New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday
outlined the first steps for reopening the United States' most
populous city, envisioning up to 400 000 people heading back to
their workplaces, an easing of the lockdown that began in March.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* More than 5.81 million people have been reported infected
with the novel coronavirus globally and 359,341 have died,
according to a Reuters tally as of 0334 GMT on Friday.
* For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread,
open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.
EUROPE
* The coronavirus lockdown will ease next week for most of
Britain's population, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
* France will allow restaurants, bars and cafes to reopen
from June 2, though with more restrictions in Paris than
elsewhere.
* Sending children back to schools and day care centres in
Denmark, the first country in Europe to do so, did not lead to
an increase in coronavirus infections, according to official
data, confirming similar findings from Finland.
AMERICAS
* A coronavirus quarantine will continue in Colombia's
capital Bogota until at least June 15.
* Brazil reported a daily record 26,417 new coronavirus
cases on Thursday, according to the Health Ministry, bringing
its total tally to 438,238, second only to the United States in
confirmed cases.
* Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has signed into law
60-billion-real ($11.3 billion) of federal government aid to
states and municipalities.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* China reported no new confirmed coronavirus cases in the
mainland as of the end of May 28, down from two a day earlier,
the country's health authority said on Friday.
* China has room to stimulate the economy, but the
government does not want to open the "floodgates", Premier Li
Keqiang said.
* Health workers fear the pandemic's economic shock will
return Japan to 14 dark years from 1998 when more than 30,000
people took their lives annually.
* Indonesia will continue to prescribe two anti-malaria
drugs for coronavirus patients but monitor their use closely, a
spokesman for Indonesia COVID-19 taskforce said.
* Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte approved a
recommendation to ease the lockdown in the capital Manila from
June 1.
* Australia will divert A$280 million ($185.25 million) in
overseas aid this year to bolster the response of its closest
neighbours to the pandemic.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Cases of community transmission of the coronavirus are
growing in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, and a new strategy
for testing is needed to prevent this, the head of the Africa
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.
* Kenya's small and medium businesses need urgent help to
survive the economic slowdown, and many are at risk of shutting
down by the end of June, the head of the central bank said.
* A bid round for nine oilfield licenses in Angola could be
delayed by the outbreak, the national petroleum regulator said.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
* This year will be the worst for many world stock markets
in nearly a decade at least.
* International tourism is set to fall by 70% this year,
marking the sector's biggest slump since records began in the
1950s, United Nations World Tourism Organization
Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili told newspaper
Handelsblatt.
* Britain's economy is unlikely to recover fully in the next
two to three years, a Bank of England policymaker warned.
* Germany's economy is likely to shrink by 6.6% this year,
the Ifo Institute said.