In the US, the government reported that 3.8 million laid-off workers applied for jobless benefits last week, raising the total to more than 30 million in the six weeks since the outbreak took hold. The lay-offs amount to one in six American workers and encompass more people than the entire population of Texas.

Some economists say that when the US unemployment rate for April comes out next week, it could be as high as 20 per cent – a figure not seen since the Depression of the 1930s, when joblessness peaked at 25 per cent.

There was grim new data across Europe, too, where more than 130,000 people with the virus have died. The economy in the 19 countries using the euro shrank 3.8 per cent in the first quarter of the year, the biggest contraction since the euro zone countries began keeping joint statistics in 1995.

“This is the saddest day for the global economy we have ever seen” in the 50 years that economists at High Frequency Economics have been following the data, they wrote in a report.

The virus has killed over 230,000 people worldwide, including more than 62,000 in the US, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Confirmed infections globally topped 3.2 million, with over 1 million of them in the US, but the true numbers are believed to be much higher because of limited testing, differences in counting the dead and concealment by some governments.

Here are the developments:

Trump ‘confident’ virus originated from Chinese lab

“Yes, I have,” Trump told reporters when he was asked whether he has seen any evidence that gives him a “high degree of confidence” that the virus emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is located in the city where the virus was first detected late last year.

But the president declined to explain why he has come to that conclusion.

“I can’t tell you that. I’m not allowed to tell you that,” he said.

Trump reiterated to reporters on Thursday that the virus “should have never been allowed to escape China” and that “they should have stopped it at the source”.

In a separate press availability, Trump said that the virus could have been intentionally allowed to spread and the outcome of an investigation could be made public soon.

“We’re finding out how it came in different forms … You’ve heard three or four different concepts as to how it came out. We should have the answer to that in the not-too-distant future,” he said.

Asked how China should pay the price for its alleged misconduct, Trump said “we can do it with tariffs” or “other ways even beyond that”.

WHO hopes for invitation from China

The World Health Organisation said on Friday it hoped China would invite it to take part in its investigations into the animal origins of the novel coronavirus.

“WHO would be keen to work with international partners and at the invitation of the Chinese government to participate in investigation around the animal origins,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said.

He said the UN health agency understood there were a number of investigations under way in China “to better understand the source of the outbreak”, but added that “WHO is not currently involved in the studies in China.”

Scientists believe the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year, possibly from a market in Wuhan selling exotic animals for meat.

But US President Donald Trump has fuelled speculation and rumours – generally rejected by experts – that the virus may have emerged in a top-secret Chinese lab.

WHO has also faced scathing criticism from Trump, who earlier this month suspended Washington’s funding after accusing the WHO of downplaying the seriousness of the outbreak and of kowtowing to China.

The UN health agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus did travel with a team to China in late January, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to learn more about the response.

This paved the way, Tedros explained earlier this week, for an international team of scientists to travel there in February to investigate the situation, including experts from China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore and the US.

But as investigations into the origins of the virus have picked up pace in China, the WHO has not been involved.

India extends lockdown for two more weeks

The Indian government said on Friday that the world’s biggest coronavirus lockdown will be extended for two weeks beyond May 4, but with some easing of restrictions.

The home ministry said in a statement that in view of “significant gains in the Covid-19 situation”, areas with few or no cases would see “considerable relaxations”.

The lockdown imposed on March 25 has caused misery for millions of workers in India’s vast informal sector and dealt a major blow to Asia’s third-biggest economy.

However the stringent restrictions have been credited with keeping confirmed cases of coronavirus to a relatively low 35,365 as of Friday, with 1,152 deaths. But some experts have said the vast country of 1.3 billion, home to some of the most congested cities in the world, is not testing enough.

In addition, there are concerns that if the virus catches hold in a big way, India’s poorly funded health care system will be severely stretched.

The government has now divided India into red zones with “significant risk of spread of the infection”; green zones with either zero cases or no confirmed cases in the past 21 days; and those in between as orange.

Red and orange zones will continue to have intensified contact tracing, house-to-house surveillance, and no movement in or out except for medical emergencies and the supply of essential goods and services, the home ministry statement said.

Russian PM tests positive

First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov will temporarily perform Mishustin’s duties, but the prime minister said Thursday that he would stay in touch on key issues. Mishustin, 54, was named prime minister in January.

“I have found out that the coronavirus tests I had done returned with a positive result,” Mishustin said. “I need to self-isolate, and follow doctors’ instructions. This is necessary for the safety of my colleagues.”

Putin, who was listening on a televised video conference, sighed when he heard the news, wished Mishustin a speedy recovery and said he agreed with the proposed replacement. Mishustin said he would remain in contact with members of the government and Putin by phone and video conference despite his condition.

“What is happening to you can happen to anyone,” Putin replied matter-of-factly. “When you get to the hospital, call me. I’ll be waiting for your call.”

Russia on Friday reported 7,933 new cases of the coronavirus, a record daily rise, bringing its nationwide tally to 114,431.

The official nationwide death toll rose to 1,169 after 96 people with the virus died in the last 24 hours, Russia’s coronavirus crisis response centre said.

Malaysia to reopen economy on May 4

Addressing the country on Friday morning, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said nearly all economic sectors would reopen, subject to conditions, after more than 40 days of a movement control order that had shut schools and non-essential businesses and banned social visits and mass gatherings.

Social gatherings, however, would still be controlled.

“Stopping meaningful economic activity means stopping the country’s source of income. Taxes cannot be collected, the industry cannot grow, economic growth is stunted and what we particularly want to avoid is businesses being forced to close and workers losing their jobs,” he said.

However, Malaysia would not be allowing several sectors or types of business to operate, said Muhyddin. These included movie theatres, karaoke joints, clubs and conferences or exhibitions.

The lockdown, announced in mid-March, helped slow the spread of the disease. However the government last week said it was estimating daily losses of 2.4 billion ringgit (US$550 million) while businesses remained closed.

The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research on April 25 estimated around 2.4 million Malaysians could lose their jobs if the lockdown was extended.

Singapore cases cross 17,000

The vast majority of the new infections are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories. Five cases are Singaporeans and permanent residents.

Earlier, Singapore extended its stay-home notice for foreign workers in the construction sector by two weeks.

Work permit, S-Pass holders and their dependents in the construction sector will now have to serve stay-home notices until May 18, according to a press release by the Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Health and the Building and Construction Authority.

An extension of stay-home notice by a further 14 days to cover another incubation cycle will help to break the cycle of transmission, the statement cited a public health assessment by the Ministry of Health. Current notice was until May 4.

Singapore government agencies have noted that infections among construction workers living outside purpose-built dormitories, where movement restrictions remain in force. The number of infected construction work pass holders living these premises have continued to rise.

Efforts to extend and adhere to the stay-home notice will help enable an “eventual restart” of the construction sector in the island nation.

China reports 12 new cases

China reported 12 new coronavirus cases for April 30, up from four a day earlier, data from the country’s health authority showed on Friday.

Six of the cases were imported, the National Health Commission (NHC) said, up from four a day earlier. Of the domestic transmission cases, five were in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and one in the northern region of Inner Mongolia.

China reported no domestic transmission cases a day earlier. The NHC also announced 25 new asymptomatic cases for April 30, down from 33 a day earlier.

The total number of confirmed cases in the country has reached 82,874. With no new deaths on Thursday, the toll remained at 4,633.

German extremists plan protests against virus curbs

A fringe protest group of extremists from the left and right of the political spectrum is plotting further rallies against Germany’s coronavirus restrictions on Friday, to coincide with traditional May 1 demonstrations.

In the capital Berlin, 5,000 police officers are set to be deployed to enforce rules, which limit registered protests to 20 people on a day usually characterised by large left-wing demonstrations and street festivals.

The city’s hard-left scene has vowed to adapt its traditional May 1 march to observe social distancing and reduce infection risk, but authorities face a further headache this year from others intending to oppose the coronavirus measures.

“May 1 must not become another Ischgl,” the interior minister for Berlin, Andreas Geisel, said this week, referencing the Austrian ski resort, which became a hotbed of infection earlier this year.

Berlin’s radical left groups, whose demonstration is usually the focal point of May 1 festivities, have changed their strategy this year to avoid the risk of infection.

Although they have promised to “flood the streets with anti-racist, anti-patriarchal and anti-capitalist content”, the organisers have also urged demonstrators to keep their distance from one another, cover their nose and mouth and remain on the move.

Since the end of March, the city’s central Rosa Luxemburg Platz has become a weekly rallying point for a self-proclaimed “democratic resistance” to the coronavirus curbs on public life.

The so-called “hygiene demos” have attracted left and right-wing extremists, as well as conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers, who argue that the restrictions are an illegal attempt to curtail civil liberties by an authoritarian state.

Australia says no evidence virus came from China lab

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was confident the coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese virology lab, but declined to describe the evidence he said he had seen.

Morrison said on Friday that Australia had no information to support that theory, and said the confusion supported his push for an inquiry to understand how the outbreak started and then spread rapidly around the world.

“What we have before us doesn’t suggest that is the likely source,” Morrison told a news conference in Canberra when asked about Trump’s comments.

“There’s nothing we have that would indicate that was the likely source, though you can’t rule anything out in these environments,” he said.

“We know it started in China, we know it started in Wuhan, the most likely scenario that has been canvassed relates to wildlife wet markets, but that’s a matter that would have to be thoroughly assessed.”

The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), based in the city where the disease was first identified, has rejected suggestions the coronavirus came from its laboratory.

Relations between Australia and China have been strained since the government began canvassing support in mid-April for an international inquiry into the outbreak.

Beijing sees the inquiry call as part of US-led propaganda against China, while Morrison says the world needs to understand exactly what happened to prevent a repeat of an outbreak that has so far killed more than 200,000 people and shut down much of the global economy.

“That’s why it is just so important to understand what happened, to make sure that we can prevent such a broad-based global catastrophe from happening again,” Morrison said.

Mexican protest signer Oscar Chávez dies

One of Mexico’s best-known protest singers, Oscar Chávez, has died at age 85, apparently after being infected with the coronavirus.

Mexico’s culture secretary confirmed the singer’s death, but the Social Security Institute would not comment on local media reports saying he died on Thursday of complications from Covid-19. A note on Chavez’s personal twitter account, signed by his staff, said he had been hospitalised on Wednesday with symptoms of the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Chávez was best known for folk-style songs lampooning Mexico’s corrupt political elite. One such song was “La Casita” (“The Little House“), which described an imaginary politician’s mansion.

Culture Secretary Alejandra Frausto wrote on Twitter: “Thank you, Oscar Chávez, your life was journey worthy of you! My deepest sympathy to your relatives, friends and companions in struggle and song.”

Singapore houses recovered workers on ships

Singapore is moving migrant workers who have recovered from the coronavirus on to two cruise ships as part of efforts to reduce the spread of the disease within the workers’ dormitories, which have seen a surge in infections.

The city state managed to keep the Covid-19 outbreak in check in the early stages, but is facing a fast-moving second wave of cases, with the vast majority of new infections in sprawling dormitory complexes housing migrant workers, many of them construction labourers from South Asia.

In a bid to reduce the risk of infection in crowded dorms, authorities have moved workers to other sites including military barracks and vacant apartment blocks.

A group of workers boarded the SuperStar Gemini, a mid-sized cruise ship, on Wednesday, and another vessel, the SuperStar Aquarius, is ready to receive more after undergoing assessments by government agencies, the Singapore Tourism Board said on Friday.

Together, the vessels can accommodate up to 2,000.

Cruise ships have been the site of massive outbreaks during the pandemic.

On the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship that docked in Yokohama, Japan, officials opted to carry out a much-criticised onboard quarantine that they argued would limit infections, but more than 700 people ultimately contracted the virus and 13 died.

To reduce the risk of infection, workers are housed in twin rooms with en-suite toilets and are told to follow safe distancing measures, the tourism board said, adding food is individually packaged and hung outside cabins.

Japan aquarium seeks video chats for eels

A Japanese aquarium closed during the coronavirus outbreak is asking people to make video calls to their eels so the sensitive creatures remember humans exist and don’t pose a threat.

The Sumida Aquarium, housed in the landmark Tokyo Skytree tower, has been closed since the start of March and its animals have become used to a largely human-free environment during the two-month calm.

But the aquarium said the “unprecedented situation” was having some unexpected downsides.

“Creatures in the aquarium don’t see humans except keepers and they have started forgetting about humans,” it said on its Twitter account this week.

“Garden eels in particular disappear into the sand and hide every time the keepers pass by,” it noted. That is causing difficulties for keepers trying to check on the health of the animals.

“Let us make an emergency plea,” the aquarium wrote.

“Could you show your face to our garden eels from your home?” it requested, calling the event a “face-showing festival”.

In a bid to reacquaint the eels with humans, the aquarium is setting up five tablets facing the tank housing the delicate creatures, with eel enthusiasts asked to connect through iPhones or iPads via the FaceTime app.

Once the video calls start, people are supposed to show their faces, wave and talk to the eels. But given the tender nature of the animals, callers are asked not to shout.

Reuters, Kyodo, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, dpa and Tribune News Service