You can keep up to date with all the latest developemnts at our new live blog that Martin is taking care of here:
Here a few impressions from around the globe:
Updated
Brazil registered 814 coronavirus deaths over the last 24 hours and 33,523 additional cases, the nation’s health ministry said on Saturday evening.
The South American country has now reported 131,210 total deaths and 4,315,687 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.
Brazil ranks third in the world after the US and India in terms of total coronavirus cases, and it is second only to the US in terms of deaths.
El Salvador’s government said on Saturday it plans to reopen airports for international flights starting on 19 September, but with a twist: incoming passengers will be required to show a negative PCR coronavirus test no more than three days old.
Anyone lacking the test would be denied entry, according to the Associated Press.
The new measures were contained in a notice to airlines published by the country’s port authorities.
It was unclear whether the requirement would apply to Salvadoran citizens, who have a constitutional right to re-enter their country.
The Central American country has enacted some of the regions strictest pandemic measures, such as closing borders, imposing a national quarantine and dispatching police and the army to detain violators.
Some of those measures have been challenged in court.
Roberto d’Aubuisson, the mayor of the city of Santa Tecla, who had been trapped outside the country for months after the border and airport closures in March, called on the government to clarify if the new measures apply to Salvadorans.
El Salvador has seen 26,851 confirmed coronavirus cases and 782 deaths.
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The UN refugee agency is stepping up efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus among tens of thousands of Syrians in camps in Jordan after the first cases were confirmed last week, the head of the agency in the country said on Saturday.
The UNHCR confirmed three cases in the country’s largest camp for Syrian refugees, Zaatari, near the border with Syria, and two cases in a smaller camp, Azraq.
The infections in the two camps that house a total of around 120,000 refugees were the first confirmed cases since the pandemic was first reported in the kingdom last March, Reuters reported.
“The developments this week have obviously been a worrying situation for all, but especially for refugees living in the camps.
“Crowded spaces and cramped living conditions make social distancing difficult,” said Dominik Bartsch, the UNHCR representative in Jordan.
The refugees who tested positive for coronavirus have been sent to an isolation area set up by the Jordanian government near the Dead Sea while families of those in contact with them have been quarantined inside the camp, the UN agency added.
Jordan’s health ministry is, meanwhile, conducting thousands of tests, restricting movement in and out of the camps and training medical staff, Bartsch said.
The infections in the camps came as Covid-19 cases are rising sharply in the country as a whole since the beginning of the month.
Jordan is a major host country for Syrian refugees who have fled an almost decade-long civil war in their homeland.
There are about 655,000 UN-registered Syrian refugees in the kingdom.
Updated
Thousands of Israelis protested against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Saturday again over his alleged corruption and the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The crowd rallied outside Netanyahu’s residence, blowing whistles, waving signs and flags and calling for his resignation.
Smaller protests were held along bridges at major intersections in cities across Israel.
Israeli media estimated that about 10,000 people attended what has become a weekly demonstration in Jerusalem.
The protests built up over the summer as Covid-19 cases spiked.
With a population of nine million, Israel has reported almost 150,000 infections cases and more than 1,000 deaths.
The country is in a recession as a result of the pandemic and the unemployment rate is hovering above 20%.
A survey published in August by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 61% of Israelis did not trust Netanyahu to manage the coronavirus crisis.
Some critics of the prime minister say he is preoccupied with his corruption trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing.
Updated
Exasperated parents in England have complained of a test-and-trace system still in “shambles”, with some struggling to book appointments for their children who have developed symptoms since returning to school.
My colleague Aaron Walawalkar has more.
Doctors have warned that bad air quality stemming from smoke produced by the wildfires ravaging western states in the US could make people more susceptible to getting infected with coronavirus, CNN reported.
“Multiple studies have shown a correlation between higher levels of pollution in the air and greater spread and severity of Covid-19 cases,” said Dr Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer of the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, citing several studies conducted in the US, China and Italy.
“Some studies have also shown that exposure of lung tissue to pollution may increase susceptibility to viral infections.”
Dr Rekha Murthy, an infectious disease specialist at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, echoed Spellberg’s comments.
“Whenever the lining of the lung or the airways become inflamed or damaged, it increases the potential for inhaled viral particles to take hold in the lungs and cause infection,” Murthy said.
Updated
France records new daily record of over 10,000 new infections
French health authorities on Saturday reported 10,561 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, a new daily record as the number topped 10,000 for the first time.
The latest daily count, surpassing the previous record of 9,843 new infections reported on Thursday, highlights a resurgence of the disease in France.
The rise led the government to outline additional measures on Friday to avert a return to the general lockdown put in place earlier in the year.
The prime minister, Jean Castex, promised steps to speed up tests and toughen local measures in high-infection zones.
In its daily update, the French health ministry also reported that 772 clusters were being investigated, an increase of 86 in the past 24 hours, Reuters reported.
Over the past week, there had been 2,432 arrivals in hospital for Covid-19, including 417 entries into intensive care units, the ministry said.
The death toll since the start of the coronavirus outbreak this year in French hospitals and nursing homes has reached 30,910, with 17 deaths recorded in the past 24 hours, it added.
Updated
Portugal’s construction and manufacturing businesses are helping to get the economy back on its feet, Bloomberg reported.
“The economy is recovering fast, better than expected both in Portugal and Europe,” finance minister Joao Leao said on Friday in Berlin, where he is attending a meeting of European finance ministers, but warned that the outlook was still “very uncertain”.
In the third quarter Portugal’s construction industry is “doing very well” and manufacturing is recovering, Leao said, but stressed tourism was still badly affected.
The Portuguese economy is forecast to contract by 9.8% this year, after six years of growth that helped cut the unemployment rate and reduce the budget deficit.
Portugal has the third-highest debt ratio in the eurozone behind Greece and Italy.
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Although most of California is still in lockdown, officials are starting to see signs of hope as new cases and hospitalisations drop, the Los Angeles Times reports.
America’s most populous state still has the most cases in the country, but when adjusting for population, other states such as Florida, Arizona, Georgia and Louisiana are doing worse.
Over the last week, an average of 93,527 tests have been conducted each day, and the statewide positivity rate has decreased to 3.7%.
But the crisis is far from over.
As of 11 September, 14,269 Covid-19 deaths had been recorded in California, and on Saturday morning, total confirmed infections stood at 755,705.
On Friday California reported its biggest jump in deaths in five days, and over the past week, the state has averaged 3,464 new cases and 89 new deaths per day.
As seen in many other places, race disparities persist: Latinos in the state are now 3.4 times more likely to test positive than white people.
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The Venice Film Festival is wrapping up the first in-person Covid-era international cinema showcase, with critics, filmmakers and actors cheering organisers for having dared to hold the festival amid a pandemic and for demonstrating how to go to the movies again safely.
The festival’s coveted Golden Lion awards were being handed out Saturday night before a masked audience conspicuously lacking in Hollywood star power, given that coronavirus travel restrictions kept all but a few American productions away, the Associated Press reports.
Eighteen films were vying for the top awards in the main competition, including a record eight directed by women.
That the 10-day festival took place at all was something of a miracle, given that northern Italy in late February became ground zero for Europe’s coronavivrus outbreak.
The Cannes Film Festival was cancelled and other big international festivals in Toronto and New York opted to go mostly online.
But after Italy managed to tame its infections with a strict 10-week lockdown, Venice decided to go ahead, albeit under safety protocols that would have previously been unthinkable for a festival that has prided itself on spectacular visuals and glamorous clientele.
Face masks were required indoors and out.
The public was barred from the red carpet and paparazzi, who would normally chase after stars in rented boats as they arrived on the Lido aboard water taxis, were given socially distanced positions on land.
While its too soon to say if the measures worked, there were no immediate reports of infections among festival-goers and compliance with mask mandates and social distancing appeared to be high.
Hospitals in England are conducting “major incident” stress tests on wards to check if they are ready for a second wave of Covid-19, as the number of admissions begins to climb.
Coronavirus cases have been doubling roughly every seven days and there are signs the increase is beginning to filter through to hospitals.
Last Wednesday, 136 patients were admitted in England, twice as many as on any day in the previous week, with a total of 863 people receiving treatment.
My colleague James Tapper reports.
Updated
The French prime minister, Jean Castex, has tested negative for coronavirus again and will come out of self-isolation on Saturday, a week after being in contact with someone who had a positive result, his office said, according to Reuters.
Castex had already tested negative for Covid-19 since sharing a car last weekend with the director of the Tour de France cycle race, who later tested positive.
France is grappling with a resurgence in coronavirus cases, and on Friday the prime minister outlined plans to speed up testing and toughen measures in certain cities as the government seeks to avoid a repeat of the spring’s nationwide lockdown.
Updated
Several thousand people protested in German cities on Saturday against measures imposed to prevent the spread of coronavirus, while hundreds marched in the Polish capital Warsaw.
About 8,000 people marched in the southern German city of Munich, according to a police estimate, most of them ignoring a city ordinance requiring the wearing of masks.
At least a thousand turned out in Hanover, central Germany and there was another demonstration in the western city of Wiesbaden.
Tens of thousands turned out for similar demonstrations last month in Berlin.
The movement is made up of a number of different groups, from self-declared “free thinkers” to anti-vaccine campaigners, conspiracy theorists and far-right activists.
Although clashes marred the last protest in Berlin late in August there have been no reports of trouble so far on Saturday.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said in a statement on Saturday she understood why some people had a problem with the restrictions being imposed. She acknowledged that people were free to criticise government policy in peaceful protests.
And in what appeared to be a response to some protesters’ claims of being censured, she pointed out that many people envied Germany for the freedom accorded people to publicly disagree and demonstrate.
In the Polish capital, Warsaw, meanwhile, several hundred people joined a similar protest that marched through the city centre.
Some protesters carried placards denouncing what they say are the “lies” told about the pandemic.
Others placards denounced the Microsoft billionaire-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates – the target of conspiracy theories about the virus – or called for the resignation of the government, AFP reports.
Updated
Cuban state media reported on Saturday that interprovincial transportation would be shut down and a curfew in Havana extended until the end of the month, as a surge in coronavirus cases in the capital spreads to other areas.
While most of the country remains at a new normal with schools and retail activity open, local authorities have been tightening enforcement of wearing masks, social distancing and other measures, and imposing quarantines wherever cases appear, Reuters reports.
Cuba had mostly contained its coronavirus outbreak by the end of June by isolating patients and contacts, and eased lockdown restrictions.
But it tightened them again in Havana by August and has yet to contain a surge in cases there with about 200 reported over the last week.
There have been smaller outbreaks in a handful of Cuba’s 14 provinces.
Central Ciego de Avila province has suffered the worst outbreak to date after Havana with cases reaching 28 of 60 reported in the country Saturday. All but a few of the remainder were in Havana.
One hundred patients were moved to a hospital in neighbouring Camaguey province from Ciego de Avila on Thursday because of a shortage of hospital space.
In August, a brigade of nurses marched off from eastern Granma province to the capital as if they were some of the 4,000 medical staff sent abroad to battle the pandemic.
While just under 4,700 cases have been reported since the first one in March and only 108 deaths, the US-embargoed Caribbean nation has been all but bankrupted by the pandemic’s toll on tourism, remittances, investment and trade.
Economic growth is now forecast to drop by close to 10% this year according to various international organisations and there are long lines for basic goods and shortages of certain foods and medicines.
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UK records nearly 3,500 new cases in last 24 hours
The UK reported 3,497 confirmed new cases of coronavirus, according to government data published on Saturday, compared with 3,539 a day earlier.
It also reported a further nine new deaths from Covid-19.
Friday’s figure was the largest number of daily cases to be reported since mid-May, and Britain is to bring in a new ban on social gatherings on Monday to curb the increasing rise in infections.
Updated
Summary
Here the latest key developments at a glance:
- Oxford University has announced that clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine – under development with the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca – are to resume in the UK, after the trials were suddenly halted last Sunday when a participant fell ill.
- Daily coronavirus cases in Scotland have hit a four-month high, after a total of 221 people have tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours.
- Oxygen supply has grown scarce in parts of India that are particularly hard-hit by coronavirus.
- The Netherlands has reported 1,231 new cases of coronavirus, as well as one further death.
- Athens has become the centre of what senior government officials are calling a “troubling” surge in cases in Greece.
- In England, people have been urged not to have a “party weekend” before the government’s “rule of six” restrictions come into force on Monday.
- Russia reported 5,488 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing the tally to 1,057,362, the fourth largest in the world.
- Hungary’s health authorities on Saturday reported 916 new infections, with Saturday’s tally being 25% higher than the previous record of 716 new cases, reached on Friday.
- The United Arab Emirates has reported its highest daily rise in confirmed cases of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, with 1,007 new infections found.
- Greece’s alternate migration minister says the Aegean island of Lesbos is facing a public health emergency after fires this week devastated its vastly overcrowded Moria migrant camp.
Updated
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE have proposed to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expand the enrollment of their phase 3 pivotal Covid-19 vaccine trial to up to about 44,000 participants, the companies said on Saturday.
The initial target figure for the trial was up to 30,000 participants, which the companies said they expect to reach by next week, Reuters reports.
According to the Pfizer website, the company uses more than 120 clinical trial sites in their efforts to develop a vaccine, and as of last Monday, 25,189 trial participants had already enrolled.
The proposed expansion would allow the companies to enrol people as young as 16 and people with chronic, stable HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B.
Drugmakers racing to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine pledged in July to ensure their larger clinical trials would include diverse sets of volunteers.
“Diversity in clinical trials is a priority for Pfizer and is critical given that Covid-19 disproportionately impacts communities of color in the US,” Pfizer’s chief business officer John Young said in a US congressional hearing in July.
If the study is successful, the companies could submit the vaccine for regulatory approval as early as October, putting them on track to supply up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and 1.3 billion by the end of 2021.
Updated
Oxygen supply has grown scarce in some parts of India hard-hit by coronavirus, hospital and local government officials said, according to Reuters.
With total cases of more than 4.65m, following a record rise of 97,570 new infections on Saturday, India is the world’s second worst affected country. Total Covid-19 deaths stood at 77,472, putting India in third place in a ranking of countries’ fatalities.
The western state of Maharashtra has been particularly hard-hit, with total confirmed cases breaching the 1m mark late on Friday, making it the first state or province anywhere in the world to cross that mark. In some parts of the state, medical oxygen was becoming hard to find. Dr Amit Thadhani, medical director of Niramaya hospitals in Panvel, a suburb of India’s financial capital Mumbai, said the shortage in his area was acute.
The problem is that the filling stations are themselves not getting supply of oxygen from the manufacturers. Supplies are extremely limited. If we ask for 50 cylinders, we may get about five to seven.
An official from the Navi Mumbai municipal corporation in a neighbouring suburb said they had received reports from multiple hospitals about dwindling oxygen supplies and made requests to state authorities. “Demand has risen in last few day because of rising cases,” the official said.
The corporation’s commissioner, Abhijit Bangar, was not immediately available for comment. Government officials and experts said the unabated rise in cases in Maharashtra and other parts of the country were likely a result of economic activity restarting, local festivals and lockdown fatigue.
Updated
A 100-year-old woman has recovered from Covid-19 in Vietnam, according to local media.
The woman, who was being treated at Quang Nam central general hospital, in Vietnam’s central Quang Nam province, tested positive for the virus on 30 July. She is one of five patients who were being treated at the hospital who were given the all-clear on Saturday after testing negative for infection a third time.
The other four are between 13 and 75 years old, VN Express reports.
Vietnam has so far reported 1,060 confirmed cases of coronavirus, and 35 deaths from Covid-19.
Updated
A further eight people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, NHS England said on Saturday, according to the PA Media news agency.
The patients, who were aged between 61 and 91 years old and who all had known underlying health conditions, died between 30 August and 11 September.
The total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England is now 29,656.
Updated
An indigenous group in Brazil have celebrated six months without a single confirmed case of coronavirus, the Associated Press reports.
In March, the Tembé, of the Alto Rio Guamá indigenous territory on the western edge of Pará state, locked the gates to their villages and allowed people out only in case of emergency, while restricting entry to agents from the federal Indigenous health care provider, Sesai.
After the number of daily coronavirus cases and deaths in Pará has finally plunged, they now hope will emerge from the pandemic unscathed.
Sérgio Muxi Tembé, the leader of Tekohow village, told the Associated Press:
We didn’t go to the city, we didn’t go to other villages. We remained in quarantine. We got through, we are still getting through. We are doing a small commemoration because of that, and it’s because of that we are happy that today we do not have any cases.
At the very start of the epidemic, women from the Tembé people’s three villages formed councils and visited neighbours at their board-and-batten homes to educate them about the peril of Covid-19 and how it is transmitted.
Sandra Tembé, a 48-year-old teacher of the native language, said in an interview:
We decided to create the group to give more orientation to the families because, even with the speech from the health technicians, people continued leaving.
At the start, it was very difficult for us because there were families who we arrived to orient who didn’t want to agree, and said: ‘Why are you saying that? Why stay in isolation?’ That moment was very critical.
Updated
New coronavirus cases in Scotland hit four-month high
Daily coronavirus cases in Scotland have hit a four-month high, the latest Scottish government figures show.
A total of 221 people have tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours - the highest daily figure since 8 May.
Since the start of the pandemic, 22,435 people have been infected with Covid-19 in Scotland and 2,499 have died with the virus.
Please heed all the public health advice. More than ever we must remember that what we do as individuals just now affects the wellbeing of everyone. Let’s look after each other. https://t.co/bqqe2X8o48
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) September 12, 2020
In Wales, there have been a further 164 cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 19,228.
Public Health Wales said no further deaths had been reported, with the total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic remaining at 1,597.
Oxford University resumes vaccine trials
Oxford University has announced that clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine, under development with the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, are to resume in the UK.
The trials were suddenly halted last Sunday when a participant fell ill. Oxford refused to disclose information about the nature of the illness, but the New York Times claimed a “person familiar with the situation” said the patient was found to have transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord and is often sparked by viral infections.
In a press release circulated to journalists on Saturday, Oxford University said the pause had given time for a “review of safety data by an independent safety review committee, and the national regulators”. It went on:
The independent review process has concluded and following the recommendations of both the independent safety review committee and the UK regulator, the MHRA, the trials will recommence in the UK.
We cannot disclose medical information about the illness for reasons of participant confidentiality.
We are committed to the safety of our participants and the highest standards of conduct in our studies and will continue to monitor safety closely.
Updated
The Netherlands has reported 1,231 new cases of coronavirus, as daily infection rates again ramp up in the country.
However, according to the latest update from the Dutch national institute for public health and the environment, just one new death from Covid-19 was registered on Saturday.
Daily new cases were at their lowest on 10 July, following months of lockdown measures, and have gradually risen since then. So far, daily death tolls have not followed a similar trajectory.
Updated
The death toll in Greece from coronavirus has risen after a 52-year-old woman succumbed to the disease in Athens earlier today, reports Helena Smith, the Guardian’s Greece correspondent.
The death of the woman, described as suffering from serious underlying health problems, brings the total number of fatalities to 302 in Greece.
Athens has become the centre of what senior government officials are calling a “troubling” surge in cases. From Monday to Friday, health officials registered 555 cases of coronavirus in the greater Attica region, out of 1,232 recorded nationwide. The public health organisation, EODY, announced 158 infections in the space of 24 hours in the region on Friday.
So far mainland Greece has been spared quarantine restrictions announced by the UK and the Netherlands on holidaymakers returning from the country’s popular islands, including Crete, Santorini and Mykonos. “Of course [the rise] is troubling us and we are following it closely,” the country’s deputy minister of citizens’ protection, Nikos Hardalias, told reporters yesterday. Home to nearly half of Greece’s total population, the Attica region has the country’s biggest urban concentration.
As cases have climbed, restrictive measures to contain the epidemic’s spread have been stepped up, including banning gatherings of more than 50 people at the same time and ordering bars, clubs and restaurants to close at midnight – sharp.
The policies, which have also seen enforcement of increased mask wearing, have been credited with preventing what public health experts warned was showing all the signs of a “full-blown second wave” in early August.
In total 12,734 people have tested positive for coronavirus since the pandemic was first officially recorded in Greece with a 38-year-old fashion designer being diagnosed with the virus upon her return in late February.
Updated
NHS workers rally in London to demand pay rise
British healthcare workers have been rallying in central London in their scrubs and NHS uniforms to demand better wages, according to the PA Media news agency.
After a two-minute silence in honour of the 640 healthcare workers who have died during the coronavirus pandemic, demonstrators holding banners which read “stop clapping, start paying”, “priceless yet penniless” and “640 healthcare workers dead, blood on their hands”, began a march to Trafalgar Square.
Nurses were excluded from a wage increase for about 900,000 public sector workers announced in July because they are in the final year of a three-year agreement. The pay increase does not apply to junior doctors either, after they agreed a four-year deal last year.
Alia Butt, 33, an NHS psychotherapist in Essex and chair of Nurses Staff Voices, said:
We have simply had enough. The money is there. They are simply just not providing it to NHS staff. It turns out that the only way to ensure the NHS is able to continue to function is by the sheer force of organising ...
The government clearly has not got a clue about what it is doing and that is very scary. Nurses saved the lives of the prime minister. What more do we need to do to get paid properly? It’s bizarre.
Jordan Rivera, 43, an occupational therapist in Hackney, east London, said NHS workers are emotionally and physically tired, many are living paycheque to paycheque and the situation they have been left in is “outrageous”. She said:
Working that hard when you are already exhausted from fighting the pandemic is an outrage. How can we be expected to work through a second wave when we are physically and emotionally exhausted and on top of that, we are worried about paying our bills?
Protests calling for a 15% increase in pay for NHS workers were also held in Manchester, Sheffield, Brighton and Bournemouth.
The former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sent his support to “all of our wonderful NHS workers”, saying: “NHS staff are absolutely brilliant but have suffered a pay freeze, under-funding and under-staffing.
“Yet when the coronavirus crisis comes along, they are all there working hours and hours more than they were paid to do – care workers doing exactly the same.
“Now is the time to pay them properly and secure jobs for the future in the NHS.”
Updated
The US was supported only by Israel in a vote against a UN resolution for a “comprehensive and coordinated response” to the Covid-19 pandemic, AFP reports.
The measure, which has been negotiated since May, was adopted on Friday by an overwhelming majority of 169 countries out of 193, with Ukraine and Hungary abstaining.
The text, called an omnibus resolution because it covers multiple aspects of the pandemic, “acknowledges the key leadership role of WHO and the fundamental role of the United Nations system in catalysing and coordinating the comprehensive global response to the Covid-19 pandemic”.
The US withdrew from the WHO this spring, accusing the body of mismanaging the pandemic and delaying launch of a global alert.
The text “calls for intensified international cooperation and solidarity to contain, mitigate and overcome the pandemic and its consequences”.
And it supports the UN secretary-general António Guterres’ call in March for a ceasefire between countries in order to better facilitate the fight against the pandemic – a request that has been little followed.
The text additionally calls for “the urgent removal of unjustified obstacles”, meaning sanctions, to create better access to products used in combating the virus.
It requests countries maintain food and agricultural supply chains and encourages synching economic recovery strategies to promote sustainable development and combat the climate crisis.
Before the vote, the US unsuccessfully attempted to remove a paragraph on protecting women in the area of sexual and reproductive health, over objections about abortion.
Libya and Iraq also voted for the paragraph’s removal. However, more than 120 countries voted to keep it and 25 countries abstained.
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Police warn public not to party before Covid rules tighten in England
In England, people have been urged not to have a “party weekend” before the government’s “rule of six” restrictions come into force on Monday.
The call from the Police Federation came as a former chief scientific adviser urged the public to act in tune with guidelines as the UK is “on the edge of losing control” of coronavirus, he said.
Mark Walport, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the only way to stop the virus spreading was to reduce the number of people we all come into contact with. He said there was an “extremely strong argument” that home working should continue.
My colleague Nicola Slawson has the full report:
Record numbers of new coronavirus cases are being recorded all over the place. In Hungary health authorities on Saturday reported 916 new infections. This was 25% higher than the previous record of 716 new cases, reached on Friday.
The government of prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is taking a less generalised approach to the pandemic during this second wave, with restrictions decided more on a case-by-case basis, the Associated Press reports.
Orban said Saturday in a video posted on his Facebook page the aim was not just to save lives but to also keep the country running.
During the second quarter of the year, the Hungarian economy contracted by 13.6%, the largest fall in the region.
Updated
The United Arab Emirates has reported its highest daily rise in confirmed cases of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, with 1,007 new infections found, according to Reuters.
The Gulf Arab state has seen cases surge over the past six weeks from 164 cases on 3 August. Government officials have blamed the rise on people not adhering to physical distancing measures.
Case numbers had been generally falling after peaking at 994 on 22 May, though there had been some periodic rises before the recent surge.
The UAE has recorded 78,849 coronavirus infections and 399 deaths from Covid-19 so far. It does not disclose where in the country of seven emirates the infections or deaths occurred. About 10 million people, mostly foreigners, live in the UAE.
Updated
Health authorities in Bolivia have reported 967 new cases of coronavirus, and 57 more deaths.
There have been claims that Bolivia, riven by political struggle after a rightwing coup earlier this year deposed its longtime president, Evo Morales, is vastly undercounting the scale of its coronavirus epidemic.
#ReporteOficial | @MinSaludBolivia anuncia 967 nuevos casos positivos de #Coronavirus hasta este viernes (11/09/20).
— Salud Bolivia (@MinSaludBolivia) September 12, 2020
Existen 125.172 casos positivos (36.682 activos), 81.240 recuperados y 7.250 decesos por #COVID19 en #Bolivia.#TeCuidoMeCuidas#UnidosSaldremosAdelante pic.twitter.com/R2OEbWh40N
Lesbos 'facing public health emergency' over destroyed migrant camp
Greece’s alternate migration minister says the Aegean island of Lesbos is facing a public health emergency after fires this week devastated its vastly overcrowded Moria migrant camp, writes Helena Smith, the Guardian’s Athens correspondent.
Speaking on Skai TV on Saturday morning, Giorgos Koumoutsakos said the country was confronted by a triple challenge involving public health, public order and national security.
The politician expressed “certainty” that the blazes, which first broke out on Tuesday, were the result of arson although, as yet, no one has been arrested and no concrete evidence offered. The inferno erupted a day after authorities announced further lockdown measures in the facility after dozens of camp residents testing positive for coronavirus.
About 200,000 Covid-19 rapid tests were flown into Lesbos on a specially chartered plane Friday amid fears of a surge in cases. None of the refugees diagnosed with the virus have yet been found, according to Greek officials. They confirmed the refugees remained among the estimated 12,500 men, women and children forced to sleep out in the open until authorities complete a temporary site on the island.
“There are now real fears among our island’s residents of the virus spreading,” local journalist Yannis Sarandis told the Guardian.
With the help of the military, 500 tents with the capacity to accommodate six people each, are in the process of being erected in an area more normally used as a firing range outside Mytilene, the island’s port capital. Authorities said refugees categorised as vulnerable will be hosted on a ferry boat and it is thought two naval ships will also be deployed to host people.
But tensions are running high, not least among asylum seekers, who gathered in protest for a second day chanting “we want freedom” and demanding to leave Lesbos. They demonstrated under the watchful eye of riot police who have set up roadblocks to prevent migrants and refugees attempting to get to Mytilene. The fire brigade rushed to extinguish fires that erupted in nearby fields almost at the same time.
Greece’s centre right government has made clear no one will be leaving the isle apart from 406 unaccompanied migrant children, also previous occupants of the camp, who were flown out of Lesbos to northern Greece earlier this week.
Updated
Russia reported 5,488 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing the tally to 1,057,362, the fourth largest in the world, Reuters reports.
Authorities said 119 people died in the past 24 hours, pushing official total fatalities to 18,484.
Official Russian news agency Tass reports 165,343 people are undergoing treatment for Covid-19 in Russia. Meanwhile, the number of Russians who recovered from coronavirus increased to 5,428 over the past day to 873,535. This amounts to 82.6% of all infected people so far.
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The UK government is not considering backing down over England’s “rule of six”, a senior minister has said, despite calls from Conservative party MPs to exempt children from the new restrictions.
Some backbenchers are pressuring for England to follow Scotland and Wales in exempting under-12s from the six-person limit from the measures to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Michael Gove, the cabinet office minister, defended the restriction, to be introduced on Monday. Asked if the government was considering the exemption, he told BBC Breakfast: “No. I entirely understand, family life is so important but the rule is there, the rule is clear and it commands public confidence.”
He said the measure is necessary to keep the reinfection rate down so “we can protect our grandparents”.
“And then we can ensure in due course that these restrictions can be relaxed and my hope like so many is that we can have a proper Christmas,” he added.
The government is facing a backlash over the rules from within its own party. Steve Baker, a former minister, has called for a voluntary system of Covid-19 guidance so Britons can “actually start living like a free people”, while another senior MP, Sir Desmond Swayne, said the ban was “absolutely grotesque”.
Updated
Arrivals to the UK from Portugal, Hungary, French Polynesia and Reunion must self-isolate for two weeks, after new quarantine restrictions came into force on Saturday morning.
The new rules came into force at 4am. All arrivals from those countries, or any other countries not included on the UK’s “travel corridor” list, must self-isolate for 14 days. Arrivals from the Portuguese territories of the Azores and Madeira are not affected.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, announced the restrictions on Twitter on Thursday. At the same time, he added Sweden, which has not had a strict coronavirus lockdown, to the list of “travel corridors”, meaning arrivals from Sweden no longer have to self-isolate.
Updated
The Philippines has reported the highest single-day coronavirus death toll so far recorded in south-east Asia, according to Reuters.
The health ministry on Saturday reported 186 more deaths related to coronavirus, a daily record.
In a bulletin, the ministry said total deaths have increased to 4,292, while confirmed cases rose by 4,935 to 257,863.
The Philippines has the most Covid-19 infections in the region.
Updated
Indonesia has reported 3,806 new coronavirus infections and 106 new deaths, data from the health ministry website showed, according to Reuters.
Saturday marked the fifth consecutive day Indonesia registered daily infections of more than 3,000, bringing the total number of cases to 214,746.
Total Covid-19 deaths rose to 8,650, the highest in south-east Asia.
Anies Baswedan, the governor of Jakarta, the country’s capital, has announced that a Covid-19 emergency hospital in the city is go be reopened.
The decision was taken after national Covid-19 taskforce data showed bed occupancy rates in isolation rooms and intensive care units in Jakarta had reached 69% and 77% respectively.
The capital city will return to local lockdown on 14 September.
Updated
Toots and the Maytals singer dies with suspected Covid-19
Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, frontman of pioneering reggae group Toots and the Maytals, has died at the age of 77, 11 days after he was admitted to intensive care in Jamaica with suspected Covid-19.
The Jamaican singer was being treated at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston.
A statement from his representative said:
It is with the heaviest of hearts to announce that Frederick Nathaniel “Toots” Hibbert passed away peacefully tonight, surrounded by his family at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica.
The family and management would like to thank the medical teams and professionals for their care and diligence, and ask that you respect their privacy during their time of grief.
Mr Hibbert is survived by his wife of 39 years, Miss D, and his seven of eight children.
They did not confirm the cause of death.
On 1 September, Hibbert’s management confirmed he had been admitted to intensive care with suspected Covid-19 and was awaiting the results of a test.
Ziggy Marley, son of the late Bob Marley, was among those paying tribute.
The Legendary Toots Hibbert has passed i spoke w/him a few wks ago told him how much i loved him we laughed & shared our mutual respect. He was a father figure to me his spirit is w/us his music fills us w/his energy i will never forget him RIP MIGHTY & POWERFUL NYAH FYAH BALL 😢 pic.twitter.com/zIofrbYZU0
— Ziggy Marley (@ziggymarley) September 12, 2020
Toots and the Maytals’ hits include 54-46 (That’s My Number), Pressure Drop and Monkey Man, while their 1968 single Do The Reggay is credited with giving the reggae genre its name.
Updated
Fines could be necessary for isolation breaches, says Gove
The UK government minister, Michael Gove, has said fines could be necessary to enforce self-isolation rules, after a report in the Times on Saturday morning suggested plans were being drawn up by government for fresh penalties for rule breakers.
Asked whether the government should consider a carrot and stick approach, with better financial support for those self-isolating as well as fines for breaches, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it is a very fair point.”
According to the Times, Boris Johnson, was considering enforcing the measure after evidence suggested people were routinely ignoring advice and leaving their homes. The paper said it was likely to mirror quarantine measures for those returning from holidays, which require isolation for 14 days.
Ministers are considering plans for a hotline to report those who are breaking quarantine rules to the police.
Saturday's Times: "Stay indoors or be fined" #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/97WHeKiiQM
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) September 11, 2020
Gove launched a defence of measures amid disquiet among Conservative backbenches. He said:
I don’t want to see fines being levied but even more I do not want to see people behaving in a way that puts the most vulnerable at risk.
Sometimes there’s an argument that’s depicted as though this is pernicious of the liberty of freedom-loving people, well there are restrictions, and I love freedom, but the one thing I think is even more important is that you exercise freedom with responsibility.
Cabinet minister Michael Gove says he is sure that children should be included in the six people allowed to meet in England - a rule which his angered some Tory MPs who fear for freedoms. #R4Today pic.twitter.com/u1mvBu4j0x
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) September 12, 2020
Updated
A senior government minister has denied that the UK is heading towards a second national lockdown, despite large increases in the numbers of new infections detected
Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, told Times Radio:
The reason why we’re taking the steps we announced this week and come into force on Monday is precisely to seek to avoid that situation.
The R rate has increased, the number of people who have been infected sadly has increased.”
He said that the new measures such as “targeted local lockdowns” and “new regulations governing social contact” were to ensure that children can still go to school, adults can still go to work and the “life of the nation can continue”.
Gove urged people to act “in tune with” the rules this weekend before the “rule of six” comes into force.
He told BBC Breakfast:
If people do behave in a way that is not really in line or in tune with the guidelines that have been put out then they are putting other people at risk.
The reason why the country’s police chiefs have said that they hope people behave with appropriate restraint this weekend as we do not want to see a further acceleration of the spread of the virus.
Gove also appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme, where he launched a defence of measures amid disquiet among Conservative backbenches.
I don’t want to see fines being levied but even more I do not want to see people behaving in a way that puts the most vulnerable at risk.
Sometimes there’s an argument that’s depicted as though this is pernicious of the liberty of freedom-loving people, well there are restrictions, and I love freedom, but the one thing I think is even more important is that you exercise freedom with responsibility.
Updated
Boating parties in Istanbul have been banned from hosting weddings and similar gatherings as part of the measures to combat the spread of coronavirus in Turkey’s most populous city, the Associated Press reports.
The governor’s office also reintroduced a ban on concerts and festivals in open spaces. A statement from the office late on Friday said the restrictions were needed because people were not adequately obeying precautions such as physical distancing and confirmed virus cases have increased.
Coronavirus infections and deaths began increasing in Turkey after the government loosened restrictions on public activity in June, returning to levels last seen in mid-May.
On Friday, the health ministry announced 56 more deaths and 1,671 new cases, bringing the country’s total death toll in the pandemic to 6,951 and cases to nearly 290,000.
Officials have cited engagement parties and weddings as a key source for new infections and introduced restrictions on social gatherings. Some turned to holding celebrations on party boats that cruise Istanbul’s scenic Bosporus strait, which bisects the city of about 16 million.
Updated
The British army will be deployed to carry out “the biggest vaccination programme in UK history” when the coronavirus vaccine is ready to distribute, the i reports this morning.
According to the paper, public health and contingency planners are counting on using soldiers to help administer tens of millions of vaccine injections when the programme begins.
The government’s mothballed “Nightingale hospitals”, which were not needed after the numbers of sick people did not rise to the levels predicted at the start of the outbreak, could be among the public buildings commandeered as mass vaccination sites.
Weekend's i: "Army to help with UK mass vaccinations" #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/06KjpQ28YN
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) September 11, 2020
One in nine people in the UK under lockdown restrictions
One in nine people across the UK are once more under some form of lockdown restrictions, according to an analysis by Pamela Duncan, a Guardian data journalist.
A total of 7,317,093 people - 11% of the UK population - live in the local authority areas and wards affected by some level of local lockdown measures.
Birmingham, Sandwell and Sollihull were added to the government’s list of areas facing restrictions on certain forms of social contact and business and venue closures. When added to large swathes of north-west England 8.9% of the population of England are now under some form of lockdown.
In Scotland, the addition of North and South Lanarkshire brings to almost 1.8 million the number of people affected by a ban from indoor private gatherings, equivalent to almost a third (32.3%) of the total population.
The 181,000 people affected by the local lockdown in place in Caerphilly since Tuesday equate to 5.7% of the Welsh population.
The UK figure includes 343,542 people in the Belfast city council area but not the local restrictions recently put in place in other parts of Northern Ireland - Ballymena town and the BT43, BT28 and BT29 postcodes.
The figures exclude those self-isolating, quarantining or shielding and those subject to work-specific lockdowns such as Greencore workers in and their families in Northamptonshire.
Updated
Hello, this is Damien Gayle taking the reins of the liveblog now from London. Over the next eight hours I’ll be bringing you the latest coronavirus-related updates and headlines from around the world.
You can drop me a line with any comments, tips or suggestions for stories we could be covering, either via email to damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or via Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.
Thanks all for following our global coronavirus coverage so far. I’m handing over to my UK colleague Damien Gayle now.
A quick summary of events over the past 10 hours or so:
- Australia’s state of Victoria recorded its lowest daily case count for almost three months with 37 cases and six deaths over the past 24 hours. Melbourne remains under strict lockdown.
- India broke its record for new cases for a second consecutive day with 97,570 cases and 1,201 deaths. India’s 4.65 million cases is second only to the United States’ 6.4m cases.
- Canada reported no new deaths for the first time March 15, but did record 702 new cases of the disease.
- England is on a “knife edge” according to its former chief scientific adviser, with cases doubling almost weekly.
Please take care of yourself and others, and stick to the social distancing rules. Keep washing those hands.
Updated
England on a coronavirus "knife edge" says former chief science advisor
The UK’s former chief scientific advisor Sir David King has said England is on a “knife edge” with new coronavirus cases doubling almost weekly.
Guardian analysis finds that 7.3m people in the UK are set to be living under local lockdown restrictions once rules are imposed in and around Birmingham next week.
Guardian front page, Saturday 12 September: Coronavirus cases doubling weekly as infection rate surges pic.twitter.com/PG4uDcZCty
— Central Prod (@centralprodgu) September 12, 2020
Updated
Australian politics can often be like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.
In unrelated news, a political row over the actor Tom Hanks rolls on. Hanks has been allowed back in to the state of Queensland for the filming of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis movie. The state’s borders are currently closed to everyday movements, but exemptions are granted daily.
Australia’s home affairs minister,Peter Dutton, whose federal seat is in Queensland, has a suspicious mind, and attacked the state’s government for showing favouritism towards Hanks.
But in a case of return to sender, it turned out Dutton’s own department had given federal approvals to Hanks, his family and production crew.
Queensland’s deputy premier, Steven Miles, has hit back this afternoon.
QLD Deputy Premier Steven Miles has hit back at Peter Dutton's claim that the Queensland government allowed Tom Hanks into the state.
— 10 News First (@10NewsFirst) September 12, 2020
Miles said that the home affairs minister was "lying" and that Dutton and Border Force control which non-residents can enter Australia. #auspol pic.twitter.com/qNqdkzHlFP
Updated
A 33-year-old woman in coronavirus quarantine in Perth in Western Australia has become the first person to be fitted with an electronic ankle tracker under the state’s expanded security laws.
The woman had travelled from NSW to Perth on 1 September but needed to self-isolate at home for 14 days. When police checked on her, AAP reports they found two men visiting.
She was fined $1000 and moved to a Perth quarantine hotel. Police said on Saturday the state’s emergency coordinator decided it was necessary to monitor her location using the device, which would stay in place until her quarantine period was up.
WA Health reported no new virus cases on Saturday leaving the state’s total of diagnosed infections since the start of the pandemic at 659.
People in Britain who accepted vouchers and credit from airlines and travel companies months ago as the pandemic hit are now faced with a labyrinth of rules and unexpected charges.
The Guardian’s Anna Tims has this report.
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute has reported a further 1,630 cases and five deaths, according to Reuters.
More on India’s record surge of coronavirus cases.
AP reports that India’s health ministry has confirmed another 1,201 deaths, taking the total number of deaths in the country from the pandemic to 77,472.
Even though India is now testing more than a million people a day, experts say limited and restrictive testing could be masking the pandemic’s true footprint.
The Health Ministry said the country’s recovery rate was at 77.7%.
“The gap between the percentage of recovered cases and active cases is progressively growing wide,” the ministry said.
The western state of Maharashtra, home to financial capital Mumbai, has seen 28,000 covid-19 deaths and cases have passed 1 million there.
The country’s economy contracted nearly 24% in the second quarter, the worst among the world’s top economies.
India records second record daily jump in Covid-19 cases
India reported 97,570 new infections of coronavirus on Saturday, beating its daily record for new reported cases for the second consecutive day.
Reuters reports that data from the country’s health ministry now puts India’s total cases above 4.65 million, making it the second worst hit country behind the United States’ 6.4m cases.
But the growth in infections in India is faster than anywhere else in the world, with cases surging through urban and rural areas of some large, populous states.
With that, I’ll be handing over the blog to my colleague Graham Readfearn. Thanks for reading, and stay safe.
Earlier today, Queensland’s health minister, Steven Miles had some words for federal politicians who have criticised the Queensland state government’s border restrictions.
The prime minister, and former immigration minister, Scott Morrison, and current home affairs minister Peter Dutton have pinpointed recent cases where people have been denied medical or compassionate exemptions to enter the state, or had them delayed.
“You have the prime minister, Peter Dutton, Matthias Cormann, just about every bloke in the federal government come out and attack you,” he said. “Those three blokes, none of them are known for their compassion.
“You all reported on Scott Morrison nearly crying on Ray Hadley, but has he ever cried about the hundreds of people who died in aged care under his watch?”
Qld Deputy Premier @StevenJMiles returning fire at the federal Ministers who've attacked Qld over border restrictions @abcnews @abcbrisbane #qldpol #auspol pic.twitter.com/1UMS2ofp8w
— Jessica van Vonderen (@jessvanvonderen) September 12, 2020
Summary so far
Here’s what’s happened today so far:
- In Australia, Victoria recorded its lowest new infections since 26 June, with 37 new cases and six new deaths over the past 24 hours.
- Premier Daniel Andrews said that regional Victoria was “on track” to relax restrictions by two steps by the “middle of next week”, after it recorded no new cases, and one previous case was found to be a false positive.
- At least three people were arrested at an unlawful anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne, with many more fined.
- Queensland reported three new cases, two of whom are children under the age of nine.
- New South Wales reported six new cases, five of which were locally acquired. Four of the people are associated with Concord Hospital.
- Canada has reported zero Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours for the first time since March 15. However, the country has reported 702 new cases.
Updated
Two children contract Covid-19 in Queensland
Two girls are among the new confirmed Covid-19 cases in Queensland.
The state reported three new people had contracted the virus as of Saturday. One is a man in his 20s and two are children under nine-years-old. All three are in quarantine and are contacts of confirmed cases.
The state’s health minister, Steven Miles, said the man is linked to the Queensland Corrective Services outbreak while the two girls are contacts of the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre cluster.
“Our last case outside of quarantine was Tuesday and that’s of course the key indicator from here on in as to whether we have got this cluster under control,” Miles said.
Updated
Prior to today’s arrests, Victoria police issued a total of 109 fines over the 24 hours to Saturday morning.
Twenty of those were for failing to wear a face covering.
Examples of the breaches included a man and woman located at a friend’s holiday home on the Mornington Peninsula where they planned to stay the weekend, a man intercepted travelling from Ascot Vale to Keysborough to pick up a mattress he found cheap on Facebook and two women hanging out at Tarneit railway Station without a valid reason.
Updated
The United States and Israel have voted against a UN resolution for a “comprehensive and coordinated response” to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The resolution included recognition of the World Health Organisation’s leadership role, Agence France-Press reports.
The resolution was adopted by a majority of 169 countries out of 193.
The text, called an omnibus resolution because it covers multiple aspects of the pandemic, “acknowledges the key leadership role of WHO and the fundamental role of the United Nations system in catalyzing and coordinating the comprehensive global response to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The United States withdrew from the WHO this spring, accusing the body of mismanaging the coronavirus pandemic and delaying launch of a global alert.
The text “calls for intensified international cooperation and solidarity to contain, mitigate and overcome the pandemic and its consequences.”
Ahead of the vote, the United States unsuccessfully attempted to remove a paragraph on protecting women in the area of sexual and reproductive health, over objections about abortion.
Libya and Iraq also voted for the paragraph’s removal. However more than 120 countries voted to keep it and 25 countries abstained.
Updated
Some photos here of the arrests in Melbourne at the anti-lockdown protests:
Updated
In sports news, Cricket Australia has secured special permission for players to train at Adelaide Oval while quarantining, AAP reports.
The team, which is currently in Manchester in the UK, will return to Australia soon, but it was unknown which city they would fly into.
Perth was the early frontrunner, but Western Australia made it clear that players would be in hard hotel lockdown for a fortnight.
South Australia has now confirmed that the players and staff will stay at the Oval Hotel, which has been built into the eastern side of Adelaide Oval.
The hotel and ground will become a biosecurity bubble under a proposal that has been ticked off by the South Australian government, Adelaide Oval management and the South Australian Cricket Association.
“CA is committed to staging a safe and successful summer and today’s agreement with the authorities in South Australia is a positive step towards achieving that,” CA interim chief executive Nick Hockley said.
“The health and safety of the South Australian community is our highest priority and the guiding principle in our planning.
“There is so much to look forward to this summer, and plenty of work going on behind the scenes to ensure that happens.”
The arrangements will likely apply to other players, including the visiting Indian team, who will come to Australia later in the year.
The four-Test series between Australia and India is currently slated to begin in Brisbane on December 3-7, but the rivals are now expected to start that series in mid-December at Adelaide Oval.
Police have taken the details of another set of protestors at Fitzroy Gardens, including an older woman who has had her signs confiscated. One sign read ‘Open Our Churches’. pic.twitter.com/BbajKEkkAm
— Ashleigh McMillan (@Ash_McMillan) September 12, 2020
The average number of cases diagnosed in the last 14 days for metropolitan Melbourne is 61.6 and regional Victoria is 4.3. The total number of cases from an unknown source in the last 14 days is 115 for metropolitan Melbourne and 7 for regional Victoria. Great work Victorians. https://t.co/nglwFksxdm
— Jenny Mikakos MP #StayHomeSaveLives (@JennyMikakos) September 12, 2020
At least three arrests at Melbourne lockdown protests
At least three people have been detained by police and others have been told to move on during a peaceful anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne.
An AAP photographer witnessed three people, some in handcuffs, being led away by police, while officers directed others to move on.
Protesters walking along the Yarra River stopped and displayed signs, including “I am just exercising my human rights”.
Canada reports zero Covid-19 deaths for the first time since March
Canada has reported zero Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours for the first time since March 15, according to public health agency data released late on Friday.
However, the country has reported 702 new cases, as most provinces ease lockdown restrictions and as schools reopen for in-person classes.
Authorities have been on high alert to avoid fresh outbreaks, and provinces including British Columbia have imposed new curbs to tackle the spread of the virus.
There has been a correction to NSW’s earlier alerts about Covid cases on a Sydney bus route.
The bus routes are
- 379 from Bronte Beach toBondi Junction station, 7 September 2020, 11.08am-11.24am
- 316 from Avoca St Randwick to Bondi Junction station, 8 September 2020*, 10.44am-11.05am
Anyone who travelled on the following bus routes is a casual contact and must be alert for symptoms and immediately get tested if any develop, and stay isolated until a negative test result is received.
An anti-lockdown protester says it is worth the fine as he is led away in handcuffs after proudly displaying a sign near the Shrine. pic.twitter.com/DRkuZREz85
— Jack Paynter (@jackpayn) September 12, 2020
Andrews is addressing the anti-lockdown protesters who gathered today.
“Selfish, unlawful and wrong,” he says. “It’s not smart, it’s not right ... it’s not the time for protest. No one has the right to make choices like that, that potentially puts at risk everything we are working towards.
He says that Melbourne can open “just like regional Victoria will next week” if they follow the lockdown.
“Let’s do everything we can to not keep spreading the virus.”
Updated
Andrews says he will strongly “defend” the border between Melbourne and regional Victoria to prevent the spread of the virus, including on the upcoming AFL grand final public holiday.
“We know there are people who move between Melbourne and regional Victoria for work ... we know it is inconvenient to be stopped at roadblocks ... but my feedback from regional Victorians is they are proud of such low numbers, they jealously defend it.”
Updated
Queensland records three new cases
Queensland has recorded three new cases of Covid-19 – who are all contacts of previously confirmed cases. All three people are in quarantine, the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk said.
Saturday, 12 September – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 12, 2020
• 3 new confirmed cases
• 31 active cases
• 1,149 total confirmed cases
• 1,017,965 tests conducted
Sadly, six Queenslanders with COVID-19 have died. 1,096 patients have recovered.#covid19au pic.twitter.com/s7I4LgMY15
Some images from Melbourne’s protests earlier today:
There’s hundreds of police at Fitzroy Gardens this morning, including the riot police who have already arrived in preparation for another anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne. Not many protestors yet. pic.twitter.com/3iMHgpJaVZ
— Ashleigh McMillan (@Ash_McMillan) September 12, 2020
Andrews and Sutton are asked multiple times whether the case limits for the final step of eased restrictions will be changed.
Andrews says that it can change as the new case numbers do.
“We have never said these are stone tablets and can never be changed,” he says.
“Data trumps modelling every time. Actual numbers ... As each day passes, the actual data gets put into this and the modelling, the process will be rerun to see where we are in real terms.”
He adds: “If it became clear as a point that the tail of this second wave was more stubborn than even at the most rigorous modelling tells us, then of course we would look at that.”
Updated
Sutton is asked about an article published by the Saturday Paper today, that reported that he described contact tracing as a “hodge podge”.
“That was not about contact tracing,” he says. “It was about the fact that there are private pathology providers that operate across Victoria and we have worked extremely hard to align the testing.”
Updated
The state’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, is speaking now.
At the same time, the ABC is showing footage of lockdown protests in Melbourne where police are present, and it seems that arrests are being made.
Sutton echoes Andrews and says that regional Victoria is on track to jump two steps of eased restrictions next week.
“We have laid out those thresholds, which is being below five new cases per day over the 14-day period. It is below that now.
“We would need to have significantly more than five over the remaining days for it to head up above that again. And for there to be no mystery cases, or cases of unknown acquisition in that same 14-day period.”
He says that the government will have to wait until Monday to confirm the easing restrictions, rather than announce it over the weekend.
“We absolutely need to get to Monday to see that, I don’t think we could call it today, for example. I think we have to go through the weekend, see Monday, make sure that there [are] either no new cases, and if there are new cases.”
Updated
In Victoria, there has been an increase compared to last year among young people presenting to emergency departments for self-harm.
But Andrews says that the statistics are still down on earlier during the lockdown.
There has been a 26.7% increase in young people presenting to emergency departments for intentional self-harm and suicidal ideation over the past few weeks,” Andrews said.
Last month, on 9 August, there was a 33% increase.
“The trend there is actually coming down which is a good thing,” Andrews says. “And the additional resources that we are providing to hospitals, and health services, will be very important for many months to come.”
NSW records six new cases
New South Wales has recorded six new cases over the 24 hours to 8pm last night, five of them locally acquired.
Four of the people are close contacts of cases associated with Concord Hospital.
One person is a student at Blue Mountains Grammar School, and the school is being cleaned.
As we previously reported, a person also attended the Katoomba Aquatic Centre on Friday 4 September from 11.30am-1.30pm. Anyone who there at the time is advised to monitor for symptoms and immediately self-isolate and get tested if symptoms develop, however mild, and remain isolated until a negative result is received.
The state has also issued alerts for a KFC at 2A Bunting St Emerton on Monday 7 September between 12.00pm to 9:30pm, and two bus routes.
The bus routes are the 379 from Bronte Beach – Bondi Junction station, 7 September 2020, 11.08am-11.24am, and the 316 from Avoca St Randwick – Bondi Junction station, 7 September 2020, 10.44am-11.05am.
People must be alert for symptoms and immediately get tested if any develop, and stay isolated until a negative test result is received.
Andrews announces that beauty services will be able to open earlier than expected.
Beauty and personal services, where a mask can be worn for the entire time, will be able to open in the third step, alongside hairdressing.
“That could be as soon as next week,” in regional Victoria, he says.
Facials, face piercings and face tattoos cannot go ahead, but others can.
Regional Victoria 'on track' to reopen next week
Daniel Andrews is giving his daily update now.
All six deaths recorded over the past 24 hours were in aged care, he says.
He adds that the number of Victorians in hospital has continued to steadily fall.
There are no new cases in regional Victoria, and 58 active cases overall. He adds that one case in Echucha was a false positive.
“Regional Victoria remains on track to be open, to take not one, but two steps by the middle of next week.”
Updated
Earlier this morning, news broke that former NSW premier and federal finance minister, John Fahey, had died.
Here’s our full story:
Meanwhile, Australia’s national Covid-19 death toll has surpassed 800 after Victoria reported another six deaths this morning.
The national total stands at 803 deaths, with 716 of those in Victoria.
Yesterday, premier Daniel Andrews signalled that regional Victoria could move out of restrictions as early as next week.
Daniel Andrews will give his daily press conference today at 11am. We’ll bring it you as it happens.
Mexico's cases rise to 658,299
Mexico’s confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 658,299, according to the country’s health ministry. The country has also now recorded 70,183 total deaths.
In New South Wales, a pool in the Blue Mountains has been closed after a person who visited tested positive for Covid-19.
Anyone who visited the Katoomba Sports and Aquatic Centre on 4 September from 11.30am to 1.30pm has to self-isolate until September 18.
NSW Health notified the Blue Mountains City Council about the case late on Friday night.
“My immediate concern is for the community and Council Staff who may have been present at the facility on that day. My thoughts are with them. This will be a nervous time,” Mayor Mark Greenhill said in a Facebook post.
Updated
The chairman of St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Melbourne has stood down.
On Friday, the Greek Orthodox Church, which operates the home, announced that chairman Konstantinos Kontis had resigned, but would remain on the St Basil’s board.
The aged care home has the most Covid-19 deaths in the country’s aged care system, with 44.
Also this morning, federal data has emerged showing that 95% of Australia’s coronavirus aged care deaths have occurred in Victoria.
Updated
Also today in Victoria, Melbourne is bracing itself for more anti-lockdown protests, after 17 people were arrested last week.
A “freedom walk” is planned for 11am today in the city, as well as other protests, despite the stern warnings of police and the state’s premier, Daniel Andrews.
Andrews told protesters on Friday: “All you’re potentially doing is spreading the virus”.
The assistant commissioner of police, Luke Cornelius, went even further, saying: “I feel a bit like a dog returning to eat his own vomit.”
“I’m sick of it,” he said.
Last weekend, a protest was held at the Shrine of Remembrance, resulting in 17 arrests and more than 160 fines.
Updated
Victoria records lowest new cases since June
Earlier today, the state of Victoria released its Covid-19 numbers, showing 37 new cases and six new deaths over the past 24 hours.
That’s the lowest new case total since since 26 June.
Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to deliver his press conference on the statistics later today, and we’ll bring you that as it happens.
Updated
Hi all, it’s Naaman Zhou here, bringing you the latest coronavirus news from Australia and around the world.
The state of Victoria is bracing for more protests and arrests today as anti-lockdown groups plan to march through the city, following protests last week. Earlier this morning, the state also announced 37 new cases, one of the lowest totals for months.
Here’s what has happened over the past few hours:
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Brazil’s death toll passed 130,000, according to the country’s health ministry. It has the second highest death toll in the world, after the US.
- France has ruled out imposing a new national lockdown despite recording more than 9,000 new cases for the second consecutive day. Instead the prime minister, Jean Gastex, announced an increase in test and trace measures and a reduction the quarantine period for those with the virus from 14 to seven days.
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Spain has reported 4,708 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours. It brings its cumulative total to 566,326 - the highest in western Europe.
- A further 3,539 people have tested positive in the UK, the largest daily figure since mid-May. It was also announced that the R value for both the UK and England is between 1 and 1.2.
- The US government’s infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, said he disagrees with President Donald Trump’s assessment that the country has “rounded the corner” on the coronavirus pandemic, saying the statistics are disturbing.
- The first European pandemic “travel bubble”, created in May by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, has burst after Latvia said it was mandating a 14-day quarantine on everyone arriving from Estonia.
- Iraq has recorded another 4,254 new cases and 67 more deaths from the virus. Despite the recent surge in cases, thousands of supporters of Iraqi shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr gathered at a mosque in east Baghdad for the first time since March.
- India has set another global one-day record for coronavirus infections. The country reported 96,551 new cases. Deaths have remained relatively low in the country, but are seeing an upward trend, with more than 1,000 deaths being reported every day for the last ten days.
- Global infections have passed 28.2m and deaths stand at 911,282, according to Johns Hopkins data. The first four countries in terms of infections, the US, India, Brazil and Russia, account for nearly 58% of all cases.
- Austria has expanded mandatory mask-wearing and imposed restrictions on events in response to a surge in new cases.
- In the UK, the Covid-19 smartphone app will be launched across England and Wales on 24 September.
