Germany’s state offers blueprint of lockdown exit strategy

   BEIJING, May 6  -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
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   BERLIN -- Germany's state of Bavaria on Tuesday announced its schedule for a gradual reopening, ahead of a telephone conference between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany's states.
   From Wednesday, the general lockdown will be relaxed across the state, the Bavarian state government said, while some contact restrictions and the ban on gatherings in public areas will still remain in place.
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   BEIJING -- The daily number of newly confirmed imported cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the Chinese mainland has been less than ten for a week, said a Chinese health official on Wednesday.
   In countries bordering China, the number of new COVID-19 cases in a single day has increased more than seven times compared with a month ago, warned Mi Feng from the National Health Commission at a press conference in Beijing.
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   MOSCOW -- Russia has confirmed 10,559 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, raising its total number of infections to 165,929, its coronavirus response center said in a statement Wednesday.
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   WASHINGTON -- Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai on Tuesday called on U.S. politicians to end the blame-China game and focus on tackling the COVID-19 pandemic which has killed over 70,000 Americans.
   "Blaming China will not end this pandemic. On the contrary, the mind-set risks decoupling China and the United States and hurting our efforts to fight the disease, our coordination to reignite the global economy, our ability to conquer other challenges and our prospects of a better future. The United States would not emerge as a winner from this scenario," Cui said in an opinion piece published Tuesday night by The Washington Post.
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   MEXICO CITY -- Mexico registered 1,120 new novel coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number to 26,025, the health ministry said at an evening press conference.
   The country also reported 236 new deaths, raising the death toll to 2,507.
   There are also 16,099 suspected cases.
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   WELLINGTON -- New Zealand reported one more COVID-19 death on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 21 in the country.
   Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a press conference that the death was a woman in her 60s who had underlying health conditions. The woman was from the Rosewood rest home cluster in Christchurch.
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   GENEVA -- A UN official on Tuesday said that conditions in many prisons in the region of Americas are deeply worrying with thousands of inmates and prison officials being infected by the novel coronavirus.
   "Pre-existing structural problems, such as chronic overcrowding and unhygienic conditions, coupled with the lack of proper access to healthcare, have enabled the rapid spread of COVID-19 in many facilities," Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a press briefing here.
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   LOS ANGELES -- Attorney generals from 16 states signed a letter to Centers for U.S. Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma, urging the authority to provide greater transparency and communication about the COVID 19 spreading in nursing Homes nationwide.
   This move, pushed by a multistate coalition, highlighted increasing concerns in the United States that vulnerable residents in nursing homes were not protected properly during the coronavirus pandemic.  Xinhua