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The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has just been talking to Sydney radio station 2gb about the findings of that Ruby Princess special commission of inquiry, which cleared federal agencies of wrong-doing in the saga.
“It is as we said it was,” Morrison said. “We were being straight with people about what happened and I think the inquiry has borne that out.”
On the New South Wales Health department, which was criticised in the final report for making “serious errors” in handling the debacle, Morrison said it had been “a very difficult time”.
“Officials will make mistakes in a pandemic that none of us have had to manage before. I think there have been some humble learnings in NSW and I’ve seen NSW go from strength to strength.”
The 303 new cases in Victoria continues a downward trend for the state amid harsh lockdowns in the city of Melbourne.
Over the past five days Victoria recorded 372, 278, 410, 331 and 303 cases respectively.
“The seven-day trend indicates the peak was probably four or five days ago and we will continue to see lower numbers overall from here on in,” the state’s chief medical officer Brett Sutton said on Friday.
Victoria reports 303 new cases and four more deaths
The Australian state of Victoria has recorded 303 new cases of Covid-19 and four new deaths overnight. It brings Australia’s death toll from the virus to 379.
#Covid19VicData for 15 August 2020.
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) August 14, 2020
303 new cases of #coronavirus (#COVID19) detected in Victoria in the last 24 hours. Sadly, there have been 4 deaths.
More detail will be provided this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/78ao8VsDy5
Updated
Summary
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Australia’s Covid-19 death toll is now at 375 after a man in his 20s was among the new casualties of the vicious second-wave outbreak in the city of Melbourne.
- Brazil has reported 50,644 new coronavirus infections and 1,060 new deaths, the health ministry said on Friday. The country’s tally now stands at 3,275,520 confirmed cases and 106,523 deaths, making it second globally in terms of the number of cases and deaths after the US.
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Croatia recorded 208 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the country’s chief epidemiologist Krunoslav Capak has said. Croatia will require bars and nightclubs to close after midnight for a period of 10 day from this weekend, similarly to Greece.
- France has recorded another new post-lockdown record rise in cases, with 2,846 new infections. The UK has removed the country from its travel corridor, meaning all holidaymakers returning from France will have to self-isolate for two weeks, leading to British tourists scrambling to cross the Channel before the cut-off time on Saturday 4am BST.
- In the UK, the North West, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and Leicester face a third week under tightened coronavirus restrictions as the latest figures showed no decrease in the number of infections, the Department of Health has said.
- Germany has declared almost all of Spain as a coronavirus risk region following surging infections - a further blow to the country’s tourism industry.
- Greece is limiting public gatherings to 50 people amid a recent spike win cases. The measure will be in place until 24 August in areas with high infection numbers. The government has imposed a midnight curfew on bars and restaurants in Athens and other regions.
- Serbia will require foreigners to present a negative coronavirus tests taken within 48 hours of arrival from Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia and Romania from Saturday. The measure does not apply to Serbian nationals.
- Spain is set to shut nightclubs and late-night bars and ban smoking in public nationally, the health minister announced today as part of measures to fight the country’s coronavirus outbreak. Smoking has been outlawed in all public spaces where people are unable to distance.
Australia’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 375 after a man in his 20s was among the newest casualties of the second-wave outbreak in the city of Melbourne.
The man, the youngest person to die of the virus in Australia, was among 14 people to die from the virus in Victoria on Friday, as the state recorded 372 new cases of the virus. It came during stage-four restrictions that has seen Australia’s second largest city placed under a long-running lockdown.
Also on Friday, a long-awaited report on the Ruby Princess cruise ship debacle – which saw hundreds of infections spread around the country after the ship was allowed to dock in Sydney despite having infectious patients on board – found the New South Wales Health department made multiple “serious errors” in handling the Ruby Princess, and effectively “did nothing”. Passengers have welcomed the findings, but some criticised the report for not going far enough after it has made no recommendations to NSW Health.
In NSW, which has maintained low case numbers since the beginning of July, a number of outbreaks in schools looks likely to prompt further restrictions, including reports that instruments such as choirs and recorders, singing and end of year school formals may be banned.
Meanwhile the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has apologised for the government’s role in failing to adequately prepare aged care residences for Covid-19 amid thousands of cases in Victoria, and dozens of deaths in the sector.
Updated
The Argentine biotech firm contracted to produce 400 million doses of an AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for Latin America said on Friday it could start shipping the active substance of the product to Mexico for completion.
Esteban Corley, director of mAbxience, the biotech firm, said he expected the vaccine could be distributed in Latin America between April and May.
The vaccine candidate, which is likely to cost between three and four dollars per dose, has raised hopes in the badly-hit region, which has seen just under a third of global deaths and cases.
“Sometime in late February these materials will be exported to Mexico and in Mexico they will be formulated, filled and released” through Mexican Laboratory Biomont, Corley told journalists in a digital press conference.
On Wednesday, the Argentine government said it had agreed to co-produce with Mexico and Britain’s second-largest drugmaker, AstraZeneca Plc, the potential vaccine against the virus at present under development at the University of Oxford.
On Thursday, the general director of AstraZeneca in Mexico told a press conference that the trials in phase III of the product would end between the end of November or December, after which the company would seek government approvals.
“Our understanding will be the same in all territories and is based on cost,” the director of mAbxience, part of the larger Insud Group, said.
He added that he was confident the initial goal of producing 250 million doses in 2021 could be met.
Moscow’s health department has said it recorded 1,706 deaths related to the coronavirus in July, of a total of 10,773 deaths recorded in the city over the course of the month.
Moscow has been the area worst hit by the pandemic in Russia, and the health department said the coronavirus toll partly accounts for a rise of about 7% in the city’s mortality rate compared to the same month last year.
The department found 742 cases in which the coronavirus had been the main cause of death while in 964 other cases, the victim had died of other causes after testing positive for the virus.
Brazil has reported 50,644 new coronavirus infections and 1,060 new deaths, the health ministry said on Friday.
The country’s tally now stands at 3,275,520 confirmed cases and 106,523 deaths, making it second globally in number of cases and deaths after the US.
As the new quarantine rules come into effect in a few hours for holidaymakers returning from France, Antonia Wilson has put together a guide to the updated travel corridor
Coronavirus outbreaks are taking place across Europe and it is up to each country to decide on how to tackle them, Spain’s foreign minister said on Friday as Germany declared most of her country a risk region.
Germany followed the UK in imposing quarantine on people returning from Spain, further damaging hopes of a swift revival for tourism, which usually accounts for around 12% of the Spanish economy.
“New outbreaks are the norm, they are not the exception, in Spain or any other country in the European Union,” Arancha Gonzalez Laya told Reuters in an interview.
“Every country is taking measures to fight Covid... that they think are necessary to protect their citizens. We don’t question the measures other countries take.”
Some regions within Spain itself have limited movement with neighbouring areas to isolate flare-ups of the disease, “showing that this is not a question of diplomacy or politics, it is a question of epidemiology,” she said.
Spain recorded almost 3,000 new cases on Friday, about double the average in the first 12 days of August, bringing the cumulative total to 342,813 - the highest in Western Europe.
Earlier on Friday, Spain announced a series of measures limiting nightlife, including closing clubs and bars.
Asked whether the limits would impact tourism and the economy, Gonzalez Laya said: “The main question today is how do we make sure we limit infection and the expansion of Covid in the country.”
Croatia recorded 208 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the country’s chief epidemiologist Krunoslav Capak has said.
“The average age of those infected is 31 years as some two thirds were infected in the nightclubs and bars that remain open beyond midnight,” Capak told a news conference.
Croatia will require that bars and nightclubs to close after midnight for a period of 10 day from this weekend, similarly to Greece.
This follows Italy introducing mandatory testing for all those entering the country from Croatia, while Slovenia also floats the idea of requiring people visiting Slovenia from Croatia to present negative tests before entering the country. Austria has warned against visiting Croatia.
People, mostly foreign tourists, sunbath and swim on 13 August, 2020, in Crikvenica on the northern Adriatic coast. (Photo by DENIS LOVROVIC/AFP via Getty Images) Photograph: Denis Lovrović/AFP/Getty Images
A number of localised outbreaks in Europe, including in Italy and Germany, have been traced back to travellers returning from trips to party hot spots in Croatia in the past couple of weeks, notably from the island of Pag, Reuters reports.
Croatia has registered a total of 6,258 cases so far, with 163 deaths recorded.
Summary
To those of you just joining the blog, welcome. Here’s a quick summary of recent events to get you up to speed.
Think I’ve missed a story from your part of the world? You can reach me on Twitter @cleaskopeliti or by email: clea.skopeliti.casual@theguardian.com. Here’s the latest.
- France has recorded another new post-lockdown record rise in cases, with 2,846 new infections. The UK has removed the country from its travel corridor, meaning all holidaymakers returning from France will have to self-isolate for two weeks, leading to British tourists scrambling to cross the Channel before the cut-off time on Saturday 4am BST.
- In the UK, the North West, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and Leicester face a third week under tightened coronavirus restrictions as the latest figures showed no decrease in the number of infections, the Department of Health has said.
- Germany has declared almost all of Spain as a coronavirus risk region following surging infections - a further blow to the country’s tourism industry.
- Greece is limiting public gatherings to 50 people amid a recent spike win cases. The measure will be in place until 24 August in areas with high infection numbers. The government has imposed a midnight curfew on bars and restaurants in Athens and other regions.
- Serbia will require foreigners to present a negative coronavirus tests taken within 48 hours of arrival from Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia and Romania from Saturday. The measure does not apply to Serbian nationals.
- Spain is set to shut nightclubs and late-night bars and ban smoking in public nationally, the health minister announced today as part of measures to fight the country’s coronavirus outbreak. Smoking has been outlawed in all public spaces where people are unable to maintain a distance of 1.5m (virtually banning it in outdoor terraces of bars and restaurants).
- The EU has reached a deal with British company AstraZeneca for at least 300m doses of its vaccine candidate. The deal includes an option to purchase a further 100m doses should the vaccine prove safe and effective.
- Italy has ordered holidaymakers returning from Spain, Croatia, Malta and Greece to be tested for the coronavirus, as the number of new cases crossed the 500 mark for the first time in weeks.
US coronavirus hotspots had disproportionately high numbers of cases among communities of colour, according to an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The report contributes to a growing body of evidence that existing health and social inequalities experienced by communities of colour raised the risk of infection and death from Covid-19, the CDC said.
In 79 counties identified as hotspots that also had information on race, 96.2% had disparities in Covid-19 cases in one or more minority racial and ethnic groups between February and June, researchers concluded.
The largest disparities were reported among Hispanic people in hotspot counties (3.5 million people), followed by African Americans (2 million).
Asian populations were disproportionately affected by Covid-19 in a small number of hotspot counties, but the Asian racial category is broad and further analyses might provide additional insights, the researchers said.
The study did not assess disparities in Covid-19 related deaths because of the lack of available county-level mortality data, but the researchers said existing national analyses show there exists differences in Covid-19 deaths and similar patterns were likely to exist at the county level too.
Apart from long-standing discrimination and social inequities, other factors such as economic and housing policies, employment in meat packing, agriculture, service and health care sectors, and living in multifamily households could increase risk for transmission, the researchers said.
Updated
Canada will grant permanent residency to asylum seekers who cared for coronavirus patients in hospitals and care homes at height of the pandemic last spring, Marco Mendicino, the immigration minister has said.
Mendicino said the program is a way to thank those who “put themselves at the greatest risk” of contracting the coronavirus.
They will be able to apply for residency for themselves and their families if they had submitted their application by March 2020, even if their demand had already been rejected.
The decision would affect about 1,000 claimants across the country, the CBC reports.
France has declared Paris and the port city of Marseille high-risk zones for coronavirus as the government reported more than 2,500 new infections for the third day in a row.
However, the number of people hospitalised due to the disease continued to fall, having dipped below 5,000 for the first time since mid-March on Wednesday.
While the number of new infections is up in all age groups, it has risen particularly sharply among 25 to 35-year olds. The health care system appears to be holding up at least in part as this group is less likely to need hospital care.
The number of people in ICUs has fallen to 367, a new low since mid-March and a level almost 20 times lower than a 7,148 peak reached on 8 April.
Health ministry epidemiologist Daniel Levy-Bruhl said authorities are not “presently worried by the hospital situation but we are worried of how this situation could evolve if measures are not taken to stop the increase of cases we’re witnessing”.
The daily death toll increased by 18 to 30,406 on Friday, compared to 17 over the last two days.
France’s total number of cases stands at 212,211.
Oman ends ban on night movement
Oman will end its ban on night movement starting from 15 August at 5am local time (GMT +4), Oman’s supreme committee for dealing with Covid-19 has announced.
Oman has recorded 82,743 coronavirus cases, including 557 deaths and 77,427 recoveries.
The Supreme Committee would like to draw everyone's attention that the night movement ban will end at 5:00 am tomorrow morning, Saturday, August 15, 2020 and it appreciates the great response shown by the citizens and residents.#OmanVSCovid19 pic.twitter.com/fB31nJeu3h
— عُمان تواجه كورونا (@OmanVSCovid19) August 14, 2020
France records another new post-lockdown record rise in cases, with 2,846 new infections
From Reuters:
The French health ministry reported 2,846 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours on Friday, setting a new post-lockdown daily high for the third day in a row and taking the country’s cumulative total of cases to 212,211.
The seven-day moving average of new infections, which averages out weekly data reporting irregularities, increased to 2,041, doubling over the last two weeks, and going beyond the 2,000 threshold for the first time since 20 April.
Updated
Canada is preparing for a “reasonable worst case scenario” in which further surges of coronavirus cases would at times overwhelm the public health system, officials have said.
In this scenario, there would be a large peak later this year followed by a number of smaller peaks and valleys stretching to January 2022. Each of the peaks would exceed the health system’s capacity.
Hello, my name is Clea Skopeliti and I’ll be running the blog for the next few hours. You can get in touch with me on Twitter @cleaskopeliti or by email: clea.skopeliti.casual@theguardian.com. I won’t always have time to reply to everything but will read it all! Thanks in advance.
People in parts of northern England face a third week banned from meeting others in their homes or gardens as the latest evidence shows no decrease in the number of coronavirus cases, according to the Department of Health.
Households in areas of the North West, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and Leicester cannot mix indoors - unless they are in a support bubble - and limits remain on numbers meeting outside.
While venues including casinos, bowling alleys and conference halls across England prepare to reopen on Saturday - following a two-week delay - such buildings will not be allowed to reopen in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire or Leicester.
The department said the latest evidence does not show a decrease in the number of cases per 100,000 people in those areas and health secretary Matt Hancock had, alongside local leaders, agreed that the rules should stay in place.
Updated
Germany now treating nearly all of Spain as a Covid risk region
Germany is declaring nearly all of Spain, including the tourist island of Mallorca, a coronavirus risk region after a rise in cases there, government sources told Reuters on Friday.
The move deals a blow to hopes for a swift revival of mass tourism after months of lockdown to stop the spread of the virus all but wiped out this year’s high season for tourism in Europe.
Daily Bild had reported earlier that Mallorca had been added to the list of high-risk regions published by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s public health agency.
The sources told Reuters that all of Spain except for the Canary Islands would be included on RKI’s next list of risk regions.
Designations as risk regions are typically followed by the German foreign ministry warning against tourist travel to those areas and mean people returning from there face a coronavirus test or two weeks’ compulsory quarantine.
The Balearic islands, off Spain’s eastern coast, include holiday destinations such as Ibiza, among the most popular destinations for north European sunseekers.
Infections in Spain have increased in recent days following the end of Spain’s tough lockdown seven weeks ago.
Updated
Thousands of Albanians formed an enormous queue of cars at the Greek border today as they rushed to re-enter the country for work ahead of new virus rules, police said.
Around 4,000 cars were jammed in a 20km-long (12-mile) line at the Kakavia border crossing in southern Albania, in a build-up that has been growing since Greece announced tougher entry requirements at the start of the week to contain a surge in infections, AFP reports.
The changes came as thousands of Albanians who live and work in Greece, mainly in the agricultural sector, were preparing to return after summer holidays at home.
Under Athens’ new rules, daily arrivals from Albania will be capped at 750 after 16 August.
Updated
Hi. Caroline Davies here. I will be running the live blog for a while, taking over from my colleague Sarah Marsh. You can get in touch on caroline.davies@theguardian.com
In Greece, which has also seen a dramatic increase in coronavirus cases, authorities have announced further precautionary measures in an all-out bid to curb the spread of transmissions.
A midnight curfew on bars and restaurants was extended nationwide with businesses being ordered to adhere to the new rules in Athens and on popular islands including Paros, Antiparos, Kythera, Poros, Hydra and Aegina in the Argo-Saronic Gulf.
Public gatherings involving more than 50 people are also prohibited in areas that have registered a noticeable rise in infection rates.
As the tourist season goes into high gear – with ever more Greeks flocking to island homes and ancestral villages to mark the 15 August Dormition of the Virgin Mary, one of the biggest religious festivals in the Orthodox calendar – concerns over the spread of the virus among young people have never been higher.
A record rise in cases over the past week in Athens and Thessaloniki has been linked increasingly to younger Greeks returning from island holidays. Reports of overcrowding in bars and nightclubs have been rife. On Mykonos police have been forced to break up parties in private villas amid mounting fears of such events being “super-spreaders: of the virus.
Earlier today, as he met with health officials and senior epidemiologists to discuss developments, the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, implored younger Greeks to have their wits about them.
“I especially want to appeal to our young people. Be careful, take care of yourselves, you are not invincible and those who are not invincible, even more so, are your parents and your grandfathers and grandmothers,” he said. “I won’t tire of repeating this ... so we don’t find ourselves in the unpleasant position of having to take more drastic measures than we would want to.”
A total of 6,381 cases of coronavirus have been registered in Greece, which initially won global praise for its handling of the pandemic. Health officials have reported 221 Covid-linked deaths in the Mediterranean country to date. Infection rates exceeded the 5,000 tally a week ago.
Updated
Greece limits public gatherings to 50 people
Greece put in place a temporary 50-person limit on public gatherings on Friday, saying restaurants and bars in Athens and other areas must close by midnight.
The measure hopes to help the country contain a recent surge in Covid-19 infections. The deputy civil protection minister said the limit on public gatherings would last until 24 August and be imposed in parts of the country where infection numbers have risen.
“No measures can substitute for personal responsibility, particularly that of young people to protect their parents and grandparents,” the deputy civil protection minister, Nikos Hardalias, said.
Greece reported 262 new infections on Wednesday, its highest daily tally since the start of the outbreak in the country. Another 204 cases were reported on Thursday.
Updated
Germany’s public health agency declared the Spanish tourist island of Mallorca a coronavirus risk region after a rise in cases there, Bild newspaper reported on Friday.
Designations as risk regions by the Robert Koch Institute are typically followed by the German foreign ministry warning against tourist travel to those areas.
Updated
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My colleague Ashifa Kassam reports on the worrying resurgence of coronavirus cases in Spain:
Applause and cheers rang out in May as Spain shut down its largest makeshift hospital – hastily erected in Madrid’s convention centre – in what was seen as a symbolic turning point in one of Europe’s deadliest battles with Covid-19.
Less than four months later, Spain’s military has again been dispatched to build a field hospital, this time in the north-eastern city of Zaragoza, as the country grapples with one of the highest rates of infection in western Europe.
“We’re at a critical moment,” said Helena Legido-Quigley, a Barcelona-born professor of public health at the National University of Singapore.
You can read the full piece here:
A shopping mall in Shenzhen, south-eastern China, has been sealed off and is under police supervision after a supermarket worker tested positive for coronavirus.
Around 200 people were queuing for a Covid-19 test outside the IBC Mall in Shenzhen’s Luohu district on Friday evening where medical personnel wore protective suits, Reuters reports.
An official Guangdong health commission WeChat account channel said the alert was prompted by a Covid-19 case at the mall.
The confirmed case was a 41-year-old woman who had been working inside the Alibaba-owned supermarket Freshippo as a temporary brand promotor until 2 August, a source told Reuters.
The worker was diagnosed in her home city of Lufeng, in Guangdong, the commission said. Three of her family members also tested positive.
An outbreak in the city of Urumqi in the far western region of Xinjiang in July was thought to have originated with a mall worker.
Updated
Serbia will require negative coronavirus tests taken within 48 hours for foreigners coming from four neighbouring countries, the Balkan state’s government crisis team said on Friday.
The measure applies to those arriving from Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia and Romania from Saturday. However, it does not apply to Serbian nationals returning from those countries – only people from elsewhere.
Updated
Spain to close nightclubs and late-night bars and ban smoking in public
Nightclubs and late-night drinking establishments are to close and smoking is to be banned in all public places across Spain in measures announced today.
Salvador Illa, the health minister, announced 11 measures and three recommendations that have been agreed following a meeting with representatives from all of the country’s 17 autonomous regions.
In line with moves already taken in Galicia and the Canary Islands, smoking is prohibited in all public spaces where it is not possible to maintain a social distance of 1.5 metres. This effectively outlaws smoking on the outdoor terraces of bars and restaurants, all of which must now close by 1am.
The botellón, the type of al fresco drinking party favoured by young people, is banned, as is all drinking in public places. No more than 10 people can sit together in a restaurant and with a minimum space of 1.5 metres between tables. The same distance must be maintained in bars.
The measures are another blow to the hospitality business as, until now, outdoor terraces were smokers’ last refuge. It is also high summer when life is lived outside and people of all ages traditionally stay out till the small hours eating and drinking.
Visits to care homes will also be restricted, with only one visitor per day allowed in for a maximum of one hour. Testing will also be targeted at specific groups or neighbourhoods, and to health workers and those employed in care homes.
Among the recommendations, Illa urged people to stay within their social bubble and cautioned against gatherings of more than 10 people at home.
The moves come after 2,935 new cases were recorded over the past 24 hours, 842 in Madrid and 1,075 in Catalonia, with a total of 8,000 new infections since Wednesday.
The measures were agreed unanimously, Illa said, adding that “these measures are the minimum, not the maximum. Autonomous regions may take more restrictive measures.”
Updated
The Norwegian government has said citizens should wear face masks on public transport in and near Oslo amid a rise in Covid-19 cases, Reuters reports.
Until now, authorities in Norway had refrained from recommending wearing face masks in public.
“We recommend face masks as an extra precaution when it is difficult to maintain a distance of 1 metre on public transport,” Norway’s health minister, Bent Høie, said on Friday.
Updated
Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria have suffered their worst quarterly downturns in decades because of the pandemic, according to official data published by the three EU members on Friday.
The news agency Agence France-Presse reports that Hungary’s GDP plunged 14.5% in the year’s second quarter compared with the first three months of 2020, the worst since the communist era ended more than three decades ago.
Second-quarter GDP fell 12.3% in Romania and 9.8% in Bulgaria, the biggest fall since the 1997 economic crisis.
Updated
Authorities in Berlin are weighing whether to ban the night-time sale of alcohol in some inner-city areas to minimise the number of young people socialising in large crowds, as confirmed new infections in the German capital continue to rise.
By 6pm on Thursday, authorities in Berlin recorded 131 new cases within the last 24 hours, with the city’s Mitte and Neukölln districts in particular showing rising numbers over the last seven days.
Berlin’s health senator, Dilek Kalayci, said on Friday she had provisionally asked district authorities in Berlin to consider the feasibility of an alcohol ban along the lines of one that has been in place in the northern city of Hamburg for over a month.
Since early July, Hamburg has banned the sale of takeaway alcohol from off-licences, bars or restaurants between 8pm and 6am on weekends, to discourage people from spending the hot summer nights in large groups in parks or on street corners.
Stephan von Dassel, the district mayor of Berlin’s Mitte district, said: “If a comparable city like Hamburg has made good experiences with a locally and time-limited ban on selling alcohol, then that shouldn’t be ignored.”
Updated
Following Austria’s warning about Croatia, it’s worth taking a quick look at infection rates in the European countries causing the most concern to public health officials.
In Croatia, the infection rate has levelled off in recent weeks after rising sharply through June and July, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The latest data suggests Croatia’s infection rate is 7.8 per 100,000 people, according to this handy Sky News graphic.
How does that compare to other countries? Well, France’s infection rate is double Croatia’s – at 15 cases per 100,000 people – and the Netherlands is higher still, at 19 cases. Malta has 35 cases per 100,000 people.
Spain had 26 cases per 100,000 people when the UK added it to the quarantine list on 27 July.
Updated
Austria’s foreign ministry has warned its citizens against travelling to Croatia due to rising coronavirus rates in the country.
Achtung ❗️
— MFA Austria (@MFA_Austria) August 14, 2020
Reisewarnung für Kroatien 🇭🇷 ab dem 17. August!
Aufgrund der epidemiologischen Entwicklungen in Kroatien wird die höchste Sicherheitsstufe für das gesamte Land ausgesprochen.⁰⁰Nähere Infos: https://t.co/08t9EVoERn pic.twitter.com/wNoElnwXyr
EU reaches deal for at least 300m doses of potential vaccine
The European commission has reached a deal with British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca for the purchase of at least 300m doses of its potential Covid-19 vaccine.
The EU’s executive arm, which is negotiating on behalf of the 27 EU states, said the deal also included an option to purchase a further 100m doses should the vaccine prove safe and effective.
We deliver on our promises.@EU_Commission concluded first agreement on purchase of up to 400 million doses of future @AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 14, 2020
We’re committed to safeguard the health of Europeans & our global partners #StrongerTogether https://t.co/HvtW9NVAHa pic.twitter.com/4WvXwSgVqf
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European commission, said in a statement: “The European commission’s intense negotiations continue to achieve results. Today’s agreement is the first cornerstone in implementing the European commission’s vaccines strategy.
“This strategy will enable us to provide future vaccines to Europeans, as well as our partners elsewhere in the world.”
Updated
Italy orders holidaymakers from four countries to be tested
Italy’s health minister, Roberto Speranza, announced he has signed an ordinance requiring holidaymakers returning from Spain, Croatia, Malta and Greece to be tested for the coronavirus, as the number of new cases crossed the 500 mark for the first time in weeks.
“We need to maintain the utmost caution in order to defend what we have achieved so far”, said Speranza. “People returning from these countries will now have to have swabs”.
On Thursday Italy registered 523 new coronavirus cases, up from 481 on Wednesday, said the health ministry.
The death toll rose by six to 35,225 on Thursday. In total, 252,235 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Italy, including people who have died, recovered and those currently infected.
Updated
In Germany, almost four times as many people than previously reported had coronavirus in a town that experienced one of the country’s earliest outbreaks, new research suggests.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases said it had tested 2,203 people in the town of Kupferzell in southern Germany, where a church concert led to a coronavirus outbreak in early March.
It found 7.7% of residents had developed antibodies to Covid-19 – almost four times as many infections in the town than previously thought. Nearly one in five of those who had the infection did not show any symptoms, the RKI said.
Updated
Experts have welcomed the extension of lockdown restrictions in New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland, saying the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, had little choice but to clamp down on the virus amid signs it is spreading more widely than previously thought.
Ardern announced a few hours ago that 29 new cases had been identified linked to the previous cluster of four in south Auckland. This means Auckland will remain at level 3 lockdown – with public venues such as museums and gyms closed – and wider New Zealand at level 2 for a further 12 days, until midnight on 26 August.
Prof Michael Plank, of New Zealand’s University of Canterbury, said anyone who had visited Auckland in the last two weeks should self-isolate as much as possible and that there was a chance the outbreak had now spread to other parts of the country.
He added:
The good news is that the community cases found so far are all likely linked to the same cluster and there is no evidence yet of multiple clusters. But it’s almost certain there are more cases still to be found, so the government really had no option other than to extend the restrictions.
The incubation period of the virus can be up to 12 days, so people who were infected before the restrictions came into effect may not develop symptoms until towards the end of this two-week period. That means we need this extra time to have confidence that we have found all the cases that are out there.
Dr Sarb Johal, a clinical psychologist in the capital, Wellington, said there was an “air of resigned determination” among the New Zealand public about stamping out the virus, having gone more than 100 days without a new case until the recent cluster.
He added:
There is a clear signal that case numbers are likely to continue to rise, and that the index case is still not confirmed.
However, the public health work to contain the cluster outbreak does not need this information to be effective. However, people will want to find the source of the outbreak if they possibly can, and that will also add to a sense of agency and control over the outbreak for the community.
Updated
More than 60,000 new cases in India for third day running
One in five prisoners at the largest jail in Indian Kashmir have tested positive for the coronavirus, authorities have said, as the health ministry reported a daily nationwide rise of more than 60,000 cases for the third straight day.
India is the world’s third worst-hit country, behind only the United States and Brazil, with more than 2.4m confirmed coronavirus cases, according to a Reuters tally.
And numbers are expected to rise in coming weeks, as infections move deeper into the vast hinterland.
Authorities at the central jail in Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar said they were preparing to shift some prisoners after 102 of the 480 tested positive.
“We are taking extra care and all new entrants are being tested and then quarantined for two weeks,” VK Singh, Kashmir’s additional director general of prisons, told Reuters.
Updated
Hong Kong has reported 48 new coronavirus cases as authorities warned residents to be vigilant against a resurgence of the disease since early July.
Since late January, more than 4,300 people have been infected in Hong Kong, 63 of whom have died. Friday’s figure of 48 cases is down from 69 infections the previous day. All but two of the 48 cases were locally transmitted, according to officials.
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Northern Ireland's death toll rises to 859, official figures show
Northern Ireland’s official statistics agency said the country’s coronavirus death toll had risen to 859 after another four deaths in the week to 7 August.
The tally, released by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NSRA), is higher than the 556 deaths announced by the country’s health department, which is based on patients who have previously tested positive for Covid-19. The NSRA’s figure is based on information on death certificates filled out by medical professionals.
The agency said the number of excess deaths – deaths above the average for the same period in previous years – was 1,035 over the last 19 weeks in total. Excess deaths are considered the most accurate measure of human fatalities linked to Covid-19.
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The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has lifted a three-week lockdown in the border city of Kaesong after a suspected case of Covid-19 there, state media has reported, without saying if the infection had been confirmed or was a false alarm.
North Korea has not reported any cases of the coronavirus and Kim told a politburo meeting on Thursday the country had to be vigilant and decline any offer of foreign aid to battle flooding, so it could keep the virus at bay, Reuters reports.
“The worsening global situation on the malignant virus requires us not to allow any outside aid for the flood damage but shut the border tighter and carry out strict anti-epidemic work,” Kim said in comments carried by the KCNA.
Authorities locked down Kaesong, on the border with South Korea, and declared an emergency in the area last month after a North Korean who had defected to the South slipped back into the town.
State media said the man had shown coronavirus symptoms. The World Health Organization said later test results on him were inconclusive.
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The Philippines’ health ministry has reported 6,216 more coronavirus infections, the third-largest daily increase recorded in south-east Asia up to now, Reuters reports.
The ministry confirmed 16 additional deaths and said the total number of confirmed cases had increased to 153,660, while confirmed deaths had reached 2,442.
The Philippines on Monday reported its highest daily rise in confirmed infections at 6,958.
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Russia has reported 5,065 new daily coronavirus cases, up from 5,057 in the previous 24 hours, Reuters reports. The number of daily deaths fell slightly over the same period, from 124 to 114.
The country has the fourth-highest tally of coronavirus cases in the world, with more than 905,000, though is far behind India, Brazil and the US.
One of the lesser-known countries added to the UK’s quarantine list is the Caribbean island of Aruba.
Journalists on morning television in the UK appeared slightly confused about, well, anything to do with the country as they tried to explain the new restrictions for British travellers.
So here’s a handy fact-sheet: the first thing to know is that Aruba, a tiny island just off the coast of Venezuela, looks like a tropical dreamland.
Lonely Planet describes Aruba (population: 106,000) as “the most touristed island in the southern Caribbean”, with miles of dreamy beaches, all-inclusive resorts and a pretty little capital, Oranjestad – whose name gives away its role as a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
So why has it been added to the UK’s coronavirus blacklist? Well, Aruba’s number of new coronavirus cases has risen sharply in recent days – from 31 daily infections a week ago to 87 on Thursday, according to the World Health Organization. Its total number of cases now stands at 717, with three deaths.
The large rise would appear to coincide with the island reopening its borders to tourists last month, prompting 11,000 sun-seekers to pour on to Aruba. For a country almost wholly reliant on tourism, it will be hoping those cases soon fall.
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The number of daily coronavirus cases in Tokyo has risen above the 300 mark for the first time in five days.
Japanese authorities said they had confirmed 389 new cases in the capital, nearly two-thirds of whom were aged under 40. The number of serious cases rose from three to 24.
Governor Yuriko Koike has urged residents to stay in Tokyo during the ongoing Obon holiday period, which is normally a time when many Tokyoites visit relatives in rural areas or go travelling.
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Grant Shapps, the UK’s transport secretary, said there are currently around 160,000 British holidaymakers in France, all of whom will have to quarantine for 14 days if they return after 4am UK time on Saturday.
Travel analysts have estimated that about half a million Britons have booked to go out to France this month.
“It’s a dynamic situation, and I don’t think that anybody ... would want us to do anything other than protect public health and public safety,” Shapps told the UK’s Sky News.
“That does mean where we see countries breach a certain level of cases ... then we have no real choice but to act,” he added.
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Ukraine cases continue to rise
Ukraine has reported 1,732 new coronavirus cases, a single-day record, the country’s national council of security and defence said.
Total cases reached 87,872, including 2,011 deaths, according to Reuters.
The number of infections has increased sharply since June as authorities have eased some restrictions, allowing cafes, churches and public transport links to reopen.
Data from the Johns Hopkins University tracker shows the number of daily cases in Ukraine has tripled from just over 500 at the end of June.
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The extended lockdown in New Zealand is bad news for the country’s Super Rugby competition, which was one of the first top-class sports in the world to reopen to crowds of spectators in June.
The game against Blues and Crusaders, which was due to be played at Auckland’s Eden Park on Sunday, is officially off, while Saturday’s Highlanders-Hurricanes match at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium will be played in front of no crowds and at an earlier time.
In a statement, New Zealand Rugby said all community rugby activity in the Auckland region, including the playing of games, training and workshops, will be put on hold until further notice. It said all community rugby in the rest of the country can take place under level 2 guidelines.
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Thanks, Helen! It’s Josh here in Manchester, England, where a week-long heatwave appears to have come to an end overnight. Thankfully.
Summary
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. Thank you for following along – and, as always, for the news tips and other messages. I’ll be on holiday for a week – looking forward to bringing you all the news that’s fit to blog when I return.
My colleague Josh Halliday will be taking you through the next few hours of pandemic news.
In the meantime, below is a summary of the key developments from the last few hours:
- Global coronavirus deaths passed 750,000. The coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 750,000 people worldwide, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University tracker. Almost half of the deaths reported worldwide were in the four worst hit countries: the United States (166,118), Brazil (104,201), Mexico (54,666) and India (47,033).
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The UK government has quietly removed 1.3m coronavirus tests from its data because of double counting, raising fresh questions about the accuracy of the testing figures.In the government’s daily coronavirus update on Wednesday, it announced it had lowered the figure for “tests made available” by about 10% and discontinued the metric.
- The UK government has confirmed that six countries, including France, will be removed from its travel corridor list, following a surge in Covid-19 cases. Arrivals into the UK from France, the Netherlands, Malta, Monaco, Aruba and Turks & Caicos will have to quarantine for 14 days on their return or face a fine, will come into effect at 4am on Saturday. The UK will be “ruthless” over quarantine, UK PM Boris Johnson said
- France said the UK quarantine move will lead to reciprocal measures. France’s secretary of state for European affairs has responded to said the UK decision to add France to their quarantine list, saying the move would lead to “reciprocal measures” across the Channel. Clement Beaune tweeted: “A British decision which we regret and which will lead to reciprocal measures, all in hoping for a return for normal as soon as possible.”
- France reported a new post-lockdown peak in daily Covid-19 cases. The French health ministry reported 2,669 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, setting a new post-lockdown daily high for the second day in a row and taking the country’s cumulative total of cases to 209,365.
- New Zealand has reported 13 new cases of coronavirus and extended the lockdown in Auckland for 12 days. Two of the cases emerged far from Auckland, the original site of the country’s outbreak.The two cases were linked to the Auckland outbreak and occurred in the Waikato town of Tokoroa, 200km south of New Zealand’s biggest city, bringing the total size of the cluster to 30. One person was being treated in hospital.The development was described as concerning, with fears health services in the more rural area could come under strain.
- A man in his 20s has died of coronavirus in Australia, the country’s youngest victim. He is among 14 people in the southern state of Victoria to have died from coronavirus in the past 24 hours, with the state recording 372 new cases in that time.The deaths take the state’s toll from the virus to 289 and the national toll to 375.
- Peru passed 500,000 coronavirus cases and has the highest fatality rate in Latin America, according to health ministry data on Thursday, as the government struggles to contain a recent surge of infections. There have been 507,996 confirmed cases and 25,648 related deaths, vice health minister Luis Suarez said at a news conference. The Andean country has the highest coronavirus death rate in Latin America at 78.6 per 100,000 people, a Reuters tally shows, surpassing hard-hit regional neighbors Chile and Brazil.
- The WHO on Thursday urged countries to invest billions of dollars in searching for Covid-19 vaccines and treatments – calling it a snip compared to the vast economic cost of the coronavirus crisis. The World Health Organization insisted it was a smarter bet than the trillions of dollars being thrown at handling the consequences of the global pandemic.
- Germany admits delay in thousands of virus test results. The Bavarian premier, Markus Söder, has been forced to apologise over an embarrassing delay to thousands of coronavirus test results, just as Germany is seeing a new surge in virus cases.
Updated
Helen Sullivan here.
Thank you to the blog reader who alerted me to the fact that someone in New Zealand is selling a coronavirus-free bag of air.
The advertisement for the snack-sized Ziplock bag – for which the current bid is a measly NZ$5,150.00 – reads as follows:
The news of Level 2 lockdown came as shock to me. During my unnecessary panic, I decided to get a test. After testing negative, I figured I’d share my gift of Covid free air with the world.
Enjoy this free range, gluten free bag of air from the lungs of a 100% New Zealand made boy lol
Updated
Ardern says her team is “evidence-based” and the goal is getting back to freedom faster. With that, we will leave the press conference.
The prime minister says that genome testing hasn’t drawn a link between the current cases circulating in Auckland, and those tested and held in quarantine, which have arrived from overseas.
The source case, therefore, remains a mystery.
The cluster of cases around a west Auckland cool store means health authorities are still investigating if it was the source, and surfaces were somehow contaminated. The cool store handled freight from overseas.
The prime minister said they may never find out how the disease got back into New Zealand, but they had effectively ruled out that the flare-up was a “burning ember” from New Zealand’s previous March outbreak.
The PM says currently her team see “no reason” that the lockdown will be extended beyond August 26.
“As we have said from the start, our overall Covid-19 strategy remains elimination. That means stamping out the virus whenever it comes back.”
“We have been world-leading in our Covid response - we can do all of that again. 1.5 million New Zealanders in our biggest city is carrying a heavy load for our team of 5 million right now.”
“We can once again pull together to eliminate Covid.”
“Stay safe, safe kind, and stay well everyone.”
The prime minister is now taking questions, and says an entire lockdown for all of the North Island was not considered or advised by the director-general of health.
More now on the extension of the current alert levels in New Zealand:
“We know the incubation period for Covid-19, and our experience of the previous cluster means we can expect to see more cases as part of this cluster - it will grow before it slows,” Ardern said.
It will continue being linked to schools, workplaces and church events, the prime minister said.
“In keeping with our precautionary approach and New Zealand’s hard and early philosophy, the cabinet has agreed to maintain the current settings for a further 12 days.”
Auckland will remain at level 3, and the rest of the country will remain at level 2.
These alert levels will end on Wednesday 26th August, and the decision on alert levels will be reviewed on the 21st of August.
“There is nothing to suggest we need to move to a level 4 lockdown at this stage,” Ardern said, as there was so far only one cluster.
The prime minister reiterated this point, as she said many New Zealanders were nervous of a wider Level 4 lockdown.
The wage subsidy would be extended nationwide and will cover the period of time Level 3 restrictions remain in place.
New Zealand to maintain current alert levels for further 12 days
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern has just announced that the current levels will be maintained for another 12 days, until 11.59PM on the 26 August.
This means Auckland remains at level 3 and the rest of New Zealand at level 2.
“There is nothing to suggest we need to move to level 4 at this stage,” says Ardern.
Updated
It has been 53 hours since Auckland was moved to level 3, and the rest of the country to level 2, says New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
“We have identified 29 cases, all remaining linked to one cluster in Auckland. There is one other case likely linked to the cluster is still being investigated.”
More than 30,000 tests have been done in the last 48 hours.
“There are signs we have found this outbreak relatively early in its life,” Ardern said.
The PM said extensive testing and contact tracing has found the earliest case we have found to date is a cool store worker on the 31st July. It is the earliest sign of the re-emergence of the virus yet discovered.
There was as yet no clear links to the border or quarantine facilities. Genome testing also suggests it is a new strain of the virus to New Zealand - and not a dormant version lingering since New Zealand’s last outbreak.
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern is about to address the media after a 3 pm meeting with her cabinet.
She will announce whether Auckland’s lockdown - set to expire at midnight - will be extended and whether the rest of the country will remain at level 2.
Follow the livestream of her press conference here. She will be accompanied by the Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
Updated
UK holidaymakers in race to return from France before quarantine deadline
The UK’s airports and ports were braced for travel chaos on Friday as some of the hundreds of thousands of British holidaymakers in France race to return home before new quarantine rules kick in.
Summer plans have been thrown into disarray after the government said on Thursday evening that, from 4am on Saturday, all arrivals from France would have to self-isolate for 14 days or face a fine.
The operators of the Channel Tunnel warned on Thursday night that Friday travel slots were “already pretty much fully booked” and that it would not be easy to return. “We just haven’t got the space to take everybody who might suddenly want to come up to the coast,” John Keefe, director of public affairs at Getlink told the BBC’s Newsnight:
UK government quietly drops 1.3m Covid tests from England tally
Sarah Marsh and Caelainn Barr:
The government has quietly removed 1.3m coronavirus tests from its data because of double counting, raising fresh questions about the accuracy of the testing figures.
In the government’s daily coronavirus update on Wednesday, it announced it had lowered the figure for “tests made available” by about 10% and discontinued the metric.
An update on the page read: “An adjustment of -1,308,071 has been made to the historic data for the ‘tests made available’ metric. The adjustments have been made as a result of more accurate data collection and reporting processes recently being adopted within pillar 2.”
In Australia, horrific footage of a 95-year-old woman left to languish in a Melbourne aged care facility struck by Covid-19 shows ants crawling from a wound on her leg, and the bandages around it crusted with blood.
The footage and photos, described by the federal aged care minister as “heartbreaking”, were taken inside Kalyna Care, a private residential home in Melbourne’s north-west, on Tuesday, some two weeks after the virus was first identified in one staff member.
The woman, known to her family as Milka, died on Friday morning of conditions unrelated to Covid-19:
Asian markets drifted Friday as investors grew increasingly concerned about the stalemate in Washington on a new stimulus for the world’s top economy, AFP reports.
Hopes that Democrats and Republicans would cast aside their mutual animosity to stump up much-needed cash for struggling Americans have been key to supporting equities for weeks.
But they were dealt a blow Thursday when senators broke up for a summer recess, saying they would not return until early next month, while both sides continued to trade accusations over who was to blame for the impasse.
Democrats have called on Republicans and the White House to double their $1 trillion offer, having reduced their own proposal to $2 trillion from an initial $3.5 trillion.
But Senator Leader Mitch McConnell accused his opponents of pushing for several socialist measures to be introduced into the new bill, describing their tactics as “throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks”.
Still, the expectation remains that an agreement will at some point be found, particularly with an election just over two months away and millions of Americans in financial crisis.
“Congress’ political grandstanding delay is posing some risk for the global recovery,” said Stephen Innes at AxiCorp. “Still, there is no chance of this deal not going through for all the politically tarnishing Frugal Freddy reasons that have been alluded to.
“It is a matter of whether it is $1.5 trillion or $2 trillion, where bigger would be better.”
In early trade, Hong Kong dipped 0.1% and Shanghai was flat, while Tokyo ended the morning with small gains and Sydney added 0.5%.
Taipei was marginally higher but Seoul dropped more than one percent, while there were also losses in Singapore, Manila and Wellington.
Spain sees coronavirus cases surge again
Applause and cheers rang out in May as Spain shut down its largest makeshift hospital – hastily erected in Madrid’s convention centre – in what was seen as a symbolic turning point in one of Europe’s deadliest battles with Covid-19.
Less than four months later, Spain’s military has again been dispatched to build a field hospital, this time in the north-eastern city of Zaragoza, as the country grapples with one of the highest rates of infection in western Europe.
“We’re at a critical moment,” said Helena Legido-Quigley, a Barcelona-born professor of public health at the National University of Singapore.
Some eight weeks after the country emerged from one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns, a surge of cases in north-east and central areas have resulted in Spain leading Europe in numbers of confirmed new cases.
The country’s 14-day infection rate stands at 100 per 100,000, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control – behind only Luxembourg in Europe – and much higher than France’s rate of 32 or Italy’s 8.2 cases per 100,000:
A Trans-Tasman bubble allowing travel between Australia and New Zealand is “on pause” after new Covid-19 outbreaks, and may be delayed until after NZ’s general election, possibly until next year.
Australia’s minister for the Pacific, Alex Hawke, said both Australia and New Zealand remained committed to establishing a travel bubble as soon as it could be safely done, but that it was not imminent.
“The Trans-Tasman bubble’s on pause for a little bit, but as soon as we are able to get policy commitment to it, we want to be administratively ready. New Zealand has indicated that there will be a short pause on that but they are committed to the outcome,” Hawke told a Pacific press briefing.
After early reports a regime allowing travel between Australia and New Zealand could be in place by September, it may now be delayed until after New Zealand’s uncertain general election.
Scheduled for 19 September, the election itself may now be postponed, after new Covid-19 outbreaks in the country’s largest city.
The findings of a public inquiry into how passengers infected with the novel coronavirus were allowed to disembark a cruise ship in Sydney in March, triggering a major outbreak, are set to be handed down on Friday, Reuters reports.
The government of New South Wales (NSW) state commissioned the probe into the events leading up to the disembarkation of 2,700 passengers from the Carnival Corp-owned Ruby Princess on March 17 without proper screening for the virus.
Passengers from the ship spread the virus across the country and internationally, resulting in more than 600 cases and 20 deaths in what was at the time Australia’s largest outbreak of the disease.
The inquiry has heard evidence from medics, cruise ship executives and senior staff from the state’s health department.
Some testimony pointed to confusion between state and federal authorities over who bore final responsibility.
NSW officials rated the liner as “low risk” since it had only visited New Zealand, although some passengers had flown in from countries including the United States, the inquiry heard.
The inquiry’s findings could put pressure on senior officials in the state and federal governments to take responsibility for the failures.
China’s retail sales dropped in July, official data showed Friday, indicating that sluggish consumer spending could hold up the country’s recovery from the coronavirus outbreak, AFP reports.
Retail sales - a key indication of consumer sentiment - shrunk by 1.1% on-year, falling short of forecasts and suggesting many are still reticent about going out to spend time and money, even as China appears to have the virus largely under control.
The latest data follows a drop of 1.8% on-year for retail sales in June.
Bloomberg analysts had predicted sales would recover to a modest 0.1% growth.
The catering industry remained particularly badly hit, with sales down 11%.
The retail sector occupies an increasingly crucial role in China’s economy as leaders look to consumers, rather than trade and investment, to drive growth.
A domestic consumption pick-up is especially needed as external demand weakens while other countries continue battling the pandemic.
Spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics Fu Linghui said the data showed “a trend of steady recovery”.
Industrial production grew by 4.8% in July - the same level as the previous month, but below predictions from Bloomberg analysts of 5.2% growth.
China is working to bounce back from a historic economic contraction in the first quarter caused by the virus, which had shut down most activity and forced people across the country to stay home.
The coronavirus - which first emerged in the city of Wuhan late last year - has since shut businesses and destroyed millions of jobs globally.
As several of the world’s major economies plunge into recession, China’s data suggests it is generally recovering quicker, as the first to be hit by Covid-19 and one of the first to recover.
China’s GDP expanded 3.2% in April-June, smashing expectations and a massive improvement on the 6.8% contraction in the first quarter.
Germany has reported 1449 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the country’s total to 221,413.
There have been 14 deaths from the virus in the past 24 hours, the Robert Koch Institute is reporting.
Youngest Australian coronavirus death
A man in his 20s has died of coronavirus in Australia, the country’s youngest victim.
He is among 14 people in the southern state of Victoria to have died from coronavirus in the past 24 hours, with the state recording 372 new cases in that time.
The deaths take the state’s toll from the virus to 289 and the national toll to 375.
Most Australian states have successfully suppressed - though not eliminated - coronavirus outbreaks, but Victoria has been battling renewed outbreaks, around schools, aged care homes, and linked to hotel quarantine of returning travellers.
States across Australia have shut their borders to each other, the first time it has happened in Australia since the Spanish Flu pandemic a century ago.
Peru passes half a million Covid-19 cases
Reuters reports:
Peru surpassed 500,000 coronavirus cases and has the highest fatality rate in Latin America, according to health ministry data on Thursday, as the government struggles to contain a recent surge of infections.
There have been 507,996 confirmed cases and 25,648 related deaths, vice health minister Luis Suarez said at a news conference.
The Andean country has the highest coronavirus death rate in Latin America at 78.6 per 100,000 people, a Reuters tally shows, surpassing hard-hit regional neighbors Chile and Brazil.
President Martin Vizcarra, speaking earlier on Thursday from a public event to pay tribute to 120 doctors who have died from COVID-19, blamed the recent spike in infections on an uptick in social and sporting events and a lax attitude by the public.
“There has been too much confidence on the part of the population,” Vizcarra said.
“Let’s learn from history, correct mistakes and now we are united despite the discrepancies in some of the decisions that are made.”
On Wednesday Vizcarra banned family gatherings, reinstated a blanket Sunday curfew and extended lockdowns to five more regions of the country as figures revealed a 75% surge in infections among children and adolescents.
The first case of coronavirus appeared in Peru, the world’s second-largest copper producer, on 6 March and a week later the government imposed a strict quarantine, halting almost all production activity.
Its economy is expected to contract this year by 12% under the weight of the pandemic, according to central bank projections.
News from the Korean peninsula:
South Korea has reported 103 new Covid-19 cases, the most domestic cases in that country since the end of March.
On the same day, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un lifted a three week lockdown in the city of Kaesong and nearby areas, after a man who had defected to the South returned to the border town last month showing coronavirus symptoms, state media said on Friday.
Kim made the decision at a politburo meeting convened to discuss the government’s efforts to prevent a coronavirus outbreak, as well as the response to heavy rain and flooding, state news agency KCNA reported.
North Korea has said it has no confirmed cases of the coronavirus, but Kim said last month that the virus “could be said to have entered” the country and imposed the lockdown after the man was reported to have symptoms. Later test results on the man were “inconclusive”, according to the World Health Organisation.
Coronavirus prevention measures had stabilised the risk in the area, Kim said in a statement carried by KCNA.
While easing the lockdown within the country, Kim said that border controls should remain tight and ordered communities not to accept any external assistance related to the floods caused by weeks of heavy rain.
“The situation, in which the spread of the worldwide malignant virus has become worse, requires us not to allow any outside aid for the flood damage but shut the border tighter and carry out strict anti-epidemic work,” Kim said in a statement.
All you need to know about UK's quarantine rules for France
Why have travellers from France been ordered to quarantine on entry into the UK?
France has recorded post-lockdown record highs of daily cases in successive days with 2,669 new Covid-19 infections reported on Thursday, up from 2,524 the day before. Both figures topped the 2,288 cases on Friday, another record since the country began to ease out of lockdown in May, followed by 2,184 infections on Saturday, 1,885 on Sunday and 785 on Monday.
Meanwhile, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, France’s 14-day cumulative number of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people reached 32.1 as of Thursday, compared with the UK’s 18.5. The steep rise in cases prompted Downing Street to announce it is removing France from its travel corridor list on Thursday evening, meaning travellers returning to the UK must now self-isolate for 14 days or face a fine:
That press conference has now ended.
Still in New Zealand, the minister is facing tough questions over why the majority of border workers - 60% - weren’t tested before this week, and why it wasn’t compulsory.
He says the majority of workers do not come into close contact with new arrivals.
“Compulsory testing is quite a big lever to pull, and the government exercises a great deal of caution when making it compulsory for someone to undergo a medical procedure,” Hipkins said.
Dr Bloomfield said he will be looking for case numbers to “stabilise” over the next few days.
“We are getting an increasingly good picture and we will have even more information by the time cabinet meets...the is exactly the sort of pace we had geared up for when this situation arises”.
The index case is still “a piece in the puzzle” but investigators are still looking at human-to-human transmission, and are getting help from New Zealand police to track the movement of freight and workers from the border to freight cool stores.
“All of the cases at this stage are connected, and that is good news,” said health minister Chris Hipkins.
“We had seen no evidence of cases outside of Auckland that are not related to the cluster. But we are of course not out of the woods yet.”
Hipkins said the “lion’s share” of the government’s containment efforts would remain on Auckland.
The minister has urged workers at the Port of Auckland to identify themselves and take a test, as well as at two Auckland companies with connections to the Port. 500 port workers were tested yesterday, with the remainder to be tested today.
“Over the last two days that testing at the borders has ramped up, and we have made it compulsory,” Hipkins said.
The majority of border workers would be tested by the end of today, the minister said.
280 staff work on the frontline of the border at Auckland airport, and they remained the priority, the minister said.
The health minister said 1.6 million face coverings had been sent out to social sector groups in Auckland at 4.30 am this morning, and a further 1.4 million would be made available soon.
771 contacts of the original cluster have been identified, with more than 500 now contacted. 83% of close contacts are being traced within 48 hours, Dr Bloomfield said.
Contacts of students at two schools and a preschool are being traced, after one student in each of the school’s tested positive, and a pre-schooler at the early childcare facility.
15,703 tests were processed on Thursday, the highest number ever processed in New Zealand on a single day. “Demand has been high,” Bloomfield said, especially at 16 testing stations around Auckland. Only symptomatic people are being tested.
An aged care facility in Morrinsville was visited by two positive Covid-19 cases, before they were symptomatic. The aged-care resident who was visited has tested negative, as have staff working with that resident.
More than 1 million people have registered for the government-run QR code app.
Bloomfield said New Zealanders had started to stockpile medicines, and urged them to stop to ensure supply around the country.
New Zealand reports 12 new confirmed cases in the community, and 1 new probable case
Auckland’s three-day lockdown has cost the city NZ$150m. The city’s mayor has said the city will need a government bailout if lockdown is extended and increased to Level 4.
Director-general of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has said health care workers have been verbally abused and attacked while working to combat the virus and called such behaviour “completely unacceptable”.
There are 12 new confirmed cases in the community, and 1 new probable case. Two of the 13 new cases are in Tokoroa - they are close contacts of the Auckland cluster. Contact tracing and testing is underway in Tokoroa, Waikato, and a “bespoke quarantine arrangement” is being set-up for family members.
All of the 13 new cases have been linked to existing cases and the original Auckland cluster. One person is in hospital.
38 people linked to the cluster have moved into the Auckland quarantine facilities.
There are 48 active cases in New Zealand, 30 linked to the new Auckland outbreak.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will be holding a press conference shortly. We will be covering it, and you can watch it live here:
New Zealand outbreak spreads to neighbouring Waikato province
New Zealand’s Auckland outbreak of covid-19 has now spread to the neighbouring province of Waikato, to the south of the supercity.
Three councillors of the North Island town of Tokoroa told Radio New Zealand’s political editor Jane Patterson that the town had two confirmed cases of Covid-19, and five probable.
At 1pm local time prime minister Jacinda Ardern and director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield will hold a media briefing to update the country on the latest numbers.
It is looking increasingly likely Auckland’s level 3 lockdown will be extended:
The South Waikato town of Tokoroa has two confirmed cases of Covid-19 and five probable cases, confirmed by three district councillors who were told by Mayor Jenny Shattock
— Jane Patterson (@janepatterson) August 13, 2020
New Zealand Covid-19 cases all linked to single cluster, with more cases expected
New Zealand is not yet looking at a level 4 lockdown, because the rising number of Covid-19 cases are all related to a single cluster, the health minister has said.
Chris Hipkins told Radio NZ that more than one cluster would have to be circulating for the country to rise to level 4 restrictions, and so far there was no evidence of that, though more cases from the same cluster had emerged overnight.
There are 17 cases of Covid-19 linked to the south Auckland cluster, and the city of 1.4 million is under level 3 lockdown for three days, meaning people can only venture out for food or exercise.
Jacinda Ardern will meet with cabinet at 3pm local time on Friday to discuss where to next, and at 5.30pm she will hold a media briefing to announce her decision on whether Auckland’s lockdown will extend past midnight:
WHO urges countries to gamble on shared vaccine search
The WHO on Thursday urged countries to invest billions of dollars in searching for Covid-19 vaccines and treatments – calling it a snip compared to the vast economic cost of the coronavirus crisis, AFP reports.
The World Health Organization insisted it was a smarter bet than the trillions of dollars being thrown at handling the consequences of the global pandemic.
The UN agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pleaded for investment into the WHO-led ACT-Accelerator programme, which aims to share global research and development, manufacturing and procurement in a bid to beat Covid-19.
Citing the International Monetary Fund’s predictions of the pandemic wiping out $12 trillion over two years, he urged countries to spend on shared solutions.
“It’s the best economic stimulus the world can invest in,” Tedros told a virtual press conference.
Funding the ACT-Accelerator, with $31.3 billion needed immediately, “will cost a tiny fraction in comparison to the alternative, where economies retract further and require continued fiscal stimulus packages”.
He said spreading the risk and sharing the reward is a better bet than the option some countries have taken, of going it alone in backing one of the dozens of vaccines in development.
“Picking individual winners is an expensive, risky gamble,” he said,
“The development of vaccines is long, complex, risky and expensive The vast majority of vaccines in early development fail.”
Tedros said multiple vaccine candidates, of different types, were needed in order to identify the best one.
Airbnb restricts under-25s in UK, France and Spain
Airbnb is restricting the ability of people under 25 in Britain, France and Spain from renting entire homes via its platform in order to reduce unauthorised parties and ensure safety, AFP reports.
Airbnb began cracking down last year as rowdy parties were causing problems with neighbours in certain communities, and with the coronavirus pandemic there has been even greater concern about events where social distancing measures are flouted.
Airbnb said it will now begin testing in Britain, France and Spain a ban on under-25s with less than three positive ratings from renting entire homes close to where they live:
France says UK quarantine will lead to reciprocal measures
France’s secretary of state for European affairs has responded to said the UK decision to add France to their quarantine list, saying the move would lead to “reciprocal measures” across the Channel.
Clement Beaune tweeted: “A British decision which we regret and which will lead to reciprocal measures, all in hoping for a return for normal as soon as possible.”
The Foreign Office updated its advice to warn against all but essential travel to the country because of the coronavirus risk.
Une décision britannique que nous regrettons et qui entraînera une mesure de réciprocité, en espérant un retour à la normale le plus rapidement possible @Djebbari_JB https://t.co/6pA0qDQun6
— Clement Beaune (@CBeaune) August 13, 2020
Transport secretary Jean-Baptiste Djebbari added that he had spoken to Mr Shapps about the decision.
He tweeted: “France regrets the British decision and will apply reciprocal measures in terms of transport.
“I told my counterpart Grant Shapps of our will to harmonise health protocols in order to ensure a high level of protection on both sides of the Channel.”
La France regrette la décision du Royaume Uni et appliquera des mesures de réciprocité dans le champ des transports. J’ai dit à mon homologue @grantshapps notre volonté d’harmoniser les protocoles sanitaires pour assurer un haut niveau de protection des deux côtés de la Manche. https://t.co/bH7LkqD3LB
— J-Baptiste Djebbari (@Djebbari_JB) August 13, 2020
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest from around the world for the next few hours.
Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
The UK government has confirmed that six countries, including France, will be removed from its travel corridor list, following a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Arrivals into the UK from France, the Netherlands, Malta, Monaco, Aruba and Turks & Caicos will have to quarantine for 14 days on their return or face a fine, will come into effect at 4am on Saturday. The UK will be “ruthless” over quarantine, UK PM Boris Johnson said.
France’s secretary of state for European affairs has responded to said the decision, saying the move would lead to “reciprocal measures” across the Channel.
The UK decision comes after the Joint Biosecurity Centre and Public Health England indicated a significant change in Covid-19 risk in all six destinations.
The French health ministry reported 2,669 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, setting a new post-lockdown daily high for the second day in a row and taking the country’s cumulative total of cases to 209,365.
Department for Transport officials said that data from France shows that over the past week there has been a 66% increase in newly reported cases.
There has been a consistent increase in newly reported cases in the Netherlands over the past four weeks, with a 52% increase in newly reported cases between 7 and 13 August.
Over the past week, there has been a 273% increase in newly reported cases in Turks & Caicos, a 1,106% increase in newly reported cases in Aruba, and Malta has had a 105% increase.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Global coronavirus deaths passed 750,000. The coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 750,000 people worldwide, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University tracker. Almost half of the deaths reported worldwide were in the four worst hit countries: the United States (166,118), Brazil (104,201), Mexico (54,666) and India (47,033).
- France reported a new post-lockdown peak in daily Covid-19 cases. The French health ministry reported 2,669 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, setting a new post-lockdown daily high for the second day in a row and taking the country’s cumulative total of cases to 209,365.
- The WHO downplayed the danger of coronavirus latching on to food packaging. The World Health Organization urged people not to be afraid of the virus entering the food chain, after two cities in China said they had found traces of the coronavirus in imported frozen food and on food packaging.
- Germany admits delay in thousands of virus test results. The Bavarian premier, Markus Söder, has been forced to apologise over an embarrassing delay to thousands of coronavirus test results, just as Germany is seeing a new surge in virus cases.
- Spain’s daily infections spike to 2,935 but officials insist rise is not second wave. Spain reported 2,935 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, the highest number since the country’s lockdown ended and up from 1,690 recorded the previous day, although officials argued the situation remained manageable.
- Brazil death toll from Covid-19 passes 105,000. Brazil reported 60,091 new cases of coronavirus and 1,261 deaths from the disease caused by the virus in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Thursday.Brazil has registered 3,224,876 cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll from Covid-19 has risen to 105,463, according to ministry data.
- Exposure to air pollution may increase risk of Covid death, major study says. Long-term exposure to air pollution may increase the risk of death from Covid-19, according to a large study by the Office for National Statistics.
- Air passenger numbers to drop 60% in Europe in 2020: IATA. Air passenger numbers in Europe are expected to drop by 60% in 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis, the global aviation industry has said, with the recovery looking highly uncertain.
- Iraq reports record daily Covid-19 cases. Iraq’s health ministry has reported 3,841 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, a record since the first infection was registered in February.
- Germany reports highest daily cases since start of May in “unsettling” trend. Germany has reported 1,445 new coronavirus infections in 24 hours, the highest level since 1 May, according to the Robert Koch Institute, which said the “trend is unsettling”.
- Trans-Tasman travel bubble ‘on pause’ amid new Covid outbreaks across Pacific. A Trans-Tasman bubble allowing travel between Australia and New Zealand is “on pause” after new Covid-19 outbreaks, and may be delayed until after NZ’s general election, possibly until next year.
- Brazil’s coronavirus death toll passed 105,000. A further 1,261 deaths from Covid-19 were recorded in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Thursday. Another 60,091 new cases were reported, bringing that tally to 3,224,876 since the pandemic began.
