G20 health ministers had a virtual meeting on 19 April. They agreed that lifting lockdown restrictions is not the end of the epidemic; it is just the beginning of the next phase, and countries must educate, engage, and empower their people to prevent any resurgence. They must have the capacity to detect, test, isolate and care for every case and trace every contact. Health systems must have the capacity to absorb any increase in cases. There is deep concern that the virus is gathering pace in countries that lack the capabilities of G20 countries. Urgent support is needed as they respond to the pandemic, while ensuring that other essential health services can continue. One of the biggest challenges which G20 and WHO face in Africa (and other countries) is the critical shortage of supplies, and the lack of ability to deliver them because of weak supply chains.

‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ Many of us have Muslim friends, and we long to see them understand and believe John 3:16. During Ramadan (however modified), let us pray and ask God to anoint us for Spirit-led conversations with them. As they practise self-restraint, fast and pray to become closer to Allah, we can pray that the Holy Spirit will open their spiritual eyes to know the Father who loves them. When they sacrifice and give alms, we can ask God in heaven to show them the sacrifice that Jesus made when he was crucified for the sins of the world. May He give His Church love for Muslims across the world. May we have compassion for those who are like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:34). For a ‘30daysprayer’ resource click the ‘More’ button, or go to 

During the coronavirus lockdown, Nigerian Fulani militants have murdered a five-year-old child they snatched from a pregnant mother, another nine Christians including two children, and a second pregnant woman In Egypt, seven Islamist terrorists, suspected of plotting to attack Christians under cover of the nightly coronavirus curfew, were shot dead. In West Africa, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau declared coronavirus a ‘product of evil’ while he mocked health measures and stepped up attacks. In East Africa the arrival of a second invasion of ravenous young locusts, spawned in Ethiopia, is feared to be twenty times more severe than the plague that devastated crops in January. Iran is facing major challenges. Its slow response to the pandemic, lack of transparency, and absence of an exit strategy, together with the US sanctions and the fall of oil prices, have compromised its healthcare system, its economic situation, and the daily lives of its people.

The Golden Week will fall between 2 and 6 May. Families usually take advantage of this holiday period to go on long trips. Despite early signs that the number of new coronavirus cases may be slowing, the government has warned that everyone must continue to stay home and avoid non-essential travel, even during the Golden Week holidays. The economic minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who spearheads the government’s coronavirus measures, said, ‘I am alarmed that efforts to decrease the number of new patients have been insufficient’. Recently doctors warned that the medical system could collapse. Emergency rooms cannot treat seriously ill patients due to extra virus cases. One ambulance carrying a coronavirus patient was turned away by eighty hospitals before he could be seen. Japan now has tens of thousands of confirmed cases: it did not prepare well for coronavirus, despite being the second country outside China to record infection. See