Dubai: A 50-year-old Indian teacher has died of coronavirus in the UAE, according to a media report. Anil Kumar, a Hindi teacher at Sunrise School in Abu Dhabi, died on Sunday morning, the Gulf News reported. Kumar was detected with COVID-19 on May 7.

In a statement, the Sunrise School said, “The sad and shocking demise of Mr Anil Kumar, a senior Hindi teacher of Sunrise School on May 24, has left the entire Sunrise family in a pall of gloom.

“The bond that he had developed over the years, just as how we have with each faculty, makes the loss unbearable. The entire school is shaken and finds it hard to come to terms with this most saddening news,” the daily quoted the statement.

Kumar is survived by his wife and two children. His wife Rajini teaches mathematics at the Sunrise School.

The coronavirus, which first emerged in China’s Wuhan city in December last year, has claimed 245 lives with nearly 30,000 confirmed cases in the UAE. The virus has so far killed over 3,45,000 people across the world.

A cluster of six new cases was recently found in one part of the city, the first local infections the government has reported in Wuhan since before the lockdown was eased in early April.

BANGKOK: Authorities in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic began were moving forward Wednesday with efforts to test all 11 million residents for the virus within 10 days after a handful of fresh infections were found there.

The US government’s top infectious disease expert, meanwhile, issued a blunt warning that cities and states could see more COVID-19 deaths and economic damage if they lift stay-at-home orders too quickly — a sharp contrast to President Donald Trump, who is pushing to right a free-falling economy.

“There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control,” Dr. Anthony Fauci warned a Senate committee and the nation Tuesday as more than two dozen states have begun to lift their lockdowns.

China, the first nation to put a large number of its citizens under lockdown and the first to ease those restrictions, has been strictly guarding against any resurgence.

District health commissions and neighborhood committees in the city of Wuhan have been told to develop a plan to test all residents in their jurisdictions, local media reports said. The directive also said the testing should focus on the elderly, densely populated areas and places with mobile populations.

A person who answered the mayor’s hotline in Wuhan on Wednesday said local districts had been given 10 days to carry out the tests. The official declined to give his name because she was not authorized to speak to reporters.

The first cases of the new coronavirus were found in Wuhan in December, and by the end of January the government had placed the entire city and the surrounding region, home to more than 50 million people, under a strict lockdown.

A cluster of six new cases was recently found in one part of the city, the first local infections the government has reported in Wuhan since before the lockdown was eased in early April.

It wasn’t clear how many people would actually still need to be tested, as one expert at Wuhan University told the Global Times newspaper that up to 5 million residents of Wuhan have already been tested since the outbreak began.

Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 4.2 million people and killed over 291,000 — with more than 82,000 deaths in the US alone, the world’s highest toll. Experts say the actual numbers are likely far higher.

China has largely brought the virus under control, but it remains on edge, fearful that a second wave could undermine its efforts to get the economy back up and running.

BEIJING: China reported no new domestic coronavirus infections on Tuesday, after two consecutive days of double-digit increases fuelled fears of a second wave of infections.

China has largely brought the virus under control, but it remains on edge, fearful that a second wave could undermine its efforts to get the economy back up and running.

A new cluster reappeared over the weekend in the city of Wuhan, where the pandemic first emerged, while the northeastern city of Shulan was placed under lockdown Sunday after another outbreak emerged.

On Monday, China’s National Health Commission reported 17 new cases, five of them in Wuhan. Seven of the new cases were imported.

A day earlier, China announced the first double-digit increase in nationwide cases in nearly 10 days, saying 14 new infections had been confirmed. Wuhan also saw its first new case in over a month.

For the 27th consecutive day, there were no deaths reported. One imported case was recorded.

The country’s official death toll remains at 4,633, while the total number of infections in the mainland is 82,919.

The government will also be suspending the entry to those coming from the aforementioned countries and entry to those who were in those countries within a time period of 14 days.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has extended its travel ban to include the European Union and 12 other countries, including India, as the number of coronavirus cases in the Kingdom jumped to 62, according to media reports on Friday.

Saudi health officials on Friday announced 17 new coronavirus cases, raising the number of cases in the country to 62, according to the official Saudi news agency.

There are 11 foreign nationals among the people who contracted the virus, Saudi Press Agency quoted the Saudi Health Ministry as saying.

One person was discharged from hospital after recovering from the virus, the statement said.

Saudi Arabia early Thursday suspended flights to all EU countries as well as Switzerland, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Sudan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, Djibouti, and Somalia.

“Saudi Arabia’s government decided to temporarily suspend the travel of citizens and residents, and to suspend flights to the European Union countries, as well as Switzerland, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Sudan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, Djibouti, and Somalia,” Saudi Gazette quoted a source at the Ministry of Interior as saying.

The government will also be suspending the entry to those coming from the aforementioned countries and entry to those who were in those countries within a time period of 14 days prior to their arrival to the Kingdom, it said.

The government’s decision grants Saudi nationals and citizens of those countries with valid Saudi residency visas 72 hours to return to the Kingdom before the travel suspension comes into effect.

The travel ban excludes Indian and Filipino medical practitioners working in the Kingdom, taking into account the necessary and required precautions, the report said.

The ministries of interior and health would coordinate while dealing with humanitarian and exceptional cases, without prejudice to the necessary precautionary and preventive measures.

The decision expanded the number of countries included in the travel ban list to 53.

After emerging in Wuhan, China last December, the novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has spread to at least 114 countries.

Saudi Arabia on March 9 suspended travel to Oman, France, Germany, Turkey, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Italy, and South Korea.

Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975. He was CEO of the company until 2000.

WASHINGTON: Microsoft on Friday (local time) announced that its co-founder Bill Gates has stepped down from the company’s board of directors to dedicate more time to his philanthropic priorities including global health and education.

Gates will, however, continue to serve as the technology advisor to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

“Microsoft Corp. today announced that co-founder and technology advisor Bill Gates stepped down from the company’s board of directors to dedicate more time to his philanthropic priorities including global health, development, education, and his increasing engagement in tackling climate change. He will continue to serve as Technology Advisor to CEO Satya Nadella and other leaders in the company,” the company said in the statement.

Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975. He was CEO of the company until 2000.

In 2008, Gates transitioned out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

With Gates’ departure, the board will consist of 12 members including John W. Thompson, Microsoft independent chair, Reid Hoffman, partner at Greylock Partners, Hugh Johnston, vice chairman and chief financial officer of PepsiCo, Teri L List-Stoll, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Gap, Inc. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.

Nadella said that it was a tremendous honour and privilege to have worked with Gates.

“It’s been a tremendous honour and privilege to have worked with and learned from Bill over the years. Bill founded our company with a belief in the democratising force of software and a passion to solve society’s most pressing challenges. And Microsoft and the world are better for it,” the statement quoted him.

“The board has benefited from Bill’s leadership and vision. Microsoft will continue to benefit from Bill’s ongoing technical passion and advice to drive our products and services forward. I am grateful for Bill’s friendship and look forward to continuing to work alongside him to realise our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

The US already bans imports made with forced labour, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers said virtually anything coming from Xinjiang should be considered tainted by the mass repression of Uighurs.

WASHINGTON: US lawmakers have pushed for a ban on imports from a vast area of northwestern China because of the widespread use of forced labour in a region where the communist government has detained more than a million people in a campaign against ethnic minorities.

The US already bans imports made with forced labour, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers said virtually anything coming from Xinjiang, including goods sold by major American and global consumer brands, should be considered tainted by the mass detention and repression of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities.

“We know forced labour is widespread and systematic and exists both within and outside the mass internment camps,” said Rep.

Jim McGovern on Wednesday, referring to detention centres where the Chinese government is subjecting hundreds of thousands of Uighurs to abusive conditions, torture and political indoctrination.

McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, is co-chairman of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which released a report that documented forced labour.

It found it in the mass internment camps, on farms in Xinjiang, that produce cotton for the global market as well as factories elsewhere in the country.

The report said major brands, including Coca-Cola, Patagonia and Nike, are suspected of directly or indirectly relying on forced labour.

The commission relied on outside experts, satellite imagery, official reports and accounts from The Associated Press and other media organisations.

Bipartisan legislation introduced Wednesday would treat all goods from Xinjiang, including clothing and electronic goods sold by major US and global brands, as presumed to be banned unless they were certified by Customs and Border Protection.

“It shifts the burden of proof and the presumption that, given these practices and what’s detailed in this report, we should assume that anything that is produced in this region is done so through forced labour,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who is the other co-chairman of the commission.

It’s not clear when Congress would take up the bill.

Legislation that would more broadly address China’s campaign against the Uighurs passed without opposition last year, but the House and Senate must still reconcile different versions and send it to the president.

A report earlier this month from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute estimated that more than 80,000 Uighurs were transferred from Xinjiang to factories across China between 2017 and 2019.

The report said it found “conditions that strongly suggest forced labour” consistent with International Labor Organization definitions.

Separately, the AP reported last week that a sprawling Chinese factor that turns out computer screens, cameras and fingerprint scanners for global tech giants also appears to be holding Uighurs and other ethnic minorities under coercive conditions.

Corporations mentioned in the report have had varied responses.

Coca-Cola said in a statement it prohibits the use of all forms of forced labour and said its sugar supplier in Xinjiang passed an internal audit.

In January 2019, Badger Sportswear, a leading supplier of T-shirts and other apparel to US college bookstores, cut ties with a Chinese company after an AP investigation traced shipments from a factory inside an internment camp in Xinjiang.

Nike said in a statement that it does not directly source any products in the Xinjiang region and has been reviewing suppliers outside the area “to identify and assess potential risks” to Uighurs and other minorities amid reports that some have been sent to other parts of China to work under repressive conditions.

“Nike is committed to upholding international labor standards and we are continuing to evaluate how to best monitor our compliance standards in light of the complexity of this situation,” the company said.

Patagonia said it works with the Fair Labor Association to ensure materials in its supply chain are not produced with forced labour and that none of its finished products comes from Xinjiang.

“We support the Fair Labor Association’s call for an immediate end to forced labour and other human rights abuses against Uighurs in China,” the company said in a statement.

“We’ve been horrified by what we’ve read in the media regarding a systemic, planned effort to force the country’s population of ethnic minorities into lives of factory work and a program to change their basic beliefs.”

A coalition of retailing and manufacturing groups said in a joint statement that they do not tolerate forced labour and that companies are working with experts to ensure the fair treatment of workers in their supply chains.

It called on the US government to create a working group that would find “constructive solutions” but did not directly address the proposed legislation.

“The conditions in Xinjiang and the treatment of ethnic minority workers from the region present profound challenges to the integrity of the global supply chain, including issues of transparency, access, and auditing,” it said.

“Accepting the status quo is not an option.”

China has long suspected that Uighurs, who are predominantly Muslim and culturally and ethnically distinct from the majority Han Chinese population, of harbouring separatist tendencies.

Both fatalities occurred in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state along the border with Belgium and the Netherlands.

BERLIN: Two people have died of the novel coronavirus in the western German city of Essen and virus hotspot Heinsberg, officials told AFP on Monday, the country’s first casualties of the outbreak.

In Essen, an 89-year-old woman who had been diagnosed with the virus on March 3 died despite medical measures to support her breathing and circulation.

“I regret this death very much,” mayor Thomas Kufen said in a statement, offering his condolences to the woman’s family and friends.

Meanwhile, officials in the district of Heinsberg said they would discuss the fatal case there at a 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) press conference.

Both fatalities occurred in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state along the border with Belgium and the Netherlands.

The number of people testing positive for the coronavirus on Monday passed 1,000 in Europe’s top economy Germany.

But so far the only German national to die of the disease had been a 60-year-old tourist in Egypt.

Germany has suffered a comparatively light toll in relation to European Union neighbours, namely in hard-hit Italy, where 366 people have died of the virus and there are thousands of confirmed cases.

“Here in Germany we are ahead in diagnostics, in detection,” Christian Drosten, director of the Institute for Virology at Berlin’s Charite hospital said earlier Monday in the capital.

“The most effective tool against coronavirus is the time factor, slowing down its spread and spreading it over a longer period of time,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

She also reiterated government advice on measures such as avoiding bodily contact to reduce the risk of transmitting the disease.