Category Archives: Science

Coronavirus live news: Trump backs anti-lockdown protests as global deaths pass 150,000

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China pushes ‘comprehensive’ economic reopening; first virus case in Syria’s northeast; Germany says pandemic ‘under control’. Follow latest updates

For the latest global coronavirus developments, here is our at-a-glance guide:

Related: Coronavirus latest: at a glance

Thailand has reported 33 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total to 2,733 cases.

Eleven of the new cases were in Bangkok and had a history of going to public areas, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government’s Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration.

Some have questioned if the low number of detected cases is down to a lack of testing in the country.

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Nigerian president’s chief of staff dies from coronavirus

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Abba Kyari was the top aide to President Buhari and one of the most powerful men in the country; deaths on African continent have passed 1,000

The Nigerian president’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari, has died after contracting Covid-19, two presidency spokesmen said on Twitter, as Covid-19 deaths on the continent pass 1,000.

Kyari, who was in his 70s and had underlying health problems, including diabetes, was the top official aide to 77-year-old President Muhammadu Buhari and one of the most powerful men in the country.

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Test and trace: lessons from Hong Kong on avoiding a coronavirus lockdown

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Semi-autonomous city followed WHO advice and moved swiftly to stem contagion without rigid curbs on movement

Governments in Europe and the US can learn from Hong Kong, which has kept infections and deaths from Covid-19 low without resorting to the socially and economically damaging lockdown that the UK and other countries have imposed, scientists say.

Hong Kong, with a population of nearly 7.5 million, has had just 715 confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection, including 94 asymptomatic infections, and four deaths.

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Coronavirus live news: nearly 100,000 EU citizens remain stranded overseas due to pandemic

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China denies cover-up as Wuhan death toll revised up by 50%; Brazil’s president fires health minister

WHO’s daily briefing on the coronavirus outbreak has just begun. WHO director Tarik Jasarevic said the coronavirus solidarity fund has generated $150 million from more than 245,000 individuals, corporations, and foundations.

Deaths from the coronavirus epidemic in Italy rose by 575 on Friday, up from 525 the day before, while the number of new cases declined slightly to 3,493 from a previous 3,786.

The daily death toll is down considerably from peaks reached around the end of March, Reuters reports.

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Nearly 100,000 EU citizens remain stranded overseas due to pandemic – as it happened

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China denies cover-up as Wuhan death toll revised up by 50%; Brazil’s president fires health minister

We are closing this live global blog now, but you can pick up all of our continuing coverage on our new global blog here.

You can also see our latest summary of events at Coronavirus latest developments: at a glance.

Oliver Milman, an environment reporter for Guardian in New York, has some analysis on the progression of the coronavirus pandemic in the US.

A model relied upon by the White House, from the University of Washington, estimates that the virus will “peter out” in May and then essentially grind to a halt by the summer. This is based on the experiences of China and Italy, previous coronavirus hotspots.

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Liverpool region mayor backs Sadiq Khan over face mask use

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Steve Rotheram says covering face would make people more aware of coronavirus situation

Steve Rotheram is the latest mayor to urge people to wear masks in public after Sadiq Khan called on the government to make them compulsory on transport in London during the coronavirus outbreak.

The metro mayor of Liverpool city region said wearing any type of face covering meant Britons were likely to “go further in protecting [themselves] and other people”.

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Life, but not as they knew it: ISS crew return to Earth transformed by Covid-19

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American and Russian crew touch down in Kazakhstan after months on International Space Station

The three-person crew of the International Space Station returned to Earth on Friday morning, arriving back to a world that has been radically transformed by coronavirus in the time they were away.

Space travel is often a journey into the unknown, but for Americans Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan, and Russian Oleg Skripochka, their return to Earth may bring more surprises than the time they spent in orbit. The trio’s landing capsule touched down on the Kazakh steppe in the early hours of the morning.

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The Ocean Atlantic voyage from Antartica to a world changed by coronavirus – in pictures

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Photographer Sam Edmonds was the team leader on the cruise ship that found itself stranded in South America in late March after travelling to the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. He documented the journey from idyllic island to isolation in a Sydney hotel room

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Fruity and irresistible: male lemurs’ wrist scent seduces females

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‘Stink flirting’ observation may be first finding of primate sex pheromones, say scientists

An irresistible floral scent dabbed on the body may sound like a cliche from a perfume advert, but it appears to play a role in how male ring-tailed lemurs attract a mate.

Researchers in Japan say they have identified the odours males waft at females, and shown the latter’s attention is indeed captured by the pong.

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As coronavirus spreads around the world, so too do the quack cures

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Politicians, faith leaders and other authority figures have been touting dubious remedies

In India, politicians from the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party have been touting cow urine as a cure for Covid-19. In Tanzania the president has promised that taking communion in church would “burn” the virus away. In Brazil a congressman claimed a day of fasting would halt its spread.

And the leader of the most powerful country in the world, Donald Trump, has been touting as a miracle cure an unproven anti-malarial drug that has contributed to at least one death.

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‘We have nothing’: as lockdown bites, migrants in Tunisia feel the pinch

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With Covid-19 yet to spread widely, business closures are already causing hardship for people dependent on casual work

  • Coronavirus – latest updates
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    • From 6pm to 6am, the security services enforce the curfew. Like most other countries in the world, Tunisia remains in lockdown.

    At all other times, tight restrictions on public movement are in place to limit the spread of coronavirus. Across the country, many businesses are shuttered up, with employees preparing themselves for the long and potentially economically devastating wait until something like normal life returns to the country.

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    South Korea’s ruling party wins election landslide amid coronavirus outbreak

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    Voters reward Moon Jae-in for response to pandemic with biggest majority since transition to democracy in 1987

    South Korea’s ruling party has won a landslide victory in national assembly elections, in what is being seen as an endorsement of President Moon Jae-in’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

    Moon’s left-leaning Democratic party and its smaller affiliate won 180 seats in the 300-seat assembly – the biggest majority in the national assembly by any party since South Korea’s transition to democracy in 1987 – according to the Yonhap news agency. The conservative opposition United Future party and its smaller sister party won 103 seats.

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    Coronavirus live news: 1m tests to be rolled out across Africa, as WHO warns over Europe situation

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    Trump casts doubt on China death toll; WHO chief hopes US will remain a ‘friend’; almost 700 test positive on French aircraft carrier

    Households across the UK are now taking to their gardens, doorsteps, balconies and windows to applaud for the frontline workers fighting the coronavirus.

    It will be the fourth “clap for carers” event in the UK, becoming a staple for Thursday nights in lockdown.

    Leaders of the G7 group of major industrialised nations have agreed the rapid development of a coronavirus vaccine is crucial in dealing with the outbreak.

    First Secretary of State Dominic Raab deputised for the UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson at the virtual summit, which also discussed the particular risk coronavirus poses for developing countries.

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    Coronavirus live news: Trump casts doubt on China death toll as cases worldwide top 2 million

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    US reports 25,000 new infections; WHO chief hopes US will remain a ‘friend’; almost 700 test positive on French aircraft carrier. Follow the latest updates

    The New York Times is reporting that a pork factory in Smithfield, South Dakota is the new centre of the coronavirus pandemic in the US. This week, the paper reports:

    The Smithfield plant became the nation’s largest single-source coronavirus hot spot. Its employees now make up about 44 percent of the diagnoses in South Dakota, and a team of researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has traveled there to assess how the outbreak spiraled out of control. Smithfield is the latest meat processing facility to close in the face of the coronavirus.

    A Japanese MP has been expelled from his party after it was revealed he had visited a club in a Tokyo red light district, two days after the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, declared a state of emergency in an attempt to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

    Takashi Takai, a 50-year-old lower house member for the Constitutional Democratic party of Japan, admitted he had visited Sexy Cabaret Club in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district on 9 April, media reports said, despite government requests that people refrain from visiting bars, restaurants and clubs as part of efforts to reduce personal contact by 70-80%.

    Takai submitted a letter of resignation after media reported his visit to the club, but the party rejected it and expelled him instead, Kyodo news agency said.

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    Coronavirus live news: Trump suspends WHO funding as Denmark begins to reopen schools

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    US to investigate World Health Organization’s response to crisis; global cases pass 1.98m with 126,000 deaths; France summons Chinese envoy

    Kandahar province went into full lockdown on Wednesday morning as Afghanistan reported its second biggest daily rise of new coronavirus cases in a week, triggered by a surge of infections in Kabul.

    Afghanistan’s health ministry has reported 70 new positive cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, pushing the total number of infections to 784.

    Most of the new cases were in Kabul, which has so far recorded 201 cases, 31 today.

    Kabul went into full lockdown last week, as all roads to the city of six million were blocked and 1,600 police officers were appointed to monitor movement inside the city.

    Of the new Covid-19 cases, 22 were confirmed in the western province of Herat, the worst affected area in Afghanistan so far with 313 cases.

    The southern province of Kandahar went into full lockdown on Wednesday morning in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus in one of Afghanistan’s most populated areas.

    Germany’s government will extend restrictions on movement introduced last month to slow the spread of the coronavirus until at least 3 May, Handelsblatt business daily reported on Wednesday, citing the dpa news agency.

    The chancellor, Angela Merkel, is holding a video conference on Wednesday, first with cabinet ministers and later with the leaders of Germany’s 16 states, who will try to agree on whether to ease the measures given some improvement in the situation.

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    ‘Crime against humanity’: Trump condemned for WHO funding freeze

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    Timing of move during Covid-19 crisis is deplored by UN chief and experts who say it will cost lives

    Leading health experts have labelled Donald Trump’s decision to cut funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) as a “crime against humanity” and a “damnable” act that will cost lives.

    The move also drew a rebuke from the head of the United Nations, who said the WHO was “absolutely critical to the world’s efforts to win the war against Covid-19”.

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    Coronavirus live news: cases worldwide near 2 million as Trump repeats WHO funding threat

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    UK daily deaths likely to rise this week; France to ease lockdown starting 11 May

    The Slovak government will release a plan next Monday on when and how shops will reopen after forced closures due to the spread of the new coronavirus, Prime Minister Igor Matovic said on Tuesday.

    Reuters reports him as saying that Slovakia aims to protect the 70% of the economy that is running from being affected by the spread of the virus and the reopening of retail will be cautious.

    The European commission is urging EU states to coordinate as they begin to ease lockdown measures, warning that failure to do so could result in new spikes of the coronavirus epidemic.

    Several EU states have announced plans or have already begun to relax restrictions imposed to contain the outbreak, as pressure grows to revive their battered economies.

    It is time to develop a well-coordinated EU exit strategy. The exit strategy should be coordinated between the Member States, to avoid negative spillover effects.

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    Can you get coronavirus twice? – video explainer

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    A serious concern since the emergence of Covid-19 has been whether those who have had it can get it a second time – and what that means for exiting this crisis.

    The Guardian's science correspondent Hannah Devlin looks at how our bodies fight coronavirus when infected, how we develop immunity and if we can get reinfected with Covid-19

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    Growth in surveillance may be hard to scale back after pandemic, experts say

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    Coronavirus crisis has led to billions of people around the world facing enhanced monitoring

    The coronavirus pandemic has led to an unprecedented global surge in digital surveillance, researchers and privacy advocates around the world have said, with billions of people facing enhanced monitoring that may prove difficult to roll back.

    Governments in at least 25 countries are employing vast programmes for mobile data tracking, apps to record personal contact with others, CCTV networks equipped with facial recognition, permission schemes to go outside and drones to enforce social isolation regimes.

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    Prince Harry may quit hunting over Meghan’s dislike of sport, says conservationist friend

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    Dame Jane Goodall also reveals Duke of Sussex is finding departure from UK ‘a bit challenging’

    The British primatologist Dame Jane Goodall believes the Duke of Sussex will give up hunting because of his wife’s dislike for the sport, and thinks he has been finding life “a bit challenging” since the couple moved to North America.

    Goodall, 86, a friend of the pair who has been a guest at their Frogmore Cottage home in Windsor, said in an interview with the Radio Times that Harry and his brother, the Duke of Cambridge, were champions of the natural world – “except they hunt and shoot”.

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