British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday he had tested positive for coronavirus and was in self-isolation at his Downing Street office.
 
Here is reaction to the news.
   Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of UK’s Opposition Labor Party 
 
“I wish the Prime Minister a speedy recovery and hope his family are safe and healthy. Coronavirus can and does affect anyone. Everyone be safe. Our own health depends on everybody else.”   
 Indain Prime Minister Narendra Modi 
 
“You’re a fighter and you will overcome this challenge as well. Prayers for your good health and best wishes in ensuring a healthy UK.”
 Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster 
 
“Best wishes to the Prime Minister and Carrie (Symonds, Johnson’s fiancee). No one is immune. Let’s all follow the guidelines.”
 Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon 
 
“I send my very best wishes to Boris Johnson and his family. I don’t underestimate for anybody how difficult it is to be positive for this virus so I certainly send my best wishes to him for a very speedy recovery.”
…

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon reports that as of Friday, there were 1,059 cases of COVID-19 in Scotland — an increase of 165 from Thursday.
 
At a news conference Friday in Edinburgh, Sturgeon also reported an additional eight deaths from the virus overnight, bringing the total number of fatalities in Scotland to 33.
 
The first minister said she expects those numbers to be an underestimate. She urged people to stay indoors, and to go out only for essential shopping and exercise, or care for others.   
 
Sturgeon also stressed the importance of supporting mental health during the coronavirus crisis, and she announced Friday about $4.7 billion in additional funding for National Health Service mental health support services, including 24-hour support phone lines and internet services. 
…

The Belarusian news website ej.by says state authorities have detained its director and editor in chief on suspicion of accepting a bribe.
 
Syarhey Satsuk was detained on March 25 during a special operation by officers from the Financial Investigations Department, the website said on March 26.
 
The editorial office of the online publication was searched following the detention of the site’s editor in chief, the Belarusian Association of Journalists said, adding that documents were seized during the operation.
 
Calling the accusations against Satsuk “lies and nonsense,” his brother, Alyaksandr Satsuk, told RFE/RL that he did not rule out that the detention may be connected with investigative reporting he’s done into alleged corruption at the Health Ministry related to the import of medications.
 
The OSCE representative on freedom of the media, Harlem Desir, on March 26 said he was “very much concerned” over Satsuk’s detention.
 
Desir noted that the journalist is “known for his previous reporting on corruption issues in the health sector” and also recently published articles critical of the country’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
 
The OSCE representative insisted that journalists “should not be intimidated, prosecuted, or detained for reporting on issues of public interest and on the COVID-19 situation.”
 
“Journalists have a key role to play in reporting on the pandemic and in providing important information to the public,” he added.
 
…

Russia’s Agriculture Ministry has proposed to limit grain exports for three months, it said on Friday, prompting concern among traders that the measures by the world’s largest wheat exporter could be extended.
 
In fellow Black Sea exporter Ukraine, the economy ministry on Friday said it was monitoring wheat exports daily and would take measures if needed. Bakers and millers in the country had earlier asked for grain exports to be limited to prevent a surge in bread prices if the spread of the coronavirus accelerates.
 
The proposal to limit grain exports to 7 million tons for April-June was a response to the Russian government’s request this week to consider whether exports of any food should be limited because of the coronavirus pandemic.
 
The ministry said that the measure, if approved, would cover the main grain types – wheat, rye, barley and corn – to help to ensure stability in the domestic food market.
 
The size of the limit doesn’t have much bite, traders said, because 7 million tons is more or less the general expectation for Russia’s export volumes until the end of the 2019/20 season on June 30.
 
But the move has raised expectations that further steps might follow, given Russia’s history of limiting grain exports in tough times, such as when ruble weakness causes a jump in domestic prices or prospects for the new crop are disappointing.
 
“It is a symbolic gesture, but a worrying one,” one European trader said.
 
“Is this a first step in moves to reduce exports to preserve Russia’s own food supplies amid the coronavirus? This is the worry.”
 
Wheat futures in Paris extended gains and were up 1.8% on Friday after news of the quota proposal.
 
Russia exported 25.2 million tons of wheat, rye, barley and corn in the July-December period last year. From the start of this year to March 26, Russia’s wheat, rye, barley and corn exports totaled 7.2 million tons, the ministry added. 
…

A Qatar Airways charter flight arranged by the German government has picked up hundreds of tourists stranded in Nepal as the country went on lockdown at the beginning of this week.The tourists, who were mostly German nationals or had some connection to the country, flew out of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on Friday, a Nepalese immigration official said.The airport in Nepal’s capital reopened for the flight, which was designated to pick up the tourists and did not bring any passengers to the country.The government ordered a countrywide lockdown that included halting all flights and road travel as a prophylactic measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Businesses and government offices were also closed.Up to 10,000 tourists were stranded in Nepal as result of shutdown.Nepal has confirmed only three cases of the coronavirus, including one person who has recovered. 
…

We made it home to Italy, just north of Rome, last Friday and that’s when our two-week quarantine began.As soon as we arrived, we had to declare to the local health authorities that we understood the rules — we were to stay indoors and not leave the house, not even for food. All I can say is thank goodness home deliveries are working!It took my 18-year-old twin sons and me an entire day to get home from England. We are only too aware that we were very lucky; three days earlier the EU had announced that travel into the Schengen area was halted for 30 days, with the only exception for returning long-time residents.From London Heathrow airport, we flew to Dusseldorf, Germany, to catch a completely booked connecting flight to Rome. Many on our initial flight were university students headed for Milan who discovered their connecting flight had been cancelled. No one told them what they should do. In fact, Dusseldorf airport was deserted and our flight to Rome was one of only a handful that had not been cancelled.My sons study in the south of England and I had gone there to attend a parents-teacher evening on Feb. 27. At that time, Italy had locked down 11 towns in the north due to the COVID-19 outbreak. I could not have known that soon that would be the fate of the whole of Italy.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
An empty street leads to the ancient Colosseum, in Rome, March 24, 2020.Finally, we could go and collect our suitcases in what was another deserted airport terminal. I had never seen Rome airport so empty, with all its shops closed. I had made sure that a car with driver was waiting for us. As we were driven on Rome’s notoriously busy ring road, we could not believe how few cars we passed.As we drove into town, there were many police roadblocks, but no one stopped us. We had to collect some keys at one address, pick up some things for the kids somewhere else and finally pick up my car to drive home. We were able to achieve all that driving through a spectral Rome.We saw virtually no people or cars – a surreal scene for residents long accustomed to Rome’s unbearable traffic with its honking cars and scooters whizzing by left and right. It dawned on us very quickly there would be no freedom of movement for any of us; our lives would be radically different.Medical personnel talk outside the retirement home Giovanni XIII, where coronavirus swabs were carried out on the staff of the facility, after the death of a patient, in Rome, March 24, 2020.We were exhausted but happy to get home at 11 pm. We went to bed knowing our lives in Italy were not going to be anything like what we knew in the past. And the next morning that reality hit us — no leaving the house, no food except what was left in the elevator of our building for us, no speaking with anyone except on the phone or WhatsApp. No going for a walk, no going to the gym, no meeting up with friends. Outside, cafes, restaurants and shops all were closed.The weather at this time of the year is beautiful and we are allowed out on our terrace of course. But when we look outside we see no one; everyone is locked up at home in self-isolation. The rare person who walks by heading to buy food is wearing a protective mask and gloves. The boys and I look at each other and ask ourselves a question no one is able to answer: How long is this going to last? 
…

More than half a million people in Britain have volunteered to help the National Health Service cope with the coronavirus epidemic. Across the world, people are stepping forward to help the most vulnerable – offering hope that societies can overcome the huge disruption caused by the virus. VOA’s Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
…

As Spain entered the third week of lockdown Friday, the streets of Barcelona, the second-most populous municipality, were empty due to the coronavirus pandemic.Iconic tourist attractions in the capital of Catalonia region, such as Arc de Triomf, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia and La Rambla were deserted.The only people occasionally seen on the street were those walking dogs.On a Barcelona beach, police were patrolling the area, with no one else venturing out.Spain is the hardest-hit country by the coronavirus in Europe after Italy, recording more than 56,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 4,100 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.
…

Spain is reeling under the onslaught of the coronavirus, with fatalities surpassing those of China, the health system collapsing and retirement homes becoming open graves. Hospitals are running out of critical supplies, and about a third of medical staff have been contaminated by the highly contagious virus, carried by tens of thousands of infected people cramming clinics in Madrid, Barcelona and other large cities.   “Intensive care units and hospitals are on the verge of collapse,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told Congress on Wednesday evening, when he asked for his emergency powers to be extended until April 12.   Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez holds a videoconference with some of his ministers over the coronavirus outbreak, at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, March 13, 2020.He also asked Congress for $350 billion in emergency funding to confront the crisis and cushion the country against the economic consequences of confining people to their homes for a month. The government expects three months of economic paralysis, which could cause a 9.7% drop in GDP this year and a 10% rise in its deficit, according to Goldman Sachs. “There are more dark and uncertain days ahead,” Sanchez said before an almost empty congressional chamber. Most lawmakers could not attend because of quarantines and other travel restrictions. Several leading ministers have caught the virus. Spain’s coronavirus cases have risen to 48,000 this week, according to the health ministry. But Social Security Minister Jose Luis Escriva has said that almost twice that number could yet be infected, as there are 83,000 workers reporting coronavirus symptoms who have not yet been diagnosed. Twenty-five percent of hospital workers have contracted coronavirus, according to the health ministry, which reports that 5,400 medical staff have been contaminated on an accelerating scale, with 2,000 falling ill in the past two days.   Patients are being neglected at Madrid’s Gregorio Marañon hospital, where videos broadcast over national television have shown patients strewn across the floor. A nurse at the hospital told reporters that they are out of essential supplies and that she and other medical staff are using garbage bags as protective gowns.   Despite overstretched resources, health workers in Spain have managed to cure more than 5,000 coronavirus patients, who have been discharged, according to the health ministry. Spain’s King Felipe VI visits a military hospital set up at the IFEMA conference center in Madrid, March 26, 2020.The daily death toll was reported to be dropping Thursday, although Spain’s deaths have surpassed the 4,000 mark, well above the 3,200 reported in China, according to a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University in the United States. Italy remains the worst-hit country with more than 8,000 fatalities and more than 80,000 confirmed cases, almost equal to China’s figure.  Coronavirus deaths have mostly struck people older than 70, considered the most vulnerable age group. Military emergency teams inspecting retirement homes in Madrid and other cities have found them abandoned by staff and with most of the residents dead in their beds. “Survivors mingled among cadavers,” an army officer told reporters. Army engineering units have set up field hospitals in parks and turned empty warehouses, fair pavilions and other public spaces into makeshift clinics to relieve the overcrowded hospitals. This has led to ugly scenes in some neighborhoods, where protests have erupted over the busing-in of potentially contaminated people. A youth gang in the city of La Linea, which has until now been a zone of low contamination, fought police in an attempt to block buses bringing groups of elderly citizens from badly hit regions. In a first-ever electronic vote, Congress unanimously passed the 15-day extension of emergency powers and funding requested by the government. But Sanchez faced strong criticism from opposition parties, which accused his administration of “dithering” and being late to act despite clear warning signs from health experts weeks before the pandemic broke out. Far-right leader Santiago Abascal held separatist authorities in Catalonia responsible for the spiraling number of coronavirus cases reported in Barcelona, where they tried to block a deployment of the army. 
…