Evening roundupWednesday's key coronavirus developments in Luxembourg and around the world

• Luxembourg passed 4,000 cases on Wednesday with six more individuals testing positive. There were no new deaths. For all graphs and detailed infos, look here.

• Around 13,000 businesses applied for the non-refundable sum of €5,000 in light of coronavirus difficulties. 6,988 applications were unsuccessful, but ministers added that it was understandable that nearly all companies would apply for the state support even if it was clear from the start that they would not meet the criteria.

• [block type="summary”]Luxembourg has banned the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 patients. When asked by RTL, the Ministry of Heath explained that the malaria drug will also no longer be administered to patients participating in the Discovery study, a clinical trial to find a coronavirus treatment.

  • Upon request by the Luxembourgish government, 15 teachers from Portugal will support teaching staff in primary schools until the end of the school year.
  • The ULC calls for retailers and service providers to adjust their prices moderately or not at all, if possible – pointing out that many employees are on short-time work and only have 80% of their salary at their disposal.
  • And lastly, Luxembourg’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Asselborn hopes that Belgium will lift its border controls this week. Family visits in particular could be allowed in a first phase. He further expects France to reopen borders on 15 June.

  And news from around the world:

  • Germany has extended social distancing rules aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus epidemic to June 29. Up to 10 people will be allowed to gather in public places but Germans should be in contact with as few people as possible.
  • Brazil reported the highest daily COVID-19 death toll in the world Tuesday with 1,039 people killed, the fifth straight day the country has topped the list.
  • In inspiring news, Belarusian volunteers have stepped in to rush free supplies of much-needed protective equipment to hospitals as authorities in the ex-Soviet state play down the scale of the coronavirus epidemic.
  • South Korea reported its biggest jump in coronavirus infections in seven weeks on Wednesday, driven by a fresh cluster at an e-commerce warehouse on Seoul’s outskirts, as millions more pupils went back to school.
  • Air France-KLM will slash 40 percent of its French domestic flights by next year in exchange for receiving seven billion euros in emergency coronavirus funding backed by the French state. Meanwhile, economic activity in France is making a clear if cautious recovery after lockdown measures were relaxed earlier this month but the country is still heading for a roughly 20 percent contraction this quarter, the national statistics agency said Wednesday.
  • And lastly, European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday proposed a 750-billion-euro post-virus recovery fund for Europe and urged sceptical member states to back it. Sweden was one of many countries not impressed with non-refundable grants and urged for loans instead.