It's an anxious time for all of us, but especially for new and expecting mothers.

This hospital in Thailand is taking an extra protective measure, giving newborn babies mini face shields.

Pictures from the Praram 9 Hospital in Bangkok show them swaddled in their blankets while nurses attempt to put on the plastic shields.

There were 54 new virus cases and two new deaths recorded in Thailand on Thursday, bringing the total death toll to 32 and confirmed cases at 2,423.

1. Straight talk

Not too long ago I received an envious message from a friend in Washington: "Angela Merkel's speech, that 60 percent of us will get the virus, made her an instant hero here." In the early days of the crisis, the chancellor addressed Germans directly — as she had never done before, apart from annual New Year's greetings — to explain how the government would protect them in the face of what she described as the gravest challenge the country had faced since the Second World War. Simply and soberly, not only in that address but in repeated podcasts and press conferences, she has delivered hard facts, explained concepts such as flattening the curve and expounded on details as mundane as handwashing and toilet-paper supply.

In her own address to the British people on Sunday night, Queen Eilzabeth's first words were an acknowledgment of the disruption, grief and financial difficulties the nation was facing. Like the chancellor, and in stark contrast to the US president, she made no false assurances nor mollifying claims as to potential remedies and exit strategies.

When citizens have the facts, they can make informed decisions about how to mitigate risks, both individually and collectively. When leaders obfuscate, deny and deceive, they turn a potentially manageable risk into an incalculable danger, sowing anxiety and passivity.

The total number of coronavirus infections is likely to be drastically higher than the figures officially registered by health authorities worldwide, according to a new study. Christian Bommer and Sebastian Vollmer from Göttingen University in central Germany analyzed data from a recent study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases monthly journal.

The researchers looked at the estimates of coronavirus mortality and the time from infection until death to assess the quality of official case records. According to the German researchers, the data showed that countries have only discovered on average about 6% of all coronavirus infections. They claimed that the true total number of people infected with coronavirus may already have reached some tens of millions of people worldwide.

"These results mean that governments and policy-makers need to exercise extreme caution when interpreting case numbers for planning purposes," said Vollmer, a Professor of Development Economics at the university.

"Such extreme differences in the amount and quality of testing carried out in different countries mean that official case records are largely uninformative and do not provide helpful information," he warned.

According to the Jakarta city government, there are around 2.5 million people who return to their hometowns during Ramadan annually.

The same number of people are expected to leave Jakarta as soon as Friday when the restrictions kick in. This exodus, according to observers, is a cause for alarm from the perspective of containing the pandemic.

Of the more than 3,200 COVID-19 cases and 280 deaths reported in Indonesia, more than half are in Jakarta. Unless the exodus is stopped, the outbreak is expected to spread to villages and towns which might not be as well equipped to handle COVID-19 compared to the major cities.

President Joko Widodo, however, has decided against barring the movement of people.

Dozens of members of the ruling Saudi royal family, as many as 150, have been infected with coronavirus in recent weeks, a news report said.

Saudi Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud - the governor of the capital Riyadh who is in his 70s - is in intensive care after contracting the virus, according to The New York Times, which cited hospital communications, doctors in the country and sources familiar with the family. King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) have retreated into isolation to avoid the outbreak.
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There are thousands of Saudi princes. Many travel regularly to Europe and some are believed to have contracted the virus abroad and brought it back to Saudi Arabia, the report said.

The kingdom of about 33 million people has reported 2,932 cases and 41 deaths. The country, home to Islam's holiest sites Mecca and Medina, banned the year-round Umrah pilgrimage and sealed off the areas in early March.

The British and American cybersecurity agencies have issued a joint warning about a spike in cybercrime related to Covid, as attackers take advantage weaknesses in remote working set-ups to hack, phish and scam people in self-isolation, Alex Hern, the Guardian’s UK technology editor, reports.

In the advisory, jointly issued by GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre and the US’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, internet users are warned to watch out for “emails containing malware which appear to have come from the Director-General of the World Health Organization, and others which claim to offer thermometers and face masks to fight the pandemic.” The agencies have also found cyber criminals “scanning for vulnerabilities in software and remote working tools”, aiming to exploit the absence of corporate IT protections to hack weak links in businesses.

Popular videoconferencing tool Zoom is one such tool, and interest in hacking techniques that could be used against it is “sky high”, according to one report in Vice. Successful attacks against the software, and other videoconferencing services, could be used to enable successful corporate espionage. “Industrial espionage is making millions now. Zoom, GTM, WebEx…all meetings where you needed an insider to get in before,” a source told Vice News.

Other Coronavirus-related scams are less high-tech. Security researchers at McAfee found one posting on a dark web forum where an individual claiming to have recovered from Coronavirus selling their blood to others. For just $1,000, the user offered a sample of their blood or saliva, which could be used harvested for antibodies – if they’re telling the truth.

From John Hopkins Medicine:

COVID-19 Basics - Frequently Asked Questions
Johns Hopkins experts answer your most frequently asked questions about coronavirus.

Link: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/covid-19-basics/faq

Specifically, see:

How long can the virus that causes COVID-19 live on surfaces?
Carolyn Machamer, a cell biologist who specializes in coronaviruses, discusses the latest research on the virus that causes COVID-19

Link: https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/03/20/sars-cov-2-survive-on-surfaces/

Excerpt:
According to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can live in the air and on surfaces between several hours and several days. The study found that the virus is viable for up to 72 hours on plastics, 48 hours on stainless steel, 24 hours on cardboard, and 4 hours on copper. It is also detectable in the air for three hours.

From Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health:

Food safety, nutrition, and wellness during COVID-19 - GREAT RESOURCE!

Link: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2020/03/25/food-safety-nutrition-and-wellness-during-covid-19/

From the FDA:

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Frequently Asked Questions

Link: https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-frequently-asked-questions

From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

How to Protect Yourself & Others

Link: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fprepare%2Fprevention.html

And a special section Clean and disinfect:

Cleaning and Disinfection for Households
Interim Recommendations for U.S. Households with Suspected or Confirmed Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Link: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cleaning-disinfection.html

From the World Health Organization (WHO):

Link: https://www.who.int/

Specifically, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public

Link: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

This WHO site is a great resource and even included downloadable posters for home and workplace.

Dozens of prisoners in a Pakistani jail have contracted the novel coronavirus, officials have said, with more than 150 additional inmates potentially infected as cases of Covid-19 continue to soar in the country.

At least 49 inmates at a jail in the eastern city of Lahore have tested positive, according to a tweet by the provincial chief minister late Monday.

The outbreak is believed to have stemmed from an inmate who was arrested for smuggling narcotics and had returned from Italy last month. He was diagnosed on March 23.

LAHORE: Pakistan has quarantined 20,000 worshippers and is still searching for tens of thousands more who attended an Islamic gathering in Lahore last month despite the worsening coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Sunday (Apr 5).

Authorities said they want to test or quarantine those who congregated at the event held by the Tablighi Jamaat - an Islamic missionary movement - between Mar 10 and 12 over fears they are now spreading COVID-19 across Pakistan and overseas.

More than 100,000 people went to the meeting, organisers said, undeterred by government requests for it to be cancelled as the virus hit the country.

In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities have so far quarantined 5,300 Tablighis or Islamic preachers who attended the Lahore meeting.

(CNN) — Nissan plans to furlough most of its hourly manufacturing employees as its US plants remain closed to help slow the spread of Covid-19. Lloryn Love-Carter, a company spokeswoman, said that the company will furlough about 10,000 employees Tuesday at plants in Canton, Mississippi and two locations in Tennessee: Smyrna and Decherd.

Nissan is asking furloughed employees to apply for unemployment through at least April 27, when the company plans to restart production. Nissan closed its US plants on March 20.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Ford is delaying its planned restart of certain North America plants, the company announced Tuesday.

Many of the plants were slated to reopen in mid-April. A date had not been announced for the Louisville Assembly plant, but Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant was supposed to restart production April 14. Now, the startup dates have been further postponed, but no dates have been announced.

Volkswagen announced Wednesday that they are further extending the shutdown period of their Chattanooga plant, a suspension that began March 21. Now, production will be suspended until April 12, with production resuming at 10pm that Sunday.

A statement from plant CEO Tom du Plessis reads as follows: "The health and safety of our team remains our highest priority. Volkswagen Chattanooga will remain closed next week, extending the production suspension which began March 21. We plan to resume production Sunday, April 12 at 10 p.m.