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In the UK, the waiting list for hospital treatment could soar to almost 10 million people by Christmas amid a huge backlog caused by coronavirus disrupting services, NHS leaders are warning.
Hospital bosses say that such a massive increase in England is a realistic prospect, given so many people have been unable to have surgery and crucial diagnostic tests in recent months while the NHS’s main priority has been minimising the damage from Covid-19.
The total number of people waiting to undergo a procedure in a hospital in England such as a hernia repair, cataract removal or hip or knee replacement stood at 4.4 million before the pandemic. It then fell to 4.2 million because in March GPs referred fewer patients for care to help hospitals tackle the pandemic and also because some patients were reluctant to risk getting infected by going into hospital.
However, the NHS Confederation estimates that it is likely to reach 9.8 million by the end of the year as a result of staff shortages and hospitals having to cap the number of patients they can treat at any one time because of strict physical distancing rules that reduce the number of beds available.
Hi, Helen Sullivan with you now. I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours – get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan[at]theguardian.com.
Population-wide facemask use could push transmission down to controllable levels for national epidemics and could prevent further waves when combined with lockdowns, according to a UK study.
The research, led by scientists at Cambridge and Greenwich universities, suggests lockdowns alone will not stop a resurgence, but that even homemade masks can dramatically reduce transmission rates if enough people wear them in public. Richard Stutt, who co-led the study at Cambridge, said:
Our analyses support the immediate and universal adoption of facemasks by the public.
He said the findings showed that, if widespread mask use were combined with social distancing and some lockdown measures, this could be an “acceptable way of managing the pandemic and reopening economic activity” long before the development and public availability of an effective vaccine.
The study’s findings were published in the “Proceedings of the Royal Society A” scientific journal.
The World Health Organization updated its guidance on Friday to recommend that governments ask everyone to wear fabric face masks in public areas where there is a risk to reduce the spread of the disease.
Summary
Here are the latest developments:
- The World Health Organization’s Covid-19 technical lead backtracked on her comment that asymptomatic transmission of the virus was “very rare”. “I think that it’s a misunderstanding to state the asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare,” Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said, noting modelling suggesting 40% of infections could be transmitted by people without symptoms.
- A group of EU member states called for medical and equipment stockpiles to be increased. The leaders of Denmark, Spain and Germany, as well as France, Belgium and Poland, called for measures to boost the bloc’s long-term resilience to public health crises and backed proposals for shared research and development of vaccines and treatment.
- The epidemic in Mexico is advancing toward its peak level of infections, the World Health Organization warned. Mexico, where total confirmed cases exceed 120,000 and the death toll stands at about 14,000, began a gradual re-opening of the economy at the start of June.
- Pakistan should implement intermittent lockdowns to counter a surge in infections, the World Health Organization advised. The increase has come as the country was loosening restrictions.
- Zoos, safari parks and drive-in cinemas will be allowed to reopen in England from 15 June. Boris Johnson will make the official announcement on Wednesday.
- There have been sharp rises in reports of violence against women across Latin America, already a hotspot for gender-based violence, since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the International Rescue Committee has said. Meghan Lopez, the IRC’s regional director for Latin America, said some women and girls were stuck with perpetrators 24 hours a day.
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The world faces a food crisis worse than any seen for at least 50 years, the UN has warned. Social protections for poor people are urgently needed as the looming recession following the Covid-19 pandemic may put basic nutrition out of reach.
- A supreme court judge in Brazil has ordered Jair Bolsonaro’s administration to resume publishing complete Covid-19 statistics. His government sparked outrage on Saturday by purging the health ministry website of data on to pandemic and announcing it would stop publishing the death toll or number of infections.
- Nearly one in five people in Iran may have been infected with coronavirus since the country’s outbreak, a health official said. This meant the virus was “much less lethal than we or the world had anticipated”, said Ehsan Mostafavi, a member of the taskforce set up to combat Covid-19.
- Face masks will remain compulsory in all public spaces even after Spain’s Covid-19 state of emergency ends on 22 June. “The message is one of prudence and caution,” said the government spokeswoman, María Jesús Montero. “Until there is a vaccine or a treatment, the virus remains a threat. We can’t think that the danger has gone.”
- Fifty-two Cuban medics who flew to Italy to help doctors treat Europe’s first mass coronavirus outbreak returned home to a heroes’ welcome. The medical brigade, comprising 36 doctors, 15 nurses and a logistics specialist, arrived in Milan on 22 March and were the first ever to be deployed to a European country.
- Up to 600 deaths in Kano, northern Nigeria, most within a single week in April, were caused by an undetected outbreak of Covid-19, officials said. Government investigations, which began after reports of hundreds of deaths caused alarm in Nigeria’s second largest city, linked 50-60% of 979 “mysterious” deaths to the virus.
- Spain is not discussing any travel corridor with Britain, a Spanish foreign ministry source has said, after a UK tourism lobby group said corridors allowing unrestricted movement with a number of countries would open from 29 June. Spain is discussing with other European Union countries whether and how to allow tourism from Britain and other states, the source told Reuters.
- German exports and imports slumped in April, posting their biggest declines since 1990 as the coronavirus crisis slashed demand and adding to a gloomy outlook for Europe’s biggest economy.
- China’s education ministry has warned that Chinese students should consider whether to study in Australia because of a string of “incidents of discrimination” targeting people of Asian descent.
- Indonesia has reported its biggest daily rise in Covid-19 infections. The country’s health ministry recorded 1,043 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing its total to 33,076. There were also 40 new deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 1,923.
- Coronavirus may have been present and spreading in Wuhan as early as August last year, according to a study that analysed satellite imagery of car parks outside major hospitals and search engine data.
Pakistan should implement intermittent lockdowns to counter a surge in infections, the World Health Organization has advised. The increase has come as the country was loosening restrictions, Agence France-Press (AFP) reported.
Since the start of Pakistan’s outbreak in March, the prime minister Imran Khan has opposed a nationwide lockdown, arguing the impoverished country cannot not afford it. Instead, Pakistan’s four provinces ordered a patchwork of closures. But, last week, Khan said most of these restrictions would be lifted.
That decision came as Pakistan’s infection rate was worsening, as it is across all of South Asia, which had been less severely affected than many other regions of the globe.
Brazil has suffered 1,272 more deaths and registered 32,091 new cases, its health ministry has said.
The country has confirmed a total of 739,503 cases – the second highest level of contagion after the United States – and 38,406 deaths – the third highest national toll in the world.
In England, zoos, safari parks and drive-in cinemas will be allowed to reopen in England from 15 June, as the UK’s prime minister announces the latest easing of the country’s lockdown measures.
Boris Johnson will update the nation on Wednesday as he tries to reopen the economy while minimising the rate of transmission and strident criticism from many, who believe his government’s preparations have been inadequate.
Under pressure from zoos warning they face an exponential threat, Johnson will say they can reopen next week as long as they can uphold social-distancing rules.
He will also announce the easing of restrictions on outdoor attractions where people remain in their cars, such as safari parks and drive-in cinemas, because the risk of spreading the disease is lower outside.
Updated
Brazil has restored detailed Covid-19 data to the official national website, Reuters reports, following a scandal about the removal of cumulative totals and a ruling by a Supreme Court justice that the full set of information be reinstated.
Here’s a little more detail from the discussions global health officials are holding on Mexico’s response to its epidemic.
The officials, from both the World Health Organization (WHO) and its Americas’ arm PAHO, have said physical distancing should continue until a vaccine is made available. They stressed that more testing is needed in Mexico before further economic reopening and that street protests could cause a spike of new cases.
Mexico, where total confirmed cases exceed 120,000 and the death toll stands at about 14,000, began a gradual re-opening of the economy at the start of June.
Morocco will start easing restrictions, though a full lifting of the state of emergency will be delayed until 10 July, Rabat has said.
The country has been on lockdown since 20 March. The gradual relaxation will take into account disparities in the infection rate between Moroccan regions, the government added.
The prime minister Saad Dine El Otmani is expected to brief the parliament on the next steps on Wednesday.
Morocco has confirmed 8,437 cases, including 210 deaths, as the rise of hot spots within factories and families complicates efforts to curb contagion.
Summary
Here are the latest developments:
- The World Health Organization’s Covid-19 technical lead backtracked on her comment that asymptomatic transmission of the virus was “very rare”. “I think that it’s a misunderstanding to state the asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare,” Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said, noting modelling suggesting 40% of infections could be transmitted by people without symptoms.
- There have been sharp rises in reports of violence against women across Latin America, already a hotspot for gender-based violence, since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the International Rescue Committee has said. Meghan Lopez, the IRC’s regional director for Latin America, said some women and girls were stuck with perpetrators 24 hours a day.
-
The world faces a food crisis worse than any seen for at least 50 years, the UN has warned. Social protections for poor people are urgently needed as the looming recession following the Covid-19 pandemic may put basic nutrition out of reach.
- A supreme court judge in Brazil has ordered Jair Bolsonaro’s administration to resume publishing complete Covid-19 statistics. His government sparked outrage on Saturday by purging the health ministry website of data on to pandemic and announcing it would stop publishing the death toll or number of infections.
- Nearly one in five people in Iran may have been infected with coronavirus since the country’s outbreak, a health official said. This meant the virus was “much less lethal than we or the world had anticipated”, said Ehsan Mostafavi, a member of the taskforce set up to combat Covid-19.
- Face masks will remain compulsory in all public spaces even after Spain’s Covid-19 state of emergency ends on 22 June. “The message is one of prudence and caution,” said the government spokeswoman, María Jesús Montero. “Until there is a vaccine or a treatment, the virus remains a threat. We can’t think that the danger has gone.”
- Fifty-two Cuban medics who flew to Italy to help doctors treat Europe’s first mass coronavirus outbreak returned home to a heroes’ welcome. The medical brigade, comprising 36 doctors, 15 nurses and a logistics specialist, arrived in Milan on 22 March and were the first ever to be deployed to a European country.
- Up to 600 deaths in Kano, northern Nigeria, most within a single week in April, were caused by an undetected outbreak of Covid-19, officials said. Government investigations, which began after reports of hundreds of deaths caused alarm in Nigeria’s second largest city, linked 50-60% of 979 “mysterious” deaths to the virus.
- Spain is not discussing any travel corridor with Britain, a Spanish foreign ministry source has said, after a UK tourism lobby group said corridors allowing unrestricted movement with a number of countries would open from 29 June. Spain is discussing with other European Union countries whether and how to allow tourism from Britain and other states, the source told Reuters.
- German exports and imports slumped in April, posting their biggest declines since 1990 as the coronavirus crisis slashed demand and adding to a gloomy outlook for Europe’s biggest economy.
- China’s education ministry has warned that Chinese students should consider whether to study in Australia because of a string of “incidents of discrimination” targeting people of Asian descent.
- Indonesia has reported its biggest daily rise in Covid-19 infections. The country’s health ministry recorded 1,043 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing its total to 33,076. There were also 40 new deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 1,923.
- Coronavirus may have been present and spreading in Wuhan as early as August last year, according to a study that analysed satellite imagery of car parks outside major hospitals and search engine data.
The epidemic in Mexico is advancing toward its peak level of infections, the World Health Organization’s representative in the country Cristian Morales has warned. Morales described the response of the Mexican government as positive.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 550 more deaths and 17,598 new cases, taking the respective totals in the country to 110,925 and 1,956,421.
The leaders of six European Union nations have called for building up EU stocks of critical medicines and equipment and other measures to boost the bloc’s long-term resilience to public health crises.
The 27-nation EU and Britain have reported some 1.4m cases, or about a fifth of the global total. At the height of the crisis, many EU states resorted to protectionist measures, raising trade barriers to hinder the export of medical equipment to their neighbours.
In a joint paper sent to European commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday, the leaders of Denmark, Spain and Germany, as well as France, Belgium and Poland, backed proposals for shared research and development of vaccines and treatment.
A broader, holistic EU strategy could be more efficient than each member state attempting to enhance preparedness on their own.
Portugal’s government expects a deficit equal to 6.3% of GDP in 2020 because of the pandemic, budget secretary of state João Leão has said, foreshadowing a painful setback after the country had its first budget surplus in 45 years at the end of 2019.
The pandemic dented a €4.4bn (£3.91bn) hole in public revenues, amounting to 5% of the state budget, Leão said, largely due to a fall in tax and social security payments. Government spending was €4.3bn higher than predicted, Leão added.
Brazil’s most populous state São Paulo has registered a record daily death toll. The state reported 334 additional deaths, taking its total to 9,522. The total number of confirmed cases has reached 150,138.
Summary
Here are the latest developments in the world coronavirus outbreak so far on Tuesday:
- The World Health Organization’s Covid-19 technical lead backtracked on her comment that asymptomatic transmission of the virus was “very rare”. “I think that it’s a misunderstanding to state the asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare,” Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said, noting modelling suggesting 40% of infections could be transmitted by people without symptoms.
- There have been sharp rises in reports of violence against women across Latin America, already a hotspot for gender-based violence, since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the International Rescue Committee has said. Meghan Lopez, the IRC’s regional director for Latin America, said some women and girls were stuck with perpetrators 24 hours a day.
-
The world faces a food crisis worse than any seen for at least 50 years, the UN has warned. Social protections for poor people are urgently needed as the looming recession following the Covid-19 pandemic may put basic nutrition out of reach.
- A supreme court judge in Brazil has ordered Jair Bolsonaro’s administration to resume publishing complete Covid-19 statistics. His government sparked outrage on Saturday by purging the health ministry website of data on to pandemic and announcing it would stop publishing the death toll or number of infections.
- Nearly one in five people in Iran may have been infected with coronavirus since the country’s outbreak, a health official said. This meant the virus was “much less lethal than we or the world had anticipated”, said Ehsan Mostafavi, a member of the taskforce set up to combat Covid-19.
- Face masks will remain compulsory in all public spaces even after Spain’s Covid-19 state of emergency ends on 22 June. “The message is one of prudence and caution,” said the government spokeswoman, María Jesús Montero. “Until there is a vaccine or a treatment, the virus remains a threat. We can’t think that the danger has gone.”
- Fifty-two Cuban medics who flew to Italy to help doctors treat Europe’s first mass coronavirus outbreak returned home to a heroes’ welcome. The medical brigade, comprising 36 doctors, 15 nurses and a logistics specialist, arrived in Milan on 22 March and were the first ever to be deployed to a European country.
- Up to 600 deaths in Kano, northern Nigeria, most within a single week in April, were caused by an undetected outbreak of Covid-19, officials said. Government investigations, which began after reports of hundreds of deaths caused alarm in Nigeria’s second largest city, linked 50-60% of 979 “mysterious” deaths to the virus.
- Spain is not discussing any travel corridor with Britain, a Spanish foreign ministry source has said, after a UK tourism lobby group said corridors allowing unrestricted movement with a number of countries would open from 29 June. Spain is discussing with other European Union countries whether and how to allow tourism from Britain and other states, the source told Reuters.
- German exports and imports slumped in April, posting their biggest declines since 1990 as the coronavirus crisis slashed demand and adding to a gloomy outlook for Europe’s biggest economy.
- China’s education ministry has warned that Chinese students should consider whether to study in Australia because of a string of “incidents of discrimination” targeting people of Asian descent.
- Indonesia has reported its biggest daily rise in Covid-19 infections. The country’s health ministry recorded 1,043 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing its total to 33,076. There were also 40 new deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 1,923.
- Coronavirus may have been present and spreading in Wuhan as early as August last year, according to a study that analysed satellite imagery of car parks outside major hospitals and search engine data.
Germany plans to extend its travel warnings for non-European countries until 31 August, government sources have told the Reuters news agency, adding that Berlin was also strongly advising against any cruises due to the special risks related to the pandemic.
A demonstrator in the Democratic Republic of Congo died during a protest against the closure of the capital city’s main market during the country’s lockdown, officials and witnesses have said.
Police fired warning shots at dozens of people who gathered at the site to demand the reopening of the Kinshasa market, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Several demonstrators said the dead man was hit by a bullet, while the city’s governorate said he was “electrocuted” while running away. It promised a “meticulous inquiry”.
Demonstrators stood their ground behind barriers that have cut off the Gombe area housing the market since early April as part of the fight against the spread of the virus.
Belise Okonda, a governorate spokesperson, denied rumours the market was being knocked down. In a letter seen by AFP, the interior minister Gilbert Kankonde ordered the Kinshasha governor Gentiny Ngobila to reopen the market.
However, the governor first wants work undertaken by the city authorities to improve health and sanitation at the market before any reopening.
Modelling studies estimate that up to 40% of coronavirus infections could be transmitted by people who have the virus but no symptoms, a World Health Organization expert has acknowledged after her comment on Monday that asymptomatic transmission was “very rare” caused a stir, Sarah Boseley, the Guardian’s health editor reports.
But Dr Maria Van Kerkhove maintained that real world data suggested it could still be a rare event when she took part in a social media Q&A to explain herself, saying she was not referencing the modelling studies when she spoke.
Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said that on asymptomatic transmission “we don’t have the answer yet”. Her comment at the WHO’s Monday press briefing about its rarity was based on two or three studies following up the contacts of asymptomatic people, and unpublished data shared by countries or experts with her organisation.
“I used the phrase ‘very rare’ and I think that it’s a misunderstanding to state the asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare. What I was referring to was a subset of studies. I was also referring to some data that isn’t published,” she said.
She said she did not mention the estimates of up to 40% because “those are from models”.
Sweden has reported its lowest daily number of new cases of coronavirus since March, after just 202 more people were recorded as testing positive for the virus.
According to the public health agency, 45,924 people in the country have so far tested positive for the virus which causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease. The death toll reached 4,717, after a further 23 deaths were recorded on Tuesday.
The latest figures from Sweden, which has chosen not to implement a coronavirus lockdown in favour of non-compulsory public health advice, came as several German states introduced a requirement for travellers arriving from the country to self-quarantine for 14 days, the Associated Press reports.
Germany had a quarantine requirement for most people arriving from abroad for over a month until mid-May, when state governments started exempting people coming from European countries.
But several states are now reintroducing the requirement for arrivals from Sweden, on the grounds that new infections there have exceeded 50 per 100,000 residents over seven days. Inside Germany, that level of infections in a region is supposed to trigger action by local authorities.
Bavaria on Tuesday followed three northern states — Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lower Saxony — in imposing the quarantine.
Reported infection rates in Sweden have risen slightly recently because testing rules have changed slightly, allowing new groups of people to be tested.
Aid organisations have slammed a decision by the Greek government to keep migrants and refugees in prolonged lockdown when restrictions on public movement have otherwise been greatly eased nationwide, writes Helena Smith, the Guardian’s Athens correspondent.
Medecins Sans Frontiers described the move as discriminatory and unfair saying it would exacerbate already diminished access to basic services and medical care in vastly overcrowded camps.
“It is absolutely not justified from a public health point of view,” said Marco Sandrone, the group’s field coordinator on Lesbos, the Aegean isle long home to Europe’s largest refugee camp.
“These discriminatory measures stigmatise and marginalise asylum seekers, refugees and migrants,” he added emphasising there were no confirmed coronavirus cases in any of the island installations that could pose a risk to locals.
Athens’ centre right government says precautionary measures to stem the spread of coronavirus will continue to apply in reception centres hosting asylum seekers until 21 June.
Some 34,000 men, women and children are currently living in holding facilities designed for no more than 5,400 people on five Aegean islands facing the Turkish coast. Some 32 camps and dozens of hotels house an estimated 70,000 migrants and refugees on the mainland. All have been under strict lockdown since March 23 following multiple extensions of the restrictions.
Greeks, in contrast, began to emerge from lockdown in early May.
Despite the criticism, Manos Logothetis, the migration ministry’s general secretary in charge of asylum seekers’ reception, defended the decision and strenuously denied any racist intent.
“The extension is there to protect them,” he told the Guardian explaining that with the policies still in place only 10% in any facility would be free to circulate at any one time.
“We are talking about populations living in very closed quarters. We are doing this to protect them from Greeks who are now moving around so extensively. In the same vein we are not allowing anyone, bar essential staff, into the facilities. It is precisely such measures that have saved them from coronavirus.”
But reports of violence between feuding ethnic groups and increased cases of abuse have been directly attributed to prolonged incarceration in the facilities.
“Public health measures should protect people especially [those] at high risk like the elderly and patients with chronic diseases,” said Sandone. “They should not trap them in overcrowded camps with limited access to water and sanitation and where preventative measures are just impossible to apply.”
The chief prosecutor in Paris has begun an investigation into alleged criminal negligence by French government agencies over their handling of the coronavirus crisis, the Associated Press reports.
In a written statement on Tuesday, the Paris prosecutor, Remy Heitz, said 62 legal complaints alleging misconduct have been filed by individuals as well as trade unions and associations.
Heitz said the complaints focus on the criminal offences of “endangering the life of others, failing to help someone in danger, voluntary abstention to fight a dangerous disaster, manslaughter and unintentional injuries.”
Some other legal complaints have been filed across France against care homes and are being investigated locally.
France has recorded the deaths of over 14,000 care home residents, or nearly half of the country’s total reported pandemic death toll of 29,209.
More than 70 complaints specifically targeting the government have been filed before the Court of Justice of the Republic, the French court in charge of offences committed by sitting ministers.
Reports of violence against women rise in Latin America
There have been sharp rises in reports of violence against women across Latin America, already a hotspot for gender-based violence, since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the International Rescue Committee has said.
In El Salvador there was a 70% increase in reports compared to 2019; Mexico’s Chihuahua state has recorded a 65% increase in femicides between March and April; in Colombia there was a 51% increase in cases of domestic violence during the first days of quarantine; in Venezuela there was a 65% increase in femicides in April compared to a year earlier; and in Honduras the number of reported cases of domestic and intra-family violence increased by 4.1% per week since the start of the pandemic.
Meghan Lopez, the IRC’s regional director for Latin America, said:
In the wake of Covid-19, women and adolescent girls, many of whom were already experiencing forms of violence, are now taking on double and triple responsibilities all in confined spaces 24 hours of the day, some completely stuck with their perpetrators and in increasingly vulnerable situations, without any respite.
This, coupled with services closed due to quarantine and lockdown - 95% of local and government response services are closed in El Salvador, for example - puts women and girls at high risk of serious harm or death.
Greater funding to support efforts - such as the IRC’s Women’s Protection and Empowerment efforts from Mexico to Northern Central America to Venezuela - will ensure women and girls who are experiencing GBV have accessible and safe response services they need during this crisis through psychosocial support and that they have information on the proper referral pathways for shelter and clinical care for gender-based violence.
World faces worst food crisis in 50 years - UN
The world stands on the brink of a food crisis worse than any seen for at least 50 years, the UN has warned as it urged governments to act swiftly to avoid disaster, writes Fiona Harvey, the Guardian’s environment correspondent.
Better social protections for poor people are urgently needed as the looming recession following the coronavirus pandemic may put basic nutrition beyond their reach, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said on Tuesday.
“Unless immediate action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food emergency that could have long-term impacts on hundreds of millions of children and adults,” he said. “We need to act now to avoid the worst impacts of our efforts to control the pandemic.”
Although harvests of staple crops are holding up, and the export bans and protectionism that experts feared have so far been largely avoided, the worst of the impacts of the pandemic and ensuing recession are yet to be felt. Guterres warned: “Even in countries with abundant food, we see risks of disruption in the food supply chain.”
About 50 million people risk falling into extreme poverty this year owing to the pandemic, but the long-term effects will be even worse, as poor nutrition in childhood causes lifelong suffering. Already, one in five children around the world are stunted in their growth by the age of five, and millions more are likely to suffer the same fate if poverty rates soar.
Harry Venning’s weekly Clare in the community cartoon tackles the difficulties faced by comic strip artists in the era of social distancing.
The Eiffel Tower, symbol of the French capital and one of the most visited monuments in the world, is to reopen to visitors on 25 June, it was announced on Tuesday, writes Kim Willsher, the Guardian’s Paris correspondent.
The landmark, known as La Dame de Fer (the Iron Lady), has been shut for more than three months following France’s strict coronavirus lockdown, its longest closure since World War II. The number of visitors will be limited and all those over the age of 11 will be required to wear masks.
To ensure appropriate social distancing people will only be able to use the stairs that go up to the second floor and no higher. Ascending and descending visitors will use separate stairways and areas open to the public will be cleaned and disinfected regularly.
The reopening of the Eiffel Tower is a symbolic boost for Parisians who, unlike the rest of the country, remain under certain lockdown restrictions. Its operators say visitors are “strongly encouraged” to buy tickets online before visiting. The booking site is currently closed but is expected to reopen soon.
Updated
WHO Covid-19 lead clarifies asymptomatic transmission comments
The World Health Organization’s technical lead for Covid-19, to say asymptomatic transmission is rare globally., has clarified comments she made about the transmission of the coronavirus, saying that the the amount of transmission from people with no symptoms is unknown.
There had been concern from some experts after Kerkhove said in a press briefing on Monday that transmission of coronavirus by people with no symptoms is “very rare”. They said this guidance could pose problems for governments as they seek to lift lockdowns. In Brazil, the president, Jair Bolsonaro, a coronavirus sceptic, seized on Kerkhove’s comments as proof his country should be reopening for business.
On Tuesday, Kerkhove said it was a “misunderstanding” to say asymptomatic transmission is rare globally.
She said that modelling studies has come up with a range of estimates, from 6% of the population infected by asymptomatic individuals to 40%, with a median of 16%, reports the Guardian’s health editor, Sarah Boseley.
But, she said, the very few studies - two or three - where real asymptomatic people have been followed to find out whether they infect others, for instance in outbreak or cluster situations, have found such transmission to be very rare.
Those studies have not been published but have been shared with WHO by scientists.
Undoubtedly some people are asymptomatic - although others might have mild symptoms not identified as Covid. But the big question is whether they actually transmit the virus when they do not have symptoms - so they are not for instance coughing infected droplets into the air.
Updated
Singapore has announced its lowest number of new daily cases of coronavirus since 11 April
According to the health ministry, on Tuesday there were 218 more cases of coronavirus, with the majority, again, found among the low-paid migrant workers who perform the city state’s basic economic functions.
Singapore has so far recorded 38,514 confirmed cases of coronavirus, one of the highest caseloads in south east Asia, but just 25 deaths from Covid-19.
As of 9 June 2020, 12pm, we have confirmed and verified an additional 218 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. Breakdown: 0 imported, 6 cases in the community & 212 cases residing in dorms. https://t.co/14lApkFJ1R
— Ministry of Health (@sporeMOH) June 9, 2020
A briefing by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on the coronavirus situation in the Americas is about to begin.
Carissa Etienne, director of PAHO and WHO regional director for the Americas, will lead the session on the fast changing Covid-19 situation on the region, and health authorities’ responses to the pandemic.
The Americas are currently regarded as the world’s coronavirus hotspot.
You can tune into the live stream of the briefing in the player at the top of the blog.
A supreme court judge in Brazil has ordered Jair Bolsonaro’s administration to resume publishing complete Covid-19 statistics after moves to suppress such information prompted accusations of authoritarian skulduggery designed to cover up the crisis, write Tom Phillips and Caio Barreto Bristo in Rio De Janeiro.
The Brazilian government sparked outrage on Saturday by purging the health ministry website of historical data relating to the pandemic and announcing it would stop publishing the cumulative death toll or number of infections.
Officials claimed the changes would help “refine” official coronavirus data. But critics attacked what they called an illiberal ruse to conceal the severity of the pandemic’s impact in Brazil, where more than 37,000 lives have been lost.
Some drew parallels with the suppression of information in authoritarian countries such as North Korea and Venezuela while others recalled how Brazil’s own military regime had covered up a meningitis epidemic in the 1970s, with devastating consequences.
On Monday night, supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes reportedly gave Bolsonaro’s administration a 48-hour deadline to begin releasing the full figures again each day, after a legal challenge from two opposition parties.
The epidemiological curve of the coronavirus epidemic is rising in many regions of Kenya, the country’s health secretary has said.
In a briefing on the crisis on Tuesday, Rashid Aman said that it was likely that the country would record increasing numbers of cases, with more people needing hospital care.
Kenya’s ministry of health recorded 127 more confirmed cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, out of a total 2,247 tests, he said. So far, 2,989 people in the country have been diagnosed as carrying the virus, with 873 having made a full recovery.
Today, we have recorded 127 positives from a test pool of 2,247 samples. This brings the total number of confirmed positive cases to 2,989, from 100,683 samples tested so far, and the cumulative number of recoveries is 873.#KomeshaCorona update; CAS Dr. Rashid Aman.
— Ministry of Health (@MOH_Kenya) June 9, 2020
Aman said:
According to the experts, our epidemiological curve is rising sharply in many regions, implying that, going forward, we are likely to record increasing numbers of positives and more people requiring clinical management.
We have no choice, but to work together, share resources, and deploy the proven strategies, that we have learnt along the way, which is the way out.
The European Union’s health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, says the health emergency provoked by the pandemic has made one thing very clear: Europe needs a stronger public health system, writes Helena Smith, the Guardian’s Athens correspondent.
Speaking via teleconference at this year’s Delphi Economic Forum, the EU health chief said it was vital the continent emerged “wiser” from the crisis.
“The pandemic is not over. Public health is our basic priority, we can’t relax measures and risk what we have achieved so far,” said Kyriakides, a Greek Cypriot.
“Europe needs a better public health system. European citizens expect us to take a more active role in this issue.”
The European Commission says it will increase expenditure on health dramatically announcing that the €413 million allocated to the sector in the bloc’s current seven-year budget will be boosted more than 20-fold, to €9.4 billion, in the next.
The massive rise, which covers a coronavirus recovery fund, is aimed specifically at assisting member states tackle future health emergencies. Funding for doctors who will fly between participant countries at times of crisis is also included.
Kyriakides said Brussels’ priority now was to find a vaccine against coronavirus that would be accessible to all. The EU had already collected 9.8 billion euro for that purpose while the European investment bank had earmarked 75 million euro for research. “The vaccine is our basic priority,” said the health commissioner adding that from day one she had been in contact with pharmaceutical companies working on finding an effective treatment.
Although the novel virus had highlighted the bloc’s weaknesses it had also helped bring its better characteristics to the surface including solidarity, support and collectivity, the health commissioner told the annual forum which pre-coronavirus has taken place since 2015 in Delphi, home of the ancient oracle.
Updated
Nearly one in five people in Iran may have been infected with coronavirus since the country’s outbreak, AFP reports citing a health official.
“According to results (of studies) about 15 million Iranians may have experienced being infected with this virus since the outbreak began,” said Ehsan Mostafavi, a member of the taskforce set up to combat Covid-19.
This meant the virus was “much less lethal than we or the world had anticipated”, the semi-official ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.
The figure represents 18.75% of the more than 80 million population of Iran, which on Tuesday announced a further 74 deaths from the coronavirus.
Mostafavi said the 15m figure “must be viewed with caution” and that the studies it resulted from are “somehow similar to others done in the rest of the world”.
Mostafavi said it was derived from serology tests to identify antibodies in patients who have recovered from the illness. These differ from polymerise chain reaction (PCR) tests, which detect the presence of an antigen.
Iran says it has carried out more than 1m PCR tests to “confirm” infections and report them so far.
Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said 74 new coronavirus fatalities in the past 12 hours had raised the overall death toll to 8,425.
Cases of infection increased by 2,095 over the same period to total 175,927, she added.
Updated
French government faces investigation into its handling of the outbreak
The chief prosecutor of Paris said on Tuesday it had launched an investigation into the French state’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, with possible charges including “involuntary homicide” and “endangering life”, AFP reports.
Remy Heitz said the investigation, which comes after complaints were filed by civil groups and members of the public, was not aimed at determining “political or administrative responsibility”. But he said it would decide whether national decision-makers had committed “possible criminal offences”.
President Emmanuel Macron, as head of state, has immunity from prosecution and is not a target of the inquiry, nor are government ministers who can be held accountable only by the Republican court of justice, an administrative tribunal, which has itself received 80 complaints, Heitz said.
The complaints relate to the alleged failure to put in place anti-virus protections at the workplace, to provide face masks to reduce infection, and to roll out testing to diagnose carriers of a virus that has claimed more than 29,000 lives in France.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has jurisdiction over issues of national public health, and over crimes allegedly committed within the borders of the city, where most of the state authorities targeted by Heitz’s inquiry are based.
They include Jerome Salomon, head of the Sante Publique France health agency, who has gained prominence with his nightly summaries of the virus’s toll at the height of the outbreak.
His agency will also be a focus of the inquiry, as is the health ministry and the national prison administration.
Care homes, many of which are privately operated, are not part of the investigation.
Heitz said the investigation arose from complaints lodged by associations, labour unions and individuals.
Possible charges of involuntary homicide, involuntary injury, endangering life, failure to combat a threat and non-assistance to persons in danger are being examined by a branch of the prosecutor’s office dedicated to alleged threats to public health.
“If there is criminal wrongdoing, it will probably have been – it’s a hypothesis - unintentional,” Heitz said.
Updated
Many shops and restaurants are still deserted as India begins emerging from lockdown this week.
Radha Dhongre, an economist, described going out for a coffee with her daughter on Monday in Khan Market in New Delhi, the Indian capital, the day the lockdown was eased as an experiment. Her trip was motivated by curiosity and a desire to see if it was feasible.
“I’m glad we went but we aren’t doing it again for some time. It was too much for the nerves. We felt quite drained by the tension,” said Dhongre.
It’s a view being echoed over large parts of India as the country emerges from its two-and-a-half month lockdown. Banks, shopping malls, cafes, and restaurants were still mostly deserted, with only a handful of customers. Many Indians prefer the security of the lockdown to the perils of venturing out.
Spain: facemasks to remain compulsory in public places
Facemasks will remain compulsory in all public spaces even after Spain’s Covid-19 state of emergency ends on 22 June, the government has announced, as it urged Spaniards to “to live alongside the virus”.
The announcement came as the Socialist-led coalition laid out its plans for the return to what it terms “the new normality” but insisted that there was no room for complacency amid Spain’s staggered lockdown exit.
“The message is one of prudence and caution,” the finance minister and government spokeswoman, María Jesús Montero, said on Tuesday.
“Until there is a vaccine or a treatment, the virus remains a threat. We can’t think that the danger has gone.”
The health minister, Salvador Illa, said people would “have to learn to live alongside the virus”, adding that masks remain compulsory in situations where people cannot keep a 1.5m-distance from each other.
Masks will need to continue to be worn on public streets, in the open air and in enclosed public spaces as well as on public transport. Anyone not wearing a mask without a valid reason will be subject to a €100 fine.
According to the royal decree approved by the cabinet on Tuesday morning, Spain’s 17 regional governments will need to keep providing figures on deaths, diagnoses and hospitalisations so that the pandemic can be monitored.
Regional governments will have to have contingency plans and enough healthworkers to deal with any further outbreaks, and also ensure that anyone suspected of having the virus is given a PCR or other test as soon as possible.
Carehomes – which have been very hard hit in Spain, as elsewhere – must also prepare themselves and draw up contingency plans for residents and staff.
The government said workplaces, restaurants and shops would need to adopt hygiene and prevention measures such as organising shifts to avoid large groups of people gathering in one place.
Updated
Mexico is still weeks away from its peak of coronavirus infections and deaths, the deputy health minister, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, has warned.
Speaking at a regular news conference, he said:
We still haven’t reached maximum point. For several more weeks, we will keep announcing there are more cases today than yesterday.
Earlier, Lopez-Gatell announced 2,999 new infections and 354 new deaths. Coronavirus has claimed the lives of more 14,000 people in Mexico, making it the seventh worst-hit country in the world.
The is Matthew Weaver taking over the blog to allow Damien to take a break.
Food insecurity is deepening in North Korea after it closed the border with China and took other steps against Covid-19, a UN rights expert said Tuesday.
The country, which has yet to confirm a single case of the novel coronavirus, has introduced a range of other measures to try and prevent an outbreak, including strict quarantine measures, restricted travel between cities, and the total closure of its borders.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the country, called for urgent action from Pyongyang and the international community to relieve the suffering. On food insecurity, the rapporteur said:
Under the pervasive discrimination in the public distribution system, ordinary citizens, including farmers, do not receive rations. Lack of food had a devastating impact in DPRK in the 1990s, and prospects of a further deepening of food shortages and widespread food insecurity is alarming. The Government must take swift action on this matter by prioritising allocations of financial resources and allowing the humanitarian aid to be delivered on the ground without restrictions
Before the coronavirus crisis, more than 40% of people in North Korea were already considered food insecure, with many suffering malnutrition.
The decision five months ago to close the border with China, and putting thousands into isolation, are exacerbating the situation, said Quintana - an independent expert who does not speak on behalf of the UN but who reports his findings to it.
North Korea’s trade with China in March and April this year dropped by more than 90 percent, leaving many living in the border areas with no income, he said.
The expert pointed to reports that soldiers were also reportedly suffering from food shortages, and voiced concern over the situation in prisons, particularly in secret prison camps. Pointing to accounts of prisoners frequently dying due to exhaustive work, lack of food, overcrowding and contagious diseases, he urged Pyongyang to consider releasing vulnerable prisoners.
Quintana also warned of the impact of the punishing international sanctions imposed on North Korea.
In a context where the Covid-19 is bringing drastic economic hardship worldwide, any sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council that impact on the livelihood of people and hinder the Government’s capacity to respond to Covid-19 should be sincerely reconsidered.
The international community, in particular some permanent members of the Security Council, should no longer rest on the paradox of sanctioning inputs needed to increase food production, while then offering food relief. Any gains from lifting of sanctions should be channeled towards the most vulnerable, including by strengthening the right to food and to health.
Domestic flights have resumed in Indonesia - as the country announced its biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases.
The transport minister, Budi Karya Sumadi, said new regulations for air travel, allowing planes to operate at only 70% capacity, among other strict rules, followed talks between airlines, the Covid-19 task force, and the health ministry.
“Transportation management in the era of the new normal hinges on health aspects,” Sumadi told an online news conference, according to Reuters. “We hope that people stay productive, but safe.”
Flights have been restricted in Indonesia in response to the pandemic, but in recent weeks migrant workers returning home and those travelling for work in exempt sectors, such as health and security, have been allowed to fly.
The Indonesian capital began easing social restrictions last week, even though coronavirus cases continue to rise across the world’s fourth most populous nation.
Indonesia has recorded 33,076 positive coronavirus infections and 1,923 deaths from Covid-19. On Tuesday, it announced 1,043 new cases, the highest daily increase so far.
The Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has seized on a comment from a World Health Organization official that transmission of coronavirus by people with no symptoms could be “rare” as proof his country should be reopening for business, writes Tom Phillips, the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent.
Brazil has the second highest number of infections after the US and is set to overtake the UK this week as the country with the second highest number of deaths.
But during a cabinet session on Tuesday morning, Bolsonaro, who has downplayed the risks of coronavirus and opposed efforts to impose shutdowns, said he hoped the statement from WHO official Maria van Kerkhove would “cut short this policy of stay at home and absolute isolation and even lockdown”.
Bolsonaro insisted this was necessary “so the ills [caused by such measures] are not worse … than the treatment for the pandemic”.
The Brazilian leader criticised how many people in Brazil had followed the WHO “almost blindly” and said it was time for South America’s largest economy to get back to business.
“What we most want is to get back to normal and for the country to retake the path of prosperity,” Bolsonaro said.
Bolsonaro distorted the WHO’s official’s controversial comment that symptomatic carriers appeared less likely to pass on the illness.
During the televised meeting at his official residence, Bolsonaro falsely suggested the WHO had issued a categorical statement making clear “that asymptomatic did not transmit” the virus.
Bolsonaro said he hoped coronavirus “panic” might now start to fade because of the WHO’s supposed claim over the “non-transmission, or near zero-transmission” of carriers without symptoms.
Updated
As the number of cases of coronavirus continue to rise rapidly in South Africa, health officials are warning the outbreak may last between one and two years, writes Jason Burke, the Guardian’s Africa correspondent.
There are more than 50,000 confirmed cases in Africa’s most industrialised nation, with 1,080 deaths. These have been concentrated in and around the city of Cape Town, where more than 800 of the fatalities have occurred. More than 80% of the deaths nationwide have been people older than 50.
South Africa was widely praised for its early and strict lockdown, and rollout of testing and contact-tracing. But though nearly 1m tests have been carried out, the strategy has run into trouble with long delays before test results are known, a consequence of a global shortage in testing reagents.
The lockdown was lifted at the beginning of the month, with schools returning this week. Officials insist it bought valuable time to acquire PPE and build up field hospitals, though concerns remain that the number of critical care beds remains insufficient.
Updated
For weeks, the booze-soaked, coronavirus-themed parties had raged over the road from Ticyana Azambuja’s home in Rio de Janeiro, until finally she snapped.
She picked up a hammer, marched across the street and used it to smash the rear windshield and union jack-patterned wing mirror of a reveller’s car.
“I just wanted them to come out and listen to me. I’d pay to fix the car, but they needed to understand how ridiculous it was to be throwing those parties day and night … right in the middle of a pandemic,” the 35-year-old said.
Azambuja’s moment of fury was understandable, if illegal: an anaesthetist, she has spent the last three months battling to save lives on the frontline of Brazil’s fight against Covid-19 – even catching the disease herself.
On 30 May, the day she lost her cool, she had been trying to rest after a gruelling 24-hour shift at one of the three hospitals where she works.
The organisers of the bacchanalia showed no compassion.
Updated
There could soon be half a million cases of coronavirus in Delhi, the city’s authorities have warned, saying they expect transmission to increase almost 20-fold in the coming weeks.
Even as India eases its coronavirus lockdown, which has dealt a devastating economic blow, the virus is still spreading fast across the world’s second-most populous nation, with nearly 270,000 reported infections - the fifth-highest caseload in the world.
It has reported almost 10,000 new infections in the past 24 hours with crowded megacities like Mumbai and Delhi, the capital, the worst hit.
Manish Sisodia, Delhi’s deputy chief minister, said after a crisis meeting that authorities expected infections to soar to 550,000 by the end of July, up from almost 30,000 at present.
“There will be 44,000 cases by June 15, 100,000 by June 30, 225,000 by July 15, and we’ll need to prepare necessary infrastructure accordingly,” Sisodia was quoted as saying by the French news agency AFP.
He said the city of around 20 million people, where hospitals are already stretched and anecdotal evidence suggests crematoriums are struggling, needed 80,000 hospital beds.
Delhi’s health minister last week said that it had around 9,000 beds available for coronavirus patients.
Slovakia is to reopen its borders to 16 more European countries from 10 June and will no longer require people to wear face masks outside, the prime minister, Igor Matovic, has said.
From Wednesday, there will be no restrictions on visitors from Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
Slovakia last week reopened its borders with neighbours Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary.
Matovic also said that compulsory quarantine upon arrival from abroad will be dropped for countries on its safe list, and people will not have to activate “smart quarantine” on their mobile devices, Reuters reports.
Slovakia had imposed relatively strict restrictions including border closures before it reported any coronavirus cases, and has moved cautiously in reopening. “We are switching from bans to personal responsibility,” Matovic said at a televised news conference.
The country of 5.5 million people has recorded 1,531 cases of the Covid-19 illness, with 28 deaths.
Updated
Disease experts have questioned a statement by the World Health Organization that transmission of coronavirus by people with no symptoms is “very rare”, saying this guidance could pose problems for governments as they seek to lift lockdowns, Reuters reports.
Maria van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist and the WHO’s technical lead on the Covid-19 pandemic, said on Monday that many countries undertaking contact tracing had identified asymptomatic cases, but were not finding they caused further spread of the virus. “It is very rare,” she said.
“I was quite surprised by the WHO statement,” said Liam Smeeth, a professor of clinical epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who added that he had not seen the data Kerkhove’s statement was based on.
“It goes against my impressions from the science so far that suggest asymptomatic people – who never get symptoms – and pre-symptomatic people are an important source of infection to others.”
Smeeth and other experts said understanding the risks of transmission among people with mild or no symptoms is crucial as governments begin to ease the lockdown measures they imposed to try and reduce the pandemic’s spread and gradually replace them with case tracking and isolation plans.
“This has important implications for the track/trace/isolate measures being instituted in many countries,” said Babak Javid, a Cambridge University Hospitals infectious diseases consultant.
The co-head of Singapore’s coronavirus taskforce told Reuters on Monday there had been asymptomatic transmission cases there, between people living in close quarters. However, China said last week that 300 symptomless coronavirus carriers in its central city of Wuhan, the pandemic’s epicentre, had not been found to be infectious.
Keith Neal, a professor of the epidemiology of infectious diseases at Britain’s University of Nottingham, said that while the question of how big a role asymptomatic transmission plays in new infections is unclear, what is known is that people with symptoms are responsible for most of the spread of the disease.
“This reinforces the importance of any person who has any of the symptoms of Covid-19 arranges a test .… as soon as possible and isolating until they get their test result,” he said.
Updated
Hundreds more fatalities from Covid-19 in the north-west of England and in care homes have driven up the number of excess deaths since the UK went into lockdown to more than 63,000, a toll believed to be greater than those anywhere else except the US, writes Robert Booth, the Guardian’s social affairs correspondent, in London.
The number of deaths from the virus in England and Wales fell to 1,822 in the last week of May, the fewest for eight weeks, according to the latest data from the Office of National Statistics. But the numbers remain relatively high in the north-west, where there have been fears of a resurgence of the virus.
The region including Liverpool and Manchester recorded 282 deaths from the virus in England and Wales in the week ending 29 May, the most in any region.
Fifty-two Cuban medics who flew to Lombardy to help Italian doctors treat Europe’s first mass coronavirus outbreak have returned to a heroes’ welcome in Havana.
The medical brigade, comprising 36 doctors, 15 nurses and a logistics specialist, arrived in Milan on 22 March, when Italy had reported 53,578 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 4,825 related deaths.
As the death toll mounted in Italy, they worked with the health service in the region to care for seriously ill and dying patients – in spite of calls from the US for countries to refuse medical aid from the Caribbean’s communist state.
During the welcome ceremony on Monday, Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, denounced the US blockade of his country, as he pointed to the importance of international solidarity.
“We are winning the battle against the pandemic at a moment when another terrible pandemic of the US blockade and the economic war against the island have been tightened without mercy of the current US administration,” he was quoted as saying by China’s Xinhua news agency.
More than 3,300 Cuban doctors and nurses have joined medical brigades sent around the world to help treat coronavirus patients in 27 countries.
Updated
Undetected Covid-19 outbreak in Nigeria caused 600 deaths
As many as 600 deaths in Kano, northern Nigeria, most within a single week in April, were caused by an undetected outbreak of Covid-19, Nigeria’s health minister has revealed, writes Emmanuel Akinwotu, the Guardian’s West Africa correspondent.
Investigations by the government determined that 50-60% of 979 “mysterious” deaths were linked to the virus, Osagie Ehanire told a Covid-19 press briefing on Monday.
The investigation began after reports of hundreds of deaths sent alarm through Nigeria’s second largest city.
The government’s findings were determined through verbal autopsies as tests could not be conducted on those who died. Most were buried the following morning, according to religious practice in the majority Muslim city.
Nigeria’s official Covid-19 death toll of 361 has not been adjusted to account for the deaths in Kano and investigations in eight other states recording unexplained deaths are ongoing.
Nigeria took key steps early in their Covid-19 outbreak, and quickly leveraged virus response measures in place due to its history with Ebola and other virus outbreaks. Yet infections have steadily risen to 12,800, while 4,040 people have recovered. Just 78,000 tests have been conducted.
In Kano, community testing has begun in recent days. Yet despite the mass deaths, overcoming scepticism of the pandemic has remained an obstacle for health officials. A high profile scandal almost a decade ago when controversial drug trials were conducted by pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, still informs sensibilities in the city.
US hiding beneficiaries of $500bn Covid-19 corporate aid
Businesses have taken at least half a trillion dollars in coronavirus aid from the American public, and the US government is refusing to disclose which companies are getting the money, write Emily Holden and Daniel Strauss in Washington for the Guardian US.
The lack of oversight in the system for US lawmakers’ “paycheck protection program” makes the historic levels of spending ripe for abuse. The media and watchdogs cannot scrutinise the payments to ensure against waste, fraud or favours to political allies.
Eleven national news publications are suing for public records, yet little public attention has gone to the problem, as the government has scrambled to respond to a cratered economy and unemployment that has soared past 40m jobless claims.
“It’s absolutely mind-boggling that we’re in a situation where we’re shovelling so much money out to private businesses, and we don’t know where it’s going,” said Kyle Herrig, founder of the watchdog group Accountable.US.
Madrid denies claims it refused treatment for care home residents
Madrid’s regional government has denied reports that vulnerable people in care homes in and around the capital were deliberately denied hospital treatment in an attempt to stop the region’s health services collapsing at the height of the pandemic, writes Sam Jones, the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent.
Madrid has been the hardest-hit area of Spain. According to the regional government’s own figures, 14,910 people have died from the coronavirus, or while showing symptoms consistent with the illness. Of those, 6,007 were people in care homes.
Documents have emerged over recent days suggesting that the regional government had ordered that highly dependent elderly or disabled people with Covid-19 should not be taken to hospital.
The protocol had provoked divisions within the Madrid regional government, which is a coalition between the conservative People’s party (PP) and the centre-right Citizens party, backed by the far-right Vox party.
Alberto Reyero, the Citizens politician who serves as the government’s head of social policy, expressed concerns that the measures could lead to many residents dying in what he termed “undignified conditions”.
The government has insisted that the protocol was merely a “working document” that was never put into practice.
“No official protocol was signed saying that the life of one person was worth more than that of someone else because of their age or other reasons,” Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the regional president, told esRadio on Monday.
“We’ve fought for every life. Did we manage to get everywhere? Obviously not, but we’ve fought to and for me that’s the fundamental thing.”
Ayuso, who is responsible for health and social care in the region, has been fiercely critical of the central government’s handling of the health emergency, accusing it of “taking advantage of Spain’s biggest crisis in recent history to impose a single dictatorial command” through the continuing state of emergency.
The scale of the problem in Spanish care homes was laid bare in late March, when military units sent by the central government to disinfect the facilities found some people dead and abandoned in their beds.
Updated
Hi, this is Damien Gayle in the hot seat now, bringing you the latest headlines and updates from the coronavirus outbreak around the world. If you have any comments, tips or suggestions for coverage please do feel free to get in touch, either via email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.
I’ll now hand over to my colleague Damien Gayle, who will take you through the next few hours. Thanks a lot for your company so far today.
An official in Afghanistan has warned that the country’s actual number of Covid-19 infections is higher than the official figures state. Meanwhile the war-torn nation is facing a lack of compressed oxygen for an increasing number of patients, while the health ministry detected 542 new cases on Tuesday amid a continued surge of transmission in the capital and Herat.
Wahid Majroh, the deputy health minister, said on Monday that the ministry believes the actual number of infections is “higher than the official figures, because most people with the virus don’t go to the medical centres”.
Over the weekend, Kabul’s governor Mohammad Yakub Haidary warned that the actual number of infections may be much higher than official figures show, even “a million”.
Majroh also warned that the country will be facing a shortage of compressed oxygen for Covid-19 patients if numbers continue to surge.
“In the last two days, the Ali Jenah hospital and Afghan-Japan hospital were faced with a lack of oxygen for one or two hours,” Majroh said. “The ministry of public health has made all its efforts through oxygen-producing companies in Kabul to increase their capacity to maximum and purchase oxygen.”
A Kabul resident, who lost his young wife to the virus, told local television that he struggled to buy compressed oxygen for his wife. “There was no oxygen. We wanted to buy it with our own money. There is no management, there is no system,” he said.
Meanwhile, the health ministry has detected 542 new cases from 1,225 tests, according to the latest update, bringing the total number of infections to 21,459. Fifteen patients also died overnight, meaning the country’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 384. There have been 2,651 recoveries.
The ministry has tested 49,530 suspected patients, of whom around 44% were positive. Majroh pledged that 14 new testing labs would be launched in Afghanistan.
Most of the new cases were recorded in Kabul, with 213 new infections and eight deaths confirmed in the capital. Kabul is the country’s worst-affected area, with 8,436 and 81 deaths in total. The western province of Herat recorded 142 new confirmed cases.
Summary
Here is a rundown of key stories from the past few hours:
- German exports and imports slumped in April, posting their biggest declines since 1990 as the coronavirus crisis slashed demand and adding to a gloomy outlook for Europe’s biggest economy.
- China’s education ministry has warned that Chinese students should consider whether to study in Australia because of a string of “incidents of discrimination” targeting people of Asian descent.
- Indonesia has reported its biggest daily rise in Covid-19 infections. The country’s health ministry recorded 1,043 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing its total to 33,076. There were also 40 new deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 1,923.
- Coronavirus may have been present and spreading in Wuhan as early as August last year, according to a study that analysed satellite imagery of car parks outside major hospitals and search engine data.
- Spain is not discussing any travel corridor with Britain, a Spanish foreign ministry source has told Reuters.
- Russia has reported 171 new deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 6,142.
As Covid-19 cases in the north-east of the US drop, states across the south and California are seeing increases – much to experts’ concern. Oliver Milman reports from New York.
As the US enters the heat of summer and coronavirus restrictions start to wind down, public health experts are already noticing a concerning trend – an uptick in Covid-19 cases in parts of the country.
A resurgence in new infections has been detected in states including Florida, Texas and California, as authorities restart normal rhythm of life by allowing certain businesses and public places to reopen.
On Sunday, Florida recorded more than 1,000 newly-diagnosed Covid-19 cases for the fifth day of the previous week, with Thursday’s total of 1,413 the highest since the state started providing daily updates in March.
In Texas, officials in Dallas said the city hit its highest ever one-day total for new infections on Thursday, at 285, while Houston has also recorded climbing numbers.
Read the full story here:
Spain is not discussing any travel corridor with Britain, a Spanish foreign ministry source has said after a UK tourism lobby group said corridors allowing unrestricted movement with a number of countries would open from 29 June.
Spain is discussing with other European Union countries whether and how to allow tourism from Britain and other states, the source told Reuters. Madrid hopes the EU will agree on common criteria over the coronavirus situation in a territory in order to allow tourists to travel, but will adopt its own criteria if there is no agreement at EU level, the source said.
Hong Kong will let some students from mainland China return to resume classes from 15 June, the government has said, in a selective easing of coronavirus border restrictions.
School buses will be arranged and students will be subject to health checks, including temperature screening and submission of health declaration forms in Hong Kong and bordering Shenzhen as they commute to school, Reuters reports. Hong Kong has to date reported 1,108 coronavirus cases and four deaths.
Horse racing is due to resume in Turkey – although this one may not have got the memo about social distancing.
And here is another full story from Lily Kuo on China’s warning that its students should reconsider travelling to Australia for study. The original blog post take from two and a half hours ago is here.
Staying in south-east Asia, the Philippines has recorded six new coronavirus deaths and 518 additional infections in the last 24-hour period. Its health ministry said the death toll increased to 1,017 while confirmed cases have reached 22,992.
Updated
Indonesia has reported its biggest daily rise in Covid-19 infections. The country’s health ministry recorded 1,043 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing its total to 33,076. There were also 40 new deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 1,923. Indonesia had, as of today, tested more than 281,650 people for the virus.
Further to the post from a few hours ago, here is Lily Kuo’s full story on how Covid-19 may have been spreading in Wuhan as far back as last August.
With virus travel restrictions preventing summer holidays abroad, the Lithuanian capital city Vilnius is offering a low-cost alternative by mimicking the look and feel of different countries at weekends.
France, Japan and the US are among the more than half-a-dozen nations that residents can get a taste of without leaving the Baltic city. Last weekend Italian music filled the Old Town, while local restaurants offered Mediterranean dishes as green, white and red flags fluttered nearby.
Aurelija Baniulaitiene, a Lithuanian civil servant who came with a friend to an open-air restaurant, said the southern European atmosphere helped her “leave the lockdown cocoon”.
In the weeks to come, the theme will change to India, the United States, France, Spain, Germany and Japan. Rasa Kliostoraityte, a translator who presented three books by contemporary Italian writers as part of the initiative, hoped it would allow “people to enjoy the Italian spirit without leaving the city”.
Her husband, the Italian-born singer Mario Di Pasquale, had mixed feelings before taking his guitar to the stage near the 17th century St John’s Church bell tower that dominates the city’s skyline.
“I had to think if it is fine to celebrate Italy now, when it is suffering so much pain,” the 44-year-old told AFP.
“I have not forgotten the victims for a moment and I pay my respect with my songs. Italians themselves started singing folk songs from balconies when the outbreak started,” he added.
In the capital’s Bernardine Gardens, the entrance gate invited visitors to enjoy “An Italian holiday in Vilnius”. Inside the park, a children’s entertainer was disguised as the video game character Super Mario, an Italian plumber.
Lithuania itself reopened for tourists from most European countries earlier this month after containing the spread of the disease. Reported Covid-19 deaths stand at just 71, with case numbers at 1,720 in the eurozone nation of 2.8m people.
Instead of following false claims that Covid-19 was created in a laboratory, writes Peter Daszak, we should be focusing our efforts on the regions where the next pandemic is likely to emerge.
Contrary to the idea that Chinese scientists deliberately released the virus, existing patterns of infection suggest that the wide spread of Covid-19 was a question of when, not if. Only a handful of people work on bat coronaviruses in labs in China, and they wear masks and gloves so as not to contaminate their laboratories. In 2018, we conducted a pilot survey of people living in rural Yunnan province and found nearly 3% had antibodies for bat coronaviruses. Expanding this data to cover the densely populated area in southeast Asia where there are bats known to harbour coronaviruses, we can safely estimate that between one and seven million people are infected with bat coronaviruses each year.
The full piece by Peter, who is president of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit dedicated to analysing and preventing pandemics, can be found here:
We are also running a live blog on the Black Lives Matter protests around the UK. Here it is, with Martin Belam:
Covid-19 has spread around the planet, sending billions of people into lockdown as health services struggle to cope. Find out where the virus has spread, and where it has been most deadly, with our detailed set of maps and graphics curated by Pablo Gutiérrez.
Russia's Covid-19 death toll passes 6,000
Russia has reported 171 new deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 6,142. It also reported 8,595 new cases, meaning the number of infections nationwide is now 485,253.
Copenhagen’s Tivoli amusement park reopened yesterday – with limited-capacity seating in its rides as per this photo. Denmark’s lockdown is gradually being relaxed, with a wider range of leisure and social activities permitted from Monday.
Coronavirus death rates are exposing the deep racial inequalities in Brazil, reports Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro.
Researchers, doctors and health specialists believe factors including poverty, poor access to health services, overcrowded housing and high rates of health issues such as hypertension are some of the reasons Covid-19 kills proportionally more black Brazilians.
“There is clearly a difference in lethality for whites and non-whites,” says Fernando Bozza, a researcher in infectious diseases at the government research institute Fiocruz, who co-authored the analysis of deaths by race published on 27 May by the Nucleus of Health Operations and Intelligence.
The researchers studied health service data on 30,000 patients diagnosed with Covid-19, who had either recovered or died by 18 May. It found that 55% of the black and mixed-race patients died, compared to 38% of white patients.
It noted that a black patient who could not read had nearly four times more chance of dying than a white university graduate, “confirming the enormous disparities in access and quality of treatment in Brazil”.
Read the article in full here:
Vietnam plans to allow a resumption of flights to and from countries that have had no cases of coronavirus for 30 days, state media cited the prime minister as saying on Tuesday, with priority destinations including Japan, South Korea and Cambodia.
In the comments broadcast by Vietnam Television (VTV), Nguyen Xuan Phuc did not specify whether inbound travellers from these places would be subject to a quarantine programme in place since mid March. Vietnam has contained its tally of infections from Covid-19 to a relatively low 332 and reported no deaths, Reuters reports. Tens of thousands of incoming travellers have been put in quarantine.
“Vietnam is looking to resume international flights with countries that have registered no new Covid-19 cases in 30 days but the resumption needs to be extremely cautious considering the complexity of the pandemic,” VTV quoted the prime minister as saying.
The national steering committee for Covid-19 prevention and control had been asked to draft a list of “safe” countries, the prime minister said. He did not say whether countries or airlines had been consulted, but said destinations such as Guangzhou in China, Tokyo, Seoul, Taiwan, Laos and Cambodia were among the priority routes to reopen.
German exports and imports show biggest decline since 1990
German exports and imports slumped in April, posting their biggest declines since 1990 as the coronavirus crisis slashed demand and adding to a gloomy outlook for Europe’s biggest economy. Many economists believe the pandemic will push the German economy into its biggest decline since the end of the second world war in the second quarter.
Seasonally adjusted exports fell 24% on the month while imports slid by 16.5%. The trade surplus shrank to €3.2bn, the federal statistics office said. Economists polled by Reuters had expected exports to fall by 15.6% and saw imports down 16%. The trade surplus was expected to come in at €10bn.
Alexander Krueger, an economist at Bankhaus Lampe, said a recovery may have already started due to a loosening of the lockdown and reopening of borders, but little was left of the last decade’s export boom. “The road out of the corona trough is long, rocky and above all uncertain, especially for foreign trade,” he said.
Despite a €130bn stimulus package announced last week, which comes on top of €750bn worth of measures announced in March, the government expects the economy to shrink by 6.3% this year. Economists expect a slow recovery and the pace will depend largely on how fast Germany’s European neighbours and other trade partners, including China and the US, emerge from the crisis.
Exports to France and the US, hit hard by the coronavirus, fell most while those to China, which was first affected by the virus but which has since started to see some signs of recovery, fell slightly less sharply, the office said.
Updated
China’s education ministry has warned that Chinese students should consider whether to study in Australia, amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Canberra, Reuters reports. The ministry warned that there have been multiple incidents of racial incidents targeting Asians in Australia amid the Covid-19 pandemic, without elaborating. China last week advised the public to avoid travelling to Australia.
In its statement, the ministry reminded “overseas students to conduct a good risk assessment and be cautious about choosing to go to Australia or return to Australia to study”.
Updated
Our UK coronavirus live blog is now up and running, led by Alexandra Topping:
New Zealanders have been enjoying their first day at alert level one, with almost all remaining coronavirus restrictions removed. Some have taken the opportunity for a sunset stroll along the scenic New Brighton beach in Christchurch. The nation has effectively been declared “virus-free”.
Children in the Philippines will not attend school until a vaccine to protect against Covid-19 becomes available, officials have confirmed, prompting fears millions of students could be left without access to education.
This story and more can be found in Rebecca Ratcliffe’s global report:
Hello everyone – I’ll be taking you through the next few hours of global coronavirus news. As always, your interaction is highly valued. If you have a tip, observation or any feedback, do drop me a line at nick.ames@theguardian.com or via direct message @NickAmes82.
Summary
Here’s a summary of the day’s key events so far.
- Global infections have risen to 7,119,454, with deaths at 406,540, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The US still has the most infections (1,961,185) and deaths (111,007). The UK has the second highest death toll globally (40,680).
- University of Washington researchers have estimated that 145,728 people could die of Covid-19 in the US by August. Infectious disease experts have said that large street protests held in major cities after George Floyd’s death could spark a new outbreak.
- Brazil continues its steep trajectory of Covid-19 cases, passing 700,000 infections on Monday (second only to the US), with 37,134 deaths. It passed 500,000 cases on 1 June.
- The World Health Organization has warned against complacency, saying the coronavirus pandemic situation is worsening around the globe. The WHO said it had recorded its highest daily tally of new infections on Sunday (136,000), with Covid-19 raging in the Americas. “Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
- Russia will lift a range of lockdown measures on Tuesday, including the lockdown in Moscow, the city’s mayor has announced. The capital’s restriction on movement end on Tuesday, allowing residents to travel freely for the first time since March. Some measures have gradually eased, with some shops opening.
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New Zealanders have enjoyed their first day of level-1 restrictions,
where all coronavirus measures have been lifted, except at its international borders. - A report by the charity CARE international found a “global absence” of women in leadership roles in the response to coronavirus. A survey of 30 countries and found on average that women made up only 24% of national response committees.
- Mexico has reported 354 new deaths and 2,999 new infections from Covid-19.
Updated
While I’m on the UK, here’s a look at a few of the newspaper front pages .... the Guardian splashes with “Bid to defuse tensions as racism protests escalate”.
GUARDIAN: Bid to defuse tensions as racism protests escalate #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/Zm70kFg6cI
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 8, 2020
The Telegraph has “Schools may remain shut beyond September”.
DAILY TELEGRAPH: Schools may remain shut beyond September #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/RQq59QGQqi
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 8, 2020
The FT has “BP to slash 10,000 jobs as virus crisis hammers oil”.
FINANCIAL TIMES: @bp_plc to slash 10,000 jobs as virus crisis hammers oil #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/jGuLTV1D1p
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 8, 2020
And the Times has “Statue thugs must face justice, Patel tells police”.
TIMES: Statue thugs must face justice , @pritipatel tells police #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/W85tC1Freu
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 8, 2020
Updated
In the UK, plans to reopen English schools before summer are in disarray, after the government admitted that not all primary school pupils will be able to return to the classroom.
Boris Johnson last month said his aim was “to get primary pupils back into schools, in stages,” as he announced the opening of primary schools to pupils in reception, year one and year six from 1 June.
But government sources now acknowledge that – with little more than six weeks remaining before schools close for summer – the practicalities are too difficult for all children to return.
You can read our full story below:
'Global absence' of women in coronavirus leadership response – CARE
There is a “global absence” of women in leadership roles in the response to coronavirus, according to new research, Press Association reports.
The charity CARE International surveyed 30 countries and found on average that women made up only 24% of national response committees.
It also found governments with lower levels of women’s leadership risked failing to consider the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on women and girls.
The figures follow a UN Women report last month showing lockdown measures had led to an increase in gender-based violence worldwide and had “seriously affected” the economic opportunities of women.
CARE’s analysis found 14 countries including the UK and New Zealand – which has lifted most restrictions after recording no active Covid-19 cases – have taken action on gender violence during the pandemic by announcing new funding or policies.
But only Canada has made funding and policy commitments that “specifically recognise the economic effect of the pandemic on women”, CARE said.
It also found no evidence in nearly 25% of countries of any gender-specific actions or policy.
The charity said government at all levels “must increase women’s leadership in formal decision-making spaces and the humanitarian community must support localised, women-led responses”.
“These actions are mutually reinforcing: women’s rights movements tend to work with women and men in positions of power to advance legal and policy initiatives, and these movements often support more women leaders to emerge and attain power.”
New Zealand moves to Level 1 restrictions
New Zealanders woke on Tuesday to no restrictions on their daily lives for the first time since 21 March, with all remaining rules lifted after the country’s last known case of Covid-19 recovered from the virus. People in a nation that appears to have vanquished the coronavirus – for the time being – were permitted to hug and kiss strangers, to stand shoulder to shoulder at rock concerts, pray in large groups at mosques and churches, attend rugby games and throw large wedding parties or funerals.
Strict border controls remain, with New Zealanders and their families the only people permitted to enter the country. They must remain in government-run quarantine for 14 days.
As the Guardian’s Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington writes, while no one was openly hugging in the streets on Tuesday, those walking outdoors were giddy with pleasure at the new status.
Australia has continued to report positive news on its bid to beat the coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday it reported no locally transmitted cases of Covid-19. The most populous state of New South Wales had two cases reported in returned travellers, who were in mandatory quarantine. The health minister, Greg Hunt, reiterated how important the continued closure of the country’s borders was:
What we have seen now is that in the last four hours, as the states and territories have made their announcements, on the advice I’ve just had from the National Incidence Centre, there have been so far no cases of community transmission.
I want to repeat that. On the latest advice I have, so far, there have been no cases of community transmission, two cases overseas-acquired. That explains why our border protections remain so fundamental. Fifty-nine cases in the last seven days.
Of those, 69% have been detected through the hotel quarantine or our border protection processes.
All travellers returning to Australia are required to complete two weeks in hotel quarantine. Australia has reported over 7,200 cases and 102 deaths from Covid-19
German death toll rises 16 to 8,674
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 252 to 184,193, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday. The reported death toll rose by 16 to 8,674, the tally showed.
Satellite imagery showing spikes in vehicles outside major hospitals in Wuhan last winter suggest the coronavirus may have been present and spreading in the city months before authorities acknowledged the disease.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School, Boston University of Public Health and Boston Children’s Hospital analysed satellite imagery of the parking lots of major hospitals in Wuhan between 9 Jan 2018 and 30 April, 2020, as well as internet search trends.
According to the study, which is still under peer review, vehicle counts extracted from the high-resolution images of Wuhan hospital parking lots showed a “steep increase” starting in August 2019 and peaking in December 2019. Between September and October, five of the six hospitals analysed saw their highest daily volume of cars.
Search query terms for “diarrhoea” and “cough” show a large increase about 3 weeks before the spike in confirmed Covid-19 cases in late 2019, the study said.
The authors said that while they cannot confirm if the increased vehicle volume was directly related to the new virus, the evidence “supports other recent work showing that emergence happened before identification at the Huanan Seafood market,” in late December when Chinese officials reported a cluster at the market in central Wuhan.
“These findings also corroborate the hypothesis that the virus emerged naturally in southern China and was potentially already circulating at the time of the Wuhan cluster,” the report said.
“Something was happening in October,” John S Brownstein of Boston Children’s Hospital told ABC News. “Clearly, there was some level of social disruption taking place well before what was previously identified as the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic.”
Updated
Given the focus on the protest marches in the US, I thought it might be a good time to take a look at what’s happening in the US at the moment in terms of daily infections. The last figures available on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website showing new daily infections are as follows:
- 7 June - 17,919
- 6 June - 29,214
- 5 June - 29,034
- 4 June - 20,555
- 3 June -14,676
- 2 June - 25,955
The CDC says the total infections are 1,938,823, and total deaths are 110,375.
The graph below from Our World in Data gives you an idea of the US’s “curve” on infections.
Many of you will remember the US Navy aircraft carrier, the Roosevelt, which docked in Guam, with sailors infected with coronavirus, and its captain Brett Crozier who was fired after sounding the alarm over the cases onboard.
A navy investigation has found that about 60% of the roughly 400 sailors tested had antibodies for the virus, three US officials told Reuters on Monday, on the condition of anonymity.
All 4,800 sailors onboard the ship were tested for the coronavirus previously, and about a quarter tested positive. But in April the Navy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started conducting a serology test to look for the presence of specific antibodies.
This handout photo released by the US Navy and taken on 22 April shows Rear Admiral Stu Baker, commander of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 9, giving blood for a serology study aimed at identifying antibodies associated with COVID-19 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. Photograph: Kaylianna Genier/US NAVY/AFP via Getty Images
US Covid-19 deaths could reach 145,000 by August, study estimates
University of Washington researchers have estimated that 145,728 people could die of Covid-19 in the United States by August, raising their forecast by more than 5,000 fatalities in a matter of days.
On Friday, the widely cited Institute for Health Metrics and evaluation at the university projected 140,496 deaths by August from Covid-19. Researchers did not give a reason for the abrupt revision.
The new estimate came on the same day that Texas reported its highest number of hospitalisations so far in the pandemic and 22 US states showed at least a small uptick in the number of new confirmed cases, according toJohns Hopkins University figures.
Among the states with the sharpest increases were Michigan and Arizona, according to Johns Hopkins, while Virginia, Rhode Island and Nebraska showed the greatest decreases.
Infectious disease experts have said that large street protests held in major cities after George Floyd’s death could spark a new outbreak.
Updated
This picture of the blue blood of horseshoe crabs being extracted is quite incredible. The blood is used in medicine to ensure that anything that gets injected or implanted into humans is free from bacteria ... and it has become very important in the race to find a coronavirus vaccine.
The Smithsonian magazine is reporting that an estimated 50,000 crabs die during the annual blood harvest, and, as a result, there has been a push to develop a synthetic replacement, but not all companies are in favour. You can read our full story here.
Mexico new daily deaths are 354, new cases 2,999
Ok, so I want to quickly clear up the Mexico issue. It is NOT 2,999 new deaths reported on Monday. It is new cases. The new deaths figure for Monday is actually 354.
Thanks for your patience on this one. When a figure looks wrong or out of context, it often is. Below is a tweet where you can see the official figures.
Datos oficiales acumulados de #Covid_19 en #Mexico al 8 de junio de 2020. #NuevaNormalidad #Semáforos #Cuarentena
— Daniel (@_SiNnIcK) June 9, 2020
La escala comienza en la primera defunción. pic.twitter.com/DFYSFi5kw4
Updated
Just looking at those Mexico figures again of 2,999* deaths on Monday for a minute ... the US has only recorded three days throughout the entire pandemic with deaths higher than 2,999 (April 16, 19, 24), according to Our World in Data (OWID). Brazil’s highest recorded daily death toll is 1,473 (also OWID). So if those figures are correctly attributed to one day, it would mark a dark day indeed for Mexico. We will try and get some more information on that for you as soon as possible.
* This figure was originally quoted by Reuters as the death toll, but it should have been the new daily cases. It has now been clarified – please see this post.
Updated
Mexico daily coronavirus figures
The Mexican government has reported 2,999* new deaths attributed to Covid-19 on Monday, the Reuters news agency reports. The country’s previous highest daily total was 1,091, on Thursday.
I am still waiting for clarification but the last two days have been much lower (188 and341), which may be linked to lower reporting rates on weekends.
The government says cases stand at 120,102 and the official coronavirus death toll is now 14,053.
* This figure was originally quoted by Reuters as the death toll, but it should have been the new daily cases. It has now been clarified – please see this post.
Updated
Moscow to lift lockdown on Tuesday
Russia will lift a range of lockdown measures on Tuesday, including the lockdown in Moscow, the city’s mayor has announced. The capital’s restriction on movement would end on Tuesday, allowing residents to travel freely for the first time since March. Some measures have gradually eased, with some shops opening. Sergei Sobyanin said all restrictions on movement will lift on Tuesdays, with restaurants and cafes expected to start opening from mid June.
Russia continues to report thousands of new infections daily. Its nationwide tally is more than 476,000, the third-highest in the world, but the number of cases in Moscow, the original epicentre of the virus, has more than halved to around 2,000 a day.
WHO warns global pandemic is worsening
The world has recorded its highest daily jump of cases (136,000), according to the WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said: “More than six months into the pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal.”
“Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening,” he said.
Nearly 75% of the 136,000 cases were reported from 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and South Asia.
The WHO emergencies chief, Dr Mike Ryan, said retrospective studies of how the outbreak has been addressed could wait, adding: “We need to focus now on what we are doing today to prevent second peaks.”
Ryan also said infections in central American countries including Guatemala were still on the rise, and that they were “complex” epidemics.
“I think this is a time of great concern,” he said, calling for strong government leadership and international support for the region.
Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on the virus, said that a “comprehensive approach” was essential in South America.
“This is far from over,” van Kerkhove said, adding that asymptomatic transmission of the virus “appears to be rare”.
Updated
Brazil's infections pass 700,000
South America’s worst affected country now has 707,412 and deaths recorded are 37,134. It marks a continuing steep rise – Brazil recorded 500,000 cases on 1 June.
A leading newspaper in the country reported that Brazil’s health ministry slashed the number of new Covid-19 deaths it reported on Sunday by 857 because far-right president Jair Bolsonaro wanted less than a thousand deaths a day.
The Guardian’s Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro writes: On Sunday the health ministry said 1,382 deaths had been recorded in the previous 24 hours, but later corrected it down to 525. On Monday the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper reported that the correction was ordered because Bolsonaro wanted the number of deaths at less than a thousand a day. He has vociferously attacked social isolation and notoriously quipped “so what?” to the rising death toll in April.
To accommodate him, the health ministry separated out all the deaths reported over 24 hours – as it had been doing for months – and began including only deaths that had actually occurred during the last day. The correction came two days after the Ministry stopped releasing accumulated cases and deaths in a daily bulletin and wiped a government site clean of data – a move also reportedly ordered by Bolsonaro that provoked widespread condemnation.
Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, with me Alison Rourke. If you would like to get in touch, you can email me at Alison.Rourke@guardian.co.uk.
Before we dive in, let’s get up to speed on what’s happening right now...
- Infections globally have passed 7 million and deaths have passed 400,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
- Brazil cases pass 700,000. The country’s health ministry says cases now stand at 707,412 and deaths recorded are 37,134. A Brazilian senator called for an inquiry into Covid-19 data, after the country shared contradictory figures on deaths and infections. The discrepancy prompted criticism from across the political spectrum, and a leading newspaper has reported the health ministry slashed the number of deaths it reported by 857 because president Jair Bolsonaro wanted less than a thousand deaths a day.
- The World Health Organization has warned against complacency, saying the coronavirus pandemic situation is worsening around the globe. The WHO said it had recorded its highest daily tally of new infections on Sunday (136,000), with Covid-19 raging in the Americas. “Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
- The WHO’s technical lead on coronavirus, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, has said it “appears to be rare” that asymptomatic cases transmit coronavirus.
- Moscow is lifting its months-long lockdown, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Local media reported that the Russian capital’s general lockdown would end on Tuesday, allowing residents to travel freely for the first time since late March.
- Poland will close 12 coal mines from Tuesday for three weeks to curb the spread of the coronavirus among miners. Miners account for almost 20% of coronavirus cases reported in the country.
- Over half of pregnant women hospitalised for coronavirus in UK were BAME, a study has found. The research looked at data for 427 pregnant women admitted to 194 obstetric units in the UK with a positive Covid-19 infection between 1 March and 14 April.
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South Africa has passed 1,000 deaths and 50,000 cases. The grim milestones were passed just a week after the country further eased lockdown restrictions. At 50,879 the number of detected infections is the worst in Africa, and two-thirds are in the Western Cape province. South Africa ranks second in terms of deaths at 1,080 after Egypt.
- Antiracist protesters should wear masks, says Tedros. The director general of the WHO has called on people attending antiracism protests to wear masks, as he warned that the biggest threat in the ongoing coronavirus outbreak “was now complacency.”
- The UK has recorded its lowest daily death toll since 22 March. A further 55 people have died after contracting Covid-19 in UK, taking the country’s death toll to 40,597. This is the lowest daily total of newly reported deaths since 22 March, but there is often a reporting lag over a weekend. The figures do not include all deaths across the UK, which is thought to have passed 50,000.
Updated
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