Tag Archives: Coronavirus

Coronavirus infects more than 3,000 U.S. meatpacking workers: union

Coronavirus infects more than 3,000 U.S. meatpacking workers: union
CHICAGO (Reuters) – More than 3,000 U.S. meatpacking workers have tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 44 workers have died, the country’s largest meatpacking union said on Thursday, reflecting an increasing toll on plant employees.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has called on the Trump administration and meat companies like Tyson Foods Inc and JBS USA to do more to protect workers from the disease. The union reported 35 worker deaths in meatpacking as of May 12.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

U.S. towns fear ‘devastation’ as coronavirus keeps tourists home

By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – It’s late spring when Traverse City, Michigan should be planning its annual cherry festival, and the sounds of young racehorses should fill the air in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Small towns across America rely on summer tourism to stay solvent the rest of the year. But the coronavirus pandemic has chased visitors away, leaving residents and businesses unsure they can survive.

“Normally in May, we’d be in full swing,” said Sean Mackey, co-owner of the Magic Shuttle Bus in Traverse City that drives visitors to weddings and wineries.

“We would have all buses on the road, tours every single day of the week,” he said.

Instead, the company did no business over Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start to summer, as wineries were off-limits to bus tours and groups of more than 10 people were banned.

The beginning of summer in states like Michigan, which have strict social distancing guidelines in place, contrasted sharply with crowds flocking to beaches in locations like South Carolina and New Jersey easing coronavirus-related restrictions.

The death toll in the United States from the novel coronavirus has topped 100,000, according to a Reuters tally.

Every U.S. state has phased reopenings underway, but the plans typically forbid large gatherings and limit restaurant and bar capacities that will sink some businesses, owners say.

In Maine, “already a number of businesses have closed down, and they’re not going to open up again,” said Jean Ginn Marvin, owner of the coastal Nonantum Resort in Kennebunkport.

“The thing about seasonal businesses is they hold on by their fingernails anyway,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “We were just about to open our doors and have a little cash flow again, and that didn’t happen.”

In the tiny Michigan tourist town of Lake Ann, where Mackey lives, “you have a party store, a little library, an ice cream parlor, a brewery and a post office and that’s it. You blink and you miss it.”

In the depths of uncertainty about the pandemic is the possibility of closing down altogether and hoping for better times ahead, Mackey said – almost like a year-long hibernation.

“If things got really bad, (businesses might) just close up for the season and try to put the bills on hold and open up going full swing next year,” he said.

Without the summer business, entire towns will suffer, residents said.

“When those businesses fold, what goes with them is the guy who plays the piano in the lobby and those teenagers that go there for their first job,” said Marvin. “So those kids aren’t going to have money for college.”

UNCERTAIN PLANS

The quiet is unsettling in upstate New York’s Saratoga Springs, where its historic track would normally be busy with young thoroughbreds in training, said Marianne Barker, who opened her gift store Impressions of Saratoga 42 years ago.

“That usually brings a pretty big influx of people. We’re not seeing that,” she said.

Summer plans for the Saratoga Race Course remain uncertain – one proposal calls for races without spectators – while another huge tourist draw, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, just canceled its summer season.

“Both of those combined will … completely cut down on tourist-related activities,” said Saratoga Springs Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan. “We are a tourism-dependent economy.”

The two venues draw some 1.5 million people each summer, according to industry figures.

Plunging tax revenues will leave the city up to $16 million short this year, Madigan said, and without federal aid, “it’s going to be devastation, not just here but everywhere.”

Saratoga Spring is looking at short-term borrowing of about $6 million, Madigan added, but as a one-time boost.

“We can’t just keep borrowing our way out of this,” she said. “I think local governments are your next big wave of layoffs.”

Layoffs in the United States hit a record high of 11.4 million in March, the nation’s worst job shortage since the Great Depression.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Earlier this month the U.S. House of Representatives approved a $3 trillion relief measure, dubbed the Heroes Act, with provisions aimed at helping state and local governments.

The relief bill has been criticized as a “liberal wish list” by Republicans who vowed to block it in the Senate, and President Donald Trump has promised to veto it.

As places like Saratoga Springs deplete their savings, “2021 looks even bleaker,” Madigan said.

“I don’t know when we’re ever going to get back to a situation where we see revenues like they were pre-COVID. How comfortable are people going to feel going out?” she said.

Hopefully soon, said Michigan State Sen. Ed McBroom, a Republican whose district includes the rural, tourist-reliant Upper Peninsula, among the state’s first regions to reopen.

“There’s going to be people who are afraid until they see other people out and about,” he said in a phone interview.

“So if other folks get out and about and nothing bad happens, then I think suddenly things could really pick up in a hurry.”

Tourism accounts for seven in 10 jobs in the Upper Peninsula’s northernmost Keweenaw County which juts into Lake Superior, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

In Maine, some hospitality and retail industry groups have asked the governor to relax plans for a required 14-day quarantine for out-of-state visitors; dozens of other small businesses responded with a letter in support of the quarantine.

A similar split is evident in Michigan, said Tom Nemacheck, who heads the Upper Peninsula Travel & Recreation Association.

“Those are the two camps that we’re keeping an eye on,” he said.

“The businesses that are so desperate that they want visitors no matter what because they’re going bankrupt, and then … some of the other people in the community are nervous about getting visitors.”

(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, editing by Zoe Tabary. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

What you need to know about the coronavirus right now 5-27-20

(Reuters) – Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

France bans hydroxychloroquine

The French government on Wednesday canceled a decree allowing hospital doctors to administer hydroxychloroquine as a treatment to patients suffering severe forms of COVID-19.

The move, which takes immediate effect, is the first by a country since the World Health Organization said on Monday it was pausing a large trial of the malaria drug on COVID-19 patients due to safety concerns.

U.S. President Donald Trump and others have pushed the drug as a possible coronavirus treatment in recent months.

Fears for pregnant U.S. inmates

Guadalupe Velazquez has a college degree, owns a flooring company and is pregnant with a baby girl due next month.

The 30-year-old is also terrified of contracting COVID-19 in the Phoenix halfway house where she is serving her sentence on a decade-old marijuana conviction in a federal court in Arizona, according to her sister and her fiance.

While some well-known federal inmates have been released into home confinement due to COVID-19 fears, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said it still has 28 women who are pregnant or recently gave birth in custody, including Velazquez.

President fact-checked

Twitter on Tuesday for the first time prompted readers to check the facts in U.S. President Donald Trump’s tweets, putting into application an extension of its new “misleading information” policy, introduced this month to combat misinformation about the novel coronavirus.

Hours after Trump said on Twitter that mail-in ballots would be “substantially fraudulent” and result in a “rigged election”, Twitter posted a blue exclamation mark alert underneath those tweets, prompting readers to “get the facts about mail-in ballots” and directing them to a page with information aggregated by Twitter staff about the assertions.

Trump, who has more than 80 million followers on Twitter, lashed out at the company in response, accusing it – in a tweet – of interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Phased back to normal

Here are some signposts of companies and country leaders planning the resumption of normal activity:

A draft blueprint on safely starting travel between New Zealand and Australia will be presented to both governments in early June, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday, in what would be the creation of a travel “bubble” between the neighbors.

Walt Disney Co presents its proposal for a phased reopening of its Orlando, Florida, theme parks to a task force on Wednesday.

Trump believes there would be “no greater example of reopening” than a summit of Group of Seven leaders in the United States near the end of June, the White House said. The goal was for the summit to be held at the White House and world leaders who attended would be protected, said White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany.

Google said on Tuesday it would start to reopen buildings in more cities beginning July 6 and scale up to 30% in September.

(Compiled by Karishma Singh and Nick Tattersall; Editing by Pravin Char)

U.S. consumer confidence stabilizes as economy reopens

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence nudged up in May, suggesting the worst of the novel coronavirus-driven economic slump was probably in the past as the country starts to reopen, but it would probably take a while to dig out of the hole amid record unemployment.

The Conference Board said on Tuesday its consumer confidence index edged up to a reading of 86.6 this month from a downwardly revised 85.7 in April. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index rising to 87.5 in May from the previously reported reading of 86.9 in April.

Businesses across the country are opening doors after shuttering in mid-March as states and local governments took drastic measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, almost grounding the country to a halt. The economy contracted at its deepest pace in the first quarter since the Great Recession and lost at least 21.4 million jobs in March and April.

“While the decline in confidence appears to have stopped for the moment, the uneven path to recovery and potential second wave is likely to keep a cloud of uncertainty hanging over consumers’ heads,” said Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at The Conference Board in Washington.

Stocks on Wall Street rallied, spurred by the reopening of the economy and optimism about a potential coronavirus vaccine. The dollar was trading lower against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices fell.

The Conference Board survey’s present situation measure, based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions, fell to a reading of 71.1 this month from 73.0 in April. This measure has declined by nearly 100 points in the last couple of months, underscoring the impact of COVID-19.

But the expectations index based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business and labor market conditions climbed to 96.9 from a reading of 94.3 in April.

Despite the improvement in expectations, households remained worried about their finances. They also anticipated higher inflation, which could lead to a sense of diminished purchasing power and hurt much-needed consumer spending.

The Conference Board’s so-called labor market differential, derived from data on respondents’ views on whether jobs are plentiful or hard to get, improved to a reading of -10.4 in May from -15.7 in April. That measure closely correlates to the unemployment rate in the Labor Department’s employment report.

The percentage of consumers expecting an increase in income dropped to 14.0% this month from 17.2% April and the proportion anticipating a drop fell to 15.0% from 18.4%.

A separate report from the Commerce Department on Tuesday showed new home sales increased 0.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 623,000 units last month. Still, the gain left the bulk of March’s 13.7% plunge intact.

March’s sales pace was revised down to 619,000 units from the previously reported 627,000 units. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for about 10% of housing market sales, diving 21.9% to a pace of 480,000 units in April.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani, Editing by Franklin Paul and Andrea Ricci)

Fears of coronavirus second wave prompt flu push at U.S. pharmacies, drugmakers

By Caroline Humer and Julie Steenhuysen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. pharmacy chains are preparing a big push for flu vaccinations when the season kicks off in October, hoping to curb tens of thousands of serious cases that could coincide with a second wave of coronavirus infections.

CVS Health Corp, one of the largest U.S. pharmacies, said it is working to ensure it has vaccine doses available for an anticipated surge in customers seeking shots to protect against seasonal influenza.

Rival chain Rite Aid Corp has ordered 40 percent more vaccine doses to meet the expected demand. Walmart Inc and Walgreens Boots Alliance said they also are expecting more Americans to seek these shots.

Drugmakers are ramping up to meet the demand. Australian vaccine maker CSL Ltd’s Seqirus said demand from customers has increased by 10 percent. British-based GlaxoSmithKline said it is ready to increase manufacturing as needed.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll of 4,428 adults conducted May 13-19 found that about 60 percent of U.S. adults plan to get the flu vaccine in the fall. Typically fewer than half of Americans get vaccinated. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the vaccine for everyone over age 6 months.

Getting a flu shot does not protect against COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus for which there are no approved vaccines. Public health officials have said vaccination against the flu will be critical to help prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed with flu and COVID-19 patients.

“We’re in for a double-barreled assault this fall and winter with flu and COVID. Flu is the one you can do something about,“ Vanderbilt University Medical Center infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner said.

Drugmakers last year produced nearly 170 million doses of influenza vaccine, according to the CDC. There were up to 740,000 hospitalizations and 62,000 deaths in the 2019-2020 flu season that ended last month, the CDC said.

While health insurance typically covers the flu shot at a doctor’s office and other groups offer free flu vaccine clinics, the adult vaccine retails for about $40, putting the U.S. market at up to $6.8 billion. The CDC secures some doses at a discount price in its child vaccination program.

Global revenue for influenza vaccines is about $5 billion, according to Wall Street firm Bernstein, and in the United States each additional 1 percentage point of Americans getting the vaccine is worth $75 million in revenues to drugmakers.

HEAVIER TOLL

CDC Director Robert Redfield has said that flu and COVID-19 combined could exact a heavier toll on Americans than the initial coronavirus outbreak that began this winter.

Some experts said creative ways must be developed to ensure that people are vaccinated against flu because patients may be less likely to see their doctors in person out of fear of getting infected with the coronavirus in medical offices.

Pharmacies, public health clinics and other flu shot providers may need to develop drive-up clinics – popular with COVID-19 diagnostic tests – for flu vaccines, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease.

“My goal is that every single vaccine dose that gets made gets into somebody’s arm to protect them. I don’t want any vaccines left on the shelves or in doctors’ offices,” Messonnier said in an interview.

One reason for reluctance among Americans to get the flu shot is that it does not always prevent disease, in part because the flu strains selected as targets of the vaccine months ahead of time are not always a perfect match for the dominant flu strains that actually circulate in any given season. But the shots reliably reduce hospitalizations every year, according to experts.

“Even if it protects 35 to 40 percent of the population, it’s a lot better than zero,” University of Minnesota influenza expert Dr. Michael Osterholm said.

In a survey commissioned by CVS Health between January and May, consumers who said they will definitely or are likely to get a flu shot rose from 34 percent to 65 percent. They also said they would increasingly go to pharmacies and less often to a doctor’s office or healthcare centers.

Rite Aid Chief Pharmacy Officer Jocelyn Konrad said the pharmacy chain, which provided about 2.6 million flu shots last year, upped its order by 40 percent this year.

Rite Aid said social distancing policies may cut into workplace flu clinics but that it may offer voucher programs to employers and is considering setting up drive-through clinics. In Australia, where the winter flu season is underway, such sites are already in use.

Some U.S. doctors are also considering clinics in parks and community centers and even home visits for vulnerable patients, said David Ross, vice president of commercial operations for North America at Seqirus.

“As we look at immunization this coming fall, it will play an enormous role in this battle against COVID-19,” Ross said.

(Reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Additional reporting by Grant Smith in New York; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Will Dunham)

Factbox: Insurers return part of auto premiums as coronavirus cuts driving

(Reuters) – Major U.S. insurers are offering credit to auto and motorcycle policyholders following a decline in driving, as most Americans stay at home under widespread orders to help contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Following is a list of companies that have offered to return premiums:

ALLSTATE CORP

Allstate, one of the largest U.S. auto insurers, said it would return more than $1 billion in premiums to customers. Most customers will receive a “payback” of 15% of their monthly premium for April, May and June, the company said.

AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE

The auto insurer said it will return additional money to customers, taking the total to $425 million, through a 10% credit on personal auto policies in force from July to December end, and expanded discounts.

The company had begun the exercise in mid-April, when it said customers will receive $50 per vehicle covered by their policies, the company said.

AVIVA CANADA

Aviva Canada said it was offering $100 million in additional immediate relief measures to drivers, including options that would reduce insurance premiums. Customers who have stopped driving entirely could reduce their auto insurance premiums by up to 75%.

CHUBB <CB.BN>

The world’s largest listed property and casualty insurance company said it will give personal auto insurance clients in the United States credit on annual renewal premiums, reflecting a 35% cut for the months of April and May.

ERIE INSURANCE

The insurer said it would provide $200 million in dividends to personal and auto insurance customers in 12 states and the District of Columbia. This is in addition to the $200 million in rate reductions announced previously, bringing the total announced relief to $400 million.

FARMERS INSURANCE

Farmers and 21st Century-branded auto customers will receive a 25% reduction in their April premium. The insurer said it has also implemented flexible payment plans and a temporary pause on cancellations.

GEICO

Geico Corp, part of billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc, said it will offer about $2.5 billion of credits to its 19 million auto and motorcycle policyholders. The insurer said it will offer a 15% credit on policies up for renewal between April 8 and Oct. 7, averaging about $150 per auto policy and $30 per motorcycle policy.

HANOVER INSURANCE GROUP

The company said it will return 15% of April and May auto premiums to its eligible personal lines customers. Hanover will also offer flexible bill payment options.

LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE

Liberty Mutual Insurance will give personal auto insurance customers a 15% refund on two months of their annual premium, returning about $250 million to Liberty Mutual and Safeco personal auto insurance customers.

METLIFE

The company said it is providing financial relief and preserving coverage in the event of missed payments. Active MetLife auto customers, who have paid to date, will receive a 15% credit for April and May based on their monthly premiums.

PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE CORP

Among the largest U.S. auto insurers, Progressive said it would provide about $1 billion to personal auto customers. The company will credit eligible customers 20% of their April and May premiums.

STATE FARM

The largest U.S. auto insurer said it would pay $2 billion in dividends to its customers, with premium credit of about 25% for the period between March 20 and May 31.

The company also said it was working to reduce auto insurance rates in every state. The national average for the cuts is 11%, saving customers a total of about $2.2 billion.

TRAVELERS COMPANIES INC <TRV.N>

The insurer said it was giving U.S. personal auto insurance customers a 15% credit on their April and May premiums through its new stay-at-home auto premium credit program. It said it will continue to provide auto coverage to customers whose jobs include using their personal vehicles to make food, grocery, pharmacy and medical supply deliveries.

USAA

USAA, America’s fifth-largest property-casualty insurer, said it will return a total of $800 million to its members.

Source: Company data

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni, Leslie Adler, Stev Orlofsky, Anil D’Silva, Shinjini Ganguli and Shailesh Kuber)

Where U.S. coronavirus cases are on the rise

By Chris Canipe and Lisa Shumaker

(Reuters) – Twenty U.S. states reported an increase in new cases of COVID-19 for the week ended May 24, up from 13 states in the prior week, as the death toll from the novel coronavirus approaches 100,000, according to a Reuters analysis.

South Carolina had the biggest weekly increase at 42%. Alabama’s new cases rose 28% from the previous week, Missouri’s rose 27% and North Carolina’s rose 26%, according to the analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the outbreak.

New cases in Georgia, one of the first states to reopen, rose 21% after two weeks of declines. (Open https://tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR in an external browser for a Reuters interactive)

Nationally, new cases of COVID-19 fell 0.8% for the week ended May 24, compared with a decline of 8% in the prior week. All 50 states have now at least partially reopened, raising fears among some health officials of a second wave of outbreaks. The increase in cases could also be due to more testing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended states wait for their daily number of new COVID-19 cases to fall for 14 days before easing social distancing restrictions.

As of May 24, 15 states had met that criteria, up from 13 in the prior week, according to the Reuters analysis. Washington state, where the U.S. outbreak started, has the longest streak with cases falling for eight weeks in a row, followed by Hawaii at seven weeks and Pennsylvania and New York at six weeks.

Washington state posted the biggest drop in cases, down over 50%, followed by Kentucky, where new cases fell nearly 30%. New York saw new cases drop 23%, according to the Reuters analysis.

Texas saw new cases fall 15% after they rose 22% in the prior week.

(GRAPHIC: Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S. – )

(Reporting by Chris Canipe in Kansas City, Missouri, and Lisa Shumaker in Chicago; Editing by Tiffany Wu)

Factbox: Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus 5-25-20

(Reuters). – * The number of deaths in the United States from the new coronavirus was heading towards the 100,000 mark.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday that the toll had risen 1,852 to reach 96,002. It also reported 1,595,885 cases, an increase of 24,268 from its previous count.

* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed his senior adviser Dominic Cummings on Sunday, despite calls from within his own Conservative Party for the aide to resign for traveling 250 miles during the coronavirus lockdown. Cummings, who masterminded the 2016 campaign to leave the European Union, came under pressure after it emerged that he had traveled from London to Durham in late March when Britain was under a strict lockdown to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

* Americans flocked to beaches and outdoor areas on Saturday, snarling roadways and forcing some closures on the Memorial Day weekend after weeks in lockdown.

In Destin, Florida, The Back Porch restaurant was full. In Arizona, holidaymakers flooded Interstate-17, causing a 15-mile backup on the highway used to reach some of the desert’s most beautiful canyons.

President Donald Trump played golf at his Trump National club in northern Virginia.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

* More than 5.27 million people were reported to have been infected globally with the virus and 339,267 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.

* For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser.

 

EUROPE

* Russia on Sunday reported 153 coronavirus deaths over the previous 24 hours, the epidemic’s highest daily toll there, raising total fatalities to 3,541, its coronavirus crisis response center said. It also said 8,599 new cases had been documented, fewer than on the previous day, pushing the nationwide tally of infections to 344,481.

* The University of Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine trial has only a 50% chance of success as the coronavirus seems to be fading rapidly in Britain, the professor co-leading the development of the vaccine told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Adrian Hill, director of Oxford’s Jenner Institute, which has teamed up with drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc to develop the vaccine, said that an upcoming trial involving 10,000 volunteers threatened to return “no result” due to low transmission of COVID-19 in the community.

* First indications of the effectiveness of a potential vaccine against coronavirus may be available in the autumn, the head of the GAVI vaccine alliance told a Swiss newspaper, forecasting a long road from there to broad availability.

* Spain will reopen its borders to tourists in July and its top soccer division will kick off again in June, the prime minister said, marking another phase in the easing of one of the world’s strictest lockdowns. Pedro Sanchez’s announcements coincided with calls for his resignation over the lockdown’s impact on the economy from the far-right Vox party, which called protests in cities across Spain drawing thousands of horn-blaring cars and motorbikes.

* The public returned to St Peter’s Square on Sunday to receive Pope Francis’s blessing from his window for the first time in nearly three months. The few dozen people kept to social distancing rules and most wore masks.

* Police arrested about 60 protesters on Saturday as part of city-wide demonstrations against restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, German newspaper Tagesspiegel reported.

The protesters had violated official guidelines to keep the virus contained, and some had attacked police officials, the newspaper said.

AMERICAS

* Americans flocked to beaches and outdoor areas on Saturday, snarling roadways and forcing some closures on the Memorial Day weekend after weeks in lockdown. President Donald Trump played golf at his Trump National club in northern Virginia.

* Mexican health authorities registered 3,329 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 190 new deaths, a health official said on Saturday, bringing the total number to 65,856 cases and 7,179 deaths.

* Argentina extended until June 7 a mandatory lockdown in Buenos Aires on Saturday and tightened some movement restrictions, after a steady increase in the city’s confirmed coronavirus cases in recent days.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Three large Indian states have sought to delay the planned opening of their airports on Monday as new cases of the novel coronavirus jumped, complicating the federal government’s plan to resume flights after a two-month lockdown.

India registered 6,767 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, its biggest 24-hour rise yet, taking the total to over 131,000.

* The Philippines’ tally of coronavirus cases surpassed 14,000 on Sunday and the number of fatalities rose to 868, the health ministry said.

* China recorded no new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the mainland for May 22, the first time it had seen no daily rise in the number of cases since the pandemic began in the central city of Wuhan late last year.

* Coronavirus cases in Singapore topped 30,000 as the city-state reported hundreds of new infections in cramped migrant worker dormitories every day. In Malaysia, a new cluster of coronavirus infections has broken out a detention center for undocumented migrants, authorities said.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Finance minister Mohammed al Jadaan said Saudi Arabia’s economy is solid and has the ability to deal with the coronavirus crisis despite the need to cut spending.

* Underground production at AngloGold Ashanti’s Mponeng mine in South Africa will remain shut down until further notice after 53 employees tested positive for the coronavirus, the provincial health department said.

* A 107-year-old Iranian woman who was infected with the new coronavirus has recovered, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.

* Zambia’s information minister Dora Siliya said she had tested positive for the coronavirus but was asymptomatic and had gone into self-isolation.

“Even after taking all precautions…yesterday I did test positive for COVID-19,” she said on social media.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

* Chinese lenders could post flat or even falling profits in 2020 despite earnings growth in the first quarter as the coronavirus outbreak brings difficulties to the economy, the central bank said. For the first quarter of 2020, China’s commercial banks realized net profits of 600.1 billion yuan ($84.2 billion), up 5% year-on-year, mainly due to the expansion of banks’ assets and lower management costs, according to an article by the research bureau of the People’s Bank of China.

The possibility could not be ruled out that banks could log zero or even negative profit growth within 2020, due to mounting bad loans and a fast-draining of cash buffers, as the difficulties in the real economy spills over into the financial area, the PBOC said.

* France’s state debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio is set to increase to more than 115% by the end of the year due to the cost of coronavirus crisis measures, Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

* Car rental firm Hertz Global Holdings Inc HTZ.N filed for bankruptcy protection after its business was decimated during the coronavirus pandemic and talks with creditors failed to result in much needed relief. The firm is reeling from government orders restricting travel and requiring citizens to remain home.

(Compiled by Angus MacSwan; Editing by John Stonestreet)

Americans pass pandemic holiday on beaches, in parks as death toll nears 100,000

By Lisa Shumaker

(Reuters) – Americans sunbathed on beaches, fished from boats and strolled on boardwalks this holiday weekend, even as the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 fast approaches 100,000.

The Memorial Day weekend that signals the start of the U.S. summer is normally a time when cemeteries across the nation fill with American flags and ceremonies to remember those who died in U.S. wars.

This year it has also become a time to mourn the loss of more than 97,000 people due to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

The New York Times filled its entire front page with the names and selected details of 1,000 victims on Sunday seeking to illustrate the humanity of the lives lost.

Graphic: Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S. –

“We were trying to capture that personal toll,” Marc Lacey, the newspaper’s national editor, told Reuters. “We were trying to humanize these numbers which keep growing and have reached such unfathomable heights that they’re really hard to grasp any more. …This is about everyday people. It’s about a death toll, reaching a number that’s really just jaw-dropping.”

Among the victims, drawn from obituaries and death notices in hundreds of U.S. newspapers: Lila Fenwick, 87, the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Law; Romi Cohn, 91, saved 56 Jewish families from the Gestapo; Hailey Herrera, 25, budding therapist with a gift for empathy.

All 50 states have relaxed coronavirus restrictions to some degree. In some states, like Illinois and New York, restaurants are still closed to in-person dining and hair salons remain shuttered. In many southern states, most businesses are open, with restrictions on capacity.

Last week, 11 states reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases, including Alabama, Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Maryland, Maine, Nevada, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin, according to a Reuters tally. It is not clear if the cases are rising from more testing or a second wave of infections.

Total U.S. cases are over 1.6 million, the highest in the world, while forecast models for possible COVID-19 deaths predict the death toll will exceed 100,000 by June 1.

Graphic: World-focused tracker with country-by-country interactive –

A plea by health officials and many state governors to wear masks in stores and in public is being met with protest and resistance from some Americans. Social media is filled with videos of businesses turning away a few angry customers who refuse to cover their mouths and noses.

“We need to be wearing masks in public when we cannot social distance. It’s really critically important we have the scientific evidence of how important mask-wearing is to prevent those droplets from reaching others,” Dr. Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

While Americans were largely adhering to warnings to maintain social distancing over the holiday weekend, there were notable exceptions.

Graphic: Where coronavirus cases are rising in the United States –

These included some packed beaches in Florida and other gulf states, forcing authorities to break up large gatherings. Videos posted on social media showed parties in other states where people crowded into pools and clubs elbow-to-elbow.

One such party at a Houston club called Cle prompted the city’s Mayor Sylvester Turner on Sunday to order firefighters across the metropolitan area to enforce social distancing rules.

Last week Turner said authorities would not forcibly make sure businesses were operating at capacity restrictions of 50% for restaurants and 25% for bars. But he reversed course after more than 250 crowd complaints were phoned into the city by Sunday evening.

“There are too many people who are coming together going to some of our clubs, our bars, to swimming pool parties, with no social distancing, no masks,” Turner said. “It’s clear people are crowding in, looks like to maximum capacity, almost on top of one another.”

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington, Sinead Carew and Koh Gui Qing in New York, and Brad Brooks in Austin, Texas; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall, Diane Craft and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)

Trump warns governors: let places of worship open this weekend

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday urged state governors to allow the reopening this weekend in the United States of places of worship which have been closed due to the coronavirus, warning that he will override governors who do not do so.

At a short appearance in the White House briefing room, Trump said he was declaring that places of worship – churches, synagogues and mosques – are providing essential services and thus should be opened as soon as possible.

Places of worship have been closed along as part of stay-at-home orders most states have tried to control the spread of the coronavirus. With the infection rate declining in many areas, there is pressure to begin reopening.

Trump issued a warning to governors who refuse his appeal but did not say under what authority he would act to force the reopening of religious facilities.

“If they don’t do it I will override the governors. In America we need more prayer, not less,” he said.

(Reporting Jeff Mason and Steve Holland, Editing by Franklin Paul and David Gregorio)