Australia to pursue coronavirus investigation at World Health Assembly
Australia will push for an international investigation into the coronavirus pandemic at next month’s annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), its prime minister said on Thursday.
Australia says all WHO members should back coronavirus inquiry
All member nations of the World Health Organization (WHO) should support a proposed independent review into the coronavirus pandemic, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday, further threatening strained ties with China.
Merkel urges Germans to show resilience for long-haul coronavirus battle
Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans on Thursday to show endurance and discipline to get through the coronavirus pandemic that is “still at the beginning”, and called for a bigger European Union budget to support economic recovery in the bloc.
Spain’s death toll from coronavirus rises to 22,157
The Spanish health ministry said on Thursday that 440 people died from the coronavirus in the previous 24 hours, which brought total fatalities to 22,157.
Palestinian jailed in Gaza for breaking coronavirus quarantine
A Gaza court has sentenced a Palestinian man to six months in jail for escaping from a coronavirus quarantine facility on the Egyptian border, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
In Syria rebel stronghold, building makeshift ventilators to fight virus
A team of volunteers in Syria have cobbled together prototypes of a ventilator and a testing machine – homemade equipment to fight the new coronavirus if it hits the last rebel stronghold, where hospitals lie in ruins after nine years of war.
South Africa’s itinerant wastepickers lose livelihood in lockdown
They perform one of South Africa’s most important services, collecting recyclables that would otherwise swell the country’s rubbish dumps and burden municipal trash collection, but the coronavirus lockdown has left thousands of wastepickers jobless.
Vietnam says accusations it hacked China for virus information ‘baseless’
A report which said Vietnamese government-linked hackers had attempted to break into Chinese state organisations at the centre of Beijing’s effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak is “baseless”, Vietnam’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Indonesia finds 357 new coronavirus cases, 11 new deaths
Indonesia on Thursday reported 357 new COVID-19 cases and 11 new deaths, taking the total number of infections and fatalities to 7,775 and 647, respectively, health ministry official Achmad Yurianto said.
Many of Japan’s pachinko parlours stay open despite state of emergency
As stores have closed across Japan during a state of emergency, some pachinko parlours remain defiantly open, sparking concern the noisy gambling halls could undermine the government’s fight against the novel coronavirus.
