Spain Allows Outdoor Exercise For First Time In 7 Weeks: Live Updates

Summary:

• Spain allows outdoor exercise
• Russia reports another record jump in cases
• Video shows Mexican hospitals hiding bodies of COVID-19 patients as hallways packed with the sick
• Singapore eases some lockdown measures as domestic cases decline
• US case total tops 1.1 million
• Japan joins US in fast-tracking remdesivir

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For the first time in seven weeks, adult Spaniards are enjoying a jog or a bike ride outdoors as PM Pedro Sanchez lifted restrictions on outdoor exercise.

Spain’s death toll and case count have been trending lower (interspersed with a handful of one-day spikes) for more than two weeks. A week ago, the government lifted restrictions requiring children to remain indoors, allowing young children to leave their homes (accompanied by an adult) for the first time in a month and a half.

Spain’s lockdown has been among the most strict in the world (in some ways, it approximated the lockdown faced by the tens of millions of Chinese residents of Hubei).

Of course, that remains to be seen: One of the biggest stories of the past week has been the uptick in Germany’s ‘infection rate’ – known as “R” – which approximates the average number of people infected by an infected patient. So long as the ratio stays below 1, then the outbreak is slowing. But mid-week, Germany revealed that its ‘R’ rate had jumped from 0.70 to 0.96 in the week since some more shops were allowed to reopen.

However, now that people are back out and about, Spain is imposing a new restriction: the government is requiring masks to be work on all public transport as of Monday, the prime minister said earlier this week as he outlined plans to relax the lockdown.

To ensure that nobody is unable to comply, the government will hand out millions of masks to reduce the risk of contagion, Pedro Sánchez said in an address to the nation on Saturday afternoon. He pleaded with Spaniards to exercise responsibility when the next phase towards ending the lockdown begins on Monday.

Sánchez said Saturday that 6 million masks would be handed out at transport hubs, while 7 million would be handed out by local councils, and 1.5 million would be distributed by the Red Cross and other NGOs. He added that the success of Spain’s phased emergence from lockdown would depend on “social and personal responsibility,” adding, “the key to the de-escalation isn’t just about personal decisions. The key will be tens of thousands of decisions taken at home, on public transport, at work, and in free time.”

Spain’s Health Ministry said Saturday there have been 216,582 confirmed cases of the virus in the country, and 25,100 deaths.

In Italy, concerns about the reopening are intensifying have led to deep political divisions about how the process should be conducted, as millions worry about another devastating spike in deaths.

As Spain and Italy prepare to lift all remaining restrictions, Russia is finding that its national lockdown, which was extended to mid-March last month by President Putin, might not be long, or strict, enough.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the virus has already deeply penetrated Moscow society, and spread far and wide enough to create a serious problem in the massive country of 144 million. New daily nfections in Russia have risen by 20% as officials worry that hospitals across the country – but particularly in Moscow – might be overrun.

More than 9,000 new infections were reported on Saturday, another daily record. Once again, they were mostly in Moscow, where the mayor said earlier this week that the government might establish temporary hospitals in sporting arenas or shopping centers to help manage the flow of seriously ill patients, following several other European countries, including Spain and the UK.

Russia has 124,054 confirmed cases, including Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who had been charged with leading the country’s response. Russia’s death toll stood at 1,222.

Its death toll stood at 1,222 as of Saturday morning, although many suspect that the true number of cases is likely much larger, as is the number of deaths.

Over in North America, the government of AMLO, the far-left anti-establishment leader who has been skeptical of the virus from the beginning, has just been exposed for actively trying to cover up the extent of the crisis.

In the US, the number of confirmed cases climbed to 1,104,345 as of Saturday morning, while the number of deaths hit 239,236.

And here’s a rundown of where every country stands re: ‘the virus curve’.

Relatives of patients burst into a Mexican hospital on Friday night and discovered bodies in bags on stretchers crammed into a room. Several of the families discovered the bodies of their loved ones, deaths that hadn’t officially been reported in Mexico’s numbers.

Watch the video below:

En Hospital General de Ecatepec Las Américas , familiares de paciente, entran a buscarlo, y descubren que falleció y encuentran los restos de otros fallecidos
Esto es un cuadro dantesco digno de un Apocalipsis, que tienen que decir @HLGatell y @lopezobrador_ ?
⚠️ Fuertes imágenes pic.twitter.com/ctA6X3n5R4

— Aprendiz de Brujo 💎(No Soy Periodista) (@JoseAntonioLo06) May 2, 2020

Finally, Singapore said it will start easing some of its distancing measures after reporting a drop in locally transmitted coronavirus cases. The average daily number, excluding migrant workers living in dormitories, of locally transmitted cases has dropped to 12 in the past week from 25 the week before, as the country’s outbreak has been almost entirely confined to impoverished migrant workers who represent a kind of second-class caste in Singaporean society.

As more scientists question the wisdom of the US going all in on remdesivir, Japan said Saturday that it woud fasttrack a review of the antiviral drug remdesivir so that it can hopefully be approved for domestic COVID-19 patients. We suspect US investors will be watching for results of that study.