24/04/20 COVID-19 Global News Update

Japan’s core consumer inflation eased in March for the second straight month, underscoring fears that slumping oil costs and soft consumption because of the coronavirus pandemic might push the country back into deflation.

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill on Thursday, funding small businesses and hospitals and pushing the total spending response to the crisis to an unprecedented near $3 trillion.

Vulture funds cheering freer access to China’s $1.5 trillion in bad debt have flown straight into a knotty market complicated by coronavirus restrictions, at a time when similar curbs are serving up opportunities in easier, developed markets.

Australian shares traded flat on Friday as investors held their bets while they fretted over the economic fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic and worried that an antidote may not be imminent.

Johnson & Johnson said on Thursday it had struck a deal with Emergent BioSolutions Inc. to use its manufacturing facilities to help in an effort to make more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine it is testing to stop the novel coronavirus.

A highly valued public company will have a hard time getting a coronavirus relief loan, the U.S. Treasury said on Thursday, just as Congress was poised to approve a new round of funding for the loans known as the Paycheck Protection Program.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Thursday it would boost by 3 billion euros (2.62 billion pounds) a support package to help stricken companies and councils mitigate the economic hit from the coronavirus.

The head of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde warned European Union leaders on Thursday about the risk of doing too little and too late to shield the economy from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, an official said.

Up to 10 million key workers and their households can now book a coronavirus test online or through their employer.

One month after a national lockdown was declared in an attempt to limit the spread of Covid-19, it is clear that Britain is heading for the deepest recession in living memory.

Councils in England say they have to plug funding gaps worth hundreds of millions of pounds within weeks to avoid "significant" cuts. The coronavirus pandemic has increased councils' costs while income has been lost from services like parking.

Working families across Wales are getting their first pay packets since the coronavirus lockdown started - and for thousands of them it is much less than they are used to.

The newspaper, which previously employed Mr Johnson as a columnist, also claimed he has been demanding government papers. However, Downing Street told The Independent the prime minister’s return to duties had not been officially scheduled yet.

The Business Secretary today revealed that 2.8 million workers have been furloughed under the government's support scheme.

The United Kingdom’s economy is crumbling under the strain of the coronavirus lockdown and government borrowing is soaring to the highest levels in peacetime history, increasing pressure on the government to set out an exit strategy.

Consumer confidence plummeted at the beginning of April but held steady for the rest of the month as the UK adjusted to life under lockdown.

Some lockdown rules in Wales are being made stricter to "address challenges being faced in parts of the country", the first minister has said. Updated regulations, announced by Mark Drakeford, make it clear people cannot remain away from the place they live.

Hospitals are having to conserve life-saving dialysis fluid in the coming days due to national shortages, as it has been revealed that 28% of coronavirus patients in intensive care who need significant help to breathe also need kidney support.

A major increase in state surveillance is a "price worth paying" to beat Covid-19, a UK think tank says. The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), founded by the former prime minister, says it could offer an "escape route" from the crisis.

Hungary plans to replace the current lockdown that imposes a blanket curfew over the population with a more fine-tuned version from early May, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told state radio on Friday.

Australia will make it illegal for non-health officials to access data collected on smartphone software to trace the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, amid privacy concerns raised by the measure.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has extended a strict lockdown in the capital Manila until May 15 to try to contain coronavirus infections, but will ease restrictions in lower-risk regions of the country, his spokesman said on Friday.

Mainland China reported 6 new coronavirus cases as of end-April 23, down from 10 reported a day earlier, putting the total number of COVID-19 infections at 82,804.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to begin testing some migrants in detention for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, before deporting them to other countries, a U.S. official familiar with the effort said on Thursday.

Festival, normally marked by social gatherings and feasts, will be muted affair under lockdown Ramadan is normally a sociable time, as abstention from food and water during daylight hours gives way to sumptuous meals and gatherings at dusk.

While parts of Latin America enter the toughest phase of the coronavirus pandemic, Costa Rica has for the past week reported a steady fall in the number of people currently infected, in a sign the country’s approach to the crisis may be paying off.

Ecuador’s health minister said on Thursday 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.

A potential antiviral drug for the coronavirus has reportedly failed in its first randomised clinical trial. There had been widespread hope that remdesivir could treat Covid-19. But a Chinese trial showed that the drug had not been successful, according to draft documents accidentally published by the World Health Organization.

August event is scrapped and will not be rescheduled Decision casts doubt on Tour de France and French Open.

The Czech Republic eased restrictions on Thursday aimed at slowing the spread of the new coronavirus after a drop in new cases sparked optimism the outbreak had so far been brought under control.

Peru’s reported coronavirus cases rapidly increased this week and topped 20,000 on Thursday, doubling in nine days, as President Martin Vizcarra extended a national quarantine in the world’s No. 2 copper producer.