Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s stand-in leader resisted pressure on Sunday to explain how the government plans to ease a coronavirus lockdown that has been in place for a month, warning that hasty action could result in a second peak of infections.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recovers from COVID-19, said the government was working privately on how to move out of the lockdown but it would be irresponsible to speculate in public.

MADRID (Reuters) - On foot, on skateboards and on scooters, Spanish children emerged from their homes on Sunday for the first time after six long weeks of living under one of Europe’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns.

The relaxation came as Spain, one of the worst hit by the global COVID-19 epidemic, registered its lowest daily increase in the coronavirus death toll in more than a month.

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy, the first European country to be hard-hit by the coronavirus, will allow some businesses to reopen as soon as this week while aiming to reopen manufacturing and construction from May 4, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said.

Conte gave the most detailed outline yet of plans to reopen the economy, in a newspaper interview published on Sunday ahead of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown, which he said would be released no later than early this week.

PARIS, April 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The new coronavirus has claimed at least 200,736 lives since its outbreak in China in December, according to official sources at 1900 GMT on Saturday.

More than 2,864,070 cases were registered in 193 countries and territories. Of these cases, at least 772,900 are now considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

LONDON, April 25 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be back at work in Downing Street on Monday, about two weeks after leaving a London hospital in his fight against the novel coronavirus, British media reported Saturday night.

Johnson told his cabinet colleagues that he will be back to his normal schedule following his treatment in St. Thomas' Hospital in London for COVID-19.

WARSAW (AP) — The Polish government’s determination to move forward with a scheduled presidential election next month by making it an all-postal vote has sparked anxiety and anger amid the coronavirus pandemic, with critics slamming the plan as a threat to the health of both the public and Poland’s democracy.

LONDON, Apr 25 (APP): The United Kingdom (UK) has announced nine (9) more chartered flights from Pakistan to return thousands of stranded
Britishers.

A UK Government statement issued here today said that these will include the first UK chartered flight from Karachi, which will depart on April 30, in addition to further departures from Islamabad and Lahore.

The Foreign and Commonwealth (FCO) statement said that almost 5,000 British travellers in Pakistan are to be brought home to the UK following the announcement today of a further nine Government-chartered flights.

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/: The World Health Organization (WHO) is not perfect, however, it fulfils its role rather well, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Bolshaya Igra ("Big Game") program on Russia’s Channel One.

"I think that the WHO fulfils its role rather well in accordance with its charter, acting as a managing and coordinating body in the sphere of healthcare. Yes, it’s not perfect. Nobody’s perfect, a quote from the Hollywood film ‘Some Like It Hot’" says," Lavrov noted.

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/: Several countries support the United States and blame China for the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Bolshaya Igra ("Big Game") program on Russia’s Channel One.

According to him, the trends that have manifested globally for the last couple of decades, "have significantly accelerated and escalated" during the pandemic.

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/: The Russian government is developing measures to support the air transportation sector, including airline subsidies, Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel.

"Indeed, it will also include subsidies to companies. Expenses are being analyzed, measures are being worked out," he said.

Reshetnikov emphasized that this issue is mainly a responsibility of the Russian Transport Ministry. "But at the same time, we are assisting in evaluating these decisions," he added.