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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
— Warnings multiply against Easter holiday travel, gatherings.
— Bangkok to ban sales of alcohol in an effort to curb virus spread.
— Indonesia bans some from returning home to their hometowns to celebrate the end of Ramadan.
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BANGKOK — Sales of alcoholic beverages will be banned in Thailand's capital Bangkok for a 10-day period starting Friday as part of the effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 infections. Bars and restaurants were ordered to stop onsite services last month.
Officials said the alcohol ban was necessary because people were flouting social distancing rules by holding drinking parties even as the number of coronavirus cases keeps rising.
Thailand's annual Songkran Lunar New Year festival falls within the no-sales period. The holiday is usually celebrated by raucous merrymaking and much drinking, which contributes to a spike in traffic deaths.
The official April 13-15 holiday has already been postponed and organized celebrations canceled because of the crowds they would attract.
At least 11 other provinces have already ordered temporary bans on alcohol sales, including the major tourist destination of Chiang Mai in the north.
Health officials on Thursday confirmed 54 new cases of the disease, bringing the nation's total to 2,423, with Bangkok accounting for about half of them. Nationwide, the death toll increased by two to 32, and the number of recovered patients totaled 940.
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has officially banned all civil servants, police officers, military personnel and employees of state-owned companies from returning to their hometowns to celebrate the end of Ramadan with families in an attempt to curb the new coronavirus spread.
Widodo said in a video conference Thursday that his administration is still evaluating whether a similar prohibition to be imposed to the rest of people in the world's most populous Muslim nation. He said the decision will be announced within days.
Indonesia, with a population of nearly 270 million, has more Muslims than any other country in the world.
The annual mass exodus usually involves tens of millions of Indonesians crisscrossing the vast archipelago for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month. The holiday is expected to fall on May 24.
Those travelers, mostly crammed into trains, ferries, buses and in greater numbers of cars and motorcycles, could play a role in disease transmission from urban density to rural areas, but Widodo said there are some groups of travelers who may be allowed to return to their villages for economic reasons.
"We cannot ban those who lost their jobs and income in this pandemic crisis from returning to their villages," he said.
Indonesia on Thursday recorded new 337 COVID-19 cases on Thursday, its biggest daily jump since the start of the pandemic, bringing the country's total to 3,293.
Indonesia has the highest death toll in Asia after China, with 280 deaths.
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LONDON — Oxfam is warning that half a billion people in the developing world could be pushed into poverty as a result of the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
In the run-up to three key international economic meetings next week, the anti-poverty campaigning group has urged richer countries to step up their relief efforts.
In a report based on research at King's College London and the Australian National University, Oxfam is calling on world leaders to agree an 'Economic Rescue Package for All' to keep poor countries and poor communities afloat. Among the measures it is recommending is the immediate cancellation of $1 trillion worth of developing country debt payments in 2020.
Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam International Interim Executive Director said "for poor people in poor countries who are already struggling to survive there are almost no safety nets to stop them falling into poverty."
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ZAGREB, Croatia — Croatia has started reopening open air markets, in the first sign of easing of strict rules against the spread of the new coronavirus in the country.
Wearing protective masks, residents of Zagreb on Thursday lined up at one of the markets on a sunny day, keeping distance from one another as they waited to buy home-grown fruit, vegetables or other products.
Open-air markets are highly popular in Croatia, offering a chance for producers from small farms to sell their products. Those markets were closed for weeks as part of the anti-virus lockdown.
Buyers in Zagreb said they are happy that the markets were reopening, but contended it will be a while before life returns to normal. One woman says: "We must be patient."
Inside the small wooden houses, sellers offered their products through open windows. Authorities have said markets can open only if strict hygienic and distancing rules are respected.
Croatia has confirmed 1,343 cases of infections with the new coronavirus, while 19 people have died.
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LISBON, Portugal — Authorities in Portugal have halted commercial flights at the country's five international airports as part of the battle against the coronavirus.
Officials are concerned that over the Easter weekend people may be reluctant to stay at home, as they have been instructed to do for weeks under a national state of emergency.
Additional restrictions came into force Thursday for a four-day period, including a ban on people leaving their council area or more than five people gathering in one place, as well as a flight prohibition.
Police set up checkpoints on major roads and junctions.
The land border with Spain, which traditionally sends many tourists for the Easter break, has been closed for weeks.
Portugal has officially recorded 380 cases of coronavirus deaths, compared with Spain's more than 15,000 deaths.
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MADRID — Spanish health authorities say that reported coronavirus infections and deaths have gone down again after a two-day uptick, hopefully signaling a return to the overall slowdown in the pandemic growth under a national lockdown.
The Health Ministry said Thursday that authorities reported 5,756 new cases and 683 new deaths over the previous 24-hour period. That is compared to new 6,180 cases and 757 new deaths on Wednesday.
Overall, Spain has 152,446 infections and 15,238 fatalities since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, situating it as one of the world's hardest-hit countries along with the United States and Italy.
Over 52,000 patients have also recovered in Spain, as pressure has eased slightly on its hospitals.
Like many countries, Spain is struggling to gauge the true extent of the virus outbreak due to a lag in testing of the general population. Authorities have recognized that several thousand of elderly people have died in nursing homes without being tested. Only deaths of people who had tested positive are being included in the official statistics.
The latest figures were released as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez appeared before the national Parliament to ask for its endorsement of a second two-week extension of Spain's state of emergency that permits the lockdown against the virus. Support is expected after the main opposition party said it would back the Socialist-led coalition government.
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Correction Note: Spanish health authorities have corrected the new deaths for today. The corrected version is above, and only changes death toll for the last 24 hours. The number is 683, not 728.
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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Slovakia's authorities have ordered a lockdown of five poor settlements where the Roma live separated from the majority population after 31 people there tested positive for the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Igor Matovic announced the lockdown, the first in Slovakia, on Thursday, saying "I'll be glad if you understand the necessity of the decision."
The military health personnel started the testing on Friday in 33 such settlements where the poorest of the poor Roma live, often without access to running water and without sewage systems. Authorities fear such conditions would result in a rapid spreading of the infection.
The testing in the settlements was requested by Roma activists.
Initially, authorities were focusing on over a thousand of those Roma who recently returned from abroad from countries seriously hit by the epidemic, including Britain. A total of 816 had been tested as of Wednesday. Slovakia has 682 infections, and two people have died.
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TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's supreme leader is suggesting that mass gatherings in the Islamic Republic may be barred through the holy Muslim fasting month Ramadan amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comment Thursday as Iran is trying to restart its economic activity after suffering one of the world's worst outbreaks. Ramadan is set to begin in late April and last through most of May.
Khamenei urged Shiite faithful to pray in their homes during Ramadan. Shiite typically pray communally, especially during Ramadan.
Iran has reported over 67,000 confirmed cases of the new virus, with nearly 4,000 deaths. However, experts have repeatedly questioned those numbers, especially as Iran initially downplayed the outbreak in February amid the 41st anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution and a crucial parliamentary vote.
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BRUSSELS — Authorities in the French-speaking Walloon region have requested the support of Belgian armed forces to tackle the worrying situation at nursing homes, where several hundred residents have died because of COVID-19.
According to official figures released this month, a third of the deaths linked to the deadly virus in the region of southern Belgium have been registered in resting homes.
Christie Morreale, the Walloon health minister, said Thursday that her request for help has been granted by Belgian federal authorities. A total of 116 nursing homes in the region have been hit by a COVID-19 cluster, a situation where at least 10 cases of the new coronavirus have been confirmed.
Morreale said the military personal could help cater to residents or decontaminate premises infected with the deadly virus. She also asked doctors to volunteer to attend to patients in resting homes.
The situation is concerning too in the neighboring Flanders region, where more than 600 nursing home residents are suspected to have died as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 2,000 virus-related deaths have been recorded in the country with a population of approximately 11.5 million people.
