Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Australia to promise wage subsidies in bid to shelter economy from coronavirus: sources

The Australian government will on Monday promise to subsidize employee wages for up to six months, two sources familiar with the plan said, as it seeks to shelter the country's economy from the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic. Australia has ramped up social distancing measures in recent days, restricting public gatherings to just two people and shutting down clubs, gyms, beaches and parks, as it seeks to capitalize on a slowdown in the growth rate of new infections nationally.

Drop in China's new coronavirus cases; none in Hubei for sixth day

Mainland China reported a drop in new coronavirus infections for a fourth day as imported cases fell, while authorities shut the borders to foreign travellers and drastically slashed the number of international flights. Sunday's figure of 31 new cases, including one locally transmitted infection, was down from 45 the previous day, the National Health Commission said. Four deaths took the toll to 3,304, from 81,470 infections, it added in Monday's statement.

Bolsonaro visits market to press need to keep Brazil going during pandemic

President Jair Bolsonaro visited a market area just outside the Brazilian capital on Sunday to press home his case for keeping Latin America's largest economy ticking instead of locking down activities to combat the spread of the coronavirus. But Bolsonaro office's social media campaign "Brazil can't stop" was banned on Saturday by a federal judge and ran into a barrage of criticism from state governors, politicians, public health experts and even his own health minister.

Your COVID-19 questions, answered

There is a lot of misinformation circulating about the coronavirus, so we took to Instagram, Twitter and Reddit to see what questions have been bugging you, our readers.Below are answers from several healthcare experts who have been following the outbreak. Please note that there is much we still don’t know about the new virus, and you should reach out to your own healthcare provider with any personal health concerns. LIVING UNDER LOCKDOWN

'No farewells, no ceremonies': China's Hubei cremates coronavirus dead

Ten unclaimed urns sit in the crematorium in Jingzhou, a city in central China's Hubei province hard-hit by coronavirus. Not only are funerals banned across China, in places like Jingzhou bereaved relatives who are stuck in their homes must wait even to retrieve the remains of their loved ones.

Trump backs off plan to reopen businesses by mid-April amid coronavirus warnings

President Donald Trump on Sunday extended his stay-at-home guidelines until the end of April, dropping a hotly criticized plan to get the economy up and running by mid-April after a top medical adviser said more than 100,000 Americans could die from the coronavirus outbreak. The reversal by Trump, which he said would be disclosed in greater detail on Tuesday, came as the U.S. death toll topped 2,460 from the respiratory disease, according to a Reuters tally, with more than 141,000 cases, the most of any country in the world.

Coronavirus deaths fall again in Italy but lockdown extension looms

The number of deaths from coronavirus in Italy fell for the second consecutive day on Sunday but the country still looked almost certain to see an extension of stringent containment measures. The Civil Protection department said 756 people had died in the last day, bringing the total to 10,779 - more than a third of all deaths from the virus worldwide.

Britons warned some coronavirus lockdown measures could last months

Some lockdown measures to combat coronavirus in Britain could last months and only be gradually lifted, a senior medical official said on Sunday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned the situation will get worse before it gets better. Britain has reported 19,522 confirmed cases of the disease and 1,228 deaths, after an increase of 209 fatalities as of 5 p.m. local time on Saturday compared with the previous day, the health ministry said.

New Orleans doctors scramble as coronavirus deaths, cases soar

Emergency room doctor Thomas Krajewski stopped at the hospital room door at 2 a.m. to glance at the chart. He knew instantly the long odds faced by the patient inside: A man in his 70s, with a fever, short of breath. “Do you mind calling my son?” the patient asked him. “My two grandsons tomorrow morning are going to crawl in my bed because they wake me up on the weekends, and if I’m not there, they will wonder.”

South Korea to pay cash to families, bring in extra budge relief

South Korea will make an emergency cash payment to most families and draw up a second supplementary budget next month in a bid to ease the drawn-out economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak, President Moon Jae-in said on Monday. Moon, after an emergency meeting with economic policymakers, said an "emergency disaster relief payment" of up to 1 million won ($816) would be made to all households except the top 30% by income.