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Summary
Here’s a quick recap of the latest coronavirus development from across the globe.
- French president Macron announces new nationwide lockdown to curb Covid-19 surge. France will go back into a nationwide lockdown this week in an effort to contain the Covid-19 epidemic that is again threatening to spiral out of control, Macron said in an address to the nation on Wednesday. The new measures - which come into force on Friday and will last until 1 December - will mean people have to stay in their homes except to buy essential goods, seek medical attention, or use their daily one-hour allocation of exercise. Restaurants, cafes and shops not selling essential goods will have to close down for at least the next two weeks.
- Germany to go into circuit-break lockdown as coronavirus surges. Germany will impose an emergency month-long lockdown that includes the closure of restaurants, gyms and theatres to reverse a rise in coronavirus cases that risks overwhelming hospitals.
- EU leaders urged to aid transfer of Covid patients between member states. The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has asked EU leaders to help Brussels map intensive care bed capacity to allow the transfer of coronavirus patients from overrun hospitals across Europe amid a rise in infection in every member state.
The Marshall Islands in the Pacific has confirmed its first Covid-19 cases - ending the archipelago’s status as one of the few nations in the world to remain virus free.
The Marshalls government has announced that two workers at a US army garrison on Kwajalein Atoll tested positive for coronavirus after arriving on a military flight from Hawaii on Tuesday.
It stressed that the pair – a 35-year-old woman and 46-year-old man – had no community contact during their time in the Marshalls.
“We can assure the public that these are strictly border cases and were discovered while these people were in quarantine, where they remain until this time,” chief secretary Kino Kabua said.
The Marshalls, a group of islands and atolls about halfway between Australia and Hawaii, closed its borders in early March in a bid to keep out the virus.
Pacific island nations were swift to isolate themselves, despite the economic cost, amid fears their poor health infrastructure made them particularly vulnerable to the pandemic.
As a result, the remote island nations and territories of Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu are believed to be still free of the virus.
The Solomon Islands lost its virus-free status in early October.
Since June, the Marshalls had eased restrictions slightly to allow in some people, mostly US military base workers, subject to a strict three-week quarantine at the Kwajalein garrison.
The two Americans who tested positive had returned negative swabs before departing Hawaii and were both asymptomatic, Kabua said.
She said the woman had previously had Covid-19 in late July and tests were being carried out to see if the case was historical, and not contagious - while the man had no history of infection.
Ebon Atoll mayor Marie Davis Milne, a frequent critic of border relaxation, said confirmation of Covid-19 was a blow for the nation of almost 80,000. She posted on social media:
What we were worried about has come true.
Now lives are going to be put on hold because a handful of people made the decisions they did for whatever reasons.
Life as we all knew it will be in limbo until further notice because of the choices of a few.
Updated
Bayonne’s Top 14 match against Toulon on Friday was postponed by the LNR, the body that runs professional rugby in France, after several cases of Covid-19 were reported.
Tests carried out on Tuesday revealed “several positive cases” among the professional playing squad, Bayonne said, adding that those affected were immediately put in self-isolation.
This is the sixth match of the championship postponed because of Covid-19 cases.
Saturday’s game between Lyon and Montpellier is likely to be also called off after three Covid-19 cases in the Lyon squad, Le Progres reported.
“Yes, there are some cases and the official decision will be taken by the National Rugby League on Thursday,” Lyon president Yann Roubert confirmed to AFP.
Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa has authorised the import of raw materials from Chinese company Sinovac for the production of its Covid-19 vaccine.
Sao Paulo’s biomedical institute Butantan plans to produce the vaccine.
Five more Spanish regions, including Madrid, are closing their borders ahead of the All Saints’ Day long weekend to try to halt a surge in coronavirus infections.
Spanish families traditionally visit the graves of loved ones on the 1 November holiday to leave flowers. As this year’s holiday falls on a Sunday, Monday has been declared a holiday to create a three-day weekend.
About 6 million people travel to other parts of Spain during the All Saints’ Day holiday and as a result the regional government of Madrid plans to close the region’s borders from Friday until 2 November, said the head of the region’s government, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
“We are aware that we must continue to reduce social contacts,” she told a joint news conference with the heads of the neighbouring regions of Castilla and León and Castilla-La Mancha who said they would shut their borders until 9 November, a bank holiday in Madrid.
Separately, the coastal regions of Murcia in the southeast and Andalusia in the southwest, popular destinations for residents of inland cities like Madrid during long weekends, said they would also shut their borders from Friday until 9 November.
The move means no one will be able to enter or leave the regions during this period except for essential reasons such as seeking medical care or going to work.
“The pandemic is growing exponentially,” said the leader of the northwestern Castilla and Leon region, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco. “We have to adopt measures, drastic measures which at the same time are proportional.”
Three of Spain’s 17 regions - Navarra, La Rioja and the Basque Country - have already closed their borders earlier this month.
Since exiting a strict national lockdown in June, coronavirus cases in Spain have soared, with thousands of infections diagnosed every day. Hospitalisations, though lower than their March-April peak, are also on the rise.
Spain last week became the first EU nation to surpass 1 million confirmed Covid-19 infections, with the virus claiming more than 35,000 lives.
Updated
Coronavirus has swept through Milan’s prestigious La Scala opera house, with 18 singers and nine musicians testing positive for the disease, an official said.
All the members of the chorus were in quarantine along with the wind section of the orchestra, while the theatre awaited results from tests of other staff members.
“All rehearsals have been suspended,” Paolo Puglisi, a union representative at La Scala told reporters.
La Scala reopened in July after being shut for four months during Italy’s first wave of Covid-19.
This week, public performances were again suspended because of a government decree issued on Sunday that shut down theatres and cinemas across Italy in an effort to contain a resurgence of infections.
The closure order expires on 24 November and Puglisi said the musicians and singers had hoped the opera house would be in a position to stage its traditional performance marking the start of a new season on 7 December, a highlight of Italy’s cultural life.
Milan and the surrounding Lombardy region have been particularly hard hit by the virus, registering a record 7,558 new cases on Wednesday.
The next worst affected area in Italy was the neighbouring Piedmont region with 2,827 cases.
Updated
The new lockdown measures in France will stay in place until 1 December, President Macron said.
He also said the situation would be reviewed in 15 days to see if shops could be reopened.
The lockdown will be eased once daily new infections fall back to about 5,000 per day, he added.
He concluded his speech by saying:
We have to hold firm, stand shoulder to shoulder, we can only rise if we remain united.
I count on each of you. I will be there, we will be there and we will get there all together. Vive la République and vive la France.
Updated
France in nationwide lockdown from Friday, Macron announces
President Macron has imposed a new nationwide lockdown in France as Covid-19 cases surge.
The new measures echo the eight-week lockdown that France enforced in the spring, when hospitalisations and deaths caused by Covid-19 reached a peak.
Signed documents will once again be needed for people to leave home and moving between regions will no longer be possible. People can only leave the house to buy essential goods, seek medical attention, or use their daily one-hour allocation of exercise.
But unlike the previous lockdown, most schools are to remain open, Macron said, while universities will revert to online teaching and working from home will be generalised.
Visits to care homes will still be allowed, as will funerals, Macron said.
France has just reported 244 new deaths from coronavirus over the previous 24 hours and 36,437 new confirmed coronavirus cases, taking the total to 1,235,132.
Updated
Macron said the country needs to protect its economy but a herd immunity strategy would lead to 400,000 excess deaths in France.
The health system won’t hold unless there is an economy to support it. Nothing is more important, however, than human life.
We could do nothing and accept herd immunity...short term it will mean triage of patients and 400,000 extra deaths
French president Macron: second wave of Covid-19 likely to be worse than first wave
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said Covid-19 is circulating more quickly than forecast and new measures are needed.
He said it is predicted that by mid-November all intensive care beds will be filled with Covid-19 cases and that France needs a sudden “brutal brake” on the transmission of the virus so doctors don’t have to make choices between Covid cases and car accident cases, for example.
Efforts made were useful but not enough...The speed of the spread of virus has not been anticipated.
Difficult measures have been taken... but they are not enough to combat the second wave.
We are overwhelmed by a second wave, that will be harder and more fatal than the first.
"We have to admit, like our neighbours we are submerged by acceleration of the spread of the virus. We are all in Europe surprised by the speed of spread of the virus. We are overwhelmed by a second wave, that will be harder and more fatal than the first.
— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) October 28, 2020
Updated
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray, taking over the blog for the next few hours.
Please do get in touch with any story tips or personal experiences you would like to share
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
Summary: second wave picks up pace
I’m handing over now to my colleague Jessica Murray, who will cover the Macron address. It’s been a day of worrying numbers all over Europe, and severe new measures in an attempt to bring the pandemic under control. Here’s a summary of the day’s main events.
•The number of new cases recorded across Europe and beyond continued to grow, with new highs in cases or deaths in many countries, including Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal, Iran, and Russia.
•AFP said that Tuesday’s daily toll of more than 500,000 infections was a new high - a figure that is likely to be overshadowed by Wednesday’s once the total is known.
•European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen set out a raft of new measures. Her key coronavirus advisor Peter Piot said that the new resurgence in the virus had come back because “we kind of relaxed too much”.
•France is set to announce tough new restrictions, with president Emmanuel Macron due to deliver a televised address shortly and speculation rife about a month-long lockdown.
• Germany will impose an emergency month-long lockdown that includes the closure of restaurants, gyms and theatres to reverse a rise in coronavirus cases that risks overwhelming hospitals, chancellor Angela Merkel said.
•South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa went into self-isolation after a guest at a dinner he attended on Saturday tested positive. He is showing no symptoms, according to the government.
•The death tolls in Canada and Turkey went past 10,000. In Argentina, it went past 30,000. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said: “This is going to be a tough winter”.
On that cheerless note, I’m off. Thanks for many hugely useful tips today and sorry if I missed your email.
Updated
The French public is preparing for Emmanuel Macron’s address at 8pm local time (about 20 minutes from the timestamp on this post), in which he is expected to announce a raft of new measures to combat the spread of coronavirus.
With many doctors calling for a nationwide lockdown, France 24 reports damning comments from Frederic Valletoux, president of the French Hospital Federation:
The government didn’t take into account what the first wave was and didn’t learn all its lessons... this wave will be much more devastating for the hospital system. Hospitals won’t manage if we don’t take drastic measures.
There is widespread speculation that Macron will decree a lockdown until the end of November. The measures are expected to be more flexible than earlier this year, when the French public faced some of the most draconian conditions in Europe. Still, they are still likely to be “unpopular”, a government official with knowledge of the measures told AFP.
The head of Macron’s LREM party, Stanislas Guerini, appeared to be preparing the ground for a shutdown when he told France 2 television that the country needed “strong measures, powerful measures... and probably at a national level”.
All will be clear when Macron speaks - we’ll be following it live.
Updated
Death toll in Turkey goes past 10,000
Turkey has become the eighth country in Europe to record more than 10,000 deaths, with 77 new fatalities registered on Wednesday taking the total there to 10,027.
The health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said Istanbul was now recording nearly half of Turkey’s new infections, describing the rise as “scary”.
“If we cannot control the virus in Istanbul, it will be hard to tackle,” he said, according to AFP.
While the WHO has praised Turkey’s early adoption of masks, it has also criticised the government for only counting “patients”, or cases where people display symptoms – which is likely to give a much lower count than the true total.
Turkey recorded 2,305 new “patients” on Wednesday and has counted nearly 370,000 since the crisis began.
Updated
After Iran’s record daily death toll was announced earlier, the health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told the country in a televised address that Iran was “in a full-scale war with the coronavirus”.
“The main condition for overcoming this disease ... and challenge is seeing change in the beliefs and attitudes of every single person,” Lari said.
She said 27 of Iran’s 31 provinces were currently “red” – the highest risk level on the country’s colour-coded scale.
The country’s health minister, Saeed Namaki, told state television on Wednesday that daily tests were to be ramped up to “25,000 to 40,000 or even more”, without giving details.
As the health crisis deepens, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made a rare public meeting with the coronavirus taskforce on Saturday.
The country “must do everything” to reduce the number of deaths, Khamenei said.
Many other countries in the Middle East have also witnessed a surge in Covid-19 cases, AFP reports.
In neighbouring Iraq, a lockdown imposed early in the pandemic has been dropped for economic reasons, even as deaths have topped 11,000 out of 460,000 confirmed cases.
Jordan recorded its highest total on Tuesday, with more than 3,800 cases and 44 deaths, reaching a total of 668 dead out of 58,855 declared cases of Covid-19.
The kingdom has taken a series of measures to curb its second wave, including imposing a night-time curfew.
Saudi Arabia has been the worst-hit among the Arab countries in the Gulf, with more than 346,000 infections and 5,300 deaths.
In Israel and the Palestinian territories, more than 363,000 cases have been reported, with recent measures including lockdowns and partial curfews.
Updated
Dana Regev, of the German news outlet Deutsche Welle, reports that the Berlin mayor, Michael Müller, said of the new measures in the country: “Our hope is that this will give us a chance to de-escalate this dramatic situation”.
Berlin's mayor Michael Müller said on the new lockdown that "our hope is that this will give us a chance to de-escalate this dramatic situation."
— Dana Regev (@Dana_Regev) October 28, 2020
If the new measures are kept up for four weeks, there is a good chance of getting through the COVID-19 crisis in good shape, he said.
Thomas Sparrow, also at Deutsche Welle, gives the full quote from Merkel about untraceable infections alluded to previously:
This sentence by #Merkel now helps to explain just how serious the #coronavirus situation has become in Germany:
— Thomas Sparrow (@Thomas_Sparrow) October 28, 2020
"We are now at a point where, on average nationally, we no longer know where 75 percent of infections come from. We can list 25 percent of them"
Updated
Cases of coronavirus in Greece hit new high
This is Archie Bland picking up from Aamna (thanks Aamna) again, with the latest figures from the Greek government: 1,547 new cases of coronavirus recorded in the country, and 10 new deaths recorded, bringing the totals to 34,299 cases and 603 deaths.
1,547 is a new peak, after 1,259 yesterday – which was in itself a record.
Updated
Germany to go into partial lockdown after cases soar
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, confirmed Germany would be going into a partial lockdown from 2 November after talks with regional leaders.
“These are tough measures,” Merkel told reporters.
Markel said the number of patients in intensive care units had doubled over the past ten days and said the care system would hit its capacity if the pandemic continued to grow at its current rate, Reuters reports.
Businesses affected by the lockdown will be given financial support up to €10bn.
She added that the country had reached a point where 75% of infections were not traceable.
Updated
Italy's daily coronavirus cases hit new record
Italy has registered 24,991 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Wednesday. Reuters notes that the latest figure is a record high and up from 21,994 on Tuesday, as cases in the northern region of Lombardy surged.
The ministry also reported 205 Covid-related deaths compared with 221 the day before.
A total 37,905 people have now died in Italy because of coronavirus, while 589,766 cases of the disease have been registered to date.
Updated
Spain will set aside €1.01bn ($1.19bn) for coronavirus vaccines next year, Reuters reports.
Reuters added that the minority government still needed to gain parliamentary support to pass the draft budget into law.
Updated
Argentina is expected to surpass 30,000 deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday, according a tally by Reuters.
Reuters reports:
Argentina, which initiated one of the strictest lockdowns in the world on March 20, has 1,116,609 coronavirus cases, according to government data, though new daily cases have slowed in recent days. Only the United States, India, Brazil and Mexico are reporting more daily deaths.
Capital Buenos Aires and the surrounding area suffered the brunt of infections early on, though infections are now worse in the country’s interior, straining areas with fewer resources and health personnel. Intensive care units in the country are at 64.4% capacity, the government said, but hospitals in some provinces are nearing the brink.
“There are places that are working at almost 100%. Rosario, Córdoba, Río Negro, Neuquén, Mendoza,” said Arnaldo Dubin, an intensive care physician in the city of La Plata in Buenos Aires province.
Hello, I’m Aamna Mohdin and I’ll be taking over while Archie has a break.
Here’s my colleague Kate Connolly’s full story on the latest in Germany, as Angela Merkel and state leaders are reported to be settling on a partial lockdown to begin on Monday.
Aamna Mohdin will be covering the blog for the next little while.
Updated
New record numbers in Portugal, Lithuania and Serbia
The Portuguese Directorate-General of Health has recorded another 3,960 cases, another new high. There had also been another 24 deaths in the country, the body said. The latest figures were reported in Publico and other Portuguese media.
Meanwhile, government figures showed that a record was also set in Lithuania, where 776 new cases were identified. Lithuania was among the least-affected countries in Europe during the first outbreak but has recorded a steep rise in cases since the beginning of September.
There’s also a peak in Serbia, where government figures show a record number of cases - 1,328 in the last 24 hours - as well as 5 new deaths.
Thanks to readers Nuno, Francisco, Andrew and Adam for the tips.
Updated
Merkel agrees partial lockdown from 2 November – reports
Talks between Angela Merkel and state leaders have resulted in an agreement on a partial lockdown, German media has reported, with bars and restaurants closing from 2 November – this coming Monday.
Reuters and DPA both reported that the date had been agreed in video conference discussions on Wednesday.
The new rules will allow shops to remain open on condition of allowing only one customer per 10 sq metres of space available.
The closure of bars and restaurants will apply until 30 November, the reports say.
Contacts are to be reduced to a maximum of two households, and no more than ten people, according to initial, unconfirmed reports from the meeting between Merkel and the leaders of Germany’s 16 states.
The government is expected to advise Germans to avoid “unnecessary, private journeys”, including visiting relatives.
The measures, the most dramatic in months to tackle an exponential rise in new infections, will be reviewed after two weeks.
Urging the state leaders, who throughout the pandemic have often been reluctant to recognise the urgency of the situation as Merkel has portrayed it, that “every day counts”, Merkel said the more leaders did now, “the more time we buy for the Christmas holidays”.
Last month she was accused of ‘alarmism’, after suggesting that infections could be at over 19,000 by Christmas. But that figure is likely to be reached much sooner.
Updated
Record infection and death figures in more countries
We reported earlier on new record numbers of cases and deaths being set across Europe (and in some other countries too).
We’ve now got more figures, all of which point in the same grim direction. Here’s an updated list of the countries we’re aware of where new records have been set today, the most recent additions first.
•23 deaths in Croatia, a record, and 2,378 cases, against a previous record of 2,421.
•1,586 cases and 36 deaths in Bosnia and Herzegovina, both records.
•2,569 cases in Bulgaria, a record, and 25 deaths.
•125 cases in Estonia, a record. (Estonia’s rate is among the lowest in Europe.)
•5,343 cases and 107 deaths in Romania, both records.
•18,820 infections in Poland, a record, and 236 deaths.
•15,663 infections in Czech Republic, a record.
•14,964 infections in Germany, a record, and 85 deaths.
•8,616 infections in Switzerland, a record.
•2,605 infections in Slovenia, a record.
•346 deaths in Russia, a record, and 16,202 infections.
•165 deaths in Ukraine, a record, and 7,474 infections.
•415 deaths in Iran, a record, and 6,824 infections.
Thanks to readers Milan, Zlatko, David, Melanie, Mark, Pat, Gabriela, Gergana, Marino, Paul, Andy, Carol, and Cezar for tips (which we only use once verified).
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for infectious disease control was targeted again by hackers on Wednesday, days after its headquarters was damaged in an arson attack, the interior ministry said.
Germany’s cybersecurity watchdog detected a distributed denial of service attack on the health agency’s website, Reuters reported. It followed a similar cyber strike on 22 Oct.
Although most Germans support efforts to curb the pandemic, a sceptical minority, including anti-vaccination activists, conspiracy theorists and the political far right, has staged protests.
Germany’s health infrastructure is facing a rising cyber threat, the ministry said, with hospital workers targeted by deceptive phishing mails that seek to trick them into giving away system passwords.
Updated
Canada reaches 10,000 Covid deaths
Canada reached a grim milestone early on Wednesday morning, recording more than 10,000 coronavirus deaths across the country.
“What we are living through is a horrific national tragedy. Families have lost loved ones, been devastated by these tragedies, and we need to know that there are more tragedies to come,” the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said on Tuesday, hours before his public health agency listed 10,001 fatalities.
Experts caution that the true number is probably higher, as Covid-19 tests weren’t conducted on a number of people who died in the early weeks of the pandemic.
The province of Quebec, with a population of 8.5 million, has been the worst-hit region of the country, with 6,172 deaths. If it were a country, the Globe and Mail reported, its Covid-19 death rate of 717 per million residents would be among the highest in the world.
With 3,103 deaths recorded in neighbouring Ontario, the two provinces have recorded 90% of all fatalities.
Nearly three-quarters of the country’s deaths have been residents older than 80, double the average rate in other developed countries. The vast majority of these deaths occurred in long-term care homes where, over the summer, the situation became so dire that the military was sent in to help manage some facilities.
While the country’s death rate has decreased since the summer, experts are wary that a new wave of outbreaks in long-term care homes could prove troubling. With 26,422 active cases, provinces have added new restrictions in recent weeks to slow the spread of the virus. “This is going to be a tough winter,” said Trudeau.
Updated
New German lockdown could begin on Monday – reports
Germany’s DPA press agency is reporting that new nationwide measures to control the spread of the virus are to be introduced across the country as early as Monday.
The newspaper Bild also has a report on Angela Merkel’s talks with state premiers, in which she hopes to agree on a start date for a circuit-breaker lockdown as cases continue to rise rapidly.
Merkel has been locked in the video call with the 16 state leaders since 1pm German time, discussing details of what’s being widely referred to as a ‘lockdown lite’.
With a new record of almost 15,000 infections and the number doubling every seven days, a draft resolution seen earlier by Reuters suggested a 4 November start date – a week from today – and described a plan that would close restaurants and bars but keep schools open.
But Bild and DPA now report that lockdown could begin on Monday 2 November.
Germany was widely praised for keeping infection and death rates below those of many of its neighbours in the first phase of the crisis, but is now in the midst of a second wave. Cases had risen by 14,964 to 464,239 in the past 24 hours, the Robert Koch institute for infectious diseases said on Wednesday.
Jens Spahn, the health minister, who is himself quarantining after being diagnosed with the virus, said drastic measures had to be taken “before it is too late” and the health system is overwhelmed.
Updated
This video shows the clashes between police and protesters in Italy last night.
Protesters were also out on Monday night, Angela Giuffrida reported yesterday:
The prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, is under pressure to act quickly after hundreds of people protested in towns and cities across the country on Monday night against measures that include the 6pm closure of bars and restaurants and the complete closure of gyms, swimming pools, cinemas and theatres.
Violence at demonstrations in the northern cities of Milan and Turin, where there were clashes with police and shops were ransacked, has been blamed on extremist groups. Events in 30 other locations, including Treviso, Verona, Rome, Naples, Salerno, Bari and Palermo, were mostly peaceful. Business owners held another demonstration outside parliament on Tuesday and more are planned in the coming days.
AFP tally of daily infections goes past 500,000 to set new record
The news agency AFP has compiled a tally of new coronavirus infections reported worldwide, and the figures again suggest that the second wave is accelerating fast.
The agency finds 516,898 new infections, a new high, and 7,723 deaths were announced yesterday. Given the records set across Europe today, that figure is likely to rise again for the next 24-hour period.
AFP says that over the past seven days, there has been an average of more than 220,000 new daily infections around the world, a 44% rise from the previous week.
Updated
New record number of cases in Sweden
There have been 1,980 new coronavirus cases in Sweden, a new record, the country’s Health Agency said. The previous record, set last week, was 1,870.
There were also 9 new deaths. Sweden, which has become a focal point for debates over the right approach to coronavirus because of its light-touch strategy, has s death rate per capita several times higher than Nordic neighbours but lower than some larger European countries, such as Spain and Britain.
Updated
New record number of cases in Austria
3,394 new cases have been reported in Austria, Der Standard reports the country’s ministry of interior and health as saying – a new daily record. There were also 22 new deaths reported.
Thanks to reader Colin for pointing us to this.
Updated
Here’s an up-to-date summary of the situation in Germany and France:
Germany and France were preparing to announce restrictions approaching the level of last spring’s blanket lockdowns on Wednesday as Covid deaths across Europe rose almost 40% in a week, while financial markets tumbled on fears of the likely economic costs.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was due to meet state premiers in a conference call to discuss closing restaurants and bars but keeping schools and nurseries open, while allowing people to go out in public only with members of their own household.
In France, which has recorded more than 50,000 new cases a day, President Emmanuel Macron was due to give a televised address in the evening and was expected to announce further curbs on movement following the curfew measures introduced across much of the country last week.
The news television channel BFM TV reported that the government was considering a month-long lockdown from midnight on Thursday, but there was no confirmation from Macron’s office.
While leaders have been desperate to avoid the cost of lockdowns, the new measures reflect mounting alarm at the galloping pace of the pandemic from Spain, France and Germany to Russia, Poland and Bulgaria.
“If we wait until the intensive care units are full, it will be too late,” said the German health minister, Jens Spahn. (Reuters)
Updated
Tunisia said on Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic had become “very dangerous” with 2,125 new infections and 52 deaths recorded in the past 48 hours, and new restrictions were expected to be announced within hours.
The total death toll now exceeds 1,150 with 55,000 cases and medical sources told Reuters that intensive care units in most state hospitals had reached maximum capacity.
The health ministry spokeswoman Nissaf ben Alaya said that the situation had become “very dangerous”.
Faisal ben Saleh, a ministry official, told reporters that the number of deaths was expected to double next month. New curbs were expected, but no full lockdown, he said. The government imposed a curfew this month in the capital and many other regions to slow a second wave.
The prime minister, Hichem Mechichi, said he would not impose another lockdown, saying the economic cost was too high.
Updated
The US government will pay as much as $1.19bn to Eli Lilly and Co to secure nearly 1m doses of its experimental Covid-19 antibody treatment, a drug similar to a treatment that President Donald Trump received.
Lilly will start delivering 300,000 doses of the treatment, for which it is being paid $375m, within two months of receiving an emergency use authorisation from the US health regulator, Reuters reported.
After that, the government has an option to buy an additional 650,000 vials for $812.5m, the US Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.
The price per dose amounts to $1,250 as per the contract, but the vials purchased by the government will be free to the US public.
Updated
A remote-working period for businesses in Moscow will be extended until 29 November, the Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said in a post on his website on Wednesday, and online learning for secondary school students will continue until 8 November.
“There is no need to introduce new restrictions today,” Sobyanin said, according to Reuters. “But at the same time, it is premature to soften existing restrictions, as they could lead to destabilisation of the situation.”
On Wednesday, Russia said it would send army medics to a region in the Urals hit by a surge in Covid-19 cases, after doctors there made a public plea to President Vladimir Putin for help.
Updated
New record numbers across Europe
It’s hard to keep track of the endlessly updating coronavirus case and death figures, but it’s worth noting that many of the figures released so far today set new records, particularly in Europe. That’s consistent with warnings about the accelerating impact of a second wave, and remarks from the WHO’s Dr Michael Ryan yesterday, when he said:
There’s no question that the European region is an epicentre for disease right now.
Right now we are well behind this virus in Europe so getting ahead of it is going to take some serious acceleration in what we do and maybe much more comprehensive nature of measures that are going to be needed.”
These figures explain why stringent new measures are expected across Europe, with Germany and France among those which could soon return to lockdown.
Here’s a quick summary of some of the key figures released so far today:
•18,820 infections in Poland, a new record, and 236 new deaths.
•15,663 infections in Czech Republic, a new record.
•14,964 infections in Germany, a new record, and 85 new deaths.
•8,616 infections in Switzerland, a new record.
•2,605 infections in Slovenia, a new record.
•346 deaths in Russia, a new record, and 16,202 new cases.
•165 deaths in Ukraine, a new record, and 7,474 new cases.
•415 deaths in Iran, a new record, and 6,824 new cases.
If this list is missing anything, let me know.
Updated
von der Leyen and Piot are now answering questions, but my language skills have been found wanting, in the style of this famous 2015 incident, so we’ll move on and I’ll update later if there’s anything more of note.
Peter Piot: ‘The resurgence now is because we relaxed too much’
Peter Piot is now speaking.
“The good news is that mortality has been reduced by about half” after hospital admissions, he says. “Some progress has been made in terms of treatment.” He also notes the dangers of “long Covid”: “I know what I’m talking about. I had it myself and for months I was completely exhausted,” he says.
“Every country has demonstrated in the spring that it can suppress the spread of this virus,” he says. “We have learned a lot. One of the most important lessons is that we should act fast … and we should certainly not wait until people start dying in great numbers because that follows three to four weeks after a surge in new infections, just as sure as night follows day.
“The resurgence we are seeing now after the initial successes over the summer shows how fragile these gains are,” he says. “We kind of relaxed too much the measures that are basically about behaviour, and we are paying a high price … and also we have learned there are no silver bullets. I wish there were.”
Saying that he fully understands ‘corona fatigue’, he lists four ways out:
• A mutation makes the virus less fatal, which he says is unlikely.
• Herd immunity, which he says takes a long time to establish and comes with an “enormous” death toll of “millions and millions”.
• Lockdowns for a “long, long time” which will create poverty and cannot go on forever.
• A vaccine, or vaccines, which he views as “the light at the end of the tunnel”. He says he is “quite hopeful” that we will know by the end of the year how effective some of these vaccines will be. But there are “no shortcuts”.
Updated
Von der Leyen warns that there is “a lot to do” to prepare for the distribution of a vaccine when one becomes available. “There is one thing I will be very clear: we will not compromise on the safety of vaccines.
“Let’s not forget about our commitment to universal and fair access to Covid-19 vaccines for all,” she says. “No one will be safe until everyone is safe.”
Updated
The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is now giving a press conference with Peter Piot, a virologist and the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who is advising her on coronavirus.
Von der Leyen says that the situation is “very worrying” across much of the EU and that the number of positive cases will increase rapidly over the next two to three weeks. She warns that there is corona fatigue among the population.
After describing existing protocols, she says that now “we must build on these foundations with additional measures” and that a new package on Wednesday enables a coordinated approach to data sharing, testing, medical and non-medical equipment, travel and vaccination strategies. “We are all in this together,” she says. “That is why you will hear us stress the need for cooperation, coordination and solidarity.”
The #COVID19 situation is very serious. But we can slow down the spread of the virus if everyone takes responsibility. We have learnt from the 1st wave. Today we’re stepping up our common response.https://t.co/xAFxBWxEMk
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 28, 2020
She says that she will seek better data sharing to organise cross-border patient care when needed. And she says there will be a European platform of national science advisors on Covid to share approaches.
She announces €100m (£90m) to purchase rapid tests for distribution to member states and says there will be joint procurement to make more available.
Updated
Record daily toll in Iran
Iran reported 415 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, its highest one-day total, health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV, pushing total deaths in the Middle Eastern country hit hardest by the pandemic to 33,714.
Lari said 6,824 new coronavirus infections had been identified in the previous 24 hours, pushing the total number of cases in Iran to 558,648.
16 Russian regions in critical situation – deputy PM
The coronavirus situation in Russia is continuing to deteriorate, the deputy prime minister Tatiana Golikova told a meeting on Wednesday of senior government officials and the president, Vladimir Putin.
Golikova said there was a critical situation in 16 Russian regions, where hospital beds were at more than 90% of capacity.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday it would send army medics to a region in the Urals hit by a surge in Covid-19 cases, after doctors there made a public plea to Putin for help.
Russia recorded a record daily total of coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, with 346 fatalities. The official total in the country is 26,935. But many experts doubt that figure and believe the true toll could be twice as high.
With 1,563,976 infections, the country of around 145 million has the world’s fourth largest number of cases, behind the US, India and Brazil.
Updated
8,616 new cases in Switzerland
This is Archie Bland, taking over from Matthew Weaver. You can reach me on Twitter or email with any comments, tips or suggestions.
In Switzerland, the government has reported 8,616 new coronavirus infections and 24 more deaths. Cases have been rising sharply in the country since the beginning of October.
The new cases brought the confirmed total in Switzerland and the neighbouring principality of Liechtenstein to 135,658 cases and 1,954 deaths. The government is meeting today to consider new restrictions to slow the spread of the virus.
Updated
Slovenia has also seen a record increase of new infections, its coronavirus spokesman Jelko Kacin has announced: 2,605 new cases.
Slovenia’s previous highest daily tally was 1,967 announced last week.
Pregled od 4. marca dalje. pic.twitter.com/UmHLpPYoGB
— Jelko Kacin – govorec Vlade RS za Covid19 (@GovorecCOVID19) October 28, 2020
Updated
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is expected to impose a new four-week national lockdown to halt the spread of Covid-19, according to French media.
The announcement would follow record numbers of new cases in France that have put pressure on hospitals, and a startling rise in coronavirus deaths.
Macron is due to make a televised address on Wednesday evening after holding a second emergency meeting with government ministers. The prime minister, Jean Castex, also met union leaders and opposition parties to justify the need for stricter measures.
Large swathes of France, including Paris, have been placed under a night-time curfew, but officials say this has not been enough to stop the virus.
Read more here:
Summary
Here’s a round up of the latest developments:
- Record numbers of new infections have been announced in a number of European countries, including Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. Germany recorded a spike of 14,964 infections, in Poland there were 18,820 new cases, and in the Czech Republic there was a 15,663 rise.
-
Record daily death tolls were also reported in Russia (346) and Ukraine (165). The figures confirm fears about the impact of the second wave in Europe.
- There is mounting speculation in France that President Emmanuel Macron will introduce a one-month lockdown in a TV address on Wednesday night. Many French doctors are urging a new nationwide lockdown, noting that 58% of the country’s intensive care units are now occupied by Covid patients.
- German chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to push for a ‘lockdown light’ in crisis talks with regional leaders on Wednesday. The proposed new restrictions would include closing restaurants and bars and putting strict limits on private and public gatherings while keeping schools, daycares and shops open, according to the best-selling Bild daily.
- The anticipation of tough new lockdown measure caused markets to plunge. European markets hit five-month lows in morning trading.
- South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa has gone into self-isolation after a guest at a dinner he attended on Saturday tested positive. He is showing no symptoms, according to the government.
- Heathrow has lost its crown as Europe’s largest airport for the first time after being overtaken by Charles de Gaulle, Paris. The UK airport heavily criticised the government for “slow progress” relative to its rivals in instituting a coronavirus testing regime for passengers.
- India’s tally of coronavirus cases stood less than 10,000 away from the grim milestone of 8 million, as 43,893 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, data from the federal health ministry showed.
- China confirmed 42 new infections, the highest daily toll in more than two months, due to a rise in infections in the north-western Xinjiang region, the country’s health authority said on Wednesday. The daily toll marks the highest since 44 confirmed infections were reported on 10 August.
- Canada’s Justin Trudeau predicts ‘tough winter’ and says pandemic ‘sucks’. As a second wave of Covid-19 infections engulfs much of the country, Trudeau called the pandemic a horrific national tragedy in a rare show of emotion and frustration from the prime minister.
Updated
Malaysia has reported 801 new coronavirus cases and a further eight deaths from the virus.
Its cumulative numbers infections now stands at 29,441, with a fatalities at 246.
Status Terkini COVID-19 Di Malaysia,
— KKMalaysia🇲🇾 (@KKMPutrajaya) October 28, 2020
28 Okt 2020
Kes sembuh=573
Jumlah kes sembuh=19,072 kes
Kes baharu positif=801
(kes import=2, kes tempatan=799)
Jumlah positif=29,441 kes
Kes kematian=8
Jumlah kes kematian=246 kes
Kes dirawat di ICU=94 kes
Bantuan Alat Pernafasan=25 kes pic.twitter.com/0o8uh3xVJ4
Updated
The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is due to unveil new efforts to coordinate efforts to control the infection spread, at a press conference later today.
The measures are expected to cover tests and vaccine rollout plans.
Chairing today’s meeting of the College of Commissioners. On our agenda:
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 28, 2020
▫️stronger European response to coronavirus, with new measures
▫️Adequate minimum wages in the EU
▫️Customs: less red tape for businesses & more efficient fight against fraud pic.twitter.com/RtNcIBm0Gl
Updated
Many French doctors are urging a new nationwide lockdown, noting that 58% of the country’s intensive care units are now occupied by Covid patients and medical staff are under increasing strain, AP reports.
“The government didn’t take into account what the first wave was and didn’t learn all its lessons,” Frédéric Valletoux, the president of the French Hospital Federation, said Wednesday on France-Inter radio.
He called for a full, month-long lockdown, saying: “This wave will be much more devastating for the hospital system. Hospitals won’t manage if we don’t take drastic measures.”
Business owners and some politicians are pushing for a compromise, such as local lockdowns in the hardest-hit areas, or a lockdown that would allow schools to stay open.
Economists warn that a full lockdown could affect Europe more broadly if other countries hit hard by rising infections then follow France’s lead.
France reported 523 virus-related deaths in 24 hours on Tuesday, the highest daily tally since April. The figures included the weekly number of nursing and care home deaths.
It brings France’s overall death toll to 35,541, the third-highest in Europe after Britain and Italy.
France has for weeks been reporting tens of thousands of new infections per day and is now recording more than 380 new cases each week per 100,000 people.
Updated
Poland: record 18,820 new cases
Poland has become the latest European country to set a new daily record for Covid infections.
It recorded 18,820 new cases and 236 deaths, the health ministry said, with the country facing hospitals overloaded, Reuters reports.
The ministry said Covid patients occupied 13,931 hospital beds and were using 1,150 ventilators, compared with 13,291 and 1,078 respectively a day earlier.
Mamy 18 820 nowych i potwierdzonych przypadków zakażenia #koronawirus z województw: wielkopolskiego (2885), mazowieckiego (2644), małopolskiego (2165), śląskiego (1868), łódzkiego (1860), kujawsko-pomorskiego (1215), dolnośląskiego (1140), podkarpackiego (1039),
— Ministerstwo Zdrowia (@MZ_GOV_PL) October 28, 2020
The drugmakers Sanofi and GSK have pledged to set aside 200m doses of a future coronavirus vaccine for a global initiative to ensure equitable distribution, AFP reports.
There has been great concern about fair access to Covid-19 vaccines as rich countries have bought up billions of doses long before a jab has even been approved.
Several dozen vaccine candidates are in clinical trials and 10 are in the most advanced stage, phase 3, involving tens of thousands of volunteers.
The French and British drug companies said they had signed a statement of intent with the Gavi alliance, which administers the Covax plan for fair vaccine distribution.
“Both companies intend to contribute to Covax’s ambition to ensure successful Covid-19 vaccines reach those in need, whoever they are and wherever they live, once they obtain appropriate approvals,” a statement said.
On Sunday, the World Health Organization warned against “vaccine nationalism” and underlined that global protection can only be attained with widespread vaccination.
More than 180 countries and economies have signed up to the Covax plan, which seeks to “equitably allocate and deliver” 2bn doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.
Updated
Czech Republic: record new cases
The Czech Republic has also announced a record high in daily cases. Its health ministry reported 15,663 new coronavirus cases for 27 October.
The total number of cases rose to 284,033 while deaths climbed to 2,547. The country has been struggling with one of Europe’s fastest growing infection rates.
There are new 15 663 #coronavirus cases confirmed in #CzechRepublic. https://t.co/gz7Gd49z9g
— Filip Horký (@FilipHorky) October 28, 2020
Indonesia’s infections have passed the 400,000 mark, with 4,029 new cases confirmed on Wednesday, Reuters reports, citing health ministry data.
The south-east Asian country has 400,483 cases. With the addition of Wednesday’s 100 more Covid-19 deaths, it has recorded 13,612 fatalities.
Bertambah 4.029, Kasus Positif Covid-19 Tembus 400 Ribu https://t.co/l03q9Kk9Xf
— CNN Indonesia (@CNNIndonesia) October 28, 2020
Updated
The Philippines’ health ministry announced 2,053 new infections and 61 additional deaths, Reuters reports.
In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed infections have risen to 375,180 while deaths reached 7,114.
The Philippines has the second most cases and deaths in south-east Asia after Indonesia.
Updated
And London’s FTSE 100 has sunk to its lowest level since April.
The blue-chip index has shed 85 points, or nearly 1.5%, in early trading - dragging it down to 5644 points.
This means the FTSE 100 has shed around 25% of its value this year, having started 2020 at around 7,500 points (before slumping below 5,000 points in the March crash)
Our Business blog has more:
The Paris stock market appears to have taken fright at speculation about a new month-long lockdown in France.
#BREAKING Paris stock market down more than three percent on virus fears pic.twitter.com/9gLPWKOIhQ
— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 28, 2020
Germany: record 14,964 new infections
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by a record 14,964, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) as Chancellor Angela Merkel attempts to push through new restrictions.
The reported death toll rose by 85, the RKI’s tally showed.
Germany made it through the pandemic comparatively well so far but things are moving in the wrong direction. 14.964 confirmed new cases over the last 24 hours, a sad new record. pic.twitter.com/eXueR5psjM
— Marcel Dirsus (@marceldirsus) October 28, 2020
14.964 #Corona-Fälle! 😳
— Olaf Gersemann (@OlafGersemann) October 28, 2020
Die Zahl der dem RKI gemeldeten Fälle in 🇩🇪 betrug gestern 14.964 - ein neuer Rekord.
➡️ 5. Werktag in Folge mit >10.000 Fällen
➡️ der 7-Tage-Schnitt steigt auf 11.925 - ebenfalls ein neuer Rekord, natürlich@welt pic.twitter.com/xxLdcB0fHe
Difficult day for Germany. 14964 new cases recorded in last 24 hours. Angela Merkel wants to close bars, restaurants, gyms, museums, cinemas - but not schools, hairdressers or shops - for a month. Will regional leaders ( who decide the measures ) agree? Emergency talks this pm.
— jenny hill (@jennyhillBBC) October 28, 2020
Updated
There is mounting speculation in France that President Macron will introduce a one-month lockdown in a TV address tonight, the Guardian’s Kim Willsher reports.
His announcement comes after he held a series of meetings on the epidemic against a background of alarming rises in new cases and deaths (see earlier).
More depressing Covid-19 figures as we wait to hear what Emmanuel Macron plans to do at 8pm French time. Media reporting a possible 1-month lockdown from Thursday, but as we have discovered in the past, it is best to wait and hear not second guess. pic.twitter.com/V5kpu30wDN
— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) October 28, 2020
Some additional data to be had from the government's Covid-19 website. pic.twitter.com/0FxuCkKWJf
— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) October 28, 2020
Updated
Heathrow has lost its crown as Europe’s largest airport for the first time after being overtaken by Paris’s Charles de Gaulle, the London airport said.
The number of passengers passing through Charles de Gaulle has surpassed Heathrow, and the UK airport heavily criticised the government for “slow progress” relative to its rivals in instituting a coronavirus testing regime for passengers.
The aviation industry has focused on a rapid testing regime as the best hope for reviving its fortunes until an effective vaccine is widespread.
Heathrow opened its first rapid testing facility last week for passengers travelling from London to Hong Kong but the absence of reliable test facilities for passengers going elsewhere means many are liable to quarantine periods on arrival in the UK or other countries.
At the end of September, Paris had received 19.27m passengers, edging ahead of Heathrow at 18.97m. Amsterdam’s Schiphol had received 17.6m and Frankfurt was at 16.16m, according to figures provided by Heathrow.
Heathrow said low passenger numbers had pushed it deeper into losses for 2019. It lost £1.5bn up to the end of September and revenue in the third quarter of the year fell 72% compared with 2019, to £239m.
Read more here:
Thailand’s cabinet has agreed to extend a state of emergency until the end of November, Reuters reports citing a government spokesman said.
The move maintains a security measure put in place in late March to contain its coronavirus outbreak.
Thailand has confirmed only 3,759 coronavirus infections, with most recent cases imported. There have been 59 deaths.
It recently received a group of foreign visitors for the first time since a ban on commercial fights was imposed in April.
Today it reported 13 new cases all from people flying into the country.
#COVID19 situation in #Thailand as of 28 Oct 2020
— PR Thai Government (@prdthailand) October 28, 2020
Thailand reported 13 new confirmed cases from people on repatriation flights
😷New Confirmed Cases: 13
🦠Cumulative number of cases: 3,759 (+13)
🩺Receiving medical treatments: 139
👍🏻Recoveries: 3,561 (+10)
📣Fatalities: 59 (+0) pic.twitter.com/e1K4drxKv6
Record daily death toll in Russia
Russia recorded 16,202 new coronavirus cases and a record high 346 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 26,935.
With 1,563,976 infections, the country of around 145 million has the world’s fourth largest number of cases, behind the United States, India and Brazil.
⚡ Russia confirmed 16,202 Covid-19 cases Wednesday, bringing its official number of cases to 1,563,976. A record 346 people have died in the past 24 hours https://t.co/aNEqzGbLEB
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) October 28, 2020
Record daily death toll in Ukraine
The number of daily coronavirus deaths in Ukraine jumped to 165 from the previous record of 141 fatalities registered on 21 October, Reuters reports citing Ukraine’s national security council.
It means the total number of deaths from the virus in Ukraine has now reached 6755, according to the news site Gordonua.
The council said 7,474 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 363,075 cases with 6,755 deaths.
South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa has gone into self-isolation after a guest at a dinner he attended on Saturday test positive.
He is showing no symptoms and will be only tested if he does, the South African government said in a tweet.
President @CyrilRamaphosa is showing no symptoms at this time and will, in line with #COVID19 health advice, be tested should symptoms manifest.
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) October 28, 2020
The President will perform his duties remotely and will observe the guidelines that apply to self-quarantine. https://t.co/m7jm23HRNv pic.twitter.com/iMEO1o9MBL
President @CyrilRamaphosa has begun a period of self-quarantine following the positive #COVID19 diagnosis of a guest at a dinner attended by the President on Saturday, 24 October 2020. https://t.co/VyVk9GUNcT
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) October 28, 2020
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today.
It’s been great to be able to pretend things were normal just for a brief moment in time with all of you.
UK tourism venues embrace the great outdoors to survive the pandemic
Lorna parkes reports for the Guardian:
With more than half the population of England living with tier 2 or 3 restrictions, socialising indoors is difficult or impossible, and demand for patio heaters has already soared. Like it or not, we’re going to be spending more time outside this winter.
In the Cotswolds, adventure company Far Peak moved its child-friendly bouldering facilities outdoors in June, knowing that restrictions would make it difficult to operate safely indoors for the foreseeable future. It took four days (with an army of local volunteers) to hammer a recycled shipping container into a bouldering wall – with an overhanging roof to protect from the elements:
US President Donald Trump says Covid-19 cases in the US are ‘way down’ despite nearly half a million people contracting the virus in the country over the last seven days, according to a Reuters tally.
Speaking one week out from the election at a campaign rally in Wisconsin, Trump made a baseless prediction that the media would say the country was doing ‘extremely well’ one day after the election:
Deutsche Bank posted a 182 million euro net profit in the third quarter as it navigates its ongoing restructuring and the coronavirus pandemic, the German lender disclosed on Wednesday.
UK's second Covid wave likely to be deadlier than its first – report
The Daily Telegraph has published a startling exclusive this morning in the UK, reporting that the British government is “privately working on the assumption that the second wave of coronavirus will be more deadly than the first, with the death toll remaining high throughout the winter.”
Internal analysis cited by the Telegraph shows that while deaths will peak at a lower level than earlier this year, they will remain at a high level “for weeks or even months”:
It is understood that the projection – provided by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) – has led to intense lobbying from Sir Patrick Vallance and other Government advisers for Boris Johnson to take more drastic action.
“It’s going to be worse this time, more deaths,” said one well-placed source. “That is the projection that has been put in front of the Prime Minister, and he is now being put under a lot of pressure to lock down again.”
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Nearly 500,000 people have contracted Covid-19 in the United States over the last seven days, as new cases and hospitalizations set records in the Midwest. The seven-day total is 491,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The US has the highest number of infections worldwide, with more than 8.7 million people who have contracted the virus. Its death toll, also the world’s largest, stands at more than 226,000.
- On Tuesday the White House included among a lists of accomplishments this year “Ending the Covid-19 pandemic”. A news release accompanying a 62-page report from the White House office of science and technology policy includes, among the “highlights” to be found in the report, the phrase “Ending the pandemic”.
- France’s prime minister, Jean Castex, told MPs on Tuesday that hospital intensive care units will be saturated with Covid-19 patients by 11 November if nothing is done to stop the epidemic in the country. President Emmanuel Macron announced that he would be giving a televised address on Wednesday evening amid reports that his government was considering placing the country under a month-long lockdown to stop the surge in cases.
- German chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to push for a “lockdown light” in crisis talks with regional leaders on Wednesday. The proposed new restrictions would include closing restaurants and bars and putting strict limits on private and public gatherings while keeping schools, daycares and shops open, according to the best-selling Bild daily.
- India’s tally of coronavirus cases stood less than 10,000 away from the grim milestone of 8 million, as 43,893 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, data from the federal health ministry showed.
-
China confirmed 42 new infections, the highest daily toll in more than two months, due to a rise in infections in the northwestern Xinjiang region, the country’s health authority said on Wednesday. The daily toll marks the highest since 44 confirmed infections were reported on 10 August.
- More than 70 million Americans have cast ballots in the US presidential election, over half the total turnout of the 2016 election with one week to go until Election Day, according to a Tuesday tally from the US Elections Project. The figure highlights voters’ desire to reduce their risk of exposure to Covid-19 as the pandemic regathers strength heading into winter.
-
French ICU units to hit record saturation in two weeks without new measures. The number of Covid-19 patients in French intensive care units could reach the same level as during the peak of the first wave in April in two weeks without new measures, a government spokesman said.
- Nearly 200 airports in UK and Europe could go bust due to collapse in air travel. Airports Council International Europe, which represents airport operators, said it estimated that 193 out of Europe’s 740 commercial airports face “insolvency in the coming months if passenger traffic does not start to recover by the year-end”.
- Canada’s Justin Trudeau predicts ‘tough winter’ and says pandemic ‘sucks’. As a second wave of Covid-19 infections engulfs much of the country, Trudeau called the pandemic a horrific national tragedy in5a rare show of emotion and frustration from the prime minister.
- US coronavirus cases surge in midwest as Trump heads there in campaign push. Trump travelled to a rally in Michigan and planned to go on to events in Wisconsin and Nebraska the same day, on a pre-election blitz across three states where cases are rising most steeply.
- Obama ridicules Trump over Covid media coverage complaints at Florida rally. He mocked the president for his complaints about the media closely covering the national coronavirus crisis,9saying “He is jealous of Covid’s media coverage.”
Questions whirl, justice stifled as immunity laws protect US nursing homes
By noon on 16 September, more than 100 people had gathered at the end of the long drive that leads to the Menlo Park Veterans’ Memorial Home in New Jersey. Eighteen-inch letters – red, white, and blue – spelling “THANK YOU HEROES” were pushed into the sod beneath a semi-permanent sign that reads “Now accepting job applications” and “SERVING THOSE WHO SERVED”.
Staff members – mostly Black, mostly female – stood to the right of a podium. To the left stood family members holding framed photos of their loved ones, former residents of Menlo Park who had died over the past several hellish months, either in the facility or in a nearby hospital.
Gary White, the no-nonsense, cigar-chewing commandant of the local Marine Corp League – an 80-year-old federal organization and advocacy group for Marine veterans – organized the event. White told the crowd that Menlo Park’s residents had, as service members, “given America a blank check payable up to and including their lives,” but that during the pandemic, “veterans died who never should have.” A week before the protest, White had received calls and emails from family members who were shocked by their loved one’s deaths, who had never even been told their father or grandfather was sick.
“They asked me to do something,” he said:
Here are some joyful pictures of people in Melbourne, Australia emerging from one of the strictest, longest lockdowns in the world:
Mexico's coronavirus cases pass 900,000
Mexico’s health ministry reported on Tuesday 5,942 additional cases of the novel coronavirus and 643 more deaths in the country, bringing the official number of cases to 901,268 and the death toll to 89,814.
Health officials have said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases. On Sunday, the ministry said the true death toll from Covid-19 may be around 50,000 higher.
India nears 8m cases
India’s tally of coronavirus cases stood less than 10,000 away from the grim milestone of 8 million, as 43,893 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, data from the federal health ministry showed.
Totalling 7.99 million, India has the second-most number of confirmed cases after the United States, which has a tally of 8.7 million.
The daily increase had been dipping in India since a peak in September, but health experts warn that the numbers could surge again during the ongoing Hindu religious festival season.
Deaths in India have been relatively low, totalling 120,010, out of which 508 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.
Donald Trump’s campaign says its website was “defaced” on Tuesday evening, and that it is working with law enforcement to investigate the source of what it called an “attack”.
Trump campaign spokesman, Tim Murtaugh, said “there was no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site”.
The Trump website seems to have been restored and was fully functional as of Tuesday evening. Screenshots circulating online appeared to show that the site had briefly displayed a bogus message spoofing a law enforcement announcement.
Screenshots showed the site briefly displayed a warning claiming that it had been “seized” because “the world has had enough of the fake-news spreaded daily by president donald j trump. it is time to allow the world to know truth.”
.@realDonaldTrump's campaign website has been hacked. Doing research for a climate change article and this is what pops up: pic.twitter.com/Kjc2ELSdAV
— Gabriel Lorenzo Greschler (@ggreschler) October 27, 2020
German chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to push for a “lockdown light” in crisis talks with Germany’s regional leaders Wednesday, as the number of coronavirus cases soars and hospital beds fill up.
The proposed new restrictions would include closing restaurants and bars and putting strict limits on private and public gatherings while keeping schools, daycares and shops open, according to the best-selling Bild daily.
“We need quick and decisive steps to break the new wave of infections,” Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on the eve of the closely watched meeting between Merkel and the premiers of Germany’s 16 states.
Under the country’s federal system, individual states have the final say on which restrictions to impose, and some less affected regions are likely to bristle at measures that will inflict more economic pain.
The far-left premier of the eastern state of Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow, has already said he wouldn’t back Merkel’s proposal for a “lockdown light”, as German media are calling it.
Germany coped relatively well with the first coronavirus wave earlier in the year but numbers have risen rapidly in recent weeks, as they have across the continent.
Germany’s tally of new daily cases now regularly crosses the 10,000 mark, with more than 11,400 new infections reported on Tuesday, according to the Robert Koch Institute for disease control.
Economy Minister Peter Altmaier warned that Germany was seeing “exponential growth” in case numbers and would probably reach “20,000 new infections per day” by the end of the week.
Melbourne’s shops, restaurants and hotels opened for business on Wednesday after a four month coronavirus lockdown, with happy customers enjoying alfresco eating in the spring sunshine and shopkeepers hoping for big sales to make up for lost revenue, Reuters reports.
The state of Victoria and its capital Melbourne, Australia’s second most populous city, has been the epicentre of Covid-19 infections, but the strict lockdown has ended a second wave, with only two new cases and two deaths overnight.
“Around 180,000 workers can return to work on site. That is a achievement that every single Victorian should be proud of,” state premier Daniel Andrews told a regular media briefing.
“We all have to follow the rules, to protect staff, to protect customers, to protect this fragile thing that we have built...So we can have the Christmas we have been looking forward to, with the people we have missed the most.”
Macron to give televised address on Wednesday evening
President Emmanuel Macron will give a televised address on Wednesday evening, his office said on Tuesday, after the French leader held meetings reviewing the state of the coronavirus epidemic in France.
French authorities are looking at options for still tighter measures to fight Covid-19, which has kept spreading in the country despite some of the strictest restrictions in Europe, according to three sources familiar with the government’s thinking.
The Elysee palace did not say what Macron’s address would be about, but such televised statement have in the past been the occasion to announce new measures to fight the epidemic.
Updated
Global shares slipped on Wednesday as coronavirus infections grew at an alarming pace in the United States and Europe, while uncertainty over next week’s US elections added to a “risk off” tone.
MSCI’s ex-Japan Asia index dipped 0.15% in early trade while Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.6%.
Futures for U.S. S&P500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq all fell 0.5%-0.6% in Asian trade on Wednesday, rattled by a media report that French government may bring in a national lockdown from midnight on Thursday.
The United States, Russia, France and other countries have registered record numbers of infections in recent days, and European governments have introduced new curbs to try to rein in the fast-growing outbreaks. Data on Tuesday showed US consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in October, although other economic figures were mostly positive, with orders for key capital goods hitting a six-year high.
The fall in US stock futures came after a mixed session on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 lost 0.30% on virus worries while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.64%.
Microsoft kicked off a slate of reporting from tech heavyweights by beating Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue, buoyed by its flagship cloud computing business amid increased work-from-home arrangements. But its shares slipped 1.7% after the bell.
Apple Inc, Amazon.com, and Google-parent Alphabet are among major tech players reporting later this week.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday predicted a “tough winter” in the face of a second wave of Covid-19 infections engulfing much of the country, and called it a horrific national tragedy as deaths topped the 10,000 mark.
Canada’s case numbers have been rising, triggering new restrictions on public gatherings and indoor activities in several provinces. On Tuesday, Canada recorded 2,674 new cases, while there are now 10,001 deaths and a total of 222,887 cases.
“This sucks. It really, really does,” Trudeau told a news conference when asked about the fatigue Canadians feel after living amid the pandemic for more than seven months.
The comments marked a rare show of emotion and frustration from Trudeau, who has regularly given nationally televised briefings to reassure Canadians that his Liberal government is managing the crisis as best it can.
“What we are living through is a horrific national tragedy. Families have lost loved ones, been devastated by these tragedies, and we need to know that there are more tragedies to come,” Trudeau said.
The White House has included among a lists of accomplishments this year “Ending the Covid-19 pandemic” – something it clearly has not achieved.
A news release accompanying a 62-page report from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy includes, among the “highlights” to be found in the report, the phrase “Ending the pandemic”.
White House OSTP releases "Science and Technology Accomplishments from First Term", includes "ENDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC" as accomplishment.
— Dan Vergano (@dvergano) October 27, 2020
(guess they dunno what accomplish means?)
https://t.co/kURaSH3AgI
includes statement from noted STEM expert Ivanka Trump pic.twitter.com/tralEAmKIP
The release, quoted in the Huffington Post, states, “From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the administration has taken decisive actions to engage scientists and health professionals in academia, industry, and government to understand, treat, and defeat the disease.”
Protesters set trash bins afire and police responded with hydrant sprays in downtown Rome Tuesday night, part of a day of public outpouring of anger against virus-fighting measures like evening shutdowns for restaurants and bars and the closures of gyms and theaters — a sign of growing discontent across Europe with renewed coronavirus restrictions, AP reports.
Pedestrians and motorists returning home from work in Rome were taken by surprise when protesters, some of them hooded and members of an extreme-right political group, set afire to trash bins in Piazza del Popolo, overturned parked motor scooters and mopeds and hurled smoke bombs, state TV reported. Police vans unleashed torrents of water to disperse them.
It was a fifth straight night of violent protest in Italy, following recent local overnight curfews in metropolises including Naples and Rome.
Starting next week, Hawaii will begin allowing visitors from Japan to bypass the state’s 14-day quarantine requirement if they test negative for Covid-19.
But Japanese travelers will still have to spend two weeks in quarantine upon returning home, which will likely limit the number of people taking advantage of the plan.
The testing option takes effect on 6 November. Travelers must take a Covid-19 test from an approved clinic or hospital in Japan within 72 hours of their departure.
Hawaii earlier this month implemented a similar testing program for travelers from other parts of the US.
Hawaii’s tourism-dependent economy gets more travelers from Japan than any other foreign country. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the state would welcome about 5,000 visitors from Japan daily. Those numbers have dwindled to almost none.
Trump at a rally in Omaha, meanwhile:
As President Trump talks tonight in Omaha about "rounding that beautiful curve" on Covid, Nebraska has seen its fourth-straight week of record cases and Iowa has experienced a record high 11 times so far this month.
— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) October 28, 2020
Half of total 2016 US election turnout figure have already voted this year
More than 70 million Americans have cast ballots in the US presidential election, more than half the total turnout of the 2016 election with one week to go until Election Day, according to a Tuesday tally from the US Elections Project.
The tally, which shows a record-breaking pace that could lead to the highest voter turnout in percentage terms in more than a century, is the latest sign of intense interest in the contest between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden. It also highlights voters’ desire to reduce their risk of exposure to Covid-19 as the pandemic regathers strength heading into winter.
The high level of early voting has led Michael McDonald, the University of Florida professor who administers the US Elections Project, to predict a record US voter turnout of about 150 million, representing 65% of those eligible to vote, the highest rate since 1908.
US voters have already cast far more early votes during this presidential campaign than they did in all of 2016 when they passed the 47 million mark earlier this month, data shows.
Updated
More on the US case surge:
Beyond the Midwest, the Texas city of El Paso is also facing a surge in cases that is overwhelming local hospitals, with officials setting up an alternate care facility to help relieve medical centers.
“We are seeing all sorts of patients. The narrative historically has been the above-65, those with multiple co-morbidities. But we’re seeing 20-year-olds. We’re seeing 30-year-olds, 40-year-olds,” Dr. Ogechika Alozie, an infectious disease specialist in El Paso, told Reuters.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announced he was reinstating some coronavirus rules to combat what city officials described as a “dramatic rise” in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations.
Restaurants, retail businesses and offices will have their 50% capacity slashed in half, the mayor said, while events will be capped at indoor 25 people indoors and 75 outdoors.
Colorado reported a record one-day increase in cases on Monday and hospitalizations have risen 60% in the last two weeks to 571. The percentage of positive tests has more than doubled this month to over 7%. However, the number of those hospitalized in the state is far below April’s record 1,000.
China reports highest cases in two months
More now on China’s 42 new cases, which are the highest daily toll in more than two months due to a rise in infections in the northwestern Xinjiang region, the country’s health authority said on Wednesday.
Of the new cases, 22 in the city of Kashgar in Xinjiang were previously asymptomatic patients. The region’s health authorities also reported another 19 symptomless infections, which China does not recognise as confirmed Covid-19 cases, which accounted for half the new asymptomatic cases reported.
The daily toll marks the highest since 44 confirmed infections were reported on Aug. 10, though it remains far off the peaks in February at the height of the outbreak in mainland China that forced the country into a virtual standstill.
Kashgar health officials said the Covid-19 testing drive for the 4.75 million people in the area was completed as of Tuesday afternoon and a total of 183 people were confirmed to have been infected with the novel coronavirus. The cases are linked to a garment factory, though it’s not yet clear how the infections began.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 infections in mainland China now stands at 85,868, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
Nearly 500,000 Americans have tested positive for coronavirus in last seven days
Nearly half a million people have contracted Covid-19 in the United States over the last seven days, according to a Reuters tally, as new cases and hospitalizations set records in the Midwest.
Coronavirus hot spots include Illinois, which reported 31,000 new infections over the past week, and two states expected to be key in the US presidential election on 3 November: Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“We must take significant and collective actions,” Andrea Palm of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services told a news conference, adding that contact tracers were overwhelmed and hospitals may face staffing shortages. “This is going to get worse before it gets better.”
Nationwide more than 5,600 people died from the virus nationwide in the last week, with hospitalizations rising 13%, a Reuters analysis showed.
U.S. President Donald Trump, facing a tough re-election battle on 3 November, on Tuesday reiterated his claim that the country is “rounding the turn” in the pandemic that has killed more than 226,000 people since erupting in March.
“We did the ventilators and now we’re doing all of the equipment and now we’re doing vaccines, we’re doing therapeutics. We’ve done a great job, and people are starting to see,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
China reports 42 new cases
Mainland China reported 42 new Covid-19 cases on 27 October, up sharply from 16 a day earlier as new cases were reported in the northwestern Xinjiang region, the country’s health authority said on Wednesday.
Of the new cases, 22 of them were locally transmitted infections in Xinjiang following an apparent mass infection in Kashgar. The region’s health authority also reported 19 new asymptomatic infections, half of the total number of symptomless infections reported in Mainland China for 27 October.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 infections in Mainland China now stands at 85,868, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
Updated
The Australian state of Victoria has achieved a remarkable reduction in Covid-19 case numbers after a lengthy period of restrictions.
To put this achievement in context – Australia has done what very few countries have achieved in effectively suppressing a second-wave outbreak from a high point of more than 700 new cases a day. Victoria has now recorded only two cases in three days and lockdown restrictions are being eased.
This story showd a visual comparison of Australia’s epidemic curve compared with a number of other countries:
It looks like being another difficult day on global financial markets with uncertainty about the outcome of the US election adding to the negative sentiment around the spread of coronavirus in Europe and the US.
The Australian stock market opened down 0.4% but has recovered some ground to 0.1% in the red. That’s a big improvement on Tuesday’s chunky loss of 1.7% but it looks like shares are going to lose out across Asia Pacific more broadly with the Nikkei off 0.4% at the opening on Wednesday and Seoul down 0.25%.
The Aussie market continues its recent trend lower with the #ASX 200 down 24pts or 0.4% to 6,027 on the open. Financials & energy are falling most but IT, health & consumer staples are rising #ausbiz
— CommSec (@CommSec) October 27, 2020
Are you in France? How do you feel about the potential lockdown? Let me know on Twitter (in French or English) @helenrsullivan.
France considering one-month lockdown – reports
We’re seeing reports that the French government may be considering a one-month national lockdown in response to surging coronavirus cases and higher deaths.
The lockdown could take effect from midnight on Thursday, France’s BFM TV reported on Tuesday.
French President Emmanuel Macron is due to make a televised address on Wednesday. His office did not comment on whether Macron would announce such a measure then.
BFM TV added the lockdown under consideration would be “more flexible” than the strict restrictions on movement imposed in France in March this year.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest from around the world for the next few hours.
As always, it would be good to hear from you: get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
The French prime minister, Jean Castex, told lawmakers hospital intensive care units will be saturated with Covid-19 patients by 11 November if nothing is done to stop the epidemic in France.
“He told us that on 11 November, our hospitals will be at a saturation level equivalent to that of the first wave, so a level of extreme saturation,” lawmaker André Chassaigne told reporters after a meeting with the prime minister behind closed doors.
“So the situation is particularly serious. If we can’t flatten the curve, in the next 15 days, our hospitals won’t be able to treat patients,” he added.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
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French ICU units to hit record saturation in two weeks without new measures. The number of Covid-19 patients in French intensive care units could reach the same level as during the peak of the first wave in April in two weeks without new measures, a government spokesman said.
- Nearly 200 airports in UK and Europe could go bust due to collapse in air travel. Airports Council International Europe, which represents airport operators, said it estimated that 193 out of Europe’s 740 commercial airports face “insolvency in the coming months if passenger traffic does not start to recover by the year-end”.
- Canada’s Justin Trudeau predicts ‘tough winter’ and says pandemic ‘sucks’. As a second wave of Covid-19 infections engulfs much of the country, Trudeau called the pandemic a horrific national tragedy in5a rare show of emotion and frustration from the prime minister.
- US coronavirus cases surge in midwest as Trump heads there in campaign push. Trump travelled to a rally in Michigan and planned to go on to events in Wisconsin and Nebraska the same day, on a pre-election blitz across three states where cases are rising most steeply.
- Obama ridicules Trump over Covid media coverage complaints at Florida rally. He mocked the president for his complaints about the media closely covering the national coronavirus crisis,9saying “He is jealous of Covid’s media coverage.”
