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:
— Lockdown tensions grow as people seek to resume work or play.
— Hospital organizations express frustrations over failed shipment of medical equipment.
— Spain surpasses 200,000 coronavirus infections.
———
LONDON — Hospital organizations are slamming Britain’s government for its failure to give medical staff appropriate clothing and equipment to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.
With so many promises dashed, Chris Hopson of the NHS Providers told the BBC there is “relatively low confidence” that a shipment of 400,000 surgical gowns due to arrive last weekend from Turkey will arrive Monday.
The NHS Confederation, which represents organizations across healthcare, described the failed delivery at a time of critically low stocks as making “a difficult situation worse.”
The confederation’s CEO Niall Dickson, says it “would have been better had the government not made the announcement in the first place.”
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden says he’s hopeful “that later today that flight will take off and we will get those gowns.’’
British medical personnel have been arguing for weeks that the ongoing debacle in getting the right equipment to the right people is forcing doctors to put their own lives in danger to treat the sick and hurting medical care across the board.
———
MADRID — Spain has surpassed the 200,000 mark of coronavirus infections while recording the lowest number of new deaths in four weeks.
Health ministry data shows Monday that 399 more people have succumbed to the COVID-19 disease created by the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s total death toll to 20,852. Spain had counted more than 400 daily deaths since March 22.
The outbreak’s spread has continued at a slower pace than in previous weeks, with 4,266 new infections that is bringing the pandemic’s total tally to 200,210.
The Spanish government is starting to relax its confinement measures, trying to re-activate the economy after a two-week freeze and allowing children under 12-years-old to venture out to the streets for brief periods from next week.
The government had been under pressure from regional governments, parents and some educators to ease the lockdown for children. The government says they will be allowed to get out for brief periods on a daily basis starting on April 27 but that all the details need to be ironed out with experts this week.
———
MADRID — Spain is proposing members of the European Union to create a fund with up to 1.5 trillion euros (1.63 trillion dollars) to help the bloc’s countries worst hit by the new coronavirus pandemic, according to an internal Spanish government document.
Italy and Spain are among the worst hit EU members by the COVID-19 pandemic, leading the region in the number of confirmed infections and recorded deaths.
The document, seen by The Associated Press, says that the new economic recovery fund should draw from members states’ grants in order not to raise public debt levels.
The fund should be financed through “perpetual EU debt,” the document reads.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez aims to discuss the proposal during Thursday’s meeting of EU leaders, said a government official who wasn’t allowed to be named in media reports.
With over 20,000 deaths and nearly 200,000 confirmed infections, Spain is starting to relax its confinement measures, trying to re-activate the economy and allowing children under 12 years-old to venture out to the streets for brief periods from next week.
———
BERLIN — The German state of Bavaria plans to make wearing masks, or some other form of face covering, compulsory in shops and public transport starting next week. It’s the most populous German region to take the step so far.
Governor Markus Soeder said Monday that the measure will take effect in a week’s time when Bavaria reopens small shops. The southern state of over 13 million, which has Germany’s highest per capita coronavirus infection rate, is waiting a week longer than many other regions to let most shops open.
The federal government is recommending that people wear masks, but Soeder said that “appeals alone probably won’t be the necessary safeguard.”
Neighboring Saxony instituted a similar mask rule on Monday. The northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will make them obligatory in public transport next week.
Infections have slowed in Germany but Soeder warned that “the development is fragile.” He said officials will have to watch closely whether figures stabilize before loosening more restrictions.
He said: “my recommendation is: better a bit slower and more cautiously, but more sustainably.” He warned against “a constant stop and go.”
———
BARCELONA, Spain — Some passengers from a luxury cruise ship that traveled the globe for 15 weeks while the new coronavirus spread on land have started to disembark in northeastern Spain.
Monday’s port-of-call in Barcelona marks the beginning of the end of the around-the-globe cruise of the Costa Deliziosa, whose owner Costa Crociere, an Italian company, says has no cases of the COVID-19 virus on board.
The boat sailed the last five weeks with virtually no human contact with the outside world.
Hundreds of the boat’s 1,831 passengers, including 168 Spaniards, were expected to get off the boat in Spain and the rest were expected to do so in the next and last stop, in Genoa, Italy. The Deliziosa was originally due to return to Venice on April 26.
Unlike other cruise ships that suffered outbreaks and were often put in quarantine to protect port cities, the Deliziosa has been virtually a floating virus-free bubble, allowing the passengers to use the ship’s facilities and entertainments.
Spanish traveler Carlos Payá told The Associated Press that being on the cruise ship was “a stroke of good luck.”
The ship set sail from Venice in early January and stopped making ports of call after leaving western Australia last month, except for technical refueling stops.
———
CANBERRA, Australia — The long-running Australian soap opera “Neighbours” returned from a three-week production break on Monday and plans to resume full production next week with new coronavirus safeguards.
“Neighbours” production company Fremantle Australia said in a statement on Monday it was one of the few TV dramas in the English-speaking world to resume production during the pandemic.
“Neighbours” is Australia’s longest-running TV series, first screening in 1985. It has been sold to more than 60 countries and has a larger following in Britain than Australia.
Its Melbourne studio will be separated into three scene areas with no crews allowed to cross between the areas, Fremantle said.
“Creative editing will be employed to ensure this has minimal impact on screen,” Fremantle said.
Fremantle expects that if there is a COVID-19 injection on set, contact tracing will be easy due to social distancing measures.
“We’re going to assume if someone does get sick, we don’t have to shut the entire shoot. We just close that group and carry on,” Fremantle chief executive Chris Oliver told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Scenes involving kissing and holding hands will not be allowed due Australian social distancing rules.
Communications and Arts Minister Paul Fletcher welcomed the drama’s continuation.
“I certainly wish them well and there is no doubt that the arts sector has been hit very hard by social distancing,” Fletcher said.
———
BERLIN — Some shops are reopening in much of Germany as Europe’s biggest economy takes its first tentative step toward restarting public life after a four-week shutdown.
Shops with a surface area of up to 800 square meters (8,600 square feet) are being allowed to reopen on Monday, along with auto showrooms, bike shops and bookshops of any size, under an agreement reached last week between the federal and state governments.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, Helge Braun, told n-tv television that big shops “draw large numbers of people into the city center, they have high customer numbers and that isn’t possible in the first step.”
State governments are responsible for imposing and loosening shutdown measures, and there are regional variations. Berlin and neighboring Brandenburg are expected to reopen small shops later this week. The eastern state of Thuringia is waiting until next Monday. So is Bavaria, although it is allowing DIY and garden shops to reopen Monday.
The eastern state of Saxony is the only one so far to require that people wear face masks in shops and on public transport.
A few states also are starting high school finishing exams, though schools aren’t expected to start reopening on a larger scale for another two weeks.
———
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark took another small step toward reopening society when hair salons, dentists, physiotherapists, tattoo parlors and driving schools, among others, were allowed to reopen Monday.
Social distancing, removal of magazines in the waiting area, possibility for both staff and customers to wash their hands, thorough cleaning and shifted work times were key to the reopening, business minister Simon Kollerup said, adding “It goes without saying that you cannot avoid contact with a masseur or hairdresser. But the new guidelines need to reduce our infection.”
Earlier, the Scandinavian country had allowed some classes — from preschool to the fifth grade — to return to school with similar precautions.
In neighboring Norway, preschools that had been shut down since March 12 reopened while classes above were expected to restart before the summer break, Norwegian news agency NTB reported.
Dentists, physiotherapists and opticians were also allowed to start again Monday, NTB wrote.
———
SINGAPORE — Singapore’s virus infections shot up to nearly 8,000 after a record 1,426 cases were reported Monday.
The tiny city-state now has the highest number of cases in Southeast Asia at 7,984, a massive surge from just 200 on March 15. Authorities say most of the new cases were again linked to foreign workers, who account for over a million of Singapore’s workforce.
More than 200,000 low-wage workers from Asia live in tightly-packed dormitories, that became virus hotspots after they were overlooked earlier by the government. Over half of the registered 43 dormitories have been declared ″isolated areas” with workers quarantined, while several thousands have been moved out to alternative sites to reduce crowding.
The government has said cases are expected to rise amid ongoing testing at the dorms, but hope that a partial lockdown until May 4, mandatory wearing of masks and strict social distancing measures will help curb the spread of the virus.
———
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration and Congress expect an agreement Monday on an aid package of up to $ 450 billion to boost a small-business loan program that has run out of money and add funds for hospitals and COVID-19 testing.
As talks continued, President Donald Trump said there’s a “good chance” of reaching a bipartisan agreement with Democrats.
“We are very close to a deal,” Trump said Sunday at the White House.
Along with the small business boost, Trump said the negotiators were looking at “helping our hospitals,” particularly hard-hit rural health care providers.
The Senate is scheduled for a pro forma session Monday, but no vote has been set.
The House announced it could meet as soon as Wednesday for a vote on the pending package, according to a schedule update from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
———
Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak