My Daily Routine (MD Mujeeb Subhan)

London:  Britain is "past the peak" of its coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday, despite recording another 674 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 26,711. The country is now the third-most affected in the world behind the United States and Italy on cumulative deaths, after changing its reporting to include community as well as hospital deaths on Wednesday. But PM Johnson, making his first appearance at a daily government briefing since his own battle with COVID-19, said there were reasons for optimism. "For the first time, we are past the peak of this disease... and we are on the downward slope," he told reporters. "We are coming through the peak or rather we are coming over what could have been a vast peak, as though we have been going through some huge Alpine tunnel. "And we can now see the sunlight and the pastures ahead of us. So it's vital that we don't now lose control and run slap into a ...

The eurozone economy shrank at the sharpest pace on record in the first quarter as the Covid-19 pandemic forced countries into lockdown. A first estimate of GDP between January and March showed a contraction of 3.8%, worse than during the financial crisis. Separate figures revealed a steep fall in economic activity in France and Spain over the same period. In Germany, unemployment has increased though it remains relatively low compared with other nations. On Wednesday, the US revealed that its economy had suffered its most severe contraction for more than a decade, after GDP shrank at an annual rate of 4.8% in the first quarter of the year. However, this "annualised" rate implies that the US economy actually contracted by about 1.2% in the three-month period, a less severe contraction than in the eurozone. On Thursday, figures from the US Department of Labor showed that 3.8 million more Americans filed claims for unemployment benefits last week. That is the low...

United Kingdom's death toll from the coronavirus outbreak jumped to 26,097 — the second-highest in Europe behind Italy and third-highest in the world — as the government took into account fatalities outside hospital, including care homes, for the first time. The increase came after surprise news that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had become a father again at age 55, several months earlier than expected, and just weeks after he was taken to hospital with COVID-19. Downing Street announced that his partner, Carrie Symonds, 32, gave birth to a healthy baby boy, prompting messages of congratulation from across the political spectrum at home and abroad. The rare good news was soured however by the additional 4,419 deaths in the overall coronavirus death toll, just as Johnson, who returned to work on Monday, is under pressure to ease a month-long lockdown. Until now, Britain had reported only deaths of people who had tested positive for COVID-19 in hospital but there has b...

Imam-e-Kaaba Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais assured Muslims that worshipers will soon return to the two holy sites in Saudi Arabia, reported the  Saudi Gazette . “Days (will come) when the sorrow will be driven away from the Islamic Ummah and we return to the Two Holy Mosques for tawaf (circumambulation around the Holy Ka'ba), sa'i (the ritual of hastening between the hills of Safa and Marwa) and praying at Al-Rawdah Sharif and greet the Prophet (peace be upon him),” Sheikh Al-Sudais, said in a video posted on official social media accounts. He added that the situation will return to as they were before, assuring people that the state was also keen on creating a sound and healthy environment.  The Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, in a statement posted on Twitter, also reassured Muslims that worshipers will return to the holy sites under the "wise leadership" of the Saudi government. The publication also reported that earlier, Sheikh al Sudais also monit...

Cricket South Africa has asked AB de Villiers "to lead the national side once again" but the dashing batsman wants to ensure that he is in top form when the time comes for donning the national colours. AB DE Villiers, an explosive batsman, announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket in May, 2018 but of late there has been talks of an imminent return in the national team. "The desire is there from my side to play for South Africa and have been asked by Cricket South Africa to lead the Proteas again," the 36-year-old De Villiers, who played 114 Tests, 228 ODIs and 78 T20s, said during Star Sports show 'Cricket Connected'. But the former captain said that he will only make a comeback if he feels that he is good enough to play at the international level even though he has been a regular on franchise circuit. "The most important thing to me is that I have got to be in top form and I have got to be better than the player next t...

As the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) asked state governments to return the rapid antibody testing kits that India had procured from China over inaccurate results, China has questioned the handling of the testing kits by Indian agencies. ICMR, India’s nodal body monitoring Covid-19 in India, has asked the state governments to return the rapid antibody test kits. Beijing has now expressed concern and questioned the handling of the kits. “We have also learned that there are strict requirements for the storage, transportation and use of COVID-19 antibody rapid test kits. Any operation which is not carried out by professionals in accordance with the product specifications will lead to testing accuracy variations,” Counselor Ji Rong, spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in New Delhi said on Monday. ICMR has said that the rapid antibody tests showed a wide variation in results, which is against the assurances given by the manufacturers. States have been advised to return ...

One billion people could become infected with the coronavirus worldwide unless vulnerable countries are given urgent help, an aid group has warned. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said financial and humanitarian aid were needed to help slow the global spread of the virus. It said "fragile countries" such as Afghanistan and Syria needed "urgent funding" to avoid a major outbreak. "There remains a small window of time to mount a robust response," it warned. There have been more than 3m confirmed cases of Covid-19 worldwide with more than 200,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University in the US. The IRC's report, which is based on models and data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Imperial College London, estimated there could be between 500m and 1bn infections globally. It also said there could be more than 3m deaths across dozens of conflict-affected and unstable countries. "These numbers should serve as a...

Country Cases TodayCases Deaths TodayDeaths Recovered Critical USA 1,002,900 +15,740 56,376 +963 137,465 14,175 Spain 229,422 +2,793 23,521 +331 120,832 7,764 Italy 199,414 +1,739 26,977 +333 66,624 1,956 France 165,842 +3,742 23,293 +437 45,513 4,608 Germany 158,213 +443 6,021 +45 114,500 2,570 UK 157,149 +4,309 21,092 +360 1,559 Turkey 112,261 +2,131 2,900 +95 33,791 1,736 Iran 91,472 +991 5,806 +96 70,933 3,011 Russia 87,147 +6,198 794 +47 7,346 2,300 China 82,830 +3 4,633 +1 77,474 52 Brazil 64,161 +1,302 4,340 +69 30,152 8,318 Canada 48,229 +1,334 2,701 +141 17,916 557 Belgium 46,687 +553 7,207 +113 10,878 903 Netherlands 38,245 +400 4,518 +43 905 India 29,451 +1,561 939 +58 7,134 Switzerland 29,164 +103 1,665 +55 21,800 185 Peru 28,699 +1,182 782 +54 8,425 598 Portugal 24,027 +163 928 +25 1,357 176 Ecuador 22,719 576 1,366 127 Ireland 19,648 +386 1,102 +15 9,233 146 Sweden 1...