【常速英语广播5分钟】2020-04-11

VOA NEWS
April 11, 2020

This is VOA news. Reporting via remote, I'm David Byrd.



President Donald Trump bemoaned the "horrible" number of Americans who have died due to the coronavirus while pointing to signs of hope.

Speaking at his daily briefing at the White House, the president said "in the midst of grief" the country is seeing signs that its strategy is working.

... we are seeing hospital admissions declining very substantially as I said and nationwide, the number of new cases per day is flattening substantially, suggesting that we are near the peak ...."

However, experts on the president's coronavirus task force, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that reopening the country too soon could cause a devastating new spike in infections.

"This is not the time to feel that, since we have made such important advance in the sense of success of the mitigation, that we need to be pulling back, at all."

Trump, who is now weighing when to reopen the economy, is pointing to models that are forecasting U.S. death rates far lower than originally estimated.

The president's comments came on the same day as Johns Hopkins University's worldwide death toll surpassed 102,000.



The father of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says his son should not be going back to work any time soon and that he needs to rest up. AP's Karen Chammas has more.

In an interview with the BBC, Stanley Johnson said Boris would need "a period of readjustment" before picking up the reins again in Downing Street.

The U.K. leader spent three nights in the intensive care unit at St. Thomas' Hospital in London after his COVID-19 symptoms worsened. He was then moved back to a regular ward and is resting in what his office has described as "the early phase of his recovery."

Johnson was diagnosed with COVID-19 two weeks ago, the first world leader confirmed to have the illness.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is standing in for Johnson while he is in hospital.

Karen Chammas, London.



This is VOA news.



South Korean officials on Friday reported 91 patients thought cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again. Reuters Lauren Anthony reports.

Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that the virus may have been "reactivated" rather than the patients being re-infected.

But authorities say it remains unclear what is behind the trend and that investigations are still underway. Some experts have suggested that false test results could also be at fault but may not be infectious or of danger to the host or others.

But the prospect of people being re-infected with the virus is of international concern. Many countries are hoping and relying on infected populations developing sufficient immunity to prevent a resurgence of the virus.

South Korea on Friday reported its lowest number of new infections after daily cases peaked at more than 900 in late February and the death toll rose to at least 211.

That's Reuters Lauren Anthony.



Nearly a year after fire devastated Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, the city's archbishop held a small ceremony there to mark Good Friday.

As Reuters Emer McCarthy reports, he prayed that Easter's message of rebirth might bring comfort to a country stricken by the coronavirus pandemic.

Wearing hard hats with their clerical robes, only seven people, including Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit, attended the solemn service as many more watched on television at home.

It was only the second service to have been held in the iconic cathedral since the April 15 fire.

"We are in this half-fallen cathedral to say that life still exists," the archbishop said in his homily.

President Emmanuel Macron has set a target of five years for restoring Notre-Dame. But restoration work has been put on hold following the lockdown that began in France on March 17.

That's Reuters Emer McCarthy.



Apple and Google launched a major joint effort to leverage smartphone technology to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. We get more from AP's Mike Gracia.

In an effort to help national government track down people who may have been infected by the new coronavirus, Apple and Google have joined efforts to add software to phones for so-called "contact tracing." The technology will run on iPhones and Android phones.

Using Bluetooth wireless technology, the contact tracing apps would gather a record of other phones in close proximity and alert those who might have been infected by known carriers.

Phone owners would have to install the apps and agree to share data with public health officials.

I'm Mike Gracia.



For more, visit voanews.com. Reporting via remote, I'm David Byrd, VOA news.