South Korea Closes Schools Just Days After Reopening As New Cases Spike, Africa Confirms Another 5.5k Cases: Live Updates

Summary:

• Africa reports another 5.5k cases
• SK closes 250+ schools just days after reopening
• Nearly 80 new cases reported Thursday, with another 50+ on Friday
• France declares Paris no longer a ‘red’ zone’
• UK loosens some restrictions on household visitors
• Russia reports record jump in deaths
• Brazil reports record jump in cases, deaths
• Philippines reports record daily jump in cases as Manila reopens

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Update (0830ET): About 5,500 more more people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Africa since Thursday, according to the WHO’s regional office on the continent.

The latest update from the UN health agency’s Africa office showed that there were now 128,500 confirmed infections across the continent’s 54 countries, which have a combined pop. of ~1.3 billion people. Of these ~130k who have tested positive, more than 53,000 have recovered and about 3,700 have died.

Over 128,500 confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent – with more than 53,000 recoveries & 3,700 deaths. View country figures & more with the WHO African Region COVID-19 Dashboard: https://t.co/V0fkK7WnuG pic.twitter.com/H7aVNiWugS

— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) May 29, 2020

NGOs have praised African leaders for coming together to combat the virus, and also breathed a sigh of relief as the devastation that many once predicted seems to never have arrived.

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As more US states see the number of newly confirmed cases – and, in some states, deaths as well – climb more than a month after Georgia and a handful of other states took the first aggressive steps toward reopening, South Korea – which has also seen cases tick higher over the past two weeks – has closed hundreds of schools just days after reopening them.

After Denmark became the first EU member to reopen its schools earlier this week, South Korea has decided to return students to their remote learning routines after confirming 79 new cases – the highest daily total in two months – on Thursday (cases are reported with a 24-hour delay). A total of 251 schools in Bucheon have now been closed. And a further 117 schools in the capital Seoul have also postponed their re-opening after one student was found to be infected.

Most of these new cases have been linked to a distribution center outside Seoul, in the city of Bucheon, which is run by e-commerce giant Coupang, South Korea’s Amazon (for lack of a better comparison)

According to the BBC, officials have said the facility was not strictly complying with infection control measures. During an inspection, health officials discovered traces of Covid-19 on workers’ shoes and clothes.

The country is now bracing for potentially hundreds of more cases as it tests thousands of workers. Some 58 new cases were recorded on Friday, bringing the total number of cases nationwide to 11,402.

Public parks and museums across Seoul and the surrounding area have now once again been closed, businesses are once again being asked to allow workers to work from home, and people are once again being asked to avoid mass gatherings.

As we reported last night, Brazil reported a record jump in new cases and deaths on Thursday, as more critics of President Jair Bolsonaro are accusing the president of deliberately ignoring the virus and taking other steps to encourage a return to street violence and unrest – so that his administration would be justified in a crackdown that would return Brazil to de facto dictatorship.

In the Philippines, residents in Manila will see their lockdown – one of the toughest and longest in the world – ease from Monday, as we reported earlier this week, even though the country reported a new record jump in cases on Thursday, with 539 new infections reported, bringing the total to 15,588 and 921 deaths.

In the UK, while the number of deaths remains stubbornly high, PM Boris Johnson has said members of different households will be allowed to meet on patios and in gardens, but must remain 2 meters apart.

But it wasn’t all bad news: The risks posed by the virus have been reduced to “orange” across Paris, according to French PM Edouard Philippe. Still, Paris lags the majority of French regions, which have been designated “green.”

Russia recorded a record jump in coronavirus-related deaths on Friday, with 232 in the past day, pushing the nationwide total to 4,374.

Russian health officials said 8,572 new infections had been confirmed, bringing the national tally to 387,623, according to TASS, leaving Russia with the third-highest total in the world. Of these deaths, 50 were recorded in Dagestan, 20 in Moscow and the surrounding area, and 11 in St. Petersburg, while North Ossetia, Krasnoyarsk and Oryol reported 6 each.