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Here’s a quick recap of the latest coronavirus developments across the globe from the last few hours:
- UK PM Boris Johnson drops advice against face mask use in English schools. Pupils in England will no longer be advised against using face masks in schools after prime minister Boris Johnson made an 11th-hour U-turn days before students head back to the classroom.
- Lebanon service sector says it will rebel against lockdown. A representative of Lebanon’s hospitality sector said that service and tourism businesses would defy a newly reinstated coronavirus lockdown that has compounded the crisis-hit country’s economic woes.
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The number of Americans newly diagnosed with the coronavirus is falling. About 43,000 new cases are being reported daily across the country, down 21% from early August, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Experts credit the development at least partly to increased wearing of masks, even as the outbreak continues to claim nearly 1,000 lives in the US each day.
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Turkey recorded its highest number of new coronavirus cases since mid-June. Another 1,502 infections were confirmed on Tuesday, taking the official tally over 261,000. New cases were last this high on 15 June, two weeks after Turkey lifted a partial lockdown. The government has responded by banning some celebrations in 14 provinces.
- India reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases globally for the 18th straight day. According to a Reuters tally, infections rocketed by another 1.5 million since the start of August, taking India’s total to around 3.1 million, more than in the US and Brazil. The rate of new cases in the country is increasing rapidly, climbing by 60,975 in the latest 24-hour period, according to the federal health ministry.
- Two European patients were confirmed to have been reinfected with coronavirus, raising concerns about immunity. Regional public broadcasters said a patient in the Netherlands and another in Belgium had also been reinfected. It follows a report this week by researchers in Hong Kong about a man there who had been reinfected four and a half months after recovering.
That’s all from me Jessica Murray today, I’m now handing over to my colleague Ben Doherty in Australia.
Updated
Carnival’s Princess Cruises has said it will cancel early 2021 cruises on two ships, citing travel, border and port restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cruise lines, hammered by a crisis that has seen some ships turn into infection hotspots, had earlier said they were expecting solid 2021 bookings, mainly as repeat cruisers were eager to book their trips.
Carnival’s two ships affected, Island Princess and Pacific Princess, were set to sail from North America and Australia respectively.
Guests that had booked trips on these ships would receive a refundable credit for future trips for the fare they paid, and an additional non-refundable future cruise credit equal to 25% of the fare paid, the company said.
Earlier in the day, Carnival’s Cunard also paused operations from November to up to 16 May 2021.
At least three Princess Cruises ships turned into hotbeds for coronavirus infections. One of them, the Ruby Princess, became part of a homicide investigation in Australia, being the source of the country’s deadliest virus infection.
Updated
Kate Green, Labour’s shadow education secretary, has called the Department of Education change on face coverings a “half baked U-turn”.
Parents and schools needed clarity and leadership, but instead the government have just passed the buck back to them.
Face coverings should be compulsory in communal areas in schools.
Instead of this half baked U-turn the government should have given clear guidance and a plan to deliver it.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the “flexibility” of the change in advice on face coverings in secondary schools.
It was inevitable that the policy on face coverings would change following guidance from the World Health Organization, and we recognise that the government in Westminster has responded to our call for a quick direction on this matter with the reopening of schools imminent.
The new policy is discretionary, other than in places where coronavirus restrictions apply, and secondary school and college leaders will welcome the flexibility this affords them to decide what best suits their circumstances.
We look forward to seeing the full guidance as early as possible.
Updated
Former Maldives president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said he has tested positive for coronavirus as the island nation battles an increase in new cases.
Gayoom, who held power for three decades, was checked after he developed a fever, a former aide close to the family told AFP. No word was available on his condition.
“I have tested positive for Covid-19,” the 82-year-old politician wrote on Twitter. “May Almighty Allah bless me and all other sick people with a speedy recovery and good health!”
After leaving office in 2008 Gayoom has remained an active political figure. Opponents have accused him of being an autocratic leader during his three decades in power.
However, he is also credited with being an early campaigner against global warming and sea level rise which he had warned could wipe the low-lying Maldives off the face of the earth.
The Maldives, known for upmarket island tourism, reopened its international borders to visitors in mid-July after a three-month halt that crippled the hospitality industry.
It has seen a steady increase in cases in recent weeks and has reported a total of 7,047 infections and 28 deaths.
General Motors and Ford said they are close to completing production of ventilators ordered by the Trump administration this spring, and are ramping down or exiting the operations.
Many of the ventilators assembled by the automakers and other manufacturers have gone into a US government stockpile as doctors have shifted away from using invasive ventilators with Covid-19 patients.
The government currently has 108,000 ventilators in its medical equipment stockpile, and 12,000 deployed at US hospitals, the US Health and Human Services department said on Tuesday.
GM and medical equipment maker Ventec Life Systems are on the “home stretch” towards completing a contract to deliver 30,000 critical care ventilators by the end of August under a $489m contract with the federal government, the automaker said.
GM and Ventec have already delivered more than 20,000 machines, GM spokesman Jim Cain said.
Ford has assembled about 47,000 of the 50,000 ventilators it agreed to supply to partner General Electric, Ford spokeswoman Rachel McCleery said. GE has a $336m contract with the government.
Ford and GM earlier this year said they would employ as many as 1,500 people on ventilator assembly lines. Automakers likened the efforts to their switch from making cars to tanks and planes during the second world war.
With North American car and truck factories back in operation, the Detroit automakers are winding down their forays into ventilator manufacturing, while continuing to make respiratory masks.
The automakers’ efforts to build ventilators and other medical equipment were launched in a politically charged atmosphere as the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic swamped the US economy and healthcare system.
The shortage of ventilators became a symbol of the nation’s struggle to respond. President Donald Trump put pressure on the automakers as part of a broader push to secure more than 130,000 ventilators by the end of 2020.
The automakers used the medical equipment assembly operations set up in the spring to test safety protocols they later used to reopen their vehicle-making operations.
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Irish prime minister Micheál Martin and deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar have said there were clear breaches of public health guidelines during European trade commissioner Phil Hogan’s trip to Ireland.
They said in a statement:
Government guidelines clearly required him to restrict his movements for 14 days. He should also have limited his movements to and from Kildare for essential travel only, and he should not have attended the Oireachtas Golf Society dinner.
Hogan attended a golf dinner during the trip that has outraged the Irish public and led an Irish minister to resign and several lawmakers to be disciplined.
Updated
The number of Americans newly diagnosed with the coronavirus is falling, a development experts credit at least partly to increased wearing of masks, even as the outbreak continues to claim nearly 1,000 lives in the US each day.
About 43,000 new cases are being reported daily across the country, down 21% from early August, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
While the US, India and Brazil still have the highest numbers of new cases in the world, the downward trend is encouraging.
“It’s profoundly hopeful news,” said Dr Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases expert at the University of California who credits the American public’s growing understanding of how the virus spreads, more mask-wearing and, possibly, an increasing level of immunity.
“Hopefully all those factors are coming into play to get this virus under control in this country that’s really been battered by the pandemic,” she said.
The virus is blamed for more than 5.7 million confirmed infections and about 178,000 deaths in the US.
The decline in newly reported cases in the US comes even as deaths from the virus remain alarmingly high. Over the past two weeks, officials have reported an average of 965 deaths a day from Covid-19, down from 1,051 a day in early August.
The percentage of tests coming back positive for the disease has also declined over the past two weeks, from 7.3% to 6.1%. But that comes as the total number of tests administered has fallen from its August peak of more than 820,000 a day, levelling off in recent weeks at about 690,000 a day.
The situation has improved dramatically in several states that struggled with high caseloads earlier this summer.
In Arizona, for example, officials reported 859 new cases on Tuesday, down from a peak of 5,500 in late June. More than 2,000 people arrived at the state’s hospitals showing symptoms of the virus on a single day in early July. This week, that number has been less than 1,000.
In Florida, where more than 10,000 people have died, the state reported 2,600 new cases on Tuesday. Earlier in the summer, it was regularly reporting more than 10,000.
Updated
Nursing homes in the US will now be required to test staff for Covid-19 and offer testing to residents, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said.
In July, the Trump administration released an additional $5bn from the Provider Relief Fund to help nursing homes address critical needs, including hiring additional staff and increasing testing.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has welcomed the government’s U-turn on face masks in schools.
Posting on Twitter, he said:
Our children must be able to return to school in a safe environment and I welcome the latest u-turn by the Govt - a step in the right direction.
However, it is of huge concern that yet again the PM has had to be forced into following the advice of public health officials.
Our children must be able to return to school in a safe environment and I welcome the latest u-turn by the Govt - a step in the right direction.
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) August 25, 2020
However, it is of huge concern that yet again the PM has had to be forced into following the advice of public health officials. https://t.co/cgbmThvnMd
Turkey’s former economy czar and the leader of the opposition Deva (Remedy) Party, Ali Babacan, said he had tested positive for Covid-19 but was in good health, becoming the most high-profile Turkish politican to contract the virus.
Babacan, 53, also a former deputy prime minister, resigned from president Tayyip Erdoğan’s AK Party last July over “deep differences” about the direction of the party he helped found. In March he formed his rival political party.
Babacan said on Twitter:
I just learned my Covid-19 test result is positive. Thank God, I am in good condition at the moment. My doctors said I needed to remain in quarantine with my family for some time. I will continue my work from home, God willing.
Turkey’s daily number of new coronavirus cases has risen in recent weeks as the government has rolled back containment measures in the interest of shoring up the economy.
On Tuesday, the number of new cases jumped the highest since mid-June with 1,502 recorded infections.
More than 261,000 people have contracted the virus in Turkey according to official figures, while 6,193 people have died.
The government has warned citizens about rising cases, and responded on Tuesday by banning some events in 14 provinces, including the capital Ankara.
Boris Johnson drops advice against face mask use in English schools
Pupils in England will no longer be advised against using face masks in schools after prime minister Boris Johnson made an 11th-hour U-turn days before students head back to the classroom.
In lockdown areas such as Greater Manchester, which have greater restrictions to stop the spread of the virus, wearing face coverings will become mandatory in school corridors where social distancing is more difficult.
In areas of England not subject to tighter restrictions, headteachers will have discretion over whether to require face masks, but the government will no longer advise against their use, a senior government source said.
The prime minister bowed to pressure and changed the guidance late on Tuesday after scores of headteachers broke ranks to urge their use, backed by Labour and trade unions.
Johnson told reporters earlier in the day he would “look at the changing medical evidence as we go on” but insisted schools would be safe regardless.
The US agency in charge of processing immigration applications said it had avoided a planned furlough of 70% of its staff but warned that it still faced financial hardship that could result in some applicants experiencing longer wait times.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency in charge of processing work permits, so-called green cards and other visas, said that it had avoided furloughs planned for 30 August.
But aggressive spending cuts the agency planned to put in place would impact all operations, including naturalisations, it said in a statement.
USCIS is dependent on fees from new immigration applications. The agency reported a 50% drop in fees in June due to less immigration during the coronavirus pandemic.
But immigration experts and former officials say even before the onset of the pandemic, the agency had seen revenues fall sharply as a result of slowdowns in processing and other limits placed on immigration applications.
Republican president Donald Trump has made curbing immigration a priority during his years in office.
The USCIS deputy director for policy, Joseph Edlow, warned in the statement there was no guarantee the agency can avoid future furloughs and called on the US Congress to ensure the agency had sufficient funding for fiscal year 2021, which starts in October.
USCIS had asked for a $1.2bn bailout from Congress in May to avoid the projected furloughs, but lawmakers pushed back, arguing the agency had the funding it needed to continue operations through the fiscal year.
Updated
Switzerland is set to be the next country on which to have quarantine measures imposed by the government in England, the Telegraph has reported, with the Czech Republic and Iceland moving into the “danger zone” due to high coronavirus infection rates.
If confirmed, it will means travellers from Switzerland will have to self-isolate for two weeks on arrival in the country, along with travellers from Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and a number of other countries the UK government deems to have worrying coronavirus infection levels.
Ministers are due to meet within the next 48 hours to make a decision, the Telegraph reports, with an announcement expected on Thursday ahead of the usual 4am on Saturday deadline for the new rules to come into effect.
Updated
Young people are driving the spread of Covid-19 in the Americas, the head of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has said, noting that both deaths and caseloads have doubled in the region over the past six weeks.
Dr Carissa Etienne chastised governments that have rushed economic reopenings despite data that shows a worsening pandemic.
“This is not a good sign. Wishing the virus away will not work,” she said, detailing what she described as a “real disconnect” between the relaxation of containment measures and the continuing spread of the virus.
The PAHO is the Washington-based Americas arm of the UN World Health Organization.
Since July, coronavirus cases in the Americas have more than doubled to about 12 million confirmed infections, while deaths have shot up by roughly the same rate to some 450,000, according to PAHO data.
Etienne said that “the vast majority” of reported Covid-19 cases in the Americas have been among those between the ages of 19 and 59, but that almost 70% of deaths have been among individuals who are 60 years old or older.
“This indicates that younger people are primarily driving the spread of the disease in our region,” she said.
A recent uptick in cases in several Caribbean nations including the Bahamas is also a growing concern, said Etienne, with new infections not only driven by tourism but also returning residents.
Overall, governments should base their reopening decisions on the best available data and expand testing and contract tracing programmes to better identify and control spikes in cases, she said.
Six of the world’s 10 most affected countries are in the Americas, said Etienne, pointing to the US, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Argentina.
Updated
More US colleges are grappling with high numbers of students testing positive for Covid-19 just days into the start of the new semester, after some universities rolled back their campus reopening plans in recent weeks.
The University of Alabama on Monday reported more than 550 people across its campuses had tested positive for Covid-19 since it resumed in-person classes on 19 August. Most of those infected were students, faculty and staff at the university’s main campus in Tuscaloosa.
Citing a “dramatic increase” in coronavirus cases on campus, the mayor of Tuscaloosa issued an executive order on Monday ordering bars to shut down for 14 days and placing restrictions on other establishments.
“Many students who tested positive for Covid-19 have chosen to go home to isolate,” Kellee Reinhart, the university’s vice chancellor for communications, told Reuters.
Reinhart said the school had an “ample amount” of space for Covid-19 positive students to isolate and that it was enhancing testing of various groups.
The university has conducted more than 46,000 tests, according to a dashboard it released this week, and the positivity rate stood at about 1%.
The number of positive cases does not include the 400 students who tested positive upon returning to University of Alabama campuses before classes began last week.
Alabama is not alone in scrambling to deal with Covid-19 college outbreaks.
The University of Southern California (USC), which resumed education almost entirely online on 17 August, on Monday said that more than 100 students at the University Park Campus in Los Angeles were in a 14-day quarantine after exposure to the virus.
Ohio State University, where classes resume on Tuesday, this week issued more than 200 interim suspensions for students following a string of large parties where health and safety rules were largely ignored, according to media reports.
Last week, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill cancelled in-class instruction after positive cases of Covid-19 shot up dramatically.
Lebanon service sector says it will rebel against lockdown
A representative of Lebanon’s hospitality sector said that service and tourism businesses would defy a newly reinstated coronavirus lockdown that has compounded the crisis-hit country’s economic woes.
“From tomorrow, we will open our doors,” said Tony Ramy, head of the syndicate of owners of restaurants, cafes, nightclubs and pastry shops.
“The arbitrary and demagogic decision to close down, whether partially or fully, does not concern us any more,” he said in a televised statement from a Beirut street heavily damaged by the huge 4 August explosion at the capital’s port.
An AFP photographer said dozens of people gathered in support of the announcement, some holding signs that read “Tourism is the pulse of Lebanon” and “For us, the state vanished with the blast”.
The declaration, made on behalf of a wider tourism body also representing hotels and seaside resorts, came four days after authorities imposed a two-week coronavirus lockdown to stem a string of record-hitting daily infection tolls.
Lebanon has registered 13,687 coronavirus cases, including 138 deaths.
Under the latest rules, malls, nightclubs, gyms, swimming pools, restaurants and coffee shops have been ordered to close.
Restaurants, coffee shops and pastry shops can deliver, but only between 6am and 6pm due to an overnight curfew.
Ramy blamed the government for the devastating explosion at Beirut’s port and the huge losses it has caused the tourism industry, which he estimated at around $1bn – including $315m for restaurants alone.
He called on the sector to engage in “civil disobedience” against the state by severing commercial ties with the government and depriving it of tax money.
“We will not pay a single penny until we have a new state,” he said.
The interior ministry responded that it would punish those who flouted the lockdown, and urged Lebanese to act in the public interest.
“The interior ministry ... warns it will not be lenient in implementing what the laws stipulate for transgressors, from issuing fines to referral to the relevant judicial authority,” caretaker interior minister Mohammed Fahmi said, shortly before the country announced a record 24-hour coronavirus death toll of 12.
The Beirut traders’ association this week also said businesses wanted to reopen from Wednesday.
Authorities fear Lebanon’s fragile health sector would struggle to cope with a further spike in coronavirus cases, especially after some hospitals near the port were damaged or taken out of commission in the explosion.
Updated
Translate Bio said that an experimental coronavirus vaccine it developed with French drugmaker Sanofi induced immune response in early-stage non-human primate studies.
In a regulatory filing, the company cited Sanofi’s presentation slides showing that the vaccine candidate induced neutralising antibodies and T-cell responses in animal studies.
Translate, which signed a potential $2bn vaccine development deal with Sanofi last month, said their vaccine candidate is set to be evaluated in an early- to mid-stage human trial.
Other drugmakers racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine for Covid-19 are further ahead in their testing, with Moderna, Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer starting their late-stage studies.
Translate’s vaccine, like Moderna’s, uses mRNA technology which delivers proteins that produce immune response against the disease directly to target cells.
Sanofi is developing another Covid-19 vaccine candidate with British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline.
In July, the US government said it is providing $2.1bn to Sanofi and GSK for Covid-19 vaccines to cover 50 million people and to underwrite the drugmakers’ testing and manufacturing.
Updated
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray, I’ll be steering the blog for the next few hours.
Feel free to get in touch with any story tips or personal experiences you would like to share.
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
Summary
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Turkey recorded its highest number of new coronavirus cases since mid-June. Another 1,502 infections were confirmed on Tuesday, according to government data, taking the official tally over 261,000. New cases were last this high on 15 June, two weeks after Turkey lifted a partial lockdown. The government has responded by banning some celebrations in 14 provinces.
- India reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases globally for the 18th straight day. According to a Reuters tally, infections rocketed by another 1.5 million since the start of August, taking India’s total to around 3.1 million, more than in the US and Brazil. The rate of new cases in the country is increasing rapidly, climbing by 60,975 in the latest 24-hour period, according to the federal health ministry.
- Gaza entered a 48-hour lockdown after the first cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the general population. Four cases of coronavirus were confirmed in a single family in a refugee camp, the first in Gaza that did not involve people quarantined in border facilities after crossing over from Egypt and Israel. Health authorities in the Hamas Islamist-run territory of 2 million people are concerned over the potentially disastrous combination of poverty, densely populated refugee camps and limited hospital facilities in dealing with an outbreak.
- Two European patients were confirmed to have been reinfected with coronavirus, raising concerns about immunity. Regional public broadcasters said a patient in the Netherlands and another in Belgium had also been reinfected. It follows a report this week by researchers in Hong Kong about a man there who had been reinfected four and a half months after recovering.
- The German economy contracted by a record 9.7% in the second quarter, the sharpest decline since Germany began to record quarterly GDP calculations in 1970. The statistics office said it came as consumer spending (10.9% down), company investments (19.6% down) and exports (20.3% down) all collapsed at the height of the pandemic.
Thank you so much to everybody who kept me company throughout the day by sending in news tips and comments, and to all of you for reading along. That’s it from me, Lucy Campbell, ‘til tomorrow.
Updated
The French health ministry said it had recorded 3,304 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, well below daily highs seen last week and taking the cumulative total to 248,158.
The number of new infections was above the 1,995 reported on Monday – which traditionally shows a dip – but remained well below Sunday’s new post-lockdown record of 4,897 and below the levels above 3,600 reported in the second half of last week.
The ministry also said the death toll rose by 16 to 30,544, while the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 fell to a new post-lockdown low of 4,600. The number of people in intensive care rose by 11 to 410 and is now back up to levels last seen at the end of July.
Updated
Turkey records highest number of new daily infections since mid-June
Turkey’s coronavirus cases rose to the country’s highest level since mid-June on Tuesday at 1,502, according to data provided by the government, which responded by banning some celebrations in 14 provinces.
The health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said on Twitter that 24 more people had died from Covid-19, bringing the toll to 6,163. More than 261,000 people have contracted the disease in Turkey, according to the official tally.
New cases were last this high on 15 June when the country logged 1,592 cases, two weeks after it lifted a partial lockdown.
Bugün toplamda 6.5 milyon test sayısını geçtik. Yeni tespit edilen 1.500’den fazla hastamız var. Yeni hasta sayısını düşürmek mücadelemizin en önemli hedefi. Bu hedefe katkı için tedbirlere uyum şart. Sonunda yenilen virüs olacak. https://t.co/RVlhe7786O pic.twitter.com/8G59tKQgXN
— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) August 25, 2020
Updated
Sweden’s public health agency said on Tuesday a faulty test kit had returned some 3,700 false positive results, an error discovered by two laboratories during routine quality controls.
The agency said the PCR kits, which test for an ongoing Covid-19 infection, were made in China by the company BGI Genomics and had been distributed worldwide.
In Sweden, the kits were used by people conducting at-home tests between March and August, the agency said.
Mostly, “people who had mild symptoms or who didn’t feel any symptoms at the time of the test received false positive results”, the agency said in a statement.
It added that it would contact those affected this week, as well as adjusting Sweden’s official number of cases.
“The faulty test kit has been reported to the Swedish Medical Products Agency. It has been exported by China to many other countries,” the agency said, adding that it has “informed relevant authorities in Europe and the WHO”.
Sweden on Tuesday said it had 86,891 confirmed cases of coronavirus and there had been 5,814 deaths.
Updated
Brazilian senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of president Jair Bolsonaro, has tested positive for coronavirus, according to a statement by Flavio’s spokesman.
Flavio has no symptoms of Covid-19 and is at home, it said, adding he has started taking chloroquine and azithromycin as part of a treatment against the virus.
President Bolsonaro is a big supporter of chloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria, despite the lack of solid evidence it works against the disease.
Bolsonaro himself caught the virus earlier, as did his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, and his youngest son, Jair Renan.
Updated
Hungary can reopen schools next week for the first time since mid-March based on fresh data on coronavirus infections, state news agency MTI reported on Tuesday, citing the minister of human capacities Miklos Kasler.
Kasler said the government had worked out a protocol for schools to follow about social distancing, using sanitisers, and the use of common areas.
He did not go into detail and did not say if wearing a mask would be mandatory.
The central European country of about 10 million people has reported 5,215 cases of coronavirus and 614 deaths. On Tuesday, 24 new cases were recorded.
Hungary will tighten border crossing rules from 1 September to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as the number of new infections is rising in neighbouring countries, prime minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday.
“As the school year starts, we will no longer be able to work with the border crossing system that was used during the summer,” Orban said.
The government is expected to announce the new rules this week. Nationalist Orban’s government imposed strict lockdown rules in March to contain the spread of the coronavirus, and eased those restrictions only gradually in May.
Updated
Portugal’s prime minister, Antonio Costa, met a top doctors’ representative on Tuesday to apologise for calling a group of medics sent into a virus-stricken retirement home “cowards”.
Costa “clearly communicated the respect and confidence he has” in the profession, said the president of the Order of Physicians, Miguel Guimaraes.
Costa himself said he hoped the “misunderstandings” had been cleared up.
The row erupted after doctors had to be sent into a retirement home in southern Portugal where 18 had died from the virus and the infected staff were themselves unable to continue caring for the residents.
A seven-second video clip shared widely on social networks had shown Costa complaining that “the president of the regional health authority sent the doctors to do their jobs. And these guys, the cowards, didn’t do anything.”
The remarks were from an off-the-record conversation following an interview Costa gave to the Expresso weekly.
But a statement from the Order of Physicians said that whether on or off the record, the remarks were offensives.
Despite a lack of resources, their members had never refused to cooperate in looking after the sick, elderly people, dismissing allegations made by the prime minister, said the order.
In the portion of the interview that was published on Saturday, Costa had defended the state against criticism from the Order of Physicians, saying the health authorities had “reacted immediately” to the retirement home crisis.
Portugal has recorded 1,805 deaths and 55,912 infections from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, among a population of roughly 10 million people.
Updated
American Airlines has said it will cut 19,000 US jobs in October as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to weigh on air travel, unless the government extends aid for airline employee payrolls.
Airlines received $25bn in US government stimulus funds in March meant to cover payrolls and protect jobs through September. As the money runs out without a travel recovery in sight, airlines and unions have lobbied Washington for a further $25bn, but talks have stalled.
Including voluntary exits and leaves, the US carrier’s workforce will shrink to about 100,000 in October from the 140,000 it employed in March.
“In short, American’s team will have at least 40,000 fewer people working October 1 than we had when we entered this pandemic,” chief executive Doug Parker and president Robert Isom said in a memo to employees that was reviewed by Reuters.
The October job cuts comprise 17,500 furloughs of union workers – including 1,600 pilots and 8,100 flight attendants – and 1,500 management positions.
Based on current demand levels, the airline plans to fly less than 50% of its normal schedule in the fourth quarter, with international flying reduced to only a quarter of 2019 levels, Parker and Isom said in the memo.
Updated
EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan has published details of his movements in Ireland as he continues to deny that he broke public health regulations in the country.
Hogan said that to “the best of my knowledge and ability I believe that I complied with public health regulations in Ireland during my visit”.
He handed in 20 pages of documents to the head of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, after she requested further details of his trip home to Ireland earlier this month.
Hogan stated that he played golf in Adare, County Limerick before returning to Kilkenny on 13 August – a day before his 14-day isolation period was due to end.
He however stated that he was tested negative for Covid-19 while in hospital on 5 August and claimed that therefore ended the self-restriction period.
Updated
Discrimination, housing and the impact of Covid-19 are among the top priorities for India’s new National Council for Transgender Persons, two trans members said on Tuesday.
India is seen as a global leader for its efforts to improve the lives of an estimated 2 million trans people, who face prejudice in the largely conservative country and survive mostly through begging, performing at weddings or selling sex.
“One point that runs as a spinal cord in all of this is stigma and discrimination,” said Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, one of India’s highest profile trans leaders and a member of the council, which she described as “historic”.
Trans people are often denied access to jobs, education and healthcare – three areas that Tripathi, a founder of the Asia Pacific Transgender Network, highlighted as priorities, along with shelter.
The council aims to ensure equality by advising on and monitoring government policies and to “redress the grievances” of trans people, according to a 2019 law to protect trans rights, which provided for its creation.
Some hope the council will look at the impact of the new coronavirus on trans people, who have been among those worst hit by India’s months-long lockdown, which halted sex work and weddings and passenger trains – a popular site for begging.
“While certain government schemes have helped them, including pension and food ration, others have not reached them,” said Meera Parida, who chairs the All Odisha Third Gender Welfare Trust and a member of the council.
Updated
India's new Covid cases top global tally for 18th straight day
India reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases globally for the 18th straight day, remaining well ahead of the US and Brazil, a Reuters tally based on official reporting showed.
It took India from the end of January, when the country’s first case was reported, until July to reach around 1.6 million cases, a period when the government imposed a strict lockdown.
However, infections have rocketed by a further 1.5 million since the start of August, taking the total to around 3.1 million, behind only Brazil and the US.
The rate of new cases in India is increasing rapidly, climbing by 60,975 in the latest 24-hour period, according to the federal health ministry.
“If we cross the absolute numbers (in Brazil and the United States), I won’t be surprised, but we also have a larger population,” Giridhar Babu, epidemiologist at the non-profit Public Health Foundation of India, told Reuters.
Deaths have remained comparatively low – at 58,390, or 1.84 % of total cases – lower than the global mortality percentage of 3.4%.
India reported its first Covid-19 fatality in mid-March, with the death toll rising to around 35,700 by the end of July. In August so far, around 22,600 deaths have been recorded. Deaths are considered a lagging indicator, given the two-week incubation period of the disease.
Updated
The former Formula 1 team boss and Italian businessman Flavio Briatore has been hospitalised, in Milan after contracting coronavirus.
Briatore, owner of the Sardinian Billlionaire’s nightclub, has been taken to the San Raffaele hospital, in the Lombardy capital, where his condition is ”serious”, according to the Italian magazine l’Espresso.
A few days ago, Briatore attacked the Italian government, which, in mid-August, introduced a decree imposing the closure of all discotheques in Italy due to the increase in new cases of Covid-19.
“This new decree was written by a madman”, Briatore said.
A few days later, more than 50 people tested positive for Covid-19 at Billionaire’s, including Briatore.
Meanwhile, the former footballer and coach of the Seria A Bologna team, Sinisa Mihajlović, has also tested positive. Mihajlović had socialised with Briatore in Sardinia a few days before.
On 12 August, Briatore met the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi at his house, on the Costa Smeralda in Sardinia. “I came to visit my friend, the president: I love him so much and find him in good shape. Bravo Silvio,” Briatore said in a short video posted on Instagram.
Updated
Turkey’s coronavirus tracking app is under fire from privacy advocates for adding a feature allowing users to report social distancing rule violations, with the option to send photos, AFP reports.
Critics say the function breaches civil liberties and promotes a “culture of denunciation”. Turkish officials counter that the measure is needed to save lives and does not violate laws protecting individual rights.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, said the health ministry’s entire pandemic tracking system - which includes the app - made “us even stronger against the virus”.
In April, the health ministry launched a phone app called “Hayat Eve Sigar” (Life Fits Into Home) that helps people monitor confirmed virus cases, showing the risk levels and infection rates in specific neighbourhoods.
It also offers information about nearby hospitals, pharmacies, supermarkets and public transport stops.
One of its latest features, added this week, allows users to report rule violations in places such as restaurants and cafes, with an ultimate goal of helping control the spread of the virus, which has claimed over 6,000 lives in Turkey.
“Help control the virus by reporting rule violations that you encounter,” a message on the app says above an “add photo” function and a line for the corresponding street address.
Critics see the new feature as a threat that exposes Turks to government agencies without their consent and makes people feel unsafe.
“This system lacks credibility,” said Faruk Cayir, a lawyer and president of Turkey’s Alternative Informatics Association on cyber rights and online censorship.
He told AFP the information stored in the app was being shared with other government agencies, including the interior ministry and even private travel companies:
The health ministry has not clearly said how long it will be storing data. It only said it was limited to the pandemic period. It has not provided a precise deadline.
Cayir argued that reporting violations with photos “would encourage a culture of denunciation, the examples of which have already been seen in Turkey”.
Turkey has officially registered almost 260,000 virus infections and 6,139 deaths. The number of daily new cases went up above 1,000 in early August and has yet to go back down.
The health ministry developed the app in cooperation with the Turkey’s mobile phone operators and the government’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK).
Turks are advised to download the app so that security forces are informed when infected people leave their homes in defiance of warnings, with the possibility of criminal prosecution.
Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International’s Turkey researcher, said the pandemic was confronting governments with difficult choices.
“Governments have an obligation to protect people’s health. This is a human rights issue,” Gardner told AFP.
It has also been used as an excuse by governments around the world to take away people’s rights or increase their own powers.
He said maintaining social distancing rules was important to prevent the spread and protect people’s health.
It’s much better that the authorities address these issues instead of people taking the law into their own hands.
There should be a way to ensure that people’s health is protected and protect people’s privacy and security at the same time.
Guidance saying that face coverings are not required in England’s schools could be altered if the medical advice changed, according to Boris Johnson.
The prime minister told reporters:
On the issue of whether or not to wear masks in some contexts – you know, we’ll look at the the changing medical evidence as we go on. If we need to change the advice then of course we will.
Asked why the UK government was ignoring the World Health Organization’s advice that children over 12 should wear masks, Johnson said:
The overwhelming priority is to get all pupils into school. And I think that the schools, the teachers, they’ve all done a fantastic job of getting ready and the risk to children’s health, the risk to children’s wellbeing from not being in school is far greater than the risk from Covid.
If there are things we have to do to vary the advice on medical grounds, we will, of course, do that. But as the chief medical officer, all our scientific advisers, have said, schools are safe.
It comes as Scotland announced that all secondary school pupils over the age of 12 should wear face coverings on school buses, in corridors and in communal areas from Monday, and the Welsh government pledged to review its own guidance on whether children should wear face coverings in schools.
The PM added he was “really pleased” by the work teachers had done to get ready to reopen from next week, a test of his government after it failed to return all children to schools earlier this year.
Johnson, whose Conservative government has come under fire for how it has tackled education during the coronavirus crisis, said it was “crucial” for all children to return to school.
For more updates from the UK, head over to the UK coronavirus live blog:
Updated
Gaza in lockdown after first Covid-19 cases in general population confirmed
A lockdown took hold in Gaza on Tuesday after confirmation of the first cases of Covid-19 in the general population of the Palestinian enclave, whose restricted borders have spared it from wide infection.
Reuters reports that health authorities in the Hamas Islamist-run territory of 2 million people are concerned over the potentially disastrous combination of poverty, densely populated refugee camps and limited hospital facilities in dealing with an outbreak.
A government spokesman said four cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in a single family in a refugee camp, the first in Gaza that did not involve people quarantined in border facilities after crossing into the coastal enclave from Egypt and Israel.
Citing security concerns, both Egypt and Israel maintain tight restrictions at the Gaza frontier, leaving Gazans with little access to the outside world for years and hospitals often complaining of shortages in medical supplies.
“What happens if one of us gets infected?” asked Khaled Sami, a Gaza resident. “When people are seriously ill, they send them into Israel, the West Bank or Egypt. Everything is closed now and who is going to open the gate for someone suffering from the coronavirus?”
With businesses, schools and mosques ordered shuttered late on Monday for at least 48 hours, Gaza’s streets were largely deserted. But some people scrambled to buy essentials in groceries and bakeries, a limited number of which were open.
“I hope the whole world can now help Gaza. We can’t resolve this issue on our own,” said another Gaza resident, who asked to be identified only as Abu Ahmed.
Despite the lockdown, hundreds attended the funeral of four Islamic Jihad gunmen who died in an explosion in Gaza on Monday. The cause of the blast was not immediately disclosed.
But in many places, only the sounds of home generators, used to make up for power cuts that can stretch up to 20 hours a day, could be heard.
The health crisis came amid heightened tensions fuelled by the launching of sporadic rocket attacks and incendiary balloons at Israel, which has responded with airstrikes against Hamas positions.
Gaza’s health ministry said the four Covid-19 cases were uncovered after a woman travelled to the West Bank, where she tested positive.
The ministry said there have been 110 cases of the coronavirus inside border quarantine facilities and one death since the world pandemic began.
Last month, the Gaza director of the World Health Organization, Abdelnaser Soboh, said the territory’s health system could deal with only 500 positive cases at one time.
Updated
Finnish national carrier Finnair announced plans on Tuesday to cut 1,000 jobs – 15% of its workforce – amid dire warnings about the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
“A rapid turn for the better in the pandemic situation is unfortunately not in sight,” chief executive Topi Manner said in a statement.
“Our revenue has decreased considerably, and that is why we simply must adjust our costs to our new size.”
The job cuts will not apply to cabin and flight deck crew, Finnair said, although flying staff will remain on furlough “until further notice”.
The vast majority of the airline’s 6,700 employees are on temporary layoffs.
Alongside job cuts, the carrier will make other structural changes and on Tuesday updated its savings target from 80 million euros ($94m) to €100m.
Finnair, which is majority owned by the Finnish state, cut 90% of its flights on 1 April and issued a profit warning as coronavirus restrictions brought international passenger travel almost to a standstill.
The company has been particularly hard hit by the drop-off in long-haul traffic, with flights between Helsinki and Asia a key part of the group’s growth strategy this past decade.
The carrier released €500m-worth of shares in June to boost liquidity.
Finland’s government further tightened coronavirus travel restrictions last week to become what it called the strictest in the EU, banning tourists from all but a handful of member states.
Updated
Around 6% of the residents of a German town that was an early hotspot for coronavirus had antibodies to Covid-19, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases said on Tuesday.
Researchers tested 2,153 people in the southern town of Bad Feilnbach between 23 June and 4 July and found about 2.6 times more infections than previously reported. The town had to evacuate a nursing home for elderly people during the outbreak.
Some people with Covid-19 are asymptomatic or only have mild symptoms, so antibody tests can help establish the true prevalence of the disease.
The German study showed the highest prevalence of the virus among residents aged 18-34 – at almost 8%, project leader Claudia Santos-Hoevener, from the RKI, told a news conference.
Of those who had antibodies, 14.5% had shown no symptoms, while 40% of those who had previously tested positive for coronavirus had no sign of antibodies.
The prevalence of the disease was lower than an earlier related study conducted in the town of Kupferzell, where 7.7% of residents had antibodies, which Santos-Hoevener said could be due to the fact that antibodies diminish over time.
The research is part of an ongoing study in towns in Germany, and the RKI said it would wait for further results before drawing broader conclusions.
Germany has managed to keep the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths relatively low compared with some other large European countries, but the number of new daily cases has been rising steadily since early July and has accelerated in recent weeks.
The number of confirmed cases in Germany increased by 1,278 to 234,853, data from the RKI showed on Tuesday, while the reported death toll rose by five to 9,277.
“The current developments should be taken seriously,” RKI epidemiologist Osamah Hamouda told the news conference, adding that the region near Bad Feilnbach had seen a jump in cases connected with people returning from trips abroad.
Updated
The Spanish city of Zaragoza is believed to be the first in the country to have deployed a quarantine patrol, a team of 12 people who carry out home visits to make sure people are keeping quarantine.
The north-eastern city is the regional capital of Aragon, where cases have surged in recent weeks. The 14-day rate of new infections sits at 441 per 100,000 in the region, according to the most recent data from Spain’s health ministry.
The patrols, carried out in teams of two that include one social worker, were launched earlier this month. So far they’ve visited more than 100 homes, ferreting out more than a dozen cases where people have skipped out on quarantine.
“We always get a nice welcome, they invite you in and everything,” one member of the team, Virginia Guillén, told Spanish newspaper El País. Working in tandem with health authorities, the team visits homes where people have been hard to track down by phone after testing positive or where there are concerns that quarantine may not be observed.
The goal is to not impose controls, added Guillén, “but rather to check on why we someone has not been reached by phone and explain to them that we are here if they need anything.”
Along with reinforcing the measures that must be put in place to protect family members from the virus, the patrols ensure that the home is large enough to allow for self-isolation. If not, residents are reminded that alternative accommodation is available to house asymptomatic cases.
Updated
Two European patients confirmed to have been re-infected
Two European patients were confirmed to have been re-infected with the coronavirus, according to regional public broadcasters, raising concerns about immunity.
The news follows a report this week by researchers in Hong Kong about a man there who had been re-infected four and a half months after recovering.
Broadcasters said on Tuesday a patient in the Netherlands and another in Belgium had also been re-infected with the virus.
Dutch broadcaster NOS cited virologist Marion Koopmans as saying the patient in the Netherlands was an older person with a weakened immune system. “That someone would pop up with a re-infection, it doesn’t make me nervous,” she said. “We have to see whether it happens often.”
Updated
Good morning from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on Covid-19 for the next eight hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work – your comments are always welcome!
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Updated
In the UK, a leading member of the Oxford University team trying to find a vaccine for coronavirus has not ruled it out being ready for this winter.
The trials ongoing around the world hope to involve around 50,000 people and he said if cases accrue rapidly in clinical trials they could present data to regulators this year.
It comes after the chief medical officer for England, Chris Witty, suggested that a vaccine would most reasonably be ready next winter or in the one after.
Andrew Pollard, professor of paediatric infection and immunity at Oxford University, said:
I think Chris Witty is right to be cautious, it could take as long as that to demonstrate that the vaccine works and is safe and then we have to go through a process of regulators looking at that to make sure it is done correctly. But if cases accrue rapidly in clinical trials we could have data to put before regulators this year.
The potential vaccine, developed by Oxford University and drug company AstraZeneca, is thought to be the most advanced candidate in clinical trials.
It is being tested on 10,000 people in the UK, and a further 10,000 in Brazil and South Africa. Scientists also hope to enrol 30,000 people in US trials.
Following reports that US president Donald Trump wants to speed up approval of the vaccine in time for the November election, AstraZeneca said it had not discussed any fast-tracking with regulators.
Updated
Nearly 2,500 new cases in Indonesia
Indonesia reported 2,447 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases to 157,859, data from the country’s Covid-19 taskforce showed.
The data recorded an additional 99 deaths, taking the total to 6,858, the highest Covid-19 death toll in south-east Asia.
Updated
As the debate about wearing face masks continues around the world here’s an interesting story from Bloomberg about what happened in South Korea when one woman with coronavirus visited a Starbucks cafe north of Seoul earlier this month: more than two dozen patrons tested positive days later, but the four face mask-wearing employees escaped infection.
You can read more about what happened at Starbucks and what it means for your health here https://t.co/elzHUkRpta
— Sam Kim (@samkimasia) August 25, 2020
Updated
Secondary school pupils in Scotland will have to wear face coverings in corridors, communal areas and on school buses from next Monday.
Scotland’s education secretary, John Swinney, said the measure applies to all high schools but he added that nobody should be sent home for not wearing a mask.
Swinney told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland:
This is not going to be mandatory. We are recommending this is what should be done and we will encourage schools to pursue that as part of the work to maintain safety within schools. It’s about making sure that everybody is looking out for each other.
Yesterday, the Scottish government said that it had been consulting councils and teaching organisations about the measure after face coverings were recommended for secondary schools by the World Health Organization at the weekend.
WHO said face coverings were useful where physical distancing between adults and pupils aged 12 and over was impossible, or in areas of high transmission.
In England, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, is being urged to impose the same measures, which he has thus far resisted. For more on that debate, please follow our UK coronavirus liveblog.
Updated
German economy contracts by record 9.7%
The German economy contracted by a record 9.7% in the second quarter as consumer spending, company investments and exports all collapsed at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the statistics office said on Tuesday. Reuters reports:
The economic slump was much stronger than during the financial crisis more than a decade ago, and it represented the sharpest decline since Germany began to record quarterly GDP calculations in 1970, the office said.
The reading marked a minor upward revision from an earlier estimate for the April-June period of -10.1% that the office had published last month.
Consumer spending shrank by 10.9% on the quarter, capital investments by 19.6% and exports by 20.3%, seasonally adjusted data showed.
Construction activity, normally a consistent growth driver for the German economy, fell by 4.2% on the quarter.
VP Bank economist Thomas Gitzel said:
The second quarter was a complete disaster. Regardless of whether it is about investments, private consumption, exports or even imports everything was in free fall.
The only bright spot was state consumption, which rose by 1.5% on the quarter due to the government’s coronavirus rescue programmes, the office said.
The German parliament has suspended the debt brake this year to allow the government to finance its crisis response and fiscal stimulus push with record new debt of €217.8bn.
Employment edged down by 1.3% on the year to 44.7 million in a sign that the government’s efforts to shield the labour market from the coronavirus shock with its short-time work programme are paying off.
The German central bank expects household spending to drive a strong recovery in the third quarter, though the economy might not reach its pre-crisis level before 2022.
The government’s stimulus measures include a temporary VAT cut from July to December worth up to €20bn, which Berlin hopes will give household spending an additional push.
Updated
As officials across Spain wrestle with a surge in coronavirus cases, a chorus of voices is warning that another lockdown could have dire consequences for a country that just months ago emerged from one of Europe’s strictest confinements, reports Ashifa Kassam in Madrid.
While cases of the virus have climbed across Europe, Spain has led the pack in recent days. More than 78,000 cases have been detected in the past two weeks, pushing the 14-day infection rate to 166 per 100,000, compared with 67 in France and 22 in the UK.
Read the full story below:
At the Republican convention in the US on Monday, President Donald Trump sought to distance himself from the impact of the coronavirus on the country and his administration’s handling of the crisis, referring to Covid-19 as the “plague from China”.
VIDEO: President Donald Trump refers to COVID-19 as the "plague from China" as he opens his bid for a second term after securing the Republican nomination pic.twitter.com/DRwjE0hhJR
— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 25, 2020
Updated
Hong Kong is set to ease some coronavirus measures from 28 August, allowing venues such as cinemas and beauty parlours to reopen and restaurants to extend dining hours, authorities said on Tuesday. Reuters reports:
Hong Kong had seen a resurgence of locally transmitted cases since the start of July but the daily number has fallen from triple digits in recent weeks to low double digits. Monday’s infection count of nine new cases was the lowest in nearly two months.
Health secretary Sophia Chan said the government would allow outdoor sports centres to reopen and would lift mandatory mask wearing for outdoor sports and country parks. Restaurants would extend dining to 9pm having previously only been able to offer takeaways past 6pm.
The government had imposed strict regulations at the start of July including the mandatory wearing of masks in all public outdoor places and a ban on gatherings of more than two people.
The cap on the number of people that can meet would remain in place past Friday, and Chan gave no indication on when this would change.
The relaxation of measures comes ahead of mass testing of residents in the Asian financial hub which is set to begin on 1 September.
Since late January, about 4,700 people have been infected in Hong Kong, 77 of whom have died.
A Hong Kong man who recovered from Covid-19 was re-infected four-and-a-half months later in what is the first documented instance of human re-infection, researchers at the University of Hong Kong said on Monday.
Updated
This is a great video from the Ugandan ministry of health about why social distancing matters.
Ohh! This is a good way of letting people know about how social distancing helps people stay away from #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/re3Is8VjLS
— Anant Prakash (@Anantprakash21) August 25, 2020
Good morning from London, where I’ll be looking after the global coronavirus live blog for the next few hours. My thanks (and solidarity!) to my colleague Helen Sullivan in Sydney.
If you want to get in touch with stories from where you are please do. My email is alexandra.topping@theguardian.com and I’m @lexytopping on Twitter. My DMs are open.
Reuters has a fascinating story this morning on the scientific discoveries that are being made about Covid-19. They report:
“Genetic barcodes” can help track how the new coronavirus spreads and mutates, researchers said on Saturday in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Based on the sequence of the genetic code of the virus, the researchers identified 11 distinct SARS-CoV-2 “barcodes” that represent different clades, or lineages, descended from a common viral ancestor.
Different continents have different variations, Arnab Pain of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia and his team found. The subtle differences in the genetic sequences represented by the barcodes may affect virus infectivity or illness severity, Pain noted.
The researchers plan to regularly update the barcodes. “This is a dynamic process, and some virus clades/subclades may eventually die off in the future, and new clades may form,” Pain said.
That’s it for me, Helen Sullivan, for today. I’m having four wisdom teeth yanked from my jaws tomorrow and won’t be blogging for a few days.
My colleague Alexandra Topping will be taking you through the next few hours of pandemic news.
Updated
Xinjiang residents handcuffed to their homes in Covid lockdown
Residents in the capital of Xinjiang are being forced to take Chinese medicine, being handcuffed to buildings and ordered to stay inside for weeks as part of a harsh range of measures to tackle coronavirus, it has emerged.
Urumqi, the capital of the semi-autonomous region known for its draconian security measures, has been in a “wartime state” of lockdown for more than a month after a cluster of cases emerged in July, when the outbreak had been mostly contained elsewhere in China.
Since Friday, internet users have flooded social media platforms with complaints about overly harsh measures and extended quarantine at home or in designated locations, even as cases have gone down. The city, which had documented more than 531 cases by mid-August, has not seen new cases in eight consecutive days:
Updated
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Gaza reported its first Covid-19 cases outside quarantine areas and declared lockdown. The first cases of coronavirus have been detected outside of quarantine facilities within the Gaza Strip, a potentially disastrous development given the enclave’s fragile health system.
- MPs urge Boris Johnson to meet ‘forgotten victims’ of coronavirus. Boris Johnson must meet families whose relatives have been killed by coronavirus and fund research into the longer-term effects, known as “long Covid”, to help the pandemic’s forgotten victims, MPs have said.Their recommendations form part of a fresh set of demands made on the prime minister intended to shape how he prepares for a potential second wave of the illness this autumn.
- “Very low evidence’ for plasma therapy authorised by Trump,” says WHO. In case you missed this in the earlier blog:Donald Trump on Sunday announced the emergency authorisation of convalescent plasma, a method involving taking plasma from people who have recovered from Covid-19, for coronavirus patients. Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the WHO, stressed that it was still unproven and that there was “very low evidence” it was safe and effective.
- Dr Fauci warned against rushing out vaccine. Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, warned that distributing a Covid-19 vaccine under special emergency use guidelines before it has been proved safe and effective in large trials is a bad idea that could have a chilling effect on the testing of other vaccines.
- Usain Bolt has tested positive for coronavirus. World-record sprinter and eight-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt has tested positive for the coronavirus and is self-isolating at his home in Jamaica after last week celebrating his 34th birthday with a big bash mask-free, Reuters reports.
- South Korea orders most Seoul schools to close. South Korea on Tuesday ordered most schools in Seoul and surrounding areas to close and move classes back online, the latest in a series of precautionary measures aimed at heading off a resurgence in coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.
- A Hong Kong man has been re-infected with Covid-19 after four-and-a-half months, leading to immunity concerns. A Hong Kong man who recovered from Covid-19 was infected again four-and-a-half months later in the first documented instance of human re-infection, researchers at the University of Hong Kong said on Monday.
- Sweden is not expecting big second wave: chief epidemiologist. Sweden is likely to see local outbreaks but no big second wave of Covid-19 cases in the autumn, such as inundated hospitals a few months ago, Sweden’s top epidemiologist and architect of its unorthodox pandemic strategy said.
- Brazil’s Bolsonaro said journalist “wimps” are more likely to die of Covid-19. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro continued his attack on journalists during a public event on Monday, describing reporters as “wimps” and saying they have a heightened chance of dying of Covid-19 because they are not athletic.
RNC 2020: key takeaways from the first night of Republicans’ dark convention
The convention kept factcheckers busy as the RNC peddled falsehoods about the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans praised Trump’s response to the pandemic and accused Democrats and the media of failing to recognize the threat posed by coronavirus, even though the president has said as recently as this month that the virus “will go away”.
Speakers also celebrated Trump’s “swift action” to protect American lives, even as the country’s coronavirus death toll stands at 177,000, far outpacing every other nation in the world. Health experts dismissed the presentation as “all propaganda”:
Dr. Vin Gupta on coronavirus statements at #RNC2020: "For anybody listening to what the RNC is doing right now, it's all propaganda. There's no truth to it." pic.twitter.com/Di1KDePntI
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 25, 2020
Fears of 'catastrophic' Covid outbreak in Gaza after first cases outside quarantine emerge
The first cases of coronavirus have been detected within the Gaza Strip outside its quarantine facilities, Palestinian officials have said, a potentially disastrous development given the enclave’s fragile health system.
Four people from the same family have so far tested positive for coronavirus, Gaza’s interior ministry said on Monday as authorities imposed a 48-hour lockdown.
“As soon as the virus cases were detected, the leadership of the interior ministry and the crisis unit held intensive meetings,” said ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bazam.
Hamas authorities urged Gazans to abide by the immediate shutdown, which includes the closure of workplaces, schools and mosques:
Mexican health authorities will begin this week to use a broader definition to identify possible coronavirus cases, a top official said on Monday, after questions about whether testing was too limited, Reuters reports.
A new definition of “suspected” infections will come into use on Tuesday and will include loss of smell, loss of taste and diarrhea as possible Covid-19 symptoms, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said.
It will also allow a person with just one symptom, rather than two or more, to be viewed as potentially infected.
“This gives you a larger margin of potential, which will result in faster, timelier attention for a greater number of people,” Lopez-Gatell told a news conference.
The broader definition could lead to a higher number of cases but that would be an “artificial effect” before stabilizing, he said.
Mexico’s policy is to apply tests to people who show sufficient symptoms, he noted.
Mexico on Monday reported 3,541 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 320 more fatalities, bringing its total tallies to 563,705 cases and 60,800 deaths.
MPs urge Boris Johnson to meet 'forgotten victims' of coronavirus
Boris Johnson must meet families whose relatives have been killed by coronavirus and fund research into the longer-term effects, known as “long Covid”, to help the pandemic’s forgotten victims, MPs have said.
Their recommendations form part of a fresh set of demands made on the prime minister intended to shape how he prepares for a potential second wave of the illness this autumn.
MPs on the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on coronavirus inquiry, which releases recommendations every two weeks, have heard from more than 1,100 people who have either lost loved ones to the illness, or who continue to suffer its long-term effects.
One woman wrote how she had no choice but to say goodbye to her father over a rushed video call only made possible because a nurse lent him her personal mobile. He later died alone:
Updated
Not strictly coronavirus-related, but is perhaps some needed good news:
The World Health Organization (WHO) is set to certify on Tuesday that the African continent is free from wild polio, four years after the last cases appeared in northeastern Nigeria, AFP reports.
“Thanks to the relentless efforts by governments, donors, frontline health workers and communities, up to 1.8 million children have been saved from the crippling life-long paralysis,” the WHO said in a statement.
“Happiness is an understatement. We’ve been on this marathon for over 30 years,” said Tunji Funsho, a Nigerian doctor and local anti-polio coordinator for Rotary International.
He said it marked a crucial step in the total eradication of the illness at the global level.
“It’s a real achievement, I feel joy and relief at the same time,” he added.
As officials across Spain wrestle with a surge in coronavirus cases, a chorus of voices is warning that another lockdown could have dire consequences for a country that just months ago emerged from one of Europe’s strictest confinements.
While cases of the virus have climbed across Europe, Spain has led the pack in recent days. More than 78,000 cases have been detected in the past two weeks, pushing the 14-day infection rate to 166 per 100,000, compared with 67 in France and 22 in the UK.
The steady rise has raised the spectre of fresh lockdowns in the coming weeks, particularly in Madrid where unions have warned that the primary care system is “on the edge of collapse”, due to a lack of staff and testing resources:
Hello, Helen Sullivan here.
I’ll still be bringing you the latest for a little while.
Seen anything I’ve missed – or that might make our readers laugh?
Get in touch:
Twitter: @helenrsullivan
Email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com
Uki Goñi reports for the Guardian from Argentina:
A 34-year-old doctor in Argentina is the country’s first confirmed case of someone who, after having recovered from Covid-19, fell ill with the virus a second time four months later.
On Monday, a Hong Kong man who recovered from Covid-19 was infected again four-and-a-half months later in what researchers at the University of Hong Kong said was the first documented instance of human re-infection.
In Argentina, Alejandra Müller, a hospital director in the town of Helvecia in the central province of Santa Fe, was first diagnosed with Covid-19 on 24 March, after acquiring the virus from a child who had fallen ill. Müller recovered from the virus and, after testing negative, was able to return to her job.
“That first time I was back at work after two weeks, having had only some chest pain, some throat congestion, a bit of fever and pharyngitis,” Müller told the daily La Nación.
The doctor submitted to two tests in April, both of which came back negative, before receiving the all clear. “I thought I had acquired immunity,” Müller said.
But four months later Müller fell ill with the virus again, much harder this time. “The second time the infection was completely different,” said Müller. The doctor developed pneumonia at the end of July and had to go into hospital for five days. “I had all the symptoms, except losing my sense of taste, though I did lose my sense
of smell.”
Müller’s samples from both infections, in March and July, have been sent to the capital city of Buenos Aires for analysis and study. “Maybe she developed few antibodies because she only had a mild infection the first time,” said doctor Eduardo López, a government coronavirus expert in Buenos Aires.
Argentina had a record-breaking 8,713 new cases and 382 coronavirus-related deaths Monday, with nearly 351 thousand accumulated cases and 7,366 deaths so far.
Updated
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 1,278 to 234,853, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday.
The reported death toll rose by five to 9,277, the tally showed.
Here is the full story on Usain Bolt testing positive for coronavirus:
The world’s fastest man is in quarantine after reportedly testing positive for Covid-19 just days after a party for his 34th birthday, which was attended by England footballer Raheem Sterling and several other sports stars.
Jamaica’s health ministry said late on Monday that Bolt, the world 100m and 200m record holder, had tested positive for the virus. He had earlier posted a video on social media saying he was waiting to hear back on his results – before urging anyone who had come into contact with him recently to enter quarantine.
Jamaica’s Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton reportedly confirmed Bolt had been notified of the positive test and contact tracing was underway:
South Korea orders most Seoul schools to close
South Korea on Tuesday ordered most schools in Seoul and surrounding areas to close and move classes back online, the latest in a series of precautionary measures aimed at heading off a resurgence in coronavirus cases, Reuters reports.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 280 new coronavirus cases as of midnight Monday, bringing the country’s total to 17,945 with 310 deaths.
That represents a drop in daily new infections from 397 reported as of midnight Saturday, the highest daily tally since early March.
With most of the new cases centred in the densely populated capital area, however, health authorities say the country is on the brink of a nation-wide outbreak and have called on people to stay home and limit travel.
All students, except for high school seniors, in the cities of Seoul and Incheon and the province of Geonggi will take classes online until 11 September, the Ministry of Education said on Tuesday.
The beginning of the spring semester had been postponed several times since March, but as daily coronavirus cases dropped sharply since a February peak, most of South Korea’s schools reopened in stages between 20 May and 1 June.
Over the past two weeks, at least 150 students and 43 school staff have tested positive in the greater Seoul area, Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae told a briefing.
The Sydney Opera House at rest: eerie, gorgeous photographs capture the ‘strangeness of it all’
The world-famous Australian building is enjoying a brief moment of rest amid the coronavirus crisis. Photographer Daniel Boud captured the space – and some of its performers – in a rarely-seen state of quiet:
Four times as many adolescents are physically abused compared with younger children in England, analysis of police-recorded offences shows, with incidents against 11- to 18-year-olds soaring during the coronavirus lockdown.
The numbers and rates of recorded physical abuse offences against older children in England and Wales have increased since 2014-15, the NSPCC said in a report.
There were 99,139 recorded physical abuse offences against adolescents in England in 2018-19.
This is a recorded rate of 197.4 physical abuse offences per 10,000 adolescents, four times the rate of 48.7 per 10,000 children aged under 11. In Wales, there were 240.1 physical abuse offences recorded per 10,000 11- to 18-year-olds, compared with 70.5 per 10,000 aged under 11.
During the coronavirus lockdown, reports of physical abuse to the NSPCC rose by 53%:
Usain Bolt tests positive for coronavirus
World-record sprinter and eight-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt has tested positive for the coronavirus and is self-isolating at his home in Jamaica after last week celebrating his 34th birthday with a big bash mask-free, Reuters reports.
Jamaica’s health ministry confirmed late on Monday that Bolt, who holds world records in the 100m and 200m distance, had tested positive after he posted a video on social media around midday saying he was waiting to hear back on his results.
“Just to be safe I quarantined myself and just taking it easy,” Bolt said in the message that he appeared to have taped himself while lying in bed. It was posted with the caption “Stay safe my ppl”.
The only sprinter to win the 100m and 200m golds at three consecutive Olympics (2008, 2012 and 2016) said he did not have any symptoms of Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
Bolt said he took the test on Saturday, the day after he celebrated his birthday at a bash where partygoers danced to the hit “Lockdown” by Jamaican reggae singer Koffee.
Daily confirmed cases in Jamaica have surged to more than 60 per day over the past four days from less than 10 just a few weeks ago. Jamaica now has 1,612 confirmed cases, with 622 active cases and 16 deaths from coronavirus.
Victoria, Australia’s second most populous state, announced on Tuesday that eight people died from the new coronavirus in the last 24 hours and reported 148 new cases.
The state a day earlier reported 15 deaths from the virus and 116 cases, its lowest daily rise in new infections in seven weeks, Reuters reports.
A flare up in infections in Victoria forced authorities in to tighten restrictions on people’s movements and order large parts of the state’s economy to close but the southeast state has seen a slowdown in new cases in recent days.
Moving away from the US now:
Mexican authorities said Monday they have started price-gouging investigations to sanction 420 businesses, including stores and funeral homes, for unfairly raising prices during the coronavirus pandemic, AP reports.
The consumer protection office said hundreds of grocery stores and retailers allegedly failed to respect posted prices or changed them, or charged too much for items including basic food stuffs as well as goods that are in high demand because of the pandemic, including rubbing alcohol, hand sanitiser and face masks.
Punishments for unjustified price increases can include fines and other administrative measures. Those to be sanctioned also include 63 funeral homes, many of which apparently did not respect prior contracts.
But authorities excused one of the most flagrant examples of price hikes, saying that a two- or three-fold increase in prices for bottled oxygen was largely the fault of consumers who bought supplies of the gas they didnt need, just to have it on hand in case someone fell sick.
Mexico has seen over 560,000 coronavirus cases and nearly 60,500 Covid-19 deaths, the third-highest total in the world.
More from Reuters on Biden and coronavirus testing:
Reporters have frequently asked Biden whether he has been tested for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and he has always answered no.
He has criticised President Donald Trump’s handling of the virus, which has killed more than 176,000 Americans, as disastrous.
During campaign appearances, many broadcast online, Biden consistently wears masks and maintains distance to show his adherence to public health guidelines.
By contrast, Trump, 74, who will face Biden in the 3 November election, downplayed the virus in its early stages, once referred to mask-wearing as politically correct and has been reluctant to wear a face covering himself.
Trump in July wore a mask in public for the first time during the pandemic, a shift in his tone to encourage Americans to wear them as the country began to see a resurgence of cases.
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, will be tested regularly for Covid-19, an aide said on Monday, as the campaign prepares for the possibility of more public events in the run-up to November’s election, Reuters reports.
Since the coronavirus began spreading widely in the United States in March, Biden has done few public events, most of them close to his Delaware home.
But following his formal nomination at last week’s Democratic National Convention, the campaign is expanding its health protocols in a new phase of the race that could see the former vice president in closer proximity to the public.
“Consistent with the transparency Vice President Biden has demonstrated, we will make public if either the Vice President or Senator Harris ever has a confirmed, positive case of Covid-19,” a campaign aide told Reuters.
The aide said Biden, 77, Harris, 55, and key staff who interact with them would be tested “on a regular basis,” in line with the advice of medical advisers.
The Republican National Convention has kicked off – you can follow it live here with my colleague Joan E Greve:
More on Trump from AP:
In the toss-up state of North Carolina, Trump spoke on a tarmac in Fletcher to several hundred cheering supporters the majority not wearing masks after he addressed delegates at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, AP reports.
Trump said, “the nation will put this horrible incident coming from China behind us and we will have the vaccines very soon, but it’s going to be fading, and it is starting to fade.”
The US coronavirus death toll and case count have been climbing for months. More than 176,000 Americans have now died of the coronavirus, by far more than any other country.
Trump predicted positive third quarter results for the US economy and said next year would be even better.
After brief remarks, Trump drove to Mills River, where he was to tour Flavor First Growers and Packers and speak at a Farmers to Families food box distribution program.
Along the motorcade route to Mills River, some people expressed their disapproval of Trump’s presidency. One man, wearing a mask, held a cloth banner that said: ‘Mr. Trump Spewing Lies. Spreading Covid.’
President Donald Trump has been renominated as the GOP’s presidential candidate.
Republicans made it official during a scaled-back roll call vote on Monday at the Charlotte Convention Center in North Carolina, AP reports.
Trump faces a difficult fight for reelection as he continues to deal with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed about 177,000 people in the United States, ravaged the economy and upended nearly all aspects of life. The presidents bid for a second term also continues to be shadowed by protests throughout the nation over police brutality and racial injustice.
Now that delegates have completed the task of formally renominating Trump, much of the remaining convention business will shift to the Washington, DC area. Trump is scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech from the White House South Lawn on Thursday evening.
Democrats nominated former Vice President Joe Biden as their presidential candidate at their all-virtual convention last week.
In more airlines news: Delta is set to furlough 1,941 pilots in October, the carrier said in a memo seen by Reuters on Monday that noted the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and plunging air travel demand, Reuters reports.
U.S. airlines have warned they will need to furlough tens of thousands of workers once $25 billion in U.S. government stimulus funds run out in September. The aid, which covered employees’ pay, was meant to help them weather the pandemic and preserve jobs until a recovery, but travel remains depressed.
“We are simply overstaffed, and we are faced with an incredibly difficult decision,” Delta’s head of flight operations John Laughter said in a memo to employees.
“We are six months into this pandemic and only 25% of our revenues have been recovered. Unfortunately, we see few catalysts over the next six months to meaningful change this trajectory.”
Virgin Atlantic’s creditors will vote on a £1.2bn (US$1.6bn) rescue plan on Tuesday in a crucial test of the airline’s ability to survive in an industry devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic, Reuters reports.
Virgin Atlantic agreed the deal with shareholders and creditors in July to secure its future beyond the coronavirus crisis.
The airline, which is 51% owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and 49% by US airline Delta, said it remains confident in the restructuring plan and is on track to finalise its solvent recapitalisation in the first week of September.
Tuesday’s vote of affected trade creditors includes nearly 200 suppliers that the airline owes more than 50,000 pounds to. It needs 75% support of the overall outstanding value of money owed at a hearing at London’s High Court.
If successful, another UK court hearing will be held on 2 Sept to approve the plan, and a procedural hearing is scheduled for Sept 3 in the United States.
Should the creditors fail to support the plan, the judge can still rule that it is in their interests for it to go ahead.
Virgin Atlantic has had to close its base at London’s Gatwick Airport and cut more than 3,500 jobs to contend with the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, which has grounded planes and hammered demand for air travel.
Global airline body IATA has said that the industry will not return to pre-crisis levels until 2024.
In the UK, stress and exhaustion from the Covid-19 crisis threaten to intensify burnout among women working in the NHS just as it prepares to resume most services, according to a survey that has prompted calls for greater support for female staff.
The pandemic had amplified alleged bullying, sexism and racism on the part of managers, , some workers also warned, while 26% of women said they did not feel safe sharing personal concerns with their boss.
This was especially true for staff from a minority ethnic background, who also reported feeling traumatised by the disproportionate impact of the virus, said the Health and Care Women Leaders Network of the NHS Confederation, which carried out the survey:
Dr Fauci warns against rushing out vaccine
Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, is warning that distributing a Covid-19 vaccine under special emergency use guidelines before it has been proved safe and effective in large trials is a bad idea that could have a chilling effect on the testing of other vaccines, Reuters reports.
Scientists and health experts have expressed concern that President Donald Trump will apply pressure on the US Food and Drug Administration to deliver a vaccine before November to boost his chances of re-election.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, declined to comment on the president, but said there are risks in rushing out a vaccine despite the urgent need.
“The one thing that you would not want to see with a vaccine is getting an EUA (emergency use authorisation) before you have a signal of efficacy,” Fauci told Reuters in a phone interview.
“One of the potential dangers if you prematurely let a vaccine out is that it would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the other vaccines to enroll people in their trial,” Fauci said.
Updated
In the UK, some families have abandoned balanced meals for lack of money during the coronavirus crisis, while many have faced physical and mental problems, according to a report.
Researchers from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and the Church of England (C of E) spoke to parents who said they had been forced to sell possessions to protect their children’s quality of life, and found that 80% of poorer families surveyed felt they had become worse off financially since the lockdown began.
The findings underline the disproportionate strain being placed on the poorest households as the UK struggles to deal with the pandemic. In June the Resolution Foundation said that while many low-income families were turning to credit cards to get by under lockdown, many higher-income households were able to save more money as their costs fell:
‘Very low evidence’ for plasma therapy authorised by Trump — WHO
In case you missed this in the earlier blog:
Donald Trump on Sunday announced the emergency authorisation of convalescent plasma, a method involving taking plasma from people who have recovered from Covid-19, for coronavirus patients.Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the WHO, stressed that it was still unproven and that there was “very low evidence” it was safe and effective.
“There are a number of clinical trials going on around the world looking at convalescent plasma … but only a few of them have reported on results. The results are not conclusive. The trials have been relatively small and the results in some cases point to some benefit but have not been conclusive. We have been tracking this and do ongoing … reviews to see where the evidence is shifting or pointing at and the moment it is still very low evidence,” she said.
Dr Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the director general of the WHO, warned that the side-effects of convalescent plasma ranged from mild chills and fevers to more severe lung problems and circulatory overload.”
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
I’ll be bringing you the latest news from around the world. Get in touch:
Twitter: @helenrsullivan
Email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com
The first cases of coronavirus have been detected outside of quarantine facilities within the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials have announced, a potentially disastrous development given the enclave’s fragile health system.
Four people from the same family have so far tested positive for coronavirus, Gaza’s interior ministry said, as authorities imposed a 48-hour lockdown.
The immediate shutdown includes the closure of workplaces, schools and mosques.
Gaza has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007 and access to the enclave was further restricted following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Those granted permission to enter the strip have been held in special quarantine centres for three weeks.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Gaza reported its first Covid-19 cases outside quarantine areas and declared lockdown. The first cases of coronavirus have been detected outside of quarantine facilities within the Gaza Strip, a potentially disastrous development given the enclave’s fragile health system.
- A Hong Kong man has been re-infected with Covid-19 after four-and-a-half months, leading to immunity concerns. A Hong Kong man who recovered from Covid-19 was infected again four-and-a-half months later in the first documented instance of human re-infection, researchers at the University of Hong Kong said on Monday.
- Sweden is not expecting big second wave: chief epidemiologist. Sweden is likely to see local outbreaks but no big second wave of Covid-19 cases in the autumn, such as inundated hospitals a few months ago, Sweden’s top epidemiologist and architect of its unorthodox pandemic strategy said.
- Usain Bolt is in quarantine after taking Covid-19 test following birthday party. The world’s fastest man Usain Bolt is in quarantine after taking a Covid-19 test just days after a party for his 34th birthday, which was attended by England footballer Raheem Sterling and several other sports stars.
- Brazil’s Bolsonaro said journalist “wimps” are more likely to die of Covid-19. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro continued his attack on journalists during a public event on Monday, describing reporters as “wimps” and saying they have a heightened chance of dying of Covid-19 because they are not athletic.
- KFC dropped its Finger Lickin’ Good slogan as it “doesn’t quite fit” in age of Covid-19. KFC has admitted its famous Finger Lickin’ Good slogan is not quite right for the era of face masks and official hand-washing advice, as it launches a new advertising campaign with a change of focus.
- Zoom apologised after a partial global outage. Zoom, the video-conferencing app that has proved popular with people working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, suffered a partial failure that left thousands of people in the US, UK and across the world unable to connect to work meetings or classes.
Updated
