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More than a third of UK employers plan to make staff redundant over the next three months, according to research warning of a cascade of job losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
With a month to go until the end of the government furlough scheme on 31 October, 37% of more than 2,000 managers polled by YouGov said they were likely to make staff redundant by the end of the year. About 60% of the managers surveyed from larger businesses with more than 250 employees said their companies planned to make redundancies this year:
Summary
Here’s a quick rundown of the latest coronavirus developments across the globe:
- Madrid heads for lockdown after Spain announces new virus restrictions. Madrid residents are set to be barred from leaving the city except on essential trips under new coronavirus restrictions announced by the Spanish government.
- Experts warn virus is out of control in the UK. British health experts have admitted Covid-19 is out of control in the country as case numbers and hospital admissions rise despite a slew of new restrictions on social gatherings. “Things are definitely heading in the wrong direction,” the UK chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, told a government press conference, as a further 7,108 cases and 71 deaths were reported.
- Young people as diligent about Covid measures as older people, survey finds. Young people are as diligent about coronavirus hygiene routines as their older peers but also more stressed out by the pandemic and willing to give up a higher percentage of their income to stop it, according to a global survey that calls into question the stereotype of feckless youth driving up infection rates.
- The Italian Senate has been suspended after two members fell ill with Covid-19. Parliamentary activity was suspended after Marco Croatti and Francesco Mollame, from the ruling Five Star Movement, tested positive.
- The Czech Republic is to enter a state of emergency to control a surge in cases. The measure will be in place from Monday and will last for 30 days.
No clear link between school opening and Covid surge, study finds
Widespread reopening of schools after lockdowns and vacations is generally not linked to rising Covid-19 rates, a study of 191 countries has found, but lockdown closures will leave a 2020 “pandemic learning debt” of 300bn missed school days.
The analysis, by the Geneva-based independent educational foundation Insights for Education, said 84% of those 300bn days would be lost by children in poorer countries, and warned that 711 million pupils were still out of school.
“It’s been assumed that opening schools will drive infections, and that closing schools will reduce transmission, but the reality is much more complex,” said IfE’s founder and chief executive Randa Grob-Zakhary.
The vast majority – 92% – of countries that are through their first wave of Covid-19 infections have started to reopen school systems, even as some are seeing a second surge.
IfE found that 52 countries – including France and Spain – that sent students back to school in August and September saw infection rates rise during the vacation compared to when they were closed.
In Britain and Hungary, however, infection levels dropped after initial school closures, remained low during the holidays, and began rising after reopening.
Full analysis of these 52 countries found no firm correlation between school status and infections – pointing to a need to consider other factors, IfE said.
“The key now is to learn from those countries that are reopening effectively against a backdrop of rising infections,” Grob-Zakhary said.
The report said 44 countries have kept schools closed.
It found countries are developing strategies for schools during the pandemic, such as in Italy and France, which order temporary school closures on a case-by-case basis.
Other measures include policies on masks, class rotations and combining remote with in-school lessons. Grob-Zakhary said:
This first real global test highlights what school life looks like in a Covid-world.
Understanding how countries undergoing a massive second wave are dealing with this new reality in the classroom is essential to guide future reopening decisions and to help schools remain open.
Updated
Germany declared regions in 11 European countries as areas with an elevated risk of exposure to the coronavirus, while existing warnings about parts of Belgium were extended to cover the entire country.
In its list published late on Wednesday, the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases also declared the whole of France, with the exception of the Grand Est region, to be a risk zone, as well as the whole of Iceland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Risk zones were also declared in Estonia, Ireland, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia.
Such declarations, which result when the prevalence of coronavirus infections exceeds 50 per 100,000 population over a week, are typically followed by the foreign ministry issuing a travel warning.
The latest warnings, a blow to hopes that a swift revival of tourism could give the continent’s pandemic-struck economies a boost, came as officials across Europe warned that a second wave of the virus was imminent.
Germany, traditionally Europe’s largest source of tourists, has warned against travel to the rest of the world since March, but the warnings were lifted for the EU and countries with close ties to it in June.
Updated
Jordan has warned it could be forced to return to a full lockdown, potentially devastating its fragile economy, after recording 1,767 new cases of Covid-19, its highest daily tally since the start of the outbreak.
The country’s total number of confirmed infections now stands at 11,816, with 61 deaths since the first case surfaced in early March, health minister Saad Jaber said in a statement.
Jordan, which had some of the lowest numbers of infections in the region in the first few months of the pandemics’ spread, has seen daily numbers rise alarmingly this month, with health officials saying the country now faced a community spread.
The government could be forced to impose a full lockdown that would paralyse daily activity and suspend businesses if a “dangerous” spiral of cases made it difficult for health authorities to cope, government spokesman Amjad Adaileh said.
The government also stiffened jail sentences to up to a year for anyone organising weddings, parties, funerals or social gatherings where more than 20 people attend, in the latest measures to impose health safeguards.
A two-week closure of schools was extended for more than two million pupils who had briefly resumed attendance at the start of the month after a five-month absence.
Mosques and places of worship, however, will be allowed to reopen as of Thursday, along with restaurants, but with much stricter health safeguards.
The government fears a full lockdown would deal a devastating blow to an aid-dependent economy that is forecast to shrink 6% this year, its first decline in decades, and faces deepening unemployment, poverty and prospects of civil unrest.
Officials said they will enforce as of Thursday a lockdown of Baqa’a camp on the outskirts of the capital, one of the largest Palestinian refugee camps in the Middle East. The camp houses more than 200,000 people, but has recorded many infections.
Updated
Peru will restart international flights to some regional countries as it aims to lift coronavirus restrictions and reopen its economy.
Flights to 11 destinations in Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Panama will resume on 5 October, president Martin Vizcarra said, adding that health protocols including coronavirus tests for passengers arriving to Peru will be mandatory.
Air traffic in Peru has been grounded since mid-March after the government announced the first positive coronavirus case.
The South American country was hit particularly hard by the pandemic, though infections and deaths have slowed in recent weeks.
Peru, a nation of 32.6 million people, has recorded a total of 811,700 coronavirus cases, the second highest rate in Latin America, and 32,400 deaths.
“The virus is still in our environment,” Vizcarra said.
Peru began its “phase 4” of reopening recently, which marked an increase in economic activities, including higher capacity in restaurants and shops. Bars, clubs and casinos remain closed.
Updated
New York City restaurants have welcomed patrons back inside for the first time in months as authorities scrambled to contain Covid-19 outbreaks in some neighbourhoods.
Coronavirus infection rates continued to climb in many of the nine ZIP codes in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn where new clusters have emerged, mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The city is deploying 400 police officers as well as other officials to improve compliance with social distancing rules and a face-covering mandate in the affected neighbourhoods.
Residents and visitors will be fined up to $1,000 if they refuse to wear a mask in public, de Blasio said on Tuesday, after the daily positivity rate topped 3% for the first time since June as more students headed back to the classroom.
On Wednesday, the rate ticked back under 1%, he told a news conference, while the seven-day rolling average of infections rose slightly to 1.46%.
Indoor dining made a comeback but at 25% capacity and with many restrictions: tables have to be six feet apart, staff must take patrons’ temperature before they enter the restaurant and bar tops will remain closed for seating.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday slammed local authorities for failing to strictly enforce coronavirus health and safety rules in the state’s 20 hot spot ZIP codes, and threatened to take action if they did not step up.
“Local governments, enforce the law. If you are unwilling to enforce the law, I will enforce the law,” Cuomo said.
The governor said he had “a good conversation” on Wednesday morning with the leaders of the state’s Jewish Orthodox community, which has experienced a rise in infections, and planned to have a second one in the afternoon.
The areas of concern in the state are in Rockland, Orange and Nassau, in addition to the New York City neighbourhoods.
Ontario could reach 1,000 new Covid-19 cases per day in the first half of October, new projections released showed, putting Canada’s most populous province on a trajectory similar to the hard-hit Australian state of Victoria.
The projections do not consider the impact of modest new restrictions introduced earlier in September and come on a day when the province reported 625 new cases.
A graph of projected cases in the modelling showed Ontario beginning to track the case rise in Victoria, which declared a state of disaster and imposed a curfew and strict movement restrictions on 1 August.
“We are starting to see that sharp upward curve,” said Adalsteinn Brown, dean of the University of Toronto’s school of public health, noting that cases are doubling every 10 to 12 days.
Brown warned of “a remarkably high surge, unless public health measures and adherence to public health measures start to damp down that transmission”.
Ontario chief medical officer David Williams said officials are looking at the risk associated with some banquet halls, group fitness classes, and workplaces that are “less than stringent” about employees who are sick or required to quarantine coming to work.
The Ontario government announced a C$2.8bn ($2.1bn) spending plan to slow the spread of the virus in the coming months. It was not immediately clear whether the funds were from provincial coffers or provided by the federal government.
Ontario brought in some new measures on 19 and 25 September, reducing the size of social gatherings in some hotspots, limiting the hours that bars and restaurants can operate and serve alcohol, and closing strip clubs.
Officials said it is still too early to see the full impact of those changes.
Ontario reopened casinos at sharply reduced capacity on Monday, the same day it reported an all-time high of 700 new cases.
Premier Doug Ford slammed individuals protesting mask requirements and other public health measures, calling them “yahoos”.
“Guys, give your heads a shake,” Ford said. “We’re all in this together.”
Updated
Chilean health authorities have approved the start of clinical trials for coronavirus vaccines under development by China’s Sinovac and Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical unit Janssen.
The trials, authorised by Chile’s Institute of Public Health (ISP), will be conducted by government health officials and researchers from two Chilean universities, authorities said.
Brazil, Chile, Peru and Colombia have had the highest rates of viral infections in South America, making them attractive testing sites for vaccine developers because it is easier to get dependable trial results in areas with high rates of active transmission and infection.
“Chile can and must participate in these clinical Phase III studies to approve, study and hopefully move forward the development of these vaccines,” health minister Enrique Paris told reporters.
Large-scale Phase III clinical trials can be the final step before a drug or vaccine is submitted for regulatory approval.
Chile has been particularly hard hit by the virus, with more than 462,000 cases reported and 12,741 deaths from Covid-19.
Madrid’s regional authorities do not agree with the central government’s plans to lock down the capital city in the coming days, regional health chief Enrique Ruiz Escudero told a news conference, saying the decision was not valid legally.
Escudero said the Covid-19 situation in Madrid was stabilising and added regional authorities were still open to dialogue with the central government.
Turkey’s health minister appeared to acknowledge that the government does not publish the full number of daily positive Covid-19 cases but only those who are symptomatic, while refuting a claim that the case number had been 19 times the official figure.
The official number of daily coronavirus cases in Turkey has begun to decline in recent days after rising over the past several weeks. Politicians and medics have expressed doubt over the government’s numbers, saying the number of coronavirus cases are actually much higher.
During a weekly news conference, Fahrettin Koca said the number of daily new Covid-19 “patients”, which he defined as those who are symptomatic, was more important than the number of new “cases”, which include those who do not show symptoms.
“Not all cases are patients because there are those who show no symptoms at all even though their tests come back positive. These create the vast majority,” he said.
The health ministry has changed the wording of the data it shares daily. As of 29 July, the data showed the daily number of new “patients”, while prior to that it showed the daily number of new “cases”.
A document shared by Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Murat Emir on Tuesday purportedly showed the number of positive cases on 10 September were 29,377, compared to the 1,512 new patients announced by the health ministry on that day.
Emir said the document was a screenshot of the health ministry’s official laboratory results portal, which is inaccessible to the public.
Koca said the ministry did not have such an interface, that the document showed the wrong number of tests conducted on that day, and that it had no date on it.
“I want to say that all the information on the table we give is correct,” he said.
The death toll from coronavirus in Turkey stood at 8,195 as of Wednesday.
Updated
Moderna said it will not be ready to apply for emergency approval for its potential Covid-19 vaccine before the US presidential election in November, the Financial Times has reported.
The company’s chief executive officer, Stéphane Bancel, told FT that he did not expect to have full approval to distribute the drug to all sections of the US population until next spring.
Moderna will not be ready to seek emergency use authorisation from the Food and Drug Administration before 25 November at the earliest, the report said, citing Bancel.
The company’s experimental vaccine is among the leaders in the race to develop a safe and effective vaccine to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. The candidate is currently being tested in a large decisive trial.
A Covid-19 vaccine has become a divisive issue for the US presidential election and was of significant importance in the presidential debate on Tuesday between president Donald Trump and contender Joe Biden.
Results from an early safety study of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine candidate in older adults on Tuesday showed that it produced virus-neutralising antibodies at levels similar to those seen in younger adults.
Updated
Young people are as diligent about coronavirus hygiene routines as their older peers but also more stressed out by the pandemic and willing to give up a higher percentage of their income to stop it, according to a global survey that calls into question the stereotype of feckless youth driving up infection rates.
A new survey, which polled the pandemic behaviour of nearly 12,000 respondents from more than 130 countries, found that 18-25-year-olds were only marginally less likely to take regular measures to protect themselves than those aged 45 or older.
In fact, young people in some countries, such as the UK, made up the age group that was most compliant with new hygiene rules and restrictions.
Across the globe, politicians and health officials have in recent weeks pointed the finger at young partygoers and rule-breakers as being responsible for a second Covid-19 wave, with the WHO’s regional director for Europe complaining that those in their late teens and early 20s felt “invincible”.
British health experts have admitted Covid-19 is out of control in the country as case numbers and hospital admissions rise despite a slew of new restrictions on social gatherings.
“Things are definitely heading in the wrong direction,” the UK chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, told a government press conference, as a further 7,108 cases and 71 deaths were reported.
As England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, warned that hospitalisations and admissions to intensive care were also rising, Vallance added: “We don’t have this under control at the moment.”
More than 42,000 people have died from Covid-19 in Britain, the worst toll in Europe, despite a nationwide stay-at-home imposed in late March.
The lockdown was eased in June but authorities have in recent weeks reimposed restrictions on social gatherings, including early closing for pubs and a ban on groups of more than six.
Standing alongside Vallance and Whitty, prime minister Boris Johnson said it was “still too early to tell” if these measures would have an effect, and urged people to follow the rules.
“If we put in the work together now then we give ourselves the best possible chance of avoiding that outcome and avoiding further measures,” he said.
Updated
Madrid heads for lockdown after Spain announces new virus restrictions
Madrid residents are set to be barred from leaving the city except on essential trips under new coronavirus restrictions announced by the Spanish government.
The city’s borders will also be closed to outsiders for non-necessary visits under the new measures for large municipalities with high coronavirus infection rates. Another nine cities in the metropolitan area will also be affected.
“Madrid’s health is Spain’s health. Madrid is special,” health minister Salvador Illa told a news conference to announce the new regulations, which are due to come into force in the coming days. He did not say exactly when.
People will be allowed to cross municipal boundaries to go to work or school, visit the doctor or go shopping, but must remain within the city for leisure activities, according to the agreement.
Other measures include the closure of bars and restaurants at 11pm, from a previous curfew of 1am, as well as the closure of public parks and playgrounds. Social gatherings will be limited to six people.
Currently a hotbed for infection, the Madrid region accounts for more than a third of the 133,604 cases diagnosed in Spain over the past two weeks. Madrid has 735 cases per 100,000 people, one of the highest of any region in Europe and double the national rate
The conservative regional assembly had already enforced localised lockdowns in 45, mostly poor districts, often with a high immigrant population.
But the new wider restrictions see the central government overriding the regional government after weeks of fighting between the two authorities over what should be done in the capital city.
This has taken the political polarisation that has characterised much of the response to the pandemic over the past months to new heights, exasperating inhabitants.
Spain has recorded a total of 769,188 cases, more than any other nation in western Europe. The total death toll stands at 31,791.
“We must be conscious that there are tough weeks, very tough, ahead,” Illa said.
Updated
A fisheries auction in Namibia meant to pay for Covid-19 care has flopped, after bidders stumped up barely 1.3% of the $38m offers accepted, the finance minister said.
The government blamed speculators for the failure.
In August, the government said it would auction its 60% share of the annual horse mackerel and hake output by the end of October, to raise funds for equipment and medicines.
That 60% quota is normally reserved for state-owned company Fishcor, which has been caught up in a corruption scandal.
It included 11,000 tonnes of hake, 72,000 tonnes of horse mackerel and 392 tonnes of monkfish. But only 100 tonnes of hake, 1,517 of horse mackerel and 300 of monkfish had been allocated and paid for, finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi told reporters.
Of 628m Namibian dollars ($37.74m) in bids accepted, only 8.4m was paid to the government, the minister said, adding that most of the bidders were speculators without history in the fisheries industry.
“We have learned good lessons from this auction and that will be valuable going forward,” Shiimi said.
“In the future, punitive measures will be introduced including requirements for payment guarantees or bid securities before participation in the auction.”
Namibia, a country of two million, has reported 11,265 cases and 121 deaths since the start of the outbreak in March, but its economy has been devastated and it is seeking 4.5bn Namibian dollars in emergency loans from the International Monetary Fund.
Fishing is the third biggest contributor to Namibia’s gross domestic product, after mining and agriculture, contributing around 10bn Namibian dollars in foreign currency earnings annually.
Updated
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray taking over for the next few hours.
Please do get in touch with any story tips or personal experiences you would like to share.
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
Summary
Here’s the key global coronavirus developments from the past few hours.
- The UK has recorded over 7,000 new coronavirus cases for the second day running. New cases totalled 7,108 while a further 71 deaths have been recorded in the country.
- The Italian Senate has been suspended after two members fell ill with Covid-19. Parliamentary activity was suspended after Marco Croatti and Francesco Mollame, from the ruling Five Star Movement, tested positive.
- The Czech Republic is to enter a state of emergency to control a surge in cases. The measure will be in place from Monday and will last for 30 days.
- A vaccine trial has raised hop of offering some protection against the virus. New results from a clinical trial of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine have shown that the jab can induce a “robust” immune response against the virus, raising hopes it will provide at least some protection against Covid-19 infection.
Updated
France has reported 12,845 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours.
The number of people who have died after contracting the virus rose by 63 to 31,956, French health authorities said.
The cumulative number of infections recorded in France since the beginning of the pandemic now totals 563,535.
Updated
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an increase of 38,764 coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the total caseload to 7,168,077.
The number of deaths reported by the agency also increased by 774 to 205,372.
The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.
India’s federal government allowed states to reopen schools and other educational institutions, as well as movie theatres, in a phased manner on Wednesday, even as coronavirus cases continue to rise in the country.
India reported nearly 80,500 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking its tally to 6.23 million, government data showed. Deaths from Covid-19 stood at 97,497.
Late on Wednesday, the federal government issued guidelines allowing movie theatres to reopen at 50% capacity and said states could decide to gradually open schools, colleges and other educational institutions from 15 October.
“Students may attend schools/institutions only with the written consent of parents,” the federal government said in a statement.
Updated
Covid-19 outbreaks are accelerating rapidly in the north-west and north-east of England, while there has been a significant rise in intensive care admissions, the country’s chief medical officer has warned.
During a news conference with UK prime minister Boris Johnson, Chris Whitty said the pattern of growth was different from that of the first wave in March, as England was seeing heavy concentrations of outbreaks in particular areas.
Whitty added:
This increase, as you can see, is accelerating quite rapidly in some of those areas.
In the north-east, in the north-west in particular but also in London to some extent, we’re seeing a significant uptick in the number of people who are entering intensive care.”
Updated
Colombia’s land and water borders will remain closed until 1 November, the country’s migration agency said on Wednesday, in an effort to stem coronavirus infections.
The Andean country shares a porous eastern border with Venezuela traversed by millions of migrants seeking refuge from the latter’s economic and social collapse. It shuttered crossings in March ahead of a national lockdown.
The quarantine ended at the end of August and Colombia is once again allowing international flights.
The month of October will be used to “coordinate, along with local and provincial authorities, the ideal conditions to allow us to contemplate a possible reopening, without putting people at risk,” the migration agency said in a statement.
More than 100,000 Venezuelan migrants have returned home as the lockdown cut them off from work opportunities, but the agency said last week small numbers have begun to return to Colombia via illegal crossings.
Updated
The UK has recorded 7,108 new Covid-19 cases today, the second day in a row over 7,000 cases have been reported as infections rise.
Prime minister Boris Johnson will hold a news conference on Covid-19 later on Wednesday as he grapples with a swiftly spreading second wave of the outbreak.
Tuesday’s number of 7,143 was the biggest single daily case total recorded, although the UK is now testing more people, and processing more than 200,000 tests a day compared to under 100,000 at the start of the pandemic.
You can read more on the situation over on our UK blog:
Updated
Italian senate suspended after positive tests
The Italian senate has suspended all parliamentary activity after two members from the ruling 5-star Movement fell ill with Covid-19.
Marco Croatti and Francesco Mollame wrote on Facebook that they had gone into quarantine.
Croatti, 48, said he participated in a 5-star lawmakers’ assembly last Thursday, wearing a mask and respecting social distancing.
Mollame, 58, said he did not take part in the 5-star meeting because he already had a fever and is now having difficulties breathing and speaking.
All 5-star’s senators are now being tested, the senate press office said. Out of Italy’s 319 senators, 95 are from 5-Star, the largest party group in the upper house.
Updated
A malaria drug taken by US president Donald Trump to prevent Covid-19 did not show any benefit in reducing coronavirus infection among healthcare workers, according to clinical trial results published on Wednesday.
The study largely confirms results from a clinical trial in June that showed hydroxychloroquine was ineffective in preventing infection among people exposed to the new coronavirus.
Trump began backing hydroxychloroquine early in the pandemic and told reporters in May he started taking the drug after two White House staffers tested positive for Covid-19. Studies have found the drug to offer little benefit as a treatment.
In the study of 125 participants, four who had taken hydroxychloroquine as a preventative treatment for eight weeks contracted Covid-19, and four on placebo tested positive for the virus.
All eight were either asymptomatic or had mild symptoms that did not require hospitalisation, according to the results published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal.
The research shows that routine use of the drug cannot be recommended among healthcare workers to prevent Covid-19, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania said.
In the latest trial, which was terminated before it could reach its enrolment target of 200 participants, mild side-effects such as diarrhoea were more common in participants taking the malaria drug compared with a placebo.
Updated
That’s all from me, Caroline Davies. Handing back to Amy Walker now. Thank you for your time.
In the UK, pantomime dames and arts workers protested against the UK government’s handling of the pandemic and to draw attention to the lack of pantomime season this Christmas.
Read the full report here:
Kenya’s auditor general says the country stands to lose $21m in the procurement of Covid-19 medical supplies because the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency failed to follow procurement law.
Gen Nancy Gathangu on Wednesday presented to the senate a special report describing how the supplies were purchased between Kenya’s first confirmed coronavirus case on 13 March and 31 July, AP reports.
The senate requested the investigation into the agency’s procurement practices after public outcry over reports of pilfering.
The report says Kenya purchased overpriced materials and now, because of lower demand, the agency may not be able to sell the stock. It says the agency flouted the law while purchasing supplies worth $77m, in part using money from the World Bank.
It adds the agency’s management bought goods without doing a needs assessment or budgetary allocation and awarded contracts to companies that were just months old. Even when guidelines were put in place for the procurement there is no evidence they were followed, it claims.
Some 97% of the supplies purchased for Covid-19 were still in the agency’s warehouses as of 18 September even though they were purchased as matter of urgency, the report says.
The agency did not respond to a request for comment.
Kenya had expected virus infections to peak in September, but government statistics show the number of new confirmed infections has been decreasing.
Updated
The UK is doing more than most countries to support access to Covid vaccines for the poorest populations in the world, but it is not transparent enough about the deals it is doing at home, according to an international aid organisation launching a tracker, Sarah Boseley reports.
The One campaign has given countries and pharmaceutical companies scores for the efforts they have made to ensure the poorest get vaccines. In the vaccine access test no country or company scores green, the top rating, classed as aiding global access to vaccines.
The European commission, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Saudi Arabia and one company – AstraZeneca, which is making a leading vaccine with Oxford University – score yellow, meaning room for improvement. In the red zone, said to be “impeding access” to vaccines, are 15 countries including the US, China and Russia.
Seven pharmaceutical companies making vaccines are also in the red zone. Moderna in the US, which is one, has stated that its vaccine is a commercial proposition, for sale to those who can pay a high price.
Romilly Greenhill, the UK director of the One campaign, said wealthy countries should ensure low-income nations got access to Covid vaccines for both moral and pragmatic reasons. “It is in the UK’s self-interest,” she said. “The virus could go to Africa, mutate and come back in another form, where the vaccine no longer works.”
Read Sarah’s full report here:
Updated
Ventilating rooms has been added to the German government’s formula for tackling coronavirus, in refreshing news for the country’s air hygiene experts who have been calling for it to become official for months, Kate Connolly reports from Berlin.
The custom is something of a national obsession, with many Germans habitually opening windows twice a day, even in winter. Often the requirement is included as a legally binding clause in rental agreements, mainly to protect against mould and bad smells.
But while some people may dismiss the method as primitive, “it may be one of the cheapest and most effective ways” of containing the spread of the virus, Angela Merkel insisted on Tuesday.
You can read the full report here:
Countries lacking an effective coronavirus track and trace programme are “losing sight of the enemy”, a senior director at the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies programme, said the “next phase” as economies began to reopen was identifying those who were infected and stopping chains of transmission, PA Media reports.
Ryan told a webinar hosted by Chatham House in London on Wednesday that this required a “deep partnership” between public health authorities and the community.
He said:
And some countries have got that very right, some countries have not got that so right. The central pillar of that remains your capacity to identify cases, test suspect cases, isolate those positive cases, identify their contacts and ensure that those contacts are quarantined or tested as necessary.
It is still the central pillar. And I do believe that not all countries have reached the point where they can do that effectively.
And now we’re getting back to a situation where we’re starting to see wider spread community transmission and losing sight of the virus again.
My biggest fear is that we’re losing sight of the enemy, in that sense, by not having the surveillance systems in place, and when you cannot see where your enemy is, your responses can only be blind.”
When asked if it was a mistake encouraging people to return to work, Ryan said that what was needed was finding a “sweet spot” and balance between a complete lockdown and reopening economies.
Updated
Hi. Caroline Davies here, taking over the blog for a short while. You can get in touch on caroline.davies@theguardian.com
Czech Republic to enter state of emergency to control surge in cases
The Czech government has announced it will declare a state of emergency from Monday in an effort to control a rapid rise in Covid-19 cases.
‼️ V souladu s čl. 5 a 6 ústavního zákona č. 110/1998 Sb., o bezpečnosti České republiky, vláda vyhlašuje pro území ČR z důvodu ohrožení zdraví v souvislosti s prokázáním výskytu koronaviru SARS CoV-2 nouzový stav od 00.00 hodin dne 5. října 2020 na dobu 30 dnů.
— Úřad vlády ČR (@strakovka) September 30, 2020
Earlier, health minister Roman Prymula said the government would call the state of emergency for 30 days, and limit gatherings to 20 people outdoors and 10 people inside for at least the first two weeks.
Audiences will also be banned from sports events, while secondary schools will be closed and medical students will be summoned to help in hospitals for at least 14 days as part of the measure.
Updated
The World Health Organization’s director general has urged more countries to join its Covax global vaccines facility, as the official global death toll from the virus hit 1 million.
Speaking at a United Nations event on Wednesday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “the real number is certainly higher”.
He said 167 countries have now joined the WHO-led facility, representing 70% of the world’s population, adding: “the list is growing every day”.
Covax aims to deliver at least 2bn doses of approved vaccines by the end of 2021 and to ensure equitable access.
Updated
New Covid-19 infections in the Netherlands reached a new record daily high of 3,294 on Wednesday.
Data from health authorities shows the number of new cases passed the 3,000 mark for the first time on Tuesday, after reaching record heights almost every day since mid-September.
It comes after the Dutch government imposed a raft of new measures on Monday to stem the rise in infections, including a 10pm curfew on bars.
Updated
Norway will allow most amateur team sports to resume and larger crowds at matches in mid-October, as the government eases nationwide restrictions to control the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Wednesday, prime minister Erna Solberg said the changes would take effect on 12 October, although she warned localised spikes in infections could require tighter restrictions on movement in some parts of the country.
After it went into a national lockdown in mid-March, Norway saw a sharp fall in new coronavirus cases that led to a gradual easing of measures from May.
But cases have risen in the past two months, including in the capital, Oslo.
Solberg told a news conference:
Quick and efficient measures to stop local outbreaks is a condition for us to gradually ease the corona restrictions.”
As part of the changes to sports events, lower-division football, handball, basketball and ice hockey will resume, and the maximum crowds at outdoors matches will rise to 600 from 200, she said.
Norway, with a population of 5.4 million, reported 679 coronavirus cases last week, according to the Institute of Public Health (FHI). Overall as of Tuesday, it has recorded 13,788 cases and 274 coronavirus-linked deaths.
Pandemic travel slump may cost 46 million jobs globally
The impact of the coronavirus on travel may cost as many as 46 million jobs globally, according to projections published by an aviation industry group.
The Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) predicted that the travel slump and a slow recovery will threaten 4.8 million aviation workers and more than half of the 87.7 million total jobs supported directly or indirectly by the sector, in related leisure industries and supply chains.
“We know that a lot of jobs in air transport and the wider economy relying on aviation are at risk,” Michael Gill, who heads the group representing airlines, airports, aircraft makers and other sector players, said on Wednesday.
The warning came after airlines cut their 2020 traffic forecast amid renewed coronavirus outbreaks and travel restrictions that darkened the outlook. ATAG said its findings drew on research by forecaster Oxford Economics.
Airlines are pressing governments to abandon quarantines and other travel curbs blamed for worsening the slump, and instead roll-out rapid COVID-19 testing at airports.
The number of new coronavirus infections in Romania has risen by a record 2,158 in the past 24 hours, as cases surge across central Europe.
The government has confirmed 127,572 cases including 4,825 deaths since the pandemic hit in late February, the highest fatality rate in the EU’s eastern wing, and the government has extended a state of alert until mid-October.
Romania, a country of 20 million, imposed a strict lockdown in March. Since it ended in May, protective masks have been mandatory in public transport and indoor public spaces, although compliance has been patchy.
The centrist minority government opened schools on 14 September on a case-by-case basis, with towns affected by the pandemic holding classes online. Indoor restaurants also opened in September in areas less affected by the pandemic.
“I am very concerned by what I have seen today,” the prime minister, Ludovic Orban, said on Wednesday, adding that cabinet officials would analyse potential further measures to stem transmissions of the respiratory disease.
Updated
Vaccine trial raises hope of some protection against Covid-19
New results from a clinical trial of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine have shown that the jab can induce a “robust” immune response against the virus, raising hopes it will provide at least some protection against Covid-19 infection.
Scientists from the partnership gave the vaccine to 60 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 55 in April and May and found that two doses produced antibodies and T cells that should fight the virus. Antibodies take on the virus directly, while T cells destroy cells that the virus invades.
The UK has pre-ordered 30m doses of the BioNTech vaccine, which are due to be delivered this year and next, along with tens of millions of doses from other vaccine manufacturers, including Valneva in France, and AstraZeneca, which has partnered with Oxford University to trial its experimental vaccine.
The BioNTech vaccine, known as BNT162b1, smuggles genetic material called mRNA into muscle tissue. There, the body uses the mRNA to make fragments of virus protein which the immune system then learns to hunt down the pathogen.
The results need to be confirmed in a larger trial and in wider age groups to get a sense of how useful the vaccine might be. For now, it is unclear how older people with weaker immune systems will respond, and how long any protection may last. “As vaccine-induced immunity can wane over time, it is important to study persistence of potentially protective immune responses,” the scientists write in Nature.
Updated
Here is some of the reaction from media outlets in Europe following the bad-tempered first debate between US president Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
During the debate, the rivals battled over the coronavirus pandemic, healthcare and the economy.
“A chaotic and vicious show, shocking for the most powerful country in the world,” - Spanish newspaper El Pais.
“The spiteful presidential debate portrayed a country that is no longer capable even of a dignified dispute,” - Meret Baumann, Switzerland’s Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
“In a fierce shouting match where both candidates pushed for airtime to defend their records and visions, Trump often spoke over Biden and even clashed with exasperated moderator Chris Wallace. The debate left many observers across the political spectrum unimpressed by the verbal brawling they had witnessed,”
- The Sun, Britain’s most-read newspaper.
Slovakia’s government has approved a state emergency to help combat a spike in new coronavirus cases.
Prime minister Igor Matovič said on Facebook the measure would be effective from Thursday.
The state of emergency, which is set to last 45 days, gives the government greater powers to implement stricter measures but does not automatically mean a return to a strict lockdown such as that imposed at the outset of the pandemic.
Updated
Oxford University is to trial the world’s best-selling prescription medicine, adalimumab, as a treatment for Covid-19 patients, in the latest effort to repurpose existing drugs as potential coronavirus therapies.
Adalimumab, sold by AbbVie under the brand name Humira, is a type of anti-inflammatory known as an anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drug.
Recent studies have shown that coronavirus patients already taking anti-TNF drugs for inflammatory bowel disease and inflammatory arthritis are less likely to be admitted to hospital, Oxford said in a statement.
The trial, called AVID-CC, will be aimed at treating people in the community, especially in care homes, the university said on Wednesday. It will enrol up to 750 patients from community care settings throughout the UK.
The availability of biosimilar versions of the medicine, used for over two decades as an anti-flammatory, would make it affordable and accessible if the trial is successful, it said.
Research has identified some treatments for hospitalised COVID-19 patients, including Gilead’s remdesivir as well as the generic steroid drug dexamethasone.
But there are not yet effective therapies for people who are not admitted to hospital. Care homes were particularly hard hit by the first wave of Covid-19 in the UK and other countries.
Updated
India’s longest spell of clean air on record came to an end this month as New Delhi, the world’s most polluted capital city, recorded a significant deterioration in air quality, partly due to crop waste burning by farmers.
Up until September, New Delhi and its satellite cities, which last year accounted for half of the dozen most-polluted cities worldwide, had enjoyed respite due to the strict nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
But a pick-up in economic activity and a slightly early start to crop waste burning, a significant source of pollution during the winter months, has made the air more toxic again.
“The gains which we had seen because of the lockdown are lost in September,” said Sachchida Nand Tripathi, a professor at the IIT Kanpur and a member of the National Clear Air Mission, a federal body.
In September, the concentration of poisonous PM2.5 particles in a cubic metre of air averaged at 47.64 micrograms, more than 17% higher from the same month last year, according to a Reuters analysis of government data, indicating a “poor” rating.
That is almost twice the level deemed safe by the World Health Organization (WHO), though it is still below the safety level of 60 micrograms set by Safar, India’s environment monitoring agency.
In Punjab state, to the north of New Delhi, there were about 70 crop fires in September, more than double the number in the same month last year, according to a study by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur in northern India.
Updated
Sri Lanka’s cricket Premier League tournament, due to feature some of the world’s best-known players, has been put off a second time due to strict quarantine rules for foreign players, the game’s national governing body said today.
The 23-match Lanka Premier League (LPL), originally due to start in August, was rescheduled for 14 November, but has now been delayed by one more week, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said.
It said the shift was to “ensure that participating players have adequate time to meet quarantine requirements as per the government’s health regulations”.
Sri Lanka’s insistence on two weeks’ quarantine for any visitor to the country forced the Bangladesh national team to call off its three-Test tour of the island due to start next month.
The Tests in October-November were meant to mark the two nations’ return to international cricket after a months-long lockdown halted professional sports worldwide.
SLC said the auction of players for the LPL, which was due on Thursday, had also been postponed, to 9 October.
Five teams – named after the Sri Lankan cities of Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna – are due to take part in the tournament.
SLC said 30 foreigners, including Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy, Darren Bravo, Shahid Afridi and Shakib Al Hasan, would be available for the LPL.
International cricket came to a halt in Sri Lanka on 13 March. The visiting England team pulled out on the second day of a practice match ahead of their two-test series as the coronavirus pandemic spread.
Since then, South Africa has also cancelled a scheduled tour of Sri Lanka.
Updated
European Union nations should step up surveillance against possible outbreaks of avian flu among wild and domestic birds, the EU has warned today amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
Bird flu is highly contagious for birds, but risks of transmission to humans are considered low, EU health and food agencies said in a report published as the continent battles a new spike of coronavirus infections. It said:
EU countries are being urged to step up surveillance and biosecurity measures to guard against possible new outbreaks of avian influenza this year.
The warning follows outbreaks over the past few months among wild and domestic birds in western Russia and Kazakhstan, which are on the autumn migration route for wild water birds heading to Europe.
Transmission to humans is rare, but has occurred in the past and can lead to death. The report said:
The risk of transmission of avian influenza viruses to the general public in Europe remains very low.
However, to minimise the risk of transmission to humans, people are advised not to not touch dead birds without wearing appropriate personal protective equipment.
Austrian prosecutors said today they have placed four people under investigation in connection with a quarantine and other restrictions imposed at the ski resort of Ischgl in March because of a massive coronavirus outbreak.
Thousands were infected at the resort that called itself the “Ibiza of the Alps”, many of them foreign tourists who brought the virus home before the first case was detected there on 7 March. Austria’s public health agency believes the virus arrived there a month earlier, spreading in crowded bars.
Prosecutors in the provincial capital Innsbruck have been investigating whether anyone in Ischgl endangered others by, for example, failing to report a case before 7 March. But today’s announcement appears to be in relation to the quarantine and other measures taken on 13 March.
The prosecutor’s office said in a statement:“In particular the implementation of decrees relating to traffic restrictions in Ischgl and the quarantine in the Paznaun Valley are being examined more closely. Four people are being investigated as suspects in relation to that.
A private consumer rights group has brought civil lawsuits against Austria, arguing the authorities should have acted sooner and more decisively to prevent the outbreak, which occurred before a national lockdown in mid-March.
Conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced an immediate quarantine in Ischgl and its valley on 13 March, but tourists were allowed out in a hastily arranged process that the consumer rights group described as “chaotic”.
Officials in Tyrol, the province that includes Ischgl, say they acted appropriately given what was known at the time.
Photograph: Mikkel Bigandt Oehlenschlager/Alamy Stock Photo
Slovakia reports highest daily cases
Slovakia has reported 567 new coronavirus cases, the largest single-day tally in the country since the Covid-19 pandemic started this year, health ministry data showed today.
The central European country of 5.5 million people has one of Europe’s lowest death tolls from the disease and kept case numbers low during an initial wave in March and April. But like other countries it has recently faced a spike in cases and has limited public events and taken other measures to fight the spread of the virus.
Updated
Indonesia has reported 4,284 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 287,008, data from the country’s Covid-19 task force showed.
There were also 139 additional coronavirus-related deaths reported, taking the total number of fatalities to 10,740.
Russia has reported 8,481 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the nationwide tally to 1,176,286.
Authorities said 177 people had died, bringing the official death toll to 20,722.
The UK economy’s record contraction in the second quarter was slightly less severe than first thought, but the 19.8% plunge still saw Britain suffer the worst slump of any major economy.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revised the second quarter figure from an earlier estimate of 20.4%, while updated figures also showed a steeper contraction of 2.5% between January and March. It previously estimated that GDP fell 2.2% in the first quarter.
Despite the revisions, the UK still tumbled into the largest recession since current records began and fared worse in the second quarter than any of its advanced economic counterparts.
The ONS said:
While it is still true that these early estimates are prone to revision, we prefer to focus on the magnitude of the contraction that has taken place in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It is clear that the UK is in the largest recession on record.
The latest estimates show that the UK economy is now 21.8% smaller than it was at the end of 2019, highlighting the unprecedented size of this contraction.
Since the nadir of the recession in April, GDP has grown for three months in a row but has only made up about half of the ground lost during the pandemic, according to the ONS.
There was a record-breaking 23.6% fall in household spending during the lockdown between April and June, which economist Samuel Tombs at Pantheon Macroeconomics said was “at the root of the UK’s underperformance”.
Updated
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said it has agreed to supply 25m doses of its potential Covid-19 vaccine to Egypt via Pharco, which it described as one of the country’s leading pharmaceutical groups.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund has struck several deals to supply the Sputnik V vaccine abroad, including 100m doses to India where it also expects to hold clinical trials.
Updated
Covid deaths pass 10,000 in Belgium
Belgium, one of the European countries hardest hit by the coronavirus, said today its death toll from the pandemic has surpassed 10,000.
The country, which has a population of 11.5 million, recorded 14 more deaths over the past 24 hours, taking the total to 10,001.
Reported infections rose to 117,115 from 115,353, the Sciensano research institute said.
Since the start of the pandemic seven months ago, Belgian authorities have included as wide a number of cases as possible in the toll, adding fatalities in hospitals and care homes, and those people whose deaths may have been caused by the virus but were not tested.
During the peak of the pandemic in April, Belgium recorded more than 250 deaths daily over about 10 days, according to Sciensano.
Since the summer, testing capacity has been stepped up, leading to a sharp rise in the number of positive cases recorded, particularly in September when people returned to work and school after the summer holidays.
The daily number of deaths has increased since the start of this month, going from three to an average of seven to eight in recent days, with the elderly and those in poor health increasingly among those infected.
Older people in about 1,500 care homes have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. These facilities have recorded around half of the deaths, according to official figures. This rises to around two-thirds if residents of care homes who died in hospital are included, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Updated
Israel’s parliament has today approved a law restricting demonstrations as part of a coronavirus-related state of emergency that critics say is aimed at silencing protests against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The law, which passed its final reading by 46 votes to 38, was meant to be part of a slew of measures approved by parliament on Friday tightening a second nationwide lockdown. But debate on the measure was put off as the government struggled to secure the necessary votes amid an opposition outcry and a protest outside parliament.
The lockdown, which went into force on 18 September, shuts the majority of workplaces, markets, places of worship, schools and cultural venues.
It also bans journeys of more than 0.6 miles (1km) from home, other than for essential purposes such as buying food and medicine or receiving medical treatment.
The new law gives the government powers to declare a “special emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic” for renewable periods of one week.
During that time, the 1-kilometre limit on travel will apply to demonstrations, and there will also be restrictions on numbers.
The state of emergency can be declared only during a lockdown. The government has yet to use those powers, but with more than 237,000 coronavirus infections and 1,528 deaths in a population of nine million, Israel currently has the world’s highest weekly infection rate per capita.
Meir Cohen of main opposition party Yesh Atid-Telem condemned the new controls on demonstrations as a “slippery slope”, while Yair Golan of the leftwing Meretz party warned that the new law “won’t stop the demonstrations”.
“The anger growing in the streets will find its way out,” he said.
In recent months, weekly protests have been held outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence demanding that he quit over his management of the pandemic and his ongoing trial on corruption charges.
Updated
Ukraine records daily cases high
Ukraine registered a record 4,027 cases of new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the national security council said today, up from a previous record of 3,833 new cases reported on Saturday.
When the daily tally of coronavirus infections spiked above 3,000 earlier this month, the government extended lockdown measures until the end of October.
The council said a total of 208,959 cases were registered in Ukraine as of today with 4,129 deaths.
Hello, this is Haroon Siddique. If you want to get in touch you can reach me via the following channels:
Twitter @Haroon_Siddique
Email haroon[dot]siddique[at]theguardian[dot]com
This is Ben Doherty, signing off from Sydney. I’m handing over this rolling coverage to my colleague Haroon Siddique in London. Thanks all for your comments and correspondence this afternoon. Be well, and look after each other.
A summary of developments around the world:
- The global coronavirus death toll is 1,007,769 according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. More than 33m cases have been confirmed. The true death toll is likely to be higher due to time lags, differing testing rates and definitions (of what constitutes a coronavirus-related death, for example) and suspected underreporting in some countries.
- The World Bank has announced plans for a $12bn (£9.3bn) initiative that will allow poor countries to purchase Covid-19 vaccines to treat up to 2 billion people as soon as effective drugs become available. In an attempt to ensure that low-income countries are not frozen out by wealthy nations, the organisation is asking its key rich-nation shareholders to back a scheme that will disburse cash over the next 12 to 18 months.
- The director general of the World Health Organization described the one millionth death as a “difficult moment for the world”. Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus urged urged countries to “bridge national boundaries” to fight back against the virus and said it was never too late to turn the tide on the disease.
- India could have 60 million Covid cases: 10 times the official figure. On Tuesday, the country’s lead pandemic agency cited a nationwide study measuring antibodies. According to official data India, home to 1.3 billion people, is the world’s second most infected nation, with more than 6.1 million cases, just behind the US. But the real figure could be much higher, according to the latest serological survey – a study testing blood for certain antibodies to estimate the proportion of a population that has fought off the virus,
- New York City will impose fines on people who refuse to wear a face covering as the rate of positive tests for coronavirus climbed above 3% for the first time in months, mayor Bill de Blasio has said. Officials will first offer free masks to those caught not wearing one. If the person refuses, they will face an unspecified fine, De Blasio told reporters. “Our goal, of course, is to give everyone a free face mask,” De Blasio said. “We don’t want to fine people, but if we have to we will.”
- Germany is heading for nearly 20,000 new infections a day unless urgent action is taken, its chancellor Angela Merkel said. Merkel said she wanted to avoid another nationwide lockdown “at all costs” but that measures were necessary on a state-by-state basis. Restrictions will include a cap on the number of people at parties and family gatherings in areas worst affected by the coronavirus.
- The Netherlands is in grip of a fast-growing second wave of coronavirus. The country reported 3,011 new cases on Tuesday, a daily record, as it imposed new measures to combat a resurgence of infections.
Updated
The revered living goddess is not leaving her temple this year, AP reports:
The old palace courtyard packed with hundreds of thousands of people each year during the Indrajatra festival is deserted, the temples are locked, and all public celebrations are banned by the government to curb the coronavirus.
Autumn is the festival season in predominantly Hindu Nepal, where religion, celebrations and rituals are big parts of lives, but people this year will have to scale down their rituals within their homes.
Many in this Himalayan nation believe they would anger the gods by shunning the rituals which would cause catastrophe. Even violent clashes broke out between police and devotees defying government orders during a separate chariot festival south of Kathmandu.
A lockdown was ordered around the eight days when the cancelled Indrajatra festival would have been held, and instead, a small ceremony to seek forgiveness from Indra, the Hindu god of rain, was held under government security.
During the festival, Kumari, a girl revered as the living goddess, is taken around the core part of Kathmandu in a chariot pulled by devotees. After the cancellation, she never left her temple palace. Her chariot is locked in the shed and armed police guard the courtyards.
“There would be hundreds of thousands of devotees crowding the courtyard and streets during the festival which would have put so many of them at the risk of getting the coronavirus,” said Kumari’s chief caretaker Gautam Shakya. “We had to stop this centuries-old festival for the first time ever.”
Shakya and his family have been taking care of Kumari for generations. A young flawless girl is chosen from a single clan and is worshipped as the living goddess until she is replaced at puberty. High officials and commoners touch her feet to get her blessing.
A small group of devotees who slipped through the lockdown and security to pray before the living goddess said they needed to continue the tradition followed by their ancestors.
“The festival and Kumari is not just a tradition, it is our culture and a big part of our lives which we just cannot stop for anything, not even for pandemic,” said Shanker Magaiya, a launderer who was able to offer flowers and sweets to the goddess.
Magaiya felt heartbroken by the cancellation, saying while they understand the government order, they needed to protect their religion, culture and tradition.
“We have disappointed the gods and we need to keep the gods happy so we all can be happy and prosper,” he said.
Nepalese authorities imposed a strict coronavirus lockdown in March that was eased in July.
More than 76,000 people have been infected and 491 have died. But the ban of outdoor festivals and religious gatherings continues and temples remain locked.
Near Kumari’s temple, a huge statue of Hindu deity Swet Bhairav is opened to the public only once a year during the festival. Devotees push each other to get a sip of the rice wine that is released from a pipe attached to the head of the statue.
This year, the doors were only cracked open and a very few people were lucky enough to sip the holy wine.
Temple priest Prakash Tamrakar said the festival should have been allowed with social distancing precautions and police blocking the courtyard.
“My family has done this for generations and not once have I heard it was cancelled,” the priest said.
“These festivals are done so that we pray to the gods to spare the people of all troubles and protect all of us from diseases and catastrophes.”
Just south of Kathmandu in Lalitpur city, a five-storey-high chariot holding a statue of the deity Rato Machindranath was built for a festival that was parked by government orders.
Frustrated devotees revolted and thousands gathered to pull the chariot earlier this month. They clashed with riot police who fired tear gas and water cannon and beat some with lathi, bamboo batons. Several people were wounded and many arrested.
Nepal’s biggest and most celebrated Dasain festival in October is celebrated for two weeks with public holidays. People travel to see extended family, celebrate daily feasts and visit temples. However, scaled-down activities with some prohibitions are expected this year.
“We are not celebrating the festivals this year because of the virus and we have no extra money to spend, but if we are alive and healthy there will be festivals next year and year after that and we have a grand celebration,” said Kumar Shrestha, a sweet shop owner.
North Korea has discovered “faults” in its anti-coronavirus measures, state media said on Wednesday, after an outcry in South Korea over a citizen who North Korean soldiers killed near their maritime border where tight virus controls are in force.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered a rare apology for the killing of the South Korean fisheries officer last week in waters off the west coast of the peninsula.
North Korea said its soldiers shot him because he tried to flee without revealing his identity but denied a South Korean assertion that they then set his body on fire, saying only a floatation device he had used was burnt in the course of efforts to stop the novel coronavirus.
Kim convened a meeting of the ruling Worker’s Party’s powerful politburo to review anti-coronavirus measures and improve them, the official KCNA news agency said, adding that participants found “some faults” in their implementation.
KCNA did not elaborate on the faults nor did it mention the killing of the South Korean man.
“The meeting stressed the need to strictly guard against self-complacency, carelessness, irresponsibility and slackness in the anti-epidemic field,” the news agency said.
“It also called for successfully maintaining a steel-strong anti-epidemic system and order.”
North Korea has not confirmed any coronavirus infections and has imposed strict virus control measures including closing its borders, although South Korea and the United States doubt that it has managed to avoid the pandemic completely.
North Korea’s UN ambassador said in a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday his country’s anti-epidemic efforts were “under safe and stable control” and it would now focus on developing its economy based on its “reliable and effective war deterrent”.
KCNA said the politburo meeting also discussed preparations for the party’s 75th founding anniversary on 10 October a major holiday that North Korea usually celebrates with a big military parade.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the politburo could have discussed the shooting and replaced those responsible, in a bid to end the controversy before the anniversary.
I’m now heading over to the US Politics Live blog. My colleague Ben Doherty will be bringing you the latest coronavirus news.
Updated
More from the debate:
In Australia, the Victorian government aims for all aged care staff and high-risk workers to be tested monthly as the state ramps up its asymptomatic screening program.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has announced that 25% of the workforce on-site in high-risk industries will be tested weekly to try to avoid outbreaks as the state opens up.
This regime will begin with 95 businesses, largely meat and poultry processing plants, but is expected to grow over the coming weeks.
Victoria has recorded 13 new coronavirus cases and four more deaths, bringing the state’s death toll to 798 and the national figure to 886. The latest victims are a woman in her 70s, a woman in her 80s and a man and woman in their 90s.
These new cases bring Melbourne’s 14-day average down to 16.4, and 0.3 in regional Victoria:
India’s coronavirus case tally surged to 6.23 million after it reported 80,472 new infections in the last 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed on Wednesday.
Deaths from coronavirus infections rose by 1,179 in the last 24 hours to 97,497, the ministry said.
The south Asian nation, which is second only to the United States in terms of total cases, has a scope for higher infections with a large chunk of the population still unexposed to the virus, a survey showed on Tuesday.
The UK government spent £569m buying 20,900 ventilators to keep people alive during the Covid-19 pandemic but lack of demand means NHS hospitals have used just a few of them.
All but 2,150 of the machines it bought are still being held in a Ministry of Defence warehouse in case they are needed in the coming second wave of the disease:
On the US presidential debate, from Washington DC bureau chief David Smith:
From senior political reporter Daniel Strauss:
A break from US news for a moment. Here’s the latest episode of Today in Focus.
An inevitable crisis: how Covid-19 hit UK universities
The academic year has started at universities across the UK but far from the promised freshers’ experience, new students are finding themselves forced to isolate and attend classes online:
Well, that was chaos. The debate is over. I’ll say it again:
wish this was Dr Fauci pic.twitter.com/DIpOpjmA9m
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) September 30, 2020
A fact check from CNN of Trump’s claim that Biden wanted to “shut down the country”:
Biden said in an August interview with ABC that he would shut down the country if scientists told him it was necessary – but he has not himself advocated a shutdown or introduced a shutdown plan.
Additionally, he clarified his comments after the interview, saying in September, “There is going to be no need, in my view, to be able to shut down the whole economy.”
It’s also worth noting that presidents themselves cannot shut down the country. The pandemic restrictions governing people’s movements and the operations of businesses and other entities have been imposed by state and local officials, not Trump.
Fact Check : Coronavirus Vaccine
Donald Trump has continued to boast that a coronavirus vaccine will be available before the election. However, public health experts – including CDC director Robert Redfield – have called that timeline unlikely and dangerous. Redfield, testifying before the Senate, said a vaccine would likely be widely available in “late second quarter, third quarter 2021”.
As Trump baselessly suggests that a coronavirus vaccine will be available as soon as next month, Biden interjects to say, "this is the same man who told you by Easter this would be gone away. By the warm weather it'd be gone ... maybe you can inject some bleach in your arm." pic.twitter.com/47mH71xo9J
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 30, 2020
Earlier today, seven former Food and Drug Administration commissioners wrote an op-ed condemning the administration for politicizing the process of seeking and approving Covid-19 vaccines and treatments. “At risk is the FDA’s ability to make the independent, science-based decisions that are key to combating the pandemic and so much more,” they wrote, in an op-ed published by the Washington Post.
Trump questioned the effectiveness of masks as a means of mitigating the spread of coronavirus.
Biden noted health experts have said 100,000 lives could be saved over the next few months, if Americans consistently wear masks and practice social distancing.
The president responded by claiming many health experts have said “the opposite” about masks.
“No serious person has said the opposite,” Biden said.
At the risk of stating the obvious, leading health experts, including members of the White House coronavirus task force, have consistently urged Americans to wear face masks to limit their risk of contracting and spreading coronavirus.
Are you watching the debate? Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Trump and Biden are asked about their records.
Biden:
Under this president, we’ve become weaker, sicker, poorer, more divided and more violent. When I was vice president, we inherited are cession. I was asked to fix. It we did. I left him a booming economy and he caused the recession.
Fact Check on rallies:
Donald Trump wrongly implied that he holds all his rallies outdoors, and said “we have had no problem whatsoever” with coronavirus following the rallies.
Trump has gathered supporters indoors – this reporter attended a Latinos for Trump event in Phoenix at which unmasked supporters were packed into an indoor event space. Moreover, although Covid-19 is less likely to spread outdoors, wearing face masks and maintaining physical distance are key to preventing spread even in open-air spaces - and at Trump’s airport hangar rallies, those safety measures have not been practiced by most of his supporters.
Following a packed rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the county experienced a surge of cases. At a news conference, the director of the Tulsa Health Department, said the spike was likely linked to the rally.
Trump says: “They said it would take a miracle to bring back manufacturing. I brought back 700,000 jobs.”
Trump falsely claims he’s brought back 700,000 manufacturing jobs.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 30, 2020
Through August, it’s a net *loss* of 237,000 manufacturing jobs. Through February, before the pandemic crash, it was a gain of 483,000, so “700,000” would still be a big exaggeration. https://t.co/t8HU3Ses5S
Asked about race and violence in American cities, Biden says that “one in every 1,000 African Americans” has died in the coronavirus pandemic. If Trump wins the election, he says, that figure will be one in every 500.
Of all Americans, currently 1 in every 1641 American that was alive at the start of the pandemic has now died from coronavirus.
By May, more than 20,000 Black Americans – about one in 2,000 of the entire black population in the US – had died from the disease.
Here is our article on Black Americans dying at three times the rate of white people five months into the pandemic:
Updated
And Biden directly addressing Trump:
“You are the President of screwing thing up. You’re the worst President America has ever had, come on.”
Here is what Biden said when he addressed viewers directly:
Do you believe for a moment what he’s telling you in light of all the lies he’s told you about the whole issue relating to Covid? He still hasn’t even acknowledged that he knew this was happening. He knew how dangerous it was going to be back in February and he didn’t even tell you. He’s on record as saying it.
He panicked or he just looked at the stock market, one of the two, because guess what, a lot of people died and a lot more are going to die unless he gets a lot smarter, a lot quicker.
Wallace is asking the candidates to discuss whether the economic recovery will be V-shaped, which Trump claims will be – or K-shaped, which Biden claims it will be.
From Forbes:
A V-shaped recovery means that the economy bounces back quickly to its baseline before the crisis, with no hiccups along the way. Growth continues at the same rate as before. This is one of the most optimistic recovery patterns because it implies that the downturn did not cause any lasting damage to the economy.
From Fast Company:
A K-shaped recovery occurs when an economy recuperates unevenly, and there’s a separate trajectory for two segments of the society. While the financial markets recover and grow, the real economy, or the flow of goods and services, gets worse. That’s worrying, because 84% of the stock market is owned by 10% of households. While the market continued to rise even amid a global pandemic, GDP and employment rates fell.
From my colleague Joan E Greve:
Biden accused Trump of failing to help small American businesses that are suffering because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Democrat argued the country is seeing a K-shaped economic recovery from the pandemic, meaning the wealthiest Americans are benefitting while average Americans are struggling.
Trump defended his response to the pandemic, at one point defensively saying, “I’m the one that brought back football.”
The president was specifically referencing the Big 10 college football conference. Big 10 leaders have said the president had nothing to do with their decision to hold a shortened season this year, after initially saying the season would be canceled.
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A fact check from my colleague Maanvi Singh on the travel “ban”:
Donald Trump - as he regularly does - has misrepresented and overstated the effect of his travel restrictions.
A couple of key points:
- It was a travel restriction, not a “ban” as Trump has called it. Tens of thousands of Americans and other exempt travelers journeyed from China to the US after the administration issued travel restrictions.
- Epidemiologists have questioned the effectiveness of Trump’s travel restrictions, which were issued after the virus was spreading and circulating within the US.
Trump claims that Biden isn’t holding big rallies “because nobody will show up.”
The real reason is as a safety precaution against the pandemic.
There is little to no social distancing at Trump’s rallies and masks are not mandatory.
President Trump says he's OK with masks saying: I wear masks when needed. I don't wear masks like him.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) September 30, 2020
Note: The president has held rally after rally where people have stood shoulder to shoulder in crowds without social distancing and without masks.
“A lot of people died. And a lot more are going to die unless he gets a lot smarter a lot quicker,” says Biden.
Trump latches onto the word “smart”.
“Don’t ever use that word with me,” he says. “There’s nothing smart about you, Joe.”
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Trump responds on coronavirus by trying to equate the coronavirus pandemic to the 2009 swine flu pandemic.
He accused the Obama administration of mishandling the response to that pandemic.
Biden replied by noting the death toll from Swine flu flu was about 14,000 in the US while more than 200,000 Americans have already died of coronavirus.
The CDC has roughly the same figure for Swine Flu: 12,469 deaths.
Globally in 2009, the H1N1 virus, or swine flu left an official death toll of 18,500.
We are now onto the coronavirus portion of the debate.
“Even after we’ve produced a vaccine, experts have said it could be months or even years before we’re back to normal,” says Wallace.
He asks what should be done now to manage the pandemic.
Biden speaks first. He lists the number of cases – 7 million – and deaths – more than 200,000, a fifth of the world’s total.
He says Trump is on record saying he knew how dangerous the virus is and yet downplayed it. He says Trump thanked Chinese president Xi Jinping.
“You should get out of your bunker and out of your sand trap and get in tour gold cart and go back to the Oval Office” and get the Democrats and Republicans working together, says Biden.
“‘It is what it is’ because you are who you are.”
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) September 30, 2020
— Biden to Trump on the coronavirus pandemic
Trump responds by casting doubt on the death figures in China and Russia. He also claims that he is widely believed to have done a good job, but that the “fake news” won’t cover that.
Trump has said that had Biden been in charge of managing the pandemic, the death toll would not have been 200,000 people who had died, it would have been “two million”.
“You would have been much later,” he says.
Trump again touts his decision to “ban” travel from China:
Trump didn't "ban" travel from China or Europe. He imposed travel restrictions with numerous exemptions -- for US citizens, green card holders, many of their family members -- and the Europe restrictions exempted entire countries.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 30, 2020
Christ Wallace, the moderator, has interrupted Trump a few times already to bring him back to the topic being discussed.
“I guess I’m debating you, not him,” Trump says to Wallace as soon as he’s allowed to speak again.
US President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden are now on the stage.
A reminder that we will cover coronavirus-related moments from the debate on this blog. The US politics live blog is here.
Watch the debate live here:
In the debate hall, several of Trump’s family members are not wearing a mask, in apparent violation of Cleveland Clinic rules, a pool reporter has noted:
Melanie Trump just walked in wearing a mask. She removed it as she sat down.
— Tyler Pager (@tylerpager) September 30, 2020
The US presidential debate is about to begin. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace has taken his seat:
wish this was Dr Fauci pic.twitter.com/DIpOpjmA9m
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) September 30, 2020
New York introduces face mask fines as positivity rates climb
New York City will impose fines on people who refuse to wear a face covering as the rate of positive tests for coronavirus climbed above 3% for the first time in months, mayor Bill de Blasio has said.
Officials will first offer free masks to those caught not wearing one. If the person refuses, they will face an unspecified fine, de Blasio told reporters, according to Reuters.
“Our goal, of course, is to give everyone a free face mask,” de Blasio said. “We don’t want to fine people, but if we have to we will.”
The US presidential debate is starting in 5 minutes’ time.
Here is a look at the topics that will be covered:
The Fox News anchor Chris Wallace will moderate the debate, focusing on six pre-determined topics, which include: the candidates’ records, the Covid-19 crisis, the economy, the supreme court, race and violence in American cities and the integrity of the election. Each topic will receive 15 minutes of discussion during the 90-minute affair.
We’ll be bringing you the Covid-19 portion and other coronavirus moments from the debate while our US liveblog will be covering the whole event:
More from New Zealand with Charlotte Graham-McLay:
Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, told an Australian breakfast television show that she hoped a trans-Tasman “bubble” between the two countries would be open by Christmas.
The so-called bubble would allow passengers from Australia and New Zealand to travel between the nations without spending two weeks in quarantine at either end. Both countries have currently entry limits in place.
Ardern has previously refused to be drawn on a date for the bubble, and Air New Zealand had speculated it would not be possible before March next year at the earliest.
The prime minister told Sunrise interviewers on Wednesday that she was “working through” the details with Australian officials. “I think we’re all looking for that outcome,” she said, of the Christmas date.
But she was seeking more detail about the expected travel rules for Australians based in coronavirus hotspots, suggesting that the bubble would only be allowed on a state-by-state basis.
“We’ll be looking to what decision you make as to what qualifies as a hotspot but I do think this opens up some opportunities,” she said.
Earlier plans for a bubble had been shelved after a major second wave of the virus in Melbourne, Australia, and a minor outbreak in Auckland, New Zealand.
The virus is now largely contained in both countries.
Charlotte Graham-McLay reports for the Guardian:
New Zealand on Wednesday reported a fifth consecutive day of no new Covid-19 cases spread in the community.
There was one new diagnosis of the virus in the government-run isolation facilities for travelers returning to New Zealand, health officials said. The passenger had arrived from France, via Singapore.
Only New Zealanders and their families – as well as those with special exemptions – may enter the country, and all must spend two weeks in managed quarantine facilities where they are tested twice for Covid-19.
There are 44 active cases in New Zealand, a drop of 11 from Tuesday as sufferers recover. 30 of the cases are in managed isolation and 14 in the community. A cluster of cases in the largest city, Auckland, is shrinking and restrictions on the city have begun to ease in recent weeks.
There have been 1,480 known cases of the coronavirus in New Zealand, with 25 deaths. One person is in hospital.
US children increasingly affected by coronavirus
After preying heavily on the elderly in the spring, the coronavirus is increasingly infecting American children and teens, AP reports, in a trend authorities say appears fuelled by school reopenings and the resumption of sports, playdates and other activities.
Children of all ages now make up 10% of all US cases, up from 2% in April, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported Tuesday. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that the incidence of Covid-19 in school-age children began rising in early September as many youngsters returned to their classrooms.
About two times more teens were infected than younger children, the CDC report said. Most infected children have mild cases; hospitalizations and death rates are much lower than in adults.
Dr. Sally Goza, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the rising numbers are a big concern and underscore the importance of masks, hand-washing, social distancing and other precautions.
“While children generally don’t get as sick with the coronavirus as adults, they are not immune and there is much to learn about how easily they can transmit it to others,” she said in a statement.
The CDC report did not indicate where or how the children became infected.
Public health experts say the uptick probably reflects increasing spread of the virus in the larger community.
While many districts require masks and other precautions, some spread in schools is thought to be occurring, too. But experts also say many school-age children who are getting sick may not be getting infected in classrooms.
“Just as cases in college students have been linked to partying and bars, school children may be contracting the virus at playdates, sleepovers, sports and other activities where precautions aren’t being taken,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a public health specialist at George Washington University.
A commonly used arthritis drug is to be trialled with care home residents who have Covid, after it was observed that those taking it for their joint pains were less likely to end up in hospital with the virus.
Older people in care homes, who often have some degree of dementia, tend not to do well in hospital, where they become more confused and may pick up infections. The trial will break new ground by giving the drug to people at care homes, where they can be supervised and monitored afterwards by doctors and nurses.
The drug, adalimumab, has been in use for 20 years and there are cheap versions available all over the world. It is an anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drug, which is used to reduce inflammation in arthritis and bowel disease. In the severe stages of Covid-19, patients can suffer from a “cytokine storm” – an overreaction of the body’s immune system, causing an inflammatory response:
More on that study in India:
The blood tests were collected from just over 29,000 people in 21 states or territories between mid-August and mid-September.
The new figures are a sharp jump from the first sero-survey results, which the ICMR said showed that around 0.73 percent of adults in India - about six million people - were infected by May.
Scientists warn, however, that antibody tests should be treated with caution because they also pick up exposure to other coronaviruses, not just the one that causes Covid-19, the disease which has killed more than 1 million people worldwide since it emerged late last year.
India - which has one of the world’s most poorly funded healthcare systems - has gradually lifted a strict lockdown imposed in late March even as infections steadily climb, to revive its battered economy.
60m Indians may have contracted Covid
More than 60 million people in India - 10 times the official figure - could have contracted the novel coronavirus, the country’s lead pandemic agency said Tuesday, citing a nationwide study measuring antibodies.
According to official data India, home to 1.3 billion people, is the world’s second most infected nation, with more than 6.1 million cases, just behind the United States.
But the real figure could be much higher, according to the latest serological survey - a study testing blood for certain antibodies to estimate the proportion of a population that has fought off the virus, AFP reports.
“The main conclusions from this sero-survey are that one in 15 individuals aged more than 10 have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 by August,” Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director-general Balram Bhargava said at a health ministry press conference.
Bhargava said evidence of virus exposure was more prevalent among people tested in urban slums (15.6%) and non-slum urban areas (8.2%), than in rural areas, where 4.4% of those surveyed had antibodies.
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest from the next few hours – we’ll include coronavirus-related parts of the US presidential debate, too.
As always, I’m also to be found on Twitter @helenrsullivan or email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
More than 60 million people in India could have contracted Covid-19, the country’s lead pandemic agency said, citing a nationwide study measuring antibodies. The study found that the number of Indians to have had the disease may be 10 times higher than the official figure of 6.1 million.
Meanwhile the UK reported 7,143 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, the highest single figure to date, and 71 deaths, the biggest toll since July, according to the government’s dashboard.
- Disney will lay off roughly 28,000 employees in its theme parks division, the company said, as its resorts struggle with limited attendance amid the coronavirus pandemic. Disney has reopened all of its parks except California’s Disneyland. About two-thirds of the laid-off employees are part-time workers, the company said in a statement.
- The World Bank has announced plans for a $12bn (£9.3bn) initiative that will allow poor countries to purchase Covid-19 vaccines to treat up to 2 billion people as soon as effective drugs become available. In an attempt to ensure that low-income countries are not frozen out by wealthy nations, the organisation is asking its key rich-nation shareholders to back a scheme that will disburse cash over the next 12 to 18 months.
- The global coronavirus death toll passed one million. The world has suffered the loss of more than one million people in just nine months since the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan, China, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, who rely on official government data.The current total is: 1,003,337. The true toll is likely to be higher due to time lags, differing testing rates and definitions (of what constitutes a coronavirus-related death, for example) and suspected underreporting in some countries.
- The director-general of the World Health Organisation described the one millionth death as a “difficult moment for the world”. Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus urged urged countries to “bridge national boundaries” to fight back against the virus and said it was never too late to turn the tide on the disease.
- Germany is heading for nearly 20,000 new infections a day unless urgent action is taken, its chancellor Angela Merkel said. Merkel said she wanted to avoid another nationwide lockdown “at all costs” but that measures were necessary on a state-by-state basis. Restrictions will include a cap on the number of people at parties and family gatherings in areas worst affected by the coronavirus.
- The Netherlands is in grip of a fast-growing second wave of coronavirus. The country reported 3,011 new cases on Tuesday, a daily record, as it imposed new measures to combat a resurgence of infections.
