Coronavirus Live Update : US President Donald Trump says federal distancing guidelines could extend into summer -Cilck here

Coronavirus Live Update : President Donald Trump says federal distancing guidelines could extend into summer – as it happened

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NEW DELHI : (ST) The total number of coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in India has reached 23,502, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). A total of 541,789 samples from 525,667 individuals have been tested to date, ICMR has said.

The death toll across India stands at 720. States with most number of cases at present are Maharashtra (6,430), Gujarat (2,624), Delhi (2,376), Rajasthan (1,964), Madhya Pradesh (1,699), and Tamil Nadu (1,683).

In the midst of a long nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the pandemic, and halted activity taking a toll on the economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are meeting today to finalise a second stimulus package for industry, the poor, and farmers.

Coronavirus world update :

Globally, there now are 2,725,920 cases of coronavirus. The number of fatalities across the world stands at 191,061, and there have so far been 730,843 recoveries. Nations hit with most cases: US (880,204), Spain (213,024), Italy (189,973), France (158,183) and Germany (153,129). The race to develop an effective coronavirus vaccine gathered pace this week, as clinical trials on humans were approved in Germany and launched in the UK. In Britain, volunteers in a trial at the University of Oxford were on Friday given the first dose of a potential vaccine based on a virus found in chimpanzees.

Coronavirus Live Update : President Donald Trump says federal distancing guidelines could extend into summer -Cilck here

Rupee falls 25 paise to 76.31 against US dollar in early trade

Pakistan seeks revival of SAARC health committee to fight COVID-19

Pakistan has sought the revival of the South Asian Association for Regional Corporations (Saarc) Technical Committee on Health in order to evolve a common strategy against the coronavirus pandemic, it was reported on Friday.

The proposal was part of a host of measures suggested by Zafar Mirza, the special assistant to the prime minister on health services and regulations, while hosting a video conference on Thursday of Saarc Ministers and officials on the pandemic, The Express Tribune quoted a Foreign Office statement as saying.

Mirza chaired the meeting, attended by all member states and the Saarc Secretary General, Esala Ruwan Weerakoon, the statement said.

Coronavirus latest news: J&J strikes deal with Emergent BioSolutions on coronavirus vaccine manufacturing

Coronavirus Live Update : President Donald Trump says federal distancing guidelines could extend into summer -Cilck here

Coronavirus Live Update : President Donald Trump says federal distancing guidelines could extend into summer – as it happened

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Johnson & Johnson said on Thursday it had struck a deal with Emergent BioSolutions Inc to use its manufacturing facilities to help in an effort to make more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine it is testing to stop the novel coronavirus.

The U.S. healthcare conglomerate said the deal was the first in a series of prospective global partnerships to accelerate manufacturing of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine candidate, even before it has a signal that it works.

J&J plans to start human testing by September, with an eye on having it ready under an emergency use authorization in early 2021, far quicker than the typical 18-month period that it takes for vaccines to be tested, approved and then manufactured.

Antibody testing suggests 2.7 million in New York could be Covid-19 infected
New York, the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, has seen 13.9 per cent positive results in the state's antibody tests, which means around 2.7 million people could be infected with the COVID-19, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

Coronavirus Live Update : President Donald Trump says federal distancing guidelines could extend into summer -Cilck here

Coronavirus Live Update : President Donald Trump says federal distancing guidelines could extend into summer – as it happened

Launched by the state's health department earlier this week, the testing collected samples of 3,000 supermarket shoppers from 40 locations in 19 counties in the state, Xinhua news agency quoted Cuomo as saying on Thursday.

The preliminary results suggest the real number of total infected in the state's 19.45 million people could be ten times higher than the official data, which stood at 263,754 on Thursday, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

People who have tested positive in the antibody testing are those who were infected with coronavirus and then recovered.

Coronavirus vaccine: Oxford injects first participants in 'highly ambitious' plan
Oxford University is launching a human trial of a potential coronavirus vaccine, with the daunting aim of making a successful jab available to the public later this year.

Of the more than 100 research projects around the world to find a vaccine -- described by the United Nations as the only route back to "normality" -- seven are currently in clinical trials, according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Such trials are already underway in China and the United States and are due to begin at the end of this month in Germany, where the federal vaccine authority gave the green light on Wednesday. Read on.

Solar light appears to have 'powerful effect' on killing coronavirus, says US officialThe solar light appears to have a "powerful effect" on killing the deadly coronavirus, which has infected over 2 million people worldwide, according to a senior US official.

Coronavirus Live Update : President Donald Trump says federal distancing guidelines could extend into summer -Cilck here

Coronavirus Live Update : President Donald Trump says federal distancing guidelines could extend into summer – as it happened

"Our most striking observation to date is the powerful effect that solar light appears to have on killing the virus -- both surfaces and in the air," said William Bryan, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology (DHS) at a White House briefing here.

"We've seen a similar effect with both temperature and humidity as well, where increasing the temperature and humidity or both is generally less favorable to the virus."

Coronavirus crisis: Nationwide lockdown cripples Assam's tourism industry
The Covid-19 pandemic has been terrible for several businesses, but tourism is among the most affected sectors.

Tourism in Assam has been crippled and scores of people working for this sector are now facing the brunt as there is a nationwide lockdown to halt the spread of the deadly virus.

Speaking to ANI on the same, Sailendra Pandey, Public Relations Officer of Assam Forest Minister, on Friday said that his government will take requisite measures to boost the sector after the conclusion of the lockdown. Read on...

Stock market reacts to coronavirus: Nifty, Sensex fall on weak economic data, coronavirus drug worries

Shares fell over 1% on Friday, tracking weak global markets, after U.S. data underscored the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic and reports that an experimental drug to treat Covid-19 showed inconclusive results.

The NSE Nifty 50 index fell 1.53% to 9,166.20 by 0356 GMT, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was down 1.59% at 31,359.96.

Asian shares and U.S. stock futures fell on Friday following reports that Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivier had failed to help severely ill COVID-19 patients in its first clinical trial.

U.S. business activity plumbed record lows in April, mirroring dire figures from Europe and Asia as strict stay-at-home orders crushed production, supply chains and consumer spending, a survey showed.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4% and U.S. stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, slipped 0.72%.

Coronavirus: Philippine president threatens martial law

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has angrily threatened to declare martial law after accusing communist rebels of killing two soldiers, who escorted the delivery of cash and food aid to villagers as his government scrambled to deal with a growing number of coronavirus infections.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque on Friday said Duterte also approved during a meeting with Cabinet officials the extension of a lockdown in metropolitan Manila and several provinces and cities up to May 15.

Coronavirus: South Korea to provide one million face masks to foreign veterans of 1950-53 Korean War

South Korea on Friday said it will send one million face masks to foreign veterans of the 1950-53 Korean War as it expands efforts to help other countries deal with the coronavirus epidemics while its own caseload slows.

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun during a virus meeting on Friday said the country could send more masks overseas at a level that doesn't disrupt domestic supply.

South Korea since early March has banned the exports of masks and channelled most domestically produced masks to pharmacies, where people have been limited to buying two masks per week. Read on...

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