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Summary
If you’re just catching up, here’s a quick rundown of the latest developments over the last few hours:
- Rapid Covid-19 tests are about to be rolled out across the world, the WHO announced. The move could potentially save many thousands of lives and slow the spread of the pandemic in both poor and rich countries.
- Official death toll probably an underestimate – WHO official. The official global toll of deaths from Covid-19 probably underestimates the true total – suggesting it could be over a million already, Dr Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergencies expert, said.
- New York’s positive Covid-19 test rate inches up as cases climb in other states. The percentage of Covid-19 tests taken in New York state that have come back positive has inched up to 1.5%, a worrisome trend for the former centre of the US epidemic. The rate’s uptick comes as 27 other states recorded increases in the number of cases for two straight weeks.
- Dutch advise masks in shops as virus surges. The Dutch government has tightened some of Europe’s most relaxed coronavirus rules after a surge in cases, ordering bars to shut early and recommending people wear masks in shops.
- Spanish government to do ‘whatever it takes’ to curb Madrid surge. Spain’s government has warned the Madrid authorities of drastic measures if the region fails to move decisively to slow the spread of coronavirus infections.
- France’s new Covid-19 cases slow down, but hospitalisations up. France’s increase of new Covid-19 cases sharply decelerated on Monday, as is always the case on Mondays given there are fewer tests conducted on Sundays, but hospitalisations and deaths linked to the disease shot up again.
- Lockdown tightened in north-east England as Covid-19 infections rise. Nearly 2 million people in north-east England face being fined up to £6,400 if they mix with other households indoors in a significant extension of the government’s lockdown powers.
- Children have significantly less chance of catching Covid than adults – analysis. Children have 44% lower odds of catching Covid-19 than adults, according to an analysis led by the president of Britain’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Updated
The top US infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, said he was concerned that White House coronavirus task force member Scott Atlas was at times providing misleading or incorrect information on the pandemic to president Donald Trump, CNN reported.
“Well yeah, I’m concerned that sometimes things are said that are really taken either out of context or actually incorrect,” Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said when asked by CNN if he was worried Atlas was sharing misleading information.
Brazil has recorded 13,155 additional confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, and 317 deaths from the disease.
The country has registered more than 4.7 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 142,058, according to ministry data.
Ontario has set a new record for daily coronavirus cases, as the province officially entered its second wave of Covid-19 and officials warned that it will be “worse than the first”.
Ontario logged 700 new Covid-19 infections on Monday – well above the previous highest daily total of 640 on 24 April – as the province’s premier, Doug Ford, warned residents to expect a “more complex” and “more complicated” surge of the virus in the coming weeks.
“We know it will be worse than the first wave, but we don’t know how bad the second wave will be,” said Ford. “Our collective actions will determine if we face a wave or a tsunami.”
Ford called Monday’s numbers in Canada’s most populous province “deeply concerning” and pleaded for residents to download the country’s Covid-19 alert application.
New modelling from health officials suggests the province will hit a peak around mid-October, with new cases likely to exceed 1,000 a day, unless drastic action is taken by local and provincial governments.
Updated
Spain’s government has warned the Madrid authorities of drastic measures if the region fails to move decisively to slow the spread of coronavirus infections.
The city and surrounding region is at the centre of a second wave of coronavirus that is sweeping Spain, having claimed more than 31,000 lives and infected over 700,000 in the country.
Over the past week, the Madrid authorities have placed about a million people under partial lockdown, but the measures have fallen well short of the central government’s demands, triggering a warning from justice minister Juan Carlos Campo.
If Madrid’s conservative-led regional government did not toughen its strategy, “there is no doubt that [the central government] is prepared to do whatever is necessary” to rein in the virus, he told Spain’s RNE public radio.
Spain is struggling with the highest number of new cases in the EU with a rate of nearly 300 per 100,000 inhabitants – and in the Madrid region, the figure currently stands at more than 775 per 100,000.
Campo’s remarks came as the leftwing administration of prime minister Pedro Sánchez ramped up a campaign to pressure Madrid’s regional government.
Since the national state of emergency ended on 21 June, responsibility for public healthcare and managing the pandemic has been in the hands of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions.
Over the past week, Madrid has imposed partial lockdowns on areas in and around the city, where residents cannot leave their neighbourhoods unless for work, school or medical reasons, although they are not confined at home and can move freely within their district.
An initial confinement order affecting 850,000 people was rolled out a week ago, with another 167,000 people added on Monday. Police are conducting random checks to ensure compliance with the new rules, which now apply to nearly one in six of the region’s 6.6 million residents.
Updated
The percentage of Covid-19 tests taken in New York state that have come back positive has inched up to 1.5%, governor Andrew Cuomo said, a worrisome trend for the former centre of the US coronavirus epidemic.
The rise in New York above the 1% positive target comes as 27 other US states recorded increases in the number of positive cases for two straight weeks.
While New York’s rate remains much lower than that in some midwestern states, where over 15% of tests are coming back positive, it marks a significant uptick in its rate, which has hovered at 1% or below for weeks.
“It’s basically Brooklyn, Orange and Rockland that are increasing this number,” Cuomo told reporters on Monday, adding that state health officials were looking into Covid-19 clusters in these areas.
Nationwide, coronavirus cases were rising in 30 of the 50 US states on Monday, the first time that many states have trended upwards since 2 August, according to a Reuters analysis of data for the past two weeks.
The number of new cases has risen for two weeks in a row in 27 out of 50 states, with North Carolina and New Mexico both reporting increases above 50% last week, according to Reuters.
Cases in New York state have risen 4.4% so far in September, one of the smallest increases in the country.
Cuomo urged New Yorkers to remain vigilant in mask-wearing and warned of consequences if they do not comply.
“It’s not time to get tired because the virus isn’t tired,” he said.
The midwest has emerged as the country’s new hotspot, with hospitalisations surging in some states.
Wisconsin set records for new cases twice last week and is now reporting more new infections each day than Florida. South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming have all set records for new daily cases three times this month.
The positive rate has risen to 26% in South Dakota, up from 17% last week, according to an analysis using data from the Covid Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the outbreak.
On Monday, according to the analysis, the rate in Wisconsin was 19%; it was 16% in both Iowa and Missouri; 15% in Kansas; and 14% in Nebraska.
The World Health Organization considers rates above 5% concerning because this suggests there are more cases in the community that have not yet been uncovered.
Infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci told ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday he was concerned about the trend as the weather in the US gets colder and people spend more time indoors, increasing the likelihood of spread.
“We’re not in a good place ... because as we get into the fall and the winter you really want the level of community spread to be as low as you can possibly get it,” Fauci said.
The US is reporting 45,000 new infections on average each day, compared with 40,000 a week ago and 35,000 two weeks ago.
Deaths have generally been trending downward in the US for about six weeks. Deaths are a lagging indicator, however, and can take several weeks to rise after an increase in cases.
Updated
MEPs won’t yet be returning to Strasbourg due to rising coronavirus infections in France, the European parliament speaker said, despite a plea by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
The European parliament has its headquarters in Strasbourg in eastern France, where MEPs usually based in Brussels travel every month for 12 plenary sessions a year.
But these have been cancelled since March due to concerns over spreading the virus and transferred to Brussels, where the parliament also has a chamber.
In September, “it was agreed that parliament would return to holding its regular part-sessions in Strasbourg once the conditions allow”, the parliamentary speaker, David Sassoli, said in a statement.
Hopes that a session would take place there on 5-8 October had been heightened by Macron, who insisted sessions be restored from next month.
“I’m counting on you,” he wrote in a letter to Sassoli.
But in a statement, the speaker said the transfer would not go ahead next week, “given the increased rate of transmission of the virus in France, including in Bas-Rhin [where Strasbourg is located], and in light of public health considerations”.
He said he hoped “we will soon be able to return” but stressed the next session would take place in Brussels.
Updated
A series of new restrictions connected to coronavirus came into force in England on Monday. There are new rules requiring people to self-isolate, with businesses having to abide by workplace safety measures, and there are limitations on music, singing and dancing.
Dutch advise masks in shops as virus surges
Some more detail on news the Dutch government has tightened some of Europe’s most relaxed coronavirus rules after a surge in cases, ordering bars to shut early and recommending people wear masks in shops.
The prime minister, Mark Rutte, told a news conference that the situation in the country’s three largest cities, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, had become “serious” and required urgent action.
“We’re doing our best, but the virus is doing better,” said the country’s health minister, Hugo de Jonge, adding that nearly 3,000 new infections were being recorded a day, with the figure expected to reach 5,000 within weeks.
The Netherlands has so far avoided the harsh measures introduced by its European neighbours, preferring a so-called “intelligent lockdown” and refusing to order the wearing of masks.
But people were now advised to wear masks while shopping in the three big cities, with retailers allowed to refuse entry to those who did not, Rutte said.
However, Rutte said that masks - which are already compulsory on public transport – “won’t do the big trick” and had not worked in France or Spain by themselves.
Restaurants and bars must now close at 10pm, while people may only have four people to visit over the age of 13, Rutte said.
Sports matches will be played behind closed doors again, including top-tier Eredivisie football, which had only just begun its new season with a limited number of spectators.
Rutte had warned fans recently to “keep their mouths shut” after many had defied a ban on chanting.
Working from home should once again become standard, de Jonge said.
Updated
Slovakia is set to declare a new state of emergency this week to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the prime minister, Igor Matovič, said following a sharp rise in cases.
“The situation is extremely serious, and I think we must adopt very fundamental decisions and very bold decisions,” Matovič said after a meeting of the country’s crisis management team.
The measure is expected to be approved by the government on Wednesday and would be the second time that Slovakia introduces a state of emergency to combat the pandemic.
Under the proposed restrictions, all sporting events, cultural events and religious services will be banned from 1 October.
Weddings and funerals will only be allowed if all the participants can prove they have had a negative test for coronavirus.
Restaurants, bars and cafes will close at 10pm and if people not living in the same household come closer than two metres outdoors, they will have to wear masks.
Masks are already compulsory in public indoor spaces in Slovakia.
The EU country of 5.4 million people has registered 9,343 coronavirus infections since the beginning of the pandemic and 44 patients have died.
On Friday, the number of daily infections reached a record high of 552.
Updated
France has reported 4,070 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, sharply down from Saturday’s third-highest ever tally of 14,412 and Sunday’s 11,123.
The Monday figures always tend to dip as there are fewer tests conducted on Sundays.
The seven-day moving average of new infections, which smoothes out reporting irregularities, stood at 12,083, above the 12,000 threshold for a fourth day in a row, versus a low of 272 on 27 May, two weeks after the country ended its two-month-long lockdown.
The number of people in France who have died from Covid-19 infections rose by 81 to 31,808, versus 27 on Sunday. The cumulative number of cases now totals 542,639.
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray taking over the blog for the next few hours.
As always, 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
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Rapid Covid-19 tests are about to be rolled out across the world, the WHO announced. The move could potentially save many thousands of lives and slow the spread of the pandemic in both poor and rich countries.
- The official global death toll probably underestimates the true total, the WHO’s top emergencies expert warned. Dr Mike Ryan suggested it could be more than a million already.
- A host of n ew restrictions was introduced in the Netherlands. Travel was limited, bars and restaurants closed early public gatherings discouraged.
- The known number of infections worldwide passed 33 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The death toll has moved closer to 1 million and stands at 999,202.
- The total number of cases in Ukraine exceeded 200,000. The death toll stood at 3,996, the country’s security council said.
- The UK government came under pressure to scrap its 10pm closing time rule. The mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, said there needed to be an “urgent review of the emerging evidence” after city centre supermarkets were “packed” after closing time.
- New rules came into effect in Paris and 11 other French cities. All bars must close at 10pm and remain closed until at least 6am. Restaurants can stay open later.
- Children have 44% lower odds of catching Covid-19 than adults. According to an analysis led by the president of Britain’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, there is preliminary evidence that those younger than 10 to 14 years have lower susceptibility.
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India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reached 6 million cases on Monday, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases since the pandemic began. The Health Ministry on Monday reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the overall tally to 60,74,703. At least 1,039 deaths were also recorded in the same period, taking total fatalities up to 95,542 since the pandemic began.
- South Korea confirms lowest cases since 11 August. South Korea on Monday reported 50 new coronavirus cases, the lowest since 11 August, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. Of the new cases, 40 were domestic and 10 imported. The numbers were the lowest since a new wave of outbreaks emerged from a church whose members attended a large political rally in Seoul on 15 August, KDCA data showed.
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Northern England and possibly London facing new lockdown. The UK government is planning to impose a total social lockdown across most of northern England and potentially London, to combat a second coronavirus wave, the Times reports. Under the new lockdown measures being considered, all pubs, restaurants and bars would be ordered to shut for two weeks initially, the report said, citing a senior government source. The report added that households would also be banned indefinitely from meeting each other in any indoor location where they were not already under the order.
- There have been a further 5,693 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, according to government data, taking the total to 429,277. Government figures show a further 17 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus as of Sunday. This brings the official UK toll to 41,988.
- Travel between New Zealand and some states of Australia is possible before the end of the year, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. Plans for a travel ‘bubble’ between Australia and New Zealand has been in discussions for months as both nations slowed the spread of the coronavirus, but they were disrupted after a resurgence of Covid-19 in Melbourne, Australia, followed by a second wave of infections in Auckland.With the virus largely contained in New Zealand, and as cases continue to decline in Australian regions, talks of a travel bubble with some states have been revived.
- Greece has recorded its first coronavirus fatality among its large migrant community. Health authorities described the victim as a 61-year-old Afghan man, saying the father-of-two succumbed to Covid-19 in Athens’ Evangelismos hospital after being moved from Malakassa, a refugee camp east of the capital.
Here’s a little more detail on that WHO announcement that about 120m rapid diagnostic tests are to be made available to low- and middle-income countries at a maximum of $5 (£3.83, €4.23) per unit.
The body’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said:
This will enable the expansion of testing, particularly in hard-to-reach areas that do not have laboratory facilities or enough trained health workers to carry out tests
This is a vital addition to the testing capacity and especially important in areas of high transmission.
Dr Catharina Boehme, the chief executive of the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), a Geneva-based non-profit organisation in the project, said the deal was a “major milestone” as it was urgent to increase testing in poorer countries.
It is our first line of defence, critical for countries to track, trace and isolate to stop the spread of the virus and to ensure that we are not flying blind. We now have two high-quality tests, which are the first in a series that are being developed and assessed by WHO for emergency use listing.
The antigen tests, which don’t require a laboratory, provide reliable results in just 15 minutes, rather than hours or days, and will help expand testing, Boehme said, adding: “The tests are as simple to use as pregnancy tests.”
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – another Geneva-based group – was providing an initial $50m the procurement fund and the first orders were expected to be placed this week, she said.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, said more tests were undergoing evaluation and would come online. They would be particularly useful in remote settings and to investigate clusters quickly and bring them under control and in areas with widespread community transmission, she said:
This will be really, really helpful for communities and countries to be able to know where is the virus and who is infected with the virus.
Updated
A cruise ship carrying about 920 passengers was expected to dock at Piraeus port near Athens after 12 of its crew members tested positive, an official at Greece’s civil protection agency has said.
The Mein Schiff 6, operated by TUI Cruises, departed from Heraklion in Crete on Sunday, with all passengers having tested negative before boarding. It was the first cruise ship to dock after the lockdown.
Sample tests on 150 crew members out of a total of 666 detected 12 infections. TUI Cruises said six of the 12 had since tested negative. The civil protection official said:
They are all asymptomatic. The vessel will most likely return to Piraeus port for repeat rapid Covid-19 tests.
Piraeus is the country’s biggest port, with better access to health services and equipped to deal with any emergency. The vessel is expected to dock there at 0200 GMT and Greek health authorities will board the vessel and conduct repeat tests for the 12 crew members, two officials told Reuters.
Until then, the affected crew on the ship, making its way from off the island of Milos, have been segregated, TUI Cruises said. The company said a second round of tests was held on board and half of the crew found positive earlier had since tested negative. Results for the other six crew were expected on Tuesday morning. All crew members would be tested, it said.
Thanks to the health measures in place and the vessel cleaning rules, there is no reason of concern for visitors and crew members.
The cruise industry has taken a major hit from the pandemic, with some of the earliest large clusters occurring onboard cruise ships. Voyages of large cruise ships only resumed in recent weeks in Greece after they were banned for months.
Greek authorities have tightened restrictions in the greater Athens area, saying the pandemic was showing “steadily rising trends”.
Updated
The Dutch government has announced a raft of new measures, including limiting travel, closing bars and restaurants early and discouraging public gatherings. We reported earlier that a series of similar measures had been under consideration.
The measures, which also include wider use of cloth masks for the public in Amsterdam and other big cities, come amid a second wave of cases that have passed the earlier peak in April in numbers of new infections.
Updated
Quebec, the hardest-hit Canadian province, has reported another sharp increase in daily infections, amid media reports that its premier, François Legault, would announce new restrictions for Montreal and the capital, Quebec City.
Quebec added 750 new cases on Monday despite existing restrictions on mask-wearing and social gatherings put in place by Canada’s second-most populous province to contain the spread of infections.
The health minister, Christian Dubé, told a French-language talk show on Sunday night the two cities were close to being listed as red zones, referring to the province’s traffic light system for designating transmission, with red being the hardest hit.
Updated
Panama’s health ministry has agreed to spend $1.9m (£1.47m, €1.62m) next month in an initial payment for vaccines through the World Health Organization’s Covax vaccine programme, officials have said.
The health vice-minister Ivette Berrio said Panama’s government hoped to make 1.3 million shots available through Covax, about a fifth of the Central American nations overall vaccine requirement.
Updated
Official death toll probably an underestimate – WHO official
The official global toll of deaths from Covid-19 probably underestimates the true total – suggesting it could be over a million already, a World Health Organization official has said. Dr Mike Ryan, the body’s top emergencies expert, said:
If anything, the numbers currently reported probably represent an underestimate of those individuals who have either contracted Covid-19 or died as a cause of it. When you count anything, you can’t count it perfectly but I can assure you that the current numbers are likely an underestimate of the true toll of Covid.
Updated
Partial restrictions in and around the Manila region will be extended for another month until 31 October, the Philippines president, Rodrigo Duterte, has said.
The country reported 3,073 new Covid-19 cases and 37 deaths that day, taking its total count to 307,288 cases – the highest in south-east Asia – with 5,381 deaths.
Members of the government’s task force said they could not afford to be complacent even as they would like the economy to continue to move forward.
In a late-night televised address, Duterte also appealed to the country’s top telecommunication firms to “do a better job” with public schools set to reopen with virtual classes on 5 October. Preparations for the resumption of classes have been hit by problems including access, availability and speed of data services.
Duterte said in July he would not allow face-to-face classes until a vaccine becomes available.
Most businesses, including dine-in services, have been allowed to reopen since Manila exited strict lockdown measures on 19 August to support the economy, which fell into recession for the first time in 29 years in the second quarter.
People must still wear masks, face shields and observe one-metre social distancing, while children, the elderly and pregnant women are urged to stay at home.
The government has tested more than 3.4 million people and aims to test 10 million – nearly a tenth of the population – by the second quarter of next year.
Updated
Slovakia’s government has banned most public cultural and sports events due to the accelerating spread of the virus, its prime minister, Igor Matovič, has said. He told a news conference people should wear face masks, avoid family gatherings and keep distancing to avoid further restrictions.
Updated
The US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has called on the Trump administration to boost their offer for more financial aid amid the pandemic, saying she planned further talks with the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, on Monday.
Pelosi, in an interview on MSNBC, said the two had spoken briefly on Sunday and that she still hoped Democrats and the White House could find common ground, adding: “He has to come back with much more money to get the job done.”
Updated
Spain’s tally of confirmed cases reached 748,266 on Monday, rising by 31,785 from Friday’s total, health ministry data shows.
The cumulative death toll reached 31,411 from 31,232 on Friday. Daily deaths are now around their highest levels since early May, but are well below the late March level of nearly 900.
In a press conference, the World Health Organization’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said the tests are to be priced at a maximum of $5 (£3.83, €4.23) per unit for poorer countries, which is cheaper than current alternatives.
Updated
The quick and easy but high-quality tests will allow mass screening of health workers, who are dying in disproportionate numbers in low income countries.
Wealthy countries that have signed up to the Access to Covid tools initiative (ACT accelerator), as the UK has, will also be able to order the tests. The initiative was launched in March by the WHO, the European commission, the Gates Foundation and the French government.
In return for a volume guarantee from the Gates Foundation, the companies are making 20% of their production available to low- and middle-income countries and 80% to the rest. Germany has already ordered 20m tests and France and Switzerland are following suit.
Rapid Covid tests to be made available
Tests for Covid-19 that show on-the-spot results in 15 to 30 minutes are about to be rolled out across the world, potentially saving many thousands of lives and slowing the pandemic in both poor and rich countries.
In a triumph for a global initiative to get vital drugs and vaccines to fight the virus, 120m rapid antigen tests from two companies will be supplied to low- and middle-income countries for $5 (£3.90) each or even less.
The tests, which look like a pregnancy test, with two blue lines displayed for positive, are read by a health worker. One test has received emergency approval from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the other is expected to get it shortly.
There is no need to change the European Union’s deficit rules that are currently suspended to help member states cope with the pandemic, the German finance minister Olaf Scholz has said.
We have shown that we have the necessary flexibility during this crisis. The current rules are working.
The remark came in response to comments last week by France’s European affairs minister Clément Beaune, who said Paris “cannot imagine putting the same pact back in place” after the worst of the pandemic is over.
The EU’s deficit and public debt rules are on hold at the moment, giving governments free rein to stimulate their economies with major spending programmes to fight a historic recession.
The rules theoretically limit a government’s annual public deficit at three percent of gross domestic product, and debt at 60 percent, though the ceilings are frequently violated.
Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta has extended the nationwide curfew put in place to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, but said it would end two hours later at 11pm.
Kenyatta, who said the Covid-19 infections curve had been flattened, also lifted a ban on the sale of alcohol in restaurants and bars.
A clash between Madrid’s regional authorities and the Spanish government over how to contain the city’s surging coronavirus caseload is provoking growing discontent among residents in poorer areas who say they have been unfairly targeted.
Daisy Mencia, a resident of the working-class Vallecas neighbourhood, which is entering its second week of confinement measures, said:
The politicians can’t agree among themselves and the poor are always the worst affected.
Madrid extended a partial lockdown on Friday to a total of 45 districts with high infection rates, the majority of which are in low-income neighbourhoods, prompting accusations of class discrimination.
But the region’s conservative leaders reject the left-wing national government’s recommendation to reimpose city-wide restrictions.
The regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso told Antena 3 television on Sunday night:
Total confinement isn’t possible. We’re destroying ourselves ... I don’t know how many companies continue to lose jobs and opportunities every single day.
Over the past days, the national and regional governments have traded barbs over what to do and who was to blame for the growing number of cases in Madrid and its periphery, taking the political polarisation that has characterised much of the response to the pandemic over the past months to new heights.
Pensioner Victor Rubio told Reuters that was deplorable:
They aren’t looking at things with a view to fixing the problem but from a political perspective. They’re just attacking an area where people opposed to the [regional] government live.
Since the onset of the pandemic Spain has reported 716,481 cases of the virus, more than any other western European nation, while a total of 31,232 deaths have been recorded, according to data released on Friday. Madrid is the worst-hit region in Spain.
Updated
Dutch may restrict travel to Amsterdam and close bars early as cases rise
The Netherlands is considering restricting travel to and from its biggest cities, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, as part of a raft of measures to counter a second wave of coronavirus infections, the broadcaster NOS reported on Monday.
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, said on Friday he was considering further “regional” measures as the country’s Covid-19 outbreak rose from low levels in late August to more than 2,500 cases a day, more than at the peak of the first wave in April.
Rutte has rejected the idea of a second lockdown or making face masks mandatory.
The NOS cited a list of measures it had obtained that are under serious consideration, though not all may be adopted. Rutte is to address the nation later on Monday.
The measures include strengthening current “work at home” guidelines, possibly shutting down offices that are allowing in too many non-essential staff, according to the NOS report. Bars and restaurants could be ordered to shut by 10pm, fans banned from sports events, and gatherings further limited, including in personal homes.
The National Institute for Health (RIVM) on Monday reported 2,914 new cases, just shy of Sunday’s all-time record of 2,995. Hospital admissions and deaths are at a much lower rate than in April, but the head of the country’s intensive care units warned that non-essential procedures would be delayed again to make way for patients with Covid-19 starting this weekend.
Dutch coronavirus policy centres on keeping distance between people. Schools remain open and masks are not required except on public transport.
Updated
Azerbaijan has extended some of its lockdown restrictions until 2 November and decided to keep its borders closed after a rise in the number of new coronavirus cases, the government said on Monday.
The country introduced measures to stem the coronavirus on 24 March and has extended them several times.
As of Monday, the country of about 10 million people in the South Caucasus had registered 40,061 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 588 deaths.
Azerbaijan declared martial law on Sunday after clashes with Armenia flared in Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region that is inside Azerbaijan but is run by ethnic Armenians.
Oman will reopen mosques for prayers on 15 November, with strict measures in place to prevent the spread of the virus, state media reported on Monday, citing a statement from the Islamic affairs ministry.
Updated
Hello! This is Lucy Campbell, taking over the blog for the next hour or so while Kevin takes a break. Please get in touch to share tips and stories we should be covering:
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
France launched a free-spending budget plan on Monday, saying a new rise in new Covid-19 cases justified its unprecedented loosening of the purse strings.
After €460bn (£410bn, $537bn) of emergency spending this year to save the economy from the virus fallout, the government built its 2021 budget plan around a €100bn “recovery plan”, first announced this month and partly funded by EU money.
On Saturday, France’s health services reported 14,412 new cases over the previous 24 hours – only slightly lower than the record 16,000 registered on both Thursday and Friday.
Updated
Łukasz Szumowski, Poland’s former health minister who had become synonymous with the country’s fight against Covid-19 before his resignation last month, has tested positive for the disease, website Onet.pl said on Monday, as daily infections hover near the worst levels seen.
Szumowski was rated Poland’s most trusted politician at the height of the national lockdown in April. He resigned in August after scandals surrounding the purchase of ventilators and masks dented his reputation. He denies any wrongdoing.
Reuters reported that Szumowski could not immediately be reached on Monday to confirm the Onet.pl report, which said that members of his family had also been infected. The health ministry declined to comment on the report.
Poland weathered the first wave of Covid-19 infections that swept Europe in the spring relatively well but is now battling a second wave. It reported 1,587 new cases on Friday, the biggest daily tally since the country’s epidemic started in March.
The country of 38 million people has reported 88,636 cases, including 2,447 deaths.
Updated
The head of a top US government health agency gave a grim assessment of the pandemic that contradicts that of the president Donald Trump, saying “We’re nowhere near the end,” NBC News has reported.
Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who has been rebuked by Trump for less rosy assessments of the recovery, also expressed concern that Trump’s late addition to the task force, Dr Scott Atlas, is sharing inaccurate information with the president.
“Everything he says is false,” Redfield said in a telephone call Friday on a plane from Atlanta to Washington, NBC reported.
Redfield later told NBC the threat from the pandemic was far from over, contradicting Trump’s assertion as he seeks re-election 3 November that the country was “rounding the corner”. Redfield said:
We’re nowhere near the end.
Trump publicly dismissed congressional testimony by Redfield earlier this month on when a vaccine could be broadly rolled out, calling him “confused”. The US president, who was reluctant to urge Americans to wear masks until recently, also criticised Redfield for saying wearing a mask can be just as effective as a vaccine. The CDC director made his position clear, telling NBC:
If every one of us did it, this pandemic would be over in eight to 12 weeks.
The CDC did not immediately return a request for comment on Redfield’s reported remarks.
Atlas is a neuroradiologist with no background in infectious diseases whose views on handling the pandemic have been denounced by his peers at Stanford University’s medical school.
Updated
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- The known number of infections worldwide passed 33 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The death toll has moved closer to 1 million and stands at 998,372.
- The total number of cases in Ukraine exceeded 200,000. The death toll stood at 3,996, the country’s security council said.
- The UK government came under pressure to scrap its 10pm closing time rule. The mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, said there needed to be an “urgent review of the emerging evidence” after city centre supermarkets were “packed” after closing time.
- New rules came into effect in Paris and 11 other French cities. All bars must close at 10pm and remain closed until at least 6am. Restaurants can stay open later.
- Children have 44% lower odds of catching Covid-19 than adults. According to an analysis led by the president of Britain’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, there is preliminary evidence that those younger than 10 to 14 years have lower susceptibility.
-
India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reached 6 million cases on Monday, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases since the pandemic began. The Health Ministry on Monday reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the overall tally to 60,74,703. At least 1,039 deaths were also recorded in the same period, taking total fatalities up to 95,542 since the pandemic began.
- South Korea confirms lowest cases since 11 August. South Korea on Monday reported 50 new coronavirus cases, the lowest since 11 August, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. Of the new cases, 40 were domestic and 10 imported. The numbers were the lowest since a new wave of outbreaks emerged from a church whose members attended a large political rally in Seoul on 15 August, KDCA data showed.
-
Northern England and possibly London facing new lockdown. The UK government is planning to impose a total social lockdown across most of northern England and potentially London, to combat a second coronavirus wave, the Times reports. Under the new lockdown measures being considered, all pubs, restaurants and bars would be ordered to shut for two weeks initially, the report said, citing a senior government source. The report added that households would also be banned indefinitely from meeting each other in any indoor location where they were not already under the order.
- There have been a further 5,693 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, according to government data, taking the total to 429,277. Government figures show a further 17 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus as of Sunday. This brings the official UK toll to 41,988.
- Travel between New Zealand and some states of Australia is possible before the end of the year, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. Plans for a travel ‘bubble’ between Australia and New Zealand has been in discussions for months as both nations slowed the spread of the coronavirus, but they were disrupted after a resurgence of Covid-19 in Melbourne, Australia, followed by a second wave of infections in Auckland.With the virus largely contained in New Zealand, and as cases continue to decline in Australian regions, talks of a travel bubble with some states have been revived.
- Greece has recorded its first coronavirus fatality among its large migrant community. Health authorities described the victim as a 61-year-old Afghan man, saying the father-of-two succumbed to Covid-19 in Athens’ Evangelismos hospital after being moved from Malakassa, a refugee camp east of the capital.
Updated
Monday is among the worst days seen in the Netherlands for new infections, as the country’s second wave continues. Data released by health authorities shows 2,914 new cases registered in the previous 24 hours.
That was just shy of the 2,995 reported on Sunday, according to data published by the National Institute for Health (RIVM). Local and municipal health authorities are gathering on Monday afternoon to consider new regional measures including making masks mandatory and closing bars early. The prime minister, Mark Rutte, is due to address the nation on Monday evening.
Updated
Children have significantly less chance of catching Covid than adults – experts
Children have 44% lower odds of catching Covid-19 than adults, according to an analysis led by the president of Britain’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
In this systematic review and meta-analysis including 32 studies, children and adolescents younger than 20 years had 44% lower odds of secondary infection with SARS-CoV-2 compared with adults 20 years and older.
There is preliminary evidence that those younger than 10 to 14 years have lower susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection than adults, with adolescents appearing to have similar susceptibility to adults.
The analysis was led by Russell Viner, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Reuters reports.
Updated
Humanists say the new regulations allowing 15 people attending a wedding discriminates against non-believers who are ready to tie the knot.
The measures coming into force in England today make no provision for humanist marriages, according to the campaign group Humanist UK, which says the latest rules force humanist couples to only have six people at their secular nuptials. Andrew Copson,its chief executive, said:
This outrageous and unexpected situation is open-and-shut discrimination that the government should urgently put right. There is certainly no rationale for allowing religious weddings for 15 people while saying that humanist weddings must be limited to six. Everyone should be treated equally.
Jack Ford and Catherine Hard were due to have their humanist wedding in Surrey next month and said the exclusion of people such as them from the new rules allowing 15 at a wedding “discriminates against us as humanists”.
In July, six couples took a legal case to the high court over legal recognition of humanist marriages in England and Wales. In that case, the judge ruled that the failure to provide legally recognised humanist marriages means the law gives rise to discrimination, but instead deferred to the ongoing Law Commission review as meaning the government should have more time to fix the matter.
Italy’s situation could deteriorate within the next couple of weeks, putting pressure on hospitals amid the onset of season flu, a health ministry adviser has warned.
Walter Ricciardi said Lazio, the region surrounding Rome, and Campania in the south were the regions most at risk. In recent days, Campania has taken over from Lombardy to record the highest number of daily cases – on Sunday, the region registered 245 of a total 1,766 new infections, with Lazio in third place and Sardinia in fourth.
Hospitalisations have been steadily increasing, with 2,846 people currently being treated for Covid-19 across the country (up by 100 on Sunday), of whom 254 are in intensive care.
Ricciardi envisages a worsening of the situation within two weeks, telling La Stampa newspaper:
I hope [it won’t be] intense, with more pressure on hospitals, also due to the arrival of seasonal flu. For this reason it’s important to remind people of the precautions, and the flu vaccine for all ages.
Ricciardi said that, if people continue to behave cautiously, then Italy would avoid another lockdown.
In response to the increase in cases, authorities in Campania have made it obligatory to wear face masks outside. Calabria has adopted a similar measure and Sicily is following suit from Wednesday. Lazio might also adopt the measure. Ricciardi added:
France will need another total lockdown. Not Italy if we behave well…but Lazio and Campania are at risk.
Italy has been commended by the World Health Organisation for its handling of the pandemic, having gone from being the first hit Western country in the spring to relatively stable compared to other European countries. But the impact of schools reopening is yet to be seen. Up to 1,000 spectators are also allowed back in football stadiums.
France’s government has no plan to order a new nationwide lockdown to contain a resurgence in coronavirus cases in the country, the finance minister Bruno Le Maire has said after a cabinet meeting.
The US Food and Drug Administration has placed a partial clinical hold on Inovio Pharmaceuticals’ planned mid-to-late-stage trial of its experimental vaccine candidate, the firm has said.
The pause was not due to any side effects in its early-stage study of the vaccine – the FDA had additional questions, including about the vaccine delivery device to be used in the study, Inovio added.
Russia has sent a first batch of its Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine to Belarus for clinical trials, the first such delivery of the jab abroad, Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF has said.
Volunteers in Belarus would begin receiving the Russian vaccine from 1 October, the Russian Direct Investment Fund which is backing the vaccine developer, said.
Russia has been criticise for pushing ahead with large-scale manufacture off the vaccine before undertaking so-called “phase 3” testing. Experts have called the approach reckless and unethical and the WHO has said the vaccine should not be produced until it had completed the trials.
A website dedicated to sharing images of Covid-19 related skin rashes to help doctors and patients identify whether an unusual rash might be a sign of coronavirus infection has been criticised for containing just two images of black or brown skin.
The British Association of Dermatologists’ (BAD) Covid-19 Skin Patterns website features 400 images of Covid-associated rashes, from prickly heat and chickenpox-type rashes, to raised itchy hives, and chilblain-like ‘Covid fingers and toes’. They were gathered by the Covid Symptom Study app in response to growing evidence that skin rashes are a key feature of the disease, present in around 9% of app users testing positive for Covid-19. In children they may be even more predictive, with a sixth of children experiencing a rash and no other symptoms.
“Being able to recognise these is crucial for reducing the spread of [Covid-19],” said president of BAD, Dr Tanya Bleiker.
Yet, the lack of images showing how Covid rashes manifest on people of darker skin tones may mean healthcare professionals are less equipped to diagnose potential cases, says Ore Odubiyi, director of BME Medics, a platform committed to improving diversity and inclusion in healthcare.
Ford, which operates two vehicle factories in Germany, has applied for €500m (£445m, $582m) of German loan guarantees aimed at cushioning the impact of the pandemic, the business daily Handelsblatt has reported.
While Germany has given aid to companies such as the parts supplier Leoni, Ford would be the first major carmaker in the country to receive such help from the government.
The sector, one of the key pillars of Germany’s industry, was struggling even before the pandemic due to the shift towards electric vehicles and lower worldwide demand.
Ford wants the federal government to grant most of the loan guarantees, while a smaller share is expected to come from German states, Handelsblatt said, without citing its sources.
The company said it was part of its normal business to be in contact with financial institutions, without providing further details. The economy ministry declined to comment on the report.
Updated
In Russia, a consumer health watchdog believes that the number of new coronavirus infections in Russia will reach a plateau at the beginning of October before a small decline, Reuters report the RIA news agency as saying.
The number of Covid-19 infections has been steadily rising in recent weeks and surged past 8,000 on Monday, the highest daily increase since June 16. Russia exited lockdown in early June.
“I think that infections are going to rise now and we will approach a plateau, and then a gradual decline will begin, there is unlikely to be a peak,” said Victor Maleev from the Russian Academy of Sciences. “The plateau will probably be at the start of October.”
Updated
In Greece, a dozen crew members on the first cruise ship to dock after the coronavirus lockdown have tested positive, the coastguard said on Monday.
The Maltese-flagged Mein Schiff 6 operated by German travel giant TUI, with 922 passengers on board, is currently moored off the Aegean island of Milos, a coastguard spokeswoman told AFP.
The positive results surfaced after tests on 150 among the crew’s 666 crew members, she said.
“They are assistant staff,” the spokeswoman said. “They have been isolated on board, and we are awaiting instructions from the public health agency on where the ship is to sail.”
The TUI ship was the first to return to Greek waters after lockdown measures imposed in March, local operators said, docking at Iraklio in mid-September.
New restrictions come into force in Paris and 11 other French cities
New Covid-19 rules come into effect today in Paris and 11 other cities in France considered at “heightened” or “maximum” risk. These rules will remain in effect for 15 days, but will be reviewed after a week. They could be extended. Extra officers are to patrol Paris to enforce the new restrictions and fines given for those who do not comply, the city police chief warned.
All bars must close at 10pm and remain closed until at least 6am. Restaurants can stay open later. On the question of what constitutes a “restaurant” if a bar serves food, the government has said establishments that hold only a licence to sell alcohol without food must close at 10pm. The distinction has been justified by the health authorities on the basis that people in restaurants tend to be seated and distanced. The sale and consumption of alcohol in public places is also banned between the same hours, as is playing music.
From Monday, there is a ban on festive or recreational events including wedding receptions, festivals, organised gatherings in hired halls, and student parties. Cinemas, museums and theatres that have their own strict rules in place can remain open.
From Saturday all gatherings of more than 1,000 people have been banned and no more than 10 people are allowed to gather in public places (parks, gardes and ‘bois’) and for private events. Demonstrations are not banned but must be declared and authorised by officials beforehand. Sports clubs and gyms are closed except those in the open air. Swimming pools can stay open with strict hygiene conditions.
A poll in the Journal du Dimanche (JDD) suggested that despite anger over the order to shut down bars in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, around 72% of French people say they are ready to respect a new lockdown.
The restrictions come as the number of positive Covid-19 tests in France rose to 7.4% (compared with 4.5% on 4 September and 5.7% on 20 September). This is a better indicator than the number of new coronavirus cases as this figure depends on the number of tests being carried out. There are now 1,230 clusters under investigation in France.
A group of French doctors and professors of medicine has called for “drastic measures” to avoid a second coronavirus wave that they believe will be more difficult than the first in March/April.
“If we don’t put into place drastic measures to slow the circulation of the virus responsible for Covid-19 from this weekend, we will face a second wave much more difficult for hospitals and intensive care units to cope with than the first,” the medics wrote in an open letter published in the JDD.
Official figures show 31,727 deaths in France have been attributed to Covid 19 and there have been 4,304 new admissions to hospital with the coronavirus in the last seven days, of which 786 people were admitted to intensive care.
Updated
A Reuters update clarifies that the Merkel quotes in Bild are not from an interview but from talks with her CDU party leadership. Citing an unnamed source, the newspaper quoted Merkel as saying: “We must quickly contain the infections and intervene.”
She is said to have added: “We must set priorities, namely keeping the economy running and keeping schools and nurseries open. Soccer is secondary to that for now.”
The latest iteration of the Guardian’s regularly updating world map of coronavirus cases and deaths has just been published. It record 32.851m cases and more than 990,000 deaths. (AFP’s tally, which uses a different methodology, went past 1m this morning.)
It shows that there were more deaths and cases in India over the last two weeks than anywhere else in the world. The US remains first in overall global cases and deaths.
In Germany, Angela Merkel is quoted in the newspaper [this has been corrected from an earlier version suggesting she was interviewed] Bild as telling the leadership of her party that if things continue on their current trajectory in the country, there will soon be 19,200 infections a day. Reuters reports that she says that the government needs to intervene to contain infections but that it must also set priorities to keep the economy running and schools and kindergarten open.
Updated
In the Philippines, the health ministry on Monday reported 3,073 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 37 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 307,288 cases and 5,381 deaths. It also said 163 more individuals had recovered from COVID-19, bringing total recoveries to 252,665.
Andrew Sparrow’s often imitated but never bettered blog is up and running, so if you want to follow UK politics and coronavirus news you can do so at the below link, while we focus on global coronavirus news:
Updated
Whately says that the government does not want to bring in further restrictions but “I wouldn’t rule it out”.
She is also asked about whether people should be “keeping an eye on” their neighbours and potentially reporting them for non-compliance with coronavirus rules. She responds by saying the government has simplified the rules, helped people on low incomes if they have to self-isolate, and that enforcement measures are “the third line of defence, the back-up” if people are ignoring the rules.
She says she doesn’t want to see people having to report their neighbours amid reports of growing local tensions but “we are in this together as a community”. “The message from my point of view is we all take responsibility… personally if I saw a neighbour having a large party I’d be more likely to knock on their door”.
This contradicts what Matt Hancock and Priti Patel said previously, but lines up with prime minister Boris Johnson (who derided ‘sneak culture’ but said he viewed the line as being at ‘Animal House’ parties featuring hot tubs). This may not be seen as the “simple and clear” messaging Whately talked about earlier in the interview.
Updated
On the Today programme in the UK, Helen Whately responds to Andy Burnham’s warning (see 8.29am) and urges people thinking of going back to someone’s home to continue drinking after 10pm to “think of the consequences of your actions”. She points to the risks of long covid for young people and the issue of community transmission.
Pressed on whether alcohol sales should be ended earlier in the evening she says the government is “keeping an open mind”.
She is asked about reports (see 7.59am) that bars in parliament aren’t subjected to the same rules and says she doesn’t know whether this is the case. She says that “we in parliament shouldn’t be sitting round late at night drinking, we’ve got a job to do when we’re there”. She says she feels they should close but that this is a “personal view”.
Updated
In Russia, new figures show an additional 8,135 new coronavirus cases and 61 deaths in the last 24 hours. That compares with 7,867 new cases and 99 deaths the previous day.
Manchester mayor Andy Burnham calls for urgent review of 10pm pub curfew
Still in England, mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham says that in the city centre supermarkets were “packed out to the rafters after 10pm” at the weekend and there needs to be an “urgent review of the emerging evidence” on the 10pm closing time rule. This curfew is “doing more harm than good because it creates an incentive for people to gather in the street or gather at home”, he adds - the opposite of what local restrictions in Manchester are trying to do, and pushing people into the “main place” the virus is spread.
He notes that it is also harming businesses - and suggests that one option could be a 9pm deadline for the sale of alcohol in shops to avoid a rush to buy more booze after pubs shut.
In the UK, the national chair of the Police Federation John Apter has told the Today programme that officers are struggling to deal with the burden placed upon them by coronavirus.
He says: “I think the expectation from the public and others is just down to policing, well it’s not - it’s down to local authorities and local health trusts and other organisations to help and to try and make sure that regulations are being enforced and complied with.”
“I think the public think we have hundreds and hundreds of officers” in a city centre, he says - whereas in fact “we might only have one or two people in a busy high street at 10pm when hundreds and hundreds of people are coming out onto the street… all you need is a hostile group who turns against those officers and the resources from that town centre are swallowed up.” He says this “happens all the time”.
Updated
In Beijing, China, the city government has passed a new law to protect “non-malicious” medical whistleblowers after an ophthalmologist was censured for warning of the risk posed by coronavirus.
AFP reports:
China’s leaders suffered a rare wave of public outrage after ophthalmologist Li Wenliang died of the disease in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus first emerged late last year.
He had attempted to warn authorities about the new infection but was instead reprimanded for “spreading rumours”.
Other medical whistleblowers in Wuhan later told Chinese media they were punished by government officials for discussing the outbreak without permission from superiors.
The new Beijing law, which came into effect from Friday, states that anyone whose tip-offs are later verified would be rewarded, and suffer no penalties.
But the regulations do not cover anyone “fabricating or deliberately disseminating false information” about developing public health emergencies, according to a government notice on Saturday.
The new legislation is similar to a public health emergency law passed by Shenzhen municipal government in August, which also vows to protect “non-malicious” whistleblowers from legal consequences - the first of its kind in China.
Hi, this is Archie Bland, picking up with thanks to Amy Walker.
While the rest of the UK drinks up and goes home at 10pm, MPs will be able to keep going at parliament’s watering holes - and they won’t even have to provide their details at the bar, Esther Webber of the Times reports.
Webber writes:
Facilities serving alcohol on the parliamentary estate are understood to be exempt from the earlier closing time on the basis that they fall under the description of “a workplace canteen”.
Bar staff and customers in the Palace of Westminster will not be required to follow stricter rules on face coverings introduced for other licensed premises. Nor will visitors to parliamentary bars be asked to supply a name and number on entry, with all responsibility falling to a team that acts as the point of contact for any suspected or confirmed coronavirus cases among MPs and staff on the estate. MPs do not have to register their presence in parliament and are only advised to stay away if they have symptoms.
You can read that story - which seems quite likely to drive people completely mad - here.
Whateley’s comments came as new fines and restrictions came into force across parts of the UK on Monday.
People in England are now legally required to self-isolate if they test positive for Covid-19 or are contacted by the test and trace service. If they do not, they face fines starting at £1,000 and increasing up to £10,000 for repeat offences or breaches.
People who test positive for Covid-19 will also be fined if they knowingly provide false information about close contacts to the test and trace service.
Wedding ceremonies in England will also be restricted to 15 people, while three more council areas in South Wales will go into local lockdown from 6pm on Monday.
The UK government is considering tougher restrictions on socialising in England to tackle an accelerating second wave of coronavirus, a junior health minister has said.
“We don’t want to bring on new restrictions but of course we keep a constant eye on what is going on with the Covid rate,” Junior Health Minister Helen Whately told Sky News on Monday morning.
"We have to break these chains of transmission."
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) September 28, 2020
Health minister @Helen_Whately tells @KayBurley "it's too easy to follow the path of other countries" and decisive action is needed to change the course of the #COVID19 pandemic.
Follow live: https://t.co/NrhUFDW1Oh #KayBurley pic.twitter.com/8nEE73mjuU
“We were looking at what we might be able to do.”
“This is the moment when we have an opportunity – we have a choice for the country - to get this back under control,” Whately said.
“We have to break these chains of transmission,” she said, adding that pictures showing crowds of young revellers outside pubs were “worrying”.
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along.
My colleague Amy Walker will take things from here.
Global cases pass 33m
The known number of coronavirus infections worldwide has passed 33m, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, with 33,078,537 cases currently confirmed.
The death toll has moved closer to 1m and currently stands at 997,737.
The United States has the highest number of cases worldwide, with more than 7m, followed by India, which today passed 6m cases and Brazil, with 4.7m cases.
Ukraine cases pass 200,000
The total number of coronavirus cases in Ukraine exceeds 200,000 so far with the death toll of 3,996, the country’s security council said on Monday. The number of cases on the Johns Hopkins University tracker stands at 203,799.
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- The global death toll is nearing the devastating milestone of 1m. There are currently 996,084 deaths confirmed on the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The true toll is likely already over 1m however, due to differing definitions, time lags and suspected underreporting in some countries.
-
India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reached 6 million cases on Monday, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases since the pandemic began. The Health Ministry on Monday reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the overall tally to 60,74,703. At least 1,039 deaths were also recorded in the same period, taking total fatalities up to 95,542 since the pandemic began.
- South Korea confirms lowest cases since 11 August. South Korea on Monday reported 50 new coronavirus cases, the lowest since 11 August, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. Of the new cases, 40 were domestic and 10 imported. The numbers were the lowest since a new wave of outbreaks emerged from a church whose members attended a large political rally in Seoul on 15 August, KDCA data showed.
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Northern England and possibly London facing new lockdown. The UK government is planning to impose a total social lockdown across most of northern England and potentially London, to combat a second coronavirus wave, the Times reports. Under the new lockdown measures being considered, all pubs, restaurants and bars would be ordered to shut for two weeks initially, the report said, citing a senior government source. The report added that households would also be banned indefinitely from meeting each other in any indoor location where they were not already under the order.
- There have been a further 5,693 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, according to government data, taking the total to 429,277. Government figures show a further 17 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus as of Sunday. This brings the official UK toll to 41,988.
- Travel between New Zealand and some states of Australia is possible before the end of the year, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. Plans for a travel ‘bubble’ between Australia and New Zealand has been in discussions for months as both nations slowed the spread of the coronavirus, but they were disrupted after a resurgence of Covid-19 in Melbourne, Australia, followed by a second wave of infections in Auckland.With the virus largely contained in New Zealand, and as cases continue to decline in Australian regions, talks of a travel bubble with some states have been revived.
- Greece has recorded its first coronavirus fatality among its large migrant community. Health authorities described the victim as a 61-year-old Afghan man, saying the father-of-two succumbed to Covid-19 in Athens’ Evangelismos hospital after being moved from Malakassa, a refugee camp east of the capital.
Updated
Over six months of the coronavirus crisis, community relations have been strained to the point that one concerned retiree in the south-west of England told the Guardian: “It’s like the English civil war.”
Now, with control measures ramping up once more and fears that a second wave is here, mediators who work to resolve disputes through the ceiling or over the garden fence say they are seeing a surge in requests for help – and expect a lockdown in winter to push tensions to a new high.
“The problems will get worse as people are home more,” said Julie Farrell, of Manchester-based mediator Solution Talk. “If the neighbours are being difficult and you can’t go out because of the weather, that’s going to cause a problem, whether it’s breaking lockdown rules or someone trimming your hedge. Your home is your castle, isn’t it?”
“There’s a feeling of, ‘Here we go again, another six months of these people,’” said Mike Talbot, psychotherapist and founder of UK Mediation. “A lot of us were able to hang on before, but now it’s going to continue, these problems are coming out of the woodwork”:
Charlotte Graham-McLay for the Guardian:
A man who had been deported to New Zealand from Australia, and who was in isolation at a government-run quarantine hotel, is under investigation by the police after he tied bed sheets together to escape the facility from a fourth-floor window.
All travellers returning to the country – only New Zealanders and their families, plus others with special exemptions are allowed to pass through its borders – must spend two weeks in mandatory isolation, during which they are tested twice for Covid-19.
Suspicion was aroused when security staff at an Auckland quarantine hotel found a number of sheets tied together hanging out of a window on Monday morning, New Zealand government officials said in a news release on Monday evening.
A few minutes after the sheets were found, the man who had fled the room presented himself at the front gate of the hotel. It was not known how long he had been missing from the facility.
He is in police custody, said Air Commodore Darryn Webb. The man had been deported from Australia and had spent 12 days in managed isolation, testing negative for Covid-19 twice.
The deportation of New Zealanders accused of crimes or criminal associations from Australia has been a bone of contention between the two countries. Australia’s deportation programme briefly halted during Covid-19 before resuming in July, with extra security personnel stationed at the facilities where deportees would complete their isolation.
Webb said the health risk to the public from the case was low, adding that of 55,000 people staying in managed isolation, 13 had absconded.
Players preparing for the Australian Open could be allowed to compete while in quarantine after arriving in the country, Tennis Australia (TA) boss Craig Tiley said.
International arrivals to Australia have to isolate for 14 days as part of strict Covid-19 protocols, Reuters reports.
Tiley said in a letter to players that TA was working with local authorities to ensure they would be able to train and prepare for the Australian Open and other local events in the lead-up during their two-week isolation.
“We will continue to keep you updated on any changes, including the possibility of being able to compete during the two-week period,” Tiley wrote.
“Australia is a safe place and the community has done a good job ensuring the infection rate remains very low by wearing masks, physically distancing and practising good hygiene,” Tiley told players.
TA plans to set up “quarantine hubs” across the country for arriving players and give them more opportunities to compete before the Australian Open.
Lead-up events include the men’s team-based ATP Cup and other warm-ups in Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart.
TA is yet to confirm the summer schedule but Tiley urged players to arrive before 14 December to get quarantine done before week one of competition.
Updated
India passes 6m cases
India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reached 6 million cases on Monday, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases since the pandemic began, AP reports.
The Health Ministry on Monday reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the overall tally to 60,74,703. At least 1,039 deaths were also recorded in the same period, taking total fatalities up to 95,542 since the pandemic began.
New infections are in India are currently being reported faster than anywhere else in the world. The worlds second-most populous country is expected to become the pandemics worst-hit country in coming weeks, surpassing the US, where more than 7 million infections have been reported.
Even as infections mount, India has the highest number of recovered patients in the world. More than 5 million people have recovered from Covid-19 in India and the country’s recovery rate stands at 82%, according to the Health Ministry.
Updated
New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has poured cold water on the All Blacks’ hopes of avoiding Christmas in quarantine after the Rugby Championship, saying the team would be “uncomfortable” with being given special treatment, Reuters reports.
The All Blacks will need to quarantine for 14 days when they return to New Zealand as part of Covid-19 protocols following their final match of the Rugby Championship on 12 December against Australia in Sydney.
Rugby Australia deny foul play over Rugby Championship scheduleRead more
New Zealand Rugby have complained that tournament organisers backflipped on an agreement that the All Blacks would finish a week earlier. NZR said they were working on solutions to the All Blacks’ dilemma but Ardern offered no government help on Monday:
Australian biotech company Ena Respiratory said on Monday that a nasal spray it is developing to improve the human immune system to fight common cold and flu significantly reduced the growth of the coronavirus in a recent study on animals, Reuters reports.
A study on ferrets showed the product dubbed INNA-051, which could be used complementary to vaccines, lowered the levels of the virus that causes Covid-19 by up to 96%, the company said. The study was led by British government agency Public Health England.
Ena Respiratory said it would be ready to test INNA-051 in human trials in less than four months, subject to successful toxicity studies and regulatory approval.
The company has raised A$11.7 million ($8.24 million) for the development of the spray. Investors include venture capital firm Brandon Capital Ltd, the Australian federal government, pension funds and biotech giant CSL Ltd.
Several companies across the world are in the pursuit of developing a coronavirus vaccine. Australia has entered into agreements with some drug companies investing billions to secure potential vaccines for Covid-19, which has killed over 992,000 people worldwide.
Updated
South Korea confirms lowest cases since 11 August
South Korea on Monday reported 50 new coronavirus cases, the lowest since 11 August, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.
Of the new cases, 40 were domestic and 10 imported. The numbers were the lowest since a new wave of outbreaks emerged from a church whose members attended a large political rally in Seoul on 15 August, KDCA data showed.
In Australia, as Melburnians were released from curfew restrictions on Monday, just five new cases of coronavirus were announced – the lowest number of daily new cases of Covid-19 in Victoria since 11 June. There were three deaths overnight.
But metropolitan Melbourne remains under strict travel and outdoor exercise restrictions, with people unable to move beyond a 5km radius of their suburb unless they have a work permit.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, on Monday urged people to continue to come forward for testing as case numbers dropped and some restrictions eased. “If you’ve put off getting a test over the course of this weekend, and you’ve got symptoms, or you had symptoms, please go and get a test today,” he said:
Mexico’s top coronavirus official said Sunday that definitive data on the country’s death toll from Covid-19 wont be available for a couple of years, AP reports.
The statement by Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell is likely to revive debate about Mexico’s death toll, currently at 76,430, the fourth-highest in the world.
“When will the final statistics on deaths from Covid-19 be ready? Certainly, a couple of years after the first year of the pandemic,” López-Gatell said, adding that work would be left to the country’s statistics institute.
Officials have acknowledged in the past that the figure is a significant undercount, because it includes only those who died after a positive test result, almost always at a hospital. Mexico does very little testing, and many people die without a test.
But the Mexican government has avoided adjusting its death toll upward to account for people who died at home or weren’t tested.
Some parts of the country like Mexico City have begun conducting their own recalculations, finding excess deaths likely caused by coronavirus were at least double official figures.
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Podcast: Did the NHS Covid helpline fail hundreds of families?
Hundreds of people believe the 111 helpline failed their relatives. Now the Guardian’s David Conn reports that they are demanding a full inquiry into the service:
Do you have news from your part of the world (or jokes that aren’t about Trump’s tax returns and are about the coronavirus pandemic)?
he is my dog https://t.co/rVA6vzMFuj
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) September 27, 2020
Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
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First virus death among asylum seekers in Greece
A man has died from Covid-19 in Greece, the first reported coronavirus death among asylum seekers since the pandemic broke out in Greece in late February, a government official told Reuters.
The 61-year-old Afghan, a father of two children, who lived at the migrant camp of Malakasa north of Athens, was treated and died at a hospital in Athens, the official said, adding that authorities were tracing his contacts.
It was not immediately clear how long he had been at the hospital.
The Malakasa camp, which hosts about 3,000 migrants, has been quarantined since 7 September after positive tests for the new coronavirus.
Many other migrant facilities in Greece have been sealed off or movement has been restricted to stem the spread of the virus.
Greece has been the main gateway into the European Union for people fleeing conflict in the Middle East and beyond. More than a million people reached its shores from Turkey in 2015-16.
At least 110,000 people currently live in migrant facilities - 40,000 of them in overcrowded camps on five islands.
A fire burnt to the ground a migrant camp on Greece’s biggest, on island of Lesbos this month, leaving about 12,000 people stranded. Most of them have now moved to a temporary tent camp on the island.
Greece reported 218 Covid-19 cases on Sunday and three deaths, bringing the total number of infections to 17,444 since the first case surfaced late February.
Travel between New Zealand and some states of Australia is possible before the end of the year
Travel between New Zealand and some states of Australia is possible before the end of the year, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.
Plans for a travel ‘bubble’ between Australia and New Zealand has been in discussions for months as both nations slowed the spread of the coronavirus, but they were disrupted after a resurgence of Covid-19 in Melbourne, Australia, followed by a second wave of infections in Auckland.
With the virus largely contained in New Zealand, and as cases continue to decline in Australian regions, talks of a travel bubble with some states have been revived.
When asked by state broadcaster TVNZ whether New Zealanders would be able to travel to at least some Australian regions before Christmas, Ardern said: “It is possible.”
“What we would need to be assured of is that when Australia is saying ‘okay we’ve got a hotspot over here’ that the border around that hotspot means that people aren’t able to travel into the states where we are engaging with in trans-Tasman travel,” she said.
Ardern said Australia was pretty satisfied with both how New Zealand was tracking now and how they are tracking generally.
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A new, more robust chapter in English coronavirus regulations begins on Monday, with fines of up to £10,000 for people who refuse to self-isolate when asked, and enforcement including tip-offs from people who believe that others are breaching the rules.
The changes come with the duty to self-isolate moving into law. It becomes a legal obligation if someone is told to do so by test-and-trace staff, but not for those simply using the Covid-19 phone app, which is anonymous.
At the same time, the government is introducing a new system of payments of £500 for people on lower incomes who are unable to work because of the mandatory 14-day self-isolation, a system being implemented by councils:
In Australia, statistics show young people received almost half of all fines dished out during the state’s first wave of the pandemic, while the South Sudanese and Aboriginal communities received an outsize number of fines.
Data released by the Crime Statistics Agency last week shows there were 6,062 breaches of Covid-19 rules associated with 5,474 people during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Victoria.
The average age was 29.5 years, and just one in four of those fined were women. Approximately 42% of those were under the age of 24.
People who were born in South Sudan and Sudan were overrepresented in the fines issued. They made up 5% of the fines but only make up around 0.14% of the Victorian population. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 4.7% of the fines, despite making up just 0.8% of the population in Victoria:
New Zealand reports zero new coronavirus cases
Charlotte Graham-McLay for the Guardian:
New Zealand reported no new cases of Covid-19, health officials said on Monday.
There are 55 active cases of the virus in New Zealand, 28 of them imported in travelers returning from overseas, all of whom are staying at government-run isolation facilities.
The other 27 are community-spread cases in Auckland, the largest city, which remains the only place in New Zealand with some Covid-19 restrictions in place.
The Auckland cluster – which is reducing in size – prompted a second lockdown of the city, which is now easing. The rest of New Zealand has largely returned to normal life, except for strict border controls.
One person is in hospital with the virus.
There have been 1,477 known cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, with 25 deaths.
Global death toll passes 996,000
There are currently 996,084 deaths confirmed on the Johns Hopkins University tracker, just under 4,000 away from the devastating milestone of 1m people who have lost their lives in the nine months of the pandemic so far.
The true toll is likely already over 1m however, due to differing definitions, time lags and suspected underreporting in some countries.
The number of tests coming back positive for Covid-19 is topping 25% in several states in the US Midwest as cases and hospitalisation also surge in the region, according to a Reuters analysis.
North Dakota’s positive test rate has averaged 30% over the past seven days compared with the prior week. The positivity rate has risen to 26% in South Dakota, up from 17% the previous week, according to the analysis using testing data from The Covid Tracking Project. Minnesota and Montana are averaging 7% of tests coming back positive, but Montana’s positivity rate rose on Sunday to 20%, according to the analysis.
The World Health Organization considers rates above 5% concerning because it suggests there are more cases in the community that have not yet been uncovered. Several states such as New York, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine have positive test rates of less than 1%.
At the same time that positive test rates are climbing in the Midwest, cases and hospitalisations are setting records in those states.
In the last week, five Midwest states have reported record one-day rises in new infections - Minnesota, Montana, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
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Northern England and possibly London facing new lockdown
The UK government is planning to impose a total social lockdown across most of northern England and potentially London, to combat a second coronavirus wave, the Times reports.
Under the new lockdown measures being considered, all pubs, restaurants and bars would be ordered to shut for two weeks initially, the report said.
TIMES: Emergency lockdown plan to ban socialising #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/45Amgg6a1k
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) September 27, 2020
The report added that households would also be banned indefinitely from meeting each other in any indoor location where they were not already under the order.
England had last week imposed new measures that required people to work from home where possible and had ordered restaurants and bars to close early to tackle a fast-spreading second wave of Covid-19, with new restrictions lasting probably six months.
Merseyside, the northeast and Lancashire are expected to be included in the new measures alongside London, according to the newspaper.
Schools and shops will be allowed to remain open, as will factories and offices at which staff could not work from home, the Times added, citing a senior government source.
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Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest from around the world for the next few hours.
Questions, comments, jokes and news from your part of the world are welcome on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
India will soon pass 6m coronavirus cases, after it recorded 88,600 new infections on Sunday, taking the country’s official toll to just under 6 million (5,992,532), according to the country’s official figures. Deaths increased by 1,124 to 94,503.
India has the second highest cases worldwide, with roughly 1m cases fewer than the US.
Meanwhile the coronavirus death toll is approaching the grim milestone of one million fatalities, with 995,465 deaths reported globally, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:
- There have been a further 5,693 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, according to government data, taking the total to 429,277. Government figures show a further 17 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus as of Sunday. This brings the official UK toll to 41,988.
- Greece has recorded its first coronavirus fatality among its large migrant community. Health authorities described the victim as a 61-year-old Afghan man, saying the father-of-two succumbed to Covid-19 in Athens’ Evangelismos hospital after being moved from Malakassa, a refugee camp east of the capital.
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Bosses at Manchester Metropolitan University have said students under a Covid-19 lockdown are free to leave their student hallsbut “trust they will do the right thing” and self-isolate, following a number of students saying they were being falsely imprisoned.
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The Scottish government has issued updated guidance that students can return to their family homes (previously clinical director Jason Leitch said they couldn’t) either to self-isolate or permanently.
- The Spanish government and authorities in Madrid are locked in a standoff over how to tackle the second wave of Covid-19 in and around the capital, where more than a third of Spain’s 716,481 cases have been diagnosed.
- The Australian state of Victoria has announced an end to its curfew and easing of some of the months-long lockdown measures. Australia reported just 18 new cases on Saturday, and two deaths, and trade minister Simon Birmingham hopes a travel bubble with New Zealand can be put in place by the end of the year.
- Argentina’s coronavirus cases have topped 700,000 as new daily infections and deaths hit the top five globally, despite seven months of lockdown that have ravaged the frail economy.
