COVID-19 media surveillance - 27 April 2020

This media surveillance collects articles reported through publicly available web sites.

It is created with the Europe Media Monitor (EMM).

The selection and placement of stories are determined automatically by a computer program.

Headlines

• USA: 54,877 deaths reported; closure of food processing plants might lead to food shortages.
• Spain records lowest daily death toll as lockdown eases.
• Italy will start easing lockdown restrictions on 4 May.
• France has seen a decrease in deaths with 242 deaths reported on Sunday.
• Germany reports 1,018 new cases and 110 deaths; facemasks mandatory across many states.
• UK: 413 deaths reported as lockdown has been in place for a month.
• Belgium will lift lockdown in three phases starting first phase on 4 May.
• Luxembourg: 12 new cases and 3 deaths reported.
• Russia: cases rise to 87,147 surpassing China
• Iran plans to reopen mosques in areas free of coronavirus
• India allows small shops to reopen as 26,496 cases and 824 deaths were reported
• Brazil: hospitals, morgues and cemeteries across Brazil are overwhelmed
• Ecuador: more than 7,000 deaths in city of Guayaquil
• Singapore reported an additional 931 confirmed cases
• South Korea: 10 confirmed cases reported; South Korea’s walk-thru testing booths are exported
• Japan tightens travel curbs to 14 more nations including Russia; Tokyo reports less than 100 new cases for the first time in 13 days; 148 of the 623 crew members onboard Costa Atlantica tested positive
• China: all patients in Wuhan have been discharged; three new cases, two of which were imported
• Science: sewage can be used to measure the coronavirus prevalence

Twitter

The following news were found among the most mentioned/retweeted items:

• "Young and middle-aged people, barely sick with covid-19, are dying of strokes" (washingtonpost)
• "Say it loud, say it clear: Donald Trump needs to resign over his handling of the coronavirus" (bostonglobe)
• "A spike in New Yorkers ingesting household cleaners following Trump’s controversial coronavirus comments" (dailynews)
• "40 coronavirus cases in Milwaukee county linked to Wisconsin election, health official says" (wuwm)
• "Coronavirus spreads in a New York nursing home forced to take recovering patients" (nbcnews)
• "13 hours of Trump: The president fills briefings with attacks and boasts, but little empathy" (washingtonpost)
• "Mexico's economy breaks down in gigantic steps" (elpais)

The most mentioned English sources were the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the New York Post and CNN.

Infobae, El País, Huffington Post (Spanish version), El Diario, El Mundo and RT (Spanish version) and Le Parisien and Le Monde were among the most mentioned Spanish and French sources, respectively.

Extracted quotes

Giuseppe Conte (Italy, Prime Minister):

"What will happen after May 4? In the two weeks that will follow, so until May 18, we will have in general the continuation of the existing measures regarding social distancing and freedom of movement. So, measures concerning movements within regions will remain in place, movements will be allowed with proven work reasons and in situations of necessity and out of health reasons. The only addition that we make is the possibility of movements for visiting relatives"; "We are not saying that from May 4 home parties and family reunions will be allowed".

Fact check

Fact check: fear-mongering claims

• Fact checkers debunk a video claiming to show police officers in Turkey, Hungary and Spain detaining people over 50 to force them to quarantine in governmental centres (afp).
• Fact checkers debunk a video claiming to show FBI agents seizing masks infected with the novel coronavirus - the video in question actually shows FBI agents seizing masks from alleged price gouger (afp).

Fact checked: health claims

• Fact checkers debunk Trump’s claims that injecting people with disinfectants and exposing patients' bodies to UV light could help treat COVID-19 (snopes, politifact).
• Fact checkers debunk claims that drinking warm water with salt prevents/cures COVID-19 (verafiles).
• Fact checkers debunk claims that disposable face masks can be sterilised with boiling water vapour - they report that according to experts, this will damage the material face masks are made of, causing them to lose their effectiveness (afp).

Fact checked: conspiracy theories

• Fact checkers debunk claims that Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo said that the novel coronavirus was created by China (factly).
• Fact checkers debunk German singer Xavier Naidoo’s claims that the novel coronavirus is a hoax (correctiv).

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