Timeline COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, MERS, SARS, Coronavirus
A: 2002-2020
B: 2021-Present
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COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is the name given to the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
https://ncov2019.live/
2002 The SARS-COV virus jumped from a horseshoe bat to a person (possibly by way of some intermediary). The subsequent outbreak went on to kill almost 800 people worldwide.
(Econ, 3/14/20, p.15)
2003 Feb 9, In China Xinhua’s first SARS report was issued for leaders’ eyes only. By this time there were already some 300 cases and 5 deaths dating back to November 2002.
(Econ, 6/19/10, p.43)
2003 Mar 19, Doctors in Hong Kong reportedly identified the deadly pneumonia virus as belonging to the paramyxoviridae family. The severe acute respiratory illness (SARS) had killed at least 11 people and left hundreds ill. The outbreak is believed to have began in southern China in November. Later reports held that it could be a coronavirus, part of a group that cause the common cold. Many people treated with corticosteroids later developed an irreversible bone disease called avascular necrosis. By July 12, 2003, SARS killed 812 people worldwide.
(SFC, 3/15/03, p.A8)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A4)(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.B1)(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 22, Scientists believe they have found the virus responsible for the mystery SARS virus and announced a test to diagnose it.
(AP, 3/23/03)
2003 May 23, Researchers from China and Hong Kong identified a coronavirus in 3 wild mammals, palm civets, a raccoon dog and a ferret badger, sold in the live-animal food markets of South China.
(SFC, 5/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 27, It was reported that the SARS disease had killed 50 people and infected some 1,300 in 13 countries.
(WSJ, 3/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 29, Italian Dr. Carlo Urbani (46), a WHO expert on communicable diseases, died of SARS in Thailand, where he was being treated after becoming infected while working in Vietnam. Urbani was the 1st doctor to identify SARS.
(AP, 3/29/03)(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.A6)
2003 Mar 31, Hong Kong authorities quarantined more than 200 other residents in an apartment block in an effort to contain the SARS virus.
(AP, 3/31/03)
2003 Apr 4, Chinese experts in hard-hit Guangdong province told the scientists they have found a rare form of airborne chlamydia in some of their SARS patients, raising the possibility that more than one germ may be involved. Other Chinese cases suggest the disease might be passed by touching something tainted by a sick person's mucous or saliva.
(AP, 4/5/03)
2003 May 4, New lab studies reported that the SARS virus can survive outside an infected body for hours to days.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A1)
2003 May 21, Taiwan reported 35 new cases of SARS for a total of 418 with 52 deaths.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A3)
2003 May 23, Researchers from China and Hong Kong identified a coronavirus in 3 wild mammals, palm civets, a raccoon dog and a ferret badger, sold in the live-animal food markets of South China.
(SFC, 5/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 5, The WHO removed Taiwan from its list of SARS-infected areas and declared a provisional victory over the epidemic, which had killed 812 people over 5 continents. The economic losses from SARS was later estimated at about $200 billion. SARS was later classified as one of a number of zoonoses, i.e. diseases that come from animals. The epidemic in Taiwan had left 73 people dead.
(SSFC, 7/6/03, p.A3)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.84)(Econ, 3/28/20, p.35)
2003 Sep 8, Singapore health officials confirmed that a local patient has tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, the 1st new case of the disease in over 5 months.
(AP, 9/8/03)
2003 Dec 27, China announced its first suspected SARS case since July.
(AP, 12/27/03)
2003 The ViroChip, invented by Dr. Joseph DeRisi (33) of UC San Francisco, gained attention when it spotted the virus that causes the epidemic form of pneumonia called SARS.
(SFC, 9/10/08, p.B4)
2004 Jan 5, China confirmed its first SARS case since an outbreak of the disease was contained in July and authorities ordered the emergency slaughter of some 10,000 civet cats and related species after tests linked a virus found in the animals to the patient.
(AP, 1/5/04)
2004 Sep 17, Officials in Singapore reported that a soil-borne bacterial infection called melioidosis has killed 24 people there this year, making it more deadly than SARS or bird flu. The illness, also known as Whitmore's Disease, is listed by the U.S. government as a potential biological weapon but Singapore government officials said there was no sign it had been spread intentionally.
(Reuters, 9/17/04)
2004 Taiwan's government set up its Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) in the wake of the SARS epidemic. Chen Shih-chung, the minister of health, was put in charge.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.35)
2012 Jun 24, In Saudi Arabia a man (60) died from severe pneumonia complicated by renal failure. He had arrived at a Jihad hospital 11 days earlier with symptoms similar to severe case of influenza or SARS. In September an Egyptian virologist said it was caused by a new coronavirus. Months later the illness was named MERS (Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome).
(SFC, 8/14/13, p.E1)
2013 Feb 11, British health officials said a new virus from the same family as SARS, that sparked a global alert last September, has been found in a patient in Manchester who had traveled to the Middle East and Pakistan.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 15, British health officials said a fourth person in Britain has contracted a potentially fatal SARS-like virus which was unknown in humans until a few months ago, but said the risk to the population remained very low.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 May 2, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said that five people have died and two other patients were in critical condition with confirmed cases of a new respiratory coronavirus related to SARS. The new virus was first identified last year in the Middle East and several of the people infected had all traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 14, Saudi Arabia confirmed four new cases of the deadly new coronavirus virus related to SARS that appears centered in the Arabian Peninsula but that has also been reported in Europe.
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 20, Saudi Arabia recorded another death from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing the total number of deaths in the kingdom to 16. More than 20 people have died from the virus worldwide.
(AP, 5/21/13)
2013 May 30, Saudi Arabia reported that 3 more people have died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing the total number of deaths globally to 30.
(AP, 5/30/13)
2013 Jun 1, Italy’s health minister confirmed that 3 people were being treated in Tuscany for a new respiratory virus related to SARS. The patients included a man recently back from a visit to Jordan, a related child and a work colleague.
(SSFC, 6/2/13, p.A6)
2013 Jun 2, Saudi Arabia reported that 3 more people have died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing the total number of deaths in the kingdom to 24.
(AP, 6/2/13)
2013 Jun 17, Saudi Arabia said four more people have died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing the total number of deaths to 32 in the kingdom at the center of the growing crisis.
(AP, 6/17/13)
2013 Jun 19, Doctors investigating a new respiratory virus related to SARS, said it spreads easily between people and appears to be more deadly than SARS. The biggest outbreak of the virus, now called MERS, was in Saudi Arabia.
(SFC, 6/20/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 6, In Saudi Arabia two more people died from the new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to 38 the number of deadly cases in the kingdom at the center of the growing outbreak.
(AP, 7/7/13)
2013 Jul 19, Health authorities in the United Arab Emirates said they have identified four new cases of a respiratory virus related to SARS whose main concentration has been in neighboring Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 7/19/13)
2013 Jul 27, In Saudi Arabia one more man died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to 39 the number of deadly cases in the kingdom at the center of the growing outbreak.
(AP, 7/27/13)
2013 Aug 9, European scientists reported their finding of traces of antibodies against the MERS virus in dromedary, or one-humped, camels, but not the virus itself. Some experts think bats might be infecting other animals like camels with MERS before passing it to humans. Since the virus was first identified last September, there have been 94 illnesses, including 46 deaths, from MERS, or Middle East respiratory syndrome.
(AP, 8/9/13)
2013 Aug 25, Saudi Arabia said a Saudi man (51) has died of the coronavirus MERS, bringing the kingdom's death toll from the SARS-like virus to 41, while two new cases were registered.
(AFP, 8/25/13)
2013 Aug 26, Qatar health authorities announced the 2nd confirmed case in a week of the MERS coronavirus in the Gulf state, with a 29-year-old man infected and in intensive care.
(AFP, 8/27/13)
2013 Aug 28, Saudi health authorities said another Saudi man has died of the coronavirus MERS, bringing the kingdom's death toll from the SARS-like virus to 42, adding a new case was registered.
(AFP, 8/28/13)
2013 Aug 30, In Saudi Arabia another Saudi man died of the coronavirus MERS, bringing the kingdom's death toll from the SARS-like virus to 43.
(AP, 8/30/13)
2013 Sep 4, Qatar reported that a woman has died after contracting the MERS coronavirus, becoming the first recorded fatality from the SARS-like virus in the Gulf state.
(AFP, 9/4/13)
2013 Sep 6, Saudi Arabia’s health ministry said 2 women have died of MERS, bringing the total number of fatalities in the kingdom to 44.
(AFP, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 8, In Saudi Arabia another three people were reported dead after contracting the MERS coronavirus, bringing the kingdom's total fatalities of the SARS-like virus to 47.
(AFP, 9/8/13)
2013 Oct 4, The World Health Organization said the global number of infections with the deadly MERS virus has risen to 136, after hard-hit Saudi Arabia confirmed six new cases.
(AFP, 10/4/13)
2013 Oct 30, Oman said it has discovered the first case of the MERS coronavirus in the Gulf sultanate, a 68-year-old Omani man.
(AFP, 10/30/13)
2013 Nov 10, Saudi Arabia announced another fatality from the MERS virus, taking its toll to 53, as neighbouring Oman recorded its first death from the respiratory disease.
(AFP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 13, Kuwait said it has discovered its first case of the MERS coronavirus for a citizen who is in "critical condition." Later in the day Kuwait reported its 2nd case for a man who just returned from abroad.
(AFP, 11/13/13)(AFP, 11/14/13)
2013 Nov 13, The WHO said some 21 nations in the Middle East and nearby regions have jointly made the eradication of polio an emergency priority and recognized that Pakistan is a key part of the problem.
(AP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 20, Saudi health authorities announced a new MERS death, raising to 54 the number of people killed by the coronavirus.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 22, Qatar health authorities said an expatriate (48) has died of MERS, bringing to four the number of deaths in the Gulf state from the coronavirus.
(AFP, 11/22/13)
2013 Nov 24, Saudi Arabia said one more person has died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to 55 the number of deaths in the kingdom at the center of the outbreak.
(AP, 11/24/13)
2014 Jan 29, Saudi health authorities announced a new MERS death, bringing to 59 the number of people who have died from the coronavirus in the country with the most fatalities.
(AFP, 1/29/14)
2014 Apr 9, Saudi health authorities said that 11 people in the western city of Jiddah have contracted the Middle East respiratory syndrome, resulting in two recent deaths, bringing to at least 66 the number of people who have died of MERS in the kingdom.
(AP, 4/9/14)
2014 Apr 11, The United Arab Emirates announced that one of six Filipino paramedics in Abu Dhabi, who have been infected by the MERS coronavirus, has died from the respiratory disease. The WHO said that it had been told of 212 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection worldwide, of which 88 have proved fatal.
(AFP, 4/11/14)
2014 Apr 13, A Malaysian man (54), who went on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, became the first death in Asia from Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
(AP, 4/16/14)
2014 Apr 21, Saudi Arabia announced 17 new cases of MERS, bring the total number of Saudi infections to 261, of whom 81 have died. King Abdullah fired health minister Abdullah al-Rabiah.
(SFC, 4/22/14, p.A2)(Reuters, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 23, Saudi Arabia announced 11 new cases of MERS, including a 13-year-old child. Acting health minister Adel Fakieh vowed to keep the public better informed on the coronavirus.
(AFP, 4/23/14)
2014 Apr 24, Saudi Arabia's health ministry said two more patients who became infected with a Middle East virus related to SARS have died, and that 13 others have contracted the MERS virus. The deaths bring to 83 the number of people who have died in the kingdom since contracting the virus in September 2012.
(AP, 4/24/14)
2014 Apr 25, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said that five more people in the kingdom have died from MERS. The ministry says 92 people have died and 313 have contracted the virus in Saudi since September 2012.
(AP, 4/26/14)
2014 Apr 26, In Egypt a 27-year-old civil engineer was diagnosed with MERS after returning from Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 4/26/14)
2014 Apr 26, Two Saudi nationals died from MERS, taking the death toll from the coronavirus in the worst-hit country to 94.
(AFP, 4/27/14)
2014 May 2, US Health officials confirmed the first case of an American infected with MERS, a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East. The man fell ill after flying to the US late last week from Saudi Arabia where he was a health care worker.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 4, Saudi Arabia's health ministry said one more patient who contracted the potentially fatal Middle East virus related to SARS has died and that 14 new cases have been detected. The new 14 cases raised the number of those infected in Saudi Arabia to 411.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 7, Saudi health authorities said four more people have died after contracting MERS, a Middle East respiratory virus. Saudi Arabia has reported 449 cases and 121 deaths from MERS.
(AP, 5/8/14)
2014 May 8, Lebanon recorded its first case of the often-fatal Middle East respiratory virus (MERS). The patient had recently returned from a visit to several Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Saudi Arabia's health ministry said the death toll from MERS has risen by five to 126 fatalities since the mystery respiratory virus first appeared in the kingdom in 2012.
(AFP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 11, In Jordan a man died after being infected with the MERS virus.
(AFP, 5/12/14)
2014 May 11, Saudi Arabia reported that three new deaths from MERS had taken its death toll from the disease to 142.
(AFP, 5/12/14)
2014 May 11, A 2nd US case of MERS was diagnosed in Florida in a man visiting from Saudi Arabia.
(SFC, 5/13/14, p.A10)
2014 May 13, Saudi health authorities reported another five deaths from MERS. The potentially fatal Middle Eastern respiratory virus has sickened hundreds in the kingdom. A total of 152 people have now died and 495 have been confirmed to have contracted the virus in Saudi Arabia since it was discovered in 2012.
(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 17, US health officials reported what appears to be the first time that a mysterious Middle East virus (MERS) has spread from one person to another in the United States. An Illinois man probably picked up an infection from an Indiana man who earlier this month became the first US case of Middle East respiratory syndrome.
(AP, 5/18/14)
2014 May 28, In Jordan a man (69) died after being infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus. This brought to 6 the number of fatalities in Jordan from MERS since it first emerged in 2012.
(AFP, 6/1/14)
2014 May 29, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said 13 people have died over the last two weeks from the Middle Eastern respiratory virus and that 186 people in total have died from the MERS virus since it was discovered in 2012.
(AP, 5/29/14)
2014 Jun 4, The UAE said the MERS coronavirus has killed 10 people and infected 68 in the United Arab Emirates since March 2013.
(AFP, 6/4/14)
2014 Sep 3, The Philippine Health Secretary said a nurse who flew home from Saudi Arabia last week has been confirmed as the Philippines' second case of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
(AP, 9/3/14)
2014 Oct 16, Saudi Arabia’s health ministry said it is seeing "sporadic" cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which has killed 324 people in the country since 2012.
(AFP, 10/16/14)
2015 Feb 21, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said two more people have died after contracting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS, pushing the total number of deaths from the virus in the kingdom to 385.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 27, Saudi Arabia said ten more people have died from MERS over the past week, after an international mission urged extra measures to combat the virus.
(AFP, 2/27/15)
2015 May 21, South Korea a third case of MERS, a respiratory virus that has killed hundreds of people in the Middle East.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)
2015 May 29, South Korea confirmed five MERS cases, bringing the total number of patients infected with the potentially deadly virus to 12, including a man who defied a quarantine protocol and travelled to China.
(AFP, 5/29/15)
2015 Jun 1, South Korean health officials said more than 680 people are being isolated after having contact with patients infected with the MERS virus that has killed hundreds of people in the Middle East.
(AP, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 4, South Korea confirmed a third death from MERS. 1,164 schools and kindergartens were reported to be temporarily shut down.
(SFC, 6/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 6, A German man (65) died after contracting MERS during a trip to Abu Dhabi, in the first death linked to the virus in Europe this year.
(AFP, 6/16/15)
2015 Jun 6, South Korea confirmed nine more cases of the MERS virus, which has killed four people, but said it did not represent a spread of the outbreak as the infected were already in quarantine.
(AFP, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 7, South Korea bowed to public pressure and identified 24 health facilities where infections took place or MERS patients visited. It reported 14 confirmed new cases of MERS and a 5th death.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)
2015 Jun 9, South Korea reported its seventh death from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as the government said it hoped to end the crisis this week. Eight new infections brought the total number of cases to 95.
(AFP, 6/9/15)
2015 Jun 11, South Korea reported a 10th death from the MERS virus. Officials said they believe the disease has peaked.
(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 12, In South Korea 3 MERS patients in their 70s died, raising the country's number of MERS-related deaths to 13. Authorities temporarily closed two hospitals amid persistent fears over the MERS virus outbreak. Rescue teams digging through the debris pulled the bodies of 6 civilians from under the rubble.
(AP, 6/12/15)
2015 Jun 13, South Korea recorded its 14th death from the MERS virus and a dozen new infections.
(AP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 14, South Korea's Ministry of Health reported seven new MERS cases, taking the total to 145, as a 15th person died. The Samsung Medical Center in Seoul said it was suspending all non-emergency surgery and would take no new patients to focus on stopping MERS after more than 70 cases were traced to it.
(Reuters, 6/14/15)
2015 Jun 16, In South Korea the death toll in the MERS outbreak increased to 19 even as schools reopened and people recovered from the virus.
(AP, 6/16/15)
2015 Jun 18, In South Korea the death toll from Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) increased to 23.
(AP, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 18, Thailand confirmed its first case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus in a businessman from Oman.
(Reuters, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 21, South Korea reported three new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), bringing the total to 169 in the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia.
(Reuters, 6/21/15)
2015 Jul 2, South Korea reported two new cases of the potentially deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, after four days in which no cases were spotted.
(AFP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 28, South Korea said it is now virtually free of the deadly MERS virus that killed 36 people and sickened nearly 200 since an outbreak was declared in May.
(AP, 7/28/15)
2015 Aug 19, Saudi authorities said they have closed an emergency ward in King Abdulaziz Medical City after at least 46 people, including hospital staff, contracted the potentially fatal Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The Health Ministry recorded three new MERS deaths in Riyadh. That brings the total number of deaths to 483 since the virus was first identified in 2012.
(AP, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 27, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said 15 more people have died in the last seven days after contracting the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
(AP, 8/27/15)
2016 Jan 25, Thailand’s health ministry said it has quarantined 32 people as it seeks to prevent the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) after a second case of the virus was detected on Jan 22.
(Reuters, 1/25/16)
2016 Mar 10, Qatar health officials said a 66-year-old Qatari man has died after contracting the MERS virus, in the first fatal case in the Gulf state for 10 months.
(AFP, 3/10/16)
2018 May, The Trump administration dismantled the National Security Council directorate at the White House charged with preparing for when, not if, another pandemic would hit the nation. The apparatus had been put in place 5 years before in the face of the Ebola crisis. John Bolton, the national security adviser, "streamlined the National Security Council and , in the process, closed its pandemic preparedness office.
(AP, 3/14/20)(Econ, 4/11/20, p.17)
2018 Sep 8, South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said a South Korean man (61) has been diagnosed with the potentially deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) after a business trip to Kuwait. The infectious disease swept South Korea in 2015 leading to 38 fatalities.
(Reuters, 9/8/18)
2019 Dec 30, The first public alert outside China about a novel coronavirus came from the automated HealthMap system at Boston Children's Hospital.
(SFC, 2/24/20, p.D1)
2019 Dec 31, Chinese health authorities said they are investigating 27 cases of viral pneumonia in the central city of Wuhan, after rumors on social media suggested the outbreak could be linked to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The disease later identified as COVID-19 was first reported by Chinese authorities to the WHO, and was not previously believed to have spread to Europe until January.
(Reuters, 12/31/19)(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2019 Dec, Taiwan sent an early warning to the World Health Organization (WHO) late this month about the risk of transmission of the coronavirus between humans. The warning was not shared by the WHO because of its relationship with China.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.14)
2020 Jan 3, In China the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said 44 people have been diagnosed with pneumonia, the cause of which is unknown. That’s up from 27 three days earlier. Eleven people were in serious condition.
(Bloomberg, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 5- 2020 Jan 17, In China hundreds of patients were appearing in hospitals not just in Wuhan but across the country with symptoms of the coronavirus.
(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Jan 8, Researchers in Germany said a review of fatal encephalitis cases in the state of Bavaria has found that more than twice as many as previously known were tied to a rare animal-borne virus. Borna disease virus 1, or BoDV-1, is normally found in horses, sheep and other mammals. It was first identified as the cause of severe human encephalitis in 2018.
(AP, 1/8/20)
2020 Jan 8, The World Health Organization (WHO) said a cluster of more than 50 pneumonia cases in China's central city of Wuhan may be due to a newly emerging member of the family of viruses that caused the deadly SARS and MERS outbreaks.
(Reuters, 1/8/20)
2020 Jan 9, Chinese state media reported that a preliminary investigation into viral pneumonia illnesses sickening dozens of people in and around the country has identified the possible cause as a new type of coronavirus.
(SFC, 1/10/20, p.A3)
2020 Jan 10, The genetic sequence of SARS-COV—2, the virus which causes COVID-19, was published.
(Econ, 4/18/20, p.13)
2020 Jan 11, In China health authorities said a 61-year-old man has died from pneumonia in the central city of Wuhan after an outbreak of a yet to be identified virus while seven others are in critical condition. A total of 41 people have been diagnosed with the pathogen.
(Reuters, 1/11/20)
2020 Jan 13, The WHO said that Thai officials have reported that a traveler from the Chinese city of Wuhan has been hospitalized in Thailand with a recently identified new type of coronavirus. The report galvanized leaders in Beijing into recognizing the possible pandemic before them.
(AP, 1/13/20)(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Jan 15, US CDC researchers in late May announced that the first US coronavirus infection to be identified was a traveler, a Washington state man who returned this day from Wuhan, China, and sought help at a clinic on Jan. 19.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 Jan 15, Li Qun, the head of the China CDC’s emergency center, told Chinese state television that “The risk of sustained human-to-human transmission is low," in response to increasing cases of the coronavirus.
(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Jan 16, In China officials in Wuhan and elsewhere under new orders finally got CDC-approved testing kits and a green light to start confirming new cases. Across the country, dozens of reported cases then began to surface, in some cases among patients who were infected earlier but had not yet been tested.
(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Jan 16, Japan recorded its first case of the coronavirus.
(Econ., 5/23/20, p.28)
2020 Jan 18, Chinese health authorities said they had discovered four more cases of pneumonia following an outbreak of what is believed to be a new coronavirus strain in the central city of Wuhan, raising concerns that the disease could spread further.
(Reuters, 1/18/20)
2020 Jan 19, Chinese authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO) said a new strain of coronavirus is behind the outbreak of pneumonia in the central city of Wuhan, which has erupted just ahead of the Lunar New Year, the country's biggest festival. As of today there were 65 confirmed cases of patients with pneumonia caused by the new strain of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 1/19/20)
2020 Jan 20, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country would curb the spread of an outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new coronavirus. A leading Chinese epidemiologist, Zhong Nanshan, announced for the first time that the virus was transmissible from person to person on national television, a development that raises the possibility that it could spread more quickly and widely.
(AP, 1/20/20)(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Jan 20, Slovakia said it has detected its second case of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus at a farm in the west of the country.
(Reuters, 1/20/20)
2020 Jan 20, The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said Ukraine has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5 bird flu on a farm in the west-central part of the country, the first of such outbreak in nearly three years. The outbreak killed 4,856 birds out of a flock of 98,000 in Vinnitsa. The rest of the flock was slaughtered.
(Reuters, 1/20/20)
2020 Jan 21, Alex Azar 52), the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, appeared on Fox News to report the latest on the coronavirus as it ravaged China. The lawyer and former drug industry executive assured Americans the US government was prepared. Shortly after his televised comments, Azar tapped a trusted aide with minimal public health experience to lead the agency’s day-to-day response to COVID-19. The aide, Brian Harrison, had joined the department after running a dog-breeding business for six years.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Jan 22, Deaths from China's new virus rose to 17 with more than 540 cases confirmed, increasing fears of contagion from an infection suspected to originate from illegally-traded wildlife. A patient infected with the new coronavirus died in Hebei province, marking the first confirmed death outside Hubei province where the outbreak began. This raised the death toll from the outbreak to 18.
(Reuters, 1/22/20)(Reuters, 1/23/20)
2020 Jan 22, North Korea banned foreign tourists to guard against the spread of a new virus from China.
(AP, 1/22/20)
2020 Jan 22, Singapore began taking the temperatures of air passengers arriving from China, a day before China stopped travel into and out of Wuhan.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.26)
2020 Jan 23, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its travel alert for the coronavirus outbreak to a level 3, recommending people avoid all nonessential travel to Wuhan, China. The outbreak has now killed 18 and infected nearly 600 people globally.
(Reuters, 1/23/20)
2020 Jan 23, Chinese authorities moved to lock down three cities with a combined population of more than 18 million in an unprecedented effort to contain the deadly new virus that has sickened hundreds of people and spread to other parts of the world during the busy Lunar New Year travel period. The train station and airport in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, were shut down, and ferry, subway and bus service was halted. Similar measures would take effect the following day in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou. Wuhan underwent a 76-day lockdown. The virus death toll in Wuhan ended in mid-May with 3,869 fatalities.
(AP, 1/23/20)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.42)
2020 Jan 24, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed a second US case of the new coronavirus from China in a Chicago woman, and said as many as 63 potential cases were being investigated as the sometimes deadly illness continues to spread around the globe.
(Reuters, 1/24/20)
2020 Jan 24, China announced that it is swiftly building a 1,000-bed hospital dedicated to patients infected with a new virus that has killed 26 people, sickened hundreds and prompted unprecedented lockdowns of cities during the country's most important holiday.
(AP, 1/24/20)
2020 Jan 24, More airports began to screen passengers arriving from China amid growing concerns over the outbreak of a new virus there that has already killed more than two dozen people and sickened hundreds.
(AP, 1/24/20)
2020 Jan 24, An official in Kathmandu said a Nepali student home from China tested positive for the new coronavirus, making it the first confirmed case in the Himalayan nation.
(Reuters, 1/24/20)
2020 Jan 25, Australia declared its first confirmed case of the Wuhan coronavirus in the state of Victoria, with the patient hospitalized in a stable condition in a suburb of Melbourne.
(Reuters, 1/25/20)
2020 Jan 25, China's President Xi Jinping called the accelerating spread of a new virus a grave situation, as cities from the outbreak's epicenter in central China to Hong Kong scrambled to stop the spread of an illness that has infected more than 1,200 people and killed 41.
(AP, 1/25/20)
2020 Jan 25, Japan said it has confirmed a third case of infection by China's coronavirus.
(AP, 1/25/20)
2020 Jan 26, China banned wildlife trade nationwide in markets, supermarkets, restaurants, and e-commerce platforms due to the coronavirus outbreak. The new viral illness accelerated its spread with 56 deaths so far and a total of 1,975 infections.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)(AP, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 26, A group of Hong Kong protesters set alight the lobby of a newly built residential building that authorities planned to use as a quarantine facility, as public fears in the financial hub about the coronavirus outbreak intensified. Anger grew towards government plans to convert the building into a quarantine zone as the number of confirmed cases in the city climbed to six.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 26, Japan confirmed a fourth case of infection by China's coronavirus.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 26, The health minister in Thailand, the country with the most confirmed cases outside China of the new coronavirus, called an emergency meeting with the transport and tourism ministries amid rising public discontent over the government's handling of the illness.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 26, US officials said five people in the United States, all of whom recently traveled from Wuhan, China, have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 1/27/20)
2020 Jan 27, The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 81 and a small number of cases linked to people who travelled from Wuhan were confirmed in more than 10 countries. US stocks fell more than 1% as investors worried about the economic fallout of the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak in China that has prompted the country to extend the Lunar New Year holidays and businesses to close some operations.
(Reuters, 1/27/20)
2020 Jan 29, A memo by Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade adviser, warned that failing to contain a coronavirus outbreak could cost the US trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death. This was not made public until April 7.
(NY Times, 4/7/20)
2020 Jan 29, In China the number of confirmed coronavirus cases jumped to 5,974, surpassing the 5,327 in mainland China during the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003. The death toll rose to 132.
(AP, 1/29/20)
2020 Jan 30, China raised the death toll from the coronavirus to 170 and more countries reported infections from a new virus, including some spread locally, as foreign evacuees from China's worst-hit region returned home to medical tests and even isolation.
(AP, 1/30/20)
2020 Jan 30, North Korea said it is intensifying efforts to prevent the spread of a new virus from China into the isolated country by blocking tourists, reducing flights and mobilizing more screening efforts.
(AP, 1/30/20)
2020 Jan 30, The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global public health emergency over the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, citing the potential of the virus to spread to countries not prepared to deal with the contagion.
(South China Morning Post, 1/31/20)
2020 Jan 31, SF Bay Area's Santa Clara County reported its first coronavirus case.
(SSFC, 3/22/20, p.A12)
2020 Jan 31, China counted 9,692 confirmed cases of coronavirus with a death toll of 213, including 43 new fatalities. The United States drew China's wrath with a travel warning while businesses struggled with supply problems from the coronavirus epidemic that has killed 213 people and been declared a global emergency.
(AP, 1/31/20)(Reuters, 1/31/20)
2020 Jan 31, Guatemala said it is imposing travel restrictions on people who have recently been in China to prevent the new coronavirus entering the Central American country.
(Reuters, 1/31/20)
2020 Jan 31, Sweden reported its first confirmed case of coronavirus.
{Sweden, Microbiology}
(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Jan 31, Vietnam Airlines said it will suspend its flights to destinations in China from next week over coronavirus concerns.
(Reuters, 1/31/20)
2020 Jan 31, The Trump administration declared a public health emergency and announced series of steps to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has stricken China and spread to countries around the world.
(Bloomberg, 1/31/20)
2020 Jan, The Federated State of Micronesia banned entry to travelers late this month from countries with confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.34)
2020 Jan, Taiwan's contact-tracing team late this month successfully used a mixture of data to track down the source of infection for the island's first COVID-19 death.
(Econ, 4/18/20, p.60)
2020 Feb 1, Australia banned all arrivals from China due to the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.35)
2020 Feb 1, China’s death toll from a new virus rose to 259 and the number of confirmed cases in China rose to 11,791. A World Health Organization official said other governments need to prepare for "domestic outbreak control" if the disease spreads in their countries. At least 24 countries have reported cases since China informed WHO about the new virus in late December. The WHO counted 2,115 new cases.
(AP, 2/1/20)(Econ., 7/4/20, p.10)c
2020 Feb 1, Indonesian officials said that around 250 of its nationals being evacuated from China's Hubei province, the center of the coronavirus epidemic, will be quarantined in its Natuna Islands military base.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 1, Japan moved to contain the economic impact of a coronavirus outbreak originating in China as strict new measures aimed at limiting the spread of the virus, including targeting foreign visitors, came into effect. Japan had 17 confirmed cases as of Jan. 31, including some without symptoms.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 1, Three Philippine airlines cancelled flights to China, joining many others around the world that have done the same, after health officials confirmed the Philippines' first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 1, Russia's aerospace defence forces began evacuating Russian citizens from China due to the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 2, China's coronavirus has infected at least 14,000 people since it was first detected in late December and spread to about two dozen countries although most, like the United States, have few cases. The incubation period is so long that people may not know where or when they picked it up. Based on the first 425 confirmed cases in China, each infection led to 2.2 others on average.
(AP, 2/2/20)
2020 Feb 2, The US military command in South Korea instituted a 14-day self quarantine for any troops who recently traveled to China, adding that an outbreak in that country of a new coronavirus could harm military readiness.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 2, California health officials said they had confirmed 11 cases of the new, fast-spreading coronavirus in the United States, with one in Santa Clara County and two more in San Benito County.
(Reuters, 2/2/20)
2020 Feb 2, The Philippines recorded the first death outside China from the new coronavirus, as countries around the world evacuated hundreds of their citizens from the infection zone and Chinese authorities completed a new, rapidly constructed 1,000-bed hospital for victims of the outbreak.
(AP, 2/2/20)
2020 Feb 2, The Philippines's Department of Agriculture said blood samples taken from pigs in a southern province tested positive for the African swine fever virus.
(Reuters, 2/2/20)
2020 Feb 3, China accused the United States of whipping up panic over a fast-spreading coronavirus with travel restrictions and evacuations as Chinese stocks plunged on the first day back from the extended Lunar New Year holiday.
(Reuters, 2/3/20)
2020 Feb 3, In China the first patients arrived at a 1,000-bed hospital built in 10 days as part of China's sweeping efforts to fight a new virus that is causing global alarm. A woman (36) in the northern municipality of Tianjin was detained by police after "deliberately concealing" her contact with someone from a coronavirus-stricken area. Authorities reported 425 deaths and 20,438 confirmed cases. At least 180 cases have been confirmed outside China.
(AP, 2/3/20)(Reuters, 2/3/20)(SFC, 2/4/20, p.A3)
2020 Feb 4, The US Department of Health and Human Services said it was partnering with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc to develop a treatment for the coronavirus, making the drugmaker the latest to join the race to develop a therapy.
(Reuters, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 4, Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd said has canceled eight cruises out of China through March 4 in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 4, Officials in the Chinese city of Macao asked its 41 casinos to close for half a month to help the stop the coronavirus.
(SFC, 2/5/20, p.A3)
2020 Feb 4, Hong Kong hospitals cut services as thousands of medical workers went on strike for a second day to demand the border with mainland China be shut completely, as a new virus caused its first death in the semi-autonomous territory and authorities feared it was spreading locally. The fast-spreading outbreak has killed 490 people with 24,324 confirmed cases.
(AP, 2/4/20)(Reuters, 2/4/20)(SFC, 2/5/20, p.A3)
2020 Feb 4, The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said Saudi Arabia has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus on a poultry farm.
(AP, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 4, The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said Vietnam has reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N6 bird flu in a village in the northern part of the country.
(AP, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 5, It was reported that at least 10 people aboard a cruise ship moored in Japan have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Diamond Princess will remain under quarantine in Yokohama with everyone on board for at least 14 days. Three more cruise ship passengers were soon diagnosed with the virus in Japan for a total of 64 on board the ship.
(Good Morning America, 2/5/20)(AP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 6, A female (57) resident of Santa Clara County, Calif., died of the coronavirus, making this the earliest known victims of the pandemic in the United States. A 2nd resident (69) died on Feb. 17 and a 3rd (70) on March 6. On April 21 county health officials and the CDC said that the presence of the disease Covid-19 was determined by tissue samples from autopsies.
(https://tinyurl.com/ybvnqykd)(AP, 4/22/20)(SFC, 4/23/20, p.A7)
2020 Feb 6, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said it is ramping up efforts to develop a set of coronavirus treatments, which could be available for testing or use in some patients within a few months.
(AP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 6, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared a "people's war" against the fast-spreading coronavirus. Chinese health authorities reported 563 deaths and another sharp jump in the number of confirmed cases to 28,018. Outside mainland China, at least 260 cases have been confirmed. China finished building a second new hospital to isolate and treat patients of the virus.
(Reuters, 2/6/20)(AP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 6, A US citizen (60) died from the coronavirus in Wuhan, China. It was the first known American death from the illness, and was likely to add to diplomatic frictions over Beijing’s response to the epidemic.
(NY Times, 2/8/20)
2020 Feb 6, Greek officials said they have detected their first case of African swine fever at a breeding farm in the north of the country this week. African swine fever is harmless to humans but it is highly contagious and deadly in pigs. It has spread from Africa to Europe and Asia and has already killed hundreds of millions of pigs, affecting global meat markets.
(Reuters, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 6, Russia said it has begun checking the body temperature of officials and reporters attending events involving President Vladimir Putin due to coronavirus fears.
(AFP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 6, Saudi Arabia barred its citizens and residents of the kingdom from traveling to China amid the new virus outbreak.
(AP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 7, It was reported that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has signed into law quarantine rules for Brazilians who will be brought back from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 7, China confirmed 31,161 cases and 636 deaths on the mainland. Dr. Li Wenliang (34) died overnight due to the coronavirus at Wuhan Central Hospital. Police in December had reprimanded eight doctors including ophthalmologist Li for warning friends on social media about the emerging threat.
(AP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 7, Independent scientists questioned research that suggested that the outbreak of coronavirus disease spreading from China might have passed from bats to humans through the illegal traffic of pangolins. South China Agricultural University had led the research.
(Reuters, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 8, China's city of Wuhan, at the center of the coronavirus outbreak, opened another makeshift hospital, providing 1,500 beds.
(Reuters, 2/8/20)
2020 Feb 8, The World Health Organization (WHO) said the death toll in mainland China has risen to 723, looking likely to pass the 774 deaths recorded globally during the 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). A total of 34,546 cases were reported on the mainland. The virus has spread to 27 countries and regions, based on official reports, infecting more than 330 people.
(Reuters, 2/8/20)(AP, 2/8/20)
2020 Feb 8, France said it is closing two schools and tried to reassure vacationers in the Alps after five British citizens, including a 9-year-old child, contracted the new virus from China at a French ski resort.
(AP, 2/8/20)
2020 Feb 9, China raised the death toll from its coronavirus outbreak to 811. Total confirmed coronavirus cases in China stood at 37,198.
(Reuters, 2/9/20)
2020 Feb 9, The Philippines confirmed that African swine fever infections had spread in the south of the country, which accounts for nearly a third of the nation's 12.8 million pig herd.
(Reuters, 2/9/20)
2020 Feb 9, Spain's National Center for Microbiology confirmed the country's second case of new coronavirus, after tests on one of four people suspected of having the virus in Mallorca came back positive. The other three were negative.
(Reuters, 2/9/20)
2020 Feb 10, Officially, much of China got back to work, but there were few signs of activity on the streets of the capital, Beijing, as the new coronavirus has now killed 909 people and sickened 40,235. An advance World Health Organization team of medical experts arrived in China to help investigate the coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 2/10/20)(Reuters, 2/10/20)
2020 Feb 11, China reported 42,708 confirmed cases, including 1,017 deaths. More than 300 cases were also reported in at least 24 other countries. Franco-British biotech company Novacyt said it can offer a coronavirus test that is faster than rival methods by focusing on a narrow sequence of DNA coding.
(Reuters, 2/11/20)
2020 Feb 11, The UN's World Health Organization convened outside experts to fast-track promising tests, drugs and vaccines to help slow the outbreak of a new virus that emerged in China that has killed more than 1,000 people and spread to two dozen other countries. The coronavirus is now called COVID-19.
(AP, 2/11/20)(ABC News, 2/11/20)
2020 Feb 12, China's leadership touted "positive results" from efforts to contain the new coronavirus epidemic but warned it still faced a "large-scale war" against the outbreak. The death toll rose to 1,113, while more than 44,600 people had been infected by the newly named COVID-19 virus.
(AFP, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 12, It was reported that two Russian women who were kept in isolation for possible inflection by a new virus say they fled from their Russian hospitals this month because of uncooperative doctors, poor conditions and fear they would become infected.
(AP, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 12, This year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, was cancelled by trade show organizer GSMA due to coronavirus concerns.
(SFC, 2/13/20, p.D1)
2020 Feb 13, US officials reported the 15th case of coronavirus in the United States, saying the patient was among those who had been evacuated from Wuhan, China, and placed under federal quarantine at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
(Reuters, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 13, LabCorp said it has begun work on developing its own test for the coronavirus that has killed over 1,300 in China.
(Reuters, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 13, The cruise ship MS Westerdam, stranded at sea for about two weeks after being refused entry by four Asian governments because of virus fears, finally docked in Cambodia. No cases of the COVID-19 viral illness have been confirmed among its 1,455 passengers and 802 crew members.
(AP, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 13, Diplomats and experts said China is dragging its heels in accepting help on the ground from international health specialists. China has recorded 48,206 cases of a new coronavirus, now known as SARS-CoV-2. The death toll in Hubei province, which includes Wuhan, leapt by a record 242 to 1,310, with a sharp rise in confirmed cases after the adoption of new methodology for diagnosis. China's Communist Party fired several senior officials in Hubei province, the center of the new coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 2/13/20)(The Week, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 13, Confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus in mainland China rose to 63,851 by the end of today, up 5,090 from the previous day. The death toll rose 121 to 1,380.
(AP, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 13, Japan announced its first death from a new virus from China, hours after confirming 44 more cases on a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo as fears of the spreading disease mount in the country. The Diamond Princess, which is still carrying nearly 3,500 passengers and crew members, now has 218 people infected with the virus out of 713 tested since it entered Yokohama Port on Feb. 3.
(AP, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 14, Zeng Yixin, vice minister of China's National Health Commission, told reporters that 1,716 medical workers have tested positive for the newly discovered virus, known officially as COVID-19, and six of them have died.
(ABC News, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 14, Egypt's Health Ministry confirmed the first case of the new virus in the North African country.
(AP, 2/14/20)
2020 Feb 14, Paraguay health officials said that deaths from dengue fever increased to 16 in the South American country's worst outbreak of the disease in the last decade, severely straining its health system.
(Reuters, 2/14/20)
2020 Feb 15, China reported 143 virus deaths and a dip in new cases. China reported 2,641 new cases in the 24 hours through midnight Feb. 14, raising its total to 66,492. Mainland China’s death toll rose to 1,523.
(AP, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 15, French authorities said an 80-year-old Chinese tourist infected with the coronavirus has died in France, the first fatality in Europe and the fourth outside mainland China from the epidemic.
(AP, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 15, In Hong Kong hundreds of anti-government protesters marched in multiple neighborhoods against government plans to potentially turn some buildings into coronavirus quarantine centers, demanding full closure of the mainland China border.
(Reuters, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 15, Malaysia said an 83-year-old American passenger on the Westerdam cruise ship that docked in Cambodia has tested positive for the new coronavirus. The woman had taken a flight to Malaysia a day earlier from Cambodia.
(Reuters, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 16, China reported a drop in new virus cases for the third straight day. Its latest figures showed 68,500 cases and 1,665 deaths due to the COVID-19 virus, most of the in Hubei province. The National Health Commission reported 2,009 new cases and 142 deaths.
(AP, 2/16/20)(Reuters, 2/16/20)
2020 Feb 16, Taiwan's health minister said a man has died from the coronavirus, marking the first such death on the island since the epidemic spread from mainland China.
(Reuters, 2/16/20)
2020 Feb 17, China's health authorities reported 2,048 new cases of the virus and 105 more deaths. Another 10,844 people have recovered from COVID-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus, and have been discharged from hospitals. The death toll reached 1,770 with 70,548 cases. Another 1,200 doctors and nurses from China's military began arriving in Wuhan, the latest contingent sent to help shore up the city's overwhelmed health care system.
(AP, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 17, A Chinese professor said doctors in Shanghai are using infusions of blood plasma from people who have recovered from the coronavirus to treat those still battling the infection, reporting some encouraging preliminary results.
(Reuters, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 17, Japanese officials confirmed 99 more people were infected by the new virus aboard the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 454.
(AP, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 17, Two charter flights carrying cruise ship passengers from Japan landed at military bases in California and Texas overnight, starting the clock on a quarantine period to ensure passengers don't have the new virus that's been spreading in Asia.
(AP, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 17, Biotechnology company Novacyt said that it had launched a 'CE-Mark' molecular test to help detect the coronavirus afflicting China, marking a step forward in Novacyt's plans to commercialize a product for the virus.
(Reuters, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 17, Bulgaria's food safety agency authorities reported an outbreak of the H5N8 bird flu virus on a duck farm in the southern town of Rakovski. The agency said all 5,830 ducks at the farm will be culled.
(AP, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 18, Cambodian health authorities said that 409 of the 2,257 passengers and crew of the Westerdam had left Cambodia for their homes scattered across the globe. The rest remain in hotels in Phnom Penh, the capital, or on the ship. After hundreds of passengers had earlier disembarked, one soon tested positive for the coronavirus.
(NY Times, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 18, China reported 1,886 new cases and 98 more deaths. That raised the number of deaths in mainland China to 1,868 and the total number of confirmed cases to 72,436. China reported the death of Dr. Liu Zhiming (51), the man who mobilized all the resources of his hospital in Wuhan's Wuchang district to deal with the thousands of sick people arriving daily.
(AP, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 18, French drugmaker Sanofi said it is working with a US government agency to develop a vaccine against the new coronavirus from China, saying it could have a candidate ready for clinical trials within a year.
(Reuters, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 18, Japan, announced that 88 more cases of the virus were confirmed aboard a quarantined cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 542 among the 3,700 initially on board.
(AP, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 19, China's President Xi Jinping called for greater protection of medical staff fighting the new coronavirus after the deaths of prominent doctors sparked national anger at the government's handling of the outbreak. 1,716 medical workers have been confirmed as infected. Mainland China reported 1,749 new cases and 136 additional deaths. The death toll from the virus jumped past 2,000, while 74,185 cases of infection have been confirmed on the mainland. Inspectors in protective suits went door-to-door in the epicenter of the viral outbreak to try to find every infected person in an epidemic that is showing signs of waning as new cases fell for a second straight day.
(AFP, 2/19/20)(AP, 2/19/20)
2020 Feb 19, Two people in Iran tested positive for the deadly new coronavirus, in the Islamic republic's first cases of the disease.
(AFP, 2/19/20)
2020 Feb 20, The number of new cases in China declined again, to 394, a notable shift from the 1,749 figure released a day earlier. Another 114 deaths in China were linked to the virus. The statistics came after yet another change in how cases are counted.
(AP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 20, Iran said that three more people have been infected with the new virus that originated in central China, following an announcement the day before that two people had died of the illness caused by the virus in the city of Qom.
(AP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 20, The first case of coronavirus was confirmed in Lebanon after a woman arriving from Iran was found to be positive.
(Reuters, 2/21/20)(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Feb 20, South Korea reported its first death from the new virus while the mayor of a southeastern city urged its 2.5 million people to stay inside as infections linked to a church congregation spiked. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 22 additional cases of the virus, raising the total in South Korea to 104.
(AP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 20, The World Health Organization chided the international community for not stepping up enough to finance the battle to contain the novel coronavirus that has shut down many parts of China and killed more than 2,000 people.
(South China Morning Post, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, In Australia, two people who had been evacuated from a virus-wracked cruise ship off Japan tested positive for mild cases of the COVID-19 illness.
(AFP, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, China reported 118 more deaths from the COVID-19 virus, raising the toll to 2,236, most of them in Hubei. China tallied 889 new cases. Two correctional facilities in east China reported cases, with 200 prisoners and seven guards testing positive at Rencheng prison in Shandong province. Another 34 cases were found at a prison in Zhejiang province.
(AFP, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, An Iranian health ministry official said the coronavirus has spread to several cities in the country. Health authorities reported two more deaths from the new virus that emerged in China and said the fatalities were from among 13 new confirmed cases of the virus.
(Reuters, 2/21/20)(AP, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, An Israeli doctor said one of the 11 Israelis who were flown home after being quarantined on a cruise ship in Japan has tested positive for the new virus that emerged in China late last year, the first case to be reported inside the country. Another four Israelis were hospitalized in Japan after testing positive for the virus.
(AP, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, Italian authorities announced that a cluster of 16 coronavirus cases had been detected around Codogno, a small town in Lombardy. By the next day the number was up to 60 and five elderly people had died.
(Econ., 2/29/20, p.13)
2020 Feb 21, South Korea's government banned major rallies in its capital and declared a health emergency in its fourth largest city as 100 new virus cases were reported, bringing the country's total to 204.
(AP, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, The United Arab Emirates said it had registered two new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of people diagnosed with the virus in the Gulf Arab state to 11.
(Reuters, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, Costa Mesa, California, won a battle against the state, at least temporarily, when a judge halted the transfer of people diagnosed with the coronavirus to its community for a quarantine site.
(AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 22, In China 397 new cases of coronavirus were reported nationwide and another 109 people died. The outbreak of the new COVID-19 strain has claimed 2,345 lives on the mainland and infected more than 76,000 people, with cases in more than 25 countries. State media said President Xi Jinping has written a letter thanking the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for committing up to $100 million for the global response to the outbreak.
(AFP, 2/22/20) (AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 22, In China woman traveled by car to a relative’s home in Beijing after being released from Wuhan Women’s Prison, a facility stricken by an outbreak affecting more than 250 people. Her coronavirus infection was disclosed by local officials on Feb. 26.
(AP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 22, Iranian authorities reported one more death among 10 new cases of the coronavirus. Iran ordered the closure of schools and universities in two cities hit by the virus outbreak that has killed five people, the most outside the Far East. 28 cases in total have been confirmed.
(AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 22, Israeli and Palestinian authorities sought to quell fears of a potential local outbreak of the coronavirus after learning that South Korean pilgrims who had toured some of the holy land's most popular sites were later found to be carrying the virus.
(Reuters, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 22, A dozen towns in northern Italy effectively went into lockdown after the deaths of two people infected with the new virus from China and a growing cluster of cases with no direct links to the origin of the outbreak abroad. Secondary coronavirus contagions prompted local authorities in the Lombardy and Veneto regions to order schools, businesses, and restaurants closed, and to cancel sporting events and Masses. Hundreds of residents and workers who came into contact with an estimated 54 people confirmed infected in Italy were in isolation pending test results. Two people infected with the virus have died.
(AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 22, South Korea reported an eight-fold jump in viral infections with 433 cases mostly linked to a church and a hospital.
(AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 22, A South Korean Air flight with 188 passengers that landed at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport was taxied away from the allotted terminal while authorities allowed only 11 Israelis to enter the country. The next day the plane returned to South Korea with the rest of the passengers.
(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Four passengers tested positive for coronavirus in England after being evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. This brought the total number of cases in the UK to thirteen.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Mainland China reported 648 new coronavirus infections for a total of 76,936. The daily death toll fell slightly to 97. In all, 2,442 people have died in the country from COVID-19.
(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Iran’s health ministry raised the death toll from the new coronavirus to eight, with 43 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Italian authorities stepped up measures to ban public gatherings, including stopping Venice's famed carnival events, which have drawn tens of thousands of revelers to a region that is now in the heart of the outbreak. Nearly all of the known cases, including three deaths, were clustered in the north, at least 25 of them in the Veneto region. Italy reported more than 150 confirmed cases, a sharp increase from fewer than five last week. Officials locked down at least 10 towns in the northern region of Lombardy, affecting at least 50,000 people.
(AP, 2/23/20)(Reuters, 2/23/20)(NY Times, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 23, In Japan a third passenger from the virus-infected Diamond Princess cruise ship died. Japan's health ministry announced 57 more cases of infections from the ship, including 55 crew members still on board and two passengers who had infected roommates and are in a prolonged quarantine at a government facility. Japan has confirmed a total of 838 cases and four deaths from the virus.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Pakistan temporarily closed its borders with Iran, which announced a weeklong closing of schools, universities and cultural centers. The outbreak has killed at least 12 people in Iran, according to state television, the largest number of deaths outside China.
(NY Times, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 23, In Saudi Arabia finance leaders of the world's top 20 economies wrapped up their two-day meeting in Riyadh, a session that was dominated by growing concern over the widening fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. In a draft G20 communique the finance leaders clung to their upbeat projection of a modest pick-up in global growth despite the outbreak.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, South Korea raised its infectious disease alert to its highest level due to the coronavirus outbreak. South Korea announced 169 more cases of the new virus, bringing the country’s total more than 760. The country also reported three more fatalities, raising its death toll to six.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)(AP, 2/23/20)(NY Times, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 23, South Korean health authorities said that 18 of the 39 South Koreans from the southeastern region who had made a group pilgrimage to sites in Israel later tested positive for the virus.
(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Turkey closed its border with Iran due to the number of coronavirus cases in its eastern neighbor.
(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 24, Afghanistan's minister of public health said one of three suspected cases had been confirmed in the Western province of Herat.
(NBC News, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Bulgaria's food safety agency authorities reported two new outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu in the southern part of the Balkan country.
(Reuters, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Chinese authorities announced 409 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 77,150. The number of coronavirus deaths was reported at 2592. Large parts of China relaxed curbs on transport and movement of people as reported new cases of the coronavirus outside the worst-hit province fell to the lowest in a month.
(NBC News, 2/24/20)(Reuters, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Iran's government vowed to be transparent after being accused of covering up the deadliest coronavirus outbreak outside China. The coronavirus death toll jumped by four to 12, by far the highest outside China. There were 47 confirmed cases.
(AFP, 2/24/20)(NBC News, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Iraq's health ministry said local health officials in the Shi'ite city of Najaf have detected the first case of coronavirus in the country, an Iranian theology student.
(Reuters, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Italy recorded a 6th coronavirus death as it became the worst-hit country in Europe, bringing the total number of cases across the country to 219. Police manned checkpoints around quarantined towns in the north and residents stocked up on food as the country became the focal point of the outbreak in Europe and fears of its cross-border spread.
(Reuters, 2/24/20)(AP, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Mongolia's National Emergency Commission halted all flights from South Korea and will block entry through its borders until March 2 as it steps up its efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, South Korea reported 833 confirmed cases with 8 dead. Health officials reported 231 new cases of COVID-19. A military spokesperson said there were 13 confirmed COVID-19 cases among the troops.
(NBC News, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 25, Mainland China had 406 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, down from 508 cases a day earlier. The death toll from the outbreak reached 2,715, up by 52 from the previous day.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 25, Iran said its coronavirus outbreak, the deadliest outside China, has infected the country's deputy health minister. The health ministry confirmed three new deaths and 34 new infections, bringing the overall tally to 15 deaths and 95 cases.
(AFP, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 25, In Iraq religious officials closed down the Imam Ali mausoleum in Najaf, allowing visitors access only to its surroundings due to the coronavirus outbreak. The health ministry advised against non-essential travel to Najaf and urged citizens to refrain from holding large gatherings.
(AP, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 25, The US Center for Disease Control warned the American public to prepare for an outbreak of the disease, which has spawned more than 80,000 cases around the world but relatively few so far in the US.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, US Pres. Donald Trump announced he was putting Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus in the US.
(Yahoo News, 2/26/20)0
2020 Feb 26, The USA stepped up travel advisories for Iran, Italy and Mongolia, warning of the risks of coronavirus or disruptions related to efforts to control the disease's spread.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, US health officials said a new coronavirus case in California, a resident of Solano County, could be the first in the US that has no known connection to travel abroad or another known case, a possible sign the virus is spreading in a US community. The patient was brought to UC Davis Medical Center from another Northern California hospital on Feb. 19, but it was four days before the CDC heeded a request to test the patient for COVID-19.
(AP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 26, US officials said the first clinical trial in the US of a possible coronavirus treatment is underway in Nebraska and is eventually expected to include 400 patients at 50 locations around the world. At least two patient studies are already underway in China, including the other study involving remdesivir, which is made by Gilead Sciences.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Biogen Inc. began hosting a two-day leadership meeting in Boston. About 175 executives gathered for a buffet dinner and cocktails at the Marriott Long Wharf overlooking Boston Harbor. On March 2 the company’s chief medical officer sent an email informing everyone who attended the leadership meeting that some people had fallen ill and telling them to contact a health care provider if they felt sick. At least 99 employees and their contacts became ill with the coronavirus.
(NY Times, 4/13/20)
2020 Feb 26, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, unveiled an $8.5 billion request to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, more than triple Pres. Trump's request.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, An employee in the US Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Seattle developed flu-like symptoms after visiting a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington. On March 3 the US Department of Homeland Security closed its field office in Seattle.
{Washington, USA, Microbiology}
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Feb 26, Algeria and Greece reported their first cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Bahrain's number of coronavirus infections rose to 26.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Brazil confirmed the first case of coronavirus in Latin America, a man in Sao Paulo who returned recently from Italy. The disease reached the Amazon region by mid-March.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Feb 26, A second person died in France overnight as health officials tried to find out how the college teacher, who had not visited any country with a known outbreak, had caught the new coronavirus disease.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, In Germany two people tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total to 18. Officials said a German couple who contracted the coronavirus had taken part in local carnival celebrations and also visited the Netherlands in the 10 days before they were diagnosed.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Iranian cyberpolice announced the arrests of 24 people accused of online rumor-mongering about the spread of a coronavirus outbreak that has claimed 19 lives in the country. The health ministry announced four more deaths and 44 new infections, including in six previously unaffected provinces. This brought the total to 139 cases.
(AFP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Iraq announced sweeping measures late today to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus, ordering the closure of schools and universities, cafes, cinemas and other public spaces until March 7. Iraq also banned travel to or from some of the worst affected countries.
(AFP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 26, Italy become a frontline in the global outbreak of the coronavirus, with over 370 cases and 12 deaths.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe called for sports and cultural events to be scrapped or curtailed for two weeks as domestic cases of coronavirus increased to 175.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Kuwait's coronavirus cases rose to 25 after 13 more cases were confirmed.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, North Macedonia said it has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus infection, diagnosed in a woman who recently arrived from Italy.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Pakistan said it has detected its first two cases of the coronavirus.
(AFP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, In South Korea the coronavirus has infected 1,260 people. 20 South Korean soldiers and one American have tested positive.
(AP, 2/26/20)(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Thailand reported three new cases of coronavirus, taking its total tally to 40.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, World health officials said the coronavirus illness had now spread to 37 counties. The WHO reported that the number of new cases reported outside China exceeded the number of new cases in China for the first time.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 27, A US federal agency confirmed that a government whistleblower has filed a complaint alleging that some federal workers did not have the necessary protective gear or training when they were deployed to help Americans evacuated from China during the coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, US federal officials issued new rules allowing more people to be tested for the coronavirus.
(SFC, 2/28/20, p.A1)
2020 Feb 27, China said the number of new deaths stood at 29, the lowest daily rate since Jan. 28 and reported 433 new cases. The coronavirus has now killed 2,744 people in the country, mostly in the central province of Hubei.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, In Germany, the Berlin state government struck down the honorary citizen title of former German Pres. Paul von Hindenburg (1925-1934) citing his act of appointing Adolf Hitler as chancellor in 1933.
(SFC, 2/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Feb 27, Greek islanders on Lesbos and Chios gathered for a fourth consecutive day to protest government plans to build new migrant detention centers.
(SFC, 2/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Feb 27, Top supplier Godrej Agrovet Ltd said a false rumor that the coronavirus can be spread by chickens has slashed Indian poultry sales by almost 50%.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, It was reported that the coronavirus has killed 26 people in Iran, the highest toll outside of China where it originated. Many of the over 240 confirmed cases in the region have links to Iran, including dozens in Kuwait and Bahrain, six in Iraq and two in Lebanon.
(AP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, Iraq announced the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Baghdad, taking nationwide infections to six and raising concerns about the capacity of the dilapidated health system to respond.
(AFP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, A Japanese woman tested positive for coronavirus for a second time as the number of confirmed cases in Japan, excluding the 704 on the quarantined cruise liner, rose above 190. The death toll rose to eight after another death was reported in Hokkaido.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, In Kuwait confirmed cases of coronavirus rose to 43.
(AP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, Lebanon confirmed the country's third case of coronavirus, after a man arriving from Iran on Feb. 24 tested positive.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, It was reported that North Korea has postponed the new school term to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
(AFP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, Saudi Arabia banned pilgrims from visiting Islam's holiest sites as the number of deaths jumped in neighboring Iran. Japan and Iraq ordered the closure of schools. Saudi Arabia made the unprecedented decision to halt the umrah pilgrimage amid the global outbreak of the coronavirus. The lesser umrah pilgrimage can be performed year-round. Nearly 20 million Muslims undertake the umrah pilgrimage each year, including more than 7 million foreign travelers.
(AFP, 2/27/20) (Good Morning America, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, South Korea reported 334 additional cases of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, In the past 24 hours, the WHO recorded seven nations that announced their first cases of the novel coronavirus: Brazil, Georgia, Greece, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan and Romania.
(Good Morning America, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 28, US Pres. Donald Trump accused Democrats of exaggerating the danger of the coronavirus in order to destroy his presidency.
(SFC, 2/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Feb 28, The number of coronavirus cases in the United States was confirmed at 62. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also confirmed that four more patients tested positive for the virus in California, Oregon and Washington states.
(Good Morning America, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 28, Lifeguards in San Diego County rescued 13 people and searched for others believed to have been dropped by Mexican migrant smugglers in the Pacific. As many as three people remained missing.
(SFC, 2/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Feb 28, Washington state lawmakers passed a measure prohibiting homicide defendants from claiming a defense based on panic over a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity. the measure was name after Nikki Kuhnhausen, a transgender teenager who was killed last year. Nine states have similar legislation.
(SFC, 2/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Feb 28, The list of countries hit by the COVID-19 illness edged toward 60 as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Nigeria reported their first cases.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, China's death toll from the coronavirus reached 2,788, up 44. Cases climbed to 78,824, up 327.
(Bloomberg, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, Iran reported eight new deaths from coronavirus, raising its toll to 34. The health ministry said 143 cases had been detected over the past 24 hours, increasing the total of confirmed infections to 388. At least seven officials in the country have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(AFP, 2/28/20)(The Week, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, Italy reported that four more people have died from coronavirus, bringing the total to 21, while the number of those testing positive for the illness jumped to 821.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, Mexico said a man (35) has been confirmed as the first coronavirus case in the country. The man had taken a trip to Italy in February. Mexican health officials confirmed three coronavirus cases, all with mild symptoms and likely from the same source.
(Bloomberg, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, New Zealand health officials said the country had its first case of the new coronavirus, a person in their 60s who recently returned from Iran.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, In Russia Moscow's deputy mayor said 88 foreign nationals will be deported for allegedly violating quarantine measures imposed on them as a precaution against the coronavirus.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, South Korea confirmed 256 more cases, bringing total to 2,022, doubling in two days and raising alarm about the worst outbreak outside of neighboring China.
(Bloomberg, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 29, US health officials reported three more cases of the new coronavirus transmitted to people who did not travel overseas or come in contact with anyone known to be ill. The first US coronavirus-related death was reported in Washington State.
(AFP, 2/29/20)(The Daily Beast, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, Azerbaijan said it had closed its border with Iran for two weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, after the death toll in Iran rose to 43, the highest number outside of China.
(Reuters, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, The number of people infected with coronavirus in the United Kingdom rose to 23, after three more patients tested positive.
(Reuters, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, China reported 47 more coronavirus deaths and 427 new infections.
(AFP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, Ecuador said it has confirmed the first case of a fast-spreading new coronavirus. The patient had arrived in Ecuador on Feb. 14 on a direct flight from Madrid without showing any symptoms, but soon felt ill and went to a hospital where she was diagnosed with the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, France said it is banning all indoor public gatherings of more than 5,000 people to slow the spread of coronavirus cases and recommending that people no longer greet each other with kisses.
(AP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, Iran reported a surge in new coronavirus cases as the number of deaths jumped to 43 among 593 cases, but it dismissed as "rumors" a report the real toll was much higher.
(AFP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, In Japan a man in his 70s died on the northernmost island of Hokkaido late today after testing positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The man's death marked the sixth fatality from COVID-19 in Japan, excluding six deaths among those aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Feb 29, Lebanon's health ministry said that three new cases of coronavirus had been confirmed, bringing the total number of cases in the country to seven.
(Reuters, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, Pakistan confirmed two more cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of positive cases to four since Feb 26, when the first two cases were reported in the country.
(Reuters, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, South Korea reported its biggest surge in new coronavirus cases with 3,150 infections as 813 more patients were reported. Three women in the Daegu area died of the illness, taking the national toll to 17.
(AFP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, Spain's total number of active coronavirus cases rose to 49. Authorities said an Italian national staying at a hotel in Tenerife, which has been placed on lockdown after four cases of the coronavirus were detected, has tested positive for the virus. This brought the total number of active cases in the Canary Islands to six.
(AP, 2/29/20)
2020 Mar 1, President Donald Trump said travelers from countries at high risk of coronavirus would be screened before boarding and upon arrival, without specifying which countries. New cases were reported in the Chicago area and Rhode Island. To date, more than 86,500 cases have been confirmed. Outside of China, it has spread to 53 countries, with more than 6,500 cases and more than 100 deaths. Globally, the illness has killed nearly 3,000 people.
(Reuters, 3/1/20)(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, SF Bay Area officials announced five new cases of coronavirus, two in Vacaville and 3 in Santa Clara County.
(SFC, 3/2/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 1, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's office confirmed the state's first coronavirus case late today, in a woman in her late thirties who recently travelled to Iran.
(The Independent, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, A second person died of coronavirus in the northwestern US state of Washington as number of infections passed 75.
(AFP, 3/2/20)(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 1, Britain announced a jump in coronavirus cases, with 12 new infections taking the total to 35.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, Mainland China reported the biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases since Feb. 22. A total of 2,870 people have died in mainland China and 79,824 have been infected by the virus.
(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, Ecuador confirmed five cases in patients who all had direct contact with an elderly woman who brought the coronavirus to the Andean country from Spain.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 1, Ireland, Luxembourg and Qatar reported their first cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, France now has 100 confirmed cases. Of those, two have died. Louvre workers who guard Leonardo da Vinci's “Mona Lisa" and other masterpieces walked off the job, fearful of being contaminated by the museum’s flow of tourists from around the world.
(Reuters, 3/1/20)(AP, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 1, Germany's Robert Koch Institute for disease control said the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has jumped to 117 from 66.
(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, Iran's health ministry raised the nationwide death toll from the new coronavirus to 54 as the number of confirmed infected cases jumped overnight by more than half to 978 people.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, Italy reported 1,694 positive cases of coronavirus and 34 deaths.
(AFP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 1, In South Korea the number of coronavirus cases is now at 3,736 with 21 deaths tied to the Shincheonji religious sect. The founder of the sect and 11 others have just been charged with murder.
(The Daily Beast, 3/1/20)(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 2, US health authorities urged all baby boomers to get a one-time hepatitis C test because that age group appeared at particularly high risk. The US Preventive Services Task Force said that hepatitis C is on the rise because of the opioid crisis, prompting the recommendation to expand testing.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, In California the number of coronavirus cases in the Bay Area were confirmed at 26 with 43 cases statewide.
(SFC, 3/3/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 2, Washington state health authorities said six people have died from coronavirus. Researchers said earlier that the virus may have been circulating for weeks undetected in the state.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Andorra, Armenia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Iceland and Indonesia confirmed their first cases of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, The death toll from the new coronavirus epidemic surpassed 3,000 as more people died in China, Iran and the US and Europe raised its state of alert. The virus has now infected more than 89,000, spread to over 60 countries and threatens to cause a global economic slowdown.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, China’s UN ambassador said that North Korea is suffering “negatively" from the coronavirus and called for greater flexibility from the United States and other countries on lifting sanctions against the country.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Australian health officials said that a woman and a male doctor have contracted coronavirus, becoming the first cases of community transmissions in the country.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Britain's Foreign Office said Germany, France and the UK have offered a 5 million-euro ($5.6 million) package to Iran to help fight coronavirus in the country.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, China reported 42 more deaths due to coronavirus, all in central Hubei province, putting death toll in China to 2,912. The National Health Commission reported 202 new infections, the lowest daily rise since late January, bringing the nationwide total over 80,000.
(AFP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said: "As of this morning, we have 2,100 confirmed cases in 18 EU member states and we have 38 citizens who have lost their lives".
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, In Germany the number of novel coronavirus cases rose to 150, up from 129 the previous day, with Berlin reporting its first infection.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, India reported three new cases of coronavirus, including an Italian national in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.
(AP, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 2, Iran reported 12 more deaths due to the coronavirus, raising the country's toll to 66. Iran reported more than 500 new cases, raising its total number of infections to 1,501. Mohammad Mirmohammadi (71) of Iran's Expediency Council died in a Tehran hospital after contracting the COVID-19 coronavirus. A team from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived in Tehran to support the country's response to the coronavirus outbreak
(AFP, 3/2/20)(The Week, 3/2/20)(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Five more cases were confirmed in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, taking the island's total tally to 77.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Qatar's health ministry said that medical tests had revealed four new cases of coronavirus infection in the country.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Saudi Arabia confirmed its first case of coronavirus after one its citizens who had returned from COVID-19 hotspot Iran tested positive.
(AFP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, South Korea reported 599 new cases of coronavirus, raising its total to 4,355. The death toll rose to 26. South Korea sought murder charges against leaders of Shincheonji Church, to which most of South Korea's cases have been traced.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Spain's confirmed cases of coronavirus rose to around 120 from 81 the day before.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 3, US officials said there are now at least 120 confirmed cases in the US. Nine deaths have all been all in the Seattle area. Two cases were reported in New Hampshire.
(NY Times, 3/4/20)(Good Morning America, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 3, New York reported its 2nd case of coronavirus after Westchester County man tested positive. About 100 people nationwide have tested positive for the virus.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Belgium’s federal public health service said they had found five new cases after conducting tests the previous night. All of the patients had been traveling in the north of Italy.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, China's death toll from coronavirus reached 2,943, with more than 75 deaths elsewhere as 77 other countries and territories have reported the respiratory disease. More than 90,000 cases of the new coronavirus have been reported globally.
(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Germany said the number of confirmed cases has risen to 188. The virus has spread to 13 of the country’s 16 federal states.
(AP, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, said it has restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the medicines made from them, including paracetamol, as the coronavirus outbreak plays havoc with supply chains. The government said it had detected "high viral load" in six people who had been in contact with a patient who contracted the coronavirus in the capital New Delhi. 24 people who had come in contact with the Italian tourist have been moved to a separate facility for testing. They included 21 Italians and three Indians.
(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Infections rose again in Iran, where more officials were diagnosed. Iran reported 835 new confirmed cases, taking the total to 2,336. The death toll climbed to 77 from 66, while 435 patients have recovered. Eight percent of Iran's parliament, 23 out of 290 members, has been infected with the coronavirus. At least seven government officials also have it, including one of Iran's vice presidents.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)(Business Insider, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Japan’s tally of coronavirus cases approached the 1,000 mark.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, South Korea’s health ministry reported 374 more cases of the novel coronavirus, taking the country’s tally to 5,186.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Spain’s tally of coronavirus rose 32% to 150.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Sweden said it has nine new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, taking the total to 24.
(AP, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 4, US federal health officials announced new testing criteria for coronavirus, requiring only a doctor’s agreement. But it’s unclear whether there are enough tests for everybody who’ll want one.
(NY Times, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 4, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency over the COVID-19 virus, opening the way for federal aid, after the death of a man in Placer County, near Sacramento, who had been on an earlier sailing of the ship in February. This was the nation's first coronavirus death outside of Washington state and brought the US death toll to 11. California now had 53 confirmed cases.
(AP, 3/5/20)(Good Morning America, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 4, New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the four new cases of coronavirus, bringing the state's total number of confirmed cases to six, were all linked to a Westchester County-based lawyer.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Tennessee reported its first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus.
(Good Morning America, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 4, Texas confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus man in a man who recently traveled abroad.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 4, In Britain the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 87 in the biggest daily jump since it was first detected in the country.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)(Econ., 3/7/20, p.53)
2020 Mar 4, China reported 139 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of cases to 80,409. The death toll reached 2,981.
(Business Insider, 3/4/20)(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 4, China said it has approved the use of Swiss drugmaker Roche's anti-inflammation drug Actemra for patients who develop severe complications from the coronavirus as it urgently hunts for new ways to combat the deadly infection that is spreading worldwide.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Germany-based Lufthansa said it has cut its flight capacity in a move equivalent to grounding almost a fifth of its fleet, response to the coronavirus epidemic.
(AP, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Iran reported 15 new deaths from COVID-19 and 586 additional cases, bringing the overall toll to 92 dead and 2,922 infected.. President Hassan Rouhani dismissed a US offer to help the Islamic republic fight its coronavirus outbreak, charging that "vicious" American sanctions are depriving the country of medicine. Iran canceled Friday prayers in major cities.
(AFP, 3/4/20)(AP, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Iraq said a Muslim cleric (70) died today from the novel coronavirus, the first death from the outbreak in a country where 31 people have been infected.
(AFP, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Israel ordered travelers arriving from Germany, France, Spain, Austria and Switzerland to go into home quarantine over coronavirus concerns. The Health Ministry also ordered all international conferences in Israel cancelled and banned gatherings of more than 5,000 participants.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, The death toll in Italy soared to 79, with more than 2,500 people infected. A government source said Italy is to close all schools and universities starting March 5 to try to contain its worsening coronavirus outbreak.
(AFP, 3/4/20)(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Lebanon has 15 cases confirmed since Feb. 21 after infected travelers arrived from Iran. The outbreak was expected to grow, challenging hard-hit medical facilities.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 4, Saudi Arabia banned its citizens and other residents of the kingdom from performing the pilgrimage in Mecca due to the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, South Korea reported 516 new coronavirus cases. It now had had more than 5,600 cases and 32 deaths.
(Business Insider, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, In Sweden 16 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Stockholm, taking the total number of cases in Sweden to 52.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, It was reported that six US military individuals in South Korea have tested positive for COVID-19.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom said a ship with suspected links to two coronavirus cases, one fatal, was being held off the coast of San Francisco until everyone on board could be tested. At least 21 people on the ship had symptoms. The cases included guests who were on the previous Grand Princess voyage from Feb. 11 to 21.
(NY Times, 3/5/20)(Good Morning America, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, New Jersey confirmed its first case of coronavirus, a man (32) who had been hospitalized just across the Hudson River from New York City.
(Bloomberg, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, New York officials reported 11 new positive cases of coronavirus in Westchester County, bringing the state's total count to 24, with 21 of those in in Westchester County and four in New York City.
(Good Morning America, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Houston officials confirmed the first three cases of coronavirus in Harris County, the nation's third-largest county.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Washington state at least 39 new coronavirus cases have been reported in the Seattle area. A man in his 60s died, the ninth fatality associated with the outbreak at a Seattle area nursing home.
(AP, 3/5/20)(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 5, Brazil confirmed eight cases of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 5, Britain's HSBC sent more than 100 staff home after a worker tested positive for coronavirus, the first known case at a major company in London. Britain counted 90 cases.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Bulgaria declared a nationwide influenza epidemic to deal with the rapid rise of type B flu cases. All schools in the Black Sea state of 7 million were closed to March 11.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Scientists in China studying the outbreak say they have found that two main strains of the virus are circulating in humans and causing infections.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, It was reported that France has 377 confirmed cases of coronavirus and reported two more deaths, bringing the total to six.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Germany's new coronavirus cases jumped by 109 in a day, to 349.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Iran reported 15 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the national toll to 107, and said it would keep schools and universities closed until early April. 3513 people in Iran have now been infected with the coronavirus.
(AFP, 3/5/20)(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Iran announced it would put checkpoints in place to limit travel between major cities, hoping to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Hossein Sheikholeslam, an adviser to Iran's foreign minister, died from coronavirus.
(AP, 3/6/20)(AFP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of a nationwide contagion, has risen over the past day to 98 from 73.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Japan confirmed infections of coronavirus rose to 1,036.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, South Africa confirmed its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, South Korea reported 760 new coronavirus cases. South Korea confirmed 6,088 coronavirus cases, with a death toll of 37.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Spanish health authorities said they had identified as many as 193 coronavirus cases, including three children. Spain reported its first death two days earlier from the outbreak in Valencia.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Switzerland a woman (74) became the first local person to die from the novel coronavirus.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Thailand reported four new cases of coronavirus, bringing its total to 47 since January.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, The UN said a British UN employee is one of the four people who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Senegal.
(AFP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 6, Pres. Donald Trump signed an $8.3 billion measure to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak that has killed 14 people in the US and infected more than 200.
(AP, 3/6/20)(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, The Grand Princess cruise ship, with 3,500 aboard, remained docked 70 miles off the coast of San Francisco as health officials await results from dozens of coronavirus tests. Samples were collected from 45 people currently on board who were showing symptoms. At least 19 passengers and two crew members on Carnival Corp.’s Grand Princess, currently off the coast of California, have tested positive for the coronavirus virus.
(AP, 3/6/20)(SFC, 3/6/20, p.A9)(Bloomberg, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 6, In the SF Bay Area Santa Clara County reported 24 cases of coronavirus.
(SSFC, 3/7/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 6, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that the War Memorial and Performing Arts venues, including the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, will be closed for all public events for the next two weeks over fears of the rapid spread of the new coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/9/20, p.C1)
2020 Mar 6, Florida health officials confirmed the state’s first two deaths from coronavirus as well the first pair of cases in the Miami metropolitan area.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 6, Kentucky reported its first coronavirus case.
(Bloomberg, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 6, Nebraska reported its first coronavirus case.
(Bloomberg, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 6, The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York doubled to 22. More than 2,700 people were isolated at home.
(NY Times, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Utah confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Good Morning America, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Washington state two Microsoft employees have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. Facebook announced it is closing its Seattle office until March 9 after a contractor tested positive for the virus.
(Good Morning America, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In the US the number of cases passed 230 people scattered across 18 states. The new coronavirus hit a milestone, infecting more than 100,000 people worldwide as it wove itself deeper into the daily lives of millions, infecting the powerful, the unprotected poor and the vast masses in between.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, US drugmaker Biogen Inc said three of its employees tested positive for the coronavirus after attending a meeting in Boston last week, and that their condition was improving under medical care.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Belgium the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus more than doubled to 109 after 59 new patients tested positive.
(Good Morning America, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, An American tourist became the 1st confirmed case in Bhutan.
(Good Morning America, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Cameroon announced its first coronavirus infection.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, China reported 143 new cases, the same as a day earlier and about one-third what the country was seeing a week ago. Health authorities said the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu has confirmed 17 new coronavirus cases imported from Iran, bringing the total imported cases to 28.
(AP, 3/6/20)(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Egyptian officials said 12 people from a Nile cruise ship have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo set the tone for new rules due to coronavirus, warning everybody to improve personal hygiene and avoid crowds, at the celebrations of Ghana's 63rd independence anniversary. He ostentatiously kept both his hands resolutely behind his back when he arrived at the ceremony to greet those seated on the dais.
(BBC, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 6, Four cases of the coronavirus have been identified in Hungary thus far, including a pair of Iranian students who recently visited their homeland.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, India braced for a potential explosion of coronavirus cases as authorities rushed to trace, test and quarantine contacts of 31 people confirmed to have the disease.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Iran announced that the new coronavirus has killed 124 people amid 4,747 confirmed cases. The virus now was in all of Iran's 31 provinces.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Ireland more than 60 staff at a hospital were asked to self-isolate after the country's first community transmission of coronavirus was found there.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Italy at least 3,296 people have been infected with the coronavirus. The death reached at least 148.
(Good Morning America, 3/6/20)(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Japan confirmed coronavirus infections rose to 1,057.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, The Netherlands reported its first coronavirus death.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Peru announced its first coronavirus infection.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Serbia announced its first coronavirus infection.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Slovakia announced its first coronavirus infection.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, South Korea reported 505 additional cases, down from a high of 851 on March 3. The US military confirmed its seventh case among those stationed there.
(AP, 3/6/20)(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Spain confirmed its fifth coronavirus death, with 365 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Switzerland reported 130 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the national total to 210.
(Good Morning America, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Togo confirmed its first case of coronavirus, bringing the number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa hit by the epidemic to five.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Vatican City confirmed its first coronavirus case, but did not say who was infected.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 7, The number of Americans diagnosed with novel coronavirus is now at least 424, according to a case count by Johns Hopkins Univ. At least 19 people have died in the US in Washington state, California and Florida. There were now more than 101,000 infected worldwide and more than 3,400 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 3/7/20)(AP, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 7, A US Navy sailor stationed at the Naval Support Activity Naples tested positive for novel coronavirus, marking the first positive cause of a US service member in Europe.
(Good Morning America, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Grand Princess Capt. John Smith told passengers that the ship hit by the new coronavirus is headed to the port of Oakland, Ca. The ship carrying more than 3,500 people from 54 countries was expected to dock on March 9. Passengers were quarantined at Travis Air Force Base and many were released on a staggered basis from March 9 to March 13. Two-thirds of the 858 passengers at the base had declined testing. On March 20 seven of the tested passengers were reported positive for the virus.
(AP, 3/8/20)(SSFC, 3/22/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 7, Hawaii Gov. David Ige said a patient who had traveled aboard a Grand Princess cruise ship in early February became Hawaii's first case of the coronavirus.
(Good Morning America, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 7, Argentina's Ministry of Health said a 64-year-old man has died as a result of the new coronavirus, the first such death in Latin America.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Chile said it now had seven confirmed coronavirus cases, up from five.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In China about 70 people were trapped in a collapsed hotel in the city of Quanzhou, in southeastern Fujian Province. The collapsed hotel was used for coronavirus quarantine. 23 people were reported rescued. 23 remained trapped after the collapse of the hotel. 20 people died in the collapse. On March 9 a boy and his mother were rescued.
(Reuters, 3/7/20)(Reuters, 3/8/20)(SFC, 3/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 7, Costa Rica's Health Ministry confirmed four new cases of coronavirus, in addition to that of a case involving an American woman announced a day earlier. Her husband was among the new cases.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In Egypt about 150 tourists and local crew were quarantined on a cruise ship on the Nile river in the southern city of Luxor after 12 people tested positive for the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In France a member of the lower house was diagnosed with the virus and hospitalized. The Health Ministry said that two more people had died from the coronavirus, bringing the total death toll to 11 people. France has now 716 confirmed cases of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/7/20)(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Georgia reported a total of 12 cases in the country, 10 linked to Italy, which has Europe's worst outbreak, and the other two linked to Iran. Georgia reported its first case of coronavirus in the end of February.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Germany’s confirmed coronavirus infections rose to 684 from 534 a day earlier.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In Hungary the number of confirmed coronavirus patients increased to five since the first infections were announced on March 4. The government canceled a rally planned for the March 15 national holiday in central Budapest.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In Iran lawmaker Fatemeh Rahbar (55) died from the coronavirus, the first fatality among 23 infected members of parliament. The death toll from the virus increased to 145 as the number of diagnosed cases grew to 5,823.
(AFP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, People were not permitted to leave or enter Bethlehem, as per a decision made by Israeli and Palestinian authorities after 17 cases of novel coronavirus were confirmed in the city in the last 48 hours. 14 American citizens were being tested and have been quarantined in the Angles hotel in the city of Bethlehem for now.
(Good Morning America, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In Italy the number of fatalities due to the coronavirus were up 36 to 233, with infections growing to 8,883. Cases have now been confirmed in each of the country's 20 regions, with deaths recorded in eight of them.
(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Kuwait recorded 3 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing its infection tally to 61.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Malta reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Mexico reported seven instances of coronavirus, up from six.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 7, Paraguay reported its first case of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Peru announced five new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the country's total to six.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, The Philippines health department reported the country’s sixth infection. President Rodrigo Duterte agreed to declare a state of national public health emergency after a local transmission of coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Qatar reported its 12th case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, South Korea's coronavirus cases jumped above 7,000, up by 448 from the previous day. The death toll rose by two to 46.
(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Spain identified 93 new coronavirus cases, bringing its total to 441.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In the UAE The number of coronavirus cases rose to 45 from 30.
(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In Vietnam all air crew and ground staff working on a Vietnam Airlines’ flight from London to Hanoi on March 1 were being quarantined after a passenger tested positive for coronavirus. The Ministry of Health confirmed three new coronavirus cases, raising the number in the country to 20.
(AP, 3/7/20)(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 8, In the SF Bay Area ten new coronavirus cases were reported, five each in Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties. This brought the total in Santa clara to 37.
(SFC, 3/9/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 8, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said three cases of COVID-19 have been identified in the state.
(AP, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the number of people in his state to test positive for coronavirus has increased to 105.
(Good Morning America, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Vermont announced its first presumptive case of the coronavirus.
(Good Morning America, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Bangladesh reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Bulgaria reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Belgium's health ministry said the number of coronavirus cases in the country had reached 200. It said the virus had started to circulate locally among the Belgian population.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, China reported 40 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, down from 44 cases a day earlier, and the lowest number since the health authority started publishing nationwide data on January 20.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 8, Hong Kong recorded its third coronavirus death.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Indonesia confirmed that two more people had tested positive for the coronavirus, taking the total of confirmed cases in the country to six.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Iran said 194 people had died from coronavirus and 6,566 were now infected. IranAir stopped all flights to European destinations.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Italy imposed a virtual lockdown across a swathe of its wealthy north, including the financial capital Milan, in a drastic new attempt to try to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Deaths due to the infectious virus risen, by 36 to 233. Of the 5,883 Italians originally infected, 589 have fully recovered.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Tensions in Italy's overcrowded prisons erupted over new coronavirus containment measures, with riots in at least two dozen lock-ups and the deaths of six inmates who broke into an infirmary and overdosed on methadone. With 7,375 infected and 366 deaths, Italy has more virus cases than any country outside Asia.
(AP, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 8, The Maldives reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Moldova reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Moscow city authorities threatened prison terms of up to five years for people failing to self-isolate in their homes for two weeks after visiting countries hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Saudi Arabia said it has imposed a temporary lockdown on the eastern Qatif province, an oil-producing region and home to a large Shi'ite Muslim population, to prevent the spread of coronavirus after 11 people there were infected.
(AP, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 272 new coronavirus cases, for a total of 7,313 in the country. Two further deaths took the toll to 50.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, In Spain a large feminist march was allowed to go ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.46)
2020 Mar 8, Vietnam's coronavirus cases jumped to 29.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 9, President Trump attempted to dismiss coronavirus fears with a misleading tweet comparing the virus causing the global health crisis to the seasonal flu. His tweet came after trading on the New York Stock Exchange was temporarily halted as stocks plunged more than 2,000 points, a 7 percent drop that triggered an automatic pause. Trump blamed the "Fake News Media" and Democrats for conspiring "to inflame the Coronavirus situation" and wrongly suggested that the common flu was more dangerous.
(AP, 3/9/20)(Econ, 3/14/20, p.18)
2020 Mar 9, The US Department of Health and Human Services said it would contribute $699,000 to speed up Hologic Inc's development of a coronavirus diagnostic test.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, In the US 554 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed, with 21 reported deaths. Worldwide more than 110,000 people have tested positive for the disease and more than 3,800 people with the virus have died, most of them in China.
(AP, 3/9/20)(Benzinga, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Federal and state officials in California prepared to receive thousands of people from a cruise ship that has been idling off the coast of San Francisco with at least 21 people aboard infected with the coronavirus. Fences were installed at an 11-acre site at the Port of Oakland as authorities readied flights and buses to whisk the passengers aboard the ship to military bases or their home countries for a 14-day quarantine. Officials in Santa Clara imposed a ban on mass gatherings of more than 1,000 people for the next three weeks to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/9/20)(SFC, 3/10/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 9, The Seattle-area nursing home at the epicenter of one of the biggest coronavirus outbreaks in the United States said it had no kits to test 65 employees showing symptoms of the respiratory illness that has killed at least 13 patients at the long-term care center.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Belgium’s health ministry said the number of coronavirus cases in the country had reached 239, while it decided to limit tests to seriously ill patients and healthcare professionals due to shortages of reagents.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, In Britain a sixth person in the UK has died from coronavirus. There were 319 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 9, Canada recorded its first coronavirus death.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 9, Mainland China reported 19 new cases as of today, down from 40 cases a day earlier. Total confirmed cases in mainland China stood at 80,754. Hubei province, center of the outbreak, reported no new locally transmitted coronavirus cases for a second day.
(AP, 3/9/20)(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 9, In Egypt there were 59 confirmed coronavirus cases, including one fatality.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 9, An EU spokeswoman said a first case of coronavirus has been detected among staff at the European Commission.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Germany reported its first two deaths due to the coronavirus. The number of cases in Germany more than doubled to over 1,100 in the last few days, putting pressure on the government to act.
(Bloomberg, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Iran reported 43 new deaths from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall toll to 237 dead. 595 new cases were confirmed across the country, bringing the overall number of confirmed cases to 7,161. Iran temporarily released about 70,000 prisoners because of the coronavirus.
(AFP, 3/9/20)(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Italy went under a national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.11)
2020 Mar 9, In the Netherlands the number of people infected with the new coronavirus increased to 321, up from 264 a day earlier.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Panama confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 9, Saudi Arabia's health ministry said it has detected five new cases, bringing the total to 20.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 9, South Korea reported 165 new coronavirus cases, bringing the national tally to 7,478, while the death toll rose by one to 51.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, South Korea-based Daily NK reported that around 200 North Korean soldiers from several branches of the military have died from symptoms that may have been caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
(https://tinyurl.com/r85wkr7)(Daily NK, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 9, In Spain schools were closed in the town of Labastida near Vitoria in the Basque country after nearly 150 cases of coronavirus were identified in the region. The country has reported 999 cases in all, most of them in two areas around Madrid and around Vitoria.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Sweden's Stockholm region reported a jump in confirmed coronavirus cases to 207, an increase of 60 since yesterday.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, In the US a total of 761 confirmed cases of the coronavirus were confirmed nationwide as well as 27 deaths. The number of people infected with the coronavirus topped 116,000 across the world as the outbreak spread to more countries, causing greater economic damage.
(AP, 3/10/20)(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Iowa health officials announced that five more eastern Iowa residents have tested positive for new coronavirus. The new cases brought the total number of Iowa infections to 13.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Australia's coronavirus cases rose overnight to 100 from 80.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Bosnia's autonomous Serb region said it will shut all schools and universities and ban large public gatherings from March 11 until March 30 to help stem the spread of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Brunei said six people had tested positive a day after it reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, China's President Xi Jinping’ made his first trip to the COVID-19 epicenter of Wuhan as parts of the nation appeared to be returning to normal.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Congo DRC reported its first case of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, The Czech Republic, which has reported 40 cases of coronavirus, said it will suspend schools other than universities from March 11, and ban events hosting more than 100 people.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, In India Hindus threw colored powder and sprayed water in massive celebrations of the festival of Holi, but the enthusiasm was subdued compared to previous years because of fears of the new virus. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country rose to 47.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, In Iran the coronavirus outbreak killed 54 more people and pushed the nation's death toll to 291. This was an 18% increase in deaths from the day before and 12% more confirmed cases. Health ministry spokesperson Kianoush Jahanpour said there were 8,042 confirmed cases. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said doctors and nurses who die combating the new coronavirus will be recognized as “martyrs" like slain soldiers. State-run media said a rumor circulating in Iran that alcohol can treat coronavirus has so far led to 37 deaths and sent 270 people to the hospital after being poisoned by bootleg alcohol.
(AP, 3/10/20)(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 10, It was reported that the coronavirus outbreak in Israel, largely contained, began to gain pace in recent days, with a total of 58 cases diagnosed as of today. 26 confirmed cases have been reported in the Palestinian Territories.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Italy entered its first day under a nationwide lockdown after a government decree extended restrictions on movement from the hard-hit north to the rest of the country. Italy counted 9,172 cases and 463 deaths. The number of dead from riots in Italy's overcrowded prisons over measures imposed to contain the coronavirus rose to 12.
(AP, 3/10/20)(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Kosovo's government approved the 2020 budget after the small Balkan country held a snap election in October and elected the government after months of negotiations.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Lebanon reported its first death due to coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Mongolia reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Morocco's health ministry confirmed the country's first death from coronavirus in Casablanca, as its overall number of new infections rose to three.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Dutch health authorities took action to contain an outbreak of the coronavirus in a southern province, where a large group of employees at hospitals tested positive for the illness. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases had risen by 61 to 382. One more person had died, taking the number of deaths so far to four.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Norway-based Equinor reported the oil industry's first coronavirus infection on an offshore installation, highlighting the challenge in preventing contamination for thousands of workers living in the close quarters on rigs and platforms.
(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 10, Poland has reported 17 coronavirus cases so far and has announced the cancellation of all large-scale events.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Singapore started charging visitors for coronavirus treatment after it reported new imported cases from neighboring Indonesia.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, The Spanish parliament’s lower house canceled its activities for a week after a far-right Vox party member tested positive as coronavirus cases in the country surged to 1,600. Health authorities said known coronavirus cases in the capital region had risen to 1,024 from 782. Authorities have reported 47 deaths, 31 of them in Madrid.
(AP, 3/10/20)(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 10, Taiwan began to airlift almost 500 of its residents from Wuhan. Another 500 Taiwanese will for now remain stuck in the central Chinese city.
(Bloomberg, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 11, The US reported 1,039 cases of confirmed coronavirus, the eighth-highest in the world. The death toll reached 31. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confirmed that three of its officers who work at the Mineta San Jose International Airport have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the virus outbreak in the US was only going to get worse. A new report said the new coronavirus can live in the air for several hours and on some surfaces for as long as two to three days. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 987 cases of the coronavirus, an increase of 291 from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 4 to 29. The CDC figures did not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.
(Good Morning America, 3/11/20)(AP, 3/11/20)(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, The US state of Georgia has 23 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus so far.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Albania announced its first virus-related death.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Bahrain authorities said their number of confirmed cases have spiked by nearly 70% to 189 confirmed cases. The 77 new cases were all on a returning flight of Bahraini evacuees from Iran.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Belgium announced its first virus-related death.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Bulgaria announced its first virus-related death.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, China announced that key companies can resume work in coronavirus-hit Wuhan. The coronavirus has now killed over 3,100 and infected nearly 81,000 in the country. Beijing ordered people arriving in the city from any country to go into 14-day quarantine as China reported an increase in imported coronavirus cases, threatening its progress against the epidemic.
(AFP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Denmark went under a national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.11)
2020 Mar 11, Germany reported 1,622 confirmed cases of coronavirus, making it the seventh-highest national total in the global outbreak. Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that up to 70 percent of the country's population, roughly 58 million people, could contract the virus.
(Good Morning America, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, India suspended most visas in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 11, In Iran the death toll in the Islamic Republic from the outbreak rose by 62 to 354. The semiofficial Fars news agency reported that Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri and two other Cabinet members have contracted the new coronavirus.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Italy's PM Giuseppe Conte earmarked $28.3 billion to ease the economic impact from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Kuwait reported over 70 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and announced that it would close down all work and business for two weeks beginning March 12.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Lebanon suspended flights from countries hit hardest by the novel coronavirus after announcing its second death from the pandemic in two days.
(AFP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Malta banned travel with Germany, France, Spain and Switzerland to try to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Malta so far had six confirmed virus cases, all involving people who had visited Italy.
(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Poland, which has confirmed 25 coronavirus cases, shut schools, banned large social events and closed cinemas, museums and other cultural sites, following similar measures by other countries in the region including the Czech Republic and Romania.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Qatar said it has recorded 238 new coronavirus cases among individuals already under quarantine in one residential compound, taking the country's total tally to 262.
(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Serbia canceled campaign events for the country’s April 26 parliamentary election in an effort to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus after the number of cases in the Balkan state more than doubled overnight to 12.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, South Korea confirmed a total of 114 coronavirus infections, taking the country's total to 7,869. A new cluster of infections was discovered in a call center office building in Seoul.
(AP, 3/12/20)(Econ, 3/14/20, p.48)
2020 Mar 11, In Spain, the number of coronavirus cases surged past the 2,000-mark.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Sweden announced its first virus-related death.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, The World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic, a term that it had avoided using for fear that countries would give up on containment efforts.
(NY Times, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, The US now had at least 1,323 cases of coronavirus, the eighth-highest number of cases worldwide. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported about 1,260 US coronavirus illnesses. The number trailed independent researchers, who are adding reports from individual states more quickly. Globally, there have been over 126,000 confirmed cases with over 4,600 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
(Good Morning America, 3/12/20)(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 12, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new restrictions on public gatherings, saying that they must now be limited to no more than 250 people, while smaller events can proceed only if the organizers can implement social distancing of 6 feet per person.
(Good Morning America, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, In New York City a female diplomat from the Philippines mission to the United Nations tested positive for coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, The national guard arrived in New Rochelle, New York, to maintain a containment zone just 25 miles outside of New York City.
(Good Morning America, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, Algeria's president ordered all schools closed immediately after the North African country saw its first death from the virus. Algeria has 25 cases so far.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, Argentina's Pres. Alberto Fernandez shut down borders, business and transport by decree to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The central bank was printing money to keep the government going with inflation was already at 50%
(Econ, 4/25/20, p.23)
2020 Mar 12, Azerbaijan reported its first death from the coronavirus outbreak, an Azeri woman who was quarantined after returning from Iran.
(Reuters, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, Canadian authorities confirmed that PM Justin Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau has tested positive for the COVID-19, following her visit to the United Kingdom. At least 117 cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in Canada with one death.
(Benzinga, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, El Salvador announced a national lockdown as it reported three confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.24)
2020 Mar 12, Gabon confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 12, Ghana confirmed their first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 12, Iran said it had asked last week for an emergency $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help fight the spread of a new virus that's swept across the country, infecting more than 10,000 people and killing hundreds. The Health Ministry said 75 people had died in the past 24 hours and more than 1,000 new cases of infection had been confirmed, pushing the death toll to 429 and confirmed cases to 10,075.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, Israel shut down its education system due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ultra-Orthodix schools continued to operate.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.38)
2020 Mar 12, Italy's Premier Giuseppe Conte ordered restaurants, cafes and retail shops closed after imposing a nationwide lockdown on personal movement. Jewelry and clothing shops that on Tuesday and Wednesday had posted signs urging customers to queue up out the door a meter (3.3 feet) apart were closed until further notice. Supermarkets, pharmacies and outdoor markets were still open.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced strict immigration curbs and a halt on domestic land, sea and air travel to and from Manila, in what he called a "lockdown" of the capital to arrest the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, South Africa reported 17 confirmed coronavirus infections, including its first transmitted locally. Across Africa, 12 of the continent's 54 countries have registered COVID-19 cases, the most recent being Ivory Coast announcing one case.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, South Korea reported fewer than 120 new coronavirus cases, but authorities warned that a new cluster in Seoul could see the infection spread in the capital.
(AFP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, Sudan's first death from the coronavirus was of a man who had visited the United Arab Emirates in the first week of March.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 12, Vietnam's coronavirus cases rose to 44.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Pres. Donald Trump declared the coronavirus outbreak a national emergency, freeing up money and resources to fight it, and threw his support behind a congressional aid package. Trump said “I don't take responsibility at all" for the slow rollout of testing. Trump said that major cruise lines including Royal Caribbean would suspend cruises for 30 days at his request after repeated transmission of coronavirus among passengers at sea.
(AP, 3/14/20)(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 13, President Donald Trump's administration announced it is awarding $1.3 million to two companies trying to develop rapid COVID-19 tests that could detect whether a person is positive for the new coronavirus within an hour. The Department of Health and Human Services said it is awarding $679,000 to DiaSorin Molecular, of Cypress, California, and $598,000 to QIAGEN, of Germantown, Maryland, to accelerate development of their tests.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, A US federal government plan to combat the coronavirus warned policymakers that a pandemic “will last 18 months or longer" and could include “multiple waves," resulting in widespread shortages that would strain consumers and the nation’s health care system.
(NY Times, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 13, US officials said inmates at all 122 federal correctional facilities across the country will no longer be allowed visits from family, friends or attorneys for the next 30 days, in response to the threat of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc's coronavirus test, which would allow the firm to increase capacity to 1.4 million tests a week.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that the New York State Department of Health can authorize certain laboratories to begin testing for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, New York state opened its first drive-through coronavirus test site, following a similar experiment in Seattle.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 13, More than 134,500 people have been infected globally by the coronavirus and over 4,900 have died, according to a Reuters tally of government announcements.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Australia warned citizens the coronavirus pandemic is now so widespread that they should reconsider all foreign travel, as the government stepped up measures to slow the spread of the disease.
(AFP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Austria said will introduce border checks with Switzerland and ban flight connections with France, Spain and Switzerland from March 16 to slow the rapidly spreading coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Belarus said it has recorded 27 people infected with coronavirus, six more than a day before.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Britain's number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 590. Ten people have died.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, The Bulgarian parliament voted unanimously to declare a state of emergency until April 13 as the number of confirmed cases in the country more than tripled to 23.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Cambodia recorded two new cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 13, China reported its lowest tally from the coronavirus since January, with eight new infections confirmed in the past 24 hours and seven deaths. Wuhan city reported five new cases. About 81,000 people have been diagnosed and about 64,000 have recovered. The death toll touched 3,176.
(NY Times, 3/13/20)(AP, 3/13/20)(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Chinese billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma said he will donate 500,000 coronavirus testing kits and 1 million masks to the United States and urged international cooperation to fight the health crisis.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Costa Rica, which has reported 22 cases, ordered all university classes suspended.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Ecuador suspended large events and shut its schools as it confirmed 15 cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.24)
2020 Mar 13, Ethiopia confirmed its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, In France the death toll from coronavirus rose to 61.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Germany recorded 3,062 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with five deaths. The German government unleashed the biggest economic aid package in the country's post-war history, offering companies "unlimited" credit to keep them afloat during the coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)(AFP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Greece said it will close all its museums and archaeological sites, including the entire Acropolis that looms over Athens, until the end of the month due to the impact of the coronavirus. Greece had 117 confirmed cases and one fatality.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, In Hong Kong a man (80) became the fourth patient to die from coronavirus.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, The Icelandic government said it would ban public gatherings of 100 or more people and that secondary schools and universities would close for four weeks to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. So far, 117 cases of coronavirus infections have been confirmed in the country.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Two Indian states ordered the closure of public buildings, malls, cinemas and bars in several major cities, with Mumbai and Bengaluru subject to differing restrictions, after the country reported its first death from the coronavirus. India had 74 confirmed cases of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Iran announced that the new coronavirus has claimed another 85 lives, the highest single-day death toll in one of the world's worst affected countries. This brought to 514 the overall number of deaths in the country. The total number of patients has reached 11,364 cases.
(AFP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland's government called for the closure of schools to mirror measures across the border in the Republic of Ireland, putting them at odds with their pro-British power-sharing partners. Northern Ireland currently has 20 confirmed cases of COVID-19 compared with 70 in the Republic of Ireland, where the population is around two and a half times bigger.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, In Israel 126 cases of the disease have been reported and another 35 in the occupied West Bank. Muslims gathered in smaller-than-usual numbers at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem after religious authorities decided to keep Islam's third holiest site open for prayers but enact health measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Italy's death toll from the coronavirus epidemic shot past 1,000 as the economic impact worsened. The total number of infections rose to 15,113.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, In Japan total coronavirus infections rose to 1,380.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Kazakhstan confirmed first coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Kenya confirmed East Africa's first case of coronavirus, a woman who had returned to the capital Nairobi from the United States.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Mexico has so far confirmed 15 cases of coronavirus with no deaths. Deputy health secretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell said Mexico would consider mechanisms to control the flow of people entering Mexico from the US in an effort to limit coronavirus, if necessary.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, In the Netherlands new coronavirus infections reached 804, with 10 deaths. Dutch shoppers stockpiled toilet paper, pasta and canned goods as worries about the coronavirus outbreak spread. The price of tulips for export stalled at zero due to the coronavirus pandemic. Growers ended up dumping some 400 million flowers.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)(SFC, 4/23/20, p.C2)
2020 Mar 13, Pakistan said it will shut all land borders and limit international flights for 15 days to halt the spread of coronavirus. Pakistan has reported 21 cases of the virus but no deaths.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Poland reported its first death from coronavirus. So far, 47 cases have been confirmed in the country.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Saudi Arabia detected 17 new coronavirus cases, 11 of whom were Egyptians.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, South Korea recorded 110 new coronavirus cases, compared with 114 a day earlier, taking the national tally to 7,979, with the death toll rising by five to 72 as of late today.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, In Spain the number of coronavirus cases jumped to 4,209 from 3,004 a day earlier, as the disease spread mostly in Madrid, the Basque Country and La Rioja regions. The death toll from the epidemic has increased to 120 from 84 the previous day. In the Madrid region said the number of cases rose to 2,078.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Thailand reported five new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 75.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Turkey said a second patient has been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Uruguay's new Pres. Luis Lacalle Pou declared an emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic and shut down borders.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.26)
2020 Mar 14, Vice President Mike Pence said that new US travel bans would be implemented on the United Kingdom and Ireland as the novel coronavirus pandemic spreads.
(The Daily Beast, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, In the SF Bay Area 27 new coronavirus cases were reported, with 12 in Santa Clara County, 6 in San Mateo County, 5 in SF and 4 in Contra costa County. SF banned al most all hospital visitors as part of tis effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
(SSFC, 3/15/20, p.A12)
2020 Mar 14, New York state reported 100 new cases, pushing the total to 524,. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said accelerated testing will lead to a rapid rise in total infections. Nationwide, more than 2,000 people have been infected and 48 have died. A Reuters count said some 145,594 people have been infected by the coronavirus across the world and 5,419 have died.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, New York City reported its first fatality from the coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, The Central African Republic confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 14, The Dominican Republic said it will suspend all flights from Europe and the arrival of all cruise ships for a month in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. So far 11 cases of coronavirus have been detected.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 14, Egypt said it will suspend schools and universities for two weeks starting March 15 amid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The country has so far registered 93 cases of the new coronavirus, with two fatalities.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), a small African nation on South Africa’s eastern border, confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, The French government published an official decree banning all non-essential gatherings, but hundreds of protesters, some wearing protective masks, began convening outside the Montparnasse train station, chanting anti-Macron slogans. Thousands of security forces fanned out across central Paris as anti-government "Yellow Vest" protesters defied a ban on mass gatherings aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Greece said it would suspend all flights that were still operating to and from Italy, after reporting two more fatalities from a coronavirus infection, raising the total number of deaths in the country to three. Greece had 190 confirmed cases of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Indonesia reported that Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has been hospitalized in Jakarta after he contracted coronavirus. Indonesia reported 27 more coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of confirmed infection to 96 with five deaths.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Iran said the coronavirus outbreak has killed another 97 people, pushing the death toll in the country to 611. Iran has reported 12,729 cases in total.
(AP, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Authorities in Iraq's northern Kurdish region imposed a 48-hour curfew in the cities of Irbil and Sulaimaniyah that began overnight. The region has reported 27 cases, including one fatality from the COVID-19 illness caused by the virus.
(AP, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Italy reported more than 21,000 cases of coronavirus and 1,441 deaths, the second most heavily affected country after China.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 14, It was reported that 9 players in Italy’s top soccer league, Serie A, have tested positive for the coronavirus. Games have been suspended until at least April 3. Italian supercar maker Ferrari said it will suspend production at the Maranello and Modena plants until March 27. Volkswagen AG’s Lamborghini has also suspended production in Italy until March 25.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, In Kuwait, four more people have been infected with the virus, bringing the number of coronavirus cases to 104.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Malaysia reported 41 new infections, the biggest one-day jump so far, for a total of 238. The new cases bring the total number of infected people in the country to 238.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Mauritania, in northwest Africa, confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Morocco confirmed 9 new coronavirus cases bringing the total number of infected people to 17. Morocco has suspended all football matches, closed all schools, halted flights with 9 countries and cancelled gatherings of more than 50 people.
(AP, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Dutch health authorities said the number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the Netherlands has risen by 155 to 959. The number of deaths rose by 2 to a total of 12.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern said that everyone entering the country from midnight March 15 must self isolate for 14 days in an effort to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. New Zealand had six confirmed cases and no recorded deaths.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Russia’s PM Mikhail Mishustin signed orders to close the land borders with Poland and Norway for most foreign citizens from March 15.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Rwanda reported its first coronavirus case becoming the 19th African nation to report the presence of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Saudi Arabia said it would halt all flights to the kingdom for two weeks beginning March 15.
(AP, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Seychelles confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 14, Spain recorded 5,753 coronavirus cases, up by a third from a day earlier. Spain said it will impose a nationwide lockdown beginning March 16 for two weeks as part of a state of emergency due to the virus. Car production at a Renault-Nissan plant in Barcelona has been stopped because of supply-chain disruptions due to the virus.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 15, US officials recorded nearly 3,000 cases of coronavirus with 63 deaths, up from 58 a day earlier. Globally more than 162,000 were infected and over 6,400 have died. The US Navy said a sailor aboard a warship ship has tested positive for the coronavirus for the first time. The only state not reporting cases is West Virginia. Cases neared 160,000 worldwide, as deaths top 6,000. Several countries cautioned that fewer tests are being performed as more people fall ill. A US Army soldier tested positive for the coronavirus, marking the first US Army case in Europe.
(NY Times, 3/15/20)(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new state measure to combat the coronavirus, urging that bars close and restaurants reduce capacity. Newsom also asked all state residents 65 and older to isolate themselves at home.
(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 15, In the SF Bay Area Santa Clara's health officer confirmed 114 cases of coronavirus, the most of any county in the state and about 30% of the cases statewide.
(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 15, New Jersey reported its second death from the coronavirus, The state has 69 positive tests, up from 50 the day before.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo said two state Assembly members , Helene Weinstein and Charles Barron, have tested positive for Covid-19. The state reported 729 confirmed cases, an increase of 69. There have been three deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(The Independent, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a decision to close city schools through at least April 20. Hours later the mayor also took aim at the city's nightlife, saying he would sign an order on March 16 limiting the city's 27,000 restaurants and bars to takeout and delivery only effective on the morning of March 17.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, US sportswear giant Nike Inc said it is closing all of its stores in the United States and several other countries to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Several African countries closed borders, canceled flights and imposed strict entry and quarantine requirements to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, which has a foothold in 26 nations including Burkina Faso, Congo Brazzaville and Equatorial Guinea.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Australia's New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, reported 22 new cases taking the totally tally to 134. Eight new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the state of Victoria, bringing the total number of cases in that state to 57. Australia said it will impose 14-day self-isolation on international travelers arriving from midnight and ban cruise ships from foreign ports for 30 days.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Austria the number of confirmed coronavirus cases jumped to 800, from 602 a day earlier.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Belgium’s health ministry reported 197 new cases, bringing the total of confirmed infections to 886.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, The British government announced England will join a growing list of countries offering HIV-prevention pill to all those at high risk of catching the virus. More than 100,000 people were estimated to be living with HIV in the UK in 2018.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, PM Boyko Borissov said Bulgaria will raise the salaries of all medics involved in treating coronavirus patients by 1000 levs ($566) per month as it steps up measures to contain the fast-spreading infection. Confirmed cases had almost doubled to 43 with two deaths.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Cambodia said French national travelling from Paris via Singapore to Phnom Penh has been infected with the coronavirus, bringing the country's tally of cases to eight.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Cameroon a passenger arriving from Brussels was whisked to a hospital and diagnosed inside four hours as the country's fourth case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 15, China reported 16 new confirmed cases of coronavirus bringing its total to 80,860. Beijing said it will quarantine all travelers from overseas, including Chinese citizens, at designated locations for 14 days as the government shifts its focus to limiting imported coronavirus cases.
(AP, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, Denmark's government told private companies struggling with drastic measures to curb the spread of coronavirus that it would cover 75% of employees' salaries, if they promised not to cut staff.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Ethiopia has now recorded four coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Finland had a total of 240 coronavirus cases.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Georgia's government said it will temporarily shut its border with Russia for travelers from March 16 in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Georgia had 30 cases of coronavirus, the highest number in the South Caucasus region.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Germany's Health Ministry confirmed a report in newspaper Welt am Sonntag, which said President Donald Trump had offered funds to lure the company CureVac to the United States, and the German government was making counter-offers to tempt it to stay.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Guatemala logged its first fatality from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, India reported that the number of coronavirus infections had risen to 107, an increase of 23 from the day before.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Indonesia reported 21 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 117.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Iran's Health Ministry added another 113 deaths and 1,209 new confirmed cases of the COVID-19 infection. It said the outbreak has claimed 724. Some 13,938 people have been infected across the country.
(AFP, 3/15/20)(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Italy recorded 368 more deaths from the coronavirus. It had 24,747 cases and 1,809 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Japan the number of coronavirus infections rose to 1,484, increasing by a faster pace than the previous day. The total number of infections included 697 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and 14 returnees on charter flights from China.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Jordan confirmed 12 new coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, Kenya has now recorded three coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Lebanon's Health Ministry said that it had recorded 99 cases of coronavirus. Pres. Michel Aoun called for citizens to work from home and avoid socializing to prevent the spread of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Malaysia confirmed 190 new coronavirus cases, pushing its overall total to 428, the most in Southeast Asia.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In the Netherlands the number of deaths rose by eight to 20, while confirmed cases increased by 176 to 1,135.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Peru's Pres. Martin Vizcarra imposed a lockdown and quarantine as his country reported 71 cases of the coronavirus.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.26)
2020 Mar 15, The Philippines recorded 4 additional coronavirus deaths and 29 new cases, bringing the domestic tally of infections to 140, as authorities placed the entire capital Manila under "community quarantine" for about a month.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, Poland’s coronavirus cases rose to 111 cases with three deaths. The count was rising as the nation is now testing all those who are in quarantine.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Singapore confirmed 14 new cases of the novel coronavirus, marking the biggest daily increase of the infection in the city-state. Nine of the cases were imported. Singapore has confirmed a total 226 cases of the virus so far, with 105 having fully recovered.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Slovakia reported 54 coronavirus cases, an increase of 10.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, South Africa reported its first local transmission of coronavirus, increasing the number of cases to 62. President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced social-distancing and declared a national state of disaster to combat the spread of the coronavirus as his counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa took similar steps to curb the threat in a region that accounts for only 1% of global health-care spending.
(BBC, 3/16/20)(AP, 3/16/20)(Econ, 4/18/20, p.33)
2020 Mar 15, South Korea reported 76 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, an all-time low since Feb. 20, when the country saw a surge of over 500 in four days. The country’s total tally stands at 8,162 with a total of 75 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Spain’s diagnosed cases of the coronavirus jumped 35% to 7,753 and the death toll rose by 152 to 288. Ford Motors said it would shut its Spanish plant in the eastern region of Valencia for one week starting tomorrow after three employees tested positive for coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Switzerland coronavirus infections jumped by nearly 1,000 cases in 24 hours to 2,200 and 14 deaths were recorded from the virus across the country.
(AFP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Thailand reported 32 new cases of the coronavirus in the largest daily jump in infections since the outbreak began, bringing its total tally to 114.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Turkey said thousands of Muslims returning to home from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia were being taken into quarantine due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Vietnam's health ministry said all passengers coming from or through China, South Korea, the UK and Schengen countries will be quarantined and tested for coronavirus. Vietnam reported 37 new coronavirus cases over the past week, taking the tally to 53.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 16, Globally more than 174,000 coronavirus cases were reported with more than 6,700 deaths. Global stocks fell sharply after central bank moves to shore up economic growth failed to dispel investor's fears over virus controls that are shutting global business and travel.
(Good Morning America, 3/16/20)(AP, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, US surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams said that the number of coronavirus cases in the US has reached the level that Italy recorded two weeks ago, a sign that infections are expected to rise as the government steps up testing and financial markets continue to fall. The coronavirus has killed at least 67 people in the US with at least 3,774 confirmed cases.
(AP, 3/16/20)(Good Morning America, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, San Francisco area leaders told seven million people in six counties to "shelter in place." Other localities ordered restaurants, bars, and other public gathering spots to shut their doors. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US jumped past 4,600, with at least 85 deaths.
(The Week, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 16, In Washington state the first participant in a clinical trial for a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus received an experimental dose. Washington state said it will shutter its entertainment venues and recreational facilities and limit restaurants to delivery and take-out. The ban will not apply to grocery stores and pharmacies.
(AP, 3/16/20)(Good Morning America, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, In western Afghanistan dozens of patients held in isolation, including at least one confirmed to have the coronavirus, escaped from a quarantine facility after breaking windows and attacking hospital staff in Herat province. The 38 people who escaped had all recently returned from Iran. Afghanistan has so far confirmed 21 cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Armenia's government announced a state of emergency for one month to slow the spread of the coronavirus. An April 5 referendum on constitutional reforms was postponed.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Australia's capital and 2nd most populous state declared states of emergency after the national death toll from the coronavirus rose to five with nearly 300 cases in total.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Austria's government said it will allocate 2 billion euros for loan guarantees on top of a 4-billion-euro aid fund to buffer the economy from the damage of coronavirus, as the number of confirmed cases in the country rose to 1,018.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Bosnia's autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation declared a state of disaster, which will enable it to introduce emergency measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Bosnia has reported 24 cases of the new virus so far, 20 of them in the country's other autonomous region, the Serb Republic.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, In Brazil local media reported that as many as 1,000 inmates had fled four jails ahead of a planned lockdown of the facilities over the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 16, Britain's Fred Olsen Cruise Lines wrote in a statement that its cruise ship Braemar, that was turned away from several ports in the Caribbean after five passengers were confirmed to have the new coronavirus, has set sail to Cuba which is allowing it to dock.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Germany's federal and state governments agreed sweeping rules shutting everything from non-essential shops to bars, clubs, theatres, museums, brothels and churches in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Iran's health ministry said the death toll from the new coronavirus has reached 853 with 129 new deaths in the past 24 hours. 1,053 new confirmed cases were reported. Iran closed four key Shiite pilgrimage sites to stop a coronavirus outbreak that has killed over 850 people out of nearly 15,000 cases recorded in the Islamic republic.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)(AFP, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Israel government authorized Shin Bet, the internal security service, and the police to use their technical knowledge to track and access the mobile phones of those who have been infected with the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.16)
2020 Mar 16, In northern Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Lombardy rose by 202 over the past day to 1,420 from 1,218. Italy's total death toll reached 1,809, a 25 percent increase over the day before.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)(NY Times, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 16, Japan's health ministry said it has identified 15 clusters of coronavirus infections around the country.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Benin, Liberia, Somalia and Tanzania became the latest African countries to report cases of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Malaysia reported a daily jump of 125 cases to 553. 338 of Malaysia's cases have been linked to the religious gathering at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur between Feb. 28 and March 1. PM Muhyiddin Yassin said Malaysia it will shut its borders to travelers, restrict internal movement, close schools and universities and order most businesses to shut after its number of coronavirus cases climbed to the highest in Southeast Asia.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, The government of the Philippines imposed "Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) across the island of Luzon, home to Manila and about half of the country's 107 million people.
(Econ., 7/11/20, p.30)
2020 Mar 16, Senegalese President Macky Sall declared a national state of disaster and canceled the country’s most important religious festival due to take place later this month following a surge in cases to 26 from 10.
(Bloomberg, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, South Korea reported 74 new coronavirus cases bringing its total to 8,236.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Switzerland's region of Geneva declared a "state of necessity" due to the coronavirus global pandemic, shutting bars and restaurants and limiting gatherings to just five people.
(AFP, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Venezuela's capital of Caracas woke to quiet streets and military checkpoints on the first day of a quarantine ordered by President Nicolas Maduro to combat the coronavirus. The country has confirmed 17 cases of the virus and no deaths.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 17, The Trump administration called for $1 trillion in spending, including $250 billion for direct payments to Americans, as the federal government prepares to fight the coronavirus pandemic and an almost certain recession.
(NY Times, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, New York state closed all schools for two weeks. The state has 1,374 cases of coronavirus and 12 people have died. The US had 5,124 cases of coronavirus with 96 deaths.
(AP, 3/17/20)(https://ncov2019.live/)
2020 Mar 17, It was reported that a TSA officer at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport has tested positive for COVID-19. This marked the 8th TSA officer to test positive for COVID-19. The other cases were in California, Florida and Georgia.
(Good Morning America, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Texas confirmed its first death due to coronavirus.
(The Independent, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, West Virginia reported its first confirmed coronavirus infection. There are now known coronavirus cases in all 50 US states.
{West Virginia, USA, COVID-19}
(NY Times, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said it had identified hundreds of antibodies that could treat or prevent the coronavirus and was preparing to begin clinical trials by early summer, sending the drugmaker's shares up nearly 12%.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Brazil's government called for a state of emergency to loosen fiscal rules as it faced challenges from the coronavirus pandemic and oil price war. Brazil reported its first death due to the virus and closed its border to Venezuelans for an initial 15 days, citing strains on the public health system and what its president described as Venezuela's inability to respond.
{Brazil, COVID-19}
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Britain's health ministry said cases of coronavirus rose 26% to 1,950 from 1,543 the day before. The National Health Service (NHS) announced plans to cancel all routine surgery for three months and to send home as many patients as possible to free up staff and beds to deal with the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Bulgaria banned all foreign and domestic holiday trips until April 13 as part of efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Balkan country had 81 confirmed cases of the new virus and two deaths.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said his government would provide financial support to people during the coronavirus outbreak as he urged them to stay at home to slow the spread of COVI0D-19.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Chinese doctors reported that Avigan (favipiravir), a drug used against influenza in Japan, led to clinical improvements in coronavirus patients.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.18)
2020 Mar 17, Croatia's government proposed to postpone tax payments for at least three months and make loans available to struggling business in response to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Croatia has so far reported 65 cases of coronavirus. Four people have recovered and no one has yet died from COVID-19.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Egypt, which has 166 confirmed cases of the new virus including four fatalities, announced the lockdown of the Red Sea province that includes the popular resort town of Hurghada. Egypt lowered the price of natural gas for industrial use to $4.5 per mmbtu and cut a tax on dividends for companies listed on its stock exchange to 5% in an attempt to soften the impact of the spread of the coronavirus on the economy.
(AP, 3/17/20)(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, European Union leaders agreed to restrict most travel into the continent in an unprecedented move aimed at slowing down the spread of a deadly coronavirus and mitigating its effects on the bloc. Europe logged 10,560 new COVID-19 infections, with 3,590 of the cases diagnosed in Italy.
(Bloomberg, 3/17/20)(Business Insider, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, French President Emmanuel Macron declared “war" on Covid-19 with a raft of measures to keep citizens in lock-down mode, including a ban on non-essential travel, just a few days after ordering business closures and shutting schools.
(Bloomberg, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Indian authorities expanded the population eligible for testing to health care workers with symptoms who are treating patients with severe respiratory illnesses. Authorities have confirmed 126 cases linked to foreign travel or direct contact with someone who caught the disease abroad. Indian authorities said that they would not widely expand testing for the virus, despite mounting criticism from some experts that the limited tests could mask the true toll of the disease in the world's second most populous country.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Iran issued its most dire warning yet about the outbreak of the new coronavirus ravaging the country, suggesting “millions" could die in the Islamic Republic if the public keeps traveling and ignoring health guidance. Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the virus had killed 135 more people to raise the total to 988 amid over 16,000 cases. In efforts to curb the spread of the virus, Iran has released 85,000 prisoners on temporary leave.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Official data in Italy showed that 31,506 people have been confirmed as positive for the coronavirus. The official death toll passed 2,500.
(AP, 3/18/20)(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, The Lithuanian parliament voted to the raise borrowing limit by 4.5 billion euros, and to allow the government to borrow over the limit to fight effects of the coronavirus. Lithuania had 22 cases of coronavirus with no deaths.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)(https://ncov2019.live/)
2020 Mar 17, Pakistani PM Imran Khan declared that there would be no national lockdown to block the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.36)
2020 Mar 17, Qatari authorities announced the closure of several square km of the industrial area in the capital Doha, which also contains labor camps and other housing units, due to the coronavirus. Qatar relies on about 2 million migrant workers for the bulk of its labor force.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 17, Senegal has recorded 27 cases of coronavirus. Medical staff said they had received limited protective equipment beyond extra gloves and masks.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, South Africa's national ports operator Transnet said it is holding the cruise liner, MV AidAmira, and a cargo vessel off Cape Town's port limits after a crew member onboard one of the vessels showed signs of coronavirus. The MV Aidamira, with 1,240 passengers and 486 crew on board, had returned to Cape Town from Namibia’s Walvis Bay.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)(BBC, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced a package of measures worth a total 200 billion euros ($219 billion), between loans, credit guarantees, benefits and direct aid, to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the economy.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Ukrainian shops, restaurants and transport shut down as the country tightened restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Police arrested five people suspected of trying to rob 100,000 surgical masks at gunpoint in Kiev.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 18, US Pres. Donald Trump announced that Canada and the US have agreed to temporarily close their shared border to nonessential travel in the wakre of the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 3/19/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 18, The Trump administration asked Congress for $500 billion for direct payments to taxpayers and $500 billion in loans for businesses, as the federal government ramped up its efforts to address the fallout from the coronavirus epidemic. Pres. Donald Trump tapped his authority under the 70-year-old Defense Production Act to give the government more power to steer production by private companies and try to overcome shortages in masks, ventilators and other supplies. Trump described himself as a “wartime president" fighting an invisible enemy.
(NY Times, 3/19/20)(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 18, The US now has more than 5,800 confirmed cases of coronavirus with at least 115 deaths. The virus has now infected over 205,000 and killed over 8,700 in 164 nations.
{USA, COVID-19}
(Good Morning America)(Reuters, 3/18/20)(Bloomberg, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 18, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order sending $100 million to local governments for shelter support and emergency housing to help slow the spread of coronavirus among the homeless population. Another $50 million will be used to buy trailers and lease hotel and motel rooms to quarantine homeless people showing symptoms of COVID-19.
(SFC, 3/19/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 18, Hawaii officials said two cruise ships won't be allowed to disembark in Honolulu after being turned away by other ports, even with no positive cases of coronavirus on either vessel.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus death.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Belgium imposed a lockdown from midday until April 5 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Burkina Faso reported its second death from COVID-19.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Chile's president declared a 90-day state of catastrophe due to the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Djibouti confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, The EU banned nonessential travel from the rest of the world into 26 member nations for 30 days due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Gambia announced its first coronavirus case.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Mitterteich, Bavaria, became the first German town to impose a curfew to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The curfew will last until April 2. Citizens there were still allowed to buy groceries, go to work and visit the doctor.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban announced a blanket moratorium on loan repayments for all companies and private borrowers until the end of the year to limit the economic fallout from the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Indonesia's death toll jumped from five to 19. Thousands of Muslim pilgrims from across Asia gathered at Gowa, just two weeks after a similar event in Malaysia caused more than 500 infections.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Iran's government said another 147 people have died from the coronavirus raising the total to 1,135 people out of 17,361 cases since it first emerged in the Islamic republic a month ago. President Hassan Rouhani defended the response of his administration, which has yet to impose a lockdown. Food markets were still packed with shoppers and highways were crowded with traffic as families traveled between cities ahead of the March 20 Persian New Year.
(AP, 3/18/20)(AFP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Italy reported nearly 500 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, the highest one-day official toll of any nation. Italy added 4,207 new cases.
(AFP, 3/18/20)(Econ, 3/21/20, p.9)
2020 Mar 18, Malaysia warned of "a tsunami" of cases if people did not follow new restrictions as infections surged across Southeast Asia.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Mexico reported its first death from the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 18, Moldova reported its first death due to the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Morocco asked citizens not to leave their homes except to buy essential goods, seek medical treatment or go to work, as a precautionary measure.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Russia's Kremlin Guard said it has closed Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin's tomb on Moscow's Red Square to the public amid coronavirus fears. Russia has reported 147 cases of the virus so far and no deaths.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, In South Africa the number of people that tested positive for coronavirus rose to 116 from 85 the day before. 14 of those hadn’t traveled outside the country. South Africa stepped up travel bans as the virus continued to spread at a rapid pace.
(Bloomberg, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Switzerland extended border controls and suspended the issue of Schengen and national visas for three months due to coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Taiwan said it would ban entry for most foreigners as its coronavirus tally rose by 23 to 100, most of them imported.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Turkey reported its first death due to the coronavirus. President Tayyip Erdogan advised his people not to leave home unless necessary for three weeks and to minimize social contact until the threat of coronavirus recedes, but did not instruct people to stay away from work.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, The UAE stopped Friday sermons to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.43)
2020 Mar 18, Wales closed its schools due to the coronavirus pandemic. Scotland and Wales soon followed.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.17)
2020 Mar 18, Zambia confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 19, The US Federal Reserve opened the taps for central banks in nine new countries to access dollars in hopes of preventing the coronavirus epidemic from causing a global economic rout. There were now 9,415 diagnosed cases in the US with at least 153 people deaths, according to an ABC News' count.
(AP, 3/19/20)(Good Morning America, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered his state’s 40 million residents to stay at home as much as possible in coming weeks, citing a model that suggests more than half of the state’s population could become infected with the coronavirus in the next two months.
(NY Times, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, Anthony Levandowski, a former Google and Uber engineer, pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from Google. Levandowski had left Google to form Otto a self-driging truck startup and then sold Otto to Uber for $600 million.
(SFC, 3/21/20, p.C1)
2020 Mar 19, In Texas cars lined up for more than a mile outside a Houston hospital as the nation's fourth-largest city began drive-thru testing for the coronavirus, but officials warned they don't have enough kits or protective gear to meet demand.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, General Electric's healthcare unit said it will hire more people and increase the number of shifts as it races to produce ventilators round-the-clock to meet the surge in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, African finance ministers held a virtual conference to discuss how to deal with the social and economic impacts of the pandemic on African nations. Days later a statement by the UN Economic Commission for Africa said they called for a $100 billion stimulus package, including a suspension of debt service payments, to help the continent combat coronavirus.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 19 More African countries closed their borders as the coronavirus’ local spread threatened to turn the continent of 1.3 billion people into an alarming new front for the pandemic. Senegal closed its airspace. Angola and Cameroon shut air, land and sea borders. Rwanda blocked all commercial flights for a month. The island nation of Mauritius closed its border after announcing its first case.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, In Australia about 2,700 passengers disembarked in Sidney from the cruise ship Ruby Princess. More than 600 cases of the coronavirus and 15 deaths were later linked to the ship. About 200 crew members later showed symptoms of the virus.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 19, In Australia about 2,700 passengers disembarked in Sidney from the cruise ship Ruby Princess. More than 600 cases of the coronavirus and 15 deaths were later linked to the ship. About 200 crew members later showed symptoms of the virus.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 19, Hundreds of Bahraini pilgrims were reported stranded in Iran, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East. Bahrain struggled to evacuate its citizens from the country with which it has no diplomatic ties.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Brazil's confirmed cases of coronavirus surged past 600.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, Chad confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, Wuhan, China, the former epicenter that initially suffered thousands of coronavirus cases a day, and its surrounding province had no new cases to report.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, EU analysis said Russian state media and news outlets supporting President Vladimir Putin are waging a fake news campaign aimed at undermining public confidence in the ability of European health care systems to cope with the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Germany said it has lifted export bans on medical equipment which were issued earlier this month to avoid shortages of masks, goggles and gloves in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, The Greek government ordered hotels across the country toclose from March 23 until April 30th to help stem the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.42)
2020 Mar 19, Haiti declared a state of emergency, closing its borders and imposing a curfew, after the country's first two cases of coronavirus were detected.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, Indian PM Narendra Modi appealed to citizens to observe a self-curfew on March 22 as part of a trial-run to test social isolation to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Indonesia reported six more deaths due to coronavirus for a total of 25, the most in Southeast Asia, and its biggest daily jump of 82 cases to 309. The government halted a mass congregation of nearly 9,000 Muslim pilgrims and began quarantining them and checking their health to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus amid a spike in cases. The four-day gathering at a boarding school in a rural area in south Sulawesi province was organized by a Muslim missionary movement, Jamaat Tabligh, and was not approved by authorities.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Iranian authorities announced 149 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the toll to 1,284 in a country that is one of the worst hit by the pandemic. A total of 18,407 people have contracted the disease in Iran, with 1,046 new cases confirmed in the last 24 hours.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Israel's attorney general approved for the first time the use of a generic version of a patent-protected drug to treat coronavirus patients. The anti-viral drug Kaletra, produced by AbbVie Inc, is a treatment for HIV but Israel's Health Ministry found it could be a possible treatment for COVID-19 and a preliminary permit for the drug was issued.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Italy's country-wide death toll stood at 3,405, the highest in the world.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, Mexico confirmed 164 cases of coronavirus, up from just over 40 a week ago. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his government have said a shutdown of the country would disproportionately hurt poor people and also be a psychological weight on all Mexicans.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, It was reported that Prince Albert of Monaco has tested positive for coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Moroccan authorities said local police have arrested at least a dozen people for spreading rumors about the coronavirus, including a woman who used her YouTube channel to say the disease did not exist.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Dutch health authorities said the number of local confirmed cases of coronavirus has risen by 409 to a total of 2,460, with 18 new deaths raising the total death toll to 76.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Niger confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, Palestinians defied their government's call to cease work in Israeli settlements over coronavirus concerns, saying bringing money home to their families came first. 529 cases of infection have been confirmed in Israel, and nearly 50 in the occupied West Bank.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, It was reported that Poland has suspended work at a coronavirus testing laboratory in Warsaw after one of its employees tested positive for the virus, effectively sending 17 staff into quarantine. Poland has confirmed 325 coronavirus cases and five deaths to date.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Qatar has recorded 452 cases of the coronavirus, the highest number among the six Gulf Arab states that have reported a total of more than 1,200.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the coronavirus by phone and agreed to deepen cooperation on developing pharmaceuticals. Russia announced its first coronavirus death. It has reported 147 confirmed coronavirus cases, but many Russians believe the real total is far higher.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)(NY Times, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Russia has reported just 199 coronavirus cases and some doctors have questioned how far the official data reflects reality. A reported sharp increase in pneumonia cases in Moscow and contradictory information around the issue fueled fears about the accuracy of official coronavirus data which remains much lower than many European countries.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, South African authorities announced they would erect a fence along its border with Zimbabwe to prevent illegal immigrants from entering and spreading the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Spanish authorities promised to take special measures to prevent more deaths from the coronavirus epidemic in nursing homes after cases of mass contagion swelled the death toll to 767, 209 more than the previous day. Total cases were up by a quarter to 17,149.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, It was reported that Venezuelan utilities have hiked fees and the government plans to raise taxes, as the economy deteriorates further due to the spread of coronavirus and the crash in global oil prices adds to the strain on public coffers. Venezuela has reported 36 coronavirus cases so far.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 20, The COVID-19 respiratory illness caused by the virus has killed at least 200 people in the United States and infected nearly 13,900. The death toll from the global pandemic surpassed 10,000 people worldwide with more than 245,000 people infected.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, US Pres. Donald Trump announced an effective closure of the US border with Mexico, prohibiting most travel except for trade in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 3/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 20, In the US 132 state and national groups backing open-government policies released a joint statement urging officials at all levels of government to “not retrench" from their duties for public involvement because of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, The US military disclosed that some 2,600 US military personnel, including civilians, are currently in self-isolation in Europe after being identified as people of concern during the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it had temporarily closed the air traffic control tower at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and shuttered part of the Indianapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center for cleaning after workers tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, NYC reported 5,151 infections as of this morning out of 17,041 nationwide and 7,102 in New York state. The virus has caused 29 deaths in NYC.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, Google's google.com/covid19 went live on the web late today offering education, prevention and local resources related to the novel coronavirus.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, JPMorgan Chase & Co said it would give "front line employees," workers who are staffing branches and call centers through the coronavirus pandemic, a sweetener for their efforts: a one-time $1,000 bonus.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Lyft Inc told drivers they could sign up for delivery services for healthcare, government services and groceries as ride-hailing demand plummeted during the rapid spread of coronavirus in the United States.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Albania passed measures totaling $370 million in its budget to soften the blow from the coronavirus crisis, including $25 million for the health sector, which is expected to deal with more cases than the 70 confirmed so far.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Algerian protesters called off their weekly anti-government demonstrations for the first time in more than a year to reduce the spread of coronavirus. The country has recorded at least 10 deaths and 90 confirmed virus cases.
(BBC, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Argentina went into full lockdown mode, with streets in Buenos Aires largely deserted, while workers and school kids in the capital logged on remotely to offices, classrooms and even digital dancing lessons, after a mandatory quarantine was imposed. Argentina has so far registered 128 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with three deaths.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, In Belgium the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 558, or 25%, to 2,815.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, Britain ordered the closure of pubs and restaurants to slow the spread of the coronavirus. This came weeks after similar measures by the rest of Europe.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.51)
2020 Mar 20, Bulgaria's parliament voted to allow the military to help implement measures to curb the coronavirus, with a mandate to use physical force if absolutely necessary.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, China's imported cases of coronavirus rose to a record 228.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Cuba banned all tourist arrivals, confined vulnerable groups, shut down educational facilities and suspended interprovincial public transport asit recorded 21 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 4/25/20, p.26)
2020 Mar 20, The Central Bank of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) decided to cut its main lending rate by 100 basis points to 5.5%, citing global and domestic economic developments, including the impact of coronavirus. The country has one confirmed case of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, Finland recorded its first death from coronavirus. It has 521 confirmed cases, though it was only testing severely ill people and health-care professionals.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, France sent security forces into train stations to prevent people from traveling to their vacation homes, potentially carrying the coronavirus to the countryside or beaches where medical facilities are less robust.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 20, India expanded the criteria for people who should be tested for coronavirus, as the world’s second-most populous nation aims to limit the outbreak locally.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, Jakarta, Indonesia, declared a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. Indonesia had 369 confirmed cases and 32 deaths. Jakarta, a city of 10 million people, had 215 confirmed infections and 18 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Iran said that coronavirus has killed 149 more people in the Islamic republic, raising the country's official death toll from the disease to 1,433. 1,237 more cases have been confirmed over the past 24 hours and 19,644 people are now known to have been infected.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, In Iraq virus cases continued to rise, with 13 dead among 192 confirmed infected. The economic fallout from the coronavirus coupled with a sudden drop in oil prices threatened to catapult the country into an unprecedented crisis.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Israel recorded its first death from the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of a nationwide contagion, rose by around 380 in a day to some 2,550.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Lebanon's health ministry said it has recorded 163 infections from coronavirus so far. Experts warned Lebanon's healthcare system may be ill-prepared, as dollar shortages have for months drained it of critical supplies.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, South Africa said coronavirus cases have jumped to 202, the most in the sub-Saharan region, while the continent's busiest airport said foreigners cannot disembark. State-owned South African Airways suspended all international flights until June.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Spanish authorities said they would turn a Madrid conference center into a giant makeshift military hospital for thousands of coronavirus patients, as Europe's second-worst outbreak claimed another 235 lives. With nearly 20,000 cases, Spain overtook Iran to become the world's third hardest-hit country by the pandemic after China and Italy. The Madrid region accounts for 628 deaths and 7,165 cases.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Mosques in Sri Lanka were shut indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the island was set to impose a countrywide curfew over the weekend.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Turkey's death toll due to the coronavirus rose to nine with a total of 670 cases.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, US coronavirus infections exceeded 17,000, fatalities top 220. Worldwide cases topped 260,000 with more than 10,000 dead.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, SF Bay Area's Santa Clara County reported 263 coronavirus cases and 8 deaths, the highest in the region. The Bay Area accounted for nearly half of the state's 1,286 cases.
(SSFC, 3/22/20, p.A12)
2020 Mar 21, Illinois residents began sheltering in place following orders by Gov. J.B. Pritzker restricting movement to combat the coronavirus. Similar shelter-in-place actions were taken by governors in Connecticut and Nevada.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said he will sign an executive order requiring all “nonessential" businesses closed to help slow the spread of the virus.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there are now 10,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, an increase of 3,000 in the last 24 hours.
(Good Morning America, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will be closing all non-essential businesses from March 22 to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. NYC reported at least 38 people testing positive at the notorious Rikers Island complex and nearby facilities, more than half of them incarcerated men. Another 58 were being monitored in the prison's contagious disease and quarantine units. It was reported that an inmate at a federal jail in NYC has tested positive for coronavirus, marking the first confirmed case in the US federal prison system.
(AP, 3/21/20)(Good Morning America, 3/21/20)(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Albania's government deployed the army to enforce a strict 40-hour curfew starting today to fight the coronavirus after people widely flouted previous measures aimed at stemming its spread. So far, 76 people have tested positive for the coronavirus with two deaths.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Angola reported its first two Covid-19 cases.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In southern Bangladesh a speeding truck rammed a passenger vehicle leaving at least 13 people dead.
(SFC, 3/23/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 21, Bolivia has so far confirmed 16 cases of coronavirus. Senators approved a motion this week that promotes use of the traditional medicine, which has long played a role for indigenous communities in the country.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Bosnia reported its first coronavirus death. The country has so far reported 90 cases.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Britain told people who were panic-buying and hoarding food due to the coronavirus outbreak to calm down, pointing to a video on social media showing an exhausted nurse driven to tears by finding shelves bare after her shift.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Bulgaria's main Orthodox Church urged Christians to stay away from churches and pray at home as the Balkan country tightens restrictive measures to contain the spread of coronavirus. The country has reported 142 cases, with three deaths.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, A Burkina Faso spokesman said 4 government ministers have tested positive for the coronavirus, as the number of reported cases rose to 64 from 40, the highest in West Africa. Two new deaths were reported.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Congo DRC reported its first coronavirus death.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, East Timor reported its first case of coronavirus. The Ministry of Health said that the case was from someone who had just returned from abroad.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church ordered all its churches to shut their doors and suspend masses for two weeks over coronavirus fears. Egypt so far registered 285 confirmed coronavirus cases including eight deaths.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, LVMH, the world's biggest luxury goods group, said it is ordering 40 million health masks from a Chinese supplier to help France cope with the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In India thousands of poor city migrants whose livelihoods have collapsed due to India's coronavirus measures headed back to their villages, raising fears that the exodus could carry the virus to the countryside. About one fifth of India's 271 confirmed coronavirus cases has been reported in the western state of Maharashtra. So far, India has registered four deaths due to the virus.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Indonesia confirmed 81 new coronavirus cases and 6 more deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 450 and deaths to 38.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged the US public to call on their government to remove sanctions against the Islamic Republic amid the coronavirus outbreak. The death toll from the coronavirus reached 1,556 after the country reported a further 123 fatalities in the past 24 hours. Iran stood at 20,610 cases after 966 new infections were confirmed over the past day,
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Italy reported 793 coronavirus deaths, raising the total to 4,825.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In Jordan air raid sirens echoed across Amman to mark the start of a three-day curfew, the latest mass lockdown in the Middle East aimed at containing the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Luxembourg coronavirus cases rose to 670 from 484 and deaths to eight.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Malaysia's Health Ministry reported five more deaths and 153 new infections. Coronavirus cases jumped to 1,183 with eight deaths. Officials warned of a spike next week as they track down people who attended a large religious gathering linked to most of the cases.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Mauritius recorded its first coronavirus death as case numbers rose to 14.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Mexico confirmed its second death as medical experts worry that Latin America is unprepared for a larger outbreak.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In the Netherlands, coronavirus fatalities increased by 30 to 136. The total number of cases is 3,631.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Nigeria announced it is closing airports as of March 23 to all incoming international flights for one month due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, North Macedonia's first victim died of the coronavirus. The country has registered 114 cases of people infected with the virus.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 21, Pakistan suspended all international flights for two weeks to limit the spread of coronavirus. The country reported its third coronavirus death, with confirmed cases rising to 534.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Peru reported its first coronavirus fatalities.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, The Philippines' health ministry reported 45 more confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing today's tally to 77. Confirmed cases in the Philippines now totaled 307 and 19 dead.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Portuguese coronavirus cases increased 25% to 1,280, with 12 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Russia's largest carmaker Avtovaz reported the first two cases of the coronavirus among its workers. Russia has so far reported 253 cases of the virus and one death, and has introduced a raft of economic and social measures to limit its spread.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Saudi Arabia announced 48 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 392, with five of the new infections being healthcare workers in Riyadh.
(Good Morning America, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 21, Singapore reported 47 new cases of coronavirus, which were mainly imported, taking the city-state's tally to 432 infections. Singapore reported its first two coronavirus deaths.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, South Africa, which has the most cases in sub-Saharan Africa, confirmed 38 new coronavirus cases, taking its total to 240.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Deaths from the coronavirus in Spain jumped 32% to 1,326, a week after the country went into a national lockdown to try to slow the spread of the disease. Total cases reached 24,926. The Health Ministry reported 324 new deaths and 4,946 new cases.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)(Good Morning America, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Sri Lanka's government closed all bars and liquor shops. Police arrested 30 people from various parts of the country for violating curfew, adding the curfew has been imposed till the morning of March. Sri Lanka has reported 72 confirmed coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)(Econ, 4/25/20, p.28)
2020 Mar 21, Switzerland reported 6,100 coronavirus infections, some 25% more than a day earlier, and 56 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Taiwan reported 18 new coronavirus cases, all imported from people coming from countries including the United States, Britain, South Africa and Indonesia or those having contact with them, bring the total number of infected to 153.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Thailand’s capital imposed a partial shutdown from March 22 after novel coronavirus cases surged past 400 with a rising number of people in critical condition.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Turkey extended measures against the coronavirus, suspended flights with 46 more countries and banning picnics and barbecues, as the number of cases has roughly doubled every day for a week.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Ukraine further restricted the use of public transport in its capital Kiev as it battles to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Ukraine has reported 41 cases of the virus and three deaths.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Vietnam's coronavirus cases rose to 94 with no deaths. The government said it will bar entry for all foreigners from March 22, except for special cases, as the country seeks to contain the spread of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 22, US Pres. Donald Trump said he’s ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to ship mobile hospital centers to the hard-hit states of Washington, California and New York.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the lockdown affecting large segments of the American public to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus is likely to last 10 to 12 weeks, or until early June. US coronavirus infections reached 26,747. The global number of coronavirus cases doubled in a week to 311,000.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Good Morning America, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Hawaii's Gov. David Ige instituted a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine starting March 26 of all people traveling to the state as part of efforts to fight the spread of coronavirus. Hawaii announced 11 new cases of the virus bringing the state's total to 48.
(SFC, 3/23/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 22, It was reported that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has tested positive for COVID-19. He is the first member of the US Senate to be infected. Paul, an eye surgeon, went into quarantine after learning his results.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The Niagara Gazette reported that former Hollywood producer and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein has tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.
(The Week, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Afghanistan reported its first coronavirus death. The war-ravaged country reported 10 new cases raising to 34 the number of confirmed cases.
(AP, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Albania said it will suspend all commercial flights to and from the country from midnight, allowing only flag carrier Air Albania to fly to Turkey and operate humanitarian flights. There have been 76 coronavirus cases in Albania and two deaths.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Australia said it will enforce more stringent controls to slow the spread of the coronavirus, closing pubs, casinos, restaurants and other venues from March 23 after the number of infections in the nation surged past 1,000.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Brazil's health ministry statistics showed 1,546 confirmed cases, up from 234 cases a week before. The respiratory disease caused by the virus has killed 25 people.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 22, Britain warned it will impose tighter restrictions if citizens fail to follow government calls to stop non-essential travel and gatherings to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The UK reported 281 total deaths due to COVID-19. The government said there are 5,683 confirmed cases, with London hardest hit.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 22, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev partially vetoed a state of emergency law intended to limit the spread of the coronavirus, saying some of the measures would create more problems than solutions.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Cambodia reported 31 new cases of coronavirus, 29 of them among French tourists, bringing the total number of infections recorded in the country to 84. Two Cambodians who were infected had been tour guides accompanying the tourists.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, China reported 46 new cases of coronavirus, the fourth straight day with an increase, with all but one of those imported from overseas.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The South China Morning Post reported that as many as a third of the people who test positive for the coronavirus may show delayed symptoms or none at all.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, It was reported that Colombian authorities were trying to quell riots in several jails across the country amid fears that the coronavirus could spread in overcrowded conditions. 23 prisoners died and another 83 were injured in a riot and attempted escape attempt at the La Modelo jail in Bogota. Colombia has confirmed 231 cases of coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(SFC, 3/23/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 22, The number of coronavirus cases in the Czech Republic has risen to 1,047 as of this morning. No deaths were yet reported.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Dubai's state-owned Emirates, one of the world's biggest long-haul airlines, said it would stop nearly all passenger flights this week and cut staff wages by as much as half because of the coronavirus impact on travel demand.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, In Ethiopia a cargo flight containing more than 6 million medical items arrived in Addis Ababa. The supplies from Jack Ma, the founder of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, will be distributed to African countries in need of supplies to battle the spreading COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, In France fatalities due to coronavirus rise to 562. An emergency room doctor in Northern France died from Covid-19, the first medic to die in that country.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Germany received the green light from EU regulators for subsidized loans to companies hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Germany tightened curbs on social interaction, including a ban on public meetings of more than two people for at least the next two weeks, to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Guinea held a constitutional referendum that opponents of President Alpha Conde fear could allow him to govern for 12 more years. An opposition boycott all but ensured the new basic law will be approved when results are announced in the coming days. With the first two cases of the COVID-19 disease recorded in the country, some polling stations required voters to wash their hands before casting their ballot. On March 27 Guinea’s electoral commission said nearly 92% of voters supported the proposal, which would keep a two-term limit on presidencies, but increase the length of each term from five years to six.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 22, India suspended passenger train services across the country until March 31 as the government sought to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Freight services will continue. coronavirus cases rose to 341, while the country confirmed its fifth death from the virus.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, In Israel new rules prohibiting most Israelis from leaving their homes for the next seven days took effect as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases soared to 945. The Health Minsitry has reported one death.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Iran's supreme leader refused US assistance to fight the new coronavirus, citing an unfounded conspiracy theory claiming the virus could be man-made by America. His comments came as Iran confirmed over 21,600 cases amid 1,685 reported deaths, The total number of cases in Iran stood at 21,638 people, with 1,028 new cases added over the past day. Iran imposed a two-week closure on major shopping malls and centers across the country. Pharmacies, supermarkets, groceries and bakeries will remain open.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Iraq has reported 20 coronavirus fatalities among 233 confirmed cases. Iraq's government has extended a curfew on travel in and out of Baghdad until March 28 as part of strict measures to prevent the virus from spreading.
(AP, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Italy was rocked by its deadliest day as the coronavirus prompted industry shutdown. The death toll from the coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of Italy's contagion, has risen by around 360 in a day to more than 3,450. Italy's coronavirus infections continued to soar, with 59,000 cases and 5,476 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/22/20)(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Fifty-two medics from Cuba arrived in Italy to assist with the coronavirus pandemic.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.25)
2020 Mar 22, Japan's Oita prefecture confirmed two new coronavirus infections at a medical center, bringing the total at the facility to 14 and making it a suspected cluster.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Kosovo reported the country's first victim of the coronavirus. The country has registered 31 cases of people infected with the virus
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Malta said it is closing all non-essential shops and services to stop the spread of coronavirus. The number of confirmed virus cases in the country rose to 90 with 17 cases reported overnight.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, In Mexico the mayor of Mexico City shut bars and banned large gatherings to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.32)
2020 Mar 22, In Pakistan Dr Osama Riaz, who screened suspected coronavirus patients, died after testing positive for the coronavirus, highlighting the danger to physicians who have threatened to strike unless access to protection equipment improves. Pakistan has reported three deaths and 658 patients infected with the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, announced a 14-day curfew, ordering everyone to stay at home except for security forces, medics and food sellers. It also closed all major roads. The PA has reported 59 coronavirus cases. Authorities in Gaza confirmed the enclave's first two coronavirus cases overnight in returnees who had come from Pakistan.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The Netherlands reported 573 more coronavirus virus cases for a total of 4,203 with 179 deaths.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, North Korea reported that President Donald Trump has sent a personal letter to leader Kim Jong Un, seeking to maintain good relations and offering cooperation in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Portuguese authorities began the coronavirus testing and repatriation process for 1,338 passengers aboard the MSC Fantasia cruise ship en route from Brazil that docked in Lisbon after its other European stopovers were canceled.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The Romanian government confirmed the first death in the country due to coronavirus.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, In Russia small-scale protests against Vladimir Putin's plans to amend the Russian constitution so he can run for president again in 2024 took place in several medium-sized cities. Protests were called off in Moscow and St. Petersburg due to measures imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The Russian military started sending medical help to Italy in order to help it battle the new coronavirus after receiving an order from Pres. Vladimir Putin following a conversation a day earlier with Italian PM Giuseppe Conte. Russia itself has reported 306 cases of the virus, most of them in Moscow, and one coronavirus-related death.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Rwanda began a two-week lockdown, restricting travel between towns and cities and asking people to stay indoors. The East African nation has 41 confirmed Covid-19 cases.
(https://allafrica.com/stories/202003260464.html)
2020 Mar 22, South Africa-based Standard Bank said it will give a payment holiday to small businesses and full-time students in a bid to ease financial pressures on its customers as COVID-19 spread across the country. South Africa has confirmed 240 cases of the virus so far.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) said around 1,240 German passengers stranded in Cape Town after their MV AidAmira cruise ship was quarantined for almost a week due to a coronavirus scare had either begun their journey home or would do so in the next day.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, South Korea reported 98 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 8,897. The number of deaths rose by two to 104.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Spain's death toll from coronavirus soared to 1,720 from 1,326 the day before. The one-day rise in deaths of 394 was higher than the previous day's increase of 324.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, In Switzerland, 7,014 people tested positive for coronavirus, up from 6,113 a day earlier. Four more patients died, bringing the total to 60.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Syria reported its first case of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.44)
2020 Mar 22, Taiwan announced 16 new confirmed cases of coronavirus with 13 of them imported. The number of total confirmed cases rose to 169. Taiwan said it will suspend transit of international passengers through its airports from March 24 to April 7.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Thailand reported 188 more coronavirus cases, the highest daily increase so far, bringing the total to 599.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Coronavirus cases in Turkey soared as countries across the Middle East imposed new restrictions on movement of people, shut public places and rolled out measures to protect businesses. Turkey now has 947 confirmed cases of the virus, with 21 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Good Morning America, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Uzbekistan ordered all companies in Tashkent to switch to remote working and made protective masks mandatory in all major cities in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The country has confirmed 43 cases of the disease and has already closed its borders.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Zimbabwe journalist Zororo Makamba (30) became the country's first coronavirus casualty. He had undergone surgery last November to remove a tumor from under his lung and was in recovery.
(BBC, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 23, President Donald Trump said he was considering how to restart business life when a 15-day shutdown ends next week, even as the highly contagious virus spreads rapidly and poorly equipped hospitals struggle with a wave of deadly cases.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 23, President Trump said major disaster declarations were underway for California, New York and Washington, the three states hardest hit by the coronavirus. With more than 15,000 confirmed cases.
(NY Times, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, A report released by the US Centers for Disease Control said traces of the coronavirus remained inside cabins of the Diamond Princess for more than two weeks after the cruise ship was vacated. The ship had docked in Japan on Feb. 5 and was placed under quarantine for more than two weeks.
(Good Morning America, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 23, California's National Guard began to deploy to food banks under orders by Gov. Gavin Newsom as volunteer staffing all but disappeared due to the coronavirus and associated state-wide shelter-in-place order.
(SFC, 3/25/20, p.B1)
2020 Mar 23, Hawaii Gov. David Ige signed a proclamation late today, ordering the entire state to stay at home and work from home, starting Wednesday after midnight and lasting through the end of April.
(Good Morning America, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 23, Governors of Michigan, Massachusetts, West Virginia and Wisconsin implemented stay-at-home policies. Worldwide cases of coronavirus top 372,000 and 16,000 dead.
(Bloomberg, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, In New York as of this morning, there have been at least 33,018 cases of coronavirus confirmed by lab tests and 428 deaths, according to a New York Times database. , New York State now accounted for roughly 5 percent of the world’s total tally.
(NY Times, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Ford Motor Co it has decided to temporarily halt vehicle and engine production at its factories in India, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam in response to the growing impact of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Australia’s parliament rushed through more than A$80 billion ($46.3 billion) in fiscal stimulus for the coronavirus-stricken economy at a special sitting in Canberra. Cases of coronavirus reached 1,709 as at 3 p.m., up 313 since 3 p.m. the day before.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Austria said it is mobilizing its military reservists for the first time since World War Two, asking them to fight the coronavirus outbreak by helping with food supplies, medical support and police operations. Austria has reported nearly 4,000 cases with 21 deaths so far.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, PM Boris Johnson brought Britain into alignment with lockdowns across Europe, closing all nonessential shops and requiring people to stay in their homes, except for trips for food or medicine due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 3/24/20)(Economist, 4/4/20, p.41)
2020 Mar 23, Scientists at Britain's Oxford University said they have started a clinical trial to investigate the effects of an HIV medicine and a steroid drug in UK patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 caused by the new coronavirus. It will test AbbVie's Kaletra: a combination of lopinavir and ritonavir which is normally used to treat the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causes AIDS - and the steroid dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in a wide range of conditions.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Bulgaria's parliament agreed to cancel some parts of a law that establishes a state of emergency to limit the spread of the coronavirus after the president wielded his veto citing concerns about its impact on the economy and on free speech. Bulgaria had 190 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and three deaths.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Cambodia reported three new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 87.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Egypt has reported around coronavirus 330 cases and 16 deaths. Tens of thousands of people working in the major tourist destinations of Luxor, Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, along with 300 families in the Nile Delta, have been ordered into 14-day quarantine.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, The European Union said it will send 20 million euros in humanitarian aid to Iran, which is subject to US sanctions, to help alleviate the coronavirus, and will also support Tehran's request for IMF financial help.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Germany barred public gatherings of more than two people, except for families, and Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was going into isolation because her doctor had tested positive for the virus. Germany signed off on taking on billions in new debt as part of an unprecedented package totaling more than 750 billion euros ($800 billion) to cushion the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 3/23/20)(Bloomberg, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Greece's largest carrier Aegean Airlines said it will suspend all of its international flights from March 26 to April 30 as a result of the spread of the coronavirus and flight restrictions.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Iran announced 127 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the official toll to 1,812 in one of the worst hit countries.
(AFP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Iraq’s Health Ministry has reported 23 fatalities among 266 confirmed coronavirus cases.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy has risen by around 320 in a day to more than 3,770. Unions in the Lombardy region announced strikes to protect the health of their workers, saying a government decree temporarily shutting businesses due to the coronavirus emergency contained too many loopholes and exceptions.
(AP, 3/23/20)(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Italy's number of new Covid-19 cases dropped to a five-day low. Italian health authorities announced 4,789 new cases in the last 24 hours. The number of coronavirus cases in Italy has risen to 63,927 " compared to 81,093 in mainland China. In total, 6,077 people have died in Italy due to Covid-19, including 601 who died in the last 24 hours, a decline from the weekend.
(South China Morning Post, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 23, Jordan said it would extend a curfew indefinitely, with supermarkets and other stores closed, and deliver food across the country to try to rein in the coronavirus. Jordan has reported 112 coronavirus cases and six deaths.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus infections increased by 13% from a day earlier and 34 more people died. There were 545 new infections, taking the total to 4,749 with 213 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Norway's foreign ministry said the UN will create a fund to support the treatment of coronavirus patients worldwide. Almost 340,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus across the world and more than 14,500 have died.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin gave the authorities five days to develop a system that would track and notify people who have come in contact with any known carriers of coronavirus. The system would simultaneously notify special regional headquarters set up to fight the pandemic.
(The Daily Beast, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 23, Saudi Arabia announced overnight that an evening curfew would go into effect starting today from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. for 21 days.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Singapore reported its biggest one-day jump in coronavirus infections with 54 new cases, of which 48 were imported.
(Bloomberg, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, South Africa's coronavirus cases jumped to 402, up 128 from the day before. South Africa has not registered a death from the disease.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Syrians rushed to stock up on food and fuel amid fears that authorities would resort to even stricter measures after reporting the first coronavirus infection in the country, where the healthcare system has been decimated by nearly a decade of civil war. An open-ended curfew went into effect in parts of northern and eastern Syria, which are controlled by a Kurdish-led civilian administration.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Tunisia's President Kais Saied ordered the army to deploy in the streets to force people to respect a lockdown imposed to halt the spread of coronavirus. Tunisia has 89 confirmed cases of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, closed in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. It dated back to 1455 and is often regarded as one of the first shopping malls.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Bazaar,_Istanbul)(https://tinyurl.com/ychn4qdy)
2020 Mar 23, The United Arab Emirates, home to the world's busiest international airport in Dubai, announced it was suspending all passenger flights and the transit of airline passengers in the country for two weeks to stymie the spread of the new coronavirus.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Vietnam's PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc said next 10-15 days will be decisive in Vietnam's fight against the coronavirus. There were now 122 cases, according to the health ministry, and no reported deaths.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 24, Governors across the US rejected President Donald Trump's new accelerated timeline for reopening the US economy, as they continued to impose more restrictions on travel and public life in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Senior Pentagon leaders said that the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak that has hit the United States could continue for months and the military would continue to support efforts to counter it for as long as needed. More than 42,000 people in the United States have contracted COVID-19, and at least 620 have died.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it had awarded $100 million to 1,381 health centers across the nation to bolster their response to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York state now has over 25,000 diagnosed cases of coronavirus, including over 14,900 in New York City.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Wall Street bounced from three-year lows on hopes of a major fiscal stimulus to blunt the economic damage from the coronavirus. The dollar fell broadly, sliding for a second consecutive day after the US Federal Reserve stepped up measures to shield an economy reeling from emergency restrictions on commerce to fight the coronavirus. The DJIA rose 2,2112.98, its biggest point gain in history, to 20,704.91 as Congress and the White House neared a deal to inject almost $2 trillion of aid into the economy ravaged by the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/24/20)(Reuters, 3/24/20)(SFC, 3/25/20, p.C1)
2020 Mar 24, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro laid to rest a diplomatic spat with China in a call with President Xi Jinping, with the two agreeing to work together to fight coronavirus as Brazil's largest city went into lockdown. In a televised speech Bolsonaro urged local governments to abandon "scorched-earth" strategies of closing schools and shops, and blasted the media for spreading "the sensation of fear".
(Reuters, 3/24/20)(Econ, 3/28/20, p.29)
2020 Mar 24, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Cambodia has arrested 17 people since late January for sharing information about the coronavirus in Cambodia, including four members or supporters of the dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Canadian banks followed US heavyweights in offering one-time bonuses and extra paid days off to customer-service employees who are required to work in branches and call centers amid the coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, It was reported that death squads in Colombia are taking advantage of coronavirus lockdowns to murder rural activists. The virus has now claimed three lives in Colombia amid 277 confirmed cases.
(The Guardian, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Egyptian PM Moustafa Madbouly said Egypt will impose a two-week nightly curfew in an effort to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, The healthcare unit of French industrial gases company Air Liquide said it was ramping up production of ventilators needed by hospitals to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. France has recorded 1,100 coronavirus deaths and 22,302 cases.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)(AFP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 24, In France Manu Dibango (86), a Cameroonian-born saxophonist, died with the coronavirus. He had gained international fame with his 1972 song "Soul Makossa".
(SFC, 3/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 24, German hospitals with spare capacity welcomed their first coronavirus patients from Italy. Germany had 27,000 confirmed coronavirus cases but only 114 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, India's PM Narendra Modi decreed that the country of 1.3 billion will go on lockdown for 21 days.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Iran announced 122 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the official toll to 1,934 in one of the world's worst hit countries. A record 1,762 new cases have been confirmed in Iran over the past 24 hours. 24,811 people are now known to have been infected.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy rose by around 400 in a day to more than 4,175. The number of cases in the region, which includes Milan, increased by some 1,940 to roughly 30,700. Italy suffered the most coronavirus deaths with 6,820, out of 69,176 declared infections. This was its second-deadliest day, dashing hopes the death toll is declining.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)(AFP, 3/24/20)(Bloomberg, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 24, Libya reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 24, Netherlands saw the number of deaths rise by 63 to 276. The national tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 17% to 5,560.
(Good Morning America, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 24, Pakistani PM Imran Khan announced a 1trn rupee ($7bn) support package, cutting fuel prices and earmarking money for the poor as a national lockdown continued due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.36)
2020 Mar 24, Russia has so far reported 495 cases of the coronavirus. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the outbreak in the capital was much worse than official figures showed.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, In South Africa coronavirus cases leapt to 554, the most of any country in Africa. 43 of Africa's 54 countries now have cases, with the total at 1,788. Thirteen countries have reported 58 deaths.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Spain announced a record daily rise of 6,584 new coronavirus infections, bringing the overall total to 39,673. The number of deaths also jumped by a record number of 514 to 2,696. The Defense Ministry said army troops disinfecting nursing homes have found some residents living in squalor among the infectious bodies of people that authorities suspect have died from the new coronavirus. Spain's health ministry reported 514 deaths from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 3/24/20)(Good Morning America, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Switzerland's Federal Office of Public Health said the country has nearly 9,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and 90 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, The UN top envoy for Syria called for a nationwide ceasefire to allow for a better response to the threat of the novel coronavirus. The government in Damascus has so far only reported one case of COVID-19.
(AFP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 25, US lawmakers finally agreed on a mammoth economic relief package, buoying stock markets around the world. President Donald Trump said he wants to see the country get back to business in a matter of weeks, over the objections of public health experts. The US Senate unanimously approved the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act’’ (CARES Act), a bi-partisan bill to provide financial relief to individuals and businesses impacted by the coronavirus. The aid measure would send direct payments of $1,200 to Americans earning up to $75,000, substantially expand help for the jobless, and provide hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to businesses affected by the pandemic.
(AP, 3/25/20)(NY Times, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 25, US coronavirus infections continued to climb rapidly and passed the 55,000 mark, with deaths approaching 800. More than 438,000 people worldwide have been infected and the number of dead closed in on 20,000.
(AP, 3/25/20)(Good Morning America, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it would extend its prior conditional regulatory relief from disclosure requirements for public companies affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, US Navy and Marine Corps service members in Guam were ordered to break their own quarantine to set up makeshift shelters for US troops coming off a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, where an outbreak of the novel coronavirus was rapidly spreading within the hulls of the ship.
(The Daily Beast, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 25, California reported 2,998 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.30)
2020 Mar 25, Miami, Wisconsin, Vermont joined a growing list of places where residents must stay home. At least 23 states have enacted policies to close nonessential businesses in an effort to slow the spread of novel coronavirus on US soil.
(Good Morning America, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state's infections are doubling every three days, threatening to swamp the available intensive care units. The state has 26,000 infections and more than 200 deaths. At least 192 of those fatalities have occurred in NYC.
(AP, 3/25/20)(Good Morning America, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, New York state issued a directive to send recovering coronavirus patients to already vulnerable nursing homes. The directive said no resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to a nursing home solely based on confirmed or suspected COVID-19. On May 10 Gov. Andrew Cuomo reversed the directive, which had been intended to help free up hospital beds for the sickest patients as cases surged.
(AP, 5/21/20)
2020 Mar 25, CVS Health said its pharmacy benefit management (PBM) unit was working to set up measures against the hoarding of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which is being tested as a potential treatment for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, In Bangladesh opposition BNP leader Khaleda Zia (74) was granted a six month reprieve from prison in order to seek medical treatment.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.34)
2020 Mar 25, Bolivia issued a decree establishing a lockdown due to the coronavirus. The decree criminalized individuals who incite noncompliance and misinform or cause uncertainty to the population.
(Econ., 5/16/20, p.26)
2020 Mar 25, Brazil recorded more than 2,500 cases of coronavirus and 59 deaths.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 25, Britain passed the Coronavirus Act, granting the government emergency powers to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_Act_2020)(Econ., 7/6/20, p.46)
2020 Mar 25, It was reported that nearly half a million people in Britain have filed welfare benefit claims in the past nine days, a sign of how the government's shutdown of much of the economy to slow the spread of coronavirus is hitting incomes.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Britain’s Prince Charles (71) of Wales became the latest high-profile infection of a pandemic that has infiltrated all walks of life and paralyzed a continent.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Bulgaria imposed a temporary entry ban on trucks from more than 65 countries that plan to pass through the Balkan state en route to Turkey, after Turkey imposed stringent coronavirus restrictions on truck drivers.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, China's Hubei province, where the outbreak was first spotted late last year, started lifting its lockdown.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government secured emergency spending, unlocking a historic rescue package designed to cushion the blow of the coronavirus pandemic. The Bundesrat, or upper house of parliament, will vote on March 27.
(Bloomberg, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, In Germany some 32,705 patients have been confirmed with the coronavirus, up from 28,942 a day earlier. So far 154 have died, compared with 118 a day earlier.
(Bloomberg, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Hungary said it has banned the commercial export of hydroxychloroquine sulfate, an ingredient used in drugs for coronavirus treatment in several countries.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, India began a 21-day lockdown. PM Narendra Modi warned that if he didn't act now, the coronavirus could set the world's largest democracy back decades. Everything but essential services like supermarkets were closed. India has reported only about 512 cases because of limited testing. At least 9 deaths have been reported.
(AP, 3/24/20)(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, India said it had banned the export of hydroxychloroquine and formulations of the malaria drug while experts test its efficacy in helping treat patients infected with coronavirus.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Iran said it will ban intercity travel within days as it finally gets tough with the coronavirus that has killed more than 2,000 people in one of the world's deadliest outbreaks.
(AFP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, In Iran US Navy veteran Michael White was hospitalized in a ward for coronavirus patients and has experienced fever, fatigue, a cough and shortness of breath since his furlough last week. White was requesting a humanitarian evacuation to the United States for medical treatment.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, In Mali unidentified gunmen kidnapped Soumaila Cisse and members of his campaign team in an area controlled by extremists groups linked to al-Qaida. Cisse's bodyguard died of injuries sustained during the abduction.
(https://tinyurl.com/vnvbsw2)(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 25, Mexico's state of Baha California reported 16 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.30)
2020 Mar 25, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 852 to 6,412. Deaths rose by 80 to 356.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, The Financial Times reported that North Korean officials have sought urgent help from international contacts to increase coronavirus testing in a nation that could see its dilapidated health care system be crushed by an outbreak.
(Bloomberg, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Communist guerrillas in the Philippines said they would observe a cease-fire in compliance with the UN chief's call for a global halt in armed clashes during the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Romania's Pres. Klaus Iohannis said his government will postpone monthly loan repayments for a period of up to 9 months to help domestic borrowers hit by the coronavirus crisis. Romania reported 144 new infections to an overall of 906 cases and 13 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was postponing a nationwide vote on constitutional changes that would allow him to extend his rule due to the worsening situation with coronavirus. Russian authorities reported 163 more virus cases in the country since the day before, bringing the national total to 658.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, In South Africa the coronavirus caseload rose past 700 as the country got ready to go on lockdown on March 27.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Spain suffered its deadliest day since the outbreak of the coronavirus. The total number of fatalities surged by 738 to 3,434.
(Bloomberg, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, The Swiss government said it was expanding its border controls to include all countries in the Schengen open border zone to help protect people from coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Switzerland said it has introduced temporary restrictions on the export of protective equipment to head off shortages among medical staff and others fighting the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Taiwan reported 235 cases of the coronavirus and just two deaths.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.35)
2020 Mar 25, Vietnam's health ministry reported an additional seven coronavirus cases, taking the country's tally to 141, though it reported no deaths.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Zimbabwe's public hospital doctors and nurses went on strike over a lack of protective gear as the coronavirus begins to spread in a country whose health system has almost collapsed.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 26, President Trump said he planned to label different areas as “high risk, medium risk or low risk," as part of guidelines to help states determine quarantine and distancing measures. He also reiterated his desire to start opening up parts of the country soon.
(NY Times, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, The US military said it has decided it will stop providing some of the more granular data about coronavirus infections within its ranks, citing concern that the information might be used by adversaries as the virus spreads.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In the United States deaths due to the coronavirus passed 1,050. The number of US coronavirus infections climbed above 82,000, surpassing the national tallies of China and Italy. The global death toll from the virus climbed past 21,000 and the number of infections has surpassed 472,000.
(AP, 3/26/20)(The Telegraph, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, In the SF Bay Area confirrmed cases of coronavirus topped 1,400 with at least 32 deaths.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 26, As of today anyone arriving in Hawaii was required to undergo a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, Louisiana reported the number of coronavirus cases in the state leapt 28% overnight. Louisiana has surpassed 2,300 people known to be infected, with 86 residents dead.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, NY state Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state has become the nation's epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo says Congress' $2 trillion stimulus bill has "failed to meet the governmental need." New York has seen 385 deaths from COVID-19 and that number is expected to continue to rise.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The International Monetary Fund asked G20 leaders to back a doubling of its emergency financing capacity to strengthen its response to the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic that is set to cause a global recession in 2020. G20 leaders in a video conference said they were committed to presenting a united front against the coronavirus pandemic, calling it their "absolute priority" to tackle its health, social and economic impacts.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said it has increased resources available to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to fight the coronavirus pandemic to $12 billion, up from the $2 billion it had promised a few weeks ago.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, A lockdown of Austrian ski resorts that have become hotspots for the spread of the coronavirus in Europe was extended until April 13, Easter Monday. Austria has reported nearly 6,400 cases in its nine provinces, a quarter of them in Tyrol.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Bangladesh deployed soldiers to enforce the start of a nationwide 10-day shutdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (65) told reporters in the capital, Brasilia, that he feels Brazilians’ natural immunity will protect the nation from the coronavirus pandemic. The nation’s tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 3,400 and deaths top 90. 25 of Brazil’s 27 governors signed a joint letter this week begging Bolsonaro to back strict anti-virus measures.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 26, The number of people in the UK who have died from coronavirus increased by 31% to 759.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, It was reported that Mologic, a British company behind a 10-minute coronavirus antibody test, has begun sending prototypes to laboratories for validation, which could be a game-changer in the fight against the pandemic. The test would cost about a $1.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The Southern Cameroons Defence Forces (Socadef) said its ceasefire would come into effect from March 29 as "a gesture of goodwill." Cameroon's health ministry has so far has confirmed 75 cases of the coronavirus - and recorded its first death earlier this week.
(BBC, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, China said it will temporarily suspend the entry of foreigners with valid Chinese visas and residence permits starting on March 28, as an interim measure in response to the coronavirus epidemic. Exemptions will be made to those travelling in a diplomatic or official capacity, as well as holders of "C" visas, which are issued to foreigners involved in provision of international transportation services.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Denmark has recorded 1,851 people infected with coronavirus and 34 deaths. The country has restricted public assembly to 10 or fewer people and ordered the closure of schools, universities, day care centers, restaurants, cafes, libraries, gyms and hair salons.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Egypt's health ministry said there have been 495 cases of the new coronavirus in the country, including 24 fatalities. Egypt has expelled Ruth Michaelson, a correspondent for The Guardian, over a report citing a study that challenged the official count of coronavirus cases.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, French health authorities reported 299 new deaths from coronavirus, taking the total to 1,995. A TGV bullet train transferred 20 patients on life-support systems to from Strasbourg to eastern France.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)(Economist, 4/4/20, p.39)
2020 Mar 26, Germany has reported coronavirus infections in more than 39,000 people, but just 222 deaths. The country now has the ability to test 500,000 people a week, perhaps the greatest capacity in the world.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In India the Jimme Foundation, an LGBT+ rights group, launched a fundraising appeal for Mumbai sex workers whose income has been hit by coronavirus, saying it wanted to help other Indians who faced prejudice.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Iran's death toll due to the coronavirus jumped by 157 to 2,234, prompting new steps to limit public gatherings and domestic travel. President Hassan Rouhani said there would be more travel and gathering restrictions for the next two weeks to “break the chain" of the virus.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Iraq extended government-imposed restrictions on movement for two more weeks to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. The Health Ministry reported a jump of coronavirus-related deaths by seven in 24 hours. Authorities have confirmed that at least 29 Iraqis have died from COVID-19 and nearly 350 others have contracted the disease.
(AP, 3/26/20)(AFP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Italy's death toll due to coronavirus was about 7,500. The number of cases in the in the northern region of Lombardy, increased by some 2,500. Italy has reported 8,215 deaths from the illness, more than anywhere else in the world, while confirmed cases total 80,539.
(AP, 3/26/20)(Reuters, 3/26/20)(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, Lebanon extended government-imposed restrictions on movement for two more weeks to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. Lebanon has recorded six deaths of the virus while 35 new infected cases were recorded, raising the total to 386 cases.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In Morocco hundreds of mostly British tourists who were traveling in motorhomes have found themselves stranded in a parking lot near a Tangier highway that authorities have turned into a makeshift quarantine center. Morocco has identified 225 cases of COVID-19.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Pakistan's cases of coronavirus rose to 1,098, up from 250 a week earlier. Eight deaths have been reported.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, The Russian government ordered the grounding of all international flights as part of new measures against the coronavirus pandemic, with the exception of flights evacuating Russian citizens from abroad,.
(Good Morning America, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, It was reported that Rwanda police have shot and killed two young men for defying lockdown orders to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
(https://allafrica.com/stories/202003260464.html)
2020 Mar 26, Saudi authorities announced a total lockdown on the capital, Riyadh, and Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, in addition to a nationwide curfew.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, South African President Ramaphosa called on richer countries to support the continent's economies via stimulus packages to mitigate the devastation caused by the coronavirus, as his own country registered a jump to more than 900 cases.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Spain's Health Ministry reported nearly 8,600 new infections and 655 deaths, bringing the total cases to over 56,000 and more than 4,000 fatalities.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Sweden has reported around 2,806 confirmed coronavirus cases and 66 deaths while Denmark recorded 1,851 infected and 34 deaths. The country has remained largely open for business. Sweden's health agency has conceded more measures are likely as the virus continues to spread.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Swiss-based Nestle, the world's biggest food company, said it would pay full salaries for at least three months to employees affected by work stoppages to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Thailand has reported a total of 1,045 cases of coronavirus and four deaths since the outbreak started in January. Honda's Thai business said it would suspend operations at two factories after Thailand declared a state of emergency to curb the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced an overnight weekend lockdown and used drones to tell residents to stay home.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 27, The US House of Representatives passed the $2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus bill. President Donald Trump was expected to sign it quickly. The US now had almost 86,000 known infections.
(NBC News, 3/27/20)(AFP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, The US Navy, the military service hit hardest by the coronavirus, scrambled to contain its first at-sea outbreak, with at least two dozen infected aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt in Guam, one of 11 active aircraft carriers whose mission is central to the Pentagon's strategy for deterring war with China and Iran.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a two-month halt on evictions for state residents who cannot pay their rent vecause of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 27, In Florida 29 deaths have been reported due to the coronavirus. Deaths were on track to double every four days.
(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 27, Mississippi’s health department reported 579 COVID-19 cases and eight deaths.
(The Daily Beast, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 27, New York state reported 100 more deaths in one day. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said cases of the new coronavirus are going to become “astronomical," putting unprecedented strain on the hospital system. New York state has more than 44,000 cases of coronavirus and 519 deaths from the virus, by far the most in the country.
(AP, 3/27/20)(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)(AP, 3/28/20)(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 27, The New York City Department of Corrections said that 80 staff and 103 men in custody have tested positive for coronavirus at Rikers Island and city jails alone — quadruple what was reported just a week ago.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 27, Rhode Island State Police began pulling over drivers with New York plates so that National Guard officials can collect contact information and inform them of a mandatory, 14-day quarantine.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 27, Washington, D.C., confirmed 36 new coronavirus cases, raising its total to 267.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced his 21-member team to negotiate peace with the Taliban, only to have his political opponent Abdullah Abdullah reject it as not inclusive enough. The Afghan government ordered a three-week lock-down for Kabul to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. Afghanistan has so far recorded just 91 cases and four deaths but the tens of thousands returnees from Iran have dispersed throughout the country without being tested.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, It was reported that the supply of soybeans to Argentine crushing plants is down by half and falling, as municipalities citing health concerns defied a government order that they allow cargo trucks to get to the plants. Mayors of dozens of towns near the Rosario grains export hub have blocked ground transport as the country locks down against the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, It was reported that millions of Bangladesh factory workers have been sent home without wages or severence pay they are owed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 27, British PM Boris Johnson (55) said he has tested positive for the coronavirus. Health Secretary Matt Hancock was also confirmed to have the virus. British fatalities due to the coronavirus jumped by 260, to 1,019. Some 14,579 people in the UK have tested positive, an increase of about 25%, above the five-day average of 20%.
(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)(AP, 3/27/20)(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 27, China's National Health Commission reported 55 new cases, 54 of them imported infections. Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a phone call told Pres. Donald Trump that China understands the United States' current predicament over the COVID-19 outbreak and stands ready to provide support within its capacity.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, In the Baltic states Estonia reported 575 coronavirus infections and one death, Latvia reported 280 cases, Lithuania reported 344 cases and four deaths.
(Baltic News Network, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, In Germany cases of coronavirus rose to 43,039 from 37,179, while the death toll jumped to 262 deaths from 203.
(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, The Hong Kong government announced new measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak, including limiting crowd size to four people except weddings and funerals. The measures will last for 14 days. The city has found a record 65 new cases, taking its total to 518.
(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, PM Viktor Orban said Hungary’s government will partially restrict movement for a two-week period ending April 11 to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, It was reported that India's coronavirus lockdown is disrupting e-commerce companies including Amazon and Flipkart, despite government assurances it would not.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, Indonesia reported the biggest daily jump in new coronavirus infections with the total number of confirmed cases topping 1,000. Tests confirmed the disease in 153 more people. The country also reported nine new deaths, taking the total to 87, the highest in Southeast Asia.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, Iran reported 2,926 new coronavirus cases and 144 more deaths over the past day, bringing the total figures in the country to 32,332 cases and 2,378 deaths. The government enforced social distancing measures banning inter-city travel and all gatherings, and the central bank approved loans for businesses affected by the outbreak. Iranian media report nearly 300 people have been killed and more than 1,000 sickened so far by ingesting methanol in the mistaken belief it protects against the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, Israel has recorded 12 deaths from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, and over 3,000 infections.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 27, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy rose by around 541 in a day to some 5,402. Italy registered the most coronavirus deaths since the country's outbreak had exploded five weeks earlier, adding 969 more victims to raise the world’s highest COVID-19 toll to 9,134.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 27, The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose by 1,172, or 16%, to 8,603, with 112 new deaths. The country's death total is now 546.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has reported 84 coronavirus cases. Authorities in the Gaza Strip have reported nine cases.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, The Seattle-based Holland American cruise line, owneed by Carnival Corp., said four passengers have died aboard the Zaandam now anchored off the coast of Panama. Two people have tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 130 have reported flu-like symptoms. The ship carried 1,243 guests and 586 crew.
(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 27, In Russia the total number of coronavirus cases rose by 196 to 1,036.
(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, In Serbia residents of Belgrade isolated themselves not only from coronavirus but also from acrid smoke, which defied strong winds to transform the Serbian capital into the city with the world's most polluted air. So far, the coronavirus infection in Serbia has sickened 528 and killed eight people.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, South Africa began a three-week lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus as the disease claimed its first two victims in the country and the number of infections passed 1,000.
(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, South Korea reported 146 new coronavirus cases. That brought total infections in South Korea to 9,478, with a death toll of 151, up from 139.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, Spain reported its deadliest day so far after 769 people died, for a total of 4,858 fatalities. Cases rose to 64,059 from 56,188.
(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 28, Pres. Donald Trump endorsed the $2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus bill. He signed the bill into law but said he would not be bound by provisions that interfered with his executive authority. Democrats had pushed for increased oversight of a $500 billion corporate loan fund. Trump also approved coronavirus disaster declarations for Michigan and Massachusetts.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)(SFC, 3/31/20, p.A8)
2020 Mar 28, Idaho's Blaine County has reported more than 80 confirmed cases of coronavirus. The county includes Sun Valley Resort whioch draws skiers from around the world.
(SSFC, 3/29/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 28, In Louisiana inmate Patrick Jones (47) died after contracting the coronavirus at the federal minimum-security prison in Oakdale, where at least five prisoners have tested positive for the virus.
(NBC News, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 28, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order requiring communities statewide to restore water service, effectively ending water shutoffs for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, In Michigan the number of coronavirus infections surged in Detroit to 1,381, with 31 deaths. More than a fifth of Detroit's police force was quarantined. Two officers have died and at least 39 have tested positive, including the chief of police.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there are now 52,318 confirmed cases in the state, after 7,681 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. The governor also announced he was postponing the presidential primary in the state from April 28 to June 23.
(Good Morning America, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, New York City reported at least 26,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19, with 450 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo announced that the National Guard would go door-to-door to make sure New Yorkers are following 14-day quarantine orders. Rhode Island announced its first two deaths.
(Good Morning America, 3/28/20)(SSFC, 3/29/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 28, The number of worldwide coronavirus infections surpassed 620,000 with more than 28,000 deaths as new cases also stacked up quickly in Europe. Abbott Laboratories unveiled a coronavirus test that can tell if someone is infected in as little as five minutes, and is so small and portable it can be used in almost any health-care setting.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Albania flew a team of doctors and nurses to neighboring Italy to help it deal with the coronavirus pandemic as its own cases have yet to strain the health sector. Albania has 197 cases of the illness, with 10 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Australia’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose to 14. The number of confirmed infections stood at 3,635, an increase of 469 from a day earlier. Australia stepped up enforcement of social distancing rules, implementing fines, closing beaches and threatening stricter measures if people defy pleas to stay at home.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Australian authorities pressed ahead with plans to fly 800 cruise ship passengers to Germany this weekend after a downward revision in the number of people on board who needed to be tested for the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic declared a state of emergency, handing legislative powers to the region's president to expedite the passage of laws to ease the impact of the coronavirus epidemic. Bosnia has recorded 259 cases of coronavirus with four deaths.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Brazil's federal government launched an advertising campaign against social distancing measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak, the latest flashpoint in a battle between President Jair Bolsonaro and state governors trying to stop the virus' spread.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, A Brazilian court blocked a decree by President Jair Bolsonaro that exempted places of worship from confinement orders. The federal court in Rio de Janeiro state ruled that religious services pose a public health risk. The government can still appeal the decision.
(AFP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Britain reported 17,089 people testing positive for the coronavirus, up from 14,543 a day earlier.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak first emerged, began lifting a two-month lockdown by restarting some metro services and reopening borders, allowing some semblance of normality to return and families to reunite.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, China sent a plane loaded with medical personnel and supplies to help Pakistan fight the spread of the coronavirus in one of the world's most populous nations. Pakistan has 1,408 confirmed cases of the virus, including 11.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Northern Cyprus reported its first death from the coronavirus after a 67-year old German tourist died in hospital in Nicosia.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, In Germany the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 48,582 and 325 people have died of the disease.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Greece confirmed 95 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 1,061 since the country's first recorded infection on Feb. 26.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, India has confirmed 775 cases of coronavirus and 19 deaths.
(SSFC, 3/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 28, Indonesia's capital Jakarta announced a two-week extension of its state of emergency following the nationwide surge in coronavirus cases,.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Iran announced that 139 more people had died from the novel coronavirus, raising the official death toll to 2,517. The health ministry said 3,076 more cases had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 35,408.
(AFP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Iraqi doctors said the country may be singularly unprepared for the coronavirus, with the number of cases at 450 and deaths at 40.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Italy's Lombardy region recorded 542 new deaths as the national government was said to be mulling plans to extend a country-wide lockdown to mid-April. Italy reported 889 deaths due to the coronavirus. The death toll surged past 10,000. Confirmed cases rose by about 6,000 to 92,472.
(AP, 3/28/20)(Reuters, 3/28/20)(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 28, In Japan new coronavirus infections in Tokyo rose by more than 60, the biggest daily increase yet.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, In Kenya police fired tear gas at a crowd of ferry commuters as the country's first day of a coronavirus curfew slid into chaos. Virus cases across Africa climbed above 4,000.
(SSFC, 3/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 28, Lebanese security forces cleared away a protest camp in central Beirut on Saturday and reopened roads blocked by demonstrators since protests against the governing elite started in October. Lebanon has recorded 412 cases of coronavirus and eight deaths.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Mali recorded its first coronavirus just hours before polls were to open on March 29 for a long-delayed parliamentary election.
(AFP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Namibia, the world’s top producer of marine diamonds and the fifth-biggest of uranium, halted mining and quarrying operations to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, The Netherlands reported 93 deaths from the new coronavirus to take its total to 639 while another 1,159 cases of the virus were confirmed, both smaller rises than a day earlier. The country has confirmed a total of 9,762 cases of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, The Philippine health ministry reported 14 new coronavirus deaths and 272 additional cases, marking the country's single largest daily increase in fatalities and infections. This brought total infections in the Philippines to 1,075 and deaths to 68.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Poland's parliament passed a law early today allowing postal voting for senior citizens and those in quarantine or self-isolating as the government looks to press ahead with May presidential elections which opposition parties want postponed.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Portugal’s coronavirus cases rose 20% in one day and deaths climbed to 100 from 76. Total cases rose to 5,170 from 4,268 a day earlier. Authorities said all foreigners in Portugal with pending applications will be treated as permanent residents from March 30 until at least July 1, to ensure migrants have access to public services during the virus outbreak.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Qatar reported its first death from the new coronavirus late today, saying the total number of reported cases there was at least 590.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 28, Russia reported 228 new cases of coronavirus overnight, bringing the total to 1,264, with four deaths attributed to the virus. Russia said it will close its borders starting on March 30 in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The order will not apply to Russian diplomats and the drivers of freight trucks, among others. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin urged Muscovites to stay at home during the non-working week announced by President Vladimir Putin in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, South African billionaire businessman Patrice Motsepe said his group of companies would donate 1 billion rand ($57 million) to help fight the coronavirus outbreak that has forced the country into total lockdown as infections climbed.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Spain said 832 people have died from coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing total fatalities to 5,690. Spain reported 8,189 new cases of novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, putting the total number of cases at 72,248.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)(Good Morning America, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, The death toll in Switzerland from coronavirus climbed to 235 with total cases at 13,213.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Thailand reported 109 new coronavirus cases and one death, bringing the total to 1,245 infections and six deaths.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Turkey halted all intercity trains and limited domestic flights, as the number of coronavirus cases jumped by a third in a day to 5,698, with 92 dead.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, The United Arab Emirates extended to April 5 a de-facto nightly curfew to sterilize public places. The UAE has reported two deaths from the coronavirus pandemic and 468 confirmed infections.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, A doctor (39) in Uzbekistan died after unsuccessfully trying to treat a coronavirus infection that he kept secret.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Vietnam began limiting domestic flights and stop public gatherings for two weeks, as it aimed to keep down the number of coronavirus cases. The health ministry reported an additional 11 coronavirus cases, bringing the total number in the country to 174. There are 1,729 suspected cases in the country.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 29, President Trump deployed a naval hospital ship to New York. At least 17 US states reported tallies of at least 1,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. Trump said everyone in the US must avoid nonessential travel or gathering in groups of more than 10 for at least another month, and perhaps until June. The United States now led the world with more than 143,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and more than 2,500 deaths. As of today, the virus has infected more than 680,000 people and killed at least 32,000 worldwide.
(NY Times, 3/29/20)(AP, 3/29/20)(NY Times, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, The US Food and Drug Administration late today issued a limited emergency-use authorization for two antimalarial drugs to treat those infected with the novel coronavirus. The US Department of Health and Human Services announced it had received 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate and one million doses of chloroquine phosphate donated to a national stockpile of potentially life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies.
(Good Morning America, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the coronavirus outbreak could kill 100,000 to 200,000 Americans and added that millions in the US could become infected..
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, The US Food and Drug Administration late today issued a limited emergency-use authorization for two antimalarial drugs to treat those infected with the novel coronavirus. The US Department of Health and Human Services announced it had received 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate and one million doses of chloroquine phosphate donated to a national stockpile of potentially life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies.
(Good Morning America, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, California state officials said they are temporarily closing vehicular access to all 280 state parks in hope of slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 29, Louisiana's Gov. John Bel Edwards warned that the spread of the coronavirus could soon overwhelm the state's health care system. Hundreds of people flouted a ban on gatherings at the Life Tabernacle church in Central. Louisiana had 3,540 cases and 151 deaths. Pastor Tony Spell was issued a summons on March 31 for holding the services. Spell said he would continue to ignore the ban because God told him so.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A4,7)(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 29, In Detroit, which has a large low-income population, the death toll rose to 31 with about 1,400 infections in a rate that shocked health officials.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, New York State, with over 53,300 cases as of this morning, accounted for more than one-third of the country’s known coronavirus infections. A planeload of desperately needed medical supplies arrived in New York from China, the first of 22 scheduled flights over the next 30 days organized by the White House to help fight the coronavirus.
(NY Times, 3/29/20)(Reuters, 3/29/20)(NY Times, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, Alan Merrill (b.1951), writer of the hit song "I Love Rock and Roll," died in New York of complications from the coronavirus. He wrote the song for his band the Arrows in 1975 and it became a hit for Joan Jett in 1982.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Merrill)(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A7)
2020 Mar 29, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo repealed her order the New Yorkers be singled out for COVID-19 quarantine and replaced it with a requirement that all out-of-state travelers isolate for 14 days.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 29, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro called on all but the elderly to get back to work, defying his own health ministry on coronavirus guidelines.
(SFC, 4/2/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 29, Cambodia reported one new case of the coronavirus, bringing tally to 103. The country prepared to tighten entry requirements for foreign nationals to try to curb the spread of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, China said it had an accumulated total of 693 cases of coronavirus entering from overseas.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Cyprus recorded 35 new coronavirus cases, more than double the number reported a day earlier. This brought Cyprus' total to 214 cases and six recorded deaths.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, Egypt has reported more than 600 infections and 40 deaths from the coronavirus. The government imposed restrictions on cash deposits and withdrawals to prevent crowding at banks as payrolls and pensions are disbursed.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, France used two high-speed TGV trains and a German military plane to move more than three dozen critically ill coronavirus patients to ease the pressure on overwhelmed hospitals in eastern France. The number of intensive care cases rose 8.4% to 4,632, its lowest daily rise in that period. The country was in virtual lockdown.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, Indian PM Narendra Modi asked the nation's poor for forgiveness as the economic and human toll from his 21-day nationwide lockdown deepens and criticism mounts about a lack of adequate planning ahead of the decision.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Indonesia confirmed 130 new coronavirus infections, taking the total to 1,285. Twelve more people had died from the virus, bringing the death toll to 144.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, In Iran the death toll from the novel coronavirus rose to 2,640. 123 more people in Iran died from the virus in the past 24 hours. 2,901 new cases of COVID-19 infection were reported, bringing the overall number of officially confirmed cases to 38,309.
(AFP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, In Iran a riot broke out at Adel Abad Prison, the main lockup in the city of Shiraz. Prisoners broke cameras and caused other damage in two sections housing violent criminals. No one was wounded and no one escaped.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Ireland's government said it is set to roll out a voluntary phone-tracking app to alert users if someone they have been in contact with develops COVID-19, two weeks before the pandemic is expected to peak in the country.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, In Israel more than 4,300 people have been infected with the new virus and 15 have died.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus climbed by 756 to 10,779. The death toll from the coronavirus in Lombardy rose by around 416 in a day to some 6,360. Italy's government said it will "inevitably" extend beyond April 3 the containment measures it had approved to stem the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Tokyo confirmed 68 new coronavirus cases, a record daily increase. Popular Japanese comedian Ken Shimura (70) died from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 29, Kazakhstan locked down its fifth major city as part of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The country has confirmed 265 coronavirus cases and has already locked down its capital, Nur-Sultan, the biggest city, Almaty, as well as Shymkent, a large city in the south, and Aktau, a Caspian Sea port.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Malians voted in long-delayed parliamentary elections a day after the country's first coronavirus death. Mali now had 18 confirmed Covid-19 cases. There were concerns about its spread in a country with a poor healthcare infrastructure.
(BBC, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases passed 10,000. Confirmed cases rose by 1,104 to 10,866, an 11% increase. There were 132 new deaths, bringing the number of fatalities to 771.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the cessation of movement in Lagos and the capital Abuja for 14 days in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Nigeria had 97 confirmed cases. The country has shut international airports, closed all land borders and imposed curbs on cargo vessels allowed to dock at its ports in an effort to contain the outbreak. Nigeria's petroleum regulator ordered oil and gas companies to reduce their offshore workforce and move to 28-day staff rotations as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, The Philippines reported 1,418 cases of coronavirus and 71 deaths. Police said nearly 50,000 people have apprehended over the last two weeks for violating quarantine regulations and night curfews.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 29, In Russia the total number of coronavirus cases in Moscow exceeded 1,000 with many Muscovites going out despite a plea to stay home. The official tally of confirmed cases in Russia rose by 270 in 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,534. Nine people have died of the coronavirus, seven of which in Moscow.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Singapore reports 42 new coronavirus cases, taking tally to 844. Singapore reported its third coronavirus death.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, South African police and security guard shot a man dead during the coronavirus lockdown in Vosloorus township, just south of Johannesburg. The two suspects in the killing have been arrested.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, Spain’s coronavirus death toll rose by 838 overnight to 6,528. Spain also saw infections rise to 78,797 from 72,248 the day before.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Sri Lankan authorities sealed off two villages as a part of stringent measures the contain the spread of the coronavirus. The nation has reported 115 cases and one fatality. More than 6,000 people have been arrested and 1,533 vehicles seized for violating a curfew.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 29, Sudan has six confirmed cases, including one fatality.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, The Swiss death toll from coronavirus reached 257, up from 235 people the previous day. The number of confirmed cases also increased to 14,336 from 13,213.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Taiwan has reported 298 cases, far lower than many of its neighbors, and has won plaudits from health experts for its early response and measures to keep the numbers low. The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is closely following the development of the coronavirus in Taiwan and is learning lessons from how they are fighting it, after complaints from Taiwan it was being intentionally ignored.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, In northeastern Thailand prisoners set fire to the canteen of Buriram Prison and several inmates escaped during a riot that was sparked by rumors of a coronavirus outbreak. The total number of coronavirus cases reached 1,388, with 143 new cases reported today. One new coronavirus death was reported, bringing the total in Thailand to seven.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 29, Turkey's deaths from the coronavirus increased by 23 to 131, as the number of confirmed cases rose by 1,815 to 9,217.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Uganda has reported 30 cases of COVID-19, mostly people who recently traveled through the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai. Ugandan pop star and opposition leader Bobi Wine has released a song urging Africa's people to wash their hands to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, and criticized African governments for not maintaining better health care systems for the continent's 1.3 billion people.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Uganda police arrested 13 gay men, two bisexual men and four transgender women when they raided an LGBT+ shelter on the outskirts of Kampala following a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people to control the virus. On May 13 a court granted lawyers access to the detainees held with no legal help.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 Mar 30, The US death toll in the COVID-19 pandemic surpassed 3,000, with more than 160,000 confirmed infections.
(The Week, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, US federal judges temporarily blocked bans on abortion imposed in Texas, Ohio, and Alabama during the coronavirus pandemic.
(The Week, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, The captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, docked in Guam, asked for permission to isolate the bulk of his roughly 5,000 crew members on shore, which would take the warship out of duty in an effort to save lives. Navy Capt. Brett Crozier said the spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating and that removing all but 10% of the crew is a “necessary risk" in order to stop the spread of the virus. A day later the US Navy promised to isolate crew members ashore for rotating quarantine within 24 hours.
(AP, 4/1/20)(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 30, SF Mayor Lond Breed said the city's shelter-in-place order will be extended to at least May 1. The SF Bay Area had over 1,900 coronavirus cases and 49 deaths.
(ABC News, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, The Cook County Jail in Chicago said 134 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, up from just 38 March 27.
(Good Morning America, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, Florida Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities in Hernando County. Detectives said he held two services a day earlier with hundreds of people and violated a safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., issued stay-at-home directives, virtually shutting down the capital region in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, New York state reported at least 1,026 coronavirus-related deaths, with about three-quarters of those in New York City. A 1,000-bed Navy hospital ship docked in Manhattan and a field hospital was going up in Central Park for coronavirus patients, as officials in New York City pleaded for more help from Washington.
(AP, 3/30/20)(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, In Pennsylvania Roderick Bliss IV (38), upset over losing his job due to the coronavirus pandemic, shot his girlfriend and then killed himself in an attempted murder-suicide in Wilson Borough.
(NBC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Mar 30, It was reported that nearly a dozen students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., have developed symptoms of Covid-19. The school’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., reopened its campus last week after calling the response to the pandemic an “overreaction".
(NY Times, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Facebook Inc pledged $100 million in financing and advertising spending to support news organizations, including local publishers in the United States, reeling from pressure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Johnson & Johnson said that it and the US government will invest $1 billion to create enough manufacturing capacity to make more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine it is testing to stop the new coronavirus that has killed more than 35,000 people around the world.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Thirty-nine Cuban doctors and nurses arrived in the tiny Pyrenean principality of Andorra to help it battle the coronavirus.
(AFP, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Australia unleashed a record A$130 billion ($80 billion) jobs-rescue plan, pledging to subsidize workers’ wages as the coronavirus outbreak wreaks havoc on the economy and throws thousands out of work.
(Bloomberg, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said US regulators have approved its Imfinzi treatment for use against an aggressive type of lung cancer in previously untreated patients, as it moves to expand its specialization in tackling the disease.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Bulgaria has 399 confirmed cases of coronavirus and eight deaths.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, The National Liberation Army (ELN), the largest active guerrilla group in Colombia, said it will observe a unilateral cease-fire for one month from April 1 in an effort to help stem the spread of coronavirus. Colombia has reported 702 cases and 10 deaths of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Cyprus imposed a curfew to contain the spread of coronavirus, extending a broad lockdown introduced two weeks ago after a weekend spike in recorded cases.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, In El Salvador crowds broke the lockdown to request aid from the government; police used pepper spray to disperse them.
(https://tinyurl.com/y95muu2u)(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, The European Commission said that EU countries should allow the hundreds of thousands of seasonal migrant workers who plant or harvest crops to cross borders despite national measures to contain the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, The European Commission authorized France's scheme to support small companies and self-employed people affected by the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, French army helicopters transported coronavirus patients fighting for their lives from eastern France to hospitals in Germany and Switzerland as the country battled to free up space in life-support units.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, French carmaker Renault put most of its white collar staff in the Ile-de-France region around Paris on partial unemployment as the lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus outbreak lowered activity.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Hungary’s parliament issued a "coronavirus law" handing PM Viktor Orban the right to rule by decree indefinitely, effectively putting the European Union democracy under his sole command for as long as he sees fit.
(Bloomberg, 3/30/20)(Econ, 4/25/20, p.49)
2020 Mar 30, India's health ministry invited doctors in Indian-administered Kashmir to an online training session on managing ventilators. Most, however, were unable to attend because of long-running curbs on the internet that have prevented those living in Kashmir from accessing information about the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Indian health workers caused outrage by spraying a group of migrants with disinfectant, amid fears that a large scale movement of people from cities to the countryside risked spreading the coronavirus. India has registered more than a thousand cases of the new coronavirus, of whom 29 have died.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Iran's death toll from the new coronavirus increased to 2,757 with 117 new deaths in the past 24 hours. The total number of cases has climbed to 41,495.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy rose by around 458 in a day to some 6,818. The number of cases in the region increased by some 1,154 to around 42,161. The national death toll stood at 11,591.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, Kazakhstan, a Central Asian nation of 19 million, has confirmed 302 cases of the disease and has closed its borders, locked down most of its major cities and shut down most businesses in the two biggest population centers for a week.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, The MS Zaandam exited the Panama Canal. At least 189 people aboard the Holland America Line cruise ship were suffering flu-like symptoms and four people have died.
(Good Morning America, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Moscow, with its more than 12 million people, went into lockdown while other parts of Russia moved to introduce similar steps to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
(AFP, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Saudi Arabia said it will finance treatment for anyone infected with the coronavirus in the country. The agriculture ministry took steps to boost wheat and livestock supplies amid global fears of a food shortage. The kingdom has registered eight deaths among 1,453 infections.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, In Serbia 13 people, out of a population of 7 million, have died from the coronavirus. 741 have been diagnosed with the infection. Orthodox Bishop Milutin Knezevic (71) died of the coronavirus overnight in a Belgrade hospital.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, In Spain an overnight death toll of 812 people brought total fatalities to 7,340, while the number of infections rose by 8% to 85,195. Business leaders and regional authorities criticized the government's decision to further restrict the movement of people and keep non-essential workers at home until mid-April.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Turkey placed 39 residential areas in 18 cities under quarantine to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed 131 people in the country.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, United Arab Emirates carrier flydubai said it will reduce pay for its employees for three months from April due to the impact of the global coronavirus crisis on its business.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Zimbabwe entered a “total lockdown" over the coronavirus. Hundreds of public hospital doctors and nurses have gone on strike over the lack of protective equipment. However, social distancing was being pushed aside in the struggle to obtain food, cash, cheap public transport, even clean water.
(AP, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 31, President Donald Trump said the US Congress should pass a $2 trillion spending plan to update the country's roads, bridges and other infrastructure, calling for it to be included in the next bill lawmakers are currently drafting to respond to the coronavirus crisis, which they refer to as "Phase 4." Trump warned Americans to brace for a “hell of a bad two weeks" ahead as the White House projected there could be 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the US from the coronavirus pandemic even if current social distancing guidelines are maintained.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, The US, the country with the most confirmed coronavirus infections, now reported at 164,610 cases and over 3,000 deaths. More than 800,000 cases have been recorded in 185 countries and territories since the epidemic started in China in December. At least 38,464 deaths have been recorded, 27,740 of those in Europe.
(AFP, 3/31/20)(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom reported 6,932 cases of coronavirus and 150 deaths in the state.
(ABC News, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 31, Two ships carrying passengers and crew from an ill-fated South American cruise pleaded with Florida officials to let them carry off the sick and dead. But Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida’s health care resources are already stretched too thin.
(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, New York City authorities rushed to bring in an army of medical volunteers as the death toll in the city from the coronavirus climbed past 1,000.
(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Privately held Bodysphere said the US Food and Drug Administration has authorized the emergency use of its test that can detect the coronavirus in nearly two minutes.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Afghan officials said authorities have quarantined 16 health workers, including six doctors, as Afghans fleeing hard-hit Iran have helped spread the coronavirus in the western border province of Herat.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Africa's confirmed cases of coronavirus climbed to at least 5,300, with more than 170 recorded deaths. The Nigerian cities of Lagos and Abuja entered a two-week lockdown to stop the spread of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, In Bangladesh orders for businesses to close due to the coronavirus pandemic went into effect. Garment factories were not included until four days later.
(Econ., 5/2/20, p.28)
2020 Mar 31, Belgium had at least 12,775 diagnosed cases of COVID-19, and at least 705 of those patients have died, including a girl (12) who succumbed to the disease over the weekend.
(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi declared a State of Emergency following three confirmed coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro called for a pact against the coronavirus "to save lives without leaving jobs behind." Brazil had 1210 deaths from the virus.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.26)
2020 Mar 31, The death toll in England from the coronavirus outbreak rose 29% to 1,651. Scotland said 60 people had died. Wales said 69 people had died.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Guinea announced a night-time curfew between 2100-0500 GMT and restrictions on movement out of the capital due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(AFP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Indonesia said it will ban foreign nationals from entering the country as the world’s fourth-most populous country stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The government has also ordered officials to step up screening of Indonesian workers returning from overseas to prevent the virus from spreading further.
(Bloomberg, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Iran said 141 more people have died from the novel coronavirus, raising the official toll to 2,898. Some 3,111 new infections have been confirmed over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 44,606. State news said authorities have stopped the print editions of all Iranian media until at least April 8, calling on them to publish online instead.
(AFP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy rose by around 381 in a day to some 7,199. The daily deaths marked the lowest daily toll since March 25.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Kenya now has 59 coronavirus cases, including one death from the disease. A family mourned the death of a boy (13), struck by a bullet as he stood on the balcony of his family’s home with his siblings. Police officers had moved through their crowded neighborhood, enforcing a new coronavirus curfew. The director of public prosecutions ordered an investigation into the fatal shooting in the slum of Mathare.
(AP, 3/31/20)(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Mexico's government broadened its shutdown of "non-essential activities" to the private sector and prohibited gatherings of more than 50 people to fight the spread of the coronavirus. The emergency measures will be in effect to April 30.
(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 31, In Nepal 302 stranded Americans were repatriated on a Qatar Airways flight to Washington, DC. Nepal estimated that 3,000 to 4,000 American remained in the country.
(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 31, Gaza's Health Ministry said two more cases have been confirmed among travelers who returned from Egypt, bringing the number to 12. A UN aid agency began delivering food to the homes of impoverished Palestinians instead of making them pick up such parcels at crowded distribution centers.
(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Panama announced strict quarantine measures that separate citizens by gender. From April 1 for 15 days, men and women will only be able to leave their homes for two hours at a time, and on different days.
(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Russian lawmakers backed jail sentences of up to seven years for quarantine offenders as the number of cases jumped by a record daily amount. Over the past 24 hours Russian authorities have reported 500 new cases -- the biggest daily increase so far --- bringing the total tally to 2,337 cases and 17 fatalities.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)(AFP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, A senior Saudi official urged more than 1 million Muslims intending to perform the hajj to delay making plans this year, comments suggesting the pilgrimage could be cancelled due to the new coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, South African scientist Gita Ramjee died from Covid-19-related complications.
(BBC, 4/1/20)
2020 Mar 31, Spain approved an emergency measure designed to help domestic workers who have seen their work hours reduced, temporarily suspended or been fired since the country went into lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. New cases increased by 9,222 bringing the total to 94,417.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 31, Sweden recorded 4,947 infection of the coronavirus and 239 deaths.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.41)
2020 Mar, US Vice President Mike Pence directed the nation’s top disease control agency to use its emergency powers to effectively seal the US borders, overruling the agency’s scientists who said there was no evidence the action would slow the coronavirus. The action caused nearly 150,000 children and adults to be expelled from the country.
(AP, 10/3/20)
2020 Mar, Virginia paroled 95 inmates because of the coronavirus pandemic. They included killers, rapists and kidnappers, blindsiding prosecutors and victims' families who say they were not properly notified as required by law.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 Mar, Peru's Pres. Martin Vizcarra announced he’d signed off on a purchase of 1.6 million COVID-19 tests from China and South Korea, almost all of them for antibodies. It was later found that they did not meet standards for accurately detecting COVID-19.
{Peru, COVID-19}
(AP, 10/7/20)
2020 Mar, Early this month the Marshall Islands sealed itself off, banning all inbound visitors due to the coronavirus. Even supply vessels were require to wait 14 days at sea before berthing.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.34)
2020 Apr 1, A US government classified report, received by the White House last week, said China has concealed the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in its country, under-reporting both total cases and deaths it’s suffered from the disease.
(Bloomberg, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, A delivery of Russian medical supplies arrived at JFK. The US purchased 60 tons of ventilators, masks, and respirators in a shipment from the Russian government in a public relations coup for Vladimir Putin.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 1, The US government and Florida worked on a plan to allow thousands of passengers on the MS Zaandam cruise ship, exposed to an onboard coronavirus outbreak, to disembark. Pres. Donald Trump a day earlier urged Gov. Ron DeSantis to drop his opposition to their docking. Florida has reported 6,490 cases of coronavirus, including 251 non-residents, and 85 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, The US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) confirmed that a second inmate at the federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana has died from the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Federal prisons began ordering inmates confined to their cells for the next two weeks in order to fight spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)(Politico, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, US Navy officials said nearly 3,000 sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier now docked in Guam, where the coronavirus has spread, will be taken off the ship by April 3.
(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Grand Canyon National in northern Arizona was closed due to the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/4/20, p.A3)
2020 Apr 1, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis listed religious activities as "essential services" that could continue (without crowds) despite a lockdown.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.45)
2020 Apr 1, In Louisiana jazz legend Ellis Marsalis Jr. (b.1934), died from COVID-19-related pneumonia.
(Good Morning America, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 1, In New Jersey 267 have died from the coronavirus.
(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo said over 83,000 people have tested positive in his state. Of those, 12,000 patients are in hospital, including 3,000 in intensive care units. The state reported 83, 712 coronavirus infections with deaths rising to 1,941.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, In NYC 1,400 members of the police department have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Albania's Health Ministry reported 16 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total in the small Balkan nation of 2.8 million people to 259. The health ministry said all schools, cafes, restaurants and other public venues will remain shut and restrictions on social and economic activity will stay in place till the end of the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Brazil reported that an indigenous woman in a village deep in the Amazon rainforest has contracted the novel coronavirus, the first case reported among Brazil's more than 300 tribes.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, The United Kingdom's death toll climbed to a total of 2,352 -- an increase of 563 in the past 24 hours. Some 29,474 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the U.K.
(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Cambodia's labor ministry said at least 91 garment factories in Cambodia have suspended work due to coronavirus, with 61,500 workers affected. The ministry said the government would provide salary replacement of about $38 per month for about 61,500 workers.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Cuban authorities said they are cancelling their May Day parade because of the coronavirus. Cuba has confirmed 186 cases and six deaths.
(SFC, 4/2/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 1, Ethiopia said it will postpone general elections that were scheduled for the end of August because of the coronavirus outbreak. The country has 26 confirmed cases of the virus.
(Bloomberg, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, The European Commission said laboratories across Europe can now access control material to enable them to avoid mistakenly telling people they are free of the coronavirus when in fact they are infected.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, France began publishing statistics on care-home deaths.
(Econ., 5/9/20, p.41)
2020 Apr 1, In France Jacques Joaquim Yhombi-Opango, The former president of the Republic of Congo, died in Paris from complications related to the novel coronavirus. Yhombi-Opango was an army officer who rose to power as Congo-Brazzaville's head of state in 1977, following the assassination of the previous president. He was ousted in 1979 by the country's current leader, Denis Sassou Nguesso. Yhombi-Opango served as prime minister between 1994 and 1996 during Pascal Lissouba's presidency. He fled to France in 1997.
(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Germany's confirmed cases of coronavirus passed 71,000. The death toll was 775. The country was now capable of conducting up to 500,000 tests a week.
(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Iran's health ministry said the country's coronavirus death toll now stood at 3,036 following 138 new fatalities in the past 24 hours. 2,987 new cases had been confirmed, bringing the total to 47,593.
(AFP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu restricted movement into and out of the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, the country's 9th largest city, due to its high number of coronavirus cases.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.38)
2020 Apr 1, Italy reported almost 110,574 coronavirus infections. The death toll climbed by 727 to 13,155. Italy has registered more deaths than anywhere else in the world and accounts for around 30% of all global fatalities from the virus.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Computer hackers attacked Italy's social security website, forcing it to shut down just as people were starting to apply for coronavirus benefits. Several hacker attacks were reported over the last few days.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Japan reported 65 new cases of coronavirus. Nationwide Japan has about 2,300 confirmed cases and 67 deaths.
(SFC, 4/2/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 1, Lebanon has recorded nearly 480 cases of coronavirus and 12 deaths. Hezbollah said it is turning the organizational might it once deployed to fight Israel or in the civil war in neighboring Syria to battle the spread of the virus pandemic in Lebanon.
(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Russia has so far registered 2,777 cases of the coronavirus and 24 deaths, mostly in Moscow. The Kremlin said Pres. Vladimir Putin has decided to handle his duties remotely, after the head of the country's main coronavirus hospital tested positive following a meeting last week with the president. Putin signed legislation to allow the government to declare a state of national emergency in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus.
(AFP, 4/1/20)(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Serbia has so far reported 1,060 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 28 deaths, in a total population of 7 million. Branislav Blazic (63), a state secretary with the Ministry for Environmental Protection, died days after being hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Singapore reported 74 new coronavirus cases in its biggest intraday jump, bringing the total tally to 1,000. Twenty of the new cases were imported while 54 were locally transmitted.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, It was reported that the 1.2 million Chinese antibody tests that the Slovak government bought from local middlemen for 15 million euros ($16 million) are inaccurate and unable to detect Covid-19 in its early stages. China said Slovakia used them incorrectly, and cautioned against politicizing instances where equipment isn’t up to scratch.
(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Somalia has confirmed three cases of Covid-19, but there were fears that if the virus spreads it could quickly overwhelm the country's poor health system.
(BBC, 4/1/20)
(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, The Spanish Ministry of Health recorded 7,719 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to 102,136 with over 9,000 deaths. Spain hit a record of 864 deaths in one day.
(ABC News, 4/1/20)(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Swedish airline BRA said it was pausing all traffic as demand had ground to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic. Privately held BRA said it was cancelling all flights between April 6 and May 31.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, The independent NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Turkmenistan, which was ranked at the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index in 2019, has removed the word ‘coronavirus’ from the national vocabulary. To date, no cases of COVID-19 have been reported by the authorities.
(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Ukraine asked Elon Musk via Twitter to send it ventilators after the billionaire chief executive of Tesla Inc offered to ship them across the world during the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits more than doubled to a second straight record. A total of 6.65 million people filed jobless claims in the week ended March 28. The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 5,148 people in the United States. Global coronavirus cases topped 962,000 with more than 48,000 dead. The US unemployment rate jumped to 4.4% from a 50-year low of 3.5%. Employers have cut 701,000 jobs because of the pandemic that's all but shut down the nation's economy.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)(ABC News, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will form a bipartisan select committee on the coronavirus crisis to oversee the spending of $2 trillion Congress has approved to respond to the pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Capt. Brett Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier was fired by Navy leaders who said he created a panic by sending his memo pleading for help to too many people. Crozier had raised warnings the ship was facing a growing outbreak of the coronavirus and asked for permission to isolate the bulk of his crew members on shore in Guam. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said commander “demonstrated extremely poor judgment" in the middle of a crisis. The decision to remove Crozier was immediately condemned by members of the House Armed Services Committee. On April 5 it was reported that Crozier had tested positive for the coronavirus. By this date 155 people aboard the ship had tested positive.
(AP, 4/3/20)(SFC, 4/6/20, p.A10)
2020 Apr 2, The US Coast Guard and the Florida Department of Health reached a conditional agreement with Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise line, on an entry plan for two ships carrying dozens of people with flu-like symptoms. Carnival's plan was still subject to approval from Broward County, where the ships would dock. Until then, the pair of vessels will remain outside US waters.
(AP, 4/2/20)(ABC News, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, An Illinois man who suspected his girlfriend had contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, shot and killed her and then himself. Both tested negative for the disease.
(NBC News, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 2, The US Bureau of Prisons said the death toll from COVID-19 at a federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, has continued climbing, with a fourth inmate now dead.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, New York's statewide death toll went over 1,900. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state has 92,000 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and has lost 2,373 lives. Cuomo said the outbreak shows no signs of abating, with almost 8,700 new infections, 1,200 new hospitalizations, 400 new ICU admissions and more than 400 new deaths in the state.
(AP, 4/2/20)(ABC News, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee issued orders requiring citizens to remain at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, ending one of the last holdouts by US states.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Bangladesh has reported six deaths and 54 cases of COVID-19 amid concerns that the virus could spread in the country through Bangladeshis who have returned from Italy and other places struggling with the disease.
(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Ecuador confirmed 3,160 cases of coronavirus and 120 deaths, likely a vast underestimate. Untold numbers of Ecuadorians were dying of unrelated diseases that can’t be treated because hospitals are overwhelmed.
(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, Deaths from coronavirus in Germany climbed to 1,074, a day after the government extended a nationwide lockdown beyond Easter.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Greece quarantined a migrant camp after 20 asylum seekers tested positive, its first such facility hit since the coronavirus outbreak. Greece reported at least 53 people dead and at least 1,544 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Police said they had imposed fines for 15,741 violations for breaking lockdown rules since March 23.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, Hong Kong ordered bars and pubs to close for 14 days from April 3. The city earlier reported 37 new cases, taking its total to 802.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Indonesia's coronavirus cases neared 1,800 as the death toll rose to 170, passing South Korea as the country with the highest number of recorded fatalities in Asia after China.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)(SFC, 4/3/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 2, Iran reported 124 new deaths from the coronavirus, raising its total to 3,160, as Pres. Rouhani warned that the country may still battle the pandemic for another year. The health ministry confirmed 3,111 new infections over the past 24 hours, bringing Iran's total to 50,468. State television reported that Parliament speaker Ali Larijani (62) has tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the latest official to contract the disease in the hard hit country.
(AFP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Iraq's health ministry said in its latest daily statement that the total recorded confirmed cases for coronavirus were 772, with 54 deaths. Three doctors closely involved in the testing process said confirmed cases were much higher with numbers of 3,000 to 9,000.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Israel's Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, a powerful ultra-Orthodox politician meant to lead the battle against the virus, was confirmed to be infected. Ultra-Orthodox residents of Bnei Brak, obeying their religious leaders, have ignored pleas to stay home in the face of the coronavirus threat. Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, home to large ultra-Orthodox communities, have the largest concentrations.
(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, Italy reported 4,668 new cases of the coronavirus compared with 4,782 a day earlier. The nation reported 760 deaths as the number of fatalities rose again after three weeks of nationwide lockdown.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Italy's La Stamp newspaper said that the 104-strong contingent of doctors and experts, sent by Russia to the country's coronavirus epicenter near Milan, almost certainly included officers from Russia's GRU military intelligence agency.
(AFP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, Japan has more than 3,000 cases of coronavirus and 71 deaths. Tokyo reported 97 new cases.
(SFC, 4/3/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 2, Human Rights Watch said Lebanese authorities have introduced "discriminatory restrictions" exclusively targeting Syrian refugees as part of their response to the coronavirus. Lebanon has recorded 494 confirmed infections and 16 deaths from the coronavirus, prompting the government last month to introduce a daily curfew from 7 pm to 5 am.
(AFP, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Malawi reported its first cases of the coronavirus.
(BBC, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 2, Mexico's Grupo Modelo, producer of the Corona, Modelo and Pacifico brands, announced measures to suspend production and distribution of beer in response to the government's decision to halt non-essential economic activity to contain the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, Mexico has registered 1,378 coronavirus cases and 37 deaths. It was reported that Mexican farmworkers on both sides of the US-Mexico border are working in unsanitary conditions despite the rapid rise in coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Portugal's parliament approved the suspension of rents for vulnerable households and cash-strapped small firms during the coronavirus outbreak, but rights groups warned that the measure might only delay a looming housing crisis.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, President Vladimir Putin extended his order keeping Russians at home until April 30, warning that the spread of coronavirus has yet to reach its peak. Russia reported a 28% increase in infections overnight, bringing the total number of infected to 3,548.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2 Russian police detained Anastasia Vasilyeva, the leader of an independent doctors' union, as she tried to deliver masks and gloves to a small hospital outside Moscow.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.43)
2020 Apr 2, Singapore suffered its fourth death, a day after it reported a record number of new cases that took its total to 1,000.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, South African police wearing riot gear forced their way into a church in central Cape Town to remove hundreds of foreign migrants who had been sheltering there for months. South Africa is in the midst of a 21-day lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Spain reported 950 more coronavirus deaths, the most in a single day, taking total fatalities in the country to more than 10,000. Spain said jobless claims rose by a record 302,265 in March.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, It was reported that one-third of Thailand’s population has registered for government cash handouts designed to soften the blow of the novel coronavirus outbreak, far exceeding the funds available for the policy.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, The UN General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution recognizing “the unprecedented effects" of the coronavirus pandemic and calling for “intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate and defeat" the COVID-19 disease.
(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations is facing a cash crisis because of non-payment of dues by member states, which has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Guterres said the UN ended 2019 with arrears of $711 million.
(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, The Vatican recorded its seventh coronavirus case and extended its partial lockdown until May 4.
(SFC, 4/3/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 2, Zambia recorded its first death due to the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 3, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, said Americans should cover their face if they have to go in public, but they should still stay isolated as much as possible The announcement marked a reversal for health officials, who’d previously said that those without symptoms didn’t need to wear face coverings.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 3, The US Food and Drug Administration announced an "expanded access" program for convalescent plasma, coordinated by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, aimed at making it easier for hospitals across the country to collect and use plasma. Convalescent plasma was successfully used during the 1918 flu pandemic. In one trial in China, levels of the virus in five seriously ill COVID-19 patients were undetectable after plasma transfusions.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 3, In the SF Bay Area the confirmed cases of coronavirus as of this morning rose to 2,968 with 78 deaths. California to date had 11,187 cases with 246 deaths. The testing backlog in the state stood at 59,500. Nationwide there were 245,658 cases, with 6,069 deaths.
(https://sfist.com/)(SFC, 4/3/20, p.B1)
2020 Apr 3, In Florida passengers aboard the cruise ship Zaandam were freed following the removal of 14 critically ill people who were taken to local hospitals. All the passengers were instructed to wear masks when traveling and to immediately go into 14 days of self-quarantine to prevent any possible spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 3, New York reported 562 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the state's total death toll to 2,935.
(The Week, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 3, Utah's Zion National Park was closed to the public to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/6/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 3, 3M Corp. said it has secured China's approval to export to the US 10 million N-95 respirators manufactured by the company in China.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Canada recorded almost 12,000 cases of the new coronavirus and the death toll jumped by almost 20%. Cases rose to 11,747 and deaths climbed to 152.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, China reported 64 new asymptomatic cases, 26 of which were imported. The nation reported 19 new virus cases in total, and four deaths, all of which were in Hubei.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 3, It was reported that the coronavirus pandemic has brought a reversal of fortune for Cuban medical diplomacy, as doctors have flown off on new missions to battle COVID-19 in at least 14 countries including Italy and the tiny principality of Andorra on the Spanish-French border, burnishing the island’s international image in the middle of a global crisis. Cuba has recorded 212 cases of the virus.
(AP, 4/3/20)(Economist, 4/4/20, p.26)
2020 Apr 3, In France the coronavirus pandemic has claimed the lives of 5,307. Almost 60,000 people there been diagnosed with the illness, including almost 6,400 on life-support machines. Police ramped up checks at train stations and motorways to stop people breaking a national lockdown ahead of school holidays this weekend.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Gabon’s President Ali Bongo announced a social and economic plan to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, including emergency financing to respond to the “urgent cash needs" facing companies.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 3, Guatemala said a man deported from the US has tested positive for the coronavirus. Guatemala has 49 confirmed cases and one death.
(SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 3, Iran state TV reported the coronavirus has killed another 134 people, pushing the country's death toll to nearly 3,300 amid more than 53,000 confirmed cases.
(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Israel has reported more than 7,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and at least 36 deaths. Officials said Israel is working with foreign governments and Orthodox Christian leaders in the Holy Land to make sure that the April 18 Holy Fire ceremony is not extinguished by the coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Libya recorded its first death from the novel coronavirus. The UN-recognized, Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), which controls the west of the country, has officially recorded 10 cases of the virus. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees warned that the health system in Libya was already on the verge of collapse.
(AFP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Dutch brewer Heineken said that it will suspend production and distribution from its seven plants in Mexico, in response to the government's decision to halt non-essential economic activity to contain the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, In Pakistan mosques were allowed to remain open for Muslims to gather for weekly prayers, even as the coronavirus pandemic spread and much of the country had shut down. Pakistan has reported 2,450 confirmed cases and 36 deaths. PM Imran Khan said he would not consider possible easing of restrictions on movement before April 14.
(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Peruvian lawmakers approved a law late today that allows citizens to withdraw up to 25% of their holdings in private pension funds to provide an extra source of liquidity during a nationwide shutdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 3, Russian officials reported 4,149 cases of coronavirus in the country, four times more than a week ago.
(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong said the government would no longer discourage the use of face masks, and would distribute reusable ones to every household to help stem the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.27)
2020 Apr 3, Slovenia said it will introduce a mandatory 14-day quarantine for most people entering the country from April 4 in an attempt to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The country has confirmed 934 coronavirus cases, with 20 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, South Africa has reported only five confirmed deaths from the coronavirus. About 1,400 people have tested positive for Covid-19 as South Africans mark their first week under one of the strictest lockdowns introduced anywhere in the world.
(BBC, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, It was reported that Tunisia has deployed a police robot to patrol areas of Tunis, to ensure that people are observing a coronavirus lockdown. The country has reported 436 cases of COVID-19 and 14 deaths.
(BBC, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Ukraine's government imposed a series of new restrictions designed to prevent the coronavirus outbreak spreading widely but said it hoped to soften the measures again in late April. Ukraine reported 138 new cases of the coronavirus over the past day, taking the total number of infected people to 942 with 23 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Zimbabwe's police began using water cannon to disinfect markets and bus ranks, turning instruments associated with repression into weapons against the new coronavirus. The country has recorded one death from nine cases of the COVID-19 disease.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 4, In the US, fatalities from COVID-19 rose to more than 7,000, with more than 275,000 infections. More than 60,000 people have died globally from the virus. Global cases top 1.1 million. Jaap Goudsmit, adjunct professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases at Harvard, said herd immunity against the coronavirus may take years to develop.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Alabama issued Stay-at-Home Orders due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, California cases of coronavirus to date were 12,503 with 275 deaths. The SF Bay Area confirmed 3,156 cases and 85 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Missouri Governor Mike Parson said his Stay-at-Home Order will begin April 6 and last through April 24.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, New York state got 1,000 ventilators after the Chinese government facilitated a donation from billionaires Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai, the co-founders of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the state of Oregon had volunteered to send 140 more breathing machines. New York had 113,700 confirmed cases as of this morning. At least 3,565 have died in New York and more than 115,000 have tested positive.
(ABC News, 4/5/20)(AP, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Oklahoma acquired 1.2 million pills of hydroxychloroquine, or about 100,000 doses, from FFF Enterprises, a California-based medical supply wholesaler. Gov. Kevin Stitt later defended the state’s $2 million purchase, saying the drug was showing some promise.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 4, Washington DC reported 145 new positive infections from COVID-19, bringing tis total to 902. Six new deaths brought that total to 15.
(SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A9)
2020 Apr 4, Walmart announced that starting today it would limit the number of patrons in its stores to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus after too many of its customers ignored social distancing guidelines.
(ABC News, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Australia's confirmed cases rose by 198 over the last 24-hours, bringing the national total to 5,548. The death toll from COVID-19 rose to 30.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, In Austria the number of confirmed cases increased to 11,781 with 186 deaths. The growth of COVID-19 infections decreased to a single digit percentage range. The health ministry issued a decree stipulating that not more than five people are allowed to meet in one room, even at people's homes, unless they live together.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, in Bangladesh positive cases surged to 70 with eight people dead. The World Bank approved $100 million in funds to help the country respond to the pandemic and strengthen the South Asian nation’s public health system.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Brazil counted 2,369 hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients over the last four weeks. The health ministry counted 18,000 more admissions for respiratory cases than during the same period last year.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.24)
2020 Apr 4, In Britain cases of coronavirus rose to 47,806 from 41,903. Total deaths rose by 708 to 4,934.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 4, China reported that it had 30 new infections, including 25 imported cases. It also said there had been three more deaths. China also reported 47 new asymptomatic cases, including 16 cases from abroad.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 4, The Dominican Republic has reported 1,284 cases of the coronavirus.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.26)
2020 Apr 4, Egyptian officials said at least 17 medics at the main cancer hospital in Cairo have been quarantined after testing positive for the coronavirus. Egypt has reported around 1,000 confirmed cases and 66 fatalities from the global pandemic.
(AP, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Deaths in Germany due to the coronavirus rose by 168 to 1,275. Some 91,159 people were infected and 6,365 more than a day earlier.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, India banned exports of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that US President Donald Trump has touted as a “game changer" in the fight against Covid-19.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 4, Indonesia said that coronavirus cases had topped 2,000 and deaths risen to 191. An official said there were 106 new confirmed infections, taking the total number of cases in the country to 2,092, with 10 new deaths. Doubts have been raised over official figures.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Iran’s coronavirus fatalities jumped to 3,452 with 158 deaths. Total cases rose to 55,743 as 2,560 tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, In Italy, total coronavirus cases stood at 119,827.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Japan reported that some 118 people were newly infected with the novel coronavirus in Tokyo bringing the number of confirmed cases there to 891.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Malaysia reported 150 new coronavirus cases, including four deaths. That took the country's total to 3,483 confirmed infections and 57 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, In the Netherlands the number of deaths rose by 164, or 11%, to 1,651. The tally of confirmed virus cases increased by 6% to 16,627, slightly below the growth rate seen in the beginning of the week. The amount of people hospitalized with the virus rose by 336 to 6,622.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, The Philippines recorded 8 new coronavirus deaths and 76 more infections. The health ministry said a total of 144 people have died in the Philippines while 3,094 were infected.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, In Portugal confirmed coronavirus cases pushed past the 10,000 mark. Portugal has confirmed 10,524 coronavirus cases and 266 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Puerto Rico has reported 450 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 18 deaths.
(SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A9)
2020 Apr 4, Russia reported the second straight day of declines in new coronavirus cases. The latest figures showed 582 additional infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 4,731, with 43 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Singapore’s Ministry of Health confirmed an additional 75 cases of Covid-19 infection, of which six were imported and 69 local cases with no recent travel history abroad. The city-state reported a sixth death from the virus.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, South Korea reported 94 more cases of coronavirus in 24 hours, bringing the total to 10,156.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced plans to extend the country’s lockdown by two weeks until April 25. Spain said the number of confirmed cases increased to 124,736. The number of new deaths in Spain declined for a second day, with an additional 809 fatalities in the past 24 hours for a total of 11,744.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Sweden said it has had more than 330 deaths after confirmed cases topped 6,000 this week.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, In Thailand cases of coronavirus rose to 2,067 after 89 new reports. The Southeast Asian nation also reported one new death, bringing total to 20. A security official was removed after he allowed more than 100 returning citizens to proceed home. The errant travelers were ordered to report to authorities.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)(SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 5, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper defended the US Navy's controversial decision to remove the commander of a coronavirus-stricken US aircraft carrier, saying it was a "tough call" but that ultimately it was "a chain of command issue".
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, The SF Bay Area reported 3,440 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of this morning with 87 deaths. California cases climbed to 14,005 with 324 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, The death toll in New Jersey has so far reached 846 with 34,124 positive cases of the coronavirus. Ravinder Bhalla, the mayor of Hoboken, announced in a statement that all employees of essential businesses still operating in the city are now required to wear face covers or masks while working.
(ABC News, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, New York state reported 594 deaths from the coronavirus and 8,327 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, increasing the numbers to 4,159 dead and 122,000 cases since the outbreak began. As of this morning more than 8,500 people in the United States have died from COVID-19. Global cases of the coronavirus pass 1.2 million and deaths top 66,000.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)(ABC News, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, US federal and local zoo officials said a tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the US or a tiger anywhere.
(AP, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Albania reported 28 new cases of the new coronavirus and said a failure to respect social distancing had led to the highest numbers of infections over the last three days. The COVID-19 disease has killed 20 and infected 361.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Austria reported that the number of new coronavirus infections rose to 11,897. The country also reported more newly recovered than newly diagnosed patients and a declining number of people in intensive care. Some 204 people in Austria have died of the pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Britain's PM Boris Johnson, infected with the coronavirus, went to St. Thomas’s hospital in central London as a precaution.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 5, Denmark's confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose to 4,369, with 179 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Ethiopia reported its first death from the virus and announced five more cases bringing its total to 43, most of them imported by travelers. A number of regional states have implemented bans on movement of people and vehicles, but not yet in the capital Addis Ababa.
(AP, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In France the coronavirus that killed 7,560. France, like other countries, has confined its residents to home since March 17 to curb the spread of the virus. The measures have been extended until April 15, and are likely to be extended again.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Germany's confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 5,936 in the past 24 hours to 91,714, the third straight drop in the daily rate of new cases.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In Hungary the number of coronavirus infections climbed to 733, with 34 people dead. Officials said the figure of 313 registered infections in Budapest could rise fast as some were losing patience with restrictions, gathering in parks and using the almost empty streets for illegal drag racing.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In Indonesia commuters in Jakarta are now barred from using public transit if they aren’t wearing face masks. The country's numbers of coronavirus infections rose to 2,273.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Iran’s fatalities from coronavirus rose to 3,603 after 151 deaths and 2,483 new cases in the past 24 hours. Total infections reached 58,226.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In Israel a small group of Franciscan monks and Roman Catholic faithful took to the streets of Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter in the Old City to distribute olive branches after the traditional Palm Sunday procession was cancelled due to restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus. More than 8,000 people in Israel have contracted the coronavirus and 46 have died. In the West Bank, nearly 200 cases have been reported, including a large outbreak in the biblical town of Bethlehem.
(AP, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Tokyo reported more than 130 new coronavirus infections, bringing the number of cases in the Japanese capital to more than 1,000.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Lebanon has reported 520 cases of coronavirus and 18 deaths since the first case was reported in late February.
(AP, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Malawi's President Peter Mutharika announced that he and all government ministers are taking a 10% wage cut for three months to raise money to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. Malawi has reported four confirmed cases of the coronavirus so far. All have all been linked to people travelling from the UK.
(BBC, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Malaysia reported 179 new coronavirus cases, raising the cumulative total to 3,662. The new cases included 4 deaths, raising the tally to 61 people as of noon.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In the Netherlands the number of deaths caused by the new coronavirus increased by 115 to 1,766. Confirmed infections increased by 1,224 to 17,851.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, The Philippine health ministry reported 8 additional coronavirus deaths and 152 newly confirmed cases. Positive cases rose to 3,246, while the death toll rose to 152.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Singapore reported 120 new cases of the coronavirus, the most in a day, bringing the total to 1,309. Of the new cases, only four involved patients with recent travel history.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In South Africa all 50 wedding guests, the pastor who conducted the ceremony, and the newlyweds themselves were promptly arrested and taken to a police station outside Richards Bay due to a country-wide ban on all public gatherings because of coronavirus.
(BBC, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 5, Officials in South Sudan said the country has its first case of COVID-19, making it the 51st of Africa's 54 countries to have the disease. President Salva Kiir last week imposed a curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. for six weeks and closed borders, airports, schools, churches and mosques.
(AP, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In Spain deaths from the coronavirus fell for a third day. The Health Ministry reported 674 fatalities in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 12,418. The number of confirmed cases rose to 130,759.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, The United Nations urged governments around the world to fight the rise in domestic violence as abuse soared since stay-at-home orders have been imposed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
(The Week, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, President Trump agreed to allow treatment of coronavirus patients on the Navy hospital ship Comfort, which is docked in New York City.
(AP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, President Trump’s acting Navy secretary Thomas B. Modly, in a profanity-laced reprimand, criticized sailors aboard the stricken aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt for cheering their captain, who was removed after he appealed for help as coronavirus spread throughout the warship.
(NY Times, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, The US inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services reported that a shortage of tests and long waits for results were at the root of mounting problems faced by hospitals. Pres. Trump called the report, based on a late March survey of 323 hospitals nationwide, "just wrong" and suggested that its conclusions were skewed by politics.
(AP, 5/26/20)
2020 Apr 6, The US coronavirus death toll passed 10,000 with 10,993 cases. The total number of cases in the United States rose to 368,449. Hospital officials, doctors, public health experts and medical examiners said that official counts have failed to capture the true number of Americans dying in this pandemic. Global cases of the coronavirus neared 1.3 million; deaths topped 70,000.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)(The Week, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, California reported 15,824 cases of the coronavirus and 372 deaths. SF Bay Area confirmed cases numbered 3,753 and 95 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Idaho has reported 1,170 cases of coronavirus and 13 deaths.
(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 6, New York state had its deadliest day in the coronavirus pandemic, with 731 new deaths in the state to a total of 5,489 fatalities.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem issued a limited stay-at-home mandate that applies only to people in the two hardest-hit counties who are older than 65 or who have chronic health conditions. North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas were the only US states where no one is under a stay-at-home order.
(AP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, CVS Health Corp launched two new drive-through COVID-19 testing sites in Georgia and Rhode Island using testing equipment made by Abbott Laboratories, with up to four more locations to follow.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. began a phase 1 human trial of its Covid-19 vaccine, INO-4800. The company said animal studies show promising immune responses.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, RedHill Biopharma said the first patient with a confirmed coronavirus diagnosis was dosed with opaganib in Israel, and additional patients are expected to be treated in the coming days. The company said pre-clinical data demonstrated anti-viral effects in other viruses, anti-inflammatory activities and the potential to reduce lung inflammation.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, It was reported that ResearchGate, a social network site for scientists and researchers, has launched a new forum to facilitate collaboration between COVID-19 experts on research into beating the flu-like disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The site was developed in 10 days and launched late last week.
(https://www.researchgate.net/community/COVID-19/discussions)(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Tyson Foods Inc said it has closed a pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, after more than 24 cases of COVID-19 involving employees at the facility.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 6, Bangladesh vowed to provide emergency food supplies for "as long as needed" to thousands of sex workers left destitute by the sudden closure of brothels due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, British PM Boris Johnson was transferred to intensive care on Monday as his COVID-19 symptoms worsened significantly after he was admitted to a London hospital for tests. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was designated as his replacement if he becomes incapacitated.
(The Week, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc said it will invest $250 million in Vir Biotechnology Inc and collaborate to develop potential treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, China's National Health Commission (NHC) said that 78 new asymptomatic cases had been identified as of the end of April 5, compared with 47 the day before.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele warned that security forces had been ordered to enforce quarantine orders more rigorously to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, confining offenders to "containment centers" and confiscating their cars.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, France's coronavirus figures showed that the rate of increase in fatalities sped up again after several days of slowing.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, Germany reported lower numbers of new coronavirus cases. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government announced a new “limitless" aid program for small- and medium-sized companies.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Hungary's populist PM Viktor Orban presented a massive action plan to mitigate the economic fall-out from the highly contagious disease, focusing on bolstering investment and employment but bypassing the very poor.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, Iran reported 136 new deaths due to the coronavirus, compared with 151 a day earlier. The nation also reported 2,274 new infections, taking the total to 60,500. Total deaths stood at 3,739.
(AFP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced a complete lockdown over the upcoming Passover holiday to control the country's coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Ivory Coast police clashed with protesters who had begun dismantling a half-built coronavirus testing center, afraid that people using the facility would spread the epidemic through their district.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe moved to declare a state of emergency in seven prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka, and announced a record economic stimulus package as the country braces for a surge in coronavirus infections. At least 3,654 people in Japan have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 85 of them have died.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)(ABC News, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Malta said it would allow hunters to hunt quail from April 10 until the end of the month, despite health authorities urging everyone to stay indoors to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Malta has so far reported 227 COVID-19 cases but no deaths.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, The Netherlands reported 101 new fatalities, the smallest increase since March 30. Total reported cases rose 5% to 18,803.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Norway's health minister said the COVID-19 epidemic is under control in the country, pointing to the low rate of transmission of the disease.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Pakistan said it would reopen its border for four days so that Afghans wishing to return home can go back. On the other side of the border, which closed nearly a month ago, the Afghan government has set up a coronavirus quarantine camp for the returnees. Pakistani nationals stranded in Afghanistan will also be allowed to go back. Some 200,000 Afghans and counting have been flowing home across its border with Iran, one of the world’s biggest epicenters of the pandemic, for weeks.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Russia's government announced a 150 billion-ruble program under which banks will offer interest-free loans to small businesses to pay salaries as the coronavirus lockdown continued.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, South Korea reported fewer than 50 new coronavirus cases for the first time since its peak in late February.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Spain reported lower numbers of new coronavirus cases. New infections were 4,273, taking the total to 135,032. The death toll rose by 637 to 13,055 in the past 24 hours.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Switzerland reported 21,652 positive COVID-19 cases and 584 deaths. A Boeing 747 landed in Geneva with 92 tons of protective medical equipment including masks made in China for distribution to 13 Swiss hospitals and pharmaceutical associations as they battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Another delivery had arrived in Zurich the previous evening on a chartered Swiss airline flight from Shanghai carrying protective gowns for dozens of health care facilities. Further flights with additional equipment were planned.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, The Vatican said Pope Francis has started an emergency fund to help areas affected by the coronavirus in developing countries.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 7, US Pres. Donald Trump acknowledged that the coronavirus is infecting and killing black people in the US at disproportionately high rates, and said that the authorities were working to provide more information. Trump also threatened to freeze US funding to the World Health Organization, saying the international group had “missed the call" on the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 4/8/20)(AP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, The US Navy said at least 230 crew members of the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned over fallout from his ouster of Capt. Brett Crozier.
(AP, 4/8/20)(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 7, Deaths in the US due to the coronavirus reached about 11,000, with about 370,000 confirmed infections. The number of confirmed infections of the novel coronavirus exceeded 1.34 million globally and the death toll crossed 76,000.
(AP, 4/7/20)(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, California reported 14,475 cases of the coronavirus and 400 deaths. SF Bay Area confirmed cases numbered 3,880 and 107 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said over 138,000 people in the state have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Cuomo announced the state’s highest one-day total of virus-related deaths: 731. New York City had at least 3,202 deaths. New Jersey and Connecticut also reported one-day highs.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)(NY Times, 4/8/20)(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 7, John Prine (73), the country-folk singer and songwriter whose lyrics made him a favorite of Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and others, died in Nashville of complications due to the coronavirus.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Prine)(NY Times, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 7, A federal appeals court sided with Texas in allowing it to ban most abortions while the state is under an emergency order that limits non-essential surgeries during the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Wisconsin voters lined up to cast ballots across the state, ignoring a stay-at-home order in the midst of a pandemic to participate in the state's presidential primary election. Voters in the state's Democratic primary endorsed Joe Biden. Voters also elected Democrat Judge Jill Karofsky to the state's Supreme Court.
(AP, 4/7/20)(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A3)
2020 Apr 7, World stock markets posted sharp gains as signs of progress in curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus in both Europe and the United States fueled investors' appetite for risk.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Armenia reported 853 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of today with 87 people having recovered from the infection and eight deaths.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh confirmed its first case of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Benin has ordered people in a dozen cities to wear face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Benmin has 22 confirmed cases.
(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 7, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry said a senior official at the Bulgarian embassy in The Hague has been recalled for illegally collecting what he called a coronavirus tax from visitors seeking consular assistance.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Mainland China reported no coronavirus deaths for the first time since the pandemic began and a drop in new cases.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, In China a one-sentence notice issued by the party-government joint disciplinary watchdog body in Beijing’s western district said Ren Zhiqiang, prominent Communist party member, was undergoing a “review and monitoring investigation." Ren dropped from sight in mid-March after publishing an online essay that criticized the leadership’s handling of the virus outbreak that originated in December in central China.
(AP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Colombia extended a nationwide quarantine due to the coronavirus until April 27.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, It was reported that sales of sex toys in Denmark have more than doubled after Danes were told to stay at home to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Finland said it will start tracking the spread of the coronavirus in its population with randomized antibody tests.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, In France almost 99,000 people across the country have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and nearly 9,000 of them have died.
(ABC News, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Hong Kong reported 21 new cases of the coronavirus for a total of 936.
(https://tinyurl.com/sdefuk6)
2020 Apr 7, Leaders of Hungary's Roma people said the coronavirus pandemic posed a grave threat to the already precarious status of the marginalized minority, with many Roma feeling abandoned by the nationalist government.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, India said it will allow limited exports of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, that US President Donald Trump has touted as a potential weapon in the fight against the virus.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Iran's parliament convened for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak forced its doors to close, as the country reported a drop in new infections for the seventh straight day. The health ministry reported 133 new coronavirus deaths, saying the overall fatalities had reached 3,872. Another 2,089 infections were recorded nationwide, bringing the total to 62,589.
(AFP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe moved to declare a state of emergency in seven prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka, and announced a record economic stimulus package as the country braces for a surge in coronavirus infections.
(Bloomberg, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, The Latvian government said it was extending until May 12 the state of emergency that has allowed it to implement a string of measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in the Baltic country. Latvia has reported 548 confirmed cases and 2 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Mali has recorded 46 positive cases of COVID-19 disease, including one member of the UN peacekeeping force, and five deaths.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 7, Mexico has nearly 2,800 confirmed COVID-19 infections and 141 deaths. A plane arrived in Mexico with 10 tons of gloves and masks from China to help with the coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 4/7/20)(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 7, Morocco has so far reported 1,141 coronavirus cases and 83 deaths. As of today Moroccans who venture outside their homes without wearing face masks risk prison sentences of up to three months and a fine of up to $126 (£102). Since March 19 more than 8,600 people have been arrested and prosecuted for flouting lockdown rule.
(BBC, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Pakistan has recorded 4,004 cases of the coronavirus and 54 deaths. Pakistan's military promised that dozens of doctors who were briefly jailed for protesting a lack of protective equipment will get the equipment they need.
(AP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, The west African island nation of Sao Tome e Principe confirmed its first case of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 7, Saudi Arabia has so far reported 2,795 cases and 41 deaths due to the coronavirus, the highest in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Health Minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah said four studies by infectious disease experts indicated the number of cases was likely to reach between 10,000 and 200,000 in coming weeks. King Salman ordered the temporary release from prison of people serving sentences related to unpaid private debts, and ordered the suspension of all rulings related to such cases in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 7, Singapore's government passed a new law in parliament banning all social gatherings in homes and public spaces to curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The Health Ministry confirmed 106 new cases of coronavirus infections, most of them locally transmitted, taking the city-state's total to 1,481.
(https://tinyurl.com/yd7alwax)Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, South Africa with 1,686 positive cases now had the highest national total. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that at least 10,075 people across Africa have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. So far, 487 people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)(ABC News, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, In Spain the pace of coronavirus deaths ticked up for the first time in five days, with 743 people succumbing overnight. Spain moved to tackle a shortfall of farm workers due to the coronavirus crisis by authorizing the temporary hiring of tens of thousands of immigrants or jobless people.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Turkmenistan gathered thousands of citizens for mass exercise events to mark World Health Day, ignoring the global trend for social distancing to fight the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Turkmenistan has yet to register a case of the novel coronavirus.
(AFP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 7, In Venezuela to date the coronavirus has claimed only seven confirmed fatalities with at least 144 confirmed cases. A party by offspring of the ruling elite on March 11 on an island in the Los Roques archipelago led to a cluster of infections. On March 20 embattled leader Nicolás Maduro said on state TV that practically everyone at the party is testing positive.
(AP, 4/7/20)(Economist, 4/4/20, p.24)
2020 Apr 7, Yemeni port official Saleh (60) tested positive for COVID-19. A 2nd test on April 10 also came back positive. This was Yemen's first case of the virus. Health officials then scrambled to identify more than 150 people in the southern Hadhramout region who had met and dealt with the man in the two weeks before he was diagnosed.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 8, President Donald Trump falsely asserted that travelers at US airports are being routinely tested for COVID-19, made groundless accusations against a government watchdog and wrongly claimed the Obama administration did nothing during a flu pandemic.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, The US Navy said at least 286 sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 8, California reported 17,806 cases of the coronavirus and 452 deaths to date. SF Bay Area confirmed cases numbered 4,201 and 115 deaths. California had one of its deadliest days, with 68 fatalities due to the coronavirus.
(sfist.com, 4/8/20)(Bloomberg, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Illinois reported 82 deaths due to the coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, The United States awarded automaker General Motors Co a contract worth $489.4 million to make ventilators needed to treat severely sick coronavirus patients.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Maryland-based Novavax Inc said it had identified a novel coronavirus vaccine candidate and would start human trials in mid-May. The late-stage biotechnology company said its Matrix-M adjuvant would be used with the vaccine candidate - NVX-CoV2373 - to enhance immune responses.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Maryland authorities said that divers had found the body of 8-year-old Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Michigan saw coronavirus cases increase 7% to surpass 20,000. Deaths rose by 114 to 959.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, In New Mexico the death toll from the coronavirus was 16. On the Navajo Nation's reservation in the state the death toll reached 20.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 8, Virus-related deaths reached new highs in New York and New Jersey for the second straight day, even as other figures suggested that the outbreak in those states was beginning to slow. The US saw a record 1,922 coronavirus deaths.
(NY Times, 4/9/20)(The Week, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy reported 275 new fatalities due to the coronavirus. Cases rose by 7% to 47,437.
(Bloomberg, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, New Jersey and Virginia joined at least 15 other states in delaying their primaries amid the coronavirus pandemic so election officials can make preparations to address public health concerns and deal with a poll worker shortage brought on by the outbreak.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, New York reported its highest 24-hour coronavirus death toll for the second straight day, with 779 deaths. US cases rose to 419,975. Global cases of the coronavirus topped 1.5 million and deaths passed 88,000.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, It was reported that some 100 American Airlines flight attendants have tested positive for COVID-19 and that one attendant has died from the virus.
(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A3)
2020 Apr 8, Belarus health officials reported 205 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the total to 1,066 with 13 deaths. Last week Pres. Alexander Lukashenko dismissed concerns around the pandemic as "mass psychosis" and appeared more worried about the impact of a lockdown on the country's struggling economy.
(SFC, 4/9/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 8, Brazil suffered 14,049 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 688 people dead.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.25)
2020 Apr 8, Britain's confirmed death toll from the coronavirus reached 7,097, an increase of 938 from 24 hours earlier. PM Boris Johnson remained in intensive care with the disease. Transit union s demanded more protection following the deaths of 14 London transport staff.
(AP, 4/8/20)(SFC, 4/9/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 8, The Chinese city at the heart of the global pandemic, Wuhan, reopened after 76 days in lockdown. Mainland China reported 63 additional confirmed coronavirus cases, with 61 of them from abroad.
(AP, 4/8/20)(Reuters, 4/8/20)(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, In China scores of African students and businessmen were forced onto the streets of the southern city of Guangzhou following the mass eviction of African nationals from hotels and apartment blocks. Online rumors that the coronavirus was spreading among the thousands of Africans in the city led to door-to-door testing, evictions and accusations of forced quarantine.
(BBC, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Egypt extended its night-time curfew and other preventative measures for two more weeks, until April 23, though it scaled back curfew hours to 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. due to the coronavirus pandemic. Egypt has reported more than 1,400 confirmed virus cases, with at least 94 deaths.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed declared a state of emergency to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus. Ethiopia has recorded 52 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and two deaths.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, France's Defense Ministry said its aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is heading back to port due to a possible virus on-board outbreak of the new coronavirus. Two-thirds of crew were later said to be infected, but only half were symptomatic.
(AP, 4/8/20)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.51)
2020 Apr 8, India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, sealed off 15 of its districts worst affected by infections. The state has so far recorded 326 infections and three deaths. India has had total infections of 5,360 and 164 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Iran reported 121 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing its overall number of fatalities to 3,993. In the past 24 hours, 1,997 new cases of COVID-19 infection were detected. That put the number of confirmed cases in Iran at 64,586.
(AFP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Italy said that it recorded 3,836 new infections, the highest in three days.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Jordan has reported more than 350 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including six deaths. State news said Jordan has ordered traders to stop exporting food products to boost the Kingdom’s stockpile of food in the wake of the crisis.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Rioting broke out in the Mozambican port city of Nacala after the authorities tried to ban motorcycle taxis due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(BBC, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 969 to 20,549, with 147 new deaths. The country's total death toll from the disease is now 2,248.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Russia reported 1,175 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 8,672. The epicenter of the epidemic in Russia is Moscow, with 5,841 cases. President Vladimir Putin announced additional payouts to health professionals working on "the frontline" of the country's fight against the coronavirus.
(AFP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Saudi state media said the Saudi king has suspended final rulings and judicial orders on visitation rights of children of separated parents in the latest effort to try and curb the spread of the novel coronavirus among households. Saudi Arabia has more than 2,900 confirmed cases of the virus, including 41 deaths.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Saudi officials said a cease-fire in Yemen would last for two weeks and that it's in response to UN calls to halt hostilities amid the new coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Singapore's Health Ministry confirmed 142 new coronavirus infections for a total of 1,623, the biggest daily increase yet, and said a seventh person had died after testing positive for the disease.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, South Africa has announced the death of five patients who were undergoing treatment for coronavirus, the highest to be reported in a day so far, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to 18.
(BBC, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Spain's health ministry said 757 people died over the past 24 hours, up from 743 people the previous day, marking the second daily rise in a row and bringing the total death toll to 14,555. Spain's main business lobby warned the economy could slump up to 9% this year if lockdown restrictions remain beyond May.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Sudan has reported 14 cases, including two deaths for the virus.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, The Swiss government said its economy could contract by as much 10.4% this year due to the impact of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, In Geneva WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus vocally defended himself and the UN health agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. He accused Taiwan’s foreign ministry of being linked to a months-long campaign against him. Taiwan has reported just 379 cases and five deaths.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Turkey said it will monitor the mobile phones of those diagnosed with the new coronavirus to ensure they do not break quarantine, marking the latest measure to stem an outbreak that has surged over the last month.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, A plane carrying 90 tons of UN health, water and sanitation aid arrived in Venezuela to help the cash-strapped country fight the coronavirus pandemic.
(AFP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 9, The US Federal Reserve announced a broad, $2.3 trillion effort to bolster local governments and small and mid-sized businesses, the latest in an expanding suite of programs meant to keep the US economy intact as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it was testing anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19, days after several US doctors said they were using the drug on infected patients without evidence that it worked.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended its "no sail order" for all cruise ships, as it looks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, US deaths due to coronavirus topped 15,700.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, The US Navy said 416 sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus, up from 286 a day earlier.
(SFC, 4/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 9, Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden joined a growing call for the release of comprehensive racial data on the coronavirus pandemic, which he says has put a spotlight on inequity and the impact of “structural racism".
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, California to date had 19,834 cases of coronavirus and 534 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 4,424 cases and 118 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Georgia postponed primary elections for the second time this year because of the coronavirus, pushing back primaries scheduled for May to June.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Illinois' Cook county corrections officials said some 450 inmates and staff have tested positive for coronavirus at Chicago's largest jail.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, Louisiana has reported more than 17,000 cases of the coronavirus and 652 deaths. More than half of the cases were in the New Orleans area. New Orleans with a population below 400,000, has seen 171 deaths.
(SFC, 4/9/20, p.A6)(Econ, 4/11/20, p.18)
2020 Apr 9, New York state's Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the daily death toll was at 799, bringing total fatalities to more than 7,000.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 9, Smithfield Foods Inc, the world's biggest pork processor, said it is temporarily closing a plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, because of the new coronavirus, the latest disruption to the US food supply chain from the outbreak. The outbreak infected more than 800 employees. The Sioux Falls plants began reopening on May 4.
(AP, 4/9/20)(SFC, 5/5/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 9, General Motors Co said it plans to keep its Brazilian factories shut down for at least 60 more days due to the coronavirus crisis, as the final batch of unionized workers voted on the automaker's proposal for the shutdown and for a plan to cut salaries by up to 25%.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, US drugmaker Pfizer Inc said that early data has helped it identify a drug candidate with the potential to help treat patients infected with the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Top executives of Albania's central bank took a 50% pay cut in solidarity with citizens suffering amid the coronavirus pandemic, coming into line with reductions already accepted by government ministers and lawmakers. The coronavirus outbreak has killed 22 Albanians so far.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Botswana confirmed seven new coronavirus cases, including a health worker who was on duty during parliament's session a day earlier. Botswana now has a total of 13 confirmed coronavirus cases and was on a 28-day lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus. All Botswana's parliamentarians including President Mokgweetsi Masisi will be quarantined for 14 days and tested for the new coronavirus, after a health worker screening lawmakers for the virus herself tested positive.
(AP, 4/9/20)(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, In Brazil a Yanomami youth (15) died after testing positive for coronavirus in Boa Vista, Roraima state. This raised fears that the epidemic will spread among the largest indigenous tribe in northern Brazil.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, Britain's PM Boris Johnson came out of three nights of intensive care at St Thomas' Hospital as he continued COVID-19 recovery.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, Home rental firm Airbnb blocked British bookings on its platform for the vast majority of customers, allowing only key workers to stay in properties for as long as emergency government coronavirus restrictions are in place. The move came after hosts using the site had been criticized for advertising "isolation retreats." Airbnb put pressure on other online booking platforms to follow suit.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Burundi has so far confirmed three cases of coronavirus. The government has not restricted movement in and out of the country although arriving travelers must undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine. A spokesman for Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza has said the country needs no lockdown "because it is a country that has put God first."
(BBC, 4/9/20)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.36)
2020 Apr 9, China's border city of Suifenhe reported that it had a total of 123 imported coronavirus cases, nearly 97% of cases in northern Heilongjiang province. The city has seen an influx of Chinese people returning home, many infected with the virus, traveling by road from the Russian far eastern city of Vladivostok after flying there from Moscow.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, European Union finance ministers agreed on a 540 billion-euro ($590 billion) package of measures to combat the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, papering over differences that have thrown into question the EU’s future integrity.
(Bloomberg, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, New coronavirus cases in Germany climbed the most in five days.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Officials in India said at least three private hospitals in Mumbai have shut their doors to new patients on concerns of health workers getting exposed to the coronavirus. India has so far recorded 5,865 cases of coronavirus, including 169 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, In Israel, more than 10,000 people have contracted the coronavirus and 92 have died.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Italy's PM Giuseppe Conte prepared to prolong the national lockdown from a current expiration date of April 13 for another two weeks. Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic rose by 610, up from 542 the day before, and the number of new cases also came in higher at 4,204 from a previous 3,836. The number of confirmed cases climbed to 143,626.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Japan for the first time reported more than 500 new positive cases of the novel coronavirus. Over 100 people in Japan have died from the disease so far, including 11 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship,
(ABC News, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, It was reported that Luxembourg will become the first EU country to start systematic mass tests on its population, regardless of whether they show coronavirus symptoms or not.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Mexico's Pres. Lopez Obrador spoke with US President Donald Trump and asked him to sell Mexico 10,000 ventilators and 10,000 monitors to care for coronavirus patients.
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, It was reported that international health officials are warning that the Nicaraguan government’s perplexing weekslong refusal to take measures to control the spread of the new coronavirus is heightening the risk of an epidemic in Central America even as neighboring countries take tough action.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Pakistan's military said itsw troop have shot down a small Indian spy drone after it violated the country's airspace along the Line of Control in Kashmir.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 9, Russia said it had over 10,000 novel coronavirus cases, two-thirds of them in Moscow, and all regions are in partial lockdown, their citizens advised to stay at home.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Saudi Arabia began a cease-fire in the war in Yemen, which could pave the way toward ending the five-year conflict. Separately, as many as 150 members of the Saudi royal family are believed to have contracted the virus.
(NY Times, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Somalia announced the first death from Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus. Somalia has so far confirmed 12 coronavirus cases.
(BBC, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez asked parliament for an extension to a state of emergency through April 25 as total cases of the coronavirus rose to more than 150,000 and deaths rose to 15,238.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Uganda has so far registered 53 cases of coronavirus. It was reported that four officials in the prime minister's office have been arrested for alleged corruption over the purchasing of food aid to be distributed during the coronavirus lockdown.
(BBC, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, The coronavirus has killed at least 57 people in Ukraine and the authorities aim to contain the spread of the disease in the run-up to Easter. Kiev and its surrounding region have 430 out of a total of 1,892 cases. The coronavirus has infected 26 people at the thousand-year-old headquarters of Ukraine's Russian-backed Orthodox Christian denomination, which had urged worshippers to defy lockdown orders.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, The UAE has reported 2,659 cases of the coronavirus with 12 deaths.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 10, President Donald Trump said the decision on when it was safe to reopen the country would be the biggest he had ever had to make. Trump said that he thinks the United States will lose fewer than the initially projected 100,000 lives to COVID-19 and suggested that the United States is nearing its peak infection rate.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, The United States reported at least 2,074 deaths resulting from the novel COVID-19 coronavirus. Overall in the US, there have been nearly 19,000 deaths, and more than 500,000 confirmed cases.
(CNN, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, New data released by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) showed that more than 15,000 Americans have reported alleged coronavirus-related frauds totaling nearly $12 million in losses.
(ABC News, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, It was reported that drugs that go hand in hand with ventilators are running low in the US even as demand was surging. They included the opioid painkillers fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone; the sedatives midazolam and propofol; and the paralytics pancuronium, rocuronium, and succinylcholine.
(AP, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed promising results after the antiviral drug remdesivir, produced by Gilead Sciences, was used in a "compassionate use" trial to treat a small group of novel COVID-19 coronavirus patients.
(Washington Post, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, COVID-19 cases worldwide climbed to more than 1.5 million, with over 90,000 deaths.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 10, California to date had 20,189 cases of coronavirus and 542 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 4,508 cases and 118 deaths. Nationwide deaths totaled 16,703.
(sfist.com, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, San Francisco officials reported a major outbreak of the coronavirus at the Multi-Service Center South homeless shelter at 525 Bryant St. 68 residents and two employees have tested positive for the virus. The city had 857 confirmed cases and 13 deaths.
(SFC, 4/11/20, p.A1)(sfist.com, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, A nursing home in Georgia announced that 70 of its residents have tested positive for COVID-19. Three of those residents have been hospitalized.
(ABC News, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, Christopher Parris of Georgia was arrested for trying to defraud the Veterans Affairs Department out of millions of dollars, in one of the first big coronavirus related fraud cases brought by the Justice Department's new COVID-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging task force.
(CBS News, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, New York state added 777 COVID-19-related deaths, bringing total fatalities to 7,844.
(SFC, 4/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 10, Apple and Google said they have teamed up to use smartphone technology to halp contain the COVID-19 pandemic. New contact tracing apps would gather and record users of other phones who might have been infected by known carriers. The designs would include user privacy and security measures.
(SFC, 4/11/20, p.C1)
2020 Apr 10, Bangladesh's government extended the nationwide lockdown to April 25 as the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose to 424, with 27 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, British hospitals reported 980 more deaths. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 74,000 and the death toll neared 9,000.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, In Burkina Faso the coronavirus epidemic has so far infected over 440 people, including six government ministers. 24 deaths have been reported.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, China tightened restrictions on exports of masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE), calling for shipments of the items to be subjected to a mandatory customs inspection, with immediate effect.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, The European Union said it has approved a 527 million zloty (115 million euro) scheme by the Polish government to support its economy during the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, Indonesia reported more than 3,500 confirmed infections, more than 1,750 of those in the capital. Of the country’s 306 virus deaths, 154 have been in Jakarta.
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, Over 200,000 Irish workers are now in receipt of a new wage subsidy scheme, meaning the state is supporting nearly 30% of the labor force due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, In Kenya thousands of people surged for food aid in a brief stampede in Nairobi, desperate for help as coronavirus restrictions keep them from making a living. Witnesses said police fired tear gas and injured several people.
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, Mexico's health ministry said it has recorded its first two deaths of pregnant women from the coronavirus as the death toll reached 194.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, The Netherlands statistics office said there were around 2,000 more deaths in the Netherlands in the first week of April than would normally be expected, likely the result of the coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, Russia's PM Mikhail Mishustin said the government has decided to extend payment holidays to larger mortgage loans in a new measure to support its citizens from the coronavirus fallout.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, Russia's Prosecutor General's Office started blocking access to "fake news" social media posts criticizing quarantine measures taken by the city of Moscow to curb the new coronavirus. Russia last year passed legislation with tough new fines for people spreading misinformation or insulting the state.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, South Korea reported 27 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, the fewest in about seven weeks. Early voting began for all 300 National Assembly seats. South Korean officials reported 91 patients thought cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again.
(Bloomberg, 4/10/20)(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, The coronavirus death toll curve in Spain flattened further as the government discussed different strategies to start phasing out one of the world's strictest lockdowns. The death toll fell with 605 fatalities registered over the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, Uruguay started to repatriate 112 Australians and New Zealanders from a cruise ship hit by coronavirus and stranded in the La Plata River near Montevideo since March 27.
(AP, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, Yemen’s internationally recognized government announced the first confirmed case of the new coronavirus in the war-torn country. Provincial Gov. Farag al-Bouhsni announced a partial curfew and placed all workers at the al-Shahr port under a 14-day quarantine.
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 11, The US State Department announced that President Donald Trump has authorized an assistance package to help Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries amid the pandemic, as they continue to fight the virus.
(AP, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, The number of coronavirus cases detected in the United States rose past half a million over the Easter weekend with more than 18,600 deaths. More than 1.6 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 103,664 have died.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, The US Navy said another 103 crew members on the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases from the ship to 550.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, California to date had 21,505 cases of coronavirus and 597 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 4,864 cases and 131 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Chicago has reported 7,784 cases of COVID-19 and 249 deaths as of this afternoon. This was about 40% of statewide cases and 36% of deaths across Illinois.
(AP, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that a Republican-dominated legislative panel exceeded its authority when it tried to overturn Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s executive order banning religious and funeral services of more than 10 people during the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, New Jersey Gov. Philip D. Murphy announced that another 251 people had died due to the coronavirus. The statewide total of cases reached 58,151 with 2,183 deaths.
(NY Times, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, New York state reported 783 more coronavirus deaths for a total of 8,600.
(SSFC, 4/12/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 11, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said public schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year as the city battles the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Armenia extended by another 30 days the state of emergency that it declared last month to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The country has recorded 966 infections, with 13 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Britain's COVID-19 death toll neared 10,000 after health officials reported another 917 hospital deaths.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, China reported a rise in infections, mostly in travelers arriving from abroad, as doctors in the central city of Wuhan, where the virus initially emerged, warned its behavior was still not well-understood. Mainland China reported 99 new confirmed coronavirus cases, including 97 involving travelers from overseas, up from a total of 46 new cases a day earlier. China's tally of infections now stands at 82,052, while the death toll stands at 3,339.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, Germany's number of confirmed infections rose by 4,133 to 117,658. The reported death toll rose by 171 to 2,544.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Guam reported 133 confirmed coronavirus cases and five deaths, not including the sailors of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. More than 580 sailors have been confirmed infected. More than 1,700 sailors who have tested negative were isolating in hotels, while the sick remain on base.
(AP, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, Delhi state's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that Indian PM Narendra Modi has decided to extend a nationwide lockdown to tackle the spread of the coronavirus, without saying how long the extension would be for. The number of cases rose to 7,471.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Indonesia confirmed 330 new coronavirus infections, taking its tally to 3,842. It also confirmed 21 virus-related deaths, taking the total to 327.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Iran began easing restrictions after a nationwide lockdown. The Health Ministry reported another 125 deaths, bringing the overall toll to 4,357. Iran reported 70,029 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Italian PM Giuseppe Conte extended his nationwide lockdown until May 3.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe called for citizens across Japan to avoid evening spots like bars and restaurants. SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son said he has secured a monthly supply of 300 million face masks for Japan from May after reaching a deal with Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD Co Ltd, which has also started producing masks.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Kazakh authorities said ten people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at one of the worker camps located next to the giant Tengiz oilfield. The camp has been locked down and workers can enter the Tengiz field itself only after being quarantined for 14 days.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, A coronavirus lockdown in Liberia's capital Monrovia got off to a chaotic start, as some police officers used truncheons against residents who had ventured out into the streets to buy food and withdraw money. Liberia has so far confirmed at least 48 cases of the coronavirus, including five deaths.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, Malaysian health authorities reported 184 additional confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, raising the cumulative tally to 4,530. The latest data included 3 new deaths, raising total fatalities from the outbreak to 73.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, New Zealand said there had been two new deaths due to the coronavirus - its biggest daily total to date despite the low number and bringing the total to four in a country that's halfway through a four-week nationwide lockdown.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un was last seen in public on April 11, when he presided over a meeting discussing coronavirus prevention and electing his sister as an alternate member of the political bureau of the ruling Workers’ Party. South Korean intelligence combined with North Korean state media reports later suggest that Kim could have suffered some sort of medical setback.
(AFP, 4/11/20) (AP, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 11, The Philippines reported 26 new coronavirus-related deaths, taking the total to 247. It also confirmed 233 new infections for a tally of 4,428.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, The Kremlin said a "huge influx" of coronavirus patients was beginning to put a strain on hospitals in Moscow as Russia's death toll rose to more than 100.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Spain's daily coronavirus death toll fell for the third day in a row after 510 fatalities were reported in the past 24 hours. Spain reported 4,830 new cases. The country has confirmed 161,852 infections and 16,353 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)(SSFC, 4/12/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 11, Thailand reported 45 new coronavirus infections and two more deaths.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 12, US President Donald Trump retweeted a call to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after the nation's top expert on infectious diseases said lives could have been saved if the country had shut down sooner during the novel coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 12, More than 20,602 people in the US have died as a result of COVID-19. At least 530,000 people in the US have tested positive and over 2.6 million Americans have been tested for the disease. Worldwide, more than 1.79 million people have been diagnosed since the virus emerged in China in December and the death toll has passed 109,000.
(ABC News, 4/12/20)(Yahoo News, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, California to date had 22,432 cases of coronavirus and 634 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 4,980 cases and 134 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, New York tallied 671 new deaths due to the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/14/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 12, Bangladesh announced a relief package worth about $1.7 billion to help farmers struggling because of restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Brazil's Health Minister Henrique Mandetta criticized people for gathering in public without referring directly to Pres. Jair Bolsonaro, who hit the streets over the weekend, drawing crowds and greeting followers.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 12, Britain recorded 737 additional coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours,. PM Boris Johnson was discharged from a London hospital where he was treated in intensive care for the virus. The UK reported 84,279 positive test results for COVID-19 and 10,612 deaths..
(ABC News, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Britain said it was pledging 200 million pounds ($248 million) to the World Health Organization (WHO) and charities to help slow the spread of the coronavirus in vulnerable countries and so help prevent a second wave of infections.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Bulgaria has reported 669 cases of the coronavirus and 28 deaths. Churches remained open over the Easter holidays, but most Bulgarians stayed home.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Chinese cities near the border with Russia said they would tighten border controls and quarantine measures on arrivals from abroad after the number of imported cases of COVID-19 hit a one-month high.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Germany's number of confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 2,821 to 120,479. The reported death toll rose by 129 to 2,673.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Indonesia reported 399 new cases of the coronavirus, its biggest daily jump so far, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 4,241. There were also 46 new coronavirus-related deaths, taking the total to 373. Indonesia said it has imposed curbs on public transport ahead of the annual exodus to home villages that marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Iran announced 117 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the overall official toll to 4,474, even as it eased some restrictions that had been imposed to slow the spread of the illness. 1,657 new infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 71,686. Iran announced its first coronavirus cases on February 19.
(AFP, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, The Israeli government approved a tight quarantine of several areas of Jerusalem, including the historic Old City, in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the city's most susceptible neighborhoods.
(AP, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, In Japan Ssuzuki Naomichi, the mayor of Hokaido, reimposed a state of emergency that had been lifted on March 18.
(Econ, 4/18/20, p.26)
2020 Apr 12, Malaysia's health ministry reported 153 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, raising the cumulative total to 4,683. The data included three new deaths, raising the total number of fatalities from the outbreak to 76.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, The Netherlands' National Institute for Health (RIVM) reported 1,188 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, taking the total to 25,587. The number of deaths rose by 94 to 2,737.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, The Philippines recorded 50 coronavirus deaths, its highest in a single day, taking the toll to 297. The health ministry said 220 new infections took the tally of cases to 4,648.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, In Portugal the coronavirus outbreak spread further into care homes over the Easter weekend, with 100 new cases of COVID-19 reported in a single residence and care homes accounting for around one in eight of the country's 504 deaths. Total cases reached 16,585.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Puerto Rico’s Gov. Wanda Vazquez extended an island-wide curfew until May in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19 on the island. There have been about 7,700 people tested so far with more than 780 confirmed cases and 42 deaths.
(ABC News, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, South Africa, which has banned the sale of all alcohol and cigarettes under a coronavirus lockdown that triggered a wave of lootings of liquor shops, said it had caught police officers who were complicit in illegal alcohol sales.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, In Spain the coronavirus death toll reached 16,972, with confirmed cases at 166,019. A total of 619 people died over the past 24 hours rising for the first time in three days, Some businesses prepared to reopen under an easing of the country's strict lockdown regime.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Turkey called on private banks to do more to help customers hurt by the economic impact of the coronavirus, saying that state-owned banks had offered delays in repayments for loans. More than 1,000 people have been killed by the coronavirus in Turkey.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 13, President Donald Trump claimed the “total" authority to decide how and when to reopen the economy after weeks of tough social distancing guidelines aimed at fighting the new coronavirus. But governors from both parties were quick to push back. Ten governors on the east and west coasts banded together in two regional pacts to coordinate gradual economic reopenings as the coronavirus crisis finally appeared to be ebbing.
(AP, 4/14/20)(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 13, A member of the crew of the coronavirus-infected USS Theodore Roosevelt died of complications related to the disease, just weeks after the aircraft carrier's captain was fired for pressing his concern that the Navy had done too little to safeguard his crew.
(AP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, The US Dept. of Health awarded Swiss-based Hamilton Medical a $552 million contract to build 14,115 ventilators by July 3.
(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 13, California to date had 24,029 cases of coronavirus and 721 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 5,242 cases and 146 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state's death toll has topped 10,000 only about a month after recording its first fatality.
(SFC, 4/14/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 13, Police in New Jersey discovered 17 bodies piled inside the nursing home in Andover in a small morgue intended to hold no more than four people. The 17 were among 68 recent deaths linked to the long-term care facility, Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II. Of those who died, 26 people had tested positive for the coronavirus.
(NY Times, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 13, Wyoming reported its first death from the novel coronavirus, the final US state to report a fatality from the outbreak. Wyoming has 270 reported cases.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Grocery distributor Performance Food Group Co said it had furloughed about 3,000 employees and cut pay, while funneling 1,100 workers to help keep its retail clients' shelves stacked as it deals with the pressures exerted on supply chains and its business by the coronavirus crisis. Customers included Dollar Tree and Home Depot as well as theater chains AMC, Cinemark and Regal Cinemas, which have temporarily closed movie houses to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Belarus Pres. Alexander Lukashenko said he believed nobody in Belarus would be killed by the virus. The health ministry, which encourages people to reduce contact to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, says 36 people in Belarus have died of it.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 13, In Britain confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose by 4,342 to a national tally of 88,621. A total of 11,329 people have died in hospitals across the UK after testing positive for coronavirus, up by 717 in a day.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Egypt reopened its border crossing with the Gaza Strip after nearly three weeks, allowing hundreds of Palestinians stranded by the coronavirus pandemic to return home.
(AP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, French President Emmanuel Macron extended a virtual lockdown to May 11.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 13, Iran's death toll from the new coronavirus rose to 4,585, with 111 deaths overnight. There were 1,617 new infected cases in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Iraq recorded 1,378 cases of COVID-19, including 78 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 13, Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems said it had repurposed assembly lines to manufacture thousands of automatic ventilation machines as the country eyes local production to off-set global shortages due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Malaysian health authorities reported 134 new coronavirus cases, raising the cumulative total to 4,817. One new death was also reported bringing total fatalities to 77.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Nepal has 9 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and one person has recovered. A lockdown, imposed on March 24, banned all flights and ground transport, and closed markets, schools and offices.
(AP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari announced a two-week extension of a lockdown in three states, including the capital Abuja, to curtail the spread of coronavirus.
(BBC, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 13, The Philippines reported a cumulative total of 4,932 coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Portugal's government reported the smallest daily increase in confirmed cases of the coronavirus since March 24.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 13, Russia’s total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 reached 18,328, double the level of five days earlier. The number of deaths stood at 148.
(NY Times, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 13, It was reported that Saudi Arabia has deported nearly 3,000 Ethiopian migrants in recent days, despite concerns that such operations could hasten the spread of the coronavirus. Ethiopia has reported just 74 cases of COVID-19 and three deaths.
(AFP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Serbian police detained the director of a state-run center for the care of the elderly where there has been a coronavirus outbreak. He was charged with both "an aggravated crime against public health" and spreading diseases. 139 people were infected with the coronavirus at the center located in the southern city of Nis.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Singapore recorded a new high of 386 cases of the coronavirus, its largest single-day spike to date.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 13, South Korea reported that at least 116 people initially cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again. Officials suggested they would soon look at easing strict recommendations aimed at preventing new outbreaks. South Korea reported only 25 new cases overall.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Spain started to ease tough lockdown restrictions that have kept people confined to their homes for more than a month and put a brake on economic activity. Spain's cumulative death toll rose to 17,489, up 517 from a day earlier. Confirmed cases totaled 169,496, up from 166,019 the previous day.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Sudan inked a deal with the United Nations World Food Program to import wheat, state media reported, more than a year after the country was rocked by protests sparked by bread price hikes. 10 more cases of the coronavirus were discovered in Khartoum.
(AFP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Sweden has registered 899 COVID-19 deaths. So far, Sweden has banned gatherings larger than 50 people, closed high schools and universities, and urged those over 70 or otherwise at greater risk from the virus to self-isolate. After a sharp spike in deaths, PM Stefan Lofven proposed an emergency law allowing the quick closure of public venues and transportation if needed. Lofven also warned citizens to prepare for possibly up to thousands of deaths.
(AP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Coronavirus infections in Turkey have jumped to more than 56,900 cases and almost 1,200 deaths.
(SFC, 4/13/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 14, President Donald Trump backed away from his claim that he has "total" authority over when states relax social-distancing orders and reopen their economies.
(The Week, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 14, A US report from the Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan congressional body, found that a tax provision included in the congressional coronavirus relief package by GOP senators will overwhelmingly benefit people making over $1 million per year while costing taxpayers $90 billion in 2020 alone.
(The Week, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 14, California to date had 24,371 cases of coronavirus and 731 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 5,303 cases and 146 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, In Louisiana more than 21,000 people have confirmed coronavirus infections. 884 people have died. Gov. John Bel Edwards was concerned that too many people in the state were disobeying his stay-home order.
(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 14, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo took to morning TV shows to push back against President Donald Trump's claim of “total" authority to reopen the nation's virus-stalled economy, noting that a president is not an absolute monarch.
(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, New York City's health department released a revised COVID-19 death count that included 3,700 people who were not tested but were presumed to have died from the disease. The change increased the city's total deaths to well over 10,000, and pushed up the national COVID-19 coronavirus death toll to more than 26,000.
(The Week, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 14, It was reported that 42 residents of a Virginia nursing home near Richmond have died from the COVID-19 disease pandemic in one of the worst clusters of the new coronavirus in the US. At least 127 elderly people out of the 163 residents of the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Henrico County have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Sanofi said it will combine its experimental coronavirus vaccine with GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s adjuvant technology, which may allow more doses of a shot to be produced.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Group of Seven (G7) finance officials vowed to continue to act as needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic and stabilize the global economy, and threw their support behind temporary debt relief to the poorest countries. Nearly 2 million people globally have been infected and more than 119,200 have died.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, ASEAN leaders linked up by video to ploot a strategy to overcome the coronavirus crisis that has kept millions of people in their homes under lockdowns.
(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 14, It was reported that a team of scientists in Australia earlier this month found that a single dose of ivermectin, an anti-parasitic treatment dates back to the 1970s and 1980s, could essentially remove all viral RNA of the coronavirus by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it.
(ABC News, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Austria allowed partial returns to work. Austria has reported 384 deaths in total. Hospitalizations have stabilized.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Bahrain said it has converted the multi-storey car park of a military hospital into a 130-bed intensive care unit for patients with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, and plans to set up four more field ICUs. The island state reported 161 new infections, taking its total of infections to 1,522 with seven deaths.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, In Britain a further 778 people have died in hospitals from the coronavirus, up from 717 a day earlier. Confirmed cases rose to 93,873 from 88,621.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, In China of 89 cases reported, all but three were detected in people arriving from abroad. It wasn’t immediately clear if any came from Russia. No new deaths were reported in the country. China recorded totals of 82,249 cases and 3,341 deaths.
(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Denmark said it will release its youngest citizens from a month-long coronavirus lockdown in a move that has fueled considerable controversy.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, French trade union Sud said Amazon has been ordered to limit French deliveries to essential goods only within 24 hours to allow for a deeper assessment of coronavirus risks at its sites in the country.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Germany's public health chief said number of people infected with coronavirus in Germany has "stabilized." 125,098 people in the country had tested positive for the virus. New coronavirus cases in Germany fell for a sixth day. There were 2,138 new infections, the lowest increase this month, bringing the total to 132,210. Germany was set to agree on an extension of nationwide lockdown measures until at least May 3.
(AFP, 4/14/20)(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 14, India extended a lockdown for its 1.3 billion people until at least May 3. It was reported that state-owned banks have barred employees from posting pictures, video clips or messages on social media on issues such as overcrowding at bank branches during the coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Indonesia reported 60 more coronavirus deaths for a total of 459.
(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 14, Iran had 98 deaths overnight, taking total fatalities to 4,683. Cases rose to 74,877 after 1,574 tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours. A parliament report said the death toll in Iran from the coronavirus pandemic is likely nearly double the officially reported figures, due to undercounting and because not everyone with breathing problems has been tested for the virus.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)(AP, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 14, It was reported that Iraq has suspended the license of the Reuters news agency after it published a story on April 2 saying the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country was higher than officially reported.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, In Israel, more than 11,800 people have contracted the coronavirus with at least 117 deaths.
(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 14, The Kenyan parliament voted to lower the value-added tax rate to 14% from 16%, part of President Uhuru Kenyatta's attempts to cushion citizens from the impact of the coronavirus crisis. Kenya has reported 216 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, In Mexico the Coahuila state health department said nurses at a public hospital were told by their managers not to wear protective masks at the start of the coronavirus epidemic to avoid sowing panic among patients. Two doctors and a hospital administrator have died and at least 51 staff members have been infected since the new coronavirus was detected at the IMSS General Hospital in Monclova, Coahuila state in late March.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, In the Netherlands, confirmed cases rose 3% to 27,419, the slowest rate since the country reported its first case in late February. Deaths from the virus increased 4% to 2,945, but the figure may reflect an administrative processing backlog over the Easter weekend.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Portugal reported an increase in confirmed coronavirus cases and patients in intensive-care units as it plans to extend its state of emergency for two more weeks. There were 514 new cases in a day, taking the total to 17,448. Total deaths rose to 567 from 535.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Singapore recorded 334 new cases, the second day figures have exceeded 300, bringing the tally so far to 3,252.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Spain reported the lowest number of new coronavirus cases in 3 1/2 weeks. There were 3,045 new infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 172,541. That was the smallest increase since March 20. The death toll rose by 567 to 18,056. Some Spanish businesses, including construction and manufacturing, were allowed to restart.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Sweden reported 1,033 deaths from Covid-19. The development adds to controversy surrounding the country’s decision not to impose a lockdown, and instead leave schools, bars, cafes and restaurants open. Sweden's government said it would increase the amount it would pay to companies to cover salaries of employees who had been put on reduced hours.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Taiwan reported no new cases for the first time in more than a month, in the latest sign that its early prevention methods have paid off.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni extended its initial 14-day lockdown by an extra three weeks, until May 5, as part of efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Uganda has so far recorded a total of 54 coronavirus cases but no deaths.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 15, A top US health official said governors of about 20 US states, spared the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, may start reopening their economies by President Donald Trump's May 1 target date.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, California to date had 26,836 cases of coronavirus and 864 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 5,640 cases and 169 deaths. US cases totaled over 635,000 and rose by 30,000, the biggest increase in five days. Coronavirus cases worldwide reached 2 million with deaths topping 128,000.
(sfist.com, 4/15/20)(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 15, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) ordered everyone in the state to wear face coverings in public if there's any danger they won't be able to observe social distancing to help contain the coronavirus outbreak.
(The Week, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 15, Abbott Laboratories said will start shipping a test on April 16 that can identify people who have recovered from a coronavirus infection even if they never developed symptoms.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Bangladesh coast guard officials brought a ship to shore late today with 396 survivors on board. At least 32 ethnic Rohingya had died on the ship that drifted for weeks as coronavirus lockdowns in Malaysia and Thailand prevented the vessel from finding refuge.
(The Week, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 15, Belgium reported 2,454 new coronavirus cases, taking the total to 33,573; fatalities rose by 283. Of these total fatalities, 46% were in nursing homes.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Britain's death toll from COVID-19 in hospitals rose 861 to 13,729, as of 1600 GMT. It was the biggest daily rise in five days. Deaths in English hospitals rose by 740 to 12,396.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 15, China denied hiding early warnings of the coronavirus outbreak after The Associated Press published a report saying Beijing delayed announcing the threat for six crucial days.
(The Week, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 15, China reported that among 6,764 people who tested positive for the coronavirus infection without showing symptoms, only one fifth of them have so far developed symptoms and been re-classified as confirmed cases.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, It was reported that a trial in China testing Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug, remdesivir, in those with mild symptoms of COVID-19 has been suspended due to a lack of eligible patients.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Denmark re-opened nurseries and primary schools following a month-long coronavirus lockdown.
(Econ, 4/18/20, p.45)
2020 Apr 15, The European Commission rushed out its road map for EU members to coordinate an exit from coronavirus lockdowns. A few months time and large-scale testing was expected.
(SFC, 4/16/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 15, Germany’s new coronavirus cases climbed for the first time in a week. There were 2,543 new infections, taking the total to 134,753. The number of fatalities rose by 309 to 3,804. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced tentative steps to begin returning the country to normal.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Greece said it is extending a temporary ban on all flights to and from Italy, Spain, Turkey, the U.K. and the Netherlands by a month to May 15 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Exceptions included cargo and humanitarian flights.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Indonesia expanded a partial lockdown to more areas near Jakarta, the epicenter of the country’s coronavirus cases, as authorities stepped up efforts to restrict movement of people ahead of the nation’s biggest festive season next month.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, In Iran fatalities from the virus reached 4,777 as the country’s toll decreased for the fourth consecutive day with 94 deaths overnight. Total infections reached 76,389 after 1,512 tested positive over the last 24 hours.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic rose by 578, down from 602 the day before, while the number of new cases slowed to 2,667 from a previous 2,972, continuing the recent downward trend.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, The Jammu and Kashmir region has so far seen about 300 confirmed cases of the virus, and four deaths. It was reported that many Kashmir district authorities, have issued orders that all female poplars be cut within a week, arguing that allergies could be mistaken for coronavirus infection and create "unnecessary panic".
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Kenyan travelers say they are being held in a government quarantine center after the expiry of their mandatory 14 days of isolation following their return from abroad because they cannot pay hefty bills for their stay. Kenya has reported 225 COVID-19 infections and 10 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Malawi's government announced a 21-day coronavirus lockdown, which was due to start three days later but campaigners complained that the government did this without providing help for those in need.
(BBC, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 15, New coronavirus cases in the Netherlands dropped for the fifth consecutive day. Cases rose by 734, or 3%, to 28,153. Fatalities climbed 6%, a steeper rate than the previous days because of a reporting backlog over the Easter weekend.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Nigerian doctor Emeka Chugbo (60) died following exposure to a coronavirus patient at his private clinic.
(BBC, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 15, Palau Pres. Tommy Remengesau said that his country of 20,000 people had not had a single case of the coronavirus and he was going to shut it off from the outside world to keep the virus out.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 15, Portugal reported the biggest increase in new confirmed cases in five days, while the number of hospitalized patients fell. There were 643 new infections, taking the total to 18,091. Deaths rose to 599 from 567.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Puerto Rico has reported 970 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and at least 51 deaths.
(SFC, 4/16/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 15, p Amnesty International said Qatar detained dozens of migrant workers and expelled them last month after telling them they were being taken to be tested for the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, In Russia confirmed cases rose by 3,388 in the past day. New daily cases exceeded 3,000 for first time and have almost tripled from last week. The death toll reached 198 with 28 people dying overnight.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Singapore's health ministry confirmed 447 new coronavirus cases in the biggest daily jump, to bring the total number of cases in the city-state to 3,699. 404 of the new cases were linked to migrant workers' dormitories.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Spain reported the biggest increase in the number of confirmed cases in six days, while the daily death toll declined. There were more than 5,000 new infections in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 177,633. The number of fatalities rose by 523 to 18,579, compared to the April 14 increase of 637.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, It was reported that Tajikistan has applied for the IMF's emergency financing, becoming the second Central Asian nation to do so amid the global crisis prompted by the novel coronavirus outbreak. Kyrgyzstan, which has already received $121 million from the fund.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, The UN said some 74 million people in the water-scarce Arab region are at greater risk of catching the novel coronavirus because they lack a sink or soap at home.
(AFP, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 16, President Donald Trump issued nonbinding guidelines that recommend a patchwork reopening of the country, backing down from an earlier assertion that he would decide how and when to end widespread lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 16, US coronavirus deaths rose above 31,000, as President Donald Trump prepared to announce guidelines for reopening the economy.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, The US Navy said roughly 60 percent of the over 600 sailors who tested positive so far have not shown symptoms of COVID-19, the potentially lethal respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. The service did not speculate about how many might later develop symptoms or remain asymptomatic.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, California to date had 27,634 cases of coronavirus and 951 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 5,799 cases and 185 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, In New Jersey deaths due to the coronavirus have more than doubled in a week, to more than 3,500.
(AP, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted the lack of major improvement as he announced another 606 deaths in the state due to the coronavirus and said current social isolation rules will stay in place through at least May 15.
(AP, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro fired Health Minister Henrique Mandetta, who had garnered support for his handling of the pandemic that included promotion of broad isolation measures enacted by state governors. Nelson Teich, an oncologist, was named as the new health minister. Brazil has 29,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,760 deaths.
(AP, 4/17/20)(SFC, 4/17/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 16, Britain's hospital death toll due to the coronavirus rose to 14,576. The government extended a nationwide lockdown for three more weeks.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)(SFC, 4/17/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 16, Ecuador reported about 8,225 positive cases, about 403 people dead and another 632 probable deaths from coronavirus in the country. The COVID-19 outbreak has overwhelmed the health system, in some cases leaving authorities unable to collect the bodies of the deceased and forcing the government to temporarily store corpses in refrigerated shipping containers.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 16, France recorded the most new cases in a single day. President Emmanuel Macron has extended a lockdown to May 11 and said the country was under prepared for the outbreak.
(Bloomberg, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 16, Iran announced 92 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, the third straight day that official fatalities remained in double digits in the Middle East's worst-hit country. The latest deaths brought the official total to 4,869. 1,606 new infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 77,995.
(AFP, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Israel's military said it has begun converting common home-use respirators into ventilators capable of providing potentially life-saving breathing support for COVID-19 patients. Israel has reported nearly 12,600 cases of the coronavirus and 140 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe expanded a state of emergency to include the entire country and said the government was considering cash payouts for all.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, In Kenya a Catholic priest was charged in court with spreading the novel coronavirus, the second person to face such charges. Authorities said he failed to adhere to coronavirus quarantine rules following a visit to Italy. Kenya has 234 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 11 deaths.
(AP, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Mexico's deputy health minister, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, said the country might have as many as 55,951 people infected, twice the estimated number reported last week.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 16, Nepal's top court ordered the government to bring back vulnerable migrant workers stranded abroad in the coronavirus crisis after the country barred its own citizens from returning.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 16, A study of Dutch blood donors found that around 3% have developed antibodies against the coronavirus, an indication of what percentage of the population may have already had the disease.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Nigeria's the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said the country's security forces have killed 18 people in two weeks while enforcing lockdowns imposed to halt the spread of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Oman locked down a textile market in a town popular with tourists as the country reported more than 100 new infections to take its count above 1,000.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would postpone its May 9 celebrations including a huge military parade across Red Square to mark 75 years since the Soviet victory in World War Two because of the deepening coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Spain's national death toll exceeded 19,000, but figures from the region of Catalonia indicated the real total could be several thousand higher.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, The Swiss death toll from the novel coronavirus reached 1,017 people, rising from 973 a day earlier. Switzerland said it will fine shoppers who ignore coronavirus-related border restrictions in their hunt for good deals in neighboring countries.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, The UN warned that hundreds of thousands of children could die this year due to the global economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and tens of millions more could fall into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 17, It was reported that President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and longtime fixer Michael Cohen will be released from federal prison to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement because of the coronavirus pandemic. 473 federal inmates and 279 Bureau of Prisons staff members had tested positive for the coronavirus at facilities across the US Eighteen inmates have died since late March.
(AP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, US coronavirus deaths topped 35,400, rising by more than 2,000 for the fourth day in a row. President Donald Trump said that individual states were responsible for developing testing capabilities.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 17, California to date had 28,903 cases of coronavirus and 1,021 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,006 cases and 196 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, San Francisco's Mayor London Breed announced rules requiring face masks for people in public. Marin, Alameda, San Mateo and Contra Costa counties released similar mandates as part of SF Bay Area regional effort to stem the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A1)
2020 Apr 17, In southern California Kent Whitney (38) agreed to plead guilty to running a church-based investment scheme that bilked people out of $33 million. Whitney, a convicted con and co-founder of the Church for the Healthy Self, targeted the vietnamese community of Orange County.
(SSFC, 4/19/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 17, In Connecticut nursing home residents accounted for 375 of the state's 971 virus deaths.
(AP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Tyson Foods said four of its employees have died in southwest Georgia after becoming infected with the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 17, A New York survey reported that 19 of the state's nursing homes have reported 20 or more deaths in the past few weeks. Four homes were listed as having at least 40 deaths. Lack of coronavirus testing meant that COVID-19 was only a possible factor.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 17, Reported cases of the coronavirus crossed 2.18 million globally and 147,265 people have died.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Oxford scientists said a million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by British scientists are already being manufactured and will be available by September, even before trials prove whether the shot is effective. The experimental product, called "ChAdOx1 nCoV-19", is a type known as a recombinant viral vector vaccine and is one of at least 70 potential COVID-19 candidate shots under development by biotech and research teams around the world.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, A new report said that cites modeling from Imperial College London said Africa could see 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus this year even under the best-case scenario.
(AP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, China said it will step up macroeconomic policies to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as its economy faces unprecedented challenges. China also acknowledged that the coronavirus death toll for epicenter of Wuhan was 50% higher than previously reported.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)(AP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, It was reported that Bogota, Colombia, has joined Panama this week in instituting a gender-based virus protection measure designed to limit the number of people in the streets. Men can leave the house for essentials on odd-numbered days and women on even-numbered days. Exceptions were made for people in critical industries.
(SFC, 4/17/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 17, The French navy said it is investigating how the coronavirus infected more than 1,000 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, amid growing pressure on government leaders to explain how it could have happened.
(AP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Germany’s coronavirus cases increased at a faster rate for a second day. The number of fatalities rose by 248, the smallest gain in three days, to more than 4,000.
(Bloomberg, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said a large number of migrants on a deportation flight to Guatemala from the United States this week were infected with the coronavirus, adding that US authorities had confirmed a dozen cases.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 17, Indonesia reported 407 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number to 5,923.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Iran said 89 more people have died from the novel coronavirus. It was the sixth day that the official fatality rate has dropped. The latest deaths brought the overall toll to 4,958. 1,499 new infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 79,494.
(AFP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe urged the international community to rally around the World Health Organization and said the body’s problems should be addressed once the coronavirus outbreak is contained.
(Bloomberg, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Malawi's High Court took the unprecedented step of blocking the government's plans to impose a coronavirus lockdown until more had been done to help those worst affected. It ordered the lockdown be delayed for seven days, pending a judicial review. Following a judicial review, a High Court judge extended the ban for a further five days.
(BBC, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 17, The Maldives locked down its capital due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Myanmar announced that it was releasing of 25,000 prisoners under a presidential amnesty marking the New year Thingyan holiday. Myanmar has reported 85 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and four deaths.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 17, In the Netherlands confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 1,235 to 30,449. The death toll among people known to have been infected increased by 144 to 3,459.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari, died after contracting the coronavirus in Germany.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 17, Radio Free Asia reported that North Korean authorities told citizens in public lectures that there were confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country as early as the end of March.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 17, Worshippers around Pakistan defied a ban on gatherings, due to the coronavirus pandemic, by attending prayers at mosques.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 17, Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte threatened martial law style enforcement of a coronavirus lockdown in the northern region of the country. The country has reported 5,878 coronavirus infections and 387 deaths.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 17, Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin prodded top officials to move faster to prepare for a surge in coronavirus cases. The virus has penetrated more deeply into Moscow's population than official data show. Early results from the first commercial Russian tests suggest that a much higher proportion of people in Moscow are infected, and that the disease has spread among residents without symptoms. Moscow has recorded 18,105, equivalent to just over 0.1% of its population. Russia's space corporation Roscosmos said it had 42 coronavirus cases and reported two deaths. Russia has recorded 32,008 coronavirus cases and 273 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)(AP, 4/17/20)(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 17, Spain's overnight death toll from coronavirus was 585, a rise from 551 the previous night as the country started to loosen the terms of its lockdown.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Thai PM Prayuth Chan-ocha called on the country's 20 richest people to help in addressing the damaging economic fall-out from the coronavirus epidemic. Thailand has reported 2,700 COVID-19 infections and 47 deaths, and the economic blow from losses of trade and tourism and restrictions on movement has been heavy.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Turkey's confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease increased by 4,353 in the past 24 hours, and 126 more people have died, taking the death toll to 1,769. The total number of cases in the country stood at 78,546.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Venezuela said it has just 204 reported cases of the coronavirus and 9 deaths in a country of 29 million people.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 18, US President Donald Trump said that China should face consequences if it was "knowingly responsible" for the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 690,714 cases of new coronavirus, an increase of 29,002 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 2,394 to 35,443. Over 2.3 million people worldwide have tested positive for the coronavirus. More than 160,000 people had died.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)(Yahoo News, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 18, California to date had 29,839 cases of coronavirus and 1,072 deaths. California reported 87 new deaths, one of the highest daily counts so far. The SF Bay Area had 6,227 cases and 197 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/18/20)(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, In California Dr. Bill Kirby (72), the former mayor of Auburn, died in the crash near the Auburn Municipal Airport. Kirby had gained notoriety last week following social media posts criticizing Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and comparing the president’s supporters to KKK members.
(AP, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, In New Hampshire a few hundred demonstrators outside the Statehouse called for an end to social restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus. New Hampshire has reported nearly 1,300 cases and more than three dozen deaths.
(SSFC, 4/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 18, New York state began mandating the wearing of masks or face coverings in public to contain the pathogen's spread. 507 people died today raising the death toll to 13,362.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)(AP, 4/19/20)(SFC, 4/20/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 18, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said new coronavirus cases increased by less than 10% for a 12th straight day -- 3,026 for a total of 81,420. The 231 additional fatalities followed four straight days of more than 300 deaths. Deaths have passed 4,000.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Pennsylvania reported 80 new coronavirus deaths, the most on a single day, taking statewide fatalities to 836. The health department had 1,628 new cases, bringing the state’s total to 31,069.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Protesters in the US staged several demonstrations in several cities including Austin, Texas, to call for an end to social restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus. Gov. Greg Abbott had already announced that restrictions will be easing next week.
(SSFC, 4/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 18, Afghan government sources said at least 20 officials working at President Ashraf Ghani's palace have tested positive for coronavirus, prompting the 70-year-old leader to limit most of his contact with staff to digital communication. Afghanistan has reported 933 coronavirus cases, including 30 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Africa now has more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 as the overall number of cases surpassed 20,000.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Algeria said it will extend a lockdown by 10 days until April 29 as it tries to limit the spread of the coronavirus amid increases in deaths and confirmed cases. Algeria has so far reported 2,418 infections and 364 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, In Bangladesh hundreds of workers poured onto the streets of the port city of Chittagong, flouting social distancing rules to demand work and wages during the coronavirus shutdown. The country reported 306 new cases of coronavirus and nine more deaths, taking the total to 2,144 cases and 84 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Bhutan has reported five coronavirus cases and no deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Brazil reported 2,917 new cases and 211 deaths in 24 hours. Total deaths rose to 2,352 from 2,141.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Britain's daily deaths rose by 888 to 15,464. The number of cases reached more than 114,000. It was reported that Britain has paid $20 million for new coronavirus antibody test kits from two Chinese companies, AllTest Biotech and Wondfo Biotech. The testing kits in fact proven unsuccessful.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)(NY Times, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, PM Justin Trudeau said Canada and the United States have agreed to extend border restrictions for another 30 days to help control the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, China ordered that anyone in Wuhan working in certain service-related jobs must take a coronavirus test if they want to leave the city. China's National Health Commission reported 16 new confirmed coronavirus, the lowest number since March 17 and down from 27 a day earlier. No new deaths were reported. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country reached 82,735, while the total death toll from the virus stood at 4,632.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 18, Croatia said it is extending its coronavirus lockdown for another 15 days. Croatia has recorded 1,832 cases of COVID-19 and 39 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Deaths in France rose by 642 to 19,323 fatalities, the smallest increase in five days. The number of coronavirus infections rose by 5,715 to 173,956.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Germany reported 3,699 new coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours, increasing at a quicker rate for a third day and taking the total to 141,397. The number of fatalities rose by 300 to 4,352.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, A German-operated cruise ship left Western Australia after three weeks. Three people died on board of the virus during that time. About 79 crew and passengers aboard the Artania had tested positive.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Hong Kong police arrested at least 14 veteran pro-democracy lawmakers, activists and media tycoon Jimmy Lai on charges of joining unlawful protests last year calling for reforms.
(AP, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, India reported 991 new cases and 42 new deaths from the virus, taking the total number of reported cases to 14,378 and deaths to 480.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Indonesia reported 325 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 6,248. The Health ministry also reported 15 new deaths, taking the total to 535.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Fatalities in Iran rose to 5,031. The daily death toll from the virus fell to the lowest in over a month with 73 deaths in the past 24 hours. Total known cases reached 80,868 with 1,374 new infections. Iran allowed some businesses in Tehran and nearby towns to re-open.
(AFP, 4/18/20)(AP, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Italy reported the fewest deaths in six days as new cases remained stable. The country registered 482 fatalities down from 525 a day earlier, the lowest since April 12. Total deaths were 23,227. There were 3,491 new cases with the total now at 175,925.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, In Japan 181 new cases were found in Tokyo. Cases in Japan exceeded 10,000. It was reported that hospitals in Japan are increasingly turning away sick people as the country struggles with surging coronavirus infections and its emergency medical system collapses.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)(AP, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Malaysia reported 54 new coronavirus cases, the lowest daily increase since the government imposed curbs on movement and business on March 18, taking the cumulative total to 5,305. The health ministry also reported 2 new deaths, bringing total fatalities to 88.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, The Maldives has reported 34 coronavirus cases and no deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Nepal has reported 30 coronavirus cases and no deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, The Netherlands reported 129 new hospital admissions, up just 1%, marking a record low since the daily statistic has been reported since late March. Total confirmed cases grew 4% to 31,589, in line with recent trends. Fatalities rose to 3,601, also in line.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Pakistan lifted restrictions on congregational prayers at mosques, but put in place a host of safety conditions to avert the further spread of the coronavirus in the country. Pakistan has registered 7,638 cases of the virus and 143 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Portugal reported a bigger number of new confirmed coronavirus cases, while the number of hospitalized patients fell. There were 663 new cases in a day, taking the total to 19,685.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, In Russia new infections jumped by 4,785 to 36,793. Forty people died in the past day, including 21 in Moscow, bringing the number of fatalities to 313.
(AP, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Singapore's health ministry confirmed 942 more coronavirus infections.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, South Africa reported 251 new coronavirus infections, its biggest daily increase, bringing the total to 3,034.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, New cases in Spain rose by 4,499 in the last 24 hours, pushing the total to 191,726. Authorities reported a total of 20,043 deaths from the illness since the outbreak started, with 565 people dying in the last 24 hours.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Sri Lanka has reported 248 coronavirus cases, including seven deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Taiwan has only reported 398 coronavirus cases and six deaths. Taiwan said it will put 700 navy sailors into quarantine after three cases of the new coronavirus were confirmed among sailors who had been on a goodwill mission to the Pacific island state of Palau.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Turkey reported another 121 coronavirus deaths, raising the total to 1,890.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 19, Protesters in the US held a second day of weekend rallies to call for reopening the economy despite the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
(The Week, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 19, California to date had 30,831 cases of coronavirus and 1,148 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,307 cases and 198 deaths. The US death toll from the COVID-19 coronavirus reached another grim milestone, rising above 40,000.
(sfist.com, 4/19/20)(The Week, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 19, Thousands of Belarusians converged on churches across the country on Sunday to celebrate Easter, ignoring calls from health authorities and church leaders to stay at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Belgium reported 230 deaths from coronavirus during the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 5,683. Fatalities fell for a fourth day in a row Total confirmed cases as reported a day earlier rose by 1,313 to 38,496.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, In Britain a further 596 deaths linked to the coronavirus were recorded in hospitals, the lowest daily number since April 6. Total fatalities climbed to 16,060.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Chile reported over 10,000 cases of coronavirus, the third-highest tally in Latin America. Chile has reported a total of 133 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, China reported 16 new coronavirus cases but no deaths. Authorities remained on guard against a major resurgence and monitored the spread of cases in Heilongjiang province.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, In Germany there were 2,327 new coronavirus infections in the 24 hours, taking the total to 143,724. fatalities rose by 186, the fewest in five days, to 4,538.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Guatemala said a total of 50 migrants deported by the United States to the country have tested positive for coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 19, India recorded its largest daily spike in coronavirus cases, adding 1,400 new infections to its tally of more than 16,000 amid a nationwide lockdown that’s about to enter its fourth week. Confirmed infections were up 78% to 16,365, from 9,200 on April 12.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Indonesia reported 327 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 6,575. The health ministry reported 47 new deaths, taking the total to 582.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Iran added a further 87 deaths and 1,343 new cases to its virus tally in the past 24 hours, raising total fatalities to 5,118 from over 82,000 known cases. Iran said will extend leave for prisoners for one more month,
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)(AFP, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Malaysian media reported that Sabah, the largest palm oil producing state, has temporarily halted palm operations in one area after 11 coronavirus cases were found there. Malaysia reported a total of 5,305 positive coronavirus cases, 88 of whom have died.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Mexico registered a total of 8,261 confirmed coronavirus cases and 686 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 19, The Netherlands reported 83 coronavirus deaths. 110 patients were admitted to hospitals, the smallest increase since the daily reporting of the statistic started at the end of last month. Overall confirmed cases grew by 3% to 32,655.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Peru reported over 15,000 cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 19, Russia identified 6,060 new infections in 24 hours, setting another daily record with an increase of 27%. The total number of cases rose to 42,853, with 48 new deaths bringing the number of fatalities to 361. President Vladimir Putin said: “The situation is completely under control".
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Singapore's health ministry confirmed 596 new coronavirus infections, taking the total number of cases in the city-state to 6,588. The vast majority of the new cases were migrant workers living in dormitories.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it confirmed eight new coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period, the lowest since Feb. 20. This raised the total to 10,661 cases and 234 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)(SFC, 4/20/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 19, Spain reported the smallest increase in the number of deaths in four weeks, while new infections slowed compared with previous days. Coronavirus deaths rose by 410 to 20,453, the smallest one-day increase since March 22. In total 200,210 people have been infected in Spain, with 4,218 new cases detected in the past 24 hours.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 19, Taiwan reported 22 new coronavirus cases, almost all of them sailors who had been on a friendly visit of Taiwanese navy ships to the Pacific island state of Palau last month.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Turkey's confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 86,306.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, California to date had 33,404 cases of coronavirus and 1,203 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,560 cases and 210 deaths. The US death toll from the COVID-19 coronavirus rose to 40,724. Worldwide the outbreak has killed more than 170,000 people and infected 2.5 million.
(sfist.com, 4/20/20)(The Week, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 20, The governors of Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee said they would start relaxing restrictions intended to curb the spread of the virus.
(NY Times, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 20, Massachusetts reported 103 new coronavirus deaths, bringing the state's death toll to more than 1,800. More than 1,500 new cases were reported, for a total of more than 39,500 across the state.
(AP, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc said it would start a late-stage study of its rare blood-disorder drug, Ultomiris, in COVID-19 patients hospitalized with severe pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, IDEXX Laboratories Inc said it would provide veterinarians a COVID-19 test for pets amid evidence that infected humans could transmit the virus to their pets.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, More than 150 Australian economists warned the government against easing social distancing rules.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Schools reopened in Belarus. The number of people infected with the coronavirus was now 6,264 and included 51 deaths.
(SFC, 4/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 20, Police in Chile broke up a fresh round of anti-government protests in one of Santiago´s central squares late today, arresting 14 and citing rules against congregations intended to ward off the spread of coronavirus. Health authorities have banned gatherings of more than 50 people nationwide to thwart the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 20, In the Czech Republic farmers markets, craft shops, car dealerships and dog grooming salons opened. Strict hygiene rules remained in force. Around 5,300 coronavirus cases have been reported with 188 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Students in Germany went back to class to take their final exams as schools that had been shut last month to stem the spread of the coronavirus epidemic began to reopen.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, A Haitian health ministry source said three migrants the United States deported two weeks ago to Haiti, on a flight that raised objections from human rights advocates, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus while in quarantine in the Caribbean country. Haiti now has 47 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Hong Kong reported no new coronavirus infections for the first time in seven weeks.
(SFC, 4/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 20, India recorded 1,553 cases of the coronavirus, its biggest single-day spike. At least 543 people have died. The government has eased one of the world’s strictest lockdowns to allow some manufacturing and agricultural activity to resume. India's government said farms and factories could resume activity in the hinterland, which has been less hard-hit by COVID-19.
(AP, 4/20/20)(Reuters, 4/21/20)(SFC, 4/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 20, Iran's foreign minister used a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad to call on the US to lift sanctions imposed on both countries. The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Iran reached 5,209 with 91 deaths in the past twenty four hours. The total number of diagnosed cases reached 83,505 as shopping malls and bazaars reopened despite warnings by some health officials that a new wave of coronavirus infections could ripple through the country.
(AP, 4/20/20)(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, The Kurdish Red Crescent said Kurds in Syria have set up a specialized hospital for coronavirus cases after the first COVID-19 death was reported in the northeastern region.
(AFP, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Luxembourg began easing coronavirus restrictions along with an order that the public cover their mouths when entering confined spaces such as public transport or shops.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Mexico's Tamaulipas state said 16 migrants from several countries have tested positive for coronavirus in the northern border state. Migrants now make up about 10% of the state's 193 coronavirus cases.
(AP, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, A Myanmar government health worker was injured and his driver killed when their UN-marked vehicle was ambushed as they carried COVID-19 test samples in conflict-ridden Rakhine state.
(AFP, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 20, Panama registered 191 new cases and 10 deaths, bringing total cases to 4,658 and the death toll to 136.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 20, In Portugal a municipal official said the coronavirus has swept through a hostel in Lisbon, infecting 138 of the 175 asylum seekers housed there. Portugal has reported 20,863 coronavirus cases, with 735 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, In Russia the head of Rospotrebnadzor, a health and consumer protection agency at the forefront of Russia’s fight against the pandemic, said that medical institutions accounted for more than half of 74 infection “hot spots" so far identified across the country. It was reported that remote northern Russian region of Komi has become Russia’s third most infected area after Moscow and St. Petersburg. Russia has so far reported 47,121 cases of the coronavirus with a death toll of 405.
(AP, 4/20/20)(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Hundreds of people protested against regional authorities in southern Russia over what they said were restrictive and unnecessary coronavirus measures. The Republic of North Ossetia, where the protest took place, has officially registered only 145 cases and two deaths.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, The Serbian government said it would allow some businesses and markets to reopen in a cautious easing of a nationwide lockdown following signs of a fall in the rate of virus infections. Serbia has so far reported 6,630 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 125 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Swiss drugmaker said Novartis it has won the go-ahead from the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct a randomized trial of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19 disease.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Syria has reported only 39 cases of the coronavirus and two deaths.
(AP, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, appealed for an additional $92.4 million to help fight the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa, a conflict-battered region with the highest number of children in need anywhere.
(AP, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 21, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield warned that a second coronavirus wave in winter could be "even more difficult than the one we just went through".
(The Week, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 21, The US Congress approved the spending of $25bn on testing for COVID-19.
(Econ, 4/25/20, p.72)
2020 Apr 21, California to date had 35,450 cases of coronavirus and 1,280 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,715 cases and 211 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 788,920.
(sfist.com, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Missouri's top state prosecutor announced a lawsuit, which alleges that Chinese officials are to blame for the pandemic that has sickened around 2.5 million worldwide, thrown tens of millions out of work and devastated local economies, including in China. US law generally prohibits such suits. The number of Missouri deaths from the coronavirus rose by 16 to 215.
(AP, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 21, It was reported that spike in prison coronavirus infections sent Ohio's broader tally of cases to nearly 14,000, including more than 550 deaths and over 2,600 hospitalizations.
(AP, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Milwaukee's top public health officials said that at least seven people appear to have been infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus during activities associated with Wisconsin's April 7 election.
(The Week, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 21, Hundreds of Amazon and Target workers started a nationwide wave of sickouts to call attention to what they described as inadequate efforts to protect employees from the coronavirus pandemic.
(The Week, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 21, Chipotle Mexican Grill agreed to pay a record $25 million to resolve criminal charges that it served tainted food that sickened more than 1,100 people in the US from 2015 to 2018.
(SFC, 4/22/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 21, Police in Bosnia began moving hundreds of migrants and refugees off the streets of the northwestern city of Bihac and transferring them into a nearby emergency tent camp set up amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Britain's health ministry data a total of 17,337 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospitals in Britain, an increase of 828 on the figure published 24 hours earlier. The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus has risen to 129,044.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, France expanded its list of drugs that face export restrictions through the coronavirus crisis despite repeated calls from the European Union to lift curbs that could cause shortages in other countries. The European Commission sent a letter on April 7 to the French government urging it to lift export restrictions on dozens of vital medicines to treat coronavirus patients. Manufacturers are exempted from the export curbs.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 21, In Greece dozens of migrants in a hostel tested positive for the novel coronavirus, hours after the government said it would open some public services on April 27 as part of a gradual easing of the nation's coronavirus lockdown. Greece has registered 2,245 infections since its first case surfaced in late February. The death toll is 116.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Indian authorities said they have arrested 29 people who participated in an Islamic missionary meeting last month in New Delhi that resulted in a large cluster of coronavirus cases. India has 18,601 confirmed cases of the virus. More than 4,200 cases were linked to the meeting.
(SFC, 4/22/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 21, Iran announced 88 new deaths from the novel coronavirus as the country said it had released more than 1,000 foreign prisoners over the outbreak. The latest fatalities brought the country's total to 5,297. An additional 1,297 cases of COVID-19 infection detected in the past 24 hours brought the overall total to 84,802.
(AP, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Kenya has confirmed almost 300 cases of COVID-19. It was reported that village chiefs in Kenya will make house-to-house checks after reports some rural communities were taking advantage of school closures due to the coronavirus to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, In Kenya as many as 50 people escaped a quarantine area as a meal was being served at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC). Kenya has recorded 296 cases of Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus, including 14 deaths.
(BBC, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 21, Mexico registered a jump of more than 700 confirmed cases, to reach a total of 9,501.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 21, Montenegrin health authorities said they would shorten a curfew and allow shops to work longer hours. The country has reported 313 infections among a population of 630,000. Five people have died and 90 recovered so far.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Moroccan prison authorities said 68 people, mostly staff, have come down with the coronavirus at a prison in the southern city of Ouarzazate. Morocco has confirmed 3,186 cases of the COVID-19 lung disease including 144 deaths.
(AP, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper reported the recent deaths of around 150 people in the northern commercial city of Kano, prompting investigations to determine if they were related to the coronavirus pandemic. The state government acknowledged the deaths but said they were caused by complications from hypertension, diabetes, meningitis and acute malaria and not the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria has 1,182 coronavirus cases and a national death toll of 35.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 21, Singapore has reported 9,125 coronavirus cases, a tenfold increase in just three weeks, though it has reported just 11 fatalities.
(Bloomberg, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Spain unveiled a series of measures aimed at helping prostitutes and victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation survive the country's coronavirus lockdown. Under the new measures, victims will be able to access improved support services.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Sri Lanka ordered all liquor stores to close indefinitely as part of its measures aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus. Liquor stores and bars were opened April 20 in some parts of the country, after the government partially lifted a monthlong curfew during which all liquor shops remained close.
(https://tinyurl.com/ybz5wqp8)(SFC, 4/22/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 22, It was reported that some 1,900 VA health care workers have become sick with the coronavirus and that 20 have died.
(AP, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Dr. Rick Bright said he was abruptly dismissed this week from his federal post after pressing for rigorous testing of treatments embraced by Pres. Donald Trump. Bright led the federal agency involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine.
(SFC, 4/23/20, p.A3)
2020 Apr 22, US Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie expressed support for Pres. Trump's unverified claims about a malaria drug that can have serious side effects and may not work. Hydroxychloroquine has not been proven as a treatment for COVID-19.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 22, California to date had 37,602 cases of coronavirus and 1,432 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,831 cases and 238 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 839,675 with 46,485 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Mississippi’s attorney general announced that she is preparing to file a lawsuit against the Chinese regime to hold it accountable for “malicious and dangerous acts" that she claims caused the CCP virus pandemic, which resulted in widespread human and economic devastation in the United States and internationally.
(The Epoch Times, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 22, Tyson Foods Inc said it plans to indefinitely suspend operations at its at Waterloo, Iowa plant, its largest pork plant in the US, to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus, in the latest disruption to the country's food supply chain.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, It was reported that a review of mortality data in 11 countries showed that at least 25,000 more people have died during the coronavirus pandemic over the last month than the official COVID-19 death counts report. Reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.57 million globally and 178,574 people have died.
(NY Times, 4/22/20)(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Bosnia's top court ruled that a measure curtailing freedom of movement for people older than 65 and younger than 18 to try and halt the spread of the coronavirus is not in line with the constitution.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, In Britain the number of people who have died in hospitals after testing positive for the coronavirus rose by 616 to 18,738 in the last 24 hours. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose to 133,495.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 22, Mainland China reported 10 new cases as of the end of today, bringing the total to 82,798. The death toll was unchanged at 4,632.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 22, In Germany there were 1,388 new cases in the 24 hours through this morning, bringing the total to 148,453. Fatalities rose by 224, the most in four days, to 5,086.
(Bloomberg, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. (PFE) announced that the German regulatory authority, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, has approved the Phase 1/2 clinical trial for BioNTech’s BNT162 vaccine program to prevent COVID-19 infection.
(https://tinyurl.com/yclugzvt)(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, India ordered a pause in testing for antibodies to the coronavirus because of concern over the accuracy. India has detected 19,983 cases of the coronavirus. There have been 640 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Iran reported 93 more deaths from the coronavirus, with the death toll in the country now reaching 5,574, out of more than 88,000 confirmed cases.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 22, It was reported that more than 30 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked in Japan's Nagasaki prefecture have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Lithuania's government said shops, open-air restaurants and many other services will be allowed to reopen in an easing of restrictions imposed last month to limit spread of the novel coronavirus. Lithuania has reported 1,370 coronavirus cases and 38 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 708 to 34,842 with 138 new deaths. The country's death toll now stands at 4,054.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said a Palestinian woman from Syria has become the first refugee living in a camp in Lebanon to test positive for the coronavirus. Lebanon has recorded 22 deaths from among 682 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
(AP, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, In Poland confirmed coronavirus infections surpassed 10,000.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, South Korean health authorities said patients who tested positive for novel coronavirus after recovering from their first bout of the illness appeared to be far less infectious the second time round.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Sudan has reported 140 coronavirus cases, including 13 deaths. Almost all of the cases have been in Khartoum, now under a three-week lockdown.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Vietnam arrested seven people, including three officials from the Hanoi Center for Disease Control and Prevention for "wrongdoings" linked to procurement during the coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 23, Pres. Donald Trump noted that researchers were looking at the effects of disinfectants on the virus and wondered aloud if they could be injected into people, saying the virus “does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 23, The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill, funding small businesses and hospitals and pushing the total spending response to the crisis to an unprecedented near $3 trillion.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 23, California to date had 39,009 cases of coronavirus and 1,512 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,020 cases and 243 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 843,981 with 47,272 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, In the US state of Georgia the number of coronavirus cases rose past 21,000 with 847 deaths.
(SFC, 4/24/20, p.A8)
2020 Apr 23, Britain's death toll from the new coronavirus in hospitals across the United Kingdom rose to 19,506, an increase of 684 in 24 hours.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 23, President Xi Jinping said China will step up investment in various sectors including 5G, artificial intelligence, transport and energy and boost employment. Beijing said it would contribute an additional $30m to the WHO as the UN organization battles the Covid-19 pandemic. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said the money would support those efforts as well as “the construction of public health systems in developing countries".
(Reuters, 4/23/20)(The Independent, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 23, Cuba had 1,189 reported cases of the coronavirus and 40 deaths.
(Econ, 4/25/20, p.26)
2020 Apr 23, Czechs flocked to screening centers in a project to test 27,000 people for coronavirus antibodies to gauge how far the infection has spread and help decide how rapidly to ease the country's lockdown.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, Germany’s ruling coalition agreed on a 10 billion-euro ($10.8 billion) package of further measures to dampen the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.
(Bloomberg, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, India froze inflation-linked increases in salaries and pensions for more than 11 million federal employees and pensioners to generate nearly $10 billion to help combat the COVID-19 outbreak.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, Iran called for the US to be held accountable for "cruel" sanctions that have hampered its efforts to fight a coronavirus outbreak that it said claimed another 90 lives. The latest fatalities for the past 24 hours took the overall death toll from the coronavirus to 5,481.
(AFP, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, The northern Italian region of Lombardy began an antibody testing program as it prepared to start opening up its economy following weeks of lockdown. Positive cases for coronavirus across Italy rose 2,646 over the last 24 hours, bringing total cases to 189,973 and 25,549 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)(SFC, 4/24/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 23, It was reported that the governors of Nigeria's 36 states have agreed to ban interstate movement for two weeks.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, Indigenous tribes in Peru's Amazon said, in a letter to the UN and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, that the government has left them to fend for themselves against the coronavirus, risking "ethnocide by inaction." Eight native leaders representing 1,800 communities in the Peruvian Amazon signed the letter which was published by indigenous group AIDESEP.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 23, Portuguese health officials said 40% of the country's 820 deaths attributed to the coronavirus have occurred in nursing homes. Portugal has reported just over 22,300 confirmed cases.
(SFC, 4/24/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 23, More than 1,100 people have died in Stockholm as a result of the new coronavirus, with 280 new confirmed cases. The capital has been the hardest-hit city in Sweden, accounting for more than half of Sweden's 2,021 fatalities from COVID-19.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, President Trump signed a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill after it was passed by both chambers of Congress this week. The bill aids employers and hospitals under stress from the coronavirus pandemic. The Congressional Budget Office predicted the US GDP will contract 39.6 percent year over year during the second fiscal quarter of the year.
(The Week, 4/25/20)(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, President Trump claimed he was being sarcastic when he suggested health officials look into treating COVID-19 with measures like injecting disinfectants or hitting lungs with a "tremendous" amount of ultraviolet or "very powerful light".
(The Week, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, It was reported that the US Navy destroyer Kidd is believed to have a significant coronavirus outbreak on board as it carries out a counter-narcotics mission in the Caribbean. Over a dozen sailors had tested positive for the virus. The Pentagon confirmed the outbreak.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, The US Food and Drug Administration cautioned against the use of malaria drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, in COVID-19 patients outside of hospitals and clinical trials, citing risks of serious heart rhythm problems.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, The parent company of Lysol and another disinfectant warned that its products should not be used as an internal treatment for the coronavirus after President Donald Trump wondered about the prospect during a White House briefing.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Alaska and Oklahoma eased some coronavirus restrictions, though they included limitations.
(AP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, California to date had 40,812 cases of coronavirus and 1,594 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,216 cases and 251 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 889,661 with 51,017 deaths. Worldwide reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.7 million globally and 189,970 people have died.
(sfist.com, 4/24/20)(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, In Georgia some businesses took the first steps toward reopening as the Republican governor eased a month-long shutdown amid experts’ warnings of a potential new surge in coronavirus infections and a potent objection from President Donald Trump.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, In Massachusetts the number of people infected increased from 46,023 over the last 24 hours. The deaths climbed from 2,360 to 2,556. 55.9% of the deaths were reported in long-term care facilities. The data reflected a correction of a reporting error made by Quest, a national commercial laboratory.
(Good Morning America, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer extended her stay-at-home order through May 15 as her state battled to control the coronavirus pandemic, but lifted restrictions so some businesses can open and the public can participate in outdoor activities such as golfing.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pointed to research showing that strains of the novel coronavirus entered his state from Europe, not China, and said that travel bans enacted by US President Donald Trump were too late to halt its spread.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, A handful of Texas businesses reopened in defiance of state guidance in the fight against the coronavirus, which allows retailers to offer “to go" service but leaves other restrictions in place.
(AP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, A rally outside Wisconsin's capitol building in Madison drew hundreds of protesters who demanded Democratic Governor Tony Evers reopen the state even as it reported its largest single day jump of new coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, In Afghanistan more than 1,300 people have tested positive for the coronavirus, and 43 have died.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Armenia has recorded 1,596 coronavirus infections, with 27 deaths. Armenia began allowing certain business activities, including fishing, mining, financial and insurance services, agriculture and cigarette production.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Azerbaijan has reported a total of 1,592 coronavirus cases and 21 deaths. It announced plans to lift virus-related restrictions from April 27.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Belgium has recorded 42,797 coronavirus cases and 6,490 deaths. The government said has decided not to use apps to trace the path of infections, after initially pushing the idea.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Brazil's health ministry confirmed nearly 53,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 3,600 deaths. Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Britain now has 143,464 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Ecuador's health minister said the country's coronavirus case total was twice as high as previously confirmed, as authorities added 11,000 new infections that resulted from delayed testing.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Georgia has reported 431 confirmed coronavirus cases and five deaths. It announced plans to lift virus-related restrictions from April 27.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Germany’s new coronavirus cases and deaths rose the most in nearly a week. There were 2,481 new infections in the 24 hours through this morning, bringing the total to 153,129. Fatalities rose to 5,575.
(Bloomberg, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, India announced the relaxation of some aspects of its strict coronavirus pandemic lockdown measures.
(The Week, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, In eastern Lebanon authorities closed all entrances to a Palestinian refugee camp after four more people tested positive for the coronavirus, heightening concerns the virus could further spread among its overcrowded population. Lebanon has recorded 22 deaths from among nearly 700 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, In Somalia a police officer in Mogadishu shot and killed at least one civilian while enforcing coronavirus restrictions. The shooting sparked protests and the officer was soon arrested. Somalia had more than 325 cases.
(AP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, With Spain still on almost-total lockdown, the number of fatalities rose by 367, the fewest since March 21. Total confirmed cases rose by 2,796 for a total of 22,524.
(Bloomberg, 4/24/20)(SFC, 4/25/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 24, Turkey's confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased by 3,122 with the death toll rising to 2,600.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, The UN launched an international push for a vaccine to defeat the pandemic. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a virtual briefing asked for international organizations, world leaders and the private sector to join the effort. Notably absent were the leaders of China, where the virus first emerged late last year, and the United States.
(AFP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, Venezuela has reported 311 cases of coronavirus and 10 deaths. Acute fuel shortages are forcing farmers to let crops rot in fields or feed them to livestock since they cannot transport food to market during the coronavirus quarantine.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Vietnam said the coronavirus outbreak has negatively affected 5 million workers and 84.8% of companies in the country. Vietnam reported two new coronavirus cases, one day after it lifted tough movement restrictions, bringing the total to 270 with no deaths.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Zambia's President Edgar Lungu said the nation's budget has been thrown into "disarray" due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the country's economy and the government needs to implement measures to support businesses. The number of coronavirus cases rose to 84.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 25, President Donald Trump said the daily White House virus briefing is “not worth the time and effort," two days after his comments on fighting Covid-19 with disinfectants or sunlight caused headaches for his health advisers.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 25, California to date had 42,351 cases of coronavirus and 1,686 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,340 cases and 259 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 936,293 with 53,511 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Hawaii Gov. David Ige announced he was extending the mandatory 14-day quarantine for travelers into the state until May 31. He is also extending the stay-at-home order until the same date. Hawaii has 604 cases and 14 deaths, including two in the past day.
(ABC News, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 25, The Tyson plant in Logansport, Indiana, was closed after nearly 900 employees tested positive; it resumed limited operations on May 7.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 Apr 25, In Minnesota a Hormel Foods subsidiary said it is halting production at a pair of turkey processing facilities in Willmar after 14 employees tested positive for the coronavirus at the plants.
(SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 25, Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's philanthropic operation announced a $40 million pledge to support efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 in low- and middle-income nations. Bloomberg also plans to spend $10.5 million to build a contact tracing program to help local officials the follow the spread of the virus in an effort to contain it.
(SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 25, The World Health Organization warned countries against issuing so-called coronavirus "immunity passports" to recovered patients because there's "no evidence" they are protected from a second infection. The global coronavirus death toll approached 200,000.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)(AFP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Argentina said it is extending its nationwide lockdown by another two weeks until May 10 to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 25, In Belarus hundreds of thousands of state employees, including doctors and nurses, took part in a government-decreed national day of civic labor despite worries about the country's sharply rising coronavirus infections. Belarus reported 817 new cases, the country's highest single-day increase. It has reported a total of 9,590 confirmed infections and 67 deaths.
(AP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, The number of coronavirus fatalities in Belgium increased to 6,917.
(AP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, The British government said that 20,319 people with COVID-19 have died in British hospitals, an increase of 813 from the death toll reported the day before. The figure does not include deaths in nursing homes, which are likely to number in the thousands.
(AP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Burkina Faso, one of Africa's nations hardest hit by the coronavirus, has reported 41 deaths. The country's 629 cases included the US and Italian ambassadors as well as at least six government ministers. Last month Rose Marie Compaore (62), Burkina Faso's second Vice President of the parliament, became the first person in the country to die from COVID-19.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Canada reported a total of 2,350 coronavirus deaths and 44,364 positive diagnoses.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 25, China reported 11 new coronavirus cases, compared to 12 on the previous day. This was its 10th straight day with no coronavirus fatalities. The northwestern province of Shaanxi reported seven new imported coronavirus cases, all in citizens returning home from Russia, even as domestic cases in the country were largely curbed.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)(Reuters, 4/26/20)(SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 25, In Germany deaths due to the coronavirus dropped to the lowest in five days. Deaths in Germany rose by 148 to 5,723 in the last 24 hours.
(Bloomberg, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, The Indian government allowed a limited reopening of shops in neighborhoods and residential areas, more than a month after the nation went into a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Indonesia reported 396 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number to 8,607. Thirty one more people who had tested positive for the virus died, taking the total number of deaths to 720.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, In Iran another 76 fatalities were declared, raising the official death toll to 5,650. Iran has now recorded 89,328 cases of COVID-19, including 1,134 over the past 24 hours, since reporting two deaths on February 19.
(AFP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Italian diagnostics group DiaSorin said it had received an Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration for a serological test kit for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Tokyo reported 103 new cases of coronavirus infections. The latest figures bring total coronavirus infections in the capital city to 3,836 cases. The total number of coronavirus infections in Japan reached nearly 13,000 cases, with 345 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, In Russia the number of new coronavirus cases rose by 5,966 over the past 24 hours, bringing its nationwide tally to 74,588. The country's coronavirus crisis response center reported 66 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the total death toll in Russia to 681.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Serbia sent four planes carrying medical equipment including gloves, masks and protective suits to Italy as a donation to help the EU member state tackle the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Singapore registered 618 new coronavirus infections, taking the city-state's total number of COVID-19 cases to 12,693.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Spain recorded fewer than 400 COVID-19 fatalities for the second day in row, a sign that the outbreak may be stabilizing in the country as it grapples with Europe’s worst outbreak. Fatalities in Spain increased by 378, for a total of 22,902.
(Bloomberg, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Tajikistan said it is closing schools for two weeks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus and temporarily banning exports of grains and pulses to ensure sufficient supplies at home. The country has reported no coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Thailand reported 53 new coronavirus cases and the death of a 48-year-old Thai man who was infected with the virus along with four other family members. Thailand has reported a total of 2,907 cases and 51 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 26, California to date had 43,703 cases of coronavirus and 1,720 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,496 cases and 260 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 938,590 with 54,776 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Iowa, now has more than 5,000 confirmed cases. Latinos, who make up 6% of Iowa's population, have accounted for more than 22% of its confirmed COVID-19 cases.
(AP, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Louisiana's state public health department reported that African Americans represent more than 56% of the state's 1,670 coronavirus deaths.
(AP, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said that his state received “hundreds" of calls after President Trump suggested at a press briefing that ingesting household disinfectants could be a treatment for the coronavirus.
(Yahoo News, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 26, In Detroit, Michigan, more than 8,500 infections have been reported, with black people accounting for more than 64% of them. City leaders announced this month that the pandemic has created a projected $348 million budget deficit.
(AP, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said 367 new deaths have been reported in the state. They included patients in hospitals and nursing homes.
(SFC, 4/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 26, JBS USA announced that the JBS packerland plant in Greenbay, Wisconsin, would be temporarily closed. At least 189 COVID-19 infections had been linked to the plant.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 26, John Tyson, the chairman of Tyson Foods Inc, said millions of pounds of beef, pork and chicken will vanish from US grocery stores as livestock and poultry processing plants have been shuttered by coronavirus outbreaks among workers.
(AP, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 26, The group of 20 rich and emerging economies launched an international initiative to accelerate access to health tools needed to fight the new coronavirus. The finance minister of Saudi Arabia, the current G20 chair, said the group is still working to bridge an estimated $8 billion funding gap to combat the pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said more than 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,374 deaths have been reported in the 54 countries of Africa.
(SFC, 4/27/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 26, Afghanistan reported 1,531 cases of COVID-19 and 50 deaths, but international observers and medics on the ground believe the real number of infections could be much higher.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, The Australian government launched a controversial coronavirus tracing app and promised to legislate privacy protections around it as authorities try to get the country and the economy back onto more normal footing. The app, based on Singapore's TraceTogether software, uses Bluetooth signals to log when people have been close to one another.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, In Bangladesh hundreds of textile workers in Dhaka took to the streets demanding wages, flouting social distancing norms amid a nationwide lockdown to control the coronavirus pandemic. Bangladesh was set to lose export revenue of about $6 billion this fiscal year as the sector has been hit by cancellations from some of the world's largest brands and retailers.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, In Belgium the number of newly reported coronavirus cases continued to decline with 809 added over the last 24 hours bringing the total to 46,134. The death toll reached 7,094 and 10,785 patients have recovered since March 15.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, In Canada the total number of people killed by the coronavirus rose by under 6% to 2,489.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, More than 200 Cuban doctors arrived in Johannesburg to help fight the coronavirus. Cuba, with 1,337 recorded cases of Covid-19 and 51 deaths, has the world's highest ratio of doctors to population and began preparing for the virus early.
(BBC, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Egypt said it had asked the International Monitory Fund for financial assistance to deal with the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus.
(AP, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, French energy major Total said that 14 workers including two of its staff have tested positive for the new coronavirus at its sites in Congo Republic, but output at the 190,000 barrels per day operations have not been affected.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, In Germany there were 1,968 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 156,513, the fourth-highest in Europe.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Indian PM Narendra Modi appealed to citizens to strictly comply with a nationwide lockdown and maintain social distancing norms, as cases of coronavirus mounted steadily despite over a month-long curfew.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, In India at least ten villagers in Bihar state were killed by lightning strikes in the village of Khalpura.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 26, In Iran the daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to the lowest in more than six weeks as the country reported 60 additional deaths and 1,153 new cases overnight. Total fatalities rose to 5,710 from 90,481 known cases.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Israel permitted some businesses to reopen and said it would consider allowing children back to school as part of trial efforts to ease coronavirus restrictions and help the struggling economy.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Tokyo recorded 72 coronavirus cases, the first time in 13 days it was below 100.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Kenya's government announced that all long-distance lorry drivers will be tested before crossing the border after Uganda confirmed that eight Kenyan drivers had tested positive for the virus.
(BBC, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 26, Malta said it has had no new case of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours for the first time since the crisis began, and will start rolling back some of the restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus in the coming days.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, The Netherlands' number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 655 to 37,845 with 66 new deaths. The country's death toll stands at 4,475.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Russia reported 6,361 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours and said 46% did not have symptoms. An additional 66 people have died.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Saudi Arabia eased curfews across the country, while keeping 24-hour curfews in the city of Mecca and in neighborhoods previously put in isolation.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Singapore registered 931 new coronavirus infections, taking the city-state's total number of COVID-19 cases to 13,624. The country has one of the highest infection rates in Asia due to outbreaks in cramped dormitories housing over 300,000 mainly South Asian workers.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, South Korea's large churches reopened, requiring worshipers to keep their distance and wear masks.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Spain reported the smallest increase in coronavirus deaths in more than a month. Fatalities increased by 288. The daily death count peaked at 950 on April 2. Spanish children went outside at last, emerging from their homes for the first time after six long weeks.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Thailand reported 15 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases since its outbreak in January to 2,922 cases and 51 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 27, America cut funding for a group conducting broader research into how bat coronaviruses jump to humans, seemingly because of its collaboration with scientists in Wuhan, China.
(Econ., 5/2/20, p.10)
2020 Apr 27, California to date had 44,949 cases of coronavirus and 1,721 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,657 cases and 264 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 965,942 with 54,883 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, San Francisco Bay Area health officials said that orders to shelter in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus will be extended through the month of May.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A1)
2020 Apr 27, Democratic Governor Jared Polis of Colorado began a partial reopening of the coronavirus shutdown to help ease the burden on state unemployment benefit filings.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 Apr 27, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA said they would test their arthritis drug, Kevzara, in critically ill COVID-19 patients after the drug showed no benefit for patients with a less severe form of the disease.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Australia's government said more than two million Australians have downloaded an app to trace contacts of COVID-19 patients hours after its release.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, It was reported that 30 workers at an offshore oil platform in Equatorial Guinea have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, In Germany a total of 157,770 people have been infected with the coronavirus, an increase of 1,257 in the 24 hours through this morning. Deaths rose by 99 to 5,976.
(Bloomberg, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, India's federal medical research agency asked state government to stop using testing equipment from China because of conflicting results.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Iran's death toll from the outbreak of new coronavirus rose by 96 in the past twenty four hours to 5,806. The total number of diagnosed cases reached 91,472.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Metropolitan Tokyo confirmed 39 more coronavirus cases, the fewest since March 30 and the second consecutive day of new cases below triple digits.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, The Netherlands' number of confirmed coronavirus cases has risen by 400 to 38,245 with 43 new deaths. The country's death toll stands at 4,518.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Norwegian children returned to school as hair salons and tattoo parlors reopened under easing coronavirus restrictions.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 27, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said the coronavirus lockdowns, which had been due to end today, needed to continue until 4 May. He also ordered new nationwide measures against Covid-19, including a night-time curfew and mandatory face masks. Nigeria has reported 1,273 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 40 deaths. Buhari said a lockdown would be imposed in Kano for an additional two weeks, and that he was sending a government team to investigate a high number of unexplained deaths.
(BBC, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 27, In Peru nine inmates died following a prison riot over the demand for better sanitary measures and coronavirus medical care at the Miguel Castro Castro prison.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)(SFC, 4/29/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 27, Russia reported 87,147 confirmed coronavirus cases and nearly 800 deaths. News reports from a dozen regions in the past two weeks suggest at least 450 medical workers have had COVID-19, with 11 doctors and five nurses dying.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)(AP, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, In Senegal the coronavirus has infected over 736 people and killed 9. The capital's 40,000 street children have become more vulnerable since the government declared a state of emergency over the epidemic in late March.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Switzerland eased coronavirus curbs. More than 1,350 people in Switzerland have died of COVID-19 as the number of people with positive tests neared 30,000.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Turkish officials said 402 people have been detained in the past 42 days for allegedly sharing "false and provocative" social media postings concerning the coronavirus outbreak.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 27, The UN human rights office voiced concern about more than a dozen countries that have declared states of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic where police have arrested or detained hundreds of thousands of people and killed others.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 28, President Donald Trump took executive action to order meat processing plants to stay open amid concerns over growing coronavirus cases and the impact on the nation's food supply. Unions fired back, saying the White House was jeopardizing lives and prioritizing cold cuts over workers' health.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Dr Sirous Asgari (59), an Iranian scientist who has been pleading for weeks to be released from a US immigration jail due to his fragile health, has contracted Covid-19, according to his family and attorneys. Asgari was exonerated in a US sanctions trial last year, but Ice has refused to release him or allow him to return to Iran.
(The Guardian, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, California to date had 45,471 cases of coronavirus and 1,805 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,823 cases and 277 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 1,002,498 with 57,266 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio lashed out at Hasidic residents of the Williamsburg section in Brooklyn late today after personally overseeing the dispersal of a crowd of hundreds of mourners who had gathered for the funeral of a rabbi who died of the coronavirus.
(NY Times, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 28, Officials in Massachusetts said 68 veteran residents who tested positive for the virus have died at the state-run Holyoke Soldiers' Home. Another 82 residents and 81 employees have tested positive.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, In South Dakota federal inmate Andrea Circle Bear, who gave birth while on a ventilator four weeks ago, died from the coronavirus. She was serving a 26-month sentence for maintaining a drug-involved premises.
(AP, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 28, In Utah a left-leaning nonprofit group filed a price gouging complaint with state regulators, arguing the $40 per pack drug was grossly overpriced. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert had defended the state’s $800,000 purchase of 20,000 packets of hydroxychloroquine compounded with zinc, but later ordered an investigation of a no-bid contract with a local company that had been promoting the drugs.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Afghanistan has reported 1,703 coronavirus cases, including 57 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Bangladesh has reported 6,462 coronavirus cases, including 155 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Belarus reported 900 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the total to 12,208. The UN urged Belarussians to stay home amid the growing outbreak
(SFC, 4/29/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 28, Data released in Canada showed the total coronavirus national death toll had risen by more than 10% for the first time in nine days, climbing 11.1% to 2,766. There have been 49,025 confirmed cases in Canada.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Mainland China reported 22 new cases, against 6 a day earlier, bringing total infections to 82,858.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 28, In India the number of people infected with the coronavirus stood at 29,434, a rise of 1,543 over the previous day. So far 934 people have died.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, India-based Serum, the world's largest maker of vaccines by volume, said it is mass-producing the vaccine candidate developed by the University of Oxford, which started testing it on humans last week. Trials of the Oxford vaccine are due to finish in about September.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Iran announced 71 deaths from the novel coronavirus, and said there were also more than 1,000 new cases of infection in the Islamic republic. The fatalities recorded in the past 24 hours brought to 5,877 the overall death toll. Total number of infections reached 92,584.
(AFP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Pakistan reported 14,079 coronavirus cases including 301 deaths, 20 of them over the past day.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Russia's President Vladimir Putin extended a non-working period aimed at containing the spread of the novel coronavirus until May 11. The head of Russia's state atomic corporation expressed concern about the spread of the new coronavirus to three 'nuclear cities', including one that houses a top-secret research institute that helped develop the Soviet atomic bomb. Russia now ranks eighth worldwide with 93,558 confirmed cases, though its death toll of 867 is still far below that of many other nations.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, In Serbia about 8,500 people have been confirmed to have the coronavirus and 168 people have died from it. The government has already allowed small businesses to open, shortened a night curfew and eased a 24-hour lockdown for people aged 65 and above.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Sri Lanka has reported 592 cases, including seven deaths.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Radio Free Europe reported that doctors in Turkmenistan are not allowed to talk about the coronavirus. RFE said face masks are banned, and citizens are punished for talking about the global pandemic.
(The Week, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 28, UAE reported it had seen over 11,300 confirmed cases of the virus with 89 deaths. Recent days have seen numbers rise around 500 daily. Even as confirmed coronavirus cases spike, the UAE was opening up its cavernous malls and restaurants in a gamble to stimulate its economy while still trying to fight off the pandemic.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 29, California to date had 48,565 cases of coronavirus and 1,939 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,965 cases and 281 deaths. The US coronavirus death toll reached 61,000.
(sfist.com, 4/29/20)(The Week, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 29, It was reported that hospital admissions for the coronavirus in New York state remained at about 1,000 a day. Thousands of out of state nurses have come to help NY hospitals.
(SFC, 4/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 29, In NYC police were called to a Brooklyn neighborhood after a funeral home overwhelmed by the coronavirus resorted to storing dozens of bodies on ice in rented trucks, and a passerby complained about the smell. Investigators found that the home had rented four trucks to hold about 50 corpses.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 29, Gilead Sciences announced that the company was “aware of positive data" from a federal study of its experimental coronavirus drug, remdesivir.
(NY Times, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Bosnia reported its sharpest daily rise in coronavirus infections this month after its two autonomous regions had gradually begun to ease lockdowns. There were 93 new infections and two deaths in the previous 24 hours, compared with 20 new infections a day earlier and 49 the day before that.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Britain's official death toll from the coronavirus jumped to 26,097 after deaths in nursing homes were added to the daily total for the first time.
(SFC, 4/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 29, Canadian hospitals had beds to spare as the country hit 50,373 confirmed coronavirus cases. Several provinces were relaxing public health measures. The virus has killed 2,904 in total and health experts worried about a future wave of infections.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, India has recorded its 1,000th novel coronavirus death, but the head of a government think-tank said that its 1.3 billion people, strained from weeks of lockdown, were not experiencing the feared exponential surge in infections. India has now reported 31,331 cases, including 1,007 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Indonesia confirmed 260 new infections, taking its total to 9,771, while deaths rose by 11 to 784.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Iran's health ministry announced that 80 new deaths from the novel coronavirus had taken the country's overall toll to 5,957. Another 1,073 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours. 93,657 people have contracted the illness since mid-February. The government has allowed many businesses to reopen since April 11 after shutting most down in mid-March to stem the spread of the disease.
(AP, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Malawi has recorded 36 cases of coronavirus confirmed. Of those, three people are recorded to have died. President Peter Mutharika announced an emergency cash transfer program for the poorest people in what is one of the world's poorest countries.
(BBC, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Pakistan said it is preparing to loosen coronavirus lockdown restrictions as the number of infections and deaths are well below previous projections. Pakistan has registered 15,289 cases of COVID-19 including 335 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)(SFC, 4/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 29, The Philippines' tally of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to more than 8,000.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Russia reported 972 deaths in total for the coronavirus. A Remembrance List showed 74 medical staff who had died from the virus, this included 4 from Belarus. Confirmed cases neared 100,000 after 5,841 new cases were registered overnight along with a record daily rise in the death toll.
(AFP, 4/29/20)(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Serbia has reported 8,497 confirmed cases and 1,678 deaths from COVID-19. Citizens, stuck at home under curfew, vented their anger in a cacophony of tin pans, drums, whistles, and horns at the government and its tough containment measures to curb the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Rioting broke out at the central prison in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown following confirmation of a coronavirus case there.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, South Africa has reported most confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Africa, with more than 4,360, including 86 deaths. Disabled migrants faced hunger as a lockdown continued for a fifth week.
(AP, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Spain recorded 325 deaths overnight, against 301 the previous day. Health officials said the coronavirus epidemic was evolving favorably ahead of a gradual easing of its lockdown next week.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, In Sweden the total confirmed coronavirus cases topped 20,000.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Tanzania reported 509 coronavirus cases and 21 deaths. At this point the government stopped releasing data. The US embassy in Tanzania later warned that there is a risk of "exponential growth" of Covid-19 cases in the country.
(BBC, 5/13/20)
2020 Apr 29, The UN said more than 40 cases of COVID-19 and at least three deaths have been reported in Syria.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 29, Authorities in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden announced a three-day, 24-hour curfew starting at midnight local time, after five confirmed cases of new coronavirus infection were announced. Yemen recorded its first two coronavirus deaths. The deaths come after aid organizations warned any coronavirus outbreak could have dire consequences after six years of civil war.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)(AFP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, US President Donald Trump said he was confident the coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese virology lab, but declined to describe the evidence he said he had seen. The Chinese government said that any claims that the coronavirus was released from a laboratory are "unfounded and purely fabricated out of nothing."
(Reuters, 5/1/20)(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 30, The Trump administration shelved a CDC document, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework." It was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials to reopen communities during the coronavirus pandemic. After the AP reported on May 7 that the document had been buried, the Trump administration ordered key parts of it to be fast-tracked for approval.
(AP, 5/8/20)
2020 Apr 30, The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the new coronavirus was "not man-made or genetically modified." They were still investigating if the coronavirus pandemic might have resulted from an accident at a Chinese lab.
(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 30, It was reported that the US economy contracted at an annual rate of 4.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020 as businesses lost customers or shut down entirely because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now killed more than 60,000 people in the United States. It was the first quarterly drop in six years, and the steepest since the Great Recession.
(The Week, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Washington DC officials announced 217 new COVID-19 infections, bringing its total to 4,323. New deaths rose by 19 for a total of 224.
(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 30, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom temporarily closed the beaches of Orange County starting May 1 after people thronged the seashore during a sweltering weekend despite his social distancing order that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(AP, 4/30/20)(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A1)
2020 Apr 30, California to date had 50,129 cases of coronavirus and 2,029 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,130 cases and 293 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,068,696 with the death toll at 61,881.
(sfist.com, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Tyson Foods said it was temporarily suspending operations at a Nebraska beef processing plant following a surge of coronavirus cases in the area.
(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 30, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said more than 1,000 city employees will be assigned to patrol parks and other public spaces to ensure people are adhering to social distancing guidelines as the city prepares to battle the coronavirus pandemic into the summer months. The USNS Comfort left NYC after treating just 182 people. New York City saw 2,637 confirmed new cases of the coronavirus, and 202 people in the city died.
(AP, 4/30/20)(Good Morning America, 5/1/20)
2020 Apr 30, SF Bay Area-based Bio-Rad Laboratories said it has received FDA authorization for an antibody test with "limited use in authorized laboratories." Bio-Rad said its test had 98% sensitivity and 99% specificity in clinical evaluations.
(SFC, 5/2/20, p.C2)
2020 Apr 30, Pfizer said it aims to make 10-20 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine it is developing with Germany's BioNtech by the end of 2020 for emergency use depending on trial results.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Australia's Capital Territory declared itself free of all known cases of the coronavirus. Australia has recorded 6,746 cases, including 90 deaths.
(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 30, Brazil’s virtually uncontrolled surge of COVID-19 cases spawned fear that construction workers, truck drivers and tourists from Latin America’s biggest nation will spread the disease to neighboring countries that are doing a better job of controlling the coronavirus. The official count of coronavirus cases rocketed past 85,000 and deaths surpassed 5,900 — more than the amount suffered by China. Experts considered both figures to be significant under-counts due to a lack of widespread testing.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, The Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros announced its first confirmed case of the coronavirus, making it the 53rd of Africa's 54 countries to report COVID-19.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, The International Monetary Fund approved $650 million in emergency financial assistance to help the Dominican Republic respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, In Georgia a transgender woman set herself on fire in Tbilisi to highlight the plight of trans sex workers with no income during the coronavirus lockdown. She was taken to a hospital suffering from burns but her conditions were not critical. LGBT+ groups in response called for more state support.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 Apr 30, Confirmed coronavirus cases in Ghana surged above 2,000, increasing 24% in a matter of days. The Ghana Health Service reported 403 new cases, bringing the total to 2,074. The spike was announced 10 days after President Nana Akufo-Addo eased a three-week lockdown in the capital of Accra and in the city of Kumasi.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, It was reported that India has shipped 50 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine to the United States. This followed a request by President Donald Trump for New Delhi to release supplies of the drug as a possible treatment for the respiratory disease. US regulators have warned the anti-malarial drug may have harmful side effects in the treatment of COVID-19.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Indonesia confirmed 347 new coronavirus infections, taking its total to above 10,000.
(Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Iran's health ministry said that 71 new deaths from the novel coronavirus took the country's overall toll to 6,028. 983 people tested positive for the virus over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 94,640.
(Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Paraguay has fewer than 250 confirmed coronavirus cases and its borders have been closed since March 24, with enforcement particularly focused on the largely open frontier with Brazil.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Russian television aired a video call between Mishustin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the call, Mishustin told Putin about his positive coronavirus diagnosis, and encouraged Russians to take the threat of COVID-19 seriously. There are now more than 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Russia, with the death toll at 1,073.
(The Week, 5/1/20)
2020 Apr 30, South Korea reported that for the first time since the virus’s Feb. 29 peak, it had no new domestic cases and just four cases among people who came in from outside the country.
(NY Times, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, It was reported that Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has donated a $100,000 prize she won from a Danish foundation to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) for use against the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AFP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Tajikistan has confirmed its first 15 coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Ukraine reached 10,000 coronavirus cases and its health minister urged people not to violate lockdown measures. Cherkasy mayor Anatoliy Bondarenko decided to open shops, hairdressers and restaurants after appeals from businesses. His decision prompted police to launch criminal proceedings against the Cherkasy authorities and summon the mayor for questioning.
(Reuters, 4/30/20)(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 Apr, Operation Warp Speed (OWS), a US government effort to have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, was begun as a partnership between Health and Human Services, The Dept. of Defense and an alphabet soup of health-related agencies. Pres. Trump announced OWS on May 15.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Warp_Speed)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.19)
2020 Apr, French researchers reported late this month that habitual smokers were significantly underrepresented among those requiring hospital treatment for COVID-19. This suggested that something in tobacco smoke was having a protective effect.
(Econ., 5/2/20, p.69)
2020 May 1, President Donald Trump seemingly increased his estimate of possible deaths in the US from the coronavirus, telling a White House event he hopes for less than 100,000 fatalities, a higher upper limit than the 60,000 to 70,000 deaths he discussed on April 27.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 1, It was reported that the Trump administration has pulled funding for a group of scientists studying coronaviruses in bats and the risk of their spillover into humans -- the very kind of infection that started the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Good Morning America, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Washington's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction ((SIGAR) said the US mission in Afghanistan has for the first time refused to publicly release its data on insurgent attacks amid the implementation of a peace agreement between the US and the Taliban.
(SFC, 5/2/20, p.A2)
2020 May 1, Alaska Airlines and Southwest became the latest airlines to announce they will require passengers wear face coverings as of May 11. This means all major US airlines have made that a requirement for passengers.
(Good Morning America, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, California to date had 51,775 cases of coronavirus and 2,111 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,257 cases and 304 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,102,703 with the death toll at 64,789.
(sfist.com, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, According to Florida's Department of Health, 34,728 people in the state have tested positive for COVID-19, and 1,337 people have died from it. Health officials halted the publication of up-to-the-minute death statistics related to the coronavirus pandemic that have, by law, been compiled by medical examiners in the state. The death count compiled by the Medical Examiners Commission was often found to be higher than the figures provided by Florida’s Department of Health, prompting a review of the data and a suspension of its publication.
(Yahoo News, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, In Massachusetts a group of about 10 immigrants in US government custody clashed with officials at the Bristol County C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center in Dartmouth. The inmates had reported symptoms of COVID-19. This was at least the ninth instance since Pres. Trump declared a national emergency over the coronavirus.
(CBS News, 5/2/20)(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A5)
2020 May 1, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said his state had just had its largest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases and its largest increase in deaths. Mississippi has more than 7,200 diagnosed coronavirus cases and at least 281 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/2/20)
2020 May 1, In New Mexico COVID-19 infections in Gallup and surrounding McKinley County surpassed 1,060 confirmed cases and accounted for 30% of cases stateside, surpassing infections in much larger communities such as Albuquerque. In all, more than 3,500 cases have been reported in the state, with more than 130 deaths. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham invoked the state's Riot Control Act and ordered residents of Gallup to remain home except for emergencies and blocked roads leading in and out of town to nonessential travel and any vehicles carrying more than two people.
(AP, 5/1/20)(SFC, 5/2/20, p.A7)
2020 May 1, In New York City the Isabella Geriatric Center in Manhattan reported the deaths of 98 residents believed to have had the coronavirus, a death toll that shocked public officials.
(AP, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Ohio and Texas pushed ahead with a phased relaxation of restrictions that U.S. states put in place weeks ago to curb the coronavirus pandemic, as Georgia took another step toward a full restart by allowing all businesses to reopen.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Gilead Science Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir was granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 1, JPMorgan Chase & Co said that the US Small Business Administration gave it the green light to make $15 billion in new loans to some 211,000 business customers hurt by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Supermarket chain Kroger Co said it has put purchase limits on ground beef and fresh pork at some of its stores following growing concerns over meat shortages due to coronavirus-induced supply disruptions.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Afghanistan has reported over 2,335 coronavirus cases and 68 deaths, but international observers believe numbers could be much higher.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Australian PM Scott Morrison, who has angered Beijing by calling for a global inquiry into the coronavirus outbreak, said he had no evidence to suggest the disease originated in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Bangladesh has confirmed 7,667 people infected with the coronavirus and 168 deaths. Garment factories began reopening this week after nearly a month of closures.
(SFC, 5/2/20, p.A5)
2020 May 1, China reported 12 new cases of the coronavirus, six of them brough from overseas, and no new deaths for the 16th day. Total deaths stood at 4,633 from about 83,000 cases.
(SFC, 5/2/20, p.A5)
2020 May 1, It was reported that Hangzhou-based startup Rokid has developed a pair of glasses to help screen for coronavirus symptoms. It is making wearable T1 glasses that measure temperatures on the move.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, The European Investment Bank (EIB) said it would boost its cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) as it seeks to fight the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, in particular in vulnerable African countries.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, It was reported that Guatemala's indigenous Maya towns are spurning migrants returned from the US. Local health officials have said that nearly one fifth of the 585 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Guatemala can be traced to people deported from the United States, most of them on two flights in a single day.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, India's PM Narendra Modi extended the coronavirus lockdown for two weeks, but some restrictions were relaxed.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 1, Iran's death toll from the outbreak of the new coronavirus increased by 63 in the past 24 hours to 6,091. The outbreak has infected 95,646.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Malaysia detained hundreds of refugees and migrant workers for illegally living in the country. Malaysia has reported a total of 6,071 coronavirus cases and 103 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, The Netherlands' number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 475 to 39,791, with 98 new deaths. The country's death toll stands at 4,893.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Russia reported a record daily rise in confirmed coronavirus cases that pushed the national tally to 114,431. The country has recorded 1,169 deaths from the virus.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Slovak PM Igor Matovic said authorities have lifted a quarantine on three Roma settlements locked down in early April to block the spread of the coronavirus, leaving one remaining village under restrictive orders. Slovakia had 1,403 confirmed coronavirus cases with 23 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, South Africa began easing one of the world's strictest lockdowns, with runners and dog-walkers returning eagerly to the streets but not all wearing the face masks that are now mandatory. South Africa has more than 5,600 cases of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Spain's death toll from the coronavirus rose by 281 overnight, a small rise from the previous day but still one of the lowest daily tolls in weeks. The crisis has now claimed the lives of 24,824 people.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Police in Istanbul detained at least 15 people, including trade union leaders who tried to stage a May Day march in defiance of a coronavirus lockdown and a ban on demonstrations at Taksim Square. Turkey ranks seventh in the world for the number of confirmed infections with 120,204 cases. The country's official death toll stands at 3,174.
(AP, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Yemen reported the first case of the coronavirus in a third province late today, raising the number of diagnosed infections to seven with two deaths in one of the world's most vulnerable countries.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, California to date had 52,237 cases of coronavirus and 2,134 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,319 cases and 305 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,107,815 with the death toll at 65,068. The United States suffered its largest daily fatality increase after recording 2,909 deaths in 24 hours.
(sfist.com, 5/2/20)(The Week, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, Washington state reported that Yakima County had 1,203 positive cases of the coronavirus, a rate of 455 cases per 100,000 residents, the highest in the state. The county has a large number of people in the agriculture and food processing industries. Many live and work in close quarters, which can spread the disease.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Australian health officials said a small coronavirus cluster has emerged at a meat factory in the state of Victoria, as parts of the country started easing social distancing restrictions after suppressing the infection rate to below 1 %. Victoria reported seven new cases, three of which were related to a meat-processing facility. A total of 8 employees have tested positive.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that Inmates at a prison in Manaus, Brazil, a city deep in the Amazon that has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, have taken seven prison guards hostage. Local television stations cited a video allegedly recorded by an unidentified inmate, who complained of sweltering heat and a lack of electricity in the prison.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Brazil there have been 4,970 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 421 deaths over the last 24 hours. The nation has now registered 95,559 confirmed cases of the virus and 6,750 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that a top British hospital will use blood plasma treatment for COVID-19 patients as part of a trial that transfuses plasma from recovered people into sick people to give their immune systems a boost to fight the virus.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, The northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, struggling with the country's biggest coronavirus cluster, shut dine-in services, as the rest of China eases restrictions designed to hamper the spread of the disease. China reported two new coronavirus cases for today, up from one the day before. The number of confirmed cases in China has reached 82,877. With no new deaths reported, the death toll remained at 4,633. The Harbin cases outbreak was traced to a to a Chinese student who flew from America in March.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)(Reuters, 5/3/20)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.33)
2020 May 2, The French health ministry said travelers to France, including French citizens returning home, will face a compulsory two-week quarantine and possible isolation when they arrive in the country to help slow the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that India has mandated that all public and private sector employees use a government-backed Bluetooth tracing app and maintain social distancing in offices as New Delhi begins easing some of its lockdown measures in lower-risk areas.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Indonesia recorded 292 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 10,843. 31 new deaths took the total number of fatalities to 831.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Iran's death toll from the coronavirus increased by 65 in the past 24 hours to 6,156. Total diagnosed cases reached 96,448, up by 802 in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Ireland said it will allow firms impacted by the coronavirus crisis to warehouse tax liabilities for 12 months, offering a "lifeline" as part of an additional package of business supports that could reach 6.5 billion euros.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic jumped by 474, against 269 the day before. The daily tally of new infections was broadly stable for a third day running at 1,900 against 1,965 a day earlier. The total death toll now stands at 28,710. The total number of confirmed cases amounted to 209,328, the third highest global tally behind those of the US and Spain.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Ivory Coast's PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who is the ruling party’s candidate in October’s presidential election, was evacuated to France for medical checks Ivory Coast has recorded more than 1,300 cases of the coronavirus, one of the highest totals in West Africa, and 15 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus infections increased by 445 to 40,236. 94 new deaths took the total COVID-19 fatalities to 4,987.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, New Zealand recorded one new coronavirus death, bringing the toll to 20. There were two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections, that raised the total to 1,134.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, The Philippines said it has recorded 156 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 24 more deaths, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 8,928 and the fatalities to 603.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, A 5.4 magnitude earthquake hit southern Puerto Rico hours after the government announced the island's biggest spike in COVID-19. At least 50 families were forced to relocate.
(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A4)
2020 May 2, Russia reported 9,623 new cases of coronavirus, its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total to 124,054, mostly in the capital Moscow, where the mayor threatened to cut the number of travel permits.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In South Korea a man (29) visited five nightclubs and bars in Seoul's Itaewon entertainment neighborhood in a single night before testing positive for the virus on Mas 6. More than 100 infections soon appeared linked to the nightspots.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 2, In Spain joggers, cyclists and surfers across the country emerged from their homes, with adults allowed out for exercise for the first time in seven weeks as the government began easing tough coronavirus restrictions.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Thailand reported six new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 2,966. Since Thailand first detected the coronavirus in January, a total of 54 patients have died.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 3, President Trump predicted that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the country may reach as high as 100,000 in the United States, twice as many as he had forecast just two weeks ago, even as he pressed states to reopen the shuttered economy. Trump also struck a note of urgency to restart the nation's economy.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, California to date had 54,923 cases of coronavirus and 2,215 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,560 cases and 308 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,158,041 with the death toll at 67,682.
(sfist.com, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said that a statewide order mandating face masks be worn in stores went "too far." Ohio has over 19,000 cases of coronavirus with over 1,000 deaths.
(ABC News, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, It was reported that thousands of desperate migrants around the world are trapped in limbo and even at risk of death without food, water or shelter in scorching deserts and at sea, as governments close off borders and ports amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Afghan health officials said one-third of 500 random coronavirus tests in Kabul have come back positive. The official death toll was at 85.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Brazil's President Bolsonaro, who has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum for dismissing the threat of the coronavirus, attacked Congress and the courts in a speech to hundreds of supporters as the number of cases blew past 100,000.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 3, In Canada the total number of people killed by the coronavirus rose by 4.6% to 3,606. The figure for those diagnosed with the coronavirus rose to 57,148.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, India recorded its largest single-day jump of 2,600 coronavirus infections. 83 new deaths raised the death toll to 1,301. Total confirmed cases neared 40,000.
(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020 May 3, Indonesia reported 349 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections in the country to 11,192. 14 new coronavirus-related deaths were confirmed, bringing the total to 845.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Iran said it would reopen schools and mosques in some locations, even though the nation has been the regional epicenter of the pandemic since mid-February. Authorities said that 47 people had died in the preceding 24-hour period raising the death total to 6,203. Total case number reached 97,424.
(AP, 5/3/20)(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Israel reopened some schools but the bid to edge back to normality as coronavirus concerns ease was boycotted by several municipalities and many parents who cited poor government preparation.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus infections increased by 335 to 40,471. The National Institute for Public Health reported 69 new deaths taking the total COVID-19 fatalities to 5,056.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, The number of coronavirus cases in the Philippines climbed to 9,223 after the Health Ministry reported 295 new infections. The Philippines barred incoming passenger flights from this morning for one week to contain the spread of the coronavirus and help reduce pressure on quarantine facilities housing thousands of Filipino repatriates.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Russia reported 10,633 new cases in the last 24 hours. More than half the cases were in Moscow
(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020 May 3, South Korea recorded just 13 new coronavirus cases and no deaths.
(The Week, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Spain's coronavirus death toll rose by 164 to 25,264, marking the lowest one-day increase since March 18.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Swiss-based Roche said the US Food and Drug Administration has cleared a coronavirus antibody test produced by the company for emergency use. Roche said its test has proven 100 percent accurate at detecting antibodies in the blood and 99.8 percent accurate at ruling out the presence of those antibodies.
(The Week, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Tanzania's President John Magufuli said coronavirus test kits used in the country were faulty, because he said they had returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw. Tanzania had recorded 480 cases of COVID-19 and 17 deaths. Magufuli said he will send a plane to Madagascar to import a herbal tonic, produced from the artemisia plant, which has been touted as a cure for coronavirus by the country's president. The drink was launched as Covid-Organics and was being marketed after being tested on fewer than 20 people over a period of three weeks. Congo-Brazzaville's president has also promised to import the drink.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)(BBC, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, The Tanzanian health ministry said there would be no more night burials and that from now on, family members would be fully involved in funeral preparations to ensure that the dignity of the deceased is preserved.
(BBC, 5/4/20)
2020 May 3, Thailand reported three new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, as the country started lifting restrictions on some businesses and aspects of life. Thailand has seen a total of 2,969 coronavirus cases and 54 deaths since the outbreak began in January. Residents of Bangkok enjoyed their first day of eased coronavirus restrictions.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020 May 3, Vietnam reported its first new coronavirus infection in nine days. The country has registered a total of 271 coronavirus cases and no deaths.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 4, The US National Institutes of Health said it has started enrolling participants in a study to find out the infection rate of COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus, in children and their families in the United States. Global coronavirus cases surpassed 3.5 million and deaths neared a quarter of a million.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, California to date had 55,657 cases of coronavirus and 2,254 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,763 cases and 312 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,180,000 with the death toll at 68,689.
(sfist.com, 5/4/20)(Good Morning America, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, Michigan has reported 43,754 confirmed COVID-19 virus cases and 4,049 deaths due to complications from the disease.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, New York state reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities. At least 4,813 people have died from COVID-19 in the state's nursing homes since March 1.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, NYC health officials said 15 children, many of whom tested positive for or had previously been exposed to the novel coronavirus, have recently been admitted to city hospitals with a mysterious illness possibly linked to COVID-19. They showed various symptoms associated with toxic shock or Kawasaki disease, a rare inflammatory syndrome typically affecting children under the age of 5.
(ABC News, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, Apple and Google shared more details about the technological tools they’ve been developing to help governments and public health authorities trace the spread of the coronavirus and notify citizens about exposure, including a set of privacy requirements for use of those tools. If countries want to adopt the technology, location services are forbidden.
(Yahoo News, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Bangladesh reported more than 10,000 coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Belgium began a cautious easing of its coronavirus lockdown, allowing some businesses to reopen while obliging all passengers on public transport to wear a mask under a new rule to minimize the risk of a new outbreak.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Britain as of today had recorded nearly 190,000 coronavirus cases and almost 28,500 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In El Salvador at least 300 people held in two centers set up by the government protested, demanding to be released and given their test results.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, France reported 306 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the nationwide tally to 25,201.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would contribute 525 million euros ($573.51 million) to a global fund-raising push to search for vaccines and for a treatment for the novel coronavirus. World leaders in a video conference launched a pledging "marathon" - without the United States - to raise at least $8.2 billion for research into a possible vaccine and treatments for the coronavirus, but warned that it is just the start of an effort that must be sustained over time to beat the disease.
(AP, 5/4/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Iceland high schools, hair salons, dentists and other businesses began reopening after six weeks of lockdown. Iceland has confirmed 1,799 cases of the coronavirus, but just 10 people have died.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Iran reopened mosques in parts of the country deemed at low risk from coronavirus, as it said almost 80,000 people hospitalized with the illness had recovered and been released. 74 new fatalities brought the total to 6,277. Another 1,223 cases of COVID-19 infections were recorded in the past 24 hours, raising that total to 98,647.
(AFP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Israel former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, winner of the 2020 Genesis Prize, announced that he will donate the $1 million award to organizations fighting the coronavirus pandemic and assisting people most affected by the outbreak.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Millions of people were allowed to return to work in Italy as Europe’s longest lockdown started to ease. Italy's statistics bureau ISTAT said the coronavirus death toll is much higher than reported, in an analysis pointing to thousands of fatalities that have never been officially attributed to COVID-19.
(AP, 5/4/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Kuwaiti said security officials have dispersed what they described as a riot by stranded Egyptians unable to return home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(https://tinyurl.com/yd8a8tee)(SFC, 5/5/20, p.A5)
2020 May 4, Lebanon entered a new phase of its coronavirus lockdown, allowing restaurants to open at 30% capacity during the day. But many business owners say they will not reopen because they would be losing more money if they operate under such restrictions during a faltering economy.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Thousands of Malaysians joined the morning rush hour as the government eased curbs on movement and businesses for the first time in six weeks.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Malaysia criticized the World Health Organization for advising adults to avoid palm oil in their diet during the COVID-19 outbreak and use alternatives such as olive oil.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 199 to 40,770, with 26 new deaths. Total deaths in the country rose to 5,082.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Nigeria businesses reopened on the first working day after the easing of a lockdown imposed on key urban areas in a bid to restart Africa's largest economy. The government said this is the first phase of easing the lockdown and that the situation will be assessed in the next two weeks. Nigeria has recorded 2,558 cases of coronavirus and 87 deaths.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, PM Erna Solberg said Norway will give $1 billion to support the distribution worldwide of any vaccine developed against COVID-19 as well as for vaccines against other diseases. The $1 billion will go to GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. Norway has financed GAVI since its inception in 2000.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Portugal began to slowly ease its lockdown measures imposed to fight the coronavirus. A three-phase plan began to open up different sectors every 15 days, starting with hairdressers, small neighborhood shops, car dealerships and bookshops. Portugal has so far reported 25,525 cases of the coronavirus and 1,063 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Russia the number of cases rose by 10,581 over the past 24 hours compared with a record of 10,633 the previous day.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 5, President Donald Trump dismissed concerns that the number of deaths from the coronavirus could nearly double in the next three months. Trump said that the COVID-19 task force would be winding down and be replaced with a new group to focus more on rebooting the economy.
(Yahoo News, 5/5/20)(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 5, The US Treasury Department said it will begin distributing $4.8 billion in pandemic-relief funds today to Native American tribal governments in all US states. A newly revised coronavirus mortality model predicts nearly 135,000 Americans will die from COVID-19 by early August, almost double previous projections.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Rick Bright, former director of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, filed a whistle-blower complaint saying he was ousted from his position and reassigned to a lesser position after raising concerns that the Trump administration wanted to "flood" coronavirus hot spots with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.
(SFC, 5/6/20, p.A6)
2020 May 5, In Michigan people in some 50 communities participated in largely mail-based local elections. The state secretary had sent absentee ballots to all 740,000 registerred voters in those municipalities to discourage in person voting. More than 4,180 people in Michigan have died from the coronavirus.
(SFC, 5/6/20, p.A4)
2020 May 5, New York lost 232 residents to the coronavirus, including 25 people who died in nursing homes.
(ABC News, 5/6/20)
2020 May 5, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said they have begun delivering doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccines for initial human testing in the United States.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Argentina confirmed that coronavirus cases have topped 5,000.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 5, In Brazil the mayor of Manaus, the biggest city in the Amazon rainforest region, asked world leaders for help fighting the novel coronavirus, which has brought his city's health system to the brink of collapse. Brazil hit a record for daily coronavirus deaths, indicating that it is still in the thick of its battle even as some areas of the country begin to reopen.
(AFP, 5/5/20)(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 5, Britain became the first country in Europe to confirm more than 32,000 coronavirus deaths.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, China reported no new deaths from COVID-19, three weeks since the country recorded its last fatality from the disease. More than 3.59 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 250,386 have died.
(Good Morning America, 5/5/20)(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, In France deaths in care homes reached 9,471, nearly two-fifths of the country's official COVID-19 death toll.
(Econ., 5/9/20, p.41)
2020 May 5, A study by French scientists suggested a man was infected with COVID-19 as early as Dec. 27, nearly a month before France confirmed its first cases.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Hong Kong said it will relax restrictions on public gatherings and allow gyms, cinemas and beauty parlors to re-open this week as new cases dwindle.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in infections with 484 new cases, taking the total to 12,071.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Iran announced that confirmed coronavirus infections had reached almost 100,000 in the country as fresh cases picked up again after a brief drop in recent days. Iran recorded 63 deaths in the past 24 hours, reaching a total of 6,340 from COVID-19 to date. Another 1,323 people tested positive for the virus, bringing the overall number to 99,970.
(AFP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, It was reported that Italy plans to give work permits to thousands of irregular migrants to help farms deal with the Covid-19 epidemic that has cut the flow of cheap labor from abroad.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Mexico registered 26,025 coronavirus cases and 2,507 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 5, Pakistan said it raised concerns with the United Arab Emirates that workers are returning home with high infection rates and that crowded living conditions in the UAE may be helping the virus spread.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Russia reported 10,102 new cases of COVID-19 for the third day in a row, with the country's overall caseload soaring past 150,000. Russia now has 155,370 diagnosed cases. However, the country's death toll remains relatively low with just 95 fatalities reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 1,451.
(ABC News, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, South Korea reported no new locally transmitted infections of the novel coronavirus and just three imported cases over the past 24 hours.
(ABC News, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Spain reported its third day in a row of under 200 deaths, as well as a record number of people claiming social security benefits for April. Spain reported 185 deaths over the last 24 hours. The overall coronavirus death toll in the country rose to 25,613. The overall number of diagnosed cases rose to 219,329.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Ukraine has recorded 12,697 coronavirus cases, including 316 deaths.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, In Yemen the Houthis, who control the north, reported their first case of COVID-19. By the end of May they claimed a total of four infections in Sana'a.
(Econ., 7/6/20, p.35)
2020 May 6, Pres. Donald Trump said that the COVID-19 task force would continue indefinitely, but focus more on rebooting the economy.
(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, The first immigrant in US detention died of the novel coronavirus at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 6, California to date had 58,724 cases of coronavirus and 2,379 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,032 cases and 328 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,206,886 with the death toll at 71,220.
(sfist.com, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, In San Francisco a new UCSF Pandemic Workforce Training Academy opened with an $8.7 million state grant to train workers to follow the spread of the COVID-19 disease through widespread contact tracing and case investigation.
(SFC, 5/13/20, p.A1)
2020 May 5, A federal appeals court blocked, for now, a judge’s order forcing Florida's Miami-Dade County to give masks, soap and cleaning supplies to inmates at Metro West Detention Center, a jail wracked by the novel coronavirus. Metro West is where 163 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. In all three Miami jails, about 340 inmates have tested positive in the cramped quarters where social distancing is challenging.
(Miami Herald, 5/5/20)
2020 May 6, All of New York City's 472 subway stations closed early today for cleaning for the first overnight subway shutdown in at least 50 years. The subway trains will now stop running from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. local time each day.
(ABC News, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, The Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) said it will loan Argentina $4 billion to help finance projects to combat the growing coronavirus impact.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Brazil, one of the world's emerging hot spots, registered a record number of cases and deaths, prompting the health minister to flag the possibility of strict lockdowns in hard-hit areas.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 6, Colombia's president said mandatory quarantine will be extended by a further two weeks.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele announced still tougher measures to fight the coronavirus pandemic, including shopping trips limited to twice a week.
(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said they will open their borders to each others' citizens from May 15, creating a Baltic "travel bubble" within the European Union.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, The European Union predicted “a recession of historic proportions this year" due to the impact of the coronavirus as it released its first official estimates of the damage the pandemic is inflicting on the bloc’s economy.
(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, The German government and the 16 federal states agreed at a meeting to extend until June 5 social distancing measures designed to help fight the spread of the novel coronavirus. Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 947 to 164,807.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, In India health authorities scrambled to contain an outbreak at a huge fruit and vegetable market in Chennai. Hundreds of Indian police tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days, raising alarm as it attempts to enforce the world's largest lockdown.
(AP, 5/6/20)(Reuters, 5/6/20)(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A6)
2020 May 6, Indian forces killed Riyaz Naikoo (35), a top commander of the Hizbul Mujahedeen rebel group, along with his aide in the disputed Kashmir region.
(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A2)
2020 May 6, Iran warned of a "rising trend" in its coronavirus outbreak as it said 1,680 new infections brought the country's overall number of confirmed cases to 101,650. There were 78 new COVID-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours bringing that total to 6,418.
(AFP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic climbed by 369. The total death toll now stands at 29,684. The number of confirmed cases amounted to 214,457.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Nigeria said it will extend a ban on all flights by four weeks as part of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Confirmed coronavirus cases in Peru have now exceeded 50,000.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Poland postponed its upcoming presidential election due to concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus. Nearly 15,000 people in Poland have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and at least 737 have died.
(AP, 5/7/20)(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A2)
2020 May 6, Russia recorded more than 10,000 new cases for the fourth day in a row, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 165,929, with 1,537 deaths. President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting to discuss a gradual withdrawal from lockdown as Russia registered the world's sixth highest total number of coronavirus cases.
(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, South Korea reported no new locally transmitted infections of the novel coronavirus and just two imported cases over the past 24 hours -- its lowest daily tally in 78 days.
(ABC News, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, South Korea’s spy agency that the coronavirus pandemic has likely taken a heavy toll on North Korea, forcing leader Kim Jong Un to avoid public activities and his people into panic buying for daily necessities.
(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced that his government will declare a national state of mourning for the more than 25,000 people in the country who have died from the novel coronavirus.
(ABC News, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Taiwan's health minister Chen Shih-chung said Taiwan’s exclusion from the upcoming World Health Assembly would harm the global response to the coronavirus pandemic and cannot be excused by mere rules of procedure. The island of more than 23 million people has recorded just 438 cases of COVID-19 and six deaths.
(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Yemen reported the first three cases of the novel coronavirus in the southern province of Lahaj, one of whom has died, and another infection in the southern port of Aden.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 7, The Associated Press reported that President Donald Trump's administration has shelved a CDC document containing step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the current pandemic.
(AP, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid out the broad outlines of the next massive coronavirus-response. Major components included additional aid to state and local governments, more money for coronavirus testing and help for the financially troubled US Postal Service.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, Eleven members of the US Secret Service tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to Department of Homeland Security documents.
(Yahoo News, 5/8/20)
2020 May 7, California said it will face a budget deficit of $54.3 billion due to a huge drop in revenue combined with increased expenses linked to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a newly released projection by state financial advisers.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, California to date had 60,635 cases of coronavirus and 2,462 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,247 cases and 335 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,231,992 with the death toll at 73,573.
(sfist.com, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, The US Dept. of Health and Human Services awarded California $97.3 million to 179 state health centers to expand coronavirus testing in low income communities.
(SFC, 5/8/20, p.A7)
2020 May 7, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended a moratorium on evictions for non-payment of rent for another 60 days until August 20 to alleviate anxiety over the economic impact of the novel coronavirus. New York reported 952 new deaths from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours. 323,978 people across the state have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and at least 20,597 have died.
(AP, 5/7/20)(ABC News, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, GlaxoSmithKline said it will start trials of an experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug on patients suffering from pneumonia related to COVID-19 at the end of the month.
(AP, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, In Belgium hundreds of chefs' jackets were laid down in the center of Brussels to highlight the plight of hotels, restaurants and cafes that have been shuttered for nearly two months during the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, Brazil's Health Ministry registered 9,888 new cases, bringing its total to 135,106 with 9,146 deaths. Jair Bolsonaro went to the Supreme Court to ask that state be forced to roll back restrictive measures, despite the surge in the nation's coronavirus cases and deaths.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A4)
2020 May 7, British physicians in The Lancet reported that a rare, life-threatening condition is developing in some children after exposure to the new coronavirus that researchers are calling "Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Potentially Associated with COVID-19.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 7, China's National Health Commission said that just two new cases of COVID-19 had been reported on the Chinese mainland -- both of which were imported from abroad.
(ABC News, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, Chinese researchers said that a minority of men infected with COVID-19 had the new coronavirus in their semen, opening up a small chance the disease could be transmitted sexually.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, It was reported that a coronavirus outbreak has infected more than 30% of inmates at the prison in Villavicencio, in central Colombia. The prison currently has nearly double the 899 inmates it is meant to hold.
(AP, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, El Salvador began a quarantine under orders from Pres. Nayib Bukele. Residents will be allowed to leave their homes only twice a week to buy food. The country has already spent a month under a mandatory shelter-in-place order. El Salvador has recorded 695 confirmed infections and 15 deaths.
(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A6)(Econ., 5/9/20, p.23)
2020 May 7, Coronavirus cases in India rose past 50,000, with the pace of new infections showing no signs of abating despite a strict weeks-long lockdown.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, The Italian government and a bishops conference reached an agreement to resume Masses starting May 18, with strict protocols, after a two-month shutdown. Some conservative Catholics issued a petition, signed mostly by Italian clergy, academics and journalists, claiming the coronavirus is an overhyped “pretext" to deprive the faithful of Mass and impose a new world order. The petition called the pandemic a “pretext" by unnamed actors to manipulate and control people through panic and deprive them of their fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of worship.
(AP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 7, Nigeria has recorded 3,145 cases of coronavirus and 103 deaths.
(Econ., 5/9/20, p.34)
2020 May 7, Russia saw a record daily rise in COVID-19 cases, with 11,231 new infections reported over the past 24 hours. Russia has reported 165,929 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,625 deaths.
(ABC News, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, The United Nations issued a new appeal for £3.8 billion in funding to "protect millions of lives and stem the spread of coronavirus in fragile countries."
(The Telegraph, 5/7/20)
2020 May 8, President Donald Trump broke with health experts, telling reporters that the coronavirus will “go away without a vaccine."
(Yahoo News, 5/9/20)
2020 May 8, Former President Barack Obama harshly criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as an “absolute chaotic disaster" during a conversation with ex-members of his administration.
(AP, 5/9/20)
2020 May 8, The US blocked a vote on a UN security council resolution calling for a global ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic, because the Trump administration objected to an indirect reference to the World Health Organization.
(The Guardian, 5/9/20)
2020 May 8, US regulators approved the first saliva-based coronavirus test, developed by Rutgers Univ., that allows people to collect their own sample at home. The sample must be shipped to a laboratory for processing.
(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A5)
2020 May 8, California to date had 62,721 cases of coronavirus and 2,555 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,482 cases and 342 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,271,755 with the death toll at 76,368.
(sfist.com, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Hawaii reported no new cases of COVID-19. Positive cases remained at 629 with 17 deaths.
(SFC, 5/8/20, p.A6)(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A7)
2020 May 8, In Nevada magician Roy Horn (75, who alongside Siegfried Fischbacher starred in a popular, long-running Las Vegas act built around rare tigers, died in las Vegas from of complications of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Abbott Laboratories said its antibody test for the new coronavirus is highly likely to correctly determine whether people have ever been infected with the fast-spreading virus. Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine found Abbott's test had a specificity rate of 99.9% and a sensitivity rate of 100%.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Brazil's 5th largest city, Fortaleza, became the nation's third metropolis to enter lockdown for COVID-19.
(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A4)
2020 May 8, Britain's COVID-19 death toll rose to 31,241.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 8, The World Health Organization said that although a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan selling live animals likely played a significant role in the emergence of the new coronavirus, it does not recommend that such markets be shut down globally.
(AP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, China said it is open to an independent investigation to determine the origins of the coronavirus now sweeping the world.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, The World Bank approved $506 million in emergency loans and grants for Ecuador to help it grapple with one of the worst outbreaks in Latin America.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, In Germany local governments activated emergency measures in three districts that have seen flare-ups of the coronavirus. All the spikes were associated with local meatpacking centers in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein.
(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020 May 8, Iran allowed worshippers to attend Friday prayers for the first time in more than two months, but the capital remained under restrictions. Iran announced 1,556 new cases of coronavirus infection. 55 new virus fatalities in the past 24 hours took the overall death toll in the health crisis to 6,541. The country's caseload overall rose to 104,691.
(AFP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Mexican police said three nurses have been found strangled to death in Torreon, Coahuila state, amid an alarming increase of assaults on health care workers in the country, who are being wrongly accused of spreading the coronavirus. The country has recorded at least 44 attacks against medical personnel between mid-March and mid-April. Two men were soon arrested for the strangulation deaths of the three nurses. Police said they had planned to robe the women and rules out links the pandemic anxiety.
(Business Insider, 5/10/20)(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A4)
2020 May 8, In Mexico Moises Escamilla May (45), a high-ranking member of the dangerous Los Zetas crime syndicate, died from the coronavirus at a maximum-security prison in Jalisco state. May was arrested shortly after he was alleged to have beheaded 12 people in Yucatan, Mexico, in August 2008.
(The Independent, 5/12/20)
2020 May 8, Coronavirus cases in Pakistan surged past 25,000, just hours before the government was due to lift lockdown steps.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Russia's coronavirus cases rose by over 10,000 for the sixth straight day, bringing the nationwide tally to 187,859. Around 100 central bank employees have been diagnosed, most of them in Moscow.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Saudi Arabia reported 1,701 new cases, taking the total to 35,432. The kingdom has recorded a daily average of around 1,500 new cases over the past week.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Slovakia recorded no new cases of coronavirus for the first time since March 10. Cases totaled 1,455 while 26 people have died and 919 have already recovered.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 8, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that African countries needed a two-year debt standstill due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, longer than a moratorium agreed by G20 governments last month.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) launched an emergency coronavirus appeal, saying Palestinians across the Middle East were suffering a devastating socio-economic impact.
(AFP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Yemen reported nine new coronavirus cases in Aden, the interim headquarters of the government, including one death. This brought the total count to 34 infections with 7 deaths. The Houthi movement, which controls the capital Sanaa and most big urban centers, has so far reported one infection, a Somali national who was found dead in a hotel.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 9, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved emergency use authorization (EUA) to Quidel Corp for the first COVID-19 antigen test. The emergency use authorization was issued late May 7 to Quidel for the Sofia 2 SARS Antigen FIA.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Three members of the White House coronavirus task force, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, placed themselves in quarantine after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
(AP, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it would allow state health departments to distribute Gilead Sciences Inc's remdesivir drug to fight COVID-19, and the United States would receive about 40% of the drug maker's global donation.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, California to date had 64,532 cases of coronavirus and 2,630 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,558 cases and 342 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,288,569 with the death toll at 77,344.
(sfist.com, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, China said it will reform its disease prevention and control system to address weaknesses exposed by the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, China issued a lengthy rebuttal of what it said were 24 "preposterous allegations" by some leading US politicians over its handling of the new coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 9, China's National Health Commission reported 14 new confirmed coronavirus cases, the highest number since April 28 and up from only one case a day earlier.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, The number of people who have died from coronavirus infections in France rose by 80 to 26,310.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, In India about 70 people fled a quarantine center in Bihar state's Nawada district, alleging poor facilities and lack of food. A district magistrate said some fled after one of the occupants tested positive for COVID-19.
(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A6)
2020 May 9, Indonesia reported 533 new coronavirus infections, the biggest daily increase, taking the total number to 13,645. 16 more have died from the disease, taking the total number of death to 959, while 2,607 have recovered.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Iran reported 1,529 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the overall total to 106,220. 48 new deaths took the overall toll to 6,589. Experts at home and abroad said the actual number of cases could be much higher.
(AFP, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 194, against 243 the day before, while the daily tally of new cases fell to 1,083.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Tokyo reported 36 new cases of coronavirus infections, three less than a day earlier and the seventh consecutive day that new infections have remained below 100. This brought the total coronavirus infections in the capital city to 4,846 cases.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Mexico said the number of deaths from the coronavirus in the border city of Tijuana has soared and the COVID-19 mortality rate is twice the national average. It was reported that Mexico City officials have tabulated more than 2,500 deaths from the coronavirus and serious respiratory illnesses that doctors suspect are related to COVID-19, as opposed to 700 reported by the government in the area. Nationwide the government has reported 3000 confirmed deaths.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A4)
2020 May 9, In Mexico coronavirus patients were being turned away from hospitals in Mexico City, as both public and private medical facilities quickly fill up and the number of new infections continues to rise. The health ministry confirmed 1,938 new cases of coronavirus infection, along with 193 additional deaths. Government models projected that infections could peak this weekend. Reported coronavirus cases in the country total 33,460, with 3,353 deaths attributed to the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the virus.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Pakistani authorities reported a jump of 1,637 coronavirus cases with 24 new fatalities.
(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A6)
2020 May 9, The Philippines recorded eight new coronavirus deaths, bringing the total to 704. Infections increased by 147 to 10,610. Total deaths have reached 704.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Russia reported that the number of confirmed coronavirus infections had risen by another 10,817 to reach a total of 198,676 and 1,827 deaths as President Vladimir Putin presided over a muted 75th anniversary celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. The regional branch of Russia's consumer health watchdog said 89 cases of the novel coronavirus have been recorded among employees of Polyus Krasnoyarsk, a unit of Russia's largest gold producer Polyus.
(AFP, 5/9/20)(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, In South Korea the mayor of Seoul ordered all the capital’s bars and nightclubs shut down indefinitely after many of the 34 new coronavirus infections were traced to a single nightlife district. Cases had lingered at around ten or below for weeks.
(NY Times, 5/10/20)(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020 May 9, Spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to its second lowest since mid-March, as half the country prepared to move to the next phase of an exit from one of Europe's strictest lockdowns. Spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to 179. Overall deaths rose to 26,478. The number of diagnosed cases rose to 223,578.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Sweden has recorded 3,175 fatalities from COVID-19. That's more than 31 deaths per 100,000 population, compared with about 8 per 100,000 in neighboring Denmark.
(AP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 9, Swiss drugmaker Novartis said Chinese regulators have approved its drug Mayzent for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis in adults.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Thailand reported four new coronavirus cases and one more death, bringing the total to 3,004 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in January.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, The World Health Organization (WHO) suspended staff activity late today at its hubs in Houthi-held areas of Yemen, in a move sources said aimed to pressure the group to be more transparent about suspected coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the Senate’s top Democrat, called on the Department of Veterans Affairs to explain why it allowed the use of hydroxychloroquine, an unproven drug, on veterans for the coronavirus, saying patients may have been put at unnecessary risk.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, California to date had 67,055 cases of coronavirus and 2,695 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,817 cases and 347 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,321,223 with the death toll at 79,058.
(sfist.com, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Austria's finance ministry said some local companies are abusing state subsidies for staff on short-time working or using illegal workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Inspections of 5,119 people at 1,946 companies uncovered 460 violations of laws.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Britain's PM Boris Johnson announced a modest easing of the country's coronavirus lockdown and outlined his government's roadmap for further lifting restrictions.
(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)
2020 May 10, Chinese authorities reported what could be the beginning of a new wave of coronavirus cases in the northeast, with one city in Jilin province being reclassified as high-risk. 11 cases were reported in Jilin and one in Hubei province. China has reported 4,633 deaths and 82, 901 cases.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)
2020 May 10, It was reported that new coronavirus infections are accelerating again in Germany just days after its leaders loosened social restrictions, raising concerns that the pandemic could once again slip out of control. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 667 to 169,218. The reported death toll rose by 13 to 7,395.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo said that one worker at a fish factory in the coastal city of Tema had infected 533 other employees last month. The factory, owned by Thai Union Group PCL, was closed on April 17 and partially reopened on May 11. As of May 12 Ghana has reported 5,127 cases, including 22 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 10, Indonesia's Health Ministry confirmed 387 new coronavirus cases. The country 14,032 confirmed cases, including 973 deaths. COVID-19 infections in Mimika Regency, where Freeport's gold and copper Grasberg mine is located on Papua island, reached 112 cases.
(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)(AP, 5/13/20)
2020 May 10, Iran warned of a resurgence of the novel coronavirus as it reported 51 new deaths, almost a month after it started to relax a nationwide lockdown. 1,383 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, raising total infections to 107,603. The new fatalities raised the overall confirmed death toll to 6,640. Authorities reimposed more stringent measures in the southwestern Khuzestan province, reversing a phased return to work meant to revitalize the battered economy.
(AFP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Iran said it is ready for unconditional prisoner swap talks with the United States because of fears that the coronavirus could put the lives of the prisoners at risk.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, In Japan about 5,000 people in Tokyo were confirmed to have been infected with the virus, representing nearly one-third of Japan's total infections of around 16,000.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, It was reported that the Maldives has seen a rapid rise in coronavirus cases over the past few weeks. Three deaths have been reported so far.
(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A6)
2020 May 10, Authorities in Nigeria's oil-rich southern Rivers state demolished two hotels over an alleged breach of lockdown rules intended to contain the spread of coronavirus. The state currently has 15 active cases of the virus and has recorded two deaths. One owner said authorities were asking for a bribe and denied that the hotel was operating.
(BBC, 5/11/20)
2020 May 10, Peru has about 65,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 1,800 deaths.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Russia registered a total of 1,915 deaths from the new coronavirus. Cases of infection rose by 11,012 in the last 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 209,688.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, South Africa's Western Cape province has 5,621 coronavirus cases, and of the country's 206 deaths registered from COVID-19, 116 have occurred in the province. South Africa has eased its restrictions to allow an estimated 1.6 million people to return to work in selected mines, factories and businesses. Western Cape premier Alan Winde said South Africa is expected to reach its peak of cases in August.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 May 10, South Korea reported 34 new coronavirus cases. Of the new cases, 26 were domestically transmitted infections and eight were imported cases.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to 143, down from 179 the previous day. Overall deaths rose to 26,621. The number of diagnosed cases rose to 224,390.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Thailand reported five new coronavirus cases but no deaths, bringing the total to 3,009 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in the country in January. These numbers did not include four more infected people from the resort island of Phuket.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, In Turkey senior citizens were allowed to venture out for the first time in seven weeks. Turkey has recorded 137,115 coronavirus infections, including 3,739 deaths.
(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)
2020 May 10, Zambia has confirmed 267 Covid-19 infections, with seven deaths. 76 of 85 reported new cases in the northern town of Nakonde were either sex workers or lorry drivers. Last week, President Edgar Lungu announced the reopening of restaurants, casinos and gyms after a month-long shutdown to enforce social distancing measures.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 11, President Donald Trump accused Democrats of moving to reopen US states from coronavirus lockdown measures too slowly for political advantage, without providing evidence to support his claim.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, Vice President Mike Pence strongly recommended to governors that all residents and staff at such facilities be tested for the coronavirus in the next two weeks. More than 27,000 residents and staff have died from outbreaks of the virus at the nation's nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, California to date had 68,944 cases of coronavirus and 2,776 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,936 cases and 352 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,346,723 with the death toll at 80,352.
(sfist.com, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, Massachusetts reported 129 new coronavirus deaths, bringing the total to 5,108 with 78,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases. The state’s death toll is most likely higher because the count does not include people who have died but were never tested.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said his state had just 488 new confirmed COVID-19 cases statewide in the last 24 hours.
(The Week, 5/12/20)
2020 May 11, In South Carolina Roman Catholic churches across the state reopened for services for the first time since a coronavirus-related shutdown began on March 17, allowing parishioners to attend Mass in person.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, The World Health Organization said that coronavirus cases had jumped in countries that eased their stay-at-home orders.
(The Week, 5/12/20)
2020 May 11, Belgium allowed most of its shops to reopen with strict hygiene rules for customers, following in the footsteps of Spain in an easing of its eight-week lockdown as the number of COVID-19 cases fall. Belgium has reported 55,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 8,707 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, The British government published its plan for exiting the coronavirus lockdown. The 51-page document, entitled "Our Plan to Rebuild: The UK Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy", gives an outline of how the United Kingdom could return to normal life.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, In China the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued an emergency notice announcing a "10 Day Battle" to ramp up its ability to conduct nucleic acid tests on the city's 11 million residents. Wuhan reported six new cases, breaking a 35-day streak of zero daily new cases.
(AP, 5/12/20)(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020 May 11, Thirsty Czechs were allowed to return to beer gardens in one of the government's most eagerly anticipated measures to relax coronavirus restrictions. Authorities also eased travel restrictions, allowing residents from outside the EU to enter the country if they can show a negative COVID-19 test and are taking up certain kinds of work, such as in the healthcare sector.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, There are now 107 coronavirus cases in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, including about 50 crew members still aboard the Celebrity Flora, a luxury ship operated by a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises. The islands' first four cases were diagnosed in late March, all believed to have come from Guayaquil before travel was cut off. Tourism has ground to a halt and an economic crisis has left many of the 30,000 residents jobless.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, Iran, which was one of the earliest coronavirus hotspots, imposed a new lockdown on the southwestern province of Khuzestan.
(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020 May 11, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic rose by 179. The daily tally of new cases fell to 744. The total death toll now stands at 30,739 and the total number of confirmed cases amounted to 219,814.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, Lebanon's health ministry recorded 14 new infections today after recording 36 a day earlier, the highest one-shot uptick in at least a month.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, In Nicaragua doctors and family members of apparent coronavirus victims say, the government has gone from denying the disease’s presence in the country to actively trying to conceal its spread. The government says the country has seen 16 coronavirus cases and five deaths since its first case was diagnosed.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, Markets across Pakistan were teeming after opening up for the first time in over a month as the country began to lift its lockdown despite a rise in the rate of coronavirus infections. Of its 667 deaths from the coronavirus, around 200 have been registered over the past week, and there are almost 31,000 confirmed infections.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin declared an end to a nationwide partial economic shutdown but noted that some restrictions will remain. Putin said that it will be up to regional governors in the far-flung Russian Federation to determine what industrial plants could reopen starting May 12. The Financial Times reported that the real death toll could be 70% higher.
(AP, 5/11/20)(Econ., 5/23/20, p.39)
2020 May 11, About half of Spain's 47 million population entered the second stage of a four-phase plan to lift a coronavirus lockdown and return to normal by the end of June. Spain reported the lowest number of infections in weeks. There were 123 deaths in the last 24 hours bringing that total to almost 27,000. 400 new cases brought the overall recorded infections to 268,000.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)(SFC, 5/12/20, p.A4)
2020 May 12, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned senators in a videoconference hearing that the "consequences could be really serious" if states and localities reopen too soon.
(Good Morning America, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, California to date had 69,417 cases of coronavirus and 2,789 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,049 cases and 366 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,358,901 with the death toll at 81,805.
(sfist.com, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called face masks a sign of respect for others on a day the state reported 195 new deaths, a jump from 161 the previous day.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, Mayor Bill de Blasio said New York City has 52 confirmed cases of what the state is calling Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Associated with COVID-19, an inflammatory syndrome which has features that overlap with Kawasaki disease. Out of the city's 52 cases, 25 tested positive for COVID-19 and 22 others had antibodies. New data showed that nine out of 10 people arrested for virus-related offenses in NYC have been black or Hispanic.
(Good Morning America, 5/12/20)(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, LabCorp said its $119 at-home sample collection kit for COVID-19 testing would now be available to all individuals with symptoms and possible exposure to the virus, after limiting delivery to healthcare workers during its launch last month. Customers can get the kit with no upfront out-of-pocket costs if they are found to be eligible after filling in a survey on the company's website.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, Moderna Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration granted "fast track" designation to its experimental coronavirus vaccine, a move that speeds up the regulatory review process. Moderna expects to start a late-stage study of the vaccine in early summer and says there is potential for a marketing application approval in 2021.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, Canada's National Research Council said China's CanSino Biologics Inc , the company behind one of the few coronavirus vaccine candidates already in clinical trials, is collaborating with the NRC to "pave the way" for future trials in Canada.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, China reported seven new coronavirus cases on the mainland, versus one a day earlier. Jilin city in the country's northeast warned of a huge risk of COVID-19 spreading further.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 12, In Iran another 1,481 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 110,767 since the start of the crisis. Another 48 deaths from the virus took the overall toll to 6,733. A minister said Iran will reopen its mosques for three nights over the next week so that worshippers can pray during one of the holiest times of year.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic climbed by 172, against 179 the day before, but the daily tally of new cases doubled to 1,402. The Lombardy region said it had found 419 infections from previous weeks that it had not logged. The total death toll now stands at 30,911 with confirmed cases at 221,216.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, Madagascar has reported 193 Covid-19 cases and no deaths. President Andry Rajoelina has said criticism of Covid-Organics, an untested herbal tonic that he is touting as a treatment for Covid-19, shows the West's condescending attitude towards Africa.
(BBC, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, In Montenegro hundreds of Serbian Orthodox pilgrims used hand sanitizer and wore face masks as they entered the Ostrog Monastery to mark the Day of St Vasilije Ostroski the Miracle Maker, a 17th century bishop after whom the monastery is named. Montenegro has reported 324 cases of the coronavirus and nine deaths.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, Russia moved to ease a nationwide coronavirus lockdown. It was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman has been hospitalized for the coronavirus. He is the fifth senior government official in Russia to get the virus, and the second from within Putin's inner circle. Another 10,899 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the country's total number of confirmed infections to 232,243. At least 2,116 people have died.
(AFP, 5/12/20) (Business Insider, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, In Russia a fire broke out in a Saint Petersburg hospital early today and killed five coronavirus patients. Preliminary reports suggested an overheated ventilator had short-circuited and caught fire. On May 9 a fire caused by a faulty ventilator in the Spasokukotsky Hospital in Moscow killed one patient.
(Good Morning America, 5/12/20)(SFC, 5/13/20, p.A2)
2020 May 12, The UN said COVID-19 has been confirmed in a crowded civilian protection camp in Juba, South Sudan's capital.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, In Uruguay the 86 crew members of the Greg Mortimer cruise ship, stranded in local waters since March 27, began their evacuation to Montevideo following an outbreak of the new coronavirus on board. At least 37 positive cases of coronavirus were detected in the last several days.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, Yemen's Saudi-backed government reported the first outbreak of the new coronavirus in three more southern provinces, taking the total number of cases in areas under its control to 65, including 10 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 13, US officials said China-linked hackers are breaking into American organizations carrying out research into COVID-19.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, California to date had 72,749 cases of coronavirus and 2,958 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,213 cases and 372 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,389,935 with the death toll at 84,059. California's Gov. Gavin Newsom gave the go-ahead for 17 counties to reopen their local economies.
(sfist.com, 5/13/20)(SFC, 5/14/20, p.A7)
2020 May 13, In Iowa deaths from the coronavirus surged for a 2nd straight day surpassing 300. Rep. Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will allow some businesses, including restaurants, salons, barber shops and gyms, to open on May 15.
(SFC, 5/14/20, p.A5)
2020 May 13, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the launch of a public service campaign to inform parents of the Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Associated with COVID-19. Three children diagnosed with the syndrome have died in the state.
(SFC, 5/14/20, p.A5)
2020 May 13, British PM Boris Johnson said that the deaths of 144 health care workers and 131 social care workers had been reported as involving COVID-19. The United Kingdom's total COVID-19 death toll now exceeds 40,000, by far the worst yet reported in Europe. England tentatively began easing its coronavirus lockdown, with some people who cannot do their jobs at home urged to return to work.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Burundi has reported only 15 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ., 5/16/20, p.38)
2020 May 13, Authorities in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the novel coronavirus emerged, launched an ambitious campaign to test all of its 11 million residents, after a cluster of new cases raised fears of a second wave of infections.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Hong Kong reported its first two coronavirus cases in three weeks not linked to anyone who travelled overseas, with authorities scrambling to trace the origin of the infections. Hundreds of protesters gathered in shopping malls across Hong Kong, flouting coronavirus-related social distancing rules to mock unpopular Chief Executive Carrie Lam on her birthday.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in coronavirus infections, with 689 new cases, taking the total number to 15,438. Some 1,028 people have died from the virus.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, A World Health Organization report into Italy's coronavirus response was posted after it had received necessary approvals within the UN system. It was written by Francesco Zambon, WHO's chief field coordinator for Italy and its regions, and a team of WHO public health experts and consultants. The WHO later said it was withdrawn because of “factual inaccuracies" that it has not detailed and denied that it received any pressure from the Italian government to remove it.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 May 13, Lebanese rushed to food stores to stock up on vegetables and basic items, hours before the government was to reinstate a four-day nationwide lockdown, following a spike in reported coronavirus cases.
(AP, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Lesotho recorded its first case of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Moscow said it had ascribed the deaths of more than 60% of coronavirus patients in April to other causes as it defended what it said was the superior way it and Russia counted the number of people killed by the novel virus.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund head, said 60% of the 40 coronavirus patients taking tablets of favipiravir, which was first developed in Japan under the name Avigan, tested negative for the virus within five days and said the treatment could cut coronavirus recovery times in half. Favipiravir is undergoing trials in India by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. In Japan Avigan was found to cause birth defects.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Saudi Arabia said it will go into a full lockdown during the days of celebration that follow the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, May 23 – May 27.
(AP, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, In Thailand professional chefs started cooking up around 40,000 lunches in Bangkok for communities affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Thailand reported no new daily cases for the first time in two months.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Yemen's Saudi-backed government reported the first coronavirus case in Marib province and four other infections elsewhere, taking the tally of cases in areas under its control to 70, including 12 deaths. The Aden-based government's coronavirus committee said two cases including one death were reported in Aden, and two in Lahej, including one death.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 14, Whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright warned a congressional panel that the US lacks a plan to produce and fairly distribute a coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available. The nation could face “the darkest winter in modern history" unless leaders act decisively. A federal watchdog agency has found “reasonable grounds" that Bright was removed from his post as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority after sounding the alarm at the Department of Health and Human Services.
(AP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, The US Securities and Exchange Commission said it has charged two companies and a chief executive officer with making misleading claims related to COVID-19. Turbo Global Partners Inc. and its CEO Robert W. Singerman were charged with making false and misleading claims related to equipment to detect individuals with fevers. The SEC said Applied BioSciences Corp had begun offering and shipping finger-prick COVID-19 tests to the general public, when in fact the tests could only be administered in consultation with a medical professional.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered everyone in the city to wear a mask when outside their homes as some restrictions eased to allow people to return to work and recreation under the coronavirus Panama.
(SFC, 5/15/20, p.A8)
2020 May 14, California to date had 74,564 cases of coronavirus and 3,042 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,352 cases and 381 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,415,894 with the death toll at 85,807.
(sfist.com, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, New York City reported 100 cases of a rare inflammatory disease in children apparently tied to COVID-19.
(The Week, 5/15/20)
2020 May 14, Texas recorded single day highs of 1,458 new cases of the coronavirus and 58 deaths.
(SFC, 5/16/20, p.A6)
2020 May 14, Diagnostic services provider LabCorp said it would make its COVID-19 tests available at workplaces, as employers across the US look to bring people back to work safely.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Bangladesh officials said the novel coronavirus has been detected in one of the southern camps that are home to more than one million Rohingya refugees.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, In Bulgaria some two thousand supporters of a fringe ultra-nationalist and pro-Russian party marched through central Sofia accusing the government of imposing confusing restrictions aimed at combating the coronavirus. The center-right government of PM Boyko Borissov has extended restrictions until June 14. Bulgaria has reported 2,100 registered cases, including 99 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, The European Commission said it has suspended the delivery of 10 million Chinese masks it purchased for health workers after two countries complained about the poor quality of the batches they received.
(AP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Germany's unlisted CureVac said its experimental coronavirus vaccine was shown to trigger an immune response in animals when given a low dose and the biotech firm was looking at carrying out its first human trials in June.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Iran warned of a possible coronavirus cluster hitting another province as it announced 71 new deaths and more than 1,800 infections nationwide. the latest deaths brought the official toll to 6,854. The total number rose to 114,553 as 1,808 new cases of COVID-19 infection were detected.
(AFP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Italy said will start testing a representative sample of 150,000 people in 2,000 cities next week to understand the extent of its COVID-19 epidemic. Italy has had more than 222,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and over 31,000 deaths since its outbreak came to light on February 21.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe announced the lifting of a coronavirus state of emergency ahead of schedule in most of the country except for eight high-risk areas. It remains in effect in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hokkaido.
(AP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, New Zealand began reopening malls, retail store and restaurants. Gatherings were limited to ten people and social distancing guidelines remained in place.
(SFC, 5/15/20, p.A7)
2020 May 14, The government of Panama said 43 migrants have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and 119 others who came in contact with them are in quarantine at a relief station near the border with Colombia.
(AP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Typhoon Vongfong slammed into the eastern Philippines, knocking out power and threatening food crops in a new emergency for a country already overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. More than 11,600 coronavirus infections, including 772 deaths, have been reported in the country.
(AP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Russian health officials said they had registered 9,974 new infections in the last 24 hours, bringing Russia's tally to 252,245 with a total of 2,305 deaths.
(AFP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Saudi Arabia country recorded some 2,000 new coronavirus cases, its highest ever count. The country has so far seen more than 46,000 cases.
(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020 May 14, Slovenia became the first European country to declare an official end to its coronavirus epidemic. The country has reported 1,466 coronavirus cases and 104 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 14, South Africa said it will assign levels of lockdown restrictions for each of the country's roughly 50 districts, depending on the number of active coronavirus infections there.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Yemen's Saudi-backed government reported the first cases of the novel coronavirus in the southern province of Al Dhalea, among 15 new infections that took the total in areas under its control to 85 with 12 deaths. Al Dhalea became the ninth province to record cases, with its first three infections.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 15, US Pres. Donald Trump introduced Moncef Slasoui, a former chairman of vaccines at GlaxoSmithKline as the new chief of what he called Operation Warp Speed, an effort to have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.
(SFC, 5/16/20, p.A6)
2020 May 15, It was reported that five sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier sidelined in Guam due to a COVID-19 outbreak have tested positive for the virus for the second time and have been taken off the ship.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, California to date had 76,618 cases of coronavirus and 3,136 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,515 cases and 388 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,441,172 with the death toll at 87,427.
(sfist.com, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Most of Louisiana eased coronavirus restrictions as many businesses and houses of worship were allowed to reopen at 25% capacity.
(AP, 5/16/20)
2020 May 15, Hologic Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 diagnostic test that can provide initial results in about three hours and process more than 1,000 tests in 24 hours.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, In Belgium some children, many with face masks, returned to school as the country further eased a two-month coronavirus lockdown. Belgium has to date reported 54,644 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 8,959 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Brazil’s health minister Dr. Nelson Teich resigned after less than a month on the job in a sign of continuing upheaval over how the nation should battle the coronavirus pandemic, quitting a day after President Jair Bolsonaro stepped up pressure on him to expand use of the antimalarial drug chloroquine in treating patients. Officials say almost 15,000 people have died in Brazil from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, though some experts say the figure is significantly higher due to insufficient testing.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, In Britain government scientific advisers said the reproduction ('R') rate of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom is now somewhere between 0.7 and 1.0.
(Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Denmark Health authorities reported no coronavirus deaths for the first time since March 13.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020 May 15, A regional health body said the new life-threatening inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19 has affected 230 children in Europe and killed two so far this year.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 15, French nurses and doctors faced off with President Emmanuel Macron at a leading Paris hospital, demanding better pay and a rethink of a once-renowned public health system that found itself quickly overwhelmed by tens of thousands of virus patients.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, In Germany draft government proposal said Germany will order meatpacking plants to stop using subcontractors and to improve hygiene standards in the workplace and accommodations, after more than 600 cases of coronavirus among workers in the industry.
(Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Iran reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections in more than a month as it warned of clusters hitting new regions. 2,102 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall total to 116,635. the virus had claimed another 48 lives over the same period, raising the overall death toll to 6,902.
(AfP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Mexico's health ministry confirmed 290 additional coronavirus deaths and 2,437 new infections in a fresh one-day record rise in cases since the start of the pandemic. This brought confirmed coronavirus cases to 45,032 and 4,767 deaths in total. Between 590 and 800 Cuban doctors have arrived in Mexico City in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)(Miami Herald, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, It was reported that in northern Nigeria tens of thousands of Koranic school children were recently crammed into open vans and sent back home from cities and towns across 19 states in a controversial move by state governments to prevent the spread of coronavirus within their territories. Hundreds of the children already had coronavirus, so officials inadvertently contributed to spreading the virus rather than containing it.
(BBC, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Moscow began testing thousands of randomly-chosen residents for coronavirus antibodies under a mass screening program authorities hope will help them determine when it is safe to lift the city's lockdown restrictions.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Slovakia lifted a quarantine on the last of five Roma settlements that were closed off in April to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 15, It was reported that hundreds of people in Aden, southern Yemen’s main city, have died in the past week with symptoms of what appears to be the coronavirus.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 16, A US federal judge issued an order that allows North Carolina religious leaders to reopen their doors to their congregations in spite of Gov. Roy Cooper's warning that they risk spreading coronavirus.
(Good Morning America, 5/17/20)
2020 May 16, California to date had 77,515 cases of coronavirus and 3,166 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,682 cases and 390 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,456,941 with the death toll at 88,230.
(sfist.com, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, An at-home coronavirus testing project in Seattle backed in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it was working with US regulators to resume the program after being suspended by the Food and Drug Administration.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Australia's Victoria state reported 11 new coronavirus cases, including some linked to known clusters at a meat factory and a McDonald's restaurant.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Brazil's Health Ministry registered 14,919 new confirmed cases in the prior 24 hours, taking the total to 233,142.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Britain's PM Boris Johnson advised people to avoid all unnecessary contact due to coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.46)
2020 May 16, Cambodia's health ministry said the last patient with the new coronavirus has recovered and left hospital, leaving the Southeast Asian country with zero cases. Cambodia has reported 122 cases of the virus that causes COVID-19 and no deaths.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Mainland China had five new confirmed COVID-19 cases, down from eight the previous day. The city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus outbreak originated in China, conducted 222,675 nucleic acid tests.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 16, French health authorities reported 96 new coronavirus deaths, as the country eases from a two month lockdown. This brought France's total fatalities to 27,625.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Thousands of Germans across the country took to the streets to protest against restrictions imposed by the government to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus has so far infected more than 173,000 people in Germany and killed nearly 7,900.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Greeks flocked to the seaside when more than 500 beaches reopened, as the country sought to walk the fine line between protecting people from COVID-19 while reviving the tourism sector that many depend on for their livelihoods.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, India's total novel coronavirus cases rose to 85,940 with 2,752 fatalities.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Indonesia reported 529 new coronavirus infections, taking the total number of cases to 17,025. Indonesia also reported 13 new deaths, taking the total number of COVID-19 deaths to 1,089.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Iran reported 35 new deaths from the coronavirus, the lowest number since March 7 despite infections rising, and announced a further relaxation of COVID-19-related closures. The new deaths brought the overall toll to 6,937. However, 1,757 new coronavirus cases were confirmed across Iran in the last 24 hours, bringing the overall total to 118,392.
(AFP, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered a cessation of movement between the country and neighboring Tanzania and Somalia to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. He exempted cargo trucks but said drivers would have to be tested for the disease.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Malaysian reported 17 new coronavirus cases, bringing the cumulative total to 6,872. Health authorities there reported one new death, with total fatalities at 113.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Mexico registered 47,144 cases of coronavirus, with the country's death toll rising to 5,045.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, The Philippines' health ministry reported 11 more coronavirus deaths and 214 additional infections. Total confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus have risen to 12,305, most of which are in the capital, while deaths reached 817. The Philippines started loosening its lockdown in the capital and other major cities to slowly restart an economy.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Qatar reported another 1,547 cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the country's total number of confirmed infections to more than 30,000.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Russia reported 9,200 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. The overall number of cases nationwide stood at 272,043. The official death toll rose to 2,537 after 119 people died over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, In Saudi Arabia the number of coronavirus cases topped 50,000. The health ministry reported 2,840 new cases, taking the cumulative total to 51,980. The death toll in the kingdom increased by 10 to 302.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, South Africa's Impala Platinum said it had detected 19 positive cases of the COVID-19 disease at its Marula operation in northern Limpopo province, and that it would close the plant until it had taken necessary health measures.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Spain's overnight death toll from the coronavirus was 102, marking the lowest 24-hour rise since mid March. The cumulative death toll rose to 27,563, while the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 230,698.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Thailand reported no new coronavirus cases or deaths as the country begins to reopen businesses and ease restrictions. Thailand extended a ban on international passenger flights until the end of June. A previous order was set to run until the end of May. Thailand has reported a total of 3,025 cases of the coronavirus and 56 fatalities.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 17, California to date had 78,859 cases of coronavirus and 3,208 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,821 cases and 390 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,478,241 with the death toll at 89,207.
(sfist.com, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, The latest number of coronavirus cases in Texas jumped by 1,801 in a single day, the highest daily rate since the state started tracking data. The number of cases reported now stands at 46,999. Texas reported 1,305 total fatalities, an increase of 33.
(Good Morning America, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Dagestan's health minister told a local blogger that the true number of coronavirus infections was four times that reported, and that outbreaks had killed 657 people, not the officially recorded 27.
(SSFC, 6/7/20, p.40)
2020 May 17, India's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) requested that a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus be extended to May 31. The Health Ministry reported a record jump of nearly 5,000 cases in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)(SFC, 5/18/20, p.A5)
2020 May 17, It was reported that Indonesia is planning an $8.6 billion bailout for 12 state-owned firms, to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, mostly as cash compensation and working capital investments.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Iran said the COVID-19 illness has claimed a further 51 lives over the last 24 hours. 1,806 new cases were confirmed across in the past day, bringing the total to 120,198. The health ministry raised the overall death toll to 6,988.
(AFP, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, In Italy the daily death toll from the COVID-19 epidemic fell to 145, the lowest since March 9. The total death toll now stands at 31,908. Confirmed cases amounted to 225,435. PM Giuseppe Conte outlined a further loosening of movement restrictions, including opening borders to travelers from Europe from next month.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Kuwait and Qatar both said they would start jailing people or fining them thousands of dollars for failing to wear a facemask to combat the novel coronavirus. Qatar, a nation of some 2.8 million, has the second highest infection count in the region at above 32,600, with 15 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Madagascar's national COVID-19 taskforce said it has registered its first coronavirus death. A medical worker (57), who suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure, had died the previous evening.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, The Philippine government called for vigilance against the coronavirus, a day after hordes of people trooped to shopping malls and ignored safety protocols, as authorities began loosening a two-month lockdown. The country has reported 12,513 cases of coronavirus infections and a death toll of 824.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, South Africa reported 1,160 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily numbers yet. The country has the highest number of cases in Africa - 15,515, with 264 deaths.
(BBC, 5/18/20)
2020 May 17, South Korea reported five new domestic cases of coronavirus, all linked to a cluster of cases centered around bars and nightclubs in the capital which has raised fears in the country of a fresh wave of contagion.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Spain reported 87 new deaths, bringing the total deaths in the country from the coronavirus pandemic to 27,650. The Health Ministry reported 652 new cases. Spain has had 231,350 confirmed COVID-19 cases. PM Pedro Sanchez said the government will seek to extend its coronavirus state of emergency one last time until late June.
(Good Morning America, 5/17/20)(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Tanzania's Pres. John Magufuli said there has been a "sharp decline" in the number of coronavirus patients in the country's hospitals. Tanzania has had 509 recorded coronavirus cases and 21 deaths according to data from the African Union's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(BBC, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Thailand reported three additional cases of the new coronavirus, bringing its total cases to 3,028 as the country relaxes local restrictions and re-opens malls and department stores.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Venezuela reported 504 coronavirus illnesses raising the national total to 504 with 10 deaths.
(SFC, 5/18/20, p.A5)
2020 May 18, California to date had 81,373 cases of coronavirus and 3,278 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,104 cases and 390 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,506,84 with the death toll at 90,309.
(sfist.com, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called attention to the new name of a COVID-19-related illness in children. Now known as Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed that the illness does have a link to COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, The Navajo Nation, spanning across parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, reported 69 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 4,071.
(Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, The Oregon Supreme Court halted a lower court's order that had invalidated the statewide restrictions imposed by Gov. Kate Brown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
(AP, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, American biotechnology company Moderna announced that its experimental vaccine for the novel coronavirus has so far shown to be "generally safe and well tolerated" in the first phase of a clinical trial.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Brazil recorded 674 new deaths and announced a total of 254,220 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, Britain expanded its testing scheme to allow anyone aged over five with COVID-19 symptoms to book a test to see if they have the virus. PM Boris Johnson announced that schools would close due to coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 5/18/20)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.46)
2020 May 18, Experts warned that the Oxford University vaccine tipped as a "front runner" in the race to develop a coronavirus jab does not stop the virus in monkeys and may only be partially effective.
(The Telegraph, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, China's President Xi Jinping called for an independent review of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic under the World Health Organization once the virus is under control, and defended Beijing's own handling of the pandemic. Xi Jinping made a high-profile pledge of $2 billion to the WHO, plus more aid to countries in need.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)(Business Insider, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, Danes returned to cafes and restaurants, confident that the coronavirus outbreak is under control.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, France's highest administrative court ruled that Paris police could no longer use drones to surveil public compliance with coronavirus-related restrictions.
(Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, The leaders of France and Germany unveiled a post-covid EU recovery plan.
(Econ., 5/23/20, p.40)
2020 May 18, Iran said it was entering a new phase of trying to eliminate the novel coronavirus after bringing the Middle East's deadliest outbreak under control in many regions. 2,294 new infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 122,492. The virus death toll was raised to 7,057, with 69 fatalities in the past day.
(AFP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Iraq said it will impose a complete lockdown on some areas of the capital, amid an uptick in coronavirus cases in recent weeks since curfew hours were relaxed. At least 123 people have died among 3,404 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Italy registered 99 fatalities over the last 24-hour period, bringing the nationwide death toll to 32,007. More than 225,000 people in Italy have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, Mexico issued guidelines for restarting operations in the automotive, mining and construction sectors, pushing ahead with reopening the economy despite a growing toll and concerns about unsafe work sites. Local governments across Mexico pushed back against President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's call to reopen the economy in some 300 townships that do not have active cases of coronavirus. Leaders said they preferred to wait until June before resuming normal activities. Mexico has reported 51,633 total cases and 5,332 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, It was reported that a registry of death certificates in Mexico City suggests there were 4,577 cases where doctors mentioned coronavirus or COVID-19 as a possible or probable cause of death, more than three times the official death toll in the city. The additional 3,245 deaths in Mexico City, if they are confirmed or added to official counts, would push the national death toll from the 5,332 reported by federal officials to 8,577.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Nigeria said it would impose precisely targeted lockdown measures in areas that report rapid increases in coronavirus cases, while the phased reopening of the economy as a whole would go ahead more slowly than planned.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin promised to send aid to Dagestan, and asked residents not to gather for the Eid celebration marking the end of Ramadan this weekend. 657 people had died of pneumonia in the region, including 40 medics.
(AFP, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, Russia reported 8,926 new cases of COVID-19, a new low in a gradual declining trend. Total cases numbered 290,678. 91 new fatalities were reported over the past 24 hours, bringing that total to 2,722.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, It was reported that Russia's defence ministry is setting up a mobile field hospital at the largest Siberian mine of the country's top gold producer, Polyus, to treat miners who contract the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Slovenia said it plans to tighten border controls for some EU citizens to prevent a possible import of the new coronavirus, partially rowing back from a decision last week to let all EU nationals in. Slovenia has so far reported 1,466 coronavirus cases and 104 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, It was reported that the Vice-President of South Sudan, Riek Machar, who was part of a taskforce to fight coronavirus, is in self-isolation after testing positive for Covid-19. His wife, Defense Minister Angelina Teny, some bodyguards and other staff also have the virus. South Sudan so far has recorded 236 cases of Covid-19 and four deaths.
(BBC, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, Spain reported that its overnight death toll from the coronavirus was 59, the lowest figure in two months. The cumulative death toll rose to 27,709, while the number of confirmed cases rose to 231,606.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Sweden's Statistics Office said the coronavirus pandemic has caused around 3,700 deaths since the first reported fatality in March, but this has not been as deadly as some seasonal flu tolls over the last three decades. Deaths were higher in December 1993 and January 2000 as compared to April 2020.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Switzerland's Pres. Simonetta Sommaruga opened the World Health Organization's annual assembly in Geneva, pledging her country's "full support and cooperation" to its leader as it coordinates the global response to the coronavirus pandemic. A two-day, virtual World Health Assembly meeting began as more than 100 countries backed a resolution calling for a probe into the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The US said that the pandemic had "spun out of control" in great part due to a costly "failure" by the World Health Organization, and called for a more effective WHO.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)(The Week, 5/18/20)
2020 May 19, The United States rejected language about reproductive healthcare and intellectual property rights in a World Health Organization resolution on the coronavirus pandemic, hours after President Donald Trump threatened to quit the body. Washington did not block the consensus adoption of the text, which calls for a review into the global response to the crisis and which diplomats had striven to pass without a vote.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, The US Department of Justice warned California's governor that his COVID-19 restrictions discriminated against places of worship by preventing them from meeting while businesses and film studios are allowed to carry on working.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, California to date had 83,320 cases of coronavirus and 3,374 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,305 cases and 404 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,525,637 with the death toll at 91,730.
(sfist.com, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, Maryland reported 1,784 new COVID-19 cases, the state's highest one-day rise.
(Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, In Afghanistan more than 200 doctors and medical staff took part in protests in the western city of Herat, saying they had not been paid for three months while risking their lives to treat coronavirus patients. Afghanistan has confirmed 7,653 COVID-19 infections and 178 deaths from the respiratory disease.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, Britain's COVID-19 death toll neared 43,000.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, The Czech Republic reported its biggest daily rise in new coronavirus cases in four weeks, climbing by 111 to 8,594, partly due to an outbreak at a coal mine.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, Ecuador said it is closing several embassies and state enterprises to save money amid an economic crisis provoked by the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 34,000 people in the country have been infected and at least 2,800 have died. Authorities have reported another 1,700 deaths probably caused by the virus but not included in the official death toll.
(AFP, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, India's government said it will run more special trains and buses to allow millions of distressed migrant workers to leave big cities. Coronavirus cases in India reached 100,000, matching its number of intensive care beds, and the rate of increase of new infections showed little sign of slowing.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, Russian health officials reported 9,263 new infections in Russia over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 299,941. PM Mikhail Mishustin returned to his duties on Tuesday after recovering from the coronavirus.
(AP, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, It was reported that the Seychelles has banned all cruise ship tourism through the end of 2021 as part of its efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The archipelago has just 11 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and no reported deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, welcomed a European Union (EU) resolution, adopted by consensus by WHO's 194 member states, that calls for an independent evaluation of the international response to the coronavirus, "including, but not limited to, WHO’s performance".
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 20, California to date had 85,728 cases of coronavirus and 3,485 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,419 cases and 410 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,550,959 with the death toll at 93,406.
(sfist.com, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, US immunotherapy company Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said its experimental vaccine to prevent coronavirus infection produced protective antibodies and immune system responses in mice and guinea pigs.
(Reuters, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, Britain's death toll from confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose by 338 to 36,042 according to the health ministry. Broader figures based on suspected COVID-19 deaths put the toll at over 43,000.
(Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020 May 20, Brazil's Pres. Jair Bolsonaro unveiled rules expanding the prescription of chloroquine, the predecessor of an anti-malaria drug promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump, for coronavirus patients despite a lack of clinical proof that it is effective.
(AP, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, It was reported that Estonia has started to test one of the world's first digital immunity passports, created by a team including founders of global tech startups Transferwise and Bolt, seeking a safer return to workplaces following the coronavirus lockdown.
(Reuters, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, Iran said it was close to "curbing" the new coronavirus outbreak. 2,346 new infections were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 126,949. The death toll rose to 7,183 with 64 fatalities in the past day.
(AP, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, The Lebanese military said it has detained two soldiers caught on camera slapping and pushing a doctor in an emergency ward at a hospital in the northern city of Tripoli. The attacked doctor was trying to keep the soldiers from interrogating two patients receiving urgent medical care Lebanese authorities have reported over 950 cases of coronavirus, including 26 deaths.
(AP, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, The Philippines' health ministry recorded 279 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, the highest daily increase in nine days, and five additional deaths. Total deaths reached 842, while infections rose to 13,221.
(Reuters, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, Russia reported 8,764 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 308,705. There were also 135 coronavirus-linked fatalities over the same period. The nationwide death toll rose to 2,972.
(Good Morning America, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, The UAE delivered 14 tons of protective gear, medical items and ventilators to help curb the spread of the new virus in the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian Authority later said it was not informed about the aid shipment.
(AP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 21, California to date had 87,939 cases of coronavirus and 3,581 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,591 cases and 416 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,576,542 with the death toll at 94,661.
(sfist.com, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, A spokesman for PM Boris Johnson said Britain has agreed a deal to acquire antibody tests for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, The Arab Network for Human Rights Information said that Egyptian security forces have disappeared one of its former researchers, Shayma Samy, a journalist who had recently written for a news outlet run by a socialist opposition party. The group also said the government has arrested at least 10 journalists since the coronavirus was detected in the country. Egypt confirmed about 14,000 cases of the coronavirus.
(AP, 5/21/20)(Econ., 5/23/20, p.35)
2020 May 21, Indian pharmaceutical company Strides Pharma Science Ltd received regulatory approval in India to start clinical trials of antiviral drug favipiravir, which has been touted as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Favipiravir is manufactured under the brand name Avigan by a unit of Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp and was approved for use as an anti-flu drug in the country in 2014. Kyodo News has reported that so far there has been no clear evidence of efficacy for Avigan in treating the novel coronavirus in some clinical trials.
(Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, Iran put the total number of dead from the coronavirus at 7,249, or 66 more than a day earlier. 2,392 new cases raised the total confirmed cases to more than 129,000. The virus has infected more than 10,000 health care workers in the country.
(AP, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, Lebanon's Health Ministry reported 63 new cases of the coronavirus, the largest single-day increase since the outbreak of the pandemic. The country has recorded 1,024 cases and 26 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, It was reported that at least 9,479 Russian medical workers in more than 70 regions have been infected with the coronavirus in the past month, and more than 70 have died. Health care workers believe the death toll to be much higher and they have compiled a list of more than 250.
(AP, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, Russian state media reported that Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's strongman leader, was flown to Moscow and hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms.
(The Week, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, The International Committee of the Red Cross warned of a worsening crisis in northeast Syria, where water cuts, food shortages and depleted health services are proving as dangerous as coronavirus.
(AFP, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, Turkey reported its lowest daily increase in confirmed coronavirus cases in the past two months, with 961 new infections in the past 24 hours along with 27 more deaths. The total number of infections in the country now stands at 153,548, with a total of 4,249 deaths.
(AP, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, The UN launched a new initiative to sign up millions of “digital first responders" around the world to counter misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and spread fact-based information and advice to their networks of family, friends and followers.
(AP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 21, Doctors Without Borders in Yemen said that as many as 80 people have been dying in Aden per day during the past week, up from a pre-outbreak normal of 10.
(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 22, President Donald Trump labeled churches and other houses of worship as “essential" and called on governors nationwide to let them reopen this weekend even though some areas remain under coronavirus lockdown.
(AP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 22, The United States called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to begin work immediately on investigating the source of the novel coronavirus, as well as its own handling of the response to the pandemic.
(Reuters, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) said that data from its trial of Gilead Sciences Inc's remdesivir show that the drug offers the most benefit for COVID-19 patients who need extra oxygen but do not require mechanical ventilation.
(Reuters, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, It was reported that a total of 14 Theodore Roosevelt sailors who had appeared to have recovered from the disease have tested positive again. The carrier is now back at sea after being sidelined in Guam since late March by a COVID-19 outbreak that infected more than 1,100 members of its roughly 4,900-strong crew
(Yahoo News, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, Hollywood producer William Sadleir was arrested. The former chairman and CEO of Aviron Pictures, is accused of defrauding the government out of millions of dollars meant for coronavirus relief, and of using nearly $30 million in investor funds for his personal use — including buying a $14-million Beverly Hills Mansion.
(Business Insider, 5/26/20)
2020 May 22, California to date had 90,251 cases of coronavirus and 3,663 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,963 cases and 421 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,599,740 with the death toll at 95,886.
(sfist.com, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, Minnesota reported an increase of 847 positive coronavirus cases, the highest daily total. There have been 19,845 positive cases in the state thus far.
(Good Morning America, 5/24/20)
2020 May 22, The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Africa's coronavirus cases have surpassed 100,000, as the continent with many fragile health systems has not yet seen the high numbers of other parts of the world.
(AP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, China-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd said it had started mid-stage human trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine in China earlier this month. Chinese researchers reported that the coronavirus vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics Inc appears to be safe and induced a rapid immune response in its first human trial.
(Reuters, 5/22/20)(Reuters, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, India reported 6,088 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, its biggest single-day spike. This brought total cases to 118, 447. The death toll rose to 3,583.
(SFC, 5/23/20, p.A5)
2020 May 22, Iran said it had detected another 51 deaths from its novel coronavirus outbreak, bringing the country's overall fatalities to 7,300. The health ministry said 2,311 new positive tests for COVID-19 took the country's caseload to 131,652.
(AFP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, President Vladimir Putin said the coronavirus outbreak in Russia has begun to abate. Russia has recorded 326,448 cases, including 3,249 deaths. Russia recorded its highest one-day coronavirus death toll of 150.
(AP, 5/22/20)(AP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 22, Spain's overnight death toll from the new coronavirus rose by 56 to a total of 28,628. The number of diagnosed cases rose to 234,824.
(AP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 23, California to date had 92,555 cases of coronavirus and 3,735 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 12,209 cases and 424 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,613,476 with the death toll at 96,662.
(sfist.com, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said daily deaths in New York state fell to 84, marking the first time since late March the number was below 100.
(Good Morning America, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, Missouri has recorded has more than 11,844 diagnosed cases of COVID-19, with at least 677 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, North Carolina reported its highest one-day increase of confirmed cases, with 1,107 cases. Total confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose to 22,725 with 737 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, India reported 6,654 new coronavirus cases bringing the nationwide total to 125,102, including 3,720 deaths.
(SSFC, 5/24/20, p.A9)
2020 May 23, Iran announced a further relaxation of coronavirus lockdown measures and said it has started to control the outbreak in nearly a third of its provinces. The health ministry recorded 1,869 new positive tests for coronavirus in the past 24 hours raising the country's tally to 133,521. The death toll was raised to 7,359, with 59 new deaths over the same period.
(AFP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, The crowded Gaza Strip recorded its first death from the coronavirus, amid fears an outbreak could paralyze the territory's already overstretched health care system.
(AP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, In Russia the new daily coronavirus case counts fell to 9,434.
(AP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, Sudan's PM Abdalla Hamdok met with representatives of doctors to find “decisive and strict solutions" to “the phenomenon of repeated attacks on health workers," amid the coronavirus pandemic. Sudan has reported at least 63 deaths from COVID-19 among around 3,380 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(AP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, Thailand began trials of an experimental coronavirus vaccine using monkeys, one of at least 100 potential vaccines in the works around the world.
(Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020 May 24, President Trump said the United States would suspend travel from Brazil, after a surge in coronavirus cases made the South American nation one of the world's hotspots. Brazil now has more than 22,000 deaths and 347,000 confirmed cases.
(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, California to date had 93,022 cases of coronavirus and 3,739 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 12,411 cases and 425 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,635,192 with the death toll at 97,495.
(sfist.com, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, In Belarus about 1,000 protesters denouncing authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s seeking of another term in an upcoming election held the largest opposition demonstration of the year in the capital Minsk. Many of the demonstrators wore masks, defying Lukashenko’s dismissal of coronavirus concerns as a “psychosis." Belarus has recorded more than 36,000 cases of coronavirus infection.
(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, Brazil has now surpassed Russia with a total number of confirmed cases standing at 347, 398.
(Good Morning America, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, China reported 11 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the mainland as of today's end, up from three a day earlier. The total number of cases to date in the mainland stood at 82,985. The death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
(Reuters, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, French authorities reported the smallest daily rise in new coronavirus cases and deaths since before a lockdown began on March 17. Confirmed cases rose by 115 to 144,921. The death toll increased by 35 to 28,367.
(Reuters, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, India reported 6,767 new coronavirus infections, the country’s biggest one-day increase. India has confirmed 125,102 coronavirus cases, including 3,867 deaths.
(The Telegraph, 5/24/20)(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, In Pakistan more than 1,000 worshippers gathered and prayed shoulder-to-shoulder in an open field in Karachi, with only a few of them wearing masks. Muslims around the world began celebrating Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, with millions under strict stay-at-home orders and many fearing renewed coronavirus outbreaks.
(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, Russia reported their updated coronavirus figure at a total of 344,481.
(Good Morning America, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, It was reported that operations at the world's deepest gold mine, in South Africa, have been halted after 164 cases of coronavirus were detected there.
(BBC, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, It was reported that Switzerland's Bachem has begun round-the-clock production of Propofol, a drug needed to sedate ventilated patients whose plight during the pandemic has become emblematic of COVID-19's hit to healthcare systems.
(Reuters, 5/24/20)
2020 May 25, California to date had 94,590 cases of coronavirus and 3,756 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 12,505 cases and 426 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,653,904 with the death toll at 97,948.
(sfist.com, 5/25/20)
2020 May 25, Missouri's health director issued a dire warning after photos and video showed Memorial Day weekend revelers partying close together. Missouri has confirmed 11,988 cases of COVID-19 and 681 deaths.
(SFC, 5/26/20, p.A5)
2020 May 25, Egypt’s medical union blamed the government for increasing levels of coronavirus infections and deaths among healthcare professionals, its sharpest criticism yet of the country’s handling of the pandemic.
(AP, 5/25/20)
2020 May 25, Germany-based Siemens Healthineers said it stands ready to ramp up production of its antibody test to more than 50 million per month from June as governments across the world are keen to identify those who may have developed immunity to the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020 May 25, Greece restarted regular ferry services to its islands. Cafes and restaurants reopened for business as the country accelerated efforts to salvage its tourism season.
(SFC, 5/26/20, p.A7)
2020 May 25, Iran reopened major Shiite shrines across the Islamic republic, more than two months after they were closed, as it reported its lowest deaths from coronavirus since March.
(AfP, 5/25/20)
2020 May 25, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe lifted a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and four other remaining areas, ending nationwide restrictions as businesses began to reopen.
(SFC, 5/26/20, p.A4)
2020 May 25, Spain's health ministry revised the country's coronavirus death toll down by nearly 2,000 to 26,834 after checking data provided by regions. The total number of cases recorded since the outbreak began was also been revised down, and is now 235,400.
(Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020 May 25, Sweden reported that deaths from COVID-19 had risen to 4,029 from 3,998 a day earlier while the number of confirmed cases amounted to 33,843 up from 33,459.
(Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020 May 26, California to date had 97,182 cases of coronavirus and 3,779 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 12,813 cases and 432 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,672,714 with the death toll at 98,636.
(sfist.com, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, Merck & Co Inc said it was buying Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience and would collaborate with research nonprofit IAVI to develop two separate vaccines.
(Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, US biotechnology company Novamax began injecting a coronavirus vaccine candidate into people in Australia with hopes of releasing a proven vaccine this year.
(AP, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, Police in Rio de Janeiro raided the governor's residence and 10 other addresses as part of a widening probe into the alleged embezzlement of part of the $150 million in public funds earmarked for building field hospitals. Gov. Wilson Witzel denied any wrongdoing and accused Pres. Bolsonaro of ordering the raid as political retribution. Brazil has 375,000 coronavirus cases and 23,000 deaths so far.
(AP, 5/26/20)(SFC, 5/27/20, p.A4)
2020 May 26, Chile's LATAM Airlines Group filed for US bankruptcy protection, becoming the world's largest carrier so far to seek an emergency reorganization due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chile was averaging 4,000 new coronavirus cases daily.
(Reuters, 5/26/20)(SFC, 5/27/20, p.A4)
2020 May 26, Costa Rica became the latest country to legalize same-sex marriage when a ruling from its supreme court went into effect.
(SFC, 5/27/20, p.A2)
2020 May 26, The EU ended its controls on the export of coronavirus protective equipment after concluding that supplies for European medical and other workers were now adequate.
(Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, Germany extended social distancing rules aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus to June 29. Germany's virus caseload now tops 179,000 with just over 8,300 deaths.
(AFP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 26, India's Ministry of Health reported that there had been a daily increase of 6,535 coronavirus cases, bringing the toll up to 145,380 cases. In total, there have been 4,167 officially recorded coronavirus deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, India-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it would begin a clinical trial in India to test a combination of two anti-viral drugs, favipiravir and umifenovir, as a potential COVID-19 treatment.
(Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, Iran further eased restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus by allowing restaurants to accept customers, as it announced another 57 deaths from the virus, bringing the total number of fatalities in the country to 7,508. The health ministry said 1,787 new cases of infection over the same period brought the total caseload to 139,511.
(AFP, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia has passed its peak of coronavirus infections and ordered a World War II victory parade postponed by the pandemic to be held next month. Russia recorded its highest daily death toll of 174, bringing the nationwide toll to 3,807. Russia reported 8,915 new cases of COVID-19 over the same 24-hour period, placing the country's total count at 362,342.
(AFP, 5/26/20)(Good Morning America, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, South Korea reported 19 new coronavirus cases, mostly from the Seoul area.
(SFC, 5/27/20, p.A4)
2020 May 26, Turkey’s COVID-19 death toll reached 4,397 after 28 new deaths were reported in 24 hours. Turkey also recorded 948 more confirmed cases, bringing the total to 158,762. Today was the final day of a four-day nationwide lockdown for Turkey’s 83 million residents.
(AP, 5/26/20)
2020 May 27, California to date had 100,038 cases of coronavirus and 3,830 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,038 cases and 435 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,697,495 with the death toll at 100,271.
(sfist.com, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, It was reported that Tennessee will soon stop providing the names and addresses of COVID-19 patients to first responders, after initially arguing that doing so would protect those on the front line. An Associated Press review has found public officials in at least two-thirds of states are sharing the addresses of people who tested positive with first responders.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Novavax Inc said it is buying Praha Vaccines, a Czech-based manufacturing plant, from privately held Serum Institute of India, the world's largest maker of vaccines by volume. The US company aims to produce 1 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate next year.
(Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Britain closed its embassy in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and ordered its staff to leave the country. The surprise closure was linked to coronavirus-related restrictions in place since earlier this year.
(The Telegraph, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, India reported 6,387 new coronavirus infections, a new single-day record. A total of 151,767 cases have been confirmed including 4,337 deaths.
(SFC, 5/28/20, p.A5)
2020 May 27, For the fifth consecutive day New Zealand has no new COVID-19 cases, with the total remaining at 1,154 diagnosed cases.
(Good Morning America, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Peru has registered 135,905 COVID-19 cases and 3,983 deaths.
(AP, 5/28/20)
2020 May 27, South Korea reported 40 new coronavirus cases, its biggest daily jump in about 50 days. The country has significantly relaxes its rigid social distancing rules as a result of waning coronavirus cases. South Korea now has a total of 11,265 confirmed cases with 269 deaths.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Flags were lowered to half-mast across Spain as the European country began 10 days of official mourning for the victims of the coronavirus pandemic. Spain has recorded more than 236,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 with at least 27,117 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Researchers in Spain identified two anti-inflammatory medications that might inhibit the main enzyme that helps the coronavirus to replicate: Celecoxib, sold by Pfizer Inc for arthritis pain under the brand name Celebrex, and carprofen, used for pets under several brand names, including Rimadyl from Zoetis Inc.
(Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Turkey’s health minister said that the country recorded 34 coronavirus-related deaths since the day before, bringing the country's COVID-19 death toll to 4,431. Turkey confirmed 1,035 new virus cases in the past 24 hours. The total number of confirmed cases in Turkey now stands at 159,797.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, The UN World Food Program warned that upward of at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, shuttering people in their homes, drying up work and crippling the economy.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 28, California to date had 103,605 cases of coronavirus and 3,983 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,221 cases and 437 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,719,855 with the death toll at 101,562.
(sfist.com, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, CVS Health Corp said it would open more COVID-19 testing sites at some of its pharmacy drive-thru locations, completing the last leg of the drugstore chain's planned 1,000 sites across more than 30 US states.
(Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, It was reported that British drugmaker AstraZeneca last week started phase 2 and 3 trials of a coronavirus vaccine, looking to recruit around 10,000 adults and children in Britain. AstraZeneca revealed that new data showed that its drug Tagrisso reduced the risk of relapse in some early-stage lung cancers by 83%.
(Reuters, 5/28/20)(Econ., 7/6/20, p.57)
2020 May 28, Oxford Biomedica said it has signed a one-year clinical and commercial supply agreement with AstraZeneca to provide multiple batches of a coronavirus vaccine, called AZD1222, and that the majority of the batches would be produced throughout 2020.
(Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, Brazil had 411,821 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 25,598 deaths. A study by the Federal Univ. of Pelotas and Rio Grande de do Sul state has concluded that the caseload is seven time the official number.
(Econ., 5/30/20, p.26)
2020 May 28, China reported just two new coronavirus cases.
(AP, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, India’s top court ordered state authorities to provide free train rides and proper food and water to hundreds of thousands of migrant workers returning to their villages in the blazing heat after being thrown out of work. India reported another record single-day jump of 6,566 coronavirus cases, pushing up the total to 158,333 confirmed cases and 4,531 deaths.
(AP, 5/28/20)(Good Morning America, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, Indonesia recorded 687 new coronavirus cases bringing its total to 24,538. The total death toll was near 1,500.
(SFC, 5/29/20, p.A6)
2020 May 28, In Malawi manhunts have begun after more than 400 people, recently repatriated from South Africa and elsewhere, fled a center at a stadium in Blantyre. At least 46 escapees had tested positive for the virus. Authorities worry they will spread COVID-19 in countries whose health systems can be rapidly overwhelmed.
(AP, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, Russia reported more than 8,300 new infections. The total number of infections topped 379,000. Russian officials reported 174 new deaths, for a total of almost 4,150.
(AP, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, South Korea reported its biggest jump in coronavirus cases in more than 50 days. The Korean Centers for Disease Control reported 79 newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases.
(AP, 5/28/20)(Good Morning America, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, Swiss-based Novartis said its gene therapy unit AveXis it has signed a manufacturing deal to help produce a novel genetic COVID-19 vaccine candidate being developed by US researchers in Massachusetts.
(Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, In Zimbabwe manhunts have begun after more than a hundred people, some with the coronavirus, fled quarantine centers. Nearly all of Zimbabwe’s 75 new cases this week came from the centers that hold hundreds of people who have returned, sometimes involuntarily, from neighboring South Africa and Botswana.
(AP, 5/28/20)
2020 May 29, US President Donald Trump said that he has terminated Washington's relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO), accusing the United Nations agency of bowing to pressure from China and allowing the Covid-19 pandemic to spread out of control.
(South China Morning Post, 5/30/20)
2020 May 29, California to date had 106,402 cases of coronavirus and 4,071 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,435 cases and 441 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,745,606 with the death toll at 102,798.
(sfist.com, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, Georgia's confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose to 5,260 as Gov. Brian Kemp announced plans to ease restrictions meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 5/30/20, p.A6)
2020 May 29, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the end of a 10-week stay-at-home order meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 5/30/20, p.A6)
2020 May 29, Dagestan officials said the new coronavirus is sweeping through some mountain villages and that they are struggling to treat patients properly, protect medics or even count the dead. Dagestan had recorded 686 coronavirus deaths as of May 17.
(Reuters, 5/30/20)
2020 May 29, The European health regulator said healthcare professionals should closely monitor COVID-19 patients receiving malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for serious side effects, stressing the need for in-depth clinical data on benefits and risks.
(Reuters, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, Iran announced its highest number of new coronavirus infections in nearly two months and warned the Middle East's deadliest outbreak was worsening in some regions. 2,819 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall total to 146,668. The virus claimed 50 lives over the same period, raising the overall toll to 7,677.
(AFP, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, Italy's civil protection agency reported 345 new coronavirus infections in the Lombardy region, bringing the total in the region to 88,500. This was about 40% of Italy's total.
(SFC, 5/30/20, p.A5)
2020 May 29, The Maldives reported 1,513 coronavirus cases and five deaths as it began relaxing of restrictions imposed since mid-April.
(SFC, 5/30/20, p.A5)
2020 May 29, New Zealand reached a milestone in its effort to end its coronavirus outbreak, with just one person in the nation of 5 million still known to be infected. The country has reported 22 COVID-19 deaths out of 1,504 infections.
(The Week, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, In Nigeria nearly 9,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed as worries grew about undetected spread in the north.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, The Philippines reported 21 more novel coronavirus deaths and 1,046 additional infections. Total deaths rose to 942 while confirmed cases reached 16,634.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, Police in Moscow and St. Petersburg detained 25 people who came out to protest, in violation of city coronavirus restrictions, against the arrest of a prominent Russian journalist. The activists were protesting against the arrest of journalist Ilya Azar, who was sentenced to 15 days in jail the night before, also for holding a one-man protest amid the lockdown.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, South Africa said it has a backlog of nearly 100,000 unprocessed tests for the coronavirus, a striking example of the painful shortage of testing kits and reagents across Africa as cases steadily rise. The country has the most confirmed cases in Africa with 27,403.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the deaths of the first two UN peacekeepers from COVID-19. He made the announcement at a ceremony marking the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, saying both peacekeepers, who died over the last 24 hours, were serving in Mali. One was from Cambodia and the other from El Salvador.
(AP, 5/30/20)(SSFC, 5/31/20, p.A7)
2020 May 30, California to date had 107,535 cases of coronavirus and 4,091 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,709 cases and 442 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,764,671 with the death toll at 103,605.
(sfist.com, 5/30/20)
2020 May 30, In Bangladesh the first death of a Rohingya refugee was recorded. At least 29 refugees have tested positive for the virus.
(SFC, 6/3/20, p.A6)
2020 May 30, Brazil reported a record 33,274 new cases of the novel coronavirus. Brazil now has 498,440 confirmed cases, a level of contagion second only to the United States. The death increased to 28,834, with 956 new deaths in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/30/20)
2020 May 30, Burundi has registered 42 cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ., 5/30/20, p.39)
2020 May 30, India registered another record jump with 7,964 coronavirus cases and 265 deaths. Total cases now stand at 173,763 with 4,971 deaths.
(SSFC, 5/31/20, p.A7)
2020 May 30, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani announced that collective prayers will resume in mosques. A further 57 people who tested positive for the virus died over the last day, taking the total confirmed death toll to 7,734. The health ministry announced 2,282 new confirmed infections, taking the total number of declared infections since February to 148,950.
(AP, 5/30/20)
2020 May 30, Slovakia has recorded 1,513 cases of the coronavirus and 28 deaths.
(Econ., 5/30/20, p.44)
2020 May 30, South Korea reported 39 new cases of the coronavirus. South Korea has confirmed 11,441 cases and 269 deaths.
(SSFC, 5/31/20, p.A7)
2020 May 30, Taiwan's government said it had approved Gilead Sciences' potential COVID-19 treatment, remdesivir, to treat the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/30/20)
2020 May 31, California to date had 111,893 cases of coronavirus and 4,171 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,926 cases and 444 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,788,762 with the death toll at 104,356.
(sfist.com, 5/31/20)
2020 May 31, Authorities in Bogota, Colombia, began locking down an area of nearly 1.5 million people as coronavirus cases continued to rise.
(AP, 5/31/20)
2020 May 31, In Iran 2,516 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 151,466. The virus claimed another 63 lives over the same period, raising the overall toll to 7,797.
(AFP, 5/31/20)
2020 May 31, Pakistan's daily death toll from COVID-19 kept climbing, hitting a new high of 88 overnight putting the death toll at 1,483. The country has counted 69,496 positive cases of COVID-19.
(AP, 5/31/20)
2020 May 31, Tens of thousands of mosques across Saudi Arabia reopened for the first time in more than two months, with worshipers ordered to follow strict guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Islam's holiest site in Mecca remained closed to the public. Saudi Arabia also lifted a ban on domestic air travel and permitted some public sector workers to resume office work again, though full attendance will not be allowed until mid-June.
(AP, 5/31/20)
2020 May 31, Spain's PM Pedro Sánchez said that he would ask Parliament for a final two-week extension of the nation’s state of emergency that is set to expire on June 7. That allows the government to keep ordering lockdown measures to control its coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed at least 27,000 lives.
(AP, 5/31/20)
2020 May, In Kenya more than 100 people arriving from Tanzania tested positive for coronavirus and were sent back. At Ugandan border testing points, at least 15 Tanzanian lorry drivers tested positive. The authorities in Tanzania have not released official figures on the extent of the outbreak there since the start of May.
(BBC, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 1, California to date had 114,732 cases of coronavirus and 4,218 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 14,184 cases and 446 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,809,109 with the death toll at 105,099.
(sfist.com, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 1, Abiomed Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for its temporary invasive heart pump to help patients suffering from COVID-19 related right heart failure. It was approved for use in the United States for treating right ventricular failure after cardiac surgery in 2017.
(Reuters, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 1, The World Health Organization said officials have confirmed a second Ebola outbreak in Congo. Congolese health authorities have identified six cases in the north near Mbandaka in Equateur province, including four fatalities. Congo has also confirmed 611 cases of COVID-19, including 20 deaths, and the number was rising.
(AP, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 1, India registered 230 coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing that total to 5,394.
(SFC, 6/2/20, p.A3)
2020 Jun 1, Iran announced almost 3,000 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily count in two months. The caseload was raised to 154,445 with 2,979 new infections recorded in the past 24 hours. 81 deaths in the past day raised that total to 7,878. Half Iran's fatalities for the past day were recorded in three provinces.
(AP, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 1, The Philippine health ministry reported three new deaths and 552 more confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Total deaths increased to 960 and confirmed cases reached 18,638 as the government eased strict quarantine measures in Manila.
(Reuters, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 1, Moscow residents ventured out to exercise, stroll and shop as the city eased a strict nine-week lockdown, but millions remained largely confined to their homes as Russia recorded thousands more coronavirus cases. Russia recorded 9,035 new infections bringing its total to 414,878. The death toll was put at 4,855.
(AFP, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 1, South Korea reporter 24 new coronavirus cases linked to a group of churches near Seoul. The country has reported 11,503 cases and 271 deaths.
(SFC, 6/2/20, p.A3)
2020 Jun 1, South Korea-based Celltrion said its experimental antibody COVID-19 treatment demonstrated an up to 100-fold reduction in viral load of the disease in animal testing, saying it aims to start human clinical trials in late July.
(AP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 1, Spain recorded 71 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours and no officials deaths from the virus. The official death toll stands at 27,127 with 240,000 confirmed cases.
(SFC, 6/2/20, p.A3)
2020 Jun 1, Uruguay's government began reopening schools, with sample testing for COVID-19 of teachers and students.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.28)
2020 Jun 1, Aid organizations in war-torn Yemen made an urgent plea for funding to shore up their operations, saying they have already been forced to stop some of their work even as the coronavirus rips through the country.
(AP, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 2, A top immigration official for the Trump administration admitted that immigrants are not systematically tested for the coronavirus when they are apprehended, nor when they are removed from the United States.
(Yahoo News, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, California to date had 117,214 cases of coronavirus and 4,305 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 14,342 cases and 449 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,830,066 with the death toll at 106,120.
(sfist.com, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, US drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb Co said its treatment Zeposia, which it gained through its $74 billion buyout of Celgene last year, met the main goals of a late-stage study testing it in patients with an inflammatory bowel disease.
(Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, High-flying shares in Novacyt dropped as much as 12% after the healthcare diagnostics firm said a French regulator had decided against approving the company's coronavirus test for reimbursement by the state.
(Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, Iran reported 3,117 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours bringing the overall caseload to 157,562. The virus claimed another 64 lives in the past day, raising the overall death toll to 7,942. The health ministry lamented that people were ignoring social distancing rules.
(AFP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike issued a coronavirus alert after 34 new cases were reported in the city, where infections had slowed to a few per day in late May.
(AP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, Japan approved saliva-based tests for the coronavirus, offering a safer, simpler way to diagnose infection than nasal swabs as it looks to boost its testing rates.
(Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 3, California to date had 119,228 cases of coronavirus and 4,377 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 14,486 cases and 453 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,849,560 with the death toll at 107,093.
(sfist.com, 6/3/20)
2020 Jun 3, Afghanistan has recorded 16,400 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 270 deaths.
(SFC, 6/3/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 3, Iran officially confirmed 3,134 new cases, bringing the total number of infections to 160,696. Another 70 people have died taking the death toll to 8,012. Infections have been on a rising trajectory in the Islamic republic since hitting a near two-month low on May 2.
(AFP, 6/3/20)
2020 Jun 3, Lebanon has recorded a total 1,256 cases of COVID-19 and 27 deaths. The first confirmed case was reported on February 21 among a group who flew in from a pilgrimage in hard-hit Iran.
(AFP, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 3, Dutch broadcaster RTL reported that the government intends to cull the mink at farms where animals have been infected with the coronavirus. Coronavirus has so far been detected on eight farms in the Netherlands. A law banning mink farming in the Netherlands was passed in 2013, and the remaining 120 farms are due to cease operations in 2023.
(Reuters, 6/3/20)
2020 Jun 3, A South African court has found some coronavirus lockdown regulations imposed by the government "unconstitutional and invalid". The judge picked out rules around funerals, informal workers and amount of exercise as "irrational". The government was given 14 days to overhaul the regulations.
(BBC, 6/3/20)
2020 Jun 3, South Korea reported 49 new cases of COVID-19 bringing the national total to 11,590 and 273 deaths.
(SFC, 6/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jun 3, Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, who has overseen the country’s laissez-faire response to the coronavirus, defended the country's coronavirus strategy but acknowledged that the country has had too many deaths from Covid-19 and should have done more to curb the spread of the virus.
(NY Times, 6/4/20)(SFC, 6/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jun 3, Uganda has reported 507 cases of COVID-19 with no deaths. Medical workers say they lack adequate supplies of personal protective equipment for tackling COVID-19 and the risk of infection is making some reluctant to treat patients. Seven health workers including two doctors and two nurses have recently contracted the virus.
(Reuters, 6/3/20)
2020 Jun 4, Arizona reported nearly a 1,000 new coronavirus cases amid a recent surge in hospitalizations. The state now has tallied more than 22,000 and 981 deaths.
(SFC, 6/5/20, p.A8)
2020 Jun 4, California to date had 122,238 cases of coronavirus and 4,444 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 14,735 cases and 453 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,870,156 with the death toll at 108,051.
(sfist.com, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 4, An influential medical journal article that found hydroxychloroquine increased the risk of death in COVID-19 patients was retracted, adding to the controversy around a drug championed by US President Donald Trump. The observational study published in the Lancet on May 22 said it looked at 96,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, some treated with the decades-old malaria drug.
(Reuters, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 4, Brazil recorded a record 1,473 coronavirus fatalities taking its total tally to more than 34,000. The official number of infections rose to nearly 615,000, second only to the US.
(The Guardian, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 4, It was reported that violence in Burkina Faso linked to jihadists has spread from the north to the western breadbasket in the Boucle du Mouhoun region. Reports were rising of jihadists burning granaries and looting food warehouses at schools. Burkina Faso has reported 884 cases of the coronavirus and 53 deaths.
(SFC, 6/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 4, India registered 9,304 new cases of the coronavirus raising its totals to 216,919 cases and 6,075 deaths.
(SFC, 6/5/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 4, Iran announced 3,574 new coronavirus infections, the most in one day since the pandemic started. Authorities increase health warnings following the resurgence. 59 people died of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, taking the overall official toll to 8,071. A total of 164,270 people have tested positive for the virus since the first cases were announced in February.
(AP, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 4, The Mexican Ministry of Health registered a record 1,092 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, more than double the previous single-day record. The nation's official death toll now stands at 11,729.
(Good Morning America, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 4, The Pakistani government registered 4,688 new cases of COVID-19 and 82 new fatalities across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 85,264 confirmed cases and 1,770 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 4, Russia's coronavirus headquarters said it had registered 8,831 new cases of COVID-19 and 169 deaths in the past 24 hours. The country's tally now stands at 441,108 diagnosed cases with 5,384 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 5, California to date had 125,718 cases of coronavirus and 4,525 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 15,025 cases and 461 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,894,502 with the death toll at 109,000.
(sfist.com, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 5, US drugmaker AbbVie Inc said it would develop an antibody therapy to prevent and treat COVID-19 in partnership with three organizations including the Netherlands' Utrecht University.
(Reuters, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 5, The UK became the second country to officially record more than 40,000 coronavirus-related deaths as more than 100 scientists wrote the British government to urge it to reconsider lifting virus lockdown restrictions.
(AP, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 5, British scientists halted a major drug trial after it found that the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine, touted by US President Donald Trump as a potential "game changer" in the pandemic, was "useless" at treating COVID-19 patients.
(Reuters, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 5, Iran registered 2,886 new cases of infection, bringing the total number to 167,156. The health ministry said 63 more people had died, with the official death toll now at 8,134.
(AFP, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 5, Iraq's Health ministry reported at least 1,006 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours bringing the nationwide total to 9,846. The death toll stood at 285.
(SFC, 6/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 5, Pakistani security forces shut down more than 3,000 shops and markets across the country for violating social distancing regulations. Pakistan recorded 68 more coronavirus-related deaths raising the overall toll to 1,838. Total infections reached 89,249.
(SFC, 6/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 5, It was reported that medicinal oxygen to treat the coronavirus has become a scarce commodity in Peru. President Martín Vizcarra has issued an emergency decree ordering industrial plants to ramp up production or purchase oxygen from other countries.
(AP, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 6, California to date had 126,329 cases of coronavirus and 4,538 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 15,270 cases and 461 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,909,077 with the death toll at 109,127.
(sfist.com, 6/6/20)
2020 Jun 6, Algeria has reported about 700 deaths due to the coronavirus. The government has used the outbreak to to repress the Hirak, as the country's protest movement is known.
(Econ., 7/6/20, p.38)
2020 Jun 6, Brazil's government stopped publishing a running total of coronavirus deaths and infections in an extraordinary move that critics call an attempt to hide the true toll of the disease in Latin America's largest nation. President Jair Bolsonaro tweeted that disease totals are “not representative" of the country's current situation.
(AP, 6/6/20)
2020 Jun 6, Colombia has had 33,466 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,099 deaths.
(Econ., 7/6/20, p.26)
2020 Jun 6, India reported 9,887 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the total to 236,657.
(SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A8)
2020 Jun 6, Iran's total number of coronavirus cases rose to 169,425 with 2,269 new infections confirmed in the past 24 hours. 75 people who were infected died in the same period, bringing the overall fatalities to 8,209. President Hassan Rouhani warned Iranians to prepare to live with the novel coronavirus "for a long time", as the country gradually rolls back restrictions imposed to curb the outbreak. Universities reopened after being closed for more than three and a half months.
(AFP, 6/6/20)(Reuters, 6/6/20)
2020 Jun 6, In Poland a rapid growth of coronavirus infections among miners at the state-run coal producer JSW boosted the increase in daily cases to the highest since May 12. There were 576 new cases in the country, of which 346 were linked to the JSW mine at Zofiowka. The daily increase brought the total number of people infected in the country to 25,986, with 1,153 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/6/20)
2020 Jun 7, California to date had 129,099 cases of coronavirus and 4,608 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 15,481 cases and 463 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,931,325 with the death toll at 110,110.
(sfist.com, 6/7/20)
2020 Jun 7, India reported 9,971 new cases of the coronavirus taking its total to 246,628 with 6,929 fatalities.
(SFC, 6/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Jun 7, Iran confirmed 2,364 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 171,789. Another 72 people died in the same period, raising the overall death toll to 8,281.
(AFP, 6/7/20)
2020 Jun 7, South Korea reported 57 additional cases of the coronavirus taking the country's total to 11,776 cases, with 273 deaths.
(SFC, 6/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Jun 7, Tanzania's President John Magufuli declared the country "coronavirus-free" thanks to prayers by citizens. Mr Magufuli said last week that only four patients were receiving treatment in the largest city, Dar es Salaam.
(BBC, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, The US Food and Drug Administration allowed emergency use of a COVID-19 saliva test made by privately held Phosphorus Diagnostics LLC that allows people to send in their saliva samples to the company's laboratory for testing.
(Reuters, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, California to date had 131,138 cases of coronavirus and 4,634 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 15,746 cases and 464 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,951,722 with the death toll at 110,771.
(sfist.com, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, The Chinese government vigorously defended its actions in a new, detailed account that portrays the country’s approach to combating the outbreak as a model for the world.
(NY Times, 6/7/20)
2020 Jun 8, Iran urged its citizens to wear masks in public as it announced another 70 deaths from the novel coronavirus and 2,043 new cases of infection. The latest figures took the overall toll to 8,351 dead out of a total of 173,832 people infected.
(AFP, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, Poland said it will close two coal mines owned by state-run JSW and ten mines of PGG group for three weeks to stop the spread of the new coronavirus among miners.
(Reuters, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said that he's worried about fast rising coronavirus infections. More than half of South Africa’s more than 48,000 confirmed cases have been recorded in the last two weeks.
(AP, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, South Africa partially reopened its schools. After 5 weeks nearly 800 schools reported cases of COVID-19.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.50)
2020 Jun 8, UN General Assembly Pres. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande said that world leaders will not be coming to New York for their annual gathering in late September for the first time in the 75-year history of the United Nations because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, It was reported that the coronavirus is spreading throughout Yemen. Rebels in the Houthi-controlled north have suppressed information about the virus and severely punished those who speak out.
(AP, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, It was reported that Arizona, Utah and New Mexico all posted COVID-19 rises of 40% or higher for the week ended June 7 compared with the prior seven days.
(Reuters, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, California to date had 136,039 cases of coronavirus and 4,730 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 16,062 cases and 475 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,973,083 with the death toll at 111,751.
(sfist.com, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, AstraZeneca received $23.7 million in funding from a US government agency to advance the development of antibody-based COVID-19 treatments as the British drugmaker ramps up efforts beyond its potential vaccine to combat the pandemic.
(Reuters, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, Glass maker Corning Inc said it would receive $204 million from the US government to boost the manufacturing capacity of its vials that will be used to store coronavirus vaccines and treatments.
(Reuters, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, Argentina confirmed more than 1,000 new cases as the rate of new infections continued to rise just days after it extended lockdown measures in the capital Buenos Aires.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 9, Britain has seen the deadliest coronavirus outbreak in Europe, with nearly 40,700 confirmed deaths. Official statistics released today suggested that thousands more have died in the pandemic, and the true toll could be over 50,000 dead.
(AP, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, Iran announced another 74 deaths from the coronavirus. Cases of infection increased by 2,095 over the last 12 hours to total 175,927 and the overall death toll rose to 8,425. A health official said nearly one in five Iranians may have been infected with the novel coronavirus since the country's outbreak started in February.
(AFP, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, Israel's internal security service Shin Bet said it has halted its cell-phone tracking of coronavirus carriers, citing the success of alternatives to the controversial method of containing contagions.
(Reuters, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, Moscow lifted a strict anti-coronavirus lockdown after more than two months of restrictions. Health officials reported 8,595 new cases and 171 deaths. The total death toll reached 6,142. The overall number of infections rose to 485,253.
(AFP, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 10, The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a study to evaluate drugs prescribed to treat COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, among children and adolescents across the United States.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Arizona again told hospitals to activate the coronavirus emergency plans after cases spiked following reopening. The state's stay-at-home order ended on May 15, and its cases have increased 115 percent since then.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, California to date had 139,622 cases of coronavirus and 4,853 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 16,231 cases and 478 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,999,392 with the death toll at 112,878.
(sfist.com, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Johnson & Johnson said it would start human trials of its potential COVID-19 vaccine in the second half of July, two months earlier than planned.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Chinese researchers said a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed showed promise in trials in monkeys, triggering antibodies and raising no safety issues and that a human trial with more than 1,000 participants is under way.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Ghana's Incas Diagnostics expects the country's regulator to approve its new COVID-19 antibody test by the end of July, saying its kits could help health authorities ease pandemic restrictions.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Indonesia reported its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases for a second successive day, with 1,241 new infections, taking its total to 34,316.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Iran announced 2,011 infections confirmed in the past 24 hours raising its overall caseload to 177,938. Fatalities reached 8,506 with 81 new deaths over the same period.
(AP, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Japanese biotech AnGes Inc said it expects its coronavirus vaccine to be ready as early as the first half of 2021, if it can overcome supply chain and production hurdles.
(AP, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, It was reported that authorities in Zimbabwe have started publicly naming people who have escaped from quarantine centers and urging the public to report them to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Zimbabwe has reported 314 cases of COVID-19. The figures have risen from the 56 recorded toward the end of May. Most of the new cases have been reported at the quarantine centers.
(AP, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 11, California to date had 139,863 cases of coronavirus and 4,857 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 16,456 cases and 484 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,011,341 with the death toll at 113,341.
(sfist.com, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, It was reported that coronavirus cases are rising in 21 US states, a worrying trend that could worsen as people return to work and venture out during the summer. It was also reported that outbreaks of the virus are emerging at US fruit and vegetable farms and packing plants.
(AP, 6/11/20)(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon said that she was pausing efforts to reopen the state’s economy for a week because of a recent rise in virus cases.
(NY Times, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 11, Moderna Inc confirmed it plans to start a trial of 30,000 volunteers of its much-anticipated coronavirus vaccine in July as the company enters the final stage of testing.
(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said it has begun human testing of its experimental antibody cocktail as a treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, Emergent BioSolutions Inc said it has signed an $87 million deal to make AstraZeneca Plc's experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, boosting the British drugmaker's efforts to bring a vaccine to the market.
(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, Brazil reported 30,412 new coronavirus cases, bringing its cumulative total to above 800,000. Shops reopened in the country's two largest cities.
(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 11, Beijing, a city of 21 million people, confirmed a new coronavirus case, the first confirmed case in the capital in nearly two months.
(Reuters, 6/11/20)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.34)
2020 Jun 11, In Haiti coronavirus infections spiked to 3,334 with 51 deaths.
(SFC, 6/12/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 11, In India coronavirus cases shot up, rising by a record of nearly 10,000, raising questions about whether authorities have done enough to avert catastrophe. The total count of infections reached 286,579, the fifth highest in the world, with 8,102 deaths.
(AP, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, Indonesia added 979 new coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 11, In Iran 2,238 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours took the country's total to 180,156. The overall death toll rose to 8,584 with 78 new deaths.
(AFP, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, South Korean health officials reported 45 new cases of the coronavirus raising national totals to 11,947 and 276 deaths.
(SFC, 6/12/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 12, California to date had 146,358 cases of coronavirus and 4,978 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 16,811 cases and 493 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,043,656 with the death toll at 114,471.
(sfist.com, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Oklahoma health officials said a spike in coronavirus cases in the Tulsa area is linked to indoor events and warned that people who attend such gatherings should take health precautions.
(AP, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Texas reported 2,166 patients in hospitals with the coronavirus. 19 deaths were reported bringing the overall toll to 1,939.
(SSFC, 6/14/20, p.A9)
2020 Jun 12, Australia's chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy said the coronavirus has been eliminated in many areas of the country, as more than half of the 38 cases reported over the past week were travelers returning from abroad and remaining quarantined.
(NY Times, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, In China the local government in Beijing said that it would suspend the resumption of school for young primary school students after the appearance of three new cases of Covid-19 in the city.
(NY Times, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Hong Kong protesters marched in a shopping mall marking the one-year anniversary of a clash with police outside the city's legislature.
(SFC, 6/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 12, India’s nationwide caseload overtook Britain to became the fourth highest in the world with 297,535 confirmed coronavirus cases and 8,498 deaths. The number of cases had increased by 10,956 from the previous day.
(AP, 6/12/20)(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Indian drugmaker Zydus Cadila said it signed a non-exclusive licensing pact with Gilead Sciences Inc to manufacture and market antiviral drug remdesivir, the first treatment to show improvement in COVID-19 trials.
(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Indonesia reported 1,111 new coronavirus infections and 48 new deaths, taking the total number of cases to 36,406 and fatalities to 2,048.
(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Iran reported 75 deaths and more than 2,369 new cases of novel coronavirus as calls mounted for all people to wear masks in public. The new infections in the past 24 hours took the total to 182,545. The new deaths brought that overall toll to 8,659.
(AFP, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Lebanon's central bank agreed to inject fresh dollars into the market to prop up the national currency following a night of protests spurred by the dramatic plunging of the Lebanese pound.
(SFC, 6/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 12, In the Philippines hundreds of activists in Manila staged protests against a proposed terrorism law they say could be used to quash dissent.
(SFC, 6/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 12, Russia reported 8,987 new coronavirus infections, taking the total to 511,423 cases. Russia has confirmed a total of 6,715 coronavirus deaths. President Vladimir Putin said an "absolute majority" of Russians backed his controversial plan to change the constitution, as he made his first public appearance after weeks of lockdown.
(AFP, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, In southern Somalia Al-Shabab unveiled a COVID-19 isolation and care facility in Jilib, a major stronghold of the extremist group. The facility included a round-the-clock hotline.
(AP, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, South Korea reported 56 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the national totals to 12,003 cases and 277 deaths.
(SFC, 6/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 12, Sudan has reported 6,879 coronavirus infections and 433 deaths. Of those, 193 cases and 54 fatalities have been confirmed across Darfur — a figure experts believe is a vast undercount.
(AP, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 13, California to date had 147,938 cases of coronavirus and 4,994 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 17,007 cases and 493 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,068,591 with the death toll at 115,251.
(sfist.com, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 13, Florida health officials reported 2,581 new coronavirus cases. Fatalities now stand at over 3,000 out of 73,552 confirmed cases.
(SSFC, 6/14/20, p.A9)
2020 Jun 13, In North Carolina two more prisoners died at the Federal Correctional Complex at Butner from COVID-19 complications. Both men were in the low-security prison, which has the largest coronavirus outbreak in the federal prison system, with 623 total active cases, eight among staff members.
(Charlotte Observer, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 13, West Virginia reported a significant number of coronavirus outbreaks linked to houses of worship. A total of five churches have seen outbreaks. Pres. Donald Trump insisted in late May that churches reopen, threatening governors who continued to impose restrictions on houses of worship.
(Yahoo News, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 13, It was reported that the percentage of Argentines in poverty is expected to reach as high as 45% this year as the coronavirus pandemic worsens. Argentina already faced a 50% rate of inflation, overwhelming debt and difficulty accessing credit.
(SFC, 6/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 13, Brazil has recorded nearly 40,000 deaths from the coronavirus, th world's third highest number.
(Econ., 6/13/20, p.26)
2020 Jun 13, The Chinese capital of Beijing reported 36 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, setting an all-time high for new daily infections in the city.
(Reuters, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 13, India reported its biggest single-day jump in coronavirus cases, adding 11,458 confirmed infections and taking its total count to more than 300,000. India has 145,779 active cases, and has recorded 8,884 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 13, Indonesia reported 1,014 new coronavirus infections and 43 more deaths, taking the total number of cases to 37,420 and fatalities to 2,091.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 13, Iran reported 2,410 new coronavirus cases raising the total count to 184,955. The death of 71 people in the past 24 hours raised total fatalities to 8,730. President Hassan Rouhani said Iran will reimpose restrictions to stem the surge if health regulations are not observed.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 13, The Philippines' health ministry reported 607 new coronavirus infections and 22 more deaths, taking the total number of cases to 25,392 and fatalities to 1,074.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 13, In Turkey the number of new coronavirus cases rose to 1,459 in the last 24 hours and 14 people died, bringing total fatalities to 4,792. Turkey has reported a total 176,677 cases of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 14, California to date had 152,285 cases of coronavirus and 5,082 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 17,262 cases and 497 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,093,448 with the death toll at 115,730.
(sfist.com, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 14, Egypt announced 1,677 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus. This raised the totals to 1,484 deaths and 42,980 confirmed cases.
(SFC, 6/15/20, p.A5)
2020 Jun 14, It was reported that at least 58 employees of Guatemala's presidential offices have tested positive for the coronavirus. Guatemala has reported 8,600 infections and 351 deaths.
(SSFC, 6/14/20, p.A8)
2020 Jun 14, Indonesia reported 857 new coronavirus infections and 43 more deaths, taking the total number of cases to 38,277 and fatalities to 2,134.
(AP, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 14, Iran reported 107 Covid-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the overall toll to 8,837. There were 2,472 new cases confirmed in the past day, bringing the total infection caseload to 187,427.
(AFP, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 14, The Philippines reported 539 more coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 25,930. Health authorities said 14 additional fatalities related to the novel coronavirus took the death toll to 1,088.
(Reuters, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 14, Russia confirmed 8,835 new virus cases, taking the total to 528,964.
(AFP, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 14, South Korea confirmed 34 more coronavirus cases raising the country's total to 12,085 cases and 277 deaths.
(SFC, 6/15/20, p.A5)
2020 Jun 15, California to date had 155,044 cases of coronavirus and 5,107 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 17,495 cases and 498 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,110,795 with the death toll at 116,090.
(sfist.com, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, Florida reported a daily increase of 1,758 COVID-19 infections. That number follows two days with more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases.
(Yahoo News, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 15, Cameroon recorded one of the highest number of coronavirus cases in the sub-Sahara Africa region. It hit the 10,000 cases milestone, with 277 deaths and remains one of the continents hotspot for the pandemic. Archbishop Samuel Kleda of Douala diocese, who has practiced herbal medicine for several years, says he has developed two plant-based remedies for COVID-19 which are given free to those who test positive for the respiratory disease.
(Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 15, In China several districts of Beijing set up security checkpoints, closed schools and ordered people to be tested for the coronavirus after an unexpected spike of cases linked to the biggest wholesale food market in Asia. Beijing said it had tracked down 79 infections over the previous four days.
(Reuters, 6/15/20)(SFC, 6/16/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 15, India's Health Ministry reported a jump of more than 11,000 infections nationwide for a third straight day.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, Iran said 113 new fatalities took to 8,950 the total number of COVID-19 deaths since the country's outbreak began in February. Another 2,449 people had tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, taking the Islamic republic's overall caseload to 189,876.
(AFP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, Montenegro reported a new COVID-19 case, a person who arrived from neighboring Bosnia, three weeks after declaring it was free of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, North Macedonian health authorities announced 103 new confirmed coronavirus cases and five deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 4,157 and the death toll to 193 in this country of around 2 million people. President Stevo Pendarovski declared an eight-day state of emergency ahead of an early national election after the country’s main political leaders agreed the vote will be held on July 15.
(AP, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 15, Norway said it will halt its track and trace app and delete all data collected so far after criticism from its data protection watchdog.
(Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, The Russian cities of Penza, Pyatigorsk and Yakutsk joined a growing list of places that are cancelling June 24 military parades over coronavirus fears despite a decision by President Vladimir Putin to press ahead with the main event in Moscow. Coronavirus cases rose by 8,246 cases over the last 24 hours raising the total to 537,210 and 7,091 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/15/20)(SFC, 6/16/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 15, Ukraine resumed flights to countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, India, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, relaxing a ban in place since March 17. Ukraine's own caseload has spiked in recent days to nearly 32,000 following a decision in May to resume public transportation and reopen of malls and gyms.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 16, The US Department of Health and Human Services said the Trump administration is narrowing its list of promising experimental coronavirus vaccines to about seven from 14.
(Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 16, California to date had 157,293 cases of coronavirus and 5,156 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 17,813 cases and 504 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,134,973 with the death toll at 116,854.
(sfist.com, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 16, Florida reported a record-high one-day increase of 2,783 coronavirus cases. 55 more virus-related deaths raised that toll to 2,993.
(SFC, 6/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 16, Vermont health officials said 83 cases of the coronavirus have been recorded in the Bhutanese community of Winooski and that the virus is expanding into neighboring Burlington.
(SFC, 6/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 16, The World Health Organization's regional director for the Americas Carissa Etienne said that the region is fast approaching 4 million cases of coronavirus and the pandemic continues to accelerate. Etienne said Brazil accounts for 23% of the more than 3.8 million cases in the Americas and 23% of the almost 204,000 deaths in the region.
(Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 16, Researchers in England said they have the first evidence that a drug can improve COVID-19 survival: A cheap, widely available steroid called dexamethasone reduced deaths by up to one third in severely ill hospitalized patients. Japan-based Nichi-Iko Pharmaceutical Co was among those that produce dexamethasone.
(AP, 6/16/20)(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jun 16, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said its experimental coronavirus vaccine has triggered antibodies in clinical trials and the company plans late-stage human trials in foreign countries.
(Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 16, Iran said a third straight day of more than 100 coronavirus deaths took its overall toll past 9,000, attributing the spike to increased travel by its citizens. 115 new deaths in the past 24 hours took Iran's overall toll to 9,065. Another 2,563 people tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to 192,439 since the start of Iran's outbreak.
(AFP, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 16, Netherlands-based Signify, the world's largest lighting manufacturer, said researchers at Boston University had confirmed an ultraviolet light made by the company works to degrade most coronavirus in a laboratory setting in a matter of seconds.
(Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 16, In New Zealand, two new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in recent arrivals from Britain, only days after the government had declared the country’s epidemic eradicated.
(NY Times, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 16, Tanzania's PM Kassim Majaliwa reported 66 active coronavirus cases, releasing data for the first time since April when Pres. John Magufuli questioned the reliability of the figures.
(BBC, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 17, Arizona confirmed 1,827 new cases of the coronavirus and 20 new deaths. Total confirmed cases rose to 40,924 and 1,239 deaths.
(SFC, 6/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 17, California to date had 163,445 cases of coronavirus and 5,282 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 18,103 cases and 511 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,163,290 with the death toll at 117,717.
(sfist.com, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 17, Shares of Chembio Diagnostics Inc slumped more than 60% after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked the emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 antibody test kit on concerns about its accuracy.
(Reuters, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 17, China's President Xi Jinping announced that Beijing will write off all interest-free loans advanced to African countries that are due this year. Speaking at the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against the Covid-19 Pandemic, which was conducted by video link, he said China will also build hospitals and send more medical experts to Africa to aid in the coronavirus fight.
(South China Morning Post, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 17, Danish authorities said mink at a farm in Denmark were found to be infected with the new coronavirus and all 11,000 of the animals there will have to be culled.
(Reuters, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 17, In Turkey the governors of Istanbul, Ankara and Bursa announced that wearing masks to curb COVID-19 are now obligatory following an uptick in confirmed cases.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 17, Iran reported more than 100 deaths from the novel coronavirus for a fourth straight day. 120 new deaths in the past 24 hours took Iran's overall toll to 9,158. Another 2,612 tested positive for COVID-19, bringing total confirmed cases to 195,051.
(AFP, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 17, Japanese researchers confirmed the presence of the coronavirus in wastewater plants, a finding that could serve as a signal for future outbreaks. The findings mirror similar studies in Australia, the United States, and Europe.
(AP, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 18, Arizona reported 2,519 new cases of the coronavirus and 32 new deaths. This raised the state's total to 43,443 and 1,271 deaths.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 18, California to date had 167,348 cases of coronavirus and 5,355 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 18,590 cases and 519 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,192,279 with the death toll at 118,467.
(sfist.com, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 18, California health officials issued a mandate that all citizens wear masks when in an indoor public place or in line waiting to enter as well as riding public transport and in public outdoor spaces where people cluster. This followed a a day after the state reported the largest number of new coronavirus cases in a single day.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A1)
2020 Jun 18, The Beijing government said that the number of coronavirus cases in a recent outbreak had risen to 158, after an additional 21 cases were reported today.
(NY Times, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 18, China released genome sequencing data for the coronavirus responsible for a recent outbreak in Beijing. Officials the next day said it identified a European strain based on preliminary studies.
(Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 18, It was reported that Honduras, Pres. Juan Orlando Hernandez and his wife have tested positive for COVID-19. Honduras has nearly 10,000 confirmed cases and 330 deaths.
(SFC, 6/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 18, India reported its highest one-day increase of 12,281 coronavirus cases. Deaths rose by 334 to 12,237.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 18, Scientists in Italy said they have found traces of the new coronavirus in wastewater collected from Milan and Turin on December 18, 2019, suggesting COVID-19 was already circulating in northern Italy before China reported the first cases.
(Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 18, Russia revised steeply higher, to nearly 500, the number of medical workers who have died after contracting COVID-19. The official figure rose to 489, some 6.4% of the overall nationwide death toll. The Health Ministry had reported on May 26 that 101 medics had died from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 18, Uruguay to date has recorded 849 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 24 deaths.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.26)
2020 Jun 19, The US State Department said COVID-19 infections have been reported at its embassy in the Afghan capital and affected staff include diplomats, contractors and locals.
(AP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 19, It was reported that several US hospitals in states with fresh surges of COVID-19 cases have started treating their sickest patients with dexamethasone rather than await confirmation of preliminary results of a study by British researchers, who said the inexpensive steroid saves lives.
(Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, Arizona's city of Phoenix approved a measure requiring people to use face masks in public to ward off the spread of the coronavirus. The state reported 3,246 additional cases increasing the statewide total to 46,689. 41 new deaths raised that total to 1,312.
(SSFC, 6/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 19, California to date had 170,581 cases of coronavirus and 5,420 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 18,814 cases and 521 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,219,977 with the death toll at 119,099.
(sfist.com, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, Oklahoma reported 359 new cases of the coronavirus. The state's death toll rose to 367.
(SFC, 6/20/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 19, US drug developer Ampio Pharmaceuticals Inc said it would begin an early stage study of its experimental treatment, Ampion, in COVID-19 patients after it received regulatory clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration.
(Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, Brazil’s Health Ministry said that total coronavirus cases now stood at 1,032,913, up more than 50,000 from a day earlier.
(AP, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, Haiti's government announced that Fritz Gerard Cerisier, an assistant to the government prosecutor, was assassinated in Port-au-Prince. Haiti reported 4,916 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 84 deaths.
(Miami Herald, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 19, Mumbai-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to make and sell oral antiviral drug favipiravir for treating mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infections in the country.
(AP, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, Pakistan reported 4,944 new confirmed cases for the coronavirus raising that total to 165,062. The death toll rose by 136 for a total of 3,229.
(SFC, 6/20/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 19, Spain updated its coronavirus numbers for the first time in nearly two weeks. At least 28,313 people have died with a COVID-19 diagnosis.
(SFC, 6/20/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 19, Zimbabwe's health minister, Obadiah Moyo, was arrested after the government came under pressure from the opposition and on social media over the procurement of coronavirus tests and equipment. He was released on bail after appearing in court on corruption charges. Zimbabwe says it has confirmed nearly 500 virus cases, including four deaths, but the actual number of cases is thought to be higher.
(BBC, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, President Donald Trump returned to the rally stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma, only to find the venue about two-thirds full, a surprising and undoubtedly disappointing turn of events for a politician who values crowd size. Trump said he's asked his administration to slow down coronavirus testing because robust testing turns up too many cases of COVID-19. Trump's campaign said six staff members helping set up for his rally have tested positive for coronavirus.
(AP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, Alabama had more than 29,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with more than a quarter of the cases reported in the last two weeks. Over the past two weeks, Alabama had the second highest number of new cases per capita in the nation.
(AP, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 20, California to date had 170,923 cases of coronavirus and 5,425 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 19,068 cases and 525 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,241,023 with the death toll at 119,475.
(sfist.com, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, Chinese officials reported 22 new coronavirus cases in Beijing, along with five others elsewhere in the country. There were no new deaths.
(AP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, Germany reported that some 800 workers at one of the country’s largest slaughterhouses were confirmed positive for the coronavirus. Authorities reported 601 new cases over the last 24 hours, following on from 770 the previous day. Earlier in June the number of new cases was as low as 300. The R number, which estimates how many people the average carrier infects, rose to 1.7.
(AP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, Guatemala replaced its health minister. The country has reported more than 11,000 coronavirus cases and 449 deaths.
(SSFC, 6/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 20, Iranian health authorities announced 115 new deaths from coronavirus raising the country's death toll to 9,507. Another 2,322 new cases of infection brought the confirmed case total to 202,584.
(AFP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, In Iraq coronavirus infections spiked seven-fold to over 29,000, up from less than 4,000 at the end of May. Deaths also spiked, with over 1,013 killed among the confirmed cases, according to Health Ministry figures.
(AP, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 20, Mexico reported 4,717 new infections and 387 additional deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the total number in the country to 175,202 cases and 20,781 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, South Africa reported 5,000 new COVID-19 cases as the country continued to loosen lockdown measures under economic pressure.
(SSFC, 6/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 20, South Korea recorded 67 new coronavirus cases, the largest 24-hour increase in about three weeks. Many cases have been linked to exposure in nightlife outlets.
(AP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 21, The World Health Organization reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases by its count, at more than 183,000 new cases in the latest 24 hours. The WHO said Brazil led the way with 54,771 cases tallied and the US next at 36,617. Over 15,400 came in in India.
(NBC News, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 21, California to date had 175,449 cases of coronavirus and 5,499 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 19,472 cases and 529 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,271,414 with the death toll at 119,921.
(sfist.com, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 21, Iraqi officials sounded the alarm over a surge in virus cases in Baghdad.
(AP, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 21, It was reported that the coronavirus is spreading in Pakistan at one of the fastest rates in the world, and its overwhelmed hospitals are turning away patients. But the government is pushing ahead with opening up the country, trying to salvage a near-collapsed economy.
(AP, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 22, California to date had 184,284 cases of coronavirus and 5,559 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 20,103 cases and 537 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,310,334 with the death toll at 120,384.
(sfist.com, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, Florida reported that over 100,00 people in the state have been diagnosed with the coronavirus infection. More that 3,100 people in the state have died.
(SFC, 6/23/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 22, The African Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that the continent now has 306,567 confirmed cases of the coronavirus including 8,115 deaths. South Africa accounted for nearly a third of the cases.
(SFC, 6/23/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 22, Global cases of the novel coronavirus surpassed 9 million, as Brazil and India grappled with a surge in infections, and the United States, China and other hard-hit countries reported new outbreaks.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, It was reported that a nursing home owned by Life Care Centers of America Inc has fired one nurse and banned another from the premises after the two were quoted in a Reuters investigation detailing horrific conditions, a staff exodus and a botched management response to the facility’s deadly COVID-19 outbreak. Life Care terminated Nurse Colleen Lelievre last week after managers at the Littleton, Massachusetts, home accused her of making clerical errors involving narcotics for residents. Nurse Lisa Harmon said a manager barred her from the building on June 12 without explaining why.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, Hong Kong reported 30 imported new coronavirus cases, taking the number of cases in the city to 1,162.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, India reported a record number of new coronavirus cases and a death toll of more than 400 people in the past 24 hours as foreign embassies warned their citizens in the country that hospitals might not have beds for them. 14,821 new cases brought India's total to more than 425,000. Nearly 14,000 people in India have now died from the disease caused by the virus since the country reported its first case in January.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)(SFC, 6/23/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 22, Iran's health ministry announced 119 new coronavirus deaths and another 2,573 cases of infection. That takes the overall toll to over 9,742 dead out of more than 207,500 cases in the outbreak. The Iranian rial plunged to new depths against the US dollar in what economists said was a slump partly induced by the Middle East's deadliest coronavirus outbreak.
(AFP, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, Israeli company Sonovia said it expects that a fabric it has developed will be able to neutralize close to 99% of the coronavirus, even after being washed multiple times, following a successful lab test.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, The UN says the coronavirus outbreak in South Sudan is growing rapidly, with nearly 1,900 cases, including more than 50 health workers infected, more than 30 deaths and no way to know the true number of infections.
(AP, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 23, The United States recorded the second-largest increase in coronavirus cases since the health crisis began, with a rise of 35,588 new infections. A dozen states saw infections surge.
(Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 23, The US extradited former Haitian paramilitary leader Emmanuel Constant. He was immediately arrested as he landed in Haiti, where he faced murder and torture charges from the 1990s. constant has alleged that he was on the CIA payroll.
(SFC, 6/24/20, p.A4)
2020 Jun 23, Arizona reported a daily record of nearly 3,600 coronavirus cases.
(SFC, 6/24/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 23, California to date had 191,372 cases of coronavirus and 5,618 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 20,857 cases and 538 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,347,022 with the death toll at 121,228.
(sfist.com, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee ordered residents to wear face masks in public as officials across the country sought new means to control the coronavirus pandemic while easing clamp-downs on residents and reopening the economy.
(Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said it has received $71 million from the US Department of Defense (DoD) to scale up production of the company's devices that are used to administer its experimental COVID-19 vaccine into the skin.
(Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Researchers reported that a trial in pigs of AstraZeneca's experimental COVID-19 vaccine has found that two doses of the shot produced a greater antibody response than a single dose.
(Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said it has won approval to run a large-scale "Phase 3" clinical trial of its novel coronavirus vaccine candidate in the UAE.
(Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, In Germany Guetersloh becoming the first area in the country to be ordered back into lockdown. More than 1,500 workers at the Guetersloh meatpacking plant have tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. Meat-processing plants around the world have proven to be coronavirus infection hotspots.
(AP, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd said it will price its generic version of Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir for use in COVID-19 patients at less than 5,000 rupees ($66).
(AP, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Iran reported 121 new coronavirus deaths, its highest daily toll in over two months, as it battles to contain the Middle East's deadliest COVID-19 outbreak. 2,445 people had tested positive for COVID in the past 24 hours, raising the country's caseload to 209,970. The new fatalities brought the overall virus death toll to 9,863.
(AP, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Kazakhstan has reported almost 29,000 COVID-19 cases, up from about 5,000 at the end of the lockdown. Almaty's the city's healthcare chief said the city may convert two sports arenas into COVID-19 hospitals as existing facilities for patients with suspected and confirmed cases are nearly full.
(Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov abandoned plans to attend the Moscow 75th anniversary Victory Day parade when two members of his delegation tested positive for the virus after arriving in Moscow. He and the delegation returned to Kyrgyzstan and the president went into self-isolation. The parade for the May 9 Victory Day, Russia’s most important secular holiday, was postponed to June 24 due to the pandemic.
(AP, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, The US recorded 36,880 coronavirus cases, the highest single-day total so far. While some of that reflects an increase in testing, the virus really is spreading more rapidly than it was several weeks ago. The University of Washington computer model of the outbreak projected nearly 180,000 US deaths by Oct. 1.
(NY Times, 6/25/20)(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 24, California to date had 194,726 cases of coronavirus and 5,713 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 21,325 cases and 543 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,378,648 with the death toll at 121,932.
(sfist.com, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced that visitors from states with high coronavirus infection rates must self-quarantine for 14 days on arrival.
(Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, It was reported that CVS Health Corp has begun selling companies a diagnostic testing program. CVS also will offer symptom screenings, flu vaccines and other immunizations and add-on services like contact tracing for employees exposed to the virus.
(Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, Africa's first participation in a COVID-19 vaccine trial started today as volunteers received injections developed at the University of Oxford in Britain. The large-scale trial is being conducted in South Africa, Britain and Brazil.
(AP, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, The Czech Republic recorded 127 cases of the new coronavirus. The country of 10.7 million has recorded 10,780 cases of the disease and 344 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 24, Indian authorities launched a massive coronavirus survey taking down health details from New Delhi's entire population of 29 million, and testing everyone with symptoms by July 6. In the past 24 hours, 3,788 new cases were confirmed in Delhi, compared to 1,118 in Mumbai.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 24, Mexico's health ministry reported 947 new deaths from the coronavirus and 5,437 new cases.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over a long-awaited military blowout to celebrate 75 years since Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II. Authorities in at least 20 cities have canceled their Victory Day parades outright, citing concerns over the coronavirus epidemic. Russia reported 7,176 new cases of the coronavirus, pushing its nationwide case total to 606,881, the world's third highest tally.
(NBC News, 6/24/20)(Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, Saudi officials effectively canceled this year’s hajj, one day after restricting the journey to people already in the country. Because of the coronavirus, only about 1,000 people will be permitted to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, compared with the 2.5 million who did so last year.
(NY Times, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, Sicily's regional leader Nello Musumeci said dozens of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean have tested positive for the new coronavirus while held in a quarantine ship off the southern Italian coast.
(Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 25, US officials estimated that 20 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus since it first arrived in the United States, meaning that the vast majority of the population remains susceptible.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, The US CDC reported that pregnant women are more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit and to be put on mechanical ventilators than non-pregnant women.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, California to date had 201,036 cases of coronavirus and 5,804 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 22,038 cases and 557 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,422,310 with the death toll at 124,416.
(sfist.com, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Officials with the Mississippi Health Department took to Facebook to warn of an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the state.
(Good Morning America, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 25, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he is pausing any further phases of reopening as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations increase in the state. Abbott again halted elective surgeries in the state's biggest counties in a bid to free up hospital beds. Texas reported more than 11,000 new cases in the past two days.
(Good Morning America, 6/25/20)(SFC, 6/26/20, p.A9)
2020 Jun 25, LabCorp said it has launched a new test that could assess the capacity of antibodies in patient plasma to inhibit the novel coronavirus.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Moderna Inc said it was partnering with contract drugmaker Catalent Inc to prepare an initial 100 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine for the United States, starting in the third quarter of this year.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, A study of residents in the Alpine ski resort of Ischgl, the site of Austria's biggest coronavirus outbreak, has found 42% have antibodies for the virus, the highest rate ever proven.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, China reported 19 newly confirmed cases nationwide amid mass testing in the capital.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, India said it will carry out a survey for the coronavirus targeting the 29 million population of New Delhi, to be completed by July 6. India registered another record high of 16,922 cases, taking the total to 473,105.
(AP, 6/25/20)(SFC, 6/26/20, p.A9)
2020 Jun 25, Maharashtra, India's richest state, banned a "spurious" coronavirus treatment manufactured by a company founded by popular yoga guru, which he says has a 100% record in curing patients. Baba Ramdev, co-founder of Patanjali and a household name in India, launched Coronil to much fanfare on June 23, but hit a roadblock when New Delhi and some state governments expressed skepticism.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Indonesia exceeded the 50,000 mark for confirmed infections as the government allowed businesses to reopen amid increasing economic pressures.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Iran announced 134 new deaths from the novel coronavirus took the overall toll in the Middle East's deadliest outbreak to 10,130. Another 2,595 people tested positive for the virus in the last 24-hours, bringing the country's overall caseload to 215,096.
(AFP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Iraq registered 2,437 new coronavirus cases and 107 deaths, setting new records in a country whose health sector had been bracing itself for such a spike. This brought the total in the country to over 39,000 the total death toll to 1,437.
(AFP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Israel and the United Arab Emirates said they will cooperate in the fight against the coronavirus, a possible boost to Israeli efforts to normalize relations with Gulf Arab countries.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 25, Kazakhstan's health minister resigned, saying COVID-19 complications prevented him from leading efforts against the coronavirus outbreak. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan has nearly tripled this month to 32,000, with 136 deaths.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, The Peruvian government said it had struck an agreement with the country's private health clinics on the cost of COVID-19 care. A day earlier President Martin Vizcarra warned they would be expropriated within 48 hours if negotiations did not progress. Peru has reported 264,689 confirmed cases and 8,586 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Portugal reported 311 new cases of the coronavirus, 222 of them in the Lisbon metropolitan area. Since emerging on May 2 from a state of emergency and 45-day lockdown, the country has recorded an average of 275 new cases a day.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, South Africa's Minerals Council said the mining industry has recorded 1,796 cases of COVID-19 with six deaths, as mines ramp up after an extended shutdown. The country has seen 2,205 deaths from COVID-19.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, South Korea reported 28 new coronavirus cases, mostly associated with nightlife, churches, a huge e-commerce warehouse and door-to-door sales.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warned that without massive financial support, Yemen will “fall off the cliff," with many more people starving to death, succumbing to COVID-19, dying of cholera and watching their children die because they haven’t been immunized for killer diseases.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 26, The US government's coronavirus task force briefed the public for the first time since April. VP Pence announced that 16 states were seeing worrisome increases, as the number of confirmed new coronavirus infections per day in the US rose to more than 45,000.
(AP, 6/27/20)(Reuters, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 26, California to date had 206,654 cases of coronavirus and 5,865 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 22,532 cases and 562 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,467,837 with the death toll at 125,039.
(sfist.com, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, Florida banned alcohol consumption at its bars after its daily confirmed coronavirus cases neared 9,000.
(SFC, 6/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 26, Louisiana reported a jump of over 1,300 cases of the coronavirus. Total confirmed cases rose to 54,769. The death toll rose by 26 for a total of 3,077.
(SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A11)
2020 Jun 26, A US federal judge blocked New York state from enforcing coronavirus restrictions limiting indoor religious gatherings to 25% capacity when other types of gatherings are limited to 50%.
(AP, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order limiting certain businesses as the state's positivity rate soared above 10%.
(Good Morning America, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, The World Health Organization's chief scientist said Astrazeneca's COVID-19 vaccine candidate is probably the world's leading candidate and most advanced in terms of development. Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine candidate was not far behind.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, ASEAN leaders held their annual summit by video, with the coronavirus pandemic and the long-raging territorial disputes high on the agenda.
(AP, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 26, Britain's official death toll from confirmed COVID-19 cases rose by 186 to 43,414.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, India confirmed 17,296 new coronavirus infections bringing its total to 490,401. Another 407 deaths brought that total to 15,301.
(SFC, 6/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 26, Japan recorded more than 100 new infections for the first time since May 9, hitting its highest daily total since it eased a lockdown.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, It was reported that Kenyan police have killed three people when a crowd of motorcycle taxi drivers protested against the arrest of a colleague for ignoring coronavirus restrictions. Kenya has 5,384 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 132 people have died.
(BBC, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, Russia reported 6,800 new coronavirus cases, the first daily rise below 7,000 since late April, taking its nationwide tally of infections to 620,794.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, Venezuela has reported 4,525 confirmed coronavirus cases and 39 deaths, although the true numbers appear to be significantly larger. It was reported that hospitals in Maracaibo, Venezuela's main oil-producing state, are filled with coronavirus patients and that dozens of health workers have been infected.
(AP, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 27, California to date had 206,928 cases of coronavirus and 5,868 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 22,746 cases and 563 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,492,246 with the death toll at 125,240.
(sfist.com, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 27, The Florida Department of Health reported a total of 132,545 cases of COVID-19 with 9,636 new positive cases, and 24 additional deaths from COVID-19.
(Reuters, 6/27/20)(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 27, Georgia reported a record high in coronavirus cases at almost 2,000. The 7-day average for cases has nearly tripled since late May.
(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 27, Nevada reported almost 1,100 coronavirus cases, although health officials later said hundreds of those cases could be attributed to a delay in lab testing and were not new cases in the last 24 hours.
(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 27, South Carolina blew past its original record mark for most COVID-19 cases in a single day with nearly 1,599 positive tests.
(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 27, Egypt lifted many restrictions put in place against the coronavirus pandemic, reopening cafes, clubs, gyms and theaters after more than three months of closure, despite a continued upward trend in new infections. Egypt has reported 62,755 infections, including 2,620 deaths.
(AP, 6/27/20)(SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A10)
2020 Jun 27, India confirmed cases of the coronavirus jumped 18,552 raising its total to over half a million. 384 new deaths raised that total to 15,685.
(SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A10)
2020 Jun 27, Iran's supreme leader warned that the country's economic problems would worsen if the novel coronavirus spreads unchecked. There were 2,456 new cases of COVID-19 infection in the past 24 hours, raising the country's caseload to 220,180. Overall fatalities reached 10,364 as 125 of those infected had died during the same period.
(AFP, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 27, Mexico reported 5,441 new cases of the coronavirus for a total of 208,392. Deaths rose by 719 to 25,779.
(SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A10)
2020 Jun 27, It was reported that new daily coronavirus cases in Panama have nearly trippled from below 200 per day and that deaths this month were coming twice as fast.
(SFC, 6/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 28, A new milestone was reached early today, with more than 10 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide.
(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 28, It was reported that some Arizona hospitals have begun activating surge plans as coronavirus cases rise. The state has recorded more than 70,100 cases with 1,580 deaths.
(SFC, 6/29/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 28, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered bars to close in seven counties due to the "rising spread" of COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 28, California to date had 210,820 cases of coronavirus and 5,900 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 23,455 cases and 568 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,531,733 with the death toll at 125,691. More than 38,800 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in the United States, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
(sfist.com, 6/28/20)(Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 28, San Antonio officials urged residents to stay home as the city recorded its highest number of cases in a single day. An emergency alert was sent out early today just minutes after the city reported 795 new COVID-19 cases. That brings the city's total number of cases to 9,652. Two new deaths were reported and the death toll is now at 107.
(AP, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 28, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said that early human test results for a coronavirus vaccine candidate suggested it could be safe and effective, the second vaccine candidate from the firm to show encouraging results in a clinical trial. Mainland China reported 17 new coronavirus cases, mostly in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
(Reuters, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 28, Greece reported 10 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths for a total of 3,376 confirmed cases and 191 deaths.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 28, Iran said it will make mask-wearing mandatory in certain areas and has allowed virus-hit provinces to reimpose restrictions. Iran counted 144 new fatalities from the COVID-19 disease in the last 24 hours, raising the total to 10,508. Total confirmed infections rose to 222,669, with 2,489 new cases during the same period.
(AFP, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 28, Poland had nearly 34,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among its 38 million people, with over 1,400 deaths.
(AP, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 29, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ended a somewhat contentious news conference by imploring people to wear face masks. Arizona has seen its cases go from 13,000 on May 15 to 74,500 today, and deaths from the virus have nearly doubled in the last six weeks. More than 1,500 people have died.
(AP, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, California to date had 222,046 cases of coronavirus and 5,970 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 24,464 cases and 573 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,586,844 with the death toll at 126,123.
(sfist.com, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, Jacksonville, Fl., ordered the wearing of face coverings amidst a surge in coronavirus infections.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, Some 205 people in West Virginia were being asked to quarantine themselves and watch for symptoms after a Planet Fitness member in Morgantown tested positive for COVID-19. People who were there between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. local time on June 24 were asked to stay home for 14 days since being exposed.
(Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, Medical device maker Danaher Corp said its COVID-19 blood test for detecting if a person had ever been infected with the new coronavirus received emergency use clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration.
(AP, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, Gilead announced that it will charge $2,340 for a typical treatment course of remdesivir for patients covered by government health programs in the United States and other developed nations where the drug is authorized for use. The price would be $3,120 for patients with private health insurance in the United States.
(Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, China reported just 12 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths, as the country which was the original epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic continues to see a downward trend in infections.
(Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, Greece eased coronavirus lockdown measures and allowed movie theaters, casinos and children's summer camps to reopen.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, India reported nearly 20,000 new coronavirus infections. The country has confirmed 548,318 cases with the death toll at 16,475.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, Iran reported 162 more deaths from the novel coronavirus, the highest single-day toll since the country's outbreak began in February. The additional 2,536 new cases brought the total to 225,205. The overall official death toll is now at 10,670.
(AFP, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, Puerto Rico's Gov. Wanda Vazquez extended a coronavirus curfew for three more weeks, even as she authorized the reopenings of certain businesses and government agencies.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, Russia's coronavirus headquarters reported 6,719 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the nationwide total to 641,156. Russia's death toll from the disease now stands at 9,166, after an additional 93 patients died over the past 24 hours.
(Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, In Serbia authorities in Belgrade made the wearing of face masks mandatory in all closed spaces in the capital. The country reported 242 new cases today.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, The UN World Food Program said millions of people have been pushed into hunger by the coronavirus pandemic, as it appealed for nearly $5 billion to help feed the growing numbers in poor and middle-income countries.
(AP, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 30, It was reported that one four people incarcerated at San Quentin prison were infected with the coronavirus. One Death Row inmate (71), who died there last week, tested positive for the virus marking the first known COVID-19 death inside the prison.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 30, California to date had 231,960 cases of coronavirus and over 6,000 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 25,411 cases and 578 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,618,480 with the death toll at 126,628.
(sfist.com, 6/30/20)(SFC, 7/1/20, p.A1)
2020 Jun 30, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that people arriving in New York from an additional eight states must quarantine themselves for 14 days amid the coronavirus pandemic. The order applied both to visitors and New Yorkers returning home from one of the 16 listed states.
(Reuters, 6/30/20)
2020 Jun 30, Voters in Oklahoma narrowly approved an expansion of Medicaid night, making it the latest conservative-leaning state to approve of the Obamacare provision at the ballot box. Oklahoma has reported nearly 14,000 cases of coronavirus and at least 387 people have died of the disease.
(Yahoo News, 7/1/20)
2020 Jun 30, In Washington state 171 inmates and 47 staff members tested positive for COVID-19 at the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center.
(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 30, Washington state's top health official said in a letter to a senior administration official that COVID-19 testing supplies distributed by the federal government have failed quality checks and are arriving late.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jun 30, In Australia Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said Melbourne will lock down 36 suburbs until July 29 in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 7/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Jun 30, The state of Bavaria approved plans for universal testing for COVID-19, prompting debate elsewhere in Germany about whether to follow suit or stick with the current targeted approach to prevent a possible second wave of infections.
(Reuters, 6/30/20)
2020 Jun 30, Iran announced 147 new coronavirus fatalities, raising overall deaths to 10,817. The caseload rose to 227,662, with 2,457 new infections in the past 24 hours. Iran has announced that wearing masks will be made mandatory in covered public spaces as of next week.
(AP, 6/30/20)
2020 Jul 1, New research was reported that damage done by the coronavirus to the membranes of red blood cells that carry oxygen may explain why many COVID-19 patients have alarmingly low oxygen levels.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told VP Mike Pence that the state needed an additional 500 health care workers as the number of cases of COVID-19 continues to set records there.
(Yahoo News, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, California dramatically rolled back efforts to reopen its economy, banning indoor restaurant dining in much of the state, closing bars and stepping up enforcement of the restrictions as COVID-19 infections surge. Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered 19 counties with surging coronavirus outbreaks to shut public venues in an effort to keep the pandemic from spiraling out of control.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A1)
2020 Jul 1, California to date had 232,466 cases of coronavirus and 6,088 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 26,144 cases and 583 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,658,324 with the death toll at 127,681.
(sfist.com, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, The healthcare unit of US supermarket chain Kroger Co said the US Food and Drug Administration had issued emergency use authorization for its at-home sample collection kit for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, German biotech firm BioNTech and US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said a jointly developed COVID-19 vaccine has shown potential and was found to be well tolerated in early-stage human trials.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, India reported 18,653 new cases of the coronavirus and 507 deaths over the last 24 hours. Total cases reached 585,493.
(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 1, Israel's parliament approved a law granting the country's internal security agency limited authority to use phone surveillance to track coronavirus cases as the country struggles to contain a second outbreak.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, In South Africa some protesters against Africa’s first COVID-19 vaccine trial burned their face masks as experts note a worrying level of resistance and misinformation around testing on the continent.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 2, The United States reported more than 55,000 new COVID-19 cases, the largest daily increase any country has ever reported.
(Reuters, 72/3/20)
2020&n
A: 2002-2020
B: 2021-Present
Return to home
COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is the name given to the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
https://ncov2019.live/
2002 The SARS-COV virus jumped from a horseshoe bat to a person (possibly by way of some intermediary). The subsequent outbreak went on to kill almost 800 people worldwide.
(Econ, 3/14/20, p.15)
2003 Feb 9, In China Xinhua’s first SARS report was issued for leaders’ eyes only. By this time there were already some 300 cases and 5 deaths dating back to November 2002.
(Econ, 6/19/10, p.43)
2003 Mar 19, Doctors in Hong Kong reportedly identified the deadly pneumonia virus as belonging to the paramyxoviridae family. The severe acute respiratory illness (SARS) had killed at least 11 people and left hundreds ill. The outbreak is believed to have began in southern China in November. Later reports held that it could be a coronavirus, part of a group that cause the common cold. Many people treated with corticosteroids later developed an irreversible bone disease called avascular necrosis. By July 12, 2003, SARS killed 812 people worldwide.
(SFC, 3/15/03, p.A8)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A4)(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.B1)(WSJ, 12/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 22, Scientists believe they have found the virus responsible for the mystery SARS virus and announced a test to diagnose it.
(AP, 3/23/03)
2003 May 23, Researchers from China and Hong Kong identified a coronavirus in 3 wild mammals, palm civets, a raccoon dog and a ferret badger, sold in the live-animal food markets of South China.
(SFC, 5/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 27, It was reported that the SARS disease had killed 50 people and infected some 1,300 in 13 countries.
(WSJ, 3/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 29, Italian Dr. Carlo Urbani (46), a WHO expert on communicable diseases, died of SARS in Thailand, where he was being treated after becoming infected while working in Vietnam. Urbani was the 1st doctor to identify SARS.
(AP, 3/29/03)(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.A6)
2003 Mar 31, Hong Kong authorities quarantined more than 200 other residents in an apartment block in an effort to contain the SARS virus.
(AP, 3/31/03)
2003 Apr 4, Chinese experts in hard-hit Guangdong province told the scientists they have found a rare form of airborne chlamydia in some of their SARS patients, raising the possibility that more than one germ may be involved. Other Chinese cases suggest the disease might be passed by touching something tainted by a sick person's mucous or saliva.
(AP, 4/5/03)
2003 May 4, New lab studies reported that the SARS virus can survive outside an infected body for hours to days.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A1)
2003 May 21, Taiwan reported 35 new cases of SARS for a total of 418 with 52 deaths.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A3)
2003 May 23, Researchers from China and Hong Kong identified a coronavirus in 3 wild mammals, palm civets, a raccoon dog and a ferret badger, sold in the live-animal food markets of South China.
(SFC, 5/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 5, The WHO removed Taiwan from its list of SARS-infected areas and declared a provisional victory over the epidemic, which had killed 812 people over 5 continents. The economic losses from SARS was later estimated at about $200 billion. SARS was later classified as one of a number of zoonoses, i.e. diseases that come from animals. The epidemic in Taiwan had left 73 people dead.
(SSFC, 7/6/03, p.A3)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.84)(Econ, 3/28/20, p.35)
2003 Sep 8, Singapore health officials confirmed that a local patient has tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, the 1st new case of the disease in over 5 months.
(AP, 9/8/03)
2003 Dec 27, China announced its first suspected SARS case since July.
(AP, 12/27/03)
2003 The ViroChip, invented by Dr. Joseph DeRisi (33) of UC San Francisco, gained attention when it spotted the virus that causes the epidemic form of pneumonia called SARS.
(SFC, 9/10/08, p.B4)
2004 Jan 5, China confirmed its first SARS case since an outbreak of the disease was contained in July and authorities ordered the emergency slaughter of some 10,000 civet cats and related species after tests linked a virus found in the animals to the patient.
(AP, 1/5/04)
2004 Sep 17, Officials in Singapore reported that a soil-borne bacterial infection called melioidosis has killed 24 people there this year, making it more deadly than SARS or bird flu. The illness, also known as Whitmore's Disease, is listed by the U.S. government as a potential biological weapon but Singapore government officials said there was no sign it had been spread intentionally.
(Reuters, 9/17/04)
2004 Taiwan's government set up its Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) in the wake of the SARS epidemic. Chen Shih-chung, the minister of health, was put in charge.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.35)
2012 Jun 24, In Saudi Arabia a man (60) died from severe pneumonia complicated by renal failure. He had arrived at a Jihad hospital 11 days earlier with symptoms similar to severe case of influenza or SARS. In September an Egyptian virologist said it was caused by a new coronavirus. Months later the illness was named MERS (Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome).
(SFC, 8/14/13, p.E1)
2013 Feb 11, British health officials said a new virus from the same family as SARS, that sparked a global alert last September, has been found in a patient in Manchester who had traveled to the Middle East and Pakistan.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 15, British health officials said a fourth person in Britain has contracted a potentially fatal SARS-like virus which was unknown in humans until a few months ago, but said the risk to the population remained very low.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 May 2, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said that five people have died and two other patients were in critical condition with confirmed cases of a new respiratory coronavirus related to SARS. The new virus was first identified last year in the Middle East and several of the people infected had all traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan.
(AP, 5/2/13)
2013 May 14, Saudi Arabia confirmed four new cases of the deadly new coronavirus virus related to SARS that appears centered in the Arabian Peninsula but that has also been reported in Europe.
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 May 20, Saudi Arabia recorded another death from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing the total number of deaths in the kingdom to 16. More than 20 people have died from the virus worldwide.
(AP, 5/21/13)
2013 May 30, Saudi Arabia reported that 3 more people have died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing the total number of deaths globally to 30.
(AP, 5/30/13)
2013 Jun 1, Italy’s health minister confirmed that 3 people were being treated in Tuscany for a new respiratory virus related to SARS. The patients included a man recently back from a visit to Jordan, a related child and a work colleague.
(SSFC, 6/2/13, p.A6)
2013 Jun 2, Saudi Arabia reported that 3 more people have died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing the total number of deaths in the kingdom to 24.
(AP, 6/2/13)
2013 Jun 17, Saudi Arabia said four more people have died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing the total number of deaths to 32 in the kingdom at the center of the growing crisis.
(AP, 6/17/13)
2013 Jun 19, Doctors investigating a new respiratory virus related to SARS, said it spreads easily between people and appears to be more deadly than SARS. The biggest outbreak of the virus, now called MERS, was in Saudi Arabia.
(SFC, 6/20/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 6, In Saudi Arabia two more people died from the new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to 38 the number of deadly cases in the kingdom at the center of the growing outbreak.
(AP, 7/7/13)
2013 Jul 19, Health authorities in the United Arab Emirates said they have identified four new cases of a respiratory virus related to SARS whose main concentration has been in neighboring Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 7/19/13)
2013 Jul 27, In Saudi Arabia one more man died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to 39 the number of deadly cases in the kingdom at the center of the growing outbreak.
(AP, 7/27/13)
2013 Aug 9, European scientists reported their finding of traces of antibodies against the MERS virus in dromedary, or one-humped, camels, but not the virus itself. Some experts think bats might be infecting other animals like camels with MERS before passing it to humans. Since the virus was first identified last September, there have been 94 illnesses, including 46 deaths, from MERS, or Middle East respiratory syndrome.
(AP, 8/9/13)
2013 Aug 25, Saudi Arabia said a Saudi man (51) has died of the coronavirus MERS, bringing the kingdom's death toll from the SARS-like virus to 41, while two new cases were registered.
(AFP, 8/25/13)
2013 Aug 26, Qatar health authorities announced the 2nd confirmed case in a week of the MERS coronavirus in the Gulf state, with a 29-year-old man infected and in intensive care.
(AFP, 8/27/13)
2013 Aug 28, Saudi health authorities said another Saudi man has died of the coronavirus MERS, bringing the kingdom's death toll from the SARS-like virus to 42, adding a new case was registered.
(AFP, 8/28/13)
2013 Aug 30, In Saudi Arabia another Saudi man died of the coronavirus MERS, bringing the kingdom's death toll from the SARS-like virus to 43.
(AP, 8/30/13)
2013 Sep 4, Qatar reported that a woman has died after contracting the MERS coronavirus, becoming the first recorded fatality from the SARS-like virus in the Gulf state.
(AFP, 9/4/13)
2013 Sep 6, Saudi Arabia’s health ministry said 2 women have died of MERS, bringing the total number of fatalities in the kingdom to 44.
(AFP, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 8, In Saudi Arabia another three people were reported dead after contracting the MERS coronavirus, bringing the kingdom's total fatalities of the SARS-like virus to 47.
(AFP, 9/8/13)
2013 Oct 4, The World Health Organization said the global number of infections with the deadly MERS virus has risen to 136, after hard-hit Saudi Arabia confirmed six new cases.
(AFP, 10/4/13)
2013 Oct 30, Oman said it has discovered the first case of the MERS coronavirus in the Gulf sultanate, a 68-year-old Omani man.
(AFP, 10/30/13)
2013 Nov 10, Saudi Arabia announced another fatality from the MERS virus, taking its toll to 53, as neighbouring Oman recorded its first death from the respiratory disease.
(AFP, 11/10/13)
2013 Nov 13, Kuwait said it has discovered its first case of the MERS coronavirus for a citizen who is in "critical condition." Later in the day Kuwait reported its 2nd case for a man who just returned from abroad.
(AFP, 11/13/13)(AFP, 11/14/13)
2013 Nov 13, The WHO said some 21 nations in the Middle East and nearby regions have jointly made the eradication of polio an emergency priority and recognized that Pakistan is a key part of the problem.
(AP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 20, Saudi health authorities announced a new MERS death, raising to 54 the number of people killed by the coronavirus.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 22, Qatar health authorities said an expatriate (48) has died of MERS, bringing to four the number of deaths in the Gulf state from the coronavirus.
(AFP, 11/22/13)
2013 Nov 24, Saudi Arabia said one more person has died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to 55 the number of deaths in the kingdom at the center of the outbreak.
(AP, 11/24/13)
2014 Jan 29, Saudi health authorities announced a new MERS death, bringing to 59 the number of people who have died from the coronavirus in the country with the most fatalities.
(AFP, 1/29/14)
2014 Apr 9, Saudi health authorities said that 11 people in the western city of Jiddah have contracted the Middle East respiratory syndrome, resulting in two recent deaths, bringing to at least 66 the number of people who have died of MERS in the kingdom.
(AP, 4/9/14)
2014 Apr 11, The United Arab Emirates announced that one of six Filipino paramedics in Abu Dhabi, who have been infected by the MERS coronavirus, has died from the respiratory disease. The WHO said that it had been told of 212 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection worldwide, of which 88 have proved fatal.
(AFP, 4/11/14)
2014 Apr 13, A Malaysian man (54), who went on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, became the first death in Asia from Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
(AP, 4/16/14)
2014 Apr 21, Saudi Arabia announced 17 new cases of MERS, bring the total number of Saudi infections to 261, of whom 81 have died. King Abdullah fired health minister Abdullah al-Rabiah.
(SFC, 4/22/14, p.A2)(Reuters, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 23, Saudi Arabia announced 11 new cases of MERS, including a 13-year-old child. Acting health minister Adel Fakieh vowed to keep the public better informed on the coronavirus.
(AFP, 4/23/14)
2014 Apr 24, Saudi Arabia's health ministry said two more patients who became infected with a Middle East virus related to SARS have died, and that 13 others have contracted the MERS virus. The deaths bring to 83 the number of people who have died in the kingdom since contracting the virus in September 2012.
(AP, 4/24/14)
2014 Apr 25, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said that five more people in the kingdom have died from MERS. The ministry says 92 people have died and 313 have contracted the virus in Saudi since September 2012.
(AP, 4/26/14)
2014 Apr 26, In Egypt a 27-year-old civil engineer was diagnosed with MERS after returning from Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 4/26/14)
2014 Apr 26, Two Saudi nationals died from MERS, taking the death toll from the coronavirus in the worst-hit country to 94.
(AFP, 4/27/14)
2014 May 2, US Health officials confirmed the first case of an American infected with MERS, a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East. The man fell ill after flying to the US late last week from Saudi Arabia where he was a health care worker.
(AP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 4, Saudi Arabia's health ministry said one more patient who contracted the potentially fatal Middle East virus related to SARS has died and that 14 new cases have been detected. The new 14 cases raised the number of those infected in Saudi Arabia to 411.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 7, Saudi health authorities said four more people have died after contracting MERS, a Middle East respiratory virus. Saudi Arabia has reported 449 cases and 121 deaths from MERS.
(AP, 5/8/14)
2014 May 8, Lebanon recorded its first case of the often-fatal Middle East respiratory virus (MERS). The patient had recently returned from a visit to several Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 9, Saudi Arabia's health ministry said the death toll from MERS has risen by five to 126 fatalities since the mystery respiratory virus first appeared in the kingdom in 2012.
(AFP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 11, In Jordan a man died after being infected with the MERS virus.
(AFP, 5/12/14)
2014 May 11, Saudi Arabia reported that three new deaths from MERS had taken its death toll from the disease to 142.
(AFP, 5/12/14)
2014 May 11, A 2nd US case of MERS was diagnosed in Florida in a man visiting from Saudi Arabia.
(SFC, 5/13/14, p.A10)
2014 May 13, Saudi health authorities reported another five deaths from MERS. The potentially fatal Middle Eastern respiratory virus has sickened hundreds in the kingdom. A total of 152 people have now died and 495 have been confirmed to have contracted the virus in Saudi Arabia since it was discovered in 2012.
(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 17, US health officials reported what appears to be the first time that a mysterious Middle East virus (MERS) has spread from one person to another in the United States. An Illinois man probably picked up an infection from an Indiana man who earlier this month became the first US case of Middle East respiratory syndrome.
(AP, 5/18/14)
2014 May 28, In Jordan a man (69) died after being infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus. This brought to 6 the number of fatalities in Jordan from MERS since it first emerged in 2012.
(AFP, 6/1/14)
2014 May 29, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said 13 people have died over the last two weeks from the Middle Eastern respiratory virus and that 186 people in total have died from the MERS virus since it was discovered in 2012.
(AP, 5/29/14)
2014 Jun 4, The UAE said the MERS coronavirus has killed 10 people and infected 68 in the United Arab Emirates since March 2013.
(AFP, 6/4/14)
2014 Sep 3, The Philippine Health Secretary said a nurse who flew home from Saudi Arabia last week has been confirmed as the Philippines' second case of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
(AP, 9/3/14)
2014 Oct 16, Saudi Arabia’s health ministry said it is seeing "sporadic" cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which has killed 324 people in the country since 2012.
(AFP, 10/16/14)
2015 Feb 21, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said two more people have died after contracting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS, pushing the total number of deaths from the virus in the kingdom to 385.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 27, Saudi Arabia said ten more people have died from MERS over the past week, after an international mission urged extra measures to combat the virus.
(AFP, 2/27/15)
2015 May 21, South Korea a third case of MERS, a respiratory virus that has killed hundreds of people in the Middle East.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)
2015 May 29, South Korea confirmed five MERS cases, bringing the total number of patients infected with the potentially deadly virus to 12, including a man who defied a quarantine protocol and travelled to China.
(AFP, 5/29/15)
2015 Jun 1, South Korean health officials said more than 680 people are being isolated after having contact with patients infected with the MERS virus that has killed hundreds of people in the Middle East.
(AP, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 4, South Korea confirmed a third death from MERS. 1,164 schools and kindergartens were reported to be temporarily shut down.
(SFC, 6/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 6, A German man (65) died after contracting MERS during a trip to Abu Dhabi, in the first death linked to the virus in Europe this year.
(AFP, 6/16/15)
2015 Jun 6, South Korea confirmed nine more cases of the MERS virus, which has killed four people, but said it did not represent a spread of the outbreak as the infected were already in quarantine.
(AFP, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 7, South Korea bowed to public pressure and identified 24 health facilities where infections took place or MERS patients visited. It reported 14 confirmed new cases of MERS and a 5th death.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)
2015 Jun 9, South Korea reported its seventh death from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as the government said it hoped to end the crisis this week. Eight new infections brought the total number of cases to 95.
(AFP, 6/9/15)
2015 Jun 11, South Korea reported a 10th death from the MERS virus. Officials said they believe the disease has peaked.
(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 12, In South Korea 3 MERS patients in their 70s died, raising the country's number of MERS-related deaths to 13. Authorities temporarily closed two hospitals amid persistent fears over the MERS virus outbreak. Rescue teams digging through the debris pulled the bodies of 6 civilians from under the rubble.
(AP, 6/12/15)
2015 Jun 13, South Korea recorded its 14th death from the MERS virus and a dozen new infections.
(AP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 14, South Korea's Ministry of Health reported seven new MERS cases, taking the total to 145, as a 15th person died. The Samsung Medical Center in Seoul said it was suspending all non-emergency surgery and would take no new patients to focus on stopping MERS after more than 70 cases were traced to it.
(Reuters, 6/14/15)
2015 Jun 16, In South Korea the death toll in the MERS outbreak increased to 19 even as schools reopened and people recovered from the virus.
(AP, 6/16/15)
2015 Jun 18, In South Korea the death toll from Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) increased to 23.
(AP, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 18, Thailand confirmed its first case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus in a businessman from Oman.
(Reuters, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 21, South Korea reported three new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), bringing the total to 169 in the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia.
(Reuters, 6/21/15)
2015 Jul 2, South Korea reported two new cases of the potentially deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, after four days in which no cases were spotted.
(AFP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 28, South Korea said it is now virtually free of the deadly MERS virus that killed 36 people and sickened nearly 200 since an outbreak was declared in May.
(AP, 7/28/15)
2015 Aug 19, Saudi authorities said they have closed an emergency ward in King Abdulaziz Medical City after at least 46 people, including hospital staff, contracted the potentially fatal Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The Health Ministry recorded three new MERS deaths in Riyadh. That brings the total number of deaths to 483 since the virus was first identified in 2012.
(AP, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 27, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said 15 more people have died in the last seven days after contracting the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
(AP, 8/27/15)
2016 Jan 25, Thailand’s health ministry said it has quarantined 32 people as it seeks to prevent the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) after a second case of the virus was detected on Jan 22.
(Reuters, 1/25/16)
2016 Mar 10, Qatar health officials said a 66-year-old Qatari man has died after contracting the MERS virus, in the first fatal case in the Gulf state for 10 months.
(AFP, 3/10/16)
2018 May, The Trump administration dismantled the National Security Council directorate at the White House charged with preparing for when, not if, another pandemic would hit the nation. The apparatus had been put in place 5 years before in the face of the Ebola crisis. John Bolton, the national security adviser, "streamlined the National Security Council and , in the process, closed its pandemic preparedness office.
(AP, 3/14/20)(Econ, 4/11/20, p.17)
2018 Sep 8, South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said a South Korean man (61) has been diagnosed with the potentially deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) after a business trip to Kuwait. The infectious disease swept South Korea in 2015 leading to 38 fatalities.
(Reuters, 9/8/18)
2019 Dec 30, The first public alert outside China about a novel coronavirus came from the automated HealthMap system at Boston Children's Hospital.
(SFC, 2/24/20, p.D1)
2019 Dec 31, Chinese health authorities said they are investigating 27 cases of viral pneumonia in the central city of Wuhan, after rumors on social media suggested the outbreak could be linked to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The disease later identified as COVID-19 was first reported by Chinese authorities to the WHO, and was not previously believed to have spread to Europe until January.
(Reuters, 12/31/19)(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2019 Dec, Taiwan sent an early warning to the World Health Organization (WHO) late this month about the risk of transmission of the coronavirus between humans. The warning was not shared by the WHO because of its relationship with China.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.14)
2020 Jan 3, In China the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said 44 people have been diagnosed with pneumonia, the cause of which is unknown. That’s up from 27 three days earlier. Eleven people were in serious condition.
(Bloomberg, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 5- 2020 Jan 17, In China hundreds of patients were appearing in hospitals not just in Wuhan but across the country with symptoms of the coronavirus.
(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Jan 8, Researchers in Germany said a review of fatal encephalitis cases in the state of Bavaria has found that more than twice as many as previously known were tied to a rare animal-borne virus. Borna disease virus 1, or BoDV-1, is normally found in horses, sheep and other mammals. It was first identified as the cause of severe human encephalitis in 2018.
(AP, 1/8/20)
2020 Jan 8, The World Health Organization (WHO) said a cluster of more than 50 pneumonia cases in China's central city of Wuhan may be due to a newly emerging member of the family of viruses that caused the deadly SARS and MERS outbreaks.
(Reuters, 1/8/20)
2020 Jan 9, Chinese state media reported that a preliminary investigation into viral pneumonia illnesses sickening dozens of people in and around the country has identified the possible cause as a new type of coronavirus.
(SFC, 1/10/20, p.A3)
2020 Jan 10, The genetic sequence of SARS-COV—2, the virus which causes COVID-19, was published.
(Econ, 4/18/20, p.13)
2020 Jan 11, In China health authorities said a 61-year-old man has died from pneumonia in the central city of Wuhan after an outbreak of a yet to be identified virus while seven others are in critical condition. A total of 41 people have been diagnosed with the pathogen.
(Reuters, 1/11/20)
2020 Jan 13, The WHO said that Thai officials have reported that a traveler from the Chinese city of Wuhan has been hospitalized in Thailand with a recently identified new type of coronavirus. The report galvanized leaders in Beijing into recognizing the possible pandemic before them.
(AP, 1/13/20)(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Jan 15, US CDC researchers in late May announced that the first US coronavirus infection to be identified was a traveler, a Washington state man who returned this day from Wuhan, China, and sought help at a clinic on Jan. 19.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 Jan 15, Li Qun, the head of the China CDC’s emergency center, told Chinese state television that “The risk of sustained human-to-human transmission is low," in response to increasing cases of the coronavirus.
(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Jan 16, In China officials in Wuhan and elsewhere under new orders finally got CDC-approved testing kits and a green light to start confirming new cases. Across the country, dozens of reported cases then began to surface, in some cases among patients who were infected earlier but had not yet been tested.
(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Jan 16, Japan recorded its first case of the coronavirus.
(Econ., 5/23/20, p.28)
2020 Jan 18, Chinese health authorities said they had discovered four more cases of pneumonia following an outbreak of what is believed to be a new coronavirus strain in the central city of Wuhan, raising concerns that the disease could spread further.
(Reuters, 1/18/20)
2020 Jan 19, Chinese authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO) said a new strain of coronavirus is behind the outbreak of pneumonia in the central city of Wuhan, which has erupted just ahead of the Lunar New Year, the country's biggest festival. As of today there were 65 confirmed cases of patients with pneumonia caused by the new strain of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 1/19/20)
2020 Jan 20, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country would curb the spread of an outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new coronavirus. A leading Chinese epidemiologist, Zhong Nanshan, announced for the first time that the virus was transmissible from person to person on national television, a development that raises the possibility that it could spread more quickly and widely.
(AP, 1/20/20)(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Jan 20, Slovakia said it has detected its second case of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus at a farm in the west of the country.
(Reuters, 1/20/20)
2020 Jan 20, The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said Ukraine has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5 bird flu on a farm in the west-central part of the country, the first of such outbreak in nearly three years. The outbreak killed 4,856 birds out of a flock of 98,000 in Vinnitsa. The rest of the flock was slaughtered.
(Reuters, 1/20/20)
2020 Jan 21, Alex Azar 52), the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, appeared on Fox News to report the latest on the coronavirus as it ravaged China. The lawyer and former drug industry executive assured Americans the US government was prepared. Shortly after his televised comments, Azar tapped a trusted aide with minimal public health experience to lead the agency’s day-to-day response to COVID-19. The aide, Brian Harrison, had joined the department after running a dog-breeding business for six years.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Jan 22, Deaths from China's new virus rose to 17 with more than 540 cases confirmed, increasing fears of contagion from an infection suspected to originate from illegally-traded wildlife. A patient infected with the new coronavirus died in Hebei province, marking the first confirmed death outside Hubei province where the outbreak began. This raised the death toll from the outbreak to 18.
(Reuters, 1/22/20)(Reuters, 1/23/20)
2020 Jan 22, North Korea banned foreign tourists to guard against the spread of a new virus from China.
(AP, 1/22/20)
2020 Jan 22, Singapore began taking the temperatures of air passengers arriving from China, a day before China stopped travel into and out of Wuhan.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.26)
2020 Jan 23, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its travel alert for the coronavirus outbreak to a level 3, recommending people avoid all nonessential travel to Wuhan, China. The outbreak has now killed 18 and infected nearly 600 people globally.
(Reuters, 1/23/20)
2020 Jan 23, Chinese authorities moved to lock down three cities with a combined population of more than 18 million in an unprecedented effort to contain the deadly new virus that has sickened hundreds of people and spread to other parts of the world during the busy Lunar New Year travel period. The train station and airport in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, were shut down, and ferry, subway and bus service was halted. Similar measures would take effect the following day in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou. Wuhan underwent a 76-day lockdown. The virus death toll in Wuhan ended in mid-May with 3,869 fatalities.
(AP, 1/23/20)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.42)
2020 Jan 24, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed a second US case of the new coronavirus from China in a Chicago woman, and said as many as 63 potential cases were being investigated as the sometimes deadly illness continues to spread around the globe.
(Reuters, 1/24/20)
2020 Jan 24, China announced that it is swiftly building a 1,000-bed hospital dedicated to patients infected with a new virus that has killed 26 people, sickened hundreds and prompted unprecedented lockdowns of cities during the country's most important holiday.
(AP, 1/24/20)
2020 Jan 24, More airports began to screen passengers arriving from China amid growing concerns over the outbreak of a new virus there that has already killed more than two dozen people and sickened hundreds.
(AP, 1/24/20)
2020 Jan 24, An official in Kathmandu said a Nepali student home from China tested positive for the new coronavirus, making it the first confirmed case in the Himalayan nation.
(Reuters, 1/24/20)
2020 Jan 25, Australia declared its first confirmed case of the Wuhan coronavirus in the state of Victoria, with the patient hospitalized in a stable condition in a suburb of Melbourne.
(Reuters, 1/25/20)
2020 Jan 25, China's President Xi Jinping called the accelerating spread of a new virus a grave situation, as cities from the outbreak's epicenter in central China to Hong Kong scrambled to stop the spread of an illness that has infected more than 1,200 people and killed 41.
(AP, 1/25/20)
2020 Jan 25, Japan said it has confirmed a third case of infection by China's coronavirus.
(AP, 1/25/20)
2020 Jan 26, China banned wildlife trade nationwide in markets, supermarkets, restaurants, and e-commerce platforms due to the coronavirus outbreak. The new viral illness accelerated its spread with 56 deaths so far and a total of 1,975 infections.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)(AP, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 26, A group of Hong Kong protesters set alight the lobby of a newly built residential building that authorities planned to use as a quarantine facility, as public fears in the financial hub about the coronavirus outbreak intensified. Anger grew towards government plans to convert the building into a quarantine zone as the number of confirmed cases in the city climbed to six.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 26, Japan confirmed a fourth case of infection by China's coronavirus.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 26, The health minister in Thailand, the country with the most confirmed cases outside China of the new coronavirus, called an emergency meeting with the transport and tourism ministries amid rising public discontent over the government's handling of the illness.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 26, US officials said five people in the United States, all of whom recently traveled from Wuhan, China, have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 1/27/20)
2020 Jan 27, The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 81 and a small number of cases linked to people who travelled from Wuhan were confirmed in more than 10 countries. US stocks fell more than 1% as investors worried about the economic fallout of the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak in China that has prompted the country to extend the Lunar New Year holidays and businesses to close some operations.
(Reuters, 1/27/20)
2020 Jan 29, A memo by Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade adviser, warned that failing to contain a coronavirus outbreak could cost the US trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death. This was not made public until April 7.
(NY Times, 4/7/20)
2020 Jan 29, In China the number of confirmed coronavirus cases jumped to 5,974, surpassing the 5,327 in mainland China during the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003. The death toll rose to 132.
(AP, 1/29/20)
2020 Jan 30, China raised the death toll from the coronavirus to 170 and more countries reported infections from a new virus, including some spread locally, as foreign evacuees from China's worst-hit region returned home to medical tests and even isolation.
(AP, 1/30/20)
2020 Jan 30, North Korea said it is intensifying efforts to prevent the spread of a new virus from China into the isolated country by blocking tourists, reducing flights and mobilizing more screening efforts.
(AP, 1/30/20)
2020 Jan 30, The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global public health emergency over the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, citing the potential of the virus to spread to countries not prepared to deal with the contagion.
(South China Morning Post, 1/31/20)
2020 Jan 31, SF Bay Area's Santa Clara County reported its first coronavirus case.
(SSFC, 3/22/20, p.A12)
2020 Jan 31, China counted 9,692 confirmed cases of coronavirus with a death toll of 213, including 43 new fatalities. The United States drew China's wrath with a travel warning while businesses struggled with supply problems from the coronavirus epidemic that has killed 213 people and been declared a global emergency.
(AP, 1/31/20)(Reuters, 1/31/20)
2020 Jan 31, Guatemala said it is imposing travel restrictions on people who have recently been in China to prevent the new coronavirus entering the Central American country.
(Reuters, 1/31/20)
2020 Jan 31, Sweden reported its first confirmed case of coronavirus.
{Sweden, Microbiology}
(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Jan 31, Vietnam Airlines said it will suspend its flights to destinations in China from next week over coronavirus concerns.
(Reuters, 1/31/20)
2020 Jan 31, The Trump administration declared a public health emergency and announced series of steps to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has stricken China and spread to countries around the world.
(Bloomberg, 1/31/20)
2020 Jan, The Federated State of Micronesia banned entry to travelers late this month from countries with confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.34)
2020 Jan, Taiwan's contact-tracing team late this month successfully used a mixture of data to track down the source of infection for the island's first COVID-19 death.
(Econ, 4/18/20, p.60)
2020 Feb 1, Australia banned all arrivals from China due to the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.35)
2020 Feb 1, China’s death toll from a new virus rose to 259 and the number of confirmed cases in China rose to 11,791. A World Health Organization official said other governments need to prepare for "domestic outbreak control" if the disease spreads in their countries. At least 24 countries have reported cases since China informed WHO about the new virus in late December. The WHO counted 2,115 new cases.
(AP, 2/1/20)(Econ., 7/4/20, p.10)c
2020 Feb 1, Indonesian officials said that around 250 of its nationals being evacuated from China's Hubei province, the center of the coronavirus epidemic, will be quarantined in its Natuna Islands military base.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 1, Japan moved to contain the economic impact of a coronavirus outbreak originating in China as strict new measures aimed at limiting the spread of the virus, including targeting foreign visitors, came into effect. Japan had 17 confirmed cases as of Jan. 31, including some without symptoms.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 1, Three Philippine airlines cancelled flights to China, joining many others around the world that have done the same, after health officials confirmed the Philippines' first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 1, Russia's aerospace defence forces began evacuating Russian citizens from China due to the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 2, China's coronavirus has infected at least 14,000 people since it was first detected in late December and spread to about two dozen countries although most, like the United States, have few cases. The incubation period is so long that people may not know where or when they picked it up. Based on the first 425 confirmed cases in China, each infection led to 2.2 others on average.
(AP, 2/2/20)
2020 Feb 2, The US military command in South Korea instituted a 14-day self quarantine for any troops who recently traveled to China, adding that an outbreak in that country of a new coronavirus could harm military readiness.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 2, California health officials said they had confirmed 11 cases of the new, fast-spreading coronavirus in the United States, with one in Santa Clara County and two more in San Benito County.
(Reuters, 2/2/20)
2020 Feb 2, The Philippines recorded the first death outside China from the new coronavirus, as countries around the world evacuated hundreds of their citizens from the infection zone and Chinese authorities completed a new, rapidly constructed 1,000-bed hospital for victims of the outbreak.
(AP, 2/2/20)
2020 Feb 2, The Philippines's Department of Agriculture said blood samples taken from pigs in a southern province tested positive for the African swine fever virus.
(Reuters, 2/2/20)
2020 Feb 3, China accused the United States of whipping up panic over a fast-spreading coronavirus with travel restrictions and evacuations as Chinese stocks plunged on the first day back from the extended Lunar New Year holiday.
(Reuters, 2/3/20)
2020 Feb 3, In China the first patients arrived at a 1,000-bed hospital built in 10 days as part of China's sweeping efforts to fight a new virus that is causing global alarm. A woman (36) in the northern municipality of Tianjin was detained by police after "deliberately concealing" her contact with someone from a coronavirus-stricken area. Authorities reported 425 deaths and 20,438 confirmed cases. At least 180 cases have been confirmed outside China.
(AP, 2/3/20)(Reuters, 2/3/20)(SFC, 2/4/20, p.A3)
2020 Feb 4, The US Department of Health and Human Services said it was partnering with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc to develop a treatment for the coronavirus, making the drugmaker the latest to join the race to develop a therapy.
(Reuters, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 4, Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd said has canceled eight cruises out of China through March 4 in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 4, Officials in the Chinese city of Macao asked its 41 casinos to close for half a month to help the stop the coronavirus.
(SFC, 2/5/20, p.A3)
2020 Feb 4, Hong Kong hospitals cut services as thousands of medical workers went on strike for a second day to demand the border with mainland China be shut completely, as a new virus caused its first death in the semi-autonomous territory and authorities feared it was spreading locally. The fast-spreading outbreak has killed 490 people with 24,324 confirmed cases.
(AP, 2/4/20)(Reuters, 2/4/20)(SFC, 2/5/20, p.A3)
2020 Feb 4, The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said Saudi Arabia has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus on a poultry farm.
(AP, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 4, The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said Vietnam has reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N6 bird flu in a village in the northern part of the country.
(AP, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 5, It was reported that at least 10 people aboard a cruise ship moored in Japan have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Diamond Princess will remain under quarantine in Yokohama with everyone on board for at least 14 days. Three more cruise ship passengers were soon diagnosed with the virus in Japan for a total of 64 on board the ship.
(Good Morning America, 2/5/20)(AP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 6, A female (57) resident of Santa Clara County, Calif., died of the coronavirus, making this the earliest known victims of the pandemic in the United States. A 2nd resident (69) died on Feb. 17 and a 3rd (70) on March 6. On April 21 county health officials and the CDC said that the presence of the disease Covid-19 was determined by tissue samples from autopsies.
(https://tinyurl.com/ybvnqykd)(AP, 4/22/20)(SFC, 4/23/20, p.A7)
2020 Feb 6, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said it is ramping up efforts to develop a set of coronavirus treatments, which could be available for testing or use in some patients within a few months.
(AP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 6, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared a "people's war" against the fast-spreading coronavirus. Chinese health authorities reported 563 deaths and another sharp jump in the number of confirmed cases to 28,018. Outside mainland China, at least 260 cases have been confirmed. China finished building a second new hospital to isolate and treat patients of the virus.
(Reuters, 2/6/20)(AP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 6, A US citizen (60) died from the coronavirus in Wuhan, China. It was the first known American death from the illness, and was likely to add to diplomatic frictions over Beijing’s response to the epidemic.
(NY Times, 2/8/20)
2020 Feb 6, Greek officials said they have detected their first case of African swine fever at a breeding farm in the north of the country this week. African swine fever is harmless to humans but it is highly contagious and deadly in pigs. It has spread from Africa to Europe and Asia and has already killed hundreds of millions of pigs, affecting global meat markets.
(Reuters, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 6, Russia said it has begun checking the body temperature of officials and reporters attending events involving President Vladimir Putin due to coronavirus fears.
(AFP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 6, Saudi Arabia barred its citizens and residents of the kingdom from traveling to China amid the new virus outbreak.
(AP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 7, It was reported that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has signed into law quarantine rules for Brazilians who will be brought back from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 7, China confirmed 31,161 cases and 636 deaths on the mainland. Dr. Li Wenliang (34) died overnight due to the coronavirus at Wuhan Central Hospital. Police in December had reprimanded eight doctors including ophthalmologist Li for warning friends on social media about the emerging threat.
(AP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 7, Independent scientists questioned research that suggested that the outbreak of coronavirus disease spreading from China might have passed from bats to humans through the illegal traffic of pangolins. South China Agricultural University had led the research.
(Reuters, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 8, China's city of Wuhan, at the center of the coronavirus outbreak, opened another makeshift hospital, providing 1,500 beds.
(Reuters, 2/8/20)
2020 Feb 8, The World Health Organization (WHO) said the death toll in mainland China has risen to 723, looking likely to pass the 774 deaths recorded globally during the 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). A total of 34,546 cases were reported on the mainland. The virus has spread to 27 countries and regions, based on official reports, infecting more than 330 people.
(Reuters, 2/8/20)(AP, 2/8/20)
2020 Feb 8, France said it is closing two schools and tried to reassure vacationers in the Alps after five British citizens, including a 9-year-old child, contracted the new virus from China at a French ski resort.
(AP, 2/8/20)
2020 Feb 9, China raised the death toll from its coronavirus outbreak to 811. Total confirmed coronavirus cases in China stood at 37,198.
(Reuters, 2/9/20)
2020 Feb 9, The Philippines confirmed that African swine fever infections had spread in the south of the country, which accounts for nearly a third of the nation's 12.8 million pig herd.
(Reuters, 2/9/20)
2020 Feb 9, Spain's National Center for Microbiology confirmed the country's second case of new coronavirus, after tests on one of four people suspected of having the virus in Mallorca came back positive. The other three were negative.
(Reuters, 2/9/20)
2020 Feb 10, Officially, much of China got back to work, but there were few signs of activity on the streets of the capital, Beijing, as the new coronavirus has now killed 909 people and sickened 40,235. An advance World Health Organization team of medical experts arrived in China to help investigate the coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 2/10/20)(Reuters, 2/10/20)
2020 Feb 11, China reported 42,708 confirmed cases, including 1,017 deaths. More than 300 cases were also reported in at least 24 other countries. Franco-British biotech company Novacyt said it can offer a coronavirus test that is faster than rival methods by focusing on a narrow sequence of DNA coding.
(Reuters, 2/11/20)
2020 Feb 11, The UN's World Health Organization convened outside experts to fast-track promising tests, drugs and vaccines to help slow the outbreak of a new virus that emerged in China that has killed more than 1,000 people and spread to two dozen other countries. The coronavirus is now called COVID-19.
(AP, 2/11/20)(ABC News, 2/11/20)
2020 Feb 12, China's leadership touted "positive results" from efforts to contain the new coronavirus epidemic but warned it still faced a "large-scale war" against the outbreak. The death toll rose to 1,113, while more than 44,600 people had been infected by the newly named COVID-19 virus.
(AFP, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 12, It was reported that two Russian women who were kept in isolation for possible inflection by a new virus say they fled from their Russian hospitals this month because of uncooperative doctors, poor conditions and fear they would become infected.
(AP, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 12, This year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, was cancelled by trade show organizer GSMA due to coronavirus concerns.
(SFC, 2/13/20, p.D1)
2020 Feb 13, US officials reported the 15th case of coronavirus in the United States, saying the patient was among those who had been evacuated from Wuhan, China, and placed under federal quarantine at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
(Reuters, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 13, LabCorp said it has begun work on developing its own test for the coronavirus that has killed over 1,300 in China.
(Reuters, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 13, The cruise ship MS Westerdam, stranded at sea for about two weeks after being refused entry by four Asian governments because of virus fears, finally docked in Cambodia. No cases of the COVID-19 viral illness have been confirmed among its 1,455 passengers and 802 crew members.
(AP, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 13, Diplomats and experts said China is dragging its heels in accepting help on the ground from international health specialists. China has recorded 48,206 cases of a new coronavirus, now known as SARS-CoV-2. The death toll in Hubei province, which includes Wuhan, leapt by a record 242 to 1,310, with a sharp rise in confirmed cases after the adoption of new methodology for diagnosis. China's Communist Party fired several senior officials in Hubei province, the center of the new coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 2/13/20)(The Week, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 13, Confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus in mainland China rose to 63,851 by the end of today, up 5,090 from the previous day. The death toll rose 121 to 1,380.
(AP, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 13, Japan announced its first death from a new virus from China, hours after confirming 44 more cases on a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo as fears of the spreading disease mount in the country. The Diamond Princess, which is still carrying nearly 3,500 passengers and crew members, now has 218 people infected with the virus out of 713 tested since it entered Yokohama Port on Feb. 3.
(AP, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 14, Zeng Yixin, vice minister of China's National Health Commission, told reporters that 1,716 medical workers have tested positive for the newly discovered virus, known officially as COVID-19, and six of them have died.
(ABC News, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 14, Egypt's Health Ministry confirmed the first case of the new virus in the North African country.
(AP, 2/14/20)
2020 Feb 14, Paraguay health officials said that deaths from dengue fever increased to 16 in the South American country's worst outbreak of the disease in the last decade, severely straining its health system.
(Reuters, 2/14/20)
2020 Feb 15, China reported 143 virus deaths and a dip in new cases. China reported 2,641 new cases in the 24 hours through midnight Feb. 14, raising its total to 66,492. Mainland China’s death toll rose to 1,523.
(AP, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 15, French authorities said an 80-year-old Chinese tourist infected with the coronavirus has died in France, the first fatality in Europe and the fourth outside mainland China from the epidemic.
(AP, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 15, In Hong Kong hundreds of anti-government protesters marched in multiple neighborhoods against government plans to potentially turn some buildings into coronavirus quarantine centers, demanding full closure of the mainland China border.
(Reuters, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 15, Malaysia said an 83-year-old American passenger on the Westerdam cruise ship that docked in Cambodia has tested positive for the new coronavirus. The woman had taken a flight to Malaysia a day earlier from Cambodia.
(Reuters, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 16, China reported a drop in new virus cases for the third straight day. Its latest figures showed 68,500 cases and 1,665 deaths due to the COVID-19 virus, most of the in Hubei province. The National Health Commission reported 2,009 new cases and 142 deaths.
(AP, 2/16/20)(Reuters, 2/16/20)
2020 Feb 16, Taiwan's health minister said a man has died from the coronavirus, marking the first such death on the island since the epidemic spread from mainland China.
(Reuters, 2/16/20)
2020 Feb 17, China's health authorities reported 2,048 new cases of the virus and 105 more deaths. Another 10,844 people have recovered from COVID-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus, and have been discharged from hospitals. The death toll reached 1,770 with 70,548 cases. Another 1,200 doctors and nurses from China's military began arriving in Wuhan, the latest contingent sent to help shore up the city's overwhelmed health care system.
(AP, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 17, A Chinese professor said doctors in Shanghai are using infusions of blood plasma from people who have recovered from the coronavirus to treat those still battling the infection, reporting some encouraging preliminary results.
(Reuters, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 17, Japanese officials confirmed 99 more people were infected by the new virus aboard the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 454.
(AP, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 17, Two charter flights carrying cruise ship passengers from Japan landed at military bases in California and Texas overnight, starting the clock on a quarantine period to ensure passengers don't have the new virus that's been spreading in Asia.
(AP, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 17, Biotechnology company Novacyt said that it had launched a 'CE-Mark' molecular test to help detect the coronavirus afflicting China, marking a step forward in Novacyt's plans to commercialize a product for the virus.
(Reuters, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 17, Bulgaria's food safety agency authorities reported an outbreak of the H5N8 bird flu virus on a duck farm in the southern town of Rakovski. The agency said all 5,830 ducks at the farm will be culled.
(AP, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 18, Cambodian health authorities said that 409 of the 2,257 passengers and crew of the Westerdam had left Cambodia for their homes scattered across the globe. The rest remain in hotels in Phnom Penh, the capital, or on the ship. After hundreds of passengers had earlier disembarked, one soon tested positive for the coronavirus.
(NY Times, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 18, China reported 1,886 new cases and 98 more deaths. That raised the number of deaths in mainland China to 1,868 and the total number of confirmed cases to 72,436. China reported the death of Dr. Liu Zhiming (51), the man who mobilized all the resources of his hospital in Wuhan's Wuchang district to deal with the thousands of sick people arriving daily.
(AP, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 18, French drugmaker Sanofi said it is working with a US government agency to develop a vaccine against the new coronavirus from China, saying it could have a candidate ready for clinical trials within a year.
(Reuters, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 18, Japan, announced that 88 more cases of the virus were confirmed aboard a quarantined cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 542 among the 3,700 initially on board.
(AP, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 19, China's President Xi Jinping called for greater protection of medical staff fighting the new coronavirus after the deaths of prominent doctors sparked national anger at the government's handling of the outbreak. 1,716 medical workers have been confirmed as infected. Mainland China reported 1,749 new cases and 136 additional deaths. The death toll from the virus jumped past 2,000, while 74,185 cases of infection have been confirmed on the mainland. Inspectors in protective suits went door-to-door in the epicenter of the viral outbreak to try to find every infected person in an epidemic that is showing signs of waning as new cases fell for a second straight day.
(AFP, 2/19/20)(AP, 2/19/20)
2020 Feb 19, Two people in Iran tested positive for the deadly new coronavirus, in the Islamic republic's first cases of the disease.
(AFP, 2/19/20)
2020 Feb 20, The number of new cases in China declined again, to 394, a notable shift from the 1,749 figure released a day earlier. Another 114 deaths in China were linked to the virus. The statistics came after yet another change in how cases are counted.
(AP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 20, Iran said that three more people have been infected with the new virus that originated in central China, following an announcement the day before that two people had died of the illness caused by the virus in the city of Qom.
(AP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 20, The first case of coronavirus was confirmed in Lebanon after a woman arriving from Iran was found to be positive.
(Reuters, 2/21/20)(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Feb 20, South Korea reported its first death from the new virus while the mayor of a southeastern city urged its 2.5 million people to stay inside as infections linked to a church congregation spiked. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 22 additional cases of the virus, raising the total in South Korea to 104.
(AP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 20, The World Health Organization chided the international community for not stepping up enough to finance the battle to contain the novel coronavirus that has shut down many parts of China and killed more than 2,000 people.
(South China Morning Post, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, In Australia, two people who had been evacuated from a virus-wracked cruise ship off Japan tested positive for mild cases of the COVID-19 illness.
(AFP, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, China reported 118 more deaths from the COVID-19 virus, raising the toll to 2,236, most of them in Hubei. China tallied 889 new cases. Two correctional facilities in east China reported cases, with 200 prisoners and seven guards testing positive at Rencheng prison in Shandong province. Another 34 cases were found at a prison in Zhejiang province.
(AFP, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, An Iranian health ministry official said the coronavirus has spread to several cities in the country. Health authorities reported two more deaths from the new virus that emerged in China and said the fatalities were from among 13 new confirmed cases of the virus.
(Reuters, 2/21/20)(AP, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, An Israeli doctor said one of the 11 Israelis who were flown home after being quarantined on a cruise ship in Japan has tested positive for the new virus that emerged in China late last year, the first case to be reported inside the country. Another four Israelis were hospitalized in Japan after testing positive for the virus.
(AP, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, Italian authorities announced that a cluster of 16 coronavirus cases had been detected around Codogno, a small town in Lombardy. By the next day the number was up to 60 and five elderly people had died.
(Econ., 2/29/20, p.13)
2020 Feb 21, South Korea's government banned major rallies in its capital and declared a health emergency in its fourth largest city as 100 new virus cases were reported, bringing the country's total to 204.
(AP, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, The United Arab Emirates said it had registered two new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of people diagnosed with the virus in the Gulf Arab state to 11.
(Reuters, 2/21/20)
2020 Feb 21, Costa Mesa, California, won a battle against the state, at least temporarily, when a judge halted the transfer of people diagnosed with the coronavirus to its community for a quarantine site.
(AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 22, In China 397 new cases of coronavirus were reported nationwide and another 109 people died. The outbreak of the new COVID-19 strain has claimed 2,345 lives on the mainland and infected more than 76,000 people, with cases in more than 25 countries. State media said President Xi Jinping has written a letter thanking the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for committing up to $100 million for the global response to the outbreak.
(AFP, 2/22/20) (AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 22, In China woman traveled by car to a relative’s home in Beijing after being released from Wuhan Women’s Prison, a facility stricken by an outbreak affecting more than 250 people. Her coronavirus infection was disclosed by local officials on Feb. 26.
(AP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 22, Iranian authorities reported one more death among 10 new cases of the coronavirus. Iran ordered the closure of schools and universities in two cities hit by the virus outbreak that has killed five people, the most outside the Far East. 28 cases in total have been confirmed.
(AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 22, Israeli and Palestinian authorities sought to quell fears of a potential local outbreak of the coronavirus after learning that South Korean pilgrims who had toured some of the holy land's most popular sites were later found to be carrying the virus.
(Reuters, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 22, A dozen towns in northern Italy effectively went into lockdown after the deaths of two people infected with the new virus from China and a growing cluster of cases with no direct links to the origin of the outbreak abroad. Secondary coronavirus contagions prompted local authorities in the Lombardy and Veneto regions to order schools, businesses, and restaurants closed, and to cancel sporting events and Masses. Hundreds of residents and workers who came into contact with an estimated 54 people confirmed infected in Italy were in isolation pending test results. Two people infected with the virus have died.
(AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 22, South Korea reported an eight-fold jump in viral infections with 433 cases mostly linked to a church and a hospital.
(AP, 2/22/20)
2020 Feb 22, A South Korean Air flight with 188 passengers that landed at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport was taxied away from the allotted terminal while authorities allowed only 11 Israelis to enter the country. The next day the plane returned to South Korea with the rest of the passengers.
(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Four passengers tested positive for coronavirus in England after being evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. This brought the total number of cases in the UK to thirteen.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Mainland China reported 648 new coronavirus infections for a total of 76,936. The daily death toll fell slightly to 97. In all, 2,442 people have died in the country from COVID-19.
(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Iran’s health ministry raised the death toll from the new coronavirus to eight, with 43 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Italian authorities stepped up measures to ban public gatherings, including stopping Venice's famed carnival events, which have drawn tens of thousands of revelers to a region that is now in the heart of the outbreak. Nearly all of the known cases, including three deaths, were clustered in the north, at least 25 of them in the Veneto region. Italy reported more than 150 confirmed cases, a sharp increase from fewer than five last week. Officials locked down at least 10 towns in the northern region of Lombardy, affecting at least 50,000 people.
(AP, 2/23/20)(Reuters, 2/23/20)(NY Times, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 23, In Japan a third passenger from the virus-infected Diamond Princess cruise ship died. Japan's health ministry announced 57 more cases of infections from the ship, including 55 crew members still on board and two passengers who had infected roommates and are in a prolonged quarantine at a government facility. Japan has confirmed a total of 838 cases and four deaths from the virus.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Pakistan temporarily closed its borders with Iran, which announced a weeklong closing of schools, universities and cultural centers. The outbreak has killed at least 12 people in Iran, according to state television, the largest number of deaths outside China.
(NY Times, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 23, In Saudi Arabia finance leaders of the world's top 20 economies wrapped up their two-day meeting in Riyadh, a session that was dominated by growing concern over the widening fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. In a draft G20 communique the finance leaders clung to their upbeat projection of a modest pick-up in global growth despite the outbreak.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, South Korea raised its infectious disease alert to its highest level due to the coronavirus outbreak. South Korea announced 169 more cases of the new virus, bringing the country’s total more than 760. The country also reported three more fatalities, raising its death toll to six.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)(AP, 2/23/20)(NY Times, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 23, South Korean health authorities said that 18 of the 39 South Koreans from the southeastern region who had made a group pilgrimage to sites in Israel later tested positive for the virus.
(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 23, Turkey closed its border with Iran due to the number of coronavirus cases in its eastern neighbor.
(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 24, Afghanistan's minister of public health said one of three suspected cases had been confirmed in the Western province of Herat.
(NBC News, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Bulgaria's food safety agency authorities reported two new outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu in the southern part of the Balkan country.
(Reuters, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Chinese authorities announced 409 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 77,150. The number of coronavirus deaths was reported at 2592. Large parts of China relaxed curbs on transport and movement of people as reported new cases of the coronavirus outside the worst-hit province fell to the lowest in a month.
(NBC News, 2/24/20)(Reuters, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Iran's government vowed to be transparent after being accused of covering up the deadliest coronavirus outbreak outside China. The coronavirus death toll jumped by four to 12, by far the highest outside China. There were 47 confirmed cases.
(AFP, 2/24/20)(NBC News, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Iraq's health ministry said local health officials in the Shi'ite city of Najaf have detected the first case of coronavirus in the country, an Iranian theology student.
(Reuters, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Italy recorded a 6th coronavirus death as it became the worst-hit country in Europe, bringing the total number of cases across the country to 219. Police manned checkpoints around quarantined towns in the north and residents stocked up on food as the country became the focal point of the outbreak in Europe and fears of its cross-border spread.
(Reuters, 2/24/20)(AP, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Mongolia's National Emergency Commission halted all flights from South Korea and will block entry through its borders until March 2 as it steps up its efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, South Korea reported 833 confirmed cases with 8 dead. Health officials reported 231 new cases of COVID-19. A military spokesperson said there were 13 confirmed COVID-19 cases among the troops.
(NBC News, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 25, Mainland China had 406 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, down from 508 cases a day earlier. The death toll from the outbreak reached 2,715, up by 52 from the previous day.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 25, Iran said its coronavirus outbreak, the deadliest outside China, has infected the country's deputy health minister. The health ministry confirmed three new deaths and 34 new infections, bringing the overall tally to 15 deaths and 95 cases.
(AFP, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 25, In Iraq religious officials closed down the Imam Ali mausoleum in Najaf, allowing visitors access only to its surroundings due to the coronavirus outbreak. The health ministry advised against non-essential travel to Najaf and urged citizens to refrain from holding large gatherings.
(AP, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 25, The US Center for Disease Control warned the American public to prepare for an outbreak of the disease, which has spawned more than 80,000 cases around the world but relatively few so far in the US.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, US Pres. Donald Trump announced he was putting Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus in the US.
(Yahoo News, 2/26/20)0
2020 Feb 26, The USA stepped up travel advisories for Iran, Italy and Mongolia, warning of the risks of coronavirus or disruptions related to efforts to control the disease's spread.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, US health officials said a new coronavirus case in California, a resident of Solano County, could be the first in the US that has no known connection to travel abroad or another known case, a possible sign the virus is spreading in a US community. The patient was brought to UC Davis Medical Center from another Northern California hospital on Feb. 19, but it was four days before the CDC heeded a request to test the patient for COVID-19.
(AP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 26, US officials said the first clinical trial in the US of a possible coronavirus treatment is underway in Nebraska and is eventually expected to include 400 patients at 50 locations around the world. At least two patient studies are already underway in China, including the other study involving remdesivir, which is made by Gilead Sciences.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Biogen Inc. began hosting a two-day leadership meeting in Boston. About 175 executives gathered for a buffet dinner and cocktails at the Marriott Long Wharf overlooking Boston Harbor. On March 2 the company’s chief medical officer sent an email informing everyone who attended the leadership meeting that some people had fallen ill and telling them to contact a health care provider if they felt sick. At least 99 employees and their contacts became ill with the coronavirus.
(NY Times, 4/13/20)
2020 Feb 26, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, unveiled an $8.5 billion request to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, more than triple Pres. Trump's request.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, An employee in the US Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Seattle developed flu-like symptoms after visiting a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington. On March 3 the US Department of Homeland Security closed its field office in Seattle.
{Washington, USA, Microbiology}
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Feb 26, Algeria and Greece reported their first cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Bahrain's number of coronavirus infections rose to 26.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Brazil confirmed the first case of coronavirus in Latin America, a man in Sao Paulo who returned recently from Italy. The disease reached the Amazon region by mid-March.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Feb 26, A second person died in France overnight as health officials tried to find out how the college teacher, who had not visited any country with a known outbreak, had caught the new coronavirus disease.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, In Germany two people tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total to 18. Officials said a German couple who contracted the coronavirus had taken part in local carnival celebrations and also visited the Netherlands in the 10 days before they were diagnosed.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Iranian cyberpolice announced the arrests of 24 people accused of online rumor-mongering about the spread of a coronavirus outbreak that has claimed 19 lives in the country. The health ministry announced four more deaths and 44 new infections, including in six previously unaffected provinces. This brought the total to 139 cases.
(AFP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Iraq announced sweeping measures late today to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus, ordering the closure of schools and universities, cafes, cinemas and other public spaces until March 7. Iraq also banned travel to or from some of the worst affected countries.
(AFP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 26, Italy become a frontline in the global outbreak of the coronavirus, with over 370 cases and 12 deaths.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe called for sports and cultural events to be scrapped or curtailed for two weeks as domestic cases of coronavirus increased to 175.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Kuwait's coronavirus cases rose to 25 after 13 more cases were confirmed.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, North Macedonia said it has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus infection, diagnosed in a woman who recently arrived from Italy.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Pakistan said it has detected its first two cases of the coronavirus.
(AFP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, In South Korea the coronavirus has infected 1,260 people. 20 South Korean soldiers and one American have tested positive.
(AP, 2/26/20)(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, Thailand reported three new cases of coronavirus, taking its total tally to 40.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 26, World health officials said the coronavirus illness had now spread to 37 counties. The WHO reported that the number of new cases reported outside China exceeded the number of new cases in China for the first time.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 27, A US federal agency confirmed that a government whistleblower has filed a complaint alleging that some federal workers did not have the necessary protective gear or training when they were deployed to help Americans evacuated from China during the coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, US federal officials issued new rules allowing more people to be tested for the coronavirus.
(SFC, 2/28/20, p.A1)
2020 Feb 27, China said the number of new deaths stood at 29, the lowest daily rate since Jan. 28 and reported 433 new cases. The coronavirus has now killed 2,744 people in the country, mostly in the central province of Hubei.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, In Germany, the Berlin state government struck down the honorary citizen title of former German Pres. Paul von Hindenburg (1925-1934) citing his act of appointing Adolf Hitler as chancellor in 1933.
(SFC, 2/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Feb 27, Greek islanders on Lesbos and Chios gathered for a fourth consecutive day to protest government plans to build new migrant detention centers.
(SFC, 2/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Feb 27, Top supplier Godrej Agrovet Ltd said a false rumor that the coronavirus can be spread by chickens has slashed Indian poultry sales by almost 50%.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, It was reported that the coronavirus has killed 26 people in Iran, the highest toll outside of China where it originated. Many of the over 240 confirmed cases in the region have links to Iran, including dozens in Kuwait and Bahrain, six in Iraq and two in Lebanon.
(AP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, Iraq announced the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Baghdad, taking nationwide infections to six and raising concerns about the capacity of the dilapidated health system to respond.
(AFP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, A Japanese woman tested positive for coronavirus for a second time as the number of confirmed cases in Japan, excluding the 704 on the quarantined cruise liner, rose above 190. The death toll rose to eight after another death was reported in Hokkaido.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, In Kuwait confirmed cases of coronavirus rose to 43.
(AP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, Lebanon confirmed the country's third case of coronavirus, after a man arriving from Iran on Feb. 24 tested positive.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, It was reported that North Korea has postponed the new school term to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
(AFP, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, Saudi Arabia banned pilgrims from visiting Islam's holiest sites as the number of deaths jumped in neighboring Iran. Japan and Iraq ordered the closure of schools. Saudi Arabia made the unprecedented decision to halt the umrah pilgrimage amid the global outbreak of the coronavirus. The lesser umrah pilgrimage can be performed year-round. Nearly 20 million Muslims undertake the umrah pilgrimage each year, including more than 7 million foreign travelers.
(AFP, 2/27/20) (Good Morning America, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, South Korea reported 334 additional cases of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 27, In the past 24 hours, the WHO recorded seven nations that announced their first cases of the novel coronavirus: Brazil, Georgia, Greece, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan and Romania.
(Good Morning America, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 28, US Pres. Donald Trump accused Democrats of exaggerating the danger of the coronavirus in order to destroy his presidency.
(SFC, 2/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Feb 28, The number of coronavirus cases in the United States was confirmed at 62. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also confirmed that four more patients tested positive for the virus in California, Oregon and Washington states.
(Good Morning America, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 28, Lifeguards in San Diego County rescued 13 people and searched for others believed to have been dropped by Mexican migrant smugglers in the Pacific. As many as three people remained missing.
(SFC, 2/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Feb 28, Washington state lawmakers passed a measure prohibiting homicide defendants from claiming a defense based on panic over a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity. the measure was name after Nikki Kuhnhausen, a transgender teenager who was killed last year. Nine states have similar legislation.
(SFC, 2/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Feb 28, The list of countries hit by the COVID-19 illness edged toward 60 as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Nigeria reported their first cases.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, China's death toll from the coronavirus reached 2,788, up 44. Cases climbed to 78,824, up 327.
(Bloomberg, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, Iran reported eight new deaths from coronavirus, raising its toll to 34. The health ministry said 143 cases had been detected over the past 24 hours, increasing the total of confirmed infections to 388. At least seven officials in the country have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(AFP, 2/28/20)(The Week, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, Italy reported that four more people have died from coronavirus, bringing the total to 21, while the number of those testing positive for the illness jumped to 821.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, Mexico said a man (35) has been confirmed as the first coronavirus case in the country. The man had taken a trip to Italy in February. Mexican health officials confirmed three coronavirus cases, all with mild symptoms and likely from the same source.
(Bloomberg, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, New Zealand health officials said the country had its first case of the new coronavirus, a person in their 60s who recently returned from Iran.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, In Russia Moscow's deputy mayor said 88 foreign nationals will be deported for allegedly violating quarantine measures imposed on them as a precaution against the coronavirus.
(AP, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 28, South Korea confirmed 256 more cases, bringing total to 2,022, doubling in two days and raising alarm about the worst outbreak outside of neighboring China.
(Bloomberg, 2/28/20)
2020 Feb 29, US health officials reported three more cases of the new coronavirus transmitted to people who did not travel overseas or come in contact with anyone known to be ill. The first US coronavirus-related death was reported in Washington State.
(AFP, 2/29/20)(The Daily Beast, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, Azerbaijan said it had closed its border with Iran for two weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, after the death toll in Iran rose to 43, the highest number outside of China.
(Reuters, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, The number of people infected with coronavirus in the United Kingdom rose to 23, after three more patients tested positive.
(Reuters, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, China reported 47 more coronavirus deaths and 427 new infections.
(AFP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, Ecuador said it has confirmed the first case of a fast-spreading new coronavirus. The patient had arrived in Ecuador on Feb. 14 on a direct flight from Madrid without showing any symptoms, but soon felt ill and went to a hospital where she was diagnosed with the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, France said it is banning all indoor public gatherings of more than 5,000 people to slow the spread of coronavirus cases and recommending that people no longer greet each other with kisses.
(AP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, Iran reported a surge in new coronavirus cases as the number of deaths jumped to 43 among 593 cases, but it dismissed as "rumors" a report the real toll was much higher.
(AFP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, In Japan a man in his 70s died on the northernmost island of Hokkaido late today after testing positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The man's death marked the sixth fatality from COVID-19 in Japan, excluding six deaths among those aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Feb 29, Lebanon's health ministry said that three new cases of coronavirus had been confirmed, bringing the total number of cases in the country to seven.
(Reuters, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, Pakistan confirmed two more cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of positive cases to four since Feb 26, when the first two cases were reported in the country.
(Reuters, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, South Korea reported its biggest surge in new coronavirus cases with 3,150 infections as 813 more patients were reported. Three women in the Daegu area died of the illness, taking the national toll to 17.
(AFP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 29, Spain's total number of active coronavirus cases rose to 49. Authorities said an Italian national staying at a hotel in Tenerife, which has been placed on lockdown after four cases of the coronavirus were detected, has tested positive for the virus. This brought the total number of active cases in the Canary Islands to six.
(AP, 2/29/20)
2020 Mar 1, President Donald Trump said travelers from countries at high risk of coronavirus would be screened before boarding and upon arrival, without specifying which countries. New cases were reported in the Chicago area and Rhode Island. To date, more than 86,500 cases have been confirmed. Outside of China, it has spread to 53 countries, with more than 6,500 cases and more than 100 deaths. Globally, the illness has killed nearly 3,000 people.
(Reuters, 3/1/20)(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, SF Bay Area officials announced five new cases of coronavirus, two in Vacaville and 3 in Santa Clara County.
(SFC, 3/2/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 1, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's office confirmed the state's first coronavirus case late today, in a woman in her late thirties who recently travelled to Iran.
(The Independent, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, A second person died of coronavirus in the northwestern US state of Washington as number of infections passed 75.
(AFP, 3/2/20)(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 1, Britain announced a jump in coronavirus cases, with 12 new infections taking the total to 35.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, Mainland China reported the biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases since Feb. 22. A total of 2,870 people have died in mainland China and 79,824 have been infected by the virus.
(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, Ecuador confirmed five cases in patients who all had direct contact with an elderly woman who brought the coronavirus to the Andean country from Spain.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 1, Ireland, Luxembourg and Qatar reported their first cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, France now has 100 confirmed cases. Of those, two have died. Louvre workers who guard Leonardo da Vinci's “Mona Lisa" and other masterpieces walked off the job, fearful of being contaminated by the museum’s flow of tourists from around the world.
(Reuters, 3/1/20)(AP, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 1, Germany's Robert Koch Institute for disease control said the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has jumped to 117 from 66.
(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, Iran's health ministry raised the nationwide death toll from the new coronavirus to 54 as the number of confirmed infected cases jumped overnight by more than half to 978 people.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 1, Italy reported 1,694 positive cases of coronavirus and 34 deaths.
(AFP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 1, In South Korea the number of coronavirus cases is now at 3,736 with 21 deaths tied to the Shincheonji religious sect. The founder of the sect and 11 others have just been charged with murder.
(The Daily Beast, 3/1/20)(Reuters, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 2, US health authorities urged all baby boomers to get a one-time hepatitis C test because that age group appeared at particularly high risk. The US Preventive Services Task Force said that hepatitis C is on the rise because of the opioid crisis, prompting the recommendation to expand testing.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, In California the number of coronavirus cases in the Bay Area were confirmed at 26 with 43 cases statewide.
(SFC, 3/3/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 2, Washington state health authorities said six people have died from coronavirus. Researchers said earlier that the virus may have been circulating for weeks undetected in the state.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Andorra, Armenia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Iceland and Indonesia confirmed their first cases of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, The death toll from the new coronavirus epidemic surpassed 3,000 as more people died in China, Iran and the US and Europe raised its state of alert. The virus has now infected more than 89,000, spread to over 60 countries and threatens to cause a global economic slowdown.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, China’s UN ambassador said that North Korea is suffering “negatively" from the coronavirus and called for greater flexibility from the United States and other countries on lifting sanctions against the country.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Australian health officials said that a woman and a male doctor have contracted coronavirus, becoming the first cases of community transmissions in the country.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Britain's Foreign Office said Germany, France and the UK have offered a 5 million-euro ($5.6 million) package to Iran to help fight coronavirus in the country.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, China reported 42 more deaths due to coronavirus, all in central Hubei province, putting death toll in China to 2,912. The National Health Commission reported 202 new infections, the lowest daily rise since late January, bringing the nationwide total over 80,000.
(AFP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said: "As of this morning, we have 2,100 confirmed cases in 18 EU member states and we have 38 citizens who have lost their lives".
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, In Germany the number of novel coronavirus cases rose to 150, up from 129 the previous day, with Berlin reporting its first infection.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, India reported three new cases of coronavirus, including an Italian national in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.
(AP, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 2, Iran reported 12 more deaths due to the coronavirus, raising the country's toll to 66. Iran reported more than 500 new cases, raising its total number of infections to 1,501. Mohammad Mirmohammadi (71) of Iran's Expediency Council died in a Tehran hospital after contracting the COVID-19 coronavirus. A team from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived in Tehran to support the country's response to the coronavirus outbreak
(AFP, 3/2/20)(The Week, 3/2/20)(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Five more cases were confirmed in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, taking the island's total tally to 77.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Qatar's health ministry said that medical tests had revealed four new cases of coronavirus infection in the country.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Saudi Arabia confirmed its first case of coronavirus after one its citizens who had returned from COVID-19 hotspot Iran tested positive.
(AFP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, South Korea reported 599 new cases of coronavirus, raising its total to 4,355. The death toll rose to 26. South Korea sought murder charges against leaders of Shincheonji Church, to which most of South Korea's cases have been traced.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, Spain's confirmed cases of coronavirus rose to around 120 from 81 the day before.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 3, US officials said there are now at least 120 confirmed cases in the US. Nine deaths have all been all in the Seattle area. Two cases were reported in New Hampshire.
(NY Times, 3/4/20)(Good Morning America, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 3, New York reported its 2nd case of coronavirus after Westchester County man tested positive. About 100 people nationwide have tested positive for the virus.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Belgium’s federal public health service said they had found five new cases after conducting tests the previous night. All of the patients had been traveling in the north of Italy.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, China's death toll from coronavirus reached 2,943, with more than 75 deaths elsewhere as 77 other countries and territories have reported the respiratory disease. More than 90,000 cases of the new coronavirus have been reported globally.
(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Germany said the number of confirmed cases has risen to 188. The virus has spread to 13 of the country’s 16 federal states.
(AP, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, said it has restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the medicines made from them, including paracetamol, as the coronavirus outbreak plays havoc with supply chains. The government said it had detected "high viral load" in six people who had been in contact with a patient who contracted the coronavirus in the capital New Delhi. 24 people who had come in contact with the Italian tourist have been moved to a separate facility for testing. They included 21 Italians and three Indians.
(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Infections rose again in Iran, where more officials were diagnosed. Iran reported 835 new confirmed cases, taking the total to 2,336. The death toll climbed to 77 from 66, while 435 patients have recovered. Eight percent of Iran's parliament, 23 out of 290 members, has been infected with the coronavirus. At least seven government officials also have it, including one of Iran's vice presidents.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)(Business Insider, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Japan’s tally of coronavirus cases approached the 1,000 mark.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, South Korea’s health ministry reported 374 more cases of the novel coronavirus, taking the country’s tally to 5,186.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Spain’s tally of coronavirus rose 32% to 150.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, Sweden said it has nine new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, taking the total to 24.
(AP, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 4, US federal health officials announced new testing criteria for coronavirus, requiring only a doctor’s agreement. But it’s unclear whether there are enough tests for everybody who’ll want one.
(NY Times, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 4, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency over the COVID-19 virus, opening the way for federal aid, after the death of a man in Placer County, near Sacramento, who had been on an earlier sailing of the ship in February. This was the nation's first coronavirus death outside of Washington state and brought the US death toll to 11. California now had 53 confirmed cases.
(AP, 3/5/20)(Good Morning America, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 4, New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the four new cases of coronavirus, bringing the state's total number of confirmed cases to six, were all linked to a Westchester County-based lawyer.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Tennessee reported its first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus.
(Good Morning America, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 4, Texas confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus man in a man who recently traveled abroad.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 4, In Britain the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 87 in the biggest daily jump since it was first detected in the country.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)(Econ., 3/7/20, p.53)
2020 Mar 4, China reported 139 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of cases to 80,409. The death toll reached 2,981.
(Business Insider, 3/4/20)(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 4, China said it has approved the use of Swiss drugmaker Roche's anti-inflammation drug Actemra for patients who develop severe complications from the coronavirus as it urgently hunts for new ways to combat the deadly infection that is spreading worldwide.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Germany-based Lufthansa said it has cut its flight capacity in a move equivalent to grounding almost a fifth of its fleet, response to the coronavirus epidemic.
(AP, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Iran reported 15 new deaths from COVID-19 and 586 additional cases, bringing the overall toll to 92 dead and 2,922 infected.. President Hassan Rouhani dismissed a US offer to help the Islamic republic fight its coronavirus outbreak, charging that "vicious" American sanctions are depriving the country of medicine. Iran canceled Friday prayers in major cities.
(AFP, 3/4/20)(AP, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Iraq said a Muslim cleric (70) died today from the novel coronavirus, the first death from the outbreak in a country where 31 people have been infected.
(AFP, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Israel ordered travelers arriving from Germany, France, Spain, Austria and Switzerland to go into home quarantine over coronavirus concerns. The Health Ministry also ordered all international conferences in Israel cancelled and banned gatherings of more than 5,000 participants.
(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, The death toll in Italy soared to 79, with more than 2,500 people infected. A government source said Italy is to close all schools and universities starting March 5 to try to contain its worsening coronavirus outbreak.
(AFP, 3/4/20)(Reuters, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, Lebanon has 15 cases confirmed since Feb. 21 after infected travelers arrived from Iran. The outbreak was expected to grow, challenging hard-hit medical facilities.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 4, Saudi Arabia banned its citizens and other residents of the kingdom from performing the pilgrimage in Mecca due to the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, South Korea reported 516 new coronavirus cases. It now had had more than 5,600 cases and 32 deaths.
(Business Insider, 3/4/20)
2020 Mar 4, In Sweden 16 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Stockholm, taking the total number of cases in Sweden to 52.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, It was reported that six US military individuals in South Korea have tested positive for COVID-19.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom said a ship with suspected links to two coronavirus cases, one fatal, was being held off the coast of San Francisco until everyone on board could be tested. At least 21 people on the ship had symptoms. The cases included guests who were on the previous Grand Princess voyage from Feb. 11 to 21.
(NY Times, 3/5/20)(Good Morning America, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, New Jersey confirmed its first case of coronavirus, a man (32) who had been hospitalized just across the Hudson River from New York City.
(Bloomberg, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, New York officials reported 11 new positive cases of coronavirus in Westchester County, bringing the state's total count to 24, with 21 of those in in Westchester County and four in New York City.
(Good Morning America, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Houston officials confirmed the first three cases of coronavirus in Harris County, the nation's third-largest county.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Washington state at least 39 new coronavirus cases have been reported in the Seattle area. A man in his 60s died, the ninth fatality associated with the outbreak at a Seattle area nursing home.
(AP, 3/5/20)(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 5, Brazil confirmed eight cases of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 5, Britain's HSBC sent more than 100 staff home after a worker tested positive for coronavirus, the first known case at a major company in London. Britain counted 90 cases.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Bulgaria declared a nationwide influenza epidemic to deal with the rapid rise of type B flu cases. All schools in the Black Sea state of 7 million were closed to March 11.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Scientists in China studying the outbreak say they have found that two main strains of the virus are circulating in humans and causing infections.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, It was reported that France has 377 confirmed cases of coronavirus and reported two more deaths, bringing the total to six.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Germany's new coronavirus cases jumped by 109 in a day, to 349.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Iran reported 15 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the national toll to 107, and said it would keep schools and universities closed until early April. 3513 people in Iran have now been infected with the coronavirus.
(AFP, 3/5/20)(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Iran announced it would put checkpoints in place to limit travel between major cities, hoping to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Hossein Sheikholeslam, an adviser to Iran's foreign minister, died from coronavirus.
(AP, 3/6/20)(AFP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of a nationwide contagion, has risen over the past day to 98 from 73.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Japan confirmed infections of coronavirus rose to 1,036.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, South Africa confirmed its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, South Korea reported 760 new coronavirus cases. South Korea confirmed 6,088 coronavirus cases, with a death toll of 37.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Spanish health authorities said they had identified as many as 193 coronavirus cases, including three children. Spain reported its first death two days earlier from the outbreak in Valencia.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Switzerland a woman (74) became the first local person to die from the novel coronavirus.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, Thailand reported four new cases of coronavirus, bringing its total to 47 since January.
(Reuters, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, The UN said a British UN employee is one of the four people who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Senegal.
(AFP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 6, Pres. Donald Trump signed an $8.3 billion measure to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak that has killed 14 people in the US and infected more than 200.
(AP, 3/6/20)(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, The Grand Princess cruise ship, with 3,500 aboard, remained docked 70 miles off the coast of San Francisco as health officials await results from dozens of coronavirus tests. Samples were collected from 45 people currently on board who were showing symptoms. At least 19 passengers and two crew members on Carnival Corp.’s Grand Princess, currently off the coast of California, have tested positive for the coronavirus virus.
(AP, 3/6/20)(SFC, 3/6/20, p.A9)(Bloomberg, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 6, In the SF Bay Area Santa Clara County reported 24 cases of coronavirus.
(SSFC, 3/7/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 6, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that the War Memorial and Performing Arts venues, including the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, will be closed for all public events for the next two weeks over fears of the rapid spread of the new coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/9/20, p.C1)
2020 Mar 6, Florida health officials confirmed the state’s first two deaths from coronavirus as well the first pair of cases in the Miami metropolitan area.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 6, Kentucky reported its first coronavirus case.
(Bloomberg, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 6, Nebraska reported its first coronavirus case.
(Bloomberg, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 6, The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York doubled to 22. More than 2,700 people were isolated at home.
(NY Times, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Utah confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Good Morning America, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Washington state two Microsoft employees have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. Facebook announced it is closing its Seattle office until March 9 after a contractor tested positive for the virus.
(Good Morning America, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In the US the number of cases passed 230 people scattered across 18 states. The new coronavirus hit a milestone, infecting more than 100,000 people worldwide as it wove itself deeper into the daily lives of millions, infecting the powerful, the unprotected poor and the vast masses in between.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, US drugmaker Biogen Inc said three of its employees tested positive for the coronavirus after attending a meeting in Boston last week, and that their condition was improving under medical care.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Belgium the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus more than doubled to 109 after 59 new patients tested positive.
(Good Morning America, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, An American tourist became the 1st confirmed case in Bhutan.
(Good Morning America, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Cameroon announced its first coronavirus infection.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, China reported 143 new cases, the same as a day earlier and about one-third what the country was seeing a week ago. Health authorities said the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu has confirmed 17 new coronavirus cases imported from Iran, bringing the total imported cases to 28.
(AP, 3/6/20)(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Egyptian officials said 12 people from a Nile cruise ship have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo set the tone for new rules due to coronavirus, warning everybody to improve personal hygiene and avoid crowds, at the celebrations of Ghana's 63rd independence anniversary. He ostentatiously kept both his hands resolutely behind his back when he arrived at the ceremony to greet those seated on the dais.
(BBC, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 6, Four cases of the coronavirus have been identified in Hungary thus far, including a pair of Iranian students who recently visited their homeland.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, India braced for a potential explosion of coronavirus cases as authorities rushed to trace, test and quarantine contacts of 31 people confirmed to have the disease.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Iran announced that the new coronavirus has killed 124 people amid 4,747 confirmed cases. The virus now was in all of Iran's 31 provinces.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Ireland more than 60 staff at a hospital were asked to self-isolate after the country's first community transmission of coronavirus was found there.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Italy at least 3,296 people have been infected with the coronavirus. The death reached at least 148.
(Good Morning America, 3/6/20)(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Japan confirmed coronavirus infections rose to 1,057.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, The Netherlands reported its first coronavirus death.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Peru announced its first coronavirus infection.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Serbia announced its first coronavirus infection.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Slovakia announced its first coronavirus infection.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, South Korea reported 505 additional cases, down from a high of 851 on March 3. The US military confirmed its seventh case among those stationed there.
(AP, 3/6/20)(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Spain confirmed its fifth coronavirus death, with 365 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Switzerland reported 130 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the national total to 210.
(Good Morning America, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Togo confirmed its first case of coronavirus, bringing the number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa hit by the epidemic to five.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, Vatican City confirmed its first coronavirus case, but did not say who was infected.
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 7, The number of Americans diagnosed with novel coronavirus is now at least 424, according to a case count by Johns Hopkins Univ. At least 19 people have died in the US in Washington state, California and Florida. There were now more than 101,000 infected worldwide and more than 3,400 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 3/7/20)(AP, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 7, A US Navy sailor stationed at the Naval Support Activity Naples tested positive for novel coronavirus, marking the first positive cause of a US service member in Europe.
(Good Morning America, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Grand Princess Capt. John Smith told passengers that the ship hit by the new coronavirus is headed to the port of Oakland, Ca. The ship carrying more than 3,500 people from 54 countries was expected to dock on March 9. Passengers were quarantined at Travis Air Force Base and many were released on a staggered basis from March 9 to March 13. Two-thirds of the 858 passengers at the base had declined testing. On March 20 seven of the tested passengers were reported positive for the virus.
(AP, 3/8/20)(SSFC, 3/22/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 7, Hawaii Gov. David Ige said a patient who had traveled aboard a Grand Princess cruise ship in early February became Hawaii's first case of the coronavirus.
(Good Morning America, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 7, Argentina's Ministry of Health said a 64-year-old man has died as a result of the new coronavirus, the first such death in Latin America.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Chile said it now had seven confirmed coronavirus cases, up from five.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In China about 70 people were trapped in a collapsed hotel in the city of Quanzhou, in southeastern Fujian Province. The collapsed hotel was used for coronavirus quarantine. 23 people were reported rescued. 23 remained trapped after the collapse of the hotel. 20 people died in the collapse. On March 9 a boy and his mother were rescued.
(Reuters, 3/7/20)(Reuters, 3/8/20)(SFC, 3/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 7, Costa Rica's Health Ministry confirmed four new cases of coronavirus, in addition to that of a case involving an American woman announced a day earlier. Her husband was among the new cases.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In Egypt about 150 tourists and local crew were quarantined on a cruise ship on the Nile river in the southern city of Luxor after 12 people tested positive for the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In France a member of the lower house was diagnosed with the virus and hospitalized. The Health Ministry said that two more people had died from the coronavirus, bringing the total death toll to 11 people. France has now 716 confirmed cases of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/7/20)(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Georgia reported a total of 12 cases in the country, 10 linked to Italy, which has Europe's worst outbreak, and the other two linked to Iran. Georgia reported its first case of coronavirus in the end of February.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Germany’s confirmed coronavirus infections rose to 684 from 534 a day earlier.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In Hungary the number of confirmed coronavirus patients increased to five since the first infections were announced on March 4. The government canceled a rally planned for the March 15 national holiday in central Budapest.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In Iran lawmaker Fatemeh Rahbar (55) died from the coronavirus, the first fatality among 23 infected members of parliament. The death toll from the virus increased to 145 as the number of diagnosed cases grew to 5,823.
(AFP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, People were not permitted to leave or enter Bethlehem, as per a decision made by Israeli and Palestinian authorities after 17 cases of novel coronavirus were confirmed in the city in the last 48 hours. 14 American citizens were being tested and have been quarantined in the Angles hotel in the city of Bethlehem for now.
(Good Morning America, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In Italy the number of fatalities due to the coronavirus were up 36 to 233, with infections growing to 8,883. Cases have now been confirmed in each of the country's 20 regions, with deaths recorded in eight of them.
(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Kuwait recorded 3 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing its infection tally to 61.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Malta reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Mexico reported seven instances of coronavirus, up from six.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 7, Paraguay reported its first case of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Peru announced five new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the country's total to six.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, The Philippines health department reported the country’s sixth infection. President Rodrigo Duterte agreed to declare a state of national public health emergency after a local transmission of coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Qatar reported its 12th case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, South Korea's coronavirus cases jumped above 7,000, up by 448 from the previous day. The death toll rose by two to 46.
(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, Spain identified 93 new coronavirus cases, bringing its total to 441.
(AP, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In the UAE The number of coronavirus cases rose to 45 from 30.
(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 7, In Vietnam all air crew and ground staff working on a Vietnam Airlines’ flight from London to Hanoi on March 1 were being quarantined after a passenger tested positive for coronavirus. The Ministry of Health confirmed three new coronavirus cases, raising the number in the country to 20.
(AP, 3/7/20)(Reuters, 3/7/20)
2020 Mar 8, In the SF Bay Area ten new coronavirus cases were reported, five each in Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties. This brought the total in Santa clara to 37.
(SFC, 3/9/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 8, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said three cases of COVID-19 have been identified in the state.
(AP, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the number of people in his state to test positive for coronavirus has increased to 105.
(Good Morning America, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Vermont announced its first presumptive case of the coronavirus.
(Good Morning America, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Bangladesh reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Bulgaria reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Belgium's health ministry said the number of coronavirus cases in the country had reached 200. It said the virus had started to circulate locally among the Belgian population.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, China reported 40 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, down from 44 cases a day earlier, and the lowest number since the health authority started publishing nationwide data on January 20.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 8, Hong Kong recorded its third coronavirus death.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Indonesia confirmed that two more people had tested positive for the coronavirus, taking the total of confirmed cases in the country to six.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Iran said 194 people had died from coronavirus and 6,566 were now infected. IranAir stopped all flights to European destinations.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Italy imposed a virtual lockdown across a swathe of its wealthy north, including the financial capital Milan, in a drastic new attempt to try to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Deaths due to the infectious virus risen, by 36 to 233. Of the 5,883 Italians originally infected, 589 have fully recovered.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Tensions in Italy's overcrowded prisons erupted over new coronavirus containment measures, with riots in at least two dozen lock-ups and the deaths of six inmates who broke into an infirmary and overdosed on methadone. With 7,375 infected and 366 deaths, Italy has more virus cases than any country outside Asia.
(AP, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 8, The Maldives reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Moldova reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Moscow city authorities threatened prison terms of up to five years for people failing to self-isolate in their homes for two weeks after visiting countries hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, Saudi Arabia said it has imposed a temporary lockdown on the eastern Qatif province, an oil-producing region and home to a large Shi'ite Muslim population, to prevent the spread of coronavirus after 11 people there were infected.
(AP, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 272 new coronavirus cases, for a total of 7,313 in the country. Two further deaths took the toll to 50.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 8, In Spain a large feminist march was allowed to go ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.46)
2020 Mar 8, Vietnam's coronavirus cases jumped to 29.
(Reuters, 3/8/20)
2020 Mar 9, President Trump attempted to dismiss coronavirus fears with a misleading tweet comparing the virus causing the global health crisis to the seasonal flu. His tweet came after trading on the New York Stock Exchange was temporarily halted as stocks plunged more than 2,000 points, a 7 percent drop that triggered an automatic pause. Trump blamed the "Fake News Media" and Democrats for conspiring "to inflame the Coronavirus situation" and wrongly suggested that the common flu was more dangerous.
(AP, 3/9/20)(Econ, 3/14/20, p.18)
2020 Mar 9, The US Department of Health and Human Services said it would contribute $699,000 to speed up Hologic Inc's development of a coronavirus diagnostic test.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, In the US 554 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed, with 21 reported deaths. Worldwide more than 110,000 people have tested positive for the disease and more than 3,800 people with the virus have died, most of them in China.
(AP, 3/9/20)(Benzinga, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Federal and state officials in California prepared to receive thousands of people from a cruise ship that has been idling off the coast of San Francisco with at least 21 people aboard infected with the coronavirus. Fences were installed at an 11-acre site at the Port of Oakland as authorities readied flights and buses to whisk the passengers aboard the ship to military bases or their home countries for a 14-day quarantine. Officials in Santa Clara imposed a ban on mass gatherings of more than 1,000 people for the next three weeks to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/9/20)(SFC, 3/10/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 9, The Seattle-area nursing home at the epicenter of one of the biggest coronavirus outbreaks in the United States said it had no kits to test 65 employees showing symptoms of the respiratory illness that has killed at least 13 patients at the long-term care center.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Belgium’s health ministry said the number of coronavirus cases in the country had reached 239, while it decided to limit tests to seriously ill patients and healthcare professionals due to shortages of reagents.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, In Britain a sixth person in the UK has died from coronavirus. There were 319 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 9, Canada recorded its first coronavirus death.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 9, Mainland China reported 19 new cases as of today, down from 40 cases a day earlier. Total confirmed cases in mainland China stood at 80,754. Hubei province, center of the outbreak, reported no new locally transmitted coronavirus cases for a second day.
(AP, 3/9/20)(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 9, In Egypt there were 59 confirmed coronavirus cases, including one fatality.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 9, An EU spokeswoman said a first case of coronavirus has been detected among staff at the European Commission.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Germany reported its first two deaths due to the coronavirus. The number of cases in Germany more than doubled to over 1,100 in the last few days, putting pressure on the government to act.
(Bloomberg, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Iran reported 43 new deaths from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall toll to 237 dead. 595 new cases were confirmed across the country, bringing the overall number of confirmed cases to 7,161. Iran temporarily released about 70,000 prisoners because of the coronavirus.
(AFP, 3/9/20)(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Italy went under a national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.11)
2020 Mar 9, In the Netherlands the number of people infected with the new coronavirus increased to 321, up from 264 a day earlier.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Panama confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 9, Saudi Arabia's health ministry said it has detected five new cases, bringing the total to 20.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 9, South Korea reported 165 new coronavirus cases, bringing the national tally to 7,478, while the death toll rose by one to 51.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, South Korea-based Daily NK reported that around 200 North Korean soldiers from several branches of the military have died from symptoms that may have been caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
(https://tinyurl.com/r85wkr7)(Daily NK, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 9, In Spain schools were closed in the town of Labastida near Vitoria in the Basque country after nearly 150 cases of coronavirus were identified in the region. The country has reported 999 cases in all, most of them in two areas around Madrid and around Vitoria.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 9, Sweden's Stockholm region reported a jump in confirmed coronavirus cases to 207, an increase of 60 since yesterday.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, In the US a total of 761 confirmed cases of the coronavirus were confirmed nationwide as well as 27 deaths. The number of people infected with the coronavirus topped 116,000 across the world as the outbreak spread to more countries, causing greater economic damage.
(AP, 3/10/20)(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Iowa health officials announced that five more eastern Iowa residents have tested positive for new coronavirus. The new cases brought the total number of Iowa infections to 13.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Australia's coronavirus cases rose overnight to 100 from 80.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Bosnia's autonomous Serb region said it will shut all schools and universities and ban large public gatherings from March 11 until March 30 to help stem the spread of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Brunei said six people had tested positive a day after it reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, China's President Xi Jinping’ made his first trip to the COVID-19 epicenter of Wuhan as parts of the nation appeared to be returning to normal.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Congo DRC reported its first case of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, The Czech Republic, which has reported 40 cases of coronavirus, said it will suspend schools other than universities from March 11, and ban events hosting more than 100 people.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, In India Hindus threw colored powder and sprayed water in massive celebrations of the festival of Holi, but the enthusiasm was subdued compared to previous years because of fears of the new virus. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country rose to 47.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, In Iran the coronavirus outbreak killed 54 more people and pushed the nation's death toll to 291. This was an 18% increase in deaths from the day before and 12% more confirmed cases. Health ministry spokesperson Kianoush Jahanpour said there were 8,042 confirmed cases. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said doctors and nurses who die combating the new coronavirus will be recognized as “martyrs" like slain soldiers. State-run media said a rumor circulating in Iran that alcohol can treat coronavirus has so far led to 37 deaths and sent 270 people to the hospital after being poisoned by bootleg alcohol.
(AP, 3/10/20)(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 10, It was reported that the coronavirus outbreak in Israel, largely contained, began to gain pace in recent days, with a total of 58 cases diagnosed as of today. 26 confirmed cases have been reported in the Palestinian Territories.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Italy entered its first day under a nationwide lockdown after a government decree extended restrictions on movement from the hard-hit north to the rest of the country. Italy counted 9,172 cases and 463 deaths. The number of dead from riots in Italy's overcrowded prisons over measures imposed to contain the coronavirus rose to 12.
(AP, 3/10/20)(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Kosovo's government approved the 2020 budget after the small Balkan country held a snap election in October and elected the government after months of negotiations.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Lebanon reported its first death due to coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Mongolia reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Morocco's health ministry confirmed the country's first death from coronavirus in Casablanca, as its overall number of new infections rose to three.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Dutch health authorities took action to contain an outbreak of the coronavirus in a southern province, where a large group of employees at hospitals tested positive for the illness. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases had risen by 61 to 382. One more person had died, taking the number of deaths so far to four.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Norway-based Equinor reported the oil industry's first coronavirus infection on an offshore installation, highlighting the challenge in preventing contamination for thousands of workers living in the close quarters on rigs and platforms.
(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 10, Poland has reported 17 coronavirus cases so far and has announced the cancellation of all large-scale events.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Singapore started charging visitors for coronavirus treatment after it reported new imported cases from neighboring Indonesia.
(Reuters, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, The Spanish parliament’s lower house canceled its activities for a week after a far-right Vox party member tested positive as coronavirus cases in the country surged to 1,600. Health authorities said known coronavirus cases in the capital region had risen to 1,024 from 782. Authorities have reported 47 deaths, 31 of them in Madrid.
(AP, 3/10/20)(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 10, Taiwan began to airlift almost 500 of its residents from Wuhan. Another 500 Taiwanese will for now remain stuck in the central Chinese city.
(Bloomberg, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 11, The US reported 1,039 cases of confirmed coronavirus, the eighth-highest in the world. The death toll reached 31. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confirmed that three of its officers who work at the Mineta San Jose International Airport have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the virus outbreak in the US was only going to get worse. A new report said the new coronavirus can live in the air for several hours and on some surfaces for as long as two to three days. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 987 cases of the coronavirus, an increase of 291 from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 4 to 29. The CDC figures did not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.
(Good Morning America, 3/11/20)(AP, 3/11/20)(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, The US state of Georgia has 23 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus so far.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Albania announced its first virus-related death.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Bahrain authorities said their number of confirmed cases have spiked by nearly 70% to 189 confirmed cases. The 77 new cases were all on a returning flight of Bahraini evacuees from Iran.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Belgium announced its first virus-related death.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Bulgaria announced its first virus-related death.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, China announced that key companies can resume work in coronavirus-hit Wuhan. The coronavirus has now killed over 3,100 and infected nearly 81,000 in the country. Beijing ordered people arriving in the city from any country to go into 14-day quarantine as China reported an increase in imported coronavirus cases, threatening its progress against the epidemic.
(AFP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Denmark went under a national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.11)
2020 Mar 11, Germany reported 1,622 confirmed cases of coronavirus, making it the seventh-highest national total in the global outbreak. Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that up to 70 percent of the country's population, roughly 58 million people, could contract the virus.
(Good Morning America, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, India suspended most visas in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 11, In Iran the death toll in the Islamic Republic from the outbreak rose by 62 to 354. The semiofficial Fars news agency reported that Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri and two other Cabinet members have contracted the new coronavirus.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Italy's PM Giuseppe Conte earmarked $28.3 billion to ease the economic impact from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Kuwait reported over 70 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and announced that it would close down all work and business for two weeks beginning March 12.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Lebanon suspended flights from countries hit hardest by the novel coronavirus after announcing its second death from the pandemic in two days.
(AFP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Malta banned travel with Germany, France, Spain and Switzerland to try to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Malta so far had six confirmed virus cases, all involving people who had visited Italy.
(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Poland, which has confirmed 25 coronavirus cases, shut schools, banned large social events and closed cinemas, museums and other cultural sites, following similar measures by other countries in the region including the Czech Republic and Romania.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Qatar said it has recorded 238 new coronavirus cases among individuals already under quarantine in one residential compound, taking the country's total tally to 262.
(Reuters, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Serbia canceled campaign events for the country’s April 26 parliamentary election in an effort to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus after the number of cases in the Balkan state more than doubled overnight to 12.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, South Korea confirmed a total of 114 coronavirus infections, taking the country's total to 7,869. A new cluster of infections was discovered in a call center office building in Seoul.
(AP, 3/12/20)(Econ, 3/14/20, p.48)
2020 Mar 11, In Spain, the number of coronavirus cases surged past the 2,000-mark.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, Sweden announced its first virus-related death.
(AP, 3/11/20)
2020 Mar 11, The World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic, a term that it had avoided using for fear that countries would give up on containment efforts.
(NY Times, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, The US now had at least 1,323 cases of coronavirus, the eighth-highest number of cases worldwide. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported about 1,260 US coronavirus illnesses. The number trailed independent researchers, who are adding reports from individual states more quickly. Globally, there have been over 126,000 confirmed cases with over 4,600 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
(Good Morning America, 3/12/20)(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 12, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new restrictions on public gatherings, saying that they must now be limited to no more than 250 people, while smaller events can proceed only if the organizers can implement social distancing of 6 feet per person.
(Good Morning America, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, In New York City a female diplomat from the Philippines mission to the United Nations tested positive for coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, The national guard arrived in New Rochelle, New York, to maintain a containment zone just 25 miles outside of New York City.
(Good Morning America, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, Algeria's president ordered all schools closed immediately after the North African country saw its first death from the virus. Algeria has 25 cases so far.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, Argentina's Pres. Alberto Fernandez shut down borders, business and transport by decree to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The central bank was printing money to keep the government going with inflation was already at 50%
(Econ, 4/25/20, p.23)
2020 Mar 12, Azerbaijan reported its first death from the coronavirus outbreak, an Azeri woman who was quarantined after returning from Iran.
(Reuters, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, Canadian authorities confirmed that PM Justin Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau has tested positive for the COVID-19, following her visit to the United Kingdom. At least 117 cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in Canada with one death.
(Benzinga, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, El Salvador announced a national lockdown as it reported three confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.24)
2020 Mar 12, Gabon confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 12, Ghana confirmed their first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 12, Iran said it had asked last week for an emergency $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help fight the spread of a new virus that's swept across the country, infecting more than 10,000 people and killing hundreds. The Health Ministry said 75 people had died in the past 24 hours and more than 1,000 new cases of infection had been confirmed, pushing the death toll to 429 and confirmed cases to 10,075.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, Israel shut down its education system due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ultra-Orthodix schools continued to operate.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.38)
2020 Mar 12, Italy's Premier Giuseppe Conte ordered restaurants, cafes and retail shops closed after imposing a nationwide lockdown on personal movement. Jewelry and clothing shops that on Tuesday and Wednesday had posted signs urging customers to queue up out the door a meter (3.3 feet) apart were closed until further notice. Supermarkets, pharmacies and outdoor markets were still open.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced strict immigration curbs and a halt on domestic land, sea and air travel to and from Manila, in what he called a "lockdown" of the capital to arrest the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, South Africa reported 17 confirmed coronavirus infections, including its first transmitted locally. Across Africa, 12 of the continent's 54 countries have registered COVID-19 cases, the most recent being Ivory Coast announcing one case.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, South Korea reported fewer than 120 new coronavirus cases, but authorities warned that a new cluster in Seoul could see the infection spread in the capital.
(AFP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 12, Sudan's first death from the coronavirus was of a man who had visited the United Arab Emirates in the first week of March.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 12, Vietnam's coronavirus cases rose to 44.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Pres. Donald Trump declared the coronavirus outbreak a national emergency, freeing up money and resources to fight it, and threw his support behind a congressional aid package. Trump said “I don't take responsibility at all" for the slow rollout of testing. Trump said that major cruise lines including Royal Caribbean would suspend cruises for 30 days at his request after repeated transmission of coronavirus among passengers at sea.
(AP, 3/14/20)(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 13, President Donald Trump's administration announced it is awarding $1.3 million to two companies trying to develop rapid COVID-19 tests that could detect whether a person is positive for the new coronavirus within an hour. The Department of Health and Human Services said it is awarding $679,000 to DiaSorin Molecular, of Cypress, California, and $598,000 to QIAGEN, of Germantown, Maryland, to accelerate development of their tests.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, A US federal government plan to combat the coronavirus warned policymakers that a pandemic “will last 18 months or longer" and could include “multiple waves," resulting in widespread shortages that would strain consumers and the nation’s health care system.
(NY Times, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 13, US officials said inmates at all 122 federal correctional facilities across the country will no longer be allowed visits from family, friends or attorneys for the next 30 days, in response to the threat of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc's coronavirus test, which would allow the firm to increase capacity to 1.4 million tests a week.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that the New York State Department of Health can authorize certain laboratories to begin testing for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, New York state opened its first drive-through coronavirus test site, following a similar experiment in Seattle.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 13, More than 134,500 people have been infected globally by the coronavirus and over 4,900 have died, according to a Reuters tally of government announcements.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Australia warned citizens the coronavirus pandemic is now so widespread that they should reconsider all foreign travel, as the government stepped up measures to slow the spread of the disease.
(AFP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Austria said will introduce border checks with Switzerland and ban flight connections with France, Spain and Switzerland from March 16 to slow the rapidly spreading coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Belarus said it has recorded 27 people infected with coronavirus, six more than a day before.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Britain's number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 590. Ten people have died.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, The Bulgarian parliament voted unanimously to declare a state of emergency until April 13 as the number of confirmed cases in the country more than tripled to 23.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Cambodia recorded two new cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 13, China reported its lowest tally from the coronavirus since January, with eight new infections confirmed in the past 24 hours and seven deaths. Wuhan city reported five new cases. About 81,000 people have been diagnosed and about 64,000 have recovered. The death toll touched 3,176.
(NY Times, 3/13/20)(AP, 3/13/20)(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Chinese billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma said he will donate 500,000 coronavirus testing kits and 1 million masks to the United States and urged international cooperation to fight the health crisis.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Costa Rica, which has reported 22 cases, ordered all university classes suspended.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Ecuador suspended large events and shut its schools as it confirmed 15 cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.24)
2020 Mar 13, Ethiopia confirmed its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, In France the death toll from coronavirus rose to 61.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Germany recorded 3,062 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with five deaths. The German government unleashed the biggest economic aid package in the country's post-war history, offering companies "unlimited" credit to keep them afloat during the coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)(AFP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Greece said it will close all its museums and archaeological sites, including the entire Acropolis that looms over Athens, until the end of the month due to the impact of the coronavirus. Greece had 117 confirmed cases and one fatality.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, In Hong Kong a man (80) became the fourth patient to die from coronavirus.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, The Icelandic government said it would ban public gatherings of 100 or more people and that secondary schools and universities would close for four weeks to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. So far, 117 cases of coronavirus infections have been confirmed in the country.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Two Indian states ordered the closure of public buildings, malls, cinemas and bars in several major cities, with Mumbai and Bengaluru subject to differing restrictions, after the country reported its first death from the coronavirus. India had 74 confirmed cases of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Iran announced that the new coronavirus has claimed another 85 lives, the highest single-day death toll in one of the world's worst affected countries. This brought to 514 the overall number of deaths in the country. The total number of patients has reached 11,364 cases.
(AFP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland's government called for the closure of schools to mirror measures across the border in the Republic of Ireland, putting them at odds with their pro-British power-sharing partners. Northern Ireland currently has 20 confirmed cases of COVID-19 compared with 70 in the Republic of Ireland, where the population is around two and a half times bigger.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, In Israel 126 cases of the disease have been reported and another 35 in the occupied West Bank. Muslims gathered in smaller-than-usual numbers at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem after religious authorities decided to keep Islam's third holiest site open for prayers but enact health measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Italy's death toll from the coronavirus epidemic shot past 1,000 as the economic impact worsened. The total number of infections rose to 15,113.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, In Japan total coronavirus infections rose to 1,380.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Kazakhstan confirmed first coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Kenya confirmed East Africa's first case of coronavirus, a woman who had returned to the capital Nairobi from the United States.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Mexico has so far confirmed 15 cases of coronavirus with no deaths. Deputy health secretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell said Mexico would consider mechanisms to control the flow of people entering Mexico from the US in an effort to limit coronavirus, if necessary.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, In the Netherlands new coronavirus infections reached 804, with 10 deaths. Dutch shoppers stockpiled toilet paper, pasta and canned goods as worries about the coronavirus outbreak spread. The price of tulips for export stalled at zero due to the coronavirus pandemic. Growers ended up dumping some 400 million flowers.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)(SFC, 4/23/20, p.C2)
2020 Mar 13, Pakistan said it will shut all land borders and limit international flights for 15 days to halt the spread of coronavirus. Pakistan has reported 21 cases of the virus but no deaths.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Poland reported its first death from coronavirus. So far, 47 cases have been confirmed in the country.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Saudi Arabia detected 17 new coronavirus cases, 11 of whom were Egyptians.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, South Korea recorded 110 new coronavirus cases, compared with 114 a day earlier, taking the national tally to 7,979, with the death toll rising by five to 72 as of late today.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, In Spain the number of coronavirus cases jumped to 4,209 from 3,004 a day earlier, as the disease spread mostly in Madrid, the Basque Country and La Rioja regions. The death toll from the epidemic has increased to 120 from 84 the previous day. In the Madrid region said the number of cases rose to 2,078.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Thailand reported five new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 75.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Turkey said a second patient has been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Uruguay's new Pres. Luis Lacalle Pou declared an emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic and shut down borders.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.26)
2020 Mar 14, Vice President Mike Pence said that new US travel bans would be implemented on the United Kingdom and Ireland as the novel coronavirus pandemic spreads.
(The Daily Beast, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, In the SF Bay Area 27 new coronavirus cases were reported, with 12 in Santa Clara County, 6 in San Mateo County, 5 in SF and 4 in Contra costa County. SF banned al most all hospital visitors as part of tis effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
(SSFC, 3/15/20, p.A12)
2020 Mar 14, New York state reported 100 new cases, pushing the total to 524,. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said accelerated testing will lead to a rapid rise in total infections. Nationwide, more than 2,000 people have been infected and 48 have died. A Reuters count said some 145,594 people have been infected by the coronavirus across the world and 5,419 have died.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, New York City reported its first fatality from the coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, The Central African Republic confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 14, The Dominican Republic said it will suspend all flights from Europe and the arrival of all cruise ships for a month in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. So far 11 cases of coronavirus have been detected.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 14, Egypt said it will suspend schools and universities for two weeks starting March 15 amid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The country has so far registered 93 cases of the new coronavirus, with two fatalities.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), a small African nation on South Africa’s eastern border, confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, The French government published an official decree banning all non-essential gatherings, but hundreds of protesters, some wearing protective masks, began convening outside the Montparnasse train station, chanting anti-Macron slogans. Thousands of security forces fanned out across central Paris as anti-government "Yellow Vest" protesters defied a ban on mass gatherings aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Greece said it would suspend all flights that were still operating to and from Italy, after reporting two more fatalities from a coronavirus infection, raising the total number of deaths in the country to three. Greece had 190 confirmed cases of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Indonesia reported that Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has been hospitalized in Jakarta after he contracted coronavirus. Indonesia reported 27 more coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of confirmed infection to 96 with five deaths.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Iran said the coronavirus outbreak has killed another 97 people, pushing the death toll in the country to 611. Iran has reported 12,729 cases in total.
(AP, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Authorities in Iraq's northern Kurdish region imposed a 48-hour curfew in the cities of Irbil and Sulaimaniyah that began overnight. The region has reported 27 cases, including one fatality from the COVID-19 illness caused by the virus.
(AP, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Italy reported more than 21,000 cases of coronavirus and 1,441 deaths, the second most heavily affected country after China.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 14, It was reported that 9 players in Italy’s top soccer league, Serie A, have tested positive for the coronavirus. Games have been suspended until at least April 3. Italian supercar maker Ferrari said it will suspend production at the Maranello and Modena plants until March 27. Volkswagen AG’s Lamborghini has also suspended production in Italy until March 25.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, In Kuwait, four more people have been infected with the virus, bringing the number of coronavirus cases to 104.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Malaysia reported 41 new infections, the biggest one-day jump so far, for a total of 238. The new cases bring the total number of infected people in the country to 238.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Mauritania, in northwest Africa, confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Morocco confirmed 9 new coronavirus cases bringing the total number of infected people to 17. Morocco has suspended all football matches, closed all schools, halted flights with 9 countries and cancelled gatherings of more than 50 people.
(AP, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Dutch health authorities said the number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the Netherlands has risen by 155 to 959. The number of deaths rose by 2 to a total of 12.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern said that everyone entering the country from midnight March 15 must self isolate for 14 days in an effort to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. New Zealand had six confirmed cases and no recorded deaths.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Russia’s PM Mikhail Mishustin signed orders to close the land borders with Poland and Norway for most foreign citizens from March 15.
(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Rwanda reported its first coronavirus case becoming the 19th African nation to report the presence of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Saudi Arabia said it would halt all flights to the kingdom for two weeks beginning March 15.
(AP, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 14, Seychelles confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 14, Spain recorded 5,753 coronavirus cases, up by a third from a day earlier. Spain said it will impose a nationwide lockdown beginning March 16 for two weeks as part of a state of emergency due to the virus. Car production at a Renault-Nissan plant in Barcelona has been stopped because of supply-chain disruptions due to the virus.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)(Bloomberg, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 15, US officials recorded nearly 3,000 cases of coronavirus with 63 deaths, up from 58 a day earlier. Globally more than 162,000 were infected and over 6,400 have died. The US Navy said a sailor aboard a warship ship has tested positive for the coronavirus for the first time. The only state not reporting cases is West Virginia. Cases neared 160,000 worldwide, as deaths top 6,000. Several countries cautioned that fewer tests are being performed as more people fall ill. A US Army soldier tested positive for the coronavirus, marking the first US Army case in Europe.
(NY Times, 3/15/20)(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new state measure to combat the coronavirus, urging that bars close and restaurants reduce capacity. Newsom also asked all state residents 65 and older to isolate themselves at home.
(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 15, In the SF Bay Area Santa Clara's health officer confirmed 114 cases of coronavirus, the most of any county in the state and about 30% of the cases statewide.
(SFC, 3/16/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 15, New Jersey reported its second death from the coronavirus, The state has 69 positive tests, up from 50 the day before.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo said two state Assembly members , Helene Weinstein and Charles Barron, have tested positive for Covid-19. The state reported 729 confirmed cases, an increase of 69. There have been three deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(The Independent, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a decision to close city schools through at least April 20. Hours later the mayor also took aim at the city's nightlife, saying he would sign an order on March 16 limiting the city's 27,000 restaurants and bars to takeout and delivery only effective on the morning of March 17.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, US sportswear giant Nike Inc said it is closing all of its stores in the United States and several other countries to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Several African countries closed borders, canceled flights and imposed strict entry and quarantine requirements to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, which has a foothold in 26 nations including Burkina Faso, Congo Brazzaville and Equatorial Guinea.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Australia's New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, reported 22 new cases taking the totally tally to 134. Eight new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the state of Victoria, bringing the total number of cases in that state to 57. Australia said it will impose 14-day self-isolation on international travelers arriving from midnight and ban cruise ships from foreign ports for 30 days.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Austria the number of confirmed coronavirus cases jumped to 800, from 602 a day earlier.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Belgium’s health ministry reported 197 new cases, bringing the total of confirmed infections to 886.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, The British government announced England will join a growing list of countries offering HIV-prevention pill to all those at high risk of catching the virus. More than 100,000 people were estimated to be living with HIV in the UK in 2018.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, PM Boyko Borissov said Bulgaria will raise the salaries of all medics involved in treating coronavirus patients by 1000 levs ($566) per month as it steps up measures to contain the fast-spreading infection. Confirmed cases had almost doubled to 43 with two deaths.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Cambodia said French national travelling from Paris via Singapore to Phnom Penh has been infected with the coronavirus, bringing the country's tally of cases to eight.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Cameroon a passenger arriving from Brussels was whisked to a hospital and diagnosed inside four hours as the country's fourth case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 15, China reported 16 new confirmed cases of coronavirus bringing its total to 80,860. Beijing said it will quarantine all travelers from overseas, including Chinese citizens, at designated locations for 14 days as the government shifts its focus to limiting imported coronavirus cases.
(AP, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, Denmark's government told private companies struggling with drastic measures to curb the spread of coronavirus that it would cover 75% of employees' salaries, if they promised not to cut staff.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Ethiopia has now recorded four coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Finland had a total of 240 coronavirus cases.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Georgia's government said it will temporarily shut its border with Russia for travelers from March 16 in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Georgia had 30 cases of coronavirus, the highest number in the South Caucasus region.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Germany's Health Ministry confirmed a report in newspaper Welt am Sonntag, which said President Donald Trump had offered funds to lure the company CureVac to the United States, and the German government was making counter-offers to tempt it to stay.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Guatemala logged its first fatality from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, India reported that the number of coronavirus infections had risen to 107, an increase of 23 from the day before.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Indonesia reported 21 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 117.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Iran's Health Ministry added another 113 deaths and 1,209 new confirmed cases of the COVID-19 infection. It said the outbreak has claimed 724. Some 13,938 people have been infected across the country.
(AFP, 3/15/20)(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Italy recorded 368 more deaths from the coronavirus. It had 24,747 cases and 1,809 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Japan the number of coronavirus infections rose to 1,484, increasing by a faster pace than the previous day. The total number of infections included 697 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and 14 returnees on charter flights from China.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Jordan confirmed 12 new coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, Kenya has now recorded three coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Lebanon's Health Ministry said that it had recorded 99 cases of coronavirus. Pres. Michel Aoun called for citizens to work from home and avoid socializing to prevent the spread of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Malaysia confirmed 190 new coronavirus cases, pushing its overall total to 428, the most in Southeast Asia.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, In the Netherlands the number of deaths rose by eight to 20, while confirmed cases increased by 176 to 1,135.
(AP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Peru's Pres. Martin Vizcarra imposed a lockdown and quarantine as his country reported 71 cases of the coronavirus.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.26)
2020 Mar 15, The Philippines recorded 4 additional coronavirus deaths and 29 new cases, bringing the domestic tally of infections to 140, as authorities placed the entire capital Manila under "community quarantine" for about a month.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, Poland’s coronavirus cases rose to 111 cases with three deaths. The count was rising as the nation is now testing all those who are in quarantine.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Singapore confirmed 14 new cases of the novel coronavirus, marking the biggest daily increase of the infection in the city-state. Nine of the cases were imported. Singapore has confirmed a total 226 cases of the virus so far, with 105 having fully recovered.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Slovakia reported 54 coronavirus cases, an increase of 10.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, South Africa reported its first local transmission of coronavirus, increasing the number of cases to 62. President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced social-distancing and declared a national state of disaster to combat the spread of the coronavirus as his counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa took similar steps to curb the threat in a region that accounts for only 1% of global health-care spending.
(BBC, 3/16/20)(AP, 3/16/20)(Econ, 4/18/20, p.33)
2020 Mar 15, South Korea reported 76 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, an all-time low since Feb. 20, when the country saw a surge of over 500 in four days. The country’s total tally stands at 8,162 with a total of 75 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Spain’s diagnosed cases of the coronavirus jumped 35% to 7,753 and the death toll rose by 152 to 288. Ford Motors said it would shut its Spanish plant in the eastern region of Valencia for one week starting tomorrow after three employees tested positive for coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/15/20)(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Switzerland coronavirus infections jumped by nearly 1,000 cases in 24 hours to 2,200 and 14 deaths were recorded from the virus across the country.
(AFP, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Thailand reported 32 new cases of the coronavirus in the largest daily jump in infections since the outbreak began, bringing its total tally to 114.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Turkey said thousands of Muslims returning to home from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia were being taken into quarantine due to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 15, Vietnam's health ministry said all passengers coming from or through China, South Korea, the UK and Schengen countries will be quarantined and tested for coronavirus. Vietnam reported 37 new coronavirus cases over the past week, taking the tally to 53.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 16, Globally more than 174,000 coronavirus cases were reported with more than 6,700 deaths. Global stocks fell sharply after central bank moves to shore up economic growth failed to dispel investor's fears over virus controls that are shutting global business and travel.
(Good Morning America, 3/16/20)(AP, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, US surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams said that the number of coronavirus cases in the US has reached the level that Italy recorded two weeks ago, a sign that infections are expected to rise as the government steps up testing and financial markets continue to fall. The coronavirus has killed at least 67 people in the US with at least 3,774 confirmed cases.
(AP, 3/16/20)(Good Morning America, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, San Francisco area leaders told seven million people in six counties to "shelter in place." Other localities ordered restaurants, bars, and other public gathering spots to shut their doors. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US jumped past 4,600, with at least 85 deaths.
(The Week, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 16, In Washington state the first participant in a clinical trial for a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus received an experimental dose. Washington state said it will shutter its entertainment venues and recreational facilities and limit restaurants to delivery and take-out. The ban will not apply to grocery stores and pharmacies.
(AP, 3/16/20)(Good Morning America, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, In western Afghanistan dozens of patients held in isolation, including at least one confirmed to have the coronavirus, escaped from a quarantine facility after breaking windows and attacking hospital staff in Herat province. The 38 people who escaped had all recently returned from Iran. Afghanistan has so far confirmed 21 cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Armenia's government announced a state of emergency for one month to slow the spread of the coronavirus. An April 5 referendum on constitutional reforms was postponed.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Australia's capital and 2nd most populous state declared states of emergency after the national death toll from the coronavirus rose to five with nearly 300 cases in total.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Austria's government said it will allocate 2 billion euros for loan guarantees on top of a 4-billion-euro aid fund to buffer the economy from the damage of coronavirus, as the number of confirmed cases in the country rose to 1,018.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Bosnia's autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation declared a state of disaster, which will enable it to introduce emergency measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Bosnia has reported 24 cases of the new virus so far, 20 of them in the country's other autonomous region, the Serb Republic.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, In Brazil local media reported that as many as 1,000 inmates had fled four jails ahead of a planned lockdown of the facilities over the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 16, Britain's Fred Olsen Cruise Lines wrote in a statement that its cruise ship Braemar, that was turned away from several ports in the Caribbean after five passengers were confirmed to have the new coronavirus, has set sail to Cuba which is allowing it to dock.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Germany's federal and state governments agreed sweeping rules shutting everything from non-essential shops to bars, clubs, theatres, museums, brothels and churches in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Iran's health ministry said the death toll from the new coronavirus has reached 853 with 129 new deaths in the past 24 hours. 1,053 new confirmed cases were reported. Iran closed four key Shiite pilgrimage sites to stop a coronavirus outbreak that has killed over 850 people out of nearly 15,000 cases recorded in the Islamic republic.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)(AFP, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Israel government authorized Shin Bet, the internal security service, and the police to use their technical knowledge to track and access the mobile phones of those who have been infected with the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.16)
2020 Mar 16, In northern Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Lombardy rose by 202 over the past day to 1,420 from 1,218. Italy's total death toll reached 1,809, a 25 percent increase over the day before.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)(NY Times, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 16, Japan's health ministry said it has identified 15 clusters of coronavirus infections around the country.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Benin, Liberia, Somalia and Tanzania became the latest African countries to report cases of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Malaysia reported a daily jump of 125 cases to 553. 338 of Malaysia's cases have been linked to the religious gathering at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur between Feb. 28 and March 1. PM Muhyiddin Yassin said Malaysia it will shut its borders to travelers, restrict internal movement, close schools and universities and order most businesses to shut after its number of coronavirus cases climbed to the highest in Southeast Asia.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, The government of the Philippines imposed "Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) across the island of Luzon, home to Manila and about half of the country's 107 million people.
(Econ., 7/11/20, p.30)
2020 Mar 16, Senegalese President Macky Sall declared a national state of disaster and canceled the country’s most important religious festival due to take place later this month following a surge in cases to 26 from 10.
(Bloomberg, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, South Korea reported 74 new coronavirus cases bringing its total to 8,236.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Switzerland's region of Geneva declared a "state of necessity" due to the coronavirus global pandemic, shutting bars and restaurants and limiting gatherings to just five people.
(AFP, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Venezuela's capital of Caracas woke to quiet streets and military checkpoints on the first day of a quarantine ordered by President Nicolas Maduro to combat the coronavirus. The country has confirmed 17 cases of the virus and no deaths.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 17, The Trump administration called for $1 trillion in spending, including $250 billion for direct payments to Americans, as the federal government prepares to fight the coronavirus pandemic and an almost certain recession.
(NY Times, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, New York state closed all schools for two weeks. The state has 1,374 cases of coronavirus and 12 people have died. The US had 5,124 cases of coronavirus with 96 deaths.
(AP, 3/17/20)(https://ncov2019.live/)
2020 Mar 17, It was reported that a TSA officer at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport has tested positive for COVID-19. This marked the 8th TSA officer to test positive for COVID-19. The other cases were in California, Florida and Georgia.
(Good Morning America, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Texas confirmed its first death due to coronavirus.
(The Independent, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, West Virginia reported its first confirmed coronavirus infection. There are now known coronavirus cases in all 50 US states.
{West Virginia, USA, COVID-19}
(NY Times, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said it had identified hundreds of antibodies that could treat or prevent the coronavirus and was preparing to begin clinical trials by early summer, sending the drugmaker's shares up nearly 12%.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Brazil's government called for a state of emergency to loosen fiscal rules as it faced challenges from the coronavirus pandemic and oil price war. Brazil reported its first death due to the virus and closed its border to Venezuelans for an initial 15 days, citing strains on the public health system and what its president described as Venezuela's inability to respond.
{Brazil, COVID-19}
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Britain's health ministry said cases of coronavirus rose 26% to 1,950 from 1,543 the day before. The National Health Service (NHS) announced plans to cancel all routine surgery for three months and to send home as many patients as possible to free up staff and beds to deal with the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Bulgaria banned all foreign and domestic holiday trips until April 13 as part of efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Balkan country had 81 confirmed cases of the new virus and two deaths.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said his government would provide financial support to people during the coronavirus outbreak as he urged them to stay at home to slow the spread of COVI0D-19.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Chinese doctors reported that Avigan (favipiravir), a drug used against influenza in Japan, led to clinical improvements in coronavirus patients.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.18)
2020 Mar 17, Croatia's government proposed to postpone tax payments for at least three months and make loans available to struggling business in response to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Croatia has so far reported 65 cases of coronavirus. Four people have recovered and no one has yet died from COVID-19.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Egypt, which has 166 confirmed cases of the new virus including four fatalities, announced the lockdown of the Red Sea province that includes the popular resort town of Hurghada. Egypt lowered the price of natural gas for industrial use to $4.5 per mmbtu and cut a tax on dividends for companies listed on its stock exchange to 5% in an attempt to soften the impact of the spread of the coronavirus on the economy.
(AP, 3/17/20)(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, European Union leaders agreed to restrict most travel into the continent in an unprecedented move aimed at slowing down the spread of a deadly coronavirus and mitigating its effects on the bloc. Europe logged 10,560 new COVID-19 infections, with 3,590 of the cases diagnosed in Italy.
(Bloomberg, 3/17/20)(Business Insider, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, French President Emmanuel Macron declared “war" on Covid-19 with a raft of measures to keep citizens in lock-down mode, including a ban on non-essential travel, just a few days after ordering business closures and shutting schools.
(Bloomberg, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Indian authorities expanded the population eligible for testing to health care workers with symptoms who are treating patients with severe respiratory illnesses. Authorities have confirmed 126 cases linked to foreign travel or direct contact with someone who caught the disease abroad. Indian authorities said that they would not widely expand testing for the virus, despite mounting criticism from some experts that the limited tests could mask the true toll of the disease in the world's second most populous country.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Iran issued its most dire warning yet about the outbreak of the new coronavirus ravaging the country, suggesting “millions" could die in the Islamic Republic if the public keeps traveling and ignoring health guidance. Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the virus had killed 135 more people to raise the total to 988 amid over 16,000 cases. In efforts to curb the spread of the virus, Iran has released 85,000 prisoners on temporary leave.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Official data in Italy showed that 31,506 people have been confirmed as positive for the coronavirus. The official death toll passed 2,500.
(AP, 3/18/20)(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, The Lithuanian parliament voted to the raise borrowing limit by 4.5 billion euros, and to allow the government to borrow over the limit to fight effects of the coronavirus. Lithuania had 22 cases of coronavirus with no deaths.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)(https://ncov2019.live/)
2020 Mar 17, Pakistani PM Imran Khan declared that there would be no national lockdown to block the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.36)
2020 Mar 17, Qatari authorities announced the closure of several square km of the industrial area in the capital Doha, which also contains labor camps and other housing units, due to the coronavirus. Qatar relies on about 2 million migrant workers for the bulk of its labor force.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 17, Senegal has recorded 27 cases of coronavirus. Medical staff said they had received limited protective equipment beyond extra gloves and masks.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, South Africa's national ports operator Transnet said it is holding the cruise liner, MV AidAmira, and a cargo vessel off Cape Town's port limits after a crew member onboard one of the vessels showed signs of coronavirus. The MV Aidamira, with 1,240 passengers and 486 crew on board, had returned to Cape Town from Namibia’s Walvis Bay.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)(BBC, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 17, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced a package of measures worth a total 200 billion euros ($219 billion), between loans, credit guarantees, benefits and direct aid, to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the economy.
(Reuters, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, Ukrainian shops, restaurants and transport shut down as the country tightened restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Police arrested five people suspected of trying to rob 100,000 surgical masks at gunpoint in Kiev.
(AP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 18, US Pres. Donald Trump announced that Canada and the US have agreed to temporarily close their shared border to nonessential travel in the wakre of the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 3/19/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 18, The Trump administration asked Congress for $500 billion for direct payments to taxpayers and $500 billion in loans for businesses, as the federal government ramped up its efforts to address the fallout from the coronavirus epidemic. Pres. Donald Trump tapped his authority under the 70-year-old Defense Production Act to give the government more power to steer production by private companies and try to overcome shortages in masks, ventilators and other supplies. Trump described himself as a “wartime president" fighting an invisible enemy.
(NY Times, 3/19/20)(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 18, The US now has more than 5,800 confirmed cases of coronavirus with at least 115 deaths. The virus has now infected over 205,000 and killed over 8,700 in 164 nations.
{USA, COVID-19}
(Good Morning America)(Reuters, 3/18/20)(Bloomberg, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 18, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order sending $100 million to local governments for shelter support and emergency housing to help slow the spread of coronavirus among the homeless population. Another $50 million will be used to buy trailers and lease hotel and motel rooms to quarantine homeless people showing symptoms of COVID-19.
(SFC, 3/19/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 18, Hawaii officials said two cruise ships won't be allowed to disembark in Honolulu after being turned away by other ports, even with no positive cases of coronavirus on either vessel.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus death.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Belgium imposed a lockdown from midday until April 5 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Burkina Faso reported its second death from COVID-19.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Chile's president declared a 90-day state of catastrophe due to the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Djibouti confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, The EU banned nonessential travel from the rest of the world into 26 member nations for 30 days due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Gambia announced its first coronavirus case.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Mitterteich, Bavaria, became the first German town to impose a curfew to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The curfew will last until April 2. Citizens there were still allowed to buy groceries, go to work and visit the doctor.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban announced a blanket moratorium on loan repayments for all companies and private borrowers until the end of the year to limit the economic fallout from the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Indonesia's death toll jumped from five to 19. Thousands of Muslim pilgrims from across Asia gathered at Gowa, just two weeks after a similar event in Malaysia caused more than 500 infections.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Iran's government said another 147 people have died from the coronavirus raising the total to 1,135 people out of 17,361 cases since it first emerged in the Islamic republic a month ago. President Hassan Rouhani defended the response of his administration, which has yet to impose a lockdown. Food markets were still packed with shoppers and highways were crowded with traffic as families traveled between cities ahead of the March 20 Persian New Year.
(AP, 3/18/20)(AFP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Italy reported nearly 500 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, the highest one-day official toll of any nation. Italy added 4,207 new cases.
(AFP, 3/18/20)(Econ, 3/21/20, p.9)
2020 Mar 18, Malaysia warned of "a tsunami" of cases if people did not follow new restrictions as infections surged across Southeast Asia.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Mexico reported its first death from the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 18, Moldova reported its first death due to the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Morocco asked citizens not to leave their homes except to buy essential goods, seek medical treatment or go to work, as a precautionary measure.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Russia's Kremlin Guard said it has closed Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin's tomb on Moscow's Red Square to the public amid coronavirus fears. Russia has reported 147 cases of the virus so far and no deaths.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, In South Africa the number of people that tested positive for coronavirus rose to 116 from 85 the day before. 14 of those hadn’t traveled outside the country. South Africa stepped up travel bans as the virus continued to spread at a rapid pace.
(Bloomberg, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Switzerland extended border controls and suspended the issue of Schengen and national visas for three months due to coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Taiwan said it would ban entry for most foreigners as its coronavirus tally rose by 23 to 100, most of them imported.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, Turkey reported its first death due to the coronavirus. President Tayyip Erdogan advised his people not to leave home unless necessary for three weeks and to minimize social contact until the threat of coronavirus recedes, but did not instruct people to stay away from work.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 18, The UAE stopped Friday sermons to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.43)
2020 Mar 18, Wales closed its schools due to the coronavirus pandemic. Scotland and Wales soon followed.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.17)
2020 Mar 18, Zambia confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 19, The US Federal Reserve opened the taps for central banks in nine new countries to access dollars in hopes of preventing the coronavirus epidemic from causing a global economic rout. There were now 9,415 diagnosed cases in the US with at least 153 people deaths, according to an ABC News' count.
(AP, 3/19/20)(Good Morning America, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered his state’s 40 million residents to stay at home as much as possible in coming weeks, citing a model that suggests more than half of the state’s population could become infected with the coronavirus in the next two months.
(NY Times, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, Anthony Levandowski, a former Google and Uber engineer, pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from Google. Levandowski had left Google to form Otto a self-driging truck startup and then sold Otto to Uber for $600 million.
(SFC, 3/21/20, p.C1)
2020 Mar 19, In Texas cars lined up for more than a mile outside a Houston hospital as the nation's fourth-largest city began drive-thru testing for the coronavirus, but officials warned they don't have enough kits or protective gear to meet demand.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, General Electric's healthcare unit said it will hire more people and increase the number of shifts as it races to produce ventilators round-the-clock to meet the surge in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, African finance ministers held a virtual conference to discuss how to deal with the social and economic impacts of the pandemic on African nations. Days later a statement by the UN Economic Commission for Africa said they called for a $100 billion stimulus package, including a suspension of debt service payments, to help the continent combat coronavirus.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 19 More African countries closed their borders as the coronavirus’ local spread threatened to turn the continent of 1.3 billion people into an alarming new front for the pandemic. Senegal closed its airspace. Angola and Cameroon shut air, land and sea borders. Rwanda blocked all commercial flights for a month. The island nation of Mauritius closed its border after announcing its first case.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, In Australia about 2,700 passengers disembarked in Sidney from the cruise ship Ruby Princess. More than 600 cases of the coronavirus and 15 deaths were later linked to the ship. About 200 crew members later showed symptoms of the virus.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 19, In Australia about 2,700 passengers disembarked in Sidney from the cruise ship Ruby Princess. More than 600 cases of the coronavirus and 15 deaths were later linked to the ship. About 200 crew members later showed symptoms of the virus.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 19, Hundreds of Bahraini pilgrims were reported stranded in Iran, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East. Bahrain struggled to evacuate its citizens from the country with which it has no diplomatic ties.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Brazil's confirmed cases of coronavirus surged past 600.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, Chad confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, Wuhan, China, the former epicenter that initially suffered thousands of coronavirus cases a day, and its surrounding province had no new cases to report.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, EU analysis said Russian state media and news outlets supporting President Vladimir Putin are waging a fake news campaign aimed at undermining public confidence in the ability of European health care systems to cope with the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Germany said it has lifted export bans on medical equipment which were issued earlier this month to avoid shortages of masks, goggles and gloves in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, The Greek government ordered hotels across the country toclose from March 23 until April 30th to help stem the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.42)
2020 Mar 19, Haiti declared a state of emergency, closing its borders and imposing a curfew, after the country's first two cases of coronavirus were detected.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, Indian PM Narendra Modi appealed to citizens to observe a self-curfew on March 22 as part of a trial-run to test social isolation to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Indonesia reported six more deaths due to coronavirus for a total of 25, the most in Southeast Asia, and its biggest daily jump of 82 cases to 309. The government halted a mass congregation of nearly 9,000 Muslim pilgrims and began quarantining them and checking their health to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus amid a spike in cases. The four-day gathering at a boarding school in a rural area in south Sulawesi province was organized by a Muslim missionary movement, Jamaat Tabligh, and was not approved by authorities.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Iranian authorities announced 149 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the toll to 1,284 in a country that is one of the worst hit by the pandemic. A total of 18,407 people have contracted the disease in Iran, with 1,046 new cases confirmed in the last 24 hours.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Israel's attorney general approved for the first time the use of a generic version of a patent-protected drug to treat coronavirus patients. The anti-viral drug Kaletra, produced by AbbVie Inc, is a treatment for HIV but Israel's Health Ministry found it could be a possible treatment for COVID-19 and a preliminary permit for the drug was issued.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Italy's country-wide death toll stood at 3,405, the highest in the world.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, Mexico confirmed 164 cases of coronavirus, up from just over 40 a week ago. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his government have said a shutdown of the country would disproportionately hurt poor people and also be a psychological weight on all Mexicans.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, It was reported that Prince Albert of Monaco has tested positive for coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Moroccan authorities said local police have arrested at least a dozen people for spreading rumors about the coronavirus, including a woman who used her YouTube channel to say the disease did not exist.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Dutch health authorities said the number of local confirmed cases of coronavirus has risen by 409 to a total of 2,460, with 18 new deaths raising the total death toll to 76.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Niger confirmed its first coronavirus case.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 19, Palestinians defied their government's call to cease work in Israeli settlements over coronavirus concerns, saying bringing money home to their families came first. 529 cases of infection have been confirmed in Israel, and nearly 50 in the occupied West Bank.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, It was reported that Poland has suspended work at a coronavirus testing laboratory in Warsaw after one of its employees tested positive for the virus, effectively sending 17 staff into quarantine. Poland has confirmed 325 coronavirus cases and five deaths to date.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Qatar has recorded 452 cases of the coronavirus, the highest number among the six Gulf Arab states that have reported a total of more than 1,200.
(AP, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the coronavirus by phone and agreed to deepen cooperation on developing pharmaceuticals. Russia announced its first coronavirus death. It has reported 147 confirmed coronavirus cases, but many Russians believe the real total is far higher.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)(NY Times, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Russia has reported just 199 coronavirus cases and some doctors have questioned how far the official data reflects reality. A reported sharp increase in pneumonia cases in Moscow and contradictory information around the issue fueled fears about the accuracy of official coronavirus data which remains much lower than many European countries.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, South African authorities announced they would erect a fence along its border with Zimbabwe to prevent illegal immigrants from entering and spreading the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, Spanish authorities promised to take special measures to prevent more deaths from the coronavirus epidemic in nursing homes after cases of mass contagion swelled the death toll to 767, 209 more than the previous day. Total cases were up by a quarter to 17,149.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 19, It was reported that Venezuelan utilities have hiked fees and the government plans to raise taxes, as the economy deteriorates further due to the spread of coronavirus and the crash in global oil prices adds to the strain on public coffers. Venezuela has reported 36 coronavirus cases so far.
(Reuters, 3/19/20)
2020 Mar 20, The COVID-19 respiratory illness caused by the virus has killed at least 200 people in the United States and infected nearly 13,900. The death toll from the global pandemic surpassed 10,000 people worldwide with more than 245,000 people infected.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, US Pres. Donald Trump announced an effective closure of the US border with Mexico, prohibiting most travel except for trade in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 3/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 20, In the US 132 state and national groups backing open-government policies released a joint statement urging officials at all levels of government to “not retrench" from their duties for public involvement because of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, The US military disclosed that some 2,600 US military personnel, including civilians, are currently in self-isolation in Europe after being identified as people of concern during the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it had temporarily closed the air traffic control tower at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and shuttered part of the Indianapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center for cleaning after workers tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, NYC reported 5,151 infections as of this morning out of 17,041 nationwide and 7,102 in New York state. The virus has caused 29 deaths in NYC.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, Google's google.com/covid19 went live on the web late today offering education, prevention and local resources related to the novel coronavirus.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, JPMorgan Chase & Co said it would give "front line employees," workers who are staffing branches and call centers through the coronavirus pandemic, a sweetener for their efforts: a one-time $1,000 bonus.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Lyft Inc told drivers they could sign up for delivery services for healthcare, government services and groceries as ride-hailing demand plummeted during the rapid spread of coronavirus in the United States.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Albania passed measures totaling $370 million in its budget to soften the blow from the coronavirus crisis, including $25 million for the health sector, which is expected to deal with more cases than the 70 confirmed so far.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Algerian protesters called off their weekly anti-government demonstrations for the first time in more than a year to reduce the spread of coronavirus. The country has recorded at least 10 deaths and 90 confirmed virus cases.
(BBC, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Argentina went into full lockdown mode, with streets in Buenos Aires largely deserted, while workers and school kids in the capital logged on remotely to offices, classrooms and even digital dancing lessons, after a mandatory quarantine was imposed. Argentina has so far registered 128 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with three deaths.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, In Belgium the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 558, or 25%, to 2,815.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, Britain ordered the closure of pubs and restaurants to slow the spread of the coronavirus. This came weeks after similar measures by the rest of Europe.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.51)
2020 Mar 20, Bulgaria's parliament voted to allow the military to help implement measures to curb the coronavirus, with a mandate to use physical force if absolutely necessary.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, China's imported cases of coronavirus rose to a record 228.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Cuba banned all tourist arrivals, confined vulnerable groups, shut down educational facilities and suspended interprovincial public transport asit recorded 21 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 4/25/20, p.26)
2020 Mar 20, The Central Bank of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) decided to cut its main lending rate by 100 basis points to 5.5%, citing global and domestic economic developments, including the impact of coronavirus. The country has one confirmed case of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, Finland recorded its first death from coronavirus. It has 521 confirmed cases, though it was only testing severely ill people and health-care professionals.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, France sent security forces into train stations to prevent people from traveling to their vacation homes, potentially carrying the coronavirus to the countryside or beaches where medical facilities are less robust.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 20, India expanded the criteria for people who should be tested for coronavirus, as the world’s second-most populous nation aims to limit the outbreak locally.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, Jakarta, Indonesia, declared a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. Indonesia had 369 confirmed cases and 32 deaths. Jakarta, a city of 10 million people, had 215 confirmed infections and 18 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Iran said that coronavirus has killed 149 more people in the Islamic republic, raising the country's official death toll from the disease to 1,433. 1,237 more cases have been confirmed over the past 24 hours and 19,644 people are now known to have been infected.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, In Iraq virus cases continued to rise, with 13 dead among 192 confirmed infected. The economic fallout from the coronavirus coupled with a sudden drop in oil prices threatened to catapult the country into an unprecedented crisis.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Israel recorded its first death from the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 20, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of a nationwide contagion, rose by around 380 in a day to some 2,550.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Lebanon's health ministry said it has recorded 163 infections from coronavirus so far. Experts warned Lebanon's healthcare system may be ill-prepared, as dollar shortages have for months drained it of critical supplies.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, South Africa said coronavirus cases have jumped to 202, the most in the sub-Saharan region, while the continent's busiest airport said foreigners cannot disembark. State-owned South African Airways suspended all international flights until June.
(AP, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Spanish authorities said they would turn a Madrid conference center into a giant makeshift military hospital for thousands of coronavirus patients, as Europe's second-worst outbreak claimed another 235 lives. With nearly 20,000 cases, Spain overtook Iran to become the world's third hardest-hit country by the pandemic after China and Italy. The Madrid region accounts for 628 deaths and 7,165 cases.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Mosques in Sri Lanka were shut indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the island was set to impose a countrywide curfew over the weekend.
(Reuters, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 20, Turkey's death toll due to the coronavirus rose to nine with a total of 670 cases.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, US coronavirus infections exceeded 17,000, fatalities top 220. Worldwide cases topped 260,000 with more than 10,000 dead.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, SF Bay Area's Santa Clara County reported 263 coronavirus cases and 8 deaths, the highest in the region. The Bay Area accounted for nearly half of the state's 1,286 cases.
(SSFC, 3/22/20, p.A12)
2020 Mar 21, Illinois residents began sheltering in place following orders by Gov. J.B. Pritzker restricting movement to combat the coronavirus. Similar shelter-in-place actions were taken by governors in Connecticut and Nevada.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said he will sign an executive order requiring all “nonessential" businesses closed to help slow the spread of the virus.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there are now 10,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, an increase of 3,000 in the last 24 hours.
(Good Morning America, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will be closing all non-essential businesses from March 22 to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. NYC reported at least 38 people testing positive at the notorious Rikers Island complex and nearby facilities, more than half of them incarcerated men. Another 58 were being monitored in the prison's contagious disease and quarantine units. It was reported that an inmate at a federal jail in NYC has tested positive for coronavirus, marking the first confirmed case in the US federal prison system.
(AP, 3/21/20)(Good Morning America, 3/21/20)(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Albania's government deployed the army to enforce a strict 40-hour curfew starting today to fight the coronavirus after people widely flouted previous measures aimed at stemming its spread. So far, 76 people have tested positive for the coronavirus with two deaths.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Angola reported its first two Covid-19 cases.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In southern Bangladesh a speeding truck rammed a passenger vehicle leaving at least 13 people dead.
(SFC, 3/23/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 21, Bolivia has so far confirmed 16 cases of coronavirus. Senators approved a motion this week that promotes use of the traditional medicine, which has long played a role for indigenous communities in the country.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Bosnia reported its first coronavirus death. The country has so far reported 90 cases.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Britain told people who were panic-buying and hoarding food due to the coronavirus outbreak to calm down, pointing to a video on social media showing an exhausted nurse driven to tears by finding shelves bare after her shift.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Bulgaria's main Orthodox Church urged Christians to stay away from churches and pray at home as the Balkan country tightens restrictive measures to contain the spread of coronavirus. The country has reported 142 cases, with three deaths.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, A Burkina Faso spokesman said 4 government ministers have tested positive for the coronavirus, as the number of reported cases rose to 64 from 40, the highest in West Africa. Two new deaths were reported.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Congo DRC reported its first coronavirus death.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, East Timor reported its first case of coronavirus. The Ministry of Health said that the case was from someone who had just returned from abroad.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church ordered all its churches to shut their doors and suspend masses for two weeks over coronavirus fears. Egypt so far registered 285 confirmed coronavirus cases including eight deaths.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, LVMH, the world's biggest luxury goods group, said it is ordering 40 million health masks from a Chinese supplier to help France cope with the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In India thousands of poor city migrants whose livelihoods have collapsed due to India's coronavirus measures headed back to their villages, raising fears that the exodus could carry the virus to the countryside. About one fifth of India's 271 confirmed coronavirus cases has been reported in the western state of Maharashtra. So far, India has registered four deaths due to the virus.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Indonesia confirmed 81 new coronavirus cases and 6 more deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 450 and deaths to 38.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged the US public to call on their government to remove sanctions against the Islamic Republic amid the coronavirus outbreak. The death toll from the coronavirus reached 1,556 after the country reported a further 123 fatalities in the past 24 hours. Iran stood at 20,610 cases after 966 new infections were confirmed over the past day,
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Italy reported 793 coronavirus deaths, raising the total to 4,825.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In Jordan air raid sirens echoed across Amman to mark the start of a three-day curfew, the latest mass lockdown in the Middle East aimed at containing the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Luxembourg coronavirus cases rose to 670 from 484 and deaths to eight.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Malaysia's Health Ministry reported five more deaths and 153 new infections. Coronavirus cases jumped to 1,183 with eight deaths. Officials warned of a spike next week as they track down people who attended a large religious gathering linked to most of the cases.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Mauritius recorded its first coronavirus death as case numbers rose to 14.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Mexico confirmed its second death as medical experts worry that Latin America is unprepared for a larger outbreak.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, In the Netherlands, coronavirus fatalities increased by 30 to 136. The total number of cases is 3,631.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Nigeria announced it is closing airports as of March 23 to all incoming international flights for one month due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, North Macedonia's first victim died of the coronavirus. The country has registered 114 cases of people infected with the virus.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 21, Pakistan suspended all international flights for two weeks to limit the spread of coronavirus. The country reported its third coronavirus death, with confirmed cases rising to 534.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Peru reported its first coronavirus fatalities.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, The Philippines' health ministry reported 45 more confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing today's tally to 77. Confirmed cases in the Philippines now totaled 307 and 19 dead.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Portuguese coronavirus cases increased 25% to 1,280, with 12 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Russia's largest carmaker Avtovaz reported the first two cases of the coronavirus among its workers. Russia has so far reported 253 cases of the virus and one death, and has introduced a raft of economic and social measures to limit its spread.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Saudi Arabia announced 48 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 392, with five of the new infections being healthcare workers in Riyadh.
(Good Morning America, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 21, Singapore reported 47 new cases of coronavirus, which were mainly imported, taking the city-state's tally to 432 infections. Singapore reported its first two coronavirus deaths.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, South Africa, which has the most cases in sub-Saharan Africa, confirmed 38 new coronavirus cases, taking its total to 240.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Deaths from the coronavirus in Spain jumped 32% to 1,326, a week after the country went into a national lockdown to try to slow the spread of the disease. Total cases reached 24,926. The Health Ministry reported 324 new deaths and 4,946 new cases.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)(Good Morning America, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Sri Lanka's government closed all bars and liquor shops. Police arrested 30 people from various parts of the country for violating curfew, adding the curfew has been imposed till the morning of March. Sri Lanka has reported 72 confirmed coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)(Econ, 4/25/20, p.28)
2020 Mar 21, Switzerland reported 6,100 coronavirus infections, some 25% more than a day earlier, and 56 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Taiwan reported 18 new coronavirus cases, all imported from people coming from countries including the United States, Britain, South Africa and Indonesia or those having contact with them, bring the total number of infected to 153.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Thailand’s capital imposed a partial shutdown from March 22 after novel coronavirus cases surged past 400 with a rising number of people in critical condition.
(Bloomberg, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Turkey extended measures against the coronavirus, suspended flights with 46 more countries and banning picnics and barbecues, as the number of cases has roughly doubled every day for a week.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Ukraine further restricted the use of public transport in its capital Kiev as it battles to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Ukraine has reported 41 cases of the virus and three deaths.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 21, Vietnam's coronavirus cases rose to 94 with no deaths. The government said it will bar entry for all foreigners from March 22, except for special cases, as the country seeks to contain the spread of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 22, US Pres. Donald Trump said he’s ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to ship mobile hospital centers to the hard-hit states of Washington, California and New York.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the lockdown affecting large segments of the American public to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus is likely to last 10 to 12 weeks, or until early June. US coronavirus infections reached 26,747. The global number of coronavirus cases doubled in a week to 311,000.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Good Morning America, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Hawaii's Gov. David Ige instituted a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine starting March 26 of all people traveling to the state as part of efforts to fight the spread of coronavirus. Hawaii announced 11 new cases of the virus bringing the state's total to 48.
(SFC, 3/23/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 22, It was reported that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has tested positive for COVID-19. He is the first member of the US Senate to be infected. Paul, an eye surgeon, went into quarantine after learning his results.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The Niagara Gazette reported that former Hollywood producer and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein has tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.
(The Week, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Afghanistan reported its first coronavirus death. The war-ravaged country reported 10 new cases raising to 34 the number of confirmed cases.
(AP, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Albania said it will suspend all commercial flights to and from the country from midnight, allowing only flag carrier Air Albania to fly to Turkey and operate humanitarian flights. There have been 76 coronavirus cases in Albania and two deaths.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Australia said it will enforce more stringent controls to slow the spread of the coronavirus, closing pubs, casinos, restaurants and other venues from March 23 after the number of infections in the nation surged past 1,000.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Brazil's health ministry statistics showed 1,546 confirmed cases, up from 234 cases a week before. The respiratory disease caused by the virus has killed 25 people.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 22, Britain warned it will impose tighter restrictions if citizens fail to follow government calls to stop non-essential travel and gatherings to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The UK reported 281 total deaths due to COVID-19. The government said there are 5,683 confirmed cases, with London hardest hit.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 22, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev partially vetoed a state of emergency law intended to limit the spread of the coronavirus, saying some of the measures would create more problems than solutions.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Cambodia reported 31 new cases of coronavirus, 29 of them among French tourists, bringing the total number of infections recorded in the country to 84. Two Cambodians who were infected had been tour guides accompanying the tourists.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, China reported 46 new cases of coronavirus, the fourth straight day with an increase, with all but one of those imported from overseas.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The South China Morning Post reported that as many as a third of the people who test positive for the coronavirus may show delayed symptoms or none at all.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, It was reported that Colombian authorities were trying to quell riots in several jails across the country amid fears that the coronavirus could spread in overcrowded conditions. 23 prisoners died and another 83 were injured in a riot and attempted escape attempt at the La Modelo jail in Bogota. Colombia has confirmed 231 cases of coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(SFC, 3/23/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 22, The number of coronavirus cases in the Czech Republic has risen to 1,047 as of this morning. No deaths were yet reported.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Dubai's state-owned Emirates, one of the world's biggest long-haul airlines, said it would stop nearly all passenger flights this week and cut staff wages by as much as half because of the coronavirus impact on travel demand.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, In Ethiopia a cargo flight containing more than 6 million medical items arrived in Addis Ababa. The supplies from Jack Ma, the founder of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, will be distributed to African countries in need of supplies to battle the spreading COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, In France fatalities due to coronavirus rise to 562. An emergency room doctor in Northern France died from Covid-19, the first medic to die in that country.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Germany received the green light from EU regulators for subsidized loans to companies hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Germany tightened curbs on social interaction, including a ban on public meetings of more than two people for at least the next two weeks, to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Guinea held a constitutional referendum that opponents of President Alpha Conde fear could allow him to govern for 12 more years. An opposition boycott all but ensured the new basic law will be approved when results are announced in the coming days. With the first two cases of the COVID-19 disease recorded in the country, some polling stations required voters to wash their hands before casting their ballot. On March 27 Guinea’s electoral commission said nearly 92% of voters supported the proposal, which would keep a two-term limit on presidencies, but increase the length of each term from five years to six.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 22, India suspended passenger train services across the country until March 31 as the government sought to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Freight services will continue. coronavirus cases rose to 341, while the country confirmed its fifth death from the virus.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, In Israel new rules prohibiting most Israelis from leaving their homes for the next seven days took effect as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases soared to 945. The Health Minsitry has reported one death.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Iran's supreme leader refused US assistance to fight the new coronavirus, citing an unfounded conspiracy theory claiming the virus could be man-made by America. His comments came as Iran confirmed over 21,600 cases amid 1,685 reported deaths, The total number of cases in Iran stood at 21,638 people, with 1,028 new cases added over the past day. Iran imposed a two-week closure on major shopping malls and centers across the country. Pharmacies, supermarkets, groceries and bakeries will remain open.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Iraq has reported 20 coronavirus fatalities among 233 confirmed cases. Iraq's government has extended a curfew on travel in and out of Baghdad until March 28 as part of strict measures to prevent the virus from spreading.
(AP, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Italy was rocked by its deadliest day as the coronavirus prompted industry shutdown. The death toll from the coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of Italy's contagion, has risen by around 360 in a day to more than 3,450. Italy's coronavirus infections continued to soar, with 59,000 cases and 5,476 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Reuters, 3/22/20)(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Fifty-two medics from Cuba arrived in Italy to assist with the coronavirus pandemic.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.25)
2020 Mar 22, Japan's Oita prefecture confirmed two new coronavirus infections at a medical center, bringing the total at the facility to 14 and making it a suspected cluster.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Kosovo reported the country's first victim of the coronavirus. The country has registered 31 cases of people infected with the virus
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Malta said it is closing all non-essential shops and services to stop the spread of coronavirus. The number of confirmed virus cases in the country rose to 90 with 17 cases reported overnight.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, In Mexico the mayor of Mexico City shut bars and banned large gatherings to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.32)
2020 Mar 22, In Pakistan Dr Osama Riaz, who screened suspected coronavirus patients, died after testing positive for the coronavirus, highlighting the danger to physicians who have threatened to strike unless access to protection equipment improves. Pakistan has reported three deaths and 658 patients infected with the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, announced a 14-day curfew, ordering everyone to stay at home except for security forces, medics and food sellers. It also closed all major roads. The PA has reported 59 coronavirus cases. Authorities in Gaza confirmed the enclave's first two coronavirus cases overnight in returnees who had come from Pakistan.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The Netherlands reported 573 more coronavirus virus cases for a total of 4,203 with 179 deaths.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, North Korea reported that President Donald Trump has sent a personal letter to leader Kim Jong Un, seeking to maintain good relations and offering cooperation in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Portuguese authorities began the coronavirus testing and repatriation process for 1,338 passengers aboard the MSC Fantasia cruise ship en route from Brazil that docked in Lisbon after its other European stopovers were canceled.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The Romanian government confirmed the first death in the country due to coronavirus.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, In Russia small-scale protests against Vladimir Putin's plans to amend the Russian constitution so he can run for president again in 2024 took place in several medium-sized cities. Protests were called off in Moscow and St. Petersburg due to measures imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The Russian military started sending medical help to Italy in order to help it battle the new coronavirus after receiving an order from Pres. Vladimir Putin following a conversation a day earlier with Italian PM Giuseppe Conte. Russia itself has reported 306 cases of the virus, most of them in Moscow, and one coronavirus-related death.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Rwanda began a two-week lockdown, restricting travel between towns and cities and asking people to stay indoors. The East African nation has 41 confirmed Covid-19 cases.
(https://allafrica.com/stories/202003260464.html)
2020 Mar 22, South Africa-based Standard Bank said it will give a payment holiday to small businesses and full-time students in a bid to ease financial pressures on its customers as COVID-19 spread across the country. South Africa has confirmed 240 cases of the virus so far.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) said around 1,240 German passengers stranded in Cape Town after their MV AidAmira cruise ship was quarantined for almost a week due to a coronavirus scare had either begun their journey home or would do so in the next day.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, South Korea reported 98 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 8,897. The number of deaths rose by two to 104.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Spain's death toll from coronavirus soared to 1,720 from 1,326 the day before. The one-day rise in deaths of 394 was higher than the previous day's increase of 324.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, In Switzerland, 7,014 people tested positive for coronavirus, up from 6,113 a day earlier. Four more patients died, bringing the total to 60.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Syria reported its first case of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.44)
2020 Mar 22, Taiwan announced 16 new confirmed cases of coronavirus with 13 of them imported. The number of total confirmed cases rose to 169. Taiwan said it will suspend transit of international passengers through its airports from March 24 to April 7.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Thailand reported 188 more coronavirus cases, the highest daily increase so far, bringing the total to 599.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Coronavirus cases in Turkey soared as countries across the Middle East imposed new restrictions on movement of people, shut public places and rolled out measures to protect businesses. Turkey now has 947 confirmed cases of the virus, with 21 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 3/22/20)(Good Morning America, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Uzbekistan ordered all companies in Tashkent to switch to remote working and made protective masks mandatory in all major cities in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The country has confirmed 43 cases of the disease and has already closed its borders.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Zimbabwe journalist Zororo Makamba (30) became the country's first coronavirus casualty. He had undergone surgery last November to remove a tumor from under his lung and was in recovery.
(BBC, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 23, President Donald Trump said he was considering how to restart business life when a 15-day shutdown ends next week, even as the highly contagious virus spreads rapidly and poorly equipped hospitals struggle with a wave of deadly cases.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 23, President Trump said major disaster declarations were underway for California, New York and Washington, the three states hardest hit by the coronavirus. With more than 15,000 confirmed cases.
(NY Times, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, A report released by the US Centers for Disease Control said traces of the coronavirus remained inside cabins of the Diamond Princess for more than two weeks after the cruise ship was vacated. The ship had docked in Japan on Feb. 5 and was placed under quarantine for more than two weeks.
(Good Morning America, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 23, California's National Guard began to deploy to food banks under orders by Gov. Gavin Newsom as volunteer staffing all but disappeared due to the coronavirus and associated state-wide shelter-in-place order.
(SFC, 3/25/20, p.B1)
2020 Mar 23, Hawaii Gov. David Ige signed a proclamation late today, ordering the entire state to stay at home and work from home, starting Wednesday after midnight and lasting through the end of April.
(Good Morning America, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 23, Governors of Michigan, Massachusetts, West Virginia and Wisconsin implemented stay-at-home policies. Worldwide cases of coronavirus top 372,000 and 16,000 dead.
(Bloomberg, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, In New York as of this morning, there have been at least 33,018 cases of coronavirus confirmed by lab tests and 428 deaths, according to a New York Times database. , New York State now accounted for roughly 5 percent of the world’s total tally.
(NY Times, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Ford Motor Co it has decided to temporarily halt vehicle and engine production at its factories in India, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam in response to the growing impact of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Australia’s parliament rushed through more than A$80 billion ($46.3 billion) in fiscal stimulus for the coronavirus-stricken economy at a special sitting in Canberra. Cases of coronavirus reached 1,709 as at 3 p.m., up 313 since 3 p.m. the day before.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Austria said it is mobilizing its military reservists for the first time since World War Two, asking them to fight the coronavirus outbreak by helping with food supplies, medical support and police operations. Austria has reported nearly 4,000 cases with 21 deaths so far.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, PM Boris Johnson brought Britain into alignment with lockdowns across Europe, closing all nonessential shops and requiring people to stay in their homes, except for trips for food or medicine due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 3/24/20)(Economist, 4/4/20, p.41)
2020 Mar 23, Scientists at Britain's Oxford University said they have started a clinical trial to investigate the effects of an HIV medicine and a steroid drug in UK patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 caused by the new coronavirus. It will test AbbVie's Kaletra: a combination of lopinavir and ritonavir which is normally used to treat the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causes AIDS - and the steroid dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in a wide range of conditions.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Bulgaria's parliament agreed to cancel some parts of a law that establishes a state of emergency to limit the spread of the coronavirus after the president wielded his veto citing concerns about its impact on the economy and on free speech. Bulgaria had 190 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and three deaths.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Cambodia reported three new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 87.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Egypt has reported around coronavirus 330 cases and 16 deaths. Tens of thousands of people working in the major tourist destinations of Luxor, Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, along with 300 families in the Nile Delta, have been ordered into 14-day quarantine.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, The European Union said it will send 20 million euros in humanitarian aid to Iran, which is subject to US sanctions, to help alleviate the coronavirus, and will also support Tehran's request for IMF financial help.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Germany barred public gatherings of more than two people, except for families, and Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was going into isolation because her doctor had tested positive for the virus. Germany signed off on taking on billions in new debt as part of an unprecedented package totaling more than 750 billion euros ($800 billion) to cushion the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 3/23/20)(Bloomberg, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Greece's largest carrier Aegean Airlines said it will suspend all of its international flights from March 26 to April 30 as a result of the spread of the coronavirus and flight restrictions.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Iran announced 127 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the official toll to 1,812 in one of the worst hit countries.
(AFP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Iraq’s Health Ministry has reported 23 fatalities among 266 confirmed coronavirus cases.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy has risen by around 320 in a day to more than 3,770. Unions in the Lombardy region announced strikes to protect the health of their workers, saying a government decree temporarily shutting businesses due to the coronavirus emergency contained too many loopholes and exceptions.
(AP, 3/23/20)(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Italy's number of new Covid-19 cases dropped to a five-day low. Italian health authorities announced 4,789 new cases in the last 24 hours. The number of coronavirus cases in Italy has risen to 63,927 " compared to 81,093 in mainland China. In total, 6,077 people have died in Italy due to Covid-19, including 601 who died in the last 24 hours, a decline from the weekend.
(South China Morning Post, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 23, Jordan said it would extend a curfew indefinitely, with supermarkets and other stores closed, and deliver food across the country to try to rein in the coronavirus. Jordan has reported 112 coronavirus cases and six deaths.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus infections increased by 13% from a day earlier and 34 more people died. There were 545 new infections, taking the total to 4,749 with 213 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Norway's foreign ministry said the UN will create a fund to support the treatment of coronavirus patients worldwide. Almost 340,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus across the world and more than 14,500 have died.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin gave the authorities five days to develop a system that would track and notify people who have come in contact with any known carriers of coronavirus. The system would simultaneously notify special regional headquarters set up to fight the pandemic.
(The Daily Beast, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 23, Saudi Arabia announced overnight that an evening curfew would go into effect starting today from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. for 21 days.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Singapore reported its biggest one-day jump in coronavirus infections with 54 new cases, of which 48 were imported.
(Bloomberg, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, South Africa's coronavirus cases jumped to 402, up 128 from the day before. South Africa has not registered a death from the disease.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Syrians rushed to stock up on food and fuel amid fears that authorities would resort to even stricter measures after reporting the first coronavirus infection in the country, where the healthcare system has been decimated by nearly a decade of civil war. An open-ended curfew went into effect in parts of northern and eastern Syria, which are controlled by a Kurdish-led civilian administration.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Tunisia's President Kais Saied ordered the army to deploy in the streets to force people to respect a lockdown imposed to halt the spread of coronavirus. Tunisia has 89 confirmed cases of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, closed in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. It dated back to 1455 and is often regarded as one of the first shopping malls.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Bazaar,_Istanbul)(https://tinyurl.com/ychn4qdy)
2020 Mar 23, The United Arab Emirates, home to the world's busiest international airport in Dubai, announced it was suspending all passenger flights and the transit of airline passengers in the country for two weeks to stymie the spread of the new coronavirus.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 23, Vietnam's PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc said next 10-15 days will be decisive in Vietnam's fight against the coronavirus. There were now 122 cases, according to the health ministry, and no reported deaths.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 24, Governors across the US rejected President Donald Trump's new accelerated timeline for reopening the US economy, as they continued to impose more restrictions on travel and public life in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Senior Pentagon leaders said that the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak that has hit the United States could continue for months and the military would continue to support efforts to counter it for as long as needed. More than 42,000 people in the United States have contracted COVID-19, and at least 620 have died.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it had awarded $100 million to 1,381 health centers across the nation to bolster their response to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York state now has over 25,000 diagnosed cases of coronavirus, including over 14,900 in New York City.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Wall Street bounced from three-year lows on hopes of a major fiscal stimulus to blunt the economic damage from the coronavirus. The dollar fell broadly, sliding for a second consecutive day after the US Federal Reserve stepped up measures to shield an economy reeling from emergency restrictions on commerce to fight the coronavirus. The DJIA rose 2,2112.98, its biggest point gain in history, to 20,704.91 as Congress and the White House neared a deal to inject almost $2 trillion of aid into the economy ravaged by the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/24/20)(Reuters, 3/24/20)(SFC, 3/25/20, p.C1)
2020 Mar 24, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro laid to rest a diplomatic spat with China in a call with President Xi Jinping, with the two agreeing to work together to fight coronavirus as Brazil's largest city went into lockdown. In a televised speech Bolsonaro urged local governments to abandon "scorched-earth" strategies of closing schools and shops, and blasted the media for spreading "the sensation of fear".
(Reuters, 3/24/20)(Econ, 3/28/20, p.29)
2020 Mar 24, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Cambodia has arrested 17 people since late January for sharing information about the coronavirus in Cambodia, including four members or supporters of the dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Canadian banks followed US heavyweights in offering one-time bonuses and extra paid days off to customer-service employees who are required to work in branches and call centers amid the coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, It was reported that death squads in Colombia are taking advantage of coronavirus lockdowns to murder rural activists. The virus has now claimed three lives in Colombia amid 277 confirmed cases.
(The Guardian, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Egyptian PM Moustafa Madbouly said Egypt will impose a two-week nightly curfew in an effort to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, The healthcare unit of French industrial gases company Air Liquide said it was ramping up production of ventilators needed by hospitals to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. France has recorded 1,100 coronavirus deaths and 22,302 cases.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)(AFP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 24, In France Manu Dibango (86), a Cameroonian-born saxophonist, died with the coronavirus. He had gained international fame with his 1972 song "Soul Makossa".
(SFC, 3/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 24, German hospitals with spare capacity welcomed their first coronavirus patients from Italy. Germany had 27,000 confirmed coronavirus cases but only 114 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, India's PM Narendra Modi decreed that the country of 1.3 billion will go on lockdown for 21 days.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Iran announced 122 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the official toll to 1,934 in one of the world's worst hit countries. A record 1,762 new cases have been confirmed in Iran over the past 24 hours. 24,811 people are now known to have been infected.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy rose by around 400 in a day to more than 4,175. The number of cases in the region, which includes Milan, increased by some 1,940 to roughly 30,700. Italy suffered the most coronavirus deaths with 6,820, out of 69,176 declared infections. This was its second-deadliest day, dashing hopes the death toll is declining.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)(AFP, 3/24/20)(Bloomberg, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 24, Libya reported its first case of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 24, Netherlands saw the number of deaths rise by 63 to 276. The national tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 17% to 5,560.
(Good Morning America, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 24, Pakistani PM Imran Khan announced a 1trn rupee ($7bn) support package, cutting fuel prices and earmarking money for the poor as a national lockdown continued due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.36)
2020 Mar 24, Russia has so far reported 495 cases of the coronavirus. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the outbreak in the capital was much worse than official figures showed.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, In South Africa coronavirus cases leapt to 554, the most of any country in Africa. 43 of Africa's 54 countries now have cases, with the total at 1,788. Thirteen countries have reported 58 deaths.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Spain announced a record daily rise of 6,584 new coronavirus infections, bringing the overall total to 39,673. The number of deaths also jumped by a record number of 514 to 2,696. The Defense Ministry said army troops disinfecting nursing homes have found some residents living in squalor among the infectious bodies of people that authorities suspect have died from the new coronavirus. Spain's health ministry reported 514 deaths from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 3/24/20)(Good Morning America, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Switzerland's Federal Office of Public Health said the country has nearly 9,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and 90 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, The UN top envoy for Syria called for a nationwide ceasefire to allow for a better response to the threat of the novel coronavirus. The government in Damascus has so far only reported one case of COVID-19.
(AFP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 25, US lawmakers finally agreed on a mammoth economic relief package, buoying stock markets around the world. President Donald Trump said he wants to see the country get back to business in a matter of weeks, over the objections of public health experts. The US Senate unanimously approved the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act’’ (CARES Act), a bi-partisan bill to provide financial relief to individuals and businesses impacted by the coronavirus. The aid measure would send direct payments of $1,200 to Americans earning up to $75,000, substantially expand help for the jobless, and provide hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to businesses affected by the pandemic.
(AP, 3/25/20)(NY Times, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 25, US coronavirus infections continued to climb rapidly and passed the 55,000 mark, with deaths approaching 800. More than 438,000 people worldwide have been infected and the number of dead closed in on 20,000.
(AP, 3/25/20)(Good Morning America, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it would extend its prior conditional regulatory relief from disclosure requirements for public companies affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, US Navy and Marine Corps service members in Guam were ordered to break their own quarantine to set up makeshift shelters for US troops coming off a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, where an outbreak of the novel coronavirus was rapidly spreading within the hulls of the ship.
(The Daily Beast, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 25, California reported 2,998 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.30)
2020 Mar 25, Miami, Wisconsin, Vermont joined a growing list of places where residents must stay home. At least 23 states have enacted policies to close nonessential businesses in an effort to slow the spread of novel coronavirus on US soil.
(Good Morning America, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state's infections are doubling every three days, threatening to swamp the available intensive care units. The state has 26,000 infections and more than 200 deaths. At least 192 of those fatalities have occurred in NYC.
(AP, 3/25/20)(Good Morning America, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, New York state issued a directive to send recovering coronavirus patients to already vulnerable nursing homes. The directive said no resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to a nursing home solely based on confirmed or suspected COVID-19. On May 10 Gov. Andrew Cuomo reversed the directive, which had been intended to help free up hospital beds for the sickest patients as cases surged.
(AP, 5/21/20)
2020 Mar 25, CVS Health said its pharmacy benefit management (PBM) unit was working to set up measures against the hoarding of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which is being tested as a potential treatment for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, In Bangladesh opposition BNP leader Khaleda Zia (74) was granted a six month reprieve from prison in order to seek medical treatment.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.34)
2020 Mar 25, Bolivia issued a decree establishing a lockdown due to the coronavirus. The decree criminalized individuals who incite noncompliance and misinform or cause uncertainty to the population.
(Econ., 5/16/20, p.26)
2020 Mar 25, Brazil recorded more than 2,500 cases of coronavirus and 59 deaths.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 25, Britain passed the Coronavirus Act, granting the government emergency powers to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_Act_2020)(Econ., 7/6/20, p.46)
2020 Mar 25, It was reported that nearly half a million people in Britain have filed welfare benefit claims in the past nine days, a sign of how the government's shutdown of much of the economy to slow the spread of coronavirus is hitting incomes.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Britain’s Prince Charles (71) of Wales became the latest high-profile infection of a pandemic that has infiltrated all walks of life and paralyzed a continent.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Bulgaria imposed a temporary entry ban on trucks from more than 65 countries that plan to pass through the Balkan state en route to Turkey, after Turkey imposed stringent coronavirus restrictions on truck drivers.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, China's Hubei province, where the outbreak was first spotted late last year, started lifting its lockdown.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government secured emergency spending, unlocking a historic rescue package designed to cushion the blow of the coronavirus pandemic. The Bundesrat, or upper house of parliament, will vote on March 27.
(Bloomberg, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, In Germany some 32,705 patients have been confirmed with the coronavirus, up from 28,942 a day earlier. So far 154 have died, compared with 118 a day earlier.
(Bloomberg, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Hungary said it has banned the commercial export of hydroxychloroquine sulfate, an ingredient used in drugs for coronavirus treatment in several countries.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, India began a 21-day lockdown. PM Narendra Modi warned that if he didn't act now, the coronavirus could set the world's largest democracy back decades. Everything but essential services like supermarkets were closed. India has reported only about 512 cases because of limited testing. At least 9 deaths have been reported.
(AP, 3/24/20)(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, India said it had banned the export of hydroxychloroquine and formulations of the malaria drug while experts test its efficacy in helping treat patients infected with coronavirus.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Iran said it will ban intercity travel within days as it finally gets tough with the coronavirus that has killed more than 2,000 people in one of the world's deadliest outbreaks.
(AFP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, In Iran US Navy veteran Michael White was hospitalized in a ward for coronavirus patients and has experienced fever, fatigue, a cough and shortness of breath since his furlough last week. White was requesting a humanitarian evacuation to the United States for medical treatment.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, In Mali unidentified gunmen kidnapped Soumaila Cisse and members of his campaign team in an area controlled by extremists groups linked to al-Qaida. Cisse's bodyguard died of injuries sustained during the abduction.
(https://tinyurl.com/vnvbsw2)(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 25, Mexico's state of Baha California reported 16 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.30)
2020 Mar 25, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 852 to 6,412. Deaths rose by 80 to 356.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, The Financial Times reported that North Korean officials have sought urgent help from international contacts to increase coronavirus testing in a nation that could see its dilapidated health care system be crushed by an outbreak.
(Bloomberg, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Communist guerrillas in the Philippines said they would observe a cease-fire in compliance with the UN chief's call for a global halt in armed clashes during the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Romania's Pres. Klaus Iohannis said his government will postpone monthly loan repayments for a period of up to 9 months to help domestic borrowers hit by the coronavirus crisis. Romania reported 144 new infections to an overall of 906 cases and 13 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was postponing a nationwide vote on constitutional changes that would allow him to extend his rule due to the worsening situation with coronavirus. Russian authorities reported 163 more virus cases in the country since the day before, bringing the national total to 658.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, In South Africa the coronavirus caseload rose past 700 as the country got ready to go on lockdown on March 27.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Spain suffered its deadliest day since the outbreak of the coronavirus. The total number of fatalities surged by 738 to 3,434.
(Bloomberg, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, The Swiss government said it was expanding its border controls to include all countries in the Schengen open border zone to help protect people from coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Switzerland said it has introduced temporary restrictions on the export of protective equipment to head off shortages among medical staff and others fighting the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Taiwan reported 235 cases of the coronavirus and just two deaths.
(Econ, 3/28/20, p.35)
2020 Mar 25, Vietnam's health ministry reported an additional seven coronavirus cases, taking the country's tally to 141, though it reported no deaths.
(Reuters, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 25, Zimbabwe's public hospital doctors and nurses went on strike over a lack of protective gear as the coronavirus begins to spread in a country whose health system has almost collapsed.
(AP, 3/25/20)
2020 Mar 26, President Trump said he planned to label different areas as “high risk, medium risk or low risk," as part of guidelines to help states determine quarantine and distancing measures. He also reiterated his desire to start opening up parts of the country soon.
(NY Times, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, The US military said it has decided it will stop providing some of the more granular data about coronavirus infections within its ranks, citing concern that the information might be used by adversaries as the virus spreads.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In the United States deaths due to the coronavirus passed 1,050. The number of US coronavirus infections climbed above 82,000, surpassing the national tallies of China and Italy. The global death toll from the virus climbed past 21,000 and the number of infections has surpassed 472,000.
(AP, 3/26/20)(The Telegraph, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, In the SF Bay Area confirrmed cases of coronavirus topped 1,400 with at least 32 deaths.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 26, As of today anyone arriving in Hawaii was required to undergo a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, Louisiana reported the number of coronavirus cases in the state leapt 28% overnight. Louisiana has surpassed 2,300 people known to be infected, with 86 residents dead.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, NY state Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state has become the nation's epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo says Congress' $2 trillion stimulus bill has "failed to meet the governmental need." New York has seen 385 deaths from COVID-19 and that number is expected to continue to rise.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The International Monetary Fund asked G20 leaders to back a doubling of its emergency financing capacity to strengthen its response to the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic that is set to cause a global recession in 2020. G20 leaders in a video conference said they were committed to presenting a united front against the coronavirus pandemic, calling it their "absolute priority" to tackle its health, social and economic impacts.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said it has increased resources available to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to fight the coronavirus pandemic to $12 billion, up from the $2 billion it had promised a few weeks ago.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, A lockdown of Austrian ski resorts that have become hotspots for the spread of the coronavirus in Europe was extended until April 13, Easter Monday. Austria has reported nearly 6,400 cases in its nine provinces, a quarter of them in Tyrol.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Bangladesh deployed soldiers to enforce the start of a nationwide 10-day shutdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (65) told reporters in the capital, Brasilia, that he feels Brazilians’ natural immunity will protect the nation from the coronavirus pandemic. The nation’s tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 3,400 and deaths top 90. 25 of Brazil’s 27 governors signed a joint letter this week begging Bolsonaro to back strict anti-virus measures.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 26, The number of people in the UK who have died from coronavirus increased by 31% to 759.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, It was reported that Mologic, a British company behind a 10-minute coronavirus antibody test, has begun sending prototypes to laboratories for validation, which could be a game-changer in the fight against the pandemic. The test would cost about a $1.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, The Southern Cameroons Defence Forces (Socadef) said its ceasefire would come into effect from March 29 as "a gesture of goodwill." Cameroon's health ministry has so far has confirmed 75 cases of the coronavirus - and recorded its first death earlier this week.
(BBC, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, China said it will temporarily suspend the entry of foreigners with valid Chinese visas and residence permits starting on March 28, as an interim measure in response to the coronavirus epidemic. Exemptions will be made to those travelling in a diplomatic or official capacity, as well as holders of "C" visas, which are issued to foreigners involved in provision of international transportation services.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Denmark has recorded 1,851 people infected with coronavirus and 34 deaths. The country has restricted public assembly to 10 or fewer people and ordered the closure of schools, universities, day care centers, restaurants, cafes, libraries, gyms and hair salons.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Egypt's health ministry said there have been 495 cases of the new coronavirus in the country, including 24 fatalities. Egypt has expelled Ruth Michaelson, a correspondent for The Guardian, over a report citing a study that challenged the official count of coronavirus cases.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, French health authorities reported 299 new deaths from coronavirus, taking the total to 1,995. A TGV bullet train transferred 20 patients on life-support systems to from Strasbourg to eastern France.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)(Economist, 4/4/20, p.39)
2020 Mar 26, Germany has reported coronavirus infections in more than 39,000 people, but just 222 deaths. The country now has the ability to test 500,000 people a week, perhaps the greatest capacity in the world.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In India the Jimme Foundation, an LGBT+ rights group, launched a fundraising appeal for Mumbai sex workers whose income has been hit by coronavirus, saying it wanted to help other Indians who faced prejudice.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Iran's death toll due to the coronavirus jumped by 157 to 2,234, prompting new steps to limit public gatherings and domestic travel. President Hassan Rouhani said there would be more travel and gathering restrictions for the next two weeks to “break the chain" of the virus.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Iraq extended government-imposed restrictions on movement for two more weeks to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. The Health Ministry reported a jump of coronavirus-related deaths by seven in 24 hours. Authorities have confirmed that at least 29 Iraqis have died from COVID-19 and nearly 350 others have contracted the disease.
(AP, 3/26/20)(AFP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Italy's death toll due to coronavirus was about 7,500. The number of cases in the in the northern region of Lombardy, increased by some 2,500. Italy has reported 8,215 deaths from the illness, more than anywhere else in the world, while confirmed cases total 80,539.
(AP, 3/26/20)(Reuters, 3/26/20)(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 26, Lebanon extended government-imposed restrictions on movement for two more weeks to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. Lebanon has recorded six deaths of the virus while 35 new infected cases were recorded, raising the total to 386 cases.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, In Morocco hundreds of mostly British tourists who were traveling in motorhomes have found themselves stranded in a parking lot near a Tangier highway that authorities have turned into a makeshift quarantine center. Morocco has identified 225 cases of COVID-19.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Pakistan's cases of coronavirus rose to 1,098, up from 250 a week earlier. Eight deaths have been reported.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 26, The Russian government ordered the grounding of all international flights as part of new measures against the coronavirus pandemic, with the exception of flights evacuating Russian citizens from abroad,.
(Good Morning America, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, It was reported that Rwanda police have shot and killed two young men for defying lockdown orders to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
(https://allafrica.com/stories/202003260464.html)
2020 Mar 26, Saudi authorities announced a total lockdown on the capital, Riyadh, and Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, in addition to a nationwide curfew.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, South African President Ramaphosa called on richer countries to support the continent's economies via stimulus packages to mitigate the devastation caused by the coronavirus, as his own country registered a jump to more than 900 cases.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Spain's Health Ministry reported nearly 8,600 new infections and 655 deaths, bringing the total cases to over 56,000 and more than 4,000 fatalities.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Sweden has reported around 2,806 confirmed coronavirus cases and 66 deaths while Denmark recorded 1,851 infected and 34 deaths. The country has remained largely open for business. Sweden's health agency has conceded more measures are likely as the virus continues to spread.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Swiss-based Nestle, the world's biggest food company, said it would pay full salaries for at least three months to employees affected by work stoppages to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Thailand has reported a total of 1,045 cases of coronavirus and four deaths since the outbreak started in January. Honda's Thai business said it would suspend operations at two factories after Thailand declared a state of emergency to curb the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 26, Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced an overnight weekend lockdown and used drones to tell residents to stay home.
(AP, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 27, The US House of Representatives passed the $2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus bill. President Donald Trump was expected to sign it quickly. The US now had almost 86,000 known infections.
(NBC News, 3/27/20)(AFP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, The US Navy, the military service hit hardest by the coronavirus, scrambled to contain its first at-sea outbreak, with at least two dozen infected aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt in Guam, one of 11 active aircraft carriers whose mission is central to the Pentagon's strategy for deterring war with China and Iran.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a two-month halt on evictions for state residents who cannot pay their rent vecause of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 27, In Florida 29 deaths have been reported due to the coronavirus. Deaths were on track to double every four days.
(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 27, Mississippi’s health department reported 579 COVID-19 cases and eight deaths.
(The Daily Beast, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 27, New York state reported 100 more deaths in one day. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said cases of the new coronavirus are going to become “astronomical," putting unprecedented strain on the hospital system. New York state has more than 44,000 cases of coronavirus and 519 deaths from the virus, by far the most in the country.
(AP, 3/27/20)(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)(AP, 3/28/20)(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 27, The New York City Department of Corrections said that 80 staff and 103 men in custody have tested positive for coronavirus at Rikers Island and city jails alone — quadruple what was reported just a week ago.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 27, Rhode Island State Police began pulling over drivers with New York plates so that National Guard officials can collect contact information and inform them of a mandatory, 14-day quarantine.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 27, Washington, D.C., confirmed 36 new coronavirus cases, raising its total to 267.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced his 21-member team to negotiate peace with the Taliban, only to have his political opponent Abdullah Abdullah reject it as not inclusive enough. The Afghan government ordered a three-week lock-down for Kabul to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. Afghanistan has so far recorded just 91 cases and four deaths but the tens of thousands returnees from Iran have dispersed throughout the country without being tested.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, It was reported that the supply of soybeans to Argentine crushing plants is down by half and falling, as municipalities citing health concerns defied a government order that they allow cargo trucks to get to the plants. Mayors of dozens of towns near the Rosario grains export hub have blocked ground transport as the country locks down against the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, It was reported that millions of Bangladesh factory workers have been sent home without wages or severence pay they are owed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 27, British PM Boris Johnson (55) said he has tested positive for the coronavirus. Health Secretary Matt Hancock was also confirmed to have the virus. British fatalities due to the coronavirus jumped by 260, to 1,019. Some 14,579 people in the UK have tested positive, an increase of about 25%, above the five-day average of 20%.
(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)(AP, 3/27/20)(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 27, China's National Health Commission reported 55 new cases, 54 of them imported infections. Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a phone call told Pres. Donald Trump that China understands the United States' current predicament over the COVID-19 outbreak and stands ready to provide support within its capacity.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, In the Baltic states Estonia reported 575 coronavirus infections and one death, Latvia reported 280 cases, Lithuania reported 344 cases and four deaths.
(Baltic News Network, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, In Germany cases of coronavirus rose to 43,039 from 37,179, while the death toll jumped to 262 deaths from 203.
(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, The Hong Kong government announced new measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak, including limiting crowd size to four people except weddings and funerals. The measures will last for 14 days. The city has found a record 65 new cases, taking its total to 518.
(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, PM Viktor Orban said Hungary’s government will partially restrict movement for a two-week period ending April 11 to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, It was reported that India's coronavirus lockdown is disrupting e-commerce companies including Amazon and Flipkart, despite government assurances it would not.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, Indonesia reported the biggest daily jump in new coronavirus infections with the total number of confirmed cases topping 1,000. Tests confirmed the disease in 153 more people. The country also reported nine new deaths, taking the total to 87, the highest in Southeast Asia.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, Iran reported 2,926 new coronavirus cases and 144 more deaths over the past day, bringing the total figures in the country to 32,332 cases and 2,378 deaths. The government enforced social distancing measures banning inter-city travel and all gatherings, and the central bank approved loans for businesses affected by the outbreak. Iranian media report nearly 300 people have been killed and more than 1,000 sickened so far by ingesting methanol in the mistaken belief it protects against the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, Israel has recorded 12 deaths from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, and over 3,000 infections.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 27, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy rose by around 541 in a day to some 5,402. Italy registered the most coronavirus deaths since the country's outbreak had exploded five weeks earlier, adding 969 more victims to raise the world’s highest COVID-19 toll to 9,134.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 27, The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose by 1,172, or 16%, to 8,603, with 112 new deaths. The country's death total is now 546.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has reported 84 coronavirus cases. Authorities in the Gaza Strip have reported nine cases.
(AP, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, The Seattle-based Holland American cruise line, owneed by Carnival Corp., said four passengers have died aboard the Zaandam now anchored off the coast of Panama. Two people have tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 130 have reported flu-like symptoms. The ship carried 1,243 guests and 586 crew.
(SFC, 3/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 27, In Russia the total number of coronavirus cases rose by 196 to 1,036.
(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, In Serbia residents of Belgrade isolated themselves not only from coronavirus but also from acrid smoke, which defied strong winds to transform the Serbian capital into the city with the world's most polluted air. So far, the coronavirus infection in Serbia has sickened 528 and killed eight people.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, South Africa began a three-week lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus as the disease claimed its first two victims in the country and the number of infections passed 1,000.
(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, South Korea reported 146 new coronavirus cases. That brought total infections in South Korea to 9,478, with a death toll of 151, up from 139.
(Reuters, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 27, Spain reported its deadliest day so far after 769 people died, for a total of 4,858 fatalities. Cases rose to 64,059 from 56,188.
(Bloomberg, 3/27/20)
2020 Mar 28, Pres. Donald Trump endorsed the $2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus bill. He signed the bill into law but said he would not be bound by provisions that interfered with his executive authority. Democrats had pushed for increased oversight of a $500 billion corporate loan fund. Trump also approved coronavirus disaster declarations for Michigan and Massachusetts.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)(SFC, 3/31/20, p.A8)
2020 Mar 28, Idaho's Blaine County has reported more than 80 confirmed cases of coronavirus. The county includes Sun Valley Resort whioch draws skiers from around the world.
(SSFC, 3/29/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 28, In Louisiana inmate Patrick Jones (47) died after contracting the coronavirus at the federal minimum-security prison in Oakdale, where at least five prisoners have tested positive for the virus.
(NBC News, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 28, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order requiring communities statewide to restore water service, effectively ending water shutoffs for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, In Michigan the number of coronavirus infections surged in Detroit to 1,381, with 31 deaths. More than a fifth of Detroit's police force was quarantined. Two officers have died and at least 39 have tested positive, including the chief of police.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there are now 52,318 confirmed cases in the state, after 7,681 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. The governor also announced he was postponing the presidential primary in the state from April 28 to June 23.
(Good Morning America, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, New York City reported at least 26,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19, with 450 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo announced that the National Guard would go door-to-door to make sure New Yorkers are following 14-day quarantine orders. Rhode Island announced its first two deaths.
(Good Morning America, 3/28/20)(SSFC, 3/29/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 28, The number of worldwide coronavirus infections surpassed 620,000 with more than 28,000 deaths as new cases also stacked up quickly in Europe. Abbott Laboratories unveiled a coronavirus test that can tell if someone is infected in as little as five minutes, and is so small and portable it can be used in almost any health-care setting.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Albania flew a team of doctors and nurses to neighboring Italy to help it deal with the coronavirus pandemic as its own cases have yet to strain the health sector. Albania has 197 cases of the illness, with 10 deaths.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Australia’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose to 14. The number of confirmed infections stood at 3,635, an increase of 469 from a day earlier. Australia stepped up enforcement of social distancing rules, implementing fines, closing beaches and threatening stricter measures if people defy pleas to stay at home.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Australian authorities pressed ahead with plans to fly 800 cruise ship passengers to Germany this weekend after a downward revision in the number of people on board who needed to be tested for the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic declared a state of emergency, handing legislative powers to the region's president to expedite the passage of laws to ease the impact of the coronavirus epidemic. Bosnia has recorded 259 cases of coronavirus with four deaths.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Brazil's federal government launched an advertising campaign against social distancing measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak, the latest flashpoint in a battle between President Jair Bolsonaro and state governors trying to stop the virus' spread.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, A Brazilian court blocked a decree by President Jair Bolsonaro that exempted places of worship from confinement orders. The federal court in Rio de Janeiro state ruled that religious services pose a public health risk. The government can still appeal the decision.
(AFP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Britain reported 17,089 people testing positive for the coronavirus, up from 14,543 a day earlier.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak first emerged, began lifting a two-month lockdown by restarting some metro services and reopening borders, allowing some semblance of normality to return and families to reunite.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, China sent a plane loaded with medical personnel and supplies to help Pakistan fight the spread of the coronavirus in one of the world's most populous nations. Pakistan has 1,408 confirmed cases of the virus, including 11.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Northern Cyprus reported its first death from the coronavirus after a 67-year old German tourist died in hospital in Nicosia.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, In Germany the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 48,582 and 325 people have died of the disease.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Greece confirmed 95 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 1,061 since the country's first recorded infection on Feb. 26.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, India has confirmed 775 cases of coronavirus and 19 deaths.
(SSFC, 3/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 28, Indonesia's capital Jakarta announced a two-week extension of its state of emergency following the nationwide surge in coronavirus cases,.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Iran announced that 139 more people had died from the novel coronavirus, raising the official death toll to 2,517. The health ministry said 3,076 more cases had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 35,408.
(AFP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Iraqi doctors said the country may be singularly unprepared for the coronavirus, with the number of cases at 450 and deaths at 40.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Italy's Lombardy region recorded 542 new deaths as the national government was said to be mulling plans to extend a country-wide lockdown to mid-April. Italy reported 889 deaths due to the coronavirus. The death toll surged past 10,000. Confirmed cases rose by about 6,000 to 92,472.
(AP, 3/28/20)(Reuters, 3/28/20)(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 28, In Japan new coronavirus infections in Tokyo rose by more than 60, the biggest daily increase yet.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, In Kenya police fired tear gas at a crowd of ferry commuters as the country's first day of a coronavirus curfew slid into chaos. Virus cases across Africa climbed above 4,000.
(SSFC, 3/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 28, Lebanese security forces cleared away a protest camp in central Beirut on Saturday and reopened roads blocked by demonstrators since protests against the governing elite started in October. Lebanon has recorded 412 cases of coronavirus and eight deaths.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Mali recorded its first coronavirus just hours before polls were to open on March 29 for a long-delayed parliamentary election.
(AFP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Namibia, the world’s top producer of marine diamonds and the fifth-biggest of uranium, halted mining and quarrying operations to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, The Netherlands reported 93 deaths from the new coronavirus to take its total to 639 while another 1,159 cases of the virus were confirmed, both smaller rises than a day earlier. The country has confirmed a total of 9,762 cases of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, The Philippine health ministry reported 14 new coronavirus deaths and 272 additional cases, marking the country's single largest daily increase in fatalities and infections. This brought total infections in the Philippines to 1,075 and deaths to 68.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Poland's parliament passed a law early today allowing postal voting for senior citizens and those in quarantine or self-isolating as the government looks to press ahead with May presidential elections which opposition parties want postponed.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Portugal’s coronavirus cases rose 20% in one day and deaths climbed to 100 from 76. Total cases rose to 5,170 from 4,268 a day earlier. Authorities said all foreigners in Portugal with pending applications will be treated as permanent residents from March 30 until at least July 1, to ensure migrants have access to public services during the virus outbreak.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Qatar reported its first death from the new coronavirus late today, saying the total number of reported cases there was at least 590.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 28, Russia reported 228 new cases of coronavirus overnight, bringing the total to 1,264, with four deaths attributed to the virus. Russia said it will close its borders starting on March 30 in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The order will not apply to Russian diplomats and the drivers of freight trucks, among others. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin urged Muscovites to stay at home during the non-working week announced by President Vladimir Putin in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, South African billionaire businessman Patrice Motsepe said his group of companies would donate 1 billion rand ($57 million) to help fight the coronavirus outbreak that has forced the country into total lockdown as infections climbed.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Spain said 832 people have died from coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing total fatalities to 5,690. Spain reported 8,189 new cases of novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, putting the total number of cases at 72,248.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)(Good Morning America, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, The death toll in Switzerland from coronavirus climbed to 235 with total cases at 13,213.
(AP, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Thailand reported 109 new coronavirus cases and one death, bringing the total to 1,245 infections and six deaths.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Turkey halted all intercity trains and limited domestic flights, as the number of coronavirus cases jumped by a third in a day to 5,698, with 92 dead.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, The United Arab Emirates extended to April 5 a de-facto nightly curfew to sterilize public places. The UAE has reported two deaths from the coronavirus pandemic and 468 confirmed infections.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, A doctor (39) in Uzbekistan died after unsuccessfully trying to treat a coronavirus infection that he kept secret.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 28, Vietnam began limiting domestic flights and stop public gatherings for two weeks, as it aimed to keep down the number of coronavirus cases. The health ministry reported an additional 11 coronavirus cases, bringing the total number in the country to 174. There are 1,729 suspected cases in the country.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 29, President Trump deployed a naval hospital ship to New York. At least 17 US states reported tallies of at least 1,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. Trump said everyone in the US must avoid nonessential travel or gathering in groups of more than 10 for at least another month, and perhaps until June. The United States now led the world with more than 143,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and more than 2,500 deaths. As of today, the virus has infected more than 680,000 people and killed at least 32,000 worldwide.
(NY Times, 3/29/20)(AP, 3/29/20)(NY Times, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, The US Food and Drug Administration late today issued a limited emergency-use authorization for two antimalarial drugs to treat those infected with the novel coronavirus. The US Department of Health and Human Services announced it had received 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate and one million doses of chloroquine phosphate donated to a national stockpile of potentially life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies.
(Good Morning America, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the coronavirus outbreak could kill 100,000 to 200,000 Americans and added that millions in the US could become infected..
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, The US Food and Drug Administration late today issued a limited emergency-use authorization for two antimalarial drugs to treat those infected with the novel coronavirus. The US Department of Health and Human Services announced it had received 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate and one million doses of chloroquine phosphate donated to a national stockpile of potentially life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies.
(Good Morning America, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, California state officials said they are temporarily closing vehicular access to all 280 state parks in hope of slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 29, Louisiana's Gov. John Bel Edwards warned that the spread of the coronavirus could soon overwhelm the state's health care system. Hundreds of people flouted a ban on gatherings at the Life Tabernacle church in Central. Louisiana had 3,540 cases and 151 deaths. Pastor Tony Spell was issued a summons on March 31 for holding the services. Spell said he would continue to ignore the ban because God told him so.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A4,7)(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 29, In Detroit, which has a large low-income population, the death toll rose to 31 with about 1,400 infections in a rate that shocked health officials.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, New York State, with over 53,300 cases as of this morning, accounted for more than one-third of the country’s known coronavirus infections. A planeload of desperately needed medical supplies arrived in New York from China, the first of 22 scheduled flights over the next 30 days organized by the White House to help fight the coronavirus.
(NY Times, 3/29/20)(Reuters, 3/29/20)(NY Times, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, Alan Merrill (b.1951), writer of the hit song "I Love Rock and Roll," died in New York of complications from the coronavirus. He wrote the song for his band the Arrows in 1975 and it became a hit for Joan Jett in 1982.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Merrill)(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A7)
2020 Mar 29, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo repealed her order the New Yorkers be singled out for COVID-19 quarantine and replaced it with a requirement that all out-of-state travelers isolate for 14 days.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 29, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro called on all but the elderly to get back to work, defying his own health ministry on coronavirus guidelines.
(SFC, 4/2/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 29, Cambodia reported one new case of the coronavirus, bringing tally to 103. The country prepared to tighten entry requirements for foreign nationals to try to curb the spread of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, China said it had an accumulated total of 693 cases of coronavirus entering from overseas.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Cyprus recorded 35 new coronavirus cases, more than double the number reported a day earlier. This brought Cyprus' total to 214 cases and six recorded deaths.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, Egypt has reported more than 600 infections and 40 deaths from the coronavirus. The government imposed restrictions on cash deposits and withdrawals to prevent crowding at banks as payrolls and pensions are disbursed.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, France used two high-speed TGV trains and a German military plane to move more than three dozen critically ill coronavirus patients to ease the pressure on overwhelmed hospitals in eastern France. The number of intensive care cases rose 8.4% to 4,632, its lowest daily rise in that period. The country was in virtual lockdown.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, Indian PM Narendra Modi asked the nation's poor for forgiveness as the economic and human toll from his 21-day nationwide lockdown deepens and criticism mounts about a lack of adequate planning ahead of the decision.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Indonesia confirmed 130 new coronavirus infections, taking the total to 1,285. Twelve more people had died from the virus, bringing the death toll to 144.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, In Iran the death toll from the novel coronavirus rose to 2,640. 123 more people in Iran died from the virus in the past 24 hours. 2,901 new cases of COVID-19 infection were reported, bringing the overall number of officially confirmed cases to 38,309.
(AFP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, In Iran a riot broke out at Adel Abad Prison, the main lockup in the city of Shiraz. Prisoners broke cameras and caused other damage in two sections housing violent criminals. No one was wounded and no one escaped.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Ireland's government said it is set to roll out a voluntary phone-tracking app to alert users if someone they have been in contact with develops COVID-19, two weeks before the pandemic is expected to peak in the country.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, In Israel more than 4,300 people have been infected with the new virus and 15 have died.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus climbed by 756 to 10,779. The death toll from the coronavirus in Lombardy rose by around 416 in a day to some 6,360. Italy's government said it will "inevitably" extend beyond April 3 the containment measures it had approved to stem the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Tokyo confirmed 68 new coronavirus cases, a record daily increase. Popular Japanese comedian Ken Shimura (70) died from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 29, Kazakhstan locked down its fifth major city as part of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The country has confirmed 265 coronavirus cases and has already locked down its capital, Nur-Sultan, the biggest city, Almaty, as well as Shymkent, a large city in the south, and Aktau, a Caspian Sea port.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Malians voted in long-delayed parliamentary elections a day after the country's first coronavirus death. Mali now had 18 confirmed Covid-19 cases. There were concerns about its spread in a country with a poor healthcare infrastructure.
(BBC, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases passed 10,000. Confirmed cases rose by 1,104 to 10,866, an 11% increase. There were 132 new deaths, bringing the number of fatalities to 771.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the cessation of movement in Lagos and the capital Abuja for 14 days in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Nigeria had 97 confirmed cases. The country has shut international airports, closed all land borders and imposed curbs on cargo vessels allowed to dock at its ports in an effort to contain the outbreak. Nigeria's petroleum regulator ordered oil and gas companies to reduce their offshore workforce and move to 28-day staff rotations as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, The Philippines reported 1,418 cases of coronavirus and 71 deaths. Police said nearly 50,000 people have apprehended over the last two weeks for violating quarantine regulations and night curfews.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 29, In Russia the total number of coronavirus cases in Moscow exceeded 1,000 with many Muscovites going out despite a plea to stay home. The official tally of confirmed cases in Russia rose by 270 in 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,534. Nine people have died of the coronavirus, seven of which in Moscow.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Singapore reports 42 new coronavirus cases, taking tally to 844. Singapore reported its third coronavirus death.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, South African police and security guard shot a man dead during the coronavirus lockdown in Vosloorus township, just south of Johannesburg. The two suspects in the killing have been arrested.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 29, Spain’s coronavirus death toll rose by 838 overnight to 6,528. Spain also saw infections rise to 78,797 from 72,248 the day before.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Sri Lankan authorities sealed off two villages as a part of stringent measures the contain the spread of the coronavirus. The nation has reported 115 cases and one fatality. More than 6,000 people have been arrested and 1,533 vehicles seized for violating a curfew.
(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 29, Sudan has six confirmed cases, including one fatality.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, The Swiss death toll from coronavirus reached 257, up from 235 people the previous day. The number of confirmed cases also increased to 14,336 from 13,213.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Taiwan has reported 298 cases, far lower than many of its neighbors, and has won plaudits from health experts for its early response and measures to keep the numbers low. The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is closely following the development of the coronavirus in Taiwan and is learning lessons from how they are fighting it, after complaints from Taiwan it was being intentionally ignored.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, In northeastern Thailand prisoners set fire to the canteen of Buriram Prison and several inmates escaped during a riot that was sparked by rumors of a coronavirus outbreak. The total number of coronavirus cases reached 1,388, with 143 new cases reported today. One new coronavirus death was reported, bringing the total in Thailand to seven.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 29, Turkey's deaths from the coronavirus increased by 23 to 131, as the number of confirmed cases rose by 1,815 to 9,217.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Uganda has reported 30 cases of COVID-19, mostly people who recently traveled through the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai. Ugandan pop star and opposition leader Bobi Wine has released a song urging Africa's people to wash their hands to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, and criticized African governments for not maintaining better health care systems for the continent's 1.3 billion people.
(AP, 3/29/20)
2020 Mar 29, Uganda police arrested 13 gay men, two bisexual men and four transgender women when they raided an LGBT+ shelter on the outskirts of Kampala following a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people to control the virus. On May 13 a court granted lawyers access to the detainees held with no legal help.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 Mar 30, The US death toll in the COVID-19 pandemic surpassed 3,000, with more than 160,000 confirmed infections.
(The Week, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, US federal judges temporarily blocked bans on abortion imposed in Texas, Ohio, and Alabama during the coronavirus pandemic.
(The Week, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, The captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, docked in Guam, asked for permission to isolate the bulk of his roughly 5,000 crew members on shore, which would take the warship out of duty in an effort to save lives. Navy Capt. Brett Crozier said the spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating and that removing all but 10% of the crew is a “necessary risk" in order to stop the spread of the virus. A day later the US Navy promised to isolate crew members ashore for rotating quarantine within 24 hours.
(AP, 4/1/20)(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A1)
2020 Mar 30, SF Mayor Lond Breed said the city's shelter-in-place order will be extended to at least May 1. The SF Bay Area had over 1,900 coronavirus cases and 49 deaths.
(ABC News, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, The Cook County Jail in Chicago said 134 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, up from just 38 March 27.
(Good Morning America, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, Florida Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities in Hernando County. Detectives said he held two services a day earlier with hundreds of people and violated a safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
(AP, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., issued stay-at-home directives, virtually shutting down the capital region in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, New York state reported at least 1,026 coronavirus-related deaths, with about three-quarters of those in New York City. A 1,000-bed Navy hospital ship docked in Manhattan and a field hospital was going up in Central Park for coronavirus patients, as officials in New York City pleaded for more help from Washington.
(AP, 3/30/20)(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, In Pennsylvania Roderick Bliss IV (38), upset over losing his job due to the coronavirus pandemic, shot his girlfriend and then killed himself in an attempted murder-suicide in Wilson Borough.
(NBC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Mar 30, It was reported that nearly a dozen students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., have developed symptoms of Covid-19. The school’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., reopened its campus last week after calling the response to the pandemic an “overreaction".
(NY Times, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Facebook Inc pledged $100 million in financing and advertising spending to support news organizations, including local publishers in the United States, reeling from pressure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Johnson & Johnson said that it and the US government will invest $1 billion to create enough manufacturing capacity to make more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine it is testing to stop the new coronavirus that has killed more than 35,000 people around the world.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Thirty-nine Cuban doctors and nurses arrived in the tiny Pyrenean principality of Andorra to help it battle the coronavirus.
(AFP, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Australia unleashed a record A$130 billion ($80 billion) jobs-rescue plan, pledging to subsidize workers’ wages as the coronavirus outbreak wreaks havoc on the economy and throws thousands out of work.
(Bloomberg, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said US regulators have approved its Imfinzi treatment for use against an aggressive type of lung cancer in previously untreated patients, as it moves to expand its specialization in tackling the disease.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Bulgaria has 399 confirmed cases of coronavirus and eight deaths.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, The National Liberation Army (ELN), the largest active guerrilla group in Colombia, said it will observe a unilateral cease-fire for one month from April 1 in an effort to help stem the spread of coronavirus. Colombia has reported 702 cases and 10 deaths of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Cyprus imposed a curfew to contain the spread of coronavirus, extending a broad lockdown introduced two weeks ago after a weekend spike in recorded cases.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, In El Salvador crowds broke the lockdown to request aid from the government; police used pepper spray to disperse them.
(https://tinyurl.com/y95muu2u)(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, The European Commission said that EU countries should allow the hundreds of thousands of seasonal migrant workers who plant or harvest crops to cross borders despite national measures to contain the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, The European Commission authorized France's scheme to support small companies and self-employed people affected by the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, French army helicopters transported coronavirus patients fighting for their lives from eastern France to hospitals in Germany and Switzerland as the country battled to free up space in life-support units.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, French carmaker Renault put most of its white collar staff in the Ile-de-France region around Paris on partial unemployment as the lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus outbreak lowered activity.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Hungary’s parliament issued a "coronavirus law" handing PM Viktor Orban the right to rule by decree indefinitely, effectively putting the European Union democracy under his sole command for as long as he sees fit.
(Bloomberg, 3/30/20)(Econ, 4/25/20, p.49)
2020 Mar 30, India's health ministry invited doctors in Indian-administered Kashmir to an online training session on managing ventilators. Most, however, were unable to attend because of long-running curbs on the internet that have prevented those living in Kashmir from accessing information about the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Indian health workers caused outrage by spraying a group of migrants with disinfectant, amid fears that a large scale movement of people from cities to the countryside risked spreading the coronavirus. India has registered more than a thousand cases of the new coronavirus, of whom 29 have died.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Iran's death toll from the new coronavirus increased to 2,757 with 117 new deaths in the past 24 hours. The total number of cases has climbed to 41,495.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy rose by around 458 in a day to some 6,818. The number of cases in the region increased by some 1,154 to around 42,161. The national death toll stood at 11,591.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 30, Kazakhstan, a Central Asian nation of 19 million, has confirmed 302 cases of the disease and has closed its borders, locked down most of its major cities and shut down most businesses in the two biggest population centers for a week.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, The MS Zaandam exited the Panama Canal. At least 189 people aboard the Holland America Line cruise ship were suffering flu-like symptoms and four people have died.
(Good Morning America, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Moscow, with its more than 12 million people, went into lockdown while other parts of Russia moved to introduce similar steps to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
(AFP, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Saudi Arabia said it will finance treatment for anyone infected with the coronavirus in the country. The agriculture ministry took steps to boost wheat and livestock supplies amid global fears of a food shortage. The kingdom has registered eight deaths among 1,453 infections.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, In Serbia 13 people, out of a population of 7 million, have died from the coronavirus. 741 have been diagnosed with the infection. Orthodox Bishop Milutin Knezevic (71) died of the coronavirus overnight in a Belgrade hospital.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, In Spain an overnight death toll of 812 people brought total fatalities to 7,340, while the number of infections rose by 8% to 85,195. Business leaders and regional authorities criticized the government's decision to further restrict the movement of people and keep non-essential workers at home until mid-April.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Turkey placed 39 residential areas in 18 cities under quarantine to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed 131 people in the country.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, United Arab Emirates carrier flydubai said it will reduce pay for its employees for three months from April due to the impact of the global coronavirus crisis on its business.
(Reuters, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, Zimbabwe entered a “total lockdown" over the coronavirus. Hundreds of public hospital doctors and nurses have gone on strike over the lack of protective equipment. However, social distancing was being pushed aside in the struggle to obtain food, cash, cheap public transport, even clean water.
(AP, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 31, President Donald Trump said the US Congress should pass a $2 trillion spending plan to update the country's roads, bridges and other infrastructure, calling for it to be included in the next bill lawmakers are currently drafting to respond to the coronavirus crisis, which they refer to as "Phase 4." Trump warned Americans to brace for a “hell of a bad two weeks" ahead as the White House projected there could be 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the US from the coronavirus pandemic even if current social distancing guidelines are maintained.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, The US, the country with the most confirmed coronavirus infections, now reported at 164,610 cases and over 3,000 deaths. More than 800,000 cases have been recorded in 185 countries and territories since the epidemic started in China in December. At least 38,464 deaths have been recorded, 27,740 of those in Europe.
(AFP, 3/31/20)(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom reported 6,932 cases of coronavirus and 150 deaths in the state.
(ABC News, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 31, Two ships carrying passengers and crew from an ill-fated South American cruise pleaded with Florida officials to let them carry off the sick and dead. But Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida’s health care resources are already stretched too thin.
(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, New York City authorities rushed to bring in an army of medical volunteers as the death toll in the city from the coronavirus climbed past 1,000.
(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Privately held Bodysphere said the US Food and Drug Administration has authorized the emergency use of its test that can detect the coronavirus in nearly two minutes.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Afghan officials said authorities have quarantined 16 health workers, including six doctors, as Afghans fleeing hard-hit Iran have helped spread the coronavirus in the western border province of Herat.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Africa's confirmed cases of coronavirus climbed to at least 5,300, with more than 170 recorded deaths. The Nigerian cities of Lagos and Abuja entered a two-week lockdown to stop the spread of the virus.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, In Bangladesh orders for businesses to close due to the coronavirus pandemic went into effect. Garment factories were not included until four days later.
(Econ., 5/2/20, p.28)
2020 Mar 31, Belgium had at least 12,775 diagnosed cases of COVID-19, and at least 705 of those patients have died, including a girl (12) who succumbed to the disease over the weekend.
(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi declared a State of Emergency following three confirmed coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro called for a pact against the coronavirus "to save lives without leaving jobs behind." Brazil had 1210 deaths from the virus.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.26)
2020 Mar 31, The death toll in England from the coronavirus outbreak rose 29% to 1,651. Scotland said 60 people had died. Wales said 69 people had died.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Guinea announced a night-time curfew between 2100-0500 GMT and restrictions on movement out of the capital due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(AFP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Indonesia said it will ban foreign nationals from entering the country as the world’s fourth-most populous country stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The government has also ordered officials to step up screening of Indonesian workers returning from overseas to prevent the virus from spreading further.
(Bloomberg, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Iran said 141 more people have died from the novel coronavirus, raising the official toll to 2,898. Some 3,111 new infections have been confirmed over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 44,606. State news said authorities have stopped the print editions of all Iranian media until at least April 8, calling on them to publish online instead.
(AFP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, In Italy the death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy rose by around 381 in a day to some 7,199. The daily deaths marked the lowest daily toll since March 25.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Kenya now has 59 coronavirus cases, including one death from the disease. A family mourned the death of a boy (13), struck by a bullet as he stood on the balcony of his family’s home with his siblings. Police officers had moved through their crowded neighborhood, enforcing a new coronavirus curfew. The director of public prosecutions ordered an investigation into the fatal shooting in the slum of Mathare.
(AP, 3/31/20)(Reuters, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Mexico's government broadened its shutdown of "non-essential activities" to the private sector and prohibited gatherings of more than 50 people to fight the spread of the coronavirus. The emergency measures will be in effect to April 30.
(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 31, In Nepal 302 stranded Americans were repatriated on a Qatar Airways flight to Washington, DC. Nepal estimated that 3,000 to 4,000 American remained in the country.
(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 31, Gaza's Health Ministry said two more cases have been confirmed among travelers who returned from Egypt, bringing the number to 12. A UN aid agency began delivering food to the homes of impoverished Palestinians instead of making them pick up such parcels at crowded distribution centers.
(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Panama announced strict quarantine measures that separate citizens by gender. From April 1 for 15 days, men and women will only be able to leave their homes for two hours at a time, and on different days.
(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, Russian lawmakers backed jail sentences of up to seven years for quarantine offenders as the number of cases jumped by a record daily amount. Over the past 24 hours Russian authorities have reported 500 new cases -- the biggest daily increase so far --- bringing the total tally to 2,337 cases and 17 fatalities.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)(AFP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, A senior Saudi official urged more than 1 million Muslims intending to perform the hajj to delay making plans this year, comments suggesting the pilgrimage could be cancelled due to the new coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 3/31/20)
2020 Mar 31, South African scientist Gita Ramjee died from Covid-19-related complications.
(BBC, 4/1/20)
2020 Mar 31, Spain approved an emergency measure designed to help domestic workers who have seen their work hours reduced, temporarily suspended or been fired since the country went into lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. New cases increased by 9,222 bringing the total to 94,417.
(Reuters, 3/31/20)(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Mar 31, Sweden recorded 4,947 infection of the coronavirus and 239 deaths.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.41)
2020 Mar, US Vice President Mike Pence directed the nation’s top disease control agency to use its emergency powers to effectively seal the US borders, overruling the agency’s scientists who said there was no evidence the action would slow the coronavirus. The action caused nearly 150,000 children and adults to be expelled from the country.
(AP, 10/3/20)
2020 Mar, Virginia paroled 95 inmates because of the coronavirus pandemic. They included killers, rapists and kidnappers, blindsiding prosecutors and victims' families who say they were not properly notified as required by law.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 Mar, Peru's Pres. Martin Vizcarra announced he’d signed off on a purchase of 1.6 million COVID-19 tests from China and South Korea, almost all of them for antibodies. It was later found that they did not meet standards for accurately detecting COVID-19.
{Peru, COVID-19}
(AP, 10/7/20)
2020 Mar, Early this month the Marshall Islands sealed itself off, banning all inbound visitors due to the coronavirus. Even supply vessels were require to wait 14 days at sea before berthing.
(Econ, 3/21/20, p.34)
2020 Apr 1, A US government classified report, received by the White House last week, said China has concealed the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in its country, under-reporting both total cases and deaths it’s suffered from the disease.
(Bloomberg, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, A delivery of Russian medical supplies arrived at JFK. The US purchased 60 tons of ventilators, masks, and respirators in a shipment from the Russian government in a public relations coup for Vladimir Putin.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 1, The US government and Florida worked on a plan to allow thousands of passengers on the MS Zaandam cruise ship, exposed to an onboard coronavirus outbreak, to disembark. Pres. Donald Trump a day earlier urged Gov. Ron DeSantis to drop his opposition to their docking. Florida has reported 6,490 cases of coronavirus, including 251 non-residents, and 85 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, The US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) confirmed that a second inmate at the federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana has died from the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Federal prisons began ordering inmates confined to their cells for the next two weeks in order to fight spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)(Politico, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, US Navy officials said nearly 3,000 sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier now docked in Guam, where the coronavirus has spread, will be taken off the ship by April 3.
(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Grand Canyon National in northern Arizona was closed due to the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/4/20, p.A3)
2020 Apr 1, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis listed religious activities as "essential services" that could continue (without crowds) despite a lockdown.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.45)
2020 Apr 1, In Louisiana jazz legend Ellis Marsalis Jr. (b.1934), died from COVID-19-related pneumonia.
(Good Morning America, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 1, In New Jersey 267 have died from the coronavirus.
(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo said over 83,000 people have tested positive in his state. Of those, 12,000 patients are in hospital, including 3,000 in intensive care units. The state reported 83, 712 coronavirus infections with deaths rising to 1,941.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, In NYC 1,400 members of the police department have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Albania's Health Ministry reported 16 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total in the small Balkan nation of 2.8 million people to 259. The health ministry said all schools, cafes, restaurants and other public venues will remain shut and restrictions on social and economic activity will stay in place till the end of the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Brazil reported that an indigenous woman in a village deep in the Amazon rainforest has contracted the novel coronavirus, the first case reported among Brazil's more than 300 tribes.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, The United Kingdom's death toll climbed to a total of 2,352 -- an increase of 563 in the past 24 hours. Some 29,474 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the U.K.
(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Cambodia's labor ministry said at least 91 garment factories in Cambodia have suspended work due to coronavirus, with 61,500 workers affected. The ministry said the government would provide salary replacement of about $38 per month for about 61,500 workers.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Cuban authorities said they are cancelling their May Day parade because of the coronavirus. Cuba has confirmed 186 cases and six deaths.
(SFC, 4/2/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 1, Ethiopia said it will postpone general elections that were scheduled for the end of August because of the coronavirus outbreak. The country has 26 confirmed cases of the virus.
(Bloomberg, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, The European Commission said laboratories across Europe can now access control material to enable them to avoid mistakenly telling people they are free of the coronavirus when in fact they are infected.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, France began publishing statistics on care-home deaths.
(Econ., 5/9/20, p.41)
2020 Apr 1, In France Jacques Joaquim Yhombi-Opango, The former president of the Republic of Congo, died in Paris from complications related to the novel coronavirus. Yhombi-Opango was an army officer who rose to power as Congo-Brazzaville's head of state in 1977, following the assassination of the previous president. He was ousted in 1979 by the country's current leader, Denis Sassou Nguesso. Yhombi-Opango served as prime minister between 1994 and 1996 during Pascal Lissouba's presidency. He fled to France in 1997.
(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Germany's confirmed cases of coronavirus passed 71,000. The death toll was 775. The country was now capable of conducting up to 500,000 tests a week.
(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Iran's health ministry said the country's coronavirus death toll now stood at 3,036 following 138 new fatalities in the past 24 hours. 2,987 new cases had been confirmed, bringing the total to 47,593.
(AFP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu restricted movement into and out of the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, the country's 9th largest city, due to its high number of coronavirus cases.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.38)
2020 Apr 1, Italy reported almost 110,574 coronavirus infections. The death toll climbed by 727 to 13,155. Italy has registered more deaths than anywhere else in the world and accounts for around 30% of all global fatalities from the virus.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Computer hackers attacked Italy's social security website, forcing it to shut down just as people were starting to apply for coronavirus benefits. Several hacker attacks were reported over the last few days.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Japan reported 65 new cases of coronavirus. Nationwide Japan has about 2,300 confirmed cases and 67 deaths.
(SFC, 4/2/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 1, Lebanon has recorded nearly 480 cases of coronavirus and 12 deaths. Hezbollah said it is turning the organizational might it once deployed to fight Israel or in the civil war in neighboring Syria to battle the spread of the virus pandemic in Lebanon.
(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Russia has so far registered 2,777 cases of the coronavirus and 24 deaths, mostly in Moscow. The Kremlin said Pres. Vladimir Putin has decided to handle his duties remotely, after the head of the country's main coronavirus hospital tested positive following a meeting last week with the president. Putin signed legislation to allow the government to declare a state of national emergency in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus.
(AFP, 4/1/20)(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Serbia has so far reported 1,060 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 28 deaths, in a total population of 7 million. Branislav Blazic (63), a state secretary with the Ministry for Environmental Protection, died days after being hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Singapore reported 74 new coronavirus cases in its biggest intraday jump, bringing the total tally to 1,000. Twenty of the new cases were imported while 54 were locally transmitted.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, It was reported that the 1.2 million Chinese antibody tests that the Slovak government bought from local middlemen for 15 million euros ($16 million) are inaccurate and unable to detect Covid-19 in its early stages. China said Slovakia used them incorrectly, and cautioned against politicizing instances where equipment isn’t up to scratch.
(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Somalia has confirmed three cases of Covid-19, but there were fears that if the virus spreads it could quickly overwhelm the country's poor health system.
(BBC, 4/1/20)
(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, The Spanish Ministry of Health recorded 7,719 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to 102,136 with over 9,000 deaths. Spain hit a record of 864 deaths in one day.
(ABC News, 4/1/20)(AP, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Swedish airline BRA said it was pausing all traffic as demand had ground to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic. Privately held BRA said it was cancelling all flights between April 6 and May 31.
(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, The independent NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Turkmenistan, which was ranked at the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index in 2019, has removed the word ‘coronavirus’ from the national vocabulary. To date, no cases of COVID-19 have been reported by the authorities.
(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020 Apr 1, Ukraine asked Elon Musk via Twitter to send it ventilators after the billionaire chief executive of Tesla Inc offered to ship them across the world during the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits more than doubled to a second straight record. A total of 6.65 million people filed jobless claims in the week ended March 28. The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 5,148 people in the United States. Global coronavirus cases topped 962,000 with more than 48,000 dead. The US unemployment rate jumped to 4.4% from a 50-year low of 3.5%. Employers have cut 701,000 jobs because of the pandemic that's all but shut down the nation's economy.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)(ABC News, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will form a bipartisan select committee on the coronavirus crisis to oversee the spending of $2 trillion Congress has approved to respond to the pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Capt. Brett Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier was fired by Navy leaders who said he created a panic by sending his memo pleading for help to too many people. Crozier had raised warnings the ship was facing a growing outbreak of the coronavirus and asked for permission to isolate the bulk of his crew members on shore in Guam. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said commander “demonstrated extremely poor judgment" in the middle of a crisis. The decision to remove Crozier was immediately condemned by members of the House Armed Services Committee. On April 5 it was reported that Crozier had tested positive for the coronavirus. By this date 155 people aboard the ship had tested positive.
(AP, 4/3/20)(SFC, 4/6/20, p.A10)
2020 Apr 2, The US Coast Guard and the Florida Department of Health reached a conditional agreement with Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise line, on an entry plan for two ships carrying dozens of people with flu-like symptoms. Carnival's plan was still subject to approval from Broward County, where the ships would dock. Until then, the pair of vessels will remain outside US waters.
(AP, 4/2/20)(ABC News, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, An Illinois man who suspected his girlfriend had contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, shot and killed her and then himself. Both tested negative for the disease.
(NBC News, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 2, The US Bureau of Prisons said the death toll from COVID-19 at a federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, has continued climbing, with a fourth inmate now dead.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, New York's statewide death toll went over 1,900. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state has 92,000 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and has lost 2,373 lives. Cuomo said the outbreak shows no signs of abating, with almost 8,700 new infections, 1,200 new hospitalizations, 400 new ICU admissions and more than 400 new deaths in the state.
(AP, 4/2/20)(ABC News, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee issued orders requiring citizens to remain at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, ending one of the last holdouts by US states.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Bangladesh has reported six deaths and 54 cases of COVID-19 amid concerns that the virus could spread in the country through Bangladeshis who have returned from Italy and other places struggling with the disease.
(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Ecuador confirmed 3,160 cases of coronavirus and 120 deaths, likely a vast underestimate. Untold numbers of Ecuadorians were dying of unrelated diseases that can’t be treated because hospitals are overwhelmed.
(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, Deaths from coronavirus in Germany climbed to 1,074, a day after the government extended a nationwide lockdown beyond Easter.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Greece quarantined a migrant camp after 20 asylum seekers tested positive, its first such facility hit since the coronavirus outbreak. Greece reported at least 53 people dead and at least 1,544 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Police said they had imposed fines for 15,741 violations for breaking lockdown rules since March 23.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, Hong Kong ordered bars and pubs to close for 14 days from April 3. The city earlier reported 37 new cases, taking its total to 802.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Indonesia's coronavirus cases neared 1,800 as the death toll rose to 170, passing South Korea as the country with the highest number of recorded fatalities in Asia after China.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)(SFC, 4/3/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 2, Iran reported 124 new deaths from the coronavirus, raising its total to 3,160, as Pres. Rouhani warned that the country may still battle the pandemic for another year. The health ministry confirmed 3,111 new infections over the past 24 hours, bringing Iran's total to 50,468. State television reported that Parliament speaker Ali Larijani (62) has tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the latest official to contract the disease in the hard hit country.
(AFP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Iraq's health ministry said in its latest daily statement that the total recorded confirmed cases for coronavirus were 772, with 54 deaths. Three doctors closely involved in the testing process said confirmed cases were much higher with numbers of 3,000 to 9,000.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Israel's Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, a powerful ultra-Orthodox politician meant to lead the battle against the virus, was confirmed to be infected. Ultra-Orthodox residents of Bnei Brak, obeying their religious leaders, have ignored pleas to stay home in the face of the coronavirus threat. Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, home to large ultra-Orthodox communities, have the largest concentrations.
(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, Italy reported 4,668 new cases of the coronavirus compared with 4,782 a day earlier. The nation reported 760 deaths as the number of fatalities rose again after three weeks of nationwide lockdown.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Italy's La Stamp newspaper said that the 104-strong contingent of doctors and experts, sent by Russia to the country's coronavirus epicenter near Milan, almost certainly included officers from Russia's GRU military intelligence agency.
(AFP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, Japan has more than 3,000 cases of coronavirus and 71 deaths. Tokyo reported 97 new cases.
(SFC, 4/3/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 2, Human Rights Watch said Lebanese authorities have introduced "discriminatory restrictions" exclusively targeting Syrian refugees as part of their response to the coronavirus. Lebanon has recorded 494 confirmed infections and 16 deaths from the coronavirus, prompting the government last month to introduce a daily curfew from 7 pm to 5 am.
(AFP, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Malawi reported its first cases of the coronavirus.
(BBC, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 2, Mexico's Grupo Modelo, producer of the Corona, Modelo and Pacifico brands, announced measures to suspend production and distribution of beer in response to the government's decision to halt non-essential economic activity to contain the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 2, Mexico has registered 1,378 coronavirus cases and 37 deaths. It was reported that Mexican farmworkers on both sides of the US-Mexico border are working in unsanitary conditions despite the rapid rise in coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Portugal's parliament approved the suspension of rents for vulnerable households and cash-strapped small firms during the coronavirus outbreak, but rights groups warned that the measure might only delay a looming housing crisis.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, President Vladimir Putin extended his order keeping Russians at home until April 30, warning that the spread of coronavirus has yet to reach its peak. Russia reported a 28% increase in infections overnight, bringing the total number of infected to 3,548.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2 Russian police detained Anastasia Vasilyeva, the leader of an independent doctors' union, as she tried to deliver masks and gloves to a small hospital outside Moscow.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.43)
2020 Apr 2, Singapore suffered its fourth death, a day after it reported a record number of new cases that took its total to 1,000.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, South African police wearing riot gear forced their way into a church in central Cape Town to remove hundreds of foreign migrants who had been sheltering there for months. South Africa is in the midst of a 21-day lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, Spain reported 950 more coronavirus deaths, the most in a single day, taking total fatalities in the country to more than 10,000. Spain said jobless claims rose by a record 302,265 in March.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, It was reported that one-third of Thailand’s population has registered for government cash handouts designed to soften the blow of the novel coronavirus outbreak, far exceeding the funds available for the policy.
(Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, The UN General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution recognizing “the unprecedented effects" of the coronavirus pandemic and calling for “intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate and defeat" the COVID-19 disease.
(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations is facing a cash crisis because of non-payment of dues by member states, which has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Guterres said the UN ended 2019 with arrears of $711 million.
(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, The Vatican recorded its seventh coronavirus case and extended its partial lockdown until May 4.
(SFC, 4/3/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 2, Zambia recorded its first death due to the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 3, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, said Americans should cover their face if they have to go in public, but they should still stay isolated as much as possible The announcement marked a reversal for health officials, who’d previously said that those without symptoms didn’t need to wear face coverings.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 3, The US Food and Drug Administration announced an "expanded access" program for convalescent plasma, coordinated by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, aimed at making it easier for hospitals across the country to collect and use plasma. Convalescent plasma was successfully used during the 1918 flu pandemic. In one trial in China, levels of the virus in five seriously ill COVID-19 patients were undetectable after plasma transfusions.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 3, In the SF Bay Area the confirmed cases of coronavirus as of this morning rose to 2,968 with 78 deaths. California to date had 11,187 cases with 246 deaths. The testing backlog in the state stood at 59,500. Nationwide there were 245,658 cases, with 6,069 deaths.
(https://sfist.com/)(SFC, 4/3/20, p.B1)
2020 Apr 3, In Florida passengers aboard the cruise ship Zaandam were freed following the removal of 14 critically ill people who were taken to local hospitals. All the passengers were instructed to wear masks when traveling and to immediately go into 14 days of self-quarantine to prevent any possible spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 3, New York reported 562 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the state's total death toll to 2,935.
(The Week, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 3, Utah's Zion National Park was closed to the public to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/6/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 3, 3M Corp. said it has secured China's approval to export to the US 10 million N-95 respirators manufactured by the company in China.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Canada recorded almost 12,000 cases of the new coronavirus and the death toll jumped by almost 20%. Cases rose to 11,747 and deaths climbed to 152.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, China reported 64 new asymptomatic cases, 26 of which were imported. The nation reported 19 new virus cases in total, and four deaths, all of which were in Hubei.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 3, It was reported that the coronavirus pandemic has brought a reversal of fortune for Cuban medical diplomacy, as doctors have flown off on new missions to battle COVID-19 in at least 14 countries including Italy and the tiny principality of Andorra on the Spanish-French border, burnishing the island’s international image in the middle of a global crisis. Cuba has recorded 212 cases of the virus.
(AP, 4/3/20)(Economist, 4/4/20, p.26)
2020 Apr 3, In France the coronavirus pandemic has claimed the lives of 5,307. Almost 60,000 people there been diagnosed with the illness, including almost 6,400 on life-support machines. Police ramped up checks at train stations and motorways to stop people breaking a national lockdown ahead of school holidays this weekend.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Gabon’s President Ali Bongo announced a social and economic plan to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, including emergency financing to respond to the “urgent cash needs" facing companies.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 3, Guatemala said a man deported from the US has tested positive for the coronavirus. Guatemala has 49 confirmed cases and one death.
(SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 3, Iran state TV reported the coronavirus has killed another 134 people, pushing the country's death toll to nearly 3,300 amid more than 53,000 confirmed cases.
(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Israel has reported more than 7,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and at least 36 deaths. Officials said Israel is working with foreign governments and Orthodox Christian leaders in the Holy Land to make sure that the April 18 Holy Fire ceremony is not extinguished by the coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Libya recorded its first death from the novel coronavirus. The UN-recognized, Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), which controls the west of the country, has officially recorded 10 cases of the virus. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees warned that the health system in Libya was already on the verge of collapse.
(AFP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Dutch brewer Heineken said that it will suspend production and distribution from its seven plants in Mexico, in response to the government's decision to halt non-essential economic activity to contain the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, In Pakistan mosques were allowed to remain open for Muslims to gather for weekly prayers, even as the coronavirus pandemic spread and much of the country had shut down. Pakistan has reported 2,450 confirmed cases and 36 deaths. PM Imran Khan said he would not consider possible easing of restrictions on movement before April 14.
(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Peruvian lawmakers approved a law late today that allows citizens to withdraw up to 25% of their holdings in private pension funds to provide an extra source of liquidity during a nationwide shutdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 3, Russian officials reported 4,149 cases of coronavirus in the country, four times more than a week ago.
(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong said the government would no longer discourage the use of face masks, and would distribute reusable ones to every household to help stem the coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.27)
2020 Apr 3, Slovenia said it will introduce a mandatory 14-day quarantine for most people entering the country from April 4 in an attempt to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The country has confirmed 934 coronavirus cases, with 20 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, South Africa has reported only five confirmed deaths from the coronavirus. About 1,400 people have tested positive for Covid-19 as South Africans mark their first week under one of the strictest lockdowns introduced anywhere in the world.
(BBC, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, It was reported that Tunisia has deployed a police robot to patrol areas of Tunis, to ensure that people are observing a coronavirus lockdown. The country has reported 436 cases of COVID-19 and 14 deaths.
(BBC, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Ukraine's government imposed a series of new restrictions designed to prevent the coronavirus outbreak spreading widely but said it hoped to soften the measures again in late April. Ukraine reported 138 new cases of the coronavirus over the past day, taking the total number of infected people to 942 with 23 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 3, Zimbabwe's police began using water cannon to disinfect markets and bus ranks, turning instruments associated with repression into weapons against the new coronavirus. The country has recorded one death from nine cases of the COVID-19 disease.
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 4, In the US, fatalities from COVID-19 rose to more than 7,000, with more than 275,000 infections. More than 60,000 people have died globally from the virus. Global cases top 1.1 million. Jaap Goudsmit, adjunct professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases at Harvard, said herd immunity against the coronavirus may take years to develop.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Alabama issued Stay-at-Home Orders due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, California cases of coronavirus to date were 12,503 with 275 deaths. The SF Bay Area confirmed 3,156 cases and 85 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Missouri Governor Mike Parson said his Stay-at-Home Order will begin April 6 and last through April 24.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, New York state got 1,000 ventilators after the Chinese government facilitated a donation from billionaires Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai, the co-founders of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the state of Oregon had volunteered to send 140 more breathing machines. New York had 113,700 confirmed cases as of this morning. At least 3,565 have died in New York and more than 115,000 have tested positive.
(ABC News, 4/5/20)(AP, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Oklahoma acquired 1.2 million pills of hydroxychloroquine, or about 100,000 doses, from FFF Enterprises, a California-based medical supply wholesaler. Gov. Kevin Stitt later defended the state’s $2 million purchase, saying the drug was showing some promise.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 4, Washington DC reported 145 new positive infections from COVID-19, bringing tis total to 902. Six new deaths brought that total to 15.
(SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A9)
2020 Apr 4, Walmart announced that starting today it would limit the number of patrons in its stores to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus after too many of its customers ignored social distancing guidelines.
(ABC News, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Australia's confirmed cases rose by 198 over the last 24-hours, bringing the national total to 5,548. The death toll from COVID-19 rose to 30.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, In Austria the number of confirmed cases increased to 11,781 with 186 deaths. The growth of COVID-19 infections decreased to a single digit percentage range. The health ministry issued a decree stipulating that not more than five people are allowed to meet in one room, even at people's homes, unless they live together.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, in Bangladesh positive cases surged to 70 with eight people dead. The World Bank approved $100 million in funds to help the country respond to the pandemic and strengthen the South Asian nation’s public health system.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Brazil counted 2,369 hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients over the last four weeks. The health ministry counted 18,000 more admissions for respiratory cases than during the same period last year.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.24)
2020 Apr 4, In Britain cases of coronavirus rose to 47,806 from 41,903. Total deaths rose by 708 to 4,934.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 4, China reported that it had 30 new infections, including 25 imported cases. It also said there had been three more deaths. China also reported 47 new asymptomatic cases, including 16 cases from abroad.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 4, The Dominican Republic has reported 1,284 cases of the coronavirus.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.26)
2020 Apr 4, Egyptian officials said at least 17 medics at the main cancer hospital in Cairo have been quarantined after testing positive for the coronavirus. Egypt has reported around 1,000 confirmed cases and 66 fatalities from the global pandemic.
(AP, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Deaths in Germany due to the coronavirus rose by 168 to 1,275. Some 91,159 people were infected and 6,365 more than a day earlier.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, India banned exports of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that US President Donald Trump has touted as a “game changer" in the fight against Covid-19.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 4, Indonesia said that coronavirus cases had topped 2,000 and deaths risen to 191. An official said there were 106 new confirmed infections, taking the total number of cases in the country to 2,092, with 10 new deaths. Doubts have been raised over official figures.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Iran’s coronavirus fatalities jumped to 3,452 with 158 deaths. Total cases rose to 55,743 as 2,560 tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, In Italy, total coronavirus cases stood at 119,827.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Japan reported that some 118 people were newly infected with the novel coronavirus in Tokyo bringing the number of confirmed cases there to 891.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Malaysia reported 150 new coronavirus cases, including four deaths. That took the country's total to 3,483 confirmed infections and 57 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, In the Netherlands the number of deaths rose by 164, or 11%, to 1,651. The tally of confirmed virus cases increased by 6% to 16,627, slightly below the growth rate seen in the beginning of the week. The amount of people hospitalized with the virus rose by 336 to 6,622.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, The Philippines recorded 8 new coronavirus deaths and 76 more infections. The health ministry said a total of 144 people have died in the Philippines while 3,094 were infected.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, In Portugal confirmed coronavirus cases pushed past the 10,000 mark. Portugal has confirmed 10,524 coronavirus cases and 266 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Puerto Rico has reported 450 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 18 deaths.
(SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A9)
2020 Apr 4, Russia reported the second straight day of declines in new coronavirus cases. The latest figures showed 582 additional infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 4,731, with 43 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Singapore’s Ministry of Health confirmed an additional 75 cases of Covid-19 infection, of which six were imported and 69 local cases with no recent travel history abroad. The city-state reported a sixth death from the virus.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, South Korea reported 94 more cases of coronavirus in 24 hours, bringing the total to 10,156.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced plans to extend the country’s lockdown by two weeks until April 25. Spain said the number of confirmed cases increased to 124,736. The number of new deaths in Spain declined for a second day, with an additional 809 fatalities in the past 24 hours for a total of 11,744.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, Sweden said it has had more than 330 deaths after confirmed cases topped 6,000 this week.
(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 4, In Thailand cases of coronavirus rose to 2,067 after 89 new reports. The Southeast Asian nation also reported one new death, bringing total to 20. A security official was removed after he allowed more than 100 returning citizens to proceed home. The errant travelers were ordered to report to authorities.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)(SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 5, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper defended the US Navy's controversial decision to remove the commander of a coronavirus-stricken US aircraft carrier, saying it was a "tough call" but that ultimately it was "a chain of command issue".
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, The SF Bay Area reported 3,440 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of this morning with 87 deaths. California cases climbed to 14,005 with 324 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, The death toll in New Jersey has so far reached 846 with 34,124 positive cases of the coronavirus. Ravinder Bhalla, the mayor of Hoboken, announced in a statement that all employees of essential businesses still operating in the city are now required to wear face covers or masks while working.
(ABC News, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, New York state reported 594 deaths from the coronavirus and 8,327 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, increasing the numbers to 4,159 dead and 122,000 cases since the outbreak began. As of this morning more than 8,500 people in the United States have died from COVID-19. Global cases of the coronavirus pass 1.2 million and deaths top 66,000.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)(ABC News, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, US federal and local zoo officials said a tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the US or a tiger anywhere.
(AP, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Albania reported 28 new cases of the new coronavirus and said a failure to respect social distancing had led to the highest numbers of infections over the last three days. The COVID-19 disease has killed 20 and infected 361.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Austria reported that the number of new coronavirus infections rose to 11,897. The country also reported more newly recovered than newly diagnosed patients and a declining number of people in intensive care. Some 204 people in Austria have died of the pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Britain's PM Boris Johnson, infected with the coronavirus, went to St. Thomas’s hospital in central London as a precaution.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 5, Denmark's confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose to 4,369, with 179 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Ethiopia reported its first death from the virus and announced five more cases bringing its total to 43, most of them imported by travelers. A number of regional states have implemented bans on movement of people and vehicles, but not yet in the capital Addis Ababa.
(AP, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In France the coronavirus that killed 7,560. France, like other countries, has confined its residents to home since March 17 to curb the spread of the virus. The measures have been extended until April 15, and are likely to be extended again.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Germany's confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 5,936 in the past 24 hours to 91,714, the third straight drop in the daily rate of new cases.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In Hungary the number of coronavirus infections climbed to 733, with 34 people dead. Officials said the figure of 313 registered infections in Budapest could rise fast as some were losing patience with restrictions, gathering in parks and using the almost empty streets for illegal drag racing.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In Indonesia commuters in Jakarta are now barred from using public transit if they aren’t wearing face masks. The country's numbers of coronavirus infections rose to 2,273.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Iran’s fatalities from coronavirus rose to 3,603 after 151 deaths and 2,483 new cases in the past 24 hours. Total infections reached 58,226.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In Israel a small group of Franciscan monks and Roman Catholic faithful took to the streets of Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter in the Old City to distribute olive branches after the traditional Palm Sunday procession was cancelled due to restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus. More than 8,000 people in Israel have contracted the coronavirus and 46 have died. In the West Bank, nearly 200 cases have been reported, including a large outbreak in the biblical town of Bethlehem.
(AP, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Tokyo reported more than 130 new coronavirus infections, bringing the number of cases in the Japanese capital to more than 1,000.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Lebanon has reported 520 cases of coronavirus and 18 deaths since the first case was reported in late February.
(AP, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Malawi's President Peter Mutharika announced that he and all government ministers are taking a 10% wage cut for three months to raise money to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. Malawi has reported four confirmed cases of the coronavirus so far. All have all been linked to people travelling from the UK.
(BBC, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Malaysia reported 179 new coronavirus cases, raising the cumulative total to 3,662. The new cases included 4 deaths, raising the tally to 61 people as of noon.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In the Netherlands the number of deaths caused by the new coronavirus increased by 115 to 1,766. Confirmed infections increased by 1,224 to 17,851.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, The Philippine health ministry reported 8 additional coronavirus deaths and 152 newly confirmed cases. Positive cases rose to 3,246, while the death toll rose to 152.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, Singapore reported 120 new cases of the coronavirus, the most in a day, bringing the total to 1,309. Of the new cases, only four involved patients with recent travel history.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In South Africa all 50 wedding guests, the pastor who conducted the ceremony, and the newlyweds themselves were promptly arrested and taken to a police station outside Richards Bay due to a country-wide ban on all public gatherings because of coronavirus.
(BBC, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 5, Officials in South Sudan said the country has its first case of COVID-19, making it the 51st of Africa's 54 countries to have the disease. President Salva Kiir last week imposed a curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. for six weeks and closed borders, airports, schools, churches and mosques.
(AP, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, In Spain deaths from the coronavirus fell for a third day. The Health Ministry reported 674 fatalities in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 12,418. The number of confirmed cases rose to 130,759.
(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 5, The United Nations urged governments around the world to fight the rise in domestic violence as abuse soared since stay-at-home orders have been imposed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
(The Week, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, President Trump agreed to allow treatment of coronavirus patients on the Navy hospital ship Comfort, which is docked in New York City.
(AP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, President Trump’s acting Navy secretary Thomas B. Modly, in a profanity-laced reprimand, criticized sailors aboard the stricken aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt for cheering their captain, who was removed after he appealed for help as coronavirus spread throughout the warship.
(NY Times, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, The US inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services reported that a shortage of tests and long waits for results were at the root of mounting problems faced by hospitals. Pres. Trump called the report, based on a late March survey of 323 hospitals nationwide, "just wrong" and suggested that its conclusions were skewed by politics.
(AP, 5/26/20)
2020 Apr 6, The US coronavirus death toll passed 10,000 with 10,993 cases. The total number of cases in the United States rose to 368,449. Hospital officials, doctors, public health experts and medical examiners said that official counts have failed to capture the true number of Americans dying in this pandemic. Global cases of the coronavirus neared 1.3 million; deaths topped 70,000.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)(The Week, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, California reported 15,824 cases of the coronavirus and 372 deaths. SF Bay Area confirmed cases numbered 3,753 and 95 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Idaho has reported 1,170 cases of coronavirus and 13 deaths.
(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 6, New York state had its deadliest day in the coronavirus pandemic, with 731 new deaths in the state to a total of 5,489 fatalities.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem issued a limited stay-at-home mandate that applies only to people in the two hardest-hit counties who are older than 65 or who have chronic health conditions. North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas were the only US states where no one is under a stay-at-home order.
(AP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, CVS Health Corp launched two new drive-through COVID-19 testing sites in Georgia and Rhode Island using testing equipment made by Abbott Laboratories, with up to four more locations to follow.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. began a phase 1 human trial of its Covid-19 vaccine, INO-4800. The company said animal studies show promising immune responses.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, RedHill Biopharma said the first patient with a confirmed coronavirus diagnosis was dosed with opaganib in Israel, and additional patients are expected to be treated in the coming days. The company said pre-clinical data demonstrated anti-viral effects in other viruses, anti-inflammatory activities and the potential to reduce lung inflammation.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, It was reported that ResearchGate, a social network site for scientists and researchers, has launched a new forum to facilitate collaboration between COVID-19 experts on research into beating the flu-like disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The site was developed in 10 days and launched late last week.
(https://www.researchgate.net/community/COVID-19/discussions)(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Tyson Foods Inc said it has closed a pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, after more than 24 cases of COVID-19 involving employees at the facility.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 6, Bangladesh vowed to provide emergency food supplies for "as long as needed" to thousands of sex workers left destitute by the sudden closure of brothels due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, British PM Boris Johnson was transferred to intensive care on Monday as his COVID-19 symptoms worsened significantly after he was admitted to a London hospital for tests. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was designated as his replacement if he becomes incapacitated.
(The Week, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc said it will invest $250 million in Vir Biotechnology Inc and collaborate to develop potential treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, China's National Health Commission (NHC) said that 78 new asymptomatic cases had been identified as of the end of April 5, compared with 47 the day before.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele warned that security forces had been ordered to enforce quarantine orders more rigorously to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, confining offenders to "containment centers" and confiscating their cars.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, France's coronavirus figures showed that the rate of increase in fatalities sped up again after several days of slowing.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, Germany reported lower numbers of new coronavirus cases. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government announced a new “limitless" aid program for small- and medium-sized companies.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Hungary's populist PM Viktor Orban presented a massive action plan to mitigate the economic fall-out from the highly contagious disease, focusing on bolstering investment and employment but bypassing the very poor.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 6, Iran reported 136 new deaths due to the coronavirus, compared with 151 a day earlier. The nation also reported 2,274 new infections, taking the total to 60,500. Total deaths stood at 3,739.
(AFP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced a complete lockdown over the upcoming Passover holiday to control the country's coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Ivory Coast police clashed with protesters who had begun dismantling a half-built coronavirus testing center, afraid that people using the facility would spread the epidemic through their district.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe moved to declare a state of emergency in seven prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka, and announced a record economic stimulus package as the country braces for a surge in coronavirus infections. At least 3,654 people in Japan have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 85 of them have died.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)(ABC News, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Malta said it would allow hunters to hunt quail from April 10 until the end of the month, despite health authorities urging everyone to stay indoors to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Malta has so far reported 227 COVID-19 cases but no deaths.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, The Netherlands reported 101 new fatalities, the smallest increase since March 30. Total reported cases rose 5% to 18,803.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Norway's health minister said the COVID-19 epidemic is under control in the country, pointing to the low rate of transmission of the disease.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Pakistan said it would reopen its border for four days so that Afghans wishing to return home can go back. On the other side of the border, which closed nearly a month ago, the Afghan government has set up a coronavirus quarantine camp for the returnees. Pakistani nationals stranded in Afghanistan will also be allowed to go back. Some 200,000 Afghans and counting have been flowing home across its border with Iran, one of the world’s biggest epicenters of the pandemic, for weeks.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Russia's government announced a 150 billion-ruble program under which banks will offer interest-free loans to small businesses to pay salaries as the coronavirus lockdown continued.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, South Korea reported fewer than 50 new coronavirus cases for the first time since its peak in late February.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Spain reported lower numbers of new coronavirus cases. New infections were 4,273, taking the total to 135,032. The death toll rose by 637 to 13,055 in the past 24 hours.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, Switzerland reported 21,652 positive COVID-19 cases and 584 deaths. A Boeing 747 landed in Geneva with 92 tons of protective medical equipment including masks made in China for distribution to 13 Swiss hospitals and pharmaceutical associations as they battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Another delivery had arrived in Zurich the previous evening on a chartered Swiss airline flight from Shanghai carrying protective gowns for dozens of health care facilities. Further flights with additional equipment were planned.
(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 6, The Vatican said Pope Francis has started an emergency fund to help areas affected by the coronavirus in developing countries.
(AP, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 7, US Pres. Donald Trump acknowledged that the coronavirus is infecting and killing black people in the US at disproportionately high rates, and said that the authorities were working to provide more information. Trump also threatened to freeze US funding to the World Health Organization, saying the international group had “missed the call" on the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 4/8/20)(AP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, The US Navy said at least 230 crew members of the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned over fallout from his ouster of Capt. Brett Crozier.
(AP, 4/8/20)(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 7, Deaths in the US due to the coronavirus reached about 11,000, with about 370,000 confirmed infections. The number of confirmed infections of the novel coronavirus exceeded 1.34 million globally and the death toll crossed 76,000.
(AP, 4/7/20)(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, California reported 14,475 cases of the coronavirus and 400 deaths. SF Bay Area confirmed cases numbered 3,880 and 107 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said over 138,000 people in the state have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Cuomo announced the state’s highest one-day total of virus-related deaths: 731. New York City had at least 3,202 deaths. New Jersey and Connecticut also reported one-day highs.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)(NY Times, 4/8/20)(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 7, John Prine (73), the country-folk singer and songwriter whose lyrics made him a favorite of Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and others, died in Nashville of complications due to the coronavirus.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Prine)(NY Times, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 7, A federal appeals court sided with Texas in allowing it to ban most abortions while the state is under an emergency order that limits non-essential surgeries during the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Wisconsin voters lined up to cast ballots across the state, ignoring a stay-at-home order in the midst of a pandemic to participate in the state's presidential primary election. Voters in the state's Democratic primary endorsed Joe Biden. Voters also elected Democrat Judge Jill Karofsky to the state's Supreme Court.
(AP, 4/7/20)(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A3)
2020 Apr 7, World stock markets posted sharp gains as signs of progress in curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus in both Europe and the United States fueled investors' appetite for risk.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Armenia reported 853 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of today with 87 people having recovered from the infection and eight deaths.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh confirmed its first case of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Benin has ordered people in a dozen cities to wear face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Benmin has 22 confirmed cases.
(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 7, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry said a senior official at the Bulgarian embassy in The Hague has been recalled for illegally collecting what he called a coronavirus tax from visitors seeking consular assistance.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Mainland China reported no coronavirus deaths for the first time since the pandemic began and a drop in new cases.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, In China a one-sentence notice issued by the party-government joint disciplinary watchdog body in Beijing’s western district said Ren Zhiqiang, prominent Communist party member, was undergoing a “review and monitoring investigation." Ren dropped from sight in mid-March after publishing an online essay that criticized the leadership’s handling of the virus outbreak that originated in December in central China.
(AP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Colombia extended a nationwide quarantine due to the coronavirus until April 27.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, It was reported that sales of sex toys in Denmark have more than doubled after Danes were told to stay at home to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Finland said it will start tracking the spread of the coronavirus in its population with randomized antibody tests.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, In France almost 99,000 people across the country have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and nearly 9,000 of them have died.
(ABC News, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Hong Kong reported 21 new cases of the coronavirus for a total of 936.
(https://tinyurl.com/sdefuk6)
2020 Apr 7, Leaders of Hungary's Roma people said the coronavirus pandemic posed a grave threat to the already precarious status of the marginalized minority, with many Roma feeling abandoned by the nationalist government.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, India said it will allow limited exports of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, that US President Donald Trump has touted as a potential weapon in the fight against the virus.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Iran's parliament convened for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak forced its doors to close, as the country reported a drop in new infections for the seventh straight day. The health ministry reported 133 new coronavirus deaths, saying the overall fatalities had reached 3,872. Another 2,089 infections were recorded nationwide, bringing the total to 62,589.
(AFP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe moved to declare a state of emergency in seven prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka, and announced a record economic stimulus package as the country braces for a surge in coronavirus infections.
(Bloomberg, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, The Latvian government said it was extending until May 12 the state of emergency that has allowed it to implement a string of measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in the Baltic country. Latvia has reported 548 confirmed cases and 2 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Mali has recorded 46 positive cases of COVID-19 disease, including one member of the UN peacekeeping force, and five deaths.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 7, Mexico has nearly 2,800 confirmed COVID-19 infections and 141 deaths. A plane arrived in Mexico with 10 tons of gloves and masks from China to help with the coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 4/7/20)(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 7, Morocco has so far reported 1,141 coronavirus cases and 83 deaths. As of today Moroccans who venture outside their homes without wearing face masks risk prison sentences of up to three months and a fine of up to $126 (£102). Since March 19 more than 8,600 people have been arrested and prosecuted for flouting lockdown rule.
(BBC, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Pakistan has recorded 4,004 cases of the coronavirus and 54 deaths. Pakistan's military promised that dozens of doctors who were briefly jailed for protesting a lack of protective equipment will get the equipment they need.
(AP, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, The west African island nation of Sao Tome e Principe confirmed its first case of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 7, Saudi Arabia has so far reported 2,795 cases and 41 deaths due to the coronavirus, the highest in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Health Minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah said four studies by infectious disease experts indicated the number of cases was likely to reach between 10,000 and 200,000 in coming weeks. King Salman ordered the temporary release from prison of people serving sentences related to unpaid private debts, and ordered the suspension of all rulings related to such cases in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 7, Singapore's government passed a new law in parliament banning all social gatherings in homes and public spaces to curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The Health Ministry confirmed 106 new cases of coronavirus infections, most of them locally transmitted, taking the city-state's total to 1,481.
(https://tinyurl.com/yd7alwax)Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, South Africa with 1,686 positive cases now had the highest national total. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that at least 10,075 people across Africa have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. So far, 487 people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)(ABC News, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, In Spain the pace of coronavirus deaths ticked up for the first time in five days, with 743 people succumbing overnight. Spain moved to tackle a shortfall of farm workers due to the coronavirus crisis by authorizing the temporary hiring of tens of thousands of immigrants or jobless people.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, Turkmenistan gathered thousands of citizens for mass exercise events to mark World Health Day, ignoring the global trend for social distancing to fight the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Turkmenistan has yet to register a case of the novel coronavirus.
(AFP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 7, In Venezuela to date the coronavirus has claimed only seven confirmed fatalities with at least 144 confirmed cases. A party by offspring of the ruling elite on March 11 on an island in the Los Roques archipelago led to a cluster of infections. On March 20 embattled leader Nicolás Maduro said on state TV that practically everyone at the party is testing positive.
(AP, 4/7/20)(Economist, 4/4/20, p.24)
2020 Apr 7, Yemeni port official Saleh (60) tested positive for COVID-19. A 2nd test on April 10 also came back positive. This was Yemen's first case of the virus. Health officials then scrambled to identify more than 150 people in the southern Hadhramout region who had met and dealt with the man in the two weeks before he was diagnosed.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 8, President Donald Trump falsely asserted that travelers at US airports are being routinely tested for COVID-19, made groundless accusations against a government watchdog and wrongly claimed the Obama administration did nothing during a flu pandemic.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, The US Navy said at least 286 sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 8, California reported 17,806 cases of the coronavirus and 452 deaths to date. SF Bay Area confirmed cases numbered 4,201 and 115 deaths. California had one of its deadliest days, with 68 fatalities due to the coronavirus.
(sfist.com, 4/8/20)(Bloomberg, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Illinois reported 82 deaths due to the coronavirus.
(Bloomberg, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, The United States awarded automaker General Motors Co a contract worth $489.4 million to make ventilators needed to treat severely sick coronavirus patients.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Maryland-based Novavax Inc said it had identified a novel coronavirus vaccine candidate and would start human trials in mid-May. The late-stage biotechnology company said its Matrix-M adjuvant would be used with the vaccine candidate - NVX-CoV2373 - to enhance immune responses.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Maryland authorities said that divers had found the body of 8-year-old Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Michigan saw coronavirus cases increase 7% to surpass 20,000. Deaths rose by 114 to 959.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, In New Mexico the death toll from the coronavirus was 16. On the Navajo Nation's reservation in the state the death toll reached 20.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 8, Virus-related deaths reached new highs in New York and New Jersey for the second straight day, even as other figures suggested that the outbreak in those states was beginning to slow. The US saw a record 1,922 coronavirus deaths.
(NY Times, 4/9/20)(The Week, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy reported 275 new fatalities due to the coronavirus. Cases rose by 7% to 47,437.
(Bloomberg, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, New Jersey and Virginia joined at least 15 other states in delaying their primaries amid the coronavirus pandemic so election officials can make preparations to address public health concerns and deal with a poll worker shortage brought on by the outbreak.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, New York reported its highest 24-hour coronavirus death toll for the second straight day, with 779 deaths. US cases rose to 419,975. Global cases of the coronavirus topped 1.5 million and deaths passed 88,000.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, It was reported that some 100 American Airlines flight attendants have tested positive for COVID-19 and that one attendant has died from the virus.
(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A3)
2020 Apr 8, Belarus health officials reported 205 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the total to 1,066 with 13 deaths. Last week Pres. Alexander Lukashenko dismissed concerns around the pandemic as "mass psychosis" and appeared more worried about the impact of a lockdown on the country's struggling economy.
(SFC, 4/9/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 8, Brazil suffered 14,049 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 688 people dead.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.25)
2020 Apr 8, Britain's confirmed death toll from the coronavirus reached 7,097, an increase of 938 from 24 hours earlier. PM Boris Johnson remained in intensive care with the disease. Transit union s demanded more protection following the deaths of 14 London transport staff.
(AP, 4/8/20)(SFC, 4/9/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 8, The Chinese city at the heart of the global pandemic, Wuhan, reopened after 76 days in lockdown. Mainland China reported 63 additional confirmed coronavirus cases, with 61 of them from abroad.
(AP, 4/8/20)(Reuters, 4/8/20)(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, In China scores of African students and businessmen were forced onto the streets of the southern city of Guangzhou following the mass eviction of African nationals from hotels and apartment blocks. Online rumors that the coronavirus was spreading among the thousands of Africans in the city led to door-to-door testing, evictions and accusations of forced quarantine.
(BBC, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Egypt extended its night-time curfew and other preventative measures for two more weeks, until April 23, though it scaled back curfew hours to 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. due to the coronavirus pandemic. Egypt has reported more than 1,400 confirmed virus cases, with at least 94 deaths.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed declared a state of emergency to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus. Ethiopia has recorded 52 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and two deaths.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, France's Defense Ministry said its aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is heading back to port due to a possible virus on-board outbreak of the new coronavirus. Two-thirds of crew were later said to be infected, but only half were symptomatic.
(AP, 4/8/20)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.51)
2020 Apr 8, India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, sealed off 15 of its districts worst affected by infections. The state has so far recorded 326 infections and three deaths. India has had total infections of 5,360 and 164 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Iran reported 121 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing its overall number of fatalities to 3,993. In the past 24 hours, 1,997 new cases of COVID-19 infection were detected. That put the number of confirmed cases in Iran at 64,586.
(AFP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Italy said that it recorded 3,836 new infections, the highest in three days.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Jordan has reported more than 350 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including six deaths. State news said Jordan has ordered traders to stop exporting food products to boost the Kingdom’s stockpile of food in the wake of the crisis.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Rioting broke out in the Mozambican port city of Nacala after the authorities tried to ban motorcycle taxis due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(BBC, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 969 to 20,549, with 147 new deaths. The country's total death toll from the disease is now 2,248.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Russia reported 1,175 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 8,672. The epicenter of the epidemic in Russia is Moscow, with 5,841 cases. President Vladimir Putin announced additional payouts to health professionals working on "the frontline" of the country's fight against the coronavirus.
(AFP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Saudi state media said the Saudi king has suspended final rulings and judicial orders on visitation rights of children of separated parents in the latest effort to try and curb the spread of the novel coronavirus among households. Saudi Arabia has more than 2,900 confirmed cases of the virus, including 41 deaths.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Saudi officials said a cease-fire in Yemen would last for two weeks and that it's in response to UN calls to halt hostilities amid the new coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Singapore's Health Ministry confirmed 142 new coronavirus infections for a total of 1,623, the biggest daily increase yet, and said a seventh person had died after testing positive for the disease.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, South Africa has announced the death of five patients who were undergoing treatment for coronavirus, the highest to be reported in a day so far, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to 18.
(BBC, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Spain's health ministry said 757 people died over the past 24 hours, up from 743 people the previous day, marking the second daily rise in a row and bringing the total death toll to 14,555. Spain's main business lobby warned the economy could slump up to 9% this year if lockdown restrictions remain beyond May.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, Sudan has reported 14 cases, including two deaths for the virus.
(AP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, The Swiss government said its economy could contract by as much 10.4% this year due to the impact of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, In Geneva WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus vocally defended himself and the UN health agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. He accused Taiwan’s foreign ministry of being linked to a months-long campaign against him. Taiwan has reported just 379 cases and five deaths.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, Turkey said it will monitor the mobile phones of those diagnosed with the new coronavirus to ensure they do not break quarantine, marking the latest measure to stem an outbreak that has surged over the last month.
(Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 8, A plane carrying 90 tons of UN health, water and sanitation aid arrived in Venezuela to help the cash-strapped country fight the coronavirus pandemic.
(AFP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 9, The US Federal Reserve announced a broad, $2.3 trillion effort to bolster local governments and small and mid-sized businesses, the latest in an expanding suite of programs meant to keep the US economy intact as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it was testing anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19, days after several US doctors said they were using the drug on infected patients without evidence that it worked.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended its "no sail order" for all cruise ships, as it looks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, US deaths due to coronavirus topped 15,700.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, The US Navy said 416 sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus, up from 286 a day earlier.
(SFC, 4/9/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 9, Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden joined a growing call for the release of comprehensive racial data on the coronavirus pandemic, which he says has put a spotlight on inequity and the impact of “structural racism".
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, California to date had 19,834 cases of coronavirus and 534 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 4,424 cases and 118 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Georgia postponed primary elections for the second time this year because of the coronavirus, pushing back primaries scheduled for May to June.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Illinois' Cook county corrections officials said some 450 inmates and staff have tested positive for coronavirus at Chicago's largest jail.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, Louisiana has reported more than 17,000 cases of the coronavirus and 652 deaths. More than half of the cases were in the New Orleans area. New Orleans with a population below 400,000, has seen 171 deaths.
(SFC, 4/9/20, p.A6)(Econ, 4/11/20, p.18)
2020 Apr 9, New York state's Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the daily death toll was at 799, bringing total fatalities to more than 7,000.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 9, Smithfield Foods Inc, the world's biggest pork processor, said it is temporarily closing a plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, because of the new coronavirus, the latest disruption to the US food supply chain from the outbreak. The outbreak infected more than 800 employees. The Sioux Falls plants began reopening on May 4.
(AP, 4/9/20)(SFC, 5/5/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 9, General Motors Co said it plans to keep its Brazilian factories shut down for at least 60 more days due to the coronavirus crisis, as the final batch of unionized workers voted on the automaker's proposal for the shutdown and for a plan to cut salaries by up to 25%.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, US drugmaker Pfizer Inc said that early data has helped it identify a drug candidate with the potential to help treat patients infected with the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Top executives of Albania's central bank took a 50% pay cut in solidarity with citizens suffering amid the coronavirus pandemic, coming into line with reductions already accepted by government ministers and lawmakers. The coronavirus outbreak has killed 22 Albanians so far.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Botswana confirmed seven new coronavirus cases, including a health worker who was on duty during parliament's session a day earlier. Botswana now has a total of 13 confirmed coronavirus cases and was on a 28-day lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus. All Botswana's parliamentarians including President Mokgweetsi Masisi will be quarantined for 14 days and tested for the new coronavirus, after a health worker screening lawmakers for the virus herself tested positive.
(AP, 4/9/20)(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, In Brazil a Yanomami youth (15) died after testing positive for coronavirus in Boa Vista, Roraima state. This raised fears that the epidemic will spread among the largest indigenous tribe in northern Brazil.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, Britain's PM Boris Johnson came out of three nights of intensive care at St Thomas' Hospital as he continued COVID-19 recovery.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, Home rental firm Airbnb blocked British bookings on its platform for the vast majority of customers, allowing only key workers to stay in properties for as long as emergency government coronavirus restrictions are in place. The move came after hosts using the site had been criticized for advertising "isolation retreats." Airbnb put pressure on other online booking platforms to follow suit.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Burundi has so far confirmed three cases of coronavirus. The government has not restricted movement in and out of the country although arriving travelers must undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine. A spokesman for Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza has said the country needs no lockdown "because it is a country that has put God first."
(BBC, 4/9/20)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.36)
2020 Apr 9, China's border city of Suifenhe reported that it had a total of 123 imported coronavirus cases, nearly 97% of cases in northern Heilongjiang province. The city has seen an influx of Chinese people returning home, many infected with the virus, traveling by road from the Russian far eastern city of Vladivostok after flying there from Moscow.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, European Union finance ministers agreed on a 540 billion-euro ($590 billion) package of measures to combat the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, papering over differences that have thrown into question the EU’s future integrity.
(Bloomberg, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, New coronavirus cases in Germany climbed the most in five days.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Officials in India said at least three private hospitals in Mumbai have shut their doors to new patients on concerns of health workers getting exposed to the coronavirus. India has so far recorded 5,865 cases of coronavirus, including 169 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, In Israel, more than 10,000 people have contracted the coronavirus and 92 have died.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Italy's PM Giuseppe Conte prepared to prolong the national lockdown from a current expiration date of April 13 for another two weeks. Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic rose by 610, up from 542 the day before, and the number of new cases also came in higher at 4,204 from a previous 3,836. The number of confirmed cases climbed to 143,626.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Japan for the first time reported more than 500 new positive cases of the novel coronavirus. Over 100 people in Japan have died from the disease so far, including 11 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship,
(ABC News, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, It was reported that Luxembourg will become the first EU country to start systematic mass tests on its population, regardless of whether they show coronavirus symptoms or not.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Mexico's Pres. Lopez Obrador spoke with US President Donald Trump and asked him to sell Mexico 10,000 ventilators and 10,000 monitors to care for coronavirus patients.
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 9, It was reported that international health officials are warning that the Nicaraguan government’s perplexing weekslong refusal to take measures to control the spread of the new coronavirus is heightening the risk of an epidemic in Central America even as neighboring countries take tough action.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Pakistan's military said itsw troop have shot down a small Indian spy drone after it violated the country's airspace along the Line of Control in Kashmir.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 9, Russia said it had over 10,000 novel coronavirus cases, two-thirds of them in Moscow, and all regions are in partial lockdown, their citizens advised to stay at home.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Saudi Arabia began a cease-fire in the war in Yemen, which could pave the way toward ending the five-year conflict. Separately, as many as 150 members of the Saudi royal family are believed to have contracted the virus.
(NY Times, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Somalia announced the first death from Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus. Somalia has so far confirmed 12 coronavirus cases.
(BBC, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez asked parliament for an extension to a state of emergency through April 25 as total cases of the coronavirus rose to more than 150,000 and deaths rose to 15,238.
(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, Uganda has so far registered 53 cases of coronavirus. It was reported that four officials in the prime minister's office have been arrested for alleged corruption over the purchasing of food aid to be distributed during the coronavirus lockdown.
(BBC, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, The coronavirus has killed at least 57 people in Ukraine and the authorities aim to contain the spread of the disease in the run-up to Easter. Kiev and its surrounding region have 430 out of a total of 1,892 cases. The coronavirus has infected 26 people at the thousand-year-old headquarters of Ukraine's Russian-backed Orthodox Christian denomination, which had urged worshippers to defy lockdown orders.
(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 9, The UAE has reported 2,659 cases of the coronavirus with 12 deaths.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 10, President Donald Trump said the decision on when it was safe to reopen the country would be the biggest he had ever had to make. Trump said that he thinks the United States will lose fewer than the initially projected 100,000 lives to COVID-19 and suggested that the United States is nearing its peak infection rate.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, The United States reported at least 2,074 deaths resulting from the novel COVID-19 coronavirus. Overall in the US, there have been nearly 19,000 deaths, and more than 500,000 confirmed cases.
(CNN, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, New data released by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) showed that more than 15,000 Americans have reported alleged coronavirus-related frauds totaling nearly $12 million in losses.
(ABC News, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, It was reported that drugs that go hand in hand with ventilators are running low in the US even as demand was surging. They included the opioid painkillers fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone; the sedatives midazolam and propofol; and the paralytics pancuronium, rocuronium, and succinylcholine.
(AP, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed promising results after the antiviral drug remdesivir, produced by Gilead Sciences, was used in a "compassionate use" trial to treat a small group of novel COVID-19 coronavirus patients.
(Washington Post, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, COVID-19 cases worldwide climbed to more than 1.5 million, with over 90,000 deaths.
(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 10, California to date had 20,189 cases of coronavirus and 542 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 4,508 cases and 118 deaths. Nationwide deaths totaled 16,703.
(sfist.com, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, San Francisco officials reported a major outbreak of the coronavirus at the Multi-Service Center South homeless shelter at 525 Bryant St. 68 residents and two employees have tested positive for the virus. The city had 857 confirmed cases and 13 deaths.
(SFC, 4/11/20, p.A1)(sfist.com, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, A nursing home in Georgia announced that 70 of its residents have tested positive for COVID-19. Three of those residents have been hospitalized.
(ABC News, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, Christopher Parris of Georgia was arrested for trying to defraud the Veterans Affairs Department out of millions of dollars, in one of the first big coronavirus related fraud cases brought by the Justice Department's new COVID-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging task force.
(CBS News, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, New York state added 777 COVID-19-related deaths, bringing total fatalities to 7,844.
(SFC, 4/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 10, Apple and Google said they have teamed up to use smartphone technology to halp contain the COVID-19 pandemic. New contact tracing apps would gather and record users of other phones who might have been infected by known carriers. The designs would include user privacy and security measures.
(SFC, 4/11/20, p.C1)
2020 Apr 10, Bangladesh's government extended the nationwide lockdown to April 25 as the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose to 424, with 27 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, British hospitals reported 980 more deaths. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 74,000 and the death toll neared 9,000.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, In Burkina Faso the coronavirus epidemic has so far infected over 440 people, including six government ministers. 24 deaths have been reported.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, China tightened restrictions on exports of masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE), calling for shipments of the items to be subjected to a mandatory customs inspection, with immediate effect.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, The European Union said it has approved a 527 million zloty (115 million euro) scheme by the Polish government to support its economy during the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, Indonesia reported more than 3,500 confirmed infections, more than 1,750 of those in the capital. Of the country’s 306 virus deaths, 154 have been in Jakarta.
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, Over 200,000 Irish workers are now in receipt of a new wage subsidy scheme, meaning the state is supporting nearly 30% of the labor force due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, In Kenya thousands of people surged for food aid in a brief stampede in Nairobi, desperate for help as coronavirus restrictions keep them from making a living. Witnesses said police fired tear gas and injured several people.
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, Mexico's health ministry said it has recorded its first two deaths of pregnant women from the coronavirus as the death toll reached 194.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, The Netherlands statistics office said there were around 2,000 more deaths in the Netherlands in the first week of April than would normally be expected, likely the result of the coronavirus outbreak.
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, Russia's PM Mikhail Mishustin said the government has decided to extend payment holidays to larger mortgage loans in a new measure to support its citizens from the coronavirus fallout.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, Russia's Prosecutor General's Office started blocking access to "fake news" social media posts criticizing quarantine measures taken by the city of Moscow to curb the new coronavirus. Russia last year passed legislation with tough new fines for people spreading misinformation or insulting the state.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, South Korea reported 27 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, the fewest in about seven weeks. Early voting began for all 300 National Assembly seats. South Korean officials reported 91 patients thought cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again.
(Bloomberg, 4/10/20)(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, The coronavirus death toll curve in Spain flattened further as the government discussed different strategies to start phasing out one of the world's strictest lockdowns. The death toll fell with 605 fatalities registered over the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, Uruguay started to repatriate 112 Australians and New Zealanders from a cruise ship hit by coronavirus and stranded in the La Plata River near Montevideo since March 27.
(AP, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 10, Yemen’s internationally recognized government announced the first confirmed case of the new coronavirus in the war-torn country. Provincial Gov. Farag al-Bouhsni announced a partial curfew and placed all workers at the al-Shahr port under a 14-day quarantine.
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 11, The US State Department announced that President Donald Trump has authorized an assistance package to help Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries amid the pandemic, as they continue to fight the virus.
(AP, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, The number of coronavirus cases detected in the United States rose past half a million over the Easter weekend with more than 18,600 deaths. More than 1.6 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 103,664 have died.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, The US Navy said another 103 crew members on the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases from the ship to 550.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, California to date had 21,505 cases of coronavirus and 597 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 4,864 cases and 131 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Chicago has reported 7,784 cases of COVID-19 and 249 deaths as of this afternoon. This was about 40% of statewide cases and 36% of deaths across Illinois.
(AP, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that a Republican-dominated legislative panel exceeded its authority when it tried to overturn Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s executive order banning religious and funeral services of more than 10 people during the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, New Jersey Gov. Philip D. Murphy announced that another 251 people had died due to the coronavirus. The statewide total of cases reached 58,151 with 2,183 deaths.
(NY Times, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, New York state reported 783 more coronavirus deaths for a total of 8,600.
(SSFC, 4/12/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 11, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said public schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year as the city battles the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Armenia extended by another 30 days the state of emergency that it declared last month to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The country has recorded 966 infections, with 13 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Britain's COVID-19 death toll neared 10,000 after health officials reported another 917 hospital deaths.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, China reported a rise in infections, mostly in travelers arriving from abroad, as doctors in the central city of Wuhan, where the virus initially emerged, warned its behavior was still not well-understood. Mainland China reported 99 new confirmed coronavirus cases, including 97 involving travelers from overseas, up from a total of 46 new cases a day earlier. China's tally of infections now stands at 82,052, while the death toll stands at 3,339.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, Germany's number of confirmed infections rose by 4,133 to 117,658. The reported death toll rose by 171 to 2,544.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Guam reported 133 confirmed coronavirus cases and five deaths, not including the sailors of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. More than 580 sailors have been confirmed infected. More than 1,700 sailors who have tested negative were isolating in hotels, while the sick remain on base.
(AP, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, Delhi state's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that Indian PM Narendra Modi has decided to extend a nationwide lockdown to tackle the spread of the coronavirus, without saying how long the extension would be for. The number of cases rose to 7,471.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Indonesia confirmed 330 new coronavirus infections, taking its tally to 3,842. It also confirmed 21 virus-related deaths, taking the total to 327.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Iran began easing restrictions after a nationwide lockdown. The Health Ministry reported another 125 deaths, bringing the overall toll to 4,357. Iran reported 70,029 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Italian PM Giuseppe Conte extended his nationwide lockdown until May 3.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe called for citizens across Japan to avoid evening spots like bars and restaurants. SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son said he has secured a monthly supply of 300 million face masks for Japan from May after reaching a deal with Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD Co Ltd, which has also started producing masks.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Kazakh authorities said ten people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at one of the worker camps located next to the giant Tengiz oilfield. The camp has been locked down and workers can enter the Tengiz field itself only after being quarantined for 14 days.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, A coronavirus lockdown in Liberia's capital Monrovia got off to a chaotic start, as some police officers used truncheons against residents who had ventured out into the streets to buy food and withdraw money. Liberia has so far confirmed at least 48 cases of the coronavirus, including five deaths.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 11, Malaysian health authorities reported 184 additional confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, raising the cumulative tally to 4,530. The latest data included 3 new deaths, raising total fatalities from the outbreak to 73.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, New Zealand said there had been two new deaths due to the coronavirus - its biggest daily total to date despite the low number and bringing the total to four in a country that's halfway through a four-week nationwide lockdown.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un was last seen in public on April 11, when he presided over a meeting discussing coronavirus prevention and electing his sister as an alternate member of the political bureau of the ruling Workers’ Party. South Korean intelligence combined with North Korean state media reports later suggest that Kim could have suffered some sort of medical setback.
(AFP, 4/11/20) (AP, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 11, The Philippines reported 26 new coronavirus-related deaths, taking the total to 247. It also confirmed 233 new infections for a tally of 4,428.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, The Kremlin said a "huge influx" of coronavirus patients was beginning to put a strain on hospitals in Moscow as Russia's death toll rose to more than 100.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 11, Spain's daily coronavirus death toll fell for the third day in a row after 510 fatalities were reported in the past 24 hours. Spain reported 4,830 new cases. The country has confirmed 161,852 infections and 16,353 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)(SSFC, 4/12/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 11, Thailand reported 45 new coronavirus infections and two more deaths.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 12, US President Donald Trump retweeted a call to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after the nation's top expert on infectious diseases said lives could have been saved if the country had shut down sooner during the novel coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 12, More than 20,602 people in the US have died as a result of COVID-19. At least 530,000 people in the US have tested positive and over 2.6 million Americans have been tested for the disease. Worldwide, more than 1.79 million people have been diagnosed since the virus emerged in China in December and the death toll has passed 109,000.
(ABC News, 4/12/20)(Yahoo News, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, California to date had 22,432 cases of coronavirus and 634 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 4,980 cases and 134 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, New York tallied 671 new deaths due to the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/14/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 12, Bangladesh announced a relief package worth about $1.7 billion to help farmers struggling because of restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Brazil's Health Minister Henrique Mandetta criticized people for gathering in public without referring directly to Pres. Jair Bolsonaro, who hit the streets over the weekend, drawing crowds and greeting followers.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 12, Britain recorded 737 additional coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours,. PM Boris Johnson was discharged from a London hospital where he was treated in intensive care for the virus. The UK reported 84,279 positive test results for COVID-19 and 10,612 deaths..
(ABC News, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Britain said it was pledging 200 million pounds ($248 million) to the World Health Organization (WHO) and charities to help slow the spread of the coronavirus in vulnerable countries and so help prevent a second wave of infections.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Bulgaria has reported 669 cases of the coronavirus and 28 deaths. Churches remained open over the Easter holidays, but most Bulgarians stayed home.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Chinese cities near the border with Russia said they would tighten border controls and quarantine measures on arrivals from abroad after the number of imported cases of COVID-19 hit a one-month high.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Germany's number of confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 2,821 to 120,479. The reported death toll rose by 129 to 2,673.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Indonesia reported 399 new cases of the coronavirus, its biggest daily jump so far, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 4,241. There were also 46 new coronavirus-related deaths, taking the total to 373. Indonesia said it has imposed curbs on public transport ahead of the annual exodus to home villages that marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Iran announced 117 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the overall official toll to 4,474, even as it eased some restrictions that had been imposed to slow the spread of the illness. 1,657 new infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 71,686. Iran announced its first coronavirus cases on February 19.
(AFP, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, The Israeli government approved a tight quarantine of several areas of Jerusalem, including the historic Old City, in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the city's most susceptible neighborhoods.
(AP, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, In Japan Ssuzuki Naomichi, the mayor of Hokaido, reimposed a state of emergency that had been lifted on March 18.
(Econ, 4/18/20, p.26)
2020 Apr 12, Malaysia's health ministry reported 153 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, raising the cumulative total to 4,683. The data included three new deaths, raising the total number of fatalities from the outbreak to 76.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, The Netherlands' National Institute for Health (RIVM) reported 1,188 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, taking the total to 25,587. The number of deaths rose by 94 to 2,737.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, The Philippines recorded 50 coronavirus deaths, its highest in a single day, taking the toll to 297. The health ministry said 220 new infections took the tally of cases to 4,648.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, In Portugal the coronavirus outbreak spread further into care homes over the Easter weekend, with 100 new cases of COVID-19 reported in a single residence and care homes accounting for around one in eight of the country's 504 deaths. Total cases reached 16,585.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Puerto Rico’s Gov. Wanda Vazquez extended an island-wide curfew until May in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19 on the island. There have been about 7,700 people tested so far with more than 780 confirmed cases and 42 deaths.
(ABC News, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, South Africa, which has banned the sale of all alcohol and cigarettes under a coronavirus lockdown that triggered a wave of lootings of liquor shops, said it had caught police officers who were complicit in illegal alcohol sales.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, In Spain the coronavirus death toll reached 16,972, with confirmed cases at 166,019. A total of 619 people died over the past 24 hours rising for the first time in three days, Some businesses prepared to reopen under an easing of the country's strict lockdown regime.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 12, Turkey called on private banks to do more to help customers hurt by the economic impact of the coronavirus, saying that state-owned banks had offered delays in repayments for loans. More than 1,000 people have been killed by the coronavirus in Turkey.
(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020 Apr 13, President Donald Trump claimed the “total" authority to decide how and when to reopen the economy after weeks of tough social distancing guidelines aimed at fighting the new coronavirus. But governors from both parties were quick to push back. Ten governors on the east and west coasts banded together in two regional pacts to coordinate gradual economic reopenings as the coronavirus crisis finally appeared to be ebbing.
(AP, 4/14/20)(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 13, A member of the crew of the coronavirus-infected USS Theodore Roosevelt died of complications related to the disease, just weeks after the aircraft carrier's captain was fired for pressing his concern that the Navy had done too little to safeguard his crew.
(AP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, The US Dept. of Health awarded Swiss-based Hamilton Medical a $552 million contract to build 14,115 ventilators by July 3.
(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 13, California to date had 24,029 cases of coronavirus and 721 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 5,242 cases and 146 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state's death toll has topped 10,000 only about a month after recording its first fatality.
(SFC, 4/14/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 13, Police in New Jersey discovered 17 bodies piled inside the nursing home in Andover in a small morgue intended to hold no more than four people. The 17 were among 68 recent deaths linked to the long-term care facility, Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II. Of those who died, 26 people had tested positive for the coronavirus.
(NY Times, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 13, Wyoming reported its first death from the novel coronavirus, the final US state to report a fatality from the outbreak. Wyoming has 270 reported cases.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Grocery distributor Performance Food Group Co said it had furloughed about 3,000 employees and cut pay, while funneling 1,100 workers to help keep its retail clients' shelves stacked as it deals with the pressures exerted on supply chains and its business by the coronavirus crisis. Customers included Dollar Tree and Home Depot as well as theater chains AMC, Cinemark and Regal Cinemas, which have temporarily closed movie houses to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Belarus Pres. Alexander Lukashenko said he believed nobody in Belarus would be killed by the virus. The health ministry, which encourages people to reduce contact to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, says 36 people in Belarus have died of it.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 13, In Britain confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose by 4,342 to a national tally of 88,621. A total of 11,329 people have died in hospitals across the UK after testing positive for coronavirus, up by 717 in a day.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Egypt reopened its border crossing with the Gaza Strip after nearly three weeks, allowing hundreds of Palestinians stranded by the coronavirus pandemic to return home.
(AP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, French President Emmanuel Macron extended a virtual lockdown to May 11.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 13, Iran's death toll from the new coronavirus rose to 4,585, with 111 deaths overnight. There were 1,617 new infected cases in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Iraq recorded 1,378 cases of COVID-19, including 78 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 13, Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems said it had repurposed assembly lines to manufacture thousands of automatic ventilation machines as the country eyes local production to off-set global shortages due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Malaysian health authorities reported 134 new coronavirus cases, raising the cumulative total to 4,817. One new death was also reported bringing total fatalities to 77.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Nepal has 9 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and one person has recovered. A lockdown, imposed on March 24, banned all flights and ground transport, and closed markets, schools and offices.
(AP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari announced a two-week extension of a lockdown in three states, including the capital Abuja, to curtail the spread of coronavirus.
(BBC, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 13, The Philippines reported a cumulative total of 4,932 coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Portugal's government reported the smallest daily increase in confirmed cases of the coronavirus since March 24.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 13, Russia’s total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 reached 18,328, double the level of five days earlier. The number of deaths stood at 148.
(NY Times, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 13, It was reported that Saudi Arabia has deported nearly 3,000 Ethiopian migrants in recent days, despite concerns that such operations could hasten the spread of the coronavirus. Ethiopia has reported just 74 cases of COVID-19 and three deaths.
(AFP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Serbian police detained the director of a state-run center for the care of the elderly where there has been a coronavirus outbreak. He was charged with both "an aggravated crime against public health" and spreading diseases. 139 people were infected with the coronavirus at the center located in the southern city of Nis.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Singapore recorded a new high of 386 cases of the coronavirus, its largest single-day spike to date.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 13, South Korea reported that at least 116 people initially cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again. Officials suggested they would soon look at easing strict recommendations aimed at preventing new outbreaks. South Korea reported only 25 new cases overall.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Spain started to ease tough lockdown restrictions that have kept people confined to their homes for more than a month and put a brake on economic activity. Spain's cumulative death toll rose to 17,489, up 517 from a day earlier. Confirmed cases totaled 169,496, up from 166,019 the previous day.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Sudan inked a deal with the United Nations World Food Program to import wheat, state media reported, more than a year after the country was rocked by protests sparked by bread price hikes. 10 more cases of the coronavirus were discovered in Khartoum.
(AFP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Sweden has registered 899 COVID-19 deaths. So far, Sweden has banned gatherings larger than 50 people, closed high schools and universities, and urged those over 70 or otherwise at greater risk from the virus to self-isolate. After a sharp spike in deaths, PM Stefan Lofven proposed an emergency law allowing the quick closure of public venues and transportation if needed. Lofven also warned citizens to prepare for possibly up to thousands of deaths.
(AP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Coronavirus infections in Turkey have jumped to more than 56,900 cases and almost 1,200 deaths.
(SFC, 4/13/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 14, President Donald Trump backed away from his claim that he has "total" authority over when states relax social-distancing orders and reopen their economies.
(The Week, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 14, A US report from the Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan congressional body, found that a tax provision included in the congressional coronavirus relief package by GOP senators will overwhelmingly benefit people making over $1 million per year while costing taxpayers $90 billion in 2020 alone.
(The Week, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 14, California to date had 24,371 cases of coronavirus and 731 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 5,303 cases and 146 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, In Louisiana more than 21,000 people have confirmed coronavirus infections. 884 people have died. Gov. John Bel Edwards was concerned that too many people in the state were disobeying his stay-home order.
(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 14, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo took to morning TV shows to push back against President Donald Trump's claim of “total" authority to reopen the nation's virus-stalled economy, noting that a president is not an absolute monarch.
(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, New York City's health department released a revised COVID-19 death count that included 3,700 people who were not tested but were presumed to have died from the disease. The change increased the city's total deaths to well over 10,000, and pushed up the national COVID-19 coronavirus death toll to more than 26,000.
(The Week, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 14, It was reported that 42 residents of a Virginia nursing home near Richmond have died from the COVID-19 disease pandemic in one of the worst clusters of the new coronavirus in the US. At least 127 elderly people out of the 163 residents of the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Henrico County have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Sanofi said it will combine its experimental coronavirus vaccine with GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s adjuvant technology, which may allow more doses of a shot to be produced.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Group of Seven (G7) finance officials vowed to continue to act as needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic and stabilize the global economy, and threw their support behind temporary debt relief to the poorest countries. Nearly 2 million people globally have been infected and more than 119,200 have died.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, ASEAN leaders linked up by video to ploot a strategy to overcome the coronavirus crisis that has kept millions of people in their homes under lockdowns.
(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 14, It was reported that a team of scientists in Australia earlier this month found that a single dose of ivermectin, an anti-parasitic treatment dates back to the 1970s and 1980s, could essentially remove all viral RNA of the coronavirus by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it.
(ABC News, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Austria allowed partial returns to work. Austria has reported 384 deaths in total. Hospitalizations have stabilized.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Bahrain said it has converted the multi-storey car park of a military hospital into a 130-bed intensive care unit for patients with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, and plans to set up four more field ICUs. The island state reported 161 new infections, taking its total of infections to 1,522 with seven deaths.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, In Britain a further 778 people have died in hospitals from the coronavirus, up from 717 a day earlier. Confirmed cases rose to 93,873 from 88,621.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, In China of 89 cases reported, all but three were detected in people arriving from abroad. It wasn’t immediately clear if any came from Russia. No new deaths were reported in the country. China recorded totals of 82,249 cases and 3,341 deaths.
(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Denmark said it will release its youngest citizens from a month-long coronavirus lockdown in a move that has fueled considerable controversy.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, French trade union Sud said Amazon has been ordered to limit French deliveries to essential goods only within 24 hours to allow for a deeper assessment of coronavirus risks at its sites in the country.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Germany's public health chief said number of people infected with coronavirus in Germany has "stabilized." 125,098 people in the country had tested positive for the virus. New coronavirus cases in Germany fell for a sixth day. There were 2,138 new infections, the lowest increase this month, bringing the total to 132,210. Germany was set to agree on an extension of nationwide lockdown measures until at least May 3.
(AFP, 4/14/20)(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 14, India extended a lockdown for its 1.3 billion people until at least May 3. It was reported that state-owned banks have barred employees from posting pictures, video clips or messages on social media on issues such as overcrowding at bank branches during the coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Indonesia reported 60 more coronavirus deaths for a total of 459.
(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 14, Iran had 98 deaths overnight, taking total fatalities to 4,683. Cases rose to 74,877 after 1,574 tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours. A parliament report said the death toll in Iran from the coronavirus pandemic is likely nearly double the officially reported figures, due to undercounting and because not everyone with breathing problems has been tested for the virus.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)(AP, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 14, It was reported that Iraq has suspended the license of the Reuters news agency after it published a story on April 2 saying the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country was higher than officially reported.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, In Israel, more than 11,800 people have contracted the coronavirus with at least 117 deaths.
(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 14, The Kenyan parliament voted to lower the value-added tax rate to 14% from 16%, part of President Uhuru Kenyatta's attempts to cushion citizens from the impact of the coronavirus crisis. Kenya has reported 216 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, In Mexico the Coahuila state health department said nurses at a public hospital were told by their managers not to wear protective masks at the start of the coronavirus epidemic to avoid sowing panic among patients. Two doctors and a hospital administrator have died and at least 51 staff members have been infected since the new coronavirus was detected at the IMSS General Hospital in Monclova, Coahuila state in late March.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, In the Netherlands, confirmed cases rose 3% to 27,419, the slowest rate since the country reported its first case in late February. Deaths from the virus increased 4% to 2,945, but the figure may reflect an administrative processing backlog over the Easter weekend.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Portugal reported an increase in confirmed coronavirus cases and patients in intensive-care units as it plans to extend its state of emergency for two more weeks. There were 514 new cases in a day, taking the total to 17,448. Total deaths rose to 567 from 535.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Singapore recorded 334 new cases, the second day figures have exceeded 300, bringing the tally so far to 3,252.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Spain reported the lowest number of new coronavirus cases in 3 1/2 weeks. There were 3,045 new infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 172,541. That was the smallest increase since March 20. The death toll rose by 567 to 18,056. Some Spanish businesses, including construction and manufacturing, were allowed to restart.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Sweden reported 1,033 deaths from Covid-19. The development adds to controversy surrounding the country’s decision not to impose a lockdown, and instead leave schools, bars, cafes and restaurants open. Sweden's government said it would increase the amount it would pay to companies to cover salaries of employees who had been put on reduced hours.
(Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Taiwan reported no new cases for the first time in more than a month, in the latest sign that its early prevention methods have paid off.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 14, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni extended its initial 14-day lockdown by an extra three weeks, until May 5, as part of efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Uganda has so far recorded a total of 54 coronavirus cases but no deaths.
(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 15, A top US health official said governors of about 20 US states, spared the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, may start reopening their economies by President Donald Trump's May 1 target date.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, California to date had 26,836 cases of coronavirus and 864 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 5,640 cases and 169 deaths. US cases totaled over 635,000 and rose by 30,000, the biggest increase in five days. Coronavirus cases worldwide reached 2 million with deaths topping 128,000.
(sfist.com, 4/15/20)(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 15, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) ordered everyone in the state to wear face coverings in public if there's any danger they won't be able to observe social distancing to help contain the coronavirus outbreak.
(The Week, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 15, Abbott Laboratories said will start shipping a test on April 16 that can identify people who have recovered from a coronavirus infection even if they never developed symptoms.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Bangladesh coast guard officials brought a ship to shore late today with 396 survivors on board. At least 32 ethnic Rohingya had died on the ship that drifted for weeks as coronavirus lockdowns in Malaysia and Thailand prevented the vessel from finding refuge.
(The Week, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 15, Belgium reported 2,454 new coronavirus cases, taking the total to 33,573; fatalities rose by 283. Of these total fatalities, 46% were in nursing homes.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Britain's death toll from COVID-19 in hospitals rose 861 to 13,729, as of 1600 GMT. It was the biggest daily rise in five days. Deaths in English hospitals rose by 740 to 12,396.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 15, China denied hiding early warnings of the coronavirus outbreak after The Associated Press published a report saying Beijing delayed announcing the threat for six crucial days.
(The Week, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 15, China reported that among 6,764 people who tested positive for the coronavirus infection without showing symptoms, only one fifth of them have so far developed symptoms and been re-classified as confirmed cases.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, It was reported that a trial in China testing Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug, remdesivir, in those with mild symptoms of COVID-19 has been suspended due to a lack of eligible patients.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Denmark re-opened nurseries and primary schools following a month-long coronavirus lockdown.
(Econ, 4/18/20, p.45)
2020 Apr 15, The European Commission rushed out its road map for EU members to coordinate an exit from coronavirus lockdowns. A few months time and large-scale testing was expected.
(SFC, 4/16/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 15, Germany’s new coronavirus cases climbed for the first time in a week. There were 2,543 new infections, taking the total to 134,753. The number of fatalities rose by 309 to 3,804. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced tentative steps to begin returning the country to normal.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Greece said it is extending a temporary ban on all flights to and from Italy, Spain, Turkey, the U.K. and the Netherlands by a month to May 15 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Exceptions included cargo and humanitarian flights.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Indonesia expanded a partial lockdown to more areas near Jakarta, the epicenter of the country’s coronavirus cases, as authorities stepped up efforts to restrict movement of people ahead of the nation’s biggest festive season next month.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, In Iran fatalities from the virus reached 4,777 as the country’s toll decreased for the fourth consecutive day with 94 deaths overnight. Total infections reached 76,389 after 1,512 tested positive over the last 24 hours.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic rose by 578, down from 602 the day before, while the number of new cases slowed to 2,667 from a previous 2,972, continuing the recent downward trend.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, The Jammu and Kashmir region has so far seen about 300 confirmed cases of the virus, and four deaths. It was reported that many Kashmir district authorities, have issued orders that all female poplars be cut within a week, arguing that allergies could be mistaken for coronavirus infection and create "unnecessary panic".
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Kenyan travelers say they are being held in a government quarantine center after the expiry of their mandatory 14 days of isolation following their return from abroad because they cannot pay hefty bills for their stay. Kenya has reported 225 COVID-19 infections and 10 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Malawi's government announced a 21-day coronavirus lockdown, which was due to start three days later but campaigners complained that the government did this without providing help for those in need.
(BBC, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 15, New coronavirus cases in the Netherlands dropped for the fifth consecutive day. Cases rose by 734, or 3%, to 28,153. Fatalities climbed 6%, a steeper rate than the previous days because of a reporting backlog over the Easter weekend.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Nigerian doctor Emeka Chugbo (60) died following exposure to a coronavirus patient at his private clinic.
(BBC, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 15, Palau Pres. Tommy Remengesau said that his country of 20,000 people had not had a single case of the coronavirus and he was going to shut it off from the outside world to keep the virus out.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 15, Portugal reported the biggest increase in new confirmed cases in five days, while the number of hospitalized patients fell. There were 643 new infections, taking the total to 18,091. Deaths rose to 599 from 567.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Puerto Rico has reported 970 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and at least 51 deaths.
(SFC, 4/16/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 15, p Amnesty International said Qatar detained dozens of migrant workers and expelled them last month after telling them they were being taken to be tested for the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, In Russia confirmed cases rose by 3,388 in the past day. New daily cases exceeded 3,000 for first time and have almost tripled from last week. The death toll reached 198 with 28 people dying overnight.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Singapore's health ministry confirmed 447 new coronavirus cases in the biggest daily jump, to bring the total number of cases in the city-state to 3,699. 404 of the new cases were linked to migrant workers' dormitories.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, Spain reported the biggest increase in the number of confirmed cases in six days, while the daily death toll declined. There were more than 5,000 new infections in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 177,633. The number of fatalities rose by 523 to 18,579, compared to the April 14 increase of 637.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, It was reported that Tajikistan has applied for the IMF's emergency financing, becoming the second Central Asian nation to do so amid the global crisis prompted by the novel coronavirus outbreak. Kyrgyzstan, which has already received $121 million from the fund.
(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 15, The UN said some 74 million people in the water-scarce Arab region are at greater risk of catching the novel coronavirus because they lack a sink or soap at home.
(AFP, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 16, President Donald Trump issued nonbinding guidelines that recommend a patchwork reopening of the country, backing down from an earlier assertion that he would decide how and when to end widespread lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.
(NY Times, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 16, US coronavirus deaths rose above 31,000, as President Donald Trump prepared to announce guidelines for reopening the economy.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, The US Navy said roughly 60 percent of the over 600 sailors who tested positive so far have not shown symptoms of COVID-19, the potentially lethal respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. The service did not speculate about how many might later develop symptoms or remain asymptomatic.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, California to date had 27,634 cases of coronavirus and 951 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 5,799 cases and 185 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, In New Jersey deaths due to the coronavirus have more than doubled in a week, to more than 3,500.
(AP, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted the lack of major improvement as he announced another 606 deaths in the state due to the coronavirus and said current social isolation rules will stay in place through at least May 15.
(AP, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro fired Health Minister Henrique Mandetta, who had garnered support for his handling of the pandemic that included promotion of broad isolation measures enacted by state governors. Nelson Teich, an oncologist, was named as the new health minister. Brazil has 29,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,760 deaths.
(AP, 4/17/20)(SFC, 4/17/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 16, Britain's hospital death toll due to the coronavirus rose to 14,576. The government extended a nationwide lockdown for three more weeks.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)(SFC, 4/17/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 16, Ecuador reported about 8,225 positive cases, about 403 people dead and another 632 probable deaths from coronavirus in the country. The COVID-19 outbreak has overwhelmed the health system, in some cases leaving authorities unable to collect the bodies of the deceased and forcing the government to temporarily store corpses in refrigerated shipping containers.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 16, France recorded the most new cases in a single day. President Emmanuel Macron has extended a lockdown to May 11 and said the country was under prepared for the outbreak.
(Bloomberg, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 16, Iran announced 92 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, the third straight day that official fatalities remained in double digits in the Middle East's worst-hit country. The latest deaths brought the official total to 4,869. 1,606 new infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 77,995.
(AFP, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Israel's military said it has begun converting common home-use respirators into ventilators capable of providing potentially life-saving breathing support for COVID-19 patients. Israel has reported nearly 12,600 cases of the coronavirus and 140 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe expanded a state of emergency to include the entire country and said the government was considering cash payouts for all.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, In Kenya a Catholic priest was charged in court with spreading the novel coronavirus, the second person to face such charges. Authorities said he failed to adhere to coronavirus quarantine rules following a visit to Italy. Kenya has 234 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 11 deaths.
(AP, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Mexico's deputy health minister, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, said the country might have as many as 55,951 people infected, twice the estimated number reported last week.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 16, Nepal's top court ordered the government to bring back vulnerable migrant workers stranded abroad in the coronavirus crisis after the country barred its own citizens from returning.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 16, A study of Dutch blood donors found that around 3% have developed antibodies against the coronavirus, an indication of what percentage of the population may have already had the disease.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Nigeria's the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said the country's security forces have killed 18 people in two weeks while enforcing lockdowns imposed to halt the spread of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Oman locked down a textile market in a town popular with tourists as the country reported more than 100 new infections to take its count above 1,000.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would postpone its May 9 celebrations including a huge military parade across Red Square to mark 75 years since the Soviet victory in World War Two because of the deepening coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, Spain's national death toll exceeded 19,000, but figures from the region of Catalonia indicated the real total could be several thousand higher.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, The Swiss death toll from the novel coronavirus reached 1,017 people, rising from 973 a day earlier. Switzerland said it will fine shoppers who ignore coronavirus-related border restrictions in their hunt for good deals in neighboring countries.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 16, The UN warned that hundreds of thousands of children could die this year due to the global economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and tens of millions more could fall into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 17, It was reported that President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and longtime fixer Michael Cohen will be released from federal prison to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement because of the coronavirus pandemic. 473 federal inmates and 279 Bureau of Prisons staff members had tested positive for the coronavirus at facilities across the US Eighteen inmates have died since late March.
(AP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, US coronavirus deaths topped 35,400, rising by more than 2,000 for the fourth day in a row. President Donald Trump said that individual states were responsible for developing testing capabilities.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 17, California to date had 28,903 cases of coronavirus and 1,021 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,006 cases and 196 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, San Francisco's Mayor London Breed announced rules requiring face masks for people in public. Marin, Alameda, San Mateo and Contra Costa counties released similar mandates as part of SF Bay Area regional effort to stem the coronavirus pandemic.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A1)
2020 Apr 17, In southern California Kent Whitney (38) agreed to plead guilty to running a church-based investment scheme that bilked people out of $33 million. Whitney, a convicted con and co-founder of the Church for the Healthy Self, targeted the vietnamese community of Orange County.
(SSFC, 4/19/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 17, In Connecticut nursing home residents accounted for 375 of the state's 971 virus deaths.
(AP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Tyson Foods said four of its employees have died in southwest Georgia after becoming infected with the coronavirus.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 17, A New York survey reported that 19 of the state's nursing homes have reported 20 or more deaths in the past few weeks. Four homes were listed as having at least 40 deaths. Lack of coronavirus testing meant that COVID-19 was only a possible factor.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 17, Reported cases of the coronavirus crossed 2.18 million globally and 147,265 people have died.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Oxford scientists said a million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by British scientists are already being manufactured and will be available by September, even before trials prove whether the shot is effective. The experimental product, called "ChAdOx1 nCoV-19", is a type known as a recombinant viral vector vaccine and is one of at least 70 potential COVID-19 candidate shots under development by biotech and research teams around the world.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, A new report said that cites modeling from Imperial College London said Africa could see 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus this year even under the best-case scenario.
(AP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, China said it will step up macroeconomic policies to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as its economy faces unprecedented challenges. China also acknowledged that the coronavirus death toll for epicenter of Wuhan was 50% higher than previously reported.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)(AP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, It was reported that Bogota, Colombia, has joined Panama this week in instituting a gender-based virus protection measure designed to limit the number of people in the streets. Men can leave the house for essentials on odd-numbered days and women on even-numbered days. Exceptions were made for people in critical industries.
(SFC, 4/17/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 17, The French navy said it is investigating how the coronavirus infected more than 1,000 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, amid growing pressure on government leaders to explain how it could have happened.
(AP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Germany’s coronavirus cases increased at a faster rate for a second day. The number of fatalities rose by 248, the smallest gain in three days, to more than 4,000.
(Bloomberg, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said a large number of migrants on a deportation flight to Guatemala from the United States this week were infected with the coronavirus, adding that US authorities had confirmed a dozen cases.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 17, Indonesia reported 407 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number to 5,923.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Iran said 89 more people have died from the novel coronavirus. It was the sixth day that the official fatality rate has dropped. The latest deaths brought the overall toll to 4,958. 1,499 new infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 79,494.
(AFP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe urged the international community to rally around the World Health Organization and said the body’s problems should be addressed once the coronavirus outbreak is contained.
(Bloomberg, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Malawi's High Court took the unprecedented step of blocking the government's plans to impose a coronavirus lockdown until more had been done to help those worst affected. It ordered the lockdown be delayed for seven days, pending a judicial review. Following a judicial review, a High Court judge extended the ban for a further five days.
(BBC, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 17, The Maldives locked down its capital due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Myanmar announced that it was releasing of 25,000 prisoners under a presidential amnesty marking the New year Thingyan holiday. Myanmar has reported 85 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and four deaths.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 17, In the Netherlands confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 1,235 to 30,449. The death toll among people known to have been infected increased by 144 to 3,459.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari, died after contracting the coronavirus in Germany.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 17, Radio Free Asia reported that North Korean authorities told citizens in public lectures that there were confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country as early as the end of March.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 17, Worshippers around Pakistan defied a ban on gatherings, due to the coronavirus pandemic, by attending prayers at mosques.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 17, Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte threatened martial law style enforcement of a coronavirus lockdown in the northern region of the country. The country has reported 5,878 coronavirus infections and 387 deaths.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 17, Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin prodded top officials to move faster to prepare for a surge in coronavirus cases. The virus has penetrated more deeply into Moscow's population than official data show. Early results from the first commercial Russian tests suggest that a much higher proportion of people in Moscow are infected, and that the disease has spread among residents without symptoms. Moscow has recorded 18,105, equivalent to just over 0.1% of its population. Russia's space corporation Roscosmos said it had 42 coronavirus cases and reported two deaths. Russia has recorded 32,008 coronavirus cases and 273 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)(AP, 4/17/20)(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 17, Spain's overnight death toll from coronavirus was 585, a rise from 551 the previous night as the country started to loosen the terms of its lockdown.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Thai PM Prayuth Chan-ocha called on the country's 20 richest people to help in addressing the damaging economic fall-out from the coronavirus epidemic. Thailand has reported 2,700 COVID-19 infections and 47 deaths, and the economic blow from losses of trade and tourism and restrictions on movement has been heavy.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Turkey's confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease increased by 4,353 in the past 24 hours, and 126 more people have died, taking the death toll to 1,769. The total number of cases in the country stood at 78,546.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 17, Venezuela said it has just 204 reported cases of the coronavirus and 9 deaths in a country of 29 million people.
(Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 18, US President Donald Trump said that China should face consequences if it was "knowingly responsible" for the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 690,714 cases of new coronavirus, an increase of 29,002 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 2,394 to 35,443. Over 2.3 million people worldwide have tested positive for the coronavirus. More than 160,000 people had died.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)(Yahoo News, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 18, California to date had 29,839 cases of coronavirus and 1,072 deaths. California reported 87 new deaths, one of the highest daily counts so far. The SF Bay Area had 6,227 cases and 197 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/18/20)(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, In California Dr. Bill Kirby (72), the former mayor of Auburn, died in the crash near the Auburn Municipal Airport. Kirby had gained notoriety last week following social media posts criticizing Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and comparing the president’s supporters to KKK members.
(AP, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, In New Hampshire a few hundred demonstrators outside the Statehouse called for an end to social restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus. New Hampshire has reported nearly 1,300 cases and more than three dozen deaths.
(SSFC, 4/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 18, New York state began mandating the wearing of masks or face coverings in public to contain the pathogen's spread. 507 people died today raising the death toll to 13,362.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)(AP, 4/19/20)(SFC, 4/20/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 18, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said new coronavirus cases increased by less than 10% for a 12th straight day -- 3,026 for a total of 81,420. The 231 additional fatalities followed four straight days of more than 300 deaths. Deaths have passed 4,000.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Pennsylvania reported 80 new coronavirus deaths, the most on a single day, taking statewide fatalities to 836. The health department had 1,628 new cases, bringing the state’s total to 31,069.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Protesters in the US staged several demonstrations in several cities including Austin, Texas, to call for an end to social restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus. Gov. Greg Abbott had already announced that restrictions will be easing next week.
(SSFC, 4/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Apr 18, Afghan government sources said at least 20 officials working at President Ashraf Ghani's palace have tested positive for coronavirus, prompting the 70-year-old leader to limit most of his contact with staff to digital communication. Afghanistan has reported 933 coronavirus cases, including 30 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Africa now has more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 as the overall number of cases surpassed 20,000.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Algeria said it will extend a lockdown by 10 days until April 29 as it tries to limit the spread of the coronavirus amid increases in deaths and confirmed cases. Algeria has so far reported 2,418 infections and 364 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, In Bangladesh hundreds of workers poured onto the streets of the port city of Chittagong, flouting social distancing rules to demand work and wages during the coronavirus shutdown. The country reported 306 new cases of coronavirus and nine more deaths, taking the total to 2,144 cases and 84 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Bhutan has reported five coronavirus cases and no deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Brazil reported 2,917 new cases and 211 deaths in 24 hours. Total deaths rose to 2,352 from 2,141.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Britain's daily deaths rose by 888 to 15,464. The number of cases reached more than 114,000. It was reported that Britain has paid $20 million for new coronavirus antibody test kits from two Chinese companies, AllTest Biotech and Wondfo Biotech. The testing kits in fact proven unsuccessful.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)(NY Times, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, PM Justin Trudeau said Canada and the United States have agreed to extend border restrictions for another 30 days to help control the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, China ordered that anyone in Wuhan working in certain service-related jobs must take a coronavirus test if they want to leave the city. China's National Health Commission reported 16 new confirmed coronavirus, the lowest number since March 17 and down from 27 a day earlier. No new deaths were reported. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country reached 82,735, while the total death toll from the virus stood at 4,632.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 18, Croatia said it is extending its coronavirus lockdown for another 15 days. Croatia has recorded 1,832 cases of COVID-19 and 39 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Deaths in France rose by 642 to 19,323 fatalities, the smallest increase in five days. The number of coronavirus infections rose by 5,715 to 173,956.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Germany reported 3,699 new coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours, increasing at a quicker rate for a third day and taking the total to 141,397. The number of fatalities rose by 300 to 4,352.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, A German-operated cruise ship left Western Australia after three weeks. Three people died on board of the virus during that time. About 79 crew and passengers aboard the Artania had tested positive.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Hong Kong police arrested at least 14 veteran pro-democracy lawmakers, activists and media tycoon Jimmy Lai on charges of joining unlawful protests last year calling for reforms.
(AP, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, India reported 991 new cases and 42 new deaths from the virus, taking the total number of reported cases to 14,378 and deaths to 480.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Indonesia reported 325 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 6,248. The Health ministry also reported 15 new deaths, taking the total to 535.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Fatalities in Iran rose to 5,031. The daily death toll from the virus fell to the lowest in over a month with 73 deaths in the past 24 hours. Total known cases reached 80,868 with 1,374 new infections. Iran allowed some businesses in Tehran and nearby towns to re-open.
(AFP, 4/18/20)(AP, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Italy reported the fewest deaths in six days as new cases remained stable. The country registered 482 fatalities down from 525 a day earlier, the lowest since April 12. Total deaths were 23,227. There were 3,491 new cases with the total now at 175,925.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, In Japan 181 new cases were found in Tokyo. Cases in Japan exceeded 10,000. It was reported that hospitals in Japan are increasingly turning away sick people as the country struggles with surging coronavirus infections and its emergency medical system collapses.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)(AP, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Malaysia reported 54 new coronavirus cases, the lowest daily increase since the government imposed curbs on movement and business on March 18, taking the cumulative total to 5,305. The health ministry also reported 2 new deaths, bringing total fatalities to 88.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, The Maldives has reported 34 coronavirus cases and no deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Nepal has reported 30 coronavirus cases and no deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, The Netherlands reported 129 new hospital admissions, up just 1%, marking a record low since the daily statistic has been reported since late March. Total confirmed cases grew 4% to 31,589, in line with recent trends. Fatalities rose to 3,601, also in line.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Pakistan lifted restrictions on congregational prayers at mosques, but put in place a host of safety conditions to avert the further spread of the coronavirus in the country. Pakistan has registered 7,638 cases of the virus and 143 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Portugal reported a bigger number of new confirmed coronavirus cases, while the number of hospitalized patients fell. There were 663 new cases in a day, taking the total to 19,685.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, In Russia new infections jumped by 4,785 to 36,793. Forty people died in the past day, including 21 in Moscow, bringing the number of fatalities to 313.
(AP, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Singapore's health ministry confirmed 942 more coronavirus infections.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, South Africa reported 251 new coronavirus infections, its biggest daily increase, bringing the total to 3,034.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, New cases in Spain rose by 4,499 in the last 24 hours, pushing the total to 191,726. Authorities reported a total of 20,043 deaths from the illness since the outbreak started, with 565 people dying in the last 24 hours.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Sri Lanka has reported 248 coronavirus cases, including seven deaths.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Taiwan has only reported 398 coronavirus cases and six deaths. Taiwan said it will put 700 navy sailors into quarantine after three cases of the new coronavirus were confirmed among sailors who had been on a goodwill mission to the Pacific island state of Palau.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 18, Turkey reported another 121 coronavirus deaths, raising the total to 1,890.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 19, Protesters in the US held a second day of weekend rallies to call for reopening the economy despite the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
(The Week, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 19, California to date had 30,831 cases of coronavirus and 1,148 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,307 cases and 198 deaths. The US death toll from the COVID-19 coronavirus reached another grim milestone, rising above 40,000.
(sfist.com, 4/19/20)(The Week, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 19, Thousands of Belarusians converged on churches across the country on Sunday to celebrate Easter, ignoring calls from health authorities and church leaders to stay at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Belgium reported 230 deaths from coronavirus during the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 5,683. Fatalities fell for a fourth day in a row Total confirmed cases as reported a day earlier rose by 1,313 to 38,496.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, In Britain a further 596 deaths linked to the coronavirus were recorded in hospitals, the lowest daily number since April 6. Total fatalities climbed to 16,060.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Chile reported over 10,000 cases of coronavirus, the third-highest tally in Latin America. Chile has reported a total of 133 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, China reported 16 new coronavirus cases but no deaths. Authorities remained on guard against a major resurgence and monitored the spread of cases in Heilongjiang province.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, In Germany there were 2,327 new coronavirus infections in the 24 hours, taking the total to 143,724. fatalities rose by 186, the fewest in five days, to 4,538.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Guatemala said a total of 50 migrants deported by the United States to the country have tested positive for coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 19, India recorded its largest daily spike in coronavirus cases, adding 1,400 new infections to its tally of more than 16,000 amid a nationwide lockdown that’s about to enter its fourth week. Confirmed infections were up 78% to 16,365, from 9,200 on April 12.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Indonesia reported 327 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 6,575. The health ministry reported 47 new deaths, taking the total to 582.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Iran added a further 87 deaths and 1,343 new cases to its virus tally in the past 24 hours, raising total fatalities to 5,118 from over 82,000 known cases. Iran said will extend leave for prisoners for one more month,
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)(AFP, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Malaysian media reported that Sabah, the largest palm oil producing state, has temporarily halted palm operations in one area after 11 coronavirus cases were found there. Malaysia reported a total of 5,305 positive coronavirus cases, 88 of whom have died.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Mexico registered a total of 8,261 confirmed coronavirus cases and 686 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 19, The Netherlands reported 83 coronavirus deaths. 110 patients were admitted to hospitals, the smallest increase since the daily reporting of the statistic started at the end of last month. Overall confirmed cases grew by 3% to 32,655.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Peru reported over 15,000 cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 19, Russia identified 6,060 new infections in 24 hours, setting another daily record with an increase of 27%. The total number of cases rose to 42,853, with 48 new deaths bringing the number of fatalities to 361. President Vladimir Putin said: “The situation is completely under control".
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Singapore's health ministry confirmed 596 new coronavirus infections, taking the total number of cases in the city-state to 6,588. The vast majority of the new cases were migrant workers living in dormitories.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it confirmed eight new coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period, the lowest since Feb. 20. This raised the total to 10,661 cases and 234 deaths.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)(SFC, 4/20/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 19, Spain reported the smallest increase in the number of deaths in four weeks, while new infections slowed compared with previous days. Coronavirus deaths rose by 410 to 20,453, the smallest one-day increase since March 22. In total 200,210 people have been infected in Spain, with 4,218 new cases detected in the past 24 hours.
(Bloomberg, 4/19/20)(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 19, Taiwan reported 22 new coronavirus cases, almost all of them sailors who had been on a friendly visit of Taiwanese navy ships to the Pacific island state of Palau last month.
(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020 Apr 19, Turkey's confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 86,306.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, California to date had 33,404 cases of coronavirus and 1,203 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,560 cases and 210 deaths. The US death toll from the COVID-19 coronavirus rose to 40,724. Worldwide the outbreak has killed more than 170,000 people and infected 2.5 million.
(sfist.com, 4/20/20)(The Week, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 20, The governors of Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee said they would start relaxing restrictions intended to curb the spread of the virus.
(NY Times, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 20, Massachusetts reported 103 new coronavirus deaths, bringing the state's death toll to more than 1,800. More than 1,500 new cases were reported, for a total of more than 39,500 across the state.
(AP, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc said it would start a late-stage study of its rare blood-disorder drug, Ultomiris, in COVID-19 patients hospitalized with severe pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, IDEXX Laboratories Inc said it would provide veterinarians a COVID-19 test for pets amid evidence that infected humans could transmit the virus to their pets.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, More than 150 Australian economists warned the government against easing social distancing rules.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Schools reopened in Belarus. The number of people infected with the coronavirus was now 6,264 and included 51 deaths.
(SFC, 4/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 20, Police in Chile broke up a fresh round of anti-government protests in one of Santiago´s central squares late today, arresting 14 and citing rules against congregations intended to ward off the spread of coronavirus. Health authorities have banned gatherings of more than 50 people nationwide to thwart the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 20, In the Czech Republic farmers markets, craft shops, car dealerships and dog grooming salons opened. Strict hygiene rules remained in force. Around 5,300 coronavirus cases have been reported with 188 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Students in Germany went back to class to take their final exams as schools that had been shut last month to stem the spread of the coronavirus epidemic began to reopen.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, A Haitian health ministry source said three migrants the United States deported two weeks ago to Haiti, on a flight that raised objections from human rights advocates, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus while in quarantine in the Caribbean country. Haiti now has 47 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Hong Kong reported no new coronavirus infections for the first time in seven weeks.
(SFC, 4/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 20, India recorded 1,553 cases of the coronavirus, its biggest single-day spike. At least 543 people have died. The government has eased one of the world’s strictest lockdowns to allow some manufacturing and agricultural activity to resume. India's government said farms and factories could resume activity in the hinterland, which has been less hard-hit by COVID-19.
(AP, 4/20/20)(Reuters, 4/21/20)(SFC, 4/21/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 20, Iran's foreign minister used a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad to call on the US to lift sanctions imposed on both countries. The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Iran reached 5,209 with 91 deaths in the past twenty four hours. The total number of diagnosed cases reached 83,505 as shopping malls and bazaars reopened despite warnings by some health officials that a new wave of coronavirus infections could ripple through the country.
(AP, 4/20/20)(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, The Kurdish Red Crescent said Kurds in Syria have set up a specialized hospital for coronavirus cases after the first COVID-19 death was reported in the northeastern region.
(AFP, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Luxembourg began easing coronavirus restrictions along with an order that the public cover their mouths when entering confined spaces such as public transport or shops.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Mexico's Tamaulipas state said 16 migrants from several countries have tested positive for coronavirus in the northern border state. Migrants now make up about 10% of the state's 193 coronavirus cases.
(AP, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, A Myanmar government health worker was injured and his driver killed when their UN-marked vehicle was ambushed as they carried COVID-19 test samples in conflict-ridden Rakhine state.
(AFP, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 20, Panama registered 191 new cases and 10 deaths, bringing total cases to 4,658 and the death toll to 136.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 20, In Portugal a municipal official said the coronavirus has swept through a hostel in Lisbon, infecting 138 of the 175 asylum seekers housed there. Portugal has reported 20,863 coronavirus cases, with 735 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, In Russia the head of Rospotrebnadzor, a health and consumer protection agency at the forefront of Russia’s fight against the pandemic, said that medical institutions accounted for more than half of 74 infection “hot spots" so far identified across the country. It was reported that remote northern Russian region of Komi has become Russia’s third most infected area after Moscow and St. Petersburg. Russia has so far reported 47,121 cases of the coronavirus with a death toll of 405.
(AP, 4/20/20)(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Hundreds of people protested against regional authorities in southern Russia over what they said were restrictive and unnecessary coronavirus measures. The Republic of North Ossetia, where the protest took place, has officially registered only 145 cases and two deaths.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, The Serbian government said it would allow some businesses and markets to reopen in a cautious easing of a nationwide lockdown following signs of a fall in the rate of virus infections. Serbia has so far reported 6,630 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 125 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Swiss drugmaker said Novartis it has won the go-ahead from the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct a randomized trial of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19 disease.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, Syria has reported only 39 cases of the coronavirus and two deaths.
(AP, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 20, UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, appealed for an additional $92.4 million to help fight the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa, a conflict-battered region with the highest number of children in need anywhere.
(AP, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 21, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield warned that a second coronavirus wave in winter could be "even more difficult than the one we just went through".
(The Week, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 21, The US Congress approved the spending of $25bn on testing for COVID-19.
(Econ, 4/25/20, p.72)
2020 Apr 21, California to date had 35,450 cases of coronavirus and 1,280 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,715 cases and 211 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 788,920.
(sfist.com, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Missouri's top state prosecutor announced a lawsuit, which alleges that Chinese officials are to blame for the pandemic that has sickened around 2.5 million worldwide, thrown tens of millions out of work and devastated local economies, including in China. US law generally prohibits such suits. The number of Missouri deaths from the coronavirus rose by 16 to 215.
(AP, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 21, It was reported that spike in prison coronavirus infections sent Ohio's broader tally of cases to nearly 14,000, including more than 550 deaths and over 2,600 hospitalizations.
(AP, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Milwaukee's top public health officials said that at least seven people appear to have been infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus during activities associated with Wisconsin's April 7 election.
(The Week, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 21, Hundreds of Amazon and Target workers started a nationwide wave of sickouts to call attention to what they described as inadequate efforts to protect employees from the coronavirus pandemic.
(The Week, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 21, Chipotle Mexican Grill agreed to pay a record $25 million to resolve criminal charges that it served tainted food that sickened more than 1,100 people in the US from 2015 to 2018.
(SFC, 4/22/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 21, Police in Bosnia began moving hundreds of migrants and refugees off the streets of the northwestern city of Bihac and transferring them into a nearby emergency tent camp set up amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Britain's health ministry data a total of 17,337 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospitals in Britain, an increase of 828 on the figure published 24 hours earlier. The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus has risen to 129,044.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, France expanded its list of drugs that face export restrictions through the coronavirus crisis despite repeated calls from the European Union to lift curbs that could cause shortages in other countries. The European Commission sent a letter on April 7 to the French government urging it to lift export restrictions on dozens of vital medicines to treat coronavirus patients. Manufacturers are exempted from the export curbs.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 21, In Greece dozens of migrants in a hostel tested positive for the novel coronavirus, hours after the government said it would open some public services on April 27 as part of a gradual easing of the nation's coronavirus lockdown. Greece has registered 2,245 infections since its first case surfaced in late February. The death toll is 116.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Indian authorities said they have arrested 29 people who participated in an Islamic missionary meeting last month in New Delhi that resulted in a large cluster of coronavirus cases. India has 18,601 confirmed cases of the virus. More than 4,200 cases were linked to the meeting.
(SFC, 4/22/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 21, Iran announced 88 new deaths from the novel coronavirus as the country said it had released more than 1,000 foreign prisoners over the outbreak. The latest fatalities brought the country's total to 5,297. An additional 1,297 cases of COVID-19 infection detected in the past 24 hours brought the overall total to 84,802.
(AP, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Kenya has confirmed almost 300 cases of COVID-19. It was reported that village chiefs in Kenya will make house-to-house checks after reports some rural communities were taking advantage of school closures due to the coronavirus to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, In Kenya as many as 50 people escaped a quarantine area as a meal was being served at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC). Kenya has recorded 296 cases of Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus, including 14 deaths.
(BBC, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 21, Mexico registered a jump of more than 700 confirmed cases, to reach a total of 9,501.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 21, Montenegrin health authorities said they would shorten a curfew and allow shops to work longer hours. The country has reported 313 infections among a population of 630,000. Five people have died and 90 recovered so far.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Moroccan prison authorities said 68 people, mostly staff, have come down with the coronavirus at a prison in the southern city of Ouarzazate. Morocco has confirmed 3,186 cases of the COVID-19 lung disease including 144 deaths.
(AP, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper reported the recent deaths of around 150 people in the northern commercial city of Kano, prompting investigations to determine if they were related to the coronavirus pandemic. The state government acknowledged the deaths but said they were caused by complications from hypertension, diabetes, meningitis and acute malaria and not the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria has 1,182 coronavirus cases and a national death toll of 35.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 21, Singapore has reported 9,125 coronavirus cases, a tenfold increase in just three weeks, though it has reported just 11 fatalities.
(Bloomberg, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Spain unveiled a series of measures aimed at helping prostitutes and victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation survive the country's coronavirus lockdown. Under the new measures, victims will be able to access improved support services.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 21, Sri Lanka ordered all liquor stores to close indefinitely as part of its measures aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus. Liquor stores and bars were opened April 20 in some parts of the country, after the government partially lifted a monthlong curfew during which all liquor shops remained close.
(https://tinyurl.com/ybz5wqp8)(SFC, 4/22/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 22, It was reported that some 1,900 VA health care workers have become sick with the coronavirus and that 20 have died.
(AP, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Dr. Rick Bright said he was abruptly dismissed this week from his federal post after pressing for rigorous testing of treatments embraced by Pres. Donald Trump. Bright led the federal agency involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine.
(SFC, 4/23/20, p.A3)
2020 Apr 22, US Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie expressed support for Pres. Trump's unverified claims about a malaria drug that can have serious side effects and may not work. Hydroxychloroquine has not been proven as a treatment for COVID-19.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 22, California to date had 37,602 cases of coronavirus and 1,432 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,831 cases and 238 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 839,675 with 46,485 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Mississippi’s attorney general announced that she is preparing to file a lawsuit against the Chinese regime to hold it accountable for “malicious and dangerous acts" that she claims caused the CCP virus pandemic, which resulted in widespread human and economic devastation in the United States and internationally.
(The Epoch Times, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 22, Tyson Foods Inc said it plans to indefinitely suspend operations at its at Waterloo, Iowa plant, its largest pork plant in the US, to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus, in the latest disruption to the country's food supply chain.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, It was reported that a review of mortality data in 11 countries showed that at least 25,000 more people have died during the coronavirus pandemic over the last month than the official COVID-19 death counts report. Reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.57 million globally and 178,574 people have died.
(NY Times, 4/22/20)(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Bosnia's top court ruled that a measure curtailing freedom of movement for people older than 65 and younger than 18 to try and halt the spread of the coronavirus is not in line with the constitution.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, In Britain the number of people who have died in hospitals after testing positive for the coronavirus rose by 616 to 18,738 in the last 24 hours. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose to 133,495.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 22, Mainland China reported 10 new cases as of the end of today, bringing the total to 82,798. The death toll was unchanged at 4,632.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 22, In Germany there were 1,388 new cases in the 24 hours through this morning, bringing the total to 148,453. Fatalities rose by 224, the most in four days, to 5,086.
(Bloomberg, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. (PFE) announced that the German regulatory authority, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, has approved the Phase 1/2 clinical trial for BioNTech’s BNT162 vaccine program to prevent COVID-19 infection.
(https://tinyurl.com/yclugzvt)(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, India ordered a pause in testing for antibodies to the coronavirus because of concern over the accuracy. India has detected 19,983 cases of the coronavirus. There have been 640 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Iran reported 93 more deaths from the coronavirus, with the death toll in the country now reaching 5,574, out of more than 88,000 confirmed cases.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 22, It was reported that more than 30 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked in Japan's Nagasaki prefecture have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Lithuania's government said shops, open-air restaurants and many other services will be allowed to reopen in an easing of restrictions imposed last month to limit spread of the novel coronavirus. Lithuania has reported 1,370 coronavirus cases and 38 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 708 to 34,842 with 138 new deaths. The country's death toll now stands at 4,054.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said a Palestinian woman from Syria has become the first refugee living in a camp in Lebanon to test positive for the coronavirus. Lebanon has recorded 22 deaths from among 682 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
(AP, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, In Poland confirmed coronavirus infections surpassed 10,000.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, South Korean health authorities said patients who tested positive for novel coronavirus after recovering from their first bout of the illness appeared to be far less infectious the second time round.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Sudan has reported 140 coronavirus cases, including 13 deaths. Almost all of the cases have been in Khartoum, now under a three-week lockdown.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, Vietnam arrested seven people, including three officials from the Hanoi Center for Disease Control and Prevention for "wrongdoings" linked to procurement during the coronavirus crisis.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 23, Pres. Donald Trump noted that researchers were looking at the effects of disinfectants on the virus and wondered aloud if they could be injected into people, saying the virus “does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 23, The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill, funding small businesses and hospitals and pushing the total spending response to the crisis to an unprecedented near $3 trillion.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 23, California to date had 39,009 cases of coronavirus and 1,512 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,020 cases and 243 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 843,981 with 47,272 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, In the US state of Georgia the number of coronavirus cases rose past 21,000 with 847 deaths.
(SFC, 4/24/20, p.A8)
2020 Apr 23, Britain's death toll from the new coronavirus in hospitals across the United Kingdom rose to 19,506, an increase of 684 in 24 hours.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 23, President Xi Jinping said China will step up investment in various sectors including 5G, artificial intelligence, transport and energy and boost employment. Beijing said it would contribute an additional $30m to the WHO as the UN organization battles the Covid-19 pandemic. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said the money would support those efforts as well as “the construction of public health systems in developing countries".
(Reuters, 4/23/20)(The Independent, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 23, Cuba had 1,189 reported cases of the coronavirus and 40 deaths.
(Econ, 4/25/20, p.26)
2020 Apr 23, Czechs flocked to screening centers in a project to test 27,000 people for coronavirus antibodies to gauge how far the infection has spread and help decide how rapidly to ease the country's lockdown.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, Germany’s ruling coalition agreed on a 10 billion-euro ($10.8 billion) package of further measures to dampen the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.
(Bloomberg, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, India froze inflation-linked increases in salaries and pensions for more than 11 million federal employees and pensioners to generate nearly $10 billion to help combat the COVID-19 outbreak.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, Iran called for the US to be held accountable for "cruel" sanctions that have hampered its efforts to fight a coronavirus outbreak that it said claimed another 90 lives. The latest fatalities for the past 24 hours took the overall death toll from the coronavirus to 5,481.
(AFP, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, The northern Italian region of Lombardy began an antibody testing program as it prepared to start opening up its economy following weeks of lockdown. Positive cases for coronavirus across Italy rose 2,646 over the last 24 hours, bringing total cases to 189,973 and 25,549 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)(SFC, 4/24/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 23, It was reported that the governors of Nigeria's 36 states have agreed to ban interstate movement for two weeks.
(Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020 Apr 23, Indigenous tribes in Peru's Amazon said, in a letter to the UN and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, that the government has left them to fend for themselves against the coronavirus, risking "ethnocide by inaction." Eight native leaders representing 1,800 communities in the Peruvian Amazon signed the letter which was published by indigenous group AIDESEP.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 23, Portuguese health officials said 40% of the country's 820 deaths attributed to the coronavirus have occurred in nursing homes. Portugal has reported just over 22,300 confirmed cases.
(SFC, 4/24/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 23, More than 1,100 people have died in Stockholm as a result of the new coronavirus, with 280 new confirmed cases. The capital has been the hardest-hit city in Sweden, accounting for more than half of Sweden's 2,021 fatalities from COVID-19.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, President Trump signed a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill after it was passed by both chambers of Congress this week. The bill aids employers and hospitals under stress from the coronavirus pandemic. The Congressional Budget Office predicted the US GDP will contract 39.6 percent year over year during the second fiscal quarter of the year.
(The Week, 4/25/20)(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, President Trump claimed he was being sarcastic when he suggested health officials look into treating COVID-19 with measures like injecting disinfectants or hitting lungs with a "tremendous" amount of ultraviolet or "very powerful light".
(The Week, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, It was reported that the US Navy destroyer Kidd is believed to have a significant coronavirus outbreak on board as it carries out a counter-narcotics mission in the Caribbean. Over a dozen sailors had tested positive for the virus. The Pentagon confirmed the outbreak.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, The US Food and Drug Administration cautioned against the use of malaria drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, in COVID-19 patients outside of hospitals and clinical trials, citing risks of serious heart rhythm problems.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, The parent company of Lysol and another disinfectant warned that its products should not be used as an internal treatment for the coronavirus after President Donald Trump wondered about the prospect during a White House briefing.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Alaska and Oklahoma eased some coronavirus restrictions, though they included limitations.
(AP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, California to date had 40,812 cases of coronavirus and 1,594 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,216 cases and 251 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 889,661 with 51,017 deaths. Worldwide reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.7 million globally and 189,970 people have died.
(sfist.com, 4/24/20)(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, In Georgia some businesses took the first steps toward reopening as the Republican governor eased a month-long shutdown amid experts’ warnings of a potential new surge in coronavirus infections and a potent objection from President Donald Trump.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, In Massachusetts the number of people infected increased from 46,023 over the last 24 hours. The deaths climbed from 2,360 to 2,556. 55.9% of the deaths were reported in long-term care facilities. The data reflected a correction of a reporting error made by Quest, a national commercial laboratory.
(Good Morning America, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer extended her stay-at-home order through May 15 as her state battled to control the coronavirus pandemic, but lifted restrictions so some businesses can open and the public can participate in outdoor activities such as golfing.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pointed to research showing that strains of the novel coronavirus entered his state from Europe, not China, and said that travel bans enacted by US President Donald Trump were too late to halt its spread.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, A handful of Texas businesses reopened in defiance of state guidance in the fight against the coronavirus, which allows retailers to offer “to go" service but leaves other restrictions in place.
(AP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, A rally outside Wisconsin's capitol building in Madison drew hundreds of protesters who demanded Democratic Governor Tony Evers reopen the state even as it reported its largest single day jump of new coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, In Afghanistan more than 1,300 people have tested positive for the coronavirus, and 43 have died.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Armenia has recorded 1,596 coronavirus infections, with 27 deaths. Armenia began allowing certain business activities, including fishing, mining, financial and insurance services, agriculture and cigarette production.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Azerbaijan has reported a total of 1,592 coronavirus cases and 21 deaths. It announced plans to lift virus-related restrictions from April 27.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Belgium has recorded 42,797 coronavirus cases and 6,490 deaths. The government said has decided not to use apps to trace the path of infections, after initially pushing the idea.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Brazil's health ministry confirmed nearly 53,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 3,600 deaths. Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Britain now has 143,464 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Ecuador's health minister said the country's coronavirus case total was twice as high as previously confirmed, as authorities added 11,000 new infections that resulted from delayed testing.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Georgia has reported 431 confirmed coronavirus cases and five deaths. It announced plans to lift virus-related restrictions from April 27.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Germany’s new coronavirus cases and deaths rose the most in nearly a week. There were 2,481 new infections in the 24 hours through this morning, bringing the total to 153,129. Fatalities rose to 5,575.
(Bloomberg, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, India announced the relaxation of some aspects of its strict coronavirus pandemic lockdown measures.
(The Week, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, In eastern Lebanon authorities closed all entrances to a Palestinian refugee camp after four more people tested positive for the coronavirus, heightening concerns the virus could further spread among its overcrowded population. Lebanon has recorded 22 deaths from among nearly 700 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
(AP, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, In Somalia a police officer in Mogadishu shot and killed at least one civilian while enforcing coronavirus restrictions. The shooting sparked protests and the officer was soon arrested. Somalia had more than 325 cases.
(AP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, With Spain still on almost-total lockdown, the number of fatalities rose by 367, the fewest since March 21. Total confirmed cases rose by 2,796 for a total of 22,524.
(Bloomberg, 4/24/20)(SFC, 4/25/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 24, Turkey's confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased by 3,122 with the death toll rising to 2,600.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, The UN launched an international push for a vaccine to defeat the pandemic. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a virtual briefing asked for international organizations, world leaders and the private sector to join the effort. Notably absent were the leaders of China, where the virus first emerged late last year, and the United States.
(AFP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 24, Venezuela has reported 311 cases of coronavirus and 10 deaths. Acute fuel shortages are forcing farmers to let crops rot in fields or feed them to livestock since they cannot transport food to market during the coronavirus quarantine.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Vietnam said the coronavirus outbreak has negatively affected 5 million workers and 84.8% of companies in the country. Vietnam reported two new coronavirus cases, one day after it lifted tough movement restrictions, bringing the total to 270 with no deaths.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 24, Zambia's President Edgar Lungu said the nation's budget has been thrown into "disarray" due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the country's economy and the government needs to implement measures to support businesses. The number of coronavirus cases rose to 84.
(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020 Apr 25, President Donald Trump said the daily White House virus briefing is “not worth the time and effort," two days after his comments on fighting Covid-19 with disinfectants or sunlight caused headaches for his health advisers.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 25, California to date had 42,351 cases of coronavirus and 1,686 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,340 cases and 259 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 936,293 with 53,511 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Hawaii Gov. David Ige announced he was extending the mandatory 14-day quarantine for travelers into the state until May 31. He is also extending the stay-at-home order until the same date. Hawaii has 604 cases and 14 deaths, including two in the past day.
(ABC News, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 25, The Tyson plant in Logansport, Indiana, was closed after nearly 900 employees tested positive; it resumed limited operations on May 7.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 Apr 25, In Minnesota a Hormel Foods subsidiary said it is halting production at a pair of turkey processing facilities in Willmar after 14 employees tested positive for the coronavirus at the plants.
(SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 25, Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's philanthropic operation announced a $40 million pledge to support efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 in low- and middle-income nations. Bloomberg also plans to spend $10.5 million to build a contact tracing program to help local officials the follow the spread of the virus in an effort to contain it.
(SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 25, The World Health Organization warned countries against issuing so-called coronavirus "immunity passports" to recovered patients because there's "no evidence" they are protected from a second infection. The global coronavirus death toll approached 200,000.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)(AFP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Argentina said it is extending its nationwide lockdown by another two weeks until May 10 to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 25, In Belarus hundreds of thousands of state employees, including doctors and nurses, took part in a government-decreed national day of civic labor despite worries about the country's sharply rising coronavirus infections. Belarus reported 817 new cases, the country's highest single-day increase. It has reported a total of 9,590 confirmed infections and 67 deaths.
(AP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, The number of coronavirus fatalities in Belgium increased to 6,917.
(AP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, The British government said that 20,319 people with COVID-19 have died in British hospitals, an increase of 813 from the death toll reported the day before. The figure does not include deaths in nursing homes, which are likely to number in the thousands.
(AP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Burkina Faso, one of Africa's nations hardest hit by the coronavirus, has reported 41 deaths. The country's 629 cases included the US and Italian ambassadors as well as at least six government ministers. Last month Rose Marie Compaore (62), Burkina Faso's second Vice President of the parliament, became the first person in the country to die from COVID-19.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Canada reported a total of 2,350 coronavirus deaths and 44,364 positive diagnoses.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 25, China reported 11 new coronavirus cases, compared to 12 on the previous day. This was its 10th straight day with no coronavirus fatalities. The northwestern province of Shaanxi reported seven new imported coronavirus cases, all in citizens returning home from Russia, even as domestic cases in the country were largely curbed.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)(Reuters, 4/26/20)(SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 25, In Germany deaths due to the coronavirus dropped to the lowest in five days. Deaths in Germany rose by 148 to 5,723 in the last 24 hours.
(Bloomberg, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, The Indian government allowed a limited reopening of shops in neighborhoods and residential areas, more than a month after the nation went into a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Indonesia reported 396 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number to 8,607. Thirty one more people who had tested positive for the virus died, taking the total number of deaths to 720.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, In Iran another 76 fatalities were declared, raising the official death toll to 5,650. Iran has now recorded 89,328 cases of COVID-19, including 1,134 over the past 24 hours, since reporting two deaths on February 19.
(AFP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Italian diagnostics group DiaSorin said it had received an Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration for a serological test kit for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Tokyo reported 103 new cases of coronavirus infections. The latest figures bring total coronavirus infections in the capital city to 3,836 cases. The total number of coronavirus infections in Japan reached nearly 13,000 cases, with 345 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, In Russia the number of new coronavirus cases rose by 5,966 over the past 24 hours, bringing its nationwide tally to 74,588. The country's coronavirus crisis response center reported 66 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the total death toll in Russia to 681.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Serbia sent four planes carrying medical equipment including gloves, masks and protective suits to Italy as a donation to help the EU member state tackle the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Singapore registered 618 new coronavirus infections, taking the city-state's total number of COVID-19 cases to 12,693.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Spain recorded fewer than 400 COVID-19 fatalities for the second day in row, a sign that the outbreak may be stabilizing in the country as it grapples with Europe’s worst outbreak. Fatalities in Spain increased by 378, for a total of 22,902.
(Bloomberg, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Tajikistan said it is closing schools for two weeks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus and temporarily banning exports of grains and pulses to ensure sufficient supplies at home. The country has reported no coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 25, Thailand reported 53 new coronavirus cases and the death of a 48-year-old Thai man who was infected with the virus along with four other family members. Thailand has reported a total of 2,907 cases and 51 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 26, California to date had 43,703 cases of coronavirus and 1,720 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,496 cases and 260 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 938,590 with 54,776 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Iowa, now has more than 5,000 confirmed cases. Latinos, who make up 6% of Iowa's population, have accounted for more than 22% of its confirmed COVID-19 cases.
(AP, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Louisiana's state public health department reported that African Americans represent more than 56% of the state's 1,670 coronavirus deaths.
(AP, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said that his state received “hundreds" of calls after President Trump suggested at a press briefing that ingesting household disinfectants could be a treatment for the coronavirus.
(Yahoo News, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 26, In Detroit, Michigan, more than 8,500 infections have been reported, with black people accounting for more than 64% of them. City leaders announced this month that the pandemic has created a projected $348 million budget deficit.
(AP, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said 367 new deaths have been reported in the state. They included patients in hospitals and nursing homes.
(SFC, 4/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 26, JBS USA announced that the JBS packerland plant in Greenbay, Wisconsin, would be temporarily closed. At least 189 COVID-19 infections had been linked to the plant.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 26, John Tyson, the chairman of Tyson Foods Inc, said millions of pounds of beef, pork and chicken will vanish from US grocery stores as livestock and poultry processing plants have been shuttered by coronavirus outbreaks among workers.
(AP, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 26, The group of 20 rich and emerging economies launched an international initiative to accelerate access to health tools needed to fight the new coronavirus. The finance minister of Saudi Arabia, the current G20 chair, said the group is still working to bridge an estimated $8 billion funding gap to combat the pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said more than 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,374 deaths have been reported in the 54 countries of Africa.
(SFC, 4/27/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 26, Afghanistan reported 1,531 cases of COVID-19 and 50 deaths, but international observers and medics on the ground believe the real number of infections could be much higher.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, The Australian government launched a controversial coronavirus tracing app and promised to legislate privacy protections around it as authorities try to get the country and the economy back onto more normal footing. The app, based on Singapore's TraceTogether software, uses Bluetooth signals to log when people have been close to one another.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, In Bangladesh hundreds of textile workers in Dhaka took to the streets demanding wages, flouting social distancing norms amid a nationwide lockdown to control the coronavirus pandemic. Bangladesh was set to lose export revenue of about $6 billion this fiscal year as the sector has been hit by cancellations from some of the world's largest brands and retailers.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, In Belgium the number of newly reported coronavirus cases continued to decline with 809 added over the last 24 hours bringing the total to 46,134. The death toll reached 7,094 and 10,785 patients have recovered since March 15.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, In Canada the total number of people killed by the coronavirus rose by under 6% to 2,489.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, More than 200 Cuban doctors arrived in Johannesburg to help fight the coronavirus. Cuba, with 1,337 recorded cases of Covid-19 and 51 deaths, has the world's highest ratio of doctors to population and began preparing for the virus early.
(BBC, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Egypt said it had asked the International Monitory Fund for financial assistance to deal with the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus.
(AP, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, French energy major Total said that 14 workers including two of its staff have tested positive for the new coronavirus at its sites in Congo Republic, but output at the 190,000 barrels per day operations have not been affected.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, In Germany there were 1,968 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 156,513, the fourth-highest in Europe.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Indian PM Narendra Modi appealed to citizens to strictly comply with a nationwide lockdown and maintain social distancing norms, as cases of coronavirus mounted steadily despite over a month-long curfew.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, In India at least ten villagers in Bihar state were killed by lightning strikes in the village of Khalpura.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Apr 26, In Iran the daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to the lowest in more than six weeks as the country reported 60 additional deaths and 1,153 new cases overnight. Total fatalities rose to 5,710 from 90,481 known cases.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Israel permitted some businesses to reopen and said it would consider allowing children back to school as part of trial efforts to ease coronavirus restrictions and help the struggling economy.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Tokyo recorded 72 coronavirus cases, the first time in 13 days it was below 100.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Kenya's government announced that all long-distance lorry drivers will be tested before crossing the border after Uganda confirmed that eight Kenyan drivers had tested positive for the virus.
(BBC, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 26, Malta said it has had no new case of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours for the first time since the crisis began, and will start rolling back some of the restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus in the coming days.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, The Netherlands' number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 655 to 37,845 with 66 new deaths. The country's death toll stands at 4,475.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Russia reported 6,361 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours and said 46% did not have symptoms. An additional 66 people have died.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Saudi Arabia eased curfews across the country, while keeping 24-hour curfews in the city of Mecca and in neighborhoods previously put in isolation.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Singapore registered 931 new coronavirus infections, taking the city-state's total number of COVID-19 cases to 13,624. The country has one of the highest infection rates in Asia due to outbreaks in cramped dormitories housing over 300,000 mainly South Asian workers.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, South Korea's large churches reopened, requiring worshipers to keep their distance and wear masks.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Spain reported the smallest increase in coronavirus deaths in more than a month. Fatalities increased by 288. The daily death count peaked at 950 on April 2. Spanish children went outside at last, emerging from their homes for the first time after six long weeks.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 26, Thailand reported 15 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases since its outbreak in January to 2,922 cases and 51 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 27, America cut funding for a group conducting broader research into how bat coronaviruses jump to humans, seemingly because of its collaboration with scientists in Wuhan, China.
(Econ., 5/2/20, p.10)
2020 Apr 27, California to date had 44,949 cases of coronavirus and 1,721 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,657 cases and 264 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 965,942 with 54,883 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, San Francisco Bay Area health officials said that orders to shelter in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus will be extended through the month of May.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A1)
2020 Apr 27, Democratic Governor Jared Polis of Colorado began a partial reopening of the coronavirus shutdown to help ease the burden on state unemployment benefit filings.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 Apr 27, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA said they would test their arthritis drug, Kevzara, in critically ill COVID-19 patients after the drug showed no benefit for patients with a less severe form of the disease.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Australia's government said more than two million Australians have downloaded an app to trace contacts of COVID-19 patients hours after its release.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, It was reported that 30 workers at an offshore oil platform in Equatorial Guinea have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, In Germany a total of 157,770 people have been infected with the coronavirus, an increase of 1,257 in the 24 hours through this morning. Deaths rose by 99 to 5,976.
(Bloomberg, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, India's federal medical research agency asked state government to stop using testing equipment from China because of conflicting results.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Iran's death toll from the outbreak of new coronavirus rose by 96 in the past twenty four hours to 5,806. The total number of diagnosed cases reached 91,472.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Metropolitan Tokyo confirmed 39 more coronavirus cases, the fewest since March 30 and the second consecutive day of new cases below triple digits.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, The Netherlands' number of confirmed coronavirus cases has risen by 400 to 38,245 with 43 new deaths. The country's death toll stands at 4,518.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Norwegian children returned to school as hair salons and tattoo parlors reopened under easing coronavirus restrictions.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 27, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said the coronavirus lockdowns, which had been due to end today, needed to continue until 4 May. He also ordered new nationwide measures against Covid-19, including a night-time curfew and mandatory face masks. Nigeria has reported 1,273 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 40 deaths. Buhari said a lockdown would be imposed in Kano for an additional two weeks, and that he was sending a government team to investigate a high number of unexplained deaths.
(BBC, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 27, In Peru nine inmates died following a prison riot over the demand for better sanitary measures and coronavirus medical care at the Miguel Castro Castro prison.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)(SFC, 4/29/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 27, Russia reported 87,147 confirmed coronavirus cases and nearly 800 deaths. News reports from a dozen regions in the past two weeks suggest at least 450 medical workers have had COVID-19, with 11 doctors and five nurses dying.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)(AP, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, In Senegal the coronavirus has infected over 736 people and killed 9. The capital's 40,000 street children have become more vulnerable since the government declared a state of emergency over the epidemic in late March.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Switzerland eased coronavirus curbs. More than 1,350 people in Switzerland have died of COVID-19 as the number of people with positive tests neared 30,000.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 27, Turkish officials said 402 people have been detained in the past 42 days for allegedly sharing "false and provocative" social media postings concerning the coronavirus outbreak.
(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 27, The UN human rights office voiced concern about more than a dozen countries that have declared states of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic where police have arrested or detained hundreds of thousands of people and killed others.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 28, President Donald Trump took executive action to order meat processing plants to stay open amid concerns over growing coronavirus cases and the impact on the nation's food supply. Unions fired back, saying the White House was jeopardizing lives and prioritizing cold cuts over workers' health.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Dr Sirous Asgari (59), an Iranian scientist who has been pleading for weeks to be released from a US immigration jail due to his fragile health, has contracted Covid-19, according to his family and attorneys. Asgari was exonerated in a US sanctions trial last year, but Ice has refused to release him or allow him to return to Iran.
(The Guardian, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, California to date had 45,471 cases of coronavirus and 1,805 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,823 cases and 277 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 1,002,498 with 57,266 deaths.
(sfist.com, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio lashed out at Hasidic residents of the Williamsburg section in Brooklyn late today after personally overseeing the dispersal of a crowd of hundreds of mourners who had gathered for the funeral of a rabbi who died of the coronavirus.
(NY Times, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 28, Officials in Massachusetts said 68 veteran residents who tested positive for the virus have died at the state-run Holyoke Soldiers' Home. Another 82 residents and 81 employees have tested positive.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, In South Dakota federal inmate Andrea Circle Bear, who gave birth while on a ventilator four weeks ago, died from the coronavirus. She was serving a 26-month sentence for maintaining a drug-involved premises.
(AP, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 28, In Utah a left-leaning nonprofit group filed a price gouging complaint with state regulators, arguing the $40 per pack drug was grossly overpriced. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert had defended the state’s $800,000 purchase of 20,000 packets of hydroxychloroquine compounded with zinc, but later ordered an investigation of a no-bid contract with a local company that had been promoting the drugs.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Afghanistan has reported 1,703 coronavirus cases, including 57 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Bangladesh has reported 6,462 coronavirus cases, including 155 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Belarus reported 900 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the total to 12,208. The UN urged Belarussians to stay home amid the growing outbreak
(SFC, 4/29/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 28, Data released in Canada showed the total coronavirus national death toll had risen by more than 10% for the first time in nine days, climbing 11.1% to 2,766. There have been 49,025 confirmed cases in Canada.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Mainland China reported 22 new cases, against 6 a day earlier, bringing total infections to 82,858.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 28, In India the number of people infected with the coronavirus stood at 29,434, a rise of 1,543 over the previous day. So far 934 people have died.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, India-based Serum, the world's largest maker of vaccines by volume, said it is mass-producing the vaccine candidate developed by the University of Oxford, which started testing it on humans last week. Trials of the Oxford vaccine are due to finish in about September.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Iran announced 71 deaths from the novel coronavirus, and said there were also more than 1,000 new cases of infection in the Islamic republic. The fatalities recorded in the past 24 hours brought to 5,877 the overall death toll. Total number of infections reached 92,584.
(AFP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Pakistan reported 14,079 coronavirus cases including 301 deaths, 20 of them over the past day.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Russia's President Vladimir Putin extended a non-working period aimed at containing the spread of the novel coronavirus until May 11. The head of Russia's state atomic corporation expressed concern about the spread of the new coronavirus to three 'nuclear cities', including one that houses a top-secret research institute that helped develop the Soviet atomic bomb. Russia now ranks eighth worldwide with 93,558 confirmed cases, though its death toll of 867 is still far below that of many other nations.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, In Serbia about 8,500 people have been confirmed to have the coronavirus and 168 people have died from it. The government has already allowed small businesses to open, shortened a night curfew and eased a 24-hour lockdown for people aged 65 and above.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Sri Lanka has reported 592 cases, including seven deaths.
(Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 28, Radio Free Europe reported that doctors in Turkmenistan are not allowed to talk about the coronavirus. RFE said face masks are banned, and citizens are punished for talking about the global pandemic.
(The Week, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 28, UAE reported it had seen over 11,300 confirmed cases of the virus with 89 deaths. Recent days have seen numbers rise around 500 daily. Even as confirmed coronavirus cases spike, the UAE was opening up its cavernous malls and restaurants in a gamble to stimulate its economy while still trying to fight off the pandemic.
(AP, 4/28/20)
2020 Apr 29, California to date had 48,565 cases of coronavirus and 1,939 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,965 cases and 281 deaths. The US coronavirus death toll reached 61,000.
(sfist.com, 4/29/20)(The Week, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 29, It was reported that hospital admissions for the coronavirus in New York state remained at about 1,000 a day. Thousands of out of state nurses have come to help NY hospitals.
(SFC, 4/29/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 29, In NYC police were called to a Brooklyn neighborhood after a funeral home overwhelmed by the coronavirus resorted to storing dozens of bodies on ice in rented trucks, and a passerby complained about the smell. Investigators found that the home had rented four trucks to hold about 50 corpses.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 29, Gilead Sciences announced that the company was “aware of positive data" from a federal study of its experimental coronavirus drug, remdesivir.
(NY Times, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Bosnia reported its sharpest daily rise in coronavirus infections this month after its two autonomous regions had gradually begun to ease lockdowns. There were 93 new infections and two deaths in the previous 24 hours, compared with 20 new infections a day earlier and 49 the day before that.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Britain's official death toll from the coronavirus jumped to 26,097 after deaths in nursing homes were added to the daily total for the first time.
(SFC, 4/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 29, Canadian hospitals had beds to spare as the country hit 50,373 confirmed coronavirus cases. Several provinces were relaxing public health measures. The virus has killed 2,904 in total and health experts worried about a future wave of infections.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, India has recorded its 1,000th novel coronavirus death, but the head of a government think-tank said that its 1.3 billion people, strained from weeks of lockdown, were not experiencing the feared exponential surge in infections. India has now reported 31,331 cases, including 1,007 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Indonesia confirmed 260 new infections, taking its total to 9,771, while deaths rose by 11 to 784.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Iran's health ministry announced that 80 new deaths from the novel coronavirus had taken the country's overall toll to 5,957. Another 1,073 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours. 93,657 people have contracted the illness since mid-February. The government has allowed many businesses to reopen since April 11 after shutting most down in mid-March to stem the spread of the disease.
(AP, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Malawi has recorded 36 cases of coronavirus confirmed. Of those, three people are recorded to have died. President Peter Mutharika announced an emergency cash transfer program for the poorest people in what is one of the world's poorest countries.
(BBC, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Pakistan said it is preparing to loosen coronavirus lockdown restrictions as the number of infections and deaths are well below previous projections. Pakistan has registered 15,289 cases of COVID-19 including 335 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)(SFC, 4/30/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 29, The Philippines' tally of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to more than 8,000.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Russia reported 972 deaths in total for the coronavirus. A Remembrance List showed 74 medical staff who had died from the virus, this included 4 from Belarus. Confirmed cases neared 100,000 after 5,841 new cases were registered overnight along with a record daily rise in the death toll.
(AFP, 4/29/20)(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Serbia has reported 8,497 confirmed cases and 1,678 deaths from COVID-19. Citizens, stuck at home under curfew, vented their anger in a cacophony of tin pans, drums, whistles, and horns at the government and its tough containment measures to curb the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Rioting broke out at the central prison in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown following confirmation of a coronavirus case there.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, South Africa has reported most confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Africa, with more than 4,360, including 86 deaths. Disabled migrants faced hunger as a lockdown continued for a fifth week.
(AP, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Spain recorded 325 deaths overnight, against 301 the previous day. Health officials said the coronavirus epidemic was evolving favorably ahead of a gradual easing of its lockdown next week.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, In Sweden the total confirmed coronavirus cases topped 20,000.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020 Apr 29, Tanzania reported 509 coronavirus cases and 21 deaths. At this point the government stopped releasing data. The US embassy in Tanzania later warned that there is a risk of "exponential growth" of Covid-19 cases in the country.
(BBC, 5/13/20)
2020 Apr 29, The UN said more than 40 cases of COVID-19 and at least three deaths have been reported in Syria.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 29, Authorities in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden announced a three-day, 24-hour curfew starting at midnight local time, after five confirmed cases of new coronavirus infection were announced. Yemen recorded its first two coronavirus deaths. The deaths come after aid organizations warned any coronavirus outbreak could have dire consequences after six years of civil war.
(Reuters, 4/29/20)(AFP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, US President Donald Trump said he was confident the coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese virology lab, but declined to describe the evidence he said he had seen. The Chinese government said that any claims that the coronavirus was released from a laboratory are "unfounded and purely fabricated out of nothing."
(Reuters, 5/1/20)(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 30, The Trump administration shelved a CDC document, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework." It was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials to reopen communities during the coronavirus pandemic. After the AP reported on May 7 that the document had been buried, the Trump administration ordered key parts of it to be fast-tracked for approval.
(AP, 5/8/20)
2020 Apr 30, The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the new coronavirus was "not man-made or genetically modified." They were still investigating if the coronavirus pandemic might have resulted from an accident at a Chinese lab.
(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 30, It was reported that the US economy contracted at an annual rate of 4.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020 as businesses lost customers or shut down entirely because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now killed more than 60,000 people in the United States. It was the first quarterly drop in six years, and the steepest since the Great Recession.
(The Week, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Washington DC officials announced 217 new COVID-19 infections, bringing its total to 4,323. New deaths rose by 19 for a total of 224.
(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 30, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom temporarily closed the beaches of Orange County starting May 1 after people thronged the seashore during a sweltering weekend despite his social distancing order that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
(AP, 4/30/20)(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A1)
2020 Apr 30, California to date had 50,129 cases of coronavirus and 2,029 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,130 cases and 293 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,068,696 with the death toll at 61,881.
(sfist.com, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Tyson Foods said it was temporarily suspending operations at a Nebraska beef processing plant following a surge of coronavirus cases in the area.
(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 30, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said more than 1,000 city employees will be assigned to patrol parks and other public spaces to ensure people are adhering to social distancing guidelines as the city prepares to battle the coronavirus pandemic into the summer months. The USNS Comfort left NYC after treating just 182 people. New York City saw 2,637 confirmed new cases of the coronavirus, and 202 people in the city died.
(AP, 4/30/20)(Good Morning America, 5/1/20)
2020 Apr 30, SF Bay Area-based Bio-Rad Laboratories said it has received FDA authorization for an antibody test with "limited use in authorized laboratories." Bio-Rad said its test had 98% sensitivity and 99% specificity in clinical evaluations.
(SFC, 5/2/20, p.C2)
2020 Apr 30, Pfizer said it aims to make 10-20 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine it is developing with Germany's BioNtech by the end of 2020 for emergency use depending on trial results.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Australia's Capital Territory declared itself free of all known cases of the coronavirus. Australia has recorded 6,746 cases, including 90 deaths.
(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A4)
2020 Apr 30, Brazil’s virtually uncontrolled surge of COVID-19 cases spawned fear that construction workers, truck drivers and tourists from Latin America’s biggest nation will spread the disease to neighboring countries that are doing a better job of controlling the coronavirus. The official count of coronavirus cases rocketed past 85,000 and deaths surpassed 5,900 — more than the amount suffered by China. Experts considered both figures to be significant under-counts due to a lack of widespread testing.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, The Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros announced its first confirmed case of the coronavirus, making it the 53rd of Africa's 54 countries to report COVID-19.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, The International Monetary Fund approved $650 million in emergency financial assistance to help the Dominican Republic respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, In Georgia a transgender woman set herself on fire in Tbilisi to highlight the plight of trans sex workers with no income during the coronavirus lockdown. She was taken to a hospital suffering from burns but her conditions were not critical. LGBT+ groups in response called for more state support.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 Apr 30, Confirmed coronavirus cases in Ghana surged above 2,000, increasing 24% in a matter of days. The Ghana Health Service reported 403 new cases, bringing the total to 2,074. The spike was announced 10 days after President Nana Akufo-Addo eased a three-week lockdown in the capital of Accra and in the city of Kumasi.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, It was reported that India has shipped 50 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine to the United States. This followed a request by President Donald Trump for New Delhi to release supplies of the drug as a possible treatment for the respiratory disease. US regulators have warned the anti-malarial drug may have harmful side effects in the treatment of COVID-19.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Indonesia confirmed 347 new coronavirus infections, taking its total to above 10,000.
(Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Iran's health ministry said that 71 new deaths from the novel coronavirus took the country's overall toll to 6,028. 983 people tested positive for the virus over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 94,640.
(Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Paraguay has fewer than 250 confirmed coronavirus cases and its borders have been closed since March 24, with enforcement particularly focused on the largely open frontier with Brazil.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Russian television aired a video call between Mishustin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the call, Mishustin told Putin about his positive coronavirus diagnosis, and encouraged Russians to take the threat of COVID-19 seriously. There are now more than 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Russia, with the death toll at 1,073.
(The Week, 5/1/20)
2020 Apr 30, South Korea reported that for the first time since the virus’s Feb. 29 peak, it had no new domestic cases and just four cases among people who came in from outside the country.
(NY Times, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, It was reported that Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has donated a $100,000 prize she won from a Danish foundation to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) for use against the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AFP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Tajikistan has confirmed its first 15 coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, Ukraine reached 10,000 coronavirus cases and its health minister urged people not to violate lockdown measures. Cherkasy mayor Anatoliy Bondarenko decided to open shops, hairdressers and restaurants after appeals from businesses. His decision prompted police to launch criminal proceedings against the Cherkasy authorities and summon the mayor for questioning.
(Reuters, 4/30/20)(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 Apr, Operation Warp Speed (OWS), a US government effort to have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, was begun as a partnership between Health and Human Services, The Dept. of Defense and an alphabet soup of health-related agencies. Pres. Trump announced OWS on May 15.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Warp_Speed)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.19)
2020 Apr, French researchers reported late this month that habitual smokers were significantly underrepresented among those requiring hospital treatment for COVID-19. This suggested that something in tobacco smoke was having a protective effect.
(Econ., 5/2/20, p.69)
2020 May 1, President Donald Trump seemingly increased his estimate of possible deaths in the US from the coronavirus, telling a White House event he hopes for less than 100,000 fatalities, a higher upper limit than the 60,000 to 70,000 deaths he discussed on April 27.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 1, It was reported that the Trump administration has pulled funding for a group of scientists studying coronaviruses in bats and the risk of their spillover into humans -- the very kind of infection that started the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Good Morning America, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Washington's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction ((SIGAR) said the US mission in Afghanistan has for the first time refused to publicly release its data on insurgent attacks amid the implementation of a peace agreement between the US and the Taliban.
(SFC, 5/2/20, p.A2)
2020 May 1, Alaska Airlines and Southwest became the latest airlines to announce they will require passengers wear face coverings as of May 11. This means all major US airlines have made that a requirement for passengers.
(Good Morning America, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, California to date had 51,775 cases of coronavirus and 2,111 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,257 cases and 304 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,102,703 with the death toll at 64,789.
(sfist.com, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, According to Florida's Department of Health, 34,728 people in the state have tested positive for COVID-19, and 1,337 people have died from it. Health officials halted the publication of up-to-the-minute death statistics related to the coronavirus pandemic that have, by law, been compiled by medical examiners in the state. The death count compiled by the Medical Examiners Commission was often found to be higher than the figures provided by Florida’s Department of Health, prompting a review of the data and a suspension of its publication.
(Yahoo News, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, In Massachusetts a group of about 10 immigrants in US government custody clashed with officials at the Bristol County C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center in Dartmouth. The inmates had reported symptoms of COVID-19. This was at least the ninth instance since Pres. Trump declared a national emergency over the coronavirus.
(CBS News, 5/2/20)(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A5)
2020 May 1, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said his state had just had its largest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases and its largest increase in deaths. Mississippi has more than 7,200 diagnosed coronavirus cases and at least 281 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/2/20)
2020 May 1, In New Mexico COVID-19 infections in Gallup and surrounding McKinley County surpassed 1,060 confirmed cases and accounted for 30% of cases stateside, surpassing infections in much larger communities such as Albuquerque. In all, more than 3,500 cases have been reported in the state, with more than 130 deaths. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham invoked the state's Riot Control Act and ordered residents of Gallup to remain home except for emergencies and blocked roads leading in and out of town to nonessential travel and any vehicles carrying more than two people.
(AP, 5/1/20)(SFC, 5/2/20, p.A7)
2020 May 1, In New York City the Isabella Geriatric Center in Manhattan reported the deaths of 98 residents believed to have had the coronavirus, a death toll that shocked public officials.
(AP, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Ohio and Texas pushed ahead with a phased relaxation of restrictions that U.S. states put in place weeks ago to curb the coronavirus pandemic, as Georgia took another step toward a full restart by allowing all businesses to reopen.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Gilead Science Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir was granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 1, JPMorgan Chase & Co said that the US Small Business Administration gave it the green light to make $15 billion in new loans to some 211,000 business customers hurt by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Supermarket chain Kroger Co said it has put purchase limits on ground beef and fresh pork at some of its stores following growing concerns over meat shortages due to coronavirus-induced supply disruptions.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Afghanistan has reported over 2,335 coronavirus cases and 68 deaths, but international observers believe numbers could be much higher.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Australian PM Scott Morrison, who has angered Beijing by calling for a global inquiry into the coronavirus outbreak, said he had no evidence to suggest the disease originated in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Bangladesh has confirmed 7,667 people infected with the coronavirus and 168 deaths. Garment factories began reopening this week after nearly a month of closures.
(SFC, 5/2/20, p.A5)
2020 May 1, China reported 12 new cases of the coronavirus, six of them brough from overseas, and no new deaths for the 16th day. Total deaths stood at 4,633 from about 83,000 cases.
(SFC, 5/2/20, p.A5)
2020 May 1, It was reported that Hangzhou-based startup Rokid has developed a pair of glasses to help screen for coronavirus symptoms. It is making wearable T1 glasses that measure temperatures on the move.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, The European Investment Bank (EIB) said it would boost its cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) as it seeks to fight the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, in particular in vulnerable African countries.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, It was reported that Guatemala's indigenous Maya towns are spurning migrants returned from the US. Local health officials have said that nearly one fifth of the 585 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Guatemala can be traced to people deported from the United States, most of them on two flights in a single day.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, India's PM Narendra Modi extended the coronavirus lockdown for two weeks, but some restrictions were relaxed.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 1, Iran's death toll from the outbreak of the new coronavirus increased by 63 in the past 24 hours to 6,091. The outbreak has infected 95,646.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Malaysia detained hundreds of refugees and migrant workers for illegally living in the country. Malaysia has reported a total of 6,071 coronavirus cases and 103 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, The Netherlands' number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 475 to 39,791, with 98 new deaths. The country's death toll stands at 4,893.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Russia reported a record daily rise in confirmed coronavirus cases that pushed the national tally to 114,431. The country has recorded 1,169 deaths from the virus.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Slovak PM Igor Matovic said authorities have lifted a quarantine on three Roma settlements locked down in early April to block the spread of the coronavirus, leaving one remaining village under restrictive orders. Slovakia had 1,403 confirmed coronavirus cases with 23 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, South Africa began easing one of the world's strictest lockdowns, with runners and dog-walkers returning eagerly to the streets but not all wearing the face masks that are now mandatory. South Africa has more than 5,600 cases of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Spain's death toll from the coronavirus rose by 281 overnight, a small rise from the previous day but still one of the lowest daily tolls in weeks. The crisis has now claimed the lives of 24,824 people.
(Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Police in Istanbul detained at least 15 people, including trade union leaders who tried to stage a May Day march in defiance of a coronavirus lockdown and a ban on demonstrations at Taksim Square. Turkey ranks seventh in the world for the number of confirmed infections with 120,204 cases. The country's official death toll stands at 3,174.
(AP, 5/1/20)
2020 May 1, Yemen reported the first case of the coronavirus in a third province late today, raising the number of diagnosed infections to seven with two deaths in one of the world's most vulnerable countries.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, California to date had 52,237 cases of coronavirus and 2,134 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,319 cases and 305 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,107,815 with the death toll at 65,068. The United States suffered its largest daily fatality increase after recording 2,909 deaths in 24 hours.
(sfist.com, 5/2/20)(The Week, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, Washington state reported that Yakima County had 1,203 positive cases of the coronavirus, a rate of 455 cases per 100,000 residents, the highest in the state. The county has a large number of people in the agriculture and food processing industries. Many live and work in close quarters, which can spread the disease.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Australian health officials said a small coronavirus cluster has emerged at a meat factory in the state of Victoria, as parts of the country started easing social distancing restrictions after suppressing the infection rate to below 1 %. Victoria reported seven new cases, three of which were related to a meat-processing facility. A total of 8 employees have tested positive.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that Inmates at a prison in Manaus, Brazil, a city deep in the Amazon that has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, have taken seven prison guards hostage. Local television stations cited a video allegedly recorded by an unidentified inmate, who complained of sweltering heat and a lack of electricity in the prison.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Brazil there have been 4,970 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 421 deaths over the last 24 hours. The nation has now registered 95,559 confirmed cases of the virus and 6,750 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that a top British hospital will use blood plasma treatment for COVID-19 patients as part of a trial that transfuses plasma from recovered people into sick people to give their immune systems a boost to fight the virus.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, The northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, struggling with the country's biggest coronavirus cluster, shut dine-in services, as the rest of China eases restrictions designed to hamper the spread of the disease. China reported two new coronavirus cases for today, up from one the day before. The number of confirmed cases in China has reached 82,877. With no new deaths reported, the death toll remained at 4,633. The Harbin cases outbreak was traced to a to a Chinese student who flew from America in March.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)(Reuters, 5/3/20)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.33)
2020 May 2, The French health ministry said travelers to France, including French citizens returning home, will face a compulsory two-week quarantine and possible isolation when they arrive in the country to help slow the spread of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, It was reported that India has mandated that all public and private sector employees use a government-backed Bluetooth tracing app and maintain social distancing in offices as New Delhi begins easing some of its lockdown measures in lower-risk areas.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Indonesia recorded 292 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 10,843. 31 new deaths took the total number of fatalities to 831.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Iran's death toll from the coronavirus increased by 65 in the past 24 hours to 6,156. Total diagnosed cases reached 96,448, up by 802 in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Ireland said it will allow firms impacted by the coronavirus crisis to warehouse tax liabilities for 12 months, offering a "lifeline" as part of an additional package of business supports that could reach 6.5 billion euros.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic jumped by 474, against 269 the day before. The daily tally of new infections was broadly stable for a third day running at 1,900 against 1,965 a day earlier. The total death toll now stands at 28,710. The total number of confirmed cases amounted to 209,328, the third highest global tally behind those of the US and Spain.
(AP, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Ivory Coast's PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who is the ruling party’s candidate in October’s presidential election, was evacuated to France for medical checks Ivory Coast has recorded more than 1,300 cases of the coronavirus, one of the highest totals in West Africa, and 15 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 2, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus infections increased by 445 to 40,236. 94 new deaths took the total COVID-19 fatalities to 4,987.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, New Zealand recorded one new coronavirus death, bringing the toll to 20. There were two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections, that raised the total to 1,134.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, The Philippines said it has recorded 156 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 24 more deaths, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 8,928 and the fatalities to 603.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, A 5.4 magnitude earthquake hit southern Puerto Rico hours after the government announced the island's biggest spike in COVID-19. At least 50 families were forced to relocate.
(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A4)
2020 May 2, Russia reported 9,623 new cases of coronavirus, its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total to 124,054, mostly in the capital Moscow, where the mayor threatened to cut the number of travel permits.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, In South Korea a man (29) visited five nightclubs and bars in Seoul's Itaewon entertainment neighborhood in a single night before testing positive for the virus on Mas 6. More than 100 infections soon appeared linked to the nightspots.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 2, In Spain joggers, cyclists and surfers across the country emerged from their homes, with adults allowed out for exercise for the first time in seven weeks as the government began easing tough coronavirus restrictions.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 2, Thailand reported six new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 2,966. Since Thailand first detected the coronavirus in January, a total of 54 patients have died.
(Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020 May 3, President Trump predicted that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the country may reach as high as 100,000 in the United States, twice as many as he had forecast just two weeks ago, even as he pressed states to reopen the shuttered economy. Trump also struck a note of urgency to restart the nation's economy.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, California to date had 54,923 cases of coronavirus and 2,215 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,560 cases and 308 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,158,041 with the death toll at 67,682.
(sfist.com, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said that a statewide order mandating face masks be worn in stores went "too far." Ohio has over 19,000 cases of coronavirus with over 1,000 deaths.
(ABC News, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, It was reported that thousands of desperate migrants around the world are trapped in limbo and even at risk of death without food, water or shelter in scorching deserts and at sea, as governments close off borders and ports amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Afghan health officials said one-third of 500 random coronavirus tests in Kabul have come back positive. The official death toll was at 85.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Brazil's President Bolsonaro, who has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum for dismissing the threat of the coronavirus, attacked Congress and the courts in a speech to hundreds of supporters as the number of cases blew past 100,000.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 3, In Canada the total number of people killed by the coronavirus rose by 4.6% to 3,606. The figure for those diagnosed with the coronavirus rose to 57,148.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, India recorded its largest single-day jump of 2,600 coronavirus infections. 83 new deaths raised the death toll to 1,301. Total confirmed cases neared 40,000.
(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020 May 3, Indonesia reported 349 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections in the country to 11,192. 14 new coronavirus-related deaths were confirmed, bringing the total to 845.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Iran said it would reopen schools and mosques in some locations, even though the nation has been the regional epicenter of the pandemic since mid-February. Authorities said that 47 people had died in the preceding 24-hour period raising the death total to 6,203. Total case number reached 97,424.
(AP, 5/3/20)(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Israel reopened some schools but the bid to edge back to normality as coronavirus concerns ease was boycotted by several municipalities and many parents who cited poor government preparation.
(AP, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus infections increased by 335 to 40,471. The National Institute for Public Health reported 69 new deaths taking the total COVID-19 fatalities to 5,056.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, The number of coronavirus cases in the Philippines climbed to 9,223 after the Health Ministry reported 295 new infections. The Philippines barred incoming passenger flights from this morning for one week to contain the spread of the coronavirus and help reduce pressure on quarantine facilities housing thousands of Filipino repatriates.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Russia reported 10,633 new cases in the last 24 hours. More than half the cases were in Moscow
(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020 May 3, South Korea recorded just 13 new coronavirus cases and no deaths.
(The Week, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Spain's coronavirus death toll rose by 164 to 25,264, marking the lowest one-day increase since March 18.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Swiss-based Roche said the US Food and Drug Administration has cleared a coronavirus antibody test produced by the company for emergency use. Roche said its test has proven 100 percent accurate at detecting antibodies in the blood and 99.8 percent accurate at ruling out the presence of those antibodies.
(The Week, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, Tanzania's President John Magufuli said coronavirus test kits used in the country were faulty, because he said they had returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw. Tanzania had recorded 480 cases of COVID-19 and 17 deaths. Magufuli said he will send a plane to Madagascar to import a herbal tonic, produced from the artemisia plant, which has been touted as a cure for coronavirus by the country's president. The drink was launched as Covid-Organics and was being marketed after being tested on fewer than 20 people over a period of three weeks. Congo-Brazzaville's president has also promised to import the drink.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)(BBC, 5/3/20)
2020 May 3, The Tanzanian health ministry said there would be no more night burials and that from now on, family members would be fully involved in funeral preparations to ensure that the dignity of the deceased is preserved.
(BBC, 5/4/20)
2020 May 3, Thailand reported three new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, as the country started lifting restrictions on some businesses and aspects of life. Thailand has seen a total of 2,969 coronavirus cases and 54 deaths since the outbreak began in January. Residents of Bangkok enjoyed their first day of eased coronavirus restrictions.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020 May 3, Vietnam reported its first new coronavirus infection in nine days. The country has registered a total of 271 coronavirus cases and no deaths.
(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020 May 4, The US National Institutes of Health said it has started enrolling participants in a study to find out the infection rate of COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus, in children and their families in the United States. Global coronavirus cases surpassed 3.5 million and deaths neared a quarter of a million.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, California to date had 55,657 cases of coronavirus and 2,254 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,763 cases and 312 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,180,000 with the death toll at 68,689.
(sfist.com, 5/4/20)(Good Morning America, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, Michigan has reported 43,754 confirmed COVID-19 virus cases and 4,049 deaths due to complications from the disease.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, New York state reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities. At least 4,813 people have died from COVID-19 in the state's nursing homes since March 1.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, NYC health officials said 15 children, many of whom tested positive for or had previously been exposed to the novel coronavirus, have recently been admitted to city hospitals with a mysterious illness possibly linked to COVID-19. They showed various symptoms associated with toxic shock or Kawasaki disease, a rare inflammatory syndrome typically affecting children under the age of 5.
(ABC News, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, Apple and Google shared more details about the technological tools they’ve been developing to help governments and public health authorities trace the spread of the coronavirus and notify citizens about exposure, including a set of privacy requirements for use of those tools. If countries want to adopt the technology, location services are forbidden.
(Yahoo News, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Bangladesh reported more than 10,000 coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Belgium began a cautious easing of its coronavirus lockdown, allowing some businesses to reopen while obliging all passengers on public transport to wear a mask under a new rule to minimize the risk of a new outbreak.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Britain as of today had recorded nearly 190,000 coronavirus cases and almost 28,500 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In El Salvador at least 300 people held in two centers set up by the government protested, demanding to be released and given their test results.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, France reported 306 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the nationwide tally to 25,201.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 4, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would contribute 525 million euros ($573.51 million) to a global fund-raising push to search for vaccines and for a treatment for the novel coronavirus. World leaders in a video conference launched a pledging "marathon" - without the United States - to raise at least $8.2 billion for research into a possible vaccine and treatments for the coronavirus, but warned that it is just the start of an effort that must be sustained over time to beat the disease.
(AP, 5/4/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Iceland high schools, hair salons, dentists and other businesses began reopening after six weeks of lockdown. Iceland has confirmed 1,799 cases of the coronavirus, but just 10 people have died.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Iran reopened mosques in parts of the country deemed at low risk from coronavirus, as it said almost 80,000 people hospitalized with the illness had recovered and been released. 74 new fatalities brought the total to 6,277. Another 1,223 cases of COVID-19 infections were recorded in the past 24 hours, raising that total to 98,647.
(AFP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Israel former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, winner of the 2020 Genesis Prize, announced that he will donate the $1 million award to organizations fighting the coronavirus pandemic and assisting people most affected by the outbreak.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Millions of people were allowed to return to work in Italy as Europe’s longest lockdown started to ease. Italy's statistics bureau ISTAT said the coronavirus death toll is much higher than reported, in an analysis pointing to thousands of fatalities that have never been officially attributed to COVID-19.
(AP, 5/4/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Kuwaiti said security officials have dispersed what they described as a riot by stranded Egyptians unable to return home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(https://tinyurl.com/yd8a8tee)(SFC, 5/5/20, p.A5)
2020 May 4, Lebanon entered a new phase of its coronavirus lockdown, allowing restaurants to open at 30% capacity during the day. But many business owners say they will not reopen because they would be losing more money if they operate under such restrictions during a faltering economy.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Thousands of Malaysians joined the morning rush hour as the government eased curbs on movement and businesses for the first time in six weeks.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Malaysia criticized the World Health Organization for advising adults to avoid palm oil in their diet during the COVID-19 outbreak and use alternatives such as olive oil.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 199 to 40,770, with 26 new deaths. Total deaths in the country rose to 5,082.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Nigeria businesses reopened on the first working day after the easing of a lockdown imposed on key urban areas in a bid to restart Africa's largest economy. The government said this is the first phase of easing the lockdown and that the situation will be assessed in the next two weeks. Nigeria has recorded 2,558 cases of coronavirus and 87 deaths.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, PM Erna Solberg said Norway will give $1 billion to support the distribution worldwide of any vaccine developed against COVID-19 as well as for vaccines against other diseases. The $1 billion will go to GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. Norway has financed GAVI since its inception in 2000.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, Portugal began to slowly ease its lockdown measures imposed to fight the coronavirus. A three-phase plan began to open up different sectors every 15 days, starting with hairdressers, small neighborhood shops, car dealerships and bookshops. Portugal has so far reported 25,525 cases of the coronavirus and 1,063 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 4, In Russia the number of cases rose by 10,581 over the past 24 hours compared with a record of 10,633 the previous day.
(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020 May 5, President Donald Trump dismissed concerns that the number of deaths from the coronavirus could nearly double in the next three months. Trump said that the COVID-19 task force would be winding down and be replaced with a new group to focus more on rebooting the economy.
(Yahoo News, 5/5/20)(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 5, The US Treasury Department said it will begin distributing $4.8 billion in pandemic-relief funds today to Native American tribal governments in all US states. A newly revised coronavirus mortality model predicts nearly 135,000 Americans will die from COVID-19 by early August, almost double previous projections.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Rick Bright, former director of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, filed a whistle-blower complaint saying he was ousted from his position and reassigned to a lesser position after raising concerns that the Trump administration wanted to "flood" coronavirus hot spots with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.
(SFC, 5/6/20, p.A6)
2020 May 5, In Michigan people in some 50 communities participated in largely mail-based local elections. The state secretary had sent absentee ballots to all 740,000 registerred voters in those municipalities to discourage in person voting. More than 4,180 people in Michigan have died from the coronavirus.
(SFC, 5/6/20, p.A4)
2020 May 5, New York lost 232 residents to the coronavirus, including 25 people who died in nursing homes.
(ABC News, 5/6/20)
2020 May 5, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said they have begun delivering doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccines for initial human testing in the United States.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Argentina confirmed that coronavirus cases have topped 5,000.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 5, In Brazil the mayor of Manaus, the biggest city in the Amazon rainforest region, asked world leaders for help fighting the novel coronavirus, which has brought his city's health system to the brink of collapse. Brazil hit a record for daily coronavirus deaths, indicating that it is still in the thick of its battle even as some areas of the country begin to reopen.
(AFP, 5/5/20)(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 5, Britain became the first country in Europe to confirm more than 32,000 coronavirus deaths.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, China reported no new deaths from COVID-19, three weeks since the country recorded its last fatality from the disease. More than 3.59 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 250,386 have died.
(Good Morning America, 5/5/20)(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, In France deaths in care homes reached 9,471, nearly two-fifths of the country's official COVID-19 death toll.
(Econ., 5/9/20, p.41)
2020 May 5, A study by French scientists suggested a man was infected with COVID-19 as early as Dec. 27, nearly a month before France confirmed its first cases.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Hong Kong said it will relax restrictions on public gatherings and allow gyms, cinemas and beauty parlors to re-open this week as new cases dwindle.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in infections with 484 new cases, taking the total to 12,071.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Iran announced that confirmed coronavirus infections had reached almost 100,000 in the country as fresh cases picked up again after a brief drop in recent days. Iran recorded 63 deaths in the past 24 hours, reaching a total of 6,340 from COVID-19 to date. Another 1,323 people tested positive for the virus, bringing the overall number to 99,970.
(AFP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, It was reported that Italy plans to give work permits to thousands of irregular migrants to help farms deal with the Covid-19 epidemic that has cut the flow of cheap labor from abroad.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Mexico registered 26,025 coronavirus cases and 2,507 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 5, Pakistan said it raised concerns with the United Arab Emirates that workers are returning home with high infection rates and that crowded living conditions in the UAE may be helping the virus spread.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Russia reported 10,102 new cases of COVID-19 for the third day in a row, with the country's overall caseload soaring past 150,000. Russia now has 155,370 diagnosed cases. However, the country's death toll remains relatively low with just 95 fatalities reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 1,451.
(ABC News, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, South Korea reported no new locally transmitted infections of the novel coronavirus and just three imported cases over the past 24 hours.
(ABC News, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Spain reported its third day in a row of under 200 deaths, as well as a record number of people claiming social security benefits for April. Spain reported 185 deaths over the last 24 hours. The overall coronavirus death toll in the country rose to 25,613. The overall number of diagnosed cases rose to 219,329.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, Ukraine has recorded 12,697 coronavirus cases, including 316 deaths.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 5, In Yemen the Houthis, who control the north, reported their first case of COVID-19. By the end of May they claimed a total of four infections in Sana'a.
(Econ., 7/6/20, p.35)
2020 May 6, Pres. Donald Trump said that the COVID-19 task force would continue indefinitely, but focus more on rebooting the economy.
(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, The first immigrant in US detention died of the novel coronavirus at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 6, California to date had 58,724 cases of coronavirus and 2,379 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,032 cases and 328 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,206,886 with the death toll at 71,220.
(sfist.com, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, In San Francisco a new UCSF Pandemic Workforce Training Academy opened with an $8.7 million state grant to train workers to follow the spread of the COVID-19 disease through widespread contact tracing and case investigation.
(SFC, 5/13/20, p.A1)
2020 May 5, A federal appeals court blocked, for now, a judge’s order forcing Florida's Miami-Dade County to give masks, soap and cleaning supplies to inmates at Metro West Detention Center, a jail wracked by the novel coronavirus. Metro West is where 163 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. In all three Miami jails, about 340 inmates have tested positive in the cramped quarters where social distancing is challenging.
(Miami Herald, 5/5/20)
2020 May 6, All of New York City's 472 subway stations closed early today for cleaning for the first overnight subway shutdown in at least 50 years. The subway trains will now stop running from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. local time each day.
(ABC News, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, The Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) said it will loan Argentina $4 billion to help finance projects to combat the growing coronavirus impact.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Brazil, one of the world's emerging hot spots, registered a record number of cases and deaths, prompting the health minister to flag the possibility of strict lockdowns in hard-hit areas.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 6, Colombia's president said mandatory quarantine will be extended by a further two weeks.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele announced still tougher measures to fight the coronavirus pandemic, including shopping trips limited to twice a week.
(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said they will open their borders to each others' citizens from May 15, creating a Baltic "travel bubble" within the European Union.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, The European Union predicted “a recession of historic proportions this year" due to the impact of the coronavirus as it released its first official estimates of the damage the pandemic is inflicting on the bloc’s economy.
(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, The German government and the 16 federal states agreed at a meeting to extend until June 5 social distancing measures designed to help fight the spread of the novel coronavirus. Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 947 to 164,807.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, In India health authorities scrambled to contain an outbreak at a huge fruit and vegetable market in Chennai. Hundreds of Indian police tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days, raising alarm as it attempts to enforce the world's largest lockdown.
(AP, 5/6/20)(Reuters, 5/6/20)(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A6)
2020 May 6, Indian forces killed Riyaz Naikoo (35), a top commander of the Hizbul Mujahedeen rebel group, along with his aide in the disputed Kashmir region.
(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A2)
2020 May 6, Iran warned of a "rising trend" in its coronavirus outbreak as it said 1,680 new infections brought the country's overall number of confirmed cases to 101,650. There were 78 new COVID-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours bringing that total to 6,418.
(AFP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic climbed by 369. The total death toll now stands at 29,684. The number of confirmed cases amounted to 214,457.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Nigeria said it will extend a ban on all flights by four weeks as part of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Confirmed coronavirus cases in Peru have now exceeded 50,000.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Poland postponed its upcoming presidential election due to concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus. Nearly 15,000 people in Poland have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and at least 737 have died.
(AP, 5/7/20)(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A2)
2020 May 6, Russia recorded more than 10,000 new cases for the fourth day in a row, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 165,929, with 1,537 deaths. President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting to discuss a gradual withdrawal from lockdown as Russia registered the world's sixth highest total number of coronavirus cases.
(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, South Korea reported no new locally transmitted infections of the novel coronavirus and just two imported cases over the past 24 hours -- its lowest daily tally in 78 days.
(ABC News, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, South Korea’s spy agency that the coronavirus pandemic has likely taken a heavy toll on North Korea, forcing leader Kim Jong Un to avoid public activities and his people into panic buying for daily necessities.
(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced that his government will declare a national state of mourning for the more than 25,000 people in the country who have died from the novel coronavirus.
(ABC News, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Taiwan's health minister Chen Shih-chung said Taiwan’s exclusion from the upcoming World Health Assembly would harm the global response to the coronavirus pandemic and cannot be excused by mere rules of procedure. The island of more than 23 million people has recorded just 438 cases of COVID-19 and six deaths.
(AP, 5/6/20)
2020 May 6, Yemen reported the first three cases of the novel coronavirus in the southern province of Lahaj, one of whom has died, and another infection in the southern port of Aden.
(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020 May 7, The Associated Press reported that President Donald Trump's administration has shelved a CDC document containing step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the current pandemic.
(AP, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid out the broad outlines of the next massive coronavirus-response. Major components included additional aid to state and local governments, more money for coronavirus testing and help for the financially troubled US Postal Service.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, Eleven members of the US Secret Service tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to Department of Homeland Security documents.
(Yahoo News, 5/8/20)
2020 May 7, California said it will face a budget deficit of $54.3 billion due to a huge drop in revenue combined with increased expenses linked to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a newly released projection by state financial advisers.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, California to date had 60,635 cases of coronavirus and 2,462 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,247 cases and 335 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,231,992 with the death toll at 73,573.
(sfist.com, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, The US Dept. of Health and Human Services awarded California $97.3 million to 179 state health centers to expand coronavirus testing in low income communities.
(SFC, 5/8/20, p.A7)
2020 May 7, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended a moratorium on evictions for non-payment of rent for another 60 days until August 20 to alleviate anxiety over the economic impact of the novel coronavirus. New York reported 952 new deaths from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours. 323,978 people across the state have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and at least 20,597 have died.
(AP, 5/7/20)(ABC News, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, GlaxoSmithKline said it will start trials of an experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug on patients suffering from pneumonia related to COVID-19 at the end of the month.
(AP, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, In Belgium hundreds of chefs' jackets were laid down in the center of Brussels to highlight the plight of hotels, restaurants and cafes that have been shuttered for nearly two months during the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, Brazil's Health Ministry registered 9,888 new cases, bringing its total to 135,106 with 9,146 deaths. Jair Bolsonaro went to the Supreme Court to ask that state be forced to roll back restrictive measures, despite the surge in the nation's coronavirus cases and deaths.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A4)
2020 May 7, British physicians in The Lancet reported that a rare, life-threatening condition is developing in some children after exposure to the new coronavirus that researchers are calling "Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Potentially Associated with COVID-19.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 7, China's National Health Commission said that just two new cases of COVID-19 had been reported on the Chinese mainland -- both of which were imported from abroad.
(ABC News, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, Chinese researchers said that a minority of men infected with COVID-19 had the new coronavirus in their semen, opening up a small chance the disease could be transmitted sexually.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, It was reported that a coronavirus outbreak has infected more than 30% of inmates at the prison in Villavicencio, in central Colombia. The prison currently has nearly double the 899 inmates it is meant to hold.
(AP, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, El Salvador began a quarantine under orders from Pres. Nayib Bukele. Residents will be allowed to leave their homes only twice a week to buy food. The country has already spent a month under a mandatory shelter-in-place order. El Salvador has recorded 695 confirmed infections and 15 deaths.
(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A6)(Econ., 5/9/20, p.23)
2020 May 7, Coronavirus cases in India rose past 50,000, with the pace of new infections showing no signs of abating despite a strict weeks-long lockdown.
(Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, The Italian government and a bishops conference reached an agreement to resume Masses starting May 18, with strict protocols, after a two-month shutdown. Some conservative Catholics issued a petition, signed mostly by Italian clergy, academics and journalists, claiming the coronavirus is an overhyped “pretext" to deprive the faithful of Mass and impose a new world order. The petition called the pandemic a “pretext" by unnamed actors to manipulate and control people through panic and deprive them of their fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of worship.
(AP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 7, Nigeria has recorded 3,145 cases of coronavirus and 103 deaths.
(Econ., 5/9/20, p.34)
2020 May 7, Russia saw a record daily rise in COVID-19 cases, with 11,231 new infections reported over the past 24 hours. Russia has reported 165,929 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,625 deaths.
(ABC News, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, The United Nations issued a new appeal for £3.8 billion in funding to "protect millions of lives and stem the spread of coronavirus in fragile countries."
(The Telegraph, 5/7/20)
2020 May 8, President Donald Trump broke with health experts, telling reporters that the coronavirus will “go away without a vaccine."
(Yahoo News, 5/9/20)
2020 May 8, Former President Barack Obama harshly criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as an “absolute chaotic disaster" during a conversation with ex-members of his administration.
(AP, 5/9/20)
2020 May 8, The US blocked a vote on a UN security council resolution calling for a global ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic, because the Trump administration objected to an indirect reference to the World Health Organization.
(The Guardian, 5/9/20)
2020 May 8, US regulators approved the first saliva-based coronavirus test, developed by Rutgers Univ., that allows people to collect their own sample at home. The sample must be shipped to a laboratory for processing.
(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A5)
2020 May 8, California to date had 62,721 cases of coronavirus and 2,555 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,482 cases and 342 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,271,755 with the death toll at 76,368.
(sfist.com, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Hawaii reported no new cases of COVID-19. Positive cases remained at 629 with 17 deaths.
(SFC, 5/8/20, p.A6)(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A7)
2020 May 8, In Nevada magician Roy Horn (75, who alongside Siegfried Fischbacher starred in a popular, long-running Las Vegas act built around rare tigers, died in las Vegas from of complications of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Abbott Laboratories said its antibody test for the new coronavirus is highly likely to correctly determine whether people have ever been infected with the fast-spreading virus. Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine found Abbott's test had a specificity rate of 99.9% and a sensitivity rate of 100%.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Brazil's 5th largest city, Fortaleza, became the nation's third metropolis to enter lockdown for COVID-19.
(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A4)
2020 May 8, Britain's COVID-19 death toll rose to 31,241.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 8, The World Health Organization said that although a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan selling live animals likely played a significant role in the emergence of the new coronavirus, it does not recommend that such markets be shut down globally.
(AP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, China said it is open to an independent investigation to determine the origins of the coronavirus now sweeping the world.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, The World Bank approved $506 million in emergency loans and grants for Ecuador to help it grapple with one of the worst outbreaks in Latin America.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, In Germany local governments activated emergency measures in three districts that have seen flare-ups of the coronavirus. All the spikes were associated with local meatpacking centers in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein.
(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020 May 8, Iran allowed worshippers to attend Friday prayers for the first time in more than two months, but the capital remained under restrictions. Iran announced 1,556 new cases of coronavirus infection. 55 new virus fatalities in the past 24 hours took the overall death toll in the health crisis to 6,541. The country's caseload overall rose to 104,691.
(AFP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Mexican police said three nurses have been found strangled to death in Torreon, Coahuila state, amid an alarming increase of assaults on health care workers in the country, who are being wrongly accused of spreading the coronavirus. The country has recorded at least 44 attacks against medical personnel between mid-March and mid-April. Two men were soon arrested for the strangulation deaths of the three nurses. Police said they had planned to robe the women and rules out links the pandemic anxiety.
(Business Insider, 5/10/20)(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A4)
2020 May 8, In Mexico Moises Escamilla May (45), a high-ranking member of the dangerous Los Zetas crime syndicate, died from the coronavirus at a maximum-security prison in Jalisco state. May was arrested shortly after he was alleged to have beheaded 12 people in Yucatan, Mexico, in August 2008.
(The Independent, 5/12/20)
2020 May 8, Coronavirus cases in Pakistan surged past 25,000, just hours before the government was due to lift lockdown steps.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Russia's coronavirus cases rose by over 10,000 for the sixth straight day, bringing the nationwide tally to 187,859. Around 100 central bank employees have been diagnosed, most of them in Moscow.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Saudi Arabia reported 1,701 new cases, taking the total to 35,432. The kingdom has recorded a daily average of around 1,500 new cases over the past week.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Slovakia recorded no new cases of coronavirus for the first time since March 10. Cases totaled 1,455 while 26 people have died and 919 have already recovered.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 8, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that African countries needed a two-year debt standstill due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, longer than a moratorium agreed by G20 governments last month.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) launched an emergency coronavirus appeal, saying Palestinians across the Middle East were suffering a devastating socio-economic impact.
(AFP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, Yemen reported nine new coronavirus cases in Aden, the interim headquarters of the government, including one death. This brought the total count to 34 infections with 7 deaths. The Houthi movement, which controls the capital Sanaa and most big urban centers, has so far reported one infection, a Somali national who was found dead in a hotel.
(Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020 May 9, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved emergency use authorization (EUA) to Quidel Corp for the first COVID-19 antigen test. The emergency use authorization was issued late May 7 to Quidel for the Sofia 2 SARS Antigen FIA.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Three members of the White House coronavirus task force, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, placed themselves in quarantine after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
(AP, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it would allow state health departments to distribute Gilead Sciences Inc's remdesivir drug to fight COVID-19, and the United States would receive about 40% of the drug maker's global donation.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, California to date had 64,532 cases of coronavirus and 2,630 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,558 cases and 342 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,288,569 with the death toll at 77,344.
(sfist.com, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, China said it will reform its disease prevention and control system to address weaknesses exposed by the coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, China issued a lengthy rebuttal of what it said were 24 "preposterous allegations" by some leading US politicians over its handling of the new coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 9, China's National Health Commission reported 14 new confirmed coronavirus cases, the highest number since April 28 and up from only one case a day earlier.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, The number of people who have died from coronavirus infections in France rose by 80 to 26,310.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, In India about 70 people fled a quarantine center in Bihar state's Nawada district, alleging poor facilities and lack of food. A district magistrate said some fled after one of the occupants tested positive for COVID-19.
(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A6)
2020 May 9, Indonesia reported 533 new coronavirus infections, the biggest daily increase, taking the total number to 13,645. 16 more have died from the disease, taking the total number of death to 959, while 2,607 have recovered.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Iran reported 1,529 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the overall total to 106,220. 48 new deaths took the overall toll to 6,589. Experts at home and abroad said the actual number of cases could be much higher.
(AFP, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 194, against 243 the day before, while the daily tally of new cases fell to 1,083.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Tokyo reported 36 new cases of coronavirus infections, three less than a day earlier and the seventh consecutive day that new infections have remained below 100. This brought the total coronavirus infections in the capital city to 4,846 cases.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Mexico said the number of deaths from the coronavirus in the border city of Tijuana has soared and the COVID-19 mortality rate is twice the national average. It was reported that Mexico City officials have tabulated more than 2,500 deaths from the coronavirus and serious respiratory illnesses that doctors suspect are related to COVID-19, as opposed to 700 reported by the government in the area. Nationwide the government has reported 3000 confirmed deaths.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A4)
2020 May 9, In Mexico coronavirus patients were being turned away from hospitals in Mexico City, as both public and private medical facilities quickly fill up and the number of new infections continues to rise. The health ministry confirmed 1,938 new cases of coronavirus infection, along with 193 additional deaths. Government models projected that infections could peak this weekend. Reported coronavirus cases in the country total 33,460, with 3,353 deaths attributed to the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the virus.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Pakistani authorities reported a jump of 1,637 coronavirus cases with 24 new fatalities.
(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A6)
2020 May 9, The Philippines recorded eight new coronavirus deaths, bringing the total to 704. Infections increased by 147 to 10,610. Total deaths have reached 704.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Russia reported that the number of confirmed coronavirus infections had risen by another 10,817 to reach a total of 198,676 and 1,827 deaths as President Vladimir Putin presided over a muted 75th anniversary celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. The regional branch of Russia's consumer health watchdog said 89 cases of the novel coronavirus have been recorded among employees of Polyus Krasnoyarsk, a unit of Russia's largest gold producer Polyus.
(AFP, 5/9/20)(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, In South Korea the mayor of Seoul ordered all the capital’s bars and nightclubs shut down indefinitely after many of the 34 new coronavirus infections were traced to a single nightlife district. Cases had lingered at around ten or below for weeks.
(NY Times, 5/10/20)(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020 May 9, Spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to its second lowest since mid-March, as half the country prepared to move to the next phase of an exit from one of Europe's strictest lockdowns. Spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to 179. Overall deaths rose to 26,478. The number of diagnosed cases rose to 223,578.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Sweden has recorded 3,175 fatalities from COVID-19. That's more than 31 deaths per 100,000 population, compared with about 8 per 100,000 in neighboring Denmark.
(AP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 9, Swiss drugmaker Novartis said Chinese regulators have approved its drug Mayzent for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis in adults.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, Thailand reported four new coronavirus cases and one more death, bringing the total to 3,004 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in January.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 9, The World Health Organization (WHO) suspended staff activity late today at its hubs in Houthi-held areas of Yemen, in a move sources said aimed to pressure the group to be more transparent about suspected coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the Senate’s top Democrat, called on the Department of Veterans Affairs to explain why it allowed the use of hydroxychloroquine, an unproven drug, on veterans for the coronavirus, saying patients may have been put at unnecessary risk.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, California to date had 67,055 cases of coronavirus and 2,695 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,817 cases and 347 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,321,223 with the death toll at 79,058.
(sfist.com, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Austria's finance ministry said some local companies are abusing state subsidies for staff on short-time working or using illegal workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Inspections of 5,119 people at 1,946 companies uncovered 460 violations of laws.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Britain's PM Boris Johnson announced a modest easing of the country's coronavirus lockdown and outlined his government's roadmap for further lifting restrictions.
(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)
2020 May 10, Chinese authorities reported what could be the beginning of a new wave of coronavirus cases in the northeast, with one city in Jilin province being reclassified as high-risk. 11 cases were reported in Jilin and one in Hubei province. China has reported 4,633 deaths and 82, 901 cases.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)
2020 May 10, It was reported that new coronavirus infections are accelerating again in Germany just days after its leaders loosened social restrictions, raising concerns that the pandemic could once again slip out of control. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 667 to 169,218. The reported death toll rose by 13 to 7,395.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo said that one worker at a fish factory in the coastal city of Tema had infected 533 other employees last month. The factory, owned by Thai Union Group PCL, was closed on April 17 and partially reopened on May 11. As of May 12 Ghana has reported 5,127 cases, including 22 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 10, Indonesia's Health Ministry confirmed 387 new coronavirus cases. The country 14,032 confirmed cases, including 973 deaths. COVID-19 infections in Mimika Regency, where Freeport's gold and copper Grasberg mine is located on Papua island, reached 112 cases.
(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)(AP, 5/13/20)
2020 May 10, Iran warned of a resurgence of the novel coronavirus as it reported 51 new deaths, almost a month after it started to relax a nationwide lockdown. 1,383 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, raising total infections to 107,603. The new fatalities raised the overall confirmed death toll to 6,640. Authorities reimposed more stringent measures in the southwestern Khuzestan province, reversing a phased return to work meant to revitalize the battered economy.
(AFP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Iran said it is ready for unconditional prisoner swap talks with the United States because of fears that the coronavirus could put the lives of the prisoners at risk.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, In Japan about 5,000 people in Tokyo were confirmed to have been infected with the virus, representing nearly one-third of Japan's total infections of around 16,000.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, It was reported that the Maldives has seen a rapid rise in coronavirus cases over the past few weeks. Three deaths have been reported so far.
(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A6)
2020 May 10, Authorities in Nigeria's oil-rich southern Rivers state demolished two hotels over an alleged breach of lockdown rules intended to contain the spread of coronavirus. The state currently has 15 active cases of the virus and has recorded two deaths. One owner said authorities were asking for a bribe and denied that the hotel was operating.
(BBC, 5/11/20)
2020 May 10, Peru has about 65,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 1,800 deaths.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Russia registered a total of 1,915 deaths from the new coronavirus. Cases of infection rose by 11,012 in the last 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 209,688.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, South Africa's Western Cape province has 5,621 coronavirus cases, and of the country's 206 deaths registered from COVID-19, 116 have occurred in the province. South Africa has eased its restrictions to allow an estimated 1.6 million people to return to work in selected mines, factories and businesses. Western Cape premier Alan Winde said South Africa is expected to reach its peak of cases in August.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 May 10, South Korea reported 34 new coronavirus cases. Of the new cases, 26 were domestically transmitted infections and eight were imported cases.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to 143, down from 179 the previous day. Overall deaths rose to 26,621. The number of diagnosed cases rose to 224,390.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, Thailand reported five new coronavirus cases but no deaths, bringing the total to 3,009 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in the country in January. These numbers did not include four more infected people from the resort island of Phuket.
(Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020 May 10, In Turkey senior citizens were allowed to venture out for the first time in seven weeks. Turkey has recorded 137,115 coronavirus infections, including 3,739 deaths.
(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)
2020 May 10, Zambia has confirmed 267 Covid-19 infections, with seven deaths. 76 of 85 reported new cases in the northern town of Nakonde were either sex workers or lorry drivers. Last week, President Edgar Lungu announced the reopening of restaurants, casinos and gyms after a month-long shutdown to enforce social distancing measures.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 11, President Donald Trump accused Democrats of moving to reopen US states from coronavirus lockdown measures too slowly for political advantage, without providing evidence to support his claim.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, Vice President Mike Pence strongly recommended to governors that all residents and staff at such facilities be tested for the coronavirus in the next two weeks. More than 27,000 residents and staff have died from outbreaks of the virus at the nation's nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, California to date had 68,944 cases of coronavirus and 2,776 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,936 cases and 352 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,346,723 with the death toll at 80,352.
(sfist.com, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, Massachusetts reported 129 new coronavirus deaths, bringing the total to 5,108 with 78,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases. The state’s death toll is most likely higher because the count does not include people who have died but were never tested.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said his state had just 488 new confirmed COVID-19 cases statewide in the last 24 hours.
(The Week, 5/12/20)
2020 May 11, In South Carolina Roman Catholic churches across the state reopened for services for the first time since a coronavirus-related shutdown began on March 17, allowing parishioners to attend Mass in person.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, The World Health Organization said that coronavirus cases had jumped in countries that eased their stay-at-home orders.
(The Week, 5/12/20)
2020 May 11, Belgium allowed most of its shops to reopen with strict hygiene rules for customers, following in the footsteps of Spain in an easing of its eight-week lockdown as the number of COVID-19 cases fall. Belgium has reported 55,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 8,707 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, The British government published its plan for exiting the coronavirus lockdown. The 51-page document, entitled "Our Plan to Rebuild: The UK Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy", gives an outline of how the United Kingdom could return to normal life.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, In China the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued an emergency notice announcing a "10 Day Battle" to ramp up its ability to conduct nucleic acid tests on the city's 11 million residents. Wuhan reported six new cases, breaking a 35-day streak of zero daily new cases.
(AP, 5/12/20)(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020 May 11, Thirsty Czechs were allowed to return to beer gardens in one of the government's most eagerly anticipated measures to relax coronavirus restrictions. Authorities also eased travel restrictions, allowing residents from outside the EU to enter the country if they can show a negative COVID-19 test and are taking up certain kinds of work, such as in the healthcare sector.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, There are now 107 coronavirus cases in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, including about 50 crew members still aboard the Celebrity Flora, a luxury ship operated by a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises. The islands' first four cases were diagnosed in late March, all believed to have come from Guayaquil before travel was cut off. Tourism has ground to a halt and an economic crisis has left many of the 30,000 residents jobless.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, Iran, which was one of the earliest coronavirus hotspots, imposed a new lockdown on the southwestern province of Khuzestan.
(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020 May 11, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic rose by 179. The daily tally of new cases fell to 744. The total death toll now stands at 30,739 and the total number of confirmed cases amounted to 219,814.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, Lebanon's health ministry recorded 14 new infections today after recording 36 a day earlier, the highest one-shot uptick in at least a month.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, In Nicaragua doctors and family members of apparent coronavirus victims say, the government has gone from denying the disease’s presence in the country to actively trying to conceal its spread. The government says the country has seen 16 coronavirus cases and five deaths since its first case was diagnosed.
(AP, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, Markets across Pakistan were teeming after opening up for the first time in over a month as the country began to lift its lockdown despite a rise in the rate of coronavirus infections. Of its 667 deaths from the coronavirus, around 200 have been registered over the past week, and there are almost 31,000 confirmed infections.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020 May 11, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin declared an end to a nationwide partial economic shutdown but noted that some restrictions will remain. Putin said that it will be up to regional governors in the far-flung Russian Federation to determine what industrial plants could reopen starting May 12. The Financial Times reported that the real death toll could be 70% higher.
(AP, 5/11/20)(Econ., 5/23/20, p.39)
2020 May 11, About half of Spain's 47 million population entered the second stage of a four-phase plan to lift a coronavirus lockdown and return to normal by the end of June. Spain reported the lowest number of infections in weeks. There were 123 deaths in the last 24 hours bringing that total to almost 27,000. 400 new cases brought the overall recorded infections to 268,000.
(Reuters, 5/11/20)(SFC, 5/12/20, p.A4)
2020 May 12, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned senators in a videoconference hearing that the "consequences could be really serious" if states and localities reopen too soon.
(Good Morning America, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, California to date had 69,417 cases of coronavirus and 2,789 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,049 cases and 366 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,358,901 with the death toll at 81,805.
(sfist.com, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called face masks a sign of respect for others on a day the state reported 195 new deaths, a jump from 161 the previous day.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, Mayor Bill de Blasio said New York City has 52 confirmed cases of what the state is calling Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Associated with COVID-19, an inflammatory syndrome which has features that overlap with Kawasaki disease. Out of the city's 52 cases, 25 tested positive for COVID-19 and 22 others had antibodies. New data showed that nine out of 10 people arrested for virus-related offenses in NYC have been black or Hispanic.
(Good Morning America, 5/12/20)(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, LabCorp said its $119 at-home sample collection kit for COVID-19 testing would now be available to all individuals with symptoms and possible exposure to the virus, after limiting delivery to healthcare workers during its launch last month. Customers can get the kit with no upfront out-of-pocket costs if they are found to be eligible after filling in a survey on the company's website.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, Moderna Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration granted "fast track" designation to its experimental coronavirus vaccine, a move that speeds up the regulatory review process. Moderna expects to start a late-stage study of the vaccine in early summer and says there is potential for a marketing application approval in 2021.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, Canada's National Research Council said China's CanSino Biologics Inc , the company behind one of the few coronavirus vaccine candidates already in clinical trials, is collaborating with the NRC to "pave the way" for future trials in Canada.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, China reported seven new coronavirus cases on the mainland, versus one a day earlier. Jilin city in the country's northeast warned of a huge risk of COVID-19 spreading further.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 12, In Iran another 1,481 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 110,767 since the start of the crisis. Another 48 deaths from the virus took the overall toll to 6,733. A minister said Iran will reopen its mosques for three nights over the next week so that worshippers can pray during one of the holiest times of year.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic climbed by 172, against 179 the day before, but the daily tally of new cases doubled to 1,402. The Lombardy region said it had found 419 infections from previous weeks that it had not logged. The total death toll now stands at 30,911 with confirmed cases at 221,216.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, Madagascar has reported 193 Covid-19 cases and no deaths. President Andry Rajoelina has said criticism of Covid-Organics, an untested herbal tonic that he is touting as a treatment for Covid-19, shows the West's condescending attitude towards Africa.
(BBC, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, In Montenegro hundreds of Serbian Orthodox pilgrims used hand sanitizer and wore face masks as they entered the Ostrog Monastery to mark the Day of St Vasilije Ostroski the Miracle Maker, a 17th century bishop after whom the monastery is named. Montenegro has reported 324 cases of the coronavirus and nine deaths.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, Russia moved to ease a nationwide coronavirus lockdown. It was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman has been hospitalized for the coronavirus. He is the fifth senior government official in Russia to get the virus, and the second from within Putin's inner circle. Another 10,899 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the country's total number of confirmed infections to 232,243. At least 2,116 people have died.
(AFP, 5/12/20) (Business Insider, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, In Russia a fire broke out in a Saint Petersburg hospital early today and killed five coronavirus patients. Preliminary reports suggested an overheated ventilator had short-circuited and caught fire. On May 9 a fire caused by a faulty ventilator in the Spasokukotsky Hospital in Moscow killed one patient.
(Good Morning America, 5/12/20)(SFC, 5/13/20, p.A2)
2020 May 12, The UN said COVID-19 has been confirmed in a crowded civilian protection camp in Juba, South Sudan's capital.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, In Uruguay the 86 crew members of the Greg Mortimer cruise ship, stranded in local waters since March 27, began their evacuation to Montevideo following an outbreak of the new coronavirus on board. At least 37 positive cases of coronavirus were detected in the last several days.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, Yemen's Saudi-backed government reported the first outbreak of the new coronavirus in three more southern provinces, taking the total number of cases in areas under its control to 65, including 10 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 13, US officials said China-linked hackers are breaking into American organizations carrying out research into COVID-19.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, California to date had 72,749 cases of coronavirus and 2,958 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,213 cases and 372 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,389,935 with the death toll at 84,059. California's Gov. Gavin Newsom gave the go-ahead for 17 counties to reopen their local economies.
(sfist.com, 5/13/20)(SFC, 5/14/20, p.A7)
2020 May 13, In Iowa deaths from the coronavirus surged for a 2nd straight day surpassing 300. Rep. Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will allow some businesses, including restaurants, salons, barber shops and gyms, to open on May 15.
(SFC, 5/14/20, p.A5)
2020 May 13, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the launch of a public service campaign to inform parents of the Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Associated with COVID-19. Three children diagnosed with the syndrome have died in the state.
(SFC, 5/14/20, p.A5)
2020 May 13, British PM Boris Johnson said that the deaths of 144 health care workers and 131 social care workers had been reported as involving COVID-19. The United Kingdom's total COVID-19 death toll now exceeds 40,000, by far the worst yet reported in Europe. England tentatively began easing its coronavirus lockdown, with some people who cannot do their jobs at home urged to return to work.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Burundi has reported only 15 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ., 5/16/20, p.38)
2020 May 13, Authorities in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the novel coronavirus emerged, launched an ambitious campaign to test all of its 11 million residents, after a cluster of new cases raised fears of a second wave of infections.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Hong Kong reported its first two coronavirus cases in three weeks not linked to anyone who travelled overseas, with authorities scrambling to trace the origin of the infections. Hundreds of protesters gathered in shopping malls across Hong Kong, flouting coronavirus-related social distancing rules to mock unpopular Chief Executive Carrie Lam on her birthday.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in coronavirus infections, with 689 new cases, taking the total number to 15,438. Some 1,028 people have died from the virus.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, A World Health Organization report into Italy's coronavirus response was posted after it had received necessary approvals within the UN system. It was written by Francesco Zambon, WHO's chief field coordinator for Italy and its regions, and a team of WHO public health experts and consultants. The WHO later said it was withdrawn because of “factual inaccuracies" that it has not detailed and denied that it received any pressure from the Italian government to remove it.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 May 13, Lebanese rushed to food stores to stock up on vegetables and basic items, hours before the government was to reinstate a four-day nationwide lockdown, following a spike in reported coronavirus cases.
(AP, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Lesotho recorded its first case of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Moscow said it had ascribed the deaths of more than 60% of coronavirus patients in April to other causes as it defended what it said was the superior way it and Russia counted the number of people killed by the novel virus.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund head, said 60% of the 40 coronavirus patients taking tablets of favipiravir, which was first developed in Japan under the name Avigan, tested negative for the virus within five days and said the treatment could cut coronavirus recovery times in half. Favipiravir is undergoing trials in India by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. In Japan Avigan was found to cause birth defects.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Saudi Arabia said it will go into a full lockdown during the days of celebration that follow the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, May 23 – May 27.
(AP, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, In Thailand professional chefs started cooking up around 40,000 lunches in Bangkok for communities affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Thailand reported no new daily cases for the first time in two months.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 13, Yemen's Saudi-backed government reported the first coronavirus case in Marib province and four other infections elsewhere, taking the tally of cases in areas under its control to 70, including 12 deaths. The Aden-based government's coronavirus committee said two cases including one death were reported in Aden, and two in Lahej, including one death.
(Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020 May 14, Whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright warned a congressional panel that the US lacks a plan to produce and fairly distribute a coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available. The nation could face “the darkest winter in modern history" unless leaders act decisively. A federal watchdog agency has found “reasonable grounds" that Bright was removed from his post as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority after sounding the alarm at the Department of Health and Human Services.
(AP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, The US Securities and Exchange Commission said it has charged two companies and a chief executive officer with making misleading claims related to COVID-19. Turbo Global Partners Inc. and its CEO Robert W. Singerman were charged with making false and misleading claims related to equipment to detect individuals with fevers. The SEC said Applied BioSciences Corp had begun offering and shipping finger-prick COVID-19 tests to the general public, when in fact the tests could only be administered in consultation with a medical professional.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered everyone in the city to wear a mask when outside their homes as some restrictions eased to allow people to return to work and recreation under the coronavirus Panama.
(SFC, 5/15/20, p.A8)
2020 May 14, California to date had 74,564 cases of coronavirus and 3,042 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,352 cases and 381 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,415,894 with the death toll at 85,807.
(sfist.com, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, New York City reported 100 cases of a rare inflammatory disease in children apparently tied to COVID-19.
(The Week, 5/15/20)
2020 May 14, Texas recorded single day highs of 1,458 new cases of the coronavirus and 58 deaths.
(SFC, 5/16/20, p.A6)
2020 May 14, Diagnostic services provider LabCorp said it would make its COVID-19 tests available at workplaces, as employers across the US look to bring people back to work safely.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Bangladesh officials said the novel coronavirus has been detected in one of the southern camps that are home to more than one million Rohingya refugees.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, In Bulgaria some two thousand supporters of a fringe ultra-nationalist and pro-Russian party marched through central Sofia accusing the government of imposing confusing restrictions aimed at combating the coronavirus. The center-right government of PM Boyko Borissov has extended restrictions until June 14. Bulgaria has reported 2,100 registered cases, including 99 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, The European Commission said it has suspended the delivery of 10 million Chinese masks it purchased for health workers after two countries complained about the poor quality of the batches they received.
(AP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Germany's unlisted CureVac said its experimental coronavirus vaccine was shown to trigger an immune response in animals when given a low dose and the biotech firm was looking at carrying out its first human trials in June.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Iran warned of a possible coronavirus cluster hitting another province as it announced 71 new deaths and more than 1,800 infections nationwide. the latest deaths brought the official toll to 6,854. The total number rose to 114,553 as 1,808 new cases of COVID-19 infection were detected.
(AFP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Italy said will start testing a representative sample of 150,000 people in 2,000 cities next week to understand the extent of its COVID-19 epidemic. Italy has had more than 222,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and over 31,000 deaths since its outbreak came to light on February 21.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe announced the lifting of a coronavirus state of emergency ahead of schedule in most of the country except for eight high-risk areas. It remains in effect in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hokkaido.
(AP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, New Zealand began reopening malls, retail store and restaurants. Gatherings were limited to ten people and social distancing guidelines remained in place.
(SFC, 5/15/20, p.A7)
2020 May 14, The government of Panama said 43 migrants have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and 119 others who came in contact with them are in quarantine at a relief station near the border with Colombia.
(AP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Typhoon Vongfong slammed into the eastern Philippines, knocking out power and threatening food crops in a new emergency for a country already overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. More than 11,600 coronavirus infections, including 772 deaths, have been reported in the country.
(AP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Russian health officials said they had registered 9,974 new infections in the last 24 hours, bringing Russia's tally to 252,245 with a total of 2,305 deaths.
(AFP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Saudi Arabia country recorded some 2,000 new coronavirus cases, its highest ever count. The country has so far seen more than 46,000 cases.
(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020 May 14, Slovenia became the first European country to declare an official end to its coronavirus epidemic. The country has reported 1,466 coronavirus cases and 104 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 14, South Africa said it will assign levels of lockdown restrictions for each of the country's roughly 50 districts, depending on the number of active coronavirus infections there.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 14, Yemen's Saudi-backed government reported the first cases of the novel coronavirus in the southern province of Al Dhalea, among 15 new infections that took the total in areas under its control to 85 with 12 deaths. Al Dhalea became the ninth province to record cases, with its first three infections.
(Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020 May 15, US Pres. Donald Trump introduced Moncef Slasoui, a former chairman of vaccines at GlaxoSmithKline as the new chief of what he called Operation Warp Speed, an effort to have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.
(SFC, 5/16/20, p.A6)
2020 May 15, It was reported that five sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier sidelined in Guam due to a COVID-19 outbreak have tested positive for the virus for the second time and have been taken off the ship.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, California to date had 76,618 cases of coronavirus and 3,136 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,515 cases and 388 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,441,172 with the death toll at 87,427.
(sfist.com, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Most of Louisiana eased coronavirus restrictions as many businesses and houses of worship were allowed to reopen at 25% capacity.
(AP, 5/16/20)
2020 May 15, Hologic Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 diagnostic test that can provide initial results in about three hours and process more than 1,000 tests in 24 hours.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, In Belgium some children, many with face masks, returned to school as the country further eased a two-month coronavirus lockdown. Belgium has to date reported 54,644 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 8,959 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Brazil’s health minister Dr. Nelson Teich resigned after less than a month on the job in a sign of continuing upheaval over how the nation should battle the coronavirus pandemic, quitting a day after President Jair Bolsonaro stepped up pressure on him to expand use of the antimalarial drug chloroquine in treating patients. Officials say almost 15,000 people have died in Brazil from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, though some experts say the figure is significantly higher due to insufficient testing.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, In Britain government scientific advisers said the reproduction ('R') rate of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom is now somewhere between 0.7 and 1.0.
(Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Denmark Health authorities reported no coronavirus deaths for the first time since March 13.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020 May 15, A regional health body said the new life-threatening inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19 has affected 230 children in Europe and killed two so far this year.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 15, French nurses and doctors faced off with President Emmanuel Macron at a leading Paris hospital, demanding better pay and a rethink of a once-renowned public health system that found itself quickly overwhelmed by tens of thousands of virus patients.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, In Germany draft government proposal said Germany will order meatpacking plants to stop using subcontractors and to improve hygiene standards in the workplace and accommodations, after more than 600 cases of coronavirus among workers in the industry.
(Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Iran reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections in more than a month as it warned of clusters hitting new regions. 2,102 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall total to 116,635. the virus had claimed another 48 lives over the same period, raising the overall death toll to 6,902.
(AfP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Mexico's health ministry confirmed 290 additional coronavirus deaths and 2,437 new infections in a fresh one-day record rise in cases since the start of the pandemic. This brought confirmed coronavirus cases to 45,032 and 4,767 deaths in total. Between 590 and 800 Cuban doctors have arrived in Mexico City in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)(Miami Herald, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, It was reported that in northern Nigeria tens of thousands of Koranic school children were recently crammed into open vans and sent back home from cities and towns across 19 states in a controversial move by state governments to prevent the spread of coronavirus within their territories. Hundreds of the children already had coronavirus, so officials inadvertently contributed to spreading the virus rather than containing it.
(BBC, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Moscow began testing thousands of randomly-chosen residents for coronavirus antibodies under a mass screening program authorities hope will help them determine when it is safe to lift the city's lockdown restrictions.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 15, Slovakia lifted a quarantine on the last of five Roma settlements that were closed off in April to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 15, It was reported that hundreds of people in Aden, southern Yemen’s main city, have died in the past week with symptoms of what appears to be the coronavirus.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 16, A US federal judge issued an order that allows North Carolina religious leaders to reopen their doors to their congregations in spite of Gov. Roy Cooper's warning that they risk spreading coronavirus.
(Good Morning America, 5/17/20)
2020 May 16, California to date had 77,515 cases of coronavirus and 3,166 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,682 cases and 390 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,456,941 with the death toll at 88,230.
(sfist.com, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, An at-home coronavirus testing project in Seattle backed in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it was working with US regulators to resume the program after being suspended by the Food and Drug Administration.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Australia's Victoria state reported 11 new coronavirus cases, including some linked to known clusters at a meat factory and a McDonald's restaurant.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Brazil's Health Ministry registered 14,919 new confirmed cases in the prior 24 hours, taking the total to 233,142.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, Britain's PM Boris Johnson advised people to avoid all unnecessary contact due to coronavirus pandemic.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.46)
2020 May 16, Cambodia's health ministry said the last patient with the new coronavirus has recovered and left hospital, leaving the Southeast Asian country with zero cases. Cambodia has reported 122 cases of the virus that causes COVID-19 and no deaths.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Mainland China had five new confirmed COVID-19 cases, down from eight the previous day. The city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus outbreak originated in China, conducted 222,675 nucleic acid tests.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 16, French health authorities reported 96 new coronavirus deaths, as the country eases from a two month lockdown. This brought France's total fatalities to 27,625.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Thousands of Germans across the country took to the streets to protest against restrictions imposed by the government to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus has so far infected more than 173,000 people in Germany and killed nearly 7,900.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Greeks flocked to the seaside when more than 500 beaches reopened, as the country sought to walk the fine line between protecting people from COVID-19 while reviving the tourism sector that many depend on for their livelihoods.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, India's total novel coronavirus cases rose to 85,940 with 2,752 fatalities.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Indonesia reported 529 new coronavirus infections, taking the total number of cases to 17,025. Indonesia also reported 13 new deaths, taking the total number of COVID-19 deaths to 1,089.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Iran reported 35 new deaths from the coronavirus, the lowest number since March 7 despite infections rising, and announced a further relaxation of COVID-19-related closures. The new deaths brought the overall toll to 6,937. However, 1,757 new coronavirus cases were confirmed across Iran in the last 24 hours, bringing the overall total to 118,392.
(AFP, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered a cessation of movement between the country and neighboring Tanzania and Somalia to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. He exempted cargo trucks but said drivers would have to be tested for the disease.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Malaysian reported 17 new coronavirus cases, bringing the cumulative total to 6,872. Health authorities there reported one new death, with total fatalities at 113.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Mexico registered 47,144 cases of coronavirus, with the country's death toll rising to 5,045.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, The Philippines' health ministry reported 11 more coronavirus deaths and 214 additional infections. Total confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus have risen to 12,305, most of which are in the capital, while deaths reached 817. The Philippines started loosening its lockdown in the capital and other major cities to slowly restart an economy.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Qatar reported another 1,547 cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the country's total number of confirmed infections to more than 30,000.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Russia reported 9,200 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. The overall number of cases nationwide stood at 272,043. The official death toll rose to 2,537 after 119 people died over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, In Saudi Arabia the number of coronavirus cases topped 50,000. The health ministry reported 2,840 new cases, taking the cumulative total to 51,980. The death toll in the kingdom increased by 10 to 302.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, South Africa's Impala Platinum said it had detected 19 positive cases of the COVID-19 disease at its Marula operation in northern Limpopo province, and that it would close the plant until it had taken necessary health measures.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Spain's overnight death toll from the coronavirus was 102, marking the lowest 24-hour rise since mid March. The cumulative death toll rose to 27,563, while the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 230,698.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 16, Thailand reported no new coronavirus cases or deaths as the country begins to reopen businesses and ease restrictions. Thailand extended a ban on international passenger flights until the end of June. A previous order was set to run until the end of May. Thailand has reported a total of 3,025 cases of the coronavirus and 56 fatalities.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 17, California to date had 78,859 cases of coronavirus and 3,208 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,821 cases and 390 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,478,241 with the death toll at 89,207.
(sfist.com, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, The latest number of coronavirus cases in Texas jumped by 1,801 in a single day, the highest daily rate since the state started tracking data. The number of cases reported now stands at 46,999. Texas reported 1,305 total fatalities, an increase of 33.
(Good Morning America, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Dagestan's health minister told a local blogger that the true number of coronavirus infections was four times that reported, and that outbreaks had killed 657 people, not the officially recorded 27.
(SSFC, 6/7/20, p.40)
2020 May 17, India's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) requested that a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus be extended to May 31. The Health Ministry reported a record jump of nearly 5,000 cases in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)(SFC, 5/18/20, p.A5)
2020 May 17, It was reported that Indonesia is planning an $8.6 billion bailout for 12 state-owned firms, to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, mostly as cash compensation and working capital investments.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Iran said the COVID-19 illness has claimed a further 51 lives over the last 24 hours. 1,806 new cases were confirmed across in the past day, bringing the total to 120,198. The health ministry raised the overall death toll to 6,988.
(AFP, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, In Italy the daily death toll from the COVID-19 epidemic fell to 145, the lowest since March 9. The total death toll now stands at 31,908. Confirmed cases amounted to 225,435. PM Giuseppe Conte outlined a further loosening of movement restrictions, including opening borders to travelers from Europe from next month.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Kuwait and Qatar both said they would start jailing people or fining them thousands of dollars for failing to wear a facemask to combat the novel coronavirus. Qatar, a nation of some 2.8 million, has the second highest infection count in the region at above 32,600, with 15 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Madagascar's national COVID-19 taskforce said it has registered its first coronavirus death. A medical worker (57), who suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure, had died the previous evening.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, The Philippine government called for vigilance against the coronavirus, a day after hordes of people trooped to shopping malls and ignored safety protocols, as authorities began loosening a two-month lockdown. The country has reported 12,513 cases of coronavirus infections and a death toll of 824.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, South Africa reported 1,160 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily numbers yet. The country has the highest number of cases in Africa - 15,515, with 264 deaths.
(BBC, 5/18/20)
2020 May 17, South Korea reported five new domestic cases of coronavirus, all linked to a cluster of cases centered around bars and nightclubs in the capital which has raised fears in the country of a fresh wave of contagion.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Spain reported 87 new deaths, bringing the total deaths in the country from the coronavirus pandemic to 27,650. The Health Ministry reported 652 new cases. Spain has had 231,350 confirmed COVID-19 cases. PM Pedro Sanchez said the government will seek to extend its coronavirus state of emergency one last time until late June.
(Good Morning America, 5/17/20)(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Tanzania's Pres. John Magufuli said there has been a "sharp decline" in the number of coronavirus patients in the country's hospitals. Tanzania has had 509 recorded coronavirus cases and 21 deaths according to data from the African Union's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(BBC, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Thailand reported three additional cases of the new coronavirus, bringing its total cases to 3,028 as the country relaxes local restrictions and re-opens malls and department stores.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 17, Venezuela reported 504 coronavirus illnesses raising the national total to 504 with 10 deaths.
(SFC, 5/18/20, p.A5)
2020 May 18, California to date had 81,373 cases of coronavirus and 3,278 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,104 cases and 390 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,506,84 with the death toll at 90,309.
(sfist.com, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called attention to the new name of a COVID-19-related illness in children. Now known as Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed that the illness does have a link to COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, The Navajo Nation, spanning across parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, reported 69 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 4,071.
(Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, The Oregon Supreme Court halted a lower court's order that had invalidated the statewide restrictions imposed by Gov. Kate Brown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
(AP, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, American biotechnology company Moderna announced that its experimental vaccine for the novel coronavirus has so far shown to be "generally safe and well tolerated" in the first phase of a clinical trial.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Brazil recorded 674 new deaths and announced a total of 254,220 confirmed cases.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, Britain expanded its testing scheme to allow anyone aged over five with COVID-19 symptoms to book a test to see if they have the virus. PM Boris Johnson announced that schools would close due to coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 5/18/20)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.46)
2020 May 18, Experts warned that the Oxford University vaccine tipped as a "front runner" in the race to develop a coronavirus jab does not stop the virus in monkeys and may only be partially effective.
(The Telegraph, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, China's President Xi Jinping called for an independent review of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic under the World Health Organization once the virus is under control, and defended Beijing's own handling of the pandemic. Xi Jinping made a high-profile pledge of $2 billion to the WHO, plus more aid to countries in need.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)(Business Insider, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, Danes returned to cafes and restaurants, confident that the coronavirus outbreak is under control.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, France's highest administrative court ruled that Paris police could no longer use drones to surveil public compliance with coronavirus-related restrictions.
(Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, The leaders of France and Germany unveiled a post-covid EU recovery plan.
(Econ., 5/23/20, p.40)
2020 May 18, Iran said it was entering a new phase of trying to eliminate the novel coronavirus after bringing the Middle East's deadliest outbreak under control in many regions. 2,294 new infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 122,492. The virus death toll was raised to 7,057, with 69 fatalities in the past day.
(AFP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Iraq said it will impose a complete lockdown on some areas of the capital, amid an uptick in coronavirus cases in recent weeks since curfew hours were relaxed. At least 123 people have died among 3,404 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Italy registered 99 fatalities over the last 24-hour period, bringing the nationwide death toll to 32,007. More than 225,000 people in Italy have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, Mexico issued guidelines for restarting operations in the automotive, mining and construction sectors, pushing ahead with reopening the economy despite a growing toll and concerns about unsafe work sites. Local governments across Mexico pushed back against President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's call to reopen the economy in some 300 townships that do not have active cases of coronavirus. Leaders said they preferred to wait until June before resuming normal activities. Mexico has reported 51,633 total cases and 5,332 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, It was reported that a registry of death certificates in Mexico City suggests there were 4,577 cases where doctors mentioned coronavirus or COVID-19 as a possible or probable cause of death, more than three times the official death toll in the city. The additional 3,245 deaths in Mexico City, if they are confirmed or added to official counts, would push the national death toll from the 5,332 reported by federal officials to 8,577.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Nigeria said it would impose precisely targeted lockdown measures in areas that report rapid increases in coronavirus cases, while the phased reopening of the economy as a whole would go ahead more slowly than planned.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin promised to send aid to Dagestan, and asked residents not to gather for the Eid celebration marking the end of Ramadan this weekend. 657 people had died of pneumonia in the region, including 40 medics.
(AFP, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, Russia reported 8,926 new cases of COVID-19, a new low in a gradual declining trend. Total cases numbered 290,678. 91 new fatalities were reported over the past 24 hours, bringing that total to 2,722.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, It was reported that Russia's defence ministry is setting up a mobile field hospital at the largest Siberian mine of the country's top gold producer, Polyus, to treat miners who contract the new coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Slovenia said it plans to tighten border controls for some EU citizens to prevent a possible import of the new coronavirus, partially rowing back from a decision last week to let all EU nationals in. Slovenia has so far reported 1,466 coronavirus cases and 104 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, It was reported that the Vice-President of South Sudan, Riek Machar, who was part of a taskforce to fight coronavirus, is in self-isolation after testing positive for Covid-19. His wife, Defense Minister Angelina Teny, some bodyguards and other staff also have the virus. South Sudan so far has recorded 236 cases of Covid-19 and four deaths.
(BBC, 5/19/20)
2020 May 18, Spain reported that its overnight death toll from the coronavirus was 59, the lowest figure in two months. The cumulative death toll rose to 27,709, while the number of confirmed cases rose to 231,606.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Sweden's Statistics Office said the coronavirus pandemic has caused around 3,700 deaths since the first reported fatality in March, but this has not been as deadly as some seasonal flu tolls over the last three decades. Deaths were higher in December 1993 and January 2000 as compared to April 2020.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, Switzerland's Pres. Simonetta Sommaruga opened the World Health Organization's annual assembly in Geneva, pledging her country's "full support and cooperation" to its leader as it coordinates the global response to the coronavirus pandemic. A two-day, virtual World Health Assembly meeting began as more than 100 countries backed a resolution calling for a probe into the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The US said that the pandemic had "spun out of control" in great part due to a costly "failure" by the World Health Organization, and called for a more effective WHO.
(Reuters, 5/18/20)(The Week, 5/18/20)
2020 May 19, The United States rejected language about reproductive healthcare and intellectual property rights in a World Health Organization resolution on the coronavirus pandemic, hours after President Donald Trump threatened to quit the body. Washington did not block the consensus adoption of the text, which calls for a review into the global response to the crisis and which diplomats had striven to pass without a vote.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, The US Department of Justice warned California's governor that his COVID-19 restrictions discriminated against places of worship by preventing them from meeting while businesses and film studios are allowed to carry on working.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, California to date had 83,320 cases of coronavirus and 3,374 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,305 cases and 404 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,525,637 with the death toll at 91,730.
(sfist.com, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, Maryland reported 1,784 new COVID-19 cases, the state's highest one-day rise.
(Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, In Afghanistan more than 200 doctors and medical staff took part in protests in the western city of Herat, saying they had not been paid for three months while risking their lives to treat coronavirus patients. Afghanistan has confirmed 7,653 COVID-19 infections and 178 deaths from the respiratory disease.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, Britain's COVID-19 death toll neared 43,000.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, The Czech Republic reported its biggest daily rise in new coronavirus cases in four weeks, climbing by 111 to 8,594, partly due to an outbreak at a coal mine.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, Ecuador said it is closing several embassies and state enterprises to save money amid an economic crisis provoked by the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 34,000 people in the country have been infected and at least 2,800 have died. Authorities have reported another 1,700 deaths probably caused by the virus but not included in the official death toll.
(AFP, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, India's government said it will run more special trains and buses to allow millions of distressed migrant workers to leave big cities. Coronavirus cases in India reached 100,000, matching its number of intensive care beds, and the rate of increase of new infections showed little sign of slowing.
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, Russian health officials reported 9,263 new infections in Russia over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 299,941. PM Mikhail Mishustin returned to his duties on Tuesday after recovering from the coronavirus.
(AP, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, It was reported that the Seychelles has banned all cruise ship tourism through the end of 2021 as part of its efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The archipelago has just 11 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and no reported deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020 May 19, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, welcomed a European Union (EU) resolution, adopted by consensus by WHO's 194 member states, that calls for an independent evaluation of the international response to the coronavirus, "including, but not limited to, WHO’s performance".
(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020 May 20, California to date had 85,728 cases of coronavirus and 3,485 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,419 cases and 410 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,550,959 with the death toll at 93,406.
(sfist.com, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, US immunotherapy company Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said its experimental vaccine to prevent coronavirus infection produced protective antibodies and immune system responses in mice and guinea pigs.
(Reuters, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, Britain's death toll from confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose by 338 to 36,042 according to the health ministry. Broader figures based on suspected COVID-19 deaths put the toll at over 43,000.
(Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020 May 20, Brazil's Pres. Jair Bolsonaro unveiled rules expanding the prescription of chloroquine, the predecessor of an anti-malaria drug promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump, for coronavirus patients despite a lack of clinical proof that it is effective.
(AP, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, It was reported that Estonia has started to test one of the world's first digital immunity passports, created by a team including founders of global tech startups Transferwise and Bolt, seeking a safer return to workplaces following the coronavirus lockdown.
(Reuters, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, Iran said it was close to "curbing" the new coronavirus outbreak. 2,346 new infections were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 126,949. The death toll rose to 7,183 with 64 fatalities in the past day.
(AP, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, The Lebanese military said it has detained two soldiers caught on camera slapping and pushing a doctor in an emergency ward at a hospital in the northern city of Tripoli. The attacked doctor was trying to keep the soldiers from interrogating two patients receiving urgent medical care Lebanese authorities have reported over 950 cases of coronavirus, including 26 deaths.
(AP, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, The Philippines' health ministry recorded 279 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, the highest daily increase in nine days, and five additional deaths. Total deaths reached 842, while infections rose to 13,221.
(Reuters, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, Russia reported 8,764 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 308,705. There were also 135 coronavirus-linked fatalities over the same period. The nationwide death toll rose to 2,972.
(Good Morning America, 5/20/20)
2020 May 20, The UAE delivered 14 tons of protective gear, medical items and ventilators to help curb the spread of the new virus in the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian Authority later said it was not informed about the aid shipment.
(AP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 21, California to date had 87,939 cases of coronavirus and 3,581 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,591 cases and 416 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,576,542 with the death toll at 94,661.
(sfist.com, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, A spokesman for PM Boris Johnson said Britain has agreed a deal to acquire antibody tests for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, The Arab Network for Human Rights Information said that Egyptian security forces have disappeared one of its former researchers, Shayma Samy, a journalist who had recently written for a news outlet run by a socialist opposition party. The group also said the government has arrested at least 10 journalists since the coronavirus was detected in the country. Egypt confirmed about 14,000 cases of the coronavirus.
(AP, 5/21/20)(Econ., 5/23/20, p.35)
2020 May 21, Indian pharmaceutical company Strides Pharma Science Ltd received regulatory approval in India to start clinical trials of antiviral drug favipiravir, which has been touted as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Favipiravir is manufactured under the brand name Avigan by a unit of Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp and was approved for use as an anti-flu drug in the country in 2014. Kyodo News has reported that so far there has been no clear evidence of efficacy for Avigan in treating the novel coronavirus in some clinical trials.
(Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, Iran put the total number of dead from the coronavirus at 7,249, or 66 more than a day earlier. 2,392 new cases raised the total confirmed cases to more than 129,000. The virus has infected more than 10,000 health care workers in the country.
(AP, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, Lebanon's Health Ministry reported 63 new cases of the coronavirus, the largest single-day increase since the outbreak of the pandemic. The country has recorded 1,024 cases and 26 deaths.
(Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, It was reported that at least 9,479 Russian medical workers in more than 70 regions have been infected with the coronavirus in the past month, and more than 70 have died. Health care workers believe the death toll to be much higher and they have compiled a list of more than 250.
(AP, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, Russian state media reported that Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's strongman leader, was flown to Moscow and hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms.
(The Week, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, The International Committee of the Red Cross warned of a worsening crisis in northeast Syria, where water cuts, food shortages and depleted health services are proving as dangerous as coronavirus.
(AFP, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, Turkey reported its lowest daily increase in confirmed coronavirus cases in the past two months, with 961 new infections in the past 24 hours along with 27 more deaths. The total number of infections in the country now stands at 153,548, with a total of 4,249 deaths.
(AP, 5/21/20)
2020 May 21, The UN launched a new initiative to sign up millions of “digital first responders" around the world to counter misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and spread fact-based information and advice to their networks of family, friends and followers.
(AP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 21, Doctors Without Borders in Yemen said that as many as 80 people have been dying in Aden per day during the past week, up from a pre-outbreak normal of 10.
(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 22, President Donald Trump labeled churches and other houses of worship as “essential" and called on governors nationwide to let them reopen this weekend even though some areas remain under coronavirus lockdown.
(AP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 22, The United States called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to begin work immediately on investigating the source of the novel coronavirus, as well as its own handling of the response to the pandemic.
(Reuters, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) said that data from its trial of Gilead Sciences Inc's remdesivir show that the drug offers the most benefit for COVID-19 patients who need extra oxygen but do not require mechanical ventilation.
(Reuters, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, It was reported that a total of 14 Theodore Roosevelt sailors who had appeared to have recovered from the disease have tested positive again. The carrier is now back at sea after being sidelined in Guam since late March by a COVID-19 outbreak that infected more than 1,100 members of its roughly 4,900-strong crew
(Yahoo News, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, Hollywood producer William Sadleir was arrested. The former chairman and CEO of Aviron Pictures, is accused of defrauding the government out of millions of dollars meant for coronavirus relief, and of using nearly $30 million in investor funds for his personal use — including buying a $14-million Beverly Hills Mansion.
(Business Insider, 5/26/20)
2020 May 22, California to date had 90,251 cases of coronavirus and 3,663 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,963 cases and 421 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,599,740 with the death toll at 95,886.
(sfist.com, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, Minnesota reported an increase of 847 positive coronavirus cases, the highest daily total. There have been 19,845 positive cases in the state thus far.
(Good Morning America, 5/24/20)
2020 May 22, The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Africa's coronavirus cases have surpassed 100,000, as the continent with many fragile health systems has not yet seen the high numbers of other parts of the world.
(AP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, China-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd said it had started mid-stage human trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine in China earlier this month. Chinese researchers reported that the coronavirus vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics Inc appears to be safe and induced a rapid immune response in its first human trial.
(Reuters, 5/22/20)(Reuters, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, India reported 6,088 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, its biggest single-day spike. This brought total cases to 118, 447. The death toll rose to 3,583.
(SFC, 5/23/20, p.A5)
2020 May 22, Iran said it had detected another 51 deaths from its novel coronavirus outbreak, bringing the country's overall fatalities to 7,300. The health ministry said 2,311 new positive tests for COVID-19 took the country's caseload to 131,652.
(AFP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 22, President Vladimir Putin said the coronavirus outbreak in Russia has begun to abate. Russia has recorded 326,448 cases, including 3,249 deaths. Russia recorded its highest one-day coronavirus death toll of 150.
(AP, 5/22/20)(AP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 22, Spain's overnight death toll from the new coronavirus rose by 56 to a total of 28,628. The number of diagnosed cases rose to 234,824.
(AP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 23, California to date had 92,555 cases of coronavirus and 3,735 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 12,209 cases and 424 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,613,476 with the death toll at 96,662.
(sfist.com, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said daily deaths in New York state fell to 84, marking the first time since late March the number was below 100.
(Good Morning America, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, Missouri has recorded has more than 11,844 diagnosed cases of COVID-19, with at least 677 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, North Carolina reported its highest one-day increase of confirmed cases, with 1,107 cases. Total confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose to 22,725 with 737 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, India reported 6,654 new coronavirus cases bringing the nationwide total to 125,102, including 3,720 deaths.
(SSFC, 5/24/20, p.A9)
2020 May 23, Iran announced a further relaxation of coronavirus lockdown measures and said it has started to control the outbreak in nearly a third of its provinces. The health ministry recorded 1,869 new positive tests for coronavirus in the past 24 hours raising the country's tally to 133,521. The death toll was raised to 7,359, with 59 new deaths over the same period.
(AFP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, The crowded Gaza Strip recorded its first death from the coronavirus, amid fears an outbreak could paralyze the territory's already overstretched health care system.
(AP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, In Russia the new daily coronavirus case counts fell to 9,434.
(AP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, Sudan's PM Abdalla Hamdok met with representatives of doctors to find “decisive and strict solutions" to “the phenomenon of repeated attacks on health workers," amid the coronavirus pandemic. Sudan has reported at least 63 deaths from COVID-19 among around 3,380 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
(AP, 5/23/20)
2020 May 23, Thailand began trials of an experimental coronavirus vaccine using monkeys, one of at least 100 potential vaccines in the works around the world.
(Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020 May 24, President Trump said the United States would suspend travel from Brazil, after a surge in coronavirus cases made the South American nation one of the world's hotspots. Brazil now has more than 22,000 deaths and 347,000 confirmed cases.
(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, California to date had 93,022 cases of coronavirus and 3,739 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 12,411 cases and 425 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,635,192 with the death toll at 97,495.
(sfist.com, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, In Belarus about 1,000 protesters denouncing authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s seeking of another term in an upcoming election held the largest opposition demonstration of the year in the capital Minsk. Many of the demonstrators wore masks, defying Lukashenko’s dismissal of coronavirus concerns as a “psychosis." Belarus has recorded more than 36,000 cases of coronavirus infection.
(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, Brazil has now surpassed Russia with a total number of confirmed cases standing at 347, 398.
(Good Morning America, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, China reported 11 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the mainland as of today's end, up from three a day earlier. The total number of cases to date in the mainland stood at 82,985. The death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
(Reuters, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, French authorities reported the smallest daily rise in new coronavirus cases and deaths since before a lockdown began on March 17. Confirmed cases rose by 115 to 144,921. The death toll increased by 35 to 28,367.
(Reuters, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, India reported 6,767 new coronavirus infections, the country’s biggest one-day increase. India has confirmed 125,102 coronavirus cases, including 3,867 deaths.
(The Telegraph, 5/24/20)(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, In Pakistan more than 1,000 worshippers gathered and prayed shoulder-to-shoulder in an open field in Karachi, with only a few of them wearing masks. Muslims around the world began celebrating Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, with millions under strict stay-at-home orders and many fearing renewed coronavirus outbreaks.
(AP, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, Russia reported their updated coronavirus figure at a total of 344,481.
(Good Morning America, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, It was reported that operations at the world's deepest gold mine, in South Africa, have been halted after 164 cases of coronavirus were detected there.
(BBC, 5/24/20)
2020 May 24, It was reported that Switzerland's Bachem has begun round-the-clock production of Propofol, a drug needed to sedate ventilated patients whose plight during the pandemic has become emblematic of COVID-19's hit to healthcare systems.
(Reuters, 5/24/20)
2020 May 25, California to date had 94,590 cases of coronavirus and 3,756 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 12,505 cases and 426 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,653,904 with the death toll at 97,948.
(sfist.com, 5/25/20)
2020 May 25, Missouri's health director issued a dire warning after photos and video showed Memorial Day weekend revelers partying close together. Missouri has confirmed 11,988 cases of COVID-19 and 681 deaths.
(SFC, 5/26/20, p.A5)
2020 May 25, Egypt’s medical union blamed the government for increasing levels of coronavirus infections and deaths among healthcare professionals, its sharpest criticism yet of the country’s handling of the pandemic.
(AP, 5/25/20)
2020 May 25, Germany-based Siemens Healthineers said it stands ready to ramp up production of its antibody test to more than 50 million per month from June as governments across the world are keen to identify those who may have developed immunity to the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020 May 25, Greece restarted regular ferry services to its islands. Cafes and restaurants reopened for business as the country accelerated efforts to salvage its tourism season.
(SFC, 5/26/20, p.A7)
2020 May 25, Iran reopened major Shiite shrines across the Islamic republic, more than two months after they were closed, as it reported its lowest deaths from coronavirus since March.
(AfP, 5/25/20)
2020 May 25, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe lifted a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and four other remaining areas, ending nationwide restrictions as businesses began to reopen.
(SFC, 5/26/20, p.A4)
2020 May 25, Spain's health ministry revised the country's coronavirus death toll down by nearly 2,000 to 26,834 after checking data provided by regions. The total number of cases recorded since the outbreak began was also been revised down, and is now 235,400.
(Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020 May 25, Sweden reported that deaths from COVID-19 had risen to 4,029 from 3,998 a day earlier while the number of confirmed cases amounted to 33,843 up from 33,459.
(Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020 May 26, California to date had 97,182 cases of coronavirus and 3,779 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 12,813 cases and 432 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,672,714 with the death toll at 98,636.
(sfist.com, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, Merck & Co Inc said it was buying Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience and would collaborate with research nonprofit IAVI to develop two separate vaccines.
(Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, US biotechnology company Novamax began injecting a coronavirus vaccine candidate into people in Australia with hopes of releasing a proven vaccine this year.
(AP, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, Police in Rio de Janeiro raided the governor's residence and 10 other addresses as part of a widening probe into the alleged embezzlement of part of the $150 million in public funds earmarked for building field hospitals. Gov. Wilson Witzel denied any wrongdoing and accused Pres. Bolsonaro of ordering the raid as political retribution. Brazil has 375,000 coronavirus cases and 23,000 deaths so far.
(AP, 5/26/20)(SFC, 5/27/20, p.A4)
2020 May 26, Chile's LATAM Airlines Group filed for US bankruptcy protection, becoming the world's largest carrier so far to seek an emergency reorganization due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chile was averaging 4,000 new coronavirus cases daily.
(Reuters, 5/26/20)(SFC, 5/27/20, p.A4)
2020 May 26, Costa Rica became the latest country to legalize same-sex marriage when a ruling from its supreme court went into effect.
(SFC, 5/27/20, p.A2)
2020 May 26, The EU ended its controls on the export of coronavirus protective equipment after concluding that supplies for European medical and other workers were now adequate.
(Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, Germany extended social distancing rules aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus to June 29. Germany's virus caseload now tops 179,000 with just over 8,300 deaths.
(AFP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 26, India's Ministry of Health reported that there had been a daily increase of 6,535 coronavirus cases, bringing the toll up to 145,380 cases. In total, there have been 4,167 officially recorded coronavirus deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, India-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it would begin a clinical trial in India to test a combination of two anti-viral drugs, favipiravir and umifenovir, as a potential COVID-19 treatment.
(Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, Iran further eased restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus by allowing restaurants to accept customers, as it announced another 57 deaths from the virus, bringing the total number of fatalities in the country to 7,508. The health ministry said 1,787 new cases of infection over the same period brought the total caseload to 139,511.
(AFP, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia has passed its peak of coronavirus infections and ordered a World War II victory parade postponed by the pandemic to be held next month. Russia recorded its highest daily death toll of 174, bringing the nationwide toll to 3,807. Russia reported 8,915 new cases of COVID-19 over the same 24-hour period, placing the country's total count at 362,342.
(AFP, 5/26/20)(Good Morning America, 5/26/20)
2020 May 26, South Korea reported 19 new coronavirus cases, mostly from the Seoul area.
(SFC, 5/27/20, p.A4)
2020 May 26, Turkey’s COVID-19 death toll reached 4,397 after 28 new deaths were reported in 24 hours. Turkey also recorded 948 more confirmed cases, bringing the total to 158,762. Today was the final day of a four-day nationwide lockdown for Turkey’s 83 million residents.
(AP, 5/26/20)
2020 May 27, California to date had 100,038 cases of coronavirus and 3,830 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,038 cases and 435 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,697,495 with the death toll at 100,271.
(sfist.com, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, It was reported that Tennessee will soon stop providing the names and addresses of COVID-19 patients to first responders, after initially arguing that doing so would protect those on the front line. An Associated Press review has found public officials in at least two-thirds of states are sharing the addresses of people who tested positive with first responders.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Novavax Inc said it is buying Praha Vaccines, a Czech-based manufacturing plant, from privately held Serum Institute of India, the world's largest maker of vaccines by volume. The US company aims to produce 1 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate next year.
(Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Britain closed its embassy in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and ordered its staff to leave the country. The surprise closure was linked to coronavirus-related restrictions in place since earlier this year.
(The Telegraph, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, India reported 6,387 new coronavirus infections, a new single-day record. A total of 151,767 cases have been confirmed including 4,337 deaths.
(SFC, 5/28/20, p.A5)
2020 May 27, For the fifth consecutive day New Zealand has no new COVID-19 cases, with the total remaining at 1,154 diagnosed cases.
(Good Morning America, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Peru has registered 135,905 COVID-19 cases and 3,983 deaths.
(AP, 5/28/20)
2020 May 27, South Korea reported 40 new coronavirus cases, its biggest daily jump in about 50 days. The country has significantly relaxes its rigid social distancing rules as a result of waning coronavirus cases. South Korea now has a total of 11,265 confirmed cases with 269 deaths.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Flags were lowered to half-mast across Spain as the European country began 10 days of official mourning for the victims of the coronavirus pandemic. Spain has recorded more than 236,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 with at least 27,117 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Researchers in Spain identified two anti-inflammatory medications that might inhibit the main enzyme that helps the coronavirus to replicate: Celecoxib, sold by Pfizer Inc for arthritis pain under the brand name Celebrex, and carprofen, used for pets under several brand names, including Rimadyl from Zoetis Inc.
(Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Turkey’s health minister said that the country recorded 34 coronavirus-related deaths since the day before, bringing the country's COVID-19 death toll to 4,431. Turkey confirmed 1,035 new virus cases in the past 24 hours. The total number of confirmed cases in Turkey now stands at 159,797.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, The UN World Food Program warned that upward of at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, shuttering people in their homes, drying up work and crippling the economy.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 28, California to date had 103,605 cases of coronavirus and 3,983 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,221 cases and 437 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,719,855 with the death toll at 101,562.
(sfist.com, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, CVS Health Corp said it would open more COVID-19 testing sites at some of its pharmacy drive-thru locations, completing the last leg of the drugstore chain's planned 1,000 sites across more than 30 US states.
(Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, It was reported that British drugmaker AstraZeneca last week started phase 2 and 3 trials of a coronavirus vaccine, looking to recruit around 10,000 adults and children in Britain. AstraZeneca revealed that new data showed that its drug Tagrisso reduced the risk of relapse in some early-stage lung cancers by 83%.
(Reuters, 5/28/20)(Econ., 7/6/20, p.57)
2020 May 28, Oxford Biomedica said it has signed a one-year clinical and commercial supply agreement with AstraZeneca to provide multiple batches of a coronavirus vaccine, called AZD1222, and that the majority of the batches would be produced throughout 2020.
(Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, Brazil had 411,821 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 25,598 deaths. A study by the Federal Univ. of Pelotas and Rio Grande de do Sul state has concluded that the caseload is seven time the official number.
(Econ., 5/30/20, p.26)
2020 May 28, China reported just two new coronavirus cases.
(AP, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, India’s top court ordered state authorities to provide free train rides and proper food and water to hundreds of thousands of migrant workers returning to their villages in the blazing heat after being thrown out of work. India reported another record single-day jump of 6,566 coronavirus cases, pushing up the total to 158,333 confirmed cases and 4,531 deaths.
(AP, 5/28/20)(Good Morning America, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, Indonesia recorded 687 new coronavirus cases bringing its total to 24,538. The total death toll was near 1,500.
(SFC, 5/29/20, p.A6)
2020 May 28, In Malawi manhunts have begun after more than 400 people, recently repatriated from South Africa and elsewhere, fled a center at a stadium in Blantyre. At least 46 escapees had tested positive for the virus. Authorities worry they will spread COVID-19 in countries whose health systems can be rapidly overwhelmed.
(AP, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, Russia reported more than 8,300 new infections. The total number of infections topped 379,000. Russian officials reported 174 new deaths, for a total of almost 4,150.
(AP, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, South Korea reported its biggest jump in coronavirus cases in more than 50 days. The Korean Centers for Disease Control reported 79 newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases.
(AP, 5/28/20)(Good Morning America, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, Swiss-based Novartis said its gene therapy unit AveXis it has signed a manufacturing deal to help produce a novel genetic COVID-19 vaccine candidate being developed by US researchers in Massachusetts.
(Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, In Zimbabwe manhunts have begun after more than a hundred people, some with the coronavirus, fled quarantine centers. Nearly all of Zimbabwe’s 75 new cases this week came from the centers that hold hundreds of people who have returned, sometimes involuntarily, from neighboring South Africa and Botswana.
(AP, 5/28/20)
2020 May 29, US President Donald Trump said that he has terminated Washington's relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO), accusing the United Nations agency of bowing to pressure from China and allowing the Covid-19 pandemic to spread out of control.
(South China Morning Post, 5/30/20)
2020 May 29, California to date had 106,402 cases of coronavirus and 4,071 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,435 cases and 441 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,745,606 with the death toll at 102,798.
(sfist.com, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, Georgia's confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose to 5,260 as Gov. Brian Kemp announced plans to ease restrictions meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 5/30/20, p.A6)
2020 May 29, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the end of a 10-week stay-at-home order meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 5/30/20, p.A6)
2020 May 29, Dagestan officials said the new coronavirus is sweeping through some mountain villages and that they are struggling to treat patients properly, protect medics or even count the dead. Dagestan had recorded 686 coronavirus deaths as of May 17.
(Reuters, 5/30/20)
2020 May 29, The European health regulator said healthcare professionals should closely monitor COVID-19 patients receiving malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for serious side effects, stressing the need for in-depth clinical data on benefits and risks.
(Reuters, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, Iran announced its highest number of new coronavirus infections in nearly two months and warned the Middle East's deadliest outbreak was worsening in some regions. 2,819 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall total to 146,668. The virus claimed 50 lives over the same period, raising the overall toll to 7,677.
(AFP, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, Italy's civil protection agency reported 345 new coronavirus infections in the Lombardy region, bringing the total in the region to 88,500. This was about 40% of Italy's total.
(SFC, 5/30/20, p.A5)
2020 May 29, The Maldives reported 1,513 coronavirus cases and five deaths as it began relaxing of restrictions imposed since mid-April.
(SFC, 5/30/20, p.A5)
2020 May 29, New Zealand reached a milestone in its effort to end its coronavirus outbreak, with just one person in the nation of 5 million still known to be infected. The country has reported 22 COVID-19 deaths out of 1,504 infections.
(The Week, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, In Nigeria nearly 9,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed as worries grew about undetected spread in the north.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, The Philippines reported 21 more novel coronavirus deaths and 1,046 additional infections. Total deaths rose to 942 while confirmed cases reached 16,634.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, Police in Moscow and St. Petersburg detained 25 people who came out to protest, in violation of city coronavirus restrictions, against the arrest of a prominent Russian journalist. The activists were protesting against the arrest of journalist Ilya Azar, who was sentenced to 15 days in jail the night before, also for holding a one-man protest amid the lockdown.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, South Africa said it has a backlog of nearly 100,000 unprocessed tests for the coronavirus, a striking example of the painful shortage of testing kits and reagents across Africa as cases steadily rise. The country has the most confirmed cases in Africa with 27,403.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 May 29, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the deaths of the first two UN peacekeepers from COVID-19. He made the announcement at a ceremony marking the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, saying both peacekeepers, who died over the last 24 hours, were serving in Mali. One was from Cambodia and the other from El Salvador.
(AP, 5/30/20)(SSFC, 5/31/20, p.A7)
2020 May 30, California to date had 107,535 cases of coronavirus and 4,091 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,709 cases and 442 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,764,671 with the death toll at 103,605.
(sfist.com, 5/30/20)
2020 May 30, In Bangladesh the first death of a Rohingya refugee was recorded. At least 29 refugees have tested positive for the virus.
(SFC, 6/3/20, p.A6)
2020 May 30, Brazil reported a record 33,274 new cases of the novel coronavirus. Brazil now has 498,440 confirmed cases, a level of contagion second only to the United States. The death increased to 28,834, with 956 new deaths in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 5/30/20)
2020 May 30, Burundi has registered 42 cases of the coronavirus.
(Econ., 5/30/20, p.39)
2020 May 30, India registered another record jump with 7,964 coronavirus cases and 265 deaths. Total cases now stand at 173,763 with 4,971 deaths.
(SSFC, 5/31/20, p.A7)
2020 May 30, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani announced that collective prayers will resume in mosques. A further 57 people who tested positive for the virus died over the last day, taking the total confirmed death toll to 7,734. The health ministry announced 2,282 new confirmed infections, taking the total number of declared infections since February to 148,950.
(AP, 5/30/20)
2020 May 30, Slovakia has recorded 1,513 cases of the coronavirus and 28 deaths.
(Econ., 5/30/20, p.44)
2020 May 30, South Korea reported 39 new cases of the coronavirus. South Korea has confirmed 11,441 cases and 269 deaths.
(SSFC, 5/31/20, p.A7)
2020 May 30, Taiwan's government said it had approved Gilead Sciences' potential COVID-19 treatment, remdesivir, to treat the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 5/30/20)
2020 May 31, California to date had 111,893 cases of coronavirus and 4,171 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,926 cases and 444 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,788,762 with the death toll at 104,356.
(sfist.com, 5/31/20)
2020 May 31, Authorities in Bogota, Colombia, began locking down an area of nearly 1.5 million people as coronavirus cases continued to rise.
(AP, 5/31/20)
2020 May 31, In Iran 2,516 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 151,466. The virus claimed another 63 lives over the same period, raising the overall toll to 7,797.
(AFP, 5/31/20)
2020 May 31, Pakistan's daily death toll from COVID-19 kept climbing, hitting a new high of 88 overnight putting the death toll at 1,483. The country has counted 69,496 positive cases of COVID-19.
(AP, 5/31/20)
2020 May 31, Tens of thousands of mosques across Saudi Arabia reopened for the first time in more than two months, with worshipers ordered to follow strict guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Islam's holiest site in Mecca remained closed to the public. Saudi Arabia also lifted a ban on domestic air travel and permitted some public sector workers to resume office work again, though full attendance will not be allowed until mid-June.
(AP, 5/31/20)
2020 May 31, Spain's PM Pedro Sánchez said that he would ask Parliament for a final two-week extension of the nation’s state of emergency that is set to expire on June 7. That allows the government to keep ordering lockdown measures to control its coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed at least 27,000 lives.
(AP, 5/31/20)
2020 May, In Kenya more than 100 people arriving from Tanzania tested positive for coronavirus and were sent back. At Ugandan border testing points, at least 15 Tanzanian lorry drivers tested positive. The authorities in Tanzania have not released official figures on the extent of the outbreak there since the start of May.
(BBC, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 1, California to date had 114,732 cases of coronavirus and 4,218 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 14,184 cases and 446 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,809,109 with the death toll at 105,099.
(sfist.com, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 1, Abiomed Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for its temporary invasive heart pump to help patients suffering from COVID-19 related right heart failure. It was approved for use in the United States for treating right ventricular failure after cardiac surgery in 2017.
(Reuters, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 1, The World Health Organization said officials have confirmed a second Ebola outbreak in Congo. Congolese health authorities have identified six cases in the north near Mbandaka in Equateur province, including four fatalities. Congo has also confirmed 611 cases of COVID-19, including 20 deaths, and the number was rising.
(AP, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 1, India registered 230 coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing that total to 5,394.
(SFC, 6/2/20, p.A3)
2020 Jun 1, Iran announced almost 3,000 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily count in two months. The caseload was raised to 154,445 with 2,979 new infections recorded in the past 24 hours. 81 deaths in the past day raised that total to 7,878. Half Iran's fatalities for the past day were recorded in three provinces.
(AP, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 1, The Philippine health ministry reported three new deaths and 552 more confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Total deaths increased to 960 and confirmed cases reached 18,638 as the government eased strict quarantine measures in Manila.
(Reuters, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 1, Moscow residents ventured out to exercise, stroll and shop as the city eased a strict nine-week lockdown, but millions remained largely confined to their homes as Russia recorded thousands more coronavirus cases. Russia recorded 9,035 new infections bringing its total to 414,878. The death toll was put at 4,855.
(AFP, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 1, South Korea reporter 24 new coronavirus cases linked to a group of churches near Seoul. The country has reported 11,503 cases and 271 deaths.
(SFC, 6/2/20, p.A3)
2020 Jun 1, South Korea-based Celltrion said its experimental antibody COVID-19 treatment demonstrated an up to 100-fold reduction in viral load of the disease in animal testing, saying it aims to start human clinical trials in late July.
(AP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 1, Spain recorded 71 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours and no officials deaths from the virus. The official death toll stands at 27,127 with 240,000 confirmed cases.
(SFC, 6/2/20, p.A3)
2020 Jun 1, Uruguay's government began reopening schools, with sample testing for COVID-19 of teachers and students.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.28)
2020 Jun 1, Aid organizations in war-torn Yemen made an urgent plea for funding to shore up their operations, saying they have already been forced to stop some of their work even as the coronavirus rips through the country.
(AP, 6/1/20)
2020 Jun 2, A top immigration official for the Trump administration admitted that immigrants are not systematically tested for the coronavirus when they are apprehended, nor when they are removed from the United States.
(Yahoo News, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, California to date had 117,214 cases of coronavirus and 4,305 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 14,342 cases and 449 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,830,066 with the death toll at 106,120.
(sfist.com, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, US drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb Co said its treatment Zeposia, which it gained through its $74 billion buyout of Celgene last year, met the main goals of a late-stage study testing it in patients with an inflammatory bowel disease.
(Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, High-flying shares in Novacyt dropped as much as 12% after the healthcare diagnostics firm said a French regulator had decided against approving the company's coronavirus test for reimbursement by the state.
(Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, Iran reported 3,117 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours bringing the overall caseload to 157,562. The virus claimed another 64 lives in the past day, raising the overall death toll to 7,942. The health ministry lamented that people were ignoring social distancing rules.
(AFP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike issued a coronavirus alert after 34 new cases were reported in the city, where infections had slowed to a few per day in late May.
(AP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, Japan approved saliva-based tests for the coronavirus, offering a safer, simpler way to diagnose infection than nasal swabs as it looks to boost its testing rates.
(Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 3, California to date had 119,228 cases of coronavirus and 4,377 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 14,486 cases and 453 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,849,560 with the death toll at 107,093.
(sfist.com, 6/3/20)
2020 Jun 3, Afghanistan has recorded 16,400 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 270 deaths.
(SFC, 6/3/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 3, Iran officially confirmed 3,134 new cases, bringing the total number of infections to 160,696. Another 70 people have died taking the death toll to 8,012. Infections have been on a rising trajectory in the Islamic republic since hitting a near two-month low on May 2.
(AFP, 6/3/20)
2020 Jun 3, Lebanon has recorded a total 1,256 cases of COVID-19 and 27 deaths. The first confirmed case was reported on February 21 among a group who flew in from a pilgrimage in hard-hit Iran.
(AFP, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 3, Dutch broadcaster RTL reported that the government intends to cull the mink at farms where animals have been infected with the coronavirus. Coronavirus has so far been detected on eight farms in the Netherlands. A law banning mink farming in the Netherlands was passed in 2013, and the remaining 120 farms are due to cease operations in 2023.
(Reuters, 6/3/20)
2020 Jun 3, A South African court has found some coronavirus lockdown regulations imposed by the government "unconstitutional and invalid". The judge picked out rules around funerals, informal workers and amount of exercise as "irrational". The government was given 14 days to overhaul the regulations.
(BBC, 6/3/20)
2020 Jun 3, South Korea reported 49 new cases of COVID-19 bringing the national total to 11,590 and 273 deaths.
(SFC, 6/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jun 3, Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, who has overseen the country’s laissez-faire response to the coronavirus, defended the country's coronavirus strategy but acknowledged that the country has had too many deaths from Covid-19 and should have done more to curb the spread of the virus.
(NY Times, 6/4/20)(SFC, 6/4/20, p.A5)
2020 Jun 3, Uganda has reported 507 cases of COVID-19 with no deaths. Medical workers say they lack adequate supplies of personal protective equipment for tackling COVID-19 and the risk of infection is making some reluctant to treat patients. Seven health workers including two doctors and two nurses have recently contracted the virus.
(Reuters, 6/3/20)
2020 Jun 4, Arizona reported nearly a 1,000 new coronavirus cases amid a recent surge in hospitalizations. The state now has tallied more than 22,000 and 981 deaths.
(SFC, 6/5/20, p.A8)
2020 Jun 4, California to date had 122,238 cases of coronavirus and 4,444 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 14,735 cases and 453 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,870,156 with the death toll at 108,051.
(sfist.com, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 4, An influential medical journal article that found hydroxychloroquine increased the risk of death in COVID-19 patients was retracted, adding to the controversy around a drug championed by US President Donald Trump. The observational study published in the Lancet on May 22 said it looked at 96,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, some treated with the decades-old malaria drug.
(Reuters, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 4, Brazil recorded a record 1,473 coronavirus fatalities taking its total tally to more than 34,000. The official number of infections rose to nearly 615,000, second only to the US.
(The Guardian, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 4, It was reported that violence in Burkina Faso linked to jihadists has spread from the north to the western breadbasket in the Boucle du Mouhoun region. Reports were rising of jihadists burning granaries and looting food warehouses at schools. Burkina Faso has reported 884 cases of the coronavirus and 53 deaths.
(SFC, 6/4/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 4, India registered 9,304 new cases of the coronavirus raising its totals to 216,919 cases and 6,075 deaths.
(SFC, 6/5/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 4, Iran announced 3,574 new coronavirus infections, the most in one day since the pandemic started. Authorities increase health warnings following the resurgence. 59 people died of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, taking the overall official toll to 8,071. A total of 164,270 people have tested positive for the virus since the first cases were announced in February.
(AP, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 4, The Mexican Ministry of Health registered a record 1,092 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, more than double the previous single-day record. The nation's official death toll now stands at 11,729.
(Good Morning America, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 4, The Pakistani government registered 4,688 new cases of COVID-19 and 82 new fatalities across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 85,264 confirmed cases and 1,770 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 4, Russia's coronavirus headquarters said it had registered 8,831 new cases of COVID-19 and 169 deaths in the past 24 hours. The country's tally now stands at 441,108 diagnosed cases with 5,384 deaths.
(Good Morning America, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 5, California to date had 125,718 cases of coronavirus and 4,525 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 15,025 cases and 461 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,894,502 with the death toll at 109,000.
(sfist.com, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 5, US drugmaker AbbVie Inc said it would develop an antibody therapy to prevent and treat COVID-19 in partnership with three organizations including the Netherlands' Utrecht University.
(Reuters, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 5, The UK became the second country to officially record more than 40,000 coronavirus-related deaths as more than 100 scientists wrote the British government to urge it to reconsider lifting virus lockdown restrictions.
(AP, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 5, British scientists halted a major drug trial after it found that the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine, touted by US President Donald Trump as a potential "game changer" in the pandemic, was "useless" at treating COVID-19 patients.
(Reuters, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 5, Iran registered 2,886 new cases of infection, bringing the total number to 167,156. The health ministry said 63 more people had died, with the official death toll now at 8,134.
(AFP, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 5, Iraq's Health ministry reported at least 1,006 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours bringing the nationwide total to 9,846. The death toll stood at 285.
(SFC, 6/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 5, Pakistani security forces shut down more than 3,000 shops and markets across the country for violating social distancing regulations. Pakistan recorded 68 more coronavirus-related deaths raising the overall toll to 1,838. Total infections reached 89,249.
(SFC, 6/6/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 5, It was reported that medicinal oxygen to treat the coronavirus has become a scarce commodity in Peru. President Martín Vizcarra has issued an emergency decree ordering industrial plants to ramp up production or purchase oxygen from other countries.
(AP, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 6, California to date had 126,329 cases of coronavirus and 4,538 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 15,270 cases and 461 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,909,077 with the death toll at 109,127.
(sfist.com, 6/6/20)
2020 Jun 6, Algeria has reported about 700 deaths due to the coronavirus. The government has used the outbreak to to repress the Hirak, as the country's protest movement is known.
(Econ., 7/6/20, p.38)
2020 Jun 6, Brazil's government stopped publishing a running total of coronavirus deaths and infections in an extraordinary move that critics call an attempt to hide the true toll of the disease in Latin America's largest nation. President Jair Bolsonaro tweeted that disease totals are “not representative" of the country's current situation.
(AP, 6/6/20)
2020 Jun 6, Colombia has had 33,466 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,099 deaths.
(Econ., 7/6/20, p.26)
2020 Jun 6, India reported 9,887 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the total to 236,657.
(SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A8)
2020 Jun 6, Iran's total number of coronavirus cases rose to 169,425 with 2,269 new infections confirmed in the past 24 hours. 75 people who were infected died in the same period, bringing the overall fatalities to 8,209. President Hassan Rouhani warned Iranians to prepare to live with the novel coronavirus "for a long time", as the country gradually rolls back restrictions imposed to curb the outbreak. Universities reopened after being closed for more than three and a half months.
(AFP, 6/6/20)(Reuters, 6/6/20)
2020 Jun 6, In Poland a rapid growth of coronavirus infections among miners at the state-run coal producer JSW boosted the increase in daily cases to the highest since May 12. There were 576 new cases in the country, of which 346 were linked to the JSW mine at Zofiowka. The daily increase brought the total number of people infected in the country to 25,986, with 1,153 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/6/20)
2020 Jun 7, California to date had 129,099 cases of coronavirus and 4,608 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 15,481 cases and 463 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,931,325 with the death toll at 110,110.
(sfist.com, 6/7/20)
2020 Jun 7, India reported 9,971 new cases of the coronavirus taking its total to 246,628 with 6,929 fatalities.
(SFC, 6/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Jun 7, Iran confirmed 2,364 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 171,789. Another 72 people died in the same period, raising the overall death toll to 8,281.
(AFP, 6/7/20)
2020 Jun 7, South Korea reported 57 additional cases of the coronavirus taking the country's total to 11,776 cases, with 273 deaths.
(SFC, 6/8/20, p.A4)
2020 Jun 7, Tanzania's President John Magufuli declared the country "coronavirus-free" thanks to prayers by citizens. Mr Magufuli said last week that only four patients were receiving treatment in the largest city, Dar es Salaam.
(BBC, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, The US Food and Drug Administration allowed emergency use of a COVID-19 saliva test made by privately held Phosphorus Diagnostics LLC that allows people to send in their saliva samples to the company's laboratory for testing.
(Reuters, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, California to date had 131,138 cases of coronavirus and 4,634 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 15,746 cases and 464 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,951,722 with the death toll at 110,771.
(sfist.com, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, The Chinese government vigorously defended its actions in a new, detailed account that portrays the country’s approach to combating the outbreak as a model for the world.
(NY Times, 6/7/20)
2020 Jun 8, Iran urged its citizens to wear masks in public as it announced another 70 deaths from the novel coronavirus and 2,043 new cases of infection. The latest figures took the overall toll to 8,351 dead out of a total of 173,832 people infected.
(AFP, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, Poland said it will close two coal mines owned by state-run JSW and ten mines of PGG group for three weeks to stop the spread of the new coronavirus among miners.
(Reuters, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said that he's worried about fast rising coronavirus infections. More than half of South Africa’s more than 48,000 confirmed cases have been recorded in the last two weeks.
(AP, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, South Africa partially reopened its schools. After 5 weeks nearly 800 schools reported cases of COVID-19.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.50)
2020 Jun 8, UN General Assembly Pres. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande said that world leaders will not be coming to New York for their annual gathering in late September for the first time in the 75-year history of the United Nations because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, It was reported that the coronavirus is spreading throughout Yemen. Rebels in the Houthi-controlled north have suppressed information about the virus and severely punished those who speak out.
(AP, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, It was reported that Arizona, Utah and New Mexico all posted COVID-19 rises of 40% or higher for the week ended June 7 compared with the prior seven days.
(Reuters, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, California to date had 136,039 cases of coronavirus and 4,730 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 16,062 cases and 475 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,973,083 with the death toll at 111,751.
(sfist.com, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, AstraZeneca received $23.7 million in funding from a US government agency to advance the development of antibody-based COVID-19 treatments as the British drugmaker ramps up efforts beyond its potential vaccine to combat the pandemic.
(Reuters, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, Glass maker Corning Inc said it would receive $204 million from the US government to boost the manufacturing capacity of its vials that will be used to store coronavirus vaccines and treatments.
(Reuters, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, Argentina confirmed more than 1,000 new cases as the rate of new infections continued to rise just days after it extended lockdown measures in the capital Buenos Aires.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 9, Britain has seen the deadliest coronavirus outbreak in Europe, with nearly 40,700 confirmed deaths. Official statistics released today suggested that thousands more have died in the pandemic, and the true toll could be over 50,000 dead.
(AP, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, Iran announced another 74 deaths from the coronavirus. Cases of infection increased by 2,095 over the last 12 hours to total 175,927 and the overall death toll rose to 8,425. A health official said nearly one in five Iranians may have been infected with the novel coronavirus since the country's outbreak started in February.
(AFP, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, Israel's internal security service Shin Bet said it has halted its cell-phone tracking of coronavirus carriers, citing the success of alternatives to the controversial method of containing contagions.
(Reuters, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 9, Moscow lifted a strict anti-coronavirus lockdown after more than two months of restrictions. Health officials reported 8,595 new cases and 171 deaths. The total death toll reached 6,142. The overall number of infections rose to 485,253.
(AFP, 6/9/20)
2020 Jun 10, The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a study to evaluate drugs prescribed to treat COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, among children and adolescents across the United States.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Arizona again told hospitals to activate the coronavirus emergency plans after cases spiked following reopening. The state's stay-at-home order ended on May 15, and its cases have increased 115 percent since then.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, California to date had 139,622 cases of coronavirus and 4,853 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 16,231 cases and 478 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,999,392 with the death toll at 112,878.
(sfist.com, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Johnson & Johnson said it would start human trials of its potential COVID-19 vaccine in the second half of July, two months earlier than planned.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Chinese researchers said a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed showed promise in trials in monkeys, triggering antibodies and raising no safety issues and that a human trial with more than 1,000 participants is under way.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Ghana's Incas Diagnostics expects the country's regulator to approve its new COVID-19 antibody test by the end of July, saying its kits could help health authorities ease pandemic restrictions.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Indonesia reported its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases for a second successive day, with 1,241 new infections, taking its total to 34,316.
(Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Iran announced 2,011 infections confirmed in the past 24 hours raising its overall caseload to 177,938. Fatalities reached 8,506 with 81 new deaths over the same period.
(AP, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, Japanese biotech AnGes Inc said it expects its coronavirus vaccine to be ready as early as the first half of 2021, if it can overcome supply chain and production hurdles.
(AP, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 10, It was reported that authorities in Zimbabwe have started publicly naming people who have escaped from quarantine centers and urging the public to report them to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Zimbabwe has reported 314 cases of COVID-19. The figures have risen from the 56 recorded toward the end of May. Most of the new cases have been reported at the quarantine centers.
(AP, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 11, California to date had 139,863 cases of coronavirus and 4,857 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 16,456 cases and 484 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,011,341 with the death toll at 113,341.
(sfist.com, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, It was reported that coronavirus cases are rising in 21 US states, a worrying trend that could worsen as people return to work and venture out during the summer. It was also reported that outbreaks of the virus are emerging at US fruit and vegetable farms and packing plants.
(AP, 6/11/20)(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon said that she was pausing efforts to reopen the state’s economy for a week because of a recent rise in virus cases.
(NY Times, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 11, Moderna Inc confirmed it plans to start a trial of 30,000 volunteers of its much-anticipated coronavirus vaccine in July as the company enters the final stage of testing.
(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said it has begun human testing of its experimental antibody cocktail as a treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, Emergent BioSolutions Inc said it has signed an $87 million deal to make AstraZeneca Plc's experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, boosting the British drugmaker's efforts to bring a vaccine to the market.
(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, Brazil reported 30,412 new coronavirus cases, bringing its cumulative total to above 800,000. Shops reopened in the country's two largest cities.
(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 11, Beijing, a city of 21 million people, confirmed a new coronavirus case, the first confirmed case in the capital in nearly two months.
(Reuters, 6/11/20)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.34)
2020 Jun 11, In Haiti coronavirus infections spiked to 3,334 with 51 deaths.
(SFC, 6/12/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 11, In India coronavirus cases shot up, rising by a record of nearly 10,000, raising questions about whether authorities have done enough to avert catastrophe. The total count of infections reached 286,579, the fifth highest in the world, with 8,102 deaths.
(AP, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, Indonesia added 979 new coronavirus cases.
(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 11, In Iran 2,238 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours took the country's total to 180,156. The overall death toll rose to 8,584 with 78 new deaths.
(AFP, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, South Korean health officials reported 45 new cases of the coronavirus raising national totals to 11,947 and 276 deaths.
(SFC, 6/12/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 12, California to date had 146,358 cases of coronavirus and 4,978 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 16,811 cases and 493 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,043,656 with the death toll at 114,471.
(sfist.com, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Oklahoma health officials said a spike in coronavirus cases in the Tulsa area is linked to indoor events and warned that people who attend such gatherings should take health precautions.
(AP, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Texas reported 2,166 patients in hospitals with the coronavirus. 19 deaths were reported bringing the overall toll to 1,939.
(SSFC, 6/14/20, p.A9)
2020 Jun 12, Australia's chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy said the coronavirus has been eliminated in many areas of the country, as more than half of the 38 cases reported over the past week were travelers returning from abroad and remaining quarantined.
(NY Times, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, In China the local government in Beijing said that it would suspend the resumption of school for young primary school students after the appearance of three new cases of Covid-19 in the city.
(NY Times, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Hong Kong protesters marched in a shopping mall marking the one-year anniversary of a clash with police outside the city's legislature.
(SFC, 6/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 12, India’s nationwide caseload overtook Britain to became the fourth highest in the world with 297,535 confirmed coronavirus cases and 8,498 deaths. The number of cases had increased by 10,956 from the previous day.
(AP, 6/12/20)(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Indian drugmaker Zydus Cadila said it signed a non-exclusive licensing pact with Gilead Sciences Inc to manufacture and market antiviral drug remdesivir, the first treatment to show improvement in COVID-19 trials.
(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Indonesia reported 1,111 new coronavirus infections and 48 new deaths, taking the total number of cases to 36,406 and fatalities to 2,048.
(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Iran reported 75 deaths and more than 2,369 new cases of novel coronavirus as calls mounted for all people to wear masks in public. The new infections in the past 24 hours took the total to 182,545. The new deaths brought that overall toll to 8,659.
(AFP, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, Lebanon's central bank agreed to inject fresh dollars into the market to prop up the national currency following a night of protests spurred by the dramatic plunging of the Lebanese pound.
(SFC, 6/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 12, In the Philippines hundreds of activists in Manila staged protests against a proposed terrorism law they say could be used to quash dissent.
(SFC, 6/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 12, Russia reported 8,987 new coronavirus infections, taking the total to 511,423 cases. Russia has confirmed a total of 6,715 coronavirus deaths. President Vladimir Putin said an "absolute majority" of Russians backed his controversial plan to change the constitution, as he made his first public appearance after weeks of lockdown.
(AFP, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, In southern Somalia Al-Shabab unveiled a COVID-19 isolation and care facility in Jilib, a major stronghold of the extremist group. The facility included a round-the-clock hotline.
(AP, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 12, South Korea reported 56 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the national totals to 12,003 cases and 277 deaths.
(SFC, 6/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 12, Sudan has reported 6,879 coronavirus infections and 433 deaths. Of those, 193 cases and 54 fatalities have been confirmed across Darfur — a figure experts believe is a vast undercount.
(AP, 6/12/20)
2020 Jun 13, California to date had 147,938 cases of coronavirus and 4,994 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 17,007 cases and 493 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,068,591 with the death toll at 115,251.
(sfist.com, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 13, Florida health officials reported 2,581 new coronavirus cases. Fatalities now stand at over 3,000 out of 73,552 confirmed cases.
(SSFC, 6/14/20, p.A9)
2020 Jun 13, In North Carolina two more prisoners died at the Federal Correctional Complex at Butner from COVID-19 complications. Both men were in the low-security prison, which has the largest coronavirus outbreak in the federal prison system, with 623 total active cases, eight among staff members.
(Charlotte Observer, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 13, West Virginia reported a significant number of coronavirus outbreaks linked to houses of worship. A total of five churches have seen outbreaks. Pres. Donald Trump insisted in late May that churches reopen, threatening governors who continued to impose restrictions on houses of worship.
(Yahoo News, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 13, It was reported that the percentage of Argentines in poverty is expected to reach as high as 45% this year as the coronavirus pandemic worsens. Argentina already faced a 50% rate of inflation, overwhelming debt and difficulty accessing credit.
(SFC, 6/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 13, Brazil has recorded nearly 40,000 deaths from the coronavirus, th world's third highest number.
(Econ., 6/13/20, p.26)
2020 Jun 13, The Chinese capital of Beijing reported 36 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, setting an all-time high for new daily infections in the city.
(Reuters, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 13, India reported its biggest single-day jump in coronavirus cases, adding 11,458 confirmed infections and taking its total count to more than 300,000. India has 145,779 active cases, and has recorded 8,884 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 13, Indonesia reported 1,014 new coronavirus infections and 43 more deaths, taking the total number of cases to 37,420 and fatalities to 2,091.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 13, Iran reported 2,410 new coronavirus cases raising the total count to 184,955. The death of 71 people in the past 24 hours raised total fatalities to 8,730. President Hassan Rouhani said Iran will reimpose restrictions to stem the surge if health regulations are not observed.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 13, The Philippines' health ministry reported 607 new coronavirus infections and 22 more deaths, taking the total number of cases to 25,392 and fatalities to 1,074.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 13, In Turkey the number of new coronavirus cases rose to 1,459 in the last 24 hours and 14 people died, bringing total fatalities to 4,792. Turkey has reported a total 176,677 cases of COVID-19.
(Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020 Jun 14, California to date had 152,285 cases of coronavirus and 5,082 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 17,262 cases and 497 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,093,448 with the death toll at 115,730.
(sfist.com, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 14, Egypt announced 1,677 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus. This raised the totals to 1,484 deaths and 42,980 confirmed cases.
(SFC, 6/15/20, p.A5)
2020 Jun 14, It was reported that at least 58 employees of Guatemala's presidential offices have tested positive for the coronavirus. Guatemala has reported 8,600 infections and 351 deaths.
(SSFC, 6/14/20, p.A8)
2020 Jun 14, Indonesia reported 857 new coronavirus infections and 43 more deaths, taking the total number of cases to 38,277 and fatalities to 2,134.
(AP, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 14, Iran reported 107 Covid-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the overall toll to 8,837. There were 2,472 new cases confirmed in the past day, bringing the total infection caseload to 187,427.
(AFP, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 14, The Philippines reported 539 more coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 25,930. Health authorities said 14 additional fatalities related to the novel coronavirus took the death toll to 1,088.
(Reuters, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 14, Russia confirmed 8,835 new virus cases, taking the total to 528,964.
(AFP, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 14, South Korea confirmed 34 more coronavirus cases raising the country's total to 12,085 cases and 277 deaths.
(SFC, 6/15/20, p.A5)
2020 Jun 15, California to date had 155,044 cases of coronavirus and 5,107 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 17,495 cases and 498 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,110,795 with the death toll at 116,090.
(sfist.com, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, Florida reported a daily increase of 1,758 COVID-19 infections. That number follows two days with more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases.
(Yahoo News, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 15, Cameroon recorded one of the highest number of coronavirus cases in the sub-Sahara Africa region. It hit the 10,000 cases milestone, with 277 deaths and remains one of the continents hotspot for the pandemic. Archbishop Samuel Kleda of Douala diocese, who has practiced herbal medicine for several years, says he has developed two plant-based remedies for COVID-19 which are given free to those who test positive for the respiratory disease.
(Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 15, In China several districts of Beijing set up security checkpoints, closed schools and ordered people to be tested for the coronavirus after an unexpected spike of cases linked to the biggest wholesale food market in Asia. Beijing said it had tracked down 79 infections over the previous four days.
(Reuters, 6/15/20)(SFC, 6/16/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 15, India's Health Ministry reported a jump of more than 11,000 infections nationwide for a third straight day.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, Iran said 113 new fatalities took to 8,950 the total number of COVID-19 deaths since the country's outbreak began in February. Another 2,449 people had tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, taking the Islamic republic's overall caseload to 189,876.
(AFP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, Montenegro reported a new COVID-19 case, a person who arrived from neighboring Bosnia, three weeks after declaring it was free of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, North Macedonian health authorities announced 103 new confirmed coronavirus cases and five deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 4,157 and the death toll to 193 in this country of around 2 million people. President Stevo Pendarovski declared an eight-day state of emergency ahead of an early national election after the country’s main political leaders agreed the vote will be held on July 15.
(AP, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 15, Norway said it will halt its track and trace app and delete all data collected so far after criticism from its data protection watchdog.
(Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 15, The Russian cities of Penza, Pyatigorsk and Yakutsk joined a growing list of places that are cancelling June 24 military parades over coronavirus fears despite a decision by President Vladimir Putin to press ahead with the main event in Moscow. Coronavirus cases rose by 8,246 cases over the last 24 hours raising the total to 537,210 and 7,091 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/15/20)(SFC, 6/16/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 15, Ukraine resumed flights to countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, India, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, relaxing a ban in place since March 17. Ukraine's own caseload has spiked in recent days to nearly 32,000 following a decision in May to resume public transportation and reopen of malls and gyms.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 16, The US Department of Health and Human Services said the Trump administration is narrowing its list of promising experimental coronavirus vaccines to about seven from 14.
(Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 16, California to date had 157,293 cases of coronavirus and 5,156 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 17,813 cases and 504 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,134,973 with the death toll at 116,854.
(sfist.com, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 16, Florida reported a record-high one-day increase of 2,783 coronavirus cases. 55 more virus-related deaths raised that toll to 2,993.
(SFC, 6/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 16, Vermont health officials said 83 cases of the coronavirus have been recorded in the Bhutanese community of Winooski and that the virus is expanding into neighboring Burlington.
(SFC, 6/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 16, The World Health Organization's regional director for the Americas Carissa Etienne said that the region is fast approaching 4 million cases of coronavirus and the pandemic continues to accelerate. Etienne said Brazil accounts for 23% of the more than 3.8 million cases in the Americas and 23% of the almost 204,000 deaths in the region.
(Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 16, Researchers in England said they have the first evidence that a drug can improve COVID-19 survival: A cheap, widely available steroid called dexamethasone reduced deaths by up to one third in severely ill hospitalized patients. Japan-based Nichi-Iko Pharmaceutical Co was among those that produce dexamethasone.
(AP, 6/16/20)(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020 Jun 16, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said its experimental coronavirus vaccine has triggered antibodies in clinical trials and the company plans late-stage human trials in foreign countries.
(Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 16, Iran said a third straight day of more than 100 coronavirus deaths took its overall toll past 9,000, attributing the spike to increased travel by its citizens. 115 new deaths in the past 24 hours took Iran's overall toll to 9,065. Another 2,563 people tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to 192,439 since the start of Iran's outbreak.
(AFP, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 16, Netherlands-based Signify, the world's largest lighting manufacturer, said researchers at Boston University had confirmed an ultraviolet light made by the company works to degrade most coronavirus in a laboratory setting in a matter of seconds.
(Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020 Jun 16, In New Zealand, two new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in recent arrivals from Britain, only days after the government had declared the country’s epidemic eradicated.
(NY Times, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 16, Tanzania's PM Kassim Majaliwa reported 66 active coronavirus cases, releasing data for the first time since April when Pres. John Magufuli questioned the reliability of the figures.
(BBC, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 17, Arizona confirmed 1,827 new cases of the coronavirus and 20 new deaths. Total confirmed cases rose to 40,924 and 1,239 deaths.
(SFC, 6/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 17, California to date had 163,445 cases of coronavirus and 5,282 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 18,103 cases and 511 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,163,290 with the death toll at 117,717.
(sfist.com, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 17, Shares of Chembio Diagnostics Inc slumped more than 60% after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked the emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 antibody test kit on concerns about its accuracy.
(Reuters, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 17, China's President Xi Jinping announced that Beijing will write off all interest-free loans advanced to African countries that are due this year. Speaking at the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against the Covid-19 Pandemic, which was conducted by video link, he said China will also build hospitals and send more medical experts to Africa to aid in the coronavirus fight.
(South China Morning Post, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 17, Danish authorities said mink at a farm in Denmark were found to be infected with the new coronavirus and all 11,000 of the animals there will have to be culled.
(Reuters, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 17, In Turkey the governors of Istanbul, Ankara and Bursa announced that wearing masks to curb COVID-19 are now obligatory following an uptick in confirmed cases.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 17, Iran reported more than 100 deaths from the novel coronavirus for a fourth straight day. 120 new deaths in the past 24 hours took Iran's overall toll to 9,158. Another 2,612 tested positive for COVID-19, bringing total confirmed cases to 195,051.
(AFP, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 17, Japanese researchers confirmed the presence of the coronavirus in wastewater plants, a finding that could serve as a signal for future outbreaks. The findings mirror similar studies in Australia, the United States, and Europe.
(AP, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 18, Arizona reported 2,519 new cases of the coronavirus and 32 new deaths. This raised the state's total to 43,443 and 1,271 deaths.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 18, California to date had 167,348 cases of coronavirus and 5,355 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 18,590 cases and 519 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,192,279 with the death toll at 118,467.
(sfist.com, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 18, California health officials issued a mandate that all citizens wear masks when in an indoor public place or in line waiting to enter as well as riding public transport and in public outdoor spaces where people cluster. This followed a a day after the state reported the largest number of new coronavirus cases in a single day.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A1)
2020 Jun 18, The Beijing government said that the number of coronavirus cases in a recent outbreak had risen to 158, after an additional 21 cases were reported today.
(NY Times, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 18, China released genome sequencing data for the coronavirus responsible for a recent outbreak in Beijing. Officials the next day said it identified a European strain based on preliminary studies.
(Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 18, It was reported that Honduras, Pres. Juan Orlando Hernandez and his wife have tested positive for COVID-19. Honduras has nearly 10,000 confirmed cases and 330 deaths.
(SFC, 6/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 18, India reported its highest one-day increase of 12,281 coronavirus cases. Deaths rose by 334 to 12,237.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 18, Scientists in Italy said they have found traces of the new coronavirus in wastewater collected from Milan and Turin on December 18, 2019, suggesting COVID-19 was already circulating in northern Italy before China reported the first cases.
(Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 18, Russia revised steeply higher, to nearly 500, the number of medical workers who have died after contracting COVID-19. The official figure rose to 489, some 6.4% of the overall nationwide death toll. The Health Ministry had reported on May 26 that 101 medics had died from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 18, Uruguay to date has recorded 849 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 24 deaths.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.26)
2020 Jun 19, The US State Department said COVID-19 infections have been reported at its embassy in the Afghan capital and affected staff include diplomats, contractors and locals.
(AP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 19, It was reported that several US hospitals in states with fresh surges of COVID-19 cases have started treating their sickest patients with dexamethasone rather than await confirmation of preliminary results of a study by British researchers, who said the inexpensive steroid saves lives.
(Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, Arizona's city of Phoenix approved a measure requiring people to use face masks in public to ward off the spread of the coronavirus. The state reported 3,246 additional cases increasing the statewide total to 46,689. 41 new deaths raised that total to 1,312.
(SSFC, 6/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 19, California to date had 170,581 cases of coronavirus and 5,420 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 18,814 cases and 521 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,219,977 with the death toll at 119,099.
(sfist.com, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, Oklahoma reported 359 new cases of the coronavirus. The state's death toll rose to 367.
(SFC, 6/20/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 19, US drug developer Ampio Pharmaceuticals Inc said it would begin an early stage study of its experimental treatment, Ampion, in COVID-19 patients after it received regulatory clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration.
(Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, Brazil’s Health Ministry said that total coronavirus cases now stood at 1,032,913, up more than 50,000 from a day earlier.
(AP, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, Haiti's government announced that Fritz Gerard Cerisier, an assistant to the government prosecutor, was assassinated in Port-au-Prince. Haiti reported 4,916 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 84 deaths.
(Miami Herald, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 19, Mumbai-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to make and sell oral antiviral drug favipiravir for treating mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infections in the country.
(AP, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, Pakistan reported 4,944 new confirmed cases for the coronavirus raising that total to 165,062. The death toll rose by 136 for a total of 3,229.
(SFC, 6/20/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 19, Spain updated its coronavirus numbers for the first time in nearly two weeks. At least 28,313 people have died with a COVID-19 diagnosis.
(SFC, 6/20/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 19, Zimbabwe's health minister, Obadiah Moyo, was arrested after the government came under pressure from the opposition and on social media over the procurement of coronavirus tests and equipment. He was released on bail after appearing in court on corruption charges. Zimbabwe says it has confirmed nearly 500 virus cases, including four deaths, but the actual number of cases is thought to be higher.
(BBC, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, President Donald Trump returned to the rally stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma, only to find the venue about two-thirds full, a surprising and undoubtedly disappointing turn of events for a politician who values crowd size. Trump said he's asked his administration to slow down coronavirus testing because robust testing turns up too many cases of COVID-19. Trump's campaign said six staff members helping set up for his rally have tested positive for coronavirus.
(AP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, Alabama had more than 29,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with more than a quarter of the cases reported in the last two weeks. Over the past two weeks, Alabama had the second highest number of new cases per capita in the nation.
(AP, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 20, California to date had 170,923 cases of coronavirus and 5,425 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 19,068 cases and 525 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,241,023 with the death toll at 119,475.
(sfist.com, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, Chinese officials reported 22 new coronavirus cases in Beijing, along with five others elsewhere in the country. There were no new deaths.
(AP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, Germany reported that some 800 workers at one of the country’s largest slaughterhouses were confirmed positive for the coronavirus. Authorities reported 601 new cases over the last 24 hours, following on from 770 the previous day. Earlier in June the number of new cases was as low as 300. The R number, which estimates how many people the average carrier infects, rose to 1.7.
(AP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, Guatemala replaced its health minister. The country has reported more than 11,000 coronavirus cases and 449 deaths.
(SSFC, 6/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 20, Iranian health authorities announced 115 new deaths from coronavirus raising the country's death toll to 9,507. Another 2,322 new cases of infection brought the confirmed case total to 202,584.
(AFP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, In Iraq coronavirus infections spiked seven-fold to over 29,000, up from less than 4,000 at the end of May. Deaths also spiked, with over 1,013 killed among the confirmed cases, according to Health Ministry figures.
(AP, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 20, Mexico reported 4,717 new infections and 387 additional deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the total number in the country to 175,202 cases and 20,781 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 20, South Africa reported 5,000 new COVID-19 cases as the country continued to loosen lockdown measures under economic pressure.
(SSFC, 6/21/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 20, South Korea recorded 67 new coronavirus cases, the largest 24-hour increase in about three weeks. Many cases have been linked to exposure in nightlife outlets.
(AP, 6/20/20)
2020 Jun 21, The World Health Organization reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases by its count, at more than 183,000 new cases in the latest 24 hours. The WHO said Brazil led the way with 54,771 cases tallied and the US next at 36,617. Over 15,400 came in in India.
(NBC News, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 21, California to date had 175,449 cases of coronavirus and 5,499 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 19,472 cases and 529 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,271,414 with the death toll at 119,921.
(sfist.com, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 21, Iraqi officials sounded the alarm over a surge in virus cases in Baghdad.
(AP, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 21, It was reported that the coronavirus is spreading in Pakistan at one of the fastest rates in the world, and its overwhelmed hospitals are turning away patients. But the government is pushing ahead with opening up the country, trying to salvage a near-collapsed economy.
(AP, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 22, California to date had 184,284 cases of coronavirus and 5,559 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 20,103 cases and 537 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,310,334 with the death toll at 120,384.
(sfist.com, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, Florida reported that over 100,00 people in the state have been diagnosed with the coronavirus infection. More that 3,100 people in the state have died.
(SFC, 6/23/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 22, The African Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that the continent now has 306,567 confirmed cases of the coronavirus including 8,115 deaths. South Africa accounted for nearly a third of the cases.
(SFC, 6/23/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 22, Global cases of the novel coronavirus surpassed 9 million, as Brazil and India grappled with a surge in infections, and the United States, China and other hard-hit countries reported new outbreaks.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, It was reported that a nursing home owned by Life Care Centers of America Inc has fired one nurse and banned another from the premises after the two were quoted in a Reuters investigation detailing horrific conditions, a staff exodus and a botched management response to the facility’s deadly COVID-19 outbreak. Life Care terminated Nurse Colleen Lelievre last week after managers at the Littleton, Massachusetts, home accused her of making clerical errors involving narcotics for residents. Nurse Lisa Harmon said a manager barred her from the building on June 12 without explaining why.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, Hong Kong reported 30 imported new coronavirus cases, taking the number of cases in the city to 1,162.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, India reported a record number of new coronavirus cases and a death toll of more than 400 people in the past 24 hours as foreign embassies warned their citizens in the country that hospitals might not have beds for them. 14,821 new cases brought India's total to more than 425,000. Nearly 14,000 people in India have now died from the disease caused by the virus since the country reported its first case in January.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)(SFC, 6/23/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 22, Iran's health ministry announced 119 new coronavirus deaths and another 2,573 cases of infection. That takes the overall toll to over 9,742 dead out of more than 207,500 cases in the outbreak. The Iranian rial plunged to new depths against the US dollar in what economists said was a slump partly induced by the Middle East's deadliest coronavirus outbreak.
(AFP, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, Israeli company Sonovia said it expects that a fabric it has developed will be able to neutralize close to 99% of the coronavirus, even after being washed multiple times, following a successful lab test.
(Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, The UN says the coronavirus outbreak in South Sudan is growing rapidly, with nearly 1,900 cases, including more than 50 health workers infected, more than 30 deaths and no way to know the true number of infections.
(AP, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 23, The United States recorded the second-largest increase in coronavirus cases since the health crisis began, with a rise of 35,588 new infections. A dozen states saw infections surge.
(Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 23, The US extradited former Haitian paramilitary leader Emmanuel Constant. He was immediately arrested as he landed in Haiti, where he faced murder and torture charges from the 1990s. constant has alleged that he was on the CIA payroll.
(SFC, 6/24/20, p.A4)
2020 Jun 23, Arizona reported a daily record of nearly 3,600 coronavirus cases.
(SFC, 6/24/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 23, California to date had 191,372 cases of coronavirus and 5,618 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 20,857 cases and 538 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,347,022 with the death toll at 121,228.
(sfist.com, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee ordered residents to wear face masks in public as officials across the country sought new means to control the coronavirus pandemic while easing clamp-downs on residents and reopening the economy.
(Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said it has received $71 million from the US Department of Defense (DoD) to scale up production of the company's devices that are used to administer its experimental COVID-19 vaccine into the skin.
(Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Researchers reported that a trial in pigs of AstraZeneca's experimental COVID-19 vaccine has found that two doses of the shot produced a greater antibody response than a single dose.
(Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said it has won approval to run a large-scale "Phase 3" clinical trial of its novel coronavirus vaccine candidate in the UAE.
(Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, In Germany Guetersloh becoming the first area in the country to be ordered back into lockdown. More than 1,500 workers at the Guetersloh meatpacking plant have tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. Meat-processing plants around the world have proven to be coronavirus infection hotspots.
(AP, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd said it will price its generic version of Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir for use in COVID-19 patients at less than 5,000 rupees ($66).
(AP, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Iran reported 121 new coronavirus deaths, its highest daily toll in over two months, as it battles to contain the Middle East's deadliest COVID-19 outbreak. 2,445 people had tested positive for COVID in the past 24 hours, raising the country's caseload to 209,970. The new fatalities brought the overall virus death toll to 9,863.
(AP, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Kazakhstan has reported almost 29,000 COVID-19 cases, up from about 5,000 at the end of the lockdown. Almaty's the city's healthcare chief said the city may convert two sports arenas into COVID-19 hospitals as existing facilities for patients with suspected and confirmed cases are nearly full.
(Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 23, Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov abandoned plans to attend the Moscow 75th anniversary Victory Day parade when two members of his delegation tested positive for the virus after arriving in Moscow. He and the delegation returned to Kyrgyzstan and the president went into self-isolation. The parade for the May 9 Victory Day, Russia’s most important secular holiday, was postponed to June 24 due to the pandemic.
(AP, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, The US recorded 36,880 coronavirus cases, the highest single-day total so far. While some of that reflects an increase in testing, the virus really is spreading more rapidly than it was several weeks ago. The University of Washington computer model of the outbreak projected nearly 180,000 US deaths by Oct. 1.
(NY Times, 6/25/20)(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 24, California to date had 194,726 cases of coronavirus and 5,713 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 21,325 cases and 543 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,378,648 with the death toll at 121,932.
(sfist.com, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced that visitors from states with high coronavirus infection rates must self-quarantine for 14 days on arrival.
(Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, It was reported that CVS Health Corp has begun selling companies a diagnostic testing program. CVS also will offer symptom screenings, flu vaccines and other immunizations and add-on services like contact tracing for employees exposed to the virus.
(Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, Africa's first participation in a COVID-19 vaccine trial started today as volunteers received injections developed at the University of Oxford in Britain. The large-scale trial is being conducted in South Africa, Britain and Brazil.
(AP, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, The Czech Republic recorded 127 cases of the new coronavirus. The country of 10.7 million has recorded 10,780 cases of the disease and 344 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 24, Indian authorities launched a massive coronavirus survey taking down health details from New Delhi's entire population of 29 million, and testing everyone with symptoms by July 6. In the past 24 hours, 3,788 new cases were confirmed in Delhi, compared to 1,118 in Mumbai.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 24, Mexico's health ministry reported 947 new deaths from the coronavirus and 5,437 new cases.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over a long-awaited military blowout to celebrate 75 years since Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II. Authorities in at least 20 cities have canceled their Victory Day parades outright, citing concerns over the coronavirus epidemic. Russia reported 7,176 new cases of the coronavirus, pushing its nationwide case total to 606,881, the world's third highest tally.
(NBC News, 6/24/20)(Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, Saudi officials effectively canceled this year’s hajj, one day after restricting the journey to people already in the country. Because of the coronavirus, only about 1,000 people will be permitted to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, compared with the 2.5 million who did so last year.
(NY Times, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 24, Sicily's regional leader Nello Musumeci said dozens of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean have tested positive for the new coronavirus while held in a quarantine ship off the southern Italian coast.
(Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 25, US officials estimated that 20 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus since it first arrived in the United States, meaning that the vast majority of the population remains susceptible.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, The US CDC reported that pregnant women are more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit and to be put on mechanical ventilators than non-pregnant women.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, California to date had 201,036 cases of coronavirus and 5,804 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 22,038 cases and 557 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,422,310 with the death toll at 124,416.
(sfist.com, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Officials with the Mississippi Health Department took to Facebook to warn of an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the state.
(Good Morning America, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 25, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he is pausing any further phases of reopening as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations increase in the state. Abbott again halted elective surgeries in the state's biggest counties in a bid to free up hospital beds. Texas reported more than 11,000 new cases in the past two days.
(Good Morning America, 6/25/20)(SFC, 6/26/20, p.A9)
2020 Jun 25, LabCorp said it has launched a new test that could assess the capacity of antibodies in patient plasma to inhibit the novel coronavirus.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Moderna Inc said it was partnering with contract drugmaker Catalent Inc to prepare an initial 100 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine for the United States, starting in the third quarter of this year.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, A study of residents in the Alpine ski resort of Ischgl, the site of Austria's biggest coronavirus outbreak, has found 42% have antibodies for the virus, the highest rate ever proven.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, China reported 19 newly confirmed cases nationwide amid mass testing in the capital.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, India said it will carry out a survey for the coronavirus targeting the 29 million population of New Delhi, to be completed by July 6. India registered another record high of 16,922 cases, taking the total to 473,105.
(AP, 6/25/20)(SFC, 6/26/20, p.A9)
2020 Jun 25, Maharashtra, India's richest state, banned a "spurious" coronavirus treatment manufactured by a company founded by popular yoga guru, which he says has a 100% record in curing patients. Baba Ramdev, co-founder of Patanjali and a household name in India, launched Coronil to much fanfare on June 23, but hit a roadblock when New Delhi and some state governments expressed skepticism.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Indonesia exceeded the 50,000 mark for confirmed infections as the government allowed businesses to reopen amid increasing economic pressures.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Iran announced 134 new deaths from the novel coronavirus took the overall toll in the Middle East's deadliest outbreak to 10,130. Another 2,595 people tested positive for the virus in the last 24-hours, bringing the country's overall caseload to 215,096.
(AFP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Iraq registered 2,437 new coronavirus cases and 107 deaths, setting new records in a country whose health sector had been bracing itself for such a spike. This brought the total in the country to over 39,000 the total death toll to 1,437.
(AFP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Israel and the United Arab Emirates said they will cooperate in the fight against the coronavirus, a possible boost to Israeli efforts to normalize relations with Gulf Arab countries.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 25, Kazakhstan's health minister resigned, saying COVID-19 complications prevented him from leading efforts against the coronavirus outbreak. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan has nearly tripled this month to 32,000, with 136 deaths.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, The Peruvian government said it had struck an agreement with the country's private health clinics on the cost of COVID-19 care. A day earlier President Martin Vizcarra warned they would be expropriated within 48 hours if negotiations did not progress. Peru has reported 264,689 confirmed cases and 8,586 deaths.
(Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, Portugal reported 311 new cases of the coronavirus, 222 of them in the Lisbon metropolitan area. Since emerging on May 2 from a state of emergency and 45-day lockdown, the country has recorded an average of 275 new cases a day.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, South Africa's Minerals Council said the mining industry has recorded 1,796 cases of COVID-19 with six deaths, as mines ramp up after an extended shutdown. The country has seen 2,205 deaths from COVID-19.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, South Korea reported 28 new coronavirus cases, mostly associated with nightlife, churches, a huge e-commerce warehouse and door-to-door sales.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warned that without massive financial support, Yemen will “fall off the cliff," with many more people starving to death, succumbing to COVID-19, dying of cholera and watching their children die because they haven’t been immunized for killer diseases.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 26, The US government's coronavirus task force briefed the public for the first time since April. VP Pence announced that 16 states were seeing worrisome increases, as the number of confirmed new coronavirus infections per day in the US rose to more than 45,000.
(AP, 6/27/20)(Reuters, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 26, California to date had 206,654 cases of coronavirus and 5,865 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 22,532 cases and 562 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,467,837 with the death toll at 125,039.
(sfist.com, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, Florida banned alcohol consumption at its bars after its daily confirmed coronavirus cases neared 9,000.
(SFC, 6/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 26, Louisiana reported a jump of over 1,300 cases of the coronavirus. Total confirmed cases rose to 54,769. The death toll rose by 26 for a total of 3,077.
(SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A11)
2020 Jun 26, A US federal judge blocked New York state from enforcing coronavirus restrictions limiting indoor religious gatherings to 25% capacity when other types of gatherings are limited to 50%.
(AP, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order limiting certain businesses as the state's positivity rate soared above 10%.
(Good Morning America, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, The World Health Organization's chief scientist said Astrazeneca's COVID-19 vaccine candidate is probably the world's leading candidate and most advanced in terms of development. Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine candidate was not far behind.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, ASEAN leaders held their annual summit by video, with the coronavirus pandemic and the long-raging territorial disputes high on the agenda.
(AP, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 26, Britain's official death toll from confirmed COVID-19 cases rose by 186 to 43,414.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, India confirmed 17,296 new coronavirus infections bringing its total to 490,401. Another 407 deaths brought that total to 15,301.
(SFC, 6/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 26, Japan recorded more than 100 new infections for the first time since May 9, hitting its highest daily total since it eased a lockdown.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, It was reported that Kenyan police have killed three people when a crowd of motorcycle taxi drivers protested against the arrest of a colleague for ignoring coronavirus restrictions. Kenya has 5,384 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 132 people have died.
(BBC, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, Russia reported 6,800 new coronavirus cases, the first daily rise below 7,000 since late April, taking its nationwide tally of infections to 620,794.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, Venezuela has reported 4,525 confirmed coronavirus cases and 39 deaths, although the true numbers appear to be significantly larger. It was reported that hospitals in Maracaibo, Venezuela's main oil-producing state, are filled with coronavirus patients and that dozens of health workers have been infected.
(AP, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 27, California to date had 206,928 cases of coronavirus and 5,868 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 22,746 cases and 563 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,492,246 with the death toll at 125,240.
(sfist.com, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 27, The Florida Department of Health reported a total of 132,545 cases of COVID-19 with 9,636 new positive cases, and 24 additional deaths from COVID-19.
(Reuters, 6/27/20)(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 27, Georgia reported a record high in coronavirus cases at almost 2,000. The 7-day average for cases has nearly tripled since late May.
(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 27, Nevada reported almost 1,100 coronavirus cases, although health officials later said hundreds of those cases could be attributed to a delay in lab testing and were not new cases in the last 24 hours.
(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 27, South Carolina blew past its original record mark for most COVID-19 cases in a single day with nearly 1,599 positive tests.
(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 27, Egypt lifted many restrictions put in place against the coronavirus pandemic, reopening cafes, clubs, gyms and theaters after more than three months of closure, despite a continued upward trend in new infections. Egypt has reported 62,755 infections, including 2,620 deaths.
(AP, 6/27/20)(SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A10)
2020 Jun 27, India confirmed cases of the coronavirus jumped 18,552 raising its total to over half a million. 384 new deaths raised that total to 15,685.
(SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A10)
2020 Jun 27, Iran's supreme leader warned that the country's economic problems would worsen if the novel coronavirus spreads unchecked. There were 2,456 new cases of COVID-19 infection in the past 24 hours, raising the country's caseload to 220,180. Overall fatalities reached 10,364 as 125 of those infected had died during the same period.
(AFP, 6/27/20)
2020 Jun 27, Mexico reported 5,441 new cases of the coronavirus for a total of 208,392. Deaths rose by 719 to 25,779.
(SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A10)
2020 Jun 27, It was reported that new daily coronavirus cases in Panama have nearly trippled from below 200 per day and that deaths this month were coming twice as fast.
(SFC, 6/27/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 28, A new milestone was reached early today, with more than 10 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide.
(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 28, It was reported that some Arizona hospitals have begun activating surge plans as coronavirus cases rise. The state has recorded more than 70,100 cases with 1,580 deaths.
(SFC, 6/29/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 28, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered bars to close in seven counties due to the "rising spread" of COVID-19.
(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 28, California to date had 210,820 cases of coronavirus and 5,900 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 23,455 cases and 568 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,531,733 with the death toll at 125,691. More than 38,800 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in the United States, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
(sfist.com, 6/28/20)(Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 28, San Antonio officials urged residents to stay home as the city recorded its highest number of cases in a single day. An emergency alert was sent out early today just minutes after the city reported 795 new COVID-19 cases. That brings the city's total number of cases to 9,652. Two new deaths were reported and the death toll is now at 107.
(AP, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 28, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said that early human test results for a coronavirus vaccine candidate suggested it could be safe and effective, the second vaccine candidate from the firm to show encouraging results in a clinical trial. Mainland China reported 17 new coronavirus cases, mostly in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
(Reuters, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 28, Greece reported 10 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths for a total of 3,376 confirmed cases and 191 deaths.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 28, Iran said it will make mask-wearing mandatory in certain areas and has allowed virus-hit provinces to reimpose restrictions. Iran counted 144 new fatalities from the COVID-19 disease in the last 24 hours, raising the total to 10,508. Total confirmed infections rose to 222,669, with 2,489 new cases during the same period.
(AFP, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 28, Poland had nearly 34,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among its 38 million people, with over 1,400 deaths.
(AP, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 29, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ended a somewhat contentious news conference by imploring people to wear face masks. Arizona has seen its cases go from 13,000 on May 15 to 74,500 today, and deaths from the virus have nearly doubled in the last six weeks. More than 1,500 people have died.
(AP, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, California to date had 222,046 cases of coronavirus and 5,970 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 24,464 cases and 573 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,586,844 with the death toll at 126,123.
(sfist.com, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, Jacksonville, Fl., ordered the wearing of face coverings amidst a surge in coronavirus infections.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, Some 205 people in West Virginia were being asked to quarantine themselves and watch for symptoms after a Planet Fitness member in Morgantown tested positive for COVID-19. People who were there between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. local time on June 24 were asked to stay home for 14 days since being exposed.
(Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, Medical device maker Danaher Corp said its COVID-19 blood test for detecting if a person had ever been infected with the new coronavirus received emergency use clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration.
(AP, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, Gilead announced that it will charge $2,340 for a typical treatment course of remdesivir for patients covered by government health programs in the United States and other developed nations where the drug is authorized for use. The price would be $3,120 for patients with private health insurance in the United States.
(Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, China reported just 12 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths, as the country which was the original epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic continues to see a downward trend in infections.
(Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, Greece eased coronavirus lockdown measures and allowed movie theaters, casinos and children's summer camps to reopen.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, India reported nearly 20,000 new coronavirus infections. The country has confirmed 548,318 cases with the death toll at 16,475.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, Iran reported 162 more deaths from the novel coronavirus, the highest single-day toll since the country's outbreak began in February. The additional 2,536 new cases brought the total to 225,205. The overall official death toll is now at 10,670.
(AFP, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, Puerto Rico's Gov. Wanda Vazquez extended a coronavirus curfew for three more weeks, even as she authorized the reopenings of certain businesses and government agencies.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, Russia's coronavirus headquarters reported 6,719 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the nationwide total to 641,156. Russia's death toll from the disease now stands at 9,166, after an additional 93 patients died over the past 24 hours.
(Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, In Serbia authorities in Belgrade made the wearing of face masks mandatory in all closed spaces in the capital. The country reported 242 new cases today.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, The UN World Food Program said millions of people have been pushed into hunger by the coronavirus pandemic, as it appealed for nearly $5 billion to help feed the growing numbers in poor and middle-income countries.
(AP, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 30, It was reported that one four people incarcerated at San Quentin prison were infected with the coronavirus. One Death Row inmate (71), who died there last week, tested positive for the virus marking the first known COVID-19 death inside the prison.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 30, California to date had 231,960 cases of coronavirus and over 6,000 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 25,411 cases and 578 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,618,480 with the death toll at 126,628.
(sfist.com, 6/30/20)(SFC, 7/1/20, p.A1)
2020 Jun 30, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that people arriving in New York from an additional eight states must quarantine themselves for 14 days amid the coronavirus pandemic. The order applied both to visitors and New Yorkers returning home from one of the 16 listed states.
(Reuters, 6/30/20)
2020 Jun 30, Voters in Oklahoma narrowly approved an expansion of Medicaid night, making it the latest conservative-leaning state to approve of the Obamacare provision at the ballot box. Oklahoma has reported nearly 14,000 cases of coronavirus and at least 387 people have died of the disease.
(Yahoo News, 7/1/20)
2020 Jun 30, In Washington state 171 inmates and 47 staff members tested positive for COVID-19 at the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center.
(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A7)
2020 Jun 30, Washington state's top health official said in a letter to a senior administration official that COVID-19 testing supplies distributed by the federal government have failed quality checks and are arriving late.
(Reuters, 7/2/20)
2020 Jun 30, In Australia Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said Melbourne will lock down 36 suburbs until July 29 in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
(SFC, 7/1/20, p.A5)
2020 Jun 30, The state of Bavaria approved plans for universal testing for COVID-19, prompting debate elsewhere in Germany about whether to follow suit or stick with the current targeted approach to prevent a possible second wave of infections.
(Reuters, 6/30/20)
2020 Jun 30, Iran announced 147 new coronavirus fatalities, raising overall deaths to 10,817. The caseload rose to 227,662, with 2,457 new infections in the past 24 hours. Iran has announced that wearing masks will be made mandatory in covered public spaces as of next week.
(AP, 6/30/20)
2020 Jul 1, New research was reported that damage done by the coronavirus to the membranes of red blood cells that carry oxygen may explain why many COVID-19 patients have alarmingly low oxygen levels.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told VP Mike Pence that the state needed an additional 500 health care workers as the number of cases of COVID-19 continues to set records there.
(Yahoo News, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, California dramatically rolled back efforts to reopen its economy, banning indoor restaurant dining in much of the state, closing bars and stepping up enforcement of the restrictions as COVID-19 infections surge. Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered 19 counties with surging coronavirus outbreaks to shut public venues in an effort to keep the pandemic from spiraling out of control.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A1)
2020 Jul 1, California to date had 232,466 cases of coronavirus and 6,088 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 26,144 cases and 583 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,658,324 with the death toll at 127,681.
(sfist.com, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, The healthcare unit of US supermarket chain Kroger Co said the US Food and Drug Administration had issued emergency use authorization for its at-home sample collection kit for COVID-19.
(Reuters, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, German biotech firm BioNTech and US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said a jointly developed COVID-19 vaccine has shown potential and was found to be well tolerated in early-stage human trials.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, India reported 18,653 new cases of the coronavirus and 507 deaths over the last 24 hours. Total cases reached 585,493.
(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A7)
2020 Jul 1, Israel's parliament approved a law granting the country's internal security agency limited authority to use phone surveillance to track coronavirus cases as the country struggles to contain a second outbreak.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 1, In South Africa some protesters against Africa’s first COVID-19 vaccine trial burned their face masks as experts note a worrying level of resistance and misinformation around testing on the continent.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 2, The United States reported more than 55,000 new COVID-19 cases, the largest daily increase any country has ever reported.
(Reuters, 72/3/20)
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