World Briefs

INDIA Public health officials in India have shelved plans to administer the untested anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, or HCQ, to thousands in Mumbai’s crowded slums as a way of preventing infections in healthy people. Health officials in Mumbai said the plan to conduct tests was still in the cards but had not yet been approved by the Indian government.

THAILAND The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said yesterday that plans call for the reopening of restaurants, markets, exercise venues, parks, hairdressers and barbers, clinics and nursing homes, animal hospitals and pet salons, and golf courses and driving ranges. Restaurants will have to keep their seats at least 1.5 meters apart and practice a wide range of sanitary measures.

MALAYSIAN lawyers and an international rights group have voiced concern over what they say is excessive sentencing of violators of the country’s coronavirus lockdown. Malaysia, which has confirmed 5,851 cases and 100 deaths from COVID-19, has arrested more than 21,000 people since a partial lockdown began March 8. Violators face a fine or a jail term of up to six months.

SOUTH KOREAN officials have issued public pleas for vigilance to maintain hard-won gains against the coronavirus as the nation enters its longest holiday since infections surged in February. Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said that 180,000 people are expected to visit the resort island of Jeju during a six-day break from today to Tuesday, despite the island government pleading travelers not to come.

JAPAN Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike called for an extension of Japan’s nationwide “state of emergency,” which requests people to stay home and social distance. She noted that reported daily cases of COVID-19 in Tokyo have topped 100 people recently. The state of emergency lasts through May 6, which marks the end of the Golden Week holidays that began this week.

AUSTRALIA A mining magnate and partner in the government’s pandemic response says a global inquiry into the coronavirus should be delayed until after the U.S. presidential election. Andrew Forrest, who became a billionaire exporting iron ore to China as founder of Fortescue Metals Group, said such an inquiry made “common sense,” but should be held after the November election so “there’s not going to be a political dog in this fight.”

SPAIN With 325 new confirmed deaths from coronavirus, Spain is seeing yesterday a slight rebound in fatalities for a total of 24,275 since the beginning of the pandemic. Infections stand over 212,000, although the Health Ministry’s figure only includes the cases confirmed by the most reliable laboratory tests that are not being conducted massively.

GERMAN pharmaceutical company BioNTech says it has begun testing a potential vaccine for the new coronavirus on volunteers.
BioNTech, which is working with U.S.-based Pfizer, said that 12 participants of a clinical trial in Germany have received doses of the vaccine candidate BNT162 since April 23. Numerous pharmaceutical companies are racing to deliver a vaccine.