WORLD

Paris, France | AFP | The automotive industry is offering its expertise and manpower to the hospital sector as it gears up to build mechanical ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic, an initiative that is being met with some scepticism. American auto manufacturers General Motors and Ford, French car companies PSA and Renault, Germany’s Volkswagen group …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | With all eyes on the rapid global spread of the novel coronavirus, health experts fear a drop in routine vaccinations could fuel other, potentially deadlier outbreaks of diseases like measles. With nearly half of the world’s population told to stay at home, many parents are having to postpone taking their …

Paris, France | AFP | Anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine should only be used to treat COVID-19 in clinical trials or in case of “national emergency”, the European Medicine Agency warned Wednesday. Around the world, countries are expanding access to the two compounds, which are used to treat malaria and are known to have anti-viral …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | A man who coughed on a police officer and threatened to infect him with coronavirus was on Wednesday sentenced to six months in jail in Britain, a police statement said. Adam Lewis, 55, was sentenced under a specific law governing assaults against emergency workers, …

Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russian leader Vladimir Putin has decided to handle his duties remotely, the Kremlin said Wednesday, after the head of the country’s main coronavirus hospital tested positive following a meeting with the president. Denis Protsenko, who met with Putin last week as the Russian leader visited the Kommunarka hospital in Moscow, …

Wiesbaden, Germany | AFP |  Touted as a simple but effective shield against coronavirus infections, transparent screens have sprung up at supermarket tills and pharmacies across Germany. For plexiglass manufacturer Claus Mueller, business has never been better — but no one is celebrating. The Plexiglas Riesner processing plant in Wiesbaden is …

New York, United States | AFP |  The coronavirus pandemic took Brittany Brook’s job on March 16, two days after it took her husband Matthew Whitfield’s, leaving the New York couple scrambling as end-of-the-month bills come due. On April 1, Brook, an artist who until recently taught music at a preschool …

Los Angeles, United States | AFP |  The prison system in the largest US state of California plans to release about 3,500 non-violent inmates early to help mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 illness, officials said Tuesday. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said the first group of inmates …

Paris, France | AFP | Is a homemade mask better than nothing at all? With an unknown number of asymptomatic virus carriers, some experts are advising people to fashion their own face coverings to prevent them spreading the disease. As health workers across the world struggle to get protective equipment and …

Paris, France | AFP | Despite extensive study by doctors and scientists across the world since the new coronavirus first appeared in China three months ago, much about the scourge is still unclear. Here are five key questions that remain unanswered about the virus officially known as SARS-CoV-2 that leads to …