents the artist, noted that this year there is a high probability that the celebrations will not happen.
The reports were contributed by Kai Schultz, Gina Kolata, Jason Gutiérrez, Jeffrey Gettleman, Edward Wong, Ana Swanson, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Iyad Abuheweila, Adam Rasgon and Charu Suri
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