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Summary
Here he latest key developments at a glance:
- The governor of the Arizona announced the closure of bars, gyms, cinemas, waterparks and tubing rentals from Monday for at least 30 days. Events of more than 50 people will also be prohibited, and schools will not open before 17 August.
- Los Angeles County recorded an “alarming” one-day spike of nearly 3,000 new Covid-19 infections on Monday, taking its total to more than 100,000 cases, public health officials said, warning that hospitals could soon be overwhelmed.
- Kansas governor Laura Kelly on Monday said that she will sign an executive order requiring that most state residents must wear a mask in public from Friday.
- New Jersey governor Phil Murphy said on Monday indoor dining will no longer resume on Thursday in the state as previously planned, and will instead be postponed “indefinitely.”
- Mexico is in talks with the Chinese government and private Chinese laboratories, as well as the University of Oxford and company AstraZeneca about trialing an experimental Covid-19 vaccine, a senior Mexican official said on Monday.
- Brazil registered 692 new coronavirus deaths on Monday, bringing the overall death toll in the country to 58,314.Total confirmed cases rose by 24,052 to reach 1,368,195.
- Britain on Monday reimposed lockdown measures the city of Leicester after a local surge in infections, in the first big test of prime minister Boris Johnson’s “whack-a-mole” strategy to control the disease while getting the economy moving again.
- Senegal’s president Macky Sall on Monday said he had decided to lift a state of emergency over Covid-19 to support the struggling economy, which he warned could grow less than 1.1% this year due to fallout from the epidemic.
- Canada’s president Justin Trudeau said the country is over the worst of the coronavirus outbreak but a spike in cases in the United States and elsewhere shows Canadians must remain vigilant as the economy reopens.
- The number of reported new cases in Ireland has begun to increase in a “worrying” trend, the chief medical officer warned, which could halt plans for further easing of restrictions.
- Abu Dhabi will allow people to enter the emirate if they have tested negative for coronavirus in the previous 48 hours, while mosques in the United Arab Emirates will partially reopen from 1 July.
That’s all from me, handing now over to my colleagues in Australia. Goodnight.
Updated
Arizona governor orders closure of bars, nightclubs, gyms and cinemas
The governor of the US state of Arizona, Doug Ducey, has announced a string of new measures he hopes will curb the spread of coronavirus.
From 8pm local time on Monday, bars, gyms, cinemas, waterparks and tubing rentals will close for at least one month, and organised events of more than 50 people are prohibited.
“This will help relieve stress on our health care system and give time for new transmissions to slow,” Ducey tweeted.
“Arizonans should celebrate the 4th of July responsibly this weekend, including by staying home, avoiding larger gatherings, and wearing a mask if you do go out,” he wrote.
He further announced that he first day of school for in-person learning will be delayed until 17 August, while distance learning can begin before then.
“This delay allows additional time for schools to implement safety precautions, including making available remote learning options,” Ducey said.
A new grant program for long-term care facilities will see facilities receive $10,000 for the purchase of electronic devices to facilitate video conferencing with residents and their families.
“Stay home. Wear a mask. Be responsible,” he urged the public.
We must be clear-eyed. The next few weeks will be hard. But these steps combined with stepped-up compliance with public health guidance can make a difference, and we're grateful to Arizonans for their cooperation.
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) June 29, 2020
Stay home.
Wear a mask.
Be responsible. 8/8
"Alarming" spike of infections in Los Angeles
Los Angeles County recorded an “alarming” one-day spike of nearly 3,000 new Covid-19 infections on Monday, taking its total to more than 100,000 cases, public health officials said, warning that hospitals could soon be overwhelmed.
Los Angeles and neighboring counties have become a new epicenter in the pandemic as cases and hospitalisations have surged there despite California governor Gavin Newsom’s strict order last week requiring masks in nearly all public spaces.
“The alarming increases in cases, positivity rates and hospitalisations signals that we, as a community, need to take immediate action to slow the spread of Covid-19,” Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for Los Angeles County, said in a statement announcing the sharp upswing.
“Otherwise, we are quickly moving toward overwhelming our healthcare system and seeing even more devastating illness and death,” Ferrer said.
The county reported a single-day record of 2,903 new cases.
California, which on Sunday ordered bars in Los Angeles and six other counties to close, is among several US states including Florida, Texas and Arizona battling a new wave of infections as the nation emerges from weeks of clamp-downs on residents and businesses.
Updated
Mexico is in talks with the Chinese government and private Chinese laboratories, as well as the University of Oxford and company AstraZeneca about trialing an experimental Covid-19 vaccine, a senior Mexican official said on Monday.
The Mexican deputy foreign minister said the country was analysing public and private capacities to mass produce a vaccine, and was in talks about phase 3 coronavirus vaccine trials but had not yet reached a decision, Reuters reports.
Brazil registered 692 new coronavirus deaths on Monday, bringing the overall death toll in the country to 58,314, the Ministry of Health said.
Total confirmed cases rose by 24,052 to reach 1,368,195, the second worst outbreak in the world behind the United States.
Mandatory wearing of masks introduced in Kansas
Kansas governor Laura Kelly on Monday said that she will sign an executive order requiring that most state residents must wear a mask in public in an attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19.
Under the order that will go into effect on Friday, most Kansans must wear masks in stores and shops, and in any place where social distancing of 6 feet (1.83m) cannot be maintained, including outside, her office said in a statement.
Venezuelan medical personnel face increasing risks of being infected with coronavirus due to a lack of protective equipment, an opposition legislator and a health-focused non-government organisation said on Monday.
The OPEC nation, which has been in quarantine since 17 March, is struggling under a hyperinflationary economic crisis that weakened basic services including running water and left many hospitals without basic sanitation.
“In four months of quarantine, hospitals did not receive materials, medical equipment was not repaired, beds were not acquired, ventilators were not installed,” Jose Manuel Olivares, a lawmaker and doctor, said in an online press conference.
Health workers have died “for want of a mask ... for want of gloves,” he said, adding that hospitals have “no water, no power, no medicine.”
The country’s opposition-run congress and Doctors United for Venezuela say six doctors died of Covid-19 between 19 and 28 June in the western state of Zulia, which has emerged as a hot spot for Covid-19.
Doctors United for Venezuela says a nurse also died of the disease during that period.
Official statistics show 5,297 cases and 44 deaths, Reuters reports.
Groups including the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights Watch have expressed doubts about the official figures and the scope of the tests conducted.
Updated
Senegal lifts state of emergency to protect economy
Senegalese president Macky Sall on Monday said he had decided to lift a state of emergency over Covid-19 to support the struggling economy, which he warned could grow less than 1.1% this year due to fallout from the epidemic.
As recently as January, growth was forecast at 6.8% in 2020, but business activity plummeted after borders closed and a curfew and social distancing rules were imposed to curb the virus, which has infected over 6,600 and killed 108.
“This is the challenge we must now face: to fight to preserve our lives and our health, and to resume all our productive activities to get our economy back on track,” Sall said in a speech to the nation.
The state of emergency and a night-time curfew will be lifted as of Tuesday 2300 local time, and air borders will open from 15 July under certain conditions, he said.
The authorities have already loosened the curfew and allowed inter-regional travel in response to street protests against the measures earlier in June.
Sall said the government was working on an economic support programme to kickstart recovery, Reuters reports.
The British government on Monday imposed a lockdown on the city of Leicester, which has a much higher Covid-19 infection rate than anywhere else in the country, in its first major attempt to curb an outbreak with local rather than national measures.
The United Kingdom is in the process of gradually easing its national lockdown, with non-essential shops now open and further relaxation of rules due on 4 July, but Leicester and the surrounding area were told to go into reverse.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said the seven-day infection rate in Leicester was 135 cases per 100,000 people, three times higher than the next highest city, and that Leicester accounted for 10% of all positive cases in the country in the past week.
“Given the growing outbreak in Leicester, we cannot recommend that the easing of the national lockdown due to take place on the 4th of July happens in Leicester,” Hancock said in a statement to parliament.
“From tomorrow, non-essential retail will have to close, and as children have been particularly impacted by this outbreak, schools will also need to close from Thursday,” he said. He said children remained at low risk, but were likely to be spreading the disease.
Hancock urged people to avoid all non-essential travel to and from Leicester and within the city, which is in central England.
Canada is over the worst of the coronavirus outbreak but a spike in cases in the United States and elsewhere shows Canadians must remain vigilant as the economy reopens, prime minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday.
“After a very challenging spring things are continuing to move in the right direction,” Trudeau told a daily briefing.
By contrast, some southern US states are reporting huge jumps in daily cases. Authorities in Mexico, Brazil and Russia are also struggling to control outbreaks.
“What the situation we’re seeing in the United States and elsewhere highlights for us is that even as our economy is reopening, we need to make sure we are continuing to remain vigilant,” Trudeau said.
The province of Alberta, home to the world*s third-largest oil reserves, said it would accelerate a corporate tax cut and invest C$10 billion ($7.31 billion) in infrastructure projects to jump-start its spluttering economy.
Canadian medical officials released their latest forecasts on Monday, showing the number of overall deaths could be between 8,545 and 8,865 by 12 July. The current death toll is 8,522.
The United States and Canada have banned non-essential travel between the two nations. The measures are due to expire on 21 July, and Trudeau said discussions were taking place about what to do next.
He also said Ottawa had the fiscal room to respond if a second wave of the coronavirus struck later this year.
The number of reported new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland has begun to increase in a “worrying” trend, the chief medical officer warned, which could halt plans for further easing of restrictions.
At least six fresh diagnoses were associated with international travel, the government’s top health advisers said, as they reiterated warnings against encouraging overseas tourism too soon.
Some new clusters have been established, and one in the north west of the Republic involved travel links with Iraq, said Tony Holohan, the doctor leading the state’s pandemic response.
“We are starting to see a worrying trend, with the number of reported cases increasing, and some new clusters,” he said.
More than 1.1 million cases were reported globally last week.
The Republic had driven down the number of infections but medical experts have warned against non-essential travel and cautioned young people against ignoring lockdown restrictions or thinking coronavirus was defeated.
There were no new deaths reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre on Monday.
Ireland has recorded 1,735 Covid-19 related deaths.
Mexico’s finance ministry on Monday announced the extension of several financial sector and housing measures aimed at supporting people and companies hurt by the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
In March, finance minister Arturo Herrera said Mexican banks would offer clients deals to defer interest payments and principal on loans. He added that the bank regulator, the CNBV, would give regulatory leeway to banks so they can focus on helping people.
Starting this week Mexico City is allowing the reopening of shops, street markets and sport complexes with limited capacity and hours.
Hotels and restaurants in the capital will reopen at about 30% seating capacity.
Geneva’s auto show was cancelled this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, and organisers said Monday they were also scrapping the 2021 edition as the auto sector reels from the crisis.
The executive committee of the foundation that runs the Geneva International Motor Show, a major event on the auto industry calendar, said that after polling exhibitors, it had given up the idea to organise a 2021 edition, Agence France-Presse reports.
“A majority of exhibitors have said they probably will not participate in a 2021 edition and that they would prefer taking part in a 2022 edition,” a statement said.
The GIMS Foundation noted the auto sector was “currently facing a major crisis, and the exhibitors need time to be able to invest in the show.”
Abu Dhabi will allow people to enter the emirate if they have tested negative for coronavirus in the previous 48 hours, the local government media office said on Monday.
Abu Dhabi, the largest and wealthiest member of the United Arab Emirates federation, has had a ban on people entering since 2 June.
It eased some restrictions a week ago to allow movement between its cities for residents.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates will partially reopen mosques across the country starting 1 July, with a reduced capacity of 30%, the spokesperson of the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority said on Monday.
Saif Al Dhaheri said that mosques will remain closed for Friday prayers, but some will be open at other times while those located in industrial areas, shopping malls and public parks will stay closed for now, Reuters reports.
New Jersey governor Phil Murphy said on Monday indoor dining will no longer resume on Thursday in the state as previously planned, and will instead be postponed “indefinitely.”
“After Covid-19 spikes in other states driven by, in part, the return of indoor dining, we have decided to postpone indoor dining indefinitely,” Murphy said.
In a series of Tweets, Murphy urged the public to not become complacent, practice social distancing, wash hands and wear face coverings.
If we can prevent just one more family from having to live through the grief of losing someone to #COVID19, than it will be worth it.
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) June 29, 2020
German workers who helped combat the coronavirus outbreak arrived on the island of Kos on Monday in the first foreign flight to reach a Greek regional airport since the health crisis erupted.
About 180 people, among them medical staff, police officers and supermarket workers, flew from Hanover and will stay for five days on the eastern Aegean island, the birthplace of ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, the father of Medicine.
The trip, organised by TUI, was offered free of charge to workers in Germany to thank them for their contribution during the pandemic.
Travellers were selected by German newspaper Bild following a public nomination process.
The passengers, who wore masks as they came down the plane’s staircase, said they were happy to travel to Greece. Dozens later underwent precautionary tests for Covid-19.
“The virus is still there... We have to be careful and we have to follow the rules and we’ll manage it together,” said Stephen, one of the passengers, who works as an officer at the German Chancellery.
Regional airports will start operating officially on 1 July.
Tourism minister Harry Theocharis said he hoped the visitors would enjoy a holiday “well deserved for their achievements”.
Greece, which emerged from a decade-long debt crisis in 2018, relies heavily on tourism for an economic recovery. The sector accounts for about a fifth of its economic output and Germany is one of its main tourism markets.
Trump believes wearing a mask is personal decision
US president Donald Trump believes the decision to wear a mask to help prevent spreading coronavirus, currently infecting record numbers of people in many places in the United States, is personal, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Monday.
“Its his choice to wear a mask. It’s the personal choice of any individual as to whether to wear a mask or not,” McEnany said, when asked about a new mandate to wear masks in Jacksonville, Florida, where part of the Republican nominating convention will be held.
“He encourages people to make whatever decision is best for their safety. But he did say to me he has no problem with masks and to do whatever your local jurisdiction requests,” she added.
In a rare split with the mask-averse president, fellow Republican leaders are however making a public push for face coverings as Covid-19 cases surge in some Republican-leaning states, Reuters reports.
The top Republican in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, said every American has a responsibility to follow the recommendations of health officials to wear masks and socially distance themselves to help slow the spread of infection.
“They should wear a mask,” McCarthy told CNBC on Monday after his home state of California began to roll back efforts to reopen the economy.
“If you cannot social distance, you need to be wearing a mask and you need to be respectful to one another.”
Republican senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, where cases are spiking, posted a similar message on Twitter.
I am encouraging everyone to WEAR YOUR MASKS!
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) June 29, 2020
It’s one of the simplest and easiest ways to help stop the spread of #COVID19.
Let’s unite to protect each other. pic.twitter.com/T8tcHv1OUM
“I am encouraging everyone to WEAR YOUR MASKS!”, Scott wrote.
Trump has said he cannot picture himself in a mask while greeting royalty and foreign leaders, including dictators.
He also has said he did not want to give journalists the pleasure of seeing him wear one.
British scientists on Monday said that an antiviral drug commonly used to treat HIV had no beneficial effect in patients hospitalised with Covid-19 in a large scale randomised trial.
Scientists running the RECOVERY trial at the University of Oxford said that the results “convincingly rule out any meaningful mortality benefit of lopinavir-ritonavir in the hospitalised Covid-19 patients we studied,” but added that the difficulty giving the drug to patients on ventilators meant they couldn’t draw conclusions on its effectiveness on such patients.
The Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group said on Monday it has filed for protection from creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) as the Covid-19 pandemic forced the famed circus to cancel shows and lay off its artistes.
The Canadian entertainment company said it has entered a “stalking horse” agreement with its existing shareholders, under which the group will take over Cirque’s liabilities and invest $300 million.
As part of the investment, government body Investissement Québec will provide $200 million in debt financing.
“With zero revenue since the forced closure of all of our shows due to COVID-19, the management had to act decisively to protect the Company’s future,” said CEO Daniel Lamarre.
The company in March laid off more than 4,000 people, or 95% of its workforce, and temporarily suspended its shows in Las Vegas, one of its prominent areas.
Hello, I’m taking over from my colleague Jessica Murray now. As always, please feel free to get in touch with relevant updates and tips, you can email me or message me on Twitter.
Summary
- Deaths from coronavirus pass half a million. The true death toll is believed to be higher, due to differing testing rates and cause of death definitions, delays in reporting and suspected underreporting.
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Pandemic “not even close to being over” - WHO chief. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing: “The hard reality is that this is not even close to being over.
Although many countries have made some progress globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up.”
- Iran reports its highest daily death toll. Iran reported 162 more deaths from Covid-19, the highest single-day toll since the country’s outbreak began in February.
- Daily new cases in India near 20,000 as Mumbai extends lockdown. India reported close to 20,000 new Covid-19 cases for the second day running on Monday, as the financial hub of Mumbai extended its lockdown by a month.
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China ‘seals off’ more than 400,000 in Anxin county to tackle small Covid-19 cluster. Authorities have put almost half a million people in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, under lockdown as a fresh outbreak in the capital fans fears of a second wave of the coronavirus.
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US visitors set to remain banned from entering EU. Most US visitors are set to remain banned from entering the European Union because of the country’s rising infection rate in a move that risks antagonising Donald Trump.
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Fauci doubts effectiveness of coronavirus vaccine in US due to anti-vaxxers. The US is “unlikely” to achieve herd immunity to the coronavirus even with a vaccine, as Dr Anthony Fauci warned a “general anti-science, anti-authority, anti-vaccine feeling” is likely to thwart vaccination efforts.
- Covid-19 worsening plight of UK migrants, report finds. The pandemic has intensified the effects of the hostile environment on undocumented migrants in the UK, with many experiencing loss of income, unsafe working conditions and scared to seek help if they have the virus.
- Broadway theatres to stay closed until January 2021 due to coronavirus. The New York City theatres had previously set a tentative reopening date of 6 September, but physical distancing requirements have made it impossible for plays and musicals to resume.
- No evidence that taking vitamin D prevents coronavirus, say experts. A rapid review of evidence for claims that the so-called sunshine vitamin could reduce the risk of coronavirus was launched amid concerns about the disproportionate number of black, Asian and minority ethnic people contracting and dying from the disease. Higher levels of melanin in the skin lead to less absorption of vitamin D from sunlight.
Social distancing simply isn’t possible for the 1 million Rohingya refugees who live in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, in southeastern Bangladesh.
Families live in close quarters inside flimsy bamboo shacks, using communal toilets and water facilities. Sometimes the most basic items, such as soap, are lacking.
Most of the Rohingya refugees living in the camp fled there in 2017, following a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military, which the UN has since said was carried out with “genocidal intent”. On top of psychological trauma, many have underlying health conditions that leave them especially vulnerable to Covid-19.
The UN, and other agencies, have raced to open new facilities in Cox’s Bazar, but equipment is still extremely limited, and it is feared medical centres could be quickly overwhelmed. As of 28 June, 49 cases and five deaths have been recorded.
Here we take a look at the conditions in two of the camps and the experiences of the people living there.
The US is to join with other major powers including China, India and the EU in formulating plans for a global green recovery from the coronavirus crisis, in the only major international summit on the climate emergency this year.
The idea of a green recovery to prevent a dangerous rebound in greenhouse gas emissions to above pre-Covid-19 levels has been gathering steam, but few governments have yet committed to plans.
If they fail to do so in the next few months, the economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis risks locking in high carbon emissions that would lead to climate catastrophe.
Next week, the International Energy Agency will host an online summit for the world’s biggest economies as well as developing countries, covering 80% of global emissions.
It aims to set out plans for boosting renewable energy, energy efficiency and other emissions-cutting projects that would generate tens of millions of “shovel-ready” green jobs around the world to replace those lost in the pandemic.
Nigeria will let people travel between its states outside curfew hours from 1 July, as authorities moved to relax some coronavirus restrictions.
Students due to graduate this year will also be able to go back to school to prepare for exams, though other children are still barred from attending, said Boss Mustapha, chair of the presidential taskforce on the infection.
The taskforce is trying to strike a “delicate balance” between protecting people’s livelihoods and their health, he added.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with around 200 million people, has reported 24,000 cases of the virus and 565 deaths as of Sunday.
Authorities have imposed a 10pm to 4am curfew and ordered people to wear masks in public places to curb the spread of the virus. Gatherings are limited to 20 people.
“We have observed with growing concern the non-compliances with these measures designed to prevent transmission,” Mustapha told reporters in the capital, Abuja.
“We run the risk of erasing the gains made in the last three months,” he said.
“A keystone of the Covid-19 problem in the United States is systemic racism; health, housing and employment disparities are the propellant of this fire,” write Renee C Wurth, Marcelius L Braxton and C Lee Cohen.
The racial and ethnic inequalities that we uphold in our countries will not only harm black and brown communities, but they increase the risk of the entire population.
While it is easy to view such inequalities and racism as intractable, the urgency is on par with that of Covid-19, and fighting inequality is an imperative part of quelling this epidemic.
US visitors set to remain banned from entering EU
Most visitors from the US are set to remain banned from entering the European Union because of the country’s rising infection rate in a move that risks antagonising Donald Trump.
In an attempt to save the European tourism season, a list of 15 countries from where people should be allowed into the EU from 1 July has been agreed by representatives of the 27 member states.
Travellers from China will be among those permitted entry if Beijing reciprocates, despite doubts over the accuracy of the information coming out of the country.
Visitors from the US, Russia, Brazil and India, where infection rates remain high, are set to remain excluded despite the initial arguments of some EU governments which would like to have offered further help in keeping the tourism industry afloat.
Zimbabwe’s largest nurses union has called on members to boycott work, citing low pay which it said could no longer meet basic needs at a time of galloping inflation.
The strike comes as the country is experiencing an upsurge in coronavirus cases with 567 infections, including six deaths, recorded so far compared to 132 cases a month ago.
The Zimbabwe Nurses’ Association (ZINA), which represents around 15,000 state nurses, said in a statement:
The reality which any reasonable person will accept is that we are incapacitated from attending work even if we wanted to.
The $3,000 (US$53) average salary we earn is not sufficient to cover basic needs without even adding the costs required to attend work.
Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic crisis in over a decade. Basic goods are scarce and the value of the Zimbabwean dollar continues to tumble, pushing official annual inflation to 785.6% in May.
The union said a third of the average nurse’s salary could only buy a two-litre bottle of cooking oil, a 2kg packet of sugar, two litres of fruit juice, a 2kg packet of rice and two loaves of bread.
“A nurse still has to pay rent, school fees, medical fees and other essential items. For those who own cars, they cannot even fuel up to full tank because it costs more than their salary to do so,” it said.
On 8 June, the union urged its members to stop going to work to press for higher pay, but some nurses did not heed the call.
The association called on those who were not coming to work to continue absenting themselves, and for those who were “subsidising our employer by going to work” to join their striking colleagues.
The government has not responded to the call.
WHO sending team to China to investigate origins of coronavirus
The World Health Organization is sending a team to China next week to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, its head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said.
The United States, the WHO’s largest critic which has said it is leaving the UN agency, has called for an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus.
President Donald Trump and secretary of state Mike Pompeo have said it may have originated in a laboratory, although they have presented no evidence for this and China strongly denies it.
The number of people who died from Covid-19 in France rose by 35 to 29,813 over the last three days, health authorities announced on Monday, and hospitalisations for the disease have followed their long-running downward trend.
For the first time since the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, no daily figures were given over the weekend by the authorities, who said that would now be the new procedure going forward.
In more bad news for British holidaymakers hoping to get to Greece, the few flights that had been scheduled to islands that are particularly popular with UK travellers are in the process of being cancelled.
Local media on the Ionian isle of Cephalonia said the Greek government’s decision to further extend the ban on airlinks from the UK would affect at least six flights - all due to arrive up and until 15 July.
The no frills airline, Ryanair, which had lined up two flights out of London’s Stansted airport on the 5 and 12 July, will be the first to be hit by the decision.
Easyjet and TUI had similarly been forced to reschedule programs until late July and early August, respectively, according to the reports.
The continued suspension of commercial airlinks with the UK and Sweden follows Athens’ announcement that it will adopt ‘smart testing’ to help detect possible passengers infected with the virus.
Under a new protocol requiring all travellers to complete obligatory questionnaires 48 hours prior to boarding planes, those entering the country will be given scannable barcodes.
Depending on the uploaded information, the barcodes will determine whether travellers should be tested or not.
Those who are sent to screening areas and ultimately subject to covid-19 tests will have to isolate while waiting for results.
Any breach of the isolation rule will result in a €5,000 fine.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has said president Donald Trump should issue an executive order mandating that people wear masks in public, and he should “lead by example” by wearing one himself.
He told a media briefing:
The other states are just starting to do it now, states that were recalcitrant, governors who said ‘we don’t need to do this, masks don’t work.’
Now they’re doing a 180...let the president have the same sense and do that as an executive order.
Turkey will extend its wage support system for one month to continue offsetting fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and related lockdowns, president Tayyip Erdoğan has said.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Erdoğan said cash aid to low-income families would also be extended for a month.
He said 18bn lira ($2.6bn) had been disbursed so far under the two programmes.
The so-called short labour pay - which partially covers wages of formally-employed workers whose hours are cut - will extend into July.
It came into effect in March shortly after the first Covid-19 case was identified in Turkey.
Some officials in tourism and other sectors had said the system should be extended by another three months.
Thailand will lift its ban on international flights on 1 July, its aviation regulator has said.
The announcement came after the government earlier on Monday approved some foreign travel to the country, including business travellers and foreigners with spouses, work permits or residency in the country.
Thailand has so far reported 3,169 Covid-19 infections, including 58 deaths, while 3,053 patients have recovered.
But the country has gone 35 days without community transmission and new cases have been among Thais returning from abroad and detected during quarantine.
Updated
Broadway theatres to stay closed until January 2021 due to coronavirus
Broadway theatres will remain closed through 3 Janurary 2021, industry group the Broadway League has said, extending their coronavirus-related shutdown for another four months.
The New York City theatres, which went dark in mid-March, had previously set a tentative reopening date of 6 September, but physical distancing requirements for audiences, actors and production staff have made it impossible for plays and musicals to resume.
Thirty-one Broadway shows were in production when the shutdown began. Those that come back are expected to resume over a series of rolling dates in early 2021, the Broadway League said in a statement.
The organisation is developing safeguards to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus among audience members, actors and staff.
Producers of some shows, including the stage musical version of the Disney film Frozen, have said they will not return at all.
Others are looking even further ahead to the spring of 2021.
The debut of The Music Man, starring Hugh Jackman, was shifted to May 2021 from October 2020.
Music Man rehearsals were to have begun 29 June, but due to the ban in New York City on large gatherings, they were rescheduled to early February.
Updated
Canada is over the worst of the coronavirus outbreak but a spike in cases in the United States and elsewhere shows Canadians must remain vigilant as the economy reopens, prime minister Justin Trudeau has said.
“After a very challenging spring, things are continuing to move in the right direction,” Trudeau told a daily briefing, saying a few hot spots remained.
By contrast, some southern US states are reporting huge jumps in daily cases. Authorities in Mexico, Brazil and Russia are also struggling to control outbreaks. Trudeau said:
What the situation we’re seeing in the United States and elsewhere highlights for us is that even as our economy is reopening, we need to make sure we are continuing to remain vigilant.
Canadian medical officials released their latest forecasts on Monday, showing the number of overall deaths could be between 8,545 and 8,865 by 12 July.
The current toll is 8,522.
Chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, said there had been a steady decline in new cases, deaths and the number of people admitted to hospital since the peak of the epidemic in late April.
“Our public health measures have been successful in slowing the transmission in the community,” she told a news conference.
The United States and Canada have banned non-essential travel between the two nations. The measures are due to expire on 21 July, and Trudeau said discussions were taking place about what to do next.
He also said Ottawa had the fiscal room to respond if a second wave of the coronavirus struck later this year.
The Liberal government has so far unveiled measures worth more than C$160bn ($117bn) in direct spending, or around 7% of gross domestic product.
Updated
Pandemic "not even close to being over" - WHO chief
The Covid-19 pandemic is not even close to being over, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing on Monday.
Tedros noted that, six months after China first alerted the WHO to a novel respiratory infection, the grim milestones of 10 million confirmed infections and 500,000 deaths had been reached.
Most people remain susceptible, the virus still has a lot of room to move
We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives.
But the hard reality is that this is not even close to being over.
Although many countries have made some progress globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up.
“The worst is yet to come. I’m sorry to say that,” he added.
The head of the WHO’s emergencies programme, Mike Ryan, told the briefing that tremendous progress had been made towards finding a safe and effective vaccine to prevent infection, but there was still no guarantee the effort would succeed.
In the meantime, countries could fight the spread of the disease by testing, isolating confirmed cases and tracking their contacts, he said.
He singled out Japan, South Korea and Germany for their “comprehensive, sustained strategy” against the virus.
The WHO plans to convene a meeting this week to assess progress in research towards fighting the disease, Tedros said.
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Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia state has extended a coronavirus lockdown on a district hit hard by an outbreak at a slaughterhouse, but lifted the restrictions on a neighbouring area.
The districts of Guetersloh and Warendorf last Tuesday became the first in Germany to go back into lockdown since the coronavirus shutdowns began easing in May, affecting over 600,000 people.
It was the country’s first big setback in tackling the pandemic.
The western state’s premier, Armin Laschet, said Guetersloh would remain on lockdown until 7 July “as a precaution”, even if testing showed only a limited spread of the virus from the slaughterhouse to the wider population.
The neighbouring district of Warendorf however will be able to exit lockdown as planned on 30 June, Laschet told journalists in Duesseldorf.
For Warendorf, “from tomorrow the same rules will apply as elsewhere in North Rhine-Westphalia”, he said. That means cinemas, swimming pools, bars and gyms will be allowed to reopen just as the summer holidays get going.
Laschet, a leading candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as the conservative CDU party’s chancellor candidate in next year’s election, added that the Covid-19 outbreak that started at the Toennies meat processing plant in Guetersloh was “under control”.
Serbia has announced masks will be mandatory on public transport and in closed spaces in the capital Belgrade as the country battles a second wave of coronavirus infections.
After reining in its first outbreak of Covid-19 in early May, the Balkan state is now reporting a fresh surge, logging more than 200 cases daily in recent days compared to around 50 a month ago.
The spike comes after Serbia rapidly shed its lockdown measures to allow mass gatherings such as sporting events and national elections to go ahead in June.
Reported infections have risen markedly since the 21 June election, with several top officials recently testing positive, including defence minister Aleksandar Vulin and Marko Đjurić, chief of a government office dealing with Kosovo.
Starting on 30 June, “the use of masks on public transport and in all closed spaces is obligatory in Belgrade, without any exception,” the government said in a statement.
Masks will also be mandatory inside malls, restaurants, gyms, night clubs and other closed areas, it added.
The move comes after epidemiologist Predrag Kon, part of a team managing the health crisis, warned last week the situation in the capital “is again threatening”.
A growing outbreak has also been reported in the southwest city of Novi Pazar.
Serbia was recently in the spotlight for allowing its tennis star Novak Djokovic to host a regional tournament that started in Belgrade in mid-June before a slew of Covid-19 infections forced organisers to cut it short.
Djokovic himself tested positive for the virus as did three other tennis players who participated in the Adria tour, which was cancelled during its second leg in Croatia.
Some 4,000 fans attended the matches in both countries.
Five football players from Serbian club Red Star Belgrade also tested positive for the virus earlier in the month after facing their rivals Partizan before a crowd of some 16,000 people.
Seventy sailors from west Africa have tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in the Seychelles to join a fleet of Spanish tuna fishing boats, health authorities said.
The sailors from Ivory Coast, Benin, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Ghana are part of a group of 200 who arrived last week on the archipelago to replace crew who had spent six months at sea fishing for tuna.
The Seychelles, which had recorded its last cases of the virus in April and had come out of confinement after all 11 patients were healed, had taken measures to ensure the sailors were free of the virus.
“Before coming to the Seychelles, they were tested in Senegal and in Ivory Coast and their results were negative, which allowed them to obtain the Covid-19 certificate which is a condition for entry into the Seychelles,” public health commissioner Jude Gedeons said on Sunday.
He said there were “a total of 70 positive” cases.
“The sailors are currently in isolation on their vessel, because they have no symptoms of the illness.”
The Seychelles, whose economy relies on tourism, closed its borders in April to stop the spread of the virus, and banned cruise ships from the main island Mahe.
To make up for the loss of tourism revenues, the Indian Ocean archipelago has turned towards its second-largest sector fishing, by accepting the rotation of international teams on its soil, to obtain foreign currency.
A spike in US coronavirus infections is fuelled in large part by people ignoring public health guidelines to keep their distance and wear masks, the government’s top infectious disease official has said.
A daily surge in confirmed cases has been most pronounced in southern and western states that did not follow health officials’ recommendations to wait for a steady decline in infections for two weeks before reopening their economies.
Anthony Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN in an interview broadcast on Monday:
That’s a recipe for disaster.
Now we’re seeing the consequences of community spread, which is even more difficult to contain than spread in a well-known physical location like a prison or nursing home or meatpacking place.
More than 2.5 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus in the United States and more than 125,000 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
The US tally is the highest in the world as the global death toll in the pandemic surpassed half a million people on Sunday.
California ordered some bars to close on Sunday, the first major rollback of efforts to reopen the economy in the most populous US state, following Texas and Florida ordering the closure of all their bars on Friday.
Arizona and Georgia are among 15 states that had record increases in cases last week.
US vice president Mike Pence on Sunday pressed Americans to adopt face masks during a trip to Texas and wore one himself, a sharp turnaround for the administration.
Republican president Donald Trump has refused to cover his face in public.
Pence and other top health officials were expected to visit Arizona and Florida later this week.
In places where cases are soaring, US health officials are also considering “completely blanketing these communities with tests,” Fauci said, to try to get a better sense of an outbreak.
They would either test groups, or “pools,” of people or have community groups do contact tracing in person rather than by phone.
Contact tracing involves identifying people who are infected and monitoring people who may have been exposed and asking them to voluntarily go into quarantine.
Fauci said that he was optimistic that a vaccine could be available by the end of the year but that it was unclear how effective it would prove to be, adding that no vaccine would be 100% effective and citing challenges to achieve so-called herd immunity.
The top Republican in the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, on Monday stressed individual actions to stop the spread of the virus, deflecting criticism from Democrats and some health experts that Trump botched the prevention effort.
McCarthy told CNBC:
You can’t say the federal government should do everything, and then say the federal government can’t tell the states what to do.
The governors have a big responsibility here but every American has a responsibility. They should wear a mask.
The Guardian’s film critic, Peter Bradshaw, has reviewed Homemade - a short film anthology curated for Netflix, featuring work from 17 filmmakers around the world during lockdown about the theme of lockdown.
Some filmmakers have stuck toughly to the spirit of lockdown, with lo-fi pieces shot on their smartphones within their own four walls.
Sebastian Schipper creates something starring himself with TikTok-style visual gags about doppelgangers and triplegangers.
Rungano Nyoni gives us a wacky comedy about the texting life of a separated couple forced to share a small flat.
Other directors have sneakily upgraded things a bit, with better cameras, flashy drone cinematography, remote post-production work and actors and technicians who have apparently been used in accordance with local rules about lockdown co-operation.
A lot of the pieces are in the lightly fictionalised video-diary mode, with directors often amusingly – and touchingly – using their children, just as they might have roped in their siblings to be in the home movies they themselves made as kids.
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Amazon said it will spend $500m on one-time bonuses to its frontline employees and partners working through the coronavirus crisis.
Employees and partners who have been with the e-commerce company through June will receive bonuses ranging from $150 to $3,000, the company said.
The world’s largest online retailer, which delivers about 10bn items a year, has been facing intense scrutiny from US lawmakers and unions over whether it is doing enough to protect staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier in the day, workers at six Amazon sites in Germany decided to go on strike in protest over safety after some staff at logistics centres tested positive for coronavirus, labour union Verdi said on Sunday.
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Greece has extended its ban on direct flights from the UK and Sweden until 15 July.
The decision comes a day before the current ban was due to expire, and two days before the country’s regional airports will open to to international flights on 1 July.
Greece has decided to ban all flights from the UK and Sweden until July 15, according to Athens News Agency. The current ban was expiring on July 1st but the government decided to extent the ban for two more weeks #covid19 /1
— katya adler (@BBCkatyaadler) June 29, 2020
All travellers to the country will be required to fill in a form 48 hours before arrival which will determine whether they need to be tested for the coronavirus.
The coronavirus pandemic has intensified the effects of the hostile environment on undocumented migrants in the UK, with many experiencing loss of income, unsafe working conditions and scared to seek help if they have the virus, a report has found.
The Kanlungan Filipino Consortium and human rights charity RAPAR uncovered evidence of exploitative employment and overcrowded living conditions, making physical distancing impossible.
More than half of Filipino migrants surveyed had lost all of their work and income and others were paid as little as £2 an hour. One was living in a five-bedroom flat with 13 other people, all of whom had Covid-19 symptoms.
Out of the 78 respondents, 59 of whom were undocumented, 13 had experienced coronavirus symptoms but only one had sought medical care, highlighting fears about costs and/or being reported to the immigration authorities.
A $250,000 donation from a charitable foundation has provided a lifeline for New York City’s Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the modern LGBT+ rights movement, after it warned it may have to close forever due to the economic impact of the coronavirus.
The Gill Foundation, which supports efforts to secure equality for LGBT+ people in the United States, announced the donation on Sunday, the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots that were sparked by a police raid on the world-famous bar.
“Stonewall is a cornerstone of LGBTQ history and it must be protected. LGBTQ history is American history,” said a statement from the foundation.
Stacy Lentz and Kurt Kelly, co-owners of the Greenwich Village bar, had already raised $30,000 after launching a fundraiser to help them survive after three months of closure due to the city’s coronavirus restrictions. They said in the statement:
As the first and only LGBTQ National Monument, Stonewall is home not only to the history of our community, but also the history of our city and country.
We are beyond grateful for this generous pledge that will help us keep the history alive.
They have said the bar will be able to reopen on 6 July, but only at 50% occupancy.
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Residents of the central English city of Leicester waited on Monday to hear whether lockdown restrictions will be maintained in their area for two weeks longer following a spike in coronavirus infections.
Leicester has recorded 866 new coronavirus cases in the two weeks up to 23 June, or nearly a third of its total throughout the pandemic.
That prompted home secretary Priti Patel to indicate over the weekend that the city would face a local lockdown in a bid to get the outbreak under control. It would be the first time a UK city faced a local lockdown.
At the very least, there are indications the government wants the current restrictions to remain in place for Leicester for two weeks beyond Saturday, when pubs and restaurants, among others, will be allowed to reopen in England for the first time in more than three months.
“We are concerned about Leicester, we are concerned about any local outbreak,” the prime minister, Boris Johnson, said on Monday. “I want to stress to people that we are not out of the woods yet.”
The UK has recorded more than 43,600 deaths, the highest by far in Europe.
The government, which sets the coronavirus response for England, has said it won’t hesitate to reimpose lockdown restrictions on a specific region in the event of a local outbreak.
Leicester’s mayor, Peter Soulsby, said a document sent to him by the British government indicated the city of 330,000 will continue with “the present level of restriction for a further two weeks beyond 4 July”.
He said he’s yet to be persuaded that the city is faring any worse than other places in England, and sharply criticised the British government over its handling of the situation.
Soulsby said he will tell health secretary Matt Hancock later on Monday: “There is no reason to pick on Leicester, on our economy, on our businesses.”
Soulsby said the Public Health England report sent to him overnight had been “cobbled together” and readily acknowledges that cases are higher in Leicester due to higher levels of testing.
“If the virus is out of control or is spreading with the restrictions, I can’t see how extending them for a further two weeks would make any difference,” Soulsby said.
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Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has ordered his government to prepare a package of coronavirus restrictions similar to the hard lockdown the Central Asian nation imposed in March-May after a recent sharp rise in infections.
Tokayev gave his cabinet two days to draft the new measures and also ordered officials to boost the number of available hospital beds by 50% within a month.
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases has skyrocketed to almost 38,000 from about 5,000 at the time the former Soviet republic started lifting the nationwide lockdown in mid-May.
Deaths have surged to 183 from 32 over the same period.
Several major cities in the oil-rich nation bordering China and Russia have reported that their hospitals are full, prompting the conversion of facilities such as sports arenas into temporary hospitals.
Kazakhs have also formed long queues at testing centres - some of which ran out of supplies - and drug stores where demand has surged for common anti-fever medicines such as paracetamol.
Iran reports its highest daily death toll
Iran has reported 162 more deaths from Covid-19, the highest single-day toll since the country’s outbreak began in February.
“This increase in numbers is in fact a reflection of our overall performance, both in terms of reopening and in compliance with health protocols,” health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said.
The previous record daily toll of 158 deaths was reported by health authorities in early April.
Official figures have shown an upward trajectory in new confirmed cases since early May, when Iran hit a near two-month low in daily recorded infections.
Iran reported its first Covid-19 cases on 19 February and it has since struggled to contain the outbreak, the deadliest in the Middle East.
Lari announced an additional 2,536 new cases on Monday, bringing the total to 225,205. The overall official death toll is now at 10,670.
Iranian authorities have refrained from enforcing full lockdowns to stop the pandemic’s spread, and the use of masks and protective equipment has been optional in most areas.
Iran closed schools, cancelled public events and banned movement between its 31 provinces in March, but the government progressively lifted restrictions from April to try to reopen its sanctions-hit economy.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that “momentum and effort has waned among some of the people and authorities” to combat the virus, warning the country’s economic problems would worsen if the disease spreads unchecked.
Authorities launched a campaign over the weekend to encourage people to wear masks and decreed mandatory mask-wearing “in covered spaces where there are gatherings” from Saturday, the beginning of the week in Iran.
The increasing virus caseload has seen some previously unscathed provinces classified as “red” - the highest level on Iran’s colour-coded risk scale - with authorities allowing them to reimpose restrictive measures if required.
Abu Dhabi will allow people to enter the emirate if they have tested negative for Covid-19 within the previous 48 hours, the local government media office has said.
Abu Dhabi, the largest and wealthiest member of the United Arab Emirates federation, has had a ban on people entering since 2 June.
It eased some restrictions a week ago to allow movement between its cities for all residents.
Daily new cases in India near 20,000 as Mumbai extends lockdown
India reported close to 20,000 new Covid-19 cases for the second day running on Monday, as the financial hub of Mumbai extended its lockdown by a month.
There were 19,459 new cases reported in the previous 24 hours, according to data from India’s federal health ministry. That is down slightly from Sunday’s record of 19,906.
India lags behind only the United States, Brazil and Russia in total cases.
More than 16,000 have now died from the disease caused by the virus since the first case in India in January - low when compared to countries with similar numbers of cases.
But experts fear its hospitals will be unable to cope with a steep rise in cases.
The western state of Maharashtra, which has reported the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country, extended its lockdown by another month until the end of July, as new cases rose in key cities such as Mumbai, Pune and Aurangabad.
Mumbai witnessed massive traffic jams on key roads connecting suburbs to the southern business district on Monday as authorities erected roadblocks to police new travel restrictions.
Under the new rule, residents can visit markets, salons, and parks within a 2 km radius of their homes, but asked not step out of the house unnecessarily. Office-goers are exempt from the rule.
By limiting the number of people a user can share posts with, Facebook et al could help flatten the curve of misinformation, writes Leo Mirani.
The spread of misinformation is enabled by the structures of social networks. These structures reduce friction in sharing. They speed up flows of information and incentivise users to post things that will earn likes, replies and shares.
The same incentives are weaponised by malicious actors, who rely on regular people to amplify their message.
The answer, then, is to change the networks themselves. But in what way?
The language of epidemiology, so familiar in the midst of a pandemic, suggests a solution. Just as information is “viral”, so the antidote to misinformation ought to be reducing its virality.
Tourists travelling to Greece will be required from Wednesday to complete an online questionnaire 48 hours in advance to determine whether they need to be tested for coronavirus on arrival.
Over the weekend, the Greek government ended random testing of travellers according to their country of origin, which had confused tourists.
Greece, which has a relatively low coronavirus death toll at 191, has launched a promotional campaign to revive tourism – which accounts for a quarter of its gross domestic product – and hopes to reassure potential travellers as well as Greeks who fear a resurgence of the pandemic with the return of tourists.
Under the new protocol, travellers are given scannable barcodes after they fill out a questionnaire with personal details such as their country of origin and the countries they have travelled through in the last 15 days. The questionnaire is mandatory until 31 August.
Barcodes will be scanned from printed paper or mobile devices at ports of arrival, which will determine whether travellers will be directed to the exit or to a screening area.
Those who are tested will be told to isolate at the address provided on the questionnaire while waiting for the results.
The new protocol “is most likely to be able to detect the majority of imported cases”, Dimitris Paraskevis, a member of the health ministry’s expert committee, told Skai TV.
All airports in the country will reopen to international flights by Wednesday and the ports of Patras and Igoumenista will again receive ferries from Italy, while other ports will be reopened to cruise ships.
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The British prime minister, Boris Johnson, said the coronavirus crisis needs the type of massive economic response US president Franklin D Roosevelt mobilised to deal with the Great Depression.
Johnson told the Times newspaper’s new radio station that Britain was heading for “bumpy times” as it struggles through its biggest economic contraction on record.
He intends to unveil a spending programme in a speech on Tuesday his office has dubbed simply “build, build, build”. Johnson said:
I think this is the moment for a Rooseveltian approach to the UK. I really think the investment will pay off.
Roosevelt launched the New Deal programme in the 1930s that created a comprehensive social care system, with a legacy that lives on to this day.
The first part of Johnson’s initiative earmarks £1bn for school repairs. He said:
The country has gone through a profound shock. We really want to build back better, to do things differently, to invest in infrastructure, transport, broadband – you name it.
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A fire at a hospital in Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria on Monday killed seven coronavirus patients, security and medical sources said.
Seven other people were injured in the blaze, believed to be caused by a malfunctioning air conditioner in an area designated for isolating Covid-19 patients, the sources said.
Firefighters stopped it spreading to other hospital buildings, and ambulances were dispatched to transfer patients to other medical facilities, the state-run newspaper Akhbar al-Youm reported.
The victims died of suffocation and hospital staff were among those injured, according to local media, which said an investigation had been launched.
Egypt has so far registered 65,188 Covid-19 cases, including 2,789 fatalities. Health facilities in the North African country, like elsewhere, have been strained by the mounting number of infections, which have exceeded 1,000 a day since late May.
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Wearing face masks will be made compulsory on Northern Ireland’s public transport system later this week.
The Northern Ireland executive at Stormont is expected to ratify the move today.
The counter-coronavirus measure proposed by devolved infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon is likely to be in force across the region from Friday.
Mallon has held discussions both with the Police Service of Northern Ireland and trade unions representing public transport workers about how the face masks order will be enforced on buses and trains.
The enforcement is likely to entail random police checks and the imposition of spot fines for those breaching the face mask rules.
From today places of worship can re-open with social distancing and all hard surfaces cleansed.
Elite athletes can start training indoors from Monday and training can recommence for contact sports.
Some pubs are planning to open this Friday, although many in central Belfast will only serve customers outdoors.
Frankfurt airport opened a walk-in testing centre on Monday where passengers can pay to take a coronavirus test and get their results within hours, in a bid to reassure anxious travellers as the summer holidays kick off.
Passengers will be notified of the result via a “secure digital platform” and the information can be connected to a boarding pass for those flying to countries requiring a negative test before entering, German biotech firm Centogene said.
The first Covid-19 test centre at a German airport will help avoid quarantines and “serves as a blueprint to opening international borders”, said Centogene, which launched the project with airline giant Lufthansa and Frankfurt airport operator Fraport.
A standard test costs €59, with results expected within six to eight hours. For €139, passengers can opt for a fast-track test that will gave an answer in two to three hours. The walk-in hub can handle 300 tests per hour. The service is expected to be offered until at least July 2021, the statement added.
It comes as international air travel is picking up again following the easing of coronavirus restrictions.
Many European Union countries reopened their borders to European visitors earlier this month, and discussions are ongoing about expanding the list of “safe countries” to accept visitors from, depending on how well non-EU nations are handling the pandemic.
Germany has weathered the Covid-19 crisis better than many of its neighbours, in part thanks to early and widescale testing. But the country is dealing with several virus flare-ups and debate is raging about whether or not to massively increase testing.
The southern state of Bavaria announced plans at the weekend to test all its residents for the virus, in what state premier Markus Soeder called an “offensive” action and “the only serious option” to break the chain of infections.
But German health minister Jens Spahn criticised the plan, saying it could lead to a false sense of security and put unnecessary strain on testing capacity. “Testing a lot sounds good,” he tweeted, “but it’s not useful without a purposeful approach.”
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Summary
Here are the most important developments from the last few hours:
- There have been 10,154,984 confirmed cases of Covid-19 worldwide, and 502,048 deaths, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins university. The true death toll and number of cases is believed to be higher, due to differing testing rates and cause of death definitions, delays in reporting and suspected underreporting.
- Boris Johnson has admitted the coronavirus crisis has been “an absolute nightmare for the country”, while declaring it was time for a “Rooseveltian approach to the UK” but not yet time for an inquiry. “I don’t think the moment is right now for consecrating a huge amount of official time to all that, but we are learning lessons the whole time and we obviously will draw the right conclusions for the future.”
- The coronavirus crisis has caused a dramatic deterioration in the European public perception of the US, extensive polling from across Europe reveals. More than 60% of respondents in Germany, France, Spain, Denmark and Portugal said they had lost trust in the US as a global leader.
- Chinese authorities have put almost half a million people in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, under lockdown as a fresh outbreak in the capital continues to fan fears of a second wave of the coronavirus. Anxin county, about 145km (90 miles) from Beijing, has “sealed off” residential areas and restricted people from leaving their homes.
- At least 10 new Covid-19 clusters have been identified in Italy over the last week, including 90 employees of a delivery company in Bologna, 28 migrants in the province of Agrigento, 15 cases in a squat outside Rome, and 49 people in Mandragone, Campania, which was sealed off last week and declared a “red zone”. Massimo Galli, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Milan and director of infectious diseases at the Luigi Sacco hospital, said these clusters are proof that the virus continues to circulate.
- The EU is finalising a list of countries whose citizens will be allowed to enter Europe again in the coming days. The list, which will be published on Tuesday, is unlikely to include the US, Russia or India.
- In response to a surge in US cases, California governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday ordered bars in seven counties – an area home to 13.5 million residents – to close. California had already ordered some areas to reinstate stay-at-home orders, and San Francisco announced a “pause” in its reopening.
- Pubs, cafes, hairdressers and gyms are opening across Ireland on Monday, while all internal travel restrictions have also been lifted. The government accelerated the relaxation, which started in cautious phases on 18 May, amid signs the disease remains under control. Latest figures on Sunday showed one person in Ireland died, raising the total death toll to 1,735, and three new cases, raising the total of confirmed infections to 25,439.
- Thailand is to allow pubs and bars to reopen on Wednesday, and will let in foreign travellers with work permits, residency and families in Thailand, subject to a 14-day quarantine. Business visitors from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China and Hong Kong could be exempt from the quarantine, depending on their circumstances.
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China's military approves vaccine for use on its soldiers
China’s military has approved a coronavirus vaccine for use within its ranks that has been developed by its research unit and a biotech firm.
More than half of 17 candidate vaccines identified by the World Health Organization that are in clinical evaluation involve Chinese companies or institutes.
Hong Kong-listed CanSino Biologics said in a filing to the stock exchange that data from clinical trials showed the Chinese military vaccine had a “good safety profile” and potential to prevent disease caused by the coronavirus.
CanSino said China’s central military commission approved the use of the vaccine on 25 June for one year.
The vaccine was jointly developed by CanSino and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, part of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences.
Its use cannot be expanded without further approvals, the listing said.
It was not clear how widely it would be used within China’s enormous military forces, and the ministry of defence did not reply to an AFP request for further information.
CanSino added that it cannot guarantee the vaccine – which had its phase one and two clinical trials done in China – will ultimately be commercialised. Another 131 candidate vaccines listed by the WHO are in the pre-clinical phase.
None have yet been approved for commercial use against the coronavirus.
According to medical journal the Lancet there have already been more than 1,000 clinical trials on dozens of pharmaceutical treatments for the virus but no totally effective medical intervention has been found.
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Vietnam’s economy unexpectedly expanded in the second quarter, shrugging off a global downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but it was still the country’s slowest growth in nearly three decades.
Gross domestic product rose by 0.36% April to June compared to the same period last year, the General Statistics Office in Hanoi announced.
“It’s the lowest ever GDP growth since Vietnam started publishing GDP figures in 1991,” official Duong Manh Hung was quoted as saying in local media.
Border closures from coronavirus restrictions took a punitive toll on Vietnam’s exports, which fell 9% year-on-year and were down 8.3% against the first three months of the year.
The country’s economy is heavily reliant on exports, particularly after reaping the benefits of a trade spat between Washington and Beijing over the last two years.
Both sides imposed punitive tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of goods, prompting many China-based businesses to migrate to the perceived safer and cheaper manufacturing hub of Vietnam.
The country now aims to re-boot its economy after its apparent success in minimising the fallout from coronavirus.
The International Monetary Fund in April predicted the country would take the lead in Asia with a GDP growth rate of 2.7% in 2020.
Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has said his government would try to keep growth above 5%.
“It will be very difficult, even impossible, for us to reach our targets in the context of the pandemic and with the broken global supply chain,” said Duong Manh Hung.
The country has reported just 355 coronavirus cases and no deaths, a record it puts down to strict quarantine policies and tracing measures.
A small study by researchers in Italy has found Covid-19 patients who were tested for the virus at a hospital there in May had fewer virus particles than those who were tested a month earlier.
The researchers offered some theories for the lower “viral load”, including that lockdown measures may have reduced patients’ exposure to the virus, but their study did not provide evidence to explain their finding.
Another Italian doctor said last month that “the virus clinically no longer exists in Italy”, suggesting the interaction between the virus and its human host had changed.
Alberto Zangrillo, head of intensive care at Italy’s San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, said at the time that his comments would be reinforced by soon-to-be published research co-led by fellow scientist Massimo Clementi.
But Clementi’s study, published on Monday in the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, did not look for mutations in the virus or changes in patients that might explain why the illness seemed less severe overall in the May patients.
Instead, it looked for links between illness severity and the amount of virus - the viral load - in the patients.
The researchers analysed 200 nasopharyngeal swabs taken at the San Raffaele hospital. Half were from patients treated in April - at the pandemic’s peak - and half were from patients treated in May.
Based on the results, the researchers calculated that patients’ viral loads were higher in April. Patients swabbed in April also had more severe symptoms and were more likely to need hospitalisation and intensive care, they found.
Viral loads were similar in men and women, but were higher in patients aged 60 and over, and in those with severe Covid-19.
Clementi’s team said that while it was theoretically possible that the new coronavirus had mutated, they did not have molecular data to prove it.
Other possible explanations include wider use of social distancing in May versus April, warmer temperatures, increased use of face masks and hand-washing, and less pollution, they said.
The Afghan health ministry has warned the actual number of Covid-19 infections is much higher than official figures show, as confirmed cases exceeded 31,000.
Health ministry spokesman, Akmal Samsour, said on Monday the actual number of infections is higher than the figure the ministry has reported, as “only patients with severe symptoms go to medical centres, so the actual number may be something between 150,000 and 1.5 million”.
The country’s health ministry, which said it has a lack of testing capacity, has detected 271 new Covid-19 infections from 761 tests, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 31,238.
The number of deaths has risen by 12 to 733. There have been 13,934 recoveries, including 1,330 in last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, violence continues to rage across the country as at least six civilians, including women and children, were killed in Helmand province on Sunday afternoon when their vehicle was hit by a roadside mine.
Two employees of the country’s human rights body were killed in an explosion that targeted their vehicle in Kabul over the weekend, sparking international condemnation.
Presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Monday:
President Ghani strongly condemned the barbaric terrorist attack on the staff of the independent human rights commission in today’s cabinet meeting.
The president has ordered the security entities to adopt special measures and take on further steps for the security of human rights, civil society activists attorney general’s staff members.
According to the country’s national security council, at least 21 civilians were killed and 30 others were wounded in Taliban attacks over the last week.
President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday called on the Taliban to end the violence and instead come forward to start peace talks with Afghan government.
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At least ten new Covid-19 clusters identified in Italy
While Italians celebrate the beginning of summer and thousands flock to the beaches, authorities have identified at least ten new Covid-19 clusters across the country.
Last week, a neighbourhood in Mandragone, in the province of Caserta, was declared a ‘red zone’ and was sealed off to prevent contagion spreading, after 49 people tested positive for the virus.
The news sparked a series of clashes between Bulgarian nationals inside the sealed-off area, who want to leave in order to work on local farms, and Italian residents who want the red zone to be respected. The government has sent an army contingent to help keep the situation under control.
In Bologna, more than 90 employees of a delivery company have tested positive for Covid-19, while in the provinces of Prato and Pistoia an outbreak has developed with 19 cases.
In Porto Empedocle, in the province of Agrigento, 28 migrants, rescued at sea, have tested positive for the virus. Asylum seekers are currently onboard a ferry just off the coast where they have been placed under quarantine.
In a squat outside Rome 15 new cases have emerged and a second outbreak has occurred in a hospital on the western edge of the capital with 109 cases and five deaths.
In an interview with the private television network La7, Massimo Galli, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Milan and director of infectious diseases at the Luigi Sacco hospital, said that these new clusters are proof that the virus continues to circulate.
“We can’t let our guard down,” he added.
Updated
The Czech health minister has said the country will open borders for travellers from Britain and Poland from this week despite a recent spike in Covid-19 cases at home.
The EU member state sealed off its borders on 16 March because of the pandemic.
“Poland’s Silesia region has moved up to the green zone so travellers won’t need negative tests or to undergo quarantine,” the minister Adam Vojtech told reporters.
“The same goes for Great Britain.”
Czech authorities expect to further ease the measures they adopted in March to combat Covid-19, though they will leave them in place in certain problem spots.
From 1 July, Czechs will no longer have to wear face masks except in hospitals, retirement homes, the Prague underground and two northeastern districts where the virus is spreading among miners and their relatives.
People in Prague will also have to wear face masks at indoor events with more than 100 people.
The country registered 305 new cases on Sunday, the fastest daily increase since 3 April.
More than 11,600 Czechs have so far tested positive and 348 have died. Between mid-April and mid-June, daily increases never exceeded 100 cases.
“This increase is due mainly to massive testing of miners and their contacts within the OKD mining company,” Vojtech said.
He also called on Czechs to remain vigilant as “the virus is still here with us,” but added that the overall situation was stable with most districts reporting no incidence of the disease.
The northeastern region will have to keep its night clubs shut. Public events have been restricted to 100 people there, while hospitals and retirement homes will be closed to visitors.
“We expect incidence in this region to fall in the days to come owing to all the testing,” said Vojtech.
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray, I’ll be taking over the global coronavirus live blog for the next few hours.
If you’ve got any stories, ideas or suggestions, please send them my way.
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
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The European Union is edging toward finalising a list of countries whose citizens will be allowed to enter Europe again in coming days, with Americans almost certain to be excluded in the short term due to the number of coronavirus cases in the country, reports AP.
Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, said that the list, which is likely to be made public Tuesday, could contain 15 countries that are not EU members and whose citizens would be allowed to visit from 1 July.
EU envoys in Brussels worked over the weekend to narrow down the exact criteria for countries to be included, mostly centred on their ability to manage the spread of the disease. Importantly, the countries are also expected to drop any travel restrictions they have imposed on European citizens.
Infection rates in Brazil, Russia and India are high, too, and their nationals are also unlikely to make the cut. Laya said the EU is considering whether to accept travelers from China if Beijing lifts restrictions on European citizens. Morocco is another possibility, although its government doesn’t plan to open borders until 10 July.
The safe country list would be reviewed every 14 days, with new countries being added and some possibly dropping off, depending on how the spread of the disease is being managed.
Ireland allows pubs, restaurants and gyms to reopen as lockdown lifts
Pubs, cafes, restaurants, hairdressers and gyms are reopening across Ireland on Monday as the country starts the most extensive lifting of Covid-19 restrictions since the lockdown began in March.
All internal travel restrictions have also been lifted, giving hotels and guest houses a chance to salvage some of the summer tourist season.
The government accelerated the relaxation, which started in cautious phases on 18 May, amid signs the disease remains under control. Latest figures on Sunday showed one person died, raising the total death toll to 1,735, and three new cases, raising the total of confirmed infections to 25,439.
However authorities are nervous about a rebound, especially via imported cases, and are reportedly considering delaying the planned easing of restrictions on international travel next month.
Businesses that reopen on Monday face a range of restrictions including social distancing and the use of protective equipment.
Cafés, restaurants and pubs that cannot implement the two-metre distancing rule can implement a one-metre rule in controlled environments if other risk mitigation requirements are met.
Only pubs that serve food – a customer must buy a meal worth at least €9 - are allowed to trade. Customers must leave after 105 minutes. The Vintners’ Federation of Ireland said most pubs will remain shut until the next phase of easing on 20 July.
A historic coalition government formed over the weekend will hold its first cabinet meeting on Monday.
Updated
China has announced visa restrictions on US citizens who have “behaved egregiously” over Hong Kong, ahead of the expected approval by Chinese lawmakers of a controversial national security law for the city, reports AFP.
The country is moving forward on a security law that would punish subversion and other offences against the state in Hong Kong, which saw massive and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests last year.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump’s administration said it was restricting US visas for a number of unspecified Chinese officials for infringing on the autonomy of the Asian financial hub. In response, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Monday that the US “scheme ... to obstruct the passage of the Hong Kong national security law will never prevail”.
“To target the US’s above wrongful actions, China has decided to impose visa restrictions against American individuals who have behaved egregiously on matters concerning Hong Kong,” Zhao said.
Demand and prices for personal protective equipment are soaring again across the US as coronavirus cases continue to rise in more than half of states.
One of the nation’s largest organisations donating personal protective equipment (PPE) said it had received a surge in requests from Covid-19 hotspots, especially in Texas, which has paused its reopening plans following record increases in cases and hospitalisations.
More here:
Updated
The Czech Republic reported 305 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the highest daily tally since 3 April, which the government said was mainly the result of an outbreak in an eastern mining area rather than a nationwide second wave of infection, reports Reuters.
The new cases, the fourth highest daily total on record, result mostly from blanket-testing of employees of coalmines operated by state-owned group OKD and of their family and other contacts, health minister Adam Vojtech said.
The affected regions of Karvina and Frydek-Mistek border Poland and Slovakia, which have also had elevated numbers in those frontier areas relative to other parts of those countries.
Vojtech said he hoped the numbers would come down in coming days once mine employees are tested. “We are convinced that the situation, while the numbers are quite high, is largely under control,” Vojtech told a news conference. “We are not seeing that the situation has an impact on the number of hospitalisations.”
Updated
Here’s a report on Boris Johnson’s interview with Times Radio this morning and also Keir Starmer’s appearance on Sky News, in which he accused the government of being “asleep at the wheel” and guilty of “a total lack of planning” on schools.
The Australian state of Victoria is experiencing a concerning rise in Covid-19 cases, with 75 new cases announced on Monday which were identified over the preceding 24 hours, one of the largest overnight jumps for the state since the pandemic began. For almost two weeks, the state has seen a double-digit rise in cases every day, and many are now trying to explain the spread, and asking who is responsible for it. More here:
Non-essential shops are reopening in Scotland today as lockdown restrictions are eased. Cue inevitable photographs of lengthy queues outside Primark:
We have updated our coronavirus world maps with the latest data:
Thailand will allow pubs and bars to re-open on Wednesday and plans to let in some foreign travellers after recording five weeks without any community transmission of the coronavirus, a government official said.
Pubs, bars and karaoke venues will be able to operate until midnight as long as they follow safety guidelines such as ensuring 2m spaces between tables.
“Alcohol consumption could reduce discipline so there will be close monitoring before customers enter venues,” Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government*s Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, told a briefing on Monday.
Foreigners with work permits, residency and families in Thailand will also be able to enter the country, but will be subject to a 14-day quarantine.
Taweesin said foreigners seeking certain types of medical treatment such as some cosmetic surgery or fertility treatment could also be allowed into the country. Business visitors from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China and Hong Kong could also be exempted from a two-week quarantine period under a fast-track entry scheme if they have certificates to show they were free from Covid-19 and were tested upon arrival. The country’s aviation regulator has banned international flights since April. “There is no proposal to change the flight suspension and travellers can return with repatriation flights and special flights,” he said.
The coronavirus has killed 58 people in Thailand, among 3,169 infections, while 3,053 patients have recovered. But the country has gone 35 days without community transmission and new cases have been among Thais returning from abroad and detected during quarantine.
Russia has reported 6,719 new cases of the novel coronavirus today, the lowest one-day reported increase since 29 April, pushing its nationwide tally to 641,156. The national coronavirus taskforce said 93 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 9,166.
Boris Johnson admits coronavirus 'has been a disaster' for UK
Boris Johnson has been interviewed on Times Radio, which launched this morning at 6am BST. He admitted the coronavirus crisis has been “a disaster” for the country:
This has been a disaster. Let’s not mince our words, I mean this has been an absolute nightmare for the country and the country has gone through a profound shock. But in those moments you have the opportunity to change and to do things better. We really want to build back better, to do things differently, to invest in infrastructure, transport, broadband - you name it.
He also admitted that there will have to be an inquiry into the government’s response, but insisted that it should happen later.
We owe it to all those who have died, all those who have suffered to look at exactly what went wrong and when. I totally understand that and we will. I happen to think that the moment is not right now, in the middle of really getting things going, still dealing with the pandemic, when everybody is flat out. I don’t think the moment is right now for consecrating a huge amount of official time to all that, but we are learning lessons the whole time and we obviously will draw the right conclusions for the future.
The coronavirus crisis has caused a dramatic deterioration in the European public perception of the US, extensive new polling from across Europe reveals. More than 60% of respondents in Germany, France, Spain, Denmark and Portugal said they had lost trust in the United States as a global leader.
A report based on the survey’s findings argues that the shock of the pandemic has “traumatised” European citizens, leaving them feeling “alone and vulnerable”.
In almost every country surveyed, a majority of people said their perception of the US had deteriorated since the outbreak. Negative attitudes of the US were most marked in Denmark (71%) Portugal (70%), France (68%), Germany (65%) and Spain (64%). In France, 46% and in Germany 42% said their view of the US had worsened “a lot” during the pandemic.
More here:
Talk of the potential lockdown of Leicester, which has seen a surge of coronavirus cases, is causing confusion and consternation, with those working in and for the city claiming there has been a lack of effective communication from central government. Here’s the city’s mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby:
Frankly it’s been intensely frustrating. It was only last Thursday that we finally got some of the data we need but we’re still not getting all of it and it was only at 1.04am that the recommendations for Leicester arrived in my inbox. What they’re suggesting is not a return to lockdown, it seems that what they’re suggesting is that we continue the present level of restriction for a further two weeks beyond 4 July. I’ve looked at this report and frankly it’s obviously been cobbled together very hastily. It’s superficial and its description of Leicester is inaccurate and certainly it does not provide us with the information we need if we are to remain restricted for two weeks longer than the rest of the country.
... and this is the director of public health in Leicester, Ivan Browne:
Interestingly it’s very much around the younger working-age population and predominately towards the east part of our city. I don’t think at the moment we’re seeing a single cause or a single smoking gun on this so we need really try to dig down and find out what is going on and it’s likely to be a combination of factors. Information has been challenging all the way through this. It has definitely been challenging and I think as director of public health we have really been pushing for some time to ask for as complete a data set as possible because that’s how we can really effectively start to challenge these things on the ground.
... and finally some limited support for the lockdown from the Labour MP for Leicester East, Claudia Webbe:
There are significant worries and significant problems in terms of inequalities and high levels of poverty that I’m concerned about. That is the context in which this Covid-19 is operating in. So I’m very concerned, and I really do believe that where the data allows we need to ensure that we engage in processes to protect lives, and I think we need to go into therefore more localised lockdown to protect lives and ensure that we can address this virus. The government hasn’t reassured us. Thus far, the messages and the communication from the government have been unclear, and it has been difficult, and I really don’t understand what communities are meant to follow.
Updated
Neha Wadekar and the photographer Brian Otieno have compiled this report on a new style of coronavirus-friendly church service in Nairobi, Kenya:
Updated
Away from coronavirus, there is a developing story coming out of the Pakistani port city of Karachi:
Tokyo Disneyland is due to reopen on Wednesday, and staff have been on-site today to practice their moves:
Thanks Helen, and morning/evening/whatever-it-is-where-you-are everyone. This is Simon Burnton taking on the live blog for the next few hours. If you have seen any stories that deserve our attention, or if you have any tips, comments or suggestions for our coverage then please let me know by sending me a message either to @Simon_Burnton on Twitter or via email. Thanks!
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. Thanks for following along – stay tuned for more live coverage with the force of nature that is my co-host, Simon Burnton.
Over to you, Simon.
Global report: deaths from Covid-19 pass half a million
The coronavirus pandemic has killed half a million people in just over six months, with the toll passing the sombre milestone of 500,000 known deaths on Sunday night.
The World Health Organization (WHO) was first alerted by authorities in China about a string of pneumonia-like cases in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, on 31 December 2019. Since then, 10 million people have tested positive for the virus, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, in at least 188 countries and territories worldwide, according to analysis by al-Jazeera.
The true death toll and number of cases is believed to be higher, due to differing testing rates and cause of death definitions, delays in reporting and suspected underreporting. But cases are rising by about a million a week, the WHO warned last week, with the rate of contagion doubling since 21 May, according to analysis by AFP.
The United States has by far the highest number of confirmed cases globally, with more than 2.5 million, and 125,803 deaths. Brazil, with the next highest confirmed cases and deaths has 1.3 million known infections and 57,622 deaths recorded.
The pandemic has caused mass unemployment in many countries, as lockdowns kept people in their homes and froze economic activity. Now, as many countries ease restrictions in the hope of restarting their economies, new outbreaks are emerging:
UK papers, Monday 29 June 2020
Here are a look at the coronavirus-related front pages from around the UK on this Monday morning. Many are leading on Sir Mark Sedwill quitting after weeks of tension over the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis:
GUARDIAN: UK’s top civil servant quits in victory for Cummings #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/o2DplFoPro
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 28, 2020
THE TIMES: PM pledges a decade of spending on schools #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/r46I8j4Mlm
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 28, 2020
TELEGRAPH : @BorisJohnson wants Brexiteer to head the civil service #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/SCS2lWxwU8
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 28, 2020
THE TIMES SCOTLAND: MPs warned over asylum seeker risk before attack #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/VojibyGQ0F
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 28, 2020
EXPRESS: @BorisJohnson takes axe to civil service #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/GccjvggIyd
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 28, 2020
THE NATIONAL: English border biggest risk to beating virus #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/ExrptVRxKD
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 28, 2020
MAIL: now wait a year for your hip Op #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/EWp3JlE9fi
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 28, 2020
THE SCOTSMAN: ‘Make or break’ for the high street as shops set to reopen #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/MhB8znLhEL
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 28, 2020
Monday briefing: Uproar as UK’s top civil servant quits
Sir Mark Sedwill, the UK’s top civil servant, is quitting after weeks of tension over the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis and his supposed opposition to reform in Whitehall. Sedwill, who has been criticised in off-the-record briefings to newspapers, wrote to Boris Johnson saying he would stand down as cabinet secretary and head of the civil service in September. His other role as national security adviser will be taken by Johnson’s chief Brexit adviser, David Frost. His departure will be seen as a victory for the prime minister’s top aide, Dominic Cummings, who has clashed with Sedwill in a struggle for power in Whitehall. Lord Kerslake, a former head of the civil service, said Sedwill had been unfairly smeared by Johnson’s aides and that his treatment was “unacceptable”. Appointed by Theresa May, Sedwill’s comment that a no-deal Brexit would be disastrous for Britain has set him on a collision course with the PM’s coterie of Vote Leave staffers.
The UK’s energy regulator plans to make some of the rules designed to protect customers struggling financially during the Covid-19 crisis a permanent part of its oversight from this winter.
Ofgem plans to call on energy suppliers to offer customers having difficulty in topping up their energy meters or paying their gas and electricity bills emergency top-up vouchers or breathing space on bill payments.
Jonathan Brearley, the chief executive of Ofgem, said the new rules would reduce the number of customers forced to go without lights and heating because they are unable to afford to top up their prepaid meters.
Energy suppliers agreed in March to sign up to the measures on a voluntary basis to help customers affected by lockdown measures, but under the new plans Ofgem will make the rules permanent:
China 'seals off' more than 400,000 in Anxin county to tackle small Covid-19 cluster
Authorities have put almost half a million people in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, under lockdown as a fresh outbreak in the capital continues to fan fears of a second wave of the coronavirus.
Anxin county, about 145km (90 miles) from Beijing, has “sealed off” residential areas and restricted people from leaving their homes. Only one person from each household can leave once a day with a special pass to get necessities such as food or medicine, according to the measures announced and put into immediate effect on Sunday.
All other residents, aside from those who need medical help, are to stay at home until further notice, said local authorities. “Every village, neighbourhood and building must mobilise party members, volunteers, and staff” to join the “fight” against the outbreak, the notice said.
Summary
Here are the most important developments from the last few hours:
-
The total number of people to test positive for Covid-19 worldwide has exceeded 10 million, while deaths passed 500,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. It stands at 10,117,700, while known global deaths stand at 501,281.
- US health secretary Alex Azar has warned that “the window is closing” on the country’s chance to take action to effectively curb the coronavirus, as the number of confirmed cases surpassed 2.5m. The Health and Human Services secretary pointed to a recent surge in infections, particularly in the south and said people have “to act responsibly” by social distancing and wearing face masks especially “in these hot zones”.
- In response to a surge in US cases, California governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday ordered bars in seven counties – an area home to 13.5 million residents – to close. California had already ordered some areas to reinstate stay-at-home orders, and San Francisco announced a “pause” in its reopening.
- In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis conceded there had been an “explosion” in new cases as the state notched a record 9,585 cases in 24 hours. Young people frustrated by months of confinement have poured back to the state’s beaches, boardwalks and bars, often without masks and seemingly unconcerned about social distancing.
- The premier of Victoria, Australia is considering stay-at-home orders and suburban lockdowns to contain several coronavirus clusters in Melbourne, after more than 70 cases of coronavirus were confirmed on Monday.
- The biggest job creation package in peacetime is needed for the UK to prevent the worst unemployment crisis for a generation, a leading thinktank warned.
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Half of Tokyo residents oppose Olympics in 2021: poll. Just over half of Tokyo’s residents don’t think the postponed 2020 Olympics should be held next year, backing either a further delay or outright cancellation because of fears over the coronavirus, according to a poll published Monday.
- The Philippines’ strictly enforced coronavirus lockdown has severely disrupted access to family planning services and could lead to the highest number of births in two decades, with projections by the University of the Philippines Population Institute and the United Nations Population Fund suggesting an additional 214,000 babies could be born next year as a result of unplanned pregnancies caused by the pandemic.
- Miami announced beaches would close over the 4 July holiday weekend and bars are also shutting their doors. New coronavirus cases have been surging in more than half of US states, reaching record highs.
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Beijing’s city government reported seven new Covid-19 cases for 28 June, down from 14 a day earlier. China has imposed a strict lockdown on nearly half a million people in a province surrounding the capital to contain a fresh cluster, as authorities warn the outbreak is still “severe and complicated”. Health officials say Anxin county - about 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Beijing - will be “fully enclosed and controlled”, the same strict measures imposed at the height of the pandemic in the city of Wuhan earlier this year.
- Brazil recorded 30,476 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 552 additional deaths, the health ministry said on Sunday. The country has now registered a total of 1,344,143 confirmed cases and 57,622 deaths.
- Sudan is extending a lockdown in the state of Khartoum aimed at curbing the spread of the new coronavirus by one week until 7 July, the government spokesman said on Sunday.From 8 July there will be a gradual return to normal, though a night curfew will be imposed from 6 pm until 5 am, Faisal Salih told Reuters. Sudan has confirmed 9,258 cases of the coronavirus, including 572 deaths.
More on the Tokyo Olympics:
Officials from Japan and the International Olympic Committee have warned it will not be possible to postpone again, and even the year-long delay has created significant financial and logistical headaches, AFP reports.
The poll, conducted ahead of the Tokyo gubernatorial election on 5 July, also found incumbent Yuriko Koike leading her opponents “by a large margin”.
Her precise lead was not specified, in keeping with a media tradition of not publishing polling figures in the days before a vote.
Koike has been heavily involved in preparations for the Games, travelling to Rio for the handover ceremony after the last Summer Olympics.
Earlier this month, she told AFP that the rescheduled Olympics will be safe despite the coronavirus pandemic, pledging a “120% effort” to ensure the first-ever postponed Games can go ahead.
Half of Tokyo residents oppose Olympics in 2021: poll
Just over half of Tokyo’s residents don’t think the postponed 2020 Olympics should be held next year, backing either a further delay or outright cancellation because of fears over the coronavirus, according to a poll published Monday, AFP reports.
The survey carried out by two Japanese news organisations is only a single data point, but comes after health experts warned that even a year’s delay may not be sufficient to hold the Games safely.
The poll conducted over the weekend found 51.7% of respondents hope the Games in 2021 are postponed again or cancelled, while 46.3% want to see the rescheduled Olympics go ahead.
Among those opposed to a 2021 Games, 27.7% said they want them cancelled altogether, while 24.0% would prefer a second postponement.
The telephone poll, conducted by Kyodo News and Tokyo MX television between June 26-28, received 1,030 replies.
Of those who said they want to see the Games held next year, 31.1% said the event should be in a scaled-back form, including without spectators, while 15.2% said they wanted to see a full-blown Olympics.
Tokyo 2020 was postponed in March as the coronavirus spread across the globe, causing the worst disruption to the Olympics since two editions were cancelled during World War II.
The Games are now scheduled to begin on July 23, 2021, although they will still be known as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Azar says ‘window closing’ to halt US coronavirus spread as Pence urges people to wear masks – video
As confirmed coronavirus cases in the US surpass 2.5m, US health secretary Alex Azar warns ‘the window is closing’ on halting its spread. The US has suffered a recent surge in infections, with states across the west and south among the hardest hit. Speaking in Texas, the vice president Mike Pence says wearing mask is ‘a good idea’ when social distancing cannot be maintained, and also notes there is a spike in cases among younger Americans:
The full story on the case increase in the state of Victoria, Australia now:
Victoria has recorded its highest daily jump in locally acquired Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began, with 75 people testing positive and only one confirmed to be a returned international traveller.
“I think it will get worse before it gets better,” the state’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, said.
“It is a concerning number. But it is very hard to make predictions in this space.”
He suggested that similar numbers could be expected in the days to come.
Victoria’s health minister, Jenny Mikakos, said on Monday most cases were from hotspot suburbs in the city’s north and west.
“Many of the cases that have come through today are overwhelmingly concentrated in those priority suburbs. We’ve got many cases across the inner northern suburbs and the western suburbs of Melbourne, but not exclusively.”
At the height of the first wave, Victoria reached 111 new cases in a day, but a much smaller proportion contracted the disease locally.
Coronavirus lockdown could lead to 214,000 extra babies in the Philippines
Guardian South-east Asia correspondent Rebecca Ratcliffe reports with Carmela Fonbuena in Manila:
The Philippines’ strictly enforced coronavirus lockdown has severely disrupted access to family planning services and could lead to the highest number of births in the country in two decades, it has been warned.
Movement restrictions imposed in March prevented both patients and medical staff from reaching clinics for months, and are now causing shortages of condoms and other contraceptives in some areas, according to health workers.
Nandy Senoc, executive director of the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines said that while his staff continued operating throughout the lockdown, all work has been negatively impacted. Government facilities officially remained open, he added, but in reality services were inaccessible.
The Catholic-majority country has recorded more than 35,400 coronavirus cases, with the national capital region, Metro Manila, the hardest hit. In total, 1,244 deaths have been recorded.
Though quarantine measures have since been eased, public transport remains disrupted, and some family planning facilities are open only with skeletal staffing, to allow space for social distancing.
Australian governments need to pour an extra $70bn to $90bn into stimulus and support measures to help the nation weather the biggest economic shock since the second world war, according to a new report.
Setting out a wide-ranging agenda for the next six months, the Grattan Institute argues governments need to phase out coronavirus-related emergency support measures more slowly than currently planned to avoid a “fiscal cliff” that could “put a handbrake on the recovery”.
It also calls on governments to roll out other forms of economic stimulus including extra rent assistance and childcare subsidies.
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Updated
AP has this report from Pride in New York:
There were protests, rainbow flags and performances it was LGBTQ Pride, after all.
But what was normally an outpouring on the streets of New York City looked a little different this year, thanks to social distancing rules required by the coronavirus.
With the city’s massive Pride parade canceled, Sunday’s performances were virtual, the flags flew in emptier than normal spaces and the protesters were masked.
The disruption caused by the virus would be an aggravation in any year, but particularly in this one, the 50th anniversary of the first Pride march in New York City.
A number of people in the crowd at Foley Square held signs reading All Black Lives Matter, with a black fist surrounded by rainbow colours. Most wore masks, though some scrapped social distancing in favour of hugging friends. One man held a sign advertising free hugs.
The first Pride march, on 28 June 1970, was a marker of the Stonewall uprisings of the year before in New York City’s West Village that helped propel a global LGBTQ movement.
A quarter of businesses in the Pacific are not confident they will survive the coronavirus pandemic despite the region largely avoiding the pandemic health crises seen elsewhere, a survey of businesses across the region shows.
Ninety per cent of businesses have lost money, and many are already struggling with the effects of recent natural disasters. Sixty-five per cent have been “negatively impacted” by weather, including extreme rainfall or temperatures, flooding, drought or rising sea levels over the past year, a further survey by Pacific Trade Invest Australia found.
The impacts on businesses are harming Pacific communities all the way down, to the base fundamentals of families trying to put food on tables. While the Pacific has not seen widespread coronavirus infections, the shutting of international borders has paralysed economies, and devastated household incomes.
The surge in Covid-19 cases in Victoria, Australia and strict new quarantine regulations issued by the Queensland state government has thrown the recently-recommenced football seasons into chaos, with the AFL forced into a last-minute change of this week’s fixture.
Victoria announced 75 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday as the Queensland government moved to require any Queensland team, or team based in the state, to quarantine for 14 days if they play against a team from Melbourne.
Victoria, Australia reports 75 new cases – highest since April
The Australian state of Victoria, which is battling a new coronavirus outbreak, has reported 75 new coronavirus cases overnight, taking the state’s total yo 2,099 (four previous cases were reclassified, meaning there was a net increase of 71 cases).
The number of cases is the highest since April, and higher than yesterday’s record of 49.
While the state’s one-day case record is 106, mainly from overseas travellers, Monday’s cases mark the highest in what is believed to be local transmission: technically most of these cases are “under investigation”, but since all returned travellers to Victoria quarantined, it is extremely unlikely any of those under investigation are from overseas.
On Sunday, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said the state would consider potential stay-at-home orders and suburban lockdowns to contain the coronavirus clusters in Melbourne.
Last week, Australian supermarkets reintroduced national rationing of essential groceries after panic buying resumed in some states, provoked by the rise in cases in Victoria.
The state health minister, Jenny Mikakos, said on Monday:
The breakdown is we have one case in hotel quarantine, 14 linked to outbreaks, 37 were detected through routine testing and 23 are still under investigation and as you would appreciate, as new cases come through in some cases very late into the previous evening, we are still looking and the Department is still looking at potential further links to known outbreaks of those ones that are both through routine testing as well as the ones under investigation.
Thankfully, we have no new deaths reported overnight, that number remains at 20.
(Note: we have changed the one-day case record for Victoria from 111 to 106, as this was an error)
Updated
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce massive spending plans Monday to boost Britain’s coronavirus-hit economy, as pressure grows on the government over its handling of the crisis.
Johnson’s new package of measures is intended to meet the unprecedented challenge the pandemic has posed to the economy, and restore the government’s standing.
But with unemployment at almost three million and expected to rise, and the economy having contracted by 20 percent in April as the country went into lockdown, he has a mountain to climb.
Johnson was to announce a £1 billion school-rebuilding plan Monday (1.1 bn euros, $1.2 bn), the first plank of a major infrastructure spending programme.
In a statement, Johnson said the schools funding would finance the first 50 projects of a 10-year school rebuilding strategy.
“All children deserve the best possible start in life - regardless of their background or where they live,” said Johnson, who was educated at the elite Eton school.
Then on Tuesday he is expected to make a speech further outlining fresh infrastructure spending in a policy move already dubbed “Project Speed”.
In an interview published in the Mail on Sunday newspaper Johnson pledged to build new roads, schools and hospitals to kick-start a British recovery.
Beijing reports 7 new cases
Beijing’s city government reported seven new Covid-19 cases for 28 June, down from 14 a day earlier as the Chinese capital seeks to contain an outbreak.
The city also reported one new asymptomatic case, a patient who has the coronavirus but is not exhibiting symptoms, compared with three such cases a day earlier.
More than 100 regional newspaper publishers and broadcasters across Australia are set to gain funding through a federal government scheme to help media deal with “catastrophic” declines in advertising revenue.
Many regional newspapers have suspended publishing due to underlying financial pressures exacerbated by the pandemic, raising concerns about the loss of local voices and erosion of vital democratic scrutiny.
Asian share markets got off to a shaky start on Monday as the relentless spread of the coronavirus finally made investors question their optimism on the global economy, benefiting safe harbour bonds and the US dollar, Reuters reports.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.2% and further away from a four-month top hit last week. Japan’s Nikkei shed 1.5% and South Korean stocks 1.4%. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 lost 0.3%.
Wall Street had faltered on Friday as some U.S. States reconsidered their reopening plans. The global death toll from Covid-19 reached half a million people on Sunday, according to a Reuters tally.
About one-quarter of all the deaths so far have been in the United States, with cases surging in a handful of southern and western states that reopened earlier.
“The increase in US Covid-19 infection rates has dented momentum across markets despite the improvements in the global economy, which continues to beat most data expectations,” wrote analysts at JPMorgan in a note.
“Our strategists remain sanguine and recommend to buy on dips but also selectivity,” they added. “Traditional hedges like JPY vs USD, USD vs EM FX, Gold and quality stocks are still outperforming this month. We stay overweight US equities but move EM equities to neutral and stay neutral US credit.”
In commodity markets, gold held near its highest since early 2012 at $1,771 an ounce. Oil prices slipped amid concerns the pandemic would slow the reopening of some economies and thus hurt demand for fuel.
Brent crude futures fell 62 cents to $40.40 a barrel, while US crude lost 60 cents to $37.89.
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Mexico’s health ministry reported on Sunday 4,050 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 267 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 216,852 cases and 26,648 deaths.
The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
More than quarter of a million cancer sufferers have been struggling with panic and anxiety attacks during lockdown and are now facing new fears about the loosening of restrictions, research has revealed.
The study, by Macmillan Cancer Support, found fear levels among UK cancer sufferers have been so high that 270,000 people have experienced panic or anxiety attacks or even suicidal thoughts because of coronavirus.
Since the start of the pandemic, over half a million people with cancer have barely left their homes and around a fifth of them say they will stay indoors until a vaccine or effective treatment is widely available, regardless of recent changes to government shielding guidance, the charity found following a survey this month.
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UK needs 'biggest-ever peacetime job creation plan' to stop mass unemployment
The biggest job creation package in peacetime is needed to prevent the worst unemployment crisis in Britain for a generation, a leading thinktank has warned.
Sounding the alarm as job losses mount, the Resolution Foundation called on the government to continue subsidising the wages of workers in the sectors of the economy hardest hit by the Covid-19 crisis until at least the end of next year.
It said the coronavirus job retention scheme – which is supporting the wages of more than 9 million workers at a cost to the taxpayer of more than £22bn so far – should be turned into a job protection scheme that would be kept in place throughout 2021.
Under current plans, the scheme will close to new entrants on Wednesday. Firms will be asked to contribute to furloughed workers’ wages from August, regardless of whether they operate in sectors of the economy that remain closed under government rules, before it closes entirely at the end of October.
The intervention came as Labour, union bosses and business leaders pressure the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to use his planned summer statement next month to extend support to prevent a looming jobs crisis from taking hold.
California governor orders bars to close in seven counties
California Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered bars that have opened in seven counties to immediately close.
Newsom is urging bars in eight other counties to do the same, saying the coronavirus is rapidly spreading in some parts of the state.
The counties under the mandatory bar closure order include Los Angeles, Fresno, San Joaquin, Kings, Kern, Imperial and Tulare counties.
State officials asked eight other counties to issue local health orders closing bars include Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Sacramento, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Stanislaus.
Brazil records over 30,000 new cases
Brazil recorded 30,476 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 552 additional deaths, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.
The nation has now registered 1,344,143 total confirmed cases of the virus and 57,622 deaths.
Half a million confined in Beijing
China has imposed a strict lockdown on nearly half a million people in a province surrounding the capital to contain a fresh cluster, as authorities warn the outbreak is still “severe and complicated”, AFP reports.
Health officials say Anxin county - about 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Beijing - will be “fully enclosed and controlled”, the same strict measures imposed at the height of the pandemic in the city of Wuhan earlier this year.
The move comes after another 14 cases of the virus are reported in the past 24 hours in Beijing, taking the total to 311 since mid-June and spurring the testing of millions of residents.
US health secretary: ‘Window is closing’ to stop coronavirus in country
US health secretary Alex Azar has warned that “the window is closing” on the country’s chance to take action to effectively curb the coronavirus, as the number of confirmed cases surpassed 2.5m.
The Health and Human Services secretary pointed to a recent surge in infections, particularly in the south and said people have “to act responsibly” by social distancing and wearing face masks especially “in these hot zones”.
For a third consecutive day on Saturday, the number of confirmed US cases rose by more than 40,000. In Arizona, cases have risen by 267% so far in June and jumped by a record 3,857 cases on Sunday, the eighth record-breaking increase this month. Overall, US deaths from Covid-19 have passed 125,000 with more than 2.5m confirmed cases, according to compiled by Johns Hopkins University, far more than any other country in the world.
The fresh surge in Covid-19 cases has been most pronounced in a handful of southern and western states that reopened earlier and more aggressively, with the support of the Trump administration, despite warnings by health officials to wait to see a steady decline in cases. Texas and Florida were among the states that reversed course on parts of their reopening plans last week as cases continue to increase.
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Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
I’ll be taking you through the next few hours of Covid-19 news from around the world – a reminder that you can get in touch with me directly on Twitter or via email at the details below. Questions, comments, feedback, tips, news, lavish praise are all welcome:
Twitter: @helenrsullivan
Email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com
US health secretary Alex Azar has warned that “the window is closing” on the country’s chance to take action to effectively curb the coronavirus, as the number of confirmed cases in the US surpassed 2.5m.
Meanwhile, more than half a million people have died so far over the course of the pandemic, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government data. The US has the highest death toll at 125,763, followed by Brazil at 57,070. Some 43,634 people have died in the UK.
The true numbers of deaths and cases – which passed 10, on Sunday – are likely to be higher due to differing definitions and testing rates, delays and suspected underreporting.
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The total number of people to test positive for Covid-19 worldwide has exceeded 10 million, while deaths passed 500,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. It stands at 10,070,339, while known global deaths stand at 500,306.
- US health secretary Alex Azar has warned that “the window is closing” on the country’s chance to take action to effectively curb the coronavirus, as the number of confirmed cases surpassed 2.5m. The Health and Human Services secretary pointed to a recent surge in infections, particularly in the south and said people have “to act responsibly” by social distancing and wearing face masks especially “in these hot zones”.
- Brazil recorded 30,476 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 552 additional deaths, the health ministry said on Sunday. The country has now registered a total of 1,344,143 confirmed cases and 57,622 deaths.
- Sudan is extending a lockdown in the state of Khartoum aimed at curbing the spread of the new coronavirus by one week until 7 July, the government spokesman said on Sunday.From 8 July there will be a gradual return to normal, though a night curfew will be imposed from 6 pm until 5 am, Faisal Salih told Reuters. Sudan has confirmed 9,258 cases of the coronavirus, including 572 deaths.
- The premier of Victoria, Australia is considering stay-at-home orders and suburban lockdowns to contain several coronavirus clusters in Melbourne, after another 49 cases of coronavirus were detected on Saturday – the highest daily number since April.
- Mask-wearing will be mandatory in certain areas of Iran as of next week and virus-hit provinces can reimpose restrictive measures, president Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday.
- LGBT+ Brazilians are being disproportionately impacted by Covid-19 job losses, a survey has found. A report by advocacy group #VoteLGBT has found that one in four unemployed gay and trans Brazilians has lost their job recently during the coronavirus outbreak – almost double the nation’s overall rate.
- Sri Lanka officially lifted its nationwide lockdown on Sunday, after a selective curfew was reimposed a month ago during a surge in coronavirus infections. The island nation imposed the lockdown on March 20 and lifted it gradually over the past two months, although a nighttime curfew remained in place.
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