UK looks to Berlin, Seoul as virus fight models

The British government is keen to learn from the example set by Germany and South Korea in their handling of the novel coronavirus, the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser said at the daily Downing Street media update on Tuesday.

On the day when it was announced that the UK death toll had passed the 35,000 mark to reach 35,341, Angela McLean picked out South Korea and Germany as examples to aspire to.

The testing system in development, she said, was modeled on Germany's approach, and she called South Korea's contact tracing system, which uses data GPS phone tracking, surveillance camera footage and credit card transactions to trace infections, "inspiring".

Speaking alongside her, Environment Secretary George Eustice suggested Britons furloughed from their jobs might like to "lend a hand" with this year's fruit harvest, because only one-third of the usual number of migrant workers are expected this year.

"We believe that those furloughed who may want to lend a hand or play their part, or supplement their income with an additional job, if they do feel that way I would urge them to visit that website (Pick for Britain) and look at the opportunities there," Eustice said.

Across Europe, the coronavirus had infected 1,722,391 people and claimed 163,367 lives as of Tuesday, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Russia reported 8,764 new cases on Wednesday, its lowest daily rise since May 2, taking its total infections to 308,705. The country's coronavirus response center said 135 people had died in the latest 24-hour period, taking the death toll to 2,972.

Experts from the Moscow Health Department believe that blood plasma containing antibodies for the virus could be an effective treatment.

More than 540 people in Moscow have donated blood plasma for the treatment of coronavirus patients, and 340 patients have been infused with blood plasma, which is used, first and foremost, to help treat critical patients, the Moscow government said on Wednesday.

The Greek authorities will allow travel to and from all its islands from May 25, officials said on Tuesday.

The decision was made as the gradual rollback of the measures implemented to contain COVID-19 was going well, said Nikos Hardalias, deputy minister for Civil Protection and Crisis Management at the Ministry of Citizen Protection.

Greece was under full lockdown from March 23 to May 4 and in the past two weeks the government has started to ease the measures. It had reported 2,840 cases and 165 deaths by Tuesday, health authorities said.

Belgium has also eased curbs. Museums, libraries and infrastructures of cultural interest such as historical buildings have reopened with physical distancing and wearing mask measures.

Chen Yingqun in Beijing and Xinhua contributed to this story.