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Summary
Here are the latest coronavirus developments at a glance:
- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened an emergency politburo meeting on Saturday after a person suspected of having Covid-19 returned from South Korea after illegally crossing the border.
- The UK government has advised against all but essential travel to mainland Spain, and confirmed that all people arriving from Spain from Sunday will have to self-isolate for two weeks.
- Florida became the US state with second-highest number of infections on Saturday, leaving it second to only California, the state with the highest population.
- Brazil registered an additional 1,211 deaths from Covid-19 on Saturday, as well as a further 51,147 confirmed infections.
- The number of people in Israel who have tested positive for coronavirus topped 60,000 on Saturday, as thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday in Jerusalem and other cities demanding prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation.
- South Africa’s trade minister Ebrahim Patel on Saturday tested positive for Covid-19, the cabinet said, the fourth minister to contract the virus in Africa’s hardest-hit country.
- The governor of Lombardy, Italy’s hardest-hit region in the pandemic, acknowledged that he is being investigated by Milan prosecutors over a lucrative contract to obtain protective medical gowns from his brother-in-law’s company, but denied any wrongdoing.
- In Yemen, where an already weak health system has been destroyed by five years of conflict and 80% of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance, the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating what was already the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, a charity has warned.
- Covid-19 hospitalisations in New York are at the lowest level since the pandemic began, as the state reported 10 further coronavirus deaths during the past 24 hours.
That’s all from me for today, thanks a lot for tuning in. My colleagues in Australia will be taking over shortly.
Updated
A survey released Saturday showed governments are fast losing support for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic, as health officials recorded a surge of more than 280,000 new cases globally two days in a row.
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, widely criticised for his handling of the crisis, appeared to credit an unproven treatment for his recovery from the virus.
And in the streets of Jerusalem and other cities, thousands called for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign, in part for his management of the coronavirus crisis.
There were more than 280,000 new cases recorded globally on both Thursday and Friday, the highest daily rises since the virus emerged in China late last year, according to an AFP count based on official sources, an alarming uptick in the spread of the virus.
Nearly a third of the world’s 15.8 million infections have been registered since 1 July, while the total death toll nears 640,000.
The World Health Organization said more than a million cases had been recorded in each of the last five weeks, “with over 280,000 being reported on July 24 alone”.
“While no country is unaffected, this rise is driven by high transmission in large and populous countries in the Americas and South Asia,” it said in a statement on Saturday.
Brazil and India had recently reported their highest daily increases, it added, while the figures remained worryingly high in the United States and South Africa - where Trade Minister Ebrahim Patel tested positive for the virus Saturday.
The US, still the hardest-hit nation, on Friday reported its second straight day of more than 70,000 new cases and over 1,000 deaths as the virus surges in the south and west.
Florida becomes US state with second-highest number of infections
Florida overtook New York on Saturday to become the US state with the second-highest number of coronavirus infections, the Financial Times reports.
An additional 12,199 confirmed cases, the state’s sixth-biggest one-day jump, took Florida’s overall tally to 414,511.
That is about 3,300 more than New York and leaves it second only to California in terms of total infections.
California, the Unites States’ most populous state, reported that a further 10,066 people tested positive over the past day, taking its total since the beginning of the pandemic to 445,400.
Updated
North Korea holds emergency meeting after suspected Covid-19 case reported
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened an emergency politburo meeting after a person suspected of having Covid-19 returned from South Korea after illegally crossing the border this month, state media said on Sunday.
Kim declared a state of emergency and imposed a lockdown on the border city of Kaesong, calling it a “critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country,” state news agency KCNA reported.
If confirmed, it would be the first case officially acknowledged by North Korean authorities, who have so far said the country has no confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.
According to KCNA, a person who defected to South Korea three years ago returned across the fortified border that divides the two Koreas with symptoms that suggested Covid-19.
“An emergency event happened in Kaesong City where a runaway who went to the south three years ago, a person who is suspected to have been infected with the vicious virus returned on 19 July after illegally crossing the demarcation line,” KCNA said.
KCNA did not specifically mention whether the individual had been tested, but said an “uncertain result was made from several medical check-ups of the secretion of that person’s upper respiratory organ and blood,” prompting officials to quarantine the person and investigate anyone he may have been in contact with.
North Korea has received thousands of coronavirus testing kits from Russia and other countries, and imposed strict border closures.
Thousands of people in North Korea were quarantined, but restrictions had recently eased.
Updated
Brazil registered an additional 1,211 deaths attributable to the coronavirus over the last 24 hours and another 51,147 confirmed cases, the health ministry said on Saturday.
The South American nation has now registered 86,449 deaths and 2,394,513 total confirmed cases, Reuters reports.
Updated
The number of confirmed deaths from Covid-19 in the US state of Texas rose to 4,885 on Saturday, up 168 from Friday’s tally of 4,717.
The state health department said that coronavirus hospitalisations fell to 9,827 in total from 10,036 on the previous day.
The overall number of confirmed infections in Texas rose by 8,112 on Saturday.
Airlines EasyJet and British Airways told customers on Saturday they did not plan to cancel flights over the coming days, after Britain’s government advised against all non-essential travel to mainland Spain due to a spike in new coronavirus infections.
Earlier on Saturday TUI, Europe’s largest tour operator, said it was cancelling all holiday departures scheduled for Sunday.
“Our flights are currently expected to operate normally,” British Airways told one customer on Twitter.
An EasyJet customer service representative told another customer: “We plan to operate our full schedule in the coming days,” Reuters reports.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has ticked off another first during lockdown: the virtual unveiling of a new portrait.
Despite seeing the artwork of herself via videocall, it was clear she has not lost her eagle eye.
The Queen joked that a tea cup featured in the painting had no tea in it, the artist revealed, as she paid tribute to her “luminous” sitter.
Miriam Escofet painted the portrait, which was commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) as a “lasting tribute to Her Majesty’s service” to diplomacy.
The Queen saw the painting for the first time via her computer screen, before speaking to members of FCO staff about their work around the world during the coronavirus crisis.
“She seemed to react very positively to it. She was smiling, asking how long it took and if I had any more projects on the go after this,” Escofet told PA.
The painting took seven months to complete, with the final stages finished in lockdown.
Escofet had two sittings with the Queen - one at Windsor where she spent around half-an-hour photographing the monarch and the second at Buckingham Palace to focus on her facial expressions.
Updated
Britain’s abruptly announced reintroduction of a two-week quarantine for all travellers arriving from Spain after a surge of coronavirus cases is set to have a dramatic impact on Spain’s tourism sector, which had just started to attempt a recovery after months of lockdown.
The quarantine requirement was due to take effect from midnight (2300 GMT on Saturday), making it impossible for travellers to avoid it by rushing home.
Tour operator TUI said it was “incredibly disappointed” that the British government did not give more notice of this announcement, and said that all its customers currently in Spain would return on their intended flight home.
TUI said it had cancelled all flights due to depart to mainland Spain and the canary islands on Sunday 26 July, according to Reuters.
The sudden British move followed steps this week by other European countries.
On Friday Norway said it would re-impose a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving from Spain from Saturday, while France advised people not to travel to Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia.
But the total collapse of tourism from Britain would have far more impact.
Britain accounted for more than 20% of the foreign visitors to Spain last year, the largest group by nationality.
Tourism normally accounts for some 12% of Spain’s economy.
Updated
The British transport secretary Grant Shapps is reportedly on holiday in Spain, which, unless he returns to the UK in the next one and a half hours, might make him subject to the government’s newly imposed quarantine rules for all travellers returning from Spain.
NEW: Department for Transport confirm Transport Secretary @grantshapps is on holiday in Spain.
— Joe Pike (@joepike) July 25, 2020
He will therefore be among thousands of travellers forced to quarantine for a fortnight when he returns to the UK.#COVID19
However, it is unclear whether the new quarantine rules will apply to government ministers, as a government website states that people “undertaking essential policing or essential government work outside of the UK” will not necessarily have to self-isolate.
The transport secretary said he and his wife, Belinda, had decided to take advantage of the relaxation of Foreign Office guidance on non-essential overseas travel.
“My wife looked at all of these new changes that were made and has now booked a break for the first time for a couple of years,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 18 July.
Updated
South Africa’s trade minister Ebrahim Patel on Saturday tested positive for Covid-19, the cabinet said, the fourth minister to contract the virus in Africa’s hardest-hit country.
Cabinet spokeswoman Phumla Williams said in a statement that Patel, 58, received his results on Saturday.
“Minister Patel is in good spirits and is in self-quarantine, and will continue to work from home,” Williams said, according to AFP.
“Those that have been in contact with the Minister are also in self-isolation and have been encouraged to get tested,” she added.
Four ministers and several MPs have so far contracted coronavirus in South Africa, which has the highest numbers of diagnosed infections on the continent and ranks fifth in the world after the United States, Brazil, India and Russia.
On Monday, both Labour minister Thulas Nxesi, 61, and mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe, 65, were separately admitted to hospital with the virus.
The fourth is defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, who has since recovered.
To date South Africa has recorded 434,200 cases of coronavirus, at least 6,655 of whom have died.
Thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday in Jerusalem and other cities including Tel Aviv, demanding prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation over his government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
In Jerusalem they rallied outside Netanyahu’s residence holding up signs accusing him of corruption, a reference to the premier’s indictment in January for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three cases, AFP reports.
He denies all the charges.
“We are fed up with the corrupt,” some signs read, alongside others reading “Where are the morals? Where are the values?”
Protesters also slammed a law passed this week that gives the government special powers to fight the spread of the virus until the end of 2021.
Protests against economic fallout from the pandemic have spread across the country in recent weeks. In some cases police sprayed demonstrators with water cannons, injuring some.
Israel won praise for its initial response to the Covid-19 outbreak, but the government has come under criticism amid a resurgence in cases after restrictions were lifted starting in late April.
Updated
My colleagues Michael Savage and David Connett have written up a report about the new quarantine rule for arrivals from Spain on UK soil.
Israel's infections surge to over 60,000
The number of people in Israel who have tested positive for coronavirus topped 60,000 on Saturday as the government struggles to contain a resurgence in infection rates.
The latest daily tally showed 1,770 new infections, bringing the total number of cases to 60,496, the country’s health ministry reported.
With a population of 9 million, Israel has reported a total of 455 fatalities from the pandemic.
Israel was one of the first countries to impose a nationwide lockdown and initially was successful in clamping down on the outbreak.
Daily cases that numbered in the hundreds dropped to low double digits, according to Reuters.
Concerned about the economic toll, the government eased those restrictions – too quickly, some officials have since acknowledged – and infection rates resurged.
Renewed sporadic closures of various sectors of the economy have deepened public vexation, sparking daily demonstrations.
This from the scientist Eric Topol:
Israel, one of the most successful countries in achieving #COVID19 containment, has experienced a striking surge since reopening, and is about to overtake the US for new cases per million people@OurWorldInData pic.twitter.com/E48xSaKEtT
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) July 25, 2020
Updated
UK government advises against all but essential travel to Spanish mainland
The UK government has advised against all but essential travel to mainland Spain, and confirmed earlier reports that all people arriving from Spain from Sunday will have to self-isolate for two weeks.
The government said it does not advise against travel to Spain’s Canary Islands or Balearic Islands, but travellers will still need to go into quarantine on return to the UK.
The government also urged employers to be understanding towards staff who have to self-isolate.
Spain said on Saturday it was a safe country with localised, isolated and controlled outbreaks of the coronavirus.
A Spanish foreign ministry spokeswoman said Spain “respects decisions of the United Kingdom” and was in touch with the authorities there, according to Reuters.
Updated
Kuwait will end the strict lockdown imposed in the Farwaniya governorate from 5am (2am GMT) on Sunday, the centre for government communication announced on Twitter on Saturday.
Farwaniya was the last area to be effectively isolated in a country which has reported 63,309 coronavirus cases and 429 deaths.
Updated
The governor of Lombardy, Italy’s hardest-hit region in the pandemic, acknowledged on Saturday that he is being investigated by Milan prosecutors over a lucrative contract to obtain protective medical gowns from his brother-in-law’s company, but denied any wrongdoing.
The contract for 75,000 gowns reportedly was awarded without public bidding in April, when the coronavirus outbreak was devastating Italy, Italian news reports said.
Governor Attilio Fontana said in a Facebook post about the probe that he represents the region responsibly and was confident about the correctness of Lombardy’s actions.
In the aftermath of an Italian investigative TV programme report on the deal, Fontana contended last month that he didn’t know anything about the contract, which reportedly was valued at more than half a million euros (more than $600,000).
The governor insisted that the region never paid for the gowns, which were reportedly eventually donated to Lombardy, the Associated Press reports.
The region at the time was struggling, like all of Italy, to obtain vital medical protective gear for doctors and nurses treating coronavirus patients.
Fontana’s wife has a minor stake in the company, according to Italian media.
The governor is a prominent figure in Matteo Salvini’s rightwing opposition League party, which often rails against corruption among public officials.
In a tweet on Saturday, Salvini blasted the probe as one-way wrong justice. Lombardy is a League stronghold.
Meanwhile, some politicians from the centre-left government’s parties called on Saturday for Fontana’s resignation.
Updated
This from my colleague Sam Jones in Madrid:
A spokeswoman for the Spanish government declined to comment on the reported quarantine measures, instead referring the Guardian to comments made on Friday by the foreign minister, Arancha González Laya.
In an interview with CNN, the minister said Spain was one of the countries with the “most controls and mechanisms for identifying outbreaks” and played down suggestions of a second wave of Covid-19.
“We’re not worried; we’re identifying cases and isolating them to cut off transmission,” said González Laya.
“As long as we don’t have a vaccine or a treatment, this is what the new normality will be like. We ask citizens to comply with the restrictions and behave in a responsible manner.”
She added: “There isn’t a second outbreak but there are one-off outbreaks. Our strategy is to detect and isolate those outbreaks.”
The minister also noted that other countries were experiencing similar situations.
Earlier this week, Spanish health authorities said they were dealing with 283 active outbreaks, many of them in the northeastern regions of Catalonia and Aragón.
While they have acknowledged that a second wave may have hit, they insist all outbreaks are being swiftly detected and isolated.
On Friday, the health ministry logged 922 new Covid-19 cases – slightly down from 971 over the previous 24 hours.
María José Sierra, the deputy head of Spain’s centre for health emergencies, said that while the curve had been flattened, “community transmission” was being seen in north-eastern areas.
“It could already be a second wave, but that’s not the most important thing,” Sierra told reporters on Thursday. “The most important thing is that we keep following what’s going on, see what measures are necessary, and take them early.”
She also said people needed to remember the incidence of the virus had tripled in just two weeks, from 8.76 cases per 100,000 people on 3 July to 27.39 per 100,000. “Obviously, the curve is going up, but let’s wait to see what kind of situation we’re in,” she added.
The announcement of a compulsory, two-week quarantine for returning British visitors will only place even greater strain on the beleaguered Spanish tourist sector, which has already been badly hit by the coronavirus.
The sector generates 12% of the country’s GDP and Britons make up the largest national group among Spain’s foreign visitors. More than 18 million Britons visited the country last year, accounting for almost a quarter of all foreign visitors.
Updated
All travellers returning from Spain to UK to quarantine from midnight
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has said that people returning to any part of the UK from Spain will have to quarantine from midnight.
“Spain will be removed from the list of countries exempt from quarantine requirements due to an increased number of cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) in the last few days,” Scotland’s government said in a statement.
“The decision, also made by the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland and Wales as well as the UK Government, has been made to reduce the risk of the transmission of the virus by those travelling from Spain,” it added.
Having reviewed the latest data earlier today, @scotgov is also reimposing 14 day quarantine for travellers returning from Spain. This reinforces the point that these matters are subject to change at short notice & so my advice is to be cautious about non essential foreign travel https://t.co/9xSnyFCv77
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) July 25, 2020
The British government’s decision to remove Spain from list of safe countries to travel to means those coming back from Spain will have to self-isolate for two weeks upon their return to England.
A formal announcement is expected to be made by the Department for Transport on Saturday, PA reports.
According to Reuters, the Spanish foreign ministry and the office of the Spanish prime minister were not immediately available for comment.
In Spain, Catalonia became the latest region to crack down on nightlife, trying to halt new infection clusters.
The wealthy north-east region – home to Barcelona – ordered all nightclubs to close for 15 days and put a midnight curfew on bars in the greater Barcelona area and other towns around Lleida that have become contagion hot zones.
Spain has reported more than 900 new daily infections for the last two days as authorities warn the country that lost 28,000 lives before getting its outbreak under control could be facing the start of a second major outbreak.
The expected announcement about the removal of a so-called “air bridge” with Spain comes only a day after a further five countries were added to the quarantine-free list for people travelling to England.
Anyone coming from Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia and St Vincent and the Grenadines will not be required to isolate for two weeks on arrival, the government confirmed on Friday.
Popular holiday destinations including Portugal, Thailand and the United States remain notable absentees.
The British government said people should continue to check the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s travel advice and their insurance policies before embarking on any overseas travel.
Ministers had previously warned that travel corridors could be closed if coronavirus rates escalated in other nations.
Travellers, even those from exempt destinations, are still required to complete a passenger locator form when they arrive in the UK.
Updated
In Yemen, where an already weak health system has been destroyed by five years of conflict and 80% of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance, the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating what was already the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, a charity has warned.
MedGlobal, alongside partners Project HOPE and the Center for Global Health at the University of Illinois, have detailed the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on Yemen’s fragile health system in a new report.
There have been 1,610 confirmed cases and 446 deaths from Covid-19 according to official reports.
This amounts to around a 27% mortality rate of Yemenis who are confirmed to have Covid-19 – more than five times the global average and among the highest Covid-19 mortality rate in the world.
According to the report, the Covid-19 outbreak is also disproportionately harming Yemen’s health workers, with 97 health workers – epidemiologists, medical directors, midwives, and other critical medical professionals – reportedly having died in Yemen from the virus.
As health workers are among the country’s most critical human resources, the death of one health worker has an exponential effect and extends to their entire community, the researchers wrote.
Updated
Covid-19 hospitalisations in New York at lowest level since start of pandemic
The tallies for people hospitalised with coronavirus in New York are continuing to drop to the lowest levels since the pandemic began, governor Andrew Cuomo said Saturday, CBS News reports.
There were at least 646 people hospitalised in the state on Friday, a new low since 18 March and down slightly from the previous day, the Democratic governor said in a statement.
The number of ICU patients was at its lowest since 16 March at 149.
The number of reported deaths in the state rose by one, to 10.
Today's update on the numbers:
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 25, 2020
Of the 71,466 tests reported yesterday, 750 were positive (1.05% of total).
Total hospitalizations fell to 646.
Sadly, there were 10 COVID fatalities yesterday. pic.twitter.com/tyZlYp15W2
The British government said 45,738 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Friday, up by 61 from the day before, the Press Association reports.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been more than 56,100 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
The government also said in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Saturday there had been a further 767 lab-confirmed cases.
Overall, a total of 298,681 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed.
Updated
The Sunday Times’ Tim Shipman has tweeted that the UK government will be announcing shortly that tourists who have visited Spain will have to quarantine for two weeks when they return to England from Sunday, as Spain experiences a second wave of coronavirus infections.
BREAKING: Govt to announce shortly that tourists in Spain will have to quarantine for two weeks when they return (unless they're back by midnight tonight). Second wave of Covid-19 there has prompted decision to kick Spain off the safe country list
— Tim Shipman (@ShippersUnbound) July 25, 2020
According to Reuters, Britain’s health ministry had no immediate comment on the report.
Updated
Chief Justice John Roberts again sided with the liberals on the US supreme court on Friday, as it denied a rural Nevada church’s request to strike down a 50-person cap on worship services as part of the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reports.
Roberts, a conservative appointed by George W Bush, has sided with the four liberal justices on recent rulings regarding abortion, immigration and LGBTQ+ rights. Observers have pointed to his votes in other cases while cautioning that he has not necessarily changed his stripes.
In a 5-4 decision on Friday, the court refused to grant a request from Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley, east of Reno, to be subjected to the same Covid-19 restrictions that allow casinos, restaurants and other businesses to operate at 50% of capacity with proper social distancing.
The church argued that a hard cap on religious gatherings was an unconstitutional violation of first amendment rights to express and exercise beliefs.
Roberts did not explain his vote. Three justices wrote strongly worded dissenting opinions on behalf of the four other conservatives who said they would have granted injunctive relief while the court fully considers the merits of the case.
Justice Samuel Alito said that by allowing thousands to gather in casinos the state cannot claim to have a compelling interest in limiting religious gatherings to 50 people – regardless of the size of the facility and measures adopted to prevent the spread of the virus.
“That Nevada would discriminate in favor of the powerful gaming industry and its employees may not come as a surprise, but this court’s willingness to allow such discrimination is disappointing,” Alito wrote in a dissent joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.
“We have a duty to defend the constitution, and even a public health emergency does not absolve us of that responsibility. The constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. It says nothing about freedom to play craps or blackjack, to feed tokens into a slot machine or to engage in any other game of chance.”
Updated
TV stations across the US owned by Sinclair Television will this weekend run an interview with a conspiracy theorist who claims baselessly that Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, created the coronavirus behind the current pandemic, my colleagues Martin Pengelly and Oliver Milman report.
Dr Judy Mikovits, a former research scientist, is behind the widely discredited Plandemic video, which makes a string of false and outlandish claims including that any coronavirus vaccine will kill millions and that beaches should not be closed because the sand and ocean will somehow treat Covid-19.
Fauci is the 79-year-old director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He has served six presidents but US president Donald Trump has sought to keep him off television, called him “alarmist” and frequently undermined his work.
Full story below.
My colleague Rob Davies has written a report on the patchy recovery from lockdown that restaurants and pubs in England continue to face, three weeks after pubs, bars and restaurants in England were allowed to reopen.
Three in five restaurants and around half of all pubs are still closed, and small, cosy, independent venues in town and city centres face a particularly grim future.
Updated
Wales has recorded no new coronavirus deaths for the fifth time this week, Public Health Wales (PHW) said on Saturday, announcing that the number of deaths with lab-confirmed Covid-19 since the outbreak began remained at 1,548.
There have now been no new deaths reported by the NHS trust on 11 days this month, WalesOnline reports.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean no-one died with the virus on those specific dates as it can take several days for a death to be logged officially.
Meanwhile, PHW has said the number of lab-confirmed positive cases of coronavirus in Wales has increased by 30 to bring the total to 17,105.
Wrexham recorded the most positive cases with 11, followed by the capital Cardiff and Flintshire with four each.
Despite testing capacity standing at 15,000 each day in Wales, only 5,865 were used on Friday, 24 July.
Storm Hanna, the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season, was forecast to make landfall on the Texas coast on Saturday, threatening one of the nation’s Covid-19 hot spots with storm surge and flooding.
Hanna was about 75 miles (120 km) east-northeast of Port Mansfield, Texas, packing maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour, the US National Hurricane Center said on Saturday morning.
“Additional strengthening is forecast before Hanna makes landfall later today,” the Miami-based forecaster said, adding that the hurricane will rapidly weaken after it moves inland.
Video footage on Twitter of Port Aransas in Nueces County, Texas showed gray skies and lashing waves that had already engulfed a beach ahead of the storm’s landfall.
The storm was projected to hit the coast between Corpus Christi and Brownsville, a region that has struggled to contain outbreaks of coronavirus in recent weeks.
Cases along the state’s coast have soared into the tens of thousands, and more than 400 people in Corpus Christi’s city of 325,000 were hospitalised with the novel coronavirus on Friday, according to city data.
On Friday, residents in several Texas communities in Kleberg County, south of Corpus Christi, were urged to evacuate their homes ahead of Hanna’s arrival, according to Reuters.
Corpus Christi mayor Joe McComb warned residents who live in flood-prone areas to heed coronavirus precautions when deciding to evacuate, the Texas Tribune reported.
“Take several masks with you because you might be there a couple days if you’re in a flood area,” McComb said, according to the Tribune.
“We don’t want to expose anyone during this storm. ... Even when you’re in the house, I recommend wearing a mask if you’re in crowded conditions.”
Hanna will be the second named storm this season to make landfall along the US Gulf of Mexico, after Tropical Storm Cristobal, which hit Louisiana in early June.
Hanna could bring a life-threatening storm surge and flash flooding, with up to 15 inches of rain in pockets of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico.
Lack of testing means UK will never know true Covid-19 death toll, says Sage professor
The UK will never know the true figure of how many people died from coronavirus due to the lack of testing at the outset of the crisis, according to a scientist on the government’s Sage advisory board.
Sir David Spiegelhalter, professor of the understanding of risk at the University of Cambridge, has said that Britain was “operating in the dark for so long” at the beginning of the pandemic.
The professor was asked how long it will take to get an accurate statistical picture of the impact the virus has had on the UK during an online lecture held by the New Scientist on Saturday.
His response, reported by the Telegraph (£), was as follows:
Never. We will never really know exactly what has gone on.
We know we have done badly, we have had this big spike and you can’t disguise that. I think the best way is to look at excess deaths rather than what was on a death certificate.
But even then, what causes excess deaths? How many people who died in care homes actually had Covid? We don’t know. How many of the people dying at home would have lived longer had they gone to hospital? We don’t know and we won’t know.
And in the future - as we go through the rest of the summer, winter and next year - how many extra case deaths [will there be] from cancer and from delayed surgery in the NHS due to the lockdown?
It will be hard to deconstruct this in the future and we will never be able to come up with an absolutely firm idea.
Speigelhalter said that the lack of testing from the offset affected the overall picture given to statisticians and modellers of what was happening in the community.
“We were operating in the dark for so long without knowing how many people in the country had it,” he added.
“If we had random sampling of testing much earlier on we would have had a much better idea of what was going on.”
Updated
Almost three-quarters of mothers in the UK have been forced to cut work hours because of childcare issues under Covid-19 lockdowns, according to a survey by a maternal rights group which warned more action was needed to protect women’s careers.
More than eight in 10 employed mothers said they needed childcare to be able to work, but fewer than half said they had enough childcare to let them do their job during the pandemic, showed the survey by Pregnant Then Screwed released on Saturday.
“This lack of childcare is destroying women’s careers,” the campaign group’s founder and chief executive Joeli Brearley told Reuters news agency.
“They are being made redundant, they are being forced to cut their hours, and they are being treated negatively all because they are picking up the unpaid labour.”
Studies around the world have found women are picking up more of the extra chores and childcare during the pandemic.
The International Labour Organization has warned coronavirus could wipe out “the modest progress” made on gender equality at work in recent decades, with women globally at greater risk of losing their jobs.
Across Britain, schools and nurseries were ordered to close under lockdown, leaving many families struggling to balance work with childcare and home schooling responsibilities.
The Department for Education said it was working to ensure hard-hit nurseries and childcare providers in England stay afloat as they gradually re-open by “block-buying” childcare places for the rest of this year.
“This will provide financial security to nurseries and childminders, meaning they can continue to provide the high quality childcare needed by parents as they return to work,” said a spokeswoman.
Many women also reported that they were losing their jobs entirely due to pregnancy or childcare issues during the lockdown, according to the survey of almost 20,000 pregnant women and mothers conducted online last week.
Among those who were or expected to be made redundant during the pandemic, about half said they believed that their pregnancy or problems with childcare had played a role.
Black and ethic minority women were more likely to report that they were being made redundant, or expected to be, as a result of having children.
Updated
Here are a few more photos of exercise enthusiasts flexing their muscles in public, in England’s indoor gyms and leisure centres, for the first time in months:
Updated
The head of the UK’s largest operator of leisure facilities has warned that gyms and leisure centres will be unable to dig themselves out of a “financial hole” caused by lockdown closures for around “two to three years”.
Mark Sesnan, chief executive of social enterprise GLL, said “profit” is a word he “hasn’t heard in a while”.
Speaking at the London aquatics centre and gym at its reopening on Saturday, he said:
The reality is, you’ve got a business that has no income, and still has half the costs. Even though the furlough scheme, which has been very helpful, pays the staff costs - or most of them - the other half of our costs we’ve had to cover ourselves.
We’ve used our reserves to pay for that, but they’re running out and running out fast. So getting open is important, but actually running at half capacity, as you can guess, is still not going to solve the problem.
So it’s a long journey - it’s going to be two or three years before we can dig ourselves out of the financial hole.
And of course, it’s not just GLL, it’s lots of leisure companies, private and public, up and down the country.
Coronavirus death toll in England's hospitals increases by 25
The total number of people to have died after testing positive for Covid-19 in England’s hospitals has increased by 25 to 29,272, according to official figures.
The patients were aged between 52 and 93 years old and none had any underlying health conditions, according to NHS England.
The deaths took place in the following locations:
- London: 9
- Midlands: 7
- North East & Yorkshire: 1
- North West: 3
- South East: 5
A further eight deaths have been reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
Scotland records 27 new Covid-19 cases
Scotland has recorded 27 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in a day, according to the latest Scottish Government figures.
A total of 18,547 people have now tested positive for the virus in Scotland.
No deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19 have been recorded for nine consecutive days, meaning the toll remains at 2,491.
The percentage of people testing positive remains at 0.7%, the figures indicate, up 0.3% from Friday.
Updated
Here is a selection of photos from Wellington Boxing Academy in Telford, where fighters are dusting off their gloves for the first time in four months.
Updated
Another fitness fan is Peter Topping, who spoke to PA news agency as he queued up outside his local gym in Hexham this morning, keen to get back inside.
He said:
We were queuing outside for just a few minutes, and the staff briefed people while we were waiting.
It was brilliant to be back, but hard work after four months off.
He said the Wentworth gym managed social distancing well, with a separate entrance and exit and other social distancing measures in place.
Shahzad Chaudhry was among a number of exercise enthusiasts across England to queue up outside their gyms this morning, as leisure centres and indoor pools reopened for the first time in four months.
The Londoner said he felt “very comfortable” returning, and told the PA news agency:
I had to book my session online in advance.
Hand sanitisers and cleaning materials were available. The machines were spaced out and there was a one way in and one way out system.
In short, I felt comfortable and safe in the gym. I am very grateful that gyms are open.
Johnny Depp’s libel trial has been described as “galling” by lawyers at a time when the criminal justice system is struggling with a massive backlog, and deeply sensitive cases are being handled remotely.
One barrister questioned why Depp’s case had been allowed to proceed in person at the high court in London when she was having to deal over the phone or by Skype with proceedings for a child at risk of being removed from their parents.
The backlog of cases waiting to be heard in England and Wales has rocketed to more than half a million during the coronavirus pandemic, prompting fears that victims may drop out of delayed prosecutions.
Read the full report here:
Updated
Germany may introduce compulsory coronavirus testing for holidaymakers returning from high-risk destinations after the number of new infections in the country hit a two-month high, the country’s health minister has announced.
Health minister, Jens Spahn, told Deutschlandfunk radio the government wanted to do everything possible to stem the spread of the virus while also respecting people’s basic rights.
“We are also checking whether it is legally possible to oblige someone to do a test, because it would be an encroachment on freedom,” Spahn said.
The minister, who is a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, added that the courts were examining all coronavirus measures to ensure they were proportionate in light of their impact on basic rights.
On Friday, Spahn and his regional counterparts from Germany’s 16 federal states agreed that authorities would offer returning holidaymakers free tests on a voluntary basis.
Arrivals from countries designated as high-risk – which currently include the US, Brazil and Turkey – will be eligible for immediate tests, while arrivals from other places will be able to get tested within three days.
If a holidaymaker arriving home from a high-risk country tests negative they will not have to observe a 14-day quarantine, which is otherwise mandatory though it has been loosely enforced.
Germany has so far done a better job than many countries at containing the virus thanks to early and extensive testing.
However, video footage of unruly behaviour by some German tourists in Spain has raised concerns that holidaymakers are at increased risk of infection and could bring the virus home.
The number of new confirmed cases increased sharply on Friday to 815, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed, the biggest tally since mid-May. It remained high on Saturday with 781 new cases.
The World Health Organization reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Friday.
Updated
Families struggling to pay for funerals are facing rising prices across Great Britain, helping councils to net a £55m surplus from cremations and cemetery burials in 2019, the Observer has learned.
Surpluses are expected to rise significantly this year as a result of the Covid-19 death toll.
Figures from more than 160 authorities in England, Scotland and Wales, obtained under Freedom of Information requests and seen by the Observer, show an average rise in fees this year of £26 – twice the rate of inflation. The biggest increase was imposed by Trafford council, a hike of £131, from £704 to £835.
Read the full report:
Updated
The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, has urged people to practise physical distancing during upcoming Muslim festivities following a reported surge in coronavirus infections in a major holy city, Reuters reports.
Muslims around the world mark the Eid al-Adha feast, due to start at the end of the month. This year, Saudi Arabia is to limit the number of domestic pilgrims attending haj to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Most Iranians are Shia Muslims, who also mark their most significant mourning ceremonies of Ashura in September.
“Let glorious festivities be held in mosques and religious centres by observing health protocols and social distancing,” Rouhani said.
“Let masks this year be part of the glorious mourning of Muharram,” Rouhani said, referring to Ashura, the 10th day of the lunar month of Muharram, when according to Islamic tradition Imam Hussein was killed in battle in 680.
The deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, also urged people not to visit the north-eastern holy city of Mashad, which he said has seen an increase of 300% in coronavirus cases over the last month.
Millions typically visit Mashad’s Imam Reza shrine, which is Iran*s largest Shia religious complex. Iran’s confirmed tally of coronavirus cases reached 288,839 on Saturday, with 15,485 deaths, according to the health ministry.
Updated
The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has announced that he has tested negative for coronavirus, after testing positive for the third time on Wednesday.
“Good morning everyone,” Bolsonaro wrote on Facebook after reporting that the test was negative. The controversial far-right figure, 65, did not reveal when he did the latest test, his fourth since initially declaring on 7 July that he had the virus.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly trivialised the pandemic and flouted physical distancing, even as Brazil became the second-worst-hit country after the US, with more than 84,000 deaths.
Updated
Earlier, we reported on the confirmation of Vietnam’s first new coronavirus case in three months. The 57-year-old man is now in a critical condition, according to state media.
This is the latest, courtesy of Reuters:
Vietnam was back on high alert for the coronavirus on Saturday after medical officials in the central city of Danang detected the country’s first locally transmitted case for three months.
Vietnam has imposed strict quarantine measures and carried out an aggressive and widespread testing programme during the pandemic, keeping its total tally of reported infections to just 417, with no deaths.
It had reported no locally transmitted infections for 100 days until Friday, when the health ministry said a 57-year-old man from Danang, a tourist hot spot, had tested positive.
State media reported late on Saturday that the man was in critical condition, and specialised doctors had flown from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang to treat him.
Authorities said 50 people the patient came into contact with have been isolated. The ministry said 103 people connected to the patient were tested for the virus but all returned negative results.
It said more than 11,800 people are being quarantined throughout the country, including 147 at hospitals.
The government did not say how the man contracted the virus but said he had not left Danang for nearly a month. He was initially diagnosed with pneumonia. A fresh test on Saturday had confirmed the coronavirus infection, authorities said.
The case comes at a time when Vietnam was about to resume international commercial flights and as domestic tourism is surging.
Late on Friday, authorities in the capital, Hanoi, reinstated a recommendation to wear masks in public places.
Vietnam’s ban on international commercial flights is still in place, but foreign experts and skilled workers have been able to enter provided they undergo mandatory quarantine.
Of the nearly 150 cases reported over the past three months, all were found in people who had been quarantined on arrival.
It comes after a British pilot, Stephen Cameron, 42, was discharged from a hospital last month after doctors said he was virus-free and healthy enough to return home to Scotland, after 68 days on a ventilator. He was thought to have been the country’s most critical Covid-19 patient.
Updated
The first responses given to a coronavirus inquiry cite as key mistakes made by the government in its approach to the pandemic in England a lack of protective equipment, inadequate testing, and discharging people from hospitals into care homes.
Older people were “catastrophically let down” and many died before their time, according to a damning submission from the Age UK charity. It also described the initial policy of discharging the elderly from hospital into care settings without a Covid-19 test as a “terrible mistake”.
The British Medical Association said the government’s test-and-trace capabilities at the start of the crisis fell far short of what was needed and left the infection to spread unchecked, while the Unite union doctors group said the government had been slow and squandered weeks of valuable time.
Updated
Lunchtime summary
- England’s gyms and indoor pools are reopening for the first time in four months in the latest easing of lockdown measures. But at least a third of public facilities are expected to remain shut due to financial hardship. Meanwhile, Public Health England said the case for action on obesity has “never been stronger”, after publishing a review of evidence that shows why being overweight remains one of the biggest risk factors in the battle against Covid-19.
- Huge anti-government demonstrations have erupted in Russia’s far east, as people defied coronavirus restrictions to protest against the arrest of a popular governor who was replaced by a Kremlin appointee who has never lived in the fraught region. The AFP news agency reports that residents of Khabarovsk, near the border with China, took to the streets en masse for the third Saturday in a row after governor Sergei Furgal was arrested by federal law enforcement and flown to Moscow on murder charges earlier this month.
- Thousands of people have been crammed into a baseball stadium in the Philippines, breaking social distancing rules despite coronavirus risks, after people wanting to return to their home provinces flooded a government transportation program. Reuters reports that officials had planned for 7,500 people to arrive at the stadium from Friday, but were caught out when another 2,000 people who were not yet scheduled to travel headed there anyway.
- The UK government has urged the public to help speed up the search for a coronavirus vaccine by signing up to participate in clinical studies. The business secretary, Alok Sharma, appealed for more volunteers to put themselves forward for vaccine trials in a column for the Daily Mail on Saturday.“ We are asking people to register to participate in important clinical studies, helping to speed up the search for a vaccine and to end the pandemic sooner,” he wrote.
Updated
Deafblind woman and sister verbally abused for lifting mask on train
A teenager was subjected to a verbal tirade after she briefly lifted her face covering on a train so her deafblind sister could read her lips.
Karolina Pakenaite, who has Usher syndrome, was travelling to Southport with her 16-year-old sister, Saule, and guide dog when they were confronted by another passenger.
Read the full report:
Pubgoers urged to self-isolate after 16 cases linked to pub
Health officials are urging visitors to a West Sussex pub to self-isolate after it was linked to 16 new coronavirus cases.
Crawley borough council has urged everyone who has visited the Downsman pub between 8 and 18 July (excluding 16 July) to self-isolate for two weeks from the date of their last visit.
On 19 July, the pub posted on Facebook that it had taken the decision to temporarily close after two of its staff members tested positive for Covid-19.
“There are 16 confirmed cases of coronavirus with a link to the pub and while this is a relatively small number and may not be the definite source of infection for all these cases, we are asking people to take action to ensure the virus does not spread further,” says a statement on the councils’ website.
“West Sussex county council public health and Public Health England are continuing to monitor the situation and will organise contact tracing for any further identified cases who may have visited the pub.”
Updated
Greece will prioritise giving coronavirus vaccines to the elderly and high-risk groups if and when they become available, the country’s health minister has said.
“If and when a vaccine comes, we will prioritise those who must take it above all,” Vassilis Kikilias told Skai TV on Saturday.
“Who is that? Our very aged fellow citizens, the very elderly, high-risk groups ... we will protect those in danger.”
He added that vaccines will not be compulsory but they will be “strongly recommended.”
Greece has so far recorded 201 Covid-19 deaths and more than 4,100 infections.
Last month the country began progressively reopening its land borders to selective countries, before allowing mostly European flights to all its on 1 July.
With a quarter of the nation’s economy dependent on tourism, the government has sought to reassure potential visitors they can safely vacation in Greece.
More than 900,000 people entered the country after all its airports reopened, civil protection deputy minister Nikos Hardalias said this week.
So far there have been nearly 300 confirmed infections among incoming travellers, mainly from the Balkans.
Greece’s civil protection agency on Saturday announced that from 28 July, all air passengers from Bulgaria and Romania must have proof of having tested negative up to 72 hours before travel.
Updated
The mayor of Luton and two councillors have issued an apology after a photos emerged of them flouting lockdown regulations while attending a party.
Video footage and photos, first reported by the Telegraph (£), show mayor Tahir Malik and councillors Waheed Akbar and Asif Mahmood at a packed garden party on Tuesday with at least nine other men.
The images of the event were shared on Facebook, provoking outrage from residents who are potentially facing a local lockdown.
Luton was placed on the government’s “area of intervention” list on Thursday, following an increase in Covid-19 cases.
“Luton is suffering from coronavirus, with many residents who have lost family members in Luton specially [sic] BAME communities in LU4,” wrote resident Steve Harrison in a Facebook post. “But our elected members of the Luton Labour Party can behave anyway they like above the law.”
In one photo, the mayor can be seen with his mask hanging below his face. In others the men can be seen eating together and chatting at close distance without gloves or masks.
The three Labour councillors said in a statement to Luton Today: “We apologise unreservedly to the people of Luton for our breach of the lockdown rules.
“We attended what we believed was going to be a small socially distanced gathering, in line with the government guidelines.
“During the course of the event, the arrival of additional guests meant the rules were breached.
“We should have left immediately, and it is a matter of sincere regret for each of us that we did not do so.
“It is all of our responsibility to follow the guidelines. We are sorry that we did not live up to the standards that are rightly expected of us.”
New testing shortages hit California’s vulnerable hardest amid record Covid-19 infections
As coronavirus cases surge, California is once again facing testing shortages and delays reminiscent of the first weeks of the pandemic in March. Those issues, healthcare providers say, are hurting the state’s most vulnerable first.
This week, California marked record numbers of Covid-19 cases and deaths, with more than 12,800 new cases on Tuesday and 159 deaths on Thursday. With medical centres and testing sites overwhelmed, supply shortages have left Californians in some counties waiting more than a week for an appointment to get tested, and and even longer while labs process their results.
Maanvi Singh in Oakland has the full report:
Xavi Hernandez tests positive for Covid-19
The former Barcelona star Xavi Hernandez has tested positive for coronavirus, his Qatari club Al-Sadd has announced, adding he would miss their league restart fixture against Al-Khor.
Xavi, 40, recently quashed rumours that he was preparing to move back to Barcelona and signed on for another season at the helm of the Qatari top-flight side.
“A few days ago, following the Qatar Stars League protocol, I tested positive in the last Covid-19 test,” Xavi said in a post on Al-Sadd’s twitter account on Saturday.
“Fortunately, I’m feeling OK, but I will be isolated until I am given the all-clear. When the health services allow it, I will be very eager to return to my daily routine and to work.”
Xavi : Today I won’t be able to join my team on their comeback to the official competition. David Prats will be there on my behalf as head of the technical staff - coach to the @alsaddsc reserves. pic.twitter.com/HDvRd9ZN46
— AlSadd S.C | نادي السد (@AlsaddSC) July 25, 2020
Almost 4% of Qatar’s 2.75m people have had coronavirus, with 108,638 cases reported since the start of the pandemic giving the tiny Gulf state one of the highest per capita total infection rates.
However the gas-rich country has reported just 164 deaths meaning it has one of the world’s lowest virus death rates and 105,420 people have recovered from Covid-19, according to official statistics.
“Today I won’t be able to join my team on their comeback to the official competition,” added Xavi referring to Al-Sadd’s clash against rivals Al-Khor due to get underway at 4pm on Saturday.
It is Al-Sadd’s first outing since the Qatari league was suspended in March to stem the spread of the virus.
Updated
Poland has 584 new Covid-19 cases, the country’s ministry of health tweeted on Saturday morning:
Mamy 584 nowe i potwierdzone przypadki zakażenia #koronawirus z województw: śląskiego (188), małopolskiego (142), mazowieckiego (62), wielkopolskiego (34), łódzkiego (32), pomorskiego (23), dolnośląskiego (21), podkarpackiego (21), opolskiego (20), lubelskiego (12),
— Ministerstwo Zdrowia (@MZ_GOV_PL) July 25, 2020
Ukraine reports highest daily number of Covid-19 cases in a month
The number of new coronavirus cases in Ukraine has risen by 1,106 in 24 hours – the highest daily toll since 26 June, according to the health minister, Maksym Stepanov.
Reuters reports that the number of new daily infections has increased sharply in the past two months following the gradual lifting of restrictions that began in late-May.
Stepanov said that 205 people had been admitted to hospitals. “It means their lives are under threat and we have to understand that this disease is very serious,” he told an online briefing.
The total number of cases rose to 63,929, including 1,590 deaths, while 35,497 patients recovered as of 25 July.
Stepanov appealed to people to stick to rules aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.
Ukraine’s government this week extended a nationwide lockdown until 31 August, requiring people to wear masks and adhere to social distancing rules in restaurants and public places. At the same time, it will allow separate regions to ease the regime if warranted.
Ukraine’s central bank forecast a 6% slump in gross domestic product mainly due to coronavirus restrictions in 2020 compared with 3.2% growth last year.
Updated
Coronavirus world map: which countries have the most Covid-19 cases and deaths?
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, using this map:
For those of you joining us from the UK, check out the following map to see the picture near you:
This is Aaron Walawalkar in London here, steering you through the latest developments in the global coronavirus pandemic. Feel free to DM me any updates we should be covering on Twitter @AaronWala.
Thousands of people have been crammed into a baseball stadium in the Philippines, breaking social distancing rules despite coronavirus risks, after people wanting to return to their home provinces flooded a government transportation program.
Officials had reserved the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, in Manila, as a place to test people before transporting them back to their home provinces under a program to help people who had lost their jobs in the capital return to their families elsewhere.
Reuters reports that officials had planned for 7,500 people to arrive at the stadium from Friday, but were caught out when another 2,000 people who were not yet scheduled to travel headed there anyway.
“Because of the overflowing number of people, we can no longer control (the situation) and the relevance of social distancing had been diminished,” assistant secretary Joseph Encabo, who is overseeing the government’s transportation assistance program, told Reuters by phone.
Police were deployed to urge social distancing, but people, including the elderly, children and pregnant women, were seen in close contact with each other. Some were not wearing masks.
Many of those at the stadium had got stuck in the capital when it imposed one of the strictest and longest lockdowns in mid-March in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
That was eased at the start of June, allowing businesses to reopen in a limited capacity, but schools remain shut and mass gatherings are banned.
People must wear masks in public and observe one-metre social distancing, while children and the elderly are urged to stay at home.
Coronavirus cases have more than quadrupled since restrictions were eased to 78,412, with more than half of those in the capital and surrounding areas.
Among those at the stadium was Fred Marick Ukol, 40, who became stuck in Manila after his flight to Australia, where he had found work as a welder, was cancelled.
Referring to himself and fellow overseas Filipino workers, Ukol said:
We don’t have work and now all of our savings have dried up because of the lockdown.
Encabo said everybody at the stadium would undergo rapid testing for Covid-19 and must be cleared before being allowed to board the buses, sea vessels, and trains the government has prepared.
Huge anti-government demonstrations have erupted in Russia’s far east, as people defied coronavirus restrictions to protest against the arrest of a popular governor who was replaced by a Kremlin appointee who has never lived in the fraught region.
The AFP news agency reports that residents of Khabarovsk, near the border with China, took to the streets en masse for the third Saturday in a row after governor Sergei Furgal was arrested by federal law enforcement and flown to Moscow on murder charges earlier this month.
The running demonstrations have been some of the largest anti-government protests in Russia in years, which the Kremlin said this week were being fuelled by opposition activists outside Khabarovsk.
Tens of thousands of residents marched through Khabarovsk waving the region’s flag, carrying banners and chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin as passing cars honked their horns in support.
“We want our governor to be released because we believe he was very likely detained illegally,” said 24-year-old protester Alina Slepova.
Furgal was removed by federal officials “for their own purposes, not for the good of our region,” she told AFP.
Demonstrators converged in front of the regional administrative building on Lenin square shouting “Freedom” and “Putin resign”.
Police wearing masks allowed the demonstrations to go ahead despite a ban on public gatherings as part of measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
Updated
Hong Kong reports 133 new Covid-19 cases
Hong Kong reported 133 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, according to Reuters – a record daily increase.
Of these new cases, 126 are believed to be locally transmitted.
The Asian financial hub reported 123 new cases on Friday, after it extended strict social distancing measures this week.
Since late January, more than 2,000 people have been infected in Hong Kong, 18 of whom have died.
Updated
Wearing face masks became compulsory in a variety of public indoor spaces in England on Friday.
As the Danish economist Esther Boserup once said: “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
... And merchandise companies have invented a novel way to communicate your favourite pop-culture references, without needing to rely any longer on actual verbal interaction.
Stuart Heritage rounds up some of the best and worst offerings...
Updated
Indonesia reports 1,868 new cases
Indonesia reported 1,868 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, bringing the total to 97,286, data from the country’s Covid-19 task force showed.
The number of deaths related to Covid-19 rose by 49, bringing the total to 4,714.
Updated
The UK government has announced plans to save around 150 grassroots music venues from insolvency while cashflow is limited for venues shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic.
The culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, released £2.25m for the sector from the overall £1.57bn fund announced on 5 July to shore up the arts in the UK.
“Without our grassroots music venues, we wouldn’t have the Beatles, Adele or Elton John,” he said. “Nearly all our globally successful music stars started out at UK clubs and live music venues – and we must make sure those organisations weather the Covid storm.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas has the full report:
Updated
“We had a full entertainment team, and the schedule all worked out for this beautiful journey ... Little did I know it was going to be the most challenging contract I had taken so far.”
Those are the words of Thomas Weber, 50, director of what is thought to be the last cruise before much of the world went into coronavirus lockdown.
Sam Wollaston has the full report on what took place on board the MS Maasdam cruise ship in the weeks before it docked in San Diego in March, amid the global pandemic.
UK government appeals for vaccine trial volunteers
The UK government has urged the public to help speed up the search for a coronavirus vaccine by signing up to participate in clinical studies.
The business secretary, Alok Sharma, appealed for more volunteers to put themselves forward for vaccine trials in a column for the Daily Mail on Saturday.
“We are asking people to register to participate in important clinical studies, helping to speed up the search for a vaccine and to end the pandemic sooner,” he wrote.
“As a government, we are backing every horse in the race to ensure the British public can be vaccinated against this disease as soon as possible.”
Earlier this week, initial trials of a vaccine under development by Oxford University appeared to show their inoculation is safe and triggers an immune response. The result is very promising, but it is still too early to say whether it offers enough protection against the virus.
Sharma said: “Over the past few months, we have been cautiously and gradually reopening our economy, and it is fantastic to see so many shops, pubs, hairdressers, and other businesses taking necessary steps to keep customers and workers safe.
“But we all know that the best way to defeat this disease once and for all, and really get our economy firing on all cylinders again so we can protect and create jobs, is by finding a safe and effective vaccine.”
He added: “Volunteers can play their part by signing up at nhs.uk/researchcontact.
“Every member of the public has a supporting role to play as we await that momentous breakthrough.”
Updated
The ancient theatre of Epidaurus, renowned for its acoustics, has reopened for a limited number of open-air performances, and organisers planning a live-streamed event on Saturday for the first time in the Greek monument’s 2,300-year history.
Live concerts and events have been mostly cancelled in Greece this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic. But the culture ministry has allowed the Epidaurus theatre, in the southern Peloponnese, and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens to host performances under strict safety guidelines.
Here is a selection of photos of the spectacular Epidaurus theatre as it returned to use this week:
Updated
Russia records 5,871 new cases
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Russia has increased by 5,871, according to official figures.
Data released by Russia’s coronavirus crisis response centre on Saturday also reveals there have been 146 more deaths from the disease.
The nation’s tally of infections now stands at 806,720, and the death toll has reached 13,192.
Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, has announced that he may delay his plans to step down as leader within the next two years due to the pandemic.
The 68-year-old said on Saturday that he may no longer be able to handover to a successor by the time he turns 70, as he had hoped.
“I had expressed a hope that I would be able to hand over by the time I celebrate my 70th birthday but I do not determine the path of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Lee, son of Singapore’s modern day founder, Lee Kuan Yew.
“A lot will depend on how events unfold and all I can say is I will see this through and I will hand over in good shape as soon as possible to the next team.”
Lee’s People’s Action party has ruled Singapore since independence in 1965.
Updated
More details are emerging on the recent spike in coronavirus cases in South Korea reported earlier today.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 113 new cases on Saturday – the largest one-day increase since March.
Reuters reports that two South Korean military aircraft arrived in the country from Iraq on Friday, carrying 293 workers who were evacuated as cases swelled in the Middle Eastern country.
The KCDC deputy director, Kwon Jun-wook, said in a briefing on Saturday that 71 of those people were infected with Covid-19 and a further 11 people were being re-examined.
“It’s likely that there will be similar cases like this Iraq case anywhere in the world, and [South Korea] will repeat the same measure, so we urge people to factor that in when looking at figures of the confirmed cases,” Kwon said.
A large number of crew members on a Russian ship have also tested positive, Kwon said.
Updated
Bulgaria Covid-19 cases pass 10,000
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Bulgaria passed 10,000 on Saturday, Reuters reports.
The Balkan country reported 270 infections in the past 24 hours, official data shows.
Eight people had died from the virus overnight, taking the official death toll to 337.
Total infections stand at 10,123. Some 5,252 people have recovered, data from the official coronavirus information platform showed.
Hello, it’s Aaron Walawalkar in London here, taking over on our global coronavirus liveblog from my colleague Elias Visontay. Please feel free to DM me your updates on Twitter @AaronWala.
This morning, England’s gyms and indoor pools are reopening for the first time in four months in the latest easing of lockdown measures. But at least a third of public facilities are expected to remain shut due to financial hardship.
Earlier this month, the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, announced that gyms and leisure centres would be able to reopen from 25 July, with strict hygiene and social-distancing measures.
Community Leisure UK, the members’ association that specialises in representing charitable leisure and culture trusts across England, Scotland and Wales, estimated that 48% of all public leisure facilities face closure, meaning as many as 1,300 could disappear by the end of the year, along with more than 58,000 jobs.
The reopening of leisure centres comes as Public Health England said the case for action on obesity has “never been stronger”, who today publish a review of evidence which shows that being overweight remains one of the biggest risk factors in the battle against Covid-19. My colleague Haroon Siddique has the full report.
Updated
South Australia has recorded no new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday.
While the state has recorded 447 cases since the pandemic began, there are only two active cases currently.
Next week, the state will introduce tighter restrictions for residents wanting to return home from Victoria, where the wide-scale lockdowns are in place.
South Australian COVID-19 update 25/07/20. For more information go to https://t.co/mYnZsG7zGQ or contact the South Australian COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787. pic.twitter.com/tBTUvbu6pV
— SA Health (@SAHealth) July 25, 2020
Updated
Seeing as aged care seems to the focus of both the Victorian and federal government’s attention today, here is an important read from my colleagues Gay Alcorn and Matilda Boseley.
They write that the disaster unfolding in Victoria’s aged care homes was “absolutely foreseeable” according to one of the country’s foremost experts in aged care says, who looks at the sector’s issues with poorly trained workers who are often underpaid.
Earlier today the Australian health minister, Greg Hunt, announced a Victorian aged care response centre. This AAP report explains a bit more about what the centre will do:
The Commonwealth and Victorian governments have established an aged care response centre to assist with the growing crisis in the sector, which has been severely hit by the second wave of coronavirus.
Victoria recorded 357 new cases on Saturday, and a further five deaths, bringing the national death toll to 145.
There are now over 500 infections in aged care facilities across the state, evenly split between health workers and residents.
The new Victorian aged care response centre will assist with workforce provisions, the prevention of outbreaks and support for providers.
“That is a very important step forward in helping to coordinate, helping to ensure rapid response where these cases are occurring,” Hunt said.
Staff shortages are a problem in Victoria as workers are required to self-isolate while awaiting test results, and only allowed to work at one site.
Updated
Summary
Here’s where we stand right now:
- The United States recorded over 1,000 deaths for the fourth day in a row. It is the first four-day streak since early June.
- Mexico reported 7,573 new cases. There were also 737 deaths, as the government warns the real number of infections is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases
- Victoria recorded 357 new cases and five deaths. Health officials say the number of new cases every day is stubborn, but there has been some stability, amid dozens of clusters in aged care facilities and food distribution facilities across the state.
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New South Wales reported 15 new cases. Eight are associated with the Thai Rock restaurant cluster. One case is under investigation. Six are returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
- Germany reported 781 new cases.
- South Korea reported 113 new cases. The highest number of new cases since March. Of the new cases, 86 were imported and 27 were domestic infections.
- Vietnam reports first local case in three months. Vietnam’s health ministry said that a 57-year-old man from Danang, a popular tourist hotspot, had tested positive three times for the virus, prompting the isolation of 50 people he came in contact with.
- The WHO reported the greatest single-day increase in global cases yet seen, with the total rising by 284,196 in 24 hours. The biggest increases were from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a daily report.
Western Australia has reported no new active cases of coronavirus for the seventh straight day.
The state’s total case number rose by two, however, to 656 after historical cases were identified through serology testing – one woman in her 20s and one woman in her 40s, both linked to overseas travel, with one being a former passenger on the Ruby Princess cruise ship.
A total of 585 tests were conducted in WA on Friday, and there are currently five active cases in the state.
Updated
Speaking of Vietnam, AP reports Australia has welcomed the decision of Vietnam to ban wildlife imports and close wildlife markets over threats posed by diseases that jump from animals to humans, like Covid-19.
The Australian agriculture minister, David Littleproud, said Vietnam’s crackdown was a huge win for global public health.
“Vietnam is reducing the risk of future pandemics and showing the world how we can manage these markets into the future,” Littleproud said.
“All nations have a responsibility to keep people safe from harm and regulating the production and sale of wild animals that carry diseases is a critical part of that.”
He said the Vietnamese government should be congratulated for their leadership in taking “evidence-based approach to reducing the risk of animal to human diseases being spread. Australia will also continue to pursue global reforms on this issue where other opportunities exist.”
Updated
Vietnam reports first local case in three months
Reuters is reporting medical officials in the central city of Danang detected what could be the first local case of Covid-19 in Vietnam in three months.
Thanks to strict quarantine measures and an aggressive and widespread testing programme, Vietnam has kept its virus total to an impressively low 415 cases, and had reported no locally transmitted infections for 100 days.
But on Friday, Vietnam’s health ministry said in a statement that a 57-year-old man from Danang, a popular tourist hotspot, had tested positive three times for the virus, prompting the isolation of 50 people he came in contact with.
One hundred and three people connected to the patient were tested for the virus but all returned negative results, the statement said.
The health ministry has not officially confirmed the case as Covid-19, which comes at a time when Vietnam was about to resume international commercial flights and as domestic tourism is surging.
It did not say how the man contracted the virus, but said he had not left Danang for nearly a month. He was initially diagnosed with pneumonia.
Late on Friday, authorities in Hanoi reinstated a recommendation to wear masks in public places as Vietnam’s benchmark VN Index closed down 3.22%.
Updated
The Australian Capital Territory has recorded no new cases of coronavirus.
The territory is reminding people not to be complacent, and any Canberrans that visited Batemans Bay Soldiers Club on Monday 13 July and Wednesday 15 July through to Friday 17 July are legally required to self-quarantine immediately for 14 days from the date of visit.
They’re also encouraged to get tested for Covid-19.
Updated
I missed this earlier this morning, but a Victorian man was arrested on Friday afternoon in Renmark, South Australia.
The 39-year-old man was found sleeping in his car near a cemetery at Renmark West after being refused entry to South Australia at 2.30am that morning.
He was arrested and charged with failing to comply with Covid-19 directions. He’s been refused bail and will appear in court on Monday.
Updated
Queensland records no new cases
There were no new cases of coronavirus reported in Queensland on Saturday, but the state has reimposed a ban on pub-goers standing at bars or high tables, AAP reports.
The state health minister, Steven Miles, said the coronavirus social distancing rule, which means patrons must be seated when eating and drinking, would help venues remain open.
“We do not want to get to the point where we have to close down businesses again,” he told reporters on Saturday.
“While I understand these new restrictions make doing business and having a drink a little bit harder it is not too much to sacrifice to keep the doors open and keep all those workers employed.”
Queensland’s chief health officer, Jeannette Young, reinstated the health restriction late on Friday, causing vocal frustration among some venue operators, many of whom have only recently fully reopened due to Covid-19 rules.
The ruling means patrons must be seated when eating and drinking but can still order from the bar. The number of people allowed in venues will remain the same.
Updated
Here is some more on that party in Thredbo in New South Wales, via AAP.
NSW police about 11pm on Friday attended an area of bushland near Jindabyne where they discovered a large bonfire and lighting, as well as an amplified music set up and DJ.
The majority of attendees fled into the bushland as authorities shut down the event, but the NSW police assistant commissioner, Scott Whyte, said a “significant number” of people were detained.
“Every single person that’s been identified will be fined,” Whyte told reporters on Saturday.
Updated
The Thai Rock Restaurant cluster (60) is now bigger than the Crossroads Hotel cluster (56)
— casey briggs (@CaseyBriggs) July 25, 2020
Germany records 781 new cases
Germany has recorded an increase in coronavirus cases of 781 to 204,964 in total. The death toll has risen by 7 to 9,118.
Greg Hunt says there are 28 ADF teams on the ground in Melbourne assisting with contact tracing following up where health officials have not been able to contact someone who has tested positive.
The Australian health minister, Greg Hunt, held a press conference around the same time as the Victorian press conference (because that is what usually ends up happening).
In Australia, there are now 13,950 confirmed cases and 145 deaths.
He says there is a “global acceleration” in the pandemic.
He said in Victoria it is stable, but there are significant numbers.
He says there needs to be a week of sustained lowering of numbers before success can be declared.
Updated
Brett Sutton says even though the mask requirements allow for people to not wear a mask when they’re running, he says if you can manage it you should.
He says he does know people who can run marathons wearing a mask, but the exemption is there for people who can’t manage it.
That’s the end of the presser.
Updated
Daniel Andrews says he is confident that authorities will put a stop to scams where people are calling up claiming to be contact tracers and demanding payment for tests.
“I think that anytime people behave in that sort of completely immoral, unconscionable way, that is a challenge. I am confident that between health department, Consumer Affairs Victoria and potentially Victoria police, if that is appropriate, we can deal with that.
“No member of the contact tracing team is going to be asking for your credit card or your bank details.”
Updated
Andrews says those refusing to wear masks are making selfish choices.
“They are not even in the interests of the people themselves, because it will just mean these rules and this sort of conflict, which is completely unnecessary, by the way, but these rules will be in place longer if people continue to behave that way.”
There was a well-publicised case yesterday of a coronavirus conspiracy theorist getting past a roadblock to get out of Melbourne to regional Victoria. She posted the video online, and Andrews said she could be fined if the police find her.
“Victoria police have that matter in hand ... They are working hard to find that person. And that person will either have a lawful reason to be in regional Victoria or that person won’t, and if they don’t, then Victoria police, I am confident, will fine them.”
Updated
Daniel Andrews is asked whether, given the ADF infection, people can be confident the ADF won’t be spreading coronavirus as they go door to door.
Andrews says the main reason ADF officers will be knocking on your door is if you test positive for the virus and you haven’t answered a call from health officials, but says the healthcare worker infection rate shows just how infectious coronavirus is and all precautions were being taken.
“Even with the full PPE, layer upon layer, no PPE can reduce the risk to zero. But ADF are playing a really important part, and we are very grateful to them.”
Updated
Brett Sutton says health authorities are continuing to watch the situation in regional Victoria carefully, where the lockdown is not currently applied, but there isn’t the kind of community transmission that has been seen in Melbourne. Most of the transmission has been within families.
Brett Sutton says the current numbers are “pretty stubborn to shift” but we need to see the impact of universal mask usage in the next few weeks.
He says a harder lockdown wouldn’t necessarily reduce numbers because the cases where outbreaks are occurring are the places that would remain open in a stage-four scenario – aged care, food distribution and production facilities and healthcare facilities.
He says it’s unlikely we will be opening up in the next two weeks, and cases won’t go to zero because the outbreaks are really difficult to manage.
“This will have quite a tail, even if we see numbers start to drop in the next week or two.”
Updated
Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton has outlined the known clusters and outbreaks:
- 183 cases linked to Al Taqwa College.
- 74 cases linked to St Basil’s home for the aged in Fawkner
- 71 cases linked to Estia Health in Ardeer
- 60 cases linked to Menarock life aged care in Essendon
- 40 cases linked to SDR health in Heidelberg
- 49 cases linked to Glendale aged care in Werribee
- 23 cases linked to Baptcare Wyndham Lodge in Werribee
- 22 cases linked to Regis Aged Care in Brighton
- 80 cases linked to Somerville retail services in Tottenham
- 45 cases now linked to the Australian lamb company in Colac.
- 21 cases linked to the Woolworth distribution centre in Mulgrave
- 10 cases linked to Star Track parcel distribution in Laverton
- Seven cases linked to Bingo Recycling in West Melbourne
- Five cases linked to staff at a KFC in Truganina
- Five cases have been linked to Probe Group in Melbourne’s CBD
- Two cases linked to D’orsonga Meats in Mechelen.
- Two cases that are associated with Alfred Health Grand Chancellor hotel in Melbourne
- One ADF officer who has tested positive who was supporting the Craigieburn testing
Daniel Andrews says he is proud to see how many Victorians are wearing masks, now that it is mandatory.
He said the mask edict was essentially stage-four restrictions.
“I cannot tell you how proud I was to travel in here this morning and see literally every single person on my journey into the office from the middle-ring suburbs in the south-east, wearing a mask,” he said. “It is just a fantastic thing.”
Updated
As foreshadowed yesterday, the Commonwealth government, with the Victorian government is acting to ensure casual staff in Aged care facilities aren’t working at more than one facility, Daniel Andrews announces.
We are working very closely with the Commonwealth government, with aged care providers and with unions to consolidate shifts into single sites, do not have workers that are more often than not casual in the nature of their employment. Not moving between multiple sites but instead concentrating them on one site, that obviously doesn’t eliminate but significantly reduces the risk of the virus being transmitted by staff from one setting to another.
The federal government is going to provide support for those workers who will be disadvantaged by the new policy.
Andrews says all workers are now required to wear personal protective equipment, too.
There are currently 3,995 active cases across Victoria, including 313 healthcare workers and 536 in 38 different aged care settings.
Updated
Victoria reports 357 new cases of coronavirus
The premier, Daniel Andrews, has announced 357 new cases of coronavirus have been detected in the past 24 hours.
- 37 are connected to known and contained outbreaks
- 320 are under investigation.
- There have been five more deaths, bringing the total to 61 deaths in Victoria
Of those who died, there was a woman in her 60s, a woman in her 70s, a woman in her 80s, a woman in her 90s and a man in his 80s.
There are 229 Victorians in hospital and 42 of those are receiving intensive care.
A total of 20,313 tests came back on Friday.
There is a total of 7,744 cases in Victoria.
This is just slightly higher than the 300 cases reported on Friday, but lower than the 484 we saw on Wednesday.
Updated
Today marks six months since Australia recorded its first Covid-19 case.
Here is how the Guardian first reported those cases on 25 January.
Updated
Sorry, in case there is confusion around the four from New South Wales identified from the church services that weren’t included in the 15 total, it’s because they were identified this morning, and the NSW figures only go to 8pm last night.
South Korea most new cases since March
Reuters reports South Korea reported 113 cases of the new coronavirus on Saturday, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said, the largest one-day increase since March, bring the country’s total to 14,092.
Of the new cases, 86 were imported and 27 were domestic infections.
South Korean health authorities on Friday said novel coronavirus infections among people arriving from abroad could drive the number of new cases on Friday to more than 100.
Updated
New South Wales reports 15 new cases
There are 15 new cases of coronavirus diagnosed in New South Wales as of 8pm on Friday night.
There were 30,535 tests in the period.
Of the 15 new cases:
- Eight are associated with the Thai Rock restaurant cluster.
- One case is under investigation.
- Six are returned travellers in hotel quarantine
There are four more cases linked to a series of funeral gatherings and a church service attended by a Fairfield woman in her 40s.
The additional cases are a couple in their 60s from the North Coast, and a couple in their 50s and 60s from South Western Sydney.
Those who attended the following are urged to self-isolate immediately and get tested regardless of symptoms:
- 16 July St Brendan’s Catholic Church Bankstown for one hour from 6.30pm
- 17 July Ausia Funeral Services at Fairfield East between 1pm and 8pm
- 18 July Funeral service at St Brendan’s Catholic Church Bankstown for one hour from 10am
- 18 July Burial service at St John of God Lawn at Rookwood between 11.30-1pm
- 19 July Our Lady of Mt Carmel at Mt Pritchard for one hour from 7.30am
Summary
Here’s the latest from Saturday so far:
- The United States recorded over 1,000 deaths for the fourth day in a row. It is the first four-day streak since early June.
- Mexico reports 7,573 new cases. There were also 737 deaths, as the government warns the real number of infections is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases
- The WHO reported the greatest single-day increase in global cases yet seen, with the total rising by 284,196 in 24 hours. The biggest increases were from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a daily report.
- Spain have warned that a “second wave” of coronavirus may already be happening in the country. The health ministry is tracking more than 280 active outbreaks across the country. On Friday, it logged 922 new Covid-19 cases – slightly down from 971 over the previous 24 hours. María José Sierra, the deputy head of Spain’s centre for health emergencies, said: “It could already be a second wave”.
- France is advising citizens not to travel to Catalonia amid rising coronavirus cases. Jean Castex, the French prime minister, also said the government would strengthen controls at the country’s borders to better control the pandemic. Nearly half of the 16,410 cases detected in Spain in the past fortnight were diagnosed in the north-eastern region.
- Norway will reimpose a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving on Spain. As part of the new measures, effective from tomorrow, the government will also ease restrictions on people entering the country from Sweden.
- Schools in South Africa have been closed for a month in a bid to curb the spread of the virus. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement came a day after researchers revealed that excess mortality data suggested South Africa’s Covid outbreak had contributed to substantially more deaths over a 10-week period from early May than official figures suggested.
- A 103-year-old man has recovered from Covid-19 in a makeshift hospital in Pakistan. Aziz Abdul Alim, a resident of a village in the mountainous northern district of Chitral, was released last week from an emergency response centre after testing positive in early July.
- Portugal has said the UK’s decision to persist with a quarantine regime for travellers from the country is not “backed by the facts”. Augusto Santos Silva, the foreign minister, made the comments after it was left off an updated list of countries exempt from the measures by the UK foreign office on Friday.
Mexico reports 7,573 new cases and 737 deaths
Mexico’s health ministry on Friday reported 7,573 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 737 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 378,285 cases and 42,645 total deaths, Reuters reports.
The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
Updated
US reports over 1,000 deaths for fourth day in a row
Reuters reports the US recorded over 1,000 deaths from Covid-19 for the fourth day in a row, for the first time since early June.
In the most recent outbreak, cases began rising in early June and deaths increased about six weeks later.
So far in July, 19 US states have broken one-day records for increases in Covid-19 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.
Texas lost a record 206 lives on Wednesday, Florida had a record increase of 173 deaths on Thursday and California’s record was 159 on Wednesday.
US deaths rose by at least 1,019 to a total of 145,352 on Friday compared with a rise of 1,140 on Thursday, 1,135 on Wednesday and 1,141 on Tuesday.
Total cases across the United States rose by at least 68,800 on Friday to over 4 million total.
Updated
The New South Wales police also say two house parties with more than 20 people were given fines for breaching Covid-19 restrictions, and a 22-year-old woman with no fixed place of abode was arrested and refused bail for breaching Covid directions from the Victorian border.
There was also an event organised in Thredbo national park where a DJ was present, and up to 100 people, and those people will be fined, too.
Updated
The New South Wales police minister, David Elliott, is holding a press conference announcing that previously covered announcement about inspections for venues this weekend to ensure they are Covidsafe compliant.
There is expected wet weather in NSW, and he is suggesting people who might need to evacuate should consider preparing a face mask for if they need to go to an evacuation centre.
Updated
Victorian charities have had to hire many more staff to cope with the demand brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, AAP reports.
On Friday charity Anglicare Victoria announced it was hiring 88 new staff across Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Anglicare says many of the clients its new recruits will work with have never used social services.
Staff will deliver food and supplies to isolated people, offer care during quarantine, and financial counselling to households struggling with bills.
The cash for fresh recruits comes from the state government’s $500 million Working For Victoria scheme, designed to find new work for unemployed Victorians.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre got funding from the scheme for 106 new staff, of whom 101 are asylum seekers, to meet pandemic-related demand.
Anthony Albanese is asked whether it is appropriate to send Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, and the defence minister, Linda Reynolds, to the United States in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said it was “absolutely right” for Australia to engage with the US.
“You know that the United States is our most important ally, and it’s important that these discussions take place. And I certainly wish that the defence and foreign ministers well. I’m sure that there will be appropriate safety mechanisms put in place.”
Updated
Australian Labor leader Anthony Albanese is holding a press conference this morning.
He says labour market deregulation is not the solution to getting out of the economic crisis, and points to insecure work actually worsening the pandemic.
The fact is that insecure work is not just a problem for the economy, we’ve seen during this crisis, that insecure work is an issue with the spread of this virus. The fact that many people feel that they have no alternative but to turn up to work, or in order to feed their kids, or to simply miss out on that income they need.
He also pointed to reports about a lack of training given to casual contractors in hotel quarantine and potential infections in Victoria from that.
He says there needs to be a “fair analysis” of Jobkeeper to ensure that businesses are given the support they need.
Updated
We are waiting for the daily press conferences for New South Wales and Victoria. No timing on that yet, but we will let you know as soon as we do.
Updated
Two people trying to get past a coronavirus checkpoint in Melbourne were caught with a stash of drugs, AAP reports.
The man and woman were nabbed attempting to evade the checkpoint at Lang Lang, south-east of Melbourne on Friday, Victoria police said.
The pair were pulled over and the female driver allegedly tested positive to an oral drug test.
A large quantity of ice, heroin, cocaine and prescription drugs was allegedly found in the car.
Her male passenger was also drug affected, police said.
The couple were charged with drug and trafficking offences, and for breaching the chief health officers directions.
Updated
The AP is reporting that two months after the US government awarded $21m to a study into whether a common heartburn drug was effective against Covid-19, government health officials have raised serious concerns about patient safety and scientific integrity:
The US Department of Health and Human Services outlined a long list of concerns in a June 8 letter, concluding there was “a high probability” that the companies doing the research would fail to honor the terms of the deal to assess famotidine, the active ingredient in Pepcid, as a coronavirus treatment.
Alchem Laboratories and its subcontractor, Northwell Health in New York, was the subject of ridicule by some government scientists who did not think the Pepcid study merited millions of federal research dollars. A federal whistleblower, Dr Rick Bright, cited the contract as a key example of what he called unethical conduct by agency leadership in deciding how to spend taxpayer dollars to combat the coronavirus.
Despite the problems, the HHS office spearheading the federal response to the coronavirus crisis has not canceled the contract. Northwell, the state’s largest health care provider, told AP earlier this week that the famotidine trial has been paused indefinitely because of a shortage of new COVID-19 patients in New York.
In the four-page “cure notice,” HHS raised a litany of red flags about the Pepcid trial, which delivers a large dose of famotidine intravenously to patients in the study. Among them: a “lack of adequate documentation of good clinical practices related to ensuring patient safety.”
HHS’s letter also said the researchers failed to implement a system to track harm to patients, lacked an independent data monitor to ensure the integrity of the trial’s findings and failed to provide government scientists overseeing the contract with proper Food and Drug Administration documentation.
More schools in NSW have shut due to students testing positive for coronavirus. Via AAP:
NSW Health said on Friday three schools in Sydney’s west have been closed and cleaning is under way after four students tested positive to Covid-19.
Two of the students attend Cerdon College in Merrylands, one goes to Mary Immaculate Catholic Primary School in Bossley Park and another is from Freeman Catholic College at Bonnyrigg Heights.
All the cases are associated with the Thai Rock restaurant cluster, with two also linked to Our Lady of Lebanon church.
Updated
New South Wales is boosting the number of inspectors at venues across the state to ensure compliance with Covid-19 requirements.
There will now be over 250 inspectors, with the addition of SafeWork and fair trading staff doing inspections over the weekend, NSW customer service minister Victor Dominello said.
If venues don’t have a Covid-19 safety plan, and have not registered as a Covid-safe business, they face fines of up to $5,000 and risk closure.
The inspectors include:
- 40 NSW Food Authority inspectors;
- 45 Liquor & Gaming NSW inspectors;
- 50 Public Health Officers;
- 68 NSW Fair Trading inspectors;
- 143 SafeWork NSW inspectors;
- 483 Local Government Environmental Health Officers; and
- NSW Police Officers.
Good morning, and welcome to the live blog for coronavirus news. I’m Josh Taylor and I will be taking you through the coverage until Saturday afternoon, Melbourne time.
In Australia, the focus will again mostly be on Victoria, after the state recorded 300 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, and reported seven deaths.
New South Wales will also be of some attention, but on Friday reported cases in the single digits.
Here’s a summary of the latest global developments:
- The WHO reported the greatest single-day increase in global cases yet seen, with the total rising by 284,196 in 24 hours. The biggest increases were from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a daily report.
- Spain have warned that a “second wave” of coronavirus may already be happening in the country. The health ministry is tracking more than 280 active outbreaks across the country. On Friday, it logged 922 new Covid-19 cases – slightly down from 971 over the previous 24 hours. María José Sierra, the deputy head of Spain’s centre for health emergencies, said: “It could already be a second wave”.
- France is advising citizens not to travel to Catalonia amid rising coronavirus cases. Jean Castex, the French prime minister, also said the government would strengthen controls at the country’s borders to better control the pandemic. Nearly half of the 16,410 cases detected in Spain in the past fortnight were diagnosed in the north-eastern region.
- Norway will reimpose a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving on Spain. As part of the new measures, effective from tomorrow, the government will also ease restrictions on people entering the country from Sweden.
- Schools in South Africa have been closed for a month in a bid to curb the spread of the virus. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement came a day after researchers revealed that excess mortality data suggested South Africa’s Covid outbreak had contributed to substantially more deaths over a 10-week period from early May than official figures suggested.
- A 103-year-old man has recovered from Covid-19 in a makeshift hospital in Pakistan. Aziz Abdul Alim, a resident of a village in the mountainous northern district of Chitral, was released last week from an emergency response centre after testing positive in early July.
- Portugal has said the UK’s decision to persist with a quarantine regime for travellers from the country is not “backed by the facts”. Augusto Santos Silva, the foreign minister, made the comments after it was left off an updated list of countries exempt from the measures by the UK foreign office on Friday.
Let’s get into it.
Updated
