Japan Declares Emergency Nationwide: Live Updates

A global crisis gives rise to divisions among nations.

With confirmed cases of the coronavirus surpassing two million worldwide, the divisions in the approach to fighting the outbreak and outcomes between those countries past a peak and those in the throes of a health crisis are increasingly laid bare.

As China, once the center of the epidemic, moves beyond its peak, its success is giving rise to a blend of patriotism, nationalism and xenophobia not seen in decades.

In some countries believed to have brought their outbreaks under control, a second wave has emerged. Singapore, long held up as a model of effective containment strategy, announced on Wednesday evening a record jump in coronavirus cases, with most of the 447 new infections in crowded dormitories for migrant laborers.

Singapore has been lauded for its rigorous contact-tracing program, which identified clusters of local transmission, but the coronavirus spread quickly through crammed residences shared by migrant workers.

In the United States, after President Trump asserted that the country was past its peak, the talk turned to plans to ease the economic strain of the outbreak by returning to some level of normalcy. More than 5.2 million workers joined the ranks of the unemployed last week, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. The four-week total is about 22 million — roughly the net number of jobs created since the last recession.

Public health experts have warned that, with testing still limited, a rush to reopen the nation could exacerbate the spread of the coronavirus. Even as the United States considers easing restrictions, other nations have moved to extend lockdowns.