Governments face more pressure to curb virus economic damage

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea reported fewer than 10 new coronavirus cases Sunday for the first time in two months as U.S. governors ease lockdowns amid pressure worldwide from businesses and the public to limit the pandemic's economic damage.

In Brazil, hundreds of people protested in major cities against anti-virus lockdowns. France reported a decline in numbers of intensive care patients but its health agency warned the public to stick to strict isolation measures.

The pandemic that began in central China in December is believed to have infected more than 2.3 million people worldwide. While most recover, at least 155,000 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University based on figures supplied by health authorities around the globe.

South Korea reported eight new cases, raising its total to 10,661 with 234 deaths.

South Korea’s toll of new cases has fallen from a peak of 909 on Feb. 29. But officials warn of the possibility of a “quiet spread” as people relax social distancing.

“We must not loosen our guard until the last confirmed patient is recovered,” President Moon Jae-in said Sunday.

China reported 16 new cases and no deaths in the 24 hours through midnight Saturday. That raised the official fatality toll to 4,632 — some three-quarters of them in the central city of Wuhan, where the virus emerged — among 82,735 confirmed cases.

Governments face pressure to reopen factories, shops, travel and public activities even as numbers of infections rise in the United States and some other countries.

Shutdowns that began in China in late January and spread to the U.S., Europe and elsewhere have wiped out millions of jobs, plunging the world into its most painful economic slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The International...