| | | What you need to know about the coronavirus today |
Entering the Baltic Travel Bubble The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia opened their borders to each other at the stroke of midnight, creating Europe's first "travel bubble". The idea is that neighboring countries with similar results in tackling the pandemic allow free movement between them. New Zealand and Australia discussed a similar "Trans-Tasman bubble" earlier this month, but have not yet set a date for its start. "The Baltic Travel Bubble is an opportunity for businesses to reopen, and a glimmer of hope for the people that life is getting back to normal," Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said. Full border-free movement within Europe is unlikely to resume until next month at the earliest. | | | |
Queues in the airport ... Anyone worried about the difficulty of maintaining social distancing when travel does begin again, has good reason, judging by the queues at Jakarta's airport on Thursday. Photographs posted on social media days after the partial resumption of operations showed passengers queuing cheek by jowl in snaking lines to enter the airport and crowding inside it. State airport operator Angkasa Pura said lines had thinned by afternoon and efforts were underway to ensure physical distancing. Travelers are required to provide a clean bill of health, and a letter from their employer stating the purpose of travel to be able to board an airplane. ...and the office Not removing your face mask even indoors, casual dress codes and awkwardness over accepting handshakes are characterising the new normal as financial professionals start returning to the office in Hong Kong. But above all there are the queues, as social distancing affects everything from taking the lift to grabbing a coffee. "It's refreshing to come back to the office, but with so many restrictions, I now wouldn't mind working from home once in a while," said one of a group of bankers who gave up on a team coffee and returned to the office after waiting for a table. In Wuhan, more testing times Residents stood in pouring rain in queues of more than an hour to be tested for the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the global pandemic began last year. State media reported the city of 11 million tested over 3 million residents since April, and will now focus its testing efforts on the rest, prioritizing those who have not been tested before, people living in residential compounds that had previous cases of the virus, as well as old or densely populated estates. Wuhan has conducted 1.79 million tests from April 1 to May 13, according to Reuters calculations based on daily reports published by the city's health commission. Track the spread with our interactive graphic and live blog. | |
Reuters reporters and editors around the world are investigating the response to the coronavirus pandemic. We need your help to tell these stories. Our news organization wants to capture the full scope of what’s happening and how we got here by drawing on a wide variety of sources. Here’s a look at our coverage. Are you a government employee or contractor involved in coronavirus testing or the wider public health response? Are you a doctor, nurse or health worker caring for patients? Have you worked on similar outbreaks in the past? Has the disease known as COVID-19 personally affected you or your family? Are you aware of new problems that are about to emerge, such as critical supply shortages? We need your tips, firsthand accounts, relevant documents or expert knowledge. Please contact us at [email protected]. We prefer tips from named sources, but if you’d rather remain anonymous, you can submit a confidential news tip. Here’s how. | |
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