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Global Covid-19 cases pass 8 million
Global coronavirus cases have passed 8 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. Cases now stand at 8,001,138, with deaths at 434,849.
The US accounts for more than a quarter of all cases, with 2,110,736 infections. It has 116,090 deaths.
Brazil is the next biggest hotspot, with 888,271 cases and 43,959 deaths.
Russia is third in terms of infections, with more than 530,000 cases. But the country has only recorded 7,081 deaths officially attributed to Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Beijing has ramped up testing and reintroduced restrictions in some areas after a new cluster of cases in the capital linked to a wholesale food market. All indoor sports and entertainment venues in Beijing were shut down on Monday as authorities raced to contain the outbreak.
Updated
The mayor of the city of Austin in the US state of Texas, Steve Adler, tweeted Monday that he is extending stay-at-home orders to 15 August, as the number of Covid-19 hospitalisations increase statewide.
The order “strongly encourages” reopened businesses to operate at an indoor capacity of 25 per cent or below, but is not mandatory, Adler said, since the state’s governor, Greg Abbott, has allowed restaurants in Texas to operate at 75 per cent capacity and other businesses, like barbershops and gyms, to be open at 50 per cent capacity.
Abbott has also said people cannot face legal ramifications for not wearing masks, but strongly advised people to wear them.
“It’s pretty simple,” Adler said. “Wear a mask when you go outside, and don’t go places where people aren’t wearing masks.
“The community gets to make this choice. We get to decide how important it is that we try to protect those around us.”
Texas reported a record high number of Covid-19 hospitalisations on Monday of at least 2,326 people.
There have been at least 89,108 cases of Covid-19, and at least 1,983 deaths in the state, according to CNN.
Updated
US airline passengers who refuse to wear facial coverings could have their flying privileges revoked, the industry’s main lobby group said on Monday.
As of now, major US airlines may deny anyone not wearing a mask from boarding and provide the coverings to passengers who have none, according to Reuters.
Once on board, however, flight attendants have little power to enforce the policy if passengers remove their masks.
The US government has no mandate on the matter. Carriers implementing the new policy include Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, Airlines for America said in a statement.
The measures are expected to remain in place throughout the Covid-19 public health crisis, it said.
Updated
Brazil registered 627 new deaths from Covid-19 on Monday, the health ministry said, with a new total of 888,271 confirmed cases of coronavirus, after about 20,000 new infections were reported.
The country continues easing restrictions in several states despite the severity of the outbreak, which is now the second-worst in the world after the United States.
Monday’s new fatalities are down from an average of nearly 1,000 over the past week, though reporting of deaths typically slows over the weekend.
Although Brazil’s official death toll from the pandemic has risen to 43,959, the true impact is likely far greater than the data show, health experts say, because of a lack of widespread testing in Latin America’s largest country.
Brazil’s education minister, Abraham Weintraub, was fined for failing to wear a face mask on Sunday while attending a rally for president Jair Bolsonaro, who has himself repeatedly flouted the capital’s masks-in-public rule.
He shook hands and posed for pictures with demonstrators, many of whom also went without masks.
Updated
A group of 21 travellers arrested on suspicion of violating Hawaii’s coronavirus quarantine order have agreed to leave the state because of threats from residents, a member of the group said Monday.
The group, known as Carbon Nation, which one of the members, Kendra Carter, described as a nature-loving family, were so excited to experience Hawaii that they decided to stop at the beach before going to their Big Island rental home, she said, according to the Associated Press.
Hawaii’s mandatory 14-day quarantine doesn’t allow travellers to leave a residence or hotel room for any reason except medical emergencies.
Carter said some of the harassment involved death threats.
“People started rolling up to our house calling us all types of names,” she said. “Telling us to starve and a whole bunch of stuff. We’ve been getting death threats in our inboxes.”
Carter said the group didn’t realise that the quarantine on all people arriving in the state would be strictly enforced.
Updated
North Macedonian political parties on Monday agreed to have parliamentary elections on 15 July despite a persistent level of new coronavirus infections, a move seen as a crucial step for the country’s EU membership bid, Reuters reports.
The elections in the landlocked Balkan country and newest NATO member will also be a test of support for the pro-EU policies of the Social Democrats of former prime minister Zoran Zaev.
After talks with Hristijan Mickoski, the head of the main opposition and nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party, Zaev said the country needed a functional government to deal with the pandemic and before the autumn because of the possibility of another surge in coronavirus infections.
North Macedonia’s economy is forecast to contract 3.5 per cent this year and is expected to return to growth in 2021.
“We cannot bear a bigger crisis than this with a technical government and without a parliament,” Zaev told reporters.
A transitional government had initially scheduled a snap parliamentary election for 12 April but postponed it.
Coronavirus has so far infected 4,157 people in North Macedonia and killed 193.
Last week, the republic lifted a state of emergency introduced in March to contain the outbreak.
Updated
Death rates are 12 times higher for coronavirus patients with chronic illnesses than for others who become infected, a new US government report says.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Monday highlights the dangers posed by heart disease, diabetes and lung ailments, the top three health problems found in Covid-19 patients.
The report is based on 1.3 million laboratory-confirmed coronavirus cases reported to the agency from 22 January through the end of May.
Information on health conditions was available for just 22% of the patients. Of those, 32% had a heart-related disease, 30% had diabetes and 18% had chronic lung disease, which includes asthma and emphysema.
Among patients with a chronic illness, about 20% died compared with almost 2% of those who were otherwise healthy.
Virus patients with a chronic condition were also six times more likely to be hospitalised (46% versus almost 8%).
People with chronic disease “are much more likely to suffer severe effects of Covid-19, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that previously healthy people can also become very ill and even die as well,” Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health specialist at George Washington University, said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
Race and ethnicity data, available for just under half of patients, show 36% were white, 33% Hispanic, 22% black, 4% Asian and about 1% American Indian.
Though the numbers are incomplete, they echo other reports that found minorities have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
Among patients aged 80 and up who died, half had a chronic illness.
Roughly equal numbers of men and women were infected, but men were more likely to have severe cases, the report found.
Updated
South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday condemned a surge of femicides since his government eased anti-coronavirus stay-at-home measures as “barbaric” and “acts of inhumanity”.
Murders of women have spiralled since the start of June, when lockdown restrictions were loosened, allowing for more movement of people, according to the police.
Speaking at a virtual African National Congress meeting, Ramaphosa said gender-based violence “continues to plague our country and we have been saddened by the continuous and recurring news of men attacking and killing women in the past few weeks,” Agence France-Presse reports.
“Men continue to kill women in the most horrific and barbaric fashion,” he said, emphasising that “it must end”.
In a weekly newsletter earlier, the president described the attacks as “acts of inhumanity”.
The victim of one of the most gruesome attacks was an eight-months pregnant woman whose stabbed body was found hanging from a tree in Roodepoort, a western suburb of Johannesburg.
Five days later, the body of another young woman was found on Friday dumped under a tree in Soweto.
Police have reported several other cases of femicide across the country in recent days.
The reasons for the sudden increase are being investigated. Police minister Bheki Cele has said that an overall rise in crime was caused by the lifting of a ban on the sale of alcohol.
On Saturday, Ramaphosa had referred to the past week as “a dark and shameful week for us as a nation”.
“We note with disgust that at a time when the country is facing the gravest of threats from the pandemic, violent men are taking advantage of the eased restrictions on movement to attack women and children,” he said in a statement.
In September 2019, femicide was declared a national crisis.
Updated
Hundreds of Cuban doctors and nurses who were sent to Mexico City to help respond to the pandemic could stay longer if cases keep rising, a senior government official said.
In May, 585 healthcare workers from the island nation arrived in Mexico City, epicenter of the pandemic in Mexico. It marked one of the largest medical crews that Cuba, which dispatches doctors around the world, has sent to tackle the pandemic.
Mexico City health minister Oliva Lopez said the Health Institute for Wellbeing (Insabi) is paying the Cuban health ministry 135 million pesos ($6.03 million), Reuters reports.
Biomedical engineers and epidemiologists have also been deployed, she said.
Mexico City has almost 37,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, about 25 per cent of the national total.
Mexican health officials have said the country is short about 6,600 doctors and 23,000 nurses to properly respond to the pandemic.
Despite having hired more than 2,000 doctors and nurses, Mexico City still does not have enough health personnel, Lopez said.
Cuba has agreements with almost 70 countries to send doctors and other medical professionals.
Few details about the deals are known, but under an agreement with Brazil that was in place through 2018, the Cuban government kept 80% of what it charged for each doctor, according to Brazilian health officials.
United Nations officials said in November that the conditions under which Cuban doctors work could be considered “forced labor”, but Lopez defended the use of Cuban health care workers.
All indoor sports and entertainment venues were shut down in China’s capital Beijing on Monday as authorities raced to contain a fresh coronavirus outbreak linked to a wholesale food market, with some neighbourhoods placed under complete lockdown.
Tens of thousands of people were also targeted in a massive test and trace programme, according to Agence France-Presse.
As we reported earlier, the World Health Organization said that more than 100 cases had been confirmed so far.
The outbreak came after China had largely brought the virus under control following its emergence in the central city of Wuhan late last year, highlighting the global risks associated with a second wave of infections.
Chile extends state of catastrophe by 90 days
Chile´s government said on Monday it would extend a state of catastrophe in place since mid-March by 90 days, in response to a surge in infections in the South American nation.
The pace of new infections has increased dramatically in May and June, averaging over 5,000 daily in recent weeks, filling critical care wards and prompting authorities to declare a full lockdown in the capital Santiago, a city of more than six million.
The state of catastrophe, extended by presidential decree, gives the government extraordinary powers to restrict freedom of movement and assure food supply and basic services, Reuters reports.
Quarantine measures are routinely enforced by soldiers in Santiago. South America has become the new epicenter of the global coronavirus crisis, with Peru, Brazil and Chile particularly hard hit.
Chile has recorded nearly 180,000 infections and more than 3,300 people have died, according to a Reuters tally.
Chile´s interior minister Gonzalo Blumel said most Chileans were abiding by increasingly draconian restrictions on movement, but that “a group of people acting irresponsibly are not complying.”
Blumel said the government would now seek jail time for the most egregious of violations.
On Sunday, the new health minister Enrique Paris had announced that the country’s official death toll will include suspected cases, which could double the current figure.
Updated
The organisers of the Oscars announced on Monday that the date of the 2021 film awards ceremony would be shifted from February to April due to the coronavirus epidemic.
In a post on Twitter, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed that the Oscars, one of the highest honours in the film industry, would take place on 25 April, 2021 instead of on 28 February.
It's true! Next year's #Oscars will happen on April 25, 2021.
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) June 15, 2020
Here's what else you need to know:
- The eligibility period for the Oscars will be extended to February 28, 2021
- Nominations will be announced on March 15, 2021
- @AcademyMuseum will open on April 30, 2021 pic.twitter.com/cTsqOfsf8k
The pandemic shut down movie theaters worldwide in mid-March and brought production of films to a halt.
Updated
New infections in Turkey double from early June
Turkey’s health minister warned citizens against complacency on Monday as daily coronavirus cases doubled compared with figures in early June, Agence France-Presse reports.
The country registered 1,592 new cases and 18 Covid-19 deaths for the past 24 hours, Fahrettin Koca said on his official Twitter account.
There were 786 infections in a 24-hour period on 2 June. At the height of the pandemic, Turkey recorded over 5,000 daily cases in April.
Koca’s tweets often remonstrate those ignoring the continued dangers from the pandemic.
Düne kıyasla vaka sayımız 30, yoğun bakım hasta sayımız 5, entübe hasta sayımız 1 artış gösterdi. ARTIŞLAR BELLİ BÖLGELERDE YOĞUNLAŞIYOR. Rehavet mi, mücadele mi? Maske + mesafe kuralına hep birlikte uyarsak, yayılımı kontrol altına alabiliriz. Güç bizde. https://t.co/RVlhe7786O pic.twitter.com/unwWc4RRXE
— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) June 15, 2020
In capital letters, he wrote on Monday: “The increases are intensifying in certain areas,” but did not offer further information.
“Will it be complacency or a fight? We will be able to control the spread if we all adhere to the mask and distancing rule,” Koca added.
In recent weeks, Turkey has allowed intercity travel including the resumption of domestic flights, reopened cafes and restaurants, and ended weekend lockdowns.
With the latest figures, Turkey’s fatalities have reached 4,825 and the total number of cases are nearly 180,000.
Between April and late May, Turkey was under weekend curfews as the government sought to avoid a full lockdown like in France in a bid to keep the economy going.
Updated
France reported 29 new coronavirus deaths on Monday, taking the total to 29,436, the fifth-highest in the world, and marking the sixth day with under 30 fatalities.
The government also reported the number of people in hospital fell by 129 to 10,752 and those in intensive care units fell by 23 to 846, with both tallies continuing weeks-long down-trends.
These figures are published a day after president Emmanuel Macron said he was accelerating France’s exit from its coronavirus lockdown, with, amongst others, a full reopening of restaurants and cafes in Paris.
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Resident doctors battling coronavirus in public hospitals in Nigeria went on strike on Monday to demand better benefits, including the provision of more protective equipment.
Those treating Covid-19 patients will stay on the job but their union, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), gave the government two weeks to meet the demands or else they would also walk out, Reuters reports.
Resident doctors are those who have graduated from medical school and are training as specialist consultants. They are pivotal to frontline healthcare in Nigeria as they dominate the emergency wards in its hospitals.
Strikes are common in Nigeria’s public health system, with clinicians frequently seeking pay rises and improvements to under-funded infrastructure to meet the rising burden of healthcare in the West African country of 200 million people.
“If the government fails to meet our minimum demands within two weeks, the resident doctors working in [Covid-19] isolation centres will automatically join the strike,” Aliyu Sokomba, the head of the union, said in a statement.
The doctors are seeking a Covid-19 pay supplement in addition to life insurance for doctors and more funds in the federal budget for their training, among other demands.
The union has complained about inadequate protective equipment to treat Covid-19 patients and has said that ten doctors have died so far from the highly infectious respiratory disease.
Hello, I’m taking over from my colleague Jessica Murray. As always, please feel free to get in touch with updates, you can either email me or message me on Twitter.
FDA revokes emergency use of malaria drug Trump touted as coronavirus treatment
The US Food and Drug Administration has revoked its emergency use authorisation for hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19, the drug championed by president Donald Trump.
Based on new evidence, the FDA said it was no longer reasonable to believe that oral formulations of hydroxychloroquine and the related drug chloroquine may be effective in treating the illness caused by the coronavirus.
The move comes after several studies of the decades-old malaria drug suggested it was not effective, including a widely anticipated trial earlier this month that showed it failed to prevent infection in people who had been exposed to the virus.
The drug’s anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties suggested it might help treat Covid-19, and the FDA authorised its emergency use in March.
While it did appear to neutralise the virus in laboratory experiments, hydroxychloroquine, which is also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, has failed to prove its worth in human Covid-19 trials, thus far.
In March, Trump said hydroxychloroquine used in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin had “a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine,” with little evidence to back up that claim.
He later said he took the drugs preventively after two people who worked at the White House were diagnosed with Covid-19, and he urged others to try it.
Doctors in recent weeks had already pulled back on the use of hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment, after several studies suggested it is not effective and may pose heart risks for certain patients.
France, Italy and Belgium late last month moved to halt the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 patients. But the United States last month supplied Brazil with 2m doses for use against Covid-19, as the South American country has emerged as the pandemic’s latest epicenter.
Meanwhile, some 400 trials are listed as using hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine as interventions for Covid-19, more than half of them still ongoing, according to a recent analysis from research firm GlobalData.
In the United States, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases last month launched a trial designed to show whether hydroxychloroquine in combination with azithromycin can prevent hospitalisation and death from Covid-19.
Summary
- Over 100 cases in new Beijing Covid-19 outbreak. The World Health Organization said it understood no new deaths have been reported thus far in the Chinese capital but added that given Beijing’s size and connectivity, the outbreak was a cause for concern.
- India to reimpose lockdown on 15m people in Chennai. A lockdown will be reimposed on Friday on 15 million people in the Indian city of Chennai and neighbouring districts, state officials said, as coronavirus cases surge in the region.
- Germany and France reopen borders as Europe emerges from lockdown. France’s president said the country’s Schengen borders would be open from Monday and its non-EU borders from 1 July. Germany also opened its borders to fellow European travellers, but the government warned people to be careful as they planned their summer holidays.
- BP expects to take $17.5bn hit due to coronavirus writedown. BP will slash up to $17.5bn (£14bn) from the value of its oil and gas assets, and may be forced to leave new fossil fuel discoveries in the ground, after its own forecasts found the Covid-19 pandemic may affect the world’s oil demand for the next 30 years.
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Norway suspends virus-tracing app due to privacy concerns. Norway’s health authorities said they suspended an app designed to help trace the spread of coronavirus after the country’s data protection agency said it was too invasive of privacy.
- Covid-19 mutation increases chance of infection - study. A specific mutation in Covid-19 can significantly increase its ability to infect cells, according to a study by US researchers. It may explain why early outbreaks in some parts of the world did not end up overwhelming health systems as much as other outbreaks in New York and Italy.
- New York to allow gatherings of up to 25 people. Gatherings of up to 25 people will be permitted in parts of New York that have entered the third phase of the state’s reopening plan, up from a previous limit of 10, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said.
Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has said partial restrictions will remain in place in the capital Manila for another two weeks because the threat from the new coronavirus is still present.
But Duterte reinstated strict lockdown rules in Cebu City, the country’s fifth most populous city, following an increase in new infections there.
“The battle against Covid-19 is not yet over,” Duterte said in an address late on Monday.
Restrictions were further eased in provinces and cities with low cases of the virus to help restore business activity in the Southeast Asian economy, which is expected to shrink for the first time in more than two decades this year.
The lockdown in the capital, Manila, which was one of the world’s longest and strictest, was relaxed on 1 June to reduce the economic damage of the pandemic.
The relaxed rules, which allowed the reopening of more industries, some public transportation and movement in and out of Manila, were set to expire on 15 June.
Schools, universities and tourist destinations, however, will stay closed, while stay-at-home orders will remain for the elderly and children. Duterte said:
We are gradually easing restrictions to make way for our economic viability as individuals and as a nation, but it does not mean we will forget our minimum health standards.
On Monday, restaurants in the capital were allowed to reopen dine-in services but on a limited scale, to allow more workers to go back to work.
The country’s unemployment rate surged to a record 17.7% in April as millions lost their jobs due to the lockdown.
While the capital accounts for half of the country’s 26,420 confirmed coronavirus cases, authorities have recorded a spike in the number of infections in Cebu City after curbs were gradually eased there.
Over 100 cases in new Beijing Covid-19 outbreak: WHO
More than 100 cases of Covid-19 have been officially recorded in the fresh outbreak in Beijing, the World Health Organization has said.
As lockdown restrictions ease and countries in Europe lifted their borders, the WHO warned countries to stay on alert for a possible resurgence of Covid-19 infections.
The UN health agency said it understood no new deaths have been reported thus far in the Chinese capital but added that given Beijing’s size and connectivity, the outbreak was a cause for concern.
WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference:
Even in countries that have demonstrated the ability to suppress transmission, countries must stay alert to the possibility of resurgence.
Last week, China reported a new cluster of cases in Beijing, after more than 50 days without a case in that city. More than 100 cases have now been confirmed.
The origin and extent of the outbreak are being investigated.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, told the news conference: “My understanding is that there are no deaths associated so far” with the Beijing outbreak.
WHO emergencies director Dr Mike Ryan said that countries which have implemented an immediate and comprehensive spread of measures have generally been able to contain new clusters.
“However, Beijing is a large city and a very dynamic and connected city, so there is always a concern,” he said.
“And I think you can see that level of concern in the response of the Chinese authorities, so we are tracking that very closely.”
He said the WHO had offered assistance and support to the Chinese authorities leading the probe, and may reinforce its own team in Beijing in the coming days as the investigation grows. He added:
A cluster like this is a concern and it needs to be investigated and controlled - and that is exactly what the Chinese authorities are doing.
Nearly 75% of recent cases come from 10 countries, Tedros said, mostly in the Americas and South Asia.
However, there were increasing numbers of cases in Africa, eastern Europe, central Asia and the Middle East, he added.
Updated
Abu Dhabi has extended a ban on movement in and out of the emirate and between its major cities by a week to further curb coronavirus infections, state news agency (WAM) has reported.
The week-long ban on movement between the cities of al-Ain, al-Dhafra and Abu Dhabi applies as of Tuesday to all residents and nationals of the emirate.
This is the second time the ban has been extended since it was imposed on 2 June.
Abu Dhabi residents will be allowed to move within their cities, excluding the national daily curfew hours, between 10pm and 6am local time.
Special permits are required for movement for employees in vital sectors, emergency medical cases and all goods delivery and mail services, a tweet by the interior ministry said.
Abu Dhabi is the capital of the seven-member UAE federation which has recorded 42,294 coronavirus infections and 289 deaths up to 14 June.
Universal Studios has said it expects to resume production in early July on Jurassic World: Dominion, as Hollywood begins to emerge from a three-month coronavirus shutdown.
Universal said it plans to get shooting on the movie underway at Pinewood Studios in England on 6 July under stringent protocols for the cast and crew to contain the spread of Covid-19.
It will be one of the first major movies to restart work after filming on James Cameron’s Avatar sequel for 20th Century Studios resumed in New Zealand on Monday.
Work on Jurassic World: Dominion, starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, came to an abrupt halt in mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down movie and television sets around the world.
The protocols include a two-week quarantine for actors and crew flying into the UK and frequent coronavirus tests and antibody tests for all cast and crew, as well as daily temperature tests.
Some 150 hand sanitiser stations will be installed and there will be a “green zone” with enhanced testing for actors, Universal said.
Hollywood publication Deadline, which first reported the news, said that Universal was spending around $5m on the safety measures.
Netflix has said it has resumed production in Iceland and South Korea on some of its movies and TV shows.
Movie studios got the green light last week to resume production in the Los Angeles area, where most Hollywood studios are based, but are expected to need several more weeks for a mass return to work.
Pakistan to seal city areas across country to stem quickening virus spread
Pakistani authorities said they will re-impose strict lockdowns in selected areas of several cities from Monday night, a day after the federal government said Covid-19 cases could multiply eightfold by the end of July and hit 1.2 million.
The South Asian country lifted its countrywide lockdown on 9 May, citing economic stress, and has since seen infection rates rise from 1-in-10 tests to more than 1-in-5.
“A total of 20 cities across Pakistan have been identified as having likely increase in ratio/speed of infection which needs restrictive measures for containment,” a statement by the body that coordinates the national response to the virus said.
Pakistan has reported 144,477 cases of virus and 2,729 deaths so far.
However, the rate of daily cases has been rising fast in the country of 207 million, a point noted by the World Health Organization in a letter to Pakistani authorities last week.
The prime minister, Imran Khan, ruled out a nationwide lockdown on Saturday.
One of the cities that will see fresh restrictions is the densely populated eastern metropolis of Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s largest province Punjab.
A senior official told Reuters a number of areas of Lahore would be sealed for two weeks, with entry or exit barred, and government-issued safety guidelines would be enforced in markets using paramilitary forces.
Parts of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, as well as Peshawar, will see similar measures, provincial and national officials said, with more cities expected to follow suit.
On Sunday, Planning Minister Asad Umar said cases could double by the end of June to 300,000, and reach 1 million to 1.2 million by the end of July if current trends continued.
Spain is “very likely” to join four other European governments in a deal to buy a potential Covid-19 vaccine from British drugmaker AstraZeneca, health emergency coordinator Fernando Simon has said.
The pharmaceutical group agreed on Saturday to supply 400m doses of its vaccine, which is still under development, to the governments of France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
Speaking at a news conference, Simon said Spain may also join with other countries pursuing different vaccines.
Egypt has announced it will gradually reopen for international tourism beginning on 1 July, although visiting tourists will initially only be allowed in resort towns on the Red Sea coast.
Despite government and economic pressure on the country’s tourism sector to ready hotels across the country, the drive to reopen and invite visitors has prompted doubts from observers as Egypt is still in the throws of the pandemic.
The country shut its airports on 19 March when Covid-19 cases began to rise, a blow to the vital tourism sector which makes up roughly 11% of GDP. Egypt’s national carrier, Egyptair lost $3bn in revenue due to the flight suspension, according to the country’s minister for civil aviation.
The initial centre of the Covid-19 outbreak in Egypt was also linked to tourism, when passengers on Nile cruise ships in the southern city of Luxor tested positive for the virus, and increasing numbers of tourists tested positive on their return home from Egypt.
Officials have promised a raft of new measures to prevent the spread of the virus for visiting tourists, including forcing incoming travellers to sign a declaration that they are free of infection, as well as submitting a record of a PCR test.
Passengers will also be required to socially distance when queuing and on board flights. Officials have said hotels must operate at half their capacity, after raising this from 25% earlier this month, a move intended to help curb infections.
Yet there’s plenty to suggest that Egypt remains far from flattening the curve. The country has recorded 44,598 positive cases and confirmed infections continue to rise each day. Egypt also recorded 91 deaths yesterday, the highest in a single day so far.
The Egyptian minister for higher education and scientific research has said the number of cases in Egypt could be five to even ten times higher than official estimates.
Elsewhere, the country’s central laboratory, overseen by the health ministry, revealed that just 300,000 PCR tests have been conducted. Patients have been diagnosed using other means, although their results were not added to the official count.
Even as the country has dealt with a sharp spike in case numbers, Egyptian government officials have increasingly spoken of a need to “coexist” with Covid-19 and sought to relax what little restrictions existed.
This weekend saw a gradual lifting of existing rules, including shortening a night-time curfew and an extension to business hours for shops. The Egyptian cabinet is also debating allowing mosque and church congregations to return for prayers at the start of July.
The origins of a new cluster of coronavirus infections in Beijing are not certain, World Health Organization officials have said, describing as a “hypothesis” the claim that it might have been caused by imports or packaging of salmon.
Several districts of the Chinese capital put up security checkpoints, closed schools and ordered people to be tested for the coronavirus on Monday after an unexpected spike in cases linked to the biggest wholesale food market in Asia.
State-run newspapers reported that the virus was discovered on chopping boards used for imported salmon at Beijing’s Xinfadi market.
Dr Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergencies programme, said in a briefing that he would be “reticent” to say that packaging needed to be tested for the virus as a result of the new infections.
Updated
Police in Nepal have arrested three men on suspicion of gang raping a woman quarantined alone in an empty school, a case that has added to public anger over unsafe conditions for thousands of migrant workers forced into confinement during the pandemic.
Nepal requires those arriving from abroad to spend 14 days in quarantine to prevent the spread of the disease. But activists say the converted schools and other buildings used for the purpose are often unsafe, putting tens of thousands of migrant workers at risk.
Police fired water cannons, charged with batons and lobbed teargas shells to break up protests in Kathmandu last week demanding better quarantine facilities.
In the latest case, police said the 31-year-old woman, a migrant worker returning home from India’s tech hub of Bengaluru, was attacked after she was left alone in the quarantine centre in Lamkichuha, a village 430km (230 miles) south-west of the capital, Kathmandu.
The men forced their way into her room, Superintendent Anup Shumsher JB Rana said:
We have arrested one health worker and two volunteers looking after the quarantine (centre) after the woman complained that she was gang-raped by them.
The woman was now with her family, Rana added. On Sunday, about 150 locals protested near the quarantine centre demanding action against the three men.
The government says it is committed to improving facilities. Nepal reported 6,211 cases of coronavirus and 19 deaths as of Monday.
Updated
New York to allow gatherings of up to 25 people - Cuomo
Gatherings of up to 25 people will be permitted in parts of New York that have entered the third phase of the state’s reopening plan, up from a previous limit of 10, New York governor Andrew Cuomo has said.
He said the state’s continuing decline in the rate of positive tests and in hospitalisations supported the move.
Cuomo urged local governments to keep on top of enforcing social distancing rules and criticized images of people crowding the streets outside bars in New York City over the weekend. He said:
We have months of data now that the guidelines makes sense: keep following them.
To the local governments I say, ‘Do your job.’
Deaths from the Covid-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 26 on Monday compared with 44 the day before. It was the lowest daily increase since 2 March. The daily tally of new cases also declined slightly to 303 from 338 on Sunday.
The country’s total death toll now stands at 34,371, the fourth highest in the world after those in the United States, Britain and Brazil. The number of confirmed cases amounts to 237,290, the seventh highest global tally.
People registered as currently carrying the illness fell to 25,909 from 26,274 the day before.
There were 207 people in intensive care on Monday, edging down from 209 on Sunday, maintaining a long-running decline.
Of those originally infected, 177,010 were declared recovered, up from 176,370 a day earlier.
The agency said the number of people tested for the virus rose from 2.85 million on Sunday to 2.86 million, out of a population of around 60 million.
Updated
Qatar Airways will slash some pilots’ salaries and make others redundant to offset the revenue collapse caused by the coronavirus travel crisis, it said in a memo seen by AFP.
The Gulf airline, which flew to more than 170 destinations with 234 aircraft as of March, has been hit by airport closures and travel bans imposed to contain the spread of the Covid-19 disease.
The International Air Transport Association warned in April that air traffic in the Middle East and North Africa would plummet by more than half this year.
Qatar Airways’ most senior pilots “will be subjected to a 25% reduction” in salaries, chief flight operations officer Jassim al-Haroon wrote to pilots in a memo dated 4 June, AFP reports.
“In the upcoming weeks many of our captains, senior first officers, first officers and cadet pilots will be made redundant,” Haroon wrote, without specifying how many would be let go.
More junior pilots will face an immediate 15% cut to their salaries, although the measures will not be applied to the airline’s Qatari pilots, the memo added.
The airline warned cabin crew at the start of May that they faced “substantial” job losses.
Swiss order temperature checks for travellers from Sweden
Switzerland has opened its borders to travellers from European Union countries but said temperature checks would be required for those flying in from Sweden, which has been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Like a raft of other European countries, non-EU member Switzerland reopened its borders on Monday after months of coronavirus curbs, to travellers from all 27 countries in the bloc, along with Britain, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
But its health ministry said that people entering the country from nations with high numbers of new infections could be subjected to temperature checks.
“This is currently the case with regard to Sweden,” it said.
“From June 15, passengers arriving on direct flights from Sweden will therefore have their temperature checked at the airport,” it said, adding that “persons with signs of a high temperature will be given a medical examination and, if necessary, be tested for Covid-19.”
Sweden controversially took a far softer approach to reining in the outbreak than most countries.
It kept cafes, bars, restaurants and most businesses open, as well as elementary and middle-schools, in recent months as Covid-19 spread, stressing that citizens could be relied on to practice the recommended physical distancing without legally-binding measures.
While Sweden’s Nordic neighbours have reported deaths linked to the pandemic in the hundreds and have seen new cases slow to a trickle, Sweden has reported nearly 5,000 deaths and more than 50,000 cases.
The country of 10.3 million people continues to report around 1,000 new cases each day.
Meanwhile Switzerland, population 8.5 million, has registered over 31,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 - with just 14 new cases reported on Monday - and 1,675 deaths.
BP expects to take $17.5bn hit due to coronavirus writedown
BP will slash up to $17.5bn (£14bn) from the value of its oil and gas assets, and may be forced to leave new fossil fuel discoveries in the ground, after its own forecasts found the Covid-19 pandemic may affect the world’s oil demand for the next 30 years.
The British oil major told investors it would take the hit, its largest writedown in a decade, because its oil price forecasts for the next three decades have fallen by almost a third.
The cut to BP’s global oil price forecasts, to an average of $55 a barrel between 2020 and 2050, could mean the oil company is forced to leave some oil and gas discoveries in the ground if the projects prove uneconomic to develop.
Last week, BP announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs worldwide, representing about 15% of its 70,000 staff, by the end of the year. Employees were told the job cuts were essential to enable the company to cope with a global collapse in demand for oil owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
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The coronavirus pandemic is “just a fire drill” for what is likely to follow from the climate crisis, and the protests over racial injustice around the world show the need to tie together social equality, environmental sustainability and health, the UN’s sustainable business chief has said.
“The overall problem is that we are not sustainable in the ways we are living and producing on the planet today,” said Lise Kingo, the executive director of the UN Global Compact, under which businesses sign up to principles of environmental protection and social justice. “The only way forward is to create a world that leaves no one behind.”
She said there were “very, very clear connections” between the Covid-19 and climate crises, and the Black Lives Matter protests around the world, which she said had helped to reveal deep-seated inequalities and “endemic and structural racism”.
“We have seen illustrated to everyone that social inequality issues are part of the sustainable development agenda,” Kingo said.
London Zoo has reopened to only a fraction of the normal number of visitors as the world’s oldest scientific zoo welcomed guests for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic forced it to close nearly three months ago.
The zoo, which is nearly 200 years old, normally shuts just once a year, on Christmas Day, but closed its doors on 21 March as Britain entered lockdown.
The attraction has introduced a series of measures including a limit on visitor numbers, one-way routes, paw-print markers to ensure social distancing, alongside hand sanitiser dispensers and hand-washing facilities.
“We’re opening up with 2,000 people on a busy summer’s day that you would (normally) see six, seven, 8,000 people,” said chief operating officer Kathryn England. “That’s a big difference but that’s to allow us to really make sure everybody feels safe.”
A team of civilian pilots in Colombia are flying medical supplies and Covid-19 testing kits around the country, as the South American nation braces for the worst of the pandemic.
Shortly before take-off for Florencia, a city in Colombia’s southern jungle, retail CEO Lucio Bernal loaded his eight-seat private plane with masks, overalls and face guards that would be delivered to health workers.
“It’s an honour to contribute to the response to pandemic in Colombia,” Bernal said between radioing the control tower ahead of take-off. “Many of us pilots have answered the call.”
The Colombian Civil Air Patrol, operated out of an air field outside Bogotá, has delivered supplies on over 200 flights since a state of emergency was declared in late March. Over 100 private pilots are assisting with the effort.
After dodging rainstorms, Bernal’s Beechcraft King Air plane touched down in Florencia, where envoys from five rudimentary hospitals were waiting on the tarmac for the much needed donations.
In Florencia, on the edge of Colombia’s southern jungle, members of the Colombian Civil Air Patrol are delivering medical supplies and Covid-19 testing kits to local health workers. pic.twitter.com/n1X4JpeiBQ
— Joe Parkin Daniels (@joeparkdan) June 15, 2020
“The virus hasn’t fully taken hold here,” said Alirio Calderon, an administrator at the Rafael Tovar Provea hospital. “But without these supplies we wouldn’t have any defense. It’s too expensive for us to procure them ourselves.”
Colombia, which is relaxing some of its lockdown measures, passed 50,000 confirmed cases on Sunday, with 1,667 deaths.
Daily cases are climbing, with 2,193 confirmed on Sunday, worrying experts that the worst of its coronavirus epidemic is around the corner.
Neighbouring Brazil and Peru both continue to be ravaged by the coronavirus. An official at the World Health Organization warned last month that “in a sense, South America has become a new epicenter for the disease.”
In Florencia, officials disinfected the plane and passengers before taking off for Bogotá, this time carrying Covid-19 test kits back to Bogotá for analysis.
Taking off with the Colombian Civil Air Patrol in Florencia, Caquetá, with covid-19 tests on board to be processed in Bogotá. pic.twitter.com/VdQ60ZtTzs
— Joe Parkin Daniels (@joeparkdan) June 15, 2020
“Parts of the country are simply too isolated for the government to get to as quickly as us,” said Enrique Martín, who handles logistics for the Air Patrol. “So that’s why we are stepping up.”
Colombia’s president, Iván Duque, has referred to the pilots as “silent heroes”.
After landing in Bogotá, Bernal stepped out of the twin-engine plane and was sprayed down with disinfectant. “I’ve been flying with the Air Patrol since 2013, but combining my love of flying with this effort is an honour.”
Updated
North Macedonia’s main political parties have agreed to reschedule coronavirus-delayed elections for 15 July after weeks of wrangling over the new date as the country battles a second wave of infections.
The Balkan state has been weathering the pandemic in the hands of a limited caretaker cabinet whose mandate was supposed to expire in April when a snap poll was initially scheduled to take place.
Since that election was put on hold due to the virus, the country’s major parties have been locked in a battle over how to proceed.
The former ruling Social Democrats (SDSM) have been demanding a new vote to fill out the government as soon as possible while their right-wing rivals, VMRO-DPMNE, have been raising concerns about the health situation.
After reining in a small outbreak in late April, the country is now facing a steeper surge of Covid-19 infections, logging more than 4,000 cases and nearly 200 deaths among the population of less than two million.
“We will not be able to endure a bigger crisis than this with a caretaker government and without a parliament,” former prime minister and SDSM leader, Zoran Zaev, said after agreeing to the 15 July date proposed by his rivals.
Negotiations between Portugal and Britain on an ‘air bridge’ that would allow British tourists to dodge a mandatory Covid-19 quarantine upon returning home are still in progress and going well, prime minister Antonio Costa has said.
“We are working towards an agreement and will wait for it to happen,” Costa told a news conference, adding that Brits travelling to Portugal should feel safe.
“Talks are going well,” he said.
Costa would not say when the so-called air bridge could be in place.
The Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has pledged to remove structural and bureaucratic barriers to Italy’s progress, saying the recent coronavirus crisis would be “an accelerator” of needed changes.
On the second day of the prime minister’s general assembly on the post-coronavirus economic recovery, Conte described “a courageous shared project that will enable Italy to get back on its feet, removing the obstacles that have held it back in recent years”.
He told representatives from Italy’s main trade unions:
We cannot get out of this crisis without a clear project for the future of the country.
The pandemic will be a further accelerator of these changes and will also have an effect on the world of work that go beyond the short-term.
The outlines of the plan for Europe’s third-largest economy target entrenched structural problems that economists say have put the brakes on the country’s progress for decades. They include its burdensome public bureaucracy, subpar infrastructure, including slow adoption of digital technology, and widespread tax evasion.
Nine priority areas include the green economy, investment in research and training, the modernisation of Italy’s slow judicial processes, and more support for the key industries of tourism, autos and food.
Rome is expected to receive €172bn ($194bn) from the €750bn recovery plan agreed by the European commission in May.
With Italy’s GDP expected to drop at least by 8.3% this year, the country’s main employers’ organisation has sounded the alarm, calling for serious reforms and a plan to help businesses facing potential bankruptcy.
Updated
Nepal will deport five foreign tourists and ban them from entering the Himalayan nation for two years after they joined protests against the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Police arrested three Chinese nationals and one each from the US, Australia and Norway during a street protest on Saturday in the capital Kathmandu.
The demonstrators demanded better quarantine facilities, and more testing and transparency in the purchasing of medical supplies to fight Covid-19.
The director general of Nepal’s Department of Immigration, Ramesh Kumar KC, said the Chinese and US tourists were each fined 10,000 Nepali rupees ($82.75). The Australian was fined double that because he was also taking pictures of the protests.
“All five will be banned for two years from entering Nepal and deported to their respective countries after international flights resume,” he told Reuters. Nepal has suspended all flights until 5 July as part of its coronavirus lockdown.
He said the Norwegian woman, who is married to a Nepali, will have to pay a 5,000-rupee fine but can remain in the country.
Another immigration official, Ram Chandra Tiwari, said the foreigners had been penalised for misusing their tourist visa and indulging in political activities such as the demonstration.
Nepal imposed a lockdown in March after detecting its second case of coronavirus infection. The numbers have since increased to 6,211 infections and 19 fatalities.
The government, which has been widely criticised for allegedly not doing enough to control the outbreak, says it is committed to increasing the number of tests and improving quarantine facilities.
Updated
Several districts of the Chinese capital put up security checkpoints, closed schools and ordered people to be tested for the coronavirus on Monday after a surge of cases linked to a food market.
After nearly two months with no new infections, Beijing officials have reported 79 cases over the past four days, the city’s biggest cluster of infections since February.
The return of the coronavirus has shrouded Beijing, home to the headquarters of many big corporations, in uncertainty at a time when the country is trying to get back to normal.
“The containment efforts have rapidly entered into a war-time mode,” senior city government official Xu Ying told a news conference.
The number of coronavirus deaths in Saudi Arabia reached 1,011 on Monday, the health ministry said.
It comes amid a new surge in infections (rising to 132,048) just weeks ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage.
The kingdom has seen infections spike after it eased stringent lockdown measures, with the number of daily cases exceeding 4,000 for the second day in a row on Monday.
Intensive care units in the cities of Riyadh and Jeddah are crowded with coronavirus patients, putting pressure on the health care system, two medical sources told AFP.
Earlier this month, the kingdom announced a renewed lockdown in the city of Jeddah, gateway to the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, to counter the jump in cases.
The measures include a curfew running from 3 pm to 6 am, a suspension of prayers in mosques and a stay-at-home order for public and private sector workers in the Red Sea city whose airport serves pilgrims.
After an easing of precautions in the kingdom in late May, the ministry said recently that strict measures could also soon return to Riyadh, which was “witnessing a continuous increase during the last (few) days” of critical coronavirus cases.
The kingdom has said the year-round “umrah” pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina will remain suspended over fears of the coronavirus pandemic spreading in Islam’s holiest cities.
Authorities are yet to announce whether they will proceed with this year’s hajj, scheduled for the end of July, but have urged Muslims to temporarily defer preparations for the annual pilgrimage.
Last year, some 2.5 million travelled to Saudi Arabia from across the world to take part in the hajj, which all Muslims must perform at least once in their lives if able.
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Hello. I am taking over the Guardian’s global coronavirus live feed while Jessica Murray has a lunch break. Please do get in touch to share your thoughts, comments and news tips with me.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Finland’s government is withdrawing the Emergency Powers Act implemented in March to contain the spread of Covid-19 as infections slow down, the prime minister announced.
At a Helsinki press conference on Monday, Sanna Marin said:
Based on the epidemiological and legal assessments we received, it can be stated that the conditions no longer exist for the emergency measures to be in use.
The Emergency Powers Act and its implementing regulations will be revoked.
The end of the emergency act does not mean the threat of the epidemic is over. It is good for everyone to exercise care and caution in their everyday lives and to take care of their own and their fellow human being’s health.
The statute was used for the very first time in March, giving the government power to impose restrictions on movement designed to stop the spread of the virus.
The government will issue repeal regulations on Monday evening, and review all existing coronavirus restrictions on Wednesday.
The minister of justice, Anna-Maja Henriksson, said: “Laws restricting citizens’ fundamental rights cannot be maintained for any longer than is necessary. The Emergency Powers Act legislation cannot be used as a precautionary measure.”
Finland has recorded just over 7,000 Covid-19 cases, and 326 deaths.
Updated
China has beaten the US in the battle for world opinion over the handling of coronavirus, according to new polling, with only three countries out of 53 believing the US has dealt with the pandemic better than its superpower rival.
The survey comes ahead of a major conference on the future of democracy this week, due to be addressed by the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state John Kerry and the Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong. The conference is likely to be a rallying point for pro-democracy activists as China and the US enter an ever more explicit ideological contest.
The 53-country survey of 120,000 people by the German polling firm Dalia Research and the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, an organisation headed by the former Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, reveals deep dissatisfaction with US leadership.
The survey found electorates in Greece (89%), Taiwan (87%), Ireland (87%), South Korea, Australia and Denmark (all 86%) are happiest worldwide with the performance of their government in controlling the coronavirus. At the bottom end of the scale are Brazil, France, Italy, the US and the UK.
Only a third of people around the world said the US responded well to Covid-19, compared with more than 60% who said China’s response was good. In only three countries – Taiwan, the US and South Korea – do more people think the US has responded well to the pandemic than think China has responded well.
French headteachers are awaiting official guidance as to how they can open schools following Emmanuel Macron’s surprise decision that all pupils must go back to school.
During his national address on Sunday evening, the president announced it would be obligatory for youngsters to return to classes as of next Monday, 22 June.
Since the progressive end of France’s strict two-month lockdown began on 11 May, many schools have been partially open with alternate half-classes and attendance has been voluntary.
The decision had some schools that had already written off the final term of this academic year struggling to work out how to open full classes of sometimes 30+ pupils while maintaining coronavirus safety rules.
On Monday, Jean-Michel Blanquer, the education minister, said detailed guidance would be sent to all schools on Tuesday. He told Europe1 radio the rules would be eased.
“There will still be physical distancing but much less strict,” Blanquer said, adding that education officials would advise there should be a “lateral 1 metre” - meaning a distance of 1 metre each side of youngsters, but not necessarily in front and behind.
“We are changing from a distance of 4sq/m around each pupil to a much more flexible system. That will allow us to accept all the pupils,” Blanquer said. He added that protection measures, including masks, regular handwashing and the availability of sanitising gel remained in force.
Crêches, infants’ and primary schools opened shortly after the lockdown ended on 11 May. The lower two years of secondary schools went back the following week and most other schools, except lycées (15- to 18-year-olds), returned at the beginning of June – apart from in the Paris region where there were concerns that the virus was still circulating.
“Two weeks (of school) are very important. Each day counts. Children need to be going to school,” Blanquer added.
The new rules are expected to apply only to enclosed spaces including classrooms and corridors and not outside spaces including playgrounds.
Updated
Confirmed cases of Covid-19 are accelerating in Africa, doubling over the last three weeks. In west Africa, what was the continent’s worst affected region, confirmed cases are rising at a slower rate, doubling in just under a month.
Nigeria remains one the region’s most affected countries. Test availability is gradually increasing in part due to the PACT initiative launched by the Africa CDC, which aims to help administer 10m tests in the continent by November.
Yet just 93,000 tests have been administered in the country of 200 million people, while community transmission of the virus is widespread.
The Association of Resident Doctors, a major union representing about a third of doctors, are on strike today and have stopped providing all services including emergency care and coronavirus treatment.
The union is the latest to accuse the government of failing to provide adequate supplies of PPE and conduct tests across Nigerian medical centres. The union is also demanding increased pay to reflect the greater risks of treating patients during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, in Ghana, 200,000 university students, lecturers and non-teaching staff returned to campuses from today, after new measures announced by president Nana Akufo-Addo. Secondary and primary schools will open over the next two weeks he said in a televised address yesterday night.
There are 11,900 confirmed infections of Covid-19 in Ghana, including Ghana’s health minister who is now in hospital recovering. There have been over 4,000 recoveries, while 54 people have died, leaving Ghana with one of the lowest death rates in the world, Akufo-Addo said.
Updated
Kazakhstan ordered some entertainment venues in its biggest city, Almaty, to close on Monday and shopping malls, restaurants and government offices there to work shorter hours, following a spike in coronavirus cases since a lockdown was eased.
The Central Asian nation has already tightened restrictions in three provinces this month, after ending a nationwide state of emergency in mid-May. Fresh cases of Covid-19 have raised fears of a second wave of the virus.
Under the tighter restrictions announced on Monday, markets in Almaty must close at 16:00 on weekdays, while restaurants must shut by 10pm on all days.
Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic of 19 million people bordering China and Russia, has said its first coronavirus cases came from Europe.
It has reported almost 20,000 cases of Covid-19 with 77 deaths, up from around 5,200 cases as of 11 May when it began gradually lifting lockdowns.
Kazakhstan’s healthcare minister, Yelzhan Birtanov, said at the weekend that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and was receiving treatment. Prime minister Askar Mamin, who had recently travelled with Birtanov, has since tested negative for the disease but chose to self-isolate, his office said.
Almaty’s chief sanitary doctor has also ordered banks and government institutions to have at least half of their staff work from home.
On Sunday, city authorities ordered a sweets factory and a popular outdoor food market in Almaty to temporarily close due to confirmed Covid-19 cases among their workers.
Updated
A planeload of German tourists flew to Spain’s Mallorca island, taking part in a test of plans to reopen the popular destination as the country emerges from its coronavirus lockdown.
The 180 Germans flew from Duesseldorf to Mallorca, the largest island in the sunny Balearic archipelago, six days before Spain is to open its borders in general on 21 June.
Almost 11,000 tourists from Germany are to follow in the coming days.
“We are very, very glad to be here,” said George Kasbach, who lives near Cologne and owns an apartment on the Mediterranean island that he visits several times a year.
Kasbach had followed the coronavirus epidemic in Spain closely, and said he felt safe because “there are not many ill people at the moment” on the islands.
Regional officials and tour operators set up the pilot programme in an important test for the Spanish tourism sector, which accounts for about 12% of gross domestic product.
Spain decided to open its borders in general and ease nationwide coronavirus restrictions on 21 June, more than a week ahead of schedule.
The country had among the tightest lockdown measures in Europe, along with one of the highest mortality rates at more than 27,000.
The pilot project will be subject to strict health guidelines and visitors will have their temperature taken on arrival, but will not be quarantined, regional authorities have said.
Should virus symptoms appear, a follow-up phone check is planned as part of an agreement between the regional government and German tour operators.
Mallorca is a major holiday destination for German tourists, drawing around 4.5 million last year.
India to reimpose lockdown on 15m people in Chennai
A lockdown will be reimposed on Friday on 15 million people in the Indian city of Chennai and neighbouring districts, state officials said, as coronavirus cases surge in the region.
“Full Lockdown from 19th for Chennai, Thiruvallur, Chengalpet & Kanchipuram districts,” the Tamil Nadu state government tweeted.
It will be in place until the end of June.
India, home to 1.3 billion people, has gradually lifted a nationwide lockdown over the past few weeks even as new infections continue rising.
Tamil Nadu, of which Chennai is the capital, is the second-worst hit state after Maharashtra. The southern state has recorded just over 44,000 cases out of a nationwide total of 332,424, according to official figures.
A majority of the cases are in Chennai, according to media reports.
Shops selling essential items and restaurants will be allowed to remain open from early morning until 2pm local time during the lockdown. The decision was taken after recommendations from an expert panel on how to curb the spread of the disease.
The state government also ordered an audit of the number of recorded deaths after media reports said at least 200 fatalities were not reflected in the official toll of 435.
The renewed restrictions came as questions grew about why India’s initial lockdown, imposed from late March, did not stem the rise in cases, with new daily highs being recorded regularly.
There have been reports of patients struggling to find hospital beds in other major cities such as the capital, New Delhi, and the financial hub Mumbai, which is the capital of Maharashtra.
Updated
Britain’s government hopes to complete a review into whether the country should stick to a social distancing measure of keeping people 2 metres apart in the coming weeks, a spokesman for prime minister Boris Johnson said.
The review of the 2-metre rule comes after some businesses, especially in the hospitality industry, complained they could not return profits if customers had to stand far apart, citing other countries where the distances are smaller.
“It will be completed in the coming weeks,” the spokesman told reporters, adding that the review would be chaired by Simon Case, permanent secretary at No 10, and would report to Johnson.
Updated
Large queues formed outside shops across England as they opened their doors to customers for the first time in nearly three months after coronavirus lockdown measures were eased.
In London, crowds congregated outside the Nike store on Oxford Street, while Primark clothing stores in major cities such as Birmingham and Liverpool also had long queues.
Visitors also returned to zoos and safari parks, places of worship were open again for private prayers, and some secondary school pupils returned to the classroom.
In the capital, commuters were forced to cover their faces on public transport network, while budget airline easyJet took off again for its first flights in 11 weeks.
Britain’s government has adopted a cautious approach to reopening but hopes retail spending will boost the economy, with predictions of a recession looming.
Finance minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged anxieties, after a recent survey suggested just 40% of people were comfortable about going back into stores.
“It’s a slightly different experience,” he said on Sunday. “But it is a safe environment and we should all be able to go out knowing that we should be able to shop in confidence.”
Prime minister Boris Johnson, touring a shopping centre in east London on Sunday, said people should “shop, and shop with confidence”.
Updated
Covid-19 mutation increases chance of infection - study
A specific mutation in Covid-19 can significantly increase its ability to infect cells, according to a study by US researchers.
The research may explain why early outbreaks in some parts of the world did not end up overwhelming health systems as much as other outbreaks in New York and Italy, according to experts at Scripps Research.
The mutation, named D614G, increased the number of “spikes” on the coronavirus – which give it its distinctive shape. Those spikes are what allow the virus to bind to and infect cells.
“The number – or density – of functional spikes on the virus is four or five times greater due to this mutation,” said Hyeryun Choe, one of the senior authors of the study.
The researchers say it is still unknown whether this small mutation affects the severity of symptoms of infected people, or increases mortality.
The researchers conducting lab experiments say that more research, including controlled studies – widely considered a gold standard for clinical trials – need to be done to confirm their findings from test tube experiments.
Older research has showed that the new coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 is mutating and evolving as it adapts to its human hosts. The D614G mutation in particular has been flagged as an urgent concern because it appeared to be emerging as a dominant mutation.
The Scripps Research study is undergoing peer review.
Updated
On a sweltering Beijing afternoon, police vehicles blocked roads near the Guangan Sports Center complex and security guards warned the public to stay clear, as residents filed in for testing amid the city’s Covid-19 outbreak.
Staff in white PPE suits with megaphones yelled directions from gates, telling the crowds to gather in groups according to neighbourhood and avoid touching each other.
“We reported ourselves and they told us not to leave the house until the designated time,” said a 38-year-old woman surnamed Lu, who had visited the wholesale market at the heart of China’s new outbreak early in the month.
“It’s possible to meet with a sick person in the crowd, but there’s nothing to be done … everyone must be tested,” she said.
A test organiser who asked not to be named told Reuters that they had carried out thousands of tests, showing a list of several dozen names from one neighbourhood in Beijing’s west that had been flagged by local authorities.
The person said the tests were free of charge, as residents filed onto a soccer pitch to undergo oral nucleic acid swabs.
The site is one of several where over 10,000 people are expected to be tested following the outbreak that has paralysed pockets of the Chinese capital after almost two months of reporting no new locally-transmitted cases.
The tests began on Saturday and have expanded in a response that officials call a “wartime emergency.”
Almost 80 cases were discovered in the sprawling Xinfadi market in Beijing’s south, which was closed early on Saturday before health officials fanned out across the city to trace people who have links to the market or have recently been there.
Mass testing and rapid lockdowns are becoming normal to contain coronavirus flare-ups in China, which had largely quashed the spread of the virus since its February peak.
Updated
Berlin will take a stake in German biotech company CureVac, finance minister Peter Altmaier said, months after reports the US was eyeing the firm and its under-development coronavirus vaccine.
“We’re sending a clear signal for CureVac here in Germany as a place to do business,” Altmaier told reporters.
The federal government’s €300m ($337m) investment will buy it a 23% stake in CureVac, based in Tuebingen in southwest Germany.
Until now, billionaire Dietmar Hopp - a co-founder of European software giant SAP - had been the major investor, with more than 80% of the shares.
CureVac’s technology, based on molecules known as “messenger RNA” (mRNA) that are found within the body, offers “great for potential for vaccines for Covid-19 but also many other infectious diseases, as well as therapy options for many other indications,” Hopp told reporters.
Vaccines based on mRNA “have the potential to protect people with a very low dose” and do not need to be refrigerated, acting chief executive Franz-Werner Haas said, simplifying the logistics of inoculating large numbers of people.
In March, a newspaper report alleged that the US had attempted to buy exclusive rights to the CureVac’s vaccine research.
Though company and US officials dismissed it as unfounded, the newspaper report caused outrage in Berlin, and prompted minister Altmaier to declare that “Germany is not for sale”.
Germany’s investment comes days after Berlin, Paris, Rome and The Hague said they had signed an agreement to procure up to 400m doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine from pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca.
Paris cafe and restaurant owners cheered on Monday as the government finally allowed them to reopen their dining rooms after losing three months of revenue during the coronavirus lockdown.
The sooner-than-expected reopening for the Paris region was announced by president Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, followed by news of nine Covid-19 deaths in the previous 24 hours – France’s lowest daily toll since March.
While restaurants across most of France were allowed to open earlier this month, those in and around the capital, where Covid-19 circulation remained high, could serve clients only on outdoor terraces.
“The question now is whether clients will come back,” Albert Aidan, the manager at L’Ami Georges, a few blocks from the Opera Garnier, told AFP. “Most companies are still having their employees work from home,” he said.
Not all restaurants immediately threw open their doors. The Vaudeville, a classic brasserie down the street, remained closed.
Yet many shared Macron’s optimism that France has marked a “first victory” against the coronavirus thanks to strict stay-at-home orders imposed in March.
“The bulk of the epidemic is behind us,” the health minister, Olivier Veran, said on Monday, though he cautioned: “This doesn’t mean we can stop fighting the virus.”
“It’s going to be a party,” Stephane Manigold, owner of four Paris restaurants, including the two-starred Maison Rostang, told AFP. Manigold made headlines last month after successfully suing his insurer, French giant Axa, to pay about €70,000 in compensation for lost business.
Insurers argue that most contracts do not cover the nationwide administrative shutdown but restaurants say their livelihoods are on the line, and have called on the government to intervene.
Elsewhere in France, restaurant owners have had to remove tables to ensure a distance of 1 metre between diners.
Didier Chenet, the head of the GNI association of independent hotel and restaurant owners, estimates the social distancing rules have cut capacity by half at least.
Unless the government lifts the 1-metre rule, he said, “recovery will be very slow, with economic conditions that are not viable for our businesses”.
Updated
Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and France will pay €750m ($843.1m) for 300m doses of AstraZeneca’s potential Covid-19 vaccine as part of a European deal to secure supplies of the drug, a spokesman for Italy’s health ministry said.
The countries also have an option to buy a further 100m doses, the spokesman said. For its portion of the deal, Italy will pay about €185m for 75m doses.
Singapore will allow small gatherings and the reopening of restaurants and shops from 19 June, its health ministry said, in a major easing of the city-state’s coronavirus restrictions.
Social gatherings of up to five people will be permitted from Friday, when the majority of activities resume after more than two months of restrictions. Social distancing requirements will remain in place.
Singapore has one of the highest infection tallies in Asia, with more than 40,000 cases, because of mass outbreaks in dormitories for its migrant workers. Singapore reopened schools and some businesses earlier this month.
Iran warned it may have to reimpose tough measures against Covid-19 to ensure social distancing, as it reported more than 100 deaths for a second straight day.
Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said 113 new fatalities took the total number of Covid-19 deaths in the country to 8,950.
She also said another 2,449 people had tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, taking the overall caseload to 189,876.
Iran’s government shut schools, postponed major public events and barred inter-city travel to stop the virus’s spread in March before gradually easing restrictions from April.
Official figures have shown a rising trajectory in new confirmed cases since early May, when Iran hit a near two-month low in daily recorded infections.
Government spokesman Ali Rabiei bemoaned the lack of social distancing among people at holy sites and on public transport. He told a news conference:
In the (Tehran) subway, although 90% of passengers use masks, social distancing is not being observed.
In some provinces, we have reached the peak of the disease, but that does not mean a new peak.
“The gradient of the death toll is still not sharp”, with a slight decline in Tehran, but increase in some other provinces, Rabiei said.
If we find that the spread of the virus is out of control... then we will definitely apply strict decisions again.
According to Lari, five of Iran’s 31 provinces are currently classified as “red” - the highest level on Iran’s colour-coded risk scale.
There has been scepticism at home and abroad about Iran’s official Covid-19 figures, with concerns the real toll could be much higher.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has recorded up to 17 Ebola cases in a new outbreak of the deadly virus in the western province of Equateur, and 11 of those infected have died.
The authorities had reported 12 infections last week in the central African country, whose dilapidated health system is also combating a measles epidemic that has killed over 6,000 people and Covid-19, which has infected over 4,800 and killed 112.
The National Institute of Biomedical Research said in its daily report that there had now been 14 confirmed Ebola cases and three probable cases since a cluster of infections were confirmed in the city of Mbandaka on 1 June.
Two Ebola cases have been confirmed in seven health zones across Equateur, including two cases in Bolomba, 300km (186 miles) northeast of Mbandaka, the World Health Organization said in an update.
The WHO said more than 2,500 people have been vaccinated across the province. Vaccination helped control an Ebola outbreak 1,000 km away in the east of the country which has killed more than 2,200 since 2018.
Genetic sequencing shows the new outbreak of Ebola, a virus that was discovered near northern Congo’s Ebola River in 1976, is not linked to the one in the east.
The European commission has launched an app and website providing travellers with real-time information about the rules and the status of the coronavirus infection in each European country, in an attempt to restart tourism in Europe as the lockdowns lift.
A commission spokesman said the UK had not been included in the interactive tool as the government had not requested it but that it was welcome to do so.
The spokesman said:
No information was provided by the UK. The information was based on questionnaires and I don’t believe we have received information from the UK.
We are open to the participation by [non-EU countries] provided they make the request and, secondly, they commit to providing updated and regular information to the website … The UK has not made such a request to participate.
The platform provides a one-stop shop offering information on the status of borders, available means of transport, travel restrictions, public health and safety measures such as on physical distancing or wearing of face masks.
Thierry Breton, the commissioner for the internal market, said:
After weeks of confinement, EU internal borders are reopening. The Re-open EU website we are launching today will provide travellers with easy access to information to help them confidently make their travel plans and stay safe during their trip.
It will also help small restaurant and hotel owners, as well as towns across Europe, draw inspiration from innovative solutions developed by others.
Updated
Virus impact could kill over 50,000 children in Middle East and North Africa
UN agencies have warned the coronavirus pandemic could lead to the deaths of an additional 51,000 under-fives in the Middle East and North Africa by the end of the year.
The World Health Organization and United Nations children’s agency Unicef said the disruption of essential health and nutrition services risked “reversing progress (on) child survival in the region by nearly two decades”.
The agencies warned:
While we do not have many cases of Covid-19 among children in the region, it is evident that the pandemic is affecting children’s health firsthand.
“An additional 51,000 children under the age of five might die in the region by the end of 2020” in the case of rising malnutrition and a protracted lack of access to vaccinations and treatment for childhood diseases.
Such a number of extra deaths would represent an increase of almost 40% compared with pre-Covid-19 figures, they said.
The agencies called for a “full and safe resumption” of essential immunisation campaigns and nutrition services, following “strict precautionary measures for infection prevention”.
The agencies cited overstretched health facilities with little personal protective equipment, economic hardships and parents’ fears of contracting the Covid-19 illness at health clinics among factors that could cause a huge rise in child deaths.
They urged authorities to work “to increase trust in public health systems and promote appropriate care-seeking behaviours among families”.
Updated
Filming the sequel of James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster Avatar will bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars to New Zealand after the country became ‘virus-free’, the film’s producer told media as production resumed on Monday.
The film’s crew, including director Cameron and producer Jon Landau, was given special permission to fly to New Zealand two weeks ago, even though its borders are closed to keep out the coronavirus, stirring some grumbling about unfair treatment.
But Landau said New Zealand had much to gain.
This one production alone is going to hire 400 New Zealanders to work on it. We’re going to spend, in the next five months alone, over $70 million here.
Filming was suspended in March, shortly before New Zealand went into a strict coronavirus lockdown.
The lockdown smothered the outbreak and last week New Zealand lifted all restrictions except border controls after declaring it was free of the virus, one of the first countries in the world to return to pre-pandemic normality.
Cameron, Landau and dozens of crew members working on the Avatar sequel were allowed back on economic grounds, which critics said was unfair while families are still separated and businesses are struggling without key staff.
The film is among a handful of productions getting going in New Zealand, which hopes to win more film business after its successful campaign against the coronavirus. Landau said:
The opportunities are immense. We are just the wedge in the door that hopefully unlocks a lot for the economy.
New Zealand’s mountains, meadows and forests were made famous by The Lord of the Rings trilogy and have drawn a growing number of major film productions over recent years.
The number of confirmed Covid-19 infections has passed 25,000 in Afghanistan while a key testing laboratory paused work due to lack of kits.
The health ministry has detected 761 new cases from 1,551 tests in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 25,527.
At least seven patients also died overnight pushing the death toll to 478. There have been 5,090 recoveries. The ministry has so far tested 57,532 patients.
Kabul still leads new daily infections as most new cases (237) have been reported in the capital, the country’s worst-affected area in with 10,272 cases and 103 deaths.
The laboratory which has halted work is located in the western province of Herat, where the governor said around 280 patients with Covid-19 symptoms died last week.
The laboratory is responsible for testing samples of patients in Herat and nearby provinces. No official figures were released by the health officials in Herat for the third day straight.
The Afghan health ministry said over the weekend it was unable to increase testing for coronavirus due to a lack of laboratories and an overload of suspected patients. Ahmad Jawad Osmani, the acting health minister, said medical workers would determine new coronavirus patients through their symptoms, rather than through tests.
“The new decision that we have made is that any patient that visits health centres with clinical symptoms, they will be recognised as a coronavirus patient and will be admitted for treatment,” Osmani said. He also said that the medical equipment which UNICEF pledged has not arrived yet.
Meanwhile, violence continues to rage across the country. The interior ministry said on Sunday that at least 171 Afghan forces lost their lives in clashes with the Taliban last week, as the Taliban carried out 222 attacks in 29 provinces. Afghan officials say this could jeopardize the peace process.
The central province of Kapisa and the eastern Khost province were battlefields last night, with at least seven members of a family, including women and children, killed by unknown armed men this morning in Khost, local officials said.
Late last week the country’s National Security Council said 89 civilians were killed in the Taliban attacks during the last two weeks.
“While the government has continued to advance the cause of peace, the Taliban continued their campaign of violence against the Afghan people during Eid and the weeks after that. In the last two weeks, they killed 89 civilians and wounded 150 across 29 provinces” said Javid Faisal, spokesman for the country’s National Security Council.
The Taliban has rejected the numbers released by the government about civilian casualties.
Norway to halt Covid-19 track and trace app over data protection concerns
Norway will halt its Covid-19 track and trace app, and delete all data collected so far, after criticism from the Norwegian data protection authority.
The app was introduced by some Norwegian authorities to limit the transmission of the coronavirus.
The data protection watchdog said on Friday that considering the low spread of the infection, among other issues, collecting data through the app could no longer be seen as reasonable amid privacy concerns.
The Norwegian institute of public health said in a statement:
We don’t agree with the DPA’s evaulation, but feel it is necessary to delete all data and put work on hold as a result of this.
We will as a result weaken an important part of our preparedness against a spread in infection, as we now lose time for development and testing of the app.
Updated
Lockdown exposed the scale of the commercial baby business in Ukraine, reports Oksana Grytsenko, and now women hired for their wombs are speaking out.
Some are crying in their cots; others are being cradled or bottle-fed by nannies. These newborns are not in the nursery of a maternity hospital, they are lined up side by side in two large reception rooms of the improbably named Hotel Venice on the outskirts of Kyiv, protected by outer walls and barbed wire.
They are the children of foreign couples born to Ukrainian surrogate mothers at the Kyiv-based BioTexCom Centre for Human Reproduction, the largest surrogacy clinic in the world. They’re stranded in the hotel because their biological parents have not been able to travel in or out of Ukraine since borders closed in March because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Anxious parents check on the children they have not yet met via video calls, and others have sent audio recordings of their voices to soothe the children.
BioTexCom released video footage from the hotel in mid-May to highlight the heartbreaking dilemma for parents and to lobby for an easing of border closures.
The babies’ plight made headlines around the world, but a month on, some 50 babies remain in the hotel and the saga is casting a harsh spotlight on the ethics and scale of the booming commercial child-bearing industry in Ukraine.
This is Jessica Murray taking over the global coronavirus live blog for the next few hours.
Please feel free to send me your thoughts and stories:
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
Reuters is reporting about a crisis in the hospitality sector in Lebanon, for whom coronavirus has coincided with a devastating financial crisis.
At Le Pecheur, a 20-year-old seafood restaurant, a veteran waiter stood at the entrance, armed with a faceshield and antiseptic spray, on the first weekend after the government lifted restrictions on 1 June. There were no customers.
“I have been through the civil war as a child ... We saw dead people and shells exploding, but wherever you went, no one ever said they had no money or they can’t afford to eat,” said Ahmad Kassem, 49, Le Pecheur’s owner. “Now, we have people around us with empty stomachs. No work, no money.”
Since late last year, Lebanon’s local currency has lost more than 60% of its value, as prices soar. The crisis has slashed jobs, fuelled unrest and pushed the government to seek aid it badly needs from the IMF.
Hundreds of restaurants, cafes and bars have closed in a country where the service industry was long a pillar of the economy and employed a big chunk of the workforce.
Meanwhile waiters at Baron, a restaurant that can seat 200 people in a hip district of Beirut, served a lone table.
“We’re living day by day, we’re trying our best to plan ahead but every plan we have can change in a matter of seconds,” said Baron’s founder, Etienne Sabbagh. He said industry leaders had only received empty promises of help from the government as banks cut access to cash and credit facilities.
Across the city in the Hamra district, home to some of Lebanon’s oldest nightlife spots, Barometre was one of the few drinking holes open that weekend. The bar, open for 24 years, has lived through all that has befallen Beirut in that time, including two wars with Israel.
A few customers relaxed at the bar, while some people have dinner and others sway to the music. Still, the mood is tinged with sadness. As he pours drinks behind the bar, owner Rabih al-Zaher says he has come to terms with making less profit as a result of not hiking prices.
“You have to build a place that resembles the city, that is able to cope with its ebbs and flows ... What can we do? Give up?” he said. “Now, shall I pour you a drink?”
Skepticism among some Republicans about the real threat of the coronavirus pandemic, that may have been influenced by racial attitudes, could shift as positive cases of infection are now climbing in areas with strong support for Donald Trump, research suggests.
Vulnerable populations in rural, conservative-leaning areas of the country, meanwhile, where health infrastructure is poor and public spending on health is low, could face increasing risks from Covid-19 at a time when job losses have led millions to lose health insurance.
More here:
Nigerian doctors in state-run hospitals have gone on strike today over complaints about welfare and inadequate protective equipment, though medics treating coronavirus patients are to keep working, reports AFP.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of 200 million inhabitants, has recorded 16,085 cases and 420 deaths since the first index case of the virus in February. More than 800 health workers have been infected by the virus, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
“A decision to commence on a total indefinite strike with exemption only for Covid-19 treatment centres has been taken,” the National Association of Resident Doctors, which represents 40% of Nigeria’s doctors, said in a tweet.
NARD STRIKE ACTION
— NARD NIGERIA (@nard_nigeria) June 14, 2020
At the just concluded ENEC of NARD, a decision to commence on a total indefinite strike with exemption only for COVID-19 treatment centre has been taken.
This is with effect from 12:00am Monday 15/06/2020.@MBuhari @Fmohnigeria @LabourMinNG @208_nigeria
Association president Aliyu Sokomba told AFP that doctors treating virus cases were not downing tools because medics did not want to “deprive Covid-19 patients [of] care”.
But he warned that the exempted doctors would be forced to join the action if the government refuses to meet its demands within two weeks.
“We believe that in two weeks, we should be able to conclude on that,” he said. “But if they continue to demonstrate their insincerity, we may have no choice than to co-opt the doctors we have exempted to join the strike.”
The organisation had threatened the strike over a raft of issues, including the “grossly inadequate” provision of protective equipment and calls for hazard pay for those working on the virus. Other demands focused on improving general welfare and protesting sackings or pay cuts for doctors in two regions.
Strikes by medics are common in Nigeria, where the health sector has been underfunded for years. Authorities fear that any reduction in capacity could severely hamper its ability to tackle the pandemic as the number of cases continues to rise.
Updated
The government of the Netherlands has published advice about which countries are safe to travel to this summer, allowing Dutch people to visit Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia France, Iceland, Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Switzerland from today. There is a second list of countries that have yet to allow Dutch tourists but are expected to do so soon, which includes Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, Austria and Spain.
However, they advise citizens to avoid both the UK and Sweden for the foreseeable future: “This has to do with the health situation in those countries. If you do go, you are urgently advised to return to your home quarantine for 14 days when you return to the Netherlands.”
Updated
At 10am local time this morning there was a nationwide protest in Italy by members of the Movimento Nazionale Infermieri, the national nurses’ union, gathering in town squares across the country to demand better pay and working conditions for their members after coronavirus.
“We who today are worried about standing amongst others because we can feel their wariness, we who worked through our breaks, who saw what this virus was capable of, who after nine hours in masks went home with marks on our faces, who despite our own fears put on our protective suits and entered our patients’ rooms, we who prayed in front of the cold bodies of those who had died without the presence or comfort of relatives, we who more than nurses are people, mothers, fathers, children - now we are forgotten and sidelined,” one of the organisers of the protest told Stato Quotidiano.
And here’s Reuters on the return of the English high street, and accompanying Primarkmania:
Long queues of shoppers snaked outside some stores in England from early in the morning on Monday, with discount fashion retailer Primark proving a big draw as non-essential shops reopened their doors after 83 days of lockdown.
Queues formed outside several branches of Primark, which does not sell online so has not taken a penny in the country for weeks. In Birmingham, home to the world’s biggest Primark, the store opened early as hundreds of people lined up outside.
Department stores, clothing retailers, electrical outlets and bookshops have been closed since 23 March when Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed a lockdown to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
While outdoor markets and car showrooms reopened on 1 June, Monday is the big return to business for retailers, who are desperate to get the tills ringing again.
The reopening only applies to England, with stores in Scotland and Wales waiting for guidance from their devolved administrations on when they can resume trading. Non-essential stores in Northern Ireland reopened on Friday.
Getting shoppers spending again is key to Britain’s recovery after official data on Friday showed the economy shrank by a quarter over March and April. The British Retail Consortium reckons the lockdown has cost non-food stores £1.8bn ($2.3bn) a week in lost revenues. “We need to start working to get the economy back opening again because that’s the best way of restoring livelihoods,” business minister Paul Scully told BBC radio.
Stores look very different, though, as they have to observe social distancing regulations. Shoppers face queues outside, restricted numbers inside and limitations on trying products.
Fitting rooms will be closed, according to government guidance, while goods that are tried on or returned by customers need to be stored for 48 hours, or cleaned, before being re-displayed on the shop floor.
Some chains are reopening all their English stores, while others are taking a phased approach. Primark, owned by Associated British Foods, is opening all its 153 stores in England. Marks & Spencer, which has traded online and kept its food halls open, will reopen the majority of its clothing and homeware selling space. But rivals Next and John Lewis are opening just 24 and two respectively.
“Without doubt this is going to be one of the most difficult years for retailers ever,” Anne Pitcher, managing director of department store chain Selfridges, told BBC radio.
Here is our report on the reopening of borders across Europe today, a move which the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, greeted with the following warning: “My appeal to all those who travel: enjoy your summer vacation but enjoy it with caution and responsibility. Over the summer holidays, we want to make it as difficult as possible for the virus to spread again in Europe.”
Non-essential shops in England open today for the first time since March. Here are the queues to get into the low-cost fashion retailer Primark at the Rushden Lakes shopping centre in Northamptonshire:
... in Birmingham:
... in Leeds:
... in Newcastle
... in Southampton
... in Liverpool:
... and in Coventry:
Primark, Coventry is clearly very happy to see you back 😆😀 stay safe all xx @Primark pic.twitter.com/vIfqYAy4Ym
— Stacey (@SkyBlueStacey) June 15, 2020
Updated
We have updated our coronavirus world maps with the latest data:
Borders opened up across Europe on Monday after three months of coronavirus closures that began chaotically in March. But many restrictions persist, it’s unclear how keen Europeans will be to travel this summer and the continent is still closed to Americans, Asians and other international tourists, reports AP.
Border checks for most Europeans were dropped overnight in Germany, France and elsewhere, nearly two weeks after Italy opened its frontiers. The European Union’s 27 nations, as well as those in the Schengen passport-free travel area, which also includes a few non-EU nations such as Switzerland, aren’t expected to start opening to visitors from outside the continent until at least the beginning of next month, and possibly much later.
Announcing Monday’s reopening of borders and Paris restaurants, French president Emmanuel Macron said it was time to turn the page of the first act of the crisis and rediscover our taste for freedom. But he warned: “This doesn’t mean the virus has disappeared and we can totally let down our guard – The summer of 2020 will be a summer unlike any other.”
Even inside Europe, there is caution after more than 182,000 virus-linked deaths. Europe has had more than 2 million of the world’s 7.9 million confirmed infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
“We have got the pandemic under control, [but] the reopening of our frontiers is a critical moment,” the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said on Sunday as he announced that his hard-hit country is moving forward its opening to European travellers by 10 days to 21 June. “The threat is still real. The virus is still out there.”
Still, the need to get Europe’s tourism industry up and running again is also urgent for countries such as Spain and Greece as the economic fallout of the crisis multiplies. The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, acknowledged that a lot will depend on whether people feel comfortable to travel and whether we can project Greece as a safe destination.
In a trial run, Spain is allowing thousands of Germans to fly to its Balearic Islands starting Monday waiving its 14-day quarantine for the group. The idea is to test out best practices in the coronavirus era.
This pilot programme will help us learn a lot for what lies ahead in the coming months, Sánchez said. We want our country, which is already known as a world-class tourist destination, to be recognised as also a secure destination.
Europe’s reopening is not a repeat of the chaotic free-for-all in March, when panicked, uncoordinated border closures caused traffic jams that stretched for miles.
Still, it is a complicated, shifting patchwork of different rules, and not everyone is equally free to travel everywhere. Several countries are not opening up yet to everyone. Norway and Denmark, for example, are keeping their borders closed with Sweden, whose virus strategy avoided a lockdown but produced a relatively high per capita death rate.
Cars queued up on Monday morning at some crossings on the German border with Denmark, which is now letting in visitors from Germany but only if they have booked accommodations for at least six nights.
Britain, which left the EU in January but remains closely aligned with the bloc until the end of this year, only last week imposed a 14-day quarantine requirement for most arrivals, horrifying its tourism and aviation industries. As a result, France is asking people coming from Britain to self-quarantine for two weeks and several other nations are not even letting British tourists come in during the first wave of reopenings.
With flights only gradually picking up, nervousness about new outbreaks abroad, uncertainty about social distancing at tourist venues and many people facing record unemployment or pay cuts, many Europeans may choose simply to stay home or explore their own countries.
German chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz are both planning to vacation in their homelands this year.
The Dutch government said its citizens can now visit 16 European nations, but urged caution. “You can go abroad for your holiday again,” foreign minister Stef Blok said. “But it won’t be as carefree as before the corona crisis. The virus is still among us and the situation remains uncertain.”
Updated
BP has told shareholders that it could write down the value of its assets by up to $17.5bn (£14bn) as it reduced its long-term forecast for oil prices and warned that the Covid-19 pandemic would have a lasting impact on the global economy, in an unscheduled update from their chief executive, Bernard Looney.
Shares fell 5% to 306p after the unscheduled update was published on Monday, making it one of the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100.
More here:
Russia has reported 8,246 new cases of coronavirus today, taking the nationwide tally of infections to 537,210, the country’s coronavirus crisis response centre said. It said 143 people had died from the virus in the past 24 hours, taking Russia’s overall death toll to 7,091.
Updated
The worst part of the coronavirus epidemic is behind France but people must remain vigilant as the virus continues to circulate, the French health minister, Olivier Véran, said today.
“The largest part of the epidemic is behind us but the virus is not dead. We did not completely defeat it and we are controlling its circulation. We continue testing,” Véran told LCI television.
France reported on Sunday nine new coronavirus deaths over the previous 24 hours, taking the total to 29,407 and marking the fifth day with under 30 fatalities.
Also reopening today: land borders across Europe:
Covid-19 hit Corona, a district in the borough of Queens New York, hard. The first, deadly, wave is over but the economic and health consequences will likely shake the neighborhood for years to come. The toll the coronavirus has taken on the coincidentally named Corona tells a story of race, poverty and inequality in modern America., writes Amanda Holpuch:
Updated
Thailand lifted a nationwide curfew today after more than two months and allowed restaurants to resume selling alcohol as the coronavirus crisis eased, with 21 days since a recorded case of local transmission.
The south-east Asian nation of about 70 million people was the first country outside China to report a case of coronavirus, on 13 January, and has since had just 3,135 confirmed cases and 58 fatalities. Some 2,987 patients have recovered.
Other establishments allowed to reopen on Monday were schools with less than 120 students, exhibition halls, music concerts, film productions, playgrounds, amusement parks and sports competitions without spectators.
Pubs, bars and karaoke outlets will remain closed, but restaurants that reopened two weeks ago with social distancing will now be able to serve alcohol.
Monday was the second time in five days that Thailand reported no new cases. All new cases in the past three weeks have been found in quarantine among Thais returning from abroad, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government’s Covid-19 taskforce.
Updated
It’s Monday, which as over the last few weeks means lockdown measures are being eased somewhere. Today, for example, sees domestic tourism restart in Georgia, with the opening of some hotels and train lines.
In Mumbai, India, local trains started running for the first time in two months, open to workers in essential services.
Morning/evening/whatever-it-is-where-you-are everyone. This is Simon Burnton taking on the live blog for the next few hours. If you have seen any stories that deserve our attention, or if you have any tips, comments or suggestions for our coverage then please let me know by sending me a message either to @Simon_Burnton on Twitter or via email. Thanks!
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. But have no fear: my charming and talented colleague Simon Burnton will be with you for the next few hours.
Summary
-
Cases worldwide pass 7.9 million. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government figures, there have been 433,394
known coronavirus deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic. The number of confirmed cases stands at 7,912,981.
- Beijing authorities have locked down residential compounds and fired officials over a new Covid-19 outbreak as health officials warned the risk of the outbreak worsening was “very high”. Xu Hejian, a spokesman for the Beijing city government, said on Sunday that Beijing had entered “an extraordinary period”. From Monday, 10 residential neighbourhoods around a second seafood market, Yuquandong market in Haidian where one asymptomatic case was found over the weekend, were shut.
- China reports 49 more virus cases as Beijing tests thousands. Chinese health officials reported 49 new coronavirus cases on Monday, including 36 more in the capital, Beijing, where a fresh cluster linked to a wholesale food market has fuelled fears of a second wave of infections.
- Hong Kong’s Disneyland to reopen on 18 June. Hong Kong’s Disneyland theme park said on Monday it will reopen on 18 June to a reduced number of visitors and with enhanced health measures after the coronavirus outbreak forced it to close in late January. The Chinese-ruled city has reported only a handful of new cases recently, with its total so far standing at 1,110 infections and 4 deaths.
- Republicans insist Trump Tulsa rally won’t spread coronavirus – despite local concern. Republican lawmakers are downplaying concerns that a Donald Trump indoor rally planned for Tulsa, Oklahoma, for next weekend could contribute to the spread Covid-19, amid an increase in cases in the city. The Tulsa city-county health department director, Bruce Dart, said he worried the rally could be dangerous for attendees as well as the president. “I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn’t as large a concern as it is today,” Dart told Tulsa World.
- UK economy to shrink by 8% in 2020, forecasters say. The British economy will shrink by 8% this year and is unlikely to recover from the damage wrought by the coronavirus crisis until 2023, according to a leading economic forecaster. After official figures showed Britain’s economy shrank by a record 20.4% in April – putting the country on course for the worst recession in more than three centuries – the EY Item Club was moved to produce its first interim report between two quarterly updates to reflect the deteriorating outlook.
- Thousands of UK stores will reopen in England on Monday as the government lifts restrictions on non-essential shops that were imposed at the height of the pandemic in March. The lockdown has cost non-food retailers £1.7bn a week in lost sales, according to the Office for National Statistics. The number of people venturing out to shop in May was just 20% of those out and about last year, according to the monthly British Retail Consortium-Shopper Trak survey. Despite the lifting of restrictions, the BRC experts predict only a modest pick-up in the coming days.
- Demand for flu vaccine soars as countries plan for second Covid-19 wave. Fears of a second wave of coronavirus have sparked a global scramble for influenza shots from countries that hope to vaccinate great swathes of the population to reduce pressure on their health services.Health officials in the UK are considering whether to offer flu shots to everyone as part of planning for a resurgence of coronavirus in the autumn, but with other countries hitting on the same strategy, demand for flu vaccines has soared.
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Brazil has registered a further 612 deaths, taking the country’s death toll to 43,332, Reuters reports. The health ministry announced 17,110 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total to 867,624.
- Colombia cases topped 50,000. Confirmed coronavirus cases in Colombia have risen to over 50,000, the country’s health ministry said on Sunday, while neighbouring Ecuador approached the same milestone, Reuters reports. Colombia has reported 50,939 cases of the coronavirus and 1,667 deaths.
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Chilean copper miners’ unions have demanded a re-evaluation of the operational continuity plans of the country’s biggest mines during what they said was an “alarming” increase in coronavirus cases among workers.
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Veteran Congolese politician Pierre Lumbi, once an adviser to former president Joseph Kabila and a leading opposition figure, has died from the coronavirus, Reuters is reporting.
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France has reported nine new coronavirus deaths, taking the total to 29,407 and marking the fifth day with under 30 fatalities, Reuters reports.
- England’s coronavirus lockdown should not be further lifted until the government’s contact-tracing system has proven to be “robust and effective”, the World Health Organization has said after widespread criticism of the first results of the new tracking operation.
- French president Emmanuel Macron has said that all of France will move into the ‘green zone’ regarding coronavirus risks from Monday. Gatherings will remain tightly controlled but restaurants will reopen in the Paris region.
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The number of new coronavirus cases in Turkey rose to 1,562 in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Sunday, almost double the level to which they had fallen in early June when Ankara lifted travel restrictions and reopened facilities.
- Egypt will reopen all its airports on 1 July, the civil aviation minister said on Sunday, after suspending regular international flights in March.
Updated
Here’s everything we know so far about the response to the new outbreak in Beijing:
Beijing authorities have locked down residential compounds and fired officials over a new Covid-19 outbreak as health officials warned the risk of the outbreak worsening was “very high”.
On Monday, authorities announced 49 new cases, 36 of which were linked to the Xinfadi seafood supermarket in Beijing’s southern Fengtai district. The market was closed on Saturday after it was identified as being at the centre of a new cluster of cases.
“The risk of the epidemic spreading is very high, so we should take resolute and decisive measures,” Xu Hejian, a spokesman for the Beijing city government, said at a press briefing on Monday. On Sunday he said Beijing had entered “an extraordinary period”.
As of midnight on Monday, 10 residential neighbourhoods around a second seafood market, Yuquandong market in Haidian where one asymptomatic case was found over the weekend, had been shut. On Monday, officials said cases at Yuquandong were linked to the Xinfadi market. Residents have been ordered to quarantine at home and undergo tests for the virus.
Beijing, which had previously gone 55 days in which the only new infections were citizens returning from other countries, has reported a total of 79 cases in the past four days. The first case in the new outbreak was discovered on Thursday after a 52-year old man surnamed Tang was confirmed to have the virus. On Friday, authorities reported another six cases – all of them, including Tang, linked to the Xinfadi market.
Updated
If you have questions, comments, tips or news from your part of the world, get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
More now on Britain entering its next phase of reopening.
Non-essential shops in Northern Ireland reopened Friday, but Scotland and Wales have not yet decided when to follow suit, as Britain’s devolved governments lift restrictions at different speeds.
The non-essential retail sector employs 1.3 million people and contributes £46.6 billion ($58.4 billion, 52 billion euros) to the British economy annually, according to the finance ministry, and its restart is viewed as economically vital, AFP reports.
Streets have been cleaned, footpaths widened and hand-sanitising stations installed in London’s West End commercial district ahead of Monday.
But Jace Tyrrell, CEO of New West End Company, a partnership of 600 British and international operators in the area, predicted it will be “quite some time until we get back to normal”.
“Retailers are going to have to adapt,” she told AFP.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 192 to 186,461, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Monday.
The reported death toll rose by four to 8,791, the tally showed.
Updated
English shops, attractions to reopen as virus lockdown eased
Various stores and outdoor attractions in England are set to open Monday for the first time in nearly three months, as the government continues to ease its coronavirus lockdown, AFP reports.
Thousands of non-essential retailers such as bookstores and electronics outlets hope to welcome their first customers since halting in-store business in late March.
Leisure sites such as drive-in cinemas, safari parks and the outdoor parts of zoos will now be able to reopen, while places of worship are also set to swing open their doors again for individual prayer.
All sites will need to comply with social distancing rules requiring people to keep at least two metres (six feet) apart and advising them to wear face coverings such as masks or scarves when indoors.
Meanwhile, the coverings will be compulsory on public transport across England from Monday, with operators allowed to bar travel to those not wearing them.
“I know people are anxious,” finance minister Rishi Sunak said Sunday as he encouraged shopping to help kickstart an economy seeing unprecedented declines.
“It’s a slightly different experience... but it is a safe environment and we should all be able to go out knowing that we should be able to shop in confidence,” he told Sky News.
Mexico’s health ministry reported 4,147 new confirmed coronavirus infections along with 269 additional fatalities on Sunday, bringing the total in the country to 146,837 cases and 17,141 deaths.
The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the official count.
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Monday it was not true the government had decided to ease an entry ban, which was implemented to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, for people from certain countries.
The Yomiuri daily reported last week that Japan may restart business trips to and from Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Thailand in the next few months.
The government is examining ways to ease entry bans, taking into consideration various factors comprehensively, and would ease restrictions in stages if it decided to do so, Motegi told parliament.
Motegi has agreed with his counterparts from Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand to discuses the possibility of re-allowing travel to those who need it, he said.
Beijing closes 10 new residential compounds as new cases confirmed
More now on the response from Beijing to the new cluster of cases:
Beijing city authorities said in a press briefing on Monday that “multiple cases” at a market in Haidian were found, all linked to the Xinfadi market.
Officials said that as of midnight on Monday, 10 residential communities near the Yuquandong market in Haidian had been closed and residents were put under home quarantine and ordered to take nucleic acid tests.
The areas will be under 24 hour supervision and disinfected. The Yuquandong market has been closed since Saturday.
Updated
Hong Kong's Disneyland to reopen on 18 June
Hong Kong’s Disneyland theme park said on Monday it will reopen on 18 June to a reduced number of visitors and with enhanced health measures after the coronavirus outbreak forced it to close in late January.
The Chinese-ruled city has reported only a handful of new cases recently, with its total so far standing at 1,110 infections and 4 deaths.
The majority of the park’s shopping and dining locations will restart operations with “controlled capacity,” while social distancing measures will be implemented in queues, restaurants and other facilities. Hotel services will also resume gradually.
Disinfection will be carried out more frequently and hand sanitizers will be made available for visitors, who will be required to go through temperature screening, wear a face mask and sign a health declaration.
Hong Kong’s Disneyland resort is owned by a joint venture, Hongkong International Theme Parks Ltd, of which the local government owns 53% and Walt Disney Co holds the rest.
Ocean Park, the city’s other theme park, reopened on Saturday after lawmakers approved a HK$5.4 billion ($696.76 million) bailout plan last month to keep it running for another year. Shanghai’s Disneyland re-opened in May.
While many restrictions related to the coronavirus have been gradually lifted, Hong Kong’s borders remain almost fully closed and group gatherings are limited to eight people.
In response to the new coronavirus outbreak in Beijing, the city has locked down ten more neighborhoods, CGTN and AFP reports.
According to CGTN, the decision came after staffers connected to Xinfadi wholesale market, the source of the new outbreak, tested positive for the virus:
Ten communities around Yuquandong market in Beijing's Haidian District were shut down after some market staffers tested positive for #coronavirus, with all of them having links to Xinfadi wholesale market that is at the center of new cases, local official told a briefing Monday. pic.twitter.com/EwrAbkQLUd
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) June 15, 2020
Beijing has begun mass testing workers at the Xinfadi food market, as well as those who live nearby and anyone who visited it in recent weeks. Officials have said they plan to carry out virus tests on 46,000 residents in the area. More than 10,000 people have been tested already.
Chinese health officials reported 49 new coronavirus cases on Monday, including 36 more in the capital Beijing where a fresh cluster linked to a wholesale food market has fuelled fears of a second wave of infections.
#BREAKING China locks down ten more Beijing neighbourhoods over virus cluster pic.twitter.com/oBwSM4Ljkb
— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 15, 2020
Updated
China reports 49 more virus cases as Beijing tests thousands
Chinese health officials reported 49 new coronavirus cases on Monday, including 36 more in the capital Beijing where a fresh cluster linked to a wholesale food market has fuelled fears of a second wave of infections, AFP reports.
The domestic outbreak in China - where the disease first emerged last year - had largely been brought under control but then a fresh batch of cases was detected in the capital last week. In addition to the new Beijing cases, the National Health Commission said there were three confirmed cases in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing.
Beijing has begun mass testing workers at the Xinfadi food market, as well as those who live nearby and anyone who visited it in recent weeks. Officials have said they plan to carry out virus tests on 46,000 residents in the area. More than 10,000 people have been tested already.
There were also 10 imported cases on Monday, which have accounted for the majority of China’s cases in recent months as overseas nationals return home. In total 177 people are now ill with the disease in China - two severely - which is the highest since early May.
There were also 18 new asymptomatic cases, of which seven were domestic. China is not counting asymptomatic cases as confirmed ones.
Updated
Podcast: A journey to Greece for solo IVF during the pandemic
Laura Barton has always known that she wanted to have children. After years of miscarriages, and a breakup from her partner last year, she decided to embark on solo IVF. In early March, as the world shut down, she found herself flying to Crete to undergo treatment:
Colombia cases top 50,000
Confirmed coronavirus cases in Colombia have risen to over 50,000, the country’s Health Ministry said on Sunday, while neighbouring Ecuador approached the same milestone, Reuters reports.
Colombia has reported 50,939 cases of the coronavirus and 1,667 deaths. In Ecuador, cases have surpassed 46,700 and deaths stand at 3,896.
Covid-19 has overwhelmed Ecuador’s health system, in some cases leaving authorities unable to collect the bodies of the dead and forcing the government to store corpses temporarily in refrigerated shipping containers.
Colombia’s economy has been battered by the twin ills of a coronavirus quarantine put in place by President Ivan Duque and falling oil prices.
The country entered a national lockdown in late March, which is expected to be lifted on 1 July. But as certain sectors start to reopen and the quarantine begins to lift, medics are bracing for a spike in Covid-19 cases.
At a news conference on Sunday, Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez declared new restrictions in which residents can only leave home to go shopping or access financial services on days corresponding with the numbers on their ID cards.
Strict two-week quarantines will also be imposed in a number of Bogota’s districts where infection rates are high. The lockdown has led to thousands of businesses being shuttered, causing rising joblessness.
In April, unemployment in Colombia hit a historic 23.5% in urban areas, equivalent to more than 4 million people out of work, as the government promised further measures to help those most affected.
Colombia’s economy will contract 5.5% in 2020, according to the Finance Ministry, because of the semi-paralysis caused by the quarantine. The country will widen its fiscal deficit to 6.1% of gross domestic product - equivalent to more than 60 trillion pesos ($16 billion) - from an original 2.2% of GDP.
Volkswagen AG’s Mexican unit will begin sending workers back to its plant in the central state of Puebla on Tuesday for “preparation and training eyeing a gradual start further ahead,” the company said in a statement on Sunday.
Puebla, where the German automaker and its luxury brand unit Audi have major plants, said last week it is not ready to reopen its automotive sector due to concerns about the coronavirus. Mexico has registered more than 17,000 deaths from the pandemic.
Demand for flu vaccine soars as countries plan for second Covid-19 wave
Fears of a second wave of coronavirus have sparked a global scramble for influenza shots from countries that hope to vaccinate great swathes of the population to reduce pressure on their health services.
Health officials in the UK are considering whether to offer flu shots to everyone as part of planning for a resurgence of coronavirus in the autumn, but with other countries hitting on the same strategy, demand for flu vaccines has soared.
Mass immunisation would aim to slash the number of people hospitalised with the flu this winter, giving the NHS a better chance of coping with any surge in Covid-19 patients that follows the easing of lockdown restrictions. The flu vaccine does not protect against coronavirus infection.
One flu vaccine manufacturer, Sanofi, said it had been approached by the UK and other countries about boosting their orders of flu shots for winter 2020-21 but warned that it would struggle to ramp up production in time.
At mass on Sunday the Archbishop of Lima, Carlos Castillo, looked out over a cathedral full of faces — none of them alive.
AP reports that the cleric had his church filled with more than 5,000 portraits of those who have died in the pandemic that is spreading across Peru, using his broadcast homily to criticise a health system he said was “based on egotism and on business and not on mercy and solidarity with the people”.
The nation as a whole faces a projected economic contraction of 12% this year and Castillo called for solidarity with the poor.
“An even harder moment is coming,” he said. “It would be terrible if in the times to come we have thousands of these photos – but dead of hunger.”
Covid-19 has killed at least 6,400 people in Peru and there have been more than 225,000 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
One of the Philippines’ most prominent journalists, Maria Ressa, has been found guilty of cyber libel charges, a verdict that could lead to seven years in prison and is likely to be viewed as a major set back for democratic rights in the country, the Guardian’s Rebecca Ratcliffe reports.
The verdict was issued by Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa in a Manila court on Monday, where just a limited number of attendees were permitted as part of coronavirus prevention measures.
Before the verdict on Monday, Ressa told BBC journalist Howard Johnson her case was “a test case for everything, including court conditions under Covid-19. It’s a very fast trial and this verdict has an impact on press freedom, not just in the Phillipines but I think all around the world.”
Snatched interview with Maria Ressa: The quality of our democracy is at stake #mariaressa #rappler pic.twitter.com/2CmC0vJbGq
— Howard Johnson (@Howardrjohnson) June 14, 2020
Rappler, one of the country’s most influential news websites, its editor, Ressa, and former researcher and writer Reynaldo Santos Jr were accused of cyber libel in 2017.
The case, widely seen as an attempt to muzzle the media, followed a complaint by a businessman about a story written five years earlier about his alleged ties to a then-judge in the nation’s top court.
The British government must urgently ensure that more than 1 million children have reliable internet access at home or risk irreparable harm to their education, a cross-party group of MPs and former ministers has said.
Tony Blair is among a number of prominent figures, including a Tory grandee, to back calls to equip 1.3 million children eligible for free school meals with a broadband connection and devices.
School leaders in England warn over ongoing coronavirus disruptionRead more
A bill that will be presented to parliament this week says the coronavirus lockdown had “exposed the digital divide”, with about 700,000 children unable to complete any schoolwork because of a lack of internet at home.
UK retailers call on shoppers to buy from local shops
Retailers are appealing to customers to support their local shops to help them survive the coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated high street trade.
“It’s really important people go back to using their high street,” said Gary Grant, the owner of toy chain The Entertainer. “We employ local people in local towns and if I want to hold on to my staff I need turnover.”
Thousands of stores, selling everything from clothing to footwear, books and electrical equipment, will reopen in England on Monday as the government lifts restrictions on non-essential shops that were imposed at the height of the pandemic in March. The lockdown has cost non-food retailers £1.7bn a week in lost sales, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The number of people venturing out to shop in May was just 20% of those out and about last year, according to the monthly British Retail Consortium-ShopperTrak survey. Despite the lifting of restrictions, the BRC experts predict only a modest pick-up in the coming days.
UK economy to shrink by 8% in 2020, forecasters say
The British economy will shrink by 8% this year and is unlikely to recover from the damage wrought by the coronavirus crisis until 2023, according to a leading economic forecaster.
After official figures showed Britain’s economy shrank by a record 20.4% in April – putting the country on course for the worst recession in more than three centuries – the EY Item Club was moved to produce its first interim report between two quarterly updates to reflect the deteriorating outlook.
Mark Gregory, EY UK’s chief economist, said: “This is an undoubtedly challenging environment for businesses and forecasting is extremely difficult. We’ve made some significant adjustments to our GDP expectations compared to what the data told us just six weeks ago.”
Back in April the group of economists, which is the only non-government forecasting organisation to use the Treasury modelling of the economy, had predicted a 6.8% fall in output for 2020 but has downgraded that figure to 8%. It has also increased the size of the contraction expected in the second quarter of this year from 13% to 15%.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development predicted the UK economy would shrink by more than any other developed country as businesses struggle to recover from the pandemic. It estimates that the country’s GDP will contract by 11.5% in 2020 or 14% if the virus returns and forces a second lockdown.
AAP reports that Australia’s top men’s professional soccer league, the A-League, believe this year’s grand final could be played anywhere in Australia, or even in New Zealand.
The league’s 11 clubs are set to undergo Covid-19 testing for players and staff on Monday, with training to resume this week. Despite not yet resolving a contract dispute with host broadcaster Fox Sports, Football Federation Australia is pushing ahead with a plan to resume the league on 16 July.
A-League stands firm against Fox Sports with restart on holdRead more
The plan is to play the remaining games of the season across a 28-day period before embarking on a one-week finals campaign. And FFA head of leagues Greg O’Rourke says if border restrictions have been suitably eased by mid-August, finals could be played at various venues, including overseas.
Updated
Israel is in advanced talks with Moderna Inc to buy its coronavirus vaccine that is entering the final stage of testing, leading Israeli news website YNET reported on Sunday.
YNET, quoting unnamed officials at Israel’s Health Ministry, did not report further details. A ministry spokesman declined to comment on the report.
Moderna confirmed on Thursday it planned to start a trial of 30,000 volunteers for its vaccine in July.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday reported 2,063,812 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 25,468 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 646 to 115,271.
Republicans insist Trump Tulsa rally won't spread coronavirus – despite local concern
Republican lawmakers are downplaying concerns that a Donald Trump indoor rally planned for Tulsa, Oklahoma, for next weekend could contribute to the spread Covid-19, amid an increase in cases in the city.
The Tulsa city-county health department director, Bruce Dart, said he worried the rally could be dangerous for attendees as well as the president.
“I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn’t as large a concern as it is today,” Dart told Tulsa World.
“I think it’s an honor for Tulsa to have a sitting president want to come and visit our community, but not during a pandemic. I’m concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event, and I’m also concerned about our ability to ensure the president stays safe as well.”
Trump is set to travel to Oklahoma next Saturday, to stage his first rally since early March.
WHO cautions against further lifting of lockdown in England
England’s coronavirus lockdown should not be further lifted until the government’s contact-tracing system has proven to be “robust and effective”, the World Health Organization has said after widespread criticism of the first results of the new tracking operation.
As shops across England prepared to reopen, and people were encouraged by the government to come out of their homes and on to the high street, Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO’s director for Europe, cautioned that the UK remained in a “very active phase of the pandemic”.
His remarks came as ministers confirmed a review of the 2-metre distancing rule, with the government coming under pressure from business leaders, Tory backbenchers and rightwing media to further ease the lockdown. Boris Johnson said on Sunday that the falling numbers of coronavirus cases has given the government “more margin for manoeuvre” in easing the 2-metre physical distancing rule.
In response to data showing the government had failed to trace the contacts of a third of those testing positive in the first week of the new system, Kluge warned in an interview with the Guardian against rushing into reopening the economy.
The WHO official said the tracking in England of about 31,000 contacts of 8,000 infected people was encouraging and a cause for congratulations. But he added that Downing Street needed to be convinced it could “aggressively” track infections as the prime minister looks to reopen the economy.
At least 10 Chinese cities, including Harbin and Dalian, have urged residents not to travel to the capital or to report to authorities if they have done so recently.
Reuters reports that Huaxiang, a neighbourhood in the same district as the food market and which has one of China’s biggest used car centers, raised its epidemic risk level to high on Sunday, becoming the only neighbourhood in the country to be on high alert.
This status means there can be no economic activity until the outbreak is controlled.
As of 3pm on Sunday, 10 neighbourhoods in Beijing had raised their risk levels from low to medium.
Like other countries around the world, China is concerned to prevent a second wave from emerging after easing lockdowns that hammered its economy earlier this year.
Beijing has entered an 'extraordinary period' says city spokesman
After weeks with almost no new coronavirus infections, Beijing has recorded dozens of new cases in recent days, all linked to a major wholesale food market, raising concerns about a resurgence of the disease, Reuters reports. On Sunday night Beijing ordered all companies to supervise 14-day home quarantine for employees who have visited the Xinfadi market or been in contact with anyone who has done so.
A restaurant chain selling traditional Beijing noodles shut down a few outlets after two employees tested positive. There had been almost no new coronavirus cases in the city for almost two months until an infection was reported on 12 June, and since then the total number has climbed to 51, including eight reported in the first seven hours of Sunday.
According to the Beijing’s health authority, contact tracing showed all the infected people had either worked or shopped inside Xinfadi, said to be the largest food market in Asia, or had been in contact with someone who was there.
“Beijing has entered an extraordinary period,” city spokesman Xu Hejian told a news conference on Sunday.
The market was closed before dawn on Saturday and the district containing the market put itself on a “wartime” footing.
The Beijing outbreak has already spread to the neighbouring northeastern province of Liaoning, where the provincial health authority said the two new cases confirmed on Sunday were both people who had been in close contact with confirmed cases in Beijing.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live global coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
If you have questions, comments, tips or news from your part of the world, get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
After weeks with almost no new coronavirus infections, Beijing has recorded dozens of new cases in recent days, all linked to a major wholesale food market, raising concerns about a resurgence of the disease.
The capital is taking steps to try to halt the outbreak including ramping up testing. On Sunday night Beijing ordered all companies to supervise 14-day home quarantine for employees who have visited the Xinfadi market or been in contact with anyone who has done so.
“Beijing has entered an extraordinary period,” city spokesman Xu Hejian told a news conference on Sunday. The market was closed before dawn on Saturday and the district containing the market put itself on a “wartime” footing.
We’ll have the latest on that story throughout the day. Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:
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Cases worldwide near 7.9 million. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government figures, there have been 431,543
known coronavirus deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic. The number of confirmed cases stands at 7,854,514.
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Brazil has registered a further 612 deaths, taking the country’s death toll to 43,332, Reuters reports. The health ministry announced 17,110 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total to 867,624.
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Chilean copper miners’ unions have demanded a re-evaluation of the operational continuity plans of the country’s biggest mines during what they said was an “alarming” increase in coronavirus cases among workers.
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Veteran Congolese politician Pierre Lumbi, once an advisor to former president Joseph Kabila and a leading opposition figure, has died from the coronavirus, Reuters is reporting.
-
France has reported nine new coronavirus deaths taking the total to 29,407 and marking the fifth day with under 30 fatalities, Reuters reports.
- England’s coronavirus lockdown should not be further lifted until the government’s contact-tracing system has proven to be “robust and effective”, the World Health Organization has said after widespread criticism of the first results of the new tracking operation.
- French president Emmanuel Macron has said that all of France will move into the ‘green zone’ regarding coronavirus risks from Monday. Gatherings will remain tightly controlled but restaurants will reopen in the Paris region.
-
The number of new coronavirus cases in Turkey rose to 1,562 in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Sunday, almost double the level to which they had fallen in early June when Ankara lifted travel restrictions and reopened facilities.
- Egypt will reopen all its airports on 1 July, the civil aviation minister said on Sunday, after suspending regular international flights in March.
