South Korea has reported zero new local coornavirus cases and four imported cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours. It is the first time that its daily jump has marked below five in about two months. The Koreas Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on April 30 country’s total is 10,765 with 247 deaths.
India has cancelled orders to import coronavirus rapid testing kits from China after finding them to be “faulty”. The country had placed an order for about half a million kits from two Chinese firms: Wondfo Biotech and Livzon Diagnostic. States in India had refused to use the rapid testing kits, claiming they were only 5% accurate.
Punjab will begin random COVID-19 testing of people for an assessment of coronavirus prevalence in the province from Tuesday. This will help draw a complete epidemiological assessment of the situation,” the Health Department of Punjab said in a tweet on Monday night. The samples will include these places in the beginning: hospitals, mandis, markets, residential areas and pharmacies.
The Punjab government has launched a mobile application Taleem Ghar in order to facilitate the students confined to their home due to the coronavirus lockdown. Previously, the government launched a TV channel by the same name. Students from class one to eight as well as matric and intermediate will be able to study using this app very soon.
The Singapore University of Technology and Design has predicted through mathematical modeling that Covid-19 will end around June 3 for Pakistan. Its project of data-driven estimation of end dates brings together projections for other countries as well. It uses data from Our World in Data and applies the SIR Model for Spread of Disease – The Differential Equation Model.
Saudi Arabia will partially lift the curfew in all regions of the kingdom from 9am to 5pm, starting Sunday through Wednesday, May 13. The order was issued by King Salman. According to state news agency SPA, the 24-hour curfew will, however, remain in Makkah and in previously isolated neighbourhoods. The order also allowed the opening of some economic and commercial activities.
China sent another team of doctors and medical aid to Pakistan that reached the Islamabad International Airport on Saturday. According to the ISPR, the team has an expertise in dealing with patients affected by the novel coroanavirus. The doctors will stay in the country for the next two months. They will also analyse Pakistan’s medical services and will advise doctors and paramedic staff working on the front line.
The Indian Council of Medical Research has asked states across the country to stop using COVID-19 rapid testing kits after discrepancies in results. The state of Rajasthan has completely halted testing through the kits. According to Rajasthan Medical and Health Minister Raghu Sharma, they did rapid tests on 168 confirmed cases but only 5.4% of them tested positive for antibodies.
Two cats in New York have become the first pets in the United States to test positive for the new coronavirus. According to US health authorities there is no evidence pets can spread the vrus to humans. The cats, from separate areas of New York state, had mild respiratory illness and are expected to make a full recovery.
Netflix reported soaring profits as subscriptions surged by almost 16 million at the streaming television service during coronavirus lockdown. Netflix made a profit of $709 million on revenue of $5.8 billion in the first three months of this year. The number of paid subscribers grew by 15.7 million from the previous quarter to total nearly 183 million, according to earnings figures.