End of blog
We are switching off this blog and moving over to a new one – further coverage can be found here.
Here’s what we learned on Friday:
- The EU’s disease control agency joined health workers across Europe in sounding the alarm about the surge in coronavirus infections as the World Health Organization warned of an “exponential” rise in cases. Several countries in Europe are reporting infection rates higher than during the first wave of the pandemic in March and April, with Spain saying it has now more than 3 million cases.
- Denmark is lowering the limit on public gatherings to 10 people from 50 and banning the sale of alcohol after 10pm to curb the spread of coronavirus, prime minister Mette Frederiksen said.
- AstraZeneca has resumed the US trial of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine after approval by US regulators, the company said. It was paused on 6 September after a report of a serious neurological illness, believed to be transverse myelitis, in a participant in the company’s UK trial.
- Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious disease expert, said the White House coronavirus task force’s meetings have become less frequent, even as infections rise in dozens of US states.
- Covid-19 was the main cause of death for 543 people in Moscow in September, up 21% from August, the Russian capital’s healthcare department said, as the spread of the coronavirus widened.
- Iran is planning new restrictions, including state employees working every other day in the capital Tehran, after a record surge in coronavirus cases on Friday, a senior official said. Iran’s health ministry reported 6,134 new cases for the previous 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 556,891 in the Middle East’s hardest-hit country.
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Turkey will evaluate possible new measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus as the outbreak flares nationwide, president Tayyip Erdoğan said.
- France’s second wave of coronavirus could be worse than the first, the boss of Paris public hospital group AP-HP said on Friday as the country registered a record number of daily cases. With pressure on hospitals rising fast, France has expanded a 9pm to 6am curfew to cover 46 million people, more than two-thirds of its population.
- Italy registered 19,143 new coronavirus infections, a jump of more than 3,000 within the last 24 hours. The northern Lombardy region, the worst hit region during the first wave of the pandemic, recorded almost 5,000 new cases while in Campania, in the south, there were 2,280.
- More than half a million people in the US could die from Covid-19 by the end of February next year, but about 130,000 of those lives could be saved if everybody were to wear masks, according to estimates from a modelling study.
- In Portugal, face masks will have to be worn in crowded outdoor areas, the country’s parliament decided on Friday, to contain the surge in coronavirus cases. The measure will be in place for at least 70 days and covers all residents aged 10 and over, who must wear masks outside when they cannot keep a physical distance from people.
- Brazil recorded 30,026 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 571 deaths, the Health Ministry said on Friday.Brazil has registered more than 5.3 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 156,471.
Updated
Brazil’s health regulator has authorised the import from China of a potential vaccine against the coronavirus, just days after president Jair Bolsonaro insisted he wouldn’t allow doses to be shipped from the Asian nation, AP reports.
The health regulator, Anvisa, said in a statement Friday that Sao Paulo state’s Butantan Institute can import 6 million doses of the CoronaVac shot that Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac is developing. The potential vaccine cannot be administered to Brazilians as it isn’t yet approved locally, the statement said.
Earlier this week, Bolsonaro sparked confusion when he publicly rejected the CoronaVac shot, saying Brazilians would not be used as guinea pigs. The declaration followed news that his health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, had agreed to purchase CoronaVac doses produced locally by the Butantan Institute.
On Wednesday, the executive secretary of Brazil’s Health Ministry said in a televised statement that there had been a misunderstanding.
“There is no intention to buy vaccines from China,” said Antonio Elcio Franco, who added there will be only “a Brazilian vaccine” made at the Butantan Institute.
Brazil’s presidential palace didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Anvisa’s authorisation of imported vials.
Victoria reports seven new Covid-19 cases
The Australian state of Victoria has reported seven new cases of Covid-19 overnight.
Despite a slightly higher case number, the rolling 14-day average for metro Melbourne is now five cases.
The number of mystery cases over the past 14 days is still at 10.
We know already four of the seven new cases were linked to the northern Melbourne outbreak.
Yesterday there were 7 new cases & no loss of life reported. The 14 day rolling average is down in Melb & regional Vic, and cases with unknown source stable. There is more info here and also later today https://t.co/pcll7ySEgz #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/DlWYER6e9K
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) October 23, 2020
Updated
The president of the United Nations General Assembly has expressed concern that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio rejected a meeting with him to discuss the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the work of the 193-member world organization, AP reports.
Volker Bozkir said in a statement that the United Nations “has been proud to call the city its home since the middle of the last century” and is “happy to generate billions of dollars in economic benefits and tens of thousands of jobs in New York City.” But the Turkish politician said he was disappointed at the mayor’s refusal to meet him.
Bozkir said: “This lack of interaction concerns me.”
His spokesman, Brenden Varma, told reporters that Bozkir reached out about two weeks ago to ask for an appointment with the mayor. But the assembly president received a response a few days ago declining the request, he said.
Penny Abeywardena, New York City’s commissioner for international affairs, responded to the assembly president’s statement without mentioning the mayor’s decision not to meet Bozkir.
She pointed to de Blasio’s “excellent relationship” with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and “deeply collaborative relationship with Mr Bozkir’s predecessors,” and said the city looks forward “to continuing our partnership with the United Nations.”
European leaders have begun to increase the restrictions across Europe as the cases continue to rise.
Health experts fear that the planned global eradication of potentially fatal polio has been delayed by Covid-19, and a resurgence of the condition could be felt in Australia, AAP reports.
The coronavirus pandemic has diverted polio resources in more than 55 countries, including Asia Pacific nations and Papua New Guinea, where the virus briefly reappeared in 2018 after almost two decades.
The World Health Organisation-backed global polio eradication initiative, estimated to have saved 1.5 million lives and prevented life-long paralysis for 16 million others, was suspended in March and didn’t resume until July.
The Australian director of poverty-tackling group Global Citizen, Sarah Meredith, said the four-month vaccination pause was a setback with the world on the brink of wiping out the infectious disease which attacks the central nervous system.
“We’re racing against time at the moment to try and reach every last child,” she said.
Global polio cases have fallen by 99.9% since 1988, from about 350,000 to 176 last year.
The last vestiges of wild polio virus are circulating in Afghanistan and Pakistan where 129 cases have been detected to date this year – up from 88 at the same time in 2019.
“We are so close to eradicating this disease,” Meredith said.
“The biggest challenge has been getting to the heart of parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan to get the vaccine out there.”
Updated
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission said on Friday that a number of migrants are being held at some government facilities without proper sanitary measures, with migrants with Covid-19 mixed in with some without symptoms, AP reports.
The governmental commission said one facility in southern Chiapas state lacked enough face masks and hand gel, and said social distancing measures are not being followed.
It said some Central Americans are being held at another improvised facility that doesn’t have electrical service or running water.
There, 19 Hondurans who tested positive for coronavirus were being held in late October along with others, including women and children, who didn’t have symptoms.
Mexico’s National Immigration Institute did not immediately respond to the allegations.
Central American migrants are frequently detained in Mexico when they try to reach the US border.
Updated
Preston cluster worsens in Victoria
In the Australian state of Victoria, all eyes are on a growing cluster in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, the Department of Health and Human Services flagged that there would be an additional four cases reported on Saturday in the suburb of Preston, including one student at the East Preston Islamic College.
It will take the total number of cases in the cluster to 32. There are a little over 100 active cases in the entire state, as lockdown restrictions are expected to be eased following announcements from the premier, Daniel Andrews, on Sunday.
Although restrictions are soon to be eased, hundreds of people turned out for an anti-lockdown protest at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne on Friday.
Police said 16 people were arrested and 96 fines were issued including for not wearing a mask, breaching public gathering directions, travelling more than 25km from home, assaulting police, and failing to state name and address when asked.
Police said three officers were injured, with one taken to hospital as a precaution. Several horses were hit in the face by a flagpole, but weren’t injured.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said on Friday that all states bar Western Australia had agreed to a timetable for reopening by Christmas, including the internal borders that prevent Victorians travelling to other states.
Updated
Brazil surpasses 156,000 deaths
Brazil recorded 30,026 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 571 deaths, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
Brazil has registered more than 5.3 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 156,471.
More from US presidential candidate Joe Biden on the campaign trail.
A slight change of tone from the president for one night doesn’t cover up the lies he told. It doesn’t change the fact that over 220,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 on his watch.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 23, 2020
We can’t take another four years of Donald Trump’s failed leadership.
Updated
Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa said in a statement that it authorised Sao Paulo’s Butantan Institute biomedical centre to import 6m doses of a coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by China’s Sinovac.
The vaccine, known as CoronaVac, is still in phase 3 clinical trials in Brazil and has not been registered for wider use in Brazil, Anvisa said.
Updated
US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has attacked President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden, 77, spoke from his home city of Wilmington, Delaware ahead of a campaign trip by Trump, 74, to the battleground state of Florida with just 11 days left in the campaign.
While election day is scheduled for November 3, more than 52 million Americans have already voted, a record-setting pace that points to a record turnout, according to the University of Florida’s Elections Project.
Biden said: “He’s quit on America. He just wants us to grow numb.”
He said if he wins the election, he will ask Congress to pass comprehensive Covid-19 response legislation and send it to him to sign into law within his first 10 days in office.
“I’m not going to shut down the economy. I’m not going to shut down the country. I’m going to shut down the virus,” he said.
Updated
The mayor of Mexico City, the country’s largest city, called on residents to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people as the capital grapples with a surge of coronavirus hospital admissions.
Health authorities have been warning that large gatherings, such as the 1-2 November Day of the Dead festivities that usually draw hundreds of thousands of people nationwide, could prompt another wave of infections.
The pandemic has led to more than 874,000 infections and killed nearly 87,900 people in Mexico.
Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that from 10 to 19 October, total coronavirus hospitalisations in the capital rose to 2,775 from 2,565, still far below the peak of 4,575 patients in hospital in late May.
She added that six out of 10 beds hospital beds are still available for Covid-19 patients.
Mexico City will remain at the second-most restrictive level on a four-level scale of health measures but cemeteries that typically host Day of the Dead celebrations will be closed for the holiday, Sheinbaum said.
“We’re not at the level to return to ‘red,’” Sheinbaum told reporters, referring to the strictest level of containment measures. “But we’re also not in a situation to open new activities.”
She recommended that gatherings be limited to no more than 10 people after large weddings, baptisms and other celebrations in which proper health measures were not observed led to the spread of the virus.
Updated
Large wildfires may be linked to increases in Covid-19 cases and deaths in the San Francisco area, according to a paper in the European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences.
Researchers found that between March and September, increases in smoke particles, other wildfire pollutants and carbon monoxide levels corresponded to increases in daily virus diagnoses and total deaths.
While correlation does not necessarily mean causality, co-author Sultan Ayoub Meo, of King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, said air pollution provides a means for viruses to move around the environment.
These tiny pollution particles, along with the micro-organisms they carry “can easily be inhaled deep into the lungs and cause infections”, Meo said.
“Carbon monoxide is a highly toxic gas which can damage our lungs, resulting as a triggering factor for an increase in Covid-19 cases and deaths in the wildfire region,” he told Reuters.
Updated
Updated
A summary of today's developments
- The EU’s disease control agency joined health workers across Europe in sounding the alarm about the surge in coronavirus infections as the World Health Organization warned of an “exponential” rise in cases. Several countries in Europe are reporting infection rates higher than during the first wave of the pandemic in March and April, with Spain saying it has now more than 3 million cases.
- Denmark is lowering the limit on public gatherings to 10 people from 50 and banning the sale of alcohol after 10pm to curb the spread of coronavirus, prime minister Mette Frederiksen said.
- AstraZeneca has resumed the US trial of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine after approval by US regulators, the company said. It was paused on 6 September after a report of a serious neurological illness, believed to be transverse myelitis, in a participant in the company’s UK trial.
- Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious disease expert, said the White House coronavirus task force’s meetings have become less frequent, even as infections rise in dozens of US states.
- Covid-19 was the main cause of death for 543 people in Moscow in September, up 21% from August, the Russian capital’s healthcare department said, as the spread of the coronavirus widened.
- Iran is planning new restrictions, including state employees working every other day in the capital Tehran, after a record surge in coronavirus cases on Friday, a senior official said. Iran’s health ministry reported 6,134 new cases for the previous 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 556,891 in the Middle East’s hardest-hit country.
- Turkey will evaluate possible new measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus as the outbreak flares nationwide, president Tayyip Erdoğan said.
- France’s second wave of coronavirus could be worse than the first, the boss of Paris public hospital group AP-HP said on Friday as the country registered a record number of daily cases. With pressure on hospitals rising fast, France has expanded a 9pm to 6am curfew to cover 46 million people, more than two-thirds of its population.
- Italy registered 19,143 new coronavirus infections, a jump of more than 3,000 within the last 24 hours. The northern Lombardy region, the worst hit region during the first wave of the pandemic, recorded almost 5,000 new cases while in Campania, in the south, there were 2,280.
- More than half a million people in the US could die from Covid-19 by the end of February next year, but about 130,000 of those lives could be saved if everybody were to wear masks, according to estimates from a modelling study.
- In Portugal, face masks will have to be worn in crowded outdoor areas, the country’s parliament decided on Friday, to contain the surge in coronavirus cases. The measure will be in place for at least 70 days and covers all residents aged 10 and over, who must wear masks outside when they cannot keep a physical distance from people.
Updated
Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine trial will resume very soon after investigators concluded a participant’s illness was unrelated to the vaccine, the Washington Post reported.
Fake coronavirus marshals and phoney medical professionals in the UK are pretending to be genuine to get inside people’s homes.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) said the scam is an updated form of one in the summer involving fake healthcare professionals offering bogus Covid-19 tests on doorsteps.
Covid-secure marshals were announced as part of the government’s plan to enforce stricter rules on social gatherings.
They have no formal powers and do not have the right to enter anyone’s home.
Katherine Hart, CTSI’s lead officer for doorstep crime, said: “Since March we have seen so many different instances of fraudsters using the pandemic as an opportunity to defraud the public.
These scams are shifting in their theme as the rules and regulations change with individuals now pretending to be Covid-19 secure marshals.
“Covid-19 secure marshals will never come to your door unannounced and do not have the right of entry, or the right to issue fines.
“This type of scam appears in many forms, and I have also received information about individuals pretending to offer flu vaccinations on the door, a concerning development as we enter flu season.
“I am particularly concerned that elderly and vulnerable individuals may be at risk to this scam.”
Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious disease expert said the White House coronavirus task force’s meetings have become less frequent, even as infections rise in dozens of US states.
Amid a COVID case surge all over the U.S., Dr. Fauci says Trump hasn’t been to a WH COVID task force meeting in several months. pic.twitter.com/CYcx62HQuM
— The Recount (@therecount) October 23, 2020
Turkey will evaluate possible new measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus as the outbreak flares nationwide, President Tayyip Erdogan said.
Turkey reported another 2,165 people with Covid-19 symptoms on Friday, the highest one-day figure since May when Ankara imposed a series of restrictive measures. The death toll from the virus rose to 9,658 on Friday, health ministry data showed.
“Our health minister is visiting various provinces ... We are working on what sort of measures we will take there,” Erdogan told reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul.
“As of now, what sort of measures are to be taken will be conveyed to us from the science team, and we will take our steps according to that,” he said.
Health minister Fahrettin Koca said earlier that 40% of the total cases across the country were reported in its largest city, Istanbul, where there were five times more than in the capital Ankara.
Speaking to reporters after meeting local officials in five provinces in north-west Turkey, Koca said there had been a risky spike in the Covid-19 case numbers, and the second peak is underway in some cities.
Updated
Iran is planning new restrictions, including state employees working every other day in the capital, Tehran, after a record surge in coronavirus cases on Friday, a senior official said.
Iran’s health ministry reported 6,134 new cases for the previous 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 556,891 in the Middle East’s hardest-hit country.
“One decision by the Tehran Coronavirus Taskforce is for staff at state bodies to be cut by 50% next week, and coming to work every other day,” taskforce head Alireza Zali told state news agency Irna.
He said authorities were also looking into having various job categories start work at different times to ease crowding and traffic.
The restrictions were expected to last for about a month in Tehran, where the coronavirus spread has been particularly alarming, Zali added.
Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari earlier told state TV that 335 people had died of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing total fatalities to 31,985, as Iran fights a third wave of the disease.
Meanwhile, flag-carrier IranAir said it was resuming European flights which had been suspended in March because of the pandemic.
Updated
The EU’s disease control agency joined health workers across Europe in sounding the alarm about the surge in coronavirus infections as the World Health Organization warned of an “exponential” rise in cases.
Several countries in Europe are reporting infection rates higher than during the first wave of the pandemic in March and April, with Spain saying it has now more than three million cases.
Governments across the continent are slapping urgent new restrictions on daily life, with France extending a curfew to cover 46 million people and Ireland locked down again.
“The continuing increases in Covid-19 infections... pose a major threat to public health, with most countries having a highly concerning epidemiological situation,” said Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
The agency said all EU countries except Cyprus, Estonia, Finland and Greece fell into a “serious concern” category, as did the United Kingdom, up from just seven a month ago.
The WHO said the northern hemisphere was facing a crucial moment in fighting the pandemic.
“Too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in Covid-19 cases and that is now leading to hospitals and intensive care units running close to or above capacity - and we’re still only in October,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Federal health regulators have decided to allow the resumption of US studies of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate from AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
Covid-19 was the main cause of death for 543 people in Moscow in September, up 21% from August, the Russian capital’s healthcare department said, as the spread of the coronavirus widened.
Moscow, the city worst hit by the pandemic in Russia, said it had recorded 11,159 total deaths in September, 1,441 more than in September 2019 and 1,702 more than the average of the previous three years.
Earlier on Friday, authorities said Russia’s daily tally of new coronavirus cases had hit a record 17,340, including 5,478 in Moscow, taking the national tally to 1,480,646 since the pandemic began.
They said 283 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 25,525 in Russia.
Updated
Colombia’s vice-president, Marta Lucia Ramirez, has tested positive for coronavirus, the government said, but is asymptomatic and in good health.
Ramirez, 66, took a test on Thursday before her planned attendance at a conference with provincial governors, her office said in a statement.
“The result was positive,” the statement said.
“The vice-president has no symptoms and is in good health, carrying out the corresponding isolation.”
Contact tracing will be conducted, it added.
Ramirez appeared on President Ivan Duque’s nightly television broadcast on Monday.
Duque was also tested for coronavirus on Thursday and his result was negative, his office said.
Updated
Denmark is lowering the limit on public gatherings to 10 people from 50 and banning the sale of alcohol after 10pm to curb the spread of coronavirus, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said.
The Nordic country, which has seen infections surge, will also make wearing masks obligatory in all indoor public spaces such as supermarkets, Frederiksen told a news briefing.
Denmark on Friday reported a record 859 new daily infections. The country has registered a total of 697 coronavirus-related deaths.
“We must prepare for an immediate and drastic increase in the number of hospitalisations,” Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said at the briefing.
The limit on public gatherings will be in place for four weeks, while the ban on alcohol sales and the mask requirement will be in place from Monday until 2 January.
Denmark has secured enough future Covid-19 vaccine shots from drug companies for its entire population of 5.8 million, Heunicke said. A new agreement with Johnson & Johnson Denmark has been secured.
Updated
Slovenian Foreign Minister Anze Logar tested positive for coronavirus after ending a tour to the Baltic, his office said, as the EU country enters a partial lockdown on Saturday.
Slovenia’s government announced the country would enter a partial shutdown of public life after coronavirus infections that more than doubled over the last week.
Logar returned on Thursday from a three-day tour to Baltic states when he met his counterparts in Latvia, Edgars Rinkevics, in Estonia, Urmas Reinsalu, and Lithuania, Linas Linkevicius.
“Minister Logar was positive at a routine coronavirus test. He shows no symptoms of the disease but he and his closest members of staff will undergo a 10-day self-isolation,” the ministry said in a statement.
Logar, one of Prime Minister Janez Jansa’s closest allies, has had numerous diplomatic meetings in the region this month including with his colleagues from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, North Macedonia and he attended the Council of Europe meeting in Luxembourg.
Updated
I will shortly be handing the blog over to my colleague, but please do email with any last thoughts, news tips or questions. Thanks
Twitter: @sloumarsh
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Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Summary of the latest updates
Here is a summary of the news of the last few hours:
- France’s second wave of coronavirus could be worse than the first, the boss of Paris public hospital group AP-HP said on Friday as the country registered a record number of daily cases. With pressure on hospitals rising fast, France has expanded a 9pm to 6am curfew to cover 46 million people, more than two-thirds of its population.
- The world is now at a critical juncture in the Covid-19 pandemic and some countries are on a dangerous path, facing the prospect of health services collapsing under the strain, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday.
- Italy on Friday registered 19,143 new coronavirus infections, a jump of more than 3,000 within the last 24 hours. The northern Lombardy region, the worst hit during the first wave of the pandemic, recorded almost 5,000 new cases while Campania, in the south, there were 2,280.
- More than half a million people in the US could die from Covid-19 by the end of February next year, but about 130,000 of those lives could be saved if everybody were to wear masks, according to estimates from a modelling study.
- In Portugal, face masks will have to be worn in crowded outdoor areas, the country’s parliament decided on Friday, to contain the surge in coronavirus cases. The measure will be in place for at least 70 days and covers all residents aged 10 and over, who must wear masks outside when they cannot keep a physical distance from people.
- Iran’s official daily coronavirus caseload exceeded 6,000 infections on Friday, setting another record this week, as death rates also remained close to the country’s all-time high. Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said Iran had registered 6,134 new infections in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 556,891.
Updated
Belgium, one of the European countries worst hit by Covid-19, tightened curbs on social contacts on Friday by banning fans from sports matches and limiting numbers in cultural spaces, while officials in Wallonia imposed a stricter night curfew on residents.
The local government in the French-speaking region, among the hardest-hit parts of the country, has told people to stay at home from 10pm to 6am and made remote working mandatory for students until 19 November.
Belgium, which has Europe’s second-highest infection rate per capita after the Czech Republic, had already closed cafes, bars and restaurants and imposed a shorter night curfew. New infections hit a peak of 10,500 on Thursday.
But the government has resisted calls from medical experts to order a new lockdown to avoid causing more economic pain. The restrictions – running until 19 November – also include stricter social distancing. They are intended to avoid crowding on public transport and impose a limit of 200 people in theatres, concert halls and cinemas.
“We are pressing the pause button .... we have a single objective, which is to limit contacts that are not strictly necessary,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo told a news conference. “There’s no law that can stop the virus, the only ones who can stop it are us ... all together.”
Updated
Wales 'firebreak' lockdown begins
Wales has officially gone into lockdown as of 6pm (GMT) and it will stay there until 9 November.
People will have to stay at home and pubs, restaurants, hotels and non-essential shops will shut. Primary schools will reopen after the half-term break, but only years 7 and 8 in secondary schools can return at that time under new “firebreak” rules.
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has tweeted:
With the #firebreak now in force, I once again ask you to stay home to protect the NHS and save lives.
— Mark Drakeford (@fmwales) October 23, 2020
I know this is a big ask. But if we are to bring coronavirus under control again, we need the help of everyone across Wales.
Together, we will #KeepWalesSafe.
My colleague Steve Morris has been speaking to residents and business owners in Narberth, Pembrokeshire, as they prepared to shut down for two weeks.
The owner of one pub said: “This new lockdown is pretty disastrous for us. I’m not sure what shutting everything down for two weeks is going to achieve. It might slow things down a bit but what’s going to happen in a month’s time? Will they be closing us down again?”
You can read his full dispatch here:
One controversial aspect of the new lockdown has been the decision to allow supermarkets to only sell essential items.
Here’s an analysis on what this means and why it’s been contentious:
Updated
France's second wave could be worse than first, says hospital boss
France’s second wave of coronavirus could be worse than the first, the boss of Paris public hospital group AP-HP said on Friday as the country registered a record number of daily cases.
With pressure on hospitals rising fast, France has expanded a 9pm to 6am curfew to cover 46 million people, more than two-thirds of its population.
“There has been a perception in recent months that a second wave does not exist, or that it is a small wave. The situation is the opposite,” AP-HP head Martin Hirsch told the RTL broadcaster.
“It is possible that the second wave will be worse than the first,” he said, warning of a daunting challenge ahead.
On Thursday, France reported a daily record of 41,622 new cases, and the number of patients in intensive care is at its highest level since May.
Thursday’s figure of 165 fatalities in 24 hours is still well below the April peak when the death toll soared to more than 900 a day.
Updated
Global stock markets were mostly firmer on Friday on hopes US leaders will finally agree a coronavirus economic stimulus package but sharply rising case numbers and weak data in Europe capped gains there.
New York opened flat and then slipped back, with company results a mixed bag that produced some sharp share price losses – Intel was down 11%.
The markets are watching closely to see if, as seems to be the case, the upward momentum of the third quarter slows in the final quarter of the year as governments introduce new restrictions to tame the upsurge in the pandemic.
Investors appeared largely unmoved by the final presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden before the 3 November vote.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said both parties “continue to be engaged in negotiations, and I am hopeful we will be able to reach an agreement”.
Pelosi has sought this week to pin down a deal with President Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, even as Senate Republicans remain unconvinced.
Updated
WHO says too many countries seeing 'an exponential increase in infections'
The world is now at a critical juncture in the Covid-19 pandemic and some countries are on a dangerous path, facing the prospect of health services collapsing under the strain, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday.
“We are at a critical juncture in the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in the northern hemisphere,” WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a news conference.
“The next few months are going to be very tough and some countries are on a dangerous track.”
“We urge leaders to take immediate action to prevent further unnecessary deaths, essential health services from collapsing and schools shutting again. As I said it in February and I’m repeating it today: this is not a drill.”
Tedros said too many countries were now seeing an exponential increase in infections, “and that is now leading to hospitals and intensive care units running close to or above capacity – and we’re still only in October”.
He said countries should take action to limit the spread of the virus quickly. Improving testing, tracing contacts of those infected and isolation of those at risk of spreading the virus would enable countries to avoid mandatory lockdowns.
Updated
Italy records more than 19,000 new cases
Italy on Friday registered 19,143 new coronavirus infections, a jump of more than 3,000 within the last 24 hours.
The northern Lombardy region, the worst hit during the first wave of the pandemic, recorded almost 5,000 new cases while Campania, in the south, there were 2,280.
In a video message earlier in the day the president of Campania, Vincenzo De Luca, called for another national lockdown while showing viewers the scan of the lungs of a 37-year-old. “Without intensive care, he would die,” he said.
Admissions to intensive care units across Italy have more than doubled in the last 12 days to 1,049.
“We are one step away from tragedy,” De Luca added. “Let’s close everything, we need drastic measures.”
Giuseppe Conte’s government is considering new restrictive measures, which could be announced over the weekend but, as of Friday, the prime minister continued to rule out a generalised lockdown.
More than 100 scientists have signed a petition calling on the government to act quickly. “As scientists, researchers and university professors, we feel it necessary and urgent to express our profound concern about the current phase of the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic,” they said. “Taking effective steps now is necessary to protect the economy and jobs.”
There were 91 new fatalities on Friday, bringing the total death toll to over 37,000.
An 11pm-5am curfew began in Lombardy on Thursday night in a bid to contain infections and curb hospital admissions, and similar measures will begin in Lazio and Campania from Friday night.
Updated
More than half a million people in the US could die from Covid-19 by the end of February next year, but about 130,000 of those lives could be saved if everybody were to wear masks, according to estimates from a modelling study.
The estimates, from a study by researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, show that with few effective Covid-19 treatment options and no vaccines yet available, the US faces “a continued Covid-19 public health challenge through the winter”.
Large, populous states such as California, Texas and Florida will likely face particularly high levels of illness, deaths and demands on hospital resources, the study found.
US president Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 221,000 Americans so far, has become the top election issue for him and Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Polls have shown that Americans trust Biden more than Trump to handle the crisis.
Updated
Filming in Venice of Mission Impossible 7 with Tom Cruise has been temporarily suspended due to a suspected case of Covid among the film crew.
Officially, a reason has not yet been given by the film’s production company, but, according to Italian media reports, the more than 100 extras were told there was a suspected case of Covid-19 among the Americans and that, as a result, filming would be postponed to a later date.
In early October, Cruise started filming Mission Impossible 7 in Italy. Filming of the movie, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, had already taken place in Rome’s historic centre, including in Via della Tribuna Campitelli, Via Corrado Ricci and the Imperial Forums, Rome city council said. Filming began in Venice this week, but was interrupted today.
With the increase in new coronavirus cases in Italy, Cruise’s real mission will be to complete the making of this film.
Updated
In Portugal, face masks will have to be worn in crowded outdoor areas, the country’s parliament decided on Friday, to contain the surge in coronavirus cases.
The measure will be in place for at least 70 days and covers all residents aged 10 and over, who must wear masks outside when they cannot keep a physical distance from people.
“It should have happened a long time ago, more than six months ago,” taxi driver Antonio Jose, 68, said, wearing a mask as he waited for his next customer. “It’s not too late.”
Most European nations are increasing restrictions to tackle a second wave. “It is good to follow in the footsteps of other countries in Europe to try to kill this bug,” said 28-year-old Ulrich, from Belgium but living in Portugal.
Some Lisbon residents were not convinced all people will follow the new rule and said wearing masks inside public spaces and shops was more than enough.
“People want to show their faces, they want to breathe,” said Francisco, 38, who moved from Venezuela to Portugal more than a decade ago.
Breaking the rules can lead to fines of between €100 and €500. Portugal, with just over 10 million people, has recorded a comparatively low 109,541 cases and 2,245 deaths.
But on Thursday, it registered 3,270 cases, the highest daily figure since the pandemic started, although testing has also increased. Most of the new cases are concentrated in the northern region and in and around the capital Lisbon.
Updated
Reuters has news that the Netherlands has begun transferring Covid-19 patients to Germany again on Friday.
Dutch hospitals have come under increasing strain from a second wave of infections and one clinic, the Flevo hospital in the central Dutch town of Almere, said it would transfer two of its intensive care patients by helicopter to a hospital in Münster, about 65km (40 miles) east of the Dutch-German border.
The transfers were the first during the second wave that began in the Netherlands early last month. During the first wave in March and April dozens of Dutch patients were transferred to Germany, where intensive care capacity is larger.
Infections in the Netherlands have reached a record high almost every day since mid-September and jumped to a new peak of almost 10,000 on Friday. Daily confirmed infections in Germany, where the population is almost five times bigger, were at 11,242.
Prime minister Mark Rutte said it was too early to say whether a broader lockdown would be needed, even though he called the rate of infections very worrying.
“All scenarios are on the table”, Rutte told reporters. “But we first need to get a better picture of the effects of the current measures.”
The government imposed partial lockdown measures last week, including the closure of all bars and restaurants.
The number of patients hospitalised with the coronavirus in has doubled in the past two weeks, while almost half of all intensive care beds are now being used for Covid-19 patients.
Updated
Updated
Iran’s official daily coronavirus caseload exceeded 6,000 infections on Friday, setting another record this week, as death rates also remained close to the country’s all-time high.
Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said Iran had registered 6,134 new infections in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 556,891.
The previous record of 5,616 was announced on Wednesday, a day after Iran breached 5,000 new daily cases for the first time.
Lari also announced 335 new virus deaths on Friday, barely below the record of 337 registered on Monday.
The new fatalities bring officially reported Covid-19 deaths in the Middle East’s worst-hit country to 31,985.
Deaths and infections from the novel coronavirus have been on a rising trajectory in the Islamic republic, which has recorded several new highs since September.
As Peru grapples with one the world’s worst Sars-CoV-2 outbreaks, another virus is starting to raise alarm: dengue.
Health officials have reported more than 35,000 cases this year, concentrated largely in the Amazon. The rise comes amid an overall dip in the number of new daily coronavirus infections, though authorities worry a second wave could strike as dengue cases rise.
In the city of Pucallpa, where Choque lives, doctors say they are already encountering patients with both illnesses. Two physicians said dengue symptoms like fever and muscle aches tend to dominate, though the combination with Covid-19 can prove deadly.
“There is more risk,” said Dr Rosmery Rojas, a physician at a public hospital she said is seeing 120 dengue patients a day.
The Ucayali region located along a muddy river has long seen periodic dengue outbreaks, though Rojas and others said this year’s figures are already three times that seen in 2019. Throughout the Americas, there were more than 3.1m dengue cases last year, the highest number on record, according to the Pan American Health Organization.
The Americas branch of the World Health Organization reports there has been an overall decrease in dengue cases during the pandemic — with a little more than 2m recorded so far this year, including 845 deaths. Nearly 1.4m of those cases have been in Brazil. It is unclear whether the reduction is related to Covid-19, though a spokeswoman said public health measures aimed at preventing the new virus may have played a role.
Nonetheless, in the Peruvian Amazon, a mounting number of dengue patients are filling hospital beds that months before were overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients. Some, like Choque, are told they have both illnesses when they arrive at the hospital.
“Many people are arriving co-infected,” said Dr Mariano Alarcón.
Updated
Hello everyone and thanks so much for following our global coronavirus blog. I will bring you all the latest news about what’s happening from across the world. There have been some interesting developments in the last hour with Spain’s prime minister saying the true number of cases in the country is 3m, warning of tough months ahead.
If you want to get in touch with me while I work then please do via any of the channels below. I welcome any news tips or comments you might have. Thanks
Twitter: @sloumarsh
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Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Updated
Spanish PM says cases three times higher than 1m but stops short of curfew
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said the true number of cases in the country is three times the million infections officially recorded this week and warned that “very tough months” lie ahead as the second wave of the virus continues to take a heavy toll.
However, he stopped short of announcing the nationwide curfew that some regional governments have requested.
“The seroprevalence studies carried out by public institutions led by scientific experts indicate that the real number of people who have been infected in our country now exceeds three million of our compatriots,” Sánchez said in a televised address on Friday.
The prime minister praised different regional authorities for their efforts to contain the virus but said the arrival of autumn meant that cases were likely to continue rising.
“To explain what the figures we’re registering mean, we’re now getting double the number of daily cases that we had on the worst day of the first wave,” he said. However, he added that 70% of cases were now being detected compared with just 10% in the spring.
Sánchez said a four-level alert system had been agreed in talks with regional health departments on Thursday.
Under the worst-case scenario – more than 250 cases per 100,000 people over a 14-day period and more than 15% of general hospital beds and 25% of intensive care unit beds occupied by Covid patients - “exceptional measures that may also require the activation of a state of emergency” will have to be taken.
According to the latest figures from Spain’s health ministry, the average number of cases per 100,000 people across the country is 348. In the most affected region, Navarre, that figure rises to 1,058.5.
Sánchez called for greater discipline and an end to unnecessary socialising but admitted it would not be easy. “Spain has a quality which, in times of pandemic, can become an Achilles heel: we like our social life, the closeness of family and we have a passion for human contact,” he said.
“But now is the time to establish distances - we need a pause to save lives and to protect everyone’s health. Families can also infect each other, as can friends.”
The prime minister said that although “the coming weeks and months of winter will be very tough”, Spain could once again flatten the curve.
“I want to be very clear about this,” he said. “We want, and need, to avoid another home lockdown like the one we had in spring at all costs.”
Sánchez’s address came shortly after the regional government of Madrid - which has accused the central government of overstepping its powers - announced a de facto curfew.
From Saturday, all bars, restaurants, cinemas and theatre must close at midnight, and only people who live together will be able to mix socially between midnight and 6 am.
The measure actually means that bars and restaurants will be allowed to close an hour later than they currently do under the state of emergency declared a fortnight ago by the central government.
Under the new measures announced by the regional government, all non-essential shops will need to shut between midnight and 6 am and bars and restaurants will operate at 50% of their interior capacity.
People in 12 areas of the region – including parts of the capital itself – will remain subject to limits on their movements, with people allowed to enter or exit the affected areas only on work, school or medical grounds or for other pressing reasons.
Updated
German biotech company CureVac said on Friday its potential vaccine against the coronavirus triggered an immune response in pre-clinical animal studies.
The Tuebingen-based company, which is backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said the potential vaccine, known as CVnCoV, produced neutralising antibodies and activated T-cells in hamsters and mice.
CureVac is using the so-called messenger RNA approach, the same as rivals BioNTech and its partner Pfizer as well as Moderna, which have started testing on humans.
CureVac said the vaccine also reduced the levels of replicating virus in the upper respiratory tract and protected the lungs of hamsters when they were exposed to a live virus.
“The pre-clinical data published today show that our Covid-19 vaccine candidate has the potential to induce an efficacious and balanced immune response, mimicking the natural immune defence and providing lung protection in a relevant challenge model,” said CureVac Chief Technology Officer Mariola Fotin-Mleczek. Shares in CureVac were up 7.8% at 1148 GMT.
Pope Francis may have been exposed to Covid-19, media report says
Pope Francis has been warned of potential exposure to Covid-19 after a Vatican diplomat was infected, Australian media reported on Friday.
Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, the Holy See’s ambassador to Australia, had a face-to-face meeting with Francis at the Vatican on 6 October, less than two weeks before testing positive to Covid-19 in Australia, Nine News reported.
Australian authorities say a diplomat who flew into Sydney on 9 October had tested positive to the coronavirus. They won’t reveal the diplomat’s identity.
The diplomat tested positive 10 days after he started quarantining at home in the national capital Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory Health Department said in a statement.
The department said the risk of infection was “low” for the two people who drove the diplomat 300 kilometers (185 miles) from Sydney to Canberra.
Updated
Iran’s health ministry on Friday reported a record 6,134 new coronavirus cases for the previous 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 556,891 in the Middle East’s hardest-hit country.
Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV that 335 people had died from the disease in the past 24 hours, bringing total fatalities to 31,985.
Madrid government rejects calls for curfew
The regional government of Madrid, which has rejected calls to impose a curfew, has instead announced that all bars, restaurants, cinemas and theatre must close at midnight from Saturday, and said that only people who live together will be able to mix socially between midnight and 6am.
The measure means that bars and restaurants will be allowed to close an hour later than they currently do under the state of emergency declared a fortnight ago by the central government.
The Socialist-led coalition of prime minister Pedro Sánchez stepped in to impose a partial lockdown on Madrid after the conservative regional government flip-flopped and launched a legal challenge to the limited confinement. This week, Spain became the first western European country to record 1m Covid-19 cases, about a third of them in the Madrid region.
Under the new measures announced by the regional government, all non-essential shops will need to shut between midnight and 6am and bars and restaurants will operate at 50% table capacity in inside and outside areas.
People in 12 areas of the region – including the capital itself – will remain subject to limits on their movements, with people allowed to enter or exit the affected areas only on work, school or medical grounds or for other pressing reasons.
Updated
A French woman on the Thai resort island of Samui has tested positive for the coronavirus and probably acquired it after arriving in Thailand in what could be one of few cases of local transmission, health officials said on Friday.
The finding was announced the same week that Thailand began allowing some tourists to enter again after banning all commercial flights since early April. On Tuesday, 39 tourists from Shanghai flew into Bangkok under a special tourist visa program that allows in a limited number of visitors under tight restrictions, including a 14-day quarantine upon arrival.
The 57-year-old woman arrived in Bangkok with her husband and son on 30 September, and all three underwent the mandatory 14-day quarantine, during which they tested negative twice for the disease, said Dr Sophon Iamsirithaworn, director of the bureau of general communicable diseases.
Updated
Belgium tightens social contact rules, banning fans from sports matches
Belgium, one of the European countries worst hit by the new coronavirus, tightened restrictions on social contacts on Friday by banning fans from sports matches, limiting the number of people in cultural spaces and closing theme parks.
Belgium had already closed cafes, bars and restaurants and imposed a night curfew, and has Europe’s second-highest infection rate per capita after the Czech Republic. New infections hit a peak of 10,500 on Thursday.
But the government has resisted calls from medical experts to order a new lockdown to avoid causing more economic pain.
The restrictions – running until 19 November – also include stricter social distancing. They are intended to avoid crowding on public transport and impose a limit of 200 people in theatres, concert halls and cinemas.
“We are pressing the pause button … we have a single objective, which is to limit contacts that are not strictly necessary,” Belgian prime minister Alexander de Croo told a news conference.
“There’s no law that can stop the virus, the only ones who can stop it are us … all together.” Epidemiologist Marius Gilbert wrote on Twitter that hospitals were on the brink of collapse.
Updated
Poland to partially close primary schools and restaurants as part of 'red zone' measures
Poland’s prime minister said on Friday that “red zone” measures including the partial closure of primary schools and restaurants would be adopted nationwide in the face of a record spike in coronavirus infections.
The move came as the EU country of 38 million people reported a new 24-hour record of 13,632 coronavirus cases on Friday.
Half of Poland, mainly large cities and surrounding areas, was already designated a high-risk “red zone” last Saturday on top of a previous rulemaking face masks mandatory in public places.
“All of Poland will be designated a red zone as of tomorrow,” prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a virtual press conference.
He said the new measures are tailored to ensure “that the economy works faster than during the spring” lockdown, which was more restrictive.
Poland’s economy is expected to shrink by 3.6% this year, according to an International Monitary Fund estimate, giving it among the best outcomes in the European Union.
Updated
Spanish regions ask government to impose night-time curfews
The Spanish regions of Castilla and Leon and Valencia were clamouring on Friday for the government to impose night-time curfews after authorities failed to reach a decision on nationwide restrictions the previous day.
“We want this to happen today if possible, rather than tomorrow,” said Alfonso Fernandez Manueco, the regional leader of Castilla and Leon, which formally requested a curfew on Thursday.
“The virus doesn’t understand administrative boundaries or different political stripes,” he told a joint news conference with health minister Salvador Illa.
Spain’s regions have a high degree of autonomy and are largely responsible for responding to the pandemic but restrictions on freedom of movement, like curfews, require the national government’s intervention.
The central government is actually also in favour of curfews but postponed a decision after the Madrid region and the Basque country opposed such a move on Thursday. Prime minister Pedro Sanchez is due to make a televised address to the nation at around 1100 GMT to speak about the pandemic.
Updated
Malaysia’s health ministry reported 710 new coronavirus cases on Friday, taking the total to 24,514 infections. The south-east Asian country, which has seen total cases double in the past month, also recorded 10 deaths, raising its total number of fatalities to 214.
Updated
Hello everyone. I am taking over the global live feed, bringing you the latest information from around the world on coronavirus. Please do get in touch to share any information, thoughts, comments or news tips with me via any of the channels below. Thanks so much!
Twitter: @sloumarsh
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Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
And that’s it from me this morning, I’m handing over to my colleague Sarah Marsh so you’ll be well looked after.
Schools in Ireland have been told they can close early today following a recall of hand sanitiser over health concerns.
The department of agriculture recalled the Virapro sanitiser after it emerged that prolonged use can cause dermatitis, eye irritation, upper respiratory system irritation and headaches. Some of the product contains methanol rather than ethanol, it said.
“Tests by the department show that some of the sanitiser on sale does not comply with regulations governing the content and efficacy of such products,” it said.
Members of the public were advised to stop using the product “with immediate effect”.
Updated
Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš (of the ANO party) has asked health minister Roman Prymula to resign only weeks after he took up the post, after he was caught breaking restrictions that he ahd advocated for.
Radio Prague reports:
Prymula, an epidemiologist, pushed for stricter measures such as closing schools and restaurants. But he met MP Jaroslav Faltýnek, head of the ruling ANO party’s parliamentary group, in a restaurant on Wednesday evening.
The tabloid newspaper Blesk published corresponding photos, which showed the health minister outside the establishment, not wearing a face mask.
Restrictions in the Czech Republic states that restaurants should be closed to dine-in guests, and cannot operate take-away windows after 8pm.
Our thanks to a reader in the Czech republic who drew our attention to this story.
Updated
WHO Europe has released new guidance ahead of the winter flu season.
Mix of #COVID19 & impending flu season requires health system considerations:
— Hans Kluge (@hans_kluge) October 23, 2020
✅Health system preparedness esp. essential services
✅Effective risk communication/community engagement
✅Immunization esp. for high risk groups & #healthworkers
New guidance👉https://t.co/6nkepIAmDD
Several US regions are showing “signs of deterioration”, according to a report from CNN.
Several US regions show "signs of deterioration."
— CNN (@CNN) October 23, 2020
With more than two dozen states reporting rising Covid-19 infections, new reports from leading health officials show a worsening of the pandemic across several US regions. https://t.co/G54bD9UpVN
With more than two dozen states reporting rising Covid-19 infections, new reports from leading health officials show a worsening of the pandemic across several US regions, it states.
In White House coronavirus task force reports obtained by CNN this week, officials say there are “early signs of deterioration in the Sun Belt and continued deterioration in the Midwest and across the Northern States.”
The data comes as more state leaders have sounded the alarm on increasing infections, hospitalizations and deaths. The national average of new daily cases has climbed to just under 60,000 – a level that hasn’t been seen since the first week of August.
Updated
The Philippines’ health ministry on Friday recorded 1,923 new coronavirus infections and 132 additional deaths, the largest daily increase in casualties in 15 days.
In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases had increased to 365,799, while deaths had reached 6,915. The Philippines has the second-highest number of Covid-19 infections and fatalities in south-east Asia behind Indonesia.
Updated
In Australia, smartphone apps and wearable surveillance devices including ankle bracelets are among options that could allow returning travellers to quarantine at home rather than in a hotel, a review has suggested.
The national hotel quarantine review was released on Friday with the prime minister, Scott Morrison, stating all options were on the table and he would let “experts” develop “innovative” solutions.
Read the full story below:
Updated
Poland reported a record 13,632 new coronavirus infections on Friday, health ministry data showed, as the government prepared to announce further restrictions to halt the spread of the pandemic.
The ministry also said the number of recorded deaths had fallen to 153 from a record high of 168 a day earlier.
Aeroports de Paris, operator of the French capital’s main airports, cut its full-year passenger traffic outlook on Friday as a second wave of Covid-19 infections gathers pace, reports Reuters.
Traffic at Charles de Gaulle and Orly will fall 65-70% rather than the previously forecast 63%, ADP said as it posted January-September revenue of €1.67bn, down 53%.
ADP, which also holds stakes in international airports in countries including Turkey and India, said aviation and retail revenue both fell by more than half in the period.
Traffic has suffered a “new strong decrease” in recent weeks, chief financial officer Philippe Pascal said, “as a consequence of the new wave of epidemic around the world.”
ADP is rolling out Covid-19 testing at the Paris airports, but Pascal declined to comment on the target passenger capacity.
Updated
In Spain, the number of nights booked by tourists in hotels plunged 78% in September compared with the same month a year ago as travel restrictions ravaged the crucial tourism industry, data from the INE national statistics office showed on Friday.
Reuters reports:
The September data was worse than the 64% fall recorded in August.
Despite a slight uptick in activity after Spain emerged from a strict coronavirus lockdown in June, overall hotel bookings in the first nine months of the year have slumped 71% since the same period a year earlier, INE said.
The data showed the northern regions of Cantabria and Asturias had the highest levels of hotel occupation in September, at 37% and 35% respectively.
Tourism, which accounts for about 12% of Spain’s economic output has been decimated since the pandemic brought global travel to a grinding halt.
Still, there was a glimmer of hope on Thursday as England and Germany lifted warnings against travel to the Canary Islands, potentially salvaging some of the winter season on the archipelago
Updated
The Czech Republic registered 14,151 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, down from a record of 14,968 the previous day, health ministry data showed on Friday.
The country, which is experiencing Europe’s biggest surge in new Covid-19 cases, has recorded 223,065 infections since March. Deaths have risen to 1,845 from 1,739 reported a day earlier, which includes 55 deaths on Thursday along with revisions to previous days.
Updated
Ukraine registered a daily record of 7,517 Covid-19 cases, the national security council said on Friday, up from a previous record of 7,053 on Thursday. The total number of cases climbed to 330,396.
The council said 121 new coronavirus-related deaths were registered in the past day. On Wednesday, the toll hit a record 141.
Ukraine has recorded over 5,000 new coronavirus cases almost every day since the start of October. The rise in infections has prompted the government to extend lockdown measures until the end of 2020.
Updated
Good morning from London, where it is dark and a bit damp but we have plans to keep you illuminated all day (sorry).
In the usual way, if you have stories from where you are and you want to share please do get in touch. I’m on alexandra.topping@theguardian.com and I’m @lexytopping on Twitter - my DMs are open.
Updated
Scientists conducting tests for coronavirus in sewage to spot early warnings of where outbreaks are occurring say the approach is working and has helped reveal areas with high infection rates.
The programme has been piloted in the south-west of England since June. The sewage sampling data showed a spike in coronavirus content even though a relatively low number of people in the area had taken tests.
According to the government, the information was passed on to NHS test and trace and the local council, who were able to alert local health professionals to the increased risk and warn people in the area of the increase in cases:
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today.
Thanks for following along – and stay tuned for more update with Alexandra Topping.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways’s decision to force pilots permanently on to lower-paid contracts or risk losing their jobs is “draconian” and “short-sighted”, the head of the union representing them said on Friday.
The carrier on Wednesday announced plans to cut 5,900 jobs to help it weather the pandemic, including nearly all of the positions at its regional airline Cathay Dragon, which it has shut down.
It is also seeking changes in its contracts with pilots and cabin crew as part of a restructuring that would cost HK$2.2bn ($283.87m).
“The vast majority (of other airlines’ pay cuts) are tied to a waypoint such as a point in time or profitability,” Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association (HKAOA) general secretary Chris Beebe said in an interview. At Cathay, he said, the cuts are “completely open-ended and perpetual”.
HKAOA said that under the new contracts Cathay will no longer need to follow the principle of “last in, first out” used at most legacy carriers, with the most recent joiners losing their jobs first.
That would enable it to target pilots for cuts based on the type of aircraft flown, which would be more efficient financially and operationally as it continues to review its fleet plans.
The new contracts, similar to those for new hires since 2018, also offer pay based more on flying hours than previously, leading to far lower salaries in periods where the airline is largely idle.
The degree of pay cut depends on which older contract the pilot was on, with one Cathay pilot telling Reuters on condition of anonymity that he expected a reduction of about 40%.
Updated
Or maybe Biden wasn’t the winner.
Many political pundits named someone else: moderator and NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker.
Welker, 44, the only person of color chosen to moderate presidential debate this year, quickly earned plaudits as the event unfolded in a calmer and less chaotic manner than the first presidential debate in Cleveland. That debate last month was widely panned after Trump aggressively and consistently interrupted Biden and Chris Wallace, a Fox News anchor and the moderator. In contrast, Welker rarely let Trump derail the debate or drown out Biden’s answers, and stood her ground when enforcing the rules.
The winner of Thursday night’s debate was “obviously” Welker, tweeted New York Times opinion writer Jamelle Bouie:
winner of the debate is obviously kristen welker
— b-boy boooo-eebaisse (@jbouie) October 23, 2020
trump cleared the bar for himself, that is, he didn’t rant and rave again.
biden had a very solid performance.
no game changers here in either direction means, i think, that this is a good result for biden.
Following the debate, Wallace, whose own moderation was widely criticized after the first debate, was asked on air what he thought of the tenor of the final debate moderated by Welker. “First of all, I’m jealous,” he said.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was perceived as the winner of the final debate with Donald Trump on Thursday night, according to a CNN poll of debate viewers and a panel of undecided North Carolina voters.
Though the groups are not representative of actual US voters, they offered a snapshot of the reaction to the debate, which came just two weeks before election day, as Trump trails his opponent in national polls and was seeking to reset his appeal with more moderate Republican supporters.
The CNN poll found it was perceived as a slightly weaker performance compared to the first, chaotic presidential debate last month, when 60% of viewers perceived Biden as the winner, compared to 53% on Thursday night:
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Trump and Biden sparred over the coronavirus pandemic in the final presidential debate, with the president defending his response to a pandemic that has already claimed 223,000 American lives. Trump said of the pandemic, “I take full responsibility. It’s not my fault that it came here. It’s China’s fault.” Biden argued Trump had “no clear plan” to bring the virus under control.
- Australia will slightly lift the cap on the number of citizens and permanent residents allowed to return each week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, as local Covid-19 cases slow to single digits. Australia has since July capped the number of locals allowed to return home each week in an attempt to reduce the threat of spreading Covid-19 once they enter a mandatory 14-day quarantine in hotels. Morrison said the current cap will rise to 5,865 people in November, an increase of 290, after Western Australia and Queensland states said they would accommodate more locals.
- The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug to treat Covid-19: remdesivir, an antiviral medicine given through an IV for patients needing hospitalization. The drug, which California-based Gilead Sciences Inc is calling Veklury, cut the time to recovery from 15 days to 10 on average in a large study led by the US National Institutes of Health.
- Study finds between 130,000 and 210,000 US deaths could have been avoided. The Trump administration’s botched response to the pandemic has led to between 130,000 and 210,000 preventable deaths, according to a report from a team of disaster preparedness and public health experts. The team calculated avoidable deaths by estimating how many people would have died in other nations, like Japan and South Korea, if they had the same population as the US, and comparing those figures to the US death rate.
- French health authorities reported another 41,622 confirmed Covid-19 cases over 24 hours on Thursday, an all-time daily high that was published shortly after the government announced a broad extension of the curfew put in place a week ago in Paris and other major cities.
-
Trump tests negative for virus pre-debate. The White House chief of staff says president Donald Trump has tested negative for the coronavirus ahead of Thursday night’s second and final presidential debate.
- EU’s flagship Covid-19 recovery cash will come late -diplomat. States hit hardest by the pandemic will have to wait longer for €750bn meant to help restart their economies, a senior diplomat said, as a fresh rise in infections shuts down business on the continent again.
- Supermarkets in Wales to sell only essentials during lockdown.They will not be allowed to sell items such as clothing and hardware during the Covid-19 firebreak lockdown, first minister Mark Drakeford said, to ensure a “level playing field” as many retailers will be forced to shut.
- Greece will impose a curfew in areas most affected by Covid-19, including Athens. The prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said movement would be banned from Saturday between 12.30am and 5am in locations deemed high-risk.
- The Canary Islands, the Maldives, Denmark and Mykonos were added to England’s travel corridor list. Travellers from those destinations will no longer need to self-isolate for 14 days from 4am on Sunday 25 October. The opposite is true for travellers arriving from Liechtenstein, which was removed from the list.
- France extended a night-time curfew to more regions, affecting two-thirds of the French population. The prime minister Jean Castex said the 9pm-6am curfew would be extended to 38 departments and some overseas territories for six weeks, starting from midnight on Friday.
Updated
Nicola Sturgeon will on Friday announce a five-tier plan of measures for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic in Scotland, PA media reports.
The new set of restrictions has been anticipated since a similar three-tiered system was introduced in England by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. If approved at Holyrood next week, the new measures will come into force in Scotland on Monday, 2 November.
The Scottish First Minister will discuss the tiered system at her daily coronavirus briefing on Friday afternoon as well as plans to increase testing capacity north of the border.
Ms Sturgeon has already said the three middle tiers will be broadly similar to the English system, where areas are classed as either “medium”, “high” or “very high” risk.
Since 9 October, bars and licensed restaurants in five health board areas - Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Arran, Lothian and Forth Valley - have been forced to close for all but takeaways.
Pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes elsewhere in Scotland are only allowed to serve indoor customers between 6am and 6pm with a ban on alcohol inside, although alcoholic drinks can be served until 10pm in outdoor areas.
India’s coronavirus infections reached a total of 7.76 million, with 54,366 new cases being reported in the last 24 hours, data from the federal health ministry showed on Friday.
The world’s second-most populous country also has the world’s second-highest caseload, behind the United States, which has 8.3 million infections so far.
Deaths in India have been relatively low, with 117,306 mortalities from the coronavirus, out of which 690 were reported in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.
Australia to lift cap on citizens returning as thousands left stranded
Australia will slightly lift the cap on the number of citizens and permanent residents allowed to return each week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, as local Covid-19 cases slow to single digits, Reuters reports.
Australia has since July capped the number of locals allowed to return home each week in an attempt to reduce the threat of spreading Covid-19 once they enter a mandatory 14-day quarantine in hotels.
Morrison said the current cap will rise to 5,865 people in November, an increase of 290, after Western Australia and Queensland states said they would accommodate more locals.
The increase comes amid heightened pressure on Morrison’s government to help some 26,000 Australians that registered their intention to come home.
“The most effective way to get Australians home is to increase these caps,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
Many, however, have struggled to secure a plane ticket and raise the several thousand dollars needed to pay for hotel quarantine when they arrive back in Australia.
Looking to offer more support, Morrison’s government earlier this month struck a deal with the Northern Territory government to allow up to 500 people each fortnight to return. These are outside the weekly cap, with the first plane landing on Friday.
And on that subject:
.@jdickerson on Pres. Trump: "It's a very low bar when you say the goal tonight is not to do the disastrous thing you did last time...you've got to do better than that when the race is not going your way." pic.twitter.com/00qjDSrB17
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) October 23, 2020
Updated
Donald Trump and Joe Biden offered starkly different visions for combating the coronavirus pandemic during Thursday night’s final presidential debate in Nashville – perhaps the last chance for the president to shift the dynamics of a race that increasingly favors his Democratic opponent with less than two weeks until election day.
The evening in Nashville began relatively calmly, with the rivals making their closing arguments to the nation amid a pandemic that has killed more than 220,000 Americans and infected millions more, including the president. In part due to the pandemic, more than 40 million Americans have already cast their ballot, shattering records and leaving Trump an increasingly narrow window to reset the debate:
Germany reports over 10,000 cases for second day in a row
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by more than 10,000 for a second day, with 11,242 new infections, taking the total to 403,291, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Friday.
The day before, Germany reported a record 11,827 new cases.
The reported death toll rose by 49 to 9,954, the tally showed.
Updated
Traces of Covid-19 can be successfully detected in sewage, helping to give health officials an early warning of local outbreaks of the virus, the British government said on Friday.
A project, originally launched in June, has now proved that fragments of genetic material from the virus can be detected in waste water, indicating if a local community or institution is experiencing a spike in cases.
The government said this would allow health officials to identify large outbreaks especially where there were carriers not displaying any symptoms and to encourage people to get tested or take precautions.
“This is a significant step forward in giving us a clearer idea of infection rates both nationally and locally, particularly in areas where there may be large numbers of people who aren’t showing any symptoms and therefore aren*t seeking tests,” Environment Secretary George Eustice said.
The sewage-testing project has been working successfully in southwest England and has now been extended to 90 wastewater sites covering 22% of England, the government said, adding it aimed to expand it in future.
Asian markets mostly rose Friday but gains were limited as US lawmakers struggled to hammer out a fresh economic rescue package, while there was little initial reaction to the last presidential debate before next month’s election, AFP reports.
Equities have swung back and forth over the past week as the will-they-won’t-they saga of the stimulus discussions keeps traders on their toes, though observers believe a bill is increasingly unlikely to be passed before the November 3 vote.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said both parties “continue to be engaged in negotiations, and I am hopeful we will be able to reach an agreement” but she warned that opposition to a massive spending plan from Senate Republicans posed a huge hurdle.
With talks still grinding along on Capitol Hill, the focus in early Asian trade was the stand-off between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, with analysts saying the president needed a big win to overturn his Democratic challenger’s lead in national and crucial state polls.
Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore and Jakarta were all up in early trade, while Sydney and Taipei slipped slightly.
The need for a spending bill was highlighted once again Thursday by the release of data showing 787,000 Americans had signed on for jobless benefits last week, a drop from the previous week and better than expected but still a massive number.
While fresh stimulus would be welcomed, a surge in new coronavirus cases across the US and Europe is fuelling concerns that the already stuttering economic recovery could be knocked off course.
A second wave with record new cases has already forced major economies including Britain, France and Germany to impose partial lockdown measures, leading businesses to warn of massive job losses.
Cisco’s video-conferencing app Webex clocked 590 million participants in September and is on track to record over 600 million this month, nearly double the numbers recorded in March when countries started shutting down due to the pandemic, Reuters reports.
After offices started to close down due to Covid-19, people switched on video conferencing platforms to work from home, leading to swift growth in platforms such as Webex, Zoom Video Communications Inc and Microsoft Corp’s Teams.
While the expansion in Webex user numbers started in March, it has not tapered off, and attendees are at all-time highs in October amid a resurgent pandemic, Jeetu Patel, Cisco Systems Inc’s general manager for security and applications business, told Reuters.
Webex had recorded 324 million meeting participants in March. Zoom disclosed 300 million daily participants in April, and Teams in April disclosed 200 million. The numbers may not be comparable because the companies may use different methods of counting attendees and do not disclose those methods.
Zoom and Microsoft declined to give updated user numbers.
The US presidential debate ended a few minutes ago.
The final question of the night, posed to both nominees, was what message they would offer on Inauguration Day to Americans who did not vote for them.
Trump emphasized the need to rebuild the US economy, which has suffered greatly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have to make our country totally successfully as it was prior to the plague coming in from China,” Trump said.
Biden responded by once again assuring the nation that he would be the president of both Democrats and Republicans.
“I’m an American president. I represent all of you, whether you voted for me or against me, and I’m going to make sure that you’re represented,” Biden said.
Reiterating a line that he has said many times on the campaign trail, Biden told Americans, “I’m going to give you hope. We’re going to move. We’re going to choose science over fiction; we’re going to choose hope over fear. We’re going to choose to move forward because we have enormous opportunities, enormous opportunities to make things better.”
With that, the final presidential debate came to a close. All that’s left now is for Americans to vote -- and again, more than 48 million Americans already have.
As New Zealanders prepare for holiday long weekend the government is imploring Kiwis to remain vigilant in the face of Covid-19 after an infected man walked into a popular Auckland pub last week.
The Labour weekend is spent by many travelling to holiday hotspots around the country. However, with the use of the government’s Covid tracer app dropping to one of its lowest usage rates, the three-day holiday is also being used to “rehearse” for the Christmas holidays.
“My message to everybody is, the more we prepare the less we’re going to need to respond,” the health minister, Chris Hipkins, said on Friday.
On Friday, there were nine new cases of Covid-19, eight of which were caught at border quarantine facilities. Seven were among fishing crews from Russia and the Ukraine, while the other imported case was an arrival from Iran. The domestic case was a household contact of the marine worker cluster.
There are now a total of 66 active cases of Covid in New Zealand:
In more Asia-Pacific news: Australia’s Qantas airlines has suffered a $100 million hit to its first quarter earnings after several states closed their borders in July in response to Victoria’s coronavirus outbreak.
Chief executive Alan Joyce on Friday said the states’ decisions had delayed Qantas’ recovery. He had expected domestic services to be operating at 60 per cent of pre-Covid levels. Yet the border closures, which include Queensland and Western Australia, mean domestic services are operating below 30 per cent of previous levels.
Mr Joyce told shareholders at Qantas’ annual general meeting that if Queensland opened to NSW soon, he expected domestic capacity to improve to up to 50%.
“We’re expecting to see a boom in domestic tourism once more borders open up,” he said.
The airline aims to save AU$600 million this financial year to stay viable. It’s cut 6,000 workers, is likely to cut 2000 ground handling crew and has stood down 18,000 staff.
Chair Richard Goyder took a swipe at Queensland and Western Australia’s governments, which are yet to open their borders and allow visitors.
These decisions did not seem based on health risk, he said, and ignored the economic and social risk of keeping borders shut.
He identified some Asian countries Qantas may be able to fly to early next year. Korea, Taiwan and some Pacific islands may accept overseas visitors.
If you need a break:
I've switched from the debates to this, with no regrets. https://t.co/7KUIrDPeCl
— Corey S. Powell (@coreyspowell) October 23, 2020
The Japanese government’s expert panel to combat the coronavirus pandemic plans to propose on Friday extending the New Year holidays by about a week to 11 January, Kyodo News reported.
The proposal, to be made at a panel meeting later on Friday, would urge Japanese companies to extend the holidays to reduce the rush among travellers visiting their home towns, Kyodo reported.
Podcast: US election 2020 – can the Democrats win back trust in Ohio?
The race in Ohio has long been a reliable guide to the US election: the state’s winner usually goes on to win the presidency. In 2016, it broke decisively for Trump, but this year there are signs that its voters are turning away from the president:
You can watch the rest of the debate here – and our dedicated liveblog here.
Biden tried to pivot away from Trump’s attacks on his son, Hunter, by refocusing on kitchen-table issues.
“There’s a reason why he’s bringing up all this malarkey. There’s a reason for it. He doesn’t want to talk about the substantive issues,” Biden said.
Looking into the camera, the Democratic nominee added, “It’s not about his family and my family. It’s about your family, and your family is hurting badly.”
Biden: "There's a reason why he's bringing up all this malarky. He doesn't want to talk about the substantive issues. It's not his family and my family. It's about your family." pic.twitter.com/Jf5b1eYknv
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2020
"Americans don't panic, he panicked," is a good line from Biden imho
— heldavidson (@heldavidson) October 23, 2020
More coronavirus fact checks from earlier in the debate, as the candidates move on to Trumps’ Chinese bank account:
- “2.2m would have died,” Trump said, if not for him. Early models of how the pandemic would pan out projected a wide range of possible death rates. But it’s clear that the Trump administration’s faltering response to the pandemic cost lives. Between 130,000 and 210,000 deaths from Covid-19 would have been prevented if the administration coordinated a faster response guided by science, according to a report from a team of disaster preparedness and public health experts.
- Trump said a vaccine is “weeks away”. Public health experts, including the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said one won’t be ready for general use until at least the Spring. When asked if his timeline was realistic, Trump said the military would distribute it. His administration had signaled in the past that it would be distributed through local health departments.
- Trump said, “I’m immune–no one’s been able to tell how long.” While scientists aren’t sure how long immunity lasts, they don’t generally think the immunity lasts more than 6 months.
- “It’s going away” Trump said. He’s been saying that since the beginning. Coronavirus cases in the US are rising, driven by spikes in the midwest, as epidemiologists warn of a new wave of infections in the autumn and winter. More than 221,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 and while deaths nationally have trended downward, the county is losing on 700 to 100 lives a day in recent days.
– Maanvi Singh
Trump just said California and New York are terrible on covid.
— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) October 23, 2020
California and New York have among the lowest positivity rates in the country.
The worst *12* states on covid are all RED STATES. pic.twitter.com/qC3spnSMAH
Again, an absolute avalanche of lying from Trump tonight.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 23, 2020
everytime trump says new york is a ghost town 1,000 personal essays are born
— Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) October 23, 2020
Coronavirus fact checks from my colleague Maanvi Singh:
- Trump said he was kidding about studying bleach as a coronavirus cure. He did not appear to be kidding when he made the suggestion to his top public health experts during a White House coronavirus briefing.
- Trump said Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker and a Democrat from California, was “dancing” in Chinatown. She visited Chinatown as a gesture to discourage xenophobia, which Trump has peddled by using racist terms to describe the coronavirus.
- Trump said “Democratic” states with strict lockdown measures are the worst affected. It’s true that New York and Washington state, both of which have Democratic governors, were initially hotspots. But over time, deaths in those states, and in other blue states trended down. Meanwhile, deaths in red states have been trending up.
On Fauci’s response to the virus:
Fauci did not say the virus would "go away soon."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 23, 2020
Fauci did say, for example in February, that people could keep going about their lives. But he always cautioned that conditions could change quickly and the virus was a threat.
Trump has invented quotes from Fauci for months.
On Fauci’s politics:
Fauci is not registered with any party. He got the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush. He was previously tight with George H.W. Bush.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 23, 2020
Trump attacked top US infectious diseases expert – the expert he sidelined from the White House coronavirus task force – Dr Anthony Fauci, as possibly being a Democrat:
"I think he's a Democrat" -- Trump devotes some time to attacking Dr. Fauci pic.twitter.com/h3vROhRkEe
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2020
Earlier this week, Dr Fauci spoke out against Trump’s use of his comments out of context in a campaign ad. He also said he “absolutely not” surprised that Trump had himself contracted the virus.
Trump again, falsely, claims that the US has a lot of cases because it has a lot of testing:
"We have the best testing in the world by far. That's why we have so many cases" -- Trump (in fact the US has so many cases because there's lots of virus here!) pic.twitter.com/f4QD7sgpQ4
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2020
Trump attacks New York.
“If you go and take a look at New York it’s a ghost town, a ghost town.”
“These are businesses that are dying Joe, you can’t do that to people.”
Biden responds, “Take a look at what New York has done in terms of turning the curve.”
Case spikes are occurring in the upper midwest, Biden says.
Welker asks what Trump will do about schools.
“I want to open the schools,” he replies. “We won’t have a country,” if we don’t reopen.
“I’ve said it before, the cure cannot be worse,” Trump says – a reference to his position that not reopening will cause greater damage.
Trump's message for most all coronavirus questions is "we have to open our country" pic.twitter.com/uRaHsLovTs
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2020
Updated
Trump just said, “Thank you and I appreciate that,” to Welker when he is allowed to respond to Biden. He has clearly decided to on a different tack for tonight’s debate to last time.
Biden’s response to the basement comment is, “He says ‘we’re leaning to live with it.’ People are learning to die with it”:
"He says 'we're leaning to live with it.' People are learning to die with it" -- Biden pic.twitter.com/gZdv3eS9jW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2020
So far the debate has been fairly calm. Trump and Biden aren’t talking over each other or regularly interrupting.
Trump, “we cannot lock ourselves in a basement like Biden does,” says Trump on lockdowns.
He says he’s not sure “where [Biden] gets the money from,” to be able to lock himself up – a reference to a story published in Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, the essence of which is an allegation that presidential candidate Joe Biden used his previous position as US vice-president to benefit the Ukraine business interests of his son, Hunter.
Trump has again claimed that his decision to “ban” travel from China. CNN’s Daniel Dale has checked this fact so, so many times this year:
Trump did not "ban" China from coming in. He imposed travel restrictions with multiple exemptions (citizens, permanent residents, many of their family members, some others); tens of thousands of people flew in from China after the restrictions took effect on February 2.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 23, 2020
Both candidates are asked about their approaches to a vaccine. Trump claims, falsely, a vaccine is “ready”. Biden says what he often has before in response to similar questions, which is that he would wait for the OK from scientists.
Trump enters without a mask. Biden enters with one. And the final 2020 presidential debate is under way. pic.twitter.com/tHBFTrvQMv
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2020
Biden is asked the same thing.
His answer centres on current rising case and death figures – he doesn’t quite outline a way out. He focusses instead on attacking Trump’s response to the pandemic.
The first question is for Trump.
“The country is heading for a dangerous new phase... Since the two of you last shared a stage 16,000 Americans have died in the pandemic,” says Welker. “If elected, how would you lead us out of this pandemic.”
Trump, yet again, cites the 2 million figure given by scientists at the start of the pandemic as the number of people who could have died if absolutely nothing was done in response, saying that this is what has been avoided.
Yet just today scientists at Columbia have published a study showing that the Trump administration’s response caused as many as 210,000 deaths that could otherwise have been avoided.
“We estimate that at least 130,000 deaths and perhaps as many as 210,000 could have been avoided with earlier policy interventions and more robust federal coordination and leadership,” the study’s authors wrote.
Kristen Welker of NBC News is moderating tonight’s debate, and the president has been attacking her in the days leading up to the event, describing the journalist as “a very biased person.”
It’s worth noting one of Trump’s own advisers, Jason Miller, has praised Welker and predicted she will do an “excellent job” moderating the debate.
“Look, I think I have a very high opinion of Kristen Welker. I think she’s going to do an excellent job as the moderator for the third debate,” Miller said in early October. “I think she’s a journalist who’s very fair in her approach. And I think that she’ll be a very good choice for this third debate.”
This is, of course, only the second presidential debate. The October 15 debate was canceled because Trump refused to agree to a virtual format after concerns were raised about the president’s coronavirus diagnosis.
The final US presidential debate is starting in two minutes’ time.
Australia’s Victoria state - the epicentre of the country’s Covid-19 outbreak - on Friday reported that active coronavirus cases have fallen to a four-month low, paving the way for an acceleration in the easing of social distancing curbs, Reuters reports.
The nation’s second-most populous state, which recorded just one new infection in the past 24 hours, said there are now 100 active cases - the lowest since 19 June.
“This is a good number. This is a very clear sign that the strategy is working,” Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.
The active infections are a relief to state authorities amid heightened fears of a fresh cluster after a case in a school in Melbourne’s northern suburbs prompted authorities to order 800 people to self-isolate.
However, with new case numbers in single digits for nine consecutive days, Andrews is expected to announce on Sunday an accelerated timetable for easing restrictions in a boost to Australia’s ailing economy.
Melbourne’s roughly 5 million residents were granted more freedom to move about on Monday after a months-long lockdown, but public gatherings remain tightly limited and retailers and restaurants must operate only on take-away or delivery orders.
Australia has recorded just over 27,400 Covid-19 infections, far fewer than many other developed countries. Victoria accounts for more than 90% of the 905 deaths nationally.
Mexico’s health ministry reported on Thursday 6,612 additional cases of the novel coronavirus and 479 more deaths in the country, bringing the official number of cases to 874,171 and the death toll to 87,894.
Health officials have said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden will face off for a final time during Thursday night’s presidential debate in Nashville – perhaps the last chance for the president to shift the dynamics of a race that increasingly favors his Democratic opponent with less than two weeks until election day.
The candidates will have 90 minutes to make their closing arguments to the nation, amid a pandemic that has killed more than 220,000 Americans and infected millions more, including the president. In part due to the pandemic, more than 40 million Americans have already cast their ballot, shattering records and leaving Trump an increasingly narrow window to reset the debate.
Despite the cascading public health and economic crises, Biden has maintained a steady lead over the incumbent, according to public opinion polls, while Trump has struggled to outline his vision for a second term and grapple with voters’ disapproval of his response to the pandemic:
Here’s a reminder of how to wear your mask:
This is the greatest thing I’ve seen all day. pic.twitter.com/nEhTAN5X7U
— Rebecca Shabad (@RebeccaShabad) October 22, 2020
One hour to go until the final presidential debate. I’ll be bringing you all the coronavirus-related moments live right here.
You can find me on Twitter @helenrsullivan. Questions, comments, commiserations welcome.
While millions of people will be watching on television, only around 200 will be allowed inside the massive college arena in Nashville where President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, meet Thursday night for the final presidential debate of the 2020 election.
One of them will control a mute button.
Reuters:
A representative of the Commission on Presidential Debates — not the moderator — will ensure each candidate has two full minutes uninterrupted to deliver opening answers on six major topics, according to debate commission chair Frank Fahrenkopf.
A member of each of the the Trump and Biden campaigns is expected to monitor the person who controls the mute button backstage, Fahrenkopf said, noting that the button would not be used beyond the first four minutes of each topic.
Organizers initially planned to separate the candidates with plexiglass barriers, but removed them hours before the debate began.
The plexiglass is gone pic.twitter.com/M8hJehDUpL
— Shannon Pettypiece (@spettypi) October 22, 2020
But any audience member who refuses to wear a mask will be removed, organisers say. Last month, several members of the Trump family removed their masks once seated in the debate hall.
In the UK, a slump in donations to medical charities will result in potentially life-saving research being shelved unless the government steps in to support the organisations, a leading thinktank has said.
The closure of charity shops, suspension of fundraising events, such as the London to Brighton cycle ride, and wider economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic meant medical charities stood to lose more than £4bn between now and 2027, according to a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
The collapse in funding for what is often foundational research would in turn cause private follow-up investment to shrink substantially, the thinktank found, leading to an overall shortfall of nearly £8bn over the period, the equivalent of a 10% spending cut for UK health research:
Study finds between 130,000 and 210,000 US deaths could have been avoided
The Trump administration’s botched response to the pandemic has led to between 130,000 and 210,000 preventable deaths, according to a new report from a team of disaster preparedness and public health experts.
“The United States has turned a global crisis into a devastating tragedy,” read a report released Thursday by researchers at Columbia University. “We estimate that at least 130,000 deaths and perhaps as many as 210,000 could have been avoided with earlier policy interventions and more robust federal coordination and leadership.
The team calculated avoidable deaths by estimating how many people would have died in other nations, like Japan and South Korea, if they had the same population as the US, and comparing those figures to the US death rate.
“Many of the underlying factors amplifying the pandemic’s deadly impact have existed long before the novel coronavirus first arrived in Washington state on January 20th – a fractured healthcare system, inequitable access to care, and immense health, social and racial disparities among America’s most vulnerable groups,” the researchers noted. “Compounding this is an Administration that has publicly denigrated its own public health officials – and science more generally -- thereby hamstringing efforts by its vaunted public health service to curb the pandemic’s spread.”
Here's a sad metric: Deaths are back over 1,000 a day, less than two weeks before the presidential election. https://t.co/pjFu14Pa2Z
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) October 22, 2020
It has been touted as a breakthrough treatment by Donald Trump, and there are hopes that blood plasma containing coronavirus antibodies may help British patients during the second wave of Covid-19 as well.
But a study, which is published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on Friday, suggests “convalescent plasma” has only limited effectiveness and fails to reduce deaths or stop the progression to severe disease:
France reports record new cases
French health authorities reported another 41,622 confirmed Covid-19 cases over 24 hours on Thursday, an all-time daily high that was published shortly after the government announced a broad extension of the curfew put in place a week ago in Paris and other major cities.
The prime minister Jean Castex said the 9pm-6am curfew would be extended to 38 departments and some overseas territories for six weeks, starting from midnight on Friday.
Remdesivir approved as Covid treatment by US FDA
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first drug to treat Covid-19: remdesivir, an antiviral medicine given through an IV for patients needing hospitalization.
The drug, which California-based Gilead Sciences Inc is calling Veklury, cut the time to recovery from 15 days to 10 on average in a large study led by the US National Institutes of Health.
It had been authorized for use on an emergency basis since spring, and now has become the first drug to win full US approval for treating Covid-19.
The move comes despite a more critical study released by the World Health Organization last week that found that the antiviral drug did not help cut deaths of hospitalized Covid-19 patients. Some doctors said the WHO study was not definitive because of its methodology. It took data from hundreds of hospitals in 30 countries:
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan, you can find me on Twitter here and I’ll be bringing you the latest global Covid news – as well as an coronavirus-related moments in the final presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which starts in about three hours’ time.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug to treat Covid-19: remdesivir, an antiviral medicine given through an IV for patients needing hospitalization.
The drug, which California-based Gilead Sciences Inc is calling Veklury, cut the time to recovery from 15 days to 10 on average in a large study led by the US National Institutes of Health.
Meanwhile French health authorities reported another 41,622 confirmed Covid-19 cases over 24 hours on Thursday, an all-time daily high that was published shortly after the government announced a broad extension of the curfew put in place a week ago in Paris and other major cities.
-
Trump tests negative for virus pre-debate. The White House chief of staff says president Donald Trump has tested negative for the coronavirus ahead of Thursday night’s second and final presidential debate.
- EU’s flagship Covid-19 recovery cash will come late -diplomat. States hit hardest by the pandemic will have to wait longer for €750bn meant to help restart their economies, a senior diplomat said, as a fresh rise in infections shuts down business on the continent again.
- Supermarkets in Wales to sell only essentials during lockdown. They will not be allowed to sell items such as clothing and hardware during the Covid-19 firebreak lockdown, first minister Mark Drakeford said, to ensure a “level playing field” as many retailers will be forced to shut.
- Greece will impose a curfew in areas most affected by Covid-19, including Athens. The prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said movement would be banned from Saturday between 12.30am and 5am in locations deemed high-risk.
- The Canary Islands, the Maldives, Denmark and Mykonos were added to England’s travel corridor list. Travellers from those destinations will no longer need to self-isolate for 14 days from 4am on Sunday 25 October. The opposite is true for travellers arriving from Liechtenstein, which was removed from the list.
- France extended a night-time curfew to more regions, affecting two-thirds of the French population. The prime minister Jean Castex said the 9pm-6am curfew would be extended to 38 departments and some overseas territories for six weeks, starting from midnight on Friday.
