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Coronavirus live news: world has 'a long way to go', warns WHO chief Coronavirus live news: world has 'a long way to go', warns WHO chief
(32 minutes later)
Trump to halt immigration for 60 days initially; 256m people could starve, says UN; cases worldwide pass 2.5 millionTrump to halt immigration for 60 days initially; 256m people could starve, says UN; cases worldwide pass 2.5 million
Trump says the immigration order is “a very powerful order,” and that after 60 days he will review it, he may then change how it works, he may extend it.
“Our southern border is very tight. It hasn’t been this tight in years,” he says.
More on the immigration executive order:
Medical and other essential workers from abroad will be exempt, as will the spouses and minor children of American children, and “certain other aliens”.
The administration will review guest worker programs/
“The Administration will continue to monitor the labor market to amend or extend the proclamation if needed,” per the White House.
“There will be coronavirus in the fall,” says Dr Fauci.
Dr Fauci, the country’s leading expert on infectious diseases, is speaking now.
“Remember a few weeks ago when we said we were going to have a really bad week?”
What has happened now is that the mitigation program worked, and got the US to “where we are today.”
He is warning people to keep following the instructions. “The one way not to reopen the economy is to have a rebound we can’t take care of.”
Trump said that he is establishing a new council to help Black and Latino communities and other underserved communities access testing and care. The council will be headed by housing secretary Ben Carson.
Trump said he told Georgia Governor Brian Kemp that he disagreed strongly with Kemp’s decision to begin allowing some nonessential businesses to reopen in the coming days.Speaking at a daily White House briefing Wednesday evening, Trump said he had spoken with Kemp over the phone.At the same time he must do what he thinks is right, Trump said of the Republican governor.
Kemp’s plan to begin cracking open the Georgia economy faces two major hurdles: the state is struggling to increase testing for new coronavirus infections and boost tracking of those in contact with infected people, AP reports. Without those capabilities, experts said Georgia risks a quick rebound of the Covid-19 illness as Kemp allows some businesses to reopen in coming days. The Republican governor’s decision has been questioned because the state has yet to show continuing progress in those areas, and it could be difficult to catch up.
Trump says he signed the order halting immigration to the US “just before coming into the room.”
Trump said he will be holding a July 4 celebration in Washington, DC’s national mall, like last year.
“On July 4, we will be doing what we had at the Mall. As you know, we’re gonna be doing it. Last year was a tremendous success and I would imagine we’ll do it, hopefully, I can use the term ‘forever.’ That was a great success, as you remember,” he said.
Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Trump says reopening “spas, beauty salons, barbershops, and tattoo parlours” is a bad idea.
“I love ‘those people who use all of those things,” he adds. “I love ‘em, but they can wait just a little bit longer. Because safety has to predominate.”
Trump says that Harvard and Stanford and other university will not be accepting the funds they were allocated under the CARES act.
Harvard tweeted about this earlier today:
The US president says he told Georgia governor Brian Kemp that he disagreed “very strongly” with the decision to reopen businesses in the state. “I think it’s too soon,” he says. Georgia has not yet met the requirements to enter “Phase 1” of the White House plan to reopen the country, Trump noted.
Trump says there will be airshows over major cities “and not such major cities” in the coming weeks. The Air Force Thunderbirds and Navy Blue Angels will be performing the “tremendous airshows” in honour of medical workers and those who have died.
Trump is now complaining that the “fake news” never asks him about ventilators.Trump is now complaining that the “fake news” never asks him about ventilators.
Trump: “Instead you say, ‘Trump was slow’.”Trump: “Instead you say, ‘Trump was slow’.”
“We weren’t slow,” he says.“We weren’t slow,” he says.
You can watch the White House press briefing live here:You can watch the White House press briefing live here:
Trump says there’s a chance Covid-19 won’t come back.Trump says there’s a chance Covid-19 won’t come back.
Dr Birx says “Well, we don’t know.”Dr Birx says “Well, we don’t know.”
She says that if it does come back the US will be able to detect it earlier.She says that if it does come back the US will be able to detect it earlier.
Trump has taken particular issue with the Washington Post’s coverage of Dr Redfield’s comments.Trump has taken particular issue with the Washington Post’s coverage of Dr Redfield’s comments.
Dr Redfield has just been asked whether he was accurately quoted by the Washington Post. He was, he says. Trump jumps in to say the headline was the problem.Dr Redfield has just been asked whether he was accurately quoted by the Washington Post. He was, he says. Trump jumps in to say the headline was the problem.
The Post’s headline was “CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus is likely to be even more devastating”. Here is their response to Trump’s criticism.The Post’s headline was “CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus is likely to be even more devastating”. Here is their response to Trump’s criticism.
Dr Redfield is asked why he retweeted the article if it was inaccurate. Trump steps in, immediately, to say that the journalist speaking wasn’t called upon to ask a question.Dr Redfield is asked why he retweeted the article if it was inaccurate. Trump steps in, immediately, to say that the journalist speaking wasn’t called upon to ask a question.
Hi, Helen Sullivan with you now.
The White House coronavirus update has started.
Donald Trump kicks off by saying, “more states will soon be in the position to gradually and safely reopen.”
He then moves on to fake news. His accusation today is that Dr Robert Redfield, current Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was misquoted in the media.
He says it’s important to emphasise that he didn’t say next season would be “worse”, but that it would be “more difficult and potentially complicated”.
Dr Redfield warned yesterday that a wave of coronavirus next winter would coincide with the normal influenza season.
The Guardian wrote about Dr Redfield’s warnings, under the headline “CDC chief warns of ‘even more difficult’ wave of coronavirus next winter.”
The key to his comments, he said, was to encourage Americans to “embrace the fly vaccine”.
You can read that story here:
European Union leaders will move towards joint financing of a recovery by asking the European commission to propose a fund sufficient for the job that targets the most affected sectors and regions, Reuters reports.
Many leaders see the massive joint recovery financing as a crucial tool of EU solidarity as some in the 27-nation bloc will have a harder time than others regaining their economic footing after the deepest-ever EU recession this year.
“The idea of having a special instrument to deal with the crisis is starting to be consensual,” one senior EU official involved in the preparation of the summit said.
The fashion industry needs to rethink what it stands for once the pandemic has passed, Vogue editor-in-chief Dame Anna Wintour has said.
She told the supermodel Naomi Campbell during an interview on her YouTube programme No Filter With Naomi that she thinks people’s values “are really going to have shifted” because of the crisis.
Dame Anna added that the amount of waste and excess in the industry will need to be reconsidered.
Dame Anna said there would need to be “more of an emphasis on sustainability” and “more of an emphasis on luxury, on creativity, on craft”.
Donald Trump and conservative supporters have backed away from hyping the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential cure. Fox News staffers have also pivoted from promoting the anti-malarial drug. The dial-back came as a new report showed that a recent US trial of hydroxychloroquine had not gone well.
The doctor who was head of the federal agency overseeing research into a vaccine said he was ousted from his post after he questioned the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug the US president Donald Trump has often touted.
Rick Bright, who was the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), was reassigned to a role with fewer responsibilities, according to a statement from his lawyer. The New York Times first reported the news.
The UK government is being urged to recognise that race and racial inequalities are a risk factor for Covid-19 as Guardian research reveals that ethnic minorities in England are dying in disproportionately high numbers compared with white people, Caelainn Barr, Niko Kommenda, Niamh McIntyre and Antonio Voce write.
The revelation that people from minority groups appear to be over-represented among the deaths, by as much as 27%, “confirmed the worst fears” of campaigners who said there was now no question of an excessive toll.
The Guardian analysis found that of 12,593 patients who died in hospital up to 19 April, 19% were Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) even though these groups make up only 15% of the general population in England.
And the analysis revealed that three London boroughs with high BAME populations - Harrow, Brent and Barnet - were also among the five local authorities with the highest death rates in hospitals and the community.
UK government ministers are being pressed to reveal the full details of how they missed out on four opportunities to join an EU medical supplies consortium, in the wake of a U-turn by the top civil servant in the Foreign Office over comments suggesting it was a “political decision”, Patrick Wintour and Daniel Boffey write.
The Labour MP Chris Bryant, who sits on the foreign affairs select committee, said on Wednesday that he “feared the government was involved in a full-on cover-up” over how it came to miss out on four rounds of procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators and laboratory supplies launched by the EU in late February and March.
UK officials failed to take up an invitation to join the steering committee of participating countries that issues orders for medical equipment until 19 March – after the bulk purchases had been made.
Bryant said he feared either Foreign Office ministers or the prime minister decided not to be associated with any EU scheme for political reasons “even though it was patently in the interests of the NHS and its staff to explore every possible avenue to acquire masks, gowns and ventilator equipment, as fast and most effectively as possible”.
Egypt’s parliament has approved amendments to the country’s emergency laws that give expanded powers to the presidency and the military prosecution as authorities try to counter the epidemic.
The amendments allow the state to take and enforce a series of measures, some of which have already been deployed. These include suspending schools, banning public or private gatherings, quarantining returning travellers, prohibiting the export of certain goods and placing restrictions on the trade or transfer of commodities, according to a parliamentary report on the amendments.
The state will also be allowed to direct private hospitals and their staff to help with general healthcare for a specific period, and to convert schools, companies and other publicly-owned sites into field hospitals.
The family of the acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking has donated his ventilator to a hospital that had treated him in Cambridge. The hospital said:
His daughter, Lucy Hawking, described the care her father received there as “brilliant, dedicated and compassionate”, it said.
“We’d like to say a huge thank you to the Hawking family for supporting us at this challenging time,” said the hospital, which is a world-leading centre for heart and lung transplants.
The medical equipment was bought by Hawking himself, the BBC reported, and after checks had been added to the hospital’s fleet.
Bahrain has extended its lockdown measures for two more weeks, from 23 April until 7 May, its state news agency has reported.
Those measures include closing all cinemas, sports centres, gyms, salons, and restricting restaurants operations to food delivery and takeaway only, among other measures. Bahrain has registered 2,009 cases, with a death tally that stands at seven.