Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
US hostility to the World Health Organization scuppered the publication of a communique by G20 health ministers on Sunday that committed to strengthening the WHO’s mandate in coordinating a response to the global coronavirus pandemic.
In place of a lengthy statement with paragraphs of detail, the leaders instead issued a brief statement saying that gaps existed in the way the world handled pandemics.
Each night, Bipul* is kept awake by the fear of loan sharks hounding his parents for the money he owes. Five months ago, the 25-year-old Sri Lankan borrowed $1,400 (£1,120) to pay recruiters to take him to the United Arab Emirates, where he got a job as cleaner at a five-star hotel. But since the coronavirus outbreak there are no longer any guests, so he no longer has work and the loan is going unpaid.
“I really need a job so I can repay it,” he says. “I also need to earn money to help my family. This is such a big problem.”
The heads of all the UN’s major agencies have issued a graphic warning of the risk of coronavirus to the world’s most vulnerable countries after disclosing that international donors had pledged around a quarter of the $2bn the UN requested for its emergency Covid-19 response in March.
In an open letter shared before publication with the Guardian, the world’s most senior emergencies, health and development officials, warned that help for the world’s weakest countries was in everyone’s “interest to stop the virus from spreading unchecked, destroying lives and economies, and continuing to circle around the world”.
Greg Hunt supports foreign affairs minister Marise Payne’s call for an independent review that must not be run by WHO as fresh privacy concerns raised over government’s contact-tracing app. Follow the latest news live
Hazzard has announced the $5,000 on-the-spot fine for people who spit or cough at healthcare workers has been extended now to include all workers.
Assistant police minister Karen Webb says that overnight, a 25-year-old man from Nowra was arrested for a number of offences including allegedly spitting at police officers.
Just in the last last week, I’ve had four matters raised with me by members across the state from people deliberately coughing or spitting on people ... It is vile and it is disgusting and unacceptable.
New South Wales health minister Brad Hazzard is providing an update on new cases in the state.
He says to 8pm last night there were 21 new cases of Covid-19, taking the state’s total number of confirmed cases to 2,957. There are 245 people being treated in hospital, including 21 in intensive care and 17 on ventilators.
“We’re doing much better than we could have expected at this point but I also want to remind the community this is a long game. It’s a team game. Probably at this point we aren’t very far into the game.
She looked at me and said minister probably if we’re lucky we’re 10 minutes into the first quarter. There is no room here for us to forget this is a long game and a game with a lot more to go.
Lockdowns across Europe have had a dramatic impact on air traffic, with 90% fewer flights taking off from the continent’s largest airports compared to a year ago
Wearing face masks, waving black flags and keeping two yards apart, thousands of Israelis demonstrated against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu under strict coronavirus restrictions on Sunday.
Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, is under criminal indictment in three corruption cases.
In the second of our series, Stefanie Glinski looks at how life in the normally bustling city of Kabul has been reshaped by lockdown, with roads and playgrounds empty as people try to keep their distance
Driving up one of Kabul’s many steep hills, dotted with colourfully painted houses and surrounded by the snow-capped Hindu Kush mountains, the Afghan capital looks just like any other day.
Children fly kites in the mild spring breeze, families take to their roofs to watch the sunset, bakers light their ovens to make fresh bread.
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.
When a pandemic strikes, the world’s leading experts convene – physically or virtually – in a hi-tech chamber in the basement of the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization.
It is called the “strategic health operations centre”, or SHOC, an appropriately urgent acronym for a place where life and death decisions are taken, and it is where critical choices were made in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.
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.
A new study in California has found the number of people infected with coronavirus may be tens of times higher than previously thought.
The study from Stanford University, which was released Friday and has yet to be peer reviewed, tested samples from 3,330 people in Santa Clara county and found the virus was 50 to 85 times more common than official figures indicated.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
Despite the restraint, the plan neglects to mention a firm target date or give an explicit strategy for national testing
“Make America great again” was an election winning slogan with a bold and simple message. “Opening up America again” proved to be less clear cut and left questions in the air.
On Thursday Donald Trump unveiled federal staggered guidelines for getting America back to business after the shutdown forced by the coronavirus pandemic. He had previously billed it as the most important decision of his presidency, but what he called “a science-based reopening” was messier and more ill-defined.
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
Black, Asian and ethnic minorities appear to be disproportionately affected by Covid-19 in the UK. The government is launching an inquiry into why this is the case. However, we don’t currently have enough public data to be able to understand how minorities are being impacted by the virus.
Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities appear to be disproportionately affected by Covid-19 in the UK. However, we don’t currently have enough public data to be able to understand how many of those who have died as a result of the virus come from minority ethnic backgrounds.
The Guardian's data editor, Caelainn Barr, takes a look at this this issue, as well as the other key information that is missing from the government's daily death toll
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.
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.