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Summary
Here the latest key developments at a glance:
- France reported 13,498 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, setting another record in daily additional infections since the disease started to spread in the country.
- The UK reported 4,422 new daily cases of coronavirus on Saturday, 100 more new cases than on Friday and the highest daily total since 8 May.
- The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has warned that the English capital needs fresh Covid restrictions by Monday if it is to avoid a big spike in infections, as doctors are urging the government to introduce stronger coronavirus measures in England to drive down case numbers and avoid another national lockdown.
- Brazil recorded 33,057 additional confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 739 deaths from the disease.
- The World Health Organization has endorsed a protocol for testing African herbal medicines as potential treatments for coronavirus and other epidemics.
- The Philippines reported 3,962 new coronavirus infections and 100 additional deaths, with both numbers the highest in five days.
- Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, is cracking down on private social gatherings as coronavirus cases surge.
- After Poland reported record daily new coronavirus cases on Saturday, neighbouring Lithuania and Slovakia also logged their largest daily tallies since the pandemic began.
- A partial lockdown is set to begin in some of Madrid’s poorer districts next week, but residents of one of the worst-hit neighbourhood’s said today they doubted the new measures would work.
That’s everything from me, I’m now handing over to my colleagues in Australia.
Updated
Brazil and Argentina, who are seeking more time to commit to the global Covid-19 vaccine facility known as COVAX, said they intend to so as soon as possible after missing Friday’s deadline.
Peru’s foreign ministry said on Saturday it managed to sign the binding agreement on Friday and will get access to 12 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines through COVAX, a scheme for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of eventual vaccines.
Argentina asked for more time to prepare the required paperwork but expects to sign on Wednesday its commitment to the vaccine mechanism led by the World Health Organization, a health ministry official told Reuters.
“The purchase of a safe and effective vaccine is a priority for the federal government,” a Brazilian statement said.
A dozen Central and Latin American countries had informed the WHO they would request more time to sign up after the midnight on Friday deadline to formalize legally-binding documents.
A diplomat in Geneva said the request had been submitted in the form of a letter on Friday and sought a one-month extension. The diplomat did not give details of the reason for the delay.
He said that the countries that made the request were Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Uruguay, Venezuela, Paraguay and Dominican Republic.
People in England who refuse to self-isolate when required to do so will face fines of up to £10,000 under an emergency “carrot and stick” plan to control the second wave of Covid-19 sweeping the country.
From 28 September, under the emergency package announced by the prime minister last night, people will be required by law to self-isolate if they test positive or are contacted by the test and trace system as having been in contact with an infected person.
Fines will start at £1,000, rising to £10,000 for “egregious” offences and serial offenders.
My colleagues Toby Helm, Michael Savage and Robin McKie report.
Brazil recorded 33,057 additional confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 739 deaths from the disease, the health ministry said on Saturday.
South America’s largest country has registered more than 4.5 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, according to ministry data, ranking it as the third worst outbreak in the world after the United States and India.
More than 136,000 people have died of the disease in Brazil, which ranks second after the US in coronavirus deaths.
Updated
People in England who test positive for Covid-19 will have a “legal obligation” to self-isolate from 28 September, the government announced on Saturday.
The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has warned Boris Johnson that the English capital needs fresh Covid restrictions by Monday if it is to avoid a big spike in the spread of the virus, the Huffington Post reports.
Khan is also preparing to urge the public to work from home if they can do so, in a switch back to the message used by the government at the height of the lockdown.
BREAKING: @SadiqKhan has urged ministers to impose new lockdown curbs for London as early as Monday.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) September 19, 2020
Updated
The World Health Organization has endorsed a protocol for testing African herbal medicines as potential treatments for the coronavirus and other epidemics.
Covid-19 has raised the issue of using traditional medicines to battle contemporary diseases, and the endorsement clearly encouraged testing with criteria similar to those used for molecules developed by labs in Asia, Europe or the Americas.
It came months after a bid by the president of Madagascar to promote a drink based on artemisia, a plant with proven efficacy in malaria treatment, was met with widespread scorn, AFP reports.
On Saturday, WHO experts and colleagues from two other organisations “endorsed a protocol for phase III clinical trials of herbal medicine for Covid-19 as well as a charter and terms of reference for the establishment of a data and safety monitoring board for herbal medicine clinical trials”, a statement said.
“Phase III clinical trials are pivotal in fully assessing the safety and efficacy of a new medical product,” it noted.
“If a traditional medicine product is found to be safe, efficacious and quality-assured, WHO will recommend [it] for a fast-tracked, large-scale local manufacturing,” Prosper Tumusiime, a regional WHO director, was quoted as saying.
“The onset of Covid-19, like the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, has highlighted the need for strengthened health systems and accelerated research and development programmes, including on traditional medicines,” Tumusiime said.
He did not refer specifically to the Madagascar drink Covid-Organics, also called CVO, that president, Andry Rajoelina, has pitched as a cure for the virus, however.
It has has been widely distributed in Madagascar and sold to several other countries, mainly in Africa.
In May, WHO Africa director Matshidiso Moeti told media that African governments had committed in 2000 to taking “traditional therapies” through the same clinical trials as other medication.
“I can understand the need, the drive to find something that can help,” Moeti said. “But we would very much like to encourage this scientific process in which the governments themselves made a commitment.”
Updated
Police in London made 32 arrests at an anti-lockdown demonstration in the centre of the city on Saturday.
According to a statement from the Metropolitan police, people were arrested for offences including violent disorder, public order and assault on an emergency worker, as well under Covid Regulations.
Two police officers suffered minor injuries, police said.
The Guardian witnessed police launched a surprise attack on the protest just after 4pm. Without warning police officers charged into Trafalgar Square, where the protest was taking place, in an apparent attempt to seize control of the stage.
Protesters used metal fencing to block the path of charging police and there were fistfights between protesters and officers.
Protesters on the scene were not warned ahead of the attack. About an hour beforehand police had released a statement online saying they were “encouraging” people to leave the protest and that those who remained could be arrested.
Police said the protest was cleared shortly after 6pm.
Superintendent Emma Richards, who was the Met’s “gold commander” for the protest, claimed it was protesters who had shown hostility towards police.
She said: “We remain in the middle of a public health crisis, and by gathering in large numbers – such as today’s protest – puts others at risk. We advised those in attendance to leave but many refused to do so.
“The amount of hostility shown towards officers, who were simply there to keep people safe, is unacceptable. More than 30 people were arrested and they remain in custody.
“The area around Trafalgar Square has now been cleared allowing Londoners to continue with their Saturday evening, whilst adhering to government advice.”
Updated
The Philippines’ health ministry on Saturday reported 3,962 new coronavirus infections and 100 additional deaths, with both numbers the highest in five days.
In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases have risen to 283,460, while deaths have reached 4,930, making it the worst-hit country in south-east Asia.
Of the new cases, 3,286 or 83% were detected in the last 14 days, the DOH said in its case bulletin.
There are also 68,645 patients who are active cases or are currently sick, of which 87.4% have mild symptoms, 9% have no symptoms, 2.5% are in critical condition and 1.1% are severe cases.
Metro Manila had the highest number of new cases among the provinces with 1,440 new infections, followed by Bulacan with 354, Cavite with 287, Laguna with 222 and Batangas with 213 more infected residents, according to CNN Philippines.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, president Rodrigo Duterte has extended a national state of emergency until September 2021 which empowers the national and local governments to use relief funds and control the prices of basic goods.
The Philippines remains on a partial lockdown that began in March to curb the spread of the virus but which has left millions of Filipinos jobless and hungry.
Updated
The US Congress remains at a standstill over passing another coronavirus rescue package, while tens of millions of people still can’t afford enough food six months after the pandemic began upending Americans’ lives, CNN reports:
Hunger has soared during the outbreak, and advocates are calling on lawmakers to extend two key child nutrition relief measures in their spending bill before the end of the fiscal year on September 30.
They are also pushing Congress to boost food stamp benefits, which will also help stimulate the economy.
Nearly 11% of adults said in July that their households sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat, up from 3.7% in 2019, according to Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.
The share of adults in household with children in this situation was more than 14% in July, also far higher than last year.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday reported 6,706,374 cases of coronavirus in total, an increase of 49,575 cases from its previous count a day earlier, and said the number of deaths had risen by 983 to 198,099.
Updated
Kenya’s chief public prosecutor, Noordin Haji, has ordered a probe into $71m in “irregular procurement” linked to the coronavirus by the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa).
Hard-pressed Kenyan hospital staff have staged strikes to highlight what they say are scandalous practices by the authority, which purchases medication and equipment for the nation’s public hospitals, AFP reports.
Three weeks ago, the president, Uhuru Kenyatta, asked the national Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to investigate contracts granted to influential figures, including politicians, without respect for rules of public procurement.
Its report was submitted on Friday to the prosecutor, who concluded that “irregular procurement and fraudulent payments” had been made totalling 7.8bn Kenyan shillings (around £56m).
Haji then instructed senior prosecutors “to undertake an independent and comprehensive review of the file” within two weeks, he said.
The EACC probe has already led to the suspension of Kemsa’s head, Jonah Manjari, and supply director, Charles Juma.
Several Kenyan businessmen have already been accused of siphoning off around £310m worth of public funds destined to pay for medical equipment needed in the battle against Covid-19.
Kemsa’s overall coronavirus budget is not known.
The virus has infected at least 36,800 people in Kenya, which ranks 137 out of 180 countries on a corruption perception index compiled by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International.
Updated
New record rise in infections in France
France has joined a string of other countries in reporting yet another record increase in infections today.
French health authorities reported 13,498 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, setting another record in daily additional infections since the disease started to spread in the country.
The number of people in France who have died from Covid-19 was up by 26, at 31,274, and the cumulative number of cases now totals 442,194, as the seven-day moving average of daily new infections rose to more than 9,700, compared with a low of 272 at the end of May, two weeks after the lockdown was lifted.
A faster circulation of the virus and a six-fold increase in testing since the government made it free are the two main reasons for the scale of the increase, epidemiologists have said, according to Reuters.
Health authorities reported a sudden jump in the country’s daily death toll from Covid-19 on Friday because of unreported cases in one hospital near Paris.
Updated
Doctors are urging the government to introduce stronger coronavirus measures in England to drive down case numbers and avoid another national lockdown.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said that unless people stick rigorously to social distancing and infection control measures, or there is better enforcement, infection rates will soar and the NHS will “once again be crippled” as it tries to cope with the number of patients with Covid-19, the Press Association reports.
The warning came after the prime minister, Boris Johnson, admitted on Friday the long-feared second wave of the pandemic has reached the UK.
While doctors want to avoid another national lockdown, the BMA said recent restrictions have been inadequate and have failed to make any significant impact on the spread of the infection.
The BMA is calling on the government to reconsider the “rule of six”, which was introduced in England on Monday banning social gatherings of more than six people.
The BMA wants the number of households people can visit to be reduced, stating that as it currently stands, the rule of six makes it possible for members of six households to meet indoors, potentially many times over the course of one day.
It is also urging the government to reverse its stance on getting workers back to the office by encouraging the public to work from home, in order to reduce contact between people including on public transport.
The BMA said unnecessary travel and social gatherings should be discouraged, while it suggested a “take out to help out” approach similar to the chancellor’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme in order to reduce the number of people in restaurants.
It also called for entrances to indoor public settings to provide inexpensive disposable surgical masks, and for people over 60 and who have underlying conditions to wear medical grade masks.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the BMA, said: “It is vital to reduce avoidable mixing of people at a time when the infection is spreading without the testing capacity to identify those with the infection.
“This requires revisiting the rule of six which allows members of six different household to meet indoors compared to a maximum of two previously, and reversing the encouragement to travel and return to work for those able to work remotely.”
Updated
Canada’s most populous province is cracking down on private social gatherings as coronavirus cases surge, Ontario premier Doug Ford said in a surprise news conference called on Saturday.
Ontario reported 407 new cases on Saturday compared with about 80 per day two weeks ago.
Canada on Friday recorded 1,044 new cases from a day earlier, making it the third time in five days that new daily infections have topped 1,000.
Ontario is scrambling to tamp down a recent spike in coronavirus cases as children return to school and the province struggles to increase its testing capacity, forcing many in cities to wait in line for hours this week to get swabbed, Reuters reports.
Private parties are a “significant contributor” to the recent rise, provincial health minister Christine Elliott said.
“Folks, we can’t have these wild parties right now. It’s just way, way too risky,” Ford said in a nationally broadcast news conference.
“We have to come down hard on the rule breakers.”
Earlier this week, the nation’s top medical officer warned that authorities could potentially lose the ability to manage the pandemic if action were not taken to slow the spread.
On Friday, Quebec said police would target more than 1,000 bars and restaurants to enforce rules curbing the spread of the virus as authorities warned of a possible second wave.
Similar to an announcement made two days ago and aimed at just three cities, including Toronto and Ottawa, indoor social events can include no more than 10 people, down from a previous limit of 50.
As of Saturday and for the next 28 days, the cap on outdoor gatherings will shrink to 25 from 100.
Anyone holding an illegal party can face a fine of C$10,000 ($7,580), and those caught attending one a fine of up to C$750, Ford said.
After Poland reported record daily new coronavirus cases on Saturday, neighbouring EU members Lithuania and Slovakia also logged their largest daily tallies since the pandemic began.
The eastern European figures are in line with a surge in cases across Europe since August that has caused many countries to move back towards tougher restrictions.
“The numbers that we’re seeing now are a result of people having returned to normal, everyday life, a return to work,” Polish health ministry spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz said.
“It’s what we’re seeing in the streets every day: more people, more contact,” he told the Polish news agency PAP.
The increase brings the total of reported coronavirus cases in the nation of 38 million people to 78,330.
The ministry also reported 12 new Covid deaths on Saturday, putting that total at close to 2,300.
In neighbouring Slovakia, a nation of 5.4 million people, the latest figure of 290 new infections brought its total to more than 6,500 cases.
“Now we have a new record. Today, the situation is becoming critical,” Slovak prime minister Igor Matovic wrote on Facebook.
“However, if we remain responsible, we will live relatively freely despite the pandemic.”
Lithuania, a Baltic state with a population of 2.8 million, reported its highest daily count as well, with 99 new infections putting the country’s total at more than 3,600 cases.
The Czech Republic for its part reported more than 2,100 new cases, a day after registering a record of 3,130 new infections, AFP reports.
Updated
Police have launched a surprise attack on the anti-lockdown demonstration in Trafalgar Square in London, my colleague Damien Gayle reports:
At 4pm, officers ran en masse towards the stage at the top of the steps leading to the National Gallery.
The crowd surged forward and was able to use steel fencing to block the charge.
It came about an hour after police announced they would be “encouraging” people to leave.
They have now donned their Nato helmets and taken out truncheons.
At 4pm police came running from the north west end of Trafalgar Square towards the rear of the #NoNewNormal stage. They were blocked by protesters who surged forward to meet the surprise attack. pic.twitter.com/hkIV6cIBVE
— Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) September 19, 2020
Updated
Innkeepers in Munich tapped their barrels on Saturday for revellers determined to make the most of a scaled-down Oktoberfest after the world’s biggest beer festival was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The specially brewed beer started flowing at midday at 54 pubs with locals in traditional lederhosen and dirndls sitting at spread-out tables and, where possible, outside.
However, it is a far cry from the six million visitors from all over the world who usually flock to the Bavarian capital to squeeze into tents with long wooden tables and benches to swig beer and sing and sway to oompah band tunes.
Each year, the partygoers consume more than 7 million litres of beer, more than 100 oxen and half a million chickens.
The first Oktoberfest was held in 1810 in honour of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig’s marriage and now it typically brings Munich some €1.2bn in annual revenues, though not this year.
A spike in infections in Munich has increased worries about the spread of coronavirus, Reuters reports.
Although Germany has kept the number of cases and deaths lower than many of its European neighbours, the number of infections rose on Saturday by 2,297, the highest daily increase since the end of April, the Robert Koch Institute said.
That brings Germany’s total tally of cases to 270,070, with 9,384 deaths, including six new fatalities reported on Saturday.
Updated
The UK reported 4,422 new daily cases of coronavirus on Saturday, 100 more new cases than on Friday and the highest daily total since 8 May.
Overall, 390,358 cases of the virus have been confirmed across the country.
The government said a further 27 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Saturday, which brings the UK total to 41,759 official deaths.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 57,500 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Updated
Thousands of asylum seekers have moved into a new temporary facility on the Greek island of Lesbos, government officials said on Saturday, 10 days after a fire destroyed the Moria camp.
The fire left more than 12,000 people, most of them refugees from Afghanistan, Syria and various African countries, without shelter, proper sanitation or access to food and water.
About 9,000 people had been resettled in the new tent camp, set up by authorities at Kara Tepe near the port of Mytilene, by Saturday morning, Reuters reports.
Those entering the camp were being registered and tested for coronavirus.
At least 214 were placed in quarantine after positive tests.
Traffic was returning to normal on the roads, where thousands of migrants had camped for days after the fire, and shops in the area started reopening.
Greek police launched an operation on Thursday to speed up the resettlement of migrants.
Many had been reluctant to enter the temporary camp as they had hoped to leave Lesbos after the fire and reach other European countries.
Authorities believe the fire that gutted the Moria camp, notorious for its living conditions, was started by migrants following a dispute over coronavirus quarantine measures at the facility after dozens of asylum seekers tested positive.
Six people have been arrested and charged with arson.
Updated
Summary
- A further 16 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England. The latest figures bring the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,735.
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Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has reiterated her call for Boris Johnson to convene a Cobra meeting within the next 48 hours. Sturgeon called on everyone in Scotland to be careful and abide by restrictions in a series of tweets published today.
- Scuffles have broken out between demonstrators and police at the rally in London, UK organised by opponents of coronavirus lockdown measures.
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France’s public health authority has admitted making an error with its daily Covid-19 figures. The authority had reported that deaths had risen by an additional 123 in 24 hours and hospital admissions had jumped by 850.
- The epidemiologist whose modelling helped shape Britain’s coronavirus lockdown strategy has said that new coronavirus restrictions will be needed in England “sooner rather than later”. Prof Neil Ferguson, who resigned from the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the country was facing a “perfect storm” after the easing of controls over the summer.
- The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said it was increasingly likely that lockdown restrictions would soon be needed to slow the spread of coronavirus in London. He said action should be taken before the virus spiraled out of control, and leaders were considering measures already imposed in other parts of the UK.
- Poland and Indonesia report record daily coronavirus cases. Poland reported 1,002 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, according to the health ministry’s Twitter account, the highest daily increase since the pandemic began, while Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in coronavirus infections, with 4,168 new cases on Saturday, taking the total to 240,687, data from the country’s health ministry showed.
Updated
The Metropolitan police have said their officers are now encouraging people to leave the anti-lockdown rally taking place in central London.
In a statement published just before 3pm, the force said officers were in attendance and adopting “the four [sic] Es approach to explain, engage and encourage them to leave throughout today”.
“Despite this, protesters have remained in place, putting themselves and others at risk,” the force said. “This, coupled with pockets of hostility and outbreaks of violence towards officers, means we will now be taking enforcement action to disperse those who remain in the area. Those who remain may get arrested.”
The announcement comes after police scuffled with protesters in central London earlier this afternoon.
The confrontation came several hours into the rally, which began at midday, after the MC, so-called “natural nurse” Kate Shemirani, called for men to head to the north-west corner of the square, where police were beginning to gather.
Aside from that confrontation, the gathering had been peaceful, with protesters airing a range of grievances ranging from opposition to coronavirus lockdown measures, masks and mass vaccinations, to child trafficking and the increasingly popular QAnon conspiracy.
Updated
My colleague Damien Gayle is at the anti-vaccination, anti-lockdown demonstration in central London.
Some young people perform a song to calm the mood (@rastajay92 on Instagram) #NoNewNormal pic.twitter.com/T6W2ru0cmJ
— Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) September 19, 2020
A University College Dublin professor told the anti-vax rally the coronavirus vaccine will “make people sick”, PA reports.
Prof Dolores Cahill told the crowd:
We want freedom, truth and love.
I know that vaccines make people sick, you should not trust the government, the doctors and the media, they are lying about the Covid-19 vaccine.
Vaccines have not been safety-tested, they tell you when you take a vaccine you’ll get a little bit of swelling, is that true? No.
You can get multiple sclerosis and allergies, when I talk to parents, there are 12 known diseases you can get.
If you’re a parent, auntie, grandparent, cousin or neighbour, we’re here to say the truth will come out.
Updated
A further 16 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England. The latest figures bring the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,735.
Patients were aged between 69 and 97 and all had known underlying health conditions, NHS England said on Saturday.
Updated
A partial lockdown aimed at stemming a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases is set to begin in some of Madrid’s poorer districts next week, but residents of one of the worst-hit neighbourhood’s said today they doubted the new measures would work.
Reuters reports:
Vallecas, a southern district with a lower average income and higher immigrant population, has one of the highest infection rates in the Spanish capital - almost six times higher than in Chamberi, a wealthier, northern district.
“These restrictions are completely useless because we have to travel from one area which has a lot of cases to another which has less and we are going to spread it,” said Feli, 48, a civil servant who lives in Vallecas.
Under the restrictions, announced by Madrid’s regional government on Friday, movement between and within six districts that are home to about 850,000 people will be restricted from Monday, but people will still be able to go to work.
Updated
Resurgent coronavirus cases in Turkey are fuelling tensions between doctors who say the official figures underplay the scale of the outbreak and politicians who accuse the country’s medical association of undermining efforts to contain it.
Reuters reports:
More than 1,600 new cases and 60 deaths from Covid-19 are now reported daily, well off peak levels in April but rising steadily, with average numbers of deaths now three times the rates recorded between June and August.
Doctors across Turkey wore black ribbons this week to commemorate colleagues who have died, part of protests which also included a social media campaign with a message for the government: “You can’t manage it; we are exhausted.”
Many doctors question the official Covid-19 numbers, saying that although they do not have their own independent nationwide data, the scale of cases they see at a local level does not tally with the bigger picture presented by the government.
“The numbers of just one city, or the numbers unveiled by just one or two medical chambers are almost equal to the [official] numbers for the whole country,” doctor Halis Yerlikaya told Reuters at a hospital in the south-eastern province of Diyarbakır.
Updated
Nicola Sturgeon has reiterated her call for Boris Johnson to convene a Cobra meeting within the next 48 hours.
The Scottish first minister called on everyone in Scotland to be careful and abide by restrictions in a series of tweets published today.
2/ Given serious situation across UK, I have also asked again that a 4 nations COBR meeting takes place over next 48 hours. While each of the 4 UK nations will reach our own decisions - rightly and properly - it makes sense to seek as much co-ordination and alignment as possible
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) September 19, 2020
Updated
Things are becoming more heated now between police and protesters #NoNewNormal pic.twitter.com/5vXlaSnSDd
— Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) September 19, 2020
Here are a few more images from the protest in Trafalgar Square:
Updated
Scuffles have broken out between demonstrators and police at the rally in Trafalgar Square organised by opponents of coronavirus lockdown measures, PA Media reports.
Metropolitan police officers moved in on the protesters as they congregated near Nelson’s Column on Saturday.
The protesters formed human blockades opposite the officers to stop them from making arrests.
Scuffles broke out between the two sides next to the National Gallery, before officers were pushed back by the loud crowd, who began cheering and chanting.
Scores of people gathered for the “Resist and Act for Freedom” rally, holding banners and chanting “freedom”.
Among the attendees were people selling T-shirts bearing 5G conspiracy theories and advocating the legalisation of cannabis, as a range of speeches were made to the crowd.
Updated
My colleague Damien Gayle is in Trafalgar Square, central London, where more than a thousand people are estimated to have gathered to demonstrate against lockdown restrictions, masks and social distancing.
More than a thousand people here in Trafalgar Square at the latest #StandUpX #Lockdown demo pic.twitter.com/pZPVWJhy8G
— Damien Gayle (@damiengayle) September 19, 2020
Updated
Hello, this is Aaron Walawalkar in London here, taking over the blog briefly while my colleague Aamna Mohdin has a break. Please feel free to share any tips or suggestions for coverage with me by DM on Twitter @AaronWala.
Updated
NHS hospitals in England face paying for Covid-19 tests for patients and staff out of their own budgets after a cap was placed on the amount of money available for tests in the health service, according to information sent to trusts.
PA Media reports:
The guidance, first reported by the Independent, makes clear that NHS providers will need formal approval from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and its test and trace service, or they will not be able to claim back costs, which will be funded on a “capped actuals basis” and have a “maximum budget”.
The document was reportedly sent on Friday – a day after the NHS test and trace boss, Baroness Dido Harding, told MPs demand was up to four times more than tests available and the prime minister, Boris Johnson, warned a second wave had arrived in the UK.
Updated
Here’s an interesting interview with Pret a Manger’s CEO. The sandwich chain has become a symbol of the way we used to live, pre-pandemic. Can its boss, Pano Christou, turn things around?
Updated
Are UK coronavirus cases rising in your local area and nationally? Check the latest update on our week-on-week changes across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
And here’s the global map.
Updated
Nicola Sturgeon has joined forces with the first ministers of Wales and Northern Ireland to demand “urgent intervention” from the the UK government to help the struggling aerospace sector, PA Media reports.
The Scottish first minister, her Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford and both Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill, the first minister and deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, have written to Boris Johnson.
The letter urges him to set up a specialist taskforce to help the industry, which has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with job losses at companies such as Rolls-Royce.
The leaders of the Unite trade union say tens of thousands of jobs in the sector and associated industries are on the “brink of being lost for ever”.
The four leaders told Johnson the creation of an aerospace taskforce “would be a positive signal to the sector”.
Updated
France’s public health authority has admitted making an error with its daily Covid-19 figures, after reporting that deaths had risen by an additional 123 in 24 hours and hospital admissions had jumped by 850.
Santé Publique France’s website admitted “almost 240” cases concerned patients who were hospitalised since July and not in the previous 24 hours as stated. Although the authority’s website did not mention the large increase in the number of deaths, Le Figaro said 76 of these were historic, making the real number of deaths in hospital from Covid-19 in the previous 24 hours 47 and not 123, and the number of new hospital admissions 613 not 850, an increase of 14 patients.
The total number of deaths in French hospitals attributed to Covid-19 is 31,249.
Updated
People in the queue to be tested for Covid-19 at the Buenos Aires health centre in south Madrid on Friday morning were met with a bleak but polite homemade sign.
It still bore the previous day’s information, spelled out in marker pen: consultations – by phone and in person – 483; Covid consultations, 19; PCR tests, 78; and number of staff absent, 13.
Clipped beneath was another note: “We’re doing all we can to look after you. Sorry for the disruption.”
The board’s plaintive message is echoing across many of the poorest parts of the Madrid region as the second wave of coronavirus batters Spain and once again threatens to overwhelm the health system in and around the capital.
During the past two weeks, Spain has reported more than 122,000 new Covid-19 cases, more than a third of them in the Madrid region. The number of cases per 100,000 people stands at 259.76 across Spain as a whole. In Madrid, the figure rises to 659.41, and in Puente de Vallecas, the district served by the Buenos Aires medical centre, it is 1,241.
Latin America has had some of the longest lockdowns in the world but experts are urging countries not to reopen too soon
Joe Parkin Daniels in Bogotá, Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro and David Agren in Matamoros report:
The scene in Rio de Janeiro was as though much of 2020 had never happened.
The beaches at Ipanema and Copacabana heaved with visitors, the white sand obscured by bronzed bodies, sun loungers and parasols, as locals enjoyed the blistering 38C heat.
Even though Brazil has experienced the third largest Covid-19 outbreak in the world, behind the US and India, the vast majority of bathers ignored social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines altogether.
“Things have to go back to normal,” said Raniel Braga, who said that – after a desperately slow first half of the year – business at his paddle board rental on Copacabana beach was picking up again. “Like it or not, we’re going to have to live with this virus for a while.
“People who go to the beach are those who feel safe,” he said, as unmasked police officers surveyed the crowds. “People who are scared don’t go to the beach.”
But while Braga is delighted that Rio’s beaches are packed once again, international health officials are worried. This week, the World Health Organization said countries across Latin America were rushing back to normality prematurely – a mistake that could prove catastrophic in a region that already accounts for a third of global pandemic deaths.
Updated
Iran’s coronavirus death toll has risen by 166 to 24,118, a health ministry spokeswoman told state TV on Saturday, according to Reuters.
The total number of identified cases rose by 2,845 in the last 24 hours to 419,043 in Iran, one of the Middle East’s worst-hit countries, spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari was quoted as saying.
Updated
UK facing 'perfect storm' after the easing of controls, senior scientist says
The epidemiologist whose modelling helped shape Britain’s coronavirus lockdown strategy has said that new coronavirus restrictions will be needed in England “sooner rather than later” if the government is to prevent the disease surging again.
Prof Neil Ferguson, who resigned from the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the country was facing a “perfect storm” after the easing of controls over the summer.
On Friday, Boris Johnson admitted in a speech that Britain was entering a second wave of coronavirus. It is understood that he is preparing to impose sweeping nationwide measures to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Johnson will spend the weekend in talks with officials in Downing Street, the Telegraph reports.
Updated
It is increasingly likely that lockdown restrictions will soon be needed to slow the spread of coronavirus in London, the capital’s mayor has said.
With COVID cases rising, I strongly urge all Londoners to be as cautious as possible over this weekend.
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) September 19, 2020
➡️ wear a face covering
➡️ only meet in groups of six people maximum, indoors & outside
➡️ regularly wash your hands & carry a hand sanitiser
Lives really do depend on it.
Sadiq Khan said action should be taken before the virus spirals out of control, and leaders were considering measures already imposed in other parts of the UK. He said the government should ensure there was a fully functioning testing system in place.
In a statement, he said he had held an emergency meeting with London council leaders, the government and Public Heath England to discuss the next steps.
Khan said:
The prime minister has said that we are now seeing the start of a second wave of Covid-19 across the UK.
Londoners should also know that I am extremely concerned by the latest evidence I’ve seen today from public health experts about the accelerating speed at which Covid-19 is now spreading here in London.
It is increasingly likely that, in London, additional measures will soon be required to slow the spread of the virus.
We will be considering some of the measures which have already been imposed in other parts of the UK.
I am of the firm view that we should not wait, as happened six months ago, for this virus to again spiral out of control before taking action.
The best thing for both public health and the economy is new restrictions imposed early, rather than a full lockdown when it’s too late – but the government must urgently ensure there is a fully functioning testing system.
Updated
Poland and Indonesia report record daily coronavirus cases
Poland reported 1,002 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, according to the health ministry’s Twitter account, the highest daily increase since the pandemic began, Reuters reports.
The new record comes days after the authorities tightened conditions under which doctors are obliged to send patients for testing. Critics say the new rules may limit the number of people going for tests.
Meanwhile, Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in coronavirus infections, with 4,168 new cases on Saturday, taking the total to 240,687, data from the country’s health ministry showed.
The data added 112 new deaths, taking the total to 9,448, the biggest death toll in south-east Asia.
In the Philippines, the health ministry reported 3,962 new coronavirus infections and 100 additional deaths, with both numbers the highest in five days. In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases have risen to 283,460, the highest in south-east Asia, while deaths have reached 4,930
Updated
Mainland China reported 14 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, down from 32 cases reported a day earlier, Reuters said, citing the Chinese national health authority.
The national health commission said in a statement that all new cases were imported infections involving travellers from overseas. It also reported 24 new asymptomatic cases, up from 20 a day earlier, though China does not classify these patients without symptoms as confirmed Covid-19 cases.
The total number of Covid-19 cases for mainland China stands at 85,269, while the death toll remains unchanged at 4,634.
Updated
Police officers have prevented a wedding party going ahead as forces urge people to comply with coronavirus restrictions over the warm, sunny weekend.
Greater Manchester police said officers stopped restrictions being breached after responding to reports of a wedding party at a house in Wythenshawe on Friday evening.
“Police attended and found that a gazebo had been erected in the garden of a property,” the force tweeted. “Officers prevented the illegal gathering before restrictions were breached.”
The Met Office has forecast a weekend of largely dry, bright and fine weather, with temperatures reaching up to 24C (75.2F).
Updated
A holidaymaker who did not self-isolate after returning to Bolton was partly responsible for the area’s “extreme spike” in coronavirus cases, the council leader has said, PA reports.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Bolton Council leader David Greenhalgh said:
We had somebody who did not adhere to quarantine, did not stay the 14 days, literally went on a pub crawl with a number of mates.
From that incident which took place over a weekend - (they) visited a number of premises - led to a large number of individual transmissions from that one person which you can imagine then is like holding back the tide because he then became symptomatic two days after they had all gone on this pub crawl.
He was positive-tested the following day.
That is four or five days where all the people he was in contact with have been going about their normal day-to-day business.
Here’s an interesting Twitter thread by Christina Pagel, director of the clinical operational research unit at UCL and a member of the independent Sage group, that states the UK is at a knife edge, but the country could put the brakes on the current trend of cases doubling every eight days. They key? Improving test and trace in the next two weeks to flatten the curve.
UCL Prof Friston's modelling says we are at a knife edge - if we improve test & trace in next 2 weeks we can bend curve down. If we wait 6-8 weeks, it's too late. We don't need to be perfect - just a *bit* better will help! you *can* contact trace based on symptoms not tests 9/13 pic.twitter.com/YkKYb8jDnr
— Christina Pagel (@chrischirp) September 18, 2020
Updated
Angela Rayner has urged Boris Johnson to convene a Cobra meeting to ensure the right measures are in place after a sharp rise in coronavirus cases.
The Labour deputy leader said:
We are deeply concerned with the sharp rise in infection rates. What we have seen over the last six months is the government still can’t get the basics right.
The prime minister has to convene a Cobra meeting this weekend. He has to look at the science and the evidence and he has to make sure the measures are in place and a clear communications strategy on that so people can do the right thing.
It has been absolutely shocking to see how monumentally they have failed at the testing, tracing, tracking system that they put in place.
Updated
Britain will likely need to reintroduce some coronavirus lockdown measures sooner rather than later, a former senior government health advisor said today.
“I think some additional measures are likely to be needed sooner rather than later,” Neil Ferguson, a professor of epidemiology at London’s Imperial College told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
He said the country was facing a “perfect storm” after the easing of controls over the summer.
Ferguson said:
Right now we are at about the levels of infection we were seeing in this country in late February.
If we leave it another two to four weeks we will be back at levels we were seeing more like mid-March. That’s clearly going to cause deaths because people will be hospitalised.
I think some additional measures are likely to be needed sooner rather than later.
We have in some sense a perfect storm right now of people, as they have been told to, getting back to normal – schools reopening, a surge in cases – so therefore the testing system is under strain.
So unfortunately we do have to roll the relaxation of measures back a little bit and get contacts down in the population.
Ferguson is the epidemiologist whose modelling helped shape Britain’s coronavirus lockdown strategy. He quit as a government adviser after flouting the rules by receiving visits from his lover at his home.
Updated
Morning, I’m Aamna in London and I will be taking over the blog for the rest of day.
The Czech Republic has reported 2,111 new cases of Covid-19 for Friday, a slow down after four days of growth, Reuters reports.
The overall number of confirmed cases reached 46,262 in the country of 10.7 million, the ministry said on Saturday.
The Czechs have seen the illness spreading at a record pace. Adjusted for population, only Spain and France within the European Union have seen a bigger jump in the last two weeks, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Victoria police has confirmed 16 people were arrested and 21 people were fined at the protest in Elsternwick in Melbourne’s south on Saturday.
The majority of the 16 arrested were not providing their name and address to police.
“We are frustrated that these people continue to put the lives of Victorians at risk,” a Victoria police spokeswoman said.
“While we know the majority of the community are doing the right thing, the behaviour of these selfish few who choose to blatantly ignore the directions will not be tolerated.”
Updated
Just a bit more on India, via Reuters.
India’s parliament session that began this week is likely to be cut short after 30 lawmakers were found infected with the coronavirus, two senior parliament officials said.
The Indian parliament met for the first time in six months on 14 September and was to function until 1 October, but the two officials said its duration could be reduced by a week.
“Since the commencement of the session the number of positive cases have gone up so the government is thinking of cutting short the session,” said one of the two officials, who are involved in the functioning of parliament proceedings.
The government has also mandated daily tests for journalist entering parliament to cover the session from Saturday.
The lower and upper house secretariats did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawmakers who have been infected include Nitin Gadkari, highways and small enterprises minister in Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi’s cabinet.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a short summary of what we have learned today so far:
- The number of coronavirus cases worldwide passed 30 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The global death toll stands at 947,919 people and is expected to pass 1 million by 1 October. The US accounts for than 22% of global cases, at 6.69m, and nearly 200,000 fatalities.
- US president Donald Trump said he expects to have available enough doses of a coronavirus vaccine for every American by April.
- Victoria reported 21 new cases of Covid-19 and seven deaths, while New South Wales recorded three new cases, with just one under investigation
- The Victorian chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton has apologised for comments he made around the outbreak of cases in the Melbourne suburb of Casey for linking it to the Afghan community.
- Mexico reported 4,841 new cases of Covid-19, and 624 deaths
- India reported 93,337 new cases of Covid-19, and 1,247 more deaths
No new cases for South Australia.
South Australian COVID-19 update 19/9/20. For more information go to https://t.co/mXWvmaFrve or contact the South Australian COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787. pic.twitter.com/Ti7z076Zua
— SA Health (@SAHealth) September 19, 2020
AAP has more from the press conference of the Australian social services minister, Anne Ruston.
AAP reports any extension of supplements for jobseeker will need to wait until after the October budget, once the government can see what the impacts of the reduction in payments has after next week.
“We will not be making announcements in budget,” she told reporters. “We don’t know what Australia is going to look like on the other side of this pandemic. We don’t know when it’s going to end.
“So we will remain agile and we will continue to provide the support that is needed for Australia and Australians.”
About 1.6 million Australians receive unemployment payments, which were boosted in April by $550 a fortnight. From next week, the supplement will be cut to $250 each fortnight.
That reduction alone will plunge many families into hardship, Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) chief executive, Dr Cassandra Goldie, said.
Add in the uncertainty about the boosted payments continuing into 2021 and Dr Goldie says people will have to start skipping meals and forgoing fresh fruit and vegetables to scrounge Christmas gifts for their children.
“While it might suit some within government to not make decisions yet ... 1.6 million people are worrying today about how they are going to get through Christmas,” she said.
Acoss is calling on the Morrison government to legislate a permanent increase to jobseeker or at least guarantee a level of increased payments beyond this year.
Updated
India has reported 93,337 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, and 1,247 more deaths.
It takes the country’s total case numbers to 5.3 million, and deaths to 85,619.
India has been reporting highest single-day rise in cases every day for the past five weeks, and is expected to become the worst-hit country in the world within weeks, surpassing the US, AP reports.
Fewer Australian babies will be born over the next two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, AAP reports.
The federal government’s Centre for Population has released a report saying couples are going to delay the expansion of their family because of the economic climate, resulting in fewer babies born in 2021 and 2022.
The fertility rate is forecasted to drop to 1.59 babies per woman in 2021 compared with 1.7 in 2018.
By 2030, the long-term average is expected to settle at 1.62.
Graphs tracking the national fertility rate show it has been falling gradually since 2011 anyway but there’s a sharper dip in 2021.
The minister for population, cities and urban infrastructure, Alan Tudge, said while a lack of migration would be the main contributor to Australia’s declining population growth, fertility rates tended to slow in times of economic uncertainty.
“Our population growth will be the lowest since World War I as a result of Covid,” he said.
Updated
Some more photos from the anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne’s south, and the very large police presence the small protest.
The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services has put out some more information on the latest case numbers today.
The 21 cases is the lowest number of new cases since 24 June.
Of the seven who died, one is a man in his 60s, three are men their 80s, one is a man in his 90s and two are women in their 90s. Two of the deaths occurred before yesterday.
Six of today’s seven deaths are linked to known outbreaks in aged care facilities.
To date, 757 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria.
Of the 834 current active cases in Victoria:
- 800 are in metropolitan Melbourne under the First Step of our roadmap
- 28 are in regional local government areas under the Third Step of our roadmap
- 5 are either unknown or subject to further investigation
- 1 is an interstate resident
- Colac Otway has 12 active cases, Greater Geelong has three active cases, Greater Bendigo has one active case and Ballarat has no active cases.
There are two active cases among staff in residential disability accommodation.
On the outbreaks:
- 26 active cases are currently linked to the Casey community outbreak (total cases: 34)
- 13 active cases are currently linked to Footscray hospital (total cases: 15)
- 7 active cases are currently linked to Vawdrey Australia truck manufacturer (total cases: 64)
- 6 active cases are currently linked to Dandenong police station (total cases: 17)
- 6 active cases are currently linked to the Alfred hospital (total cases: 7)
The department is investigating a case linked to BlueCross Riverlea aged care facility in Avondale Heights.
Updated
The Australian minister for social services, Anne Ruston, just held a press conference, and was asked about the return of mutual obligations for jobseekers from the end of this month.
As part of those obligations, you can face penalties on your welfare payment if you refuse to take a job without a valid reason. Ruston said if people aren’t suitable for a job then they wouldn’t be expected to take it, but if you’re capable to do the job then that is “the sensible thing to do”.
Clearly we know that people who report earnings, even only a part-time job, are more likely to come off payment much more quickly than somebody who does not report any, so I would encourage any Australian give it a go, even if it is not perhaps your dream job or not the job you ever thought you may take ... because you never know where it may lead, to other jobs or you might actually quite like the job.
Updated
Of course the anti-lockdown protesters are livestreaming themselves protesting because 2020.
It didn't go very well and now people are just sort of running around. pic.twitter.com/xBcSsqVLVp
— cam smith (@sexenheimer) September 19, 2020
AAP has described the Elsternwick Park anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne’s south as being chaotic when broken up by police:
About 50 to 100 demonstrators started at the State Library but cancelled their action and moved to Elsternwick Park where they were chased by police on horseback, AAP photographers reported.
Some ended up marching along Elwood Beach in a loose formation before they were again dispersed by police resulting in several arrests on Ormond Esplanade.
Throughout the disjointed protest there was shouting about Premier Daniel Andrews and coronavirus restrictions.
There was “a lot of running and not much protesting”, one photographer said.
Another described the exercise as “chaotic”.
Some protesters continued to scatter through backstreets, even jumping fences into private property.
One arrested by police was filmed by Nine News telling officers: “Wake up, I know you already know this is wrong.”
Updated
Updated
Western Australia has recorded no new cases of Covid-19 overnight.
The state’s total remains at 661. Health authorities said three active cases were being monitored.
To date, 649 confirmed cases have recovered from the virus in WA.
A total of 782 people presented to WA Covid-19 clinics on Friday, 766 were assessed and 763 swabbed.
Updated
Victoria police make arrests at anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne
Victoria police say they have made a number of arrests at an anti-lockdown protest at Elsternwick in south-east Melbourne.
“While we know the majority of the community are doing the right thing, the behaviour of these selfish few who choose to blatantly ignore the direction will not be tolerated,” Victoria Police tweeted.
Police have made a number of arrests in Elsternwick after a small number of people had gathered in blatant breach of the Chief Health Officer’s directions. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/6sEGSxccsd
— Victoria Police (@VictoriaPolice) September 19, 2020
Updated
Some protests forming in Melbourne.
Anti-lockdown protests kicking off here at Elsternwick Park @9NewsMelb pic.twitter.com/2IisxBSfrT
— Dougal Beatty (@DougalBeatty) September 19, 2020
Some data from the Australian Senate Covid-19 committee:
The ATO has told the committee that between 3 and 17 August, so just after stage 4 lockdown commenced in Melbourne, 11,000 more employers and businesses applied for Jobkeeper with a Victorian ABN.
Andrews indicates it could be until next weekend before we know how the restrictions will ease in Melbourne on 28 September.
The way this works is that the public health team provide their advice and they will provide early advice and then they will add to their advice, and again, we have made the point very clearly that modelling is very important, but the actual data, case numbers every day, the investigations, the narrative that sits behind each those numbers, but is really important.
So you would make a decision is significant is that, as close to the time that it came into effect. The decision-making process is not, I wish it were, but it is not one meeting. And it is not one person. They will be a bunch of us who all sit down together, take advice, that advice will develop and unfold throughout the week. That is one of the very difficult parts about this virus.
I don’t know what tomorrow’s numbers will be. I don’t know if there is going to be a big outbreak next week. In a very high risk industry. I don’t know whether there is another Casey, whether there is another five families out there somewhere. So you have got to be as contemporary, use all the data you have got, as close to the decision point as possible.
So I can boldly predict for you that there will be meetings throughout the week and well into the weekend.
Andrews is again asked why the Casey and Dandenong families who broke the rules and got Covid-19 didn’t get fined. Andrews said while it might make others feel better, it wouldn’t be useful for contact tracing.
Well, any sense of satisfaction that we might collectively get by these people getting find would be very short-lived. Because ultimately what is most important is getting the information out of them, and people feeling that they can be frank and honest and truthful.
As I said, if you went back to the 20,000 plus interviews we have done over the last year, through the course of those interviews, people will have made admissions, large and small, about their conduct. And the value of that information far exceeds any fine.
And also, can I say, they will be talking about what they have already done. So that behaviour can’t be changed. Fines and penalties and enforcement is not about trying to change things that happened in the past. It is about trying to make sure that people have the motivation to do the right thing. And the vast majority of Victorians are.
Updated
Andrews is asked about whether there is a plan to recruit retired police to act as authorised officers. He says the state needs more authorised officers to go check workplaces to ensure they are Covid-compliant.
But the powers are broader than that, including the ability to detain people, which, given they are not police, has alarmed some people.
Andrews said the powers are needed right now when the Victorian community wants to get the Covid-19 case numbers down and keep them down, but the powers won’t be around forever.
“There will be a time when they are no longer appropriate and many of them Sunset next year,” he said.
Andrews said anyone thinking of protesting today should go home.
“Go home. Go home and follow the rules. That is a very simple message. Go home and follow the rules.”
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says although the test numbers are good today (around 12,000) he suspect people might not be getting tested in order to keep the numbers down.
That is not our concern. We want the most complete picture, that is far more important. The moment you don’t get what you think is a complete or a reliable picture that will have much more impact on taking steps than people coming forward and allowing us to find where the virus is, wrap our arms around those people and make sure they are not infecting anyone else. That is critical.
He rules out removing the Mornington Peninsula from metro Melbourne in terms of the restrictions in place.
Updated
Sutton says in the home is the biggest concern for virus transmission as restrictions ease.
“It really is. It is a combination of indoors which is 20 times more dangerous than outdoor and the length of time you spend.
“There are brief encounters indoors, as you get your takeaway coffee, it is much less of a risk. But if you are indoors for a protracted period of time that is exactly when transmission occurs. People need to be aware of that.”
When asked whether restrictions easing could be brought forward, Sutton said everything was more or less tracking as the modelling planned, and the next few weeks.
“That is not to say we shouldn’t take the opportunity of these next couple of weeks to say this is literally the last gasp of this virus, if we wanted to be, and to do everything we can to knuckle down with the things that we know have worked all through.”
Updated
Sutton says there are many misconceptions out there about Covid-19, including testing, and it’s not limited to migrant communities.
“But there are some very persistent misconceptions and there are some people who are really trying to promulgate misinformation, disinformation, having false information out there for whatever reason, so we need to tackle that head-on as well.”
He says the most frustrating misconception is that Covid-19 doesn’t exist and doesn’t kill people.
“The idea that this illness that we know kills one in three people over the age of 80, you know, to say that it is mild or just the flu or doesn’t exist at all is really offensive to everyone who has lost a loved one.”
Updated
Victorian chief health officer apologises
The Victorian chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton has apologised for comments he made about the Afghan migrant community.
Sutton on Monday said he was attempting to engage with the Afghan migrant community in Casey as a priority, amid an outbreak in Casey, and the Herald Sun reported today that the community had felt scapegoated by his comments.
Sutton apologised for those comments, saying it was wrong to single out the Afghan community.
A reference my trips to Afghanistan, and a comment on the fact that all communities across the world prioritise and care for those closest to them and everyone wants to do the right thing.
I inadvertently called out Afghanistan, which I think was inappropriate, but I was just reflecting on my experience of working with diverse communities internationally in humanitarian work and the fact that there really is a universal human experience.
Yesterday the Victorian government revealed a cluster of 34 cases in Dandenong and Casey among five households that had breached the rules on travelling more than 5km from home and visiting each other.
Updated
As reported earlier, the rolling average for metro Melbourne is 39.3. So Melbourne is well with the 30-50 average cases range for the easing of restrictions on 28 September.
Andrews:
So this strategy is working. Those numbers tell a powerful story of what can be achieved when you say the course.
When you don’t get sidetracked by some of the loudest voices, who I understand are hurting and want to open up, we would all like to open up as quickly as possible, but we won’t be open for very long if we don’t first get these numbers down to a low level and I think I would say to everyone watching and listening right now logic, commonsense, international our own experience shows us that you can’t hope to keep numbers low until you first get them low.
That is just an undeniable fact. And if we were to open up far too early some would be pleased, but they would be pleased for a short period of time, because we would simply be closed again not long thereafter.
There are 433 active cases in aged care, so now aged care accounts for over half of all active cases.
Updated
There are 834 active cases in Victoria, so we are now below 900.
There are 28 active cases in regional Victoria, so 806 in metro Melbourne.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says of the 21 new cases announced today, 13 of those cases are linked to known outbreaks and complex cases. Eight are under investigation by a public health team.
He says close to 12,000 tests were conducted yesterday.
That is a really powerful contribution to our fight against the virus and, again, can I urged every single Victorian, if you have even the mildest of symptoms, please come forward and get tested. It’s how we can fight this virus, is how we can get these rules off, it is how we can move to take the safe and steady steps towards a Covid normal. We have got to keep those test numbers up. We have got to have that certainty that the picture we are getting is an accurate one.
Updated
NSW records three new cases
The Australian state of New South Wales has recorded three new cases of Covid-19 to 8pm yesterday.
Two of those cases are returned travellers in hotel quarantine, and one was locally acquired and is under investigation.
NSW Health has said the latter worked at Concord hospital treating patients while potentially infectious and contact tracing is underway.
Over 15,000 tests were conducted in the past day.
Updated
We are expecting the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, to start his press conference any minute now.
Mexico has reported 4,841 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Friday, and 624 deaths.
The total confirmed cases are 688,954, and 72,803, although officials have said the real number of cases is likely significantly higher.
Via AAP
Queensland has marked another day with no new coronavirus cases as it prepares to further re-open its borders.
It has been nine days since the sunshine state has recorded a community transmission of Covid-19, while its number of active infections has fallen to 22.
The result comes as it prepares to welcome ACT travellers next week and double its intake of international arrivals by the end of October.
Saturday, 19 September – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 18, 2020
• 0 new confirmed cases
• 22 active cases
• 1,150 total confirmed cases
• 1,061,380 tests conducted
Sadly, six Queenslanders with COVID-19 have died. 1,118 patients have recovered.#covid19 pic.twitter.com/mub4oKYQFf
Updated
Today’s press conference with the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, will be at 11 am. We will bring you that as it happens.
Here is a little more on today’s Victorian numbers from AAP:
Victoria has reported 21 mores cases of Covid-19 and seven deaths. Saturday’s figures take the state’s coronavirus death toll to 757 and the national count to 844.
Metropolitan Melbourne has a 14-day new case average of 39.3, well below the state’s target of 50.
Public health authorities are racing to stop infections growing in the Casey and Dandenong council areas on the Melbourne’s southeast rim, which now has 90 active cases.
Five households in Clyde, Cranbourne North, Hallam and Narre Warren South are linked to 34 active cases.
A Monash Health spokesman confirmed it was caring for three people in hospital connected to the Casey cluster on Saturday.
Contact tracers discovered members of each house had been breaching the 5km travel limit for visits.
A special team has been created to target the cluster, with the government saying it is in conversation with local community members and leaders.
Other cases in the area are linked to workplaces, including nine connected to a truck manufacturer and six to Dandenong Police Station.
Premier Daniel Andrews has urged anti-lockdown protesters not to gather following reports of more planned protests in Melbourne.
It is unclear exactly where the demonstrations will be, with protesters taking caution not to make their plans easily accessible online.
Updated
Good morning everyone. Here’s a rundown of events internationally and in Australia over the past 24 hours.
- The number of coronavirus cases worldwide passed 30 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The global death toll stands at 947,919 people and is expected to pass 1 million by 1 October. The US accounts for than 22% of global cases, at 6.69m, and nearly 200,000 fatalities.
- US president Donald Trump said he expects to have available enough doses of a coronavirus vaccine for every American by April.
-
Three people who tested positive for Covid-19 in a cluster in Melbourne have been hospitalised. There are 34 cases in the cluster in the suburb of Casey, with authorities saying the households breached Melbourne’s lockdown restrictions.
- Victoria has announced 21 new cases of coronavirus and seven more deaths. The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has urged anti-lockdown protesters not to gather following reports of more planned protests in Melbourne on Saturday. Public health authorities are racing to stop infections growing in the Casey and Dandenong council areas on the Melbourne’s south-east rim, which now has 90 active cases.
- The UK government has hinted at second national lockdown amid reports of a plan to “circuit break” the virus. The UK’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, told Sky News: “The number of people in hospital is doubling every eight days or so ... we will do what it takes to keep people safe.”
-
Greek authorities have also been tightened restrictions in Athens and in Spain the regional government of Madrid has announced a partial lockdown of some districts.
- France reported an unprecedented 13,215 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 over the past 24 hours. The health ministry also said that the total number of deaths from Covid-19 increased by 154 to 31,249, the highest daily toll in three months.
- The European Union has agreed to buy 300m doses of an as yet unapproved coronavirus vaccine being developed by Sanofi and GSK.
- Australia’s national cabinet agreed on Friday to begin easing travel caps on international arrivals. NSW, Queensland and WA have agreed to allow more people into hotel quarantine, which will lift the number of returned travellers from 4,000 to 6,000 per week. Labor has said the plan does not go far enough to assist the tens of thousands of Australians stranded overseas.
- Prime minister Scott Morrison said Australia was looking again at a trans-Tasman travel bubble, where New Zealanders could come into Australia without quarantine.
