Six In The Morning Monday 30 March 2020

UK coronavirus outbreak shows early signs of slowing, expert says, but restrictions may last for six months

By Rob Picheta, CNN

Updated 1129 GMT (1929 HKT) March 30, 2020

The UK could remain under coronavirus emergency measures for as long as six months, a top health official has said, even as one expert said there were early signs that the outbreak was slowing in Britain.

Curbs on normal life may need to continue through the summer and into the autumn in order to avoid progress being "wasted," England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny Harries said on Sunday.

Harries suggested that while lockdown rules imposed last week could be relaxed once the curve of cases begins to flatten, strict social distancing guidelines will likely remain in place.

'Coronavirus could wipe us out': indigenous South Americans blockade villages

Groups in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru withdraw into homes as physicians highlight history of diseases ‘decimating’ communities

by Dan Collyns in Lima, Sam Cowie in São Paulo, Joe Parkin Daniels in Bogotá and Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro

Indigenous groups across South America are blockading their villages and retreating into their traditional forest and mountain homes in a bid to escape the potentially cataclysmic threat of coronavirus.

In recent days, as the number of cases in South America has risen to almost 8,000 – with many more cases likely to be unreported – indigenous groups in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru have all started taking steps to protect themselves from what they call a historic danger.

Ground Zero: How New York became the epicentre of the global coronavirus outbreak

Makeshift morgues outside of hospitals, sirens in the streets and soon a quarantine. Richard Hall reports on the fight against the coronavirus in New York.  

Richard HallNew York @_richardhal

In every Hollywood disaster movie, New York somehow finds itself at the centre of it all. It is a peril of being the most recognisable city in the world that it always seems to bear the brunt of the alien invasions, environmental collapse and the deadly storms. This time is no different. 

Over the past week, this city has become the new epicentre of the global coronavirus pandemic. New York now accounts for roughly a quarter of the 100,000 infections in the whole United States. More than 450 people have now died of the virus here, as of Saturday.

Will Germans trade privacy for coronavirus protection?

Asian countries have used digital tracking to fight the new coronavirus, while Europe has put its faith in social distancing. Germany's government is debating how much privacy should and can be protected amid a pandemic.

Should Germany concentrate more energy on digital surveillance in the fight against the new coronavirus? These days that issue is being hotly debated in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, where the federal commissioner for data protection, Ulrich Kelber of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), directly contradicted Health Minister Jens Spahn of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

North Korea slams Pompeo and says will 'walk our way'
North Korea on Monday warned it could cut off dialogue with the United States and slammed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for urging the international community to maintain sanctions on its regime.
Pompeo last week told nations to "stay committed to applying diplomatic and economic pressure" over the North's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes while calling on the nuclear-armed state to return to talks.
A string of weapons drills by Pyongyang has come during a prolonged hiatus in disarmament talks with the United States and despite recent overtures from Washington offering help to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Japan not planning to declare state of emergency but will expand entry bans

By Leika Kihara and Takaya Yamaguchi

Japan has no plan to declare a state of emergency from April, its top government spokesman said on Monday, seeking to dispel mounting fears a recent spike in coronavirus cases could lead to a first-ever lockdown of the capital, Tokyo.

As the number of infections grows globally, however, Japan will raise its defenses against imported cases by banning the entry of foreigners travelling from the United States, China, South Korea and most of Europe, the Asahi newspaper reported on Monday.

Non-Japanese citizens who have been in any of those places in the previous two weeks will be barred, the newspaper said. The government may also ban travel to and from some countries in Southeast Asia and Africa, it said, citing unidentified government sources.