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The Nobel Foundation, which manages the Nobel Prizes, on Tuesday cancelled its traditional December banquet because of the coronavirus pandemic and said the award ceremonies would be held in “new forms”, AFP reports.
This is the first time since 1956 that the lavish banquet has been cancelled, according to the foundation. The event traditionally marks the end of the so-called Nobel Week, when the year’s prize-winners are invited to Swedish capital Stockholm for talks and the award ceremony.
“The Nobel Week will not be as it usually is due to the current pandemic. This is a very special year when everyone needs to make sacrifices and adapt to completely new circumstances,” Lars Heikensten, director of the Nobel Foundation, said in a statement.
Joe Biden, in a scathing speech in his campaign to become the next US president, said Donald Trump had ‘quit’ on US citizens and did not care about America.
In a speech on his plan for the economy, in which he promised to expand access to preschool for working families, directly linking the need for affordable childcare to America’s economic recovery, Biden said Trump was not taking the public health crisis seriously:
Hi, Helen Sullivan joining you now from a crisp Sydney.
As always, it would be great to hear from you. Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
Brazil has confirmed 41,008 more cases in the past 24 hours, as well as 1,367 related deaths, the country’s health ministry has said. Brazil has registered nearly 2.2m cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 81,487, according to ministry data.
The US president Donald Trump has asked Americans to wear masks “whether you like the mask or not”, despite repeatedly downplaying the importance of wearing masks and refusing to wear one on many occasions. The president was first seen wearing a mask publicly earlier this month.
At a White House press briefing, he has noted a “concerning rise” in cases in parts of the South, in a complete shift from his previous strategy - refusing to acknowledge that there is a problem.
He stayed uncharacteristically on-message, saying the government is “asking Americans to use masks, socially distance and employ vigorous hygiene – wash your hands every chance you get”. He also asked younger people to “avoid packed bars and other crowded indoor gatherings.”
The US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has launched an extraordinary attack on the World Health Organization during a private meeting in the UK, accusing it of being in the pocket of China and responsible for “dead Britons” who passed away during the pandemic, Dan Sabbagh and Heather Stewart write.
Pompeo told those present he believed the WHO was “political, not a science-based organisation” and accused its current director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of being too close to Beijing.
Those present at the meeting on Tuesday said that Pompeo told his audience of 20 MPs and peers that he was saying “on a firm intelligence foundation, a deal was made” with China to allow Tedros to win election in 2017.
The secretary of state went on to to claim “when push came to shove, you’ve got dead Britons because of the deal that was made” – without providing any further details.
His remarks at the meeting organised by the Henry Jackson Society thinktank came in response to a question from Chris Bryant, one of two Labour MPs present in a meeting otherwise dominated by Conservatives, who had challenged him over the Trump administration’s repeated decisions to quit multilateral organisations.
The euro hit an 18-month high and stock markets gained ground after the EU agreed a €750bn pandemic recovery fund, in a deal struck hot on the heels of reports that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready within months.
After more than four days of tortuous negotiation, the EU’s 27 leaders resolved to issue debt jointly, with the proceeds to be disbursed to countries wrestling with an economic downturn not seen since the Great Depression.
The accord built on optimism sparked by the nascent success in trials of a coronavirus vaccine pioneered at Oxford University. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has suggested the vaccine could be ready by the end of the year.
California’s governor has granted an emergency release to Patricia Wright, a 69-year-old woman battling terminal cancer inside a prison that has suffered a major outbreak.
Wright, who doctors say has months to live, left prison on Tuesday morning for the first time in 23 years, greeted by her five children, three sisters and a dozen other relatives waiting on the other side of the gates at the California Institution for Women (CIW), east of Los Angeles. The family’s long fight for her release became increasingly urgent due to Covid-19, which has infected more than 160 people at CIW and nearly 7,000 people across the state’s prison system.
“I’ve been waiting for this day for 23 years, it is really indescribable,” said Wright, standing on the street outside CIW as her grandchildren and other loved ones swarmed her with hugs and handed her flowers and gifts, including her first iPhone. She danced and held her hands in the air. “Oh my God! I’m walking on cloud nine … I just want to sit down at the table with my family and embrace my children.”
Wright, who has battled breast and ovarian cancer and is legally blind, is undergoing chemotherapy. She spoke of her fears of dying alone behind bars in recent interviews with the Guardian, and is one of tens of thousands of older and at-risk prisoners who have been pleading for some form of clemency in response to Covid-19. Since March, 40 prisoners have died and those numbers are expected to increase in the coming weeks.
“For the past 23 years, I’ve had this burden in my heart every day. I could not live fully thinking about my sister in prison,” said Chantel Bonet, who years earlier moved to the city of Corona, where the prison is located, so she could be closer to her sister. “Now that burden is lifted.”
Wright, a survivor of domestic violence, was accused of hiring someone to kill her abusive husband but has maintained her innocence. She is one of many women convicted of murder under US laws that have faced widespread scrutiny for targeting victims of abuse. She was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, meaning this kind of direct action from the governor was her only option.
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Summary
Here’s a summary of the latest developments:
- The United States is failing to report vital information on Covid-19. The data would help authorities track the spread of the disease and prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, according to the first comprehensive review of the nation’s coronavirus data.
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Covid-19 is showing no signs of “slowing down” in the Americas. Carissa Etienne, the Pan American Health Organization director, said there were surges in Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. Etienne also said some central American nations were seeing their highest weekly increase of cases since the pandemic began.
- UK records 110 new coronavirus-related deaths. A further 110 people have died in the UK after testing positive for Covid-19 across all settings – including hospitals and the wider community. The total number of recorded coronavirus deaths in the country now stands at 45,422, according to government figures.
- Spain will send €1.7 billion in aid to developing countries to help them deal with coronavirus outbreak. Spain will send €1.7bn in aid to developing countries to help them deal with coronavirus pandemic, foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said on Tuesday. Spain hopes to save lives and strengthen public health systems.
- Iran announces record daily deaths. The health ministry said 229 people have died of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, a new high as the country struggles to contain the virus.
- Italy to receive €210bn from new EU fund. Some EU member states have been setting out how much financial support they are likely to receive following the €750bn deal struck at the end of a marathon negotiating session on Tuesday morning.
In the US state of Texas, more than 500 women at a federal medical prison have tested positive, the Bureau of Prisons has said. According to the Associated Press, it is one of the largest confirmed outbreaks at a federal prison.
The number of confirmed cases at the Federal Medical Center-Carswell in Fort Worth jumped to 509 on Monday, just one day after the Bureau of Prisons reported that 200 women there had tested positive. Only the federal prison in Seagoville, also located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, had more infected inmates, with 1,132 cases as of Monday.
The Trump administration does want to make sure coronavirus testing is funded, the US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has claimed, after the president’s fellow Republicans said the White House was blocking funding for key tests.
We want to make sure there’s plenty of money for testing. And that’s a big priority.
Mnuchin said he had held productive meetings with appropriations committee members.
About 2,000 Israelis rallied outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem on Tuesday as protests mounted against Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of its worsening epidemic, as well as alleged corruption.
Wearing protective masks, the demonstrators marched from Netanyahu’s official residence to Israel’s parliament, holding up signs that read “Crime Minister” and calling on the five-term premier to step down.
Reimposed curbs after a rise in new cases have prompted Israelis demanding better state aid to take to the streets in almost daily demonstrations.
Public anger has been also been fuelled by corruption alleged against Netanyahu, who went on trial in May for bribery, fraud and breach of trust; charges he denies.
France has confirmed 584 new cases in the past 24 hours, according to the latest health ministry data. The total number now stands at 177,338, the ministry said.
The number of people in hospitals with the virus was down 107, and the number in intensive care was down by 12, the figures showed. The ministry revised down slightly its figure for the total death toll since the start of the outbreak, to 30,165 from 30,177 a day earlier. It did not immediately give a reason for the revision, Reuters has reported.
Summary
- The United States is failing to report vital information on Covid-19. The data would help authorities track the spread of the disease and prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, according to the first comprehensive review of the nation’s coronavirus data.
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Covid-19 is showing no signs of “slowing down” in the Americas. Carissa Etienne, the Pan American Health Organization director, said there were surges in Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. Etienne also said some central American nations were seeing their highest weekly increase of cases since the pandemic began.
- UK records 110 new coronavirus-related deaths. A further 110 people have died in the UK after testing positive for Covid-19 across all settings – including hospitals and the wider community. The total number of recorded coronavirus deaths in the country now stands at 45,422, according to government figures.
- Spain will send €1.7 billion in aid to developing countries to help them deal with coronavirus outbreak. Spain will send €1.7bn in aid to developing countries to help them deal with coronavirus pandemic, foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said on Tuesday. Spain hopes to save lives and strengthen public health systems.
- Iran announces record daily deaths. The health ministry said 229 people have died of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, a new high as the country struggles to contain the virus.
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Italy to receive €210bn from new EU fund. Some EU member states have been setting out how much financial support they are likely to receive following the €750bn deal struck at the end of a marathon negotiating session on Tuesday morning.
Sales of alcohol, tea and coffee in UK supermarkets and corner shops have soared since the lockdown as the nation’s drinking habits have become home-based.
The value of beer, wine and spirits sold through grocers was up 41% in the past month, even though pubs in England started to reopen on 4 July, as consumers continue to eat and drink at home. Scottish pubs followed suit on 6 July.
Grocery stores also rang up an extra £24m in tea and coffee sales in the past month, and an additional £19m on biscuits – marking a massive shift away from takeaway lattes towards boiling the kettle.
The sharp rise in sales of beer, wine and spirits in the past month has underpinned the fastest rise in grocery sales since records began 26 years ago.
Sales of groceries, excluding takeaway food and drink, rose nearly 17% in the three months to 12 July, with local shops and online services accounting for the bulk of that growth, according to the market research firm Kantar.
The UK government aims to secure stocks not of one vaccine or even two – but up to 12 that are being developed around the world, hedging its bets to ensure it has something that works as early as possible to try to end the health, social and economic havoc being wreaked by Covid-19.
As Oxford University published its first results, showing its vaccine is safe and provokes a good immune response, Kate Bingham, chair of the government’s vaccines taskforce, explained that the strategy was to have an entire portfolio, not just one star player.
On Monday the government announced it was investing in BioNTech/Pfizer’s vaccine and a second being developed by the French company Valneva which has a manufacturing site in Scotland. That is a total of 90 million doses, almost as many as the 100 million secured from Oxford.
Bingham said:
The strategy has been very clear. We have no template to show us how to make a vaccine against coronavirus because it has never been done.
So the intention is to “explore the landscape” and select a few out of each of the four “buckets” as she described them – the different modalities or technologies being used around the world in vaccine development.
EU leaders seal ‘historic’ €750bn Covid-19 recovery plan
No sign of infection slowing in Americas
Covid-19 is showing no signs of “slowing down” in the Americas, according to the Pan American Health Organization director, amid surges in Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru.
During a virtual briefing from the organisation’s Washington base on Tuesday, Carissa Etienne also said some central American nations were seeing their highest weekly increase of cases since the pandemic began.
She added that because of the high burden of infectious diseases and chronic conditions in the continent, three out of ten people – 325 million – were at “increased risk” of developing complications from the virus.
Updated
The Nobel prize banquet has been cancelled for the first time in over 50 years over fears about the spread of coronavirus.
Winners for 2020 will be announced this year, but the banquet – which is held on December 10 in Stockholm and normally draws around 1,300 guests – will not go ahead, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter has reported.
“There are two problems. You can not gather that many people next to each other. And it is uncertain whether people can travel to Sweden to the extent they want,” Nobel Foundation Chairman Lars Heikensten told the newspaper.
The banquet was last cancelled in 1956 in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Hungary. It was also cancelled during World War One and Two.
Nobel prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were created and funded in the will of the Swedish dynamite inventor, Alfred Nobel, and have been awarded since 1901.
I’m Amy Walker, taking over from my colleague Aamna Mohdin while she has a break.
Updated
UK records 110 new coronavirus-related deaths
A further 110 people have died in the UK after testing positive for Covid-19 across all settings – including hospitals and the wider community.
The total number of recorded coronavirus deaths in the country now stands at 45,422, according to government figures.
As of Tuesday, a further 445 people tested positive for the virus, bringing the total caseload to 295,817.
Updated
The US Justice Department has indicted two Chinese nationals for hacking defence contractors, COVID researchers, and other companies worldwide, according to a court filing published on Tuesday.
Reuters reports:
US authorities said the Chinese nationals, Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi, participated in a multiyear cyberespionage campaign that stole weapons designs, drug information, software source code and more.
Contact details for the pair were not immediately available. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
The indictment did not name any specific companies, but it said that Li and Dong stole terabytes of data from computers around the world, including the United States, Britain, Germany, Australia and Belgium.
The United States is failing to report vital information on Covid-19 that could help track the spread of the disease and prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, according to the first comprehensive review of the nation’s coronavirus data.
The report, Tracking Covid-19 in the United States, paints a bleak picture of the country’s response to the disease. Five months into the pandemic, the essential intelligence that would allow public health authorities to get to grips with the virus is still not being compiled in usable form.
That includes critical data on testing, contact tracing, new cases and deaths.
What the authors call “life-and-death information” is being pulled together haphazardly by individual states in a way that is “inconsistent, incomplete and inaccessible in most locations”. Without such intelligence the country is effectively walking blind, with very little chance of getting “our children to school in the fall, ourselves back to work, our economy restarted, and preventing tens of thousands of deaths”.
The review has been carried out by Resolve to Save Lives, a part of the global health group Vital Strategies. It is led by Tom Frieden, the former director of the main US public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Governments around the world have been warned by the International Monetary Fund to take swift action to limit the economic damage for women that has been unleashed by Covid-19.
Sounding the alarm over the disproportionate impact on women amid the worst global recession since the 1930s Great Depression, the Washington-based organisation said the pandemic threatened to roll back gains in women’s economic opportunities, widening gender gaps that persist despite 30 years of progress.
The IMF said governments needed to use the full power of their tax and spending toolkit to extend income support to the most vulnerable people, protect employment and provide incentives to balance work and family care responsibilities.
Warning of the impact for women around the world, it said policies could be designed to tackle gender inequality by creating the right conditions and incentives for women to work. It said investing in education and infrastructure, subsidising childcare and offering parental leave would be vital to a sustainable recovery from Covid-19.
Here’s a dispatch from Jeff Abbott from Guatemala.
The lines for a solidarity soup kitchen in Guatemala’s historic center begin to form hours before volunteers begin to hand out plates of freshly prepared food from the solidarity soup kitchen, known as the Community Pot - Olla Comunitaria in Spanish.
Each day for nearly four months volunteers have gathered at the Rayuela bar and restaurant to prepare meals for Guatemala’s most vulnerable populations affected by the measures taken to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the Central American country.
Rayuela Café and the Olla Comunitaria in Guatemala City have served between 300 and 1500 meals to the city’s most vulnerable populations, even during the Sunday curfew. These efforts began in April when they saw the great need created by the gov’ts efforts to contain the pandemic pic.twitter.com/rQp0gxAx8F
— Jeff Abbott (@palabrasdeabajo) July 19, 2020
According to Byron Vasquez who owns La Rayuela, they only began to hand out food to homeless people, but as the impacts of the government’s measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic they saw more need among unemployed workers.
“Little by little whole families who had been left without work began to arrive,” Vasquez told The Guardian.
The pandemic created a whole new problem for those in poverty in Guatemala. Unemployment has risen significantly, and those in the informal economy struggle to provide food for their families.
Since April, the number of people arriving has grown from around 100 to nearly 1500 per day, Vasquez estimates. Since June they have served long lines of people in the Central Plaza to make the need that exists in Guatemala visible to the country.
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Spain is not holding talks with other EU countries over the potential closure of land borders, foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said on Tuesday, according to a report by Reuters. The statement follows reports that France could consider such a move over coronavirus worries.
French prime minister Jean Castex on Sunday did not rule out closing the border with Spain, which is struggling to control a fresh surge of coronavirus cases. Most of the infections are located in Catalonia, which borders France.
Updated
Which countries can UK holidaymakers visit without restrictions on arrival? Here’s a guide by Antonia Wilson in light of the government’s updated travel corridor list.
People were more likely to contract coronavirus from members of their own households than from contacts outside the home, according to a study published by South Korean epidemiologists in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Reuters reports:
A study published in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on July 16 looked in detail at 5,706 “index patients” who had tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 59,000 people who came into contact with them.
The findings showed just two out of 100 infected people had caught the virus from non-household contacts, while one in 10 had contracted the disease from their own families.
By age group, the infection rate within the household was higher when the first confirmed cases were teenagers or people in their 60s and 70s.
“This is probably because these age groups are more likely to be in close contact with family members as the group is in more need of protection or support,” Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and one of the authors of the study, told a briefing.
Spain will send €1.7 billion in aid to developing countries to help them deal with coronavirus outbreak
Spain will send €1.7bn in aid to developing countries to help them deal with coronavirus pandemic, Foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said on Tuesday after a cabinet meeting, according to a report by Reuters.
Spain aims to help save lives and strengthen public health systems and also protect and restore rights and capacities, among other goals, Gonzalez Laya told a news conference.
Updated
Australian police on Tuesday warned the public of “insidious” online predators that were targeting new child victims during the coronavirus outbreak. The warning comes after a surge in coronavirus infections put Melbourne, the country’s second-largest city, under partial lockdown.
Reuters reports:
Australian health authorities said it could take weeks to tame the COVID-19 outbreak after hundreds of new cases reported in the state of Victoria, whose capital Melbourne is in partial lockdown.
The measures prompted the Australian federal police to urge parents to ensure their children do not fall victim to “insidious online predators”, after abuse cases spiked during a national lockdown in March.
Traffic to websites hosting online child sexual abuse content skyrocketed during the earlier lockdown and such material posted to the dark web doubled, police said.
“We suspect that offenders will use this second wave of COVID-19 as an opportunity to find more potential child victims, as young people spend an increasing amount of time online with limited adult supervision,” police commander Jamie Strauss said.
The UK Ministry of Justice has said that new rules that allow youth detention facilities to hold children in solitary confinement for up to 22 hours a day to prevent the spread of Covid-19 could remain in place for two years despite lockdown measures being relaxed for the rest of the UK.
Lawyers have told the Guardian that time out of cells and access to education are still being severely curtailed in many facilities across the country.
“The recent announcement by the MoJ that these restrictions could go on in some form until next year or even further is very concerning,” said Jude Lanchin of Bindmans solicitors.
Lanchin told the Guardian that one of her clients, a 16-year-old held in a secure training centre, was being severely affected by having to spend every day alone in his cell.
“My client is on remand and has not even been convicted of an offence. It has been extremely difficult to work with him on the case and I was only able to see him recently on video-link for the first time after months of detention,” she said. “He has told me the hours in his cell mean ‘things go round and round in my head’. As a ‘looked-after’ child in care, he already had issues of concern and has now become depressed, anxious and agitated.”
Updated
Six Victorian prisons have been placed in lockdown after an officer working at a men’s jail in Melbourne, Australia tested positive for Covid-19, prompting calls from legal groups to release low-risk prisoners during the pandemic.
The officer, who the Guardian understands is male, is employed by GEO, the private correctional services provider which operates the Ravenhall Correctional Centre in Melbourne’s west.
While he had been in self-isolation since 16 July after learning he was a close contact of a confirmed Covid-19 case, five further facilities - Hopkins Correctional Centre, Langi Kal Kal Prison, Barwon Prison, Fulham and Loddon - have been placed in lockdown while Corrections Victoria investigates which other staff and prisoners he may have had contact with.
The Guardian understands that while the officer only worked at the Ravenhall facility, officers and prisoners he came into contact with may have moved to different facilities.
A Victorian justice department spokeswoman told the Guardian “measures are being taken in line with Corrections Victoria’s coronavirus management plans”.
US deaths from coronavirus rose for a second week in a row to more than 5,200 in the week ending 19 July, up 5% from the previous seven days, according to an analysis by Reuters.
Reuters reports:
The country reported over 460,000 new coronavirus cases last week, up nearly 15% from the prior week, according to the analysis of data from The Covid Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the outbreak.
Nineteen states have reported increases in deaths for at least two straight weeks, including, Arizona, Florida and Texas.
Testing for Covid-19 rose by 9% in the United States last week and set a new record high on Friday, with over 850,000 tests performed, the Reuters analysis found.
Updated
Australia has recorded 12,428 cases of coronavirus since the outbreak began, according to the latest figures. The country has had 126 deaths.
The Australian department for health has published the following infographic.
This daily infographic provides a quick view of the current coronavirus (#COVID19) situation in Australia. Visit: https://t.co/ECtzkIdyvh pic.twitter.com/HrCWZpJKwR
— Australian Government Department of Health (@healthgovau) July 21, 2020
Updated
In the US, a poll has found that a third of Americans believe official figures overstate the number of people who have died from coronavirus.
This week’s Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index has found “most Americans believe others are making the pandemic worse”. They also find that more Americans, particularly Republicans, are denying the official toll of the pandemic.
The report comes as US hospitalisations have hit a record level in seven states.
For all the latest on coronavirus developments from the US, you can also head over to our US live blog:
Updated
In the UK, the health secretary Matt Hancock has announced an urgent review into how Public Health England (PHE) counts Covid-19 deaths after discovering what appeared to be a serious issue in how rates are calculated.
Following the health secretary’s move on Friday, Yoon K Loke and Carl Heneghan, of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University, wrote in a blogpost: “It seems that PHE regularly looks for people on the NHS database who have ever tested positive, and simply checks to see if they are still alive or not. PHE does not appear to consider how long ago the Covid test result was, nor whether the person has been successfully treated in hospital and discharged to the community.”
A Department of Health and Social Care source summed this up as: “You could have been tested positive in February, have no symptoms, then be hit by a bus in July and you’d be recorded as a Covid death.”
When the Guardian put this to a source at PHE, they said that such a scenario would “technically” be counted as a coronavirus death, “though the numbers where that situation would apply are likely to be very small”. PHE says it calculates deaths in this way because, in most circumstances, it cannot dismiss the possibility that Covid-19 could have played a role in the death.
But does this mean PHE’s figures are much higher than the actual virus death rate? Not quite.
Read the full analysis by Pamela Duncan, Nicola Davis and Niamh McIntyre here:
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Hello, I’m Aamna taking over the blog from my colleague Josh for the rest of the day.
If you want to get in touch, you can email me (aamna.mohdin@theguardian.com) or contact me on Twitter (@aamnamohdin)
Iran announces record daily deaths
Iran’s health ministry says 229 people have died of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, a new high as the country struggles to contain the virus.
The country’s death toll now stands at 14,634 people with nearly 300,000 confirmed cases.
Oman will ban travel between all provinces from 25 July to 8 August to prevent the spread of coronavirus, state media have reported.
The Gulf state will also implement a daily 7pm to 6am curfew during that same period, which includes the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Shops and public spaces will be closed during the curfew hours, state news agency ONA has said.
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Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has welcomed the €750bn EU deal, saying: “Europe has shown it knows how to respond when faced with a historic challenge by coming up with a historic deal.”
Sánchez also said the agreement would go down in EU history, adding: “Today, all Europeans are winners and the EU has emerged far stronger.”
Coronavirus has claimed more than 28,000 lives in Spain to date. Despite the success of the country’s stringent lockdown in dramatically reducing the spread of the disease, more than 200 clusters have erupted following the end of the state of emergency – many of them in and around the Catalan cities of Barcelona and Lleida.
Over the weekend, 4,581 new cases of the virus were logged, bringing the total number of Covid-19 cases in Spain to 264,836.
The latest figures from the health ministry show that the number of cases per 100,000 people in Spain has tripled over the past three weeks, rising from 8.76 to 27.39.
The health minister, Salvador Illa, said most of the new clusters involved family gatherings or nightlife venues, and has called for people to respect guidelines. Many Spanish regions have made the wearing of masks compulsory even in situations where social distancing of 1.5m is possible.
On Friday, the Catalan regional government - which has been criticised for its slow response - called on four million people, including those in Barcelona, to stay at home. But the call was not mandatory and many people flocked to beaches over the weekend. Some 160,000 people are currently in compulsory lockdown around Lleida.
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Indonesia has reported 1,655 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of infections to 89,869, according to official data released by the government.
The number of fatalities due to Covid-19 rose by 81 on Tuesday to reach a total of 4,320, the data showed, while 48,466 people have recovered from the virus.
Most of the nurses in Ireland who got Covid-19 and supposedly recovered from it are still experiencing symptoms such as fatigue, headaches and breathing problems, according to a nurses union.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said of 545 respondents who told the union they had recovered, 497 stated they continued to experience symptoms, including mental health difficulties.
The results suggests some of the nurses may be so-called “long-haulers”. The union is to present the findings in a written submission on Tuesday to a parliamentary special committee on Covid-19, RTE reported.
In a separate submission the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (Siptu) said some healthcare workers did not declare symptoms to employers because they feared losing overtime and premiums put on leave.
The union said shortages of personal protective equipment had eased, with 77% of its health service members saying they now had enough PPE, versus 19% who said they did not.
Andrej Babiš, the prime minister of the Czech Republic, found a clever way to get some much-needed sleep on the flight home from the marathon EU Covid-19 talks:
Dneska jsem spal jenom takhle. Co na to @KarelHavlicek_? 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/UzHOQKCE0g
— Andrej Babiš (@AndrejBabis) July 21, 2020
Updated
Hong Kong has recorded two new deaths from Covid-19, bringing the total number of fatalities to 14, the health authority has announced. Two men, one aged 77 and another 87-year-old aged care home resident, died on Tuesday.
Hong Kong is in the grips of its third and worst wave of the virus, after being considered to have one of the most successful responses to the outbreak earlier in the year, and is attempting to avoid an economically devastating lockdown.
However, the government and health authorities are dealing with daily virus counts in double or triple figures from numerous clusters, and large numbers of cases having no known source of infection. The government has also faced criticism that it allowed too many exemptions in its quarantine rules.
Dr Leung Chi-chiu, the chair of the medical association’s advisory committee on communicable diseases, told local radio on Tuesday it was up to people to stay home as much as they could. He said a lockdown on the city would be a “point of no return” economically, and wouldn’t necessarily cut the chains of transmission.
Testing labs are reportedly nearing capacity, and the Hong Kong Public Doctors’ Association president told RTHK people should only seek testing when necessary. In recent days there have been up to 10,000 daily tests conducted, compared with a usual 7,500. Quarantine beds are also reportedly at 80% capacity, as the government looks to open up new facilities
Updated
Russia has reported 5,842 new cases of coronavirus, pushing its total infection tally to 783,328, the fourth largest in the world.
The country’s coronavirus response centre said 153 people had died in the past 24 hours, bringing Russia’s overall death toll from the virus to 12,580.
Updated
Unsurprisingly, the huge European recovery plan has not been welcomed by anti-EU and far-right figures.
The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen describes the deal as “the worst agreement for France in the history of the EU”. She says Emmanuel Macron has sacrificed “our future and our independence” to “protect his ego”.
#Macron vient de signer le pire accord pour la France de toute l’histoire de l’UE !
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) July 21, 2020
Pour protéger son ego, il sacrifie notre avenir et notre indépendance : impôts européens, abandon de notre agriculture, engagement financier colossal du pays... MLPhttps://t.co/5Au62KF6bT
Geert Wilders, of the Netherlands, called it a “€390bn gift for southern Europe”.
RUTTE DOOR DE KNIEËN
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) July 21, 2020
Toch €390 miljard giften voor Zuid-Europa!
EU-begroting + Herstelfonds = 1800 miljard euro. NL staat voor 6% aan de lat én garant.
Dat is 108 miljard euro!
WAANZIN!!
Miljarden weggegooid die we in ons eigen land hadden moeten besteden!#eurotop #Nexit pic.twitter.com/EYYTyW5om8
Jessica Stegrud MEP, a member of the nationalist Sweden Democrats party, said the deal hands “more power to Brussels”, saves the Eurozone in the short term and hits “indebted Swedish taxpayers”.
..förhandlingarna klara. EU:s åtgärdspaket kommer innefatta 390 miljarder i bidrag och 360 i lån.
— Jessica Stegrud (@JessicaStegrud) July 21, 2020
Paketet räddar kortsiktigt EURO-zonen, flyttar mer makt till Bryssel, skuldsätter svenska skattebetalare och gör inte ett sk*t för konkurrenskraft el långsiktig tillväxt.
Grattis.
Updated
Italy to receive €210bn from new EU fund
Some EU member states have been setting out how much financial support they are likely to receive following the €750bn deal struck at the end of a marathon negotiating session on Tuesday morning.
Italy will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Covid-19 recovery fund as it is one of the hardest hit countries in Europe. Giuseppe Conte, the Italian prime minister, said it would receive 28% (€210bn) of the fund, of which €81bn would be in grants and €127bn in repayable loans.
Spain, which has also been badly hit, will also receive one of the highest amounts. It will receive €140bn, just over half of which (€72.7bn) will be grants and the remainder in loans to be repaid.
Greece said it would be allocated €72bn, though there was no detail on what proportion of that would be in grants.
France said it would get €40bn in subsidies as part of the EU package. The French government said it will set out more detail of its recovery plan on 24 August.
Passengers of China-bound flights must provide negative Covid-19 test results before boarding, China’s aviation authority has said.
The Chinese government has sought to reduce the risk of imported coronavirus cases as international travel resumes.
On Tuesday, it said passengers flying to China must complete nucleic acid tests within five days of boarding and that these should be conducted at facilities designated or recognised by Chinese embassies in host countries.
The embassies will carefully assess the testing capacity of host countries and formulate travel procedures when testing conditions are met, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said.
Updated
The €750bn deal is the “most important economic decision since the introduction of the euro,” according to the EU’s economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, who said the most difficult challenge for the commission starts now.
Il vertice infinito è finito con un’intesa. #NextGenerationEU è la più importante decisione economica dall’introduzione dell’euro. Per la Commissione, che ha proposto il piano, comincia la sfida più difficile. #21luglio L’Europa è più forte delle proprie divisioni.
— Paolo Gentiloni (@PaoloGentiloni) July 21, 2020
German chancellor Angela Merkel said the “extraordinary events” of the coronavirus pandemic required “extraordinary new methods” to help nations recover.
Merkel added:
We have laid the financial foundations for the EU for the next seven years and came up with a response to this arguably biggest crisis of the European Union.
Merkel and president Emmanuel Macron of France, reportedly walked out of a negotiating meeting over the weekend in protest as the prospect of a deal with their EU counterparts looked remote.
Merkel and Macron initially wanted the deal to include €500bn in grants to nations – but this was opposed by the self-proclaimed “frugal four” five wealthy northern nations led by the Netherlands.
The final deal, struck in the early hours of this morning, is formed of €390bn in grants after the two sides reached a compromise. It is thought that Italy and Spain will be the main recipients of the grants, as the two EU nations hardest hit by the pandemic.
Updated
The total number of coronavirus cases in Ukraine has reached 60,166 and 1,518 people died as of 21 July, Ukrainian health minister Maksym Stepanov has said, according to Reuters.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week Ukrainians were fed up with the coronavirus lockdown and the government should be cautious about extending it.
The Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has described the historic EU deal as a “national success” that would allocate Greece €72bn to help the country recover from Covid-19.
“Today we have managed a very ambitious response, a response which responds to the symmetrical shock which the pandemic has triggered in all economies,” Mitsotakis said.
He said the funds would be disbursed carefully in Greece and with meticulous planning:
We have no intention of spreading the money around with the carefree attitude of the nouveau-riche. We have no intention of wasting this significant European capital now at our disposal. We will invest it to the benefit of all Greeks.
Updated
Most of the UK front pages this morning focus on the glimmer of hope presented by the search for a potential Covid-19 vaccine:
GUARDIAN: hopes of Covid vaccine rise after UK study hailed as breakthrough #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/mE8DbRBZUA
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) July 20, 2020
THE TIMES: scientists give hope of vaccine by end of year #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/0IdwtmIhnw
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) July 20, 2020
THE SCOTSMAN: Breakthrough brings hope of virus vaccine by end of year #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/Dfpp3eEtIL
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) July 20, 2020
The Daily Telegraph leads with a story on the anticipated Russia report, due to be released by parliament’s intelligence and security committee in a matter of hours. The paper reports that the committee has found that Russia meddled in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 but, somewhat surprisingly, not the UK’s EU referendum in 2016.
TELEGRAPH: Russia ‘tried to meddle in Scottish vote’ #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/wrM8QAB81O
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) July 20, 2020
Hello. It’s Josh Halliday in Manchester, England, taking over from my colleague Alison Rourke for the next few hours of coronavirus news.
Summary
Europe agrees Covid-19 recovery plan. European council president Charles Michel said the agreement was a “pivotal moment” as heads of state finally thrashed out a deal on day five of their summit. It set out a €750bn pandemic recovery fund and long-term spending plans.
WHO warns over Covid-19’s spread in Africa. The group warned that South Africa’s growing numbers could be a “precursor” for outbreaks elsewhere on the continent. South Africa has 373,000 cases – around half the continent’s cases. “South Africa may unfortunately be a precursor, it may be a warning for what will happen in the rest of Africa,” said the WHO emergencies chief, Michael Ryan. While South Africa’s numbers were by far the largest, they had “only” increased by 30% in the past week, Ryan said. By comparison, numbers in Kenya had increased by 31%, in Madagascar by 50%, in Zambia by 57% and in Namibia by 69%, he pointed out.
Donald Trump hails masks as “patriotic” and vows to restart daily briefings. The US president tweeted a picture of himself in a mask saying: “Many people say it is patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance”. He publicly wore a mask for the first time during the pandemic on a visit about 10 days ago to the Walter Reed military hospital outside Washington. The president also said he planned to restart daily coronavirus briefings from Tuesday.
Brazil’s health ministry has reported the country’s death toll has passed 80,000 and the number of cases is now 2.1m. It comes as two more Brazilian government ministers said on Monday they had tested positive for Covid-19.
The hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia will begin on 29 July. The drastically scaled back event will include only around 1,000 Muslim pilgrims due to the pandemic.
Mexico’s health ministry on Monday reported 5,172 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 301 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 349,396 cases and 39,485 deaths.
Australia’s southern state of Victoria reported 374 new coronavirus cases. The state has introduced mandatory face coverings from 11.59pm on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, extended Covid-19 job support payments, but reduced the size of the payments.
New Zealand reported one new case of Covid-19 in a returned traveller. The woman in her 30s arrived in the country on 16 July from London via Doha and Sydney. She has been transferred to an Auckland quarantine facility.
Updated
European stock markets are set to rise sharply this morning thanks to the EU leaders’ deal in Brussels.
Germany’s DAX index is expected to lead the way with a rise of more than 1% and the French CAC is due to open up by almost the same.
European Opening Calls:#FTSE 6303 +0.67%#DAX 13180 +1.02%#CAC 5137 +0.86%#AEX 584 +0.75%#MIB 20868 +1.20%#IBEX 7554 +1.01%#OMX 1800 +0.85%#STOXX 3415 +0.80%#IGOpeningCall
— IGSquawk (@IGSquawk) July 21, 2020
Austria’s chancellor Sebastian Kurz thanked his colleagues for reaching the “good deal”, especially the self-proclaimed “frugals” – Sweden, Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands – along with Finland, who had opposed allowing €500bn to be offered in the form of grants to countries hardest-hit by Covid-19.
After four days of negotiations we were able to reach a good result for the #EU and #Austria on the #MFF and the #RecoveryInstrument. Thank you to all colleagues, especially to the #frugals! pic.twitter.com/HJsfbQJa01
— Sebastian Kurz (@sebastiankurz) July 21, 2020
Updated
The BBC’s Europe reporter Gavin Lee is quoting Angela Merkel on the deal, including an apparent shot at the UK.
“People say this is a Franco-German project. It’s not the case, but if we didn’t come together there’d be no deal..at the last budget negotiations David Cameron’s view loomed large, now he is no longer with us, others have come to the fore. There is new dynamism”
— Gavin Lee (@GavinLeeBBC) July 21, 2020
Angela #Merkel pic.twitter.com/L9xJlVAD0K
Updated
This tweet from the European council press office shows the size of the economic recovery package relative to overall EU funding.
#EUCO conclusions on the #NextGenerationEU recovery package and the #EUbudget for 2021-2027
— EU Council Press (@EUCouncilPress) July 21, 2020
👉 https://t.co/0TRghmsIMH pic.twitter.com/hPeVfmw1Li
Updated
Charles Michel, the European council president, has tweeted a video of leaders looking happy and relieved that the deal has been done.
We did it! We have reached a deal on the recovery package and the European budget for 2021-2027.
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) July 21, 2020
This is a strong deal. And most importantly, the right deal for Europe right now. #EUCO pic.twitter.com/c6fQ5ppwpf
Updated
Italy’s prime minister Giuseppe Conte says EU leaders have approved an ambitious recovery plan that will allow the EU to face the crisis with strength and effectiveness.
Giornata storica per l’Europa, e per l’Italia! #EUCO #NextGenerationEU #RRF pic.twitter.com/qHV3zZpqnd
— Giuseppe Conte (@GiuseppeConteIT) July 21, 2020
The Dutch PM, Mark Rutte, said he saw “no disappointments” in the EU deal. “Our relations with European partners remains strong, despite difficult negotiations,” Rutte said.
Updated
The French president says the European deal is “historic”.
Jour historique pour l’Europe !
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 21, 2020
He said he was convinced that the recovery plan and budget could meet the challenge, adding that concessions were made to reach the deal. He said the compromises that were made were proportionate and necessary.
“There is no such thing as a perfect world, but we have made progress,” Macron told a news briefing.
Updated
Michel hails the European council decision on the deal: “We are united and we send the message ‘Europe is strong’,” he says.
He’s asked about member states or the EU parliament raising objections to parts of the deal. Michel says both countries and the parliament need to be respected. He says he knows it will be difficult and he will have to explain the reasons for the decisions that have been taken.
“With constant dialogue it will be possible to implement what we have decided today,” he says.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of European commission, is speaking now. She says there’s “a lot of work ahead of us” concerning the future of Europe, that is “badly needed”.
Both leaders agree the deal is an historic moment. They give each other an elbow “bump”, put their face masks back on and leave the press conference.
Today we’ve taken a historic step, we all can be proud of.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) July 21, 2020
But other important steps remain. First and most important: to gain the support of the European Parliament.
Nobody should take our European Union for granted.
It is our common responsibility to deliver. pic.twitter.com/b5xX18tugn
Updated
EU leaders are holding news conference now about the deal they have reached. The European Council president, Charles Michel, says the EU is sending a strong signal that the union is “solid, robust and united”, something he says is essential to “face this crisis”.
Here are some more of the details on the EU deal. The €750bn package will fund a recovery programme and long0term spending plans. It follows acrimonious debate at what was the bloc’s longest summit in two decades. Talks went late into the night and then resumed at around 5am on Tuesday to seal the deal.
The euro rose against the dollar on the news to stand at $1.145 on the news of the deal.
You can read our full coverage of the deal below:
EU agrees coronavirus recovery plan
Some breaking news ... the EU has agreed the deal to implement its coronavirus recovery plan. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, tweeted “deal” a few moments ago.
Deal!
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) July 21, 2020
The Reuters news agency is reporting that the US recorded 61,671 new cases of Covid-19 on Monday, taking the total cases to 3.85m. I’m still waiting for the CDC to update their Monday figures, but on Sunday it said the US recorded 63,201 new cases
It’s worth noting that the the CDC’s seven-day rolling average for new cases is is 66,022.
Los Angeles county – the most populous county in the US – still has the highest number of confirmed cases, at 155,917. Cook county in Chicago – the second most populous US country – is second, with 98,670 cases. Maricopa country in Arizona, has the third most infections with 95,471 and Miami Dade in Florida is fourth, with 84,238 cases.
EU leaders have resumed meeting to try to seal their €750bn Covid-19 recovery plan. A new “spirit of compromise” had been found, Emmanuel Macron said, despite the French president thumping the negotiating table at the Brussels event in frustration the previous evening and likening those thwarting his spending plans to the ill-fated British in previous budget negotiations.
Japan cases rise
Tokyo is expected to report 230 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, according to Japanese media. Tokyo’s governor, Koike Yuriko, told reporters the figure was still being checked, but she expects it will surpass 200 and reach about 230. It would be the first time in three days cases have exceeded 200.
Tokyo to report about 230 new coronavirus cases Tuesday: Gov. Koike
— The Mainichi (Japan Daily News) (@themainichi) July 21, 2020
https://t.co/mtWwdlUG3g
Scaled-down hajj to start on 29 July
This year’s hajj, which has been scaled back dramatically to include only around 1,000 Muslim pilgrims, will begin on 29 July, Saudi authorities said Monday.
Some 2.5 million people usually participate in the ritual of several days, centred on the holy city of Mecca.
“The stand of pilgrims on Mount Arafat, the peak of the hajj ritual, falls on Thursday,” the official Saudi Press Agency cited the supreme court as saying.
The timing of the hajj is determined by the position of the moon, in accordance with the Islamic lunar calendar.
Last month, Saudi Arabia announced it would hold a “very limited” hajj, a decision fraught with political and economic peril as it battles a surge in coronavirus infections with some 253,349 cases so far including 2,523 deaths – the highest in the Gulf.
The hajj and the lesser umrah pilgrimage together usually rake in some $12 billion per year.
Although hajj officials said the pilgrimage would be restricted to 1,000 people already present in the kingdom, 70% of them foreigners, some press reports have said that 10,000 people may take part.
Saudi citizens will make up the remaining 30% of the pilgrims, with the ritual restricted to medical professionals and security personnel who have recovered from the virus, the hajj ministry said.
The decision to exclude pilgrims arriving from outside Saudi Arabia is a first in the kingdom’s modern history.
Brazil to test Chinese coronavirus vaccine
Brazil will begin advanced clinical testing of a Chinese-made vaccine against the new coronavirus Tuesday, issuing the first doses to around 900 volunteers, Agence France-Presse reports.
The coronavirus vaccine, developed by private Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac, is the third in the world to enter Phase 3 trials, or large-scale testing on humans – the last step before regulatory approval.
It will be administered to doctors and other health workers who volunteer for the program across six states in Brazil, one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic.
“Trials of CoronaVac, one of the vaccines that has advanced furthest in testing in the world, will begin at the Clinical Hospital of Sao Paulo,” the state’s governor, Joao Doria, told a news conference.
He said initial results were expected within 90 days.
Aerial view showing graves in the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery in Manaus, Brazil, on Monday. Brazil’s death toll has passed 80,000. Photograph: Michael Dantas/AFP/Getty Images
Just while I’m on Australia, Bauer Media in the country has axed eight magazines including Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Men’s Health, in the latest hit to the media industry. German-owned publisher cited a catastrophic drop in revenue due to impact of Covid-19 as reason for closures.
InStyle, Women’s Health, Good Health, NW and OK! magazines will also be axed. Bauer said the economic impact of a full month of Covid-19 lockdowns was a 38.8% month-on-month drop in media advertising expenditure.
Seven of the titles had already been suspended by Bauer in May.
You can read our full coverage below from our media correspondent, Amanda Meade.
Australia reduces economic support for those affected by pandemic
Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, is now giving a press conference which is expected to address the economic support measures put in place during the pandemic.
“Australia is a country that just doesn’t look to survive these things. We don’t go through challenges with our heads looking down. Overwhelmed by the circumstances, that is not who we are. Who we are is innovative adaptive people, supporting each other, reaching out to each other, drawing us all through, not for survival, but to be on the other side in the position where we can emerge strongly,” Morrison says.
He is explaining changes to the Jobkeeper and Jobseeker allowances that have helped to support those who have lost their jobs, and to help businesses keep their workers on during the crisis.
The Jobkeeper payment will be reduced he says and there will be a lower payment for people working less than 20 hours per week.
There will also be reductions to the Jobseeker or unemployment allowance – you can see all the details on our Australian live blog below.
Updated
Two Australian states fighting to contain outbreaks
We are hearing the day’s figures from Australia, where a serious outbreak in the southern state of Victoria has prompted a six-week lockdown in the capital of Melbourne and the adjacent Mitchell Shire.
The state premiere, Daniel Andrews reported another 374 cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, and three deaths. Sixty-two of the new cases were connected to known and contained outbreaks, and 312 were under investigation. The deaths were of a woman in her 100s, a woman in her 90s and a woman in her 80s.
Residents in Melbourne and Mitchell Shire to the city’s north will be required to wear face masks or coverings from 11.59pm on Wednesday night. Both areas were returned to a six-week lockdown after the current outbreak grew significantly.
The neighbouring state of New South Wales, which is the most populous state in the country, reported 13 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday. All cases were related to known clusters and one was a returned traveller in hotel quarantine.
Updated
New Zealand reports one new case of Covid-19 in a returned traveller
New Zealand has reported one new case of Covid-19 in its managed isolation facilities. Newshub says the case is a woman in her 30s who arrived in the country on 16 July. She had flown from London via Doha and Sydney. She has been transferred to an Auckland quarantine facility. New Zealand continues to have no known cases of local transmission of Covid-19, with 81 days since a case of coronavirus was acquired locally from an unknown source.
Updated
WHO warns over Covid-19's spread in Africa
The WHO has warned of its concerns over the spread of Covid-19 in Africa and that South Africa’s growing numbers could be a “precursor” for outbreaks elsewhere on the continent. South Africa has 373,000 cases – around half the continent’s cases.
“I am very concerned right now that we are beginning to see an acceleration of disease in Africa,” said the WHO’s emergencies chief Michael Ryan.
“While South Africa is experiencing a very, very severe event, I think it is really a marker of what the continent could face if urgent action is not taken to provide further support,” he said.
“South Africa may unfortunately be a precursor, it may be a warning for what will happen in the rest of Africa.”
With more than 15,000 deaths and close to 725,000 cases, the continent remains the world’s second least affected after Oceania.
While South Africa’s numbers were by far the largest, they had “only” increased by 30% in the past week, Ryan said.
By comparison, numbers in Kenya had increased by 31%, in Madagascar by 50%, in Zambia by 57% and in Namibia by 69%, he pointed out.
“I think what we are starting to see is a continued acceleration of transmission in a number of countries,” he said.
Updated
Markets rise on vaccine news and hope of EU Covid-19 recovery deal
Stock markets in Asia Pacific have opened in positive territory this morning after a strong showing from tech stocks on Wall Street pushed the Nasdaq 2.5% higher to a record 10,767.09 points at the close on Monday night. The driving force was positive data from trials of three potential COVID-19 vaccines and hopes that the European Union would finalise a recovery fund.
Markets set to open in the black following positive vaccine news.
— IGSquawk (@IGSquawk) July 21, 2020
APAC Opening Calls:#ASX 6066 +0.60%#NIKKEI 22852 +0.68%#HSI 25268 +0.96%#NIFTY 11086 +0.61%#A50 15549 +1.04%#TWSE 12222 +0.64%#IGOpeningCall
And while we’re at it, how about this for a stat: the value of America’s four big tech companies is now greater than that of the entire Japanese market.
Unbelievable.
— David Ingles (@DavidInglesTV) July 20, 2020
Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Google combined are now bigger than JAPAN'S ENTIRE STOCK MARKET. In other words, these 4 alone would be enough to create the world's third biggest stock market (behind the U.S. and China).
GAAAAHHHH pic.twitter.com/Aeq3lCk91X
Updated
Mexico’s health ministry on Monday reported 5,172 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 301 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 349,396 cases and 39,485 deaths. The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
Brazil passes 80,000 deaths
Brazil’s health ministry has reported the country’s death toll has passed 80,000 and the number of cases is now 2.1m. It comes as two more Brazilian government ministers said on Monday they had tested positive for Covid-19.
The citizenship minister, Onyx Lorenzoni, and newly appointed education minister, Milton Ribeiro, both announced their diagnoses and new quarantine measures on social media.
Reuters reports that Lorenzoni, a close ally of President Jair Bolsonaro, credited relatively mild symptoms to an anti-malarial drug touted by the president on social media and at public rallies.
Bolsonaro, who is quarantined after he also tested positive for the virus, has said he was taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug used mainly to treat malaria, which Donald Trump also strongly backed, despite criticism from the medical community. In June, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrote: “Based on ongoing analysis and emerging scientific data, FDA has revoked the emergency use authorization (EUA) to use hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19 in certain hospitalized patients when a clinical trial is unavailable or participation is not feasible,” it said on its website.
EU set to reach coronavirus recovery plan deal
EU leaders shifted their positions on Monday evening towards reaching a historic agreement on the bloc’s long-term spending plans and a €750bn pandemic recovery fund following days of acrimonious debate at the longest leaders’ summit in two decades, write the Guardian’s Daniel Boffey and Jennifer Rankin.
A new “spirit of compromise” had been found, Emmanuel Macron said, despite the French president thumping the negotiating table at the Brussels event in frustration the previous evening and likening those thwarting his spending plans to the ill-fated British in previous budget negotiations.
Shortly after 1am local time the commission president Ursula von der Leyen tweeted that it was “time to move”, in a sign that agreement was imminent.
As Macron had arrived ahead of a fourth evening of negotiations with his fellow leaders on Monday he spoke of cautious optimism. Within hours senior EU diplomats spoke of an impending breakthrough.
The renewed confidence followed a new proposal from the European council president, Charles Michel, for the EU to pay out €390bn in non-repayable grants for the worst-hit countries and €360bn in loans. The money would be raised through jointly issued debt.
The “frugal” states of the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Austria have been pushing for the original proposal by the European commission for €500bn in grants for stricken countries to be reduced to €350bn, to the evident frustration of Macron and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, had warned his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte, who has led the way on reducing the level of grants, that he faced being blamed for a lack of EU response to the deep economic recession facing the continent.
You can read our full coverage below:
Trump backs face masks where social distancing is not possible
Donald Trump’s tweet about it being “patriotic” to wear face masks, comes the week after he appointed a new head to his election campaign team.
We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President! pic.twitter.com/iQOd1whktN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2020
The president has been well-known for not wearing face mask. He wore one for the first time in front of TV cameras when he visited the Walter Reed military hospital outside Washington about 10 days ago.
His tweet came more than three months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first urged Americans to wear face coverings to help limit their risk of contracting the virus.
Another change out of Washington is that the president’s daily coronavirus briefings look set to resume. They are expected to start on Tuesday. The president abruptly stopped the briefings after he was widely ridiculed for suggesting injecting bleach may be an option to treat the virus.
“Well, we had very successful briefings,” Trump told reporters at the Oval office on Monday.
“I was doing them and we had a lot of people watching, record numbers watching in the history of cable television – television, there’s never been anything like it. And we were doing very well, and I thought it would be sort of, automatic and a lot of positive things were happening and frankly, a lot of the country is doing well,” he said.
Updated
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Alison Rourke.
President Trump has tweeted a photo of himself wearing a face mask, with the caption: “Many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance,” he said. “There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favourite President!”
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention first first urged Americans to wear face coverings in April, but Trump was only seen publicly wearing a mask for the first time earlier this month.
- President Trump to resume daily coronavirus briefings. The White House briefings stopped abruptly after the president (wrongly) suggested injecting disinfectant may be a way of treating Covid-19. The announcement comes as the president’s approval and polling numbers continue to decline.
- EU set to agree on €750bn Covid-19 recovery plans. Leaders shifted their positions on Monday evening towards reaching a historic agreement on the bloc’s long-term spending plans and a €750bn pandemic recovery fund following days of acrimonious debate at the longest leaders’ summit in two decades.
- Brazil death toll passes 80,000. Health ministry figures showed cases in the country had grown to more than 2.1m, with deaths now standing at 80,120. Two more Brazilian ministers also tested positive for Covid-19, with one, the citizenship minister, Onyx Lorenzoni, who is a close ally of President Bolsonaro crediting relatively mild symptoms to an anti-malarial drug touted.
- The World Health Organziation voiced alarm Monday at the spread in Africa. It warned that South Africa’s surging numbers could be a “precursor” for outbreaks across the continent.
- The hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia will begin on 29 July. The drastically scaled back event will include only around 1,000 Muslim pilgrims due to the pandemic.
- A coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University appears to be safe and prompts an immune response, raising hopes about the distribution of a vaccine in the coming months. The Oxford team published the results of its vaccine trials in the medical journal the Lancet today.
- France reports up to 500 virus clusters. Despite the clusters, authorities say there are no signs of an imminent “second wave”, according to the health minister Olivier Veran. Many of the clusters involve abattoirs or other contained professional settings such as old age homes, he said. Nationwide the R number indicating the viral transmission rate is 1.2.
Updated
