A website apparently featuring photos of German medical workers is calling attention to the working conditions and protective equipment needed by frontline workers amid the coronavirus pandemic - https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/28/europe/german-doctors-naked-protest-intl-scli-grm/index.html

As Germany lockdown eases, spread of coronavirus worsens. Reproduction rate mounts again to about 1.0 in advance of fresh lockdown decision on May 6. First signs that the transmission of the novel coronavirus has again picked up were visible in German official data, just as the country attempts a cautious easing of its lockdown measures. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/germany-lockdown-eases-spread-coronavirus-worsens-200428075843362.html

German labs are now able to carry out almost 900,000 tests a week for the novel coronavirus, officials said on Wednesday, as they plan to widen testing among health workers.
"Today, we have a theoretically possible capacity of almost 900,000 tests (per week) in Germany already, as long as the materials for these tests are available," Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters in Berlin.
Roughly 470,000 tests were carried out last week, suggesting there is spare capacity that could help prevent outbreaks among medical staff at hospitals and care homes. https://www.thelocal.de/20200429/german-coronavirus-testing-capacity-increases-to-900000-a-week

There is an old saying here: “When the United States gets flu, Mexico gets pneumonia.” This year, it got a new punchline: “So what happens when the United States gets coronavirus?” - As the U.S. economy crashes over the cliff, it pulls Mexico along. Except Mexico falls harder. - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/opinion/mexico-coronavirus-economy.html

Germany is advising against all international trips until at least June 14, the country's foreign minister Heiko Maas announced Wednesday.
Maas told reporters the country "could not advise travel without worries" and that Germany is coordinating with its European neighbouring countries on the global travel warning. - https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-04-29-20-intl/h_a2983510a9df8f06a31e931ce9fe2bfc

Dr. Ashish Jha, the director of Harvard's Global Health Institute, says that US coronavirus testing is inadequate and needs to more than double to reopen. - https://edition.cnn.com/videos/health/2020/04/28/coronavirus-testing-trump-shutdown-ashish-jha-ebof-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/

Un sistema inmunitario activo es crucial en la lucha contra el coronavirus. El cuerpo necesita suficientes vitaminas y otros nutrientes para poder responder al ataque. No obstante, muchos tienen carencias vitamínicas. - https://p.dw.com/p/3bcQI

Our government is broken, and we have to fix it. In this short film, Michael Douglas and RepresentUs Co-Founder Joshua Graham Lynn break down how our political system has been hijacked - https://youtu.be/tGQgcHMIq1g

"We believe that this pandemic can only be overcome by acting jointly internationally and multilaterally", the German Chancellor said. - https://p.dw.com/p/3bgXz

Penn Wharton Budget Model Projects Effects of Reopening States: Reopening Could Cause up to 233,000 Extra Deaths by June 30 but Save up to 18,000,000 Jobs https://news.wharton.upenn.edu/press-releases/2020/05/penn-wharton-budget-model-projects-effects-of-reopening-states-reopening-could-cause-up-to-233000-extra-deaths-recover-up-to-700000-jobs/

‘A big alarm.’ Coronavirus linked to strokes in younger adults, experts say - “Our spider sense goes up to say that there’s something not right here,” one doctor said. - https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/coronavirus/article242384426.html

The number of new coronavirus cases nationally hovered around 30,000 a day during the entire month of April, meaning that the virus has managed to spread in spite of stringent social distancing measures. - https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-caseload-held-steady-1cbe9501-67b7-4108-aff0-56d67c748b65.html

A very high level of a protein known as suPAR in the blood of patients with COVID-19 may be a predictor of severe respiratory failure, according to new research published in Critical Care on April 30. The findings by researchers at Rush University Medical Center and other institutions suggest suPAR could be a potential predictor for which patients with COVID-19 will need to be put on ventilators to help them breathe. - https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-early-predictor-severe-respiratory-failure.html

For 47 days and nights, staff and residents of the Vilanova nursing home on the outskirts of the east-central city of Lyon waited out the coronavirus storm together, while COVID-19 killed tens of thousands of people in other homes across Europe, including more than 9,000 in France. - https://apnews.com/fd1600f3d39055b9060cd7442568c739

Bavarian leader Markus Söder said Germany was doing better than many other countries because it had adopted a good strategy nationally and regionally and everyone had remained patient. Social distancing of 1.5m (5ft) and hygiene were key to keeping the infection rate low, he said. - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52557718

Hackers post swastikas on Mercedes-Benz Instagram account
Carmaker Mercedes-Benz has said it is "sorry for any inconvenience and offense caused" after hackers posted Nazi imagery on its Instagram page. Other posts included images of vehicles made by competitor BMW - https://p.dw.com/p/3bpli

Merkel cautiously optimistic as she announces lockdown rollback
German Chancellor Merkel warned that while the coronavirus' "first phase is over…we still have a long fight ahead of us." Social distancing measures remain in place until June 5, but parts of the economy will reopen - https://www.dw.com/en/merkel-cautiously-optimistic-as-she-announces-lockdown-rollback/a-53346427

At least 47 residents and three workers have been infected with coronavirus at a retirement home in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, authorities said on Wednesday, in one of the biggest outbreaks yet reported in the country. - https://reut.rs/2SGjDiE

The newly-opened basketball stadium that was the home of Tijuana's professional team, ‘Los Zonkeys’, is now an auxiliary hospital unit where teams from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) will begin assisting non-critical COVID-19 patients today, in Tijuana - https://www.msf.org/msf-provides-critically-needed-covid-19-medical-care-tijuana

When the coronavirus pandemic began, the pharmaceutical company Gilead pulled remdesivir out of its storeroom. The drug, which had proved to be ineffective against other illnesses, could have a future in the battle against COVID-19. But it's likely not a "game changer." - https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/covid-19-remedy-high-hopes-for-remdesivir-in-the-coronavirus-fight-a-cd4280dc-4696-4a2b-8e4c-a660779f09e2