Coronavirus latest news: Donald Trump hints at lifting Europe travel ban

South Korea has reported 40 new cases for its biggest daily jump in nearly 50 days, causing alarm in a country where millions of children are returning to school.

Figures from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday brought national totals to 11,265 cases and 269 deaths.

All but four of the new cases came from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, where officials have been scrambling to stem transmissions linked to nightclubs, karaoke rooms and an e-commerce warehouse.

Three cases were linked to international arrivals.

A steady rise in cases in the greater capital area over the past few weeks has raised concern as officials proceed with a phased reopening of schools, which began with high school seniors last week. More than 2 million high school juniors, middle school seniors, first and second graders and kindergarten students were expected to return to school on Wednesday.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said on Tuesday he takes hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug that US President Donald Trump has promoted as a way to ward off the novel coronavirus, though experts have warned about its safety.

Mr Bukele said that El Salvador was not promoting it anymore as a treatment, following the recommendation of the World Health Organisation, though patients would still be able to take it as a preventative measure if they wished.

“I use it as a prophylaxis, President Trump uses it as a prophylaxis, most of the world’s leaders use it as a prophylaxis,” Mr Bukele said.

 An eerie silence has fallen over Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, one of the world’s oldest, largest and most visited markets, where a raucous mixture of languages, cultures and commerce has buzzed for centuries.

But there are now signs of life at the market as municipal workers roam its deserted alleys, spraying the floor, columns and walls ahead of the doors reopening on Monday for the first time in two months.

The bazaar – home to almost 3,000 shops where more than 30,000 people work – was closed on March 23 as part of measures to stem the spread of the virus, which has killed over 4,300 people in Turkey.

Officials say it has been the longest closure in the bazaar’s more than 550-year-old history, except for forced shutdowns following fires and earthquakes.

The market is usually visited by 150,000 people every day – and by 42 million last year – while traders shout out deals in dozens of languages to lure tourists into their stores.

 The Panama government said on Tuesday that in June it will start to relax some measures imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, permitting sectors such as construction, nonmetallic mining and pharmaceuticals to resume operations.

“Starting on Monday, June 1, the opening of the second block of economic activities can begin,” Health Minister Rosario Turner said.

As part of the second stage of reopening the economy, the textile, electronics and electricity sectors will also be able to resume operations, Commerce Minister Ramon Martinez said.

Panama’s curfew will also be relaxed, and places of worship, parks and sporting facilities may reopen at up to 25 per cent capacity, Mr Martinez said.

Australia recorded its youngest victim of Covid-19 after a 30-year-old man with underlying health conditions died in Queensland, having shown symptoms of the disease for weeks but without getting tested, officials said on Wednesday.

The latest case brings to 103 the number of deaths recorded in Australia, from more than 7,100 cases. 

Authorities were tracing a possible link between the man and the Ruby Princess cruise ship which docked in Sydney in March and was responsible for Australia’s biggest outbreak of the virus, Queensland state officials said.

“He was showing symptoms prior to his death but also had other illnesses. He tested positive in the post mortem. His partner is now sick with symptoms. She is now being isolated,” state Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk said.

Brazil reported the highest daily Covid-19 death toll in the world on Tuesday with 1,039 people killed, the fifth straight day the country has topped the list.

Latin America’s largest country, which has emerged as a new epicenter in the pandemic, has seen its daily death toll surge past that of the US, the hardest-hit country so far.

The US recorded a death toll of 657 in the past 24 hours, said the Johns Hopkins University tracker. That was the third day in a row it had come in under 700, bringing the country’s overall toll to 98,875 deaths.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s daily death toll has passed 1,000 four times since the pandemic accelerated in the country a week ago. Brazil has now confirmed a total of 24,512 deaths, according to health ministry figures.

Experts say under-testing means the real number is probably much higher.

Mothers are almost 50 per cent more likely to have lost their jobs than fathers during the pandemic, a new analysis has found.

A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned of the potential for “lasting harm” to women’s careers as a result of lockdown. 

Of those who were previously in paid employment, mothers are 47 per cent more likely than fathers to have permanently lost their job or quit since February, the study found.

Mothers are 23 per cent more likely than fathers to have lost their jobs, either temporarily or permanently, during the current crisis, and 14 per cent more likely to have been furloughed.

Researchers carried out a survey of 3,500 families about how lockdown has affected their work and domestic responsibilities.

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• The Americas have emerged as the new epicenter of the pandemic, the World Health Organisation said as a US study forecast deaths surging in Brazil and other Latin American countries through August.
• Twenty US states reported an increase in new cases of Covid-19 for the week ended May 24, up from 13 states in the prior week
• Officials have discovered dozens of unlicensed retirement homes in northern Mexico, raising fears there are undetected  clusters.  The news came as Mexico registered 501 new deaths, its biggest single-day increase in fatalities yet.
• Canada on Tuesday promised justice after soldiers helping manage the outbreak in nursing homes saw staff leaving people in soiled diapers and ignoring calls for help. 
• China reported 1 new confirmed case in the mainland as of end-May 26. It also reported 28 new asymptomatic cases – patients who are infected but do not show symptoms – versus 29 a day earlier.

Intensive care units in Chile’s hospitals are nearly at capacity amid a flood of coronavirus patients, authorities said on Tuesday, and doctors are having to make wrenching choices over which patients should get available beds.

Health officials said 95 per cent of the country’s 2,400 ICU beds are occupied even after a doubling of capacity from the levels in March. They announced plans to add 400 more critical care beds in the coming days.

“This is an extraordinarily difficult time,” Health Minister Jaime Manalich said.

A nation of 18 million people, Chile has the third most coronavirus cases in the region, after Brazil and Peru, with an average of 4,000 new infections reported daily. 

Police broke up a bank holiday party at a Conservative MP’s house amid the coronavirus lockdown, according to reports.

The Daily Mirror says two visitors were asked to leave the house of Rob Roberts, MP for Delyn in north Wales, and balloons and banners were seen outside.

Superintendent Mark Pierce, from North Wales Police, told the paper: “In response to two reports of a possible breach of Covid-19 regulations, we visited an address at Ty’n y Coed, Mold, yesterday (Monday, May 25).

“When we called at the property, two people visiting the house left following advice and no further action was taken.”

Read more: Police ‘broke up party at house of Tory MP Rob Roberts’ 

Joe Biden has attacked President Donald Trump as an “absolute fool” for belittling his election rival over recently wearing a mask.

Mr Trump retweeted a photograph of Mr Biden and an accompanying message that mocked the former vice president for wearing a mask at a Memorial Day ceremony.

“He’s a fool, an absolute fool, to talk that way,” Mr Biden told CNN. “Every leading doc in the world is saying you should wear a mask when you’re in a crowd.”

Asked whether wearing a mask projected weakness or strength, Mr Biden chose a different description.

“It presents and projects as leadership,” Mr Biden said. “Presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine.”

“This macho stuff,” Mr Biden added, has “cost people’s lives”.