What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaks during a daily news conference on the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, at 10 Downing Street in London. Picture: Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street/Handout via Reuters

Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaks during a daily news conference on the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, at 10 Downing Street in London. Picture: Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street/Handout via Reuters

Published May 28, 2020

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Here's what you need to know about the

coronavirus right now:

Test and trace

England launches its Covid-19 test and trace programme on

Thursday with a task force of 40 000 specialists to test those

with symptoms and identify their contacts, who will be

instructed to isolate for 14 days, even if they have no

symptoms.

"That captivity for a tiny minority for a short time will

allow us gradually to release 66 million people from the current

situation," said Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Britain has the second highest death toll from the virus

globally, with the confirmed tally rising by 412 to 37,460 on

Wednesday.

Second wave spectre

South Korea reported its third consecutive day of rising

coronavirus cases and the most new cases on Thursday since April

5. At least 69 cases this week were linked to a cluster of

infections at a logistics facility operated by Coupang Corp, one

of the country's largest online shopping firms, in Bucheon, west

of Seoul.

The spreading outbreak and warehouse closures come as

Coupang and other e-commerce firms scramble to keep up with a

surge in orders as more people opted to shop from home during

the coronavirus outbreak.

Resurgence in state-backed hacking

Security experts at Alphabet Inc's Google have seen new

activity from "hack-for-hire" firms, many based in India, that

have been creating Gmail accounts spoofing the World Health

Organization (WHO), in an uptick in hacking and phishing

attempts related to the coronavirus outbreak.

These accounts largely targeted business leaders in

financial services, consulting and healthcare corporations in

numerous countries, the company said in a blog post.

"Since March, we've removed more than a thousand YouTube

channels that we believe to be part of a large campaign and that

were behaving in a coordinated manner," Google said.

Books not beer

The world's largest book fair will take place in Frankfurt

as scheduled in mid-October, a sign of some return to normality.

Organisers said they were able to persuade city authorities

the fair could go ahead after outlining comprehensive sanitary

measures. The event, which dates back to the 15th century when

Johannes Gutenberg introduced the mass printing of books in

nearby Mainz, usually draws more than 300,000 visitors.

While the book fair is going ahead, Germany's Oktoberfest,

the world's largest folk festival due to take place in Munich

from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4, has been cancelled. 

Reuters

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