German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned German lawmakers some regions in the nation were moving too quickly to ease COVID-19 restrictions, risking a setback to the progress the country has made in getting the virus under control.In an address to the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, Merkel said she fully supports the decision made last week – after consultations with regional governors – to begin easing some restrictions, such as allowing smaller businesses to reopen. But she said she is concerned some areas are relaxing those rules too quickly.Merkel said nobody likes to hear it but “we are not living in the final phase of the pandemic, but still at the beginning.” She said Germany’s early success bought them time that has been used to bolster the health care system and moving too quickly could set all that back.Turning the European Union, the German chancellor said in the spirit of solidarity, Germany should be willing to contribute more to the EU budget to help other nations in the region recover economically. 
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Haitian authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into a February fire at an orphanage operated by a U.S.-based church near Port-au-Prince, where 13 children and two adults died.Authorities suspect the fire was started by candles used during frequent power failures.The Associated Press reported that at one point the Haitian orphanages run by the Church of Bible Understanding, were stripped of accreditation by Haitian officials over compliance with safety and health criteria and three years ago both of the church’s  homes in Haiti failed inspections but stayed open.The AP said an attorney for the church said the church, the orphanage operators and the Haitian government should all bear some responsibility.The operational problems and reported poor condition of the homes is glaring because of the revenue wealth and property assets of the church. 
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the coronavirus outbreak is “fast becoming a human rights crisis.”In a statement Thursday, he called on governments to ensure that health care is available and accessible to all people, that economic aid packages help those most affected, and that everyone has the ability to obtain food, water and housing.Women wearing face masks ride past the Opera House in Hanoi on April 23, 2020, as Vietnam eased its nationwide social isolation efforts.“We have seen how the virus does not discriminate, but its impacts do — exposing deep weaknesses in the delivery of public services and structural inequalities that impede access to them.  We must make sure they are properly addressed in the response,” Guterres said.He added: “And in all we do, let’s never forget: The threat is the virus, not people.”The U.N. chief’s message comes as world health officials warn that while some countries have seen great progress and are starting to relax lockdown measures, the fight against the virus is very much not over.”Make no mistake: We have a long way to go. This virus will be with us for a long time,” said World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.  “Most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics. And some that were affected early in the pandemic are now starting to see a resurgence in cases.”U.S. health officials also are urging the public to look ahead to the next flu season and get flu shots in order to help mitigate a potential huge strain on health resources if there are large numbers of flu and coronavirus patients at the same time.With the illnesses sharing similar symptoms, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield told reporters, “We’re going to have to distinguish between which is flu and which is the coronavirus.”“I need them to help now to best prepare us by getting the flu vaccine and taking flu out of the picture,” he said.Many countries remain focused on stopping the current outbreak with stay-at-home measures in place.Those restrictions are complicating usual routines for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that starts this week.Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, banned tens of millions of people who live in big cities from traveling home. Officials in the capital city of Jakarta extended lockdown restrictions until May 22 and asked Muslims to forego attending mosques.Turkey’s health minister urged similar measures, saying people should put off the tradition of holding fast-breaking meals with friends and family for Ramadan until next year.A man wearing a face mask walks at sunset in a park in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province on April 19, 2020.Turkey has been instituting weekend curfews and has banned those younger than 20 and older than 65 from leaving their homes.Muslims in Malaysia’s capital also have been told to pray from home with their mosques closed.Pakistan is taking a different approach, ignoring pleas from doctors and keeping mosques open, though encouraging people to observe social distancing rules.The question of whether to allow people to gather for worship is being confronted in many countries, and among many religions.U.S. officials largely told people to avoid gathering for the Christian Easter holiday earlier this month, while some churches have defied state lockdown orders and held in-person services.A federal judge in California said Wednesday he would reject a request by three churches seeking a temporary restraining order to set aside the governor’s orders.  They argue the government is violating the constitutional First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and assembly.But the judge said in such a time of emergency, the government has the power to “provide emergency remedies, which may infringe on fundamental constitutional rights.”  
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Japanese health officials say 48 crew members of an Italian cruise ship docked in the port city of Nagasaki have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, including 14 cases confirmed Thursday.The Costa Atlantica and its 623 crew members have been docked in Nagasaki since January to undergo repairs by a unit of Mitsubishi Heavy Industry. The crew was tested for COVID-19 last week after the ship reported that one crew member had developed a cough and fever.The total number of infections include 34 crew members who were first confirmed on Wednesday. At least one crew member has been taken to a Nagasaki hospital, where he is currently on a ventilator. Health officials say they hope to test the remaining crew members by Friday.This is the second time Japan has dealt with a coronavirus outbreak onboard a cruise ship. The U.S.-flagged Diamond Princess cruise ship was quarantined in Yokohama after a passenger tested positive for the disease, but more than 700 passengers eventually tested positive.Japan has nearly 12,000 COVID-19 infections and nearly 300 deaths, not including the figures from the Diamond Princess. The nation is currently under a state of emergency.    
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Brazil’s new health minister is casting doubts about how governors use data in imposing self-isolation measures to fight the spread of the coronavirus, saying there needs to be a standard model of analyzing information.On Wednesday, in his first public statements since taking the job six days ago, Nelson Teich said “if you produce ‘alarming’ numbers and people treat a mathematics model as the truth, you will worsen the scare and expectations of the society.”Teich appears to be echoing the sentiments of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who fired the previous health minister partly over his support of the governors’ stay-at-home measures that he said were bad for the economy.Teich says he will unveil the administration’s model for handling the outbreak next week. He said Brazil is looking at ways of backing away from social isolation practices, although media reports say the virus has not peaked in the country.Brazil has reported more than 46,000 infections and more than 2,900 deaths.     
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Police in the Netherlands have released security camera video showing a thief who stole a prized Vincent van Gogh painting from a Dutch museum late last month.The video of the March 30 theft shows how the perpetrator used a sledgehammer to smash his way through reinforced glass doors at the Singer Laren Museum in Laren, Netherlands, east of Amsterdam.Police hope that publicizing the images will help them track down the thief who stole “The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring 1884” while the museum was shut down due to coronavirus containment measures.Police have made no arrests in connection with the theft of the painting, which was on loan from the Groninger Museum when it was stolen, and it remains missing.The 25-by-57-centimeter oil-on-paper painting shows a person standing in a garden surrounded by trees with a church tower in the background.It dates to a time when Van Gogh had moved back to his family in a rural area of the Netherlands and painted the life he saw there, including his famous work “The Potato Eaters”, in mostly somber tones.The exact value of the missing painting is uncertain, but recent Van Gogh paintings have gone for tens of millions of dollars when sold at auction. 
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France’s parliament votes next week on plans to use a controversial tracing app to help fight the coronavirus, as the country eyes easing its lockdown next month.French Digital Affairs Minister Cedric O says the downloadable app would notify smartphone users when they cross people with COVID-19, helping authorities track and reduce the spread of the pandemic.In a video on the ruling party’s Facebook page, O said the so-called “Stop COVID” app will fully respect people’s liberties, and will be completely voluntary and anonymous. It also will be temporary — lasting only as long as the pandemic, he added.A man rides his bike in an empty street during a nationwide confinement to counter the COVID-19 in Paris, April 21, 2020.The government wants to launch the app on May 11, the date it has set to begin easing a two-month lockdown in the country. It initially announced a parliamentary debate on the technology, but that’s been changed to a vote, after major pushback from lawmakers.The app’s critics include ruling party member Guillaume Chiche, who told French TV the app would reveal people’s health status and lead to discrimination and exclusion.He’s not the only one worried.”We think that it is very dangerous for the government to say to French people that the solution will be this kind of application,” said Benoit Piedallu, a member of La Quadrature du Net, an advocacy group defending digital rights and freedoms.The potential problems he sees range from chances the app could infringe on individual liberties, to whether it would actually work effectively.”We think that the digital application is not the correct answer to this problem,” Piedallu said. “The government should buy masks, the government should open new hospitals. … There are a lot of other solutions than an application.”A recent poll showed eight in 10 French respondents said they would be willing to download the app. But Piedallu believes the numbers of those actually using it will likely be much smaller, and many seniors —who are among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus — don’t have smartphones.France isn’t the only European country working on tracing apps and sparking similar rights debates, including in neighboring Germany. Reports say the French government is also pushing Apple to allow the app to work on its iPhones without built-in privacy measures.  
 
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FURCY, HAITI – About an hour’s drive from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, residents of Furcy, a cool, lush, agricultural community high up in the mountains, say they are used to dealing with illnesses common to cooler climates. Their community is located more than 1,000 meters above sea level and average temperatures there during the month of April are around 20 degrees Celsius. Comparatively, in the capital, the average temperature is near 30 degrees Celsius.   The residents say they are now using their herbal cold and flu remedies in their homemade plan to deal with the coronavirus. They had to come up with a plan of action they say, because the government has ignored them.  This woman, who is holding her baby tells VOA the locals are used to cool weather illnesses and have their own herbal concoctions to treat them. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)“The symptoms caused by coronavirus are things we are used to dealing with up here,” a woman wearing a hoodie and a wool hat told VOA Creole. “We’re used to the flu, headaches, sore throats; they are all familiar to us. We do take precautions of course, but we can say we own this type of illness because we live in a cold climate.”“I know what to make for my children to protect them from illness,” a woman cradling a baby on her hip said. “Back in the day, the old people used to give their children medicine before medicating themselves.”  
 Remedies to fight flu symptoms
Favorite local remedies to fight flu-like symptoms include a concoction made with cat tail plants, various leaves and ginger root.
 This woman tells VOA locals usually follow the elders’ example and treat their children before they treat themselves when they are sick. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)“There’s bitter ginger and there’s sweet ginger. To calm a cough, we have our own remedies, so we don’t need to go see a doctor,” the woman with the baby said.  
 
Residents told VOA they are wary of consulting a doctor when they have flu-like symptoms.   
“You know it’s a saga to get the doctor to come all the way up here,” a man wearing a patchwork face mask said. “By the time they get their protective gear, instruments and drive up here, we could die.”
 
Instead, he said, they have decided to take a pragmatic approach.  
 Furcy residents use these sunflower leaves to make tea, which they say alieves flu and cold symptoms. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)“We have these leaves over here,” he said pointing to a green leafy plant. “These are sunflower leaves, but to us they are also medicine. They are really bitter, but when we have a cold or the flu, we boil these leaves. We also use it to get rid of fever.”  
 
The man said the locals have various other herbal remedies in their arsenal that are quite effective. He also said they consume limes and bitter oranges, two fruits loaded with Vitamin C, which can boost the immune system.  
 Fact or fake? Pierre Hugues Saint-Jean is president of Haiti’s National Pharmacist Association. He’s shown here in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on April 3, 2020.VOA Creole asked Pierre Hugues Saint-Jean, president of Haiti’s National Association of Pharmacists, if there’s any validity to the traditional remedies being touted by people in rural communities.“There actually has been a debate about the virtues of certain plants. Some people say ginger, others say limes, some people are talking about aloe,” Saint-Jean said. “Just because it’s a plant doesn’t mean it has no scientific validity. But you have to study the plant, isolate the active substances contained in the plant and then conduct (scientific) studies.”Saint-Jean said this kind of in-depth study can determine what preventive attributes the plant may hold that perhaps later could be used to treat illnesses.
 Living in isolationFurcy, a lush, cool agricultural community is located 38 kilometers from Haiti’s capital, Port au Prince. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)Although Furcy is only 38 kilometers southeast of the capital, the road to get there is steep and winding, so not many people venture there. 
“We don’t go down to Port-au-Prince, so if we need something, someone has to bring it to us,” the man wearing the patchwork face mask told VOA. “No one has come to inform us about the virus or tell us what we should and shouldn’t do. We learned all about it while listening to the radio.”  
Another man, who was not wearing a face mask, agreed.  
 
“We just listen to the radio and follow the advice,” he said. Asked why he chose not to wear a face covering, the man said it’s because he finds it difficult to breathe when he has it on. This man is not wearing a mask even though he knows he should. He says it takes getting used to and he finds it harder to breathe when he has it on. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)“I have to get used to it,” he said. “I know it will protect me.”Residents whom VOA interviewed knew that keeping hands clean is also key to staying healthy. So, they found a way to make that happen.  
 
“Since we live on a mountain, we take many precautions,” said a woman whose baby was wearing a light blue wool hat. “We wash our hands often; if we are going out, we always have a bottle of vinegar in our pocket (that we use as a disinfectant) because way up here, it’s hard to find alcohol but we can easily find vinegar,” she told VOA Creole. 
The woman said she stays home most days and doesn’t have contact with many people.  Haiti currently has 58 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the global outbreak. Of those 58, four people have died and there have been no recoveries.
 
Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe announced this week that a lockdown that began in March has been extended until May 19.
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The COVID-19 pandemic could have been a fraught moment for U.S.-Mexico relations — two leaders from opposite ends of the political spectrum facing the largest crisis ever confronted by either administration.
Instead, presidents Donald Trump and Andrés Manuel López Obrador are carrying on like old pals.
The men appear so chummy that the Mexican president, who has not traveled outside his country since taking office nearly 18 months ago, is talking about visiting his U.S. counterpart. It’s almost enough to forget that less than a year ago Trump threatened to put crippling tariffs on Mexican exports.
As a candidate, Trump said Mexicans crossing the border brought drugs, crime and “tremendous infectious disease” to the U.S. After taking office, he continued to promise to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it.
But this month Trump called López Obrador “a very good friend” and praised his “tremendous intelligence.” His Mexican counterpart described their relationship as a “friendship” and said Trump had spoken to him with a lot of “fondness.”
The two have consistently denied observers any fireworks, and their common ground in the virus crisis appears to be an eagerness to reactivate their economies, which is sometimes at odds with warnings from health advisers.
The warmth between them recently yielded some benefit to Mexico. To complete an agreement among oil-producing nations to reduce production, Trump offered to make a deeper cut to U.S. production, because López Obrador said Mexico could not afford to.
Then on Friday, Trump appeared to grant a favor to López Obrador. The Mexican president said Trump called him and said that Mexico would get 1,000 ventilators by the end of the month with the option to buy more.
“It’s a new gesture of solidarity with Mexico,” López Obrador wrote on Twitter. “I proposed the possibility of meeting in June or July to personally express our appreciation.”
Earlier that day, López Obrador had said at his daily news conference that Trump “has been respectful of the people and government of Mexico.”
“There isn’t the belittling of Mexicans like there had been before, there isn’t with the same intensity,” he added.
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security reached agreement with Mexico and Canada to continue restricting nonessential travel at U.S. borders for another month. Later, in a tweet, Trump said he was temporarily suspending immigration to the U.S. to curb the virus, though with all the other immigration restrictions, it was not immediately clear who would be affected.
“It’s very clear that there’s a high degree of affinity, a surprising degree of affinity, between Trump and López Obrador,” who is willing “to cater to Trump in order to not only prevent Trump from dumping on Mexico, but also because López Obrador recognizes that he can get help and support where he needs it,” said David Shirk, a political science professor at the University of San Diego.
Last year, Mexico signed a new regional free-trade agreement with the U.S. and Canada, which had been a Trump priority. López Obrador, who rails against the neoliberal legacy of his predecessors — privatizing state-owned businesses, weakening unions — almost daily, went along with it.
When the number of asylum seekers showing up at the U.S.-Mexico border began last year to overwhelm the U.S. capacity to process them, Mexico averted Trump’s tariff threat by deploying its newly minted National Guard, which stopped mostly Central American immigrants headed north. The Mexican government also let the U.S. expand a controversial program to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases were processed in the U.S.
The result was that Mexico became the de facto executor of U.S. immigration policy in the region.
López Obrador “has shown an incredible penchant for appeasement” of Trump, said Tony Payan, director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. “He’s up against a wall. He has no choice. Picking a fight with Washington today would absolutely and completely poison the waters more than they’re already poisoned. He’s got no other choice but to cooperate with Mr. Trump. And I think Mr. Trump knows it.”
Under the health emergency, the U.S. government has completely closed its southern border to asylum seekers and in many cases is quickly returning Mexicans and Central Americans back to Mexico.
López Obrador has effectively chosen an economic benefit over the welfare of migrants and Mexican border towns, Shirk said. “It says to me that this is a president who is absolutely focused on one thing and that is trying to stimulate a moribund Mexican economy.”
In Mexico, López Obrador’s hardened position on immigration has not appeared to hurt him with his base, said Ivonne Acuña Murillo, a political science professor at Mexico City’s Iberoamerican University. She sees the real threat to his administration in the pandemic and what she says is an organized opposition campaign against his handling of the situation.
“I believe that if we are not in a political crisis, we could enter one,” Acuña said. “There is clearly an orchestrated strategy to hit the president’s popularity.” López Obrador frequently refers to his “adversaries,” a group that by his definition includes opposition politicians, the country’s largest media outlets and most anyone who criticizes his policies. He accuses them of trying to take advantage of the pandemic to damage him.
As for López Obrador’s recent coziness with Trump, Acuña also thinks he has little choice.
“During the campaign, (López Obrador) said if he tweets, I’m also going to tweet,” Acuña said. “That’s campaign talk. But it’s not the same being a candidate as being president … because the United States is still the empire. And politically speaking, Trump is still the most powerful politician in the world.”
 
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French President Emmanuel Macron told the Australian prime minister now was not the time for an international investigation into the coronavirus pandemic and that the urgency was to act in unison before looking for who was at fault, an official said.
 
“He says he agrees that there have been some issues at the start, but that the urgency is for cohesion, that it is no time to talk about this, while reaffirming the need for transparency for all players, not only the WHO,” an Elysee official told Reuters on Wednesday.
 
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has sought support for an international investigation into the pandemic in phone calls with U.S. President Donald Trump and the German and French leaders overnight, the government said on Wednesday.
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British lawmakers upended 700 years of history on Wednesday, grilling stand-in leader Dominic Raab by video link in an unprecedented but largely successful ‘hybrid parliament’ session forced by the coronavirus outbreak.
 
As Britain endures its fifth week of a national lockdown, with businesses shuttered and citizens ordered to stay at home, parliament has returned from an extended Easter break in a very unfamiliar form.
 
A maximum of 50 lawmakers are physically allowed in the debating chamber, with another 120 permitted to join in via Zoom video conference beamed onto television screens dotted around the walls of the ornate wood-panelled room.
 
Raab, deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson who is recovering from a spell in intensive care with COVID-19, faced questions from lawmakers – absent the usual jeering in the crowded chamber, replaced by an orderly and largely glitch-free interrogation.
 
Earlier, speaker Lindsay Hoyle said he had his “fingers crossed” that the new arrangement would work – and it mostly did.
 
A couple of early questions in the session just before Raab’s question time were partly inaudible, and one questioner was unable to connect, but the overall process was not derailed.
 
Lawmakers, dressed formally in line with the Commons’ usual dress code, quizzed Raab from their homes, showing off an array of artwork, wallpaper – and even a pair of signed soccer balls.
 
Raab spoke from the debating chamber, where a handful of other lawmakers sat on the green benches, observing social-distancing markers taped on the carpet. The leader of the opposition Labour Party Keir Starmer also attended in person.
 
One lengthy question was inadvertently cut short, leaving lawmaker Peter Bone’s face animatedly reaching the climax of his interrogation on screen without audio.
 
Raab retorted: “I’m pretty sure I got the gist!”
 
Prior to the session, lawmakers had expressed concerns that the choreographed question session would blunt their ability to skewer ministers with unexpected follow-up questions.
 
“The only thing that brings any fear to ministers is the unknown supplementary,” former cabinet minister Liam Fox said on Tuesday in a debate on the new measures.
 
After Raab finishes, health minister Matt Hancock will make a statement on the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
 
The new arrangement is so-far limited to questioning ministers, although officials are looking at ways that legislation can be discussed and even voted upon digitally.
 
“It’s symbolic, isn’t it? 700 years of working, and then suddenly we change to something new,” Hoyle told Sky News. “This is a starting point, this isn’t the end. What we want is a robust system that we build up from this point.” 
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There are over 70 million people worldwide who have been driven from their homes by war and unrest, up to 10 million are packed into refugee camps and informal settlements, and almost none have been tested for the coronavirus.
While the relative isolation of many camps may have slowed the virus’ spread, none is hermetically sealed. Without testing, as the world has seen repeatedly, the virus can spread unchecked until people start showing symptoms. That could have catastrophic results among the world’s refugees: There will be few if any intensive care beds or ventilators for them. There might not even be gloves or masks.
“Testing is in short supply even in New York and Norway, but it is nonexistent in most of the countries in the (global) south for the people we try to help,” Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told The Associated Press.
His group recently conducted a review of all 30 countries where it operates and found virtually no testing before people became sick.
In Syria’s war-ravaged Idlib province, only one small health facility is equipped to receive suspected coronavirus cases. In the world’s largest refugee camp, in Bangladesh, aid workers are racing to build isolation facilities. In two sprawling camps in Kenya, Somalis who survived decades of famine and war fear the worst is yet to come.
“If it’s killing people daily in America, then what do you think will happen to us?” asked Mariam Abdi, a vegetable vendor in Kenya’s Dadaab camp, where 217,000 people live in endless rows of tents. “We will all perish.”
Western countries, which by then may have contained their own outbreaks, will have to reckon with the fact that if the virus finds refuge among the world’s most vulnerable, it could return anytime.
Some refugee camps have been around so long they have apartment blocks and paved roads. Others are little more than clusters of tents or abandoned buildings. In many, cramped conditions and poor infrastructure can make it impossible to practice social distancing and frequent hand-washing.  
There are no official figures for the number of refugees who live in camps, but Egeland estimates they make up 10% to 15% of all refugees and displaced people, a population the U.N. estimates at over 70 million.
Refugees have already tested positive in Italy, Germany, Iran, Australia and Greece, where authorities said Tuesday that 150 people living in a quarantined hotel for asylum-seekers had contracted the coronavirus, and none displayed symptoms of COVID-19.
Most people who become infected experience mild to moderate symptoms. But the virus can cause severe illness and lead to death, particularly among older people and those with underlying health problems. It is highly contagious and can be spread by those who appear healthy.A ‘MIRACLE’ THAT NO CASES HAVE BEEN FOUND
The coronavirus has already appeared in Syria, where the decade-long civil war has displaced more than half of the population of 23 million. At least 350 health facilities have been bombed, mostly by the government. More than 900 medical staff have been killed and countless more have fled.
No cases have been reported yet in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, the last bastion of opposition to President Bashar Assad and where heavy fighting forced nearly a million people to flee their homes earlier this year.
Zaher Sahloul, a Syrian physician based in Chicago who heads MedGlobal, an international health NGO, calls that a “miracle.”
He notes that the entire province, which is home to 4 million people, has 98 ventilators, compared to 230 in the Advocate Christ Medical Center, where he is a critical care specialist. An outbreak would be “catastrophic,” he said.
The World Health Organization has sent 5,900 testing kits to Idlib, where they are being carefully rationed. Authorities have carried out around 200 tests so far, all of which came back negative.  
In Jordan, the two largest camps for Syrian refugees have been sealed since last month. In Zaatari, which has about 80,000 residents, the Jordanian government conducted 150 random tests, all of which came back negative, said Dominik Bartsch, the head of U.N. refugee agency in Jordan. Residents of Azraq, home to about 40,000, will be tested soon.
“We don’t need the camp managers to tell us how serious the virus is. We see it in the news and read about it,” said an anxious Massoud Ali, 35, who fled Syria for a camp in neighboring Iraq in October.  Becoming ‘Invisible’
Refugees living outside camps are also uniquely vulnerable.
Nearly 5 million Venezuelans have fled economic chaos, crossing by foot and bus into neighboring Colombia and other countries.
Many live in crowded apartments in Bogota, which has the bulk of Colombia’s coronavirus cases, and work as street vendors — jobs now prohibited. During the capital city’s lockdown, many have been evicted from rentals and fined for being on the streets as they struggle to put food on the table.
“All of a sudden, they’ve become invisible, locked away behind closed doors,” said Marianne Manjivar, International Rescue Committee director for Colombia and Venezuela.’No doctors can save us’
There’s been little if any testing in Cox’s Bazar, in southern Bangladesh, where more than a million members of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority are packed into the world’s largest refugee camp.  
Kate White, the emergency medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said there is “very limited testing capacity” in Bangladesh, with most of it in the capital, Dhaka, some 250 miles (400 kilometers) away.
While cases have been reported in the district, none have been detected inside the camp. There, refugees still gather in large groups to collect aid, and humanitarian workers are preparing for the worst.  
The U.N. refugee agency is building isolation and treatment centers that can house 150-200 patients. It is also distributing soap and talking about how to prevent the virus’ spread, but a government ban on cellphone and internet services in the camps has hindered those efforts.
Sakina Khatun, who lives with her husband and seven children in a small bamboo and tarp hut, said “the virus will kill everything it touches” if it enters the camps. “No doctors can save us then.”  ‘It will certainly come back’
There’s a similar sense of foreboding in conflict zones across Africa.
Burkina Faso is grappling with one of the world’s fastest growing displacement crises, with 800,000 people having fled attacks by jihadis in recent months.  
“We ran away from the terrorists and came here, but now there’s the coronavirus, and we don’t know what will happen,” said Boureima Gassambe.  
He and around 600 others have settled in an abandoned school on the outskirts of the capital, Ouagadougou. Twenty to 30 people stay in each room.  
Aguirata Maiga says soap is so expensive for her — 40 cents a bar — that she has to choose between washing her children’s hands and their clothes.  
Burkina Faso’s fragile health system has only 60 intensive care beds and a handful of ventilators, for a population of around 20 million people.
In Kenya’s crowded Kakuma refugee camp, more than 190,000 Somali refugees live in tents and rely on 19 wells.  
“That’s more than 10,000 people getting water from the same borehole,” said Kurt Tjossem of the International Rescue Committee.
There are also shortages of protective equipment, drugs and trained health workers.
There is no coronavirus testing at Kakuma or at the Dadaab camp, said the IRC’s Kenya health coordinator, John Kiogora. There are no intensive care units or ventilators, either.
The situation is even more dire inside Somalia, where more than 2.2 million people live in camps for the internally displaced. They have been uprooted by cycles of drought and the ever-present threat of al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked extremist group.
The camps have no testing facilities or equipment to treat those who contract the virus, according to Yuko Tomita, an officer with the U.N. migration agency. Somalia has just 46 intensive care beds nationwide.
In South Sudan, more than 180,000 people still live in crowded U.N.-run camps after a five-year civil war that left the health system reliant on NGOs for almost all services.  
“The reality is, if the virus presents itself, we have no choice,” said Charles Franzen, director of humanitarian and disaster response for World Relief. “Are we in a position to offer much in response other than having people just go home?”
Egeland, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, says vulnerabilities among refugee populations put the whole world at risk.
“If the pandemic survives in Venezuela or in Honduras or any other of the more vulnerable countries … it is a permanent risk for the United States,” he said. “If the coronavirus is spread from Europe, via Turkey, to Idlib, and gains a stronghold there, it will certainly come back to Europe.”
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Haiti’s main international airport, Toussaint Louverture, is currently closed to all non-local flights, but American carrier JetBlue landed over the weekend to fly American citizens and U.S. residents out. They had been stuck in Haiti after the government closed the airport March 16 in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince announced the flight, which was approved by Haitian and American aviation officials, on Twitter. “Event: Jet Blue Airways has been authorized to operate a flight from Port-au-Prince to Fort Lauderdale, FL Saturday, April 18.”  the tweet said. American citizens who wish to return to the United States should plan to do so immediately. The U.S. Embassy is not aware of any flights from Haiti to the United States after April 18 or if any flights will be authorized in the future. https://t.co/VapDcUERif(2/2)— U.S. Embassy Haiti (@USEmbassyHaiti) April 17, 2020A subsequent tweet posted in Creole advised American citizens who wanted to return to the United States to book their tickets as soon as possible. The embassy said it was not aware of any authorized flights after April 18.  
 
About 100 passengers boarded the flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Saturday.   
 
“We’re not afraid. We know what to do, we know how to protect ourselves,” a male passenger wearing a black face mask told VOA in Creole. “We know we have to keep our shoes outside, wash our hands, (wash) the clothes we are wearing, and wear a face mask.” This passenger, who was wearing a mask, said he is not afraid of catching the coronavirus. (VOA Creole/Yves Manuel)“Everything I own is in the United States,” said another passenger, wearing a white T-shirt and a black scarf around his neck.  Some passengers told VOA they decided to fly out of Haiti not out of fear of catching COVID-19, but rather because they had important matters that needed their attention. Others told VOA their families had asked them to return to the States.  
 
“It’s not that serious,” a male passenger wearing a light blue face mask and a bright yellow T-shirt told VOA. “My family misses me, and my work called me to say they’d like me to return, so I had to fly out today.”  
 
Other passengers said they no longer feel safe in Haiti because the factories have reopened, and they fear that will increase the spread of coronavirus in the capital.  
 
“At first there were two cases (of coronavirus) now there are 40 cases,” said a female passenger wearing a blue face mask and plastic gloves on her hands.  
 
American pastor Jeff Brown, 56, was in Haiti doing missionary work, he said, and added he hopes to return soon.  “I think Haiti has been very lucky with the virus because up to now there haven’t been many cases,” he said. “I’m afraid to go to the United States.”American pastor Jeff Brown says he looks forward to returning to Haiti soon. (VOA Creole/Yves Manuel)As of April 20, Haiti has a total of 57 coronavirus cases according to a statement released by the Ministry of Public Health. Of the 57 people infected, three have died and there have been no recoveries so far.  
 
American citizens and residents who remain in Haiti are stuck for now.  The U.S. Embassy announced on its Twitter account Monday that Haitian-owned Sunrise Airways is operating flights from Cape Haitian in the north, to the capital, Port-au-Prince, but that currently “there are no confirmed commercial flights from Haiti to the United States.” For U.S. citizens who wish to travel to Port-au-Prince from Cap Haitien: Sunrise Airways is currently operating flights. There are currently no confirmed commercial flights from Haiti to the United States. https://t.co/lb3cKZWkCzpic.twitter.com/mhRtwq1iDg— U.S. Embassy Haiti (@USEmbassyHaiti) April 20, 2020 
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Canadian police said Tuesday they believe there are at least 22 victims after a gunman wearing a police uniform shot people in their homes and set fires in a rampage across rural communities in Nova Scotia over the weekend. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they have recovered remains from some of the destroyed homes. Earlier, authorities had said at least 18 people were killed in the 12-hour attack.  Officials said the suspect, identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, was shot and later died on Sunday. Authorities did not provide further details or give a motive for the killings.  The dead include a 17-year-old as well as a police officer, a police news release said. All the other victims were adults and included both men and women. There were 16 crime scenes in five different communities in northern and central Nova Scotia, it said. “Some of the victims were known to Gabriel Wortman and were targeted while others were not known to him,” the police statement said.  Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers stand in line for a procession as a hearse carrying the body of Constable Heidi Stevenson passes by, in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, April 20, 2020.Authorities also confirmed Wortman was wearing an authentic police uniform and one of the cars he used “was a very real look-alike RCMP vehicle.” “This is an unprecedented incident that has resulted in incredible loss and heartbreak for countless families and loved ones. So many lives will be forever touched,” the police statement said.  In an earlier news release, authorities had said they believed there were 23 victims, but Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Daniel Brien later clarified the death toll included 22 victims and the gunman.Authorities said Wortman made his car look like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser, allowing him to travel easily within a 30-mile (50-kilometer) area.Police warningsAs the attack ensued, police warned residents in Portapique to lock their doors and stay in their basements. The town, like all of Canada, had been adhering to government advice to remain at home because of the coronavirus pandemic, and most of the victims were inside homes when the attack began. But no wider warning was issued, and questions emerged about why a public emergency alert was not sent province-wide through a system recently used to advise people to maintain social distancing. Police provided Twitter updates, but no alert that would have automatically popped up on cellphones. “There should have been some provincial alert,” said David Matthews, who said he heard a gunshot while walking with his wife Sunday. Shortly after they returned home, their phone started ringing with warnings from friends that there was an active shooter in the neighborhood.  Several bodies were later found inside and outside one house on Portapique Beach Road, police said. Bodies were also found at other locations in Nova Scotia and authorities believe the shooter may have targeted his first victims but then began attacking randomly as he drove around.Suspect’s historyAuthorities said Wortman did not have a police record, but information later emerged of at least one run-in with the law. Nova Scotia court records confirm he was ordered to receive counseling for anger management after pleading guilty to assaulting a man in the Halifax area on Oct. 29, 2001. The guilty plea came on Oct. 7, 2002, as his trial was about to begin. He was placed on probation for nine months, fined $50 and told to stay away from the man, and also prohibited from owning or possessing a weapon, ammunition or explosive substances. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Brenda Lucki said police were still determining what weapons were used in the attacks. Cheryl Maloney, who lives near where one victim, 54-year-old Gina Goulet, was killed, believes she was likely saved by a warning message Sunday morning from her son that read, “Don’t leave your house. This guy is at the end of your road and he’s dressed like a cop.” “I really could have used that provincial warning, as I walk here all the time and I’ve been in the yard all week,” she said. 
 
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British Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Tuesday that two separate British research teams are making significant progress on a COVID-19 vaccine, with one them planning to run trials on people on Thursday.At a news briefing in London, Hancock said researchers at both the Imperial College of London and Oxford University had are moving into the trial stage with their potential vaccines.He said the Oxford team, which has been working closely with Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) was prepared to begin conducting clinical trials on people this week. He said the government is allocating about $25 million to fund their effort.He said the government is also allocating more than $27 million to Imperial College to fund phase two of its clinical trials, and for it to start a phase three trial.Hancock said normally it would take years to get to this stage of vaccine development. He said Britain will invest heavily in manufacturing capability so that, in event one of the vaccines is proven effective, they can quickly make it available. 
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As Europe counts the human and economic costs of the coronavirus lockdowns, Hungary appears to have gotten off lightly. It has nearly 2,100 reported cases and 213 deaths so far, compared to tens of thousands in the worst-hit countries. Nevertheless, economists predict the country’s GDP will shrink by close to 10 percent. As Henry Ridgwell reports, many workers are having to adapt quickly to the dramatically changing labor market in the nation of nearly 10 million people. Gabor Ancsin and Justin Spike in Budapest also contributed to this report.
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Britain is marking Queen Elizabeth II’s 94th birthday with silence Tuesday, as the nation in lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic forgoes the usual gun salutes and ringing of bells. With thousands dead amid the outbreak, the monarch decided that the celebratory display of military firepower would not be appropriate. Nor will there be a celebratory peal of bells at Westminster Abbey, as the church where the queen was married and crowned is currently closed. The royal family took to social media to share images of Elizabeth as she marks the occasion — but in keeping with social distancing rules, there will be no visits. The queen will mark the day with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, 98, at Windsor Castle in Berkshire.  
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Spain, with one of the highest death tolls from coronavirus, enacted strict social-distancing measures in mid-March. But with the number of infections and deaths now slowing, the prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has announced the kingdom is cautiously moving to relax those measures.  In this report narrated by Jonathan Spier, Alfonso Beato in Barcelona says Spaniards are anxiously awaiting a return – even if it is a slow one – to normal life.
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Sixteen migrants from several countries have tested positive for coronavirus in Mexico’s northern border state of Tamaulipas, the state government said Monday.
The state’s announcement came the same day that the U.S. government said it will continue to quickly expel migrants it encounters along the border for at least another month in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Under the U.S. policy change spurred by the virus, the U.S. government has sent some 10,000 Mexicans and Central Americans back to Mexico, according to data from the U.S.Border Patrol.
The situation led Tamaulipas to ask the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to not accept anymore Central Americans delivered back across the border to Mexico from the United States. Tamaulipas undersecretary for legal and governmental affairs Gloria Elena Garza Jimenez said the agreement between the two countries had no legal foundation.
Fifteen of the infected migrants from Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba and Cameroon were staying at a migrant shelter in the city of Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas. They are in isolation.
The Nazareth migrants shelter in Nuevo Laredo said three of the infected migrants were minors. Of the 15, three were hospitalized but were released back to the shelter. More tests have been done at the shelter but no other cases have been confirmed.
The Tamaulipas state government said a migrant deported from Houston, Texas had entered the same shelter without knowing that he had coronavirus. Migrants now make up about 10% of the state’s 193 coronavirus cases, causing frustration in Tamaulipas.
“The state government, foreseeing the situation of multiple contagions of COVID-19 among the migrant population, has asked the federal government through official channels to transfer out of Tamaulipas the migrants who are stranded on the border,” the state said in a statement.
Hundreds of migrants remain in Nuevo Laredo and in the Tamaulipas border city of Matamoros, an estimated 2,000 people live in a squalid tent camp, waiting for their court hearings a short distance away in Brownsville, Texas.  
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says that more than 100 migrants at 25 detention centers have tested positive for COVID-19. Guatemala claims that 44 migrants deported from the U.S. tested positive.
Dr. Joseph McCormick, a physician and public health expert in Brownsville, Texas, across the border from Tamaulipas, said it’s important to track where infected migrants have been.
“We know the virus is out there in all the smallest communities in our area,” said the former CDC epidemiologist and current director of The Hispanic Health Research Center (HHRC) on the Brownsville campus of the UTHealth School of Public Health.  
“Sending people off to these vulnerable countries is going to make whatever the situation is there, which we probably don’t know much about, much worse,” he said. “And eventually it will come back to bite us because people who may be headed to the border who are not infected may get infected and may come back and re-infect our country. For every person who is apprehended and sent back there are probably 10 who get across the border and get somewhere. This is not a smart process.”
Mexico’s federal government has so far officially recognized only one case of coronavirus infection in a migrant, at the church-run shelter in Nuevo Laredo. The federal National Immigration Institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Catholic-run shelter is expected to release the results of further tests on the migrants.
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Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness is clamping down on the hours people can move about freely as the country tries to contain the coronavirus. Holness said the new curfew will run from 6:00pm until 6:00am beginning Wednesday and last for two weeks. The prime minister has set a 5pm closing time for grocery stores and pharmacies. Licensed public transportation providers will be allowed to operate between 5am to 7pm instead of 6am to 6pm.  He also ordered business process outsourcing (BPO) operations to close for 14 days starting Wednesday at midnight. The Jamaican leader’s new measures to curtail the spread of the virus also makes it mandatory that Jamaicans wear a mask in public spaces. The announcement comes as Jamaica’s COVID-19 tally increased to 223. So far, Jamaica has reported five deaths. 
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Brazil’s new health minister said the government will more than double the country’s capability for coronavirus testing and devise a plan to end social isolation, which Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said is bad for the economy.  Nelson Teich’s video taped comments released Monday night comes after several governors and mayors said they were looking into imposing stricter isolation measures to curb the spread of the new coronavirus.      President Bolsonaro replaced Luiz Henrique Mandetta with Teich last week after he clashed with Mandetta over self isolation policies, which Bolsonaro is seeking to end this week.  Bolsanaro could be facing a legal challenge by exiting self isolation measures after the country’s top court ruled governors and mayors can decide on social isolation measures regardless of the federal government’s position.     So far, Brazil has confirmed more than 40,700 COVID-19 cases with 2,587 deaths. 
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