Portal:Current events/2020 April 5

April 5, 2020 (Sunday)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Africa
  - COVID-19 pandemic in South Sudan
    - South Sudan Vice President Riek Machar confirms the country's first case of COVID-19. The patient is a 29-year-old woman who had arrived from Ethiopia in February and is now in isolation. (Reuters)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt
    - Former Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril dies in Egypt from COVID-19 at the age of 67. (Bloomberg)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia
    - The government confirms its first death from COVID-19. (Reuters)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Morocco
    - King Mohammed VI of Morocco pardons 5,654 prisoners and orders new measures to protect inmates from COVID-19. The prisoners were selected on the basis of their age, frail health, time spent in prison and good conduct. (Middle East Monitor)
- COVID-19 pandemic in North America
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
    - COVID-19 pandemic on USS Theodore Roosevelt
      - United States Navy Captain Brett Crozier, recently relieved of his command of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt after his letter pleading for aid for the coronavirus outbreak aboard his ship was leaked to the press, tests positive for COVID-19. (The New York Times)
    - COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)
      - New York reports 8,327 new confirmed cases and 594 more deaths from COVID-19, bringing the state's death toll to 4,159 and 122,000 cases, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo. (Reuters)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Haiti
    - Haiti reports the country's first death from COVID-19, a 55-year-old man with underlying health conditions. (France 24)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
    - Prime Minister Boris Johnson is admitted to hospital 10 days after testing positive for COVID-19. (BBC News)
    - Queen Elizabeth II gives an address to the nation, just the fifth such event in the monarch's 68-year reign, where she compares social isolation to the world war evacuations, thanks the public for their resilience and the world for unifying. (BBC News)
    - COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland
      - Scotland's Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood resigns after breaking her own rules on COVID-19 restrictions by visiting her second home in Elie and Earlsferry. She had been warned by police about her conduct. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Five people are killed in a mass shooting in Yelatma, Ryazan Oblast, Russia. The suspect has been arrested and said he shot dead four men and one woman for "talking too loudly". (BBC News)

Politics and elections

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Africa
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Malawi
    - President Peter Mutharika announces a stimulus package to alleviate the economic stress resulting from the disease. To help finance this program, he and all government ministers are taking a ten percent wage cut for three months. (BBC News)

Science and technology

Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic
- YouTube says it will remove videos promoting a conspiracy theory linking 5G to COVID-19, while "borderline content" will be removed from search results. The decision comes after four more mobile phone masts are set on fire, and broadband engineers have received threats, in several UK cities. (The Guardian)