Keeping you up to date on the latest novel coronavirus (Covid-19) news from around the world.
US adds 1 127 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours - Johns Hopkins
Washington – The United States recorded a further 1 127 deaths from Covid-19 on Saturday, bringing its total to 97 048 since the global pandemic began, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The country has also officially logged 1 621 658 cases of the virus, far more than any other nation, the tracker kept by the Baltimore-based university showed at 20:30 (00:30 GMT Sunday).
- AFP
Wuhan lab had three live bat coronaviruses - Chinese state media
Beijing – The Chinese virology institute at the centre of US allegations it may have been the source of the Covid-19 pandemic has three live strains of bat coronavirus on-site, but none match the new global contagion, its director has said.
Scientists think Covid-19 – which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and has killed more than 340 000 people worldwide – originated in bats and could have been transmitted to people via another mammal.
But the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology told state broadcaster CGTN that claims made by US President Donald Trump and others that the virus could have leaked from the facility were "pure fabrication".
In the interview filmed on 13 May, but broadcast on Saturday night, Wang Yanyi said the centre has "isolated and obtained some coronaviruses from bats".
"Now we have three strains of live viruses... But their highest similarity to SARS-CoV-2 only reaches 79.8%," she said, referring to the coronavirus strain that causes Covid-19.
- AFP
Fresh protests against virus measures held in Germany
Berlin – Dozens of demonstrations were held across Germany on Saturday as part of a protest movement against coronavirus lockdown measures which is gaining momentum.
The rallies have been held weekly since the start of April, swelling in recent weeks to gatherings of thousands in major German cities.
The movement sees the government restrictions to curb the spread of the virus as the beginning of an authoritarian regime or an illegal attack on individual freedoms. Nearly 30 rallies were held in Berlin, as well as counter-demonstrations, a police spokesperson told AFP.
Protests were also held across the country, including in Nuremberg, Munich and Stuttgart, though not as many as in recent weeks, mainly due to bad weather.
- AFP
DR Congo officials deny coronavirus figures manipulated
Kinshasa – Government officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo have denied any manipulation of its figures for coronavirus cases and deaths.
The controversy came as health officials announced DR Congo's latest Covid-19 figures which stand at 63 deaths from 2 025 cases, most of them in the capital, Kinshasa. So far, 312 people have recovered. The vast central African country, one of the world's poorest, reported its first case on 10 March.
Late on Friday, the government reported that a doctor and a hospital administrator had been arrested and later released over accusations of falsely declared coronavirus cases.
The arrests were made after "a controversy over a patient who died this month", said a government news bulletin.
- AFP
French churches reopen as coronavirus restrictions loosened
Paris – French churches were preparing to hold their first Sunday masses in more than two months after the government bowed to a ruling that they should be reopened – provided proper precautions were taken.
Nearly two weeks into the relaxation of its shutdown, the government finally allowed churches, mosques and synagogues to reopen.
Last Monday, the France's Council of State, which instructs the government on legal issues, ordered it to lift its sweeping ban on all religious services, in place since the lockdown.
The ruling said that such a ban on freedom of worship caused "damage that is serious and manifestly illegal", ordering the government to lift the ban within eight days. But priests, pastors, rabbis and imams will still have to ensure that the correct safety measures are in force.
- AFP
New York's daily virus death toll falls below 100 - governor
Washington – The number of deaths in New York state caused by the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours was 84, the lowest one-day total since late March, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday.
"The news is good news," Cuomo said in his daily televised briefing.
Hospitalisations, intubations and new infections were all in decline, he added.
"In my head, I was always looking to get under 100," Cuomo said, speaking from the governor's mansion in Albany.
"It doesn't do good for any of those 84 families that are feeling the pain," he added. "But for me it's just a sign we are making real progress."
- AFP
Pressure grows on UK PM Johnson as aide faces more lockdown breach claims
London – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was under increased pressure on Sunday to sack top aide Dominic Cummings who was facing allegations that he had breached coronavirus lockdown rules for a second time.
The British government has so far rejected calls to sack Cummings over allegations he broke coronavirus lockdown rules by travelling across the country with his wife while she was suffering from symptoms of the disease, but even MPs from his own party were calling for him to leave on Sunday.
Cummings was seen with his young son close to his parents' home in Durham, northeastern England, more than 400km away from his London home on 31 March, the day after he himself reported suffering symptoms.
The Observer and Sunday Mirror reported that he had broken lockdown restrictions again and was seen in Durham a second time on 19 April, days after he had returned to work in London following his first trip north, quoting anonymous witnesses.
Cummings strenuously denies the claims and Downing Street said late on Saturday said it "would not waste time" responding to "campaigning newspapers".
- AFP