World

MUMBAI/CHENNAI,  (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – People suspected of having the coronavirus in India have received hand stamps and are being tracked using their mobile phones and personal data to help enforce quarantines, raising concerns about privacy and mass surveillance.

LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – California issued an unprecedented statewide ‘stay at home” order yesterday for its 40 million residents and Washington warned Americans to return home or stay abroad indefinitely, as the number of coronavirus deaths in the country hit 200.

RIO DE JANEIRO,  (Reuters) – Confirmed coronavirus cases in Brazil surged past 600 yesterday, more than doubling in two days, as a diplomatic spat over the disease’s origins between President Jair Bolsonaro’s son and the Chinese ambassador threatened relations with Brazil’s top trading partner.

PORT-AU-PRINCE,  (Reuters) – Haiti’s government yesterday declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus outbreak, closing the borders of the Americas’ poorest nation and imposing a curfew after authorities detected the first two cases of infection.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – U.S. oil prices rose 20% today, recouping some losses from a sell-off that drove prices to near 20-year lows, but analysts saw the rebound as a brief reprieve, anticipating more weakness as the coronavirus outbreak takes its toll on global demand.

RENTON, Washington,  (Reuters) – Doctors in Seattle have been reduced to making their own face masks out of sheets of plastic, after a global shortage of medical protective gear has hit Washington state, an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

MUMBAI,  (Reuters) – Indian healthcare professionals are questioning claims by popular yoga guru and entrepreneur Baba Ramdev who said he has found an ayurvedic remedy that would help ward off coronavirus.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – The United States and Canada closed their shared border to “non-essential traffic” yesterday to curb transmission of the coronavirus as U.S.

RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – The coronavirus outbreak hammered Brazil yesterday, crushing local markets, infecting more members of the country’s political elite and prompting loud protests against President Jair Bolsonaro, whose son waded into a diplomatic spat with China.

MARACAIBO, Venezuela,  (Reuters) – Some gasoline stations in Venezuela were unusually empty yesterday, as regional authorities banned queuing for gasoline as part of a nationwide quarantine to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The United States is suspending all routine visa services as of yesterday in most countries worldwide due to the coronavirus outbreak, a spokeswoman for the State Department said, an unprecedented move that will potentially impact hundreds of thousands of people.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – The U.S. government canceled all deportation hearings for immigrants not in detention after immigration judges and government prosecutors complained busy courts were putting them at risk of COVID-19 infection.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Roadblocks across Venezuela snarled the transportation of goods yesterday and businesses in the capital Caracas reported that food deliveries failed to arrive, in signs that a national coronavirus quarantine could worsen a humanitarian crisis.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – The econo-mies of Mexico, Chile and Argentina will all likely shrink this year while Brazil should expect no growth as the coronavirus pandemic ravages supply and demand around the world, Credit Suisse said in a note to clients.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – The Trump administration said yesterday it was pursuing a $1 trillion stimulus package that could deliver $1,000 checks to Americans within two weeks to buttress the economy as the number of deaths from coronavirus nationwide crossed 100.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Joe Biden coasted to a blowout victory over Bernie Sanders in Florida’s Democratic presidential primary and was projected to win Illinois yesterday, edging closer to the nomination to face President Donald Trump in November’s election.

RIO DE JANEIRO/ BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro said yesterday his second coronavirus test was negative and his government asked Congress to authorize a state of emergency that would allow it to scrap fiscal targets and free up funds to combat the virus’ spread.

SYDNEY/CHICAGO  (Reuters) – Australia and Taiwan joined a growing list of countries offering financial aid to their ailing aviation sectors as global airlines announced deeper capacity cuts due to plummeting demand and stricter border controls associated with the coronavirus.

SAO PAULO,  (Reuters) – With alcohol gel supplies increasingly stretched, Ambev SA said yesterday it will use one of its Brazil beer breweries to produce half a million sanitizer bottles for public hospitals to fight the spread of coronavirus.

MUMBAI,  (Reuters) – India closed the Taj Mahal, its top tourist site, and the financial hub of Mumbai ordered offices providing non-essential services to function at 50% staffing levels as efforts to control the spread of coronavirus in South Asia ramped up.