Summary:
- Spain allows outdoor exercise
- Russia reports another record jump in cases
- Video shows Mexican hospitals hiding bodies of COVID-19 patients as hallways packed with the sick
- Singapore eases some lockdown measures as domestic cases decline
- US case total tops 1.1 million
- Japan joins US in fast-tracking remdesivir
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For the first time in seven weeks, adult Spaniards are enjoying a jog or a bike ride outdoors as PM Pedro Sanchez lifted restrictions on outdoor exercise.
Spain's death toll and case count have been trending lower (interspersed with a handful of one-day spikes) for more than two weeks. A week ago, the government lifted restrictions requiring children to remain indoors, allowing young children to leave their homes (accompanied by an adult) for the first time in a month and a half.
Spain's lockdown has been among the most strict in the world (in some ways, it approximated the lockdown faced by the tens of millions of Chinese residents of Hubei).
Of course, that remains to be seen: One of the biggest stories of the past week has been the uptick in Germany's 'infection rate' - known as "R" - which approximates the average number of people infected by an infected patient. So long as the ratio stays below 1, then the outbreak is slowing. But mid-week, Germany revealed that its 'R' rate had jumped from 0.70 to 0.96 in the week since some more shops were allowed to reopen.
However, now that people are back out and about, Spain is imposing a new restriction: the government is requiring masks to be work on all public transport as...