Friday evening roundupSummary of key national and international coronavirus developments

Starting with Luxembourg:

• 36 new confirmed cases of coronavirus take the total number of infections in the Grand Duchy to 3,480. The death toll now stands at 72, an increase of four since Thursday. On a positive note, less patients are hospitalised than yesterday.

• Public transport users not wearing face masks as of Monday risk a €149 fine, ministers said in a press conference today. Minister of Mobility François Bausch reiterated that face masks will be mandatory on Luxembourg’s buses, trains, and trams as of next Monday. Passengers can also use alternative or homemade masks as long as they cover mouth and nose.

• Construction sites will reopen on Monday. As a precautionary measure, the army has been handing out face masks to selected companies that are back in business next week.

• Both Remich and Bollendorf have opened their border crossings with Germany for goods and cross-border workers as of Friday 7pm. This does not change the situation for most of the public, but it’s a first step in the direction of opening the country back up again.

• Chaos reigned as customers flocked to several McDonalds outlets that partially reopened on Thursday. An influx of customers followed. Police were forced to intervene after several roads became blocked by the number of cars queuing to order food.

• Two of the largest music venues in the country, Rockhal and Kulturfabrik, followed den Atelier’s announcement on Thursday that they will be cancelling their summer programme up until 31 July earliest.

• And lastly, the chairman of the bar association said he is “expecting large-scale resignations if the situation does not improve”. Since the beginning of the outbreak and the resulting nationwide lockdown, a row of resignations from lawyers have reached the association, which counts nearly 3,000 lawyers. Their careers are at risk, François Kremer explained.

The most important updates from the international sphere:

• Current figures: 2,218,332 confirmed cases, 148,654 deaths, 3,423,034 recovered.

• China has raised the Wuhan death toll by 50%, revealing the ground zero of the global pandemic had been much worse hit than Beijing had previously reported. An official announcement raised the city’s death toll by half, to a total of 3,869.

• Belgium says transparency explains high virus toll. They now have the highest death rate from COVID-19 in the European Union but officials insist it is because they have been totally transparent with the data.

• Nearly two-thirds of Americans say President Donald Trump was too slow in taking major steps to address the threat to the United States from new coronavirus, a poll published on Thursday said.

• Norway is one of the first European countries to launch its virus tracker app.

• In Germany, according to figures published by disease control agency Robert Koch Institute late Thursday, the person-to-person infection rate has dropped to 0.7. This is a key indicator. Germany said on Friday a month-long lockdown had brought the coronavirus pandemic under control, announcing plans to manufacture 50 million masks a week ahead of the first steps to loosen restrictions.

• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban defended Friday his decision to free up thousands of hospital beds for coronavirus patients, despite criticism by some experts who say the move endangers the lives of people with other serious medical conditions.

• Japan will offer a cash payment of 100,000 yen ($930) to every resident, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Friday, as measures to contain the coronavirus decimate the world’s third-top economy.

• London‘s transport authorities on Friday announced new measures to protect bus drivers from coronavirus, as colleagues held a minute’s silence for 20 who have already died.

• France on Friday reported 761 more deaths from COVID-19 in hospitals and nursing homes over the last 24 hours, bringing the total toll in the country from the epidemic to 18,681.