Coronavirus Weekly Update: 11-17 May

| Updated: May 17, 2020

Here is our weekly update of news, events, comments related to coronavirus from 11th to 17th May.

US President Donald Trump says US will reopen, “vaccine or no vaccine”, as he announced an objective to deliver a coronavirus vaccine by year end.
Barack Obama attacked the Trump administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic during a speech on Saturday. “This pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing. A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge,” the 44th President said during a virtual commencement address.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged frustration over the “complex” easing of England’s coronavirus lockdown, the media reported on Sunday.
Italy is taking a “calculated risk” as it moves to further ease its coronavirus lockdown measures, PM Giuseppe Conte has admitted.
British Politician Michael Gove insisted that schools are safe to reopen
US will send ventilators to India. PM Modi thanks Trump.The US move comes weeks after Modi acted on Trump’s request to reverse a ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that was championed by the US President as a “game changer” in the fight against Covid-19.

Spain records 87 deaths in the past 24 hours - the first drop under 100 since the lockdown began
More than 311,000 people globally have now died and more than 4.6 million are infected - Johns Hopkins University
US confirmed cases have reached 1,467,884
India has reported 92,102 Covid-19 cases with 54,550 active cases and 2900 deaths (source)
In Italy 31,763 people have now died with the virus, the third highest figure behind the US and UK.
China is drawing up ambitious plans to test the entire population of Wuhan, the city where the Covid-19 pandemic began

One of the world’s most renowned gardening events, the Chelsea Flower Show, returns next week - virtually
The German Bundesliga has resumed behind closed doors, becoming the first major European football league to restart after the coronavirus shutdown.
In Italy gyms, swimming pools and sports centers will reopen on 25 May, and cinemas and theaters on 15 June.
Travellers from EU countries will be able to enter Italy without going into a two-week quarantine.
In Germany, shops of all sizes are now allowed to reopen, with extra hygiene and social distancing measures. Border controls are being eased on 15 May with Austria, France and Switzerland and then lifted on 15 June
In Singapore robot dogs are enforcing social distancing in parks
Author Neil Gaiman has admitted breaking Scotland’s lockdown rules by travelling 11,000 miles from New Zealand to his holiday home on Skye