US states ease lockdowns as coronavirus death toll passes 65,000

More US states eased pandemic lockdown measures on Friday even as coronavirus deaths rose, while American authorities greenlighted an experimental drug for emergency use on patients.

Washington also renewed its warnings to Beijing a day after President Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on China, with the White House accusing Chinese authorities of "slow-walking" coronavirus data and putting US lives at risk.

India meanwhile announced that the world's biggest lockdown — on most of the nation's 1.3 billion people — would continue for two more weeks.

But several European countries have begun to ease restrictions that have shut in half the world, joining some Asian nations that feel they have already turned a corner.

The United States also took a major step in that direction, with Texas becoming the largest state yet to ease lockdowns, despite reporting 50 deaths on Thursday, the most there since the outbreak began.

Receptionist Diane Curtis headed to a mall in Houston to buy shoes and "get out of the house."

"Eventually it's like every other sickness that comes around," she said of coronavirus. "It'll go away but it'll probably take time."

Read also: Remdesivir approved as experimental drug for coronavirus patients

With about 1.1 million confirmed cases, nearly 65,000 of them fatal, the United States has the highest tolls of any country.

"Hopefully, we're going to come in below that 100,000 lives lost, which is a horrible number nevertheless," Trump said Friday at the White House, after suggesting earlier in the week the country could expect 60,000 or 70,000 fatalities.

Many Americans are wearying of stay-at-home orders. More protests demanding the end of restrictions took place in several states Friday including California, where officials had re-closed beaches to avoid a repeat of last weekend when crowds flocked to the shoreline.

Trump, eager for a turnaround, announced Friday that US regulators have authorised the use of remdesivir to treat serious virus cases. A major clinical trial found that the antiviral helped patients with serious cases of COVID-19 recover faster.

'China mishandled this' 

Meanwhile, the White House again pointed fingers at Beijing.

"It's no secret that China mishandled this situation," press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, highlighting what she described as Beijing's failure to quickly share the virus's genetic sequence or information on human-to-human transmission.

"Slow-walking some of that information put American lives at risk," McEnany said.

Scientists believe the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year possibly from a market in Wuhan selling exotic animals for meat.

The World Health Organisation has asked to be allowed to take part in a Chinese investigation into the animal origins of the pandemic, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said Friday, adding that the global agency was "not currently involved in the studies in China" but would be "keen" to participate.

Read also: India extends COVID-19 lockdown for two weeks with some easing of restrictions

Washington's sharp rhetoric, including Trump's unproven allegation Thursday that the virus might have come from a Chinese lab in Wuhan — an accusation rejected by Beijing — and threats of more US trade tariffs sent stocks in London and New York tumbling.

The FTSE shed 1.7% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid more than 2.5%.

Tech giants Apple and Amazon became the latest firms to announce worrying results as corporations around the world shed staff and slash profit forecasts.

The economic mood darkened further with the release of a manufacturing survey that pointed to a historic decline in US output in April due to the pandemic.

Long, hard road 

The Cuban government suspended May Day celebrations on the island, normally marked by the country's largest annual march, due to the pandemic.

But in more positive signs, South Africa and Austria were among those allowing some businesses to reopen from Friday, and hard-hit Spain's latest daily death toll confirmed the pandemic there was slowing.

"The road ahead will be long and hard, and we will make mistakes," warned South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Despite his caution, Johannesburg construction company owner Sean Lawrenson woke up at the crack of dawn for his first run in weeks.

"Gosh, I forgot how beautiful it was, how much I missed it. It felt great," Lawrenson said, wearing a black face mask and beanie.

The pandemic's global death toll has topped 235,000, according to an AFP tally of official sources.

More than 3.3 million infections have been recorded worldwide, likely a gross underestimate with many countries only testing the most serious cases.

UK 'past peak' of coronavirus outbreak: PM Johnson

British Health Minister Matt Hancock announced that the UK has hit its target of conducting 100,000 coronavirus tests a day, a step toward eventually lifting lockdown rules in the country that this week overtook Spain to record the world's third-highest death toll.

In Belgium, patients who survived the virus and emerged from comas were still too weak to leave hospitals.

"What is painful is to have to recover reflexes and actions that are completely natural," said 74-year-old Pierre Fonteyne, as he gingerly returned to walking.

But there were signs the epidemic may just be getting underway in places that so far have been spared the worst.

In northern Nigeria's Kano state, cases have almost tripled in a few days.

Nasiru Sani Gwarzo, head of a presidential COVID-19 taskforce, told AFP the region appeared to be "at the threshold of the community transmission stage."