By Jessie Yeung, James Griffiths, Steve George, Amy Woodyatt, Mike Hayes and Meg Wagner, CNN
The Queen remains in good health, Buckingham Palace said Friday after news broke that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for coronavirus.
“The Queen last saw the PM on the 11th March and is following all the appropriate advice with regards to her welfare,” the Palace said in a statement.
Charles tested positive earlier this week: Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II's son and the heir to the British throne, is now self-isolating in Scotland, his office announced Wednesday.
From CNN's Radina Gigova
Criminals are taking advantage of the global coronavirus crisis and their activity is expected to rise as the pandemic drags on, Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency, said in a new report Friday.
"Criminals have been quick to seize opportunities to exploit the crisis by adapting their modi operandi or engaging in new criminal activities," Europol said.
The number of cyberattacks against organizations and individuals is "significant and is expected to increase," Europol said. A cyberattack on Brno University Hospital in the Czech Republic forced the hospital to shut down its entire IT network, postpone urgent surgical interventions and re-route new acute patients to a nearby hospital.
A large number of new or adapted fraud schemes, such as telephone schemes, supply scams and decontamination scams, can also be expected to emerge over the coming weeks as "fraudsters will attempt to capitalize further on the anxieties of people across Europe," the agency said.
The sale of counterfeit healthcare and sanitary products, as well as personal protective equipment and counterfeit pharmaceutical products, has also increased "manifold" since the start of the outbreak. Between March 3 and 10 alone, authorities have seized over 34,000 counterfeit surgical masks.
Europol said organized property theft is also on the rise. Multiple EU member states have reported cases where perpetrators gain access to private homes by impersonating medical staff providing informational material or hygiene products, or conducting a "corona test."
From CNN’s Mary Ilyushina and Darya Tarasova in Moscow
The first case of novel coronavirus has been confirmed in a Kremlin staffer, Russian president’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
“Indeed there are cases of the coronavirus within the administration,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters when asked to comment on recent media reports.
I know of one case and I can confirm it, I’m not aware of a second one... all necessary epidemiological measures are being taken to prevent the virus from spreading further."
According to Peskov, President Vladimir Putin was not in contact with the person who tested positive.
“The President continues to work, he cannot just stop,” Peskov said. "This once again proves the precautionary measures such as inviting everyone who attends the events with the President’s participation to undergo testing are justified."
From CNN's Sarah Dean in London
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for coronavirus, he confirmed on Twitter.
“Over the last 24 hours I have developed mild symptoms and tested positive for coronavirus. I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government’s response via video-conference as we fight this virus. Together we will beat this,” Johnson said on Twitter.
“After experiencing mild symptoms yesterday, the Prime Minister was tested for coronavirus on the personal advice of England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty," a Downing Street spokesperson said.
“The test was carried out in No 10 by NHS staff and the result of the test was positive. In keeping with the guidance, the Prime Minister is self-isolating in Downing Street," the spokesperson added.
From Ingrid Formanek and Tim Lister in Spain and Max Ramsay in London
At least 4,858 people have died from coronavirus in Spain, with 64,059 cases recorded, according to Spanish Health Ministry data released Friday.
The country's rise in deaths -- up 769 -- was a new record in Spain, though the rate of increase was slower than in the past two days.
Lower increase in cases: The increase in new cases -- 7,871 -- was lower than in the past two days.
On Thursday, Spain’s Health Minister Salvador Illa had said analysis of recent data from Spain indicated a “phase of stabilization” in the trend of diagnoses.
From Shanshan Wang in Beijing, Max Ramsay in London, Ingrid Formanek, Laura Perez-Maestro, and Al Goodman in Spain, and Mia Alberti in Lisbon
A Chinese government regulatory group said on Friday it has launched an investigation into Covid-19 test kit maker which supplied test kits to Spain that were recalled.
On Thursday, the Spanish government said it was recalling 9,000 kits after finding the results to be “unreliable.”
The tests, made by the Chinese company "Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology" were bought "some weeks ago" through a Spanish supplier that imported them from China, the Spanish government said in a statement sent to CNN. When the equipment was tested by Spanish authorities before being put into use, they didn't meet quality levels.
Obviously there was an obligation to return the batches and the supplier is going to change them,” Spanish health ministry official Fernando Simón said at the government’s daily coronavirus briefing. “Also, the health ministry is exploring other providers to provide rapid tests", he said.
The Shenzhen Market Supervisions Administration said on its Weibo account Friday it has launched an investigation into Bioeasy.
Bioeasy posted a statement on its WeChat account Friday to say that the nasopharyngeal swab samples might have been sampled, extracted and handled without strictly following the company's instructions, reducing the accuracy of the tests. Bioeasy added that it didn’t communicate instructions well with customers.
From Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran
Iran has reported 144 more coronavirus-related deaths since Thursday, raising the overall death toll to 2,378, Iranian health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour announced on state television on Friday.
Cases surpass 30,000: 2,926 additional cases were recorded, bringing the total number of infected people to 32,332, Jahanpour added.
From CNN's Sarah Dean in London
The UK did not take part in the EU’s scheme to acquire extra ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic because of an “issue in terms of communication,” according to UK Business Minister Alok Sharma.
Responding to British media reports, Sharma told the BBC’s Radio 4 on Friday:
The tendering process on those schemes had already started… If there are future schemes we will absolutely look to see if we will be joining them.”
He said the UK has its own “ventilator challenge,” which has seen around 3,000 companies respond with offers to help.
On Wednesday, James Dyson, the founder of British technology company Dyson, confirmed to employees in a letter shared with CNN that it had received an order from the UK government for 10,000 new ventilators to support efforts by the NHS to treat the growing number of patients who have contracted coronavirus.
Asked about Dyson-produced ventilators being in use by next month, Sharma said Dyson or any other company will need to meet the regulatory requirements before newly acquired ventilators are put into use in the National Health Service (NHS).
Pressed on the timescale, Sharma said: “What we want to see is prototypes coming forward in a matter of weeks before we move into large scale production.”
He said although the government is trying to move at pace, “the critical point is to make sure that any machines that come forward actually meet the requirements and are safe”.
From CNN's Lilit Marcus
One of the most famous streets in the world has had an unexpected makeover thanks to the coronavirus lockdown in the UK.
London's iconic Abbey Road, which is normally a tourist magnet thanks to its appearance on the Beatles album cover of the same name, is now empty as locals hunker down inside.
That has provided a rare opportunity for municipal employees in the UK capital to give the famous crossing a new coat of paint.
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