Coronavirus world round-up: South Korea reports biggest jump in cases in 50 days as US death toll hits 100,000
Concerns about a second peak of the coronavirus intensified after South Korea reported its biggest jump in cases in more than 50 days on Thursday.
The increase is a huge setback for the nation, which was applauded for containing the virus after suffering what was once the second-largest outbreak of Covid-19 in the world in March.
Health officials warned that the resurgence is getting harder to track and social distancing and other steps need to be taken.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 67 of the 79 new cases reported were from the Seoul metropolitan area, where about half of South Korea's 51 million people live.
Health Minister Park Neung-hoo during a virus meeting pleaded for all residents in the greater capital area to avoid unnecessary gatherings and urged companies to keep sick employees off work.
Meanwhile, more than 5.71 million people have been reported infected with the coronavirus globally and 354,909 have died.
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
US deaths have passed 100,000 and, with more than 1.7 million cases, America has more that 30 per cent of the total global infections
UN World Food Program warns of 'hunger pandemic'
The UN World Food Program is warning that upward of at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the pandemic rages on, shuttering people in their homes, drying up work and crippling the economy.
New projections released late on Wednesday estimate a startling increase: Whereas 3.4 million experienced severe food insecurity in 2019, that number could more than quadruple this year in one of the world's most vulnerable regions.
"We are entering a very complicated stage," said Miguel Barreto, the WFP's regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean. "It is what we are calling a hunger pandemic."
Signs of mounting hunger are already being felt around the region, where desperate citizens are violating quarantines to go out in search of money and food and hanging red and white flags from their homes in a cry for aid.
Migrant worker train deaths shock India
Nine Indian migrant workers travelling amid the coronavirus pandemic died on trains in recent days, including a mother whose toddler could be seen trying to wake her in a viral video.
The shocking deaths highlight the plight of Indian migrants in the pandemic, during which millions lost their jobs and are struggling to return home under the country's lockdown.
The deaths occurred on special trains organised by the Indian government to help transport the stranded workers back home.
Local media aired footage of a two-year-old boy pulling at a cloth covering his dead mother, 35-year-old Arbina Khatoon, at Muzaffarpur railway station in the northeastern state of Bihar.
Local police said Khatoon died of illness, with Indian Railways sharing a letter from relatives attesting to her poor health.
'86m more children in poverty'
The economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic could push as many as 86 million more children into poverty by the end of 2020, a joint study by Save the Children and UNICEF showed on Wednesday.
That would bring the total number of children affected by poverty worldwide to 672 million, an increase of 15 per cent since last year, the two aid agencies said in a statement.
Nearly two thirds of those children live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.But the pandemic-driven increase is expected to occur mainly in Europe and Central Asia, according to the study, which is based on World Bank and International Monetary Fund projections and population data from some 100 countries.
UK pulls ambassador from North Korea
Britain has temporarily closed its embassy in North Korea and all diplomatic staff have left the country, the UK ambassador has said.
"The British Embassy in Pyongyang closed temporarily on 27 May 2020 and all diplomatic staff have left the DPRK for the time being," ambassador Colin Crooks said in a post on Twitter.
The decision was made because "restrictions on entry to the country have made it impossible to rotate our staff and sustain the operation of the Embassy," the UK Foreign Office said in a statement.
The UK maintains diplomatic relations with North Korea and will seek to re-establish a presence in Pyongyang as soon as possible, the statement said. In March, several countries, including Germany and France, withdrew their representatives from North Korea and closed their missions there.
North Korea has not confirmed any cases of the coronavirus but banned almost all cross-border travel, and made foreigners spend weeks in quarantine.
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Brazil reported the highest daily deaths in the world for the fifth straight day, pushing its toll to 24,512, with infections soaring to more than 390,000. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's president, has downplayed the threat and lashed out at state governors who have asked people to stay at home.
The EU unveiled a historic, €750bn (£672bn) recovery plan to get the continent back on its feet
Spain on Wednesday began 10 days of official mourning for the more than 27,000 people who died in the country, with all flags on public buildings at half-mast
In Cyprus the badly-hit tourism sector inched back to life as beaches opened again - but with sunbeds and parasols spaced apart to avoid crowding. Elsewhere in Europe, Poland scrapped a rule calling for face masks in public, while Switzerland said it would drop its virus restrictions by June 6
In Russia, shops will reopen and people will be allowed out for walks from June as Moscow announced the easing of its lockdown
Five people were killed in a Bangladesh hospital after a fire swept through a makeshift coronavirus isolation unit
