DUBAI:  Some Middle East countries have been pondering easing coronavirus regulations to support their local economies.
Jordan is planning to ease regulations in areas with no confirmed COVID-19 cases, while national airlines in the UAE have restarted a limited capacity of flights to repatriate expats to their home countries.
Several European countries have also been discussing their coronavirus regulations exit strategies as daily infection cases and deaths show signs of decline.
Denmark will reopen schools, while Switzerland said it will reveal their exit plan on Thursday.

April 16, 2020 Thursday (GMT time)

19:45 - Brazil's Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said Thursday he'd been sacked by President Jair Bolsonaro, after weeks of clashes over the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mandetta made the announce on Twitter following a meeting with Bolsonaro at the presidential palace in the capital Brasilia.

19:35 - Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million to support global efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday.

19:20 - An Arab-American doctor reflects on his time treating civilians during Syria’s war and the parallels with the US coronavirus calamity. READ THE FULL SPOTLIGHT HERE.

18:20 - The European Union has provided €140 million in additional aid to the World Health Organization.

18:15 - Dubai’s Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed said that the health situation in the emirate is under control and that he has great confidence in society's awareness of coronavirus.

17:40 - France says the coronavirus death toll in hospitals and nursing homes across the country has risen to 17,920 from 17,167 on Wednesday.

17:30 - Kuwait's civil aviation body said on Thursday it will operate 75 flights in the next phase of its coronavirus evacuation of citizens abroad, according to Kuwait News Agency. (KUNA)

16:50 - Britain is in a "good place" in tackling the coronavirus outbreak but social distancing must be maintained for it to continue, chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said on Thursday.

Vallance said the number of coronavirus cases in Britain was flattening and there are some signs of a decrease, but added that even a small relaxation in restrictions could lead to the infection rate increasing above one again.

"At the moment, this is looking in a good place, it's beginning to come down ... and it's important that all the measures that we're taking stay in place," Vallance said at a news conference

16:44 - Jordan’s Aqaba governorate will be closed off and isolated from other governorates starting from Sunday morning and residents will be allowed to use their cars between 10:00 A.M. and 06:00 P.M.

16:43 - Turkey's confirmed cases of COVID-19 have increased by 4,801 in the past 24 hours, and 125 more people have died, taking the death toll to 1,643, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday.

The total number of cases in the country stood at 74,193, he said.

A total of 7,089 people have recovered so far, and the number of tests carried out over the past 24 hours came to 40,427, the minister said. 

16:40 - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo extended the state's shutdown order Thursday until May 15, citing data showing conditions were improving but adding that "we have to continue what we are doing."
"I would like to see that infection rate get down even more," Cuomo said at his daily briefing, reporting that 606 more people had died in the US COVID-19 epicenter, the lowest daily toll in 10 days.

16:37 - Al-Aqsa mosque will remain closed during Ramadan to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the Islamic Waqf department in Jerusalem said on Thursday. 

16:22 - Britain will extend its coronavirus lockdown for "at least" another three weeks, foreign secretary Dominic Raab said on Thursday, as hundreds across the country continue to die daily from the outbreak.

"The government has decided that the current measures must remain in place for at least the next three weeks," said Raab - who is standing in for prime minister Boris Johnson who is recovering from the virus.

"We have just come too far, we've lost too many loved ones, we've already sacrificed far too much to ease up now, especially when we are beginning to see the evidence that our efforts are starting to pay off," he said.

He added that Britain could not risk the progress it made in fighting the cororonavirus pandemic by easing up on restrictions at this "delicate and dangerous stage."

"There is light at the end of the tunnel. But we are now at both a delicate and a dangerous stage in this pandemic. If we rush to relax the measures that we have in place we would risk wasting all the sacrifices and all the progress that has been made."

15:58 - Parks and beaches will be completely closed during the springtime holiday of Sham El-Nessim to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said on Thursday.

15:57 - Algeria announced 106 new cases of coronavirus and 12 deaths on Thursday. 

15:24 - Saudi Arabia’s education ministry announced that all school students will progress to the next year of study amid the coronavirus outbreak.   

14:03 - The number of people in Britain who have died in hospital from the COVID-19 disease has risen by 861 to 13,729, according to daily health ministry figures on Thursday.
After several days of decreasing numbers, it represents a spike of 100 on the previous day's rate of increase. The latest figures also showed the number of people in Britain to have tested positive for COVID-19 passed 100,000.

13:36 - The Swiss death toll from the novel coronavirus has reached 1,017 people, the country's public health agency said on Thursday, rising from 973 on Wednesday.
The number of people showing positive tests for the disease increased to 26,732 from 26,336, it said. The government said measures to curb spread of the pandemic were working and announced its timetable for easing restrictions from April 27. 

11:28 – Qatar confirms 392 new cases, bringing the total to 4,103 coronavirus infections.

10:06 – Turkey could sharply limit damage to its economy if it were to impose a nationwide stay-at-home order to curb the spread of the coronavirus, and faces a contraction of up to 17 percent if it maintains its current course, research showed. READ THE STORY

10:43 – Spain saw its coronavirus death toll soar past 19,000 on Thursday after another 551 people died of COVID-19, with the numbers reflecting a staggered slowdown after nearly five weeks on lockdown.

10:32 – Morocco said it had 227 new cases, bringing the total to 2,251 patients.

09:57 – Lebanon recorded five new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 663 infected people.

09:47 – Iran confirmed 1,606 new cases, bringing its coronavirus caseload 77,995. The death toll rose 92, total now at 4,869 fatalities.

09:43 – Malaysia reported 110 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, raising the cumulative total to 5,182.

09:39 – Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has the full support of its state shareholder as it plans a partial resumption of passenger flights from May 1, its chief executive Tony Douglas said. READ THE STORY

09:35 – Kuwait reported 119 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 1,524 patients.

08:30 – Jordan is creating an advisory council composed of economists, senior public officials and private sector representatives that would counsel government on policies that could be undertaken post-coronavirus pandemic.

07:10 – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is preparing to expand the state of emergency that Japan has declared for seven of its 47 prefectures so far to the rest of the nation in a bid to contain the coronavirus, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Thursday.

06:59 – Kuwait has confirmed that 19 people have recovered from coronavirus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 225.

06:54 – The number of coronavirus deaths in Israel has reached 140, while the number of infected people stood at 12,451.

06:39 – Oman has confirmed 109 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 1,019 infected people.

05:02 – Thailand on Thursday reported 29 new coronavirus cases and 3 new deaths, bringing it to a total of 2,672 cases and 46 fatalities since the outbreak there escalated in January. 

05:01 – Switzerland’s government is due to unveil on Thursday how it plans to relax the country’s shutdown put in place to halt the spread of the new coronavirus epidemic, Swiss media reported.

04:16 – Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases have risen by 2,866 to 130,450, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday, meaning the number of new infections rose for a second consecutive day.

03:58 – President Donald Trump said he’s prepared to announce new guidelines allowing some states to quickly ease up on social distancing even as business leaders told him they need more coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment before people can safely go back to work.

03:40 – Australia will keep in place restrictions implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus for at least four more weeks, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday, despite signs that Canberra has been succcesful in slowing infection rates.

April 15, 2020 Wednesday (GMT time) 
20:49 – Tunisia has confirmed 33 new coronavirus cases, bringing the number of infected people to 780. 
19:38 – Egypt has reported 155 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the number of people testing positive to 2,505. Meanwhile, the country has reported 553 recovered cases and 183 fatalities.
18:10 – Morocco has confirmed 136 new coronavirus cases and one fatality, which increased the total number of infected people to 2,024 and deaths to 127.