Covid-19: Virus hands world leaders sweeping powers they may never give up

A surveillance camera in an underground passage in Moscow. Russian police used Moscow’s sprawling camera network to nab more than 200 people for violating quarantine required after returning from high-risk countries. They’ve deployed one of the world’s most comprehensive facial-recognition systems to monitor more than 13,000 people under mandatory self-isolation. — AFP

Last week, the mayor of Ecuador’s largest city ordered the international airport’s runway blocked to prevent a KLM airliner from landing to pick up Dutch tourists stranded by the coronavirus.

Cynthia Viteri, who is now subject to an investigation, defended the decision to move police cars onto the tarmac to stop the plane from carrying out its mercy mission as an attempt to protect her city of Guayaquil from the pandemic.