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Covid-19, a novel strain of coronavirus first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has since turned into a global health crisis with more than 4.7 million confirmed cases worldwide. This animated timeline shows how the pandemic unfolded in each country as measured by the number of new infections each day since Jan…
Protests against the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic marred Haiti’s Flag Day on May 18, 2020, when the country usually celebrates and pays homage to its national flag. Police in the capital Port-au-Prince dispersed the group of protesters who threw rocks and blocked streets with burning tyres.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has agreed to set up an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic and the actions of the WHO. At the May 19, 2020, virtual meeting of the WHO’s decision-making body the World Health Assembly, China was among those supp…
China normally holds its most important annual political meetings in March, when the top political advisory body and national legislature gather. But in 2020, the meetings were postponed to May 22, 2020, because of the coronavirus pandemic. Although the “two sessions” take place only days apart on the political cale…
Many businesses in China still face grim economic prospects despite the lifting of lockdowns and restrictions to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Although some industries have shown signs of recovery, demand remains weak at venues including luxury shopping centres and wholesale clothing markets, as well as among bars an…
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Gravediggers at Indonesia’s Pondok Ranggon Cemetery, one of the two designated burial grounds for Covid-19 victims, have been toiling since the pandemic broke out. Their increased workload has pointed to the under-reported coronavirus death toll in the country.
Schools and malls in Japan were empty during the usually-busy Golden Week holiday from late April to early May. But now, some schools and businesses have reopened as the authorities have lifted Covid-19 restrictions in parts of the country.
Following weeks of reported symptoms and clinical evidence, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently recognised the loss of taste and smell as indications of Covid-19 infection. Now a team of researchers at the University of Hong Kong have learned more about how the coronavirus that causes th…
US President Donald Trump said on May 18, 2020, that he’s been taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine in case he gets Covid-19. This is despite no solid research proving that the drug provides any benefits for treating coronavirus. A recent French study involving more than 180 patients found no benefits in …
A 37-year-old Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, has been detained after reporting from Wuhan, the city in central China where the global coronavirus pandemic first originated from. She last appeared on social media on May 14, 2020, live-streaming on YouTube from Wuhan’s Hankou railway station.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping defended his government’s coronavirus response at this year’s World Health Assembly meeting, saying that China has “acted with openness, transparency and responsibility” during the Covid-19 fight. He also backed the WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ leadership of the agency’s pandemic…
Malaysian mothers working in Singapore are sending home frozen breast milk to their babies after the Southeast Asian neighbours restricted their borders to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
A Canadian has invented a “hug glove” that allows people to embrace their loved ones without making direct physical contact amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Iker, a baby tamandua, was born during the coronavirus pandemic at Lima’s Huachipa Zoo.
The remote Atulie'er Village, which is known as ‘Cliff Village’, is in southwestern China’s Sichuan province. Villagers need to climb down an 800-metre-high cliff to go to school or even go to hospital to give birth. Recently 84 households in ‘Cliff Village’ relocated to their new apartments.
Amid increasing frustration over lockdown measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic, multiple protests took place across Europe on May 16, 2020. Thousands rallied in Germany against Covid-19 restrictions while 19 people were arrested in London’s Hyde Park after breaking social-distancing rules. Protesters in Spain b…
Hong Kong’s fresh university graduates who hoped to begin new careers in the coming months are coming to terms with the likelihood of years of hardship because of the economic damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Bars have reopened and restrictions have been relaxed but as the city opens back up more emerging cases of COVID carriers are appearing. South China Morning Post’s Elaine Ly speaks with Dr David Hui, a close advisor to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and director of Stanley Ho Centre for Emerging Infectious Dis…
A Hong Kong paper recycling factory hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic has been revitalised thanks to support from local citizens. Since then, the plant has been making its own brand of toilet paper for sale in the city.
The eyes are an “important route” for transmission of the coronavirus since eye tissues allow the infection to more efficiently replicate, according to Hong Kong researchers quoted in study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal. The South China Morning Post’s Elaine Ly spoke with Dr Michael Chan Chi-w…
A Phnom Penh theatre that has hosted shadow puppet performances for 26 years is being forced to close because of problems related to the coronavirus pandemic. The Cambodian capital’s Sovanna Phum Theatre will be taken over by the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, in hopes the troupe can eventually continue performi…
The Washington, DC-based National Symphony Orchestra released Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No 7 Allegro con brio on May 12, 2020. The online performance was produced by principal trumpeter William Gerlach. The videos were produced by the musicians themselves at home, as they observe social distancing in the US ca…
A Canadian zoo has decided to send two adult giant pandas back to China because the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted essential deliveries of fresh bamboo. The Calgary Zoo in Alberta made the decision after flights cancelled to fight the spread of Covid-19 also cut off their supply of bamboo for pandas Er Shun and …
With Covid-19 infection surpassing 4 million, Taiwan is seeking observer status in the annual convention of the World Health Assembly, the World Health Organisation’s decision-making body.
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An American Airlines flight from New York City to Chicago on May 11, 2020, has reportedly ignored social-distancing rules amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
As coronavirus measures are gradually eased across Southeast Asia, once-deserted streets in Hanoi, Bangkok and Yangon are buzzing again. Here is a look at how road traffic appeared to change from April to May 2020, as lockdowns and closures to fight the Covid-19 pandemic expired or were adjusted.
On May 14, Hong Kong’s Consumer Council said they tested 17 models of Chinese-style plastic spatulas sold in the city labelled “heat-resistant”. One melted when placed in boiling oil for only one minute while some left cancer-causing substances on food.
Thailand's tourism sector has suffered a huge blow from the coronavirus pandemic. Arrivals in the country from overseas plunged 76 per cent in March 2020. But many tourist hotspots including in the capital Bangkok are focusing on renovation work so they are ready once borders reopen and visitors return. On May 13, T…
The coronavirus may be here to stay similar to the way HIV has never been eradicated, according to the World Health Organisation's Dr Mike Ryan. The executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme spoke at a news briefing on May 13, 2020.
With bars closed during the coronavirus pandemic, people in Japan are hosting online drinking parties via a platform called Tacnom. The service has drawn millions of users in just two months.
Some Singaporeans are rushing to get overdue haircuts after the city state eased some “circuit breaker” measures to fight the spread of Covid-19. Barbers and hair salons were allowed to reopen on May 12, 2020, as officials urged people not to rush out all at once, to continue maintaining social distance and fight th…
At least 16 people including two newborn babies were killed after three gunmen disguised as policemen attacked a hospital in the Afghan capital Kabul on May 11, 2020, according to an interior ministry statement. The attack occurred on the same day a suicide blast in the eastern province of Nangarhar killed over a do…
Authorities in Wuhan, the initial epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, have ordered fresh Covid-19 tests for all 14 million residents of the central Chinese city. The Wuhan Covid-19 Epidemic Prevention Headquarters on May 11, 2020, instructed all districts in the Chinese city to submit plans by noon the next day o…
Vancouver police have released footage of a man who allegedly assaulted a woman on a bus on April 15, 2020, after she defended two Asian women from a racist tirade. The incident came amid a spate of attacks in Canada on mask-wearing Asian people during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dozens of nurses in Karachi, Pakistan boycotted work to protest job conditions during the coronavirus pandemic on May 12, International Nurses Day.
A video supplied to the South China Morning Post shows crew members on a Chinese vessel disposing of the body of an Indonesian fisherman. Jakarta has condemned the treatment of its nationals working for the Chinese fishing company that allegedly kept the crew in “inhumane” conditions.
South Korea is racing to track down more than 3,000 people potentially linked to a new cluster of coronavirus infections at nightclubs popular among those in the capital’s gay community. But the country’s LGBT stigma is complicating tracing efforts under way by health authorities, and many of visitors to bars and cl…
A video supplied to the SCMP shows crew members of Tian Yu 8 disposing of the body of an Indonesian fisherman. Indonesia has condemned the treatment of its nationals working for a Chinese fishing company that allegedly kept the crew in “inhuman” conditions.
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, US President Donald Trump’s message to Americans about Covid-19 has evolved. From his initial remarks downplaying the risk of the disease, he has more recently turned toward statements which blame China for the pandemic. Here is a look back at some of Trump’s most hea…
Third-generation hawker Kristen Choong said her wonton noodle stand’s business has fallen about 90 per cent since early April.
Shanghai Disneyland reopened to visitors on May 11, 2020, after a four-month shutdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The park is restricted to one-third of its normal daily capacity of 80,000 visitors and guests are constantly reminded to wear face masks and adhere to social-distancing guidelines. The reopening o…
