The Latest: Death toll of virus in Italy surpasses 33,000

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:

— Italy’s overall death toll surpasses 33,000.

— Walt Disney World set to open again in July.

— Greece: U.S. unlikely to be on a list of countries allowed to resume direct flights to Greece in coming weeks.

— Turkey’s health minister has announced 34 new deaths, bringing the total from COVID-19 to 4,431.

___

ROME — Italy’s known death toll in the COVID-19 pandemic topped 33,000 on Wednesday, with 117 more deaths registered nationwide since the previous day.

But authorities acknowledge that the real number of deaths will probably never be known since many with coronavirus symptoms in care residences or in their own homes died without being tested in the past few months.

Lombardy, the northern region, which has registered more than a third of the entire nation’s known cases, confirmed 384 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, considerably more than the 73 registered in the next heaviest-hit region, Piedmont, also in the north.

Health Ministry and other government officials are closely monitoring regions for any jump in new cases following the May 18 easing of many lockdown restrictions, including allowing all retail stores to re-open and cafes and restaurants to resume in-house service.

Italians are waiting to learn if they will be able to freely travel among all regions starting on June 3, or only among some of them, in view of contagion rates.

Currently travel between regions is limited to strict necessity.

Italy registered 584 confirmed new cases on Wednesday, raising to 231,139 the total number of known coronavirus infections in the country, according to Health Ministry figures.

___

SeaWorld and Walt Disney World will reopen in Orlando, Florida, in June and July after months of being closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to plans a city task force approved Wednesday.

The proposals will now be sent to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for final approval.

The plan calls for SeaWorld to open to the public on June 11. Disney plans a tiered reopening, with Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom opening on July 11, followed by Epcot and Hollywood Studios on July 15.

Last week, Universal Orlando presented its plan to reopen on June 5. That plan also has been approved by the Orlando task force, which sent its recommendation to the governor.

Disney’s senior vice president of operations, Jim McPhee told the task force the parks would open with limited capacity, but he didn’t specify the number of guests who would be allowed in initially.

Disney World also plans smaller, soft openings prior to July 11, but no specifics were provided.

SeaWorld is planning an employee appreciation event on June 10 before opening to the public the next day, said Interim CEO Marc Swanson.

___

ATHENS, Greece — Greece says the United States is unlikely to be on a list of countries that will be allowed to resume direct flights to Greece in the coming weeks but could be added later in the summer.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Wednesday that Greece’s government was finalizing the list of countries that will be allowed to resume flights to Athens on June 15 and regional airports on July 1 and has already stated that Germany will be included.

“It is unlikely that the (U.S.) will be on our list, given the data that we currently have,” Mitsotakis told a web event hosted by the Brookings Institution and Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

“We will start with countries that have similar epidemiological data with Greece. And we expect to gradually ramp up direct flights to our islands.”

___

CAIRO — Egypt’s health minister announced 910 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 12 hours, the country’s highest daily rate of infections since the virus was detected in mid-Feb.

The ministry also reported 19 new deaths from COVID-19. Wednesday’s figures have brought Egypt’s tally to 816 deaths among 19,666 confirmed cases.

The ministry said 5,205 patients were discharged from the quarantine after their recovery.

Egypt, the Arab World’s most populous country, has the highest announced deaths from COVID-19 in the Arab World, and the third in the Middle East tailing Iran and Turkey, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

___

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s health minister has announced 34 new deaths, bringing the death toll from COVID-19 to 4,431.

Fahrettin Koca tweeted Wednesday 1,035 new infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours. The total number of cases has reached 159,797.

The minister tweeted more freedoms will require abiding by measures against the novel coronavirus, including wearing masks and social distancing.

Turkey ranks ninth in a tally by Johns Hopkins University for the number of cases, but experts believe the rate of infections globally could be much higher than reported. The average number of new cases has hovered around 1,000 this week.

Turkey has begun easing measures, including the opening of shopping malls and hairdressers. Intercity trains will resume partial service Thursday and mosques will allow congregations for two daytime prayers starting Friday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to announce new measures Thursday.

Nearly 123,000 people have recovered, according to the health ministry statistics.

___

MOSCOW — Russia’s Health Ministry says that people with COVID-19 who aren’t showing symptoms shouldn’t be included in the coronavirus statistics.

The ministry said in a directive released Wednesday that such asymptomatic patients must be counted under a separate registration code and not be included in the COVID-19 toll.

Russia currently ranks third in the world behind the United States and Brazil in the number of coronavirus patients, with more than 370,000 cases, including 3,968 deaths. Officials have said that asymptomatic patients recently accounted for nearly half of all cases.

The nation’s comparatively low coronavirus death toll has raised suspicions among experts in Russia and in the West that the authorities might have manipulated statistics to lower mortality for political reasons.

Russian officials have angrily rejected the allegations, charging that the low toll was a result of sweeping preventative measures, broad testing and efficient treatment.

___

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Officials in Bangladesh say five people have been killed in a fire that swept through a tent in the country’s capital city that was set up to treat people infected with the coronavirus.

The fire started Wednesday night at the tent outside the United Hospital Ltd. in Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan neighborhood. An official with the city’s Fire Service and Civil Defense agency says firefighters recovered five bodies after they brought the fire under control.

The hospital is in a neighborhood that is home to many diplomatic missions and corporate offices. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

___

DENVER — Skiing is back in Colorado after a more than two-month closure caused by the coronavirus.

But only a few have been lucky enough to score reservations at the only resort open in the state. Arapahoe Basin near the Continental Divide west of Denver opened Wednesday with restrictions and only 600 skiers and snowboarders were allowed on the mountain.

The resort’s chief operating officer tells The Denver Post about 4,000 people tried to make online reservations Monday night. That crashed the system, and guests are being chosen with a random drawing.

The resort and Colorado’s other ski areas were forced to close in mid-March when the pandemic hit.

___

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said he wants widespread coronavirus testing at all the state’s correctional facilities as cases continue to rise inside a rural prison.

At least 83 inmates and eight staffers at the Huttonsville Correctional Center in Randolph County have tested positive for the virus, according to state records. Around 600 tests are still pending.

Justice, a Republican, did not give a timeline on when testing at all the state’s lockups would begin, but he said it should happen as quickly as possible. Corrections department data show few inmates have been tested outside of the Huttonsville facility.

___

SAO PAULO — Sao Paulo state, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Brazil, will reopen some of its closed businesses starting June 1 despite a growing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Gov. João Doria said Wednesday that stay-at-home recommendations will remain in effect until June 15 for the state that’s home to 46 million people, but some economic activity will resume in less affected regions, including Sao Paulo city, as long as social distancing guidelines are respected.

More than 6,400 people have died because of the new coronavirus in Sao Paulo state, about one-fourth of all of Brazil’s deaths. Experts and even some authorities have said that represents a significant undercount because of insufficient testing.

Doria said Sao Paulo regions that reduce daily increases in their COVID-19 cases and have enough available intensive care beds can partially reopen stores, shopping malls, offices, car dealerships and real estate brokerages. Sao Paulo never imposed a lockdown, so non-essential industries and civil construction were never closed. Doria said the decision is based on scientific guidelines.

Doria has been frequently singled out for criticism by Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, who has opposed governors’ restrictions on activity.

___

BURLEY, Idaho — Health officials say dozens of workers at a meatpacking plant in southwestern Idaho have tested positive for COVID-19.

The South Central Public Health District said Tuesday that 44 employees at Ida-Beef in the small city of Burley tested positive.

Officials say none of the workers have been hospitalized and there are no fatalities linked to the outbreak.

It’s the second food processing plant in the region to be hit by the coronavirus in recent days.

About 50 workers with potato products company Rite Stuff Foods in nearby Jerome last week tested positive.

The plant has temporarily shut down despite an order by President Donald Trump in April requiring meat processing plants to stay open amid concerns over growing coronavirus cases and the impact on the nation’s food supply.

“It’s a slaughterhouse and Trump mandated that the slaughterhouses stay open, but we chose to close ours to get everybody healthy,” said Ida-beef CEO Allan Ward.

“We thought we’d give it 10 days plus the long weekend and get everybody healthy. And we’re hoping to get a good crew coming Monday morning to kill cattle.”

___

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations secretary-general says support for his March 23 call for a global cease-fire to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic has not been translated into “concrete action,” and in some cases warring parties have exploited the crisis to step up military action.

Antonio Guterres warned the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that “civilians caught up in violence now face a new and deadly threat from COVID-19.”

He pointed to conflict-torn Libya where the U.N. mission documented at least 58 civilians killed and 190 injured between April 1 and May 18.

The U.N. chief told the council meeting on the protection of civilians in conflict that as the pandemic “rages on, causing enormous human suffering and additional stress to health systems,” people already weakened by years of fighting “are particularly vulnerable.”

___

WASHINGTON — The Army Reserve has identified the reserve soldier who died of complications from COVID-19.

It says Sgt. Simon Zamudio died Friday, making him the third member of the U.S. military to die from COVID-19.

Zamudio was assigned to the 371st Theater Movement Control Element at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, whose Army Reserve parent unit is the 646th Regional Support Group at Madison, Wisconsin.

He’s from Carpentersville, Illinois, according to Lt. Col. Simon B. Flake, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Reserve Command. Zamudio, who enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2015 and was promoted to rank of sergeant last month, was not on active duty at the time of his death, Flake said.

___

BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel says there’s still a great need for personal responsibility with Germany relaxing some restrictions.

Germany has more than 180,000 cases of coronavirus and a relatively low number of deaths at 8,400.

The number of daily new cases has been dropping. Merkel says to preserve the gains, “society will have to increase its vigilance, not decrease it. We have to again make clear, the pandemic is not gone, it is contained but the virus is still there.”

Merkel says that means people need to wear masks while using public transportation and in close contact, follow hygiene protocols and keep social distance.

Merkel says it’s the beginning of the pandemic and reminded, “we have no vaccination, we have no medication yet, but we have better control and I would like to thank the people for that.”

___

Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak