Coronavirus Live News: Global Cases Exceed 1.8 Million as Death Rates in Italy and New York Drop | World News

Iran: Covid-19 outbreak delays investigation of downed Ukrainian flight

The Covid-19 pandemic will delay the investigation into the shooting down of a Ukrainian international flight over Iran, after Canada asked Tehran to delay downloading data into black boxes due to coronavirus travel restrictions.

Iran agreed in March to hand over the black boxes of Flight 752 to Ukraine or France for analysis, a move welcomed by Canada and Ukraine.

Last week, Iran contacted the countries involved to ask when they could send experts to help download the data from the black boxes, according to the Canadian Transportation Security Board (TSB).

While emphasizing that the countries concerned were “eager for the recorder download and analysis to continue,” TSB President Kathy Fox said that all “provided a consistent response, indicating that travel was impossible at this time. , and probably for some time. ”Due to restrictions imposed due to the pandemic.

The Iranian army admitted that the plane was shot down due to “human error”. Of the 176 victims, 57 were Canadian citizens and 29 permanent residents of Canada.

Mainland China reported 108 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, up from 99 the previous day and marking the more daily infections in more than five weeks Amid the continued increase in patients entering the country from abroad, Reuters reports.

The National Health Commission said in a statement Monday that the continent reported 98 new imported cases, a record from 97 the previous day, and another 61 new asymptomatic patients.

The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China is now 82,160, while the death toll increased by two to 3,341.

Another 103 crew members of the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus, the Navy said Saturday, bringing the ship’s total number of cases to 550, Reuters reports.

In a statement on its website, the Navy said 92% of the carrier’s crew members had been screened for the virus, with 550 positive and 3,673 negative results. He said 3,696 sailors had moved ashore.

On Friday, the Navy reported 447 positive cases and on Thursday 416.

The outbreak aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier led to the resignation of Thomas Modly as acting secretary of the Navy on Tuesday after a mounting backlash over his firing and ridiculing the ship’s commander, who had asked for help in stopping an outbreak of coronavirus on board .

On Thursday, a company sailor was admitted to an intensive care unit in Guam after testing positive for the coronavirus last month.

The Kremlin said on Saturday that a “large influx” of coronavirus patients was beginning to put pressure on hospitals in Moscow as the death toll in Russia rose to more than 100, Reuters reports.

Moscow and many other regions have been locked up for nearly two weeks to stop the spread, but hospitals in the capital are still being pushed to the limit, authorities said.

On Saturday, a Reuters witness saw dozens of ambulances pull back queuing in front of a hospital handling coronavirus cases in the region immediately outside Moscow, waiting to drop off patients.

An ambulance driver said he had been waiting 15 hours outside the hospital to drop off a patient suspected of having the virus.

“The situation in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, but mainly in Moscow, is quite tense because the number of sick people is growing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview on state television, Russian news agencies reported. .

“There is a large influx of patients. We are seeing hospitals in Moscow working extremely intensively, in heroic and emergency mode. ”

Russia’s coronavirus crisis response center said hospitals were taking every possible measure to ensure rapid admissions and that ambulance cases that had to wait hours to drop off patients were not a systemic problem.

People in Hong Kong crowded beaches, ferries and outlying islands on Sunday, many of them violating the ban on gatherings of more than four people aimed at containing the spread of the new coronavirus.

The clear blue sky drew people to popular areas across the territory during the long Easter weekend and many of them did not have surgical masks. People in the city of 7.4 million people have used masks in recent months.

Hong Kong has recorded 1,005 cases of Covid-19, which has killed four people in the city.

It banned public gatherings of more than four people for 14 days starting March 29, after posting the largest daily increase in new Covid-19 infections, and then extended that restriction until April 23.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Chinese-ruled city leader Carrie Lam urged citizens to comply with social distancing orders in restaurants, saying the government will increase checks.

“But more importantly, customers obey the rules. I hope everyone is comfortable eating and that they go home early, ”she wrote.

The main oil-producing countries agreed on “historic” production cuts on Sunday in a bid to fuel falling oil prices due to the new coronavirus crisis and a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, AFP reports.

OPEC producers dominated by Saudi Arabia and Russia-led allies met by videoconference for an hour on Sunday in a latest effort to consolidate a deal reached early Friday.

In a compromise reached on Sunday, they agreed to cut 9.7 million barrels per day from May, according to their energy minister, Rocio Nahle, slightly below the previously forecast 10 million barrels per day.

OPEC general secretary Mohammad Barkindo called the cuts “historic.”

“They are larger in volume and longer in duration as they are planned to last two years,” he said.

The agreement between the Vienna-based Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners foresees deep production cuts in May and June, followed by a gradual reduction in cuts until April 2022.

Canada formally welcomed an agreement by OPEC and its allies on Sunday to reduce oil production by a record amount, saying Ottawa pledged to achieve price security and economic stability.

“This is good. We welcome any news that provides stability to world oil markets,” Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

In these difficult times, some are striving to reach levels of resistance and boldness that they never believed possible:

France began an unprecedented operation Sunday to isolate 1,900 sailors after 50 naval personnel tested positive for Covid-19 aboard its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle.

The French Navy flagship docked in the southern port of Toulon, after disrupting its current mission in the Mediterranean and Atlantic in 10 days due to the outbreak.

Local authorities said a thorough land and sea operation was now underway to evacuate 1,900 sailors to ensure there was no risk of any further infection.

Three sailors had already been evacuated to Toulon Hospital as a “precaution” before the ship docked. All staff will be screened and then placed in solitary confinement for two weeks, without allowing physical contact with their families, said regional authorities spokeswoman Christine Ribbe.

Only after the period of isolation ends, will the sailors be able to return home. Starting Tuesday, the ship will also undergo a major disinfection operation.

Hello and welcome to today’s live global coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.

As confirmed cases worldwide approach two million, death rates have declined in two of the hardest hit places: Italy and New York State.

Meanwhile, global deaths have passed 113,000.

Here are the main developments of the last hours:

• The global number of confirmed cases has exceeded 1.8 million, reaching 1,844,410, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. There have been more than 113,000 deaths worldwide.
• Boris Johnson has been released from the hospital. He thanked the NHS for “saving [his] life “after leaving St Thomas Hospital in South London, where he had been hospitalized for a week.
• Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno and his cabinet members have taken 50% pay cuts in an attempt to address the economic effects of the pandemic in the country.
• A former Israeli chief rabbi died of complications from the coronavirus. Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron died of complications from the virus in a 79-year-old Jerusalem hospital.
• the The UK government faces increasing criticism for its response to the coronavirus, particularly for its failure to ensure sufficient personal protective equipment and testing for the NHS and care workers, as the death toll in the country exceeded 10,000. This follows a warning that the UK could experience the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe.
• Thousands of displaced Syrians have begun to return to Idlib, some fueled by fear of the spread of the coronavirus to camps near the Turkish border.
• The death toll in Italy has continued to decline, It reported 431 deaths on Sunday, the lowest daily increase since March 19.
• From Spain the daily death toll has increased after falling for three days in a row, with 619 new deaths recorded in the last 24 hours compared to 510 the previous day.
• The death toll in New York has slowed down, with Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that there were 758 deaths in the state in the last day, compared to 783 the previous day.
• Italy ordered 149 migrants aboard a rescue ship off their coast to be quarantined and test the coronavirus before they can land.
• China has promised to improve the treatment of Africans in the southern city of Guangzhou following international pressure. Faced with accusations of discrimination linked to the pandemic, China said it rejected all “racist and discriminatory” comments.
• Senior US Public Health Officials USA They have rejected on the desire of Donald Trump to reopen the country quickly, as a leading figure in the World Health Organization warned that Covid-19 “is going to be a virus that will haunt the human race for a long time.”
• The death toll in France has continued to decline, with The country reported a drop in deaths from coronavirus in the last 24 hours. There were 315 hospital deaths in the last day, compared to 345 the previous day.