Under Coronavirus Lockdowns, an Unfamiliar Ramadan Begins: Live Global Coverage

In Egypt, most people followed an order from the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, the revered center of Islamic scholarship, to perform their prayers at home, but some chafed at the restrictions.

In the upscale district of Zamalek in central Cairo on Friday, a small group gathered to offer their prayers on the street, close to a shuttered mosque.

Britain invited millions of essential workers to apply online for coronavirus tests. But within hours of starting the system on Friday, the government was forced to halt it after overwhelming demand.

With governments consumed by coronavirus matters, and Mr. Johnson himself recovering from Covid-19, there has been speculation about pushing back the deadline.

But the government’s chief Brexit negotiator, David Frost tweeted on Friday: “We will not ask to extend it. If the EU asks we will say no.”

In Britain, more than 140,000 people have tested positive for the virus and almost 20,000 have died.

“The next two to three weeks are very crucial,” said officials of the Pakistan Medical Association, a representative body of medical professionals.

But Dr. Ashraf Nizami, the president of the association’s Lahore chapter, said that testing in the country was starkly insufficient, and that the true numbers were likely much higher.

“I don’t want to scare you, but I would like to inform you that the cases are not in thousands, the number is much higher,” Dr. Nizami said during a televised news briefing in Lahore.

Dr. Nizami and his peers have also heavily criticized the move by the government to allow prayers in the mosques during the holy month of Ramadan, stressing that it would lead to an alarming spread of cases. The government and clerics have agreed on some safety measures, including urging worshipers to keep distance among themselves. But doctors fear that religious congregations will simply ignore the guidelines.

“The rule of a 6-foot distance between worshipers is not possible practically. We appeal to the government to review its decision and establish the writ of the state,” Nizami said.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has been averse to a complete lockdown in the country from the start, stressing that daily wage workers and the poor cannot survive an economic shutdown. Mr. Khan said Thursday that the country should move toward a “smart lockdown.”

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised that the government would give two masks to every household in Japan. Now many of them are being recalled, according to two of the companies that produced them, in response to complaints about their quality and cleanliness.

The Japanese manufacturers Itochu and Kowa on Thursday announced that they would collect all undistributed masks and examine them for problems, following requests from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Days earlier, the health ministry said that it had received nearly 2,000 complaints about the masks, after its staff began delivering 500,000 of them, meant for use by pregnant women.

Mr. Abe’s mask-giveaway plan was mocked from the moment he announced it on April 1. Some social media wags called it “Abenomasks,” a play on the leader’s eponymous economic plan, known as Abenomics. Others posted illustrations of the country’s most beloved cartoon families fighting over the masks.

Once distribution began, the jokes turned to anger, as people posted photos of newly opened masks covered in filth, or freshly washed ones that had shrunk to the point of being unusable.

Both companies said in statements on Thursday that heavy demand had forced them to produce the masks outside of Japan — a not-so-subtle hint that the problems were related to unreliable foreign manufacturers.

While Itochu referred vaguely to problems “overseas,” Kowa singled out China.

Demand for surgical masks has been especially high in Japan, where it has long been customary to wear them during flu season, and even companies that would not normally produce them have gotten into the business.

On Tuesday, after a flood of eager consumers crashed the website of the electronics manufacturer Sharp, the company said that it would sell its latest line of masks via lottery.

Italian households now represent “the biggest reservoir of infections,” said Massimo Galli, the director of the infectious diseases department at Luigi Sacco University Hospital in Milan. He called the cases “the possible restarting point of the epidemic in case of a reopening.”

The family acts as a multiplier, said Andrea Crisanti, the top scientific consultant on the virus in the Veneto region. “This is a ticking time bomb,” he said.

Germany welcomed home passengers on the last flight of repatriated residents, which landed at Frankfurt Airport on Friday morning, ending an ambitious program started by the government in mid-March when around 240,000 Germans were left stranded by closed borders and reduced flights.

The unscheduled flight from Cape Town, which was operated by South African Airways, touched down at 9:35 a.m. local time, roughly five weeks after the German government started the repatriation program, called the Corona Air Bridge.

“You wouldn’t believe how many Germans are outside the country’s borders,” Chancellor Merkel noted in a speech to Parliament on Thursday morning, listing the repatriation efforts as a success in her government’s fight against the coronavirus.

The repatriation program brought home 240,000 Germans, most on scheduled commercial flights, but 66,000 were returned on a total of 260 flights chartered by the government, the German foreign ministry said. The government also brought back 6,100 European Union citizens and 3,300 nationals from other countries.

The picture emerging from long-term care facilitates in Europe in recent weeks has been “deeply concerning,” Hans Henri P. Kluge, the W.H.O.’s regional director for Europe, said in a news briefing.

“According to estimates from countries in the European Region, up to half of those who have died from Covid-19 were resident in long-term care facilities,” he said. “This is an unimaginable human tragedy.”

Most nursing homes across Europe have banned or limited family visits to help prevent the spread of the virus, but this has deprived residents of physical and emotional support and in some cases has resulted in abuse and neglect, the organization said.

“And yet equally troubling — the way that such care facilities operate, how residents receive care — is providing pathways for the virus to spread,” Mr. Kluge said, adding that the pandemic had exposed overlooked and undervalued corners of society, including long-term care, which has been “notoriously neglected.”

Almost half of coronavirus deaths in Ireland took place in nursing homes, according to Dr. Tony Holohan, the country’s chief medical officer, who announced on Thursday that 362 of the county’s 794 deaths were nursing home residents. But many other nations, including Britain, have not included the nursing home deaths among their daily count of fatalities.

Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said on Wednesday that it was hard to prevent deaths in care homes because of the vulnerability of the age group.

Official figures published by the Office for National Statistics say there were 975 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes in England by April 10. But figures compiled by the Care Quality Commission suggest that figure could double when taking into account deaths that occurred between April 11 and April 15.

“I’m sure we will see a high mortality rate in care homes, sadly, because this is a very vulnerable group and people are coming in and out of care homes, and that cannot, to some extent, be prevented,” Mr. Whitty said.

Face masks were already a common sight in Hong Kong, but with the coronavirus pandemic, they have become an obligatory part of public life, familiar to virtually everyone. Less well known is their source.

Millions of surgical masks are being produced by inmates at Lo Wu prison in Hong Kong, some of them working late-night shifts for a fraction of the territory’s official minimum wage.

The prison has been churning out masks 24 hours a day since February, when Hong Kong’s government ramped up production to supply the city’s army of medical, public health and sanitation workers.

Inmates, along with retired and off-duty corrections officers volunteering their time, now produce 2.5 million masks per month, up from 1.1 million before the outbreak.

The city’s Correctional Services Department said inmates who worked overnight or additional shifts did so voluntarily, and received higher wages.

But Shiu Ka-chun, a legislator, said that prisoners felt pressured to take on additional hours in the mask factory.

One recently released prisoner, Yannis, said that working overnight making masks, she earned $4.30 a day, or $0.61 per hour — at the high end for prison labor. She asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of reprisal.

Inmates’ earnings often go back to the prison, spent at the commissary on products like menstrual pads and stationary.

Mr. Shiu, who served eight months last year for his role in pro-democracy protests, said he worked in a prison garment factory, earning up to $0.57 per hour.

“This is exploitation by nature,” he said.

The Czech government on Friday eased many of the stringent restrictions put in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus, lifting a ban on travel and allowing people to move freely outside their homes in groups of no more than 10 for the first time in more than a month.

“We believe that from the epidemiological point of view we can now ease the ban,” said Adam Vojtech, the health minister. Under restrictions put in place on March 16, Czechs could only go to work and return home and spend time outside in groups of two, with the exception of family members.

The government says this is partly because the country has a comparatively low number of cases, and new infections continue to fall as well. The Czech Republic reported the lowest increase in positive test results since mid-March on Thursday, with just 55 new cases, bringing the total number to 7,188. There have been 213 deaths in the country since the outbreak began.

Beginning Friday, Czech citizens can also travel abroad, though when they return they will have to show they have tested negative for the virus or go into a two-week quarantine at home. It is unclear how residents could obtain a test or who would monitor the quarantine.

Some worry that the restrictions are being lifted too soon and that the parameters for travel are unrealistic, among them Jan Papez, the vice chairman of the Czech Association of Travel Agencies.

“The optics are good and it looks democratic, but in reality it will not mean much,” Mr. Papez said. “Hardly anybody can put themselves in a quarantine after taking holidays, and coronavirus tests are not easy to obtain commercially.”

The government is seeking to ease other restrictive measures more quickly, moving up the reopening date for restaurants, hotels, theaters and similar establishments by two weeks to May 25 from June 8. On Wednesday, the Czech Republic started an antibody study that will test 27,000 people, hoping for a clearer picture of how many people have been touched by the disease.

Hong Kong is slowly coming back to life after nearly two weeks of recording new coronavirus infections in the single digits. Thousands of high school students sat for college entrance examinations on Friday, as dozens of antigovernment protesters gathered at a shopping mall for an unrelated demonstration.

The exams had been delayed by a month, and schools in the semiautonomous Chinese territory are still closed for classes. But the test takers were permitted to enter school grounds after undergoing temperature checks and disinfection measures, and their desks were spaced farther apart than usual.

Australia reported its first case on Jan. 25, New Zealand on Feb. 28. But compared with Mr. Trump and leaders in Europe, Prime Ministers Scott Morrison of Australia and Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand responded with more alacrity and with starker warnings.

Both nations are now reporting just a handful of new infections each day, down from hundreds in March, and they are converging toward an extraordinary goal: completely eliminating the virus from their nations.

Whether they get to zero or not, what Australia and New Zealand have already accomplished is a remarkable cause for hope. Mr. Morrison, a conservative Christian, and Ms. Ardern, New Zealand’s darling of the left, are both succeeding with throwback democracy — in which partisanship recedes, experts lead, and quiet coordination matters more than firing up the base.

“It’s a case of politicians just not being in the way,” said Ian Mackay, an immunologist at the University of Queensland who has been involved in response planning for the pandemic. “It’s a mix of things, but I think it comes down to taking advice based on expertise.”

The prospect of a return to near normalcy in these two countries may end up being a mirage or temporary triumph: Other nations that had seemingly kept the virus at bay, like Singapore, have seen rebounds.

And yet, if there are any two countries that could pull off a clear if hermetically sealed victory — offering a model of recovery that elevates competence over ego and restores some confidence in democratic government — it may be these two sparsely populated Pacific neighbors with their history of pragmatism.

In a meeting with his advisers on Thursday night, which was aired on television Friday morning, Mr. Duterte agreed to extend an “enhanced community quarantine” in greater Manila and some provinces until May 15.

Mr. Duterte imposed a lockdown on the island of Luzon, home to Manila and about 60 million people, in mid-March. It had been scheduled to end on April 15 and was later extended to the end of the month.

As of Thursday, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Philippines stood at almost 7,000, with total deaths nearing 500. Those tallies are among the highest in Southeast Asia.

Mr. Duterte had been falsely claiming that he was the first leader in Asia to impose a lockdown. In fact, he initially resisted the move, assuring Filipinos in February that there was nothing to be scared of.

At the meeting on Thursday, Mr. Duterte said that he might impose martial law to quell communist guerrillas, whom he accused of preying on virus-related aid convoys. He did not mention a specific incident, but earlier this week, two soldiers who were distributing cash aid to a poor community on Luzon were killed in an attack.

“I am now warning everybody and putting the police and the A.F.P. on notice,” Mr. Duterte said, referring to the Armed Forces of the Philippines. “I might declare martial law and there will be no turning back.”

The Philippine military blamed the recent attack on New People’s Army, a group that has been waging a communist insurgency since the 1960s. But the group did not claim responsibility.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said that states should consider filing for bankruptcy rather than look for handouts. His aides threw fuel on the fire in a news release that said the Senate leader was opposed to “blue state bailouts,” suggesting it was Democratic-leaning states that were seeking the money to take care of problems caused by fiscal mismanagement.

The thought of getting on a plane is far from most people’s minds at the moment, as they shelter in their homes. But some people have no choice but to fly now, whether it is returning from a long trip or rushing to leave a country as a visa expires.

When Billy Chan flew home to Hong Kong from London in mid-March, he wore a disposable protective suit, goggles and an N95 mask. He changed his mask twice during the 13-hour flight, using hand sanitizer each time.

Stacie Tan, who flew to her home in Malaysia from Oregon on April 1, wore goggles, gloves and a mask on the plane.

“I knew that someone might look at me and laugh,” Ms. Tan said. “It’s better than lying in the hospital, right?”

Linsey Marr, an expert in airborne disease transmission at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, said it made sense to wear protective gear on an airplane, given the tight quarters.

“I think the most important thing to do would be to wear a face covering, a mask of some sort,” said Dr. Marr, who studies how viruses spread in the air. “Goggles aren’t a bad idea, especially if they will prevent you from touching your eyes.”

Reporting was contributed by Christopher F. Schuetze, Hana de Goeji, Megan Specia, Mike Ives, Ben Dooley, Jason Horowitz, Emma Bubola, Dera Menra Sijabat, Ceylan Yeginsu, Yonette Joseph, Mike Wolgelenter, Salman Masood, Richard C. Paddock, Jin Wu, Vivian Lin, Thomas Fuller, José María León Cabrera, Anatoly Kurmanaev, Dan Levin, Elaine Yu, Andrew LaVallee, Jason Gutierrez, Farnaz Fassihi, Damien Cave and Victor Mather.