World Coronavirus Dispatch: Germans denying Covid put under surveillance

New York to end curfew on bars and restaurants next month, Japan to allow vaccine rollouts without clinical trials, Europe pins hopes on vaccine campaigns--pandemic related news across the globe

Germans denying Covid put under surveillance

Germany’s domestic intelligence service is surveiling members of the increasingly aggressive coronavirus denier movement because they posed a risk of undermining the state. The movement — fueled in part by wild conspiracy theories — has grown from criticising coronavirus lockdown measures and hygiene rules to targeting the state itself, its leaders, businesses, the press and globalism, to name a few. The movement, called Querdenken, German for lateral thinking, communicates and recruits over social media and has a large presence on the encrypted chat service Telegram, where its main channel has 65,000 subscribers. Read here

Let's look at the global statistics

Global infections: 149,642,605

Global deaths: 3,151,176

Nations with most cases: US (32,230,019), India (18,376,421), Brazil (14,521,289), France (5,626,985), Turkey (4,751,026).

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

New York to end its curfew on bars and restaurants next month

New York will end a curfew next month that forced bars and restaurants to close early in a bid to fight the spread of the coronavirus. The announcement by governor Cumo came as state lawmakers voted to suspend an unpopular directive that required customers to order food when purchasing alcohol at bars and restaurants. The curfew, which currently requires establishments to stop serving customers at midnight, will end statewide on May 17 for outdoor dining areas and May 31 for indoor dining. Read here

Japan to allow vaccine rollouts without clinical trials

Japan will consider making vaccines and medical treatments that have yet to be domestically approved available in an emergency after regulatory hurdles delayed its vaccination campaign. Amid criticism over Japan's slow pace of inoculation, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga hopes to update existing legislation. If approved, new vaccines and treatments that are already in use overseas would temporarily be made available to the public before a clinical trial can be completed in Japan. Read here

Europe pins hopes on vaccine campaigns as Covid curbs relaxed

European leaders are lifting restrictions across a lockdown-weary bloc as they see it as calculated risk that accelerating vaccination campaigns will keep high infection rates in check. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, is set to present details of a progressive relaxation of Covid measures. Germany raised its economic growth forecast for 2021 and also citing the gathering pace of vaccinations as light at the end of the tunnel. Poland and Netherlands have eased restrictions and curfews with more members walking on the similar lanes. Read here