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The Treasury is reviewing a “radical” proposal for a new state-owned body that would manage £35bn of toxic coronavirus debt and help save up to 780,000 British businesses.
A City taskforce, the Recapitalisation Group, led by EY and the lobby group TheCityUK, is recommending that a government-owned UK Recovery Corporation be established to handle a growing pile of unsustainable government-backed debt that could otherwise wipe out thousands of businesses and lead to 3 million job losses:
Hi, Helen Sullivan joining you now. Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
Brazil has suffered 1,233 more deaths and registered 39,924 new cases, its health ministry has said. The country has now recorded a total off 75,366 deaths and confirmed 1,996,748 cases in all, making it the world’s second worst-affected.
As the figures were released, the far-right president, who has repeatedly dismissed the dangers posed by the pandemic, publicly acknowledged a second positive test that suggests he has not recovered. Bolsonaro told reporters he would get tested again in a few days.
He continued to play down the country’s mounting death toll and said his good physical condition would prevent him from developing serious symptoms if he got ill.
Bolsonaro has also sidelined medical experts in Brazil’s handling of the pandemic, pushed back against state and city lockdowns and circulated often in public without a mask, drawing criticism from public health specialists.
He has also said he was taking the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, an unproven Covid-19 treatment that he and Trump have touted as a remedy. Bolsonaro’s pressure to use the drug alienated two health ministers who resigned in the middle of the pandemic. The ministry is being led on an interim basis by an active duty army general.
Scotland could ask people arriving from England to quarantine, its first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said. In an interview with ITV’s Peston programme due to be broadcast in the next couple of hours, she has said:
Scotland would have the ability through public health measures to ask people to quarantine if they came to Scotland. And I’ve said, again, this is not political, it is not constitutional, I’m taking these decisions purely from a public health perspective. We do see prevalence of the virus at a lower level at the moment – although we’re not complacent – than we do in England.
But that’s not something I want to do if we can avoid that. I think the first thing we want to do is work very constructively as we do already with authorities in England to look at good outbreak management and where that requires localised travel restrictions, then rely on that in the first instance.
But I’m not going to shy away from doing anything that I think is necessary and appropriate and effective in protecting people in Scotland from a virus that we know now to our painful cost can take life and also as we are increasingly learning can do a lot of long-term health damage to people.
Discussing Scotland’s differing approach to England’s easing of lockdown measures, she said:
Well, my calculation is that if we are more successful in driving the virus to very low levels, getting as close as possible to elimination of it before a potential second wave in the autumn and winter, then we will build ourselves a much more sustainable foundation for economic recovery.
So, the judgement is that taking a couple of weeks, and that’s pretty much what we’re talking about here, longer to come out of lockdown, if that buys us a more sustainable recovery in the medium to long term, then that’s the right thing to do.
And Sturgeon celebrated the lifting of some of the restrictions in Scotland:
The sweetest reunion of all #hairdresser #Julie pic.twitter.com/toBnQ4Qmmi
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) July 15, 2020
Summary
Here are the latest developments:
- Magaluf is closing its party strip of Punta Ballena after footage of drunken British tourists flouting regulations about wearing masks and social distancing while dancing on cars prompted an outcry. The Balearic Islands’ tourism minister also announced the closure of two other notorious party strips.
- Ireland delayed the easing of lockdown measures and introduced a requirement that face coverings be worn in shops. The taoiseach Micheál Martin said the pause was disappointing, but necessary.
- A war of words between Trump allies and the White House’s top infectious disease expert continued. Dr Anthony Fauci said he could not understand efforts by some to discredit him, though the US president himself rebuked his own aide over the criticism.
-
Spain has recorded 390 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours - the highest single-day figure since 22 May. Most of the new cases are in the northeastern regions of Aragón and Catalonia.
- The US has seen 67,000 cases in a single day – the highest number in 24 hours so far, according to the John Hopkins university of medicine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the figure at 60,971.
- Iran said today that 140 of its health workers had died of coronavirus and 5,000 have been infected. Amnesty International has estimated that more than 3,000 health workers have died globally, although it says the figure is likely to be a significant underestimate.
- The Irish government has postponed the scheduled reopening of pubs, due to happen on Monday, until 10 August because of a spike in coronavirus cases. The Irish Independent also reported that the cabinet is expected to recommend that face coverings become mandatory in inside settings and that foreign travel be discouraged.
- Levels of childhood immunisations against dangerous diseases such as measles, tetanus and diphtheria have dropped alarmingly during the Covid-19 pandemic, putting millions of children at risk, United Nations agencies have warned.
- The European commission said today that European Union states should bring forward vaccinations against flu to the summer to reduce the risk of simultaneous influenza and Covid-19 outbreaks in the autumn. It also urged states to increase the number of people vaccinated.
- Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is making face coverings mandatory for shoppers in all its stores from Monday. It said that about 65% of its more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is already some form of government mandate on face coverings and by making it compulsory in all outlets it will bring consistency.
South Africa’s caseload has exceeded 300,000, the greatest national figure on the continent and among the top 10 in the world.
The nation recorded a rise of 12,757 cases on Wednesday to reach 311,049, its health ministry said a little more than four months since the first case was found. It has tested 2,278,127 people so far and has seen a total of 160,693 recoveries and 4,453 deaths.
Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has again tested positive, according to CNN Brasil, suggesting the far-right leader has yet to recover from his initial diagnosis announced a week ago.
Since becoming ill, Bolsonaro has said he remains in good health and earlier this week said he would resume his normal work schedule if he tested negative.
Here’s a little more on that announcement from Martin, who has said:
One thing has not changed, this virus has not changed. Indiscriminate in its cruelty and relentless as ever in finding new hosts so it can continue to spread ... I know some of the steps I’m announcing this evening will come as a disappointment to some. But we care for our families, we care for our neighbours, we care for our communities.
Ireland is to delay the reopening of all pubs until 10 August, the taoiseach Micheál Martin has confirmed.
Plans to increase the numbers who can gather both indoors and out were also postponed amid warnings about clusters of infection. The wearing of face coverings will be made compulsory in shops and other indoor public spaces. Plans to roll out phase four of the emergence from lockdown have been put on hold. Martin said:
It will be understood for what it is. Protection of the progress, the undoubted progress we have made to date ... It is the right thing to do – to press the pause button. It is very disappointing for publicans in particular.
Martin said unrestricted house parties had been linked to recent outbreaks. The acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said:
It is a pause. Compared to many countries around the world we are still in a good position. The challenge is to maintain that good position and ensure that the good work over many months is not lost.
Updated
The number of deaths in France rose by 91 from Monday to stand at 30,120, the country’s health department has said. There was no count for Tuesday, which was a national holiday.
The Health Ministry said the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 fell to 6,915 from 6,983 on 13 July, continuing a weeks-long downward trend. The number of people in intensive care units was down to 482 from 492.
The US president Donald Trump has issued a rare rebuke of his senior adviser Peter Navarro, saying he should not have written the scathing USA Today opinion piece about Dr Fauci. Navarro, a trade adviser who at times has expanded his reach within the Trump White House, wrote:
Dr Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.
The initial lack of a pushback from the White House for the article fed a belief that Navarro’s article was supported at the top levels of the White House. But, departing for a trip to Atlanta, Trump was asked whether Navarro had gone rogue.
Well, he made a statement representing himself. He shouldn’t be doing that. No, I have a very good relationship with Anthony.
A White House official told Reuters that Trump did not endorse Navarro’s article and that Navarro was told “explicitly in recent days to de-escalate the situation”. The official said that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows felt Navarro’s article was “unacceptable”.
In the US, the top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has said he cannot not understand the effort by some in the White House to discredit him, calling it a mistake. In an interview with The Atlantic, he has said:
You know, it is a bit bizarre. I don’t really fully understand it. I think if you talk to reasonable people in the White House they realise that was a major mistake on their part because it doesn’t do anything but reflect poorly on them. And I don’t think that was their intention.
Summary
Here are the latest developments:
- Magaluf is closing its party strip of Punta Ballena after footage of drunken British tourists flouting regulations about wearing masks and social distancing while dancing on cars prompted an outcry. The Balearic Islands’ tourism minister also announced the closure of two other notorious party strips.
-
Spain has recorded 390 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours - the highest single-day figure since 22 May. Most of the new cases are in the northeastern regions of Aragón and Catalonia.
- The US has seen 67,000 cases in a single day – the highest number in 24 hours so far, according to the John Hopkins university of medicine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the figure at 60,971.
- Iran said today that 140 of its health workers had died of coronavirus and 5,000 have been infected. Amnesty International has estimated that more than 3,000 health workers have died globally, although it says the figure is likely to be a significant underestimate.
- The Irish government has postponed the scheduled reopening of pubs, due to happen on Monday, until 10 August because of a spike in coronavirus cases. The Irish Independent also reported that the cabinet is expected to recommend that face coverings become mandatory in inside settings and that foreign travel be discouraged.
- Levels of childhood immunisations against dangerous diseases such as measles, tetanus and diphtheria have dropped alarmingly during the Covid-19 pandemic, putting millions of children at risk, United Nations agencies have warned.
- The European commission said today that European Union states should bring forward vaccinations against flu to the summer to reduce the risk of simultaneous influenza and Covid-19 outbreaks in the autumn. It also urged states to increase the number of people vaccinated.
- Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is making face coverings mandatory for shoppers in all its stores from Monday. It said that about 65% of its more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is already some form of government mandate on face coverings and by making it compulsory in all outlets it will bring consistency.
The US has suffered 773 more deaths and registered 60,971 new cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has said. That takes the respective totals to 135,991 and 3,416,428.
A Bangladesh hospital owner accused of issuing thousands of fake negative coronavirus test results to patients at his two clinics was arrested today while trying to fleeing to India in a burqa, police said.From AFP:
The arrest marked the end of a nine-day manhunt for Mohammad Shahed over allegations of giving fake certificates to patients saying they were virus-free without even testing them.
Shahed, 42, was one of more than a dozen people detained by authorities over the past few days in connection with the scam.
Experts warn the false documents has worsened the already dire virus situation in the country of 168 million people by casting doubt about the veracity of certificates issued by clinics.
Rapid Action Battalion spokesman Colonel Ashique Billah told AFP:
He was arrested from the bank of a border river as he was trying to flee to India. He was wearing a burqa. His hospitals carried out 10,500 coronavirus tests, out of which 4,200 were genuine and the rest, 6,300 test reports, were given without conducting tests.
Shahed is also accused of charging for the certificates and virus treatments even though he had agreed with the government that his hospitals in the capital Dhaka would provide free care.
A well-known doctor and her husband were also arrested by police and accused of issuing thousands of fake virus certificates at their Dhaka laboratory.
The alleged scams could badly hurt migrant workers seeking to go abroad and whose remittances are key to Bangladesh’s economy, said Shakirul Islam of migrant rights group OKUP.
Italy last week suspended flights to Rome from Bangladesh to stem the spate of coronavirus cases within the community after several passengers arriving from Dhaka had tested positive for Covid-19. Islam claimed. Islam said:
Some of the Bangladeshis who were tested positive in Italy were allegedly carrying negative Covid certificates from Bangladesh. The government must ensure quality of Covid-19 tests in local laboratories for the sake of its overseas job market.
Nearly $19 billion was sent back to Bangladesh by an estimated 12 million migrant workers last year, according to the central bank.
Bangladesh has reported just over 193,000 infections and 2,457 deaths so far. But medical experts say the real figures are likely much higher because so little testing has been carried out.
The impoverished country has restarted economic activities after lifting a months-long virus lockdown at the end of May, even as the number of cases continues to rise.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is enforcing partial coronavirus restrictions in the capital, Manila, for another two weeks, and warned that stricter curbs would be reinstated if the rise in new cases and deaths does not slow down, Reuters reports.
The Philippines this week recorded Southeast Asia’s biggest daily jump in coronavirus deaths and saw hospital occupancy grow sharply, after a tripling of infections since a tough lockdown was eased on 1 June to allow more movement and commerce.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said today.
It was clear during our discussion that if the spread of the virus in Manila will not slow, it is possible that stricter quarantine measures would be reimposed after two weeks.
Confirmed cases in the capital region have more than doubled to 29,015 since June.
Schools are to remain closed, operations of shopping malls and dine-in eateries limited, mass gatherings banned, social distancing enforced on public transport, and children and the elderly urged to stay at home.
Under tighter regulations in force from mid-March to the end of May, public transport was barred, working from home instituted where possible, and only one person per household allowed out for essential goods.
Duterte eased lockdown measures in Cebu from tomorrow after the central city recorded a decline in the number of confirmed cases, although it still accounted for 10% of the 58,850 total infections in the country.
Navotas, a city of 250,000 in the National Capital Region surrounding Manila, will return to lockdown from tomorrow after cases tripled since June, its mayor said this week.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque said earlier today the government had “successfully flattened the curve since April” because Covid-19 cases were growing slower, with the rate of doubling of infections now at 8.28 days from 4.8 days in May.
To prevent wider transmission, the government said it would use police to carry out house-to-house searches for patients so they can be isolated and brought to quarantine facilities where they can be properly managed.
The Irish government has postponed the scheduled reopening of pubs, due to happen on Monday, until 10 August because of a spike in coronavirus cases, the Irish Independent reports.
The report says the cabinet is also expected to recommend that face coverings become mandatory in inside settings and that foreign travel be discouraged.
Spain records most cases since 22 May
Spain has recorded 390 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours - the highest single-day figure since 22 May.
Most of the new cases are in the northeastern regions of Aragón and Catalonia.
To date, the country has confirmed 257,494 cases of the disease and 28,413 deaths, according to figures from the health ministry.
On Wednesday the health minister, Salvador Illa, said there were 171 small outbreaks across the country, of which 120 were active.
Updated
A Republican governor who has backed one of the US’s most aggressive reopening plans, resisted any statewide mandate on masks and who rarely wears one himself, has tested positive for coronavirus, AP reports.
Kevin Stitt said he is isolating at home, the news agency reports. Stitt, a first-term governor, attended President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa last month, which health experts have said likely contributed to a surge in coronavirus cases there.
Oklahoma has seen a dramatic increase in the number of people testing positive for Covid-19, with nearly 22,000 confirmed positive cases in the state and 428 total deaths.
One of Stitt’s cabinet members, David Ostrowe, tested positive for coronavirus in March.
Updated
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is making face coverings mandatory for shoppers in all its stores from Monday.
It comes as the US recorded another new high number of daily cases (67,000).
The directive applies to Walmart stores as well as its wholesale Sam’s Club outlets. The retailer said that about 65% of its more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is already some form of government mandate on face coverings and by making it compulsory in all outlets it will bring consistency.
Walmart said staff posted near the entrance to stores will remind people of the requirement and “will work with customers who show up at a store without a face covering to try and find a solution”.
It added:
We know it may not be possible for everyone to wear a face covering. Our associates will be trained on those exceptions to help reduce friction for the shopper and make the process as easy as possible for everyone.
As we have seen in states and municipalities with mask mandates, virtually everyone either brings a mask or readily complies with the requirement, and we anticipate that to happen in other areas as well.
Day one of direct flights from the UK to Greece has got off to what some are calling an inauspicious start. No sooner had the first air links commenced with flights to the likes of Cephalonia and Corfu when the government announced that concern over rising coronavirus cases was such that prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis would be holding an emergency meeting with senior cabinet members to discuss possible enforcement of new restrictions.
The wearing of masks and local lockdowns are reportedly on the agenda with some epidemiologists suggesting that fines may now be in order for those who fail to don face coverings.
Today’s emergency meeting – currently underway – comes amid media reports that all 6,000 British tourists expected to fly into Greece today will be tested upon arrival.
The leading Greek daily, Protothema, wrote:
The result of the mass testing … will determine if Greek borders remain open or not to Britain. If the number and percentage of those found to be positive is low, and is limited to less than 30 to 40 cases, then with constant inspections and epidemiological oversight, the British tourist market will remain open.
If not the centre right government would not hesitate to shut the borders again “calculating that the cost of the risk of the coronavirus spreading is much more important than any benefits to tourism in a year that is considered largely lost.”
Greece has been a rare success story in its handling of the pandemic but since reopening borders on 1 July has seen a sharp uptick in coronavirus cases that is now alarming health officials in the tourist-dependent country.
Updated
South Africa’s cases of Covid-19 were set to reach 300,000 on Wednesday, the most in Africa and in the top 10 in the world, despite a swiftly imposed lockdown aimed at preventing infections spiralling as they did in the West.
Africa’s most industrialised nation has 298,292 cases at the last count, and with positive tests now increasing at a rate of more than 10,000 a day, it is all but certain to vault over the 300,000 mark when the ministry releases nightly figures.
At the end of March, President Cyril Ramaphosa took aggressive, early action, shutting shops, ordering people to stay at home and sending the army on to the streets to enforce it - when South Africa had only 400 cases and no recorded deaths.
Bulgaria’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.3% in June from 9.0% in May as the country’s labour market slowly recovered from stringent restrictions aimed at containing the coronavirus, data showed.
The jobless rate was 5.2% in June 2019. About 35% of the people who lost their jobs since the middle of March due to the coronavirus crisis have already taken their old jobs back and government-funded programmes have also helped limit dole-queues, the agency said.
The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that it was “concerned” about reports of pneumonia in Turkmenistan, a closed Central Asian country that has yet to declare any coronavirus cases.
WHO’s Senior Emergency Officer for Europe Catherine Smallwood recommended the government adopt measures including contact tracing “as if Covid-19 were already circulating.”
“We are aware of and concerned of reports of acute respiratory disease or pneumonia,” Smallwood said.
She credited the government’s “recent activation of stronger measures” as part of efforts to prevent the potential spread of the virus in the country.
Turkmenistan on Monday began apprehending citizens for not wearing masks after the health ministry warned of “high concentrations of dust” and “pathogens” in the air.
US again sees record-high number of new cases
The US has seen 67,000 cases in a single day – the highest number in 24 hours so far.
The US sees a record-high number of new coronavirus cases in a single day, with more than 67,000 cases confirmed in the past 24 hours, per Johns Hopkins. pic.twitter.com/f8zvF2ZWNK
— Joan Greve (@joanegreve) July 15, 2020
Updated
Below is a summary of the latest news from around the globe.
Vaccine hope
American biotech firm Moderna says it will start the final stage of human trials for its vaccine candidate on July 27, after promising results from earlier testing. The study should run until October 2022 but preliminary results should be available long before then.
Staying home in Catalonia
Following a standoff with the courts, the Catalan regional government in Spain tells residents to stay home in and around the city of Lerida, a measure affecting 160,000 people. Regional officials issue a similar call in several districts of Hospitalet de Llobregat, a city near Barcelona.
Hong Kong tones down
Bars, gyms, and beauty salons close again in the city, a ban on gatherings with more than four people comes into force and while most residents voluntarily adopt facemasks, the government now requires passengers on public transport to wear them or risk a fine.
Tokyo top alert
Tokyo is on its highest coronavirus alert level after a spike in new cases, the city’s governor warns, as experts say the rising infections are a clear “red flag”, though the move to a top alert does not mean the city will ask businesses to close or events to be postponed.
More than 578,000 deaths
The pandemic has killed at least 578,746 people worldwide since it surfaced in China late last year, according to an AFP tally at 1100 GMT on Wednesday based on official sources. The United States is the worst-hit country with 136,466 deaths. It is followed by Brazil with 74,133, Britain with 44,968, Mexico with 36,327, and Italy with 34,984 fatalities.
Australia urges caution
Authorities in Australia plead with the public to heed social distancing guidelines, with some five million people locked down in Melbourne. The appeal comes days after a group was fined Aus$26,000 (US$18,200) when their house party was exposed by a large takeout food order.
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Senegal has today resumed international flights, four months after severing air links because of the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reports.
An Air Algerie flight arrived at Dakar’s international airport at midnight Tuesday and six other flights were scheduled to depart and arrive throughout the day, according to the Ministry of Air Transport.
Passengers departing for the West African country are required to present proof from an approved laboratory that they have tested negative for coronavirus within the previous seven days. The certificate has to come from a lab in the country where the trip originated.
International commercial flights for repatriation had continued to depart and arrive intermittently in Dakar after the closure of air borders in March. Land and sea borders remain closed.
Senegal lifted its state of emergency and curfew, imposed in March to stem the spread of the virus, at the end of June.
The restrictions had triggered violent protests, as seen in several countries in the region.
The number of cases in Senegal continues to climb, however, with more than 8,300 infections and 153 deaths recorded since 2 Marc.
President Macky Sall said in a televised speech last month that the impoverished country could see a recession due to the pandemic, and that “productive activity must be resumed in order to get our economy going again”.
Voters in North Macedonia are donning masks to take part in a general election today, after months of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic.
North Macedonia biggest opposition party VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickovski (centre), wearing a face mask and protective gloves, uses hydroalcoholic gel as he arrives with his wife Rozi (right) to cast their vote at a polling station in Skopje. Photograph: Robert Atanasovski/AFP/Getty Images
Updated
AFP has published this useful global guide to where localised lockdowns have been imposed in response to fresh coronavirus outbreaks:
Europe
SPAIN: The Catalan regional government today told residents to stay home in an area in and around the north-eastern city of Lleida, a measure affecting around 160,000 people. They are allowed to leave to go to work, buy food or medication, or to exercise.
Moves to reconfine the local population had triggered a legal standoff on 13 July when a local court blocked the new order, prompting the regional government to enact legislative changes.
PORTUGAL: Lockdown at home has been in place since 1 July for 700,000 inhabitants in the Lisbon region, for a period of at least two weeks.
BRITAIN: On 30 June, the city of Leicester began a localised two-week lockdown with non-essential shops shutting. Face masks will be compulsory in all shops and supermarkets in England from 24 July.
Asia
INDIA: The northern Indian state of Bihar, with a population of around 125 million people, will go into a 15-day lockdown from 16-31 July. The southern city and IT hub Bangalore, home to more than 13 million people, also began a week-long confinement on 14 July.
New restrictions have also been introduced in the western city of Pune and other states including Uttar Pradesh, home to 200 million people, badly hit Tamil Nadu and Assam.
THE PHILIPPINES: The 250,000 inhabitants of Navotas, a district in Manila, will go back into lockdown for two weeks in the coming days, an official said on 13 July.
AZERBAIJAN: A strict lockdown was reinstated from 22 June to 1 August.
UZBEKISTAN: The central Asian nation imposed a new lockdown on 10 July. Restaurants, sports centres, swimming pools and non-food shops are closed until 1 August.
Americas
US: California on 13 July drastically rolled back its reopening plans and ordered all indoor restaurants, bars and cinemas to close again. Churches, gyms, shopping malls, hair salons and non-essential offices must shut indoor operations in half of state’s worst-hit and most densely populated counties, including Los Angeles.
ARGENTINA: A toughening of lockdown measures in Buenos Aires and its surrounding area has been imposed from 1-17 July.
COLOMBIA: Bogota on 13 July enforced a strict zonal lockdown, affecting 2.5 million people, to restrict movement for the next two weeks.
Africa
MOROCCO: The city of Tangiers and its population of around one million, has been locked down again since 13 July.
MADAGASCAR: The capital Antananarivo has gone under a fresh lockdown to last until 20 July.
SOUTH AFRICA: A curfew from 9pm to 4am came back into effect on 13 July.
Middle East
WEST BANK: The Palestinian Authority on 12 July extended a lockdown of the occupied West Bank decided on 3 July, also imposing a curfew.
ISRAEL: New restrictions came into force on 7 July, including the closure of bars and sports centres and a limit on the number of people in public places. Some towns and neighbourhoods across the country, considered pandemic hotspots, are living under even stricter restrictions.
Oceania
AUSTRALIA: Five million people have been obliged to stay at home since 9 July for six weeks in Australia’s second biggest city, Melbourne. The state of Victoria, where Melbourne is located, has closed all its borders to protect the rest of the country.
Updated
Mallorca closes Magaluf party strip
The popular holiday resort of Magaluf is closing its party strip of Punta Ballena after footage of drunken British tourists flouting regulations about wearing masks and social distancing while dancing on cars prompted an outcry.
La vieja normalidad de Punta Ballena, Magaluf. Vídeo de: Michels. @UHmallorca pic.twitter.com/0gc8YXi5ha
— Guillermo Esteban (@GuillEsteban) July 11, 2020
The Mirror quoted the Balearic Islands’ tourism minister, Iago Negueruela, as saying:
All commercial establishments, bars and restaurants in these streets will have to close following the publication of an official government bulletin which will be today.
They will have to close today. We cannot tolerate the sort of images we have been seeing over the last few days and we are not going to tolerate it.
Our tourist and economic activity depends on our image. We urge the general population and the tourists to obey rules on social distancing and the other measures put in place by the Balearic Islands government.
It says the closure order also affects two other notorious party strips including one in S’Arenal east of Palma called Calle del Jamon, which is popular with Germans.
Updated
140 health workers have died in Iran
Iran said today that 140 of its health workers had died of the novel coronavirus, with thousands of others infected.
The Islamic republic has been struggling to contain the Middle East’s worst Covid-19 outbreak since announcing its first cases in mid-February.
In televised remarks, health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said:
Five thousand of our doctors and nurses have been infected with Covid-19, and tragically, we have lost 140 of them. We all owe them our lives and to honour them, we must observe health protocols.
Iran has been battling a resurgence of Covid-19, with official figures showing a rise in both new infections and deaths since a two-month low in May. Lari said the country had recorded 13,410 deaths overall, with 199 in the past 24 hours.
She said a further 2,388 people had also tested positive for Covid-19, raising the total cases confirmed to 264,561.
Amnesty International has estimated that more than 3,000 health workers have died globally, although it says the figure is likely to be a significant underestimate. It found the US, Russia and the UK (when social care workers are added) to have the highest death tolls among health workers.
Updated
Levels of childhood immunisations against dangerous diseases such as measles, tetanus and diphtheria have dropped alarmingly during the Covid-19 pandemic, putting millions of children at risk, United Nations agencies said today.
In a joint report with Unicef, the World Health Organization (WHO) director general Tedros, Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned:
The avoidable suffering and death caused by children missing out on routine immunisations could be far greater than Covid-19 itself.
Three-quarters of 82 countries that responded to a survey for the report said they had suffered coronavirus-related disruptions to their immunisation programmes as of May 2020.
Most problems were linked to a lack of sufficient personal protection equipment (PPE) for health workers, travel restrictions, and low health worker staffing levels - all of which led to immunisation services being curbed or shut down.
At least 30 measles vaccination campaigns have been or are at risk of being cancelled, threatening new outbreaks of the contagious viral disease this year and beyond, the report said.
Measles outbreaks were already on the rise, infecting nearly 10 million people in 2018 and killing 140,000 of them - mostly children, according to WHO data.
For diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, preliminary data for the first four months of 2020 “points to a substantial drop” in the number of children getting all three doses of the DTP vaccine that protects against them, the report said - the first time in 28 years that the world could see a fall in coverage for this routine childhood immunisation.
The report said progress on immunisation was already stalling before the new coronavirus emerged and spread around the world, but the pandemic made a bad situation worse.
Austria will lift its travel warning for Lombardy, the region at the centre of Italy’s coronavirus outbreak, because of a fall in infections, Austria’s foreign ministry said today.
The relaxation could pave the way for the resumption of flights between Lombardy’s capital Milan and Vienna, since such travel warnings come with a ban on direct connections.
Austria lifted controls, thereby allowing land crossings, at the shared border a month ago, three months after they were introduced when Italy’s outbreak worsened.
“The epidemiological development of the province, which was hit first and particularly hard by the pandemic, now makes this step possible,” Austria’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the travel warning would be lifted tomorrow.
The coronavirus has killed approximately 35,000 people in Italy, the fifth highest number in the world after the United States, Brazil, Britain and Mexico. Austria, by contrast, has reported just 710 deaths so far.
The EU’s public health body is assessing risks posed by ventilation systems and other settings at workplaces for the transmission of the novel coronavirus through the air, in addition to through droplets, its head said. From Reuters:
The announcement by the European Centre for Disease Prevention (ECDP) could show a commitment tackling the potential spread through fine airborne mists known as aerosols, which the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged as a possible danger only last week.
While the virus is believed to spread mainly through contaminated droplets, Europe’s ECDC has long warned it might also spread through the air in mists. That could pose extra risk in enclosed spaces, especially with poor ventilation, risks that could rise in winter as people spend more time indoors.
Andrea Ammon, who chairs the ECDC, told Reuters there was still no evidence to show what proportion of cases were spread by aerosols rather than droplets, but “we know both are a possibility”.
Last week, the WHO said the virus could spread through aerosols, although it stopped short of saying this had been confirmed. The global health body had come under pressure from scientists, who wrote a letter calling on it to acknowledge the potential for airborne spread.
Ammon said the ECDC was assessing risks in the workplace, which would be heightened by airborne transmission, after several localised outbreaks in plants throughout Europe, with the most serious in a slaughterhouse in Germany in June.
“We are working on a technical report on occupational settings and risk factors for such outbreaks,” she said, adding dangers posed by ventilation systems were being assessed.
Many of the social distancing and hygiene guidelines that countries have adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic are based on preventing contact with droplets of saliva or mucous expelled by carriers of the virus when they cough, sneeze or speak. Preventing airborne spread could require other strategies.
Ammon said the ECDC still assumes droplets are the most common vehicle of transmission. She said there was no need at this stage to update the agency’s guidance, and reiterated that it was crucial that people continue to respect social distancing rules and wear face masks.
Updated
The European commission said today that European Union states should launch earlier and broader vaccination campaigns against flu this year to reduce the risk of simultaneous influenza and Covid-19 outbreaks in the autumn, Reuters reports.
The EU executive wants to prevent the risk of hospitals being again overwhelmed by a surge of patients, as happened at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe in March and April.
“Simultaneous outbreaks of seasonal influenza and Covid-19, would place a considerable strain on health systems,” it said in a document which lists actions needed to prepare for a possible large second wave of Covid-19 in the autumn.
It called on EU governments to bring forward flu vaccinations to the summer. People in Europe usually get their annual flu shots in the autumn.
Brussels also urged states to:
- Buy more shots against influenza
- Increase the number of people who are vaccinated.
- Test more people for coronavirus infections
- Set up efficient contact tracing systems.
The commission wants governments to use contact-tracing apps that are interoperable across EU borders but at this stage only 10 of the 27 EU states have launched such applications.
Updated
Hello, this is Haroon Siddique taking over the blog.
You can contact me via the following channels:
Twitter: @Haroon_Siddique
email: haroon[dot]siddique[at]theguardian[dot]com
I’ll leave you with Reuter’s sobering live tracker, following the spread of the novel coronavirus. Not a cheery sign-off, ‘tis true, but a sign-off nonetheless.
Updated
Reuters is reporting that the Tokyo Olympics may have to be postponed again if the novel coronavirus mutates into a stronger pathogen.
“I think the virus is mutating all the time … it may be a much stronger virus that triggers a second wave,” Kiyoshi Kurokawa, a prominent Japanese government adviser, told Reuters.
He also said that a recent increase in cases in Tokyo is due to a failure to stick to guidelines to prevent contagion.
A physician who served as a science adviser to the Japanese cabinet from 2006-08, Kurokawa also headed an independent investigation into the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Currently, he is advising the government on the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think it’s small incidents happening in Tokyo … new cases are because people are not abiding by recommendations,” Kurokawa said of the increase in infections. “But if there are some mutations, that is a completely different story. That could happen anywhere in the world.”
Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike told Reuters on Monday the Olympics, originally scheduled to start this month but put off to 2021 because of the pandemic, must go ahead next year as a symbol of world unity in overcoming coronavirus.
Kurokawa was appointed last month to head a panel to examine how to use artificial intelligence to fight the spread of the virus. His appointment to the four-person group including a Nobel prize-winning geneticist came after economics minister Yasutoshi Nishimura abruptly announced he would dissolve a panel of scientific experts and remake it with new members.
The move came amid reports of clashes between the health experts and politicians. Kurokawa said that whatever experts recommended based on science, political leaders had to make the final policy call.
“The scientific community’s recommendations have to be fact-based, science-based recommendations, but politicians have to make the decisions,” he said. “Scientists give advice, but decision-making is not by scientists.”
Updated
AP is carrying a story that you really need to read on their site, to see the wonderful photos that illustrate the personal stories, about the artists who perform in the concerts, acrobatic shows, and striptease dance revues that typically entertain thousands of tourists in Las Vegas, as they wait for their venues to reopen.
Though casinos have been allowed to reopen with rules about sanitising, social distancing and mandatory face masks, hundreds of performers, including those who’ve come to the city from all over the world, are waiting in Las Vegas for the shows and crowds to return. As they wait, they try to keep their bodies in top form, practise their skills and find a way to perform.
Melissa James, a dancer and aerialist in the show “Extravaganza” at Bally’s casino-resort, said it was heartbreaking when, after weeks of grueling rehearsals, Covid-19 closures shut down her show after its debut night in March.
Since then, she said, “we’ve kind of just been waiting here, trying to stay in shape and stay fresh and ready, should we get the go-ahead that shows will allowed again”.
While largely quarantining at home, James said she does circuit workouts to keep up her stamina and uses equipment at home and a recently reopened circus training space to work on strength and aerial skills. To stay inspired, she practises ballet and works on choreography.
“As artists, we’re not sitting here cooling our heels,” she said. “Every day we’re trying to be creative.”
Updated
160,000 Catalans return to lockdown
Reuters is reporting that 160,000 people in the Spanish region of Catalonia returned to confinement today as authorities scrambled to control a fresh surge of coronavirus infections in the area, weeks after a nationwide lockdown was lifted.
A judge finally approved the regional government’s stay-at-home order for residents of the city of Lleida and six nearby towns last night after several days of legal wrangling and political tensions over the issue.
Under the new rules, people may only leave their homes for essential activities like working or buying supplies, while hotels, restaurants and bars will close except for food pick-up or delivery.
Regional authorities have also encouraged the residents of three neighbourhoods in L’Hospitalet, a Barcelona suburb that is home to around 260,000 people, to stay home, but that’s not a mandatory confinement. Another judge refused to rubber-stamp a proposed restriction on gatherings of more than 10 people there.
After more than 28,000 deaths from the pandemic, Spain’s government ended a nationwide lockdown on 21 June, considering it had dealt with the worst of the virus as the number of contagions had ground to a near halt.
But since then, more than 170 clusters have sprung up around Spain, prompting regional authorities to impose a patchwork of local restrictions, confusing locals and angering businesses.
Updated
Our very own Damian Carrington is reporting that a nature-led coronavirus recovery could create $10tn a year.
A World Economic Forum report says 400m jobs could be created - and warns there will be ‘no jobs on a dead planet’
The report also warns that when the world recovers from the coronavirus pandemic there can be no business-as-usual, with today’s destruction of the natural world threatening over half of global GDP. In 2019, scientists warned that human society was in jeopardy from the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems.
The report, from the New Nature Economy project, published by the WEF, says a nature-first approach from business and political leaders will be a jobs-first solution.
Updated
Reuters is reporting on comments by the Bank of England policymaker, Silvana Tenreyro, that Britain’s economic recovery will probably take the shape of an “incomplete V” as consumers stay wary of the coronavirus, social distancing rules curb activity and unemployment rises.
“Assuming prevalence [of the virus] gradually falls, my central case forecast is for GDP to follow an interrupted or incomplete ‘V-shaped’ trajectory, with the first quarterly step-up in Q3,” she said.
Data published yesterday showed Britain’s gross domestic product grew by a slower than expected 1.8% in May from April, when it slumped by 20%. The government’s budget forecasters said the economy could shrink by as much as 14.3% this year.
Tenreyro said she was not putting much importance on May’s weak GDP growth figure and spelled out what she believed would be an initial bounce-back followed by a slowdown.
“We are already seeing indications of a sharp recovery in purchases that were restricted only because of mandated business closures,” she said in a speech during an online event organised by the London School of Economics.
“But I think that this will be interrupted by continued risk aversion and voluntary social distancing in some sectors, remaining restrictions on activities in others, and in general, by higher unemployment.”
Yesterday’s projections by the Office for Budget Responsibility had the unemployment rate rising as high as 13% from just under 4% in the most recent reading.
Tenreyro said downward pressure on inflation was likely to persist for sometime and cited “considerable downside risks” for demand. “I remain ready to vote for further action as necessary to support the economy,” she said.
Updated
And now for some light relief: Lauren Laverne is doing a face mask-themed programme today on BBC6 Music. If you can think of any tunes about people wearing masks, then drop her a line …
This week's @BBC6Music #PeoplesPlaylist is all about masks. Looking for tunes about people wearing them but I will also accept masked singers...what do you fancy hearing? 😷
— Lauren Laverne (@laurenlaverne) July 15, 2020
Updated
Reuters is reporting that one small firm in three around the world was obliged to cut jobs to stay open through the coronavirus pandemic in May, underlining how hard the outbreak has slammed the world economy.
Some 26% of small and medium-sized businesses surveyed by Facebook, in partnership with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Bank, said they had closed between January and May 2020. The survey polled more than 30,000 small business leaders from more than 50 countries.
Out of the businesses that remained operational when the survey was conducted, on May 28-31, nearly two in three cited lower sales in the previous 30 days compared with the same time a year earlier.
To deal with what the report called “the challenge of a lifetime”, a third of smaller businesses surveyed that were in operation during the poll said they had reduced their labour force.
“The Covid-19 pandemic isn’t just a public health emergency; it’s also an economic crisis that is hitting small and medium-sized businesses exceptionally hard,” according to the report.
Small and medium-sized firms with a business page on Facebook were surveyed in the first of a series of six-monthly data collections aimed at examining the impact of the pandemic on smaller enterprises.
The coronavirus outbreak forced governments globally to impose lockdown measures this year, crippling economic activity and tipping some economies into recession. The International Monetary Fund said in June it expects global output to shrink 4.9% in 2020.
The survey said consumer-focused sectors were hit the hardest. Some 54% of tourism agencies and 47% of smaller businesses working in hospitality and events management said they were closed at the time of the survey.
Businesses led by women were more likely to be closed at the time of the survey than those led by men.
“Not only do a greater proportion of female business leaders operate micro-businesses with no employees, but female-led SMBs (small businesses) are also concentrated in the sectors that have been most affected by lockdown measures,” the report said.
We’re carrying a fascinating exclusive with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism on how a litany of failings meant that when Italy faced disaster, its distress call to the EU met with a shocking silence
The article relates how it all began with “a moment of chilling clarity” on 26 February. With the numbers of Italians known to be infected by coronavirus tripling every 48 hours, the country’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, appealed to fellow EU member states for help.
His hospitals were overwhelmed. Italian doctors and nurses had run out of the masks, gloves and aprons they needed to keep themselves safe, and medics were being forced to play God with the lives of the critically ill due to an acute lack of ventilators.
An urgent message was passed from Rome to the European commission’s Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels. The specifications of Italy’s needs were uploaded into the EU’s Common Emergency Communication and Information System (CECIS).
But what happened next came as a shock. The distress call was met with silence.
“No member state responded to Italy’s request and to the commission’s call for help,” said Janez Lenarčič, the European commissioner responsible for crisis management. “Which meant that not only is Italy is not prepared … Nobody is prepared … The lack of response to the Italian request was not so much a lack of solidarity. It was a lack of equipment.”
Leaders have been asked fundamental questions about the purpose of the European project when states fail to come to each other’s aid at the darkest times. This weekend, the EU’s 27 heads of state and government will meet in Brussels for the first time in person for five months to try to plot a way forward.
In our article today, through both analysis of internal records and interviews with dozens of EU officials and experts in both Brussels and the bloc’s capitals, we tell the full story of how Europe emerged to be the WHO-designated “epicentre” of a global pandemic and what key lessons might be learned.
It is a story of well-meaning officials in Brussels speaking in urgent tones of an impending disaster to empty press conference rooms. Of increasingly desperate health ministers unable to convince their heads of government and finance ministries of the scale of what was coming and the imperative to act.
Of governments belatedly recognising the speed at which the virus was spreading, only to rush into uncoordinated acts of protectionism in moments of ill-concealed panic.
And of EU institutions and agencies in which central figures either lacked the experience or powers to get capitals to act together in the face of a disease with respect for neither borders nor the glacial pace of Brussels’ bureaucracy. It is the story of an EU caught ill-equipped and institutionally incapable of mounting an adequate response to the crisis that so swiftly engulfed it.
Updated
Worrying snippet on Reuters that Russia has just reported 6,422 new coronavirus cases, pushing its confirmed national tally to 746,369, the fourth highest in the world.
Officials said 156 people had died of the virus in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 11,770.
In the latest twist to the “should we or shouldn’t we face-mask?”, Reuters is reporting that the top doctor in the Swiss mountain region that includes St Moritz and Davos told restaurants yesterday not to rely on plastic visors to protect their employees from Covid-19 infections, saying they “create a false sense of security”.
The warning, from the Grisons canton bordering Italy and Austria, raises questions about the reopening strategies of some restaurants, hotels and other tourist-dependent businesses.
In Germany, some states allow visors for service workers, while others require face masks. Swiss restaurants don’t require all workers to wear protective facial coverings, though some have adopted them.
The Grisons cantonal doctor, Marina Jamnicki, said face masks for restaurant staff who cannot keep a 1.5-metre (4.9 ft) distance from others were a better solution than transparent plastic shields secured by a headband.
“An analysis of the cases and the path in which the disease spread shows plastic visors being used in gastronomy don’t offer sufficient protection,” her office said. “People who wore visors got infected.”
The Swiss federal health office did not return queries about potential action, given Jamnicki’s warning.
Marc Tischhauser, director of the Grisons restaurant industry association, told Reuters the doctor’s warning was a reminder that visors play a “complementary role” in protecting against Covid-19 infections, and that proper social distancing and face masks are also necessary to be effective.
The World Health Organization last month updated guidance urging face masks be worn in public, while conceding only observational evidence, not scientific studies, showed they helped contain the new coronavirus’s spread.
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for public health said masks are better because they “slow the speed of breath or the dispersion of spit and slime drops” while visors “just capture drops that land on the screen”.
Germany’s 16 states have final say in what to require. In Hessen, where Frankfurt is located, service workers can use visors, while Bavaria’s health office advises they can be used “only to reinforce a mask covering the mouth and nose”.
A similar debate is taking place in the US.
Many airlines in European countries including Germany, Italy and France require masks that cover the nose and mouth. Qatar Airways requires passengers to wear both a mask and face shield.
Updated
AFP is reporting on Tokyo being on its highest coronavirus alert level after a rise in new cases – particularly in younger people, in nightlife areas and also in workplaces and in families – as experts said the rising infections were a clear “red flag”.
However, the move to a “red” alert does not mean the city will ask businesses to close or events to be postponed. Even during a national state of emergency in April, there was no “lockdown” in Japan of the type seen in Europe.
“The experts just told us that the situation of infections is at the fourth level of the four-level system, which means ‘the infections seem to be spreading,’” governor Yuriko Koike said during a meeting on the virus.
Authorities say many of the new cases come from night-life entertainment districts in the capital and those infected appear to be people in their 20s and 30s, who are less likely to become seriously ill with the coronavirus.
As of today, there were only seven people requiring intensive care for coronavirus and authorities have insisted that the medical system is in better shape than at the height of the previous wave in April.
And despite the latest outbreak, the situation in Japan remains considerably less serious than in many other comparable countries in terms of population.
Japan has had just over 22,500 cases and close to 1,000 deaths since the disease was first detected in the country. No one has died of coronavirus in Tokyo for three weeks.
Updated
AP is also reporting on how virus restrictions in Australia are being reimposed, shutting businesses and curbing people’s social lives as communities try to curb a disease resurgence before it spins out of control.
Residents of Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, were warned today to comply with lockdown regulations or face tougher restrictions. Melbourne’s 5 million people and part of the city’s semi-rural surrounds are a week into a new, six-week lockdown to contain a new outbreak there.
“The time for warnings, the time for cutting people slack is over,” Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews said. “Where we are is in a very serious and deadly position.”
Victoria reported 238 new cases, which authorities say may indicate a stabilising trend under way in Melbourne’s outbreak.
Updated
Florida records new daily high for Covid-19 deaths
AP is reporting the bitter-sweet news that Florida surpassed its daily record for coronavirus deaths yesterday at the same moment that researchers announced that the first vaccine tested in the US had worked to boost patients’ immune systems.
Florida’s 132 additional deaths topped a state mark set just last week. The figure probably includes deaths from last weekend that had not been previously reported.
The new deaths raised the state’s seven-day average to 81 per day, more than double the figure of two weeks ago and now the second-highest in the US behind Texas.
The worrying figures were released just hours before the news about the experimental vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc.
“No matter how you slice this, this is good news,” Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top infectious disease expert, told the Associated Press.
Key final testing of the vaccine will start around 27 July, tracking 30,000 people to prove if the shots really work in preventing infection. Tuesday’s announcement focused on findings since March in 45 volunteers.
There are conflicting theories about what is driving the outbreak.
“We tried to give states guidance on how to reopen safely … If you look critically, few states actually followed that guidance,” Dr Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday in a livestream interview with the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Redfield said people in many states did not adopt social distancing and other measures because they hadn’t previously experienced an outbreak. But he went on to say, without explanation, that he didn’t believe the way those states handled reopening was necessarily behind the explosive rise in virus cases. He offered a theory that infected travellers from elsewhere in the country might have brought the virus with them around Memorial Day.
Updated
The Mighty Amelia Hill reporting for duty! I pledge to safely guide you through the next few hours and deposit you on the other side, somewhat better informed than we all are now. Let our mission begin....
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. I leave you in the fine company of the mighty Amelia Hill.
Wednesday briefing: ‘Super-spreading event’ closed A&E ward
A nurse who was carrying coronavirus unwittingly infected 16 others during a training session in what was described as a “super-spreading event” that led to Hillingdon hospital closing its A&E unit, an inquiry has found. Nurses did not wear face masks or stay two metres apart. Staff at the London hospital say they are baffled as to why the training session was allowed to go ahead, given that most medical training in the NHS is now done online to avoid people gathering.
Coronavirus outbreaks are up to 20 times more likely in large care homes, according to a major study seen by the Guardian, prompting calls to divide them into “bubbles” before any second wave hits. And a new points-based checklist being made available from the British Medical Association website [PDF] could help keep healthcare workers safe by offering a way to calculate their risk of severe illness or death from Covid-19, researchers have said, stressing its usefulness for workers of black, Asian and ethnic minority heritage:
Japan’s economy will contract 4.7% in the year to March 2021, the central bank said Wednesday, projecting a recovery the following year but warning deep uncertainty remains.
The fresh outlook, with policymakers giving a range of shrinkage from 5.7 to 4.5%, is a downgrade from an April projection of a 5.0-3.0% contraction.
The Bank of Japan stayed hopeful about a future recovery but said the outlook was shrouded by possible future waves of the virus, which made calculations difficult.
“Japan’s economy is likely to improve gradually from the second half of this year with economic activity resuming, but the pace is expected to be only moderate while the impact of the novel coronavirus remains worldwide,” the BoJ said in a statement.
The bank said it expected the global economy to steadily recover, projecting Japanese GDP would expand 3.3% in the year to March 2022, before logging 1.5-% growth in the following fiscal year.
But it also stressed that “the outlook... is extremely unclear” with its assumptions involving “high uncertainties”.
As always, we welcome tips, feedback, questions and news from. Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Global cases are nearing 13.3m, as cases continue to rise by around 200,000 every 24 hours. There have been 577,954 deaths so far, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
- Cities and states around the world returned to tighter coronavirus restrictions to battle recurring outbreaks, including India’s IT hub Bangalore which was set to go into a new week-long lockdown on Tuesday as the number of coronavirus cases surged.
- Tokyo is considering raising its alert for coronavirus infections to the highest of four levels, officials said on Wednesday, after a spike in cases to record numbers in the Japanese capital. Fearing a second wave of infections spreading from the capital, local municipalities and opposition lawmakers also urged the central government to suspend a major campaign aimed at boosting domestic tourism.
- Egyptian doctors targeted for highlighting Covid-19 working conditions. Overwhelmed and ill-equipped medical staff in Egypt are being threatened for speaking out about poor working conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic, with increasing numbers detained by a domestic security agency.
- 133m re-enter lockdown in India as Covid-19 cases top 900,000. Late on Tuesday, India’s coronavirus cases, the third-highest in the world, passed 900,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The current total stands at 906,752, with 23,727 known deaths. The northern Indian state of Bihar, which has a population of 125 million, has been ordered into a new 15-day lockdown to combat coronavirus. The announcement came a few hours before the southern city and IT hub Bangalore, with a population of 8 million, was due to go into a week-long lockdown.
- Trump says it’s a ‘mistake’ to keep schools closed. US President Donald Trump said in an interview on Tuesday that it was a “mistake” for the two largest California school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, to keep schools closed in the fall. Trump has pushed for schools to open up for the school year even as states across the country see a surge in cases of the coronavirus and amid questions about whether schools can hold in-person classes safely.
- Australian state of Victoria records 238 new cases. The Australian state of Victoria has recorded 238 new cases of Covid-19 and the death of a woman in her 90s and New South Wales has recorded 13 new cases, including 10 linked to the Crossroads Hotel cluster in south-west Sydney which has now affected 34 people.
- Australian PM says Australia can’t be shut down to contain second Covid-19 wave. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the response to a second wave of Covid-19 infections cannot be shutting the country down to try to eliminate the virus, and he’s moved to reassure people his government will not be withdrawing income support “for those in need”.
- Venezuela’s capital Caracas will go into a strict lockdown on Wednesday, in a bid to slow its coronavirus outbreak. Much of Venezuela has been shut down since its first case was reported in early March. Air travel has been suspended until 12 August. It has confirmed 9,707 cases and 93 deaths. However, observers worry that the infamously opaque government of Nicolás Maduro is underreporting the numbers.
- In France masks will become mandatory in all enclosed public spaces within the next few weeks,President Emmanuel Macron has said in a major Bastille Day interview. This comes as a a French study revealed the case of a baby boy infected with coronavirus in the womb This is believed to be first such confirmed case but doctors say infant has made good recovery.
In the UK, a new points-based checklist could help keep healthcare workers safe by offering a way to calculate their risk of severe illness or death from Covid-19, researchers have said, stressing its usefulness for workers of black, Asian and ethnic minority heritage.
Covid-19 has been shown in multiple reports to disproportionately affect BAME communities, while in May it was revealed that more than 60% of healthcare workers who have died from Covid-19 were from BAME backgrounds:
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has warned that “perfection” in response to the Covid-19 pandemic “is just not possible” as she urged New Zealanders against complacency and laid out her government’s plans for future outbreaks.
“Every country we have sought to replicate or have drawn from in the fight against Covid has now experienced further community outbreaks,” Ardern said in a speech at New Zealand’s parliament in Wellington.
“We only need to look to [the Australian states of] Victoria, New South Wales; Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea to see examples of other places that like us had the virus under control at a point in time only to see it emerge again.”
Six staff affiliated with Melbourne’s Royal Women’s hospital are among those confirmed to have Covid-19 as part of Victoria’s recent outbreak, with a concerning number of healthcare workers throughout the state now infected with the virus.
The hospital, located in Parkville next to Melbourne city, on Tuesday afternoon sent a notice to staff confirming six active cases and two recovered cases in health staff, including visiting medical officers and other staff who work elsewhere across multiple health services:
Some of Norway’s funeral homes have found themselves without work and have turned to the state for aid, AFP reports.
Due to declining mortality and cancelled funeral ceremonies, half a dozen Norwegian undertakers, according to a public registry, have turned to the state for help after the initial success of Norway’s handling of Covid-19 left them struggling to make ends meet.
On 12 March, Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg announced what she dubbed “the strongest and most intrusive measures” the country had seen in peacetime.
Those included the closure of schools, bars and many public spaces, a ban on sports and cultural events and a curb on foreign travel.
Since then nearly all of the measures have been lifted and the virus has been mostly contained, in stark contrast to neighbouring Sweden which is still seeing community spread.
Updated
Egyptian doctors targeted for highlighting Covid-19 working conditions
Overwhelmed and ill-equipped medical staff in Egypt are being threatened for speaking out about poor working conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic, with increasing numbers detained by a domestic security agency.
Doctors recounted threats delivered via WhatsApp, official letters or in person. They said hospital managers and government officials told them failing to attend shifts, posting on social media or voicing objections would result in complaints to the National Security Agency, Egypt’s primary internal security body, which rights groups say has arrested multiple healthcare workers:
Tokyo may raise coronavirus alert
Tokyo is considering raising its alert for coronavirus infections to the highest of four levels, officials said on Wednesday, after a spike in cases to record numbers in the Japanese capital.
Fearing a second wave of infections spreading from the capital, local municipalities and opposition lawmakers also urged the central government to suspend a major campaign aimed at boosting domestic tourism.
Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, however, said on Wednesday the government would proceed with the so-called ‘Go To’ travel aid campaign, which includes offers such as discounts for shopping and food, but move cautiously.
“Obviously we will consider the thoughts of many of our people, while monitoring the situation ahead,” Nishimura, who leads the government’s coronavirus policy, told parliament.
In Tokyo, daily coronavirus cases exceeded 200 in four of the last six days, touching an all-time high of 243 cases last Friday as testing among workers in the metropolis’s red-light districts turned up infections among young people in their 20s and 30s.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike confirmed that Tokyo would hold a “monitoring” meeting with experts on Wednesday, moving up the weekly gathering by a day, to discuss the recent rise in cases.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 351 to 199,726, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday.
The reported death toll rose by three to 9,071, the tally showed.
Here’s the full story on tracing the coronavirus cluster at a New South Wales pub, from Matilda Boseley and Elias Visontay:
Genomic testing indicates the strain of coronavirus causing a large cluster at a hotel in Sydney’s south-west came from Victoria, the New South Wales deputy premier says.
The Crossroads Hotel cluster in Casula has now grown to 30 cases, 14 of those from people who attended the pub.
John Barilaro on Wednesday said genomic testing of the virus circulating in Casula found links to a strain from Victoria, where hundreds of new Covid-19 cases are being reported each day.
Australian state of Victoria records 238 new cases
Melissa Davey and Elias Visontay report:
The Australian state of Victoria has recorded 238 new cases of Covid-19 and the death of a woman in her 90s and New South Wales has recorded 13 new cases, including 10 linked to the Crossroads Hotel cluster in south-west Sydney which has now affected 34 people.
Victoria’s deputy police commissioner, Rick Nugent, has outlined disappointing breaches of Covid-19 lockdown measures including people refusing to leave KFC restaurants, playing Pokémon Go and poker in groups, and hiding in garages and closets when caught by police on Wednesday.
There are now 105 Victorians in hospital, an increase by 20 from Tuesday, and 27 people are in intensive care. Of the new cases recorded, 209 are still under investigation. The cases have prompted questions about whether tougher restrictions may be needed in Victoria, as Nugent said some people continued to flout lockdown rules.
A reminder:
Even the raccoons get it.
— Canadian Forces in 🇺🇸 (@CAFinUS) July 14, 2020
Wash. Your. Paws.pic.twitter.com/UoT4ny3Bbe
A Guardian Australia analysis of Victorian coronavirus cases shows that infections have been increasing in areas outside the locked-down postcodes, and that all significant growth areas are now contained within the wider Melbourne lockdown.
Using data aggregated daily from the dashboard of the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) here, we calculated the number of new cases a day for every local government area in Victoria.
We then checked to see if cases had increased or decreased over the past fortnight for each area that reported more than five cases during that period.
At the time of writing, a map of the results shows there has been significant growth in regions adjacent to the previously locked-down postcodes, with the largest increase in the Wyndham council area. Wyndham is where the Al Taqwa college is located, the site of what is currently the second-largest cluster of cases in Victoria.
There has also been an increasing number of cases in the Melton and Darebin council areas.
Australian PM says Australia can't be shut down to contain second Covid-19 wave
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the response to a second wave of Covid-19 infections cannot be shutting the country down to try to eliminate the virus, and he’s moved to reassure people his government will not be withdrawing income support “for those in need”.
Morrison said lockdowns were necessary in Victoria given the significant spike in infections in the state, but “your protection against the virus is not shutting things down all the time”.
“You have to do that sometimes, as is the case in Victoria,” he said. He said trying to eliminate the virus wasn’t the “right strategy” for Australia.
“You don’t just shut the whole country down because that is not sustainable. I’ve heard that argument. You’d be doubling unemployment potentially, and even worse.”
Morrison said it was impossible to achieve elimination “unless we are not going to allow any freight, or medical supplies into Australia, or any exports into Australia, or things like this – there is alway
The New York Times reports that the White House is stripping the CDC of control of coronavirus data:
The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all Covid-19 patient information to a central database in Washington beginning on Wednesday. The move has alarmed health experts who fear the data will be politicized or withheld from the public.
In Australia, a cluster of coronavirus cases at a pub called the Crossroads Hotel, in the state of New South Wales has been linked back to a man in Melbourne, Victoria who attended a workplace party.
NSW Health contact tracer Jennie Musto has explained the genomic link between Victoria and the NSW outbreak, as a man travelling from Melbourne to Sydney at the end of June.
A man from Melbourne came into a workplace in Sydney, and then there’s some transmission within that workplace and then they all went to a party that night of the third of July, at the Crossroads hotel. So this is where it all began.
She said he travelled on the 30 June, and works in the freight industry.
Musto said this case was linked to six colleagues who have been diagnosed.
NSW health minister Dr Kerry Chant has added more about the potential spread of NSW’s current outbreaks:
Whilst we’ve had a very strong focus on the Crossroads, a hotel cluster, it is very important that we don’t lose sight of the fact that Covid could have been introduced in any other parts of Sydney, and we may well have had transmission of the virus just continuing.
Andrew Cotter, the sports commentator turned labrador commentator in lockdown, has a new dispatch from Olive and Mabel. A shocking crime has taken place:
Just hoping she can mend her ways. pic.twitter.com/d2YCniSNux
— Andrew Cotter (@MrAndrewCotter) July 14, 2020
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday shut the door on “Phase 2” trade negotiations with China, saying he does not want to talk to Beijing about trade because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m not interested right now in talking to China,” Trump replied when asked in an interview with CBS News whether Phase 2 trade talks were dead.
“We made a great trade deal,” Trump said, of the Phase 1 agreement signed in January. “But as soon as the deal was done, the ink wasn’t even dry, and they hit us with the plague,” he said, referring to the novel coronavirus, which first emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan.
For months, Trump has blamed China for sending the coronavirus to the United States, saying that China must be “held accountable” for failing to contain the disease. The pandemic has taken a stiff toll on the US economy, endangering Trump’s hopes for re-election in November.
China pledged to increase purchases of US farm and manufactured goods, energy and services by $200 billion over two years as part of the Phase 1 trade deal, but Trump has said the pandemic changed his views on the agreement.
At the White House, Trump announced that he signed legislation and an executive order to hold China accountable for the “oppressive” national security law it imposed on Hong Kong.
Alabama, Florida and North Carolina reported record daily increases in deaths from Covid-19 on Tuesday, grim new milestones that mark a second wave of infections surging across much of the United States, Reuters reports.
Florida, which has become an epicenter of the new outbreak, reported 133 new Covid-19 fatalities on Tuesday, raising the state’s death toll to more than 4,500.
“We must all continue to do our part to protect Florida’s most vulnerable and avoid the 3 Cs: closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings,” Governor Ron DeSantis wrote on Twitter. “Safeguarding the elderly and those with underlying health conditions will continue to be our top priority.”
Alabama reported a record spike of 40 deaths on Tuesday and North Carolina an increase of 35, bringing each state’s total to over 1,100.
The number of new US cases reported daily began rising about six weeks ago, driven by increases in southern and western states. Texas saw a record 10,745 new cases on Tuesday.
Home rental firm Airbnb Inc said on Tuesday it recorded more than 1 million bookings globally on 8 July, offering an early sign of recovery after a slowdown in reservations during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A major part of the bookings are for trips that will start on or before 7 August, the company said, adding it hit the 1 million mark for the first time since 3 March.
Airbnb said it was partly due to pent-up demand, with affordable and closer destinations making up for the bulk.
The home rental firm has been reeling under weak demand as millions of tourists canceled their vacation plans, work trips and family visits due to the pandemic, prompting it to suspend marketing activities for the year and cut about 25% of its workforce.
US school districts hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, under pressure from President Donald Trump to resume classes, should decide for themselves whether to reopen based on their circumstances, leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Asked his views in light of Trump having urged schools to reopen as quickly as possible, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said, “We should try, as the default, to get the kids to stay in school.”
“If you’re in the part of a country where the dynamics of the outbreak are really minimal, if at all, then there’s no problem at all in getting back. If you’re in a situation where you’re in outbreak mode, then you leave it up to the local individuals,” he said, speaking at an online event hosted by Georgetown University.
With the new school year due to begin in weeks, some U.S. districts have announced plans to reopen for students who want to attend in-person classes, while others will offer only online instruction or a mix of classroom and remote learning.
Brazil recorded 41,857 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 1,300 additional deaths, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
The nation has now registered 1,926,824 total confirmed cases of the virus and 74,133 deaths.
Domestic abuse calls to the police surged by more than a tenth in London during lockdown, research reveals, driven by reports from neighbours and family members.
There were 45,000 calls to the Metropolitan police concerning domestic abuse in the 11 weeks from 23 March, up 11.4% on average compared with the same period in 2019.
The increase – which equated to about 380 more domestic abuse calls a week – was driven by third-party reports, such as neighbours, rather than the victims, researchers at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance found.
Three people who fled quarantine at a Herefordshire farm at the centre of a Covid-19 outbreak have been found and are now self-isolating, health officials have said.
Police had been searching for the trio, one of whom had tested positive for coronavirus, since Monday. It had been announced the previous day that about 200 staff at the vegetable farm and packing business AS Green & Co had been ordered to isolate there.
On Tuesday evening, Public Health England said the three had been “reached through the agency who secured their employment and they have confirmed they are self-isolating”.
The workers were asked to remain at Rook Row Farm after more than 70 tested positive. There were complaints that dozens of staff had been asked to work through the pandemic without proper protective equipment and no social distancing.
Trump says its a 'mistake' to keep schools closed
US President Donald Trump said in an interview on Tuesday that it was a “mistake” for the two largest California school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, to keep schools closed in the fall.
Trump has pushed for schools to open up for the school year even as states across the country see a surge in cases of the coronavirus and amid questions about whether schools can hold in-person classes safely.
133m re-enter lockdown in India as Covid-19 cases top 900,000
Late on Tuesday, India’s coronavirus cases, the third-highest in the world, passed 900,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The current total stands at 906,752, with 23,727 known deaths.
The northern Indian state of Bihar, which has a population of 125 million, has been ordered into a new 15-day lockdown to combat coronavirus, joining states and cities around the globe that have reintroduced restrictions in recent days to counter fresh resurgences of the disease.
As the World Health Organization warned there were “no shortcuts out of the pandemic”, Sushil Kumar Modi, Bihar’s deputy chief minister, said on Tuesday: “[The] Bihar government has decided on a 15-day lockdown from 16 July to 31 July.
“All city municipalities, district headquarters, block headquarters will stay under lockdown. The guidelines are being finalised.”
The announcement came a few hours before the southern city and IT hub Bangalore, with a population of 8 million, was due to go into a week-long lockdown.
After imposing one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March, India had been steadily easing rules to lessen the economic impact, particularly on hundreds of millions of poor Indians who lost their jobs, bringing in new measures to ward off or respond to resurgences of the coronavirus pandemic.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
I’m Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest from the next few hours. As always, we love to hear from you. Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
The northern Indian state of Bihar, which has a population of 125 million, has been ordered into a new 15-day lockdown to combat coronavirus, joining states and cities around the globe that have reintroduced restrictions in recent days to counter fresh resurgences of the disease.
The announcement came a few hours before the southern city and IT hub Bangalore, in Karnataka state, was due to go into a week-long lockdown.
Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:
- Cities and states around the world returned to tighter coronavirus restrictions to battle recurring outbreaks, including India’s IT hub Bangalore which was set to go into a new week-long lockdown on Tuesday as the number of coronavirus cases surged.
- Venezuela’s capital Caracas will go into a strict lockdown on Wednesday, in a bid to slow its coronavirus outbreak. Much of Venezuela has been shut down since its first case was reported in early March. Air travel has been suspended until 12 August. It has confirmed 9,707 cases and 93 deaths. However, observers worry that the infamously opaque government of Nicolás Maduro is underreporting the numbers.
- In France masks will become mandatory in all enclosed public spaces within the next few weeks,President Emmanuel Macron has said in a major Bastille Day interview. This comes as a a French study revealed the case of a baby boy infected with coronavirus in the womb This is believed to be first such confirmed case but doctors say infant has made good recovery.
- Russia reported 6,000 new coronavirus cases. The number of daily cases in Moscow has dropped in recent weeks, and from yesterday rules requiring residents to wear masks outside were relaxed. The confirmed national tally is 739,947, the fourth highest in the world, and the official death toll is 11,614.
- EU drops Serbia and Montenegro from safe list. The European Union has decided to drop Serbia and Montenegro from its safe list of countries from which non-essential travel is allowed, and did not even discuss including the United States given its sharp rise in coronavirus cases, EU officials have said.
- The White House dropped plans that would have forced some international students out of the US if the pandemic pushed their coursework online. The Trump administration came to a settlement with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after they sued over the proposed measures.
