Coronavirus live news: France to increase testing to 700,000 a week, says PM, as he outlines lockdown exit
Infections in Saudi Arabia pass 20,000; Germany’s infection rate back at 1.0; Turkey delivers medical kit to the US
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The president of Portugal has announced the country’s state of emergency to tackle the coronavirus pandemic will end at the weekend, AFP reports.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said the third 15-day period of the state of emergency will end at midnight on Saturday and “we hope it will not be necessary to use it again in the future,” the president told the media.
People in Germany have been advised to stay at home as much as possible and continue to apply physical distancing as official data appeared to indicate the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic was once again accelerating, reports Philip Oltermann, the Guardian’s Berlin bureau chief.
The basic reproduction number (R), indicating how many new cases one infected person generates on average, has come to be seen as the key indicator over whether restrictions on public life can be loosened after Angela Merkel stressed the importance of keeping the number below one.
Related: Germans urged to stay home amid fears Covid-19 infection rate is rising again
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