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- Residents of Moscow will be allowed to go out for a walk for the first time in more than two months, on Monday, while the UK is also preparing to relax its lockdown despite concerns among the government’s scientific advisory body.
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Latin America’s death toll has now exceeded 50,000 with some one million cases reported across the region.
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Most of the deaths have been in Brazil, where supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro appeared at a rally on Sunday against the country’s top court, which is investigating the right-wing leader.
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More than 6.15 million cases of coronavirus have been confirmed around the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 372,000 people have died, including more than 104,000 in the United States. At least 2.64 million have recovered globally.
Here are the latest updates:
Monday, June 1
04:05 GMT – Japan considers allowing visitors from handful of countries
Japan may reopen its borders to visitors from countries with low levels of coronavirus infection including Australia, Thailand, Vietnam and New Zealand, local media reported on Monday.
The Asahi Shimbun said business travellers from the four nations would be allowed entry providing they tested negative for COVID-19 in tests before departure and on arrival. Their movements once in Japan would also be tightly restricted.
An almost deserted Narita Airport in Tokyo as the coronavirus spread in early March [Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters]
03:50 GMT – Hong Kong announces first locally-transmitted cases in two weeks
Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP) is investigating two new locally-confirmed cases of coronavirus – one in a 34-year-old woman and the other in a 56-year-old man.
Public broadcaster RTHK says the woman works at a logistics warehouse labelling food imported from the UK. Two people there tested positive for the virus a month ago.
The new cases bring the total number of cases in the territory to 1,085 with four deaths.
03:15 GMT – Muscovites get to go out for walks again as lockdown eased slightly
People in the Russian capital will be allowed to go out for a walk or run, and some shops will reopen, as Moscow moves to loosen a lockdown that’s been in force since late March.
Residents will be allowed out for walks three times a week on a schedule linked to where they live. People will also be able to go for a run between 5am and 9am, as parks open their gates again.
Shopping centres, as well as car showrooms, dry cleaners, bookshops and laundrettes are also scheduled to reopen.
A shop assistant prepares a children’s clothing store for opening in Moscow after mayor Sergei Sobyanin decided to relax coronavirus restrictions from 1 June [Yuri Kochetkov/EPA]
Thousands of cases are still being reported across Russia’s 11 time zones, but at a far lower level than previously. Russia has the third highest-number of confirmed cases in the world.
03:00 GMT – N Korea to start reopening schools after coronavirus delayed term
North Korea will start reopening schools in phases from this month providing strict anti-coronavirus measures are in place.
State media says thermometers and hand sanitiser need to be provided at the school gate as well as in classrooms and administrative offices, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
Top prirority will be given to testing children at nurseries and kindergarten, as well as disinfecting buildings.
North Korea has said it has no cases of coronavirus.
More:
02:30 GMT – Encouraging drop in viral load in experimental S Korean drug
South Korea’s Celltrion Inc says its experimental treatment for COVID-19 has shown a 100-fold reduction in the viral load of the disease during animal testing.
The pre-clinical study of the drug showed improved recovery in runny nose, cough and body aches after the first day of treatment, and clearing of lung inflammation within six days, the company said in a statement.
Celltrion has research experience with other types of coronavirus conditions such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). It hopes to start first in-human clinical trials for the COVID-19 treatment in July, said Kwon Ki-Sung, head of the firm’s research and development unit.
“(Celltrion) has the capability to roll out mass production of the therapeutic antibody treatment once it is ready,” Kwon said.
Want to know more about viral load, read our Doctor’s Note from Dr Sara Kayat.
02:00 GMT – China coronavirus cases highest in three weeks
China has reported its highest number of new coronavirus cases in three weeks, after a number of cases were found among people who had returned from Egypt.
The National Health Commission reported 16 new cases, all of them from in people coming from overseas.
Chinese state television said 11 people who arrived in Sichuan on a flight from Egypt had tested positive, while a further six asymptomatic cases were also found.
00:50 GMT – Australia zoos, museums reopen as restrictions eased further
Zoos, museums and other public attractions have begun to reopen in parts of Australia for the first time in more than two months.
In New South Wales, the state where most Australians live, cafes, restaurants have also been allowed to welcome as many as 50 people at a time.
Taronga Zoo reopens this morning after 9 weeks of being closed. Extra marshalling staff will remind people to social distance @9NewsSyd @tarongazoo 🦒 🦍 🐨 🐧 pic.twitter.com/bfaPHglRZk
— Zara James (@Zara_James9) May 31, 2020
23:30 GMT (Sunday) – Brazil records 480 new deaths on Sunday
Brazil reported 480 deaths from coronavirus on Sunday, bringing its death toll to 29,314, the Health Ministry said.
More than half a million people in the country have now been confirmed to have a virus that Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed as a “little flu”.
Bolsanaro was out on horseback on Sunday, greeting supporters at a rally against the country’s top court, which is investigating the right-wing leader.
Brazil has the second-highest number of cases in the world after the US and the fourth-highest death toll after the US, UK and Italy.
23:00 GMT (Sunday) – US sends 2 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to Brazil
The United States has delivered two million doses of the antimalarial medicine hydroxychloroquine to Brazil to fight COVID-19, the White House said, even though the drug has not been proven effective against the coronavirus.
“HCQ will be used as a prophylactic to help defend Brazil’s nurses, doctors, and healthcare professionals against the virus. It will also be used as a therapeutic to treat Brazilians who become infected,” a statement said in reference to the drug.
It said the US would also send 1,000 ventilators to Brazil, the epicentre of South America’s outbreak.
“We are also announcing a joint United States-Brazilian research effort that will include randomized controlled clinical trials,” it added.
Hydroxycholoroquine is used to treat malaria as well as the autoimmune disorders lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. The WHO recently suspended trials into the drug because of concerns about side effects.
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Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.
Read all the updates from yesterday (May 31) here.
