Millions under coronavirus lockdown as China battles Delta outbreak

Millions of people were confined to their homes in China Monday as the country tried to contain its largest coronavirus outbreak in months including seven positive tests found in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in late 2019.

China reported 55 new locally transmitted cases on Monday as an outbreak of the fast-spreading Delta variant reached over 20 cities in more than a dozen provinces.

The Wuhan cluster came after the official daily tally was released, but it was confirmed by state media which said the infections had been traced to a train station.

"The seven were identified as migrant workers," Xinhua reported, citing COVID-19 prevention and control officials. 

Major cities including Beijing have now tested millions of residents while cordoning off residential compounds and placing close contacts under quarantine.

Over 1.2 million residents were placed under strict lockdown for the next three days in the central city of Zhuzhou in Hunan province Monday, as authorities roll out a citywide testing and vaccination campaign, according to an official statement.

"The situation is still grim and complicated," the Zhuzhou government said.

Beijing had previously boasted of its success in bringing domestic cases down to virtually zero after the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan, allowing the economy to rebound.

But the latest outbreak, linked to a cluster in the city of Nanjing where nine cleaners at an international airport tested positive on July 20, is threatening that success with more than 360 domestic cases reported in the past two weeks.

In the tourist destination of Zhangjiajie, famed for its national forest park, an outbreak spread last month among theatre patrons who then brought the virus back to their homes around the country.

Zhangjiajie locked down all 1.5 million residents on Friday.

Officials are urgently seeking people who have recently travelled from Nanjing or Zhangjiajie, and have urged tourists not to travel to areas where cases have been found.

Meanwhile, Beijing has blocked tourists from entering the capital during the peak summer holiday travel season.

Only "essential travellers" with negative nucleic acid tests will be allowed to enter after the discovery of a handful of cases among residents who had returned from Zhangjiajie.

Top city officials on Sunday called for residents "not to leave Beijing unless necessary".

The capital's Changping district locked down 41,000 people in nine housing communities last week.

Fresh cases were also reported on Monday in the popular tourist destination of Hainan as well as in flood-ravaged Henan province, national health authorities said.

Agence France-Presse

Taiwan to extend COVID-19 curbs into next month

TAIPEI - Taiwan will extend its coronavirus curbs by 2 more weeks until July 12 as the situation has yet to reach a point where they can be relaxed, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said Wednesday.

Taiwan has been dealing with a rise in domestic infections since May after months of relative safety, leading the government to limit personal gatherings and close entertainment venues. Those restrictions were meant to end on June 28.

But Chen told reporters they would be extended.

"Although the overall trend has improved during this period, it has not met our requirements. So for 2 more weeks, everyone will endure and work together, hoping to reach a more stable level after July 12," he said.

Chen announced 104 new domestic infections, up from up from 78 on Tuesday.

Although Taiwan's numbers remain comparatively low, authorities are reporting community transmission and clusters of infections.

Taiwan has logged 14,260 cases since the pandemic began, including 599 deaths.

-reuters-

Thailand to further ease restrictions, shorten curfew hours

BANGKOK- Thailand will next week shorten curfew hours and ease restrictions on more businesses, the government said on Friday, in response to its low numbers of locally transmitted cases of the coronavirus.

Starting June 1, cinemas and theaters can reopen, but with no more than 200 people at a time and with strict physical distancing measures, said Somsak Roongsita, secretary-general of the National Security Council.

A curfew will be shortened by one hour to last from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. and shopping malls, which reopened earlier this month, will also be allowed to extend their operating hours, he added.

"The reopening will help stimulate the economy and ease some financial burdens," Somsak said.

Zoos, beauty clinics, spas, and traditional Thai massages will be allowed to operate, with physical distancing in place, as will soccer fields and volleyball and basketball courts, but only for training purposes and with limits on spectators.

Fitness clubs can also reopen but with limited users at each time.

Thailand's planning agency on Thursday said the impacts of the coronavirus could cause the loss of up to 2 million jobs this year, particularly in the tourist industry. It predicts the economy will shrink 5 to 6 percent this year.

Thailand confirmed 11 new coronavirus cases on Friday, and no new deaths. All those cases were arrivals from Kuwait and were in state quarantine.

All but one of the cases reported this week were detected in quarantine.

The government has previously said it planned to reopen all businesses within June, although passenger flights remain suspended.

The Southeast Asian country has seen a slowdown in locally transmitted cases, and more recent cases have been found among those in state quarantine after returning from abroad.

The coronavirus has infected 3,076 in Thailand since January and killed 57.

-reuters-

Singapore looks to restart economy with phased easing of virus curbs

SINGAPORE - Singapore will see three-quarters of its economy resume normal operations when curbs to fight the coronavirus are eased from June 2, although the relaxing of measures will likely see a rise in daily cases, its government said on Tuesday.

Businesses that operate in settings with lower transmission risks may resume activities, such as those in manufacturing, finance, insurance and wholesale trade.

A third of the workforce will resume on-site operations, while the remainder would work from home, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing told a news conference.

The plan is the first phase of lifting of Singapore's so-called "circuit breaker" restrictions to stem the spread of the coronavirus, which expire on June 1.

"This will be done in phases to reduce the risk of a second wave of cases of infections, as many countries have experienced, after they lifted their control measures," Health Minister Gan Kim Yong told the same briefing.

"As we begin to resume more activities, we do expect to see a rise in daily new cases."

Schools will also start reopening in the city-state from next month.

Singapore reported 451 new cases on Tuesday, taking the total to 28,794 infections - among the most in Asia, mainly due to outbreaks in cramped migrant-worker dormitories. It has managed to control the spread among locals outside of the dormitories.

Many restrictions will remain, however, including those on gatherings and socializing. Authorities will decide later on the second phase of easing, which could see dine-in restaurants and retail stores reopen.

The government wants to ease measures gradually until Singapore reaches a "new normal" where most activities can resume, but with limitations until an effective vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 is available.

The finance minister will next week announce more support for businesses unable to open on June 2. (Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Martin Petty)

-reuters-

TikTok violated children's privacy rules, US consumer consent decree: group

WASHINGTON - A group of privacy advocacy organizations is filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday alleging that the popular app TikTok violated a consent decree and a law protecting children's privacy online.

The Center for Digital Democracy, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and others said TikTok had failed to take down all videos made by children under the age of 13, as it agreed to do under a consent agreement with the FTC announced in February 2019.

At the time, the FTC said that TikTok, then known as Musical.ly, had known that young children used the app and had failed to get parental consent to collect their names, email addresses and other personal information. It paid a fine of $5.7 million.

But, the privacy advocates said, TikTok failed to delete personal information about users age 12 and younger as they promised as part of the consent agreement.

"We found that TikTok currently has many regular account holders who are under age 13, and many of them still have videos of themselves that were uploaded as far back as 2016, years prior to the consent decree," they said in their complaint.

TikTok's decision to create accounts for children age 12 and under that have less functionality failed to meet requirements of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act because the company still collects information, which it shares with third parties that want it for advertising. Also, children can easily avoid using the kids version of the app by being dishonest about their age, the groups said.

In addition, TikTok fails to post on its homepage an easy-to-find link to its privacy policy, the groups said.

"TikTok continues to be one of the most popular apps in the world, and it is widely used by children and teens in the United States, so it is especially important that the FTC promptly and thoroughly investigate TikTok’s practices and take effective enforcement action," the groups said in their complaint.

Other groups signing on to the complaint include Berkeley Media Studies Group, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Reports and Electronic Privacy Information Center. 

-reuters-

US coronavirus deaths top 20,000 with billions in Easter lockdown

NEW YORK - The United States passed the grim milestone of 20,000 coronavirus deaths Sunday as huge swathes of the globe celebrated the Easter holiday weekend under lockdown at home.

The outbreak has now claimed the lives of at least 20,071 people in the US, which leads the world in deaths and in the number of declared infections -- at least 519,453, according to a tally maintained by Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University.

Italy, the hardest-hit country in Europe with a population a fifth the size of the US, was also approaching the bleak marker, with 19,468 confirmed virus fatalities.

Hopes began to rise in Western Europe and heavily infected parts of the United States that the pandemic was peaking, however, with many looking to China's Wuhan, the disease's original epicenter, where officials were lifting stay-indoors restrictions and life began to return to normal.

Churches were expected to be empty on Easter Sunday, the climax of Holy Week for the world's two billion-plus Christians, with congregations shuttered at home by global stay-at-home directives aiming to stem a pandemic that has infected 1.7 million and killed more than 100,000.

'LIKE SOLDIERS'

Pope Francis was due to livestream his Easter Vigil from an empty St Peter's Basilica later Saturday, after he presided over a Good Friday service -- also with no attendees -- to kick off the weekend. 

In a call to an Italian television show Friday, he extolled doctors and nurses battling to confront the pandemic.

They "died on the front lines, like soldiers, who have given their lives out of love," he said, according to the Vatican.

The pontiff was praised by Italy's prime minister Giuseppe Conte for his "gesture of responsibility" to observe Easter in private. 

"His words, although spoken far from Saint Peter's Square, which was wrapped in an unreal silence, have reached everyone," said Conte.

Worshipers in Rome stocked up on traditional Easter cakes ahead of the weekend, some piling them onto scooters outside of grocery stores, eager to maintain parts of the holiday tradition.

In the United States a handful of priests and pastors snubbed rules and medical advice and risked arrest announcing they would hold public services in their churches on Sunday.

But most were putting services online, and some were innovating with "drive-in" blessings -- though that also risked enhancing the spread of the virus.

LEVELING

Meanwhile the hardest-hit countries of Europe, and the centers of infection in the United States -- New York and New Orleans -- were seeing signs that infection rates were leveling off.

Numbers out of Spain offered a shred of hope Saturday: 510 new deaths, a dip in fatalities for the third day in a row. 

Newly-reported coronavirus deaths in France fell by one-third from Friday to 635 on Saturday.

"A very high plateau for the epidemic appears to have been reached but the epidemic remains very active," said French health official Jerome Salomon. 

"We must absolutely remain vigilant," he added.

BRITISH PM RECOVERING

Italy meanwhile said the number of daily deaths was starting to level off -- though the government resisted pressure to lift its lockdown, extending confinement measures until May 3.

But Britain on Saturday recorded its second highest daily toll, as virus-stricken Prime Minister Boris Johnson made "very good progress" after being released from intensive care, a spokeswoman said. 

Although global infections stand at 1.75 million, according to an AFP tally of official counts, the real number is thought to be much higher, with many countries only testing the most serious cases. 

In New York and New Orleans, hopes were that a slowdown in the number of new infections, deaths and hospitalizations is pointing to a leveling off in the crisis.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the state's Governor Andrew Cuomo and were involved in a public disagreement over reopening the city's schools.

De Blasio announced that classrooms would remain closed until the start of the school year in September, prompting Cuomo to snap back at his daily news conference that it wasn't the mayor's call.

"We may do that, but we're going to do it in a coordinated sense with the other localities," Cuomo said, claiming authority over the matter. 

Many experts and the World Health Organization are cautioning countries against lifting lockdown measures too quickly. 

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Friday that jumping the gun could lead to a "deadly resurgence" of the novel coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2.

From the crowded slums of Mexico City, Nairobi and Mumbai to conflict hotspots in the Middle East, there are fears that the worst is yet to come for the world's poorest. 

War-torn Yemen reported its first COVID-19 case, and in Brazil, authorities confirmed the first deaths in Rio de Janeiro's sprawling favelas.

With China already ending its once-severe lockdown in Wuhan, US President Donald Trump said this week that the disease was near its peak in the United States and he was considering ways to re-open the world's biggest economy as soon as possible.

"But you know what? Staying at home leads to death also," Trump said. 

Agence France-Presse

Zoom pulls in more than 200 million daily users, tries to dispel privacy concerns

Zoom's daily users ballooned to more than 200 million in March from a previous maximum total of 10 million, the video conferencing app's boss Eric Yuan said on Wednesday, as it fought to dispel concerns over privacy and "Zoombombing".

The use of Zoom and other digital communications have soared with political parties, corporate offices, school districts, organizations and millions across the world working from home after lockdowns were enforced to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

"To put this growth in context, as of the end of December last year, the maximum number of daily meeting participants, both free and paid, conducted on Zoom was approximately 10 million," founder and Chief Executive Officer Eric Yuan wrote in a letter to Zoom users on Wednesday. (https://bit.ly/2JvR3f1)

Yuan said that Zoom usage has taken off over the last few weeks, with more than 90,000 schools across 20 countries, using its video conferencing services to conduct classes remotely.

However, the huge influx of users on its platform has raised a lot of issues for the company - mainly privacy.

"We recognize that we have fallen short of the community's – and our own – privacy and security expectations," Yuan said. "For that, I am deeply sorry."

On Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Boston office issued a warning about Zoom, telling users not to make meetings on the site public or share links widely after it received two reports of unidentified individuals invading school sessions, a phenomenon known as "zoombombing."

A couple of days later, billionaire Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX banned its employees from using the Zoom app in a memo seen by Reuters, saying the app had "significant privacy and security concerns."

Yuan acknowledged the problems in his letter saying, "over the next 90 days, we are committed to dedicating the resources needed to better identify, address, and fix issues proactively."

Microsoft Corp's business-focused Teams was used by 1.56 million mobile users on Monday, while Slack had less than 500,000 mobile users.

Research firm Apptopia estimated that Zoom's daily U.S. mobile user volumes rose to a record 4.84 million for the same day.

Shares of Zoom Video Communications Inc, which had been on a tear this year, have slipped over the last three days, as the company rushes to plug privacy issues plaguing its platform. The stock, which debuted last year at $36, closed down about 6% at $137 on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)

-Reuters-

Lockdowns and entry bans imposed around the world to fight coronavirus

WASHINGTON/SHANGHAI/MADRID - France and Spain joined Italy in imposing lockdowns on tens of millions of people, Australia ordered self-isolation of arriving foreigners and other countries extended entry bans as the world sought to contain the spreading coronavirus.

Panic buying in Australia, the United States and Britain saw leaders appeal for calm over the virus that has infected over 156,000 people globally and killed more than 5,800.

Several countries imposed bans on mass gathering, shuttered sporting, cultural and religious events, while medical experts urged people to practice "social distancing" to curb the spread.

Austria's chancellor urged people to self-isolate and announced bans on gatherings of more than 5 people and further limits on who can enter the country.

All of Pope Francis' Easter services next month will be held without the faithful attending, the Vatican said on Sunday, in a step believed to be unprecedented in modern times.

The services, 4 days of major events from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday, usually draw tens of thousands of people to sites in Rome and in the Vatican.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said from midnight Sunday international travellers arriving in the country would need to isolate themselves for 14 days, and foreign cruise ships would be banned for 30 days, given a rise in imported cases.

Australia's latest restrictions mirror those announced by neighboring New Zealand on Saturday.

TRAVEL BANS, AIRLINE CUTBACKS

Donald Trump tested negative for the coronavirus, his doctor said on Saturday, as the US president extended his country's travel ban to Britain and Ireland.

Last week, Trump had met a Brazilian delegation in which at least one member has since been tested positive.

Travel restrictions and bans, and a plunge in global air travel, saw further airline cutbacks, with American Airlines Inc planning to cut 75 percent of international flights through May 6 and ground nearly all its widebody fleet.

China tightened checks on international travellers arriving at Beijing airport on Sunday, after the number of imported new coronavirus infections surpassed locally transmitted cases for a second day in a row.

Anyone arriving to Beijing from abroad will be transferred directly to a central quarantine facility for 14 days for observation starting March 16, a city government official said.

China, where the epidemic began in December, appears to now face a greater threat of new infections from outside its borders as it continues to slow the spread of the virus domestically.

China has reported 80,984 cases and 3,203 deaths. The country imposed draconian containment policies from January, locking down several major cities.

LOCKDOWNS, STAY HOME

Spain put its 47 million inhabitants under partial lockdown on Saturday as part of a 15-day state of emergency to combat the epidemic in Europe's second worst-affected country after Italy.

Streets in Madrid and Barcelona were deserted on Sunday. All major newspapers carried a front-page wrapper emblazoned with a government-promoted slogan: "Together we'll stop this virus."

Spain has had 193 deaths from the virus and 6,250 cases so far, public broadcaster TVE said on Sunday.

France will shut shops, restaurants and entertainment facilities from Sunday with its 67 million people were told to stay home after confirmed infections doubled in 72 hours.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the government had no other option after the public health authority said 91 people had died in France and almost 4,500 were now infected.

"We must absolutely limit our movements," he said.

However, French local elections went ahead.

"I am going to vote and keep living my life no matter what. I am not scared of the virus," said a 60-year-old voter, who asked to be identified only as Martine, at a Paris polling station.

Britain is preparing to ban mass gatherings and could isolate people aged over 70 for up to 4 months as part of plans to tackle coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

Argentina banned entry to non-residents who have been to any country highly affected by coronavirus in the last 14 days, while Colombia said it would expel four Europeans for violating compulsory quarantine protocols, hours after closing its border with Venezuela.

Starting Sunday, South Korea began to subject visitors from France, Germany, Britain, Spain and the Netherlands to stricter border checks, after imposing similar rules for China, Italy and Iran which have had major outbreaks.

Visitors from those countries now need to download an app to report whether they have symptoms. South Korea has been testing hundreds of thousands of people and tracking potential carriers using cell phone and satellite technology.

source: news.abs-cbn.com