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South Korea on Sunday reported 631 new coronavirus cases, the highest in nine months, ahead of an expected government decision on whether to further tighten social distancing curbs, Reuters reported.
After implementing tighter restrictions on Saturday, the government is to decide on Sunday whether to impose new measures in a country that had seen initial success through aggressive contact tracing and other steps.
The new cases bring the country’s tally to 37,546, with 545 deaths, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported.
Many of the recent cases have been centered in the capital city of Seoul, which on Saturday launched unprecedented curfews, shuttering most establishments and shops at 9 pm for two weeks and cutting back public transportation operations by 30% in the evenings.
NSW reports no locally acquired cases
The daily health update for the Australian state of New South Wales has just landed and there have been no new locally acquired cases in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. Five cases were found among overseas travellers in hotel quarantine. Testing numbers were slightly lower, as tends to be common on the weekend: 9,827 tests, compared with 11,953 in the previous 24 hours.
However investigations continue into last week’s locally acquired case. From NSW Health:
“Investigations continue into the source of the recent COVID-19 case who works at a Sydney quarantine hotel complex. As reported on Friday afternoon, the viral genome sequence from the case does not match the virus strains seen in recent clusters in Australia and may be of United States origin.
“The ongoing investigations are exploring whether the source of infection was international aircrew who were self-isolating in the hotel at the time.
Testing of close contacts of the case is continuing, and no further positive results have been identified.”
Coronavirus infections across the US continue to rise as the country moves deeper into a holiday season when eagerly anticipated gatherings of family and friends could push the numbers even higher and overwhelm hospitals, reported Associated Press.
Vast swaths of southern and inland California imposed new restrictions on businesses and activities on Saturday as hospitals in the nation’s most populous state face a dire shortage of beds.
Restaurants must stop on-site dining and theaters, hair salons and many other businesses must close in the sprawling reaches of San Diego and Los Angeles, along with part of the Central Valley, including Fresno. Five counties in the San Francisco Bay Area were set to impose their own lockdowns Sunday.
A new daily high of nearly 228,000 additional confirmed Covid-19 cases was reported nationwide on Friday, eclipsing the previous high of 217,000 cases set the day before, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Much of the nation saw surging numbers in the week after Thanksgiving, when millions of Americans disregarded warnings to stay home and celebrate only with members of their household.
Hello, Rebecca Ratcliffe here in Bangkok, taking over from my colleague Jedidajah Otte in London. I’ll be bringing you the latest global pandemic news for the next few hours. If you have any news tips or feedback, please do get in touch on Twitter @rebeccarat or via email rebecca.ratcliffe@theguardian.com.
The Australian state of Victoria has announced a significant easing of its Covid-19 restrictions, opening up the state in time for summer.
Victoria, once the worst hit state in the country, has enjoyed 37 straight days free from Covid-19.
The result allowed premier Daniel Andrews to announce a relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions.
Victorians will, as of midnight local time, be allowed to have 30 visitors daily to their home from any number of other households, a doubling of the previous limit of 15.
Outdoor public gatherings can now also have 100 people from any household. Private sector offices can welcome back 50% of their employees, up from the current 25%, from Monday 11 January.
Public sector workplaces will bring back 25% of their employees on the same date, increasing to 50% on 8 February.
Weddings and religious gatherings are now only required to have one person for every two square metres, with no cap on the total number of people.
Bars, pubs, and cafes will also move to the one person per two square metres rule for indoor and outdoor venues from midnight, with no cap on the total number of patrons.
Standing service will now be allowed again, meaning patrons don’t have to be seated at bars to be served. Dance floors will be required to have one person for every four square metres. Mask wearing will still be mandatory in indoor shopping centres and public transport, and masks must still be carried by Victorians at all times.
“37 days in a row is an amazing achievement,” Andrews said. “And every Victorian should be proud but this thing is not done or over and can come back and if we don’t play our part and remain vigilant, then we do run the risk of everything that we have built being compromised. That is why we have all got to remain vigilant.”
In Australia, health and border authorities are investigating how two international passengers were allowed to fly from Sydney to Melbourne without quarantining, an act that has forced an entire planeload of domestic passengers into quarantine.
On Saturday, two travellers thought to be from Germany arrived in Sydney, but failed to quarantine for the required two weeks before flying to Melbourne.
Melbourne, one of Australia’s hardest hit cities, has emerged from the grips of a Covid-19 crisis to remain free from the virus for almost a month.
The travellers were stopped at Melbourne airport and are now completing their quarantine in Victoria, but their ability to travel freely from Sydney has prompted frustration within the Victorian state government.
Victoria’s health minister Martin Foley said he had sought an explanation from his New South Wales counterpart and had been assured there would be a “full investigation”.
Victorian health authorities have also advised any other passenger travelling on the flight to quarantine for two weeks.
The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, has also asked the Australian Border Force to investigate.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth is expected to receive the Covid-19 vaccine within weeks, as public health experts believe this would encourage more people to take up the jab.
Both the 94-year-old Monarch and her husband Prince Philip, 99, will not get preferential treatment, but will instead “wait in line” during the first wave of injections reserved for the over-80s and care home residents, the Mail on Sunday reports.
Both are expected to accept the offer of the injection on the advice of their doctors.
The move is hoped to help the government’s attempts to combat misinformation about the vaccine spread by conspiracy theorists which could lead to a substantial proportion of the population refusing the jab.
California issues stay-at-home order for two most populous regions
California’s two most densely inhabited regions and its agricultural breadbasket will be under stay-at-home orders by Sunday night as the Covid-19 pandemic strains hospitals in the most populous US state, officials said.
Designed to kick in when intensive care units in any of five regions have little remaining capacity, the order affecting Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley will close bars, hair salons and barbershops, and allows restaurants to remain open only for takeout and delivery service.
CA has issued a Regional Stay at Home order to #StoptheSurge of #COVID19 cases & prevent a strain on our health care system. This will help protect critical care for patients. Let’s do our part. Wear a #mask. Don’t gather. Physically Distance. #StayHome . https://t.co/qkLdqIfYn2 pic.twitter.com/7orih0FKix
— California DDS (@CaliforniaDDS) December 5, 2020
The shutdowns, which go into effect at 11:59 pm Sunday, are triggered by an order announced Wednesday by governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.
The San Francisco Bay Area will also go into lockdown on Sunday night, under a different set of orders announced Friday by officials there.
“We know that people are tired of the stringent measures, but they are the only weapons we have to combat the virus,” said Dr. Maggie Park, public health officer in San Joaquin County, in the state’s hard-hit farming region.
More than 25,000 new cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in California on Friday, officials said on Saturday, a record since the pandemic began.
The state also recorded 209 deaths, bringing the total to 19,791, officials said.
Overall, the United States saw a record 228,407 new cases on Friday, and 2,568 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.
The Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge will begin a tour of Britain by train on Sunday, meeting frontline workers, care home staff and teachers to thank them for their efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Britain has been the hardest hit country in Europe by the coronavirus, with over 60,000 deaths.
Prince William, Queen Elizabeth’s grandson and second-in-line to the throne, and his wife Kate will ride the Royal Train, travelling 1,250 miles across England, Scotland and Wales.
“The Duke and Duchess are very much looking forward to shining a spotlight on the incredible work that has been done across the country throughout this difficult year,” Kensington Palace said in a statement.
“[They are also looking forward] to sharing their gratitude on behalf of the nation for all those supporting their local communities ahead of the Christmas holidays.”
In Greece, health authorities say infection rates have continued to drop today, but not enough to ease the pressure on intensive care units in the country.
Confirmed coronavirus cases fell from 1,667 on Friday to 1,383 on Saturday, but there was only a marginal decrease in patients requiring intubation from 612 to 594 over the same 24-hour period. The death toll for both days was 98.
After faring comparatively well during the first wave of the pandemic, Greece has been hit by a surge of infections during the second wave that is proving far more difficult to handle.
With the hoped-for flattening of the curve taking much longer than anticipated, epidemiologists have increasingly sounded the alarm over easing restrictions despite the nation being under lockdown since 7 November. Heavy viral loads in the north of the country especially have put hospitals under extreme pressure.
Mathematical models predict the slow reduction rates continuing through to the end of the year, when daily infections are forecast to fall to around 770, still far above the 500 benchmark figure the centre-right government had set as a target to reopen the economy.
Environmental health engineer Dimosthenis Sarigiannis said it would be “premature” to relax restrictions when data showed confirmed coronavirus cases likely to hover around an estimated 1,475 on 8 December and 1,100 on 15 December.
“The case numbers are not in keeping with the goal set by the minister of health, Vassilis Kikilias, which was 500 cases to open the market,” Sarigiannis a professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki told SKAI. “Our simulations show that if shops open and measures are not upheld, 15 to 20 days later we will see a resurgence. Consequently, any opening would be premature.”
The lockdown was extended through to 14 December this week. Speaking earlier on Saturday, Stelios Petsas, the government spokesman, said plans were afoot to set up 1,018 vaccination centres with the aim of immunising two million people a month.
The vaccination programme is scheduled to begin on 11 January, he told Mega TV on Saturday, warning that travel between prefectures in Greece over the Christmas holidays “seems very difficult”.
The latest data showed that the virus “has left urban centres and been transmitted to villages and small towns”, he said.
Updated
The coronavirus pandemic has made life difficult for a lot of people in the Czech Republic – and that includes St Nicholas, writes the Associated Press.
Every year on 5 December, Nicholas appears in costume on streets across the European country, joined by a winged angel and a masked devil rattling a metal chain.
The trio goes door-to-door visiting children and giving them candy and small gifts, if they have been well-behaved. If not, the devil threatens to put the girls and boys in his sack and take them directly to hell - unless the angel intervenes.
The Czech health minister insisted the traditional trio needed to follow the government’s infection-control measures just like everyone else, which meant wearing masks and practicing social distancing.
A new circus company in Prague offered another option on Saturday. The troupe set up an imaginary heaven and hell and invited families to come in cars to watch devils jumping, angels flying and Saint Nicholas waving.
A long line of cars at the La Putyka Circus base in Prague formed an eager audience for the drive-thru performance. The kids still hoped to find a stocking filled with chocolates, oranges and nuts on a window, but with the angel, devil and Nicholas in town, they know it won’t be long until Christmas.
Argentina has passed a one-time wealth tax in order to raise money to help pay for medical supplies and financial relief packages during the coronavirus pandemic.
The “millionaire’s tax”, which targets people with assets worth more than 200m pesos (£1.8m), passed in the Senate by 42 votes to 26 on Friday.
The South American country has recorded almost 1.5 million infections and nearly 40,000 deaths from the coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Fast-tracked vaccine approval could loosen UK Covid restrictions before March
The British health secretary Matt Hancock said on Saturday that the coronavirus vaccine could bring the loosening of restrictions before the end of March.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Matt Hancock said he “can’t wait [...] to get back to living by mutual respect and personal responsibility, not laws set in Parliament”.
It marks a change in rhetoric and tone from Hancock, who until now has been regarded as one of the British government’s strongest proponents of the strictest possible measures.
He added: “There’s no doubt that having the vaccine early... will bring forward the moment when we can get rid of these blasted restrictions, but until then we have got to follow them. Help is on its way.”
The first vaccinations were being shipped to 50 locations around the UK this weekend, and millions of vaccine doses from Pfizer will be available in the country before the end of the year.
The government hopes to vaccinate more than half of the vulnerable people who need a jab by the end of February.
Brazil reported 43,209 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 664 deaths from Covid-19, the health ministry said on Saturday.
The South American country has now registered 6,577,177 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 176,628, according to ministry data, in the world’s third worst outbreak outside the United States and India.
Kuwaitis hoping for reform went to the polls on Saturday in a parliamentary election overshadowed by Covid-19, with facilities laid on so citizens infected with the disease could vote in special polling stations.
The oil-rich emirate has enforced some of the strictest regulations in the Gulf to combat the spread of the virus, imposing a months-long lockdown earlier this year.
While some of those curbs have been eased, masks remain mandatory outdoors and temperature checks routine, AFP reports.
On Saturday, authorities set up security barriers around the country’s 102 polling stations to prevent gatherings, with designated lanes for entry and exit.
Mask-clad voters, who were also forced to wear gloves, were subject to temperature checks before entering the facilities where election officials stood behind glass barriers.
The polls were the first since the new emir, Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, took office in September following the death of his half-brother, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, at the age of 91.
Unlike other oil-rich Gulf states, Kuwait has a lively political life and its parliament, elected for four-year terms, enjoys wide legislative powers.
But with more than 144,000 novel coronavirus cases to date, including 889 deaths, the election campaign has been toned down.
Yet the normal themes have remained: promises to fight corruption and address youth employment, along with debates over freedom of expression, housing, education and the thorny issue of the stateless “bidoon” minority.
Some Kuwaitis have expressed their desire for change and reform in their country, where 70 percent of the 4.8 million population are foreigners.
Coronavirus infections across the US continue to rise as the country moves deeper into a holiday season, the Associated Press reports.
A new daily high of nearly 228,000 additional confirmed Covid-19 cases was reported nationwide Friday, eclipsing the previous high mark of 217,000 cases set the day before, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The seven-day rolling average of Covid-19 attributable deaths in the US passed 2,000 for the first time since spring, rising to 2,011.
Two weeks ago, the seven-day average was 1,448. There were 2,607 deaths reported in the US on Friday.
Several states saw surging numbers in the week after Thanksgiving, when millions of Americans disregarded warnings to stay home and celebrate only with members of their household.
In Arizona, health officials’ public messaging took on a blunt tone Saturday as the state reported the second-highest daily increase since the pandemic’s start and the outbreak’s fall surge continued to elevate occupancy rates of increasingly stressed hospitals closer to capacity.
The Arizona Department of Health Services said in a tweet that people should wear masks “around anyone who isn’t a member of your household, even those you know and trust”.
The state’s 6,799 new confirmed Covid-19 cases trailed only the 10,322 new cases reported on Tuesday, which officials have said included data delayed by the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
The week saw a total of four daily reports of over 5,000 additional confirmed cases.
North Carolina reported a record increase in confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, with 6,018 new cases.
“In less than a week, we went from exceeding 5,000 new cases reported in one day to exceeding 6,000,” said Dr Mandy Cohen, the state’s health secretary. “This is very worrisome.”
Indiana’s health department said Saturday that 7,793 more people in the state had been diagnosed with COVID-19 over the previous day. And Oklahoma recorded 4,370 newly reported coronavirus cases Saturday, with the state’s seven-day rolling average of new cases topping 3,000 per day.
Michigan reported 9,854 new confirmed cases Saturday, up from more than 8,600 new cases Friday.
“We continue to be concerned about the potential implications of the travel we have seen in the past week with Thanksgiving, as well as social gathering related to the holidays,” said Dr. Adnan Munkarah, executive vice president and chief clinical officer for Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.
In Boise, Idaho, soldiers were triaging patients in the parking lot of an urgent care clinic revamped into a facility for coronavirus patients as infections and deaths surge there.
Health officials say Idaho’s attempt to hold the coronavirus in check is failing.
Officials fear a post-Thanksgiving surge of infections that could force difficult choices about what to do with patients when there’s no more room or anyone available to treat them.
California’s San Joaquin Valley, facing with a dire shortage of hospital beds, was placed under a sweeping new lockdown Saturday in an urgent attempt to slow the rapid rise of coronavirus cases.
Much of the state, including Southern California, is on the brink of the same restrictions.
Updated
A further 315 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 42,194, NHS England said on Saturday.
Patients were aged between 32 and 103. All except seven, aged between 64 and 96, had known underlying health conditions.
The deaths were between 13 April and 4 December.
Twenty-two other deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
France recorded 12,923 new infections on Saturday, up from Friday’s 11,221 and bucking a general month-long downward trend.
The country reported on Saturday that the number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 fell again, and now stands at 26,070.
Another 214 people were reported to have died in the past 24 hours, compared to Friday’s death toll of 284.
Updated
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday reported 14,255,535 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 214,099 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 2,439 to 277,825.
The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as Covid-19, caused by coronavirus, as of 4 pm ET on 4 December versus its previous report a day earlier.
2000 football fans in London have started watching the first Premier League game to allow fans into a ground since March.
At 5:30pm local time, the game between West Ham and Manchester United kicked off at the London Stadium, after the ban on fans entering stadiums was lifted on 2 December.
The stadium is in east London, which is in Tier 2 of the country’s three tier coronavirus restrictions system.
Clubs in Tier 1 can allow up to 4,000 supporters in their grounds, while sides in Tier 2 can welcome up to 2,000, Sky reports.
Matches that take place in Tier 3 areas must still be played behind closed doors.
This means Manchester United is not yet to be able to welcome fans back to their grounds.
Updated
Italy reported 21,052 new infections on Saturday, down from 24,099 the previous day, as well as 662 new coronavirus deaths, the health ministry said.
On Friday, the country recorded 814 deaths from the virus.
Italy has seen 59,514 Covid-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February, the second highest toll in Europe after Britain.
It has also registered 1.71 million cases to date, Reuters reports.
There were 194,984 swabs carried out in the past day, down from a previous 212,741, the ministry said.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19 stood at 30,158 on Saturday, down 1,042 from the day before.
There were 192 new admissions to intensive care units, while the number of intensive care patients decreased by 50 to 3,517, reflecting those who died or were discharged after recovery.
When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic was accelerating fast in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by around 1,000 per day, while intensive care occupancy was increasing by about 100 per day.
Updated
Portugal will ease coronavirus rules over the Christmas period to allow people to visit friends and family but measures will be reinforced again a few days later to crack down on New Year’s Eve parties, the government said on Saturday.
The prime minister, Antonio Costa, told reporters that a domestic travel ban would not be imposed between 23 and 26 December but said movement between Portuguese regions would be prohibited again on New Year’s Eve, Reuters reports.
No street parties will be allowed on 31 December, outdoor gatherings will be limited to a maximum of six people and everyone must be home by 2am, Costa said.
Updated
Turkey reports record daily death toll
Turkey has reported a record high in new deaths from Covid-19 on Saturday, with 196 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Turkey recorded 31,896 new cases, some of them asymptomatic, in the same period, the health ministry said.
This is down from Friday’s 32,736, the highest daily number reported by Ankara since the beginning of the pandemic in March.
The country’s total death toll now stands at 14,705.
Updated
Britain reported 15,539 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday and 397 new deaths within 28 days of a positive test result, both falls on the previous day’s figures.
On Friday, the country recorded 16,298 new infections.
Updated
Summary
-
UK Labour leader Keir Starmer is self-isolating. The leader of the opposition is self-isolating after a member of his private office tested positive for coronavirus, the Labour party has said. “Keir is well and not showing any symptoms. He will now be working from home,” a spokesman said.
- Iran’s total death toll from coronavirus surpassed 50,000. The worst-hit Middle Eastern country recorded 321 new deaths recorded on Saturday, the health ministry said, as the number of cases reached 1,028,986.
- Russia began vaccinating the Moscow’s exposed groups with the country’s Sputnik V Covid-19 jab. It marked the country’s first large-scale immunisation against the disease, the city’s coronavirus taskforce said. The Russian-made vaccine will first be made available to doctors and other medical workers, teachers and social workers because they run the highest risk of exposure to the disease. Russia reported a record high of 28,782 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, including 7,993 in Moscow, taking the national total to 2,431,731 since the pandemic began.
- The World Health Organization has said that vaccines are no magic bullet for the coronavirus crisis. The WHO said it was erroneous to believe that the Covid-19 crisis is over because jabs are on the horizon, nearly a year after the start of the pandemic that has killed 1.5 million people.
- A senior UK government adviser has defended mass use of rapid turnaround tests for coronavirus amid concerns a high level of “false negatives” is giving people a misplaced sense of reassurance. Government figures released earlier this week from Liverpool, where the mass rollout of the lateral flow tests was first piloted, showed that they missed half of all cases and a third of those with a high viral load who were likely to be the most infectious.
Updated
Initial supplies of the Covid vaccine have arrived in Scotland and are on track to be administered on Tuesday, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has tweeted.
Some positive news - initial supplies of the Covid vaccine have now arrived safely in Scotland and are being stored securely. The first vaccinations are on track to be administered on Tuesday 🙏
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) December 5, 2020
Updated
UK Labour leader Keir Starmer is self-solating
The British Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, is self-isolating after a member of his private office tested positive for coronavirus, the party has said.
“Keir is well and not showing any symptoms. He will now be working from home,” a spokesman said.
Keir Starmer is self-isolating after a member of staff tested positive for Covid. He hasn’t got symptoms and will work from home until his isolation ends on December 16th pic.twitter.com/RbqxpDkvaF
— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) December 5, 2020
Updated
I’m in the West End where London mayor Sadiq Khan is causing a bit of excitement among shoppers in Carnaby Street on his walking tour to promote retailers hard hit by lockdowns
Retailers have had a horrendous nine months - London Mayor @sadiqkhan taking to the press now during a walk about to promote retailing in the West End pic.twitter.com/U8KaOODshj
— Jason Rodrigues (@RodriguesJasonL) December 5, 2020
Updated
Moscow began vaccinating the city’s exposed groups with Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 jab via 70 clinics on Saturday, marking the country’s first large-scale immunisation against the disease, the city’s coronavirus taskforce said.
The Russian-made vaccine will first be made available to doctors and other medical workers, teachers and social workers because they run the highest risk of exposure to the disease.
“You are working at an educational institution and have top-priority for the Covid-19 vaccine, free of charge,” read a phone text message received by one Muscovite, an elementary school teacher, early on Saturday and seen by Reuters.
Vladimir Putin has ordered a nationwide voluntary vaccination programme to begin next week. He said Russia will have produced 2m vaccine doses within the next few days.
The head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, said in an interview with the BBC on Friday that Russia expects to give the vaccine to about 2 million people this month.
“Over the first five hours, 5,000 people signed up for the jab – teachers, doctors, social workers, those who are today risking their health and lives the most,” Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, wrote on his personal website on Friday.
Russia has already vaccinated more than 100,000 high-risk people, the health minister, Mikhail Murashko, said this week during a presentation to the UN about Sputnik V.
Updated
The World Health Organization has said that vaccines are no magic bullet for the coronavirus crisis, as Russia started inoculating its high-risk workers on Saturday and other countries geared up for similar programmes.
The WHO said it was erroneous to believe that the Covid-19 crisis is over because jabs are on the horizon, nearly a year after the start of the pandemic that has killed 1.5 million people.
“Vaccines do not equal zero Covid,” said the WHO’s emergencies director, Michael Ryan, adding that not everyone will be able to receive it early next year.
“Vaccination will add a major, major, powerful tool to the toolkit that we have. But by themselves, they will not do the job.”
The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also cautioned against the “growing perception that the pandemic is over” with the virus still spreading fast, putting enormous pressure on hospitals and health care workers.
Health officials in Moscow said they had opened 70 coronavirus vaccine centres in the Russian capital that would initially offer jabs for health, education and social workers.
The WHO caution came as the United States clocked a record number of Covid-19 cases for the second day in a row on Friday, with the country preparing for what the US president-elect, Joe Biden, has called a “dark winter”.
America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended “universal face mask use” indoors and Biden said he would scale down his January inauguration ceremony to mitigate the virus risk.
It comes as countries prepare for the approval and rollout of several vaccines that have proven effective in trials.
Updated
The number of people to die of Covid-19 in Iran surpassed 50,000 on Saturday, with more than a million infected, although transmission rates in the Middle East’s worst-affected country were slowing, state TV reported.
Turkey has entered its first full weekend lockdown since May after coronavirus infections and deaths hit record highs in recent days.
The country of 83 million people on Friday recorded 32,736 new cases, including asymptomatic ones, the highest number since the beginning of the pandemic in March.
Updated
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An entire Virgin Airways flight to Melbourne has been advised to isolate at home after two travellers failed to quarantine in Sydney.
AFP reports:
The Department of Health and Human Services said that anyone who travelled on Virgin Airways flight VA 838 from Sydney at midday AEDT and arriving in Melbourne at 1.25pm on Saturday should “immediately quarantine at home and contact DHHS”.
The two travellers are now in mandatory quarantine in Victoria after arriving in Sydney from overseas earlier on Saturday.
“Anyone who has been at the Melbourne airport domestic terminal on Saturday afternoon is advised to monitor for Covid-19 symptoms and to seek testing if symptoms develop,” the department said. Meanwhile, a change to mask rules and increased social gathering caps are expected to be announced for Victoria on Sunday.
Chief health officer Brett Sutton has indicated it will be safe for the state to move to a “Covid normal” level of restrictions.
Victoria has been free of locally transmitted coronavirus cases for more than a month and with no active cases, has effectively eradicated the virus. Under the government’s original roadmap out of lockdown, “Covid normal” signifies a final easing of attendance restrictions on community sport, hospitality venues, gatherings and visitors to the home.
Prof Sutton said authorities were still working through details before premier Daniel Andrew’s Sunday news conference but confirmed advice around masks, which currently must be worn in indoor settings, would change.
“We will move to a phase where there is an even more limited use of masks in public,” he told the parliament’s public accounts and estimates committee on Friday.
Updated
Jeffrey Merrihue had just finished installing $80,000 worth of dining booths on the street outside his informal Italian eatery blocks away from the Pacific Ocean when word came down that Los Angeles county was instituting a three-week ban on outdoor dining.
Not only was he not amused – he thought the decision was misguided and desperately unfair.
“Are you kidding me?” Merrihue said, sitting in one of the booths that the city of Santa Monica encouraged him to build on a line of metered parking spots. “I have to close outdoor dining, while people are mobbing indoor malls? When supermarket shoppers are passing inches away from each other and coughing on the broccoli? It’s a ridiculous double standard.”
Southern California’s warm winter weather and plentiful outdoor space should, in theory, act as a buffer against the virus’s worst ravages. The data, though, tells a different story.
Los Angeles county, with a population of 10 million people the most populous in the country, reported more than 7,800 new cases on Thursday, up from 6,000 new cases the day before and up alarmingly from mid-October, when the daily case rate was below 2,000. The number of people in hospital, meanwhile, has surged from about 1,000 a month ago to more than 2,500. Local officials fear they could run out of hospital beds by Christmas.
Updated
Germany’s highest court upheld on Saturday a ban on a demonstration in the northern city of Bremen planned by opponents of lockdown measures aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus, Reuters reports.
Lower courts had already denied permission for the protest, planned for Saturday afternoon, at which 20,000 demonstrators were due to convene in the city centren.
Last month, German police unleashed water cannon and pepper spray in an effort to scatter thousands of protesters in Berlin angry about coronavirus restrictions.
Although most Germans accept the latest “lockdown light” to curb the spread of the coronavirus in a second wave, critics say the amendment endangers citizens’ civil rights.
Updated
Iran’s total death toll from coronavirus surpassed 50,000
Iran’s total death toll from coronavirus surpassed 50,000 on Saturday with 321 new fatalities recorded in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said, as the number of cases in the Middle East’s worst-affected country reached 1,028,986, Reuters reports.
Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV that 12,181 people had been infected with the coronavirus since Friday. The death toll now stands at 50,016.
A senior UK government adviser has defended mass use of rapid turnaround tests for coronavirus amid concerns a high level of “false negatives” is giving people a misplaced sense of reassurance, PA Media reports.
Government figures released earlier this week from Liverpool - where the mass rollout of the lateral flow tests was first piloted - showed they missed half of all cases and a third of those with a high viral load who were likely to be the most infectious.
It led to calls from some scientists for their use to be suspended amid fears some people who tested negative would go on to mix with others who may be more vulnerable because they wrongly believed they did not have the disease.
Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser to NHS test and trace, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:
What we are doing here is case detection. We are not saying people do not have the disease if their test is negative.
We are trying to say (to people who test positive): ‘You do have the disease and now we want you to go and isolate for ten days’. That is a whole different game-changer.
We have been very clear that this test finds people we couldn’t otherwise find. We are also very clear that until we get a much lower prevalence of disease in this country that we shouldn’t be changing our behaviours.
Updated
Moscow’s coronavirus taskforce said on Saturday it was distributing the Sputnik V vaccine to 70 clinics, marking Russia’s first mass Covid-19 immunisation, Reuters reports.
The taskforce said the Russian-made vaccine would be made available first to doctors and other medical workers, teachers and social workers because they ran the highest risk of exposure to the disease.
“You are working at an educational institution and have top-priority for the Covid-19 vaccine, free of charge,” read a text message received by one Muscovite, a school teacher, early on Saturday.
“Over the first five hours, 5,000 people signed up for the jab – teachers, doctors, social workers, those who are today risking their health and lives the most,” the mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, wrote on his personal website on Friday.
You can read more in the link below.
Updated
Ada Colau, the mayor of Barcelona, has written an opinion piece for the Guardian calling for a green revolution after Covid.
She wrote:
The pandemic will leave behind a very different world from that of a year ago. Thousands of people have died; entire industries have been brought to the brink; welfare states have been shaken. In the coming years, the major challenge facing all public leaders will be charting a path of recovery through the devastating human, social and economic marks that Covid-19 has left on our societies.
But rather than redoubling on the fragile world of the pre-pandemic age, we should be taking advantage of this moment to build one that is more just, balanced and sustainable.
Cities will play a key role in this process. Barcelona and its metropolitan area want to lead the response to one of the toughest situations that humanity has faced in modern times. Achieving this will mean tackling two interrelated challenges. We need to continue the fight against the climate crisis, spurred by the European Green Deal. And we will need to boost the post-Covid economy through green technologies, sustainable industry and transport.
You can read more by clicking the link below.
Updated
Russia reported a record high of 28,782 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, including 7,993 in Moscow, taking the national total to 2,431,731 since the pandemic began, Reuters reports.
The UK’s Department of Health and Social Care has released the following clip in conjunction with government scientific advisers to remind the public to follow the core behaviours of “Hands, Face, Space” and ensuring indoor spaces are well ventilated to protect each other.
Updated
Doctors in England have been told to start staffing Covid-19 vaccination centres by mid-December
GP surgeries in England have been told to be ready to start staffing Covid-19 vaccination centres by 14 December, PA reports
In a letter sent out across England’s primary care networks, NHS England and NHS Improvement warned the “scale and complexity” of the immunisation programme would make it “one of the greatest challenges the NHS has ever faced”.
The letter was signed by Dr Nikita Kanani, medical director for primary care at NHS England and NHS Improvement, and Ed Waller, director of primary care. “It is crucial we start to activate local vaccination services to allow priority patient cohorts to start accessing the vaccine,” it said.
The vaccination sites must be ready to administer 975 doses of the vaccine to priority patients within three and a half days of delivery on 14 December.
Speed is of the essence with the vaccine, as it is usually stored at -70C and will only remain stable at fridge temperatures of between 2C-8C for a limited period. There are 975 doses in each of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine packs, which has posed a logistical problem of how they can be broken up and distributed to other key sites, such as care homes.
The first people to receive the vaccine in the centres will be those aged 80 and over, as long as their other risk factors, “clinical or otherwise”, have been taken into account.
Updated
Hi, I’m Aamna Mohdin and I’ll be taking over the liveblog for the rest of the day. If you want to get in touch, you can email me (aamna.mohdin@theguardian.com) or message me on Twitter (@aamnamohdin)
This is Graham Readfearn in Brisbane, Australia, handing over the live coronavirus blogging duties to Aamna Mohdin in London (10,200 miles away).
Stay safe folks. Wash your hands and don’t touch your face.
Authorities in South Korea are urging people there to be extra vigilant as coronavirus infections in recent days hit levels not seen since early March.
Reuters reports that coronavirus clusters have broken out in the capital Seoul.
The country’s disease control and prevention agency on Saturday reported 583 new cases, down from Friday’s figure of 629 – the highest since the first wave peaked.
South Korea had early success in controlling the virus, and its citizens are waiting to hear from the government on Sunday if further restrictions need to be introduced.
Daily cases averaged 487 this week – up 80 from the previous week. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency official Lim Sook-young said:
The recent outbreaks are small, multiple and is spread in people’s everyday lives. Please keep in mind that the current wave is not limited to a specific group or place but may be around our homes, family and acquaintances.
Seoul accounted for 235 of the new infections. More than half of South Korea’s 52 million people live in the capital and surrounding areas.
South Korea has reported 36,915 coronavirus infections and 540 deaths during the pandemic, the KDCA said.
Updated
Just a reminder the Guardian’s data journalists are constantly tracking the coronavirus pandemic, producing a range of visualisations to help you see what’s happening and where.
If you want to see detailed maps and charts for the UK, US and Australia, we have all of those, as well as maps and charts for countries around the world.
Chief medical officers in the UK have warned a newly approved coronavirus vaccine won’t come quickly enough to save the country from an “especially hard” winter.
On Wednesday the UK became the first country in the world to approve a vaccine after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine:
Updated
Authorities in New Jersey are investigating a political fundraising gala held at a venue earlier this week and organised by a neighbouring New York Republican group.
Photos and video from the New York Republican Club event showed attendees, including Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, tightly grouped.
On Saturday New Jersey recorded 5,673 new cases of coronavirus – the highest daily case count since the start of the pandemic, according to the government’s data:
Updated
Germany records 23,318 new Covid cases
Germany has seen a further 23,318 cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, the country’s infectious disease centre the Robert Koch Institute has said.
In reporting from Reuters, the institute also reported 483 deaths from the disease, taking the country’s death toll from the pandemic to 18,517.
Updated
People in Australia’s remote Northern Territory have been using the territory government’s new official app to check in to places they’ve visited.
More than 31,000 people have downloaded “The Territory Check In” app, using it 27,600 times with 1,420 venues generating QR codes to use with the app.
The system helps health officials trace people who may have come into contact with the coronavirus, AAP reports.
The Northern Territory has only recorded 60 coronavirus cases, all linked to returned travellers.
It currently has 13 active cases. All were acquired overseas and are in quarantine.
Updated
So if you had to drive someone with coronavirus in a car, where’s the best place for them to sit?
To reduce the chances of catching the virus, would you throw all the windows open, just open one, or keep them all closed. And where should they sit?
Four scientists in the US have modelled the air-flow inside a passenger car to see what the best configuration would be.
The answer, revealed in their scientific paper in the journal ScienceAdvances, is to keep all the windows open and have the passenger sat in the rear passenger-side seat. Basically, as far away from the other person as possible.
The scientists modelled the air-flow inside a hatchback car equipped with air-conditioning travelling at 50mph (80km/h) under different configurations.
A plain-language explanation of the study says:
Traveling with three open windows fared better than only two open windows, but the researchers found that choosing which window to close may in fact matter a great deal. In scenarios that simulated either an infected driver or an infected passenger, closing only the window closest to the non-infected person conferred the greatest protection, second only to the scenario with all four windows open.
Updated
Thanks to Mel Davey. I’ll take you through the next few hours of live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dominating news today has been the state of play in the United States, where more than 213,830 new cases of Covid-19 and 2,861 deaths were reported overnight.
That’s the worst day for the US since the pandemic began.
Thanks for joining me for our coverage of the latest Covid-19 news from around the world. I am now handing the blog over to my lovely colleague Graham Readfearn to take you through the next few hours.
I am thinking of all of our readers in lockdown at the moment, and unable to be with loved ones. It will be a particularly difficult holiday season and end to the year for so many. And I can’t imagine how hard it must be for all those essential workers who have little choice but to keep going. Stay as safe as you can everyone.
Man. Premier Brian Pallister made an emotional plea to residents to stay apart over the holidays, but also issued a warning: "If you don't think COVID is real, right now, you are an idiot."
— CTV News (@CTVNews) December 3, 2020
More here: https://t.co/Zny2NHOI7d pic.twitter.com/G6fHOPPehc
Updated
Dr Charlotte Summers, a lecturer in intensive care medicine at the University of Cambridge, writes though the vaccine is being rolled out quickly in the UK, there is every reason to trust it.
The greatest remaining challenge is whether we are all willing to accept and trust the vaccine. Some worry that, in order to have made a vaccine so fast, corners must have been cut. But they really haven’t been. Others have been concerned that mRNA vaccines represent a new technology that could potentially alter the DNA of the recipient – again, this is untrue.
It’s certainly the case that vaccines have taken years to develop in the past, but most of that time was often not spent undertaking clinical trials, but raising the money for trials to take place, negotiating contracts and applying for regulatory approval. Historic vaccine trials have rarely taken place during a pandemic like this one, while millions of people are being exposed to infection on a daily basis and thousands of them are keen to participate in trials.
Despite the many horrors of 2020, there have been benefits – we have learned that if you divert an almost limitless amount of funding and focus a large proportion of the world’s scientists, regulatory bodies and other critical infrastructure towards a single endeavour, you can achieve extraordinary things very fast.
For me, the question is not how have we managed to achieve a vaccination for Covid-19 in such a short period of time, but rather: why have we not yet managed to make the same impact on diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV and malaria, which have been killing millions of people for many years? And what could happen if we turned this urgent global effort towards the other challenges we face – such as environmental breakdown, or the insidious creep of antimicrobial resistance?
Read her full piece here:
Updated
In news that will make many of those in Victoria, Australia, rejoice, after coming out of a harsh and lengthy lockdown in recent weeks:
BREAKING NEWS: After 8 months, the @Bunnings sausage sizzle is back across metro Melbourne #thatisall @BunningsSausage pic.twitter.com/Fth7QCEWUV
— Teegan Dolling (@tdolling) December 4, 2020
Not since Paul Hogan said he’d “stick anothe shrimp on the barbie” has there been so much anticipation for a BBQ! The famous @Bunnings sausage sizzle is back after an 8 month absence in #Melbourne. Details @9NewsMelb at 6pm 🌭 pic.twitter.com/Ky0TbsLEiB
— Allan Raskall (@AllanRaskall) December 5, 2020
Updated
Well this is sobering.
US #COVID19 cases:
— Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (@JHSPH_CHS) December 4, 2020
1st case to 1M - 96 days
1 to 2M- 44 days
2 to 3M- 27 days
3 to 4M - 15 days
4 to 5M - 17 days
5 to 6M - 22 days
6 to 7M - 25 days
7 to 8M - 21 days
8 to 9M - 14 days
9 to 10M- 10 days
10 to 11M- 7 days
11 to 12M- 5 days
12 to 13M- 7 days
13 to 14M - 5 days
Victoria set to establish 'Covid normal'
AAP reports that a change to mask rules and increased social gathering caps are expected to be announced for Victoria on Sunday.
Chief health officer Brett Sutton has indicated it will be safe for the Australian state to move to a ‘Covid normal’ level of restrictions. Victoria has been free of locally transmitted coronavirus cases for more than a month and with no active cases, has effectively eradicated the virus.
Under the government’s original roadmap out of lockdown, ‘Covid normal’ signifies a final easing of attendance restrictions on community sport, hospitality venues, gatherings and visitors to the home. Prof Sutton said authorities were still working through details ahead of premier Daniel Andrew’s Sunday press conference but confirmed advice around masks, which currently must be worn in indoor settings, will change.
I’m confident there’s not active transmission in Victoria but we have to maintain alertness. Not fear, but a precautionary approach and readiness to respond. With 600,000 new cases globally each day, the risk is always there. We must - and will - strengthen quarantine.
— Chief Health 🍩fficer, Victoria (@VictorianCHO) November 27, 2020
We will move to a phase where there is an even more limited use of masks in public,” he told the parliament’s public accounts and estimates committee on Friday. “But the recommendation for mask-wearing still exists around Australia, even in places where it hasn’t been mandated at all.”
Hospitality and entertainment venues are expected to continue record-keeping of patrons, as will the real estate industry, as part of what the government often also calls a ‘Covid safe summer’.
Wedding, funerals and religious gatherings will be allowed to go ahead with bigger attendances. It is unclear what the various attendance caps will be, if any.
Victoria recorded its 36th consecutive day on Saturday of no new virus cases. The impressive zero-case run is about to be put to the test as international arrivals, initially capped at 160 per day, resume.
Five international flights from Colombo, Doha, Hong Kong and Singapore are scheduled to arrive at Melbourne Airport on Monday, marking the start of the state’s revamped hotel quarantine program.
International flights were diverted from Victoria in June after security guards at two quarantine hotels contracted Covid-19. The outbreaks sparked the state’s second wave, which resulted in more than 18,000 infections and 800 deaths.
The government announced on Friday it will introduce legislation to charge for the mandatory 14-day quarantine. The fees will be set at $3,000 per adult, $1,000 for each additional adult in a room and $500 for children aged between three and 18 years. There will be no charge for children under three.
The government has said the payments put Victoria in line with other states and territories but that there will also be hardship considerations including fee waivers, reductions and payment plan options.
There will be no security guards involved in the new-look program, with all staff employed or directly contracted by the government with the exception of cleaning staff, who are on fixed-term contracts with Alfred Health. Hundreds of Victoria police officers will act as security as well as undertake floor monitoring in “health hotels”, which will house those travellers who test positive to Covid-19.
Australian Defence Force personnel will support Victoria police by helping guests on entry and exit, as well as registering staff movements and conducting temperature checks. Some ADF members have arrived at their post already, with more to come next week.
Updated
In the US, Los Angeles reported a record 8,860 new coronavirus cases overnight.
Mayor Eric Garcetti held a grim press briefing, stating:
If we stay on this case trajectory, LA is projected to reach half a million cases by the years end ... one out of 20 people here.
If things don’t change by years end, the lives lost will surpass 11,000 deaths. That means 3,000 additional deaths in a single month. To put things in perspective, it’s a decade of homicides.
This is the greatest threat to life in Los Angeles that we have ever faced.
COVID-19 Daily Update:
— LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) December 5, 2020
December 4, 2020
New Cases: 8,860 (430,583 to date)
New Deaths: 60 (7,842 to date)
Current Hospitalizations: 2,668 pic.twitter.com/8bGZHemOlp
Updated
South Australia will resume accepting returned Australians on international flights from next week after arrivals were suspended because of a cluster of Covid-19 cases.
The so-called Parafield cluster was sparked when a worker at one of Adelaide’s quarantine hotels picked up the virus from someone who had returned from Britain. It prompted a major revamp of SA’s quarantine hotel system including a move to test all staff, including security guards, on a weekly basis.
The government put flights on hold for several weeks as it reinstated a range of restrictions and embarked on widespread contact tracing to bring the cluster under control.
Premier Steven Marshall said flights were clear to resume from next week but schedules were yet to be determined.
We are ready to take incoming flights from next week.
They could occur from Monday but those schedules haven’t been determined yet.
Any returned travellers found to be Covid-19 positive will be moved from hotel quarantine to a dedicated medical facility.
SA Health reported no new virus cases for the seventh day in a row on Saturday leaving the Parafield cluster at 33 with only seven of those considered active infections. About 230 people considered close contacts remain in isolation but that number is down from a peak of almost 6,000.
Meanwhile Victoria will begin accepting international flights from Monday. A dedicated agency has been established to manage the hotel quarantine program, after breaches in infection control in the program sparked the state’s second wave. Victoria on Saturday reported its 36th consecutive day of no new cases.
Updated
China’s National Health Commission has reported there were 17 new coronavirus cases there on Friday and no deaths, according to Reuters.
Some 15 of the cases were people returning to the country. China has so far recorded 86,601 cases of the disease and 4,634 deaths.
Updated
This is heartbreaking. Priscilla Alvarez from CNN reports more than 1,000 migrant children in US government custody have tested positive for coronavirus since March. She writes:
Of the 1,061 cases, 943 children have recovered and been moved from medical isolation. Currently, 118 children have tested positive and remain in medical isolation, though none of the children have required hospitalization.
Updated
Summary
Here is the key Covid-19 news you need to know from the past few hours:
- In the US more than 213,830 new cases of Covid-19 and 2,861 deaths were reported overnight. The figures set a new single-day record. Leaders are urging everyone to wear masks including indoors, while San Francisco will enter a strict lockdown from Sunday.
- Progress on Covid-19 vaccines is positive but the World Health Organization is concerned about a growing perception the pandemic has come to an end, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says. He says WHO also needs more funding to ensure the fair rollout of vaccines worldwide and “in the stampede for vaccines” rich countries must not trample on poorer ones.
- Bahrain has become the second nation to approve emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the state-run Bahrain News Agency has announced.
- A further 16,298 confirmed cases were announced in the UK on Friday.
- In New South Wales, Australia, where there have been fears of a new cluster after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive last week, no new cases of the virus were reported overnight.
Updated
Despite his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of US president Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, Dr Anthony Fauci is still working in hospital wards treating seriously ill Covid-19 patients.
When I got on the phone with Fauci, I asked him what schedule looked like that day. Here's his full answer. https://t.co/iuyMlwydNh pic.twitter.com/ihAAYXzjzv
— Jeffrey Young (@JeffYoung) December 3, 2020
Reuters reports that two people are now dying from Covid-19 every minute in the US. US leaders have urgently called on Americans to wear masks after coronavirus deaths set a single-day record on Friday. The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, located within the University of Minnesota, said s steady surge in new illnesses and people being tested after potential exposure over Thanksgiving is putting enormous pressure on labs.
Updated
In Canada, Alberta reported 1,828 new cases of the virus on Friday and 15 deaths.
Chief medical officer of health Dr Deena Hinshaw said Alberta’s positivity rate is now at 10.5%. “This is a grim milestone,” she said. Alberta now has more active virus cases than the other provinces and territories.
Ontario reported 1,780 new cases on Friday.
CBC News Canada has a good overview of the current situation here.
Here's another animated chart with two different COVID-19 variables in Alberta.
— Robson Fletcher (@CBCFletch) December 5, 2020
This one shows average new daily cases (blue) & number of patients in hospital (red) from March to present. pic.twitter.com/7Qdyknlj2b
Updated
No new coronavirus cases reported in South Australia for seventh day in a row
Good news for South Australia with no new cases reported overnight, but there are seven active cases linked to the Parafield cluster, and 232 people remain in quarantine.
The Parafield cluster remains a significant concern. The list of locations of concern related to that cluster can be found here.
South Australian COVID-19 update 5/12/20. For more information go to https://t.co/mYnZsGpayo or contact the South Australian COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787. pic.twitter.com/ULYOMjtpRH
— SA Health (@SAHealth) December 5, 2020
Updated
New South Wales’s Covid-19 management is back on track with the state overcoming a diagnosis hiccup, AAP reports.
Authorities on Saturday reported another 24-hour period without any locally-transmitted cases of coronavirus, and two diagnoses among international travellers in Sydney hotel quarantine.
The state has almost reached 30 days without a locally-transmitted case but the record nearly collapsed on Friday amid concerns a Sydney quarantine hotel cleaner had contracted the virus in the community.
But the woman’s infection is likely linked to her workplace, NSW Health said.
WATCH: Dr Stephen Corbett provides a COVID-19 update for Saturday 5 December 2020: https://t.co/0SR59K11Ri
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) December 5, 2020
The viral genome sequence from the recent Covid-19 case who works at a Sydney quarantine hotel complex does not match the virus strains seen in recent clusters in Australia.
The virus may be of US origin. The source of infection may be international aircrew who were self-isolating in the hotel at the time, however investigations are continuing.
Airline crews from overseas stay in quarantine hotels between flights and state and federal authorities are working to try and identify the crew member, who might have since left Australia.
Testing of the woman’s contacts is continuing but there have been no further positive results so far. Those who shared a train carriage with the woman are deemed close contacts and have also been asked to isolate for 14 days from their potential exposure.
The woman’s infection sparked widespread alarm on Thursday, with fears Western Australia could withdraw its promise to open its border to NSW and Victoria from Tuesday.
WA premier Mark McGowan said he will take the weekend to consider the situation.
Queensland authorities say its borders will remain open, after travel restrictions were lifted on Tuesday. There are 78 active cases of the virus across NSW.
Updated
Covid-19 the leading cause of US deaths
Covid-19 was ranked as the leading cause of death in the US in the past week, overtaking heart disease.
A 4 December report from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation states:
Daily reported cases in the last week increased to 165,200 per day on average compared to 145,900 the week before. The increase is likely greater given substantial reporting lags over the holiday weekend.
Important graph here from @IHME_UW's most recent modeling update. Even if rapid rollout of a vaccine is accomplished (blue), the most effective way of lowering the daily death count is with universal masking, as vaccine effects may not be felt until March.https://t.co/6qGzqd2o8x pic.twitter.com/Ff20xjqGTq
— Benjy Renton (@bhrenton) December 4, 2020
The report continues:
In our reference scenario, which represents what we think is most likely to happen, our model projects 539,000 cumulative deaths on 1 April, 2021. This represents 270,000 additional deaths from 30 November to 1 April. Daily deaths will peak at 3,000 in mid-January.
If universal mask coverage (95%) were attained in the next week, our model projects 66,000 fewer cumulative deaths compared to the reference scenario on 1 April, 2021.
#COVID19 is now the leading cause of death in the United States, surpassing ischemic heart disease and lung cancer. Details in our COVID-19 policy briefing: https://t.co/rxnSezeViU pic.twitter.com/TjHbCNRRYw
— Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) (@IHME_UW) December 4, 2020
Updated
The mayor of San Francisco on Friday ordered new lockdowns and business restrictions across the Bay Area in the face of the Covid-19 surge. It comes as the US recorded another record daily death toll of 2,800.
San Francisco, along with other Bay Area counties, is opting in to the Governor's regional Stay at Home Order effective Sunday at 10pm.
— London Breed (@LondonBreed) December 4, 2020
We're on pace to run out of hospital beds to care for patients the day after Christmas. We must turn this around now. https://t.co/F0qwFnCb9e
The changes will take effect on Sunday and until 4 January.
NSW records no new locally acquired cases of Covid-19
In Australia, the state of New South Wales recorded no new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. It follows a case being announced last week in a woman working in a quarantine hotel, the state’s first community case after 26 consecutive days of no community cases.
Two cases were reported overnight in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the start of the pandemic to 4,416.
The NSW department of health said on Saturday:
As reported yesterday afternoon, the viral genome sequence from the recent Covid-19 case who works at a Sydney quarantine hotel complex does not match the virus strains seen in recent clusters in Australia.
The virus may be of United States origin. The source of infection may be international aircrew who were self-isolating in the hotel at the time, however investigations are continuing.
NSW is working with Commonwealth agencies to identify potential Covid-19 cases among aircrew who stayed at the hotel, who may have since departed Australia.
Testing of close contacts of the case is continuing, with no further positive results. As previously reported, the case travelled on a number of train and light rail services between 27 and 30 November, including trains between Minto and Lidcombe and Lidcombe and Central, and light rail between Central and Capitol Square and Central and Convention. If you travelled on any of these routes on these dates, please visit the NSW Health website for further details of times.
Updated
The arrival of a vaccine should see coronavirus deaths in Britain reduce “significantly” by early next year but social mixing over Christmas could cause another spike before that, UK medical chiefs said Friday.
From AFP:
Britain on Wednesday gave emergency approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine and will begin the world’s first roll-out from next week.
“We think it likely that by spring the effects of vaccination will begin to be felt in reducing Covid admissions, attendances and deaths significantly but there are many weeks before we get to that stage,” the chief medical officers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said in a statement.
But the country’s health chiefs warned that vaccine deployment will have “only a marginal impact in reducing numbers coming into the health service with Covid over the next three months”.
The independent regulator authorised the first vaccine for use against COVID-19. This is excellent news and a step towards normality.
— Professor Chris Whitty (@CMO_England) December 2, 2020
It will take until spring until the vulnerable population who wish to are fully vaccinated. We can't lower our guard yethttps://t.co/nqe5CGI1v2
Deploying the vaccines “safely, rapidly and in a sequence which is most likely to reduce mortality” will also be “a very considerable logistical exercise,” they added.
The letter to health professionals said they should brace for more pressure on the system after Christmas, with social mixing rules relaxed over the festive period to allow three households to meet.
“The social mixing which occurs around Christmas may well put additional pressure on hospitals and general practice in the New Year and we need to be ready for that,” said the CMOs.
Britain has recorded more than 60,000 deaths of those testing positive for the virus, the worst toll in Europe.
While the daily death toll remains high, cases have been declining in recent days and the medical chiefs said hospital numbers are “likely to fall over the next few weeks” in most parts of the country.
Looking to the long term, they said coronavirus was not expected to disappear entirely, but it will be “substantially less important as a cause of mortality and morbidity”.
The letter was signed by CMO for England Chris Whitty, his counterpart in Scotland Gregor Smith, Frank Atherton in Wales, and Northern Ireland’s Michael McBride.
sobering reply from Chris Whitty, chief medical officer, asked what he'll be doing at Christmas:
— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) November 26, 2020
"I'll be on the wards."
Updated
From Associated Press:
Setting a sharp contrast with President Donald Trump, whose administration began with a fight over the size of his inaugural crowds, President-elect Joe Biden said on Friday he plans a scaled-back event for safety’s sake during the pandemic.
The Democratic former vice president said he does expect to be sworn in on 20 January on the platform already being constructed on the steps of the US Capitol, but wanted to avoid the crowds that typically gather on the National Mall and along Pennsylvania Avenue to view the ceremony and parade.
“My guess is there probably will not be a gigantic inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. But my guess is you’ll see a lot of virtual activity in states all across America, engaging even more people than before,” Biden said in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, where he is preparing his new administration.
Trump’s administration memorably began in January 2017 with then-spokesman Sean Spicer berating the news media for publishing photos that showed far smaller crowds than had gathered for President Barack Obama’s historic swearing in as the nation’s first Black president eight years earlier.
Biden said his staff is working with the same team that produced August’s largely online Democratic National Convention to plan a swearing-in that did not raise the risks of accelerating the spread of Covid-19, which has surged to a fresh record high in the United States.
“People want to celebrate,” said Biden. “People want to be able to say we’ve passed the baton. We’re moving on. Democracy has functioned.”
The ceremony typically begins with the outgoing president and the president-elect riding together from the White House to the Capitol. After the new president is sworn in, he rides back along Pennsylvania Avenue to assume his new duties while the former president departs, typically by helicopter.
Trump, who has refused to concede the election, has not said if he will attend the ceremony. Instead, according to a source familiar with the internal White House discussion, he is considering launching his bid to run again in 2024 that day. The pandemic has killed more than 273,000 people in the United States and cases and hospitalizations are surging as the winter months approach.
To everyone who is struggling, I promise you help is on the way. pic.twitter.com/uDcagQAJd2
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 4, 2020
Along with the US, Italy is facing a surge in Covid-19 cases and struggling to cope with the rising number of deaths.
Italy has imposed some of the harshest Christmas rules in Europe amid calls from some scientists for more sober festivities as it overcomes a severe second coronavirus wave and tries to avoid a third one.
The rules were signed on the day Italy registered its highest daily death toll – 993 – of the pandemic. At more than 58,000, the country has the most Covid-related deaths in mainland Europe and health officials say the tightening of restrictions is essential to prevent the sort of catastrophe the nation faced during the first wave in the spring.
The island kingdom of Bahrain has become the second nation in the world after the UK to grant an emergency-use authorisation for the coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
“Bahrain has approved the of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine that will be used for high-risk groups,” Bahrain’s National Health Regulatory Authority said. It is unclear how many doses have been purchased, or how soon vaccinations will begin.
Bahrain has reported more than 87,000 cases and almost 350 deaths.
From Associated Press, here is more detail on the address from UN health chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to the UN General Assembly’s first high-level session on the pandemic.
Ghebreyesus declared Friday that positive results from coronavirus vaccine trials mean the world “can begin to dream about the end of the pandemic,” but he said rich and powerful nations must not trample the poor and marginalised “in the stampede for vaccines.”
He cautioned that while the virus can be stopped, “the path ahead remains treacherous”. The pandemic has shown humanity at “its best and worst,” he said, pointing to “inspiring acts of compassion and self-sacrifice, breathtaking feats of science and innovation, and heartwarming demonstrations of solidarity, but also disturbing signs of self-interest, blame-shifting and divisions”.
Referring to the current upsurge in infections and deaths, Ghebreyesus said without naming any countries that “where science is drowned out by conspiracy theories, where solidarity is undermined by division, where sacrifice is substituted with self interest, the virus thrives, the virus spreads”.
He warned in a virtual address to the high-level meeting that a vaccine “will not address the vulnerabilities that lie at its root” including poverty, hunger, inequality and climate change, which he said must be tackled once the pandemic ends.
“We cannot and we must not go back to the same exploitative patterns of production and consumption, the same disregard for the planet that sustains all life, the same cycle of panic and meddling and the same divisive politics that fueled this pandemic,” he said.
On vaccines, Ghebreyesus said, “the light at the end of the tunnel is growing steadily brighter,” but vaccines “must be shared equally as global public goods, not as private commodities that widen inequalities and become yet another reason some people are left behind.”
He said WHO’s ACT-Accelerator program to quickly develop and distribute vaccines fairly “is in danger of becoming no more than a noble gesture” without major new funding. He said $4.3bn is needed immediately to lay the groundwork for mass procurement and delivery of vaccines and a further $23.9bn is required for 2021.
The world spends $7.5 trillion on health every year, almost 10% of global GDP, he said, but most of that money is spent in rich countries on treating disease rather than on “promoting and protecting health.”
“We need a radical rethink on the way we view and value health,” he said. “If the world is to avoid another crisis on this scale, investments in basic public health functions, especially primary health care, are essential, and all roads should lead to universal health coverage with a strong foundation of primary health care.”
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Hello and welcome to our coverage of the latest Covid-19 news from around the world. Melissa Davey here with you in Melbourne, Australia, to take you through the next several hours.
- World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that progress on vaccines “gives us all a lift and we can now start to see the light at the end of the tunnel”. However, he expressed concerned that there is “a growing perception that the pandemic is over” while in reality the virus is spreading fast in many areas, putting enormous pressure on hospitals and healthcare workers. The US is among the countries posting all-time highs in daily deaths this week along with Italy, which is undergoing a dramatic resurgence after it largely tamped down its earlier outbreak by enforcing a strict lockdown in the spring. The daily global death toll in recent weeks reached its highest rate since the virus emerged in China late last year.
- The US has averaged more than 1,800 deaths a day over the past week. President-elect Joe Biden has said the Trump administration’s plan for distributing an approved coronavirus vaccine to the public lacks important detail. Biden said on Friday that “there’s no detailed plan that we’ve seen” for how to get vaccines out of a container, into syringes and into people’s arms. He said he is working on an overall plan. He has asked government infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci to be part of his Covid-19 team and to serve as his chief medical adviser.
- French health authorities reported 11,221 new confirmed Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down from 12,696 on Thursday. The total number of infections rose to 2.29 million. France also reported 627 new deaths from coronavirus, including 282 in hospitals, compared with 324 in hospitals on Thursday.
- Brazil reported 46,884 additional cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 694 deaths from Covid-19, the health ministry said.
- In the UK, where the vaccine will be rolled out first, GP surgeries and primary care networks have been told to be ready to start running Covid-19 vaccination centres by 14 December. A letter sent to all surgeries and primary care leads from NHS England and NHS Improvement said the “scale and complexity” of the vaccination program would make it “one of the greatest challenges the NHS has ever faced”.
- In Australian news, the state of Victoria has recorded its 36th consecutive day of no new cases of the virus. There remain no active cases of the virus in the state. It’s a remarkable achievement, given the state faced upwards of 700 new cases a day in August, and has experienced upwards of 800 virus deaths, most of those during the second wave. A strict lockdown and the efforts of Victorians adhering to the lockdown rules also prevented the virus from significantly affecting other states and territories.
- In the neighbouring Australian state of New South Wales the health minister, Brad Hazzard, has said it may be an issue that airline staff are allowed to self-isolate after entering the state. All other international arrivals are required to spend 14 days in the state’s hotel quarantine program, where they are monitored for symptoms. But last week a new case of the virus emerged in the community after the state recorded 26 consecutive days of no new cases, when a woman had become sick after working at a quarantine hotel in Darling Harbour. It was revealed through genomic sequencing it was a strain from the United States, likely acquired from airline crew staying at the Novotel. Testing of the woman’s close contacts and other staff at the hotel is continuing.
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