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Wuhan lab head calls virus leak claims 'pure fabrication'
Claims promoted by the Trump administration that the global coronavirus pandemic originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the central Chinese city are a "pure fabrication", the institute's director has said.
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have repeatedly said they suspect the virus that was first detected in Wuhan was somehow released from the laboratory.
Scientists think the new coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and has killed more than 340,000 people worldwide, originated in bats and could have been transmitted to people via another mammal.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the US intelligence community have said the virus appears to be natural in origin.
The lab's director told state broadcaster CGTN that the US claims that the coronavirus may have leaked from the institute were "pure fabrication".
In the interview filmed on May 13 but broadcast on Saturday night, Wang Yanyi said the centre has "isolated and obtained some coronaviruses from bats" while conducting "source tracing of SARS", the strain behind another virus outbreak nearly 20 years ago, preceding the pandemic.
Wang said the lab has "three strains of live viruses", but said none is genetically very close to SARS-CoV-2, with the closest reaching only 79.8 percent similarity.
Furthermore, Wang said the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is too different from the virus that causes SARS to be studied as part of the previous research into that virus.
Austrian president sorry for breaching restaurant virus curfew
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen apologised on Sunday after staying at a restaurant past the 11 pm closing time mandated by the government as part of its anti-coronavirus measures.
"I went out for the first time since the lockdown with two friends and my wife," Van der Bellen tweeted on Sunday, adding: "We then lost track of time while chatting.
"I'm sincerely sorry. It was a mistake," Van der Bellen said.
His tweet thread linked to an article in the Kurier newspaper according to which a police patrol found the president and his wife on the terrace of an Italian restaurant in central Vienna shortly after midnight on Sunday morning.
Austria went into a relatively early and strict lockdown to combat the novel coronavirus in mid-March but has been progressively lifting restrictions since mid-April while infection numbers have stayed low.
Last week restaurants and cafes were allowed to re-open but have to follow a suite of new rules, one of which is the 11 pm closing time.
Bolsonaro rallies with supporters amid virus surge
President Jair Bolsonaro hit the streets Sunday for a rally with his supporters, ditching his face mask and breaking social distancing measures even as coronavirus cases surged in Brazil.
The far-right president arrived at the rally outside the presidential palace in Brasilia in a white surgical mask, but soon took it off to greet the cheering crowd, shake hands and embrace supporters, at one point even hoisting a young boy onto his shoulders.
The rally came as Brazil emerged as a new flashpoint in the pandemic.
With nearly 350,000 confirmed cases, Brazil now has the second-biggest caseload in the world, after the United States. It has registered more than 22,000 deaths.
Experts say under-testing means the real figures are likely far higher.
Bolsonaro has famously compared the virus to a "little flu" and argues that stay-at-home measures are unnecessarily hurting the economy.
