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India’s health ministry said Friday the country has recorded its largest spike in COVID-19 infections in a 24-hour period - 6,088.  There were 148 deaths in the same time frame - from Thursday morning to Friday, the health ministry said.  The massive country has more than one million coronavirus infections.
 
In Britain’s fight to stop the spread of the coronavirus, everyone flying into the country, including citizens, will be required to self-isolate for 14 days.  International travelers will have to provide an address and will be subjected to spot checks and fines if they breach quarantine Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis told Sky News on Friday. The new protocol is expected to begin next month.
 
The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reports there are more than five million COVID-19 infections and more than 333,000 deaths worldwide.
 
The United States continues to lead in the number of cases and deaths.  The U.S. more than 1.5 million people who have been infected and nearly 95,000 have died.  
 
Russia ranks in second place with infections with more than 317,000 cases.  Brazil is third with more than 310,000 infections.
 
In the U.S., President Donald Trump has ordered flags on all federal buildings and monuments lowed to half-staff for three days in memory of all Americans who have lost their lives to the coronavirus.  
 
He made the announcement late Thursday on Twitter at the same time he said the lowered flags Monday will also honor servicemen and women “who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation” as the country marks Memorial Day.  
 
Meanwhile, Michigan's attorney general says Trump may not be invited back to the state if he refuses to wear a face mask in public.
 
Trump Thursday visited a Ford auto factory near Detroit that has been converted into a plant to build ventilators.
 
All of the Ford executives who were showing Trump around the plant were wearing face masks. But Trump, as he has always done, refused to wear one where he could be seen by the media.  
 

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a protective face mask with a presidential seal on it that he said he had been wearing earlier in his tour, out of the media's sights, at the Ford Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, May 21, 2020.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said it isn’t just Ford Motors’ policy that all visitors to its plants wear a mask – it is also state law.

“He’s going to be asked not to return to any enclosed facilities inside our state...we’re going to have to take action” against any company that allows it in the future,” Nessel said.
 
When asked if Trump was told it was not acceptable to not wear a mask in the plant, Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford said, “It’s up to him.”
 
Trump claimed he did wear a mask out of view of reporters because he said he did not want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it.
 
The president has reportedly told White House aides that he does not want to wear a mask in public because he thinks it makes him look weak.  
 
Complaints from many Democrats and some governors that the White House’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak has been incoherent has apparently had little effect on Trump’s approval rating.
 
A new poll by the Associated Press and University of Chicago indicates Trump has a 41% job approval rating -- a number that has been consistent throughout his presidency.
 
Also Thursday, the president said the U.S. government has made an agreement with British drugmaker AstraZeneca to produce 400 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine.  
 
AstraZeneca said it has received more than $1 billion from federal researchers.  “We have a lot of things happening on the vaccine front,” Trump told reporters.  “We’re so far ahead of where people thought we’d be.”
 
The U.S. government has other deals with Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and the French company Sanofi for vaccine development.
 
Some critics have said they are concerned that rich countries such as the United States will corner the market on vaccines because of the huge amounts of money they are investing.