The Latest: Trudeau urges Canadians to be patient

The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.

TOP OF THE HOUR:

— WHO regrets the U.S. decision to halt funding.

—Group of 20 nations agree to suspend debt payments.

—Trudeau says Canada’s lockdown will last ‘many more weeks.’

—At 106, British woman is oldest known virus survivor.

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TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada’s lockdown will last “many more weeks” and warned Canadians if the economy is reopened too soon all the sacrifices they are making now might be for nothing as the country could see another peak in coronavirus cases.

Trudeau says Canada is still “a number of weeks away” from being able to start to reopen and urged Canadians to be patient.

He says once there is some reopening there is going to be a need for rapid testing on a wide scale and extensive contact tracing for those who test positive. He says once Canada is past the first wave government needs to have the capacity to stamp out any future outbreaks.

His remarks are his strongest yet against loosening economic restrictions too soon.

Canada has more than 27,557 confirmed cases including 954 deaths.

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BERLIN — Germany plans to let small shops reopen as early as next week after a four-week coronavirus shutdown, but Europe’s biggest economy is keeping strict social distancing rules in place.

After much-anticipated talks with Germany’s 16 state governors, Chancellor Angela Merkel set out a plan for the first steps of a slow restart of public life.

A ban on gatherings of more than two people in public has been in place since March 23 and was due to run until Sunday. Merkel says the restrictions will remain in place, and officials will review at the end of the month what happens after May 3.

Nonessential shops also have been closed for nearly four weeks. Other shops of up to 800 square meters (8,600 square feet) will be allowed to start reopening, with hygiene precautions. Merkel says the decision applies to the period from Monday though May 3.

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ROME — Italy’s daily increase in COVID-19 cases has continued to slow.

The day-to-day increase of 2,667 confirmed cases that was announced by authorities was the lowest in some five weeks and represented a less than 1.7% increase compared to the total cases of the previous day. The number of intensive care beds occupied by patients with coronavirus infections also kept dropping.

Other encouraging numbers were registered in Lombardy, the northern region which by far has had the heaviest case load. Lombardy saw 827 more cases since a day earlier, but past days had brought day-to-day increases of 1,000 or much more. Italy now has more than 165,000 known cases of COVID-19.

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the new coronavirus, but pilots who take it will have to wait 48 hours before flying.

The Federal Aviation Administration says it reviewed hydroxychloroquine and closely related chloroquine when they became available. The drugs “have long been considered generally incompatible for those performing safety related aviation duties,” reads an FAA statement.

The safety agency cites the “wide variety of dosages” and lack of standards around using the drugs to treat the coronavirus in deciding that pilots who take them must wait before flying.

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BRUSSELS — Belgium is extending its many of its key lockdown rules for two weeks but is planning to start reopening up the economy after May 3.

Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes says any loosening of rules would depend on the cases continuing to taper off over the next weeks. Originally the lockdown rules would have expired after the weekend but the intensity of the pandemic has forced the government to extend the situation.

“It is very clear that the crisis is not behind us,” Wilmes says. “We have to continue our efforts without weakening,”

She says garden centers and do-it-yourself shops could open under the same conditions as essential food stores now.

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ATHENS, Greece — Greek officials are cautioning against early talk of lifting the country’s lockdown, noting that any measures will have to be very seriously weighed and the effects of restrictions being eased abroad studied.

Greece has reported 22 new infections and one new death from COVID-19, bringing the total of infections to 2,192 and deaths to 102.

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CAIRO — Sudan has suspended prayers in mosques and churches across the capital of Khartoum, state-run media reported.

It’s the latest action in the government’s gradual tightening of anti-coronavirus measures as the official case count climbed to 32, including five fatalities.

Earlier this week the government decided to lock down the capital for three weeks starting on Saturday. The round-the-clock curfew poses a challenge for the densely populated state of Khartoum, where the World Bank says 26% are destitute and many live in packed areas with poor sanitation and neglected health care.

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LONDON — The head of the World Health Organization says it regrets the U.S. decision to halt funding.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the U.S. has been “a longstanding and generous friend to WHO and we hope it will continue to be so.”

He made the comments after President Donald Trump announced a halt to U.S. funding, temporarily suspending millions of dollars from the U.N health agency’s biggest funder.

Tedros says WHO remained committed to slowing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and it would work with its partners to ensure that any funding shortfall could be met.

“COVID-19 does not discriminate between rich nations and poor, large nations and small,” Tedros said. “This is a time for all of us to be united in our common struggle against a common threat, a dangerous enemy. When we’re divided, the virus exploits the cracks between us.”

Tedros says WHO’s member countries and independent organizations will assess the U.N. health agency’s performance at a later day. But the focus must remain on ending the outbreak.

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DUBAI — The world’s wealthiest countries have agreed to immediately suspend billions of dollars in debt payments for the world’s poorest countries as nations race to spend money on health care and workers impacted by the pandemic.

The Group of 20 nations, which include the U.S., China, India, Germany, France and others, agreed unanimously Wednesday on the suspension of debt payments at a virtual summit of finance ministers that was presided over by Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said after the meeting, “All bilateral official creditors will participate in this initiative, which is an important milestone for the G-20.”

The G-20 didn’t say how many countries would be impacted, but French Finance minister Bruno Le Maire says 76 countries were eligible to the moratorium.

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WASHINGTON — Most states are paying out the extra $600 per week in unemployment benefits that was provided in the $2.2 trillion federal economic relief package approved last month.

At least 32 states, including California, Texas and New York, have started or will start making the payments this week.

Still, as of late Tuesday, many states were still scrambling to process the extra funds, including Washington state, Ohio, Wisconsin and Nevada.

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DORAL, Fla. — The Trump golf resort in South Florida where President Donald Trump initially wanted to host this year’s Group of Seven summit has temporarily laid off 560 workers.

A notice that the Trump National Doral Miami filed with the State of Florida at the end of last month says it had been forced to halt its business because of the spreading new coronavirus.

The resort in metro Miami has been closed since mid-March. Al Linares, the resort’s director of human resources, wrote to state and city officials that its unknown when it will resume regular operations.

The laid off workers are mostly food and beverage workers, golf attendants, housekeepers and bell hops. None of the workers are unionized.

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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented new measures to support business, including direct financial aid and state-supported loans.

Putin says the state will provide small- and medium business with direct financial support to help pay salaries to employees . The amount of aid will be calculated on official minimal wage, now equivalent to about $160 a month.

Also, businesses will be offered state-guaranteed loans for salary payments and government low-rate loans for companies to finance their operational costs.

The measures follow broad criticism of the Kremlin for the failure to shore up the businesses hurt by the partial economic shutdown through April 30.

Separately, the federal government will allocate 200 billion rubles (about $2.7 billion) in subsidies to the regions to help fund local programs supporting businesses. Putin also ordered the Cabinet to offer support to various industries, including $307 million to air carriers.

Russia has reported 24,490 coronavirus cases, including 198 deaths.

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WASHINGTON — The Navy says two of the four American sailors aboard the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle have tested positive for COVID-19.

The Navy says the two are being treated at French facilities. The four U.S. sailors are part of a U.S. Navy exchange program with the French Navy.

The aircraft carrier returned to a French port several days ago with dozens of sailors showing symptoms of coronavirus.

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LONDON – At 106, Connie Titchen feels lucky. The former department store sales assistant is Britain’s oldest known survivor of COVID-19.

Titchen was applauded by staff Tuesday at Birmingham’s City Hospital, leaving after three weeks as a patient.

In a statement released by the hospital, Titchen says “I feel very lucky that I’ve fought off this virus. I can’t wait to see my family.”

Granddaughter Alex Jones says Titchen “has had a really active life” and remains independent. She says her grandmother still cooked for herself but also enjoyed a trip to McDonald’s every now and then.

“I haven’t told her they are closed,” she added.

The British government said Wednesday that 12,868 people have died in U.K. hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus, up 761 from the day before. The figure doesn’t include deaths in nursing homes and other settings.

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BERLIN — Some German lawmakers are calling on other Western countries to fill the funding gap left by U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to stop payments to the World Health Organization.

Conservative lawmaker Norbert Roettgen told daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that European Union members and Britain should make up the shortfall.

But Roettgen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party who chairs Parliament’s foreign policy committee, echoed Trump’s claim that the WHO had made mistakes in its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Separately, a leading member of the opposition Free Democratic Party called on the German government and other European countries to bridge WHO’s funding gap.

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff told German news agency dpa the WHO work will be required, particularly in poor countries.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr noted that Germany has already given WHO an additional 5 million euros to tackle the outbreak, but would consider additional support as part of the U.N.’s overall funding request for the pandemic.

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MOSCOW — Russian veterans’ groups have asked President Vladimir Putin to postpone the upcoming elaborate Red Square parade that commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany.

The parade on May 9 is the 75th anniversary of the victory. But the prohibition of mass gatherings to slow the spread of coronavirus has thrown the parade’s future into doubt.

A letter to Putin from veterans’ groups reported Wednesday by Russian news agencies called for postponement to a date “when, in accordance with the epidemiological situation, the parade will not be a threat, but truly a triumph of peace and security for all its participants.”

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TOKYO — Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike announced an 800 billion yen ($7.5 billion) emergency economic package to fund measures against the coronavirus as the infections increase in the Japanese capital.

Koike says the emergency fund will cover measures to help stop the spread of the virus and reinforce safety nets for people and businesses. She says the emergency package is the largest ever for the city.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose coronavirus measures were criticized as inadequate, was under pressure Wednesday from within his ruling coalition to do more to encourage people to cooperate with social distancing and non-essential business closure requests.

Abe was pushed to consider a possibility of 100,000-yen ($930) cash handout per person, which was not part of a 108 trillion yen ($1 trillion) economic stimulus he announced last week.

Japan has 8,812 cases of the virus and 131 deaths. Tokyo has 2,446 cases and 53 deaths.

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Netherlands has thrown its support behind the World Health Organization after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a halt to American payments to the group, pending a review of its warnings about the coronavirus and China.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag says in a tweet the health agency is a critical part of the international response to the virus.

Kaag says, “Now is not the time to hold back funding. Once the pandemic is under control, lessons can be learned. For now, focus on overcoming this crisis.”

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