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I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours. Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
Summary
Here are the latest coronavirus-related stories from the past few hours:
- Italy threatens to ban Ryanair for alleged virus rule-breaking. Italy’s national civil aviation authority has threatened to suspend Ryanair’s permit to fly in the country over alleged non-compliance with coronavirus safety rules, but the low-cost carrier denied flouting them.
- France’s daily Covid-19 cases highest since end of May. France’s daily Covid-19 infections reached the highest in more than two months on Wednesday, with 1,695 new cases. The seven-day moving average stood above the 1,300 threshold for the first time since the end of April, when the country was still in lockdown.
- Fears grow in Turkey as daily virus cases top 1,000. Officials have expressed concern over the rising number of coronavirus cases as the daily infection toll exceeded 1,000 for the second day in a row.
- Florida tops 500K virus cases as testing resumes after storm. The state has surpassed 500,000 coronavirus cases as testing ramps up following a temporary shutdown of some sites because of Tropical Storm Isaias.
- Former Colombian president Uribe tests positive for coronavirus. Colombia’s former president Álvaro Uribe has tested positive for Covid-19, just a day after he was placed under house arrest as part of a witness tampering probe.
- Germany adds Belgium’s virus-hit Antwerp to quarantine list. Antwerp province was added to the list of coronavirus risk zones, requiring travellers arriving from the region to go into quarantine for 14 days unless they can produce a negative Covid-19 test.
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is cutting a further 353 staff as the coronavirus pandemic takes its toll on museums around the world due to restrictions on movement and concerns about public gatherings.
The reduction will come through a combination of the elimination of positions, voluntary retirements and furloughs, a spokeswoman for the museum said.
The museum is projecting a $150m loss in revenue due to the pandemic, the spokeswoman said. Its annual budget is $320m.
The Met laid off over 80 people in April after closing in March as the pandemic spread across New York. The latest cuts will take its employee count to about 1,600, down from about 2,000 in March.
The New York Times cited a memo sent to the museum’s staff on Wednesday, specifying 79 staff members had been laid off, 181 were furloughed and 93 took voluntary retirement.
Chief executive Dan Weiss said:
We recognize that the Museum that we will return to - whenever that may be - will be very different from what we left behind only six months ago.
We have worked to ensure that these painful staff reductions are distributed across the entire Museum so that no one area or group is taking on an outsized burden.
Florida tops 500K virus cases as testing resumes after storm
Florida has surpassed 500,000 coronavirus cases as testing ramps up following a temporary shutdown of some sites because of Tropical Storm Isaias.
A long line of cars waited outside Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on Wednesday morning for a coronavirus testing site to reopen after being closed because of the storm.
Florida reported 225 new deaths on Wednesday, bringing its seven-day average of daily reported deaths to a high of 185, behind Texas with 197.
Florida’s rate is approaching a quarter of that seen in New York at its peak in mid-April.
The number of people treated in hospitals statewide for the coronavirus continued a two-week decline, with 7,622 patients late Wednesday morning, a decrease of 175 from the previous day and down from highs of 9,500 two weeks ago.
The Florida Department of Health reported 5,409 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday.
Overall, Florida’s reported 502,739 cases ranks second to California, with more than 527,000 cases, and above Texas with more than 466,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The Hard Rock site briefly shut down on Wednesday because of lightning in the area. Testing resumed once the weather cleared.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis this week announced that quicker testing, with results in about 15 minutes, would be offered at the stadium and at Marlins Park.
“Obviously if you are somebody that is symptomatic and you don’t get your result back for seven days that is not helpful. For asymptomatic test takers, if it takes seven days then the test is basically useless at that time,” DeSantis said.
Brazil has reported 57,152 new cases of Covid-19 and 1,437 deaths from the virus in the past 24 hours.
The country has registered 2,859,073 cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 97,256, according to ministry data, in the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak after the United States.
Fears grow in Turkey as daily virus cases top 1,000
Turkey has expressed concern over the rising number of coronavirus cases as the daily infection toll exceeded 1,000 for the second day in a row on Wednesday.
Ankara has eased most of the restrictions that were in place since the first case was recorded in March, rising to a peak of more than 5,000 daily infections in April.
But after nearly a month of daily cases numbering around 900, Turkish health minister Fahrettin Koca said 1,178 infections were recorded in the past 24 hours.
Koca urged citizens on Wednesday to take precautions to avoid further increases.
“We’re concerned about the increase in the number of cases, previously limited to some provinces, spreading in the coming days throughout the country,” he said on Monday, which saw 995 confirmed cases.
The next day Turkey recorded 1,083 infections.
The total number of deaths now stands at 5,784 and infections at 236,112.
Koca said at the weekend that the “first wave reached the beaches” as Turks and foreign tourists take to the country’s famous turquoise coast, especially during the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday last week.
The outbreak appeared to have worsened in the capital Ankara, the second most populous city in Turkey after Istanbul.
The Ankara Medical Chamber on Tuesday said “pandemic hospitals and their intensive care units in Ankara were 100% full” and unable to take in new Covid-19 patients.
But the Ankara provincial health directorate contradicted the statement, saying intensive care units were 63% full in the city and insisting the pandemic remained under control.
One of the most affected regions is the southeast, especially the provinces of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Sanliurfa, according to the Turkish Medical Association.
Canadian finance minister Bill Morneau said he is hosting a call with his counterparts from the US, Britain, Australia and New Zealand to discuss the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Morneau tweeted that the participants were also looking at “how we can work together to ensure a successful recovery”.
Currently hosting a call with my counterparts from Five Eyes nations to discuss the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to see how we can work together to ensure a successful recovery.
— Bill Morneau (@Bill_Morneau) August 5, 2020
Italy threatens to ban Ryanair for alleged virus rule-breaking
Italy’s national civil aviation authority ENAC has threatened to suspend Ryanair’s permit to fly in the country over alleged non-compliance with coronavirus safety rules, but the low-cost carrier denied flouting them.
The authority accused the Irish airline of “repeated violations of the Covid-19 health regulations currently in force and imposed by the Italian government to protect the health of passengers”.
“Not only is the obligation to distance passengers not respected, but the conditions for making an exception to that rule are also being ignored”, it said in a statement.
If Ryanair continued to break the rules ENAC would “suspend all air transport activities at national airports, requiring the carrier to re-route all passengers already in possession of tickets,” it said.
“The claims made in ENAC’s press release today are factually incorrect,” Ryanair responded.
“Ryanair complies fully with the measures set out by the Italian government and our customers can rest assured that we are doing everything to reduce interaction on both our aircraft and at airports to protect the health of our passengers.”
Italy was the first European Union country to be seriously affected by the pandemic, which has officially killed over 35,000, but its contagion rate is currently far below levels seen in other parts of the bloc.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US government official on infectious diseases, expects drug manufacturers will have tens of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses at the start of 2021.
Speaking in a Reuters interview, he said production would likely ramp up so that it hits a billion doses by the end of 2021.
Fauci said he has not seen any pressure from the White House to announce a vaccine close to the 3 November election, in the hopes of boosting President Donald Trump’s re-election chances.
He added that regulators have promised “they are not going to let political considerations interfere” with the approval of a Covid-19 vaccine and “safety and efficacy” will be primary considerations.
Former Colombian president Uribe tests positive for coronavirus
Colombia’s former president Álvaro Uribe has tested positive for Covid-19, just a day after he was placed under house arrest as part of a witness tampering probe.
Uribe, a highly controversial figure, at 68 years old is considered to be among the at-risk population. Owing to his detention, he will already be isolated in his estate near the country’s Caribbean coast.
Rumours began circulating early on Wednesday that the embattled statesman may be in ill health, after reporters camped outside his grounds spotted an ambulance arrive.
He later announced that he had tested positive, although he was reportedly not displaying any symptoms other than a sore throat.
The announcement came less than 24 hours after Colombia was rocked by the Supreme Court decision to place Uribe under house arrest.
He served as Colombia’s president from 2002 to 2010, during which he led a brutal campaign against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), a Marxist rebel group that took up arms against the Colombian government in 1964.
Yet despite leaving office a decade ago, he remains as divisive and influential as he did when he led the country. His supporters say he neutered a violent leftist group that had terrorized the country since the 1960s. His critics say he did so at an inexcusable cost to human rights.
During his tenure, right-wing paramilitary groups flourished, often terrorizing civilians suspected of collaborating with rebels.
Since leaving office, he has twice proved himself a kingmaker. In 2016, he led the campaign to vote down a referendum on a peace deal with the Farc. That deal was later ratified in congress. In 2018, his protege, current president Iván Duque, won office with his crucial backing.
Colombia is currently rattled by the coronavirus pandemic, with over 335,000 confirmed cases on Tuesday evening and 11,315 deaths. New daily now regularly rise by over 10,000.
The country has been under quarantine since late March.
Updated
British American Tobacco South Africa (BATSA) has been court for the first day of hearings in a case against a government-imposed ban on tobacco sales to limit the spread of coronavirus.
South Africans have been unable to legally purchase cigarettes since the country went into a strict nationwide lockdown on 27 March.
While confinement measures are being gradually lifted, tobacco products have remained banned for the time being due to “health risks” associated to smoking.
BATSA, which covers 78% of the legal cigarette market in South Africa, decided to sue the state in May after talks with the government fell through.
Speaking before the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday, BATSA advocate Alfred Cockrell argued the ban was “unconstitutional” and “unscientific”.
Cockrell said the measure had “devastated” the tobacco industry in an already ailing economy and was costing the state around 38m rand ($2.2m) per day in excise taxes.
Government representative Andrew Breitenbach argued the case was about “lives and livelihoods” but said the minister behind the ban had “taken steps” to allow trade between tobacco producers and cigarette manufacturers.
“The ban deals with prohibiting sales,” Breitenbach added. “So infringements on rights are just incidental.”
BATSA estimates that South Africa has around 8 million smokers.
Its legal action has been backed by Japan Tobacco International and by groups and organisations representing consumers, retailers and tobacco farmers, who agree that the ban is fuelling an illicit cigarette market.
The Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) legally challenged the “irrational” ban last month, claiming it has diverted revenue away from a multi-million dollar business and into the black market.
The court has since ruled in favour of the government but granted FITA leave to appeal.
BATSA’s case is scheduled to resume on Thursday.
South Africa was already in recession before the coronavirus struck in March and the economy is now forecast to contract by more than six percent this year as a result of the pandemic.
The country is the hardest-hit in Africa with at least 521,318 infections diagnosed so far, accounting for more than half the continent’s cases.
Its mortality rate has remained low however, with just over 8,800 deaths reported to date.
Customers stream into a central Wellington cafe, past a QR code posted on the door that allows people to check in on the New Zealand government’s Covid-19 tracing app.
None pause to pull out their phones. Down the footpath outside, crosses of tape – denoting physical distancing measures for shoppers that ended months ago – feel like a reminder of a bad dream.
New Zealand has attained the status of one of the world’s safest countries when it comes to the coronavirus; there is no known community transmission in the country and life has largely returned to normal.
But with one eye on nations where the virus was once quashed before spiralling out of control again, officials and the government have changed their language in recent days in order to fight a new battle – this time against complacency.
“We have to be absolutely on our toes,” Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s top health official, said in a Radio New Zealand interview on Wednesday. “That’s not just the health system … it’s everybody.”
It has been 96 days since the last domestic case of Covid-19 was transmitted from an unknown source in New Zealand; all 24 diagnosed instances of the virus are among travellers returning to the country who are in quarantine at government-managed isolation hotels. But it was inevitable, Bloomfield said on Wednesday, that New Zealand would have an outbreak beyond the isolation facilities.
“It’s a matter of when, not if,” he said. “We’re working on the basis that it could be any time.”
A group of Senate Republicans have backed extending a $25bn payroll assistance programme for US airlines after warnings carriers may be forced to cut tens of thousands of jobs without government action, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
Airline stocks moved sharply higher on the news. Shares of American Airlines were up 8.9% in afternoon trading while shares of United Airlines rose 6.3%.
The letter was the first public disclosure of significant support in the Republican-led Senate for additional emergency funding for US airlines.
The senators who signed the letter said they backed a new six-month extension of the $25bn payroll support program “to avoid furloughs and further support those workers”.
Airline officials and unions have been urging US lawmakers to extend new assistance in the face of the coronavirus epidemic’s devastating impact on airline travel. The letter said:
With air travel anticipated to remain low in the near future, Congress should also consider provisions to support and provide flexibility for businesses across the aviation industry similarly impacted, such as airport concessionaires and aviation manufacturing.
On 27 July, a majority of the Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives signed a letter also calling for a six-month extension for the payroll aid programme that they argue is crucial to keeping hundreds of thousands of aviation workers employed through 31 March.
That letter was signed by 195 Democrats and 28 Republicans.
Congress awarded $25bn in payroll assistance to US passenger airlines in March, along with $4bn for cargo carriers and $3bn for airport contractors. Most of the bailout funds do not have to be paid back.
Airlines and unions have warned that mass layoffs could take place after the existing $25bn in aid expires on 30 September, just over a month before the 3 November US elections.
Between American Airlines and United Airlines, more than 60,000 frontline workers have received warnings that their jobs are on the line.
Virginia has launched the first coronavirus contact tracing app in the United States that uses new technology from Apple and Google.
The state is hoping that the app, COVIDWISE, can help it catch new cases faster, though long delays in getting test results must be overcome in order for it to be effective.
Phones with the app exchange Bluetooth signals to keep an anonymous list of close encounters.
The app then allows people who catch the virus to notify those contacts without anyone revealing their identity.
“This is a way we can all work together to contain this virus,” Democratic governor Ralph Northam said. “No one is tracking you. None of your personal information is saved.”
At least three more states are nearing the launch of similar apps, aiming to ease the burden on underfunded manual contact tracing teams.
But the United States remains far behind Europe, where millions of people across 11 territories over the last two months have downloaded smartphone tracker apps using the specialised Apple-Google Bluetooth technology.
A couple of US states previously released contact tracing apps that experts have described as more privacy-invasive because they rely on tracking users’ locations, as opposed to Bluetooth transmissions.
NHS Grampian has had suspended all visits to hospitals in Aberdeen, Scotland with immediate effect, including Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and the city’s childrens and maternity hospitals, to protect patients and staff.
While hospitals in Aberdeenshire and Moray were unaffected, NHS Grampian said the ban extended to anyone resident in Aberdeen who was a designated visitor for patients in hospitals outside the city, even if less than five miles from their home.
To protect patients and staff NHS Grampian have suspended visiting at hospitals in Aberdeen City with immediate effect. https://t.co/hk8RGzWF8g pic.twitter.com/EAVkON4Qlc
— NHS Grampian (@NHSGrampian) August 5, 2020
Caroline Hiscox, the board’s nurse director, said
We are aware this change is being imposed at short notice, however it is of the utmost importance that we do all we can to stop the spread of Covid-19 and ensure we do not provide opportunities for it to do so.
In the first instance these measures are being introduced for seven days, with reviews every seven days and extensions if necessary.
The price of gold soared to a record $2,047 (£1,538) on Wednesday as investors panicked by fears of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic rushed to buy the yellow metal as a safer place to store their wealth.
The gold price has risen by 34% since the start of the year, and this week broke through the $2,000 an ounce barrier and kept rising, as investors worry about Covid-19, as well as rising geopolitical tensions and the weakening of the US dollar.
Ruth Crowell, chief executive of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), said that in the past week more gold has been traded every day than ever previously recorded – by some distance.
Chief Aritana Yawalapiti, one of Brazil’s most influential indigenous leaders who led the people of Upper Xingu in central Brazil and helped create an indigenous park there, died on Wednesday from Covid-19, his family said in a statement.
His death underscores the threat that Brazil’s indigenous people are facing from the coronavirus pandemic that has spread to their vulnerable communities, infected thousands and killed hundreds.
Aritana, 71, was rushed to a Goiânia hospital two weeks ago in a risky 9-hour drive from the western state of Mato Grosso, breathing with the aid of oxygen tanks so that he could get to an intensive care unit.
He died at the hospital from lung complications caused by the disease.
One of the most traditional indigenous leaders in Central Brazil, Aritana led the people of the Upper Xingu and was one of the last speakers of the language of his tribe, Yawalapiti.
Aritana worked with the Villas-Bôas brothers to create the Xingu National Park, the first vast protected indigenous area in the Amazon where 16 tribes live.
According to Brazil’s largest indigenous umbrella organisation, APIB, 631 indigenous people have died from Covid-19 and there have been 22,325 confirmed cases in the community so far.
The ministry of health reports a smaller number of 294 deaths among indigenous people and 16,509 confirmed cases, because it does not count indigenous people who have left their lands and moved to urban areas.
Half of Brazil’s 300 indigenous tribes have confirmed infections.
Russia is expanding Covid-19 express tests to other major air hubs in Moscow after using them at the country’s busiest airport, Sheremetyevo, in the capital.
The portable testing system, which fits in two small suitcases, gives results within an hour and is already being used by some Russian companies and at major events, the Russian Direct Investment Fund said
Moscow announced the resumption of some regular international flights on 1 August to Turkey, Britain and Tanzania, as the coronavirus crisis eases in Russia.
The country has also been in talks with other countries to re-launch the flights.
Russia has the world’s fourth-highest number of coronavirus cases at 866,627. It says 14,490 people have died from the virus.
As part of a wider plan to create coronavirus-free airport hubs, RDIF said on Wednesday the express tests would be expanded to other Moscow’s largest airports, Vnukovo International and Moscow Domodedovo.
It said the testing would be available both for arriving and departing passengers. The service will be rolled out at the airports within a week.
Germany has warned against all non-essential travel to the Belgian province of Antwerp following a coronavirus surge in the region.
Germany’s public health agency declared the region centered on Belgium’s largest port and second city as a high-risk area, meaning returnees from there can be forced to enter 14 days of quarantine.
The foreign ministry wrote.
Numbers of new infections and deaths have been rising since the end of July, especially in Antwerp province, where the number of new cases currently exceeds 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over seven days.
Romanian schools will reopen on 14 September on a case-by-case basis, with towns affected by Covid outbreaks likely to hold classes online, president Klaus Iohannis said.
Coronavirus infections in Romania have exceeded 1,000 new cases per day on all but one of the last 15 days, taking confirmed cases to 56,550.
Some 2,521 people have died, and Romania has extended a state of alert until the middle of August as well as placing several small towns and villages with spikes in the number of cases under localised quarantine.
Iohannis told reporters:
For most children, (the reopening) means they will actually physically go to school.
There are three scenarios depending on the number of cases in each town.
The way each school functions will be decided locally, on a decentralized county level.
Towns with a single case per 1,000 people reported in the last 14 days will see all children back in classrooms.
Those with up to three cases will see only kindergartens and a few grades back, with other classes held online.
Towns with more than three cases will hold classes exclusively online.
Iohannis said several hundred towns currently fell under the middle scenario and there are 50 towns in which schools could not reopen.
The status of each school would be constantly re-evaluated.
The move to close schools at the start of the pandemic has underscored the unequal access to education in Romania for children in rural areas and underprivileged communities.
On Wednesday, the Romanian unit of charity Save the Children commended the move to reopen schools but urged authorities to see that all students are treated equally.
“What is essential is that all children return to school safely and with equal access,” it said in a statement.
France's daily Covid-19 cases highest since end of May
France’s daily Covid-19 infections reached the highest in more than two months on Wednesday, with 1,695 new cases.
The seven-day moving average stood above the 1,300 threshold for the first time since the end of April, when the country was still in lockdown.
The 1,222 daily average of cases seen since the beginning of August is now almost three times higher than June’s 435 figure but still half April’s 2,585, when the pandemic was in full swing.
France’s main seaside resorts have made wearing masks in the streets mandatory and some have restricted access to the beaches in the wake of the uptick in new cases.
Paris authorities are expected to announce shortly that people will have to wear face masks along the banks of the Seine and around the trendy Canal Saint-Martin, as well as in some of the capital’s other tourist hot spots.
However, after creeping up over the past two days, the number of patients in intensive care units in French hospitals for Covid-19 went down by four, to 384.
And the overall number of people hospitalised with the disease fell by 14 to 5,148, following a downward trend of two and a half months and suggesting the spike in cases has not yet translated into renewed strain on the health system.
The number of people in ICUs for the virus peaked at 7,148 on 8 April and overall hospitalisations at 32,292 on 14 April.
French health authorities reported nine additional deaths from the disease, bringing the total to 30,305, the seventh-highest in the world. The number of confirmed cases stands at 194,029.
Updated
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray taking over the coronavirus live blog for the next few hours.
Please do get in touch with any suggestions or story tips.
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
Evening summary
- Spain has recorded 1,722 new cases of coronavirus, the highest daily count since a national lockdown was lifted in June. The figures, which do not include data from two regions, sharply rose from Tuesday, while one more death was registered, bringing the country’s official death tally to 28,499.
- Greece’s prime minister blamed “complacency” for the country’s “significant rise” in cases in recent days. Kyriakos Mitsotakis has warned tighter measures could be brought in to curb the spread of coronavirus after Greek officials registered 121 new infections on Tuesday, the most since 22 April.
- The regional government in the Canary Islands will cover coronavirus-related costs to Spanish and foreign tourists. It is hoped the announcement, which includes health expenses or the extension of holidays in case of a compulsory quarantine while on the islands, will help rescue the tourist season after a spike in infections in Spain.
- One of Brazil’s most important indigenous leaders has died of Covid-19. Aritana Yawalapit, 71, who spent decades fighting for the rights of indigenous communities, died in a hospital in the state of Goiânia after a fortnight in intensive care.
- Switzerland has imposed a 10-day quarantine on travellers from Spain. It is the latest country to put travel warnings in place for people arriving from Spain, following a surge in new coronavirus infections there. The UK reimposed a 14-day quarantine on travellers from Spain on 27 July.
- A new coronavirus outbreak in Vietnam has spread to two more provinces. The country reported 43 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing its total to 713. Most of the new infections have been linked to Vietnam’s coronavirus epicentre Danang, but Bac Giang and Lang Son are also said to be experiencing an uptick in cases.
Reuters has published an interesting roundup of some of the latest scientific studies and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for Covid-19.
- Convalescent plasma lowers Covid-19 death risk
Infusions of antibody-rich blood plasma from people who have recovered from the new coronavirus, known as convalescent plasma, can lower the risk of death for hospitalised patients, according to a pooled analysis of data from eight earlier studies of more than 700 hospitalised patients around the world. Researchers found that mortality rates were roughly 13% in patients who received convalescent plasma versus about 25% for those who did not get the treatment.
The current study could not account for differences in factors such as how sick patients were, how much plasma they received, how long they were sick before the received it, and how long doctors followed them afterward.
- Exposure to common colds may impact virus severity
In patients with Covid-19, the immune system’s T cells learn to recognise and target the new coronavirus. But some people who were never infected with the virus nonetheless have T cells that also recognise it. Researchers had suspected that in these individuals, past exposure to other coronaviruses, such as those that cause the common cold, had somehow primed their T cells to recognise and attack the new coronavirus, and new research appears to confirm that. In studies of human blood samples collected well before the new coronavirus was discovered, researchers found T cells that were equally reactive against the new virus and four types of common cold coronaviruses. . It is plausible to think that previous exposure to common cold viruses might contribute to variations in COVID-19 severity, researchers said on Tuesday in the journal Science.
- Severe Covid-19 may be less deadly in children
Children with coronavirus rarely become critically ill, and when they do, they tend to have better outcomes than adults, based on early data from an ongoing study. The Critical Coronavirus and Kids Epidemiology (CAKE) study involves 65 paediatric intensive care units in 18 countries. In a paper published on Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics, the study team reported on the first 17 children with severe COVID-19 from 10 hospitals in Chile, Colombia, Italy, Spain and the United States. Most required respiratory support, with nearly half needing to be put on ventilators. Symptoms were varied, with fever, cough and gastrointestinal issues common. Overall, one child died, four developed inflammation of the heart and three remain hospitalised.
The investigators hope to have more data soon that will provide additional information on the care and outcomes of these patients, which may become more important as schools reopen around the world.
Canary Islands to cover tourists' coronavirus-related travel costs
All Spanish and foreign tourists visiting the Canary Islands will have any potential coronavirus-related costs covered by the regional government, it said on Wednesday, in an attempt to rescue the tourist season after a new spike in infections in Spain.
Such costs include health expenses or the extension of holidays in case of a compulsory quarantine while on the islands.
The move will take effect this week and is the first of its kind in Spain as the tourism-dependent nation seeks to reassure visitors after Britain dealt a blow to the sector by imposing a compulsory quarantine for anyone coming from Spain.
The travel policy will be managed by French insurer AXA and will include health-related repatriations, the Canary Islands regional government said in a statement. It will last for one year and will exclude health conditions that were known of before the traveller concerned came to the islands.
“It will help the economic recovery of the archipelago,” Yaiza Castilla, the regional official in charge of tourism, said in a video published on Twitter.
In a relief for the Canary Islands, Swiss health authorities on Wednesday excluded the archipelago, as well as the Balearic Islands, from its decision to add Spain to its list of countries from which arriving passengers must enter a 10-day quarantine.
Spain reported 1,772 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, marking the biggest daily jump since a national lockdown was lifted in June following a sharp drop in contagion rates.
Updated
More than 18.63 million people have been reported to be infected with Covid-19 globally and 701,506 have died, according to a Reuters tally published on Wednesday afternoon.
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
One of Brazil’s most important indigenous leaders, Aritana Yawalapit, has died of Covid-19, triggering an outpouring of anger and grief and highlighting the pandemic’s threat to descendants of South America’s original inhabitants.
The 71-year-old cacique (chief) - who spent decades fighting for the rights of indigenous communities - died in a hospital in the midwestern state of Goiânia after about a fortnight in intensive care.
He fell ill last month at his home in the Xingu, Brazil’s oldest and most famous indigenous reserve.
The death of the Yawalapiti leader sparked an immediate outcry in Brazil, where nearly 100,000 people have now died because of the epidemic and there is growing anger over president Jair Bolsonaro’s botched response.
The victims include hundreds of indigenous people, who are feared to be particularly vulnerable to the virus.
Edmilson Rodrigues, a left-wing politician in the Amazon, tweeted: “What is happening to the indigenous peoples is so enormously sad [and] Bolsonaro is the main culprit for these deaths because he blocked the plan to deal with Covid in the indigenous territories. This is a genocide!”
Luciano Huck, a famous television presenter who is widely thought to have presidential ambitions, tweeted: “Yet another personal tragedy in this national tragedy. Soon Brazil will have suffered 100,000 deaths. It is unbelievable because these deaths could have been avoided - had we tackled the virus with responsibility and coordination.”
Updated
Spain reports 1,772 new cases, the highest since lockdown was lifted in June
Spain today reported 1,772 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily increase since a national lockdown was lifted in June and beating the previous day’s record rise, Reuters reports:
The rate of increase in new cases, which does not include data from two regions, sharply rose from the previous day, while one more death was registered, bringing the total to 28,499.
Cumulative cases, which include results from antibody tests on people who may have recovered, increased to 305,767 from 302,814, the health ministry said in a statement.
Updated
Amsterdam has begun ordering the use of face masks in crowded areas, including in its red light district.
Last week the Dutch government decided not to advise the public to wear masks, saying their effectiveness against the disease has not been proven and they may weaken adherence to social distancing rules.
The World Health Organization has recommended using masks in areas where it is impossible to maintain social distancing since June
Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema, ordered the measure in agreement with health authorities as part of an experiment to see whether they may be effective after all, as some scientific studies have found, her spokesman said. Sebastiaan Meijer said:
We do think it can have an immediate effect. We want people to wear masks and be aware of the pandemic, so we do think it’s going to help stop the virus from spreading.
City workers handed out leaflets to tourists and residents explaining the new rules. Failure to wear a mask could lead to a fine of €95.
Like other European countries, the Netherlands is facing a rise in coronavirus cases after it eased lockdown measures on 1 July. On Tuesday, health authorities reported that new cases had doubled in the past week to 2,588, with clusters among young adults and in major cities.
In the past week Amsterdam has ordered the closure of several bars and one strip club where clusters were detected among staff and recent customers.
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, is cutting short a vacation to address the country on Thursday about the rising number of cases.
Updated
One of Belgium’s biggest meat processing plants has sent 225 staff home to quarantine after a cluster of coronavirus cases was discovered, the firm and the local mayor said.
Abbatoirs and meat-packing plants have become infection hotspots in other countries, and the big Westvlees facility in Staden, in north-west Belgium, is the latest to come under scrutiny.
The bourgmestre or mayor of Staden, Francesco Vanderjeugd, told AFP that six confirmed cases had been reported earlier in the day and that the number had risen to 18 within hours.
Two of the initial six cases were cross-border workers from France, two came from Staden and two from elsewhere in West Flanders, he added.
According to a Westvlees spokesman, Manuel Goderis, a number of cases of Covid-19 infection were discovered in recent days in the pork-cutting section of the plant, which employs 225 of the more than 800 workers on site.
“We decided not to take any risks and to test all the employees of this production unit and to put them in quarantine,” he said. The workers were tested today and results are expected on Thursday.
Westvlees is one of Europe’s biggest producers of fresh and processed pork. It butchers 1.4 million pigs per year and supplies 140,000 tonnes of meat to clients worldwide.
Belgium has one of the highest per capita rates of Covid-19 in the world and infection rates are again rising after earlier success in bringing the epidemic under control. Out of a population of around 11 million, 9,852 have died.
Updated
Quarantine checkpoints are to be put up at key entry points to New York City to ensure that travellers from 35 states comply with its 14-day quarantine, mayor Bill de Blasio has said.
“Travellers coming in from those states will be given information about the quarantine and will be reminded that it is required, not optional,” de Blasio told a news briefing.
He added that under certain circumstances fines for not observing the quarantine order could be as high as $10,000.
The sheriff’s office, in coordination with other law enforcement agencies, will begin deploying checkpoints at major bridge and tunnel crossings into the city on Wednesday.
“This is serious stuff and it’s time for everyone to realise that if we’re going to hold at this level of health and safety in this city, and get better, we have to deal with the fact that the quarantine must be applied consistently to anyone who’s travelled,” de Blasio said.
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The 350,000 students who attend Chicago public schools, the third largest district in the US, will start the school year by taking all of their classes remotely amid the Covid-19 pandemic, school officials said on Wednesday.
The decision to go to all-remote learning came after the city saw an uptick in virus cases in recent weeks that made public health officials concerned about the implications of in-person learning, Chicago Public Schools said in a statement.
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The French government has been criticised over its free-for-all Covid-19 testing policy as queues snaked out of some testing centres in Paris and at sites across the country amid a flare-up in infections.
One leading federation of laboratories said an abrupt decree on 25 July to make testing free of charge and without prescription had piled on the pressure at a time many staff go on holiday. Political opponents lampooned a policy in disarray.
“Testing anyone achieves nothing. You have to be targeted,” Didier Pittet, an epidemiologist who heads a government-appointed taskforce monitoring the handling of Covid-19, told Europe 1 radio.
France, like many of its European neighbours, is witnessing a mushrooming of new coronavirus clusters.
The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care rose for a second straight day on Tuesday, reversing a 16-week downward trend. The disease has killed more than 30,000 people in France.
France is now testing around 576,000 people per week, a health ministry spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday, compared with 200,000 when President Emmanuel Macron began easing one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns.
The health minister, Olivier Véran, said over the weekend that the strategy was working. “The virus is no longer tracking us, we are tracking it,” he told Le Parisien. The ministry’s spokesman acknowledged “localised problems” but was adamant that France had chosen the right strategy.
But Lionel Barrand, who heads the Syndicat National des Jeunes Biologistes, said the open testing strategy amounted to hunting for a needle in a haystack and put laboratories under strain.
“The government threw sand in our wheels. It sent a lot of people to labs without prior warning,” Barrand told Reuters.
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Covid-19 cases in Gambia, mainland Africa’s smallest country, have surged by more than 60% in the last week, to a total of nearly 800, health ministry data showed on Wednesday.
Authorities attributed the rise to people relaxing their guard on protective measures that had so far kept Gambia’s case total the lowest in Africa. Testing has also increased in the country, where the number of deaths is 16.
“There is increased enforcement of mask-wearing and other measures across the country,” said a government spokesman, Ebrima Sankareh.
Gambia will increase police, paramilitary, marine and immigration presence on its border as scores of Senegalese return from celebrating Eid al-Adha at home, he added. Senegal has recorded more than 10,400 cases.
The Gambian health ministry said six people who were confirmed cases were still at large, while two other positive cases had fled from a treatment centre in the capital.
On Sunday the government said three cabinet ministers had tested positive for Covid-19, and the health minister Ahmadou Lamin Samateh is in self-isolation.
The vice-president, Isatou Touray, tested positive on 29 July, leading the president, Adama Barrow, to enter self-isolation. The government said on Tuesday that the president had tested negative.
Updated
Police in Thailand have summoned five organisers of student-led protests against the government, saying they had violated a coronavirus emergency decree that forbids large gatherings.
Among those called for questioning was Anon Nampa, a human rights lawyer, who on Monday had demanded reforms of the country’s powerful monarchy, a highly sensitive topic.
Police told Reuters that Nampa, 35, was summoned over an earlier protest in July outside the army’s headquarters.
That demonstration was among a series of near-daily, student-led rallies around Thailand since mid-July that have demanded the resignation of the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, and amendments to a military-drafted constitution that critics say maintains army influence over the political system.
The five organisers were “summoned for questioning and to hear the charge of breaching the emergency decree,” police lieutenant colonel Athich Donnanchai, the deputy director of Nanglerng police, told Reuters.
Asked about his summons, Anon said in a text message that the decree was “a law to gag and stop activism”.
Last month the government said the emergency decree in place since March would only be used as a measure against the coronavirus, and from August onwards would not be used to prevent political rallies.
Six protest leaders or political activists in two different provinces were summoned last month for breaching the emergency decree, among other alleged offences.
Updated
Portugal’s Azores Islands, 1,400km from the Portuguese coast, breached the national constitution by forcing air passengers to quarantine for 14 days, the country’s constitutional court has ruled.
The court said authorities on the islands had treated people as if they were serving a short prison sentence by confining them to hotels regardless of whether they had symptoms.
“The competence to legislate on rights, freedom and guarantees lies with the parliament or the [national] government, and only with those two sovereign bodies,” the court ruled.
The regional government of the Azores had decided in March that all arriving air passengers had to stay in confinement for two weeks in a hotel.
Authorities initially paid for the hotel but those arriving from 8 May onwards were told they had to pay for their own stay.
The constitutional court’s ruling, made on 30 July and made public on Wednesday, came after a man launched a legal appeal over having to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel in Sao Miguel, the Azores’ biggest island.
A lower court decided that the man, who had a family home in Sao Miguel, had been deprived of his freedom and ordered authorities to release him immediately.
Court documents state that the man’s meals were sent to his room three times a day, he was not able to see his family or friends, and he had to clean his room himself.
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Most UK holidaymakers would cancel a holiday if they had to wear a mask in public on a trip, according to a YouGov survey released this week. It found that two-thirds of people (65%) would cancel if masks were mandatory at all times, 43% would still cancel if only compulsory inside, while 70% would scrap the holiday if they had to quarantine on return.
The tourism industry continues to face cancellations and redundancies after Spain was removed from the UK government’s travel corridor list on 26 July. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has forecast 3 million job losses across the UK tourism sector, with “uncoordinated” restrictions deterring travellers.
The survey also found that 93% would cancel if quarantine was required on arrival in their holiday destination. Rules on quarantine measures and masks vary from country to country and can change without warning, as spikes in some regions result in restrictions and safety measures being reinstated.
You can read the full report from my colleague Antonia Wilson here:
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Switzerland has become to latest country to impose a strict quarantine on travellers from Spain to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The 10-day quarantine period does not apply to those arriving from the Balearic and Canary Islands, which have experienced a smaller number of infections than mainland Spain.
The measure will take effect from Saturday, Patrick Mathys, the head of crisis management for the federal public health office, told a briefing in Bern on Wednesday.
So far, the UK, Ireland and Norway have imposed quarantine measures on travellers arriving from Spain. Meanwhile, there are travel warnings in place for Spain in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Finland and Poland.
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New restrictions have been imposed in the city of Aberdeen in Scotland following an outbreak. Under the measures, pubs and restaurants have been ordered to close and visitors have been asked to stay away.
“We are at a stage of this pandemic where extreme caution is necessary, and also in my view, sensible,” Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said at a press conference after a meeting with officials.
Sturgeon advised Aberdeen residents against travelling other than for work or education, and said people should not visit other households. Hospitality venues in Aberdeen will be required to close by 5pm on Wednesday. There is more detail in the UK coronavirus live blog.
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Greek prime minister blames complacency for 'significant rise' in cases
The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has blamed “complacency” for the country’s “significant rise” in coronavirus cases in recent days.
In a week deemed crucial for containing further transmission spread, the centre-right leader echoed the mounting concern of infectious disease experts over an abrupt increase in infections. Greek health officials registered 121 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the most since 22 April.
In comments made at the start of a teleconference call with health officials handling the response to the pandemic – and before a mini cabinet reshuffle - Mitsotakis appealed to what is seen as the Greeks’ particular sense of honour and pride, saying only 10% of cases had been traced to people entering the country.
“In recent days we have seen a significant rise in positive cases which essentially differs, however, from the first wave of the pandemic, and that, naturally, is something that troubles and worries us,” he said. “It must be said that the increase in cases is due mainly to the noted relaxation towards compliance measures within our country in July. And for that I believe we all bear a responsibility. Just 10% of cases are imported; most cases right now are domestic.”
The government has repeatedly warned it will re-introduce restrictions including local lockdowns if need be. Face coverings have been made compulsory in enclosed spaces, and officials have said masks must be worn in open-air decks on ferries as the country gears up for a mass exodus expected to occur before 15 August – the date of a major religious celebration in the Orthodox calendar.
Mitsotakis, who has only intermittently addressed Greeks on the issue of coronavirus, deferring at the height of the initial lockdown to scientists instead, urged citizens not to let down their guard, saying masks should be seen as “a constant companion”. He said face coverings must be donned not only in closed spaces but also outside in circumstances where it is impossible to maintain social distancing. “The mask should now become a constant companion, like our keys, our glasses, our mobile phone,” he added, before calling on Greeks to reject conspiracy theories doing the rounds debunking the efficacy of face coverings and other precautionary measures.
The abrupt rise – especially noticeable among younger people in recent weeks – has brought the total number of cases to 4,855, and epidemiologists have described the coming days as make-or-break for the country’s continued ability to keep the virus under control. A total of 209 people have died from Covid-19 related illnesses to date in Greece. Big social gatherings including religious festivals, weddings and baptisms have been linked to the sudden increase in infection rates.
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Vietnam has reported an additional 41 new coronavirus cases, bringing the country’s total caseload to 713, with eight deaths.
All but one of the new infections are linked to the tourist hotspot of Danang, where the first locally transmitted coronavirus case in more than three months was detected on 25 July. Earlier on Wednesday, Vietnam’s health ministry reported two other new coronavirus cases.
Since the virus resurfaced in Danang, 264 cases have been recorded there, while all eight of the country’s coronavirus-related deaths have occurred in the city.
Infections have since been found in at least 10 other locations in Vietnam.
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Test results for a man suspected of being North Korea’s first coronavirus case were inconclusive, but authorities have quarantined more than 3,635 primary and secondary contacts, according to a World Health Organization official.
On 26 July, the country said it had declared a state of emergency and locked down the border city of Kaesong after a person who defected to South Korea three years ago returned across the fortified border with what state media said were symptoms of Covid-19.
At the time, state media were unclear over whether the man had been tested, saying an “uncertain result was made from several medical checkups”. But the leader, Kim Jong-un, declared that “the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country”.
If confirmed, the case would have been the first officially acknowledged by North Korean authorities, but since then state media have continued to say no cases have been reported.
“The person was tested for Covid-19, but test results were inconclusive,” Dr Edwin Salvador, the WHO representative for North Korea, told Reuters on Wednesday.
As many as 64 first contacts and 3,571 secondary contacts of the suspected case have been identified and quarantined in government facilities for a period of 40 days, Salvador said. Kaesong remains under lockdown and household doctors continue to conduct surveillance in the city, he said.
Despite having no confirmed cases, North Korea had imposed a widespread lockdown and conducted contract tracing, he added.
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France’s prime minister, Jean Castex, has said the the country’s wine sector, which has faced “major difficulties” due to the pandemic, will receive an extra €250m ($295m) in state support.
He made the announcement during a visit to the Menetou-Salon and Sancerre vineyards in the Cher department in centre-Val de Loire region. Earlier, Castex had tweeted that state support “must continue and intensify” to save the wine industry from collapse.
Contexte international, crise sanitaire, baisse des exportations : notre filière viticole est confrontée à d’importantes difficultés.
— Jean Castex (@JeanCASTEX) August 5, 2020
La mobilisation de l’État doit se poursuivre et s’intensifier.
Avec @J_Denormandie, j’échange dans le Cher avec les professionnels du secteur. pic.twitter.com/G6qIEojyMw
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A new Covid-19 outbreak in Vietnam has spread to two more provinces, while the country’s coronavirus taskforce has declared the contagion “under control” in the central city where the outbreak began.
Aggressive contact-tracing, targeted testing and strict quarantining had helped Vietnam contain earlier outbreaks, but it is now battling infections in at least 10 cities and provinces, after going more than three months without domestic transmission.
The health ministry confirmed two new cases on Wednesday, bringing Vietnam’s total infections to 672, with eight deaths.
The new outbreak was first reported on 25 July in the tourist resort city of Danang and has spread to major urban centres including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, which have since closed entertainment venues, restricted gatherings and tested tens of thousands of people.
The health minister, Nguyen Thanh Long, told state media on Wednesday that the outbreak had expanded to the provinces of Bac Giang, near Hanoi, and Lang Son, bordering China, both linked to the Danang infections.
State media and government officials have made strong statements against illegal immigration since the new outbreak, but no official links have been made.
The government’s Covid-19 steering committee said late on Tuesday that the outbreak in Danang, currently under lockdown alongside Quang Nam province, was under control. The source of the outbreak remains unclear.
All but six of its cases had been traced to three of the city’s hospitals, the committee said, and the six had not infected anyone else.
“The second wave of the pandemic may be happening elsewhere in the world, but we are determined to not let that happen in Vietnam,” the committee’s head, Vu Duc Dam, said in the statement, which predicted more cases and deaths ahead.
Updated
The BBC has an interesting story that is sure to provoke debate. It reports that Sweden, which avoided a lockdown during the height of the pandemic, has been less hard hit economically than its European neighbours.
Sweden’s economy shrank by 8.6% in the April-to-June period compared with the previous three months – the largest quarterly fall for at least 40 years. But the flash estimate from the Swedish statistics office indicated that the country fared better than other EU nations that took stricter measures.
The EU saw a contraction of 11.9% for the same period. Individual nations did even worse, with Spain seeing an 18.5% contraction and France and Italy 13.8% and 12.4% respectively.
Statistics Sweden said:
The downturn in GDP is the largest for a single quarter for the period of 1980 and forward.
Nordea bank’s chief analyst Torbjorn Isaksson said:
It is, as expected, a dramatic downturn. But compared to other countries, it is considerably better, for instance if you compare to southern Europe.
That’s it from me today, I’ll leave you in the capable hands of my colleague Amy Walker.
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The Czech Republic reported its biggest daily jump in coronavirus cases since the end of June, Reuters reports. The 290 new cases brought the total number detected to 17,286. The country has recorded 383 deaths.
Almost a quarter of the new cases, 77, were in the eastern region of Moravia-Silesia, bordering Poland, where many cases have appeared recently among miners and their families.
The overall number of active cases reached 5,091. Some epidemiologists have suggested that the virus has weakened, pointing to a relatively low number of people being hospitalised, currently totalling 123. The daily number of people who have died in connection with the coronavirus has been below five since 20 May.
However, health officials have cautioned that some measures taken to curb the illness are likely to return after the summer holidays when cities will be more crowded and the flu season begins.
Prague’s chief public health officer, Zdenka Jagrova, told the daily paper Pravo that people in the capital would definitely be required to wear face masks again at some point inside public spaces such as shopping malls and on public transport.
Updated
France has again reported more than 1,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the previous 24 hours. There are now 184 active clusters under investigation, 13 more than the previous day.
Officials said the number of admissions to intensive care had risen for a second consecutive day, to 21, having been dropping since April. The latest government figures show a total of 30,296 people have died from the coronavirus in France.
The French government’s scientific committee has said the virus is under control but warned that the situation “could tip the other way” very quickly. The health ministry said in a statement:
The summer, the holidays, meeting friends and family, so many good moments that we wish to profit from: do not lower your guard and keep up the good reflexes including protection measures. The efficiency of a mask depends on everyone wearing it correctly.
The Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, is in consultation with police authorities with a view to making face masks compulsory in certain areas of the capital. There’s no suggestion this will be a blanket obligation, but it could include popular markets and the Canal Saint Martin, where young people gather to party at weekends, and some parks. One of the city’s deputy mayors who is in charge of health said the aim was to slow down the return of the virus.
A survey by YouGov suggested 62% of French people were happy to wear a mask in public places outside.
Updated
Ireland has delayed reopening more pubs, extended use of face coverings and tightened its travel list amid concern at rising levels of Covid-19 infection.
The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, announced on Tuesday night that the government was delaying the relaxation of lockdown restrictions for the second time to ensure schools and colleges can open at the end of the month. He said:
I wish I was in a position to share better news today, but I am not. It is now clear that our cautious approach in mid-July was the correct approach. Evidence of increased transmission is now even clearer.
In recent weeks the number of daily new coronavirus cases has more than doubled, from 20 to 53.
Cafes, restaurants and pubs that serve food reopened in late June. So-called wet pubs that serve no food – about half of Ireland’s 7,000 pubs - were due to open next week but will now remain closed at least until September, with no guarantee they will open this year, said Martin.
Face coverings will become mandatory in all shops from next week. The “green list” of 15 countries from which passengers arriving into Ireland need not quarantine shortened with the exclusion of Malta, Cyprus, San Marino, Gibraltar and Monaco.
Publicans’ representatives slated the delayed reopenings, telling RTÉ the state had abandoned 3,500 pubs and that the sector needed urgent financial support to weather the crisis.
Updated
A survey suggests there was modest growth in business activity in the eurozone in July, after some lockdown measures were lifted. But the rebound in the service industry was not as sharp as expected.
The eurozone economy contracted by a record 12.1% last quarter, data showed on Friday. A Reuters poll in July predicted 8.1% growth this quarter as businesses begin to return to some sort of normal.
July’s final Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) from IHS Markit, released on Wednesday and seen as a good indicator of economic health, bounced to 54.9, from June’s 48.5. The level had been below 50 – the level separating growth from contraction – for four months.
Chris Williamson, the chief business economist at IHS Markit, said:
Eurozone service sector business activity rebounded in July to grow at a rate not exceeded for over two years. France and Germany enjoyed especially strong gains though renewed growth was also recorded in Spain and Italy as Covid-19 containment measures continued to be relaxed.
Whether the recovery can be sustained will be determined first and foremost by virus case numbers, and the recent signs of a resurgence pose a particular risk to many parts of the service sector such as travel, tourism and hospitality.
While demand increased and optimism improved, firms again cut staff sharply. The employment index held below breakeven at 46.5, albeit better than June’s 43.2 reading.
As people ventured out to bars and restaurants, the services PMI rose from 48.3 to 54.7, its highest since September 2018.
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Ukraine recorded a record daily increase of 1,271 coronavirus cases on Tuesday. The number of infections in the country has risen sharply in the past two months as authorities have eased some restrictions, including allowing cafes, churches and public transport to reopen.
The health minister Maksym Stepanov urged people to obey broader restrictions that are still in place. In a televised briefing, he said:
Ukrainians, the fight against coronavirus is impossible without you. The rules are very simple: the use of masks, antiseptics and a distance of 1.5 metres. Following these simple rules significantly reduces the risk of disease.
The total number of cases rose to 75,490, including 1,788 deaths and 41,527 recovered as of 5 August.
Updated
In India, the number of people to have died from Covid-19 increased by 857 in the last 24 hours, to a total of 39,795.
Daily coronavirus figures for India. The Covid-19 death tally has increased by 857 to 39,795 pic.twitter.com/K3qJeE6QC3
— Alexandra Topping (@LexyTopping) August 5, 2020
Updated
Reuters has an interesting article giving an overview of the coronavirus smartphone apps that have been launched or are planned in more than 20 countries and territories in Europe.
These apps aim to break the chain of coronavirus infection by tracking encounters between people and issuing a warning should one of them test positive.
Most countries in the region have opted to use Bluetooth short-range radio to monitor close encounters that could spread the disease, after concluding that tracking people’s movements using location data would be intrusive. Reuters reports:
What’s the story so far?
Since there is no cure or vaccine for Covid-19, governments have turned to technology to contribute to broader efforts to contain the pandemic.
After initial efforts misfired, Apple and Google – whose iOS and Android operating systems run 99% of the world’s smartphones – developed a standard that logs contacts securely on devices.
Which countries have launched apps?
In the EU, Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Latvia and Poland have launched apps using the Google-Apple standard. Outside the bloc, similar apps are now live in Switzerland, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar.
A further nine EU countries plan Google-Apple apps, which would by design be interoperable.
France and Hungary have launched a different type of app that stores information on a central server. The resulting rift in standards means it will be difficult to make all of the apps work seamlessly across Europe.
How do the apps work?
The apps typically show a “green”, or safe, status. Should the user spend more than 15 minutes within 2 metres of another app holder who then tests positive and uploads the result, they would get an exposure notification.
What happens next varies: Germany’s app advises users to seek medical advice; the Swiss one shares a hotline number to call; while in Ireland users can opt to sharing their phone number and get a callback from a contact tracer.
Will they work?
The design of Bluetooth-based apps represents a trade-off between usefulness and privacy. It is not possible, for example, to pinpoint the exact time and place of risk events from the app alone.
The most privacy-oriented apps make it impossible for their administrators to monitor the number of exposure notifications going through the system – a key way to measure whether the apps are doing the job for which they are intended.
But the Google-Apple framework does allow monitoring of exposure notifications. This is enabled in the Irish app which also has add-ons such as a symptom tracker, where users can volunteer to share information on how they feel, helping the health authorities to map the pandemic.
Updated
Here are the latest figures of confirmed cases and deaths in the Western Pacific Region, according to the World Health Organization.
#COVID19 confirmed cases and deaths in the @WHO Western Pacific Region as of 10 AM Manila time on 5 August 👇
— World Health Organization Western Pacific (@WHOWPRO) August 5, 2020
➡ For more info on #coronavirus cases in the region, see the dashboard here: https://t.co/EIf3Bctd3H pic.twitter.com/WbMc3iFCNW
Good morning from London, where I’ll be covering coronavirus news from around the globe for the next few hours. If you want to get in touch with interesting stories from where you are, please do get in touch!
I’m on alexandra.topping@theguardian.com and I’m @lexytopping on Twitter. My DMs are open.
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Summary
I’m going to hand over to my colleague in London, Alexandra Topping, so here’s a summary of the main developments today.
- The number of people who have died from Covid-19 has passed 700,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. More than 150,000 have been in the US, with Brazil accounting for more than 90,000.
- US health secretary Alex Azar will become the most senior American official to visit Taiwan since Washington shut off diplomatic ties in 1979. He will discuss the coronavirus pandemic and “celebrate the shared values” of the two democracies, a move likely to anger China.
- Donald Trump has been told to “do your job” by Joe Biden after the US president floundered badly in a TV interview when asked about America’s high number of deaths from Covid-19.
- UK Labour leader Keir Starmer has told Boris Johnson that he has a month to fix Britain’s failing test-and-trace system or risk sending the country into a second lockdown as schools go back in September.
- The Australian state of Victoria recorded another 725 cases of Covid-19 as the outbreak continued to wreak havoc in the country. Queensland has closed its borders with NSW and the ACT.
- Virgin Atlantic has become the latest corporate casualty of the pandemic after declaring itself bankrupt and has filing for protection from creditors in the US. The move means it can restructure its debt and plot a course back into operation.
- Gold has soared to a record high price of $2,030.72 per ounce as financial markets move money into ultra-safe assets that they think are less likely to lose value if the world slumps into a prolonged recession thanks to Covid-19.
Starmer warns Johnson to fix test and trace
Keir Starmer has told Boris Johnson that he has a month to fix Britain’s failing test-and-trace system or risk sending the country into a second lockdown as schools go back in September.
In an exclusive story, the Labour leader says the prime minister must be prepared to take “hard decisions” to contain the virus.
We now have a full story on the planned visit by US health secretary Alex Azar to Taiwan in the “coming days”.
In a move likely to anger the government in Beijing, which regards the island as part of China, Azar will become the most senior American official to visit Taiwan since Washington shut off diplomatic ties in 1979.
In a statement announcing the visit, Azar heaped praise on Taiwan’s “transparent” handling of the coronavirus pandemic in contrast to some “authoritarian regimes”.
Here’s Helen Davidson’s full story:
The coronavirus crisis has not curbed the earnings appetite of the bosses of Britain’s biggest companies. Despite most of the FTSE100 companies taking advantage of the government’s furlough wage scheme to pay workers, only 36 of them saw fit to reduce the pay of their chief executives, according to research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the High Pay Centre.
Peter Cheese, chief executive of the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, said: “It doesn’t look like the pandemic has proven to be an inflection point for executive pay yet. The bulk of cuts made so far appear to be short-term and don’t signify meaningful, long-term change.”
Schools in England 'should be last things to close'
Schools in England should be the last to close and the first to reopen in the event of a second lockdown, the children’s commissioner has said, adding that young people had sometimes been an “after thought” during the crisis.
Anne Longfield said pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops should be shut ahead of schools in the case of emergency restrictions.
One death every 15 seconds around the world – Reuters
It is only 17 days since the global death tally passed 600,000, so we’re seeing a rapid increase in the number of fatalities.
According to a calculation by Reuters, nearly 5,900 people are dying every 24 hours from Covid-19 on average, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the past two weeks. That equates to 247 people per hour, or one person every 15 seconds.
Global coronavirus deaths pass 700,000
The number of people who have died from Covid-19 has passed 700,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
More than 150,000 have been in the US, with Brazil accounting for more than 90,000 and Mexico third highest with 45,000.
Germany has reported 741 new cases of the virus, according to the Robert Koch Institute, down from 879 the previous day.
The total number of cases in Germany is now 212,022 with 9168 deaths. It is estimated 194,600 people have survived the disease.
However, the country is in danger of squandering its relatively successful handling of the disease earlier this year because people have been flouting social-distancing rules, according to Susanne Johna, the president of Marburger Bund, which represents the country’s doctors.
“We are already in a second, shallow upswing,” she told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper on Tuesday, urging people to continue to respect distancing and hygiene rules and wear masks despite an understandable desire to return to full normality.
Gold price hits another record high
Gold has soared to a record high price of $2,030.72 per ounce as financial markets move money into ultra-safe assets that they think are less likely to lose value if the world slumps into a prolonged recession thanks to Covid-19.
It’s likely that US legislatords will agree more stimulus spending to help the country’s economy, which will in turn put more downward pressure on bond yields and the US dollar, shifting more cash into other assets.
“Failure to agree to another round of stimulus would hit the U.S. economy hard at a time when high-frequency data suggests it is losing some momentum,” said Tapas Strickland, analyst at Melbourne-based National Australia Bank told Reuters.
Here’s another quirky virus-related story about the obscure Hutt River micronation in Australia that has decided to rejoin the country because of the ravages of coronavirus.
The “nation” several hundred kilometres north of Perth in Western Australia was declared sovereign in 1970 in a dispute over wheat and even declared war on its rather bigger neighbour in 1977.
But the virus has forced Hutt River to close its borders to tourists and it is being starved of income, despite Weatern Australia being free of Covid-19.
Read more on this weird and wonderful tale here:
Sri Lanka votes in virus-delayed election
Sri Lankans have started voting in an election twice delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. The country has not had a parliament since March when president Gotabaya Rajapaksa sacked the body in March but he is still expected to cement his family’s controversial grip on power.
Voters have been asked to observe social distancing and bring their own pens to the polls – with special booths set up for those who are quarantining. Sri Lanka appears to have contained the virus, recording 2,823 cases including 11 deaths.
Our full report is here:
I mentioned earlier that we’ve been speaking to people around the world about they are coping with the virus six months after it was declared an urgent threat to the world. Our world correspondent Michael Safi explains what he found in today’s Todaay in Focus podcast
Donald Trump has come under fire for his claims about the death rate in the US despite them being over 1,000 a day.
However, as interviewer Jonathan Swan realised during the discussion, what Trump meant was that the ratio of deaths to new cases has fallen from a high of more than 7% earlier in April to more like 1.5%, as illustrated by this charted tweeted out by Australian economist Shane Oliver.
Hospitalisations have rolled over along with new cases in US & deaths look to be rolling over from less than half their Apr high despite new cases having reached double the Apr high. Fatality rate ~1.5% v ~7% in Apr. More younger cases,better treatments,better protections for old pic.twitter.com/I1rmYsCSP1
— Shane Oliver (@ShaneOliverAMP) August 5, 2020
We have two contrasting pieces about how the pandemic is affecting Australia.
First, some readers share their struggles about trying to find a job as unemployment rises to nearly 1 million in the country. One of them says: “I go to sleep every night with an aching lump in my stomach longing to just catch a break.
On a lighter note, Hannah Ryan reports on the boom in sales of cask wine. The often-derided product, nicknamed cardboardeaux, has gone out of fashion in recent years but convenience and pricing has helped lift sales since the crisis began.
The Australian state of Victoria has confirmed that it recorded 725 new cases of coronavirus and 15 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Twelve of the 15 fatalities were linked to aged care although one of the deaths was a man in his 30s, premier Daniel Andrews has just announced.
It’s not linked to the virus but I must cross-refer here to our coverage of the devastating explosion in Beirut. Your usual Covid blogger, Helen Sullivan, is collating all the latest updates on the blast that has so far left 78 people dead and thousands injured.
We also have a full report from our correspeondent in Beirut, Martin Chulov, a picture gallery and an explainer about how it happened.
US health secretary Alex Azar has confirmed that WSJ report that he is going to Taiwan.
He said that Taiwan, which Beijing considers to be part of China, had been a “model of transparency and cooperation” over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. No prizes for guessing who the trump administration thinks has not been such a paragon.
Taiwan has been a model of transparency and cooperation in global health during the COVID-19 pandemic and long before it. This trip represents an opportunity to strengthen our economic and public health cooperation with Taiwan.
— Secretary Alex Azar (@SecAzar) August 5, 2020
The statement adds that he will use the visit to congratulate Taiwan on behalf of president Donald Trump for its “global health ledership”.
Here’s another choice quote:
In contrast to authoritarian systems, US and Taiwan societies and economies are uniquely equipped to drive global progress in areas such as medicine and science to help the world tackle emerging threats. The Covid-19 pandemic is the most recent example of joint U.S.-Taiwan efforts to confront global challenges for the good of the world.
US health secretary to visit Taiwan – reports
Washington is reported to be sending its most senior representative to Taiwan for more than 40 years in what appears to be a calculated affront to Beijing as US-China relations continue to head downhill in the wake of the argument over the pandemic.
US health secretary Alex Azar will travel to Taiwan in coming days, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
Taiwan’s official Central News Agency said it would be the highest level visit made by a US cabinet official since Washington broke formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979.
We’ll have more on this story as it breaks.
Updated
Here’s our newly minted full report on the decision by Queensland to close its border with New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
We’ve also just learned that NSW recorded 12 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. All but one of them has been traced to a known outbreak.
We’re expecting the Victorian government to announce that it has another 725 new cases but that is not a confirmed number, just what’s been leaked to reporters this morning.
Financial markets hit by recession fears
Stock markets in Asia Pacific are racking up some fairly hefty losses so far today because of concerns about the direction of the world economy.
You’d think those concerns might have sent the markets much lower in the past few months but massive government and central bank stimulus has so far acted as a backstop.
Some reality could be starting to bite. The ASX200 is off 0.86% in Sydney and the Nikkei in Japan is down by around the same. Gold, which acts as a barometer of anxiety about less tangible assets, has soared above $2,000 per ounce. US 10-year bonds climbed to record highs.
Michael McCarthy of CMC Markets in Sydney said:
Along with elevated gold prices, bonds are signalling higher concern for the global growth outlook, with obvious implications for risk assets like shares.
US virus-related fraud losses 'near $100m'
American consumers have lost close to $100m to fraudsters who are inventing new scams to prey on people already distressed by the pandemic crisis.
A report from Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, based on government data, highlighted fraud such as fake promises of government stimulus cheques, often perpetuated through “robocalls”, texts, or emails seeking personal and financial information the caller supposedly needs to deposit benefits into the victim’s account.
The worst-hit states were California, Florida, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania - the most populous of the 50 U.S. states.
From Charlotte Graham-McLay, our correspondent in New Zealand:
New Zealand’s unemployment rate fell in the three months to June 2020 to 4.0% from 4.2% in the previous quarter, a drop that shocked economists. But they’re warning that beyond that figure, the labour market is worsening due to the Covid-19 crisis.
The country’s strict lockdown ended in late April but it appeared to have quelled the spread of the virus, with no known community transmission in New Zealand.
The government’s detractors warned of huge hits to employment figures as a result of the restrictions but Wednesday’s figures showed that unemployment actually dropped
However, the underutilisation rate – the amount of untapped capacity in the economy – is up by 1.6% to 12.0%, reflecting those who were underemployed during that period.
Brad Olsen, an economist with Infometrics, told the Guardian that while the headline employment figure looked good, the number of people out of work is rising. During the weeks of lockdown, those people weren’t actively out looking for work -- a requirement to be considered officially “unemployed”.
A government wage subsidy underwriting thousands of jobs, and implemented due to the pandemic, is due to end in September – after which the scale of job losses might look different.
Updated
Peru, which has one of the highest Covid-19 death tolls in the world, is facing political paralysis after congress refused to approve president Martin Vizcarra’s recently appointed cabinet on Tuesday night.
A no confidence vote prompted all 19 cabinet ministers to resign, Associated Press reports, and could hamper the government’s efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed 19,000 lives in the Andean nation.
#AndinaEnglish Peru: President announces cabinet reshuffle https://t.co/ATm9uzx152 pic.twitter.com/Oac6OsmiJJ
— Agencia Andina (@Agencia_Andina) August 4, 2020
Vizcarra has 72 hours to form a new cabinet to congress, which is made up of 130 legislators who represent 10 political parties.
Mexico has reported 6,148 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 857 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 449,961 cases and 48,869 deaths, the health ministry has announced.
Mexico has the third highest number of deaths in the world behind the US and Brazil.
Updated
It’s worth revisiting Donald Trump’s car-crash interview broadcast in the US on Tuesday.
The US president, pressed by Axios political correspondent Jonathan Swan about the country’s death toll of 156,000, said: “It is what it is”. He also reiterated his claims that the US had racked up more cases than any other country because it was testing more people, saying that children with a “runny nose” were being added to the tally.
Trump later told a White House press briefing that the US death toll had not risen significantly, despite the toll regularly passing 1,000 a day.
You can check the key takeaways from the interview – including comments about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell – with this story by my colleague Amanda Hopluch in New York.
As the global death total nears 700,000 – it is currently on 697,998 according to Johns Hopkins University – our reporters have been looking at how government all over the world are struggling to contain the virus.
Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford University in California, has a chilling verdict: “We are only about eight months into this outbreak,” says . “That is still the infancy of an infection. We’ve known about HIV for over 40 years and we’re still learning new things about it every day.”
Australian state border closes
There’s been a big development in Australia’s handling of the pandemic after Queensland closed its borders to New South Wales and the Australia Capital Territory.
Queensland, which has very few cases of the virus, has already shut out Victorians but now all NSW residents will be barred except for some rare exemptions. returning locals will have to pay for 14-day quarantine.
You can find out more on this breaking story at our Australia live coverage with Amy Remeikis:
Updated
Virgin Atlantic goes bust
The latest corporate casualty of the pandemic is Virgin Atlantic, which has declared itself bankrupt and has filed for protection from creditors in the US.
The move means it can restructure its debt and plot a course back into operation.
The court filing in the southern district of New York said it has negotiated a deal with stakeholders “for a consensual recapitalization” that will get debt off its balance sheet and “immediately position it for sustainable long-term growth”.
The announcement comes only weeks after Virgin Atlantic announced it had secured funding to survive for another 18 months.
Here’s the full story from my colleague in New York, Dominic Rushe:
Brazil records another 51,603 cases
Brazil has seen another 51,603 people contract Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, and 1,154 have died, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
The country has registered more than 2.8 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll from COVID-19 has risen to 95,819, according to ministry data, in the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak after the United States.
One of them is a government minister, Jorge Oliveira, secretary of the presidency, who on Tuesday became the eighth member of the government to be confirmed with the virus.
Morning/afternoon/evening. I’m Martin Farrer and welcome to the new live blog with updates from across the world on the coronavirus pandemic.
The main developments of the past 24 hours are:
- European countries are struggling to contain a seond wave of infections several weeks after the end of the initial lockdown. In France, authorities say they could lose control of the outbreak “at any time”, experts say Germmnay is already in a second wave, Greece reported its biggest rise in caxes for weeks and cases in the Netherlands have doubled in the past week.
- Donald Trump has given a news conference at which he said that the steep rise in cases in the US have not been accompanied by a “significant” rise in deaths.
- Earlier the US president floundered in an interview with Axios in which he said Covid-19 was “under control” in the US despite around 1,000 deaths a day. “It is what it is,” he said. Joe Biden has told him to “step up and do your job”.
- UK opposition leader Keir Starmer has told Boris Johnson that has one month to sort the country’s failing test and trace system or it faces a “bleak winter” grappling with a resurgence of cases..
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Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the US Open over Covid concerns. The four-time winner at Flushing Meadows does not want to travel to the United States while Covid-19 cases are on the rise.
- Turkey has tightened containment measures after the virus rebounded in recent weeks. There will be new daily quarantine inspections, new tracing oversights and measures for weddings and funerals, after new daily cases jumped above 1,000 for the first time in three weeks.
- Ireland cancels plans to re-open pubs on Monday. The Irish prime minister announced that further plans for easing of lockdown measures are to be put on hold and face coverings will be mandatory in shops from 10 August.
- Nurses in the virus-stricken Australian state of Victoria have pleaded for more protective equipment as hundreds of healthcare workers have contracted the disease.
- San Quentin prison in California is in the grip of a serious outbreak of Covid-19. Three inmates have died since Sunday and there are 168 positive cases inside the jail.
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Germany’s football league is ready for fans to return under certain conditions such as no alcohol being sold at grounds. The Bundesliga’s 36 professional clubs have decided on a uniform procedure for the possible return of some fans to the stadiums, if authorities give the go-ahead.
- Danish state epidemiologist advises against lockdown easing. Kare Molbak said he could not recommend proceeding to the next phase of reopening society during the coronavirus outbreak.
