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Brazil registers highest number of new cases in almost a month
Brazil on Tuesday registered 41,906 new cases of Covid-19, the highest number for a single day since 11 September, the health ministry said. The number of deaths rose by 819 to 147,494, the second highest death toll in the world.
Summary
As Australia wakes up, here are the main developments on the coronavirus pandemic from the last few hours.
- Facebook Inc and Twitter took action on posts from the US president Donald Trump on Tuesday for violating their rules against coronavirus misinformation by suggesting that Covid-19 was just like the flu.
- A UK government decision on plans to introduce Covid-19 testing for international arrivals to cut quarantine times will not come until next month at the earliest, with Downing Street instead setting up a global travel taskforce to look at proposals, the Guardian understands.
- Kenya’s education ministry has said that select classes would resume this week after previously declaring the school year lost, following a drop in coronavirus cases.
- European countries face shortages of Covid-19 drug remdesivir. European countries are facing shortages of Covid-19 drug remdesivir because limited supplies are running out, with cases surging and the US having bought up most of drugmaker Gilead’s output.
- White House likened to ‘ghost town’ as anxiety over coronavirus cluster grows. The West Wing has reportedly turned into a “ghost town” amid complaints that the White House has failed to trace potential contacts of Trump and his infected aides, with many now working from home even as the president exhorted Americans “not to be afraid of Covid”.
- IMF chief says world economy faces long ascent from Covid crisis. The head of the International Monetary Fund has said the recovery in the global economy since the spring is fragile and warned policymakers against an over-hasty withdrawal of support.
- Europe must go beyond science to survive Covid crisis, says WHO. The World Health Organization has said European countries will need to “move beyond biomedical science” to overcome Covid-19 as “pandemic fatigue” and new infections rapidly rise across the continent.
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Poland reports new record of daily coronavirus-related deaths. Poland said it would enforce restrictions more strictly as it reported a daily record of 58 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, as well as sharp increases in the number of ventilators and hospital beds being used by Covid-19 patients.
- Italy prepares to make masks outdoors mandatory. Italy is considering making the use of masks outdoors mandatory nationwide to fight the coronavirus, health minister Roberto Speranza has said.
- Belgium tightens social contact rules as coronavirus cases surge. Belgium will tighten coronavirus restrictions at the end of the week, limiting groups to a maximum of four people in a bid to stem a sharp rise of Covid-19 infections.
- Finland’s Covid-19 cases hit new daily record. Finland has reported its highest daily number of Covid-19 infections since the start of the pandemic and they now exceed the rate that Helsinki sets for other countries before their citizens are allowed to visit without being quarantined.
- Iran to require face masks in capital as virus cases hit high. Iran will require face masks in public in the capital Tehran from Saturday, authorities said, announcing a daily record of 4,151 new coronavirus cases.
- Moscow restricts transport for students and elderly as Covid-19 cases jump. Russia’s daily tally of new coronavirus cases rose to its highest since 11 May on Tuesday, prompting Moscow to take measures to keep students and the elderly off the city’s sprawling public transport network.
Six US states reported record numbers of patients hospitalised with Covid-19, including Wisconsin, where officials on Tuesday issued a new order limiting the size of indoor public gatherings, Reuters reports.
The surge of hospitalisations and new cases in some states coincides with the president Donald Trump and several members of his White House staff testing positive for coronavirus. Trump’s doctors on Tuesday said he was not displaying any acute symptoms after he left the Walter Reed Medical Center, where he was treated for three days.
The rise in reported hospitalisations on Monday hit states in the Midwest the hardest, with Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming reporting their highest figures, according to a Reuters tally. Wisconsin has 782 hospitalised patients, compared with 433 two weeks ago.
Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services issued a directive that gatherings will be limited to no more than 25% of a room or building’s total occupancy.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said in a statement:
We’re in a crisis right now and need to immediately change our behaviour to save lives.
We are continuing to experience a surge in cases and many of our hospitals are overwhelmed, and I believe limiting indoor public gatherings will help slow the spread of this virus.
Reuters reports that US cruise operator Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd has extended suspension of sailings until 30 November, excluding those originating from Hong Kong, as the Covid-19 crisis continues to hurt the demand for voyages.
The company said its cruise brand Celebrity Cruises will suspend its 2020-21 winter program in Australia and Asia, while its Azamara cruises will suspend winter sailings throughout Australia and New Zealand, South Africa and South America.
The cruise industry has faced the brunt of the health crisis as major outbreaks in ships were blamed for spreading the disease, resulting in government-mandated “no-sail” orders and trip cancellations.
Carnival Corp’s cruise line Seabourn also said it will suspend upcoming 2020 and 2021 voyages for three cruise ships in its fleet until spring 2021.
The US Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tested negative for Covid-19 in a test conducted on Tuesday, his campaign said in a statement.
Facebook Inc and Twitter took action on posts from the US president Donald Trump on Tuesday for violating their rules against coronavirus misinformation by suggesting that Covid-19 was just like the flu [see 5.30pm].
Facebook took the post down but not before it was shared about 26,000 times, data from the company’s metric tool CrowdTangle showed.
“We remove incorrect information about the severity of Covid-19,” a company spokesman told Reuters.
The world’s largest social media company, which exempts politicians from its third-party fact-checking program, has rarely taken action against posts from the president.
Twitter disabled retweets on a similar tweet from Trump and added a warning label that said it broke its rules on “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to Covid-19” but that it might be in the public interest for it to remain accessible.
Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020
During the 2019-2020 influenza season, the flu was associated with 22,000 deaths in the United States, according to estimates from the US CDC.
Since the first case of Covid-19 was recorded in the United States at the beginning of this year, more than 210,000 people in the country have died of the disease caused by the virus, the world’s highest death toll.
On Monday, Trump told Americans “to get out there” and not fear Covid-19 as he returned to the White House after a three-night stay in a military hospital outside Washington where he was treated for the disease.
“Silicon Valley and the mainstream media have consistently used their platforms to fearmonger and censor President Trump to serve their own agenda, even now during this critical moment in the fight against coronavirus,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Courtney Parella said.
Twitter, which has been using labels to flag tweets with misinformation - including from the president - told Reuters it is currently trying to respond more quickly and more overtly.
Facebook removed a Trump post for coronavirus misinformation for the first time in August. The post included a video in which the president falsely claimed that children were “almost immune” to Covid-19.
Updated
A UK government decision on plans to introduce Covid-19 testing for international arrivals to cut quarantine times will not come until next month at the earliest, with Downing Street instead setting up a global travel taskforce to look at proposals, the Guardian understands.
My colleagues Simon Murphy and Gwyn Topham report that after months of lobbying by the beleaguered aviation industry, which has been crippled by two-week quarantine restrictions, an announcement on whether tests for arrivals from at-risk countries would be introduced by the government was widely anticipated to come this week.
The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, had indicated an impending change, telling the Tory party’s virtual conference on Monday that he would be saying more shortly.
However, in a blow to the aviation industry, rather than announcing the start of testing for international arrivals, the Guardian has learned the government is instead planning to announce the launch on Thursday of the taskforce – jointly chaired by Shapps and the health secretary, Matt Hancock – which has been set up at the request of Boris Johnson.
Read the full story here.
Hours after the UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s speech at the Conservative party conference, twelve of his MPs voted against approving the “rule of six” regulation, which limits social gatherings.
Rebels included the chair and vice-chair of the backbench 1922 committee Graham Brady and Charles Walker, select committee chair Huw Merriman and the former cabinet minister Esther McVey.
Johnson is likely to face more opposition when MPs are due to approve the 10pm curfew, which both Tory MPs and the Labour frontbench have called on the government to publish further evidence for its effectiveness.
Tory former minister Steve Baker said people were being “destroyed by this lockdown, strong, confident people, outgoing people, gregarious people… reduced to repeated episodes of tears on the phone”.
Kenya’s education ministry has said that select classes would resume this week after previously declaring the school year lost, following a drop in coronavirus cases, AFP reports.
Kenya shut schools in March along with a slew of other measures to contain the pandemic, including a night curfew, the closure of restaurants and bars, and the cordoning off of main cities.
These measures have been progressively relaxed as cases fall. the president Uhuru Kenyatta last week allowed bars to reopen and restaurants to sell alcohol again, while moving the start of an evening curfew from 9pm to 11pm.
The education minister George Magoha said the “progressive re-opening of schools” will begin with three classes: students in Grade 4 - about halfway through primary school - those in their final year of primary school and those finishing high school.
Key final primary school and high school exams will take place between mid-March and mid-April 2021.
“Although physical distancing will remain a challenge, it should not be used as a bottleneck to keep any child away from school,” Magoha said in a statement.
All students will be required to wear masks, while schools will have to monitor the temperature of students and staff.
“Where there is no running water, schools will use sanitisers,” the statement said.
For several weeks, the health ministry has been recording between about 50 and 250 new infections every day, a slump from highs approaching 900 in just late July.
While testing has also plummeted, prompting some observers to question to what extent official date reflects the extent of the pandemic, the positivity rate has declined from a high of 13% at the end of July to about 5% in recent weeks.
Kenya has recorded a total of 39,586 cases and 743 deaths.
Summary
Here’s a quick recap of all the latest coronavirus developments from the last few hours.
- European countries face shortages of Covid-19 drug remdesivir. European countries are facing shortages of Covid-19 drug remdesivir because limited supplies are running out, with cases surging and the US having bought up most of drugmaker Gilead’s output.
- White House likened to ‘ghost town’ as anxiety over coronavirus cluster grows. The West Wing has reportedly turned into a “ghost town” amid complaints that the White House has failed to trace potential contacts of Trump and his infected aides, with many now working from home even as the president exhorted Americans “not to be afraid of Covid”.
- IMF chief says world economy faces long ascent from Covid crisis. The head of the International Monetary Fund has said the recovery in the global economy since the spring is fragile and warned policymakers against an over-hasty withdrawal of support.
- Europe must go beyond science to survive Covid crisis, says WHO. The World Health Organization has said European countries will need to “move beyond biomedical science” to overcome Covid-19 as “pandemic fatigue” and new infections rapidly rise across the continent.
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Poland reports new record of daily coronavirus-related deaths. Poland said it would enforce restrictions more strictly as it reported a daily record of 58 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, as well as sharp increases in the number of ventilators and hospital beds being used by Covid-19 patients.
- Italy prepares to make masks outdoors mandatory. Italy is considering making the use of masks outdoors mandatory nationwide to fight the coronavirus, health minister Roberto Speranza has said.
- Belgium tightens social contact rules as coronavirus cases surge. Belgium will tighten coronavirus restrictions at the end of the week, limiting groups to a maximum of four people in a bid to stem a sharp rise of Covid-19 infections.
- Finland’s Covid-19 cases hit new daily record. Finland has reported its highest daily number of Covid-19 infections since the start of the pandemic and they now exceed the rate that Helsinki sets for other countries before their citizens are allowed to visit without being quarantined.
- Iran to require face masks in capital as virus cases hit high. Iran will require face masks in public in the capital Tehran from Saturday, authorities said, announcing a daily record of 4,151 new coronavirus cases.
- Moscow restricts transport for students and elderly as Covid-19 cases jump. Russia’s daily tally of new coronavirus cases rose to its highest since 11 May on Tuesday, prompting Moscow to take measures to keep students and the elderly off the city’s sprawling public transport network.
That’s it from me Jessica Murray today, I’m now handing over to my colleague Lucy Campbell.
Belgium tightens social contact rules as coronavirus cases surge
Belgium will tighten coronavirus restrictions at the end of the week, limiting groups to a maximum of four people in a bid to stem a sharp rise of Covid-19 infections.
New prime minister Alexander De Croo, who took office five days ago, told a news conference he was aware Belgians were tired of restrictions, but they had to stick to the rules to avoid a fresh lockdown.
Health minister Frank Vandenbroucke said that from Friday Belgians should limit to three the number of people outside their homes for whom they did not observe social distancing.
No more than four people should be invited inside a home, be seated at a single bar table or gather outside. Bars will all have to close at 11pm.
Belgians have been able to see up to five people without social distancing and be in groups of up to 10 people at a table in a bar or restaurant.
“People are tired, we know, but we are going to again ask for an effort for our children, so they can keep going to school, for our businesses, so they can keep functioning and so that people don’t lose their jobs,” Vandenbroucke said.
Covid-19 has claimed 10,078 lives in the country of 11 million people, producing one of the highest per capita fatality rates in the world.
The average daily number of new infections over a week passed 2,300 on Tuesday.
Hospital admissions are also rising, as are deaths from the virus in the country, the home of EU institutions and the headquarters of military alliance NATO.
Israel’s prime minister has announced the country will be installing rapid 15-minute coronavirus test kits in nursing homes across the country.
Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video on Twitter of himself being administered the Sofia test, developed by US firm, Quidel Corp.
נבדקתי היום בפעם הראשונה בבדיקה המהירה לקורונה (תוצאה תוך 15 דקות). שמח לבשר שיצאתי שלילי.
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) October 6, 2020
מוקדם יותר היום סיירתי עם סגן שר הבריאות יואב קיש בבית האבות ״נווה הורים״ בירושלים שהטמיע בפעילותו היום לראשונה את מערכת הבדיקות המהירות. pic.twitter.com/5ZxNYixfL3
“I was tested today for the first time by the rapid test for coronavirus (result within 15 minutes). Glad to announce that I came out negative,” he said, adding it could be used in airports, hotels and hospitals.
Netanyahu did not disclose the cost of the test.
With the country currently under a second lockdown following a surge in infections, the 70-year-old leader has faced criticism of his handling of the pandemic and is looking to reassure the public about the months ahead.
The top US military leaders are self-quarantining after the Coast Guard’s No. 2 tested positive for the coronavirus, Pentagon officials said.
The Coast Guard disclosed earlier on Tuesday that Admiral Charles Ray, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, had tested positive on Monday for the virus.
Ray had attended a meeting last week with service chiefs, including Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Out of an abundance of caution, all potential close contacts from these meetings are self-quarantining and have been tested this morning,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
“No Pentagon contacts have exhibited symptoms and we have no additional positive tests to report at this time.”
US president Donald Trump is doing “extremely well” and reporting no symptoms of Covid-19, a day after returning to the White House after being hospitalised with the virus, his doctor has said in a statement.
Sean Conley, a Navy commander, said a team of physicians met with the president on Tuesday morning.
“He had a restful first night at home, and today he reports no symptoms. Vital signs and physical exam remain stable, with an ambulatory oxygen saturation level of 95-97%,” he said in a statement released by the White House. “Overall he continues to do extremely well.”
US president Donald Trump has played down the Covid-19 pandemic again, comparing it to the flu in a tweet on Tuesday, and Twitter has responded by putting a warning label on the tweet, saying the post included potentially misleading information.
“Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!” Trump tweeted.
Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020
Earlier in the day, Facebook removed a similar post by Trump, according to CNN.
The tweet comes hours after Trump was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
On Monday, Trump told Americans “to get out there” and not fear Covid-19 as he returned to the White House after a three-night hospital stay to be treated for the coronavirus, and removed his white surgical mask to pose for pictures.
During the 2019-2020 influenza season, the flu was associated with 22,000 deaths, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.
Romanian authorities will close theatres, cinemas and indoor restaurants in the capital Bucharest and several other cities from Wednesday to try to stem an increase in coronavirus infections.
Also from Wednesday, travellers from 49 high-risk countries, including France, Spain and Britain, will need to self-isolate for two weeks upon arrival, except those travelling for less than three days, who must have a negative coronavirus test.
Romania has been reporting more than 2,000 new cases daily almost every day for the past week, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 139,612.
While 109,898 people have recovered, 5,121 have died, the highest fatality rate in the EU’s eastern wing, and the government has extended a state of alert until mid-October.
Indoor restaurants, cinemas and theatres re-opened in September after being shut since March. The restrictions will remain in place until the number of infections in the affected areas drops to 1.5 per 1,000 people over 14 days.
Across the country, officials said on Monday they were banning religious pilgrimages.
The number of Covid-19 patients in English hospitals has risen to 2,783, the most since 25 June, according to government data published on Tuesday.
The figure marks an increase of 190 from Monday.
Another two White House staffers have tested positive for Covid-19, according to media reports, one day after US president Donald Trump returned to the White House after being hospitalised with the virus.
One of Trump’s valets, an active member of the US military who travelled with the president last week, has Covid-19, a Bloomberg News reporter said on Twitter, citing unnamed sources.
Bloomberg and other US media outlets also reported that a military aide to Trump has Covid-19.
NEWS: One of the president's military aides, Coast Guard aide Jayna McCarron, has coronavirus, sources tell me. And so does one of the president's valets, who is also active duty military, and traveled with the president last week.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 6, 2020
Why are stock market prices rising despite the Covid pandemic? One reason is that big corporations have not faced the economic pain that small businesses have, writes Kenneth Rogoff, a professor of economics and public policy at Harvard University.
The crisis has disproportionately affected small businesses and low-income service workers. They are essential for the real economy, but not so much for equity markets. True, there are other explanations for today’s lofty valuations, but each has its limitations.
For example, because stock markets are forward-looking, current stock prices may reflect optimism about the imminent arrival of effective Covid-19 vaccines and radically improved testing and treatment options, which would allow for a more limited and nuanced approach to lockdowns.
This outlook may be justified, or it may be that markets are underestimating the likelihood of a severe second wave this winter, and overestimating the efficacy and impact of the first-generation vaccines.
Northern Ireland can slow a rapidly increasing spread of Covid-19 even if it takes a different approach from that across the border in Ireland, the region’s chief scientific officer has said.
Ireland’s government rejected a call by its health chiefs on Monday to deploy a “circuit--breaker” – a short, intensive national lockdown – and instead tightened Covid-19 restrictions across the country.
Northern Ireland’s devolved government is discussing the possibility of using a circuit-breaker to get a much faster rise in infections under control in the region.
“I think that it’s possible that decisions made by the Northern Ireland executive would continue to be effective even if somewhat different decisions were made in the Republic of Ireland,” chief scientific officer Ian Young told reporters.
But deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill, joint head of the power-sharing government, said on Sunday a circuit breaker would only work if it was put in place across the entire island of Ireland.
Northern Ireland reported 669 new cases on Tuesday, pushing up the number of cases over the last seven days per 100,000 people to 212.8 from 96 a week ago, higher than the rate in most European countries.
Ireland’s 14-day cumulative case total has risen to 110 and the most impacted areas in both jurisdictions are along the 500-km land border.
Northern Ireland extended restrictions, that it had imposed in some areas earlier this month, across the whole region two weeks ago, ordering households to mix with only one other household indoors.
O’Neill said on Tuesday all options needed to be on the table regarding further restrictions.
Chief medical officer Michael McBride said there was limited evidence so far that the wider restrictions were slowing transmission.
“The virus is increasing at an exponential rate so the critical thing now is that we see a slowing of the rate of increase in the next week or so,” McBride said.
Updated
Frustration over a punishing second lockdown in Israel has been inflamed by national resentment directed at sections of the ultra-Orthodox community, who have refused to halt mass religious events and clashed with police attempting to disperse them.
While most of the country remained locked up at home in the hopes of curbing a raging infection rate that threatens to spiral out of control, thousands of men gathered shoulder-to-shoulder this week at a funeral for Rabbi Mordechai Leifer, 64, who died of Covid-19 complications.
Public television showed footage of a sea of black and fur hats worn by ultra-Orthodox men in the coastal city of Ashdod on Monday, with a small unit of police squeezed in the middle, fruitlessly attempting to control the crowd.
“The images we are seeing are a spit in the face of the entire country,” wrote the staunchly secular, far-right politician, Avigdor Liberman, on Facebook.
The pandemic has blown open deeply entrenched grievances between secular and religious Israel that have festered for decades.
Under deals made around the time of the state’s founding, many ultra-Orthodox Israelis avoid military service and live off government stipends, factors that have already led to bitterness.
Britain has reported 14,542 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, up from 12,594 on Monday, according to government data.
There have been a further 76 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
Britain’s health ministry has bought 1m Covid-19 antibody tests that can indicate whether someone has had the disease within 20 minutes.
The Department of Health said it had bought the tests, which use a fingerprick device and do not need to be sent to a lab, from the UK Rapid Test Consortium, and that they would be rolled out as part of the government’s Covid-19 surveillance studies.
Updated
European countries face shortages of Covid-19 drug remdesivir
European countries are facing shortages of Covid-19 drug remdesivir because limited supplies are running out, with cases surging and the US having bought up most of drugmaker Gilead’s output.
In July, the 27 EU countries and Britain, with a combined population of 500 million, secured doses to treat about 30,000 patients. The US signed a deal for more than 500,000 courses of treatment, accounting for most of Gilead’s output through September.
“Remdesivir has run out,” Dutch health ministry spokesman Martijn Janssen told Reuters, adding however that new deliveries were expected shortly.
The antiviral drug has been shown to shorten hospital recovery time in severe cases of Covid-19. Remdesivir and the steroid dexamethasone are the only drugs authorised in Europe to treat Covid-19. Both have been given to US president Donald Trump, who is also receiving an experimental antibody cocktail.
Hospitalisations across Europe have been rapidly increasing, although in most countries still far below levels seen in the spring. “Due to the increased hospital admissions, the demand for remdesivir is increasing rapidly,” the Dutch spokesman said.
Poland’s health minister Adam Niedzielski said on Tuesday the drug was in short supply in some hospitals. Its latest shipment from the EU order arrived just last Friday.
Spain, which has Europe’s highest infection rate, experienced shortages in late August, its medicine agency said. It has now enough doses to meet needs for the coming weeks, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
Britain, which has joined the EU procurement for remdesivir, has rationed its supply, prioritising Covid-19 patients who need it most, the health ministry said.
Shortages are likely to stir debate about the availability and pricing of Covid-19 drugs. While dexamethasone, a generic medicine, is widely available and cheap, remdesivir is protected by Gilead’s patent.
The company has set a $2,340 price per patient for wealthier nations. It says it has also donated treatments for research and to treat hundreds of thousands of patients around the world.
Updated
Warner Bros is delaying the release of Dune and The Batman movies, another setback for the entertainment industry hit by Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and social distancing measures that have closed theatres worldwide.
The movie industry received a jolt on Monday when Cineworld, the world’s second-biggest cinema chain, said it would close its UK and US cinemas, blaming the reluctance of studios to go ahead with major releases for the decision.
But AMC Entertainment, the world’s No 1 chain, said on Tuesday that most of its theatres in the US and Europe would remain open.
Movie studios have delayed releasing tentpole projects even after restrictions were eased, as people remain wary of stepping into cinemas and many theatres still remain closed.
Dune, a sci-fi movie directed by Canadian director Dennis Villeneuve, is now scheduled to open in October 2021, instead of December. The release of The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson, has been moved to the spring of 2022 from October next year.
Earlier, the filming of The Batman was also shut down for two weeks after a member of the production – widely reported to be Pattinson – tested positive for the coronavirus. Filming resumed in Britain last month and Warner Bros never confirmed or denied reports about Pattinson’s diagnosis.
Dune has gained a lot of traction for its cast that includes 24-year-old Timothée Chalamet, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the 2017 film Call Me by Your Name.
Warner Bros’ Tenet, directed by Christopher Nolan, did get a theatrical release but after multiple delays, while Wonder Woman 1984 has been pushed back.
The release of the new James Bond movie No Time to Die from MGM and Universal Pictures has also been delayed until April 2021.
Updated
Iran to require face masks in capital as virus cases hit high
Iran will require face masks in public in the capital Tehran from Saturday, authorities have said, announcing a daily record of 4,151 new coronavirus cases.
Deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi said the capital was facing a more severe crisis than other parts of the country, as hospitals face shortages of beds during a third wave of infections.
There were 4,793 coronavirus patients in hospitals in Tehran, 948 of them in intensive care, and 311 patients waiting in emergency rooms, he said, according to state news agency IRNA.
Masks have already been compulsory in public indoors since July, and will now be mandatory outdoors in the capital as well. State media reports say many people have flouted the regulation.
Iran has recorded 479,825 cases of the coronavirus, making it the worst-hit country in the Middle East.
It was one of the first countries outside of East Asia to be hit hard by the pandemic early this year, saw another surge in the months that followed, and is now experiencing a third wave, having set daily records two days in a row.
Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state television that 227 patients had died in the past 24 hours, bringing the total fatalities to 27,419.
Updated
The head of the International Monetary Fund has said the recovery in the global economy since the spring is fragile and warned policymakers against an over-hasty withdrawal of support.
In a speech intended as a curtain-raiser for next week’s annual meeting of the Washington-based organisation, Kristalina Georgieva said the unprecedented action taken by central banks and finance ministries had been a key factor in softening the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Georgieva said the IMF’s next World Economic Outlook – published next week – would show a small improvement on the 4.9% drop in global output that had been expected in June. Despite the upward revision, the WEO is likely to predict that this year will be the deepest slump in the global economy since the second world war.
Georgieva said that the world faced a “long ascent” and that it was vital that all countries, rich and small, should be attached to the same rope. She said:
The IMF in June projected a severe global GDP contraction in 2020. The picture today is less dire.
We now estimate that developments in the second and third quarters were somewhat better than expected, allowing for a small upward revision to our global forecast for 2020. And we continue to project a partial and uneven recovery in 2021.
We have reached this point, largely because of extraordinary policy measures that put a floor under the world economy.
Updated
The growing coronavirus cluster linked to Donald Trump is sending ripples of intense anxiety among staff, journalists and officials who spend much of their time in the White House and into the wider city of Washington DC itself.
The West Wing has reportedly turned into a “ghost town” amid complaints that the White House has failed to trace potential contacts of Trump and his infected aides, with many now working from home even as the president exhorted Americans “not to be afraid of Covid”.
That has left behind a skeleton staff of about 100 of butlers, ushers, cleaners, custodians and maintenance workers, who are often older and drawn from groups at higher risk of developing severe symptoms of the virus, including a butler’s corp that has historically almost exclusively been black.
Members of the Secret Service, who protect the president, have also been thrown into the spotlight with some present and former members complaining anonymously they felt Trump had put service members at risk when they accompanied him on a controversial “drive-by” stunt outside the Walter Reed hospital.
A still contagious Trump returned to the White House on Monday and defiantly took off his mask on entering the building as complaints grew inside over the lack of precautions taken by the president and his entourage.
So far, only two dozen or so reinfections have been confirmed worldwide in a pandemic that has infected more than 30 million people. For now at least, reinfection seems uncommon. But scientists point out that confirming reinfection is no easy task and many cases are missed.
To confirm a reinfection, scientists must examine the genetic code of the virus from each round of illness and prove they are distinct. That means having access to both sets of swabs and the wherewithal to do whole genome sequencing. Even in hospitals where the capacity exists, such tests are rarely done. Reinfected patients simply go unnoticed or unreported.
“There is probably a lot more than we are seeing,” said Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at Yale University who has been following cases of reinfection closely.
But a flurry of reinfections around the world have raised fresh concerns.
Italy prepares to make masks outdoors mandatory
Italy is considering making the use of masks outdoors mandatory nationwide to fight the coronavirus, health minister Roberto Speranza has said.
Infections in Italy have risen steadily over the past two months and two regions, Lazio around Rome and Campania around Naples, have already made mask wearing mandatory outside.
“We are working on a proposal to make the use of masks compulsory,” Speranza told the Chamber of Deputies.
On Saturday, Italy reported 2,844 new cases, its highest daily count since April, but still far below the numbers being recorded in France, Spain and Britain.
The daily death toll is normally below 30, a far cry from the tallies of close to 1,000 it suffered at the peak of its epidemic in late March, but prime minister Giuseppe Conte said on Tuesday there was no room for complacency.
“The battle is not won, and we will need to remain on maximum alert during the weeks and months to come,” he said at a conference in Rome.
Italy has had 36,000 deaths, the second highest official toll in Europe after Britain.
Conte said last week he would ask parliament to extend the country’s Covid-19 state of emergency to the end of January and the cabinet is due to meet late on Tuesday to formalise the decision.
The state of emergency, due to expire in mid-October, gives greater powers to central government, making it easier for officials to bypass the bureaucracy that smothers much decision-making in Italy.
Updated
The United Arab Emirates, with a population of around 9.9 million people, surpassed 100,000 recorded cases of Covid-19 infection on Tuesday.
The UAE, whose tally stands at 100,794 infections and 421 deaths, has seen the number of daily new cases surge over the past two months from 164 on 3 August to a new high of 1,231 cases on Saturday.
Authorities have blamed people’s poor adherence to social distancing for the rise. The government does not disclose where in the seven emirates that make up the UAE the cases occur.
On Tuesday it recorded 1,061 new infections and 6 deaths.
The UAE has a high per capita rate of Covid-19 tests. The country has carried out more than 10 million tests so far, the government statistics authority says.
The six states that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members have between them recorded 847,608 cases of infection with 7,419 deaths, a Reuters tally shows.
Finland's Covid-19 cases hit new daily record
Finland has reported its highest daily number of Covid-19 infections since the start of the pandemic and they now exceed the rate that Helsinki sets for other countries before their citizens are allowed to visit without being quarantined.
The health authority data recorded 227 new cases, above a previous daily peak of 211 infections in April during the first Covid-19 wave.
However, far fewer people were being tested then, suggesting a significant number of cases may have gone undetected in the early months.
“The coronavirus situation is getting worse in Finland too,” prime minister Sanna Marin tweeted, adding the government would consider possible new measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, possibly next week.
The new data means that Finland’s 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants has more than doubled to 30.6 from 14.2 in the past two weeks.
Finland earlier set 25 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over two weeks as a limit for countries it considers safe and free of travel restrictions - one of the strictest such limits in Europe.
Incidence rates have been on the rise across Europe in recent weeks and Finland’s new rate remains among the lowest, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control data showed.
Since the pandemic began, Finland, a country of around 5.5 million, has recorded 10,929 Covid-19 cases and 346 deaths.
The World Health Organization has said European countries will need to “move beyond biomedical science” to overcome Covid-19 as “pandemic fatigue” and new infections rapidly rise across the continent.
Hans Kluge, the WHO’s Europe director, said that while fatigue from months of uncertainty and disruption was measured differently in different countries, aggregated survey data from across the region suggested that in some cases it it had reached levels of over 60%.
Medical science alone would not be enough to get through the crisis, he warned, with authorities needing the “courage and empathy” to listen properly to the public and develop policies based on a better understanding of people’s needs and behaviours.
“Covid-19 is urging us to move beyond biomedical science in our response,” Kluge said. “We have an opportunity to maximise our community insights into behaviour, to integrate real community participation into public health policy.”
Poland reports new record of daily coronavirus-related deaths
Poland said it would enforce restrictions more strictly as it reported a daily record of 58 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, as well as sharp increases in the number of ventilators and hospital beds being used by Covid-19 patients.
The country reported 2,236 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, close to Saturday’s record of 2,367. Poland, which has a population of 38 million, has reported 104,316 cases overall and 2,717 deaths, much lower than many other European countries.
“Only those with a medical certificate from a doctor can choose not to wear a mask where it is mandatory ... any person who doesn’t wear a mask (and doesn’t have a certificate) will face the harshest of punishments,” health minister Adam Niedzielski said.
He said there would be a ban on using some venues for dancing and new distancing rules to prevent mass gatherings.
The ministry said that as of Tuesday there were 263 ventilators and 3,719 hospital beds devoted to Covid-19 patients, compared with 141 and 2,399 respectively a week ago.
“This is very disturbing,” deputy heath minister Waldemar Kraska told private television broadcaster Polsat News.
Commenting on reports that Poland is running out of remdesivir, Kraska said some hospitals did not have the Covid-19 drug.
The health ministry plans to increase the number of hospital beds for Covid patients and wants to open more hospitals to treat only Covid-19.
Poland introduced strict lockdown measures quickly during the early stages of the pandemic, but the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party wants to avoid another economically damaging lockdown and has introduced targeted measures in the worst affected places.
The biggest rise in new cases on Tuesday was reported in central Poland, increasing the risk that Warsaw will face tighter restrictions.
Updated
Iran has registered a record 4,151 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, with the total number of identified cases in the worst-hit country in the Middle East rising to 479,825, the health ministry reported on Tuesday.
Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state television that 227 patients had died in the past 24 hours, bringing the total of fatalities to 27,419.
Updated
Moscow restricts transport for students and elderly as Covid-19 cases jump
Russia’s daily tally of new coronavirus cases rose to its highest since 11 May on Tuesday, prompting Moscow to take measures to keep students and the elderly off the city’s sprawling public transport network.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the measures were needed to keep students and the elderly at home as the capital recorded 4,082 new infections on Tuesday.
“Every day the situation with the coronavirus is becoming more difficult and dramatic,” Sobyanin said, adding that more than 1,000 people had been hospitalised with coronavirus in the city on Tuesday.
Sobyanin said students’ cards allowing them to travel on public transport in Moscow at a discount would be temporarily cancelled on Friday until the end of a two-week school holiday.
Muscovites over the age of 65 and those with chronic illnesses will be stripped of passes that allow them to travel across the city for free from 9-28 October, Sobyanin added.
Sobyanin said the move was meant to protect Moscow’s senior population, which he said accounted for more than a quarter of the new coronavirus infections.
The city of nearly 13 million has already opened two temporary hospitals to tackle the rise in cases and ordered businesses to have at least 30% of their staff working remotely.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday he was unaware of plans to impose a strict lockdown despite the rapidly growing number of cases.
Russia’s official coronavirus task force reported 11,615 new infections nationwide on Tuesday and said 188 people had died overnight, pushing the official death toll to 21,663.
With 1,237,504 infections since the start of the pandemic, Russia has the world’s fourth highest number of cases.
Updated
Prime minister Boris Johnson has promised to reshape Britain from the difficulties of the coronavirus crisis, saying he will build more new homes, improve education, fight crime and boost the green economy.
In a speech aimed a rallying his Conservative party, which has become increasingly critical of its leader, Johnson laid out his vision for Britain, where deep-rooted inequality has been laid bare by the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said:
We’ve been through too much frustration and hardship just to settle for the status quo and to think that life can go on as it was before the plague.
It will not, because history teaches us that events of this magnitude, wars, famines, plagues, events that affect the vast bulk of humanity, as this virus has, they don’t just come and go … We can’t now define the mission of this country as merely to restore normality. That isn’t good enough.
Updated
Private contractors hired by Moderna to recruit volunteers for its coronavirus vaccine trial failed to enrol enough Black, Latino and Native American participants to determine how well the vaccine works in these populations, company executives and vaccine researchers told Reuters.
To make up for the shortfall, Moderna slowed enrolment of its late-stage trial and instructed research centres to focus on increasing participation among minority volunteers, the company said.
The effort is being bolstered by academic researchers who have longstanding relationships with organisations in Black and other minority communities.
Covid-19 infects Black people in the US at nearly three times the rate of white Americans, and they are twice as likely to die from the virus, according to a report by the National Urban League and other studies.
And communities of colour count prominently among healthcare workers and populations at high risk of Covid-19 complications, making them among the first likely to be eligible for a new vaccine, experts said.
Dr Paul Evans, chief executive of Velocity Clinical Research in Durham, North Carolina, whose company was hired to test the Moderna vaccine at five sites, said efforts to enrol volunteers from diverse backgrounds to provide proper population balance is “notoriously difficult” in any clinical trial.
“If there’s a problem with recruiting minorities, and there is, you can’t fix that overnight,” he said.
Black Americans made up only about 7% of the trial as of 17 September. That should be closer to 13% to reflect the actual US population.
During the last two weeks of September, Moderna said it increased the proportion of Black enrolment, but declined to provide details.
Increased trial participation could help address distrust between communities of colour and the medical industry after years of underrepresentation in pharmaceutical research, historical horror stories of medical experimentation without consent, and socioeconomic and health access inequities, vaccine experts and public health officials say.
Moderna is one of the furthest along in the US race for a vaccine and has received more than $1bn in government funding to develop and produce its candidate, and another $1.5bn to supply it to the American public.
British prime minister Boris Johnson said he was too fat when he became gravely ill with Covid-19 and that he has since lost 26lbs (11.79kg).
In an online speech to his party conference, Johnson said:
I have to admit the reason I had such a nasty experience with the disease is that although I was superficially in the peak of health when I caught it, I had a very common underlying condition – my friends, I was too fat.
And I’ve since lost 26 lbs and I’m going to continue that diet.
Updated
Malaysia’s prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin said targeted lockdowns will be imposed in areas with high rates of coronavirus infections, as the country grapples with a sharp rise in cases over the past two weeks.
Malaysia’s health ministry reported 691 new Covid-19 cases and four deaths on Tuesday, setting another new daily record in the aftermath of an election in the state of Sabah last month.
“For now we are not thinking of imposing a total lockdown nationwide. If we do that again, it could bring down the country’s economic and social systems,” Muhyiddin said in a national address.
The European health regulator is reviewing a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech in real time, days after launching a similar assessment process for AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Tuesday its human medicines committee was evaluating the first batch of data on the vaccine, and would continue to do so until enough data is available for a final decision.
The EMA is using “rolling reviews” to speed up evaluations of vaccines during the pandemic by studying data as it is submitted, rather than waiting for all data to be made available along with a formal application.
Last week, it began reviewing AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s vaccine, increasing chances of the British vaccine becoming the first to be approved in the region for Covid-19.
Pfizer’s vaccine is currently being evaluated in late-stage studies in the US, Brazil, South Africa and Argentina.
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray taking over from Kevin for the next few hours.
As always, please get in touch with any story tips or personal experiences you would like to share.
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
I’m handing over to my colleague Jessica Murray now. Here’s a summary of some of the key developments in the last few hours:
- Poland reported its worst daily death toll, as the country’s health ministry said 58 people had died. The official data showed sharp increases in the number of ventilators and hospital beds devoted to Covid-19 patients.
- China is in talks to have its locally produced vaccines assessed by the World Health Organization (WHO), an official from the body said. It marks a step towards making the vaccines available for international use.
- Malaysia has reported 691 new cases; its biggest daily jump since the start of the pandemic. There were also four more deaths confirmed, taking total fatalities to 141, the health ministry said.
- Donald Trump left Walter Reed hospital after three nights and returned to the White House. He wore a mask as he left but removed it to pose for photographs on the balcony of the White House.
- Trump tweeted a video in which he said he felt well and told Americans: “Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it.” Coronavirus has already killed 210,117 Americans – or one in every 1,560 people in the country.
-
Trump’s personal physician said the president was “not entirely be out of the woods yet” although he met the discharge requirements. The president still has the virus and is still contagious. Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious diseases expert, said Trump could have a “reversal” in his condition.
-
Mexico has record increase in deaths and daily cases on Monday jumping by 2,789 and 28,115 respectively. But the deputy health minister dismissed it as a one-off event caused by a new method of classifying infections.
- Japan and South Korea plan to open business travel between the two countries this week. Papua New Guinea is opening its borders to people from four countries including Japan and Singapore.
- MPs in Britain are expected to rebel this week during votes on controversial pandemic curbs such as the rule limiting gatherings to six people and the 10pm pub curfew. The votes come amid anger at a data blunder that has left officials scrambling to trace 50,000 Covid contacts.
- Stock markets in Asia have recovered some lost ground after Trump’s positive comments about his health. The FTSE100 in London is expected to open up about 0.2%.
Updated
Malaysia reports most cases in one day
Malaysia has reported 691 new cases; its biggest daily jump since the start of the pandemic. There were four additional deaths confirmed, taking total fatalities to 141, the health ministry said. Total infections in the country stood at 13,504.
Updated
A broad political and social consensus is needed to cope with the economic fallout, the Bank of Spain governor has said, amid a growing political spat over how to tackle the crisis in the nation.
Pablo Hernández de Cos told the Spanish parliament:
We must be aware of the magnitude of the challenge we face … and, therefore, I urge that we reach broad political and social agreements to tackle the urgent, ambitious and comprehensive growth strategy that our country needs.
Over the past days, the national and regional governments have traded barbs over what to do and who was to blame for an increase in cases in Madrid and its periphery, taking the political polarisation that has characterised much of the response to the pandemic over the past months to new heights.
Spain, one of the nations worst affected, with more than 32,000 deaths and more than 800,000 cases, is heading for its worst economic performance on record in 2020. A contraction of between 10.5% and 12.6% is expected, according to the Bank of Spain.
Updated
Since Donald Trump tweeted on Friday that he had tested positive for Covid-19, his physician Dr Sean Conley has given a series of puzzling medical briefings – one of which was contradicted in an off-the-record briefing by a senior White House official – and the president himself has made bullish comments about his health.
There are still a great deal of unanswered questions about Trump’s illness. Here’s a rundown of what we know – and what we don’t:
The head of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said she would leave quarantine on Tuesday after having been in contact with someone positive for Covid-19 a week earlier, despite EU recommendations of 14 days of self-isolation.
Von der Leyen is following Belgium’s rules, which have just been softened. But her decision to ignore the stricter advice from the bloc’s public health body could further weaken calls for a EU common approach to battle the epidemic.
Von der Leyen, who is 61 and is a physician by training, said she would remain in precautionary self-isolation until Tuesday evening, after a person she came into contact with on 29 September in a meeting in Portugal tested positive on Sunday.
She tested negative for the virus on Thursday and Monday.
A spokesman for the commission declined to comment on the EU recommendation but said the length of her quarantine was in line with Belgian rules.
Belgium, which is home to the EU headquarters, shortened mandatory quarantine from 14 to seven days on 1 October, despite having one of Europe’s highest infection rates.
That was done mostly because people struggled to respect the rule which had a heavy social and economic impact, a spokeswoman for the health ministry said.
However, the country’s decision disregarded the advice of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) which has recommended a two-week quarantine for people who have had contact with confirmed cases.
Poland suffers worst day
Poland reported its worst daily death toll on Tuesday, as the country’s health ministry said 58 people had died. The official data showed sharp increases in the number of ventilators and hospital beds devoted to Covid-19 patients.
The country reported 2,236 new cases on Tuesday, close to Saturday’s 2,367 – the worst daily total yet. With a population of 38 million, Poland has reported 104,316 cases overall and 2,717 deaths.
The ministry said that, as of Tuesday, there were 263 ventilators and 3,719 hospital beds devoted to Covid-19 patients, compared with 141 and 2,399 respectively a week ago.
Updated
Italy is considering making the use of masks outdoors mandatory nationwide, its health minister, Roberto Speranza, has said. He told a parliamentary hearing:
We are working on a proposal to make the use of masks nationwide compulsory.
After a steady decrease in daily cases during the summer, Italy reported new infections rising in the past weeks although its figures are still lower than those registered in other big European countries.
Updated
Australia will spend A$4bn over the next year to pay businesses that hire those under the age of 35, the country’s treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has said, as part of an ambitious plan to boost jobs and growth.
Australia has been widely lauded for limiting the spread of Covid-19. But strict lockdown measures forced shut entire sectors of the economy, sending unemployment to a 22-year high of 7.5% in July.
The impact on younger Australians is even worse, with recent data showing the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 was hovering near 20%.
As part of the government’s hiring credit scheme, Canberra will pay businesses A$200 a week for the next a year if they employ a person under 29.
Businesses will get A$100 per week if they employ a person aged between 30 and 35. Eligible employees will have to work for at least 20 hours a week.
Updated
Chinese vaccines to be assessed – WHO
China is in talks to have its locally produced vaccines assessed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a step towards making them available for international use, a WHO official has said.
Reuters reports that hundreds of thousands of essential workers and other groups considered at high risk in China have been given locally developed vaccines even as clinical trials had not been fully completed, raising safety concerns among experts.
Socorro Escalate, the WHO’s coordinator for essential medicines and health technologies in the Western Pacific region, told a news conference conducted online that China had held preliminary discussions with WHO to have its vaccines included in a list for emergency use.
The body’s emergency use listing procedure allows unlicensed vaccines and treatments to be assessed to expedite their availability in public health emergencies. This helps assist the member states and UN procurement agencies to determine the acceptability of the vaccines. Escalante said:
Potentially through this emergency use listing the quality and safety of these vaccines and efficacy could be assessed … and then this could be made available for our licensees.
Updated
Indonesia has reported 4,056 new cases, bringing the total number of infections to 311,176, data from the country’s Covid-19 task force show. The number of deaths rose by 121, the highest daily increase since 30 September, to take the tally of fatalities to 11,374.
The Philippines’ health ministry has confirmed 2,093 new infections and 25 more deaths, the lowest number of fatalities reported in 15 days. The ministry said total confirmed cases in the Philippines have increased to 326,833, the highest in south-east Asia, while the number of deaths have reached 5,865.
Updated
Workers were clearing undergrowth from wasteland on Tuesday to add 400 graves to the Indian capital’s oldest functioning cemetery beside the ruins of historic city walls, as the coronavirus death toll grows.
Reuters reports that, with more than 100,000 deaths nationwide, India’s tally of infections has passed 6.6m. But there is little sign of any sustained fall in daily numbers.
Since its first virus burial in April, the Islamic graveyard of Jadid Qabristan has had more than 700 funerals on a patch of adjoining wasteground designated for pandemic victims.
“We weren’t expecting that we will have to clear more land for the graves,” said the head gravedigger Mohammad Shameem, a 38-year-old in a pale green traditional tunic, who is the third generation of his family to work in cemeteries. “But bodies just keep arriving.”
A respite in infections has cut virus burials to about four a day, from 10 in the summer, but Shameem said the graveyard, founded in 1924, would soon be at capacity.
The way things are moving, I think we will clear the last remaining patch of land for graves in the coming months.
Hindus, who make up the majority of India’s population of about 1.4 billion, are typically cremated after death. But its estimated 200 million Muslims typically bury their dead.
Like the workers at a nearby crematorium for Hindus, Shameem said he often faced difficult conditions.
We are doing so much work for the last eight months, but there has been hardly any help from the government, in terms of personal protective equipment.
Updated
China and 25 other nations have called for the immediate lifting of sanctions by the US and other western countries to ensure an effective response to the pandemic, the Associated Press (AP) has reported.
Speaking on behalf of the 26 countries at a meeting of the UN general assembly’s human rights committee, China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun said unilateral coercive measures violate the UN charter, multilateralism, and impede human rights by hindering the well-being of the population in the affected countries and undermining the right to health.
Global solidarity and international cooperation are the most powerful weapons in overcoming the pandemic, the joint statement said.
We seize this opportunity to call for the complete and immediate lifting of unilateral coercive measures, in order to ensure the full, effective and efficient response of all members of the international community to Covid-19.
Among the countries that backed the statement were half a dozen that face sanctions by the US, European Union or other western nations, including Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Russia, Syria and Venezuela.
The statement notes that both the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the body’s human rights chief Michelle Bachelet have called for the waiving of sanctions that undermine a country’s capacity to respond to the pandemic.
The AP said there was no immediate response to an email seeking comment from the US mission.
Germany’s UN ambassador, Christoph Heusgen, addressed the sanctions issue at a security council meeting on Syria in May saying EU sanctions do not affect the delivery of humanitarian aid or medical goods to limit the effects of Covid-19, citing specific EU guidance on ensuring aid gets to the Syrian people.
Updated
Russia’s daily tally of new cases rose on Monday to its worst since 11 May, as authorities reported 11,615 new infections nationwide; including 4,082 in Moscow.
Authorities said 188 people had died overnight, pushing the official death toll to 21,663. The total number of cases registered since the beginning of the outbreak stands at 1,237,504, they said.
Updated
More than half the people living in extreme poverty in the Paris region, in particular migrants, have been infected, the French aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said.
According to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency, the positivity rate stood at 55% in emergency shelters and food distribution centres where MSF carried out tests in late June and early July – compared with 12% among the wider Parisian population.
MSF said it was the first study in Europe to focus on a region’s poorest residents, including people who have moved to the country from abroad, who represented 90% of the more than 800 people tested.
“The results show an extremely high prevalence. The main reason is the conditions at shelters and being packed together, which leads to clusters [of infection],” Corinne Torre of MSF told AFP.
Authorities put hundreds of migrants in gyms and other temporary shelters to get them out of makeshift camps and off the streets during the two-month nationwide lockdown from mid-March to mid-May.
In two centres housing migrant workers the test positivity rate reached 89%, MSF said.
The French health agency said the country’s overall positivity rate was hovering at 5% to 10% last week. The country has again tightened social distancing rules and other restrictions for Paris and its nearest suburbs to slow the outbreak, with all bars in the capital closed for at least two weeks.
Updated
This year, the end-of-summer dread feels different. Fears of an impending second wave coinciding with the stress of back-to-school, flu season and increasingly shorter days make for a wicked case of seasonal affective disorder, apocalypse edition. Add to that the wildfires ravaging the western US, and an upcoming presidential election that in many ways feels like a matter of life and death, and you have a perfect recipe for mass anxiety, Kate Mooney writes.
For some, the notion of hunkering down inside again as the weather gets colder resurfaces the pain of the early months of lockdown. It also threatens to upend what for many became a pandemic coping mechanism: a summer of socially distanced, outdoor interaction with others. What are we going to do when it’s too cold to see each other in a low-risk setting?
Updated
The French government is ready to do more to support bars and restaurants, the finance minister has said. The sector has been one of the worst hit by the pandemic.
Bruno Le Maire told franceinfo radio details could be unveiled next week. Paris bars have been ordered to close for two weeks from Tuesday to try to contain a renewed spread of the disease.
Updated
Tensions are growing between Israel’s ultra-Orthodox and secular communities over perceived adherence to the country’s pandemic measures, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
After a revered rabbi died this week, Israeli police thought they had worked out an arrangement with his followers to allow a small, dignified funeral that would conform with public health guidelines under the lockdown.
But, when it was time to bury the rabbi on Monday, thousands of people turned up, ignoring social distancing rules, and clashed with police who tried to disperse the mass gathering.
Such violations of lockdown rules by segments of the ultra-Orthodox population have angered a broader Israeli public that AP reports is largely complying with the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the disease.
The defiance on display has confounded public health experts, tested prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s longstanding political alliance with religious leaders and triggered a new wave of resentment from secular Israelis who fear for their health and livelihoods. The media personality Judy Shalom Nir Mozes wrote on the Ynet news site:
We’ve been asked to go into this lockdown, with its insane economic cost, that is causing people to go insane, because of the increase in coronavirus which is mostly occurring in the ultra-Orthodox sector and in large part because of criminal negligence. There are two sets of laws here. One for us and one for them.
The ultra-Orthodox community claims it is being unfairly targeted by they authorities. They point to large weekly protests, mainly by secular Israelis, against Netanyahu’s handling of the pandemic that have continued throughout the summer. The government last week placed limits on the size of the protests, citing violations of public health guidelines. Israel Cohen, a commentator with the ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Barama, said:
We are at the closest point to an explosion in terms of the mistrust.
Updated
Apathy towards Covid-19 is rising across Europe, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data.
Fatigue has been measured in different ways across 27 countries but is “now estimated to have reached over 60%” of the population in some places, said the body’s regional director for Europe, Dr Hans Henri P Kluge.
He set out three strategies for addressing the slide towards apathy. Regular community consultation, including with local authorities as well as “expertise beyond the medical and public health sectors”, should be promoted, he suggested.
There had been positive responses when Scandinavian countries asked the public to help devise “reasonable guidance”, which Dr Kluge said is “a good example of recognising that people are experts in their own environment”. He added:
Citizens are at the heart of a solution to the pandemic and policymakers should treat them as such.
New ways of meeting with friends and family are also to be encouraged, with Dr Kluge citing the example of how community groups found safe ways of breaking the fast during Ramadan by doing so virtually or with delivered meals for distanced celebrations.
A courageous approach, with empathy at its core, will get us through this crisis. We have an opportunity to maximise our community insights into behaviour, to integrate real community participation into public health policy on a scale that has not been done before.
Updated
Hello, I’ll be taking over for the next few hours. Thanks to Martin Farrer for guiding us this far.
If you’d like to draw my attention to anything, your best bet is probably Twitter, where I’m KevinJRawlinson.
Summary
I am handing over to my colleagues in London shortly so here are some of the key developments in the pandemic so far today:
- Donald Trump has left Walter Reed hospital after three nights and returned to the White House. He wore a mask as he left but removed it to pose for photographs on the balcony of the White House.
- Trump tweeted a video in which he said he felt well and told Americans: “Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it.” Coronavirus has already killed 210,117 Americans – or one in every 1,560 people in the country.
-
Trump’s personal physician said the president was “not entirely be out of the woods yet” although he met the discharge requirements. The president still has the virus and is still contagious. Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious diseases expert, said Trump could have a “reversal” in his condition.
-
Mexico has record increase in deaths and daily cases on Monday jumping by 2,789 and 28,115 respectively. But the deputy health minister dismissed it as a one-off event caused by a new method of classifying infections.
- Japan and South Korea plan to open business travel between the two countries this week. Papua New Guinea is opening its borders to people from four countries including Japan and Singapore.
- MPs in Britain are expected to rebel this week during votes on controversial pandemic curbs such as the rule limiting gatherings to six people and the 10pm pub curfew. The votes come amid anger at a data blunder that has left officials scrambling to trace 50,000 Covid contacts.
- Stock markets in Asia have recovered some lost ground after Trump’s positive comments about his health. The FTSE100 in London is expected to open up about 0.2%.
You can follow more on the Trump story at our other live blog here:
Updated
Crowds showcase China's recovery
An interesting tweet here from Bloomberg’s David Ingles about the massive crowds travelling around China this week, a holiday known as “golden week”.
The movement of hundreds of millions of people showcases how the country has recovered from the pandemic. There were 12 new cases on the mainland yesterday.
You guys wanna see something weird? Check out these massive crowds as hundreds of millions of people travelled across China during golden week.
— David Ingles (@DavidInglesTV) October 6, 2020
Every city in China is now designated low risk as far as virus is concerned. pic.twitter.com/WNhmiMyyS6
British MPs are expected to signal growing discontent with the government’s coronavirus restrictions at votes on the regulations this week.
Conservative and Labour MPs say they could withdraw backing for the rule of six on social gatherings and the curfew at votes expected this week.
It follows growing calls for the government to publish the scientific advice behind the 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants in the UK.
Here is our full story:
Donald Trump says he’s never felt better for 20 years, but Dr Anthony Fauci says he might have relapse after being discharged from hospital on Monday night Washington time. If you need another catch-up on what is going on with the US president’s health, my colleague Helen Sullivan has compiled this all-you-need-to-know guide to his coroanvirus case.
India cases rise by 61,267 in past 24 hours
India’s total coronavirus cases rose by 61,267 in the last 24 hours to 6.69 million on Tuesday morning, data from the health ministry showed.
Deaths from Covid-19 infections rose by 884 to 103,569, Reuters reported the ministry as saying.
India’s death toll from the novel coronavirus rose past 100,000 on Saturday, only the third country in the world to reach that bleak milestone, after the United States and Brazil, and its epidemic shows no sign of abating.
Last week, India further eased restrictions and permitted states to open schools and movie theatres.
Ben Doherty, our Pacific editor, reports that Papua New Guinea has re-opened its borders to international travel from four more countries.
Flights from Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Solomon Islands will now be allowed into PNG, along with flights from Australia, which already had access to the country.
The moves to tentatively open international travel coincides with the lifting of a daily 12pm to 5am curfew in the capital Port Moresby. Other Covid-19 restrictions remain in place.
Pandemic response controller, David Manning said all passengers coming from overseas would need to get individual approval from his office to travel to PNG, and must be able to show a negative test result for Covid-19 - taken within the last week - before being allowed to board a flight.
PNG has recorded only 540 cases of Covid-19, and seven deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic.
But the true rate of infection is likely to be several times higher than the official figures. Testing, especially outside the capital, remains limited: just 25,000 tests have been conducted since the beginning of the pandemic.
Neighbouring Solomon Islands recorded its first Covid-19 case - in a repatriated student returned from the Philippines - on the weekend.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert in the US, has warned that Donald Trump could see a “reversal” in his condition after leaving hospital to return to the White House.
Fauci said many victims had seen their health stabilise after contracting the virus and then worsen again after a few more days.
Here’s a video of his comments:
You can follow the whole Trump coronavirus story at our other live blog here.
Updated
China and 25 other nations countries have called for the immediate lifting of sanctions imposed by the United States and western countries in order to help targeted countries recover from the pandemic.
Speaking on behalf of the 26 countries at a meeting of the United Nations general assembly’s human rights committee, China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun said unilateral coercive measures violate the UN charter, multilateralism, and impede human rights by hindering the well-being of the population in the affected countries and undermining the right to health.
Among the countries that backed the statement were half a dozen that face sanctions by the United States, European Union or other Western nations including Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Russia, Syria and Venezuela.
The statement notes that both UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres and human rights chief Michelle Bachelet have called for the waiving of sanctions that undermine a countrys capacity to respond to the pandemic.
There was no immediate response to an email seeking comment from the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
Japan and South Korea to resume business travel
My colleague in Tokyo, Justin McCurry, has this update on plans for Japan and South Korea to this week agree to resume business travel between the two countries amid optimism over the slowing of new Covid-19 infections. Tourism will remain on hold.
Japanese media reported that expatriates and other long-term residents, as well as travellers on short business trips, will be able to enter one country from the other provided they test negative for the coronavirus and provide details of their itineraries.
While no date has been announced for the resumption of business travel across the Japan Sea - known as the East Sea in Korea - Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, agreed to speed up talks in a phone call with his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, late last month, according to the Kyodo news agency.
Japan began imposing travel bans on foreign visitors as early as February that eventually included 159 countries and regions. But it recently relaxed restrictions on people entering for work and long-term foreign stays from countries where the pace of new infections is slow.
Entrants are required to take a virus test before departure and after arriving in Japan, and to self-quarantine for two weeks. They must also name a guarantor in Japan who ensures they follow the rules.
Tourism across Japan Sea – known as the East Sea in Korea – will remain off-limits, however. More than 5.5 million South Koreans visited Japan last year, including just over 300,000 who were here on business, according to the Japan national Tourism Association.
Japan’s blanket ban on international tourism could be relaxed in time for the postponed summer Olympics in Tokyo, which are due to open on 23 July, media reports said this week.
Measures under consideration include requiring tourists to download a health check app as soon as they obtain visas in their home countries and to provide proof that they tested negative for Covid-19 before departure.
Those who test negative again on arrival in Japan could be exempt from two weeks of self-quarantine provided they use the app to regularly update authorities on their physical condition, Jiji Press reported.
Germany’s confirmed cases increased by 2,639 to 303,258, according to the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases on Tuesday.
The reported death toll rose by 12 to 9,546, the tally showed.
Joe Biden, the US Democratic presidential candidate, has launched a thinly veiled attack on Donald Trump’s theatrical removal of his mask earlier on the White House balcony.
Biden, who has taken a much more cautious approach to contact on the campaign trail than Trump, told a Florida town hall meeting on Monday night that “masks matter” and that wearing them will save the lives of others.
Speaking on an open-air stage, Biden told moderator Lester Holt:
I would hope that the president having gone through what he went through – and I’m glad he seems to be coming along pretty well – would communicate the right lesson to the American people.
Masks matter. These masks, they matter. It matters. It saves lives. It prevents the spread of the disease. Social distancing – the only thing I heard was one of the tweets saying that, you know, don’t be so concerned about all this, essentially. There’s a lot to be concerned about.
Here’s our full story:
Our new podcast featuring Washington correspondent David Smith on how the coronavirus infected Trump and his inner circle is a must-listen.
Here it is:
Asian stock markets have edged higher on Donald Trump’s apparent recovery from the coronavirus and his upbeat comments about his health.
The Nikkei in Japan is up 0.4% and Hong Kong has climbed 0.66% in morning trade. In Seoul, the Kospi is up 0.6% but in Sydney, where the central bank meets this afternoon and the government releases its budget tonight, the ASX200 was up just 0.18%. Markets in mainland China are closed for a public holiday.
[REPORT] The Australian sharemarket is off to a cautious start following Monday’s 2.6 per cent surge and ahead of the RBA Board meeting and tonight’s Federal Budget https://t.co/ME1vVSJfRy #ausbiz pic.twitter.com/YHhvEIAt8c
— CommSec (@CommSec) October 6, 2020
The moves the best daily gain on Wall Street’s S&P 500 index in a month overnight.
Mexico's record daily jump is one-off, says minister
Mexico has seen a record daily rise in deaths and cases as we reported about 40 minutes ago. There were 2,789 deaths and 28,115 cases on Monday.
Deputy health minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the public face of the government’s coronavirus strategy, said the increase was a “one-off event”, Reuters reported, because the government had changed the way it classifies cases.
Al 05 de octubre de 2020 hay 789,780 casos confirmados #COVID19. Se han registrado 925,415 negativos, 81,877 defunciones confirmadas y 553,937 personas recuperadas. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/rt3UZz2obf
— Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez (@HLGatell) October 6, 2020
China had 12 new Covid-19 cases on the mainland on Monday, down from 20 the day before.
The national health authority said on Tuesday that all new cases were imported infections involving travellers from overseas.
Total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 85,482, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
Amid all the attention heaped on Donald Trump’s case, Austria’s chancellor Sebastian Kurz and much of his staff and cabinet have tested negative for the coronavirus after a scare.
An unidentified close colleague of Kurz’s tested positive on Monday, the chancellor’s office said, prompting the chancellor and vice chancellor Werner Kogler to cancel all appointments for the day and have tests.
Austria’s cabinet meets on Wednesday mornings. Ministers who attended last week’s meeting were also tested, with several saying on Monday that they too had cancelled their appointments pending the results.
By the way, you can follow all the Trump developments here.
Hello. This is Martin Farrer taking over the blog.
Mexico recorded 28,115 new coronavirus infections and 2,789 deaths on Monday, both record one-day increases, as the health ministry changed how it classifies some cases and deaths.
Total confirmed cases now stand at 789,780, with a total reported death toll of 81,877. The health ministry said the record jump includes cases and deaths that date back to June.
Trump and coronavirus: What we know so far
- US President Donald Trump left Walter Reed hospital, where he was being treated for coronavirus. He wore a mask while leaving the hospital and as he walked from Marine One to the White House. He then removed his mask to pose for photographs, while standing near photographers . Trump still has the coronavirus, is still contagious, and according to CDC guidelines, should remain in isolation until at least 10 days after his diagnosis, which came in the early hours of Friday.
- Trump plans to participate in next debate, a spokesman for the president’s campaign said. The debate is due to be held on 15 October. On Thursday last week, before Trump announced that he had tested positive, his re-election campaign rejected calls to change the rules of the next two presidential debates after the first chaotic event in Cleveland was marred by constant interruptions and outbursts. The debate’s host, Chris Wallace, has since said that Trump also did not wear a mask while on a walk-through before the debate, and that “There was an honour system” when it came to testing negative, after it emerged that Trump did not in fact show a negative coronavirus test before debating.
- Trump tweeted a video in which he said of the virus, “Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it.” Coronavirus has already killed 210,117 Americans – or one in every 1,560 people in the country. He also said“The vaccines are coming momentarily,” just as the Times published a report saying senior White House officials are blocking guidelines designed to make sure the vaccine is safe – but which mean it it is unlikely to be approved before the election.
- Shortly after Trump’s display, Joe Biden held a town hall in which he repeatedly stressed the importance of masks. He also tweeted several times about this. “I would hope that the President having gone through what he went through will communicate the right lesson to the American people: Masks matter. They save lives,” Biden said.
- Donald Trump’s top spokesperson, Kayleigh McEnany, announced she had tested positive for coronavirus on Monday, in yet another escalation of a rampaging outbreak that hospitalised the president and threw the White House into disarray.
- Citing an anonymous source, Vanity Fair magazine reported on Monday that Donald Trump Jr was worried by his father’s behaviour and had sought help from his siblings in “staging an intervention”.
- White House Blocks New Coronavirus Vaccine Guidelines – report. The New York Times reported that senior White House officials are blocking new federal guidelines for the release of a coronavirus vaccine. The stricter guidelines include a provision “that would almost certainly guarantee that no vaccine could be authorised before the election on 3 November, according to people familiar with the approval process”, which is what the officials are objecting to.
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The White House will not perform contact tracing for attendees of the Rose Garden event celebrating the supreme court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, despite confirmed infections of at least 11 attendees, according to a new report by the New York Times.The Rose Garden ceremony for Barrett has drawn scrutiny as a 6potential “super-spreader” event. Attendees neither wore masks nor practiced social distancing. Attendees who subsequently tested positive for Covid include Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Senator Mike Lee, Senator Thom Tillis, the Rev John Jenkins, Chris Christie and Kayleigh McEnany.
Updated
Hi, Helen Sullivan here. I’ll be moving over to the US Politics blog shortly, and my colleague Martin Farrer will be at the helm of this one.
In the meantime, get in touch on Twitter with questions, comments or news: @helenrsullivan.
Biden:
More than 200,000 Americans have died. 50,000 Americans are getting the virus every day. 1,000 a day are dying. This is a national emergency.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 6, 2020
The President should take responsibility. pic.twitter.com/RpEZCjjUhq
Earlier today, Trump’s doctors said the US president was ‘not yet out of the woods’ but had met all standard hospital criteria to be discharged.
Trump’s physician, Dr Sean Conley, said: ‘We remain cautiously optimistic and on guard because we’re in a bit of uncharted territory when it comes to a patient that received the therapies he has so early in the course.’ When asked by reporters Conley said he was ‘not at liberty to discuss’ Trump’s latest lung scans due to health privacy regulations:
Biden is holding a town hall currently, in which he says of Trump’s decision to remove his mask:
I would hope that the President having gone through what he went through will communicate the right lesson to the American people: Masks matter. They save lives. pic.twitter.com/Hc8lovKEwB
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 6, 2020
You can watch the town hall here.
White House will not perform contact tracing for Rose Garden event – report
The White House will not perform contact tracing for attendees of the Rose Garden event celebrating the supreme court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, despite confirmed infections of at least 11 attendees, according to a new report by the New York Times.
The Rose Garden ceremony for Barrett has drawn scrutiny as a potential “super-spreader” event. Attendees neither wore masks nor practiced social distancing. Attendees who subsequently tested positive for Covid include Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Senator Mike Lee, Senator Thom Tillis, Reverand John Jenkins, Chris Christie and Kayleigh McEnany.
According to the Times, the CDC was prepared to perform contact tracing for the White House, but was not asked. Instead, the White House Medical Unit said it would handle the effort, but has chosen to focus only on events within a 48-hour window of Trump’s diagnosis.
In his video, Trump suggests that he could have left Walter Reed two days ago.
“Two days ago. I could have left two days ago.”
Again: according to CDC guidelines, he should remain in isolation until at least 10 days after his diagnosis, which occurred on Friday.
Biden has meanwhile tweeted again about masks:
I view wearing a mask as a patriotic duty — to protect those around you. #BidenTownHall
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 6, 2020
Biden: 'Masks matter. They save lives.'
Meanwhile Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has tweeted the following:
Masks matter. They save lives.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 6, 2020
Within seconds, his running mate, Kamala Harris, responded:
.@JoeBiden is right—masks matter. Wearing a mask can save lives. Do it for yourself and for those around you.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 6, 2020
Trump also tweeted the following:
....invincible hero, who not only survived every dirty trick the Democrats threw at him, but the Chinese virus as well. He will show America we no longer have to be afraid.” @MirandaDevine @NYPost Thank you Miranda. Was over until the Plague came in from China. Will win anyway!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
Trump says of coronavirus: "Don't be afraid of it"
Trump has just tweeted two videos.
The first, set to rousing music, shows Trump’s arrival back at the White House.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
In the second he says of the virus, which has already killed 210,117 Americans – or one in every 1,560 people in the country – “Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it.”
He also says “The vaccines are coming momentarily,” just as the Times publishes that report saying senior White House officials are blocking guidelines designed to make sure the vaccine is safe – but which mean it it is unlikely to be approved before the election:
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
Updated
White House Blocks New Coronavirus Vaccine Guidelines – report
The New York Times has just reported that senior White House officials are blocking new federal guidelines for the release of a coronavirus vaccine. The stricter guidelines include a provision “that would almost certainly guarantee that no vaccine could be authorized before the election on Nov. 3, according to people familiar with the approval process”, which is what the officials are objecting to.
The Times’ Sharon LaFraniere and Noah Weiland report:
The struggle over the guidelines is part of a monthslong tug of war between the White House and federal agencies on the front lines of the pandemic response. White House officials have repeatedly intervened to shape decisions and public announcements in ways that paint the administration’s response to the pandemic in a positive light.
...
The vaccine guidelines carry special significance: By refusing to allow the Food and Drug Administration to release them, the White House is undercutting the government’s effort to reassure the public that any vaccine will be safe and effective, health experts fear.
Updated
From Vox:
Here's a better look at Trump immediately taking off his mask when he reached the White House. It looks like he motioned for photographers to come up near him and take photos. 😳 pic.twitter.com/plrGtkJZP6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 5, 2020
Trump “has viewed every day of his life as a television episode. He believes that it’s constantly got to have something that keeps you on the edge of your seat,” says @Santucci. “But to see him standing on the Truman balcony without a mask on – what. were. they. thinking.” https://t.co/A3P4Fh8NAe
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) October 5, 2020
Citing an anonymous source, Vanity Fair magazine reported on Monday that Donald Trump Jr was worried by his father’s behaviour and had sought help from his siblings in “staging an intervention”.
Donald Jr hasn’t yet tweeted about his father leaving hospital. But Trump’s son Eric has:
Welcome home Dad!!! We love you! @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/HlVaN2S3fc
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) October 5, 2020
Updated
In case you missed it:
Donald Trump’s top spokesperson, Kayleigh McEnany, announced she had tested positive for coronavirus on Monday, in yet another escalation of a rampaging outbreak that hospitalized the president and threw the White House into disarray – even as Trump announced he was leaving hospital:
The president still has an active coronavirus infection that is contagious to others. According to CDC guidelines, he should remain in isolation until at least 10 days after his diagnosis, which occurred on Friday.
By removing his mask, Trump is most likely endangering those who work at the White House.
On Monday, the CDC updated its coronavirus guidance to make clear that the disease can spread more than six feet through the air, especially in enclosed spaces.
Wearing a face mask is not a precaution for Trump, who has already contracted Covid-19, but for those around him. The president has an active case of the potentially deadly disease, which is highly contagious. Already numerous White House staffers and members of the White House press corps have been infected in the outbreak that has spread through the president’s inner circle since last week.
Today it was reported that two housekeeping staff at the White House have also tested positive for the disease.
More info on 2 White House residence staff members who tested positive - they worked for the housekeeping department on the third floor, and didn't come in direct contact w the first family. When their tests came back positive, they were told to use "discretion" in discussing it.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 5, 2020
The desperation that has driven Donald Trump to leave hospital prematurely – while still talking down the threat of a disease that has killed 210,000 Americans and turned the White House into a Covid hotspot – gives some measure of how dangerous the next four weeks will be.
Many students of Trump’s life and career have warned that he would be prepared to sacrifice anyone – even those closest to him – to spare himself the humiliation of a one-term presidency, but even they surely could not have anticipated how literal that sacrifice would be.
It involved creating a culture in the White House in which the wearing of masks were scoffed at, and seen as a sign of disloyalty, the worst sin in the Trump court. It produced a toxic workplace to the point of potential lethality:
On that note – Trump being “incapable of empathy”, a reminder that yesterday Mary Trump, the president’s niece, said the president sees illness as “a display of unforgivable weakness” whether it is in himself or others:
Here, per New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman, is how Trump aides were hoping the virus might benefit the president:
If Mr. Trump recovered quickly from his bout with the coronavirus and then appeared sympathetic to the public in how he talked about his own experience and that of millions of other Americans, he could have something of a political reset. The health crisis, one campaign official said, was a setback in a re-election campaign that polls have shown him losing for months, but also a chance to demonstrate a new stance toward the virus that might win over some voters.
And the president could use that to show from now until the second presidential debate, scheduled for Oct. 15, that the disease is serious but can be combated, and that he was ready to re-enter the campaign.
The president's advisers hope to show that he's beaten the virus and also that he understands it better than he did. First thing he did when he got to the White House was take his mask off. https://t.co/ctxBclwoCc
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 5, 2020
Itching to get out of the hospital, Mr. Trump got his wish on Monday evening. Doctors allowed him to leave for the White House, while acknowledging he hadn’t yet reached the critical seven- to 10-day window that doctors watch for with the coronavirus to see whether patients take a turn for the worse.
...
Over the weekend, Mr. Trump’s political advisers said they were cleareyed about who they were dealing with: Mr. Trump is widely seen as a figure incapable of empathy. But the hope was that discussing his own experience would help him manage the pandemic going forward, and could have political benefits.
...
Mr. Trump did little to adhere to the narrative aides were hoping would emerge, one that would benefit him politically. In videos filmed by aides of Mr. Trump behind the scenes, intended to show him working, the president did not mention the hardship the virus had caused to others or that anyone had suffered greatly from it. Nor did he mention the White House staff members who had fallen sick.
Trump departs Walter Reed hospital while infected with coronavirus – in pictures
Trump removing his mask after arriving at the White House:
Double thumbs up:
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 05. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Marine One arriving at the White House with the US President on board:
Trump boarding Marine One:
Trump descending the stairs at Walter Reed:
Trump emerges from Walter Reed hospital:
Trump — infected with COVID-19 — takes off his mask and enters the White House with others clearly standing nearby pic.twitter.com/fNpiP6SA5S
— Will Steakin (@wsteaks) October 5, 2020
Trump poses for cameras at White House – without a mask
Trump removed his mask before posing for photographs and to watch Marine One depart:
Trump removes his mask and puts it in his pocket: pic.twitter.com/M0A717QKBJ
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) October 5, 2020
From AP’s Jonathan Lemire:
Now with mask off, Trump stands on White House balcony to watch Marine One depart pic.twitter.com/WnTSP3UEgc
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) October 5, 2020
He was not seen putting it on again when he entered the White House:
Note: President Trump, who has COVID-19, did not put his mask back on when he stepped inside the White House
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) October 5, 2020
We will try to get a photograph of this shortly:
Trump takes his mask off before going into the White House with the WH photog right next to him.
— Sarah Mimms (@mimms) October 5, 2020
Wolf Blitzer: “I don’t know what kind of statement he’s trying to make that he took his mask off.”
Updated
Obama’s former campaign manager has just tweeted this:
The next time there is live coverage of Marine One flying across Washington it better be on January 20 for his trip to Andrews AFB to catch his ride home to Florida as a disgraced, defeated one term President.
— David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) October 5, 2020
Here is a better shot than my fuzzy screen grabs of Trump emerging from the doors of Walter Reed:
New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi reports that areas within the White House residence are “being set up for the president to work from once he returns there tonight”.
A White House official tells me that areas in the White House residence are being set up for the president to work from once he returns there tonight, including the Map Room.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) October 5, 2020
Marine One has now landed on the White House lawn:
Marine One has arrived at the White House pic.twitter.com/6SKTQkORmY
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) October 5, 2020
Trump leaves Walter Reed hospital
Moments ago, US President Donad Trump left Walter Reed hospital, where he was being treated for coronavirus. He wore a mask. He walked straight to the car, then paused briefly to give a thumbs up before climbing into the vehicle. Reporters yelled out one or two questions – Trump did not respond.
Instead he walked straight to the car and paused to give a thumbs up before climbing in.
As Trump leaves Walter Reed someone shouts "Do you think you're a super spreader, Mr President?" pic.twitter.com/uGytSElomi
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) October 5, 2020
Trump still has the coronavirus, is still contagious, and according to CDC guidelines, should remain in isolation until at least 10 days after his diagnosis, which came in the early hours of Friday.
He stopped to give a second thumbs up before climbing onto Marine One:
He didn't speak to media (or respond to the question of whether he thinks he's a super spreader) but he gave a thumbs up before climbing into the car and another before climbing onto Marine One: pic.twitter.com/yt87HKBTGq
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) October 5, 2020
He will arrive at the White House any minute now.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coronavirus coverage.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you global updates plus key Trump news here. Our dedicated US politics blog is here.
Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
French patients in ICUs for Covid-19 above 1,400 for first time since 28 May. French health authorities reported that the number of patients being treated in intensive care units (ICUs) for Covid-19 has gone beyond the 1,400 threshold for the first time since 28 May.
Meanwhile a spokesman for US president Donald Trump’s campaign says he is still planning to participate in the second debate on 15 October.
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The US president Donald Trump says he will leave hospital on Monday evening. Trump tweeted that he will leave Walter Reed hospital at 6.30pm, adding that he felt “really good”. He urged people not to be afraid of the disease, which has killed more than a million people worldwide (among them more than 200,000 Americans) and wreaked economic and social havoc. Follow along on our US politics live blog.
- French patients in ICUs for Covid-19 above 1,400 for first time since 28 May. French health authorities reported that the number of patients being treated in intensive care units (ICUs) for Covid-19 has gone beyond the 1,400 threshold for the first time since 28 May.
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White House press secretary tests positive for Covid-19. Kayleigh McEnany said she has tested positive for Covid-19, adding that she would begin quarantining and that the White House medical unit does not list any members of the press as close contacts.
- England Covid cases error means 50,000 contacts may not have been traced. More than 50,000 potentially infectious people may have been missed by contact tracers and not told to self-isolate because of the data blunder that meant nearly 16,000 coronavirus cases went unreported in England.
- One in 10 may have caught Covid, as world heads into “difficult period” - WHO. Roughly one in 10 people may have been infected with the coronavirus, leaving the vast majority of the world’s population vulnerable, the World Health Organization said.
- New York governor closes schools in coronavirus hot spots. Andrew Cuomo ordered schools to close from Tuesday onwards in several coronavirus “hot spots” around the state, including parts of the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.
- Spain tops 800,000 coronavirus cases after weekend jump. Spain became the first western European nation to surpass 800,000 total coronavirus cases after registering 23,480 new infections over the weekend.
- Ireland’s government ‘to reject new lockdown’. Ireland’s government has rejected a surprise recommendation by its health chiefs to go into lockdown and will instead tighten current Covid-19 restrictions, government sources said.
- Paris bars to close as Covid infections rise among young people. Bars in the Paris region have been ordered to close from Tuesday after health authorities reported a sharp rise in the number of Covid-19 infections among the 20-30 age group.
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Iran hits record high 235 virus deaths in 24 hours. Iran has announced 235 new fatalities from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, a figure equalling the record high set nearly 10 weeks ago.
- Malaysia PM quarantines after contact with minister who has Covid-19. Malaysian prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin will self quarantine for 14 days after a minister who attended a high-level government meeting to discuss coronavirus developments on Saturday tested positive for Covid-19.
Updated
