Orthodox Christians observed the Easter holiday amid extraordinary coronavirus-related restrictions on services that forced many parishioners to watch services on TV or online. Church leaders have struggled to figure out how to observe the April 19 holiday — the holiest day in the Orthodox calendar — while avoiding spreading the coronavirus. Some local parishes have defied orders from public health officials and church leaders and vowed to allow people to attend services in person. In Russia and Ukraine, two of the biggest Orthodox denominations, priests in St. Petersburg and Kyiv held services beginning late on April 18 that were televised and shown online. Police deployed outside churches in Ukraine to ensure that anyone who came remained outside and observed regulations calling for social distancing and a ban on large gatherings. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Ukrainians to celebrate from home. Most church leaders complied and agreed to broadcast their services. One exception was the famed Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, where police regulated entry to the church to one worshipper at a time. The complex was placed under quarantine after more than 90 of its monks were identified as infected with the coronavirus. At least two have died. The monastery is controlled by a rival Orthodox denomination in Ukraine that is loyal to the Russian church in Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church ordered churches to close their doors to large groups during the week leading up to the holiday. Patriarch Kirill led the Russian church’s main service on April 18 at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral. In an Easter sermon, he said Orthodox Christians should not despair in difficult circumstances and should not panic. President Vladimir Putin, who has regularly attended the nighttime rituals in the past, did not attend this year. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin stayed at his suburban presidential residence and lit a candle at a chapel on the property. The most contentious debate over Orthodox Easter occurred in Georgia, where church leaders and the government agreed to allow parishioners to attend dusk-to-dawn Easter vigil services. The agreement meant worshippers were allowed to attend overnight services in large cathedrals despite a curfew, but they were required to maintain a distance of 2 meters. Those who attend small churches had to remain outside. Dozens went to the main cathedral in Tbilisi, where Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II said that the virus had caused fear among many people. In Bulgaria, the government urged people not to attend services but didn’t ban them. Hundreds flocked to outdoor services late on April 18, but many opted to watch on television. “In the current situation, we must be better and more humble,” Prime Minister Boyko Borisov wrote in Facebook. “Let’s do everything we can to be proud of our decisions and actions in years to come.” Easter for the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christian is celebrated about a week after Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians observe the holiday.     
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Hundreds of Christian parishioners went to churches in ex-Soviet Georgia to attend Orthodox Easter Vigil despite a state of emergency and calls from the government and doctors to stay home amid outbreak of the coronavirus.Dozens went to the South Caucasus country’s main Sameba (Saint Trinity) cathedral in Tbilisi, where 87-year-old Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II held the service.More attended services in big churches across the country, although some bishops in different regions called on their flocks to stay at home, encouraging them instead to tune in to Easter services streamed live on TV or Facebook.Crowds were unusually small everywhere compared with the tens of thousands who normally attend this service every year.The Catholicos-Patriarch said in his Easter address that the problem of the new virus had caused fear among many and their gaze had turned to God.”We should not be afraid of temptation, the Christian takes problems with gratitude and sees God’s hand in everything … and at the same time tries to find the right solution in the current situation,” he said.Holy FireHoly Fire had been brought to Georgia on Saturday night by a charter flight from Jerusalem, where the ceremony in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus after his death on the cross, was attended only by Christian clergymen for the first time in centuries.A clergyman and believers wearing protective masks hold candles outside a church during an Orthodox Easter service, amid the coronavirus disease outbreak in Marneuli, Georgia, April 19, 2020.Worshippers came to the Sameba cathedral in Tbilisi before the 9 p.m. start of curfew and planned to stay on church premises until its end at 6 a.m.Violators face a 3,000-lari ($1,000) fine.”It took me more than three hours to come here and I will stay till the morning as my presence demonstrates my dedication and my belief,” Mariam, a 27-year-old Tbilisi resident, said.Almost everyone, including some priests, were wearing face masks.The Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarchy said earlier this month that all Easter services would be held in a traditional manner, but parishioners would be required to maintain social distancing between each other to stem transmission of the virus.Sacrament from same spoonThe Patriarch and majority of Georgian priests were reluctant to call on their flocks to stay at home and have continued to provide the holy sacrament from the same spoon to parishioners, which critics said threatens efforts to contain the coronavirus.Georgia has in place a state of emergency until May 10 entailing a 9 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew, closures of restaurants, cafes, shops, a ban on public transport and on gatherings of more than three people. Grocery stores, pharmacies and petrol stations remain open.Government officials and doctors have pleaded with citizens to refrain from mass gatherings and to stay at home during Easter celebrations.The Caucasus republic of 3.7 million people has reported 388 cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, and four deaths as of early Sunday.
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Fifty unaccompanied minors have been transferred from Greece to Germany. They are the second group of relocations in a week and hundreds more are expected to follow as Greece moves ahead with a plan to ease overcrowded conditions at camps on the front line of Europe’s lingering refugee crisis.
    
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was at the airport in Athens to see the minors off.  
 
The 50 are among the first of at least 350 young refugees who Germany has agreed to resettle from Greece, helping them re-unite with their families after months of separation.
 
Earlier this week, a batch of about a dozen minors aged between 11 and 15 were transferred to Luxembourg, the European Union’s tiniest member state. Eight other EU nations, along with Switzerland, have also agreed to accept youths, resettling a total of 1,600 young migrants.
 
But with Greece hosting more than 100,000 migrants and refugees, can this make a difference? Deputy Migration Minister George Koumoutsakos expressed hope for more such relocations to come.The number of transfers, he said, may seem small. But the expectation, he explained, is that they will pave the way for more resettlements to happen, allowing other EU member states to shoulder the burden of the refugee crisis.
 
A third of the 100,000 migrants and refugees in Greece are children. And of them, more than 5,000 are unaccompanied, left to fend for themselves, living in the rough in abysmal and overcrowded camps on a host of Aegean islands.
 
Most of the 50 young migrants who left Saturday for Germany were relocated from Lesbos’ dreaded refugee camp of Moria, a facility built for some 2,000 people which now is hosting more than 20,000 in appalling conditions.
 
Most of the unaccompanied migrants are from Syria and Afghanistan. separated from their families and left behind in a bid to make the crossing to Europe
 
Koumoutsakos said the transfers will help ease overcrowded conditions in Aegean islands like Lesbos, something required so much more now during the coronavirus outbreak, when social distancing is critical to containing the pandemic.
 
Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch called on Greece to release all unaccompanied minors. It said keeping them in unhygienic detention centers increased the risk of the virus spreading.
 
While cases of COVID-19 have been documented in refugee camps here, officials insist they have managed to keep the virus from spreading to other communities because of draconian lockdown orders.
 
Because of the coronavirus outbreak, the 50 children transferred to Germany on Saturday will need to spend their first two weeks there in quarantine. 
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BREMEN, GERMANY — While countries around the world struggle with a lack of hospital beds and equipment for coronavirus patients, German cities such as Bremen have taken in patients from neighboring countries.  
 
On a recent Saturday, Bremen received its first two French coronavirus patients from Strasbourg as Germany’s neighbor France struggles with hospitals at their limits.
 
The city could theoretically take more patients from abroad, hospital group Gesundheit Nord spokeswoman Karen Matiszick told local news outlet Buten un Binnen – although the situation could rapidly change. Bremen currently has had 567 cases and 24 deaths, according to official statistics.  
 
The capacity to take in patients has been attributed to the lower number of cases that need intensive care, and Germany’s comparatively low death rate has caught the world’s attention.
 
Of the more than 130,000 diagnosed cases in Germany, about 3,900 people have died as of Friday. In contrast, the U.S., Italy, Spain and France have each recorded more than 10,000 deaths linked to the disease. In Italy alone, more than 20,000 deaths have been registered – among 160,000 cases.
 
Susanne Glasmacher, a spokesperson for government’s Robert Koch Institute, pointed to multiple factors.  
 
“At the beginning, the majority of affected people in Germany didn’t belong to a risk group, as many of the transmission paths happened during ski holidays, on international travels, carnival, and other festivities,” she told VOA.
 
The median age of diagnosed cases is comparatively low in Germany at 49, compared to Italy’s 62.  
 
The average age of those who have died from the virus in Germany is about 80, and 87% of the deceased patients were older than 70. Similarly, 83.7% of those in Italy who died were older than 70, according to the Italian National Institute of Health.
 
In recent weeks, though, an increasing number of cases in German nursing homes have raised concern. Forty-one people have died in a single nursing home in the north German city of Wolfsburg as of Thursday. Hundreds of nursing homes across the country have found their first cases.
 
“If more transmissions take place in homes for elderly people or hospitals, it’s to be feared that the rate increases,” Glasmacher said.
 
The current low median age of German cases can to an extent be explained because of the number of tests conducted. Glasmacher said that Germany had tested on a much larger scale than other countries.
 
“Infections get recognized in more people with mild symptoms than in other countries where sometimes only severely ill people in hospitals are tested,” she said.  
 
With a current weekly capacity of about 500,000 tests, Germany is also testing those only showing mild symptoms and those who have not been in known contact with coronavirus cases.FILE – Benches and tables are taped to ensure social distancing protocols, in a courtroom in Bremen, Germany, March 20, 2020.Last month, Germany ordered closure of all nonessential shops to prevent the spread of the disease. Groups of more than two people who don’t live in the same household are not allowed in public.
 
However, the number of deaths has also depended on how strained the health system is, Glasmacher said.
 
“If the hospitals become overcrowded, the ratio of those who cannot be helped will increase,” she said. “The number of deaths can, therefore, change dramatically in the future.”
 
Making similar assessments, Dietrich Rothenbacher, director of the Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry at Ulm University, said the number of deaths depends on how many hospital beds are available for intensive care.
 
He said a 2012 study found that the number of intensive care beds per 100,000 inhabitants was 29.2 in Germany, 12.5 in Italy, 11.6 in France, and 6.6 in England.
 
“This has a positive effect on the treatment options for severe cases and the lethality,” he said.
 
Yet, he, cautioned against comparing death rates among countries, as he said the numbers in different countries were highly distorted and not representative of the true picture.  
 
“Based on representative numbers, the Covid-19 pandemic would look less deadly also in Italy,” he said.  
 
However, all experts warned that death rates would rise in coming weeks as Germany is still at the beginning of the epidemic. Severe cases often lead to death only after a prolonged period of illness.
 
“In two to three weeks (or in later phases of the pandemic) the numbers might look differently in Germany,” Rothenbacher said.   
 
Bremen itself has a lower infection rate than the German average. The national average is about 161 cases per 100,000 inhabitants; Bremen has only 81 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Robert Koch Institute.
 
While Andreas Dotzauer, a University of Bremen virologist, said that reasons for this difference were still unclear, he speculated that the character of the city’s population – known for being reserved – might play a role.
 
“In general … it seems that the population [in Bremen] has implemented all rules and restrictions in a very disciplined manner,” he said.  
 
“Perhaps the typically more distanced, northern German, Bremen character also contributes to this.”
 
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For Orthodox Christians, this is normally a time of reflection and mourning followed by joyful release, of centuries-old ceremonies steeped in symbolism and tradition.But this year, Easter — by far the most significant religious holiday for the world’s roughly 300 million Orthodox — has essentially been canceled.There will be no Good Friday processions behind the flower-bedecked symbolic bier of Christ, to the haunting hymn of the Virgin Mary’s lament for the death of her son. No hugs and kisses, or joyous proclamations of “Christ is risen!” as church bells ring at midnight on Holy Saturday. No family gatherings over lamb roasted whole on a spit for an Easter lunch stretching into the soft spring evening.As the coronavirus rampages around the globe, claiming tens of thousands of lives, governments have imposed lockdowns in a desperate bid to halt the pandemic.  Businesses have been closed and church doors shut to prevent the virus’s insidious spread.For some, the restrictions during Easter are particularly tough.”When there was freedom and you didn’t go somewhere, it didn’t bother you,” said Christina Fenesaki, while shopping in Athens’ main meat market for lamb — to cook in the oven at home in the Greek capital instead of on a spit in her ancestral village. “But now that we have the restrictions, it bothers you a lot. It’s heavy.”In Greece, where more than 90 percent of the population is baptized into the Orthodox Church, the government has been at pains to stress that this year’s Easter cannot be normal.Greek Orthodox priests hold aloft the bier depicting Christ’s preparation for burial during the Good Friday procession of the Epitaphios, held without worshippers in an empty church in Thessaloniki, Greece, during a lockdown April 17, 2020.It imposed a lockdown early on, and so far has managed to keep the number of deaths and critically ill people low — 108 and 71 respectively as of Friday, among a population of nearly 11 million.But officials fear any slippage in social distancing could have dire consequences, particularly during a holiday that normally sees people cram into churches and flock to the countryside. Roadblocks have been set up, and fines doubled to 300 euros ($325), for anyone found driving without justification during the holiday.”This Easter is different. We will not go to our villages, we will not roast in our yards, we will not go to our churches. And of course, we will not gather in the homes of relatives and friends,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas said. “For us to continue being together, this year we stay apart.”Easter services will be held behind closed doors with only the priest and essential staff. They will be broadcast live on television and streamed on the internet.One particularly complex issue is how to handle the “Holy Light,” the flame distributed throughout the Orthodox world each year from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to mark the resurrection of Christ.Greek and Russian authorities have arranged to pick the flame up from Israel but won’t distribute it. Cyprus won’t even pick it up; there is “no need,” the island nation’s Archbishop Chrysostomos said.”Today, faith is not at risk but the faithful are,” Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said.Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox, has urged the faithful to adhere to government measures and World Health Organization guidelines. But keeping people out of churches hasn’t proved easy.In Serbia and North Macedonia, authorities imposed nationwide curfews from Good Friday through Easter Monday. Ethiopia, with the largest Orthodox population outside Europe, also restricted access to liturgies and deployed security outside churches. Liturgies are broadcast live, although several churches outside the capital, Addis Ababa, were violating restrictions, alarming authorities.But in some Orthodox countries, such as Georgia and Bulgaria, limited church services will go ahead.In Greece, after days of delicate diplomacy with the country’s powerful Orthodox Church, the government banned the public from all services after the church’s governing body imposed restrictions but not a full shutdown. Authorities also quickly scotched a Greek mayor’s plans to distribute the “Holy Light” door-to-door throughout his municipality just after midnight on Saturday.The church of Prophet Ilias is illuminated during the Good Friday procession of the Epitaphios, held without worshippers near the port town of Lavrio about 75 kilometers south of Athens on April 17, 2020.Some priests have defied the shutdown. One recently offered communion — where the faithful sip from the same spoon — through an Athens church’s back door. On Good Friday, a handful of churches opened briefly, allowing people in.Russia’s Orthodox Church initially seemed similarly reluctant to impose restrictions. When authorities in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, banned church visits on March 26, the Moscow Patriarchate condemned the move as an infringement on religious freedom. Only three days later did Patriarch Kirill publicly urge believers to “strictly obey the regulations imposed by the health authorities” and “refrain from church visits.”On Friday, Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vladimir Legoida said churches would stay open in some regions, even though the Church urged people to stay home.”The epidemiological situation varies in different regions, and so do rules for attending churches,” he said.Closing churches during Easter has been hard on Russians used to attending services. Many have turned to the internet and video conference prayers.”At first it was just a shock,” said believer Andrei Vasenev. “How is that possible — not go to church? But then we realized it was a matter of finding a way.”Vasenev, two dozen others and a priest from his Moscow parish have started praying via Zoom and plan to do the same during Easter. For him, going to church is about community, and Zoom prayers keep this community together.For Anna Sytina, another participant of the online prayers, the hardest part is being away from people and the warmth of human contact. “There’s a moment in a liturgy when you kiss each other three times,” Sytina said. “Now we see each other on monitors and displays.”Greek Orthodox priests hold aloft the bier depicting Christ’s preparation for burial during the Good Friday procession of the Epitaphios, held in an empty church in Thessaloniki, Greece, April 17, 2020.Both are prepared to pray at home for as long as it takes. “It is a sacrifice in the life of every believer, but it is necessary,” Sytina said.It is a sentiment echoed in Greece.”Each person has the church inside of them,” said Kleanthis Tsironis, who heads Athens’ main meat market. He will spend Easter at home with his wife and two daughters and will miss the resurrection liturgy. But churches will eventually open, he said, and Easter traditions will return.”Souls are being lost,” he said of the virus deaths across the world. “And we’re going to sit and cry because we didn’t roast on a spit? We’ll do that later, when the measures are over.”  
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Two U.S. space agency NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut landed Friday in Kazakhstan after months on board the International Space Station.
 
NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir and Russian space agency Roscosmos Cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka undocked from the ISS in the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft early Friday.
 
Just over three hours later, the trio parachuted to Earth in the steppe of Kazakhstan, outside the remote town of Dzhezkazgan. Following post-landing checks, the three were taken by helicopter to the Russian-owned spaceport in Baikonur.
 
Morgan’s 272-day mission began on July 20, 2019, while Meir and Skripochka left Earth Sept. 25 last year.
 
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A public health professor said Friday the British government responded too slowly to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the nation could see as many as 40,000 deaths before the pandemic is over.Speaking remotely, University College London Global Health Professor Anthony Costello told a parliamentary committee the government needs to identify the “system errors” that slowed Britain’s response.Britain imposed a lockdown on business and daily life March 23, about a week after other European countries, and Thursday announced a three-week extension on those measures.Costello told the committee he expects a second wave of the virus to hit the country and urged the government to have a system in place to rapidly test people in the community and get the results back quickly.Costello did say that an Oxford University researcher is 80 percent certain she could have a vaccine to treat the virus as early as September.As of Thursday, Britain reported 13,729 people had died from the virus.
 
 
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On a national discrimination hotline that she helps manage, Rafaelle Parlier hears troubling reports: a veiled woman fined by police for using her veil as a face mask, and a man of North African descent similarly sanctioned for picking up his wife, a nurse, from her hospital shift — although both had appropriate justifications.“These are practices we usually denounce,” said Parlier, who works for anti-discrimination group Stop le Contrôle au Faciès (Stop Racial Profiling). “The confinement just makes it easier.”A woman walks in front of a hotel of the Accor group in Paris, April 16, 2020, during a nationwide confinement to counter the coronavirus. The Accor facilities are taking in people with COVID-19 who show no symptoms but risk infecting others.If COVID-19 touches all of France, its effects are not being felt equally. Poor, ethnically diverse residents are suffering disproportionately, rights activists and local officials say. The fallout varies, from reports of police intimidation and violence to more arduous conditions under lockdown and potentially more coronavirus cases than elsewhere in the country.“The problem with this epidemic is that it underscores all the other pre-existing inequalities,” said Laurent Russier, mayor of Saint-Denis, a working-class Paris suburb with a large immigrant population. “And Saint-Denis is marked by sharp inequalities.”Few areas manifest the national disparities more sharply than the broader Seine-Saint-Denis department, France’s poorest region, where Russier’s town is located. A recent government report found a sharp spike in deaths during the last half of March, when the COVID-19 lockdown began — higher than in neighboring departments.While the government has not linked the uptick to coronavirus, local officials list a raft of underlying weaknesses in the banlieues, as the gritty, working-class suburbs are called.Disparities ‘that kill’In an op-ed piece, Russier joined a half-dozen mayors and elected officials in outlining several disparities “that kill” in the Seine-Saint-Denis department — in justice, security, health, education and jobs.While some Parisians headed to country houses to wait out the pandemic, and a number are telecommuting for work, many of Russier’s residents have “front-line” jobs as health aides, supermarket cashiers and delivery workers, sometimes without protective masks.  Peeling housing projects sometimes pack large, intergenerational families into tiny, unhealthy spaces, creating coronavirus clusters in some cases.“So if someone catches COVID-19 in an apartment that’s multigenerational, the contagion is more rapid,” Russier said, “and the confinement is harder.”Some banlieue graveyards report they are close to saturation, a situation that has not been helped by the recent uptick in deaths.“Usually, I sign three or four burial certificates a week. But over the last few weeks, I’m signing three or four a day,” Sylvine Thomassin, mayor of another working-class suburb, told Le Monde newspaper.FILE – A family watches French President Emmanuel Macron’s televised speech, April 13, 2020, in Lyon, central France. Macron announced an extension of France’s nationwide lockdown until May 11.The message seems to have hit home with the French government. Addressing the nation Monday, President Emmanuel Macron — who has earned underwhelming marks for addressing banlieue grievances — promised nearly $1 billion more in financial aid for poor families.France’s banlieues have long been considered flashpoints for unresolved social and economic grievances. In 2005, they exploded into rioting — a theme of the recent hit movie “Les Miserables” — revealing the tense and violent relationship between police and banlieue youngsters.Old story, new context Today, the coronavirus simply offers a new context for discriminatory treatment, some activists say. Several videos posted on social media show police slapping and otherwise harassing youngsters for allegedly violating tough lockdown measures. In some cases, the young people have filed legal complaints.“The issue of police violence is not new.  It’s the usual targets, this time with the pretext of enforcing the confinement,” said Lanna Hollo, senior legal officer with the Open Society Justice Initiative in Paris.”There are young people terrified to go out,” she added. “They may be the ones charged with the shopping or who have to go to work, and they’re afraid of being abused.”In the Seine-Saint-Denis department, mayors and other officials say residents are largely following lockdown measures. Russier is among them.But he denies excessive police behavior — at least in his town.”There are some youngsters who don’t respect confinement, in some cases, defiantly,” he said. “But police are being careful. The idea is to avoid confrontation. They are very, very vigilant not to pour oil into the fire.”
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The United Nations, the European Union and the United States welcomed the release and exchange of prisoners in eastern Ukraine, which has been torn by a 6-year-old armed conflict.The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he remained hopeful this “humanitarian action” ahead of Orthodox Easter “will serve as a positive step toward more progress, including a permanent cease-fire,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.“Further disengagement of forces and unimpeded humanitarian access across the contact line is expected as part of ongoing peace efforts of international actors,” added Dujarric.Guterres urged all parties engaged in the conflict “to take further measures in order to enable progress” in the implementation of peace agreements.“Full implementation of the Minsk agreements is the only way to reach a sustainable and peaceful solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine,” said Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU.“Russia and the armed formations that it backs must also ensure freedom of movement across the contact line for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission” and other humanitarian actors, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to reach all those still in detention, the statement reads.The EU also reaffirmed its strong support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.Foreign ministers of France and Germany said in a joint statement that the release and exchange of prisoners related to the conflict in eastern Ukraine “represents significant progress” for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, and the conclusions of the summit in Paris on December 9, 2019, “with respect to upholding the cease-fire, mine clearance, the opening of new crossing points and the identification of new disengagement zones.”In a Twitter message, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine welcomed the move and commended the country’s government on its “continued efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution to the Russia-instigated conflict in Ukraine.”It is also called on Russia “to immediately release all other Ukrainians who remain unjustly imprisoned and fully withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory.”Thursday’s prisoner exchange was the third since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was elected in a landslide last year on promises to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which began in 2014. More than 14,000 people have been killed, and it has heightened tensions between Russia and the West.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the postponement of May 9 celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany in World War II, citing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Speaking at a security meeting on Thursday, Putin said events including a massive military parade in Red Square would be postponed until a later date. “In order for the parade to be held on May 9, the preparations need to begin right now, but the risks associated with the epidemic, whose peak has not been passed yet, are still extremely high and that does not give me the right to start preparations for the parade and other mass events now,” the president said. Events marking Victory Day in other regions of the country were also postponed. Russia has implemented a partial lockdown across the country until April 30 as coronavirus infections continue to rise. There have been some 28,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 232 deaths, according to official data. Critics say the number of infections and deaths is likely much higher.  
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The British government Thursday said it will extend for three weeks its nationwide lockdown intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Speaking at a remote news briefing in London, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies warned that relaxing any of the safety measures currently in place would risk damage to both public health and the British economy. Raab reported 13,729 people in Britain have now died from the virus, with 103,093 confirmed cases.The foreign minister continues to lead the government response to the pandemic while British Prime Minster Boris Johnson continues to recover from his bout with coronavirus. Britain’s lockdown has been in place since March 23. 
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Amsterdam, in the midst of an unprecedented tourism slump caused by restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus, announced Thursday that it is planning to ban people from renting out homes to visitors in three historic downtown neighborhoods.
The move, which is set to come into force July 1, is the Dutch capital’s latest attempt to rein in people renting their homes out on platforms like Airbnb amid complaints from residents that tourists are spoiling their quality of life.
It goes hand-in-hand with a system coming into force July 1 in Amsterdam that will mean anybody renting out their home in the city will have to have a permit. City Hall will not be issuing permits for the three neighborhoods covered by the ban.
In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, Airbnb said 95% of its listings in Amsterdam are outside the areas covered by the ban, and added that the company already has introduced tools to tackle noise and nuisance.
“We remain eager to work with Amsterdam to support long-term solutions on home sharing — rather than short-term fixes that are confusing and damaging for residents and small businesses in these challenging times,” Airbnb said.  
Amsterdam has, in recent years, tightened rules for people renting out their homes, including limiting owners to a maximum of 30 nights a year and to a maximum of four guests on any given night.
The city’s district of picturesque canals and cobbled lanes is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has been swamped by tourists in recent years, leading to a rising chorus of complaints from local residents.
However, coronavirus restrictions have seen an unusual quiet descend on the city in recent weeks. Streets often choked with tourists are now largely deserted.
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Among the rolling vineyards of France’s southwestern Gironde region, osteopath Chloe Chancelier has found a new calling as she organizes a small volunteer army to sew cotton masks for health workers. Outside Paris, Anthony Seddiki has organized a network to churn out thousands of hospital visors using 3D printers. And in the Loire Valley, a luxury fabric maker is redirecting supplies normally heading to upscale stores to create a more prosaic, if vital, accessory to help slow COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. In France and elsewhere, the widening pandemic has catapulted even ordinary cloth face masks into prized objects, while surgical ones have incited fraud,Preparing an order of face masks in France’s southwestern Gironde region.hoarding, panic buying and political squabbling. But today, soaring demand for masks is generating a new vocation for locked-down populations and businesses — along with a spirit of solidarity and enterprise some hope will continue post-crisis.“I’m very happy to see what’s happening,” Chancelier said of her pro bono startup that uses locally sourced, recycled materials. “For me, it’s the beginning of other things.”A community effortNot so long ago, masks were barely seen on French and other European streets. Today, they are increasingly coveted, sometimes even worn as fashion statements, despite conflicting government signals about their usefulness. In France, at least, a pro-mask consensus is developing. Earlier this week, President Emmanuel Macron pledged that every citizen could access one by May 11 — when authorities hope to start easing France’s lockdown. A BFMTV poll out Wednesday found 94 percent of French respondents now support mask-wearing. A growing number of municipalities are now launching mandatory mask measures — sparking an increase in local production efforts. Chancelier’s initiative began last month, after the lockdown shuttered her health clinic. “I was getting calls from clients and friends who are midwives and nurses and who only had a few days of face mask stocks,” she recalled.Chancelier said she searched online for homemade alternatives, finding a YouTube tutorial for a design fitting government-recommended standards. She launched a Facebook group looking for volunteers and material.Face masks drying in the sun in Gironde, France.So far, Chancelier’s network of roughly 50 sewers has supplied the community hospital and local agencies with hundreds of free masks. She now has orders to make hospital gowns. Residents are donating old sheets and even diapers as material. Local vineyards and municipalities are offering spools of inexpensive elastic normally used to tie up vines.“It’s a real human network,” Chancelier said.Each mask comes with instructions on proper use, she said, and space for wearers to add an extra layer of protection.Putting out the fireSimilar pro-bono efforts are spreading across France. In the Essonne region outside Paris, packaging technician Seddiki also launched a Facebook volunteer drive to make visors for area health workers.“I’m surprised at how big it’s grown,” Seddiki told Le Parisien newspaper of his network, which has distributed more than 100,000 visors free of charge.In the Loire Valley, high-end fabric maker Le Tissus d’Avesnieres is offering material at factory prices, while 200 tailors have formed a nonprofit to meet local needs.The initiatives contrast with less uplifting reports of theft, hoarding and unseemly international free-for-alls to secure scarce supplies. Earlier this month, French and German officials accused the United States of diverting masks and other equipment meant for their own countries — accusations U.S. officials denied. France, too, has been accused of seizing masks bound for Spain and Italy.A woman wearing a face mask in Paris. Many Parisians opt for homemade cloth varieties.Meanwhile, European police announced Tuesday they had foiled a multimillion-dollar scam to sell non-existent masks to Germany, one of many reported in recent weeks.In Gironde, Chancelier is mulling how to keep her pro bono movement alive after she heads back to work next month.She likens grassroots initiatives like hers to an ancient Quechua culture legend of a hummingbird trying to put out a forest fire with tiny beakfuls of water.“Even after this crisis is over,” she said, “I hope people remember they participated in the response. They put in their own drops of water into the fire.” 
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The coronavirus pandemic has brought creativity to the many people around the world under lockdown in their respective nations, as well as an outpouring of support for the health care workers who are caring for those infected with COVID-19.In Britain on Thursday, a war veteran completed his mission of walking 100 lengths of his 25-meter back garden ahead of his 100th birthday to raise money for the country’s National Health Service.An online fundraising campaign initially aimed to get donations of about $624,000.  By the time Tom Moore finished his final trip down the course, an event broadcast on live television, the initiative had brought in more than $15 million.He said he was inspired to take on the challenge by the care he received when he underwent treatment for a broken hip and for cancer.”You’ve all got to remember that we will get through it in the end, it will all be right, it might take time,” Moore said. “At the end of the day, we shall all be OK again.”When and how people will emerge from stay-at-home orders, as well as the restarting of businesses around the world, is a huge question facing governments.Getting economies moving againLeaders have expressed a desire to get their economies moving again, and along with health experts they have cautioned there is a need to not move too early and risk a spike in infections in places that have started to bring the virus under control.German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to allow some schools to reopen beginning May 4, following similar plans in other European countries. She said some shops could reopen next week.In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country is not yet ready to loosen restrictions. He urged Canadians to be patient, saying they still “a number of weeks away.”U.S. President Donald Trump is among those who have been most vocal in pushing to restart the country’s economy, which is the largest in the world. He is expected to announce new guidelines Thursday, though health officials have said dropping restrictions in early May would be too soon and ultimately those decisions will be up to individual state governors.Trump is also set to take part Thursday in a video conference with other G-7 leaders to discuss a coordinated response to the pandemic.He drew fresh criticism Wednesday from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and U.S. billionaire Bill Gates about his decision to suspend funding for the World Health Organization.Carter issued a statement saying the WHO “is the only international organization capable of leading the effort to control this virus.” Gates, a major funder of the WHO, said the decision was “as dangerous as it sounds.”The United States is the world’s largest contributor to the WHO, with its more than $400 million contribution in 2019 amounting to about 15 percent of the organization’s budget.Trump accused the Geneva-based organization of failing to obtain independent reports about the coronavirus originating from China’s central city of Wuhan and relying instead on China’s official reports. Beijing officials initially tried to downplay the dangers of the new strain of coronavirus. Trump said the funding will be suspended pending an investigation into the WHO’s handling of the outbreak.The United States is now the worst-hit country with nearly 640,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, out of more than 2 million infected people worldwide. 
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After more than two weeks of forced quarantine, hundreds of refugees in Turkey have been released haphazardly in recent days, with many being left on the streets in locked down coastal areas.Thousands more are expected to be let go in the coming days and weeks.”A bus dropped us off near the coast,” said Samer Alahmad, 45, a Syrian refugee and father of four. “The driver told us to go find a boat to Greece.”Samer Alahmad sold his furniture to get to the border to try to enter Greece, pictured April 15, 2020. (Photo courtesy of Alahmad)But what Alahmad found was more refugees. They were sleeping outdoors in the middle of a 48-hour coronavirus lockdown.The families could neither find nor afford boats. Even if they could, Greece has been aggressively repelling refugees from its borders since late February, when Turkey announced plans to open the border to refugees trying to get to Europe.After that announcement, as many as 12,000 refugees flocked to Turkey’s land border with Greece hoping to cross. Greece never said it would open its side of the border, and never did. And when refugees tried to cross the small river separating the countries on boats or by swimming, Greek soldiers pushed them back with tear gas, batons and paddy wagons.”I left Syria because of the bombings,” Alahmad said. “Then I sold all my furniture in Turkey to get to the border.”Evacuation and quarantineAlahmad stayed in a squalid camp by the border for 27 days. In the camp, everyone lined up for hours each day, just to get a single serving of soup and bread.By the end of March, the coronavirus was beginning to spread in Turkey, and Turkish authorities sent buses to evacuate the camp.In late March, Turkish authorities evacuated thousands of people from a make-shift camp along the Greek border, as the coronavirus began to spread in Turkey. (Photo courtesy of refugees)Alahmad was brought to a quarantine center, where he was photographed and fingerprinted before surrendering his phone and other belongings. He was crowded into a room that was built for 20 people and holding 25. They were given cleaning materials to try to protect themselves from the virus.Fourteen days later, he was bused to a coastal town where he and hundreds of others walked for five hours before they were arrested for violating lockdown orders, Alahmad said. Later, he was permitted to travel to Istanbul. Now, Alahmad is trying to raise the money to shelter in a family home.”I’ve been wearing the same clothes for a month-and-a-half,” he said, adding, “I will try again to get to Europe.” Caught in the middleCrossing into Greece from Turkey nowadays is almost impossible, according to Mohammad, a volunteer in Izmir, a city long known for being a starting point for refugees trying to cross to Europe on smugglers’ boats.Since the beginning of the year, Greece has said clearly and often that it will not tolerate new refugees, sending military forces to back up the statements.Children sleep in the streets after being released from quarantine in Izmir, Turkey, April 13, 2020. (Photo courtesy of refugees)”I think everyone knows it. Greece won’t let them in,” said Mohammad. “But they will not stop trying.”Greece accuses Turkey of trying to flood Europe with refugees, contradicting a 2016 statement in which Ankara said it would block refugees from Europe in exchange for aid for the roughly 3.5 million Syrian refugees in the country.Turkey maintains that Europe has never fully delivered on the 2016 promises and accuses Greece of human rights abuses against tens of thousands of refugees detained in overcrowded and dangerous camps.As the international community squabbles, refugees continuously risk their lives for even the hope of getting to Europe, according to Mohammad.On Sunday night, he met about 120 refugees near the bus station in Izmir. They were sleeping on the streets after being released from quarantine.”All of them were hungry,” he said. “Women and children were lying on the sidewalks.” Desperation and deceptionBut it’s not always desperation alone that makes families continue to try to get into Europe, according to Abdo Alsad, 37, a refugee from Damascus. He and about 20 other people swam across the river to Greece last month, only to be beaten, robbed and deported the following day.Families crowd together in the streets despite coronavirus fears, in Izmir, Turkey, April 13, 2020. (Photo courtesy of refugees)In the quarantine camp, when officials told the refugees they could go to Europe or stay put, they all said, “Europe,” thinking it could be possible, Alsad said.”We thought maybe Turkey and the European Union made a deal,” he added. “And we didn’t have phones, so we had to believe them.”Now he’s hiding out in a relative’s home, afraid he will be deported if police see him. Like most people in Turkey, Alsad wears a mask if he steps out to buy something, but he said he is not concerned about the coronavirus.”I’m not worried because I’ve nothing to lose anymore,” he said.  
 
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A 106-year-old British woman who believed to be the United Kingdom’s oldest person to survive COVID-19 was released from the hospital Tuesday.Connie Titchen was discharged the Birmingham City Hospital as the staff applauded her.Titchen, who lived through two world wars, was admitted to the hospital in mid-March with suspected pneumonia and was diagnosed with COVID-19 soon afterward.As she departed the hospital, she told a nurse she felt lucky to survive, and that she was looking forward to seeing her grandchildren.
 
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Nations around the world reacted with alarm Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced a halt to the sizable funding the United States sends to the World Health Organization. Health experts warned the move could jeopardize global efforts to stop the coronavirus pandemic.  At a briefing in Washington, Trump said he was instructing his administration to halt funding for WHO pending a review of its role “in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.” The United States is WHO’s largest single donor, contributing between $400 million and $500 million annually to the Geneva-based agency in recent years.Trump has repeatedly labelled COVID-19 the “Chinese virus” and criticized the U.N. health agency for being too lenient on China, where the novel virus first emerged late last year.Outside experts have questioned China’s reported infections and deaths from the virus, calling them way too low and unreliable. And an investigation by The Associated Press has found that s ix days of delays between when Chinese officials k new about the virus and when they warned the public allowed the pandemic to bloom into an enormous public health disaster.The European Union on Wednesday said Trump has “no reason” to freeze WHO funding at this critical stage and called for measures to promote unity instead of division. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the 27-nation bloc “deeply” regrets the suspension of funds and added that the U.N. health agency is now “needed more than ever” to combat the pandemic.Borrell said “only by joining forces can we overcome this crisis that knows no borders.”Even though they have been traditional allies for decades, the EU has increasingly been critical of the Trump administration over the past years.Worldwide, the pandemic has infected nearly 2 million people and killed over 127,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The virus is spread by microscopic droplets expelled into the air or left on surfaces when people sneeze or cough.Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he sympathized with some of Trump’s criticisms of WHO and China but that Australia would continue to fund the U.N. health agency.  “We work closely with them so that we’re not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater here,” Morrison told Perth Radio 6PR. “But they’re also not immune from criticism.”Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, pushed back at Trump’s announcement.  “Placing blame doesn’t help,” he wrote on Twitter. “The virus knows no borders. We must work closely against COVID-19. Strengthening the U.N., in particular the underfunded WHO, is a better investment, for example, to develop and distribute tests and vaccines.”Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, called Trump’s decision “extremely problematic,” noting that the chronically-underfunded WHO is leading efforts to help developing countries fight the spread of COVID-19.  “This is the agency that’s looking out for other countries and leading efforts to stop the pandemic,” Sridhar said. “This is exactly the time when they need more funding, not less.”  Sridhar said Trump’s move was a short-sighted political decision that would likely have lasting consequences.  “Trump is angry, but his anger is being directed in a way that is going to ultimately hurt U.S. interests,” she said.  In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian says the country is “seriously concerned” about the U.S. government’s decision to suspend funding.  “As the most authoritative and professional international institution in the field of global public health security, the WHO plays an irreplaceable role in responding to the global public health crisis,” he told reporters Wednesday.The WHO did not respond to repeated requests from The Associated Press for comment, but its Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and other top WHO officials were expected to attend a news conference on the pandemic later Wednesday.  Many analysts have praised the initial response to the pandemic by WHO, which is being challenged as national interests collide with the international cooperation that U.N. agencies must rely on.  But recently, many governments have split with its advice on issues of public health policy, notably on travel restrictions and whether the public should wear masks. 
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Denmark eased its coronavirus lockdown on Wednesday by reopening schools and day care centers, but concerns they might become breeding grounds for a second wave of cases convinced thousands of parents to keep their children at home.
 
The rate of new cases is falling, but the government’s decision has led to a heated debate over how to balance the needs of the economy and the safety of the population – in this case its youngest citizens.
 
“I won’t be sending my children off no matter what,” said Sandra Andersen, the founder of a Facebook group called ‘My kid is not going to be a Guinea Pig’ that has more than 40,000 followers.
 
“I think a lot of parents are thinking, ‘Why should my little child go outside first’,” said the mother of two girls aged five and nine.
 
The month-long lockdown in Denmark, where the virus has infected more than 6,600 people with close to 300 deaths, has also closed shops, bars, restaurants, cinemas and gyms.
 
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen defended the move, undertaken on health authority recommendations, to ease it by resuming teaching up to fifth grade, saying this would allow parents to return to work and “get the economy going again.”
 
Christian Wejse, a scientist at the department of infectious diseases at Aarhus University, said he understood people’s concerns “because we’ve spent a month trying to avoid contact.”
 
But any new infections would be unproblematic in an age group “where few fall ill, and those who do won’t get very sick.”
 
Looking at neighboring Sweden, which has kept schools open without a drastic rise in infections, children also appeared not to be a major driver for transmission of the virus, he said.
 
Teaching staff are under instruction to keep social distancing in place between children and, with many school buildings staying closed, in some cases preparing chalk for pupils to write with on the playground tarmac.
 
“I don’t think it’s right for the kids not to hug their friends,” said Nonne Behrsin Hansen, a mother of two aged two and four.
 
“We keep the kids home, because the situation in the day cares before the COVID-19 outbreak were not okay, and the conditions they are setting up now are even worse.”
 
For now at least, most members of Momster, an online network of thousands of Danish mothers, do not believe authorities have things under control, according to its founder and CEO Esme Emma Sutcu.
 
“Suddenly, these moms feel like they just have to throw their kids to the frontline and I think their reaction is: ‘Don’t mess with our kids’,” she said. (Reporting by Nikolaj
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German prosecutors announced Wednesday the arrest of four Islamic State members accused of planning attacks against U.S. military sites in Germany. A statement said the group had guns and ammunitions needed for their attacks, along with some materials for building explosive devices. The prosecutors said the group had already scouted U.S. Air Force bases in Germany. They identified the four, along with a fifth person in custody since last month, as nationals of Tajikistan who founded a terror cell in Germany after joining the Islamic State group last year. Authorities said they were in contact with and received instructions from high-ranking Islamic State leaders in Syria and Afghanistan. 
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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the U.N. is going to flood the internet and social media with facts and science to counter what he says is a “dangerous epidemic of misinformation” about the coronavirus pandemic. Guterres said the huge amount of falsehoods surrounding the illness is a “misinfo-demic,” full of bad health advice, lies, wild conspiracy theories and “snake oil solutions.” He says all of this is a “poison that is putting lives at risk.” He also spoke out against those who are “stigmatizing and vilifying people and groups” because of the pandemic, and he thanking “journalists and others fact-checking the mountain of misleading stories and social media posts.” “Together, let’s reject the lies and nonsense out there,” Guterres said. “With common cause for common sense and facts, we can defeat COVID-19 — and build a healthier, more equitable, just and resilient world,” Guterres said.  The top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told the Associated Press that when it comes to reopening the economy, the country “is not there yet.”  In the interview, Fauci said the nation still lacks what he describes as the critical testing for suspected cases and ability to track down everyone who came in contact with an infected patient.   “We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on. … I’ll guarantee you, once you start pulling back there will be infections. It’s how you deal with the infections that’s going count,” Fauci said.  President Donald Trump is eager to reopen shuttered stores and businesses and get locked-down people back to their jobs.  He originally envisioned this week to restart the economy. He now says he would like to get things rolling again by May 1. Fauci calls that target “a bit overly optimistic” at least for many parts of the country. He told the AP that once the outbreak peaks, he “would not be surprised” to see a second wave in the fall. But he said that is not inevitable.Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, April 13, 2020, in Washington.A new report from the U.S. government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says as many as 20% of coronavirus patients are doctors, nurses, and other health care providers. It says Italy and Spain are among the countries reporting similar numbers. The CDC reports 27 medical professionals have died from COVID-19.  Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says more than 60 coronavirus vaccines are in development around the world.  It says research groups, who normally prefer to work independently, are teaming up with others to help speed up the processes. China’s CanSino Biologics said Tuesday it started its second phase of testing a potential vaccine.  The U.S National Institutes of Health has teamed up with the health science firm Moderna to also develop a vaccine. The first test subject received a second dose Tuesday.  Fauci of the NIH told the Associated Press that there are no “red flags” so far in the testing and that it may be expanded to more subjects in June.  Fauci had predicted that a COVID-19 vaccine could be ready within 18 months. But says it is possible that it could happen sooner.  “Please let me say this caveat: That is assuming that it’s effective. See, that’s the big ‘if,’” Fauci stressed. “It’s got to be effective and it’s got to be safe.” If it’s a hot summer in New York City this year, it may be hard to find a place to cool off.  Reports say Mayor Bill de Blasio could order beaches to remain closed if the coronavirus outbreak remains dire.  De Blasio did not directly comment on the report Tuesday but said “we’re going to take this very slow and carefully to make sure we get it right. I’m always going to first focus on how do we guarantee the health and safety of New Yorkers and make sure we don’t take our foot off the gas too soon.” The Czech government says it will slowly begin to reopen stores starting next Monday, but all Czechs will still be required to wear face coverings.  Austria allowed thousands of shops to reopen Tuesday, but India has extended its nationwide lockdown through May 3. 
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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday the European Union will create a strategic reserve of ventilators for countries “most in need” amid the COVID-19 pandemic.In remarks recorded from EU headquarters in Brussels, von der Leyen said Romania has agreed to host this reserve, and the first 150 ventilators paid for by the EU are in production and will be sent immediately to the nations in need.  Von der Leyen cited Italy and Spain as the European nations hardest hit by the pandemic and said EU support for them was “crucial.” She noted that Denmark has already pledged to send ventilators and a field hospital to Italy.Ventilators have proven crucial in the most severe cases of COVID-19 to help patients breathe.Von der Leyen said the EU is also procuring protective equipment such as masks to be shared as needed with member nations. 
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The small Italian village of Celleno thought it had escaped the coronavirus — nearly a month into Italy’s national lockdown. No confirmed cases of the potentially deadly virus had been recorded. The more than one thousand residents of the village on the outskirts of Rome breathed a collective sigh of relief.But in the past week all that has changed. First there were seven cases — stemming from a dinner friends had on the eve of the lockdown announced last month by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. And then came a big shock last week when a nursing home in the village for the elderly, Villa Noemi, recorded more than 30 cases among the frail residents. The virus has now spread. One of the nursing-home residents died midweek from coronavirus, shocking the closely-knit village. Celleno and its modest little farms dotted around the rugged northern Lazio hills has now been sealed off by alarmed regional authorities with police checkpoints mounted on the four roads leading in and out of the village to prevent anyone leaving or entering, except for emergency workers.“The situation is quite tough,” says Moira Emidi, a 36-year-old restaurant worker.Celleno’s mayor, Marco Bianchi, says the whole crisis feels “surreal” and that village is fearful.  The cases at the nursing home have “shaken the entire community.” And he added: “Currently, 35 of the residents are positive for the virus; another four are negative and they have been transferred to a nearby farmhouse where they are being looked after.” He says he finds comfort from how Celleno is pulling together, though, saying the village “has never been so united.” He adds: “The beautiful solidarity of many, many citizens comes as a great relief.”Celleno: the hilltop Lazio village on Rome’s outskirts thought it had escaped the coronavirus — nearly a month into Italy’s national lockdown, no confirmed cases of the potentially deadly virus had been recorded. (Dettmer/VOA)Death still lurksThe village of Celleno is unlikely to be the last in Italy to discover that the virus has been lurking in nursing homes, only belatedly to reveal itself. Italian authorities are now engaged in what they call a “mapping exercise” of the country’s residential homes for the elderly as fears mount that what is found could reverse Italy’s declining numbers of confirmed cases and deaths. Officials worry that an unseen surge in fatalities in nursing homes has been happening unnoticed with the old dying untested for the virus.As things are now, only patients who are hospitalized with severe symptoms are normally being tested for the virus. Two weeks ago, the mayor of the north Italian city of Bergamo, a coronavirus hotspot, issued a warning about nursing homes. “There are significant numbers of people who have died but whose death hasn’t been attributed to the coronavirus because they died at home or in a nursing home and so they weren’t swabbed,” Giorgio Gori, Bergamo’s mayor said.Worst may not be overNurses and relatives say they believe there has been an unnoticed spike in nursing home deaths, which is not showing up in the official coronavirus statistics. Emilio Tanzi, director of a 460-bed residence in the northern Italian town of Cremona, told Reuters that nursing homes are on the front lines of a crisis that predominantly affects the elderly but that, nonetheless, nursing homes have been overlooked and not adequately supported.He said there had been a significant and “anomalous” increase in deaths since early March in nursing homes. “We don’t know if there have been coronavirus deaths because the swabs haven’t been done. We’ve certainly seen high fevers and breathing difficulties. If we’d been in a position to know, we could have isolated these patients properly and avoided the epidemic,” Tanzi said.Researchers are now trying to get to the bottom of where nursing homes fit into the coronavirus crisis. According to incomplete data analyzed by researchers at the London School of Economics, about half of all coronavirus deaths in parts of Europe may be happening in care homes for the elderly. In this photo taken on April 1, 2020, 103-year-old Ada Zanusso, poses with a nurse at the old people’s home “Maria Grazia” in Lessona, northern Italy, after recovering from Covid-19 infection.Death trapsThe researchers are warning that a greater effort must be put into fighting the virus in nursing homes, otherwise deaths may keep climbing. Homes are ill-equipped to deal with the crisis, they say, because of chronic staffing shortages, lack of protective gear and the paucity of testing for the virus.“Care homes are places where physical distancing is almost impossible. It’s like a perfect storm: a susceptible population, not being able to implement the measures and the staff are not well supported and trained enough. Many of the staff are care assistants with very little medical knowledge,” said Adelina Comas-Herrera, one of LSE’s data researchers.A government survey in Italy suggests 45% of all deaths in the country from the virus may end up having originated in residential homes for the elderly. Tricky numbers    Italy reported a lower number of new coronavirus cases Monday — although daily fatalities rose — three days after the government decided to extend a lockdown. There were 3,153 new cases, the fewest documented since April 7, compared with 4,092 on Sunday, according to the country’s civil protection officials. Italy recorded 566 deaths linked to the virus Monday compared with 431 the day before. The total number of fatalities from the virus late Tuesday stood at 20,465.A woman wearing a protective mask walks her dog in Piazza Navona, as Italians remain under lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Rome, Italy, April 4, 2020.Italian officials are not the only ones in Europe wondering how a full accounting of nursing homes may alter the picture. Earlier this month, French officials abruptly revealed 1,416 nursing-home residents had succumbed to the virus since the pandemic emerged. French health officials have made clear the number of cases and fatalities they report every day does not include deaths in nursing and care homes.Cases have also been reported this month in more than a hundred care homes around Stockholm, Sweden’s capital. The authorities there have not given actual case figures, but the country’s public broadcaster SVT estimates more than 400 residents have been infected and around 50 have died.In Britain, official counts do not include virus-linked deaths outside hospitals, such as those in care homes. A former regional public health director, John Ashton, has publicly warned that the number of people officially recorded as dying from the virus could be double what is officially being announced. “We need to be able to see the data and crawl over it and really see what’s going on,” he told British broadcaster Sky News.Meanwhile, as national authorities try to understand the full impact of the epidemic in nursing homes, the villagers of Italy’s Celleno had some good news this week. Test results of residents in another nursing facility in the village have all come back negative.An earlier version of this story attributed one more death in Celleno to the coronavirus. It turned out to be not related to COVID-19.
 
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Russia is ready to discuss hypersonic missiles and other arms control issues with the United States as part of wider discussions about strategic stability, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.Cold War-era arms control agreements have been in jeopardy as Russia’s relations with the West have soured in recent years.In August 2019, the United States pulled out of a landmark strategic arms accord, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), citing Russian non-compliance.Both countries are developing hypersonic missiles to expand their defense capabilities, with Russian President Vladimir Putin overseeing a test in Crimea in early January.Such missiles, which fly several times the speed of sound and can be steered in flight, are harder to stop than other generations of weapons. Some experts fear their deployment could trigger a new nuclear arms race.Lavrov said he wanted to speak to U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo again after receiving a call from him a couple of days ago during which he said Pompeo touched on resuming talks on arms control and strategic stability.”We welcome such interest from our American partners because we have encouraged them to address these problems more actively for a long time,” Lavrov said.”We are open to talks about new promising developments, including hypersonic weapons in the context of, and I emphasize this especially, taking into account all aspects and factors that influence strategic stability, without exception.”Moscow has taken steps to mend ties with the West since the coronavirus outbreak.Russia has flown medical supplies and equipment to the United States and Italy to help them fight the epidemic. Lavrov said Moscow was prepared to fly over more supplies should Washington request them. 
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Spain is following Italy in talking about scaling back coronavirus restrictions as its numbers start to recede.  The nightmare is far from over in the country’s nursing homes, where the virus has claimed its largest percentage of victims.  In this report from Barcelona narrated by Jon Spier, Alfonso Beato tells us Spain is shocked by reports that elderly coronavirus patients have been found dead in their beds and some facilities have been abandoned.
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