(AP): South Korea’s capital, Seoul, has closed down more than 2,000 bars and other nightspots because of a new cluster of COVID-19 infections; Germany scrambled to contain fresh outbreaks at slaughterhouses; and...

New research provides the first direct evidence that Zika virus causes severe birth defects, and explains exactly how it does so

“I lifted up my T-shirt to check on what I thought had just been a small heat rash,” writes BuzzFeed correspondent Ali Watkins. “It had shown up along the right of my back, extending out from a handful of mosquito bites I had picked up… it had seemed relatively tame [but] now, it was inching across the front of my stomach and down my legs... Meanwhile, my right eye was inflamed and bright red, almost akin to a busted blood vessel.”

Watkins is describing the symptoms of a Zika virus infection that she contracted on a recent trip to Mexico. For many people, infection with this mosquito-borne virus causes an illness with symptoms just like those experienced by Watkins: fever, skin rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis. For others, these symptoms are so mild that they go completely unnoticed.

Related: Zika virus spreads across Americas - in pictures

Related: Zika forest: birthplace of virus that has spread fear across the world

https://diazhub.com/news/boris-johnson-will-tell-public-to-stay-alert-control-the-virus-and-save-lives/

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued the first emergency use authorization for a new kind of coronavirus test this week.

A new paper identifies the critical need for research on the ability of the COVID-19 virus to infect certain animal species, the transmissibility of infection between humans and those animals, and the impact infection could have on food security and the economy.

Three members of the White House coronavirus task force placed themselves in quarantine after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, another stark reminder that not even one of the U.S.'s most secure buildings is immune from the virus.

After Vizag gas leak, Centre issues guidelines for restarting industries post-coronavirus lockdown  khabrisalaGovt issues new guidelines for restarting industries after lockdown  LivemintConsider Week 1 As Trial: Government On Indus...

1. China reports first coronavirus case in Wuhan since April 3  Economic Times
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3. "Outbreak Big Test That Revealed China's Shortcomings": Top Officer  NDTV
4. China reports 14 new coronavirus cases, high-risk area resurfaces  Zee News
5. 34 new Covid-19 cases reported in China, first in Wuhan in more than a month  The Newsopedia
6. View Full coverage on Google News

1. 'Response to coronavirus crisis has been anemic, spotty': Barack Obama slams Donald Trump's handling of...  Firstpost
2. What Barack Obama Said About Trump's Handling Of COVID-19 In Leaked Call  NDTV
3. Obama lashes out at Trump’s handling of coronavirus  Deccan Chronicle
4. ‘Absolute chaotic disaster’: Barack Obama criticises Donald Trump's handling of COVID-19 crisis  Times Now
5. ‘Chaotic Disaster:’ Obama Slams Trump’s Response to Coronavirus  The Quint
6. View Full coverage on Google News

Players and everyone else need to live with this virus: Gambhir  Hindustan TimesCricketers will have to live with dangers of COVID-19: Gautam Gambhir  Times of IndiaPlayers will need to live with this virus in foreseeable future: Ga...

Lima, Peru, May 9, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Peruvian congresswoman Luz Milagros Cayguaray Gambini has demanded the country’s health minister provide the legal and scientific basis for a directive that would allow abortion when a pregnant woman is infected with the novel coronavirus.

Abortion is illegal in Peru except when pregnancy would cause death or permanent harm to a pregnant woman.

On April 22, Peru’s Minister of Health Victor Zamora issued a directive calling for provision of emergency contraception in the country, and allowing abortion for pregnant women who test positive for the coronavirus.

In a May 5 letter, Cayguaray demanded Zamora to “Indicate what the legal basis” is for the directive that allows doctors to “end the pregnancy,” if the mother has contracted COVID-19.

The legislator also challenged Zamora to indicate “the scientific and medical basis the norm is based upon.”

At issue is whether a positive test for coronavirus is sufficient to establish that a pregnancy threatens the life of a woman. Gambini says that assertion is unproven and unfounded.

Cayguaray has also written to Dr. Enrique Guevara Ríos, director of the country’s Perinatal Maternal Institute, asking him to report how many pregnant women with COVID-19 have been treated to date, “how many have had their pregnancies terminated,” “on what grounds,” and “what current regulation has been applied to carry out the interruption of those pregnancies.”

The Arequipa Doctors for Life Association has criticized the health directive in a statement.

"At this time in which all our efforts as a nation should be aimed at improving our precarious health system to mitigate the serious impact of the pandemic, the circumstances are being used to dictate measures that threaten the lives of Peruvians in their most vulnerable stage, life in the womb,” the group said.

Regarding the “morning after pill,” the group expressed surprise and concern “that the Ministry of Health promotes the irresponsible and reckless use of this drug in the general population and particularly for minors, and even worse, dispenses with obtaining the person’s medical history, which is an essential tool for the responsible practice of medicine, thus seriously exposing the users to danger."

Aborting a child because the mother has COVID-19, the doctors said “is contrary to the principles that govern medical practice, which must always be based on the application of therapies that are based on rigorous scientific studies and with respect to elementary ethical principles” which guide medical science in providing the best strategies to protect patients.

When a woman is pregnant “we have two patients to take care of, the mother and the unborn child," the doctors association stressed.

Concerning the babies themselves, five newborns whose mothers have COVID-19 were recently discharged from a government hospital in Peru. A sixth, also born of a coronavirus patient who is in serious condition in the intensive care unit, was born prematurely and remains hospitalized. None of the babies have tested positive for COVID-19.

In a May 5 interview with the El Comercio daily, Dr. César García Aste, who heads the hospital’s neonatology department, explained that there are strict protocols as to how the baby is to be fed in order to avoid infecting it.

A doctor from the hospital is assigned to follow up daily by phone on the baby’s condition for an average of 14 days, and “so far we haven’t had a problem with any of the five babies,” Garcia said.

 

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news agency. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

 

Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize has won such praise for his handling of the coronavirus crisis that he’s being touted as a possible successor to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Travel and tourism have become casualties of coronavirus lockdown, but one travel writer has found a new way to highlight Scotland's beauty, writes Deborah Anderson

The Chaotic Scots Traveller Kay Gillespie delivers her Top 10 places She's dreaming about in Scotland

By James Campbell

Cairngorm National Park has moved online to give armchair visitors a flavour of a Highland spring, finds Sandra Dick

By Deborah Anderson

LEARNING from the problems and delays over PPE and testing will be essential to getting the vaccine strategy right, experts say.

Grief

The paths around Hoolet are hard trodden these days, as the village takes its daily gulp of fresh air. Along hedgerows, down tree-lined avenues, through the woods and by the stream, legions of boots have stomped, marking out time. With almost no rain for six weeks, the lanes are dusty and tracks that were made by tractors, horses and bikes in the February mud have solidified into treacherous ruts.

Source: www.aol.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci , the nation’s top infectious disease expert and member of the White House coronavirus task force, says he’s going into a “modified quarantine” after coming into contact with an administration staff member who contracted COVID-19, CNN reported Saturday . Read more...

Source: www.reuters.com - Sunday, May 10, 2020
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out a five-tier warning system for the coronavirus in England on Sunday when he outlines the government's plans to begin slowly easing lockdown measures, British media reported.

Source: spectator.org - Saturday, May 09, 2020
You have to give it to the enemies of the Constitution. They are clever as hell and they never stop trying. In the three plus years of the Trump administration, the left has made up the most outlandish, insane allegations against Mr. Trump. He’s a Russian agent. He’s a rapist. He takes bribes. He conspires to thwart the FBI. They libel and slander him in the one party media endlessly. When they took the House, they made up literally screaming schizoid paranoid accusations against him to try to impeach and convict him. They have utterly corrupted the FBI. They are well on their way to corrupting all of the “Intelligence” gatherings of the government. None of it worked. The truth saved Mr. Trump and the Constitution. The truth and Fox News and Rush and our own beloved American Spectator and the GOP Senate kept America whole and lawful. Now comes the latest challenge: the use of Covid-19 to demolish the Bill of Rights. This time it has worked. Yes, the virus is real and it’s truly horrible. Just gory and awful. But it’s being used to destroy Freedom of Worship, the right to assemble, the right to travel, the right to bear arms. In most states, the right to worship in groups has been killed dead while the “right” to go to Walmart remains intact. We, the people, cannot go to rallies for getting our rights back. But we can go to immense drug stores to buy eyeshadow. We cannot see our children and parents. But we can have unlimited rig

THERE was a popular fad in the 1990s for presenting music in its rawest form. Rather than the traditional bombast of turning everything up to 11, MTV Unplugged stripped it back to the basics. Often it was simply one singer, one guitar and a stool. And it was hugely popular.

Lima, Peru, May 9, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Peruvian congresswoman Luz Milagros Cayguaray Gambini has demanded the country’s health minister provide the legal and scientific basis for a directive that would allow abortion when a pregnant woman is infected with the novel coronavirus.

Abortion is illegal in Peru except when pregnancy would cause death or permanent harm to a pregnant woman.

On April 22, Peru’s Minister of Health Victor Zamora issued a directive calling for provision of emergency contraception in the country, and allowing abortion for pregnant women who test positive for the coronavirus.

In a May 5 letter, Cayguaray demanded Zamora to “Indicate what the legal basis” is for the directive that allows doctors to “end the pregnancy,” if the mother has contracted COVID-19.

The legislator also challenged Zamora to indicate “the scientific and medical basis the norm is based upon.”

At issue is whether a positive test for coronavirus is sufficient to establish that a pregnancy threatens the life of a woman. Gambini says that assertion is unproven and unfounded.

Cayguaray has also written to Dr. Enrique Guevara Ríos, director of the country’s Perinatal Maternal Institute, asking him to report how many pregnant women with COVID-19 have been treated to date, “how many have had their pregnancies terminated,” “on what grounds,” and “what current regulation has been applied to carry out the interruption of those pregnancies.”

The Arequipa Doctors for Life Association has criticized the health directive in a statement.

"At this time in which all our efforts as a nation should be aimed at improving our precarious health system to mitigate the serious impact of the pandemic, the circumstances are being used to dictate measures that threaten the lives of Peruvians in their most vulnerable stage, life in the womb,” the group said.

Regarding the “morning after pill,” the group expressed surprise and concern “that the Ministry of Health promotes the irresponsible and reckless use of this drug in the general population and particularly for minors, and even worse, dispenses with obtaining the person’s medical history, which is an essential tool for the responsible practice of medicine, thus seriously exposing the users to danger."

Aborting a child because the mother has COVID-19, the doctors said “is contrary to the principles that govern medical practice, which must always be based on the application of therapies that are based on rigorous scientific studies and with respect to elementary ethical principles” which guide medical science in providing the best strategies to protect patients.

When a woman is pregnant “we have two patients to take care of, the mother and the unborn child," the doctors association stressed.

Concerning the babies themselves, five newborns whose mothers have COVID-19 were recently discharged from a government hospital in Peru. A sixth, also born of a coronavirus patient who is in serious condition in the intensive care unit, was born prematurely and remains hospitalized. None of the babies have tested positive for COVID-19.

In a May 5 interview with the El Comercio daily, Dr. César García Aste, who heads the hospital’s neonatology department, explained that there are strict protocols as to how the baby is to be fed in order to avoid infecting it.

A doctor from the hospital is assigned to follow up daily by phone on the baby’s condition for an average of 14 days, and “so far we haven’t had a problem with any of the five babies,” Garcia said.

 

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news agency. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

 

Barack Obama has criticised Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pabndemic, and described it as an 'absolute chaotic disaster', according to reports.

More than 100 coronavirus-related attacks and threats have been made towards Scotland's police force, new figures have revealed.

SCOTLAND is carrying out less than one third of the tests it has the capacity to do in the Covid-19 crisis – as concerns grow about the nation's test, trace and isolate strategy in any future easing of lockdown.

The Herald is bringing live coronavirus updates and breaking news from Scotland, the UK and the world.

Source: www.businessinsider.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Mother's Day is the single most important holiday for flower shops, with many businesses relying on strong holiday sales to survive the summertime slowdown in demand for flowers. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, spring 2020 got off to an ominous start for florists across the United States. 1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. CEO Chris McCann and BloomNation CEO and cofounder Farbod Shoraka told Business Insider that their florist partners are seeing a major uptick in spending in the run-up to Mother's Day. The National Retail Federation is projecting that flower sales on Mother's Day will increase from $2.01 billion to $2.1 billion in 2020. Despite the good news, there remain major challenges to florists and the flower industry as a whole during COVID-19, including a major downturn for growers and wholesalers, reduced staffing, and even figuring out distribution capabilities. But Society of American Florists CEO Kate Penn told Busines Insider that florists are some of the "resourceful" and scrappy business owners out there: "Come rain, sleet, or social distancing they'll figure out how to get it delivered." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories . For flower shops across the United States, Mother's Day is the most important date on the calendar. Millions of Americans setting out to make their moms feel special with a bright bouquet consistently ensure that the second Sunday of May is the biggest holiday in the flower business

Source: api-internal.usatoday.com.akadns.net - Friday, May 08, 2020
Vice President Pence's trip to Iowa shows how the Trump administration's aims to move past coronavirus are sometimes complicated by the virus itself.            

Source: www.vox.com - Friday, May 08, 2020
Trump gestures during an event with House Republicans on Friday. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images The president wants you to believe the US response is the envy of the world. It isn’t. The United States has endured over 78,000 coronavirus deaths as of May 8, far more than double the second hardest-hit country. Unlike most comparable countries, the trajectory of the per-day death toll has not yet meaningfully bent down here nor has the number of new cases diagnosed each day. By contrast, Germany and Japan combined have had just over 9,000 confirmed Covid-related deaths. Though Japan didn’t get off to a great start , the number of new cases per day has been hovering around 200 there. In Germany, it’s around 1,000 . In either case, the new case numbers are far below the nearly 15,000 identified in the US on Thursday. Put succinctly, while both countries continue to grapple with the virus and life is far from normal for people there, the pandemic has been somewhat brought under control to an extent Americans can only dream of. Here, by contrast, things aren’t really improving — and there’s no indication our federal government is capable of meeting the challenge. In fact, it’s quite the opposite . And yet to hear President Donald Trump tell it, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are enamored by his fantastic response to the novel coronavirus, and they’re following his lead. They’ve even told him as m

He's in a growing spat with officials over reopening an electric vehicle plant.

स्वास्थ्य विभाग के प्रधान सचिव संजय कुमार ने ट्विटर पर जानकारी देते हुए...

सूत्रों से मिली जानकारी के अनुसार, इस महीने 'मोदी सरकार 2.0' का एक साल पूरा होने...

The 2020 season is now set to start in July with the Austrian Grand Prix - the first of several races scheduled to take place behind closed doors as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19.

AC Milan said that the team would continue the individual training programmes that they and other Serie A clubs had begun this week.

The number of novel coronavirus cases recorded worldwide surpassed four million on Saturday, according to an AFP tally based on official sources, as of 2145 GMT.

The United States recorded 1,568 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 78,746, according to the latest real-time tally reported by Johns Hopkins University at 8:30 pm Saturday...

India reported 3,277 new coronavirus patients in the last 24 hours and 128 deaths linked to the illness that brings the total number of cases in the country to 62,939, including 2,109 deaths, the...

The Indian and American pharmaceutical companies are currently working together on at least three possible vaccines to fight the coronavirus, India Ambassador to the United States, Taranjit Singh...

Top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci is among three members of the White House's coronavirus task force who will self-isolate after potential exposure to the pathogen, US media reported...

Nearly 75 per cent coronavirus patients in Delhi are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today as he reminded that the city has to "learn to live with...

Five pilots, an engineer and a technician of Air India have tested positive for coronavirus, sources in the airline have told NDTV. The pilots were detected after 77 pilots of the airline were tested...

Hyundai Motor India has restarted the production at its Chennai-based plant by ensuring 100 per cent compliance to social distancing and adhering to all the guidelines issued by the State and Central...

The app will generate real-time location-based alerts helping all employees and consumer base in being aware of the relevant localised corona safety information.