French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel presented a joint plan to spur EU recovery from the coronavirus crisis on Monday, after weeks of debate over how to deploy billions of euros needed to end a painful recession.

In a joint video conference, Macron and Merkel called for the creation of a 500-billion-euro ($543 billion) recovery fund able to offer grants to the countries and regions hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis.

The leaders of France and Germany also said they were proposing to authorise the European Commission to borrow money on financial markets in the European Union’s name, while at the same time respecting EU treaties.

Macron and Merkel propose €500 billion EU recovery fund: Watch their press conference

Macron said this was the first time France and Germany agreed to let the EU raise debt jointly, calling this a “major step foward”. He insisted that money from the recovery fund would be made available in the form of grants and not loans.

Merkel said that in all, EU member states and the bloc’s executive would mobilise a combined sum of three trillion euros to cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

She said France and Germany were also in favour of reforming the EU’s merger and competition rules so that the bloc can create stronger European champions after the coronavirus crisis.

Europe is just beginning to emerge from lockdowns put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which has taken a huge bite out of national economies. But divisions among EU members on how to craft an overall response have hampered comprehensive action so far.

Macron said on Monday that the Franco-German initiative was the fruit of extensive talks with other EU member states, including Italy and the Netherlands, which have been at loggerheads in recent weeks.

The recovery debate has again exposed the bloc’s divide between northern countries leery of exploding budget deficits, and hard-hit southern countries like Italy and Spain that are desperate for more spending.

The eurozone economy overall is forecast to contract by a whopping 7.7 percent this year, but the damage could be worse in Italy and Greece, which could see their economies shrink by nearly 10 percent, prompting a cascade of bankruptcies and job losses.

While the European Commission still takes time before presenting its own plan, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel unveil their joint proposal for a 500 billion euros for the #Recovery Initiative.

European sources told AFP last week the Commission would lay out its plan toward the end of May, hoping to reconcile the opposing objectives of providing financial firepower – and proving European solidarity – without giving governments a blank check that would expose the entire bloc to gaping budget deficits.

Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen has not given a specific figure, but has said the plan would be linked to the EU’s regular budget and funded in part by the commission borrowing on financial markets.

That would require European Parliament approval as well as a summit meeting of member states to give a green light on how the funds would be used, and the terms for their reimbursement.

The European Central Bank has also promised to do “whatever is necessary” to help weather the crisis, including a 750-billion-euro scheme to buy government bonds for cash-strapped nations.

However, that has proved problematic after Germany’s Constitutional Court attacked the ruling, potentially limiting Germany’s participation.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)

Ireland will begin to lift its coronavirus lockdown in the coming days while introducing a 14-day quarantine period for people arriving in the nation, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Friday.

“I can confirm that it is safe to proceed with phase one of our plan to ease the COVID-19 restrictions from Monday,” he said, indicating the start of a five-stage plan to reopen the country set to stretch until August.

The changes coming into effect after the weekend will see staff return to outdoor workplaces and the reopening of some shops, sports facilities and public amenities such as beaches.

Citizens will also be allowed to meet in small groups outdoors.

Social distancing measures are to remain in widespread use as they have been since Ireland’s lockdown began on 28 March.

Meanwhile, the Irish cabinet agreed to make it mandatory for arrivals to fill out forms outlining where they will quarantine.

“We’re going to examine means by which it can be enforced thereafter,” Varadkar said at a Dublin press conference.

Travellers from the British province of Northern Ireland will be exempt.

The government also issued advice for “face coverings” to be worn in enclosed public spaces such as shops and public transport.

“Coronavirus is an inferno that is raging around the world”, said Varadkar.

“In Ireland it is now a fire in retreat but it’s not defeated — we must extinguish every spark and quench every ember.”

Effects of the relaxation will be monitored for three weeks before the government decides whether to move to the next stage in the “roadmap” to reopen the nation announced earlier this month.

Ireland has suffered 1,506 deaths from COVID-19, according to health department figures.

Reported daily deaths peaked at 77 on 20 April, but on Thursday had fallen to just 10.

Chief medical officer Tony Holohan said in mid-April that the nation had successfully quashed the spread of infection.

But, as in other countries, there is fear of a second wave.

“We have to remember that just as our actions brought about the progress you’ve seen to date, our actions could also set us back,” Health Minister Simon Harris said.

If the first phase of relaxations is deemed successful, the second stage will allow wider travel, visits to other households and employees to return to work under social distancing measures.

Source:  AFP

On Monday, Italy moved to phase two of the coronavirus emergency by starting to relax some of the stringent lockdown restrictions that have been in force since March 10.

With construction and manufacturing sectors resuming activity, over 4 million people have returned to their occupations provided that workplaces can meet social distancing rules.

Italians will now be able to travel within regions to visit relatives or anyone with whom they have a stable emotional relation. Parks have also been allowed to reopen while schools, cinemas and museums will remain shut.

However not everybody has been pleased with the government’s cautious relaxation of the lockdown measures. Some entrepreneurs and shopkeepers have argued that many of the restrictions of the past eight weeks will remain in place resulting in huge economic losses for them.

Activities such as barbers, hairdressers, gyms will stay shut possibly until June 1 while restaurants and bars can only offer takeaways.

The pandemic in Italy has claimed about 29,000 lives so far, second only to the US. Prime Minister Conte has made it clear that Italy is still in the full throes of the pandemic despite a drop in the number of coronavirus infections and deaths has been recorded lately Conte has warned that evidence of a rise in infections in the coming weeks could lead to restrictive measures being reintroduced.

Source: Presstv

Spaniards were allowed out of their homes to exercise and walk freely after 48 days of confinement on Saturday as some European nations began cautiously easing virus lockdowns while others like Russia faced a spike in new infections.

As governments across the globe balance lifting restrictions to restart economies against the risk of new infections, US authorities brought some hope by approving an experimental drug for emergency use on coronavirus patients.

The measure was the latest step in a global push to find viable treatments and a vaccine for the coronavirus, which has left half of humanity under some form of lockdown, hammered the world economy and caused more than 3.3 million confirmed infections.

The virus has killed nearly 239,000 people since it emerged in China late last year.

With signs the pandemic in their hardest-hit nations is slowing, European countries and some parts of the US have begun to lift restrictions and to try to inject life into economies battered by weeks of closure.

In Madrid and Barcelona, Spaniards took to the streets to exercise and walk freely as the government eased seven weeks of strict lockdown in a country with one of the highest number of fatalities at nearly 25,000.

“After so many weeks in confinement, I badly wanted to go out, run, see the world,” said financial advisor Marcos Abeytua in Madrid’s Chueca district who got up a 7am to enjoy some time outside. “Yesterday, I was like a child on Christmas Eve.”

In the city’s Retiro park, many residents were out to running, sometimes in groups, as a policeman used a loudspeaker to urge them to keep out of deserted avenue and on the pavement.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez however said masks would be obligatory on public transport from Monday.

Spain, Germany, Austria and Scandinavian nations are all slowly easing lockdowns as the virus cases slow though they will keep in place social distancing measures, demand the use of masks or increase testing to try to track infections.

France on Saturday decided it would extend a health emergency, in place since March 24, by two months until July 24, Health Minister Olivier Veran announced after a cabinet meeting.

Italy is preparing to ease restrictions in coming days while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spent time in intensive care with the virus, said Britain had past the peak of its outbreak.

Ireland extended its lockdown by two weeks to May 18, with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar saying the nation will reopen “in a slow, phased, staged way” after that.

In Russia, though, authorities reported the largest increase in coronavirus cases with the new infections rising by nearly 10,000 in a single day.

In Moscow, the epicentre of Russia’s outbreak, around 2 percent of the population is infected by COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, officials said.

“The threat is apparently on the rise,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, said on his blog earlier Saturday.

– Treatment hopes –

More than 3.3 million cases of infection have been officially diagnosed in 195 countries, including 1.5 million in Europe alone. That number is likely only a fraction of true cases as testing is still limited.

The United States has the most deaths with more than 65,000, followed by Italy with 28,236, the United Kingdom with 27,510, Spain with 25,100 deaths and France with 24,594 fatalities.

US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that Remdesivir, an antiviral drug initially developed to treat Ebola, was given the green light for use after a major trial found that it boosted recovery in serious COVID-19 patients.

“It’s really a very promising situation,” Trump said on Friday at the White House.

The drug incorporates itself into the virus’s genome, short-circuiting its replication process.

Its approval came as the US leaders struggled with growing pressure from citizens wearying of stay-at-home orders.

Trump is keen for a turnaround as the world’s largest economy reels with tens of millions left jobless.

Texas became the largest US state yet to ease curbs, while anti-lockdown demonstrations were held in several states — including California, where officials had re-closed beaches beginning Friday to avoid a repeat of last weekend when crowds flocked to the shoreline.

In Huntington Beach, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Los Angeles, several thousand people rallied to denounce Governor Gavin Newsom’s beach shutdown order.

“Open California!” chanted protesters near the closed beaches, carrying signs that read “All jobs are essential” or “Freedom is essential”.

– Hong Kong shops opening –

In Asia, India announced that the lockdown on its 1.3 billion people — the world’s biggest — would continue for two more weeks from May 4.

And in Singapore, the government said Saturday that pet food stores and hair salons will be allowed to reopen on May 12.

Most of the city-state’s infections have been detected at dormitories housing migrant workers, and their confinement was extended to June 1.

Hong Kong recorded zero confirmed case of coronavirus on Saturday, the sixth day within a week.

The city’s social distancing regulations including limits on gathering of more than four people are due to expire on May 7, but authorities have not decided whether to extend them.

The city’s chief executive has said that civil servants will return to work in the office starting from May 4.

During the long weekend with public holidays to celebrate Buddha’s birthday and Labour Day, residents flocked to country parks and the city’s outlying islands to get some fresh air.

Shops and restaurants started to resume business in normal opening hours with more consumers going out to streets and shopping malls.

The virus restrictions put a damper on May Day celebrations worldwide on Friday as many labour unions delayed their rallies and some held online events, while a determined few hit the streets in face masks.

May Day carried extra significance this year because of the staggering number of people put out of work by the pandemic, with the global economy in a tailspin and facing its worst downturn since the Great Depression.

Stock markets tumbled again on Friday after Trump’s unproven allegation that the virus may have come from a lab in Wuhan — the central Chinese city where the disease first emerged.

Source: AFP

Over 1.5 million cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Europe, just under half the worldwide total, according to an AFP tally at 0850 GMT on Saturday.

With at least 1,506,853 infections, including 140,260 deaths, Europe is the hardest-hit continent. Across the world, 3,350,224 cases and 238,334 deaths have been recorded.

Spain, with 215,216 cases and 24,824 deaths, Italy with 207,428 cases and 28,236 deaths, Britain (177,454 and 27,510), France (167,346 and  24,594) and Germany (161,703 and 6,575) are the five European countries with official tolls over 150,000.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are testing only the most serious cases.

(AFP)

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Thursday said he tested positive for Covid-19 and will self-isolate to protect other cabinet members.

“I have just learned that the test on the coronavirus I took was positive,” Mishustin said in a video meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggesting a deputy takes his place while he self-isolates.

Mishustin suggested that Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov should serve as acting prime minister in his absence. Putin supported his proposal and signed a decree appointing Belousov as a temporary replacement.

Russia has so far recorded 106,498 cases and 1,073 coronavirus-related deaths.

Mishustin, 54 was named prime minister in January following the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev. Putin’s choice of an obscure former tax service chief to replace Medvedev came as a surprise to most Russians.

‘Call me’ from hospital 

During a video call, Putin voiced hope that Mishustin would continue taking part in drafting policies to shore up the Russian economy, which has been hurt by the virus pandemic.

“Call me as soon as you arrive at the hospital,” said Putin

In Russia, the prime minister oversees the economy and answers to the president.

It was not immediately clear when Putin last met with Mishustin in person. The Russian president has minimised meetings and switched to holding video conferences with officials during the pandemic.

Infections spiking

A spike of 7,099 confirmed infections in the last 24 hours brought Russia’s total to 106,498 cases and 1,073 deaths, according to the government’s daily coronavirus update.

With its number of cases increasing by several thousand each day, Russia is now the European country registering the most new infections.

But Russia’s coronavirus death rate remains relatively low and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the country’s actions had helped it avoid the catastrophic “Italian scenario”.

Russia’s success was down to “tough self-isolation decisions” and government measures “which convinced people to stay at home”, Peskov told the RTVI television channel.

He also said Russia had quickly and efficiently increased the number of available hospital beds.

The virus has spread to all 85 regions of the country, with Moscow the epicentre with around half the total cases.

Russia has the eighth highest number of virus cases in the world after recently surpassing Iran and China, according to an AFP tally.

The country has carried out nearly 3.5 million virus tests, health officials said, and is ranked 19th in the world for the number of coronavirus deaths.

Situation ‘very difficult’

Medics in Russia have complained of shortages of protective equipment and testing kits, and hospital staff are becoming increasingly concerned with deaths in the medical community.

Trade union representatives and medics have told AFP that the problem is particularly severe outside of Moscow where staff are at an even greater risk of infection.

The Kremlin this week extended until May 11 a “non-working” period when Russians would stay at home but still receive their salaries as part of sweeping efforts to contain the virus.

Yet the measure has brought uncertainty to the economy, with business owners struggling to pay full salaries to employees while shutting their doors to customers.

The government has been phasing in anti-crisis measures, such as loan payment deferrals or cheap loans, but there is concern that Russians are unable to access the support.

Despite the steady increase in cases, Putin said that Russia may begin to gradually lift different quarantine regimes throughout the country from mid-May.

Mishustin on Wednesday extended a ban on entry for foreigners into the country, which had been due to expire Thursday, until “the fight against the infection is over and the epidemic situation has improved”.

The pandemic has thwarted several major political events for the Kremlin this year, with Putin postponing a massive military parade on May 9 commemorating the 75th anniversary of victory in World War II. Many world leaders had been due to attend.

The Kremlin also postponed an April 22 vote on landmark constitutional reforms, which would have paved the way for Putin, 67, to potentially stay in power until 2036.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

The United Kingdom now has Europe’s second-highest official death toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to new figures on Wednesday that cover fatalities in all settings, including in nursing homes.

Some 26,097 people died after testing positive for the novel coronavirus as of April 28 at 1600 GMT, Public Health England (PHE) said. That means the United Kingdom has had more COVID-19 deaths than France and Spain have reported.

“These more complete data will give us a fuller and more up to date picture of deaths in England and will inform the government’s approach as we continue to protect the public,” Yvonne Doyle, medical director at PHE, said.

Although international comparisons are difficult, the new figures confirm Britain’s place among the European countries worst hit hardest by the pandemic.

Italy said on Wednesday that 27,682 people had died after testing positive for coronavirus. Like Britain, its figures are based on deaths following positive coronavirus tests, in all settings.

(REUTERS)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will return to work on Monday, Downing Street has confirmed, after the premier battled the coronavirus and spent three nights in intensive care early this month. 

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson will return to work at the start of this week, according to reports Sunday just hours after it was announced that the UK’s coronavirus death toll had passed the “tragic” milestone of 20,000.

The Press Association said Johnson would be back in his Downing Street office on Monday after himself recovering from the virus.

A Number 10 source quoted by Sky News said the 55-year-old was “raring to go”. Johnson has been recuperating at the British prime ministerial retreat, Chequers, outside London since his release from hospital on April 12

Johnson spent three days in intensive care and later admitted “things could have gone either way”, after contracting the virus.

The prime minister’s return to work comes as pressure intensifies on his government on several fronts over its handling of the crisis.

Health department figures released Saturday showed a further 813 people had died in hospital after contracting COVID-19, pushing the official number of fatalities to 20,319.

Home Secretary Priti Patel described it as “a deeply tragic and moving moment”.

Passing 20,000 was an unwanted milestone, as the medical director of NHS England Stephen Powis and Britain’s chief scientific advisor Patrick Vallance had said previously during the pandemic that keeping the number of fatalities below 20,000 would be “a good outcome”.

“The nation today will be deeply moved by the figures of the number of people who have died,” Patel said during the daily Downing Street briefing.

It was an increase on the 684 deaths reported the previous day and comes after the government claimed the virus had hit its peak.

However, there was some optimism as the number of new infections fell by 473 to 4,913, according to the same health department figures.

University of Oxford analysis also showed that the numbers dying in England may be on a downward spiral as it said a third of the 711 additional deaths recorded in the latest government figures on Saturday occurred more than a week ago.

Despite that, the latest figures confirm Britain has been one of the worst-hit countries in the world and the actual death toll could be much higher when deaths in the community are taken into account, particularly at care homes.

As well as a rise in fatalities, questions are being asked of the government over shortages in personal protective equipment and a lack of widespread testing, particularly of frontline health and social care workers.

There is also pressure, reportedly from within the ruling Conservative party, to relax social distancing rules.

Johnson ordered the country into lockdown on March 23, but Patel said ministers would not yet give a date for any relaxation of the rules.

“We’ve made a great deal of progress, but actually we’re not out of the woods yet, we really are not,” she said.

The lockdown was extended on April 16 and is due for review on May 7.

Concern over political influence

Meanwhile there was brewing row over the role played by Johnson’s controversial chief advisor, Dominic Cummings, after it emerged he attended meetings of the main scientific group advising ministers on the coronavirus pandemic.

Downing Street denied that Cummings and another advisor, Ben Warner, were members of the politically independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).

However, following reports in The Guardian newspaper, the government admitted that Cummings had sat in on group meetings.

In a statement, a Number 10 spokesman said they attended meetings “to understand better the scientific debates concerning this emergency”.

The statement added it was “factually wrong and damaging to sensible public debate” to suggest the committee’s advice was affected by the government.

Labour’s health spokesman, John Ashworth told BBC radio on Saturday that his “concern” was “that political advisers have influenced the debate”.

And a former Conservative frontbencher, David Davis, tweeted that “we should publish the membership of SAGE: remove any non-scientist members”. Meanwhile on Saturday, health officials announced that as many as 5,000 severely ill coronavirus patients could be treated with plasma from people who have recovered from the illness as part of a new approach.

(AFP)

France has reported 547 deaths in hospitals and nursing homes from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours as the number of new hospitalisations continued a slow decline.

France – which on Monday became the fourth country to record more than 20,000 deaths as a result of the pandemic and has the fourth-highest toll in the world – has been in virtual lockdown for nearly five weeks and is due to start lifting some confinement measures from May 11.

“Tonight, our country has passed a barrier that is symbolic and particularly painful,” top health official Jérôme Salomon told reporters, announcing a total death toll of 20,265 people while welcoming new falls in the numbers in hospital and intensive care.

The 547 new deaths reported – including 444 in hospital and 103 in nursing homes – marked an increase over the previous 24 hours.

Salomon, however, highlighted other welcome signs that the virus curve had passed its peak. He said 5,683 patients were receiving intensive care for the virus on Monday, down from a peak of 7,148 on April 8. Hospitalisations likewise continued a near week-long decline.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told a news conference on Sunday that falls in the number of people in intensive care were one of the encouraging signals that pressures on hospitals were easing.

But he shut down any expectations that the gradual exit from confinement in May, due to start with the reopening of schools, would allow people to move around or interact as before, especially as a vaccine against the virus was still far off.

“It won’t be a return to normal life,” Philippe said, adding that as France introduces more testing, people with coronavirus would have to remain isolated at home or in hotels laid on by the government. “From May 11, we will enter a second phase, when we will regain some of our freedoms.”

The French state has given few details yet of the pace at which businesses like cinemas or bars will reopen, only saying that as some stores open up again, people will have to maintain safe distances from each other.

France will, however, lift its ban on visits to nursing home residents, provided people did not touch their relatives, Health Minister Olivier Véran told the same briefing. Elderly people in nursing homes account for nearly 40% of the coronavirus fatalities in the country.

The government has come under fire in recent weeks after shortages of medicines, hospital equipment such as ventilators and face masks for doctors as well as front line workers in sectors like supermarkets added to problems in handling the crisis.

Philippe said that in the past week France had managed to import just under 81 million masks, exceeding for the first time “in a long time” its weekly needs of about 45 million.

By June, France will also have secured and produced 15,000 more ventilators for resuscitation units in hospitals and another 15,000 less heavy-duty versions – helping it exceed its projected needs.

“That will not only allow us to secure our situation, but thereafter to also mobilise some ventilators to help France’s allies internationally,” Philippe said.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)

Germany takes its first steps back towards normality on Monday, with smaller shops in some regions opening up for the first time in a month after politicians declared the coronavirus “under control”.

From florists to fashion stores, the majority of shops smaller than 800 square metres (8,600 square feet) will be allowed to welcome customers again, in a first wave of relaxations to strict curbs on public life introduced last month.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and regional state premiers announced the decision to reopen last week, though they have been careful to cast it as no more than a cautious first step.

While the first shops will open their doors on Monday, each of Germany’s 16 states is set to lift the restrictions at a slightly different pace.

In some states such as the capital Berlin, reopening will take a little longer.

Merkel, who has been praised for her handling of the coronavirus crisis, is hoping to reinvigorate the ailing German economy, which officially entered into recession last week.

‘Fragile’

With 139,897 confirmed cases and 4,294 deaths as of Sunday, Germany has been one of the countries worst hit by COVID-19, but also one of the quickest to react.

On Friday, the Robert Koch Institute for public health announced that the rate of infection — the number of people each ill person contaminates — had dropped below one for the first time, leading Health Minister Jens Spahn to declare the virus “under control”.

Yet Merkel, who was herself quarantined for two weeks earlier this month before testing negative for the virus, has warned that Germany’s success remains “fragile”.

“We will not be able to go back to our normal lives for a long time,” said her conservative party colleague Armin Laschet, the state premier of North-Rhine Westphalia, the country’s most populous region.

In an interview with Der Spiegel weekly, Laschet warned that some coronavirus restrictions could last until 2021.

A ban on gatherings of more than two people and a requirement to stand more than 1.5 metres apart from others in public areas remain in force.

That means that hairdressers, initially deemed an essential business, cannot open until at least May 4.

Cultural venues, bars, leisure centres and beauty salons will also remain closed for the time being, while large-scale public events such as concerts and football matches have been banned until August 31.

But Germans can look forward to at least some relaxations to the existing shutdown although they have not been welcomed by everyone.

With larger shops unable to open, the German Trade Association warned Friday of a possible “distortion of competition”.

Yet Economy Minister Peter Altmaier defended the 800-square-metre limit, saying that “the belt can only be loosened bit by bit”.

Schools reopening

Schools will also be partially reopened in the coming weeks, with most states set to welcome back older students from May 4.

Education policy is traditionally decided at state level in Germany, and Bavaria, the region worst hit by the virus so far, will keep its schools closed for an extra week.

On April 29, regional education ministers are set to present concrete plans on how social distancing can still be enforced in the classroom.

Germany hopes to combine the lifting of restrictions with a more efficient tracing of the spread of COVID-19.

The country hopes to ramp up testing — it has already tested around two million people — and aims to produce around 50 million protective masks, including 10 million of the higher efficiency FFP2 standard a week from August.

Though not yet obligatory, Merkel said her government “strongly advises” wearing a mask in public.

With more movement of the population expected as shops reopen, eastern states Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony have made masks obligatory on public transport.

In doing so, they have followed the example of the eastern city of Jena, which unilaterally enforced the wearing of masks earlier this month.

According to German media, the city has had no new cases in a week.

Source: AFP