The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.
TOP OF THE HOUR:
— Ethiopia prime minister: Suspend debts owed by poorest nations.
— Turkey sending protective gear, equipment to help Palestinians.
— Protesters return to Michigan Capitol to denounce governor.
— Mexico plunges deeper into recession that predated pandemic.
———
JOHANNESBURG -- Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister says debt repayments by the world’s lowest-income countries should be suspended until well after the coronavirus pandemic ends.
In a New York Times opinion piece, Abiy Ahmed says such relief should include unconditional debt cancellation, allowing countries to focus on fighting the pandemic.
He says 64 countries, almost half in sub-Saharan Africa, spent more on servicing external debt last year than on health. He expects Ethiopia to spend an extra $3 billion this year on the pandemic’s consequences.
The International Monetary Fund last year said sub-Saharan Africa had all five of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Now the World Bank says the region faces its first recession in a quarter-century.
———
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey is sending personal protective gear and other medical equipment to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank fight the COVID-19 outbreak.
Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the supplies will be dispatched later on Thursday. He wrote on Twitter that “Turkey will continue to stand by the Palestinian people.”
Another official said the aid, consisting of testing kits and devices, N95 masks, protective overalls, gloves, oxygen masks, hand disinfectants and goggles, will be sent aboard a Turkish Airlines cargo plane.
Earlier, a Turkish military cargo plane carrying a second consignment of personal protective equipment, left for the U.S. Turkey says it has donated medical supplies to 55 countries.
———
LANSING, Mich. -- Hoisting American flags and handmade signs, protesters returned to the Michigan Capitol to denounce Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-home order and business restrictions Thursday. Lawmakers met to consider extending her coronavirus emergency declaration hours before it expires.
Crowds gathered on the Capitol lawn while drivers leaned on horns as they traveled past. This was a repeat of what occurred April 15 but with fewer numbers.
The signs said, “Shut down the lockdown” and “No work no freedom.” Some wore the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag as a cape.
Whitmer, a Democrat, wants Republican lawmakers to stretch her emergency declaration by 28 days to ensure that health care workers continue to have special legal protections.
———
LJUBLJANA, Slovenia -- Slovenia has allowed visits to nursing homes as part of easing of measures against the new coronavirus.
Social Affairs Minister Janez Cigler Kralj said Thursday strict safety rules must be respected before anyone is allowed into the nursing home. They include advance appointments, signed statements and one visitor at the time for one elderly resident. Authorities also recommended the meetings be outside.
———
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico is plunging deeper into a recession that predated the pandemic.
The country’s statistical agency says economic activity dropped 1.6% in the first quarter compared to the final three months of 2019. It was the fifth consecutive quarter of economic contraction and the biggest since 2009.
A report released Thursday said gross domestic product for the first quarter was 2.4% below the first quarter of 2019. The country’s economy has been slowing since mid-2018.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said he does not want the country to take on more debt during the pandemic. He has been criticized by the business sector for not doing enough to keep the economy afloat.
———
LONDON -- Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has added her voice to concerns about how a creeping increase in road traffic across the U.K. could see a rise in coronavirus cases.
She said Thursday that road traffic in Scotland, while less than a third of the level before the lockdown, has increased by about 5% this week and in some towns and cities by 10%.
Sturgeon warns that if “everybody starts easing off, the virus will quickly take off again and it will have devastating consequences for all of us.”
She spoke a day after U.K.-wide figures saw the highest daily use of motor vehicles during the working day since the start of the lockdown March 23.
———
JOHANNESBURG -- The United Nations refugee agency says the first coronavirus case has been confirmed among Somalia’s more than 2.5 million internally displaced people.
Experts have worried about the virus’ spread among such places in the Horn of Africa nation. Somalia has one of the world’s most fragile health systems after nearly three decades of conflict.
The U.N. agency says the spread could be “catastrophic.” The U.N. does not say in which of the more than 2,000 overcrowded settlements of displaced people the virus case was confirmed.
Somalia only recently obtained the means to carry out testing for the virus inside the country, and it is ill-equipped to treat infected people.
———
WASHINGTON -- The nation’s top infectious diseases expert says he expects the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to quickly approve a new experimental drug that showed promising signs in treating patients with COVID-19.
Anthony Fauci tells NBC’s “Today” show Thursday that he anticipates the go-ahead for the emergency use of Remdesivir to happen “really quickly.”
He says he spoke with FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Wednesday, and while Hahn had yet to make a final decision, “I would project that we’re going to be seeing that reasonably soon.” The drug was shown in a major study to shorten recovery time of hospitalized patients.
Fauci said the drug’s manufacturer has committed to scaling production of the drug as quickly as possible as the world hunts for an effective treatment and ultimately a vaccine.
Fauci has been working on a project to fast track the development of a vaccine by mass producing formulas that appear safe and effective before coronavirus case has been confirmed among Somalia’s more than 2.5 million internally displaced people.
Experts have worried about the virus’ spread among such places in the Horn of Africa nation. Somalia has one of the world’s most fragile health systems after nearly three decades of conflict.
The U.N. agency says the spread could be “catastrophic.” The U.N. does not say in which of the more than 2,000 overcrowded settlements of displaced people the virus case was confirmed.
Somalia only recently obtained the means to carry out testing for the virus inside the country, and it is ill-equipped to treat infected people.
———
WASHINGTON — The Emory University medical school doctor leading the Remdesivir drug trials says the drug provides a “glimmer of hope” for coronavirus treatment.
Aneesh Mehta said Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that “we are looking to find a medication that helps patients get better more rapidly, get them home to their families and make more room for other patients for us to take care of.”
He adds: “I think now we have the first glimmer of hope of something that can do that.”
Mehta cautions that the Remdesivir data is “very preliminary.” He says most antivirals tend to work better earlier in the course of disease.
He adds that his team is working with the National Institutes of Health to adapt the clinical trial to look at other medications in combination with Remdesivir.
———
BRUSSELS -- The European Union hopes to raise 7.5 billion euros ($8.2 billion) next week to fund research into a vaccine for the coronavirus as well .as to develop new treatments and more efficient testing.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday the May 4 conference aims “to bring the world together to deliver on prevention, diagnostics and treatments against coronavirus.”
Leaders from Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Norway and Saudi Arabia are expected to speak at the videoconference. The commission would like the U.S. to take part but has not received a reply.
The commission says the goal is to develop a vaccine, treatment and tests that are available to all who need it and at an affordable price.
———
MOSCOW -- Tajikistan has reported its first 15 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.
Until now, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were the only ex-Soviet countries in Central Asia that hadn’t reported a single case. The announcement Thursday comes before the arrival of a World Health Organization group to assess Tajikistan’s preparedness for the outbreak.
Tajik authorities had been denying for weeks that the nation is affected by the outbreak, attributing a surge of respiratory diseases to other infections and viruses.
Last week, however, the government closed schools, theaters and cinemas and suspended mass gatherings. The authorities also temporarily banned exports of certain foods, such as grains, meat, eggs and potatoes.
———
ROME -- Scientists are defending a controversial report warning of a new wave of critical coronavirus cases that prompted the Italian government to keep schools closed until September and take a gradual approach to reopening.
The statistical models in the report estimate that Italy could see as many as 151,000 people in intensive care by June 8 if everything reopened, given the large number of possible contacts where infections could spread.
Industrial groups have assailed the report’s methodology, but its authors appeared at the Superior Institute of Health on Thursday to defend the findings.
At the height of Italy’s outbreak, the deadliest in Europe, there were a fraction of people in ICUs, slightly more than 4,000 for four days running March 31-April 3. Even that number, however, overwhelmed the health system in hardest-hit Lombardy.
———
TOKYO -- Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to extend the ongoing coronavirus state of emergency beyond its scheduled end on May 6.
Abe said Thursday that hospitals are still overburdened and medical workers are under severe pressure to deal with the patients still on the rise.
“I believe it will be difficult to return to our normal daily lives after May 7,” Abe said. “We must expect an endurance race to a certain extent.”
Abe said he will consult with experts to decide how long the measures should be extended. Local officials and medical experts have called for an extension for another month nationwide.
The rise in the cases somewhat slowed in the last few days. But Japan still had more than 200 new cases overnight, bringing a national total to some 14,000 cases, with 415 deaths.
———
PRAGUE -- Nobody died of COVID-19 in the Czech Republic on Wednesday, the second day without a fatality this month after April 15.
So far, 227 people have died in the Czech Republic, according to Health Ministry figures released Thursday, after more than 7,500 have been tested positive.
The day-to-day increase of the new cases has been under 100 for the eighth day and less than 10 died daily since April 13.
It is now possible for the government to gradually ease its restrictive measures adopted to contain the pandemic.
———
BERLIN -- More than 300,000 people in Germany have lost their jobs over the past month because of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The government, however, says millions more remain employed thanks to the country’s extensive use of short work.
Labor Minister Hubertus Heil said Thursday the country faces a “historic challenge.”
He said unemployment rose by 13% in April, compared to March. The jobless rate rose to 5.8% from 5.1% the months before. He noted that the government expects GDP to drop by 6.3% this year.
But he noted that Germany should be able to avoid the mass unemployment seen in other countries, such as the U.S.
Heil said that some 10.1 million people have applied for short work, which allows companies in distress to receive state funds if they hold onto employees rather than letting them go. He said restaurants, bars and hotels are particularly hard hit.
———
BEIJING -- China says any claims that the coronavirus was released from a laboratory are “unfounded and purely fabricated out of nothing.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Thursday the Wuhan Institute of Virology at the center of the allegations “does not have the ability to design and create a new coronavirus, and it has never done so.”
Geng cited the institute’s director, Yuan Zhiming, as saying the lab strictly implements bio-security procedures that would prevent the release of any pathogen.
“I would like to point out again that the origin of the virus is a complex scientific issue, and it should be studied by scientists and professionals,” Geng said.
Geng also criticized U.S. politicians who have suggested China should be held accountable for the global pandemic, saying they should spend their time on “better controlling the epidemic situation at home.”
———
BERLIN — The head of Germany’s disease control center says he expects the actual number of deaths in the country from the new coronavirus to be higher than those currently reported.
Lothar Wieler of the Robert Koch Institute told reporters Thursday that early figures from two of Germany’s 16 states — Berlin and Hesse — indicate that the number of people dying is higher than average for the time of year.
In other countries, this so-called excess mortality has been higher than the reported COVID-19 death toll, indicating some deaths from the pandemic are going undetected, though it is unclear whether these result directly from infection or other factors, such as health system overload.
Wieler said his agency “is working on the assumption that more people likely died of (COVID-19) than have been officially reported.” He said the wide range of complications now linked to the disease could be one explanation.
———
GENEVA — The head of the World Health Organization’s European office is warning the continent remains “in the grip” of the coronavirus pandemic even as about three-fourths of the region’s countries are easing restrictive measures.
Dr. Hans Kluge noted a reduction of cases in the region thanks to social distancing measures, adding: “We must monitor this positive development very closely.”
He said Italy, Britain, France, Germany and Spain still have high numbers of cases, and pointed to increases in cases in Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Of the 44 countries in WHO Europe’s region that have enacted domestic restrictions, 21 have already started easing those measures and another 11 plan to do so in the coming days, Kluge said.
“This virus is unforgiving. We must remain vigilant, persevere and be patient, ready to ramp up measures as and when needed,” he said. “COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon.
“The European region accounts for 46 percent of cases and 63 percent of deaths globally,” he added. “The region remains very much in the grip of this pandemic.”
———
LONDON — The British government acknowledges that it may miss a self-imposed goal of conducting 100,000 tests for coronavirus a day by Thursday, but insists it is on course to vastly expand the country’s testing capacity.
The government has been criticized for failing to catch most cases of COVID-19 and now says wide-scale testing will be key to controlling the virus and easing a nationwide lockdown.
Earlier this month it vowed to perform 100,000 tests a day by April 30. The number has been climbing steadily, but the highest daily total reached so far is 52,000.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said that “even if the target isn’t met today ... we’re well on our way to ramping this up.”
On Wednesday, the U.K.’s official death toll from the virus leap to more than 26,000 after deaths in nursing homes were added to the hospital total. The tally is the world’s third-highest, surpassed only by the United States and Italy.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spent a week in hospital with the virus, is under pressure to reveal when and how the government will ease a nationwide lockdown that is to last at least until May 7.
———
Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
