The Latest: Britain may get badly needed surgical gowns

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:

— AP Exclusive: ER staff saves lives, suffers in hot spot.

— Britain may be getting badly-needed surgical gowns.

— Germany's most populous state makes face masks compulsory starting Monday.

— Customers trickle in as vendors return to markets in Serbia.

— India plans ordinance to protect health care professionals.

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LONDON — A Royal Air Force plane believed to be carrying badly needed surgical gowns has landed in the U.K. as Britain scrambled to deal with shortages of critical protective materials for medics in the COVID-19 outbreak.

The plane landed just after 3:30 a.m. GMT on Wednesday at RAF Brize Norton.

Two other planes are on stand-by to pick up further materials from Turkey.

It was not immediately clear if the plane contained the badly needed surgical gowns, which had been due to arrive over the weekend.

Britain has been struggling to get personal protective equipment to front-line medics. Doctors have expressed concern that they are risking their lives because of inappropriate supplies.

Health minister Helen Whately says 61 members of the National Health Service have died in the outbreak so far.

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BERLIN — Germany’s most populous state says it will make wearing face masks compulsory in shops and on public transport starting Monday. The decision by North Rhine-Westphalia, home to nearly 18 million people, means that most German regions have now taken comparable steps.

The eastern state of Saxony became the first to impose an obligation to wear masks or some other face covering on Monday. A steady trickle of regions have followed in announcing similar plans, although some – such as Berlin – will require them only on public transport. North Rhine-Westphalia was joined Wednesday by three more states: Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.

The federal and state governments agreed last week to “urgently recommend” that people wear masks or some other covering on public transport and in shops, but stopped short of making them obligatory.

In Germany, the 16 state governments are ultimately responsible for imposing and loosening lockdowns. That means that although federal and state governments have sought to coordinate their moves, there have been several regional variations in the nation of 83 million people.

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BELGRADE, Serbia — Vendors selling vegetables, fruit and dairy products were back at Serbia’s markets on Wednesday as authorities allowed for the reopening of the open-air facilities with the easing of some measures against the new coronavirus.

Wearing protective face masks and gloves, the sellers have put up their products on the stalls as first customers trickled in to buy fresh spring offerings at an open air green market in central Belgrade.

Such markets are very popular in the Serbian capital with many scattered throughout the city of 2 million. One vendor says “there are not too many people yet, but this very good.”

Elsewhere in the city, shops selling technical goods and book stores also reopened as part of the easing of lockdown restrictions. Authorities have also shortened a daily curfew by one hour and allowed people over 65 years old to go for a walk three times a week.

Serbia’s elderly had been ordered indoors for over a month and the daily and weekend curfews were introduced in the Balkan country that saw some of the toughest rules against the outbreak.

Serbia so far has reported 6,890 infections with the new coronavirus and 130 deaths.

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NEW DELHI, India — India is planning to bring an ordinance that will make attacks on health care professionals a serious offense with a jail term from six months up to seven years.

Federal minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday said the ordinance will be implemented as a law after President Ram Nath Kovind’s sanction.

“There will be absolutely no tolerance to attacks on doctors and healthcare professionals,” said Javadekar.

Once approved, the law will take effect immediately. Under the law, health care professionals will also be extended insurance coverage.

Several health care workers in India have been attacked as they battle to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Doctors have also endured campaigns from their neighbors to force them out of apartments and attacks by violent mobs.

Earlier on Wednesday, Indian Medical Association withdrew their symbolic protest, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government promised to ensure their safety against rising violence over fears that medical staff in India is spreading the coronavirus.

Indian Medical Association had asked the federal government to enact a law against health care violence.

India has so far reported 19,984 cases of COVID-19 with 640 deaths.

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BEIJING — China has slammed a lawsuit brought against it by the U.S. state of Missouri over the global pandemic as “very absurd.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Wednesday the legal action had “no factual and legal basis at all,” and repeated defenses of China’s response to the outbreak that has largely subsided in the country where it was first detected.

The ministry and other Chinese government departments have strenuously denied accusations that officials delayed reporting on the extent of the outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, even as reports pile up that worries over political stability were placed above public health concerns.

Missouri’s top state prosecutor on Tuesday announced the lawsuit that alleges Chinese officials are to blame for the pandemic that has sickened around 2.5 million worldwide, thrown tens of millions out of work and devastated local economies, including in China.

The state’s action will likely end up being largely symbolic, however, since lawsuits against other countries typically don’t go anywhere because U.S. law generally prohibits them. Independent reports say Missouri has reported 215 deaths from the virus.

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MADRID — Spain saw its death total reach 21,717 cases as its government weathers criticism about how it will let children out of a six-week lockdown.

Spain’s health authorities said Wednesday that 435 more people have died in the last 24 hours. Authorities also reported 4,211 new confirmed infections, taking the total to 208,389 cases since the start of the pandemic.

Yielding to pressure from some parents, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced Sunday that children would be allowed out as of April 27, without specifying the exact rules for the outings.

Sánchez is appearing before Spain’s Parliament Wednesday to ask for a third two-week extension of the state of emergency that has given his government extraordinary powers to confine the country. The main opposition party has conditioned its support on a proper explanation of what children can do next week.

In another sign that the health crisis is becoming manageable, a large makeshift morgue in a Madrid ice rink is closing as the daily toll drops under 500 deaths from a high of 950 three weeks ago.

Only the United States and Italy have more deaths than Spain from the virus, and only the U.S. has more infections.

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PRAGUE — The number of people tested positive in the Czech Republic has surpassed 7,000 as the country has been easing restrictive measures adopted to contain the pandemic of the coronavirus.

Overall, 7,041 Czechs were infected with the virus, according to Health Ministry figures released on Wednesday, while 204 have died.

The health authorities registered 133 new cases on Tuesday as 8,301 tests were conducted that day. That’s down from 154 cases the previous day.

A total of 186,918 tests have been done in the country. On Tuesday, 412 patients needed hospitalization and 80 of them intensive care.

On Thursday, the country will start a two-week testing of 27,000 people across the country in a study to determine undetected infections with the coronavirus in its population.

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DHAKA, Bangladesh — The total death toll from the coronavirus in Bangladesh reached 120 while the number of total infections rose to 3,772 with another 390 positive cases on Wednesday, an official said.

Nasima Sultana, additional director general of the Directorate General of Health Services, said another 10 people, including seven men and three women, died over last 24 hours amid growing concern that the upward trend could continue over next few weeks as community transmission has taken place across the country.

Reports say many positive cases are asymptomatic, which poses a serious threat to the community. A nationwide lockdown is in place until Saturday to help contain the virus from spreading.

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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is urging world leaders draw lessons from the coronavirus pandemic and work together to protect the planet and the most vulnerable from environmental destruction and exploitation.

Francis issued the appeal Wednesday as he marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.

Francis has made environmentalism one of the hallmarks of his papacy, dedicating an entire encyclical to the need to protect God’s Creation. He denounced how a “structurally perverse” economic system allowed the rich to exploit the poor and turn the Earth into an “immense pile of filth.”

On Wednesday, he said: “As the tragic coronavirus pandemic has taught us, we can overcome global challenges only by showing solidarity with one another and embracing the most vulnerable in our midst.” Francis has marked the lockdown period by praying each day for different sectors affected by the pandemic, from doctors and nurses to inmates and the elderly.

Francis cheered initiatives of young people to remind older generations of their failure to protect the planet, agreeing that: “We have no future if we destroy the very environment that sustains us.”

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DELHI, India — After rolling out a contact-tracing app, Arogya Setu, that is aimed at helping citizens identify their risk of infection, India is planning to use wristbands that can be used in conjunction with the app.

A government document detailing the specifications for the wristband says that it could “trace contacts & connections of infected persons” and also “identify unknowing contacts with infected persons”. This, officials said, would be used to monitor the movement and body temperature of quarantined patients, both at home and at hospitals and help in they don’t break quarantine.

Officials added that the wristband may ease challenges for health workers by letting them know if potential patients have been to high-risk areas. The wristband would also be used for those delivering essential services, such as groceries or medicines.

Although India has partially eased one of the world’s strictest lockdowns this week, public health officials fear a surge in cases. The wristband has been envisioned as a way of countering the drain of manpower in trying to track the contacts of patients. Officials are currently reviewing its design and said it is likely to be rolled out in May.

The Arogya Setu app, available in 11 Indian languages, was launched on April last month.

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Correction Note: The above item has been corrected to show that the wristband will not be fitted with the app launched by the government earlier -- however the provision is there for the two to be used in conjunction.

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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s top infectious disease expert says patients can still test positive for the new coronavirus even after their bodies develop antibodies. The findings, based on a small sample of patients, came as officials explore why some COVID-19 patients relapse after their release from hospitals.

Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday that officials have so far tested 25 patients who developed neutralizing antibodies to resist further infections, but that 12 of them still tested positive for the virus.

However, virus samples collected from the 12 cases could not be cultivated in isolation, indicating a loss of infectiousness.

Jeong said her agency will continue to investigate the level of immunity antibodies provide and how effective they are in fighting off the virus.

She stressed that the findings don’t necessarily mean that a significant proportion of patients would be vulnerable to reinfections even after developing antibodies.

South Korea has so far reported 207 cases of COVID-19 patients testing positive for a second time after being diagnosed as fully recovered.

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