More US states eased pandemic lockdown measures on Friday even as coronavirus deaths rose, while American authorities greenlighted an experimental drug for emergency use on patients.
Washington also renewed its warnings to Beijing a day after President Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on China, with the White House accusing Chinese authorities of “slow-walking” coronavirus data and putting US lives at risk.
India meanwhile announced that the world’s biggest lockdown on most of the nation’s 1.3 billion people would continue for two more weeks.
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But several European countries have begun to ease restrictions that have shut in half the world, joining some Asian nations that feel they have already turned a corner.
The United States took a major step in that direction, with Texas becoming the largest state yet to ease lockdowns, despite reporting 50 deaths on Thursday, the most there since the outbreak began.
Stores, restaurants, movie theaters, malls, museums and libraries were allowed to reopen in Texas but at just 25 percent capacity. The governor urged residents to wear face masks and maintain social distancing.
Receptionist Diane Curtis headed to a mall in Houston to buy shoes and “get out of the house.”
“Eventually it’s like every other sickness that comes around,” she said of coronavirus. “It’ll go away but it’ll probably take time.”
With about 1.1 million confirmed cases, more than 64,500 of them fatal, the United States has the highest tolls of any country.
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Trump, eager for a turnaround, announced Friday that US regulators have authorized the use of remdesivir to treat serious virus cases. A major clinical trial found that the antiviral helped patients with serious cases of COVID-19 recover faster.
Meanwhile, the White House again pointed fingers at Beijing.
“It’s no secret that China mishandled this situation,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, highlighting what she described as Beijing’s failure to quickly share the virus’s genetic sequence or information on human-to-human transmission.
“Slow-walking some of that information put American lives at risk,” McEnany said.
https://www.anaedoonline.com/2020/05/01/trump-reveals-he-has-evidence-how-china-developed-coronavirus-at-wuhan-lab/
Washington’s sharp rhetoric, including Trump’s unproven allegation Thursday that the virus might have come from a Chinese lab, an accusation rejected by Beijing, and threats of more US trade tariffs sent stocks in London and New York tumbling.
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