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Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.Heres the latest:
– President Donald Trump said he is open to some states “reopening” before federal social distancing guidelines expire at the end of month. The comments came as he appeared to walk back his claim of absolute authority to decide when the time was right to act
– Last night, Mr Trump also announced the suspension of funding to the World Health Organisation, as well as an investigation into the WHOs handling of the coronavirus pandemic
– Some elements of personal protective equipment (PPE) could be reused by NHS staff as a “last resort”, a leaked Public Health England (PHE) document shows. IIt states that protective masks and gowns could need to be cleaned and reused when stocks run low and admits there is currently a “reduced ability to re-supply” PPE, the BBC reported
– Britains economy could shrink by 35 per cent and unemployment rise by more than 2 million people due to the crisis, chancellor Rishi Sunak has warned
– Japan’s death toll from the novel coronavirus could reach 400,000 without measures to stem the contagion, according to a health ministry projection reported by local media
– The United States may need to endure social distancing measures adopted during the coronavirus outbreak until 2022, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health
– Joint debt issuance is a possible euro zone response to tackle the coronavirus emergency, Eurogroup president Mario Centeno said in an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily on Thursday
– The IMF has predicted the Great Lockdown recession would be the steepest in almost a century and warned the world economys contraction and recovery would be worse than anticipated if the coronavirus lingers or returns
– The number of worldwide deaths has surpassed 120,000; close to 2 million confirmed cases have been reported