Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Latest on the spread of the coronavirus around the world

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Reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.46 million globally and 169,863 people have died, according to a Reuters tally as of 0200 GMT on Tuesday, with U.S. President Donald Trump saying he will suspend all immigration into the country.


AMERICAS


* The United States is preparing a “substantial contribution” to help Yemen combat the coronavirus, but it may have to find alternatives to the World Health Organization to spend it, a senior U.S. official told Reuters.



  • The U.S. Senate Democratic Leader said he thinks Republicans and Democrats have agreed on a fourth coronavirus spending bill, and that the Trump administration has also agreed to a national testing strategy.

  • Brazil is discussing with its main airlines to further reduce an already minimal flight schedule, three sources told Reuters, while President Jair Bolsonaro hopes this would be the last week of stay-at-home measures.


  • Colombia will extend its coronavirus quarantine until May 11.


  • Panama registered 191 new cases and 10 deaths on Monday, bringing total cases to 4,658 and the death toll to 136.


  • Mexico and Haiti have detected infections among migrants deported recently from the United States.



EUROPE


* Italy will announce before the end of this week plans to start easing its lockdown starting from May 4, its prime minister said.



  • The true extent of the death toll in Britain was more than 40% higher than the daily figures from the government indicated by April 10, according to data that includes deaths in the community.


  • President Vladimir Putin said Russia had managed to slow the spread of the coronavirus but warned the peak still lay ahead after confirmed infections surged past 47,000.


  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel signalled readiness to finance economic recovery in Europe from the pandemic through a bigger European Union budget and the issuance of joint debt via the European Commission.


  • Police and youths clashed for a second night in a low-income Paris suburb on Sunday as strict lockdown rules threaten a fragile social peace in deprived areas.


  • Spain’s San Fermin bull-running festival has been suspended for the first time in four decades.


  • ASIA-PACIFIC



    • The WHO said that all available evidence suggests the novel coronavirus originated in bats in China late last year and it was not manipulated or constructed in a laboratory.


  • About 500 people entered self-isolation at the Presidential House in the Indian capital after a worker’s relative tested positive, officials said.


  • Thailand approved a second automatic visa extension for foreigners to prevent long queues at immigration centres.


  • Indonesia will ban the mass exodus tradition, locally known as ‘mudik,’ at the end of the Muslim fasting month in May.


  • A northwestern province on the frontline of China’s coronavirus battle reported its first cases in nearly three weeks, all involving travellers from overseas.


  • MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA



    • Millions of children in the Middle East will become poorer as their caregivers lose jobs from lockdowns, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund.


  • Shopping malls and bazaars reopened in Iran despite warnings by health officials that a new wave of infections could ripple through the country.


  • The coronavirus crisis is stirring anti-Semitism around the world, fuelled by centuries-old lies that Jews are spreading infection, researchers in Israel said.


  • South Africa will increase welfare provision to help poor households suffering because of a lockdown.


  • The palm oil market is set to miss out on a key high-demand period in 2020 as coronavirus-driven lockdowns during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan dent demand in key importing countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.


  • ECONOMIC FALLOUT



    • Global stocks fell on Tuesday, a day after U.S. crude oil prices turned negative for the first time ever, as dismal corporate earnings underlined worries about economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic. [MKTS/GLOB]


    • The number of people facing acute food insecurity could nearly double this year to 265 million due to the economic fallout of COVID-19, the United Nations’ World Food Programme said.


    • European Union leaders are on Thursday expected to defer a final decision on how to finance the bloc’s economic recovery, diplomats and officials said.


    • Argentina is set to widen an economic aid package to $12.9 billion.


    • If prolonged, the pandemic could trigger a negative feedback loop in which a worsening economy threatens to destabilise Japan’s financial system, the Bank of Japan warned on Tuesday.


    • Britain has received more than 1.5 million new claims for welfare payments since mid-March, the government said.


    • Germany’s state development bank KfW has received applications for 26 billion euros of emergency coronavirus loans and has so far approved 8.5 billion euros worth, a government document seen by Reuters showed.


    • Italy’s first bond sale via syndication since the coronavirus crisis saw orders of more than 100 billion euros, as it battles with the health impact and uncertainty over the economic support it will receive from the EU.


    • Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd succumbed to third-party led restructuring that could lead to a sale. — Reuters



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