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Summary
Here’s a summary of the key developments of the last few hours. I’m handing over to my colleague Helen Sullivan in Sydney - thanks for reading along and writing in.
- Cases worldwide near 7.9 million. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government figures, there have been 431,543 known coronavirus deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic. The number of confirmed cases stands at 7,854,514.
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Brazil has registered a further 612 deaths, taking the country’s death toll to 43,332, Reuters reports. The health ministry announced 17,110 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total to 867,624.
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Chilean copper miners’ unions have demanded a re-evaluation of the operational continuity plans of the country’s biggest mines during what they said was an “alarming” increase in coronavirus cases among workers.
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Veteran Congolese politician Pierre Lumbi, once an advisor to former president Joseph Kabila and a leading opposition figure, has died from the coronavirus, Reuters is reporting.
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France has reported nine new coronavirus deaths taking the total to 29,407 and marking the fifth day with under 30 fatalities, Reuters reports.
- England’s coronavirus lockdown should not be further lifted until the government’s contact-tracing system has proven to be “robust and effective”, the World Health Organization has said after widespread criticism of the first results of the new tracking operation.
- French president Emmanuel Macron has said that all of France will move into the ‘green zone’ regarding coronavirus risks from Monday. Gatherings will remain tightly controlled but restaurants will reopen in the Paris region.
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The number of new coronavirus cases in Turkey rose to 1,562 in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Sunday, almost double the level to which they had fallen in early June when Ankara lifted travel restrictions and reopened facilities.
- Egypt will reopen all its airports on 1 July, the civil aviation minister said on Sunday, after suspending regular international flights in March.
Updated
Ghana’s health minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu is in a stable condition after contracting the coronavirus, Reuters reports president Nana Akufo-Addo announcing.
“Let us wish our hardworking minister for health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, a speedy recovery from the virus, which he contracted in the line of duty,” Akufo-Addo said in a broadcast.
Akufo-Addo confirmed that final year students in secondary schools and universities would resume classes on Monday as the West African nation pursues its phased lifting of restrictions that were put in place to curb the pandemic.
Ghana has recorded 11,964 positive coronavirus cases, one of the highest in the region, but has also carried out one of the highest numbers of tests in the continent at 254,331 and has one of lowest numbers of deaths from the virus.
With 54 deaths reported thus far in Ghana, the ratio of deaths to positive cases stands at 0.4%, compared to the global average of 5.5%, and the African average of 2.6%, Akufo-Addo said.
Updated
Veteran Congolese politician Pierre Lumbi, once an advisor to former president Joseph Kabila and latterly a leading opposition figure, has died from the coronavirus, Reuters is reporting.
A prominent member of civil society in the 1990s, Lumbi held several ministerial portfolios before advising Kabila on security. In 2016 he was elected as a senator for South Kivu province and worked as campaign manager for Martin Fayulu in his bid to win the 2018 election.
“Very saddened by the death of Senator P. Lumbi,” Fayulu said on Twitter.
His family said he died from the coronavirus at the Centre Medical Kinshasa hospital in Congo’s capital, according to local media. The Democratic Republic of Congo has recorded 4,478 coronavirus cases with 107 deaths.
Chilean copper miners’ unions have demanded a re-evaluation of the operational continuity plans of the country’s biggest mines during what they said was an “alarming” increase in coronavirus cases among workers, Reuters reports.
In a statement signed by the union leadership of state-owned Codelco, the Mines Federation - which groups the majority of workers for Chile’s major copper mines - rejected the “business as usual” discourse advanced by miners and the mines minister, Baldo Prokurica.
“The increase in cases is alarming and demonstrates that the preventive measures implemented with health and safety protocols aimed at self-care are not working and makes it evident that contrary to what the union believed, security and isolation measures have not immunized workers from contagion,” the statement added.
The statement comes just days after unionised workers at Codelco, the world’s largest copper miner, said they were weighing walking off the job at some sites in order to implement a self-imposed quarantine after one of their members died from Covid-19.
Chile has more than 170,000 cases and 3,300 deaths from Covid-19, one of the highest rates of infection in the world per 100,000 inhabitants.
Updated
Brazil records over 17,000 new cases
Brazil has registered a further 612 deaths, taking the country’s death toll to 43,332, Reuters reports. The health ministry announced 17,110 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total to 867,624.
Updated
Significantly more women than men are experiencing problems with their mental health as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Jamie Doward writes.
New research by Lisa Spantig and Ben Etheridge, economists at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, suggests it is because women are more adversely affected by social isolation during lockdown.
Full report here.
Here are the ten countries with the highest number of known cases, according to Johns Hopkins tracker. The true figures for deaths and cases are likely to be higher, due to differing definitions and testing rates, time lags and suspected underreporting.
US 2,090,358
Brazil 850,514
Russia 528,267
India 320,922
UK 297,342
Spain 243,928
Italy 236,989
Peru 225,132
France 194,153
Germany 187,518
UK care homes are receiving far more coronavirus testing kits than they order, raising concern that the extra supplies help the government inflate the number of people it claims have been tested.
The apparently widespread nature of the practice in England has prompted fresh suspicion that ministers are counting swab kits sent out as tests done to exaggerate official figures.
“We have had providers who told us they asked for 100 tests and got 500 tests. It doesn’t make sense,” Nadra Ahmed, executive chair of the National Care Association, which represents independent care homes, told the Guardian.
Read Denis Campbell and Robert Booth’s report here.
France has reported nine new coronavirus deaths taking the total to 29,407 and marking the fifth day with under 30 fatalities, Reuters reports.
The government also reported the number of people in hospital fell by 28 to 10,881 and those in intensive care units fell by two to 869, with both tallies continuing weeks-long down-trends.
The number of new cases was up 407, bringing the total number of infections to 157,220.
Updated
Here’s our latest summary of coronavirus developments worldwide.
- Deaths worldwide pass 430,000. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government figures, there have been 431,269 known coronavirus deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic.
- All of mainland France will move into the ‘green zone’ of a lower state of alert on coronavirus from Monday, the president, Emmanuel Macron, has announced.
- England’s coronavirus lockdown should not be further lifted until the government’s contact-tracing system has proven to be “robust and effective”, the World Health Organization has said
- Republican lawmakers are downplaying concerns that a Donald Trump indoor rally planned for Tulsa, Oklahoma, for next weekend could contribute to the spread Covid-19, amid an increase in cases in the city.
- Beijing carried out mass testing for the coronavirus on Sunday after a new outbreak in the city that prompted travel warnings across the country amid fears of a second wave.
- Almost 11,000 German holidaymakers will begin arriving in the Balearic islands from Monday as part of a pilot scheme to help Spain reactivate its tourism sector following disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Republican lawmakers are downplaying concerns that a Donald Trump indoor rally planned for Tulsa, Oklahoma, for next weekend could contribute to the spread Covid-19, amid an increase in cases in the city.
Tulsa city-county health department director Bruce Dart said he worried the rally could be dangerous for attendees as well as the president.
“I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn’t as large a concern as it is today,” Dart told Tulsa World.
“I think it’s an honour for Tulsa to have a sitting president want to come and visit our community, but not during a pandemic. I’m concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event, and I’m also concerned about our ability to ensure the president stays safe as well.”
Trump is set to travel to Oklahoma next Saturday, to stage his first rally since early March.
You can read more here:
Israel said on Sunday it was deporting the son of American media magnate Shari Redstone. Associated Press reports that it was for violating the country’s coronavirus quarantine rules while paying a secret visit to his model girlfriend.
Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority said it had granted Brandon Korff an exceptional permit to enter the country on Friday to visit his brother, who is serving in the Israeli military.
It said Korff “violated the isolation orders from the moment he entered the country and met his Israeli partner and stayed with her in the same apartment. It said Korff, son of the chairwoman of ViacomCBS, was ordered to leave the country immediately.
The statement did not identify the partner. But Korff is dating Israeli model Yael Shelbia. The 18-year-old, who is doing compulsory military service, has appeared in campaigns for Israeli clothing company Renuar and Kim Kardashian’s KKW Beauty makeup line.
Israel banned entry to non-citizens or residents in March in an effort to clamp down on the spread of coronavirus. Israel requires all individuals entering the country to remain in quarantine for two weeks following their arrival.
England’s coronavirus lockdown should not be further lifted until the government’s contact-tracing system has proven to be “robust and effective”, the World Health Organization has said after widespread criticism of the first results of the new tracking operation.
As shops across England prepared to reopen on Monday, and people were encouraged by the government to come out of their homes and on to the high street, Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO’s director for Europe, cautioned that the UK remained in a “very active phase of the pandemic”.
You can read the full story here:
Agence France-Presse has more details on the French moves. It reports that President Emmanuel Macron said that France has marked its first victory in the fight against the coronavirus, even if the struggle to contain the outbreak is not over.
“The fight against the epidemic is not finished but I am happy about this first victory against the virus,” Macron said in an address to the nation.
He said that all of mainland France, including Paris, would go into a “green zone” of a lower state of alert starting Monday, meaning that cafes and restaurants in the French capital can open in full and not just on terraces.
Only the overseas territories of Mayotte and French Guiana will remain at the “orange” alert level, with high number of cases still posing a threat to strained hospital systems.
Macron also said that all French schools, except high schools, would fully reopen from 22 June.
Family visits will also be allowed from Monday at retirement homes, which have been hit especially hard by the outbreak that has killed more than 29,000 people in France, though the number of new infections has slowed markedly in recent days.
Updated
All of France to move to coronavirus 'green zone'
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is giving an address now from the Elysée Palace. He says that all of France will move into the ‘green zone’ regarding coronavirus risks from tomorrow. He says gatherings will remain tightly controlled but restaurants will reopen in the Paris region.
The president says France has mobilised around €500 billion to prop up the economy following the coronavirus crisis.
Updated
Germany’s smartphone app to trace coronavirus infections is ready to be launched this week, the health minister, Jens Spahn, said on Sunday.
After delays to ensure the bluetooth technology would work at the correct distance, the government says the app will be a vital tool to help avoid a second wave of infections.
“It’s coming this week,” Spahn told ARD television, but he declined to confirm German media reports that the app would be launched on Tuesday.
The app uses bluetooth short-range radio to detect and contact people at risk of infection by coronavirus and does not rely on a centralised database. Deutsche Telekom and software company SAP are involved. Italy launched a similar app last week.
Spahn also urged people wishing to go on holiday after European border controls are eased on Monday to be careful and ask themselves whether their trip was necessary.
On Monday, Germany lifts its blanket travel warning for European Union nations and Britain, and will replace it with specific travel advice for individual countries and regions.
In the UK, the row over the alleged breach of lockdown rules by the prime minister’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, continues to rumble on.
Nazir Afzal, a former regional chief prosecutor, has joined a legal campaign for a new investigation into the incident.
Afzal has urged his former employers at the Crown Prosecution Service, and the police, to pursue a case against Boris Johnson’s aide over his trips to Durham and Barnard Castle during the peak of the outbreak.
You can read more here
The number of new coronavirus cases in Turkey rose to 1,562 in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Sunday, almost double the level to which they had fallen in early June when Ankara lifted travel restrictions and reopened facilities.
The daily number of cases had been below 1,000 from late May until last Friday, hitting a low of 786 on 2 June. In the last 24 hours, 15 people died, bringing total fatalities to 4,807, the ministry data showed.
There have been a total 178,239 cases of Covid-19 in Turkey.
Egypt will reopen all its airports on 1 July, the civil aviation minister said on Sunday, after suspending regular international flights in March.
“Starting from 1 July we will restart the air traffic at all the airports in the republic ... with countries that will reopen with us,” Mohamed Manar Anba told a news conference, according to Reuters.
He said foreign tourism would be limited to resorts in three coastal provinces, after the government said on Thursday it would reopen Egypt’s main seaside resorts for international flights and foreign tourists from 1 July.
The move comes despite Saturday’s record daily rise in infections and deaths in Egypt, as it confirmed 1,677 new coronavirus cases and 62 deaths.
Updated
Summary
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Deaths worldwide pass 430,000. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government figures, there have been 431,141 known coronavirus deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic. The number of cases stands at 7,835,340. The true figures for deaths and cases are likely to be higher, due to differing definitions and testing rates, time lags and suspected underreporting.
- Italy registered a further 44 deaths on Sunday, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the number of new cases rose by 338. The total death toll now stands at 34,345, and the number of confirmed cases amounts to 236,989.
- Chile’s finance minister Ignacio Briones has announced a new two-year $12 billion citizen support and economic stimulus package to help tackle the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, after reaching a cross-party agreement in the early hours of Sunday. This follows the health minister’s resignation amid amid controversy over the country’s figures for deaths from the coronavirus outbreak.
- China reports 57 new virus cases, highest daily count since April. China on Sunday reported 57 new cases of the coronavirus, the highest daily figure since 13 April, as concerns grow about a resurgence of the disease. The National Health Commission said 36 of the new cases were domestic infections in Beijing, with 2 more domestic infections in northeastern Liaoning province. Mass testing has been underway since.
- Cases in Pakistan could double by end of June. Pakistan’s planning minister has warned the number of coronavirus cases in the country could double by the end of June and peak at more than a million infections a month later.
- Sri Lanka has staged mock election to test coronavirus measures. The poll was due to be held on 25 April but was cancelled and postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic, which official figures show has infected nearly 2,000 people and killed 11 in the country. New health measures – to be implemented at polling booths and counting centres – were trialled on Sunday in four of the 22 electoral districts. The vote will be held by 5 August.
- President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia is emerging from the coronavirus crisis with minimal losses, having handled it better than the United States where party political interests got in the way. With 528,964 confirmed cases, Russia has the third-highest number of infections after Brazil and the US. However, its official death toll stands at 6,948, much lower than in many other countries, including the United States which has had over 115,000 deaths. The veracity of Russian statistics has been called into question.
- The Australian government will spend another A$1.5bn on infrastructure and fast-track approval for projects in a bid to stimulate the country’s economy post-lockdown, prime minister Scott Morrison will say on Monday.
- Iran’s daily virus death toll has exceeded 100, for the first time in two months. In televised remarks, health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari announced 107 Covid-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the overall toll to 8,837.
Updated
Beijing carried out mass testing for the coronavirus on Sunday after a new outbreak in the city that prompted travel warnings across the country amid fears of a second wave, AFP reports.
China has largely stemmed its outbreak through strict lockdowns that were imposed early this year but have since been lifted. But a fresh cluster linked to a wholesale food market in the capital has sparked widespread alarm and raised the spectre of a return to painful restrictions.
The National Health Commission reported 57 new infections on Sunday, of which 36 were local transmissions in Beijing, all linked to the Xinfadi market.
Another two domestic infections were in northeastern Liaoning province and were close contacts of the Beijing cases. The 19 other infections were among Chinese nationals returning from abroad.
Helena Smith has sent in this dispatch from Greece:
As Greece prepares to open up to foreign tourists after a three-month hiatus, museums nationwide are also preparing to open their doors.
In ancient Nemea in the northeast Peloponnese, museum officials had stocked up on gloves, masks and hand sanitiser - all readily available with a six euro entrance ticket at its gates.
Maria Nikitakou, the spectacular site’s chief guard, said staff were eagerly awaiting visitors. “We’re really not used to being closed,” she said. “We have so many wonderful treasures in our museum. The site itself may have been open since 18 May but if truth be told we haven’t had many visitors.”
Ahead of international flights resuming, the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis flew to the island of Santorini Saturday to announce that the tourist-dependent nation was ready to welcome foreign travellers. Greece hopes its success in handling the pandemic and its projected image as a safe destination will lure tourists so vital to an economy that thrives on the sector.
Updated
Italy registered a further 44 deaths on Sunday, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the number of new cases rose by 338.
The total death toll now stands at 34,345, the agency said, the fourth highest in the world after those of the US, the UK and Brazil. The number of confirmed cases amounts to 236,989, the seventh highest global tally behind those of the US, Russia, Brazil, Spain, Britain and India.
The northern region of Lombardy, where the outbreak was first identified, remains by far the worst affected of Italy’s 20 regions, accounting for 244 of the 338 new cases reported on Sunday.
People registered as currently carrying the illness fell to 26,274 from 27,485 the day before. There were 209 people in intensive care on Sunday, down from 220 on Saturday, maintaining a long-running decline. Of those originally infected, 176,370 were declared recovered against 174,865 a day earlier.
The agency said 2.847 million people had been tested for the virus as of Saturday, against 2.817 million on Saturday, out of a population of around 60 million.
Chile announces $12 billion stimulus package
Chile’s finance minister Ignacio Briones has announced a new two-year $12 billion citizen support and economic stimulus package to help tackle the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, after reaching a cross-party agreement in the early hours of Sunday.
With the country facing its toughest weeks of fighting the pandemic, Briones said Chile was navigating a “unique moment” in its history and cross-party cooperation is needed to offer citizens a “sign of hope”.
The announcement follows weeks of political infighting and criticism of the government’s handling of the of the crisis by medical experts, as confirmed coronavirus cases per 100,000 citizens reached global levels only surpassed by small nations like Qatar.
It comes on the same day as Chile’s health minister quit over the government’s response to the crisis.
The plan, funded by a mix of budget reallocations, sovereign funds and debt issuance, includes enhanced emergency benefits for Chile’s most vulnerable families from payments of 65,000 Chilean pesos to 100,000 per person.
It will increase funding for local governments, civil society organisations and health services, and offers unemployment protection for parents and those who care for young children, Briones said.
Thousands demonstrated in Berlin against racism and for broader fairness, including sharing the coronavirus burden, as they formed a socially-distant human chain through the German capital on Sunday, AFP reports.
Hundreds also turned out in other cities like Leipzig and Hamburg, although some faced rainstorms during a weekend of harsh weather across Germany.
A spokesman for progressive movement Unteilbar (Indivisible) told AFP “more than 20,000 people” had participated in the event in Berlin, while police estimated around 8,000.
“The coronavirus is worsening existing inequalities. Many people are threatened with being left behind. We will not allow that,” said Unteilbar spokesman Georg Wissmeier in a statement. “Human rights, social justice and climate justice belong together indivisibly.”
Over 10,000 people gathered in Berlin in support of Black Lives Matter last weekend following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the movement’s slogan was also present on Sunday. But the organisers of the latest demonstration posted a broader set of demands online.
They are calling for better working conditions and pay for all including migrants, affordable housing, upholding asylum rights, relaunching the economy along green lines and allowing workers more say in how companies are run.
Participants’ infection control precautions, which included stewards distributing strips of tape cut as a distancing guide, had been “exemplary”, a police spokesman told AFP, adding that people had kept their distance and worn face masks.
Updated
Thirty-six migrants travelling from Turkey were spotted off Lesbos and transferred to a temporary settlement in the north of the island, Greece’s coastguard has said.
Among the group, “one person had to be hospitalised”, a coastguard press office official told AFP, without giving further details. The rest of the group were moved to a migrant facility on Lesbos and quarantined for seven days under measures to combat coronavirus, the source said.
The group is made up of 10 women, 10 children and 16 men, all from Iran and Afghanistan, the Greek state news agency ANA reports.
Their boat was spotted on Saturday morning but the Greek coastguard’s rescue and transfer operation did not take place until midnight, according to the coastguard.
Migrant advocacy NGOs, Aegean Boat Report and Watch the Med, denounced the Greek and Turkish coastguards on social media for leaving the boat in distress offshore “for 14 hours” while they both attempted to deflect responsibility.
32 people still denied rescue despite distress situation and reported dangers to their health. Small children and a pregnant woman are in critical health condition, according to the people in the boat. Greek and Turkish Coast Guards leave them alone in the sea.
— Alarm Phone (@alarm_phone) June 13, 2020
There have been numerous reports from NGOs and the media published in recent months accusing Greece of driving migrants backs towards Turkey.
On Friday the UN’s refugee agency, the International Organization for Migration and the EU called on Athens to “urgently open an investigation” into the matter and “take the necessary measures”.
It is the third boat to arrive in Lesbos since the beginning of June. A total of 108 migrants have been rescued off the island in the last two weeks, according to ANA, an increase in numbers after a significant drop in previous months due to restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Updated
Hello, I’m Clea Skopeliti and I’ll be with you for the next few hours. If you spot a story you think I’ve missed or have a tip, please do get in touch on Twitter @cleaskopeliti or by email. I won’t always be able to reply but will read everything. Thanks!
Cases in Pakistan could double by end of June, says minister
AFP is reporting that Pakistan’s planning minister has warned the number of coronavirus cases in the country could double by the end of June and peak at more than a million infections a month later.
The warning from Asad Umar comes amid concerns that many in the country continue to ignore guidance on social distancing, hygiene and other measures to tackle the disease.
Pakistan currently has confirmed nearly 140,000 cases of COVID-19, with the death toll approaching 2,700. Authorities have ramped up testing, but it remains limited, so real numbers are thought to be higher.
Umar, who is helping coordinate the government’s coronavirus response, told reporters in Islamabad:
Expert estimates say the number of confirmed cases could go up to 300,000 by the end of June if we keep on flouting SOPs (standard operating procedures) and taking the problem lightly. We fear the number of confirmed cases could go up further to 1.2 million by end of next month.
The UK’s coronavirus death toll rose by 36 to 41,698, according to government data released on Sunday.
As of 9am 14 June, there have been 6,772,602 tests, with 144,865 tests on 13 June.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) June 14, 2020
295,889 people have tested positive.
As of 5pm on 13 June, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 41,698 have sadly died.
More info:
➡️https://t.co/r2YbE2e3O8 pic.twitter.com/1SejuJ9rou
Almost 11,000 German holidaymakers will begin arriving in the Balearic islands from Monday as part of a pilot scheme to help Spain reactivate its tourism sector following disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Guardian’s Sam Jones reports that the “safe tourist corridors” initiative will serve as a trial run as Spain prepares to reopen its borders to countries in the EU’s Schengen area on 21 June. At the request of the Portuguese government, the land border with Spain will not open until 1 July.
About 10,900 German tourists are scheduled to arrive on 47 separate flights over the coming days and will spend at least five days on the islands. Most will stay on Mallorca, the largest of the Balearic islands, but there will be eight flights to Ibiza and one to Menorca.
Under the scheme, the German tourists will not need to be tested for the coronavirus and will also be exempt from the mandatory two-week quarantine period.
However, they will have to fill out a public health form, have their temperature taken on arrival at the airport, and give the authorities their contact details and the address of their accommodation. If they develop any symptoms, a team will be dispatched to where they are staying to carry out a PCR test.
Sri Lanka stages mock election to test coronavirus measures
Sri Lanka has staged a mock election to test measures aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus during a parliamentary vote in August.
The poll was due to be held on 25 April but was cancelled and postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic, which official figures show has infected nearly 2,000 people and killed 11 in the country.
The election commission said Wednesday the vote would be held on 5 August. New health measures – to be implemented at polling booths and counting centres – were trialled on Sunday in four of the 22 electoral districts, commission chairman Mahinda Deshapriya told reporters.
We were very pleased to see that all those who volunteered to take part in this exercise today wore face masks. Officials and polling agents will be behind clear plastic screens or wear face shields. We have also ensured that voters will stand a metre apart when they queue up.
The island nation of 21 million people has steadily lifted its lockdown restrictions, although a night curfew remains.
Updated
Russia emerging from crisis with 'minimal losses', says Putin
President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia is emerging from the coronavirus crisis with minimal losses, having handled it better than the United States where party political interests got in the way.
With 528,964 confirmed cases, Russia has the third-highest number of infections after Brazil and the United States.
However, its official death toll stands at 6,948, much lower than in many other countries, including the United States which has had over 115,000 deaths. The veracity of Russian statistics has been called into question.
Speaking on state TV, Putin said:
We are working rather smoothly and emerging from this situation with the coronavirus confidently and, with minimal losses... But in the (United) States that is not happening.
Russia’s political system had handled the crisis better than its US counterpart, said Putin, because authorities at federal and regional level had worked as one team without disagreements unlike those in the United States.
I can’t imagine someone in the (Russian) government or regions saying we are not going to do what the government or president say. It seems to me that the problem (in the United States) is that group, in this case party interests, are put above those of society’s as a whole, above the interests of the people.
Afghanistan has detected polio in areas previously declared free of the disease after immunisation programmes were paused due to the coronavirus pandemic, officials have said.
The polio virus has spread to three provinces that had not reported cases for up to five years, said Jan Rasekh, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s polio eradication programme. Balkh, Herat and Badakhshan have each declared a single case.
Although the number of new cases nationwide is lower so far this year – with 14 compared to 26 in 2019 – the location has sparked concern.
“We had worked hard for years and cornered polio to a limited geography,” Rasekh said, in comments reported by AFP. “The coronavirus has helped polio spread beyond its endemic region of south and southeast, and now threatens people across the country.”
The UN children’s agency UNICEF said last month that polio eradication drives had been suspended in dozens of countries, while measles vaccination campaigns were also put on hold in 27 nations.
There are only two nations remaining where the wild version of the polio virus continues to spread – Pakistan and Afghanistan – but a strain that has mutated from the vaccine itself has caused outbreaks in Africa.
Afghanistan has so far declared more than 24,500 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 471 deaths. Experts say the actual number of cases is likely higher given limited testing capacity.
Australia to spend a further A$1.5bn to boost economy
The Australian government will spend another A$1.5bn on infrastructure and fast-track approval for projects in a bid to stimulate the country’s economy post-lockdown, prime minister Scott Morrison will say on Monday.
Due to lockdown measures introduced in March to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Australia is on course for its first recession in 30 years.
The country’s government has already brought forward A$3.8bn in infrastructure spending, but Morrison will on Monday promise a further A$1.5bn in funds. According to extracts of a speech seen by Reuters, the Australia’s prime minister will say:
As we come out of the COVID crisis, infrastructure can give us the edge that many countries don’t have.
The money will be spent on “small priority” projects identified by Australia’s states and territories. As well as increased spending, Morrison will say that Australia will fast-track approvals for 15 projects, including BHP’s Olympic Dam.
Projects in Australia typically take 42 months to receive necessary approval. Morrison will say that he intends to reduce this period by half.
Updated
A century after the 1918 pandemic, South America’s largest country has passed Britain to claim the world’s second-highest death toll. The Guardian’s Tom Philips looks at Brazil’s deepening Covid-19 catastrophe.
As a child growing up in 1940s São Paulo, Drauzio Varella remembers his grandmother’s tales of how the Spanish flu ravaged the blue-collar immigrant community they called home.
“So many people died that families would leave people outside on the pavements, and early each morning the carts would come by to collect them and take them off to burial in mass graves,” remembered Varella, who would go on to become Brazil’s best-known doctor.
More than a century after the 1918 calamity, South America’s largest country is again being shaken by a devastating pandemic, and Varella is in disbelief.
“Nobody thought this could happen. Perhaps they imagined it theoretically – that some kind of virus might come along,” said the 77-year-old oncologist, author and broadcaster. “But even when this virus did show up, we didn’t think it would cause a tragedy of such proportions.”
Uzbekistan will reopen its borders to some air travellers from 15 June with quarantine procedures depending on their country of origin, Reuters reports.
The borders of the Central Asian nation, closed since March, will reopen for diplomats, their family members, investors and medical tourists, as well as Uzbeks leaving the country for study or medical treatment, the cabinet said in a statement.
Depending on where they are coming from, visitors will be either quarantined, placed under observation at home, or just let in; the latter will apply to those arriving from China, Japan, South Korea and Israel.
The former Soviet republic has confirmed 4,966 Covid-19 cases with 19 deaths.
Hello, it’s Frances Perraudin here, back to guide you through the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic.
If there’s anything you think I’ve missed, you can email me on frances.perraudin@theguardian.com or message me on twitter @fperraudin.
Delhi is to use 500 railway coaches as hospital facilities after a surge in the number of coronavirus cases led to a shortage of hospital beds.
India’s federal government said on Sunday it will provide New Delhi’s city authorities with 500 railway coaches that will be equipped to care for coronavirus patients, Reuters reports.
The coaches will increase Delhi’s capacity by 8,000 beds, home minister Amit Shah said on Twitter after a meeting with the capital’s chief minister.
The government will also ramp up testing in the city, especially in containment zones, conduct a door-to-door health survey of residents and provide sufficient supplies of oxygen cylinders and ventilators, he said.
India is the fourth-worst affected country in the world, with cases steadily increasing. It reported a record single-day jump in cases on Sunday, adding nearly 12,000 confirmed infections and taking the total to more than 320,000, according to health ministry data.
Prime minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown in late March that has since been loosened.
Iran's daily toll tops 100 for first time since April
Iran’s daily virus death toll has exceeded 100, for the first time in two months, AFP reports.
In televised remarks, health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari announced 107 Covid-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the overall toll to 8,837.
Lari said:
It was very painful for us to announce the triple-digit figure. This is an unpredictable and wild virus and may surprise us at any time.
Iran last recorded triple-digit daily fatalities on April 13, with 111 dead.
Lari also announced 2,472 new cases confirmed in the past day, bringing the total infection caseload to 187,427, with over 148,000 recoveries.
There has been scepticism at home and abroad about Iran’s official COVID-19 figures, with concerns the real toll could be much higher.
Iran has struggled to contain what has become the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak of the illness since it reported its first cases in the Shiite holy city of Qom in February. But since April it has gradually lifted restrictions to ease the intense pressures on its sanctions-hit economy.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday reproached citizens for failing to observe measures designed to rein in the virus.
Official figures have shown a rising trajectory in new confirmed cases since early May, which the government has attributed to increased testing rather than a worsening caseload.
Updated
Hello, I’m Nicola Slawson and I’m taking over the liveblog from Frances Perraudin while she gets something to eat.
Drop me a message or email if you think there is a story I’m missing:
Email: nicola.slawson@theguardian.com
Twitter: @Nicola_Slawson
Summary
- Deaths worldwide pass 430,000. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government figures, there have been 430,399 known coronavirus deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic. The number of cases stands at 7,766,952. The true figures for deaths and cases are likely to be higher, due to differing definitions and testing rates, time lags and suspected underreporting.
- China reports 57 new virus cases, highest daily count since April. China on Sunday reported 57 new cases of the coronavirus, the highest daily figure since 13 April, as concerns grow about a resurgence of the disease. The National Health Commission said 36 of the new cases were domestic infections in Beijing, with 2 more domestic infections in northeastern Liaoning province. Local health officials said they were close contacts of the Beijing cases. The new cluster of domestic infections has prompted fresh lockdowns with people ordered to stay home in 11 residential estates near to the market. The cases are the first in Beijing in two months.
- Poll: UK government losing public approval over handling of virus. Less than a third of the public now approve of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer. The poll found that approval of the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis is down four points to a new low. Only three in 10 people approve, giving the government an overall approval rating of -18 for its handling of the pandemic.
- The Afghan health ministry has said that it is not able to increase testing for coronavirus due to a lack of laboratories and an overload of suspected patients. Ahmad Jawad Osmani, acting health minister, said on Saturday that medical workers would determine new coronavirus patients through their symptoms, rather than through tests, as the country heads towards the peak of the crisis. The news comes as the number of confirmed infections in the capital Kabul topped 10,000.
- Chile Health Minister resigns amid coronavirus deaths. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Saturday replaced Health Minister Jaime Manalich amid controversy over the country’s figures for deaths from the coronavirus outbreak. Pinera said Manalich had spared “no effort” in carrying out his “difficult and noble duty” to protect Chileans’ health. He replaced him with Oscar Enrique Paris, an academic and medical doctor.
- Spain will open its borders to countries in the European Union’s Schengen area – excluding Portugal – on 21 June, Spanish media including El Pais newspaper and Ser radio station reported. The country’s border with Portugal will open on 1 July, as previously announced. The two countries were in dispute earlier this month after Spain announced that they would open the border without consulting the government in Lisbon.
-
Evacuation flight for British Nationals leaves Colombia. The flight is operated by the South American country’s flag carrying airline Avianca. On Saturday night 230 passengers, mostly British nationals, were boarding the aircraft. The plane will return back to Colombia from the UK with Colombian evacuees on Sunday.
- Israel has noted a spike in coronavirus cases as schools, businesses, restaurants, bars, tourist attractions and other establishments reopen, leading to 177 schools and educational institutions throughout the country closing again after 493 students and teachers tested positive for the virus.
- France reported 24 new coronavirus deaths over the 24 hours to Saturday, taking the total to 29,398 and marking the fourth day with under 30 fatalities.
Updated
A steep rise in coronavirus cases in Chile has plunged the government into crisis and prompted intense criticism of its management of the pandemic, reports John Bartlett.
Divisions between the government and sectors of the medical community led to the resignation of the health minister, Jaime Mañalich, on Saturday, shortly after 234 deaths in 24 hours had been confirmed, the highest daily toll to date. Chile is among the countries with the highest number of cases relative to population size.
“I want to call for dialogue and cooperation between research centres, the medical union and scientific community,” Mañalich’s successor, Dr Enrique Paris, a former head of Chile’s medical union, said. “Here begins a new era in which we must hear contrasting opinions.”
The pandemic has claimed the lives of 3,101 people who have tested positive for the virus in Chile, but the government’s statistics has been repeatedly questioned.
An investigation found on Friday that according to unpublished health ministry data more than 5,000 people had died when probable coronavirus deaths were incorporated into the total, as per World Health Organization guidelines.
Here are some newly released coronavirus case figures from around the world.
- Malaysia has reported eight new cases, taking the total to 8,453 infections. The health ministry also reported one more death, raising the total number of fatalities from the outbreak to 121.
- The Philippines has reported 539 more infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 25,930. The government also recorded 14 additional fatalities related to the virus, taking the death toll to 1,088.
- Indonesia has reported 857 new coronavirus cases and 43 new deaths, bringing the total death toll to 2,134.
- Singapore has reported 407 new cases, taking the total to 40,604. It has recorded 26 deaths.
Spain to open most Schengen borders
Spain will open its borders to countries in the European Union’s Schengen area – excluding Portugal – on 21 June, Spanish media including El Pais newspaper and Ser radio station reported.
The country’s border with Portugal will open on 1 July, as previously announced. The two countries were in dispute earlier this month after Spain announced that they would open the border without consulting the government in Lisbon.
The Spanish government has previously said it will allow foreign tourists to enter Spain on 1 July without self-quarantining. The Balearic Islands will start receiving some tourists from Monday as part of a test programme.
Afghanistan is at testing capacity, says health minister
The Afghan health ministry has said that it is not able to test for coronavirus due to a lack of laboratories and an overload of suspected patients, reports Akhtar Mohammad Makoii. The news comes as the number of confirmed infections in the capital Kabul topped 10,000.
Ahmad Jawad Osmani, acting health minister, said on Saturday that medical workers would determine new coronavirus patients through their symptoms, rather than through tests, as the country heads towards the peak of the crisis.
“The new decision that we have made is that any patient that visits health centres with clinical symptoms, they will be recognised as a coronavirus patient and will be admitted for treatment,” Osmani said.
He also said that the medical equipment which UNICEF pledged has not arrived yet.
We could not activate testing centres in [all] 34 provinces. Right now, we have laboratories in 11 provinces, but the medical equipment which was pledged to us by UNICEF has not arrived. The equipment that would have enabled us to expand the testing process to 34 provinces.
We have a plan to increase testing capacity in 34 provinces, but this needs time and it is out of the control of the Ministry of Public Health.
Osmani declared “public mobilisation” against the virus on Thursday and warned that a large number of the country’s population was infected with Covid-19.
At least twenty patients died overnight, including six in Kabul, meaning the country’s Covid-19 death toll now stands at 471. There have been 4,725 recoveries. The country’s health ministry has so far tested 55,981 patients.
The number of confirmed infections in the capital, Kabul, has passed 10,000 following a continued surge of transmission. Kabul is the country’s worst affected area with 10,035 confirmed cases, 316 of them new.
Local officials in Kabul have warned that the actual number of infections in the capital is significantly higher than official figures show.
Eastern province of Nangarhar where a roadside bomb killed at least one civilian killed and wounded two others this morning, recorded nine deaths from Covid-19 overnight. Health officials tested 9 patients in the province of whom 7 came back positive.
Updated
Germany plans to make €500m available to firms to prevent a collapse in company training and apprenticeships due to the coronavirus crisis, a document seen by Reuters has showed.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has already agreed two stimulus packages totalling €880bn to mitigate the impact of a lockdown to contain the pandemic as Europe’s biggest economy braces for its worst recession since World War Two.
An outline of the plan, due to be approved by Merkel’s cabinet on Wednesday, said:
We must prevent the COVID-19 crisis from turning into a crisis for the professional future of young people and for securing skilled workers.
The programme includes a training bonus of up to €3,000 for small and mid-sized companies that have been hit hard by the crisis. Aid will also be available to firms that avoid putting apprentices on a short-time work scheme or if they take on trainees from insolvent firms.
Tokyo has confirmed 47 new coronavirus infections, the highest since the government lifted the state of emergency nationwide in late May.
The daily figure was also the highest since May 5, the Asahi television reported.
Of these 47 cases, said Jiji news agency, 18 were working at a club which provides male drinking companions for women.
The way Russia counts fatalities during the coronavirus pandemic could be one reason why its official death toll of 6,829 is far below many other countries, reports the Associated Press. Despite the comparatively low number of fatalities, Russia has reported 520,000 infections, behind only the United States and Brazil.
The paradox also has led to allegations by critics and Western media that Russian authorities might have falsified the numbers for political purposes to play down the scale of the outbreak. Even a top World Health Organization official said the low number of deaths in Russia certainly is unusual.
Russian authorities have bristled at the suggestions. We have never manipulated the official statistics, said Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova.
Finding the true numbers during the pandemic is difficult, since countries count cases and deaths in different ways and testing for the virus is uneven.
Still, several factors could contribute to Russia’s low virus mortality rate, including the way it counts deaths, a tendency among some officials to embellish statistics, its vast geography and the shorter life expectancy of its population.
An autopsy is mandatory in Russia in every confirmed or suspected case of Covid-19, with a determination on the cause of death made by a commission of specialists, said Dr Natalia Belitchenko, a pathologist in the medical examiner’s office in the region around St Petersburg.
She deals with coronavirus deaths almost daily, but said only about 20% of them have been attributed to COVID-19. In other cases, the virus was determined to be an underlying condition. In the vast majority of cases, the pneumonia itself wouldn’t have led to death, had the underlying conditions not flared up to a point of becoming fatal, she said.
The Guardian’s Paris correspondent, Kim Wilsher, has this report from Paris, where streets have been pedestrianised and the mayor has turned parking spaces into cycle lanes.
It is evening rush hour and the Rue de Rivoli, a major east-west road through central Paris, is heaving. Pre-coronavirus, it would have been one long traffic jam, paralysed by increasingly frustrated and angry motorists. Now, though, with private cars banned, it is busy with pedestrians, cyclists and a smattering of taxis and buses.
North of Rue de Rivoli, in the Marais, a maze of narrow cobbled streets, cafes, restaurants and bars have spread out across pavements and parking places.
As France returns to normal, after what President Emmanuel Macron described as the “war” on Covid-19, the battle is now on for public space in Paris.
The pedestrianisation of Rue de Rivoli has crystallised the divide between competing interests: celebrated by cyclists and described by popular French TV star Thierry Ardisson as “a dream”; seen by motorists as part of City Hall’s “obsession” to drive them out of the capital.
Hello from London. I’m Frances Perraudin and I’ll be guiding you through the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic across the world. You can send me hints and tips on frances.perraudin@theguardian.com and contact me on twitter @fperraudin.
Summary
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. Thanks for following along.
Here are the key global developments from the last few hours:
- Deaths worldwide pass 430,000. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government figures, there have been 430,128 known coronavirus deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic. The number of cases stands at 7,766,952. The true figures for deaths and cases are likely to be higher, due to differing definitions and testing rates, time lags and suspected underreporting.
- China reports 57 new virus cases, highest daily count since April. China on Sunday reported 57 new cases of the coronavirus, the highest daily figure since 13 April, as concerns grow about a resurgence of the disease. The National Health Commission said 36 of the new cases were domestic infections in Beijing, with 2 more domestic infections in northeastern Liaoning province. Local health officials said they were close contacts of the Beijing cases. The new cluster of domestic infections has prompted fresh lockdowns with people ordered to stay home in 11 residential estates near to the market. The cases are the first in Beijing in two months.
- Poll: UK government losing public approval over handling of virus. Less than a third of the public now approve of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer. The poll found that approval of the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis is down four points to a new low. Only three in 10 people approve, giving the government an overall approval rating of -18 for its handling of the pandemic.
- Chile Health Minister resigns amid coronavirus deaths. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Saturday replaced Health Minister Jaime Manalich amid controversy over the country’s figures for deaths from the coronavirus outbreak. Pinera said Manalich had spared “no effort” in carrying out his “difficult and noble duty” to protect Chileans’ health. He replaced him with Oscar Enrique Paris, an academic and medical doctor.
- Half of Brits support Brexit transition extension, survey finds. More than half of people in Britain support an extension to the Brexit transition period, while three-quarters believe the UK should work very closely with the European Union to combat coronavirus, a survey suggests.
- New York State sees lowest deaths since pandemic started. New York saw its lowest death toll since the pandemic started on Friday. State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Saturday in the US, and the lowest number of hospitalisations since late March.
- Evacuation flight for British Nationals leaves Colombia. The flight is operated by the South American country’s flag carrying airline Avianca. On Saturday night 230 passengers, mostly British nationals, were boarding the aircraft. The plane will return back to Colombia from the UK with Colombian evacuees on Sunday.
- Egypt saw a record daily rise in infections and deaths, as it confirmed 1,677 new coronavirus cases and 62 deaths on Saturday. In total, the Arab world’s most populous country has registered 42,980 cases including 1,484 deaths, the ministry said in a statement.
- Israel has noted a spike in coronavirus cases as schools, businesses, restaurants, bars, tourist attractions and other establishments reopen, leading to 177 schools and educational institutions throughout the country closing again after 493 students and teachers tested positive for the virus.
- France reported 24 new coronavirus deaths over the 24 hours to Saturday, taking the total to 29,398 and marking the fourth day with under 30 fatalities.
- The president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, reproached citizens on Saturday for their reduced adherence to health measures designed to stop the spread of coronavirus.
- Lebanese protesters took to the streets in Beirut and other cities on Saturday in mostly peaceful protests against the government, calling for its resignation as the small country sinks deeper into economic distress amid lockdown restrictions.
The main developments in Australia:
- Australia considering shorter quarantine for students and low-transmission countries. Senior Morrison government ministers have flagged shorter quarantine periods for international students and business travellers as part of a suite of measures to reopen Australia to international travel. The Sunday Telegraph reported the Coalition was considering halving quarantine times to one week for countries with low rates of Covid-19 infection, including Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea.
- NRL postpones match amid Covid-19 scare. The National Rugby League has postponed a match between Canterbury and the Sydney Roosters following a coronavirus scare.
- Victoria confirms nine new cases, announces easing of restrictions. The state of Victoria, Australia has announced nine new cases of coronavirus today, three of whom are in hotel quarantine. In addition to 50 people being allowed in cafes, restaurants and pubs and patrons being allowed to consume alcohol without a meal, restrictions on some community sports will be eased. Non-contact community sport will return on 22 June – for both adults and kids, both indoor and outdoor.
- NSW recorded nine new Covid-19 cases from 13,591 tests in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday. Eight of the cases are among returned travellers in hotel quarantine and one is a teacher at Laguna Street Public School in southern Sydney. All students at the primary school have been deemed close contacts and have been told to self-isolate. The school will stop on-site learning until 24 June. Authorities are investigating the source of the teacher’s infection. No cases are in intensive care.
-
The 50-person limit at cafes, restaurants, and churches will be scrapped in NSW with venues instead to follow the one person per four-square-metre rule.
The new rule, announced by the NSW government on Sunday, will be in place from 1 July and applies to most indoor venues including pubs and workspaces. Outdoor cultural and sporting venues with a capacity of up to 40,000 will from 1 July also be allowed to seat 25% of their normal capacity. - The Queensland state government is committing AU$250m (US$172m) to reduce elective surgery waitlists, which have blown out following the pandemic. More than 7,000 Queenslanders have waited longer than medically recommended for their procedures.
- Western Australia reports zero new coronavirus cases. WA Western Australia has reported no new cases of Covid-19 overnight, with the State’s total number of cases remaining at 602, according to the WA Department of Health.
Updated
Global report: China reports most cases since April as pandemic gathers pace in Latin America
China has reported its highest daily number of new coronavirus cases in months as parts of Beijing remained under lockdown, offering a second-wave warning to the rest of the world as the pandemic rages in South America and global cases approach 7.8 million.
The shock resurgence in domestic infections on Sunday has rattled China, where the disease emerged late last year but had largely been tamed through severe restrictions on movement that were later emulated across the globe.
It also provides a bleak insight into the difficulties the world will face in conquering Covid-19 – even as countries in Europe prepare to reopen borders at the beginning of the summer holiday season after an encouraging drop in contagion.
Of the 57 new cases logged by Chinese authorities, 36 were domestic infections in the capital, where a large wholesale food market at the centre of the outbreak has been closed and nearby housing estates put under lockdown.
“People are scared,” a fruit and vegetable trader at another local market in central Beijing told AFP.
“The meat sellers have had to close. This disease is really scary,” said the man, adding that there were fewer customers than normal.
At least 430,000 people worldwide have died from Covid-19, and the total number of confirmed cases has doubled to 7.78 million in slightly over a month. The disease is now spreading most rapidly in Latin America, where it is threatening healthcare systems and sparking political turmoil.
With time on his hands, our restaurant critic turns chef
Do I need tell you that I miss restaurants? I miss their noise and promise and menus and dishwashers. That got me thinking. I can’t bring the restaurant into my home, but perhaps I could bring the food. Wouldn’t that be great? Pick a few of my favourite dishes and scatter them through my week like suddenly-blooming nasturtium seeds. It would be my food fantasies made flesh, and many other food groups besides.
I start simply with the kind of dish I would once have described pompously, as a “pleasing piece of assembly”: the duck starter served to me at Grazing by Mark Greenaway in Edinburgh. There was a pristine disc of fried duck egg, sunrise-yellow yolk dead centre, layered with torn hunks of duck confit, slices of duck ham, fried breadcrumbs and dollops of parsley mayo. Happily, in my south London neighbourhood I have shops selling duck eggs, duck confit and flat-leaf parsley. I can’t get duck ham but I can substitute with jamon Iberico. In lockdown we all must make sacrifices. Oh, the humanity.
Poll: UK government losing public approval over handling of virus
Less than a third of the public now approve of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.
The poll found that approval of the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis is down four points to a new low. Only three in 10 people approve, giving the government an overall approval rating of -18 for its handling of the pandemic.
However, the pollsters found that disapproval of the way Boris Johnson is acting as prime minister appears to have levelled off, with no significant increases in either approval or disapproval over the past three weeks. He has a net approval score of -6 points. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer’s approval ratings remain very high on +24, but have dropped four points since last week.
Johnson still only has a one-point lead when voters are asked who makes the best prime minister – a historic low for him.
Significantly more women than men are experiencing problems with their mental health as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
New research by Lisa Spantig and Ben Etheridge, economists at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, suggests it is because women are more adversely affected by social isolation during lockdown.
The study reveals that the proportion of people who are reporting that they are experiencing at least one severe underlying mental health problem has increased among both genders. Among men it has risen from 7% of men before the pandemic to 18% after its onset. But for women, it has risen from 11% to 27%.
The Lancet’s editor: ‘The UK response to coronavirus is the greatest science policy failure for a generation’
There is a school of thought that says now is not the time to criticise the government and its scientific advisers about the way they have handled the Covid-19 pandemic. Wait until all the facts are known and the crisis has subsided, goes this thinking, and then we can analyse the performance of those involved. It’s safe to say that Richard Horton, the editor of the influential medical journal the Lancet, is not part of this school.
An outspoken critic of what he sees as the medical science establishment’s acquiescence to government, he has written a book that he calls a “reckoning” for the “missed opportunities and appalling misjudgments” here and abroad that have led to “the avoidable deaths of tens of thousands of citizens”.
The Observer view: as Britain flounders, Europe charts its recovery
If the struggle against the pandemic resembles a war, as Boris Johnson believes, then it’s pretty clear who is losing. By any pertinent measure, including the most damning one – the number of excess deaths compared with last year – Britain is being outdone by countries across Europe, most notably Germany. Johnson dislikes international comparisons. It’s shamefully obvious why. Britain is not second rate. He is.
Late into lockdown, late on PPE, late on testing, test and trace, late on halting the avoidable care homes catastrophe and late on the reopening of schools, Johnson’s government now lags behind in launching an economic stimulus package to mitigate the potentially disastrous long-term effects of the virus. Last week’s report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development shows just how urgent the need is.
Britain’s economy is likely to suffer the worst damage of any country in the developed world, with a projected 2020 fall in national income of 11.5% amid un-budgeted, virus-related costs of £133bn. Germany’s shortfall in contrast will be 6.6%, the OECD predicted. This is not happening because Britain is unlucky. It’s happening because of its relative failure to suppress the virus and the resulting, ongoing restrictions on economic activity.
The comparative slowness of Britain’s recovery stems from this continuing inability to safely reboot key sectors such as services – hospitality, shops, restaurants and pubs. Dithering over the arbitrary “two metre rule” is one example of how the government makes matters worse. Another is the delay to the promised stimulus package and Johnson’s elusive economic recovery bill, now expected by the autumn.
Australian trade minister, Simon Birmingham, says the federal government has secured weekly freight flights from Queensland to Hong Hong and Singapore to get farmers’ produce into key overseas export markets.
From Sunday, Cathay Pacific will start a weekly direct freight flight carrying local beef, pork, eggs, fruit and vegetables from Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport to Hong Kong. From Friday, Singapore Airlines will also start a weekly freight flight between Toowoomba and Singapore, carrying between 30-40 tonnes of local produce.
Federal Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said that the Covid-19 pandemic had created barriers for exporters and these flights would make it easier for local farmers to get their high-quality produce overseas.
“With very few passenger planes flying overseas at present, we need to make sure local farmers and producers across south east Queensland still have avenues to get their produce over to their overseas customers,” Minister Birmingham said in a statement on Sunday.
“The more local product we can get out the door, the more local jobs we can protect and the more export dollars we can generate for the region.”
Australia considering shorter quarantine for students and low-transmission countries
Senior Morrison government ministers have flagged shorter quarantine periods for international students and business travellers as part of a suite of measures to reopen Australia to international travel.
On Sunday, the health minister, Greg Hunt, confirmed that modifications to the existing mandatory two-week hotel quarantine could be enacted in addition to travel bubbles with safe countries, such as New Zealand, which would not require quarantine.
The Sunday Telegraph reported the Coalition was considering halving quarantine times to one week for countries with low rates of Covid-19 infection, including Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea.
Plunging oil prices and collapsing state revenues have seen Nigerian authorities vow an end to a controversial fuel subsidy scheme long criticised as a graft-ridden drain on public finances, AFP reports.
But there are major doubts that Africa’s most populous country is finally ready to wean itself off a system that has helped some in high places syphon billions from government coffers.
The fuel subsidy scheme has been described as a sprawling web of patronage and mismanagement that encapsulates the dysfunction plaguing the continental powerhouse.
Despite being Africa’s largest oil producer, OPEC member Nigeria has limited refinery capacity and actually imports the bulk of its refined products, including fuel.
That fuel is then sold at a subsidised rate in an opaque system aimed at keeping average Nigerians happy - but it also left plenty of scope for corruption by officials and traders.
Over the past few months the coronavirus crisis and turmoil worldwide has upended all this. The fall in global oil prices means that fuel coming in from outside no longer needs to be subsidised, just as Nigeria’s state revenues have taken a major hit.
Taking advantage of the slump to save its much-needed reserves, the Nigerian authorities announced an end to the old system in April.
“There is no subsidy and it is zero forever,” said Mele Kyari, the head of state-run Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation. From now on, officials pledged, the market would determine the cost at the pump.
Beijing should expand the scope of nucleic acid testing for the new coronavirus in and the scope of sampling in the Chinese capital, a city government spokesman said on Sunday.
He told a news conference Beijing has entered an “extraordinary period” after the city reported a record 36 confirmed new cases of the virus for Saturday.
Summary
Here are the key developments from around the world from the last few hours:
- Deaths worldwide pass 430,000. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government figures, there have been 430,128 known coronavirus deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic. The number of cases stands at 7,766,952. The true figures for deaths and cases are likely to be higher, due to differing definitions and testing rates, time lags and suspected underreporting.
- China reports 57 new virus cases, highest daily count since April. China on Sunday reported 57 new cases of the coronavirus, the highest daily figure since 13 April, as concerns grow about a resurgence of the disease. The National Health Commission said 36 of the new cases were domestic infections in Beijing, with 2 more domestic infections in northeastern Liaoning province. Local health officials said they were close contacts of the Beijing cases. The new cluster of domestic infections has prompted fresh lockdowns with people ordered to stay home in 11 residential estates near to the market. The cases are the first in Beijing in two months.
- Chile Health Minister resigns amid coronavirus deaths. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Saturday replaced Health Minister Jaime Manalich amid controversy over the country’s figures for deaths from the coronavirus outbreak. Pinera said Manalich had spared “no effort” in carrying out his “difficult and noble duty” to protect Chileans’ health. He replaced him with Oscar Enrique Paris, an academic and medical doctor.
- Half of Brits support Brexit transition extension, survey finds. More than half of people in Britain support an extension to the Brexit transition period, while three-quarters believe the UK should work very closely with the European Union to combat coronavirus, a survey suggests.
- New York State sees lowest deaths since pandemic started. New York saw its lowest death toll since the pandemic started on Friday. State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Saturday in the US, and the lowest number of hospitalisations since late March.
- Evacuation flight for British Nationals leaves Columbia. The flight is operated by the South American country’s flag carrying airline Avianca. On Saturday night 230 passengers, mostly British nationals, were boarding the aircraft. The plane will return back to Colombia from the UK with Colombian evacuees on Sunday.
- Egypt saw a record daily rise in infections and deaths, as it confirmed 1,677 new coronavirus cases and 62 deaths on Saturday. In total, the Arab world’s most populous country has registered 42,980 cases including 1,484 deaths, the ministry said in a statement.
- Israel has noted a spike in coronavirus cases as schools, businesses, restaurants, bars, tourist attractions and other establishments reopen, leading to 177 schools and educational institutions throughout the country closing again after 493 students and teachers tested positive for the virus.
- France reported 24 new coronavirus deaths over the 24 hours to Saturday, taking the total to 29,398 and marking the fourth day with under 30 fatalities.
- The president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, reproached citizens on Saturday for their reduced adherence to health measures designed to stop the spread of coronavirus.
- Lebanese protesters took to the streets in Beirut and other cities on Saturday in mostly peaceful protests against the government, calling for its resignation as the small country sinks deeper into economic distress amid lockdown restrictions.
The main developments in Australia:
- NRL postpones match amid Covid-19 scare. The National Rugby League has postponed a match between Canterbury and the Sydney Roosters following a coronavirus scare.
- Victoria confirms nine new cases, announces easing of restrictions. The state of Victoria, Australia has announced nine new cases of coronavirus today, three of whom are in hotel quarantine. In addition to 50 people being allowed in cafes, restaurants and pubs and patrons being allowed to consume alcohol without a meal, restrictions on some community sports will be eased. Non-contact community sport will return on 22 June – for both adults and kids, both indoor and outdoor.
- NSW recorded nine new Covid-19 cases from 13,591 tests in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday. Eight of the cases are among returned travellers in hotel quarantine and one is a teacher at Laguna Street Public School in southern Sydney. All students at the primary school have been deemed close contacts and have been told to self-isolate. The school will stop on-site learning until 24 June. Authorities are investigating the source of the teacher’s infection. No cases are in intensive care.
-
The 50-person limit at cafes, restaurants, and churches will be scrapped in NSW with venues instead to follow the one person per four-square-metre rule.
The new rule, announced by the NSW government on Sunday, will be in place from 1 July and applies to most indoor venues including pubs and workspaces. Outdoor cultural and sporting venues with a capacity of up to 40,000 will from 1 July also be allowed to seat 25% of their normal capacity. - The Queensland state government is committing AU$250m (US$172m) to reduce elective surgery waitlists, which have blown out following the pandemic. More than 7,000 Queenslanders have waited longer than medically recommended for their procedures.
- Western Australia reports zero new coronavirus cases. WA Western Australia has reported no new cases of Covid-19 overnight, with the State’s total number of cases remaining at 602, according to the WA Department of Health.
The Seattle Times reports that a 70-year-old man named Michael Flor, who was in hospital with coronavirus for 62 days, has received a bill for more than $1 million for his stay. The man is insured and may not have to foot the bill himself, but the 81-page document explaining the charges is a reminder of the dire state of the US healthcare system.
A 70 year old coronavirus survivor in Seattle has received a hospital bill charging him $1,122,501.04 for life saving healthcare. The bill is 181 pages long. https://t.co/hPuVY3FpOx
— Liam Stack (@liamstack) June 13, 2020
Seattle Times Journalist Danny Westneat writes:
The total tab for his bout with the coronavirus: $1.1 million. $1,122,501.04, to be exact. All in one bill that’s more like a book because it runs to 181 pages.
The bill is technically an explanation of charges, and because Flor has insurance including Medicare, he won’t have to pay the vast majority of it. In fact because he had Covid-19, and not a different disease, he might not have to pay anything.
...
Flor was in Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah with Covid-19 for 62 days, so he knew the bill would be a doozy. He was unconscious for much of his stay, but once near the beginning his wife Elisa Del Rosario remembers him waking up and saying: “You gotta get me out of here, we can’t afford this.”
New York State sees lowest deaths since pandemic started
New York saw its lowest death toll since the pandemic started. State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Saturday in the US, and the lowest number of hospitalisations since late March:
Yesterday we lost 32 New Yorkers to Coronavirus.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 13, 2020
This is the lowest number of COVID-related fatalities since this pandemic started.
We also saw the lowest number of total hospitalizations since March 20th.
Updated
Evacuation flight for British nationals to leave Colombia
Joe Parkin Daniels reports for the Guardian from Bogotá, Colombia:
An evacuation flight of British nationals and residents is about to take off from Colombia, headed for London Heathrow.
The flight is operated by the South American country’s flag carrying airline Avianca. On Saturday night 230 passengers, mostly British nationals, were boarding the aircraft. The plane will return back to Colombia from the UK with Colombian evacuees on Sunday.
The scene at Bogotá's El Dorado airport, as 230 passengers queue to check-in for the evacuation flight to London Heathrow. Photo from @LukeStTaylor pic.twitter.com/q5vnaLyYj6
— Joe Parkin Daniels (@joeparkdan) June 14, 2020
The flight, which was organised between the airline and the governments of Colombia and Britain, was over-subscribed. Colombian president Iván Duque has cancelled all international air travel until September, except for rare evacuation flights like the one that left on Saturday.
At capital Bogotá’s barely operational El Dorado airport on Saturday night, many people waiting in the long, socially-distanced queue, were relieved to be getting home.
“There is a lot of relief from those who feel fortunate to have got a seat through the British embassy, some having initially been rejected,” Luke Taylor, a reporter on the flight, told The Guardian. “But like myself many are also sad to cut their time in Colombia short without the chance for a real farewell.”
Colombia, which is relaxing some of its lockdown measures, currently has confirmed 46,858 cases of Covid-19, with 1545 deaths. Daily cases are climbing, with 1646 confirmed on Saturday, worrying experts that the worst is about to hit.
Neighbouring Brazil and Peru both continue to be ravaged by virus. An official at the World Health Organization warned last month that “in a sense, South America has become a new epicenter for the disease.”
Satuday’s evacuation flight, which is scheduled to land at Heathrow on Sunday afternoon, will not provide hot food or in-flight entertainment - in line with global protocols to combat the pandemic.
The British embassy in Colombia advised passengers on the flight to “please bring your own reading materials, music and/or films”, in an email sent out last week. “But most of all, we wish you a safe and pleasant return to the UK.”
Updated
Australian animal welfare groups are outraged a live export ship is being allowed to sail from Western Australia to the Middle East despite the northern summer ban, after the federal Department of Agriculture granted an exemption, AAP reports.
The Al Kuwait has been stranded at Fremantle Port for the past three weeks due to a coronavirus outbreak among crew.
Rural Export and Trading WA was initially denied an exemption to the three-and-a-half month ban, which began on June 1 and was prompted by thousands of sheep dying from heat stress aboard the Awassi Express in 2017. But on Saturday the department said it had approved a fresh application.
WA agriculture minister Alannah MacTiernan said a 25% reduction in stocking density and stopping at only one port should go some way toward addressing animal welfare concerns.
Animals Australia says the decision is “inconceivable” and has collected more than 15,000 signatures against it in an online campaign.
“Clearly these new welfare laws aren’t worth the paper they’re written on,” the organisation wrote.
World Animal Protection said the exemption should not have been granted.
Updated
Western Australia reports zero new coronavirus cases
The state of Western Australia has reported no new cases of Covid-19 overnight, with the State’s total number of cases remaining at 602, according to the WA Department of Health:
There are currently 11 active cases in the state, five are Western Australians and six are crew members from the Al Kuwait livestock carrier.
To date, 582 people have recovered from the virus in WA.
Yesterday 476 people presented to Covid-19 clinics – 457 were assessed and 450 were swabbed.
To date there have been 141,905 Covid-19 tests performed in WA. Of those tested, 25,070 were from regional WA.
Updated
That announcement comes as Queensland announced no new coronavirus cases and just five active cases across the state.
Queensland’s chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young said more than 3,200 tests had been conducted over the past 24 hours.
She said the reopening of borders was still pencilled in for July 10 when Stage 3 restrictions would be triggered although she left room for the date to be brought forward.
“If things were a lot better, then of course we could bring that date forward, as it happened for this month on Stage 2,” Dr Young said.
“It’s really what happens at the end of June as to what will happen then for that Stage 3 of the road map.”
Mr Miles said modelling had been undertaken on opening up to NSW first but their preference was “to lift the borders all at once.”
Queensland government commits AU$250m to reduce elective surgery waitlists
In Australia, the Queensland state government is committing AU$250m (US$172m) to reduce elective surgery waitlists which have blown out following the pandemic, AAP reports.
The state health minister, Steven Miles, outlined the quarter of a billion dollar investment on Sunday that will ease the rising patient waitlist numbers and include ramping-up specialist appointments.
More than 7,000 Queenslanders have waited longer than medically recommended for their procedures.
“We will be able to deliver 6000 additional operations, effectively clearing that long wait list,” Mr Miles told reporters.
He said the funding would assist with 25,000 specialist appointments. The additional funds will also provide extra theatre lists at night and on weekends and also buy theatre time in the private sector.
Queensland had more than 52,200 patients on elective surgery lists on 1 June.
We’ve got the latest update from Germany. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country increased by 247 on Saturday to 186,269, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.
The reported death toll rose by six to 8,787.
Hundreds of demonstrators angered by a deepening economic crisis rallied across Lebanon for a third consecutive day on Saturday, after violent overnight riots sparked condemnation from the political elite.
Protesting against the surging cost of living and the government’s apparent impotence in the face of Lebanon’s worst economic turmoil since the 1975-1990 civil war, protesters in central Beirut brandished flags and chanted anti-government slogans.
Lebanon – one of the most indebted countries in the world, with a sovereign debt of more than 170% of GDP – went into default in March. Unemployment has soared to 35% nationwide.
It started talks with the International Monetary Fund last month in a bid to unlock billions of dollars in financial aid. Dialogue is ongoing.
The country enforced a lockdown in mid-March to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, dealing a further blow to businesses.
Half of British voters support Brexit transition extension, survey finds
More than half of people in Britain support an extension to the Brexit transition period, while three-quarters believe the UK should work very closely with the European Union to combat coronavirus, a survey suggests.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove formally told the EU on Friday that the UK would not ask for a delay despite concerns that its departure would compound the economic chaos inflicted by the pandemic.
A survey from the Health Foundation indicated public support for an extension to the transition period to allow the government to focus on Covid-19, across two sample groups.
Among the first sample, who were told that the transition period for leaving the EU would end on 31 December, 54% said the government should request an extension, while 40% said it should not.
Updated
Deaths worldwide near 430,000
According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government figures, there have been 429,666 known coronavirus deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic.
The number of cases stands at 7,764,977.
The true figures for deaths and cases are likely to be higher, due to differing definitions and testing rates, time lags and suspected underreporting.
Here are the ten countries with the highest number of known cases:
- US: 2,074,082
- Brazil: 850,514
- Russia: 519,458
- India: 308,993
- United Kingdom: 295,828
- Spain: 243,605
- Italy: 236,651
- Peru: 220,749
- France: 193,746
- Germany: 187,267
NSW, Australia records nine new cases
NSW recorded nine new Covid-19 cases from 13,591 tests in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday.
Eight of the cases are among returned travellers in hotel quarantine and one is a teacher at Laguna Street Public School in southern Sydney.
All students at the primary school have been deemed close contacts and have been told to self-isolate. The school will stop on-site learning until 24 June.
NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant on Sunday said authorities are investigating the source of the teacher’s infection.
There have now been 3128 cases of coronavirus in NSW, with 47 people being treated as of Sunday. No cases are in intensive care.
Australian trade minister Simon Birmingham hopes China agrees to talks to soothe tensions between the two countries “sooner rather than later”, AAP reports.
Senator Birmingham’s Chinese counterpart has previously ignored his phone calls to try and and heal growing frictions, which appeared to start when Australia pursued an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus.
China has since slapped a hefty tariff on imports on Australian barley, blocked certain beef imports and warned tourists and students not to travel to Australia because they say it is unsafe and racist.
In another development in the relationship with Australia’s number one trading partner, China announced on Saturday it was sentencing an Australian drug smuggler, Karm Gilespie, to death after being in prison there since 2013.
Asked on Sky New’s Sunday Agenda program whether he thought this incident was linked to the ongoing political row between China and Australia, the senator said: “We shouldn’t necessarily view it as such.”
But he rejected any suggestion that Australia is not a safe country for visitors and students to live and study in.
“As a country we offer high quality education, an amazing lifestyle for those who come here, opportunities to experience the Australian way of life and, of course, a very safe environment,” Senator Birmingham said.
He said over the past couple of years China had made similar types of warnings and that hadn’t stopped Chinese students and tourists from coming to Australia. The minister said he would like to visit China in person when it is appropriate given present international travel bans because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“But I do think that in terms of dealing with points of difference between nations ... is dialogue, open discussion,” he said.
“I hope that we will see China agree to that and do so, ideally, sooner rather than later. It doesn’t need to wait for a visit, it can be done through virtual summits, phone calls or otherwise.”
Updated
Mexico’s health ministry reported 3,494 new confirmed coronavirus infections along with 424 additional fatalities on Saturday, bringing the total in the country to 142,690 cases and 16,872 deaths.
The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the official count.
Guardian Australia’s Greg Jericho has this explainer on what is happening to stock markets at the moment:
When the coronavirus hit, stock markets around the world sank as fast as they ever have. Both in Australia and in the US, the market fell about 35% in less than a month.
That at least makes sense to people: the economy is about to shut down so you would expect the value of companies’ stocks to fall.
But over the past three months the Australian stock market has risen strongly and by Wednesday was back to where it was in February last year and only about 15% below the peak of February this year.
In the US things were even “better”. The S&P500 was down just 5% on the pre-virus peaks, and the technology based Nasdaq Index had not only recovered all the losses of February and March it was breaking records.
So the bad news is over? We’re back and fully functioning again?
Well, no.
While there may be some link with reality and the value of stocks, a large proportion of what we’re seeing is a reaction to things seemingly not being as bad as first thought, and also a wilful desire to pretend things are not as bad as they are.
Updated
Oxford University researcher and founder of Our World In Data explains below why Chile’s coronavirus infections are so worrying:
The outbreak in Chile is now much worse than those in the worst-hit European countries.
— Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) June 13, 2020
And as you can see on the line color, Chile is testing very little. In the last week a case was confirmed per every 3! tests.
[Source: https://t.co/R4O7zZfajb] pic.twitter.com/HUOUrSE7Jl
Chile health minister resigns amid coronavirus deaths
Chilean president Sebastian Pinera on Saturday replaced health minister Jaime Manalich amid controversy over the country’s figures for deaths from the coronavirus outbreak, AFP reports.
Pinera said Manalich had spared “no effort” in carrying out his “difficult and noble duty” to protect Chileans’ health. He replaced him with Oscar Enrique Paris, an academic and medical doctor.
Manalich, a tough-talking kidney specialist who once ran one of Chile’s top hospitals, has won praise for an aggressive campaign to keep hospitals supplied with ventilators and protective equipment and leading detailed daily press conferences.
But there have been frequent reports of spats among health ministry officials, and Manalich has been criticised by opposition politicians, mayors, medical experts and social groups for refusing to release more detailed contagion data or apply lockdowns sooner and for successive changes in criteria for recording deaths and cases.
The sudden reshuffle comes as Chile faces its toughest month in the pandemic so far, with spiralling active cases and deaths rates. The country now has the highest number of confirmed cases per million people in Latin America, reporting 167,355 cases on Saturday and 3,101 deaths.
The new minister, Enrique Paris, is a former head of the Chilean College of Doctors (Colmed) and a university deacon.
José Miguel Bernucci, Colmed’s national secretary, welcomed the appointment, saying he was looking forward to a more consensual approach and a “change in strategy to jointly confront the pandemic.”
Updated
Back to Australia: The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has also given some guidance on restrictions.
On Friday, the national cabinet agreed that under step three of the national guidelines, states could possibly remove the 100 person cap for venues and implement a one person per four square metre rule instead. Meaning that some larger venues could have more than 100.
Andrews said Victoria was still “testing” whether this would work for venues in the state. And that the national cabinet could still alter that rule.
“That work will be done over the next fortnight and when we next meet as a national cabinet, a fortnight from last Friday, we will make a decision or not, but that matter is being tested, if you like,” he said.
“Because I know that there are a number of pubs, for instance, a number of venues where there is no way of getting 50 patrons in but enclosed space because the room simply isn’t big enough, from a square metre point of view.”
He also said that electronic gambling could be back by 20 July.
“Electronic gaming, that is still some way off, and you will see in the release that we have foreshadowed the 20th of next month.
“It is probably longer than the industry would have liked, but it is important to be cautious about this. It will not be electronic gaming as we know it. It will be spacing, there will be not necessarily every machine, all that is to be worked through.”
In Beijing, AFP reporters saw hundreds of police officers, many wearing masks and gloves, and dozens of paramilitary police deployed at the market. The new cases have prompted worries about the safety of the food supply chain and some other markets in the city have also been closed.
Beijing’s market supervision authorities ordered a city-wide food safety inspection focusing on fresh and frozen meat, poultry and fish in supermarkets, warehouses and catering services.
Nine nearby schools and kindergartens have been closed and Beijing has delayed the return of students to primary schools. Sporting events, group dining and cross-provincial tour groups have also been stopped.
The rest of the cases reported Sunday were brought into the country by Chinese nationals returning home from overseas.
China reports 57 new virus cases, highest daily count since April
More now on China, which on Sunday reported 57 new cases of the coronavirus, the highest daily figure since 13 April, as concerns grow about a resurgence of the disease.
The National Health Commission said 36 of the new cases were domestic infections in Beijing, with 2 more domestic infections in northeastern Liaoning province. Local health officials said they were close contacts of the Beijing cases.
The new cluster of domestic infections has prompted fresh lockdowns with people ordered to stay home in 11 residential estates near to the market. The cases are the first in Beijing in two months.
Updated
New South Wales, Australia scraps 50-person limit at cafes, restaurants, churches
The 50-person limit at cafes, restaurants, and churches will be scrapped in NSW with venues instead to follow the one person per four square metres rule, AAP reports.
The new rule, announced by the NSW government on Sunday, will be in place from 1 July and applies to most indoor venues including pubs and workspaces. It will allow for more people to attend gatherings, but the size of the space will be crucial with one person allowed for every four square metres.
Outdoor cultural and sporting venues with a capacity of up to 40,000 will from 1 July also be allowed to seat 25% of their normal capacity.
The relaxation of restrictions is in line with the national cabinet’s decision on Friday to tweak the third stage of easing Covid-19 rules. It comes as all students at a primary school in southern Sydney have been told to stay at home after a staff member tested positive for Covid-19.
Laguna Street Public School will stop on-site learning until Thursday following the diagnosis, according to the NSW education department. All school students have been deemed close contacts of the employee and should start self-isolating, a statement from the department said on Saturday night.
A staff member at Rose Bay Public School in Sydney’s eastern suburbs was also confirmed to have tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday.
Updated
The Australian government’s push for economic talks among finance ministers from countries in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance remains vague, with no details yet about the frequency of meetings or their agenda.
But some experts have argued the move to coordinate economic policies with Australia’s traditional security partners reflects a “very deep misunderstanding” of our modern economic interests given the group excludes Asia and most of Europe.
The government indicated this week that Australia had secured support from the other countries in the Five Eyes pact – the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and New Zealand – to hold “regular” meetings to coordinate economic responses during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The existing intelligence-sharing arrangement has its origins in the 1940s – and during the Cold War was focused on the Soviet Union – but over time the cooperation between partners has broadened beyond signals intelligence to include issues such as terrorism, organised crime, law-enforcement and borders:
Moving away from Australia for a moment to China, which has reported 57 new coronavirus cases – the highest since April, according to AFP.
More on this shortly:
#BREAKING China reports 57 new virus cases, highest daily count since April pic.twitter.com/QvL5psK8nT
— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 14, 2020
In addition to 50 people being allowed in cafes, restaurants and pubs and patrons being allowed to consume alcohol without a meal, restrictions on some community sports will be eased.
Victorian health minister, Jenny Mikakos, also said that non-contact community sport would return on 22 June – for both adults and kids, both indoor and outdoor.
Under 18s will be able to play competitively with full contact from 22 June, while adults will be able to train with contact from 13 July, then resume with full contact competition from 20 July.
Updated
Victoria, Australia announces nine new cases
The state of Victoria, Australia has announced nine new cases of coronavirus today, three of whom are in hotel quarantine.
One person contracted the virus from an unknown origin, and that is being investigated. Five cases are linked to two known outbreaks, including an outbreak linked to a GP who tested positive.
“The GP worked at three different clinics but did absolutely the right thing,” the health minister, Jenny Mikakos, said. The doctor was tested and stopped working while waiting for results.
Mikakos said they expect six new hotel quarantine cases each day in the state, as residents return home.
Australia's NRL postpones match amid Covid-19 scare
Staying in Australia for the time being, the National Rugby League has postponed a match between Canterbury and the Sydney Roosters following a coronavirus scare.
AAP reports that Canterbury forward Aiden Tolman was notified on Saturday night a teacher at his child’s school had tested positive to the virus.
The Laguna Street public school in Sydney’s south has been closed until 25 June, with a warning there’s a possibility children may have brought the virus home.
Victoria, Australia to further ease restrictions from 21 June
In Australia, the Premier of the state of Victoria has announced that restrictions will be eased further from midnight on 21 June – more on this shortly.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has just announced further restrictions to be lifted from midnight June 21. These include 50 people at cafes, restaurants and pubs. And it’s official, we can get on the beers - alcohol can now be consumed without needing to buy a meal. pic.twitter.com/vd4552xCLe
— Benita Kolovos 🐯 (@benitakolovos) June 14, 2020
Updated
Summary
Hi, Helen Sullivan here in cold, wet Sydney. Cockatoos are making a fuss in the trees outside, there is a small, white dog asleep beside me and I’m on the blog.
If you’re following along, get in touch on Twitter or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com. I’d love to hear a bit about where you’re reading this from.
The world is anxiously watching Beijing, after a new cluster of locally transmitted cases emerged 55 days after the last known locally transmitted case in the city, which had almost returned to normal life.
Meanwhile Brazil’s death toll, currently at 42,720, overtook the UK’s to become the second-worst worldwide. The country also has the second-highest number of cases, with 850,514 known infections.
Here are the latest developments from around the world:
- Parts of Beijing have reimposed lockdown measures, after a cluster of locally transmitted coronavirus cases emerged nearly two months after the Chinese capital appeared to have stamped out the virus. The outbreak, linked to a major wholesale food market, raised serious questions about the challenges of keeping the disease at bay, even in countries such as China where authoritarian rule allows harsh containment regulations and invasive tracing systems.
- Egypt saw a record daily rise in infections and deaths, as it confirmed 1,677 new coronavirus cases and 62 deaths on Saturday. In total, the Arab world’s most populous country has registered 42,980 cases including 1,484 deaths, the ministry said in a statement.
- Infections in Turkey have been increasing since travel restrictions were lifted and facilities reopened at the beginning of the month.
- Israel has noted a spike in coronavirus cases as schools, businesses, restaurants, bars, tourist attractions and other establishments reopen, leading to 177 schools and educational institutions throughout the country closing again after 493 students and teachers tested positive for the virus.
- France reported 24 new coronavirus deaths over the 24 hours to Saturday, taking the total to 29,398 and marking the fourth day with under 30 fatalities.
- The president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, reproached citizens on Saturday for their reduced adherence to health measures designed to stop the spread of coronavirus.
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Algeria will further relax its coronavirus lockdown on Sunday, easing a curfew, allowing public transport to resume in the cities and reopening some more businesses, the government said on Saturday.
- Travellers from Germany, Iceland and Norway are to be permitted to enter Denmark from Monday as long as they have booked accommodation for at least six nights, as the country gradually lifts its coronavirus-related travel restrictions.
- Lebanese protesters took to the streets in Beirut and other cities on Saturday in mostly peaceful protests against the government, calling for its resignation as the small country sinks deeper into economic distress amid lockdown restrictions.
