Italy’s coronavirus outbreak is one of the world’s deadliest, counting more than 152,000 cases and more than 19,450 deaths. Health care workers have been hard-hit, and so has another force on the front lines: The virus has killed nearly 100 priests.
France, which has the world’s fifth largest known outbreak, reported on Saturday that the total number of patients in intensive care fell for the third day in a row, to roughly 6,880. With nearly 94,000 cases, the country has logged more than 13,800 deaths.
Tokyo reported a record number of new cases on Saturday, at 197. The city has confirmed a total of 40 deaths from the virus. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan had not yet hit its target of reducing commuting by at least 70 percent, and asked all businesses to let employees work from home.
Chile will start handing out certificates to people who have recovered that will exempt them from quarantines and other restrictions.
The World Health Organization said that it was looking into reports of some recovering Covid-19 patients testing positive again after testing negative, a day after South Korean officials said that 91 previously cleared patients had tested positive again. Jeong Eun-kyeong, the director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a briefing that the virus might have been “reactivated” rather than the patients being reinfected.
Lockdowns have reduced opportunities for homicides and other crimes, and the virus has taken some criminals out of action as they hunker down in their homes. Some gangs have even led efforts to impose curfews in neighborhoods where they hold sway.
The drop in murders is especially notable in Latin America, the region with the highest homicide rates in the world outside of war.
In El Salvador, for example, there were just 65 homicides in March, down from 114 in February. Neighboring Honduras has also seen a falloff in killings in recent weeks, as has Colombia and the most populous state in Mexico.
The pandemic is “taking people off the streets,” said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst in Mexico City. “The rule of thumb is: the stricter the lockdown, the bigger the effect on crimes committed against strangers on the street.”

NYT, Agencies

Articles from the author

India to extend lockdown against coronavirus