- The World Health Organization has warned of the risks of an “immediate second peak” as countries ease up on lockdowns, urging governments in Europe and the US to step up surveillance, testing and tracking measures to keep the disease under control.
- Spain has revised its death toll downwards by nearly 2,000 people after checking data from the regions and discovering some deaths had been recorded twice while others had not been the result of the coronavirus.
- Public anger continues to simmer in the UK over Dominic Cummings, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief political adviser, who apparently flouted lockdown to drive from his home in London to his parents’ house in the north when he suspected he had coronavirus. Cummings adopted a conciliatory tone at an extraordinary news conference on Monday but did not apologise.
- Nearly 5.5 million cases of coronavirus have been confirmed around the world, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 346,000 people have died, while more than 2.2 million have recovered.
Here are the latest updates:
Tuesday, May 26
04:35 GMT – Fujifilm COVID-19 drug research spills over into June
Research into Fujifilm’s Avigen drug as a potential treatment for COVID-19 will continue into June.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had said he hoped the drug would be approved in May if its efficacy and safety could be confirmed.
“The company will continue research into next month or so, and if an application for approval is received from the company, it will be promptly reviewed,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular briefing when asked about Avigan.
Suga said trials of a coronavirus vaccine could begin as early as July, raising expectations about a candidate developed by Osaka University and biopharmaceutical firm AnGes Inc .
Avigan is the subject of at least 16 trials worldwide, though there is concern the drug has been shown to cause birth defects in animal studies.
03:50 GMT – Australia borders won’t open “anytime soon”: PM Scott Morrison
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the country won’t open its borders “anytime soon” but the government was continuing to discuss a travel corridor with New Zealand.
“I was speaking with Prime Minister (Jacinda) Ardern this morning and we’ll continue to have our discussions about the trans-Tasman safe travel zone,” Morrison told the National Press Club in Canberra.
03:15 GMT – Doctors group in Japan warn against masks for infants
Children under the age of two shouldn’t wear masks because they can make breathing difficult and increase the risk of choking, the Japan Pediatric Association has warned.
“Masks can make breathing difficult because infants have narrow air passages,” which increases the burden on their hearts, the association said, adding that masks also raise the risk of heat stroke.
“Let’s stop the use of masks for children under 2-years-old,” the association said in a notice on its website.
It added that there had been very few serious coronavirus cases among children and that most kids became infected from family members, with almost no outbreaks at schools or day care facilities.
03:00 GMT – Mexico City registers more than 8,000 more deaths than usual
Mexico’s capital registered 8,072 more deaths in the first five months this year than the average from the same period over the previous four years, an analysis by independent researchers showed on Monday, suggesting a possible surge in fatalities to the coronavirus pandemic.
Health officials have reported 1,655 deaths from the virus in Mexico City, out of 7,394 deaths nationwide. They have also acknowledged that the true death toll is higher, but difficult to estimate because of the low testing rate.
source:Aljazeera
