President Donald Trump’s trip to a Michigan plant making lifesaving medical devices was overshadowed by his refusal once again to wear a protective face mask.
Mr Trump visited Ypsilanti, outside Detroit, to tour a Ford Motor Co. factory that had been repurposed to manufacture ventilators, the medical breathing machines governors begged for during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The president did not publicly wear a face covering despite a warning from the state’s top law enforcement officer that a refusal to do so might lead to a ban on his return.
All of the Ford executives giving Mr Trump the tour were wearings masks, the president standing alone without one. At one point, he did take a White House-branded mask from his pocket and claim to reporters he had worn it elsewhere on the tour, out of public view.
“I did not want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,” Mr Trump said.
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Australia seeks exemption from UK quarantine as cases slow
Australia, after bringing its coronavirus outbreak largely under control, said on Friday it is seeking an exemption from a requirement that travellers arriving in the UK quarantine for 14 days to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
The British government is planning a 14-day quarantine for most people arriving in the country in the coming weeks to try to prevent a second peak of the pandemic, with details to be finalised next month.
Heathrow Airport has proposed Britain should set up ‘travel bubbles’ with low-risk countries exempt from the requirement.
“Australia has led the world in the successful containment of COVID-19, which clearly means that travellers coming from Australia would pose a low risk to the rest of the world,” Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said in a statement.
Birmingham said Australia has no plans to open its borders to non-citizens, while all returning locals will still have to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival.
Australia has recorded just over 7,000 cases, with the death toll at 101.
With fewer than 20 new coronavirus cases each day, Australia has committed to removing most social distancing restrictions by July to revive an ailing economy.
Guinean Ebola hospital reopens to fight virus
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has reopened its Ebola-era hospital in Guinea, only four years since that epidemic ended, as coronavirus cases soar in the West African state.
The country is struggling to curb the virus, despite enacting imposing travel restrictions and a night-time curfew, raising fears about its capacity to contain a growing outbreak.
Guinea’s weak healthcare system is now straining under the pressure, with authorities having recorded some 3,000 coronavirus cases to date, and 30 fatalities.
The main hospital in the capital Conakry has already been overwhelmed, for example.
Coronavirus also comes on the heels of the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic, which killed around 2,500 people in the nation of some 13 million people.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) – once a common sight during the Ebola crisis – have now returned to the country.
59% of people in England believe the Government is misleading the public in some way
People who believe coronavirus conspiracies are less likely to comply with social-distancing guidelines or take up future vaccines, new research suggests.
Almost three fifths (59%) of adults in England believe to some extent that the Government is misleading the public about the cause of the virus.
More than a fifth (21%) believe the virus is a hoax, and 62% agree to some extent that the virus is man-made, scientists say.
The research, led by clinical psychologists at the University of Oxford and published in the journal Psychological Medicine, indicates the number of adults in England do not agree with the scientific and governmental consensus on the Covid-19 pandemic.
From May 4-11, 2,500 adults took part in the Oxford Coronavirus Explanations, Attitudes, and Narratives Survey (Oceans) online.
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Source: Telegraph UK
